Mike Bickle discusses the significance of prophetic ministry in the end times as depicted in Revelation chapters 10 and 11. He emphasizes the intense spiritual warfare and deception that will characterize this period, highlighting the role of the two witnesses who will proclaim God's message with great power. Bickle reassures believers that God will provide prophetic direction and understanding to navigate the challenges ahead, encouraging them to remain steadfast in their faith and commitment to the Word of God. He underscores the importance of discernment and the need for believers to assimilate God's revelations deeply, as they prepare for the coming of the Lord.

Revelation chapter 9, 8 and 9, which was the first six trumpets. And they are very, very intense, the first six trumpets. And what happens, there's a pause before the seventh trumpet, and in this pause it's what I call an angelic explanation, or it's a parenthesis, it's a parenthetical section. Many of the folks that approach the book this way, the book in the chronological order that the events would follow, they call it the parenthetical section, or parenthesis. I call it the time where the angel puts the storyline on pause, and he talks to John, he tells John what's going on behind the scenes. So that's why I call it that. And so following each one of the chronological sections, there's a pause, and then the angel gives a little, gets John caught up with what's going on, who, what, when, where and why type thing. Paragraph B, in Revelation 9, the demons, the sixth trumpet, the last event before this pause for the parenthesis, that demons have killed one-third of the earth, leaving many in deception and many in confusion. They don't know what's happening. They don't believe it's because it's the judgment of God on something they're doing wrong. They don't know what exactly it is. We know in chapter 11, they attribute it to the two prophets, the two witnesses that are making these bad things happen. They don't understand that God is behind it. There'll be more demonized people on earth at that time than any time in human history. The final statement before the pause comes, and the angel gives the parenthesis here, we find that the angel highlights four, the four, what I call the four primary strongholds in society at that time. They will be murder, sorcery, immorality and theft. I mean, imagine this. Look at verse 21. We looked at this last, in our last session. The people, well, let's look at 15. The four angels were released to kill a third of mankind. The rest of mankind who were not killed, they didn't repent, that they would stop worshiping demons. They probably didn't think demons were what, I mean, probably they were deceived about who they were worshiping. Verse 21, and they did not repent of their murders. There was a spirit of murder like no time in history. They didn't repent of sorcery, you could put witchcraft or the occult. They didn't repent of immorality and they didn't repent of theft. Now these four will be the predominant spiritual strongholds of wickedness on the earth and there will be more people engaged in this than any time in history. Paragraph C, there will be many false signs happening at that time. Now the warning that Jesus most emphasized in His teaching, I mean, Jesus knows the most. He's the wisest and the warning He gave the most, by far, not even close, was the warning of not being deceived. It wasn't the warning of make sure you have enough food and water stored up and you've got guns. He didn't warn people to store up stuff. He didn't warn people to make sure they avoid martyrdom. I mean, I don't take martyrdom lightly, but He didn't say, whatever you do, avoid martyrdom. But the number one thing He said, and He said it with great emphasis, beware of deception. Beware of not grasping what is happening. That's the number one warning that He emphasized the most because deception has eternal consequences. Martyrdom does not have negative eternal consequences. For the martyrs, they get rewarded forever. They live forever. Paragraph 4, I mean, verse 4, Jesus said, take heed, no one deceives you. Verse 5, many will come and deceive you. Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. False Christ and false prophets will rise up and show great signs and wonders to deceive. Even if possible, the elect will be troubled by some of these things. They will be so convincing. If somebody says, how will we know? I don't think it will be hard for a sincere believer to know. If you stay in the Bible, and you stay committed to obedience, and you stay in fellowship, you're not going to be deceived by the devil. You stay in the Bible. You keep reading it. Don't just let people interpret it for you. You read it yourself. You keep a spirit of obedience where you're committed to obey, even in our weakness. And you stay in fellowship with godly people. And beloved, Jesus is a far better teacher than Satan is a deceiver. Jesus can teach us way better than Satan can deceive us. And it's not easy, it's not hard to avoid deception. Some folks think, man, I'll be in the Bible, I'll be talking to the Lord, I'll be with godly people. I'll probably get tricked. No, you won't. Satan is not a better deceiver than Jesus is a teacher. Just keep those two or three things in place, and you're going to be in good shape. Paragraph D, that is if you're alive when this happens. And you may not be alive when this happens, again, we don't know. We don't know. Maybe sooner or later. It may stretch on for some decades, on and on and on, it might happen faster, nobody knows. Paragraph D, in this angelic explanation, in chapter 10 and 11, this parenthesis, God is assuring his people that he will release prophetic direction to them. Because the number one need, I mean the number one crisis is deception. It's not even the death total, it's the deception that's going on that is the bigger crisis than anything else. And he's promising in chapter 10 and 11 that he will release prophetic direction, and he will release great power to help his people. This will be the church's greatest hour, not, this isn't the hour like, oh no, this is the hour that is likened to when Moses went into Egypt, Moses released the plagues on Pharaoh. The plagues were not for the people of God, the plagues were for the Pharaoh, the oppressor, and the judgments of the book of Revelation are for the