Waiting in vain.
Have you ever had to wait and wait and wait for something only to be
completely and utterly disappointed because your wait ended up being for
absolutely nothing? Do you remember that disappointment? I've mentioned it
before and I'm going to mention it again because it's of VITAL importance that
we comprehend the reality of the following--
Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and
in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
There WILL be a whole LOT of people- MANY of them- who
will say to the Lord they PROPHESIZED, they CAST OUT DEVILS, the DID MANY
WONDERFUL WORKS- all in HIS name! And
the Lord will in turn tell them to get away from Him, He never knew them, they
work sin, not truth! Yet THEY BELIEVE
THEY ARE WORKING THE TRUTH, WORKING FOR JESUS, IN JESUS' NAME! THEY BELIEVE FALSELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I truly cannot emphasize that enough.
Too many people live a surface life of Christianity,
never ever delving where Christ would have us delve- into ALL HIS TRUTH.
JESUS gave us the book of REVELATION,
JESUS WANTS US to know His prophecy, to know His revelations and if we refuse
to study deeply, study intensely, study so that we can be workmen approved by
God -- 2Ti_2:15 Study to shew
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth -- if we refuse to do this, we are NOT living in
Truth and Jesus is the TRUTH.
We're a culture that
has become used to the sensationalized life and we desire sensationalism over
what could be less intense. Reading the
following I talk about how when Christ returns many people will be living their
normal lives- eating/drinking/marrying/giving in marriage- they will NOT be
expecting the Savior because they have NOT watched for Him. They have given in to the seducing spirits
that tell them so much falsehood about prophecies that they hold them to be
true. They will be lost because they are
not desiring TRUTH.
Lord please give us
YOUR truth, open our HEARTS to YOUR truth, and ONLY YOUR TRUTH! Save us! Keep us from the evil of satan's
multitude of deception!
Please! In the name
of the Son, Jesus Christ, our LORD, our SAVIOR now and forever!!!!
******* Continuing our prophecy study-- Please
GO back and READ the study from the beginning to gain full understanding of
where we are if you haven't been following this study daily. Thank you
:) We are on lesson number 87. God bless you! ******
Rev 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a
rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the
altar, and them that worship therein.
Rev 11:2 But the court which is without the temple
leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy
city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
The temple of God.
The altar.
Them that worship
therein.
We understand the
measuring of a building, right? We can even understand the measuring of an
altar, because it's an object. How do we measure the people that are
worshipping inside that temple? You can take the measure of a man certainly, we
measure each other all the time, don't we? We size each other up to what end?
There are various reasons for sizing a person up. A boss may size a potential
employee up to note their worthiness of the position being offered. A potential
friend might be taking the measure of a person to see if they would make a good
friend. We might even take the measure of a stranger trying to understand
whether or not we should even make a gesture of a smile at them.
Here, John is told
to measure the temple there is an importance to the temple but it's NOT the
earthly temple. The heavenly temple is where our Savior went when he rose from
earth and He is still there. We through Him are there with Him when we accept
Him as our Savior. The measure of our worth is found in Him, in Christ our Lord
and Savior.
John is also told
this… 'But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not;
for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under
foot forty and two months'
42 months Rev. 13:5
1260
days Revelation 12: 6.
3 1/2
times in Daniel 7: 25 and 12: 7, and Revelation 12: 14.
This time period is
amazingly special and a marked period that God has given to us to realize how
amazing prophecy is and how the plan He has is real and NOT to be denied, not
to be ignored, not to be taken lightly.
We've studied this time period a few times now and we know that it ends
in the year 1798- we know that the little book was opened about the same time
and the understanding of people towards these prophecies was begun.
Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses,
and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in
sackcloth.
During these 42
months, during the 1260 days there were TWO witnesses that would prophesize
only they would be covered in sackcloth.
What does it mean to
be covered in sackcloth?
sackcloth [ˈsækˌklɒθ]
n
1. (Clothing, Personal Arts
& Crafts / Textiles) coarse cloth such as sacking
2. (Clothing & Fashion)
garments made of such cloth, worn formerly to indicate mourning or penitence
sackcloth and ashes a public
display of extreme grief, remorse, or repentance
Pasted
from <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sackcloth>
Worn to indicate
mourning or penitence- display extreme grief, remorse, repentance.
For 1260 years the
witnesses of God would be down trodden, they would be mourning, and when
someone is in mourning, when there is a period of mourning people generally are
NOT themselves, they are not alive as they should be in a manner of speaking.
