Mike Bickle emphasizes the critical role of being a faithful witness to the truth, drawing from Revelation 1:5 to illustrate Jesus as the ultimate faithful witness. He discusses the challenges and costs associated with speaking boldly about the truth, highlighting the need for personal insight and a deep connection to God's word. Bickle warns against the temptation to only share positive messages, urging believers to also expose lies and announce prophetic warnings. He stresses the importance of a covenant community that cries out for God's intervention in their nations, preparing for the return of Christ. Ultimately, he calls for a generation of witnesses who will faithfully proclaim the full message of the kingdom, including both its blessings and judgments.

Revelation chapter 1, we're going to look at verse 5. Father, we ask you to release the spirit of grace and the spirit of revelation upon this very vital and important subject of being a faithful witness to the truth. In the name of Jesus. Amen. For those of you that are just visiting with us in our January 2008, I mean, the December 2008 One Thing Conference, I gave a call for people to make a sevenfold commitment. We called it the sacred charge, a commitment to intentionally and diligently prepare to be a forerunner, to operate in the forerunner ministry, which means being prepared to prepare others for the unique dynamics of the coming of the Lord, even if his coming is many decades away, which I personally believe it is. But we're being prepared to prepare for the unique dynamics. And I've been going through each of the commitments. And tonight we're looking at one of them that we refer to as speak boldly, being a faithful witness to the truth. Now, of these seven commitments, this one is the most challenging and the most costly. I would say it again. This is the most challenging and the most costly to be faithful in. Now, all the other six are pretty dynamic challenges as well to our inner man. Paragraph A, Revelation 1, verse 5, the first title that of Jesus in the book of Revelation, he's called the faithful witness. And it emphasized his prophetic teaching as a witness to the truth. He spoke the truth faithfully. He did not back down and he didn't overshoot it. He didn't back down in fear and he didn't exaggerate it or speak it in a wrong spirit because his spirit was wrong. But he was faithful in the speaking of it. And he was not just the content, but the spirit in which he spoke it and the timing in which he spoke it. He was faithful in those dimensions. Now, because he wouldn't back down, he actually was killed because he spoke the truth. It was not the miracles, it was the speaking of the truth that led to his death from the human point of view. Now, there's the divine point of view, which is a much bigger and grander story. But from the eyes, from the perspective of man, they killed him because he would not back down. So, therefore, he understands the dilemma that we will face, that we face now, because we're called to be faithful witnesses to the truth in every generation, not just in the final decades leading to the coming of the Lord. And we may not be in those final decades. We may be just a little bit before that, those final two, three, four, who knows? Who knows? Nobody knows the day or the hour. But we can tell when we're getting closer and closer. And I believe that we're getting close enough to where we need to start thinking of those unique dynamics, even though it may be our children or their children that bring it to its full completion, meaning the purpose of God before he returns. Paragraph C, Jesus wouldn't back down on the negative. And he did not exaggerate the positive. Now, the reason I say that, and I don't mean to say this with a, in a wrong way, because I've done it plenty of times, but most of the preaching and prophesying today, I mean, just the least that I'm aware of, it's almost all positive with a touch of flattery, and sometimes more than a touch. It's exaggeration and flattery in the positive. Not all preaching, but lots of it. And a lot of guys that say I'm prophetic, they almost only do that which makes, excites people. And I think that most of what God's saying should focus on the positive, but there is the negative dimension that we have to be faithful to. And that's an important part of the prophetic call, Roman numeral two. Paragraph B, a witness speaks what they've seen with firsthand knowledge. That's the definition of a witness. So we have to be people of the word. We have to have firsthand knowledge. I don't mean just know a Bible verse. We have to have personal insight. It needs to connect to our heart before we have firsthand knowledge of it. It's more than intellectual knowledge. And we have to be people of the spirit because we speak what we see, and not just an open vision. There's only a few that have open visions, but more of those kinds of things are happening. But we can't just speak from secondhand. It's good to speak what others teach you, but you're only a witness when you're actually speaking what you've seen with your own heart or heard with your own ears. To be a faithful witness, first the witness part, you've got to see it. You've got to encounter it. And that's what we're doing now. We're spending intentionally wanting to cultivate a life in the spirit and in the word so that we really can be a witness, a voice, not just an echo. But there's another dimension. We have to be faithful. And that is we don't draw back. We don't draw back. We say the whole thing that the Lord told us, if in fact He wants us to tell the whole thing, because sometimes it's His wisdom to only tell part of it. But we don't draw back because of fear. We draw back because of wisdom when there are times to draw back. Paragraph C, the most difficult of the seven commitments of the sacred charge is this one because it affects our relationships. It affects our image, our identity, our destiny in a really deep way. The way that we are seen and the way that people respond to us. You get