After This I Looked...

Revelation 4: 1-2a “¹After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. ^2a At once I was in the spirit,”

Earlier this week I took one of those silly Facebook quizzes, this one to tell me what my greatest fear is by having me simply choose various photos in answer to certain prompts, one prompt that only said to pick a photo, any photo (I chose the bear and have no idea how this affected the outcome). The answer was shocking and has shaken me up. It hit so true to me that I have been reeling from it and I’m still not certain that I am firmly on my feet about it. The answer? “You fear letting yourself down more than anything.” Closely related for me is the fear of failure. I have an active imagination and often picture grand results from endeavors, not unlike the endeavor to write. I fear failure and letting myself down so much that I often torpedo my own efforts to the point where I often don’t start or start so late that it’s doomed to fail but I have at least given myself an excuse for it that deflects from the probability that I was just not good enough. And at this insight I thought “this boy is really messed up, seriously messed up, and needs professional help.”

How does this relate to the book of Revelation and my study of it? Well, I haven’t cracked the book in several days and that’s no way to complete a study. God help me.

This is a Wednesday morning and I’ve just returned from the Men’s Prayer meeting that I haven’t gone to in months. I went this morning upon request to receive prayer for my upcoming school year of mentoring my little guy, Taylor. I’ll be going regularly to meet afterward with my Kids’ Hope prayer partner. On this morning we were lead into three times of quiet reflection, what I call waiting on the Lord. I can’t go into His presence without repentance and so I first repented of being thrown off-base by my personal revelation and the response was, “git back to it!” He can be so down-home sometimes.

Chapter 4 is all about John’s vision of the heavenly throne, the bejeweled God, throne, floor, and the inclusion of a lot of creatures plus the 24 elders on their thrones. The four creatures sing without ceasing Rev 4: 8b “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” And the 24 elders cast their crowns before the throne and sing “¹¹You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Simple Throne

I am a simple man with a simple mind and, hopefully, a simple spirit so I won’t go into all the symbolism that is in this chapter, nor am I likely to dwell on it for any other chapter; maybe I’ll use a post just on that but it will surely need some study. For me, this chapter, Revelation 4, is all about God being worshipped. The fact that John is in the Spirit for this is no coincidence. In the Gospel of John, chapter 4 Jesus tells us straight out that true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth and that the Father is seeking those who do so. This was no parable, it was plain speaking to plain folk like us. The 24 elders abandoned their crowns and thrones and simply adored God and gave honor. I love it when I am going through the day, nothing special or maybe so, but just going along and then I pause and realize that I had been in worship. Those times are…few…and…far…between. I hope to connect the dots.

In His grip, jerry