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REVELATION 10 THE TWO WITNESSES 

At the end of Revelation 10, we reached the great prophetic climax. The mystery of God is being brought to completion, and the seventh trumpet is about to sound. We are at the point toward which all the previous judgments have been moving.

Today we’re talking about where we belong and with whom we belong and to whom we belong. We all belong to an idea, and people think it’s their idea but there are many thousands of ideas out there that many thousands of people want you to belong to. Those ideas promise to give you what you want for yourself, but it is what they want for you. 

 

Who is they? They are the powers of darkness that work through the minds of influential people who are blinded from what God’s idea is for us. They persuade people to want to belong to their ideas and belong to their values. The problem is that if people are not sure about belonging, they will seek to pressure them to belong in various coercive ways, financially, personally or ideologically or threateningly because they want their ideas expressed through people’s lives so that they have control over their lives. 

You fill in the blanks – it’s for everyone 

For Christians it’s not about which denomination or which church we belong to. God simply says you belong to him – we belong together with him. He has his unique idea of you which he implanted into your spirit before the foundation of the world –his logos DNA seed word spoken into us by Jesus through the Holy Spirit the Spirit. Jesus said That you might have life and life more abundantly’ John 10:10. Jesus also adds that the thief comes to rob and to kill and to destroy that life. God’s idea for you is that you come to know him and express his life through your soul and live his values into this world. He draws you by his love and truth and grace – not by coercion - and you receive willingly and thankfully. This is where today’s word from revelation Episode 10 begins and ends as we also belong with the two witnesses we’re discussing today.

Revelation chapter 11 to chapter 19 deals with all the events within the final 3½ years. But the events are not all presented as a single uninterrupted chronological sequence. Some sections are explanatory “close-ups” or parallel perspectives on the same period. And from Revelation19 we then move progressively toward Christ’s return. 

It is like watching a movie and you think you’ve arrived at the end of the story where everything is about to be resolved then a caption comes up on the screen saying ‘Three and a half years earlier’. I think the movie producers learned this technique from the Apostle John.

We are watching the same final act of the movie from several different camera angles. The story keeps returning to the same final period, but each “camera angle” reveals another dimension of what is taking place until the return of Christ brings the whole story into the open. Everything belongs in its order to the one narrative, and we belong together to that narrative wherever it is up to now, every day of our lives.

 

So in Revelation 11 the two witnesses are introduced, Moses and Elijah, who minister during this final three and a half year period and bear prophetic testimony in the midst of a rebellious world. 

 

The seventh trumpet then announces that the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

 

Then Revelation 12 depicts a woman representing the church, being pursued by the dragon, Satan. She is given wings like a great eagle and protected in the wilderness for 1,260 days—three and a half years.

 

Revelation 13 then introduces the beast from the sea and the beast from the earth, and They exercise authority during this same final time period and demand allegiance from the world.

 

But Revelation 14 gives us a contrasting picture. While the beast gathers his followers, the Lamb stands with a select group of 144,000 people, and three angels proclaim God’s warnings to the world: 

Then comes the harvest of the earth—a picture of the gathering of humanity for judgment as the age reaches its climax.

 

Revelation 15–16 then brings seven final plagues and seven bowls of God’s wrath of divine judgment upon the kingdom of the beast - preparing the way for the final confrontation.

 

In Revelation 17–18 , still within the same time frame, from another camera angle as it were, we see Babylon, the great harlot, riding the beast—a picture of the corrupt spiritual, economic and political system that has allied itself with the beast. Babylon ultimately collapses under God’s judgment.

 

In Revelation 19, the narrative catches up with itself, with the announcement of the Kingdom of Christ - heaven rejoices, the marriage of the Lamb is celebrated, and the Bride is prepared then Christ appears as the rider on the white horse. He comes as King and Judge, defeats the beast and the false prophet, and brings the Antichrist’s kingdom to its end. Rev. Ch. 19 and Rev. Ch. 20 concern the second coming of Christ and the first and second judgement seats, separated  by the one thousand years millennium.

Rev. Chs. 21 and 22 deal with the heavenly Jerusalem. 

The purpose of these repeated perspective from chapters 11 to 19 is to show us not merely what happens, but what is happening simultaneously from heaven’s perspective, Israel’s perspective, the Church’s perspective, the Beast’s perspective and God’s judgment perspective. 