outside of just the boundaries of telling people how good they are and how good things are going to be. You touch, get outside of that. They start getting really nervous. And they take it really personal because it is personal. Brother Yoon, the book, The Heavenly Man, many of you have read that book, who was in the Chinese underground church, who went to prison and suffered incredible persecutions and beatings. They broke his legs. And I mean, just the cruelty that he went through is amazing. He spent a day or two with us and he told us something quite remarkable. He says, the criticism I receive as a witness of the truth actually hurts me more than the persecution I endured against my body. And when he said this, I said, surely this cannot be true. He says, it is true. He goes, since I've been out of prison, the pain that touches my heart because of the brethren, I'm not talking about unbelievers, I'm talking about the brethren. What they say about me hurts me more than what they did in prison when they beat my body. Now, in paragraph D, John claimed to be a faithful witness. He made that statement several times in the book of Revelation, that he was in prison because he was a witness. Now, that was his testimony to the truth beforehand, for the many years before he went to prison. But John continued as a faithful witness by giving the message of the book of Revelation. Now, we receive the book of Revelation because it's in the Bible. So we go, hey, it's in the Bible. What's the problem? Well, when John first received the message, it wasn't in the Bible yet. Can you imagine? Can you, I mean, they really respected John, but still, could you imagine giving that vision? Well, a series of visions. I mean, that's pretty intense. I mean, I don't mind quoting his vision, particularly after it's in the Bible. But for me to claim my own vision, beloved, there was an issue of him being a faithful witness, not only in the decades leading up to his imprisonment, but the speaking of that message. I mean, today, it's still, it's still a stigma to stand for the message of the book of Revelation. I mean, John might say, you think it's hard for you? You have no idea what happened when I first said that, the response I got. Paragraph F, the two witnesses, the two great prophets. There's two great prophets. They're going to be raised up in the final three and a half years before the Lord returns in Revelation 11. It's interesting that these, they're called two prophets, but they're also called two witnesses because they will witness to the truth in a unique way. Now, they will, there's many dynamics. We're going to look at seven different dimensions of witnessing to the truth, but particularly in the generation the Lord returns. Now, most of these dynamics have been true in part or some completely for 2,000 years, but some of them have a unique expression related to the unique dynamics of the Lord's return. But the two witnesses, it's interesting, the Bible titles them witnesses. They are faithful witnesses and what they do gives us insight into some of the implications of being a witness to the truth and it's more than the truth of personal salvation. It certainly includes that, but it goes beyond giving a witness of how somebody can receive the forgiveness of their sins and receive eternal life. The witness to the truth involves more than that, though that is so dynamic, we never graduate from that glorious reality. The angels still sing when that message goes forth. Top of page two, paragraph H. Now, before we get started in the seven different expressions and purposes that are accomplished in being a faithful witness to the truth, I want to give five different ways that we speak the truth. Paragraph H, number one. First, we have to be biblical. To be a faithful witness, we have to stay in the boundaries of the written Word of God. A lot of folks in the prophetic, under the banner of prophetic, they say things that violate the Scripture. We have to honor that which is in the boundaries of Scripture. It's not enough to have a vision. The vision has to support the truths that are written in the Word of God. It has to be biblical. Number two, to be a faithful witness has to be clear, not hedging, not kind of a political spin on it. It has to be straightforward and understandable. Well, trouble's coming. I think it's mostly just to the people you don't like the trouble's coming. Well, trouble might be coming to that guy too. Well, it's not really going to touch you, but it's going to touch the really bad guys only. Now, that might be true, but the point is a faithful witness, it needs to be clear, precise, not fuzzy, precise. Number three, it needs to be bold. We cannot, if we're going to be faithful, we cannot draw back with intimidation. And that's a big one, to hedge it, to draw back and even to speak it with timidity. And that takes the anointing of the Spirit to not be timid when we're actually speaking the truth that God is proud of. God's proud of His truth. He's not ashamed of it. But it takes the power of God to be bold. This is part of being a faithful witness. We have to be tender. We don't, when people treat you wrong or even those that are persecuted, they don't speak the message, the negative part of it with a, so there. God's going to get you back. We speak it with tenderness, with no bitterness, no anger, because we're actually speaking it for the benefit of our enemies, not to get even with them, but to give them a chance to make a change. And it takes a right spirit to be a faithful witness. And then we have to speak it with humility, meaning some people, they build their ministry around just the uniqueness of being negative. It's kind of they, it's their image. They want to be known. They get a crowd and they build a ministry and a following around the negative or the positive. Negative or positive, both groups. And the Lord doesn't want us giving testimony to the truth with an eye on building a crowd or a ministry or getting a following. He doesn't want us to argue the truth to