Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of the seven seals in the book of Revelation, illustrating how they represent God's judgment against wickedness and His protection over the saints. He explains that the seals are not merely symbolic but literal events that will unfold in a specific order, driven by the prayers of the church. Bickle reassures believers that God's judgments are ultimately aimed at cleansing the earth and preparing it for His glory, rather than being directed at the faithful. He encourages the church to grow in prayer and understanding, as the maturity of the prayer movement is essential for the unfolding of these events. The sermon highlights the importance of being prepared and familiar with God's plan as revealed in Revelation.

For those of you that are just joining with us tonight for the first time, we're on session five of a 12-part series where we're going through an overview of the book of Revelation. Now to cover 22 chapters that are so deep in the meaning of those 22 chapters, to cover it in 12 weeks is at best a brief, brief overview. But here's the point, here's what's on my heart in this series is to get people familiar with the book of Revelation and comfortable where they have confidence they can understand it and encounter the Lord in it. And so just getting familiar with the basic flow of the book, the terms, the concepts, really is worthy. So don't feel like you have to grasp it all in these early days, but take this study and we got all the handouts on the website, get familiar with the chapters, get familiar with the ideas and let the thing build over the years. Tonight we're looking at Revelation chapter 6 and 7 in the briefest way, the seals of judgment and the revelation of God's protection of the saints in the midst of judgment. Roman numeral one, the introduction of the seven seals. Of course, that goes back to chapter five, which we looked at in our last session. In chapter five, verse seven, Jesus is before the Father and he takes the scroll out of the hand of the Father. Now the scroll has seven seals on it and he has to break all seven seals to unroll the scroll. Now we understand that the scrolls speaks of the title deed of the earth, but it's more than that. It's the action plan that Jesus is going to use to cleanse the earth and to get it ready for the glory of God. Now the action plan, parts of it are in the book of Revelation. So Jesus, when he takes the scroll, he's saying I'll take the leadership of the earth, I'll take responsibility to cleanse it and I'll break the seals and unroll the scroll. In other words, unfold the action plan that is designed in the wisdom of God and the love of God to drive evil off the planet so that the glory of God can fill the planet. That's what the scroll is about. Now Jesus opens the scroll as he breaks one seal after the other. Now each of the seven seals, which most of you are familiar with this, releases uh each one of the seven seals releases a specific judgment against wickedness in the earth and those seals are released by Jesus but in concert with the praying church. The seals of judgment are not designed against the people of God, they're loosed by the people of God under Jesus's leadership. Paragraph B, the seals are literal. The reason I'm saying that is that some commentators will, will uh interpret them as purely symbolic. I think that's a great mistake. Their future, they're progressive, they grow in intensity. The fourth seal is more intense than the third seal and they're numbered so we know which order they're coming in. So when the fifth seal happens, we know the sixth one is coming next. So it unifies the prayer movement across the earth because the book of Revelation, I like to refer to it as a canonized prayer manual. The whole body of Christ and the earth knows that the sixth seal comes after the fifth and the fifth comes after the fourth and so we're all on the same page in the same focus as the book of Revelation which I refer to as the end time book of Acts. As the saints, the apostles and prophets under the leadership of the Holy Spirit are releasing these things across the earth through prayer under Jesus's leadership. Paragraph D, now the timing in which Jesus opens the seals is one of the significant interpretive keys to the whole book. I don't believe that he has opened the scroll yet. The scroll still has seven seals. It says in Revelation chapter 4 verse 1, after these things and he's talking about the things of chapter 2 and 3 which are the things of the church. After these things, the things he described about the church that he wanted corrected, I will show you things that must take place after this. Now John's having this revelation in about 90 AD. It's 60 years after the ascension to the right hand of the father and Jesus has not opened the scroll yet, 60 years after he's ascended after the resurrection. The reason I'm saying that, some of you won't catch the significance of that, but those of you that have studied the book, it's common for commentators to say that when Jesus was raised from the dead, that's when he opened the seal, broke the seals and opened the scroll. Well it's 60 years after the resurrection and the seal has not yet been opened. And the next point that I want to point out, because it's such an important part of understanding this chapter, is that these events actually happen yet in the future. They've not yet happened yet. That it says when Revelation 5-8, when Jesus had taken the scroll, the living creatures fall down, the four elders, the 24 elders fall down, but each of them had a harp in one hand and a golden bowl, here's the key, full of incense, which is the prayers of the saints. In other words, when Jesus takes the scroll to break the seals open, the bowls of prayer at the father's throne are full. In other words, the prayer movement in the earth is mature. And the bowls of prayer are not yet full, because it's going to take a praying church, and I don't mean just, you know, the church is beginning to get a hold of this across the earth in this last decade or two, but I'm talking about a church anointed and focused in prayer. It's going to take a praying church filling the bowls to loose the seals that strike the kingdom of darkness and drive it back from its place of effectiveness. And so the seal, the seven seals are not