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"And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll (the curse, our junk) written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals" (Revelation 5:1).

"The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones:…" (our jewels) (Revelation 21:19).

"And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him" (Revelation 22:3).

Notice Revelation chapter 5 begins with "junk" that is the Scroll upon which our curse is written, and ends with "jewels" when our curse is turned into a blessing. The events in between are exemplary of our overcoming process.

The points I want to emphasize in this chapter are:

1. The Scroll is your freedom, and Satan’s demise.

2. No matter how bad things look, you can trust God.

Our Lord and God chose to communicate to us in stories, parables, and pictures. The language of the Holy Spirit is like an alphabet consisting of a picture book. Even one of the most intellectual Christian authors of our day, C.S. Lewis, was used by God to speak to us in some of the strangest stories I can think of. He had a way of writing theology that a scholar could grasp, and with another stroke could write a story appealing to children that many scholars could not grasp, yet the theology of the "weird story" would be deeper than the intellectual work.

God communicates to me both ways, but primarily through the picture and story media. The Old Testament stories become personal to me. God puts me into the roles of the various characters in order to speak a message into my life. I believe that our Western mindset can sometimes erect a blockade that God has to tunnel through in order to reach us. God supernaturally and sovereignty saved me in August of 1979 reading the Book of Revelation and taking it literally, perhaps a little too literal. However God used it to show me several important things.

1. Jesus is God.

2. He "wrote" the Bible.

3. He is the victor over all evil.

4. Heaven and Hell were real, and Heaven was my destiny, thanks to Jesus.

5. God was a father who would care for me as His child.

6. Jesus is returning to this earth.

7. Jesus is worthy to be my Lord and I would follow Him the rest of my life.

8. The Holy Spirit manifested Himself in me.

Eight is the number for new beginnings, and God manifested Himself to me all three ways, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I am not sure how many people could come away with the same eight things reading the Book of Revelation. The result in my life was that I was filled with "Rivers of Living Water," I dropped all of my agenda to follow Him, and my life would never be the same. He has had abundant mercy on me and has delivered me from much. Sometime around 1986 the Lord began to construct new pictures for me from the Book of Revelation of a type and color which were very different from what I had ever heard before. He spoke to me very clear during that time and told me that He was giving me the ability to understand the Eastern mindset so that I could crawl into the mind of the writers of the Bible, especially John who wrote Revelation. This was not for some theological education but rather was to deliver my family from disasters.

I would like share with you many of the pictures that the Lord has given to me from the Book of Revelation. This is in no way intended to be an exposition of the Book, or some kind of different interpretation of it. I cannot give a chapter by chapter explanation of what each and every image means. My goal is to encourage you to open your mind to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to speak His language to you directly into your life.

What is Revelation all about? What is the Scroll all about?

I am going to attempt to go through part of the Book of Revelation having to do with the Scroll and its affects as Jesus opens it. I will describe in these next few paragraphs the way God has spoken to me. Not only has He spoken to me through this Book, but also He has delivered my family and me through this Book and related "end time" Scriptures. I admit that I have many "blank spaces," things that I cannot get my arms around and explain in a nice tidy and neat package.

The definition of Revelation according to Strongs Concordance is: "apokalupsis Apocalypse - be revealed, to lighten, manifestation, coming, appearing; laying bear, making naked, a disclosure of truth, instruction, concerning things before unknown, used of events by which things or states or persons hitherto withdrawn from view are made visible to all, manifestation, appearance." It is not only a revelation or apocalypse of hidden events, but it is also an unveiling of an aspect of the character and work of Jesus Christ previously hidden.

I believe that the overriding theme of the Book of Revelation has to do with the curse that Adam and Eve’s rebellion brought to this planet. "Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life" (Genesis 3:17). It shows us how God finally deals with cleansing the earth and us individually of this curse. "And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him" (Revelation 22:3).

The curse was brought on by rebellion towards God, and man’s choice to follow his/her own intellect instead of God’s Word and His presence. The curse included not only death and separation from God eternally, but also being separated from God while still living on this earth, thus suffering the Hell on Earth that so many people now experience.

Jesus came to earth as God incarnate for the primary purpose of becoming the sacrifice needed to free mankind from the curse. Jesus did that. He went to the Cross and became a curse for us. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Galatians 3:13,14).