great end-time Pharaoh called the Antichrist. They're not for the church, the church prays under Jesus' leadership, releases them on Pharaoh, on the end-time Pharaoh, which is that global end-time Pharaoh called the Antichrist, and so it's a Moses paradigm of these events. It's not a, oh no, it's trouble, we better get out of here. It's all glory. This is the time where injustice will be driven off the earth. The saints will cry night and day for injustice, and they're going to get the answer in a generation. It's really going to happen, and injustice will be driven off the planet. In Revelation 10, God promised to release new and significant prophetic understanding. There will be new understanding, there will be prophetic, now that's scary right off the bat, because if somebody told me that, I'd go, oh no, some guy's going to come up with some idea that's not in the Bible. I believe everything that's given by the Spirit will honor the written word of God. If it does not honor the written word of God, it is not from the Holy Spirit. If it doesn't glorify Jesus, call people to obedience and faith, and honor the written word, it is not a true revelation. But there will be an unfolding of greater insight into the battle plans of the evil one. That's what I think is going to happen, and God's going to give strategies that are honored in the word of God with the spirit of obedience and honoring Jesus, and there will be new and significant prophetic insights in what to do and how to be effective and how to prevail. These will help people avoid deception, overcome confusion, understand what the enemy's doing, understand what God's doing, and it will be a powerful time. Revelation 11, it's the two witnesses. They will preach in great power, and as well will have great prophetic understanding. And again, the understanding is more on what the enemy's doing and what God's doing to counter it, and what God's doing proactively, and how the victory's going to be walked out in a practical way. Now paragraph E, there'll be the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit in history at that time. The greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit. All the sons and daughters will prophesize, what Joel said, the prophet Joel. And that happened, part of that was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, but only a partial fulfillment. There's coming a day when all the sons and daughters will prophesy. Not a few, old and young, men and women, all, everybody, rich and poor, everybody will operate in the spirit of prophecy, and again, it will bolster their obedience to the written word and their obedience to Jesus' leadership. Everybody will receive, not a few. Paragraph F, one of the greatest needs in times will be prophetic understanding. I realize I'm saying this over and over, because I want to make a point, that's why I'm saying this over and over. Will be prophetic understanding. Look at what Daniel said about the generation the Lord returns. He said, those of the people who understand, they will instruct many. There will be people who understand what God's doing and how the devil's trying to deceive. They will understand it. And they will instruct many. And some of those people of understanding, they shall fall. That doesn't mean they'll stumble into sin, it means they'll be martyred. And when these leaders, these men and women of understanding, some of them are martyred, like the apostles were martyred, it will bring a refining to believers, it will bring a great purity in the body of Christ. It will actually make the dedication be enhanced to the Lord. And it will have an effect that will actually make people more dedicated, more resolved, and more confident in what they're doing, even when some of the leaders fall to martyrdom. It will make them, it will purify them, make them white until the time of the end. And the angel told Daniel back in Daniel 11, because the end is still for an appointed time, it's still down the road a bit. So let's look at verse 33 again. Those of the people of understanding, I believe God will have men and women of understanding in every tongue and tribe of the earth, every stream of the body of Christ. God will have men and women, old and young. That will be people of understanding. That's talking about a prophetic anointing. They will understand what God's doing, His strategies. I mean yes, they'll understand the word, but they'll understand some of the practical strategies, what He's doing, what the enemy's doing, and there will be a unity with, I mean, different prophetic voices from many tribes and streams of the body of Christ. It won't be like a little ragged remnant barely hanging on. There will be a prophetic anointing and a spirit of victory in the body of Christ worldwide. Many streams across the body of Christ, old and young alike. It says some of those of understanding, I mean the people of understanding will instruct many. And I don't believe that most of the instruction will be on a microphone. I believe in the technology day that we're in today and the digital revolution, so much of this will be in blogs and little sound bites, but far more sophisticated. You let some time go by, some decades go by, the technology will be at a whole other level that we can't even imagine right now. So I don't think it's about whoever has a microphone and preaches at a church on a Sunday morning. I think the electronic digital realities will create a mini with a teaching ministry by writing and there'll be all kinds of ways that pictures and films and little two and three minute sound bites, all kinds of things will happen. So don't say, well, I'm not a teacher, I won't be one of those, or again, you might not be alive when this stuff happens, but if you are, or you might be a part of that in a major way. And it may happen to your children, maybe their children, who knows? It might happen to you, who knows? But don't say, well, I'm not a teacher, that's not me. How do you know you're not? Maybe a whole lot of teaching is going to be short little sound bites. Maybe a lot of it's going to be in that direction. And so I think it's important for people to prepare themselves spiritually by growing an understanding of what the Bible says about the end time purpose so that if they can pass that on, and again, if it's not in their day, they hand it to their children, understanding and