The Blessings in Revelation

By Wardell Mathis

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. (Revelation 1:3)

This book is a revelation from Jesus Christ, about Himself. This is extremely important for the following:

1) It reveals Jesus’s evolution of His churches sixty to sixty-five years after His resurrection and ascension to heaven, and

2) It discloses future events concerning the tribulation: God’s triumph over evil, the return of Christ to reign on earth, and the blessedness of God’s eternal kingdom.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; Yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them. (Revelation 14:13)

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. (Revelation 16:15)

And He said unto me, write, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb, and He sayeth unto me, these are the true sayings of God. (Revelation 19:9)

Blessed and Holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. (Revelation 20:6)

Blessed is he that readeth. (Revelation 1:3)

This is the first of seven beatitudes or blessings found in Revelation given to those who read, hear, and obey the things written in the Book. The other six blessings are found in Revelations 14:13, 16:15, 19:9, 20:6, 22:7, 22:14 and Luke 11:28).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638148494

Book preview

This Is First Joseph

The Truth about the Bible

And God said, let us make man in our image,

So, God created man in his own image, in the image of god created he him: male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:26–27)

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). We have brown dust, we have red dust, and we have black dust; so, we all are the same. The Bible is our history and not February. Solomon said, I am black (Song of Solomon chapter 1–5). He let you know the truth. We are the one in the Bible, and the Bible is our history.

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow: and his eyes were as a flame of fire:

And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace: and his voice as the sound of many waters. (Revelation 1:14–15)

My hair is like wool. Revelation is the revelation of Jesus (v. 3). Jesus said that it is a blessing just to read it, Blessed is he that readeth.

Are You in the Right Church?

Let talk about the churches. How did you come in the church? Did you come in right hands of fellowship? Well, if you did, you were wrong.

Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also.

And I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.

But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:

And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:

To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour: that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man’s person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:

But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto peter:

For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles.

And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship: that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.

Now Paul and Barnabas were in apostleship, and Titus was a bishop. James, Cephas, and John who seemed to perceive the grace, they gave Paul and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship.

Jesus said unto him if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. (Mark 9:23)

Help My Unbelief

The youngster was plagued by demon powers. They caused him to go into fits of rage and to throw himself into the fire. The father brought the young man to the disciples, who failed to help him, so the father brought him to Jesus. (See parallel account in Matthew 17:14–21.)

When the father presented his request, Jesus responded that the child could be healed, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth (Mark 9:23). The father then cried out passionately, with tears, Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief (Mark 9:24). Jesus rebuked the demon powers, and the child was delivered.

Jesus told his disciples that the reason they could not help the boy was their unbelief. He said, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place: and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible unto you (Matthew 17:20).

Unbelief hinders the work of God. The ministry of the Son of God himself was limited by it (Mark 6:5–6), and one of the final issues Jesus dealt with prior to his return to heaven was unbelief (Mark 16:14). Jesus gave a great promise: all things are possible, but the requirement is believing. Faith, even the size of a mustard seed, is honored and rewarded by God. If your faith is weak, if unbelief is blocking the way to your miracle, cry out, as this father did, Lord, I believe: help that my unbelief.

The Saving of the Soul

Receive with meerness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21)

The spirit of man is the part of man that is born again. It is the part of man that receives eternal life, which is the nature and life of God. It is the spirit of man that becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus. The soul is not the innermost being at all. It is not the soul that is born again. The saving of the soul is a process.

James 1:21 used to bother me when I was a denominational preacher before I was filled with the Holy Spirit. I didn’t know what I know now. I used spirit and soul interchangeably referring to the spirit as the soul and the soul as the spirit. I didn’t divide them as the Bible does. But I did have enough sense to leave this verse alone until I grew so that I could understand what it is saying.

The epistle of James was not written to sinners. James did not write a letter to the world: he wrote this letter to the church. We know that because of James 5 where he says, Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church (v. 14). In other words, if there is any sick among the church, let him call for the elders of the church. Also referring back now to the first chapter of James, let’s pick up with verse 18

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:18–21)

James is talking to born-again believers of the father’s own will. He writes, We were begotten, or born again by the word of truth. He calls them my beloved brethren. So, they were in Christ. Yet he encourages these born-again, spirit filled people to receive the engrafted word with meekness,…which is able to save your souls. Evidently, their souls were not saved.

You see, a man’s spirit, the innermost man, the real man, receives eternal life and is born again. But his intellect and emotions, which comprise his soul, still have to be dealt with. They are not born again. They are to be renewed.

Paul speaks about the renewing of the mind, writing to the saints at Rome.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)

The psalmist David spoke of the restoring of the soul:

He restoreth my soul. (Psalm 23:3)

The Hebrew word translated restore in the Old Testament and the Greek word translated renew in the New Testament mean about the same thing. The soul, the mind, is to be renewed or restored.

My mother left me a chair which she inherited from her mother. I don’t know exactly how old that chair is, but it is quite old. I can remember when my grandmother had it restored. They put new upholstery on it. They revarnished it. It was still the same chair: it was just restored. It was renewed.

In the word, it is never written that God restores our spirits. Our spirits become brand-new creatures in Christ Jesus. Our souls, however, must be renewed or restored.

How? We have these scriptures relative to the soul: Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls (James 1:21). Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 122). He restoreth my soul (Psalm 23:3).

Man’s soul is saved or restored when his mind becomes renewed with the Word of God. It is the Word of God that saves our souls, that renews our minds, that restores our souls. When our minds become renewed with the Word of God, then we think in line with what God’s Word says. We are able to know and prove the permissive and the perfect will of God because the Word of God is the will of God. We do not have so many questions about the will of God once we get our souls saved.

The greatest need in the church today is to have minds renewed with the Word of God.

The Institution of the Lord’s Supper

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, take, eat; this is my body. (Matthew 26:26)

Now let’s go to Exodus 16:12–18.

I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel; speak unto them, saying, at even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.

And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.

And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.

And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna; for they will not what it was and Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the lord hath given you to eat.

This is the thing which the lord hath commanded, gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.

And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.

And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.

What is manna?

And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna; and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. (Exodus 16:31)

And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came up to the borders of the land of Canaan. (Exodus 16:35)

But now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.

And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.

And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.

And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it. (Numbers 11:6–9)

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

Thy raiment waxed not