Revelation

Chapter 7
REVELATION/REPENTANCE

This chapter we will expand on what we have learned about Revelation, and then move onto Repentance.

The Cycle of Renewal begins with Regeneration. Without Regeneration we cannot hope for renewal. A person may turn over a new leaf, but it will likely return his old ways, for, as the Word says "Can a leopard change its spots or an Ethiopian his skin? So can you who do evil, do good." Our only hope for transformation is Regeneration which proceeds through the cycle of renewal. This needs to be part of our the gospel which we preach. The old man is put off in Christ, and we become new! And what is the only way to regeneration? Throwing ourselves on God's mercy, surrendering to Him.

Once you do this, He does come in, those old coping mechanisms and sinful patterns are going to be exposed (revelation) have to go (repentance and restitution), through the power of the Holy Spirit. As we go through the cycle of Revelation, Repentance, Restitution, more Revelation due to the Restitution, ultimately Renewal is the result.

How do you know when Renewal has occurred? Renewal has occurred when someone does something that would have caused one reaction before, and now reflexively the person reacts in a new way. For example: I was working with a man who had a real problem with swearing, and I was trying to bring him to the point where he could let go of the pent-up anger inside him that was causing this problem. We had isolated several ways he dealt wrongly with conflict and problems in his life. He began practicing these.

He came to me one day, all excited, and he said, "I can't believe what happened last night. I was working with some real heavy weights out in my garage, and I dropped one of them on my foot, and I said 'Ouch!'" He recognized that he had been renewed! Jesus said "out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks." The cleansed heart had yielded good fruit.

When renewal happens the inner man has brought about fundamental change in the outer life. When you bless the ones who curse you, when you do good deeds to those who persecutes you and you do it reflexively (without thinking and planning), now you know God has changed your entire being at the deepest level. Sometimes it takes a long time--years, even most of a lifetime--but God expects us to be faithful at whatever level your are at (Ph. 3:16). And as long as we stay on the road, as long as we keep seeking after Him, as long as we do not bow to the Devil's lies (he loves to try and convince us that we will never change), we'll get there! We will experience progressive renewal as we follow the cycle of renewal.

In the last chapter we discussed Revelation in the areas of fortress sin, looking at the diagram of the automobile and looking at who we are in Christ. This chapter we're going to look at a different vehicle for revelation; the revelation that Christ brings to us through suffering.

Suffering is a key ingredient in Sanctification. Romans 5:3-5 says, "We exalt in our sufferings." Why? "Knowing this: that sufferings lead to perseverance; perseverance, proven character; proven character, hope."

Does suffering automatically bring proven character? No. What suffering does do is bring out the way in which we reflexively respond to situations. When we suffer, we tend to respond to our immediate desires. These are usually in keeping with the old man. When you're suffering you want to survive. Survival instincts are deeply rooted; we usually learn them in home situations when we are very young. The problem is, God calls us to lose our lives, for His sake. This includes our survival responses which violate the law of love.

Through suffering, these opportunities give us the ability to see ourselves as we really are. John 3:20--"This is the judgment; that light has come into the world and man loved darkness rather than light." Human nature tends to not be very thankful for illumination. It's like a doctor telling you that you have cancer. You are liable not to thank him immediately for the news. As you work with people, initially they may be receptive. But as you turn on the lights they may pull away, becoming resentful, resistant, etc. You can assume that the initial response to illumination is not going to be a joyful one. But Proverbs 28:13 says, "He who covers a transgression will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes sin shall find mercy."

I would say one of the biggest obstacles today to bringing people to healing is the issue of self-esteem. Our culture right now says a man's greatest problem is with his self-esteem. God does not say that. God says man does not have a problem with his self-esteem. He says we should love our neighbor as ourselves. The problem is that we love ourselves too much. God’s word says we have too low a view of Him and too high a view of ourselves.

If our goal in helping people is making them feel good about themselves, then we should not bother turning on the light of His Word. But if the goal is to illuminate the man walking in darkness because only then will he be able to experience all that Christ has for him, then we can boldly turn on the lights! And then how is he going to feel about himself? If he is walking in sin, likely rotten! That's the appropriate response to light, if you're wallowing in darkness. But if you stay in darkness, you will never experience healing.

When the light goes on the disciple will often initially be concerned only about himself and how the darkness may look. This response can be especially bad in someone who has been a Christian for a long time and learned how to dress up the flesh rather than crucify it.

This retreat from the light (often using smoke and mirrors and blaming the bearer of the light) then gives way to feelings of impurity and even despair. They feel rotten about themselves because they ARE rotten! The light brings clarity, and when we walk clearly in the light we see our sin. Of course the solution is not an injection of self esteem. The solution to these feelings is a Savior, and once again throwing ourselves at his feet, confessing our sin and being cleansed from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).

