Revelation 3: Which Table Are You Sitting At?

Introduction

After several weeks devoted to the school of prayer, Michel Wuillot brings one last message on this theme for the month of October. His goal: to show "how your prayer is able to change you, how your prayer is able to transform you."

When the Church thinks about prayer, it often thinks about what God can do on the outside: in the city, around us, to receive things. That is right, and we should pray that way. But the pastor recalls the definition given at the school of prayer: prayer is first a way for God to act in your life, and then a way for him to act through you.

To make the point, he uses a very simple image: a table. "In God's presence, there is a table." The key verse is Revelation 3:20, and the question running through the whole message is the one in the title: which table are you sitting at?

Message outline

1. Your prayer is able to transform you

Prayer gives God the means to act: to bring his healing, his deliverance, his revelations, his joy, his peace and his transformation into your life. "Are you giving God the means to make you the person he wants you to be?"
What God does in you and what he wants to do through you are linked.
As a pastor, Michel Wuillot meets many wounded people. No one can say they have never been hurt: rejection in childhood or youth, unforgiveness, wounds that run more or less deep.
If you hold on to these wounds and these ties, they will eventually keep you from moving forward with God. The good news is that God wants to heal, to set free and to tear down strongholds.
Some stalemates never end. At some point you have to ask yourself: "Is this really perseverance, or is it just stubbornness?"

2. The bent-over woman: Jesus still loosens the bonds

In a synagogue, Jesus notices a woman who had been bent over for eighteen years. He discerns that a spiritual power is holding her bound, lays his hands on her, and she straightens up immediately (Luke 13:10-13).
Jesus compares her situation to that of an ox or a donkey that is thirsty but cannot go to drink because a rope holds it back: "Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound eighteen long years, be freed from this bondage on the Sabbath day?" (Luke 13:16, WEB).
She could not enter into what God had prepared in advance for her. Only Jesus could untie that bond. "Jesus is still the one who loosens the bonds."
Why is transformation so important? Because God wants to give each of his children the means to live eternal life fully, starting now. It is for freedom that you have been set free (Galatians 5:1).
The pastor warns against the idea that after conversion you no longer need deliverance, healing or transformation. God's work through us is often limited, sometimes blocked, because we still need that "little click" that lets us move on to the next step.

3. In God's presence, there is a table

A few weeks ago, a brother invited Michel Wuillot to eat at a small restaurant, to share his heart and pray together. When they walked in, like everyone else, they looked for the best table. The pastor took the cushioned seats and left the hard chair to his host, to the laughter of the congregation.
"When you enter God's presence through prayer, you will find a table in God's presence." This table is an invitation to take your place with him, to live a face-to-face encounter, and to eat what he himself places on it.
This is how God works to heal the heart, to free you from every chain, to help you grow in the knowledge of him and to transform you.
Revelation 3:20, the key verse of the message: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me." (WEB)
The church in Laodicea was caught up in works: it organized many events and did many things, but it was no longer in communion. Perhaps because of poor choices, distractions and temptations, its communion faded "until Jesus was put outside." Jesus calls it lukewarm (Revelation 3:15-16).
Jesus warns in strong words, but he returns with a message of faith and grace: it is not too late to come back, to refocus on him, to let him be the king of your life and to eat the good things he sets on the table. "Stop looking for communion with others first; come and seek this friendship with me."

4. Dining with Jesus: communion around the table

The verb "dine" in Revelation 3 also appears in Luke 22 and in 1 Corinthians 11, each time to speak of Jesus' last meal with his disciples. That Passover meal gave birth to the Lord's Supper.
That meal was prophetic. By taking the cup and the bread, Jesus announced that, thanks to his death on the cross, his disciples could, by faith and prayer, already be at the table with him in spirit, in communion with God through the Holy Spirit, until the day when they will drink the new cup with him in glory.
The pastor's definition: communion with God is "a heart-to-heart with God where I am called to eat what God gives me to eat and to drink what God gives me to drink."
The purpose of communion is to receive from heaven, through the Holy Spirit who lives in you, what you could never receive anywhere else. Other tables may look appealing, but you will never find there what God sets on his: real food for your soul, water that truly quenches its thirst.
Near his home there is a large gourmet restaurant where he has never set foot. "I'm not jealous," he says, because every day he has "the greatest gourmet chef cooking" for him. "It's good and it's free." It is not four or five stars, "it is the glory of God."

