Posts Tagged ‘Revelation’

The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 2 Pt 2

Isaiah 40: “Every valley shall be exalted. Every mountain and hill will be brought low.”

This is what Zechariah talked about. It is going to be a plain. It is going to be leveled and elevated. The glory of the Lord will be revealed. We know this is not just a one-time revival because it is the glory revealed when the entire human race sees it so it is clearly connected to the second coming. So as related to the second coming, it is not correct to read this verse just figuratively, like the valleys in our life, the low spots, are going to be brought into balance, though it really does mean that. There is a personal, figurative application, but there is a literal one about the glory of Jerusalem where all of the valleys are going to be leveled out and all the mountains and hills are going to be brought low, because the Lord is creating a setting. It is so important to Him! He puts it in the prophet’s mouth thousands of years ahead of time, because it means that much to Him, this forty-mile kind-of-diameter area that this plain is going to be happening in.

Some see this prophecy of the “mountain of the Lord’s house” as being completely fulfilled by the Church preaching God’s word to every sphere of society and God’s kingdom gaining full authority over all society in this age (before Jesus returns), or being established “on the top of the mountains.” They only see “mountains” as a figure of speech symbolizing the spheres of society, and the instruments such as swords, plowshares, spears, and pruning hooks (2:4) are seen only as symbols.

I appreciate this interpretation, but I do not want to limit this glorious passage to this interpretation.

Literal Interpretation
The very popular way to read this passage is that people see the mountain of the Lord figuratively as the Church, and the way that the mountain of the Lord is on top of everything is they are preaching and we have influence over the spheres of society. So we are over them. I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit uses this passage for that, but that is only a little bit of what this passage is about. This passage is about the glory of the New Jerusalem in the age to come.
They see the mountains only as a figure of speech. When you read the rest of the passage, there are these instruments: swords, and plowshares, and spears. They see those just as symbols. All kind of different groups give different interpretations. They say, for example, “It is really the gospel being preached over the mountain of media and the mountain of education and the mountain of this, and the mountain of that.”
Again, I appreciate that because the Lord wants the Church to go forward. However, the full meaning of this passage, the grand meaning of this passage, is, as the Lord might say, “My mountain house is what I am talking about ultimately.” I mean you could feel free to use that passage that way. I mean, I think the Holy Spirit uses it in that way, but you do not want to limit this most magnificent passage only to Christian ministry in this age. It is something far bigger. Because if it is just Christian ministry in this age, well, a lot of people are involved in that. They get discouraged, they get bitter, they get in strife, and they get burned out. When I see the city and the Man behind it and that He planned it for me, that my inheritance is there and that He has thought of every detail, I see His extravagance, then commitment seems doable. I do not want to lose that by only seeing Christian ministry. Because if Christian ministry is all this verse means, then there you go, Body of Christ, Christian ministry does not keep people steady. They get discouraged, they quit, they fall into sin, and they are bitter. All kinds of negative things happen.
This is an anchor point of which Abraham was gripped. Isaiah was gripped by it. Jesus said, “That is the city of the Great King. It is My city. That is what I am locked into this city.” So I want you to catch that because, again, if you lose this, then the end-time storyline is doom and gloom and it is negative. No, no! There is a city being prepared, and it is going to fill the earth or a part of it. It is worth it. So this is critical that we lock into this reality.
The Church is to make a measure of impact upon society in this age as salt and light (Mt. 5:13-16). 
The kings of the earth will be at war against Jesus in the end times (Rev. 17:2; 19:19; Ps. 2:2-3). Continue reading

How to “Pray-Read” the Word

There are atheists who study the bible and bear no fruit, there are Christians who study it and also are fruitless.  Matthew 13 reveals that our heart is a soil and the Word is a seed but there are obstacles to get the conditions right for the seed to take root.  A big one is that we would not just read the Word but to have a relationship with Jesus with the bible as our holy conversation material and means of transformation.  We want to know Him as He actually is, not who we imagine Him to be, this method helps us connect with the reality of Jesus.

It is not enough to study the Bible—we must talk to God as we study.  Bible study is meant to lead us to conversation with God by giving us the “conversational material” for our prayer life. It provides the language we use as we talk to Him. Using the Bible and speaking the Word back to God makes prayer easy and enjoyable. It “turns up the volume” in our conversation with God.

You search the Scriptures [Bible study], for in them you think you have…life; these are they which testify of Me. 40You are not willing to come to Me [talk to Me] that you may have life.” (Jn. 5:39-40)

  • Jesus called us to abide in Him. The foundation of this reality means talking with Him. We do this best as we pray-read the Word, which is simply speaking its truths back to Him as we read it.

5He who abides in [talks to Me] Me, and I in him [I abide or talk to you], bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing…7If you abide in [talk to Me] Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (Jn. 15:5-7)

  • I offer the following suggestions as a method of “prayer-reading.” As you read through the Bible or teachings notes on the Bible, I suggest that you pray the Bible passages back to God. This will help you to practically give your heart to God and to receive from Him.

There are Two broad categories of Scripture for to pray-reading the Word:

  • Scriptures that focus on promises “to believe” in God’s Word. For example, use Scriptures that declare that God loves, forgives, leads, protects, or provides for us, etc.
  • Scriptures that focus on exhorting us “to obey” God’s Word. For example, use Scriptures that command us to bridle our tongue, serve others and give time and money to God, etc.

I.

We actively dialogue with God by praying promises from His Word that we are to believe.

  • First, we thank God for a particular truth. We turn these truths into simple declarations of thanksgiving or trust. For example, say: “Thank you that You love me, that you forgave me.” Or declare: “I trust that You will lead, provide, and protect me.” When the Lord says in Song 4:9, “You have ravished My heart,” we respond by thanking Him for this truth.

II.

  • Second, we ask God to reveal (release) particular truths to us. Ask God to release a spirit of revelation (Eph. 1:17).
  • For example, pray: “Father, reveal to me the certainty of Your provision; how much You love me, forgive me; how I have ravished Your heart.” Or, “Father, release Your promised guidance, provision, and protection,” etc. When Lord says in Song 4:9, “You have ravished My heart”, we respond by asking for more insight.

We actively dialogue with God by praying truths back to Him that exhort us to obey His Word.

  • First, we commit ourselves to obey God in the specific way set forth in a biblical passage. Make declarations of resolve to obey the Word as you read passages about obedience. For example, declare: “I set my heart to love You and obey You with my speech, time, money, etc.” Or “I set my heart to love you like David, to endure hardship like Paul.”

37You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart… (Mt. 22:37)

2If anyone does not stumble in word, he is…also to bridle the whole body. (Jas 3:2)

  • When the Lord exhorts the bride in Song 2:8-10 to arise in order to follow Him to the mountains, leaving the comfort zone behind. Take time to speak the intent of your heart to obey this passage. These sweet resolutions to obey will strengthen our heart.

“I set my heart to pray like Daniel or do miracles like Paul in the Book of Acts.”

  • Second, we ask God to empower us to obey a particular truth seen in Scripture. Ask God for help to give you wisdom, motivation, and power to obey in specific areas. For example, pray: “Father help me to love You, to bridle my speech, to use my time and money in full obedience.” “Father, strengthen me by your grace to love you like David.
  • When the Lord exhorts the bride in Song 2:8-10 to arise in order to follow Him to the mountains, leaving the comfort zone behind. Take time to specifically ask the Lord to empower your heart to obey this passage.

“Father, lead me away from temptation” (Mt. 6:13), or “deliver me from the works of the evil one” (Jn. 17:15).

III.

Two ways to focus our mind in seeking God: God on His Throne (Rev. 4) and God in our spirit

14The love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor. 13:14, NAS)

38Out of his heart [belly, KJV] will flow rivers of living water… (Jn. 7:38)

Methods of going deeper:

  1. Linger in God’s presence: in dialoging with God in the Word. Take time to linger as you speak slowly to God (include declaring your love and praise, praying with your spirit and being quiet).  This is ‘devotional prayer.’
  2. Journaling: take time to record thoughts and prayers as you “pray-read” through Scripture. This helps us capture the truths that the Spirit gives us and to grow in our prayer dialogue with God. The anointing of the Spirit in you is your best teacher. When you pray the Word in spirit and truth, you and the Spirit work together to provide you with a tailor made teaching in the Word.

27 The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things… (1 Jn. 2:27)

Examples of Pray-Reading the Word

  • Jesus promises to reveal the Father’s personality to us as the way to impart love in us for God:

26 I (Jesus) have declared to them Your name (Father’s), and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. (Jn. 17:26)

  1. Pray:I thank You for Your commitment to declare (reveal) the Father’s heart to me, release more.
  2. Pray:I thank You for imparting Your love to my heart, please release more.
  • God promises to show His power to those who are loyal to Him.
  • Pray:I thank You committing to show Yourself strong in me, release it. I set my heart to be loyal to the Spirit’s leadership in all that I do with my speech, eyes, actions, time and money. Help me to walk this out.”

9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. (2 Chr. 16:9)

  • Jesus promises to manifest His presence to those who obey and keep or ‘treasure’ His commandments:

21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him… (Jn. 14:21)

  1. Pray: I thank You for committing to manifest Your presence to my heart, release it more. I set my heart to keep (obey) Your Word in my speech, time, money, etc. Holy Spirit, help me to do this.”
  2. Note: the Father loves everyone in the sense of valuing, caring for and pursuing them. However, He only loves the lifestyle, choices, sacrifices and fruit of those who pursue 100-fold obedience.
  3. We are called to obey the Holy Spirit’s leadership in what we look at. Pray: I set my heart to not look on anything that quenches the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, help me to do this with consistency.

1 I have made a covenant with my eyes; why should I look upon a young woman? (Job 31:1)

3 I will set nothing wicked before my eyes… (Ps. 101:3)

  1. We are called to obey the Holy Spirit’s leadership in our speech. God promises that our whole body (our human passions) will be bridled as we obey the Spirit in our speech. Pray: “I set my heart to keep (obey) Your Word in my speech. Holy Spirit, help me to do this with consistency.”

14 Let the words of my mouth…meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight (Ps. 19:14)

14 Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may be blameless. (Phil. 2:14)

18 In everything give thanks…19 Do not quench the Spirit. (1 Thes. 5:18-19)

  • God promises to save or deliver those who lay aside filthiness as they meditate on His Word. Pray: “I thank You for desiring to deliver my soul from filthiness in me, please release it. I set my heart to lay aside all filthiness and to implant your Word in my heart with meditation and meekness. Please help me to do this with consistency.”

21 Lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save (liberate, deliver) your souls. (Jas 1:21)

  • God promised that we are a new creation based on giving us the gift of God’s righteousness. Pray: “I thank You and declaration my trust that you have given me the righteousness of God, please reveal it to me more by the spirit of revelation. I declare, that all things are new and the old things of my guilt has passed away in Your sight.”

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new…21 For He (Father) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor. 5:17-21)

Revelation of Intercession

The Revelation of Intercession is one of the great needs of the hour, even in the context of the
prayer  movement,  to  receive  Holy  Spirit  revelation  as  to  how  intercession  works  and  how
valuable it is in God’s kingdom. Not just how valuable it is right now, but how valuable it is in
His kingdom in eternity. Intercession is the central activity in the governing of God’s kingdom,
for ever and ever and ever.

When we gain revelation of how intercession works from God’s point of view, particularly the
value of weak intercession, or intercession that appears to be weak; when we see it from God’s
point of view with revelation, it really changes the way that we engage with it.

THE PRIMARY WAY THAT GOD GOVERNS THE UNIVERSE
I. The primary way that God governs the universe.

A.  God  has  chosen  intercession  as  the  primary  means  through  which  He  releases  His
government.  When  I  say  “His  government,”  I  mean  “His  power.”  It’s  the  primary  way  He
releases it, through Jesus, and it’s the primary way He releases it through His people now and
forever.

That is a stunning concept, that we will be interceding forever, and so will Jesus, as a means of
releasing God the Father’s power into the natural realm.

The natural realm will continue forever. At the second coming, heaven is coming to the earth.
Jesus is bringing the New Jerusalem to the earth. The two realms are coming together, the natural
and the spiritual realm. The natural realm isn’t going to disappear, but in the spirit realm, God is
bringing heaven down to the earth, and both realms will exist together forever, and forever, and
forever.

THE MAJESTY AND MYSTERY OF INTERCESSION
Look at Hebrews 7:25. I like to talk about the majesty and the mystery of intercession. There is a
majesty to intercession; there is a mystery to it. This majesty and mystery is seen best or first in
the fact that Jesus lives forever to make intercession. Can you imagine that Jesus, a million years
from now, will still be making intercession.

THE MYSTERY OF INTERCESSION
B. The mystery of intercession. The primary principle of intercession is this, and this is why it’s
so mysterious: It’s simply to tell God what He tells us to tell Him. It’s so simple that we miss it.
We need a revelation of the simplicity of it. It is profoundly simple. The mystery of intercession
is in its so-called weakness, its simplicity, its humility, and its accessibility to everyone.

THE SIMPLICITY OF INTERCESSION
It’s mysterious that the highest release of God’s power is so simple, and so humble, and yet so
accessible forever, to everyone who names the name of Jesus. It is accessible to them forever.
Yet this simple reality has such profound impact in the life of a believer.

I’m just going to summarize a little of the impact. The impact is that intercession brings
us into intimacy with God’s heart. It brings us into unity with God’s people. It transforms our
inner man. It trains us to function in His government, now and in the age to come.

The simplicity of intercession has that kind of impact upon the people of God. We will look a
little at what I mean by a few of these sentences and how they relate to intercession.

THE MAJESTY OF INTERCESSION

The majesty of intercession is in that it is the highest means of releasing God’s power. There is no
other means in God’s kingdom through which He releases His power that is more effective, or that He uses more often than intercession. The angels pray and declare God’s prophetic decrees.
Jesus as God, before He became Man, would speak in this intercessory principle to release the
power to create the heavens and the earth.

Even Jesus functioned that way as God in eternity, and then as Man He functioned that way, and
even now as a man at the right hand of the Father. Of course He is fully God as well, but He still
relates to the Father in terms of releasing power through intercession. It is majestic that God
Himself, the second person of the Trinity, humbles Himself to the wisdom of this mode of
releasing the Father’s power.

THE PRINCIPLE OF INTERCESSION
II. Jesus, at the time of creation, used intercession. I call it the principle of intercession. What I
mean by the principle of intercession is that He spoke the words and thoughts that were on the
Father’s heart. That’s what I mean by the principle of intercession: The Father had ideas in His
mind, and Jesus articulated those ideas. He spoke them out, and then the Spirit was hovering
over the earth moved in power, but only after the Word was spoken.

The Spirit was hovering, brooding over the earth in Genesis 1, waiting for God to speak. God the
Father had the ideas clearly in His mind. The Holy Spirit wasn’t waiting for the Father to make
up His mind; the Holy Spirit was waiting for the idea, and the thoughts that were in the Father’s
heart to be declared openly, and then He moved in power.

