Revelation 4:1-2 (part 3)

 THE RAPTURE V. 1-2

  A TIME SEQUENCE V.1  After this

A TRUTH SEEN              I looked, and, behold,

A TRESHOLD SECURED   a door was opened in heaven

A TRUMPET SOUND      and the first voice which I heard was

                                       as it were of a trumpet talking with me  

A TRIUMPHANT SUBPOENA which said, Come up hither, and I

                                 will show you things which must be hereafter

Prophetic details are only comprehended from the perspective of Heaven.  The leaders on earth are saying listen to me, elect me to lead, this will be a new beginning and I’ll make things better and create peace for the future.

God speaks from Heaven and says there is change, everything is going to be shaken up and there will be war.  This is not prosperity and peace that is coming in the end time.  This present world scene is on a schedule of increasing trouble with extreme snowballing complications.

The invitation to “come up hither” means don’t just stand on the outside looking through the open door.  Come on in.

If we want the truth about the future we need to listen to the voice that calls us up to Heaven to hear God’s perspective in His Word.

Down here on earth we are listening to the wrong view of things.

A TRANSPORTING SPIRIT V.2  And immediately I was in the Spirit

John yields to God’s Spirit who transports him into an exceptional experience of seeing the infinite God on His throne.  John is taken from the sphere of matter, time and space to the sphere of the Spirit in the power of the Spirit.

H.A. Ironside writes: “He is, in Spirit, caught up, and far above all the mists of this lower scene he beholds a “throne set in heaven,” and a Throne-sitter upon it. The likeness of this august Being he cannot even attempt to portray”.

Baker N.T. states: “John alludes to the three Persons in the Trinity the Father on the throne, the voice of Jesus as a trumpet, and the agency of the Spirit”

William Hendriksen speculates, “When a person is ‘in the Spirit’ and being in that state has a vision, there is a suspension of conscious contact with the physical environment.” Physical organs are not in use during the vision, for the soul assumes their functions. So John sees the throne of God and hears the voice of Jesus”.

There really is no reason to gamble with conjectures of being in enhanced degrees of being in the Spirit to achieve grandiose visions.  It is a wild imagination to think John was translated light years away into a celestial dimension.  The fact that John was immediately in the Spirit doesn’t mean he jumped into a galactic travel ship to Heaven.  There is the possibility of numerous dimensions or sphere surrounding each one of us.

Those with physical limitation see only three dimensions.  Up and down, left and right and in and out is the restraint. But what if there are more then just spatial dimensions?  According to cosmic variance there could be ten to twenty dimensions.

What if Heaven is not up and Hell is not down and Spirit beings are not distant?  What if we are surrounded in the Spirit territories but they exist in differing dimensions.

John may have by the Spirit changed dimensions.  We don’t know that there we’re time limitations.  He may have left time, space and matter and experienced the eternal realm.

Paul wrote when he was taken to the third heaven into paradise that he heard unspeakable things.  He didn’t know if he was in the body or out of the body.

R.C.H. Lenski wrote “Supernatural things have a way of remaining so despite all human attempts to bring them down to natural conceptions”.

We try to define supernatural items but we get glued to our natural skepticism, which is really just another word for distrust and disbelief.

“John’s spiritual faculties were called forth into exercise, and, looking up, he saw heaven opened to his view, as though he had beheld through it, this wonderful, and supernatural sight, which he hereafter describes. The first thing after looking up which attracted his attention was the sound of a voice, inviting him to raise his affections above the earth to heaven; and a promise accompanied the invitation, that he that invited him would show him things which should be hereafter”.

R. Hawker Poor Man’s N. T. Commentary, Vol. 3 Revelation

We develop our spiritual faculties by exercising faith.  Will we have visions with heaven opening into view?  I think God has revealed all that needs to be revealed by what He has recorded in His Word.  It’s our privilege and responsibility to pour over each word and phrase asking His Spirit to open these things to our heart.

“Divine wisdom is hidden in the Scriptures, and the divine content is understood only as one learns to compare spiritual things with spiritual words. God is not just going to reveal His divine wisdom by some kind of visitation or vision. His divine wisdom is hidden in the written Word of God, and the divine content of the Word of God is understood as one learns to compare spiritual things in spiritual words”.

A.G. Fruchtenbaum Vol. 136: The Messianic Bible Collection 

WE ARE TO LEARN WITH A NEW COMPREHENSION

God has revealed truth to us by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2:10; we have received the Spirit of God that we might understand what God has given us 1 Cor. 2:12.  Our comprehension of the past, of the present and of the future is discovered and disclosed by the Spirit of God.