Before the Two Witnesses are introduced in Revelation 11:3 , which I’ll be focusing on in a moment, an Angel is commanded to measure the Temple and Altar and Worshippers, with the measuring rod, (Revelation 11:1,2).

Measurement is an important principle of God for us in the Bible. Paul tells us to examine ourselves to see whether we are ‘in the faith’. (2 Corinthians 13:5), and he mentions four area of measurement (metron) that we need to attend to, because whatever is not measured will never get changed, and be neglected. 

Firstly, there is measure of faith for the operation of his spiritual gift for serving God and others (Romans 12:3). Secondly, there is the measure of grace for the operation of that gift (Ephesians 4:7). Thirdly, the measure of our stature (character) in of Christ – (Ephesians 4: 13). Fourthly, the measure of our sphere of influence. (2Corinthians 10:3).

 

The measuring of the Temple here in Revelation is for the ultimate measurement that Christ has for his church

Ephesians 4:13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

Eph2: 21 - being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,

This refers to Christians who are the temple of God and are living in the truths of  worship, intimate relationship with God in Spirit and in truth, and ‘going on to perfection (telos – completion, salvation/healing of the soul) – a bride being made ready.

NB. There is speculation about a rebuilt last days actual temple which would require additional interpretation and application for Israel (a known or an unknown unknown)

 

The outer court is not measured, but these people belong to God, and they must experience persecution by being trodden underfoot by unbelievers (ethnos/ nations) during this time of tribulation (forty two months);

 

Some of these outer court people are Christians who have already heard the Gospel, and the call to the Marriage Feast (Matt 22: 1-14), but who have not pursued that promise. Matt 25: 1-13 tells the parable of those who were not prepared for the wedding feast who did not keep oil in their lamps, perhaps like the five foolish virgins and they found the door shut to them from the Marriage.

These outer court people are referred to later in Rev. Ch. 12:17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (see also Matt. 8: 12, Matt 5: 13).

It is God's people, Israel who are the main constituent of the outer court in this chapter who have been preserved for this time, to hear the testimony of the two witnesses and believe and be saved 

Rom. 11: 25-27 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved

 

TESTIMONY OF THE TWO WITNESSES.

These are two actual people, who bear testimony to the work of Jesus during His three and one half years of ministry (sometimes seen as ‘the Two men in White) . They will be known and recognised by the people of Israel, and they will be believed and trusted, and tell of things that describe

1. The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven (Acts 1: 10)
2. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead (John 20: 12)
3. The transfiguration in Glory of Jesus before Calvary (Luke. 9: 28-31)

d)   and
possibly other major events in Jesus’ life. EG The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness (Matt 4: 11) 

 

 

ANOINTING OF THE TWO WITNESSES.

Rev. 11: 4    "These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth."

The mention of olive trees refers to the anointing of the Holy Spirit that these men have, (Zech 4: 3), and the olive trees now speak of both Israel and Christians. They are called candlesticks also, because the Church has also been the candlesticks for the world. 

 

PARALLEL MINISTRIES OF MOSES AND ELIJAH.

Rev. 11: 5,6   "And if any man will hurt them, fire proceeds out of their mouth, and devours their enemies; and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days
of their prophecy; and have power over waters to turn them to
blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as
they will."

Apart from the similarities seen here between the end time ministries of the two witnesses, and the past ministries of Moses and Elijah, their ministries both feature the following similarities:

 

 

1.Both had revelation on Mt. Horeb with fire. 

Moses (Ex. 24:16) Elijah (IKings 19: 8)

2, Both fasted 40 days and nights. 

Elijah (IKings 19: 8) Moses (Exodus 34: 28 - 10 Commandments)

3. Both erected Altars lit by God. 

Elijah ( IKings: 18 ) Moses ( Lev.9: 24 )

4. Both sent to wicked Kings and persecuted.

Elijah (IKings 17: 1 ) Moses (Exod. 6: 27 )

5. Both used sword against idolaters. 

Elijah (1 Kings 19: 1) Moses(Exod. 32: 27 )

6. Both miraculously divided waters.

Elijah ( 2 Kings 2: 8 ) Moses (Exod. 14: 21 - red sea )

7. Both went up to Heaven beyond Jordan. 

Elijah (2 Kings 2: 11 ) Moses (Deut 34: 6 )

8. Both had anointed successors who also divided Jordan. 

Elijah (2 Kings 2: 14 ) Moses ( Josh. 3: 16 )

9. Both saw fire consume enemies. 

Elijah ( 2 Kings 1: 10 ) Moses (Num. 16:35 – sons of Korah - Dathan and Abiram)

10. Both appeared on Mt. of Transfiguration. (Lk.9: 28 )

 

NECESSITY FOR MOSES AND ELIJAH TO SEE DEATH.

