Mike Bickle discusses the significance of the fifth and sixth seals in Revelation 6:9-17, emphasizing the power of prayer and the role of martyrs in the end times. He explains that the prayers of the martyrs in heaven, crying out for justice, fuel a prayer movement on earth that will intensify as the return of Christ approaches. The sixth seal introduces supernatural judgments that reflect God's response to these prayers, highlighting the urgency and importance of intercession in the current age. Bickle encourages believers to become familiar with these passages to lift the fog of misunderstanding and to recognize the dynamic nature of prayer in God's plan. Ultimately, he asserts that the prayer movement will be a critical force against the antichrist's kingdom.

Father, we ask you now for the blessing of your Spirit on the hearing of the Word, on the speaking of your Word. Lord, I ask you to stir our spirit up with might in our inner man. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Revelation chapter 6, verse 9 to 17 is the fifth and the sixth seal, and we're going to just give, obviously, in one session a very brief overview. I won't cover all the notes, and the notes are even very, very, very brief, and so you'll need more study beyond the notes if you really want to grasp these two seal judgments, but the kind of the foundational premise that I'm operating under is this. Until you become familiar with these passages, there's a fog on your mind and your understanding, meaning you can love Jesus, have a heart of faith, but the fog rests on your mind until these passages become familiar, and so it's necessary to do the groundwork of getting really familiar with the seal judgments, trumpet and bowl, even though they're not the sort of thing we expect to see for some time. However, another principle is that what happens in fullness at that time, positive and negative, happens in part now through the prayer movement. What happens in fullness in the final years before the Lord returns and even at the coming of the Lord happens in part right now. So we want to become familiar with these passages, even though we don't anticipate seeing the fullness immediately, because the more familiar we become, the fog of our mind in our mind lifts, and these passages become dynamic. But at first they're so surreal, they're so out there, it's like I can't even, I can't relate to them at all. It would be a normal response. At least that's how I felt when I first began to study these. And again, there is an application today, because we know that what he will do in the future, because he never changes, he will do it in part even now. Roman numeral one, revelation six, verse nine to 11. When he, that being Jesus, opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar, and that would be the altar in heaven, the golden altar of incense, which is the prayer altar, I saw under the prayer altar the souls of those that who had been slain for the word of God. So he saw martyrs. Now the reason he saw their souls, because they don't get a resurrected body till the time of the second coming. So we don't get, all the saints in heaven are waiting for their body at the time of the rapture. But these were martyred, and they were martyred in context to the end time events. Verse 10. Now here's the core truth of this seal judgment, the fifth seal judgment in verse 10. This is the key idea. They cried out with a loud voice, and they prayed the most recorded prayer in the Bible. They prayed, how long, oh Lord, how long, oh Lord, holy and true, until you judge, and until you avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth. So you know that they're end time martyrs, because while they're praying in heaven, the ones that murdered them are still alive on the earth. He's saying, how long do you avenge the very ones that killed us just a few days ago, a few weeks ago. Verse 11. Then a white robe was given to them. I mean, they're, they've just come to the, to the heavenly realm. They've just been martyred very recently, straight out of the great tribulation conflict. A white robe was given to them, and it was said to them, they should rest. In other words, be at peace. Not stop praying, that's not what they're saying, but know with assurance that the prayers are going to be answered. Says you should rest, and you could put the word have assurance, until the number of your fellow servants and your brethren who would be killed would be completed. That's a very challenging idea when you first read it, that there is a number of martyrs that the Lord already knows. But it's not just that he knows, there's a number that plays into the divine economy, into his plan, that the amount of martyrdom somewhere in the divine economy is essential to what God's accomplishing on the earth. And that's a strange idea, especially to the Western mindset, where, or just the natural mindset, but particularly in the West, it's like, we can't comprehend this because the Western mindset is so just by nature locked into the here and now. There are other cultures around the world that are a bit more spiritually minded, but the here and now is so big that we can't even hardly relate to the these kind of concepts. Paragraph A, now you got to remember this, that the, it's Jesus releasing the fifth seal judgment. Meaning, some read this, and just at a casual reading, they think of the fifth seal judgment as martyrdom. But it's not martyrdom. Martyrdom is part of the events that happen because the judgment is released by Jesus. Jesus isn't releasing the judgment of martyrdom on the saints. Jesus is