In Revelation 4:1-4, we come to one of the most wonderful and encouraging passages in this great Revelation:

         After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things."

I have been studying leadership for almost forty years, and it is a subject so vast and deep that I am constantly learning more about it. One of the most curious things about leadership is that those who may not understand much about it can have a great deal of it. Likewise, those who can know a great deal about it can have very little of it. Having followers is proof that one is a leader.

     This week we will cover Revelation 1:4-5:

John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, from Him that is, and that was, and is to come; and from the seven Spirits that are before His throne;

and from Jesus Christ, who is the Faithful Witness, and the first begotten from the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth.

Though every believer should be rooted in all of the basic Christian doctrines, no one person, church, or movement, has all the truth. As we discussed earlier, the gravitational pull of all the different planets help keep the earth in its proper orbit. Likewise, all the spiritual heavenly bodies need each other's influence to stay in their proper orbits. What we have must be joined to what the Lord gives to the rest of His body if we are to have the whole truth. This is stated in the Lord's Prayer the night before He was crucified:

         I shared how I had built a successful business while running from my calling in the Lord. I do think it was blessed by the Lord, because He will do all He can to bless us, even if we are not being perfectly obedient. However, as we see throughout the Scriptures, the Lord will bless many things He will not inhabit. Good can be the worst enemy of best, and there can be a great difference between good and best. We are all given the freedom to make this choice. Romans 12:2 exhorts,

         Adam was God’s agent to rule over the earth. When man sinned against God, all that had been placed under man’s dominion suffered the consequences. Death entered the world and all living things on earth must suffer it. Through one man death entered the world and through one man, Jesus, death will be removed from the world. This is why Jesus is referred to as “the last Adam.”

The next few chapters of Joshua are the history of how Israel defeated and possessed all of the cities and fortresses in their Promised Land. They were commanded to utterly destroy the inhabitants because they had been given over to forms of idolatry and perversion. If they were not completely destroyed, they would cause Israel to stumble in the future.

As we have discussed, Israel was not just called out of bondage, but into the glorious freedom of God and into a new land of promised prosperity and blessing. Likewise, we are not just called out of this world, or this present evil age, but we are called to the kingdom of God. It, too, is a place of unprecedented prosperity and blessing. However, we must fundamentally keep in mind that the Lord’s kingdom “is not of this world” (see John 18:36). It is a transcendent kingdom far above this realm.