The Letter to Thyatira

Today’s lesson will be on Jesus’ letter to the church at Thyatira (Rev 2:18-29). Jesus describes Himself as having eyes “like blazing fire” and feet like “burnished bronze.” He has eyes that see the motives of our hearts and make true judgment. Feet represent preparation for the works we are called to. He is telling us that He also knows our preparations, whether they have been complete, and whether or not they are from God or our own will. Therefore, Jesus “searches the hearts and minds and (I) will repay each of you according to your deeds.” (vs 23) He has right judgment and can spot a cheat who has tried to circumvent God’s appointed steps of preparation, or a liar who has set themselves in a place not appointed to them. Because Jesus submitted to the preparation of His Father and finished His works (Jn 19:30), He is able to discern ours. Because He learned obedience from the things He suffered (Heb 5:8), so shall we.


Thyatira had many works, yet they tolerated a minister, Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess. Jesus said she was not a prophetess. In 1st and 2nd Kings we read about Jezebel, a woman elevated in authority because of her marriage to the King of Israel. She killed many of God’s prophets and put her own prophets in place, leading the nation of Israel in worship to Baal. A Jezebel is one who usurps the Spirit of Prophecy and teaches others to do the same, ministering from their own spirit, or from an evil spirit. In Jesus’ letter to Thyatira He addresses where true authority comes from and what makes a person a true prophet.

We read that Jezebel misled people in the congregation. The spiritual immorality is similar to Pergamum in that she taught them that they could mix the worldly with the holy. She took the suffering out the preparation lessons of God’s people by joining them to worldly comfort. But even more, she encouraged ministry from any source, begetting spiritual children that had impure ministries. This undermined the ministry of the Holy Spirit, Who prepares all prophets in their walk before God. Any minister who teaches his students to prophesy out of their own spirit pollutes the word of God and defiles the student. Yet there are ministry schools which circumvent the ways and wisdom of God for easy quick lessons, making gain by polluting those they teach.

A true prophet will have the Spirit of Prophecy, searching the hearts and minds of men, for this is part of what prophecy does (1 Cor 14:25). It is not popular to tell a man or woman about their heart, except we bring something good up. Yet it is not the purpose of prophecy to tickle people’s fancy or mislead them into thinking God is blind. Prophecies are words from God, and not words from men. This is what Jesus is going to sort out.

Jesus is also going to set straight the place we serve from, and how we got there. If we appoint ourselves to a ministry that He does not appoint us to, we will be removed. True and pure and faithful ministers of God have a loving relationship with Him. Jesus shares information with these men and women as servants and as friends. But those who appoint themselves, and prophesy out of their own spirits have their own information. They are therefore open to satanic input, because they are spiritually immoral, having a love of pre-eminence and favor from men. Many impure ministers get into “discovering” secrets, which are satan’s lies. And this is the sad event occurring in some ministries today; the word of God is not pure, and the prophets have hardened the hearts of the listeners who no longer believe they are hearing God’s words.

True authority comes only after one follows true submission to the fore ordained preparation for service to the King, Jesus. Therefore, Jesus promises these true servants “authority over the nations” with an iron rule. He will not compromise to please men, but will set His standard in place. Jesus gives the morning star. Peter writes that we have prophetic knowledge as “a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” (2 Pet 1:19b) As Paul wrote, we have this knowledge “in part, and we prophesy in part”, until the perfect comes. (1 Cor 13:9-10) This partial knowledge isn’t discredited because of its incompleteness or Peter wouldn’t have asked us to pay attention to it (2 Pet 1:19). However, the tendency of the human mind is to fill in the gaps of our incomplete knowledge, making it complete by the addition of our own thoughts, or by satan’s lies.

The true preparation of a prophet is to still one’s spirit and wait on God. The hastiness of men tempts them to produce prophecies, one after another, to satisfy an imagined demand on them. The preparation we find in God’s prophets is to be patient, not sharing information until the “morning star” arises in their hearts and they have understanding from the Spirit of Prophecy. A star only has true light when the sun (Son of God) shines on it.

If men set themselves in ministry and teach people that they can have knowledge, and that they can use their own power and authority, let those men beware, for so did Jezebel. Let them be careful that they are not circumventing God’s preparation of His people by substituting men’s thoughts and satan’s lies for the sometimes long and tedious preparation of a true, submitted servant and prophet. Yet for those who have not followed after spiritual Jezebels, they will walk with Jesus in power and have the morning star (Rev 22:16). Amen.