The Book of Revelation: Revelation 4:1 Pt.4 | Come Up Here 

Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage: Revelation 4:1

Those of you who have heard me talk about how much I enjoy teaching are going to laugh at this next statement. This is a really long teaching. I also think that it’s a really important word for this house at this moment. I don’t often say something like I think this is a prophetic word for this house, but I really do feel like the Lord’s been whispering something for the last few weeks for me.

I own a company that does audio, video, and lighting for churches all over the nation, and so I travel a fair amount. The traveling part is not so much fun. But what is really fun is I get to be in a lot of different churches, see a lot of different leadership structures, and meet a lot of great pastors. We get to partner with their vision and help them move the church that’s in their heart forward.

This summer’s been kind of unprecedented as far as pace and the amount of jobs and busyness, and I was noticing something. The church everywhere we went felt very different than the church in Fort Collins. I don’t think this has happened before, and, in truth, I feel like the Lord was highlighting something for me, for this region. 

MESSAGE OUTLINE

I want to talk to us about perspective today. If you think about what perspective is, it’s really your viewpoint. It’s the lens through which you see life. How many have met someone with a super positive perspective on life? How many secretly hate them? How many have met people who have an incredibly negative perspective on life?

I want to take us through a few passages of Scripture. I think I’m going to abbreviate a bit of them because it’s a lot, but I would love for you to write them down and take a look at them later.

We’re going to ultimately land back in Revelation chapter 4, verse 1. We’re going to look at this call, this invitation to come up here. I want to look at that because I believe it’s a lens for Vintage City Church. Obviously, it’s a lens in the Scripture to the church at large, but I think it’s a unique lens for this house at this moment.

I also think it’s incredibly important that we have a proper understanding of what the Lord is whispering to us through this passage before we discern the future chapters in Revelation. Because chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9 get a little messy. Historically, the church at large has tended to over-interpret these passages without context, and I want to be careful with that as we handle it as a family.

THE STORY OF LOT

The first passage we’re going to look at is Genesis 19, specifically verses 1 through 26. This is the story of Lot and his family. It’s also the story of a city called Sodom and Gomorrah. The Scriptures reveal that in Sodom and Gomorrah, the level of debauchery, the level of sin, and the level of spiritual sickness has grown to such an extent that the angel the Lord will say, The stench of the city has risen to the nostrils of God. It smells so bad, spiritually, in this city that the Lord has paid unique attention to it.

How many have ever been to the Larimer County dump? When you drive through, there’s this incredible perfume on the property: the stench of garbage. You understand that you have to hold your breath while you’re getting everything out of the bed of your pickup so you can drive somewhere to a better smell.

Similarly, this city, Sodom and Gomorrah, had become such a stench to the nostrils of Heaven that the Lord had to deal with it. So, He sends two angels, and these angels come to Lot’s house. Lot has seen them at the city gates, and he recognizes who they are. He goes home and prepares them a dinner.

There’s language in the text that says, He prepares them a dinner full of unleavened bread. This means he knew they were holy and had to be treated as holy. So, he definitely knows who he’s dealing with. 

The men of the city come and surround Lot’s house. They bang on the door and say, Let these guys come out. We want to have sex with them. Lot responds, No, please. They’re my guests. They’re under my protection. Here, take my daughters. If you don’t think that’s in there, read it for yourself.

I want to highlight a section of this story. We’ll start in verse 23 and go to about verse 26. So, it starts with Lot reaching a village, and it’s technically not the destination he’s supposed to go to. 

Imagine if two angels show up at your house and say, You have to leave, God’s destroying Fort Collins. The stench of the city has risen to God; you have to get out. Go to the mountains for safety. How many of you would be like, Um, mountains are tough for me. How about I go to Severance?

That’s essentially what Lot says, and that’s what his family does. They’re like, There’s this little village. We can go there. It’s not that big of a deal; just leave it alone. What Lot was really advocating for was that the Lord not destroy that little village because He was going to destroy all the plains.

The point is that there’s this consistent pattern in Lot’s story that we won’t get into. It has nothing to do with what I’m talking about today, but it’s worth noting he has a really hard time obeying the voice of God.