win an argument. You know, as I've taught on The End Times over the years, I got guys that want to debate. And I think there's a place to go back and forth and talk in friendly dialogue. I don't want the people in this ministry debating to win an argument. I want to be a faithful witness and leave the truth at the feet of Jesus and at before the hearts of the people not to win an argument. Like leave the context and go, boy, we got him. No, I don't want to win arguments. We want to give testimony in humility to truth and let the truth stand where it stands. Okay, we're going to look at seven different purposes of this global witness of the kingdom. There's a seven-fold global witness of the kingdom. Matthew 24, verse 14. The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come. Now, this witness involves much more than personal salvation. It is a full witness of the full kingdom. It is a complete witness to the truth about the full kingdom. And this is what the Lord wants us to be prepared to do. It doesn't say just the gospel of forgiveness, though that's a critical beginning point. And I don't want to minimize that. Again, that is so exciting. That is one of the facets that the angels rejoice over every time that the truth is communicated in that way. But a witness of the kingdom is a bigger subject than the offer of forgiveness. And before Jesus returns, there will be a witness of the kingdom, a complete witness of the full message of the kingdom in every nation. And so there's going to be a tremendous revival of understanding for this to happen. Right now, the way I see it is that there so little is going forth in the earth in terms of a full witness. I don't understand the full witness. Even the points I have here, I don't understand them all. But they're just, they're beckoning me to gain more understanding on each one of them. It's the message, the full message of the kingdom. A king is coming to take over the earth. And if he is resisted, when he's resisted, he will take over the earth in context to a great conflict. That's part of the gospel of the kingdom. A king is coming to the earth to take it over. And there's implications that are positive and negative. And there's a storyline. And there's a dramatic unfolding of events that will happen that need to be witnessed to that is related to the king coming to take over the earth. So the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom is much more than the gospel of forgiveness. I call it the full gospel message. It's much more than tongues and healings. A lot of people, full gospel means tongues and healing. No, it's a king coming over, coming to the earth, taking over and confronting the negative with power and releasing power on the positive responses. It's a glorious full-orbed story. It must be witnessed to in every nation. The Lord won't come back, tell the whole story. The main parts of it, I mean, have been given a clear witness in every nation. That is what must happen before the Lord returns. But the beginning of it is the message of forgiveness. That's where it begins. And so we're at the place now where the missions movement are telling us that in the next, within the next five or ten years, every nation will have a witness of the gospel, at least the gospel of forgiveness, not the whole full-orbed message of the kingdom and all of its implications, but a testimony of how to be saved by the blood of Jesus. That introductory message, which is critical, it is the foundation stone. It's the beginning, but it's not the completion. The goal isn't to be forgiven. The goal is to be involved with a king forever. And you have to be forgiven to be involved with him. So the message isn't how to escape hell. The message is a king is taking over the earth, and he wants you to be involved. And you go, how can I be involved? Well, you've got to be forgiven first, and you've got to come under his leadership. OK, I want to do it. That's the message of forgiveness. Now we're in the kingdom, and now the kingdom message unfolds in its fullness. Paragraph C. OK, the first dimension is personal salvation. Most glorious reality, again, as I said, the angels rejoice over this every time the truth goes forth and it's received in this regard. It says in Revelation 7, verse 9, that a great multitude of all the nations, all the nations, there is a multitude around the throne. Verse 14, John said to the angel, Sir, where do these guys come from? And the angel said, they came out of the great tribulation. The great harvest in its fullness happens in context to the final three and a half years. So the closer we get to the revival breaking out, it is in itself a sign of the time that we're getting closer to the Lord's return. But no matter how good it gets between now and then, it will increase in power in the final three and a half years. Whatever is happening anywhere in the world, it will be far more dynamic in power when we come to those final three and a half years. OK, the second purpose of giving a witness to the truth is to expose lies. Now, this is a tough one to expose lies. The saints are to expose lies that deceive and seduce people into error. 