Revelation – When God Fixes Spiritual Blindness

“I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him.”

~Ephesians 1:17 (NRSV)

When truth is revealed about our naïveté we are initially so embarrassed and shamed and that is painful. Revelation is a sticky matter that reveals our spiritual blindness, and, for a short time, we deride ourselves as to think, “How foolish have I been?”

But revelation was never designed to make us self-conscious for any length of time.

Revelation will surely embarrass the ardent follower of Christ when their folly is revealed. This leads to a quick portion of zealous repentance. Then the matter is forgotten.

We have no role in God’s Kingdom retaining shame or embarrassment for the things we didn’t previously know. Revelation is bringing us to new information or information we have forgotten. Revelation is God’s communication. We are to know what is on God’s heart. It is the Lord’s will.

The Clarity and Cleanness of Revelation

We can trust God to reveal what is on his heart for our lives, and in life generally. The closer we go to God, the closer we rely on his Word, and the more we know him by prayer and obedience, the more surely we will receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

And when we receive revelation, knowing without doubt it is from God, it comes with clarity and cleanness. It clears the shrubbery in our minds, wiping out acres of dense scrub with each clinical swoop of his hand. It leaves us much less confused, and decisive about issues set forth. This is possibly why, when a painful truth scatters our egos, we shriek inwardly—for a moment—one penitent moment.

God loves getting us to these penitential spaces. He can reason with us there.

When we bow before the Lord in submission because we are wrong, we obey God. Being wrong is good in that we recognise our place. God knows we can do better, but is heartened by our ability to see the sinful nature for what it is.

God knows we are horribly blind some of the time. “There, but for the grace of God, go I,” should be our slogan.

Revelation is clear and certain, not cloudy like the communication we receive from the evil one, who is bent on destruction. When we are stopped in our tracks, given the condition that we have a close walk with the Lord, it is almost certainly revelation. We are blessed to listen and then to apply, trusting the Lord.

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God’s revelation is clear and powerful, revealing our spiritual blindness as it redirects us. The closer we walk with God the more is revealed to us and the less blind we are.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.