Let us bear in mind that this book is a prophecy of what is still to come, it is a prophecy for the end times Church that has remained true and faithful to Jesus and comes with His divine blessing!
Revelation 1:1-3 (AMP)
This is the revelation of Jesus Christ [His unveiling of the divine mysteries], which God [the Father] gave to Him to show to His bond-servants (believers) the things which must soon take place [in their entirety]; and He sent and communicated it by His angel (divine messenger) to His bond-servant John, 2 who testified and gave supporting evidence to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to everything that he saw [in his visions]. 3Blessed (happy, prosperous, to be admired) is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and who keep the things which are written in it [heeding them and taking them to heart]; for the time [of fulfillment] is near.
Dear readers, let’s examine these promises together and let us hear what the Holy Spirit has to say to us today, always bearing in mind that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever! His Word is always relevant no matter what time the Church is living in – what was written thousands of years ago still applies today!
Lord, I pray that you open the ears and eyes of our hearts to hear what your Holy Spirit has to say to us today. Amen.
Ok, let’s go with promise number one.
1. The right to eat from the tree of life - eternal life
Rev 2:7
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
In verse 1 – 7 in Revelation 2, Jesus is addressing the Church in Ephesus.
In verses 1 – 3 He commends them for the hard work they have been doing and how they have persevered and endured hardship for His name and have not grown weary.
But then in verse four He tells them that He holds just one thing against them, they have forsaken their first love!
From this it appears that they were no longer doing the things they used to do in love, but they were now doing things as a matter of habit and formality completely devoid of love.
In verse 5, Jesus tells them that because of this He considers them to have fallen and urges them to repent of this and to return to the way of love! If they don’t do this, the Lord says he will remove their lampstand from His presence! God is talking to born-again Christians who have let their love of Christ go cold and mechanical!
A very strong rebuke that the Church needs to take note of today. How many of us have lost that first love and are now doing things as a matter of rote and not in love?
In verse 6 the Lord applauds the Church in Ephesus for hating the works of the Nicolaitans which He does to! The Nicolaitans were a group or sect that were practicing sexual immorality and self-indulgence and were trying to woo the Church in Ephesus away from the true teachings of Christ by introducing false doctrines. These people are still around to this very day in the form of self-indulgent prosperity preachers, name it and claim it preachers, and those that want to bring worldly practices into today’s Church. We must hate these things just as Jesus does!
We can only be victorious in Christ Jesus and in His love. Jesus is the tree of life; He is the bread of life that feeds us.
Dear readers, let us examine ourselves and hear what the Hoy Spirit is saying to us, repent if you have lost your first love and return to Him in the power of the Holy Spirit and let’s do everything in love and work out our salvation with fear and trembling as Paul tells us to!
1 Corinthians 16:13-14
13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. 14 Do everything in love.
Philippians 2:12-13
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose.
Promise number 2.
2. You will receive life as your crown
Rev 2:10-11
Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
In chapter 2 from verses 8 – 11 the Lord is addressing the Church in Smyrna. This was a poor Church, and He tells them that He knows exactly where they are and the trials and persecutions that they will have to go through, but he urges them to remain faithful even to the point of death because when they emerge victorious through their faith in Him, they will receive the crown of life and physical death will have no sting!
These words are ours today as well. Remain faithful to Him who gives us eternal life. He gives us victory in the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the trials and temptations of life that the devil shoots our way. Put on the full armour of God to ward of His fiery arrows!
Promise number 3.
3. You will be renewed
Rev 2:17
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
In verses 12 – 17 the Lord is addressing the Church in Pergamum. Jesus commends the Church for standing true to His name and keeping the faith even in the midst of serious demonic activity against them and especially as one of their faithful ones was put to death because of his faith!
However, the Lord says He holds a few things against some of them! The first was that some of them were holding on to the teachings of Balaam, the false prophet in the Old Testament (Numbers 22) who tried to entice Israel into sin. There were some in the Church at Pergamum who were trying to entice others to sin especially sexual sin and idol worship, and the Church was doing nothing about it!
Secondly there were some of the Church who were following the ways of the Nicolaitans (mentioned earlier) and were trying to introduce false doctrines and self-indulgence into the Church.
The Lord urges them to repent of these evil things or He will come and fight against them!
These things are still happening in today’s Church, and they are being hidden from the congregation, but nothing can be hidden from God. God is calling His Church to repent from these evil ways in today’s Church.
Dear readers, hear what the Holy Spirit is saying today and fight against these things in your Church and renounce them! Have nothing to do with them but rather expose them.
Ephesians 5:11 (NIV)
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
Promise number 4.
