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UNDERSTANDING THE BOOK OF REVELATION

                                                           Part 18

 

Today we are going to be looking at the fifth church age. What we must see in these church ages is; (1) they are of the past,; (2) they hold a spiritual meaning to us. We have or will go through each age, at a time in our walk in and as God. Some haven't even begun this walk yet; but they will and they, like each of us, must follow the Pattern that was laid for us, all.

 

This fifth church age, the church of Sardis, made its entrance at a very weakened time of the church age: weakened by the gross apostasism of the fourth church age, the chuch of Thyatira. Jerimiah 33:25 tells us:

 

"IF the Lord's covenant had not been with day and night, the true church would have perished." We know that WE are the True Church, so this shows us that even today, these church ages, although they were in the past, are still a part of the Plan that we must walk through and overcome. Overcome, by realizing our True Identity. Is someone accepted Jesus, today, these same church ages will be experienced by them. And one by one they will overcome.

 

Now, with the words from Jerimiah, we see what God has promised us. In Matt.16:8, He said;

 

"....the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." And in Rev.3:4, John said that there remained the faithful remnant that did not defile their garments. The Holy Spirit caused a message, a blast of the trumpet, that FULL RESTORATION and HOLLY GHOST SALVATION, was to be understood by us. Now, back in our earlier days of our walk, Full Restoration meant something different, to us, that what it means to us today. Today we have had rise up within us, the TRUE meaning of Full Restoration. Today, the Full Restoration, we KNOW is the restoring of our mind, to come to remembrance of Who and What we truely are. Today, the Restoration is not to a church; it is to God Himself. He is rising and being seen, in the VISIBLE realm.

 

The fifth seal is opened, by the Lambkin.

 

Revelation 6:9-11, "And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How LONG, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them: and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."

 

Boy, there is so much here. First of all , did you notice where these souls were at? They were UNDER the altar. They have not come into the realization of there True Identity. The "resting" that is spoken of here, is the understanding that they ARE receiving, right now, along with us. Remember what Hebrews 11:40 tells us;

"....THEY (those who have passed over) WITHOUT US cannot come into perfection (completion)"

And when they are crying out, "HOW LONG? LORD", brings to my mind the translation that says, "they stand on tippytoes cheering us on." This should be SO MUCH encouragement for us to remain true to our BEING. WE will raise the "dead"; WE will bring them back to a glorified body. They are our other parts that make up His Body; His Truths; His Being. And they were "given white robes". This robe isn't a material covering of them, it is HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS RISING UP IN THEM.

The "fellow servants that should be killed" is not the "death" that comes to the carnal thinking. IT IS US, dieing daily, moment by moment to the lie we have been living. That killing is our AWAKENING and BEING. Oh folks, this just gets better, as we go along. You can see, what we've looked at so far, that this Book of Revelation is NOT A BOOK OF FEAR, but instead is the "ROADMAP" that brings us to the end of this process. WE ARE THERE!! And those who are faithful to move on as HIM, are manifesting HIM, as we speak. Hallelujah!!

The fifth Trumpet sounds.

This part of our sharing is going to include much more than the other parts. There is so much that comes into play with this fifth church age; so please bare with me.

Revelation 9:1-12, " And the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree: but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented for five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is A-baddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. One woe is past; and behold, there come two woes more hereafter."

 

John watched these reformation ministries, and saw that many of them were continually compromising the Truths in the system of religious organizations. And we see the same thing, still today. Now, the way John saw and wrote, as he understood, he envisioned these "fallen ministries" as "a star" falling from the realm of the heavenlies into the earthly or carnal realm of religious politics. (remember "a star" represents the "angel" of the church, or the one doing the teaching. ) The true church has only one purpose, and that is to exalt and bring into manifestation, the Kingdom of God.

In the day of Martin Luther, he had a great revelation of truth; "the just shall live by faith". In that time period people who were being led by the Spirit taught and preached new dimensions of fresh revelations and revealed Bible truths. These men of God brought the people everywhere into new spiritual levels of revealed truth of the Word of God. And of course, these met resistance, by men who, with their carnal religious leaders, and they sought to pervert the Truth of God, and change His Truth into lies. (which they did a good job of, in my opinion.) And they began to prevent believers from accepting more revealed truth beyond their religious domains. Different denominations were established and those denominations exalts the denomination, instead of exalting the Kingdom of God. And John saw all this, as "a star" falling from the Spiritual Truth realm, to the fleshly carnal realm.

The bottomless pit. Many mistakenly confuse the bottomless pit with outer darkness, or hell or the lake of fire. These are NOT all the same. They are different and have their place relevant to the truth of the scripture. Right now, we are looking at the bottomless pit.