The One who declared them openly was the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Himself. He was
the agent of the Father for creation, and the Spirit moved only when Jesus spoke the words of the
Father.

B. Jesus is identified as the Creator. I have a number of verses there. The Father is the Creator in
the general sense, but Jesus was under the Father’s authority, speaking what was in the Father’s
heart, and then the Spirit moved.

JESUS UPHOLDS ALL THINGS
III. Not only did Jesus create that way, but even now Jesus is sustaining creation. He is keeping it
together. He is holding it in place in the same way that He created it, by speaking the Father’s
word back to Him.

It says in Hebrews 1 that Jesus upholds all things (Heb. 1:3).

How is He upholding all things? I’m talking about the created order.

The  scientists  still  can’t  figure  out  how  the  atom  stays  together,  with  all  the  energy  of  the
electrons and the protons and the neutrons. How does this thing stay together? It’s mysterious. If
Jesus quit speaking the Word, all the created order would dissipate. But He upholds it; how? He
speaks the word of God. It is His Father’s word that He speaks.

It says in Colossians 1 that Jesus is before all things (Col. 1:17), meaning He existed before
anything else did. He is uncreated, like God the Father. “In Him all things consist,” the New
King James says; the NASB and the NIV say, “All things hold together because of Him.” I
mean, literally, the planets, the beating of your heart, the sun shining, and the processes of life
itself only hold together because of the present-tense government of Jesus, speaking the word of
His power.

ARTICULATING THE IDEAS WITHIN THE FATHER’S HEART
You’re probably familiar with this principle; I’m just going to mention it and then move on. When
Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, in Matthew 4, during each of the three temptations
He said, “It is written,” and He spoke the word of the Father, and then the power was released,
and then Satan was driven away.

It is the most simple, yet most absolutely remarkable reality, that the Father has ideas in His
heart. He has ordained that those ideas must be spoken; that they must be articulated or sung, and
that, when they are spoken or sung, when they’re articulated, then the Spirit releases power
wherever the word is spoken. If we lay hands on people and speak them, healing happens. If we
don’t do it, many healings don’t happen.

If we speak the Word of God over our own heart, power touches our heart. If we don’t speak the
Word of God, there is power that would have touched us that the Lord holds back.

THE SPIRIT MOVES WHEN THE WORD IS SPOKEN
The Spirit moves when the Word is spoken, in whatever sphere the Word is spoken. Whether it
is Jesus speaking about the heavens and the earth, and the Spirit moving, or whether we are
speaking at a prayer meeting or worshipping and contributing to the release of God’s power in
that region or area, the area we’re focused on.

Whether we’re speaking the word to the devil who’s coming, and the power of God drives back
the work of darkness, or whether we’re speaking the Word of God in our heart, or whether we’re
speaking it to a friend, we call that fellowship and then that friend changes their mind from
depression and discouragement, and there is a strengthening of divine life in their heart. We call
it encouragement because the word went forth and then the Spirit touched their heart a little.

The point I want you to get is that God’s government is through the speaking of the Word, and
that’s really what intercession is. It’s simply saying what God says to say. Jesus is not taken back
by this reality. Jesus speaks what He already knows the Father is thinking. It wasn’t a new idea:
“Let there be light.” Jesus knew that that was what was on the Father’s heart, but there’s actually
a process in the government of God that is necessary.

The Word needs to be spoken.

JESUS, THE WORD OF GOD
IV—Jesus is the Word of God. We all know this passage well, and we’ve red it, and we love it,
but what does it mean? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was with God” (Jn. 1:1). The Word is Jesus. All things were made through this Person,
who is the Word.

A. When Jesus articulates the Father’s thoughts, He is functioning as the living Word of God.
One  reason  Jesus  is  called  the  Word  is  because  He  brings  the  Father’s  private  ideas  into
existence in the natural realm through Jesus speaking them, or through the Body of Christ related
to Jesus speaking, so that God’s purposes are released into the natural realm.

Things that God wants to do that are not being done yet happen when Jesus or His people speak
under the Father’s authority, and the Spirit is more than willing to move.

Now we don’t speak one time, and it’s done. There’s a whole Body of Christ worldwide prayer
movement that is being raised up, that is in unity with the Head. That’s where it’s going. It’s not
that unified with the Head right now, but it’s going to be.

MOSES, THE PHARAOH, AND THE ANTICHRIST
It will release the greatest revival at the end of the age, and it’s going to be the power of God
stopping and bringing deliverance, where great judgments and great shakings are taking place as
well as the rage of Satan. It will be the rod of Jesus’ mouth, even through the lips of Jesus’
Church.

In the way that Moses extended His rod before Pharaoh, the end-time Church will extend its rod
before the Antichrist, of whom Pharaoh was a type, and the power of God will go forth as
described in the book of Revelation, through the rod that is extended which is called “the Body
of Christ in intercession.”

The Bible calls it the rod of Jesus’ mouth. The rod of His mouth goes forth from Him directly,
but the rod of His mouth also goes forth through His people. The end-time Church will be in the
same role altogether, collectively, that Moses had before Pharaoh.

What if Moses had gotten raptured before he went to Egypt? He looked at the Jews in slavery
and said, “Sorry guys, I prepared forty years in the wilderness so that I could get taken out before
the drama.” We don’t want to be taken out before the drama. We want to extend the rod of God
in the midst of it, and we want to make the difference in the will of God.

Not that we get to vote on it anyway. One guy says, “I don’t want to be in the drama.” I tell him,
“It’s all good to say so, and we call it fellowship, but you don’t get to vote. They like you up
there in heaven, but you don’t get to vote on this. It’s called the Word of God, and it’s already
settled.”

SHALL NOT GOD AVENGE HIS ELECT?
V—Jesus releases God’s justice in response to intercession. We know this passage well, all of us
who are in this room. “Shall not God avenge His elect?” the NKJV says (Luke 18:8). The NASB
says this, and I like this: “Shall not God bring about justice for the people who cry out night and
day?” You can call it vengeance or justice; it’s the same things.

JUSTICE ESTABLISHED THROUGH NIGHT-AND-DAY PRAYER
A. Jesus taught that justice would be established through night-and-day prayer. Think about what
night-and-day prayer is: It’s speaking the Word of God. We are not coming up with new ideas;
we are speaking the ideas that God the Father has in His heart.

We are simply telling God what He tells us to tell Him, because there are a number of dynamic
realities that happen when we simply tell God what He tells us to tell Him. As simple as that is, it
is profound in its impact on the human spirit.

THE TWO SIDES OF JUSTICE
B.  There  are  two  sides  to  justice.  There  is  a  judgment  side  to  justice,  when  the  rebels  are
punished and there is salvation; there is a deliverance side to justice when the redeemed are
vindicated and delivered.

Justice has two sides: Night-and-day prayer releases justice in this age, and even in the age to
come, in the Millennial kingdom.

A very simple definition of justice is God making wrong things right. The way that God makes
wrong things right is when people cry out night and day. It’s justice in small measures, but still
it’s justice released. Every time we have a prayer meeting, every time we speak the Word over
someone in sin in prayer, or someone who has sickness, we lay hands on them, or maybe they’re
not even in the room, but every time we do it, there’s a small, incremental measure of justice
released.

Prayer releases justice. It stops the negative and releases the positive in terms of God’s salvation
and God’s judgment.

EXAMPLES OF GOD’S JUSTICE
C. Examples of God’s justice. We’re not going to go through all of them, just a couple of them.
Healing  is  God’s  judgment  on  sickness.  Revival  is  God’s  judgment  on  compromise  in  the
Church. Evangelism is God’s judgment upon blindness and darkness in the hearts of unbelievers.
God is judging darkness when evangelism takes place. Every one of these positive things are
expressions of the justice of God.

THE RELEASING OF JUSTICE
D.  Jesus  requires  night-and-day  prayer  for  the  release  of  justice.  I  want  to  encourage  you
intercessors, and the majority in this room are called to be intercessors, whether as your primary
calling, or your secondary calling, or you wouldn’t be in the room right now. It may not be your
primary calling, but it is part of your diverse calling in God.

NIGHT-AND-DAY PRAYER IN THE CITIES OF THE EARTH
I want to say this to you, so that you’re strengthened in your heart. God requires that prayer goes
night and day. Much of the Church doesn’t have a revelation of intercession, so it looks like how
I saw it when the Lord first called me to intercession. I thought an intercessor was a would-be
evangelist, wasted in a prayer room.

I  was  a  zealous,  not  a  very  anointed,  but  a  zealous  evangelist.  People  who  went  to  prayer
meetings were would-be soldiers in the army who were copping out. I didn’t like guys going to
prayer meetings. I saw them as sitting out of the war instead of getting in the war. I had no
revelation of intercession. It was a waste of time; it was a copout.

I want to say that God requires night-and-day prayer in the cities of the earth. I’m not saying that
everyone has to build an IHOP–KC and do it in one building, because there is night-and-day
prayer going on in many cities of the earth, though not from one building, but from God’s point
of view it’s happening in such a way that He can see it all the time, around the clock, in ways
that you or I can’t see, but He sees it.

I think that it’s exciting to do it in one building, but it isn’t necessary. There’s a lot more prayer
going on in the cities of the earth than we can put on our organizational ministry chart.

It’s still happening. God does require it, and the reason I’m telling you is because people will say
to you, “Man, you are using all this time and energy.” It’s biblical; Jesus requires it. The Church
doesn’t have a revelation of that, but He still requires it.

So stay steady; there is wisdom in this thing called intercession.

LOVING YOUR NEIGHBOR PRACTICALLY THROUGH INTERCESSION
The point I want to make is that not only does Jesus require it, but developing night-and-day
prayer ministries is one of the most practical expressions of loving your neighbor that I know of
in the Bible.

Again, not that your circle and the people you meet with have to do it night and day, but in the
city, the answer to the mom who brings her demonized son to you isn’t just doing a work of good
deeds. They need the demon to get cast out. When someone has cancer, they need the power of
healing.

The night-and-day prayer ministries are releasing greater dimensions of power. That is what the
Lord has promised He would do. He would release justice where there is oppression. We need
power, and the fact that you are contending for power and presence in your city is a dynamic
commitment to loving the people who are in bondage.
There is no freedom if someone doesn’t break through. We can have a fellowship dinner with
them; we can buy them a card; we can write them a card, but they want the demon cast out of
them. They appreciate the other things, but they say, “Is anyone going to pay the price, whatever
it is, in terms of contending together to get a breakthrough in our geographic area?”

Don’t let anyone tell you that your efforts in prayer are somehow the opposite of loving people.
Fasting and prayer are radical statements of expressing love to people. That’s not apparent until
the people get delivered. Then they say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, that you stayed
faithful.”

The point isn’t to get them to say, “Thank you;” that’s not the point. My point is that the love is
apparent  when  the  deliverance  begins  to  happen.  The  Lord  has  required  that  night-and-day
prayer go forth for justice to be released.

What God means by night-and-day prayer, I’m sure, is a number of different things. Again, don’t
lock it into your minds that you have to be in one building, and everyone has one organization,
and then do it there, and then night-and-day prayer exists. It means much, much more, so don’t
limit it to that.

RULING THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH THROUGH INTERCESSION
VI. When Jesus returns at the second coming, as fully God, but in His full humanity, He will rule
on the earth for a thousand years, and then after that comes the new heavens and the new earth,
which is the same earth that is right here now.

For a thousand years, Jesus will have a throne in Jerusalem that is dynamically connected to the
throne in the New Jerusalem.

The New Jerusalem is coming down. I don’t want to get into all that detail right now, but it says
three times in the book of Revelation that the New Jerusalem is coming down to the earth. The
heavenly  realm  is  coming  down  to  the  planet.  That  is  where  our  residence  is,  in  the  New
Jerusalem, but we will have assignments on the earth where the natural realm will be physical
and material. We will have anointed ministry on the earth forever and forever and forever.

It was always God’s plan to bring the two realms together on the earth, and to dwell with humans
with  humans  on  the  earth.  That’s  what  happens  at  the  end  of  the  book  of  Revelation  in
Revelation 21:3. We all know the passage, and it says, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and He will dwell with them.” He means that in the natural realm, on the earth, God will
dwell with humans and the two realms will come perfectly together.

The heavenly and the natural realms will be brought together, as Ephesians 1:10 says it will be,
and many other verses as well. At that time, Jesus will establish His throne on the earth.

THE GLOBAL PRAYER MINISTRY OF JESUS
What I found remarkable when I first saw this some time ago was that Jesus is going to be
leading a global prayer ministry as the means of releasing the renewal of the Father’s power
across the nations.

For some years I just assumed that when Jesus comes, everything is automatically fixed. It will
be fixed line by line, city by city, and intercession will be the primary vehicle that we will be
engaged in. We will be engaged in other forms of ruling, but nothing will have greater priority to
Jesus, or the Father, than the intercessory ministry of saints with resurrected bodies, as well as
the people who are living on the Millennial earth. They will be engaged in prayer meetings all
over the earth.

I have good news for you. The prayer ministry that you are contending for in your city is going
to continue for a long time after you’re gone. After the Lord returns, that ministry will continue
in your city. The prayers we’re praying in Kansas City will have value five hundred years from
now, not just in the next ten years.

Those prayers that we pray through history are a bowl before the Father’s throne. They are not
forgotten, and they are not lost. Their impact and their reality is alive before God as the bowls of
intercession from history are being filled up. The prayers of the saints from ages ago are still
alive before God, as are your prayers.

A. Psalm 2 is one of the great Psalms about Jesus’ return at the second coming. Psalm 2 has its
greatest fulfillment at the second coming. It is a fantastic Psalm about Jesus’ leadership over the
earth.

Here’s what I find so interesting: When I first began to see this, I was so taken aback by it
because I had no paradigm for it. I only saw intercession as something we did now. I didn’t have
revelation of it, of its grandness and its majesty in God’s eternal plan.

When I began to see it, and I don’t see it that clearly even now, but as I began to see it more and
more, it began to be very relevant to do weak and boring prayer meetings. They seemed totally
valuable. It completely changed the way I viewed a three-member payer meeting that had no
sense of power on it.

DECLARING THE DECREES OF THE FATHER
The Lord wants us to change our view of what’s really happening. He wants us to see reality, not
just with the natural eyes, when we come together in prayer.

In Psalm 2, Jesus is speaking, and He says, “I will declare the decree” (Psalm 2:7), the decree of
the Lord, the Father’s decree. That’s what He’s been doing for a long time. Back in Genesis 1,
Jesus was declaring the Father’s decrees: “Let there be light,” and then the Spirit said, “I heard
it,” and boom! Light was created.

“Let there be the dry ground.” Jesus declared the Father’s decree. The Spirit said, “I love it,” and
the dry ground was created, and He said, “Keep going, Jesus, this is great.”

Jesus declared the Father’s decrees back in Genesis 1, and He’s still doing it. David is talking
about Jesus coming as King of the earth in Jerusalem to rule the nations for a thousand years.

David is describing the dialogue within the Trinity that he sees by revelation. He says, “There I
was; Jesus was before the Father.”

