I often mention, in passing, the apostle John’s written testimony of that moment when, on the Island of Patmos where he had been exiled for preaching the gospel, he encountered the risen Christ. Suddenly, the Lord is right there in blazing glory behind the old apostle who falls at Jesus’ feet in shock.
Revelation 1:10-12 (NIV)
“On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: ‘Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.’ 12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, …”
I often try to imagine that moment when, after all those decades, the 90-year-old apostle finally sees once more the one with whom, as a youth barely 20 years old, he had trudged the dusty roads of Israel. What an emotional explosion for John as he looks once more upon the face of Jesus … “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet though dead …” Such an awesome, terrifying sight is the Christ in all His holy glory.
I often muse about that moment and wish, somehow, that I could have witnessed all that occurred there. We have such a brief account in the Book of Revelation – just the bare details. The one detail I often ponder here is when John says, “On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit …” What does he mean by that? Clearly, the context gives us a clue. On the “Lord’s Day” what would John have been doing but spending time in worship? But there’s more here. The English translations don’t quite capture it all. The translators task is to make a readable text for us here in the 21st century, but there are some things that don’t quite translate from one language to another. What is unfortunate here is that the translators render “spirit” with a capital “S” to indicate to readers of English that it must be the Holy Spirit to which John refers. But this makes neither logical, nor grammatical sense, especially since the translators add in the definite article “the”. This renders the text “the Spirit” as indicating the Holy Spirit.
But this is not the ancient Greek text we have been given. There is no definite article at all in the text. It just says, “in spirit”. That’s it. And that is what John is conveying. Again look at the context. John is indicating that he is worshipping, he doesn’t say for how long, just that it was the Lord’s Day and he was “in spirit”. How long had he been worshipping? Praying? We’re not told. We’re just told that he was “in spirit”, and the force of the narrative, itself, suggests that this was a sudden transition. Suddenly, he was “in spirit” - in a new “place.”
My point in meditating on all this is simple. Most prayer and worship starts in the flesh, so to speak. We make the decision, a good thing, and we set about prayer and worship – and we could stay “in the flesh” (soulishness) and pray from there. But we know that this achieves little. Flesh living is pointless as the scriptures teach, and so, how much more useless is continuing to pray fleshly/soulish prayers? God does not speak to our flesh and soul – which has been crucified with Christ – no, he speaks to our sanctified spirit, and then our mind is informed that we may know his good, pleasing and perfect will. So, if we start praying from our flesh does this mean that we are not very good Christians? No. As I said, probably all prayer and worship starts in the flesh, but we need to persevere and deal with flesh (with its myriad distractions) until it has been subdued and our spirit then has the ascendancy in our tripartite being (flesh, soul, spirit). This is why we are born again (one key reason, at least). It is so that in our praying we transition from flesh/soul to spirit praying so that our prayers are coming from our sanctified spirit – and we receive answers there, too. I believe that this is what John alludes to here. Suddenly, he was “in spirit”, and that’s where he saw spiritual things, that’s where he saw Jesus, that’s where things were revealed – this was reality. The apostle Paul had a similar experience (2 Cor. 12:2).
This is salutary. If we could deal with the flesh/soul properly before we came to worship, or before we began to pray, how much less time would it take to transition from flesh to spirit? What would corporate worship be like if we all came so prepared and ready to shift into “in spirit” mode? And corporate prayer? Wow! To be, quickly, “in spirit”? This is what consecration is about – preparing ourselves to be “in spirit” when we worship, when we pray, when we minister and so on. Dealing with the flesh and soul issues which want to profane, defile and dominate our being and which are always hostile to God. It is “in spirit” where it all happens – not “in flesh”.
When John was suddenly “in spirit”. He saw wonders and terrifying things to come, and he heard Jesus very clearly, too - no uncertainty, no ambiguity, whatsoever. May I encourage you to persevere in prayer and in worship – and in consecration, too – in order to learn, not the theory of prayer and worship, but the believer’s skill of being “in spirit”. “In spirit” is where we hear the voice of God, and know his heart. Some might say that “praying in the spirit” means praying in tongues. But this is never what it means in the New Testament. Any spiritual gift – tongues included – will have limited, or impeded expression when we are not properly sanctified, or consecrated. This is especially critical in spiritual warfare – you cannot engage the warfare from the flesh and soul place. You can’t even discern it, let alone see what is going on. Which is why Paul wrote about this to the Ephesians after explaining the proper use of the armour of God, viz.,
Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)
“And [all of you] pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.”
Again translators slightly miss the point – which is theological, not textual. There is no definite article (“the”) preceding “spirit” here, which some have chosen to render capitalised to infer meaning (especially the praying in tongues, which would leave out many believers who do not have that spiritual gift). The whole context of the passage is about spiritual preparation for the warfare – which is not a flesh and blood thing. Paul then follows up by saying, “And with all kinds of prayers (whether tongues or other) keep petitioning, keep on keeping on, take your stand, and see the battle through. Pray “in spirit”, he says, on ALL occasions with ALL kinds of prayers.
And decades down the track the apostle John would know exactly what that really meant.
That’s what I reckon anyway …
Ps Milton
[Sources: Nestles Greek New Testament]