Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of encountering Jesus as the Son of Man through Revelation 1, highlighting its wealth of insights about His majesty and glory. He encourages the church to engage deeply with the 30 descriptions of Jesus found in this chapter, which are essential for understanding His role in the end times and preparing for His return. Bickle stresses that these truths are often neglected but are crucial for empowering believers to navigate the challenges of the last days. He calls for a personal response to these revelations, urging believers to agree with, seek deeper understanding of, and commit to living out the truths about Jesus. Ultimately, he invites the church to experience a transformative relationship with the Son of Man, who is both fully God and fully man.

So Ben, how come you're not on the night watch schedule? Because I help you, bro. And when I see a night watch guy, you know, they change their schedule so they go to bed at 4 in the afternoon. So this is like Stuart was walking around here this afternoon just a few minutes ago, which is middle of the night for him. Thought you'd find that interesting. Okay. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the Word of God, and I ask you, you would touch us with the majesty and the glory of your Son, Jesus. Holy Spirit, take the things that belong to Him, and I ask you to give them to us. Lord, we ask that you would take the things that belong to Jesus. Holy Spirit, you would give them to us, even tonight, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, Revelation chapter 1 is one of the great treasure chests in the Word of God. It's one of the best-kept secrets in the body of Christ. That's negative. That there is, there is so much wealth in Revelation chapter 1. It's the passage that gives more insight into Jesus, and Jesus is the one giving it. But it's a a very neglected passage, and I want to stir up your attention and your desire to go after this chapter. And I believe that the things that are in Revelation 1, that they are going to increase in their importance, because the positive and the negative dimensions related to the generation of the Lord returning, those end time things are increasing. And every decade that goes by, the truths of Revelation 1 become more important, because they have tremendous consequences related to them. And we'll get to that in a few moments. Let's look at paragraph A, just to set a context for Revelation 1. Because without a context, you kind of just, you could read over it real fast and say, well, I think I got that. This is the sort of chapter we could spend, I mean literally, I'm not exaggerating, weeks, I mean months and years on, and never ever get to the bottom of it. There's that much information in seed form in Revelation chapter 1, that much information about Jesus. Paragraph A. I refer to the book of Revelation as the end-time book of Acts, because it describes the acts of the Holy Spirit released to the end-time church. It's the end-time book of Acts written in advance. Because in the same way that Moses released the plagues of Egypt on the Antichrist through prayer, and the same way that Moses released that power through prayer, the same way that the early Apostles released the power of God through prayer, so the end-time church is going to release the power of God for the great harvest, and the judgments of God against the Antichrist through prayer. But it's all written in advance. Paragraph B. The primary theme of the Great Tribulation that people are so worried about, the primary theme is God's judgment against the Antichrist. The primary theme of the Great Tribulation isn't judgment against the saints. It's judgment against the Antichrist. A secondary theme is the tribulation the Antichrist brings on the church. That's, there's only 12 verses on that. 3% of the book of Revelation is about the trouble the Antichrist brings the church. The rest of the book of Revelation is the glory of Jesus and the trouble on the kingdom of darkness. There will be unique dynamics in that generation, and I believe we're in the early days of that generation. That's not a prophecy. That's just an observation by looking at the signs of the times. I think there's people alive today, it's very possible that we'll see this in their lifetime, the return of the Lord. I don't know for sure, but that's my strong opinion. But in the generation the Lord returns, there are unique dynamics. There are real intense positives and real intense negatives that go beyond any other time in human history. The most intense positives, the most intense negatives will happen simultaneously in one generation, and the most significant players in the drama is the praying church, and they have to have understanding of Jesus in order to fully be involved in the way that the Word of God describes. Roman number two. So if we're going to be fully involved, I'm talking about the church, we need to understand the majesty of Jesus in the way that Jesus set it forth. Paragraph A. The book of Revelation is called the Revelation of Jesus. That's the title of the entire book. The book is the unveiling of the glory of Jesus. Look at chapter 1 verse 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God the Father gave Jesus, and Jesus gave it to John. And what God did is shows the things which must take place. Here's the point. We study the things that will take place because they lead us to the man behind the events. The book of Revelation is about the unveiling of the glory of a man. He's fully God, fully man. And the way that we see his glory is we study the things that he has designed in his great wisdom. We study them and it leads us to understanding what kind of person he is. Paragraph B. Well