How God Reveals Himself
Explaining the differences between general revelation, special revelation, and applied revelation.
The goal is to help someone understand how God reveals Himself.
General revelation, by definition, is “God’s clear display of His glory and power in the works of creation and providence.”
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In scripture, we see this revelation in Psalm 19:1-2, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge” along with Romans 1:19-20, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.” Individuals may choose to deny or ignore general revelation as a means of doubting that God exists; however, the truth remains, nonetheless, that God is Creator and has chosen to give us revelation of Himself through creation. As Godfrey states, “All nature, all the time, shouts out the existence, power, and splendor of God. Sinners can close their eyes and stop their ears, but general revelation remains plain all around them.” Paul even says in Romans 1:20, “so they are without excuse.”
It is important to understand that we can know God’s existence simply by creation alone. In regard to counseling, without fully believing that God has given us a general revelation of Himself, we are missing a very important step of understanding who God is. Denying that “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” denies that He is God and has a purpose for all. If one denies this concept of general revelation, then special revelation and applied revelation are irrelevant to him. The reality is, creation tells a story and pours out speech to the glory of God alone; however, we are not to worship creation, but are to respond in praise and thanksgiving to God for this beautiful gift and revelation of Himself.
The definition of special revelation is “God’s revealing of Himself in particular ways to particular people”
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; this is why the Scriptures are so important because it is the recording of God revealing His character, His purpose of creating man, and how mankind is to relate to Him. Since general revelation is very narrow in what it can actually say about God, although revealing to us that there is a divine and eternally powerful Creator, God supplied special, divine revelation to His people.
Regarding counseling, it is important to know that through scripture we have sufficient revelation of God; scripture is how we know Him. In Hebrews 1:1-3, we read that “long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Reality is, Christ is still sitting at the right hand of the Father and is the final prophet; we are not without sufficient revelation of the Lord in Scripture. God certainly still speaks to His people nowadays, but it is solely through His Word, and He still leads and guides His people through the power, grace, and gift of the Holy Spirit.
Applied revelation is defined by Beeke as “the divinely empowered effect of the divine, special revelation. This is God’s application of special revelation to the heart in order to generate an experiential response.”
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According to James, we know that we are to be more than hearers of the Word, but also doers of the Word (James 1:22). He helps us see the importance of applying the Gospel even to the most “ordinary” circumstances in life. We also see in Psalm 19:10-14, that we are called to be lovers of the Word, listen to the Lord, be devoted to prayer, be a servant of the Lord, desire a holy life, seek cleansing, understand that we are in need of God, and have a new focal point, all of which are applications of what is revealed to us in Scripture.
In regard to counseling, it is important to understand this because without seeing that we are called to apply the special revelation given to us by God, it would prevent us from living as God intended. We might struggle with applying and obeying certain scriptures, and we even may misunderstand, misapply, and struggle with particular topics and/or scripture, but the problem lies within us, the reader and the sinner, not in the Word of God. No matter what we may experience, we must allow Scripture to be the final authority. If the experience or the application does not align with God’s character and counsel given in the divine revelation of Scripture, then it is not from God.
1 W. Robert Godfrey, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/general-revelation
2 Barry Cooper, https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts/simply-put/special-revelation
3 John Beeke, Reformed Systematic Theology Vol. 1, p. 410-411