You might say, "Oh that’s great, I am redeemed from the curse, now I can live a happy life." Yes and no. While it is true that what Jesus did at the Cross and the subsequent resurrection was absolutely sufficient, it is not the end of the story. The story continues in Revelation. Adam was not God incarnate, and Adam was the one who sinned. He was the one who gave authority to Satan to rule this world, and to create a world system and culture.

I submit that God’s preference is to include mere man in the remedy final, one who is not God incarnate. I believe that God wants us to be instrumental in the final defeat of Satan and his kingdom, at least for those things in our individual lives. I am in no way suggesting that man has the power in himself to do that. Satan has much more power than mere man does. However when someone from the human race allows God to fill his/her life with the Holy Spirit, then that person becomes a co-laborer in the finished work of Jesus and actually extends it to a final conclusion, at least for his/her life. "to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 3:10).

God never intended for us to simply mentally believe in His all-sufficient work of defeating Satan and reversing the curse. He intends for us to cooperate with Him to be the final extinguisher of the entire remnant of the curse. How? By allowing God to overcome our own individual curse, the generational curse that has come down our family line. We extinguish Satan’s rule one person at a time. God gives us promises, but we must own those promises by going through the trial and testing of faith. We cannot truly own the promises of God without making them real in our lives through the trial of faith and testing. Do we trust what God has said about what He has done enough to believe it and base our lives upon it even if all circumstances scream against the promise? Going through that trial and testing to make the promise manifested in our lives is overcoming.

Abraham was an overcomer.

We are called to follow the faith of Abraham. He received the supernatural birth of Isaac after a long path of thinking the promise would not come to pass. Then suddenly, God told him to take Isaac up the hill and sacrifice him. Why? There may be many answers, but I submit that big one is that God wanted Abraham to cooperate with Him to remove his curse. Abraham was under the curse of being without child. That was the greatest curse of that day, it brought the greatest shame. Even after Isaac was born the curse was still due to Abraham, Satan still had license to keep Abraham childless. That would mean of course that Satan had license to take Isaac’s life. During that time some people would sacrifice their children to various gods. They still do in many cultures today. My wife and I have visited some of the cultures and know it to be true.

Here is a case of God giving the promise, fulfilling the promise, yet there still remained a work to be accomplished. The work would not be a one sided affair. God would perform the supernatural and impossible part, but Abraham would have to suffer and walk out the final removal of the curse. Abraham would have to go through the overcoming process. Abraham would have to live out Revelation 12:11, which says, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death" (Revelation 12:11).

One time when someone close to us overcame a potentially fatal physical infirmity, I asked God, "Why did you just not heal this person instantly?" He answered, "Abraham had to walk all the way up the hill. The lamb was at the top of the hill, not at the bottom, not half way up. If I had healed half way up, then that curse would have still been active in that family and in the earth. As it worked out, not only was the curse put away, but so were the demonic beings that were operating with that curse as the center of operation."

1. Abraham did not love his life to the death. Actually in those days, the life of one’s son was more precious than one’s own life. It would have been easier for Abraham to commit suicide than to kill Isaac. He obeyed God with his own life, his precious son. However he had previously partaken of a very sacred blood covenant with God, and he knew that God could not lie (Genesis 15).

2. Abraham gave the word of his testimony. He trusted in God so much that he said to his servants who were accompanying him to the hill of sacrifice, "And Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you’" (Genesis 22:5). Now that is really faith talking! We need to have the militant faith that Abraham had. We need to believe and stand upon the Word of God no matter what the circumstances! "He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God" (Romans 4:20).

3. Abraham received the blood of the Lamb. "And He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.’ Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son" (Genesis 22:12,13). Abraham received the blood of the Lamb, the substitutionary sacrifice.

Abraham had to face his curse head on as if it were going to destroy him before the Lamb of God showed up. He had to walk all the way up the hill. The Lamb was over the top of the hill, not at the bottom, not half way up, but all the way and then some. Abraham was an overcomer! God calls us to press on beyond hope. This principle is embedded in the Book of Daniel "And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days" (Daniel 12:11,12). To receive the blessing we must press on past the top of the hill!

Abraham believed that God would turn his "junk" into "jewels." "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called,’ concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense" (Hebrews 11:17-19).