4. You will be given authority over nations
Rev 2:26-29
To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron sceptre and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father.28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
In verses 18 – 29 the Lord is addressing the Church in Thyatira. He commends them for their love, faith, service and perseverance.
However, He tells them he holds this against them, they tolerate the woman Jezebel, who like the Jezebel of the Old Testament and wife of King Ahab (1 Kings chapters 16 to 22), was leading some of them into sexual immorality and idol worship. He warns the Church that those who follow her ways will suffer intensely unless they repent of her ways. The Jezebel spirit is still very much active in today’s world and has even infiltrated today’s Church!
He urges those that are not following the ways of Jezebel to hold on to their faith in Him and He will give them authority to rule with Him! These things are still happening in today’s Church. Anything that we do or say that is contrary to the Word of God is sin! Renounce it and repent!
Church! Hear what the Holy Spirit is saying today and renounce and expose all sin amongst the congregation! No sin will enter the Kingdom of God!
Promise number 5.
5. You will be dressed in white (a symbol of righteousness) and be acknowledged before the Father
Rev 3:5, 6
The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
In Revelation 3 verses 1 – 6 the Lord is addressing the Church in Sardis. This Church was deceiving itself. The lord tells them that they have built up a false reputation of being alive, but He knows their deeds and considers them to be dead! They never finished what was started in them - they were not fulfilling their potential in Christ Jesus. Nothing can be hidden form God.
He tells them to repent and wake up or He will come to them like a thief in the night!
He goes on to say that the few in Sardis who have not dirtied themselves will be dressed in white, a symbol of purity, for they are the ones considered as worthy.
In today’s world there are many Churches that deceived themselves that they are following God but are just paying lip service to the false doctrines and teachings of men. These Churches can be likened to the synagogue of Satan mentioned in these chapters!
These Churches need to repent and turn from their evil ways! There is only one gospel and that is Jesus Christ and Him, crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (AMP)
And when I came to you, brothers and sisters, proclaiming to you the testimony of God [concerning salvation through Christ], I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom [no lofty words of eloquence or of philosophy as a Greek orator might do]; 2 for I made the decision to know nothing [that is, to forego philosophical or theological discussions regarding inconsequential things and opinions while] among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified [and the meaning of His redemptive, substitutionary death and His resurrection]. 3 I came to you in [a state of] weakness and fear and great trembling. 4 And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom [using clever rhetoric], but [they were delivered] in demonstration of the [Holy] Spirit [operating through me] and of [His] power [stirring the minds of the listeners and persuading them], 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom and rhetoric of men, but on the power of God.
Let the Church hear what the Holy Spirit is saying today!
Promise number 6.
6. You will live forever in the temple of God
Rev 3:12, 13
The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. 13 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
In verses 7 – 13 of Revelation chapter 3, the Lord is addressing the Church in Philadelphia. He assures them that He knows their deeds and that even though they have had little strength they have kept the faith and not denied His name and that their door to Him will always be open!
The Lord also tells in them in verse 10 that because they have kept the faith and endured patiently, he will not make them go through the trials that He is about to bring on the inhabitants of the earth. As the book of Revelation is a prophecy of the end times, this would indicate that the true Church in the end times will not have to go through the tribulation!
The ones who remain steadfast in the faith will be recognised by the whole world as those whom Jesus loves, and He will write on us His new name when He returns! We will live with him forever in His temple – the new heaven and the new earth – the new Jerusalem!
It is interesting to note that He did not hold anything against this Church!
Promise number 7.
7. We will have the right to sit with Him on His throne
Rev 3:21, 22
To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
In verses 14 – 22 the Lord is addressing the Church in Laodicea. It is interesting to note here that the Lord does not commend them at all. He goes straight in to calling them a “lukewarm” Church an as such He is about to spew them out! A harsh word indeed! God will not tolerate a lukewarm believer!
In verses 17 and 18 it has become obvious that they have become a Church of “I” specialists. They believe that everything they have achieved was done in their own strength. There was no recognition of God being their provider and saviour, it was all about them! They had become spiritually blind and enmeshed in worldly possessions and achievements.
The Lord urges them to repent of their ways and tells them that He is rebuking them because He loves them and doesn’t want them to perish!
Revelation 3:19-20 (NIV)
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 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 that person, and they with me.
Church do not let pride enter us and so that we become puffed up and self-centered! Let us serve the Lord in true humility, not trusting in our own strength but realising that apart from Jesus we can do nothing! Let us consider others more important than ourselves!
John 15:5 (NIV)
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Philippians 2:3-4 (NIV)
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father
In the Name of Jesus, I pray that you would help me to hear what your Holy Spirit has to tell me this day and help me to walk before you forever in humility and faithfulness that I may bring glory to Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
To Jesus belongs all glory, honour and praise!
Jesus the Name above all names!
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