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The Importance of Turning

Words of Faith Final

The Importance of Turning

Words of Faith 11-4-2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2020

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

www.faithfellowshipweb.com

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Revelation 1

[10]  On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, [11]  which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea."  [12]  I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me.

 

        Apostle John was about to receive the Revelation. We don’t know exactly where he was on Patmos. There is a grotto called the Cave of the Apocalypse, where John is said to have received the Revelation. It is a remarkable place to visit.

        We do know that John was under the control of the Holy Spirit when the Revelation began. This was on the Lord’s Day, a reference to Sunday. Very early in church history, Christians began observing Sunday as the primary day of Christian worship because it was the day that Christ’s resurrection took place.

        In this state, John heard a loud voice from behind him that was like a trumpet. This clearly broke into whatever solitude or silence John had experienced. A loud voice spoke to him and commanded that he write on a scroll to the seven churches located in Asia Minor.

      We don’t know if John wrote down the entire Revelation at one time or over some period of time. There is a tradition that John received the vision of Revelation from heaven verbatim and dictated it to an assistant named Procorus, but we don’t find this in the text.

        The seven churches mentioned were the center points for key postal districts and used for disseminating information. They are named in a clockwise circle, like a postal route.

        The loud voice was “like” a trumpet…  The Bible uses the word “like” in several places to attempt a description of something that is indescribable. The word hom-oy-os means similar to but not exactly the same.

         John’s first response was to turn. “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me…”  The revelation voice required John to turn toward it. The word here is ep-ee-stref-o – and means to reverse direction, revert, twist, convert, or return.

        There is a very powerful point here.  Engaging with God will always require a response of turning. When the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush, Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” (Exodus 3:1-3) If we do not turn, we will never see the great sight that God has for us.

       John might have responded… “I don’t believe in voices.” He might have said, "I don't know who you are, but I'll have you know I already wrote the book on Jesus. Do you want me to sign a copy for you?" John could have responded, “I walked with Jesus. I already know about all this.” Or "Maybe I didn't walk on water—but I beat Peter to the empty tomb!”

        Instead, it was a humble and receptive John who turned toward God. It was only then that he began seeing this amazing revelation.

        Here is the big truth: You will never see the things of God-- if you do not turn toward Him.  You will never see the things of God if you are full of yourself, your past experiences, or what you think you already know.

        We will not likely be called upon to see a Revelation like that given to John on Patmos. We won’t be called to write a new book of the Bible.  But we will be called to see and hear the things of God that He has for us. But we will never see those things if we are not in the Spirit and willing to turn toward Him.

 

        Father God, I want to see, hear, and know all the things that You have for me. As I open the Word of God and submit myself to Your Spirit, I choose to listen and turn away from the world. I choose to turn away from my own thoughts and ideas. I choose to turn toward You. In Jesus' Name.

 

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)       

2820 Business Center Blvd.

Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.