clarity. What a great gift to pass on to the next generation. Top of page two. What an important gift to have if you're in that generation. I mean, what an amazing gift to be one of those that pressed into it because you cared about it. And again, it'll be millions of people pressing into it, not just a little few here and there. Top of page two. Now John describes a mighty angel from verse one to three. And my point on this, I believe that the very glory of that angel, the might of that angel is in itself a statement about the measure of glory God's going to release on the church in that hour. So when I see it, the might of this angel, I think that the angel's task is related to that hour of history. I believe there'll be a corresponding manifestation of glory in an unusual way. And so you can just read that on your own if you want. I'm just going to mention one little thing to you, in paragraph verse two. This mighty angel, he had a book in his hand, and the book was open, that's insignificant. And he set his right foot on the sea, that would be the Mediterranean Sea, and he set his left foot on the land. So if his right foot is on the Mediterranean Sea and his left foot is on the coast, he's actually facing Egypt, is what he's doing. And then he cries out like a lion roars, and it's just a guess, I don't know with any certainty, but I think the place he's facing, it matters. And so for those of you that have a real heart for what's happening in Egypt, I believe this is actually a positive statement, and that's for another time. And we'll see how this plays out, that's just a guess. Okay, paragraph B, the seven thunders prophecies, the seven thunders prophecies. This is the new information, again, it will honor the written word, it will glorify Jesus, and it will motivate people to obey and believe God. So we'll never ever contradict those things. But I think this, my guess, because no one knows, no one knows what the seven thunder prophecies were, we'll read it in a moment, but I believe, my guess is, it's about strategy that's effective on what to do, how to do it, and when and where, and different prophetic ministries across the earth will have confirmation that it will be powerfully confirmed in the body of Christ worldwide. But the seven thunders prophecies, this is a very, very important subject, because it's a promise, meaning it's not important that we grasp it all, but it's a glorious promise because God says, there's seven really important prophetic insights I am going to give in that day that you don't have right now. And it will help you in knowing, again, my strategies and some of the things I'm doing. Verse two, let's read it again. He the mighty angel, he had a little book open in his hand, now notice the book is open. And when he cried out, when this mighty angel cries like a lion, roar, you know, he's facing towards you, he roars like a lion, I don't know what that sounds like, but I bet it's intense. When he roared, it's like this prophetic intercession or this prophetic proclamation, I don't know what he roared, you can only guess. The seven thunders uttered their voices, and so the seven thunders is describing seven heavenly beings that were entrusted with a prophetic word called one of the thunders, their prophecies, it's a strange name, but I'm assuming it's related to heavenly beings and they utter these, these thunders have a voice and it might be just the sound of thunder coming from the throne, but it's very clear it's seven messages, and so it might be some particular class of heavenly being and they utter their voice and they give this very, very important information, it's so important, John was about to write it, you know, I can imagine John going, wow, these seven prophetic words are really important, then a voice speaks up and says, no, no, no, no, don't write this, seal up the thing, seal up these seven prophecies, seal them up right now, and the idea of sealing them up is don't let them be disclosed right now, it's for yet another time, it's for that hour of history, look at paragraph C, paragraph C number one, an open book in a heavenly drama reveals the, an open book reveals the contents in it are knowable, when a book is open in a heavenly drama to the saints, the idea is the book is knowable, the contents are knowable, and so the little book in the mighty angel is open, that's knowable, the seven thunders, the seven, whether they're beings or not, some kind of heavenly being, we don't know, or just voices coming out of the throne, we don't know what it is, those seven thunders cannot be known right now, what's in the little book can be known, it's open, what is the seven thunder prophecies, they're restrained and held back until the perfect timing of God, paragraph two, John understood the seven messages enough to write them down, I mean, they were clear enough he was going to write them, he was forbidden to write them, but he grasped them, he was going to put them in print, he was told to seal them until the end times, well he was told to seal them, and the idea of sealing them means, the implication is, they can't be known now, but they would be known, I mean, they're given to be made known, but the timing is everything, so I think God has a prophetic anointing in the church in those final years leading up to the Lord's return of significant information will be given by the spirit, and I know that are represented by these seven thunders prophecies, and again, don't be thinking of some kind of eccentric kind of crazy, you know, what the names of the angels are, I've had people say some of the strangest things about information of the heavenly realms, and this and that and the other, and maybe some of it's true, I don't know much about that realm, so what do I know, but I believe these are not, you know, eccentric kind of bizarre things, I think they're actually strategic helpful things, that this is my opinion, that will be confirmed by the body of Christ worldwide, but the Lord's saying, here's the point, the Lord's saying, I have it already planned out, and I have already given indication of these words, and I have them held back to the strategic time, but not permanently, just till the time, and I've already figured out you need them, so don't worry, I'm already way ahead of the game, that's what I get from this passage, and so that's why I like it so much. Paragraph D, this sealing of