Mike Bickle addresses the Antichrist's war against Israel and the end-time church, emphasizing the significance of understanding Revelation 12 as a foundational text for grasping the events surrounding the second coming of Christ. He outlines the two main themes of end-time prophecy: Jesus' reign in the Millennial Kingdom and the rise of the Antichrist, who seeks to exterminate Israel and the church. Bickle warns of the impending spiritual conflict and urges believers to prepare for the greatest spiritual war in history, highlighting the role of prayer and intercession in this battle. He reassures that despite the Antichrist's efforts, God will protect a remnant of Israel and empower the church to stand firm in faith. The sermon calls for urgency and readiness among believers as they navigate the challenges of the end times.

...on the speaking and the hearing of your word even now. Lord, we know that it takes God to even hear from God, so God the Holy Spirit, I ask you to breathe on our spirits, illuminate our understanding, and we thank you, in Jesus' name, Amen. Tonight I want to talk about the Antichrist's war against end-time Israel and the church. Obviously that's a weighty subject, it's a subject that is very foundational to understanding the second coming of Christ. That's the general theme that we're covering these days, is the second coming and the battle of Armageddon. And this is a foundational, a foundation stone in our understanding that we have to have in place or some of the events related to the second coming procession, they don't make sense. And Revelation chapter 12 is the clearest passage in the Scripture, though it is symbolic in language, it's one of the most symbolic passages in the book of Revelation, but it interprets itself right there in the chapter. It tells us who's who and what's going on, and makes a clear sense of it. But Revelation chapter 12 is a must chapter to understand, so don't be tripped up by some of the symbolism, it's pretty straightforward. I guess once you compare Scripture with Scripture, you can see it, and once you get it, you read it, and it's really quite straightforward. But Revelation 12, say note to self, I have to understand Revelation 12 if I'm going to understand the end time drama, if I'm going to understand what this big thing about Israel is. You know, people come to our internships or join our staff, they go, I don't get the Israel thing, and I understand that, I didn't get it for years, I totally appreciate that dilemma, but Revelation 12 is one of those chapters, if you understand Revelation 12 even a little bit, then you get the Israel thing as to why it's so important to the church. Roman numeral one, the coming conflict, the two main themes in end time prophecy. Paragraph A, the two themes, the two main ones, the most emphasized is Jesus' worldwide leadership in the Millennial Kingdom. The fact that Jesus is coming, that's the primary theme in end time prophecy. He's coming, not just in the sky, He's coming to the earth to reign for a thousand years. That's the number one theme of end time prophecy. But the second theme of end time prophecy is the Antichrist, evil worldwide empire, which is the counterfeit to Jesus' Millennial Kingdom. And Satan wants to usurp this worldwide kingdom for himself, obviously it doesn't work. Those are the two primary themes in end time prophecy, and it's sad that often some of the scholars in the body of Christ make both of those themes symbolic, and they're massively important, and they're very literal and real in their coming, and it's critical the church understands them. Paragraph B, the greatest crisis in human history in terms of the number of people that have suffered, is World War II. 50 million people died in six years. 50 million people died in a six year period. There's nothing like it in world history. The Antichrist's reign of terror will far surpass the scale of death and suffering that happened in World War II. I mean, imagine a period of time that's going to far surpass 50 million people dying in six years. I can't even get my mind around this. I have written here, I'll just sum it up here in the paragraph, that if you would have asked somebody in 1935, before World War II started, if you would have asked them in 1935, hey, within ten years, what's the chance of 50 million people dying within the next ten years? They would have looked at you like you were crazy, because World War II is only a six year period. It came so suddenly, so powerfully, it took the whole world by storm. I think it was completely unthinkable that that could have happened, to ask somebody in 1935, and by 1945, 50 million people had died. Suddenly it came. Well, with the same suddenness, even with a greater suddenness, the Great Tribulation is going to come upon the earth. It's going to far surpass what happened then. It has here in 1 Thessalonians, Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5, You yourselves know perfectly, the day of the Lord comes like a thief. For when the nations, when the peoples of the earth, they means just the peoples in general around the world, when they're saying peace and safety, sudden destruction comes on them. They will not escape. And the they is talking about the general populace of the earth. The peoples of the earth will not escape, those that don't cry out on the name of the Lord, but it will come suddenly, that's the point. Paragraph C, why does God raise up the Antichrist? The combination of the Antichrist, man's sin, is escalating sin and God's judgment. The combination of these together provide the optimum context for God to purify the church and to bring the end gathering, the great end gathering in the end times, the great end gathering of souls, the great revival. That's the optimum context that God has determined. That's why He's allowing this to come to pass. Paragraph D, this is a little review for those that have been around, but for those that are new with us, the Antichrist is a literal man. He's the final world leader in this age. He is actually fighting God. The war is against God. It's important. He takes, he expresses his war against God, he expresses it against Israel and the church. This literal man will be fully human and fully demon. One man called him a, I don't know, I forgot what he called him, a demonoid, something like that, I can't remember, but I said, yeah, that sounds like the best description. There's no easy way to describe this, but he's a counterfeit to Jesus, who was fully human and fully God. This man ascends, he ascends from the bottomless pit. That's an amazing thing, that a man would be described as ascending up from the regions below the earth. He'll be the most powerful leader, the greatest criminal in history. He will demand that the whole world worships him. Paragraph E, just a little summary of this evil leader, how powerful he will be. F, Satan's two main purposes. What Satan wants out from the Antichrist, the Antichrist and the Antichrist, is worldwide, a worldwide worship movement, and he wants to exterminate the Jewish people. He wants these two things more than anything, because by killing the Jewish people, he wants to kill all of them. I'm using the word exterminate, a very hostile, emotional word, a graphic word, because if he kills all the Jewish people, there will not be a believing remnant to invite Jesus back, because Jesus said he would not come back, except there would be a believing remnant in Israel that invite him back, because it's a covenant nation, and he will only come by invitation of those in leadership of the covenant nation on the earth. He says, I won't come if they don't invite me back. That's the essence of what Jesus taught. Satan has determined there will not be a people in the land, in covenant with God, to invite him back, or in the covenant land of Israel. Roman numeral two. Now we're getting more focused on what we're going to cover tonight. I just wanted to give that background for those that were new, that first page. Roman numeral two, the end times, the end time war in the spirit. There is a major war in the spirit in the end times, and we need to really grasp the gravity of this, because to understand this gives us an urgency today. It's not just there's going to be judgment, there is a conflict in the spirit called war, and God is