UNDERSTANDING THE BOOK OF REVELATION 8/28/07
PART 4
We are going to take a look at the seven churches. These churches can be taught in different ways. They can be taught as literal churches; they can be taught as Spiritual churches; but the understanding that I have received is that ALL of the churches has been within me. Actually, within us all. We have experienced the things that the messenger is telling the churches, or us.
Colossians 1:19-24, "For it pleased the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell; And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile ALL things unto himself; by him, I say whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies IN YOUR MIND by wicked works, yet NOW hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight; If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to EVERY creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; Who now rejoice in my sufferinGs for you, and fill up that which is behind of the affictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake WHICH IS THE CHURCH."
WE are the church. God couldn't care less about these buildings that man calls church. We are the church and just as the church system, of today, has so much crap in them, we have had it in us too. But, by being and remaining open to the Spirit, most is out of us now. And His TRUE CHURCH is in view. The church system of today, has HUMANS in it (or so they think), but this Church, US, know that we are NOT HUMAN, we are Spirit. That SAME SPIRIT THAT GOD IS. How can we say this? Simple, there is ONLY ONE SPIRIT. ONE GOD, (Eph.4:4-6), WHO IS ALL IN ALL.
In this, His True Church, the gospel that is being heard, IS NOT the gospel that man has written and rewritten and rewritten to the point that we don't know what is inspired or not inspired. The words of the bible have been changed so many times that the understnding of it is MAN'S UNDERSTANDING. Let me show you an example of this.
2 Timothy 3: 16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God...."
I have explained this before, but I want to state it again. When the bible was translated by the scholars of King James, (who, some of them weren't even saved) they added words to the bible, supposedly to help us have better understanding. But, adding one word can change the whole meaning of a scripture. Here in 2 Timothy, this very thing happened. The third word of this scripture, "IS" was added. And this little word makes a world of difference in the meaning. It should be read as "All scripture, given by inspiration of God is...." This DOES NOT say that all scripture IS inspiried of God. Even Paul warned us in his writing, that there were people who would steal his writing and change what he said. Then they were carried from church to church. We are also told that the letter is dead UNTIL the Spirit gives understanding. But, this scripture tells me that ALL scripture IS NOT inspired of God. When Jesus told Paul to teach HIS gospel and no other gospel, in some of Paul's writings Paul tells us, "THIS IS OF PAUL"! That means, that what was written was PAUL'S THOUGHTS, no inspired of God. And it is still going on today. Look at all the denominations. THE SPIRIT let's us know what is and is not inspired of God.
Anyway, "all scripture given by inspiration" shows me that not ALL scripture IS given by inspiration". Each of you will have to judge for yourself. Isn't the Spirit NOW INSPIRING you to see things in a scripture that you didn't see before? Also, look at this warning:
2 Timothy 4:3-4, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto falbles."
The Rapture; Armaggedon; the Anti-Christ; the mark of the Beast;, all of these are fables, taught by man, NOT THE SPIRIT. How many people stepped into that invisible realm believing these? But, thank God, they are learning NOW!! Man has made the bible to be like some sort of trap. And many have been caught in that trap. But, there is a people who is hearing SPIRIT and seeing the simple truth of God. I AM thanking I AM!!
I want to look at some ways these churches are taught, and you decide what you will. As I said, the seven (perfected, completed) stars of the church are anyone bringing forth the PURE, UNPOLLUTED WORDS OF GOD, by the Spirit. (Malachi 2:7)
Malachi 2:7, "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for HE IS THE MESSENGER OF THE LORD OF HOSTS."
Galatians 4:12-14, "Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are; ye have not injured me at all. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but reeived me AS AN ANGEL OF GOD, EVEN AS CHRIST JESUS."
These verses have SO MUCH DEPTH in them. But, what we are looking at is the "stars" of the church. We are told in Malachi that he was the MESSENGER of the Lord of Hosts; and in Galatians that Paul was received as AN ANGEL OF GOD, EVEN CHRIST JESUS. We have to understand that the way they talked and worded things in the time of John, is not the way we speak or even for that matter, the way the Spirit talks. So these stars and angels of the seven churches were people speaking in the Spirit. Call them as YOU understand; preachers, teachers, priests, whatever you choose to call them, but know that whoever it is doing the speaking in the Spirit, they are stars that are shining forth with PURE TRUTH. But, another way you can look at this, which is the way I see it, is that since I AM THE CHRUCH, IT IS THE SPIRIT SPEAKING IN THIS CHURCH, when Truth and Revelation comes forth.
