Mike Bickle emphasizes the unparalleled beauty of God as depicted in Revelation 4, urging believers to seek a deeper understanding of His glory. He highlights that God's descriptions in Scripture are often understated, inviting us to explore the hints of His beauty throughout the Bible. Bickle draws parallels between God's beauty and His mercy, power, and the intimate relationship He desires with His people, encouraging a lifelong pursuit of encountering God's presence. He stresses that recognizing the beauty of God equips believers to withstand temptation and persecution, especially as we approach the end times. Ultimately, Bickle calls the church to be intentional in focusing on the beauty of the Lord, making it a central theme in their lives and ministries.

From Revelation chapter 4, of course most of you are familiar with this passage. We've looked at it many times over the years here at IHOP. It's the passage about God's throne. And there's no place in the Bible where the beauty of the Lord is described in greater detail than in Revelation chapter 4. But the challenge is, is that the description is in hints. Because when the Lord describes His own glory and His own person in the Bible, He always understates it. He gives the briefest description of the grandest truth about Himself. And He gives us these little hints, I'll call them. And we search the scripture. We bring these hints together, these phrases from different parts of the Word of God. We get a more full picture. And then the Lord says, I'll lead you into more as you are hungry to understand more about the beauty and the glory of who I am. So the throne of God is called in Psalm 50, the perfection of beauty. What a statement. The perfection of beauty, Psalm 50. Jesus called it the throne of glory in Matthew chapter 25. Well let's look at paragraph 8, Psalm 27, verse 4. David, the man after God's own heart, he had a lifetime goal to encounter and to search out and behold the glory of the Lord. He says, this one thing I desired all the days of my life. And that's the phrase I want to highlight. It wasn't a season or a summer at IHOP where he focused on, you know, a course on the glory, on the beauty of God. He said, all the days in my youth, in my 30s, my 60s, all my days, when I lost my handle on this, when I lost sight of it, I realigned myself. I realigned myself. And so as a spiritual family, we want to take time, periodically, to realign ourself individually and corporately to be a people who are preoccupied with the beauty of the Lord. We want to reconnect to this. We want to be intentional. We want to do this regularly, like David did. Now the subject of the beauty of the Lord became a real point of emphasis to me 20 years ago. Matter of fact, it happened in one night, right here in this building, 20 years ago, on November 30th, 1996. I remember I was right over there standing where, just right there, and we had a Friday night all-night prayer meeting. And it would go, you know, on into Saturday morning, and we'd go to five in the morning, and at midnight, on, you know, early Saturday morning, November 30th, I was over there. I remember we had the whole night, you know, I just paced around, and we'd do it once a, you know, every Friday night, we did that for a season, have an all-night prayer meeting. And I said this sentence, just kind of just worshiping the Lord, I just said, Lord. I said, Jesus, you are so beautiful. I was just walking right there. And when I said that, something so surprising, the Holy Spirit rested on me, in a way where I just felt the energy, and just that feeling of the Holy Spirit. I'm sure most of you've had that, you know, it's momentary. It's like chills in my body, and energy, and it was, I thought, whoa, what was that? You know, and it happened for about two, three seconds, and I said, wow. I said, Jesus, you're beautiful. It happened again. Then I said, Jesus, you're beautiful. It happened a third time. I went, you know, I'm not the smartest guy around, but I figured, hey, three in a row, how are you going to do it again? And I said, Jesus, you are beautiful, or something like that. For five straight hours, I stood there walking, and every time I said it, the Holy Spirit descended on me. And I went, what is this? I've never had anything like this in my life, ever before. And I would not say it. I mean, I don't mean I was being silly about this, but I was kind of testing it. I wouldn't say it. I'd go a minute, two minutes. I was still walking back, and then I'd go a minute, two minutes, go by. I'd go, Jesus, you're beautiful. I'd go, oh, my goodness, this is real. So it happens to fly, but it's not funny at that time. I mean, that's kind of weird what I just told you, but then I was so excited. So I went home. The prayer meeting was over at 5 a.m., Saturday morning. Went home, and went to bed, and woke up at 9 a.m., and I was so intrigued by what happened for five hours. Every single time I said that phrase, or a phrase like it. So I came back to the building. The building's empty now. The all-night prayer meeting's done, and 9 in the morning, Saturday morning, no one's here. So I go right over there. Don't go over there and think that's some special spot, but I just went over there anyway. Just so you know, I've tried it since then, and nothing happened. I thought I was onto something, but I went back that next morning. After I slept a couple hours, I said, stood right there, Jesus, you're beautiful. The Spirit came on me. Waited a moment, said it again, for two more hours. I was so excited, because it was clear the Holy Spirit was saying to me, I want you to emphasize the beauty of Jesus in your life. I want you to be preoccupied. I want you to be focused on this. And I was just really captured by it. I didn't tell anybody, you know, just kept it. I mean, I