“What did He say, David?”

“It was amazing. Jesus said, ‘I will declare the decree of the Father. Father, You said to Me, I am
Your Son, and You told Me, Father, to ask You for the nations. Father, give me the nations.’”

This is Jesus praying before the Father at the time of the second coming. Jesus will only possess
the nations fully through intercession; even through His own intercession. Even when He comes
to possess all the nations, the nations won’t be instantly Christianized in twenty-four hours. It
doesn’t work that way.

HOW DOES JESUS ACCOMPLISH HIS WILL AT HIS COMING?
I’ve asked people to think about this. Of course, a lot of folks don’t really think about this.
“Well, Jesus comes, we get Raptured, and we get taken away and we harp on a cloud for billions
of years, and I don’t know what we do, but we do something. It’s supposed to be cool. I don’t
know what we do, but I hope we do more than worship. ‘We love You, God, but a million years
later, is there anything else we can do besides worship?’” They have this idea that heaven is a
fleecy white cloud far away with a harp, and a guy next to you playing another instrument, and
you get to fellowship occasionally.

That is not what heaven is. When the Lord returns and there’s evil in the nations, He doesn’t
return on the day of His coming and raise His hand, and all several billion people on the earth
just pass out and die at that second.

I’ve asked people, “Well, what happens when Jesus comes?” There are three, four, or five billion
people. A lot get killed in the judgments, but say there are three, four, or five billion people left.
What happens to them, to those who aren’t reprobate?

“Jesus kills them!”

“OK. How does that work? Does He wave His hand and they all die? Do some of them die?” The
Bible gives really clear answers to this.

“OK, so let’s say a lot of them die; what do they do? Do they disintegrate? Do they evaporate?
Does someone bury them? What about all the broken-down cities? Who fixes them up? Does
Jesus wave His hand, and then they just shoot right back up?
“Who moves the rocks, like in war-torn Europe in 1945 after the war, when all the cities were
bombed out? Are they instantly cleared the day Jesus comes and waves His hands?”

“I thought we were just playing a harp out in heaven! I don’t know what we do.”

The Bible has much information about this kind of stuff. The process of restoring and renewing
the nations is lengthy, and it is thorough, though not only is it thorough, but Jesus makes His
own intercession primary in the possessing of the nations at the second coming.

We will intercede with more anointing and clarity at that time than we do now, but what we’re
doing now has continuity with then. They’re not disconnected; it’s one continuum. It’s one
reality, what we’re doing even now. It relates to then. When that touches us, what we’re doing in
weakness is dynamic because we know He sees it and He likes it.

EMBRACING WHAT MEN CALL FOOLISH
VII. Intercession means embracing what men call foolish and what men call weak. Paul says in 1
Corinthians 1, “God has chosen the foolish things” —now you need to add the phrase, “The so-
called foolish things.” They’re not foolish in reality, and they’re not foolish to God. They are
foolish in the esteem of men. He has called the foolish things to put to shame the wise.

He has called the weak things. They aren’t really weak; from God’s point of view, they are wise,
and that is where His power releases. The weak and the foolish things are humility, fasting,
prayer, serving, obeying, giving, telling God what He tells us to tell Him, and agreeing with who
God is. “You are good; You are love; I like You; You like me; I will serve You. You like me; I
am Yours. You like me.” I always throw that one in about every other one. Declaring those
simple things and agreeing with God is what releases power into the created order.

“God has chosen” —and you know this passage, most of you. There’s more to the passage than I
have on the text here. It’s fantastic. He has chosen the so-called foolish things, like prayer,
fasting, obedience, and meekness, and these kinds of things He has chosen utterly to put to
shame the world system. That happens in a dynamic way at the second coming.

That’s when it goes to a whole new level. It’s happening between now and then, but I mean
literally the prayerful, obeying people will take over the governments of the earth in historical
reality. I mean, it’s real. It’s going to be in real time and space on the earth, at the time of the
second coming.

It’s not that the wise things of the world are put to shame; they’re completely removed by the
praying, obeying people who are called weak right now. This is an actual prophecy, not just a
neat little proverb for life. No, this is a declarative statement about how God is going to change
the governments of the entire earth through the things that men call weak and foolish, through
fasting, praying, and obeying people.

Paul was telling them, “Guys, don’t be tripped up by the apparent weakness of fasting and
prayer. It’s not weak before God.”

We offer our prayers in weakness, but because of who Jesus is, and who the Father is, our
prayers ascend before the Father in strength and in power. They live forever. I don’t know if it’s
forever, but it’s for a really, really long time, enough to where the prayers from history are still in
the bowl around the throne.

I don’t know how long they live, but they live for a really long time.

“MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU”
C. Jesus is speaking to Paul the apostle, and He tells Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you,”
because  “My  strength”  —or  “My  power,”  one  translation  says—“is  made  perfect  in  [your]
weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

What an interesting verse. Jesus is speaking directly to Paul, face to face. Paul is complaining
about the thorn in the flesh. Three times he says, “Lord, take it and move it, this messenger of
Satan.”

The Lord stands in front of him. “Paul…”

“Yes, finally! The thorn!”

“No, no, I’m not taking it away.”

“What, what are You doing here?”

“I am here to give you revelation. I want you to know, Paul, that in weakness” —this isn’t moral
weakness He’s talking about; how if we sin more, the power of God is in us to free us from sin.
That’s not the context that He’s talking about. I’ve actually heard people read this, and they read
it as moral weakness.

THE VOLUNTARY WEAKNESS OF INTERCESSION
No, it’s voluntary weakness, fasting and prayer and enduring persecution instead of fleeing and
quitting; voluntarily standing in the place of weakness because of the cause of Christ, and the
power of God is perfected in that place.

It is the weakness of 1 Corinthians 1, the passage that we were first talking about. That’s the kind
of weakness he’s talking about. Fasting is weak; prayer is weak; prayer is taking our time and
talking to an invisible God, telling Him what He already knows.

“Come on! I mean, I have better things to do.”

The Lord says, “Do you? Do you really?”

Only weak people pray. Only people who see their weakness bother with prayer.

Strong people don’t need to pray because they think it’s going to be OK without prayer. “I want
to pray, I went to the prayer conference, I don’t actually do it, I know I’m weak but I’m not weak
enough to be desperate enough to change my schedule. I’m not that weak!”

Only really weak people pray enter in. Prayer is weakness because we’re taking our time and our
energy and we’re investing it in telling an invisible God what He tells us to tell Him. I mean,
how weak is that? We have to believe that God is listening, and that it matters, or we lose heart.

What Jesus told Paul is, “My strength will be perfected and made perfect in you if you stay in
this place of voluntary weakness.”

THE GOVERNMENTAL RULING SYSTEM OF HUMILITY
F. I am just amazed and awed by the humility of God. God is so humble! He has chosen to
govern forever through a means that promotes humility. The humble God is the only One who
would have thought of a governmental system based on humility. No one else would have ever
thought of it. There’s no king in history that ever thought of ruling through everyone being
empowered through humility, but God did. God is so humble that His system of rule forever
through history is based on humility.

The ultimate humility is His Son becoming a man. It’s humility beyond our description that He
became human. Jesus didn’t become human and then, after the resurrection, say, “Phew! I’m
glad that thing is over. Let’s take this robe of humanity and cast it aside. I’m back to just being
only God—wow!”

No! When He became Man, He became man forever. A billion years from now, He will be
human. That was a huge statement of His passion for us, for Him to become human forever.

As a human, He was on the earth living in limitations, in perfect obedience, being assaulted by
men  and  by  demons.  He  humbled  Himself  for  thirty  years  in  His  life  of  obedience  and
servanthood.

Then there was the ultimate humility on the cross, but then, in His humility, He told God what
God told Him to tell Him forever, and that’s how He gets His power. He says, “That works for
Me, Father, I so like what You think. I so want to be near You, I just want to say what You say.”

Somebody might say, “Yeah, but You’re God, too,” and He says, “No, it’s enough for Me to say
what He says.”

“Yeah, but You’re God!”

No.  Lucifer  tried  that  route,  and  he  wasn’t  God.  He  said,  “I  don’t  want  to  do  this  whole
‘submitted to another guy’ deal.” He said, “I want to do my own deal.”

Jesus said, “No, it’s My glory to do this.”

God the Father in His humility came up with a governmental system based on humility, and at
the core of it is this: We say simple words back to God. Yet most of the Church is tripped up and
offended and bored by it. The humility of it doesn’t touch our spirits, how awesome this is
forever and ever, and the implications that an entire eternal kingdom is based on this reality, that
the empowered are empowered through means of humility.

Part of that humility is that we simply say simple words. It’s not really profound: “Be healed.”
Jesus said, “Let there be light. Father, that was an easy one. OK, let there be land. Let there be
land, this is easy. I can do this, Father!”

I mean, have you ever considered the humility of Jesus in those utterances? He’s really smart!
I’m not enough overcome, but occasionally I get overwhelmed by the humility of God and the
way that He’s running everything, and it makes sense. I say, “It’s so brilliant! What if He were to
run His kingdom opposite of this forever? What if only the one percent, the majorly cool people
from history, were the only ones who could get in, and everyone had a different definition of
what cool is?”

No, no. It’s based on humility forever. It’s accessible for everyone.

THE WISDOM OF INTERCESSION
VIII. The wisdom of intercession.

A. The very fact that God chose intercession in its weakness and its wisdom, the very fact that
He chose it, is a statement that He wants relationship with us. It’s like God says, “OK, here’s the
bar. It’s only one inch off the ground. Whoever can get over the one-inch bar makes it.” The bar
is so low, it’s so low that everyone can do it, but it’s so low that very few want to do it. It’s
called intercession.

God says to all of the human race, “If you want to rule in power with Me, you have to get ready
to jump over the bar. It’s one inch.”

“That’s it?” The Lord made the bar so low that everyone can get over it, but it’s so low that
almost no one wants it.

He has such a desire to relate to you and me and to share His government with us that He created
a way for it to work for everyone.  It’s not just for the rich and the famous and the highly-skilled;
it’s for everyone if they can groan and say, “Jesus.” If the prisoner can groan and say Jesus, the
thing works.
I think, “What’s the deal?” The answer is, “I so want You with Me that I made it to where we
could talk together.”

“What a guy like me and a Person like God going to talk about? Math, science, history; I mean,
what are we going to talk about? What am I going to tell Him that’s going to be interesting to
Him when He has a hundred billion galaxies on His résumé?” He made a hundred billion of
them. I have a hard time managing my schedule, and He made one hundred billion. What will we
talk about? Math, science, truth?

“Hey, Lord, I had this one idea that the Holy Spirit gave me.”

“Oh, Brandon that’s so neat.” I mean, what am I going to tell Him?

We’re going to be friends forever. He knows everything. He is super-smart, and super-powerful,
and loves so well. He says, “I have made it in such a way that you and I can do something that
moves My heart, and will move your heart. It’s called intercession.”

I say, “This is awesome, Lord!”

He says, “I thought you would like that once you figured it out.”

I thought I was being put on probation when He called me to prayer. I didn’t realize He was
inviting me into His presence. In those early days I thought, “I’m on probation, and I’m fully in
prison.” I was young enough that I told everyone I was called to it forever. I was twenty-three
years old, and I had all these daily prayer meetings, so I had to stick to them.

I was proud enough to stay with it after I made the big announcement. A couple of years later I
said, “I am fully in prison. I am trapped.”

INTERNALIZING THE WORD OF GOD
D. Intercession causes us to internalize the Word of God. We say it back to Him millions of
times in this age and the age to come. Each time we say what God says, it actually marks our
spirit and marks our mind. It marks us.

I compare the process to a computer programmer who’s rewriting lines of code—thousands or
millions of lines of code, a team of them. You rewrite a line of code one line at a team. One line
of code of your inner man is rewritten every time you say, “You are good; I love You. I am
Yours. Move in our city; stop murder; change the laws.”

Every single thing that you say in agreement with Him, thousands and millions of them, is like
one line of code being rewritten in your spirit, and it’s marking your inner man, even though you
can’t measure it. It’s like I was saying last night about peeling the onion. You can’t see any
change when you take one layer off the onion, but it’s truly changing. It marks our spirits. It renews our inner man. We can’t measure it with days or weeks, but over the years the change is
profound.

Over millenniums, over thousands of years, because it’s not just in this life that we’re doing it,
and it’s not just in the Millennial kingdom—forever we will be telling God what He tells us to
tell Him. It will be touching us with life and the Spirit and power.

C. Jesus gave us the key to how this works. He said in John 6, “The words that I speak to you are
spirit, and they are life” (Jn. 6:63). In other words, when we speak God’s words, there is an
impartation of the Spirit that touches our inner man. That’s not just now, but forever.

THE TENDERIZING OF THE SPIRIT
Every time we say what God says, it marks our spirit and renews us and strengthens us and gives
us more from God. It’s incremental, but it goes on and on. Our heart is tenderized by it. The very
call to the prayer room—that’s the language we use here—the calling to prayer is enough. It
tenderizes and eternalizes the word and marks your spirit and tenderizes you.

THE WORD ABIDING IN US
D. Jesus talked about the Word abiding in us. It’s so critical. I know so many believers who
don’t have time or interest in the Word. I say, “Oh, I beg you, have time and interest in it. The
Word is spirit and life. You don’t have to be a profound theologian. Fill your mind with the
Word. Study it, say it back to God, and say it back to people, and say it back to God, and say it to
yourself, and it marks your spirit every time you say it.”

PROTECTION FROM PRIDE THROUGH PRAYER
F. The process of intercession humbles us so that when God does answer our prayers with
prayer, we are protected from pride. Lucifer had great answers. He had great blessing and he was
overcome by pride. He fell.

The very process of intercession, the way that He runs His kingdom, protects the people of God
forever from pride. I think it’s a brilliant form of government. Nobody would have ever thought
of it, the simplicity and the power of it.

LOVE THROUGH INTERCESSION
G. Intercession deeply joins our hearts to people and to places, to cities and nations. There is a
law of the kingdom and it is this: Whatever you pray for, you fall in love with, even if you don’t
mean to do it. Whoever you pray for, you fall in love with.

So here we are praying for our city, praying for our nation, and we are, by nature and just
because of our over-familiarity with the Church, since all of us have been in it for a while, our
natural idea is to be annoyed with the Church.

When you read all the prayers of the New Testament (there are about twenty-five of them), about
90 percent of them are praying for the Church to be anointed, and therefore, when they are anointed, a lot of other things get fixed. We want to skip praying for the Church and just say,
“Lord, win the lost.” The Lord says, “If you pray for the Church, the Church will get anointed
and the lost will come in.”

“Yeah, but the Church annoys me.”

“Well, the only reason the lost don’t annoy you is because you don’t know them. Once you
become friends with them, they will annoy you, too.”

The lost is this romantic crowd that’s awesome and innocent and tender. They’re really mean and
evil and they will bug you and you will bug them once you know them.

