Following the Lamb Wherever He Goes

"These are they which follow the Lamb
whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed
from among men, being the firstfruits unto
God and to the Lamb." (Rev. 14:4)

Here are the first fruits of the reward of
the Lamb who was slain. Here is the victory
of Easter. Here there is beauty and wonder
beyond imagination. Here there are no words:
only unadulterated adoration.

These are they that "follow the Lamb
wheresover He goes." The thought makes me
weak-kneed with longing. Here are these
that will not, cannot, ever let Jesus go.
They follow Him everywhere, eternally.
Oh, to be one of their number! or at
least to never be turned back from
being with Him!

Jesus has paid dearly for the privilege
of having these firstfruits, yet He does
not think so, so highly does He think of
them. There was a time and a place where
Jesus had to make His journey alone.

There was a time when and a place where
those who followed the Lamb
could not go. On His way to death He
told Peter, "Where I am going you cannot come,
but later you will come" (John 13:34-37).
What a unimaginable amount of sovereignty,
passion, majesty and wonder is in that short
sentence!

At that time no-one could follow Jesus to
where He was going. He had to make that hard
journey of death alone. Yet He made it to inherit
such a people, He did it so these who follow
Him shall NEVER bear the pain of even a
moment's separation from Him ever again.

Some want only to go to heaven. Others want
to only escape hell. But there are a
few, choice ones: those for whom the eyes
of the Lord run up and down the face of
the earth, and back and forth through the
endless pages of human history, looking for
those who will follow Him everywhere
and always. For to these there is
no heaven but Him.

There is no life away from
Him, there is nothing to be desired
apart from Him. They live to follow the
Lamb and there are no other events that
entice them, no other place that calls them,
no other interest that distracts them.

Here are the first fruits of what the Lamb
died for. Here is what God counted the cost
for. Beloved, let us not be asleep in our pursuit
of God. In the Song of Solomon, the Lord
comes to the young maiden and puts his
hand, dripping with myrrh, through the
lattice work, summoning her to follow Him.
She has retired to the comfort of her bed.
She is not able to follow Him everywhere
for that would mean forsaking pleasure
for the fellowship of His sufferings, of
which the myrrh so poignantly speaks (Song
of Songs 5).

He leaves her.

When she notices that He is gone, she
is frantic with anxiety. She gets up and
goes forth into the night looking for Him.
She realizes her mistake in not
ardently responding to His call. She
is not ready to follow Him everywhere.
She has not layed it all down, fought
it all out, surrendered everything.

Other things pull her. And yet, she
realizes her mistake in not responding
to Him. She runs through the darkened
streets, humiliating herself in
her pursuit, but determined enough
so that her pride no longer matters.

She finds her beloved and WILL NOT
LET HIM GO. Here she is changed from
a casual acquaintance of God to
an eternal follower, one who will
not let Him go.

Jacob, also, had this same tenacity.
He encountered the angel of the Lord
and though he started the encounter
one man, he finished it changed into
another man. Encounter with God
does that to you. It's dangerous,
that encounter: dangerous to your
old life; to your reputation before
men; to your sad, self-possessed
life. If, however, you let yourself go
toward Him, He becomes irresistible
and nothing else then matters. You
have eyes only for Him.

There is only one place in eternity
that we should want to be and that
is following the Lamb wheresoever
He goes. That is not because of
the notoriety that will bring us
because we have longed since caring
about notoriety. We are there
to behold Him alone. We get to watch
Him. We get to sit with Him. We get
to adore Him. We get to never
take our eyes off Him.

If you are thinking that this does
not fit the image of your ultimate
destiny then perhaps you do not
really understand what this is all
about. God deserves more than a mere
thank you, he deserves your eternally
undivided attention, but He will not
demand it. This is not something
we will feel obligated to give God,
it is something we will find ourselves
begging to be apart of!

We don't earn our way to heaven, we
never could. But those that are
mentioned here, have had their
hearts "strangely warmed" and utterly
purified. They are virgins
in holiness and in truth. They know no
one, want no one, see no one else but
Jesus. They have sacrificed ALL, if
one can call it a sacrifice, for
the highest calling there is: sitting
at Jesus' feet. This place is not
for the half-hearted nor for the
double-minded. To get there you
would have had to fight an all-
or-nothing battle, only to find
that you were not capable of winning
it in your own strength:
only God could win it for you.

God bought the rights to these
holy virgins with His Own Blood.
Will you seek to have their
heart? Will you strive to be as
they are, to be counted in their
blessed number?

Here is the Easter message,
with its inherent and
everlasting challenge:
Do you have the heart to
to follow the Lamb
wheresover He goeth?

Revelation 14:4
Easter
following the Lamb
eternity
May the Lamb receive the fruits of His labors
firstfruits
the 144,000