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We have no ability within ourselves to love Jesus with our all, unless we encounter Him as One with a heart of a Bridegroom who loves us passionately and gives us His all (1John 4:19). More than saving us from hell’s fire, the Gospel is about God saving us to become His Bride. He is looking for a Bride who will love and trust Him. When we begin to realize how deeply Jesus loves us, we will have the power within us to love Him (Matt 22:37). Similarly, to have confidence in Jesus and to grow in our trust in Him (Proverbs 3:5-6), we must have assurance of His love and His ability as a leader. He is a good leader who is both able and willing. He has the wisdom to come up with the best plans for us and He has the power to bring them to pass. More than that, He wants the best plans for us to be realized. Our assurance is in His ability to lead. 2 Cor. 2:14 speaks of the triumphant procession that we will experience as we walk with God. More than experiencing victory in Christ, this verse assures us that God will always lead. There are two key words here: one is that He will lead, another is that He will always be there to lead. This will help us overcome the fear of stepping out or even fear of failure as we put our confidence in His ability to lead and guide us. Do not put our ability to follow Jesus, but put our confidence in His ability to lead us.

Psalm 23 – Jesus as our Shepherd and Great Leader

This Psalm powerfully portrays Jesus as our Shepherd. Jesus assures us that we do not have to worry and can trust in Him. He is our good Shepherd who has gone through the journey before us, and He is able to lead, protect and provide for us.

The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want. (verse 1) 

David uses the metaphor “Shepherd” as it is a profession the Israelites could relate to, and additionally speaks of one who is in close proximity to and intimate with His sheep. Sheep are known to be “dumb” animals that simply follow the rest of the flock. David rightly refers to us as sheep as many times we simply follow others or the ways of the world without much thought. Yet, our confidence is that Jesus is our Good Shepherd who He will lead us, protect us and provide for us, no matter how “dumb” we are. God created each of us and knows how we are wired (Psa. 139). He knows how to lead us and He will take care of us in this life as we seek to follow Him (Matt. 6:33). Jesus also assures us that we will have no lack. If, and when, we have a need, He provides for us. This is the Kingdom principle of finance and prosperity. Many confuse “having no lack” with God promising to prosper us financially. In the Bible, when the word “prosper” is mentioned, it primarily referred to the prospering of our inner man (soul / heart) and not to material things.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. (verse 2) 

We can rest in His provision for us. Just as a shepherd knows that his sheep need to eat from “green pastures” and will lead them there, God knows our need for sustenance and will provide for us. God does not promise that we will not have turbulent times and uncertainty, but He assures us that He will lead us through them triumphantly. We can be at peace and not afraid when the shakings of life come because He will be with us and He will walk through them with us. He will lead us beside the still waters.

He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. (verse 3) 

Jesus is committed to heal and bring restoration – emotional, physical and spiritual – to all of our past. He does this “for His name’s sake”. He will help us to arrive where He has destined for us to be, and He will help us grow in righteousness. He is our Shepherd who is able to lead and guide us into righteousness. He is committed to make us better.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (verse 4) 

We will fear no evil because He is with us. There are moments in our lives where everything seems to fall apart; yet our confidence is that He is with us and will never leave us (Heb 13:5). We will not fear death or the threat of death, because He is with us. He uses His rod like a King to fend off our enemies and His staff as a Shepherd to lead us. Having this assurance will bring us comfort.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. (verse 5) 

In the midst of our enemies, God invites us to sit down and commune with Him. The cup refers to the cup of our “marriage covenant” with our Bridegroom God. Every time we take Holy Communion and we lift up the cup, it is in remembrance of this covenantal relationship. We remember that He is coming back for us (1 Cor.11:26). In the midst of our enemies, Jesus wants us to remember His commitment to us and say to Him, “Come back for me”.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (verse 6) 

If Jesus is our Leader, then goodness and mercy will follow us. Mark 16:20 further says that miracles and wonders will follow us as we follow Jesus. Because Jesus is our Shepherd, we can be confident that we will be at the place that Jesus has destined for us – near Him and with Him forever. David longed to be in the house of the Lord. He had the assurance that despite his heavy commitment and schedule as king and ruler over Israel, he would dwell with God and be with Him forever. We have no power to trust God with all our heart (Prov 3:5-6) until we encounter Jesus as our Bridegroom and our good Shepherd. May we put our trust in Him as our great Leader!

by W. Choong

Mention the word “meditation” to many 21st Century Christians, and the likelihood would be that one could receive quizzical expressions on their faces. In our fast-paced and highly-networked societies, the very idea of meditation – retreating into the quiet and beholding the very Word of God – remains a remote concept. As the famed psychiatrist Carl Jung once remarked: “Hurry is not of the Devil, it is the Devil.”

