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The Book of Revelation is full of visions that most people do not understand nor seek understanding for. It skips around from past events to future events without telling you what it's doing. John, the writer of the book, is standing on an island looking out to sea and God begins to give him visions of things on the screen of the sky and John is simply writing down what he is seeing. What God reveals is a portrait of His mighty plan and there are many, many lessons to be learned from these visions.

In Revelation chapters 4 and 5 we get a vision of the throne of heaven and One who sits on the throne. The angels surround the throne giving glory and praise and honor and in the right hand of the One who sits upon the throne is a book that is sealed with seven "wax-type" seals which must be torn off in order to open the book. The search begins from heaven of a man that is "worthy" to open the book and remove the seals and John weeps when there is no man found to open the book. But then an angel comes and comforts him saying:

There is one man who has lived who is worthy to take the book and open it! It's Jesus Christ who has "prevailed" or who is victorious who is worthy to open the book and He is the "Lion of the tribe of Juda" and the "Root of David." And as John anxiously looks around for this lion, to his surprise he sees a Lamb that has been slain standing "in the midst of the throne" who comes and takes the book from the hand of the One who sits on the throne and then the chapter ends with the angels crying out in worship of the One who was worthy to take the book and open it. There is quite a contrast here, John was told to expect a lion and he ends up seeing a Lamb!

To understand this passage of scripture clearly, you must understand that the entire vision is a portrait of the dual nature of Jesus Christ. Revelation 4 teaches us that there was only one throne and that there was one that sat upon that throne. In Revelation 21:5-6, we find the One on the throne speaking and He says "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." In Revelation 1:11 we find Jesus Christ speaking and He says "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." It is obvious that the One who sits on the throne is none other than Jesus Christ. When you get to heaven you will stand before the "judgment seat of Christ" and there will be only one throne and one that sits upon it. Jesus Christ is God Almighty! He is the "image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). He is "God manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). "All the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily" (Colossians 2:9).

When you go back through the scriptures, you will find that of the twelve sons of Jacob, it was from the tribe of Judah that the Messiah would come. And because of this, the ensign, the standard, the symbol of the tribe of Judah was a lion. The lion represents royalty and strength and power and might. You will also find that God made promises to David that the Messiah would be of his lineage and that He would be a king after the royal lineage of David's throne. Other scriptures say that He would "sit on the throne of His father, David." And so it was. When you trace both Mary and Joseph's lineage back in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, you will find that BOTH of them were direct descendants of King David and BOTH of them were direct descendants to the tribe of Judah. And so this baby born to them was the fulfillment of these prophecies because He was royalty! Jesus was THE Lion of the tribe of Judah. He was THE root and offspring of David or "Son of David." He was mighty and powerful and a ruler and will rule and reign on the throne of heaven forever and ever!

But the interesting point about all of this is that when John hears the angel declare that the lion of the tribe of Judah is the One worthy to open the book, He looks around and to His amazement, from the middle of the throne comes -- not a lion -- but the exact opposite, a Lamb. And a Lamb that had been slain or killed! Someone who doesn't understand might read Revelation with an incredulous view: "how can someone who is a Lion be a Lamb also?" And the answer is that Jesus was the Lion of the tribe of Judah, but He was also the Lamb of God, come to take away the sins of the world." He was God become flesh because the Spirit of God could not die and so He became flesh and that flesh that He became could and would die on Calvary to pay the price for our sins. He was the perfect sacrifice. The Creator became as One of His creation and the scriptures say that He was led away to die "as a sheep is led away to the slaughter." He opened not His mouth. He didn't fight against them. He didn't try to run away but He willingly allowed His life to be taken. He had the royal authority to call down armies from heaven to fight for Him. He had the power to get away, but the God of this universe humbled Himself, became flesh to die so that you and I could have the opportunity to be delivered from sin and to be "born again" into the kingdom of God! He was a Lion, but the Lion willingly became a Lamb to pay the price! That's why the "lamb" came "from the midst of the throne." Jesus Christ was the One God Almighty become flesh for our redemption! There has always been only one God, and there always will be only one God. But the Lion became a Lamb to die for us! That's how come Isaiah can prophesy:

The son, this child, would be called "the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father" and He would rule "upon the throne of David!" Whose He talking about in such powerful and mighty terms? Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. The Lion became a Lamb but at the same time it stayed a Lion! And so in Jesus Christ we all of who God is! God didn't send someone else to do His dirty work for Him, but rather the Lion allowed Himself to be treated as a Lamb to buy our salvation. We have Jesus Christ the Almighty, but when He was on earth, He had dual natures: deity and humanity. He was all God and all Man at the same time. He was the Lion and the Lamb!

