Well, I think I’ll start the new year off doing something unusual for me, a poem. (no charge :-) Here goes…
Light From Beyond
“All you need to know is inside of you.”
But I have lived long enough to ignore fools.
I know what I know and nothing more.
Experience might teach me something new
... Another source is what I need.
Not my thoughts. Not my mind.
RevelationLight from beyond
Help from above
Hearing from God
If I could have one wish for me and for you it would be to hear from God more this year. I don't claim to hear God speak every day. When he does talk to me, it seems to be in very short sentences, but I treasure everything he has ever said to me. Nothing could make a bigger difference in my life this year than to somehow open my own awareness to him and receive more revelation from him. So today this is my prayer for you. Let's talk about revelation.
The Process of Revelation
Most true things are apparent. One known thing connects to another. Truth connects to truth, the way Lego bricks assemble themselves into a house or airplane.
The parts are all there in front of us and, once we get the idea, we can reason out for ourselves how to fit them together.
Other things require outside intervention because there is a missing piece of information beyond the scope of our own understanding or even our imagination.
Without outside intervention in these cases we can never even conceive of these new things.
“Eye has not seen…”
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts…”
"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways….”
Revelation is a leap.
It starts with one new truth of which we are currently unaware.
This new truth is our breakthrough. It’s the key that allows us to enter a new room of truth and see things as they really are (and have always been). It will become the foundation for our future development.
That moment in between
There is a moment where we stand at the edge of this process, on the cliff of our existing knowledge.
We realize that there is something else right in front of us. Even though we cannot grasp it right now, we perceive it the same way we can feel the presence of a silent person in a room behind us.
“We know in part. We prophesy in part.”
We know it’s there. We just don’t see it yet.
Revelation is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to humans who are seeking to move from what they know to what they should know.
That crossing requires faith from the human. It requires that we believe there is more truth out there and that this truth is real, and that God is the one leading us to it.
Things we gain through Revelation belong to us.
They are our treasures of divine knowledge.
Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV):
"The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law."
Revelation is a delicate, living thing. It must be nurtured.
What I’m Going to Do
So here’s my plan to become more receptive to God’s revelation this year.
Consciously remind myself that revelation is going on everywhere at all times. God is “streaming” 24/7.
Attempt to intentionally tune in to the revelation going on around me.
According to the Bible God has always been revealing himself through everything created: humans, animals, plants, planets, stars—all of it is a channel of revelation. God also speaks through human conversations. He reveals through dreams. He reveals things directly into the spirits of his children. Amazing insights just drop into our minds and we can see things clearly in an instant. It’s all happening all the time like sunshine. We just need to tune in to it.
There are so many channels of revelation. The Bible is the one we think of first, and it will yield endless depths of revelation to those who are persistent readers and thinkers, but it’s not the only channel of revelation.
We know this because the Bible says so. It’s actually a latecomer to the work of revelation. Humans interacted with God directly for thousands of years before we had a written book of revelations. We honor the Bible so much, not because it is God (it’s not), but because it’s such a rich and trustworthy revelation of God.
The Bible is not the end of revelation. It’s a foundation stone and a standard of truth (so we can test “ideas” that pop in our head against something unchangeable), but God has been walking with man before there was a Bible and when we don’t need a Bible in the new world, He will still be walking with us and revealing himself throughout eternity. Receiving revelation is our birthright.
I want the focus of my attention directed to God Himself, knowing that He is revealing himself to me. Some are scared of this and want to limit all revelation to the words of the Bible. The problem with this is two-fold. First, it’s based out of fear (which is not the criteria for making decisions as children of God) and secondly, the Bible itself is filled with stories of God speaking and revealing things to his children outside of the technology of reading written words.
If we are the children of God through the rebirth Jesus brought, then we are fully capable of hearing from God ourselves—no pastor, prophet, or bible scholar needed.
I’m going to prioritize a routine place and time daily to spend time alone with God for revelation. I was never a morning person before, but for the past year, I have been waking up well before sunrise, and I have learned to love it! I love my times in the word and I also love my times walking and talking with God in the early morning light. I consider this time the beginning of a day-long conversation with the Father. I never say, “Amen.”
As much as possible I want to avoid doing things that keep my focus distracted (like scrolling). I want to be always in the present moment, slow down my mind, and posture myself before God like Samuel, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”
So that’s my devotional focus for the year. I want to tune my heart so I can hear from God.
My human focus is “conversations.” I want a year full of amazing conversations with friends and random people. I heard someone say recently, “Conversations lead to conversions.” I like that too. I hope some of these conversations lead people to Christ if they don’t know him already.
May God bless you in your efforts to become more tuned to revelation, light from beyond. Help from above.
I’d love to hear from you on this topic:
“Which of the many channels of revelation (Bible, nature, conversations, dreams, etc.) is the clearest source of revelation to you and why?”
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