Mike Bickle discusses the prophetic vision of Daniel 7:15-28, emphasizing the rise and fall of the Antichrist and the assurance of victory for the saints. He explains how Daniel was troubled by the intensity of the Antichrist's reign, despite the ultimate triumph of God's kingdom. The sermon highlights the preparation of the saints to rule and the significance of understanding the end times, encouraging believers to remain steadfast in faith amidst persecution. Bickle reassures that the Ancient of Days will intervene, granting judgment in favor of the saints, and that their victory is assured in the coming kingdom.

Page 29, Father, we come to you in the glorious name of your Son, and Lord, we ask you for living understanding. Lord, we ask you to let us see and let us feel, Holy Spirit, the things that you see, the things that you feel, that our hearts would be touched, our hearts would be ignited by the things that fill your heart concerning your plan for the end times. And we thank you in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, we're going to begin our third session, Daniel chapter 7, verse 15 to 28. And in this, well, let's look at the outline here, paragraph A, the angel gives the interpretation of the vision that Daniel had just earlier. So the angel comes and says, let me tell you what it means, what you've just seen. Of course, Daniel asks the question, he goes, I'm not following what's going on, or I don't really get the implications to it. He gives the interpretation in three parts, paragraph A1, first he assures Daniel of victory for the people of God. And in this, we find that Daniel's response to this vision, he's so deeply troubled, and we'll look at that in just a few moments. But the angel says, I assure you there will be total victory for the people of God. Number two, the angel lets him know that the saints are being prepared to rule the nations. Now they're prepared through martyrdom, but they're being prepared to have ultimate victory. And number three, then the angel describes and gives the implications of the fourth beast, which is the Antichrist empire, the ten horns, which we know are the ten kings that will have this ten-nation confederation in the end times. And then most particularly, the angel focuses on this little horn that really has captured Daniel's attention, which we know is the Antichrist. And then in number four, Daniel responds again, and he's just as troubled in verse 28 as he is back in verse 15. He says, I'm still deeply troubled by what I'm seeing. And again, I'll say this several more times, is that if this vision does not trouble us, it's because we've not understood it. It's because the Holy Spirit hasn't touched our heart. And of course, it takes God to love God, it takes God to know God. We need the Holy Spirit's influence for this information to be more than just information, to where it deeply engages us with him and with his heart in terms of his end time purpose. Let's look at Roman numeral two. Now the interesting thing is Daniel has just seen a vision of the Ancient of Days. In verse nine and ten, he saw the Ancient of Days seated on his throne, giving decrees against the Antichrist. He has just seen the triumph of the Son of Man. I mean the Son of Man, the kingdoms are given to him, and they can never be taken away. He has just seen, in verse 11 and 12, the defeat of the Antichrist, the little horn. Yet with the revelation of the throne, the victory of Jesus, the defeat of the Antichrist, he's still deeply troubled. I look at this, I go, what is he seeing that we don't automatically see here? Of course, Daniel 7, 15 to 28 gives us the details of why he's so troubled. Let's look at the top of page 30. Top of page 30. Verse 15, Daniel says, I was grieved in my spirit within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. So first he mentions that he's grieved in his spirit, or that would mean he's pained in his heart. And the thing that pains him is the intensity and the severity of this little horn and what he's going to bring to the nation of Israel, but to the nations of the world as well. But he's not only grieved in heart, he's pained, troubled. He's also perplexed in his mind. He's saying, you know, I feel the weight of this, but I don't fully understand it all, and so I'm needing more information. And number three I just mentioned, but I'll say it again, that he's just seen a vision of the throne. He's just seen a vision of the triumph of Jesus, the defeat of the Antichrist. So number four, what's troubling him? Why is he so troubled? Should we be troubled? And the answer is that he saw the intensity of the beast empire. Not the Roman empire, the initial stage, but the final stage, the main point of which this vision is about, is describing the intensity of that final empire and the victory that the saints will have over it. Roman numeral four, the first question, verse sixteen, because Daniel asks two questions in this passage here, and he gets several different parts to the answer. I came near to the angel. I wonder what that's like, an angel standing there and you go near to him. I guess that's what it means. I'm just picturing this. And I asked him, I said, tell me the truth, and what he means by the truth is I want the full implications of what this means. I don't want just a little bit of data, I want to feel the weight of what this means. Why are you showing me this vision? Because, remember, this Daniel seven vision of the four empires, they are the same empires that King Nebuchadnezzar had in Daniel two. But Daniel was only about fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old back in Daniel two. This is fifty years later and the Lord's bringing it back to him. It's like fifty years later and now you're telling me again, what's the point of why you're, you're, you're giving me this amazing, dramatic visitation of God fifty years after I first saw this in relationship to Nebuchadnezzar's dream. What is the weight of this? What is the full implications is what he's asking. Paragraph B, the first part of the angel's interpretation, there's three parts that you could break it down several ways, but I break it down in three different parts. The first thing, it's a very broad answer, it's a general answer. It's about the beast. He says, because Daniel wants to know about the beast, he wants