training the body of Christ right now, and beloved, we need to be urgent. We're in the boot camp days right now, and a soldier that's slack in boot camp normally dies in the battle. This is an hour to take very serious, to get our spirit connected with the Lord, and filled with righteousness, our mind filled with living understanding. This isn't an hour because the conflict is not fully manifest, to kind of be just kind of going with the flow or whatever. I mean that in a negative sense, just kind of going with the flow of life. We need to be diligent in these years, preparing for the greatest war in the spirit on a global scale that's ever happened. And when it happens, it's going to be difficult to get prepared in that hour. Many people get saved in that hour, and they will be preserved in their faith, and they will stand true, but God's raising up leaders now that are going to be the shepherds, and those that will give guidance and leadership to the great harvest that's coming in in the days to come. I was going to give a couple of verses where the idea of war is emphasized. This is one of the main verses here in Revelation 12, the passage we're on. That's really the main theme of Revelation 12 is the war. It says here that war broke out in heaven, Revelation 12, 7. And Michael, that's the archangel, and his angels. It's an interesting term, isn't it? Michael has a group of angels called his angels. They are under his leadership is what that means. Michael, the archangel, and the angels under his charge fought the dragon, that's Satan. It says it in another verse or two that it is Satan. Makes it clear. And the dragon and his angels, that means the demonic host. Paul the apostle calls it the spiritual host of wickedness in Ephesians 6. The devil's angels, his host, his army, they fought each other, but they did not prevail. The dragon did not. Nor was there a place found for Satan's angels anymore in the atmosphere, in the heavenly places. Right now, the angels are in the mid-heavens, or in the second heavens, as some refer to it. The first heavens is the atmosphere above the earth. The second heavens, or the mid-heavens, is where the demonic powers are. And the third heaven is where God's presence is. And the angels, the demonic angels, are in the mid-heavens or in the second heavens. That's where they are right now. But the day is coming where there will be no longer a place for them there. They will be cast out of the mid-heavens onto the earth, verse 9. And the dragon was cast to the earth. And the idea is the idea of limitation, that being in the mid-heavens, Ephesians 6, 12, that's where the principalities and powers wage war, from heavenly places, because that's a place of advantage. And why it is, it doesn't really matter if we understand why it is, it just is. And that's the place he wants to be. There's, I'm sure, many reasons in the spirit. And when he's cast to the earth, he's confined with limitations. He does not like this at all. And Michael the archangel and a host of angels, undoubtedly billions of them involved in this conflict, they cast them from their place and they're on the earth. And it's Satan on the earth the last three and a half years, and he goes after Israel with all the rage in his heart to destroy her, because he's really angry. But anyway, there's a great war. I don't want to get ahead of myself. That's later on in the chapter where that's the theme. Same chapter 12, verse 17. The dragon, or Satan, was enraged with Israel. Beloved, Satan is going to, he hates Israel now, but he's going to be enraged with Israel when he's on the earth for that last three and a half years. And God stepped in with divine protection, raised up the Gentile believers in the earth, the body of Christ, to stand with Israel. And God's protection will be around the nation of Israel. And Satan can't get to the ones he's after. He'll kill many of them, but there's a certain protection around a portion of the nation of Israel. And the Gentile believers are going to be partially, are going to be cooperating with the Lord in some of that. And Satan will make war with the church at that time. And one of the main reasons is that, because the church is standing with Israel. He will make war with the church. Chapter 13, it's just a couple of verses later. It was granted to him, the Antichrist, to make war with the saints. That's the church. God is going to let the Antichrist make war against the church and even overcome the church, not spiritually, but to overcome the church physically, which means martyrdom. Satan will overcome many believers physically, but we will overcome him spiritually, because we will die with triumph of love in our heart and victory, and that's called overcoming Satan. So it's a paradox in the book of Revelation. It talks about Satan overcoming the saints, and the saints overcoming Satan. Satan overcomes the saints physically by martyrdom, but the saints overcome Satan spiritually by staying true to love. They're fearless, and the Lord rewards them for that. Got a couple more verses on the war there. Paragraph A, in the same end time war, there's two different war fronts. And we run into these two war fronts when we study the Armageddon campaign. We run into them, particularly Zechariah chapter 12, because there's a natural war front, and there's a spiritual one, but they work together in tandem under God's leadership. That's something we don't think much about, because we're not in the nation of Israel. We're not worried about the nations gathering around us. You know, we live here. But I can assure you the saints in the land there, the ones I know, they think a lot about the natural war going on over there as well, because there is a natural one and a spiritual one, and they work in tandem together. Number one, there's a war in the natural. The human army of Israel will be engaged in a physical war. Zechariah 12 lays it out. There'll be a small, ill-equipped band. It'll be the Israeli army. I mean, it will be militia that are poorly equipped in small numbers. You know, it'll be the David-Goliath thing against all odds, but God will use them and anoint them like He did David. That will surprise them. They'll say, What's going on here? And it'll be God from heaven with a supernatural anointing. They'll be like a corporate David is what Zechariah 12 makes clear. But alongside the war in the natural is the war in the spirit, and that's the one that we're focused on. And we war in the spirit through prayer and fasting. We war in the spirit through martyrdom. We war in the spirit through prophesying, by taking a stand, proclaiming the truths of what God has said about the nation of Israel. And it's critical that we understand these so we can war in the spirit in prayer and intercession and do our part in the spirit. Now, much of the church today doesn't even know there's a war in the spirit related to Israel. They're completely illiterate about it, and it's not going to end that way. The Lord's going to see to it that the thing turns around in a really powerful and global way. The church will really understand this before it's over. Paragraph B, Daniel is a model of warring in the spirit to change Israel's political and military situation. Angels move in response to the saints' prayers. Now, I don't want to get off on this because it's one of my favorite passages right here, so I'm just going to overcome the temptation to look at this. But in these two verses here in Daniel, what happens is the angel tells Daniel, when you prayed, I moved. I came because you were in prayer. And Michael the archangel, actually in Daniel chapter 10, it's Michael who comes to the rescue here in Daniel chapter 10 because of Daniel's prayers. And Michael's going to come again because of the prayers of the saints on the earth. He's coming again. The whole scenario is going to happen again because Daniel prayed. Michael the archangel comes, beats, I mean, push backs the demonic powers in the heavens, and the breakthrough happens. Daniel 10. And we find out here in Revelation 12, the passage we're on tonight, the saints are going to be praying. It doesn't talk about the saints praying. It does everywhere else in the Bible. But it says that Michael comes, but Michael comes, according to Daniel 10, when the saints are praying. Revelation 12 doesn't