Verse 24 says, “Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulfur from the heavens on Sodom and Gomorrah. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plains, eliminating all life, people, plants and animals alike”. 

Verse 26: “But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following along behind him, and she became a pillar of salt”.

You’re like, Oh, that’s so harsh. Well, what we skipped over is that the angel of the Lord says, Get out. Don’t look back.

THE STORY OF THE ISRAELITE SCOUTS

Turn with me to Numbers chapter 13. Some of your Bibles will list this as the scouting report or the spies came back. In this passage, a group of men have been sent into the promised land to spy on it and understand it.

Moses has given them instructions, saying, “‘Go explore the land north in the Negev and see what the land is like. Find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls? Are they unprotected? How’s the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Enter the land boldly and bring back samples of the crops you see.’ For it happened to be the season of harvest”. 

So these guys go into the land, explore it, and when they come back, Moses asks, What did you see? It says they brought back a cluster of grapes. Now, if you’ve been around vineyards, you know that grape clusters vary in size depending on the kind of grape, but generally, they’re not super large. Here, in order to bring one cluster of grapes back, it takes two guys to carry it, holding a stick between them to keep the grapes high enough off the ground. 

So, there’s healthy produce, and they’ve brought some back. They’re like, Wow, this

place is amazing. It’s fertile. But then they start to change their tune in verse 28. “But the people living there are powerful. Their cities and towns are fortified and very large. We also saw the descendants of Anak who are living there”. 

Do you remember Goliath? He’s from this lineage of giants. They’re a really well-known, formidable foe. Verse 29: “The Amalekites live there in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; the Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and all along the Jordan Valley”. 

Then Caleb steps in and tries to encourage the people as they stand there before Moses. In verse 30, he says, “‘Let’s go at once and take the land…We could certainly conquer it’. But the other men who had explored the land with him answered, ‘We can’t go up against them. They are stronger than we are’. So they spread discouraging reports about the land among the Israelites. ‘The land we explored will swallow up any who go live there’”.

Here’s my question: how do they know that? How many of you have ever faced something in life where you’re positive about the outcome but cannot actually know it? They have an understanding of what’s going to happen, even though there’s no way for them to know it. 

They weren’t there long enough to see anybody get swallowed; they just assumed they would get swallowed up. All the people they saw were huge? That can’t be true. There had to be at least one or two dudes closer to five feet. They said there were some descendants of giants. Again, perspective. 

“‘We even saw giants there—the descendants of Anak…We felt like grasshoppers next to them, and that’s what we looked like to them’. So then all the people began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. Their voices rose in a great chorus of complaint…’”

How many understand that the people of God are supposed to respond in a great chorus, but it’s not supposed to be a complaint? The only great chorus you’re permitted to offer to the Lord is worship—just a thought.

And then they said this: “‘We wish we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness. Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle?’”

THE STORY OF THE PRODIGAL SON

Let’s go now to Luke chapter 15, and we’re going to pick up in verse 11 where Jesus is telling a story:

“A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now instead of waiting until you die’. So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his two sons. A few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and took a trip to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money on wild living”.

If you know anything about Hebrew culture, when he says to his dad, I want my share of the inheritance now instead of waiting till you’re dead, it is akin to him saying to his dad, You’re dead to me. I have no concerns for you. I don’t want to be in relationship with you. I just want what’s coming to me from being your son. We won’t have relationship anymore. I don’t want to be in your house. I don’t want to be under your protection. I don’t want to be in your care.

It wasn’t just this very American statement of, I’m ready to go invest my money on my own and see how well I do. It was him saying to his dad, I don’t want you. It was a very clear rejection of the father. I want you to keep in mind that he went to a distant land and wasted all his money on wild living.

Both Hebrew and Greek are very picture-based, very narrative-based, and there’s always a story that’s within the story. Here, it’s clear that he went to chase sin. 

VERSES FROM REVELATION

There are some verses in Revelation I’m going to highlight for us, and then we’re going to look at them at the end.