to know about the ten horns and he wants to know about the little horn, which is the Antichrist, which is again the central figure in the drama. So the angel starts off generally, verse seventeen and eighteen. He said, those four beasts, they're actually four individual kings. Now we're going to find out in a few verses, there are also four kingdoms, historic kingdoms. So the beasts are individual kings, four of them, and they are four empires that continue through history and when one of them's over, the evil of that current former empire lives on in the next one. And when you put the whole thing together, that becomes very clear, that the former empires continue, their life is prolonged in the next empire and they all come to a culmination in the composite beast, which means that final empire of the Antichrist actually has the worst of all the evil is brought to fullness of all the four empires together, the worst of the worst comes to fullness in the Antichrist empire. But he says in verse eighteen, he says, but know this, he wants him to know right off the bat, the saints will receive the kingdom. I know it's going to get intense, but the saints are going to receive the kingdom. The son of man is going to triumph and the ancient of days is carefully watching every single thing that happens. So paragraph C, the angel starts off with a broad answer, it's a battle for the dominion of the earth in essence. And these four kingdoms that rise out of ungodly, the mass of ungodly humanity, these four kingdoms that come out of ungodly humanity that's participating with demons, they're not going to win. God's going to take the kingdom from these beasts and He's going to give it to the saints. Paragraph D, the four beasts are four kings. They're individual kings. And we assume they are the four primary kings associated with these four kingdoms. That's just an assumption. The, I mean, most agree with that, that the four particular kings that the angel's highlighting, number one would be Nebuchadnezzar is clearly the most famous king of Babylon when you look over their history. Cyrus would be clearly the king of Persia. Alexander the Great would be the notable king of the Grecian empire. And of course the final beast empire, the notable king would be the Antichrist himself. Top of page 31. So victory is assured. He says the time will come where the saints will possess the kingdom. The saints will replace all the wicked rulers ruling the earth. Now there will be two types of kings in the millennial kingdom. I don't have that written down here, but there will be kings and priests with resurrected bodies, people like you. You've been raptured. You have a new body. You live in the new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem it says descends and comes down to the earth. It says it three times in the book of Revelation. The new Jerusalem ascends out of the heavenly realm and comes down to the earthly realm. And so the saints with resurrected bodies will actually live in the new Jerusalem which will ascend down to the earth and it will be in proximity to the earthly Jerusalem. It will be in some kind of dynamic connection with it in a way that we can only guess what that looks like. But you will have a resurrected body. You will live in the new Jerusalem, but you'll work on the earth. And so you'll take the Holy Spirit transport system from your home to your office. And your office may be in Chicago. You know, I know everybody wants to be in Jerusalem. I'm saying, Lord, I don't think that's going to work for me. Hey, I'll go for Grandview. I mean, I'll just, see I've been working for the house of prayer here. Who knows? I don't know that you get to vote. I don't know if you get to give your preference. I don't know if it works that way. I'm sure it probably doesn't. But anyway, we'll take the Holy Spirit transport system and you'll, you'll live in the city, but you'll work in the nations ruling them. But at the same time, there will be kings and rulers with natural bodies. Those that are living on in the millennium, the unsaved survivors of the great tribulation who resisted the Antichrist. They never took his mark, but they never were saved. They are still living on the earth and they're still populating the earth and they're still running cities and governments. And so the saints with resurrected bodies will be in the premier position of authority over those kings with natural bodies. It's similar to today that there are kings with natural bodies, ruling nations, and there's angels and demons that have far more authority than those natural kings do. And they're influencing the decisions of those natural kings. Well, in the millennium, it won't be the angels. It will be saints that will be kings and priests in that role. So the saints will be dynamically involved, and so will people with natural bodies. And that's a whole nother teaching for another day. But the point is, the nations are given to those men and women that have natural bodies, but they're under the authority with kings that have resurrected bodies. So that's how it kind of comes together like that. I'm sure there's many details that we won't grasp in this age, but that's kind of the general picture of what I believe the Scripture sets forth. Okay, Roman numeral five. So he asked a second question. He goes first, he said, hey, I want to know the truth about this vision. I want to know the implications. When he says the truth, he means more than just tell me more details. I want to know the consequences of what this thing is all about. So Roman numeral five, he asked his second question. And now this question has three parts. He goes, I want to know about the fourth beast. I want to know about the ten horns. I want to know about that little horn. I really want to know about that little horn, because he was little, and he seemingly was not going to be a problem, but he rose up. And he actually struck down three of the most powerful kings in the earth. And then he took over. Who is that guy? And he's dreadful, and he's terrible in his reign. Tell me about him, and what's going to happen? What's the implications with my nation, with my people Israel, and what's the implications in the nations of the earth? Why is the fourth beast so different? Why, because he's cruel, he's terrible, and Daniel wants to understand