When does a person begin to feel better? It begins the moment he repents (Cf. Acts 3:19). But it doesn't’t reach fulfillment until he develops a practice of righteousness resting in what Christ has done on the cross. Those involved in the healing process need to have faith that people CAN change! They need to know God’s diagnosis and prescription for sin. “Were you a thief? ‘Steal no more, and instead labor with your hands, and give to those who have need!’" (Ephesians 4:28). When is a thief going to feel better about himself? When he's generous and gives away his money! Now the person has become new! It may take years to get him there, but he'll get there!

We need to suffering as a key provision from God which can expose flaws in our character. Think of yourself as a dam. What's behind a dam? A reservoir. The reservoir represents your life's experiences. Normally your life is going along fine; the dam is admired by many. But then the storms come; suffering happens. The waves of the reservoir get whipped up, and water crashes against the dam! The trials cause cracks to begin to form in the dam. The dam begins to show weaknesses.

Now the question is, where is the problem? There are, of course two answers to this: the problem is in the dam or the problem is in the storm. Too many of us, in our affluent, avoid pain at any price culture, blame the storm rather than the dam. When undergoing the storms of life we blame the people around us! We blame the circumstances! We see ourselves as victims. If only the storms did not come, then the dam would be fine. But God never promises that storms won’t come. He merely promises that when they do, the life not build upon his world will fall (Mt. 7:24-27).

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine an acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who build his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words on Mime, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon that sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall."

Most of us will not admit that the problem is in the dam. Fewer still take responsibility for our actions which often both contribute to the storms onset as well as its severity. As a result we do not "exalt in our sufferings". Instead we look for relieve from the storm rather than release from destructive and character weakening patterns in our life. Rather that seeing life's storms as God's providential means for illuminating flaws in our character and evaluating the storm and our responses, instead we want out of the storm. If escape doesn't come we often revert to blaming God for not being loving enough (or powerful enough, etc) to deliver us from the storms of life.

I have counseled for over twenty five years, and never once, have I ever heard anyone say at the outset, "The problem is me. Please help me look at my life and make a thorough cleansing and transformation." Never! (Well sometimes a wife will start out by saying that her mistake was in marrying the guy.)

There are all sorts of excuses for sin a failure. But they are blinded to the fact that the problem is not the storm; it's in the dam! They are looking for relief from the storm, rather than to rebuild the dam. But if the storm does go away and they get relief, they ignore the fact that another storm is coming. The throw a little whitewash over the dam, and now everything looks pretty again. But the same thing is going to happen the next time the storm comes along. Except for one difference: the cracks are still there and will only get bigger. A chain reaction is going to occur, in which the whole person will eventually collapse. As Ezekiel says to the house of Israel regarding the false healers of his day:

“They have mislead My people by saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is not peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash; so tell those who plaster it over with whitewash that it will fall. A flooding rain will come and you, O hailstones, will fall; and a violent wind will break out...” Ezekiel 13:10ff

Often the person, under extreme and sustained storms will undergo what a nervous breakdown. A breakdown is simply the result of an inability to cope with the storms of life. The dam collapses and along with it the persons ability to cope with life. A nervous breakdown is not something Christian healers should be overwhelmed with! For the Christian it's a great opportunity! The old coping mechanisms didn't work; it's time to build a new dam, only this time stronger, built on the love of Jesus and his word. (Mt. 7:24f)

For the most part, secular psychiatrists and psychologists have little idea how to build a stronger, better dam. They simply erect the old one over again, installing some hopefully better coping mechanisms than before. Certainly building self esteem on foundations of sand will not work for life's storms. When that person runs into the same problems, he'll have another nervous breakdown!

So every time we face storms in our lives, we need to see it as an opportunity for revelation. We need to see the cracks in the dam, and say to ourselves, "At last! Revelation! Something's wrong! Lets look at the dam in this storm as God's purposeful provision to bring revelation and ultimately transformation in my life!

Perhaps this is best illustrated with Job. Was Job a sinful man (Job 1:1)? No; he was a righteous man! And yet he found himself in storms which God allowed. As he went through his various trials and storms, and what did the storms finally reveal? Were there any cracks in the dam? Of course! Though righteous, he was not perfect. Only Jesus was the perfect man. What did the storms reveal?

Clearly Job had some wrong views of God. His understanding of who God was and how he worked were pretty severely off the mark! But, before the storms came, the dam was perfect. Job was righteous! His understanding of God and His workings were able to keep up with his life experiences. The evil one had a plan for the storms he would bring--to show Job as a self-centered servant who would curse God when he was no longer benefitted by his walk with God. But God had a different plan for the storms in Job’s life: to reveal flaws in Job: flaws in his view of God; flaws in his view of himself. But unlike many of us, Job stood up to the test; he never cursed God. Although the storms tested him to his limits, Job passed the test; he never cursed God. He remained faithful. But the storms did reveal a lot of faulty theology in Job; theology that ultimately needed to be changed in order to bring Job into harmony, not with the God of his mind, but the true God of the universe.

