Going Back on a Revelation From God

 The following poignant comment is from T. Austin-Sparks' series of addresses transcribed and published as the excellent book The Horizon of Christ:

"If you and I can go back upon anything that we in the past have called a revelation from God, something shown us by the Lord, and we can just throw it overboard and write it off and say, 'Well, that belongs to the past; it does not hold good any longer,' let it be understood that that never came into us by revelation of the Holy Ghost.

"You cannot, you cannot depart from something that God has done in you. No matter what the trial, the testing, yes, the devastation; of pain, perhaps long drawn-out, you cannot depart from it, it is something done. It is yourself, it has become a part of you! You cannot say, 'Well, I have left that now' or 'I have gone beyond that now' or 'That is something that I once thought was very good, but I can dispense with that now.'

"Nothing that comes from God, even though it might be in first stages, elementary things, on which you have got to move forward, nothing in the future cancels out anything that God has done."