But the fact is that meditation has been the meat and potatoes to sustained growth in a Christian’s walk with the Lord Jesus. From Catholic to Protestant, from Eastern Orthodox to Western Free Church, we are encouraged to “live in His presence in uninterrupted fellowship.”[1] The Russian mystic Theophan the Recluse said: “To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all seeing, within you.” And in more recent times, the Lutheran martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, when asked why he meditated, replied: “Because I am a Christian.”[2]

While the practice of meditation seems to be a difficult concept in theory – and even more formidable in practice – the truth is that meditation is not difficult, and even easy, and enjoyable! As Richard Foster writes in his classic Celebration of Discipline, meditation is the ability to hear God’s voice and to obey it.[3] Moses, for example, learned how to hear His voice and obey it. Exodus 33:11 talks about Moses speaking to the Lord “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”

Another way of understanding meditation is to see it as the activity of calling to mind, thinking over, dwelling on and applying to oneself the various things one knows about the works, ways, personality, purposes and promises of God. As J.I. Packer put it, meditation is the “activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God.”[4] Simply put, meditation enables us to focus our entire being on the very nature of God.

Instances of meditation are littered across the Bible. The first Psalm talks about the man whose “delight is in the law of the Lord.” (Psalm 1:2). The prophet Jeremiah spoke about the word of God being “like a fire” and hammer that breaks the rock into pieces (Jer 23:29). Jesus Himself took time from His busy time on earth to withdraw and contemplate the Father (Matt 14:13)

It is true that meditation helps us to hear His voice and thus obey His Word. But ultimately meditation is about the inner transformation of the Christian’s spiritual walk. Many a times, we feel that we are too weak to fulfil the requirements of God’s standards. But when we meditate on the Word, we interact with and encounter the very Living Word Himself. The Word, after all, is a Living Person with emotions and feelings. Such encounter will, over time, change something in our hearts, such that we’d love Him more, and become more like Jesus.

The change on the inside is imperceptible at times, and gradual, but it happens over time. A key verse is 2 Cor 3:18:

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The verse here is powerful, focussed as it is about the 9 aspects of beholding God (i.e. “we all,” “with unveiled face,” “beholding God,” “in a mirror,” “glory of the Lord,” “transformed,” “into the same image,” “from glory to glory” and “as by the Spirit.” Our God is a generous God! With a little effort on our part, He gives to us an eternal reward – the promise of being transformed into His very likeness! When the Apostle Paul wrote about mirrors, the mirrors in his time were not the mirrors of today that give a perfect reflection. Rather, the mirrors of his time were made of metal that gave a dim view of one’s own image. As Paul described it, our beholding of the Lord is “dim,” like the images in the mirrors of Paul’s time. We gaze but dimly, lacking clarity and focus in our process of coming before Him in prayer and meditation. Paul elaborates on this theme in 1 Cor 13:12, when he writes about how we see in a mirror “dimly, but then face to face (with God)” Still, such “dim gazes” and a lack of focus enable us – through meditation – to transform ourselves into the very image of the uncreated God!

Granted, meditation sounds hard, but in practice is not so. One way to meditate is to take a truth from the Bible itself and ask the Holy Spirit to breathe living revelation of this truth into our hearts. If we meditate on say, Revelation 4:8 about “holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God almighty,” we might think that God is pure and without sin. As we dwell on this and ask the Holy Spirit for revelation, we would realise that He is transcendent – that is, He is far greater than anything, and above and beyond our imagination. He is the utterly “better than” God (Songs 1:2, Ps 84:10, Ps 63:3)! Such understanding will create a change in our hearts, of eternal impact. This slow but gradual change fuels the hunger in us to seek out the unsearchable riches of Christ even more (Eph 3:8)! The meditation cycle repeats, and before we know it, we are under the Master’s hand, the dull clay of our hearts are being shaped and transformed into the likeness of Jesus.

As the Holy Spirit inspires and expands Houses of Prayer across the earth, meditation is also a powerful practice to employ in such places. The prayer room is not only about worship, interceding the things of His heart and music. It is about encountering God. And meditation in the fiery furnace of intercessory worship will transform our cold hearts into burning and shining lamps (Jn 5:35), ready to receive the Bridegroom when He returns!

