Chapter 12

Who are the Woman and Her Children?

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth, he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she might be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days (Revelation 12:1-6).

And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. And the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, in order that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished or a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 12:13- 17).

This is perhaps the most mysterious and yet foundational vision in the Bible concerning God’s plan for the outworking of the redemption of His creation at the end of the age. Identifying the woman and her children is crucial to understanding the makeup of the company of the redeemed. The whole of prophetic Scripture must be considered in order to arrive at an identification of these key players. She is revealed in heaven as a great sign along with her children, the "male child" and the "rest of her offspring." Who or what are they a sign of, and can these heavenly signs be matched with flesh and blood counterparts on earth?

It is easy to see that this heavenly vision has application to the entire history of the redeemed line. Since the time of Eve, there has always been a woman struggling to give birth, and the devil has always sought to kill her offspring. The application to Moses and Jesus, and the situation with Esther and Haman, come to mind. Yet we are challenged and constrained here with identifying a particular segment of the overall vision which applies specifically to the last three and one-half years of the age. In other words, who are the people groups on earth during the last three and one-half years of the age who represent the subjects of this heavenly vision?

Who are the "Rest of Her Offspring"?

The first and easiest match that can be made is the ready match between the "rest of her offspring" that the dragon goes off to make war against, with the saints of Daniel and Revelation.

And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 12:17).

And it was given to him [the antichrist] to make war with the saints and to overcome them; and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him (Revelation 13:7).

We have already concluded that these saints represent the final generation Church on earth at the end of the age. Revelation Chapters 13 and 14 describe that war between Satan and the saints. Throughout, the saints are encouraged to keep their perseverance and faith (Revelation 13:10), and to keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus (Revelation 14:12). Authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation is given to the antichrist, but a great multitude that no one could count, from every tribe and people and tongue and nation, emerges victoriously from that war.

Who is the Male Child?

The description of the male child so much resembles Jesus that it is difficult to tell if the vision is referring to Jesus of two thousand years ago or to the overcoming Church, for the overcoming Church will also rule the nations with a rod of iron.

Scholars have different opinions. Most conclude the ready analogy to Jesus, yet Scripture indicates a birth at the three and one-half year point before the end of the age that signifies something other than the birth of Jesus two thousand years ago. Jesus likened the events just preceding the end of the age to increasing birth pains. Someone is going to be birthed at the end of the age, but who is it?

Paul said that the whole creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth for the revealing of the sons of God. The birth of the male child, the only birth clearly identified in the book of Revelation, suggests that this male child might have something to do with those sons of God for which the whole creation is waiting.

And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she might be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days (Revelation 12:5-6).

I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware" (Psalm 2:7-9).

And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father . . . (Revelation 2:26-27).

Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth . . . He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Revelation 3:10, 12-13).

Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape [be accounted worthy to escape, KJV] all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:34-36).

And I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads . . . These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless (Revelation 14:1, 4-5).

The male child is best represented as a select group of Jewish and Gentile Church overcomers who have ripened early into the likeness of Jesus and are taken to heaven at the mid-point of the final seven years of the age. This is not the whole Church, but only a first-fruits portion representing the eventual greater harvest. These are blameless saints who have no need of further testing and purification by the fires of tribulation. The timing and description of the male child snatched up to heaven at the beginning of the final three and one-half years of the age matches the timing of the appearance and the description of the 144,000 before God’s throne of Revelation 14:1.

If the number 144,000 is literal, and if there are nominally two billion Christians on earth at the end of the age, the ratio selected would only be approximately one in twenty thousand, assuming that the dead in Christ are not involved. Even as the ratio of first fruits to the final harvest of grain is but a few select kernels relative to a vast field of grain, so will the first fruits of the Church be these few individuals who have given all to follow Jesus wherever He goes. The bulk of the Church, the rest of her offspring, will need to undergo purification in the great tribulation to the extent necessary to conform them to the likeness of Jesus. I believe that is why Jesus said, without mentioning option, "Those who endure to the end will be saved." It is not because God loves them any less than the first fruits. Their call, however, is to endure the necessary crucible of purification and lay down their lives, if called, in order to overcome Satan. It would seem to be the male child in heaven, the first-fruits harvest of the Church, who speaks forth in Revelation 12:10-11 and identifies those left on earth as "our brethren."

And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death" (Revelation 12:10-11).

The accuser of the brethren found nothing (no sin) in the first fruits even as he found nothing (no sin) in Jesus, for no lie was found in their mouths and they are blameless. They have been presented to Christ as pure virgins. They have achieved bride status. Those who remain behind are the betrothed who will achieve bride status through purification. Hence, it is not until Revelation 19 that the bride has made herself ready. The tense of the Greek verb used for overcame signifies an action not yet completed, but already considered as if completed. The snatching up of the male child at the mid-point of the final seven years would seem to qualify as a "pre-great tribulation" rapture, if these are indeed living saints picked from among the living. For those who would seek to be counted in this group, the qualification is maturity evidenced by holiness.

. . . that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:27).

Who is the Woman?

The book of Revelation is a book of contrasts. Good contrasts evil. The mark of the beast contrasts the mark of God. True prophets contrast false prophets. There is a vision of a woman in Revelation 17 who stands for a great city of evil. Perhaps the identity of the evil woman can provide a clue, by contrast, to the identity of the righteous woman.

If Babylon is the great city represented by the evil woman, the contrasting city represented by the righteous woman would be the holy city of Jerusalem. In Galatians 4:26, we read that the Jerusalem above is indeed portrayed as the mother of the Church. The Lord started me out in understanding who the woman is by speaking a word early one morning in 1997: "Jerusalem above is our mother." He was pointing out existing Scripture.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. This is allegorically speaking: for these women are two covenants, one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. For it is written, "REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND." And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise (Galatians 4:22-28).

Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain . . . (Isaiah 51:1- 2).

That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is a word of promise; "AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON" (Romans 9:8-9).

Sarah stands for the free woman, the Jerusalem above, and her children are the children of God for which all creation awaits. Although Jerusalem above is described as barren and desolate, she is an allegorical representation of the flesh-and-blood, free-and-promised line of Sarah on earth who give birth to her children in pain out of a physical womb. Jerusalem above represents our spiritual mother while Sarah represents our physical mother. It is God Who transforms the natural into the spiritual, even as He will transform our physical bodies into heavenly bodies.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall bring forth children . . ." (Genesis 3:15-16).

But women ["she", margin notes] will be saved ["restored", margin notes] through childbearing -- if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety (1 Timothy 2:15 NIV).

The Genesis prophecy is clearly in view in the vision of the heavenly woman of Revelation 12. She is a picture of the physical line of Sarah rather than the spiritual Jerusalem above who neither labors nor gives birth. Children are represented in the Bible by a crown, and the crown of twelve stars on her head must represent the twelve sons of Israel and perhaps the twelve foundational apostles of the Church as well. She is still under the Genesis curse and has not yet broken free and been restored. The picture is of a woman struggling in the pains of childbirth to give birth to a portion of the Church at the end of the age, and in the process will be saved and restored. Who, through the process of giving birth, will be restored? Is there a specific people group at the end of the age who flees into the wilderness to be protected from Satan for three and one-half years, and is restored through the process of giving birth to a portion of the Church? Who is she, sealed for redemption, yet identified separately from the Church?

God will Never Forget Israel, but have Her Gentile Children?

Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the LORD of hosts is His name: "If this fixed order departs from before Me," declares the LORD, "Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever." Thus says the LORD, "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done," declares the LORD (Jeremiah 31:35-37).

We, in understatement to the point of humor, haven’t yet measured the heavens above or searched out the depths of the earth, and consequently God has not cast off Israel. Scripture portrays Israel as the wife of God, purposed to bring forth the children of God, even though she is adulterous and unfaithful. She is initially rejected, but will later be accepted and restored.

Behold, the tempest of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a sweeping tempest; it will burst on the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back, until He has performed, and until He has accomplished the intent of His heart; in the latter days you will understand this. "At that time," declares the LORD, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people." Thus says the LORD, "The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness --- Israel, when it went to find its rest" (Jeremiah 30:23-31:2).

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak kindly to her. Then I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. And it will come about in that day," declares the LORD, "That you will call Me Ishi [i.e., my husband] and will no longer call Me Baali [i.e., my master]" (Hosea 2:14-16).

Then the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel . . . Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days" (Hosea 3:1, 5).

"For the LORD has called you, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected," says your God. "For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer (Isaiah 54:6-8).

. . . and I shall bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I shall enter into judgment with you face to face . . . And I shall make you pass under the rod, and I shall bring you into the bond of the covenant (Ezekiel 20:35, 37).

"Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth; nevertheless, I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob," declares the LORD. "For behold, I am commanding, and I will shake the house of Israel among all nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, but not a kernel will fall to the ground. All the sinners of My people will die by the sword, those who say, ‘The calamity will not overtake or confront us.’ In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, and wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by My name," declares the LORD who does this (Amos 9:8- 12).

