"Let me tell you, my friends, that the gospel I preach is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any human being, nor did anyone teach it to me. It was Jesus Christ himself who revealed it to me... Fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went because God revealed to me that I should go... God revealed his secret plan and made it known to me. {I have written briefly about this, ..." (Gal.1:11,12; 2:1,2a; Eph.3:3 - Good News Bible - Emphasis Mine)
It can be all too easy to 'read over the top' of verses, like the ones above, without truly appreciating the implication of the writer's experience. Western culture tends to be skeptical, and sometimes even cynical, when it comes to the paranormal. In centuries past, the Church classified people, who claimed experiences like those above, as 'mystics'. Labels of this sort have the effect of intimidating anyone who might be considering that such experiences are possible and desirable, thus 'dampening' their motivation to prepare themselves, mentally and spiritually, to enter into a revelatory encounter with God.
The Greek word translated as 'revealed', is 'apokalupsis', and is used eighteen times in the New Testament by Paul, Peter, John, and Luke. From the import of their writings, it is clear that without 'apokalupsis', there would be no New Testament, no relationship with God, nor even salvation, itself. Thayer's Greek New Testament Lexicon defines this word as: "laying bare, making naked; a disclosure of truth, instruction concerning things before unknown . . ."
For the 21st Century believer, it should be obvious that what our culture calls 'paranormal', the Bible considers a 'normal' life style for its adherents. Or, stated another way, the Christian experience is only possible through revelatory experiences. Consider, again, the apostle Paul's statement above. In essence, he is saying that everything he wrote, that we now refer to as the epistles of Paul, was revealed to him by Jesus Christ. He didn't learn it in the rabbinical schools, or through any other human agency! Without 'apokalupsis', Paul would not have had any contribution to the content of the New Testament, let alone a relationship with his Creator.
We are contemplating the third step in the discipline of receiving revelation, which is 'appropriation'. By definition, it means "to be set apart, to authorize, to take possession of". The function of the first two steps (acquisition and assimilation), is to bring us to a spiritual conditioning where we can be 'appropriated' by Jesus through the agency of the Holy Spirit. That last phrase may sound foreign to the Bible student, until you consider that the words 'holy', 'saint', and 'sanctify', come from the same Greek root, which means 'to set apart for a special purpose'. Consequently, from a Biblical perspective, there is a presumption that believers are to be experiencing an ongoing appropriation, by the Holy Spirit's activity, in order to fulfill God's plan and will for one's life.
The dynamic of the above paragraph was graphically portrayed through the life of Jesus, while on earth. He came to fulfill the will of His Father, which He totally succeeded in doing, by being able to both 'see' and 'hear' what the will of God was for His life (Jn.5:19,30). The question that begs an answer is, "How was He able to 'see' and 'hear' God?" Since He had 'stripped Himself' of the prerogatives of Deity, as the Son of Man (Phil.2:6-8), limiting His capacity of communing with God to that of all human beings, Jesus could have only been able to understand His Father's will through revelatory insight - 'apokalupsis'.
At some point, during the practice of 'assimilating' those things which have been 'acquired', the Holy Spirit desires to 'lay bear that which was previously hidden to you, and disclose Truth' into your inner man, for the purpose of 'appropriating' you to His will. Some segments within the Christian community refer to this as 'receiving a rhema word' from God (Rom.10:17). This impartation of 'apokalupsis' can happen through a variety of ways, such as dreams, visions, trances, or simply a perceiving within one's spirit. How this happens is not what's important here, but the communication of the Father's heart with that of one of His beloved children. Encounters, such as these, tend to validate the disciple's spiritual birthright in ways that, otherwise, could not be appreciated.
The Christian experience has always been about a vibrant, ever-increasing relationship with a Creator who is passionate about lovingly, fathering His children. Regrettably, a large percentage of Christendom, like Cain of old, has set this aside, in favor of 'growing' its own list of do's and don'ts, laws and regulations, to perpetuate the never ending duty of trying to please a perceived 'austere' God. However, the 'Lover of our soul' only desires that we learn how to 'encounter' Him as such - a Lover. John 4:24 declares, "God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration." (The Message)
Practicing the steps in 'the discipline of receiving revelation', will eventually condition one's being to becoming more and more perceptive to that realm where God's voice is perceived and understood. The last and final step, in this discipline, is 'application'.