Again, meditation in the House of Prayer is not difficult. During a devotional or apostolic set, when a worship leader is leading the people in the prayer room, one simply has to open up the Word, engage our hearts and allow the worship songs being sung to facilitate one’s meditation. As we listen to the prayers being offered in the room, such prayers can also illuminate our meditation.

In the end, meditation is not merely about growing in knowledge about God, but growing in our knowledge of God. The two concepts constitute a world of difference. One might know everything about Barack Obama from what we read or hear about him, but it is a different thing altogether to know him personally as a friend. The same applies to the Lord Jesus.

The Lord Jesus is not boring. He is boring to us because we haven’t pressed in to know Him personally. I keep an electronic notebook that helps me write down the sweet nuggets of His Word that is impressed on me as I meditate in the House of Prayer. In a matter of 3-4 years of meditation and note-taking, I was pleasantly surprised that I had “accumulated” more than 160 notes of His Word to me. Most times, the notes were insights I received from Him about His Word. The sweeter notes were those that indicated His passion and desire for me, and how He sees me. And over time, I realise that I’ve grown to love His Word – and more than that, love the Word who wrote the Word. The lesser things of life are still there, but they have a lesser hold. As the author of the song “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” wrote, as we turn our gaze on Him, the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

As C.S. Lewis once said:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”[5]

In the new year, let us press in to experience the very pleasure of experiencing Him through meditation!

References [1] Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1989, p. 23 [2] Ibid, p. 23 [3] Ibid, p. 21 [4] J.I. Packer, Knowing God, InterVarsity Press, 1993, p. 23 [5] C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, New York, Harper Collins, 2001, p. 16

by William Choong

We live in unprecedented times in the early 21st century. At a time when there is increasing prosperity, technological advances and interconnectedness among countries of the world, there are also growing challenges such as religious divisions, a widening rich-poor gap and the threat of climate change. The same contrast can be found in the spiritual dimension.

As the Lord spoke in Isaiah 60:1 – 2, the glory of the Lord will shine on the Church at the End-of-the-Age, such that she will burn and shine for Him with unprecedented glory and power. This glory, however, will come at a time when a deep darkness looms over the land. The light is getting brighter as the darkness is becoming darker. The greatest revival and crisis in history is soon to come. In short, the darkness will grow – but so will the glory of His light!

One manifestation of His glory is the raising of a global worship and prayer movement, focused on 24/7 worship and prayer. Just fifty years ago, the entire notion of unceasing prayer before the throne of God was relatively unheard of (although 24/7 prayer has many precedents through history). In the past 10 to 20 years, however, the Holy Spirit has raised up thousands of new houses of prayer across the world. In 1984, the number of 24/7 houses of prayer totaled less than 25. Today there are more than 10,000 – and most of the growth has been in the past 10 years. According to Mike Bickle, Director of the International House of Prayer at Kansas City, such staggering momentum cannot be due to human ingenuity; rather it has to be the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. This is a definite sign that the Lord is returning soon! ¹

Asia has not been left out in God’s grand plan to prepare for the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 42:10, Scripture prophesied that praise and worship would be offered up to Him across the earth. In Asia, houses of prayer are emerging in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and mainland China, to name a few.

Again, this is all part of God’s divine orchestration and we stand at a critical juncture in our nation’s history. The Holy Spirit is visiting His people with power as darkness continues to increase. It is darkest just before the dawn for we know through the Word of God that a great awakening is soon to sweep across the nations. We look with confidence to God’s promise to pour out His Spirit on all flesh to empower His people to bring the gospel to all nations. What a privilege to live in this awesome hour of history!

The Spirit is speaking about this outpouring even as we see this crisis looming. We are already in the early days of the great End-Time outpouring of the Spirit (Joel 2:28 – 32). In this great revival the Spirit will release the miracles seen in the book of Acts and the book of Exodus combined and multiplied on a global scale. The greatest outpouring of the Spirit will be released through the unprecedented worship and prayer that the Lord is raising up at the End-of-the-Age!

The implications of all these events are staggering, to say the least. Christians in Asia have a unique call in the kingdom of God, to build houses of prayer that will pray the very things of His heart and cooperate with His divine will to prepare for Jesus’ return.

We are calling out to all intercessors, worship leaders, musicians, singers and anyone else who has the heart to establish this House for the LORD to join us in keeping this fire burning continuously in Singapore!

