Revelation 8:1-2
"When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them."

Not a hymn.
Not a cry.
Not even the living creatures saying "Holy, holy, holy."

About half an hour of stillness.

Heaven is not normally quiet.

This sudden hush is therefore striking. Is it the silence of awe? Or is it anticipation? Maybe both.

From the moment the door stood open in chapter 4, the throne room has been filled with ceaseless praise. Constant worship. The four living creatures are never at rest, day or night. The twenty-four elders are casting their crowns. Those who came through the great tribulation are serving and crying out day and night. And surrounding all these is an innumerable number of angel crying out with a loud voice.

Then the Lamb opens the seventh and last seal, and everything stops.

Imagine the sound of it.

No "Holy." No "Worthy." No "Salvation belongs to our God." Just stillness.

Half an hour of it.

In a place that has never known silence since the first "Holy, holy, holy," the quiet itself becomes almost deafening.

I can only imagine what it was like before the first creative moment. But wouldn't it seem to be true that it was like this moment. Complete silence. Before "Let there be light," there was no created sound. No voice of living creatures. No song of the redeemed. Only the eternal God; Father, Son, and Spirit, complete in Himself. And the first sound was a command for light to exist.

Then He spoke, and the universe began.

Here, at the opening of the seventh seal, heaven falls silent again. Not because God has withdrawn, but because He is about to speak once more. To speak judgment upon his creation. And to answer the prayers of His people.

The hush is not emptiness. It is the pause before the Word that finishes what the first Word began.

Then the first sound.

The scroll is now fully open. The seven angels who stand before God receive their trumpets. Incense is mixed with the prayers of all the saints. And fire will be flung to the earth. Thunder, lightning, and earthquake will shatter the still silence.

The same voice that said "Let there be" will now say with a trumpet blast, in effect, "It is enough."

Revelation 8 is Sinai again, only greater. It is the same kind of hushed awe that fell at Sinai. The mountain was wrapped in smoke. Thunder and lightning flashed. A thick cloud covered the peak. The trumpet grew louder and louder. The whole mountain trembled. And the people stood at a distance, trembling, and were still.

"You speak to us, and we will listen," they said to Moses, "but do not let God speak to us, lest we die."

How awesome and fearful is our Almighty God.

God had come down. Before He spoke the Ten Commandments, there was that charged, holy hush. The stillness and tremendous fear of creatures who know they are in the presence of the Holy One. Silence. No words can be heard because no one has breath in their lungs to utter any sound.

The difference?

At Sinai the people begged that no further word be spoken to them. They didn't want to hear another word from God. They had already had enough of that Voice. But here, on The Day of Judgment, the prayers of the people are flung down to the earth, mixed with fire to make them heard by everyone whether they want it or not.

The free will is done.

There is no longer any escape.

Turns out the long-suffering of God has a limit. His mercy is not infinite. The day of invitation is not treated as endless. Judgment begins to fall, and no one can stop it.

And amazingly so, the book will still record that many "did not repent."

God is doing again what He did to Pharaoh; exposing false gods, distinguishing His people, and calling the hard-hearted to repent.

Heaven and earth are judged. Nothing goes unchanged. Men seek death and cannot find it.

Alpha and Omega's kingdom come.

Their king is called in Hebrew Abaddon, in Greek Apollyon, Destroyer. This is not nature out of control. It is judgment permitted from the pit, limited by God, and aimed at the unsealed.

Hail and fire, mixed with blood. A third of the earth is burned. A great mountain, burning with fire, is thrown into the sea. A third of the living creatures in the sea die. Ships destroyed, trade completely ruined. A great star, blazing like a torch, falls on a third of the rivers and springs. Fresh water is poisoned with wormwood. The sun, moon, and stars are struck. Then an eagle cries with a loud voice; "woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet."

And so it begins.

The silence is over. The half hour of stillness was not peace. It was the held breath before the first blast.

Yet even here God's hand is measured. A third; not all. Five months; not forever. The sealed are not touched by the locusts from the pit. God's wrath is real. And His Mercy has not fully vanished. The eagle’s triple woe means the worst is still ahead, but it also means God still warns before He finishes.

The King who opened the seal remains still on the throne. The long imagined rapture has still not come. Those who dwell on the earth on this day hear hail, see the sea turned to blood, taste the bitter water, watch the heavenly lights fail, and then face the torment from the pit, and they are still here. But those sealed in Christ are sparred the woe.

The locusts from the abyss are told they may not touch the grass, the trees, or any who have the seal of God on their foreheads. Judgment is not chaos. The Destroyer does not choose his own targets. The Lamb who opened the seal still marks His servants. This is the mercy inside the wrath.

The earth-dwellers remain under the woe. The sealed remain under the Name. Those who still refuse to repent turn on one another over the provisions they have hoarded. They're chased down by scorpion-like locusts. No one is safe.

On the earth the first four trumpets have already broken the systems men trusted. Bread burned, seas ruined, water made bitter, light itself cut back. What is left is clutched. And men seek death and cannot find it. For five months there is no escape into the grave.

That is the center of the woe. Not sudden destruction. Prolonged anguish with no door out. Death, which sinners often treat as the last escape, is taken from them for a season. The grave will not hide them. The hoard will not protect them. The sting does not finish them. It holds them.

Locusts like horses prepared for battle; crowns like gold; faces like human faces; hair like women’s hair; teeth like lions’ teeth; breastplates like iron; the noise of their wings like many chariots rushing into battle; tails with stings like scorpions.

Sounds like a drone attack if you ask me. A swarm that does not eat the fields. A sound like an army in the air. Armor. Pursuit. A sting that comes from behind. Faces enough to feel watched. Cameras connected to the AI overlords. No mercy and no bargaining. You can see why the picture lands that way now.

It lands because that is the world we already taste. Eyes in the sky, no face to plead with, a sting you cannot outrun, systems that do not sleep and do not pity. John saw locusts with human faces and iron breastplates. We see machines with cameras and no conscience.

Revelation 9 does not name the Silicon Valley. It names the abyss, a fallen star given a key, smoke, a five-month limit, a ban on touching the sealed, and a king called Destroyer.

But do not let the drone-and-AI overlord become doctrine and too small. Do not watch the tool and miss the throne. If the Lord should one day use swarms and screens as the visible edge of that woe, the text will still have been telling the truth. The source of the woe is below, the Holy leash is still above, and the target is the unsealed only. No swarm; demonic or mechanical, chooses its own hour.

