Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of Daniel chapter 12, where a mighty angel reassures Daniel of God's ultimate victory amidst the great tribulation, the most intense period in human history. He highlights that this generation will witness unprecedented angelic activity and a powerful outpouring of God's glory, leading to both the greatest deliverance and the greatest wickedness. Bickle urges believers to prepare themselves spiritually, as understanding the prophetic scriptures will provide wisdom and courage in these challenging times. He stresses the importance of being fully engaged with God and turning others towards righteousness, as many will be purified and refined during this period. Ultimately, he calls for a radical commitment to living out one's faith in the face of escalating darkness and deception.

Last week, we looked at the first three verses of Daniel chapter 12, and I want to give a just a very short kind of snapshot of the first three verses just to kind of get us in the flow of what is happening in this chapter, this very significant end time chapter, which is Daniel 12. We're going to focus our attention on verses 4 to 13, but we'll give a little review first. Paragraph A, what's happening in Daniel chapter 12 is a mighty angel, meaning an angel of extraordinary glory that's revealed in chapter 10. He is giving Daniel the assurance of the ultimate victory and triumph of God's kingdom and God's people. And the reason this assurance is so important, because he has just described what Jesus called great tribulation, the most severe and intense and most difficult hour of human history. But what the angel says is, yeah, but it will be the greatest hour of deliverance. There'll be angelic activity. There'll be the release of the glory of God. There'll be a spirit of purity and victory and dedication in the midst of the church like never before. This generation the Lord returns is the most dramatic, most powerful, most important generation in all human history. And that's the generation that is before us. And as I've said many times, it's my personal opinion, we're in the early days of that generation. That's not a prophecy, but it's an observation that I've made from the biblical signs of the times. It's the most difficult, the most glorious, the most important, the most unique generation in human history. It's an hour for the body of Christ to be fully engaged with the Lord, not half and half, not undecided, not quite resolved to be dedicated. Paragraph B, saying it again in Daniel 12, what the angel's emphasizing is God's sovereign rule and power and victory over all the plans of the enemy, all the power of darkness. That's the primary theme of this chapter. History is headed towards a glorious future. History is not like a train that's off the tracks, kind of heading just into chaos. History is headed in a very dynamic direction and God's people are going to prevail. He's the God that knows the end from the beginning. He knows what's going on. He knows what the enemy's strategies are and He's going to use the enemy's strategy to bring the glory of God to the nations, to bring victory in the church. And the reason we need to be familiar with these truths, because they will give us boldness and they will give us courage. Boldness and courage in this hour of history as it unfolds, and again I believe we're in the early days of that generation. We may be further along than we think. Maybe not quite as far as we think, well I don't know. But I know one thing, things are picking up with an intensity that's very obvious. All you got to do is just read the, hear the news and the headlines, the daily headlines are alerting everybody that things are escalating in a very intense way. Where good is happening, the greatest numbers of people are coming to the Lord of any time in history, but evil is escalating and darkness is escalating. Let's read it, chapter 11 verse 45, that's just the one verse before chapter 12. Because there were no chapter divisions, the angel didn't pause and say, oh let's insert chapter 12. He's in one, he's just giving one unbroken message here. And he starts off, I'm jumping right into the middle of the angel's message. Chapter 11 verse 45, talking about the Antichrist, he's going to plant the tents of his palace or his headquarters near Jerusalem. Now I mean, Daniel goes, oh no, the Antichrist is going to plant his headquarters near Jerusalem. That's terrible. Chapter 12 verse 1, the angel says, but know this, Michael, and the idea is the host of angels are going to arise. There will be an increase of angelic activity second to no time in history. Not only that, you have to be braced, you have to be girded for action because this mighty angel says that it will be a time of great trouble. Jesus goes on to emphasize it will be the most troublesome generation in human history. The angel mentions that, it will be trouble such as never was, but Jesus even says it in a more direct and emphasized way. But though you lose courage, the angel says it's at that very time that the nation of Israel and the body of Christ will find the greatest deliverance any time in history. There will be an intervention of God, the deliverance against all odds will be manifest. It will be a remarkable intervention of God. It goes on in verse 2 and talks about how God is going to raise, I mean the body of Christ and he's talking about the martyrs particularly, that's the topic that he was discussing just a few moments ago. This mighty angel back in chapter 11 verse 35 just a few moments ago, he says, but don't worry about the martyrs, don't have a wrong perspective, they'll arise from the dead. God will awaken them with resurrection power, they'll live forever with a resurrected body. Verse 3, the angel is saying that the most important issue for us in a personal way is that we are people of wisdom, that we understand what God is doing and we are agreeing with it with our lifestyle. And the angel says if you have wisdom, if you grasp what's going on from the prophetic scriptures, and that's why we're studying them, and if you will turn people to righteousness, not talk people into compromise as a believer, using Bible verses to give people confidence to compromise, but rather go the other way, turn people to righteousness, convince believers and unbelievers alike that righteousness, obedience to the Lord is the way forward. This angel says you'll shine in the resurrection like a star in the glory of God forever. It really will matter if you grasp what's going on in that generation of history and you make right decisions and convince other people to follow right decisions. And again, I believe we're in the early days of this generation and yet so much of the church is lethargic and sleeping as though things are just going to just kind of ebb along and you know, maybe they'll pick up a little bit, but at the same time there's a part of the church and it's millions, not just a little, not just a few, that are