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH
It’s easy to pray for the lost, but to pray for the Church is like, “Eww, all those old pastors… I’m
just tired of pastors.”

The Lord says, “No, pastors are human leaders and human leaders are weak and all of us are
imperfect.” He says, “No, pray for the Church and guess what, you will fall in love with the
Church.”

You will fall in love with whatever you pray for, so God calls us to pray for the Church to be
anointed as the number one means of evangelism. I’ve seen this over the years, and it’s amazing
how many of the New Testament prayers are for the Church. I say, “Lord, what about the lost?”

He says, “Just trust Me, you do it My way and you will see what happens.”

If you get mercy for the Church, you get revelation for the Church, you get patience for the
Church and the value of the Church in her weakness. You will fall in love with whatever city or
nation or people you pray for. It’s a law of the kingdom. Intercession joins our hearts to one
another.

What a brilliant idea! I would never have thought of running my kingdom this way.

THE MULTIPLICATON OF BLESSINGS
H—Intercession for others multiplies blessings back to you. Did you know that you can never
outgive God? If you pray for the spirit of revelation upon the guy on the other end of town, did
you know that you and your family will become the recipient of that prayer, and that it will come
back on you?

Someone says, “I don’t have any heart to pray for this, that, and the other.”

I say, “I will pray for anyone, for anything, anywhere. I don’t care. You pick the most remote
place, and I will agree in prayer with you, because every prayer that you pray, by the law of the
kingdom, is returned back on you.”
You can pray for your enemies, and not only will you have a tenderized heart for your enemies,
and your enemies might really be touched, but the prayer comes back on your family as well. All
of the prayers are multiplied back. When you’re in the prayer room, it doesn’t matter whom
you’re praying for—you will never outgive God. The measure that you give in prayer, it will be
measured back to you (Lk. 6:38).

INVESTING IN OTHERS’ INHERITANCE THROUGH INTERCESSION
I. Intercession gives us an inheritance in the people and the places we pray for. There are a
number of individuals whom I pray for, and I have an inheritance in God’s blessing in them.
There are cities and nations I pray, and I’m talking about 500 years from now in the Millennium,
and 5,000 years from now in the age to come, I will have an inheritance, and I will have part of a
blessing that is personalized in my life that will be dynamically-related to whomever or whatever
I labored for in prayer.

It’s an amazing reality. I could prove it in a number of verses where Paul labored for churches,
and they will stand together at the second coming in the age to come. There are many passages
that make that clear.

THE ONGOING IMPACT OF INTERCESSION
J. Intercession makes a long-term impact. Again, I mentioned this earlier, but my prayers for
Kansas City or Jerusalem or whichever city I’m praying for, the prayers that I’m praying and
you’re praying for your city and other cities, and I pray for many other cities, those prayers will
be powerful hundreds of years from now.

They aren’t over when you die, and they aren’t over when the second coming happens. Those
prayers are still alive. I sit in my little chair at IHOP—KC, whether it’s anointed or unanointed,
and think, “Oh my goodness, I could do so many things; prayer is returning back to me, I’m
falling  in  love  with  people,  I’m  building  things  for  the  age  to  come,  my  heart  is  getting
tenderized!” So much is happening, and it’s so simple.

LEARNING TO RECEIVE FREELY
K. Intercession positions us to receive freely. We’re not earning anything by intercession. Some
people think we’re going to pray, and then we earn. No, there’s no form of earning; we’re simply
positioning ourselves to receive.

LEARNING TO HEAR FROM GOD
L. Intercession positions us to hear from God. Beloved, when we hear from God with power on
it, then we are far more prone to obey. There is such a blessing in hearing clearly and then
obeying promptly. In the place of prayer we hear clearly and we have energy to obey promptly.
That brings us into indescribable blessing in our lives. It comes through prayer as it does in no
other way.
There is no other activity that brings us into the dynamic of hearing clearly, and then having the
motivation to obey promptly.

THE HONOR AND GLORY OF INTERCESSION
N—I’m just going to say it, one-two-three, and then I’m going to spend a minute or two for the
folks here at the summit, saying one or two more thoughts I have to say to encourage them.

Intercession is God’s brilliant strategy for including the saints in His rule, to rule with Him in
power.

It draws us into intimacy; it protects us with humility; it transforms our hearts in holiness; it
unifies us in community; it trains us to operate in His wisdom; it gives us an inheritance; it
multiplies blessing back to us. It just goes on and on and on.

Weakness will triumph over all that men call wise. When it is all said and done, the people of
prayer at the judgment seat will have far more power and honor than all the wise and powerful
people on the earth. Their weakness will triumph even in the individualistic sense, and not even
in the fact that the governments of nations will be replaced with the saints.

Even the weak people of the earth will seem to have triumphed and have chosen wisdom when it
all comes out, because the people of prayer end up in the place of honor and closeness to the
throne of God, and weakness triumphs over the wisdom of men.

There is so much of the wisdom of men in the Church. Much of the Church pursues its future
without an aggressive commitment to prayer. That’s called the wisdom of man. It’s all over the
Church. That wisdom will be seen to be deficient. It will be seen as defunct in a short amount of
time.  Much  of  the  Church  is  living  and  drinking  from  that  well  of  wisdom,  and  it  will  be
triumphed over so soon.

Beloved, I don’t want to live without developing a prayer life, no matter how hard it is, or
whatever the struggle; it’s the wisest thing to do on this side, and it’s what you will do forever on
the other side. It’s not only what you will do, but it will be a key part of what you will do.

NOT BY MIGHT, NOR BY POWER
IX—Most of you know that Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah, or the leader of Jerusalem,
when Israel was released from captivity in Babylon in 536 BC, so it was 2,500 years ago and he
was coming back with 50,000 Jewish slaves from Babylon. All 50,000 of them walked 700 to
800 miles, and it took them five or six months to get back.

They got back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, and they saw the city, and the city was an
absolute mess. They had been in prison seventy years as a whole nation; Zerubbabel was their
first leader. Zerubbabel was then commissioned to build the temple, which was clearly the prayer
ministry of his day. It’s not just figurative of the prayer ministry; it actually was the prayer
ministry.
They offered the animal sacrifices, but they had the singers and the musicians and the prayer
going forth there. It was a worship and prayer ministry, actually and not just figuratively.

So Zerubbabel was leading and building the IHOP–KC in Jerusalem. This is actually true. He
was building and building and building, and there was a big heap of rubble because the cities
were decimated.

When Babylon came, they destroyed all of it, and it was just a big heap of rock. They were all so
discouraged after months of walking back. The slaves and exiles came back and they thought,
“Oh, this is horrible.”

Here is what the Lord said, and He was talking specifically about the temple and the prayer
ministry: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My
Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). He’s talking about building houses of prayer; that’s
actually what it’s talking about. We use this verse for everything, which is cool, and I’m sure the
Lord doesn’t mind, but it’s actually about building the house of prayer in Jerusalem.

ZERUBBABEL BUILDS A TEMPLE AND NO ONE SHOWS UP
Those of you who are building prayer ministries back home, maybe there are three people who
meet, and you meet once a week and two of them don’t show up every other week. Hey, I led
that kind of meeting for years. Every now and then there were four of us, and we took a picture
to put it in the bulletin—four showed up!

The three who swore an oath of commitment weren’t there every other week. “The Lord released
me…” “Oh, great!”

I know all about those days; I did those days for years. My point isn’t that I paid my dues; that’s
not what I’m saying.

What I’m saying is that I really understand where some of you are sitting. I really lived there, not
for a month or two, but for years, in little unanointed and boring prayer meetings, saying, “Lord,
are You sure?”

“I tell you, I promise you, I can do more for you than this. You just stay there and tell Me what I
tell you to tell Me.”

Here is what the Spirit says through the prophet Zechariah to the governor Zerubbabel: “Who are
you,  O  great  mountain?”  (Zech.  4:7).  The  mountain  was  the  mountain  of  rock,  because
remember, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple, and it was just a big heap of rock.

That is the mountain. In your situation back home, it’s a mountain. There are no people; there’s
no money; everyone’s against you; your family doesn’t like it; the devil doesn’t like it; the
Church doesn’t like it. There’s a mountain in front of you.

How many of you can relate to one of those things I just said? There you go; I’m talking to the
right crowd. Of course you can.

“BEFORE ZERUBBABEL, YOU SHALL BECOME A PLAIN”
It says to tell him this: “Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!” (Zech. 4:9) —which
means that these obstacles will be removed in due time. The mountain, the big heap of rubble of
the temple rocks, will all become a plain, meaning everything will be put in order and the
mountain will be out of the way.

Zerubbabel says, “I don’t get it. I don’t get this.” It tells us from Haggai and Zechariah that all
the people gave up and quit working. They were all excited to work for a little while, but then
they just quit and gave up.

Zerubbabel is just sitting there on a big old heap of rock, and a big old stone by himself, and the
prophet Zechariah comes along and says, “Hey Zerubbabel, how are you doing?”

“Oh, man, no one’s coming to work. They all gave up!”

It says in Haggai that they all gave up and went back and said, “Forget this temple thing; we’ll
do it some other decade.”

Zerubbabel thinks, “I can’t build the temple; no one will help me.”

GRACE TO A STONE
So Zechariah tells him, “Here’s what the Holy Spirit tells you to say: ‘Shout to the capstone’”
(Zech. 4:7, paraphrased)—the capstone is the dedication stone; the capstone is the stone that you
put in when the building is done and the dedication is a week later. The capstone is the symbolic
stone that you put up and you put on it, “Dedicated to the glory of God.” That’s the capstone.

In other words, “You’re going to finish it. Here’s how you’re going to finish it: You’re going to
finish it by shouting ‘Grace’ to the stone.”

Zerubbabel says, “What?!”

“I want you to shout ‘grace’ to the stone.” In other words, don’t look at how many people show
up, or how much money shows up. Don’t trust in the motivation of the people, because they will
always be deficient. Just start speaking grace.

I can imagine Zerubbabel saying, “Well, good…”

Zechariah’s saying, “Well, let’s do it.”

Zerubbabel says, “What do you mean? Like, here and now?”

“Yeah!”

“Grace…”

“No, shout ‘Grace!’”

“OK, grace.”

“No, ‘GRACE, GRACE!’”

“Zechariah, there are people around here. I don’t want to shout to a stone.”

“Shout to the stone, ‘Grace! Grace!’”

My point isn’t to get you to shout “Grace, grace!” although we’ll probably do a little of that in a
minute  here.  The  point  of  it  is  that  there  was  going  to  be  supernatural  intervention  that
Zerubbabel couldn’t see on the horizon. It was going to come if he would stay steady and keep
the grace confession.

THE DAY OF SMALL BEGINNINGS
Now he tells him the great answer here in Zechariah 4:10. He says, “For who has despised the
day of small beginnings?” (paraphrased). Do you know what this verse is about? It’s about a
small temple and a small prayer meeting. That’s exactly what it’s about. You can use this verse
for other things, but it’s talking about a deficient prayer ministry. This is exactly the context.

He asks the question, “Who has despised the day of small beginnings?” There’s only one answer:
“Zerubbabel, the governor, you are despising how small this is.”

Zerubbabel says, “I do. No one shows up, there’s not enough money, there’s no motivation. It’s
not happening right now.”

They actually delay for sixteen years. The whole nation quit for sixteen years and said, “We
aren’t even going to work on it.” The weeds grew up again. Now this is the time to get back to it,
and it doesn’t seem like there’s a chance that this is going to work.

THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE UPON YOU
Some of you have been waiting sixteen years. Now He gives this incredible revelation. He says,
“For these seven” —talking about the eyes of the Lord from an earlier reference; the seven are
the eyes of the Lord. You have to read the whole chapter and Zechariah 3 as well—“For these
seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the Lord,
which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth” (Zech. 4:10).

A plumb line is only in the hand of a builder; a plumb line is what you measure the wall by when
building the wall. You don’t use the plumb line when the building is over. You use the plumb
line in the early stages of the building.

Zechariah  says,  “God  is  rejoicing.  His  eyes  are  on  you  because  you’re  wanting  to  build  it
according to God’s order. There’s a plumb line in your hand and God is excited. He’s rejoicing
because God’s eyes are on you, Zerubbabel, right now.”

Zerubbabel says, “God is watching?”

Zechariah says, “Not only is He watching, but He’s excited that there’s a plumb line. You care
when nothing is apparent, but this will succeed. You care to do it right God’s way.”

The plumb line is used to measure. Zechariah was measuring.

OUR VISION IS TOO SMALL
Here’s where we go wrong: We measure wrongly on two accounts. Number one: God has a far
bigger vision of power, and most of the Church has sold out for a very small vision of just a little
bit of church growth. “If our church grows from a hundred to a thousand, or from 1,000 to
10,000, it’s enough.” God wants to bring the miracles of the book of Acts and the book of
Exodus together and combine them on a global scale.

The vision of what He wants is massive. The plumb line and the building that God is building is
so dynamic in power that the plumb line in our hand must be equal to the vastness of what God
wants to do. The plumb line has an exact opposite dimension, too. We’ve got to be able to
measure the smallness today with God’s way of measuring how valuable it is.

What the Church does is exactly the opposite. We don’t have a big vision, so we’re not desperate
for a historic breakthrough, but then we despise the little things that are happening, which is
exactly the opposite of how God sees it.

God says, “No, I want you to believe for something huge in your nation, and I want you to value
the little thing that’s happening right now, because My eyes are upon you right now.”

BELIEVE FOR THE BIG VISION, AND VALUE THE SMALLNESS
C. His eyes are rejoicing with us long before the word is complete. Many of you have prayer
meetings of two or three people, one prayer meeting a week. The prayer meeting in your city
isn’t even close to complete. You have a plumb line, and you’re in the early days. Believe for the
big vision and value the smallness; that’s what the plumb line is for.

God sees the details of your need. He sees the details of your labor. He sees the details of your
tears and sacrifice. The eyes of the Lord are on you with that little plumb line in the early stage.

All of the houses of prayer in the earth today are incomplete. All of us are in the plumb-line
stage. None of us are in the ordering-the-carpet stage. The building isn’t nearly done. We’re all
digging the hole and still in the basement stage.

God wants us to feel the pleasure that His eyes are rejoicing over us even now. We’re supposed
to maintain the confession of “Grace, grace!”

KEEPING YOUR EYES ON THE EYES OF GOD
It’s going to come to pass. Your labors matter to the completed job in your city and your region
and your nation. God wants eye contact with us. The eyes of the Lord are looking at us, and He
wants us to look back at Him during the process.

He wants our eyes on Him, so that we don’t see how small the work is, and we don’t see how
slow the work is, and we don’t see what everyone is saying against the work.

Our eyes are on His eyes because His eyes are on us. He wants us locking into Him. What
happens is, we look at how small it is, how slow it is, and how many people think what we’re
doing is stupid. The Lord says, “You speak ‘Grace, grace! You understand that My eyes are on
you, and I’m happy about what you’re doing right now, and it matters in My bigger purposes.”