didn't announce it or anything. I just, wow. Then a week later, I got a letter in the mail from a woman who lived in North Kansas City, and she sent me, she goes, I had the strangest prophetic dream about you last Saturday, November 30th. That was the Saturday from, you know, what, from midnight all the way to 5 a.m. She goes, I had a dream about you, and the Lord said He was going to capture your heart with the subject of the beauty of the Lord. She goes, I don't know what that means, but last Saturday He told me that, and I thought I should tell you, and He wants you to emphasize this subject of the beauty of the Lord to your spiritual family. So I said, this is that. I mean, I'm yet. So for these last 20 years, this has been a theme that I unapologetically go to over and over. And as a spiritual family, we have a real particular mandate to focus on the subject. I think the whole body of Christ is called to focus on it, so I don't want to say that we have a special focus, but He's saying, I hope I've really told you to lock into this subject. As a matter of fact, it was, you know, 33 years ago when the Lord spoke audibly about 24-7 prayer, the verse He used was Psalm 27-4, beholding the beauty of the Lord. And so that was many years even before 1996. So on those two occasions, He's emphasized, I hop, I want you to focus on the beauty of the Lord. This is not a secondary subject. Paragraph B, Isaiah 33, verse 17, well-known passage. We, prophecy, we talk about it. We reference it regularly around here. It's talking in context about the generation the Lord returns. And He's talking to that generation, your eyes will see the King and His beauty. There's one time frame where the Holy Spirit is going to emphasize the beauty of the King more than any other time. I believe we are in the early days of that time frame. And I think it's very significant that it's in the generation the Lord returns, because it's at that very generation, it's at that very generation where temptation and persecution will escalate beyond any other time in history. So in the hour where temptation, sin is exceedingly sinful in the cultures of the earth, and where persecution against the saints reaches an all-time intensity, greater temptation, greater persecution, the Holy Spirit is going to bring a greater focus and revelation of the beauty of Jesus. And all that flows out of that. Because when we see the beauty of Jesus, our hearts are enamored and fascinated, captured by that. And it enables us, it equips us to stand before temptation and persecution in an entirely different way. Our hearts are far more equipped. So I believe that the closer we get to the coming of the Lord, the more the Holy Spirit worldwide, not just in our midst, worldwide, is going to draw the body of Christ to see the King in His beauty. I believe it's essential to living an overcoming life, to overcome in the face of escalating temptation, to overcome in the face of escalating persecution. So I believe it's an issue of life and death, spiritually speaking, for the saints. This is not a kind of a cool subject. Hey, that's kind of neat, beauty of God. I think I'll think on that. Maybe get a poster or something or, you know, write a poem on it. No, this is something that is, like David, is to capture a center place in the life of ministries, spiritual families, local churches, as well as individuals. Psalm 45, this is my prayer for us. Psalm 45, the psalmist said, my heart overflows with the good theme. Let me say it again. My heart overflows with a good theme concerning the King. And then the next verse, Psalm 45, the next verse, for you are more beautiful than all the sons of men, that any man that's ever walked the earth, none is more beautiful than you, talking about Jesus. Psalm 45, my prayer is that as a spiritual family, our heart overflows with this good theme concerning the King. Now, I mean, Roman numeral 2, let's look at Revelation 4, just kind of read it, read through it, and we'll look at some of the phrases. We won't be able to cover all of them, but, and again, these phrases are very significant, because when God describes His own glory, His own beauty, His own person, which is all the same thing I'm saying, He, again, He understates it. He says it ever so brief, then He says, if you're hungry, search it out. Search it out in the Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you, and focus on it, and I'll give you more on this. And so, Lord, give us more. I mean, I want a lot more on this subject. He says, well, search it out then, because I gave you enough to begin with. Now, it's interesting that Revelation 4 and 5, which describes the beauty of Jesus, the beauty of God like no other place in the Bible, the passage after Revelation 4 and 5, the next chapters, describe the Great Tribulation, the escalating temptation, the escalating persecution. So, it's interesting the passage on the beauty of God is right before the passage on the increasing temptation and persecution in any time in history, because those two themes are related. We will be equipped to overcome in times of intensity by having this touch our heart. Now, the Lord is the source of all beauty, because He is beauty. The Lord is beauty itself. He's the source of beauty. He's the guardian of beauty. He's the steward of beauty. He's the multiplier, the dispenser of beauty. He's the only one qualified to define it in its absolute sense. Again, this passage in Psalm 50, it's called the perfection of beauty, the throne of God. Wow, the throne of glory, the perfection of beauty. Now, what God sets around His throne, very, very significant and intentional. There's nothing around the throne of God that wasn't put there in a very strategic way by God Himself. And everything around His throne, it expresses and it exemplifies His own