responding to the radical call of the Spirit to go wholehearted before the Lord. I'm talking about believers all over the nations, all over Asia and Africa and Latin America and Europe. Believers are making new decisions to be radical before the Lord. Paragraph D. Now Jesus adds His words to what this angel said. Jesus is actually referring to this angel saying this is going to be a time of trouble like none that's ever been seen and Jesus adds in verse 22 of Matthew verse 24. He says this trouble will be so intense to be the most intense generation in history in terms of violence, in terms of trouble. He says it will be so intense, He adds this, Daniel 12 doesn't say it, but Jesus the great prophet, yea more than a prophet, He says unless those days were cut short no flesh would be saved. He's not talking about nobody be born again, He's saying nobody physically would survive the violence of that hour of history. Nobody would survive it. That's how intense it's going to be, but there is a resurrection and God's leading the nations into His direction and it's going to result in the glory of God filling the earth before it's all over. Paragraph E, we mentioned last week, is that the abomination of desolation is the central political event and it's the central religious event that reveals the nature and the timing of the Antichrist emergence to the world stage. I'm going to say that again. The abomination of desolation, the reason I'm highlighting that again today is because in a few moments we're going to see in verse 11 that this mighty angel is going to tie these events into the abomination of desolation. And Jesus said when you see the abomination of desolation you know that the great tribulation has begun. You know the Antichrist is on the world stage. When you see that political event, which is also a religious event, and in one sentence, though I've spent a whole session on what the abomination of desolation is, we have that session on the internet if this is a new term to you, but it's in essence when the Antichrist walks into the temple in Jerusalem and declares himself to be God. But it doesn't end there. And demands at the threat of physical death that all the nations worship him as God. That's the abomination. That a man would claim to be God and he would have an unusual political and demonic power and military and economic power. He would use it to threaten the nations with physical death. The individuals of the nations if they don't worship him as God. That's the great abomination that leads to desolation of many, many lives. Many cities. Many nations. Paragraph F, as I said last week, and then we'll move on past the review here. The reason Daniel is getting these details from this mighty angel. The reason these details are important to know, and the Bible calls it wisdom to understand these details. Because God gave the details so the people of God could prepare themselves according to those details. This very irresponsible attitude in the body of Christ. Very naive and very irresponsible. I've heard many good people, men and women of God say it. There's a certain sincerity about it, but it's very irresponsible and dangerous and very naive. They go, well prophecy will just take care of itself. I mean God's in control. It will all pan out. And I like how Alan Hood says it. He goes, yeah it will pan out, but how will it pan out for you? That's the issue. Because many people who do not know what's going on, even believers, will be swept away with deception in that day. And I mean it will have disastrous results for their life. If they don't grasp what is going on, they will be so vulnerable to fear and confusion and deception. This idea, like I don't really need to bother with what the Bible says about end time prophecy. It'll take care of itself. But will your life just end up right? I wouldn't disregard the importance God puts in the Scripture on that, what He said about that generation of history. I would not disregard it lightly and say well it'll take care of itself. The Lord's testimony would say I gave you 150 chapters in the Bible which the primary subject was that generation. And so we want to prepare ourselves. We want to be resolved before the deception increases, before the lawlessness increases, which is the sin of the culture. Before the persecution against taking a stand. Before those three things increase. The Lord wants His people individually to be resolved. I'm going to go deep. I'm not going to back down. I'm going to grasp what's happening and to be resolved before the escalation of these negative things. This is the hour to make serious decisions. Not waiting. Till it gets more intense and then hoping that you'll jump in and it'll just all take care of itself. I mean the grace of God will be present then. Beloved, this is the easiest time it will ever be in your life to make that resolve. Five years, ten years, twenty years from now it will be far more intense and far more resistance. Far more lawlessness in the culture. Far more persecution against taking a stand. As I said last week that Jesus warned the church, paragraph F still, more about deception than He did tribulation or persecution. I mean we're more concerned with tribulation and persecution. This is a big subject. Tribulation and persecution. And Jesus did warn the church about that. But He warned more about deception than tribulation. Yet in the Western culture we're far more focused on where the tribulation factor is or the persecution, the resistance factor. Paragraph G. Why did, I've been asked this question over the years, it's a very important one. Why did Daniel's four visions in his latter years, he had four primary visions in the latter years of his ministry and life. Those four visions put a surprising emphasis on the Antichrist. I mean they mention the revival, they mention the true Christ, but the emphasis by far of the four visions is on the Antichrist and the nature of his evil, his deception, and his cruelty, and his evil ways. And you think, Lord, why? Why did, I mean a man that Jesus pointed us to, Daniel, put so much energy and focus on the Antichrist. I mean, why not put all that attention on the Christ and the great revival? And I believe that one of the reasons, because the counterfeit glory that the Antichrist will possess, the glory that will, it will be a false glory, a counterfeit glory that will be manifest in his life. He'll have signs and wonders and power. He'll bring a seeming unity to the nations. He'll bring economic prosperity. I mean there will be so much apparent goodness that many in the church will be swept away by the grandeur of what this man is accomplishing by power, with powers, demonic power, but it won't appear that way without great discernment. And what happened in Nazi Germany is that Adolf Hitler, one of the most demonized men that ever walked the planet, as far as I'm concerned, he was applauded by many in the church as the answer to their prayers. And many in the church were swept away by the