Rev. 11: 7  "And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and kill them."

Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection -1 Cor 15: 20 "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept."

A. Moses

Therefore anyone whose body has been glorified in Heaven having experienced death before Christ, would therefore be the firstfruits of ‘those that slept’.

Moses’ body had been glorified (Luke. 9: 28-3,Deuteronomy 34:6, Jude Vs. 9,), and so to conform to scriptures he must again see death. "Moses was faithful in all his house as an attendant, for a testimony of the things to be spoken afterward" (Hebrews 3:5) - a servant whose faithfulness is explicitly held for later declaration...also - apart from us they should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:39). They belong together with us.

B          Elijah. Elijah went straight to heaven in a cloud with his chariot, so he has yet to see death (2Kings 2:11 Elisha was given the mantle that Elijah had used to divide the Jordan when he ascended, and Elisha also divided the Jordan river as he returned from tha tplace.).  People thought John was Elijah but Jesus said, after John was already dead: “Elijah indeed comes and will restore all things” (Matthew 17:11). Future tense. 

John carried Elijah’s commission in his generation but Elijah is seen here as part of a future generation in restoring the Kingdom.s.

 

The Bible says that it is appointed for every man to die (Heb 9: 27). The only exceptions that scripture itself makes to this are:

1)     Enoch (Gen 5:24, Heb 11: 5) 

2)     The prepared End Time Church generation. (1 Thess 4: 15, 1 Cor 15: 51,52, 

Ps. 102: 18-22 This will be written for a generation to come, That a people yet to be created may praise the LORD.For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary;

From heaven the LORD viewed the earth, To hear the groaning of the prisoner,

To release those appointed to death,

To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem, when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.

 

John is showing us that, despite everything about to happen on earth, God knows exactly who belongs to Him. We are purposed and declared to belong – together with one another - to him. The world that belongs to darkness may appear to be taking control, but God is still measuring, identifying and preserving His own. We don’t just live like we know he is going to win – we live as ones who know he has already won. We belong together in his victory every moment.

As we continue our journey through the Book of Revelation, we are moving into one of the most dramatic transitions in the entire prophetic narrative. The first four trumpets have progressively affected the created order—the earth, the sea, the rivers and waters, and the heavenly bodies. But when we arrive at the fifth and sixth trumpets, something fundamentally changes. The judgments are no longer primarily directed against creation. They are directed against humanity itself. And even more significantly, Revelation begins to pull back the veil and show us what lies behind the rebellion of humanity: a supernatural kingdom of darkness, a counterfeit kingdom that seeks to imitate, corrupt and ultimately replace the Kingdom of God.

We saw how trumpets one to four struck creation – the trees, the seas, the rivers and the darkening of the sun and the moon and the stars. And now the fifth trumpet releases supernatural powers that torment humanity. Revelation 9:1 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fall from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only to harm those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads – they had no authority to kill those people, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days those people will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

THE FIFTH TRUMPET — THE ABYSS IS OPENED

Then the fifth Trumpet sounds. John says: I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth. And to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. He says “to him.” The star is a personal being identified as Abaddon, in Hebrew, or Apollyon, in Greek. Both names mean Destroyer. This is therefore a supernatural ruler of the abyss. The abyss is opened, and smoke rises from it like the smoke of a great furnace. Then something terrifying emerges. Locust-like beings appear. But John repeatedly says they are “like” something. They have human-like faces. They have hair like women’s hair. They have teeth like lions. They have breastplates like iron. Their wings sound like an enormous army. And they have tails like scorpions. The picture is deliberately unnatural and chilling. These are supernatural demonic powers released from the abyss, a demonic army under the authority of Apollyon/the destroyer. But what is extraordinarily important is that God remains sovereign, and the demons are not given unlimited authority. They are told what they may do and not do. They cannot destroy the vegetation. They cannot harm those who possess the seal of God. And their period of torment is limited. They are given five months. This does not necessarily mean that believers experience no challenge of suffering, but it tells us that God’s people are never outside His protective care. The five-month period is significant - 150 days the same as the 150 days during which the floodwaters prevailed in the days of Noah and God’s people were preserved. The days of Noah were characterised by corruption and judgment, but God preserved Noah and his household. And Revelation here again presents humanity facing a world of escalating judgment while God continues to preserve those who belong to Him – It’s Psalm 91 again.

