The emergence of the Divine prophecy – the true word of God. So we see the Divine throne expressed to us in words at once open yet vague. They are inaccessible in meaning to the human mind – here forging, mightily, a vision we cannot begin to discern. Lord God Almighty, I praise You!
1 After this I looked and saw a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had previously heard speak to me like a trumpet was saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”
2 At once I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne standing in heaven, with someone seated on it. 3 The One seated there looked like jasper and carnelian, and a rainbow that gleamed like an emerald encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on these thrones sat twenty-four elders dressed in white, with golden crowns on their heads.
5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder. Before the throne burned seven torches of fire. These are the seven Spirits of God. 6 And before the throne was something like a sea of glass, as clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, covered with eyes in front and back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face like a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. 8 And each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around and within. Day and night they never stop saying:
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the One seated on the throne who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, and they worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist and came to be.”
By Your will – that is the essential point. We have our lives. Explain it! We have our being – our understandings, ambitions, desires – loves and hates. Of beliefs and hopes, the list is indefatigable. What we all expect or hope for is, in some fashion, a happy future. I don’t say that lightly, for I am among those who, in life, once prayed for an end. It all seemed so very taxing and yet so vain. So insurmountable. So devoid of the good…
That perspective of want, of loss is silenced by verse eleven. In the human condition, individuals will not find agreement until we acknowledge the underlying point – it is not ours, but His. I long for a pristine, sacred, joyous and marvellous world, but we cannot have it apart from His will, His work within us, each other – throughout the extent of creation itself.
This is what the Lord Jesus offers to each of us, and everyone who embraces the love and purposes of God will find more treasure than they can imagine.
But why the heartache, the crime, the death? Ask others and you will certainly hear condemnation, but few ‘answers’. I distill the question to the following: the time of human rule – governance – of this world will come to an end when the last among us seeks to join the Father’s family, or not. Oh how painful, but oh how necessary! People must make their personal choices in leading to each one’s final decision: yes or no, Lord Jesus!
Ponder, wonder, … arise or slumber! The time for resting has not yet come. You must choose. Life or death stands before us. Please, choose life.
End Times Prophecy 