The Divine Invitation

THE DIVINE INVITATION

8/28/2018

God is issuing a Divine Invitation!

It’s not just an invitation to salvation, although believers begin there.

It’s not just an invitation to experience healing or deliverance, although those are benefits of belonging to the Kingdom.

It’s an invitation to come up higher spiritually, to experience the supernatural dimensions of the Kingdom of God.

Why would we need this? Francis Frangipane says it best: “A Christian is not just a person going to heaven. Shouldn’t a Christian also be a person coming from heaven, with the goods, power and virtues of heaven?”

Christianity isn’t meant to be a just a security blanket, providing comfort when we contemplate death. It’s meant to be a dynamic relationship involving supernatural power here and now. The beloved disciple, John, understood this and gives us a glimpse into God’s multi-faceted invitation.

John's Invitations

Rejected. Exiled. Imprisoned.

Holding tightly to the Word, yet cast out because of his faith.

A brother and companion to those in tribulation.

Yet in the end, John was a great communicator of prophetic revelation to churches throughout the world.

In the Gospel of John, there are no fewer than eight direct invitations from Jesus recorded for us, including: “Come and see!” “He who comes to Me will not hunger.” “Come and drink!” “Come to abundant life!” “Come forth to resurrection!” And even: “Come have breakfast!” The book of Revelation contains even more: fourteen invitations!

John the fisherman accepted Christ’s initial invitation to salvation, then recorded a boatload of other invitations he heard from Jesus as he walked with Him. John communicates so much to us about God’s desire for a deeper relationship with Him!

If you are waiting for an invitation from God, John presents it! John’s gospel gives us practical reasons to come to Jesus: we will no longer hunger or thirst. We’ll find life and rest. We’ll get to know Him, and He will also come dwell with us (John 14:28, 15:26, 16:7-13). Jesus, we find, longs for us to come to Him as a hen longs to gather her chicks under her wings.

RSVP, Please!

Perhaps even more remarkable is John’s second book – the book of Revelation. I think what is most amazing about Revelation is John’s experience within it. Here we see, in diary form, what happens when a believer responds to God’s deeper invitation to “come.” We find out the details of what God has invited us to!

Having known Jesus in the flesh, John now comes to know Him more deeply by the Spirit. Despite being physically confined to the island of Patmos, John ascends into heaven spiritually at God’s invitation. He then returns from his encounter carrying heaven’s “goods, power, and virtues” - in a series of prophetic words.

John comes face to face with the Son of Man in bright fiery glory, a reminder of his previous encounters at the transfiguration and resurrection of Christ (Rev. 1; Matthew 17; John 20).

John then encounters the crucified Lamb in the midst of God’s throne (Rev 5), the only one worthy of opening the sealed scrolls. He is invited to “Come up here” to witness an historic and prophetic unfolding of events.

We wonder at these miraculous impartations of revelation to John: the detailed things he saw, the pattern for the end of the age, and the inner workings of heaven.

We see repeated invitations, first by the Lord, then by the four living creatures, to:

“Come and see.”
“Write what you see.”
“Come up higher.”

We watch as John looks and heaven unrolls its carefully sealed secrets, scroll by scroll. John soon needs no further angelic invitations; he looks for himself, he sees, and he becomes convinced of the Lord’s desire to impart prophetic wisdom that will shake the world as he knows it.

What exactly does John see, apart from the revelations concerning the end time churches? Here is a short list:

The Divine Invitation - blog post from Deborah Perkins at His Inscriptions.

You're Invited!

All of what John saw was possible because of one thing: he desired more of Jesus. Not content to settle for salvation, John was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” when these events took place (Revelation 1:10). He had positioned himself, despite his tribulations and captivity, to pursue relationship with the Lord and to hear from Him. He then received an invitation.

Because John "turned aside" and responded to God’s unique invitation (like Moses, Jacob, Gideon and others before him), he was rewarded with an increase of God’s presence. (See Matthew 4:21-22, Revelation 1:12.) Those who “turn aside” from everyday life to pursue supernatural invitations are blessed!

David Guzik of Enduring Word ministries writes of Revelation 1: “This was a spectacular vision, and many people wish they could have a spectacular vision like John had, but we can know the very same Jesus John saw. We can know His purity, His eternal wisdom, His searching judgment, His victory, His authority and His majesty. Each of these aspects of His nature are ours to know intimately.”*

In other words, throughout the Scriptures you discover that you’re invited! Heaven still summons us to life-giving encounters with the Lamb, our Savior! Every step we take towards authentic worship of Jesus gives us another opportunity to see Him in His glory and receive from Him prayerfully and prophetically. We learn from Him, then we share His heart with our world.

If we are too busy making excuses to respond to Divine Invitations, we will be left out like the guests in the parable of the Wedding Banquet!

Our quiet times and corporate gatherings are meant to be full of wonder, worship and awe as we experience new revelations about our Savior. How do I know? When John returns from heaven full of these revelations, he opens and closes his letter to the churches with specific invitations from the Trinity:

Rev 1:4 – John sends greetings from God the Father, Jesus Christ, and from the “seven Spirits who are before His throne” - as if he knows them personally. (He does!) Imagine: The seven-fold Spirit, with seven horns and seven eyes, sent throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are “fully committed to Him,” is eager to send greetings to YOU, a fellow believer and member of God’s corporate church.

We greet those with whom we desire relationship. It is amazing that the magnificent 7-fold Spirit who stands before the throne, greets John as He would greet us, welcoming us to come and encounter Him. Even more amazing is His indwelling Presence within our hearts. We are as He is: bilocational beings; able to exist in at least two dimensions at once.

Rev. 22:17 – John closes his letter with a final invitation: “And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” (NKJV) There can be no mistaking such an invitation. You and I are the “whoevers,” and the only requirement for access into the supernatural realm of faith is our desire. As it was for John, the door in heaven is standing open, beckoning us to come in (Revelation 4:1).

Rev 1:3 - “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!” We are promised a blessing as we engage with Christ in His glorified form, along with prophetic revelation released from the Throne.

Conclusion

For prayer warriors and prophets alike, John’s exquisite letter to the Asian churches reveals the prophetic process like no other book of the Bible can. We see John’s obedience to observe the Sabbath and his discipline in stirring himself up in the Spirit. We see his receptivity to the voice of the Lord – a listening ear in prayer. We see his openness to the things of the Spirit, even experientially, that allow him to cross that great supernatural threshold into heavenly realms. And we see that his worship of Jesus and a subsequent encounter with the Lamb is what transforms John from an exiled and rejected disciple into a confident prophet and spokesperson for the Lord.

The greatest revelation known to man began with an exiled (dare I say "locked down?!") believer on a far-away island, someone who took the simple step of being “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” John’s act of simple obedience has encouraged churches throughout the generations to hold on to the hope of their heavenly callings and to enter in to the fullest experience of Christianity.

I pray that you will respond to God’s “Divine Invitations” with a wholehearted “yes” every time. Not just for the sake of experiencing God yourself, but because what you hear, learn, and experience in the supernatural will empower you to share your wisdom with future generations. The ancient hymn becomes a perfect prayer: