Things Revealed

I'll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don't worry — he has nothing on me, no claim on me. But so the world might know how thoroughly I love the Father, I am carrying out my Father's instructions right down to the last detail.

John 14: 30-31 (The Message)

The last detail was no small point. It was the point of everything, the turning point for all mankind. It was selfless obedience to the Father. It was sacrificial love on the cross. And it was mercy beyond comprehension. Jesus subjected himself to unfathomable brutality. To separation so great he cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And to restraint beyond measure when he chose not to stop it all and call down the legions of angels at his disposal. But as Jesus himself put it, had he chosen another path or been led astray, “how…would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"

Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures exactly as written. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his sacrifice we were set free and restored. He gave his life for us. Nobody took it. No one could—not the Romans, not the Pharisees, not even Satan. And no one could lead him astray. There was nothing—no thought, no sin, no doubt—no leverage or claim that anyone had on him, nothing that could be used to manipulate him or prevent him from fulfilling his destiny, right down to the last detail. Jesus chose death on the cross that we might have eternal life, and in doing so freed us from the grip of guilt and sin.

There is no greater freedom in heaven or on the earth. Because of Jesus, neither the enemy nor anyone else has a claim on us. We are his. We are forgiven and spiritually debt free—born again with a clean slate. And his victory for our lives was sealed with these final words: “It is finished.” Nothing the father of lies can say will ever change that fact, no matter what the accusation, no matter what’s in our past, no matter how he tries to mislead us. His claims on our souls, on our minds and on our hearts are null and void. Our debt is paid. We are free. Period.

Still, Paul understood that the choice was ours when he said, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

Jesus wanted there to be no doubt about it. He put it this way: “if the Son sets you free, you will be absolutely free.”

Are you walking in God’s absolute freedom?

Or are you enslaved again by believing a lie of Biblical proportions?

Your choice.

That's the responsibility that comes with absolute freedom.

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho."

Joshua 2:1

Sound familiar? It was for Joshua. He had been there before. Last time, he was one of the men sent into the land by Moses. This time, he was the one doing the sending. This time, he was leader of all Israel.

We first hear about Joshua in Exodus when Moses told him, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands." It’s a battle that clearly shows how God moves in the spirit and in the natural all at once. Moses, Aaron and Hur stood on the top of the hill while Joshua led the physical battle against the Amelikites. “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amelikites were winning.” It goes on to say that Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands till sunset, until Joshua overcame the Amelikites with the sword.

As the leaders of Israel warred in the spirit with uplifted arms, Joshua led on the battlefield to defeat the Amelikites here on earth. It was one of many lessons Joshua learned about spiritual warfare and the unstoppable power of God.

When Moses went up the Mountain of God to receive the Ten Commandments, it was Joshua alone who accompanied him (at least part of the way). When Moses met with God in the Tent of Meeting and then returned to the camp, his face radiant with God's glory, Joshua “did not leave the tent.” Instead, he basked in the afterglow of His presence, trusting that he too would be changed by just being where God had been.

It was by his zeal for God and his faithfulness that Joshua became the spiritual leader the Lord chose to complete the work Moses had begun. Joshua had been transformed by his encounters with God: He had witnessed God’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt; experienced God’s victory over the Amelikites; and saw something others didn’t see when he was one of the twelve sent to explore the promised land: he saw the inheritance of his people and the invisible hand of God at work.

That’s often the way it is. Some people have eyes to see, some don’t. Some people see first, others follow. Some people never see, or worse, see and pretend they didn’t. The battle over spiritual truth—what God has actually said and revealed to us—has been raging since Adam and Eve set foot in the Garden. Jesus tells us, "he who is not with me is against me," and the Apostle Paul reminds us that this battle is not against flesh and blood, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

To be prepared for this struggle, we need to be able to see into the heavenly realms—to see by the spirit.

God puts people in our lives to teach us how to apprehend such things and how to grasp spiritual truths. We don’t automatically get it by being born again. But as we grow in the Word, as we desire to know God more, we begin to get revelation and we begin to see that which is unseen.

It was Joshua and Caleb who brought back the good report after they explored the land. They knew God showed it to them, not to scare them, but to excite them about this new beginning and the victory that he was about to hand them. The other ten, however, saw only inevitable defeat, and shared their view with all Israel. In spite of what they had seen when they were delivered from Egypt, their understanding of God had not been affected. They still only saw with natural eyes. They did not understand divine power. They did not comprehend the promises of God and that he would overcome all obstacles to fulfill them. And they refused to see with spiritual eyes, a choice for which they paid dearly. Only Joshua and Caleb were spared.