first, the book of Revelation is about a man. Secondly, it's about the events. But God's purpose is to reveal the man behind the plan. Many people that study Revelation, they want to know the plan and they miss the man. Again, we study the plan, we study the events, and we discover more about the man behind the plan. And we're awestruck with him. It's not enough just to study the plan itself. It's important to do that, but that's secondary. We are fascinated with the man himself. Paragraph C. Now Revelation 1 to 3. That's one section. You want to keep that, those three chapters together, and you're thinking. John reports a visionary experience where he highlights 30 specific descriptions about Jesus. There are 30 descriptions. We're not going to go through them all tonight. But I want to alert you to that. There's 30 gold mines, so to speak, to go go deep in. This is the most complete picture of Jesus, the most comprehensive picture of His Majesty and the whole Bible, these three chapters. They describe these 30 descriptions. They describe who He is, and they describe what He does. Now if we study these 30 descriptions with the events that are associated with them, it inspires us to adore Jesus and to trust His leadership. Some people say, well, I'm not into the book of Revelation. I go, oh, no, don't say that. You don't have to be obsessed with the plan, but be obsessed with the man behind the plan. And if you study the book right, it inspires you to adore Him. If you study the book right, it builds your trust in His leadership. Paragraph D. It's very important, this point. In Revelation 1 to 3, these three chapters, these 30 descriptions, we see what Jesus emphasized most about Himself, as He was preparing His church. We could say, Lord, what do you want to emphasize about Yourself to prepare the church for the greatest hour of glory in human history? He goes, I'll tell you what I want to emphasize about Myself. Study Revelation 1 to 3, because that's what I revealed about Myself in context to preparing my church for the greatest hour of glory in human history. But the problem, currently, much of the church is neglecting these 30 truths about Jesus. They seem a little strange, titles that don't make a lot of sense at a casual reading. You know, He's the Alpha, the Omega, the First, the Last, Beginning and the End. Okay, that sounds cool. Let's move on. Those are, those are gold mines, each one of those phrases. These are the truths that Jesus once emphasized the most. And so, as messengers of His kingdom, whether you're a messenger one-on-one, or whether you're using the Internet, through all the different technology and social networking to get the message out, or whether you're a preacher, or writer, or singer, or whatever, you want to emphasize what He emphasizes about Himself. Paragraph E. These 30 descriptions, they give us insights about Him. And they form the way we serve. They form the way we pray. They form the way we prophesy. When we touch these 30 truths about His glory and majesty, it changes the way we do ministry. And that's part of His plan. They exhilarate us to love Him. They empower us with courage in the most troublesome and glorious hour of human history. And they energize us for righteousness. Beloved, this is the Jesus we need to encounter. Top of page 2. The Jesus of Revelation 1. All the truths of the Gospels, all the truths of the Old Testament prophets, all the truths of the epistles, the letters of the apostles, they all come to a fullness, to a crescendo in Revelation 1. They all come together in this explosive portrait that Jesus gives of Himself. There's nothing in Revelation 1 that denies the Old Testament prophets, the Gospels, or the letters of the apostles, but rather it brings them all together in a very strategic way. Top of page 2. I want to say this first. There are, there's a dynamic relationship between the two primary passages in the Bible that present Jesus as the Son of Man. I want you to get that clear in your head first. There are two primary chapters in the Bible, passages, that present Jesus as the Son of Man. And then there's a lot of little excerpts, so to speak, where one or two verses talk about Him as the Son of Man in the Gospels. But the first passage, the original defining passage of the Messiah as the Son of Man, is Daniel chapter 7. We looked at that a little bit last week. It was the first time that the Messiah was presented as the Son of Man. It's the original defining passage, and there's many very significant definitions of what the Messiah as the Son of Man, what He would be like. It's Daniel 7. Then in Revelation 1, it's like bookends. It's the first revelation of the Son of Man, Daniel 7, and it's the final revelation in the Bible of the Son of Man, Revelation 1. Revelation 1 brings to fullness what Daniel 7 initiates, what Daniel 7 introduces. Revelation 1 expands and brings the implications far beyond what Daniel 7 does. But again, they're like bookends. They're the first and the last primary descriptions of the Son of Man, and we want to always study them together. Let's go down to paragraph B and look at the Daniel passage first. Then we'll come back to Revelation 1. We'll look at the original Son of Man passage. And the reason I'm focusing on the Son of Man, because it's these 30 facets of Jesus as the Son of Man that the church needs to be equipped for the great glory and the great trouble that is going to happen simultaneously. It's encountering the Son of Man in His glory. So we go to the original passage where the first definition of the Son of Man was given, Daniel 7. There's many characteristics here. We won't look at all of them, but I just want to point out the significance of this passage. Daniel 7 isn't just a passage on the