2 Timothy 3, verse 17, Peter said, you know this beforehand. And in 2 Peter 3, he talked all about the end times. He goes, you know all this beforehand, lest you fall from your steadfastness being led away by error. Error, when people believe error, they are led away from their steadfastness to Jesus. Error really matters. And Peter said, when you buy into things that are error, you do lose your steadfastness. Revelation 2, Jesus honored the leaders at the church at Ephesus because they tested the false apostles and they found them to be liars. In other words, they judged them and tested them and they didn't bear the fruit of a true apostle. Paragraph E, we looked at this just last night, talking about the signs of a false prophet and the signs of cults, because cults are going to increase in huge numbers as we get closer to the Lord's return. In Matthew chapter 24, again, we looked at this last night, but we'll just look at it again for just a moment. Jesus said, take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ. They will deceive many. So the many being deceived, that is in essence, cults are going to be raising up with lots of people in them. Many are going to buy into the false thing. Verse 11, many false prophets will arise. There it goes again. Many will respond to them. Verse 14, the gospel will be preached in all the world. The idea is that as the truth accelerates, the light accelerates, the false message will also accelerate, and there will be a large increase of the number of cults and a large increase of the number of people in them. And the faithful witnesses to the truth, they must expose these lies. And that's not fun to do that, because people really get mad when you expose lies among people who name the name of Jesus. And the cults, that's what makes them a cult. If they don't name the name of Jesus, they're just a false religion. They name the name of Jesus, if they say we're Christian, that's the definition of a cult, is that they claim to honor the written Word of God. Top of page 3, paragraph F. Now, lest we get trigger happy, and there's not many that will, but there's always that one guy who gets a message like this, and they get so excited about being the guy with the kind of the bold Rambo in the spirit guy, and they get trigger happy, and they don't know, it's a tension. It's very important that we say the other side of this exhortation to expose error, because we need to expose it with tenderness and with tears, not with a so there spirit, or how about that? Or that's what you get for what you said to me two years ago. There's no vindictiveness. There's tears and tenderness in the exposing of error. When a man is exposing a person's error, and they don't have tenderness, then it's in a wrong spirit, and probably the information is wrong too. I've seen people expose error with tenderness, and it's beautiful. It doesn't mean the guy exposing the error is completely right, but there's a whole, there's a much greater chance they're right when there's tenderness and tears in it. Now, the tension is that in the general body of Christ, our general attitude, we bless the body of Christ, all the members and all the ministries, and we look at the budding virtues in other ministries, meaning virtues that aren't mature yet, like in our own lives and ministries. We have many virtues that are not yet mature, but we care for them, meaning we want to grow in them, and the Lord wants us to see the budding virtues in other ministries and bless those budding virtues and call them forth and not criticize them. Every ministry has deficiencies. There's no ministry that has all the instruments in the symphony. Some ministries are real good at this, but not so good at that. Everyone has deficiencies, and we all have differences. The Lord says, you bless regardless of deficiencies and differences. You bless them. Do not criticize them. One of our family values at IHOP, we do not allow anybody to criticize any ministries. If they do, they have to acknowledge it and repent. This is something that we've held our leaders to. We really care about this. Yeah, but look, that ministry, they don't do this and that. They have deficiencies. No problem. So do we. And we don't bless differences in ministry style and focus, etc. But paragraph G, John 7, 24, there is a time to bring righteous judgment to ministries that have destructive doctrines and destructive behavior. That's different than deficiencies and differences. Destructive doctrines, destructive behaviors. We have to expose them if the Lord, if we're connected to them in any way. But we have to expose them in the right way and with the right spirit. And Jesus talked about in John 7, 24, don't judge according to appearance, but give righteous judgment. Give righteous, and the righteous judgment was that Jesus was right, and the religious leaders were wrong. That was a righteous judgment. The carpenter with no ministry resume was the right one, and the guys with all the resume were the wrong ones. That was righteous judgment. Paragraph H, now this is just my use of the words. There's three words I use, and I'm not making these biblical definitions because you can argue, depending on what translation of the Bible you use, you could use these words a little differently. But this is just what I use for my own grid when I think of exposing people. There are heresies, there's deceptions, and there's errors. Again, this is not a theological definition, but it's three compartments or three categories in my thinking. Heresies, denying the deity of Jesus, etc. Heresies keep somebody from being saved. They're really serious. Deceptions, they're not as serious as heresies. They keep us from fellowshipping with God or other believers in the full way that God ordained. They've got to be addressed, deceptions, because they hinder the fellowship of ministries of people with God and with the larger body of Christ. And then there's errors. Errors keep us from the full understanding of God's ways, and everybody has errors. There's the secondary issues of the kingdom. I've never met a person who has every single point right. I mean, the good guys baptize Jesus this way and that way. The good guys take communion this way and that way. The good guys believe once saved, always saved, or once saved, you can't be lost. There's good guys on all those spectrums, many different areas. And we have to, in the place of error, we have to bless one another. So our response, we refuse, we expose. I'll say it this way, we expose heresy. We have to, but in the right way and in the right spirit. And we refuse to fellowship with people that preach heresy. That doesn't mean we're not kind to them. It doesn't mean that we don't try to win them. But what I mean by, the Bible makes it clear we refuse to fellowship with them. Meaning, we don't sit around the table with the common understanding where they think that we think we're serving the same