And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art
worthy to take the book, and to open the
seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood out
of every kindred, and tongue, and people,
and nation; and hast made us unto our
God kings and priests: and we shall
reign on the earth.
Revelation 5:9-10
Our study in chapter 4 of Revelation spoke of us being called to "Come up hither," and then when we have come we would be shown things that would be to come. You will not "come" unless you have Jesus as your personal Savior and have followed His command to leave all behind and come be with Him. This will not happen unless your character has been formed into the image of Jesus Christ. Character is built upon habit so it is those externals of life that you live up to that develop your character. A problem is that when a person first comes to believe and accept Jesus as their personal Savior they have such a high elevated mood and they want to have that elevated mood all the time, they want to go higher. That is a temptation to want more and more without considering the consequences. The higher you go, the more you are faced with temptations and other characteristics that you may allow to become your character. To stay on the high plane is to allow Satan to mess up your true understanding of God, to cause you to lose your desire to be holy. When Jesus took the three apostles up to the mount of transfiguration and they wanted to stay up on that mount He would not allow this and took them back into the valley. You are not to attempt by your own power to go up, no, only God by His grace can elevate into the heavenly places, and when God elevates you you do not come to the pinnacle, the peak of the mountain, you find that God has brought you to a table-land. It is upon this table-land that you can move and live for God without the problem of trying to stay on the pinnacle. God calls you to "go up higher" but not you personally, rather He as spoken to your character and by this truth you are able to instantly live the character as shown by Jesus Christ.
When God has called you your joy is such that you sing a new song, a song of praise and worship and this is sung by the living out of your new character. What is your new character? You are now kings and priests of God: "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones,are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1Peter 2:2-5). Your song to be sung is a song that if sung always, daily, moment by moment, not in some euphoric babbling, or in any other way than to not return to the past, moving forward: "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from the dead works, and of faith toward God" (Hebrews 7:1). As I pointed out in previous blogs, perfection is not to be completely without flaw, for this will not occur until Jesus returns and then you are given a body, a life, immutable and incorruptible, but you can be complete and this is the meaning of the Greek word translated "perfection."
Jesus is the worthy One that is able to open the book those seven seals, or scrolls? Why? It was and is by the death of Jesus, the pouring out His blood that takes away the sin of the world and by His blood being poured out then He redeems and His redemption, as God, is permanent, forever, and no one can change this fact. Men from every corner of the earth, every language (that is what the Greek means when it is translated tongues), not matter your ethnicity who accept and convert to Jesus Christ will be made into kings and priests of God. Furthermore, you, as kings and priests will reign on earth. You do not wait until you get to heaven to become a king and priest of God for yo are now:"For if by one man's offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17). Paul writes to the Corinthian Church: Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you" (1Corinthians 5:8). Yes, you can misuse your reign if it is outside of Jesus Christ but you can reign if Jesus the High Priest is reigning in you. Paul writes to Timothy: "It is a faithful saying: For is we b dead with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, He also will deny us: if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself" (2Timothy 2:11-13).
What are you waiting for? Pick up your harp, your stringed instrument and sing this new song, this new you and live as what you are: KINGS AND PRIESTS OF GOD!
Commit thy way unto the LORD;
trust also in Him; and He
shall bring it to pass. And He shall
bring forth the righteousness
as the light, and thy judgment
as the noonday.
Psalm 37:5-6
Sing now this new song
Richard L. Crumb
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