6--Hear the Voice of God - Chapter 5 - (The End)

Hear the Voice of God
Overcome and Endure to the End

Blessed is he that readeth,
and they that hear the words
of this prophecy,
and keep those things
which are written therein:
for the time is at hand.
-Revelation 1:3

Our Heavenly Father has chosen the vehicle of the written Word and the spoken Word to communicate with His children.

His children are the “good seed” planted into the world by His Son, Jesus Christ.

In addition, they are the “good ground,” which will receive the seed of the Word of God; the brethren are sowing in obedience to that Word. The “good ground,” children of God, are equipped within their hearts to nurture the seed of the Word so it will bring forth much fruit.

Furthermore, the children of the Kingdom of God are the “sheep” who will hear the Word of God carried on the wind by the Voice of the One True Shepherd. They will follow the Shepherd’s Voice, keeping (remembering and obeying) the things that are written.

This is how the children of God will be occupied just before Jesus Christ returns, when “the time is at hand.”

These are the real children of God who love the sound of the Voice of God. They are entrusted to the Son for safe keeping and the Father has promised that none of those who truly belong to Him will be lost.

He that hath an ear,
let him hear
what the Spirit saith
unto the churches;
To him that overcometh
will I give to eat of the tree of life,
which is in the midst
of the paradise of God.
-Revelation 2:7

Only a few will have an ear to hear. The rest will not be listening to what the Spirit of God has to say to the churches. They will not realize that they do not qualify to inherit eternal life. They will not understand what being “saved through faith” really means. They will believe that their church, opinions of men, and religious works will save them and will presume to belong to Christ because they have called Him, “Lord.”

However only those who overcome and possess eternal life, will be given the privilege of eating from the tree of life which grows in the middle of the paradise of God.

Only those who hear His Word and are in the habit of listening and spiritually feeding on it, will overcome because it is “through faith” that we are saved and faith can only come “by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).

He that hath an ear,
let him hear
what the Spirit saith
unto the churches;
To him that overcometh
will I give to eat of the hidden manna,
and will give him a white stone,
and in the stone a new name written,
which no man knoweth
saving he that receiveth it.
-Revelation 2:17

Revelation 2:7 and Revelation 2:17 begin with identical words about the necessity of overcoming and how overcoming is the mandatory requirement of receiving eternal life, the white stone, and a new name.

God’s alpha and omega are not the same as man’s idea of beginning and ending. While infinity functions by design and a unique type of order, it is not chronological.

So will those who overcome be rewarded by being given the “hidden manna” to eat or will those who eat the “hidden manna” be given the ability to overcome?

Let us ask this question again. This time we will expound the key words to consider.

So will those who overcome (by their own efforts) be rewarded by being given the Bread from Heaven, the written and living Word of God to feast on, or will those who feast on the Bread from Heaven, the written and living Word of God, be given the ability to overcome (by the grace of God and the power of His Word) ?

Since “hidden manna” is the secret spiritual food, or Word, that God gives to those who are listening; this makes it vital to overcoming. It is the Voice of God that resides in the Word of God.

The teaching of Jesus and the Kingdom of God are not for everyone. 

Only those who have an appetite for His Word will be able to spiritually feed on His Word and receive the power to overcome and endure 
. . .until they hear the Voice of Jesus commanding them to "Come up!"

(See details regarding this in the blog book, “Hidden Manna,” which you can also read at this site.)

Remember therefore
how thou hast received
and heard,
and hold fast,
and repent.
If therefore thou shalt not watch,
I will come on thee as a thief,
and thou shalt not know
what hour I will come upon thee.
-Revelation 3:3

This verse provides some important things we are commanded to remember:

1) how we have received (the Word and knowledge of God)

2) how we have heard (the Word of God)

3) to hold fast to what God has taught us

4) to repent, if we have not been consistently listening

If we do not heed this warning, we will not be watching for the coming of Christ as we should, we will not expect Him, and He will appear as a thief to us.

How does a thief appear?

--> He comes suddenly in secret.

--> Dread and fear will grip our heart when we are surprised by Him.

--> Instead of being joyful at His coming and looking forward to all that we are about to receive, we will be agonizing over losing our worldly possessions.

--> He may seem like an intruder coming to take something from us. Perhaps some of us will come to the painful realization that we loved this world and the things of this world more than we loved to hear what God had to say and we did not really have an eternal relationship with Christ after all.

--> He may not be the type of Person or type of God we expected to see. Maybe the Jesus we were worshipping was not even the real Jesus. Therefore the real Jesus will appear to be a threatening stranger to us.

Every person is defined by two things: (1) their actions and (2) the words they speak. This is how we learn who people really are. If we are not reading, listening, and feeding on the Word of God, how are we ever going to know who Jesus really is?

He could turn out to be just a lovely figment of our own imagination or a passive victim who tolerates sin.

It is impossible to really know Jesus and have a relationship with Him without having a complete and accurate account of what He has done and what He has said. 

The genuine information regarding this is only available in the Word of God, the Holy Bible. 

If that information has been adulterated or fragmented in any way, it becomes impossible to know who Jesus really is.

The truth is, we are just carelessly gambling with our eternal life by taking someone else’s (even “sincere” or “religiously authoritative”) word for who Jesus is. When Jesus returns He will hold each of us personally accountable for how we hear, as the Holy Spirit interprets what He has said in His Word and what we are personally required to believe.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:
if any man hear my voice,
and open the door,
I will come in to him,
and will sup with him,
and he with me.
-Revelation 3:20

It is the Word and Voice of God that calls to us to open the door to our heart and receive Him.

First we must accurately hear His Voice and His Word. If we are called to be His child, we will have the capacity to hear His Word and will respond by opening the door.

When we open the door, Jesus will come in and share His food with us. He will feed us the pure Word of God and will give us a true interpretation and understanding of what His Word says. We will “sup” with one another, meaning that we will share a meal.

What will we be eating?

He will share His Word with us and we will share our word with Him. In other words, we will engage in a true relationship, fellowship, and communication with Him.

By hearing the Voice of God through the Word of God, He will define who He really is; we will turn from going our own way, and embrace His preeminence in all things. The only way we can truthfully call Him “Lord,” is if He really is our Lord. Therefore, He and His Word must BE preeminent . . .the most important priority in our life.

This is the only way we are given a new life, can be spiritually born-again, and can discover an eternal relationship with our Creator, the Most High God.

~The End~