• Chapter 11, verse 2 says, “…but do not measure the court outside the temple…”
• Chapter 14, verse 7 says, “Then the angel of the Lord said in a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship Him…’”.
• Chapter 18, verse 4 says, “Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of Babylon, unless you take part in her sin and share in her plagues…’”.

WHAT IS OUR PERSPECTIVE?

What all these passages have in common is that they’re about perspective. I think the connection is that each passage deals with the power of a Kingdom perspective. Maybe a more clean way of saying it is each passage deals with shifting perspective away from the wrong thing to the right thing.

My goal today is to challenge our perspectives. I want to challenge you to consider what your eyes are fixed upon. I want to challenge you to consider what is holding your attention in our current world. I want to challenge you to consider what is getting your attention in your specific surroundings.

Is it your spouse? Is it your home? Is it your job? Is it your church? Is it doctrine? Is it politic?

Why? Because I believe what I’m seeing is an incredible effort from the enemy to redirect the perspectives of the people of God in this region. Let me say it differently. I think the enemy is working overtime to distract us.

Distraction is simply a redirection of perspective. We might even want to put a spiritual spin on it and say, In the Kingdom, distraction is when our perspective is moved off of the right target to the wrong target.

Here’s the question I have for you: is your perspective being redirected?

REDIRECTING OUR FOCUS

I want to read Revelation 4:1 because, as a teaching team and as a study team, it has become the lens for us unlocking this entire book of Revelation. “Then I looked and 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’”.

It’s a clear invitation. How many of your Bibles have those words in red? What does that mean?

Those are words that quote what Jesus speaks, so it’s Jesus saying to John, Come here. I want to show you what has to happen after these things. It’s an invitation to let Him direct our perspective.

Think about what has just happened. If you remember, in chapters 2 and 3, John has received what can only be understood as a pretty tough indictment on the churches that he planted. It’s mostly negative, and what Jesus reveals to John is that there are a bunch of people in his churches who are more interested in their sin patterns than they are in Jesus. There are people who are mixing their trust in Him with sin patterns and wrong perspectives.

If we’re going to be honest about the city we live in and the region we live in, let’s talk about the church that we’re part of in this region. How many would say it seems like the church is kind of distracted in this region? That we’re starting to mix our allegiance to Him with a lot of varied perspectives? I think we see a church that’s divided over opinion, doctrine, politics, and style. 

What I really want to draw our focus to is that Jesus has just given John this indictment of his churches. If I were John, as a leader, I would imagine I feel pretty bad about what He says about the churches I planted. I’m full of a fair amount of remorse. I’m fixating on these things. I’m thinking about them. I’m calling to mind the people that He’s talking about.

I’m thinking about all the different situations that He speaks so directly to, yet Jesus says to him, Hey, come here. Don’t let that stuff be your focus. Jesus tells him about it, shows it to him, and then says, Wait, I don’t want that to be your focus.

THE THRONE ROOM AND THE LAMB

What instead is to be John’s focus? John is to be intentionally direct about his focus being on the Lamb and the worship happening day and night. Jesus’ statement to John is vital. Come up here. Let Me show you what must happen after these things. What things? The stuff He was talking about in the churches.

Therefore, could I say the same to us, Church? The things we see in our current world, even things we’ve had revealed to us by the Lord, though they are important, are not to be our focus. The Throne Room and the Lamb are to be our focus. 

I want to suggest that Jesus isn’t offering a potential solution to what He says to John about the churches. It’s not like He’s saying, Hey, the condition of your church is awful. Here’s one thing that might help you. He’s not offering a potential solution; He’s offering the solution.

What He’s saying to John, if we really look deep into it, is, I want you to relocate where you live from. I want you to begin to live from the Throne Room. Do you remember that phrase? “Then I looked and I saw a door standing open…”. Open doors are always indicative of an invitation. They’re intended to be walked through.

I think it’s an invitation to allow the atmosphere of the Throne Room to govern every aspect of how we live. We are to be a people where the Throne Room and the Lamb govern how we live. It’s an invitation to live in a place of constant worship.

So, are you going to live in a place of constant worship? Immediately, if you’re like me, you start to think, Oh, that’s going to limit what I can participate in. It’s going to limit what I can think about. It’s for sure going to limit what can come out of my mouth.

