I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lamp stands, and among the lamp stands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. Revelations 1:12-16
The first thing that I want you to notice about John's encounter with the Lord is that it was a personal encounter. Each of us is called to a personal encounter with the Lord. Sometimes they are awe inspiring and magnificent other times they are ordinary and mundane. Your message may not seem profound to you, but it is profound to God, because to Him it is personal. I have a friend who had such an encounter, he was given one word, “sing” another was told “do my work.” God wants to speak to his people. I know some believers over use “God said” but I am more concerned for believers who never say, “God said” our God is a talking God.
In regards to the lamp stands and stars the Bible tells us what they mean. “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamp stands are the seven churches.” Revelations 1:20. John is writing letters dictated by God to angels and churches with specific geographic regions. There appears to be a mutually accountability between the angelic realm and the individual's role in establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. Daniel 10 is most informative about this issue.
An angel is speaking to Daniel, he says “Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.” Daniel 10: 12-13 The prince of Persia and Michael are both referencing angels in this passage.
This verse confirms angelic rank, and geographic assignment consistent with John’s writing. It tells us that some messages don’t get to us without a fight wrought in the ring of fasting and prayer. John Bunyan said, “pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God and a scourge to Satan. Martyn Lloyd Jones encourages us to always obey the impulse to pray. The message of John is birthed by such an impulse. What would God birth through us if we obeyed the impulse to pray? What limitations have we placed on ourselves by not shielding our souls and scourging Satan?
I pray that each one reading this blog will enter a new realm of praying, beginning with its writer. That we will see more, believe bigger and hear clearer. John message was personal. Ours is too. God wants us to know the height and width of his love. He does that by laboring beside us and speaking with us throughout the task. John's task was to take dictation in heaven. Do you really believe that God needs a secretary? No, he does not but the Son of man, a term associated with his total dominion over all things, condescends to fellowship with mankind. That fellowship is even shared in prayer. “our father, who art in heaven” Jesus says.
The Apostle Paul said in regards to his prayer “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
The full measure involves relationship with the angelic realm that is overlooked in modern Christian experience 1 Corinthians 6:3, indicates that we will judge angels. Most commentators seem to limit that judgment to fallen angels only. The how and the why are not clear in this passage. As we continue in future blogs on the book of Revelations I am trying to understand why God wrote both to angels and churches in these passages, what is clear is they too receive assignments from a white haired, blazing eyed robed man, who just happens to be the Lord God Almighty
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