Receiving Revelation

If you are a preacher, missionary or teacher, I want you to think about something. When you go out to evangelize or stand in a pulpit, ask yourself, what are you teaching? Is it what a person taught you? Is it a rehashing of the revelation of some “great” teacher? Or, have you experienced your own personal revelation of Jesus Christ? Now there’s the secret. If you have, is it a revelation that is still growing? Is heaven opened to you?

What I have often seen in my own life and ministry, is that sometimes it is very easy to discern spiritual truths quickly but then I have to be careful that the light does not outrun my experience.

Paul said, “In him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). True men and women of God live within this very small yet vast circle. Their every move, their entire existence, is wrapped up only in the interests of Christ. Years ago I knew the Holy Spirit was drawing me into such a ministry, one that preached only Christ. Oh, how I yearned to preach nothing but him! But even now I sometimes find my heart become unfocused, distracted . . and I end up becoming sidetracked by politics and talk-show rants. When that happens, I have no flow of revelation to sustain my teaching. Maybe this only happens to me and none of you can relate, but that is my experience.

If we are going to be Christ’s messenger, we must have a continuous flow of revelation from the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we will end up repeating a stale message. If the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God and searches the deep and hidden things of the Father, and if we want him to well up as flowing water within us, then we must be available to be filled with that flowing water. We must stay filled up with a never-ending revelation of Christ. This kind of revelation awaits every servant of the Lord who is willing to wait on him, believing and trusting the Holy Spirit to manifest the mind of God.

Paul said Christ was being revealed in him, not just to him (see Galatians 1:16). That’s what I want in my own life! In our Father’s eyes, it is unfruitful to preach a word that has not already worked its power in our own life and ministry. It may seem okay for certain shallow people to preach Christ with contention—but not so for the man or woman of God. We must preach an ever-increasing revelation of Christ—yet only as that revelation effects a deep change in our own lives.

Paul also voiced a personal concern: “Lest . . . after proclaiming to others the Gospel, I myself might be disqualified” (I Corinthians 9:27). Paul certainly never would have doubted his security in Christ; that was not in his mind here. The Greek word used here means “unapproved” or “not worthy.” Paul dreaded the thought of standing before the judgment seat of Christ to be judged for preaching a Christ he did not really know or for proclaiming a gospel he did not fully practice. This is why Paul speaks so often of the “living Christ” or “Christ living in me.”

We can’t continue another hour calling ourselves servants of God until we can answer this question personally: Do I truly want nothing but Christ? Is he truly everything to me, my one purpose for living?

Is your answer yes? If you mean it, you will be able to point to a “dung heap” of your life, the one that Paul spoke of when he said, “I . . . count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Have you counted all things as loss for the revelation of him? If you want nothing but Christ, then your ministry is not a career—your ministry is prayer! You will not have to be prodded to seek him; you will go to your secret closet every available moment, knowing that the second you walk in you are seated at his table. You will worship him, sitting in his presence unhurried, loving him, praising him with upraised hands, yearning after him and thanking him for his wisdom. Men may laugh at you, and some will call you a fanatic. But if you are willing to hear the abuse—even from members of your own family—you will soar with wings of Glory.

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