The Preparation of Revelation

by Lonnie Lane

I used to do a lot of sculpting. It was often living lessons as to how we as believers are the clay on the wheel of the Master Potter. I love the thought of His Hands upon the yielded clay of our hearts, forming us into the image of Yeshua. Some clay is easier to work with than others, it’s more malleable and yielding and can more easily be formed into the shape you want. Other clays are tougher, more resistant, some even brittle. Like with a dried wineskin, sometimes water will help restore that kind of clay, the same way the water of the Word will restore us when we are spiritually dry and brittle. Some clays have impurities in them, making them rough to your hands though they provide a wonderful texture to the clay after it has been fired. When clay that has a lot of impurities is fired in a kiln, the heat causes the impurities, which are actually minute pieces of minerals like tiny rocks or stones, to be burned out of it. The result is that the piece of sculpting shrinks from the size it was to a smaller piece. I once did a head of a woman that was life size when I put her in the kiln, but she was a “shrunken head” when I took her out, almost 2/3 the size. When I have read verses about the Potter and the clay, for instance, “O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8), I can’t help but make the analogies that we have impurities in us that get burned away in the heat of various situations in our lives. If our heads were too big for our own good (a metaphor for pride), the heat of circumstances and pressures may cause someone “not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think” (Romans 12:3). When we “take the heat” and allow God to remove those impurities from our lives, we will be left with a unique “texture” to our lives that causes others to be drawn to Him through us.

Of all the characters in the Tenach (Old Testament) King David seems to be the one who has the most “texture” to his life. There’s more written about David than anyone else. And did he ever go through the pressure of difficult circumstances. If you haven’t read through David’s life recently, take a read through 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 Kings. He is not only a type of the Messiah to come, but he is a faithful follower of God. He somehow seems to know things about God that only born-again believers could know by the Holy Spirit many years later. He is the quintessential believer in the Lord. But boy, did he have his set of troubles. It’s what he became through them that made him the man of God that brings us insight into the Lord’s ways today.

As we know, Saul was Israel’s first king but he forfeited his anointing as king when he disobeyed God’s precepts and God removed the anointing from him. Then God had Samuel anoint David as king instead though it was many years before he occupied the title of king. As I see it, Saul came into his kingship, having been chosen by God, able to lead with all the rights and powers needed to be king, not because he was strong and wise but because God was with him. God’s favor will go a lot further than our best abilities. He was told by the prophet Samuel after he disobeyed God that God had taken the kingship from him. But he held on to it and in fact, because of his own jealousy and determination to remain king, he began to think of the kingdom as his own, not God’s. He forgot how he got there and he disregarded the fact that God had impeached him and remained in office ignoring that he was no longer under the favor of God to be king. All that time, he was pursuing David, trying to take his life, in order to hold onto his crown.

But how did David handle it? He allowed God to use the situations in his own heart to make a man of God out of him. Without going into it – you can do that yourself when you read about David – in each situation David grew in character and integrity. When he could have taken revenge, he instead feared to violate the anointing God had once placed upon Saul. He seemed to know about sowing and reaping, in that he didn’t want to do anything to Saul he wouldn’t want to reap in his own kingship later. But moreso, He came to depend on God to keep His promises to make him King and to be his “strong tower” (Prov. 18:10) and to protect not only him but the men who were with him. He maintained his integrity before the Lord and never responded in kind to Saul, nor did he attempt to place himself in the office of king. He left that up to God to do when God put all the circumstances in place. There is certainly a lesson to learn in that. I believe David was operating under the anointing of king long before he had the title of king. He slew Goliath with a supreme concern for the honor of the armies of God; he led the armies of Israel as a consummate warrior in battles; and he exhibited tremendous leadership abilities in turning the 400, then 600 men who came to him in desperation for their own lives into the mighty men of valor who later stood by him as king. David was not ambitious, but he was fully obedient to God, reliant upon God, and gave honor to God in fulfilling the call upon his life. When troubled he poured out his heart to God with his harp, when victory came he gave all the glory to God, and when he saw his own sin, he didn’t abdicate responsibility for it, he owned it and repented for it.

David determined that he would respond to the situations in his life with character and dignity and faithfulness to God which has inspired millions since. But he could not possibly have known that in his pouring out his heart to God when he was fearful, dejected, hopeless and in despair and turned to God for His help that he was helping others like us, 3000 years later and across the world. He couldn’t even have imagined it, especially that he would still have impact outside of Israel on so many even that many years later – three millennia! He couldn’t have known when those circumstances were going on in his life, that as he chose to be trustworthy of the power God would give him, that God was honing his thinking to be the model mindset for a Kingdom far greater than the kingdom of Israel. He could not have known that he would become the man with whom God would identify Messiah as King of all kings.

