Revelation(c) - The Key to Revelation

Rev 1:19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter (KJV).
The (NLT) says it this way....."Write down what you have seen-- both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen later."
   Everything we do has a key to it. Cars require it to be engaged before you can start the thing or even get into it. We use keys to lock up our valuables. Songs are written in it. Without the key to a song,  you don't sing or play it properly. Well, the book of Revelation is no different. When God had the Apostle John write the apocalypse He gave him a key. Like an automobile, this literary key will help you unlock this marvelous book and provide smooth intellectual and apocalyptic understanding of what God is teaching in this study.
Thanks for joining me in this walk through the Word. Let's put the key into the book of The Revelation and open it for our understanding. The key is the three part division found in Rev. 1:19. "Write down the things, (first) which thou hast seen, (second) and the things which are, (third) and the things which shall be hereafter."
Because the book of Revelation is a succession of consecutive events from beginning to the end, the events are to be taken in the order as God gave them, and not according to some person's own whimsical or preconceived idea as to their occurrence. God clearly uses His written 'key' to explain the three time periods of how things will happen, as well as what will happen in each time period.
  Part#1 of the key to Revelation is, the things "which thou hast seen.' This is what John was seeing at the time of this vision. I believe it was so that John knew with certainty and unmistakable conviction that what he was about to write was given to him from the mind of Jehovah God.  So John's first vision is meant sell him on the magnanimity of the Author Himself, and the dependability of that source. This is no menial dream, make no mistake about it.  Jesus is saying to John, "you are writing about Me, and you know Me, but the Me that you know will be an obstacle as we proceed.  What you know of Me as Jesus the Messiah, the earthly Savior, will obstruct you concerning the universiality of the apocalypse - and the apocalyptice events forthcoming." So, Jesus appears to John in so much grandeur, and with so much glory and power, (and blows him up inside is head). John sees the magnificent vision of Christ in the midst of the candlesticks (Rev.1), the beloved of the Lord saw the cosmic Creator, the Alpha, the yesterday, today and forever; maybe we can call it a glimse of the Shikinah glory, and it was magnificent to him. So this first division of Revelation is 'the things which thou seest.'  Rev.1:19; 4:1.
Part #2 of the key is, "write the things which are," that is, the things concerning the churches then and those which should exist throughout the Church Age up to the rapture. This Part #2 includes Rev.2-3.  Special Note: This is the only part of the entire book of Revelation that is now being fulfilled. When the church is raptured  before the begining of the fulfillment of any detail of Rev. 4-22, the messages to the churches that exist at this time will cease to apply to the those left behind from the Rapture. The Church age will be finished and the things which must be fulfilled after, will begin to be fulfilled.
Part #3, the last part of the key is, "write the things which shall be hereafter." These are the things that take place with the churches remaining who have not been raptured. Everything that starts from Chapter 4 to the conclusion of the Book is considered in Part 3 (which is quite intense and something, I am certain, that none of us want to be here for!!)

