"Come Up Higher" and See!

In preparing for some upcoming messages, I came across this quote that I had saved in my files….Boy does this bring back some warm warm memories of when God encouraged me through some rough times! May it comfort you today!
This quote is in reference to John, the writer of the ‘Gospel of John’ as well as the writer of the three epistles in the New Testament. He is nearing 80 years old, and is shipped to an Isle called Patmos as a result of persecution and punishment for his defense of the Word of God and its truths. The people tried to boil him in oil and that didn’t work, so they thought that they would just get rid of him. I guess they figured that if they shipped him to ‘nowhere land’, that he would be out of sight, and would no longer be a threat. He was shipped to the Isle with the command to do hard labor, chipping the stones from the stone quarry in which he sat. Brothers and sisters, it was on this very Isle, away from all of humanity, left alone to die, that the Lord Jesus Himself appears to John!
In Revelation 1:10, it says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice….” This reference, “I was in the Spirit”, means “I came to be in the Spirit”….he didn’t start out that way! Remember, he was bound by earth’s borders. But God would not be limited by earth’s borders and He bypassed everything just to get to John! Then, one of my favorite Scriptures is in Revelation 4:1, where God says to John, “Come up here, and I will show you….” It was at this very place (Patmos) that the Book of Revelation was given. Here is the quote:

John was limited by borders, but, “It was fitting that when forbidden to go beyond certain bounds of the earth’s lands, he was permitted to penetrate the secrets of heaven.” “Your life is hidden with Christ in God!”

Wow! Brothers and sisters! ‘Come up higher’ and SEE your life and its situations through God’s perspectives…Just when you think you have exhausted all of your resources, (no more money in the bank…he said, she said, and I have said, and it still isn’t working!.....the doctors have said this and that and they stare at me as if I have four heads…..nobody really understands what I am going through….does God really care?....does God really listen to me?...am I really forgiven?...you get the picture….)….climb up into the realm of the Spirit, where God is, and go beyond this earth’s borders…you too, can penetrate the secrets of heaven and SEE things you never thought possible!
How? Just ask God to show you your situation from His perspective. It won’t look quite so huge when being viewed from heaven’s realm.
Love,
Anna
www.annadonahueministries.com