This digest is based on the nineteenth message given by Brother Titus Chu in this series. We hope that it can help bring you into the riches that we and others have enjoyed.
If you have not yet watched it, we recommend that you do so before getting into the digest. This will help you better appreciate each section. You can also follow along with the outline and read the associated verses.
Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
(Matthew 17:1-3, NKJV)
“Now after six days…”
After the revelation to Peter in Matthew 16, the beginning of Matthew 17 starts with “after six days.” It wasn’t immediately after the revelation when Jesus led the disciples up a mountain, but rather a period of time had passed. When the Lord gives us revelations, sometimes we need to spend “six days” to dwell on it. We may be eager to declare, “I have a revelation!” but the truth is we need to spend time in it to realize the reality of what our vision is and to prepare ourselves to be elevated. These “six days” are essential not only for our understanding, but also for God to fully gain us.
– Daily Bible Verses & Devotional, Day 1
In Genesis 1 and 2, six days are the days of God’s work. The first day there’s light — you begin to have revelation. The second day, there’s the air — you begin to understand spiritual things. The third day you have land in order to grow some life, which means you have real salvation through light and through spirit. You enjoy this salvation and, eventually, you advance all the way to the sixth day. The sixth day is the creation of man; the day when God finally gained someone.
Do you understand God’s operation? Every time that God gives you a revelation it is not for you to become very excited and to shout, “I see something! Praise the Lord, I see something!” Instead, God says, “Six days. Please, spend six days. Have some light about it. Have your spirit upon it. Produce the land for the vision you receive to be able to grow.” You need six days to realize what you really see and to prepare yourself for a next, higher elevation. Do you realize that it is a marvelous matter? The vision portrays a Christian life. Six Days.
– Message Transcript, p. 1
I like the principle of the six days. In Genesis, God didn’t just snap His fingers and make the earth appear. There was a growing process. In the same way, what we see and hear needs a growing process. It needs the spirit brooding over the waters, the light to shine, the land to emerge…. ultimately to produce something wonderful. I want to remain long enough so that what I see and hear of the Lord can grow into something wonderful.
– Sister Lilly
Take a moment to reflect…
What is your typical response when God reveals something to you? Do you have an immediate reaction, but then after a few days forget about it? Or do you really spend time contemplating it, praying over it, growing in it, and allowing it to become real in your life? May our prayer be that we would have many “six days” to dwell in what the Lord reveals to us, so that He can bring us to a higher elevation.
“…Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves”
Next, it says that the Lord brought Peter, James, and John (the brother of James), and led them to the high mountain by themselves. Only the four of them. What does this mean? It shows there’s a very close relationship with the Lord.
– Edited Message Transcript, p. 2
When we are faithful to the vision that we see, eventually we are elevated to another level. Our living becomes different. The more we’re faithful, the more intimate we become with the Lord. The more we’re faithful, the more there’s something seemingly secret. Others begin to misunderstand us. They say, “do you have to be like this?” But when we’re so close to the Lord, when we become so one with Christ, He elevates us to where He is. This isn’t always the case though. Oftentimes people refuse to go up. They see a vision but there is nothing beyond that. Maybe they’re unwilling to spend the “six days,” or maybe they just moved on and didn’t think much of it afterwards. Regardless of the reason, if we aren’t faithful to spend time in what God reveals to us, then we won’t be able to advance up the mountain. We should all have a desire to be elevated because only then can God unveil something even higher: HIMSELF in all His glory! I pray we can be faithful to every vision God has revealed to us, in order for us to be elevated spiritually and for us to become one with Christ!
– Daily Bible Verses & Devotional, Day 2
Take a moment to read through the lyrics of this hymn, Savior, Lead Me Up the Mountain, and let each line be your prayer.
“…and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.”
On the mountain, when Jesus unveiled Himself in transfiguration, His face shone like the sun (expressing the glory of who God really is) and His clothes became as white as the light (expressing His purity, as pure as God is pure.) “Pure” here refers to how Christ desired only God, and God was expressed through Christ. “This is the highest expression of a God-man—God manifested in flesh in glory.” For a moment, through Christ, the disciples could see God manifested in glory.
– Daily Bible Verses & Devotional, Day 3
We, too, are God-men. However, though we may be called sweet, tender, or humble because of our nature being mingled with God’s, no one will call us glorious. Glory belongs only to Christ. Or, glory belongs to the purity of God and the purity of Christ. It may seem as if God is after many things; after all, He has done so much in becoming flesh, producing redemption, saving mankind, terminating the power of Satan, germinating the kingdom of God for all believers to participate in, etc.―but this whole thing was so pure. In all of it, God desires only Christ. The God-man through whom His glory could shine. That is godliness: God Himself expressed through flesh. When God is fully expressed, it is all glory.
Praise Him! To God be the glory!
– Daily Bible Verses & Devotional, Day 3
These messages have been so rich, so high, so unveiling and so expanding! In this message, it seems that the vision in Matthew 16 is so connected to the vision in Matthew 17. The Father had just shown Peter that Jesus was the Christ. The age of the law and the prophets was over. Now it is Christ only. The Lord allowed Peter six more days to ponder, reflect and digest this vision. Then it seems the Lord wanted to confirm this vision, when in Matthew 17 He revealed Himself in Glory and as the only source of the Glory! Peter had not yet fully seen that it is only Christ and wanted to build 3 Tabernacles! How we love Peter as he is so much like us. After many more “six days,” I believe Peter eventually realized that His Christian life was only Christ!
When we see something of Christ in the word, how we need the “six day principle” to realize what we see, that our living out would just be Christ in our daily life and church life!
– Brother Bob
Final Thoughts
Glory is often hard to grasp because only God is glorious and we are not. Yet through this scene on the Mount of Transfiguration we see that God desires to bring us into glory. He desires to give us more elements of glory, and to elevate us higher so that we live in a realm of glory and enter into communion with the Lord in glory. May our heart and desire be that we would have many experiences of “six days,” and that God would elevate us more and more so that we have Christ and only Christ in glory. Like the hymn There’s a Man in the Glory says, “His life in the glory, lived out in me.”
