“IN THE SPIRIT!”

 

Revelation 1:9-16                          (ESV)

Vision of the Son of Man

“[9] I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in JESUS, was on the island called Patmos ON ACCOUNT OF THE WORD OF GOD and the testimony of JESUS.   [10] I was “IN THE SPIRIT” on the LORD’s day, and I heard behind me a LOUD VOICE LIKE A TRUMPET [11] saying, “WRITE WHAT YOU SEE in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

[12] Then I turned to see the VOICE that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, [13] and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. [14] The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. HIS eyes were like a flame of fire, [15] HIS feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and HIS voice was like the roar of many waters. [16] In HIS right hand HE held seven stars, from HIS mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and HIS face was like the sun shining in full strength.”

There are a plethora of estimates of the length of time of the “expulsion” of John to the Isle of Patmos.  Most agree that John was exiled from around 75 CE to 90 CE, or 14 to 15 years.  Regardless, John wrote that he was “a partner in the tribulation” that the early BELIEVERS experienced.  Reportedly, John was immersed in a vat of boiling oil and was removed from it when he showed no effects from the torment!  Expulsion to Patmos, a smaller island in the Aegean Sea west of modern day Turkey, was meant to be a penalty for John, but ultimately GOD placed him where he could WRITE WHAT HE SAW while secluded and he was “IN THE SPIRIT”!

It is probably inconceivable that John might have imagined in his feeble mind ANYTHING like the events he wrote about in the book of Revelation.  How could the writings of a presumed “heretic” have gotten published more than any other text known to mankind?  Would he “been available” to be spoken to by JESUS were he not on the Isle of Patmos, alone to hear?  Might his “job” have been more important had he had the boundaries of societal pressures to navigate?  ALL of the imagined distractions were REMOVED from consideration as THE PLAN for John was being fulfilled.  He was precisely where GOD was going to SPEAK to him at EXACTLY the time GOD’s PLAN called for him to be spoken to so boldly!  

To my limited knowledge, being put in boiling oil is probably one of the most painful experiences to which a mortal human could be subjected.  But my Brain Damaged mind cannot fathom how GLORIOUS being able to SEE what John wrote about in the book of Revelation!  To SEE JESUS, in ALL of HIS GLORY, and then be charged with writing about the experience so that mankind would have HOPE, has to be THE MOST glorious task a servant could ever HOPE to experience!  KING JESUS, our CREATOR and REDEEMER, WHO is and forever more will be, selected John escape the boiling oil then to write a book in HIS TESTAMENT that us that few can understand, because our EYES have yet to be OPENED!!

Very few of humanity have the desire to be “IN THE SPIRIT”!  We actually “prefer” to be “in control” of our surroundings and happenings.  While I have never been in boing oil, I have been a few places where I prefer to never return!  “IN THE SPIRIT” isn’t one of those places!  Relinquishing “control” of my life is not something that most would choose, but living “IN THE SPIRIT” requires us to follow……NOT LEAD!!!