I formulated a quote many years ago based upon a truth I had come to learn:
"The purpose of revelation is
not to substantiate your illusions,
but to eliminate them."
not to substantiate your illusions,
but to eliminate them."
When so many things are bandied about today as "revelation" it is important to note what effect the revelation, word, dream, or vision has upon the recipient. If it reinforces and substantiate their illusions, makes them more comfortable in their own world, and generally lets them think that they were "right all along" then I would typically question the source of that revelation.
But if the revelation causes an awakening, a change of heart, an elimination of what was previously held in error, an illumination of what was previously seen dimly - one of those "My Lord and My God!" moments - then you can generally trust that the revelation is genuine. It is doing the work of eliminating illusions.
Another of my sayings is, "Blessed are the disillusioned." Religious folk in particular have some very strange ideas, opinions, and illusions about God, Jesus, the Bible, and what it means to be filled, taught, and led by the Holy Spirit. The purpose of God-given, Spirit-inspired revelation is not to substantiate all those silly notions about spiritual things, but to eliminate them - to DIS-ILLUSION you so that you see things as they really are. Blessed are the disillusioned, for they will see God as He really is.
A man in one of our workshops experienced this. After listening to what was shared he shook his head and exclaimed, "Jesus is not Who I thought He was - He IS Who He IS!"
Peter, James and John experienced this in Matthew 17, when Jesus "was transfigured before them." Jesus did not suddenly become the Son of God. He was the Son of God all along. But they suddenly saw Him differently. And this seeing definitely dis-illusioned them. It eliminated all their preconceived ideas and notions about Who He really was and is. This revelation did not substantiate their illusions or encourage their misconceptions; it challenged them, put them on their face in fear, and forever changed the direction of their lives.
THAT is the kind of revelation of Christ that is missing from many who claim Him as Savior. They are trying to follow (and desperately trying to persuade others to follow) a God that they really don't know apart from what Religion has taught them.
It MUST not be so with you and me. We MUST see Him and we MUST proclaim Him, not as we wish Him to be, not as we expect Him to be, not as we think He should be - but AS HE IS.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! What you have written as been my experience...the downside (if there is such a thing) is that when I hear opinions or teachings of men not in alignment with the revelation of the heart of God by the Spirit through His written word, it disturbs me, grieves me, deeply. And, just earlier this morning as I was thinking about these things and feeling such grief, the Spirit said to me that I was fellowshipping in His sufferings i.e. that He is grieved when He is misrepresented, misquoted, etc. by those who have not the revelation but interpret His word through the grid of their own minds...OR quote someone else, believing their interpretation to be the correct one. This has been a burden on my heart for quite some time, but when He said that I was fellowshipping with Him in His sufferings there was comfort in that! No one, especially the Son of God, wants to be misquoted!
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