Have you ever tried to offer a scathing review of someone at the same time you’re worshiping? Have you ever tried to commit that one sin that you love so much while worshiping the Lord with a pure heart? What do I mean? This posture of worship, attitude of worship, and encounter of living from the Throne Room, begin to govern how and why and what we do.

What would it look like to live in that space at all times? What would it look like, Church, if we were unwilling to engage in anything that broke our intimacy or our view or interrupted our songs of gratitude to the Lamb? What would it require? What attitudes or actions would we have to refrain from?

I know for sure it would require incredible discipline to stay focused on Him. It would require an incredible sensitivity to His leading, presence, and desires. I don’t know what God wants. Listen harder. The voice of the Lord is not mute, but too often, the hearing of his people is deaf.

This kind of discipline would require people willing to forsake anything that could cause them to look away or lose focus on Him. I believe this message to come up here is the word for us at this moment. It’s also a consistent message throughout the history of God’s people, something He says to them over and over again. And, Church, I want you to understand that for Vintage, for this region, I believe the enemy is working night and day to demand our attention in any arena that distracts us from God. 

I want to take a few minutes now, and I want to reverse this. Instead of challenging the positives, I want to look at the negatives. I want to look at some places in Scripture where the people of God didn’t do this and what ended up happening to them.

THE TRAP OF WHAT WAS

Go back to Genesis 19 with me to the story of Lot’s wife. “‘Run for your lives,’ the angel warned. ‘Do not stop anywhere in the valley. Don’t look back. Escape to the mountains, or you will die’”. That’s verse 17. Go ahead nine verses to verse 26: “But Lot’s wife looked back as she followed along behind him, and she became a pillar of salt”.

The warning was given in incredible clarity. If you get nothing else today, please understand this: When God gives a warning, it’s not a suggestion. Warnings are meant to be heeded and obeyed. She disobeyed and looked back. The phrase in Hebrew is incredibly telling because it carries in it this essence of her looking back longingly and missing what was behind her.

In other words, her heart connection is tied so deeply to where she lives that she can’t break her attention away from it. Why? Because she desired what she knew and had experienced more than what she trusted God could provide. Being turned into a statue is an aggressive picture. It starts to feel incredibly judgmental. Seriously? She looked back, and God turned her into a statue?

I think it was intended to be aggressive, and I think it’s for a reason. It was so that the people of God would forever understand the danger of choosing to return to the very thing He’s called them away from. We tend to embrace the comfort of what is known over the unknown of where He’s called us to go, and that’s dangerous. We have to avoid the trap of going back to what we know. We have a terrifying ability to deify what was because it doesn’t require faith to live into what could be.

It’s a strange story, but let’s have some compassion. Let’s consider their lives for a second. This is where they grew up. This is their town. It’s where they lived, where they raised their kids, and where their friends were. They probably have great memories from there. They have roots there, and God asked them to let go of what they knew for what He knew.

Church, that is a central reality to this life we’re living. We have to be willing to let go of our histories, our beliefs, and whatever He asks because we trust Him.

THE TRAP OF WHAT IS

Let’s go back to Numbers 13. “But the men who explored the land with him answered, ‘We can’t go up against them! They’re stronger than we are!’ So they spread discouraging reports about the land among the Israelites: ‘The land we explored will swallow up anyone who lives there. All the people we saw were huge’”. This continues, and the people who hear it begin to complain, asking, Why is the Lord bringing us here to die?

Did you know that Israel stayed in the wilderness far longer than God had called them to? Most scholars believe that trip should have taken around six weeks at a fast pace. They stayed there for forty years. That’s two generations.

The Lord spoke a promise that his people were intended to step into in six to eight weeks. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say they stop somewhere to have a vacation. Let’s call it ten weeks. Maybe there was a Disneyland on the way, and they’re like, Wait, we got to hit the rides, and then we’ll get back at it. Instead of cotton candy, it was manna. It’s awesome.

It took them forty years. Why is that important? I think it is significant for this region. The word of the Lord over this region for the last thirty to forty years has been that He wants to release a supernatural renewal through worship. There’s a revival that’s been intended.