that. So let's read his question here in verse 19 and 20. He says, I wish to know the truth. Again, it's the second time he said this. The first time was in verse 16. This is his second question in verse 19. I want to know the implications. I want to know some more details as well about this fourth beast. Why is he so different? It's obvious he's different, but I don't know why he's different, and I know that he's exceedingly dreadful. But I don't know where he gets his power to be so fierce and to cause the nations so much trouble. I mean, what's really going on here? Verse 20, then Daniel says, these ten horns that appear on his head, who are they? I know that they're kings, because the angel has told him that they were... No, no, I mean earlier he just said that the beasts were kings. And here he says, who are the horns? And in a minute, the angel's going to say they're kings too. And tell me about, verse 20, that other horn, that little horn back from verse 8. Tell me about this little guy that rose up and killed three of the other kings. He had eyes like a man. In other words, he had supernatural intelligence. We mentioned that in our last session. He spoke with these confident, bold words that emboldened people to believe in him and to see him as the new hope and to be the new beginning for the nations of the earth. He spoke with pompous words, such powerful, convincing words. And who is this guy that's so smart that speaks so powerfully? And who is this guy that his appearance was greater than all of the fellows, all of the other ten kings, all of the other kings of the earth? His appearance, his presentation of himself is so much more powerful than all of them. Why is he so superior? Tell me more about him. It's off at page 32, paragraph B. Well, the fourth beast, we know it's the ancient Roman Empire, the eastern and the western divisions of it that are foreshadowing the end-time Antichrist Empire. Number one, we said this in the last session, but remember this. We're going to do a lot of repetition because I want you to walk away. There's only about 10 or 15 facts you need to know. And if you get these, you get these visions. And I'm going to say them over and over. He says the angel says he's different from all the others. Or Daniel notices that he's different than all the others. And the thing that makes him different is that this fourth beast is being led by a man that's fully demonized. But he's demonized with a presence of supernatural intelligence. So it's not, he doesn't appear insane. He appears intelligent and powerful in his communication. And again, it's been suggested that he's Satan incarnate. And I don't know the full meaning of what that means, but it really could be just that. The most terrible, wicked man that's ever walked on the earth. Revelation 13, to repeat again, that Satan gave his throne and his authority to this man. I mean, what kind of man does Satan give his authority and throne to? Four times in this vision, the fact that this kingdom is different than all the others, it's unique. Put the word unique in the place of different. He's unique in power. He's unique in cruelty. He's unique in his global influence. He will cover more territory than any conqueror ever covered. He will go beyond what Alexander the Great conquered. He will go beyond what the Caesars of Rome. He will go beyond what Cyrus or what Adolf Hitler conquered. He will go beyond anybody in terms of he will be unique in that way. The scope of his influence will be unique. The depth of his cruelty will be unique. And his demonic power will be unique. All of those combined together. He'll have unique intelligence. He will have supernatural miracles. Paul the Apostle, he talks about the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. He says, The coming of the lawless one, he's according to the working of Satan. That's a key phrase. His life operates according to the working of Satan. With all power and signs and lying wonders. And a lying wonder is a true miracle, but it's a miracle that leads people to believe lies. That's what a lying wonder is. It's not a kind of a fake miracle. The miracle is real, but it leads people to believe in the lying doctrine that miracle is endorsing. And it leads people to all unrighteous deception. Number five. The ten horns. Daniel wants to know about the ten horns on the head. And of course we know this is the ten nation confederation that's never existed before. So it will be very easy to recognize it. It will be the first time in history ten powerful kings come together in a coalition. But it's more than a coalition. A confederation that's deeply united with a unified military strategy. Unified in their economics. Unified in their political policies and procedures and the authority structure. They're moving together with one mind it says in the book of Revelation. Now their unity is only temporary because they're evil men. And under pressure there's even division among them. And that's for another time we'll look at. Number six. Daniel says I want to know about the little horn. I want to know about that other horn which is the little horn back in verse seven and eight. And of course we know he's a political leader that starts off with a small sphere of authority. That's what it means by little. He doesn't start off powerful. He doesn't inherit the Roman Empire. So it's not one of the Caesars of Rome that in one day goes from being whatever to suddenly he's the head of everything. But this man operates for a season in a small sphere of authority. Potentially as a regional leader that nobody globally is taking very seriously. Top of page 33. Before him three of the horns or three of the kings fell. Now imagine the president of a world power, one of the most powerful nations of the earth being assassinated. It would be global news. If one of the most powerful nations in the earth, the prime minister, the president, the king, they're using the word king because that's the word they used back in that day, is assassinated. And the whole world would stand at attention and want to know the details of what happened. Well this is unprecedented. Three of them are assassinated in a row. Three of the most powerful leaders of the earth, one, two, three, are murdered. I mean this has never been done before ever. And they're murdered or assassinated by