releasing the fifth seal on the antichrist kingdom. So the essence of the judgment is not the martyrdom. The essence of the judgment is the prayer movement. It's the prayer that they're crying out before the father. Martyrdom fuels the prayer movement in heaven and on earth. Martyrdom strengthens it. But martyrdom of the saints is not the judgment, but the prayer for vengeance that is heard at the throne of God, at the court of God. That is what brings trouble to the antichrist. That's what troubles his kingdom. So the prayer movement in heaven, still in paragraph A, and the prayer movement on earth, they will increase together. Now we're going to get to this later on in the notes, or I'll just point it out to you. We won't take time on it. There is a, there are a substantial number of prophecies in the Old and New Testament that describe the end-time prayer movement on the earth. It grows powerful. The very fact of millions around the world right now beginning to move towards a lifestyle of prayer is in itself a sign of the times. There's never been a time like this in history where so many are rethinking their life. So many believers to begin to live a life of prayer and begin to grapple with the issue called the grace of prayer. But Revelation 6 10 is, is the main verse that gives us insight into the heavenly side of this prayer movement that's on the earth. There's quite a few passages that tell us about the prayer movement on the earth, but Jesus pulls back the curtain and he lets us know that the, the prayer in heaven has a, a focus and a zeal to it that is supplied by the fresh martyrs straight from the tribulation. And it all backfires on the devil and on the antichrist. The martyrdom, they think they're getting rid of the problem, these faithful witnesses, these fiery lovers of truth in Jesus, but actually it's causing the antichrist far more problem. Because when righteous blood is shed and then they're at the throne of heaven with the zeal and urgency coming straight out of the tribulation, it actually backfires on the kingdom of darkness. So we see the Holy Spirit ministry in these martyrs in heaven. And it gives us insight and encouragement to the prayer ministry on the earth, because if the Holy Spirit is doing it in heaven with the saints, you know, he's doing it on the earth. But again, we have these many passages that give us insight on the earthly. And so we study the heavenly prayer movement to get insight as to what's going to be happening in the prayer movement on the earth. The very fact that this is the prayer that Jesus highlighted, we know that this prayer, how long, oh Lord, in the maybe, I don't know the exact number, but maybe 10 different Old Testament passages recorded, it gives us insight into the significance of those eight or 10 passages. Because when the saints are crying, how long, oh Lord, the point is it only that they're saying how long, what the Holy Spirit is saying, look at the context of the Old Testament to where the prayer, how long, study the context and you'll get insight in the prayer movement in the generation of the Lord returns. Because it's like the Holy Spirit is shining a spotlight on that prayer by us seeing how important it is around the throne. The Holy Spirit is saying saints on the earth, if they're praying this prayer in heaven and they're quoting these eight or 10 passages, go study those passages, devour them and be strengthened on the earth to be in unity together with them. Because it's really unity with the Holy Spirit that we're talking about. Paragraph A, the end, I want to say it again, the fifth seal judgment is against the Antichrist, it's not against the saints, it's not martyrdom of the saints. But martyrdom is the rage of the Antichrist, but it backfires on him to bring judgment by an accelerated prayer movement in heaven and on earth. Paragraph B, now Jesus prophesied about the night and day crying out for vengeance or justice, it's the same word. In Luke 18, the passage that we're all very familiar with, Jesus said, shall not God avenge or give vengeance or justice, depending on what translation, it's the same word. Shall he not avenge his own elect to cry out night and day, though he bears long with them? And Jesus bearing long doesn't mean he's putting up with us, it means he's bearing our pain while we're crying out. He goes, I'm bearing with you, I'm bearing with you through all that you're going through, I'm feeling it together with you, I'm a sympathetic high priest. But verse 18, he says, I tell you, now he goes to the other side, he goes, it will happen speedily, there's a time where the Lord bearing with your pain, talking to the saints on the earth, suddenly things accelerate in a moment's time, there's a speedy dimension that happens. And what Jesus is really talking about here, Luke 18, he's describing the fifth seal. He could have said to John, John, in about 60 years, I'm going to visit you on the island of Patmos, and I'm going to tell you more about Luke 18. I'm going to show you the end time martyrs doing the heavenly side of Luke 18. Because Luke 18 is prophesying about the saints in the tribulation period on the earth, crying out, how long? Night and day, vengeance, how long? Vengeance. And then 60 years later, or a little bit, maybe more, the Lord appears to John and gives him the other side of the story. He shows the martyred saints in heaven crying out how long, and crying for vengeance. After he had laid the foundation in Luke 18 of the earthly saints, crying it, so the prayer movement's going to come together in unity. And Jesus is the one revealing