Forty years after trekking through the desert for the sins of his people, Joshua was right back where Moses had been when he sent the twelve to spy out the land. The moment was very familiar to him. But his experience with God and with Moses had taught Joshua to think like a man of God and to lead accordingly.

Forty years earlier, at God’s direction, Moses had sent twelve into the land. There was no need for a jury of twelve this time, because the verdict was still the same: the promised land is Israel’s. So only two were sent in to spy out the land. Two who were zealous for God—two a lot like Caleb and Joshua himself—who had spiritual eyes to see and reported back with total confidence, "The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us."

Joshua did something else because of what he had learned through Moses: he sent the two “secretly” into the land. Why? Because after Moses sent out the twelve, he received their report in the presence of assembly. When all Israel heard how the ten were melting in fear, their faith evaporated and they rebelled against Moses and Aaron and what God was doing. Joshua had learned the hard way that not all men have the same level of faith or the same understanding of spiritual matters. This time, there would be no such rebellion. The two would report back to Joshua first so he could consider their words before sharing them with the assembly.

Joshua learned from his experience and from the men of God that had been placed in his life. He learned how to lead while being led by the spirit. By running after God, Joshua learned to walk in the spirit.

So must we, for we are also a spiritual people.

There are people all around us still waiting to be led into the promised land. The Holy Spirit is showing them to us. Many have been wandering the desert for a very long time. It’s time to lead them out of the wilderness. It’s time for us to be as "strong and courageous" as Joshua and to step out in faith. God will lead us and give us the words and the authority necessary to accomplish the challenge before us.

He always has.

And He always will.

However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10

How awesome is this revelation: Our great and mysterious God whose ways are higher than our ways, whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts, whose power is without end and whose love is unequaled, has revealed to us what he has prepared for those who love him.

Right before the quoted text, the Apostle Paul says he is speaking “of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” And Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

It's hard to fully grasp the meaning of all this, but let's settle on this: Now we know.

We know at least this much: God has made a way for us to enter back into relationship with him. We know that he has never stopped loving us and that our sins are forgiven just for the asking. We know he wants to make himself personally known to us. We know he wants to dwell in us by his Holy Spirit. We know Jesus is the Messiah who was “pierced for our transgressions” and that “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him.” We know he gave his life for us. We know that there is a heaven we can enter and a hell from which we can be saved. We know we can be born again. We know we can receive eternal life. And we know that Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets, revealing by his life, death and resurrection that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New are one and the same.

We know this too: That God has a plan for those who love him. He has given us supernatural gifts, wisdom from heaven, an ability to understand spiritual things with a spiritual mind and a glimpse into things to come. He has set Jesus as an anchor for our souls in a world of constant change and increasing dissipation, and he enables us to stand firm in the midst of the storm.

No small matters, these things God has revealed. But they require something profound and simple from us: that we keep our eyes on spiritual truths, that we hear what God is saying and that we think about such things with the mind of Christ. Otherwise, what God has revealed to us won’t matter. For we run the same risk of falling that those in ancient times ran. Ezekiel said it this way:

Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.

That’s why the writer of Hebrews exhorts us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” It’s the one certain way to stay focused on the things revealed, rather than on the things concealed. The world focuses on the latter, insisting there is no truth while rebelling against all that is good, holy and righteous. But for those of us who fix our eyes on Jesus, we know God’s truth. Despite all the confusion, distortions and hostility around us, we can see it and hear it and know it because he has made it known by his Spirit.

Truth never changes. But our grasp of truth can if we don’t remain vigilant and steadfast. So be encouraged and encourage others. Not only do we know the truth, but we have chosen the way and the truth and the life—we have chosen Jesus. And he confirms his truth every time we look, every time we listen and every time we think about how he has transformed our lives.

Such good news should not remain our little secret. We're called to share it with everyone who has an ear to hear!

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

Jesus was not a great fan of religion. Nor was he a fan of what Israel's teachers and the Pharisees had done by turning the law of Moses into a system of rewards, punishments and procedures—a religious system that left the heart unchanged and the Lord unpleased. So Jesus addressed the crowds to show them what they had unknowingly become a part of.

Because the teachers and Pharisees claimed authority in Moses’ name, they were thought to have the word of the Lord and worthy to be followed. Jesus didn’t see it that way and he warned the people about their leaders: “do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders…” “Everything they do is done for men to see” and for recognition. He rebuked them directly, saying, “You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” And he left no room for debate, calling such leaders “hypocrites,” “blind guides” and “whitewashed tombs” full of wickedness within. So unspiritual was the religious system that “the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus.” The leaders knew the rules but their hearts were blind to the Ruler of all creation and his heart for them.