the seven thunder prophecies is similar to what happened to Daniel, Daniel sealed prophecies 2500 years ago, he was about 500 BC, Daniel approximately, and so this sealing of prophetic words, holding them back is the idea, until the end times, is something that Daniel did, and so you can look at Daniel chapter 12 verse 4, Daniel sealed the book, he had these revelations until the time of the end, and so maybe these seven prophecies, maybe these are related, who knows, we don't have to know that kind of detail right now, and so you can read that more on your own, paragraph 3, I mean top of page 3, I'm sorry, top of page 3, so now we're going on to verse 5, so this mighty angel whom I saw, he raised his hand to heaven, he swore by God who lives forever forever, and here's what this mighty angel swore, there will no longer be any delay, it's after the 6th trumpet, the next trumpet is the 7th trumpet, he says I promise you by God there will be no more delay, and of course the main feature of the plan of God and the mystery of God is the coming of the Messiah to the earth to rule the nations, that's the primary event, there's a number of events, but that's the primary one, but now he says this very strange statement in verse 7 that I want you to note, and he swears by this, he says in the days of the sounding of the 7th angel, meaning the 7th trumpet, he says when he's about to sound the mystery of God will be finished, now here's the strange part to me, it's that the phrase in the days, that plural, because the 6 trumpets have already been sounded, there's a pause now, we're in a parenthesis, it's like the angel's put a pause on the story line, he's telling John some behind the scenes information, and these I call them angelic explanations, or these parenthesis, and this angel says I swear to you that in the days of the sounding of the 7th trumpet, and the part that grabs my attention, this is the only one of the 7 trumpets that a number of days are attributed to it, it doesn't sound once, it sounds for a number of days, we don't know if it's 1, 2 days, 10 days, we don't know, you know, and my assumption is probably the feast of trumpets has some insights on that, but that's another subject for another day, that's a, I don't really know for sure, but it's this idea that the 1st trumpet sounds seemingly, seemingly it's blasted and then something happens, 2nd trumpet blasts, something happens, 3rd trumpet blasts, 4th, 5th, 6th, the same, but at the 7th it blasts for a number of days, so there's something very unique about the 7th trumpet that goes on and on, again it's 2, 3 days, 5 or 10 days, I don't have any idea, but I know that the angel swore that it would blast for a while and then the purpose of God, the mystery of God, you could put the word purpose of God in there, God's hidden purpose, that's what a mystery is, His hidden purpose, a mystery in the Bible doesn't mean something confusing, it means a very important purpose that's been withheld, the information, it's not confusing, it's just been withheld, and when it's made known then it's crystal clear, and so the mystery of the whole panorama of God's purpose, the full mystery and all of it's details would be completed, and again the 2nd coming of Jesus is the main feature of the mystery, and there's a number of other very important features, but that's certainly the main one, number one, the angel said there'll be no more delay, no more delay, so the 2nd coming of Jesus, it's described, and I believe in the very next section, I believe that the Lord comes, this is my personal opinion, it's my view of it, and there's a number of other views that I certainly honor different people with different views of it, but I believe that the 2nd coming of Jesus is related to the final trumpet, when the last trumpet sounds, when the 7th trumpet sounds for a series of days, however long, that the 2nd coming of Jesus, I believe will be the mystery that comes to full completion, He's in the clouds, in the sky, we'll look at that next week, and that's described in the next section, now look what Paul said, Paul said, I behold I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, and that means we shall not all die, physically die, when Paul says sleep, he's not talking about, you know, we'll stay up a couple of days in a row, that's not what he's talking about, we shall not all sleep, we'll not all die physically, talking about born again believers, but we shall all be changed, and this is the description of the rapture, we'll be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and the time we are changed, when that happens is at the last trumpet, it's at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead, all the believers through history will be raised with resurrected bodies, and the believers on the earth, Paul thought he would be there, that's why he said we, we will be changed, and like Paul, well, wow, that's a pretty bold statement, and Paul said we will be changed, and that changed both references, verse 51 and 52, we will be changed as a reference to the rapture, which is described in more detail in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 16 and 17, I don't have the verse here, but we'll look at that in our next session, I mean next week, 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 16 or 17, but let's look at verse 52 again, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, an instantaneous transformation of our physical bodies, our mortal bodies, to resurrected bodies, and by the way, the good news is, when your body, when you have a resurrected body, it will still be physical, you will still have a physical material body, but it will be filled with glory, you won't be like a spirit, you know, it's like the little corny analogy I give, is that, it's not like when you come, you greet one another, you hug each other, you kind of walk through each other, whoa, you know, you can try it again, whoa, hey, go a little slower this time, no, you'll have actual flesh and bones, supernatural flesh, you won't have corruptible flesh, because Jesus said in Luke 24, in the resurrection, He goes, look, don't I have flesh and bones, resurrected, they touched Him, He had supernatural flesh, which is different than our corruptible flesh, He had bones, He had an elbow, you'll have an elbow in the resurrection, and a knee and a bunch of other things like that, meaning