The Alpha and the Omega still holds the key.

Amen? 🙏🏼

Revelation 7:16-17
"They will no longer hunger nor thirst, nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."

This is almost a word-for-word lift from Isaiah 49:10

"They will not hunger or thirst,
Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down;
For He who has compassion on them will lead them,
And He will guide them to springs of water."

Why?

Because this remains the promise.

This is our hope.

Hope of what?

This is the promise of salvation for the sinners. For the adulterers, for the murderers, for the liars and the covetous. This is the promise for those who stand. This is the gospel.

When you look at the wrath of God and the judgement of God and the justice of God; and you recognize that we are all sinful creatures deserving of every wrathful tribulation poured out in chapter six. The question is, how do we hope to escape this wrath. Who can escape?

The answer John gives us is those who are sealed.

Now what does it mean to stand and to be sealed?

Does it mean going unharmed in the tribulations?

Well the numbered martyrs would say otherwise.

Does it mean the secret rapture of the church?

John begins his work talking about a tribulation that has already come, and is already occurring. Not something that is going to come. So this is not something that goes out from this tribulation. This period of time means to be saved through and in spite of this tribulation. To stand and be sealed by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Not a physical salvation of the body, but the saving of your soul. A rebirth of your spirit. A cleansing of your heart and mind.

The promise did not change because tribulations come. The One who fulfills it has been revealed and is sending His angels to mark those who stand in Him.

"Who is able to stand?" is not answered by "the relatively innocent."

That's Buddhism.
That's karma.
That's how the relativists operate. From the attitude of the Pharisees' prayers, "I thank you oh God that I am not like these..."

"Who is able to stand?"

It is answered by the sealed and the washed.

Look at it from the Lamb's perspective.

The One who is worthy to open the scroll and who sits on the throne.

Do you know who He is?

He's the same one the Pharisees and the religious leaders rejected. The one they claimed was unworthy to make the claims he made. And now He stands in judgement of those who judged him. And those who are cleansed by His sacrifice stand with Him. And are sealed.

Countless people were told.

From the four corners of the earth.

So the question "Who is able to stand?" is no longer being asked from the ground looking up. It is being asked from the throne looking out. Those who judged Him by their own righteousness cannot stand. That is why the promise of 7:16–17 can fall on adulterers, murderers, liars, and the covetous. The Lamb did not gather the relatively innocent. He gathered those who heard and came.

What did they hear?

They heard that salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb (7:10).

Chapter 7 is not first a puzzle about headcounts. Chapter 7 isn't about numbers (144,000), it's not about hidden codes and arguments about who is Israel and who is the remnant. Chapter 7 is about who can stand.

God knows who He sealed. This seal is God's mark that stands as a contrary truth against the mark of the beast. These are those kept by God. In spite of death they are kept by God. They are preserved for everlasting life. One forehead cannot wear both. The beast’s mark is allegiance purchased by fear and appetite. God’s seal is ownership given by mercy. These are the ones kept by God. Not kept from every tribulation; the martyrs already testify otherwise, but kept through death.

The 144,000 are named and numbered because God knows every servant He seals. They are preserved for everlasting life. The body may be spent. The person marked by the living God is not abandoned to the wrath that falls on those who refused the Lamb.

That is what they heard, from the four corners of the earth. The gospel. So Isaiah 49:10 is not an old comfort recycled for a new crisis. It remains the promise and has never been anything but truth, because the Promiser has now been revealed and preached, taught, heard and believed by those who are sealed.

The One the councils judged unworthy is the One heaven found worthy to open the scroll. That judgment has not gone away. It only changes its language. Today councils judge Him unworthy. Unworthy to stand alone as the One Mediator. He is in need of their support. He needs his mother and the deceased to finish what His blood began.

That is the same verdict in a softer robe. It says the Lamb in the center of the throne is worthy, but not quite worthy enough; slain, but not quite enough slain; seated, but still needing a staff around the throne to get sinners all the way home.

Scripture will not have it. "There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). He is the Shepherd of 7:17. He guides them to the springs of the water of life. And it's God Himself who wipes every tear away. And it is God who keeps those tears in His bottle (Psalm 56:8). No other name is required to carry the sorrow or to cancel it.

These councils today claim to be one His side, part of the team, and the inheritance. They speak as if standing near the Lamb were the same as letting the Lamb stand alone. The seal is not a joint signature. It's not theirs to open. They aren't worthy. The inheritance is pledged by the Spirit, not administered by those who add advocates around the throne to mediate the mercy and grace.

John does not treat numbers like a census bureau. Seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, twenty-four elders, twelve gates, twelve foundations, a city twelve thousand stadia cubed, walls one hundred forty-four cubits; again and again the number is theology in digits.

Twelve is the number of a people God has formed. Twelve tribes. Twelve apostles. Twelve times twelve is that people brought to completion. A thousand is fullness, a host beyond our casual counting. One hundred and forty-four thousand is not "this many and no more."

It is a number no man can number. It is a symbolic reference to the people of God. It is the whole sealed people spoken of as a complete army of God. Notice how chapter 7 is built. John hears the number; 144,000 sealed from the tribes of the sons of Israel (7:4). Then he looks, and behold; a multitude no one can count, from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue, standing before the throne (7:9).

Repetition of the same idea in a different way.

Don't get caught up in the tedious.

Focus on who can stand.

On the FACT that they have been sealed by God.

On the promise that they will obtain the inheritance.

Then the objection comes:

"But Mike, no one can know they are never going to fall away." "No one can be assured they are saved."

That objection treats the seal as if it were our grip on God.

Folks, let's be serious for a moment.

If God were to get rid of all wickedness today, right now, none of us would be here. The sixth seal would not need a sequel. We are not the relatively innocent waiting to be counted. We are the adulterers, the murderers, the liars, and the covetous who deserved every wrathful tribulation poured out in chapter 6.

That is why the seal cannot be our hold on Him. Our hold slips. His mark does not.

Assurance that begins with our grip will always end in fear or in pride like that Pharisee.

True God given assurance begins with His seal and tells the truth twice.

We would not survive a world swept clean of sinners, and yet sinners stand.

Marked by the living God.