I moved here twenty-two years ago. It was being whispered already back then. It was being spoken of through the prophetic circles: the Lord’s been whispering. He’s been sharing this thing. But I’ve watched the church spin in circles for twenty-two years, and we’ve yet to see the move of God.

It’s a concern for me. I want to stand before Him and have Him say, Hey, son, you did what I called you to do in your day and in your time. Well done. I’m not worried about somebody else’s day and time. I’m not worried about the future’s day and time because here’s what I know about our God: if we will align in faithfulness in our season, He can do anything He wants with the next group.

Israel stayed in the wilderness in that holding pattern because of their disobedience and distrust of His leadership. We are crazy if we believe that our disobedience and our distrust in His leadership won’t net the same thing.

Ultimately, the people of Israel rebelled against Moses, they rebelled against Aaron, and they rebelled against God because they didn’t trust the goodness of God. They didn’t trust the leadership God was offering in their lives. Why? They desired their own leadership, allowing pride in what they wanted and what they thought was best more than what humility and surrender to His leadership would bring.

Two generations they wandered, and that story lives as a memorial to the danger of refusing to trust Him. We have to avoid the same trap that they committed, which is, We’re going to stay right here. Why? We know this. This is good. We like this life. At least we get it. At least we understand it. We don’t know what’s out there. 

That condition is what happens when we lack the courage to go to the places He’s invited us and when we lack the courage to trust the leadership He’s put over us. It’s rooted in the distrust in His sovereignty. What do I mean by sovereignty? I mean He controls the end from the beginning.

Why does He let bad things happen? Because people are stupid, because of sin. But you can rest in this: no matter what happens to you, He promises all things work together for good to those who are in Christ Jesus. He can take the worst of the worst and figure out how to flip it. How? You just keep your eyes on Him.

The real reason why we as a people rebel, whether it’s historically or in the present, is because of our fear. We’re often afraid of what we don’t know, so we stay in what we do. Church, in His Kingdom, the only answer is to yield to His request and trust Him.

THE TRAP OF WHAT COULD BE

Now let’s go back once more, this time to Luke 15. “The son comes and says, ‘I want my share of your estate now…’. A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and took a trip to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living”.

The prodigal son desired the life he had not experienced over knowing the safety of what the Father provided. He walked away, and by doing so, he did his best to sever the relationship, all to chase his own desires. What is it a picture of? It’s really simple. It’s not rocket science. It’s a picture of lust for sin and the danger of gross ambition.

The moment you decide you know what’s best for you more than God knows what’s best for you, you’ve placed yourself in His position on the throne, and you’ve aligned with the enemy who says, I will be like the Most High. I want to make my own decisions. The only way we live under the authority of the Lord is to live by the Word of the Lord and alignment with the Scriptures.

If you’re trying to make decisions in your life that are counter to Scripture, or you’ve got a new revelation outside of Scripture, all you’re trying to do is justify a way to put yourself on the throne. The outcome will be the same; it will lead you to a place of ruin, even though, in the moment, that decision feels so good.

You may be thinking, I know the plans I have for me, says me. It’s future, it’s hope, it’s a blessing, and it’s going to be awesome. The only way to get to that blessing, future, and hope is to align with the One who says, I do know the plans I have for you. I offer blessing, not cursing. The prodigal son wanted what he wanted more than what his father wanted. That’s what happens when we decide to chase our own way, lusts, and ambition.

The third trap we see is the trap of, I have to go out there. It’s when we want to leave the comfort of His protection because going out there happens any time we choose to leave the safety of His path, His way, and His heart to chase our own desires. Church, it’s not always a “sin pursuit”. Sometimes, we make really dumb decisions chasing good things.

We have to become incredibly disciplined and hard on ourselves with the ways we want to justify stupidity. It is incumbent upon us to hold ourselves to the fire and say, Lord, I’m going to follow Your way. Please, Holy Spirit, search me, know me. That’s David’s prayer. I love it. Search me, know me. See if there’s any wicked way in me.

