Come Up!

 Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.”  Revelation 4:1....."In worship, He calls us beyond the limitations of where we are." Jack Hayford

The late Jack Hayford was called "the pastor to pastors." He certainly impacted my life and ministry in many ways. One was through his teachings on worship. In one of his books, "The Reward Of Worship," he speaks to the circumstances of the apostle John on the prison island Patmos, and specifically to Revelation 4:1.

John has been exiled to the island. He is isolated from the churches and people he so deeply loves. He is severely restricted in what he can do and where he can go. His limitations are beyond harsh. Yet, as Hayford points out, none of these conditions can in any way limit his access to God. John writes that he was "in the Spirit" when all of the visions began to be shown to him. He was worshiping the Lord. In his worship, none of the constricing circumstances could keep him from encountering his God. As Hayford says, his worship of the Lord called him beyond his limitations. It can and will do the same for us. If we are truly worshiping.

Hayford also gives a fresh take on Revelation 4:1. He paraphrases it as, "Come up from where you are and enter into all I have for you." This is His call to each of us. No matter where we are, or what we're going through, He calls us up into all that He has for us in that place. Nothing of our circumstances can keep us from Him. No place, not even a prison rock that was Patmos, can keep us from the One who "calls us up." So why do so few of us ever really enter into all that He calls us to?

I think a great part of the answer is that we have little idea as to what real worship is. We identify it as something we come together for once a week at our church fellowship, but even if it was just that, most of us miss out. We tumble in, often halfway through the start of the service, and by the time we have any kind of focus at all, we're coming to the end. We leave as we came, and with all the same baggage we brought. We've not encountered Him to any degree. Too often, we've not encountered Him at all. And when next week comes, we do it all over again.

We fall into this pattern because we don't know how to worship Him when it's just He and us. In all our busyness, with all our concerns and cares, we feel good about the few verses we may have read, and the short or long list of requests we present to Him. We call it prayer, but it really isn't that, and it will never qualify as worship. He opens His door and He calls us up, but we're blind to the door and deaf to the call. We remain on our own Patmos with all its limitations.

The Father is always calling His people to worship, and never more so than now. Our limitations have kept us in chains for too long. We need to gather ourselves before Him, seeking His face, His heart, and His life. When we do, we'll see the open door and hear the upward call. The chains and limitations of our various Patmos' will be broken. In worship, we will have no limitations.

Today, on your Patmos, will you enter into true worship? Will you look for His open door into His presence and hear His upward call to your heart and Spirit? There will always be limitations upon us physically, but there are none in the Spirit.  His door is open. Come up!

Blessings,
Pastor O