Revelation
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Revelation Chapter 22
Words of Jesus or voices from Heaven are in italics.
My comments are not in bold and are never to be taken as "The word of God." The bold and indented words are from the King James version of the bible. First God brings judgment then we have repentance, and then the healing of nations. So we see the eternal purpose of God is to have an earth full of people, nations and life upon the earth. This was His purpose at the creation of the earth. He wanted to dwell with mankind and have fellowship with us. Before the fall of man, God walked in the garden with Adam in the evening. When sin entered the picture, God had to leave for He could not dwell with sin. Since man sinned and brought both physical and spiritual death upon all of us, God had to send a man to undo the curse. The Son of God became a man and took on human flesh. He lived though without sin so that when death came upon Him, He died undeserving of that death. He did not deserve to die for sin because He committed no sin. That made His death available for us to claim on our behalf. The just died for the unjust. He took our punishment for us so that all we have to do is believe and receive this, repent of the sin which condemns the soul to eternal death, then we can be saved from sin. When Jesus rose from the dead, He got victory over death. Those who believe in Him will also get victory. To believe in something is to partake of it. If our bank says its going to give us 10,000 dollars free if we ask for it and we do not have to pay it back, we would have to go to the bank and claim that offer. If we believed that the bank existed and was full of money yet we didn't believe they were really going to freely give us some of it, we would stay home and not claim the free gift. Its not enough to just believe that God sent His Son to die for sins if we don't believe to the point of repenting of sin and turning over our life to Him. We start living for Him and forsake our sin if we really believe. God will give us help if we just ask. He gives the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him. The Holy Spirit comes within us and is our helper. He will teach us if we allow Him to. We always have our free will to override the prompting and leading of the Holy Spirit though but He abides within the believer to lead him or her in the right direction. The blood of Jesus has to cover our sin before we can receive the Holy Spirit. Its all free for the asking and the receiving. God gave us His best, it is up to us to receive His best and that is Jesus and all good things that come with following Jesus. I'm not talking of material wealth or things the world seeks after, I'm talking of spiritual things of God that can never even be compared with the things in this life.
One day we shall literally see the face of God. The curse that sin brought into the world is gone forever.
We shall receive a blessing when we read this prophecy and when we keep the words in our hearts and live by its teachings without forsaking these warnings. God is a God of peace, love, joy and all good things but He also is a God that has to put away sin and stop the evil that has come upon His creation. If we don't allow Him to cleanse us of the sin He sent Jesus to destroy, we will be destroyed along with the sin that has to be judged and destroyed. It has to be done or else suffering would continue forever and that is not God's will. He cannot dwell with us in person until the sin is done away with. He can dwell with us now with the presence of the Holy Spirit within His believers but He will not come in person literally until all evil is removed from the earth. If we choose to stay in our sins, we will be removed along with the evil that is burned away. Since the soul never dies, we have to remember that it will spend eternity in heaven or in hell. The choice is ours to make. In John 8:24, Jesus was speaking to those that did not believe in Him and did not believe that God was His Father and that God sent Him as the Messiah that was to save them from sin. He warned them that their unbelief would cause them to die in their sins.
A true prophet of God or angel of the Lord will never except our worship but will direct our worship toward God. I realize that a false prophet or teacher can pretend to direct our worship toward God in order to make us think that he is of the truth but sooner or later the fruits would manifest itself and we can recognize one who exalts self and robs God of glory. A true soul winner will prefer to see people run to the altar to seek the Lord even if he wasn't the one doing the preaching. He will desire to see this more than receiving compliments for his sermon.
Unlike Daniel's prophecy which could not be understood at the time Daniel wrote it, the book of Revelation can be understood immediately after John wrote it down. We can now begin to understand Daniel's prophecy and compare the similarities with the book of Revelation. However for some of us, it may take reading, seeking, praying and asking before we begin to understand these prophetic books.
Whatever state of mind people are in when it comes to our physical death or the end times, is probably what state we will be in for eternity. Those in hell will not change. They will remain in whatever state of mind they were in when they were cast into hell. Those that are righteous will remain righteous forever. We must choose this day who we are going to follow. We can follow Christ and achieve His character or follow Satan and be like he is. Whoever we choose to follow will determine where we spend eternity.
Jesus said that He would return quickly. To God this will be quick for in His eyes, one day is the same as a thousand years in the mind of God. The end is shortly coming. If this was true in John's day, it certainly is more true today. We must take heed. Here are the words of Peter on this subject:
We must be found without spot and wrinkle. We must be found in Christ and not moved away from that hope. If it wasn't possible to forsake the Lord and lose one's salvation, why is there so much warning in the word to take heed, watch and pray and many other warnings? We must strive to walk in love and walk in the spirit so that we do not become servants of the flesh. We must be careful to not beat our fellow servants thinking the Lord delays His coming. This happened many times in church history. Some begin to think that the Lord wasn't coming as He said and thought in their hearts that they are supposed to set up His kingdom for Him and force everyone to obey he gospel or what they thought was the gospel. They began to beat their fellow servants, lord over them with harshness, do all their praying for them with rituals, ceremonies and the mass preformed by priests. The clergy and laity were separated. The clergy did all the religious works and the laity was suppressed and kept from freely worshipping God unless the clergy was present. This may be what we saw in chapters 2 and 3 concerning a group called Nicolaitans which Jesus hated. I believe He hated it because what He freed us from (the rituals of the law, sacrifices and such) the Roman church put back. We are to worship Him in spirit and in truth, not in ceremonies and intercessions of a priesthood. We can worship God ourselves.
We are to do His commandments as Jesus Himself pointed out many times:
We see from verse 15 that those that lie, deceive, murder, use divination or witchcraft, worship idols, live in sexual immorality without repenting, this includes, selling oneself for sex, rape, incest, sodomy, bestiality and anything God did not create or ordain as holy, will not enter God's everlasting kingdom. Do His commandments not what we think is right or wrong.
Now we see the word church mentioned
again when it was not mentioned after chapter 3. He is reminding us
that this prophecy is sent to all the churches in John's day and has
passed down to our generation. These words are not to be taken
lightly and ignored like it is some mystical thing we can't
understand. We are to study it diligently and keep the words written
within.
This water of life is already given to us through the person of the Holy Spirit.
God gives us so many beautiful promises and an eternity of living in His presence with a body that can never die. Why do so many reject this good way?
Any bible translator needs to be very careful not to add or take away the meaning of this prophecy. Some assume this verse applies to the whole book we call the bible but it is only speaking of the words in the book of Revelation. I'm sure though that we should never change the original meaning of any part of the bible. My words and explanations are never to be taken as God's word but only taken as my words and opinions that are surely subject to error and misunderstanding. God's word in any part of the bible is to be taken seriously and not changed except to translate it carefully into languages that all may read and understand. It is never to be withheld and kept from the laity by the clergy who presumes to know more than the laity. Never should any person or teacher stand in the place of Christ and separate God from the common people. A good leader will gently show people the way to God but will then stand aside and let them seek God for themselves, prayerfully mentoring new believers and teaching them to follow Christ. -Dorna Chambers
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