I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. Come, let us return to the LORD, for He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him (Hosea 5:15-6:2).

Now why do you cry out loudly? Is there no king among you, or has your counselor perished, that agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth? Writhe and labor to give birth, Daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth . . . Therefore, He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel (Micah 4:9-10, 5:3).

Although the book of Revelation is written specifically to the Church, the Old Testament is pregnant with prophetic promises to literal Israel which have yet to be fulfilled. God has said that He will never forget His chosen people Israel, yet a largely Gentile Church often does. Paul emphatically lays out the primacy of the Jewishness of the root from which the Gentile branches receive their life-giving sap in Romans Chapter 11. It is because the natural branches have been broken off that the Gentile branches can be grafted in and receive the life that a Jewish Jesus came to offer.

Gentiles are not to be arrogant toward Israel because it is to Israel that Gentiles owe the privilege of coming into attachment to the olive tree from the holy root.

And if the first piece of dough be holy, the lump is also; and if the root be holy, the branches are too. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you (Romans 11:16-18).

For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more shall these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins." From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, in order that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience that He might show mercy to all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways (Romans 11:24-33)!

Our end-times Church doctrine is often influenced by replacement theology, wherein the Church is assumed to replace in spiritual context that which the Bible says is literally applicable to the nation of Israel. References to Zion are assumed to no longer apply to physical Israel, but rather to the Church. Assuredly many of the promises referring to Zion are applicable to the Church, but it is incorrect to assume that the promises no longer apply to Israel because the Church has replaced Israel in the scheme of things. We must remember that there is a heavenly Mt. Zion which represents the one-new-man company of redeemed Jew and Gentile, and there is an earthly Mt. Zion which represents the literal nation of Israel. The earthly Mt. Zion will retain significance throughout the entire one-thousand year reign of Jesus Christ on earth. God has not given up on Israel, and the Bible indicates that the fulfillment of God’s restorative promises to Israel have been merely put on hold until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in.

As a consequence of this confusion, Church doctrine concerning the end-times can have the key players mixed up. Israel is often confused for the Church, and vice versa. Israel is placed in view in the warnings of Matthew 24 (which are clearly addressed to Jesus’ disciples), and the Church is placed in view in the image of the heavenly woman in Revelation Chapter 12, when it is clearly her offspring who are described as the Church. Israel is a key player in the book of Revelation, but she is behind the scenes struggling in birth pains.

I believe the woman in view in this heavenly vision stands for those of literal, physical Israel who have been supernaturally blinded for the sake of the Gentiles. This is a group distinct from Messianic Jews. Messianic Jews would be included as part of the Church, either the male child or the offspring of the woman. Paul makes a clear distinction in Romans Chapter 11 between the saved remnant of Israel and those who are hardened and stumble. It is this special group who are hardened and stumble, for the sake of the Gentiles, who are restored at the end of the age when their blindness is removed. When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, their spiritual vision will be restored by God, and they will be grafted back into the holy olive tree. All of Romans Chapter 11 deals with this point. There must be a special group of Israel, sheltered and protected through the time of Jacob’s trouble, so that Scripture can be fulfilled concerning the restoration of that nation which only comes at the very end of the age. And these are clearly distinct from that remnant spoken of at the beginning of Romans Chapter 11. These are a part of "all Israel" who will be saved.

Is any portion of the Church included in the woman? After all, Scripture says that all creation is groaning in birth pains. Certainly this heavenly vision is a vision that can apply to all of creation since the fall. Regardless of how widely symbolic the woman is, and how clearly the symbolism of the male child describes Jesus, we are nevertheless constrained to narrow the vision down so that it applies specifically to a group or groups of flesh and blood people alive on the earth during the last three and one-half years of the age. The definition of the Church as those who keep the commandments of God and have faith in Jesus Christ would reserve any living Jew or Gentile who falls into this category as not the woman, but either the male child or the rest of her offspring. The woman would seem to be reserved to those who are specifically not yet Christians, but yet are of the line of Sarah sealed for eventual redemption. I believe the heavenly woman, in the context of the numerous references to Israel struggling in birth pains to give birth to the children of God, is best interpreted as a portrayal of this blinded --- but nevertheless sealed for redemption --- portion of natural Israel. In a sense, she is the Church --- she is just not the Church yet. She is held back from being regenerated until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

Mixing these key players can result in loss of vision for the Church’s role in the end-times scenario. The woman is specifically protected from Satan and physically preserved until the end of the age, whereas the "rest of her offspring" are warred against by Satan. Their spiritual calling, as we have seen, is to defeat Satan in part by allowing themselves to be physically overcome. This is a crucial distinction which involves the very heart of God’s plan for His Church and for Israel.

It is the destiny of this chosen remnant of Israel to be supernaturally protected until the end of the age at which time they will be converted and grafted back in. It is the destiny of the Church to lay down her life as redemptive seed for that conversion and bring this remnant of Israel to jealousy by this witness of these who must have been with Jesus in order to demonstrate this greatest of love for their brethren. Considering the strained history of Jewish-Christian relations for the last two millennia, possibly nothing less than a demonstration of this greatest love possible between brethren will heal that rift. When a largely Gentile Church lives and loves and dies like Jesus did for her Jewish brethren, her Jewish brethren will sit up and take notice.

We were Pregnant, We writhed in Labor, We gave Birth

As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth, she writhes and cries out in her labor pains, thus were we before Thee, O LORD. We were pregnant, we writhed in labor, we gave birth, as it were, only to wind. We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth nor were inhabitants of the world born (Isaiah 26:17-18).

This is not the Church speaking. These are the words of Zion agonizing in the contractions of childbirth until the purposes of God are brought forth. "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob" is spoken by Paul in Romans 11 in direct contrast to the Gentile Church he is addressing. This is the woman of Revelation 12 in the pains of the birthing process --- Zion on earth laboring in pain to give birth to her children.

The ultimate purposes for which God created the nation of Israel will not be thwarted. His covenants with that nation have not been revoked and will never be revoked. It is through Israel that God will bless all nations.

Then God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her" (Genesis 17:15-16).

And the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?" (Genesis 18:17-18).

. . . for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).

Now if their transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be (Romans 11:12)!

Deliverance for the earth and giving birth to inhabitants of the world was their original calling and purpose. Although in the natural and in their own eyes they failed, the purposes of God are not thwarted by mere human shortcoming.

The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, "The place is too cramped for me; make room for me that I may live here." Then you will say in your heart, "Who has begotten these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and am barren, an exile and a wanderer? And who has reared these? Behold, I was left alone; from where did these come?" (Isaiah 49:20-21).

"Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; for the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman," says the LORD . . . O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, behold I will set your stones in antimony, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies, and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones. And all your sons will be taught of the LORD; and the well-being of your sons will be great (Isaiah 54:1, 11-13).

"Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. Shall I bring to the point of birth, and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?" says your God (Isaiah 66:7-9).

Nations of the earth will yet be considered sons of Israel. This was God’s original plan and is still in effect. However, Israel has suffered, is suffering, and must continue to suffer the agony of that birthing until the birthing process is complete.

I looked on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro . . . For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor, the anguish as of one giving birth to her first child, the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands, saying, "Ah, woe is me, for I faint before murderers" (Jeremiah 4:23-24, 31).

Now these are the words which the LORD spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah, "For thus says the LORD, ‘I have heard a sound of terror, of dread, and there is no peace. Ask now, and see, if a male can give birth. Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in childbirth? And why have all faces turned pale? Alas! for that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved from it’ " (Jeremiah 30:4-7).

Now why do you cry out loudly? Is there no king among you, or has your counselor perished, that agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth? Writhe and labor to give birth, Daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth . . . Therefore, He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel (Micah 4:9-10, 5:3).

The essence of the mystery of Israel and the Church is contained in these Scriptures, which most clearly portray Israel in the form of Zion, or the Daughter of Zion, as the woman of Revelation 12 on earth in the agony of childbirth. This model represents the constraints in which natural chosen Israel has been placed until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, at which time God will restore this remnant of Israel to the degree of the original promises. She is a special set-aside remnant of the elect called to a specific purpose --- to birth the Gentile Church. This is not about two Churches. This is about a one-new-man company Church under construction (see Ephesians 2:13-22).

Children of the Kingdom, which Israel has not physically birthed, will be attributed to her as her spiritual children. Children of Ruth (Gentiles), fathered in spirit by their Kinsman-Redeemer, will be considered the spiritual children of Naomi (Israel). Even as Obed nursed on Naomi’s lap, the nations are portrayed as nursing at the bosom of Jerusalem. It is the mystery of Israel’s birthing of the Gentile Church that releases Gentile wombs to reciprocate and be fruitful on Israel’s behalf.

Whenever a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more, for joy that a child has been born into the world (John 16:21).

"Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her; be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her, that you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts, that you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom." For thus says the LORD, "Behold, I extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall be nursed, you shall be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem" (Isaiah 66:10-13).

