A Revelation of Excellence

by C. H. Fisher

Then the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation. (1 Sam 3:1 NKJV) 

Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law. (Prov 29:18 NKJV)

It wasn't that there was no revelation at all in Samuel’s time, for the false prophets and the seers had always been at work in Israel . They would get even more active when there was no competition from a prophet of God.  Each time God would send a man who would proclaim His word, and the false prophets and seers despised him.  The truth is that there was no widespread revelation and God's prophetic word was rare.

Samuel was a young man who had a revelation from God during a spiritual draught.  It is important to note that a revelation doesn’t always come by a powerful vision, but also by a powerful word from God.  It was a time when Israel needed a vision.  Eli, the High Priest, was corrupt and weak.  He allowed his sons to commit unspeakable atrocities at the entrance of the Tabernacle.  Even though God warned Eli, he was so seeped in complacency he didn't seem to care.

It was during this time that Samuel was born in answer to the passionate prayer of his mother Hannah.  He was not born into the Priesthood for his father was an Ephraimite instead of a Levite.  Yet he began ministering before the Lord at a very early age.  He wore a small linen ephod and a robe his mother made him.

His mother vowed to the Lord that her son would live the vow of a Nazarite if God would give her a son.  No razor would come upon his head and he would drink no intoxicating beverages, for he would be given to the Lord all the days of his life.

So here was Samuel, a young man, not of the Levitical Priesthood by birth, and God chooses to give the revelation to him.  Not only was it a rare revelation, but one that condemned the High Priest, Eli's, leadership with judgment and prophetic warning.  Eli would never atone for this sin and the sins of his sons and thus avert disaster.

Instead of Samuel being cast aside with scorn or rejected by Eli's sons in jealousy, they left him alone.  He began to grow and speak God's word in prophetic utterances that came to pass. .  He was established as a prophet in Israel and God sent him more visions. 

Israel was used to the goodness of God, His protection and the respect of the nations about them.  The sons of Eli were so filled with apathy that they even tried to use the ark as a magic charm against the Philistines.  Samuels’s prophecy came to pass and Eli's evil sons were killed in battle.  When Eli heard the news he fell over backward from his seat and broke his neck.  Thus Samuel was made judge and the leader of all Israel , fulfilling the revelation of excellence.

Our world today is not unlike the world of Samuel's time.  Even though we live in a blessed nation, wickedness abounds in every area of life.  Outside of the Church there is an epidemic of wickedness that is driving people to commit such evil that our minds can hardly comprehend it. 

God said this time would come. The following scriptures depict how evil that it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

...But as the days of Noah were so, also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Matt. 24:37 (NKJV)

...Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.  So the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." Gen. 6:5-7 (NKJV)

 ...Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot:  They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Luke 17:28-30 (NKJV)

Not only is the wickedness great outside of the Church, but it is great inside of professing Christianity.  We are at the point in history we need to recognize what has happened to us and expropriate the great power and ability that God gave us.  Like Israel , Christians today for the most part have let it slip away.  Now there are few revelations from God, yet there are many more revelations that are sent by lying spirits. It is a time of great apostasy that will provide an easy entrance by the Antichrist into this world system.  We need people who will dare to pray for a revelation from God to their souls.  The end-times flood of wickedness involves the merging together of the secular and religious worlds in an unholy marriage of pleasure and convenience.

....But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.  And from such turn away. 2 Tim. 3:1-9 (NKJV)

For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

What can such a revelation of from God do for us?   It will give us heavenly purpose for our earthly existence. For many today, they have no idea of their heavenly purpose.  If they did, they would be trying to get as much of God's great power and ability in them as possible.  If there is no heavenly purpose, we will become as men of God prophesied about the last-days professing Christian—having a form of godliness and denying the power.  We should think about that scripture and get the depth of its meaning. It is a one sentence description of the last-days religious crowd.

(2 Tim 3:5 NKJV)  having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

We need a vision of what we are supposed to be.  We are to be engaged in a battle and must be spiritual warriors.  Satan is determined to run us out of town, or to stop our effectiveness for God—to make us believe that our primary goal is to look good on Sunday.  We need to look good in battle.  Therefore, we should put on the whole armor of God.  People don't put on amour unless they have the purpose of war.  There is no need to pray, fast, draw near to God, feast on the word, if we do not have a purpose.  If all Christianity means to us is Church attendance, then there is no need to concern ourselves with 99% of the scriptures.  If our goal is simply trying to escape hell, our Bible could be reduced to one verse, John 3:16.  If our only goal and measure of success is making it through another day, then we do not need but this one scripture.  

