If you're not willing to ask this question – its okay, I don't think any less of you. I just have found that this has really changed my life, so I want to share it with you, and that is this:
Where are you allowing heaven to be established in you today; and where are you resisting it?
Only you know the answer to that, but I'm going to share the one I had the biggest problem with. I looked at the situation, and I was actually honest enough to ask myself this question, and then I asked my four closest friends: was this true about me - because they'll be honest.
I asked my four closest friends: would I sit down at a table with every tribe, tongue, and race, without having racist thoughts? They all told me: yeah, oh yeah, yeah, you could do that. I felt like I could.
I said: if I entered into an environment where I had to be honest and genuine, would I be okay? They said: Shane, we feel like you would be okay, and I felt like I'd be okay. I've got things to work out there, but I feel like I'd be okay; and then I said: well what about if account was taken on how I was using what God gave me, what do you reckon? I feel like my ratio could get better, but I feel like I'm on the right track. How do you feel? And they said: oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you'd be okay.
But when I got to this one, I didn't even have to ask them. So I want to share that one with you, because if it bothered me this bad, I'm sure it would bother you, and let's just see where we stand with this. This is Revelation, Chapter 1, then we're going to look at something Jesus said okay? This is what it says:
Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a scroll with writing on both sides, and sealed with seven seals, and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice: who is worthy?
Now if you're taking notes, you want to note that phrase: who is worthy. The question I want to ask in this session is: are you worthy? Are you worthy?
Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scrolls? But no one in heaven - so there's people already in heaven who aren't worthy - no one on earth, nor under the earth. That pretty much covers it right? No one in heaven, or earth, or under the earth, could open the scroll, or even look inside of it.
Now let me walk you through some history here, okay. Somebody with some confidence, tell me who wrote the Book of Revelation? [John.] John. Who was ruling the world, when John wrote the Book of Revelation? Romans, the Roman Empire was ruling the world. Now look at this first verse:
Then I saw in the right of him who sat on the throne - hang on, who was sitting on the throne, when John wrote the Book of Revelation? Domitian (in real life). Domitian was the emperor who put John on the island of Patmos.
Domitian was famous for something in the Roman Empire. He said he was the son of God, which was nothing new, because all the Caesars said they were the son of God.
But the centre of the Roman Empire at his time, was a place in Ephesus called the Agora. The Agora was the centre of mercantilism for the entire empire. Anybody who was coming from the East, from India, they could come to the Agora and meet with people from Spain, and they would come together, buy and sell, and then go back to their home town - so this was the centre of mercantilism.
So the advisors to Domitian said: you ought to take advantage of this, and you ought to put a special tax on the Agora. Domitian resisted this idea, and he said: no, I'll lose my popularity with the people; but here's what I'll do.
I'll make them give an offering to me, as the son of God, for the divine privilege of having me be their leader; and he proved his son-of-God-ness by entering into Ephesus. In Ephesus, there was this huge place where all the gods were, with big columns and stuff, and what he did was he put a ceiling on top of the gods; and then on top of the ceiling, he built a statue of himself over the top of the gods.
He said: this is obvious that I'm God, because the gods didn't stop me from doing this; and I'm not only God, I'm the greatest God. He put himself over all the gods, and so in Ephesus in the Agora, whether you were coming by land from the east, or by sea from the west, the first person you saw was the statue of Domitian.