One Day...

 

"Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come...Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist and were created.” (Revelation 4:8, 11)

Here we end our 10 Day Devotional with the cry of heaven.

There are two groups that seem to flow in this "call and response" between eachother. The first are the Four-Living Creatures, their cry is a declaration of the Holiness of God. It does not seem to be addressed to the "One" sat on the throne, but a verbal fanfare of Truth.

This, in turn, provokes a response from the Twenty-four Elders who are sat on thrones around the Throne. They fall down before the Throne, either on their knees, or on their faces. Then they cast their crowns before the Throne while declaring praises to the "One" sat on the Throne.

There is a misconception that when we get to heaven that it will be one big worship service FOREVER! John writes that he did not see this, but he says, "WHENEVER the living-creatures give glory..." that's when the Twenty-four Elders respond. They obviously were not on the floor when John first entered the Throneroom, and he must've been there long enough to see this scene play out, to see that worship occurred, "whenever".

I would like to close by highlighting the four things that the Twenty-four Elders did, as they possibly represent us as humans, they are glorified beings, but are most likely former earth pilgrims like me and you.

1. They were aware of when the Living Creatures spoke: We must become more sensitive to what is going on in the Spirit realm, as it will produce in us a greater sense of "Reality". We will see things from the Throneroom and not just through our natural eyes.

2. The Elders fell down: This sounds better than they "Stepped down and got on their knees and faces". There's a heart attitude here that moves as heaven moves. It's almost involuntary, just like as if you tripped and fell, you wouldn't be able to stop yourself falling. Personally, I don't want to become so practical, intellectual, or structured in my walk with God that I cannot fall when He moves. YES, we need to be practical, we don't need to throw out our brains, and we do need structure and discipline, BUT not at the expense of being able to fall for Him when He moves.

3. They cast their crowns: We have already covered that we are part of a Royal Priesthood, and so a "crown" is a fitting symbol for a Throneroom. There are other possible interpretations here, but I want to suggest that they were casting their identity, their status, and their position, before Him, giving ALL to Him.

4. They said "Worthy are You, our Lord and God": Lord speaks of ownership, and God speaks of Divinity. We must yield to Him as our Lord and God. It's the same with when we become Born Again, we must accept Him as Lord and Saviour. Full acceptance of who He is!

Preachers like 3 Point Sermons, and I'm giving you 4 Points here. But maybe we should group each of these points together as one fluid motion. This will show us how our lives are to be. ALL FOR HIM! Heaven moves, we move!

I believe so much that the Church needs to be more spiritual. It is too earthly at the moment. Hear me here. You can have perfect preaching, but without the power of the Holy Spirit, all you'd get is a lesson and not a move of God. Don't let church tickle our brains only, let it ravage our hearts so that we are changed from glory to glory.

I was praying yesterday up Soar Y Mynydd for our Rainmakers event, and I was crying out -

"Lord, I don't want 'nice', I want Your raw presence and power!!"

What a waste of a life to live like everyone else. It's time for a radical company to go after what God wants to happen, and not what we've limited God to do in our minds. The change happens when we stop doing what we've always done, and align ourselves with the realities of heaven, and move when heaven moves.

Are we willing to unlearn what we've learned, to learn what we need to learn to be like the twenty-four elders who fell for their Lord and God?

More Lord!