The Blessing of Revelation

My Bible was open. The right page had been the one I was reading. It had been the source of my quiet time the day before. I had meditated it during the day. I had gone back to it by the end of the day. For some reason I started reading the left page. There is a passage was the answer I was looking for concerning the sermon I would preach Sunday. God had the answer prepared for me to find today.

That verse had been written long before I needed to find it. It was there waiting. I found it when I really wasn't looking It was "revealed" to me. Here was a buried treasure which I discovered once it was uncovered.

Isn't this just like God? He doesn't create new knowledge for us. He reveals knowledge that already exists. He takes the scales from our eyes to see what is already in front of us.

Sometimes I study the scriptures thinking that I must merely cognitively understand them. This makes them so two dimensional. They stop living when I read and study them that way. However, revelation makes the scriptures alive. They interact with my spirit to change me rather than simply give me more knowledge. They give a deeper meaning to themselves each time they are revealed.

This is spiritual truth. It is not how many times I have been through the Bible but how many times the Bible has been through me. Every true encounter I have had with spiritual truth has come through revelation. Most of the time I didn't even know what I was looking for. God uncovered it.

A needle in a haystack is not hard to find if you have an incredibly strong magnet. The magnet can draw out the needle so that it can be revealed. The Holy Spirit is our magnet which separates the hay from the needle. He causes us to see what would never have been seen by drawing it to us.

I have had people accuse me of talking with their friends and relatives so that I would preach a certain message. These people are not always happy about it. They cannot understand how my topic coincides with things going on in their lives. They believe that I am revealing things particular to their lives publically. They are using their indignation on the topic to mask their own disobedience to the things God is revealing to them.

I have had not inside knowledge of their lifestyles nor would I ever preach messages publically when I should speak to someone privately. God merely reveals what I am to say. I don't know the stories of those who need to hear it. (I do think it is funny that people will blame the preacher when they hear something they don't like but they never blame the newscasters when they get news they don't like. Don't they undestand that preachers are simply deliverers of the messages. They don't really make the messages.)

Revelation often comes without prompting. It is a taste of God's grace as He continues to work on us even when we are unaware of what He is doing. So, we have a Damascus Road type of experience on our way to do something else. We find a scripture we need while simply passing time. We hear a word very specificly designed for us even when the speaker is unaware of our own predicaments.

And there are many more revelations coming.

Ephesians 3:1-3 (ESV) ¹ For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— ² assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, ³ how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.

Psalm 5:3 (ESV) ³ O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.