Matthew Study 16:21

"... from that time Jesus began to show his disciples...."

The revelation of God's work in our midst simultaneously reveals a deeper level of Reality. Sometimes it's a Reality that we'd rather not hear about, or even want to know about. All the same, when we seek God for deeper revelation we should be prepared to see the Big Picture - both good and bad - on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus has just clarified in the Apostles their Kingdom Authority. He emphasized their power to loose and to bind, to walk with the very Keys of Heaven dangling from their cinctures. With that revelation - as with all revelation - Reality also is revealed.  Now that you know a bit more about who I am, and your role in this Thing , I need to tell you how it's going to affect you. I am going to suffer. I am going to be be killed. I am going to be raised from the dead.

What?! Just when we're finally "getting it" you are leaving us? You must be  out of your mind! And with that, Divine Revelation is severely questioned. The echoes of the Temptation - did God really say? - become one with the one who, just moments before, was given Authority over heaven and earth.

As recipients of Revelation we need to maintain an open posture to not only the Revelations themselves but the results of the revelation as well. We are not capable of choosing the ones we like and the ones we don't. Nor are we asked to change the implications of what is revealed. We are simply given the revelations as a deeper understanding - a holy clarification - of that which is going on in our midst, or of who we are in Christ. Nothing more, nothing less. We receive humbly, and we need to carry on, humbly walking in the light of that Revelation (which is one of the keys of being naturally supernatural.)

Trouble happens when we seek to manipulate the Revelations - or their results.  When satan sees us - fumbling around in our human understanding, struggling to make sense of it, or question it, or to deny the authenticity of it - he (who is impulsively attracted to such breaches of Faith) swoops in and affirm our words, "No, my will be done, my kingdom come!"

Peace, humility, and a Holy Resignation to God's mysterious ways are hallmarks of the all observing, all trusting, Children of the Revelation. God, give us grace to be wholly content with that which you Holy reveal to us.