RR 025: Transformation is the Blessing of Reading Revelation

God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near.

Revelation 1:3

My blessing of daily transformation of my mindset began when I started reading Revelation, NOT when I started the podcast. Your blessing is guaranteed once you begin to study Revelation for yourself.

Why should you read Revelation? What’s in it for you? For a year now I have been telling you that reading Revelation would bless you. Now that I have recorded 24 podcast episodes covering all 22 chapters, I asked my friend Mark Bell we he thought I should do next. He said this would be a good time to take a break from topical study and just share with you how reading it has blessed me. You need to know that because you are likely wondering if it will really bless you. For that reason, I challenged myself to get real and honest, and tell you plainly about the blessing I have received so far. So here it is, daily transformation is the blessing of reading Revelation.

What is being transformed is my eternal, spiritual, and kingdom perspectives. However, I want to be careful not to oversell “my transformation.” Those who know me best know that there are times when the way I act does not reflect that God is doing anything with me. I’m still a very flawed human being and I’m not going to blow smoke at you and say otherwise. On the other hand, I don’t want to deny the immense value I am getting out of reading Revelation.

God is making big changes in my life. I would say my worldview is more kingdom focused than it used to be. Reading Revelation is also changing how often I consider eternity as much or more than the present. Lastly, God is showing me that the spiritual world is not only as real as the physical world, but that it is the force behind all that happens in the physical world.

The best way to tell you about the transformation God has been doing in me is to tell you about my Revelation journey. Around 2019 I was reading Revelation as I was trying to fulfill a personal goal of reading the Bible. I finished it and was about repeat the process and start again in Genesis, but then I paused. It occurred to me that I had just read 22 chapters of Revelation and didn’t have a foggiest idea what it meant. I felt compelled to read it again in more in detail. I wanted to master Revelation before I moved on.

That was the beginning of a spiritual journey for me that continues to this day. This journey is teaching me each day that God’s word cannot be mastered. A child can understand the basic theme that staying faithful to Christ in the midst of hardship will have unbelievable eternal rewards. However, the world’s best scholars can’t begin to unearth all the layers of spiritual depth to the book.

However, the blessing mentioned in Revelation 1:3 is that the Holy Spirit uses our reading of it to master us. Let me say that again. We don’t master Revelation, it masters us. Like the rest of God’s word it transforms us. The words of Romans 12:2 come to mind in which God transforms us by the renewing of our mind. I think that is an ongoing, day by day, process. It is the daily walk with God that should be our focus during this life rather than arriving at our destination. Our arrival of understanding will not occur until we are face to face with Jesus.

My transformation is ongoing and incomplete. Honestly, I sometimes suffer a little bit from imposter syndrome. Even though I started the very first episode admitting to everyone that I am a layman without a biblical degree, sometimes I feel inadequate to speak to you about Revelation. Nevertheless, I just keep trudging forward along the journey step by step.

In 2020 I began thinking about starting turning my studies into a podcast but my fears delayed my start. In fact, I almost didn’t do it at all. It weighed on me that I might be “cancelled” by a culture that is increasingly intolerant of Christians. I also didn’t want to be branded a Revelation weirdo like some kind of cult leader. Then there was the fear of being labeled a heretic by members of my own faith who disagreed with my interpretation. I also wondered if focusing on Revelation would cause me to avoid the rest of the Bible causing me to develop Biblical tunnel vision. That part couldn’t be farther from the truth. However, the biggest reason I was afraid is that I didn’t want to let God down by explaining things incorrectly and leading people astray.

In spite of my fears, I felt an ongoing compulsion to proceed that I believe was from the Holy Spirit. He just wouldn’t leave me alone about it. I began to realize that I probably would get some things wrong but I should just humbly admit that to people along the way. What I felt increasingly compelled to do was to encourage lots of regular people to start reading Revelation for themselves. That is the main goal, I want lots of ordinary people to fall in love with Revelation just like I did. I began to feel that God was prompting me to begin the podcast, not in spite of my beginner status, but because of it.

By 2021 I was pretty convinced I should start the podcast but I didn’t know anything about podcasting so I spent some time learning about podcasting and buying equipment. That took me way too long because I kept thinking “maybe I just need to keep learning about one more topic before proceeding”. In reality, I was just procrastinating.

Sometimes you have to admit that your efforts will be pretty bad at first and the only way to get better is to get on with it. By the end of 2021 I had gathered enough nerve to hear my own voice talk into a microphone and record five episodes. Those episodes were heard by no one but me for the next year. Honestly, those episodes were terrible. I kept them hidden safely on my hard drive until one day, in the fall on 2022, I gathered the courage to re-record them and press submit.

Can you see God transforming my mindset throughout all that? He compelled me to learn more about Him. Next he wouldn’t let me rest until I got started. Then he overcame my objections. Next he gave me courage to get started. My blessing began when I started reading Revelation, NOT when I started the podcast. Your blessing is guaranteed once you begin to study Revelation for yourself.