5. Which table are you eating at?

"Which table are you sitting at right now? Which table are you eating at? Which table are you drinking at?"
Paul warns: "You can't both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can't both partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons." (1 Corinthians 10:21, WEB). It is a serious question to ask yourself.
The pastor opens a parenthesis that was not in his notes, for the young people: "Don't get caught out by rushing into a romantic relationship." A youth pastor for twenty years in Geneva, he has seen many young people in a hurry, and he understands the pressure of age, school and university.
Often, without realizing it, these young people have changed tables: there is no one left at the table but him and her, and God is just beside them, having become the one who serves them.
His advice: when you commit to a relationship, talk to your leaders beforehand, so that they can pray with you, listen to you and walk with you. "You will thank me later."

6. What God places on the table

The revelation of Jesus, of his blood and of the cross, and the forgiveness of sins: "everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts 10:43, WEB). In him we have redemption through his blood (Ephesians 1:7). If you do not know Jesus yet, God wants to forgive your sins.
Healing of the heart, physical healing and deliverance from all your chains: he sent me "to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound" (Isaiah 61:1, WEB).
The knowledge of the truth that sets you free: "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:32, WEB).
A plan and a future: "You get stressed when you are less in communion with God." At the table with him, you know that he has plans of peace and not of harm for you (Jeremiah 29:11). The pastor speaks to the young: "Stay with Jesus. He will lead you into his plans."
Supernatural power to serve God effectively: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me" (Acts 1:8, WEB).
Transformation, day after day and from glory to glory: "But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18, WEB).
And also peace, joy, love, assurance, faith, and much more.

7. Letting Jesus choose the menu

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4, WEB). "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink," and rivers of living water will flow from within him (John 7:37-38). On God's table there is food and drink, everything you need to move forward.
The pastor suggests another way of praying: instead of saying "Lord, give me this," ask "Lord, what would you like to give me? What have you set on the table?"
He is the one who cooks at home, and he knows the children who grumble at the sight of the plate: "This again!" The people of Israel also grew tired of manna, even though it was what God wanted them to eat.
The pastor confesses that he is the first person God speaks to when he prepares a message: "I don't want to preach a message that I'm not living."
The final call: perhaps you have drifted away, sitting beside the table or at another one, eating food that disappoints and brings no lasting peace. "It is still time to change tables and come back to God's table." Lay down what needs to be laid down, confess what needs to be confessed, and tell him: "Lord, I want to come back 100% to your table."

Key takeaways

Prayer is first a way for God to act in your life. What he does in you and what he wants to do through you are linked.
In God's presence, there is always a table: an invitation to communion and to eat what he himself places there.
You can be very active for God and still have put Jesus outside, like the church in Laodicea. It is not too late to open the door to him.
On God's table you find what no other table gives: forgiveness, healing, deliverance, truth, a future, power and transformation.
Praying also means asking God what he wants to give you, rather than dictating the menu to him.

Personal application

Which table are you sitting at right now: the Lord's, or another one that looks appealing but ends up disappointing?
Is there a wound, an unforgiveness or a bond that has been holding you back for a long time? Is it still perseverance, or a stalemate that Jesus wants to untie?
Does your life with God resemble that of Laodicea: plenty of activity, but little communion?
In a relationship or a project under way, is God still at the table with you, or has he become the one who serves you?
This week, will you dare to pray: "Lord, what have you set on the table for me?"

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does it mean to "dine" with Jesus in Revelation 3:20?

According to Michel Wuillot, the same verb appears in Luke 22 and 1 Corinthians 11 to describe Jesus' last meal with his disciples. To dine implies a meal around a table where there is communion. Jesus invites the lukewarm church in Laodicea to take its place at his table again and eat what God himself sets there.

How does Michel Wuillot define communion with God?

Communion with God is a heart-to-heart with God where you are called to eat what God gives you to eat and to drink what God gives you to drink. On his table you find things you will find on no other table: forgiveness, healing, deliverance, truth, a future and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why does prayer transform the one who prays?

Prayer is first a way for God to act in your life, and then through you. What God does in you and what he wants to do through you are linked. Unresolved wounds or bonds can slow your progress. In communion with God, he brings healing, deliverance and revelation, and transforms you from glory to glory.