emphasize the prayer end of it. The whole book of Revelation does. But let me tell you, Michael's not coming with a host of angels to drive back demons and to throw Satan down to the earth except in relationship with the praying church on the earth, just like in Daniel 10. That's a big subject. That's not my subject for tonight. But I couldn't resist putting that in there. Paragraph C, the praying church will have a dynamic intercessory role in the downfall of Satan. Beloved, get your mind around this. There are going to be millions of prayer groups around the earth, several million, I mean, small groups of prayer. We're praying in unity under the anointing, and Michael is driving Satan out of his place in the heavens, and Lucifer comes to the earth as the devil confined to the earth, which is a position of disadvantage because of the prayers of the saints and the intervention of the archangel and the host. Now, that's not on our mind right now, but that's going to be on our mind, the body of Christ, before this thing is over. This passage of Michael pushing back the powers of darkness from the midheavens is going to be a major point of emphasis someday down the road. Right now, we're just saying, okay, when that day comes, Lord, we don't want to be prayerless and caught in sin and compromise. We want to have a spirit of prayer, a heart of understanding, and we want to be ready in that day to be a viable part of God's end-time purpose. The praying church, paragraph C, is going to contribute to the great end-time revival. We're going to contribute. I'm talking about we, meaning the body of Christ worldwide, to the release of the two witnesses. God's going to raise up the two greatest prophets that have ever, in terms of great in power is what I mean, that have ever walked the earth. They will do signs and wonders second to no prophets. And, beloved, those prophets are going to be released because of the prayers of the church. I've got some other things as well here in paragraph C, but let's move on. Romans 3, the big picture. Revelation 12 doesn't stand by itself. Revelation 12 is in a unit. Revelation 12, 13, and 14. In terms of the storyline of the book of Revelation, the chronology of the book, it's a parenthetical section. It's a parenthesis. It's like the storyline of the book is being put on hold, and the angel is coming to John and saying, hey, let me explain the war behind the scenes so you can understand why things are so intense on the earth. So Revelation 12, 13, and 14 should be studied together. It's John's getting a parenthesis. He's getting info as to why things are so dramatic in the judgments of God breaking forth on the earth. Paragraph B. John gives an overview of the war. Each one of those three chapters, 12, 13, and 14, they focus on a different facet of the war. And I just wanted to repeat the verses we've already read, but I just wanted to give, these are the three passages, 12, 7, and 12, 17, and 13, 7, right here on the notes here, where it says, war broke out in heaven. Satan was enraged. He went to make war. The Antichrist is making war with the saints. War is the theme. And the church is going to be ready, but it's not just a general, the church is going to be ready. Beloved, individuals in the church have to be ready for the church to be ready. The church isn't some entity out there. The church is you and me. People like us have to be ready, because the church won't be ready if the individuals aren't ready for war. War is coming. I would venture to say, I don't say this as a rebuke, I just say this hopefully to enlighten some folks. I would venture to say that most believers are not thinking of the future in terms of a war breaking out. They're thinking of the future in terms of their ministry being awesome and having a lot of friends and being happy. And all those things are good things in and of themselves, but let me tell you this. We need to get into our mind when we're thinking about the future. The greatest, colossal, I mean massive, global war in the spirit is around the corner. And almost nobody is thinking about their future as though a war is coming. They're thinking about all the stuff that normal people think about that don't have enlightened understanding. I want to charge you. Get ready. Dream. Be picturing. You think, oh man, I was kind of thinking about just having a happy, nice life, having a lot of friends, plenty of money, a little bit of anointing, and just loving God and God loving me and living to be 110 and, you know, going on, seeing what happens after that. I would change the dream of your heart and your mind. I would be thinking, Lord, I don't know when, but I want to start receiving understanding that very possibly within my lifetime, I'm convinced it's within the lifetime of people in this room, there will be a war breaking out and the people in this room, some of you will be, I mean, viably involved in this in a very, very powerful way. And there will be a number of folks that will fall away from the Lord. There will be millions of believers falling away, denying their faith, completely unready for the war that's coming because they don't really catch the weight that a war in the spirit is really coming. And it's for keeps. The people who fall away, they end up in hell forever. The people that stand are rewarded forever. There will be a significant amount of martyrdom. There will be a lot of pressure. There will be signs and wonders, a tremendous release of an ingathering of souls worldwide like never seen in history, and it's not a practice game. It's for real. But I just want this. I want you to feel the weight of this. The war is coming in the spirit, and it's going to be manifest in the natural in a very violent way, but the outcome is going to be the glory of God filling the earth. Paragraph C. Revelation 12, in the generation the Lord returns, war is going to break out in heaven, and this war is going to be manifest on the earth. It's going to break out between Michael and Satan. I've said all that. It's going to result in Satan being cast to the earth. Here, I want you to get this next sentence. This specific conflict occurs at the end of the age. Some commentators will tell you this happened when Jesus went to the cross. No, this is yet future. Satan is not bound to the earth. Ephesians 6, 12, Paul said Satan is operating in heavenly places. All through church history, Ephesians 6, 12, and Ephesians 2, 2, Satan is still in the mid-heavens operating in power. He has not been confined to the earth. This is yet future. For sure, this is future. This has not happened yet. And I believe it's going to happen in the lifetime of people in this room. Satan is going to give his authority to a man, an evil man. And this evil man, though the war in the spirit that Satan lost in the heavens with Michael and the church praying on the earth and Jesus leading the host, Satan's on the earth now, and he's going to give his authority to the Antichrist so that the war continues in full force on the earth. Satan needs a human. He can't do it just in the spirit. He needs to operate. In order to mobilize the whole human race, he has to give his authority to a human that billions of humans will believe in and follow. If Satan just appeared as an angel, even if he appeared as an angel of light, before it was over, it terrified his would-be followers. He's going to give his authority to a man that looks winsome and wholesome and good, and this man will cause billions to be swept into Satan's delusion because this man will have the authority of Satan. But the point of Revelation 12 is that the war is going to continue even after Satan comes to the earth. But Satan's going to change his tactic. It's going to be through a man mobilizing billions of people to cooperate with this man, this evil man called the Antichrist. Paragraph D. This is where you come in again. There's another parenthetical section. Again, a parenthetical section in the book of Revelation means the storyline's on hold. The storyline is the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls of wrath, the coming of the Lord, the millennial kingdom. That's a clear storyline throughout the book of Revelation. But there's parentheses where the storyline's on hold and the angel gives John insight as to what's going on behind the