Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure.
~Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps My works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from My Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
~ from Revelation 2
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent His angel to show His servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
~ from Revelation 22
Oh beloved it is true. We are royalty.
In Him, and Him alone, we are ageless, potent, mighty beings of light imbued with actual wisdom, strength, virtue, truth, honor, peace, goodness and joy. We are capable of great good under the auspices of His perfect purposes.
He has made us real. He – with His own infinitely precious blood – has purchased us out of the time-bound slave market of sin. He has made us totally new, and made us one with Himself. He has put eternity, not only into our hearts, but has now made it the medium of our existence.
We pray, and the very fabric of the universe bends to His will and to other’s and our good.
We live, and people smell the sweet fragrance of Christ on our breath.
We move, and circumstances yield to our motion. For He has given everything to the Son, and the Son has already given it, in turn, to us.
We have our being in Him, and the dangers of the world are simply irrelevant. For the diamond hard strength that comes from dwelling in His presence simply overwhelms everything else.
These are, to put it mildly, astounding truths of the Gospel. However, regardless of the temptation for them to be dismissed as preposterous, they are more true than we can even grasp.
Can we see it? To be real is not to become my “own man,” or to “actualize my potential.” No, to become real is to become like Him; to become so unencumbered by time and change and fear and doubt and any other weight that ties us down – and to become a person who (by His grace) simply Loves G_d and others fully, lives in the strength of His joy, who does not change, and who does the right thing.
And it is this kind of real that the world cannot stand against. There is no law that can stop a person who allows themselves to be wielded in such a way. Any of the trouble that comes before a person like this will come to naught of its own accord one day. And the reality of the goodness that has flowed through a person like this will stand forever. Oh, some may kill the body of a man like this, but it only plants the seeds of more goodness in the ground.
What if we lived like this were true? What if we knew, really knew, that we were totally different – and that everything He led us to do would not and could not fail? What if we knew, really knew, that we really do live and move and have our being within Him and His great loving plans for our lives?
It does seem that a few believers through the centuries have really, truly let go and let The Truth flow through their lives into this hurting world. And these great saints have literally impacted the world for eternity.
Surely beloved, we are in the last days, and He is pouring out His spirit on all mankind. Would that we would yield to the flow and become like any believer can become: Real, powerful, and an agent of great change in the world. Would that we might, by His grace, barrel into His presence – with a million souls in tow. Each a trophy to His grace and Love in our lives.
