Personal revelation vs. free will

[Faith No More]

However, that's not the bit that interests me, in terms of this thread anyway. No, the thing I find hard to wrap my brain around is this idea of personal revelation. It's the card that is usually played once the believer gets close to the edge of realisation that it might all just be a story, because that's the only source they have. We've seen it time and again: "I know God is real because He has revealed Himself to me in such a way that it cannot be denied".

So my question to all that would be: what price free will in all this? If God (or Allah, or Quetzecoatl) appeared in front of you in a manner that took away all doubt of its reality and authenticity, hasn't your free will been taken away?

It's a catch 22 that they simply ignore. Personal revelation does interfere with free will, however, they desperately need it as part of the faith equation. Humanity as searched since the beginning for evidence of god that can be verified by others, but none has ever been found. They only way to cling to their faith then is to hold onto some sort of unverifiable evidence, i.e. personal revelation, which no one can refute. That makes personal revelation extremely important to their faith, the effects on free will be damned. As we've all seen, it just takes a little bit of 'doublethink,' and it suddenly becomes no problem for them.