this through the word. I mean, I think it's significant that in Luke 18, it's Jesus prophesying the end time prayer movement. Then in Revelation 6, the passage we're looking at right now, Jesus is revealing the heavenly Luke 18. And the idea is there will be unity in the spirit of these two prayer movements because it's one prayer movement. Paragraph C, the fifth seal judgment is more severe than the four that precede it because the judgments increase in intensity as they unfold. So it's not like the first seal is, you know, the antichrist is released, the second world war, third world famine that comes out of the war, fourth pestilence. And then all of a sudden, the antichrist gets a break on the fifth one and it's seeing how tough the saints have it. No. The fifth one is more intense than the first four against the kingdom of darkness. There is an acceleration going on. The prayer of the saints from this point on, there's an acceleration of the prayer ministry in heaven and upon the earth. Now we know in heaven because of this verse, but we know on the earth because of the verses that I have in the notes, but we're not going to take time on. There's an acceleration of the earthly prayer ministry too. And they come together from the fifth seal in Luke 18, tie them together in our understanding, both revealed by Jesus. But you can be sure that the fifth seal is more intense than the fourth. But remember the fourth seal, one fourth of the earth dies. What could be more intense than one fourth of the earth dying? I'll tell you what could be intense. The acceleration of the end time prayer movement. That's even more intense in terms of the threat to the antichrist kingdom. When we grow in our understanding of our revelation of intercession, then this makes more sense. But it's not just our revelation of intercession. It's also our revelation of the power of innocent blood being shed. Lou Engle has given the clearest that I've ever heard insight into the power, the effect of innocent blood being shed. So in the fifth seal, there's the blood crying out from the earth, there's the martyrs crying out in heaven, and there's an acceleration of intercession. And if you have insight from the word as to how important intercession is, you know it spells a greater threat to the antichrist than the seals previous to this. This is actually an intensity of judgment against the antichrist. It is not Jesus judging the church by the martyrs. And Jesus is the one releasing the fifth seal. The reason I'm spending so much time on that is because being intimately connected and focused on the prayer movement, this is one of our most important judgment seals. But many believers read this passage casually and they miss it because they don't have a revelation of how powerful intercession is, nor do they have a revelation on what innocent blood being shed, what it does in the spirit realm to accelerate the zeal of God. Paragraph D, the blood of the martyrs, the blood of the martyrs is crying out for justice, it's powerful. Now a verse I don't have in the notes, Genesis 4 10, when Cain killed his younger brother Abel, God told Cain, it shocked him, he said, your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground. Now we don't fully understand how all that works, but we know it's true. So the blood of the martyrs, their blood is crying out from the ground, Genesis 4 10, and the soul of the martyrs is crying out before the throne, the altar, the golden altar of incense around heaven. Now what happens from the fifth seal on, there's a new order of judgment, meaning the first four seals, it was men acting in wickedness against men. God lifted his restraining hand, he let evil men be evil to one another, show, show their wickedness. But from the fifth seal, it goes to another level. It's not just men acting against men, causing trouble on the antichrist kingdom, because all of this trouble is the kingdom of darkness. I mean you would kind of think, if you think about it just kind of casually, that all of these troubles are going to trouble the righteous, but when men are evil, it actually troubles the kingdom of darkness. It depletes its resource and scatters its focus and it's a negative, even to the devil's kingdom. But from the fifth seal on, all the judgments now are of a supernatural order. It's not just God lifting his hand and letting evil men be evil to one another and destroying their resources and their peace and tranquility, etc. It's now supernatural judgments, like the judgments of, of uh, that Moses released on Pharaoh. When Moses went into Egypt, he didn't release civil strife on one, on them. He didn't pray and then they turned on each other. He released those, uh, strikes from heaven. That heavenly arsenal struck the kingdom of Pharaoh. And from the fifth seal on, all the judgments are now supernatural, heavenly arsenal striking the earth related to the prayer movement. There's a divine acceleration and the blood of the martyrs and the accelerated prayer in heaven and earth moves the judgments into a supernatural dimension beyond the first four seals. It's the turning point in the book of Revelation. Now we find out in paragraph E, Revelation chapter 19 verse 2, it says it clearly, he releases his judgment, Jesus does because he wanted to avenge blood of his saints. The, the bloodshed stirred him up. Now he releases his judgments for several reasons, but it highlights Jesus is stirred up and he ties his judgment specifically to the bloodshed that's taking place. And what he's doing in Revelation 19, two, he's actually tying it in to the fifth seal because