Revelation (b) - About the Name

It is startling to me, that so many commentaries, studies and books name the book of Revelation: 'The Revelation of St. John the Divine', (after a man instead of Christ). I guess many of those authors never noticed that God, Himself, named the book in the very first verse, Rev.1:1, 'The Revelation of Jesus Christ.' The word 'revelation' and the word 'apocalypse,' are synonymous and are both derived from the Greek work apokalupsis, which means 'to unveil, reveal or uncover, lay bear, make naked' {Lu 2:32; Ro. 2:5; 1 Cor.1:7; 2 Cor. 12:7; Gal. 1:12} and numerous other references. The Hebrew origin means 'to lift up a curtain,' so as to clearly show what has been covered.
The Revelation had its beginning in the very mind of the Godhead. The Godhead is the trinity and this consists of the Father, the logos (the Son, Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. So Jesus had a part of the revelation in eternity past. But when He was born in the manger as the, 'baby Jesus,' He took on human flesh, emptying Himself of His divine position.  The word used for this is 'kenosis' which means 'to empty'. Our Savior set aside His power, knowledge, authority, His position as the logos, the creator and maker of everything that exists. For a time here on earth in the flesh He (Jesus) had no heavenly authority, He was simply human in His nature.  The Son of Mary and Joseph the carpenter, was born in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth, giving up His heavenly position for the purpose of Calvary, so as to become the human sacrifice for the sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden. The whole purpose of His birth was to break the curse of sin and death.
I chose two scriptures to help our understanding of this 'kenosis', this emptying. The first description is found in Hebrews 2:7, "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels," and the other in Hebrews 4:15, "but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin".  These aren't exhaustive but they do capture a little of what He did, the 'emptying' we are explaining. The following are some other references on this subject; Rom8:3; Gal. 4:4; Phil. 2:7-9; Isa. 7:14, 11:1-2; Heb. 5:3; Isa 53:2-10; and last but not least Heb.10:5, (Is that a boatload of periods, commas and semi-colons or what)?
 Those thirty three and a half years of His life here on earth are referred to as His "Sonship." Before those 33 1/2 years, from eternity, He was the Logos, the Word. (Read John 1:1-14). As God, in the Trinity, He had no beginning (Mic. 5:2; Jn. 1:1-2). But as a man, He had a beginning, was begotten, was born and had a birthday, and became known as God's Son. Many scriptures tell us that the prophets foretold a time when God was going to have a son and where he would be born.  It would be through a virgin in the 'fullness of  the time,' (Gal. 4:4). He would be the son of humans and emptied for a time of His divine everything.
Now, Christ will always be referred to as Jesus, and numerous eternal titles for Him such as Prince of Peace, Messiah, Lamb of God, will eternally reference His work as our Savior on earth. But when God, in His time, works out all the details for the consumation of the ages, Jesus will return to His glorious position in the Trinity as "logos", to be adored by the universal family as 'the King of Kings and LORD of LORD's, of which we belong.
What's in a name? Well, let's just say that at the name of Jesus, EVERY knee will bow! (Phil 2:10)
(Next: 'The Key to Revelation'.)

Revelation (a)

I will be writing this blog series intermittently along with my regular blog, but this will be as a series on the book of 'Revelation'.  I hope you enjoy this series of writings and that they help you to begin your life as a 'watchman'. Yes, a watchman. He is the one assigned the task of looking, searching and penetrating the nothingness in order to observe the predator who has moved within it.
 A watchman's job is to watch and warn so that appropriate measures can be taken with reasonable speed and preparation.  Without an observant watchman, the enemy can come down quickly and we would find ourselves unprepared to take the proper measures, whatever those measures would be.
   So the word for you today, dear reader, is to be a 'watchman'! You are to have your saved and sanctified eyes on Jesus. Everything you do in life is to make sure that if Jesus comes, your reservoir of oil is with you and your lamps are filled to the brim. 
?What are you watching for you may ask? It might be better to note some of the things you are not watching for......you are not watching the nations. The news will never hurt you so long as you're not in it. The Jews in Jerusalem, or your personal friends are also not suspects. You are watching for the most dangerous enemy you will ever encounter other than the devil's minions themselves.
The enemy you are looking for is the one who will fail you in trials, will abandon you when he has sworn to stay beside you, or has gone to sleep when he has promised you he would stand guard faithfully for you...that enemy is as dangerous and unscrupulous as Judas, as deceitful as Tamar, as controlling as Jezebel and as unpredictable as the Pharisees and Sadducee's. The enemy you have to watch is, 'you'.....
There are seven churches in Revelation 2-3, each one receiving various warnings, but common to each one of them is this fact: they are all filled with 'you's.'  Yes 'you'...the born again and many times Pentecost-filled believers. And to each church there is a warning of a blight with those dear ones in those churches. God has something He needs to straighten out within those houses of worship. The 'you's' have stopped watching, lost focus, something has captured them other then Jesus Christ.
In this present "Church age" (which I believe is drawing to a close), you are responsible to guard your heart; to endure to the end, to hold fast, run the race, gain the prize. The Bible is filled with phrases teaching us that we are to be responsible 'watchman' to 'watch' our personal faith so that it stays strong against predators. 
So, before we begin Revelation, the warning must be to you, that little in Revelation and the study of it matters if you are not transformationally sound. If you are not right with Jesus and have less than an intimate, personally close, deep and warm relationship with your God, your Savior, then it would be wise for you to sit down and forget Revelation and get right first with the God who wrote it.

(Next article is "About the Name".)

