A Door Into Heaven – August 30, 2009

A Door Into Heaven

Revelation 4:1

Jim Stephens

08-30-09

 

Scripture:

 

Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me with the sound of a mighty trumpet blast. The voice said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”  (Revelation 4:1 NLT)

 

Today I read from Ezekiel 8-11 and Revelation 4, descriptions of visions God gave to Ezekiel and John, two men exiled far from their homes.  Ezekiel was a young man in Babylon and John an old man on the Greek island of Patmos, a thousand miles and five hundred years apart. 

 

In the visions described here, both men were carried in the spirit to the Temple of God, Ezekiel to the Temple in Jerusalem and John to the eternal Temple in Heaven.  Both men saw God’s glory, saw fantastical beasts and angelic beings.  They were given a glimpse into the supernatural spiritual realm that surrounds worship – visible only with eyes of the spirit.

 

Both men saw worship in the Temple of God.  John saw pure, selfless, God-honoring worship in the Temple where God dwells eternally.  Ezekiel saw false, idolatrous, self-gratifying worship in the Jerusalem Temple that had once belonged to God. 

 

God gave both Ezekiel and John a vision God’s glory.  They saw the consequences of false worship and true worship.  Each was commissioned to return to the everyday world with a message that contained:

• Judgment and Restoration
• Warning and Promise
• Correction and Encouragement
• Fear and Hope

 

May God give us messengers who see through spirit eyes and bring us messages that temper warning with promise, correction with encouragement, and fear with hope.

 

Prayer:

 

Father, Help me to see through spirit eyes and not merely through the scratched, blurry lenses of my soul.  Help me to see “visions of God” and faithfully tell others everything God has shown me.  May I see clearly and speak faithfully.  Amen.