ARTICLES

EXPERIENCING REVELATION AND STEWARDING MYSTERIES

by Lyn Packer

Part 1 – A Life of Revelation and Encounters

Revelation of God and His Kingdom – as Christians we all long for it but it's something we often feel we don't have or we feel that we have to work hard in order to get it. We long for a life of such intimacy. Yet the truth is that we cannot be more intimate with God than we already are. Why? Because intimacy is not a feeling, it's a legal positioning and our state of being because of what Jesus did on the cross. You have been made intimate with God. You are one with Him - in Christ and in the Father, through Christ.

Rom 6:11 "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

1 Cor 1:30 "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption…"

1 John 4:13 "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit."

Can we expect to experience more of the reality of that oneness than we currently do? Definitely! Can we get to know Jesus, Father and Holy Spirit more than we do?

1 Cor 1:7 "so that you are not lacking… awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ…"

Can we discover more of the wonders of who they are? Yes! We can and we should expect to know them more and more but we should not confuse that with our state of intimacy or oneness with them.

Since all relationship is based on our experiencing the other person in the relationship, we can and should expect to know or experience the Lord.

1 John 5:15 "And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him."

To receive revelation and have encounters with Him is a natural outcome of relationship with Him.

1 Cor 4:1 "Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God."

Do you want to be a steward of the mysteries of God? God wants you to be one, so how do we step into that?

It begins with understanding revelation and God's purposes for it…

Revelation – it's not some airy fairy, esoteric knowledge that's for a select few - it's for all people everywhere. We cannot even get to know God without receiving revelation. And all revelation is an invitation. It's an invitation to two things, primarily – intimacy and co-operation with God. God is all about relationship, and everything He does is about bringing you and I into a deeper understanding of who He is and who we are in the context of relationship, and then to understand who He is to us and through us.

As a Christian, one of the ways we can open ourselves to revelation is to spend time waiting on the Lord by stilling our hearts and minds. The mystics of old used to call that waiting 'contemplative prayer'. Nowadays we call it 'soaking'.

Psalm 46:10 says "Be still, and know that I am God." The term "be still" in this verse means "stop striving". It means to let go and come into a place of rest where you can hear, see and experience God. It is a contemplative state. The Christians of old knew about contemplative states of rest that led to experience – we call those people "mystics" because they experienced the mysteries of God. We look at their lives with wonder and wish that somehow we could experience what they did. Yet what they experienced was not just for a select few – it is open to all. Also, the word "know" in the above verse is a "knowing by experience". It's not head knowledge, it's an experiential knowledge.

So how can we discover more about Jesus, Father and Holy Spirit? How can we experience them more? One of the great ways to do that is by soaking. It's a time of waiting in quietness and rest of heart. It may include prayer and talking to the Lord, and will definitely include having a listening posture and waiting for Him to speak to us. Some people prefer to soak to music; some prefer quietness. Whether we have music or not is not the main thing – it is a quietness of heart and a listening posture that is key.

We can train ourselves and develop this state so that we get to a point where we are in a contemplative state of heart even as we go about our daily tasks. But normally that comes from first learning how to quiet our heart and minds and hear Him in set times apart with the Lord.

So how do we do that, what are some tips for soaking or contemplative prayer?

The following list is not a "formula" or "steps to intimacy", just some tips…

• Make a quiet space in your home where you know you can focus and be undisturbed. You can sit, lie down, whatever is comfortable. 
   
• Have a journal, pen and drink of water there on hand so you won't have to go searching for them when you need them. 
   
• Your heart and mind will go where you focus. Focus on the Lord and His glory and your heart will begin to go there. James 4:8 "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." If you focus on the world and it's demands your mind and heart will go there. 
   
• If you have things you need to talk through with the Lord regarding sin issues do so (repent) and thank Him that in His amazing grace He has even forgiven you ahead of time. Receive His forgiveness, acknowledge it and thank Him for it. 
   
• Worship the Lord - in tongues and in your native language. Keep worshipping until you feel His presence begin to manifest around you. 
   