that's what they're praying around the throne for vengeance on their blood. And so at the very end of the tribulation, when it's all over, we find out when everyone is celebrating, they're worshiping Jesus because he actually answered Luke 18 and Revelation 6, 10. He answered those two prayers. Paragraph F martyrdom sets into motion, a domino effect. There is an acceleration. There's a cause effect in the spirit that happens when innocent blood is shed. It intensifies the prayer movement, intensifies a number of things, but one of them is the prayer movement. This wholesale murder of the saints backfires on the antichrist. It fuels up the prayer movement it purifies the church. It helps release the great harvest and it releases judgment on the antichrist. It all comes back on him negative. He couldn't do anything more calculated to hurt his kingdom than kill the saints, purifies them, intensifies prayer, brings in the great harvest. Not only that, because at the same time, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit's happening at the same time, but they all go together in God's economy. Top of page two. Now the wicked, they don't fear the prayer movement because they don't understand it. But even now, and I don't say this negative in a negative way, most of the church doesn't understand the prayer movement. Let's bring it up a notch. IHOP doesn't understand the prayer movement. Let me bring it up a notch. Mike Bickle, Lou Ingle, and Alan Hood, we don't understand the prayer movement. Meaning this is far more powerful than we can ever imagine. We're starting to get connected to the idea this is real. And we've got a little bit of insight, enough for all of us to show up here and change our lifestyle. But just the amount of times that we as weak human beings are tempted to quit is the proof of what we don't really grasp. Which is everybody. I'm not saying that in a negative way. I'm saying is, I'm actually making a positive point. There is going to be an increase of revelation about the fifth seal and how dynamic prayer really, really is. And we don't have it yet. We're aiming for it, we're reaching for it, and the Lord's happy with us. He looks at us, says, IHOP, I love you so much. You're not very mature. Mike, you, Lou, and the whole gang, you're not very mature. But I love you so much. You're so dear to me. So I have the confidence that he's smiling, but I have the desperation that we've got to go deeper. You know what? You can go deeper with a lot greater zeal if you have the confidence he's smiling at you in your weakness. And he is smiling. He loves IHOP. But I'm desperate. I want to lay hold of this. Because none of us would just naturally think the fifth seal, the prayer movement growing is more severe than the fourth seal, a fourth of the earth dying. I mean, how could that be more severe? And the Lord says, well, think of this. I live forever to make intercession. I run my government forever through intercession. Think on that. Maybe we're into something bigger than we grasp. Of course we are. Well, the wicked, they don't fear the prayers of the saints because they don't understand them. The famous quote, I won't say it exactly right, but Mary, Queen of Scott, she said, I fear the prayers of John Knox. It's the middle of the 1500s. She goes, I fear the prayers of John Knox, a saintly, godly man, more than all the armies of Europe. She had him in prison and he was praying. She goes, he troubles me. When he prays, negative things happen to my empire. She goes, I fear him more than the armies of Europe, all gathered together. She had a moment of insight. Paragraph K. I just give you a few verses that prophesy about the end-time prayer movement in the same time frame as the fifth seal. It's not like it's all limited to the fifth seal, but it's in that time frame. The prayer movement on the earth is going to accelerate at a level we can't imagine. I want to say this strongly. There won't be a ministry in existence in the final years before the Lord comes that is not embracing a spirit of prayer. They won't exist. There will be nobody in leadership in the body of Christ who does not lead with a spirit of prayer on them. They will be out of leadership and out of the ministry and their church or their ministry will not exist if a spirit of prayer doesn't take hold of them. Now we have some time for that. The whole church will be caught up in this anointing. I said that sometime and a guy said, well that's a really bold statement. I go, not, not so much, not so much. It's just so many Bible verses on it. It's just that when the fog lifts from your mind, it's apparent the whole church is caught up in the spirit of prayer. Every ministry or they won't be functioning as a ministry. I want to say that boldly. So I'm not saying that. So you think of the guy down the road, I'm saying it. So you think of yourself. I don't say, yeah, I told that one guy, he better get with it. Forget that. That's not the point. I'm talking to me and I'm talking to you, my friends. This is, I'm making that statement about us, not about them, but there's so many passages in the Bible that describe this. One of my favorites, Isaiah 42, it's right there. Isaiah 42, this is one of my favorite in time passages. It says in verse 10, sing to the Lord a new song. And then, you know, I, I, I edited here for the notes, just made it real short. You can read it on your own from the ends of the earth. And it talks about in the cities and the mountains and the coastlands everywhere, lift your voice up. And here in verse 13 is a description of the second coming. It says