And next is the sixth trumpet - unleashing an unprecedented force of destruction in which one-third of humanity dies.

Then, between the sixth and seventh trumpets, Revelation chapter 10 gives us a remarkable prophetic prelude to what will happen in the Tribulation. John is shown that God’s apparent and puzzling delay in revealing the enigma of the history of the world is coming to an end. The history of mankind while blessed with the goodness of God is a confusing and often unhinged narrative of human disasters. But the mystery of God in all this is approaching its unveiling and fulfillment. And finally, with the seventh trumpet, the great declaration is made: The kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. So Revelation 9–10 is not simply a catalogue of frightening events. It is a movement toward the final confrontation between two kingdoms—the counterfeit kingdom of Satan and the true Kingdom of God.

THE UNVEILING OF THE SATANIC KINGDOM

To understand Revelation 9, we must understand the biblical story of human rebellion. Behind the visible structures of human civilisation lies a deeper spiritual conflict, describing the development of what can be called the satanic kingdom—a kingdom born from Lucifer's rebellious ambition. The rebellion is therefore not merely evil behaviour. It is usurpation/overthrow. And that same ambition eventually appears here in Revelation in its fullest form to construct a counterfeit of God’s Kingdom. The biblical picture becomes almost like a dark mirror.

God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The satanic kingdom is portrayed through the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet. The Dragon represents Satan. The Beast receives worship. The False Prophet directs humanity toward that worship.

The result is a counterfeit kingdom with a counterfeit ruler, counterfeit worship and counterfeit authority. This is a counterfeit trinity, with the Beast receiving the worship that belongs to Christ and the False Prophet directing humanity toward worship of the Beast and global economic control. This is why Revelation is so concerned with worship. The final conflict is therefore spiritual before it is political.

FROM TORMENT TO DEATH — THE SIXTH TRUMPET

So the fifth trumpet brought all that torment without death. Now the sixth trumpet brings death on an unprecedented scale. Four angels are released at the Euphrates. The Euphrates is not an arbitrary detail. It represented the boundary of the land promised to Abraham. It was associated historically with the great enemies of God’s people, and the Euphrates also becomes significant because of its association with the ancient world of Genesis and the traditions surrounding the angelic watchers and the Nephilim giants, and the Mesopotamian traditions represented by the Epic of Gilgamesh.

GILGAMESH, THE NEPHILIM AND THE ANCIENT REBELLION

This brings us to a fascinating theological connection. There is a Biblical account in Genesis ch. 6 that speaks about angels coming down and procreating with women in the earth. Genesis 6:4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. This is also mentioned in Jude And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day (Jude 1:6). The Bible records this as ‘evil crossing divinely established boundaries’ which led ultimately to the corruption of humanity and the judgement of the flood of Noah.

But another reality reverses that claim and establishes a deliberate and deceptive ancient Mesopotamian worldview of surrounding nations in the Middle East that were not only corrupted by these angels, but who admired and eventually recognised them as demi-gods. The ancient Mesopotamian world produced stories of supernatural beings, superheroes and angelic-human interaction. One of these superheroes named Gilgamesh was praised in a document called ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’ which presents Gilgamesh as an extraordinary figure, described in Mesopotamian tradition as partly divine and partly human.

This occultic worldview is being adopted by many in today's culture. Documents and scrolls have been found that draw upon the Book of Giants traditions associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls, where Gilgamesh and Humbaba are identified in connection with the Nephilim tradition. The tomb of Gilgamesh has become a place of real interest and artifacts have been taken from the area surrounding his tomb and the US government officially handed it back to Iraqi authorities during a repatriation ceremony in Washington, D.C. in September 2021. It is interesting that there has been a rise in occultic practices and satanic rituals being practised globally in recent times but as these things get called out and exposed the hearts of the people involved in these things are becoming even more hardened.