The birth pains she has suffered throughout the age have been to a measurable extent for the benefit of the Gentiles.

For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, in order that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy . . . Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways (Romans 11:30-31, 33)!

May God hasten the day when their blindness will be supernaturally removed and they will say, "Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord!"

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, "BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!" (Matthew 23:37- 39).

They will be forgiven, born again, Spirit-filled, and regrafted into the one-new-man company. Let us not fail to incorporate these magnificent promises to Zion into our vision and understand that they are yet to be fulfilled in a restored Jerusalem in a restored Israel.

Until . . .

The irrevocable covenant that God made with Abraham was not dependent on the performance of Israel as a nation. Although the covenant was not revoked, their disobedience brought judgment upon them.

And he said, "Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.’ Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed" (Isaiah 6:9-10).

The woman is still trapped under the Genesis curse until . . .

Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And He answered, "Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, houses are without people, and the land is utterly desolate, the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, and it will again be subject to burning, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump" (Isaiah 6:11-13).

The fullness of the Gentiles will not come in until Jerusalem ceases to be trampled on by the Gentiles. That does not happen until the very end of the age. The outer court is given to the nations, and the holy city is trampled upon until the very end of the last three and one-half years of the age. This should not be entirely spiritualized, for measuring rods mentioned in the Bible are always used to measure physical objects.

And there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, "Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship in it. And leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months" (Revelation 11:1-2).

. . . and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.(Luke 21:24).

According to these Scriptures, the times of the Gentiles extend to the very end of the last three and one-half years of the age. Jerusalem is currently being trampled upon by the Gentiles. That didn’t stop in 1967. The outer court is currently given over to the Dome of the Rock. At the time of this writing, Jews cannot worship openly on the temple mount, or an international incident will ensue. Israel must remain in partial blindness until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. The outworking of this will be the ever increasing birth pains known as Jacob’s distress or Jacob’s trouble. Israel will come to realize that she is but a valley of dry bones. She will be brought to the very end of herself. Her refusal and inability to see up until the very end will bring upon her the increasing throes of the birthing process. And this agony must continue until such time as her children are born.

This is a difficult word, but I believe the level of destruction indicated can only lead to the conclusion that the present nation of Israel, except for a remnant, is an Ishmael nation. It was founded and perpetuated largely by the efforts of man, even though the supernatural hand of God was involved not only in her birthing but in her survival. Because even the birth of Ishmaels serves the ultimate purposes of God. The line of the redeemed, however, is through Isaac and not Ishmael. Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

"Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth; nevertheless, I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob," declares the LORD (Amos 9:8).

The prophetic Scriptures which detail the destruction of Jerusalem at the very end of the age are too many and too descriptive to allow cataloging that destruction in history past. Israel’s judgments are a direct result of their refusal to turn to their God. Since the present nation still refuses to turn to their God and is firmly entrenched in the same activities that led to prior judgments, increasing judgment must come. The original promises to Moses in the form of blessings and curses depend on the heart of the people toward their God and clearly indicate that when the nation perseveres in ignoring their God, God will persevere in increasing His judgments against them until they can no longer ignore Him. And this last judgment will be one that is so devastating in magnitude and in the nature of its supernatural reversal and restoration that it is always followed by these words, "And then they will know that I am God." In the ashes of yet another future holocaust will be found the remnant seed that God will supernaturally restore. It is the Gentile Church’s call not only to stand by their blinded brethren during this time of devastation, but also to lay down their lives when called as redemptive seed in that restoration. The birth of the restored nation will be a supernatural birth that will stagger all of creation. Then they will know that HE is God. The present nation does not yet know and chooses not to consider it, hence the increasing magnitude of the judgment that must come to get their attention and turn them back to their God.

If she is a sign of physically sealed Israel held in the constraints of childbirth for the benefit of the Gentiles, then we should be able to identify somewhere in Scripture such a group of Israelites specifically protected on earth from the onslaughts of Satan during the last three and one-half years of the age. Such a group matches the initial group of 144,000 bondservants of Revelation 7, selected from twelve tribes of Israel and protected from the demonic assaults of the fifth trumpet judgment. This will be further explored in the next chapter.

The One-new-man Company

Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands --- remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity (Ephesians 2:11-16).

It is this Church and no other that Paul identifies in Ephesians 3:10 as the Church that will allow the demonstration of God’s wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Micah 5:3 continues to take on greater clarity.

Therefore, He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel (Micah 5:3).

What does it mean that the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel, other than the rest of the woman’s offspring in the form of a largely Gentile Church will come into union with God’s originally chosen people? It will not be a Church divided or a Church that has replaced Zion. It will be His brethren returning to Zion, and the two will become the one-new-man Church, represented spiritually by the Heavenly Jerusalem located on the Heavenly Mount Zion.

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:22- 24).

The woman of Revelation 12 is not yet the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21. The New Jerusalem will be a one-new-man company of Jew and Gentile comprising all of the redeemed of history, established by God after the millennial reign of Christ on earth from the earthly Mt. Zion in earthly Jerusalem. The woman and her children of Revelation 12 will eventually make up the New Jerusalem, but at the time of the vision, she, along with her children, are components of that future city still in the stages of restoration and development. As of Revelation 12, the bride has not yet made herself ready. As of today, Israel has not yet returned to their God, and the Church is not yet a bride without spot or wrinkle. But praise God, we are in the midst of birth pains ever increasingly designed to make us that way.

"Father, we desperately need Your wisdom and revelation to understand especially these Scriptures. The mystery of Your chosen people Israel and Your Church seem to be the very heart of this heavenly vision. Would You pour out fresh revelation into these areas so that we are armed with proper understanding and vision as we enter the very end of the age. Enlarge our understanding and vision, Father, of these things. Thank You, Father, for allowing Gentiles to be ingrafted as branches of the tree of the Holy Root. Thank You that because of the disobedience of one, another has been given mercy; and that because of the mercy given to another, mercy will be given to the one. Oh Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel. As we meditate on these awesome Scriptures, the love for Your chosen people burns in our hearts! May the peace of Jerusalem come forth! May Your Word and Law proceed forth from Jerusalem and may all nations, as sons of Israel, come to that place of blessing to witness the brightness of Your Glory. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen."  

Chapter 13

Who are the 144,000(s)?

And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads." And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel . . . (Revelation 7:2-4).

And I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless (Revelation 14:1-5).

We should not automatically assume that the first group of 144,000 in Revelation Chapter 7 is the same group presented in Chapter 14. There are significant differences between the two groups, both in their descriptions and the timing of their appearances on the scene. Those of Chapter 7 are selected from every tribe of Israel, while those of Chapter 14 are selected from among men. Those of Chapter 14 are in heaven before the gospel is preached to the whole world and before the trumpet judgments, while those of Chapter 7 are on earth after the preaching of the gospel to the whole world, being sealed to go through the trumpet judgments. Those in Chapter 7 are marked with the seal of God on their foreheads, while those in Chapter 14 are marked with the name of God and the name of the Lamb on their foreheads.

The 144,000 of Revelation Chapter 7

The first group of 144,000 in Revelation Chapter 7 from the twelve tribes of Israel is sealed during the time delay between the sixth and seventh seals to protect them from the oncoming wrath of God in the form of the trumpet judgments. They are mentioned at the time of the fifth trumpet as being protected from the demonic hordes. Satan has obviously been released in the trumpet judgments to serve as an instrument of God’s wrath. This is a much different function of Satan than was allowed during the great tribulation, where the saints were subject to the limited fury of Satan. Satan was tethered on a restraining leash during the great tribulation, but in the trumpets he is given more rope. Satan’s restrained fury, evidenced against the Church during the great tribulation, will pale in comparison to God’s wrath allowed in the form of the trumpet judgments. But the Church is not appointed to God’s wrath. The Blood of Jesus will protect the Church from God’s wrath even as the blood on the doorposts of the Israelites protected them from the plagues that befell Egypt. The similarities between some of the plagues of Egypt and some of the trumpet judgments are obvious.

We, the Church, are sealed with the seal of the Holy Spirit when we are born again. We won’t need another seal applied just before the trumpet judgments to protect us from God’s wrath.

For God has not destined us for wrath . . . (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

We are protected and will continue to be protected from God’s wrath and from Satan and his demonic hordes, and not by being removed from the earth.

I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep [protect, NIV] them from the evil one (John 17:15).

Jesus’ prayer has been answered. We must remember, however, that being kept and protected from Satan in this context is not the same as being protected from physical death at the hands of Satan, which will be allowed during the great tribulation. Being protected from Satan as used in this context refers to being protected from being spiritually overcome. It has nothing to do with preserving our earthly lives.

But you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all on account of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives (Luke 21:16-19).

Not a hair of our heads will perish and by our endurance we will gain our lives --- even though we may be put to death. This is an eternal perspective, not an earthly one, and one which makes sense only to those who have put their total trust in Jesus Christ and see eternity beyond as more real than this life’s transient vapor.

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation --- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:13-14).

Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

If They were the Church, They would Already be Sealed!

