There are so many visual distractions in this day. There are so many issues which cry out for the attention of the church--individually and corporately. But, in reality, there is only one needfuil issue. His name is Jesus. We must guard our hearts with all diligence, for out of it flow the very issues of life. He is the one issue of life which has come out of the heart of the Father.
God reveals Himself in greater and greater dimensions to every generation. This generation is desperately in need of His revelation for this day. We say we are rich, and yet we are poor until He is revealed to us, until we see Him as He really is.
Before we can truly see Him, there must be a death. Death has to come before resurrection. On the island of Patmos (meaning "mortality") John had a vision--a revelation of Jesus Christ. But first, his vision had to die. He came to the end of his plan, his method, his way. Then he saw the Lord Himself sitting in complete rulership and dominion upon His throne.
Isaiah, the prophet, experienced a death before he saw the Lord high and lifted up and His train filling the temple (Isaiah 6:1-22). In the year that King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord. The earthly king had to die before he saw the Lord. Then he received revelation of who the Lord is. There was an unveiling of the Lord to him.
As Isaiah saw the Lord, there was also an unveiling of himself. He said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Then came the cleansing. The coal from the altar cleansed his lips so that he was forgiven and could cry, "Here am I, send me!" We live in the Day of Atonement. Jesus is our Atonement! We are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
We, too, must experience death. Death to our plans, our methods, our ways, our timing. We are finding that what we thought was our strength and power is not sufficient in this Day of the Lord. This is His Day, and He will have it His way! It seems that He operates under the assumption that He is God! We must come to the end of ourselves in order that God may be all in all.
When our earthly king dies, when we are on our island of Patmos, we sometimes cry out as Isaiah and say, "Woe is me!" Then He places the coal upon our lips and cleanses our speech so that we cry out, "Here am I, send me!" Even in our time of dying and suffering, our visual focus must be adjusted so that our point of vision is not our pain, but His glory. But Hallelujah, after death, there comes Resurrection!
When John experienced death to what he thought was going to happen, and to the way he thought that it was going to happen, then came the unveiling and revelation of the One sitting on the throne. The throne is the place of complete and total rulership and authority. Our God reigns!
For both Isaiah and John, there was only one response to this unveiling of Jesus in His revealed beauty, glory and majesty - worship. They fell down and they worshiped. They fell down as one dead, because they had died to themselves.
When all has been said and done, there is only one vision which remains--the One who sits on the Throne! Our response is simply to cry out, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, The Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come."
God is anointing us with His eye salve so that we can really see. He is changing our focus, both the focus of our life and the focus of our worship. Worship is not something we do. Worship is who we are. He has created us to be worshipers; worshipers who worship His Majesty.
God has revealed much to His church in the last twenty years regarding worship. We have learned marvelous things from His Word. We have experienced wonderful communion with Him as we have taken pleasure in worshipping Him. But, He will never allow us to live in the past. He is the "I Am," not the "I Was!" He is ever the God of the present, not the God of the past. He is our only focus of worship. Our songs, our music, our instruments, our dancing, our sermons, our speaking, our works, our gifts, our expressions of worship are not, and can not be, our focus. What we do is no longer the focus. Who He is, His nature, His being--this is our focus of worship.
In the light of His glory and grace, all the things of the earth grow dim in our sight. The issues which divide His Body grow dim, and are no more, as we cry out together as one:
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, Be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." Amen.