This is what is called theological inversion.

Mesopotamian culture celebrated supernatural heroes and beings as the bringers of wisdom, civilisation and political power, and magical crafts. They were traditionally viewed as supernatural semi-divine philosophers and sages. But what humanity celebrated as greatness actually represented Satanic rebellion against God.

But the Bible in Genesis 6 presents what the ancient world calls “divine wisdom” as corrupted supernatural knowledge, and what is celebrated as heroic power was actually part of humanity’s descent into violence and corruption that brought on Noah’s flood. This provides an important backdrop for Revelation. The final conflict is not simply about modern politics. It reaches back into the ancient spiritual rebellion and overcomes it, and Revelation presents that rebellion and its final expression.

THE TWO HUNDRED MILLION

John then sees an army of extraordinary magnitude. Two hundred million. Humanity is confronted with a force of unprecedented destructive power. One-third of humanity is killed. First, creation is struck. Then humanity is tormented. Then humanity is killed on a massive scale. So the judgments are escalating. But then comes one of the most sobering statements in the entire passage. The survivors do not repent.

After everything they have witnessed, they continue worshipping demons and idols. They continue in murders. They continue in sorceries. They continue in sexual immorality. They continue in theft. This teaches us something profound about judgment. Judgment does not automatically produce repentance. Pain does not necessarily soften the human heart. Fear does not necessarily create faith. Even witnessing supernatural intervention does not guarantee surrender to God. The human heart can become so hardened that even catastrophe becomes an opportunity for further rebellion – the great warning of Revelation. The problem is not simply that humanity needs better circumstances. The problem is that humanity needs redemption.

REVELATION 10 — WHEN HEAVEN ANNOUNCES THAT THE DELAY IS ENDING

After the sixth trumpet, before the seventh, John sees another mighty angel. The angel is clothed with a cloud. A rainbow is upon his head. His face is like the sun. His feet are like pillars of fire. The imagery is majestic and Christ-like. Yet John calls him another mighty angel, so the emphasis is that he functions as a heavenly representative of divine authority rather than being identified directly as Jesus. And then John hears seven thunders speak and is about to write what they say. But heaven tells him: “Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.” There are things God reveals. And there are things God deliberately does not reveal. Revelation means unveiling—but even Revelation contains mysteries that remain sealed. We do not know everything. We do not need to know everything. God remains God.

THE LITTLE SCROLL — SWEET IN THE MOUTH, BITTER IN THE STOMACH

Then John is commanded to take the little scroll and eat it. It is sweet in his mouth but it becomes bitter in his stomach. The Word of God is sweet because it reveals God’s purposes. It is sweet because God’s Kingdom is coming, and because Christ will triumph and because evil will not have the final word. But the message is also bitter because before the Kingdom comes, judgment must unfold, and before restoration, rebellion must be exposed, and before the final triumph, the darkness must be confronted. So the prophet has to carry both dimensions. Sweetness and bitterness, Hope and warning. Judgment and restoration. The Gospel is good news, but it is good news precisely because the powers that oppose God will ultimately be defeated.

THE MYSTERY OF GOD

Then we come to one of the most important statements in Revelation 10: “In the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished.” What is this mystery? It is a remarkable collection of biblical mysteries converging toward the final consummation. Mystery of Marriage: The union between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32). Mystery of Babylon: The condemnation of the "great prostitute" and the Beast (Revelation 17). Mystery of Iniquity/Lawlessness: The working of Satan and the revelation of the "man of sin" (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Mystery of the Gospel: The shared life with Jesus to be understood by all (Ephesians 6:19). Mystery of Israel: The partial hardening of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in (Romans 11:25). Mystery of the Resurrection: The instantaneous change of the living and the dead at the last trumpet (1 Corinthians 15:51). Mystery of Godliness: God manifested in the flesh and preached among nations (1 Timothy 3:16). Mystery of the Kingdom: Truths given to believers but hidden in parables from those outside (Mark 4:11).