that Jesus will go forth like a mighty man of war. When he hears the prayers coming from the earth, the prayers coming from the islands, the mountains, the cities, the villages, the coastline, they stir up the zeal of Jesus. Now I don't know how Jesus's zeal gets stirred. I mean, his zeal is already perfect. I don't have to grasp all the details of this. Jesus, your zeal is not lacking. No, it's not lacking. How is your zeal stirred? Because there is a Kairos hour. There is a time on the prophetic calendar of heaven of where it is now time to break his silence. That's where he says it five or six times in the Bible. I will no longer be silent. That's what he means. His zeal will be openly displayed in his actions right now. He's with straining his activities. And the Bible describes it these five or six times as the Lord is silent. It doesn't mean in the full sense he's, he's leading all of his church and he's speaking his word. But there's a time where he says, I will no longer be silent. It's right here in this passage, but I didn't include it in the notes here, but several places, it means he's going to break his silence, his inactivity with confronting sin in the nation. And in that regard, his zeal is stirred up, but it's the prayer movement that causes him to break his silence and confronting the nations on a global public level. Like he's going to in the final years, it's the prayer movement that moves him. I love it. Verse 13, he shall be stirred up for war. Now again, his heart is already fully in righteous, holy zeal, but his actions in the Cairo season of history, Cairo season, meaning that prophetic strategic time, he confronts sin in the nation and the way he longs to now, but it's not time. So he's silent and the nations think he's going to do nothing about it. They don't know him and they don't know what the scripture says. His zeal is mounting up, meaning the hour for him to openly display his power before all the nations. And of course, that's described in the book of revelation. Jesus with zeal, like a man of war is the, is the seals, the trumpets and the bowls. That's the breakdown of this passage in Isaiah 42, 13. If you want to know 21 events, particularly, and there's others besides of course, where his zeal is displayed before nations, paragraph L. Now, when the prayer ministry on the earth is stirred up and the prayer ministry in heaven, because the, I call it the prayer room. I use that capital P, capital R, the prayer room. That's kind of a, it's gotta be a better way to say it. I'm talking about all the prayers in heaven and all the prayers inspired by the Holy Spirit on the earth converging together around the throne. I call that the prayer room, the big one, the capital P prayer room. That is the governmental center of the universe. All the prayers in heaven, all the prayers led by the spirit on the earth, all converging under Jesus's leadership at the throne. That is the governmental center of the entire created order right there. And when the prayers accelerate, then what happens, paragraph L, it affects the decrees in God's court. It affects the decrees. In Daniel seven, there's two different portions of Daniel seven where it describes the court of God and it describes in the court scene, the court is in session in heaven. And when the court is in session, God gives decrees of favor for the saints and decrees of destruction for the antichrist. But the courtroom around the throne is dynamically connected to the prayer movement. So when the saints in the fifth seal in heaven are crying out and the saints on the earth are crying out Luke 18, it affects the decrees being released around the court of court, a room of heaven court is in session and God decrees favor for the saints. This is trouble for the kingdom of darkness. It's trouble. He says in this passage in Daniel seven, I'll just give the briefest look at it, but the antichrist verse 21, the horn is making war against the saints. There they are. He's killing them. That's the bloodshed. That's the martyrs he's prevailing. Now, when I think of him prevailing me, he's killing them. Now, I believe the number of martyrs will be very high, but the percentage will still, this is my personal opinion. I can't prove it from the Bible, but I believe it to be true. The number will be high, but the percentage I do not believe will be the majority. There could be several hundred million martyrs. There's no way of knowing the number except for the way it's described in, in Zachariah and Daniel and the book of revelation. It's such a clear point of prophecy. You know, it's big. It could be a couple hundred million. It could be more, could be less, but even if it is a couple hundred million, there's many more hundred million who won't be martyred. So though the number will be high, possibly hundreds of millions, there will be two or three times that who are not martyred. The majority will not be martyred, but everyone will be affected. I mean, if there were 10 people in this room martyred, if there's a thousand people and 10 are martyred, 990 are doing a self-check real quick. They're all going, would I, could I, should I, what is this about? Everybody gets measured and plumb-lined when a few are martyred, but I don't think it'll be a one or two percent. It may be a 20, 30, 40 percent. I don't know that. There's no way to know, but we just know by the prominence of how it's highlighted, even here in Daniel, you know it's a big point, but you're never given the, I'm never given the impression it's the majority, but the number is substantial to plumb-line everybody. It will