you're not going to be floating, kind of, just kind of like, whoa, a big wind goes, and there you go, I'll bring him back later, a gust took him away, it won't be like that, but the timing is the last trumpet, now the reason I believe it's the seventh trumpet, because this is the only time, the only numbered trumpets in the whole of the Bible are the ones right here in the book of Revelation, the first trumpet, the second trumpet, the third trumpet, the fourth trumpet, the fifth trumpet, and sixth, and then the seventh, and at the seventh trumpet, you will look at in paragraph two, that's when the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of our Lord, that all the empires of the earth now effectively come under the open leadership of Jesus, I mean, He's over the nations now, but His leadership is not being displayed openly where people see it, by faith we see it, but where this verse is not talking about that the kingdoms of the empires of the nations will be openly seen as belonging to Jesus, not by faith, by born again believers only, it will be openly seen and declared, and this will happen at the seventh trumpet, and at that time, verse 18, the dead will be raised, or judged, and the saints will be rewarded, so all of those things will happen at the same time as the seventh trumpet, when all the empires of the earth are brought under the open leadership of Jesus, that all the eyes in the natural will be able to see it. Paragraph B, now John had to fully assimilate, assimilate, I don't know how to spell assimilate without, how do you, oh there you go, good, I could imagine somebody going, how do you spell that, but anyway, John had to fully assimilate the prophetic message, and that's what's happening in verse eight to eleven, meaning he had to receive it fully, it wasn't enough that he just heard it, he had to assimilate it, he had to digest it, it had to become a part of him, is the idea, so that fill in the blank word assimilate there. Now I've had people say, well if God wants me to know something, He'll tell me, well there's truth to that for sure, if God wants you to know something, He'll tell you, but there are truths in the Bible where God beckons us to study them and go deep, and He will tell us more if we study them, and this is what I'm talking about here, I'm not talking about just leaving it to, well if He wants me to know, He'll kind of interrupt me and tell me all of His secrets, and what the Lord's answer would be, and if you want to know my secrets, you pulled some time away, open up your Bible, talk to me, I mean compare it with others in the body of Christ, don't be a lone ranger, be teachable and receive from others, and I'll give you more, that's what He's saying, so this need to assimilate is very important, verse 8, He said the voice which I heard from heaven, here's what the voice, I guess some angelic or the voice from the throne, I'm not sure, said go take the little book, which is in the hand of the angel, because the seven trumpets, that's been sealed, so that's not going to be known until the generation of the Lord returns, but the open book, that can be known, that can be known, He said now go take that one, so He walks up to that mighty angel, I mean this angel's got a face with the radiance of God, and He's powerful, and you know John's you know like, you know hi, he told me to take it, he goes could you give me that book, I mean I'm just trying to picture going up to an angel, and a mighty powerful angel that, you know and just, what do you think, you know, he told me to ask you, could you give me that book, okay verse 9, I'm sure it wasn't that way, but, so I went to the angel verse 9 and said give me the book, and the angel said okay, but here's the deal, if I give it to you, you have to take it, you have to eat it, you have to assimilate it, I'm not going to give it to you just so you can tell people you've got the book, you have to do something with it, he says but I want to warn you, that when you take it, your stomach will be bitter, but it will be sweet as honey in your mouth, it will be sour in your stomach, but sweet to the taste, because I want to warn you that, and John okay, I appreciate that, you know, before I bite it into it, it's going to be sweet, and it's going to be sour, it's going to have the both and, verse 10, so I took the book, I ate it, and it was sweet, it was like wow, that was like honey, I like the taste of it, a little while later, oh, my stomach hurts, his stomach became bitter, there was a very negative feeling in his stomach, and so verse 11, this verse 11 is the application of eating this book, he says now prophesy, prophesy about many tongues and nations, etc., now a number of people, and I think it's a good theory, I think it's the best theory I know, but it's still a theory, no one knows for sure, but a number of scholars have suggested that the book that he ate, here in chapter 10, was the rest of the book of Revelation, it was chapter 11, 12, 13, 14, you know, on up to 22, that that's what he prophesied having ate the scroll, I mean ate the book, the scroll, same thing, that then he prophesied out of the contents of it, that's a theory, I think that's a plausible theory, you can't be sure that's what it is, but he was supposed to prophesy, and I mean, I understand John was a very aged man on the island of Patmos, and so I believe if he must prophesy, the prophecy is in the book of Revelation, the final, you know, chapter 11 to chapter 22, ok, paragraph 1, John ate the scroll, this was similar to what Ezekiel did, so this had precedent in the Old Testament, that one of the prophets had the same experience, an angel gave him a book or scroll, and said eat it, and he ate it, and he was supposed to do that, eat it, then speak it, what we're tempted to do is speak the revelations, I mean speak the understanding before we've assimilated it, before we've let it really become a part of us, until we've really touched the sweetness of it, which is the victory of it, and the sourness of it, which is the judgment and the negative dimension of it, ok, let's look at paragraph C, the sweet speaks of the message of victory, I mean the prophetic message of victory is amazing, I mean it's like, whoa, the victorious church, and the gospel to the nations, and the worthiness of the lamb, speaks of salvation, deliverance for the oppressed, justice, that's the