“It is unfortunate that God’s children often misunderstand God’s ordained ‘Patmos.’”—Watchman Nee
In a recent Wednesday ministry meeting, while commenting on the section of the good land being a land of wheat, Brother Ed Marks referred to a precious portion by Watchman Nee based on Revelation 1:9 :
John was exiled to the island of Patmos because he was faithful to God’s word and because he was for the testimony of Jesus. This island was in the middle of the ocean, with precipitous rocks and barrenness on all sides. John was put in an uninhabited spot. Humanly speaking, this was lonely and pitiful! However, John did not murmur at all. He knew whom he was suffering for. Thank and praise God. Under such circumstances, the glorious Christ revealed Himself to him and gave him new revelations. The earth had diminished before John’s eyes, but heaven was opened to him! This brings to mind Joseph who was in prison, Moses who was in the wilderness, David who was in distress, and Paul who was in chains. They all received fresh revelations. John was going down the path they had trodden; he received visions that he had never received before, and he came to know the enthroned Lord whom he had never known before. (The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, (Set 2) Vol. 34. p. 165 or Chapter 10, Online Section 1)
Brothers and sisters, do you sometimes have the feeling that you also have been exiled to the “island of Patmos”? Are you in a situation which is “with precipitous rocks and barrenness on all sides”? Maybe marriage has become your Patmos. Maybe children are your Patmos. Or maybe your job. Or even a service group in the church. You feel bound, limited, and frustrated, unable to do or accomplish anything. You are pressed and distressed mentally and even physically. When placed in such a situation, it is very easy to start murmuring, complaining, blaming others, pitying the self, or simply shrinking back. But this was not the case with our brother John. When he, at a very elderly age, was deprived of freedom and pleasure and was isolated from everything and everyone else, he could have complained to God and become passive. Instead, he was there—on the island called Patmos—reaching an unprecedented spiritual height, receiving revelation after revelation, vision after vision, until he saw the ultimate vision of the New Jerusalem.
The reason that John was able to transcend his environment is simple—he was in his spirit (v. 10). His body might have lost freedom and his soul might have been suffering, but his spirit was free and uninhibited by the surroundings. In his spirit, he had the life of ascension. In his spirit, he was able to fellowship with the Lord in an unhindered way and receive fresh revelation. The human spirit is the only refuge where one can behold the heavenly Christ and enjoy the heavenly supply without being bothered, entangled, or bogged down by the earthly problems. Just as Brother Nee points out, when John was in the spirit:
The island of Patmos could not block the heaven above his head. On the contrary, it brought his spirit in touch with heaven. It is unfortunate that God’s children often misunderstand God’s ordained “Patmos.” (pp. 165-166)
If you are “on the island of Patmos” right now, be encouraged. You are not forgotten or abandoned. It is the Lord’s special mercy and a great opportunity for you to see something that you have never seen before, and for you to experience something that you have never experienced before, as long as you are willing to turn to your spirit. Let us become “brothers and fellow partakers” of the apostle John in this matter, following in his footsteps as well as those of Joseph, Moses, David, Paul, and even Watchman Nee—“I maintain my joy.” May none of us misunderstand God’s ordained “Patmos”!
Verse 9: I John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
You know, saints, this is a timely message for me. I have recently been experiencing a mental and psycho regression and was wondering why I could not do or know or say anything – except the word of God!! Now I realized that the Lord is putting me on Patmos this past few weeks, and He is now also waiting for me to turn to my spirit. I don’t know what I will see from the Lord when I turn to my mingled “S+spirit”, but I will say that I really was for “the word of God and the testimony of Jesus”.
Saints, please consecrate and re-consecrate yourselves right now. Do your best to utter a strong and definite prayer to the Lord on allowing Him to touch every chamber of your heart and every fiber of your tripartite being. Right now, on my “Patmos” all I could ever do was groan from deep with in to the Lord. May your “calling” on the name of the Lord stem from the depth of your spirit, not from the relatively superficial soul. Tell the Lord that you want Him, you want His person to be your person, you want His mind – the mind of Christ, and you want nothing more than the Father and His will – do it, and the Lord will be allowed to work on you in a special way. You will feel trapped, limited, even debilitated… but thanks to this message I now understand that the Lord wants to show us something special and personal in this circumstance.