Is there something God is calling you to do that you are putting off? Are you resisting his transformation and missing out on the blessing that goes with it? Specifically, how does God want to transform you by your reading of Revelation? I can’t answer that because your blessings might be different than mine. All I can do is lay out some of the ways he has blessed me so far. I hope that will be an encouragement to you.

While the first blessing I received had to do with the courage to get started, the second blessing was about to emerge. The second way God blessed my life was in a transformation of how I look at life. Reading Revelation changed the way I look at eternal life, the spiritual world, and God’s kingdom.

Spiritual Perspective: What is real, what is important?

One blessing of Revelation is that reading it helps us to see heaven as a real place. We place our faith in things we believe are real and our passion on things that are important within that reality. What is reality though? Is it always something you experience with your five senses? Apparently Jesus didn’t think so. He gave the revelation to John in a vision that was outside of his physical senses. John wrote this revelation into what is now divided into 22 chapters. However, only chapters 2 and 3 were devoted to the physical world. That means that 90% of the focus of Revelation is about the spiritual realm. Jesus opened John’s spiritual eyes. Those eyes were then able to see that it is the spiritual world that is the driving force behind the physical world.

One example of this is in 2 Kings 6:17-20 in which Elisha asked God to open his servant’s spiritual eyes. His servant was panicking because they were surrounded by the Assyrian army. However, once his spiritual eyes were opened, he could see that the hills were full of horses and chariots of fire from the army of God. Elisha prayed that the army of the Assyrians would be blinded and they were. Then he led them away to Samaria and asked that their sight be restored and it was. Was the army of the Assyrians or the army of God more real and more important in that situation? We need to pray for God to open our spiritual eyes so we can be more attentive to His will.

Knowing the reality of the spiritual world can make forgiving others easier. Ephesians 6:12 says “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” When our neighbor does us wrong it is easier to forgive them if we know that God loves them and that our struggle is not against them but against the forces of darkness that are influencing them.

Another spiritual blessing is seeing God’s word as real and important. When I asked my friend Spencer Porter about how reading Revelation had blessed him he said it gave him a greater appreciation for the prophets. He said that their story is our story. We continually turn our backs on God but he still wants to be our God and for us to be his people. That resonated with me.

As I said earlier, one of my fears in focusing on Revelation was that it would give me blinders for the rest of the Bible. My experience has been the exact opposite. If I am honest I must admit that I used to dread reading the prophets. I thought they were just doom and gloom. Now I see Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and many other of the prophets in a completely new light. The prophets are one of the most important books to read to help you understand more about Revelation! Now I’m excited to read them because it opens up a whole new level of understanding.

Kingdom Perspective: Purpose & Meaning

What is the meaning of life? Countless books have been written about this topic. How can I make more money, be more famous, and be more successful? However, Revelation throws that all out the window. It makes me think of Ecclesiastes 12:13 “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.” We have only one job and it is serving God. In the end there is the triumph and glory of Christ and His kingdom and the complete destruction of everything else. It’s literally that simple.

Our purpose and meaning comes by serving the kingdom of an amazing God. Revelation tells us that if we accept Christ and remain faithful to Him even in the midst of hardship and persecution, even if it costs us our lives, that we will reign with Christ. We will share in his unimaginably awesome eternal kingdom. Faithfully walking with God each day is our purpose. Everything else is a distraction.

Eternal Perspective

The last change in perspective I want to tell you about it my sense of eternity. The Kingdom focus I spoke about is in seeing Christ’s eternal victory rather than my next sale, promotion, or win at this or that. Success is not checking one more item off my bucket list. Seeing the sunrise on Mount Kilimanjaro and posting the picture on Facebook (just an example, I’ve never done that) pales in comparison to looking forward to seeing the new heaven and new earth! This gives me peace from the fear of missing out in this life. True happiness comes there, not here.

Having an eternal focus also gives us hope. 2 Corinthians 4:17 tells us that no matter what we are going through in this life it will be nothing compared to the joy we will experience in eternity! Does your situation seem like there is no way out? Jesus says He is the way and that He is making all things new!

The sister emotion of hope is joy. Focusing on eternity in heaven gives us joy. Have you ever planned an exciting trip and enjoyed looking forward to it? You lay in bed at night thinking about what it will be like to be there. My friend I invite you to read all of Revelation chapter 21 and 22. It will blow your mind. It fills me with joy as I long to be there forever! With that I say Come Lord Jesus!

Conclusion: I want more!

Maybe the greatest blessing is an ever increasing desire to want God in my life more and more. I thought after I made episodes about each of the chapters my interest would taper off and I’d move on to something else. That isn’t what happened. The more I read Revelation the more I want the back story I get from reading Genesis, Exodus, the Psalms, the prophets and also New Testament books.

The interesting thing is the more I learn, the more questions I have. I still feel like a novice reading it but I’m more and more excited to do so as time passes. I pray you will start a similar journey of reading and exploring of Revelation and receive even more blessing from it than I have!