Revelation 3:14-22 – The Church of the Laodiceans

by Dr. Gary Linton | Updated March 3rd, 2023

Laodicea was founded by Seleucid Antiochus II in the middle of the third century B.C. and named after Laodice his wife. It was located ninety to one hundred miles due east of Ephesus and forty-five miles southeast of Philadelphia on the road to Colossae. Under Roman rule it had become wealthy and had a profitable business arising from a product of wool cloth. The Jewish population of the city was large and wealthy. Its economic sufficiency had lulled the church to sleep spiritually.

The city was destroyed in Sixty A.D. and rebuilt without outside assistance from the Roman government. The letter to the church in Philadelphia and Smyrna was one of nearly all praise and commendation whereas The church of the Laodiceans had nothing but rebuke and condemnation by our Lord. This church represents the lukewarm, last days church, and the church of our day. As our Lord had nothing but rebuke and chastisement for this church and so is His message for the lukewarm church of our day. However, there is always a small remnant that remains ablaze for God.

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Jesus’ Description of Himself to This Church

Revelation 3:14 – “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.”

The Amen. This is founded on the Hebrew word which in the Old testament means “foundation.” He is steady, sturdy, and unchangeable. He’s the rock upon which we stand. He’s the foundation upon which all else must be built (1 Corinthians 3:10-11). His person, the confession of Jesus, the revelation of Who Christ is, and obedience to Him is the rock upon which the church is built. If we don’t have Him as preeminence in our life and church we are standing on sinking sand (Matthew 7:21-27, 16:13-19). With out Him as our foundation the church is powerless and just going through the motions.
The faithful and true witness. Because He is our sure foundation He can be trusted. Jesus is “the faithful and true witness.” This is taken from Revelation 1:5, “And from Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” Jesus faithfully represented the Father. He was a faithful witness both in word and deed. We can depend upon Him and all He says and does.
John 1:18 – “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”
John 14:8-9 – “Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?”
Hebrews 1:3 – “Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the Word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Are we a faithful witness? Oh how I wish I had always been a faithful witness. We’re to witness for Him both in word and deed. We are not just to witness for and concerning Him but we are to be witnesses. We can by no means do this in our own strength or in our own power. We must lean completed upon Him and His power.
Acts 1:8 – “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
2 Peter 1:3-4 – “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
The beginning of the creation of God. Many have twisted passages like this and Colossians 1:15 to pervert the doctrine of Christ’s divinity asserting that He was the first to be created after which He created everything else. This is a perversion of truth. Let’s take a closer look at this, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Context is always imperative. Going further just a few verses brings much needed clarification. “He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18). Firstborn means He was the first to rise again from the dead never to die again.
The beginning is “arche.” Thayer’s Greek Lexicon: ̓́ archē 1) beginning, origin 2) the person or thing that commences, the first person or thing in a series, the leader 3) that by which anything begins to be, the origin, the active cause. Jesus is not the first to be created but the source of all creation. He Himself was the one Who created everything. He rightfully claims, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 21:6).

Jesus’ Rebuke to the Lukewarm Church

Revelation 3:15-16 – “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.”

Laodicea had no water supply and therefore had developed a stone aqueduct system to bring water from the hot springs of Hierapolis some six miles away. By the time it reached the city it was tepid and distasteful. They were accused of being like their water supply, tepid, and distasteful. There’s the language of judgment by the Lord. He will spit you out. They are nauseating to Jesus. This church is accused of the same condition as their water supply. The lukewarm church is distasteful and nauseating. We can’t help but wonder if “I will spue thee out of My mouth” means that the lukewarm church of our day will be spued out and not make the rapture if the per-tribulation rapture theory is really true.

The church’s self-sufficiency had lulled them to sleep and caused them to be lukewarm. Laodicea means “the people’s rights” or “the judgment of the people.” A clamoring for people’s rights in the church had contributed to its lukewarmness. The people had taken over and Jesus was no longer the head. He was thrust out. People now run the churches of our day. They are not submitting and yield the church to His Lordship and sovereign rule. They had shut Jesus out. The end result is lukewarmness or simply maintaining status quo, middle of the road, and indifference. The church and His people must place Jesus back on the throne of our hearts once again.