broken until the bowl of prayer at the father's throne is full, and that's yet in the future. People say the Lord might come anytime now. I go, no, that's not going to happen. The Lord's not coming till the prayer movement is mature on the earth, mature enough to release the great tribulation against the Antichrist. You know, a lot of folks are waiting for the Lord to rapture them so they can miss the tribulation, and Jesus is waiting for the church to grow up to loose the tribulation. Because the tribulation, the primary point of the tribulation is God's judgment on the kingdom of the Antichrist in the way that Moses loosed the judgments upon Pharaoh in Egypt. Paragraph E, the judgments in the seven seals are against the harlot, the great harlot that is just at that point in time has come to a place of tremendous power across the earth, the false church, and its judgment against the Antichrist. Those are not identical. Those are two different realities, and this judgment is released by a mature prayer movement, but when the bowls are full at the right hand of the Father, and they're released in the way that Moses released the ten plagues of Egypt upon Pharaoh. Paragraph F, now the thing that's most disturbing when you first read the book of Revelation is that the seals are released by Jesus. You kind of, you know, you read each one of them, it says, and He opened the seal. You think, okay, that's good, but then when you read what the seal is, then it throws us automatically into a dilemma, and it's the, it's the very dilemma that the forerunners have to answer to prepare the nations for the glory of God, the second coming of Christ. How could a God of love be responsible for judgments this severe without contradicting love? And of course, that's the great pastoral dilemma. That's the dilemma the nations are in, and even much the church. If He's a God of love, how could He do it? And the answer is, because He's a God of love, He's doing it. Jesus is releasing judgment against the kingdom of darkness to hinder it, to stop the spread of wickedness, to stop the persecution of the saints. He's releasing judgment to cause the things that unbelievers are trusting in, keeping them from being safe, to show unbelievers these things are false. So, the release of judgment shakes their confidence in the things that they trust. Now, in Revelation chapter 6, verse 1, John says, I saw when the Lamb, that's Jesus, opened one of the seals. Now, the first living creature, we're not going to go into detail on these because we don't have time, but the goal is to get you just kind of familiar in an introductory way so you can appreciate these chapters and read them on your own with the confidence that you're understanding them. So, one of the four living creatures said with a voice like thunder to John, come, come near the heart of God and see. In other words, consider, take serious, take seriously what's happening here. Pay attention to these judgments. And I found that much of the church is doing neither one of these things. We are called to come near the heart of the Lamb. In other words, to encounter the Jesus that would do such an action plan to cleanse the earth. I want to know that Jesus. Bridegroom, King and Judge. I want to come near Him. I want to posture my heart to encounter this one. And I want to see. In other words, I want to understand what His action plan is in detail. That part that's written. And so I, it's this very phrase. Come and see that the Lord has stirred me over the years to go deep in the book of Revelation. As deep as I can. I mean, the goal is to go deep. I'm not claiming to have gone deep, but that's the goal. Isaiah 33. I don't have this in the notes. Verse 17 and 18. It says that in that day you'll see the beauty of the Lord. Isaiah 33, 17 and 18. You'll see the beauty of Jesus and then your heart will meditate on terror. You will see His beauty and you will meditate on the fierceness of which He confronts Satan on a global level through the Antichrist in order to drive evil off the planet. We need to meditate on this. And in the natural, it's terrifying. But it must be done because God in His wisdom has declared that this is the least severe way to bring the most amount of people at the deepest levels of love. That's what I have in paragraph H. Now notice, God's judgment is not on the saints. The book of Revelation is not about the judgment of God on the saints. Yes, there is a sub-theme in the book of Revelation of the Antichrist's rage against the church. That's not the primary theme of the book of Revelation. Like in the book of Acts, there's clearly a sub-theme of the persecution of the church. I mean, as far as we know, all the apostles were martyred. That's what history tells us. And the record of the persecution of the saints is in the book of Acts. But the book of Acts isn't mostly a book about persecution. It's the acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles. And the book of Revelation is the acts of the Holy Spirit through the end-time apostles. Yes, there is a sub-theme of persecution. But God has not appointed the church for wrath. The wrath of God does not come on the church. But the church releases the wrath of God through believing prayer under Jesus's leadership. Top of page two. Let's go ahead and just look at these ever so briefly. The first seal. The Antichrist's political aggression. When the Antichrist is released in political prominence, that's when the scroll is being opened. And once the first seal is released, a domino effect begins, and it will not be undone. Once the Antichrist is recognized on a global level, and Jesus is going to let that happen, He's the one that opens the seal that releases the Antichrist. It says in Revelation chapter 6, verse 2, I looked, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat upon it had a bowl, and a crown was given to him. And this man went out to conquer, went out conquering, and to conquer. Now what's going on at this point in time in the end-time plan is that the Revelation 17 harlot church, which is the joining of all the world religions into a false religion, and many believers will join that. It says in Revelation 17, let's read that here in paragraph A. John said, I saw the woman, the harlot, she was drunk with the blood of the saints. So this world religion that's going to emerge, that's