24 This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. Ps 118:24 (NKJV)

I've heard it again and again during my years of ministry, "God has not called me yet."  If one have been saved at least two years, and still say that God has not called him or her yet, they have just informed me that they are either procrastinating or not listening.  

Our minds are inundated by worldly reasons for godly living, which is oxymoronic.  There used to be a commercial that presented the theme; "Get all the gusto you can out of life."  That seems to be the world and professing Christian’s motto.  We would be dumbfounded if someone were to tell us we believed in the atheistic philosophy, "Eat, drink, and be merry; for tomorrow you may die."  Yet that is exactly what this world system is teaching us to live by.  It has happened and is still happening by small increments.  Bit by bit our minds are being drawn into the secular philosophy and our spirits are being snared by temporalness and subsequent weakness.  

The Playboy philosophy has totally dominated the last several generations of young men infiltrating their minds with a lust-based concept of love, life, and women.  The Playgirl

Philosophy has prevailed and dominated the minds of the young women who have been programmed to believe that their only asset is sexiness.  It is a philosophy that smacks of unfettered satanic influence.   

I will say to every young man today; if your idea of the ideal woman is a sexy girl who has all the curves and the empty head to go with them, you are marrying the Playboy philosophy.  The end result will be a life of misery, probably a divorce, and another generation of children with shattered lives.  More young boys and girls will grow up without adequate fathers or mothers, and the next generation that is brought into this world will believe that life is a confused world without purpose and meaning.  The only thing that makes sense to some young people today is lust, drugs, and pleasure.  They learned it from their parents.  

I will say to every young girl today; if your idea of the right guy is a man who only wants you for pleasure, then you are convincing yourself to marry a bum and a vow-breaker.  I have fished long enough to know that certain bait catches certain fish and some bait might catch anything.  A girl that dresses like a prostitute will catch a man who wants to marry a prostitute.  If you want a man who desires a prostitute for a wife, then you want a man who doesn’t think of you as a person, but a possession.  Not only will you be a possession, but you will eventually be traded in for the newer model.  There are plenty of prostitute-minded women that are willing to take over such a position, but a true woman of God has no rivals.   

...Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 2:8 (NKJV)

Satan's philosophy closely mirrors his historically wicked actions on this planet.  He has known that all he will ever get in the way of honor must come from the earth.  He also knows that he is confined to one purpose in life and that is to tempt mankind.  Once God sets up His eternal kingdom, Satan will be cast into hell.  

How would you like to have a psychopath for a friend, who has a passion to destroy everything good in life, and knows he has but little time to accomplish his purpose?  Yet many people are becoming pals with the devil and they are listening to his spiel about sin.  Not only that, but they are actually believing what the devil says.  Let me say here that the devil doesn’t appear as he would like humanity to believe that he appears.  He’s not a little man in red leotards, or a gargoyle that would most certainly be recognized if he came near us.  He is a sneak, a very clever imp, and a master of disguise.  His greatest and most productive workers are the people who do not believe in him or who do not believe that they are being used by him.  

It's about time that we became a people who hunger for God and excellence, and who give ourselves totally to doing God's will.  It's time that we sought a revelation of excellence from God, understood our purpose, and went for it with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If the people who are called by His name will not do it, who will?  

There were two other men who received a mighty revelation and had to endure a great trial to keep it and allow the purpose to be fulfilled.   One of them was a young man and the other an old one.  

...And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel , saying, "The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.  If the Lord delights in us then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey.  Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us.  Do not fear them." And the entire congregation said to stone them with stones.  Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel .  Num.14:6-10 (NKJV)

Imagine Joshua as he wandered in the dusty, barren, wilderness with a crowd of rebels who would not receive a revelation of excellence...eating manna daily after tasting the fruit of the promised land, and receiving a spiritual revelation that they could easily possess it.  Everyone twenty years old and above, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, would wander in the wilderness for forty years and die there because of their lack of faith and obedience.

Yet for Joshua, it was surely a forty period of agony.  His body was in the wilderness, but his heart was in the promise land.  His mouth ate the wanderers dust, but his spirit feasted on the revelation of excellence. 

Caleb, the mountain-taker, the rough, wizened, old spy, never backed up, backed down, looked back, slowed down, or gave up.  He took the forty years with patience and then bore into the Promised Land with a determined, steady, pace.  He staked his claim on the mountain prize and built his dwelling up high where he could get another revelation of excellence.  I imagine that each morning he looked out his doorway over the valleys below; he praised God that no dust would blow in his face again.  

