Responding to God's Amen

Revelation 3:14-16 (NLT) 14 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation: 15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
The identity revealed to the Church in Laodicea is a very powerful revelation with great meaning for our day. The "So be it" of God is a powerful statement. How I yearn to be the Amen of Jesus! Should the Church respond to the Nature and Being of Jesus and become the Amen of our Lord and Savior, we would make a powerful statement to our generation! There will be a remnant that makes that statement. It is our choice to be a part of that remnant!
To understand this identity of Jesus, we must turn to the revelation of Jesus that the Apostle Paul received of Him. Colossians 1:15-20 (NLT) 15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. 17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. 18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. 19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. And again in Hebrews we see the purpose of God in sending His Son to this realm, for only through the revealing power of Jesus walking among us do we see what we are to become. Hebrews 1:2-3 (NIV)2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
This is the revelation given to the Church that has not given to God the response to the glorious covenant cut to give us the right to bear His image. Instead, the church in Laodicea has become what they desired to be: rich, successful in the eye of the age in which they live, powerful in their own control and passive toward God. This church ignores the desire of God, spurns His purpose for them, and continues in their own program as though God had never made such a sacrifice of love for them to become sons like the Son He sent to them.
There is a phrase in this that causes me to marvel. "I will spit them out of my mouth..." I know it is an expression of distaste and rejection, but it also expresses a condition of intimacy, of delightful anticipation on the part of God in His regard to His Church. In His watching over us, does He have this anticipation of sharing with us His joy in His eternal purpose? Does He taste the sweet honey of our response of worship and obedience and trust and our own anticipation of His joy? Does He find what pleases Him or is the taste He gets the bitter and putrid stench of our adamic nature of self-pity, criticism, and pride in what is decaying and putrid in His sight? Yes, there are deeds and works, but they are not the flow of His hand using the hand of the church. The deeds are not "cold" in that they are good works that man can produce. But they are not "hot" in that they are what the Father is doing! This church was not following in Jesus' footsteps. They were walking on their own road and not the Way Jesus revealed.
There is a human condition that does not see "past their own nose" to desire to see by the Spirit a realm in which God is. The new birth opens the door to dwell in that realm of spirit. So many Christians receive the new birth but never grow in their new inheritance. They do not develop the ears to hear or the eyes to see. They seek to please "man" but not God. They do not become a "sweet savor" to the Father. They do not "check" to see if they are pleasing to Him.
Yes, I agree with the many that say we live in the days of the church in Laodicea!