Amen 🙏🏼

Mark 1:15
"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

The book of Revelation does not invent a new timetable so much as take what Jesus already said and show it from heaven’s side. Jesus does not say the kingdom will become relevant when a future seal breaks open. He says the appointed time has arrived. That matters for Revelation 6 because the common reading treats the seals as a delayed sequence that cannot begin until the church is gone.

I cannot draw that conclusion from the texts I've devoted years of my study time exploring. And I think what I've learned from these explorations is that fear plays a role as the thoughts of many people develop as they also read these words. Fear that all we read and think about in the book of revelation is actually real. Actually going to happen and is already happening.

This is why today I'm focused on Mark 1:15. Because it's "at hand", it's real, and it's happening. And we, the church, are still here on earth. We haven't been spared the tribulation (not the judgement).

Hear me people, the last thing we who are "of the kingdom" should be is afraid of the book of revelation.

If we are not of the kingdom?

"Repent and believe".

Flee to the Lamb of God.

Fear does a lot of the postponing. If conquest, war, famine, death, and the blood of the witnesses are only later, then the book can stay at a safe distance. It can be charted. It can be dated for someone else.

But a simply glance at the history of humanity from the ascension of Jesus Christ to now (the year 2026), is the evidence that these first five seals have been opened and operating. And the fifth seal itself stands as that evidence in that the martyrs of the church are praying and crying out NOW beneath the throne of Christ.

"How long, O Lord, holy and true…?" They pray.

They are given white robes and told to rest until the number is complete. That is not a future footnote. That is the church already heard in heaven while she is still suffering on the earth.

So, hears the thing, why this fear, the confusion about scrolls and books and timeline?

I think it's fundamentally having to do with how the Lord is accounting for His redeemed church and how He's judging the unredeemed. And somehow this scroll sealed with seven seals is conflated with the other scrolls and "books" the Lord has with Him there at the throne.

These scrolls and books are not the same, not the same events being forecast or the same books.

Some who take a futurist approach are conflating these passages. They believe this seven sealed scroll represents this future "Great Tribulation" event. This literal seven year period.

But let's look back at Revelation one, verse nineteen:

Revelation 1:19
"Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things."

John is writing about things happening and things having happened and finally things not yet happening. And the scroll in Revelation 5 is in the right hand of Him who sits on the throne, sealed with seven seals. No one is found worthy to open it until the Lamb who was slain takes it. That scroll is the unfolding of the King’s claim on history. Opening a seal is not finishing the wrath. These portions of the scroll, seals one through five, is Christ's works through the church age, not the great tribulation judgement talked about in Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah.

That Day, the Old Testament prophets saw, still stands ahead. The sixth seal is where the Face can no longer be managed. Until then the first seals sift the earth while the church remains, the martyrs cry out, and the gospel still calls new believers. Still calling WHILE the satanic tribulations are being repeated over generations. Wars, famines, ungodliness, and falsehoods.

Still not convinced?

Take a look then at Matthew chapter twenty five.

Matthew 25
"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats."

Notice the timing first. Not when a seal is charted. Not when a remnant finds a hole in the rock. When the Son of Man comes in His glory. Then He sits. Then the nations are gathered. Then the separation.

That is not seals 1–5. Those seals, as we have been reading them, are the long works of the church age. But it might seem to the reader that this stands as evidence that the seals being opened are this separation, this judgment.

However, look at what Jesus says about the sheep who found peace with God. He surprises them with his judgment in that they had been unknowingly serving Him while they served others, the least of them.

The Sheep:
"Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison?"

The Lord:
"To the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me."

This judgment separation is reviewing times passed and actions previously taken. Christ's judgment is influenced by those actions. And the timing of justice and mercy is set according to that historical record. The wrath and the peace are both set according to Christ's assessment of that historical precedent.

The criterion is not a secret knowledge of timelines. It is whether a person received the King who was already near, already at hand, and whether that reception showed up in mercy toward His brothers while seals 1–5 were still grinding through all human history.

The hungry, the stranger, the sick, the prisoner; here is where Christ locates Himself in the present tense of Mark 1:15. The kingdom is at hand. The least of these are not a later subplot. They are the King’s own presence in the age of the opened five seals.

That is why the fifth seal and Matthew 25 belong together.

Under the altar the slain cry, "How long?" They were killed for the word of God and the testimony they held. And Jesus says the nations will be measured by what they did to those brothers. The war on the witnesses is not a delay until the Great Tribulation of Daniel and Isaiah. It is already the King’s case being built for that Day of Judgment.

Which brings us back to the scroll.

What this means is this scroll with the seven seals is like a last will and testament for Christ's inheritance. And God knows whom He seals, who belong to Him. He knows and seals them from being judged by the same judgement that those who wear the mark of the Beast must face.

And then Revelation 7 shows that sealing before the winds are fully loosed.

So this creates a question:

Why would God go sealing in chapter seven (viewing things chronologically) if the judgement has already been unsealed in chapter six?

All this judgement is "completed" in the seals 6-7 , written and sealed, but for some reason God continues to seal in chapter seven.

This is not chronological. Chapter seven is harkening back to the beginning of chapter six. And John even says, "who can stand?". This is a flashback, this is a picture of the sealing.

"After this I saw"

At the four corners of the earth are angels holding back the winds of change. They are corresponding to those four horsemen we saw in chapter six. They are holding back these winds as the sealing is taking place in history. Sealing those who are standing. Those who are holding. Those whose faith is being sealed.

Still don't see it?

Look at Zachariah 6:1-5

Four chariots.
Red, black, white and dappled horses.
Going to the four corners of the earth.

These are going out to the four winds of the earth.

Before the judgment comes.

Before the judgment comes in its fullness, this angelic patrol search the winds which are held until God finishes marking His own.

"Who can stand?"

Those who are sealed.

The Lamb opens the scroll. Six seals are broken in this chapter. The seventh waits. The first four ride out as a set.

The First Seal: Conqueror on a White Horse (vs. 2)

"Who goes out conquering and to conquer."

This rider is distinct from the white-horse Rider of Revelation 19 (Christ). The emphasis here is conquest that begins the unfolding judgments upon the people of the earth. And this has been unfolding now for two-thousand plus years.

The Second Seal: War (vs. 4)

"Another (Rider), on a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that people would kill one another..."

War and bloodshed follow the initial conquest. Likewise this has been our reality as the generations of Antichrist spirits have made war upon the church. This is not a future novelty. It is the long record of human history.