beauty, because that is the epicenter of beauty for the whole created order. And it's His throne scene. It's that royal court. We look at that, and that's where beauty comes from. Let's read it. Again, the briefest phrases here, but they're so significant, every one of them. So don't lose your way on the brevity of the descriptions here, because again, when you put scripture with scripture, you get a fuller picture. And I'm only going to give a few little phrases, a few thoughts for each one of these. Verse two, behold, this is John the apostle. He's seeing this open vision. Behold, a throne set in heaven, and one sat upon the throne. That's the father. Verse three, and he, the father who sat upon the throne, he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance. And there was a rainbow. I would add a vast rainbow arcing over the throne. It was around the throne. And the appearance of this rainbow, the dominant color was emerald. And of course, there's many colors in the rainbow, but the predominant color was the emerald. And John is witnessing all of this. Verse four, then around the throne, and I imagine right before the Lord, there are 24 thrones. And on those thrones, I saw 24 elders. They were sitting on thrones. They were clothed in robes. They had golden crowns on their head. Then from the throne proceeded lightning, thunderings, and voices. All of them are in the plural, lightnings, thunderings, voices, seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne. Now these seven lamps of fire they are the seven spirits of God, which is a title for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is one. It's the Holy Spirit is not seven spirits in that way. You think of seven distinct spirits or seven manifestations that are primary of the Holy Spirit's ministry. We find those in Isaiah chapter 11. Before the throne, verse six, there was a sea of glass and this sea of glass was like crystal. And around the throne were four living creatures, which I believe were seraphim, the highest order of angelic being the seraphim. There's seraphim and cherubim around the throne, but these, I believe, are seraphim. So what you'll notice I have written here in the notes is that I see four different categories, four main categories, and each one of these categories have three themes. So four categories times three themes equals 12 themes. So as we search out these 12 themes, these 12 expressions of the beauty of God, we'll understand more and more. The first theme, the first category is God's person, what his appearance is like, how God looks, how he feels, how he acts. That's verse three. The second category is God's people, the saints that are on the throne. They're enthroned, they're robed, they're crowned. The third category is God's power, there's manifestation of lightnings, thunders, and voices. And the fourth category is the very presence of God, the Holy Spirit's ministry, like fire, it's the lamps, that fire is on the seraphim, the living creatures, and that fire is resting on the sea of glass-like crystal that's before the throne. So let's look at at these a little bit more. So we've got looked at the overview, let's look at them again, just a moment on each one of these. Roman numeral three, the beauty of God's person. So we're going to look at verse three, and it's going to give us hints, insights to what God's, what's his appearance, what he looks like, what he feels like, and what he acts like. Now again, at a first, at a quick reading, you won't see that, you'll just kind of, you can read right through verse four and miss it. He who sat there is like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance. There was a rainbow around the throne in the appearance of an emerald. So the jasper stone we find in Revelation 21 is like a bright, crystal, glorious light, like a diamond, like a, or a precious gem, uh, bright or more glorious even than a diamond. Crystal clear. That's what a jasper stone looks like. So John notices God's appearance has this light that's emanating out of his being that's more glorious than the most glorious diamond you can imagine. So there's this bright, glorious white color. Then there's a sardius stone, and that's a deep red gem. So there's this deep red color emanating out of God's being. And then this rainbow arcing over the throne has all the colors of the rainbow, I assume, but the dominant color is emerald. So that's the, that's God's appearance in the most brief description. Now it says in Psalm 104 verse 2, Psalm 104, that God, uh, he wraps himself in garments of light. So God puts garments of light around his being. I mean, that's an interesting phrase. This is not natural light. This is supernatural, glorious light beyond anything in splendor that we can imagine. Paragraph B. So the jasper stone, there's this diamond-like crystal brilliance radiating out of God. Now the Son of God is at the right hand. And we know we have more detail about the Son of God because he came as a man, he has a human, he has a human body in a way the Father does it. And in Jesus's body, we know from the book of Revelation chapter 1, his eyes are like fire and his face is bright like the sun. So Jesus has this radiance, this jasper radiance, bright like the sun, like his Father does. And it tells us in Habakkuk 3 that out of Jesus's hand comes lightning. So, I mean, the very appearance of Jesus, eyes of fire, face like the sun, lightning coming out of his hands. I mean, he's majestic in his beauty and his splendor. I'm talking about his appearance. And of course, we know that he is an expression of the Father's glory. The Father has glory like that, but the scripture doesn't give much detail. But it leaves us with this picture of splendor and majesty above and beyond what we can imagine. Paragraph C. The sardius stone. Now the sardius