To find out more…

References ¹ Mike Bickle, “The Call to be a Full-Time Intercessory Missionary,” http://www.ihopkc.org/intercessorymissionaries/

David’s flight from Saul is a period in which a large number of his psalms were written. This is commonly referred to as the “Songs of the Outlaw”. Fourteen psalms begin with the superscriptions linking them to specific events in the life of David (Ps. 3; 7; 18; 30; 34; 51; 52; 54; 56; 57; 59; 60; 63; 142). Nine of these fourteen psalms are linked specifically to events occurring during David’s persecution by Saul (Ps. 18; 34; 52; 54; 56; 57; 59; 63; 142). Six of the nine psalms are clustered together in a group of fifteen psalms ascribed to David in Book 2 of the Psalter (Ps. 51 – 65).

These psalms are classic illustrations of the adage that “poets learn in suffering what they teach in song”. Ironically, the sweetest songs are born out of the saddest moments. As we read these psalms in connection with their events in 1 Samuel, we observe how God uses the refining fires of persecution to forge and shape the character and faith of David.

The remainder of the psalms with the superscriptions, link to specific occasions after David becomes king, which therefore become the “Songs of the King”.

Using the occasion set by the superscriptions of these fourteen psalms, the following is their chronological placement in the narrative flow of the life of David in 1 and 2 Samuel.

Songs of the Outlaw

Songs of the King

The subject of the Knowledge of God is not a common emphasis in the Church of Jesus Christ. It is not popular nor an easy subject to speak on, to listen to or to fully digest but it is worth the trouble to work through this weighty subject. The one need in the Church of Jesus Christ today is to recapture the reality of the Personality of God in all its majesty, passion and awesomeness. The image of God that is popular in today’s Church is so far from the biblical revelation of God – it is not a high and majestic or passionate view of God. The preaching of our times has produced a Church with so little God-consciousness; it doesn’t confront the Church with the Personality of God in all His majesty and diversity. We have lost a God of majesty, passion and pleasure in our preaching.

The busy and cluttered Christian in our hectic society is overwhelmed with responsibilities and tasks, and has made almost no time to withdraw in silence to meet a God who requires that He be sought diligently if He is to be known intimately. The Church is growing at a faster rate than ever with more new books filled with new insights on Church growth, leadership, counseling, family life, ministry skills, emotional wholeness, etc. Yet we continue to decline in our grasp of the Eternal One who is in reality the CENTER PURPOSE of all things – the One for which all things exist. We have lost our hold on God as a PERSON. We continue to grow in our ministry skills and come up with new strategies, yet our depth of worship and adoration continue to decline. The knowledge of God’s majestic Personhood confronts people’s spirit with eternity and infinity.

True Image of God

A.W. Tozer said, “The decline knowledge of the Holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them. It is impossible to keep moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we should bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more clearly as He is.”

The popular message of today’s Church avoids the weighty issues of discerning the true image of God. It takes diligence and effort to cultivate insight into the infinite Personality of God. A significant answer to this present crisis of the Church’s lack of deep intimacy with God is long and loving meditation on the Personality of God. We need many preachers who long to freshly awaken hearts unto this end and to inspire passion and loyalty to Jesus along with deep affectionate and contemplation on the Excellencies of Jesus.

I long to communicate accurately about God’s Personality so as not to contribute to a low or wrong view of God. We long to know God according to truth and not our vain religious imaginations. The religious and secular views of God are totally inadequate to renew our hearts. The Holy Spirit simply doesn’t bear witness to such views – they don’t renew us as Col. 3:10 promises. We must refuse to substitute the God of the Bible for the god that our modern culture proclaims.

What do you imagine God’s Personality to be like?

Everyone has an idea. Even vague unspoken ideas have a hold on our thoughts and therefore, emotions toward God. It is vital that our image of God be according to the truth. There is nothing more important about our spiritual lives than our image of God. Our lack of clear Biblical image of God is a significant root of many of our emotional problems, wrong attitudes with sinful practices. Our passion, devotion and worship will never be stronger than our clear deep thoughts of God.

The question of the hour is always the one Jesus asked the disciples in Matthew 16:15 or Pharaoh asked Moses in Exodus, “WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?” This is the most vital spiritual issue that we continually seem to make light of it. When the Church thinks of God differently than what He actually is, then many troubles start. The remedy for our problems is one which requires a diligent searching for a new depth in our knowledge of God. God is a Person who is known and loved and must again become CENTRAL in the Church.

