"I see men as shadows, as trees walking"...from shadow to reality in increments
The "real" often comes in increments as we come out of the "shadow" or type: "And He (Jesus) took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when He had spit on his eyes, and put His hands upon him, He asked him if he could presently see. And he looked up, and said, I see men as shadows, as trees walking. After that He AGAIN put his hands upon his eyes and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly."
Before God brings things into reality, He often progresses us towards it in a prophetic sequence...speaking that which brings us out of the "shadow" or "echo" in increments, preparing us and moving us from the type or facsimile into the "authentic". The mystery that existed previously begins to unveil as God begins communicating the reality. For instance, in the Old Testament God set up some form but that form was not the fullness, it was meant to be a type. The prophets kept pointing to what was coming, alluding to the fact that it was still incomplete. And what it was all headed towards (and still is) was God bringing to the earth the fuller expression of Himself via a dwelling place among men...individually, domestically, vocationally....all of which emerges from His church corporately: the divine order. And, in its context, it's all designed to manifest His presence by the Spirit in increasing measure, "In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God by the Spirit"..."which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."
As the real comes out of the "shadows", we experience it before in type. But then we go through some things and move towards more of the genuine...the "seeming" truth (but actually veiled), now becomes the truth (unveiled). And as it comes, it takes on form, the invisible becomes visible taking on flesh, "Then He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath (life) in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord."
