1 Corinthians 2:9-14 (NKJV) 9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Revelation is being let in on something that you wouldn’t be able to figure out on your own. God reveals these things by His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One who reveals.
Listening in
I remember when I was a little boy times in the evening when mom and dad would have guests over. There would come a time when we kids had to go to bed, but all of the adults would stay up and talk. I remember getting out of bed with my brothers and sneaking down the hall. We would lay in the darkened hall just out of sight so we could listen in on the conversation. (Early spy training) Sometimes we would try to get a peek at their faces while they talked, but we didn’t want to get caught.
Most of the time we didn’t even understand what they were talking about. We didn’t know the context or understand most of the concepts. Sometimes you couldn’t even make out the words, but we loved to listen anyway. If we got caught we would get sent back to bed and we’d stay there… for a little while.
Today, I like listening in on God’s conversations. I don’t always understand everything He says. I don’t always understand the context or the concepts, but I love to sneak down the hall, lay there quiet and still, and listen in on His thoughts and His plans. Here’s the big plus: I don’t get in trouble when He catches me. In fact, He is the One who sneaks down the hall to me. He reveals these things to me by the Holy Spirit.
‘Reveal’: [Latin] “to withdraw the cover.” (Greek word is: ‘apocalypto’)
The word ‘reveal’ means literally, “to withdraw the cover,” or “to uncover.” The Greek word is ‘apocalypto,’ from which we get the word ‘apocalypse’ or ‘apocalyptic’. The last book in our New Testament is “the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ”, or “the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ.”
Let’s look at this most well known example of God’s revealing work.
Revelation 1:1 (NKJV) 1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,
“The Revelation” means that what follows is not something that John dreamed up or figured out on his own. It was revealed to him. Verse ten is where John begins to describe the revelation:
Revelation 1:10 (NKJV) 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,
The revelation that came about was the result of John being in the Spirit. Once again we see the Holy Spirit is the One who reveals.
Peter’s revelation
One more wonderful example from scripture before we make some practical application for ourselves. This time it is the Disciple Peter. In Matthew chapter 16, we are told that Jesus was talking with His disciples and He asked them, “Who do men say that I am?” In other words, what is the natural thinking and intellectual discourse? What conclusions have men drawn from their own minds? The disciples gave Him a run-down of opinions: “Some say John the Baptist. Some say the prophet Elijah. Some say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
Then Jesus turned a serious corner and asked, “But who do you say that I am?” The natural way that this works is to study all the prevailing opinions of the greatest minds, evaluate the pros and the cons, and decide which of those opinions you believe to be the most likely. But Peter didn’t follow that natural way of thinking. Instead, he came up with something that none of the intellectual minds or schools of thought had even considered. Peter said, “You are the Christ. The Son of the living God.”
Where did that come from? (Read from top of outline)
Matthew 16:17 (NKJV) 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
This is an example of supernatural revelation. Jesus had to tell Peter what it was because Peter didn’t even realize it. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world. If the bible had recorded Peter’s next words, I believe they would have been, “Really? It just seemed like me. It didn’t come as a brilliant flash from heaven. It just came out of my mouth.”
Take note of this normal discussion that Jesus said was revelation from God. As far as we know, Peter didn’t shout in King James English. As far as we know, Peter didn’t have to work it up. It wasn’t in the middle of a church service. It was a simple and confident declaration that Peter made. Jesus said, “That’s revelation.”
READY FOR REVELATION
God is ready to reveal things to you. Are you ready for His revelation? The Holy Spirit is the One who reveals. How do we sneak down the hall and hear what He is saying?
1. Listen for His voice.
Are you listening to the voice of God? Do you really want to know what He has to say? Do you really believe that you can hear what He is saying? Is this promise for everyone else but you?
Quote from Going Deeper, page 35
Perhaps when you hear stories of others’ experiences with God you feel a bit lost. Your mind keeps telling you that “things like that” happen to other people, not you. Maybe you’ve concluded that you aren’t capable of experienceing God up close and personal. Unfortunately, many Christians acquiesce to living in the shallows, thinking a deeper life with God is for a select few – or doesn’t belong to this era of church history at all. Nothing could be further from the truth.
