Revelation - Part 1

The advance of truth in the church is correlated to revelation God brings to the church.  For example, Ignatius of Antioch (A.D. 35-108) once received a vision of angels singing in alternating chants.  He then took this and helped introduce antiphonal singing in the church - alternating choirs singing back and forth.  This type of singing is the foundational notion for what we call stereo music and surround sound.  Yet in the ancient Hebrew tradition, this type of singing was performed with psalms and other scriptural writings.  Ignatius helped restore this gift God gave to the church and man through revelation from God.  

Before Martin Luther, the church was stuck in doubt regarding the security of salvation.  There was tremendous darkness on knowing who was saved and going to heaven, and how one could attain this.  But from Luther and many others in his time the proclamation of the doctrine of grace and the sufficiency of Christ’s death on the cross came forth.  Now, the majority of protestant churches proclaim and live by this truth.  And all the time, these truths were evident in the scripture, but not understood...revelation was lacking.

It wasn’t until Paul came along that the gospel became actively proclaimed to the gentiles; yet it has always been God’s heart to do so...see Jonah, Solomon, Daniel and Moses for examples.

God wants to break through with more of His life in the church and in your life particularly.  God’s truth is advancing.

I’m witnessing in my life time the restoration of God’s power in the church.  God has always intended for His body (the church) to be His representatives on the face of the earth.  He has always intended that His body operate in love, joy, peace, etc. as well as other attributes of His spirit...healing, visions, miracles, prophecy, signs and wonders.  For whatever reasons, doubt and unbelief have kept a majority of the American church ignorant of God’s available life.  But that is changing; more and more the body of Christ is being restored to evident truths in the scripture.  There are several churches and individual ministers in America operating in power gifts.  It has become more common for each city in America to have a group of believers who operate in some degree of these power gifts.  That couldn’t be said 50 years ago, 100 years ago, 150 years ago, etc.  In fact this type of language or practicing of God’s power gifts a few hundred years ago would have incited riots and accusations of heresy.  Hey, that doesn’t sound too far off of what Jesus was accused of.

I believe what we are witnessing is the beginning of the resurgence of what God released 2,000 years ago on the day of Pentecost.  And yet, what was released then was just the “first fruits” of the full manifestation of what God intends.  Why do I say first fruits?  As a body, we have yet to enter into the fulness of what Jesus commanded when He commissioned his disciples to heal the sick, raise the dead, and make disciples of the nations.  There are several instances in the scripture as well as throughout the progression of the church where a truth was introduced and gave immediate blessing, and yet the fulness of that truth didn’t come out until many years later.  Christ is an awesome example of this.  The idea of innocent blood being shed for guilt to be removed was introduced by God in the garden of Eden.  Yet the fulness of what God intended was released much later when a babe was born in a manger and then later crucified in innocence for the remission of sins.  As mentioned earlier, God has always intended for the gospel to be preached to the gentiles however the fulness of this revelation didn’t occur until Paul came on the scene.  And in many ways, this ministering to the gentiles is still being expanded today. 

I feel bad for those who have been around ministers who have abused the “power gifts”.   But to encourage those who have been hurt, God has never abused anyone...He is perfect and right in all His ways.  There have been some major abuses and many minor ones...but in some ways this to me is a normal outcome of a church growing and stretching and learning.  Luther wasn’t perfect in his doctrine, but he began the process of entering deeper revelation.  We are in the process of birthing deeper life and if we’ll hang in there the harvest we reap will be more than can be imagined.

How can we participate in what God is doing?  By asking God to open our eyes...by hungering for more of Him...by reading again what God openly proclaims in His word...and by not being stubborn.  God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.