even the early stirrings of it right now, you can see it by the increased compromise that's being proclaimed even in the body of Christ in the western world. I can, you can see it. The standards are getting lower and lower, and it's of course under the doctrine and the value of toleration, but the thing is going to end up with a worldwide religion that will be drunk with the blood of the because they will kill so many true believers, because the true church will be viewed as intolerant to the global unified church. They'll say the only enemy we have are those Jesus fanatics. And the truth is, the only hope for the world is the Jesus fanatics under Jesus's zealous, pure, loving leadership. Well anyway, the woman will be drunk with the blood of the saints for some several years before the antichrist is in place. The one world religion will be functioning in power. Revelation 17 tells the story in detail. We'll get there in several sessions from now. But look at verse 16. There's a surprising reality that the ten horns, which is clearly in the book of Revelation, there's one of the few symbols in the book of Revelation. It's about eight or nine main symbols. This is one of them. There'll be ten nations in league with the antichrist. Look what they do. They don't like this false church. They hate her. Now on the early days, they like her, but she begins to have so much influence and so much money and so much power. These ten nations, these ten horns, they go to the antichrist and go, wait, she's, she's too big. She's too proud. She's too powerful. We got to get rid of her. And so actually within the kingdom of darkness, there's a civil war and they turn on her and kill her. Here's my point. So it's been happening now for several years at this point, the time of the first seal. The blood of the saints has been poured out by this harlot religion and surprising the judgment against the harlot religion is loosed by Jesus in the man of the antichrist. He rises up and strikes her and burns her. We'll get to that at another time, but it's a very clear strategy. So even the antichrist himself is a key as a judgment on the kingdom of darkness in the way that Adolf Hitler caused trouble even on the devil's kingdom and even on his own kingdom, though he was totally used of the devil. I mean, demons don't even get along with each other at all. That sounds funny, but it's true. They don't like each other at all. So the white horse goes forth. Now white symbolizes righteousness. This is a counterfeit righteousness. This is a false Christ. This is not the real one. The real white horse is at the end of Revelation in chapter 19. Paragraph C. He has a bow in his hand, but it's an arrowless bow. It's a bow with no arrow. It's very significant because initially the rage of the antichrist in his ten nation confederation is against the one world religion. The very one that has caused the church to backslide and kill the saints. You would think, why don't they all get along? Because they can't bear each other because of their pride. And so the antichrist goes forth with a bow, but there's no arrow. And what this speaks of, and you can read the details a little bit more on your own, it's the threat of war. It's bloodless victories. Before war breaks out, he takes over nations in the same way that Adolf Hitler did before World War II in 1938 when he took over Austria and the Czech, what is now the Czech Republic. He took over nations without war. Of course he bullied them. It was deceptive diplomacy. It was peaceful conquest outwardly behind the scenes. He was bullying them and threatening them, but he took over nations before there was a war. Because most people knew it in terms of the politicians around the world. They didn't know what to do about it. And the antichrist is going to start out with peaceful conquest of nations. The nations being taken over won't make it so peaceful. It'll be bloodless victories, deceptive diplomacy. Paragraph F. Power will be given, a crown will be given to this evil man. Now it's interesting that the power of which the antichrist functions in is given to him first by Jesus. Jesus uses him to confront evil in the earth. Even though he's the number one champion of evil, the devil is such a murderer and the devil is so proud that the devil actually sabotages his own kingdom by his works of destruction. But that's not the only one who gives him power. God. The devil gives him power. But also the evil kings of the earth, they give him power. And so it says repeatedly, power is given to him. A throne is given. People go, who's giving the power? It's power coming first from God, second from the devil, and third, the kings of the earth are giving their rightful authority to him. I mean, they're really the king over that nation. And they cooperate with them in the way that some nations joined Adolf Hitler in World War II. They gave their authority to him of their own free will. But the point that I'm most wanting to press on your mind is in how evil kings gave their power, the devil did, but how Jesus is the one that allows this man to go forth. He is, the very release of the Antichrist, is a judgment on the kingdom of darkness, though he's the number one champion of darkness. Paragraph G. Some see the white horse as the triumph of Jesus in the gospel, and you can read that on your own. I don't think that's a right interpretation. The white horse, the first seal, I believe is clearly the Antichrist, and that seal is not yet opened. Let's go to the top of page three. The second seal. Worldwide bloodshed in the final world war. Here it is again, Revelation 6, I mean chapter 6, verse 3 and 4, when Jesus opened the second seal. So it's the act of God from heaven releasing this. I heard the second living creature saying, come and see. And another horse, this is a red horse. And it was granted to this horse, again, the Lord is the one that allows the boundary lines of evil. The ones that do the evil are responsible for choosing evil, but God gives them a certain boundary line to move in, and the boundary lines are going to be expanded so that judgment actually is released on the kingdom of darkness. The whole thing is going to rebound against the devil. Of course, he thinks he's going to outmaneuver Jesus. You know, his idea is the battle plan is already written in the book of Revelation. Surely