stone is a deep red gem. And again, there's such brevity of description about God everywhere in the Bible about God's appearance. So if you get a phrase, I mean, it's more precious than gold. When God lets you have a phrase about what he looks like, beloved, that is glorious. And he, John, sees this deep red gem, this fiery red brightness emanating out of God. This gives us indication about how God feels. Yes, how he looks, but also how he feels. This garment of light, the jasper glory, that crystal-like brilliance, the deep fiery glory of the sardius and the emerald, these are all emanating out of God. But this deep red, it gives us insight as to how God feels. Now Moses saw this same reality back in Deuteronomy chapter 4 when he had an encounter with the Lord and he came to understand that God is a consuming fire. These were God's words to him. He goes, I am a consuming fire. That sardius red gem color emanating out of me is because my heart is fiery in desire. I'm not passive. I'm not disconnected from what's happening. I am fully engaged and fully on fire in my heart. This is what I feel like. This is who I am at the core of my being. Then he went on to describe that consuming fire. I'm a jealous God. Now the word jealous could give us the wrong idea because we think of human jealousy, which is broken and tainted and defiled and selfish. This isn't a human jealousy. This is zealous love. When God says I'm jealous, it is a pure love. It is selfless love, but it's intense love. It's fiery love. Now when some people read this passage in Deuteronomy 4 about God being fiery love, consuming fire, they think immediately of God's blazing holiness. Most commentators, they would read this passage and they would emphasize God's fiery holiness and that he's so pure. There's no impurity in him. It's true, but the thing that some don't connect is God's zealous love and his blazing holiness is identically the same thing. There is no difference between them. It's not like he has love over here and holiness over here. Love and holiness in God's being is identically the same thing, exactly the same thing. It's his zeal to remove everything that hinders love. Everything that's in the way of love is what holiness and love is about and God's humility. You could put the word humility in this fiery consuming heart of God. He's not just loving, he's humble. He's humility. Jesus was humility incarnate because he's love incarnate. He's holiness. Again, it's all different facets of one diamond of the heart of God, the way that God loves. Paragraph D. Now this is really significant. Well, it's all significant. There's an emerald rainbow. A rainbow, again, I'm assuming has all the colors and it's over the throne of God. Look at Genesis chapter 9, that this rainbow is in context of the throne of God in heaven, but in Genesis 9, the first time a rainbow ever appeared in human history was in Genesis 9. That was after the flood of Noah in Noah's day and God spoke to Noah and says, I'm never going to flood the, I'm never going to destroy the whole earth by water again. I'm going to promise you that and I'm going to, it's going to be a commitment of show you, I'm going to show you my mercy and a rainbow appeared and Noah and his family probably went, oh my goodness, look at that, this beautiful array of colors in the sky. You know, boys come out here quick. Look at that. This is amazing. Was the first time it was ever seen in human history, but that rainbow was not a new sight to the angels. The angels have seen that rainbow around the throne of God from ages past. That rainbow was first is first and foremost established around God's throne. But in Genesis 9, God defines the rainbow as a covenant where he shows mercy. So it speaks of his tender mercy. And so it's remarkable that it's not just an Emerald rainbow, but it's a rainbow around a throne because the throne is the predominant theme throughout revelation. Chapter four, it's the predominant picture in revelation. Chapter four is the word thrown God's sovereign power, his leadership over everything. Matter of fact, the word thrown is mentioned 12 times. Every one of these facets, every one of these 12 themes, they are connected to the throne. Every one of them is in context to God's leadership over heaven and earth. And so the throne itself is not one of the 12, but it gives a context to understand the 12, like God's fiery desire, his burning heart. When he, his throne, his sovereign power in leadership, when he, uh, administrates his leadership, he does it from a heart of great fiery love. He doesn't just lead in a cold, disconnected way. He has great love in the way he leads, but here it's, he leads always tempered by the tender mercy of the rainbow. That's indicating what his heart's like. All of his leadership is tempered by his mercy. And this is from eternity past. This is before man send the mercy of God within God's character long before man was ever created. Now, David captured this idea of the mercy of God being over everything. In Psalm 145, Psalm 145 verse nine, David said, the mercy of God is over everything God does. It's over all of God's works. God's judgments are tempered by mercy, God's salvation, God's leadership, even God's restraint, where he seems to be holding back and silent. He's restraining and not releasing things. Even that's tempered by mercy. Psalm 145, David said, everything, everything God does mercy is over it. Now it's this idea of total power and tender mercy is very unique to God. Because in history, when a king or an emperor would raise up in history, and they had total power in their domain, almost never is total power associated with tender mercy. Total power, even in the human limited sense of a Caesar or, you know, an Alexander the Great or one of the famous, you know, leaders, heads of state