I was thinking about this while driving the other day when this occurred to me. I said to the Lord, “David had no idea what you were making of his life that affected so many for You.” I then heard the Lord say to me, “And you have no idea what I am making of your life that will affect many for Me.” I took that “you” to be plural, so that means you too. We, each of us, is being made into Yeshua’s image. We will be conformed to the image of God’s beloved Son, and will one day stand before Him “blameless with great joy” (Jude 1:24), purified – that is without impurities – having been entirely malleable to the touch of the Hand of the Master.

So how do we cooperate with God in this process? The more the impurities in the clay, the greater the heat must be applied. I’m for less impurities now and therefore less heat to endure. But heat must come for some. Some of my very favorite verses are about the end times. They are like a beacon of light, as a light house in a storm on the seas of difficult circumstances: “Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many…. Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 11:33; 12:3). Insight makes the difference. Insight is equal to awareness, wisdom, sensitivity, intuitiveness, intuition, understanding, perception, discernment, or ken. The end time people who will be able to impact many for God will be those who know God and His ways in such a way so that they are aware and sensitive to intuitively discern what God is saying in each given situation, and to perceive what God would have them do or say. You can only give understanding to others if you have insight yourself. This kind of insight can only be gained through revelation of the Lord and His ways.

I wish those end time verses in Daniel didn’t include this one: “Some of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge and make them pure until the end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time” (11:35). It would seem that even if we have insight into God and His ways, if we have impurities in our hearts, and have not allowed God to purge them from us, He will be faithful to see that we are purified out of His love for us, in order that we may enter His presence. But the purification may come in ways we’d rather it didn’t. So what to do? How can we have insight now to prepare ourselves to receive the revelation that will make us entirely His? Like David, when we go through circumstances and hard times, let’s learn from the king of Israel, the man whom God said was “after His own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14) and allow God to purify our hearts as well. How do we do that? When we face difficulties determine that you will yield to God and allow Him to bring the best out of you. It’s been said that pressure will reveal what the person is really made of. Yeshua revealed His perfect sinless heart under the utmost pressure. David revealed his heart of yieldedness to God. Can we take a stand against the enemy? Certainly when it’s called for. That’s part of our inheritance as believers. David fought God’s enemies, not his own enemies. Neither was he defensive, vindictive, self-justifying, or self-promoting. He let God take care of those battles for him. We must remain malleable clay in His hand while He removes the impurities to make us vessels fit for His honor.

In order to do this we must do it by faith in the grace that God has given to us. We cannot in our own strength. But happily, “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). God has fully provided all we need for “everything”! How many times we go through things and can’t wait till they’re over and then go back to the same level of faith we had before the thing started, missing the opportunity to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior” (2 Peter 3:18). What if you come to God in your challenges and ask Him to show you how He went through a similar trial since He’s gone through things as we do. We can come to Him, “for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. (Heb 4:15), and how, “although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb 5:8). We’re talking God here! He went through these things as a man. This never ceases to be awe-inspiring to me. You too? We can, by the power of the Spirit, turn our focus from our situation to receiving revelation from Him about His situations. Learn of Him! It will change you. He will change you as you receive revelation of His character and nature, of His holiness and yieldedness to God. He will be formed in you as you choose to respond as He would have, and not react in the flesh. To do that, most of us must know Him in a greater depth than we presently do. God seems to be issuing us an invitation to come to Him for just that – sweet and powerful revelation of Him!

As I was meditating about David and his relationship with the Lord, the Lord spoke to me as I was journaling. I believe He would have me share these words with you. So look over my shoulder here, and read my journal entry and what I felt the Lord was saying to me:

“Yeshua is Lord. He is always the Commander of the armies of heaven. He says go and they go, come and they come. But My people often say, “Let me pray about that.” “Let me see if that is God,” when what they are saying is, “Do I really want to do that?” Yeshua didn’t want to go to the Cross. The Blood He sweated proved the internal struggle He went through for reasons you cannot imagine. He knew how evil evil is and He hated it with all His being – His perfect, sinless being. To have it take over His very being was a horror beyond what fallen man can fathom. But He knew the only way to put an end to evil over mankind was to obey God, for it is disobedience that fosters evil and causes it to increase with every disobedience and rebellion against God. The Cross was the ultimate trust – trust that His Father would not allow Him to experience corruption. He had to trust that the Word is true and that God would be faithful to bring Him out of the depths of evil and the separation from God that evil brings. As a Man who had to experience what we do in our sinful state, He had to question whether the Word would prove true for Him in the face of dire consequences. I suggest you may want to take the questions God posed to me and journal each one, with an open Bible. There’s enough here to make it a study for a while. Note: the words in parenthesis are my later additions. If you don’t journal you may wish to watch Sid’s show with Mark Virkler.