I will outmaneuver Jesus. I know what his tactics are, and Jesus is so full of confidence. He goes, here, you can see what I'm going to do. I will still defeat you. I'll lay it all out in advance, even my tactics. Verse 4, another horse. It's a red horse. It was granted to the one on it to take peace from the earth. The people should kill one another, and it was given to this horse and this horseman a great sword. Now, notice, this is where world war breaks out. In the first seal, it was not world war. It was a bow with no arrows. It was peaceful conquest. This is bloodshed. Once the Antichrist gets in power in the first seal, he begins to go against the harlot and all the nations of the earth that will not participate fully with him, and he goes forth to destroy them, and war breaks out. I mean, even among the ungodly nations. Daniel chapter 11 describes from verse 40 to 45, the ungodly nations warring against each other. The devil cannot bring them to unity, even his own servants. Now, there's a great sword. It's very different from the arrowless bow. Paragraph B, the Antichrist continues as a vehicle of judgment on the harlot. He takes peace from all the nations that were drunk by the harlot back in Revelation 17. It says in verse 1 of Revelation 17, that's the backdrop of what's going on in the nations when the seals begin to be open. The angel tells John, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot. The kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the inhabitants of the earth were drunk. In other words, they were so intoxicated with her darkness, they became drunk and intoxicated with her sin. But then, verse 16 again, just to repeat it, the Antichrist comes and strikes against her and declares war on her and burns her. It's a worldwide institution. He burns her with fire. So, at the heart of the world war is actually the kingdom of darkness against the kingdom of darkness, the rage, the murderous rage. Satan cannot be reasoned with, even within his own ranks. He has blind pride and murderous rage driving him, even among his own loyal followers. And then we find out in Revelation 9, that locusts from the pit come and they torment those that worship the devil. The devil torments his own worshiper. He has murderous rage in his heart. He cannot be reasoned with at all. Roman number 3, I mean Roman number 4, the third seal. He opens it, Revelation 6 verse 5. Revelation 6 verse 5, he opens the third seal in a black horse and he, the rider of the black horse, had a pair of scales. So, now we're going to look at economic crisis. Verse 6, and John heard a voice from the throne and this very ominous statement, a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius. Paragraph A, after the antichrist is released in the first seal and he gets a little momentum, gets into position, then he has, creates a world war in the second seal. Now the third seal naturally follows. There's an economic crisis, the greatest economic crisis in history, that's followed by famine beyond any other time in history. So this is famine and economic crisis, which is the natural result of following war. Now, in the midst of this famine, the saints will be multiplying food in the name of Jesus. Like in the days of Moses, three million Israelites are out in the desert. The water comes out of the rock and the food comes from heaven. That's the picture of the great tribulation. There will be a supernatural supply of food through the praying church in this time of history. Now, paragraph B, you'll notice it says that a quart of wheat for a denarius. Now, a denarius was a day's wages. Now, a quart of wheat was enough for one man to eat for one day without dying of starvation. It was not enough to be satisfied or to be strong, but a quart of wheat, a man could keep from starvation on a quart of wheat, barely. So imagine this, a man works all day, he works 30 days and the net result of 30 days of work is only 30 days of food for one person, barely to keep from starvation. He can't feed his family, he can't pay his bills, he can only supply food minimally to keep one person alive. The earning power of the workforce of the earth will be about one-tenth what it is right now on a global level. But wheat, that's the good grade. Barley is an inferior grade. Now, you'll buy one quart of wheat, but barley you'll get three quarts. In other words, you get three times as much, but it tastes terrible and it's not near as nutritious. So the poor people will buy barley. This is the most ominous description of famine and economic crisis. Roman numeral four, five, the fourth seal. It goes on now, it goes beyond now the crisis of famine and economics. Now, we're not ready to do this yet, but the church is actually releasing this and Jesus is the one opening the seals. Now, I realize this time of history, we don't know that Jesus yet. We're like, okay, okay, we're still far more into the Jesus of Christmas. The Jesus of Armageddon is someone we are just getting acquainted with. But the truth is, there is no contradiction between these two faces of Jesus. Because the Jesus of Christmas is the one that's bringing goodwill and peace among all nations. And the Jesus of Armageddon is the one setting up the global situation so world peace can come in truth and in righteousness. But the part I want to bring you back to, because so many are so used to the tribulation as something we're hoping to get raptured to leave, when the truth is, Jesus is waiting for us to grow up to release it upon the Antichrist. It's exactly the opposite paradigm of which most people are familiar with. So, as they would read this, they would automatically go to, man, that's going to be terrible. I'm glad I'm not here. Instead of Jesus is releasing this and He wants me to be involved with Him? No way. And the answer might be right now, don't worry about it right now. Just get familiar with the Word of God. Because we're not supposed to release this right now. But when the Antichrist is in place, and the first seal, the second seal, the third seal, they're unfolding, our confidence and our clarity will be bolstered. But beloved, we don't want to crack open the book of Revelation for the first time in the midst of these events. That would be the same logic as a guy deciding to build a boat in Noah's flood after the rain starts. It's like the rain starts