I want you just to speak; you can shout or whisper, “Grace, grace.” All over the room, any of you
can do this any way you want. It’s that vision that God has given you. Maybe it’s not a house of
prayer; maybe it’s another one. You know it’s from God and you’re about to give up on it and
quit. The Lord wants you to shout “Grace, grace” to it.

He says, “Not by might.” It’s the confession of grace that is far bigger than one meeting. I’m
talking about something that you’re going to do for years. This is a continual confession. They’ve
been shouting “Grace!” over IHOP—KC for seven years, and they shouted “Grace!” over IHOP—
KC for years before that, and they say it never seemed that it was ever, ever going to happen.

I understand what some of you are feeling. It was impossible for this to happen.

When they finally began it, there was so much confusion and no money and division and it was
terrible. Bickle said, “I don’t even want IHOP—KC if this is what it is.” There was so much confusion
around it because they had 100 ideas and twenty different visions all merging in the same month. I
understand that for half of you listening to me, that’s exactly where you’re living right now.

The Lord wants you to maintain this confession for years, and not just for this season. You’re going to look at it and say, “Not by might.” It’s not by your website; it’s not by your network; it’s not
by might that the prayer movement in your city is going to be built. It’s not going to be by the
cool guys voting on it. The Spirit of God is going to stir the people in His timing.

You might be the leader; you might be one of the ones who are stirred to join another.

The greatest hour of crisis ever in history is ahead of us. The Lord says, “Don’t despise it
anymore. Don’t despise it.”

I want you to speak quietly and say, “Lord, I have been despising my little prayer meetings. I am
about to quit. I am repenting. I’m going to get my eyes back on Your eyes. I’m going to see what
You see. I’m going to get the plumb line out again and I’m going to get back to the business of
building again, spiritually.”

You’re just speaking grace to it. You’re confessing: “Here I am, Lord; here I am.”

We speak grace; we speak grace over you. For the eyes of the Lord are rejoicing over even you.
The eyes of the Lord are looking at you even in your weakness and brokenness. The eyes of the
Lord see the longings of your heart.

THE SEVEN THUNDERS

The Mighty Angel with the Little Book

Revelation chapter 10 1 I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.”

The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.

John Eats the Little Book

Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.”

So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.”

And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”

10 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. 11 And he[d] said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”

THE SEVEN THUNDERS

Revelation 10:3 (paraphrased): “The angel cried out.” When the angel cries out, a very surprising thing takes place: seven thunders utter their voices. The thunders are personified as though they are people. There is a mystery as to what this is. Whatever it is, we know that it is the voice of the Holy Spirit. Are these thunders angelic beings? We don’t know and we don’t have to know.

We don’t necessarily have to know the way these thunders are operating in their ministry. What we care about is the source of the message behind these thunders, because when we think of thunders we do not think of a person, but this is personified. The thunders are described as beings who are giving a prophecy.

Verse 3 (paraphrased): “When the angel cries out”—and the assumption is that the angel is reading the little book—“the information in the little book stirs up these seven thunders.

We assume that they are spirit beings, angelic beings of some sort. It does not say so, but we know they have voices and they are speaking the prophetic word of the Lord. We know it is the Holy Spirit at the end of the day. It is Him giving it to them, whoever they are.

The point I want to make is that when the mighty angel read the little book and made the contents of the little book known, it made an impact in the spirit realm and these seven prophetic messages were released.

WHAT ARE THE SEVEN THUNDERS SAYING

John was really enthusiastic about these messages. Verse 4 (paraphrased): “When the seven thunders uttered their voices, John was ready to write.” He was eager. In his spirit he was saying something like, “Wow, this is something really important.” He was ready to write so that we would all know what those seven prophetic words are.

Then a voice comes from heaven—the Holy Spirit’s voice no matter what vessel is used to communicate that voice. We do not know who is speaking, but we know it is the Holy Spirit speaking through them.

So the voice of God is saying to John, “No, hold it. This is information we do not want to be made known at this time” (v. 4, paraphrased).

John is thinking, “We don’t want it known? This is really important information!”

“No, we are going to seal it.” Whenever in the Bible—there are several occasions—God gives a prophecy to a prophet and says, “Seal it,” it means, “Hold back the information, but only until the appointed time.”

The appointed time is always the end times. This happens several times in the Bible where the prophet receives a word and seals it. This is God’s way of saying to the rest of the body of Christ, “I have something to say, but I am going to hold it back. I am going to give it strategically at the appointed time.”

OUR RESPONSE

You can respond to that in one of two ways. “Well Lord, you have my address. You know where I live if You want to give it to me.” It is the passive, “If God wants to do it, He will do it.”

There is another mode, “Father, there is something on Your heart You want to say and I want to put myself in a position to receive the testimony of Your heart.”

Of course that is the response God wants us to have. The voice of God, through whatever vehicle, we do not know—again we do not know what the vehicle of the seven thunders is; an angelic being of some sort, it doesn’t really matter—the Lord says, “John, seal it up. Do not write it.”

The clear implication is the same thing that happened in Daniel’s day, “I will give it to the people of God later. I will give it to the people of God later as they seek Me.”

THE SEALED BOOKS

I think that there is a link. You have to kind of pay attention to this carefully. There are two sealed pieces of prophetic information. Number one, the little book, I believe—my opinion—was the sealed book back in Daniel 12. The sealed book about which the angel told Daniel, “Do not tell anybody, but I will tell my people at the right time.”

Now it is five hundred years after Daniel. John is on the island. The book is now open. I believe John was seeing what Daniel was supposed to hold back. Daniel saw it but was not supposed to communicate it. The book is opened and it is as if John is saying, “Lord, this is incredible information.” So when this angel is declaring the contents of this book to John, it has some kind of impact in the spirit realm. These seven thunders are stirred up and they start prophesying.

John is in the same position as Daniel was in earlier. The Lord says, “No, I am going to have you do exactly what Daniel did. Hold it back.”

“Lord, they need to know.”
“Hold it back. I will give it to them when they cry out for it.”

John is able to peer into what Daniel held back, but we want to peer into what Daniel and John held back. I want to know what is in the little book mentioned in the book of Daniel, and I want to know what is in those seven thunder prophecies. They are two bodies of information, so to speak, which are related to the word of God. I want to know them both. The answer—I believe— of the Lord is, “That is exactly what I was hoping you would conclude.”

HOW TO KNOW THE CONTENTS OF THE LITTLE BOOK

That little book was opened to Daniel and to John, but I want to know what is in that book. I am not just happy that the seven thunders are stirred up. I want to be stirred up by that book. I want to know what is in that book and I want to know what the seven thunders were saying.

I know how to get it: humility and seeking the Lord with prayer and fasting and abandonment in our obedience to Him. That is how revelation increases. There is no secret. It is the same for every man or women in every generation.

We do know this: we are in the generation of the greatest outpouring of the spirit of prophecy. We just read it in Joel 2: 28-32 (paraphrased): “Our sons and daughters will prophesy… and whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Everyone who calls out with a spirit of prayer will end up prophesying in major ways. “Lord, I have my focus on the written Word of God”—our primary focus. “I want to know what is in that little book which Daniel held back and which is related to Daniel’s revelation.”

The Holy Spirit might say, “Read the revelation of Daniel over and over and over.”

“And I want to know what those seven thunders are saying.”

“Then read the book of Revelation over and over and over.”

The book of Revelation and book of Daniel, OK. I am also going to read the rest of the Word of God. I do not have any time to waste. I have lots of things to devour and so do you.

DANIEL 12

I have to make the point of the parallel situation between Daniel and John: they both have information, they both seal it, they both have a mighty angel.

The angel raises his hand to heaven, swears an oath to God, and they both talk about the final three and a half years. It is unmistakable that these are meant to be parallel passages to be searched out in the Spirit together.

Let’s read Daniel 12. This is Daniel’s little book. It does not say “little.” I am adding that in there. Every book is little compared to the book Jesus took from the Father’s hand—that is the big book. Every other book is little from there on. In Daniel 12:4, Daniel sealed the book. We have the book of Daniel, but Daniel has this additional information that he seals.

We have the four visions he gives us in Daniel 7-12, but he has this additional information. He seals it, which means that he will not let anyone know it, because the Holy Spirit told him to seal it.

The angel is telling him, “Daniel, seal the book until the end time” (v. 4, paraphrased). Verse 6 (paraprased): “How long shall it be?” Verse 7 (paraphrased): “Then angel holds up his hand and swears by the God who lives forever that it will be time, times and half a time.”

It is universally agreed upon throughout church history—although there are some guys who say “no”—that time, times, and half a time is three and a half years. Time is one year. Times is two—plural. Half a time is half a year. It is three and a half years.

INFORMATION FOR THE END TIMES

The angel tells Daniel in verse 9 (paraphrased): “Go your way, for these words are sealed up.” In other words, “I have given them to you, but I am not going to reveal them to the people until the end times.”

Of course John gets a peek at it. He gets a look at it because the angel is roaring like a lion reading this book. That is how I understand it. My opinion—a common opinion—is that this is the little book that was in Daniel’s hand as well.

Look at what it says in verse 10 (paraphrased): “But many will be purified”——believers. “Many will be made white”—holiness. “Many will be refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked will understand what is happening, but the wise will understand.”

There will be a group of people in the earth in the end times who will be called “the wise ones” and they will understand. The same exhortation was given to Daniel by the angel in the same vision a little bit earlier. Just a moment before this, the angel said Continue reading

End Time Timeline/Timechart

Please read this before you view the Timechart:

150 chapters of the bible relate to the end-times, and He wants us to know Him and His plans.  We want to know the Jesus who is to come, not just He who was and is.

2nd Thes 2:1-4 states clearly that the Rapture/2nd Coming comes After the “Falling Away from the Faith” and After the Antichrist is revealed.

He wouldn’t have us just learn the timing of His plans and stop there, we must take these chapters and verses to God and let our understanding be formed by Word and Spirit, not by culture or tradition or sentiment.

We want to be lovers of truth, and protected by God from disaster, by learning to be led by the Spirit, and having understanding of the hour we are in.  For Jesus to return and rule the earth, He must first cleanse the earth of wickedness and judge sin once and for all, there will be martyrs, but there will be supernatural protection and provision greater than the book of Acts and Exodus (Mic 7:15).  We will do greater work than these (John 14:12) when there is a great need for them.  He will have a pure and spotless bride and these Judgments will remove all that hinders love and wholeheartedness.  Daniel fasted and received revelation of end-times and revelation that he was greatly beloved.  God has built the plumb-line of His Kingdom on Asking, Seeking, and Knocking if we ask for understanding and revelation on these verses, we will receive.

Is it the end-times?  An examination of the signs of His Return, that Jesus Gave:

https://thekeyofdavid.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/signs-of-the-times/

Chart 2

ET Chart.jpgTimeline of End-Time Events: 

I. “BIRTH PAINS” OR “BEGINNING OF SORROWS”

4And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of sorrows. ( Matt. 24:4-8)

1. Season of intensification: Matt. 24:4-8

2. Natural disruptions: Matt. 24:4-8

3. Nations in conflict: Matt. 24:4-8

4. Heavenly warfare: Matt. 24:4-8

5. Famine – food & drought: Matt. 24:4-8

6. Pestilence – increased trouble: Matt. 24:4-8

7. Deception: Matt. 24:4-8

8. Antichrist begins political career incognito: Dan. 7:8; 11:23

9. Harlot / Antichrist begin relationship: Rev. 17:3; 18:3,7,12-13; Dan. 11:24,38; Ps. 52:7

10. Antichrist consolidates his power base / removes 3 kings: Dan. 7:8; 11;22-23; Rev. 17:13

11. Global Houses of Prayer: Isa. 56:6-7; Amos 9:11-12; Mark 11:17

12. Daniel Seals released: Dan. 12:4, 9-10

13. Jesus’ prayer answered: Jn. 17:20-26

4“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” 9And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 10Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.

Timechart

7 Years Start:

II. 1ST 3 1/2 YEARS

FALSE PEACE/ FALLING AWAY I Thess. 5:1-3; 2 Thess. 2:3

1. Rise of the Antichrist: Ez. 38:8-9; Dan. 7:19-25; Hos. 11:5; 1 Thess. 5:3; Rev. 13

2. Transgression Reaches Fullness: Dan. 8:23 / Gen. 15:16

3. False Prophet: Rev. 13:11-14

4. Covenant of Death: Dan. 9:27; Isa. 28:15, 18; 57:7-10; Hos. 10:3-6; 5:13; 12:1

5. Nations Divide up the Land: Joel 3:1-3; Ez. 36:1-3; Ps. 83:1-12

6. Third Temple Built: Dan. 8:11-13; 9:26-27; 11:31; Mt. 24:15

7. Antichrist Given Great Influence in Israel: Ez. 21:25-27; Jn. 5:43; Isa. 57:7-10; Hos. 5:13; 10:6;11:5

8. Antichrist gathers his massive army — starts 2,300 days till sanctuary cleansed: Dan. 8:12,14

9. Season of “False Peace”: I Thess. 5:1-3; Rev. 17:6

10. False Religious System — Harlot Babylon: Rev. 17-18; Zech. 5:5-11

11. Great Falling Away: 2 Thess. 2:3; 1 Tim. 4:1

12. Israel Apostate: Dan. 9:27; Isa. 49:7; Rev. 11:8; Ps. 81:8-13

13. Fiery Messianic Messengers: Rev. 7; 15:1-5

14. Believers Persecuted: Dan. 7:21, 25; 8:24; 11:33-35; 12:7b; Matt. 24:9; Isa. 66:5

15. Antichrist’s head-wound / Resurrected: Rev. 13:3

16. Great Harvest–“all flesh”: Matt. 24:14; Lk. 21:12-15; Jn. 14:12; Acts 2:17; Rev. 7:9, 14;

14:15; Hab. 1:5, 2:2, 14; Hag. 2:6-7; Zech. 10:1; Mal. 4:5-6

17. Maturity Level Increased: Dan. 12:4; Eph. 5:26-27; Rev. 19:7

18. Jewish Revival: Rev.7; Acts 2:17

19. Gospel of the Kingdom Preached w/signs & wonders: Matt. 24:14; Acts 2:17-21; Dan. 11:32; Eph. 5:27; Rev. 19:7-8; Matt. 24:14; Jn. 14:12

III. 2ND 3/12 YEARS THE GREAT TRIBULATION – MAN OF SIN/ANTICHRIST OPPRESSION

1. Abomination of Desolation / Jacob’s Trouble: Jer. 30:5-7; Dan. 11:31; 12:11; Matt. 24:15; 2 Thess. 2:3-4

2. Satan gives Antichrist Unprecedented Authority: Rev. 13:1-2

3. Jews in Prison Camps: Isa. 42:7,22; Ez. 6:8-9; 22:15; Joel 3:1-3

4. Talking Statue: Rev. 13:15

5. Mark of the Beast: Rev. 13:16-18; 14:9-11

6. Global Economic Crisis & Famine: Rev. 6:5-6; 11:6

7. Babylon’s Economic System Destroyed: Rev. 18; Jer.51; Isa. 13;14:4,47; 47:9,11,14

8. Antichrist Worship Movement: Rev. 13:4, 8, 12

9. Believer’s Intensely Persecuted / Purified: Dan. 11:33-35; 12:7,10; Rev. 13:7; Eph. 5:27; Rev. 19:7-8; Matt. 24:14; Jn. 14:12

