An African industry leader speaking about the disadvantages of social media, said,
In Africa, the algorithm shows you funny videos and a preponderance of skits, so everybody aspires to be a comedian, singer, or a social influencer. In China, and Singapore, they see videos of people building amazing stuff at incredibly young ages, this challenges their mental acumen, spurs their industry, and continues to increase their value and negotiating power in international relations.
While I recognize that there might be a little stint of the danger of a single story in that statement, what I want to focus on is the lesson, which is that a heightened level of exposure is a necessary prelude to a sequence of experiential events.
Before Jesus showed up on the scene, before Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary or even Zechariah, God spent time across several dispensations, sparing no words in explaining through the agency of prophets both minor and major about a coming Messiah. His words were not vague. They were so deeply descriptive that they painted a specific picture of who the coming Messiah was and what He was going to do.
Beyond the major event, which is the coming of Christ, we also see that God almost always insists on telling and showing before it happens.
Call on me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know. — Jeremiah 33:4
God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? — Numbers 23:19 NKJV
God is committed to exposing things to us in revelations and prophecies before He executes those same things in performance. Why does He insist on telling and showing before doing and bringing to pass?
It’s because exposure ultimately activates experience. You cannot rise to an experience you have not been exposed to, but you can’t also enter into an experience on the strength of exposure alone. I say ultimately because it’s not an automatic conversion. This is where frustrations sometimes lie because people think exposure automatically and instantly translates to experience. That, because you see a promise in scripture today, you expect it to feature in your life tomorrow. Like the burning bush, exposure is God’s pitch, inviting us to partner with Him in the lab of divine possibilities.
What are the platforms of exposure, and what do we need to do to convert those platforms of exposure into monuments of experience and testimonies?
The Word of God: 2 Peter 1 tells us the Word of God is replete with great and precious promises that are gateways to a heaven-grade quality of life. We are also admonished to study to show ourselves approved. The import of studying is to show. Your study shows you—your exposure and expectation. There’s no gift of knowledge, only the diligence of study and revelation abounds in the heart of the diligent. Beyond study is prayer; Prayer is placing yourself in the reality of what you know is available. As you mix study with prayer (effort), you are shown to the world.
The Community of God’s people: There’s a commonwealth available in the confluence of the saints. Men are vehicles of possibilities in God and hosts of a dimension of divine wisdom. Jesus came to show us the possibilities of a relationship with God that transcended servanthood into sonship. Paul opened us up to deep spiritual realities that transcended the physical appearance of Christ on earth. One person’s experience is another person’s invitational exposure. You may only realise that something is possible in God because you see it in a fellow brother's or sister’s life (exposure). However, we mustn’t assume that because I have seen it work in that brother's or sister’s life, it has to automatically work in mine. There also has to be a personalised expectation and effort that correlate to birth your own divine experience.