scenes. Revelation 10 and 11 is another parenthetical section that's a really important one because the message here, and I'm not going to read it. We've gone over it a few times in the past, but for those that are new, God is going to raise up prophetic messengers. God is going to raise up people like you, and He's going to give you prophetic understanding. That's what Revelation 10 is about. And then the prophets who have the greatest power in history, they're going to come forth in Revelation 11. And God is going to have a prophetic company in the earth in the midst of the battle speaking with power and authority and signs and wonder and clarity. Beloved, I want to be in a spiritual condition that I could operate at that level of the prophetic anointing of Revelation 10. I don't want to get to that hour and then say, well, Lord, why don't you just forgive the last 10 or 20 or 30 years and just forget that I've been living one way. I want to be a prophetic messenger. And I believe that the answer, more times than not, the Lord in His mercy might just surprise somebody and say, that's how it's going to be. But certainly the rule of Scripture is, He's training those prophets now in their spirit and in their understanding, even now. As they're denying their flesh, as they're abstaining from fleshly lust, as they're pressing into the Word of God and warring with just the mundaneness of life and all their desires and their unrenewed mind, and they're pressing in like all the saints have done through the ages that God has used. Those are the kinds of people God's going to give this anointing of Revelation 10, the prophetic anointing. He's going to give the messages that He has withheld. He told John, He goes, I have, in essence, the essence of Revelation 10 is that God told John some things. And He said, John, don't write them in the book. I'm going to seal them. I'm going to hold them back for now. And the implication is, I'll give it to my church in that hour. Beloved, we want to be fiery. We want to have a fiery spirit. We want to be in the place in God where we can receive this kind of anointing, a prophetic understanding. It doesn't mean you need to prophesy from a platform. You may be speaking one-on-one. You may have the key word at the key hour for a group of people that you just can't even hardly imagine where this thing would go. Let's go to Roman numeral 4. Look a little bit at the spiritual conflict. There's a spiritual conflict that the nation of Israel has been involved with throughout history, and it's described here a little bit. Again, don't be tripped by the symbolism. When you compare Scripture with Scripture, it's pretty straightforward what's going on here. Starts off, John writes, he goes, now I saw a great sign. The very fact it's a sign tells you this passage is symbolic because remember, in the book of Revelation, it's straightforward. It's literal. It means what it says and says what it means unless the book of Revelation says it's symbolic. And when it calls it a sign, that means it's symbolic. And within the chapter, God gives us the, and even within the book of Revelation itself, gives us the meaning of the symbols right in the book of Revelation itself, even some right in the chapter. John says, I see a great sign. Not only is a sign symbolic, it's a great one, meaning it's a very significant, it's a very, very significant message that's coming to him. And the significant message is there's a war breaking out in the spirit. That's the great part of the sign. It means the importance of the message is that a war is going to break out, and the people of God are in the balance of this war. He said, I saw a woman. And this woman is the remnant of Israel. And notice, she was clothed with the sun. The moon was under her feet, and on her head was a garland with 12 stars, or like a crown with 12 stars. Now, this woman, who's clothed with the sun, she was with child. Then, being with child, this woman cried out in labor to give birth to this child. Now, there's another sign. In other words, there's another symbol that's coming. Instead of the word sign, put the word symbol. That appeared in heaven. It's symbolic. There was a great, fiery dragon. The dragon has seven heads. The dragon has ten horns. And the book of Revelation makes it very clear what these seven heads and ten horns are. There's no guesswork. Verse 4. This dragon, with his tail, he swept a third of the angels, the stars of heaven. He swept a third of them with him. When Satan rebelled against God a long time ago, one third of the angels joined the rebellion, and they were cast out of heaven. And the dragon stood before the woman. And this woman was ready to give birth. And Satan wanted to devour her child as soon as it was born. Well, it didn't work. She bore the child. And this child, which is Jesus, obviously, is going to rule all the nations of the earth with a rod of iron. And this woman's child was caught up to God and to his throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place. This is real key for us. The remnant of Israel, there's an hour coming where some of them are going to flee, not 100% of them, but some of them will flee into the wilderness, and God will have a place prepared, and they, that's the key, that's where you come in, they will feed her. They will supply for her for three and a half years. Now, this is Revelation 12 right here, these six verses. And one other passage, Revelation 17, are the two heavy-duty symbolic passages. And it's these two passages, chapter 12 for six verses and chapter 17, same thing, for about six verses. Those are the two passages that people refer to that the book of Revelation is so symbolic, I can't understand it. And both of those passages go together, and the symbolism is very clear in Scriptures to what it means. The reason I'm telling you this is so that when you read this chapter, you don't sink into despair, intellectual despair, I mean, saying, I can't get it, it's too confusing. And then when you read chapter 17, you don't do the same thing. There's two paragraphs in the whole of the book of Revelation that are highly symbolic. But the good news is, the Bible tells us what the symbols mean. It's really quite straightforward once you compare Scripture with Scripture. Paragraph B, the woman is the remnant of Israel. It's the remnant of Israel throughout history, from Abraham on. It's not just the remnant of Israel at the end of the age. It's the remnant of Israel, it's the people of Israel that are living in covenant with the sovereign God. It's the people of Israel from Abraham's family, straight through David's family, the prophets, right through history. It's the people that have responded to the word of God. They are, collectively through history, the woman. Because this woman in this passage, she is active 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born, and she's active when Jesus returns, because there's a continuity with the covenant nation of Israel. It's the remnant of Israel. It's the ones that are responding to the word of God. The woman, Israel, this is one little tricky verse, but it's not so tricky. She is clothed with the sun and with the moon, and under her feet are 12 stars. Now, this is a very, very famous, very well-known symbol in the Old Testament. It comes from Joseph, right there in Genesis 37. Joseph had a dream. And in this dream, he saw the sun, he saw the moon, and he saw the 11 stars. And, of course, he would, it's his 11 brothers, and he's the 12th, so there's 12 of them. And he understood, he understood that, well, let's go forward. This passage is talking about Israel. It's talking about Israel. The woman clothed with the moon, the sun, and the stars is the nation of Israel in covenant with God through her history. Let's go to chapter, I mean, paragraph C. Now, the woman is described as being with a child. This is the remnant of Israel who has carried the promises of the Messiah ever since Abraham. From the very beginning, when Israel became a nation, Abraham was 2,000 years before Jesus, and we're 2,000 years after Jesus. So that was 4,000 years ago with Abraham, if you're good at math. This woman has been with child since Abraham, since she became a nation. Abraham knew from the very beginning something would happen with his offspring that the whole world