Son of Man. It's the original defining one, the first one. It's the foundational passage from which all the others draw their meaning from. Starts in Daniel 7, verse 9. The Ancient of Days, that would be the Father, presented in His eternal nature, the God who lives in eternity from eternity past to eternity present or future, the Ancient of Days, His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. That speaks of the plan that the Father has is perfectly wise. It's rooted in an eternal perspective, is the Ancient of Days, and it's pure. There is no defilement. His plan is perfect. This is the idea. His plan is wise. His plan is pure. That's the point of which Daniel sees in verse 9. He sees the Father and His garments portraying and the hair of His head were are portraying the purity and the depth of wisdom of His plan that was rooted in eternity. His throne was like a fiery flame. I mean imagine, Daniel sees the Father's throne like a big fiery flame. That's terrifying. And a river of fires flowing out of it. You'll find that if you read the whole passage. Verse 11, I watched I saw the Antichrist was killed. He was slain. He was thrown to the burning flame. Daniel sees the great adversary at the very final generation of natural history, the Antichrist, the beast. He sees he's destroyed and thrown into the flame. We find out later. It's the lake of fire. Verse 13, I kept watching. The Son of Man. He sees a personage. He doesn't quite make sense of who He is. He looks like a man because He is a man. But He can't be a man because He's so close to God and nobody can see God and live. But He's not only close to God. He's being enthroned by God over all the nations of the earth. He's riding on heavenly clouds, which are very different than earthly clouds. They're supernatural, the glory clouds. So He has these characteristics of being divine. He's next to God on supernatural clouds. Encountering God in such proximity, but He's clearly a man. What's the deal? And He's a man that's going to rule the nations of the earth. But He's fully God. Daniel's in a quandary because this is a new idea. But the Messiah is the God-man, fully God and fully man. This was not clear in the Old Testament. I saw one like the Son of Man coming. He's on the clouds of heaven. Again, these are... There's a supernatural dimension to this man who is God, but He's man. There's a supernatural dimension. He can actually... His transportation is on heavenly clouds. Which again would be like the glory of God transporting Him. They're not like natural clouds. He came to the ancient of days. They brought Him near. Well, no man can go near to God like this. Well, He's more than a man. Verse 14, then to this man who's more than a man, Daniel said he was given the dominion over all the nations of the earth. This is a... Again, this is a strong idea that He's not just given dominion over Israel, but all the nations of the earth. Not just the throne of David in Jerusalem, but the throne that would conquer and rule all nations one day in the future, literally on the earth. But look at verse 27. It goes beyond. The kingdom that is given to Him, He shares it with His people. Look at verse 27. The saints of the Most High God, they inherit the kingdom and they rule the kingdom with them. This is quite an amazing reality. Let's go to Revelation chapter 1 and paragraph 8. Because this is the other bookend. This is the final primary passage on the Son of Man. Daniel 7 is the first one. Revelation 1 is the final one. It's the fullness of what Daniel is the introduction to. I heard behind me a loud voice. It's a trumpet. Again, there's 30 distinct descriptions in Revelation 1, 2, and 3 that are all linked to this passage right here from verse 10 to 20. 10 to 20 is the core place where they're all clustered together. And again, you put Revelation 1 with Daniel 7 to get the full picture. Because you can't understand Revelation 1 without the foundation of Daniel 7. And you can't understand Daniel 7 in fullness without Revelation 1. And we can't be prepared as a church without seeing the Son of Man, Jesus, the way He's revealing Himself right here. This is what will prepare the end-time church. Not just to move in power, but to move in purity, in love beyond any time in history. Do you want to move in more love? You want to experience more purity? You want power on the inside as well as power on the outside? Jesus said, encounter Me in the way that I set Myself forth, and you will experience more power on the inside and on the outside. Verse 10, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega. I'm the first and the last. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man. He was clothed with a garment, reaching to His feet, girded about the chest with a golden band. His head, His hair were like wool. His hair and His head, they're like the Father's. He has the same purity, the same wisdom. He's involved in the same plan as the Father does back from Daniel chapter 7. Verse 5, His eyes were like a flame of fire. Verse 15, His feet were like fine brass. His voice like the sound of many waters. First, His voice is like a trumpet, but there's another dimension like the sound of many waters. Verse 16, He has in His right hand seven stars, which we find out in verse 20, they're the leaders of the church, that He's holding them near and dear to Himself. Out of His mouth goes a sharp two-edged sword. And then after all of this revelation of the further implications of Daniel 7, Son of Man, because Jesus now adds more than what Daniel saw, then Jesus turns His gaze on John, and His countenance is like the sun's sun shining in His strength, and John falls like a dead man. He's completely overwhelmed. It's the brightness of His glory. I'm just imagining