10. Antichrist’s Army Subdues Nations: Rev. 6:1-2; Dan. 7:7; 8:24; 11:40-44; Hab. 2:4-5; Joel 2:2-11

11. 14 Numbered Judgments: Rev. 6-11

12. Jews placed in Prison Camps: Isa. 42:22; Ez. 6:8-9; 22:15 … Why? Isa. 50:1-2

13. 2/3 of Jews in Israel Perish: Zech. 13:8-9

14. Earths Population Greatly Reduced: Isa. 13:12; 24:6; Jer. 25:33; Rev. 6:8; 9:18

15. Two Witnesses: Rev. 11

16. Pockets of Mercy / Geographic: Joel 3:16b; Ps. 91; Pro. 18:10; 29:25; Ps. 20:1; 27:5; 31:20; 32:7; 37:39-40; 46:1; 50:15; 138:7

17. Church Removed / 7th Trumpet: 1 Thess. 4:16; 2nd Thes 2:1-4, 1 Cor. 15:51-52; Rev. 10:7; 11:15;

18. Saints Receive Resurrected Bodies: 1 Cor. 15:51-52; 1 Thess. 4:16

IV. SEASON OF WRATH (SHORT DAY OF THE LORD – 30 DAYS … 1,260 – 1,290 …DAN. 12:11)

1. Starts 1,260 days after Abomination of Desolation: Dan. 12:11

2. Seven Bowls of Wrath – Last of 21 Numbered Judgments: Rev. 16

3. Nations Gather to Destroy Jesus: Ps. 2; Joel 2; 3:1,9-17; Rev. 17:13-15; 19:19; 16:13-16; Jer. 25:32-33

4. Believer’s Evaluated – Give Account / Rewarded (1 Cor. 3:3:11-15; 2 Cor. 5:10; Matt. 16:27)

5. Eternal Rewards Can Be Lost: Rev. 3:11; 1 Cor. 3: 14-15; 2 Jn. 2:8 (NIV)

6. Believer’s Operating in Resurrected Bodies (1 Cor. 15:51-52)

VI. SECOND COMING PROCESSION (DAN. 12:12 — 1,260—1,290 DAYS )

Will be con’t…

NOTE: This is “The Day of the Lord. This event is mentioned over 300 times in the NT scriptures – more attention given to this event than any other single event in NT. A few verses: Mt. 10:23; 16:27; 23:39; 24:27-31, 38-44; 25:31-32; Lk. 9:26; 13:35; 18:8; Jn. 14:1-3; 1 Thess. 3:13; 4:14-17; 5:1-6; Jude 14; Rev. 1:7; 19:11-21.

Experiencing His Love

SEEKING TO KNOW THE HEIGHT AND DEPTH OF THIS LOVE

  • We can ask for revelation and understanding, of the Deep Love of God’s Heart… But God has revealed -the deep things- unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God..Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Cor 2:10-12)
  • Personal meditation on the Word of God, made reality by the Spirit in our inner-man, is primarily His way to communicate His spiritual affections, His love touches our heart this way (Sos 1:2).
  • Meditation is most effective by turning the Word into personal conversation with Jesus. As we do this we are giving our heart to Him and receiving His heart through the Word of God.
  • And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little scroll. And he said, take it, and eat it up (Rev 10:9). To eat the scroll (bible) we take a verse and meditate, make it personal and pray it. Anointed loving meditation.  A few related verses can have an hour’s worth of revelation.
  • The sweetness of the Holy Spirit tenderizes our hearts through meditation on the Word. It is powerful as the Word of God kisses our hearts in this way.
  • Isa 56:7 I will make them joyful in my house of prayer.  For many in the church, prayer is not joyful until we see how Paul tied singing our Scriptural revelations to being filled with the Spirit in Eph 5:18.  -What a revelation that music makes sustaining prayer easier!  The Ihop model of singing passages of Scripture in Worship with the Word sets, facilitates encounter with the Holy Spirit, by unlocking the heart.  See fire link on the right ->
MEDITATION
  • Meditation rewrites the “code” of our heart like a computer program writes data on a disk.  When we have His words abiding in us, then John 14;23 can happen in greater measure.  If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.  

The Mind Mouth Heart Method

Reading Scriptures gets them in our mind, and we need to love God with all of our mind, but speaking them over ourselves and speaking them to God, gets them in our heart.  John 15:7 If my words abide in you..


The Song of Solomon is His love in concentrated allegory form (See notes at mikebickle.org)
Even Rabbi’s teach God-based, non-marriage application of song of solomon.
Sos 1:2 Father, Let Him touch my heart with love by the Spirit and Word, for Your revelations and affections are better than the permissible pleasure of the world.
  • Sos 1:4 The King has brought me into His chambers (take me to the secret place of Your Presence, Encounter – Your affections, help me to press in and connect with you, so I can feel your love and you can declare your Name to me.)
  • The Revelation of Sos 1:3  “His name poured forth” speaks of the unique exaltation of His Name. It also speaks of His attributes being openly revealed to us, His beautiful personality, virtuous character, holiness, love, power, terrifying glory… and we fall in love. Oh the beauty of this Man!
  • Jesus is not our ‘lover’ like some misinterpret, we don’t go on date-night with Jesus.  Our relationship to the Bridegroom is sacred and holy.  Our culture hardens our heart to the purity of love.  This will change when Jesus returns, and in the church of Rev 22:17.

Signs of the Times

Three Timing Indicators of the Return of Christ

32 Learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near–at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words (prophecies) will by no means pass away. (Matthew 24:32–35)

But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only (Matthew 24:36). 

  • Jesus said present tense “knows.”  Does Jesus know now that He is in heaven with the Father?
  • We don’t want to get into specific ‘date-setting’ though we can ask the Father.  We know exactly 7 years of tribulation so when it starts… We know the Harlot religion and Antichrist will come first (2 Thes 2:1-4, 1 Thes 5:3) but we must know the generation in which we live.  Mat 24:37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark.  Our ‘ark’ is inside us, by fellowshipping with the indwelling Holy Spirit and being led and protected Goshen in Exodus.
  • There are many prophesied signs in Scripture that mark the final generation, that Jesus returns to, as unique.  These signs give us the understanding that we are in a unique season in redemptive history. Yet many make wrong assumptions regarding Matthew 24:36 and 44:
  • Wrong assumption #1: No one can know the day or the hour”, which would falsely imply a sudden, unexpected departure.  No one can know the day or the hour, but Jesus Himself made clear that we could (and should) know the season, or the generation, of His return.
  • Wrong assumption #2: No one will ever know the day or the hour.”  It is true that “of that day” no one knows, only the Father Himself.  That does not mean, however, that we will never know the time of His coming.
Jesus exhorted us to know the Generation
Luke 12:54 And he said also to the people, When all of you see a cloud rise out of the west, immediately all of you say, There comes a shower; and so it is. 56 All of you hypocrites, all of you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that all of you do not discern this time?
  • The Bible gives precise information to believers (number of days, months, and years pertaining to certain events in the last days) that will give us great hope in the midst of great trial.  We may still not know the exact day or hour, but we will have great hope alive within us that there is a predetermined end to the trial that will soon come.
  • The subject of the signs of the times is greatly neglected by many within the Body of Christ. Yet many Scriptures emphasize how important prophetic signs are at the end of the age. Scripture shows that Jesus, more than any of the apostles, instructed on our need to discern the times. Jesus gave severe rebukes to those who did not pay attention to the prophetic signs that pointed to His first coming.  The following verses are examples of the mandate to Jesus to pay attention to signs of His return: Matthew 16:1-4 and 24:32-44, Luke 19:41-44, and Luke 21:34-36.
  • There are three types of biblical “indicators” that indicate to the generation in which the Lord returns that His coming is near:

1).  Sign events: these are predicted in Scripture and alert us to the timing of Jesus’ return.
2). Sign trends: both positive and negative sign trends will signal His coming
3).   Prophetic experiences: subjective personal experiences alert us to the end times.

Jesus connected three events to his Return

  1. There are three key sign trends that strongly indicate that we are in the generation of the Lord’s return.  Jesus personally connected the timing of His return to the earth to three events that are all emerging simultaneously in this hour of history:
  2. Jesus connected the timing of His return to the repentance and revival of Jewish political and spiritual leaders in Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37-39.
  3. Jesus connected the timing of His return to the preaching of the gospel throughout the whole earth in Matthew 24:14.
  4. Jesus connected the timing of His return to night and day prayer happening on the earth in Luke 18:7-8. He deliberately tied the idea of finding faith on the earth to a people crying out day and night for justice.  Ultimate justice will only be found in His return.  Rev 8:1-5 details bowls of prayers which the saints fill and then are poured out and answered at His return.

All three trends are, in a clear, measurable way, happening in this generation in a manner that is unique to any other time in redemptive history.

  1. Messianic (Jewish) congregations of believers in Israel and Jerusalem are experiencing more growth through conversions than any time in church history since the 1st century.  There has been a notable statistical increase in particular over the past ten years. This trend is one that has also been reflected in the modern missions world: a notable spike in the increase of church planting and world evangelism over the past decade alone.
  2. Evangelical missions organizations are now conservatively projecting that the gospel will have been heard by every people group and language on the earth for the first time in church history in the time frame of 2025 to 2032.
  3. The recent increase of night and day prayer across the earth more unique than in any generation throughout church history – this is a historic hour for prayer initiatives (24/7 and otherwise), prayer gatherings, stadium gatherings, and the planting of houses of prayer worldwide.   Isa 56:7 My house shall be called an house of prayer for all nations.

Inspired by Dave Sliker notes

Matthew 24 is the Premier Guide Jesus gave to knowing of the Time of His return, let’s look if we are close.

A. 24:4-8

Jesus gave 12 trends as signs of the generation in which He will return (Mt. 24:4-8; Lk. 21:7-18). Matthew gave us 7 trends which are false christs, war, ethnic conflict, economic warfare, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. Luke described 5 more which are commotions, fearful sights, great signs from heaven, distress in the nations and roaring waves (Lk. 21:9-11, 23-26).

5 Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars…for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation…and there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes…8 All these are the beginning of sorrows (birth pangs). (Mt. 24:5-8)
Jesus gave twelve major trends that are to be discerned and received as prophetic signs to help the Church prepare for the coming years (Mt. 24:4-8; Mk. 13:5-8, Lk. 21:7-18). Jesus gave us accelerator signs in different areas of life including spiritual (positive and negative), social, political, technological, natural (signs in heaven and earth).
Mt. 24:7 For nation will rise against nation [ethnos], and kingdom against kingdom. Ethnic conflict or civil disorder based on racism is making world headlines (Mt. 24:7). The Greek word for nation is ethnos from which we get the word ethnic. Thus, nation against nation is “ethnic group against ethnic group.”
The ethnic wars in Cambodia, Albania, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo and Sudan along with China’s Cultural Revolution (1966) have caused the number of people who have been murdered by their own people to exceed 150 million. The militant Islamic leaders have especially targeted Israel, the USA, and the European Union. Since 1945, over 150 major wars have occurred, killing over 25 million. Since the Berlin Wall fell (Nov. 1989), conflicts have forced 50 million people from their homes worldwide. There were over 70 wars in 1995, which is double the number in 1989.
KINGDOM AGAINST KINGDOM
A. Economic warfare can devastate a nation (Mt. 24:7). Kingdom against kingdom refers to making war in the arena of national resources.

MATT. 24:4-8 – THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS:
A. Jesus spoke in Matt. 24:8 of the “beginning of sorrows” – a time frame that would represent a marked shift in the time in history that would represent the “beginning of birth pangs”, or the chain of events that would culminate with the end-time judgments and the Second Coming.
These disruptive prophetic signs would precede the final seven years and the beginning of the Great Tribulation in Matt. 24:15 – thus the generation of believers who witnessed these signs were exhorted by Jesus to “see that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” Though I believe that we have seen a significant shift in the season and time of history, I do not believe we have seen the beginning of this prophetic season yet.
B. “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” The context has been established in Israel for many to emerge as false political “messiahs” to bring forth the deliverance of Israel from her enemies and establish the Torah again nationally. These
false leaders may also be instrumental in instigating the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, which Daniel spoke of in Dan. 9:27 (and Paul spoke of in 2 Thess. 2:3).
C. “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars…For nation (ethnic group) will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” in the 20th century alone 100 million people were killed in war; 1993 saw a record number of wars fought in one year – 29; the first century to see global
conflict of any kind. Ethnic conflicts and genocides, already increasing in number and frequency, will become widespread and bring a “global gloom” that will be accompanied by the other signs that Jesus predicted. The peoples of the earth will long for peace and provision.

D. “And there will be famines”: 4 million people a year currently die of starvation; the World Health Organization estimated that over 1/3 of the earth’s population is under-fed; and in ten years (1990-2000) over 100 million children died of illness and starvation.

E. “…pestilences”: virtually unheard of hundreds of years ago are over 100 different kinds of cancer that now kill over 5 million people per year; the AIDS virus alone has killed tens of millions; new and untreatable strands of malaria, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, cholera, and the
Black Death have emerged over the last 10 years; disease is the number one enemy of tsunami victims throughout Asia.

“…and earthquakes”: one of the critical signs of the times to watch for, according to Jesus, was the reality of “earthquakes in various places” as a precursor to the coming cataclysmic
earthquakes described in the book of Revelation that would be greater in scope and destructive
force than any other earthquakes in history. The initial tremors related to the birth pangs will
come in “various places” – I do not think that this means that there will be more earthquakes in
the final hours of history, but that earthquakes will continually increase in severity as we get
nearer to the end. These earthquakes, like the increase in famine and pestilence, will shift the
global mood drastically and create a greater desperation in a greater number of people for social
and societal change.

