Casting Crowns

Casting Your Crown

I know what the Bible says about us casting our crowns before God’s throne but all it actually says is this - Revelation 4:10-11 “The twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:  “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honour and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”

It strikes me that, possibly, the church’s international policy and doctrine department has made a rather bold assumption about this being a nice cosy thought for all who enter heaven’s portals. Let me say that, despite my somewhat laconic comments about how doctrine may be formulated on the flimsiest of scripture, I do subscribe to this – but only because experience or testimony cannot be refuted easily.

A few years ago, when my late wife died, a dear friend, an attested prophet, texted me that the Lord had just said that she had ‘cast her crown before Him.’  This confirmed several things for me and brought me great comfort.

So, I believe we all will cast our heavenly crowns before His throne. I also believe that this can also be part of an on-going process of casting our crowns which we necessarily start here on earth. We all accumulate “earthly crowns” by virtue of the fact that we can earn ourselves a reputation for excellence in one field or another. For one, it may be excellence in the business world and the accumulation of worldly wealth. For another it may be excellence in one of the spiritual gifts or in one of the spiritual fruits – like hospitality or generosity or wisdom or some such.

These reputations can make us or break us on our walk with God. These are also “crowns” that must be cast before the Lord. If the Lord were to tell me never to prophesy or never to write again, I would have to lay it down because He told me to do so. It is the same with any God-given gift. Our real problem is that we often worship the gift rather than the giver and in that moment we lose sight of the actual ownership of the gift. All of these gifts are God’s gifts – to us and for us to use for His glory.

We must be prepared to fall to the ground and die to self in order to live to Him. Only then will we truly treasure the gift and the giver and only then will we be able to cast the crown before Him in order to give Him ALL the glory. Only then will we be the surrendered vessel He wants us to be in order to serve His purposes and His purposes alone.

Puts a whole new meaning on “casting crowns” doesn’t it?