I Want

“Then the One seated on the throne said, 

“Look! I am making everything new.” 

He also said, 

“Write, because these words are faithful and true.”

---I WANT NEW EVERYTHING.

There are so many things I wish were made new.  I wish my bed was new in case, over the years, bugs or anything crusty has accumulated in the crevices beyond my reach to clean it.  I wish my car was new because I love the scent of new cars and clean leather seats (that don't have crumbs or drink spills on them).  I wish my organs inside could be brand new because over the years I wasn't always so kind to what I put into my body.  I wish my eyes were brand new....I wish my skin was brand new!  Haha the point is, things that are new are more highly valued and beautiful because they are not dirty or old.  Is it no surprise that humans love and crave newness of many things?  We love new produce, new groceries, new houses, new cities, new jobs, and whatever else would make our lives feel better and brighter.  Here in revelations Jesus proclaims that He is going to make all things new.  This is the truth.  And this truth makes all suffering in the now to be temporary and necessary to reveal and expose those who truly have the hope of Christ in their hearts.  People who believe in Jesus and His words will believe that soon all things will be made new, no matter how bad, old, or dirty things may look right now, Jesus's words are true and He will soon make all things new.  Which means whatever we have now is also a gift from God to shape our hearts into the person who will fully embrace when Jesus brings us into His newness!  The less I have now the more my heart rejoices in what I will have in Christ.  Subsequently the more I have or the more clean I think I am the more I will forget that there is a vibrant and life sustaining hope in Jesus.  So then, I am learning to rejoice genuinely in when I lack and to rejoice in when I have plenty, because to have much in this life means to have much only to give much more.  To have little in this life is to know how much I have in Christ more clearly.  Either way I get to see the beauty of Jesus in all things, and my desire for things to be made new grows rapidly because I want the highest of the highest.  I want everything new.---

I did not see a sanctuary (church) in it, 

because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its sanctuary. 

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s glory illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb.”

Revelation 21:5, 22-23

---I WANT TO SEE GOD WITH MY OWN EYES.

In heaven there will be no church or bibles.  John writes that he saw no sanctuary to worship God because God is right there and we won't need to meet in a building to remember Him because we will see Him face to face!  We won't need a reminder for how good and awesome He is because we will no longer be blinded by the curse of sin.  We will see God and the proof of His Kingship and glory will be so evident that John writes we won't even need electricity or light switches or even the sun and moon!  God's glory is so rich and awesome that it lights up the place.  It's like when you go into a dark place and then you turn on a flashlight, in that moment you know you have light because of the flashlight, but in heaven you won't need a flashlight to know what you have because there will be no darkness to make a flashlight necessary to see light.  When you are where God is, no darkness exists.  Only light.  However, right now we need lights and flashlights such as the word of God, prayer, community and serving others because we live in darkness.  But in heaven, we will be in the light of God where no darkness exists.  So church and bibles and such will no longer be necessary.  We will have what we always wanted more of on earth, but in its fullest form--we will have our God before our very own eyes.---

“Night will no longer exist, and people will not need lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will give them light. 

And they will reign forever and ever.”

Revelation 22:5

---I WANT TO REIGN FOREVER.

John repeats this truth about the light that will overpower everything making artificial or created light unnecessary.  It's pretty captivating to think about, to think that one day we will see light and the source will be neither from electricity or the sun, but from the face of God as He looks at us.  We will daily bask in His light as we reign as children of such a great Father of lights.---

“Then he said to me, 

“These words are faithful and true. 

And the Lord, 

the God of the spirits of the prophets, 

has sent His angel to show His slaves what must quickly take place.” 

“Look, I am coming quickly! 

The one who keeps the prophetic words of this book is blessed.””

Revelation 22:6-7

---I WANT IT ALL, I WANT EVERYTHING, I WANT REAL HOPE FOR THIS TO BE UNSHAKEABLE IN ME.

