What is a revelation and how does it come?...
Illustration
Almost all of us have read the Bible or heard it read, but how many have had a revelation? What is a revelation and how does it come? Paul had his first revelation on the road to Damascus but few have had a similar revelation since then. I know some Evangelicals claim that you can't know the Lord unless you have had an "experience." They may use it as their "testimony," but some make one up in order to be part of their group. Few Lutherans claim a "revelation" for fear of being thought crazy, but I wonder if you can be a real Christian unless you have had some kind of personal experience.
I was about thirty when I faced a temptation that forced me to examine my faith. I had not gone to church too often since I left home. A passage on my dresser that I got from my folks encouraged me to seek and I will find, knock and it will be opened. I decided to knock since a lot of money was at stake. For three days I prayed but with no results. I guess I expected a voice to come from the ceiling! On the fourth day I glanced down and saw a new translation of the Bible my folks had given me. I had flipped the pages so it would look like I read it. I had a strong feeling that God was answering me in that Bible! So I asked him a question and then started to read in Matthew. I started to read the Bible beginning in Genesis when I was younger. It started out fairly interesting but I got bored in all the laws and lists and did not pick it up for almost ten years until that day. The first chapter had the answer to my question which surprised me. The same thing happened the second day, but when it happened again the third day, I knew someone was guiding me. I was so overcome that I fell on the floor asking for God's forgiveness!
From that day on, I knew that the Bible held the answer to my questions. Only shortly after that, at the age of thirty, God led me to become a pastor. God speaks to us through the Bible and if we are guided by His Holy Spirit, I would call it a revelation.
When I was as a missionary to Nepal, I bailed out a number of fellow Christians who were jailed because of their faith. When they came out, they had a powerful testimony. They were very humble about their experience, but they became servants. Because of their testimonies the church there had grown from the first convert, who we knew, to about 2 million! He spent time in prison, but his testimony there was so powerful that they had to let him go or the whole prison would have been converted! Go thou and do likewise!
I was about thirty when I faced a temptation that forced me to examine my faith. I had not gone to church too often since I left home. A passage on my dresser that I got from my folks encouraged me to seek and I will find, knock and it will be opened. I decided to knock since a lot of money was at stake. For three days I prayed but with no results. I guess I expected a voice to come from the ceiling! On the fourth day I glanced down and saw a new translation of the Bible my folks had given me. I had flipped the pages so it would look like I read it. I had a strong feeling that God was answering me in that Bible! So I asked him a question and then started to read in Matthew. I started to read the Bible beginning in Genesis when I was younger. It started out fairly interesting but I got bored in all the laws and lists and did not pick it up for almost ten years until that day. The first chapter had the answer to my question which surprised me. The same thing happened the second day, but when it happened again the third day, I knew someone was guiding me. I was so overcome that I fell on the floor asking for God's forgiveness!
From that day on, I knew that the Bible held the answer to my questions. Only shortly after that, at the age of thirty, God led me to become a pastor. God speaks to us through the Bible and if we are guided by His Holy Spirit, I would call it a revelation.
When I was as a missionary to Nepal, I bailed out a number of fellow Christians who were jailed because of their faith. When they came out, they had a powerful testimony. They were very humble about their experience, but they became servants. Because of their testimonies the church there had grown from the first convert, who we knew, to about 2 million! He spent time in prison, but his testimony there was so powerful that they had to let him go or the whole prison would have been converted! Go thou and do likewise!
