In the spirit

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

IN THE SPIRIT

Rev 4:1-2

4:1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this."  2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.

NIV

And so we begin, with the actually vision of what John saw with his own eyes and thus was a firsthand witness to all that is recorded here. Before we get to how he described seeing God the Father sitting upon his throne in heaven, we should take note of something that is first required. Jesus called John to come up here. One cannot go up to heaven unless Jesus calls them to come up here. There is no human ability which can give access to heaven. We must be called to come up there, and Jesus must be doing to calling. If any tries to tell us there are many paths to God, they are so sadly mistaken, for it is only Jesus when can call us to come up here. Of course we have to understand that as far as we know, no one except John has ever been called up there and allowed to record all that he sees and then be allowed to return to tell everyone about it. There might be some humans who claim they have gone to heaven and returned, but even in the case of that little boy whose parents made themselves very famous claiming he went to heaven and returned was found to be a hoax. Those who have claimed to have traveled there only to return to write a book about it, have again become both rich and famous. John, of course did become very famous as well. But here we have the one actually account we can be sure was inspired by God. The second thing we notice is that as soon as Jesus called John to come up here, John was immediately in the Spirit. We have to notice the within the context of the Greek word here translated Spirit, it could be seen as being in the spirit, or the vital principle by which the body is animated. This would mean he was more or less operating outside his body, as he was in his spirit. This would agree with the scripture which declares that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but we will be changed, we will be like John here, we will be in spirit. Now some translators have capitalized Spirit which would indicate the Holy Spirit. However when this word is used in to describe him, it usually appears with the Greek word for holy as well. Here is does not, and this we have to conclude that John was in the spirit, he was in his spiritual existence. What is the point of all this discussion anyway? If we are going to experience God we cannot do it in our flesh, in our humanity, we need to experience him in the vital principle by which our body is animated, our spirit. We are told to worship him in spirit and in truth. We cannot truly worship God in our flesh, although we are admonished to present our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God, which is our reasonable or rational service, which is what the Greek words imply. This is all true, but still we cannot see God, we cannot truly encounter God in the body, we must be in the spirit. Standing in church engaged in singing while watching either a screen with the words, or perhaps the people on the platform and thinking about all sorts of things, perhaps where we are going to eat after church, or how much we have to get done today before we return to work on Monday, or whatever else occupies our minds, if we are not truly in the spirit we will never experience God no matter how many songs we sing, or seem to be in some form of worship. Our worship needs to come from that vital principle that animates our body. Our worship must come from deep within our very being, our spirit. If we can forget about the body for a moment and be in the spirit, we will encounter God as John records he did. True we may not actually travel to heaven and return, as John did, but then maybe we can, but if we want an encounter with God, we need to be in the spirit.