An Invitation to Intimacy
Read time: 6 mins
“Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.” And instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it.“
Revelation 4:1-2 NLT
I think it's safe to say we all want to experience God on a deeper level. If you're reading this devotional, it is because you probably have a longing to experience a deeper intimacy with Jesus. Perhaps you have tasted and seen that He is good and now you just can't get enough, or maybe you see everyone around you with a changed life and new outlook and you want to see what all the hype is about. Maybe you’ve tried everything else and you're just desperate to know peace, safety and your purpose and place in this world. Maybe you just recognize that you can’t function without Him and you must stay as close as possible. Regardless of where you land, if you're honest you probably crave a deeper experience with God. You want more. You want greater.
But there is a common prerequisite to intimacy that we often run from. An invitation to further intimacy with God often comes with the prerequisite of insult and isolation from others. Often times storms are the set up from which we experience a deeper revelation of our Savior. We see this in this story.
John experiences a moment with God that only a handful of people could even dream of tasting. John is ushered into the throne room of heaven. John sees God sitting on the throne, shining like brilliant gemstones. A glow of glory circled the throne like a rainbow. Flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder decorated the soundscape. Beings circled the throne 24/7 as they cried “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, Almighty- the one who always was, who is and who is still to come.” Elders responded to the angels' worship by throwing their crowns before the throne and worshiping along and singing, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive Glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you wanted to.”
This is the best worship service ever. John is experiencing an intimacy that is as close to God as he can be. He is literally in the throne room of God. Angels can't help but just keep crying “holy.” There is light, and sound and beauty and intrigue as people fall prostrate and worship God day after day. And John is blessed to experience this glimpse of heavenly worship. We may be jealous of John’s invitation to come up and view heaven. We may crave the same invitation to intimacy. But we don’t always have the same mindset to view what looks like a storm as an opportunity to be closer. We must remember what brought John to this place of closeness in the first place.
Before John received his invitation, he experienced isolation. This letter from John starts as he introduces himself as a partner in suffering. John reminds us that he was exiled to the island of Patmos not for any violent crime or moral fall but for preaching the Word of God and giving his testimony about Jesus. John has been sentenced to solitary confinement on an island prison known as Patmos because he did the right thing. I'm imagining something worse than Alcatraz. Choppy waters surround John as storm clouds roll in and he seeks shelter on the rocky cliffs of the island. John’s payment for preaching isn’t praise, it’s further persecution. I can imagine feeling the temptation to give up on God at this moment. You're cold, alone, afraid and abandoned. It’s dark and damp as the salty mist from the ocean irritates his dry skin and tatters his already worn clothes. He has no idea how long he will be forced to make his home in this destitute place. He is stuck. He is alone. He is tired, cold and persecuted. John can feel abandoned and confused by why God would allow him to go through this for simply preaching His words. He may be tempted to give up. But John starts his letter with a description of his disposition. “It was the Lord's day and I was worshiping in the spirit.”
I want you to catch how John reacts to this pain because it may be the key to why he experienced a revelation of God that many of us never will. John didn’t give up when things got hard. The harder life got, the harder he worshiped. John would not have experienced this vision of heaven if he wasn't first worshiping while wounded.
John could’ve left God when he felt abandoned, but even in the hardest times of his life he still engaged in his practice of worship. This is to say that if you want to experience a taste of heaven like John did, you need to be able to stay focused on Jesus when you experience a taste of hell.
John was able to experience God in a way that no one else did, because he worshiped when no one else was around. Many of us want the presence of God but are too afraid of the pressure and persecution that may lead us to it. Negative situations are often the best ways for us to turn to God. The bigger the storm the more miraculous the work of the Savior. We should be excited when hard situations present themselves because we see them as an opportunity to see God in a stronger light. We should be excited when life is at its worst because that’s when God shows up the best. But many of us give up at our Patmos instead of pressing through and experiencing God on a new level.
One of my favorite movies repeats this story throughout its plot: “two mice fell into a bucket of cream. The first one quickly gave up and drowned but the second one kept struggling until it eventually whipped the cream into butter and walked out.” You can decide which mouse you want to be. When hard situations come, do you cower, give up and drown, or do you keep fighting and see God get the glory out of your situation?
If you want to experience better, you must not give up in hard situations but rather use hard situations as a springboard to worship. When you’re between a rock and a hard place anticipate God making a way through the ocean for you. When you are wrongly accused, remind yourself that this is an opportunity for God to show up for you like He did for Joseph. When you're forgotten by your family, remember that this is an opportunity for you to see God how David saw Him. When coworkers plot against you, I want you to be reminded of the story of Daniel and expect God to show up for you. And when you feel thrown away, isolated, and imprisoned for doing what's right, I want you to remember John and use this as an opportunity for worship.
John experienced a taste of heaven that many of us can only dream of. John experienced a closeness with God that we would be jealous of. But he would have missed out if he gave up in his Patmos season. Instead, he kept worshiping, and God used his isolation as an invitation to intimacy. I know it’s hard, but weaping will only endure a night. Joy will come in the morning. Look towards the Son.
Life may be hard but it is all more the opportunity to seek the face of God. You may feel like you’ve been knocked on your back but sometimes that's the best position to be in because it means all you can do is look back up at Jesus. You may be alone but that just means that the other voices are quiet enough for you to focus on what God is saying. You may feel imprisoned but use it as a time to be captured in His presence. You may feel unsafe but this is the perfect time to cling to Jesus and see Him as your present help in times of trouble. You may see storms, but this is prime weather for your Savior to do something unforgettable. Isolation is an invitation to intimacy
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