“I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast. It said, ‘Write in a book everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.’
When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, ‘Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.
‘Write down what you have seen—both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen. This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.'”
Many of the early Christians were arrested and jailed for preaching the Gospel. In this case, John was exiled to the island of Patmos, which you can see on a map here:
Today, Patmos is a luxurious resort island, but back then it was a far removal from society. Pretty hard to preach from an island out in the middle of nowhere.
Let’s notice that just as was the case in Paul’s life, God’s mission is not thwarted by John being in exile. Supernatural messages can get through anywhere. John begins to see and hear things that freak him out a little bit, but he is faithful to write them down the best he can. You’ll notice he struggles for words at times to describe what he is seeing. A voice “like” a trumpet blast. Someone “like” the Son of Man.
John, and most others in the Bible who hear directly from God or angels, reacted with fear. Supernatural messages can be overwhelming and scary. Yet the reassurance is always the same, “Don’t be afraid.” God still speaks to us today through the Holy Spirit, and it’s not a bad idea to write down what you think you hear from God. If John had not written down what he saw and heard right away, he probably would have lost the vivid imagery. His brain couldn’t have held it all. If you believe you are hearing God’s voice, it may not sound like a trumpet blast and it is possible that you could be wrong. That’s okay. For years I have written out prayers and I write down what I think God is saying to me. Over time, it’s become clearer to me what is God and what is not. Some of those prayers and words from God speak louder to me today than they did when I first wrote them down. Don’t be afraid of God’s voice, just write what you hear. If it lines up with the Bible, that’s a good sign that you are being directed by the Holy Spirit to write.