For many years I have worked at understanding and conveying the knowledge that I have received from reading the scripture of the Christian Bible. I had hoped over the years to be able to earn a living from my efforts and pursue other channels of brining Glory to the Lord's Name. I have to admit that I have been overly zealous and proven to be wrong about some of my conclusions in wisdom of the knowledge of my undertaking.
I was in church one Sunday in 1976 when the pastor made the comment that he was going to lead the congregation into study of the book of Revelation over the coming weeks. He made the comment that it was the hardest book in the Bible to understand. I thought to myself then; "Aha, this could be how I will get famous." I had grown up with some kind of mindset that fame was in my future. I had not, until then, not even had an idea how this "dream" would come true. As a matter of fact, I had sort of given up on this happening. But then, the flame of the "dream of fame" almost being extinguished burst into a full-blown bonfire. I was going to be famous for understanding Revelation.
The imagery in Revelation is awe inspiring. The first chapter reveals a secret meaning from Jesus. Just the sort of thing I was looking for. I would surely be famous for figuring out the secret meaning of the 7 Gold Lampstands and the 7 Stars in the Lord's right hand. I became so engrossed in understanding this that I even dreamed about it. Originally I felt that the following 7 Messages to the 7 Churches all had to do with the 10 Commandments. But how? I awoke from the dream realizing that the the 7 messages to the 7 churches was realizing the 7 Spirits of God, in which reside in all men and could be strengthened with concentrated effort recognizing the names of each Spirit. Later I saw that the verse, Revelation 1:20 was a riddle in the same vein as Samson's riddles. The names that I attributed to each angel or Spirit of God are as follows, the message to the Church of Ephesus was a message about the Spirit of God – Love; the message to the Church of Smyrna was a message about the Spirit of God – Faith; the message to the Church of Pergamum was a message about the Spirit of God – Service (originally I thought it was about speaking only to revise that after about 10 years to Service); the message to the Church of Thyatira was a message about the Spirit of God – Patience (originally I thought it was about sex only to revise that after about 10 years to Patience. This was largely due to the reaction from clergy and people in general that I was way off about this.); the message to the Church in Sardis was a message about the Spirit of God – Awareness; the message to the Church in Philadelphia was a message about the Spirit of God – Humility (again, originally I thought it was about leadership only to revise that, after about 20 years, to Humility.
You see it has been a long and arduous venture on my part.); finally to conclude, the message to the Church in Laodicea was a message about the Spirit of God – Committal. So in 1976, I thought I had figured out the names of the 7 Spirits of God to later in 1985, to revise and change the names of 2 of them. Still wasn't getting famous for figuring this out and had to accept that I had been giving a bad interpretation for 10 years. I thought I was done finally but I still was perplexed and having a feeling that I was wrong about the message to the Church in Philadelphia because Jesus says call no man Leader as there is only one Leader and that being Christ. In 1997 I finally realized that it wasn't leadership but Humility is the Spirit of God referred to as the Key of David. Still haven't gotten famous. You can say that I did this all with the wrong attitude but it has been done. These 7 Spirits, as identified, can act as a self help tool of focus for any individual. It makes the Holy Bible very interesting reading to see these words or names used consistantly through out the Old Testament. Love, Faith, Service, Patience, Awareness, Humility, Committal. Still not famous, but I'm a whole lot wiser.
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