Hebrews 3:6 – “But Christ as a son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”

Lukewarm, the Greek “chliaros,” is used only here and refers to tepid water. They had been touched by the gospel but not clear they really belonged to Christ. They had manifest some interest in the things of God, professing Christians but fell far short. This represents those who participate in the outward form of religious worship or Christianity without an inward reality. Much like the Jews in Matthew 6. “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5). Their indifference seems to extend to the central doctrines of the faith – spiritual liberalism. Most of the church today seems to have departed from the fundamentals or essentials of the faith.

Jesus’ Counsel to the Lukewarm Church

Revelation 3:17-18 – “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”

“Buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.” With a touch of irony Jesus offers counsel contrary to what they thought they had and needed. They were wealthy in the natural and thought they had need of nothing which had lulled them to sleep spiritually. They had no idea they were spiritually “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” He advises them to buy from Him what money could not buy that they might be truly rich.

Isaiah 55:1 – “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

“Buy of Me… white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.” Merchants of Laodicea were famous for their manufacture of a certain black garment. They produced their own glossy wool used in making this garment. This is contrast between that which the merchants could provide, a black garment, and a white garment that only God could supply.

This again refers to the church’s self-sufficiency. They had everything and didn’t need Jesus. They were depending on their own goodness and righteousness, dependent on their own works and self-righteousness. We must get back to the place where we desperately need Jesus. We must be completely dependent upon Him. Without Him we are nothing. We have no righteousness of our own and need to be clothed with Him. We must return to the beginning where we first met Him, had a revelation of our own spiritual poverty and bankruptcy and needed to be clothed with His righteousness.

Matthew 5:3-6 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after (His) righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

James 4:9-10 – “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.”

Isaiah 64:6 – “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Isaiah 61:10 – ” I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of His righteousness.”

Philippians 3:9 – “And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”

“And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” In the temple of Asklepios was a famous medical school known for its eyesalve. This has relevance to what the Laodiceans were accustomed to doing. They were using medicine the school provided for eyesalve in contrast to their real need of having their spiritual eyes opened. They were spiritually blind to the things of God. Today’s church sadly parallels this church. They were depending on natural means to see whereas what they really needed was sight of the Spirit. The church of our day must begin crying out to God for true spiritual sight that only the Holy Spirit can give.

1 Corinthians 2:14 – “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

1 Corinthians 2:12 – “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”

John 16:13-14 – “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you.”

Psalm 119:18 – “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.”

Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

Judgment Upon the Lukewarm Church

Revelation 3:19 – “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”

1 Peter 4:17 – “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”

Hebrews 12:5-6 – “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”

We are, without a doubt, living in the Laodicean church age. God is fed up with the church’s weak watered down stance, existence, and message. Unless there’s a drastic change judgment is coming forthwith. The church must begin seeking the face of God again, set itself ablaze by the Holy Ghost, and preach the unadulterated truth of God’s Word. God is sick and tired of the seeker friendly movement of our day that compromises His Word. We must start laying hold of the horns of the altar for a move of the Holy Spirit and proclaim the truths of the Word of God. If we don’t God will bring judgment to His house. He wants our trust to be in Him alone and not any man made institution or person.

Romans 1:18 – “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”

So many churches and pastors in our day are holding the truth in unrighteousness. We have God’s Word in our hands yet we fail to present it to those under our care and to the world. Our people and the world desperately needs the Word today like at no other time. Yet we are holding it back for fear of offending. God’s wrath is about to be unleashed unless we repent.

