Change Your Life - Know Your Future
- Paul Downie
- 5 days ago
- 19 min read
Revelation 21:6-8 NIV
[6] He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. [7] Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their8 God and they will be my children. [8] But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
In the business world, loyalty can be hard to come by, and motivation just as hard. You would be astonished how hard it is to get people to do the right thing, especially if it’s inconvenient. Dangling a financial carrot can help, but when that’s not available to you, other means must be used, which aren’t always easy to find.
In the voluntary sector it can be harder. People in general are highly motivated to do what they do, but not necessarily to change what they do. It can take a lot of reasoning and arguing.
For all I talked about attitude and behavioural change being motivated by love, I think we can all agree that it isn’t easy. It’s a struggle. That’s why we have sayings like ‘people never change’ and ‘a leopard can't change its spots.’
God disagrees.
However, it can be a struggle.
Which begs the question: Why do it? Why spend time and effort battling our own fleshly tendencies to give in to the lures set out by the world and the devil? Why put ourselves through that?
We saw in my last post that we ought to be motivated by love to change our lives. However, there is also a powerful inducement: the eternal reward we receive for being victorious over the world, the flesh and the devil.
When we’re locked in the battle, it’s sometimes hard to lift our head. I know. I spent so much time going to school with my head down that I'm surprised I didn’t develop a chronic crick in my neck!
But I've written this post to allow you to lift your head above the painful battle to see that every second of strain and struggle is worth it and will be worth it.
This wonderful future ahead of us begins, as it should be, with The God.
The God
Revelation 21:6 NIV
[6] He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
During the Covid pandemic, we discovered something very important: the identity of the person speaking really matters. It someone is a qualified medical professional, or has long experience in the field, then we should listen to them because they understand the subject matter. They know what they are talking about.
On the other hand, if they are not a medical professional, and are, say, a media personality or a historian or a taxi driver, their words should not resonate with the same authority, because they do not understand the field and don’t have the same level of knowledge or experience.
Even if they say the words we want to hear.
When we are wrestling with our own sinful, fleshly tendencies and staring down the barrel of our own failure to control ourselves, we need someone to speak words of encouragement to us. But they can’t just be ‘airy-fairy’ platitudes or the type of slogan you can find on a cat poster or a bumper sticker.
No, we need someone to speak definitively and give us hope that our battle is worthwhile and will be won.
That person is God.
These words tell us both who God is and what He has done, and provide us with profound hope that we will win our battle.
Firstly we see the end of things, in that God declares that ‘It is done’.
What does this mean?
What it means is that everything has changed and that life will never be the same. Just look at what the previous verses tell us:
Heaven and earth are renewed (Revelation 21:1)
The seemingly misnamed city of peace Jerusalem is renewed (Revelation 21:2)
Eden is renewed, in that God, who once walked among His creation (Genesis 3:8) now dwells in its midst (Revelation 21:3)
The old order of sorrow and pain has gone (Revelation 21:4)
All things are made new (Revelation 21:5)
These words mean that God’s plan to re-make creation back to what it should have been had the Fall in Genesis 3 not taken place are now complete. Absolute victory over sin and darkness has happened. The devil has been vanquished. The world has passed away. Our fleshly wandering has been cured.
Everything has been made new.
This is the day we live for. This is why we struggle.
We yearn to be a part of this day.
But we also see the God who started it, in that He is the beginning, the Alpha.
The Bible begins with these words in English:
Genesis 1:1 NIV
[1] In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
As John introduced his Gospel:
John 1:1-3 NIV
[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was with God in the beginning. [3] Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In other words, God was not just at the very beginning, like a spectator watching an event, He was the beginning of all things.
He initiated them all.
He is also the God who ended it.
While on the cross, Jesus cried with a loud voice that ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30), meaning not just that something had come to and end, but also that a debt had been repaid in full.
It’s a glorious freedom when that happens. You feel like a huge weight has been lifted from your shoulders.
But now, in Revelation, a different word is used to signify the end of time.
God is the One who started everything off. God is the One who ended it.
These concepts point to God as being much greater than us; beyond our comprehension.
This is the greatness of the One we worship.
We are so small in comparison – smaller than we could ever conceive.
But that does not mean that God stands aloof from our struggles and our problems:
Psalms 103:13-14 NIV
[13] As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; [14] for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
Astonishingly, this is the God who works beside us and in us to make us more like Himself:
Philippians 2:12-13 NIV
[12] Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, [13] for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Sometimes, when the battle is hard and long and tough, what makes it so much harder is not our enemy – because sometimes we are our own worst enemy – but because we fail to realise who it is what we have on our side:
We have God: the beginning and end of all things. And He has done it: everything needed for us to know the final and decisive victory over temptation and sin has been done.
All we need to do is cry out to Him for His help and walk in the victory He brings.
Apart from the God, we then see something that might strike us as unusual: The Thirsty.
The Thirsty
Revelation 21:6 NIV
[6] To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.
There is a very clever brand in the Philippines. I have to appreciate what they do because it is genius.
Their marketing works like this:
Outside shopping malls it’s hot and humid. Inside shopping malls it’s a lot cooler – it almost feels like you've stepped into a giant refrigerator by comparison – but their air is dehumidified as well as conditioned. It’s cooler, but also drier.
This means that when you enter a mall, you are likely to be thirsty.
So they position their concession stands in the middle of walkways or close to entrances.
When you see their stands, they have crushed ice and cooling fruits and refrigerators all clearly visible.
Their name? Thirsty.
Which you are.
So you immediately want to buy one of their cool fruit smoothies.
Genius, isn’t it?
Here, God makes His offer to a group of people that we might not expect: the thirsty people. And it’s not the only time in Scripture when this offer is made:
Isaiah 55:1-2 NIV
[1] “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. [2] Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.
John 4:13-14 NIV
[13] Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, [14] but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 6:35 NIV
[35] Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
So why would this offer be made in particular to people who are thirsty?
Let’s think very simply about the mechanics of being thirsty. You need something essential for life. You long for it. You feel that longing. So if someone offers you to drink something, you are likely to take that opportunity.
You lack something. You feel the lack. The lack is satisfied.
But for that lack to be satisfied, you have to be prepared to admit that there is a lack.
Now, someone who has battled temptation and addiction will have no issues at all in admitting the limits of their own strength and resources. The trials they have been through will have convinced them of that. They won’t need persuasion.
So they will readily admit their thirst.
But those who are smug and have a ‘holier than thou’ attitude will never be able to admit their thirst because they will be unable to admit that temptation is even an issue for them.
That is why Jesus said these words:
Luke 15:7 NIV
[7] I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
It was also why, when it came to the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, it was the tax collector who went home justified before God, because he had admitted his thirst, whereas the Pharisee looked down with ugly disdain upon those who felt thirsty (Luke 18:9-14).
People receive the greatest blessing from God when they realise that they need it. That is why it is the thirsty, and not the satiated, who receive this blessing.
And what a blessing they receive!
They get to drink from the spring of the Water of Life that causes this to happen:
Revelation 22:1-2 NIV
[1] Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb [2] down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
This is a picture taken from Ezekiel, where he elaborates on it:
Ezekiel 47:8-9 NIV
[8] He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. [9] Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.
This water makes the standing water flow. It makes the salty water fresh. It brings the dead water to life.
And those who are thirsty drink from the source of this water: the Lord Jesus Himself.
What a blessing!
What a picture of what God can do on our life!
But it isn’t just about the God and the thirsty. It is also about The Victors.
The Victors
Revelation 21:7 NIV
[7] Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
This is a powerful verse. It’s one often used by those who support ‘strongman’ theologies, or materialistic, evolutionary thinking. They see this as evidence that the strong thrive and the weak die.
But that is not true. It simply proves that they have not read their Bibles. Look what Paul taught the Corinthians, who lived in a very macho Graeco-Roman culture:
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 NIV
[26] Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. [27] But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. [28] God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, [29] so that no one may boast before him. [30] It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. [31] Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NIV
[7] Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. [8] Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. [9] But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. [10] That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Or as it says elsewhere in the Bible:
Zechariah 4:6 NIV
[6] So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.
So if you think that you need to conquer through your own might and ability, forget it. That is not what is happening here.
