“And Jesus increased in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man.”
Luke 2:52 (NIV)
I want to talking with you about God’s revelatory ways and sharing a how-to-hear God guide for everyday life. This is something I wish I had understood 40 or 50 years ago, and I’m excited to share it with you.
The good news is this: you already have a guide. Jesus promised He would not leave us alone. He said He would not produce orphans. And if you know God today, you are not an orphan. You are not forgotten. You are not alone. In Romans 8 (NIV), it tells us, “the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba Father.'”
That is not elitism; it is a pledge given to every believer in Christ Jesus. And the guidebook? You already have one of those, too. It is called the Bible. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus will take the written Word, the logos, and make it into a spoken, living Word, a rhema word, just for you, just for today.
Faith is now. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Now!
God’s Revelatory Ways Begin With Grace
Hebrews 4:16 gives us our opening invitation:
“Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in a time of need.”
Grace is mentioned twice in that one verse alone, and it appears 150 times throughout the New Testament. That is not a coincidence. Grace is the very door through which revelation enters.
Here is how I have come to define it: grace is the supernatural enablement of God to do all that He has called you to do and to be all that He has called you to be. You can never earn it!
All the gifts of the Holy Spirit come by grace. Gifts are freely given. God does not give more because you had a good year or withhold because you had a hard one. Grace supersedes the legalism of the law. Grace gives. God so loved the world that He gave.
When I began to truly understand grace to unwind some of my religious background, I started growing exponentially in giftedness. Grace opens the Word. Grace opens the door to revelation. It is where God’s revelatory ways begin.
Accessed by Faith
Hebrews 11:1 gives us the next key:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
I once heard Derek Prince say something that marked me forever: all progress in the Christian life is by faith. Not just salvation. Not just healing.
Hope comes first. Hope is the positive expectation of good. It is of the mind. Faith then reaches up and finds the substance of what you are hoping for. Faith is from the heart. That distinction matters. Faith is not simply positive thinking, blanking out your circumstances. It is something far deeper. It is anchored in the heart.
We pull from the faithfulness of the past and the hopeful purpose of the future together, and bring it into the heart. It is from that place, we speak. Because you speak out of the abundance of the heart.
Purity Matters
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
This is not about earning your way to revelation. It is about cooperating with God’s revelatory ways. It is like having windshield wipers on your glasses. You are simply cleaning off the viewfinders so you can see clearly.
Psalm 24:3-4 offers the same invitation, “you may ascend into the hill of the Lord if you have clean hands and a pure heart.” I choose to read that not as a condemning checklist, but as a wonderful encouragement and an invitation from God Himself to come up higher into His revelatory ways. The greater the light, the greater the purity required. More light will always reveal old darkness. And that is actually a gift.
Beyond Mechanics, Knowing Him
Daniel 11:32 (ESV) brings it all together:
“The people who know their God will stand firm and take action.”
That is the goal, isn’t it? Not mastering a system. Not perfecting a technique. Knowing Him!
Let me tell you about a young man I recently met in León, Mexico. He was 18 years old and had read ten of my books in Spanish. He had a dream that I came to León and ministered at his father’s church. He had never met me. I had never been to León. I had not been outside the United States in eight years.
But his hunger reached God. His hunger impacted his father. And somehow, his hunger touched me. I went to León and became an answer to his dream. But it was also an answer to mine, because I had been longing to get back into the nations.
That is a part of God’s revelatory ways. The depth of our hunger is the length of our reach to God. And our hunger can affect others.
God works through grace, through faith, through purity, and through the hunger of those who long to know Him. He works through the gifts of the Spirit, words of knowledge, discerning of spirits, the feeler realm, the seer realm. He works through impartation, through faithful association, and through the dreams of an 18-year-old boy in Mexico who simply would not stop reaching.
Are You Hungry for More?
Friend, God’s revelatory ways are many and they are mighty. His Word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path (Psalm 119:105). And He is searching for those who are hungry and ready for more.
I want to encourage you to stir up that hunger and to know Him, His Word, and His ways.
For a resource to help you go deeper, I am drawing this month from my book Praying with God’s Heart: The Power and Purpose of Prophetic Intercession, specifically the chapter on God’s revelatory ways. You can find it at GodEncounters.com, where you will also find study guides and curriculum kits to go along with it.
You can watch the full podcast by clicking on the link above!
God bless you!
James W. Goll