What men of vision, those two!  What examples of patience and perseverance!  Should we desire to have God at all costs, no doubt His holy hill would unfold its clefts to receive our desire.  There, covered by the hollow of His hand, we would be swept up in the train of His glory!  

There is a melancholy sound in worship that is not preceded by an exploring passion for God.  This is the dead worship of liturgical people who only know God as a myth, not a personal presence in their lives.  

Then there is an emotion-based sound in worship that comes from the excitement of talented musicians, rather than an inward relationship with God.  How can anything as dry as the pitiful worship of those who never thirst for His excellence move the Holy God? The lack of reverent zeal for His presence can only mean that our praise will lack a consummate quality that fragrances the throne on high.  How can fleshly emotion move God when we are void of intimacy with Him?  

Many have to feel emotion before they can zestfully magnify His name.  This is because they have never felt the hand of the Almighty fashioning and molding their souls into vessels of excellence.  True worship cannot flow from such empty vessels.  They are empty because they do not pursue God daily.  Their worship is a clanging gong from the barren heart.  Bang on an empty can, hear the unmelodious vibrations and tell me if it is pleasing or if it grates on your sensitive nerves and ears.  This is an example of the kind of clamor ascending to the throne each Sunday morning across America .  Empty souls with dying embers of a love growing cold only sends smoke into the nostrils of God.  There is sweet incense in undefiled love that thirsts for the living God.  Not so with the worship of the empty spirit—but simply a curl of ritualistic smoke.  

How God must long to see the results of His Son's deadly price for our salvation.  His righteous purchase ought to yield a heavenward flow of commitment and true worship.   

No complacent life will understand this and respond.  It will take a revelation of excellence and the glory of God to see it.  Just like Joshua and Caleb, heavenly revelation of excellence must send spiritual life into our pilgrim hearts as we awaken to righteousness.  Nothing but a true revelation of His glorious land of promises will give us the power to wander in this rebellious world until the day He we receive His upward call.  

What is the revelation of excellence?  It is a soul who knows and yields to the omnipotent perfect will of God.  What is great to man is not necessarily great to heaven.  Excellence begins on the inside.  God doesn't give you some mystical quality of excellence, He gives you Himself.  When He comes in, He rearranges your life so that His power can flow through you.  The person most yielded to His creative touch will manifest excellence.  

...But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and we are all the work of Your hand.Is. 64:8 (NKJV)

...Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. Is. 48:10 (NKJV)

After the potters wheel comes the furnace of testing.  It is heat that sets the clay.  This is how we become vessels of excellence.  To earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints is to quest for excellence. Mediocrity is the main enemy of excellence.  

When God comes on the inside, He comes to break out of our lives all that He can not use and all that hinders His divine, perfect, will, from flowing in us.  You will have to go through a breaking process first.  What God cannot break, He cannot use.  The proud, confident, ego of man gets in His way.  There is no place in God's scheme of things for man's self sufficiency.  Such unspiritual tendencies give a false impression of man's might while discounting his need for the strength of God.  

No matter how powerful you are, or how strong your will is, you're no match for Satan until you give into God and obtain His power.  You're never going to get His power as long as you stay in your strength.  

The stronger you are, you harder you are to break.  Paul was a very strong man and his breaking was a tremendous thing.  David was a weak willed man yet he flowed in the power of God and His mighty will.  Both had a quality that shined through their flawed will, and that was, passion for God and His excellence.  

That's the only thing He sees in you that He can use—passion for Him!  The highlighted qualities of your life and your physical self are of no value to Him if you do not passionately hunger for His fullness!  

If we do not allow the fullness of God to operate in us, we will never have the revelation of excellence.  We will never have the awesome power of the Holy Spirit in our Church meetings.  God does not anoint buildings...He anoints people!  

If your heart is prepared to surrender to God's fullness...to His working power...His molding, shaping, power...His great breaking process...His right of authority to conquer your inner person and reform you in His likeness, then you are ready to receive a revelation of excellence.  It may not always be pleasant, but it will be godly and extremely fulfilling.  

The alternative is to go through life without ever knowing more than a fraction of God, a fraction of His word.  Memorizing scripture is no knowledge.  Knowledge comes when the word of God is emblazoned on your soul by experiencing the fullness of it.  

Will we be a people, called by His name, destined for excellence?  Or will we be a people destined for mediocrity and failure in the most exciting and opportune time of the ages?  We make our own destiny by our free moral choice.  The Apostasy is in full force.  Will you join it, or will you join the committed band of pilgrims who have set their sights on heaven and the excellence of God?