or kings of history, great power was almost always associated with fierceness, aggressiveness, trampling people, walking out your agenda, no matter what it costs everybody else. Power, great power, total power is fierce, destructive, it's aggressive, it's like, it's terrifying. But here in one place only, the place where there's total power is the place where there's tender mercy come together. The lion and the lamb come perfectly together in one heart. The fierceness of the lion, the tenderness of the lamb is in this throne of mercy. This magnifies the beauty of God. I mean, God's beauty is so magnified by the way he uses his power. He could crush every resistance in a moment's time, but he does it. He goes, no, no, that's not how I lead. That's not how I administrate my power. In Exodus chapter 33, I don't have this on the notes, but Exodus 33, Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. Show me your beauty. You know, in the book of Isaiah, beauty and glory is used interchangeably. To see God's glory, to see God's beauty is one and the same thing. So when Moses says, show me your glory, Exodus 33, it's this great prayer of his life. Show me your beauty that he could have said it that way. The Lord says, I will. He said, I will. I'll pass before you. You will see my beauty and my glory. And so in Exodus 33 and 34, it's a great, it's a great episode in Moses's life. The Lord passes before Moses. I mean, what a glorious reality. God puts his hand on Moses. So Moses can only get a glimpse of God. And he told him, he says, lest if you see me openly, Moses, you would die because of the intensity of who I am. You're just not, you don't have the capacity to see me in fullness. So he passed by him and kind of covered Moses up with his hand and Moses got a glimpse. But here's the point I want to make. When the Lord passed by Moses, he said, here's my glory, Moses. Exodus 34, verse 6. I am the Lord, the Lord God. That means the sovereign authority. That's the throne concept here in Revelation 4. I am the Lord, the Lord God. I have total authority. I am sovereign. That's who I am. So he makes the throne statement there about his glory. I have all the power. But listen, what he says next. Exodus 34, verse 6, he goes, but know this. I am the Lord, the Lord God. I am merciful. I am gracious. I am very slow to anger with people who fail. I'm very patient with people who fail. This is my beauty. This is my glory, Moses. I abound in goodness. I abound in goodness in my plans and my dealings with the sons of men. And they're all weak and broken and they all fail, but I'm gracious to them. This is my beauty and this is my glory. So Moses captured this truth of the sovereign God on a throne with a rainbow of mercy, tempering all that he does. He didn't use that language, but he had the same idea. Let's go to top of page 2, Roman numeral 4. We're going to look at the next category, the beauty of God's people or his partners, his partnership with his people. Verse 4, around the throne were 24 thrones. And on these thrones, I saw 24 elders and they were sitting on thrones. So they're enthroned. They're clothed in white robes. They had crowns of gold upon their head. Now again, every phrase, every word has a many, many implications. Because again, when God describes his glory in his throne and his purpose, his own person, always most abbreviated descriptions, so brief, so understated. Now there's some commentators think that these elders, these 24 elders are angels. But most of the commentators and scholars I've read over the years, I've read quite a few on this chapter, they believe they are the saints. They are a, it's like a down payment of how God relates to his people. That God's beauty is magnified. His glory is magnified in the way that he desires to partner with his people. I mean, the very beauty that God possesses is the beauty he imparts to his people, but his beauty is magnified by the way he doesn't need us. We were his former enemies before we were saved. The Bible describes us as enemies of God. We were against his purposes, his kingdom. We were against his ways. We didn't like his leadership. Then we were born again and we repented. We, oh wow, you're the great king. And what the Lord does with his former enemies is described here. He so saves them, so cleanses them, that's the same thing, equips them and exalts them, they reign with him. Here we have the most high God that has no rival to his throne. He cleanses and equips and then exalts his former enemies. He has no rival to his throne, but he goes, I want you to be with me. I want you to share my reign with me. Like what? No king in history wants to share his reign with his former enemies. Matter of fact, no king in history wants to share his reign with anybody, not even his friends. It doesn't happen that way. But this king says, you're broken, you're weak. You stood against me. Even after I saved you, you fell time and time again. But I am so beautiful in my tenderness and my love and I so long for you. I'm going to cleanse you and I'm going to bring you into the inner circle of my government. I want you to reign with me. And we see a glimpse of it here in the 24 elders as a prototype, as a picture of how God responds to his people and the plans he have, because we find in many other places that the saints rule and reign with him. So it's not only the 24 elders. This is just a statement of what God's like and how he feels and what his plans are like. There's many, many more implications than right here in Revelation 4. So the saints, they're enthroned, they're robed, and they're crowned. I mean, this is the height of beauty that God in his unrivaled authority, in his blameless purity and holiness, wants us to share his rule with him. He goes, I'm so powerful, I could just get rid of all of you. I mean, with just a wave of my hand, you'd be finished. But I'm going the other direction. I'm bringing you near me. This is who I am. This is what I'm like. This magnifies the beauty of the Lord. He doesn't exploit the weak. He exalts the weak. Oh, I love the statement about God in 1 Samuel 2, verse 8. You want to get this one down if you jot down the verses. 