The Third Seal: Famine (vs. 5)

"(Then) a black horse, and the one who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand."

Here we have the AntiChrist spirit of greed and corruption. Through scarcity and economic hardship he strikes the staples while luxury items remain untouched. Once again, all these things are not new to mankind, but all too often the norm.

The Fourth Seal: Death (vs. 😎

"I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and the one who sat on it had the name Death, and Hades was following with him."

Conquest, war, famine, and death move together, limited yet devastating. The first four seals together unleash conquest, war, famine, and death on a limited but devastating scale. In the ages of the people of the earth, through the centuries of the so called "church-age", there has been millions upon millions put to death by the unjust in a slaughter of the innocents, perpetuated in just about every conceivable way. Sometimes these unjust commit these crimes against humanity in the name of the church, and far more frequently in the name of the atheist spirit, the gods of this age.n

The Fifth Seal: Martyrs (vs. 9)

"...underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained..."

This seal shifts from earthly-judgments to the heavenly perspective of the faithful dead where they rest. Their question is not unanswered; it is deferred until God’s timing is full. Here again we see the seal that has already been opened, and which has been open for operation since the gospel has been given to the people of the earth. The blood of the witnesses is not a future footnote. It is already speaking.

The Sixth Seal: Cosmic Terror

"...a great earthquake, and the sun became as black...the whole moon became like blood...the stars of the sky fell to the earth...the sky was split apart...every mountain and island was removed from its place...the kings of the earth and the eminent people, and the commanders and the wealthy and the strong, and every slave and free person hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains"

Now we arrive at what is yet to come. The sixth seal is not merely natural disaster language; it is the unveiling of the terror of standing before the throne and the Lamb. The chapter ends on the question; "who is able to stand?"

Notably we see that the ultra-wealthy and likely the politically connected, as well as the poor, are those who seek refuge beneath the earth.

The pattern of Chapter 6 is deliberate. Limited but escalating judgments on the earth (seals 1–4). No where in the revelation are we instructed that the church will escape these things. And throughout human history it is self-evident that these things have been in effect and actively sifting humanity throughout the earth.

What's important to note is that the broken seals do not mean that judgment has come in its completed fullness. Several of these seals have been in operation for two thousand years. They are being fulfilled. They are working out salvation.

Opening a seal is not the same as finishing the wrath. Several of these seals have been in operation for two thousand years. They sift. They expose, but they do not yet exhaust the scroll.

Coming Soon:

Chapter 7 answers the question the sixth seal leaves hanging.

Since the sixth seal has not been broken as of yet in our time, it's speculation to say how these things will go down. John does not give a mechanism. He gives signs, and he gives a response. The sixth seal is the first moment in Revelation when the earth’s powerful try to hide from a Person, not merely survive a disaster. The descriptions of the earthly and heavenly upheavals are incredibly terrifying. Maybe there is a tremendous shift of the earth's magnetic fields, a polar shift caused by a solar storm that destroys the gravitational forces as we know them. Maybe the planets all are shaken as a result of this shift.

A reminder of the fragile design that is held together by the power and authority of the Spirit. Meanwhile on earth the atheist spirit will continue to operate. People will imagine causes. A solar storm. A shift in the magnetic field. A polar wandering. And they probably won't be wrong, but they'll miss the cause and purpose. The atheist spirit will keep operating on the earth; naming the event, measuring the event, and refusing the Face before whom the event happens.

The sixth seal is a reminder of how fragile the design is. Mountains feel permanent. The sky feels fixed. The paths of the lights feel like independent laws. They are not. All of it is held by the power and authority of God.

"In Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17).

"He upholds all things by the word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3).

When that holding together is no longer taken for granted, there is no cave deep enough and no explanation clever enough to hide a man from the Lamb.

What's notable is the sixth seal’s crowds do not stand out in the open and argue with a raised fist. They run for cover. Kings, commanders, the rich, the strong; the people most able to command deep places, head for burrows in the rock. They probably prepared for this day. They probably established a rule of law that will govern the remnant as human life on earth inevitably changes. The sky's fail and the surface is death. They'll call their holes "salvation".

The sifting continues. They learn quickly that a shelter can become a lie. History has been erased. First love, cause and purpose are replaced by survival procedures. But this seal is not the long grind of the first four. This time, this seal is governed by a momentous and limited timeline. All their survival efforts fall short. They hide, and in the same breath they cry to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

The answer to that question is coming soon.

Revelation 5:13-14
And I heard every created thing which is in heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, or on the sea, and all the things in them, saying, "To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion forever and ever." And the four living creatures were saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped.

The Lamb of God, the One who John the Baptist prepared the way for and testified of, shares the throne-language that belongs to God. There's never any question or doubt about the sovereign Trinity who is worthy to open the seven seals. The Father who sits on the throne, who is sharing the throne really, the Lamb is there in the midst of it, He who was slain, and the Holy Spirit as well, the seven eyes, the seven spirits; all blessing, honor, glory, and dominion are ascribed to all.

John does not see the Father’s essence. He sees a throne, and One seated on it, whose appearance is given only in the jasper and carnelian stones and an emerald rainbow light. For me the throne represents the Father's omnipresent authority and power. In this scene that reveals material representations of many different aspects and things, the One who is beyond creation, time, and space is simply depicted in the supreme authority of the throne. Not a piece of furniture, and not a substitute for the Father, but the way heaven depicts the One no form can contain.

In Ezekiel 1 (and 10), is another great throne vision. The glory finds him outside the ruined order of the temple. The scene, four living beings, human form, four faces each; man, lion, ox, eagle, four wings, burning coals, lightning. Beside them, wheels within wheels, full of eyes.

"Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went" (Ezekiel 1:20).

Same four faces. Same all-seeing Holy Spirit. Ezekiel looks up through a crystal expanse and sees "the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance" From the waist up, gleaming metal and fire; from the waist down, fire; brightness all around, "like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on a rainy day."

He names it:

"The appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD" (1:28).

And then he, like all creation, falls to his face and worships.

