The Critical Change of Revelation

The critical change of revealing your abundance. Now that’s a mouthful.

In seven days, we have seen such a swing in the temperature! We shouldn’t be surprised as God changed the world in seven days. Things change. Seasons change. Days change. I look at the sequence of events surrounding the passion and I see the heart of a man change between sundown and dawn.

Luk 22:32 But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Luk 22:33 And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death.

Luk 22:34 And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

Was it really in Peter’s heart to deny Jesus, or was he just overcome with a wave of fear? Excuse doesn’t justify what is in our heart – but it explains what is in our heart. From the abundance of the heart, the mouth will open and speak. (Matthew 12:34)

Is it really in our hearts to judge, criticize and speak against one another – or are we having a bad day. After the damage comes the justification. “I only said that because I was frustrated” or “I only lashed out because I am having a bad day.” No. You revealed what is abundant in your heart and excuses try to justify the content.

“I’m sorry” is a lobbyist for removal. “I’m justified” is championing a cause for the retention of sin.

God allows us to be overwhelmed. He allows us to have our backs against the wall. He allows us to be cornered. He allows us to be criticized, ostracized, demeaned and come against.

Not because He doesn’t care… but to compassionately show us what is abundant in our heart. We can hide what is in our heart when everything is going well… when we are in a Sunday service in the eye of the public… when everyone is on our side.

But when we are in critical situations, it is like an olive press – crushing the pit of our being and yielding what manner of oil is within us.

Jesus is so smart. Many times, he won’t come to us and tell us that we have anger in our hearts or jealousy or malice or hatred. If He did, we be all “spiritual Christian” and start rebuking the enemy to cover our tracks.

Instead… He brings us to a boil and we can see for ourselves exactly what is there. It’s right there – in the change. There is something about changes that stress us. But it’s there in the change where we can really see what is being manufactured in the depths of our own heart. Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

I heard the story of the Dutch KLM 4805 airliner that collided with a Pan-Am 1736 jumbo jet in the Canary Islands. One plane had just filled up with jet fuel. The other had begun to taxi and was taking off down the same runway at about 200 mph. A heavy fog bank had covered the airport and nobody could see that both of these jets were on the same runway – coming straight at each other. The KLM pilot tried to take off over the other plane and sliced through the fuselage like a knife through butter, spilling every ounce of its jet fuel all over the lower plane and passengers. When the spark ignited, it instantly sent both planes into two fiery explosions.

They recovered the black box from the KLM cockpit, or what was left of it, and eerily had the last words of the pilot calling upon God to damn the situation as he took 583 lives into eternity with him.

We can fool a lot of people when we are in the public eye. We can portray the picture of perfection Sunday morning. What we can’t do is hide what is inside in the midst of a critical change. We can only pray that God will cause us to see it and will give us enough time and courage to change it.

Those of us who continue to hold on to the things that are killing us from the inside out, no doubt has been warned many times – and have gone through many critical changes without changing our abundance. And usually when we hear the word “abundance” from pulpits, it is with a positive stroke. Be careful of the evil in abundance that we harbor in our everyday lives.

The following scripture chills me to the bone: Pro 29:1 He that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Suddenly be destroyed. That applies to those who have been in the critical changes… often – and have resisted the word to retain the sin. Those who say, “How come I am always going through this – why can’t things ever turn around for me?”

Perhaps it’s a retention of the very thing we need to release to God. The thing we hold on to. The thing that perhaps defines us… brings us security… brings us comfort. Always being able to fall back on blaming and anger and violence to make our flesh feel better when that crushing change comes.

David prayed what we all need to pray: Psa 139:23-24 Search me, O God and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

The refreshing thing is this. If you will look back at Luke 22:32 – Jesus said something about what was going to happen during the change. He said, “I have prayed for thee.” He didn’t say, I am going to pray for you. It was already a done deal. It was done – BEFORE THE CHANGE. In the critical… the path has already been laden with prayer. In the change… someone is watching over you. In the change… Jesus Himself is on your side.

Next time you say, “nobody understands” or “I am all alone in this mess” or “you don’t understand because you are not going through it” or “you don’t know how bad I hurt right now” or “you don’t feel my pain.” Those are lies. Lies from an enemy who wants you to go down in flames in the critical change of revealing your abundance.

Joh 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.