CHAPTER NINE
THE BLESSING
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John has just acknowledged an announcement from a messenger of God. We are in Revelation Chapter Two. Here, John tells us he can personally establish and account for the facts of the Word of God, the testimony, and the existence of Jesus Christ and of all the things that he saw. In verse three, John says, “Blessed is he that reads and hears the words of this prophecy.” This is the only passage or scripture in the Bible where a blessing is promised for reading and hearing a certain message.
I have questioned what kind of blessing would come from reading the scroll of the Apocalypse. I have read the book of Revelation many times, but I did not understand or comprehend it. All I could see were symbols I could not understand. And the scriptures seemed to be full of doom and gloom. Where was the blessing promised? How could anything good ever come from such a story? I was certain that the person who penned this particular book was very weird or had a warped sense of imagination.
Christ said, “You have eyes, but cannot see. You have ears, but cannot hear.”
If you read, but do not comprehend or understand what you have read; or, if you hear, but do not understand what has been said; do you grasp the message or importance of the meaning? If I speak or write in a language, which you do not understand, can we communicate with each other?
Today, I am truly blessed by the scroll of the Apocalypse because I have found the key. After years of studying, praying, searching, looking and trying to find the secrets within God's word I finally have been given the key. As I stated before, the only way to unlock the mysteries of the last book of the Bible with understanding is by understanding the other 65 books. You do not need any other guidebook but God's word.
The blessing is having the knowledge and understanding of what that last book means. The blessing is in knowing and acknowledging the total plan of our Supreme Creator.
What the future holds does not matter; life, as we know it, is just a temporary inconvenience of the moment. What God has promised will surpass anything we can possibly imagine in the World kingdom that is coming,
Some holds everything God has said, that Christ has promised, and that man can hope for, in contempt. Man is in love with this world and with himself. Christ said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
When the disciples asked Christ to teach them how to pray, what did he say to them? He said to pray like this, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom comes. Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.” Christ has mandated that God’s people, seek, desire, and pray for God’s kingdom to come.
All things must be suppressed and changed to bring into existence the things that will surpass all that we know. I have been to the future and no longer hunger to remain in the present. I love life and all the joy God gives. Christ came so I could have life and enjoy it to the fullest. For us to live, we must know Christ. To die is gain.
If Christ is not the center of your being, then you are just a walking corpse with no purpose, not really living. What purpose do we fulfill if we are empty inside?
All things of the present must pass away before God will bring in the new. A friend of mine passed away today, Wednesday, July 22 1998. His life was just a temporary thing. The real person will some day be emerging. His spirit and soul are now at rest like the worm that lies dormant in his cocoon. Waiting for the moment when the Creator calls us to come forth. At the sound of the last trumpet when Christ, Master of all, has finished all the preparations required by his father.
When this world empire of Satan's has crumbled and evil has run its course, all of the dead who have believed in Christ will emerge and arise. It has been God's ultimate goal to unite man with his Creator. This is the blessed hope and purpose for all of humanity. If there is no resurrection, then we have no hope and life has no meaning.
In Revelation Chapter 1:10, John says, “I was in the spirit on the Lord's day.”
From Revelation Chapter 1:10 through Chapter 3.29, John makes no mention of the messenger Christ sent to him.
I believe the messenger was dispatched to tell John to be ready and be prepared for, shortly Christ will reveal himself.
In Revelation Chapter 1:19, Christ tells John to write the things which he has seen in the past, the things which are present, and the things which will be in the future.
On the day that John was in the spirit, there is no mention of the messenger. I believe John was alone, praising, and worshipping Christ and Christ came and revealed himself to John. Christ gave John a message to send to the seven assemblies (Churches) that were in Asia.
All the things John writes concerning the things that are and the things that must be are all happening or revealed on the same day John was in the spirit.
Therefore, we must understand this scroll of Revelation is represented into time frames of past, present, and future.
The past is representing the account of John's past knowledge of knowing Christ. The present is representing all things during John's time period.
The future representing all things forward or future from the time that John received this Revelation in 90 AD- 95 AD.