sweetness, oh, it tastes sweet, but there's a bitterness to the message too, and the bitterness speaks of the judgment of the message, the devastation, as God confronts everything that hinders love, and also it brings persecution to the messengers, not only does it, is the message related to confronting oppression and wickedness in the nation, it actually brings persecution on the people who bring the message, and John says oh, that gives me a stomach ache, he goes oh, but here's the part that's important, in my opinion, we must assimilate, we must eat the scroll, we must assimilate it, and not just take information from a bible teacher, or a book, or a film, and suddenly just start being an authority preaching it, and we can't pick the sweetness and get rid of the sourness, or pick the sourness and forget the sweetness, I find that some folks focus big time on the sweetness, they don't want the sourness, because they've never assimilated the message, others like the sourness, you know, they're just kind of a little like, you know, kind of shaking people over hell on a rotten stick, kind of hoping the stick breaks, you know, some guys preach that way, the kind of hoping judgment comes, and they need to get a touch of the sweetness of it, I mean the first commandment will be restored in the first place, the gospel, the nations, the unity of the body of Christ worldwide, I mean there's so much sweetness, but I don't think we can just read the book of Revelation, and just simply make it known, I think we have to eat the scroll, we have to assimilate it, we have to feel the sweetness, and we have to feel the sourness, and again it's little by little, progressively over the years, but I think that this is a model of how we are to properly speak these truths, so there's a boldness, there's a tenderness, there's a humility, there's a caution, there's a number of things that are all mixed together in being a bold and a faithful witness, okay, top of page four. Okay, now we're moving from Revelation 10, which the highlight was the seven thunder prophecies that are coming in the future, God has thought it through, He has a plan to give some information, some strategic helpful information, but the other idea, the model if we're going to operate in speaking the message of God, we do have to take time to assimilate it like John did, like Ezekiel did, and we just can't be an echo, we hear one guy say it, so we say it with great authority, but we don't have the tenderness, we don't have the depth, we don't have the pain, we're not speaking with tears in our eyes, it's just kind of a cool piece of information, and the angel's telling John, that's not going to be good enough, there's a whole different level of depth, of maturity in Revelation that's going to be necessary if you're going to be a faithful steward of this message. Top of page 4, now we are moving on to Revelation chapter 11, and there's a paradox in this, the first two verses we see the tribulation temple, and what the tribulation temple is, there will be a temple, a physical temple built on the site, the right site in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, or you know there's different ways they could say it, but where Solomon's temple was built, there will be that temple rebuilt again, and it will be a tremendous sign, a timing indicator of the hour that we're living in, when that temple starts getting built, and by the way there's many of the Orthodox Jews and scholars that are searching out ways, and they have different campaigns going on to build that temple now, that means it's going to be built now, but there's a number of them that are really energetic about it, and they have been for some time, so there's a tremendous push over there for that temple to get rebuilt, of course there's a real resistance called Islam, but there's going to be a way where this is going to actually come to pass, so John sees this temple, now the paradox of the temple is, is that it's God's temple, and yet the Antichrist will use it, I mean it's a great paradox, it's called the temple of God a number of times, but the Antichrist sets up his image in the temple, and is worshipped in it, but how does that work? How is it the temple of God, but it's the worship center for the Antichrist? Now how does that work? Well in verse 1 John said, I was given this measuring rod, and the angel said, rise up and measure the temple, and when you measure it, pay special attention to the temple itself, to the altar, and to the people that worship there, what an interesting phrase, the angel says, pay attention to the people that worship there, you know I stop and think of who's going to worship there, and maybe devout Jews that are unbelievers, meaning when I mean unbelievers, I mean they don't believe in Jesus, that's my definition of an unbeliever, that they are sincere about the God of Israel, but beloved, sincerity about the God of Israel without Jesus does not lead to salvation, so there are God fearing Jews that are sincere about the God of Israel as they know him, but they don't know he is Jesus, so they don't like Jesus, so they're in a jam, but they're God fearing in that one way, so maybe some of those are the people worshipping there, then there's people worshipping the Antichrist related to that temple, that's really bad, and I don't know if there's another category of who's worshipping there, but the angel said, measure the people that worship, that are involved in any kind of worship there is kind of the idea, and I just kind of boggles the mind, you know what on earth, who's going to go worship in that building, I mean certainly the good people aren't, are they, I mean it's the Antichrist with the temple of God, and understand this, that when they build that temple, though there will be many unbelieving, again I'm using the word unbelieving in this context, particularly about they don't believe Jesus is the Messiah, that's my definition of unbelieving, that building that temple and offering the sacrifices, which they will do, does not bring them to salvation, that does not bring them to salvation at all, there's only one that can bring someone to salvation, his blood was shed and that blood is the sacrifice and the payment is eternal, and there's no need for another sacrifice, and so those blood sacrifices they will offer don't help them get saved at all, I've met some energetic