it. It increases, because John's observing the white hair, the eyes of fire, the feet like bronze or brass, which would be the same. And He's awestruck, but He still has His composure, and then the brightness of His face, it gets brighter and brighter, and finally John falls like a dead man, trembling under the glory of God. Did Jesus turn it up to full power? No. We looked at in the last session, Jesus's face will light up the entire New Jerusalem forever. Jesus was only at just beginning power right there. It was only as bright as the sun. But that's who this man really is right now. That's not who Jesus is going to be. It's who He is right now. And when He appears to people through history, He can veil His glory, or He can reveal part of it, or more of it. But if He showed all of it, I mean the earth would be filled with the brightness far beyond the sun. So any encounter is just a little bit of His glory. Paragraph D. Now Jesus connected His Son of Man titles, title I mean, to returning to the earth as King. Matthew 24, He said, the Son of Man comes with clouds of heaven. Oh, that's what was seen in Daniel 7, the Son of Man on clouds of heaven. He goes, that Messiah is coming to the earth. Matthew 25, and when that Son of Man comes, He will have a throne of glory, because remember Daniel 7 verse 14, all the nations are given to Him. Here He highlights His throne of glory, which will be in the city of Jerusalem. Now look what Jesus says, because in Daniel 7, remember, the saints inherit the government of the kingdoms of the earth with Jesus. Jesus shares them with the saints, because we find out later, the saints are the Bride of Christ. They are His eternal companion forever. Jesus motivates His people to overcome by describing the partnership, the extent of the partnership that He desires with them. He's saying to them, right here in Revelation 3 verse 21, He goes, you know what Daniel saw in Daniel chapter 7, I would inherit all the nations of the earth, but I want you to know the extent of the partnership I want with you. I want you to govern with me. I really do, but I will only give you that position if you will agree with me in this age, with all of your heart. If you overcome, you'll enter in with me to the governmental, the world governmental dimension of the Daniel 7 prophecy of the Son of Man. Now the Son of Man, there's more involved than just governing the earth, but that's one of the main features. He goes, come, sit with me. Beloved, He's speaking this to weak and broken people like us, but He wants wholeheartedness on this side, as connected to governing in that dimension of the Son of Man glory on the other side, in the age to come. I've heard for years, people say, I don't want to do that. I just, you know, happy to get into heaven, worship God. I think that if Jesus offered this, that He knows it's more important than we might think it is. I've heard that through the years. I don't want to do that. I said, well, since you have so little knowledge as to what it is, and Jesus has perfect knowledge, and He says you're gonna want it. I'll go with Jesus, not with your religious sentiment about your humility. I need that, because humility is agreeing with God. There's not some other version of humility. It's agreeing with Jesus. That's humility. Whatever He says, we say, we agree with, that's what humility is. Paragraph E. Well, in Revelation 1, John sees Jesus as the ruler of the earth, and he sees his people ruling with Him. That's the Daniel 7, Son of Man revelation. Let's read it. Revelation 1, verse 5. Jesus, the faithful witness, the firstborn, the first one with a resurrected body, the first human with a resurrected body. That's what the firstborn from the dead means. The ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him, verse 6, He made us kings with Him forever. Beloved, do you really grasp who you are? We get lost in the mundane and the routine and the difficulty of the grind of life, and we lose connection with who we are to Him. We are kings to govern forever the inheritance that the Father gave Him, and He earned by the shedding of His blood. Verse 7. Behold, He's coming with clouds. There it is, Daniel 7 again, on those clouds. Every eye, that's all the nations, will receive Him. All the nations will be stopped in their tracks at His glory. Here, it's talking about the negative response. The people rejected Him will all turn around and change their opinion. It's too late for many of them. They've already taken the mark of the beast, but they will wail and scream that they made such a horrible decision when they see Him coming in the clouds. When the Daniel 7 Son of Man is coming, they will say, what were we thinking for a temporary benefit? We said yes to the Antichrist. Paragraph F. Now, we can only understand these 30 truths by seeing them in context of eternity, and that's one reason I wanted to anchor our thinking back into Daniel 7. The Son of Man that reigns on the earth forever in a supernatural dimension of being fully God and fully man, but He wants His people with Him. Because when we anchor these 30 descriptions in Daniel 7 where they belong, we see them. They make a lot more sense. But if we read Daniel's Revelation 1, the standalone chapter, we're not going to have near the connectedness that God wants us to have when we see it in its context of a larger testimony of Scripture. Beloved, we can endure persecution. We can endure, understand His judgments. We can choose righteousness far better if we see our connectedness with this man who dwells in eternity, the Son of Man. If we know who He is and who He is to us, we will have a very different response in persecution or temptation or the understanding of what His judgments are about. Top of page 3. Now, the