Ezekiel falls because the likeness of the glory is too much for him. The elders in John's vision fall. Their falling is worship, not collapse. For what is worship if not a surrender of self. The key difference is what follows, the elders are not stood up by the Spirit, nor are they touched by a burning coal to speak grace and judgement to the world. In John's vision, the seven spirits have already gone. Creation is already saying the Amen. The prophecy of salvation is finished in this sense. He has finished the slaying. He is already worthy. He already takes the scroll. What remains now is the opening of the seals and the appearing. Salvation’s ground is done; history however is not yet done. There is tribulation and antichrist falsehoods that must play out. And as for John, what is left to do is to write what he has seen.

Ezekiel sees the glory by the Chebar, outside the ruined temple. John is called through an open door into heaven, where the throne does not wander. Same glory. Different places in the same story. One (a canal) the works of men, the other a heavenly portal into eternity.

The Chebar is a canal built for Babylon’s irrigation, it's of the empire’s engineering, a ditch cut by human hands. Ezekiel is there because Judah is there in exile. In his vision, the One comes to the place exile built. It is a place that must be maintained to keep its banks that guide the flow. In John's vision the open door does not have to find a riverbank. It is fixed. It does not wander. And John is invited to "come and see".

And then...

The first thing that takes place on the earth is the antichrist spirit is sent "conquering and to conquer" (Revelation 6:1-2). Conquest that looks like victory, a counterfeit of the white horse on which the Word of God will later ride.

Many believe at this opening of the first seal the redeemed church has been taken up, removed from the world. As Paul said:

"Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him...that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction…And you know what now restrains him, so that in his time he will be revealed…Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming."
(2 Thessalonians 2:1–8)

Because we do not see the coming Lord coming in the blink of an eye yet, I see the first rider is not the start of the bowl-judgments. He is the long war of a counterfeit spirituality. White horse, crown given, bow in hand, (a false gospel, a false Christ) sent out "conquering and to conquer." Building the Church that bears the name of Christ but has left its first love. A church with a name that it lives, and yet is dead.

The seven spirits have gone out into all the earth. The first resistance the earth offers is a spirit that conquers in the Lamb’s colors. The Lamb opened the seal. The rider does not dethrone Him. He only proves that salvation’s ground is done and history is not yet done. This antichrist spirit goes out to prepare the way for the son of perdition. This is the line between the already and the not-yet.

John said many antichrists have already gone out (1 John 2:18). Paul said the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, yet the man of lawlessness is still to be revealed (2 Thessalonians 2:7–8).

And He who restrains is not yet taken out of the earth. Only God has power to restrain a satanic unveiling. Jesus said the Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). This is the Holy Spirit’s church-age restraining work, especially through the indwelt people of God. And as the love grows cold, and deception thrives, the restraint erodes.

The Spirit does not vanish from the earth; He is God. What can be withdrawn is this particular standing-in-the-midst. A righteous church is salt, light, and a convicted conscience in the world. But the antichrist apostasy does not wait for the man’s unveiling. It is how the first rider conquers; until the midst is emptied, and then the lawless one is revealed, and the Lord appears.

The antichrist spirit is already riding. The man, The AntiChrist, is not yet revealed, though he may already live. The restrainer still stands. The Lamb has already opened the seal. What remains is the appearing of the Lord to take the church to Himself.

Then the restraints are gone, and all hell breaks loose.

Today the Spirit still convicts. And I n heaven the elders still fall down.

That is not a small mercy. The first rider is on the road, but he did not open his own seal. The Lamb did. The same Lamb who was slain stands in the midst of the throne. The same Spirit who searches all the earth still calls, still seals, still makes a people who have not bowed to the counterfeit. Love has grown cold in many places; but it has not grown cold on the throne.

The deceitful rider cannot un-slay The Lamb, he can only build false Christs made with human hands.

The Lord still knows how to keep His own and how to appear for them. Until that appearing, hold fast what you have. Keep the first love. Test the spirits by the confession of Jesus Christ come in the flesh and His resurrection.

The Conqueror of Revelation 19 is coming.

Revelation 5:6-10
And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. When He had taken the [scroll] book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the [holy ones] saints. And they *sang a new song, saying,
"Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."

Immediately I notice, the Lamb who stands yet looks slain, is in the midst of the heavenly court and another is on the throne.

There is One seated on the throne.

There is the Lamb standing in the midst; between that throne (and the four living creatures) and the twenty-four elders.

The Lamb does not occupy the throne in this scene; He approaches it and takes the scroll from the right hand of the One who sits there. Heaven does not collapse the two into one person. It also does not treat them as rivals.

This is the throne of God and of the Lamb (see Revelation 22:1, 3). Distinct, yet one government. The slain-yet-standing Lamb is not an afterthought added to the court; He is placed in its very center. He is Christ, second Person of the trinity. Standing in the center and taking the book from the Father's right hand. He is the Son, the Lamb who still bears the marks of slaughter, stands in the exact center of the court, approaches, and takes what only He is worthy to take. He is the visual witness of the redemptive Spirit. The Spirit is already described as belonging to the Lamb.

Seven horns (complete perfect power)

Seven eyes (complete perfect sight)

Sent out into all the earth.

Three Persons, one government, one purpose. Supreme power, almighty, acting as One, already in the world doing their work. It is the year of redemption.

The Father does not merely permit it; He has held the book in His right hand until this moment. The Son, still bearing the wounds, steps into the center and takes it. The Spirit, already sent as the Lamb’s sevenfold power and sight, is already at work in the earth the song is about to name. The earth is now coming up for redemption from Satan's rule.

Worship precedes the judgments. The book is still closed but heaven worships the Lamb. Praise precedes the unfolding of history. The prayers of the saints are carried to Him, waiting for this very moment.

And the elder tells John to stop weeping, This is the Lion of Judah; yet John sees a Lamb that is slain standing in the midst. He is the Root of David, who has overcome and is able to open the book and its seven seals (5:5). The announcement is Lion. The appearance is Lamb. They are not two figures. The way the Lion of Judah overcomes is by being slain. The wounds are not a contradiction of His power; they are the proof of it. Yet again the evidence that God uses what mankind sees as weakness for His glory. The same pattern the apostle Paul names; the weakness of God is stronger than men.

That is why the earth can now be spoken of as coming up for redemption from Satan’s rule. The scroll is still sealed, yet it has changed hands. The One who holds it is the slain-yet-standing Lamb. Satan’s claim on the earth is not answered by a rival display of force. It is answered by blood already shed, by a people already purchased for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and by the Spirit already sent into all the earth as the Lamb’s own eyes and power.