I am going to list the things that were in these churches that had to be overcome, and still do in many "churches"=people.
Things to over come in the churches, US:
1) Church of Ephesus; left their first love. Who and what was their first love? God. And the KNOWING that they were His Image. They lost the remembrance from whence they fell. (does this strike a cord?) We all did this. To repent simply means to turn and walk the other way. This is what some of us are doing. We are starting to walk in our True Identity and we are doing the work that we did, as Him and Him as us, from the start And as long as we walk as something other than Him, our candlestick (Light, Understanding is removed.) One thing that was liked about this church is that they hated what God hated, CONTROLLING OF PEOPLE!! This is what the Nicolatanes were. They were controllers of the people. We see the same thing in many church buildings today. IF we don't do what they do; IF we don't believe what they believe: IF we don't give them our money; and IF we dare to think that God will talk to us, as HE SUPPOSEDLY does to them, what happens? We are looked upon as heretics; backsliders, cults, you name it. You that have been called out of the church system knows what I mean. But, even today in the Kingdom churches and groups, IF we dare to say that God has shown us something that they haven't received, what are we? Quacks; people that "Jesus would be ashamed of if He were here"; false teachers, again, you name it, that's what we are called. BUT BY RETURNING TO OUR FIRST LOVE , it keeps of from caring what we are called. So, in this church the overcoming is simply return to our first love. Listen to Him. Be Him. Let HIS LIFE be seen through us. Who cares what we are called? We know something that they don't; the names we are called is WORTH BEING WHO WE ARE and we know that all will come to know also, as they open their Spirit.
2) Church of Smyrna; suffer name calling by the "more religious" folks. This is a good example of NOT believing what the bible tells us. We are
that the devil was destroyed by Jesus, on the cross. (Heb 2:14-15). But some choose to believe that the devil is alive and well (which really is the carnal mind) and they use the devil for an excuse, rather than take dominion of the tribulations. Ten is the number of Divine Order of a thing. To me, the second death would be AFTER being alive in Him, then coming into this natural realm, you are walking in death, and when your body dies (the second death) you wait in the invisible realm (still learning) until you are called back into a new body.To me, this church shows that we MUST believe His Word, in order to overcome. Just as we are overcoming this natural realm by learning the Truth of ourselves. We have all been in the place where we would say, "I know God is right, BUT>>>>>". NOW, that is ending.
3) Church of Pergamos; DOCTRINES. Exactly what we have lived on for 2000 years. We all know the doctrines that we have come out of. And the believing of those doctrines is from NOT spending time with HIM, in the Spirit. There are things that we have believed and now look back on and think, "how did I ever believe that?". Much of this is because we thought the Pastor knew everything and we knew nothing. But once we cried out to Him and spent time in the Spirit, we have learned Truth. Again , the Nicolatians is mentioned. The religous system is all about control and God wants NO CONTROL of Himself, which we are.
4) Church of Thyatira; Again it's about beliefs and allowing someone to lead you , instead of the Spirit leading you. There are times in our steps of a babe, to chase after prophets to let them tell us how and what we should do. Many have had that in their lives, I know that I did. But, once you draw close to Him and find that you have His fullness, you come to realize that you are a prophet yourself. You have the entire five fold ministry within you and you within it. When it is said that power over the nations will be given, can mean the "nations " that have been within us, not just the physical nations of the world. And He will give the morning star. This is the pure nature of Christ.
5) Church in Sardis; This is having the "name", nature, that is alive, but it is dieing. It is almost like a warning. Don't let die what I have showed you. Some are allowing the Truths that they have received, slip away for different reasons. In order to overcome is to hold solidly to what we receive. We can allow NOTHING or NO ONE to try to have us let go.
6) Church in Philiphia; This is beautiul. Those very ones who call the names; blaspheme what has been received from the Spirit; those want you to turn loose of what you have received and they have not, THEY will come to worship what you have received WHEN they DO open up and allow the Spirit to show them. Once we receive the truth of our True Identity, we cannot let any man take our crown. His name has been written in us, and the city of God, New Jerusalem is also our name. PEACE . We must not allow this to be taken from us.
7) Church of Laodiceians; the TV is full of this church. Rich. Material goods. Pastors living the rich life while there are people going hungry, but it is all going to change as we take dominion. But, it is not just the natural, it is the Spiritual Richness that some pastors won't share because it would cause some of their people to leave the church, and that means a loss of $$$.
We see that all of the "churches" had good things; but the things that matter most is the knowing of Him. The depending on Him. Listening to Him. Being Who we are.
Now, we will start through the book and see how this "one like unto the son of man" manifested.
to be continued.....