God. We can be around the table and we can show acts of kindness and have a kind spirit, but we're not sitting around the table under the presupposition we're serving the same God. It is a heresy. We don't fellowship, we don't talk like we're on the same journey. We're not on the same journey. We'll be kind to you, we'll serve you, and we'll try to lead you to the Lord. But we don't fellowship with you in that sense of what the word fellowship means from the biblical point of view. We confront those that are in deception and we give grace and patience to those that are in error. Everybody has error. Everybody has lack. Again, there might be one guy who does it. I haven't met him yet. Certainly not anyone in this room that I know of. Okay, so we expose errors. Number three, as faithful witnesses, we announce the prophetic invitations and the prophetic warnings of what's coming just around the corner. We announce what is coming. And this announcing to the people that receive it, it's an invitation. And to the people that refuse it, it's a warning. But we announce what is coming. A prophetic announcement of a revival is coming. The goodness of God is breaking in. And God will confront all resistance to His goodness. It's the same message, actually. The message of judgment and the message of the love of God is the same message. God says, I'm going to offer my love. And to those that oppose my love and oppose the people who are ambassadors of my love, I'm going to confront them. So the judgment message is actually the other side of the coin of the love message. It's the same reality. Now, as the prophetic announcement of what's coming next goes forth, the saints are rallied and the saints are prepared by the very same truths that warn the unrighteous of deception and the very truths that warn the unrighteous that judgment is coming. Now, the reason that the unrighteous are warned, one of the reasons is so that they can avoid the deception and the judgment. But God says, you have to speak the judgment. I want to warn them. Don't get so into being positive and being self-protecting of your own ministry and reputation. I want to warn them. It's important that somebody tells them, well, I want to keep it positive. Well, it's not entirely positive because they're resisting me. You must warn them. Of deception and coming judgment. So that they have a chance to accept the positive. Amos chapter 3, verse 7. The Lord does nothing unless He reveals it to His prophets. Everything God does, He does in justice. He warns, He tells the prophets and the prophets tell the people ahead of time. Even if the wicked refuse it, He wants to give them a just warning. Because everything He does, even His dealing with the devil, He does in justice. Because He cannot do anything that's not perfect justice, even in His dealing with the wicked. So God says, I won't do anything unless I tell the prophets. And the implication is, and I ask, if you read Amos 3, and the prophets announce it. It's the idea that it's announced to those that have good and bad responses. Everybody needs to hear it for the sake of justice. Ezekiel 33. Now this is for the folks that don't want to say the negative. But a faithful witness has to say the positive and the negative of what's coming. Ezekiel 33, verse 3. When He, that's the watchman or the faithful witness. When they see the sword coming. If they blow the trumpet and warn the people that trouble's coming. Whoever heard and does not take warning, the blood's on the head of that rebellious person. They said no to God, the blood's on their head. But, verse 5, if somebody does take warning, an unbeliever, or a person living out of the will of God, and they take heed, they save their life. So that's the good and the bad of a guy who's faithful to tell the message. Verse 8. Now He says, now, O messenger, if you draw back in a political spirit and you want to save your reputation and kind of make your ministry just look real sweet that everybody will applaud you, He goes, consider this. Verse 8. When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you don't warn him. And I told the wicked because the implication is God told the wicked man, but through the voice of the prophet, but the prophet wouldn't say nothing. So the wicked man doesn't even know the message is being given. God says, prophet, or faithful witness, talk. Will God give the wicked guy a dream? No. I'm telling the wicked man through your lips. Well, tell him through someone else's lips. I want the wicked man to be warned. Well, he's not going to listen anyway. He has to be warned, says the Lord, because it's injustice on my part if I judge him and he's not warned. He has to be warned. I want my servants to stand with me in truth. If you don't speak to them, middle verse 8, the wicked man will still die, but his blood I will require at your hands. And the idea is on the last day, when we talk about this on the last day, his blood will be on your hands. Oh, prophet of God. So you want to be a preacher. The Lord's looking for faithful friends. He's looking for men and women that aren't trying to build their ministry and get a following. They're trying to be faithful to his heart and faithful to truth. He says, I need a witness in all the nations of the full message of what I'm doing. Number four, purpose of a faithful witness in all the nations, bringing understanding of God's judgments before they happen. This is critical. It's not only the fact of God's judgment. That was what we just covered. Or the fact of a great revival coming. We just covered that, the positive and the negative, the announcing of what's coming, positive and negative. That's number three. We're now on number four. The Lord wants his messengers to make sense of the message of judgment. Because if people understand the message, they can make sense of it, that Jesus is not contradicting love. He's removing everything that hinders love by his judgment. He's not contradicting love. He's actually working for love. And when people get that, then they overcome