1 Samuel 2, verse 8. It talks about the Lord. It says that he raises up the beggars from the ash heap, and he makes them inherit the throne of glory. Let's get this word picture. God's eyes are looking over the earth. He looks at beggars in the ash heap. He goes, I want them, they're beggars in the ash heap. Their lives have been broken. Ashes, you get the picture of ashes, of all their passions have been spent in the wrong way, and all they have to show for all their misspent passion is ashes for life. He goes, I'll give you beauty for those ashes. I'll take those ashes. And God looks at beggars. He raises them up from the ash heap, and he makes them. I love that phrase. 1 Samuel 2, verse 8. He makes them inherit the throne of glory. Beloved, this is our story. You might not have been a beggar, but you were in a place where God rescued you from the ashes like he did me. And he says, I've got a plan for you. You're going to inherit the throne of glory. You're going to be with me. Now, God doesn't need us to rule his empire, his kingdom. He doesn't need us in the inner circle of his government. I mean, he doesn't need us. He goes, I know I don't need you. I want you. It's who I am. You see my beauty in the way I beautify you. I mean, the beauty of the Lord, this is so glorious. Jesus, right before he went to the cross, we love this phrase. He's John 17, right before the cross, he goes, Father. I mean, he's in the anguish right before he goes to the garden, sweats, drops of blood. He goes, Father. He said, I desire them. Oh, what a statement. I desire them that where I am, they would be with me forever. I want them with me, but son, the, I mean, the angels could say, but master, they are about to kill you. I want them with me forever. Beloved. Who is this man? Who is this man who has a rainbow over his throne and what's his father like? And why are broken people beggars raised up from the ash heap on thrones next to him? Beloved. This is the beauty of God. Every one of these themes, again, they bring forth the subject of the beauty of God to a greater way. Now, you know, again, we only get hints of it. First Corinthians chapter two, verse nine, Paul says, we've, we've shared this verse many times. He says, I has not seen first Corinthians two, nine ear has never heard. It's never entered into the imagination of a man's mind. The height of glory that I have planned. So no matter how much we meditate on this and then we can gain more insight in our hearts are inspired with understanding. And then we're motivated, tenderized by love. We were touched just a little bit by these truths and we move forward just little by little step by step. But I'll tell you this. It's never entered the map mind of a man, the height of glory that he's planned. This is the God of revelation chapter four. Well, we're enthroned with him. Remarkable. Paragraph C we're robed. Now to be robed is very specific language in the Jewish mindset and the, in the, in the, in the scriptures written by the Jewish prophets and apostles, because to be robed is a, is a direct association with the priestly ministry. It's meant to be understood to have a priestly ministry. Now to be a priestly ministry, what God's really saying is he goes, I'm not just going to work with you. I'm going to work through you. Matter of fact, you're going to have a priestly ministry forever, which means that you're going to mediate that. I'm going to mediate the knowledge of God through you. Meaning I'm going to give insight about me to you. And I'm going to use your mouth to give it to somebody else. You're priestly. You're going to bring the knowledge of God to others. Well, Lord, why don't you just skip one step and just tell the people directly? The Lord says, oh, I will. I'll do that many times. I'll speak directly to my people many times, but I will speak through my people to my people many times. Why? Well, because when I speak through you to somebody else, what happens, it bonds you to God's heart. And it bonds you to the heart of the person you're giving the insight about God to. It bonds the family together. That's core to the priestly ministry. So the saints are robed. They're functioning in a priestly ministry, but it doesn't end there. The saints released the power of God through intercession, which is prayer. Now in Genesis one, God spoke and created the heavens and the earth. It was a, it was done. And it just, he spoke and it was done. But after salvation, after the plan of salvation was established, God says, I'm not going to just speak and create, and I'm not going to just speak and fix everything. I'm going to have my people speak it to me in prayer, and I will do it as they speak it to me. So God's going to speak his word to us. It's going to move us. We're going to respond back at intercession, which is a priestly ministry. That's the robe. And God says, I'll release my power only when my people talk to me about what's on my heart. They talk to me, I'll release more power. And I will bond my people to the transformation that I bring through them and through their prayers. So when it says they're robed, it's a massive statement of God's participation with his people. He wants us to release the knowledge of God. He wants us to release the power of God. He wants us bonded to him and to others and to his kingdom. And he's going to do it through us, not just with us. His people are robed in his presence. They have a priestly ministry. But not only