And if you are intimidated because you feel weak and insecure and don’t see how you will conquer anything, don’t be afraid.
Because there are two people who conquer here:
Firstly, Jesus conquers, in His strength.
John 16:33 NIV
[33] “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
1 John 4:4 NIV
[4] You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
That is – and this is vital for us to know – Jesus has already defeated the two main sources of the lures that tempt us: the world and the devil. They are done. The battle is over. They have lost.
Jesus is the victor.
But secondly, we conquer in His strength.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV
[21] God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We are victorious in Him when we stand in His power:
Revelation 15:1-4 NIV
[1] I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. [2] And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God [3] and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the nations. [4] Who will not fear you, Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
That is why we see this in James:
James 4:7 NIV
[7] Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Because by ourselves we are defeated, but in God we are victorious.
A few years ago, while in Switzerland, we got the train up to the top of Schynigge Platte. If you can imagine being so high up a mountain that you are looking down on helicopters, you'll get an idea of the experience we had there. It was incredible. The views of the steep Lauterbrunnen Valley beneath us were breathtaking. Buildings and rivers and even hills that seemed to be tall were so small.
Our perspective had changed.
Once we realise the greatness of the God in whose strength we stand, our enemies seem to be very small.
Let me give you an example.
When Goliath first appeared, this was how the Israelite army reacted:
1 Samuel 17:10-11, 23-24 NIV
[10] Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” [11] On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
[23] As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. [24] Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.
But the boy David’s reaction was different, and what he said to the Philistine tells us why:
1 Samuel 17:45-47 NIV
[45] David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. [46] This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. [47] All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
‘The battle is the Lord’s’, not his own.
David stood down the terrifying giant because he stood tall in the Lord’s strength, not his own.
From the beginning of this study, I’ve tried to impress on us that the point of temptation is to make us afraid so that we abandon God and His way. It is to intimidate us into submission. Then, when we succumb, it is to keep us separated from God so that we don’t confess and repent of our sin.
Temptation can quickly become our Goliath.
But, as I’ve said before, the temptations that seem to be big and insurmountable are actually small and beatable, no matter what they are. And do you know why?
Because our God is great.
And when we trust in Him, we will prevail.
And when we prevail, we will inherit heaven as children of God.
We've looked at the God, the thirsty and the victorious. If our study was to end there, it would be on a very positive note. But it cannot, because the verse doesn’t end there. It goes on to describe The Cowardly.
The Cowardly
Revelation 21:8 NIV
[8] But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
There are truly concerning words.
This is deadly serious.
There are those who will not make it. There are those who will be condemned to hell.
And the reason why should cause us to stop in our tracks and consider this very carefully:
They were afraid. They were cowards.
But what does this mean?
The word for ‘cowardly’ in this verse is only used in one other event and two places in the Bible: when Jesus was sleeping during a storm and was woken by the disciples (Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:36-41). It’s used by Jesus to describe their panicked state when they accused Him of not caring if they drown.
And that is very significant.
This word here refers to a lapse in faith and a belief that God will not come through for us. It is that very belief we saw right from the beginning of this series that causes us to take the bait and get reeled in by the lure set out by the world and the devil. It’s that reasoning in our head that justifies what we keep doing by telling us that it is desirable, but that God has kept it from us without good reason.
In essence, it is a fundamental collapse in our faith in the nature and character of God.
It is the same thing that caused the Israelites to want a king like the other nations, as Samuel told them:
1 Samuel 12:12 NIV
[12] “But when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites was moving against you, you said to me, ‘No, we want a king to rule over us’—even though the Lord your God was your king.
It’s the same catastrophic collapse in courage and faith that saw Peter deny he knew Jesus and caused all the disciples to abandon Him.
Only this collapse in faith causes people to not just run from Jesus, but run towards sin – just to be like everyone else.
In most of the disciples’ cases (with the possible exception of Judas – although there are questions regarding whether he had any faith at all), they repented and their faith was restored (see Luke 22:31-32). This verse seems to be about those who lose their faith and never return, sinking instead into a sinful morass of behaviour God considers to be hateful.