Messianic believers, most of them Gentiles, and they're really excited about those offerings, like forget it, those offerings don't get anybody saved, and so you've got the wrong idea, you know what I would tell them, Jesus is the only possible way, so we need to be really clear about that, okay number one, so, oh no, we've got to read verse two, we're still in paragraph eight, so the angel says leave out the outer court, don't measure it, it's outside the temple, it's the courtyard area, don't measure it, it's been given to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles mean the nations, more specifically the Middle East, it means probably the Muslims, because when you're talking Gentiles in the Middle East, mostly I'm assuming it's talking Muslims, mostly but not only, so that's the image at least I get when I read that verse, okay number one, the tribulation temple will be built by unbelieving Jews, it will be by devout God fearing but unbelieving Jews, but it will be desecrated, or you could put the word defiled if you want, desecrated by the Antichrist, in context to the abomination of desolation, now the abomination of desolation, I've got a few teachings on that on the internet, particularly in my book of Daniel series, the abomination of desolation is a very very important in time event, Jesus highlighted it, that's when the Antichrist puts an image of himself in the temple and demands people to worship him as God in that temple, that's the abomination of desolation plus more, but that's the key, that's the key idea, now this temple is not, notice not, it is not the millennial temple, there's a millennial temple coming after the Lord returns and Jesus builds it, Jesus himself oversees the building of the millennial temple, look at 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2, this is what Paul says about that temple, he says this is one of the clearest prophecies on the temple and the Antichrist relationship to it, and it's by Paul, and Paul is a reliable prophetic voice, he said the son of perdition, that's the Antichrist, he will exalt himself above everything called God, he will sit as God in the temple in Jerusalem, I mean this man will sit, the audacity to say I am God, I am the God of Israel and of every other nation too, and he will sit there and demand that people worship him, and he will show himself as God, he will do signs and wonders and he will insist that he's called God sitting in that temple, that's a pretty dramatic prophecy of Paul the Apostle, okay let's go to paragraph B, so the angel said measure the temple, and the altar and its worshippers, now to measure something spiritually means to evaluate it, and even more to evaluate its spiritual, well to discern its spiritual quality and purpose, so when God says in a prophetic act to measure something, he's saying evaluate it and understand its spiritual quality and its spiritual purpose, that's what God means when it's in a prophetic setting when the mandate to measure something is, paragraph 1, Amos was in a situation like that, God said measure it, and that meant evaluate what's going on, paragraph 2 is another example with Belshazzar the king of Babylon where the finger wrote on the wall and said Belshazzar Babylon you are measured by God, which means you're fully evaluated and it's bad news for you, so to be measured means to be evaluated and discerned as to the spiritual quality and the spiritual purpose of the thing that's being measured, and so paragraph C, God has a purpose for unbelieving yet God fearing Jews involved in the temple, there is some purpose, I don't get it all and God doesn't need my permission, I don't need to get it, but there's a number of verses that are clear it's going to happen, God wants it to happen, the devil's going to desecrate it, but God wants this to happen, and there's something that's going to take place, we are not, I'm talking about us born again gentile believers, we're not to dismiss it all as worthless, we don't look at it and go well that's just stupid, but neither do we go the other direction and say everything they do is right and good, because without Jesus they can't be saved, and so there's this balance, there's this tension, paragraph D, the temptation of some will be to criticize everything, all that's related to it, and the temptation of others will be to accept everything related to it, I'm talking about the temptation of believers, there are some believers that when it happens they'll say that is ridiculous, it's all of the devil, and I say well I would go a little slower than that, you don't want to criticize it all, but then the other believers will go it's the most amazing thing, I'm moving to Jerusalem and I'm going to have animal sacrifices and put my little hat on and I'm going to be one of them, like well, I mean the Lord might really send you there, but just make sure you're not in some enthusiasm, you don't want to go one way or the other, we want to measure it, we want to discern it is the idea, I mean John was meant to do that, was the idea, okay, then it goes on in top of page 5, the city of Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles for 42 months, look at that at the end of verse 2, they're going to tread the city for 42 months, now I'm going to kind of give you the fast version here for the next few points here and then we'll bring this to a close, paragraph F, the word of God says the city of Jerusalem will be trampled for 42 months, which is 3 ½ years by the way, it's a 3 ½ year period, Jesus prophesied, paragraph 1, that the Jerusalem temple would be trampled by Gentile armies, this was partially fulfilled in AD 70, partially fulfilled, it will be completely fulfilled in the end times, in the generation the Lord returns, it's partially fulfilled in 70 AD, there's a big debate, it was fulfilled in 70 AD, I'd say yeah, it was, and others say no, it's fulfilled at the end of the age, I go yeah, it is, partially then, fully then, both of them, it's a snapshot, it's actually to build faith and to give an understanding that God gives partial fulfillment of a big event like that and then give a full fulfillment later, it lets the believers grasp more the implications of what's going on, okay, you can read a little bit more about that on, as you want, paragraph G, the 42 months is the same time frame, it's as the 3 ½ years that's mentioned several times in the