This is the truth by which we are to confront ourselves with.  The truth that God's light is really much more awesome and bright than we can see now.  The truth that one day we will be like God in that we will govern and rule in heaven in a manner that understands how to rule without dissension or injustice.  We are more like lab rats on earth right now in the process of learning how to be people who can govern as such, how to live with one another sharing the kind of intimacy the Father has with the Son, we are learning to have that with one another here on earth.  Which is why the more we experience walking into deeper intimacy with one another the closer we are being transformed.  It says here that the God of the spirits of the prophets, which is the same as the God of our spirits when we speak or act, meaning it is our spirits that God is moving through not our outward actions.  The spirit is the unseen part of every human being, and that is where God speaks to us, where we find real hope.  When we speak to God we use our actions to confront us not speak truth into our hearts.  It's like how we use a thermometer to show us how high our temperature is, but it will not change it, it will only let us know.  Actions only let you know, it is the inner unseen spirit that will be an agent of change.  You may do the same action but only the one done in the spirit that speaks with God will be blessed and validated, the same exact action!  You have to think about this.  It is not what we do that validates us as God's children, but it is who we are on the inside when confronted by our actions.  It is asking ourselves what we truly want and what we really have our hopes set on getting.---

““Look! I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me to repay each person according to what he has done.”

Revelation 22:12

---I WANT THE REWARD THAT EACH OF MY ACTIONS AIMS TO CLAIM.

Jesus is saying that what we do matters.  This again reminds me of the truth that a person can be inwardly of God and do good actions or be inwardly not of God and still do seemingly good actions, HOWEVER, a person canNOT be inwardly of God and not do good actions, but one can be inwardly not of God and not do good actions.  Do you catch the truth in there?  It does not matter what we do in one sense, but it matters in another.  Our actions do not tell us we are God's workers, but our spirits corresponding to God cannot help but do good things so that two people could be living identical lives on the outside serving God through serving others but only one of them will be taken to God if only one of them has the spirit of God.  This makes examining our inner spirits an utmost priority before any serving gets done, otherwise you serve and work in vain.  For those who serve and work in correspondence to the God of their spirit they are the ones who's work will be rewarded by Jesus when the time comes.  I often have to stop myself and ask, "do I delight in doing this work?  Do I delight in seeing this person, going to this place, participating in this event or being around these people?  Do I delight in it in my inner being?  Or do I secretly find it boring, lame, or tedious?"  In other words, will my "good actions" actually be the kind that will be rewarded?  All of this God can answer us by the posture of our inner being, our feelings, values, preferences and goals that we honestly bring before God from our hidden heart.---

““Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.”

Revelation 22:14-15

---I WANT THE ONE RIGHT TO WALK INTO HEAVEN.

When I catch my inner being in mental rebellion against God that is causing external actions of disobedience then this verse is what I need to be reminded of in order to reorient myself to the prize of humbling before God to change me.  Those who wash their robes, meaning they put on the robe that Christ gives them freely by grace, will obtain the right to Life as they enter heaven by the front gate. In other words, those who recognize that they must rid themselves of their robes (their self) and put on Christ so that all our effort and trying and working hard here is blotted out (or washed off) so that our only right into Heaven's gates is our forgiveness badge, will be granted entrance into the kingdom of God.  No amount of good deeds, serving, bible understanding or blessings on earth will get you into heaven, but only the stripped down robe that has the seal of a forgiven sinner will enter rightly.  Which brings us back to the previous section in that you will know you are His on earth because of your spirit, and if you have His spirit you will not be able to help but follow His commands even though they don't bring you anything in the end aside from what forgiveness alone brings you.  And this again follows up with the very first section that all things will be made new once I am with God.  I get in with only the badge of forgiveness, but that actual badge I receive on earth is what naturally compels me to want to inwardly obey God, all because of the authentic badge.  So if you follow this string of logic, it is the badge given to us by Christ that is responsible for our will to do anything for God, and it is the badge that we wear to get into heaven.  It's all that badge man.  There are fake badges and real badges, and the truth here helps us to distinguish between the two.---

“Both the Spirit and the bride say, “Come! ” Anyone who hears should say, “Come! ” And the one who is thirsty should come. Whoever desires should take the living water as a gift.”

Revelation 22:17

---I WANT THE GIFT THAT GOD GIVES.

