Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
Have you ever wondered why there is even a book called “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” in the Bible. I mean, wouldn’t you think that if someone had studied or even read the previous 65 books, he or she would already know Jesus Christ?
The answer to that question is not necessarily, or in my case and that of many other Christians I know, the answer is a profound NO, NOT AT ALL! Many go through life trying to find answers to all the theological and/or Biblical questions in their minds. It may be best described as a quest or search for Eden.
I for one prayed and studied diligently and searched the scriptures daily, believing in them I could find eternal life… but alas, I never came to the knowledge of the truth, which translated means “knowledge of Him, or knowing Him, He who is the Spirit of truth”. That’s because the carnal mind, which is the flesh mind given to man, cannot understand the things of the spirit, no matter how much knowledge one puts into it. Actually, it is much worse than just not being able to know or understand God, who is Spirit (Jn. 4:24), for it is written in Romans 8:7 that the carnal mind is enmity against God.
The reality is, Biblical knowledge does NOT equate to Knowledge of God at all! If anything, Biblical knowledge equates to the law, to the old covenant, which is done away with when Christ comes, when He reveals Himself to your heart, when the LIGHT bursts forth upon you on the Day of the Lord.
Therefore, the scriptures are really NOT in and of themselves the Word of God after the manner it is commonly taught and believed by so many people. As it is written, they are simply the testimony, meaning they merely TESTIFY of HIM, the LIVING Word of God who ABIDES IN YOU… not on paper and ink! That’s what the New Covenant is!
John 5:38 And ye have not His word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.
John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
John 5:40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
Christians keep going to the scriptures, the testimony of Him. That may be fine, but He is NOT in the testimony! It is a “dead letter” without the Spirit! You need to go to Him to HEAR HIS VOICE… and John 5:38 just told you where He dwells, and it’s not with paper and ink!
Here’s the New Covenant:
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
It is the Spirit of the Living God in YOUR HEART, not the doctrinal knowledge in your head, that is lacking for many Christians and Bible students. I mean, if one could find Christ by studying the scriptures, the astute Biblical scholar Saul, who studied under Gamaliel, as many of us studied under Dr. Murry, Dr. Bullinger, Dr. Strong, etc., would have found Him there! But alas, he did NOT! Again, I tried all my life to find the answers, and after 40 years of intense study I knew the scriptures better than most men or women ever will… BUT don’t you know (I obviously didn’t even though I knew it was written) that the things of God are UNSEARCHABLE! They can ONLY be revealed unto us by His SPIRIT, because it is a matter of the HEART (heavenly), not the mind (earthly) where vain (carnal, earthly) doctrines abide!
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
And so, YOU then (not the paper and ink you read) ARE the book, the LIVING epistle, in whom Christ writes… i.e. in your HEART!
2Co 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
Man CANNOT reveal the things of the Spirit to you… only the Spirit of God can reveal them! You therefore need to turn to Him for answers! I mean, many have read and studied the Bible, including the New Testament writings of Paul and Peter and James and John… yet STILL haven’t found the answers they are looking for! So will Lance’s or anyone else’s added testimony change anything? Doesn’t that tell you something? Well, I’ll tell you what it means. It simply means they have not YET heard His voice. It’s a spiritual matter, a matter of your heart, which for many has been hardened like an old wine skin by the doctrinal teachings of men.
So if one REALLY and SINCERELY wants answers (and God knows your heart), if he or she really would like to go in peace and enter into rest, here is who one needs to hear and how to go about it:
Heb 4:7 …To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Heb 4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Just how is it that one “hears” His voice, you ask? Well, one must have an “ear” to hear! In fact, seven times (7 is the number of spiritual perfection) in chapters two and three of The Book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ it is written, “he who has an ear, let him hear what the SPIRIT has to say”! Well then, what does it mean to have an ear to hear, you ask?
You may recall from the very first verse of Revelation, we are told the “things” that are written therein are “signified”, as in they represent something other than the image or first impression they bring to the mind. And so after having just read Heb. 4:7, it may have become obvious to you just what it is “ear” signifies. It means your heart! That’s right! The “ear” you must “hear” with is not your ear at all, but your HEART! Again, we just read in Hebrews 4 that the reason one cannot hear His voice, cannot hear what the Spirit has to say, is because of a hardened heart. In other words, if one has a hardened heart, one cannot hear His voice… so harden not your heart that you might be able to hear! And it is the traditions of men, doctrinal knowledge, vain imaginations (mental images), and the beliefs of one’s church, which blockades and prevents the heart from hearing what the spirit has to say. (Heart = heaven, spiritual realm, Mind = earth, carnal realm)
That brings us to Rev. 1 verse 4, which reveals to us two distinct realms and who it is that stands between them to make the transition from the one realm (the earthly side) to the other realm (the spiritual side) possible. (You may recall we talked about this in our last discussion concerning Daniel chapter 12.)