God offers the promise of the Holy Spirit to everyone: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28, emphasis added). Peter preached this promise from the Old Testament Book of Joel shortly after Christ was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven. To those living in Jerusalem, his message was clear and simple:
§ Jesus is the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Lord and Christ (Acts 2:22-36, 3:13-15).
§ Jesus, who now sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, has the authority to pour out the Holy Spirit on all believers (Acts 2:16-18, 32, 33).
§ If you place your faith in Jesus as Lord and repent of your sin, you will be forgiven, and times of refreshing will come (Acts 2:36-38, 3:19).
§ As a believer, you can expect the gift of the Holy Spirit to be poured out on you, and on all generations after you (Acts 1:4-8, 2:38-39, Matt. 3:11).
God doesn’t say, “I will pour out My Spirit only on a select few, the religious elite.” Nor does He say, “I will pour out My Spirit for a few decades, until this generation of the early church passes away.” God says, “I will pour out My Spirit on all people.”
All mean all – all nations, tribes, tongues, men women, and eras. It also includes the good, bad, rich, poor, intelectual, and those with mental disabilities. When the Holy Spirit lives in you, He persistently draws you like a magnet, into the deep things of God, always pointing you to Jesus.
Are you willing to listen?
§ Reduce the noise in your life.
Often the reason we can’t hear His voice is because there are too many other voices and noises.
You need to reduce the noise in your life.
Whenever there is an interesting astrological event you are told to go out into the country or up on a high hill to view it. Why is that? It’s not that the city stars are duller than the country stars. It is because of all the city lights and street lights in the city. The star is just as bright but it gets lost in the other light that is all around. A star has much greater intensity and brightness than a city street light. But because the light is closer to you and you have to look through it to see the star, the brighter light gets swallowed up by the more mundane light.
What are the ‘streetlights’ in your life – the more mundane noise and busyness that blocks out God’s voice?
§ Set aside time.
It takes time to hear God’s voice. Peter was spending time with Jesus when he received his revelation from God. Make time, set it aside in your schedule, to listen to God’s voice.
2. Read a brief passage of scripture.
God’s general revelation is contained in the Bible. For me, 99% of the time when the Holy Spirit reveals things to me is when I am reading scripture. He takes the written word, makes it come alive and applies it to something I am dealing with or someone I know is dealing with. There is nothing like scripture to give revelation.
There’s another important part that scripture plays. Every revelation that comes must line up with the Word of God. That means that the Bible becomes our standard of evaluating revelation. Is it consistent with God’s Word or not? If not, that’s not revelation. It is revolting.
3. Be sensitive to spontaneous insights.
You may need to teach yourself when to give attention to those spontaneous thoughts that you have. You may be in prayer or reading the Bible and some kind of momentary thought hits your mind, something that says, “What does that mean?” Most of the time we just keep right on going. Stop for a minute. Give it some thought. Is God trying to say something to you?
§ Expect Him to reveal things to you.
A lot of times when we’re spending time with God we’re just there to talk, not listen. Because we really don’t expect that He will say anything.
It is not uncommon these days to call someone on the phone and get an answering machine or voice mail. When you do, you wait for the beep and leave your message. You don’t carry on a conversation with an answering machine. You talk and it listens. It’s great that way. How many people have called someone before hoping to get an answering machine because you didn’t want a conversation, you just wanted to leave some information?
I called someone the other day. The phone rang quite a few times so I figure I’d just leave a message. The phone answered, “Hello, this is so-and-so…” I was waiting for the beep, but it was the real person.
Tom and answering machine wars
Back in the old days, answering machines all used cassette tapes. Pastor Tom and I used to have this battle of the answering machines. When I called him I hoped I got his answering machine. If I did I would just ramble on and on and on, filling up valuable tape space. (It was good preaching practice.) He used to do the same thing to me. Then it got to where we tried to fill up the whole tape so that the other person couldn’t get any more messages. I remember our family coming home one day, checking the answering machine, and Tom read all of the writing on an entire cereal box on our machine. Another day it was the newspaper. Those were the days.
Sometimes, we treat our relationship with God that way. We just want to download with Him. We don’t really expect that He would have anthing to say to me. He is like an answering machine tape. “I’ll just leave a message for Him.”
