While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” Matthew 17:5.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Conversations with Jesus are life changing and rearranging. If things have not been going well, if your days are not filled with good things, it is time to change your conversations. And I mean even the conversations you are having with yourself in your own mind throughout the day and night.
To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. For, “The one who desires life, to love and see good days, must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.” 1 Peter 3:8-12. Psalm 34:11-13.
It is time you took control and spent your days in praise of My glory instead of telling yourself a sad little story of your unhappy life. It is time you were transformed (transfigured) from glory to glory by the renewal of your mind and by beholding Jesus.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
And today we will look at Jesus as He was transformed so that the disciples saw what was inside the temple of His earthly body shine forth. And for those of you who are born again from above by proclaiming Jesus as Lord and believing in your heart that I raised Jesus from the dead with all your sins gone so you are justified before Me and clothed in My righteousness that same radiant light of Heaven is in you.
The word you see translated as “transformed” and “transfigured” is the Greek word “metamorphoó (μεταμορφόω),” which is from “metá,” which means “change after being with” and morphóō,” which means “changing form in keeping with inner reality.” Properly, transformed after being with; transfigured. The Greek word “metamorphóō” is the root of the English terms “metamorphosis,” which you know as the process that changes a crawling caterpillar to a high flying butterfly, with lifestyles that are entirely different. The caterpillar dies to itself and is reformed to a new creature from the substance of the old.
The word “metamorphoó” is used in the New Testament only in the accounts of Jesus’ transfiguration before the disciples on a high mountain of prayer and by My apostle Paul when he directs you by inspiration of My Spirit to renew your mind with My Word and to behold My Son to be transformed. I have shone in your hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of My glory the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6. In beholding Him, you are beholding Me. He is the radiance of My glory and the exact representation of My nature. Hebrews 1:3. And in Him, you become a new creation in Christ.
Soon after the conversation among Jesus and His disciples whereby He asked them who they believed He was and Peter, acting on revelation from Me, declared Jesus to be the Messiah and My Son (we will address this conversation in a future life lesson), Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves to pray. And while He was praying, His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light, radiantly gleaming like lightning. And behold, two men were talking with Him; and they were Moses and Elijah, who, appearing in glory (honor and splendor), were speaking of His exodus which He was about to fulfill and complete at Jerusalem.
Jesus was having a conversation with Moses and Elijah. Moses and Elijah had lived at different time periods and both many years before Jesus, Moses lived about 660 years before Elijah, and Elijah lived about a thousand years before Jesus, and yet here they both are looking young and conversing with Jesus and each other and Peter, James and John are listening. As Jesus told the Pharisees, all are alive to Me.
I can invade any place at any time—all creation is Mine—but I chose to give mankind dominion over the earth and I honor that and it will always be so. Daniel 7:27. But there are times when I pull back the veil and show you heavenly realities on earth. And that is what happened at the transfiguration. Please understand that in the dimension I move, which is the continuum of life, time and space are relative and Heaven encompasses your life and the access is in you by My Spirit when you are born again from above.
You may be taking this revelation very calmly because you have heard it and read of it in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke many times, but you must realize what an awesome and supernatural event of Heaven touching earth this was for Peter, James, and John. When Jesus, as the risen Lord much later appeared to John on Patmos, He met again the Jesus he had seen on Mt. Hermon in the transfiguration.
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. Revelation 1:12-16.
But Jesus had not died and risen yet as they stood on Mt. Hermon, so what were they seeing in all this glory? They were seeing what was within His spirit covered by the flesh formed in the womb of the virgin Mary, they were seeing what you look like in your inner man when you are born again from above.
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16.
Jesus was born from above by My Word of truth. Adam was originally, but when he rejected My Word, he was born again from below of the perishable seed of the lies of the devil and My Spirit left him. All became darkness within. Jesus came to rescue you from the power of darkness and in Him I transfer you out of the realm of darkness into My own marvelous light, the Kingdom of My Beloved Son, in whom you have redemption, the forgiveness of your sins. Born again from above, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you and you are bright lights in the world as you offer it the Word of Life.
Jesus told you this: Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12.
If you could see what is in your spirit now that you have received Jesus as Lord, it would take your breath away in awed reverence for the work I have done in you. The transfiguration of Jesus shows that you can bring that out that radiance within you in prayer. Prayer from a High Mountain, your watchtower of grace, My secret place. Peter, James, and John were seeing prayer at its highest and best. But they were not the only ones who experienced this transforming radiance of prayer in My Word, the light that shines on you when you spend time with Me in My Word, and now from within you. Do you recall that the face of Moses became radiant whenever he spent time with Me in prayer and the Word?
