Chapter 11

Diamond Word for Chapter 11 -- “Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6).

“John,” continues Jesus, “you had some real power-hungry people in those churches you served. The wealthy merchants in Sardis thought they were really alive because they controlled everything. In reality, they were dead. By their financial “might and power,” they kept things just as they had set them up, but they lost God’s Spirit.

“You see, John, they never realized nothing ever just “is.” Everything is “becoming.” That’s why I had you write, back in chapter one: “I was ‘becoming’ on the isle of Patmos (Rev. 1:9). You weren’t just “there” like a grain of bleached sand. When I landed you on these shores your “becoming” was about to begin.

In the next visions, through the images of the “Woman clothed with the sun” (chapter 12) and the defeat of the “Whore of Babylon” (chapter 17) you’ll see the critical message of this dream: the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdom of Our Lord and his Christ.” (Rev. 11:15 ). The launch point was my birth in Bethlehem.

“John, this chapter is about Christmas. All the “might and power‘ kingdoms of this world started to become the kingdom of God when the Word BECAME flesh at my birth. In that event, God pulled the fuse from hatred. He ground to dust all the money-grubbing that motivates people like those whom I threw out of the Temple – or like those in Sardis. God began to absorb all this evil into his kingdom when I was born in Bethlehem.

“There, He began to destroy the ‘might and power’ in those people in Sardis. Their greed will rise up from its own bottomless pit to destroy itself. When they begin to feel they have nothing because their wealth is diminished, God’s healing Spirit will enter their hearts. They will begin to see how their wealth kingdoms are becoming the compassionate kingdom of God.

“Does all this come without pain? No! I had to suffer betrayal, hostility from religious leaders and the Cross to bring this about. You will have the same experience, as much as you can take. Go back to Job, chapter five: ‘Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he strikes, but his hands heal’ (Job 5:17-18). Man up, John, as you enter into your experience of BECOMING in the Lord’.”

“ When the kingdom of God finally takes over your life, ‘you will be in league with stones of the field and the wild animals will be at peace with you” (Job 5:23).

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I (John Lynch) could never quite “get” what “the kingdoms of this world ARE BECOME the kingdom of God” really meant. Then I set up our manger scene for this year. We always put lots of animals, fish ,birds and even a dragon around Jesus’s crib. As I looked down at those small statues of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the angels, the shepherds, and all those animals, I suddenly got it.

At that moment, 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, all the kingdoms of bears, pelicans, shepherds, oxen and dragons became one in Jesus – God, a small baby lying in a manger. At that moment God’s Word took on the flesh of the whole world, in all its glory and despair, and began to transfigure it into his kingdom. At Christmas Jesus gave us hope.

God always makes it simpler than we could ever imagine