dynamic optimism of what was happening in the nation. And people were attributing that God has answered our prayers, the Lord has heard us, he's with us, and it was almost the devil incarnate. I mean that's a little exaggerated, but certainly one of the most demonized men leaders ever to be in leadership of a nation. Many in the church were captured by the dynamic optimism in the culture about him and the goodness of what he was doing, and because they were not established in the knowledge of the truth about the enemy's plans to give the counterfeit, many were swept into deception. And so, Gabriel's very first visit in the Bible, he only makes four visits, Gabriel's first visit in the Bible he talks about the Antichrist, Gabriel, what about the real Christ? And he goes, you have to understand the nature of this man's deception and the evil that's at the core that won't be obvious. And so, I think it's important, it behooves us to listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 24 verse 15, he said, pay attention to what Daniel said in the abomination of desolation and what the Antichrist is about. It will be critical you're not swept away by the optimism of what will be happening in many nations of the earth by his activities and the people that are identifying with him. I mean, even now there's people in the church, even today, applauding the Supreme Court decision that finally love and equality is winning the day and finally justice has its way. I mean, believers applauding this with no understanding of the intensity of where our nation is going in one trajectory, though we do know a great revival is coming in the very opposite direction as well. But the dark and the light, as I've said many times, they will escalate together. Okay, let's go to the top of page two. So let's begin with verse four. And in verse four, the mighty angel is now saying, I've given you the vision, the vision was in chapter 11 and the first part of chapter 12, chapter 12 verse 1 to 3, he goes, I've given you the vision, now I'm going to give you the application, I'm going to give you some practical advice from verse 4 to 13 and I'm going to give you some added details that you're going to want to know. First thing he does, he says in verse 4, he urges Daniel to preserve the vision or the book. And whether it's this final vision or the whole book of Daniel, it would all be the same principle. The angel says, Daniel, make sure you shut up the words and you seal the book until the end of time. Now what he's saying here is that make sure that you preserve what I gave you by the Holy Spirit. The angel's telling this to Daniel. Now in the book of Daniel, the words seal up the book, in the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation and other places in the Bible, that idea of sealing a prophetic vision has several very diverse meanings. And I have a little bit of that on the notes, I don't want to take time on that. But in this particular verse, to seal the book means preserve it. He's saying, Daniel, this book will be of optimum significance in the generation the Lord returns. I mean, Daniel's in his mid-80s, he's in the Persian court in the city of Babylon, didn't have a lot of believers around him, I'm imagining. And it was important that this book, that these visions are recorded right, they're stored right, he has plans to preserve them so they're passed on for the future generations, etc. So he's telling him to take pains to be attentive to preserving the things that the angel just told him. Capture them, write them, shut them up, attend to them, and don't let anything be lost. Then he goes on, the angel, and gives two of the most significant signs of the times that we can see right now in this very hour of history. He says, it's talking about the time of the end, he says, many shall run to and fro. And I believe that that is a reference to increased travel. Many in the nations, I mean millions, I mean how many millions of people are traveling to and fro across the nations, and the escalation of the technology related to travel and all the new improved ways. But not only that, knowledge itself is going to escalate, it's going to accelerate in a very dramatic, very observable way in that generation. Now he's giving these two prophetic words so brief that Daniel in his day says people will go to and fro and knowledge will increase, like really? The angel I can imagine saying, Daniel, write it down. It doesn't make sense now, that was 2,500 years ago when Daniel had the encounter. But there's coming a day where these two issues, the issue of travel and the issue of knowledge or communication, knowledge and communication, put them all together, is going to explode. Now here's the reason this is so important. The reason this is so important, let's look at paragraph E, is that these are two of the primary components that will facilitate the acceleration of good and evil in the nations. I don't know in the natural, I mean there's spiritual power, but in the natural, in terms of natural activities, what accelerates good, potential good, or potential evil more than the capacity of travel, modern travel, and the capacity of modern knowledge through technology and a sub-theme of knowledge is communication. Both of these will make sin and righteousness, both tracks, depends on how we use it, and they're being used in both directions. The Holy Spirit's using knowledge and travel for the gospel to go forward in a greater way and the body of Christ to serve one another and truth to increase in terms of people's understanding of it, and the devil's using it to cause sin to be more accessible and for sin to accelerate in an exponential way right now. I believe these are the two of the primary components I have in paragraph E that are facilitating the collaboration and the synergism, I mean the dynamic synergism, I don't mean just the working together a little bit, I mean this explosive acceleration of the synergism of good and evil. The fact that the gospel will be preached in all the nations, it's through the technology that the Wycliffe Bible translators, the primary Bible translators on the globe today, there's a number of ministries that are focused on that, but they are saying through the use of technology, they are translating the languages of the earth so much quicker into the Bible because of technology. I mean the Lord is using this, but it's also being used to facilitate the fullness of darkness. The verse we've looked at a number of times, Daniel 8 verse 23, talks about when transgressors or sinners or sin will come to fullness. Beloved, we're in that time frame where sin is coming to fullness, it's going to go beyond where it is now, but we're at the beginning of an acceleration of sin in the culture. I mean again, the very decision today in the Supreme Court, this historic, grievous decision that is legalizing gay marriage by law in every state and all the down, the results of that, the consequences of that, the down-line impact of this