It also applies to those who never believed: who had the opportunity, either through hearing the Gospel (Romans 10:14-15), or through the prodding of their own heart and conscience (Romans 2:12-16), yet they decided to head precisely in the opposite direction. Instead of embracing love for God, their neighbours and themselves, they chose hate, and drowned themselves in an ocean of nihilistic self-loathing.
This seems to be so dark. And perhaps also judgemental. You might look at God’s verdict on these crimes and consider it to be harsh and intolerant.
But it needs to be.
Consider these verses:
Matthew 10:32-33 NIV
[32] “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. [33] But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
Luke 10:16 NIV
[16] “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
John 12:47-50 NIV
[47] “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. [48] There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. [49] For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. [50] I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
Jesus came to bring us life. These people have chosen death.
Jesus came as the embodiment of love. These people have chosen hatred.
Jesus came as the light of the world. These people have chosen darkness.
In a way, God does not need to judge these people: they have chosen their own judgement.
So yes, these verses are dark and scary and threatening, but they need to be, because they tell us the truth. Our decisions have repercussions. They are not made in a vacuum.
If we turn our back on God, He will turn His back on us.
And if He does, there will be consequences.
I make no apologies for talking about this deeply uncomfortable subject. After all, if your doctor needed to tell you that you had a deadly, but curable, disease, would you not want to know so you could get it treated while it was still curable?
It’s the same with sin and temptation. Today is the day of salvation – or it can be for you.
Realise what awaits those who continue on this path and repent – as soon as you can – before it's too late!
Conclusion
Revelation 21:6-8 NIV
[6] He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. [7] Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. [8] But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
One of the most effective ways to persuade anyone to change their ways is to get them to examine the consequences of their actions. When I was in my latter years in primary school, an anti-smoking campaign brought a bunch of lungs from slaughtered pigs into our classroom. As we cut into them, black tar oozed out. The point of this rather dramatic demonstration was that if we smoked, our lungs would end up looking like that.
It was already too late. Even before they turned twelve years old, several of my classmates were already smoking.
Nowadays, they could likely do the same with bubble wrap or a bag of popcorn to show the heinous effects of vaping.
Seeing the consequences of an action deters us from doing it. Even in a business setting, it often helps if we can say with any authority, ‘If you do this, that will result’.
It’s pretty effective.
It’s just as effective in a positive way too. What we have seen here is what happens if we are courageous enough to confront our own tendencies to succumb to temptation and swallow the deadly poisoned lures of the world and the devil.
We see our God, who knows everything from beginning to end, and from whom we cannot hide. We see our thirst – our need that will occasionally drive us in the wrong direction, but when we realise that only God can satisfy us, then we drink deeply of the healing Water of Life. We see that those who have the courage to face down their own sin are strengthened by God for the battle and inherit Heaven. And we see that those who lack the courage to take their stand and who commit hateful acts will find themselves facing a lost, tortured eternity for it.
Maybe you read these incredibly dramatic words and wonder ‘Where is grace in all this?’ After all, it seems that courageous people are rewarded and cowardly people are punished. Aren’t they saved by their works?
No. Not at all.
They are saved by their faith. But faith must produce works or else it is dead (James 2:17, 26).
Saving faith is working faith.
It has to be.
Consider this: if you were in a burning building and you believed that heading to the fire escape would lead you to safety, would you do it?
Of course you would! Your faith in the fire escape would save you.
It makes no sense to sit in the smoke and the flames until you are overcome.
Yet that is what so many do.
And I realise that breaking long entrenched habits or chemical addictions are not at all easy. I get it. You may well need therapeutic assistance.
But the journey of faith begins with the firm belief that you can escape and the courage to begin and end that journey.
So tell me: do you have faith that God can save you from your sins?
If so, lift your head up, Christian: each passing day brings Heaven one day closer.
And your full and final victory with it.
In my final post in this series, we will look at the final thing you need to know, which is to Know Your God.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, what a glorious future You have for me! I’m sorry if I lose sight of it in the drudgery of battle. Help me to lift my head and see that my salvation and victory are one day closer. Amen.
Questions
Why is important to realise who God is and how He fits into our future?
Why is their such a contrast in fortunes between those who are thirsty, but are courageous, and those who are cowards?
In which of those two groups are you? Why? Which group do you want to be a part of?
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