have its impact, but here it is. Verse 21, the antichrist is warring against the saints. There's the martyrdom of the fifth seal, but verse 22, the decree, the judgment, you can put the decree at the divine court is in favor of the saints. After the time of martyrdom, something happens around the throne in the throne scene. The decree is given and it is finished. And we find out from many other passages, that decree is related to the acceleration of the prayer movement in heaven and on earth. You can read the other passages here in Daniel seven, but just think of the court in session and the decrees go forth. And though in Daniel seven, prayer is not highlighted, but in these other passages in Isaiah and Zechariah and Jesus is Luke 18 and book of Revelation, we know that prayer is one of the highlight, I mean, one of the premier highlights of the Holy Spirit. Top of page three. Let's go to some of the details. I'm just gonna not really develop most of this. Paragraph D it's not a cry for personal vengeance where they cry out, avenge us. They're not prying out for personal revenge. They're prying out, crying out for the vindication of God's reputation. The God would be seen in the truth of who he is, that it would deliver the saints that are on the earth, but it would stop, it would stop the reprobate. It would stop the oppressors from oppressing. And there's several others, several other reasons you could give for them praying for this vengeance. So we don't pray against somebody that treats us wrong. Lord, give vengeance. Fifth seal, Revelation 6.10. No, it's not about somebody stole money for you, so you're gonna, you know, you're gonna appeal to the fifth seal to get this record straight. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. It says it very clearly in Ezekiel 33. It's a famous verse. There's no pleasure. We rejoice in his judgments. In the book of Revelation, every time around the throne his judgments are mentioned, they're rejoicing. They're in agreement. They are singing and worshiping. They're not rejoicing that individuals are in pain. They're rejoicing that oppression has been stopped. Because we don't pray for judgment upon the ungodly. We pray for judgment upon the reprobate. The reprobate means it's those that have crossed the line to where they will never repent. They don't want to repent and they can't repent. It's synonymous with being, with blaspheming the Holy Spirit. When they take the mark of the beast, they are reprobate. They will, they have no desire to repent. We pray in the book of Revelation for judgment on that group so they will stop their oppression and defaming the name of the Lord. The ungodly who haven't stepped over that line, we pray for their salvation. Now, when we pray for God to shine his light, Lord, release your light. Break into the city. Touch America with light. We are inadvertently praying for revival and judgment because when light comes that God takes judgment into his own hands. I don't pray for judgment on America. I pray for light. But there will be a day where there will be millions that step over the line and they are reprobate. They take the mark of the beast. Then we pray specifically that they will be stopped. But until then, we pray for the breaking in of light and God administers the judgment according to his wisdom. We don't pray for judgments right now. We, our default is the kingdom of God. We pray against judgment and for light, but light brings judgment. But we say, Lord, we don't get all that. We're just praying light right now. Break in, revival. And he says, I will, I'll take it into my own hands. Because some have asked me, Hey, when do we start praying this? You know, they got that little look of glee in their eye. And I go, no, I go, no, no, no, no, no, no. Pray for light. And if the Lord shines light on a city, that city will be troubled wherever there's resistance, but only the Lord knows who, what, when, where, and how. Now there is an exception to that when prophetic ministries like Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Isaiah, where the Lord actually tells them to pray for judgment, but they have a proven prophetic ministry with, with accuracy in revelation on national and international affairs. There's not too many of those guys or gals around, but the Bible does make room for people of that level to pray for judgment. I just don't know any of them. So we're in the mode of praying for light and for God to stop judgment. But there's a day where we join the prayers of the fifth seal and it's against the reprobate. They've taken the mark of the beast. It's a whole different, it's a whole different thing. Okay. Let's go to top of page four to the sixth seal. And we'll take less time on this because it's, it's less complicated of an idea. But again, the principle is we get familiar with it. So the fog in our understanding lifts. So until we get familiar with it, we can't even grasp it. It's just surreal. And it's, we don't relate to it. It's seems unrealistic and far away and irrelevant. That's not because the Holy spirit saying it is because there's a fog of unbelief on our mind. Okay. The sixth seal is the first manifestation of the supernatural judgments. After the fifth seal, after the prayer movement accelerates from now on, all the judgments are supernatural in nature. They're not just God removing his restraining hand. They all have a dynamic like Moses releasing the plagues of Egypt. They're all heavenly arsenal striking the earth. And here's the first one. It's a whole nother level than the first four seals. Now it's again, verse 12, Jesus