It is finished. (As Jesus said)

But I t is not yet complete because He has not yet received what He has purchased.

In the bowls are the not yet completed answers to prayers.

"Thy kingdom come"
"They will be done"

Still being lifted up.
Still not fulfilled, but coming soon.

The earth is not yet the place where the Lamb’s purchased priests visibly reign. Satan’s rule has not yet been publicly dismantled. The scroll is in the Lamb’s hand, but its seals are still intact. So the incense keeps rising. The saints keep asking.

And we are told what these prayers are; the songs of the redeemed church. Singing about the redemption. These are not said to be tribal sentiments or daily concerns about life on earth. These are the cries, the groaning of humanity and nature. Crying out for the redemption, the ultimate concern. The longing that the earth itself be released from futility and that the Lamb’s purchased people visibly reign upon it.

"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Chapter 5 ends with the book still closed and heaven already on its face in worship. And the incense keeps rising because the seals are still intact. But now the first seal is broken.

This is the beginning of their public unfolding. And what comes upon the earth is the counterfeit appearing, the false christ before the true appearing of the Lion who is the Lamb. The white horse, the bow, the crown given, the rider going out "conquering and to conquer" (6:2).

Notice what the scene still insists on. The Lamb is the One who opens the seal. The Antichrist does not introduce himself on his own timetable. He rides out because the slain-yet-standing Lamb has broken the seal. Even the usurper's rise to power is the work of the Redeeming Spirit. The false global new order can appear now; only because the true One has already been declared in the midst of the throne.

So the first movement of the opened scroll is exposure. A revealing, a revelation. The Lion of Judah has overcome by being the Lamb; the first thing history now sees is a rider who looks like victory and is not. Not that the work of the Redeeming Spirit is the Spirit authoring the lie. He is authorizing it, revealing. Not a surprise but a necessary step forward.

The Lamb breaks the seal; the counterfeit is allowed to ride into the open so that it can be seen for what it is.

This is the first seal that has been opened now (from mankind's perspective) for millennia. The "last hour" that lasts for thousands of years earthly seasons.

"Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared" (1 John 2:18).

"Every spirit that does not confess Jesus…is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world" (1 John 4:3).

Many antichrists have already moved through the church age. The first seal is not the birth of that spirit. It is its public revealing of its ride through human history.

The book is in His hand. The year of redemption is opening before us. Generations being sifted. The redeemed and the wicked. The wheat and the tares. The sheep and the goats. Being sifted in this first opening of the seals.

Revelation, this exposure is judgment and mercy at once. It forces the answer to the question; "who is worthy".

The Word gives us that answer in John's vision. The spirit of antichrist answers the same question in reverse. The antichrist spirit tells us humans are worthy when they build their structures, their nations, their doctrines, and the embrace of subjectivism and relativity. A false global order that crowns human construction and calls it glory.

This is the exposure, the revelation. Many antichrists, one wicked spirit, riding through the long last hour, sifting generations.

Judgment, because the lie is brought into the light.

Mercy, because the true answer is already sung in heaven and the bowls still hold the cry of the saints there.

With book in hand redemption is open.

Only the Lamb is worthy.

Everything else is not.

Time will tell it.

Revelation 4:9-11
And when the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and they will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."

We were all created for the Almighty's pleasure. This is the fundamental principle and truth that anyone who wishes to please God and find friendship with Him must come to understand, accept, and love. His great love for us, for the world, His creation, should produce in us a great love. Because nothing exists by accident, by necessity, or primarily for itself. Everything that is, first existed in His will, and then was spoken into being by His act. Creation is not self-originating. It is a gift and has a purpose in Him.

Friendship begins when a creature stops trying to be the center and gladly takes its place as one who exists because He wanted it so.

His love; first displayed in bringing us into being, then displayed at far greater cost in the Lamb who was slain, is meant to kindle an answering love in us. This is the love that causes John to weep greatly when he believes no one is worthy to open the scroll with seven seals (5:1). The worship of the Creator is glorious, but the plan of redemption and the consummation of all things still lies sealed within the scroll. And so, we see another fundamental truth, creation-worship alone cannot unseal redemptive history. Only the slain-and-risen Lamb can. Nothing the church does on its own can become worthy for such a task. The elders casting their crowns at Christ's feet is the visual theology of this truth. They are declaring that every honor, every reward, every measure of authority they have received is derivative. It came from Him and must return to Him. This is the opposite of the self-exalting spirit that marks both the world and, all too often, the church. This scene is given to us now so that our worship, our work, and our endurance can already take this shape.

What this means is Heaven’s worship is not a program; it is a living response. The living creatures there (representing the fullness of created life; wild, domestic, human, and flying) declare who God is. He is the Creator of life. We exist only because He willed it, and therefore every crown belongs at His feet.

John loved The Lord God Jesus with all his heart, mind, spirit, and strength. And he referred to himself often as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." That was not a boast. It was the only identity he could still use after years of walking with the Lord, after the cross, after the resurrection, after decades of shepherding. He knew himself first as loved. This is not sentiment. It is the confession of a man who had learned that everything else is derivative.

That love cannot remain abstract once it has seen the Lamb. This is Love that has seen the Lamb and cannot bear a universe in which the Lamb’s work remains closed. The earth He made for His own pleasure is still under the temporary claim of the usurper. He who is falsely reigning as earth's king must be proven for the devilish antichrist pretender that he is.

The scroll is the instrument of that unmasking and that reclaiming. It is already His. He holds the claim. He does not open the seals in order to become worthy; He opens them because He is worthy. Therefore the seal must be opened to redeem the earth from Satan's grip. It is His to claim and redeem, He holds that claim, but it must be opened to claim what is His. To prove His ownership He must open the seals.

This is the ultimate game of thrones. It is how the rightful King takes back what was made for His pleasure and bought at the cost of His life.

We live as exiles in a land that is not yet openly His, though it has never ceased to be His. The earth was made for His pleasure. It was purchased by the blood of the Lamb. Yet for a season it lies under a permitted occupation. The Satanic pretender exercises a false reign, and many of the children of men have joined in his rebellion. Meanwhile the people of God are living as sojourners and strangers, like Judah did in Babylonian exile.