the offense and the anger they will have towards Jesus. When, as Jesus's judgments increase, there, the first, there will be, I'll say it this way, there will be significant anger inside the church at Jesus. There'll be times when the church will be binding the devil and Jesus is the one trying to wake a nation up. And the name, I tell you, you can't bind Jesus in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, I bind you. And he's leaning on the door and says, you're not opening that door till I open it. Now, there are times the devil's involved. And we bind the name of, I mean, we bind the devil in the name of Jesus, but we announce the judgments of Jesus. But there will be offense in the church, not just in the nations. Jesus told the followers of John the Baptist, he said, blessed if you're not offended at me, because what they didn't know that Jesus knew John the Baptist was going to die, not be spared. So when the disciples of John the Baptist came, Jesus told him who he was, but he said, I got a message for you personally. Don't be offended. Don't be angry at me. They're going, why would we be angry at you? He says, you'll see in a short amount of time, John the Baptist has died. And they go, wait, if that man from Nazareth was God, why didn't he save John the Baptist? There you have it. Jesus says, don't be offended at me. So that's a very important point. I believe that many people will be tempted who love Jesus will be tempted with offense. And God's answer of mercy is to raise up messengers ahead of time who make sense of the coming judgment. The fact it's coming, number one, many believers are just shocked by it. They're not even aware it's coming, but it's not enough to say it's coming to make sense of it as it comes, that it's Jesus is not contradicting love. He's actually expressing love. The understanding of God's judgment is a great mercy to a city or a nation or a ministry to have understanding. And all the confusion and fear that takes place when judgment happens, God wants witnesses of the truth, not just to, not just to be man pleasing. Don't tell them what they want to hear. Tell them what God says. Yeah, but they won't like what God says. God says, I'm looking for witnesses that will tell them what I say, because trust me, my truth will work far better than your flattery. Tell them my truth. Give them a chance to respond to me. Well, that'll be really bad. They're real beat down right now. They just, you know, went through a great trauma. Tell them my truth. Explain to them what's happening. Men and women that will do that today are very hard to find. There's a few of them around. Most folks just want to go on the other end. Every disaster is the devil, and God is happy with everyone. There are disasters that are the devil. There's not a question. But God's not happy with everyone. He loves them enough to wake up cities and nations. It's because He loves them, He wants to get their attention, because the offer of goodness did not get their attention. And God believes in eternity. Now, a lot of preachers don't believe in eternity, but God does. And He wants to wake them up while there's time. Paragraph K. Interpreting the judgment of God from the Scripture is part of preparing the bride, because we know the bride's going to be prepared. Well, the bride where is going to be prepared? In every nation. That's part of the witness going to every nation, so that in every nation, there's a preparing word that's making sense of what's happening to the church in every nation. So, the word goes to every nation, so everybody can get saved. And those, I mean, so that the people in every nation can be saved. But then, people in every nation have lies exposed, so they can avoid deception. People in every nation have an announcement of the good and the bad that's coming. People in every nation, they have understanding of the judgments, and why the judgment is don't contradict love, but why they express love, because it's preparing the people in the nations. This is part of a witness of the gospel to all nations, and the faithful witnesses must become eyewitnesses. They must grasp these truths in order to speak them with clarity, and with tenderness, and boldness, etc. Daniel, chapter 11, says here that the people of understanding will instruct many, and some of those of understanding shall fall, but others will be refined and purified. In Daniel 11, the angel is giving Daniel insight about two time frames. He's telling Daniel about Antiochus Epiphanes, who was a prophet, and he's telling Daniel who would be a type of the Antichrist that rose up in about 175 B.C., and a little bit of this was fulfilled there as a foreshadowing. But the angel's full meaning was that this would happen in the generation that the Lord would return. Now, here's the question. Do you want to be one of the people of understanding that help others, that help the many? Or do you want to be one of the many who don't understand, and you need somebody to give some clarity to you? Well, there is a people. I don't mean in one place. I'm talking about all over the earth. In every nation, God will have a people of understanding in every nation. That's part of the witness going forth, and they will give witness of the truth, of this dimension of truth, the judgment dimension, and it will refine the people of God. It will bring purity. You can read the whole context on your own in Daniel 11. It's very, very significant. Jeremiah 23, this is talking in context about the end times and the judgment. That's the context of Jeremiah 23. The anger of the Lord will not be turned back. That's the book of Revelation judgments. That's what it is in context. They will not be turned back. God's going to execute all the judgments in His heart. However, look at the last sentence, in the latter days, you will understand this perfectly. There will be people. There will be a people of understanding in every nation of the earth who will understand perfectly. I don't think it means they have, in the absolute sense, perfect