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SCT 5: Concealing is for revealing

by Darren Rusco


Note: I'm working on a book about hearing God's voice. The process of writing is a slog for me, so I decided to work it out through blog posts, hoping that would help me get ideas out to print, and also give readers a chance to feedback and help form the end product.


Chapter 5

Concealing is for revealing

Communication is the expression of God’s nature


There’s something childlike about participating in a treasure hunt. My kids have always loved the treasure hunts I plan for them. I suppose I could simply give them a gift, but if I put a gift at the end of a treasure hunt filled with clues and mysteries, they gladly embrace the pursuit. But perhaps with age, we don’t get quite as excited to crack the code of a bunch of clues in order to gain the treasure. Are you a person who would simply rather not have the treasure if it involves a hunt?

It may not be good news for some to discover that God is a treasure hunt God. Let’s just say it plainly: if you want to hear God’s voice, you need to embrace mystery. Since time began, God has been speaking in mysteries, all the while humanity has complained some about this fact. Mystery abounds in the nature of God, and this mystery is an invitation to press in, not a cause for giving up. Jesus drove his followers mad because of his mysterious parables. They complained, “Why don’t you speak plainly?” But these mystery stories were designed for faith filled people to hunt for the treasure they contained. And equally, they caused blindness to those unwilling to accept the invitation to participate.

A lesson worth learning when pursuing the voice of God is that his concealing is for the purpose of his revealing. Generally speaking, when God conceals, he is not telling you to get back and stay away, he is inviting you to press in for discovery.

Solomon described this tension in Proverbs 25:2:

It is God’s privilege to conceal things and the king’s privilege to discover them.

When God is concealing, his purpose is for revealing. He invites the follower to crack open his mysteries. But most of us are familiar with that defeated feeling of walking away from something confusing. This is not the heart of God. Instead, we need to understand THAT he communicates in mysterious riddles. Then we keep our eyes and ears open to SEE the mysteries. Then we PRESS IN like Solomon for discovery.

You might recall the story of how God gave Solomon more wisdom than anyone on earth (1 Kings 4:29-31). For sure, this was a gift from God, but it would be a mistake to conclude that in a moment, Solomon was suddenly wise. I believe Solomon walked the road that he offered in Proverbs 25:2 – that God revealed incredible mysteries to him, yet he was willing and faithful to do the work of discovery.

In my experience of ministry around Christians, dreams might be the most commonly overlooked means by which God speaks to us. This is surprising to me because in the Bible, dreams are a fairly common means of God’s communication to people. So why do Bible believing Christians overlook their dreams as potential communication from God? The answers are many, but one reason is that dreams are concealed in mysteries and metaphors, and it takes time and perseverance to unlock the meaning.

An interesting passage in Job 33:13-17 speaks to this topic. Job was complaining that he was crying out to God about difficult circumstances, yet God was not speaking back. So Elihu offers these bold words to Job:

So why are you bringing a charge against him (God)? Why say he does not respond to people’s complaints? For God speaks time and again, though people do not recognize it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. He whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings. He makes them turn from doing wrong; he keeps them from pride.

Without getting into the depths of dream interpretation, the broader exhortation is to understand that we are not short on God’s voice. We are short on our perception of God’s ongoing voice. And our perception is short because usually God’s voice is concealed in a package of mystery.

In my own life, this topic comes with great conviction. At the risk of sounding obtuse, I believe we cannot say we are disciples of Jesus without actively pursuing the concealed mysteries of God because to be a disciple of Jesus is to follow the teachings of Jesus (Matthew 28:20) and Jesus went out of his way to intentionally teach in concealed mysteries. An original disciple of Jesus wrote in Matthew 13:34-35:

Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. This fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet: “I will speak to you in parables. I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world."

I believe it just can’t be said enough, that God’s heart is for revelation. In the passage above, we see this promise of explanation of the hidden things. Even though he conceals, he longs to reveal.

See how God reveals himself through Amos the prophet (Amos 3:7):

Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets.

God has revealed that he is a revealer. It is a part of his nature. He does not need to be this way. He is not bound to his creation. But he chooses to operate like this. What a fascinating part of God’s nature that he, being sovereign over all, not needing permission from anyone, chooses to reveal his plans first.

Therefore, we should confidently pursue the voice of God, knowing he can speak, he wants to speak, he puts his Spirit in us to speak, and he loves fellowship with his friends.

A Sower is a sower because he sows

Consider this parable taught by Jesus, recorded in Matthew 13:3-8:

Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!

Jesus compares various soil and planting conditions to various spiritual conditions of the human heart. The seed represents the revelation of the kingdom. While there are many great principles in this parable, take note of the nature of the sower. The sowing of the seeds in this parable is not dependent on the nature of the soil. The sower sows seed on every soil condition and the fertile soil will produce the fruit of the seed. Jesus refers to himself as a sower of kingdom revelation. The picture is not of Jesus looking for the fertile heart and then sowing revelation there; rather he sows revelation everywhere, and the fertile heart will hear and produce fruit. Said another way, the sound of God’s voice goes out for all to hear, yet some only hear thunder. This means the unfertile heart will be near God’s revelation but unable to access the fruit. So the nature of the Sower is to sow. Jesus has plenty of revelation to give his people. We do not need to worry about a shortage of revelation from God. Our emphasis should be on stewarding our hearts well so that we can receive the fruit of God’s revelation. It’s not a matter of IF God will speak, but rather IF my heart is fertile.


Stewarding mysteries


In the spring of 2013, I was doing my regular Bible reading and happened to be in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 in the Holman's Christian Standard Bible:

A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial: to one is given a message of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, a message of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another, the performing of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, distinguishing between spirits, to another, different kinds of languages, to another, interpretation of languages. But one and the same Spirit is active in all of these, distributing to each one as He wills.