The Scriptures we have just looked at indicate that, by definition, the Church is sealed and protected from God’s wrath. Why then does this group of 144,000 from twelve tribes of Israel need special provision between the sixth and seventh seals to protect them from the beginning of wrath which follows the breaking of the seventh seal?

Those who hold to the pre-tribulation rapture position will say that all this indicates that the Church has already been raptured, and that these 144,000 are Jewish evangelists left on earth during the last three and one-half years to preach the gospel. But according to pre-trib logic, if they are evangelists believing in Jesus, they would have been raptured with the rest of the Church. And if they are not believers in Jesus, they cannot preach the gospel. There must be another explanation as to who these 144,000 are.

Since the Church does not need to have things put on hold between the sixth and seventh seals until they are given a special seal to protect them from God’s wrath, this must be a special group not yet sealed with the Holy Spirit. Their sealing at this time does not prove prior rapture; it is a special sealing of those not yet covered by the Blood of the Lamb. Who is this unique Jewish group, identified and sealed for protection at this time, apparently not previously sealed with the Holy Spirit, yet referred to as bondservants? I believe the descriptions of the markings on their foreheads, though subtle in difference, may be important.

Matching the 144,000 of Revelation 7 with the Woman of Revelation 12

The conclusions of the last chapter were that a reserved and blinded remnant of Israel must be supernaturally protected during the last three and one-half years of the age in order to fulfill the prophetic role of Zion destined for labor pains until her children are brought forth. These 144,000 of Revelation 7 fit that description. They are reserved for salvation at the end of the age, but not yet covered by the Blood of the Lamb at the time of the trumpet judgments. They will need special provision to survive until the end of the age. They are protected from Satan during the great tribulation as they flee into the wilderness. In addition, they are sealed here for protection from the wrath of God so that they can survive until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in at the end of the age at which time they will be brought into the New Covenant of the Blood of Jesus Christ.

And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And they were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads (Revelation 9:3-4).

In addition to these 144,000 reserved Israelites who have the seal of God on their foreheads, every living member of the Church of Jesus Christ left on earth is already sealed with the seal of the Holy Spirit. Those marked and protected with the seal of God and the Holy Spirit will directly contrast those sealed with the mark of Satan. Everyone on the planet will wear one seal or the other. There will be no neutral ground. Satan is a counterfeiter, and when he sees the seal of God on the forehead of the male child in the form of the name of God and the name of the Lamb (Revelation 14:1), he will respond with his own counterfeit mark to be placed on the wrist or forehead of his own sons.

The 144,000 of Revelation Chapter 14: A Different Group!

I believe that the beginning of Revelation Chapter 14 is a flashback because the preaching of the gospel to the entire world described in Revelation 14:6, which takes place during the last three and one-half years of the age, has to have already taken place by the sixth seal. This has to be true, because in order for the great multitude of Revelation 7:9 to have come out of the great tribulation from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, they had to have had the gospel preached to them! There must therefore be two independent groups of 144,000 in view, as one group would not be identified both in heaven before the great tribulation is over and also on earth being marked so as to be protected from the trumpet judgments which follow that great tribulation.

First Fruits

You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD. You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD (Leviticus 23:16-17).

And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest . . . Exodus 34:22).

The two loaves of the Feast of Weeks (also known as the Feast of Harvest of the First Fruits) that are baked with leaven (as opposed to the unleavened bread representing Jesus) are commonly considered as representing the Church, composed of redeemed Jew and Gentile. The day of this feast, when the two loaves of bread are brought before the Lord as a grain wave offering of first fruits, is also known as the day of Pentecost.

And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. . . but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: "AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS," God says, "THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT UPON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; EVEN UPON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT and they shall prophesy. AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE, AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BENEATH, BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. THE SUN SHALL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS, AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME. AND IT SHALL BE, THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED" (Acts 2:1-4,16-21).

Matching the 144,000 of Revelation 14:1 with the Male Child

As presented in the previous chapter, I believe this second group of 144,000 of Revelation 14:1 is the male child of Revelation 12:5. The offspring of the woman of Revelation 12 are two: the "male child" and the "rest of her offspring." The rest of her offspring are clearly identified as the saints warred against by the dragon (Satan), while the male child is snatched up to heaven out of reach of Satan’s grasp. This snatching up is described as taking place at the three and one-half year point (the midpoint) of the final seven years of the age, and it corresponds in timing to Revelation 14:1 where we see the 144,000 in heaven before the gospel is preached to the entire world. This preaching of the gospel to the entire world will be the substance of the last three and one-half years of the age, performed by a Church in the anointing and authority and power described in Revelation 12:10.

They have matured early as first fruits into the likeness of Jesus. There is no need for them to be further tested and refined by the great tribulation, as they are ready to be taken into the house of God. Hence they may correspond to the overcoming saints of the church of Philadelphia who are said to be kept from the hour of testing coming upon the whole earth and who have the Father’s name and the name of Jesus on their foreheads. They may also correspond to the overcoming saints of the church of Thyatira who will rule the nations with a rod of iron. All indications are that they are a mixed company of Jew and Gentile.

What is revealed here may indeed be a pre-tribulation rapture, but if so, it is a pre-great tribulation rapture of only the select few who will qualify as first fruits. The bulk of the saints will not have ripened sufficiently before the great tribulation to qualify. Satan still has something in them that has to be burned out by the purifying fires of tribulation in order to make them worthy of the Kingdom of God and refine them into the bride company without spot or wrinkle.

All indications are that a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit takes place at this point when the male child in the form of the first fruits is snatched up to heaven and Satan is hurled to earth.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night" (Revelation 12:10).

This power and authority and salvation and evidence of God’s Kingdom which comes to earth are descriptive of what happened when the Holy Spirit fell on the day of Pentecost two thousand years ago. It takes place here again at the end of the age at the timing of the waving of the first fruits before the Lord, i.e., the snatching up of the male child.

The first fruits are speaking from heaven in Revelation 12:11 prophesying the victory of their brethren left on earth who will overcome Satan by the Blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and by loving not their lives unto death.

Micah 5:3

Therefore, He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel (Micah 5:3).

The makeup of the one-new-man first-fruits company of Jew and Gentile that forms the male child will establish the standard for those remaining on the earth. It will be a call to a primarily Gentile Church left on earth to establish the proper understanding and relationship to God’s chosen people of irrevocable covenant. There is definitely a returning and a rejoining that takes place during this period of time after the birth of the male child. The Church that will demonstrate the wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places during the last three and one-half years of the age can only be a one-new-man Church comprised of redeemed Jew and Gentile.

Chapter 14

Who is The Bride?

And a voice came from the throne, saying, "Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great." And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said to me, "Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’" And he said to me, "These are the true words of God" (Revelation 19:5-9).

By this time in the course of events, the great tribulation is over, the harvest of the living and the dead in Christ has taken place, the harlot of Babylon has been destroyed, and the wrath of God has been fully poured out on the beast and his kingdom. Only after all of these things have taken place has the bride made herself ready. Who is she and why did it take so long for her to get dressed? Apparently her wedding garments, which stand for the righteous acts of the saints, are not finished until all of these events are completed.

The bride cannot be reserved to just those alive at the end of the age, for Jesus came as the bridegroom two thousand years ago, and it was the church members at Corinth that Paul was eager to present as spiritual virgins to Christ the husband (2 Corinthians 11:2). However, Scripture indicates that the bride company will not be ready until the very end of the age, not only in total numbers but also in maturity. He’s coming back for a bride without spot or wrinkle.

There are a number of clues to the identity of the bride. She is not ready until the great tribulation is over. She is dressed in white garments which are the righteous acts of the saints. She will be the people of a heavenly city whose gates stand for the twelve tribes of Israel and whose foundation stones stand for the twelve apostles (Revelation 21:12-14). I believe this indicates that the saints of Old Testament Israel are included in the bride company. The bride would then include every Blood-redeemed Jew and Gentile from all of history, in addition to those last-generation saints of Revelation who have just emerged victorious from great tribulation. These saints are the last portion of the bride company for which completion of the bride awaits. Following the roll-call of the Old Testament hall of faith saints of Hebrews 11, the writer of Hebrews reveals:

And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 11:39-12:1).

The staggering indication of Scripture is that the perfection of the Old Testament saints depends on the race run by the Church, and the outcome of that race will be decided by the last leg of the race run at the very end of this age. If the Church at the end of the age drops the baton, all of creation will lose. No wonder Satan is working overtime to trip up this final generation of the Church and lead them into deception. But we already know that the Church will be victorious. That’s settled. Jesus is King. God will successfully demonstrate His wisdom through the Church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. The Church will rule and reign on earth with Jesus for one-thousand years. The question for each of us is, will we as individuals be among those who endure and are victorious, or will we be among those who fall away?

The bride is not completed until after the pouring out of the sixth bowl, for it is at the sixth bowl that the parenthetical statement of Jesus is heard:

("Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his garments, lest he walk about naked and men see his shame.") (Revelation 16:15).

