“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
Revelation 1:9-20
A New Revelation of Jesus
As John is seeing this vision of Jesus in the Spirit, He is experiencing a fresh revelation of who Jesus is, even more magnificent than when John and the other apostles saw His resurrected body. John responds just as he should to the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the only Worthy King. Though it is how Jesus responds that has gripped my attention. In all of His Holiness, in all of His glory, Jesus laid His hand on John. He came near John intimately and touched Him. King Jesus extended the right hand of blessing as He spoke truth.
I love what the Apostolic leader of our church shared in a recent meeting. I believe it’s a revelation from Heaven. He said the revival that is coming, the third great awakening, will have one key, central figure: Jesus Himself!
When the Church today realizes and rightly responds to the One who walks in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands there will be a great harvest of souls, even from within the “church.”
This was fresh manna to me as Jesus was seen in John’s vision as one “in the midst of the lampstands.” That’s His rightful place, in the midst of His Church. He is the head of His body the Church!
When Jesus came into this world it wasn’t just those at that inn in Bethlehem that didn’t have room for Him. It was also the Jewish religious leaders AND all the people who had at one time in those 3 years of ministry followed for a miracle or marveled at His authority in great teaching but who also later called out “Crucify!”
Easier to Crucify
I’ve realized that it was easier for them to crucify Jesus than for them to agree to crucifying their own flesh and dying to themselves.
I realized this because it was easier for me to think I was living for Jesus when I didn’t live in full surrender. Honestly I was living like Jesus was still on the cross. When I live like I know Christ is alive and that He is the only Way, the only Truth and the only Life, and that I can’t get to the Father except through Him, then the only way left is to take up my own cross, deny myself and follow Him.
Jesus has come near. He is Immanuel God with us (Matthew 1:23).
And He is also one with the Father (John 10:30). So to be close to Him in love, in daily surrender and to be a living sacrifice is to live in the fear of the Lord in the New Testament way. It was the area of greatest stray and struggle for the Israelites, to follow and live for the Lord alone.
The Spirit-Filled Way
When Jesus walked on earth He showed us how to live the first laid down and spirit-filled life (Luke 4:1;14). It’s why He constantly got alone with the Father, and it’s why He could teach the disciples to pray while they still struggled to stay awake in the garden, until the Holy Spirit was poured out in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit within us testifying of the resurrection of the Lamb that was slain is the only way we will daily die to ourselves to live for and with Jesus.
Our God is a consuming fire. How do we get close and stay close to Him? The answer is that He has to set us on fire as well, and He does this through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
In the Baptism of the Holy Spirit God fills us with His own fire. Then we live to see Jesus as He is: the Lamb that was slain and the triumphant Lion of Judah. In that knowledge we can’t help but share who He is and what He has done for us.
My Prayer
Jesus, I ask for fresh revelation of you today, to look into Your eyes that burn with fire and Your face that shines as brilliant as the sun, knowing at the same time of Your great love for me and for Your church. I contend for those who call upon Your Name reading this to also have a fresh encounter with You, the Living One Who died yet is still alive and is as close as we let You be. I stand in the gap for any blinders to be taken off of our eyes, and that any darkness keeping us from you will be exposed for what it is. Finally, I welcome Your light to cast that darkness out and Your fire to freshly consume us.
In Jesus Name! Halleluah and Amen!
Picture Source:
Painting – Juan Sánchez Cotán, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Timothy Meinberg on Unsplash