People often ask me if I am one of the 144,000 referred to in Revelation 7. That question can’t easily be answered with a yes or no and I honestly don’t know if I can say that I am or am not counted among the 12,000 of each tribe of Israel that will be sealed on the forehead with the mark of the servant of God. Maybe, maybe not.
So many people have gone astray from applying something from scripture that does not actually apply to them. Sometimes it is something as simple as the concept of waiting on the Lord as if there were no free will and they have no autonomy. People won’t move unless moved and miss countless opportunities to reach out for the Lord. Sometimes it is something ridiculous like handling venomous snakes (Luke 10:19). Or applying a promise given to exile Israel to yourself (Jeremiah 29:11).
Truth is when we put ourselves as the center of our universe as our flesh often tends to do we try to take scripture as if it were a parts of a quilt which we sow together in order to make the warmest religious blanket with almost no regard to what God has actually intended to communicate through scripture. I for one am guilty of this having caught myself many times reminding God that I put Him first and now He owes me my hearts desire. We need to put God in the proper place He belongs, the center, on top, #1. When He is where he belongs you can trust in His spirit to show you what scripture means and how it should apply to you.
So am I one of the 144,000? Does it matter? Am I not still a servant of the Lord who should be focused on God and not my place in final head count of a time that may be tomorrow or may take another thousand years? Only God knows and I take comfort in that fact. I don’t need to know and I don’t need to worry.
If you are worried about how well you are doing or where your place in the kingdom of God is, then perhaps you are the center of your univerce and it is time to allow God to recreate your universe with Jesus as the center.
Be Blessed
Sean Trank