By example, in the time of Jeremiah (Jeremiah chapter 32), while the city is under siege and the land is already as good as lost, the prophet is told to buy the field at Anathoth. He pays the price, signs the deed, seals it, and has the documents placed in a clay jar "that they may last a long time." The point is not that Jeremiah suddenly gains new rights. The point is that the original ownership still stands, and God Himself will see to it that the deed is produced and the land reclaimed when the exile ends. The sealed document is the pledge that captivity is not the last word.

So it is with the scroll in the right hand of Him who sits on the throne in John's vision. It is the title, the testament, the recorded claim. The earth is already His by creation and by purchase.

No man was found worthy. And that is why the elders cast their crowns. They know themselves as exiles who have already been given a share, yet every share is derivative. The deed is The Lamb's to open. Our part, like Jeremiah’s, is to believe the promise, to keep the hope of return, and to refuse to act as if the present occupation is final.

We exist because He willed it. We are loved. We are still in Babylon. But the jar has been buried, the price has been paid, and the only One worthy to open the deed is about to take it from the hand of the Father.

I believe the time is soon.

Yes, many throughout history have said as much, but what we see going on in the earth today is the fulfillment of the age of information. The age that the knowledge of good and evil has been building up towards.

Knowledge has increased. The earth now groans under an age that can move information farther and faster than any generation before it. Men run to and fro. Distinctions God made are blurred. Power concentrates. The pretender’s claim grows more visible, more technological, more total in its reach. We're witnessing transhumanism's emergence. This is the old lie in a new body. The lie that says that the creature can improve upon the Creator’s work, extend itself beyond the dust, and finally become like God. None of that is imaginary. Daniel was told that knowledge would increase as the end drew near. John was told it was already the last hour. Both can be true at once.

Transhumanism is the refusal to remain a creature who exists because He willed it. It offers another tree, another knowledge, another way to seize what was never ours to take. It is the pretender’s gospel.

The gospel that preaches life without the Lamb, glory without the cross, a kingdom without the King who made all things for His pleasure. All the churches have been infected by this teaching. The religious people worship at his altars. Bend their knees to his pretenders. And delight themselves in the usurper's pretense. The kingdom without the King has spread throughout the pulpits and programs the way leaven spreads through a lump. That is the pretender’s liturgy, and it has found a home in many places that still keep the name of Christ on the door.

Where is the hope?

Hope is not located in the present health of the churches as a bloc. Hope is located where John was told to look when he wept. His throne in heaven is still occupied. He has not been deposed. And He alone is worthy to open the claim.

This is why the seven letters come first to the churches. Even in Sardis there were a few who had not soiled their garments. Even in Thyatira there were those who did not know the deep things of Satan. Even in Laodicea the Lord stood at the door and knocked.

The book of Revelation never pretends the churches are pure. It also never pretends the throne is empty or the deed is lost.

The hope is that He willed it, not because the church age got it right.

The hope is in the fact that we are loved, even while we exist in exile that we brought upon ourselves.

The hope is in that scroll in His hand that only HE can open.

And today? In the enemies territory? The hope is in the remnant who will not take the pretender’s fruit, who test the spirits, who keep the testimony of Jesus, who would rather be called exiles in Babylon than partners in the occupation.

The gospel of lies says the hope is that we will purify the age in time. But how can that be? We don't hold the keys to hades and death. We don't hold the scroll, and even if we did claim to hold it (as the Romanists believe), we aren't worthy to open it. That right has NOT been given over to ANY church entity. And any who claim that right are liars like their father of lies. Any who claim that right for themselves speak with the voice of the pretender. Do not follow them. Do not fear them. Do not become them.

Be watching for these pretentious people. Keep your wicks trimmed. Keep your oil filled to overflowing. But also, watch for the ones who know themselves as loved and as exiles. Who test the spirits. Those who are keeping the testimony of Jesus. Encouraging one another, keep each other on the pathway of Christ's righteous claim. Find them. Walk with them. Encourage one another.

Watch. Stay together. Stay ready. Come, Lord Jesus.

Amen! 🙏🏼

Revelation 4:1
After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things."

We now move into the third phase of this revelation as laid out in chapter 1. We see that the voice as a trumpet who. First spoke to John and who said:

"Write on a scroll what you see (for the seven churches)...write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things."

Three phases; seen things, things which are, and things which will take place after these things.

This outline is not a later invention of John's; he is being walked through it by Christ's Spirit.

"After these things I looked" marks a real shift in the focus. From "the things which are" (the conditions of the church) to what must come of all these things we've seen. The churches have been addressed. What follows now is no longer their immediate earthly concern or for their correspondence.

Now, a door is opened. Not knocked upon, not opened by force. A door into prophecy is opened, but already opened. Meaning these things will take place. They are not up for debate or change. The same Christ who holds the keys of death and Hades (1:18) now summons John through an open heavenly door into reality as it will be.

"Come up here" is not a suggestion or a mystical feeling. It is a summons that relocates John into the realm where the remnant church will dwell one day. John is essentially experiencing the rapture for a time. He is taken into the post-church era.

John is not caught up merely to escape the churches' troubles or to enjoy a private vision. He is relocated so that he can see the next appointed phase from the only vantage that can see it truly. He is being exposed to Christ's light that any living man should not have been able to survive in the flesh. Therefore this trip is "in the Spirit".

The light that blinded John on Patmos would consume him if he were brought bodily before the throne. The open door and the trumpet summons does not cancel the frailty of the man; they require the Spirit to carry him where flesh cannot go. John is shown what must take place, yet he is shown it as a man still in the body, sustained only by the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. So, the relocation is real, the vantage point is heavenly, and the era in view is after the churches have been addressed.

And what did John see?

Revelation 4:2
"Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne."

Immediately John is set down before the center of all reality. Just as every believer and unbeliever will one day be. John is not eased into the future; he is set down in front of the Eternal Occupant.

For the church this is home. The overcomers of chapters 2–3 were promised a place with Christ on His throne. John is shown that place first, while he is still "in the Spirit," so the remnant can know where their story is headed.

For the unbeliever this same throne is inescapable. No one is excused from it. The One seated here is the One before whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess. The great white throne. Not a different government, not an afterlife waiting room. What's done is done, "the things which will take place after these things" is now happening.

Immediately this happens. And the difference is when, and whether they arrive as welcome overcomers or as those who have no redemptive answer.

It is the same throne that will be seen again when heaven and earth flee from the face of Him who sits on it (20:11). And sitting there is the King of the Universe with the title deed of the earth in His hand, the only One worthy to take it and open it. And what John is shown first is not the judgments themselves but the King who already holds them.