The overcoming process is based upon death and resurrection.

Actually I believe that we put the resurrection process into action as we enter the overcoming process. I believe that is why so many Christians do not partake in the process. It is very difficult to believe that whatever is dead in our lives due to the curse, or perhaps our own sin, can be resurrected by God into something so valuable as a jewel for His Kingdom!

Abraham received another sometimes overlooked blessing. By overcoming, not only did he receive Isaac free from the curse, but also he received spiritual authority to free future generations. Certain spiritual principalities, powers, and wickedness in high places, generals of Satan, were cast down from their thrones of authority. Through Abraham came the entire Jewish race, the Messiah Jesus, and finally yours and my salvation. His obedience to sacrifice his son paved the way for God’s son to be sacrificed. When we overcome our individual curses, we send high-ranking Satanic rulers into an early retirement. They have nothing more to hang onto on this earth, so they must retire into the Pit, or whatever it is called, some sort of permanent prison of fire.

Abraham’s path is the path of Revelation.

Abraham went through a time of learning who God is. He went through a time of learning who he was in God via the blood covenant relationship. He went through a time of failure. He went through a time of character development and discipline. He went through a time of seeing things from God’s perspective. He went through a time of great suffering, and finally he witnessed a supernatural overcoming, the removal of his curse by the power of resurrection, and the authority to help others remove their curse. I submit that what Abraham went through is what the Book of Revelation is all about, both for our own individual lives and for the entire planet and world system.

Outline of the Book of Revelation.

I am going to present this in outline form following Abraham’s path.

1. Learning who God is.

2. Learning who we are in Him.

3. Our failure.

4. Character development and discipline.

5. Seeing things from God’s perspective.

6. Great suffering.

7. Supernatural overcoming through patient endurance while standing on the Word of God.

8. The world culture becomes less significant and the Kingdom of God becomes more significant.

9. Authority for freeing others, sometimes referred to as fruit or spiritual capital.

Before God can trust us with the Scroll He must cover first things first.

Revelation chapter 1.

God first had to let Abraham know who he was in the blood covenant prior to Abraham’s extreme trial.

After Jesus shows us who He is in chapter 1, then He shows us who we are in that same chapter. It is easy to develop a negative mentality when afflictions strike. Being knocked down does not make you feel victorious and it may be difficult to remember who we are in Christ.

Jesus said to John and to you and me, "and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen" (Revelation 1:5-7).

You were washed from your sins by the blood of Jesus, and He made you a spiritual king and priest One of the enemy’s primary tactics in overcoming you is to have you forget who you really are. You are a New Creation in Christ, you have been dead and have been reborn. You are out of the reach of Satan provided he does not deceive you. Christ the overcomer lives in you!

Revelation chapters 2-3. Character development, discipline, and repentance.

In the chapter titled "The Tabernacle Part 2 - The Bronze Altar" I write about how Jesus wants to prepare you and me and the Church in general for the coming warfare having to do with overcoming, personal, corporate, and historic. This is written in the form of letters to the seven churches of Asia during that period of time, but actually speaks to all of us who call ourselves believers in Jesus Christ. We need to clean up our act if we are going to overcome!

Revelation chapter 4. "Come up here."

In the chapter in titled "Laying a Foundation" I wrote about how Jesus opened a door in Heaven so that John in his sufferings could begin to see truth and reality in the spiritual world from God’s perspective. We can do the same. Walking through the Tabernacle, taking up our cross and staying in right relationship with Jesus will take us up into the heavenlies and we will see things from God’s throne and about God’s throne. We will also see an unveiling of who Jesus is now and what He is doing now. We will see the purpose of our afflictions and how to overcome.

Revelation chapter 5 - The Scroll.

"And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals" (Revelation 5:1). In the chapter titled "Justification- The Cosmic Courtroom in action" you will read about the Scroll that John saw Jesus holding in His hand. I submit that the scene of Jesus at the Throne of God taking the Scroll into His hand to unroll it shows what Jesus was doing right after His ascension into Heaven, and is still doing. He is the Judge!