Let me read Rev. 1:4 to you.
Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
We are told that the seven churches are located in Asia and that the seven Spirits are located before His throne. If you have come this far, the “significations” of these locations should also be easy to see. You are the temple of God, the place wherein He dwells. Your heart is where heaven and His throne are located. Luke 17:21 “Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.”
Now we are going to get to “see” the throne in chapter 4 of Revelation, where we will also “see” the seven spirits of God, which by the way are listed in Isaiah 11:2.
Rev. 4:5 “…and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.”
But before we get to chapter 4 to be lifted up to the throne, to the heart level, to the spiritual level, to HEAR HIS VOICE and be shown the things which must come to pass, we are going to have to overcome the seven churches… which are located in Asia, located in the “mire” (Asia means “mire”), which is in the world. It is these seven churches, I like to call them churchisms, because an “ism” is defined by Webster as “an oppressive and especially discriminatory attitude or belief”, that cause a hardening of the heart, a most common characteristic of religious people, especially the Scribe and Pharisee types!
However, we find that when a person comes to Him, whereby he or she can “hear what the spirit has to say” regarding these “isms”, and takes these things to heart where they can be discerned and absorbed, that one will then be an overcomer, which means he or she will have come over, crossed over, to the other side, the kingdom of God, the realm of the Spirit! And dear ones, the promises given to those who do overcome are truly beyond what mere words can describe.
Now notice that between Asia (the church world) and the throne (the kingdom of heaven) in verse 4 we see He which was, which is, and which is to come, bestowing His grace (love) upon us and giving us peace, for He is the Prince of peace. I find it both fitting and fascinating that His present coming, His past coming, and His future coming are referenced here, but then… we just left off in verse three with “the time is at hand”, didn’t we! Yes, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and so it is He did come, He is come, and He will continue to come to His servant sons and daughters in their last days… to every man in his own order.
And you know what? The reality of the fact that “THE TIME IS AT HAND” is truly a major part of the GOOD NEWS concerning the gospel of the Kingdom of God! What it means is that NOW, Right Now, TO DAY… if you will harden not your heart, you can enter into the kingdom of God, the realm of the spirit, and HEAR HIS VOICE! In fact, that is how Jesus began His ministry in the Book of Mark. It is the very first thing He said!
Mar 1:14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
Mar 1:15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Do you know what it means to “repent”? Well, it doesn’t mean to quit smoking, to quit going out to night clubs, or to give up playing Texas Holdem ‘till 2 am! It means to “think differently”, to “re-think”! It means to begin hearing with your heart, in the spirit, what the spirit has to say, and thus judge righteously, instead of reasoning the meaning of scriptures with your carnal mind, and judging according to the letter of the law, according to traditions and doctrines men!
Consider these few verses from 1 Corinthians chapter 2:
1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
This last verse outlines the difference between the mind, which is the natural man, and the heart, the place where one’s “ear” to hear what the spirit has to say is located, the place where “spiritual discernment” resides.
Dear ones, this is so profound and of such extreme importance, that the entirety of Revelation chapters two and three are devoted to breaking down in minute detail the “churchisms”, the things which must be REPENTED of, the things that must be heard with the ear of your heart, the things that must be overcome! To wit, you will find the word “repent” used seven times in these two chapters, signifying also that true repentance is the changing of one’s thinking, the turning about, the transition of thought from the earthly realm of the mind to the spiritual realm of the heart.
Only AFTER THAT… will you “see” the door in heaven open (I am the door, Jn. 10:9) whereby you can hear His voice! Here is the very first verse, the first experience of the overcomers if you will, following the messages to the seven churches.
Rev 4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
Do you have an “ear” to hear what the Spirit has to say? Hey, you know what? I just noticed that the word “ear” resides in the very midst of the word “heart”. That’s just way cool, isn’t it?
… to be continued.
Happy Christmas to you and your family.