Sardis
We are living in the time these words were ultimately written for:
Revelation 3:3-5 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Sardis is the church with the reputation for being "alive." This is the church that everyone loves to say they know about. I was there when "x" happened! This is the church that when people talk about it, and even when Sardis talks about herself, they say "man, they are flowing. Look at what God is doing there!" But Jesus says, inside, in the secret places of each individual heart, they are dying. It has become all about what they experience in the natural physical realm...and because their eyes are on what they "feel" and what their reputation is becoming, they are slowly disconnecting from the secret and quiet presence before the throne that got them going in the first place:
Revelation 3:1-2 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.
Jesus said that they started out right. In their simple desperation for him, they were continually abiding in him. But as their reputation grew, their hearts started to feed on the excitement of what they were experiencing, rather than what gave them the first tastes of his presence in the first place: a deep abiding in the secret and quiet place, moment by moment reaching to be more and more like Jesus and less and less like everybody else. When everybody else starts to approve what we are doing because of the first signs of God's presence, how quickly our focus shifts to what everybody else thinks of us! Ugh, the slipperyness of the human heart!
Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord , search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
This is what Jesus says is happening in the Sardis like church:
Revelation 3:3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
This is what Jesus is saying right now: I raised you up and placed my presence among you for a very specific time and purpose. Rather than connect with my bigger plan, to release my power in the world in the hour of my return, you took my presence as a sign of my approval of you, and turned inward...feeding on the excitement of the initial outpouring and the reputation that came with it. Rather than going deeper and deeper in abiding in me...leading others in the depth of your desire for holiness...to be like Me...you went shallower, trying to continually re-create the experience. You gave in to the reputation. So much more than a reputation is available to you, if you want it.
Jesus says to Sardis "if you don't humble yourself, repent, and go back to square one, you will miss the whole point of me raising you up in the first place." Jesus is raising up "Sardis" to lead in the Joel 2 outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh, which happens in full at the 6th seal:
Joel 2:28-32 “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord . And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the Lord has said, Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.
This is the Joel 2 Harvest Pattern that happens in full when the moon turns red and the sun is darkened. This is seal number 6, in the middle of the tribulation (Revelation 6:12)! This is when it is just starting to get good for the Bride! Jesus isn't pouring out His spirit on all flesh so he can suck them up off the earth, and reign down terror!! No! He is pouring out His Spirit to bring in the greatest harvest of souls ever seen. EVERYONE who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved! (That is what Revelation 7 is all about)
This is what Sardis is being raised up for, but she obviously doesn't know it. Jesus is warning her that unless she connects with His plan, she will miss the whole thing! He will come like a thief in the night to HER! Tragedy! No true church is supposed to have Jesus come like a thief in the night, but the Spirit expressly says that if the people aren't prepared, that day WILL come like a thief, and it is all related to whether or not they say "trouble is coming, lets get ready" or "peace and safety, don't worry, it will all work out":
I Thessalonians 5:3-6 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
Do you see the direness of the situation?? Jesus is warning the Church in Sardis...one of the Seven churches He is HOLDING IN HIS HAND...that if she doesn't wake up, she will be one for whom the return of Jesus comes like a thief in the night! This is tragic if she doesn't wake up.
Revelation is not symbolic. It is clear, knowable...certain. Insight into revelation is being released in this hour. This is a relevant prophecy for this time. All the signs are apparent and clearly increasing. These warnings to the seven churches are very real. What we do in response to them matters. We want to be ready and dressed in wedding clothes at Jesus' coming. According to Jesus, this means we respond BEFORE the trouble starts. The warnings to the seven churches are issued before the trouble, because they need to respond...to get ready...to overcome...before the trouble starts. The trouble...the great tribulation...is WHAT they are going to overcome!! The trouble is the day of victory...when the righteous deeds cloth the churches in wedding garments!
Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
What the Bride does now, and through the trouble, prepares her for this day at the end of the trouble:
Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Sadly, the Bible is clear that many will refuse to get ready. They tell themselves fables so they don't see the dire need to press in to Jesus' very specific plan to prepare pockets of mercy in the earth. They are too caught up with their agenda to increase their reputation here and now, and it is causing them to miss fully embracing getting ready for when life is going to really start, at the appearance of the groom. So few watchmen are willing to sound the warning, but many believers will be found unready:
Matthew 22:11-14 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Ezekiel 33:1-5 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life.