It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. Exodus 34:29.
And if you recall Moses had pleaded with Me to let him go into the promised land and just see that one good mountain on the border of Lebanon. I did not tell him “No” but just told him to discuss it with Me no further.
“I also pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying, ‘O Lord (Adonai) LORD (Yahavah), You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as Yours? Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land that is across the Jordan, the good mountain at the side of Lebanon.’ But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me; and the LORD said to me, ‘Enough! Speak to Me no more of this matter.’” Deuteronomy 3:23-26.
The conversation among Jesus and His disciples whereby Peter declared Him Messiah and My Son took place in Caesarea Philippi, which is situated just 25 miles (40 km) north of the Sea of Galilee at the base of Mt. Hermon. And as we are discussing here, Jesus took Peter, James and John up on a high mountain to pray just days after that conversation. Matthew 17:1. Mount Hermon is Israel’s highest mountain and is in the northernmost part of Israel. The summit of Mount Hermon is located on the border of Lebanon and Syria. The Jordan River begins at Mount Hermon, from the headwaters of three principal sources, and flows into the Sea of Galilee, and then out and down to the Dead Sea. And there is so much I would like to share with you here about Jesus and the roll back of the Jordan River past Adam but that is for another time.
So you see I did give Moses his desire to see that good Mountain next to Lebanon. About two thousand years after he set the request in motion, he was there with Me, Jesus, and Elijah, as well as Peter, James, and John, the giants in the Old and New Covenants as they joined together in Jesus, the Old and the New, for fulfillment of all in all.
And Moses was the one who had written in Psalm 90 that a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day to Me. Just two days in My time before his prayer was granted. And after this incident, Peter, wrote the same.
But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 2 Peter 3:8.
And if you remember, My Son told you that Moses wrote about Him. And that is why he was there.
Peter was overwhelmed by the glory but he always needed to enter the conversation, so he said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” To him it was the feast of Tabernacles, Heaven had come to earth and he wanted to stay there in the presence.
While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and enveloped all on that mountain, the glory cloud, the same that had appeared to Moses and the children of Israel in the desert when I promised them the Manna, the bread from Heaven for their journey, and I rained it down on the dewfall the next morning. And behold, I spoke out of the cloud on Mt. Hermon as I had once done on Mt. Sinai with Moses when I gave him the Word in writing for the first time. And now the Word had stepped off the page and become flesh manifesting among you as the true Bread from Heaven for a man to eat and never die. And what did I say at so great and glorious a moment? I said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” Matthew 17:5.
When they heard My voice like a trumpet, Peter, James and John fell face down to the ground and were terrified. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” Which are the same words He would later say to John on the island of Patmos. And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Revelation 1:17-18.
Ponder what I said in My conversation with Peter, James, and John on that high and holy mountain. They remembered it all their lives and still delight in listening to My Son in My Kingdom, where He is forever their great High Priest and good and gracious Shepherd. You are to listen to Jesus for He is the way I speak to your humanity from My divinity.
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. Hebrews 1:1-4.
Moses heard My voice from above the mercy seat (propitiatory) over the Ark of the Covenant and Jesus is that propitiatory and mercy seat and I have seated you with Him at My right hand where you can boldly come to receive mercy and find grace in time of need.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. 1 John 2:2-3.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10.
Peter never forgot this glimpse of glory and of the mysterious gathering from ages past of Moses, representing the Law, and Elijah, representing the prophets. Remember later Jesus told them, when I had raised Him from the dead, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Luke 24:44.
And Peter later wrote about the experience for your benefit, “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”—and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” 2 Peter 1:16-18.
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.” And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did ]to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist. Matthew 17:9-13.
Conversations with Jesus bring revelation in His words. He is My Word and He is the Light of the world. The revelation of My Word gives light and understanding. Meditate in it day and night. My Word is a light to your path and a lamp to your feet. My glory illumines Heaven and its Lamp is the Lamb. And He is in you and with you now—the mystery of Christ in you, your hope of glory.
And just a side note: That white light of gleaming radiance that they saw in the clothing of Jesus on the good Mountain of transfiguration is the same as you will see whenever you see an angel or messenger from Heaven. It is of a heavenly substance, not of the earth. It is bright but pleasant for you to gaze upon. It emanates from the garments themselves.
Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. Matthew 28:1-3.
I love you. Today you had a glimpse of the glory that is yours in Christ Jesus. Conversations with Me are glorious. Listen to the Words of Jesus! He is the way, the truth, and the life. And that is what this series is all about: conversations with Jesus.