first part here, I wanted to anchor these 30 descriptions in the Daniel 7 Revelation of the Son of Man, because you can't understand the 30 if you don't link it into that. Again, writers, and then they say, well, this is kind of poetry. It's symbols. It's far more than symbols and poetry. Symbolism. It's reality. It's truth. Top of page 3. We'll just get a little snapshot of what we looked at in the last session. But even the last session was only a hint of a hint. Go in-depth on all 30 descriptions. I'm not saying we're going to do that in this series, but sooner or later we need to. These are the things that Jesus once emphasized the most to prepare the church the best for the greatest world the world's ever seen. These are the things, many of them, that are being neglected by the church. I'm going to go deep. I want to drink at this well. I want to search out this divine treasure chest, so to speak. First, He starts off. Now, I'm going to just be ever so brief on these. I have more extensive notes last week and more coming in the future. The Alpha and Omega. Jesus is saying He's God. Because the Father is the Alpha and the Omega. Jesus is saying, I have the completeness that my Father has. I am equal to Him in deity. Saying much more than that. Paragraph B. He's the first and the last. What He's saying by that is, I'm not only just fully God, Alpha and Omega, I'm fully man, but I'm a resurrected man in the full glory of God as God intended man to be. All the other men and women to be glorified are at the second coming, but He's the ideal man in the highest position of authority, the first and the last. Paragraph C. His eyes are like fire. That speaks of His burning desire of love. Speaks of His intensity. He is not a passive man. Jesus isn't a tiptoe through the tulips type of guy. You know, some people say, I just want to chill with Jesus. Well, Jesus is not chilling, just so you know. His eyes are fire. Gotta see what happens. Well, He's already preoccupied with the vision. He's going after something, and I want to go after it with Him. He's got eyes of fire. But it's more than that. His knowledge penetrates everything in the way that fire penetrates metal. Nothing can hide from His eyes are like fire. Many more things related to eyes of fire. Paragraph D. His voice is like a trumpet. Now as a trumpet, just a little introduction, the trumpet was... so even by describing the Revelation 1, Jesus, it gathers up. But the trumpet does more. It warns of judgment. Well, it does more. The trumpet announces the end time truths, the eschatological truths. Eschatological just means end times. It's just a fancy word. I only know about three, so I use them whenever I get a chance. But the trumpet is also the announcing of the King and the transition to the age to come. It's not only the announcing of the King, it's the announcing of the King that will transition the planet to the age to come. That's the trumpet. Jesus is trumpeting a message. His voice isn't just of the tone of a trumpet. It is in the vein of what a trumpet represents in the Old Testament. Jesus is saying, I'm going to give you 22 chapters called the book of Revelation. I'm going to give you the warning and the announcement. A King is coming to transfer the planet to the age to come, to transition it. E. It's hair. It's white like wool, like snow, in the same way that the Father's was described in Daniel chapter 7 verse 9. In other words, Jesus possesses the same glory the Father possesses, meaning specifically here that the plan of the Father and the plan of Jesus is perfectly wise. It is pure in love, humility and righteousness, and it's rooted in eternity in an eternal perspective. It's not short-sighted at all. He has seen the beginning, the end from the beginning. He's seen every dimension of it. His plan is pure. There's no defilement. There's no spot in it. There's no fault in his plan. It's pure in love. It's pure in humility. It's pure in righteousness, and it's perfectly wise. There's no gaps. He didn't forget or overlook what he's saying by the eyes. I mean the hair and the head like white like wool. He says, I'm like my Father in wisdom and in purity, and all that I do is rooted in eternity. It's proof. The long term, it's not a momentary last-minute plan to shake up the earth and try to bail the earth out of its troubles. There's a master plan we're working from. So his hair like wool, wool would have been, would have, pure wool is what it says in Daniel 7, clean wool, cleansed wool, pure wool, because they didn't have paint available like we do today, and colors in the same way that, I mean the rich could have some special dyes here and there, but it was hard to find white just out in, in just everyday life. But the most common of familiar view of white that the Israelites would have, would have been the white of wool. Paragraph F, his garments are like the garments of a priest. He's pictured as the high priest, the glorious Son of Man who is the king of the nations that will destroy the Antichrist, that has the power of his father, is also a high priest. He's tender and sympathetic towards us. He's human. He gets our struggle, and he understands our plight. It's remarkable. Because the Son of Man would be so glorious, so completely other than, that it would be possible to think, how could we ever relate to him? But he's got the garments of the high priest. The idea is, he made a way for us to connect with God. But not just he made a way, he's sympathetic, and he understands who we are. He's a high priest. Paragraph G, his right hand, he holds the stars, his leaders. He promises to anoint, to direct, to protect, to be near. He says, I will hold you. I will be near you. If you call on me, if you want me to be, that's what I've