In the end Job was given the blessing of communion with God. And in that communion he came to a new realization of who God was and who he was; and he fell down and repented of many of the things he had wrongly attributed to God (42:1-6). The storms as painful as they were, had, in God's economy, resulted to Job’s own benefit; a deeper understanding and communion with God.

We can see other examples where God uses circumstances which the enemy tries to use to destroy us to further His plan (Cf. Genesis 50:20, Acts 2:22-24). The same holds true today when trials come upon the saints; God tests us so we may see the cracks in ourselves. His tests are for our benefit (I Peter 1:6-9; James 1:2-4,12-16).

The point of Job's story is that God, in His infinite mercy, allows us to be tested, so that these flaws may be seen and dealt with; so that we may repent and receive the greater blessing of deeper communion with God. Job did not curse God; in that manner he passed the test. But in the process other flaws were exposed. So as the storms of life break against us, we need to be asking God, "What is it I need to learn?" God does not just sit in Heaven and enjoy watching His children suffer. He has a purpose. There is a goal in our suffering. Suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance to proven character, and proven character to hope, but only when we deal with suffering in the appropriate way. (Romans 5:3-5). The way to deeper communion with God is along the road of suffering.

If our response to suffering is hiding away in the hold of our boat, waiting for the storm to pass, then we may make it through the storm, but it's unlikely we will find deeper communion with our Lord. If we search for relief from the storm rather than examine the boat for leaks; we may find relief, but there's another storm coming. And that one will likely find a more leaky vessel, unless we grow through the storms. This fallen world is simply one storm after another. "Through much tribulation we shall inherit the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). "Those who desire to live godly will suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12).

God is not pleased with those who hide in their hold and want to learn nothing. He has promised that "all things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). And much of the good in suffering comes through growth. Growing in God's world means looking at the dam, not running from the storm. We need to honestly face ourselves as we are. We need to evaluate what the storm is revealing in us. More often than not, those providential storms will reveal things in us which go to the core of our being. It's at that level that we need to be evaluating ourselves. Job had no sins on the Actions level; it was in his Attitudes and Affections that needed repentance and transformation. When God didn't work according to Job's preconceived ideas Job became confused got angry at Him. In the end, he realized he was wrong about many of those preconceptions. This time of tribulation and trial showed Job's faulty attitudes and affections.

An Example
It is good to look at the fruit that comes out of the storm, and try to trace it to the roots. Using my own experience as an example; I'll trace my path from the time I came to Christ to what was my first break though in the journey of being transformed from one stage of glory to another.

When I came to Christ I was isolated, a hermit. If we look at the sin tree diagram, My sin on the sin tree was on the social branch. The fruit of my sin was my being a hermit.

What's the solution, the “put on” that needs to replace being a hermit? Fellowship! But this solution focuses on my sin at the Action level. It is OK to start with actions as long as we don't end there. God is interested in far more than behavior, he wants our love! (Remember the parable of the righteous older brother--or the prodigal son, depending on which son we are focusing on. Remember, the parable was told to the Pharisees as a rebuke to their being upset that Jesus was spending so much time with sinners. God would rather see a dirty face than a clean back!).

A brother confronted me with the fact that I needed to be in fellowship. I hated the idea of going to meetings of the assembly, but it was something I knew I had to do (Hebrews 10:23ff). So I began my journey out of the hermitage and tried to learn some rudimentary social skills--and believe me, for a hermit scientist used to working with test tubes and not people, they were pretty rudimentary. I made progress in this for a number of months. My behavior was improving.

But about that time I encountered a problem at work; my boss screamed at me in front of others and embarrassed me. I could have killed him; I was furious! I would normally have gone home and spent the night tossing and turning, figuring how to get even with him. I would have fantasized about how I would kill him. But that night after work I went out to my car and faced reality. God said "Be angry and sin not, and do not let the sun set on your anger " (Ephesians 4:26). I sat there before my God with His word clearly before my mind and realized I had a choice--I could forgive him (Eph. 4:32), or I could allow the evil one a place and yield the place Christ had in my life (27,30).

I recognized that I did not have the capacity to forgive by boss, so I simply prayed, "God, I know I can't continue to nurse this anger at this man and still follow you. But I can't forgive him either. So you forgive him, and somehow make my heart right." (I remember the prayer clearly, and though I would say it a little differently now, God looks on the heart, and the Holy Spirit fixed the prayer as it rose.) The next morning, I woke up after a quit nights sleep (a miracle for me who was normally an insomniac). I went to the office where I was an aide to my boss. I walked into his office and was shocked! There was no fire in by insides, no malice waiting to seek revenge--just peace! I knew God had answered by prayer and cleansed my heart! (Eph. 4: 31).

