Winter 1985
With Vision Comes Responsibility:
Revelation Demands Reality
Jim Palumbo
Pinecrest Graduate

What is revelation? Revelation is God’s supernatural disclosure of Himself to His creatures. Since supernatural revelation is God’s method, this indicates that initially the person and nature of God are hidden. And since they are hidden, they are hidden for a reason.

One reason they are hidden is that the person or nature of God is costly and precious. Portions of God are not hastily gained. Therefore revelation and vision carry a price and are not an end in themselves. Instead, the ultimate purpose is to draw man into God, and to burn into him the nature and character of God.

Saul of Tarsus, while on the road to Damascus, received a vision or a revelation of Jesus who spoke to him saying, “I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister, and a witness, both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee . . .” Later, in the book of Acts chapter 26, Paul declared to King Agrippa, “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” One of the things Paul learned was this: With vision comes responsibility, REVELATION DEMANDS REALITY.

In Jesus’ statement to Paul, the key word here is “make.” Paul was not called just to preach sermons, or to parrot things he had or would learn, or to tell everyone what a marvelous vision he had, or even to speak the things that he would comprehend about God and the Scriptures. He was called to “be.” He was called to enter into a state of “being” a minister and a witness. The method by which this was to be accomplished was by being “obedient to the heavenly vision,” or by allowing the revelation to become reality in his life.

Since revelation is God’s disclosure of Himself to His creatures, then we must not allow it to become an end in itself, simply amassing to ourselves great amounts of information about God. Instead, we should allow every increase in vision to bring an increase in stature, and each precious facet of the Lord’s character revealed to us by the Holy Spirit to become substance and reality in our lives.

Peter gives us a simple object lesson on the subject. In the book of Acts Chapter 10, Peter had his well known vision of the great sheet let down form heaven, “Wherein were all manner of four footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, rise, Peter; kill and eat. But Peter said, not so Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, what God hath cleansed, call not thou common.”

Many of the Jewish Christians of that time believed that the Gospel and salvation were for the Jew only and not for the Gentile. Peter being a Jew was of that persuasion. Peter explains the meaning of the vision later saying, “God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.”

That seems simple enough. All men have equal opportunity, non-Jews as well as Jews, one not being lower or more base than another. However, Paul states in Galatians 2:11, “. . . when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.” It seems Peter was having lunch with some Gentiles but when some Jews dropped in, Peter jumped up and pretended not to be eating with them. Peter saw and understood his vision, but it did not become a part of him. We need to let our vision and revelation become more than mere information. We must let it explode into the core of our being and cause a revolution in our being that will make us into men and women who are hungry after God and are dynamically effective in this world.

Why is it that Solomon, with his wealth of understanding, was not labeled like his father, as the friend of God? Solomon did not allow his revelation to transform him into a lover of God.

When the Philistines captured the Ark, those who touched it were not smitten, but when Uzzah, a good man, with good intentions touch it he was struck dead. Why? Because Uzzah knew better, the Philistines did not. Uzzah was held accountable for his understanding.

When I reflect on the revelation and understanding I have about God, I must remember:

With Vision comes Responsibility;
Revelation Demands Reality.