Celebrate the revolution… or know the Revolutionary (Part 2)

It was Sicily, I think the year 2000.

I went with a group of good friends/youth from Malta to a conference called “Revolution” (I think that was the popular conference theme for that year). The main speaker was a man that had a Dr. in front of his name and had been one of the leaders in the midst of a famous revival in the States in the mid-to-late 90’s. I was looking forward to hearing him, coming from the experience that he had been a part of. But as I listened to him speak I grew more and more frustrated. I remember basically the content of his preaching being, “If you’re not seeing a revolution of God around you then you aren’t praying enough. If you’ve got sin in your life and you’re not reading your Bible how can you expect God to give you a revolution in your life.” On and on it seemed to go…

On the surface this all seems to be very true but the problem is, I had tasted another way.

You see I have had times where I had experienced Jesus in such ways that out of the revelation of Him in those moments it changed me from the inside causing me to spend more time with Him in prayer, or in the Bible (which opened up in a whole depth), or to put aside various sins, just as a natural outworking of His presence experienced.

In the Gospels there was a person named Zacchaeus who was a tax collector (it seems the profession was known to be not liked and not always overly honest). Jesus calls him by name and asks him if he could share a meal with him at Zacchaeus’s house. People around grumbled that Jesus was going to stay at the house of a “sinner”.The time spent with Jesus had a natural outworking in him, so much that he tells Jesus that if he has cheated anyone he will pay them back 4 times and he will give half of his possessions to the poor. There is no mention of Jesus having to tell him to do these things.

So, back to the conference speaker I mentioned and what would be my answer to that?

In comparison, rewind to another conference I had been to in the mid 90’s in Winnipeg, MB. There was one session where a friend of mine, Nolan, was preaching. Tired from praying through nights and wearing the same clothes for a few days because his van had been broken into and everything had been stolen out if it (which was all his and his wife’s things because they were just moving there), the message he shared was, for lack of a better term, otherworldy. Instead of sharing his wisdom and a good 3 point sermon, Nolan spent the half hour to an hour boasting how amazing God is, how big and wonderful, etc. All this from was from Scriptures by memory. Nolan shared with such deep conviction that was literally imparting revelation of Him who he was talking about. So much that I felt like I was about to explode from the inside out with awe, humility, excitement, adoration, and being overwhelmed by the “bigness” of my God.

One preacher giving outward motivators like guilt and shame to motivate and thus taking very little personal responsibility in giving the message, the other had taken the responsibility of knowing Him who he was talking about and imparting revelation and thus creating a motivation from the inside out. Or said in another way, one speaking from flesh to flesh, the other from spirit to spirit.

Reveal the Revolutionary and you change me.

It takes revelation to reveal and that is the part that is self-challenging to me.