These themes are not isolated. They converge because the story that began in Genesis is moving toward its finality and the rebellion that began in the heavenly realm moves toward its final confrontation. The covenant purposes of God move toward fulfilment and the Gospel moves toward its universal proclamation and victory. The Bride moves toward her wedding while Babylon moves toward judgment. The Beast moves toward destruction and the Dragon moves toward defeat. And Christ moves toward His Kingdom - His victory is not just the destruction of His enemies. It is the restoration of God’s order.

JUDGMENT AND RESTORATION

This is why we should not read Revelation simply as a book of catastrophe. Running underneath the judgments is a deeper biblical theme: sifting and restoration. God is exposing what cannot remain and bringing hidden rebellion into the light. He is exposing the counterfeit and separating truth from deception. He is judging the powers that have corrupted humanity and is ultimately restoring what was lost. The final Kingdom is therefore not merely about the end of something - It is about the beginning of something. The end of Satan’s counterfeit kingdom becomes the beginning of the visible reign of Christ.

So as we move forward in our study of Revelation, we need to understand what Revelation 9 and 10 are really showing us.

It is God’s victory over the satanic kingdom and human rebellion — from Genesis to Revelation God’s purpose: God desired a human family on earth to love Him and be loved by Him. And He appointed angels to serve and minister to humanity (Ezek. 28; Heb. 1:14).

Rebellion 1 — Lucifer and Eden: Lucifer rebelled against God and beguiled Eve, drawing humanity into rebellion through Adam and Eve. God declared that the seed of the woman would ultimately crush the serpent’s seed (Gen. 3:15).

Rebellion 2 — Genesis 6: Other rebellious heavenly beings violated the boundary between heaven and earth, taking human women and producing the Nephilim. Their rebellion contributed to the corruption of humanity and the spread of violence and evil, resulting in the Flood. The particular angels involved were subsequently judged and imprisoned (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). But Gilgamesh mythology praises the fallen angels' progeny as great demigods as explained before.

Rebellion 3 — Babel and the nations: God restarted humanity through Noah, but the human heart remained rebellious. At Babel, humanity again resisted God’s command to fill the earth. God confused their languages and scattered the nations. Deuteronomy 32:8–9 describes the nations being allotted according to the sons of God - lesser divine beings. These angels subsequently rebelled and became associated with the nations’ idolatry and corruption (Ps. 82).

God’s response — Abraham and Israel: God called Abraham to become the father of a covenant people through whom He would reclaim the nations. Israel was brought out of Egypt and into Canaan, where it confronted nations associated with idolatry and, in some cases, the Nephilim/Anakim (Num. 13:33; Deut. 2–3). The preservation of Abraham’s seed was central to God’s redemptive purpose, ultimately bringing forth Jesus through Mary.

Christ reverses Babel: Jesus sent out seventy disciples to announce the kingdom and confront the powers of darkness (Luke 10:1, 17–20). Through His death and resurrection, Christ defeated the powers and reconciled humanity to God (2 Cor. 5:14–19). At Pentecost, the Gospel was heard by people from many nations in their own languages (Acts 2)—a powerful reversal of Babel’s division.

Rebellion 4 — Revelation 9: In the final period of judgment, those previous demonic powers are released from the Euphrates and unleashed against humanity (Rev. 9). Their rebellion reaches its climax, but Christ ultimately defeats them and consigns the rebellious powers to an awaiting final judgment.

Rebellion 5 — after the Millennium: After the thousand years, Satan is released once more and deceives the nations into one final assault against God’s people. God intervenes with fire from heaven, decisively ending the rebellion (Rev. 20:7–10). The story is therefore not simply the history of humanity’s rebellion. It is the story of God progressively defeating every rebellion—human and angelic—and ultimately reclaiming the nations for His Son.

And then they show us something even greater and the delay is ending. The mystery is approaching completion. The prophetic Word must be proclaimed. And the seventh trumpet is waiting to be sounded (Revelation 11:15), and as Revelation unfolds from chapter 9 toward chapter 10 and beyond, we are watching the collapse of the counterfeit and the emergence of the true. The darkness becomes darker, the rebellion becomes more open, the judgments intensify, but the purpose of God becomes clearer. History is not spiralling out of control – it is simply the worldly kingdoms being shaken. And ultimately, the declaration of heaven will proclaim The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ—and He shall reign forever and ever. Amen.