And so when you view the life of Jesus Christ, sometimes you see the Lion and sometimes you see the Lamb. The Lamb refused to cast a stone at the woman caught in the act of adultery, but the Lion took His belt off and drove the prayerless, moneychangers out of the temple. The Lamb grew tired and slept, but the Lion got up and ceased the storm with one command. The Lamb prayed to keep His flesh into subjection to the will of God but the Lion answered prayer and forgave sins! The Lamb willingly laid down His life and offered no resistance in dying on the cross, but the Lion defeated the forces of death, hell, and the grave and got up again on the third day! The Lamb came peacefully the first time and was only heralded and welcomed by a few obscure shepherds and wise men, but the second time Jesus comes, He will be as the Lion outfitted for war ready to pour His wrath upon the armies gathered together against Israel and everybody will see His second coming to Earth! He is both the Lion and the Lamb!

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There is a point to this beyond just preaching about the dual nature of Jesus Christ. If we are born again, then we have become the "Sons of God." If that is true, then we are to be like Jesus Christ. John wrote:

If we claim that Christ lives in our lives and hearts, then we should "walk as he walked!" We should conduct ourselves in the manner that Jesus Christ conducted Himself. That's a tall order, but one that we should be striving to live up to. If you claim to be a Christian and to "abide in Him" then you should be striving to act more like Jesus and change your habits, your speech, your actions, and your daily life to be more like Jesus! And let me say this, if you are not trying to get closer to Him, then you are trying to get further away. If you are not becoming more like Him, then the opposite is true! But we must strive to respond to things as Christ responded and to love as Christ loved and to talk and act as Christ acted. It's one thing to say that you believe in Him, but it's quite another to behave and conduct your life like Him. A Christian is someone who is "Christ-like" not "Christ believing!" If you are a Christian, then you ought to walk even as He walked!

And if that's true then we must understand that there is a dual nature within us that we must learn to control and act accordingly. There are times that the Lamb side of Christianity needs to come out in our life and then there are times that the Lion side of Christianity needs to come out. We must sometimes be the meek and humble Lamb and at others the power and might of the Lion is what is needed. There is a dual nature of the Christian that we must learn to control and understand and operate in. That's why Jesus told His disciples:

Be "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves!" Jesus couldn't have picked any two opposite natures and beasts, except maybe a lion and a lamb. What Jesus was saying is that you need to have the good characteristics of both and the bad characteristics of neither. That is we should strive as Christians to be both the Lamb and the Lion perfectly in every situation. The problem is when we mix up the two and in a situation where we should behave as the lamb we behave as the lion or vice versa. We feel justified in what we are doing, but really we botched the situation up because we didn't understand the difference between the two natures.

Let me preach to you:

There are some situations where the Lamb is what's in order. A Lamb is mild. A Lamb is meek and humble. A Lamb is harmless and easily led. A Lamb is obedient. A Lamb is soft and nice and gentle. Walk up and hit a lamb and it will not lash back at you, but will simply turn away. But a Lamb also has another quality, and that is if I were to bring a sweet, soft Lamb in here, it would draw all of you to it because there's something about a Lamb that would cause people to want to be nearer to it and around it and to touch it.

In your approaching God in matters of correction and God changing things and correcting things in our lives, we need to be a Lamb! When God's Word corrects us, we should be easily led to the new behavior. If God uses the man of God to preach or correct something in our lives, then the Word of God instructs us to receive it meekly. Paul said to receive "meekly the engrafted Word." It may hurt. It may be the truth. It may not what you want to hear, but you'd better let the nature of the Lamb come out! The Lord is our shepherd and we are the sheep of His pasture. If so, then that means when God corrects us, we should respond in obedience, and not by fighting against it! Peter talked about how that Jesus was the "Chief Shepherd" and that the pastor is the local shepherd over the flock. If we are sheep, then we should received the correction and instruction of the Pastor with meekness and humility and submission and a willingness to obey. The Lamb should be the nature portrayed when confronted by truth and instruction in the Word of God.

But too many times it is the nature of the Lion that people bring against God or His preacher. "Who are you to tell me what to do?" Or even worse, they lash out and attack the church or the Word of God or the preacher or whoever. That's the Lion. And it's totally and completely inappropriate and wrong. It's totally against the way Jesus responded in such situations. Go back and read when Jesus was twelve and His parents found Him at the temple and corrected Him and instructed Him to come home with them. He immediately did so and returned home with them. The Lamb. Go read how that when in the hands of the civil authorities in His life, Jesus never spoke disrespectfully to Pilate or Herod, nor did He lash out at them. That's the Lamb. Even though they were wrong, Jesus understood that such a situation is not the time for the Lion! We should humble ourselves to obey the Word of God and receive the correction for our lives. That's what proves that we are the sheep of His pasture. That's what proves that we are sons of God, when we "walk as He walked!"