Amen, Lord, thank You for Your arrangement, and the saint for putting this message online, and this God-awesome ministry that is really recovering all of Your precious vessels. Praise Him, all ye!
Amen!
Amen,
Thank you dear precious Lord Jesus for this Awesum ministry of Life, Lord thank you for saving us into Yourself!! What an awesome Lord we have.
I touched the Lord years ago when I was at a super low place, today I am sooo happy for this Ministry, its impossible to come into the Church Life & stay the same, the time must come for us to deeply turn to our mingled spirit and see our ONEness with the Lord, Lord Jesus may every single person that touch the Church Life learn to drink deeply, unceasingly pray & always Rejoice in ALL things!
Praise the Lord, we are in the Church Life in Cape Town, South Africa.
Wonderful.
Amen!Lord cause this deep moaning and longing deep with in our hearts. Make this our reality in our living. T y for thisprecious saint that encourages us. Not to give up that the Lord has something gloriously special for us!
Amen!Lord cause this deep moaning and longing deep with in our hearts. Make this our reality in our living. T y for this precious saints that encourages us and not to give up in our Patmos that the Lord something gloriously special for us! Keep us turning to our spirits with the mingling of God’s Spirit! Give us the vision of the New Jersalem and make this our reality.
Amen! for God-ordained-Patmos! Lord have mercy on me!
Let’s praise Him in His ordained patmos.. ”special mercy we will be getting and a fresh revelation we will be seeing.” Amen to Him!
Lord, thank You for our Patmos, it brings us closer to You. You become sweeter there. Keep us clinging to You, turning to our spirit. Purge us from all our natural self. Lord Jesus, keep us loving You.
Lord, thank You for showing me again the necessity of turning to my spirit every time I am in my “Patmos”. You are a refuge and a constant help that enables me to behold Your beauty and enjoy Your presence.
I love this portion…. it is the Lord’s mercy that He allows us to have our own “Patmos”, where we are seemingly imprisoned and isolated… Yet it is here, if we are in our spirit, that we can receive great revelations! I am encouraged to continue to just exercise my spirit until “Patmos” comes, and when it comes, I want to continue to be there – in my spirit!
This reminds me of the “even though I may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I do fear any evil, for You are with me”. The Lord is with us in the valley, and specifically in Patmos He wants to reveal His heart to us… He is with us! When we are in our spirit, we see something SO HIGH!
Thanks for posting this portion, this morning as I was opening my emails, I was immediately drawn to the “living to Him” email, in particular to this title. I am glad I was able to read it. My circumstances or environment may not change…but I realized that I need to turn to my spirit and receive the revelation while I am going through some difficult experiences.
May I not miss the Lord in my God’s ordained Patmos! Lord grant me Your Presence today!
i was particularly drawn to this title too when i opened the mail from “living to Him.” I’ve never really looked at the verse this way and i’m glad i read it. i thank the Lord for making His word available to us in such a way that we can share and encourage one another.
“The island of Patmos could not block the heaven above his head. On the contrary, it brought his spirit in touch with heaven.”
oh may this be our situation, may the Lord cause us and grace us to turn to our mingled spirit and experience Him in His ordained ‘patmos’.
praise Him
Yes! we need Patmos to be buildable.Oh! what a grace!Yes Lord, we love and we would not change our standing. Praise the Lord for Patmos
Oh, Lord Jesus!
This is just what I need right now, a very timely message indeed.
May the Lord remember the individual members of His body around the world that we all would learn to walk with Him as we go on with our daily lives.
Grace be with us all!
Thanks for the post. Things aren’t always rosy in our lives and it’s good to be reminded that all the situations, whether or not they are pleasant to our soul, are ordained by the Lord for a reason.
amen and amen. Hallelujah for our spirit!
Lord, establish our heart and gain the consecration You desire in us!!!
o lord ! what a truth it is !!!!!