opens the seal. That's an easy verse to read. He opens the sixth seal. What causes a little troubles when you read the rest of the paragraph? And you know, at first I would read that and go, okay, good. He opens the seal that I would study the other stuff kind of unrelated to Jesus. Then when I begin to connect the dots that Jesus is behind this stuff, I would, wow, Lord, I need to know you better again. I'm I love the Western world, but we need to worship and proclaim the Jesus of heaven, not the Jesus of the West. And our mind needs to be renewed. It takes time and effort. And I'm just, we're just all at the beginning of that process together. Verse 12, Jesus opened the sixth seal. There's a great earthquake. The sun became black. The moon became like blood. The stars fell to the earth like a fig tree. When the wind blows, the stars were falling. Verse 14, the sky opens, it recedes, it opens up. Every mountain and Island is moved. It's not annihilated, but it's moved. Whether an inch, a foot or a mile, we don't know it's moved to some degree because some people read into this. They're all destroyed and they're gone. They're moved. They move an inch. They move. They move a foot. They move. When a mountain moves a foot, I got a feeling there's trouble all around that mountain, the Kings of the earth. This is the very unusual passage. Verse 15 to 16, very unusual. The Kings, the great men, the rich, the military commanders, the mighty. So we have the top economic leaders. I mean the top world bankers, et cetera, entrepreneurs, the top military guys, the heads of state is who we're describing. This is like, it's just almost, I mean, it's surreal when you first read, it's like, this could not really happen. Imagine just picture five or 10 presidents in their suits and the top bankers of any given nation and the top military leaders in their dignity. And they are running to hide in caves. They hid themselves in caves in the mountains. Well, that's number one, just hiding in a mountain. The top military guy, where did you go? I went to hide, but you left your army behind. I know I was absolutely terrified. I mean, a military guy just wouldn't do that. I mean, the top bankers and economic leaders, they would be just typically too cool to do this. Something is happening really unusual. So they hide in mountains instead of their luxury homes. So it's extreme. In verse 16, they take it up a notch. Then they say to the mountain, they pray to the mountain, crush us, fall on us to hide us from Jesus. I mean, I've looked at this thing for years. I go, what on earth is this about? Don't read this kind of casually and be done with it. Wrestle with these two verses. I mean, verse 12 to 14, the earthquake and the stars in the sky, that's pretty intense, but 15 and 16, it will really stretch you because you want to take the Bible at face value. Says what it means. It means what it says. Now, one thing that's happening, these are, by the way, these are antichrist worshipers. Jesus, I'm just, I don't have this in the notes, but in Luke 19, verse 10, Luke 19, verse 10, I'm sorry, Luke 19, verse 40, what Jesus says, he goes, when he came into Jerusalem, he goes, if they don't worship me, the rocks will cry out. Well, here, these antichrist worshipers are crying to the rocks. It's exactly opposite. They refuse to cry out to Jesus. Now they're crying to the rocks. Now there's something about the occult and the high places in the mountains. And they're not, they're hiding from Jesus. They are asking for protection in this cry. My assumption, I don't know the details. I'm just giving you an opinion. I'll tell you when it's a clear Bible doctrine and I'll tell you when it's an opinion. But my assumption is this is involved in idolatry and occult. They're going to the mountains to the high places and they're crying out for safety, for protection. Now their theology is all mixed up because they think the mountains can protect them from Jesus. But my assumption is they're thinking that in some interaction with the demonic realm and the high places of the mountain, that they're going to be protected. Again, their theology is way off. Okay, Roman numeral four. So Jesus, paragraph eight, he opens the sixth seal in answer to the prayers of the fifth seal. The martyrs cried avenge us and the wicked cried hide us. They're both having a prayer meeting. For real. They're crying out and my assumption is when they cry to the mountains, it has to do with idolatry and demons. That's an assumption. Paragraph B. Now Jesus told us these terrible sights would happen in Luke 21 verse 25. Go ahead and add verse 28. I stopped at my notes. Verse 27. Add verse 28. These signs in the heavens happened before the second coming. The sixth seal is not the second coming. It is before the second coming. Jesus makes it clear. These signs of the heavens that cause fear of the nations, they happen before the second coming. Because some people read the sixth seal and they equate it with the second coming and I can see how they could do that. But if you pay attention to the details, it can't be the second coming. There's too many details that don't line up with the second coming here. It's pre-second coming. It's the sixth seal. It's maybe, you know, two years, two and a half years out. Who knows? It's so many months out. Paragraph C. The scripture talks about God shaking the heavens. That's the sky. What says in Haggai 2, I'll shake the heavens. That means the sky and that's what's happening in the sixth seal. But what's going to happen in Haggai 2 7 is that he'll shake nations and the nations will come