At the throne, John saw the Lamb who was the only one worthy to take the Scroll, which Zechariah describes as the curse. "Then I turned and raised my eyes, and saw there a flying scroll. And he said to me, ‘What do you see?’ So I answered, ‘I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits.’ Then he said to me, ‘This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth: Every thief shall be expelled, according to this side of the scroll; and, Every perjurer [liar ] shall be expelled, according to that side of it. I will send out the curse, says the LORD of hosts; It shall enter the house of the thief And the house of the one who swears falsely by My name. It shall remain in the midst of his house And consume it, with its timber and stones’" (Zechariah 5:1-4).

Notice when Zechariah asked the Lord, "What is the scroll" he was told that it was a curse and that there were two things that would be accomplished by it. It would expel the thief and perjurer, the liar. We know the thief and the liar to be none other than Satan, and all of his assistants.

Pastor Jack Hayford in his book E Quake wonderfully describes this scroll. (1)

"Some scrolls were used as books, but a distinct kind of scroll was sealed in the same way that this one was sealed. A scroll with those kinds of seals was probably a will. In Roman times - and Revelation was written in Roman times - when a person prepared his will, seven witnesses attested to the will, and each on sealed it. Wax was poured on the place where it was sealed, and they signed the place where they had sealed or attested to the will. When the person died and the will was to be executed, the seals could be broken only by each witness or legal representative of each witness, who was present for the unsealing of the scroll and its reading. This is one of those scrolls."

"God has ultimately ordained the recovery on this earth of what has been lost in the past, by reason of human failure or Satan’s furies. It is to begin now in the lives of people who enter into the will of God through Jesus Christ. He wants for people to come to know, as it were, the personal scrolls of their lives beginning to be unsealed, for the Savior to come and open up what they were intended to be and what God wanted them to know. They don’t have to wait until heaven someday to know much of the good God has for them. He wants to begin unfolding His will right now. That was what Jesus meant when He said He came to bring life more abundantly now. He wasn’t only pointing to a someday in the sweet by-and-by. There is meant to be present-moment manifestations of the rule of the Lamb of God as He overthrows the work of the thief, stealing from people; the Law of God overthrows the work of the liar who would like to perpetuate confusion in the human mind."

Pastor Hayford goes on to say, "Retaliation occurs when someone says, "I am going to get even." Retribution occurs when something has taken place and a consequence of that action follows - and nothing can change it. It is a natural by-product of a violation of essential order."

"The release of judgement is not from God’s throwing a tantrum in heaven and the vibrations rattling our cages on earth. It is the by-product of a self-invoked judgment. In other words, God is not in heaven passing out curses; rather He is say, "I want to see the back of the curse broken." Thus He sets about driving out the systems and the spirit that administer the curse - the world, the thief, and the liar. The scales of cosmic justice will be balanced, and the earth must reap that horrible harvest it has sown unto itself."

Another comment about the Scroll that I like is taken from "W.A. Criswell Expository Sermons on Revelation." (2) He points out that when a Jewish family was required to forfeit its land and possessions through some distress, the property could not be permanently taken from them. Their losses were listed in a scroll and sealed seven times, then the conditions necessary to purchase back the land and possessions were written on the outside of the scroll. When a qualified redeemer could be found to meet the requirements of reclamation, the one to whom the property had been forfeited was obligated to return the possessions to the original owner.

Opening the seven seals of Revelation.

As the Seals are opened and the Scroll unrolled judgement is released that will expel the liar thief. Unfortunately, it will also hit those who aligned with him. These Seals are opened together with the resulting judgements represented by the Trumpets and Bowls between chapters 6 and 16.

One of the overriding themes of Revelation is the horrible events that take place every time one of the seven Seals is broken open. Remember the Kingdom of God is taken by violence. "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matthew 11:12).

The Seals open a view of horror of human history. If someone had cracked the seals without the price to be paid for the curse, the disasters would have destroyed us, but with the price they produce jewels. When these things happen, we are to see them from God’s perspective, revelation, and apocalyptic view.

"For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matthew 24:27). Explosions happen when a cold front hits a warm air mass. If you do not have cover, you will be hit by lighting. As the lighting comes from the east to the west, so will the Son of Man. It is Satan bringing it? Is it God bringing it? Yes! If they are both active, then which one do you think controls and will prevail? When storms occur, it is most likely the clap of thunder and lightning coming from the fringe of His robe as He is nearing the scene. His holiness is approaching the centuries of human degradation causes lightnings and storms. It cannot be helped. The storms ultimately take vengeance on His enemies.