Mt. 24:9 They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
A. Hatred toward believers is on the rise (Mt. 24:9). Jesus prophesied that believers would be hated, delivered up to tribulation, and killed by all nations because of their loyalty to Him.
B. The number of martyrs over 1900 years was nearly 25 million. In the 20th century, there have been almost 50 million martyrs. Persecution of believers continues to increase in parts of China, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, North Korea, and Sudan, etc. It will reach an all-time high in
the generation Jesus returns (Dan. 7:21, 25; 8:24; 11:33-35; 12:7, 10; Rev. 6:9-11; 7:9, 14; 9:21; 11:7; 13:7, 15; 16:5-7; 17:6; 18:24; 19:2; Mt. 10:21-22, 28; 24:9; Lk. 12:4-7; 21:16-19).
Unrighteous legislation will permit the state to control and even kill believers (Rev. 13:15-17).
~Martyrdom sets into motion a domino effect in the spirit realm, which intensifies prayer. Murder backfires on the Antichrist. The shedding of the saints’ blood fuels the prayer movement, purifies the Church, and releases the harvest. It will result in fearless dedication to Jesus and zeal in the prayer movement, which releases judgment (Rev 6:10).
Mt. 24:10 Then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

A. Relational breakdown in society is making world headlines. This does not refer specifically to
believers, but to people in general being offended and betraying and hating one another.
B. Currently, the breakdown of the family with the divorce rate is exploding worldwide. In the US, it is 50%. Social order will break down when family members and friends betray each other.
There will be a widespread spirit of murder and open hatred directed at the church in the coming days (Matt. 24:9). This would be followed by “the love of many growing cold” (Matt. 24:12) in which great betrayal and offense will be revealed from within the church – among the brethren. Many will turn from the Lord in that time.
Mt. 24:12 Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
A. Lawlessness is abounding in increased expressions of violence and immorality. It will cause the breakdown of the social order as love grows cold for God, as well as for family members.
B. Sin is now reaching greater expressions and will reach its fullness (Rev. 14:18; Dan. 8:23).

23 In the latter time…when the transgressors have reached their fullness… (Dan. 8:23)
11 There will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven…25 And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars… (Lk. 21:25)
There will be great signs in the sky as seen in the sun, moon, and stars (Lk. 21:11, 25). The weather patterns are affected by what happens in the heavens. We are experiencing record levels of floods, fires, hurricanes, volcanoes, and other natural disasters.
B. Meteorologists warn that changes in global weather patterns mean that we will have hotter and more turbulent weather for the next 100 years or so. Four out of five of the costliest natural disasters of the past 40 years have occurred since 1989, including hurricanes Andrew and Hugo.
The most costly earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, and floods are happening.

When comparing Mt. 24 with 1 Thes. 5:2-3 we see 3 distinct prophetic time frames related to the final 7-year period of this age. First, the beginning of birth pangs (Mt. 24:8). Second, the worldwide period of counterfeit peace and safety (increased birth pangs; 1 Thes. 5:2-3; Dan.
9:27). Third, the Great Tribulation (heavy birth pangs; Mt. 24:21; Jer. 30:5-7). These 3 prophetic time frames are related to the last 7 years of this age (Dan. 9:27).
The last 7 years is made up of 2 distinct periods each lasting 31/2 years.

  • First time frame: beginning of birth pangs with distress in the nations (Mt. 24:4-8; Lk 21:23, 25)
  • Second time frame: increased labor pangs with counterfeit world peace (first 31/2 year period)
  • Third time frame: hard labor pangs with the Great Tribulation (final 31/2 year period)

UNDERSTANDING THE FIRST TIME FRAME: DISTRESS IN THE NATIONS (MT. 24:4-8)
1. The beginning of birth pangs occurs before the 7-year period starts. Israel is the timetable for God’s prophetic plans. They are the reference point for understanding redemptive history past and future. Therefore, my opinion is that the beginning of birth pangs started in 1948 when Israel
became a nation or in 1967 when Jerusalem came under Israel’s authority.

2. Jesus spoke of a specific period of time called the “beginning of birth pangs.” The Greek word birth pangs is translated as sorrows (NKJV). It is to be compared with the increasing trauma a woman experiences during childbirth. This trauma will result in a new world order being birthed at the Millennium. Paul spoke of creation as groaning for the Millennial earth.

Matthew 24’s Nine Signs

The 12 negative sign trends that bring distress to the nations are deception and false prophets (Mt. 24:4-5, 11, 24), ethnic conflict (Mt. 24:7), economic warfare (Mt. 24:7), famines, pestilences, and earthquakes (Mt. 24:8), hatred of believers (Mt. 24:9), relational breakdown in society (Mt. 24:10), lawlessness causing love to grow cold (Mt. 24:12), fearful sights (Lk. 21:11), signs in the sky and disturbances in the sea (Lk. 21:11, 25). In the same way that we must embrace the positive sign trends in our lives in this hour, so we must resist and expose these negative sign trends at this time, before they escalate.

2. These trends have always existed in society, but in the end times they will have a distinct intensity that will make global headline news. In them, God has a message to a generation. Jesus gave these signs to answer the question of what would be the sign of His coming (Mt. 24:3).
These are prophetic signs that are meant to give believers confidence that the Lord is near.

3.These birth pangs will create a many-faceted crisis, unparalleled in history. They must be discernable to be prophetic signs to help the Church. Birth pains are measured by frequency (how far apart the contractions are) and intensity (amount of pain they cause). As the frequency and intensity of the contractions increase, it signals the soon arrival of a baby. A woman experiencing birth pains notices that something is different. These signs will get the attention of the planet. Jesus didn’t give us a way to measure them. They have a discernable message in them from God that makes people cry out to God. As we stay in the Scripture and close to Jesus, we will understand.

B. 24:9-10 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
Persecution against believers: will be unique in the generation in which the Lord returns (Dan. 7:21, 25; 8:24; 11:33-35; 12:7, 10; Rev. 6:9-11; 7:9, 14; 9:21; 11:7; 13:7, 15; 16:5-7; 17:6; 18:24; 19:2; Mt. 10:21-22, 28; 24:9; Lk. 12:4-7; 21:16-19). The number of martyrs over 1900 years was nearly 25 million. In the 20th century, there have been almost 50 million martyrs.

C. 24:11-12 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
There will be a falling away from the faith at the end of the age (Mt. 24:9-13; 2 Thes. 2:3; 1 Tim. 4:1-2; 2 Tim. 3:1-7; 4:3-5; 2 Pet. 2:1-3). A doctrine of a demon is a teaching inspired by demons. 1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, (1 Tim. 4:1-3) 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables… (2 Tim. 4:3-4) Sound doctrine teaches obedience and allegiance to Jesus. It requires endurance. To turn the ear away means that the people will no longer hear what God intended in various Bible passages.  Many churches now today deny Scripture as infallible and therefore, as the moral plumb line.

We will see Scoffers and mockers even within the church as we proclaim End-time truth: Peter highlighted we first of all we should brace ourselves to be mocked. (2 Pet. 3:3-4) Loving the truth is more than agreeing with it; it involves standing for the truth despite the cost.
9 The coming of the lawless one [Antichrist] is…with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and unrighteous deception…because they did not receive the love of the truth.(2 Thes. 2:9-10)
Jesus prophesied 3x about an increased deception in the end times 4 Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many…11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many…24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Mt. 24:4-5, 11, 24)

UNDERSTANDING THE SECOND TIME FRAME: FALSE PROPHETS AND COUNTERFEIT WORLD PEACE
A.Two signs that Paul gave to indicate the time of Jesus’ Coming are a falling away from the faith combined with the revealing of the Antichrist on the world stage to establish peace (1 Thes. 5:3).Widespread deception will lead many to embrace the harlot Babylon religion (Rev. 17:2-6) and cause many to fall away from Jesus (Mt. 24-11; 2 Thes. 2:3; 1 Tim. 4:1-2; 2 Tim. 3:1-7; 4:3-5).
The second prophetic time frame occurs in the first 31/2 year period. It begins with the Antichrist being revealed as a man of peace who solves the “distress in the nations” (Mt. 24:4-8) (Dan. 9:27) and then establishes a counterfeit world peace (1 Thes. 5:3). At this time the Harlot Babylon religion persecutes the Church (Rev. 17:2-6) leading to many falling away from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1). The nations will rejoice in the unity and world peace that this religion will seemingly bring. Since many military and economic conflicts are linked to religious differences, many are looking for a “religious solution” that will set the stage to accomplish world peace and prosperity. 3 When they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them. (1 Thes. 5:3)

B.There are two stages in Satan’s end-time plan to be worshipped by all nations (Rev. 13:8). First, he will establish the Harlot Babylon worldwide religion as a means to deceive the nations and cause Christians to fall away from the faith. Next, he will establish the Antichrist religion.
C.Babylon will deceive the nations with sorcery, which is a combination of drugs and demonic power (Rev. 9:21; 18:23; Isa. 47:9, 12). Her dark supernatural power will fascinate people.
23 For by your [Babylon] sorcery all the nations were deceived. (Rev. 18:23)
D.Israel’s national and spiritual harlotry consisted of worshiping idols (Ex. 34:12-17). When Israel turned to idols, God called it “playing the harlot with other gods.” There are 90 passages in the OT that refer to Israel’s national harlotry. In each passage, harlotry is a religion based on idolatry. Spiritual harlotry is synonymous with idolatry and false religion that involved demon worship (1 Cor. 10:20-21; 1 Chr. 5:25; Ezek. 23:37; Hos. 4:12-13). Idolatry is usually combined with immorality (orgies), drugs, demonic rituals, and the sacrifice of animals or humans.

E.The Harlot Babylon will be a counterfeit “justice” movement and religion that will masquerade as an answer to injustice as it deceives the earth by feeding the poor, meeting humanitarian needs, loving peace, and championing the dignity of humanity with no moral absolutes. The two main characteristics of the Harlot’s ideology are moral relativism and religious pluralism.
E. The Harlot religion serves as a “forerunner” to prepare the nations to worship the Antichrist. Revelation 17:1-6 vividly describes the seductive power, cruel persecution, and destruction of Harlot Babylon’s one-world religious system.
F. The Harlot’s system will cause the nations to be drunk with her seductions that offer great benefits including humanitarian aid, unified religion (that ends war) and a prosperous world economy. The nations will get drunk or intoxicated with joy with her promises of goodness, prosperity, compassion and a theology of tolerance (Rev. 17:2)
G. The Harlot religion will have great prominence. It will be arrayed in purple (royal status) and will be respected by the elite financial leaders of the earth who will give their allegiance to her (Rev. 17:4)

A. John prophesied about Babylon from Rev. 17:1-19:10. He ended the section by defining the true spirit of worship and prophecy as that which testifies, or magnifies, the truth about Jesus. The testimony of Jesus includes His life, death, resurrection, and the primary issues on His heart.
10 Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Rev. 19:10)
B. One aspect of false prophecy is to promise peace and prosperity in a time of judgment.

(Jer. 23:16-22)10 They have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace… (Ezek. 13:10)
C. There is a great need for forerunner messengers to speak the truth faithfully, boldly, and tenderly. Allegiance to Jesus and loving the truth are primary issues in the end times (2 Thes. 2:10). The Body of Christ must tolerate all religions in the sense of greatly valuing the dignity of their people and religious liberties. They possess great dignity before God. Yet, we are not willing to let them go to hell by refusing to love them by telling them the truth about Jesus. A false application of tolerance is foundational in the movements that lead to the harlot religion.
B. The conflict in the end times will center upon defining who Jesus is and how we love Him. We must love God on His terms. Love for God is loyalty to His truth, as seen in Jesus. Our love must be expressed in alliance with the Jesus of the Bible, not the Jesus of humanistic sentiment.
C. Truths about Jesus that offend humanists include His deity and, thus, His right to establish absolute standards of living. Jesus does not accept humanistic views of righteousness and love that exclude Jesus as the only way of salvation, and His right to judge sin, now and in eternity.
D. Refusal to stand by such truths is proof that they operate under the spirit of delusion. This is true of famous people who work in the White House, who host talk shows, who fill stadiums with concerts for the poor, or who lead mega-churches. There are many voices with a false application of tolerance, and they are currently preparing the nations to embrace this harlot religion.
E. The end-time Church will lead the greatest hope and justice movement in history. In Jesus, we have a hope that is far superior to all humanistic movements. The true forerunners are the greatest hope-bringers in history. They will be filled with love, purity, and humility as they
engage in works of justice and compassion while giving a clear witness of the truth.

Mt. 24:12  Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
A. Lawlessness is abounding in increased expressions of violence and immorality. It will cause the breakdown of the social order as love grows cold for God, as well as for family members.
B. Sin is now reaching greater expressions and will reach its fullness (Rev. 14:18; Dan. 8:23).
23 In the latter time…when the transgressors have reached their fullness… (Dan. 8:23)
How does such a man as the Antichrist come into such great power and authority? It will be the fruit of the desires of the nations for this kind of king, who represents everything that they long to be. As Israel chose Saul over David, so the nations will choose this man over the true King, Jesus.  This will not be a momentary decision – the coming of the “lawless one” will be the fruit of the maturity of lawlessness (Dan. 8:23) when the “transgressors reach their fullness”. God will give men the god they desire when Satan is cast down to the earth (Rev. 12:7-9) and will “give them over” to the king they desire as well (Rom. 1:26).
D. 24:14 14 This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations (ethnos) and then the end will come. (Mt 24:14)
A. There are positive spiritual trends prophesied in the Scripture that will occur in the generation the Lord returns in great measure with a unique intensity on a global basis. They’re measurable.
B. Gospel preached to all nations: Jesus connected the timing of His return to the preaching of the gospel to all nations. Mission organizations project from statistical data that the gospel will be heard by every people group and language on the earth for the first time by 2015.
C. Churches exist in all 232 nations and territories of the earth. The greatest harvest of souls in history is occurring now. The Bible has been translated in over 2,000 languages (used by 98% of the world’s population). Wycliffe plans to have it translated in every language by 2040.
D. Salvation of Israel: Messianic (Jewish) congregations in Israel are seeing more Jewish people come to Jesus than any time since the first century. There are over 120 Messianic congregations in Israel totaling over 10,000 believers. This is an increase of over 500% in the last 10 years.
39 You shall see Me no more till you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”
(Mt 23:39)  26 All Israel will be saved, as it is written… (Rom. 11:26)
E. Bridal identity: John connected Jesus’ return to the Church worldwide understanding her bridal
identity. This is occurring in a global way for the first time in history (Rev 22:17; Mt. 25:1-13).

F. Global prayer movement: Jesus connected the timing of His return in Lk. 17 to night and day
prayer in Lk. 18. Isaiah prophesied of 24/7 prayer ministries continuing until Jesus’ Coming (Isa.
62:6-7) and energized by those who have a bridal identity (Isa. 62:4-5). The recent surge of 24/7
prayer with many stadium prayer events occurring worldwide is a sign of the times. The Spirit is
raising up a end-time prayer movement (Rev. 22:17; 5:8; 8:4; Lk. 18:7-8; Mt. 25:1-13; Isa. 62:6-
7; 24:14-16; 25:9; 26:8-9; 27:2-5, 13; 30:18-19; 42:10-13; 43:26; 51:11; 52:8; Joel 2:12-17, 32;
Jer. 31:7; Mic. 5:3-4; Zeph. 2:1-3; Ps. 102:17-20; 122:6; Zech. 12:10).