getting in all the school curriculums and the way it will get into all the children's and youth ministries and all the services to children and the way hate crimes will come out of this and how people will not take a stand for truth because of the fear of the penalty and the consequences and the silence and much of the church and all of these things are tied into that. But I've got good news for you, it's not just that sin is going to come to fullness, so is purity. We're getting ahead of ourselves, but look right here in paragraph E, Daniel 12, that's the chapter we're looking at, but we're going to get ahead, go down to verse 10 for just a moment. Look what it says, that's the fruit of the devil's rage and the great tribulation. Here's the fruit, many will be purified, many, not a few. You know often we read that verse, many will be purified and refined and we focus on the word purified and refined, which I think is important that we grasp that. That's what God's, that's God's purpose in allowing the evil to take place at this level. God has a superior, a higher motive and goal in it, it's going to work. But I don't want you to lose the word many, it's not going to be a few, it's not going to be a little ragged remnant, you know a few over there barely hanging on, a few over there. Beloved, there's going to be multitudes of people who are going to go deep in the grace of God and living a lifestyle of purity. Many, the trouble and the outpouring of the spirit and the presentation of truth and the community and the body of Christ relationships, all working together where many will be purified. Many will walk out the first commandment, they will love God with all of their strength and therefore consequently they will love their neighbor as themselves. But notice in the very same verse here in Daniel 12 verse 10, but the wicked, they are going to also continue to do wickedness. So the pure will become more pure and the wicked will become more wicked, but people are going to move in one direction or the other, that's why you don't want to be unresolved right now. Say well I'll just dabble in a little bit of this and a little bit of immorality, not too much. A little bit of drunkenness, not too much. A little bit of slander and anger, but not too much. Just get a little bit of that, a little bit of revenge, but not too much. Beloved, this is an hour where it's going to be a slippery slope in darkness, because the wicked will become more wicked. And a lot again believers will be pulled by the seduction of what's happening in the darkness of the culture, but they're also going to be pulled by the grace of God in the other direction. Paragraph F, I want you to consider the importance of the escalation of, I mean the increase of travel and information is very, very significant. I believe that that is tied to what happened in the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11. Now we all know the story of the Tower of Babel. Babel was the first city that formed as a city and organized religion and they organized, it was the first organized rebellion against God, Babel. And it became the city of Babylon and that city is going to be restored, like Jerusalem has been restored and being restored. And the story of, the history of, world history I mean can be told through the tale of two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. That's another story for another time, but when we go back to Genesis chapter 11, we know that they're building a city, they're building a tower. Now here's the phrase that you could miss, if you're not paying attention. They're building a tower, this is their goal, whose top is in the heavens. It's top is in the heavens. And the Lord came down and scattered them and He said, indeed the people are one. They're coming into a unity together, outside of the will of God. It's a unity that's contrary to the will of God. And with this unity, nothing they propose to do will be impossible. One translation says, nothing will be withheld from them. What's that mean? When it talks about building a tower that's reaching its top into heaven, it's not talking about the height of the building. It's not talking about a five story mud building and God goes, oh no, they might get to ten stories. They're going to get into the heavens if they get up to ten stories. God wasn't concerned by the height of the architecture. When it says top of the heaven, that's a spiritual comment. They were pressing to enter into the realm of the heavenlies, the demonic realm in a way beyond God's timing. That there will be a generation of which men and women will enter into the realm of the heavens in the dark sense, the demonic sense. And they will do it when they have a collaboration and a synergism and a unity. Billions of people through knowledge, through the internet, which has caused this tremendous explosive knowledge and this acceleration of travel, billions of people can pool their resources together to go deeper into darkness than any time in history. And the Lord divided the city of Babel there because He said, it's not my timing for evil to escalate at that level right now. So He divided the languages and scattered them. And as there are 7,000 different languages in the earth right now and dialects, 7,000, through the internet, the nations and through travel, they can work together and restore the negative dimensions of the Babel dynamic. And that's why we're seeing what's happening in the internet, immorality and the demonic realm and the movies and all of this is related to technology and travel at the end of the day. These are the two things that have facilitated this explosion, this acceleration of darkness. And again, the Holy Spirit uses it in the positive sense as well. But when Daniel says, when the angel, the mighty angel says to Daniel, they'll go to and fro and they'll get more knowledge, he was saying something very significant, not something casual or something peripheral or something unimportant. And he goes, when you see those two explode, I mean, go on an exponential curve, I mean an increase, you know, an exceptional increase, you will know you're in that time frame where you're going to need the visions of Daniel. You're going to need to study them and understand what's going on. Now there's a lot of information, and I'll have a document pretty soon, I've got quite a bit of information that I've studied over the years, and I'm going to do a series one of these days on the signs of the times, because there's so many biblical signs of the times, and many of them, most of them, not all of them, but most of them are increasing on a global level together for the first time in history. I mean these signs of the times are very, very important. Jesus gave a number of them, the apostles gave a number of them, and the Old Testament prophets. And so, and I'll even have some more information on the internet before long, even on this paragraph G. This idea of knowledge, I'm just, I'm highlighting an article that just came