The price for the removal of our curse has been paid legally, now it has to be worked out experientially. Each Seal is a step to the final removal of the curse. Seals represent everything that can go wrong in your life, the life of the world, past, and present and is a view of the intensity of those things coming in the future with greater rapidity and strength.

The explosions pierce the Lamb.

"Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4,5). Notice these six words, borne, carried, stricken, smitten, wounded, and bruised. These all carry the connotation of our "junk" going into Him.

As the Scroll unrolls the explosions take place (the catastrophes in the Book of Revelation). As our personal scroll is unrolled, we feel the shadow of our curses, the explosions, and they feel like the real thing. But the Lamb is holding the Scroll and the explosions hit Him. This takes faith because we feel the shock waves! If we take this view of the Scroll and the curse, then we have to conclude that the curse that Satan put on mankind and on this earth actually backfired on him. Satan’s curse is actually performing his destruction.

Notice that the Scroll has always been in the hand of God. He is in ultimate control. However God needed the Lamb, Jesus, in order to open the seals and execute the will.

"So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it" (Revelation 5:4). John wept.

The Scroll was in God’s hand, yet he wept. John must have realized that until the Scroll was unsealed, that Satan would continue to have his way with mankind and this earth. Unsealing the Scroll would unlock God’s purposes. But he thought, "Who is worthy?" The praise and worship in Revelation often uses the term "Thou art worthy!"

"But one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals’" (Revelation 5:5).

"Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation’" (Revelation 5:7-9).

Remember that in spite of catastrophic events that take place in your lives while the curse is being overcome, that you are only feeling the shadow of the affliction. Jesus actually bore the affliction, the curse. When we shine the light into the shadow, we see the Lamb bleeding for our curse. If this were not true, the afflictions would destroy us. But since this is true, the afflictions only turn into jewels! Jesus was the only being who was worthy to take the Scroll. Why? He was the only perfect Lamb who could absorb your curse. If this were not true, you would be destroyed, as many that do not believe in Jesus are being destroyed.

Why all the suffering?

We are looking at suffering from two points of view, but they both accomplish God’s purpose. The purpose is to remove the curse and to give final judgment and defeat to Satan and his company. The two points of view are, first the suffering in these chapters represent many of the things we go through as God is removing our individual curses and unrolling our Scrolls, and second, they represent the removing of the overall and corporate curse in the earth. They are "end times" for both you and me and the world. This includes the Adamic nature and the generational curses for us individually and also the Adamic race for the entire earth.

Why does God allow or ordain suffering in order to accomplish His purpose? He unrolls the Scroll in order to complete the removal of our curses and the curse in the world. One might think, "Is there any other way God can accomplish this? Why does there need to be so much suffering, both for believers and unbelievers?" I do not feel qualified to give a concrete answer to these questions, but I have some ideas to offer.

God is swinging His menacing Arm against His enemies therefore everything they control is shaken. All who hang on to God’s enemies will also be shaken.

Hebrews 12:26-29 says, "whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’ Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire."

His Arm is swinging kind of automatically because His hand is unrolling the Scroll that is our judgment. It also becomes the judgment for demons and people who have taken on their dominion and who have put themselves under the control of the world culture. God is cleansing the earth of the curse, and that includes Satan, demons, devils, and the world culture operated by them.

"Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand, And His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him" (Isaiah 40:10).

Notice His reward and His destruction both come on the same wave of violence.

When demons are cast out, they cause much tribulation. During this present age, from the Cross to the second coming of Jesus, Jesus is casting the entire corporate hoard of demons from the earth, therefore the earth must suffer much tribulation.

Jesus warned us Himself that before this generation passes away, that horrible terrors will come upon the earth. He said that no one would be exempt. I believe that He meant for this to apply to both the world in its birth pains in the removal of the curse and the birth of the New Jerusalem, but also for us individually, that our generational curse would not go away until "all things take place."

Take a look at His explanation of this in Luke chapter 21.

I feel that these words of Jesus had several applications including a personal one for you and me.

These events that Jesus spoke about compare to the Seals in Revelation.

 

7 So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"

 

9 "But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."

 

10 Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

 

11 "And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.

