In the Spirit

Revelation 1:9-11 NKJV
"I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

Dear God,

Thank You for the revelation of Yourself in the Person of Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Thank You for the revelation of Yourself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the pages of sacred scripture.  The Law reveals You.  Your involvement with the historical people of Israel reveals You.  The Prophets foretell You.  Biblical poetry worships and celebrates You.  The Gospels describe You with graphic detail. The Acts of the Apostles reveal the impact of Your life, death, and resurrection on people like us.  The Epistles reveal Your church as Your design for evangelizing the lost and making disciples of believers.  John's Revelation celebrates You as victorious and coming conqueror, and Lamb of God enthroned in heaven throughout eternity.

As I await Your final revelation, reveal Yourself to me through the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Fill me, propel me, and empower me to live in the Spirit.

"John was in Patmos; and John was in the Spirit... No matter where a man is, no matter how hard his life, no matter what a man is passing through, he may still be in the Spirit. And, if he is in the Spirit, even on Patmos, the glory and the message of God will come to him. There is no situation in life in which the Spirit cannot speak to us, and when the Spirit does speak, we know the glory of God, even on Patmos" (William Barclay in The Revelation of John, vol. 1, 1964, p. 55).

John was able to stand for You as a witness even when it cost Him everything.  He had already survived being deep fried in a cauldron of boiling oil!  Yet, this 90 year old man says that he "was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."  John was suffering life in a prison island stone quarry for You.  The grace that sustained him was by living "in the Spirit."

If I am to be an effective agent of Your grace on earth, I must be "in the Spirit."  Help me to pray in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and work in the Spirit.  My world is a dry and desolate Patmos. Sometimes, I feel as if I am pecking away at immovable stones with tableware for tools.  If John could be "in the Spirit" on Patmos, surely I can live in the Spirit today, by Your grace.

Usher me into Your Presence in the Quiet Place.  Fill me, empower me, and guide me.  Help me to live in Your Presence. I want to impact my world today through living in the fullness of Your Holy Spirit.

In the Name of the God who comes to me in the cave on a desert prison island, and any other desolate place I find myself, and reveals Himself,
Amen.