out about a year or two ago, and here's, no it was two years ago. They said, here's the title, and this was by a man who writes for the technology magazines and scientific magazines, and you can read his whole profile. It says, here's the name of the article, knowledge is doubling every 12 months, but it's soon to double every 12 hours. What? This is what, you can check the article out, and there's many articles like this. Just follow this, until 1900, the sum total of human knowledge, we're talking about all the knowledge of literature, all the knowledge of physiology, all the knowledge of science, all the knowledge of math, all the knowledge of physics, all the knowledge of geography, of history, all the knowledge, totality of human knowledge, about every hundred years it doubled, the total amount. Then from World War II on, the sum total of human knowledge, all these areas of general human knowledge doubled every 25 years. Right now, he wrote two years ago, but right now we're at the level where all of human knowledge is doubling like every 12 months, we're nearing that time frame. I mean there will be more knowledge in the next 12 months is the idea that all of human history added up together in all those areas. But it goes, because of technology, and he lays it out, this thing is going to explode beyond that. It will double every 12 hours, I mean the totality of human knowledge, that's how fast this is going. Beloved, we've never been in a time frame like this. This is a very significant sign of the times. And this promise of knowledge increasing also means the knowledge of prophetic revelation, biblical knowledge as well, not just negative knowledge. Turn to the top of page 3 if you would. So Daniel, this mighty angel is telling him this, and then suddenly in verse 5, he looks. There's two more angels. They're each on one side of the river, the Tigris River is where he's having this angelic encounter, the Tigris River back in chapter 10 verse 4 tells you the name of the river. You know it's in Babylon, modern day Iraq. And so now he's been talking to this mighty angel throughout chapter 10, 11, and 12, it's one experience, 10, 11, and 12, three chapters, one angelic experience. Suddenly there's two more angels, one on each side of the river. Okay? Verse 6, but the mighty angel, he's described here as a man clothed in linen. Many times in the book of Daniel, in the four visions of Daniel, and other visions as well, Ezekiel and others, when an angel appears, they appear in the form of a person, and they're often wearing linen garments, the book of Revelation as well, that's a very common description of angels. But when it says, I heard the man, I mean, I saw the man clothed in linen, he's talking about the mighty angel he's been dialoguing with throughout chapter 10, 11, and 12. Just so, if you're new with chapter 12, you might get lost if you're reading this, but it's clearly the main angel, the main angel that's been talking to them the whole time. But this mighty angel now is standing above the river. He's standing in midair above the river, and one of the angels on the banks of the river, they asked the mighty angel a very important question. And they did ask the question for Daniel's benefit, and really for our benefit. So this angel is saying to the mighty angel, the one with superior power and authority, the man in linen, the mighty angel that he's been again talking to throughout chapter 10, 11, and 12, the angel, the secondary angel, he's saying, hey, I'm going to ask you a question, Daniel, write this down. You're going to want this, because the end time church is going to need this information. I mean, Daniel didn't need it, really, but the generation the Lord returns needs it. He goes, here's what I want to know. That angel standing on the bank of the river talking to the mighty angel, he says, mighty angel, how long, how long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be? Very key question. Now, he's not asking the mighty angel how many generations before the end times. He's not saying how long until it starts. He's asking a very different question. He's saying once it starts, because it starts at the abomination of desolation, how long will it continue? And it's an interesting word. It's the word wonders. And the other Bible translations use the word these astonishing things, because they're not just wonders that are positive, they are, but they're astonishing, meaning they're kind of mind-blowing developments is the idea. How long once it begins, once the abomination of desolation starts, how long will the difficulty of the trouble that's never ever been equaled in history past, where Michael and the angelic realm is manifesting the power of God like never before, where there's a supernatural deliverance of Israel and the people of God, even in the midst of martyrdom, how long is all this going to, this intensity, how long will it go? That's the question. And that's a very important question, because one of, you know, just a casual study of World War II, one of the problems of the people in Europe, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime was going forward, they thought the Nazis were invincible. The Nazis were in power only 12 years. But at the two and three year mark, you know, they only had nine or ten years to go, but at the two and three year mark, the peoples of Europe thought, this could go on for generations. I mean, these guys are invincible, at the beginning they seemed invincible. And I mean, many people were overwhelmed with despair, thinking there would be no end to the difficulty, the intensity. And so, what the mighty angel, verse 7, answers, he says, I heard the man, that's the mighty angel, the one that's standing in the middle of the river in midair, he raises his hand and he swears to God, who lives forever. I got a little bit of that information on this on the notes, I won't cover. He says, I swear to you, it will only last for three and a half years, not a day longer. I swear to you, in the presence of God, it will only last time, times, and half a time. And the vast majority of commentators throughout actually church history agree, time, it means one year, times, plural, two years, half a time, half a year, it's just that simple. Year, two years, half a year. It's clearly what it means, because, now I don't know that Daniel understood it in his day, but when John the Apostle came in the book of Revelation, he commented on the very same activities, and he tells us it's 1260 days or 42 months, he tells us it's three and a half years. So the angel lifts his hands, he goes, I swear, it won't go on for a generation, it won't go on for a couple of decades, I swear, the intensity will only last three and a half years. In other words, there is an end in sight, and it won't be far off, and the grace of God, and the angelic ministry, and the power of deliverance, and the power of purity will all be manifest in that time in an unprecedented way for the people that love God, if