Why does he pray that? He understands that we, as humanity, have this incredible ability to talk ourselves into anything. You just don’t know how lousy I feel and how bad my life is. It doesn’t matter. Following the Lord is following the Lord. There is no middle ground, and the blessing of the Lord is upon obedience.

It’s why Joshua says, Blessing or cursing, which one do you want? Who chooses cursing? What he’s trying to communicate to the people of God is, Obedience will get you blessing. A lack of obedience brings cursing. Please tell me you want blessing, and therefore you’ll choose obedience.

AN INVITATION TO TRUST GOD

In all three of these passages, there is a common reality: they reveal the places that we, as the people of God, can go and end up missing what God’s really doing.

Why can’t we leave what we know? The pull of our lives is too strong. We look at the circumstances around us, and we’re like, I just can’t trust God to fix this. I have to figure it out on my own. Or we decide we know what’s best, and we just blindly say, I don’t really want what you want, Lord. I want what I want, and I’m going to get what I want.

These three passages show us the complete opposite of His invitation to Come up here. Dwell with me. Be with me. That request to come up here is an invitation to let go of what we think is the answer and trust His leadership. It’s an invitation to allow our lives to be consumed by loving, worshiping, and enjoying Him.

FOCUS ON THE INNER COURT

There are some places in Revelation I want to give us as a lens. It’s going to help us as we move through the Book of Revelation, but I think it’s also a word for us right now. 

Revelation chapter 11: “…but do not measure the court outside

the temple…”. We have to talk about this. What does it mean? It means get your eyes off the world and put them on Jesus.

What He says in chapter 11 is that there’s an inner and outer court. On the inner court is the Lamb of God. It’s the Throne Room. Put your eyes on that. The outer court is the world outside of us. Get your eyes off of that. 

Wait, you’re telling me I can just put my eyes on Him, focus on Him, worship Him, love Him, and let Him live through me, and He’s going to use my life to work on the world? Yes! But all too often, we’re like, No, I need to look at the outer court. I need to deal with how stupid they are. 

Wait a second. Pagans are pagans until they’re not pagans. What a pagan world needs is a people consumed by the King, not  people so angry at how they live that they want to speak to it and judge it all the time. Leave it alone. It’s the Word of the Lord. The outer court is not yours to be concerned with. You’re to be concerned with the Lamb. You’re to make the throne your focus.

Revelation 14:7: “…Then the angel said in a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship Him…’”. What does that mean? It is very clear that we are in a season in the world where the judgment of God is being released. We’ve been talking about it for weeks. In the midst of the obvious judgment of the world, our attention is to be on Him, not the judgment.

I have never seen it so clear, Church. Our job is to love Him, worship Him, put on the image of Christ, carry the nature of Christ, be in love with Christ, and let Him who is merciful and kind deal with the world. I don’t know about you, but I’m not merciful and kind enough to deal with the world.

The last verse is Revelation 18:4: “…Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of Babylon, lest you take part in her sins and share her plagues…”. What does that mean? It’s a word for us to leave the outer court alone. If we focus on the outer court, we’re going to get sucked into the stupidity of the outer court. It’s not ours to deal with. Instead, we are to be a people who are just consumed by Him.

I think we’re standing in a moment where we have a choice. We can obey the word of Jesus to come up and be consumed with the presence of God, where the Lamb commands our focus, and it’s just Him that we care about. Or, we can become completely distracted by the world around us.

What have you let become your focus instead of Him? Is it a hurt? Is it a wound? Is it politic? Is it the way the world is around us? What have you let become your focus instead of Him?

Has anyone ever thought about the phrase pet peeve? What does that mean? It means you had a peeve, and you made it your pet. How do you make something your pet? Well, I have an eight-pound Yorkie. She’s supposed to be six pounds—we love her a lot. We nurture her, care for her, and give her a place to dwell. We groom her, we feed her. That’s how you make something a pet. 

In other words, you can only have a peeve if you decide to nurture it and make it a pet. So, what peeve or irritation, what pet doctrine, what offenses have you nursed, held, and fixated on instead of being captivated by Him?