In the beginning, God's heart was to have relationship with man. It's still his heart. He prepared a place for him so they could live together in the Garden. In the beginning, there was no law (except one: don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). There was intimacy and fellowship—God, man and woman in Eden living in perfect harmony. But we know how that ended. And ever since then, mankind has been creating ways to make things right with God to win back his love, not fully understanding that God never stopped loving us. Ever.

Those ways are the stuff of religion. Religion creates ways to earn God’s love and his promised redemption. Religion puts all sorts of heavy loads on men’s shoulders by saying God will love you, IF…if you don’t drink; if you don’t smoke; if you dress appropriately, if you pray every day; if you clean up your language; if you give money; if, if, if…

Jesus says this: I love you, NO ifs, ands or buts.

Jesus has never stopped loving us. He gave his life for us. Anyone or any system that says we must do something to earn God’s love rather than receive it, is not biblical. And anyone or any system that says that we must do more than receive his sacrifice on the cross to be restored, has traded redemption for religion.

That’s why James says that pure religion is this: “to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Pure religion is about abiding in Christ. It’s about the overflow of a transformed heart causing us to love not as the world loves—with conditions and expectations of reward—but selflessly, “with actions and in truth.” Pure religion is not about a duty to serve. It's about the desire to obey.

God calls us to meet together, to pray, to worship him, to be in his word, to be teachable and to teach and to make disciples of all nations. More importantly, however, he calls us friends if we do what he commands. And his command is this: “Love each other as I have loved you.” Sometimes that calls for small sacrifices. Sometimes it calls for more. And still other times it calls for the ultimate sacrifce. As Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Are we prepared to lay down our lives for our friends? How about just our pride? Or our rights? Or even our guard?

Doing so would be choosing obedience to Christ. It would also be choosing to lay down our lives, at least a little. And it would be choosing religion that God accepts as pure and faultless.

In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.

1 Samuel 3:1

Although we live in unprecedented times of both turmoil and radically earth-changing technological advances, too often it seems that even in these days, the word of the Lord is rare. Danger lurks in every corner of the globe—from terrorism to swine flu to the economic collapse of the western world. Trying to understand the times while living among a people who embrace everything but Jesus, is no easy task. But we have been called and empowered to do just that.

In Samuel’s day, it wasn’t much different. Israel’s miraculous delivery from Egypt had receded into history. It had conquered and settled Canaan. And while its special role in God’s eyes had not changed, its view of itself and its commitment to God’s ways had. Now it wanted to be like other nations. Being led by an unseen God no longer satisfied; Israel wanted a King. A real flesh and blood king, not just the King of the Universe.

Once the Israelites were no longer satisfied with their special role as God’s chosen people, they were no longer vigilant to keep his ways or to remain holy and set apart as the Lord desired. With its eyes off God, Israel could only backslide. First in small things. Then in all things. It says that Eli was the priest in God’s temple and his sons, also priests, “were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord.” From the top down, Israel had fallen to the ways of the world.

Some things seem never to change. We live in times where having no regard for the Lord is thought not just preferable, but enlightened. There is an ongoing effort to sanitize American history so its Judeo-Christian roots are disparaged or denied. There’s an effort to recast the founding fathers as singularly secular men who did everything possible to eliminate the role of God in the fledgling nation they were creating.There’s even an effort to claim that America has always been a Muslim nation. And like in Samuel’s time, the fruit of these views is that the word of the Lord is rare, there are not many visions and we look to Kings (presidents) for hope, instead of to the God of hope who fills us with joy and peace as we trust in him.

It is only with an understanding of just how secular things had become that we can appreciate the diligence of Samuel’s mother. In a culture that no longer valued prayer, that no longer even recognized it (Eli thought Hannah was drunk), she pressed on because there’s always a faithful remnant (even today). It says “In bitterness of soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord.” She did it year after year at the temple, beseeching God for a child, promising that if he gave her a son, she would give him to the Lord. God granted her prayers, and she gave birth to a son. Hannah knew God heard her prayers so she named him “Samuel,” which means "heard of God." Fulfilling her promise, Hannah brought the boy to Eli in the temple and told him, “For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And Samuel lived with Eli in the temple. A boy dedicated to God by his faithful mother, raised by priests whose hearts had gone cold and who reveled in their positions instead of God’s promises. But God’s will for the faithful few cannot be thwarted by the unfaithful many no matter how important or powerful they appear to be.