It is vital that we search diligently to come to understand God as the Scriptures describes Him. No subject is more important to the spiritual health of an individual or of the Church as we enter into the Last Days. Our intellectual doctrines about His love and majesty matter little if they don’t grip our inner-man. This search for a deeper understanding and intimacy with God is the most practical thing we can do to find wholeness for our souls and minds.

The Unending Understanding of God – who He is, what He is like, how He feels and what He wants from us. This is the mammoth issue ever before the Church and the whole human race. No question is greater than this one. No issue has more practical implications to the quality of our spiritual lives than the understanding of God.

Beholding the Glory of God

The greatest need of the hour is to behold the LORD in the glory of His awesome Personality. By this we shall be transformed (2 Cor. 3:18). John says that when we see Him then we will be like Him (1 John 3:2). Rom. 1:23-25 says that fallen man continues to exchange the glory of who God is for one like the image of sinful man. They continue to exchange the “truth” about God’s glorious personality for a “lie” concerning God’s image. Aspects of this “lie” continue to grip the minds and hearts of many of the Church leaders which will continually weaken and cripple the modern Church. The Church will never return to Apostolic New Testament Christianity until it recovers an understanding of the God of glory that the New Testament apostles adored and worshipped with all their hearts.

The heart of fallen man who doesn’t search the Scriptures under the ministry of the Holy Spirit will always end up with a “lie” in regards to who God is. They automatically create a god in man’s image instead of seeking to worship the true image of God. Church history confirms this reality. When the Church loses the truth about God’s glorious personality then it loses it’s passion for purity. Then compromise will enter in at all levels. It all begins with a loss of the majestic sense of God’s glorious personality regardless how tightly the Church holds on to her accurate doctrinal orthodoxy.

I believe one of our greatest challenges as we prepare for the Last Days is to rediscover an understanding of God’s glorious personality that is as high and glorious as the Scriptures reveal. This objective should be our greatest concern and most urgent priority as we equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Eph. 4:12-13 teaches us the necessity of equipping the saints in the knowledge of God. This is my greatest delight!

Who is like You, O LORD?

Exodus 15:11 says this, “Who is there like You, O LORD?” This is always the great question of every hour for every person. Nothing could be more important than this question. The answer is – No one and nothing is exactly just like God! The Scriptures use familiar metaphors to paint word-pictures for us to help our understanding of the unsearchable riches of His Personal splendor (Eph. 3:8). Nothing created has enough glory to be a worthy object of comparison that adequately reveals the true image of God’s glorious personality.

The Holy Spirit uses “comparison words” to at least give us a dim view of God’s glory. God’s full glory is completely outside the sphere of man’s understanding of language. All those believers who have experienced heavenly visions relay how impossible it is to find adequate language to report the glorious things that they said. For example, Rev. 4:3 tells us that God is like “a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance”. In Rev. 4:6 before the Throne of God is like “a sea of crystal”. Ezekiel 1 describes God’s glory with many comparison words.

For God’s glorious Person is above all created things, thoughts and words. We must not lower God to ideas that are familiar to us. This is comfortable to our fallen minds. But He is so beyond the fallen created order tat we never even get near to His likeness by comparing Him with the most glorious created thing. Song of Solomon is filled with comparative words that are totally inadequate but they do set our minds on the right direction for meditation. We see His glory dimly as in a mirror in this age (2 Cor. 3:18).

God is “unapproachable” (1 Tim. 6:16) in this age. He will never be fully discerned. We are totally dependent on the Holy Spirit to reveal God to us (1 Cor. 2:14). How can we fully discern He who is unsearchable (Eph. 3:8), unapproachable (1 Tim. 6:16) and incomprehensible? Jesus is the only one who knows the Father (John 6:46). But the Holy Spirit will reveal some of God’s glory to us (1 Cor. 2:10-11). Our fallen senses don’t have the capacity to fully grasp His glory. We groan with creation (Rom. 8:23). Our natural senses are helpless without the Holy Spirit’s quickening, yet He will never fully reveal Himself to us in this age. What God is like? We can only know what He has willed to partially reveal about His Personality. God’s fullness is incomprehensible in this age.

“Blessed is he who reads Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.” (Rev. 1:3)

In 2 Peter 3:12, Peter commends us to both look for and hasten the coming Day of God. He commends us to do more than wait for it. He exhorts us to hasten it – that is to speed it up. Our choices in faith and for righteousness really do affect the timing of the coming of the Lord. We have the capacity to either partner with the Lord for the speeding up of the coming of the Lord or through compromise to slow down His return.