This speaks of the need to keep our spiritual garments of righteousness tightly wrapped around us right up until the very end. If our love should grow cold, as Jesus said the love of most would, then the righteous acts that make up our wedding garments will not be forthcoming and we will stand naked and ashamed before the King.

We have considered that this is the remnant to make up the final component of the Bride of Christ, the gleanings of the harvest saved at the last minute by fearing God and giving Him glory. The great multitude of the bride company rejoicing before the throne is made up of not just bondservants and saints, but also those who fear God, the small and the great. This is in keeping with the observation that God’s judgments in the form of the trumpets, and even the bowls, are redemptive and allow the provision for salvation up until the very last bowl.

The parable that describes this multitude would be that of the workers who were paid the same regardless of the hour when they were hired. There will be a distribution of rewards in heaven, but the bride company does not seem reserved for a select few. The bride seems to consist of the elect from all of history redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb. However, for purposes of restoring the vision of the Church, we can be less concerned about who she is in her historical fullness than who she is in character. For it is her character that we, who aspire to be the Bride of Christ, must develop and exhibit. The purifying crucible of the great tribulation will have burned away the last vestige of impurity from those saints of the last generation who make their robes white by washing with the Blood of the Lamb.

. . . that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:27).

The great tribulation must therefore be embraced as the necessary fires of purification which transform the last-generation Church into this required degree of perfection. Those who have sought and found the grace to develop as first fruits will not need this time of testing. But for the rest of the Church, these times must be embraced as times designed specifically to conform her into the likeness of Jesus and to qualify her as His bride. Should this cost our physical lives, praise God Who gives only what is needed to transform us into a bride without spot or wrinkle.

The last three and one-half years of this age will be the capstone of the Church age, and the time for which the finest wine and greater glory of the latter house have been reserved. This is the Church at the very end of the age through which God will complete the demonstration of His wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. It is upon this last generation of saints that God will pour out the fullness of His power and anointing. The stature which these saints at the very end of the age will attain serves as prerequisite for the perfection of the entire body of the elect. We need to carefully consider the characteristics of the bride, particularly the purity of her wedding garments. We need to understand the degree of purity to which we are called. We must incorporate these requirements into our vision. We must cast off the sin which so easily besets us and run this race with endurance.

A Bride without Spot, Wrinkle, or Blemish

Jude 23 indicates that flesh can pollute an otherwise clean garment. The impurities which must be washed away in order to achieve bride status are then not just the overt sins we commonly associate with sin, but also the pollution of flesh (self), i.e., our own fleshly, soulish life in the form of antichrist motive, will, desires, preferences, agendas, efforts, etc. Holy and blameless will apply only to those who have given all to follow Jesus. The final bride company will consist of those who have been purified to this degree. Perhaps the great tribulation will be more concerned with burning away these impurities rather than the more obvious sins we normally associate as sin. We are called to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. To the extent that we do not, it is sin which must be purged. To the extent that we have allowed our garments to remain spotted, we have done away with the cross and not embraced it to the extent required.

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please (Galatians 5:17).

For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin (2 Corinthians 11:2).

The Work of the Lord, or Our Work?

It is not sufficient to do the work of the Lord in our time and season, for then it is not the work of the Lord, but our work. It is but wood, hay and stubble which will not survive the testing fires. We will be known by our fruits. But deeds done in our own time and season and energy, even in the name of Jesus, will not qualify as good fruit.

So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS" (Matthew 7:20-23).

These are Kingdom-like works that Jesus is calling lawlessness! Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. The above prophecies and miracles turned out to be not what the Father was doing, and those who performed them were judged as practicing lawlessness. We must come to the point where we despise doing anything, even works in His name, in our own timing.

The church in Ephesus seemed to have everything going for it. They were commended on their deeds, their toil, their perseverance, their intolerance of evil, their discernment of false apostles, and their zeal in enduring and not growing weary amidst all of this. How many of us qualify for even this commendation? And yet Jesus singled out their great loss of having left their first love and called them to repent, or their lampstand would be removed.

This must be a wake-up call to establish the proper priorities. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his garments. The work in the kitchen must never supersede being at Jesus’ feet. For it is only at Jesus’ feet that we will come to know Him and be known by Him. Only then will we be in position to see what He is doing, and only then will we be able to carry out those perfect works chosen for us to do, in His strength, before time began. These are the only works that will pass the test of fire. Mindless performance of good things is disobedience. The fruit from the tree of good and evil is poisonous, be it good or evil. Only fruit from the tree of life sustains.

Several years ago, the Lord clearly led me to visit a hospital one Sunday with a church home group to pray for a badly burned young boy who was brain dead and existing only on life support. The Lord miraculously healed him. I got in the habit after that of routinely visiting hospitals and praying for the sick. I thought it was a good thing to do and that the Lord was behind it all. But visits to other patients seemed strangely dry and unanointed. One day, as I was riding to a hospital, an old vintage Cadillac pulled slowly alongside and the license plate read: "CCIM-VK". I am VK, so that part of the message I understood. About thirty minutes later, the meaning of "CCIM" came to me: "Seek Him." I sensed that the Lord was teaching me the difference between my works in my time and His works in His time. The priority was to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and from that all things would properly flow both in content and timing.

Seeking Him must always be our priority. Only out of seeking Him will we know His perfect work for us at any given time. Perhaps His perfect work for us today is to sit and be silent before Him. I was being disobedient as I arbitrarily visited hospitals thinking that I was doing the will of God. It was not His choice in His timing. We must be led by the Spirit of God. Only those who are led by the Spirit are children of God. The rest are practicing lawlessness. Hence those who visit hospitals thinking they are doing the will of God, but are not acting based on the hearing of His voice, are in danger of having their deeds called deeds of lawlessness. Can we receive this? Remember, Scripture does say that some of those who do miracles in His name will have their deeds judged as evil. We will always receive the praises of men when we visit nursing homes and hospitals and prisons, but we may not always receive the praise of our Lord. What were our motives for the visit? Was it obedience to His call or was it something that we thought we should be doing or wanted to do based on a self-serving motive or a spirit of man-pleasing? It may have been a good thing, but was it His thing? The good fruit of the tree of death is not only as deadly as the evil fruit, but it is much more deceptive. We must not minister primarily based on the needs around us, but on direct leading of the Lord.

The bride company has been stripped of all such impurity. They have learned to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, as they have learned to recognize His voice amidst deafening chaos and confusion. They have consented to let God do that work in them which results in them living for Him rather than for themselves.

I started out in my Christian walk motivated and zealous --- in the flesh. After about two years of this, the Lord stopped me dead in my tracks and sat me down and had me open Charles Finney’s Letter to New Christians. The Holy Spirit fell on me like a hot, heavy blanket, and I found myself weeping while wrapped in His arms of love as He proceeded to tell me that I had betrayed Jesus even as Judas had betrayed Him with a kiss. "What difference would it make to the Kingdom if there were millions like you?" He asked. It was a scathing rebuke. But it was given with His perfect love that casts out all fear. I felt privileged to be a son so disciplined. The Holy Spirit prompted me to consider that Finney’s letter was written on February 13, 1839. I was reading it on December 13, 1992. That works out to 153 years and ten months later, 153 being the number of fish captured in the net of John 21.

I believe this has something to do with becoming fishers of men. Unless Jesus is living in us and through us, we cannot become effective fishers of men, and we betray Him by speaking of Him and doing for Him. We’ve got to get this through our heads. The priority in our Christian walk is to seek Him! We must wait in our Jerusalems! We must not go until we are filled with power from on high. Many teach that we are already told to go. But when we get to the mission field, be it overseas or next door, and we find ourselves powerless and unanointed, then something has been missed. Perhaps we have missed considering that the great commission is a two-part directive: wait in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high, and then go and make disciples of all nations. I have read too many testimonies of saints who were on the mission field for twenty years before they realized that Jesus is all, and that they needed to be filled with Him and not themselves. And it matches what the Lord seems to be telling me in my own experience. We have nothing to offer the nations or our next door neighbors until we are overflowing with living water.

Furthermore, after the disciples were told to go into the world and make fellow disciples of all nations, Paul was prevented by the Holy Spirit from preaching the gospel in Asia. Does that violate our theology? Do we think we have the commission to do things in our time and season? Quite obviously we do not. We must learn to hear His voice and to be led by it. And whether we have to wait in prayer and fasting in Jerusalems at home or on the mission field, we must wait until we are filled with the Holy Spirit and overflowing with living water or we are betraying Him of Whom we speak.

There is truth in the analogy that a ship without movement cannot be steered. Stagnation is not an option. But we must be LED by the Holy Spirit. There is a balance here that must be worked out with fear and trembling, and it can only be worked out by listening at the feet of Jesus.

"Father, create a work in us which strips us of that self which always places our priorities first and sees even the things of Christianity as things to be grasped to be used for selfish motives and agendas. Quiet the roar of self within us, Father, that keeps us from hearing and wanting to hear Your still small voice. Father, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices so that You may do this work in us. Father, forgive our many attempts to casually retake what we may have once intently devoted to You. Do a work in us, Father, which will stand the test of the fires that are coming upon the earth."