one man. One man is pulling the strings. Whether he does it with his own hands or whether he gets it done, nobody knows. I mean no one knows at this time. But it's clear he's behind it. Three of the leaders fall before him. Later it says in verse 24, he subdues them. Back in verse 7 and 8, he uproots them. And so when you put uproots them, they fall before him and he subdues them. It's pretty clear that he usurps their power. And it's the killing of these three, seemingly, that is the transition point where then he takes over the leadership of the ten. Because it's at that time, this violent overthrow. Then the other seven, they're going, I'm assuming they're saying, okay, you're the guy, okay. And I'm assuming these three are now replaced by their vice presidents. Because the ten continue to function. But there's going to be three murders of the most powerful leaders of the earth orchestrated by one man. Number ten. Then the Antichrist, this little horn, he came up among them. So first the Antichrist will come up among them as a peer. Then he will, after he comes up among them and he sits with them and he's invited into the inner court, so to speak, and into the back room with them, he gets a seat at the table. Then he arises after them and takes over the whole operation. That's when he goes from being the little horn to now he's, well, the big horn. Although that's not a term that Daniel uses. Paragraph B. When the world sees these three top leaders killed right in a row, one after the other, it will be, again, unprecedented. It's never happened where there's been ten leaders, kings, top kings of the earth in this kind of solidarity, this type of deep unity. It's not just a casual, I mean, it's not a unity like we see sometimes at different nations where they're saying, you know, we'll be nice and we'll try to work together. This will be a deep unity. These ten far beyond just a United Nations kind of unity sort of thing. So that's never happened. And then when three of them are assassinated at the same time or in very close proximity, it will be very clear to the prophetic church, the praying church, this is a sign of the times. And again, the nations will go, well, where do you get that Daniel three horns fell by a little horn? How can you get that from that? You know what? You guys are fanatics anyway. We always knew you were. And so you think that Daniel 7 is about that? Because we find in the end of Daniel 12 that Daniel, the angel tells Daniel in the fourth vision at the end, he says, the wicked will not ever understand this. I mean, there will be people getting converted, but he's saying the wicked will not understand. But the wise will continue in understanding. And one of the reasons that God made the truth so clear, but he made it so obscure, it's both. It's three horns fall. That's pretty obvious to me, but to the guy over there, he goes, what? How could you even imagine that means three of the top leaders of the earth were killed? And so that which is obvious to those that have understanding of the scripture will see will seem absurd to those that don't. And that's how the Lord wants it. That's why he's presenting these very, very relevant and powerful truths in this kind of cloaked way, because he wants those hungry for truth to get it. And those that are not hungry for truth, he does. The Lord does not want them to understand what's going on. They will only understand when they say yes to his leadership. Then it will become clear. So these will be a prophetic sign of the times. These will be a traumatic sign of the times. I mean, when the temple's rebuilt, ten kings are operating together, three of them get killed, a man makes a covenant. I mean, those are key political events happening one after the other. It will be very, very clear as to what's going on. Okay, paragraph 8. So now as he's asked the questions, the angel's now going to give him a short open vision. And he's going to answer this part by an open vision. Daniel said, I was watching. All of a sudden now he's in that visionary mode, because a moment ago the angel was answering verbally, but now suddenly he sees again. He's watching the open vision of the same horn. Again, that's the little horn. He's making war against the saints. I mean, he's coming against the saints in full attack, with full rage. But it's more intense than that. He's actually prevailing against the saints. In the short term, he appears to be winning because he's killing them. And though there will be supernatural deliverance from persecution, it's always the both end. The persecution in certain times of history increases, and yet there's still supernatural deliverance for some in the midst of the increased persecution. Well, at the end of the age, it's going to be more intense than ever. The persecution is going to greatly increase, but there will be supernatural deliverance. And so you say, well, who's delivered and who's not? Well, everyone's delivered ultimately, because, beloved, the goal of life is not to avoid dying. Some people, they think the goal is never to die. You want to be left in this body forever? Are you kidding me? I mean, you already complain how tired you are, how bad you feel, how confused you are, and you want to stay in that forever? Well, no, and guess what? Well, I don't want to die. But you want to stay in that body forever? Well, no, but I don't want to die. So they're figuring out all the Bible verses to where they'll never die. Well, now they'll die some way, they just don't want to be killed. Beloved, the saints that are killed, that are martyred, one moment they step across the line into indescribable glory. Trust me, they will be totally excited. Now, their friends and family members won't be, but they'll be going, Oh, this feels so much better. Oh, this is amazing. This is really awesome. I should have poked that little horn in the eye a few years ago. I mean, it will be amazing. That's deliverance. The goal of the end time drama is not to avoid physical death. That is not the goal. The goal is to be faithful. The goal is to have a testimony that we will rejoice in for billions of years. That's the goal. Not to see if you can live 10 years longer. That's not the main goal of life, of the end time drama. But the normal mindset is we'll give up anything. I'm talking about just the normal mindset of the nations. Give up anything to live 10 or 20 more years. But the ancient of days saying that's not wisdom. You really don't want to do that because you live faithful. The implications of that will last billions of years. You really want to do it my way. And the martyrdom, the intensive conflict will shift the mindset of the body of Christ from a temporal paradigm to an eternal one because that's the only safe and true paradigm. And we all want that paradigm, but we don't quite get there. But the conflict is going to shift the whole body of Christ into that mindset. Because it's not only those that are martyred, just the very fact and the reality of martyrdom for the ones that aren't martyred will shift their mindset. Though many will not be martyred, but they don't know they won't be, so they will live entirely different those last few years of their life. And I think it's clear to say that the majority of the church will not be martyred, though the numbers will be larger than any time in history, but it still won't be the majority. But it will be enough that the majority are radically shifted in their mindsets. And they'll be living for eternity. And so Daniel saw this very disturbing thing that this little horn is making war against the saints and he's prevailing against them. But verse 22, the ancient of days, remember back from verse 9. He saw the ancient of days on the throne when the ancient of days came. What a phrase. The ancient of days came. Which, what I understand that to mean is that he got involved in earthly affairs in a way that is discernible by the nations. That's what I understand the word when the ancient of days comes. It's not like his throne moves, but he's saying I'm now actively involved in the affairs of the nations in a way that can be discerned by the multitudes. My hand is now being made manifest. I mean in the natural sense where the nations are now being shifted according to his plan and his purpose. Even the victorious purpose. And the ancient of days came and judgment was made in favor of the saints. I mean the saints are being martyred. We find in Revelation 6 that there's the martyred saints up in heaven and they're crying out. How long? They're praying. They're interceding. I mean those, they have a prayer life down here. They have a prayer life up there. I mean you don't quit praying when you lose your physical body. You live in prayer for billions of years forever and forever. So in Revelation 6 those saints are up, they're under the altar. They're crying out. How long? How long? How long? And there's sudden, there's a day when the time comes. What a glorious day. The time comes for the saints to possess the kingdom. And that doesn't mean in the sense that we possess it now as believers where we're preaching Jesus and we're impacting different spheres of society. That is the true kingdom and we are possessing the kingdom in that sense. But this means it will be fully possessed, open to the eyes of everyone in the nation. Every sphere of society will come fully, not partially, under the leadership of the saints. And that will happen when the Lord returns. It happens in part now and it really matters what we do in part now. The things that we are accomplishing and attaining in touching society really does matter but there's coming a day when the saints will fully occupy, I mean fully possess the authority of all the spheres of society of the nations. What a glorious reality. Number one, Daniel saw that the Antichrist was permitted to kill the saints but he was assured of the full victory of the saints. Number two, the fourth beast is different. The reason he's so different is because of the man that controls it. We've already covered that. The most demonized man will have power to mobilize the nations. Number three, this is probably shocking information to Daniel. That the saints, that the little horn is making war against the saints and prevailing over them. My guess is Daniel is shocked by this. Going, wait, I just saw in the vision earlier back in verse 9 to 14. Ancient of days was on his throne. The son of man wins. The Antichrist gets defeated. Why is it that the saints are being killed? This doesn't make any sense. This doesn't make any sense at all. And so he doesn't get it. And it's not for some years later. Actually 17 years later in the fourth vision that Daniel gets. I have that later in the notes. Where Daniel gets the understanding as to why this is all taking place and why this is happening. Number four, it says that the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. The time came. Beloved, good news. The time is coming. There is a set time. And the saints will possess the kingdom. Everything will be reversed. The new world order, the real new world order that is built on righteousness and love that will last forever. Paragraph F. So in this answer, the angel is actually giving Daniel the two-fold offense of the end times. I identify two things that are the main points of offense. In the church. Number one, that God raises up evil leaders and gives them a certain latitude to operate in. That's an offensive concept. Number two, the fact that the saints are persecuted. Those are two offensive points. Like why? Why is this happening? But Daniel, like the church in the end times, well the church through history, we must trust his leadership. But Daniel's troubled over the intensity of the persecution of the saints. It says in number one, the angel said he's going to make war. He's going to make war. It's not going to be just take away some of our civil liberties. You know, some people think, oh my goodness, the government might take away our tax status. Beloved, I promise you the government is going to take away our tax status one day. This is not about if you give $1,000, if you give $1,000 you get a little credit so you pay a little less to the government. Beloved, the intensity of where this thing is going, that will be the farthest thing from our mind. Now I'm all for folks that are lobbying for that and trying to, you know, hold the line for that. And they're warring for it. I actually appreciate that. But when I think of the future in terms of the end time visions, it's not going to be about some civil liberties being taken from us. And hey, that's not fair. Why do they get to do that and we don't? We're talking about a