Missing Our Greatest Breakthroughs? part 2

We left Part I of this blog by asking if we could be missing some of our greatest needed breakthroughs because we fail to fast. Earlier in the article we had talked about a three-twain cord (Eccl. 4:12). Well if you turn to Mark 4:8, 20, you can read of another three-twain reference which starts with a 30, 60 or 100 fold return. I like to think of it this way, when we pray, we get a thirty-fold blessing and when we give and are generous we get a sixty-fold blessing but if we pray, give and fast as a normal part of our lives, the hundredfold return can be released. If that is the case, you have to wonder what blessings are not being released.  What answers to prayer are not getting through? What bondage's are not being broken because we fail to fast?
Matthew tells the story of a father who had a demon possessed son.  I am sure many of you readers know the story, but if you don't and want to refresh it in your mind, it is found in Matthew 17. There were years of suffering for that father who stood by terror stricken as he watched his son suffer with severe convulsions.  As the boy grew older, the attacks became so brutal that the boy would often throw himself into a fire or at times try to drown himself. A spirit of suicide tormented him constantly. The whole thing came to a crisis point where it was life threatening.  He brought the possessed son to the disciples but those men knew only what Jesus had taught them to that point. I'm sure they prayed the best and hardest and with the most compassion that they could muster but it was to no avail. They didn't have a full tool box. You can only do the things you know...what you don't know, you can't do. Enter a perfect teaching opportunity where Jesus is in the vicinity and the
desperate father takes his son to Him.  He approaches Jesus and says, 'Lord have mercy on my son: for he is a lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him" (Matt.17:15).
At this time, Jesus, His heart full of love and filled with compassion and just about ready to burst out with mercy, tenderly greets the father.  Now the father is on edge because Jesus is a rabbi, and he himself a lonely broken and worn out old man. Jesus comforts that father, and the father now is drawing strength from the warmth and tenderness of the Messiah who welcomed him. Jesus asks him what it is that he is so distraught and in tears over and the father looks at the Master with lips quivering and eyes weeping, turns and points to his son who is now in a state of agitation because the devil in him knows who Jesus is!! (Remember this "bondage maker" is a created being from yesterday past and this devilish thing knows exactly who Jesus is.) The Lord goes over to the boy, "rebukes the devil; and he departed out of him, (v.18).
But what made the difference? After all, Matthew 10:1 tells us that Jesus had given the disciples power to cast out evil spirits and to heal every disease.  So why couldn't they cast out the demon and cure the son from this terror? The disciples came to Jesus later that night and asked Him.  Lord, why not us? Jesus told them, "Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:20-21).
OK, we have all read this section many times and if you ask most readers they will focus on the statement, "and nothing shall be impossible unto you." I have preached on this same thing before as well. Jesus told them they needed faith and with that, just the faith of a mustard seed. But that wasn't the whole of the matter.  A while before this incident at the beginning of Jesus' ministry the Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert for forty days and forty nights. ?Do you remember that? What did Jesus do while out in that desert?  He prayed and fasted...He the Master miracle worker, the Creator of all things, was in the desert for forty days and nights fasting...giving up food and comfort. Yes, He just didn't give up food...he fasted companionship, a soft, comfy bed and blanket, He fasted social happenings and friends....come' on work with me here. What is out in the desert that's fun?
......"howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."  For our Savior, casting out that stubborn demon wasn't impossible at all.
But here is the lesson for us...if Jesus could have accomplished all that  He came to do among men without fasting, why would He fast?  The Son of God fasted because it powered Him up! He was juiced after and during a fast. Supernatural things were released that way...The hundredfold was released in him so that what He did in private (fasting) was seen openly in (miracles).
see you in part 3of 4.