and the guy goes, now how do you do boats? Wasn't there a book somewhere about boats? We don't want to become familiar with the book of Revelation after the first seal. We want to be deeply connected with Jesus and His master plan long before that book, that seal unfolds, because the bowls of prayer in heaven will be full. In other words, the church will be informed in prayer, unified with God's end time strategy, and unified together before the seals are even released by the praying church. When I look at this right now, I go, Lord, I don't know if there's a man on the earth that would have the nerve to pray these things. You know, one guy goes, I'll pray. I might go, not on the microphone. No, no, no, no. We're, we're, uh, and the reason it's not the time, neither do we have the connection with God's heart nor His mind with understanding of what's happening, but that's what forerunners are all about. The Lord stirred my heart to ask Him to raise up 10,000 John the Baptist men and women, old and young messengers that are doing what the four living creatures told John, come and see. In other words, they're coming near the heart of God and they're gaining insight before the events take place. That's what we're doing. That's what we're having this class for here on Saturday night. But the goal isn't just to get through a 12-session overview. The point of the 12 sessions is that you would have confidence to go deep, not just on the battle plan, but on the heart of the bridegroom, king, and judge, who's responsible for the battle plan. But it's not enough just to know his heart. I want to know his mind. I want to know his battle plan. There's a great revolution, an eschatological revolution that's going to shift human history into the age to come and at the very point of the arrow is the praying church. It's not a revolution of one nation against another. It's a revolution of the age to come confronting the evil age that is and causing an eschatological shift of history and the prayer movement as at the point of the arrow of God's plan. And the forerunners are at the point of the point preparing the prayer movement. So where are you at? Well, honestly, I'm still trying to get familiar with the Jesus of Christmas and the Jesus of Armageddon. We'll get around to him later. That's not a horrible place to be. That's where most of us are. But beloved, the good news is it's the same Jesus with the same plan to bring world peace, to release the glory of God on the nations. But it's time in this next decade. I believe we have time to go deep. It's time to to pick up the pace and to come and to see these things, to come at the throne of God, to gaze on his heart and to ask for insight into these matters. The four living creatures told John to come and see. How much more us? Because this wasn't even about John's generation. He was in his 90s. He was writing for our day. How much more should we come and see and follow the exhortation that the four living creatures gave John? Roman numeral five, the fourth seal, a pale horse. Now it's going to grow in intensity. Each seal grows in intensity. The name of the pale horse is death and Hades. Power was given over these two. Now Jesus again is the one releasing this. And the praying church will be cooperating with him to release this against the empire of the Antichrist and the false religion. Of course the Antichrist will be attacking it. But we're going to be praying that there would be complete confusion amongst the kingdom of darkness and rage and civil war amongst themselves. Power was given to them over one-fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, number one, with hunger, number two, with death. And that word death means pestilence, plagues. And with wild beasts, the most unfortunate thing in the natural, the wild beast will be as hungry as the people and they'll come out of the wild into the streets. And they'll be enraged by demons as well. Hungry wild beast emboldened with hunger and demons in the streets. Well, Jesus said we could pray and the deadly serpents couldn't touch us. We'll have authority over the wild beasts. I'm not saying that like a hot shot, like, hey, nothing's going to touch us. I'm saying that if we're connected to the Lamb, he's the one releasing this against the kingdom of darkness. Now, death is released. Paragraph A, death is what happens to the physical body. The body dies and then Hades is where their spirit goes after their body dies. So the minute somebody is touched with death, the spirit of death kills the physical body. Then the disembodied spirit of the unbeliever is there. And a demon comes and brings them straight to hell. Hades will come after them. So death relates to the physical body dying and Hades is what happens to the spirit. The spirit of an unbeliever goes right into a prison waiting until after the end of the millennium that all of Hades is thrown into the lake of fire. When the spirit, when we die as believers, our spirit goes right to the presence of God. One-fourth of the earth, the end of paragraph B. They estimate that in the year 2025, there'll be about 8 billion people on the earth. I'm sure, you know, plus or minus a little bit. A fourth of 8 billion is 2 billion. That is 50 times the death toll of World War II, 50 times. My point is, we have no way of grasping the implications or the scope of this in our natural mind. Our natural mind just disconnects. We have to have the Holy Spirit connecting us to His heart in this and understanding. Top of page four. The fifth seal. Now the fifth seal is one of the most misunderstood seals. The fifth seal, Jesus opened, I saw under the altar the souls of the martyrs that had been slain for the Word of God. Now, verse 10, here it is. They're crying out in prayer. They're crying out, holy and true. How long till you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Then a white robe was given to them. They were told they should rest. Didn't tell them to quit praying, but they were to continue in the state of heavenly blessedness. They're crying out for a solution and a resolution to the evil that's mounting in the earth. They want thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Because when justice confronts the Antichrist kingdom in full measure, then the second coming happens. They get their resurrected body and the dream and the hope