would come under the influence of his offspring. Abraham knew this. He carried this in his being. He carried this in his spirit. Now, for 2,000 years or for longer than that, the woman has cried out in labor. She cried out in pain. It means through the years from Abraham to Jesus, that 2,000 years, 2,000 B.C., the time of Jesus, Israel had a very turbulent and painful history, and she's had it since then as well. But the reason Israel has such a turbulent history, there's one big reason Israel has a turbulent history, because God is in covenant with her, and God's standards are high, and He judges her when she sins. And Satan wants to destroy her. The reason her history has been so hard, there's no nation in the earth that's had anywhere close to the turbulent history that the nation of Israel has had. And the reason is because she's in covenant with God. At one point, God is the one causing her trouble because she keeps sinning, and God says, No, you can't. You're in covenant with me. You're going to rule the whole earth. I have no doubt there's some among Israel that go, I don't want to rule the earth. I just want things to be easy in my life. And God says, You don't have that option. You're in covenant with me as a nation, and if you don't obey me, I will discipline you. She's had more discipline than probably all the other nations added up together. I've never really thought that through, but she's had more discipline than certainly any other nation in history. It's very turbulent. She's been in the pain of carrying these promises, because with the promises comes a responsibility, and with that responsibility comes divine discipline. But on the other side, she's been in pain because Satan has always wanted to wipe her out entirely. So Israel's thinking, Man, this is intense. Is it ever going to get okay? Yes, when the Messiah returns. That's the only time. And then forever and forever and forever they will be the lead nation in God's economy forever and ever and ever and ever. Paragraph D. John sees now another sign in heaven. He sees another symbol. This time it's a fiery red dragon. So verse 1 and 2, he sees the destiny of Israel, and he sees the plight of Israel, that she's had a real hard time from Abraham to Jesus. For that 2,000-year period, she was being attacked by so many nations, and God's judgments kept coming on her. Now in verse 3, John sees another sign. He sees a fiery red dragon, and this dragon has seven heads and ten horns. It's really quite a simple symbolism. The seven heads speak of the seven main anti-Semitic evil kingdoms that have oppressed Israel. There are seven of them that have come against Israel and sought to wipe Israel out, seven of them, throughout history. But that's bad. They've had seven different nations. But in the last days, in the end times, it's more accurate to say the end times because the last days began on the day of Pentecost. And so I want to train us to use that word because if you'll go out to other places and say, we're in the last days, some guy will want to be real clever, and he'll kind of point out to you that it's been the last days since the resurrection of Jesus, and you'll be a little embarrassed. And they're right. There's about three or four verses on that. But the end of the last days is called the end times. And so I want to keep my terms clear just so that I'm equipping you right when you get out there and you're saying all these things. But in the end times, it's going to be worse than seven different nations that have oppressed Israel. Ten nations are going to come in unity all at the same time, the ten horns. There's going to be a coalition of ten nations that are all going to unify together, and it's going to be far more severe than any one of those other seven. And so John's telling them, hey, if you think the seven were hard, and that was over about a couple thousand year period, you think those seven nations were hard when they came to persecute you? You wait till the ten nations all come together in unity in the end times. It will really be hard. And beloved, the reason we care about this is because we are going to be standing in the midst of this war, and this war is going to have ten mighty nations in unity with demonic power trying to wipe us out. It's like, whoa, serious. In other words, it's important that we have urgency today because the war is massive that's coming around the corner. It's going to have ten nations, and all their resources are going to be available to Satan to wipe out Israel and the church. These ten horns, we don't like these ten horns. They're the natural. We look at these ten horns and go, ooh, that's bad. But in the spirit, God's going to use this to purify the church and enlarge it to the greatest revival ever known in history is going to break out under this oppression. Paragraph E, I've already mentioned this. The dragon's tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven. And the reason this is important to know, the reason this matters in the vision because those third that got swept from heaven, they are now the marching army that Satan's going to use against us because they're not serving God. They are now serving darkness, and that's the point of this revelation. When it says those angels were swept away, a third of the stars of heaven were swept away, that is supposed to leave us with the conclusion that the army that we're coming against is massive. Now, our army is far bigger and greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. However, people are quick to quote that, and that's important, but however, the one that's in us is only going to be effective in us if we're living in unity with him. I hear people quote that all the time, kind of glibly. Well, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world, 1 John 4, 4. Praise God, we don't have to worry about the book of Revelation. Well, that's true. That's true if you're living in wholeheartedness with the one that's in you. If you're not living with wholeheartedness with the one within you, you're going to have a really rough ride because the one that's in you won't express his power through you if you're not living in unity with him. So I've heard a lot of glibness about that because the reason this is important because verse 3 here, I mean verse 4, the dragon's tail swept a third of the stars, this is supposed to leave us with the impression that there is an enormous spiritual demonic army at Satan's disposal that's supposed to alarm us as to the weight of the battle that's coming. That's what that verse is supposed to say to us. It's not just an interesting Bible verse. I read some commentaries and some go off and say, isn't that interesting, they fell from heaven, they quote all the verses about falling from heaven, the third of the angels, and that's interesting. I enjoy that. But it's kind of like Bible trivia. Like, isn't that neat? From Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, we put all the verses together. Bingo, here, it all works out. Isn't it great? Let's go to the next verse. And they don't catch the weight of this verse. The weight is there is a massive demonic army at Satan's disposal to come against us. That's the point of that verse, which creates not fear, but urgency. Fear, if you're living in disobedience, you should be afraid. Urgency, if you're going hard after the things of the Spirit. Fill in your mind with the Word of God. Paragraph F. Now the dragon stood before the remnant of Israel. And he's ready. She's ready to give birth. And he wants to devour the child as soon as the child is born. Now this happened 2,000 years ago. When Jesus was born, Herod wanted to kill Jesus at his birth as an infant. That's what this verse is talking about. Satan was breathing down the neck of Israel, so to speak, like a dragon. He goes, where is this kid? I want to kill him. And Herod was the choice vessel of Satan to go exterminate this Messiah, to kill him, to wipe him out, to kill all the children in the land. It was ineffective. It didn't work. Paragraph G. Now the woman bore the child. That's the birth of Jesus. And this child's destiny is to rule all the nations of the earth. H. This child would be caught up to God and to God's throne. This happened at Jesus' resurrection and ascension. He was caught up to heaven, and he's been