In dealing with sinners, usually the correct nature is that of the Lamb. That goes for whether or not they be total strangers or your family. The nature of the Lion will get you nowhere with sinners. They won't be interested in your doctrine of Jesus until they see the nature of Jesus within you and the nature of Jesus that will draw people to you is the nature of the Lamb. The scriptures teach:

When confronted by someone who is angry, the scriptural way is the approach of the Lamb! Soft words. That's what will make the situation better and not grievous words. It's funny how many Christians believe this scripture in conjunction with everybody else, but if they live in the same house with somebody they don't think that it applies. And so in an argument they will just continue to instigate and to egg on and to push the knife deeper and they wonder why the situation gets worse and worse. It got worse because an argument with someone is not the time for the nature of the Lion!

The story of Zacchaeus is interesting because of how it reveals Jesus' approach to total and complete sinners without any real religious experience. Zacchaeus was the short little man in Luke 19 that climbed a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus over the crowd only to be astonished to hear Jesus invite himself over for dinner with "Come out of the tree, Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house today for dinner." Zacchaeus was a tax collector who was hated by the people because he was famous for cheating them in order to make more money. He was rich off of scams and taking advantage of people. When Jesus announced that He was coming over to Zacchaeus' house, people begin to murmur and say "don't they know what kind of sinner he is?"

The interesting point is the difference approach that Jesus took in Zacchaeus' house as opposed to His confrontations with the Pharisees. Jesus did NOT go into the house and say "hey, that's a nice rug, who'd you steal that from?" Jesus did NOT sit down at the table and start listing all that Zacchaeus was doing wrong and what he needed to change. In fact -- go back and read it -- it's not recorded that Jesus said ANYTHING substantial or even spiritual. But Zacchaeus was so impressed with the respect and the -- get this -- nature of the Lamb of God, that without Jesus having to say anything Zacchaeus stood up and said:

That's exactly what needed to happen, but Jesus didn't say a word to Zacchaeus, but it was the nature of the Lamb that drew him toward doing right!

Understand that when people have not been born again of the water and of the Spirit even if they say that they are a Christian or believer, we must treat them with the nature of the Lamb. I'm not saying not to witness. I'm not saying not to stand up for truth and what is right, but I'm saying that when you do, do so with the nature of the Lamb. Jesus "showed" them what was right by His actions. So when His words came forth, there was no anger or lion in them. Therefore people were drawn to Him and responded to His teachings! Understand that not everybody in the world understands the nature of the Lion within Jesus Christ, but almost all of them understand the nature of the Lamb that He had. When you get mad at them for their doing wrong and you hotly "tell them like it is and what the Bible says about this and that, and how that they need to change now." Your words might be right, but they'll never listen to your words because they can't get past the lion-like way that you are presenting it. They would be more impressed and impacted if they were to see a lamb-like nature in your response. And people in the world -- particularly your unsaved family -- will test you just to see what nature is present. They'll say something or do something that they know you don't agree with in front of you just to see if you are for real, becoming like Jesus. If you respond with the Lamb nature and bite your tongue and keep doing right in front of them and refuse to "lay into them" then you'll eventually win them. If you become the lion to them, then you'll do nothing but scare them away. They aren't going to understand your commitment because they have not experienced what you have in God. If people have been baptized in the name of Jesus and filled with the Holy Ghost and are bucking against truth, then that's a different story and there is a time when the Lion will be needed, but with sinners who have never experienced the Holy Ghost, the Lamb is the way to go!

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I want you to understand that the Lion has strengths and weaknesses and the Lamb has strengths and weaknesses. Neither is always right or always wrong. But there is a time for each. And so let me preach to you about the right time for the Lion nature. There is a time when acting like the Lamb is just as wrong and just as devastating as acting like the Lion in the situations that we just discussed. Jesus also told His disciples:

That's an interesting scripture: "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." What Jesus is saying is that there are times when the Lion nature is a must. There are some things in the kingdom of God that you are only going to get by fighting for them and pressing through some things that are trying to keep you from getting to them!

One area of your life that you must realize always calls for the nature of the lion, is your praise to God. Jesus was called "the Lion of the tribe of Judah." That's significance because "Judah" means "praise." And the nature of the Lion and praise go hand in hand. Somebody needs to get a revelation of Praise. When we clap our hands and shout and dance and sing and raise our hands and leap for joy, we are not wasting time or energy on just emotion. Praise helps you press through the things that are keeping you from God because it ushers you into His presence. You may come in and feel heavy and troubled and down and out, but if you will praise God through it and push through till you lose your will and get focused on Him, you will find that praise can get you into His presence. As the battle of Jericho attests, praise can tear down walls that are keeping you from the victory the God wants to give you. Show me someone who "can't overcome something" and I'll show you somebody who hasn't really praised God to the point that they broke through their pride and their faulty self-awareness. Good luck getting the Holy Ghost without praise. Good luck getting over depression. Good luck in getting your miracle without praise. It won't happen!

