Campus Community – Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes

Overview:
As Christians confined to the physical dimensions of this world, we frequently fail to recognize the bigger picture that is at work around us. God is constantly at work executing His pure and perfect will that will ultimately come to fruition in the end of days. Fortunately for us, He has not left us fully in the dark. God in His divine wisdom has provided His people with the Revelation, in order to give us a glimpse of the bigger picture for which we have been created.
Verses:

Revelations 4:1-11

After this, I looked and saw a door standing open in heaven. The first voice I heard was like the loud sound of a horn. It said, “Come up here. I will show you what must happen after these things.” 2 At once I was under the Spirit’s power. See! The throne was in heaven, and One was sitting on it. 3 The One Who sat there looked as bright as jasper and sardius stones. The colors like those of an emerald stone were all around the throne. 4 There were twenty-four smaller thrones around the throne. And on these thrones twenty-four leaders were sitting dressed in white clothes. They had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 Lightning and noise and thunder came from the throne. Seven lights of fire were burning before the throne. These were the seven Spirits of God.

6 Before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, shining and clear. Around the throne and on each side there were four living beings that were full of eyes in front and in back. 7 The first living being was like a lion. The second one was like a young cow. The third one had a face like a man. The fourth one was like a very large bird with its wings spread. 8 Each one of the four living beings had six wings. They had eyes all over them, inside and out. Day and night they never stop saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the All-powerful One. He is the One Who was and Who is and Who is to come.”

9 The four living beings speak of His shining-greatness and give honor and thanks to Him Who sits on His throne as King. It is He Who lives forever. 10 The twenty-four leaders get down before Him and worship Him Who lives forever. They lay their crowns before Him and say, 11 “Our Lord and our God, it is right for You to have the shining-greatness and the honor and the power. You made all things. They were made and have life because You wanted it that way.”

Quotes:

“God gives us revelation to awaken our imagination to reality.”

“Could it be that God gave you an imagination, not to unlock it and empower it for fantasy, rather to unlock it and empower it for reality?”

“Every sin in this world is rooted in something or someone sitting on the throne intended for God alone.”

“To unveil the person, the power, and the plan of Christ in the midst of our sin and suffering.”

“God gives us this Revelation to prepare (not scare) and clarify (not confuse).”

“Revelation reminds us that there is something bigger going on!”

“Revelation does not always change our circumstances but it does change our perspective.”

Questions:

1) What does it mean to imagine reality?

2) Is there a circumstance in your life, currently, that is making it harder or impossible to see the bigger picture?

3) What are some ways to see God’s perspective better?

4) Are you inviting things into your life that are preventing you from seeing God’s perspective?

5) Have you dug into the book of revelation before? If not what’s holding you back?