A Deeper Death

The death of self is that living sacrifice that we are all called to make. The death of self is the cross that must be picked up daily in order to follow Jesus. This is a deeper and a more difficult death to live out than the martyr’s death.

Self can so easily masquerade as the good, when in fact it is something that needs to be put to death. The Scriptures have pointed out how futile all things good are and how really only one thing is necessary. We should not be seeking to do good deeds, but only those deeds that Jesus prescribes, for those will be the deeds that follow after us. How much of our walk is still tarnished by the misconception that our deeds somehow add something to our worthiness, when Scripture clearly says that our deeds will follow us, not precede us, into the Kingdom? The priority then becomes to "CCIM" until we hear His voice, and then obey it. The self will consciously or unconsciously seek to block that voice, for the Spirit and the flesh are at war. The clamor of self preference will block out the still small voice until God allows us to become so desperate that we gladly agree to lay all of self at the foot of the cross. And until we do, God will take us through painful processes that ever increasingly make us realize He and He alone is to be the end of all our seeking and the antidote for our distress.

The Absence of the Cross

The absence of the cross permeates more of our Christian walk than we realize. Why is it that our shadows do not heal and our words are not God’s words? We read in the Bible that Jesus never did anything that He did not see the Father doing, and yet we are cursed with theologies that teach that God doesn’t speak today. How are we going to move in those perfect works that God has chosen for us unless we hear His voice? Jesus did good works but He only did those good works He saw the Father doing. We can’t read about what Jesus did and then go out and do those things unless we have waited in our Jerusalems until the Father has told us which ones to do and when to do them. We are so full of ourselves and our own teachings and motives and agendas that we find no need to hear the voice of God telling us how and when to move. Consequently, we are powerless. We do not heal the sick and raise the dead and feed the multitudes from a few fish and loaves. We have many words but we have little power. It is perhaps the weakness of the conversions in the face of such luke-warm teachings that will result in the love of most growing cold and many falling away when the times of testing come.

They have Done Away with the Cross

Several years ago, I attended a large Christian gathering in Honolulu. I thought it would be a good thing to do. I attended all of the preliminary meetings designed to equip us to be ushers and counselors. Armed with pledge cards and evangelistic zeal, we stormed the arena floor following the altar call eager to sweep many into the Kingdom.

In my case, no one I approached wanted prayer or consultation. I approached several groups who were okay as they were, thanks anyway. Finally I forced myself into a group and prayed a lifeless prayer that fell to the ground like sawdust. Wearied and discouraged, I made my way back up to my seat in the stands and collapsed into it and sat there like a lump wondering what had just happened.

I could see that down on the floor others were involved in getting cards signed and doing the things that we were trained to do. But a heaviness was on me that barely allowed me to stand through the closing music, even though there was plenty of cheering and enthusiasm and hand waving.

On the way home I expressed to my friends that I knew that God had spoken, but I wasn’t clear on what He had said. No one in my group had sensed what I had sensed. My only thought was that I had miserably failed in some required area.

I could not attend the following day. I was drained of all energy and enthusiasm. As I rolled over in bed following my car pool wake-up call, my eyes focused on David Wilkerson’s latest newsletter. I had glanced at it the night before after coming home from the meeting, but at that time it was just words. But this morning was different. The title read, They Have Done Away With the Cross. Instantly the flush of the Holy Spirit told me that God had spoken. How could it be that they had done away with the cross? They had the best music, the best speakers, seemingly the right words about relationship --- what was missing? Maybe it was I who had done away with the cross?

Was there something critical I had missed? I tried feeling out the subject with a few of my friends, but their response was not enthusiastic. What did it mean to "do away with the cross?" I have spent almost two years trying to figure out what He meant. Slowly and steadily over the course of those two years God showed me that we had all done away with the cross that night.

I believe we have been blinded with regard to the deeper depths of repentance and cleansing that the cross requires. That deeper depth is the death and burial of self. Until that death is apprehended by faith, the resurrection to follow in His power and authority can never be realized. Hence, we remain powerless and wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, unaware and deceived as to our true state. The world will never be changed by such as these. We betray rather than portray Christ when we speak of Him.

May God give us mercy to comprehend our true stature --- that there is nothing good in us, that there is not one of us that does good, and that our place of worship needs to be prostrate at the foot of the cross in acknowledgment of our true state. The flesh can never be improved; it can only be crucified. When we try to better ourselves, we miss the point. Only from the dust of a repentance to death will there be a possibility of resurrection. And only from a resurrected life will we ever know Him and be able to accomplish the works He has chosen for us and avoid those terrible words, "Go away from Me, I never knew you." The cross must be our source of life, even as it must be our source of death. And it must become our death before it becomes our life.

"Doing away with the cross" is anything less than the utter abandonment to Him of all that we are. It is anything less that a process of total death to self followed by resurrection life in His power.

If good messages and good music and good effort could do it, we wouldn’t need the cross. But Jesus said that without Him, we can do nothing; and we continue to prove His words true when we try in our best intentions to do the work of the Kingdom and see our best efforts fall flat. When we allow the Holy Spirit to take over, He will take us to the cross before He takes us to the mission field, be it overseas or next door. At the end of the age, when we are brought face to face with the executioner’s blade, it will not be a history of good messages and good music and good efforts that will set our faces like flint. It will only be because we have already died to this world and our very lives in it.

We have all been guilty, individually and otherwise, of doing away with the cross. May God have mercy on all of us that we may stand.

"Holy Spirit, we need Your revelation and leading and grace to rise to this call."

A Great Chasm

Due to sin, there is a great chasm between us and God. There is a narrow trail winding down one side of that chasm and up the other side. At the bottom is the cross. The only way to get there from here is to go down to the cross and pass through it. It is only there that we will find the atoning Blood of Jesus. Nothing that we can do or bring with us can be carried over unless it goes down and through the cross. No good idea of ours is of any value there. No good work of ours is of any value there. No motive or thought or breath of life counts for anything on the other side unless it has passed through the cross. Only what is done by Christ through us will last. Everything else will burn. No good deed or good intention will ever find its way to that other side unless it was Christ in us doing it. Our natural hearts are desperately wicked. We can conceive of and do no good thing of our own initiative. All of our motives are selfish and unclean, and we have nothing of value to offer --- only ourselves as living sacrifices as we descend to the bottom and embrace the cross. Only then, in resurrection life and bearing the Lord’s yoke, will we be able to produce lasting fruit. Anything less is a stench of self. To try to get from here to there, without going down and through the cross, is doing away with the cross.

Chapter 15

Holiness and Victory

One evening several months ago, the Holy Spirit seemed to say, "Without holiness there will be no victory." Prior to that I had been taken through two distinct occasions where the Lord showed me that my own impurity, in the form of thoughts and gazes that had not been taken captive, was a contributing cause of ministry failure as evidenced by the inability to overcome Satan. Where Satan is not overcome, the prisoners remain bound.

God continues to speak daily that without holiness, there will be no victory. He is saying, "Be holy, for I am holy." There is no acceptable alternative. We have been given everything we need to live holy lives by appropriating His precious promises. Ultimate victory at the end of the age will demand ultimate holiness, both individual and corporate. God is not planning to demonstrate His wisdom through a compromised Church mired in the clutches of sin, but through a holy and glorious Church. The extent of this goes beyond deed to include thought and glance and attitude, the hidden things of the innermost places. We should not try to justify anything less than perfection. God is probing into all areas of question in our lives and asking, "Would anything less be perfect?"

...seeing that His divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust (2 Peter 1:3-4).

When the Male Child Goes Up, Satan Comes Down

And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne...And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night" (Revelation 12:5, 9-10).

When the male child of Revelation 12 is snatched up to heaven and to God’s throne, Satan is thrown out of heaven to earth. It is no coincidence that these two events take place one after the other and in that order. God has elected to use His Church to defeat Satan, seemingly first by getting him thrown out of heaven to earth, and then by overcoming him on earth. It appears to be a two stage process. Remember, it was Satan falling from heaven to earth like lightning that Jesus envisioned after the victorious return of His seventy disciples. It was the result of this initial victory of His fledgling Church that prompted the vision of Satan’s fall. The Bible says that after the appearance of the male child in heaven, "there was no longer a place for him [Satan] found in heaven." Michael and his angels do the actual fighting, but the fight seems predicated on the arrival in heaven of the first fruits of the harvest, the perfected male child for which all creation has been awaiting. Satan is displaced by the authority of the male child. And he is overcome on earth by a people who are victorious over him by the Blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and by loving not their lives unto death. We can now begin to see why all creation is groaning for the revealing of the sons of God. It is the revealed sons of God who are given the authority of Jesus Christ to set all creation free from the bondage of Satan. Creation is not going to be restored until Satan is defeated, and the Church has the responsibility to carry out that defeat.

All Authority in Heaven and on Earth

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18).