REVELATION EP 8- The Seven Trumpets and a Map of Time

The book of Revelation is, in many ways, a summary of the unfolding work of God in redemption and redemptive judgment.

It begins with the seven letters to the churches, moves into the opening of the seven seals, and then into the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. In the first four seals we see the release of forces that have shaped the world we know—conquest, war, economic scarcity and inflation, famine, disease and death.

These events describe the progression of human history toward the final period of God’s dealings with the earth. We have already experienced many of these things in measure, including global pandemics, giving us a foretaste of what Revelation describes as ultimately coming upon the earth.

But then we arrive at something extraordinary: the seventh seal contains the seven trumpets, and the seventh trumpet ultimately contains the seven bowls or vials of judgment. Revelation gives us a series of summaries within summaries.

Seven speaks of completion and fullness. What we are seeing is not merely a sequence of catastrophes, but the completion of a divine process that brings God’s purposes for humanity to their appointed goal.

“Receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.” —1 Peter 1:9

The final movements of Revelation therefore concern not simply judgment upon the earth, but the completion of God’s redemptive work in His people as Christ brings history toward His return. This brings us into the final three-and-a-half-year period that repeatedly appears throughout prophetic Scripture—a period culminating in the second coming of Christ.

THE SEVENTH SEAL, THE CENSER AND THE DAY OF ATONEMENT

Revelation 8 begins with one of the most remarkable moments in the book:

“When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” —Revelation 8:1

It is the only explicit period of silence described in heaven in Revelation. After the worship, thunder, voices and activity surrounding the throne, suddenly everything becomes still. It is as though heaven pauses before the next great movement of God’s purpose.

John sees seven angels standing before God, and seven trumpets are given to them. Before those trumpets sound, however, another angel appears with a golden censer. He is given incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne. The censer is then filled with fire from the altar and thrown to the earth, producing thunder, lightning and an earthquake.

This gives us an important principle: the prayers of God’s people are not disconnected from the purposes of God in the earth. Heaven receives the prayers of the saints, and those prayers become part of the unfolding divine purpose.

The golden censer is particularly significant because of its connection with the Day of Atonement. In the Old Testament, the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place once a year carrying incense and blood into the presence of God. Leviticus 16 describes him taking burning coals and incense behind the inner curtain, creating a cloud over the mercy seat, and then sprinkling blood before it.

“Into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood…” —Hebrews 9:7

The imagery of Revelation 8 therefore takes us directly into the symbolism of the Day of Atonement. The seventh seal opens a prophetic picture of cleansing, sanctification and preparation, and connects Revelation with the prophetic pattern of Israel’s feasts.

THE FEASTS — A MAP OF REDEMPTIVE TIME

The Church has historically experienced the great movements represented by Passover and Pentecost, but we have not yet experienced the prophetic fullness represented by the Day of Atonement and Tabernacles.

Passover speaks of deliverance. The blood was placed upon the doorway, marking out a people delivered from judgment and slavery. Christ is our Passover; His blood establishes the boundary of salvation and justification.

Pentecost speaks of covenant relationship and the giving of the Spirit. What was external becomes internal. God’s covenant is written into His people, and believers learn to walk by the Spirit in conscious obedience to God.

The Day of Atonement speaks of deeper cleansing, transformation and sanctification. Before Israel entered Tabernacles came Atonement, so prophetically it becomes the preparation for the fullness of God’s dwelling.

Tabernacles represents the fullness of God dwelling among His people.

So the movement is: Passover → Pentecost → Atonement → Tabernacles. The story is moving toward the completion of God’s dwelling with humanity.

The final feast season begins with the Feast of Trumpets:

“In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets…” —Leviticus 23:24

These initial trumpets are not the judgment trumpets of Revelation 8–11. They are prophetic trumpets announcing that something is about to happen. They call God’s people to attention and announce a season of preparation.

Ten days later comes the Day of Atonement, followed by the Feast of Tabernacles: Trumpets → Preparation → Atonement → Tabernacles. This gives us a prophetic picture of the preparation of the Bride of Christ.

THE BRIDE, THE BLOOD AND TRANSFORMATION

Paul writes:

“That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word… that she should be holy and without blemish.” —Ephesians 5:26–27

This is not simply about becoming better Christians. Paul describes a deeper work of transformation in the Bride. The Church is being prepared for union with Christ.

