Claiming or Revealing?

I was praying a few days ago and was asking God to give me faith to believe every single thing that in the Bible He claims to be. He did. But He did it in a very unusual way. He gently reproved me for my prayer. I will try to put into words what I knew in my spirit as soon as I made that petition to God.

When I asked, ‘Lord, help me believe in my heart everything you claim about yourself", this is what I heard in my heart: "God has never claimed anything. Men do that because men can lie. Nothing God says about Himself in the Bible is a claim. It is a revelation."

Then I understood. When God said, "I am holy", He was not claiming to be holy; He was revealing to us the fact that he is holy. When he said, ‘I am the Lord who heals you", He was not claiming that He heals people; He was revealing to us that He is a healer.

Men claim many things, but God has never claimed anything. Solomon and Peter both referred to men who "boast themselves of a false gift." But if God says He is anything, or that He will do something, it is a precious revelation, and He wants us to trust Him so that we can benefit by the revelation of His power and goodness.

The next time you hear a man claim something about himself, ask this question: Is he just claiming that for himself, or is he, like God, revealing to others what God has given to him? Either one of those two options is possible, so don’t be cynical. Just be wise. If his words are more than just an empty claim, or boast, you will find it out soon enough. But if he is doing the way God does by declaring for your benefit a good work of God in his life, that will be made obvious, too. God will make sure of that.