When he was about 12 years old, Samuel was lying down in the temple near the Ark of God. The Lord called him. Samuel thought it was Eli so he ran to him and said, “Here I am.” But it wasn’t Eli calling. The Lord called him again and again Samuel ran to Eli saying “Here I am.” But it still wasn’t Eli, so the boy went back and lied down. It wasn’t that Samuel was dense or unreceptive or dimwitted. It was something more fundamental:

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

1 Samuel 3:7

How sad and pathetic. Living in the temple, sleeping near the Ark, being taken care of by the priests and the Levites, by Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. How did a people set apart for God foresake their special role, their special responsibilities and their special relationship with the Lord of the Universe?

How do we do it? We are God’s chosen vessels for these times. Yet many of us have foresaken our special role in God's Kingdom. Many of us have gone through dry and trying times. Times of no visions. Times of disappointment. Times that have so worn us down that we don’t hear what God is saying, can’t discern the times we live in and don't think our prayers are even heard. Samuel didn’t hear because the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. So why don’t we hear? We have heard the word of the Lord; that’s why we are believers. But if we are not diligent to be in the word, we are as good as deaf and are heading for spiritual death. That's the problem: the spiritually dead and dying cannot hear or see clearly. Which is why we are commanded to choose life.

Even in a backslidden nation, in a nation that looks to shake off its destiny and its roots, God still speaks to the remnant that's listening. He says pray. He says I am with you. He says I hear the prayers of my people. He says persevere through the dry times, just as Hannah did. And he reminds us to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”

Samuel became a great prophet in Israel, anointing Saul the first King of Israel, then anointing David King when Saul’s throne was taken from him. But before Samuel could walk in God’s authority, something fundamental had to happen.

The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shilo and there revealed himself to Samuel through his word.

1 Samuel 3: 20

It was the word of the Lord that transformed Samuel. John begins his Gospel with these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And later he tells us, “the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

The Lord revealed himself to Samuel through his word. The Lord revealed himself to us through his word, through the word made flesh and through the Holy Spirit who quickens the word to our hearts. We too must dwell in the word. We too should be recognized as the people of God. We too should be attested as prophets among the lost, speaking with authority about Jesus’ return, about his redemption and about the increase in wickedness as love grows cold all around us.

Someone needs to speak these things.

Samuel didn’t recognize the call of God because the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. It is our responsibility to reveal the word of the Lord that has been revealed to us, so that those around us can recognize God’s call on their lives. It is our responsibility to hear the word of the Lord ourselves, to read and reread the word of the Lord and to let the word of the Lord dwell richly in us so that we will be transformed and recognized as God’s very ambassadors.

And it is our responsibility in these ever-changing and chaotic times, to speak words of life and love and hope to a lost people who think that the best we can do is to get past the God stuff and get down to fixing the planet and ushering in world peace on our own.

And people think we’re foolish!

You want to hear the word of the Lord like Samuel did? Read it.

You want the word of the Lord revealed to those around you? Speak it.

Because this is how we've been charged:

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

2 Timothy 4:2-5

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."

But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

The man asked him, "What is your name?"

"Jacob," he answered.

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

Genesis 32:24-29

How many rounds have you gone with God?

There’s a misguided biblical view that to argue with God—to wrestle with him—is to lack faith. According to this train of thought, people of faith simply accept their lot in life no matter how confusing or disappointing things get. For them, it should be enough to know that God has a plan and can always work things out for good. If he wants to.

It's true that James said “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,” because "the testing of your faith develops perseverance” and perseverance “must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Clearly then, we are instructed to consider trials a joy. But no one says that the testing of our faith which produces perseverance is fun. Or something wonderful to behold or experience. It isn’t. If anything, it can be a spectacle of emotions gone wild.

Sickness and death, economic hardship, broken relationships and every other manner of testing that comes our way, including stepping out in faith only to be disappointed or frustrated, all challenge our understanding of God and can undermine our confidence in his plan for our lives. It isn’t only unbelievers and agnostics who cry out “Why!?” in such moments; believers can be just as mystified and deflated when God doesn't meet our expectations or intervene when we think he's most urgently needed. Is the correct response a dejected "oh well?" or are we called to something more confrontational.

God wants us to wrestle with him. To engage him. To seek understanding. To work through why he heals one person and not another or answers some prayers and not others. He wants us to come to the place of obedience and trust, even when we think God is wrong (Watchman Nee, the prolific Christian writer, puts it this way: "We ask that God's will be done. But do we actually like it?"). Getting to that place of obedience and trust does more than make us strong, it makes us mature and complete. Struggling with God is the way to get there. Maybe the only way to get there.

