The Blessing of the Message to Laodicea

The fifth book of Moses contains an interesting verse. We read in Deuteronomy 30:19: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live..." In its meaning, this statement applies to each of us today and has not lost its power. By offering me a choice, the Lord also gives counsel on which choice will be pleasing to Him: "Choose life..."

Has anything changed in God's expectations since then? He not only asked me to make a choice but sent His beloved Son to die in my place, to forever establish my decision and give me, according to my faith, the right to Eternal life. But with all His desire to save me, the Lord respects my choice and waits for my decision, waits long and patiently endures my ignorance. He knows what awaits me in any case, what will happen to me if I choose Him and accept all the blessings of this choice. His Power only awaits my "yes" to take me under His protection and fill my life with God's presence.

But God has an enemy who lives inside me and constantly fights against everything that comes from above — this is my carnal nature, in which I was born and which does not want to die while I am alive. It is in a solid alliance with the enemy of my soul.

Offering me a choice of blessing, the Lord also sends me His grace so that I can gain victory over the forces of evil and over my flesh. And God's help comes immediately when I decide to live by God's rules and laws and begin to move in this direction.

I am always amazed by the freedom of choice that the Lord gives me, offering incredibly beautiful blessings with all their Eternal consequences. Knowing how happy I will be with Him, what Eternal life in His presence will give me, how many good changes will occur in my life, He still does not deny me the right to reject all these benefits and use the right to death. It sounds somewhat stupid, but unfortunately, many make exactly this choice of their path, demonstratively or intuitively ignoring God's counsel, and preferring a curse.

The path of darkness and death initially does not seem so terrible. It is quite wide and tempting. It offers a variety of sensual pleasures, exquisite entertainments, pompous performances, and amazing experiences. Laughter, bustle, excitement capture the mind and draw toward magical pleasures, deceiving consciousness with the thought that this is the true meaning of life. Although the payment for sin is death, at the moment of another sensual experience, one does not want to think about this.

Flesh constantly seeks what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit opposes the flesh and desires to have Heavenly blessings. And I am between these opponents, between the right and left ear, and must decide something and feed one of the opponents. Whoever I feed will become stronger. And I will be led by it.

The Faithful Witness reports in Revelation 3:14-22 a message in which He rebukes me and offers me to accept blessing or curse. I think it is not worth describing the state and consequences of the wrong choice. Nothing good awaits those who agree with Christ's fair assessment and do nothing to follow the subsequent counsel.

Entering into trading relationships with Jesus, I thereby show Him my desire for change and exit from the miserable state that He dislikes so much. And the Lord, seeing my effort to change something, extends His hands and accepts me into His embrace as the most precious buyer. Then He begins to give me everything that will transform my life and make me a victor.

I immerse myself in a new world of God's revelations, which are so amazing and beautiful, so simple and deep, that I marvel at why this inner beauty is not revealed to the whole world. And the Lord draws me further to Himself, into the very depth of His heart, and shows me such great and inaccessible things that I did not even know. And God is not alone in this depth of revelations. There are many of my new friends there who, like me, have entered into Eternal trade with Jesus and now have become very close to me in spirit. The Lord gives me these people and endows me with love for them, and them for me. It is so unusual for me to love someone, but I accept it and observe where it will lead. And this is only the beginning.

My new friends in faith are visible to me; I can talk to them, I can hug them, and they are not like everyone else; they are God's. I do not know how best to build relationships, but the Lord endows us with His gold, offering us to enrich each other. We try and marvel at how pleasant it is to love and receive so many unusual constant blessings!

My faith in God passes through fiery trials and encourages me to dive deeper into the depths of God's heart to acquire more beautiful treasures with which I can enrich my friends. I see the huge potential of such relationships and understand how good it will be in Eternity to share all of God's blessings and that very amazing agape love about which we have heard so much but could not imagine how it works in the heart.

My character is formed in the light of Heavenly trade into something new and beautiful. Like white clothing, it covers all my previous nakedness and makes me some special creation in God's eyes. I cannot boast about this to people. They simply do not understand what I mean. But my new friends perfectly understand the quality of white clothing and constantly tell me that it is very similar to the clothing of the Faithful Witness. And I disagree because I see that their shining white garments are more like Christ's clothing than my new clothes. But we do not argue; we accept such testimonies from each other in faith and rejoice that we are like mirrors of the soul for each other to communicate about beautiful changes in our attire. We are not ashamed of our new clothing. And we are pleased that Jesus likes it. He constantly adjusts it on us, smooths out the folds with His hands, and gives it a solemn look, sincerely admiring us, not hiding His joy. For this smile of Divine approval, one can give everything and live only by this.

Eye salve heals our eyes, destroys all stereotypes, and shows us the true beauty and depth of God's law, God's principles, and expectations. We see each other through Heaven's eyes and marvel at how good everything from God is and how it delights the heart with its healing power.

The Lord calls us to be zealous in buying His goods, and we do not intend to stop. We feel so good in this store that we see no reason to leave.

But the most interesting thing happens when the Seller Himself comes to you for dinner to treat you with another revelation about Himself, to teach you how to use what was bought correctly, to fill the heart with Himself and send you into the world with all this to save at least someone. And Jesus does not leave us in this mission but sets the direction for our feet and endows us with His Spirit of love, offering to rise higher.

Reflection Questions for this Chapter

1. Please read John 3:16; Genesis 27:29; Deuteronomy 11:26-28; Psalm 36:22; 108:17; 118:18; Amos 3:7; Revelation 19:7-8; Isaiah 53:11; 55:1-3 in light of this chapter.

2. What did you understand from this chapter?

3. What other Bible verses came to your mind?

4. Will God bless those who are obedient to Him?

5. Why does the Lord offer everyone a choice of path?

6. Can love force someone to do something good?

7. Will I have a curse if I choose the path of blessing?

8. Do you understand how beautiful it is to act according to the Faithful Witness's counsel?

9. Do you know what joy in life those who buy Heavenly goods from the Message to Laodicea experience?

10. What prevents you from following Jesus' counsel from Revelation 3:18?

11. How do you understand the blessing of the Message to Laodicea?

12. Does God plan to trade only with you?

13. Do you think there will be friendly relationships between those who constantly buy something in the "Laodicean store"?

14. Where is this "store" located?

15. How can I understand that I am buying something from the Faithful Witness?