Isolation seems to have some benefits. John Bunyan wrote his marvelous Pilgrim’s Progress while alone in prison. Being alone and without distractions is helpful for writers.It also helps a person better hear the Lord. Many Christian leaders testify that being alone for an extended period of time brought them closer to God and more able to understand His will. Perhaps the best example is the Apostle John who was given an astounding revelation of Christ while exiled to the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea.
People can go batty in isolation though. This alternative means that those who benefit from solitary confinement must have a few other things going for them. A quick read of Revelation 1:4-11 helps me see some of them, and gives me a few ideas for my own times of solitude.
In verse 4, John offers grace and peace from God to the seven churches in Asia. This shows that he is not thinking of himself, even though being in exile could do that. I might be tempted to complain and have a grand pity-party, but I can see how thinking about others and praying for them would be a very good thing to combat those tendencies.
In Verse 5, he writes of the Person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the “faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.” John is not in exile because a Roman emperor didn’t like what he was doing; he is there by God’s design and knows it because he knows that Jesus rules over kings. As John remembers the faithfulness and sovereignty of God, he trusts that God has a plan so was not fretting about his lack of freedom. No matter what happens in my life, I need to think that way, remembering Almighty God is in control of my life.
The rest of verse 5 and verse 6 affirm that Jesus “loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father . . . .”
John knew where he stood before God and was not worried about his spiritual condition. Sometimes, when things go wrong I think I’ve messed up, but don’t have a clue what I did, so I start stewing about being ‘chastened’ without knowing why. If God is not convicting me of sin, I, like John, should affirm what He has done for my salvation, and like John, also say, “to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
No doubt being in exile was a physical hardship as well as emotional and mental. Besides that, John was an old man when he wrote Revelation and often as people grow older they get stuck in the past, glory in their youthful victories and think of better days gone by. While John likely remembered those better days, verse 7-8 reveals his focus: “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,’ says the Lord, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’”
As I read that, cannot help thinking of the grand plan of God that began before He created the world, was implemented in the Garden of Eden, reached its climax at the cross of Jesus Christ and will continue and culminate at the return of Christ who will reign forever. No matter what is happening, no matter how upset, alone, dejected, discouraged, or any other negative I feel, thinking about the big picture of what God is doing, and turning my heart toward the promise of Jesus’ return fills me with a deep joy. This is the Christian hope, not a ‘hope so’ hope, but a reality that we know will happen. The Spirit of God witnesses to our spirits, and affirms that it is true. He is coming again, and the whole plan of God will be fulfilled in great victory.
John was not so future-oriented that he became a pie-in-the-sky nut case, either. He was real about what was happening to him. In verse 9, he identifies with his readers as being their “brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ” and says that he is in exile “for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” He was not out of touch or in denial.
I can easily lose my sense of the rest of the world and what is going on in the plan of God, never mind the denial stuff. Put me alone for a while, even for a few days, and my world gets smaller and smaller. John kept this from happening by remembering his place in the body of Christ and the work he was called to do. He didn’t blame those who isolated him, but knew his choice to serve God would result in persecution. He may have read Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3:12, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution,” but he didn’t let that turn him inward.
Instead, John says in verse 10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice . . . .”
This man, instead of letting solitude put him in a self-mode, was in a God-mode. He was in the Spirit, meaning the Spirit of God not only filled him, but in this case opened his heart and mind to a new revelation of Jesus Christ. Many theologians think this was more than a mental or spiritual vision in that John was physically transported into the realm of the Spirit and actually saw all what was to follow with his eyes.
I don’t know if this would every happen to me, however God had a purpose for it happening to John. In verse 11, Jesus gives him his orders: “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia. . . .”
John obeyed, and we have The Revelation, in which God promises, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”
I was definitely blessed by the short portion that I read this morning and know that whenever I am in solitude, either forced or by choice, if I follow John’s example, God will bless me all over again.
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