sitting at the right hand of the Father for the last 2,000 years. That's what that verse is talking about. Now it's going to jump forward to the end times. Now John changes directions here, and he says this woman, it's 2,000 years forward. There's a couple 2,000-year leaps in this passage. First there's Abraham. And for 2,000 years, it's the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. Then there's Jesus. And then there's 2,000 years later, it's the end of the age. So Revelation 12 covers the whole span of Israel's history with God. The time is coming when this woman, now the end time Israel, remnant of Israel, will flee into the wilderness because God has a place prepared for her in the wilderness. Now you say, why do we care about that? Because it's not entirely in our hands by any means, but God is going to use Gentile believers as part of that preparation even now. Part of the place that God has prepared to provide for Israel is through the body of Christ under the Father's leadership involved in the preparation. Well, if it's all irrelevant, and God has no purpose for Israel, why do we have to pay attention to anything to help prepare? What is there to prepare? Well, there's spiritual preparation. If we're fiery in prayer, we operate in signs and wonders, we have a prophetic anointing, there's a spiritual preparation, but there's also a physical preparation. Because the Jews, many of them are going to be in flight into the wilderness. And this could have many categories of thought. I'm not trying to reduce it to any one category, but I know of a number of Gentile believers across, I mean a large number, I'm talking about hundreds, not tens of thousands, but hundreds, of different groups around America that God has spoken to them, I mean, in real prophetic direct ways, and properties and lands, and God has told them He would give it to them, and the stories are all so different, but they all have one main theme, and it happened throughout Europe, there's different groups that God has spoken to, and they are actually preparing places of refuge for Jews in flight. Now, the Lord's never told me to do that, and I wouldn't do it if He didn't tell me to. But God is preparing a place, and God's preparation is bigger than that, God's preparing a place that's even bigger than just the Gentile believers cooperating with Him, but that is a part of it, there is a place where we're involved in this. God is doing this thing in this hour. Let's go to the passage here in Ezekiel 20, one of the main passages about the place prepared, the place is prepared, Revelation 12, a place prepared is in the singular, but I believe it's a theme, I believe there's many different expressions, many local places. There may be one or two, or a small number of major places that God has prepared, I don't know. God's ways are, He'll make them known when He wants them known. Look at what God tells Ezekiel. He says, you go tell Israel this, this is really a quite remarkable passage about end-time Israel, Ezekiel chapter 20, He says, you go tell Israel this, that whatever you have, He says, what you have in your mind shall never be. When you say, we want to be like the Gentiles, God says, it's never going to happen. He told him this way back, you know, 500 years B.C. He goes, Ezekiel, you tell them this, they are never going to be like the Gentiles, never. Because I will judge them, and I will stop them, and I will block them on every single attempt to get out of the covenant to just go be like the Gentiles who live like all the other families in all the other countries, serving wood and stone, that means idolatry. Because I'm not going to let them be unbelievers like the Gentiles in the earth, it's not going to happen. I will discipline them, I will hem them out, I will starve them out, they are not going to be a non-covenant nation. Verse 33, that's God's zeal, that's wonderful that God loves them so much, but it's terrible for the Jews that won't say yes to Jesus. It's terrible, it's really hard on them. Verse 33, as I live, says the Lord, with a mighty hand, and this is talking about power, with an outstretched arm, that means the signs and wonders, with fury poured out, that's the book of Revelation, the judgments, I'm going to rule over you as a nation, I'm going to use the book of Revelation to get your attention and to get you to be a covenant nation in purity. Oh man, Israel can look at verse 33 and say, with fury poured out, we are not going to escape from your divine plan. I will rule you, says the Lord. And that's a good thing, I will be your king, is what the Lord is saying. Here's what I'm going to do, he gives a little bit of the strategy, and John taps into this in Revelation 12, the passage we're on. Here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to bring you out from the peoples, you can put the word nations there, I will gather you out of all the countries where you were scattered, and I will do this with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with fury poured out. Now, a lot of people take this verse to mean 1948, and I am absolutely convinced this is not 1948, this is yet still to happen. This has not happened yet. A lot of folks have made this a past tense event, and all the miracles, and I would say, where's the mighty miracles like God did with Moses in the nation of Israel? When God stretches out His hand in mighty miracles, it's like Moses in Israel. I mean, coming out of Egypt in Exodus. And it goes on to describe in this passage that when God brings them out, He kills everybody who doesn't obey Him. In other words, every person who rejects Jesus, He kills them. And this just simply didn't happen in 1948. And all those that live, they all serve Jesus. This is yet to happen, related to the second coming. There is going to be an in-gathering with power that is yet to come, that has not yet happened. Now, I understand and I appreciate the humanness of this, but some of my friends in Israel, they don't like this view. They want this verse to be already behind them. I understand that, but it's not. The miracles haven't happened like they did in the days of Moses, and neither is the obedience of the whole nation in the land. And neither has that happened, and that's what this passage is talking about. So verse 34 is yet to take place. He says, here's what I'm going to do, verse 35. I will bring you into the wilderness of all the peoples. So the word peoples there again is the word nations. And there, when you're in the nations, when you're in hiding, when you're in flight, when you're refugees in the nations, I don't mean, I'm not talking about the Jewish people prospering in the nations of the earth. They are refugees in the wilderness of the nations. This is in flight. This is a negative lifestyle that they're in here. Because some would say, well, the Jews are in the wilderness of the nations here in America. I go, no, no, that's not what he's talking about. This is really intense here. This is there. When I get you there, I will plead my case with you face to face. Jesus is going to talk to the Jews face to face. Verse 36. Just as I pled my case with your fathers in the wilderness of Egypt, so I will plead my case with you. In other words, there is going to be the same miracles that Moses saw is going to happen when God pleads his case is talking about great miracles breaking out. Here's the negative part. I plead my case like I did with Moses. That's the positive part. That means miracles. That means the Red Sea splitting. That means manna coming from heaven. That means water coming out of a rock. That means plagues hitting their enemies. I mean, that's awesome. But here's the negative side. I'm going to make you pass under the rod of discipline. And I will bring you into covenant relationship. They will be worshipers of Jesus in this process. Any gathering that does not have them worshiping Jesus, all of them is not the Ezekiel 20 gathering of the Lord gathering them back to the land. The gathering that happened in 1948 is powerful, and the Lord has been involved in it and anointed it, but it's not the Ezekiel 20 gathering. This one leaves the whole nation in covenant with Jesus. Verse 38. He makes it real clear now. If there's any question, verse 38 settles it all. He says, and I will purge. That means kill. I will