that, they're crowned. And to be crowned, the crowns speak of the eternal rewards that is directly associated to our weak and small service in this age. And what I mean by weak and small service, almost everything we do for God, 99.99999% is little. It's small. It goes unnoticed by most people, our service to God, our obedience. Most of our obedience is not known by anybody. And most of our service is inappreciated or known by anybody. But God says, I'll see all of it. And I'll never forget any of it. And there's going to be continuity between your weak labors at this age and your life in the age to come. I'm going to crown you. I'm going to give you rewards that we're going to declare the way I feel about the way you loved me in this age. So the fact that they're crowned is the statement of the continuity that God values what we do in this life. That beloved, you're going to wear your love for him in the age to come. The way you've loved him down here that almost nobody can see or understand. The Lord's going to reward you in a way where you're going to be wearing the tokens of the way you loved him. Now rewards aren't so that you strut in front of somebody. My crown is bigger than your crown. Rewards is God, is Jesus saying, I'm going to let you know how I feel about the way you loved me in this age. Everything you do, the smallest unnoticed thing, statements, encouragement, serving, money, time, energy to your children, to your family, to the neighbors. I mean, and everything, not just big, dynamic, glorious, big things that everybody might talk about. You know, the, the big Reinhardt, bonky crusade where a million got saved. Yes, that counts too, but it's all the little things. The Lord says, I'm going to remember every one of them. And the crown on my people is evidence. I didn't forget anything that gives dignity and value to every single hour of our life. Well, let's go to Roman numeral five, the beauty of God's power. Now out of God's throne, look at this verse five, proceed lightning and thunders, lightnings, plural thunderings, plural invoices, paragraph B, the flashes of lightning that continually go forth. They release God's energy, his power, his light, his splendor, the very lightning breaking out of his throne, enhances the beauty of the Royal court. And even the whole new Jerusalem, the lightning flashes breaking out of God's throne. Now the lightning flashes give a visual aspect to the power of God. Meaning this is my opinion. This is only a theory. I can't prove this, but I think it's right. Or it's close to right that I believe that when God's power is released on the earth through his people, because it's his power, but he, he releases it. There's lightning flash breaks out of his throne and lightning is constantly coming out. I believe it's indications of times where his powers being manifest here on the earth. Again, Habakkuk three, when Jesus, uh, comes the second time back at three verse four, lightning will come out of his hands. Now Jesus could say, in my opinion, Hey, you guys, uh, back in my healing ministry and my earthly ministry, when I prayed for the sick, you saw their body get healed. I saw lightning come out of my head. You didn't now you can, but lightning always came out of my hands when I did this. And so I believe the lightning of God is a, again, every time the power of God is manifest in our lives, lightning flashes forth from the throne. That's my opinion, but it's indication of that bright energy imparting dimension of God. When Satan fell from heaven, like lightning, I'm assuming there was a lightning flash of God. When Satan fell in judgment, this is the visual dimension around the throne of God to the power of God that's being released. And there's many aspects of the beauty of God's power like this thundering. Now thunderings, particularly in the book of revelation, but throughout the whole Bible, actually the Psalms as well, thunderings is often associated with a message that God is giving. It's not just a thunderous sound and that's it. The thunderings are associated with a message God is imparting. And that message it, uh, reverberates, it resonates through the man or woman that's giving the message and to the people that receive it. So when God's thunder is going forth, what he's really saying is when these thunders break forth, he says, I'm going to keep giving more and more messages. I'm not going to be a distant God. I'm not going to be a God that's veiled and keeping myself back, but I'm going to let you know what I'm thinking, what I'm feeling. My messaging is going to increase. I will not be silent. I am the God who thunders. This is deep communication with his people. This is a glorious reality. He'll share his secrets with those who fear him forever. He'll unveil them. And this reverberation, this, this, uh, our whole being will resonate with the power of these messages to receive them and to give them. Then the voices, I believe there's the voices are so much about the beauty, the musical dimension, the, the powerful, majestic dimension of the voices from the throne of God. I won't go into that right now. Roman numeral six, just the last final moments here. Now it's the beauty of the Holy Spirit's ministry at his presence. And we see it as fire and the fire is manifested the seven lamps. The fire has manifested the living creatures that I believe are seraphim, which is the highest order of angelic beings. And the, and the fires manifest of the sea. Let's look at this verse five, seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne. And John now clarifies because these seven lamps, they are the Holy spirit because the seven spirits of God is a title. Again, it's, it doesn't say there's seven different Holy spirits, but it's a title, many diverse manifestations of the Holy spirit. And it says verse