Ephesians 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Revelation is the disclosure of an unknown truth. It is an eye-opening experience. In life, the revelation you have about something or someone determines your behavior towards that person or thing. Based on this statement, your revelation of God determines the kind of relationship you have with Him. The Apostle Paul was praying for a revelation for the believers. Note that he said: of revelation in the knowledge of Him. So there must be a revelation inside the knowledge you have. Knowledge and revelation are two different things. You may have information about God, but not revelation. Information is based on the head while revelation happens in the spirit, or the heart.

Every believer must have a personal revelation of God for themselves. Many people deal with God based on what their Pastor is saying, which is not a bad thing, but it’s about time you relate with God based on a personal conviction. So after gathering information from the Word, people who teach the Word, books, etc., it is vital to come to the place of revelation. Anytime you have a revelation, it’s easy to put the Word to work.

Knowledge is not enough so a revelation gives you a reason to do something. Serving God with revelation produces a firm foundation so when things do not go the way you want, you’re still at peace. People may say what they want but if what you do is based on revelation, you are not bothered. If you are serving God without a personal conviction, the least thing puts you off. When you lack revelation, you miss out on what God has for you in your relationship with Him. Ephesians 4:18. Being darkened to their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.

God would not force Himself on anyone. He would only reveal Himself to those who truly desire an encounter. Those who desire this encounter, seek God. God would not reveal mysteries to just anyone. No pearls before swine as in Matthew 7:6. In Luke 10:21, Jesus said He was glad that God hid these things from the wise and intelligent but revealed them to infants. This means intelligence and wisdom are of different types. If he is hiding it from the intelligent, it means revelation is not the world’s kind of wisdom.

Your intelligence in the area of academics is not a determinant of the revelation you have of God. Both require different things. Infants are symbolic of willingness and availability. Those that are willing and obedient would eat the good of the land. Job made a statement after his ordeal in Job 42:5. “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eyes have seen God.” Many of us have heard from people who God is but we need to get to that place where we see Him for ourselves.

In spite of the fact that Job was an upright man in Chapter 1, he didn’t have a personal revelation about God. You may be in church for years without a revelation of God. You could be morally upright without a revelation of who God is. Job was all that and gave sacrifices frequently not because He had a revelation of God but out of fear of what could happen to His children as a result of their sin.

Experiences and encounters with God deepen our roots in the faith. You can actually get to the point where no one can convince you that there is no God because you have had personal experiences with Him that prove He is real. Revelation and faith have a direct relationship. The deeper your revelation of Him, the stronger your faith. Faith is shown in our actions because faith without works is dead. But before we can do those works, a personal revelation is needed.

If your perception of God is flawed, your worship of Him would also be flawed.

So when Hebrews 11:6 says without faith it is impossible to please God, a revelation of who God is will unravel what His will is, and based on that illumination, you know what to do to please Him.

Remember that revelation is heart knowledge rather than head knowledge and as a result, you can’t just speak anyhow and expect results. Many people make confessions of faith based on the information in their heads. Rather, the Word of God in your spirit, which is the revelation you have, when spoken, is backed by the power of God and you see results.

For instance, there was a time I struggled with colds very often and I used to pray and nothing happened. Nothing happened because I was just speaking from an empty spirit – a spirit devoid of a revelation of God’s Word on healing. I could quote a verse of scripture on healing because it was in my head but it hadn’t yet entered my spirit. Just recently, I realized that for over two years now, the people I live with had contracted cold and gotten better, contracted it over and over several times, but amazingly, I never caught a cold. And I remembered how I saw Romans 8:11 from a healing perspective even though it wasn’t a scripture directly on healing. That revelation from that verse now made every confession I made against the cold very powerful.

The opening scripture is a key verse that can be used to pray. That God would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. That we’d not just know Him on the surface but go deeper so that we can’t be tossed to and fro by any wind of doctrine.

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