purge all the rebels. The people that don't receive my salvation, I will kill them. That didn't happen in 1948. And those who transgress against me, I will bring them out of the country where they're refugees, but I won't let them enter back into the land. If they don't obey Jesus, I will deliver them from the land they're in flight with, but in the process, I won't let them enter back into the land. I will kill them in the process. This is Jesus talking. It's intense, eh? Then they will know I am the Lord. And when it says I am the Lord, that's not talking about in the general sense. They are going to know that Jesus is God's Son and their Savior. He says, verse 40, and then when I get them in the land, here's how you know the Ezekiel 20 gathering, which is different than the 1948 one. I believe in the 1948 gathering is very important, but it's not the Ezekiel 20 gathering from all the nations. And the reason I'm taking this point, because Ezekiel 20 is what Revelation 12, the passage we're on, that's the wilderness of the nations that Israel's going to go into is described here in Ezekiel 20. And the Lord says here in verse 40, when I bring them back, they're going to be on my holy mountain. They're going to be on the mountain heights of Israel. There, there, all of the house of Israel, and He says it again, all of them. He says it twice. All the house of Israel, all of them in the land. We're not talking about figurative. They will be in the land. They shall serve Jesus, because to serve God is to serve Jesus. There's no other way to serve God but to serve Jesus. And there, He says it again, in the land, all of them. I will accept them there, and we will be in covenant, and the idea is forever and forever and forever. And so I know that many of you are new on this whole subject, so I've lost you probably for the last five minutes on this. You say the last five minutes. So I realize it's new to you, but the fact that it's new to you, one of these days it has to become familiar with you, so this is the day we're beginning. As I talk to different ones, I go, I'm confused. That's okay. Use your confusion as hunger to actually read the verses and get familiar. You spend five or six, seven hours on this, you will be familiar with it. You won't be confused anymore. You're only confused because wherever you were at, they never taught this. This is main biblical, emphasized truth for the end-time church to understand. This is really important to know this. And so if you don't grasp it, and I'm sure a number of you didn't grasp this last part, just in the E12 groups, talk about it. Say, I didn't get the part about 1948 and not being Ezekiel 20 gathering. That's the part that still confuses me. And those that are a little bit familiar, you know how massive that statement is that I just said. Let's go to paragraph J. Going back to Revelation 12. John says, here's what's going to happen. Paragraph J. That Israel, I mean they, the Gentiles, are going to feed her. For three and a half years. For three and a half years, they. Who is they? The they are non-Jews. Who are the non-Jews that are going to feed Israel? I guarantee it's not the Antichrist people. Who is they? Beloved, you have made it in the Bible, in the book of Revelation. There you are, right there. They. Circle and say, Mom, I made it. I'm in Revelation. Well, honey, where? Well, they. Well, that's not you. Yeah, it is, Mom. And it could be you, too, if you'll really plug in. I wouldn't say that. Don't say that. Mike Bickle told me to tell you that, Mom. If you'd plug in. Oh, no. Lord, forgive me. Mom, forgive me, too, whoever you are. They. The they that feeds Israel are not Jews. The they that feeds Israel are not unbelievers. Who's going to feed Israel that God has prepared ahead of time for this hour? Clearly, the prophetic church. Clearly, the people of God. Because the battle is going to come right down to the wire over this issue of Satan wants to wipe out the entire nation. But it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. So you get to do a little bit of the Moses ministry. Because Moses fed Israel in the wilderness. You get to have a little piece of the Moses ministry. You get to feed a little bit of end time Israel. Let's go to paragraph five. I mean, Roman numeral five. Then what happens after this? This is in the sequence of the chapter. I'm just going back to the order of the chapter. After this war. I mean, the story is being told. And John wants us to know why it's so intense. Why Israel is fleeting in the wilderness. And why does she need protection? Why does she need to be fed? Why is she in flight? Why is she refugees? What is going on? And then the passage we've already read. So we don't have to spend time on it. War broke out in heaven. It's the last three and a half years. The good angels are fighting the bad angels. Satan's kicked out. And he's really mad. And he's on the earth. Revelation. Not Revelation six. Roman numeral six. Don't take my notes that serious. Roman numeral six. Then I heard a loud voice. This is describing the second coming. This is a second coming passage. I heard a loud voice. And the voice said salvation and good strength and the kingdom of our God. The power of Christ has come. In other words, God's power is openly manifest. Because the accuser of the brethren, Satan. He's been cast down. And they. Here's that they again. Say, Mom, I'm in the Bible twice in the book of Revelation. They overcame. Who is they? It's the they that is feeding Israel. It's the same they as verse six. It's the same group. They overcame Satan. Wait. I thought Satan overcame us. Revelation 13 seven says Satan overcame the saints. Here it says the saints overcome Satan. Again, he overcomes some of the saints, not all of them, with martyrdom. Physically, we overcome him spiritually because we're fearless before death. Because we know we live forever and we'll rule on the earth. And we want to obey no matter what it costs us. That is the way we overcome Satan. That his threats and accusations were unmoved. He says, I will kill you. How do you threaten a man or a woman who's not afraid of death? I will kill you. Then I enter into my inheritance. I can't defeat them. Because to defeat us means, spiritually, is that we join into the great apostasy. The great falling away. Now look at this. This is the they. This is the Gentile believers here from verse six who are standing in this conflict. Now, beloved, we quote this verse a lot. I mean this chapter 12, verse 10 to 12. We quote it out of context, which is okay. Because we can use it for all kinds of situations. The Lord doesn't mind that. But we don't want to forget its context. The context is about the dragon trying to wipe out the nation of Israel. That's the context of this passage. You can't pull this out and forget its context. They overcame Satan because they refused to back down. That's the reason they overcame. And here's how they overcame. By the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, they did not love their life even unto death. These are the three weapons that the prophetic church that is standing with Israel will need these three weapons in the great war. These are not small. These are giant. We need these three weapons. I don't want to develop them right now. But this is talking about the prophetic church in the midst of the war in the spirit where Satan is trying to devour the woman in the end times. And they, we stand up, and many of us will die and many of us will not die. More of us will not die. More will live than die. But the number of martyrs will be beyond any time in history. And it goes on. It says this, Beloved, the Jews are going to have a particular focus of Satan's attack against them. But it's not confined to the Jews, the whole inhabitants of the earth. Woe to the sea. Now, we didn't know what woe to the sea meant until Katrina came along. Woe to the sea because the devil has come down to you, to the earth and to the sea. Satan is going to come down. He's going to walk through the sea and cause tremendous disturbance in the seas. He is so angry. He has great wrath. He knows he only has three and a half years to go. I'm just adding that. He knows his time is short, but we know, putting the Bible with the Bible, it's a three and a half year period is what he has left. He is