And so that's why it's a BAD thing to come into praise with the attitude of a Lamb. Some people are passive about their worship. They are just being led along wherever the rest of the flock is going. Wherever the shepherd or worship leader prods them along to, is where they'll end up. If somebody else doesn't press through and get the Spirit moving. If someone else doesn't pray for the service. If someone else doesn't get the break through started, then they are not going to get it either because they have a Lamb attitude when it comes to praise! They don't pounce on the promises of God. They won't fight beyond some things.

But if we are to walk as He walked, then we must become as the Lion from the tribe of Judah! We must fight to get into God's presence. We must make up in our minds to get what we need from God and to press through the distractions no matter what's on our mind or no matter what direction the service is going and no matter what others are doing. We need to roar with lion-like intensity in our praise! If we do, then we'll get the blessings that we needed.

And there is another side when the Lion is called for. It's when sin is knocking at the door of your life. It's when devil comes trying to get you sidetracked and offended and tempted. You'd better let the Lion roar, because the Bible says that Satan is also a Lion:

The key phrase in this scripture is "seeking whom he may devour." Whom he may. Understand that what allows the devil to consume you or not is your response to His roars and approaches. The devil can't make you sin, but he can speak the suggestion to you. He can't force you to fall, but he can try to get you distracted by temptations. He can't force you to get offended, but he can try to bring out and emphasize the faults in others. He can't make you get angry and act like you shouldn't, but he can roar to try to emphasize pride in your life.

His lion approach will only overwhelm those who are taking a Lamb mentality toward the things of sin and the things of temptation. I've known some people that they are ALWAYS in Lamb mode. They submit to the Spirit when they are in church and they submit to the flesh when they aren't. Those kind of people aren't going to make it living for God. It does matter what you fill your mind and time with. It does matter what you watch and read. It does matter what you allow in your home. It does matter where you go and what kind of friends that you hang out with and what kind of environment that you place yourselves into. It does matter what you think about. Those who respond to the constant roar of the bombardment of Satan and His fleshly agenda in this world with the attitude of the Lamb, just not worrying about it and making a big deal out of it and not really doing anything about it are going to be devoured. Those are the ones that Satan can destroy!

But if you will let the Lion of the tribe of Judah rise up in your heart and take a stand and resist Satan, you can win! Satan is no match for the powerful Lion called Jesus Christ! If you will get a holy "Lion" nature about the attacks of the devil and will fight and resist Him at the same time that you are submitting to God as a Lamb, then you will be victorious. Some people just go into lamb mode when they are attacked. They refuse to pray or fast or grab a hold of the Word of God and fight for their family and anointings, but the kingdom of God suffereth violence! If you will fight for what God has given you and fight for what He has done and fight for your harvest and fight for your breakthrough, and fight for your miracle and push through the doubt and push through the evil that tries to lure you away and push through what others might say! Then you will be victorious! The devil cannot win against the Lion of the tribe of Judah!

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And so the key to winning this race and being victorious over our flesh and the devil and the world and making it to heaven is to "walk as He walked." It's to live and approach things in our life as Jesus did. If we are to do it, then we must have both the nature of the Lion and the nature of the Lamb active in our lives when appropriate. And we must use them wisely!

In Revelation 5, when the dual nature of Jesus Christ was revealed as the Lion and the Lamb, then He was worthy to open the book. That book represented the plan of God. It represented God's perfect will for the world. It was the dual nature of Jesus Christ that enabled Him to be victorious over sin and rewrite the ending for people who worship Him. If He would only have come as the Lamb, then He would have paid the sacrifice and yet would not have resurrected and would still be dead. If he would have only come as a Lion, then He would have lived but never died to pay the price for sin. It was only when the two natures of Lion and Lamb came together perfectly could He open the book that had an alternate ending to the fate of humanity than that of sin!

The scriptures prophesy of a thousand year reign on earth when the will of God will be done. There will be many changes during this time, but one of the most dramatic will be the changing of the natures of animals to pre-flood states. The prophet Isaiah said this about this perfect time of God's Will being fulfilled:

Wolves and Lions and serpents will lay down and feed and eat together with lambs and bulls in perfect harmony! That's quite a contrast! But that's the portrait of the world to come when God's will is done completely.

For your future to be changed to be what God want for it to be, and for God's will to be done throughout your life, then two natures -- very opposite and yet very needful -- must come together and work together. We need the nature of the Lion and yet we need the nature of the Lamb. We need them both at times throughout our lives and we need them operating together so that we can walk as He walked. Jesus was a successful and perfect human being because He was both the Lion and the Lamb. May we strive to live up to that perfect standard!