God… was pleased to reveal His Son in me.
(Galatians 1:15,16 NIV)
Spiritual discernment, perception,
understanding and intelligence are all too rare. The causes are many. The
engrossment with the work and its multifarious concerns; the rush and hurry of
life; the restless spirit of the age; these, with an exhaustive provision of
external religious facilities, all tend to render the inner place of Divine
speaking inoperative or impossible of functioning. Perhaps we have forgotten
that the Bible is not only a revelation, but also contains a revelation, and that
that deeper spiritual content is only possible of recognition and realization by
such as have had their eyes and ears opened; in other words – who have been
awakened. Some of the Lord's most faithful servants are still only occupied with
the letter of the Word, the contents of books, topics, themes, subjects,
outlines, analyses, etc., and in the deepest sense are not in "revelation."
(This is not meant as a criticism). The difference too often is that of a
ministry to the mind or head, and not one to the heart or spirit. The former
will sooner or later tire and weary both the minister and those ministered to.
The latter is a ministry of Life to both, and is inexhaustible in freshness.
Whether it comes at the beginning or later, it
is the greatest day in our history of which we can say: "It pleased God to
reveal His Son in me." "I received it, not from men but by revelation." That is
the beginning of an inwardness of things which may have many crisic issues. One
of these is the one of which we are particularly thinking now, namely, the
awakening to see what is the thought and desire of God at given and specific
times. Such a revelation – through the Scriptures – is nothing less than
revolutionary, though usually costly.