• If thoughts intrude, take them captive and tell your mind you'll deal with that later. Write them down if you need to – this is so your mind can see that you won't forget. 
   
• Present your body to God a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. Rom 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." 
   
• Then present yourself to Him as being alive from the dead. Romans 6:13 "...present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." 
   
• Recall past experiences with the Lord – visions, encounters, healings etc. They will shift your heart into a thankful posture and you can also enter His glory through them by asking Holy Spirit to lead you into the reality of what you see. 
   
• Tell the Lord you want to experience Him, meet with Him, encounter Him. Tell Him you want more of His presence manifested around your life and in your life. You are not asking for more of Him – you can't get more of Him than what He has given – He has given you His all. You have the fullness of the Godhead in you in Christ – you are asking for it to become manifest to you, so you can grow up into it. Col 1:19 "For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him," Eph 4:13 "…until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." 
   
• Stay in that place of soaking or contemplation until you receive revelation. Psa 123:2 "Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us." 
   
• Realise that when you do receive revelation that is not the end of your time with Him - that is just the beginning, the gateway to the supernatural realm of God. All revelation is an invitation to intimacy and dialogue with the Lord and out of that, co-operation with Him. Isaiah 64:4 (Amplified Bible) "God...who works and shows Himself active on behalf of him who [earnestly] waits for Him."He's longing for us to wait on Him. 

Here are some of the ways people in scripture received revelation -

• Dreams (Job 33:14-16; Genesis 28:10-16)
• Visions (Daniel 7:1-3,9; Acts 16:9-10)
• Trances (Acts 10:9-17; 11:5)
• Out of body experiences (2 Corinthians 12:2-4)
• Angelic visitations (Luke 1:11-17; Acts 12:7-10)
• Being transported in the Spirit (Acts 8:39-40).

You may receive revelation in any manner of ways - as impressions, the quiet whisper of God's voice, angelic encounters, nudges of the Holy Spirit, pictures, heavenly encounters and more. None of these is more special, spiritual or mature than another way. They are all revelation and all carry within them the power of God to do what He has sent them to do. 

Sometimes we think one kind of revelation is more spiritual than another because it is more dramatic or seems more "real". But revelation is revelation no matter what form it comes in, and all revelation has the power to transform your life. 

• Write down in your journal what the Lord is showing you – draw pictures of what you see even if they are only stick figure pictures. Writing and drawing helps to build pathways in the brain to hang memory on and helps cement your experience in your memory. This is important when you want to go back to a place you've been in the Spirit. 
   
• Talk to the Lord about what you are seeing, hearing or feeling. Ask Him questions – He never gets tired of questions. The more you ask the more the revelations will unfold to you. 
   
• Ask Him what He wants you to do, in the light of what He has shown you. Then simply be obedient to do it and watch God work.

Revelation's purpose is first of all to deepen our relationship with the Lord and secondly to bring us to a place of co-operating with Him in releasing the Kingdom of Heaven into earth. Don't fall into the trap of putting the second part first. God's Kingdom is all about relationship with Him and our works should be about that, too. Intimacy and co-operation, the results of which lead to thankfulness and deeper intimacy – that's what it's all about. Enjoy your "soaking" times, they are precious and to be guarded. Don't let the enemy steal them from you by works without intimacy or daily life's needs.

To experience the reality of stewarding the mysteries of God is a part of our inheritance, but it doesn't come without us being willing to count the cost and pursue intimate knowledge of Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit. What I've talked about in this article are the beginning steps to stewarding the mysteries of God, but even those baby steps will be filled with wondrous encounters and heavenly experiences. Enjoy them but don't stay there - venture ever deeper into revelation knowledge of God and the Kingdom of Heaven and how it functions. We are called to rule and reign both here in the earthly realm and also in the heavenlies. To do so we must know how the Kingdom of Heaven functions, it's government, protocols and God's ways. There is far more for us to move into than we have known or dreamed, and we have the best teacher of all – Holy Spirit, who will lead us into all truth (John 16:13).

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