Hell's Best Kept Secret
By Chad Taylor
"Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit... Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once..." (Acts 9:17-18).
Until the scales fell off of Saul's eyes, though he had experienced salvation and a dramatic conversion, he had no revelation of his destiny and imminent impact on the world. He was blind. Paul was hell's best kept secret. As long as the scales of human frailty and unbelief clung to him he was helpless. No great orator was Saul as he hid at house of one called Judas. No rumors of apostle were heard that day. Only fear and superstition as Saul clung to life blindly and ignorantly. Ignorant at that moment of the magnitude of the divine call that was suspended over him in the Spirit.
The world is filled with "Sauls" that have not yet comprehended the depth of the call. They walk through life with scales of normality and unbelief, convinced that God could never really use them. Useless in their mind disabling their faith, they walk through life captured by the enemies scheme, "If you be the son of God..." Always plotting to discourage and question the divine election that is buried in the soil of their hearts, waiting, growing, ever ready to explode! Until Saul was confronted with revelation he was in constant conflict with God's purposes. He, "kicked against the pricks...". But once the revelation of Jesus shook him from the firm foundation of religion where he stood, he was awe struck. He was "transformed into the image of Jesus Christ." He went "from glory to glory" in a twinkling of an eye.
Apostasy became an apostle and the synagogue reeled from the aftershock of this revelation. Hell's best kept secret was revealed, and nothing could quench the fire of revelation in Paul's heart. He blazed with confirmation of God's perfect will. He pioneered in a world of unbelief. He made giant leaps of faith that millions followed to their destiny. Paul understood who he was, "Paul, called to be an apostle by Jesus Christ through the will of the Father..." (1st Cor. 1:1). See, Paul had a revelation of Jesus Christ. Until there is revelation there is no illumination. The scales is all we see. No light, no hope, no call. Just darkness. We are blind. Blind to the infinite purpose of God in our life.
Today we live from book to book, conference to conference, ever hoping something extraordinary will happen to us, some great revelation will arrest us and we will be changed. Not willing to be shaken and removed from our own foundation of truth as we understand it. We race from one conference to the next never willing to just simply sit at His feet and be able to boldly say with Paul, "But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, BUT IT CAME THROUGH THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST..." (Galatians 1:11-12).
The revelation of Jesus Christ! This was Paul's secret! His nights in the deep, his years in the desert, his time with Jesus was what made him great. What made him apostle and general of God. John did not make him this, Peter did not pass this on to him, only a revelation of who Jesus was gave him his medals. Paul boasted of these medals later in his life, "From now on let no one bother me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ..." . (Galatians 6:17).
Paul carried His scars. They were the proof of the long nights alone, when, "all men forsook me...". Paul knew the secret of isolation, not separation from the Body, but isolation that led to revelation, that inevitably led to transformation. Jesus knew the secret of this in His own life, "Rising up a great while before day, He went to an isolated place and their He prayed..." (Mark 1:35). In this hour the treasures out of darkness will be awarded to those that enter their closet and close the door. It will be awarded to those that know the impact of the secret place. Their they will be receive a crown.
Hell's best kept secret is you. Every one of you that read this, every one of you that hunger and thirst for righteousness, with an insatiable appetite for Jesus. More than conference and public addresses, you need Him! You need to see His face! You need to, like Moses, see His glory! Only that will fill the deep void in your spirit that longs to be filled. And from that place you will emerge like Paul emerged and, "immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God..." (Acts 9:20). Hell will reel from the impact of your revelation of who you are in Christ. "Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Eph.2:10). You will enter the world as Paul did and bring a revelation of Jesus Christ. You will move mountains of religion and shake nations. You are hell's best kept secret...
Chad Taylor
chadtaylor@consumingfire.com