committed myself to. That's what I'm like. That's the kind of king I am. I'm more than a king. I'm more than a high priest. You are so near and dear to me. You are my eternal companion. I will hold you. As humans, we feel so weak, so inadequate. Whatever assignment we have, I've never met a person that feels adequate for the assignment they have from the Lord. I've never met one. And if they do, they only feel that way for a few moments in their pride, and they wake up and find out they were totally inadequate. I've only met people for a minute who think that. No one long-term. We feel inadequate. So if you feel inadequate to your commission, well, don't feel picked on, because that's how it works. But he holds us. He will be near us. We are near and dear to his heart. Oh, I love this idea of he holds the seven stars. You could say to him, hold my heart. Be near to me. He says, that's exactly what I had in my heart. It was my idea before it was your idea. You can't imagine that the Son of Man, with such power, would have such sensitivity and attentiveness to his people. His feet and the sword, his feet were like fine brass, out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword. He strikes all that opposes his kingdom. There's so much more to both of these than I. His countenance, that glorious radiance that has no end, that has no measure to it. I mean, when John falls like a dead man, his face is like the sun. We find out later, he lights up the whole world, the whole new Jerusalem. He lights, it just gets bigger and bigger, the more scriptures that we looked at even last, in our last session. The countenance of Jesus. Now let's turn to page four. Now we're getting, this is the very, it's very quite simple, but this is the part that is most important in this session here. It's how can we actually encounter it? Now that I've kind of whet your appetite, we've looked at the menu. We haven't gone into any deep descriptions, but we've looked at the menu. And as people that love Jesus, you're saying, I'm hungry. I want to, I want to devour this. I want to drink deep of this. I want to order this. I want to assimilate it in my being. How many of you know it's not enough to read the menu? You can starve to death reading the menu. A lot of people, they starve to death talking about the menu. They don't even read it. They talk about the menu. Boy, I love the Bible. Oh, me too. Man, I'm into the word. I love the word. They never read it, but they love it. They love the menu. They don't even read the menu. Other people actually read the menu, but they don't assimilate. They don't actually eat it. They're connoisseurs of the menu. It's easy to do. You can build a career being a connoisseur of the menu and never actually, man, in an ongoing way. Well, I have a little acronym, ARK, ARK, and I use this little three letter acronym just as I read the book of Revelation, particularly chapter 1 to 3, because all 30 of the descriptions, 30, well, technically there's a hundred descriptions of Jesus in the book of Revelation. But the 30 core ones, the primary ones are there, and the other ones are offshoots and elaborations of those 30, and they're all linked back to Daniel chapter 7, that great introductory passage of the Son of Man. Well, in Proverbs chapter 18, verse 10, the name of the Lord, His name, His titles, it's like a strong tower. The righteous run into it, and they're safe. Beloved, they're safety in the name of the Lord. Meaning, not just claiming it. It's more than claiming it. Claiming it's important. I'm talking about interacting with the name of the Lord, who He is in His names at the heart level. Talking about talking to Him, and the Holy Spirit marking our heart related to who He is in His names. He's a strong tower. John 17, verse 11, Jesus pray, Holy Father, keep them through your name. Reveal your name, and exhilarate their heart in God by revealing your name. Let them encounter what you're like, and you will keep them if their spirit encounters you again. Not connoisseurs of the menu, but interacting with the name, actually drinking deep of the name. Jesus prayed, keep them. Protect them. To keep them means, protect them from compromising, going astray. Keep them safe spiritually. Keep them connected by their encountering of your heart, through the knowledge of your name. Look at Psalm 91, verse 14. This is the Lord speaking about a godly man, a godly woman. The Lord says, because this man has set his love on me. There's a kind of man, there's a kind of woman that sets their love on God, like David did. Like many of you do. Says, therefore, because they've set their love on me, I'm going to deliver them. But more than that, much more than that, I'm going to set them on high. How high? Well, when you read Daniel 7, and you read Revelation, we're going to rule with him forever, as his eternal companion. How much? That's being set on high. Is that right? It's not just having things go better in this age, though that happens for sure, on occasions, and sometimes it doesn't happen. But we're going to be set on high forever, because we've set our love on him. He says, and because this man has known my name. This isn't just meaning they can repeat, technically repeat it, it means they're familiar with the name of the Lord at the heart level. Paragraph A. His name, I use this acronym ARC, is like an arc of safety. His name is an arc of his presence. When we know his name, it's like the arc of the presence of the Lord, touching and preparing his people, even as the decades unfold. Every decade that goes by, the intensity of the importance of the church laying hold of this increases. He makes our spirit strong. The name of the Lord's a strong tower. Our spirit becomes strong. Our spirit becomes peaceful. Instead