Missing Our Greatest Breakthrough part #1 of

We all have some things that cause us to miss the greatest breakthroughs needed in our lives. During this series of articles that I'll be doing during the weeks of January/2014, I will be blogging my little fingers off about fasting.
I believe in it...I believe it is a powerful tool to help God's people receive a bunch of blessings. Yeah....a bunch. Fasting is good for the body...it is tremendous to the soul, it is impressive to God and it is even better as a game changer in life.
Let's clear the air about what a fast is. Refraining from food is not a fast. That is a diet. But refraining from food for a spiritual purpose.....that dear one's is a fast. From a biblical perspective, fasting has and is to be a normal part of a strong and vital relationship with God. David, the Goliath killer,
communicates that to us in Psalms 42 where he credits fasting (42.1-3) as the means to having a deeper(42.7), more intimate and powerful relationship with the Lord.
When a person deliberately, and with a purpose for spiritual growth, eliminates food from his/her diet for a given period of time, that person's spirit becomes uncluttered by the things around them and super sensitive to God. As David stated, "Deep calls unto deep"(Ps 42.7). David was fasting. His hunger and thirst for God exceeded his basic desire for food. That kind of want for God made it so that he could find God's presence and comfort in any situation. Even when Absalom forced David into a short term exile from his God-appointed throne in Jerusalem.
For anyone who has ever experienced an intimate relationship with the Lord and the numerous blessings that come with His favor--your whole perspective of life changes. You are not a victim anymore and you will never be conquerable anymore. You realize that His favor has come, in a huge part, from fasting. 
During Jesus' ministry on this planet, one of things He did was to teach and demonstrate to His disciples the principles of the kingdom of God. If you've spent any reasonable time in your Bible, you know that those principles conflict with the worldly life of today - and of back then. Jesus taught a tremendous message titled 'the Sermon on the Mount' (Matt. chpt 5-7). In chapter 6, He teaches us the pattern by which each of us is to live as a child of God.  That pattern deals with three main issues of a Christian's duty: giving, praying and fasting.  The Bible records Jesus' words this way, "When you give..."When you pray"....and "When you fast." Making it perfectly clear to everyone, that fasting, giving and praying are to be a normal part of a Christian's life.
King Solomon, earlier in biblical history wrote a book for all of Israel to read and learn from. In that book he made a very special point about strength. He uses a rope(cord,wire) for his example. You can find this illustration for yourself in Eccles. 4:12, where Solomon says, "a person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord(rope, wire) is not easily broken" (NLT). And that is the way it is when giving, praying and fasting are joined together in the life of a believer. It creates a trilogy of actions and efforts, a three-twain cord that is not easily broken. Do you remember when Batman was on TV every week? They would put up the words; "Bang, Bam, Boom" when he and Robin were in a skirmish. These three words described-with excitement- Batman and Robin's conflict and their beating up on their opponents.
Well to the Devil,  it is not "Bang, Bam, Boom",  it is praying, fasting and giving. Through these three, we open the pathway to victory in our lives. To the victor goes the spoils, [so we get to drive off in the batmobile!] Could it be, oh lover of Christ, that we may be missing our biggest breakthroughs because we fail to utilize all three of these amazing tools? More specifically: fasting.
C u in part 2.

Achilles-the Heel Snatcher

A friend of mine from church passed this article on to me after I tore my achilles playing basketball.  The article is written by Mart DeHaan of RBC Ministries/Daily Bread, October/2013, w/o permission but I will pass it on anyway feeling crediting him with the article is satisfactory.
In Greek mythology, Achilles is a great warrior who dies from a poisonous arrow that lodges in his heel.  Prior to his birth, a prophecy had foreseen his untimely and early death. So when he was born, his mother dipped him in the River Styx that was thought to give magical protection.  Holding him by the back of the foot, she let the waters wash over his body. Achilles' (the baby's name) heel was the one place that remained dry and thus, unprotected.
This mythical account of a mighty warrior's "vulnerable heel" may sound familiar to readers of the Bible. In the first pages of Genesis, we find a foreshadowing of a son of Eve who would heroically crush the head of a great deceiving serpent while receiving a mortal strike to the heel(3:15).
For thousands of years, this obscure prophecy remained a mystery. Yet the lies and deception that gave rise to the prediction are woven into the bigger story of the Bible.
Just a few chapters later, Genesis introduces us to another deceiver who also went after the heel of his victim. This time, however, the aggressor and victim show up in the innocence of newborn twins.  As they came into the world, the second of the two infants grabbed the heel of his firstborn brother. The younger brother was therefore given the name Jacob, which means "heel-grabber" or "supplanter."
For whatever reason, the name was prophetic.  Jacob became a brother and son who did not deserve to be trusted. While still a young man, he defrauded his older brother out of his firstborn inheritance and family blessing.  Then, to make matters worse, Jacob repeatedly lied to his father who was too old and blind to see what was happening(Gen 27:1-29). Jacob's deceit was so bold that he had to leave home to avoid being killed by the older twin he had defrauded. This is where the story becomes even more difficult to imagine.  After all of Jacob's lies, God appeared to him in a dream and predicted that, like his grandfather Abraham, Jacob had been chosen to be part of a legacy that would bring blessing to all the families of the world (Gen 28:13-14). In the process, God promised to be His ever-present provider and protector (Gen 28:15).
The prophecy seems to defy moral logic. Jacob didn't deserve such honor. He was a born liar. How could God bless someone who seemed to have so much in common with the original snake-like deceiver of Eve? How could such a man become the father of the 12 tribes of Israel?  Yet, in the unfolding drama of the Bible, Jacob turned out to be a picture of "every man." The prophet Jeremiah describes all of our hearts as being more deceitful than any of us can imagine(Jer.17:9).
Now, fast forward to the event that sheds light on the complex intrigue and mystery of an ancient prophecy.  As the sun set over Jerusalem, a rabbi by the name of Jesus shared a Passover meal with fellow sons of Jacob.  As he broke bread with His friends, God's innocent Passover Lamb suggested that one of them was going to lift a heel against Him (John 13:18).
In Jesus' day, the idea of lifting a heel against another person had become a Middle Eastern way of expressing disrespect and contempt. Whether it was an idiomatic expression that can be traced back to the prophecy of the garden might be difficult to prove. But what can be said is that nowhere does "lifting one's heel" in contempt come to greater significance than in the way the ancient prophecy of Genesis 3:15 was about to be fulfilled. Nor could anyone have imagined that the One who would use His heel to crush the head of the Serpent would first liken Himself to a snake.
Yet, sometime before the Last Supper, Jesus had done just that.
Just before saying what God was going to do to show His love for the world(John 3:16), Jesus had predicted, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness[Numbers 21:9],so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him' (John 3:14-15).
Jesus let it happen. The Serpent struck His heel through the nails of crucifixion. The blow was fatal. Jesus died.
Yet, three days later, Christ broke the power of death. Rising from the dead, He crushed the head, and the case, of the accuser of our souls.
What wisdom and irony that God would use Satan's attempt to lift the heel against Jesus as a means of putting the Serpent himself under the crushing foot of God.