As I prayed about this passage, I listened to the Holy Spirit ask me to make a list of the nine gifts mentioned in the passage, written in order of which gift I would most like to operate in. I was intrigued at this exercise and took it seriously, having some deep thoughts about the nine gifts. Here was my list in response:

  1. Performing miracles

  2. Message of knowledge

  3. Prophecy

  4. Healing

  5. Faith

  6. Languages

  7. Discerning between spirits

  8. Interpretation of languages

  9. Message of wisdom

My preferences were pretty close between 2 and 8, but the message of wisdom was clearly at the bottom and the performing of miracles was an easy winner. At the time I had experienced many of these gifts on some level, but I had never demonstrated a miracle, at least in my understanding of this gift in Scripture. I longed for that manifestation and still do, because great missional kingdom advancement comes with this manifestation, such as Philip’s demonstration of miracles in Samaria, recorded in Acts 8.

I presented my list to the Holy Spirit. I wondered if I would be reprimanded for listing the “big one” first. But that was not what the Spirit was after on this day. Instead, I heard from the Spirit, “If you knew the potential power of a message of wisdom, you would have ranked it first.” This was the Holy Spirit’s way of revealing my ignorance - I had no idea what a word of wisdom was nor did I know the effectual power it could have for another person to encounter God.

This was all I needed to hear. Immediately I began to pray for growth in understanding and for the Spirit to manifest the gift of wisdom through me. I discovered that wisdom of the Spirit, or wisdom as described in the Bible is not simply the ability to give good counsel or advice. No, look at the list of nine gifts again. These are gifts that are impossible to walk in without supernatural empowerment from the Holy Spirit. Certainly there are many wise people in the world who do not even know the Holy Spirit. This is good, and I believe it is from God, but this is not what 1 Corinthians 12 is about.

Supernatural wisdom is the ability to understand spiritual mysteries. This is the wisdom experienced by Daniel, described in Daniel 2. King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and required his astrologers to tell him the meaning without him first telling them the dream! Without answers, the king would kill the entire group, of whom Daniel himself was a member. That night Daniel urged his friends to ask the God of heaven to reveal the secret, and sure enough, that night God gave Daniel a vision revealing the king’s dream along with the interpretation.

This wisdom is not born of humanity but rather comes from heaven. Daniel’s prayer is recorded in verses 20-23, which should bring hope for this revelation to come to any of us:

Praise the name of God forever and ever, for he has all wisdom and power. He controls the course of world events; he removes kings and sets up other kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars. He reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness, though he is surrounded by light. I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors, for you have given me wisdom and strength. You have told me what we asked of you and revealed to us what the kings demanded.


Daniel was no fatalist. After hearing the king’s demand, it was not enough that God would do what he would do. No, he pressed in with faith, calling on God to do something impossible in our own thinking, that is, to reveal another person’s dream, and then give interpretation. So I pressed into God as well. I wanted to experience this wisdom that had the power to change someone’s life.

My first step was practical and what I considered an issue of stewardship. I committed to writing down everything that I believe contained mystery from God. It is my experience that sometimes revelation from God comes in disappearing ink, my mind can so easily forget. This includes my listening prayer, spiritual thoughts, perplexing Scriptures, and dreams. I took Job 33:14 seriously. How many of my dreams from God had I ignored? So I disciplined myself to record dreams and journal my thoughts. This was extremely challenging! I am not a natural journaler, but sure enough, over time it became a habit. Many nights at 4:00am I have recorded dreams while I could still remember. To this day, I have thousands of dreams recorded. This may seem like overkill, but if God has spoken to me, I want to remember. And I have learned that wisdom from God does not always appear in an instant, or even when I immediately want it. I have received wisdom from dreams nine years after the actual dream. Had I not written it down and taken the time to go back and read what I had written, I would have missed out on what God revealed to me.

Frequently, like Solomon wrote, wisdom is investigated and gained, but in other times it can come in an instant. A few years ago I drove for Uber, frequently taxiing people from vineyard to vineyard for wine tasting. Almost every passenger would ask me if I had another job besides driving. Using a vocabulary they might understand, I would often tell them I was a spiritual coach. When they asked what that job entailed, I would include dream interpretation, and without fail, they would respond by giving me a dream to interpret. These circumstances are where I most often experience the supernatural gift of wisdom. I can always tell when I give a correct interpretation because it is so often received by blowing the person away with an encounter with God, right there in the back of my car.

Words of wisdom usually go right at the heart of a matter, circumventing issues of the surface. Jesus often operated with this gift, speaking not to what a person said, but rather to something much deeper. And because these words come from heaven, they have power to change a person’s life but also bring offense to the spirit of religion because the language of wisdom aligns with the purposes of God and not the agenda of man.

For sure, God conceals his thoughts in mystery, but he delights to reveal to those who seek wisdom. I encourage you to be like Solomon, who when offered any gift from God, asked for a heart that could understand. God was so taken by this, that he promised Solomon more wisdom than anyone, along with many blessings besides.


The rich get richer


Getting back to the parable Jesus, the sower, gave about the soils (Matthew 13). His disciples followed up with him about the meaning of the mysterious parable. Jesus taught something that should capture our attention:

To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what they have will be taken from them. That is why I use these parables.

In the kingdom, wisdom multiplies. The wise get wiser. Those not listening become more and more deaf. Fools get more foolish. Jesus went on to say:

For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes - so their eyes cannot see and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.


It is of paramount importance that we deal with the soil condition of our hearts. The actual voice of God is at stake. The healing of our whole person is of consequence. Start here and stay here. Talk to God about the condition of your heart and make your heart a topic of conversation from here on out. It is his desire to heal our hearts and make it soft to receive his revelation.


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