 

Many teach that those in the bottomless pit are in base nature of mankind. And they spiral downward, and it is bottomless and in those lower "regions", there is no deliverance. This is where they teach that there is nothing but ultmate destruction. Foks, we all KNOW that God will lose NO ONE!! In fact, they are already forgiven. But, back then they did not know all that we know today. To me, I see the bottomless pit, as the place where doctrine has no foundation to stand on. Each doctrine, not given by Spirit, sinks, it cannot stand.

This church age got so caught up in "denominationalism" that they were led by it. (we know all about this). They were not led by the Spirit. Out of the smoke or out of the humanistic "take over" of ever reformation revival move of God, came the plague of Locusts.

 

THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS

Actually, we can see so much of what this means. The Locusts symbolize all the various "Protestant Denominations". John saw them as battling horses!! (remember, horse represent , strength. There is both, human strength and spiritual strength.) The battling horses symbolize the powerful human strenght of the religious political denominations that arose during the Reformation. They all have their own "crowns". They establish and exalt their denomination even aove the Word of God. EVen today, there are those who exalt "their" understandings above God's Truth. There is only ONE that is crowned, all other crowns must be cast down at His feet.

They have or allowed strength and power to become as scorpions of the earth with a sting of torment. They are as a plague or curse in the earth; BUT, they cannot kill the REAL moves of God. They only torment. They spend more time fighting each other, than bringing forth the Kingdom of God. They are CONTROLLED by the councils of men and not led by the Spirit of God. This is shown as the faces of men that John saw. As carnal men they express themselves as the church and try to show the characteristics of the woman (the False Church) by the vision of the long hair. HAIR represents a "covering". Their covering should be God. An example of this "covering" is seen in the Garden. Remember when Adam and Eve put on "leaves" to hide their nakedness? It is something that covers what is not wanted to be seen, by others.

Their teeth are like the teeth of lions, biting and devouring each other. They have a "king" over them. That king is their denominationa and religious headquarters and counckils of men. Did you know that many of the churches have what is called "canned sermons". The church can purchase a whole year of sermons; memorize it; put a little of their personality into it, and preach it as the Word of God!! Their power is limited, as we see what John saw. "Thou shall not hurt the grass (people) of the earth", neither any tree (people). You can only hurt those that have not the Seal of God in their foreheads." (as we saw, the seal of God is the Holy Spirit.

Ok, now we are really going to see just where we are in the Plan of God. A month equalsone cycle of the moon, which is symbolic of the church, so these are the "5 cycles" that the church must pass through, or 5 messages that MUST be declared before the end of the Chrich Age. The power of denominationalism will last through the last 5 cycles of the Chruch Age. These are those messages:

1) Repentance from dead works and faith in God.

2) Doctrines of baptisms and of laying on of hands.

3) Holiness doctrines.

4) The Holy Ghost Revivals

5) Resurrection of the dead and eternal judgemtn.

(Please read these scriptures for yourself; Heb. 6:1-3, Joel 2:28-29, Acts 2:17,18, 39, and 2Cor. 7:1, Eph: 4: 24)

These "5 church months" happen during the fifth, sixth and seventh church ages.

 

THE THREE WOES.

The continued efforts of carnal political religious leaders to denominate the reformation, restoration revivals ended in John declaring it as THE FIRST WOE. (Rev. 9:12)

 

John declares that there are Three Great Woes during th reviving and restoration of the Church to its final place of ETERNAL GLORY. (remember WHO the Church is).

 

Revelation 8:13, "And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, WOE, WOE, WOEto the inhaviters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound."

These three great WOES described in the above verse are divine warnings to all the inhabitants of the earth. Be sure to THINK of earth, as US. They are "satanic" in their origen. (we KNOW who or rather WHAT Satan was, so I won't go through explainging "Satan". )

 

Revelation 12: 9-12, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent CALLED the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God, ant the power of HIS CHRIST; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And THEY overcame him by the blood of the Lambkin and by the word of their testimony: and they loved not their own lives unto the death."

 

I wasn't going into "Satan" , but I feel it is needed. So many, TODAY, are fighting the devil or Satan, STILL. The "accuser" is the carnal mind, whether it is in our mind doing the condemning, or whether it is in our brethren accusing us. "Demons" are the FRUIT of the Accuser. And this we must know and allow to be witnessed to us, by the Spirit that we are. In the day of Jesus, there were demons; in the original writing of the bible, the word "Satan" was not used. Instead, it was the word "adversary". We all know that the adversary IS THE CARNAL MIND. And look at what we are told about, "this ole serpent, the devil":(the carnal mind)

 

Hebrew 2:14-15, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he himself (Jesus) likewise took part of the same: that through death (one the cross)might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (of death). "

 

Looking at these scriptures, can you see that they ARE fulfilled. The great dragon WAS cast out; that old serpent CALLED the devil or Satan.... And yet even today the leaders of the church, deny what was done on the cross.

These "five church months" happen during the fifth, sixth and seventh church ages.

In the next part we will look at these three woes, and will see what they mean to us, today.

 

to be continued.....