of which all the saints have believed in, the kingdom of God on the earth. This is what they're crying out for. So when they're told to rest, don't misunderstand that where the Lord's saying, hey settle down, don't pray so much. They're saying no. It's going to be a while before the full resolution of the justice you're crying out for takes place. Where Jesus comes, you get your resurrected body and righteousness triumphs over the earth openly in every sphere of life. That's what they're crying out for. In essence, they're praying for the Luke 18 justice night and day. Matter of fact, well I'm getting ahead of myself, that's the very passage this is relating to. The one that's on the wall of the global prayer room that says they cry out night and day for justice and the Lord says he'll give it speedily. This is the companion passage to that verse. We'll get that at that minute. I'm kind of getting ahead of myself. Paragraph A. What this judgment is, number one, it's not a judgment on the church of martyrdom. Jesus is releasing it. It's a judgment against the kingdom of darkness and it's more severe than the first four seals because each seal is growing in intensity. The judgment, which is often misunderstood, is not the martyrdom of the church. It's what the martyrdom produces. The blood of the saints fuels the prayer movement which significantly increases the judgment against the Antichrist. Paragraph B. The judgment of each seal increases in intensity. The second seal is worse than the first. The third is worse than the second. It builds. The fifth is more severe than the four before it. That's true of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls. The blood of the saints fuels the end-time prayer movement. The shedding of righteous blood stirs his heart for vengeance and the word vengeance is the identical word justice. It's used interchangeably. There's several words that can be translated that way but one passage says justice, one translation, the other says vengeance and they go, those words are interchangeable in the New Testament. What happens, paragraph C, John sees the prayer movement in heaven and that is a mirror and a reflection of the prayer movement on the earth because the two of them are going to come in unity together. The Spirit of the bride saying come and Jesus is going to come in an eschatological revolution and confront darkness openly and take over all the nations of the earth. Paragraph D. They're not crying for personal vengeance. They're in the presence of God. They have no bitterness. They have no personal agenda on the earth that's selfish, that's out of the will of God. They're crying that God would confront the reprobate mind and the demonized leadership of the planet so that justice would be released on the planet. That's what they're crying out for. They have the compassion of what they went through and they see others going through it still on the earth and they're saying Lord Jesus and he says my heart is stirred and the prayer movement on the earth is crying out the same thing. Paragraph E. Now this prayer, how long oh Lord, is the prayer that is most repeated and most recorded in the Bible, Old and New Testament. It's a prayer for justice, against the antichrist's cruelty, for the release of the kingdom of God. Luke 18 is the companion passage. Now look at this. Look at Luke 18 and remember Jesus knew, Revelation chapter 6 verse 10, what he gave this teaching. He's giving Luke 18 right before he goes to the cross. It's at the end of his three and a half year ministry he's teaching them this. Luke 18 is a passage that's true throughout church history but it's an eschatological passage. It's a passage teaching about the prayer movement at the end of the age. It's true all through history but it has its full understanding in context to Revelation 6, the fifth seal. Jesus said this, shall not God avenge? It's the same word that the martyrs around the throne are using. It's the same word as justice. One translation says justice, one says avenge. It's the same. Luke 18, he's talking about the saints on the earth. Revelation 6 is talking about the saints in heaven. They're doing the same thing night and day, crying out with the same prayer. It's not for vengeance of their own rights. It's that Satan's dominion on the earth would be fully and finally and openly confronted and driven off the planet. Now here's what Jesus says. This is before the cross. He goes, shall not God avenge? His bears long. This is a hint of what he's going to tell the martyrs around the throne in Revelation 6. They're going, how long? He goes, almost. Jesus is saying, I'm bearing long. Don't give up and don't give in. He's giving the same exhortation in heaven to the martyrs as he is to the end-time prayer movement on the earth. I'm bearing long. There's a plan that's unfolding that's better if it fully unfolds. Don't give up. Trust me. But he says in verse 8, I tell you, he will avenge them speedily. He goes, it won't be too late. Though it may seem late to the natural mind, it will be speedy. The vengeance will be open before all the nations. He's talking about the book of Revelation. But here's the question of the day. Here's the question we ask as a ministry, as a spiritual family, and as individuals. Jesus said, however, I got one question. When the Son of Man comes at the time of the second coming, that's the context, he says, when I return, that's what he means here, will I really find agreement with my people on the earth? He goes, I know I will have agreement in heaven, Revelation 6, but will I really have agreement with my people on the earth when this scenario unfolds? Of course, Jesus knows he's going to unfold the book of Revelation in a little bit down the road to John. I mean, this is a stunning passage when it says, will he find faith? He's not talking about, will people still get born again? He's saying, will my people be in agreement with what I'm doing at the hour of my coming? Will I really find it? And I say to the Lord, yes, I by the grace of God and the people I dwell with, we will be in agreement with you, and we will cry night and day, and we won't back away from the cry for justice in line with the love that's on your heart to drive evil off the planet. Paragraph H, they said to Jesus the same thing we're going to say to Jesus, holy and true, holy and