An Open Invitation: Come Up Higher to the Presence of the Lord
As we enter this new year of 2009, it is blatantly obvious that we are all facing serious challenges to our faith and life. These challenges come at personal level, as well as in the arena of our professions, our friendships, our workplace, and our centers of worship. On top of all these personal settings, we are clearly facing national and international pressures in a more intense way than most of us can remember. It seems clear to me as I reflect on my own life that the level of commitment to Jesus that sustained me through this past year will not be sufficient for the days that are ahead. I must know Him in a deeper way, and somehow must get hold of His power for the issues that confront me at every level on a daily basis. Perhaps you feel some of the same needs as I do.
I want to draw your attention to a short statement found in Revelation 4:1 – “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, ‘Come up here . . .’”
These words were spoken by an angel to John, the old apostle who was exiled on Patmos Island at the end of the 1st Century. He was in the midst of a radical encounter with God in which he would witness the battle plan of Jesus to take over the kingdoms of the earth, including the implications that this strategy has for followers of Jesus as well as for the entire human race. John was about to see some truly awesome and terrible things, and it is significant for us to see the first things that God decided to reveal to John.
Before the Lord revealed the wonders and horrors that would accompany the coming of Jesus to Planet Earth, the angel was directed to show John the realm of God’s presence: His beauty, His personality, His power, His holiness, and His perfect justice in doing what He is about to do. This strategy was so important to John, and it is important to us as well. Like John, we must become settled in the ultimate beauty, kindness, power, and righteousness of the God who is orchestrating the transition from this present evil age to the wonder and majesty of His Kingdom that is coming to the earth.
A Throne Set In Heaven
Here’s the first thing John saw: there is a throne set in heaven. This is very powerful for us, because it is far more than a nice religious picture or sentiment. There is a place of ultimate authority and power, and it is essential that we know this deeply and personally. The culture that we live in has gone to extreme lengths to eliminate any sense of absolute truth or authority. “No one can tell me what to do!” is the cry of our spoiled-brat society. We have become our own gods, and we are reaping the fruit of our self-worship. The values that have held America together are no longer embraced, and the enemy is strengthening his grip. King David wrote Psalm 11 and declared that “if the foundations are shaken, what can the righteous do?” The answer that David came to is the same for us: there is a throne in heaven, and there is One seated there who is holy, beautiful, righteous, and just, and He is ultimately and personally involved in what is happening here on earth.
God has a clear and present strategy for this planet, for His people, and for all those who oppose Him. His plan is beginning to unfold. His desire is that we would be so settled in the experiential knowledge of His goodness and kindness that we will not be shaken by the decisions Jesus makes as He comes to take His place as the King of all kings, the Lord of heaven and earth.
In the next article, we’ll take a glance at the One who sits on this throne, that we might be filled with wonder and delight as our eyes behold this One who is beautiful and holy.
Blessings on you!
Gary Wiens
Isaiah saw this same throne in the year that King Uzziah died. I believe such a vision would leave anyone permanently ruined as to any usefulness they might have contributed in preserving the status quo. Isaiah had become undone. He had no more self-confidence. It was in fact, a transformation from any kind of self-reliance to simply being an arrow in God’s hand for Kingdom purposes that this vision of the Lord sitting on a throne produced. We must know that there is new paradigm from which we will begin to function when once our eyes have been opened to behold the holiness and authority of God in such a dramatic way–namely, the truth–from which the western church in many respects has become apostate. And that truth is that one thing is needful. As Daniel, who was given visions from God, it was at great cost to his natural man–even an involuntarily cost–but his name reveals the truth that was planted deeply within his spirit as a result of it all and it was this paradigm from which he was to operate–”GOD is my Judge.” Why? Because it is God who is sitting on the throne, judging right, maintaining my the cause of those who fear Him. Because of that–The “fear of man” was no longer a factor in His equation of service. He simply and wholeheartedly worshipped God and God used him and preserved him until further heavenly appointment.