Jacob was a man like any other. He had belongings. He had problems. He had family issues. He was in the middle of a move. He was a coward and a conniver. He was afraid his brother was going to kill him and he was in the midst of executing his own plan to buy him off to deal with that possibility. Jacob had everything under control and had worked through all the contingencies he could think of. Except one.

He didn’t know he was about to have an encounter—a hands-on, no-holds-barred wrestling match—with God incarnate. And Yahweh, the undefeated and undefeatable, let Jacob have at it all night long. It says that when the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip “so that it was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.” Now surely the man could have overpowered Jacob before throwing a wrench in the works, but something else was going on here. A battle of wills, a contest of strength and endurance. Jacob could have gone on contending with the Lord forever if something didn’t happen. So God made something happen and the battle shifted from fists to faith, from the ring to the King.

After wrestling with God on Jacob's turf (given all that was going on in Jacob’s life at that moment, one can only imagine the thoughts that raced through his mind) and having the physical fight wrenched from him, there was only one thing left that Jacob wanted.

To be blessed.

To the natural man, it looked like Jacob was beaten and defeated. Not to God. For in the end, he said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

When our own strength is gone, when our plans come up short, when we have surrendered our will, when we are changed by our struggles with God and accept that his ways are perfect no matter how mysterious they are or inadequate they appear, we no longer demand an explanation. Instead, we desire his blessing. It is at that moment that he says, “now you have overcome.” And it is at that point that we become new creations. For Jacob, the change warranted a new name: Israel. It means "God prevails."

Moses wrestled with God about his call to lead the people out of Egypt. Elijah wrestled with him about Jezebel and how Israel and the prophets had abandoned their God, leaving only Elijah to defend his name. And Peter wrestled with Jesus about almost everything. Even Jesus himself wrestled at the most difficult moment in his life, crying out, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" — which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)

It’s OK if we wrestle with God when we’re tested, as long as God prevails in the end. We are not the first ones to do it and we won't be the last. Moreover, we’re in the extraordinary company of those who wrestled before us. The victory comes not when we cry “uncle,” but when we cry "Father...not my will, but yours be done.” It is at that moment that the Lord says, “you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

Becoming mature and complete is a life-long process. It is punctuated by spiritual growing pains and the voice of our Personal Trainer in Heaven cheering us on to both greater heights and to the fulfillment of our destiny in God.

Then, when the time is right, he gives us a new name which translates: "I am His."

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20

In the second and third chapters of Revelation, the Lord speaks to the church. There are seven churches identified by seven cities. Five are rebuked for various shortcomings, from forsaking their first love and embracing false teachings to being lukewarm toward God. Two are encouraged for standing firm in the face of persecution and for doing the things that God has called them to do. One suspects that the church in America is pretty much as it’s described in Revelation: out of every seven churches, two have it right, five not so much. Now multiply that by thousands and the odds are good that we’ve all encountered a church that’s less than perfect, and not quite “holy and blameless.”

For all the church’s imperfection, however, the Lord’s correction is not the final word. At the end of the passage, God reminds us that “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.” (Rev. 3:19.) What immediately follows is the Lord’s invitation to change, to receive the way to get back on track: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Although he’s speaking to his church, he’s waiting for anyone to respond.

Do you hear his knock? Through your circumstances? Through the opportunities to share with others he’s put in your path? By the pounding of your own heart when you think it’s him or when the word of God grips your spirit?

He’s not at the door with a warrant, ready to break it down. And he’s not here about salvation. In these verses from Revelation, he was speaking to those who were already saved. This is different than the first time you let him in.

You and God are standing at the threshold of radically changing your life, only you’re separated by a door which keeps him out. It’s your move. He’s waiting for you to open up and let him all the way in because he wants to be with you, live in you and enable you to walk in the power of Christ and to embrace the call on your life. It is within your grasp to open the door of your heart to understanding and real intimacy with the God. And he’s looking for anyone to let him in. Will you?

Listen carefully. What you hear is the sound of God knocking at the door of your heart again. You may have been ignoring him. You may have tuned him out. Or maybe you’re waiting for him to leave, believing you are unworthy or unprepared. We’re all unworthy and unprepared, but he already knows that and still he knocks.

It’s time to answer the door. More than that, it’s time to fling it wide open!

There’s almost nothing less demanding that God could ask of us.