“We need preachers who preach that hell’s still hot, heaven’s still real, sin’s still wrong and the Bible is God’s Word!” — A.W. Tozer

Truths We Must Set Forth

Sound doctrine. The twenty-first century church is sorely lacking sound doctrine. It’s time we return to fundamental precepts of scripture and begin teaching them from the pulpit to our people. Otherwise they will be easily led astray.
2 Timothy 4:1-4 – “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
Acts 20:27 – “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”
Titus 2:1 – “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.”
Literal heaven and hell. There’s a real heaven and hell. This has been left out of most of the churches of our day. It’s incumbent on us to return to the basics of the gospel again. There is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. We must preach hell so that people will flee it and reach out to Jesus the only way to heaven.
2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 – “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.”
Matthew 25:41 – “Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and His angels.”
Matthew 25:34 – “Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
John 14:1-3 – “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
The cross of Christ. We want to preach and teach things that are uplifting, encouraging, and what people want to hear. Feel good messages. Some of that is okay but we must never fail to preach the cross of Christ. That’s simply not a message people want to hear today but it’s the heart of the gospel and therefore must be preached.
Luke 9:23-24 – “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it.”
1 Corinthians 1:18 – “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”
Colossians 2:15 – “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through the cross.”
Galatians 6:14 – “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
The blood of Jesus. The blood must be preached! There’s power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the lamb.
It’s through His blood we’re saved, our sins are washed away, access is granted into the presence of God, and victory is wrought. If we neglect to preach and trust solely in the blood of Jesus alone as our only hope of salvation then judgment will occur. It’s the only means whereby we are saved from wrath.
Hebrews 10:29 – “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”
Romans 5:9 – “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
Hebrews 9:22 – “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
Romans 3:25-26 – “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
Hebrews 10:19 – “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.”
Revelation 12:11 – “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
Jesus is the only way. There is no other way to heaven, the Father, and to experience victory in life than the Lord Jesus Himself. Jesus is the narrow way through which we must enter, all other ways lead to destruction. It’s all about Him. Without Him we are lost and without strength to live for God. It’s not self-help gospel that we need but help from the Master. There will never be any fruit in our lives or ministries apart from complete and utter dependence on Him.
Acts 4:12 – “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
John 14:6 – “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”
John 15:5 – “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.”

Hope for the Remnant of His church

Revelation 3:20-21 – “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.”

The rest of what follows here is for the remnant of His people and the church that will repent and make Him number one again. Sadly, the rest will experience His judgment. If we will repent, hear His voice, open the door of our heart, and invite Him back in to take up residency on the throne of our heart and the church there is hope. He will begin to manifest Himself in a powerful way to the remnant of His people and church. Revelation 3:20 has often been applied to the lost but it was written to a church that had shut Him out. Jesus is inviting the Laodicean, lukewarm church, of our day to take their hands off the reigns of their heart and the church and make Him Lord and Master once again. If we will do so we will overcome, reign with Him, and experience victory in life.

The Latter Day Outpouring of the Holy Ghost. The remnant of His people will begin to experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit beyond our greatest imagination or expectation. We are in the end times. If the Spirit was so marvelously poured out at the beginning of the last days (Acts 2), how much more at the end of the last days.
Joel 2:28-32 – “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved – delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.”
The rest will be completely powerless. Until now they have experienced a little power but that is about to change. From this time on they will be without power and all they do will be in their own strength.

