Revelation 3:14 And to the angel of the church of the Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Head of the creation of God
For the past few days, we’ve been delving into the multiple meanings of “Amen”. While “Amen” is most commonly found at the end of prayers, the Lord Yeshua (Jesus) often used it at the beginning of a statement: “Truly, truly, I say unto you …” more accurately translated, “Amen, Amen, I say unto you…”
Risto Santala, in his book “The Messiah in the New Testament in the light of Rabbinical writings” shares this insight, “Critics have long considered the words of Jesus, “Truly, truly, I tell you”, to be rather strange. In the Greek original the Hebrew words amen, amen are used, in a way which is not found in either the Old Testament or the Rabbinic literature. ‘Amen’ there is found at the end of prayers and speeches, whereas Jesus used it to introduce what he had to say. In the early 1960’s a fragment from a deed of transaction was found in which a contemporary of Jesus solemnly states “Amen, amen, ani lô ashem”, ‘Truly, truly, I am innocent’. Jesus seems to have borrowed this grave formula of his from a juridical oath. In Hebrew the words for ‘faith’ and ‘amen’ are derivatives of the same root. The word ‘amen’ is indeed the only permissible affirmation: ‘You can believe this; it is true!’”
Santala understands by this historical usage that Yeshua (Jesus) used “amen” in a legally binding way to convey his authentic spiritual authority, the reliability of His revelation, and the deep spiritual truths He carried based on who He is. For example, in John 8:58, Yeshua said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am”, binding himself by an oath to testify to His identity.
Writing to the Church of Laodicea [Revelation 3:14] the John the apostle, by the Holy Spirit identifies Yeshua as “The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Head of the creation of God…”. The use of “Amen” as a name for the Lord Yeshua further amplifies the profundity of this one expression.
“Amen” thus may be a word we have taken too lightly. Think about the fact that it is one of the many Names of God’s Son and a word with literally endless usages in scripture; then use it with joy, faith, and confidence!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Revivals, that is, genuine Divinely ordained seasons of the activity of God among men, have a universally unusual character. Normal activities and behaviors give way to the tangible influence of God’s Holy Spirit, whose inspiration brings a freedom of expression, emotion, conviction, worship, and other variations from normal experience.
During the Catholic inquisitions, as millions of Christians were being killed by the Jesuit Priests for apostasy, throughout Europe, Christians were fleeing. In Bohemia alone, there were an estimated 4,000,000 Christians before the Jesuit inquisition, and ten years later, only 800,000 people remained in Bohemia – all of whom were Catholic. These terrible events prepared the ground for one of the greatest moves of God that have ever been recorded, the Moravian Revival, which lasted for over 100 years. Gustav Warneck, the German Historian of Protestant Missions, testified, “This small church in twenty years called into being more missions than the whole Evangelical Church has done in two centuries.”
I love to study past revivals and in studying them, there are two recurring themes that stand out:
First, that He has often used obscure and unknown individuals to lead revivals, and that even these men whom He used so powerfully never considered themselves to be “special”, but often wanted to stay out of the limelight.
During the Great Depression, poverty swept across America like a whirling tornado, ripping up dreams and scattering hopes to the wind. One such poverty twister hit a small part of Texas where a man named Yates ran a sheep ranch. Struggling even to keep food on the table, Yates and his wife did all they could to survive. Finally, they had to accept a government subsidy or lose their home and land to the creditors.
When Joseph was thrown into prison, his life was thought to be over. How could anyone escape an Egyptian prison? But then, in one day, according to God’s perfect timing, he was instantly promoted to reign over all Egypt with only the Pharoah, (“god on earth”) as his Lord…
As we continue our study of Mashiach ben Yosef, we observe that both Joseph and Yeshua (Jesus) were chosen or ‘anointed’ for a special task. When Jacob gifted his son Joseph with a coat of many colors, lifting him up above his brothers, he reflected Joseph’s calling by the Lord for a life work as a leader.
Joseph interpreted dreams and revealed their meaning to those around him, and so Pharaoh gave him the name, Tsofnat Paneach (Zaphnathpaaneah) which means the “Decipherer or Revealer of Secrets”. Yeshua, (Jesus) at his first advent as “Mashiach ben Yosef” also came revealing secrets; not as an interpreter of dreams, but as one who disclosed the secrets of men…