book of Revelation, sometimes it's called 42 months, sometimes it's called 1260 days and I got a little bit more on that, there's 8 scriptures and 4 phrases that are used to designate the same 3 ½ year period when you take the book of Daniel and you take the book of Revelation, okay, let's look at paragraph H, now this is really, I'll just say this real quick but just to give you the feel of it, this is a, Jerusalem is called a holy city in Revelation 11, a great city, it is called Sodom and it is called Egypt and I thought wow, there's a whole lot of aspects that the angel wanted John to see about in time Jerusalem, number one, Jerusalem is a holy city, it's the only city in which the Lord has placed His name, there's no other city God put His name on, so the idea is be careful how you touch Jerusalem, God put His name on that city, it's holy, meaning it's set apart to its first purpose, number 2, it's a great city, it's great in its importance in God's eternal plan, there's no city more important, it's great in importance, significance, prominence, number 3, the secular dimensions, it's like Sodom because of the perversion that will occur there and that perversion is happening right now like it is in many cities of the earth but there will be great perversion in that city like Sodom and then paragraph 4, it's like Egypt because there will be great oppression against the faithful remnant, the faithful remnant, believers in Jesus, Jewish believers particularly will be greatly oppressed even by fellow Jews in that city, there will be fellow Jews actually acting in the spirit of Egypt to oppress the faithful remnant of Israel and so the angels touching all four tensions, the angels saying you got to put all four of them together to understand Jerusalem and so some people are too loose, I mean they see it's a holy city and a great city and they go glory to God, it's awesome and other people go no, it's Sodom and Egypt, it's terrible and they get lost in it, they say forget Jerusalem, we can't forget it's a great and holy city and we can't forget it's Sodom and Egypt, we got to hold it in tension together because the Lord tells His church, I want you to partner with me in getting Jerusalem to go from Sodom and Egypt to walk in their destiny as a great and a holy city, I'm going to use the body of Christ worldwide in prayer and in obedience to see that transition, of course the second coming of Christ is the big point. Top of page 6, paragraph A, the two witnesses are powerful prophets, two witnesses, powerful prophets, most of you have read about the two witnesses, it's pretty straightforward so I'm going to skip that and then paragraph D, the two witnesses, they're going to have great miracles, you've read verse 3 and 4, I mean call fire from heaven, drought, I mean turn water to blood, they're going to be doing the Moses, Elijah miracles, the miracles that Moses and Elijah did. Paragraph D, now this is probably the final great globally recognized miracle before Jesus appears at the seventh trumpet, because the seventh trumpet is the next thing that happens after this and what happens is they kill, the Antichrist kills these two prophets after they finish prophesying for three and a half years and at the end of the three and a half years the dead bodies are in the streets of the city of Jerusalem, verse 9, all the nations, they will see the dead bodies, so there it tells you technology, that's a reference in my opinion to technology. How do all the nations, how did John think all the nations would see something happening in the streets of Jerusalem? How did he imagine that? Well unplug TV sets is what one guy called it, it's internet, it's the technology, but the globe will be watching it and it will be the final great miracle seen on a global level, they're going yes, they're dead. Verse 10, those who dwell on the earth will rejoice and make merry, send gifts to one another because these two prophets tormented the whole earth. They have a wrong interpretation of their victory over those two prophets and they have a wrong interpretation of the ministry of the two prophets. They think their victory over the two prophets is final and it's not and they think the ministry of the two prophets was negative and it was fulfilling the will of God. They're completely deceived, the nations of the earth about this. And then verse 11, because it's just such a, I mean you already read it I'm sure many times, after the three and a half days they've been there laying in the street, the breath of God entered them, great fear fell on everyone who saw them. They heard a loud cry, a loud voice from heaven, come up here! And those two ascended to heaven on a cloud, that's language related to the rapture. All the, I mean not all, but their enemies saw it. In that same hour there was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell and I believe there's anti-Christ people in the city, maybe there's, I mean there's probably all kinds of different make-up of people in the city. 7,000 people died. We don't know if it's the anti-Christ people, we don't know if it's the unbelieving Jews, we don't know quite who it is that's dying, but 7,000. And the rest were afraid when they saw these guys wake up and get taken up in a cloud and they gave glory to the God of heaven so there was still openness for people to repent. That's a remarkable deal. They may be going to say, the God of Israel, oh my goodness, I mean a guy that could make some guys rise from the dead and you know, that's pretty intense stuff. And so the point is God has a remarkable plan, it's all in place, He's not going to be surprised by anything. I'm going to go back to one more thought and then end with that and have Misty come up. Look at verse 7, back in paragraph D, it says, when they finish their testimony, the anti-Christ will make war against them. Here's the idea, you are immortal until the will of God is done in your life. The anti-Christ hates these two, but he can't kill them until they're finished with the will of God. And the same is true with every believer, you can't die until the will of God is done in your life. And the enemy will whisper so many things and threaten you in so many ways, but I tell you straight from this example here, you can't die until you finish your assignment. And so there you have it. So you can be encouraged in your heart about that. Amen and Amen.