Hi Mike,
 
When Revelation talks about them being poor, blind and naked does that mean they are poor in spirit and blind to his word, and they have no righteousness for spiritual clothing?
 
P____

Hi P____,
You ask about Rev 3, and you are exactly right. Babylon actually believes that she is spiritually rich and increased with spiritual goods:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

These “poor, blind and naked” brothers and sisters in Christ actually believe that what they teach about the character of God and our relationship with Him is the truth. They know that they have repented of their sins just as Israel had repented when they cried out to God to deliver them from the Egyptians:

Exo 2:23  And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
Exo 2:24  And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Exo 2:25  And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

“God looked on Israel and had respect unto them.” He actually delivered them out of Egypt and baptized them in the Red Sea. What Christianity today does not realize is that it is not called the doctrine of baptism, but the doctrine of baptisms. It is God who brings us all to cry out to Him in the first place, but the fact that that generation did not enter the holy land should tell us all that that original baptism is not the only baptism required for salvation.

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world [ Greek ‘aion’ – age] are come.  

That original baptism is just the beginning of a life- long process of dying to the flesh. Baptism is death:

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

How long does baptism last?

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Baptism lasts a life time! But our brothers and sisters in Babylon have no understanding whatsoever of this verse of scripture:

Col 1:24  Who [ Paul, you. and me] now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of [ the] Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

They feel that all the physical healings and the gift of unknown tongues and the doctrines of eternal hell, immortal souls, and free moral agency, etc., etc. are what make them “rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing.” After all, didn’t Israel come out of Egypt rich and increased with the riches of Egypt? Of course they did, and it is truths like that which keep those who have no interest in fighting the giants in the land from being able to acknowledge that the ten rebellions in the wilderness witness to the fact that our initial baptism, rich as it is at the moment, will lead us to spiritual poverty if we refuse to enter into battle with the “giants in the land” and “go on unto perfection.”

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
Num 14:23  Surely t hey shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2   Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

People like you and I torment Babylon with fiery words coming out of our mouths, and as far as they are concerned, we are “dead in the streets of their great city… Babylon the Great.”

Rev 11:3  And I will give [ power] unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred [ and] threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
Rev 11:6  These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies [ shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

As far as they are concerned, it is you and I who are “wretched and miserable and poor, and blind and naked.”
But the truth is the exact opposite. Because we have previously acknowledged that we of ourselves know nothing and can do nothing, we have been given both knowledge and power over sin in our lives. “These have power to shut up heaven” means that the witness to the Truth will never be accepted by those who first hear their witness. You no doubt considered me to be a nut when you first came to this site. “Rain” is the Truth of God’s Word, and there is no one who can receive it when it is first introduced. Even the apostle Paul had to spend time in the wilderness getting the Word of God sorted out in his mind. Of course most never do get it sorted out. It rains not during the days of the testimony of God’s witnesses, means their witness is not received by Babylon. The number two is the number of witness and Christ told all of His disciples:

Luk 24:48  And ye are witnesses of these things.

Mat 18:16  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

The only thing I would point out to you is that this whole book called the Revelation of Jesus Christ, is just that. It is the revealing of Christ in each of us. John sees this entire vision as he “looks behind him.”

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

Rev 1:11  Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send [ it] unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
Rev 1:12  And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

What John is telling us when he tells us that he “heard behind me a voice…” is that God does not reveal His precious Truth to us until after He has first prepared our hearts to receive those truths:

1Ch 29:18  O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:
Psa 10:17  LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

And this is the Truth whether our hearts are turned toward of away from God:

Jer 12:3  But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

“Prepare them for the day of slaughter” is a statement that applies to all flesh, both the flesh of God’s “few… elect” and His “many called.” What John is saying in telling us that this vision was given to him as he looked “behind” and saw all these things, is that none of us will understand until after we, too, have experienced “the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

The time to “keep the saying of the prophecy of this book” has been been “at hand” for over two thousand years.

Rev 22:6  And he said unto me, These sayings [ are] faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

This book is completely sealed to this very day for all but those whose Savior has opened its seven seals to see how Christ is being unveiled in their lives:

Rev 5:1  And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals .
Rev 5:2  And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
Rev 5:3  And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:4  And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

So yes, these are spiritual words which are all, to this day, hidden right out in the open from the whole world, who do not even believe or understand the meaning of “comparing spiritual with spiritual,” which is the only way to hope to understand God’s Word:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [Gen 1:1 to Rev 22:21] they are spirit , and they are life.
1Co 2:11  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual .
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [ them], because they are spiritually discerned.

Pray for “eyes to see and ears to hear… the mysteries of the kingdom of God” and the ability to “compare spiritual things with spiritual.

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them i n parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven , but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

Christ’s message from Genesis to Revelation is that everything, whether it is life, or sight, or Laodicea, must first be seen as within, before it can be overcome and replaced with the “things of the spirit.”
We find life only after we lose this life.

Luk 9:24  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

We are given vision only after we acknowledge our blindness,…

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And [ some] of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

… and we become Philadelphia and Smyrna, only if we are given ears to hear what the spirit says to all of the churches within us, including Laodicea.
Mike