There were some in Thyatira who did not fall prey. Revelation 2:24 says, “But hold fast what you have till I come.” Revelation 3:11 was written to the church in Philadelphia. It says, “Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.”

In the Lord’s commendation of the church in Pergamos, we get a picture of what it means to hold fast in persecution. Revelation 2:13 says, “I know your works, and where you dwell…And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith…”

Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 6:18 Amplified, “…we who have fled (to Him) for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope appointed for us and set before (us).”

Two of the seven churches had no rebuke from the Lord. Both were faithful in their perseverance. However it was a different story with the other five. We can learn lessons from their areas of neglect, so that we don’t fall into the same traps.

In Ephesus they lost their fervency for the Lord. We fall prey to the enemy’s schemes when we allow other things to take the Lord’s place as first in our hearts. In Pergamos they fell prey to immorality, idols in their hearts, and false doctrines. 

In Thyatira they fell prey to cults and immorality. Sardis was a dead church. They had no passion or response to God’s word. They were stagnant and fruitless. In Laodicea they were indifferent. They had no care one way or the other. Nothing moved them from their complacency. 

1 Peter 5:9 says, “Resist him, steadfast in the faith…” We need barnacle faith to hold fast to the Lord.

I recently memorized Psalm 86:1-13. I love David’s prayer in verse 11. It says, “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; united my heart to fear Your name.” He was asking the Lord to give him singleness of heart.

Distractions pull us off course and steal our fruit potential. In Revelation 2:19 the Lord commended the church in Thyatira. It says, “I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.”

Yet they allowed sin to creep in and bring inner defilement. We can apply this to our own lives. I think of Mark 4 in the parable of the sower. Verse 19 Amplified says, “Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age,…and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless.”

The Greek word for hearts conveys this meaning: as the seat of feelings, desires, joy, pain, and love. It is also the center for thought, understanding, and will. (copied from note in my Bible). Our heart is our belief center, and also where the Holy Spirit dwells.

David’s prayer in Psalm 26:3 was giving the Lord permission to probe. It says, “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart.” The Hebrew word for try means any refining, whether literal or figurative; to try by fire.

In Revelation 3:14 He counseled the Laodicean church, “…to buy from Me gold refined in the fire…” Think back to 1 Peter 1:7. Our trials purify our faith. That church viewed themselves through their own eyes as needing nothing. They acted independent of God and were fruitless. John 15:5. The Lord saw their hearts that were blinded through deception.

When I was young, we had a tract called “Crippled Tom.” Here is the description. “It’s a touching story of a crippled boy confined to a dreary attic room. Longing for a Bible, he spent all his money to buy one. 

Reading his Bible, he learns to know God’s way of salvation and received Jesus as his Savior from sin. In spite of his handicaps, he became an earnest worker for the Lord Jesus and the effect of his service reached even to the mission field of Central Africa!” The only part I remember was him saying, “To love Him is to serve Him.”

A common thread among the seven churches was service. He knew their works, but He also knew their hearts. Revelation 2:23 says, “…I am He who searches the minds and the hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.”

As I considered the church of Ephesus, I went back to 1 Corinthians 13:1. Let’s take it to the marketplace. It says that if what we say does not come from a heart of love, we just sound like a loud noise. Verse 2 says that though we have spiritual gifts, great knowledge, and all faith, unless it is born from love we are nothing. 

Verse 3 says, “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” I love Franklin Graham’s remark about his dad. He said that he was the same at home as he was in the pulpit.

Paul was a great example for us. 1 Corinthians 9:22 says, “To the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”

Disobedience breaks our communion with the Lord. 1 John 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” As you read this next verse, I want you to think of it as though the Lord is speaking to your heart.

Song of Solomon 5:1 Amplified says, “…Drink, yes, drink abundantly of love, O precious one (for now I know you are mine, irrevocably mine! With his confident words still thrilling her heart…”

In Psalm 42:1, the picture is of a deer that is panting for water. It knows that if it can’t get to water it will die. It says, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.”

Psalm 63:8 Amplified says, “My whole being follows hard after You and clings closely to You; Your right hand upholds me.” Pants, follows hard, and clings closely are words longing for intimacy.

As I started reading about the church in Ephesus, it sounded really good until I read verse 4. It says, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” The Greek word for ‘left’ means to neglect or forsake.

My mind went immediately to John 15. Verse 4 in the Amplified says, “Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. (Live in Me, and I will live in You.) Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.”

Bearing fruit for His glory comes from abiding not doing. I never understood that until 1977. I was bedridden from falling headfirst into a six foot ravine. It stopped me in my tracks. It was during that time that the Lord wooed me through intimate communion with Him. He taught me how to be vitally united. I ceased to do and learned to be.

Revelation 20:6 says, “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”

22:7 says, “Behold I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

22:14 says, “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.”

The Greek word for revelation means an unveiling or disclosing of a reality that previously has not been perceived. Revelation 1:1 says, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place…” 

The word ‘shortly’ has a different meaning than what we might mean today. The use in this book is that they can take place at any time ~suddenly.

I have begun my journey to meditate through the book of Revelation. I have found that meditating through a whole book opens new vistas of understanding. I encourage you to try it out.

Here is something to consider. In Matthew 5:3-11 there are nine beatitudes. In Revelation there are seven. Revelation 1:3 says, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”

14:13 says, “…Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”

16:15 says, “Behold I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”

19:9 says, “…Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!…”