A Great Harvest of Souls. If at the beginning of the last days thousands were saved (Acts 2 and 3) how much more at the end of the last days. The remnant that sells out for the Master and preaches His Word without compromise will see the greatest harvest of souls the world has ever seen. Believe it, receive it, expect it. We must pray and be willing to go forth into the fields to harvest those who are ripe for the picking.
John 4:35 – “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”
Matthew 9:36-38 – “When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
Isaiah 43:5-7 – “Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth; Even every one that is called by My name: for I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.”
Deuteronomy 30:4 – “If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee.”
Acts 2:39 – “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
Acts 16:31 – “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
2 Timothy 2:4 – “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
The rest will be turned over to their humanistic and compromising gospel and its fruits or lack thereof.
Deliverance for Those in Bondage. During this end time revival and harvest we will see many delivered from all that has held them in bondage. God is still in the delivering business. I was saved during the Jesus movement when untold thousands were set free from every addiction and bondage known to man. We’re about to see the delivering power of God manifest once again that will surpass all others. People who have been struggling with things with seemingly no hope are going to experience God’s delivering power and be set free.
Matthew 1:21 – “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.”
John 8:31-32, 36 – “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
Romans 11:26-27 – “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”
Luke 4:18-19 – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable (favorable) year of the Lord.”
Isaiah 10:27 – “And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.”
All the lukewarm church’s new age, humanistic, self-help, socialistic, and psychological methods will be brought to naught. And the delivering power of God alone will be manifest.
An Increase in Divine Revelation. Those who return to preaching the whole counsel of God, not leaving anything out, will begin to see an increase in revelation knowledge. Let’s cry out to the Lord for revelation of the Holy Spirit. The remnant of His people will begin to see and understand the things of the Spirit guiding them into all truth. The rest will find revelation growing increasingly dim.
John 16:13-14 – “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you.”
1 Corinthians 2:12-14 – “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Psalms 119:18 – “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.”
Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
The lukewarm church will experience darkness. What little light they had will grow increasingly dim.

An Increased Anointing From on High. In the days to follow those who have completely sold out to Christ will see an increased anointing upon their lives and ministries. We will see more people saved, delivered, healed, and set free more than at any other time. As Elisha received a double portion of the Spirit that was on Elijah and saw twice the miracles so will we.
Luke 4:13-15 – “When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding region And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.”
Luke 4:18-19 – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable (favorable) year of the Lord.”
The seeker friendly, watered down gospel churches will see no power at all. All they do will be turned over to the flesh alone and nothing will be accomplished of any lasting value. This has always been true to an extent but now they will be given over to their fruitless ways.
Romans 1:28 – “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.”
Protection in the Midst of a Troubled World. There will be a time of trouble coming on the world the likes of which we’ve never imagined. However, the remnant of His people will experience protection from the Almighty. As the children of Israel were protected in the land of Goshen so will we be protected. They saw all the devastation but were not affected by it.
1 Peter 1:5 – “Who are kept (protected) by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
John 17:15 – “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep (guard, protect) them from the evil one.”
Psalms 91:1-13 – “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.”
There will be no protection for the lukewarm reprobate church who have not made Him their dwelling place.
The Return of the Lord Draws Nigh. No one knows the exact day or hour of Jesus’ return. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36). That day is fixed in heaven in the Father’s mind and will. However, we can know and understand the times that His return is nigh at hand.
One thing I do know is, those of His people and His church that will invite Jesus in to have first place in their midst He will manifest Himself to us in marvelous ways. Sadly, I know most of His church will not but there will be a remnant that will. To the remnant we will see Him coming in power and glory. We’ll see our Lord begin to manifest Himself to us in ways we’ve never imagined. This is for the remnant who have turned back to Him with all their heart. The rest will experience dryness. What little they had will dissipate and disappear! They’ll be nothing but spiritual dryness.
James 5:7-8 – “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for THE COMING OF THE LORD DRAWETH NIGH!
There will be victory, dominion, and a visitation from God to the remnant of His church that gives heed to the voice of the Spirit. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.” We will be seated with Jesus in heavenly places with Him in His throne of authority.
1 John 5:4-5 – “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Ephesians 1:19-23 – “And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.”
Ephesians 2:6-7 – “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

A Call to Attentiveness

Revelation 3:22 – “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

The church of our day must wake up, listen up, and give heed to the voice of the Holy Spirit. He is always speaking but it’s up to us to listen. If we fail to listen His voice will become increasingly silent. We must simply tune in to the frequency of the Holy Spirit to hear. If we will not give ear to the voice of the Spirit, there will be a shaking so that everything that’s not of Him in our lives and in the church will be stripped away. Only what’s left of Him will remain.

Hebrews 3:7-13 – “Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear His voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Hebrews 12:25-29 – “See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.”

Matthew 25:29 – “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”