severe war from the most evil man, 10 times, 100 times more evil than Adolf Hitler. Far more powerful with leadership over the nations. Beloved, it's going to be far more intense than some civil liberties being taken from us. And the way that we can make sense of it is we begin to lock our heart into the age to come. And our inheritance is in that age. Now we do have an inheritance in this age as well. But our full inheritance is in the age to come but it's even on the earth. I mean we have an earthly inheritance in the age to come. I mean we live in the New Jerusalem but we live on the earth. We will have physical resurrected bodies and we will have a ministry and we will be involved in ruling this physical earth in the age to come. Well Jesus said in Matthew 24, he said they will take away your tax status. And they will say mean things about you on social networking. No, that's not what he said. He said they will kill you and they will hate you everywhere all over the nations. They will hate you. Now Jesus is a really accurate prophet. Yea, far more than a prophet. But my point is we need to settle this and not be so scandalized when we're hated and mistreated. Like oh, I just can't believe it. I'm so discouraged now. They took some of my money and somebody edged me out of my position. And I was going to be the next head of the worship team. Now I'm just the second person. I was going to be the leader of the business but they hired somebody else over me. Can you believe it? I'm such in the wilderness time of testing. Yes, for the American dream. Yes, that's the wilderness time of testing. But I'm telling you where this thing is going, those things are so small. But that's the arena we're being trained in right now. And the way that we get free of offense in those areas is by locking into our identity and to our true inheritance. Our permanent inheritance. When we touch that, it doesn't trouble us so much when somebody says some mean things that aren't even true. How could they say that? Because they hate you. That's why they said it. Yea, but they're in the church and they're not supposed to. Well, there's another story another day about all that. But anyway, paragraph two. The angel said they're going to prevail against the saints. Now there's this paradox in the book of Revelation that the Antichrist overcomes the saints physically, but the saints overcome the Antichrist spiritually. Look at chapter Revelation 13 verse 7. It was granted, I mean John is actually quoting this verse from Daniel 7. It was granted to make war with the saints to overcome them. That means martyrdom, to overcome them physically. But look at chapter 12. And the saints overcame him, speaking of Satan, which is the Antichrist as well. Because we find that group in Revelation 15 that's on the sea of glass, we looked at in our last session, worshiping, they overcame the Antichrist. They have victory over him. So how can he overcome us, but we overcome him? How does that work? Well, he can overcome the saints physically by killing them, but they overcome him spiritually because they were faithful in love to Jesus to the end. He could not touch who they were and could not touch the truth about their life in God. They would not back down. They would not give in. They would not give up. And in that way that the saints overcome the Antichrist. Page 34. Well, there's a time that judgment was made in favor of the saints. The ancient of days will make a decision to reverse it all. He knows the perfect time. The time came, number four, for the saints to possess the kingdom. There's a perfect time, number five, where the combination of persecution and together with the outpouring of the glory. So it's not one without the other. It's not the outpouring of the glory by itself, and it's not the persecution. It's the two together in combination creates the environment for the saints to be purified. We can't be purified by just persecution. It's the glory of God, the spirit of glory increasing in its measure on the lives of the saints. And the end-time church will have a release of the power of God. I believe the end-time church will far eclipse the book of Acts in terms of walking in the power of God. And again, the whole point of walking in the power of God in the book of Acts isn't to make sure we never die physically. Because most of the apostles that we have record of, they were actually killed physically, and they were book of Acts leaders. So when we think book of Acts, it doesn't mean immunity from trouble. It means operating in the glory of God. That's what it means. But it means persecution as well. Roman numeral six. Now he gives them the interpretation of the fourth beast, the ten horns, and the little horn. Paragraph B, we know the fourth beast. It's a kingdom that's different than all the others. And we've covered that. Well, we've gone through that, so I won't go through that again. Turn to page 35. The ten horns, it represents, we know, the ten kings that formed the ten-nation confederation. It says these, verse 24, the angel tells Daniel, these ten horns are ten kings. They will arise out of this ancient Roman empire, east and western divisions. And the reason, again, I'm saying eastern division, because the eastern division touched Iraq. It touched Syria. It touched that. It wasn't just European. And it's not confined to that, but they will come out of at least that territory. It's beyond that territory as well. And then another king shall rise after them, that being the little horn. He shall be different from those other ones. He will have a power dimension in his life that none of the other ones had. And he's the one that subdues the three kings. He kills the three kings. Okay, let's look at paragraph E, just to kind of say it all over again. We're to note the stages of this. Because, again, I'm wanting to say it over and over to where you get it so clear you can read this on your own. You say, hey, I got it. I think I have this. Paragraph E, Daniel describes the Antichrist as coming up first, I mean coming up among the ten kings. So first he starts off as a little horn, a regional power. He's not one of the ten. They probably don't return his phone calls when he first starts in office. Then some things happen. He's very intelligent and a very powerful communicator. And they said, hey, you know, this