After these things I looked, and there was a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said: “Come up here so that I can show you what must happen after these things.” Immediately I was in the Spirit, and a throne was standing in heaven with someone seated on it! And the one seated on it was like jasper and carnelian in appearance, and a rainbow looking like it was made of emerald encircled the throne. In a circle around the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on those thrones were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white clothing and had golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came out flashes of lightning and roaring and crashes of thunder. Seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, were burning in front of the throne and in front of the throne was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. Revelation 4:1-6
New English Translation
In the last post, Revelation: God-Centered, we talked about the end of chapter 4 and how it teaches us to keep our lives God-centered. Now, I want to back track to the first half of the chapter and talk about it a little bit.
What stood out to me right away was God’s invitation for John’s participation. Rather than starting off with all the magnificent things, God started with “come.” In that moment, God put the responsibility on John. Whether or not the amazing glory of the throne room would be seen or missed relied entirely on John’s willingness to step forward and act. God didn’t bring the throne room to where John was at, but He made it possible for John to come in.
Honestly, there are so many times that we expect God to do all the work. We want to be in His throne room, but we also want Him to bring it to us. We want to sit back and experience the awe and wonder, but do we really want to make a move to make that happen? I think those moments where we finally have passion and desire enough to seek after God and actively step into His presence and walk with Him are the most beautiful moments anyone can have.
Maybe you can relate to this: I’ve had several friends tell me that they wanted a better relationship with God and that they felt like their discipleship was lacking. Naturally, I ask them whether they are spending time in the word, prayer, church, and Christian community. Often, I find that church and Christian community are always in check; however, spending time in the Bible and prayer is not so much. Though my friends would often express a desire to have a better devotional life, often when suggestions are made or accountability is offered, it’s brushed off and said that they’re figuring it out. Later, we tend to have pretty much the same conversation. Does this sound familiar for anyone?
I think the problem here is that we’ve forgotten the aspect of working in our faith. We don’t work for our faith, but are supposed to work in our faith. That means that we can’t just do the “easy things” and be a Christian when it’s convenient. Instead, it means making painful decisions, even if that means waking up earlier than you want to and intentionally spending time in the Word and prayer before your day begins. Only when we are willing to actively live out our walk with Jesus are we going to start seeing real growth, discipleship, and change in our lives.
These are the questions I have for you: Are you desiring God to move in your life? and What are you doing about it?
Sometimes, we aren’t seeing God moving in our lives because we aren’t stepping into what He is doing. Think of it this way: You have a really big group project, who are you going to want to work with? The guy who never takes initiative or the one who is always ready to jump in and help where needed? The same is true for God. He wants people who want to walk with Him, who want to live for Him. Are you one of those people?
My challenge for you is to intentionally find ways that you can start stepping into God’s throne room. For some of you, that’s going to look like setting up monthly giving to missions that God has been putting on your heart and you’ve been “waiting for the right time” to do it. Others, it’s going to look like finally setting a designated time to worship on your own. The options of how you can step into the throne room are limitless. Will you take that first step?