Rev. 1:1 … and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
In our last discussion we talked about the signification in Revelation 1 vs. 1, and how that the things that are revealed to us are done so through signs and symbols, which are representations of something other than the physical things they express to us, something other than the obvious images that pop into our carnal, earthly minds.
The question then is: Who, pray tell, is going to lead us and guide us into understanding the truth of what all these signs and symbols represent? The answer is… HIS ANGEL! Verse one tells us right there that the signification is done by Christ’s messenger, called His angel.
Well, OK, who exactly is this angel, this messenger Christ, who is going to guide us and show us all these things to come? The answer comes from Jesus Himself in John 16, where He is speaking to His disciples about why He must go away. He tells them if He doesn’t go away, then He cannot send the Comforter. In fact, He tells them in John 16:12 that He has yet many things to say to them, but that they could not bear them now, meaning they could not receive them at this time. Why is it they could not receive or comprehend them? Because the crucifixion hadn’t taken place and the veil of their carnal minds had not been rent… therefore they could only “see” the “man” Jesus standing before their eyes. And because they saw him with their natural eyes and heard Him with their natural ears, they could neither SEE HIM in the Spirit nor “hear” His voice, i.e. what the Spirit had to say. Let me read John 16:12 to you.
John 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear (receive) them now.
You know what, let me back up and read verse 7 too, just to emphasize the point. Again, this is Jesus speaking to His disciples before the crucifixion, declaring why He must go away.
John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
So, if the Jesus you have in your mind, the one you now see, does not go away… the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth will not come unto you, and until He does, you will never understand The Revelation of Jesus Christ… because you will never be able to see Him as He is.
Verse 13 of John 16 then tells us exactly who our guide is, who the messenger of Jesus Christ actually is, the one who will show you all the “things which must shortly come to pass”.
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
That’s why it is written 7 times in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 relative to all 7 churches (which are not churches at all, seeing they have been signified), “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith…”.
Again, even though you are a disciple of Jesus, you can only hear what the Spirit has to say after the Jesus you now see with your carnal mind has gone away and He has sent to you, and you have received, the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, who shall then testify to you of Christ. Look at John 15:26.
John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
It is the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, that allows you to receive the things that He speaks to you and He shall testify to you of Christ.
Ok, you’ve seen the words that are written, and I know you believe them, but are you saying quietly to yourself… can someone please tell me… how exactly does that work in a person’s life, and how does one know when he or she has received the Spirit of Truth?
Well, I can only speak for myself and tell you of my personal experiences, which again, I can tell you about, even graphically illustrate and paint a clear picture of them in your MIND, but it is beyond my capacity to give those experiences to you, to make them your experiences too. In other words, to make them actually part of your life, I cannot. Surely you can understand and relate to what I’m saying. The things that happen to me are forever my own, written in me, part of my personal life as they say, and yours are forever yours. Though we can have common experiences and relate to one another’s, we each live our own lives.
Nevertheless, there are two things I can tell you in relation to the questions, how does it work and how do you know? The first one is this. When you begin to hear His voice, the great “sound of a trumpet”, the first of which is reveille, a shaking, wake-up call indeed… your head will turn so fast it will stun you, as did John’s head turn when he heard the trumpet in Revelation 1:12, and your life dear one will be forever changed. Talk about an earthquake!
Again, I cannot speak for you and tell you what the first thing you actually “hear” will be. Scripturally, for me, it was a sudden revelation of what Rev. 11:1 meant. I mean, it hit me like a ton of bricks… knocked my socks off, so to speak! I like to call it a sudden “realization”, which aptly defines revelation, for it is when the Word suddenly becomes real in your life, in your experience, and not just an encyclopedia of scriptural knowledge in your mind!
To give you some background on this, I had been preparing one of those current event timelines for our annual Passover gathering and aligning all the dates of the past and present news events of the 20th century with the prophecies of Matthew 24, Mark 13, the book of Daniel, Revelation, etc., etc., to show how quickly prophecy is coming to pass in our generation, the final one of course, and saying, look over there, see here, His coming is nigh. Sound familiar to what you see on TV or perhaps even in your local church?
In preface for that, or shall I say in preparation of the ground for that, you should know that I had a current events section on The King’s Chapel website that was actually more popular than the Bible studies themselves. A fellow likeminded gentleman from California, with better writing and observation skills than yours truly, helped post relative scriptures with excellent commentary concerning the things that were happening daily in the world. To this day, I remember well the very last news article and pictures that were posted online before everything on the website was taken down shortly thereafter. And that was a picture of Pope John Paul II who had died that Saturday, April 3, 2005, the 14th day of the first month beginning with the Spring Equinox, which was the night of the Passover in the OT. I can still see the vivid picture of three US Presidents, one then current president and two past presidents, on their knees, bowing before a dead man.
Without going into detail about the doctrinal and prophetic (I should say pathetic) things I taught, just know that I looked at this picture and looked at this picture and suddenly realized that we all, myself and all the congregation, were virtually doing the same thing with our focus on antichrist and Satan, a “dead man” indeed. So I began thinking, you know, we are doing “internally”, within ourselves, the world within, what we are seeing and claiming we see “externally”, outside ourselves, in the world without.
So… when I read Rev. 11:1 which reads “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod (a scepter to judge): and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure (judge) the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.”, I said to myself, OH MY GOD (OMG), WE are the temple of God! We are to “measure”, to take a look at, to take personal inventory of, OURSELVES! And ALL THIS TIME we are looking to Jerusalem over there in the Middle East and interpreting prophecies to mean antichrist is going to come and stand over there… in the temple of God. But OMG, if Satan isn’t coming over there, because that isn’t where the temple is, then where will we see him… OMG, sitting in the temple… which is where? OMG, it is in us… OMG!