God’s Spirit bears witness with our spirits Rom. 8:16.  It is by God’s Spirit teaching us through His Word that we are God’s children.  He teaches us that we are adopted into a position of possessing all of our full civic status as a mature family member, which is called adoption or son ship.

God’s Spirit teaching us about our position in God’s family includes three aspects of experience.

WE ARE LED WITH NEW COOPERATION Romans 8:14

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

WE ARE LOVED WITH NEW CONFIDENCE Romans 8:15
We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but we have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Father, Father.

WE ARE LIFTED WITH NEW CONDITION Romans 8:17
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

WE ARE TO LISTEN WITH NEW CONSCIOUSNESS

John Butler calls this:

  A CAPACITY “He that hath an ear.” Our ability, assets, and

advantages are given by God

A CHARACTER “Let him hear.”      Be attentive, interested,

and respectful.

  A COMMUNICATION “What the Spirit says.” God’s Word

A COMPENSATION “He that overcomes”

God’s Spirit repeats this 7 times Rev. 2:7; Rev. 2:11; Rev. 2:17; Rev. 2:28; Rev. 3:6; Rev. 3:13; Rev. 3:22

WE ARE TO LEARN A NEW CONCEPT

   TO FEAST ON GOD          Ps. 143:10

AS OUR PURPOSE        Teach me to do Your will;

AS OUR POWER           for You are my God:

AS OUR PERCEPTION   Your Spirit is good;

AS OUR PATH              lead me into the land of uprightness

 

WE ARE TO LEAN ON THE SPIRIT A NEW COMMANDMENT Gal 5:16

The Holy Spirit’s command here is direct and candid:

“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh.” There are only two ways to walk.  Either we are leaning on the Spirit or we are leaning on our flesh.  The Spirit of God lives in us.

1 Cor. 6:19-20 says we are the dwelling place of God.

WE ARE POSSESSED  your body is the dwelling of the Spirit

WE ARE PROHIBITED  you are not your own

WE ARE PURCHASED you are bought

WE ARE PRICY               with a price

WE ARE TO PRAISE   glorify God in your body, and in your spirit,

                                            which are God’s.

We have to decide every moment who we’re going to trust and lean on.  It all becomes a decision of obedience.  Either we rely on the Spirit; John Phillips writes this is: “making ourselves available to Him, moment-by-moment, situation-by-situation, and decision-by-decision”.  This is not an option but mandatory because we are not our own.

We do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Rom. 8:4; if we live by the Spirit let us walk by the Spirit Gal. 5:25; he who sows to the Spirit will reap life eternal life (a life that has the abundance of Heaven) Gal. 6:8; those who are of the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit Rom. 8:5; the fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5:22; the gifts of the Spirit 1 Cor. 12:4–11; walking in the comfort of the Spirit Acts 9:31; serving in the new life of the Spirit, not the old written code Rom. 7:6; to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace Rom. 8:6; since the Spirit of God dwells in us Rom. 8:9; by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body Rom. 8:13; the Spirit helps us in our weakness Rom. 8:26; through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness Gal. 5:5; we pray to be strengthened through God’s Spirit in the inner man Eph. 3:16; eager to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4:3; praying at all times in the Spirit Eph. 6:18; we are worshipping by the Spirit of God Phil. 3:3

THE SPIRIT ENABLES

The power of the Spirit of God enables us to witness. Acts 1:8

THE POWER      You shall receive power,

THE PATIENCE   after that

THE PERSON     the Holy Spirit

THE PROCESS    is come upon you:

THE PLEADING   and you shall be witnesses

THE PURPOSE    unto me.

THE SPIRIT ENHANCES

The power of the Spirit of God is who enhances us with joy, peace, faith and abounding hope.

Romans 15:13

OUR SOURCE          Now the God of hope

OUR SATURATION  fill you with all joy and peace

OUR SECURITY       in believing,

OUR STABILITY      that you may abound in hope,

OUR SUSTAINING   through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

THE SPIRIT EFFECTS

The power of the Spirit of God fills with the wonderful signs of communicating Christ and the effects of changed lives for Jesus.

Romans 15:19 through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God;

THE SPIRIT’S EXPRESSIONS

The power of the Spirit of God makes us capable of expressions that establish others to live in the perception of God’s life.

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

THE SPIRIT’S ENERGY

The power of the Spirit of God is what gives us energy in the things of God

2 Corinthians 5:5 now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

THE REVELATION V.2-3

  A THRONE SET   and, behold, a throne was set in heaven,

                                     and one sat on the throne.

HIS HARDNESS V.3  And he that sat was to look upon like a Jasper

HIS HOLINESS             and a sardine stone:

HIS HONESTY             and there was a rainbow round about the 

                                              throne, in sight like unto an emerald.