Revelation Knowledge

Dear friend,

Greetings. Summer just began. Glory. Nature kindly moved sunset to a time which fits better into my schedule these days. Now I can watch them. It's hard to believe that the summer solstice has already come and gone...

Let me share a brief word on revelation knowledge with you today.

Christians long to know God and to receive revelations from him. So called prophetic movements will always spark interest among believers. Men want to experience the supernatural, they want to encounter God.

Visions and dreams are thoroughly biblical and we should not knock them. However, I feel led to share some helpful insights on how to proceed biblically. There is a way to properly prepare yourself for true revelations. You can open yourself up for them and receive them as God sees fit. Let me share how.

It sounds foundational, but we should not forget that God elected to never reveal himself apart from his word.

"In the beginning was the word ..." (John 1, 1.) So, everything starts there.

The word of God is the bridge across which God sends knowledge and revelations to us. This secret is hinted on in John 1, 14 where it says: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."

God wanted men to see his glory. To achieve that his word needed to become flesh.

Jesus was the word made flesh. Whoever saw him, saw God.

Today we read the gospels and see Jesus. And as we put faith in this written word our eyes are opened and we experience his glory.

The word is our daily bread, as Jesus says: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4, 4.)

The word needs to become flesh, even in us, in order to unfold it's glory.

How?

By digesting. By meditating upon the bible and pondering the sayings of the Lord. (Joshua 1, 6.)

By filling yourself with the word you fashion a spiritual receptacle for revelation within you. The more room you give to the word, the greater this receptacle becomes.

If you choose not to take time with the word every day, you will not be able to receive greater revelation from God concerning your life or ministry.

Basically everybody who hears the simple gospel is in a position to receive a life-changing divine revelation about the saving grace of God. I did. And it almost knocked me over when it came.

But to know God more intimately, to see him come to you and hear him speak, requires for you to be closely acquainted with his word.

You want to recognize the Lord when he stands in front of you, don't you? You won't, if you are not filled with his word. (Or if you are filled but faithless.)

Just ask the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. (Luke 24, 13-31.)

Shortly after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead these disciples were poised to leave Jerusalem for Emmaus, a little village about two hours away. As they were walking down that dusty road, another traveller -the risen Lord himself - joined them and asked them about their conversation. They stopped, downcast and despondent as they were, and looked right at him: "Are you the only one in Jerusalem unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?"

The saviour, the reason and the antidote to their despondency, stood right in front of them. Yet they weren't able to recognize him!

Jesus chided them and said: "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!" And then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

Jesus gave them the word.

He filled their minds with all the scriptures pertaining to him in all the prophets!

This was power-teaching one on two.

The two disciples were utterly impressed with the bible-knowledge of their travel companion. And when they arrived in their village they invited him to stay at their house for the night.

It is obvious that they accepted this foreign teacher and his compelling message about the messiah. They believed his words as he explained the bible to them. They started to truly understand.

And in the moment when revelation finally dawned, right as they were breaking bread with their guest, they suddenly were able to recognize the man who had entertained them along the way! Why, it was Jesus himself! And he vanished from their sight.

The men got so excited that they returned to Jerusalem that very night. Their hearts were burning and they wanted to share their good news with the others.

Yet when they arrived back among the other disciples, their story and their explanations were obviously somewhat jumbled. So Jesus appeared again right there, while they were sharing their story. This time he was visible to all of them. And even here among his followers in Jerusalem he gives the same teaching he had shared with the two on the way. He opened their mind to understand the scriptures. (Luke 24, 45.)

The Emmaus-disciples were only able to recognize Jesus after he had filled them with the word.

If we want to recognize him, we will need to be full of the word, too.

Let's have a look at the apostle John for a moment. (He is buried in Ephesus. Years ago I had the privilege of standing on top of the big white slab marking his grave.)

The greatest and most powerful vision anybody has ever received is the awesome Book of Revelation by John. In it John weaves in and out of heaven. He sees Jesus in overwhelming glory, he sees the throne of God, angels, demons, glimpses of hell, future events, the Final Judgment. He even walks the streets of the New Jerusalem and sees the New Heaven and the New Earth. All while he is still here in the body!

How was it possible that God could pour out such a heavy duty revelation without overloading and destroying the vessel?

You see, John was already very old when it came. He was probably in his eighties or nineties. John had a lifetime of meditating upon the word under his belt before this manifestation arrived. He had walked with Jesus, first on the earth as the beloved disciple. After the resurrection he took care of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who surely told him many more details from the life of her son, which he digested into his spirit. As he kept on mulling the word over in his heart the spirit prompted him to write his gospel and later his letters. These documents are the product of a long, intense and close lifetime-relationship with the Lord. So, next time you read John's writings, have a little respect.

Only after all this time filling himself with the word was John in a condition to receive the book of Revelation.

This is also true with the apostle Paul. He received, by his own account, an abundance of revelations. (2 Corinthians 12.) But you might recall that he had been busy in the word from his earliest youth on. He had been extremely zealous and had been advancing in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries. (Galatians 1, 14.) When Jesus appeared to him and entrusted him with the gospel, there was already enough word in Paul with which he could work.

Paul also explicitly warns against revelations which contradict or are otherwise out of line with the written word of God. Without a firm foundation in the bible you might get suckered into false doctrine and heresy, like John Smith of Mormon fame or Mohammed of old. His angel Gabriel has nothing in common with the biblical angel. Paul lays it down: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!" (Galatians 1, 8.)

I personally would not trust the revelations of anybody who is not established in the bible. It depends on the depth of the revvy, of course, but make no mistake, greater brain-giants than we have gotten deluded. So let's stay on the safe side. Let's rely on the word foremost.

Praying for you to receive the Spirit of wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of God, and that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightenend more and more,

your friend,

Gert Hoinle, Pastor

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