A WORD FOR OUR CHURCH

I think this is a prophetic word for the moment: let it go. Whatever those things are, let them go. Get your eyes on the King. Pour yourself into worship; pour yourself into the secret place. Pour yourself into the Scriptures. Make your focus the inner court, not the outer court.

Yeah, but you don’t know what’s coming politically. You’re right. Also, I don’t care. It wouldn’t matter if we found the godliest leader to get on that seat; it’s still a corrupt system. The answer is that the King of Glory is the only one I can trust. If your eyes are on needing to get the right leader, you already have the right leader. Quit ignoring Him.

We are heading into difficult waters as a people, nation, city, all of it. My heart cry is that the people of God would get their eyes on the right thing and get them off of the wrong things. The enemy loves to trap the people of God through perspective, through redirecting what we look at. So, how do we do that when it gets rough?

1st Samuel 30:6—I love this verse. “Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people he was leading were grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters…”

He has a really discontent group of people following him. I love the next phrase. David took a deep breath and “…strengthened himself in the Lord his God”. What does that mean? It means we have the ability to step into the Throne Room and find strength, answers, and solutions. We can have our perspective corrected in that place. When trouble comes, that has to be our practice. 

John says, I looked and saw a door open. My question is, will we be a people who step through it? Are we willing to say, I’m leaving that alone? It’s an outer court thing. I don’t have to deal with it. I’m just going to fall back in love with the One who matters.

I’m not saying put your head in the sand. I’m saying the Scriptures are very clear. We win by being consumed with Him, filled with Him, and walking around the earth with something people can draw from that came from the Throne Room. Your opinion about the day isn’t going to save somebody, but the Spirit of God dwelling in you will.

Paul says to be filled continually. This means we are to be a people that live from the throne. We’re in the Throne Room, unwilling to break that intimacy. Why? Because it’s like a constant download. We’re being filled with the power of our God so that in every situation we walk into, we smell, feel, and sound like it’s just Him in the room.

Things change when we walk into the room because He’s with us. But if we walk into the room with the mindset of, I need to tell them what’s wrong, you’ll never affect them.

I think we’re in a very specific and unique season where the Holy Spirit is asking and crying out for full surrender. He’s asking that we, His people, would fully yield so He can control us. When John says, I’m in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, that’s what he means. I was being controlled by the Holy Spirit. I offer you this idea: you can’t walk through that door until the Holy Spirit is in control. You’ll never step into the Throne Room unless the Holy Spirit is in control.

REPENT AND RECOMMIT

We have to make a choice: outer court or Throne Room? You don’t get to have both. I

understand that some of us are going to have to really repent for where our focus has been. Welcome to being a believer.

Some of us are going to have to repent for the stuff we put on Instagram and Facebook and instead recognize, Look, I’ve been letting stuff be my focus. It’s not my focus. My calling was to have Him be my focus. Whatever challenges that movement has to be dealt with in us.

I love bread and cup. I love the reset every week, where we’re forced to look at the table, at the cross, at the life of God, and ask ourselves this question: Am I living in a manner worthy of this? I think this moment is a great moment for us to ask the question, What has my perspective instead of Him?

If you’re hearing your answer is nothing, then great. Praise God. Take bread and cup. Solve it out with Jesus. Do it. But if you’re here and you’re like, there’s some stuff I’ve let myself become distracted by, do not take bread and cup without being willing to say, Lord, I’m laying it down and giving it to you.

You have an advocate. You have a Holy Spirit who would love to talk to you. He’d love for you to just turn your attention to Him and say, Hey, Lord, I’ve been screwing this up. Will you please forgive me and redirect my attention back to the throne?

Let’s pray.

Jesus, we love You. We honor You. We take this moment for what it is. It’s a holy moment. It’s a sacred moment where we look at the body and the blood. We look at the symbols of the life You gave, Jesus. You never lost Your focus. In fact, You said, I only do what I see the Father do, and I only say what I hear Him say.

Lord, my prayer is that that becomes our declaration. I pray we’re so captivated by You that we just do what You do and say what You say. So, would You lead us and guide us at this time? Holy Spirit, bring conviction where it needs to be. Bring restoration, right alignment, and right perspective. In Jesus’ name, amen.