Walking in the Mystery

I’ve been working on a memory project. When I was teaching the book of Revelation I was struck by the promise of blessing given twice in the first chapter: "Blessed is the one who reads and blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it, because the time is near!” I decided that if there was a blessing for those who read and those who hear and keep what is written that I would memorize it. So I stepped into the mystery, filling my mind with visions that I didn’t and don’t fully understand. 

Why? Many people have asked me this question. Many people have told me that though they read the Bible they avoid brought the prophets. I understand. So why am I memorizing the book of Revelation?!?

I see prophecy as an invitation to intimacy with God. In the book of Amos God states that He does nothing without first showing His  servants the prophets. Jesus was a prophet. His longest teaching was a prophecy about what to expect at the end of time. He told His disciples that He would no longer call them servants because a servant doesn’t know what his master is about to do. He called them friends and prophesied about the end of time.

As I pull back the curtains of heaven and gaze at the One seated on the throne and fill my mind with His thoughts, I am humbled to the core of my being. I have no time charts. I am simply walking in faith. I am like a young child gazing at things I don’t fully understand. But I am beginning to understand part of the blessing. I have found that when my focus is drawn to the eternal the temporal finds its correct place.

That surgery. I had difficulty waking up and was the last one in the recovery room. My husband was the only one left in the waiting room. Even the receptionist had left. When the nurse came back to get him, he asked if I was all right. She hesitated and then told him that they were having difficulty waking me up and that I was quoting the ninth chapter of Revelation. Steve smiled and told her that that was normal.

I am walking in the mystery with childlike faith, believing and anticipating the blessings promised. This week, while reading a children’s Bible to my grandchildren, I received one of those blessings. I was reading about the seven priests who were carrying the seven trumpets before the ark of the Lord. For seven days they marched around Jericho, the gateway to the promised land. The seven trumpets that the priests blew before the ark of the Lord proclaimed the end of one rule and the beginning of what God had promised. I think it was a shadow of what I memorizing about the seven trumpets before the throne of God heralding the end of Satan’s kingdom and the coming of the kingdom of God.