Later that week another person really set me off, and I went home wanting to bash his head through a wall. After a half-hour I realized this probably wasn't very godly either, and I needed to confess this, too. Then I realized that there was a problem--a pattern was being revealed--a pattern of bitterness. (Obvious, you say, but not to me--suffering was necessary.)

As I explained this to the older man who I met with weekly for prayer and discipleship he explored the breadth and depth of the problem. We found that it was deep rooted and extensive. As long as I could remember I had been a bitter person. I had done a lot of damage with my bitterness over the years. With this man’s help, I began to evaluate the damage I had done, repent of it and make restitution to those I had injured.

As I did this, God's spirit progressively gave me a new freedom to love and experience true koinonia with the brethren. What had been a dutiful behavior (going to church) had now become transformed to something new as my attitudes and affections for others were transformed by Christ's love flowing through me (I John 4:19). The fruit of isolation was traced to the root of bitterness. Once the axe was laid to the root, the fruit began to die and be replaced by the new fruit of the Spirit!

A further step came some three years later. I decided that God wanted me in the mission field, so I approached one of the pastors and told him that I felt called to China. This pastor prayed for several months and conferred with the other elders. He finally returned and said, "You can't go to China." I was furious, and I slept on that anger for several weeks. That resentment began to dig down. What happened was, I had resolved my hermitage after I came to Christ, but God now wanted to work with it at a deeper level, to bring greater freedom. The original freedom had lasted a couple of years, but now God was revealing other attitudes and affections that were much deeper. He wanted me to get to a new level of glory!

I had another pattern now, but with a common root; I had a problem with authority. I may have never spotted this, but luckily I had the same loving brother who was willing to turn on the lights when I was wallowing in darkness. I had gotten annoyed at my pastor; I had gotten annoyed at my bosses. This brother suggested that the problem may be much deeper; perhaps my problem was with God. This threw me into turmoil. That was a rude awakening. This brother suggested that this problem ran all the way back to my relationship with my father. So we began working through what had happened between my father and me.

I had some real problems with my dad, and I didn't particularly like this brother saying so. We had known each other for a few years, but I had never discussed my dad. So we began working toward freedom from roots which ran back to my childhood.

My older brother in the Lord pointed out that our view of the world is shaped within the first few years of our lives, in our first world, our family. For a little child who is less than five years old, he is the center of his world. Make no mistake! He learns to relate to the people in his world. One group of people he has to relate to is his parents. These are the ones in authority. Another group he must relate to is his peers; his siblings. I was the second son in a family of six children. What does a child who is the center of his world want from his parents? Attention! They're the most important people in his world--why can't my parents see how important I am?

My coping mechanism, my way to get my parents to notice me was through achievement. So I became the athlete, I became the scholar. Now there was another problem; one of my siblings was an older brother. I had to be better than what he was in order to get the attention of my parents. And I was better. I was like Jacob; a supplanter. I had other brothers and sisters as well; in fact, I had one retarded brother, as well as one sister (the only daughter in the family). There was no way I was going to get the attention I felt I deserved. I was a pretty selfish child.

Siblings, then, for me became rivals. I developed an intense competition with them; maybe it was inherent flesh, rather than developed; I don't know. But that was the way I dealt with my siblings.

But then I move out into the world. Who are authority figures in the world? Bosses; professors; coaches; teachers; pastors. These are the ones I relate to. How do I get their attention? By achieving. Driven by bitterness; no-one thinks I'm good enough, no one ever notices me; I'll show them! Very destructive patterns. I learned how to harness this anger and channel it into energy, in such a way where I was an over-achiever. I had to beat my peers; they were there to be conquered. Consequently, what was their attitude towards me? They didn't have very much to do with me. The net result: I was a hermit!

Of course, I didn't understand all this during my adolescence and early adulthood, or my early walk with God. I knew that I was supposed to love my neighbor, and so I worked hard at it. I progressed in the way that God wanted me to.

But finally I got to the point where God had to say, "It's time to move to a deeper level now. We need to achieve healing, and in order to do so I have to bring several things into your life all around the same time. It will be painful, but I do it because I love you. You need to understand that you're not as godly as you think. Your godliness is put on to impress your pastor. You want to go to the mission field because that's where the really committed Christians go. I'm not pleased with that kind of motivation. I'm pleased with you because you are my child, and I love you. Not because you've done anything, but simply because I have chosen to bestow my love on you." I needed to learn a lot about God, and I needed to learn a lot about myself; this kind of revelation was necessary--an painful.