God doesn’t have an answering machine. He always answers personally and He has something to say to you.
4. Take time.
Once you’ve set the time aside, then take your time. Don’t rush. Don’t feel rushed. If you’re filled with His Spirit and expecting Him to speak to you but don’t hear anything from Him, chances are you are not taking time.
5. Write or share what you hear.
Here is a final step to really seeing God’s revelation make an impact. I would encourage you to either write down what He reveals to you or share it with someone else.
When Jesus gave John his revelation on the island of Patmos, John wrote it down and distributed it to all the churches in the area. Peter’s revelation became Peter’s confession when he spoke out loud in front of all the other disciples, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Life Journal
Keeping a life journal is an excellent way to write down what you hear the Spirit revealing to you.
Sharing with others
I often pray for people and ask God, “Reveal something for them.” Ask for it, expect it to happen and share it with them. I remember once praying for another pastor after his ordination ceremony. God revealed to me something about his ministry, relating it to Joshua assigning the Promised Land to the children of Israel. I remember many years ago three bible college students came to me. One of them was having a birthday, so they others wanted us all to pray for her and ask God for a special word for her on her birthday.
I have prayed in groups where there has been revelation. I have prayed one-on-one and received special revelation. I have been alone with God when He has revealed things to me. Many times I have received notes or emails from many of you with words of revelation that God has given to you and you have passed on to me.
God has not taken a vow of silence.
Conclusion
Let’s close with the final paragraph in the reading for this week:
Forget the clock. Lose yourself in the depths of His infinite goodness. Abide with Him. Speak little. Listen much. Write down what you see and what you hear. The Holy Spirit will show you what you need to see to wisely navigate through the issues as hand. Whatever He reveals, He empowers. The insights He gives aren’t simply to satisf your curiosity. They are given to enable you to manage life well, with an unshakable confidence that God is in you, working all things out according to His good pleasure. They are given to sustain you through chaos, direct you in decision, and comfort you in affliction. They impart life. If you want to go deeper with God, go to your heart. Human reasoning won’t reveal God’s perspectives, but His Holy Spirit will.
Revelation is being let in on something that you wouldn’t be able to figure out on your own. God reveals these things by His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One who reveals.
Listening in
I remember when I was a little boy times in the evening when mom and dad would have guests over. There would come a time when we kids had to go to bed, but all of the adults would stay up and talk. I remember getting out of bed with my brothers and sneaking down the hall. We would lay in the darkened hall just out of sight so we could listen in on the conversation. (Early spy training) Sometimes we would try to get a peek at their faces while they talked, but we didn’t want to get caught.
Most of the time we didn’t even understand what they were talking about. We didn’t know the context or understand most of the concepts. Sometimes you couldn’t even make out the words, but we loved to listen anyway. If we got caught we would get sent back to bed and we’d stay there… for a little while.
Today, I like listening in on God’s conversations. I don’t always understand everything He says. I don’t always understand the context or the concepts, but I love to sneak down the hall, lay there quiet and still, and listen in on His thoughts and His plans. Here’s the big plus: I don’t get in trouble when He catches me. In fact, He is the One who sneaks down the hall to me. He reveals these things to me by the Holy Spirit.
‘Reveal’: [Latin] “to withdraw the cover.” (Greek word is: ‘apocalypto’)
The word ‘reveal’ means literally, “to withdraw the cover,” or “to uncover.” The Greek word is ‘apocalypto,’ from which we get the word ‘apocalypse’ or ‘apocalyptic’. The last book in our New Testament is “the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ”, or “the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ.”
Let’s look at this most well known example of God’s revealing work.
Revelation 1:1 (NKJV) 1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,
“The Revelation” means that what follows is not something that John dreamed up or figured out on his own. It was revealed to him. Verse ten is where John begins to describe the revelation:
Revelation 1:10 (NKJV) 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,
The revelation that came about was the result of John being in the Spirit. Once again we see the Holy Spirit is the One who reveals.