They don't shine as they normally would. We can think of mourning people and
maybe today a lot of people don't mourn like they used to but mourning people
used to be given a lot more respect than they are given today- at least in our
country. We've all had a reason to
grieve, to mourn in our lives and we know what it means. The depression, the
darkness, the feeling of being out of touch with the rest of the world which
goes on and on not feeling the pain at all. We want others to understand our
pain to know why things aren't alright in our world, why we feel like crying,
why we feel as if things will never be good again. When the mourning is over and time is a great
healer of emotions, we do begin to look up again and start to live again. This is something that happens over and over
in our lives on various levels.
These two witnesses
of God would mourn for 1260 years, but then they would live again.
Rev 11:4 These are the two olive trees, and the two
candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
Two olive trees.
Two candlesticks.
All standing before
God, the Creator.
The witnesses- trees that produce oil.
The witnesses-
candles that produce light.
Oil and light. Representatives of God. How do oil and light
associated with the temple represent God?
Exo 25:6 Oil for the light…
Exo 27:20 And thou shalt command the children of
Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the
lamp to burn always.
Exo 35:14 The candlestick also for the light, and his
furniture, and his lamps, with the oil for the light
The thing these two
items have in common are they both can be used to produce light.
Light in the Bible
represents what?
Psa 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light
unto my path.
Psa 19:8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing
the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
Pro 6:23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction
are the way of life
Eph 5:13 But all things that are reproved are made
manifest by the light: for
whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
2Pe 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy;
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and
the day star arise in your hearts
Psa 18:28 For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
Psa 119:130 The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto
the simple.
Can we honestly
believe that God's word could be representative by oil and light, by
candlesticks? Jesus had this to say--
Joh 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Joh 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Mat 5:14 Ye
are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Mat 5:15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it
under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in
the house.
Mat 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Jesus is the LIGHT
of the world! The light of life! Jesus told us we are the light of the world!
And what does that mean really? That our light would shine before men and they
would see our good works and they would GLORIFY the Father in heaven! We
would be witnesses of our faith.
God's
word is His witness.
We have God's word,
His written word. We have the scriptures- scriptures JESUS referred to and read
from and expounded on and we have the words of Jesus. We have TWO sections- an
old and a new testament- TWO witnesses
to God. Two amazing witnesses! And we KNOW that the word of God was
greatly oppressed for many, many, many years. Even when the printing press was
invented and the Bible could go to the mainstream it was still oppressed. The
Catholic Church wanted full control over the word of God, they wanted only
learned men of their church to have the Bible and give their interpretation to
the people. You can study all this on the web, the history of the Bible being
oppressed, the interference of the Catholic church it's all proven
history. Now WHEN did the Bible begin to
be given to people without interference?
'The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known
in England and Wales as simply as Bible Society,
is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status
whose purpose is to make the Bible
available throughout the world.[1]
The Society was
formed on 7 March 1804.[2]'
The witnesses were
in sackcloth! The witnesses were oppressed! The witnesses were covered in
darkness for so long. And now… God's word was brought out of mourning and into
the light of new life gone out to the world and soon Biblical prophecy was
opened to the understanding of the world just as GOD PREDICTED!
This makes
sense! Perfect sense!
Do we want to
believe this makes sense? Seriously, do we? Or are we looking for fantastical
happenings?
The Bible tells us
this--
Mat 24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also
the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day
that Noe entered into the ark
Eating.
Drinking.
Marrying.
Giving in marriage.
This is a normal
every day happenstance around the world.
We eat, we drink, we marry, we give in marriage. This is such normalcy
and it tells us that when our Savior comes A LOT of people will be going about
their every day lives as if nothing is different.
So many people want
to believe that they will have some amazing warning, some television movie
-like event , some epic special effects that will allow them to prepare, but
they will be totally lost just as they were in the days of Noah. There isn't going to be any OBVIOUS sign that
will alert people, there will be signs for those who are watching and are
looking for Christ's return and are truly His, known by Him. For all those who
are waiting for two witnesses- two men of God- as portrayed in the fictional
movies they could very well be waiting in vain. How sad it would be, how
horribly sad for those who watch for signs that aren't going to come to pass.
May God keep our hearts and minds open to His truth and ONLY His truth. May we
NOT be deceived as so many will be. Please God help us! Please Lord, please! We
want to be ready, we want to be Yours, wholly Yours! All through the grace and
mercy of Your Son, our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ and HIS righteousness.
Amen.
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