young leader here, or this leader over a small sphere at least, he has some potential. So then he's invited in the inner circle. He gets a seat at the table. He comes up among them. Then he kills three of the kings. Then he ascends to be leader over them. Paragraph F, so now the angel goes on and he says he shall speak, verse 25, pompous words. Again, those are those confident, arrogant, new hope, the world is ours, you're a part of it. These pompous words that unbelievers will buy into. And he'll speak against the most high. We don't need religion. We don't need the God of Israel. We don't need the God of the Christians. We don't need all that stuff. We have what it takes. And he'll give me hurrah, hooray, hooray in all the nations. His characteristics, first he blasphemes, then he murders, and then he has domination. He'll speak against the most high. Then he'll persecute, he'll murder the saints. Then he'll intend to change times and laws. And then the saints will be given into his hands. So he'll persecute them at one level, at a lesser level. Then he'll change times and seasons. He'll have leadership over legislation, over nations. Then he will actually persecute the saints and prevail over them because he'll make it legal to kill the saints before it's over. He won't just harass them and take some civil liberties away. He'll actually kill them by mandate of law. Number one, he'll change times and seasons. He'll establish legislation that will change some of the most important social, religious, spiritual, economic institutions. He will make changes that is creating the environment where he can legalize the murder of the saints. That's where it's going. Adolf Hitler did that. He made the changes against the Jewish people in Germany. First he made the Nuremberg Laws. And then he made, well, there's a whole progression of them. And they got more intense. And then it became legal to take them away. But at first it wasn't. It was only legal to boycott their shops. And so this same sort of thing is going to happen again. The legal situation is going to empower him to take civil liberties. And then eventually they will be able to kill the saints by law. And, matter of fact, be mandated by law to do it. And he will, number three, he will be given a time, times, and half a time. That means three and a half years. It clearly means three and a half years. Time, times, and half a time. The point is this. There's a God-given limitation. It doesn't go on for 20 years. It's a limited time. And knowing that it's three and a half years will make a huge difference of the encouragement of the saints. Because the, like again, going back to Hitler, they didn't know how long he would be in power. He's in power 12 years. They thought he might be in power 40. I mean, Stalin, I don't really know how many years he was in power from the 30s to 50s. So about 25, 30 years. Stalin's in power. But Hitler's only 12. And the people in Germany, they didn't know if it was 12 or 30 or 40. They didn't know. But we know it's a very limited, very intense, but it has an ending. It has a very specific ending, and it's not far away. And that will be a huge piece of encouragement to the saints in that hour. Now, the word time means a year. So time is one year. Times, plural, is two years. And half a time is a half a year. So that's three and a half years. Now, there's eight different scriptures. We have them all listed here. And four different phrases. And these eight scriptures and four phrases, they all speak of the same three and a half year period. Two times the scripture calls it 1260 days. That's three and a half years. Two times the scripture says it's 42 months. Three and a half years. Two times, three times it says time, time, and half a time. That's three and a half years. And once the scripture of the angels showed Daniel in the middle of the week, meaning of the seven-year period, right in the middle, that's three and a half years. So when you compare these scriptures, which many, many Bible teachers have through the centuries, when you compare them with each other, it's very, very clear it's all talking about the same period of time. Because they describe the same events with different terminology to give us clarity that it really is the exact same period of time. And I think one of the reasons God did this is so that Bible teachers couldn't make it all symbolic. And Bible teachers still do that. They make the whole thing symbolic. And they say, well, it's three, time, time, and half a time. You can't really take it literal because over the 42 months, it can't be literal. But God gave it in four different ways, eight different references, four different phrases, all describing the same events. What he's saying is you can't honestly spiritualize this away. You just can't remove it and have an honest interpretation of the scripture. So when we compare them with one another, it's really easy. You can put them together. And, again, it's only eight verses. It doesn't take much to do that. Top of page 36. Well, in this first vision, this is 553 B.C. Daniel 7 is 553 B.C. The Lord shows Daniel the great suffering. But the Lord doesn't give Daniel the reason for the great suffering for another 17 years. It's 17 years later in his fourth vision, Daniel 10, 11, and 12, where he sees the reasoning for the suffering. So it's 17 years later. The Lord, the angel tells him in Daniel 10, some of those of understanding, they shall fall. And the point is to refine them and to purify them and to make them white until the time of the end. So to fall doesn't mean stumble into sin. That's not what it means. To fall means martyrdom. I've heard people say, you know, they didn't really know what Daniel 11 was about. They said people, even people with understanding fall into sin. I go, that's not really what that means. That is true. People of understanding do stumble. But that's not what this means. And the point is to purify them. And Daniel makes it clear in chapter 11, verse 35. This is about the end times. The angel tells this thing to Daniel a second time in Daniel 12. Many shall be purified. They shall be made white and they shall be refined. But here he says, but the wicked, they'll be unmoved by the process. They'll keep doing increasing escalating wickedness. He says, and the wicked won't understand it. They'll read