Chapter Eight --the Grand Silence

Revelation’s’ Diamond for Chapter Eight:

“Be still, and know that I am God“ (Psalm 46:10).

Jesus continues with JP. “John,” he says. “Just stop worrying about those churches you pastored. And stop fretting about what more you could have done. Deflate your ego and be still. You will never understand the rest of this dream unless your heart is quiet. The first words of chapter eight are crucial for getting anything out of what follows. It’s only gloom and doom, if you don’t quiet down first.

“Four angels will blow four trumpets. One third of the trees and green grass will burst aflame. One third of the sun will be blasted. That’s an image of your heart, John. I planted a garden in you, as I have with everyone. So many weeds have choked out what I made to grow, I’m going to burn the weeds up. They will be blasted as the sun is blasted in this vision. About one third of your attitudes and behavior need to go.

“For instance, you hate Jezebel with a blazing passion. You detest all those lukewarm Christians in Laodicea. You look down on those easy believers in Ephesus you who grind the faces of the poor. Your ill- will towards your Jewish families in Smyrna and Philadelphia rob you of energy to grow in my love.

“ So, out. I’m sending my trumpet angels to blast away everything in you that interferes with my love for other people. I’m going to wipe out about 33 per cent of your daily feelings and attitudes. They smoke out my love. I want to make sure that my love grows in you, John. Be still, and let it grow.”

***

The biggest weeds in my garden disguise themselves as my greatest strengths. I love to tell stories. One man told me after a sermon, “You’re eccentric as hell,” he said, “but you tell a lot of personal stories. And that makes me feel like you’re talking right to me.” But if I answer every question my wife asks me with a story, when all she wants is a “yes’ or “ no,” it drives her crazy.

One of my friends recently pointed the same thing out to me. At first, I wanted to tell her to shut up – or just walk away. Then I felt the Holy Spirit telling me, “Just be still, wise guy, and learn that I am God.’ So, I continued to sit with her in silence as we watched the night fall. The next day I told her, “Thank you for telling me to stop talking last night. I needed to hear that. All you wanted was a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’, but I had to tell a story.”

So, when the angels come to blow their burn-up, bitter, sun-blasting trumpets in my life, I’m starting learn I have a whole lot more weeds in my garden than I know. The Lord is burning them up so I can learn to “Be still, and know that he is God.”