This IS my revelation

So I have this recurring dream. I'm standing in front of lots of people - I can't quite 'see' where.

And I'm doing what you might know as the Salvation Call.

It's not slick, in the dream, it's messy. It's not articulate, but as I speak the words, people, one after the other light up like lightbulbs.

They were grey but then they glow. One after the other.

Then I wake up and all I can think about is an image of Jesus outstretched on the cross... but on the fingertips of each hand there is power coming out, like electricity in a thunder storm.

Oprah calls it an 'aha' moment. If I were to be immortalised in a comic book a flashing bulb would appear above my head, for the leadership gurus among you it would be the moment of a paradigm shift, or for me, it was simply just 'revelation'.

You get this thought. No, it's more than a thought, it's like an instantaneous belief that you don't need to work through, it's just in there.

You know it, you feel it, you ache to articulate it... revelation.

Something of God has been revealed - not to your head, although it's now found a home there too, but this now lives in your heart. And not just the emotive heart - the engine room. The part of you that gets you up in the morning, it resides in the 'override' button of your soul by passing logic and rationality and often reason, giving you cause to keep going.

It's the time when you move from knowing 'of' God to feeling like you had the 2am moment with the man of your dreams and your relationship moved from tick boxes of shared interests to 'knowing' how he ticks.

That dream for me, like the amazing song Rise on Hillsong's Cornerstone album, is my revelation.

It's not the first of its kind.

When I was 17 I had a similar line in the sand moment when I understood that God was my source. I had 'known' that. But then I KNEW it. It changed everything. I couldn't not tithe after that. God gave it to me, after all, the least I could do was honour him with the first fruits.

The simplest of concepts can be life altering if it arrives as revelation.

Like understanding that we are all in need of a Saviour. Like, all of us. All.

That was a revelation.

And from the strangest of sources. I was watching the war film, Enemy at the Gates.

And as my heart saddened, as it always does when it comes to war and humanity trying to bring about peace through violence (stupid! I mean, stupid) I found myself wanting the book to be thrown at the 'baddy'. The same thing happens when you watch the news and you hear of an awful assault on humanity and before your head has a chance to engage with your heart you find yourself wanting people 'strung up'.

And yet we have the audacity to believe that God shouldn't do the same to us. That he should somehow include us in his household because we acknowledge him once a year at a carol service or because we do something for charity, when the rest of the time our choices, decisions, beliefs and behaviour do anything but include God. Sin, simply, is believing we know better than God.

But when you KNOW that you were made to be in relationship with him, you KNOW you haven't always made room for him, so then you KNOW you need a way to restore that relationship - even though he has every right not to have us back - so you KNOW you need an advocate...

And the thing about revelation in this context - it's not for you - it's direction is toward God.

See, that dream isn't to make me think about me and my role in it, or at least that's not how it's been 'revealed' to me. Rather, it was the unveiling of who God is and what he does through Christ.

Listen to this from the book of Job Chapter 9:

³³ Oh, that^[a] there were a mediator between us;
he would lay his hand on both of us,
³⁴ remove his rod from me,

I love this image. I love that as Jesus is extended on the cross - he answers the age-old cry, 'if only there was someone who could go between me and God, who can out one hand on me and one hand on him...' Like a cosmic parent and child counselling session - needing the 'go between' to somehow right the differences and reunite the family.

I love that as Jesus reaches out to humanity as the Son of Man we resonate with his pain and his hurt and rejection and shame - and he, according to his word, understands what it means to be tried and tempted, what it means to be human. But that same Jesus, is not only Son of Man but also Son of God, the embodiment of the deity - incomprehensible - and as he stretches out he connects humanity back to its creator.

It's the dream. People 'switched off, lacking their 'power source' suddenly brought to life by understanding Jesus is the only mediator between man and God (1 Tim 2:5) and that the only way to really live is through Jesus himself (John 10:10).

And the other thing about revelation is that it brings change. So I was thinking, if we are to be 'Jesus' to a world who doesn't recognise him, with my hand firmly connected to God (through Christ) who is my other hand extending to? Whose life am I touching to help bring Jesus into the equation?

Am I looking for the most broken at the expense of the people in my world?

Am I overlooking the broken in favour of my world because I don't want to touch the untouchables?

 

I guess the final thing about revelation is that it’s the coming together of what you already know. By that I mean to say – don’t expect to get some big revelation of what God wants or has for you, or even about his own character if you aren’t seeking to know him now.


Faith comes by hearing… and hearing from the word of God. The best way for God to reveal himself to you is by you devouring what he has left of himself.


Amidst the chaos and tragedy of natural disasters I believe God is love. It was revealed to me through the cosmic love story of salvation and redemption unfolding in the Word.


Through grieving I have hope, not just because my heart holds Jesus, but because I know the story of a defeated grave and a resurrection promise – from His Word.


In despondency and fatigue I can rise – as Christ rose from the grave – because, as the song goes… this is my revelation.

What's yours?