And He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you" (Luke 10:18-19).

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16:18-19).

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. And His disciples have in turn been given authority over all of the power of the enemy, both in heaven and on earth. What is bound on earth will be bound in heaven. All aspects of the victory over Satan which Jesus gained on the cross have been turned over to His Church for completion. Hence this victory in heaven over Satan has to await the maturity of the Church, and that maturity is first evidenced by the arrival of the perfected male child on the throne established and waiting for him from which to rule and reign.

The sequence is unmistakable. First comes holiness, then victory. It is the holy people of Daniel 12 whose power is shattered who are victorious and inherit the Kingdom. Our victory over Satan depends on our appropriating by faith all of the tools for godliness that God has provided for us through His precious and magnificent promises. Without faith, we will never believe God’s promises and apply them to our sinful natures and situations. We will remain trapped in our sin, prisoners of the devil, and of no use in God’s end-time purposes. We will be in danger of falling away, because Satan will have something in us, and with that hook he will reel us in.

Jesus died for us so that we could live pure and holy lives by escaping the corruption that is in the world. We are counseled to purge the leaven of sin from our lives and walk holy and blameless before Him. To the extent that we walk this out, we will escape the need to be purified during the fires of great tribulation. The sinners in the church at Thyatira were given time to repent, but they would not. Therefore, they were thrown into great tribulation. Those who seem to avoid great tribulation, and show up in heaven as first fruits of the harvest at the beginning of Revelation 14, are holy and blameless. They didn’t start out holy. None of us do. But they have repented of their sins and allowed the cross to do a cleansing work in their lives. Satan has nothing in them. He has been displaced from their lives. There is no longer any place in them found for him. They have risen to that call to which each of us is called.

Obviously not every saint will qualify for the first-fruits harvest. It seems many of the Body of Christ will experience great tribulation to the extent necessary to be purified to the standard of the bride. There is leaven in our lives, which if not purged, will leaven the whole. We have not applied the tools of godliness to our lives in the form of the cleansing power of the cross to the degree that it was available.

There is no indication, however, that the two witnesses, or those in the church of Smyrna who are forewarned of imprisonment and death, are so destined because of sin in their lives. I think we have to be careful and not relate sinlessness or sinfulness to an exact destiny. We know that some in the church of Thyatira will be thrown into great tribulation because of their unwillingness to repent. However, the martyrs of Smyrna and the two witnesses are also on earth during this time. Remember, Jesus told Peter to follow Him and not worry about John. There is no indication that residual sin in Peter or Paul or Stephen was a direct cause of their martyrdoms. Certainly that was not the case with Jesus. Martyrdom is not a judgment; it is a crown of life. Some are destined to suffer because of sin; others are destined to suffer because of righteousness.

A Leaven Detector

One of the best ways to detect residual leaven in our lives is to look at our relationships with our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ. We are to be living stones snugly fitted against the other living stones around us. Problems in relationships and discerning of the body indicate that there is leaven in our lives that must be purged. Paul said that because we do not properly discern the body, many of us are sick and some sleep. This is serious business. There is a clear warning and teaching here with application to our participation in the Lord’s Supper. Our relationships with our brothers and sisters are a litmus test as to the condition of our spiritual walks. We can only relate to our brothers and sisters as Jesus lives through us to do so.

The Lord’s Supper is an excellent time for reflection and repentance. All leaven must be purged. We can identify it now and take it to the cross, or it will be identified for us later amidst the fires of great tribulation. It’s our choice. The words that Jesus speaks to each of us alive at the end of this age are, "And all the churches will know that I am He who searches minds and hearts and I will give to each of you according to your deeds." All of us who consider ourselves His disciples still have the option of deciding how we will finish this race. Will we embrace the cross now and be broken at its base, offering ourselves as living sacrifices and drink offerings to be poured out? Are we willing to let the alabaster flasks of our lives be broken and wasted on Jesus so that our testimonies can also be heard wherever the gospel is preached? Or are we practical and wise like Judas, concluding that the money could be better spent elsewhere?

There will be no anointing without holiness. Without anointing, there will be no ministry in the power and authority of Jesus. Without such ministry, there will be no setting of the captives free. There will be no victory over Satan who is keeping them bound. The gates of hell will not prevail over Jesus’ Church. The gates of hell will prevail over those who are not holy and anointed in the power and authority of His name. The sons of Sceva will be prevailed over by the devil even though they mouth the name of Jesus and claim works in His name. "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" The devil will know you when you have authority over him and his gates.

There is no place for leaven in such a war. There is no place for compromise. We either finish this race as winners or we lose and fall away. All of creation is awaiting our decision and the results of the race we will run. And Satan is awaiting our every flinch --- our every drawing back, every chink in our armor. The deeper we go in the things of God, the greater is the surrounding pressure of the enemy trying to penetrate our shields. The closer to the front lines we choose to live --- and it is a choice --- the greater will be the firepower of the enemy. He will doggedly pursue us, picking away at our areas of weakness, bringing temptations into those areas in which we are most vulnerable. But God has given us the weapons to be victorious. Can we overcome the flesh and the devil by looking to Him for the victory?

Truth in the Innermost Parts

God is interested in truth in the innermost parts. I asked God several years back about a questionable area of conduct in my life and He replied, "Would anything less be perfect?" His standard is perfection, not achieved by self-generated discipline, but by the transformation and resulting life of the indwelling Spirit, without Whom we can do nothing. It is not that we become loving, or that we become holy, or that we become this or that. It is as He lives in us that His qualities emerge through us, and good fruit is borne.

"Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness," Jesus said. There is an order here. There is no point in seeking righteousness until we have first sought the King. Righteousness is an outworking of our relationship with Jesus. He doesn’t make us righteous; He is our righteousness. As we appropriate Him, we evidence His righteousness. It will save us a great deal of time if we set aside attempts to imitate His character and instead seek Him Who is the essence of that character. We don’t need to be reformed; we need to die and be resurrected in the newness of His life. There is no place on the white wedding garment for spots caused by the flesh. "By My Spirit," says the Lord. Watchman Nee refers to flesh buried shallow that still stinks. Our flesh must be buried so deep that no residual odor lingers. Our flesh has only one acceptable place and that is six feet down and dead. It may not stink to us because we have gotten used to it, but it is a stench to God. Flesh will not stand in His presence. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.

It is a holy people in the book of Daniel whose power is shattered and who receive the Kingdom for eternity. It is not a compromised, defeated people who fall away at the last minute. The two witnesses are not overcome because they fall into sin before the finish line. It is a victorious Army of God that walks to the cross, not a bunch of whimpering, defeated saints who trip and drop the baton on the last lap. These are holy and powerful and glorious saints who have the vision of Jesus before their eyes and who are marching in the ranks of His call. Remember, this is not about us but about Him. The appropriate sheep to be slaughtered is without blemish. These are those of whom the world is not worthy. The closer we rise to that standard by His grace, the more worthy we are as sacrifices for His end-time purposes. This is a holy calling for which His most precious saints are reserved. May we be found available, ready, and willing for this most honored of calls at the end of the age. Many are answering it today. Many are the ranks who have already answered it and found their way to eternal glory. But, unfortunately, many are those who will fall away.

"Lord, help us to rise to this call. Help us. Give us the strength to stand before kings and governors and testify of You. Let it be our testimony that overcomes the evil one and sends the gospel to the ends of the earth."

The Fuel to Endure

Are we passionate about this pursuit of holiness? Without passion, we will just be trying to do a job and we will fail. It is our love for Him that must fuel us. And we love Him because He first loved us. If we do not have a revelation of His fiery love for us, we will not be able to embrace the cross in the fullness required. We will not fully understand that God disciplines only those He loves. It is for noble or ignoble purposes that we are at this time being shaped on the potter’s wheel. What is our choice?

God’s passion and jealousy burn for us like a jealous lover. His hot love is the substance from which passion is modeled between a husband and a wife. When we look with lust at another thing, be it another person or an idol, we break His heart, for He is jealous for our single eyed affection. He is jealous for our time, for our silence before Him in waiting, for our hunger for His whisper. He calls us to the secret place behind closed doors, the place where lovers go. He woos us with quiet whispers and intimations, but we are often focused on other things. Still He comes, patiently, softly knocking.

We must see that the events touching us to transform us are a result of God’s passion for us, not just ordinary love, but passion! We must understand this when we go into the lion’s den or the fiery furnace or the prison or the hospital bed. We must lay down our lives with the full knowledge of, and direct consequence of, God’s passion for us. "God must hate me because He is allowing this" has no place in our outlook. God disciplines only those He loves. God allows these things into our lives to purify us for an eternal weight of glory in His Kingdom.

Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives." It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons (Hebrews 11:35- 12:8).