We may be pressed on all sides, seemingly without hope, yet, what I so enjoyed seeing was that
it was on this island that John saw a revelation and a vision because he was in his mingled spirit
“In his spirit he had the life of ascension. In his spirit he was able to fellowship with the Lord in an unhindered way and receive fresh revelation. The human spirit is the only refuge where one can behold the heavenly supply without being bothered, entangled, or bogged down by the earthly problems.” May we just hide and remain in our ascended spirit. So I thank the Lord for such an opportunity to experience Him in such a deep way even while we are on the island of Patmos. The secret is our spirit. Hallelujah!
Amen..Lord, may we always stay hidden in You!
Let us become “brothers” and fellow partakers of the apostle John in this matter, following in his footsteps as well as those of Joseph, Moses, David, Paul and even Watchman Nee – I maintain my joy, in God’s ordained Patmos fo me.
The human spirit is the only refuge where one can behold the heavenly Christ and enjoy the heavenly supply without being bothered, entangled, or bogged down by the earthly problems.
What a encouragment! ” You are not forgotten or abandoned. It is the Lord’s special mercy and a great opportunity for you to see something that you have never seen before, and for you to experience something that you have never experienced before, as long as you are willing to turn to your spirit.”
Praise the Lord! :”The human spirit is the only refuge where one can behold the heavenly Christ and enjoy the heavenly supply without being bothered, entangled, or bogged down by the earthly problems. ”
“Let us become “brothers and fellow partakers” of the apostle John in this matter, following in his footsteps as well as those of Joseph, Moses, David, Paul, and even Watchman Nee—“I maintain my joy.”
May none of us misunderstand God’s ordained “Patmos”!
Amen.
Thank You Lord, that nothing on earth can shut the open heavens above us!
How encouraging! Praise the Lord for God’s ordained “Patmos”!
Eventually, we will all have our own Patmos. Being on Patmos, being in spirit and hearing His voice should be common to all believers. Having a turn to see the voice that speaks with us and seeing the vision of the corperate Christ and Him walking amongst the Church`s is not so commmon and needs cooperation on our part. May The Lord be merciful to us as the Author and perfector of our faith and we turn and see.
Amen. Lord, thank you for our spirit!!
Yes Lord, I turn to my spirit!
AMEN.SAINTS WE NEED TO TURN TO OUR SPIRIT. PRAISE THE LORD FOR THE WONDERFUL MESSAGE.
Thank you Lord for Your comforting speaking.
Amen, Lord! May we not miss You in our God-ordained Patmos! Keep us turning to our spirit. Cause us to turn to the voice that speaks to us. How we love You! How we thank You that we need “all things” in order to gain You for Your expression!
I’m not sure that I have experienced a Patmos. But I am glad that all things are ordained by him. May he grant us to be ready in our spirit all the time for this Island of Patmos. We never know when he will grant us that revelation for the Body.
Dear and Precious LORD, keep us saying Amen to YOU in all YOUR arrangements for us!
I love how the Lord meets me/us in all sorts of environments! It sometimes feels impossible to break through but I just have to praise the Lord because “…The things that impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18:27) Although this message was given a few years ago, I’m reaping the benefit of it today. I’m going through a tough time in my Patmos – marriage life. I consecrated my marriage to the Lord when I first was joined to my husband and how the Lord honored that!!! It’s been 13 years and I’m not happily married but I know the Lord is the real husband and “nothing and no one can satisfy but” Him any more! To be married in the Lord’s recovery is not a small matter. Our marriages are unto the Lord for His desire which is to build up the church as His Body so that He can gain the reality- the one new man!!! He is coming again and how He needs to obtain a testimony on the earth today!!! Lord I do give myself to you yet once again so that You might obtain Your complete satisfaction… Here am I Lord… Overcome in me!!! Gain what You’re after and swiftly end this age!!!
“No matter what circumstances i really need to face, may Your presence be with me in all my days Lord.”
…even in my college days, still i’m looking forward to You as my sufficient grace. i really love You, my Lord and my Master.
Yes Lord !Let me do not miss your ordained Patmos!