God may reveal God's self in the world over and over and it may go unnoticed. God's revelation becomes an epiphany when we observe the new thing that God is doing among us. True epiphanies also break through our indifference or disrupt those things that currently occupy our hearts and minds. Epiphanies are transforming, life-changing events. A mere observer may have seen what has happened but has not had an epiphany until his or her life is changed.
True epiphanies shove old habits and beliefs aside to make room for new ones.
Epiphanies not only change our actions, they alter our worldview, allowing us to see everything differently. We are changed to see beyond our own interest and get a glimpse of God's point of view. The epiphanies of our biblical forbearers can help us recognize epiphanies now. However, it is when we are hurting, impoverished, and lonely, when our dreams have crumbled, when we are defeated, that is when God most often reveals God's self to us. When a people or nation has lost it way, is overrun, oppressed, scriptures remind us, that is where God often reveals God's self as the true sovereign and redeemer.