Heart Tracks - The Open Door

"It was the Lord's Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly I heard a loud voice behind me, a voice that sounded like a mighty trumpet blast......"Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I heard before spoke to me with the sound of a mighty trumpet blast. The voice said, 'Come up here, and I will show what must happen after these things. And instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it." Revelation 1:10... 4:1-2

This passage of Scripture has had great meaning for me for many years now, even more after a friend shared some personal insights on it with me. John, the beloved disciple, is on the Isle of Patmos, a prison island. His dwelling was likely a cave of some sort, and the island itself was desolate, with his only company being the guards, and other prisoners, most of whom were criminals. John may well be looked up to as one of the most godly of men ever, yet he was human. He had to be have been experiencing a myriad of emotions and thoughts. Yet even so, it was the Lord's Day, and he was worshiping his Lord. This is where the insight of my friend comes in.

My friend opined that John was most likely worshiping while facing Jerusalem, site of so much of his life and ministry. Very likely as he did so, he was thinking of what had been, what he had lost. What could not be recovered. There are places like that in this life for all of us. We grieve over what has been lost, which is natural, but so often, the grief can hold us captive. That very well could have been the case with John. As he worshiped, John heard a voice behind him, which, as my friend said, meant he was facing the wrong way. He was looking back. Christ would have him look up, and forward.

It's not lost on me that His voice is twice described as a mighty trumpet blast. I love the still, small voice of Christ, but that isn't the only voice He speaks in. Sometimes, in the midst of darkness, we need to hear Him loudly, reminding us that He is not only there, that He sees us, but that He is in control. Complete control, no matter where our circumstances have placed us. And that, my friends, is where we come to the part that has so long spoken to my heart.

In the midst of his emotional turmoil, his unending questions of "Why?", His voice speaks again. John's field of vision had been limited to what he could see that was behind him, lost, and what he could see around him, an endless horizon of what many would think of as hopelessness. That's when His voice commanded him to look up, to see the Father's open door. A door that gave him the view of the throne room of God. The voice of the Lord wanted him to see that his reality was not defined or limited by what his physical eyes saw. That was all passing and temporary. When he looked into the throne room of the Father, he saw Him sitting upon His throne. The voice of the Lord wanted him to know that this was where true reality was. A reality that had no limitations on its horizon of hope. The past and what had been lost, the prison island with its unending waters around it, and the desolation of the island itself, could not hold him. Even in this place, He was God, and the Father was not finished with him yet. Neither is He finished with any of us yet. Wherever we are, whatever our condition, He calls us to look up, to see His open door and He who sits on the throne. This is eternity and this is reality, and nothing of this world can prevent His works in and for you and me.

We all, in one way or another, will come to our own prison island. He will likely find all of us at some point, looking behind us, looking the wrong way. His mighty voice calls us in the midst of it all to look up, to see Him, sitting on His throne. Not passively, but actively, speaking to us, working in us, and through us. The island cannot hold us. We weren't made for it. We were made to dwell in His throne room, with Him. His door is open. We need only look up, rise up, and enter in.

Blessings,
Pastor O