Peter’s revelation
One more wonderful example from scripture before we make some practical application for ourselves. This time it is the Disciple Peter. In Matthew chapter 16, we are told that Jesus was talking with His disciples and He asked them, “Who do men say that I am?” In other words, what is the natural thinking and intellectual discourse? What conclusions have men drawn from their own minds? The disciples gave Him a run-down of opinions: “Some say John the Baptist. Some say the prophet Elijah. Some say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
Then Jesus turned a serious corner and asked, “But who do you say that I am?” The natural way that this works is to study all the prevailing opinions of the greatest minds, evaluate the pros and the cons, and decide which of those opinions you believe to be the most likely. But Peter didn’t follow that natural way of thinking. Instead, he came up with something that none of the intellectual minds or schools of thought had even considered. Peter said, “You are the Christ. The Son of the living God.”
Where did that come from? (Read from top of outline)
Matthew 16:17 (NKJV) 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
This is an example of supernatural revelation. Jesus had to tell Peter what it was because Peter didn’t even realize it. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world. If the bible had recorded Peter’s next words, I believe they would have been, “Really? It just seemed like me. It didn’t come as a brilliant flash from heaven. It just came out of my mouth.”
Take note of this normal discussion that Jesus said was revelation from God. As far as we know, Peter didn’t shout in King James English. As far as we know, Peter didn’t have to work it up. It wasn’t in the middle of a church service. It was a simple and confident declaration that Peter made. Jesus said, “That’s revelation.”
READY FOR REVELATION
God is ready to reveal things to you. Are you ready for His revelation? The Holy Spirit is the One who reveals. How do we sneak down the hall and hear what He is saying?
1. Listen for His voice.
Are you listening to the voice of God? Do you really want to know what He has to say? Do you really believe that you can hear what He is saying? Is this promise for everyone else but you?
Quote from Going Deeper, page 35
Perhaps when you hear stories of others’ experiences with God you feel a bit lost. Your mind keeps telling you that “things like that” happen to other people, not you. Maybe you’ve concluded that you aren’t capable of experienceing God up close and personal. Unfortunately, many Christians acquiesce to living in the shallows, thinking a deeper life with God is for a select few – or doesn’t belong to this era of church history at all. Nothing could be further from the truth.
God offers the promise of the Holy Spirit to everyone: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28, emphasis added). Peter preached this promise from the Old Testament Book of Joel shortly after Christ was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven. To those living in Jerusalem, his message was clear and simple:
§ Jesus is the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Lord and Christ (Acts 2:22-36, 3:13-15).
§ Jesus, who now sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, has the authority to pour out the Holy Spirit on all believers (Acts 2:16-18, 32, 33).
§ If you place your faith in Jesus as Lord and repent of your sin, you will be forgiven, and times of refreshing will come (Acts 2:36-38, 3:19).
§ As a believer, you can expect the gift of the Holy Spirit to be poured out on you, and on all generations after you (Acts 1:4-8, 2:38-39, Matt. 3:11).
God doesn’t say, “I will pour out My Spirit only on a select few, the religious elite.” Nor does He say, “I will pour out My Spirit for a few decades, until this generation of the early church passes away.” God says, “I will pour out My Spirit on all people.”
All mean all – all nations, tribes, tongues, men women, and eras. It also includes the good, bad, rich, poor, intelectual, and those with mental disabilities. When the Holy Spirit lives in you, He persistently draws you like a magnet, into the deep things of God, always pointing you to Jesus.
Are you willing to listen?
§ Reduce the noise in your life.
Often the reason we can’t hear His voice is because there are too many other voices and noises.
You need to reduce the noise in your life.
Whenever there is an interesting astrological event you are told to go out into the country or up on a high hill to view it. Why is that? It’s not that the city stars are duller than the country stars. It is because of all the city lights and street lights in the city. The star is just as bright but it gets lost in the other light that is all around. A star has much greater intensity and brightness than a city street light. But because the light is closer to you and you have to look through it to see the star, the brighter light gets swallowed up by the more mundane light.
What are the ‘streetlights’ in your life – the more mundane noise and busyness that blocks out God’s voice?
§ Set aside time.
It takes time to hear God’s voice. Peter was spending time with Jesus when he received his revelation from God. Make time, set it aside in your schedule, to listen to God’s voice.