“How does seeing into Yeshua’s experience equip God’s end time people so that you might be changed to be equal in trust in the face of so great a trial, or a lesser one? It is revelation of God and of Yeshua by the Spirit of Truth that will bring about the change that only God can bring. There has been more focus on your lives than on Yeshua’s life. There has been great seeking for how to live better, fuller, more blessed, more prosperous lives in the natural. This has been the season for those things. The church did not know for many centuries how to believe God for them. But now for those with ears to hear and eyes to see what the Spirit is doing, here is what I would say to My people, My ecclesia, My called out ones. I have some questions for you to consider: What are you called out from? What are you called out to? Does not My Word say to “consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble” (1 Cor 1:26), meaning in the world’s ways. What is your quest? Where is your treasure? In heaven or on earth? (That is not a perfunctory question when coming from God. I believe He would really have us look into our hearts to answer this honestly. A mixture is likely.) If you will each come to Me, I will show you your hearts, not to put blame or shame on you – that is not My way, though many have thought so. But in order that I may separate you from the lies that bind you and the world system to the evil one.

“Yeshua had no sin, but He faced sin, trusting in God to conquer the sin on your behalf. In order to see My goodness and to be expressions of My goodness, I must make you persons of My goodness. You cannot squeeze yourself into the shape of goodness any more than you can work yourself into peace. But come to me. If you want My rest when the world around you is not at rest, come to Me. (See Matthew 11:28.) Come not with your agendas and concerns. Come and open your heart to Me as David did. Quiet yourselves before Me. (See Psalm 4:4.) Come and begin to thank Me for all the goodness in your lives, but kept your focus on Me, not on the manifestations. Seek to know My heart for you, My desire is to purify you, to make you so secure in Me that fear and oppression cannot get to you. (See Isaiah 54:14). Find out what this really means: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. ” (John 14:27) Yeshua left you His peace knowing what you would go through in life in this world. What do you really know experientially of His peace? Is it yours? Let Me give you revelation of His peace in His time that it might be yours in your time.

“I tell you, nothing but the Blood of Jesus can make you white as snow. What does the Blood of Jesus mean to you? Open My word from the beginning and see what it says about blood cleansing from sin. If you have been cleansed of sin, what is your perception of the affect of sin upon your life? Though I have cleansed you by the Blood of Yeshua does sin still separate you from Me? Who will you believe, the devil or Me? Why are there areas in your life you hide from Me? Where is there separation between us (and what is the cause of it)? These are areas of distrust which lead to disobedience, and will not/cannot bear righteous fruit. It is not that you intentionally hide from Me, but you hide from yourselves those areas that frighten you, that bring you pain, shame or blame. I want to free you from those things – they are the residue of evil that seeks to cling to you, to weigh you down so you cannot soar with Me, so that My joy won’t be your strength, so that you don’t rejoice in the truth of your salvation.

So here is the major question for you to ponder in My presence so we can dialog about it together, you and Me: What does it mean to you to be a child of God? The whole universe is waiting with groaning for the manifestation of the children of God (See Romans 8:9). All the other questions fit into one paradigm – that of what it means to be a child of God, to have God as your Father. Yeshua’s primary identity was not as Messiah or even as Savior. It was as Son to His Father. Many relate to Yeshua as Lord and so He is. But He came that you might come to know the Father. He died that all barriers to the Father through sin would be broken down and destroyed. You have been set free from sin and condemnation. God has provided a great salvation that we might not fear but trust Him as we allow Him to reveal Himself to us as He did to David, even when David was no more than a young boy out under the stars alone with God and his sheep. It was his quest to know God, as he made God his constant companion, singing to Him, listening in his heart to God, the revelation came to him that eventually made him king of Israel. It is the revelation of God that prepared him. What great things will God do in your life with the revelation He will give you of Himself. Now is the time for preparation for the days ahead. Now is the time for the preparation of revelation.

Reprint of this article is permitted as long as you use the following; Use by permission by Messianic Vision, www.sidroth.org, 2010.

Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible Copyright ©1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.  All rights reserved. Used by permission.