 

12 "But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake.

 

13 "But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.

 

14 "Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer;

 

15 "for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. [He is inferring that we will need to say something; the word of our testimony].

 

16 "You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.

 

17 "And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.

 

18 "But not a hair of your head shall be lost.

 

19 "By your patience possess your souls.

 

22 "For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

 

26 "men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.

 

27 "Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

 

28 "Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

 

31 "So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.

 

32 "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.

 

33 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

 

34 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.

 

35 "For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

 

36 "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."

 

Notice that verses 28 and 31 speak of your redemption and of the Kingdom of God coming. Notice, verse 22 speaks of this period being the "the days of vengeance." Hang on to these two thoughts and they will come to life in the next chapter.

Verse 32 speaks of this "generation passing away after these horrors take place." What things must take place? All of the catastrophic events Jesus listed in this passage, most of them the being the same that are later described in Revelation.

Some may interpret the word generation to mean the group of people alive on the earth at a given time, I believe the more a accurate interpretation is members of a genealogy, a family of descendents, or the generation of Adam. In our individual lives it means the generational curses that are shadowing over our lives. I just cannot believe that Jesus meant that only one certain group of people living on this earth at one period of time will experience disasters. That has not proven to be true. I can agree however that there will come a time when disasters strike like never before. I can also personally testify that every generational curse my family and I have overcome was accompanied by "all these things" meaning catastrophic events. "But he who endures to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 24:13).

Having said all that, I want to balance it with another statement. We are not to passively accept all bad things that come into our lives as ordained suffering from the Lord. No, No! We are to be wise are serpents but harmless as doves. The answer is that in your own individual situation you need to be so close to God, you need to be hearing His voice so clearly that you may know what it is He wants you to resist, and what it is He expects you to endure. However, submitting to God precedes resisting the devil. 1 Peter 5:7-9 says, "casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world."

Are you sealed?

I believe that the result of the first six seals are very bad. One of the overriding themes Jesus want us to glean from this Book is that no matter how bad things become, He is still in charge, He is still working out your perfect redemption and healing. Remember, it is not over until it is over! If you are in the midst of very bad afflictions, it is not over, you are still in the middle of the Book.

As the seals are opened they create and have created terrible suffering on this earth, and perhaps in your life. However, the intensity of the catastrophes is getting ready to increase as evidenced by the Trumpet and Bowl judgments, but just before they do, just before the seventh seal, God does something in order to protect His people.

"After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree" (Revelation 7:1). "saying, ‘Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’ And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed" (Revelation 7:3,4).

This crowd of 144,000 is described in another way in chapter 7. They are the overcomers who have stood afflictions in their lives. "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands" (Revelation 7:9).

"Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?’" ( Revelation 7:13).

"And I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ So he said to me, ‘These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’" (Revelation 7:14).

If you have stood during your affliction as an overcomer during your great tribulation, one of the promises is as follows.

"Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Revelation 7:15-17). This Scripture is a promise of intimacy, guidance, provision, fullness, and healing. I can testify that my afflictions have been worth it in this context.

It matters not how bad things get, at the end of the world or at the end of your world. Jesus is telling you, "Its not over until its over, and I have the last word. Make sure you do not take the seal of the Beast, his character, but make sure you take My seal, My character." I believe that the only safe place to be during the end times of this world, and during the end times in our individual lives, is on the overcoming path. I believe that this is the main theme of the last and final book of the Bible!

We need to climb into God’s ark like Noah did. "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:" (Luke 17:26).

If you are on the path of the overcoming lifestyle, you are sealed!

That path is not a formula for convincing God to work on your behalf. It is a yielding your will to His will, seeking His personal voice in your life and cooperating with Him to speak His Word through you to His enemies.

We start with the curse, we end with no more curse.

"So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life" (Genesis 3:14).

"Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life’" (Genesis 3:17).

"And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him." (Revelation 22:3).

The last few chapters of Revelation show the tremendous benefits of overcoming afflictions and curse through the overcoming process. We will cover Revelation chapters 19-22 in the last chapter of this book. Hang on!

(1) Hayford, Jack. E Quake. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999, pp 89,95,96,97.

(2) Lindsay, Hal. There's a New World Coming. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 1973 - pp 74-75

Larry Chkoreff November 2001