His Place

It’s time for our date. We’re moving. We’ve committed.

4 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.”

We’re walking through the door. Notice that it’s in heaven, and heaven is inside us. It’s not his place, it’s ours. We’re inviting him in. Does he expect us to cook for him? He loves a good barbecue, and he’s threatened us with hellfire, so probably. He likes his girls hot to trot.

Trumpets announce the arrival of important people. They also call armies to battle. Make no mistake. In order for us to become one, there must first be war in our heaven. We have to remodel, to make room for him. We have to give up a part of ourself. You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. We have to come out of our shell.

Wait, are we already talking about breakfast? It’s our first date, and we haven’t had dinner, yet.

2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.

Wine? Sure. We’d love some. Or how about some champagne? We could stand to loosen up and rid ourselves of our pesky inhibitions. Have a seat. Let’s make ourselves comfortable.

Epiphanies are like lightning bolts in your brain, until you grow accustomed to them. There comes a point where they come so fast that they feel like champagne bubbles bursting inside your head. They can be very intoxicating. After a while, we get used to them, and just accept them as a normal experience.

The definition of epiphany is a sudden revelation. That’s the new definition. Originally they were defined as the revelation of Christ to the Gentiles. They are easy to get. You just have to ask for them, like a child. My daughter showed me how. When she was little, just learning to walk and talk, she would bring me toys, hold them up, and wait for me to tell her what they were.

Since we are just learning to walk and talk, we can use her example to get the answers we need. If we have a question, we must simply hold it up in our minds. We give it to God, then we wait for Him to answer us. He will, in His own time.

We don’t badger Him. We don’t keep asking or pushing for an answer. We exercise the patience of saints, because the answers typically come in roundabout ways. That’s how I got all of these answers. I’m not smart enough to make all this up, believe me. I asked, then I waited. While I was waiting, I didn’t sit still. I kept wondering and wandering. You can do the same.

The walk part of walking and talking, involves us not sitting on our butts, waiting for an answer. We also have to do our own homework. We have to keep investigating, because sometimes we have to uncover other things, before we can find the thing we want.

If you want answers about Revelation, you don’t have to necessarily dig into Revelation. Many of the answers that led me to uncover Revelation came from unexpected tangents I wandered down. I’ll reveal some of those as we go along. For now, let’s not keep our guy waiting.

3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne.

Many people will tell you that the person on this throne is God, or Jesus. I can tell you with surety, that it is you and me. We were invited to sit here. The throne belongs to Jesus, but it is inside us. It’s our heaven. We are promised eternal life. We are betrothed to the Son of God, and destined to become one with him. It’s a match made in Heaven.

Jasper is most commonly red, though it can be yellow, brown, or green. It is rarely blue. The red color is due to the presence of iron in the stone. Think about what these colors mean, and how we associate them with emotions and actions, in modern language, and you will quickly understand that we are passionate (committed), and our will is iron.

Yellow represents fearfulness. This is a big step for us. Our life is about to change, drastically. Brown is muddied, or confused. We are not confused about our choice, just what comes next. Our future is unclear. The people who sit on this throne are rarely sad, unless it is sadness over what they will lose in this merger of souls.

Blue also represents sloth, which is not so much laziness, as sluggishness. Sloths are not lazy. They are burdened with a slow metabolism that restrains them from quick action. We have already left Laodicea, but there may still be some hesitation in our movements.

A rainbow signifies a new covenant between us and Jesus. It is not for the whole world, only for us. It is green, because we guard it jealously. It is also new, and we are new to this process. We are a greenhorn. We are still wet behind the ears. We are a red-faced, infant and this is our highchair. From here, we will be fed all that we need to know. We’re not alone. This isn’t just dinner for two. We have friends here.

4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

The Elders are our older siblings. They are people who have done this before us. They can serve as guides, so long as we remember that they are not yet fully grown, either. They could be people we know, perhaps in our church, but I believe they are biblical figures whose lives we can look to for examples of what to do and not to do. They are our helpers.

5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.

Here come the epiphanies we talked about. They are the sparks that light our imaginations. We are being spoon fed revelations. We are batteries taking on a charge, so that we can walk and talk and not grow tired. We were raised on Mother’s Milk, now we’re milking our Father for all He’s worth.

According to Jewish tradition, the mother is responsible for raising the children until they are twelve years old. She brings them into the world, and shelters them until they are strong enough. Then it’s daddy’s turn. He introduces his kids to the real world. We can see the wisdom in this, by looking at the different ways mothers and fathers behave toward their children. Typically, if you fall down your mother will run to you and pick you up, but your father will tell you to pick yourself up. Of course, this depends entirely on how much female and male is in each parent. Some mothers are just as happy to let you F around and find out.

Our lamps are blazing. Our communication network is not only working, it’s active. We’re receiving our epiphanies through it. The seven spirits of God, our vanities, are moving in us.

6 Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

Remember that water represents philosophies. We used to swim in deep waters, or perhaps we never left the kiddie pool. It doesn’t matter. All of our waters are solid, now. So solid, that we can walk on them, the way Jesus walked on water. They are clear, and we can see all the way to the bottom. There is nothing to fear from the deep end of the pool, any more.