true. Much of the church today thinks that Jesus confronting darkness at the level of the book of Revelation, he's less than holy and true to who he claims. They say that Jesus, that they're imagining could never, ever be the Jesus of the book of Revelation. But we're going to agree with the saints around the throne. You are holy. You are true to who you are to show yourself in this kind of justice in the generation that you return. Jesus is true. His judgments are true to love and to all of his promises. Top of page five. Can I kind of run through this real quick here? Again, the goal isn't to get it all tonight. I don't have it even one percent of this. The goal is to get you familiar that you can read this on your own and think, well, this isn't that difficult. I mean, the broad strokes are quite straightforward. So I want to go deep in these things, not just have the broad strokes, but you got to have the, you got to have addition before you can do multiplication. You have to know how to do nine plus six before you could do nine times six. And it's not so complicated, but we're at the nine plus six, like, wow, nine plus six, that's 15. Okay, you're getting it. Stay with that. Nine plus six. Nine plus seven. Okay, 16. Okay, what's nine times seven? I'm gonna leave that to one of you guys. But anyway, we're moving from the addition stage of the end times of the book of Revelation, the basic facts, we're going to go up a notch in this next decade. I'm talking about the body of Christ, not just us. We're going to learn multiplication. And then if the Lord tarries, and I think he will, another decade, we're going to go into algebra one. And now we're like, we're like really awesome theologians, and the angels will go, not so much, not so much. It's still algebra one. Nine sixths. I guess that'd be six ninths. Never mind. Well, I guess nine sixths could be. You could work off that if you gave me a little grace. Okay. So we're at the addition stage, but we're learning it, but you can't, you'll never learn multiplication if you don't know addition. You just can't go to the next level. I'm not talking about we're going to be super theologians. This is for everybody to grasp, but everyone can do multiplication, and most people can even do algebra one. I took algebra one in eighth grade. How many of you took algebra one in eighth grade? There you go. I can tell you how I did. I just say I took it at eighth grade. That's, I'm leaving it there. The sixth seal, the sixth seal goes to a whole nother level. Everything changes at the fifth seal. When the blood fuels the end time prayer movement, things go from a natural dimension with demonic activity to a whole nother level of supernatural activity. Starting with the sixth seal, the fifth seal prayer movement catapults the end time move, linking it with Luke 18, the cry for justice, will my people be in agreement with me, that principle in the fifth seal thrust the body of Christ and the prayer of faith to a whole nother level from the fifth, from the sixth seal all the way through the trumpets and the bowls. There's cosmic disturbance, the signs in the heavens, and beloved, those signs in the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, those signs are being released in relationship to the prayer movement on the earth and the prayer movement in heaven that's both under Jesus's leadership. Those signs in the heavens don't just show up one day. We're in prayer meetings under the anointing of revelation. We have the broad strokes. We have the Bible verses. We know the mainstream, the flow of what he's doing, that he's going to be giving different parts of the body of Christ in local and regional areas insight in how to pray these for local ways. Beloved, we can't even imagine such things if we don't know the addition. We can't even think about multiplication. We could never pray this in a local, regional way, in a particular, specific way, if we didn't have the confidence of the broad strokes revelation of this being a God's plan in the book of Revelation. Again, we're some, don't start praying these things on the mic till the first seal opens up. Because what I don't want, I don't want just kind of enthusiasm without revelation. This is really serious. This isn't like one-upsmanship, you know, spiritual intercessory showmanship. You know, you pray for the first seal, I'll pray for the second. I'll pray for the trumpets. I'll go for the bowls. We don't want spiritual one-upsmanship in the prayer. This is really serious and it's critical we do it in league and in unity with God's heart. So you can read that on your own, the sixth seal. Powerful, but what I'm pointing out is that the judgments go to a whole other level that are being loosed by the prayer movement. Look at verse 12. He opened the sixth seal. Jesus, our Jesus, opened up. If that's not the end of the story. Jesus in unity with a praying church when he said in Luke 18, will I really have people who have faith that really agree with me? If you do, go to the book of Revelation and see what it is that I'm doing. I've given you a canonized prayer manual to unify you and to get you on the right page. Will you take it seriously? Yes, Lord. I look at these things, I go, Lord, we're going to pray for these. Yes, I go, oh, ouch, the earthquake. I want to skip that one. The sun. I want to skip that one too. The moon. Oh, the stars. That one too. The kings of the earth falling. Yeah, I'll pray that one. Lord, let the kings of the earth fall on their face. We don't do it that way. Again, we're understanding this so that in the future, in local and specific subjective ways, we can do the application of obedience to the Holy Spirit that will all be in the spirit of obedience to the master plan of which the broad strokes are in the book of Revelation. It's a critical book. Let's go to top of page six. And by the way, the sixth seal is remarkable. I want to learn it so I can pray it one day. But I don't want to pray hit and miss. I want to pray it under the anointing to where we pray it and it actually happens in a timely manner. So the great question at the end of the sixth seal that we skip, most of you are aware of it, when all these things are happening, the cosmic disturbances, is who is able to stand. That's what chapter six, verse 17, the question of the hour is who can stand in the midst