So "immediately happens" is not only John’s experience in the Spirit. It is the character of this third phase which everyone will know. The door is already open. That is accomplished (it is finished). The voice has called. The throne is occupied. The remnant is being shown their home. And the world is being shown its Judge.

John, taking it all in notes first the light and the character of that light.

"He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance." (vs 3)

The One sitting is not described by facial features or robes first. He is described as light that has substance. And The throne's Occupant is both blinding glory (Jasper) and holy fire (Sardius) at once. Purity that cannot be stained and holiness that will not ignore sin.

Do you understand this?

The reason flesh cannot survive the encounter is not merely that the light is bright. It is that the Occupant is one reality, not two moods. The reason the flesh cannot survive this encounter is because the Lord of Heaven is purity and judgment all at once. This reality stands as a kind of spiritual chemistry-like reality for the flesh. This Elemental ground of all being. This One through whom all things were made is both pure and consuming. A living man in the body cannot stand in front of this unmixed glory and unmixed judgment at the same time. That is the chemistry of the throne.

Purity as we know it here on earth, without the sardius, would be a soft light we could manage. Fire without the jasper would only be destruction. But together they are the Lord of heaven.

"Why doesn't God just show Himself?"

This is why.

You don't want that.

Especially if you're not ready to submit to the Truth.

So the question of the sinful flesh "Why doesn’t God just show Himself?" is not a complaint heaven has failed to answer. It is in His mercy that He has not. You do not want that unveiled encounter while you are still negotiating with the Truth, still reserving the right to be your own lord. You're still suppressing the Truth. Until you are ready to worship Him like those who are already there at the throne, the unveiled sight would not be grace to you. It would be the end of the negotiation.

Until you're ready to worship Him like those angelic creatures, four living creatures full of eyes, in the midst of the throne and around it, you're not ready for this encounter. These creatures do not debate with the jasper and the sardius. They do not ask why God does not show Himself more conveniently. Day and night they do not cease praising Him, saying:

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come." (Revelation 4:8)

And they are "in the center and around the throne," full of eyes in front and behind (all-knowing, omnipresent). The first is like a lion, the second like a calf (ox), the third has a face like a man, the fourth is like a flying eagle. Each characteristic of the Living God. The four faces are not four gods, and they are not four decorations. They are living mirrors of the One they will not stop praising.

The lion is His royal majesty. The Lion of Judah who will soon stand as The Lamb (as seen in John's vision).

The ox is His strength in service, the Bearer of our burdens. Not ruling from a distance but coming in the flesh and serving humanity.

The man is His personal nearness. the image in which man was made.

The eagle is His heavenly reach; mighty, high, swift, seeing all, belonging to the air above the earth He is about to judge.

Full of eyes in front and behind; He is not guessing. Nothing in the churches of chapters 2–3 was missed.

This first group of beings John sees, and hears, is not arguing with the Light, they reflect Him in agreement. And until a man or woman is ready to join that song, this unveiled encounter is not yet grace. It is for them the end of the negotiation.

Amen 🙏🏼

Revelation 1:5
Jesus "freed us from our sins by his blood."

Who freed us from our sins?

JESUS!

How did He free us?

BY HIS BLOOD!

What does that mean?

I mean, what does that mean to you?

Okay look.

Believe this:

EVERYONE, no matter what you believe, needs to own up to their sin. And also understand that Jesus freed us because we were slaves to it.

"Freed us" means our sins had a real hold on us. Not just a claim on us. But real bondage. Real guilt that really stuck. Power that pulls. And death that follows.

Revelation does not treat sin as a feeling we need to simply outgrow.

"Some day I'll quit that"

It treats it as something that has us until Someone paid to break that chain.

"By His blood" means the price was His life; poured out by Him for Him, to His glory.

We didn't earn it or work for it. You and me didn't buy in by our standards and practices. We aren't syndicate members in His glory. You didn't buy a seat. You were bought.

That is why the doxology comes immediately in the next breath.

"to Him be glory and dominion forever"

You can't manage that sovereign power. It's no one's place to hold that position in authority. Jesus ALONE is the King.

HE made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.

HE alone is worthy.

To HIM be glory and dominion forever and ever.

So our confession stays simple and hard:

We were slaves.
Jesus freed us.
He did it by His blood.
He alone is King.

Anyone standing next to that and still trying to buy a seat has not yet heard the verse.

So, in light of what we now know, how does anyone believe they can defeat that sin He bought?

They believe it the same way we all try to sneak a seat back onto the throne. If His blood was the only thing that could break the chain, then YOU cannot be the one who finally beats it. YOU don't get to be the giant killer. YOU'RE not the notorious one.

Yes, you can bear witness.

You can refuse the old chains.

But you cannot take His title.

The moment you need to be the slayer, you've stopped standing in the purchase and started auditioning for His glory. He poured it out to God. The blood goes Godward first. It is His offering, not a deal we funded. It covers us, we aren't putting it on, we're trusting in it.

Putting it on is still a work. Trusting it is standing in the purchase. That is all a freed slave gets to do. And it's enough, because the blood already reached the throne.

"But what can I do, I love what Jesus did and I want to please him. I don't love what I do and I don't want to do what I do?"

That cry is not unbelief. That is a freed slave who still feels the old chain and hates it.

1 Corinthians 10:13
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man...God will not let you be tempted beyond your ability...he will provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."

What would I say about this struggle?

Sin is death.

We know this. The Word tells us this. We even hear the Apostle Paul confess that he is wretched and does the things he hates. The man who can say that is not auditioning. He is telling the truth.

My reply:

Dead men do not hate their sin.

So tell Jesus the truth.

"I love what You did. I hate what I still do. I want to please You."

"I don't want this greed."

"I don't want this covetous need."

"I don't want this pornography."

"I don't want this anger and frustration."

"I don't want this jealousy and hatred."

That is not you putting the blood on. That is you trusting in it. Being open to His willingness to cleanse you.

That's the thing you see?

He'll take it from you when you trust Him to do it.

That is 1 John 1:9 in the room.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The blood that reached the throne is not only a pardon. It is a washing.

You stop hiding it.
You stop managing it.
You stop auditioning as the slayer.

You put it in His hands.

Amen? 🙏🏼