so enraged. The seas are overflowing, and he's killing people, and he's walking through the earth in rage. And he says, I will destroy the nation of Israel. Because if he destroys the nation of Israel, Jesus can't come back and throw him into prison. Let's go to the final part here. Now, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, this didn't happen at the cross. This happens right before the second coming. He is physically, literally on the earth. Not symbolically. He is actually on the earth. When he'd be cast to the earth, here's what he's going to do. When Satan is cast to the earth, he has one, number one priority on his mind, to persecute the woman. The believers, the people who are responding to God's word, who live in Israel, he says, I am going to persecute her. And he's on the earth. He's going right to the nation of Israel to wipe them out. Beloved, this is a hostile environment that's coming ahead of us. I'm going to kill the woman who gave birth 2,000 years ago to the man-child. I'm going to kill her, the remnant. However, the woman was given two wings of a great eagle. Satan is going, ah, this frustrates me. I got her. And God breaks in, just like with the days of Moses. He makes a way for her to leave the nation. She goes in flight. She flies to the wilderness. We just talked what happens in Ezekiel 20. In the wilderness, he talks to her face-to-face, and the people that say yes, he brings them in the bond of covenant. To the people that say no, of the Jews, he purges them, he kills them, and he won't bring them back into the land. He says he'll bring them out of the nation that they were hiding in, but he won't bring them back to the land. Interesting point. Israel is going to fly to the wilderness for the last 3 1⁄2 years. She'll do this for time, time, and half of times. That's Daniel. The prophet used that. It means 3 1⁄2 years. Don't be tripped by that. All teachers on end-time prophecy understand that. They all agree with it. It means 3 1⁄2 years because Daniel used it. God is going to take Israel out of the nation of Israel, not all of them because there still will be some believers in the land. There are still believers in the land when Jesus marches up into the land, but many of them will be out of the land. And many of the Jews are also in the nations of the earth, but they're going to go into hiding. They're going to go into flight. They're going to become refugees even in their home nations. They will become refugees. They will be in flight like in the Nazi regime. And God's preparing a place for them, not just geographic places, which surely that's what it means as well, but he's preparing people like us, the prophetic church. We are going to cooperate with God in the preparedness now to be a source of supply in that hour. And God's going to nourish the nation of Israel. Can you imagine God's going to use the church? Not only the church. He's going to do it supernaturally too. Bread's going to come from heaven like manna. Water's going to come out of a rock just like he did with Moses. So it won't be all the church, but God's going to do some of it just supernaturally. He is going to feed her for 3 1⁄2 years. Can you imagine an entire nation in flight? I said it exaggerated. Not the entire nation, but a large portion of the Jews in flight. Even in their own home nations, they're going to be refugees. But God will supernaturally give them signs and wonders to keep them alive. Is that amazing drama coming? Beloved, when we pray for the nation of Israel, we may be saying, Oh, God, help them. We may not have great language, but God understands where this thing is going. Verse 15, So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood. Now that means persecution. He wants to carry this woman away. Use the word, the dramatic, frightening word. He wants to exterminate them. He wants to carry them all away. He's going after the woman. That's what's on his mind. But he can't get to her. He can't get to her. He can't wipe them all out. And he's frustrated beyond anything he's ever experienced. Verse 16, Even the earth helps her. The earth is going to help her. How does the earth help her? I have it in the notes. We won't go to it. But the earth is going to help her in the way it did help Israel in the days of Moses. Here's Israel, 3 million of them walking in the wilderness. And all of a sudden, manna comes from the sky. Water comes from a rock. They're in a desert. Can you imagine how much water it takes to give water to 3 million people every day? Not just to drink, to bathe, to everything, to cook. And then they all have animals. I mean, 3 million people. There's probably 10 million animals. I don't know, 20 million animals. They all have to drink. It comes out. It's water out of a rock. It's flowing like a river out of that rock. It's not talking about a little drinking fountain where, you know, 3 million of them stood in line, took a little sip, and the next one came. Beloved, it's a river flowing out of a rock. Some of us think it's kind of real domestic and kind of tamed. No, it's a torrent flowing out of a rock. The earth is going to help her. It says in a passage here in Exodus 15. I got it in the notes. I won't look at it now. But it says when the nation of Egypt was coming after Israel, they marched through the Red Sea. Now, we all know that the sea swallowed them up. You know what it says? When Moses sang that event back to God, he didn't say the sea swallowed them up. He does a couple of times. But one time he says the earth swallowed them up. So God is going to use the earth with miracles to stop some of the people invading to try to kill these Jews in flight. Even like an earthquake will hit or the ground will open up just like the Red Sea swallowed up the armies of Pharaoh. It's going to be very dramatic. This is the supernatural. There's a they that is helping back in verse 6 and verse 10. There's people that are preparing for Israel, a they. But now there's a supernatural dimension of the earth helping. So it's people helping the prophetic church, and it's the elements under God's sovereign authority. They're all working together to supply for Israel. So it's a they in verse 6, and it's the earth in verse 16. They're all helping the woman. Verse 17. He can't exterminate her because the elements keep operating under the power of God. How do you think those elements are going to operate? I'll tell you how they're going to operate under the power of God. It's not going to be a band of Jews running, and all of a sudden water shows up. There's going to be believers covenanted to Jesus in their midst, and they're going to speak the word of God, and they're going to command it by the prophetic oracle, and the bread will multiply by the word of command, and the rivers will flow out of a rock like Moses had to speak to the rock. It didn't happen by itself. He had to speak to it. God does everything by his people speaking the word. Satan will recognize this, and we'll end here in verse 17. And the dragon who was so enraged with this woman, I mean enraged, remember from verse 12, he is enraged with her. His time is short. He's enraged here in verse 17. He looked at the people that are helping the provision. He went to the rest of her offspring. Those are born-again believers, the people who keep the commands of God and have the testimony of Jesus, and he went to make war with them. And then Revelation 13 tells about the war he has against the saints. Beloved, two things I want to hit here in verse 17. He is going to make war with the people that are working together with the Lord to help Israel. That's the number one point I want to make. And the last point I want to make, it says this. Underline this on your notes. The rest of her offspring. There will not be any Gentiles that are not in this battle. Every single one of the offspring of God, we will all be focused together on this war that's going on. Well, I'm not into the Israel thing. Well, if you were in they back in verse 6, mark yourself out. Because the rest of her offspring, every single Gentile believer on the earth will be involved in this rescue operation in the Holy Spirit with prophetic power and direction. Every single believer. Say, well, what happens to the believers who don't want to? That's for another day. It's not good news, though.