Flipped Fear - Rumor notes 99

 Revelation 12

12 Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time."

rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them

Rejoicing is how victory is achieved and internalized, not just something to do after all the dust settles.

A voice came forth from the throne, saying, "Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!" I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns! Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let us give the glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready." (Revelation 19:5-7)

This theme of rejoicing is not merely a spontaneous response to good news fulfilled. Rather it is the very means by which evil is overcome with the goodness of God reflected in the hearts and lives of all who willingly follow the Lamb. It is the very definition of the New Song, one of the most important threads that runs through Revelation but is seen throughout all of Scripture. This is the primary weapon to be used to dispel darkness and gain ground for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and its fullness! Let the field and all that is in it exult! Then all the trees of the woods shall sing for joy before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth. (Psalms 96:11-13)

For though the fig tree doesn't flourish, nor fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive fails, the fields yield no food; the flocks are cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in Yahweh. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:13-14)

Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets. (Luke 6:22-23)

Nevertheless, don't rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20)

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe. (Philippians 3:1)

Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, Rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. (Philippians 4:4-5)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

you who dwell in them

What does it mean to dwell in heaven? Who are those identified here as dwelling there? What is meant in prophetic symbolism to dwell somewhere?

There are only two classes of people at the end – those who dwell in heaven and all those who dwell on the earth. It is vital that we understand this in order to make intelligent decisions about which side we will be on. If we remain clueless, thinking this is simply referring to heavenly angels or maybe even inhabitants of other planets in the universe, we miss a most important element of this prophecy, for this is intended to alert us how we position ourselves in regards to our dwelling place.

This mention of dwelling is connected to what we just studied about how there was no place found for the dragon and his angels, resulting in them having to leave heaven and go to this earth. I believe this is significant and something we should examine very closely.

Let me begin by summarizing some of the conclusions I have come to as I have pondered this for some time. I believe this issue of dwelling is not about physical location of our body but is all about emotional and spiritual location of our affections, our attention and what we allow to occupy our imagination (which is where our faith operates internally). I am coming to see that things like taking and holding onto offense, indulging in complaining and fault-finding and criticism along with continually dwelling on negative things about life, all condition our mental state to be among those who dwell on the earth. We won't take the time to fully explore that right now as it is not mentioned in this verse. But it is helpful to remember that this is the alternative to dwelling in heaven. What we do need to not just explore but take very seriously and practice is what it means from heaven's perspective to dwell in heaven which I think is safe to assume means where God's presence is most intensely concentrated.

What motivation do we rely on for our choices and direction of life – fear or selfless, reflected love?

The principles we allow to regulate our imagination will be the principles that form our character which determines whether we are counted among those who dwell on the earth or are among those who dwell in heaven. It is our own choices that determine how we are viewed in the light of God, and this is what the various aspects of judgment taking place involves. Heaven is examining the lives of every human being right now so as to know who is really choosing to have the atmosphere of heaven within them or are being motivated by the principles of selfishness, fear and choosing to remain in the dark.

Those who dwell in heavenly places do so through primarily in the use of their imagination which is the same as faith. This is what defines who they serve and identity with to be their source of identity, value and how to act like themselves. Those who dwell in heaven choose to follow the Lamb everywhere and do not love their lives more than others just like the Lamb did. Their life is hid with God in Christ, and because God is also in Christ and they are in Christ, they are being transformed into unity with the Godhead.

This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. (John 17:3)

I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word. Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you, for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me. (John 17:6-8)

I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves. I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. (John 17:11-17)

Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. (John 17:20-21)

As we consent for God and Christ to dwell in us without resistance, we will continue to be physically located on this earth but may dwell in the atmosphere of heaven. This is accomplished by the proper use of our imagination. No wonder the enemy is pulling out all the stops to capture our attention and allure us with anything imaginable to distract and occupy our imagination today. This is vital to understand if we are to be serious about being aligned with the Father and Son in unity of Spirit. As we allow Them to have access to our sanctuary as a place for them to dwell in, God's plan to dwell in us and to be our God is at last realized. This is what it means to dwell in heaven.

Say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, where they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all; neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. (Ezekiel 37:21-23)

My tent also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. The nations shall know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore. (Ezekiel 37:27-28)

For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you. (Ezekiel 36:24-29)

Here are other passages to help clarify what it means to dwell in heaven and who is there.

Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn't come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. (John 5:24)

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26)

Being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, he answered them, "The Kingdom of God doesn't come with observation; neither will they say, 'Look, here!' or, 'Look, there!' for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21)

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. They cried with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" (Revelation 7:9-10)

He opened his mouth for blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his dwelling, those who dwell in heaven. It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. Authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation was given to him. (Revelation 13:6-7)

After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation, power, and glory belong to our God: (Revelation 19:1)

I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has names written and a name written which no one knows but he himself. He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called "The Word of God." The armies which are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white, pure, fine linen. (Revelation 19:11-14)

In the shelter of your presence you will hide them from the plotting of man. You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues. (Psalms 31:20)

For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him. You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you. (Psalms 32:6-8)

Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations. (Psalms 90:1)

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. (Psalms 91:1)

But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. (Psalms 115:3)

For Yahweh spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, "Don't say, 'A conspiracy!' concerning all about which this people say, 'A conspiracy!' neither fear their threats, nor be terrorized. Yahweh of Armies is who you must regard as holy. He is the one you must fear. He is the one you must dread. He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many will stumble over it, fall, be broken, be snared, and be captured." Wrap up the testimony. Seal the law among my disciples. I will wait for Yahweh, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. (Isaiah 8:11-17)

In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down safely. I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion. I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know Yahweh.

It will happen in that day, I will respond," says Yahweh, "I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth; and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they will respond to Jezreel. I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, 'You are my people;' and they will say, 'My God!'" (Hosea 2:18-23)

For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God's angels in heaven. (Matthew 22:30)

Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:13-14)

Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can't bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5)

that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me. (John 17:21-23)

Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (Ephesians 2:4-8)

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. (1 John 4:15-16)

These are all related to those who are affirmed as ones who dwell in heaven, regardless of what circumstances may suggest. Their hearts have been surrendered to reflect love by receiving it freely and reflecting it freely. The principles of love shape their thinking and regulate their relationships in preparation to enjoy the intense passionate love that defines heaven's atmosphere. Heaven indeed begins here on earth, for heaven is not so much a location but a state of mind and heart. Heaven is where the Spirit of God indwells in those willing to submit to the reshaping, healing power of salvation that results from the good news about God penetrating the darkest recesses of the soul.

Those who dwell on earth become inflexible in their thinking and relationships, imagining that God is defined by rigid rules requiring enforcement, just as the inventor of this system portrays Him to be. Those who are squeezed into the mold and mindset of this world in their view of God and their beliefs about social order, react violently to any who dare to disrupt or fail to conform to the world order regulated by law-enforcement, and seek unity through conformity. Indeed, everything is spiritual, for there is no part of our life that is not directly involved in spiritual principles.

The determining factor between those who dwell on the earth and those who dwell in heaven is the spirit that is allowed to be the guiding force of the heart. The outward activities are only symptoms that reveal the nature of the spirit that inhabits the soul. Placing the most emphasis and importance on external behavior as the criteria of salvation is a decoy blinding us to the true nature of the war, until it is too late to change direction. Keeping the right day as Sabbath or believing the right set of doctrines can be informative. Yet they are externals, and forcing ourselves to maintain the appearance of righteousness while failing to be motivated by the Spirit of righteousness that reflects the pure, selfless love of heaven, is to remain in darkness while imagining nothing is wrong.

In such a life there is no deep abiding peace, joy or genuine fruit of the Spirit of the Lamb in the heart. These may have a form of godliness and display what appears to be good fruits, yet without love such a life is like a compelling hologram that is devoid of substance and merely an illusion, leaving such a person in fatal deception and empty of what is needed to survive the coming showdown. This is a very real and present danger that we all do well to avoid at all cost.

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, (2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 NKJV)

Woe to the earth and to the sea

Because you kept my command to endure, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is to come on the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. I am coming quickly! Hold firmly that which you have, so that no one takes your crown. (Revelation 3:10-11)

After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea, saying, "Don't harm the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!" (Revelation 7:1-3)

the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath

The devil's wrath is not at all like God's wrath. Rather than letting go, which is what God does in wrath, he does the opposite and attempts in every way possible to impose control through force, fear and manipulation while distorting and twisting truth for his own diabolical purposes.

The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep God's commandments and hold Jesus' testimony. (Revelation 12:17)

The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Revelation 12:9)

and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there will no longer be delay, (Revelation 10:6)

he has but a short time

and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there will no longer be delay, (Revelation 10:6)

Once the cross exposed his true character to the watching universe, Satan had to scramble to develop an even more expansive system of lies and excuses to suppress the light released by the cross, because it was now clear to everyone who understood the implications of what happened there that Satan's potential eternal existence was no longer possible. He now realized with terrible clarity that his existence would come to an end once he lost the trust of anyone in of his lies against God. Then there would be no one left from whom he might siphon life for himself. A parasite cannot live very long once there is no body left for it to exploit. Indeed, there will be no place left for Satan or his angels to dwell.