What It Means to be Filled with the Holy Spirit # 23

"I Was in the Spirit ... And Heard" (continued)

The Lamb is both Saviour and Conqueror; and since His Cross, His Resurrection, and His Ascension, it is the Lord's Day.  It is the Imperial Day of the Lord. That is why, along with everything else that is going on in the Realm of the Throne, there is always continuous, and everlasting, worship of the Lamb that was slain, of the Lamb that bears the wounds of the Cross in His Glorified Body, of the Lamb that hath prevailed.

"And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb That was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and every." And the four beasts said, "Amen." And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped Him that liveth for ever and ever" (Revelation 5:11-14).

And, beloved, when we are "in the Spirit" we dwell in the Ascended Life, and we are joining consciously, and at times unconsciously, with this innumerable host in everlasting worship of the Lamb that hath prevailed.

"Because of the Word and Because of the Testimony of Jesus"

So John was "in the Spirit" on [in] the Lord's Day; and he was "in the Spirit", even though he was on the island of Patmos, where he was in a time of great tribulation - a time of pressures from evils, a time of pressures from afflictions, a time of pressures from distresses, a time of great spiritual pressures that always occurs when God is bringing forth a greater increase of Christ's Fullness, and the satanic forces are out to stop it.

"I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and the kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos, because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus" (Revelation 1:9).

The context of the above Scripture indicated that John, along with many of the Lord's bondservants (Revelation 1:1) had been, and were now, companions, fellow-partakers, joint-partakers "in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus ..." This tells us that John, as well as many others of the Lord's people, who were not actually with him on the Island of Patmos, were fellow partakers of Christ's sufferings "because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus." By interpreting Scripture with with Scripture, we can comprehend what it means for the faithful to suffer in this way. We only have to prayerfully read Revelation 6;9-11, and 20:4, in order to grasp the intensity of both the sufferings, and the warfare, that the faithful of every age must endure "because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus."

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 24)