of our spirit being dull and fearful, because that's what leads to compromise, when our spirit is dull, and our spirit is fearful, we are far more vulnerable to compromise. But by encountering the name, our spirit could be strong. Paragraph B. I use the acronym ARC, and and I use it as a little tool to apply these 30 descriptions in three ways. A, we agree with them, as simple as it is. And we're gonna go through a few in a moment. We're gonna agree with them. Agree with them. You are the ruler of the kings of the earth, actually saying it to him. Not just underlining it in your Bible, actually saying it to him with love and gratitude. Jesus. I read this, I go, you are. I stop. Get into dialogue. Jesus, you are the ruler of the kings of the earth. I love your leadership. I love that everybody has to bow to you. I love this. This is good. And when I do that, my heart connects with him a little bit. I don't just underline it. Move on. It's like the Holy Spirit says, stop, stop, stop. Can't bear. Talk to him about this. Agree with it. Well, I agree with it. Then I, I don't know much about it. He's the ruler of the kings of the earth. I could add a little bit more to it. But there's much more I don't know that I do know. So I asked the one who knows everything. Holy Spirit, teach me about Jesus as the ruler of the kings of the earth. Teach me. Give me revelation. R. And then K, I want to keep the prophecy. That's a term that's used three times in the book of Revelation. It's a term that is very significant. By the mouth of Jesus in Revelation 22 7, he said this, he promises a blessing to anyone who keeps the prophecy. What do you mean keep the prophecy? That means that you would respond to it in a personal way with your actions and your attitudes. Not just agree with it, but actually keep it. Do something with your life related to the revelation of Jesus in this prophecy. So to keep the prophecy, we resolve, we set our heart, we make commitments. That's what it means to keep the prophecy. To make commitments. To respond in faith and obedience according to each of the truths. In each one of these truths of Jesus, we can agree with them and glorify Him and thank Him for it. We can ask the Spirit for more insight, and then we respond to Him in light of that particular description. Let's look at a few examples to kind of get you started. Paragraph C. We agree. We just make simple declarations, and they're just simple declarations. Again, you're in your prayer time, whether at home or in the prayer room, and we agree with who He is and what He does. We identify the core truths in each one of the 30 descriptions. Like when it says His eyes are like fire, there's a number of core truths in that. Means that, well, there's about 10 core truths. I don't want to go through them right now, but my point is every one of the 30 have a number of core truths related to it. We simply declare them back to Him, and we say it with gratitude. With a thank you, and we say it with an affection, with an I love you. Again, Jesus, You are the King of the earth, a King of the rulers of the earth. Thank you. I love you as King of the earth. I'm so grateful You're King, and nobody else is. Now as I've gone through these 30 descriptions, I've identified three types of declarations. I call them the you are declarations, the you have declarations, and the you're declarations. What I mean by that, of the 30, I'll just give you three. The you are ones. You are a faithful witness. Jesus, you are the firstborn from the dead. You are the first resurrected man in full glory. Wow! You are the firstborn. You are the ruler of the kings of the earth. That's the you are declarations. Then there's some of them you have. You have a sword. You have the keys of the kingdom. You have the stars in your hand. You have, you could go on and on and on. You can, some of the 30 are the your declarations. Your face is like the sun. Your eyes are like fire. Your feet are like burnished bronze. And we make these declarations with a thank you and I love you behind them. Paragraph D, give you a few more examples, kind of had to get you started. And I want to encourage you to get a notebook out and bring it in the prayer room and we just say these simple phrases. You'll get an extra little phrase. You say them out of your own mouth. You'll say more than you've said before. You'll say something like, you are the king of the earth. And I'm really glad you are. You say, well, I've never said that before. So I write down and I'm really glad you are. Like, oh, I like how that felt. Then I would say, I'm glad nobody else is. I go, oh, I like that too. And I just write my little statements down and I just keep growing. Because out of your own mouth, you will say things you've never said before and the Spirit will inspire them. Not everything you say will be inspired, but you'll find inspiration. The Spirit will teach you while you're declaring your agreement with these truths about Him. Paragraph D, just a few more. You are the Son of Man. Oh, this favorite one. I mean, He's the Son of Man. You are. There's only one Son of Man. You are the Son of Man. You're the only man that's fully God and fully man. I wrote down, I love this about you. I love this part of you. You became a man to win me. You were already God, but you became man. You wanted me. Thank you. You are the Son of Man. I trust your leadership. Another phrase I might say is, you are the ruler over all the kings of the earth. I rejoice in your preeminence. Soon everyone will bow to you, Jesus. Little phrases like that, they will stir your heart. They'll get your mind in a whole different space. It will begin to fuel your holy imagination in a whole different way than some of you fuel your imagination. You have