Folks, my mind was suddenly scrambled, in total confusion, because one thing I now knew for certain, and that was that everything I thought I knew, everything I was teaching on a pretty large scale, was now suspect and subject to review because I NOW KNEW IN MY HEART, not just my mind, that everything I had been teaching, at the very least teaching about prophecy, was in total ERROR… because for sure all these things that happen concerning the temple, happen to us, even individually to us!
And wow, I’m thinking! What am I going to do now? What are the ramifications of all this? I pastor this big church and thousands look to me as a Biblical scholar, or at least one who is knowledgeable about the Bible and they follow what I teach. And I have all these tapes and booklets and Bible studies out there, and everyday people send donations to purchase more and more… OMG, how can I let them buy this stuff if I myself don’t believe the things I myself wrote are true? The answer became obvious. I could not… and so at least one thing can truly be said, for it is historical fact and was witnessed by many, that at the sound of the trumpet… the website came tumbling down. I shut the whole thing down, and along with that, I killed a huge cash cow!
Now, there’s much more that happened and has come to pass since that time and I know I’ll share more of it as we go through the Book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which brings me to my second point in answer to the questions “how does that (the spirit of truth) work in a person’s life, and how does one know when he or she has received the Spirit of Truth?” To wit, the second point is really somewhat akin to the first. I’ll use the following realizations to try and relate it to you. Again, I can put these things in your mind, but I cannot put them in your life’s experience.
I want to start this second point by confessing that for the past 3 ½ years I have not been and have had no desire whatsoever to “study” the Bible in the scholarly manner I used to, i.e. with multiple concordances and lexicons, and twenty-seven translations, and 180 appendixes, etc., etc. In fact, only occasionally did I even pick up the Bible and read it. That is not to say that I had or have forsaken the Bible, God forbid, for they do testify of Him, the REALITY, the One who was made flesh… not made paper and ink. It’s just when reality hits home, or better said comes home, as in the knowledge of Him comes, a schoolmaster that points to His coming is no longer required. That is exactly what Paul is saying in Gal. 3:24-25.
However, verses often pop into my head when something happens… and believe me… I, along with numerous other brothers and sisters (one very dear to me) who were awakened and now give witness themselves, have been companions through some rough and tough times, some real trials and tribulations, like unto level 5 Hurricanes, in our personal lives. Yet, at the same time, every single one of them I have spoken to or who has written to me has said, and I know what they say is true, that while the world around them was going to hell in a hand basket (a hand crafted one of course), there was a contrasting inner peace and serenity that is almost indescribable and unexplainable in face of the surrounding outside circumstances.
You SEE, they KNOW who and what the Comforter is without reading about Him or looking up the definition in a Greek lexicon. They KNOW, because they relate, and because they experienced it in their lives. They KNOW exactly what their brother John means when he says in Rev. 1:9 “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ…”. And they don’t need some preacher or pastor or Bible scholar to tell them what that verse means… for the Spirit of Truth has already revealed it to them! You see, once the veil is rent and one enters into the kingdom of God, which is nigh at hand, they now possess Him in their heart. He dwells within them. They have that inner peace and patience in the face of worldly things, for the very Prince of Peace now resides within.
I will also tell you that on Sunday, September 21, 2008, for whatever reason so to speak, and I truly cannot for the life of me remember why or how, I found myself reading the 18th chapter of Revelation. Remember, it has not been my norm lately to pick up and read the Bible. But on this occasion I could not put it down for I could I not believe what I was reading. I mean, verses one and two so totally blew me away… I had to take a deep breath… for the following reasons. First, I understood it so completely I didn’t even notice the signification. One reason is because I’ve known for the last 3 ½ years now what the temple is and what heaven and earth signify, and even where they are located, which would be within… as in your heart and your mind. Know ye not that the kingdom of God is within you? Just knowing that, try these verses on for size: Heaven (your heart) is His throne and the earth (your mind) is His footstool. The old heaven and old earth shall pass away! And for some they have passed away!
Anyway, the good news is that the darkness (all over the earth) and gloominess (from being down in the pit) does NOT last forever, only for a period of time, as in a Day of Darkness and Gloominess. But as the SUN begins to rise, as the resurrection begins to take place inside your very being…, the darkness on the earth, that would be in your mind, begins to give way to the Light, and the earth becomes filled with the Glory of God! Oh the prayer “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on EARTH, as it is in Heaven, has a totally new and real meaning… as opposed to what I thought (in my mind) it meant 3 ½ years ago.
In conclusion, I got and understood that powerful message of Rev. 18:1 LOUD and CLEAR, a Great Strong Voice indeed! Wow! And I understood the message in verse 2 that Babylon the Great has fallen, and it has fallen indeed. This I have seen also… in my life and in the life of many of my brothers and sisters who came out of her! And I was so excited I began to write the details of it and I did write several pages. But I haven’t posted it and will most likely not do so until such time as we get to that chapter. Because later that day I was taken to 1 Kings chapter 19 and a few other places, and from that moment I knew I was going to return to take this witness of the Good News of the Kingdom of God to at least this present forum. So when it says in verse one of Revelation one that these “things must shortly come to pass”, they do come to pass, in the lives of His servant sons and daughters. Believe it or not. … to be continued.
