When I think about revelation, I see it like a person learning a second language.
When you first begin learning what the words are in another language, they don’t mean anything to you. They’re just sounds, and ones you’re not familiar with or comfortable pronouncing.
Even after much repetition, having trained ourselves in the correct pronunciation, we might more easily speak/say the words correctly; but those words still may not automatically give us an image in our mind of what they stand for. The words that we would speak are still foreign to us.
It isn’t until you can see the image represented by that word clearly that it becomes natural to you. For example, let’s say you were trying to learn the word for “apple” in French. This is the word “pomme.” When you say the word “pomme” do you see an apple? When you see an apple, do you think “pomme?”
Many of us Christians, just as with a new language have “trained” ourselves to say biblically correct words. We know “we have been healed by the stripes of Jesus; all the promises of God are yes and amen...” Repeating them over and over to the point that we can confess and speak the right things (what God says in His word). However, just like the person who has practiced speaking a foreign language can eventually pronounce the words correctly, this doesn’t automatically mean they have gone down into his heart.
That word we want to become a revelation to us, must be meditated on, spoken, and put into us even beyond memorization and training. It has to literally become a part of our way of thinking. When it is real to you, you will be able to see it the same way you would see an apple if someone said “pomme.” it will become your new default mode and that word will flow out of you effortlessly.
Until that happens, those words might be comfortable to speak, but your heart will still see them as foreign.
How do we receive revelation?
Scripture tells us that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks
What comes out of your mouth the most often is an indication of what is in your heart. It’s only the words you believe in your heart that have the power to work for you. What’s in your heart is the revelation you live by.
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
The Apostle Paul gives us the key to receiving revelation of God’s word.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…”
We need to make the word of God a priority, give time to it, think on it, act on it, over and over until the revelation of it goes beyond our intellect, into our heart and becomes our way of seeing it and speaking.
Just like a person learning a new language, we must have the word of God ingrained in us to the point of overflowing. When the truths of God’s Word are revealed to our hearts, we’ll get revelation.