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Christian Network

"In all spiritual progress there is the inevitable lag between revelation and realization, between acknowledging truth and applying it". -Don Basham

There is a tendency for evangelical believers to expect that a powerful revelatory experience should, in and of itself, immediately change us in the radical way that the revelation implies. This is rarely the case. Christians have a sometimes-unfortunate fondness for describing their walk through the use of clichés. One of the more frequently used catchphrases is having a "life-changing experience". Perhaps we read a book or hear a sermon that opens our eyes to a great truth about God and ourselves. There is potency in the opening of our spiritual eyes and we immediately perceive that the new knowledge will be a harbinger of change in our lives. Up to this point everything is as it should be.

Unfortunately the modern human tendency to expect that every good thing should become ours’ instantaneously can short-circuit the process that must now be gone through in order to fully apply the new truth in our lives. Saul received a surpassing revelation of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. However he did not then get up off the ground, re-mount his horse, and ride off that same day as the Apostle Paul we read of in the Epistles. Paul spent years learning more of Jesus and of the mission the Son of Man would entrust him with. Only then was he ready to fully embody the truth of that day of reckoning in the desert in a way that fully transformed his life.

Truly "life-changing experiences" are a wonderful thing and are, I believe, a normative part of the Christian walk. While God perhaps more often gives us a little truth at a time over a long period He does also sometimes chooses to reveal Himself in a profoundly powerful way in a moment. How we react to such moments when they happen will determine whether they actually become "life-changing" over the long haul.

So how then should a Christian who has just been given an unexpected, and never before experienced, insight into some sublime truth about the Kingdom react? Certainly a prayer of thanksgiving would be appropriate for starters! But the prayer might not end there. We might also pray that our Lord would place that truth deep in our hearts and minds so that we will not lose what we have learned. Then it might be profitable to further ask Him to help us consistently meditate on the revelation. Finally we can pray that, over time, the Spirit would guide us into situations where we might "live out of" our new truth. The thing we have learned will then truly change our lives in such a way that we become more whom God intends us to be, more like Jesus.

Indeed there is a "lag between revelation and realization". Once we know this to be true we will be able to avoid the spiritual letdown inherent in wanting too much change from new truth, too soon. As in so many other aspects of the life of a believer we will come to know that, while God’s timing is not our timing, His timing is perfect.