understanding, but what it means, it will make sense, and there will be no contradiction in their understanding. I don't think it means there's a group of people that have the omniscience that suddenly have all knowledge. They have mature understanding, and there's no contradiction in their mind between love and judgment. Here's the question. Are you going to be one of those people who understand so you can make sense of it to others who will be offended if they don't understand? That's part of being a faithful witness. Jeremiah 30, he says it again, verse 24, the fierce anger will not be turned. The Lord will not return this anger. In other words, it's the book of Revelation judgments. Again, the final sentence, in the latter days, you will consider it, and to consider it means you will search it out. You will study it. You will meditate. You will pray and fast. You will weigh it out. You'll search this thing out. So, my question, are you one of those in the latter days that are considering these things even now that you could be a blessing to many who will be in great confusion and tempted with great anger against the Lord, even who name his name? Top of page four. Now, besides people getting saved, that's my favorite one. Number five here is my second favorite one. I love this one. The witness of the gospel in every nation, one of the reasons he wants a company of believers in every nation, a covenant company. He doesn't just want people with fire insurance who go to heaven in every nation. He wants a covenant community of born-again believers in every nation of the earth. And they will cry out with what I call an intercessory covenantal invitation for him to come to their nation. Now, here's the idea. Jesus takes over a nation as his covenant people cry out, come to my nation. That's what we're doing in our nation. All the earth people are doing this. Visit our nation. They're praying mostly for revival. That's the beginning of come to my nation. But it doesn't end with sin revival. Come and take over my nation. And the Lord is listening to the beckoning of his covenant people. And he wants a company of them in every single nation of the earth who night in day cry out, come Lord Jesus, come Lord Jesus, take over our nation, take over our nation. And this is actually significant part of the second coming of Christ. That he would have a covenant people. I don't mean one little group over in a corner somewhere. I mean, there'll be a multitudes of ministries. They might, most of them won't even know each other. They'll be all over the nation, especially the big nations. They'll be all over the nation, but they'll be crying out. God honors the authority he gave to human beings. And God gave the dominion, the government, the governmental decision making of the earth. He gave it to humans. He goes, I'm not coming back until the people on the earth call me back. It says in Psalm 115, the heavens are the Lord's, the heavenly road, the earth. He gave it to humans. He goes, the decision is yours. You want me to come to your nation, ask for revival. And to the degree we ask for revival, we will get a greater measure. The Lord says, I'm not taking over any nation of the earth. I believe this. Until that nation says, there's a people says, take our nation over. And the Lord is going to have a covenant company of people in every nation saying, take our nation over, take our nation over. And the king or the president of that nation may not know or care what they're doing, may not even know about it, but it will matter in the spirit that they're doing it. And part of the great harvest is not just getting more people for heaven. That's glorious. Again, in itself, that's glorious. But it's raising up a greater covenant cry on the earth that will lead to the second coming of Christ. And there'll be a witness. That cry will go forth in every nation. But the witness, the messengers in every nation will communicate that to the body of Christ. We have to cry, come Lord Jesus. The spirit of the bride, we're crying for his visitation to our nation in revival. So I have here, let me see, where am I at in paragraph M? The prayers, the covenantial way that we open the doors to whatever is under our domain. Your heart is under your own domain. So you ask Jesus to touch your heart. He says, I will. You don't ask him. He won't touch it very much. You ask him to touch your circumstances. He goes, I will. Because that's under your domain. I gave it to you. Well, touch my nation. Okay, I will. Well, a whole bunch of us touch our nation. Good. Anything else? Take over our nation. That's better. Drive the oppressor away from our nation. That's called judgment against the Antichrist. Drive the oppressor. Okay. Okay, I'll do that. First, I have at the end of paragraph M, he'll come in revival. It's a covenant invitation from every nation. That every nation will offer a covenant invitation. Rule us. Come and take our nation over. He'll come in revival. Then he'll have judgment against the oppressor who's oppressing the people of God and the others as well. And then he will come and take over and rule that nation. Paragraph N, the spirit of revival. There will be a spirit of revival on every church, on every nation. No, let's say it this way. There will be a spirit of revival on the church in every nation, beckoning for Jesus to come take over their nation. And we find that in Revelation 22. Come, Lord Jesus, come. They're not just saying, you know, send a spirit of kind of renew our hearts a little bit. They're doing that for sure. But come and take over. I like this verse in Isaiah 19, where it says that this is talking about after the second coming. And well, leading up, it's the period before the second coming and leading up to in Egypt. Isaiah the prophet highlights Egypt. He says, the Lord will be entreated by them to heal them. And the Lord says, I will heal them because they asked me to. I'll heal any nation where the people in the nation asked me to heal that nation. I'll do it. Now he's healing them in the