However, the Body of Christ is presently only in tune with a quantitative hastening of the Lord. The missions’ movement within the Church is aware of the Matthew 24:14 promise – “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Presently, the missions’ world is rallying for the last great thrust of the gospel among the nations.

At the Call-to-All Conference in Orlando, Florida in 2008, Steve Douglas, the president of Campus Crusade for Christ declared that the Great Commission could be realized within the next ten years. Wow! What an amazing time we are living in! What an honor that we are part of the move of God on the earth which can hasten the Day of the Lord.

However, hastening the Day of the Lord is not merely a numbers game. There is also a qualitative dimension to it. Ephesians 4:13 informs us that we will come “to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Revelation 19:7 tells us that the Bride has made herself ready, dressed in the white linen of righteous deeds. Again, Revelation 5:8 – 10 and 22:17 reveal the Church in a bridal identity functioning as a House of Prayer in full agreement with God’s Spirit for Jesus to open the scroll and loose its seals.

One of the major points of revealing Jesus’ majesty and glory in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 1:1) is to create desire in the hearts of His believers for His return. Jesus will only return to a people from every nation who cries out for Him to come. In His first coming, Jesus revealed Himself in such a way that created a longing for Him above all earthly pleasures and ambitions. They considered the honor and delight of loving Him and knowing Him to be above all earthly honors and joys. They labored only to bring Him back to the earth, for it would be better if He were there. Such was the power of His revelation and their witness that the first two centuries of the Church longed for His appearing.

In Acts 3, Peter appealed to Jerusalem to repent. If they repented, the times of refreshing would come, and God would send Jesus back (Acts 3:19 – 20). We were made for the presence of Jesus, specifically designed for intimate communion with the God-Man and when He’s not here, we feel it. Jesus’ strategy was to addict them to His presence so that they would do anything to get Him back.

In Titus 2:11 – 14, Paul called the second coming of the Lord Jesus the Church’s blessed hope, and at the close of his life, promised the crown of righteousness to all who longed for and loved the Lord’s appearing.

However, Wayne Grudem states in his book, Systematic Theology,

“The more Christians are caught up in enjoying the good things of this life, and the more they neglect genuine Christian fellowship and their personal relationship with Christ, the less they will long for his return. To some extent, then, the degree to which we actually long for Christ’s return is a measure of the spiritual condition of our own lives at the moment. It also gives some measure of the degree to which we see the world as it really is, as God sees it, in bondage to sin and rebellion against God, and in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19).”

The propensity of fallen human beings is to want God out of our immediate proximity so that we can enjoy our temporary lives and our temporary stuff. John warns us against this natural love for the things of this world in 1 John 2:15 – 17. But, the Book of Revelation contains within it the necessary revelation of Jesus to overcome the greatest obstacle to Jesus’ return – the lack of desire by His Church for Him to come.

To many believers, the return of Jesus is merely a doctrine. It is not personal. But the second coming of Jesus was highly personal for the disciples and soon will be for the church worldwide in our generation. Revelation 22:17 speaks of a time when the Spirit and the Bride will be in complete unity in their desire for Jesus to return and rule on the earth.

At the End-of-the-Age, the heart cry of believers will be one of longing for their King and their God. God will release revelation about His Son that will produce the highest expressions of longing and love from the Church. John closed Revelation with this divine dialogue. Jesus gives the revelation of His coming with the specific battle plan to establish the Kingdom of God among the nations. For John receives the revelation and responds back with the cry of yearning, the heart given to love: “Come, Jesus! I miss you!” in Revelation 22:20.

The Invitation to Read the Book of Revelation – Revelation 1:3
The Book of Revelation contains seven beatitudes or blessings (1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). The other five encourage faithfulness in the face of fear, persecution, and deception in order to receive the blessings of the marriage supper of the Lamb, the millennial reign, and the New Jerusalem.

Two of these (i.e. Rev. 1:3 and Rev. 22:7) deal specifically with the blessing that comes to the person who keeps the words of the prophecy. For the prophecy is an encouragement to believers to take the prophecy serious, to receive the revelation of Jesus’ majestic personality and plan, and to engage the content of the book in active partnership.

This verse contains a threefold path for eating the scroll, for digesting the message at a level which brings change and produces the faith necessary to live out and bring forth the content of the book (read Rev. 10).

