God Revealed Himself, Now What?

god-reveled-himself-now-whatMany revelations of Truth have come throughout the history of the Church, but our desire as men is to stop, pitch a tent and show everyone what happened. When God reveals a new truth, what do we do?

I have been a believer for most of my life and through a few different “movements” in the Body of Christ. Here are some of the things I have noticed…

When a new Truth is revealed, we as men tend to turn our experience into doctrine. It’s like a default setting. Through time and cultural shift, these experience-turned-doctrines become something new that we seek—taking our eyes off the Truth that stands right before us.

Revival is one of those doctrines. Birthed out of the Upper Room experience on the day of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit became a desirable event for churches to attain. Why wouldn’t they? The days following Pentecost brought thousands of people into the Kingdom of God. It seems like a guaranteed model for church growth.

On the surface, it sounds great. Why wouldn’t we want more of God and people flooding into the Kingdom by the thousands. After all, that is the unity we seek. We want to see lives changed and transformed by God, and we will often go to great lengths to make it happen.

So what’s the big deal? Praying for hours upon hours in intercession to change the heart of God toward man somehow convincing God to “show up”, probably won’t yield any bad results, but it definitely won’t bring the fruit we desire. When we seek out an experience-turned-doctrine, we bypass what Christ already accomplished, and turn our faith into dead works. Christ is the cornerstone, and when we put anything else in His place, it doesn’t work. Maybe the fruit we desire isn’t actually fruit (Gal 5:22-23). After all, Christ said HE would grow His Church (Mat 16:18)

What’s wrong with preaching experience? When we preach “experience”, we set others up to seek out the same goal. It seems like an admirable thing to do, but it ends in method [flesh] rather than Spirit. Our trust in the Spirit of God is adverted to trusting in someone else’s experience and our efforts to recreate it. We were made to have our own experiences with God, and they cannot be created, but only experienced through life in Him.

Once we stop seeking an experience, we find ourselves having an experience.

Is prayer wrong? Absolutely not, but prayer must ONLY come from a relationship with the Father and love that compels it. If it comes from a desire to “change the world” or as a replacement to love, we have missed the purpose of prayer. Think of prayer as continual communion with the Father—a conversation between a daddy and his child.

Is seeking God wrong? No, if you haven’t already found Him. Those of us who have found Him can enjoy the fullness and life we have in Him and realize that we did nothing to attain it. It is and always was 100% Jesus. Spending time with the Father does not cause Him to draw close to us, BUT realizing our oneness with Him will cause us live and love in Him, which has always been our purpose (Rom 13:10). We cannot attain unity. We ARE the Body of Christ. He has already brought us into unity. It may not always look like it from the outside, but as we the Body of Christ see Jesus revealed, we will see the affects of unity, walking in healthy relationships with everyone.

I am not here to bring a bad rap on revival, but rather lift up Christ as the centre. He is everything. Once we stop seeking an experience, we find ourselves having an experience.

Don’t believe me? Go for a walk and try and find a $20 bill. Impossible. You may walk for days, weeks or even months and come up empty handed. Now, go for a walk to enjoy the scenic outdoors with a loved one and you may stumble upon a $20 bill without even seeking it. Such is the journey. Let Christ reveal Himself to you.

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