Revelation 3:3-5 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Sardis is the church with the reputation for being "alive." This is the church that everyone loves to say they know about. I was there when "x" happened! This is the church that when people talk about it, and even when Sardis talks about herself, they say "man, they are flowing. Look at what God is doing there!" But Jesus says, inside, in the secret places of each individual heart, they are dying. It has become all about what they experience in the natural physical realm...and because their eyes are on what they "feel" and what their reputation is becoming, they are slowly disconnecting from the secret and quiet presence before the throne that got them going in the first place:
Revelation 3:1-2 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.
Jesus said that they started out right. In their simple desperation for him, they were continually abiding in him. But as their reputation grew, their hearts started to feed on the excitement of what they were experiencing, rather than what gave them the first tastes of his presence in the first place: a deep abiding in the secret and quiet place, moment by moment reaching to be more and more like Jesus and less and less like everybody else. When everybody else starts to approve what we are doing because of the first signs of God's presence, how quickly our focus shifts to what everybody else thinks of us! Ugh, the slipperyness of the human heart!
Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord , search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
This is what Jesus says is happening in the Sardis like church:
Revelation 3:3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
This is what Jesus is saying right now: I raised you up and placed my presence among you for a very specific time and purpose. Rather than connect with my bigger plan, to release my power in the world in the hour of my return, you took my presence as a sign of my approval of you, and turned inward...feeding on the excitement of the initial outpouring and the reputation that came with it. Rather than going deeper and deeper in abiding in me...leading others in the depth of your desire for holiness...to be like Me...you went shallower, trying to continually re-create the experience. You gave in to the reputation. So much more than a reputation is available to you, if you want it.
Jesus says to Sardis "if you don't humble yourself, repent, and go back to square one, you will miss the whole point of me raising you up in the first place." Jesus is raising up "Sardis" to lead in the Joel 2 outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh, which happens in full at the 6th seal:
Joel 2:28-32 “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord . And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the Lord has said, Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.
This is the Joel 2 Harvest Pattern that happens in full when the moon turns red and the sun is darkened. This is seal number 6, in the middle of the tribulation (Revelation 6:12)! This is when it is just starting to get good for the Bride! Jesus isn't pouring out His spirit on all flesh so he can suck them up off the earth, and reign down terror!! No! He is pouring out His Spirit to bring in the greatest harvest of souls ever seen. EVERYONE who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved! (That is what Revelation 7 is all about)
This is what Sardis is being raised up for, but she obviously doesn't know it. Jesus is warning her that unless she connects with His plan, she will miss the whole thing! He will come like a thief in the night to HER! Tragedy! No true church is supposed to have Jesus come like a thief in the night, but the Spirit expressly says that if the people aren't prepared, that day WILL come like a thief, and it is all related to whether or not they say "trouble is coming, lets get ready" or "peace and safety, don't worry, it will all work out":
I Thessalonians 5:3-6 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
Do you see the direness of the situation?? Jesus is warning the Church in Sardis...one of the Seven churches He is HOLDING IN HIS HAND...that if she doesn't wake up, she will be one for whom the return of Jesus comes like a thief in the night! This is tragic if she doesn't wake up.
Revelation is not symbolic. It is clear, knowable...certain. Insight into revelation is being released in this hour. This is a relevant prophecy for this time. All the signs are apparent and clearly increasing. These warnings to the seven churches are very real. What we do in response to them matters. We want to be ready and dressed in wedding clothes at Jesus' coming. According to Jesus, this means we respond BEFORE the trouble starts. The warnings to the seven churches are issued before the trouble, because they need to respond...to get ready...to overcome...before the trouble starts. The trouble...the great tribulation...is WHAT they are going to overcome!! The trouble is the day of victory...when the righteous deeds cloth the churches in wedding garments!
Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
What the Bride does now, and through the trouble, prepares her for this day at the end of the trouble:
Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Sadly, the Bible is clear that many will refuse to get ready. They tell themselves fables so they don't see the dire need to press in to Jesus' very specific plan to prepare pockets of mercy in the earth. They are too caught up with their agenda to increase their reputation here and now, and it is causing them to miss fully embracing getting ready for when life is going to really start, at the appearance of the groom. So few watchmen are willing to sound the warning, but many believers will be found unready:
Matthew 22:11-14 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Ezekiel 33:1-5 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life.
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