He who reads – Revelation 1:3
Most commentators point out the public reading aspect of this verse. The charge to read the book publicly was a statement about the book’s rightful place of being in the center of the community. The content of the book is vital for godliness and the formation of genuine Christian community. The Church must read, study, and meditate upon this wonderful gift given to the Body of Christ.

Christian community is severely hindered by the loss of this prophecy. The Church’s view of Jesus diminishes. Jesus as the Word of God and Lord of lords is replaced with an unusual spiritual man who gave a unique but not supreme revelation of God. As the sovereignty and supremacy of Jesus fades to more sensible modern notions, singing from an overflowing heart gives way to intellectualism and stale religion.

Then Jesus’ return becomes an abstract concept not a concrete plan to hasten His coming through dynamic partnership. An eternal perspective gives way to the increase of temporal pleasures. The centrality of prayer and worship and its governmental role is exchanged for leaders with natural talent and gifting. Strategizing, rather than intercession, becomes the tool for Church growth.

The fear of the Lord and His judgments are forgotten and the scandal of sin is replaced with sociological and psychological reasoning. Perseverance is no longer necessary as evangelism gives way to syncretistic notions of all religious ideas and expressions are equal.

He who hears – Revelation 1:3
This is the reception of divine insight by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Hearing takes place when the spiritual senses of the person are awakened to the truths contained in the book and suddenly the content shifts from the realm of principles to be pondered to the place of living understanding that demands a response.

In Isaiah 50:4 – 5, Jesus is described in this servant song as having an awakened ear. The awakening enables Him to hear as the learned. Immediately, the verse connects the listening ear with right response. What you hear and how you hear will always display itself in behavior. Why? Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Mark 4:24 points to the importance of what you hear and Luke 8:18 points to the importance of how you hear. Seven times in the gospels (Matt. 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9, 23; 7:16; Luke 8:8; 14:35) and once in Revelation 13:9 Jesus exhorts, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!” Eight times in the Book of Revelation Jesus exhorts, “If anyone has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.”

Along with the parable of the sower, Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9 – 10. In it, Jesus sets forth the value of God’s Word. Have you considered the infinite value of the revelation of God? It is to be cherished, pursued, and sought after like hidden treasure. Those who attain through hunger will always receive more and those who do not treasure what they have received; even what they have will be taken away.
For God gives more to the hungry. To those who scorn His wisdom and His Word, even what they have will be taken away from them. Wisdom is given to the wise, not the foolish who scorn the treasure of God’s counsel (Dan. 2:20 – 22).

He who keeps – Revelation 1:3
God’s word is not simply meant to be understood; it is to be kept. The Greek word means “to guard from loss”. Blessed is the one who guards the content of the book in a way which takes the details seriously. The content of God’s word is to be activated in the life of the believer (John 14:23 – 24).

Blessed is the one who hears and keeps the word of God. Blessed is the one who takes the details seriously, who searches enough to understand in a way that impacts behavior (Luke 11:27 – 28).

The keeping in this passage is not associated with a general obedience to the general commands of God. A general keeping of the God’s commandments is quite clearly stated in Revelation 22:14, but this keeping is specifically related to the words of the prophecy.

This prophecy is an invitation for hastening the day of the Lord through active participation. Which generation will read, hear, and then keep the prophecy? Which generation will come into the revelation of Christ that produces the faith to keep the prophecy? The End-Time generation!

Thus, Jesus reiterates the invitation in Revelation 22:7 again. Who will come into agreement concerning the time is at hand and will embrace the Lord’s desire to come establish justice on the earth? One generation will come into faith concerning the person and work of Jesus presented in this prophecy.

The Invitation Restated and a Severe Warning Given – Rev. 22:7 and 22:18 – 19
In Revelation 22:7, 18 – 19, Jesus reiterates His quick return, and invites a generation to believe the prophecy and keep its content. When John falls down to worship the angel in the next verse, the angel stops him and announces that he is John’s fellow servant, and of his brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. He then commands the book not to be sealed. The book remains unsealed. The understanding is available, yet who will read, hear, and activate the End-Time plan through prayer and obedience.

John ends the Revelation with a sober warning concerning the content of the book. He warns of two types of corruption to the book.

Firstly, He warns against those who would add to the content of the prophecy – either changing the revelation of Jesus or making the book too complex for the common person to understand.

Then he warns against those who would take away or diminish the content of the prophecy, thus relegating to basic good versus evil principles while neglecting the specifics which may have eternal consequences.

Why is the warning so severe? There are two reasons for such severe warning.

Firstly, doing so will leave the Body of Christ unprepared for its greatest threat and most intense persecution (2 Thes. 2:1 – 10).

