The Door

"I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God's Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. It was the Lord's Day and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast....Then I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven....And instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven and Someone sitting on it." Revelation 1:9-10, 4:1-2

The above Scripture has long held great meaning for me, and it continues to speak to me in the days we now find ourselves. I see in these verses some simple, yet easily overlooked truths. We would do well to let Him show us, as He did John, the power of these words.

John was likely the last living original disciple. Instead of being killed for his faith in Christ, he was instead imprisoned on the barren island of Patmos. His surroundings and circumstances had to be grim indeed. A rock island around him, a cave as his home, and only the company of criminals and harsh guards for him. Yet we do not see John bemoaning his fate, railing at His God, or sinking into self-pity. He surely knew that he would never leave that island. It would be his grave. Yet what we find him doing on the Lord's Day, and surely every other day, was worshiping His God. It is key that Scripture tells us that he was "in the Spirit" as he did so....A question here; can He be worshiped in any other way but in the Spirit? John was engaged with his Lord on every level of his existence, especially His spirit. How near to that does what we call "worship" come? More than that, when we find ourselves in places we don't want to be, are we more prone to complain and indulge in self-pity, or are our hearts drawn to Him in worship?

Another point here that we often overlook, is that while he was worshiping, he heard a "voice behind him." Likely, he was facing in the direction of Jerusalem. A friend suggested that he may well have had memories of what his life had been, the joy he had known as part of the church in Jerusalem, and the sweet fellowship he knew there. The voice behind him suggests that the Lord thought John was facing in the wrong direction. If he were to continue looking there, he would miss where it was He wanted him to be looking. He would miss what He wanted him to see. Memories are wonderful, but we can never indulge them to the point that we fail to see what the Lord is doing now. What He wants us to see now.

And that brings me to the last point of this writing. Once the Lord got Him looking in the right direction, up, he saw a reality that was far more real than the prison island he was trapped on in the moment. He saw a door opened into heaven, and through that door, he saw the throne room of the Father.........and the Father on His throne. He was seeing that his present circumstances, and the seeming hopelessness the enemy would like him to feel, didn't change the truth that in the midst of the undesired place, Almighty God still reigned. John's circumstances and all that were connected to them were still under the sovereign control and Lordship of the Father. And once John was able to see that, he was ready to see all that the Lord Christ had for him in the vision he received on the island of Patmos. A vision we now know as the book of Revelation.

Wherever we are today, as individuals, family's, as a church and people, no matter how dark it may seem, can we dare to worship Him there? Can we allow Him to draw our gaze upwards, so that we see Him, and the majesty that surrounds Him? Can we believe for the open door unto heaven?

Blessings,
Pastor O