of such disturbances. So now we enter into the first parenthetical section. Most of you that are taking this course, you'll know that the storyline in the book of Revelation, there's five segments to the one continuous storyline that unfolds in chronological sequential order. The storyline unfolds. There's five segments and after each one of the segments, it's like the angel tells John, let's put a pause. John, how do you feel about those six seals? Sean's going, man, I'm a little shaken. He goes, okay, okay, let's pause. And so the storyline is paused five different times after five segments of the continuous storyline and it's like the angel, I call these the pastoral sections. They're parenthetical. They're parentheses within the overall continuous storyline. You say, John, come aside. What are you feeling? John's going, with all these turbulence, how's the church going to be doing? John's, and the angel says, that's a good question. So in the parentheses sections, the parenthetical sections, the Lord through the angel gives us information about the details of how are we going to be doing? So he goes, good, I'm glad you asked. And I said all that in paragraph eight when I just said the last minute or two. You can just read that on your own or go back to session one where we laid all this out. Paragraph B, the question is going to answer, Revelation 7 is answering the fundamental question that is at the end of Revelation 6. Who can stand? And the angel says, that's a good question. I'm going to tell you who can stand. Revelation 7, 1 to 4, the angel shows John that God is going to put a seal upon people on the earth, a protective seal. And John says, oh, oh, well that changes everything. And the angel might say, well that's why I'm telling it to you. Oh, we're releasing this. It's not being done to us by the devil. We're not passive victims. We're active agents loosing this on the kingdom of darkness. When Moses went into Egypt against Pharaoh, Pharaoh didn't do it to him. He loosed it on Pharaoh. That's where this thing is going. But we're doing it in the spirit of the lamb in love for the purposes of love and meekness and righteousness. Psalm 45 says, for righteousness, meekness and truth, Jesus is bringing his judgments across the earth. Psalm 45 verse 3 and 4. Anyway, there's a seal. That's what I just want to point that out to you. Paragraph D, not only will the 144,000 Jewish believers, they will be servants of the Lord. But the 144,000, beloved, there's what, 12 or 13 million Jews in the earth? A couple hundred thousand, that's a really small number. Some people say that's such a huge number. And by the way, who knows who's from what tribe? I guarantee you God's database is really accurate and really up to base. I don't care if we know what tribe they're from. God knows. His books are completely up to date and accurate. And there will be 144,000, not only, but that's the guaranteed number. And it might be thousands and thousands and millions more. Who knows? But we know that others are sealed as well, because if God seals his people, we know it's in his heart to seal his people. So he gives us one little insight on 144,000, but he's in essence, he's saying this is how careful and how I thought through the whole program of redemption. I didn't forget a thing. I remember the issue of sealing my people. Revelation 9 talks about others that are sealed. Now, Ezekiel 9 is one of the passages that this is connected to. Revelation 9. I mean, Ezekiel 9. Look what happens. This was at a time where the judgment of God was coming on the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC. I don't have that in the notes, but 586 BC, the judgment of God was coming on the city of Jerusalem. And the Lord told the angel, he said in Ezekiel 9 verse 4, go to the city of Jerusalem, mark on the foreheads the intercessors. Those that sigh over the sin of the land. Those that are going, oh God help, oh God help. He goes, put a mark, he tells the angel. Verse 5, but to the others, to the others in the city of Jerusalem, they don't care about my word and my purposes. He tells the angel, kill them. What? Kill them. Don't let your eyes spare them. Not just the old men and the young men, kill the children. Kill all of them that stand against my purposes and hate what I'm doing. Say, well that doesn't sound right. That's another subject for another time. That's what, it is right. It's holy and true. It's just and loving. It's wise. The Lord's interested in preparing the nations for the glory of God on the earth to be here forever without violating anyone's free will. But look what he said. He goes to the angel at the end of verse 6, but don't release the sword of judgment. Don't even come near, don't even come near anyone that has the mark of God, the seal of God on them. Beloved, the same reality is going to be happening in that day. And we'll end with paragraph E. There's not just those protected physically on the earth in the first part of Revelation 7, those that are protected spiritually. There were those that died. You think, oh no, they died. No, no, we're going to live forever in a resurrected body. We're all going to leave this age. I mean, that's the goal. The goal is to get done with this age in the will of God, in righteousness, in a way that's pleasing to him. Our goal is not to keep this age going. We're praying thy kingdom come. We're praying for the age to come to break in. We've been praying that 2,000 years. The Lord says to John, don't worry. There will be a company from all the nations. Look at verse 9, a great multitude from every tribe. They won't deny me. They will be faithful to the end. A multitude will stay true to the end. So I will protect people physically and spiritually. If they want to obey me, there will be sufficient grace for my protection of their heart and of their body to release them. There is the ability to be spiritually faithful to the end. Some people say, oh, I'm so weak. Well, all of these guys are weak too. This group in verse 9, they're not super saints. They worship a super God, a God with a super grace. We don't look at these and go, oh my, I look at those, that group. It's people like us and our friends and our children and their children. Verse 14, these are the ones who came out of the great tribulation with no compromise. That's the point. Amen and amen.