six, that before the throne, there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne were four living creatures. The first was like a lion, the second, like a calf or ox, the third, a man and the fourth, like an Eagle. Now these paragraph B, these lamps of fire, they speak of the Holy spirit's ministry. Now the lamps of fire and paragraph C, the sea of glass, look, let's, let's look at the sea of glass first. He said, uh, I saw something like the sea of glass mingled with fire in chapter 15. Now the sea of glass is a vast area. It's not a Lake. It's not a pond. It's a sea. It's big. There's several billion saints on the sea. This is the convention center, the convening center for the family of God, the angels and the saints. They gather on the sea of glass, the grand conference center in the new Jerusalem. It's a sea. It's not a pond. And the saints stand there. Revelation 15, I have the verse there, verse two and the saints stand there and they worship, but there's fire all over this. I mean, this vast sea. And I imagine this seven lamps of fire, like the seven, like the pillar of fire in the old Testament. Remember when the pillar of fire led Israel through the wilderness, it says that other nations, the heathen nations saw the pillar from a distance. They were terrified. They go, you're the people that have the pillar of fire that moves. That pillar moves. Well, that pillar wasn't like a 12 inch pillar. That pillar was massive and it moved and led Israel through the night. Well, if that happened in the old covenant, imagine what these lamps far more glorious and probably far greater in size and glory than the pillar of fire ever was. So I imagine these lamps of fire. This is my picture. It's not a little table lamp. Throw that away. It's not a table lamp. I'm picturing something like a hundred miles high or I just made that up, but real bit, think real bit. And like the pillar of fire, these lamps are moving on the sea. The Holy Spirit, it's like a, it's like a, a heavenly, uh, upper room. Remember in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, 120 people, the Holy Spirit fell on all of them like fire. And they said, wow, this is amazing. The fire rested on everyone in Acts chapter two, verse three, fire on all 120. I can imagine the Lord saying, you wait and see. And when you see the fire on the sea of glass on several billion people, the fire in the upper room was only a down payment of the fire. That's going to be happening. The glory of God beloved. This is where we're going. This is our future. This is what our life is about. Well, finally, uh, worship team, come on up. Then we have the living creatures. Now these living creatures, they give a picture. I mean, there's many things to say about the living creatures, but they're burning ones as well. They're seraphim. That means the burning ones. These are all, all three of these, uh, themes here in this particular category have to do with fire. These burning ones there's, we could go on and on about these living creatures, but I'll just be real brief right here. They give a picture of what it means to be alive in the Holy Spirit. These, these living creatures, though they're angelic beings, they are a token in a picture of where the ministry of the spirit is going to bring the saints in the kingdom of God as well. So it's not limited to them. They're a picture of where this is going, where God's purpose is going. The face of a lion that speaks of the warrior courage dimension of God. God's going to have fearless people filled with courage with the, that aggressive boldness of a lion, but that's not all that's going to happen in our lives. There's going to be the face of the oxen. That is the steady servant spirit, faithful in the mundane, the routine, the perseverance. There's that dimension of a Holy Spirit that is going to be happening in the lives of the saints. Then there's the face of the man, the dignity of being in God's family of ruling with God, relating with God, partnering with God, reigning with God, the man. I mean the oxen and the, and the, and the lion, they don't reign. They don't love. This is the, the man is the human dimension of the family of God relationship with the father, son, and Holy Spirit. And then the flying Eagle, that's the Holy Spirit. That's the supernatural realm. Beloved, we're made to soar like wings of Eagle. So there's this fearless, courageous dimension of the lion, the servant spirit of the oxen, the dignity of you, of the human dynamic of being in the family of God. And then there's the Holy Spirit aspect. These are all facets of what is going to be in what emanates out of the throne of God and magnifies his beauty when it touches the redeemed. Amen and amen. Let's stand before the Lord. We're just, I'm wanting to use this time just to re commit ourselves as a spiritual family and as individuals to the beauty of God. I'm in the Lord 20 years ago, not the, I mean, we've got the Bible. The Bible is more important than a spiritual experience, but that experience I had 20 years ago, the Lord says, I want to magnify the beauty of Jesus. I want you to focus on it. I want this spiritual family to not lose sight of the beauty of Jesus. That's part of our mission statement as, as, as, as a local church and as a missions base to proclaim the beauty of Jesus and his glorious return. But his beauty, we want to sing it. We want to write it. We want to disciple young people that we want to teach it everything through the lens of beauty. Father, here we are before your throne. Lord, I ask you revive my heart in the beauty of God. I want to invite anyone in the room that say, I need to re sign up to this focus in my life. I want to invite you to come forward. We're saying, this is good. This is my message. I got to reconnect like David all the days of my life.