A Zoe Life

Matt 19:16-19
16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honor thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  (KJV)
In this passage of the Bible, a man who we call the rich young ruler, comes to Jesus and asks Him a very serious question. He respects Jesus and feels assured that this miracle worker can answer his inquiry. The rich young ruler desires something that every person wants to know: something about what takes place after this life, something about eternal life, something about life after this one.
It is a very real question, a very deep issue. When you think about it, no one is searching for eternal death or trying to find ways to die.
We as Christians know that eternal life is not merely what we will experience someday when we pass on; our eternal "life" destination begins when we make Jesus the Lord of our life. As a Christian, we're aware that eternal life is the very life of God.  It is that which produces fulfillment, regardless of situations or circumstances. It is the very life of God that we possess within our spirits.
In the question posed to Jesus by the rich young ruler, the word that is used in Jesus' time for life  is zoe. It is the same word that is used in the Gospel of John when Jesus said, "In Him (Jesus) was life (zoe), and the life (zoe) was the light of men.
But what does Zoe mean? Zoe life is the very life of God.  It is the essence of His being and the personification of His character.  It is that which can only be received from Him because He is the point of its origin.  Did you get that last part....it is life received from Him because He (Jesus) is the point of its origin.  In other words it begins in Him, flows out to us from Him and also now, get this, since He is the origin, what we receive is a part of Him. 
Now think about this, Jesus could have given a lot of different answers to the question of what you need to do to experience life. He could have said, you need to pray more.  He could have said that you must be the servant of all, or you must give a "seed" of a certain amount of money (don't get me started on that one!)  Jesus could have told the man to do a 21 day fast. But that's not what He said. Jesus told the rich young ruler (and I'm quoting Jesus' very own words, right out of His mouth, {Matthew 19:16-19, }"if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments". "The inquirer said to Him, "?Which ones?" Jesus said, "You shall not murder', 'You shall not commit adultery', 'You shall not steal', 'You shall not bear false witness', 'Honor your Father and your Mother', and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus told the rich young ruler without blinking an eye that life (Zoe) begins by keeping the commandments.
 In light of much of what is being taught in churches today, that is a pretty strange statement!  Jesus said that the key to the longing of man and his most fundamental desire is to keep God's commandments.  Jesus connected Zoe life; the life begining in God and flowing out to us, to the commandments...hmmmmmmmm.
The problem today is that we have separated the personal commitment of receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and its connection to godly behavior and conduct. There are men trying to negate the necessity of righteous behavior and holy living. ?Why. Well, we are now being told that some may feel condemned if we say anything about sin.  We are told that raising a standard of righteousness and holy living is something that is unattainaable and will therefore cause many to give up.  We are told that the preaching of the Ten Commandments and holy living is "law" and not grace. That it's a thing of the past. Obviously, Jesus did not get that memo!