Revelation Moments

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” John 11: 27

Jesus gave Martha one of the greatest revelations in all Scripture…to Martha…practical, distracted, action-minded, whiny Martha. And in a moment of pristine clarity, she saw it and she believed! And all these for our benefit, so today, people around the world who struggle with the same things that Martha struggled with all those years ago, would also clearly see that we too can be used…that the Lord also reveals Himself to us…and that we too can believe.

Martha’s statement of faith and belief in this passage is a far cry from the Martha that demanded Jesus to force Mary out of her sit at His feet and send her to the kitchen to work. This is Martha’s moment of enlightenment. This is Martha’s Holy Spirit-inspired speech. I am willing to bet she didn’t even know where those words came from. I mean, she knows they are God-inspired, and the reason she knows they are is because after she said them, she was probably like: “whoa…who said that?”

I have had moments like that, haven’t you? Moments when you say or do something so out of character, but in a good way, that you surprise yourself. Like when I am patient with my students, I can’t say with my kids, because I never am patient with them…that would be a totally spooky moment…or when I get some insight from Scripture that I never got before…or when I just bite my tongue instead of lashing out (this does not happen very often, so whenever it does, I’m totally blown away!).

I remember very vividly one of those specific instances in which I truly felt almost in a sensory way, the spiritual voice of God speaking to me, revealing His will to me very clearly. I was in my mid-twenties and I had just broken up my engagement to Dan the night before. That very next morning, as I was sitting in traffic on my way to work, thousands of miles away in a whole other country, it happened…it was as if God had removed a veil from my eyes and showed me the truth: I would never, ever see Dan’s face again. That truth punched me right on the gut. Then I felt God shaking me out of the absurdity of my circumstances and telling me: “Don’t throw this relationship away for it is my will!”

That was 23 years ago, almost to the day. Five months later, Dan and I got married.

At any rate, regardless of the significance of the revelation and in spite of our flawed-nature, the Lord is so Merciful and Good that, once in a while, He allows us to have moments of clarity beyond any human explanation. And even if right after that moment, we fall back again on our old ways…each time we have one of them we know we are getting closer to a full awareness of the hand that guides our every step.

Yes, Lord! I Believe!