TODAY’S PROPHETIC THOUGHT
I Am not only the light of the world, I Am the light of your life. Delight in Me. I will show you great and mighty things – parts of Me and My Kingdom – that you do not know.
DOING CHURCH?
When you look at how Jesus judges the churches in the book of Revelation, He bases it off three things. What do you love? What do you hate and what moves you?
The Church has failed in teaching the body of Christ what we should hate. The opposite of love is not hate, the opposite of love is selfishness. Check out the Loveless Church:
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. – Revelation 2:1-6
He’s saying they know how to do church really well. They’ve lived out Christianity well. However, they left their first love. First love has to do with when you first get saved. It’s the game-changer in your life – you are now aware of God’s Presence and you don’t consider anything without considering the Presence of the Lord in your life.
Now, a candlestick represents the presence of God and how He is made manifest. Being made manifest is how He shows up. So, the seven stars are the seven churches and the seven candlesticks are how Jesus shows up in those churches.
Jesus is saying, “Because you don’t want Me around anymore, you think you can just do church without Me. You can do church without Me, and I’ll just remove My candlestick.”
That is a very bad thing and many Christians don’t even know they no longer have a candlestick! We no longer spend time in His presence because we’ve traded knowledge of Him for relationship with Him.
Have you lost your first love? Have you traded relationship for knowledge and are no longer under His light? Repent. He will bring His candlestick back if you find your first love.
FROM MY SERMON SERIES FIRST THINGS