Secondly, the Book of Revelation contains within it the necessary revelation of Jesus to overcome the greatest obstacle to Jesus’ return – the lack of desire by His Church for Him to come. There are 79 descriptions of Jesus in Revelation 1 – 5 and within it, His person and work are set forth. For the Book is rightly titled the Revelation of Christ (Rev. 1:1).

Currently, very few persons in the Body of Christ want Him to come back and make all things new. Presently, the Body of Christ is so inundated and perverted by the spirit of this age that they have no desire for His return. This is only because they have not received a revelation of Christ and His glory. This is going to change and the place of prayer and worship is going to escort us into this bright revelation of Christ and His glory.

If the Church does not read, hear, and get a vision to keep the content of this prophecy, it will continue to be malnourished on the very revelation of Jesus which creates the longing for Him to come and will leave portions of the Church vulnerable to the deceptive schemes of the enemy.

The Praying Church hastens the Day of the Lord and Keeps His Word
The prayer and worship movement is springing up all over the earth precisely because the end is near. The Lord’s Prayer for His Father’s kingdom and will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven” is coming forth. Heaven has both unceasing prayer and adoration in the context of unending enjoyment of Jesus. As the veil is beginning to diminishing between this age and the next, the earth finds itself in transition. Revelation 5 gives us a glance of this transition.

Revelation 4 and 5 gives us a view into the government of God and how His rule is released. This passage gives John and us a picture of how God will administrate His government in closing out this age and ushering in the next.

In it, the Book displays the heavenly throne room as Jesus takes the Scroll from His Father. The scene begins with a view into the One who sits on the throne, the Father of glory and ends with the worship of the Holy, Holy, Holy and the proclamation of the worth of the Father in creating all things for His pleasure.

Revelation 5 begins with the question of who is worthy to open the scroll and loose its seals. Who is worthy to administrate the Father’s plan to liberate the earth and release the judgments necessary to do so? Just as the Father is worthy of all glory and honor in creating and sustaining all things, so too the Son will be seen as worthy to recreate and restore all things.

The Lion of the tribe of Judah prevails, and as a Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes who is in the midst of the throne, Jesus takes the scroll and prepares to administrate the Father’s plan. This Lamb has seven horns and seven eyes. He is perfect power and perfect wisdom, yet before He opens the scrolls and looses its seals, something on earth must be in place. Something must be offered up to heaven from the saints on the earth.

Revelation 5:8 – 10 gives us insight into what is necessary to come forth from the Church before the Lamb transitions the age – identity of the Church as a House of Prayer. The 24 Elders and 4 Living Creatures offer to the Lamb harps and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. The Church has to come into her identity as a House of Worship and Prayer (Rev. 5:8).

The highest identity of the redeemed throughout all eternity is to walk as a House of Prayer or in intimacy-based intercession as sons of God and as the Bride of Christ ruling with Jesus. Worship and prayer are eternal realities. Intercession is the primary means that God has chosen to release His government both in His relationship with Jesus within the fellowship of the Trinity and with His people now and forever. The majesty and mystery of intercession is seen first and most in Jesus’ relationship with the Father in Psalm 2:8.

God is waiting for our persistency in prayer before Him. Isaiah taught that He longs to release His grace and power, but actually waits until He hears the cry of His people in intercession (Isa. 30:18 – 19). God is going to take prayer meetings out of the Church and put within it a prayer lifestyle and culture. Currently, Islam has a prayer culture and the Church only have occasional prayer meetings. Maybe the more radical ones have a prayer event.

But the Spirit is producing a great hunger in the Body of Christ for intimate fellowship and ruling effectiveness through prayer and worship.

The Church will sing a new song and come into an intercessory cry of the worth of Jesus to administrate the close of this present age and usher in the new age as set forth in Ephesians 1:9 – 10. The Church will come into a revelation of Christ’s worth specifically concerning His need to return and loose the judgments necessary to fulfill the Father’s plan for world redemption.

One generation will read, hear, and keep the words of this prophecy. One generation will read and hear Jesus saying, “Behold, I am coming quickly!” and have the revelation of Him necessary to engage the content of the book and activate the battle plan of our Lord as set forth in the prophecy.

May it be said of our generation that we hastened the day of the Lord and joined the chorus of Peter, Paul, and John, “Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”

“If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.” (1 Cor. 16:22 – 24)

MP3 recordings from a Forerunner School on the Book of Revelation are below.

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