Notice how the living water, which represent life and blessings and joy and everything that God has is a gift.  When I get a gift from someone just for the heck of it, not for my birthday or Christmas but just on a random day someone thinks of me and buys me a really nice gift, the first thing I think is "wow, you thought of me?  You love me?  Thank you so much!"  I am filled with surprised gratitude.  The gratitude comes surprisingly but authentically as all genuine gratitude is.  It surprises me because it is not of me, but it comes as a natural response to what first came from the gift giver.  My gratitude is only the latter extension of the gift giver's intention.  So it surprises me because it is placed in me apart from me having anything to do with its being there.  That is a GIFT.  When we have accepted the gift of life from God it is the same process of being surprised by everything that happens as a result of that gift.  Our gratitude is also a gift, our serving that stems from that gift of gratitude then is also a gift, and anything else that might stem from serving with gratitude (such as our character change, successes, new friendships, more money, security, stability, good memories, etc) are all a part of that ONE gift given by God.  That is what it means to take the living water as a gift.  Oftentimes I forget this, and I have to ask God to search my heart and tell me what I am dishonestly believing to be mine and then to be stripped of that lie so that I can see all good things as a gift again.  Otherwise I am not surprised that I have food to eat, friends that love me, or money that ends up in my hands.  And if I'm not surprised then they are NOT taken by me as gifts from God, even if I may know in my head that they are.  It is the inward surprise that always reminds me where I am wrong.---

“He who testifies about these things says, 

“Yes, I am coming quickly.” 

Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”

Revelation 22:20

---I WANT JESUS TO COME QUICKLY.

This honestly frightens me at times because I don't always know if I really really really truly in my inmost being want Jesus to come quickly.  Do I want to get married first?  Have kids? Be a grandmother?  Publish a book?  Reach the age of 80?  Experience all that life has for me to experience first? These questions are more soberly faced with realities of what I do not yet have.  So they must be asked in confrontation to other statements like, if you were to fall madly in love with a really handsome and awesome man of God would you still want Jesus to end that romance and come quickly?  If you had two beautiful newborn babies and held them in your arms in the delivery room, at that moment would you want it all to end before you could see them grow up for Jesus to come?  If I had worked 7 years on a book that I poured out sweat and blood to finish would I want for Jesus to come before I could see that it was published and all that I would reap from its being published (money, feeling achieved, being seen as an author, being admired, being asked to come speak somewhere, all that self-glory!).  These are realities that scare me about this part in revelations.  It's easy to fool ourselves into thinking we want Jesus to come quickly in light of what we don't have now, but do we want Jesus to come quickly in spite of what we do want now?  This is where God is working to shape us, to be as Paul was when he stated that he had found the secret to sheer contentment:

"I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little."

-Philippians 4:12

Paul lived as someone who had no needs.  Because every need was met for him.  So whether he was suffering on earth or resting, he was content inwardly and no praise was his because nothing was a job to be done by him since he was doing it from a heart of contentment.  No one commends someone for doing something that was done passively, and yet this is the position Paul takes as a worker of Christ.  He works not to meet a need but as one who is content no matter his circumstances.  His actions are not dependent upon his circumstances, they are just actions that he does or does not do in order to grasp at a heart that always sees God as the prize.  God is prized when He is in want and God is prized when he has plenty.  

I hope and pray that I, too, would walk in this way before God, fully content and naturally reminded that today and everyday it is my honor to know God, to serve God, to rest in God, to have much or little before God, and to do all things in Him as passive things when I set my eyes on Him as my prize.  To take criticism and suffering as a way to honor God better, to take pain from others as a way to honor God better, and to take each moment as an opportunity to honor God more deeply.  Every day is my opportunity to honor God because He is my full reward.  However, right now God is not my heart's only reward.  I want God and good feelings.  I want God and physical beauty.  I want God and accomplishments.  I want God and good relationships.  But all those things must fall into their respective places under God, and only then can we enjoy every blessing God gives us.  

I pray that God would change my heart to treasure having Him above all things first.  

I want a lot of things, and it is important to ask God in my hidden heart to show me what I want the most.  

Jmegrey