2. Read a brief passage of scripture.
God’s general revelation is contained in the Bible. For me, 99% of the time when the Holy Spirit reveals things to me is when I am reading scripture. He takes the written word, makes it come alive and applies it to something I am dealing with or someone I know is dealing with. There is nothing like scripture to give revelation.
There’s another important part that scripture plays. Every revelation that comes must line up with the Word of God. That means that the Bible becomes our standard of evaluating revelation. Is it consistent with God’s Word or not? If not, that’s not revelation. It is revolting.
3. Be sensitive to spontaneous insights.
You may need to teach yourself when to give attention to those spontaneous thoughts that you have. You may be in prayer or reading the Bible and some kind of momentary thought hits your mind, something that says, “What does that mean?” Most of the time we just keep right on going. Stop for a minute. Give it some thought. Is God trying to say something to you?
§ Expect Him to reveal things to you.
A lot of times when we’re spending time with God we’re just there to talk, not listen. Because we really don’t expect that He will say anything.
It is not uncommon these days to call someone on the phone and get an answering machine or voice mail. When you do, you wait for the beep and leave your message. You don’t carry on a conversation with an answering machine. You talk and it listens. It’s great that way. How many people have called someone before hoping to get an answering machine because you didn’t want a conversation, you just wanted to leave some information?
I called someone the other day. The phone rang quite a few times so I figure I’d just leave a message. The phone answered, “Hello, this is so-and-so…” I was waiting for the beep, but it was the real person.
Tom and answering machine wars
Back in the old days, answering machines all used cassette tapes. Pastor Tom and I used to have this battle of the answering machines. When I called him I hoped I got his answering machine. If I did I would just ramble on and on and on, filling up valuable tape space. (It was good preaching practice.) He used to do the same thing to me. Then it got to where we tried to fill up the whole tape so that the other person couldn’t get any more messages. I remember our family coming home one day, checking the answering machine, and Tom read all of the writing on an entire cereal box on our machine. Another day it was the newspaper. Those were the days.
Sometimes, we treat our relationship with God that way. We just want to download with Him. We don’t really expect that He would have anthing to say to me. He is like an answering machine tape. “I’ll just leave a message for Him.”
God doesn’t have an answering machine. He always answers personally and He has something to say to you.
4. Take time.
Once you’ve set the time aside, then take your time. Don’t rush. Don’t feel rushed. If you’re filled with His Spirit and expecting Him to speak to you but don’t hear anything from Him, chances are you are not taking time.
5. Write or share what you hear.
Here is a final step to really seeing God’s revelation make an impact. I would encourage you to either write down what He reveals to you or share it with someone else.
When Jesus gave John his revelation on the island of Patmos, John wrote it down and distributed it to all the churches in the area. Peter’s revelation became Peter’s confession when he spoke out loud in front of all the other disciples, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Life Journal
Keeping a life journal is an excellent way to write down what you hear the Spirit revealing to you.
Sharing with others
I often pray for people and ask God, “Reveal something for them.” Ask for it, expect it to happen and share it with them. I remember once praying for another pastor after his ordination ceremony. God revealed to me something about his ministry, relating it to Joshua assigning the Promised Land to the children of Israel. I remember many years ago three bible college students came to me. One of them was having a birthday, so they others wanted us all to pray for her and ask God for a special word for her on her birthday.
I have prayed in groups where there has been revelation. I have prayed one-on-one and received special revelation. I have been alone with God when He has revealed things to me. Many times I have received notes or emails from many of you with words of revelation that God has given to you and you have passed on to me.
God has not taken a vow of silence.
Conclusion
Let’s close with the final paragraph in the reading for this week:
Forget the clock. Lose yourself in the depths of His infinite goodness. Abide with Him. Speak little. Listen much. Write down what you see and what you hear. The Holy Spirit will show you what you need to see to wisely navigate through the issues as hand. Whatever He reveals, He empowers. The insights He gives aren’t simply to satisf your curiosity. They are given to enable you to manage life well, with an unshakable confidence that God is in you, working all things out according to His good pleasure. They are given to sustain you through chaos, direct you in decision, and comfort you in affliction. They impart life. If you want to go deeper with God, go to your heart. Human reasoning won’t reveal God’s perspectives, but His Holy Spirit will.
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