they want it. Of course, if you love God, you do want it. But then the angel makes a second point, he goes, not only do I swear it will be limited to only three and a half years, and that's a great promise, I mean three and a half years is, I mean that's long, three and a half years, but it's not two or three decades. I mean like in, you know, Stalin's Russia, communism went on for 70 years, I mean 70 years, I mean 70 years is a really long time to have that brutal whip of communism breaking your life. But he goes, but let me tell you this too, the mighty angel, who's standing above the river, he says, but, it's going to go long enough for the power of the holy people to be completely shattered. He goes, three and a half years, it won't go longer, but it will complete God's purpose. He goes, I promise you, it will be intense enough, it won't come up short of that. I mean when a mighty angel sent from God swears an oath that the holy people's strength will be completely shattered, I mean that's a terrifying in the flesh. I look at that, but what the angel means, he's talking right now specifically to the nation of Israel, because it's, he says it several times in verse one and two and three, he's talking to Daniel and he says, I'm talking about your people, your actual ethnic Jews, the nation of Israel, but he uses the phrase the holy people, and the Jews are not holy simply because they're ethnic Jews, but he's talking about the Lord knowing that many are going to say yes to the Lord and find salvation through their Messiah, Yeshua, which is Jesus. But the word holy people also is a message to the church, and again, the Jews can't get into the kingdom of God without being born again, and therefore they're part of the church too. The minute they're born again, they're part of the church, but at the same time, God has a very specific purpose for the geographic area and the national ethnic Jews in that part of the earth, because his city, the new Jerusalem, the city of the great king, I mean Jerusalem, that's going to be his city to govern the whole world forever, so I mean the Lord says that's my city and that's my geography there, and I have a purpose for that geography and the people that are covenanted to me in that geography as well. But the holy people, I'm extending it, I don't want to minimize the fact that he's speaking to the Jewish people in a very direct way, but I want us to know this, God's telling the nation of Israel, your pride and your reliance on yourself will be utterly shattered to where you will willingly come to your Messiah. But if God who never changes has that plan for ethnic Israel, the God who never changes has the same plan for his born again church in the nations. And he's saying to his church, right now the church is, I mean just, I'm not even making a big put down comment, but just because of our humanity, we have so much confidence in our own strength and our own agendas and our own ministry plans and our own ideas and our own ways, and the Lord says I'm going to also cause you to be utterly disavowed from your own agendas and relying on your own strength. Now he's talking in context to Israel, but he's saying no, I'm the God that never changes. I remember hearing a preacher once say, it just kind of troubled me, he says the same God that orchestrated the crucifixion of his son Jesus is orchestrating yours. I heard a Baptist preacher preach that once, I mean not that it was a matter of he was Baptist, but he was a famous Baptist preacher and I said wow. And he was talking about leading us to a place where we do say no to the flesh and we die to our flesh and we obey the Lord, that's what he's talking about. But my point being, at the very core of this plan of glory is people completely disavowing their own strength, their own agenda, their own way and giving themselves to the leadership of the Messiah. In reality, not rhetoric, in reality that's the agenda of God in the great tribulation for His people. And we look at that and we say poor Israel, and the Lord says well yeah pray for Israel, but you might really take stock of your own life as well. Because we sometimes think and suddenly hope that God is an American. But He's not. He's not a westerner. He's not a 21st century American. He's not committed to the lifestyle of the western culture. He's a kingdom of God culture person. And the kingdom of God culture and western culture are not the same. But the western culture is all the way through the western church and it really takes a serious resolve to pull away from the values of our culture and to live a kingdom cultured lifestyle in the midst where so much of the church is in the western culture. It's like Lord this is hard, He goes I'm going to help you. I mean Lord I'm saying, I mean I'm a man, I'm dedicated to the Lord, I love the Lord. But I find it hard, I say Lord it's, I mean I could be more dedicated than that guy and that guy, but does that mean that I'm really living the kingdom culture value lifestyle? Because the Lord's not interested if I'm a little more committed than you or him or her. He's interested that I'm doing the will of God in my life. And I look down at this and I go Lord, and He goes yeah I'm going to help the whole of the western church like I'm going to help Israel. I'm going to create an optimum environment where my people, Jews and Gentiles that love my name, they will choose righteousness in a way they've never chosen before. I'll create the optimum environment and I'm going to bring an adversary into the mix. But I'm going to pour out my spirit in a way second to no time in history, Joel 2. I'm going to have angelic activity with Michael and his angels. I'm going to plan a supernatural deliverance second to no time in history. I'm going to reward it with resurrection power, but I'm going to cause martyrdom to increase all around the world in the body of Christ. I'm going to raise up an adversary that will be part of the ultimate optimum environment for purity to become first place in the church. I look at this because I really believe this passage. And I go Lord, I want to make radical, more radical decisions now. I don't want to wait until I have no option. But the Lord says I'm going to help the whole culture, I really am. But it's going to be glorious from my point of view and it's going to have a kingdom glory to it, but it won't necessarily have the same values of the American dream. Lord, I thought you wanted my life easy. He goes, I do. For billions of years in the resurrection. I want your life super easy. You'll have great food, you'll be in a golden city, you'll be face to face with me, you'll never gain weight, never get sick, you'll have great friends, super good memory, the anointing of God, you'll be happy forever and the food will be free and delicious and everything's good. I am into your happiness for billions of years. Oh, well Lord, how about give me everything now and everything then. He goes, no, no, no, I want you to choose for love and choose my