eyes of fire. You desire to fill me with your love. You are a faithful witness. You never lie. You always tell the truth. You are so reliable. Those are phrases you can add. That's in the thank you and affection overflow of declaring these truths. I can count on you. You are the faithful witness. You never lie, Jesus. Never do you lie. The enemy hates us, because the enemy is bombarding the minds of so many believers with lies, and this is breaking the power of lies, and it's expanding our agreement with truth, and the Spirit will bear witness to it as we do it. Paragraph E. Well, we don't just declare our agreement. We ask for more revelation. It's very simple. It's a very simple idea. Reveal yourself to me as the faithful witness. Tell me more about who you are as the firstborn among the dead. Show me your glory as the king, as the ruler of the earth, etc, etc. Teach me. In paragraph F, keep the prophecy. After we make the declarations, then we make declaration, I mean, of agreement, now we make declarations of resolve to obey, to respond. For example, when we say, Jesus, you are the faithful witness, and reveal who you are as the faithful witness, now we go on and make it personal. I mean, make, commit our life to it. I commit to be a faithful witness like you are, regardless of what it costs me. Jesus, I commit, I will say what you say is important to be said. I will say it, regardless what it costs me. Help me, but I resolve, I commit. When we say you're the ruler of the kings of the earth, say, I submit to your leadership. I will obey your leadership. Help me to obey you, but I will obey you. It's statements of resolve, declarations of commitment. Paragraph G, this is an important one. I've said, Jesus, you are the firstborn from the dead. You're the first resurrected man. We're the only one resurrected man so far. At the second coming, everybody else catches up. He's the only resurrected man that exists, with a full resurrected body. He's had it for 2,000 years. So, the way I respond to that, as I say, I'm going to take time to cultivate my understanding about the resurrection, about the age to come. I'm going to feed my mind on what the Bible says about our life in the resurrection together, because you are the firstborn. I commit to grow in my understanding. I will put time and energy into this. Because you are the ruler of the kings of the earth, I will give you preeminence in my life. Because you have eyes of fire, I ask you to fill me with love. I commit to grow in love, to receive your love, and to return your love. I commit to a lifestyle to grow and receive your, I mean, to receive your love and to return it, to grow in those ways. When he says, his feet are like brass, in Revelation chapter 2, he's talking in relationship to immorality. We'll look at that later. But we say, your feet are like brass. I say yes, I commit to you, to obey the things that you are wanting to build up, and to stay away from the things that your feet of brass are destroying. As you remove immorality from the church, I commit myself to it. That's how we respond to Jesus, as the feet of brass. That's one of many ways to respond. Well, these are just a little snapshot, just to kind of get you going. I tell you, beloved, I say this again, in a sad way, Revelation 1 is the best-kept secret in the body of Christ. Let's get the word out. I don't mean get the word out by handing somebody the handout. I mean, you make your own, and you start talking about it, and you start teaching on it. You take the next 10 years, and you go deep in these 30 declarations, I mean, descriptions. Let's get the word out. Personally, let's experience it, and proclaim it in the simple ways of just one-on-one talking about it. That's the ways we proclaim it, and many other ways as well. Amen. Let's stand. Oh, Jesus, we love you. We love you. Hopefully, some of you are so stirred up by the menu, you just want to go eat tonight. You say, hurry up, and be quiet, Mike. I want to go eat. I gotta, can't have somebody preaching. I can't talk to him good with somebody talking. Hurry up. I will. I want to start you on this journey, if this is new, even tonight, as you sit the next 30 minutes or hour or two, whatever, just begin to write these things down. Start saying them to him, and you might not understand. You might say, you're the Alpha and Omega. I don't really get that, but you are. Okay, nothing happened. Okay, you are the Alpha and Omega. Still nothing happened. Stay with it. It will, it will happen over time. Just stay with it. Don't lose interest in it. Lord, we say yes to you right now. We love you, Jesus. Just talk to him. Just whisper your desire to go after this. I want to go after the things that you are emphasizing about yourself. I want to understand you. I want you to fascinate my spirit. I want to open up the altar, but I'm not gonna have people pray for you, because like we do sometimes, I just want people to just follow their heart right now. I don't even want the prayer team to go, I don't want to do prayer right now. I just want to talk to him for a few minutes. So you can come up here if you want to, to stand or sit up here just for your own privacy, or you just want to move around a little bit. Go ahead and come on up if you want. We're just gonna spend the next till 10, and then Misty's team's coming on at 10. Then the prayer room goes to midnight, and then we move it back down there at midnight. Lord, I ask you for the spirit of glory. Ask for the spirit of glory. You have my heart. We love you, Jesus. You have my heart. Oh, we love you, Jesus. We're yours. Lord, you have my heart. Lord, there's so much I don't know about you. I'm so hungry for you. I'm searching for you. I'm going after you. For you. Lord, you have my heart.