UNDERSTANDING THE BOOK OF REVELATION

                                                        Part 14

We are starting on the second seal, that was opened for the second church age, by the second angel. This was the church of Smyrna. In the natural, this was the decline of the Apostolic church. It is dated to be about, from 70AD to AD 120. When we read about the seven churches in Chapters 2 and 3, I didn't go into a lot of detail, but there are some things we need to know, about those natural church ages, for understanding.

The Smyrna Church Age was the early persecuted church of the Apostolic decline. And through all this persecution, iniquity stared up and a lot of the people started growing away for the church. This was the time that Jesus prophesied about the destruction of the temple, and Jerusalem was overtaken. These verses that we will look at are the same verses that many are preaching about The Great Tribulation which is to come. BUT, the Great Tribulation took place in 70AD.

MT 24: 4-12, "And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ: and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars; see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, BUT the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. AND MANY FALSE PROPHETS SHALL RISE, AND SHALL DECEIVE MANY. aND BECAUSE INIQUITY SALL ABOUND, THE LOVE OF MANY SHALL WAX COLD".

And if you study the seven church ages, you will see that this is exactly what happened. Now, this was in 70AD, and we still see it happening today. And even back then carnal teachings crept into the church.

John saw this as "spiritual poverty". It was the time when much of God's Truth was being destroyed (or so it seemed) and was being compromised,. Man's minds and teachings were implanted intot he church leadership.

This was also the beginning of a great falling away from the leading of the Holy Spirit. At this time Pentecost had already taken place and the Apostolic ministry that followed it. Some of the teachings were from time past; some were old wive tales; some were of the heathens; and some just plain old false religions.

This is WHY the vial was poured out on the people.

Today, we see people trying to mix old truth with Present Truth and it will not work. There are those who, although they are hearing the trumpet, still want to "wait on God to do something". HE IS NOT GOING TO DO ANYMORE!!! HE FINISHED HIS WORK and is NOW waiting on us to bring it into manifestation. Many still hold on or allowed the guilt conciousness to work within them, and the trumpet NOW blowing is saying, it cannot work, RENEW YOUR MIND!! He did not say, "I AM GOING TO RENEW YOUR MIND".

And listen, there are millions who will tell you that you cannot learn with your natural mind; I am here to tell you that that is where it all starts!! By reading and studying and meditation on what you read and study. You take it into the depth of your Being, the SPIRIT, and it will all be cleared up for your understanding. I never could understand how everyone puts the natural mind, commpletely out of the picture. When I find out something in the natural, of course that mind cannot understand it, but, when I take it to the Spirit, it is made clear. TO ME, this is heaven and earth coming together. Of course, we must ALWAYS go to the Spirit for understanding of any truth, but come on, let's be honest; didn't we start out reading, studying and hearing the word preached? And AGAIN, YES!! We did and do have to take those things to the Spirit, but, the mind that is being renewed IS THE NATURAL MIND. It is being renewed to NEW UNDERSTANDING. We are not going to receive a NEW MIND! It is the mind that we have lived with that is being changed in it's thinking. The doctrines of man, comes from NOT taking something from the natural mind, to the Spirit, so that that natural mind is changed in some of its thinking. We have the perfect mind of Christ, RIGHT NOW, we just have to sweep the dust off of it.

Back then, in 70 AD, there were those who wanted to be called "an apostle". And guess what it is still here today. These will tell you that ONLY they are right; ONLY they have the truth; and if you don't do things THEIR way, you are carnal, out of the Spirit; and all that bologna. Why? They are seeking RECOGNITION!! Oh, they are very "religous" about it. But then they start telling everyone, how this got healed because of ME or MY ministry; this one got money because he or she listened to ME. And on and on and on. If your discernment is working, you will see it as A NEED OF RECOGNITION. And our recognition belongs to ONLY ONE. ELOHEIM, of who we are One in. So, these people started receiving all this, and they grew cold.

Now, the second seal.

Revelation 6: 3-4, "And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out anotherer horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword."

These beasts are the Gospels, which is the Spirit speaking to us. (He does speak to us, in the Word as well as in meditation). Now, what Jesus tell us, regarding exactly is being seen by John?

MT 10: 34-35, " Think not that I AM come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace BUT A SWORD. For I AM come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law."

He didn't come to SEND PEACE, HE WAS PEACE!! And He HAD COME. That peace came within us. We have it now. But, those who came against Him and HIS TRUTH came condmnation and judgment. Now, this was while God (as the man Jesus) was walking the earth. NOW, there is no condemnation. Jesus NEVER one day walked from under the law. He was under the law all the time He walked the earth, He had to be, in order to fulfull the law. But, upon His and our death on the cross and our ressurection, all that changed. The problem today is, that not all know this.

This second chruch age was the age that the bible was completely written. This Book of Revelation had been written in this church age. It was and is part of God's Plan for this bible to make it world wide. But, as we will see, there is a time, when the Spirit and only the Spirit can give understanding to the parts of the bible that were inspired of God. This age was the age of the ending of the Sun Worshiper of Egypt; the Greece mythology; the paganism of Rome and Italy and all the false religous systems of man. The message of "The Blood of the Lamb" went world wide.