Suffering and Holiness and Salvation

For the last three years the Lord has allowed something very remarkable to happen on my birthday. The first time it happened, I was shattered. I thought to myself, "What kind of birthday present is this?" I have had the joy and privilege in the last three years to lead three people to the Lord. These are the only three people to date that I have actually led to the Lord. All three accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. All three were terminally ill patients --- two with advanced cancer and one a stroke victim. All three faded away over a long process of gradual deterioration. All three suffered. All three, one each year, died early on the morning of my birthday, April 21. Lilia died in 1997, Harry in 1998, and Francis in 1999. During those three years, the Lord was taking me through a teaching on the redemptiveness of suffering out of which came Chapter Six of this book.

When I visited Francis for the last time on April 20, 1999, his blood pressure was down to below fifty and dropping. He was suffering, but I l could not grieve for him, because he had come to Jesus for salvation and had received it. God’s fiery passion was brooding over him bringing forth eternal life as he lay there in that hospital bed with tubes running in and out of him. I felt led to bend over and whisper in his ear that angels might come to visit him that night and that it was okay to go with them. Sometime early the next morning they came and took him.

He had suffered, but his suffering was redemptive because it had brought him to the place where he had set aside his resistance and bitterness and received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He continued to suffer after that decision up until the day the Lord took him. Perhaps he was being purified during this time. Perhaps he was filling up his quota of additional suffering allotted to the Body of Christ. For whatever reason, God let him suffer as a member of the Body of Christ until the morning the angels came and took him.

After going through this identical scenario three years in a row, I have lost most of my fear of death. Death is a defeated foe. I have lost most of my confusion over suffering, which might otherwise seem needless and cruel. When I was born in 1946, April 21 was Easter Sunday, resurrection morning. I know the Lord is speaking of salvation and resurrection and eternal life in all of this. Suffering for the King is glorious and life-giving. Francis and Harry and Lilia know that now. Let the testimonies of their suffering be an encouragement to all of us. They have paid a price to demonstrate this lesson for our instruction.

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren (Hebrews 2:10- 11).

It is going to be His Body, perfected through suffering, that fulfills the call at the end of this age to lay down their lives for His redemptive purposes. How could it be otherwise? We are called to follow Him.

Song to the Bride

Only the glance and woo of a lover can draw the bride to the heights that she is destined to skip freely on. And it is on such heights where He dwells. It is there where He dwells that we are called. "Come, My precious bride, come up higher. Let the fiery passion of My glance wake you from your bed of slumber to seek Me on the heights. It is as you seek Me that you will find Me. I am constrained to remain hidden if you will not seek Me. It is your very unrest that reveals your spirit crying out for Me. I made your spirit that way. It can be satisfied with no other lover, because your spirit is pure. It is only Myself that I have made you hunger for, though you may not know it. Your longing cannot be fulfilled by all of the pleasure, power, and wealth the world has to offer. You have chased all of that and not found the satisfaction that you long for. Not if you had all of it would you be satisfied. I know. Solomon knows. Because I have made you to be unsatisfied with any or all of that. All the longings of your heart are designed to bring you home to Me. Why do you seek so many distractions and side trips on the way? The intimacy of a wife and husband are only a shadow of the intimacy I desire with you. I have had to dilute My passion for you to represent a shadow of it in the intimacy of first love on earth between a maid and her lover. But this is only a shadow. You may not understand this because you can only relate to passion on earth, because you have no other comparison. Do you want a comparison? Do you want to know the real thing? Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. You may be a prodigal, but I am the Father of prodigals, and I am waiting to run and meet you when I see you coming. I will put a ring on your finger, a robe on your shoulders, and we will celebrate! When My Son taught the parable of the prodigal, He was revealing My heart toward you as your Father.

"Father, we do not see these things as we ought to see them. Open our eyes, Father, and give us visions of glory, of eternal things. Give us the precious gift of revelation concerning how much You love us, how passionate You are to dwell in and possess the innermost parts of who we are. Father, Your ways are above and beyond us. Our thoughts are not Your thoughts. We rely on You to bring us into the understanding and the fullness of these things for You have chosen us since before time began to be conformed to the likeness of Your Son. Thank You for this gift that is beyond our ability to measure or comprehend or express the wealth of. And when our time comes, with Your grace, we pray that we might stand and set our faces like flint to endure for our sakes and for Your glory.

"Father, perfect us through the crucible fires of Your passionate love and mercy and then slay us on Your altar for Your glory and Your glory alone. Only in this way will we achieve the eternal joy for which we are designed and long. We ask this in Jesus’ name. May it be so."

The Morning Star

"Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you, and His glory will appear upon you. And nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising" (Isaiah 60:1-3).

And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star (Revelation 2:26-28).

The overcomers in the church at Thyatira (as opposed to those of the church at Thyatira who are thrown into great tribulation) are promised to rule and reign as well as be given the morning star. The morning star becomes visible in the heavens before the sun comes up. It is actually not a star, but a planet reflecting the light of the sun. It is a precursor of the sun, an announcer of its soon coming. It is the sign that night is almost over and that dawn is about to break. It may be a picture of the first fruits of the main harvest who are snatched to the throne of God from which to rule and reign. Their first job upon arrival will be to boot Satan out of heaven to earth. Those of us still on earth will crush him underfoot by the wisdom of the cross. He’s on his way to the fires of hell. Don’t let him convince you otherwise and don’t let him drag you with him.

A Closing Prayer

"Father, we praise You for the incompetence of the flesh that You allow us to demonstrate that drives us to You in poverty of spirit, bankrupt of all anointing. Thank You, Father, that in many things we were not overnight successes, but rather overnight failures. Thank You for Your grace. By the very nature of the failures that You have allowed us to walk through, You have demonstrated Your love for us, in that to think that without You we can do anything is a deception of grave peril. Thank You for Your chastenings, Father. By them we are identified as sons. Truly we see that we have reason to rejoice in all things, even in our shortcomings, for out of them You create blessing in order to make all things work for our good. Please continue to refine us, Father, so that we may become worthy vessels to contain Your glory at the end of the age. Transform us into those of the bride company without spot or wrinkle. No one comes to You unless drawn, Father, and we pray that You would prompt us to seasons of dedicated prayer and seeking so that we can be ambassadors of the Kingdom and not betrayers.

"Heavenly Father, may these words glorify You and present this teaching as I believe Your Holy Spirit has given it. If these words are a helpful teaching of Your plan for the destiny of Your Church, may they be fruitful and find audience as You see fit. May they bring forth much fruit to Your glory. Otherwise, may they come to nothing, and may You have mercy on this poor teacher.

"Heavenly Father, we praise You for Your master plan which is far beyond our ability to understand. Through us, Your Church, You have said that You will demonstrate Your wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Give us Your Spirit of wisdom and revelation to properly discern truth from deception in these matters and to understand the nature and importance of this call.

"In the authority and power and in the name of Jesus, I pray to bind the efforts of the enemy to establish and maintain deception in this critical area of our knowledge and vision. I pray to bind his efforts to trap the Church with deceptive and misleading doctrine concerning the course of end-time events, those events of which You have warned us in advance so that we would specifically not be deceived. I pray to break the power of the enemy presently blinding the eyes of the Church to Your clear teachings. I pray to loose a spirit of wisdom and revelation upon a sleeping Church.

"Father, we seek Your mercy, grace, wisdom, and revelation so that we do not fall away in these upcoming times due to any deception the enemy has sown. We pray that our love may not grow cold due to the increasing lawlessness around us. May You grant us Your grace and strength to stand before You in these times, and may we be found worthy of the Kingdom. May we, if appropriate, be found worthy to be kept from the hour of testing at the end of the age granted to the overcomers of the church of Philadelphia and as described in Luke 21:36.

"May we learn to seek only You and Your direction for our lives. May we all be brought to full stature through the purifying crucible of the times before us as required. Father, we desire to walk before You in the power and authority of Your Son. Embolden us and strengthen us and be for us the source of all things for without You we can do nothing. We strip ourselves empty and bare before You for this purpose. We lay all things on the altar which would interfere with Your eternal plan. We offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Lord Jesus, create in us such burning passion that we have no other thought than to follow You wherever You go. May Your passionate prayer of John 17 be fulfilled within us. Give us the grace of the strength of the joy of bridal love without which we would surely fall away.

"We say, ‘Yes, Lord!’ to each of our individual and corporate destinies that will one day realize the fulfillment of Your plan and the transformation of each of us into Your likeness. We desire to enlist in Your army with You as our Commander-in-Chief. May all glory and honor and praise in these things be eternally Yours. May we, by Your grace, allow the demonstration of Your wisdom through us, and we praise You and thank You for such honor and privilege. May we please You in our service. May we all overcome and hear those joyous words, ‘Well done good and faithful servants!’ Praise and glory and honor to You, Father, for the gift of Your Son and for the transformations He is working within each of us to conform us to His likeness and bring us to Your ultimate destiny for each of us. Let nothing prevent us from reaching those final ultimate destinies. Let us all finish the race well. Father, we, like Paul, want to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

"In trust of Your everlasting mercy and grace to those who call upon Your name, we lay these things before You and await the glorious return of Your Son to rescue us, to transform us, and to transport us into Your glorious presence. May You come quickly, Lord Jesus!! The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ Amen."