ISAIAH 55:4 - "The Living Witness"

"I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." (Rev 1:18) There is no greater witness of who Jesus is, than that He is Alive; He has conquered sin, and He conquered death. After He rose from that tomb, He made it known to all that He was who He said He was; period. In the letter to the Church of Smyrna, (Rev 2:8-11), He gives another witness to match the one given in chapter 1:17 &18: "These things saith the First and the Last, which was dead, and is alive." In this letter, He encourages the church to endure persecution and tribulation; to believe in the power that He has to get them through what ever comes upon them, even death. In verse 10, He instructs the church to fear nothing which we will suffer. It has always intrigued me that many of the saints that were killed and tortured over the ages, seemed to not suffer in their death; it was like something was given to them to numb the pain. Maybe it was the Holy Spirit; maybe they just were not really there, in their flesh, but instead were so focused on Heaven, that this fleshly vessel really did not matter anymore. As Jesus says in verse 10: "The devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried; and you shall have tribulation ten days". These words tried and tribulation are words that should not be taken lightly. To be tried, in this text, speaks more about just going to court; it speaks about being tested. In other words, to see if you are really what you say you are; to try and break you, and cause you to deny your faith in Jesus. To see if the faith that you confess can really, really make you endure punishment and torture; even to the point of death. Imagine if you can, what it would be like to be tortured for ten days straight. They thrash you to the point that you are almost dead, over and over, for ten days. Could you endure? I don't know if I could; but I do know that if I was going to, I would surely have to be out of body, at least in my spirit. The word tribulation in the text here, is a little more than just your average suffering; this word means to be crushed; like a grape is crushed to squeeze out wine; ouch! I really hope that there is some kind of revival before the church has to go through anything like this type of persecution; because to endure this kind of punishment, you really have to be able to give up your flesh; and this modern day church is so wimpy when it comes to that. Really, when you think about it, there are a lot of brothers and sisters that could not make it through this kind of ordeal; not without some real outpouring of God's Spirit into their life. If you are weak enough to take your brother to court, or divorce your wife for no reason; what makes you think that you can take a ten day trail like this one Jesus is talking about. Maybe the church just needs to be pushed over the line, and then it will wake up and get serious about Heaven. Jesus continues in verse 10: "Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." This word faithful, means 'to be found worthy to be believed'; in other words, your testimony through this testing will show those that are testing you, that you are what you say you are; and more importantly, that Jesus is who He says He is. And the reward, oh yea; this Crown of Life, this is the highest form of life; the word is 'ZOE', and refers to the principle of life in the spirit and soul; expressing all of the highest and best which Christ is and which He gives to the saints: "The highest blessedness of the creature". This is really what needs to be the focus in our hearts and minds; that we will ultimately be given this Crown of Life, and that no matter what this world puts upon us, nothing even can begin to compare with that!!! "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." (Rev 2:11)