Heart Tracks - Revealer Of Mysteries

      I recently heard Beth Moore tell the story of game she plays with her grandchildren whenever they come to visit.  In her home she keeps what she calls a "secret closet."  In it, she has crammed a wide variety of things she knows they would love to have.  When they come, she has them stand at a distance while she looks into the open closet.  She can see the contents, but they can't.  As she looks in, she makes various expressions of joy, adding to the excitement of the children as to just what she will bring out.  She even takes hold of an object and quickly flashes it before them, though so quickly they can't really see what it is.  She never rushes this time, and the children never know just what it is she will eventually bring out, but the one thing they do know is that whatever she does bring out, will be good.  She told this story as an illustration of God's ways with us.

    Throughout the Word, the Father and His ways are described to us as a mystery, yet it is a mystery that He longs to have revealed to us.  In Daniel 2:29 He is called "the revealer of mysteries."  The apostle Paul sought the prayers of the church that he, "might make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel," through his preaching and writing.  Jesus Himself told His followers in Luke 8:10, "To you has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God."  The mystery to be revealed, both directly and indirectly, is knowledge of Himself.  This knowledge cannot be attained through rational thought, or logic, or intellect, but only through revelation of Himself through His Holy Spirit.  Not information, but revelation, and this comes only through intimacy with Him through His Word, through prayer and meditating on both His Word, and upon His nature.  As we focus upon Him, He draws us to Himself, and as He does, we discover more and more who He is.  He is a mystery that will unfold Himself throughout eternity, but we don't have to wait for some distant time for it to take place.  His Word says He placed eternity in our hearts.  Eternity begins now.  Has it begun for you and I?
     One of the things I do in my prayer time is to ask Him to bring me ever deeper into the knowledge of who He is.  His Word tells us that He is Savior, Deliverer, Healer, Source, Shepherd, Peace, and the Bread and Living Water of life, among many other characteristics.  I can write these all down.  I can look up verses in scripture that tell me He is so.  I can memorize these traits, and list them to someone who inquires of them, but I cannot know Him in any sense of these characteristics apart from His giving me intimate, experiential, revelations of Himself in any and all of them.  Simply, I don't want to just know Him as a provider, but to know Him AS Provider, as Healer, as Peace.  I know Him as such because I've experienced Him as such, and so, when the world around me is shaken to its very foundations, as it surely will be, I can live in His peace, because I know Him as Peace.  That way, in the chaos of life, I may not know what is going to happen, but I know Him in whatever happens.  Like Moore's grandchildren, I can know that whatever He gives of Himself to me, will be good.  It cannot be anything else but.

    Again, Jesus said to those who will follow Him, that it has been given us to know the mysteries of the Kingdom.  It has been given, now, for you and I, has it been received?  Can we make up long lists about Him, but know so little of Him?  The passion of Paul's heart was to know Christ.  Not win the world, not build the church, but to know Him, to enter into the mystery that is Him, the revealer of mysteries, and know Him.  Will it be so of you and I?

Blessings,

Pastor O