leadership in your life. But I'm going to help. Israel, I'm going to help. But don't think just poor Israel because Israel's going to enter into the glory of God, but in the midst of trouble say, this is our Father's plan, this is our bridegroom king's plan for human history and where he's zealous for his church and guess what, we're going to be in the middle of this. A lot of folks are just thinking that the storm that's escalating is just going to kind of fade away and it's kind of maybe one or two tough decades and whoa, we'll get back to the way it was. It's never going to go back to the way it was. Whatever it was in the 70s, 80s and 90s, beloved, it's never going to go back to the way it was. Well, the good news is the persecution is going to accomplish God's purpose because there's going to be an outpouring of the Spirit, there's going to be the power of purity, there's going to be the grace of God magnified, angelic activities, supernatural miracles, but there's going to be difficulty in the flesh. Let's go to a Roman numeral at the bottom of page 3, Roman numeral 4. Now Daniel has a question and again, I'm going to leave most of these notes for you to read on your own if you're wanting to get Daniel ... This is really Daniel 101. This is really Daniel simplified, it really is. But if you're new with Daniel, just a little bit of effort, you can get this because some people go, Daniel, it's kind of confusing. I go, not so much. Not the introductory stuff. I mean, if you want to understand all of the nuances, that's a little different thing. Okay, paragraph A in Roman numeral 4, verse 8. So Daniel, he hears the angel standing on the bank of the river talking to the mighty angel and says, hey mighty angel, how long will these wonders continue? And the mighty angel says, I swear, three and a half years, and I swear until the people's strength and reliance and agenda is totally shattered. Whenever it's their agenda and their strength and their reliance outside of the will of God. I swear, those two things. So Daniel, verse 8, he goes, I heard, but I didn't understand. He goes, shattered, wait, that's verse 7, shattered. Verse 1 and 2, verse 1, deliverance, he said deliverance with Michael the archangel and the glory of God. What do you mean shattered, verse 7? Is it verse 1, delivered with Michael the archangel and angelic activity? Is it verse 7, shattered? And Daniel goes in verse 8, I don't get it. He goes, well, let me ask you, Daniel says, let me, again, he's in his 80s here and he's in this time of prayer and fasting and he's, you know, been on this 21 day fast and it's the 21st day where the angel visits him and he says, I can just picture him a little bit wobbly, you know, just a little bit weak. He goes, my Lord, meaning, it's a respectful term like sir. He goes, wait, are we going to be shattered or delivered? He goes, just give it to me straight. What shall be the end purpose of this? What's the outcome? Where's this going? He's not asking how long it would last, like in verse 6 when the angel said, hey, how long will it last? He's saying, I want to know what the end, where it's going. What's the outcome of this? What's the outcome? Verse 10, the angel says, many, multitudes, I love this word many, that's my favorite word here in this whole chapter, many. Verse 10, will be purified. Many are going to break free of their bondages. Many are going to renounce their compromise. Many are going to find power in the spirit in their everyday life, and they're going to find courage and strength. Beloved, there are no super saints. There's only people like us. There are no super saints that God doesn't have anybody to pick from that's amazing. Everybody is like us. We're prone to abstraction, unbelief, a little confusion here and there. A little like, what? It doesn't feel like it's really happening. The Lord says, I know, my whole gang is that way. That's how it is. He goes, I'm going to make it work for you though. I'm going to make it work for folk, for people. Many, multitudes, millions, millions, oh I love that. Again in verse 10, a lot of folks look at the word made white and refined, and they lose the power of the word many. This thing is going to be doable in the midst of the greatest pressure. It's doable now. I don't want to wait until the stakes get higher. I'm going to go press in now, because it's doable now. But he goes, but know this, verse 10, many will be purified. They're going to be refined. Refined means fire. There's going to be some conflict. There's going to be some difficulty in the flesh, meaning some hard choices, some resistance, some loss of opportunities because you took a stand, some friends that betray you. I mean, there's going to be all those dynamics already beginning to happen in the body of Christ around the whole world. Beloved, as of today, I tell you, it's going to go straight up. It's going to increase dynamically after this Supreme Court decision, because the conversation of the culture is going to have so many dynamics to it, in the church and outside of the church. This is a very important hour to decide. I'm going to not shun the refining fire. I'm going to take hold of the brightness, the white meaning, the brightness of the glory of God is the idea, and I'm going to walk in the purity, not live on the edges. A lot of folks want to live on the edges of the grace of God. Just enough grace to make sure they're saved, but whatever, whatever, you can finish the sentence. I don't want to live on the edges. I want to be in the center. I want to go for this thing. But he goes, understand this, at the same time, the wicked shall do wickedly. The wicked are going to increase in their wickedness. But he goes, none of the wicked, now we don't mean just lost people here. The wicked in this verse context, sometimes the wicked are the lost and they get saved and then they become the righteous, but the wicked here are those that are permanently established in their rebellion against God. Because there's going to be a billion, I mean that's not the actual number, but a billion people, unbelievers coming to the kingdom. It's going to be the greatest revival in history. Revelation 7 says they'll come from every tribe and tongue. I mean the power of God is going to break out in the nations and many will come. But don't have the idea, the power of God, that life is just going to be easy and happy all the time. The power of God means there will be a manifestation of grace on the heart and flowing in our lives. That doesn't mean that the everydayness of life will be easy and everything will feel great. I don't think that's what that means. But notice this, that none of the wicked will understand. But that's going to be the problem. The wicked won't understand. They will be absolutely in opposition to you. It isn't like they understand and they say, well you think what you think, we think what we think, and hey let's just enjoy Christmas together. No. They will think you're absolutely dangerous, your