millennium, but he's healing them because they're asking. Now, of course, the opposite is if they don't ask, the same does not happen. So there's a witness of the kingdom that's going forth in every nation. The worship movement is a nonstop beckoning, the worship movement in every nation. As the gospel goes to every nation, it raises up a covenant community that cries out night and day. The worship movement is beckoning Jesus to come take over their nation. And this cry, come Lord Jesus, it's not just a personal devotion cry. It is that it is a covenantal political cry. We're talking to the king on behalf of the nation that he planted us in. Paragraph O, he waits for the leaders of the city of Jerusalem. He said in Matthew 23, verse 39, he goes, I'm not, you're not going to see me till you say come. With your lips, you have to ask me to come to your nation and I will. Now we all understand that about Israel, but I believe this is the requirement of every nation. He's not going to come and just by brute strength and force take over nations. He's coming as the people of that nation in relationship with him are beckoning him to because he gave the nations, he gave the earth to the sons of men. He gave dominion to the human race and he wants humans calling him to take over their sphere. So we know that's going to happen in Israel, but there's going to be people in America. Come to America and in China, all throughout Asia, Latin America, come to our nation. He says, okay, I will. So the, the witness of the gospel is actually producing a covenantal intercessory cry in that nation as well. Number six and seven, we're just going to mention a moment on, you can read it a little bit more because they pertain to those final three and a half years. They're not so pressing in these decades right now, but we want to know the Bible so that we are prepared and we're preparing our children and our grandchildren and so on. We want to prepare to prepare, to prepare, to prepare because we don't know when the Lord's coming, but we want this. We want our heritage to have preparation. Everyone that we're touching in the gospel, we are preparing them for the scenario. If it happens in the fullness in their day. There's a witness of people that are praying in unity with the Lord against the great oppressor, the Antichrist. Now, some people, they don't really get this, but the Antichrist will be far more evil and far more powerful than Adolf Hitler ever was, far more evil. And his empire will be more treacherous and more cruel and more oppressive than any evil empire in history, and they will really hurt people. And people say, I don't want to pray for judgment. That's because you don't understand who the oppressor is and you don't have anybody, a loved one, who's been touched by that oppressor. But once you're touched by an evil oppressor, then something awakens in your heart. And the good news is the Bible already figured it out and it's in the book. But there's a witness of the gospel in every nation that's in agreement. It's not a covenantal, come to us, Jesus, and take over our nation. This is different. Drive the oppressor out of our nation. That's the cry. But they have to be trained. They have to be taught. There has to be people that will witness this truth to them as we get closer to that day. Again, that's a little bit down the road. It's not so heavy on us now, except you will care to be prepared to prepare others. If you care about that, then you care about this now. Someone has asked me, do you think you'll see the coming of the Lord? I says, I don't know. I don't care. I don't know or care. All I know is this. I'm going to be prepared. I'm going to be preparing my children and their children and their children. And I'm going to have a legacy of preparation in these seven things. And if He comes, He comes. Any way it goes, I'm with Him forever either way. That's what I care about. Number seven. Now, this one's intense. We're not going to go into it, not because it's intense, because it's intense that I've had you sitting so long. That's what's intense. So I'm going to just mention it and stir up your curiosity. It's what I call the judicial hardening. That's a theological term where the witness of the truth actually results in the hardening of the people and God knew it. And that hardening, when the truth is spoken, there's a group of people in a nation that don't receive it, but they become more hardened. And when they become more hardened, their hatred towards God comes to the surface and they act more boldly in sin. And that's part of the scenario in the justice of God for relating to the full judgment of God. Now, I realize that was a big mouthful. You're like, what? I'll say that again, just real brief, and you can read on your own. There is a preaching of the truth that hardens the heart. It doesn't lead to salvation. There's a lot that does. We've already looked at that. This is the most negative, but it makes the person that hears it hardened and they become, their conscience becomes seared. They become emboldened in their hatred of God. Now, they hate God more than they think they do. Like the Pharisees thought they loved God, but under the preaching of Jesus, their hatred of God was manifest. They didn't think they hated God. They thought they loved Him. But the preaching of Jesus brought their anger towards God to the surface, and God wanted it at the surface because the hardness of people in society that have chosen to hate Him, they play a role in the justice of God, in God removing evil off the earth. Now, again, it's a pretty straightforward concept, but if it's a brand new idea to you, you're saying, I lost you at the sixth one, okay? And that's okay, but just make a note to yourself and say, hey, I got to understand this number seven thing. I don't get it, but I'm going to go after this one. But I know this, we have to have people who preach the truth to all these nations, even for this, a faithful witness of the truth, even for this final result here. Amen. We'll end with that.