We have begun to discuss the levels of prophetic revelation from impressions to being caught up into heaven such as Paul and John did in the New Testament. Generally, it makes sense that the more dramatic, or high level the revelation, the more important it is. Others seem to think that the more high level the revelation, the greater the ministry of the prophet, but neither of these may be the case.

         Many Christians get confused by the distinction of the Old and New Covenants when we use the Old Testament to teach New Covenant truth. However, Jesus said “the Scriptures cannot be broken” (see John 10:35). In fact, what we call the Old Testament is the only Bible that the first century church had, and every place in the New Testament that it refers to in the Scriptures is what we call the Old Testament.

Over the last twelve years, the world has experienced the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit in history. During the time of this great spiritual advance, the church in the West seems to have been going in the opposite direction, suffering one setback after another. This is about to change.

     The last two weeks I emphasized two crucial disciplines for those who would walk in the prophetic: study and the willingness to do the things you don’t enjoy doing and turning them into worship. We are told to “study to show ourselves approved by God” (see II Timothy 2:15). I know few people have had the lifestyle that enabled them to study as much as I’ve been able to do, but the amount of study is not as important as the quality of study.

         The Church at Sardis (1400-1844) was proclaimed to be dead even though they had a name that they were alive, and so they were exhorted to wake up and strengthen what remained. This was a period of relative stagnation in the restoring to the church what had been lost through the Dark Ages. Yet the church responded to its wake-up call from the Lord. The next church period was one of the most remarkable, as addressed in Revelation 3:7-12:

     Last week we covered the first key to understanding the Book of Revelation found in its first sentence: a revelation of Jesus Christ. This is also the most basic key to all understanding. It’s all about Jesus and all things will be summed up in Him. Therefore, the wise seek every day to know Him better and to be found in Him.

     The next key is also found in the first sentence of Revelation—the revelation:

  In John 15:8 the Lord said, “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples” (NKJV). We begin to bear fruit as disciples, but when we go to the next level of relationship with the Lord—being His bondservant—bearing fruit by doing His work becomes our primary focus. Discipleship is mostly about us, us learning, and us growing. But becoming a bondservant requires us to apply all we have learned for His purposes, not our benefit.