beliefs. When it says the wicked will not understand, beloved, that's a very threatening, that's a warning. I mean it has a threatening tone to it. It's like, ugh. They won't be gracious about your posture and your stand for righteousness or your views, your beliefs about salvation and about truth. About the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage, the sanctity of sex, the one way of salvation through Jesus, the truth of the word of God. They won't be generous or gracious about your views. But the wise, remember the wise back in verse 3, the wise that will shine brightly, they'll get it. But don't wait for just the fallout of heaven on you one day. I've heard people say, well if the Lord wants me to understand Daniel, he'll send an angel. I go, you know what, I wouldn't be presumptuous with my life. You only got one heart and one life. I go, I wouldn't play, I wouldn't gamble with your life like that. You want to grow in the wisdom of this? Study it. Well if God wants me to have it, he'll send an angel. Well Daniel studied it and got the angel. I want to study it. I want to give myself to it. I want to turn some things off and turn some things away so I have time to study this stuff. I want to be in the line of one becoming wise. Roman numeral, top of page 4, let's go down to paragraph C. I'm not going to go another moment or two. I'm going to have that worship team go ahead and get ready to come on up. Look at paragraph C. Daniel 11, verse 33 to 35. Now remember we're Daniel 12. Daniel 11, this mighty angel was only saying this to him like five minutes earlier. Daniel 11, 33 to 35 was a moment before Daniel 12, verse 10. It's only a couple paragraphs of information later. What the angel, this same mighty angel told him a few moments earlier, he said, those of the people who understand shall instruct many. There's that word many again. I like that word many. You'll instruct many. That doesn't mean you'll have a microphone and you'll have a big congregation because through the internet you could be the sweetest little grandma at home, 88 years old. You could do something in social media that could go viral and bring instruction to the nations. I mean there's so many surprising things. Don't think that you have to have a microphone and a big congregation to make this work in the technology age like today. You may have one person in your kitchen, but you may have a million people read one of your statements that give understanding and insight. You may have the dream tomorrow, I mean who knows? There's multitudes of ways, but don't look at yourself and go, oh no, nobody even pays attention to me. But you don't know where this is going. Don't write yourself off because you're not a conference speaker or whatever, whatever. You can be one of those who instruct others, whether it's many or through technology, who knows? But the angel said, those of the people who understand shall instruct many, yet for many days they shall fall by the sword. That's martyrdom right here. He's talking about martyrdom. Verse 35, but some of those of understanding, some of the men and women that have the most understanding of the prophetic scriptures, they will fall. It doesn't mean they'll sin, that means they'll be martyred. I remember when I was in my 20s, I was reading this, I go, oh no, how terrible, they're going to fall. That's going to be so bad. I thought that meant, you know, they're going to get caught up in some scandal. That's not what it means. It means that they're going to be martyred. But when they're martyred, like when the apostles were martyred, it had a ripple effect, a sanctifying, redemptive effect. It caused multitudes to be refined and pure. It created resolve in the lives of many others because they saw their courage, they saw their steadfastness and there's just something about when dedication goes all the way, it has a dynamic impact on others around. And so he's saying, my point is this, I want to be among people of understanding. I don't mean just a church with a few people who study the end times, I mean something far more than that. I want to be a part of an hour of history all over the earth with men and women on ministries all over Asia and just everywhere, Africa, Europe, just everywhere, different streams of the body of Christ. We're pursuing understanding what's going on. And to be a person of understanding means understanding of what's happening prophetically from the prophetic scriptures, from the end times scriptures. I said, Lord, I want to be one of those people of understanding and I want to be interacting with them here and there, different streams of the body of Christ. And I want to be among those who are refined and pure and to go all the way. Now, is my worship team up here? Well, this must be the Lord, I'll go on a couple more pages then, no. No, I just want to point out two more things. Page five and page six, I got quite a bit of information, page five and six. There's two timeframes this mighty angel tells Daniel. He says, Daniel, and I want you, if you're new at this, to not kind of like look at it and go, oh, I don't get it. I say the same thing like 25 different ways to just, so I said it this way, then I said it that way, then I said it this way, then I reversed it and said it that way. I say it over and over, the same basic two or three things. Because the angel says, there's a 290 day period, which is 30 days past the Lord's return. And then there's a 1,300, I mean 1,335 days, which is another 45 days past the one I just mentioned. Now, I realize if you haven't studied this, you don't want to know what I just said, but it's all written down there. He says, there is a timeframe that's 30 days past the Lord's return and a timeframe that's 45 days beyond that. And the angel says, I want you to understand it, Daniel, and I've got a bit of information on that for you. I just want to leave that for your own study. We don't have to cover it in a session like this, because you've got to look at it, kind of get familiar with it a little bit, learn it a little bit, but it's not so complex. But those two dates, 30 days past the Lord's return and then 75 days past the Lord's return, there are two, those are two monumental times that are important. That the angel said, Daniel, I want you to put those in your vision too. You make sure the end time church knows about those two days. And so I just want to leave that with you and you can kind of familiarize yourself with it. And we'll go, we'll pick it up at another time. Amen. And amen. Well, let's stand before the Lord. Beloved, you're not too old to start. You're not too young to start. You're not too sinful to start. Start now. I'll say, well, I'm so stuck on four things. Okay. The grace of God, that's what you're there for. Start today. Determine you're going to be resolved in a new way. Let's worship for a moment. Then I'll have folks come forward in just a few moments. So I'm too weak, too old, I'm too young, too busy. Lord says, no, no, I can help you.