The second trumpet sounds.

Revelation 8:8-9, " And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood: And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died : and the third part of the ships were destroyed."

Again, this is all symbolism. It is the way JOHN saw it. It is written in JOHN'S words. Of course, today , we don't speak as John did. There are many who "try" to speak as John did, but it is just a religous covering. So let's look at these symbols. Folks, the bible really does explain itself.

What is the great mount of the Lord? Zion! The church! US!! And it was and is burning with the HolY Ghost AND FIRE. "OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE!!" That fire that John saw, actually came on Pentecost. And the people were filled with it. John sees people as "a sea". When Pentecost came, not Azuza Street, but in the day of Jesus, approximately one thinrd of the actual earth's surface was affected by the ministry of the first and second church ages. We must remember, at that time, the world was not all that it is today.

Are you beginning to see how much of this Book of Revelation has already been fulfilled!!! I hope so.

All those that fought the truth and rejected the Truth of the Spirit, of that day, died and perished off the earth. But, GREAT NEWS!! They are awakening, just as we are, only now, they are in the invisible realm. GOD WILL NOT LOSE ONE PERSON, NOT ONE!!

And the second vial.

Revelation 16; 3, "And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dad man: and every living soul died in the sea."

The Second Angel, of the second church age sounded the second trumpet, and also poured out the second vial. Remember, these vials were the dispenastional results of the acceptance or rejection of what the trumpet (the clear message from God), said. These vials brought change in each church age.

Just as the second trumpet sounded against the "Sea of humanity", the second vial was poured out on "the Sea of humanity. Remember, the word "sea" represents people. (which we will see further into this sharing). This second vial became as "the blood of dead men". (Rev 16:3) Not dead in the natural, but dead spiritually. They were what the scary movies call "the walking dead". Where there is no LIGHT, there is death. (you know, actually "death" can be defined as ignorance) PLEASE understand, the Spirit does not literally die, as the Spirit cannot die. But, what I am saying is this. Do you remember how ALIVE you felt when you accepted the Salvation message. It seemed, at least to me, that the whole world had changed. I believed that because I had changed, EVERYONE would change too. Oh, those childish expectations!! But as we will see, ALL WILL CHANGE THEIR THINKING. Amen! But, we didn't realize that before we came to accept His Salvation, that we really had been walking as the dead. Our thoughts, and even the things we did, that could have literally brought us to literal death, our life back then, was a spiritual death.

"and every living soul died in the sea."

Think about it; when Jesus went to the cross and ressurected, who all ressurected with Him? EVERYONE!! They ressurected to their True Identity, right then; even though many do not recongnize it yet. But, they will. I am not just talking about Christians, I am talking about every being ever brought forth. Whether on earth, or in the galaxies that we don't even know about yet, EVERYONE ressurected out of the death in the sea. And this is one reason why we HAVE to see EVEYONE as they really are. They may not know it yet, BUT WE DO. NOW, NO ONE IS SPIRITUALLY DEAD, some may think they are, (and some JUDGERS think they are) but that Spirit is lieing in wait, and when one of the "vials" come their way, they will wake up and start their journey, just as we have.

So, this was the second vial. Those of the second church age that lived in faith, brought in the third church age. The church of Pergamos, The Black Horse Age. This second chruch age was The Red Horse Age.

In the first seal, we saw that with the first church, what God was not pleased with, is that they left their first Love. This does not mean that they walked away and just put Him out of their lives. Leaving our first love can be done in many ways. In the case of the first church, it meant that they turned to man, instead of Him. They took up with manmade doctrines, rather than listening to and allowing the Spirit to lead.

The second seal was the beinning of the end, of life as they knew it, and as we know it.

Knowing that WE are the church, we look at it differently. It is nice to know the history of the literal seven churches, but, we have come to the place that WE are, what we are concerned with, today, HIM. It is allowing Him to be seen, that is what we want. Our leaving our first love, can be and was, for some of us, depending on man to show us truth. By doing so, the "wrath" that we received, was getting all kinds of garbage put in us.

The second vial was as you have read, for those of the day of Jesus, but, with us it was that we believed all the mistaken teaching, and in time, grew tired of not seeing any change in ourselves, and may have even waxed a little cold; but, then we learn or realized our True Identity. We know that all that we have walked through, the mistakes that we made, (and they weren't really mistakes) but was for a reason, a learning to take dominion.

This second seal, trumpet and vial we can now look back and see them and remember them and be grateful for them.

As I said, we do not face the wrath of God anymore. Once we realized Who HE made us, we know that He sees us exactly as we came out from within Him. And the opening of all the seven seals, and the trumpets, and experiencing learning the mistakes we are making, is what is awakening us to the Image that we are. So, as we look at the "wrath" that is in the vials, please know, this is history of the church ages, literally. Our awakening has taken us from the thought that God will pour wrath upon us. Because as He says, "All things are pure". We just have to realize that He is in all things and when times seem troubled, we have to look for HIM in that trouble.

In the next part, we will look at the third seal, trumpet and vial.

to be continued.....

It is understandable for a child to be afraid of the dark; but, why would an adult be afraid of the LIGHT?

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