Sleep Walking

Revelations 3:1-6
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. 4Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. 6He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Sleep Walking

I wonder how many of us today might find ourselves much in the same condition as the Church of Sardis. We have a reputation as a Christian and having a relationship with Christ and yet we have allowed the world to induce us to sleep. We still go through motions of Christianity, but inwardly we are slipping into apathy, complacency and lethargy that are causing us to fall into a spiritual sleep. When we are around the world and its values daily, hearing its talk, watching it values and trying to fit into its social norms, we can find ourselves drifting away from that purpose driven life of who we are in Christ and what He has called our lives to be. We may have said to ourselves subconsciously, “I’ll just sit here for awhile and rest from my spiritual journey. The warfare of walking in Christ has wearied me, so I’ll just let down for a while and go with the flow.” First we sit down and before we know it we are lying down in the spiritual filth of the world and our righteous garments are becoming soiled by our compromise.
The Holy Spirit is coming to us in this hour, shaking us and telling us to “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of God.” We have allowed ourselves to slip back into the death that holds the world in darkness and sin. Shake it off and arise again with repentance into your purpose and calling in Christ. He has called us to live in daily faithfulness unto Him. He is looking for those who will not soil their garments of righteousness, but will walk in an overcoming life of righteous living in Christ, day by day fighting the good fight of faith and not growing weary in the battle.
If we examine ourselves and the Holy Spirit is revealing to us that we are in this state, then it is time for us to Wake Up and get our lives back into the flow of His life and purpose. Our Christianity cannot be a sleep walk; it must be a walk of overcoming through commitment, obedience and faithfulness.

Blessings,
#kent

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The Word

John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

1 John 1:1-4
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete.

You are a Word without measure.
You are a Word beyond worth.
You are a Word of priceless treasure.
The Word that transforms all the earth.
Kent Stuck

The Word

How interesting that John is keen on this analogy that Jesus is the Word of Life. Words are used to communicate and no other word communicates the Father and His love like Jesus Christ.
He is not just a word written on a page or in a book. He is not just some story of a man or prophet from history past. John makes one thing abundantly clear. This Word is living. This Word is life-giving. This Word communicates with Spirit and Life into the hearts of those that read and believe its words. This is the Word of God communicated through the ages and manifested as the Son of God and the Son of man. This is that Word which was from the beginning, who was with God and was God.
Hebrews 1:1-5 tells us this about this Word. “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.”
From this passage we glean that God was in Christ representing and manifesting Himself through Him in all of His glory. That through Christ the universe was made and all things are sustained by His powerful word.
I remember once getting a bit of a vision and revelation as I envisioned God speaking forth the Word, the Christ, in faith. That Word, that Christ went forth into the empty void of darkness and created matter, energy and light. It was shaped and formed as the Father Architect so designed and willed into place in the heavens to give creation a small inkling of what Father represented in magnitude, wisdom and power. All that Father spoke forth was that Christ Word of faith that brought all of creations into existence and is held together by the Word of His power.
John says this same mighty Word that was with God from the beginning in such glory and majesty came into the earth through Jesus. This same Word we have heard with our ears, seen with our eyes and touched with our hands. This same Word became personal, touchable and tangible. This is the same Word of eternal life that we have received and now believe. This is that Word which has been proclaimed to us by His disciples and personal witnesses that all that He is, is indeed true so that we also might have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
What a stunning revelation John proclaims. Even in the book of Revelation 1:1-3 John again refers to this Word. “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”
Listen also as John describes the second coming of Christ in Revelation 19:11-16, “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.12His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.13He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.14And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.15From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.16And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Take note that the name of Jesus Christ is the “Word of God”. This is that same Word that has been indelibly written upon the tables of our very own hearts as His believers, followers and sons.
Paul describes it this way in 2 Corinthians 3:3, “You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” We carry this mighty Word within us. Our lives are sanctified and written in His blood into the book of Life. We carry that same Word within us in His mighty power and life. Let our lives be so read of men as to give proper description and weight to that which has been written upon the pages of our life. May others read through us that which communicated from the beginning, that which was with God and was God, for Christ now live in us to be read of all men.

Blessings,
kent