The Throne Room

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” – Revelation 4:8 ESV

All around the throne there are voices. Day after day, night after night they never stop. The throne room never knows silence. They live in the presence of the One upon the throne and, though they attempt to cover their eyes, they cannot help but shout out how utterly majestic and different from us He is. There voices are strong and loud as though they are calling all of creation to worship. They shout out what they see, hear, and feel around that throne. They lift their voices that all of creation might cast its gaze steadfastly upon that throne and the glorious One upon it. They desire that all of creation feel the simultaneous joy and terror of being near the Uncreated One.

It is critical that we fully understand the ministry of these creatures if we are to understand what it really means to be human. It is tragic that focus so little attention on the activity in the throne room because, in so doing, we end up missing our own calling. Man was made, like these terrible creatures, to gaze upon and experience the raw reality of the One on the throne. We were made to experience the simultaneous joy, pleasure, terror, and awe that comes from being near the throne. In many ways, our call is similar to the living creatures, but there is also a critical difference. Man was not made just to experience God, but he was made to gaze upon that glory and then cry out calling all of creation to worship. Man is to both experience the glory of God and declare it to creation. Man is meant to be a voice proceeding from the throne.

What is stunning about this is that it is one thing to cry out amidst the weight of the glory of the throne room, but it is altogether a different thing to cry out throughout creation to those who have not known the weight and the glory of the throne room and yet this is the high calling of man. We are to take the glory of the One upon the throne, experience it, and then declare it so vividly, so alive that creatures who have never caught a glimpse of that glorious room will be struck with awe and compelled to worship because of the power of our proclamation of His beauty.

Given the high nature of this call, what man is sufficient to communicate the glory of the throne room to the rest of creation? In order to bring creation into the knowledge of God, man’s duty is not just to cry out concerning the glory of the throne room, but to actually carry the glory of that throne room so that his proclamation to creation may be accompanied by the testimony of the weight of glory resting on him. God does not just intend that we tell creation of His glory, He intends that the weight of glory on us as we describe the Uncreated One is a witness to the words that we speak. Our proclamation is to be confirmed by the weight of the presence on us.

Jesus commanded us to disciple men from every nation, but we must understand that Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19 was not a brand new command. Jesus was calling man back to his original purpose. Man has always been called to disciple creation. Man was created to communicate to all of creation the grandeur and glory of God. Man was always meant to have the weight of glory resting on him from His privileged place before God and then travel the great expanse of creation declaring the glory of God.

This is why the union of prayer and missions that we are currently seeing is so significant. It is the recovery of man’s ultimate purpose. In the place of prayer, men gaze upon the throne room and the weight of glory begins to rest on them. From that place then, they are to be sent, as voice from the throne, declaring the glory of God and discipling creation. Only when prayer and missions are combined, can the desire of Jesus’ heart be fulfilled. Men must obtain the knowledge of God in the place of prayer where they hear His voice and are then sent like arrows into all the earth to declare what they have seen and heard.

We are called to be voices, not echos, proceeding from the throne. A voice has to have seen and heard and what they have seen and heard must be burning and alive within them. When creation encounters a messenger like this, they are brought into a raw confrontation with God. No longer is the issue one of the message or one of the words brought by the messenger. The messenger did not just bring them a new message, the messenger brought them a confrontation with God. This is what it means to be a voice proceeding from the throne.

When we live in sin and compromise, we forfeit our ability to call the nations to the glory of God. When we forfeit this calling, then creation lacks the knowledge of God because we were made to carry it throughout creation. Part of the reason we so love to explore creation and search out locations is because we were made to carry the knowledge of God throughout creation. God gave us the desire to search out creation so that we might declare His glory and bring all of creation into the knowledge of God.

Your sin does not just destroy you as an individual, it keeps creation from coming into the knowledge of God. This is why the enemy gives so much effort and energy to polluting mankind. So long as mankind is bound in sin, he fails to bring the creation into the knowledge of God. The bondage of man becomes the bondage of creation. This is what is behind the enemy’s temptation. Every pornographic image, every bit of the lust of the flesh and the pride of life is aimed at this one thing. Demons are working night and day to keep men enslaved to sin in order to keep them from bringing the knowledge of God to creation. Your sin then is more than a “failure” it is a war that we do not fully comprehend all aimed at keeping all of creation from coming into the knowledge of God.

If you ever doubted the call of man, gaze at the man Jesus. When man failed to carry the knowledge of God into creation, God’s response was not to call angels to the task, but rather to become a man Himself. He kept His covenant with man. Man forever would be the creature called to declare the glory of God to all creation. Is this not what Jesus constantly did? Throughout His entire ministry He was very clear that He was demonstrating the nature of the Father. He was carrying the message and likeness of the Father. In doing this He was also calling all mankind back into their original calling. This is why He insisted the disciples wait in Jerusalem for the power of the Holy Spirit. He did not just want them to just carry words, He wanted them to also have the presence within, as He did, so that they actually carried the knowledge of God to the nations and not just stories about Him.

Volumes could be written on these things, but from these few words, I call you out of your sin and bondage. I call you out of despair. I set before you the high call of gazing upon the throne and carrying the knowledge of God into all creation. I call you to the redemption and cleansing of Jesus that you may gaze upon that throne. I call you to disciple men in the nations of the earth that creation may encounter the knowledge of God (which it will know fully when the ultimate witness, Jesus, returns to the earth and brings creation into the full knowledge of God as God). I call you to actually fight. You are in this war whether you know it or not. You can be a casualty or a soldier. Power from the throne room is available. Let’s receive the full power of the Holy Spirit under the cleansing blood of Jesus and release a witness in the nations of the earth. Let us become, and raise up, voice proceeding from the throne.