Revelation 1
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. Revelation 1:1-3 NKJV
Revelation is the only book in the Bible that promises a blessing to everyone who reads it and does what it says. God even repeats this promise near the end of the book. “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll” (Revelation 22:7). This book is the culmination of the Jesus story, and without knowing how the story ends, we do not have a complete picture of His power. But because God made this book available to us, we know exactly what will happen: evil will be destroyed, and His peace will reign forever! Hallelujah! However, we must remember the command in James 1:22: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” There are many important announcements and disclosures revealed to us throughout the book of Revelation. Some of them are easier to understand than others. We must pay attention to the commands that are in this book, and not get caught up in debating the meaning of the future visions that are not fully explained and that we cannot fully comprehend yet. Some of the prophecy in this book includes visions of the future, and the exact timeline is unclear for some of it. This prophetic book is applicable to “…the things which are [now happening], and the things which will take place after these things” (Revelation 1:19, AMP). We definitely need to read all of the prophecies, keeping our focus on fixing the things we can change in our lives right now, and understanding our hope for the future. As we read the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, we need to take these messages to heart and ask ourselves which parts of these letters apply to our lives. The letters describe problems within people’s hearts that the Lord is calling them out on and asking them to change. We can apply this to ourselves today by realizing that this honest self-evaluation and prompting to make changes applies to us too.
If we make the changes outlined in Scripture, God promises that we will be blessed. Blessed is an adjective with a variety of meanings:
1. consecrated; sacred; holy; sanctified.
2. worthy of adoration, reverence, or worship.
3. divinely or supremely favored; fortunate.
4. blissfully happy or content.
5. bringing happiness and thankfulness.
According to Matthew 5:3-12, to be blessed means that we will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, be comforted, inherit the Earth, be filled with righteousness, shown mercy, we will see God, be called children of God, and have a great reward in Heaven. All of this sounds amazing, right? But, in order to receive these blessings, we must be humble and willing to accept that God’s will must be done in our lives. Why? Because His original design was for all of His creatures, including mankind, to experience prosperity, peace, and fulfillment in life. That design was ruined when sin entered the world as a result of mankind following his own will instead of God’s will. The only way for God to be able to restore His favor on us is if we go back to following His plan, obeying His Word, and accepting that He knows best and that He is in control. Let us be grateful that our Heavenly Father desires to bless us in so many ways, both physical and spiritual. And we can be especially thankful for the ultimate blessing of eternal life that comes through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.