Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” Matthew 22:29.

If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. 1 John 5:16.

So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” John 20:19.

The Lord grants wisdom! From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity. Proverbs 2:6-7.

And our chapter, Revelation 15: Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; for all the nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.” After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened, and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.

Something amazing happens as we encounter Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. As we are awakened to His presence loving us, we grow in quiet assured expectation of His good for us and we begin to rejoice greatly in the soundness of our mind and heart and spirit that He brings. That soundness comes from Him! I think of the disciples so shaken by Jesus’ death and the report of His resurrection to life and the words He spoke to them as He came to them in that room shut closed because of fear. I’m reading a book titled What St. Paul Really Said by Tom Wright who explained that the concept all of the Jews had about the resurrection was that it would be done at the end of time as we know it for everyone; that God Himself would intervene and set everything right and evil would be conquered…and then the resurrection to life. That was the expectation of the disciples. Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” When will we trust God for everything? A quote from the book I’m reading: “The significance of Jesus’ resurrection, for Saul of Tarsus as he lay blinded and perhaps bruised on the road to Damascus, was this. The one true God had done for Jesus of Nazareth, in the middle of time, what Saul had thought He was going to do for Israel at the end of time…The Present Age and the Age to Come overlapped, and he was caught in the middle, or rather, liberated in the middle, liberated to serve the same God in a new way, with a new knowledge to which he had before been blind. If the Age to Come had arrived, if the resurrection had already begun to take place, then this was the time when the Gentiles were to come in.”

Everything changes as we realize that Creator God IS! I pray for everyone that we will all of us be shaken up and awakened to what God is doing right now today in lives turned to Him. It’s confusing to be shaken awake, I know, and it’s disorienting! But oh how we need that skaking! He is doing a marvelous work in the midst of everything happening in this fallen world living in darkness of disbelief and blindness. Do we truly know the power of God?