Tuesday, July 22, 2008

My First Revelation in Years

There is something interesting and amazing going on. I believe I had my first revelation in years about something.

This weekend, my mentor used this phrase again:
“People are always trying to get a revelation to be able to explain it, or teach it, or communicate it. Instead, they should be pursuing it to walk in it.”

Now, there are years behind my little revelation here, and it will sound too simple in writing, because I cannot explain it, teach it, or communicate it.

To better explain it, my mentor began teaching on grace (eternal security, unmerited favor of God) about 5 or 6 years ago. We closed the church after preaching for a year. He continued to work on it. Slowly, God showed him about ‘receiving,’ and at this point it is ‘the now anointing.’

I have been working through how to understand what my mentor means by “now.” I mean, I KNOW what he means when he says that ‘God has already paid the price for every good and perfect gift (grace), we just need to receive it (receiving) now! (the now anointing.)’

I KNOW what he is saying logically, but I have spent so much time trying to explain it that I have overlooked flowing in a spirit of receiving all that Christ has paid for NOW in my life.

We rarely look and spend any time on focusing on aligning our mind and spirit with receiving those things. We settle for being able to explain it. We rarely see it manifested.

For example, if the Word says that God teaches us to prosper and adds no sorrow to it, then why do people not see themselves knowing how to prosper? Of, if they do prosper, why are they usually so full of sorrow, confusion and regret? If the Word says that by His stripes we were healed, why do Christians walk around unhealthy, handicapped, and sick? If the Bible promises that we are now living in the spirit, that we have been set free from the bondages of this world, that we should give on every occasion, that we will be lenders and not borrowers, that if we ask we shall receive, that we are to be Christ’s example here in the earth THEN WHY AREN’T MOST CHRISTIANS WALKING IN IT? Why am I NOT WALKING IN IT?

So, I stop and realize that I have a mental understanding of these things, but I have not aligned my faith for them. I mean, seriously, it means one of two things. A) God is not real or B) I lack faith on these things. (I know that there is a lot of underlying theology here. I assume you can work through some of that yourself. a] the bible is the inerrant word of God. b] you have already tried to live out the Christian life and have messed up as much as I had. etc.)

The Grace Teaching helps us to realize that everything Christ promises we do not have to strive for. It is given to us, free of charge to us. Christ paid the price. If that is true, then every good thing in the word should be mine. But there is a breakdown somewhere. People have not received. I have not received.

So, the Receiving Teaching comes along and says that we do not have to DO anything to receive. We just need to know how to receive. For mental, rational people like me, this has been difficult. What got in my way was trying to understand. To communicate to people what my revelation was, my “click over” if you will, I say it like this.

I asked myself why I was trying to understand it.
Well, I responded, I guess so I can explain it.
Why am I trying to explain it? Who am I explaining it to?
I guess so I can help other people understand it.
Understand what?
My revelation on Grace, Receiving, and finally flowing in the miraculous Christ says He died for.
Is that a revelation for you? Is that manifesting in your life?
Well, uh, no.

And my mind clicked over and I thought, I need to stop trying to understand it. I need to focus on believing it.

I believe that the Receiving Teaching is nothing more than a teaching on BELIEVING in what Christ has said about us. We know it. We do not believe it yet. If we did, we would be manifesting it.

This weekend, getting this “click over”, was more of a revelation. I have stopped trying to understand, and just started to receive it.

And I fully believe the teaching my mentor gave on praying in tongues helped me get here. A short time ago, he began teaching that praying in tongues is the key to living the Christian life that Christ taught about. He believes that “it is the perfect being praying the perfect will in the perfect timing for our lives.” Romans 8:26-28.

Eliminating English from my prayers and only praying in tongues has had the following effect on my life. It has disengaged my mind from the process. I have stopped trying to understand anything. When someone asks me what I think, I find that my mind is pretty much empty for the first time in my entire life.

As a thinker, I am usually aggressively pondering things and trying to explain them and understand them. After praying in tongues a little bit (half hour up to an hour a day concentrated), I found that my thoughts were not formulating any real ideas. I felt boring in that I did not have anything interesting to say. As all of my friends in Lakeland here are building businesses and planning and moving their life forward, I find that I have put down my plans for tomorrow.

I am yielding my plans. I am yielding my ideas of what should be and what shouldn’t be. More and more, as I pray in tongues, I begin to truly zero-base my thoughts, beliefs and emotions. I become more and more a mental blank slate. I am not trying to be able to explain it. I am not trying to build my own life.

Praying in tongues is yielding our mind, and that is the first step to yielding our lives.

That being said, I feel that this weekend I have my first real thought in some time. This mental click-over with being able to receive was, I believe, my first thought derived from emptying my mind from praying in tongues.

That all being said, lets put this together now.

I believe that I have finally had a revelation about Grace for the first time in 5-6 years. I believe that I have a first sliver of revelation about what it is to first receive the grace of God, receive the zoe life, the life eternal. I believe I am gaining a revelation on the power of tongues.

Instead of trying to first understand and then get blessed, I am simply yielding, receiving, believing God will fulfill His work of grace in me, and then, maybe if I am lucky, will I understand it.