the Daniel 7. Somebody will say, oh, that's all just religious foolishness. They won't get any of this, though it will be crystal clear to the people of understanding. And the wise shall understand. And our desire is to be a people. I'm talking about this generation. I'm not talking about this ministry. I'm talking about this generation. For hundreds of millions of believers to be people of understanding. And the understanding in this context doesn't just mean the understanding of the basic salvation principles. Of course, that's primary. That's first. But what it means in context, they understand the end time purpose of God related to the visions God gave in the Bible. Understanding in this context means understanding of the end times. I don't know if I'll see the Lord's return in my lifetime or not. And I don't care one way or the other. I just want to be faithful. I don't care if I see the manifestation where I'm here. Or I step across the line and I see it there and look down and watch it all unfold and be involved in it with a resurrected body. It doesn't matter to me. I just want to be faithful to the Lord. That's the goal. But here's the point. I don't want to pass off to my children and grandchildren the heritage of not understanding these things. I want to be a man of understanding among a people of understanding. And I want to labor for a generation to have understanding in it. I want the 20-year-olds to inherit their roles of leadership and ministry, understanding Daniel, Zechariah, Revelation. Not relegating it to, well, nobody gets that stuff anyway, so who really cares? I want to get rid of that lie. You can't really get it. I want to say, no, hundreds of millions of you will get it. And I'm going to labor in my day. And I might see it in my day. But I'm going to labor to produce understanding for a group of 20-year-olds that will give it to the next group of 20-year-olds. And if the Lord tarries, if His coming is delayed, there will be hundreds of millions, if lots of leaders, even today, begin to unfold these prophecies. That's why we give time to this. We want to be people of understanding. Look at Romans 7, the final victory. Now, this is one of the main points of the whole vision. I mean, one main point is to show the intensity of the trouble so we're not confused by it and we're not offended by it. We're not surprised by it. But also one of the main points of the vision is that the victory is assured. The Son of Man triumphs, and the saints, He wants them to participate with Him. Paragraph B, the dominion shall be given to the saints. The dominion speaks of all the leadership positions over all the spheres of society. Not just the kings, the presidents, the prime ministers. But all the spheres of society are given to the saints. The governors, the mayors, the head of the school systems, the banking systems, just everything, every sphere. And the greatness, I think the greatness speaks of all of the resources. There will be tremendous resources of land and wealth and intellectual property and buildings. The greatness of the kingdoms will be under their control too, not just the authority. Paragraph C, it shall be given to the saints. And those things are happening in this age. There's an increase right now of these things. And we want to see an increase of them, but it will never ever come to fullness until the Lord returns. So we don't have to give up. It's like one group says, why polish brass on a sinking ship? It's all going to get bad anyway. And I go, no, there's going to be great gains in the kingdom in this age. But the fullness is when the Lord returns. But, beloved, whatever gains we make in this age, in righteousness, they will be sustained, many of them even in the age to come. If we change abortion, the law of abortion in our land, and it sustains through the end, because every nation won't be fully dominated by the Antichrist. Many nations will. Other nations will be influenced and harassed but not dominated. If we change abortion in our nation, and this nation is harassed but not dominated by the Antichrist, and it never gets reversed back, this is a law that Jesus won't have to change when He comes. I mean, it matters if we change things now. So it's not a matter of, well, let's just wait until then. No, we're working hard now, and there's continuity between this age and the age to come in terms of our labors. Well, paragraph C, we'll end with this. They shall be given to the saints. It's God's plan to rule. It's God's plan to prepare the bride as Jesus' eternal companion. Jesus wants us with Him when He rules the earth. This is a tremendous love story. It's not just a power takeover of the earth. It certainly is that, but it's more than that. It's an amazing love story of a bridegroom king who wants his beloved with him, enjoying the glory of God in the presence of the Father, living in righteousness and love and humility forever, forever together. It was Jesus who said in Revelation 3, I'll grant you to sit with me on my throne. And some people, when they read that promise, they see the word throne, sit on a throne. But when I read that promise, I see with me. You'll be with me on a throne. I see the with me part. Beloved, can you imagine the glory of interacting deeply with that man? You have a resurrected body. He has a resurrected body. You'll be interacting with him to see the glory of the Father filling the earth. What a glorious inheritance. And if you die in the process, it will be worth it. It really will be worth it. Jesus said this in the high priestly prayer right before He went to the cross. He said, Father, I desire that they whom you gave me, they be with me where I am. That they would behold, not just witness my glory. To behold the glory means more than observe it. They would participate. They would experience the glory with me. He's crying out right before He would go to the cross. Father, I desire, I want them with me. I'm going to the cross, Father, for your glory. I'm going to the cross. I want them with me where I am forever. Beloved, do you know who you are to Him? Well, Daniel chapter 7, it gives us this quick broad strokes overview of how tenaciously committed He is in love to us. Though He, in His wisdom, creates an environment for love to come forth. It's all for love that He does this. Amen and amen. Let's stand.