7 Shall God not avenge (bring justice) His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though
He bears long with them? 8…He will avenge them speedily (Tribulation). When the Son of
Man comes, will He really find faith (agreement with His plans in prayer) on the earth? (Lk. 18:7-8)  4 You shall be called Hephzibah…for the LORD delights in you…5 As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. 6 I have set watchmen (intercessors) on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night…7 and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. (Isa. 62:4-7)
More Signs: Global worship movement (Isa. 42:10-13) End-time outpouring of the Spirit Unparalleled understanding of End-Time prophecy: (Jer. 23:20; 30:24; Dan. 11:33; 12:10; 12:4, 9-10).) Global youth focus in the Kingdom (Mal. 4:5-6) A marked increase of knowledge (not wisdom) as many run “to and fro” to obtain it (Dan. 12:4); 5 years worth of research material is produced by scientists every 24 hours; 80% of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive in our generation; 500,000 new books are produced every year

24:22 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.

With great rage, Satan will target Natural Israel for extermination (Rev. 12:13-17) in the final three and a half years before Jesus returns.  Then the woman (the remnant of Israel) fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they (Gentile believers) should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days (Jacob’s Trouble). (Rev. 12:6) However, out of mercy, the Lord will target Natural Israel for preservation at the same time. Jesus’ goal will be to contend for, preserve and win over this group. Satan’s goal will be to deceive, destroy, and eliminate this group, and thus stop them from enthroning the true King and ensuring his defeat. At the most extreme point of trouble for the Jewish people, Jerusalem, and Israel— when all the nations are gathered against them (Zech. 12:3), two-thirds of the Jews
have perished (Zech. 13:8), and half of Jerusalem is in captivity (Zech. 14:2) with many others in prison camps throughout the nations as well (Is. 42:5-9; 49:8-12; 61:1-7)—the Lord will initiate the prophetic cry from the heavens: what I hope would be 100 million Gentile intercessors will, in unity with the Holy Spirit, cry out that the time has come for Jesus to return (Rev. 11:15-19).
The prophetic cry will be related to the need for Jerusalem to be liberated from theAntichrist and his demonized armies (gathered from among the nations) (Rev. 16:14). In response, the Greater Moses will come (Deut. 18:15) to effect the end-time deliverance of His people from the “greater pharaoh.”

24:21-22 When you see the ‘Abomination of Desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place…21 for then there will be GREAT TRIBULATION, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved (physically killed); but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. (Mt. 24:15, 21-22)
A. The revealing of the man of sin follows. This is a second, distinct time frame (according to Revelation 17) in which the Antichrist emerges and destroys the Harlot system to create a global context for loyalty to him and worship of him. To establish his supremacy as the true god of the earth, he will stand in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem (that he most likely helped to rebuild – Dan. 9:27) and place an image of himself, the abomination of desolation (Matt. 24:15; Rev. 13:14-15) in the Holy Place and demanding that all acknowledge his supremacy over every other God – but especially the Hebrew and Christian God and His Son. All will be forced to worship this image or be killed.
B. His emergence, according to Jesus, marks the beginning of the most extreme time frame for believers in human history, the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:15-31). Revelation 5:8 – 6:1 describe this time frame beginning after the church has come into significant maturity and testing at the hands of the Harlot system (Rev. 17:6).

C. The very Terrible Day will be the greatest crisis in history called the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:21; Jer. 30:7; Dan. 12:1; Rev. 3:10) emphasizing the negative dimensions of the 3½ years before Jesus’ return. The great trouble will be caused by the wrath of God on the rebellious by the Antichrist’s reign of terror and the actions of evil people (on both believers and unbelievers) along with convulsions in nature (earthquakes, storms, etc).

24:21-22 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.

The purpose of the Great Tribulation is to purify God’s people, bring in the harvest (including the salvation of Israel), vindicate the saints, expose false believers within the Church, demonstrate God’s power in protecting the saints (Rom. 9:17), punish sin (2 Thes. 1:6-10; Isa. 26:21), and
purge the earth from the defilement of sin (Isa. 24:4-6; Zech. 13:2). God’s judgment removes options that often function as props that we falsely trust in and temptations that we yield to. The principle of judgment: God uses the least severe means to bring the greatest numbers to salvation
at the deepest levels of love without violating anyone’s free will in training the future rulers of the earth.

Mt. 24:24  False christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. False signs and wonders arise (Mt. 24:24; Mk. 13:22; 2 Thes. 2:9; Rev. 13:13-14; 16:14; 19:20). There will be a specific hour, during a season of great pressure, when many people will openly and publicly reject Jesus and the Church. The pressure will be more than “social,” in nature, it will be a political and religious pressure. People will be pressured to conform to a compromised faith that has come about due to the teachings and proclamations of deceptive “false prophets” (Matt. 24:11). The deceptive arguments of these false prophets will be so convincing, that even the “elect,” the fiery, passionate believers, may be unsure of what is true in the midst of it all – though they will never be convinced by the false prophets and will stand firm (Matt. 24:24).
2. The false prophets will be emissaries of a religious system that seems attractive in every way in its ability to deliver world peace, economic stability and prosperity, even physical comfort and security. We will know this religious system as Babylon (Rev 17:1-4).
3. During the early period of false “peace and safety,” (1 Thess. 5:2) many saints will lose their lives (be martyred) because they resist the pressure to conform and refuse to do so. Also, many saints will be offended, betray other saints, and hate one another   their love for Jesus will grow cold (Matt. 24:10-12).
4. This “shaking” and purifying of the Church will initially be intense; it will be the “dark night of the soul” for the many people who burn with love for Jesus despite the affliction (Song 5:6-16). It will intensify during the Great Tribulation under the direction of Antichrist. However, this time period will also be the purified Bride’s finest hour (Dan.11: 33). Jesus encourages us to “endure to the end” in Matthew 24:13.

Mt. 24:25 See, I have told you beforehand.
A. The nature of God is always to warn before releasing judgment. It is not consistent with His nature that He would come without warning to surprise the whole earth. 7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His…prophets. (Amos 3:7)
B. Jesus said, “I have told you these things beforehand,” because He wanted us to know the info.

24:27-31 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. 29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
The lightning fast speed speaks of the start of the Coming procession, not the full duration
A. It seems clear that the seventh trumpet in the book of Revelation corresponds with what Paul called “the last trumpet” in 1 Corinthians 15:52. Why did Paul reveal that there would be a “final” trumpet – and what progression of trumpets was he speaking of?
B. The apostle John would witness firsthand what Paul was revealing in part in Revelation 9-11. John sees and hears a series of “trumpet blasts” related to the release of end-time judgments that shake the earth significantly before the coming of the Lord. The culmination of these trumpet judgments is the “last trumpet” – the time of the return of Jesus and the victory of the saints.
C. It is at the sounding of this trumpet in Revelation 11:15-19 that Jesus breaks into the sky above to take His great power over the earth and reign over the nations in a direct way. The possession of the nations, rightfully His, will now become fully His as it is time to remove all of His reprobate (fully seared in conscience) enemies who have rejected His kingdom invitation. It is now time to purge the earth of all of the wicked that would violently resist or reject His rule, or “destroy those who destroy the earth.” The nations are enraged by His judgments and, as they have become fully seared (or taken the mark of the beast) they are completely “dead” in their conscience and have no hope of salvation or redemption. Their time of final judgment is at hand.

24:33-34 33 When you see all these things, know that it is near–at the doors! 34 Assuredly…this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place…
B. Jesus commanded the people in the generation of His return to know that His return was near when they saw ALL the sign events of Mt. 24 occurring at the same time. There is only one generation in which all these things happen simultaneously on a global basis.

C. How long is a biblical generation? A generation in Scripture ranges from 40 to 100 years (Gen. 15:13-16; Num. 32:13; Ps. 90:10; Mt. 1:17; Acts 7:6). Moses spoke of Israel’s captivity in Egypt as lasting 400 years or 4 generations (Gen. 15:13). Thus, a generation could refer to 100 years. There were 14 generations from Abraham to David (Mt. 1:17) each averaging about 70 years.

D. Jesus rebuked His generation for not being able to read the signs of His first coming. Asking for a sign was a legitimate request because Joel prophesied that the Messiah would give signs from heaven (Joel 2:30). Their hypocrisy was in testing Jesus by asking for signs beyond those He did.
1 The Pharisees…came testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven…2
Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of
the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign… (Mt. 16:1-4)
F. Paul taught that the Church should know the times and seasons related to the Lord’s coming. (1 Thes. 5:1-6) Paul said that we are not in darkness that the Day of the Lord should overtake us as a thief. A thief causes one to suffer loss of things that could have been avoided by watching. The thief motif mostly emphasizes the element of loss that one suffers because of an unexpected coming.
24:37-39 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
LAWLESSNESS: DAYS OF NOAH (VIOLENCE) & THE DAYS OF LOT (IMMORALITY)
A. Lawlessness will abound: sin will reach its fullest expression (Mt. 24:12; Rev. 14:18).
12 Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (Mt. 24:12)
23 In he latter time…when the transgressors have reached their fullness… (Dan. 8:23)
21 They did not repent of their murders…sorceries…sexual immorality or thefts. (Rev. 9:21)
1. Murder: as the primary sin on earth (Rev. 6:9-11; 7:13-14; 9:21; 13:7, 10; 16:6; 17:6)
2. Sorceries: occult and demon worship will fill the earth (Rev. 13:3-4, 8, 12-15; 14:11)
3. Immorality: demon-energized perversion (Rev. 9:20-21; 16:13; 17:2; 18:3; 19:2)
4. Theft: legislation and persecution motivated by theft (i.e., the Nazi’s anti-Semitism)

B. The days of Noah: VIOLENCE (Mt. 24:37; Gen. 6:11-13; 2 Tim. 3); great violence will be seen in terrorist acts, race riots, wars in the streets, increasing murder rates worldwide.
5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…11 The earth was corrupt before God, and
the earth was filled with violence… (Gen. 6:5-11)
12 God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way
on the earth. 13 God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is
filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them… (Gen. 6:12-13)
1. Abortion: nearly 50 million abortions worldwide each year or 1/4 of all pregnancies (over
100,000 per day). Over 1.5 million babies are aborted per year (4,000 per day) in the US.
2. Breakdown of the family: the divorce rate is exploding worldwide (in the US it is 50%)
and brother shall betray brother even to death (Mk 13:12).
C. The days of Lot: IMMORALITY (Lk. 17:28-30; Gen. 19:1-28); immorality will greatly increase in the End-Times (Rev. 9:21; 14:8; 17:1-4; 18:2-4, 9-10; 19:2; 21:8). This is seen in many ways.
1. Human trafficking (Rev. 18:13; Joel 3:3). There are currently 35 million slaves on the earth. It is growing nearly 5 million per year. 2. Pornography: nearly $100 billion is spent each year on pornography worldwide. 3. Homosexuality: is sweeping across the world as nations are accepting homosexuality in clergy and marriage. Paul prophesied that marriage would be outlawed in some places. 1 The Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits…3 forbidding to marry… (1 Tim. 4:1-3)

24:32-44 Learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you KNOW that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see ALL these things, KNOW that it is near–at the doors! 34 Assuredly…this generation will by no means pass away till ALL these things take place… 36 Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels…but My Father only…42 Watch…for you do not know what hour your Lord is
coming. 43 Know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would
come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you
also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Jesus commanded us to know the generation that the Lord returns.

The Church will look up and lift their heads in encouragement knowing Jesus is coming soon.
28 When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your
redemption draws near. 29 He spoke…a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. 31
So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near…
(Luke 21:28-31)
Asking for a sign was a legitimate request because Joel prophesied that the Messiah would give
signs from heaven (Joel 2:30-32). In hypocrisy, they were seeking signs beyond those done by
Jesus and given by Scripture with the intention of testing God. Jesus’ miracles were signs to bear
witness of Him (Jn. 5:36).
24:32-35  “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only
A. There are many prophesied “signs” in the prophetic scriptures that mark the final generation as unique. These signs give us understanding that we are in a unique season in history. The
assumption that many make regarding Matt. 24:36 and 44 is that:
1. No one can know the day or the hour, which must mean a sudden, unexpected departure.
This cannot be true, as the apostles themselves understood that there would be signs and events that they would be able to use to mark the season change that would mark His coming. No one can know the day or the hour, but Jesus Himself made clear that we could (and should) know the season, or generation of His return.
2. No one will ever know the day or the hour. “Of that day” no one knows, only the Father Himself. That does not mean, however, that we will never know the time of His coming.
3. The Bible gives precise information to believers (number of days, months, and years pertaining to certain events in the last days) that will give us great hope in the midst of fiery trial. We may still not know the exact day or hour, but we will have great hope alive within us that there is a predetermined end to the trouble that will soon come.
4. Many use Mt. 24:36 to justify their unfamiliarity and their lack of study of biblical prophecy.
They use this passage in the opposite way that Jesus intended in its context.

24:40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
The context of this passage describes those taken in judgment in a sudden and unexpected manner. These will be “swept away” in death by God’s judgment coming on the earth. Many people in Noah’s day were surprised by the flood of judgment that killed them. In the same manner, many will ignore the signs that Jesus described in Matthew 24:3-35. Jesus told them clearly that those taken were taken by death to the place the eagle or vultures will eat them.

Noah and his family prepared for an entire generation without knowing the specific day or hour.
7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared
an ark for the saving of his household…and became heir of the righteousness… (Heb. 11:7)

Watchfulness is to establish a lifestyle of encountering Jesus. It is essential in hindering Satan as
the thief from stealing our inheritance (Jn. 10:10). Our primary inheritance is our heart
connection with Jesus. Satan seeks to steal this aspect of our inheritance, knowing that by doing
this that he will also gain access to our ministry inheritance.

24:45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing…48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, “My master is delaying his coming,” 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants…, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus addresses leadership or those who rule over and feed God’s people. He categorized them into good and evil leaders. Then in Mt. 25:1-13, Jesus further categorized the good leaders into wise and foolish.  The good leaders here, in the context of end-times give ‘food to the housefold in due season.’  One of the temptation they face is drunkeness with those who are drunk.

This is similar to Luke 21:34: “But take heed to yourself, lest your hearts be weighed down with fear”—that is exhortation one. Then, in Luke 21:36, Jesus tells them to pray always. So the two exhortations that Jesus gives is: take heed to yourself and pray always.

It says in Luke 21:34, exhortation one: “Take heed to yourself, lest your hearts be weighed down
with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.” He
says, “Why? Because if you do not pay attention to yourself, your heart will be weighed down
with carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this life.” The net result is this: the Day of the
Lord, the second coming, and the events related to it will come upon these people, even
believers, unexpectedly because their hearts are weighed down, and they do not have an alert
spirit. They do not know what is happening, even when the generation they are living in is the
generation of the Lord’s return. Their hearts are weighted down because they did not pay
attention to the way they were living. We are talking about believers as well. He is talking to His
people here—people who would read the Bible and believers.
JESUS PROPHESIED OF A SNARE THAT WOULD CHALLENGE EVERYONE
It is as if Luke is saying, “Let me give you the bigger context” (Lk. 21:35, paraphrased). Why is
it that this is so important? Luke 21:35 is a bit ominous. It is a little bit overwhelming almost.
Well, it is actually hard to understand except by the Spirit of God. Luke says in 21:35: “It will
come”—the Day of the Lord, the end-time events—“as a snare upon all those who dwell on the
face the whole earth.”