to the desire of all nations. That is one of my favorite titles of Jesus in the Bible. He's called the one the nations will desire when they see the truth about him. It's not just the boss of the nations, not just the head of the nations. He's the one they desire when they see the truth. But anyway, the point I'm making here is the shaking of the heavens is related to the great harvest, the nations flocking to Jesus. Paragraph D. Joel tells us that the outpouring of the spirit in Joel 2 verse 28, I will pour out my spirit. You know the verse well. Verse 30. But I'm going to show you the wonders in the heavens, the signs of the skies. That's the sixth seal. So the outpouring of the spirit and the sixth seal go together. But verse 31, this is before the second coming of Christ that this happens, before the Lord comes. So we have the shaking, the outpouring of the spirit, the great harvest, the increased prayer movement and the shaking of the nations all lining up together. You're going to have to read that, of course, more on your own slowly. I'm just kind of tipping you off. You say, I didn't get all that. But if you read those verses, I think you'll be able to follow it. Top of page five. Let's go down to E. The stars, the stars fall. Well, that's an interesting concept. The stars falling. But the Greek word is the word aster. And it's used in many different contexts. And it can mean star, but I have it written here. It's any shining mass in the sky, comets, meteors, asteroids, flaming debris. It's anything. The reason that's important to know, because if you don't know the word aster means anything coming from the sky and it only means stars, then there's no way you can interpret this passage. Because if one star hit the earth, the earth would not exist one second later. For instance, the sun is a small star and the sun is a hundred times the size of the earth. It's a small star. So if many stars hit the earth, it'd be like a big bowling ball hitting a grain of sand. You can't have a hundred bowling balls hit one grain of sand. It's not talking of stars in the big sense. It's talking about anything that's a heavenly body coming. It's a, it's a, it's heavenly debris coming, natural debris coming from the heavens as a judgment of God. God is releasing this debris in the sixth seal. It's going to pick up after the trumpets in the bowls, because the seventh trumpet is going to be a hundred pound hillstones. So this is this, this, this asteroid, this meteor shower that hits the earth is going to pick up at another level. So I'm assuming that this in the six seal, this is one of the reasons they're hiding in the caves because of all this debris coming down, but it's going to intensify in the seventh bowl because it's like God directed David's stone. Remember when David in the slingshot with Goliath, he directed the stone and hit Goliath. The Lord is directing these stones from heaven and they are, they are destroying the antichrist infrastructure. The kings are running and hiding from it. But what is strange, top of page six, paragraph B. Now let's go to paragraph D. That one I just finished right here. It's the moment here. Paragraph D. What is strange, they perceive it as the judgment of God. They don't believe in Jesus. They worship the antichrist, but somewhere they perceive it's him. Now we know that in the Armageddon campaign, they rally from around the nations to war against him. They think they can beat him, but they're still hiding from him for at this season. Somewhere before it's over, they are emboldened by the devil to war against the lamb. But here they're hiding from the hell stones or from the, from the stars, the debris coming from heaven and the earthquakes, etc. They think we'll ride the storm out. We know it's him. My question is how do they know it's him? And I think one of the reasons, I don't think it's the only way, I believe the forerunners have been declaring it in the nations. They've been declaring the sixth seal. Now we teach the sixth seal in these early days, but you know, two, three, four decades go by, we might be in this timeframe after the first seal that you need to start putting this on the internet like in a big way. Pre-first seal, we're studying it as forerunners to understand it. But after the first seal, the forerunners are proclaiming all 21 of these judgments with great clarity. It's not like they're reading them for the first time. They have living understanding. They have understanding of the implications and some of the deeper meaning behind some of this. And I don't mean mystical meaning. I mean as you meditate and the Holy Spirit gives one person a little bit, another person a little bit, and we share with one another. I'm talking about across the whole body of Christ. We will gain far more insight into these once we focus on them and ask for understanding of them. But I assume the forerunners after the first seal are proclaiming this wide open and it is such a clear description of what's being proclaimed. Maybe the kings of the earth say, hey, that's what they said, but you know what? We think we can still beat the lamb, but they hide from him. They go to war with him later. I'm thinking I'm missing a couple of points here and the Holy Spirit might say something like, well, when you get closer, it will become more clear. Paragraph H, Isaiah 2, he describes this scene. Isaiah, you can read it on your own. He describes the sixth seal 700 years before John sees it on the island of Patmos. He describes the time where the leaders hid in caves from the terror of the Lord. He describes the sixth seal. Amen.