“This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” —Ephesians 5:32

The Day of Atonement gives us a prophetic picture of this deeper cleansing. On that day, the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place with blood:

“Then he must take some of the blood of the bull… and sprinkle it seven times…” —Leviticus 16:14

Seven speaks of completion. At Passover, the blood was placed at the doorway. At Pentecost, covenant relationship was established with God’s people. At the Day of Atonement, the blood enters the Most Holy Place.

Doorway → People → Presence
Deliverance → Covenant → Transformation

The Day of Atonement therefore points toward the fullest application of Christ’s redemptive work in His people—not another sacrifice, but a deeper manifestation of the power of the one sacrifice already accomplished by Christ. The goal is maturity—the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

The Day of Atonement was also called a Sabbath of Sabbaths—Shabbat Shabbaton. Israel was commanded to “afflict” or humble their souls, but Isaiah 58 reveals that God was never interested in religious suffering for its own sake. The people were fasting while still oppressing others, fighting, quarrelling and maintaining bondage.

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?”

The ultimate fast is therefore not simply abstaining from food. It is becoming free. It is allowing God to break the internal bondage that prevents us from loving God and others freely.

God is not trying to crush the soul. He is trying to heal it.

THE TRUMPETS AND THE WITNESSES

Numbers 10 says:

“Make two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece you will make them.”

Silver is associated with redemption and atonement. There are two trumpets, yet they are made from one piece of silver. This gives us a picture of Christ and His people—the one new man created in Christ.

The trumpet represents the prophetic voice of God. God speaks to His people, and He also speaks through His people.

This imagery provides a fitting parallel with the two witnesses of Revelation 11, who prophesy for 1,260 days. Their ministry belongs to this final prophetic period and corresponds to the ministry of Moses and Elijah. Their witness becomes part of God’s final testimony before the culmination of the age.

SABBATH REST

The Day of Atonement also opens another major biblical theme: rest.

The Sabbath was never merely about stopping work one day each week. Israel was commanded to allow the land to rest every seventh year. Leviticus 25 describes six years of cultivation followed by a seventh year in which the land was not cultivated in the ordinary way.

The people had to trust God. They had to stop striving to produce and believe that God could sustain them.

But Israel failed to fully enter this dimension of Sabbath rest. 2 Chronicles 36 says Israel went into Babylonian captivity:

“Until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths… to fulfil seventy years.”

The seventy years correspond to seventy unobserved Sabbath years—a period traditionally calculated against 490 years: 490 ÷ 7 = 70.

Hebrews takes this principle beyond agriculture and national history:

“There remains therefore a rest for the people of God… He who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”

This is the spiritual reality behind Sabbath. The issue is not merely whether we stop working. The issue is whether we have learned to trust God.

Rest is faith. Rest is the cessation of self-powered striving. Rest is learning to live from the faith of Christ and the flow of grace.

Sometimes the very thing we call spiritual activity becomes a substitute for spiritual rest. We can become so busy trying to manage ourselves, fix ourselves, control ourselves and prove ourselves that we never become still enough to allow God to transform us.

FROM PASSOVER TO TABERNACLES

The journey from Passover to Tabernacles can be understood as the journey of a building becoming a home.

At Passover, the people come through the doorway. At Pentecost, they learn covenant relationship and Spirit-led living. At the Day of Atonement, they are brought into the deepest place of cleansing. At Tabernacles comes the fullness of God’s dwelling.

The Church is therefore not simply being rescued. We are being prepared for habitation.

Salvation → Maturity | Forgiveness → Transformation | External religion → Internal reality | Striving → Rest | Knowing about God → Becoming a dwelling place for God

The Sabbath also points beyond itself. In Revelation, the return of Christ is followed by the thousand-year reign described in Revelation 20. The final three-and-a-half-year period culminates in Christ’s return, and the Millennium becomes a prophetic expression of the greater Sabbath rest of God’s kingdom.

Six days → Seventh-day Sabbath | Six years → Seventh-year Sabbath | Redemptive history → Millennial Sabbath

The Sabbath becomes a picture of the ultimate cessation of rebellion, striving and self-rule under the reign of Christ.

A MAP OF TIME

When we step back and look at Revelation 8, we begin to see something much larger than a series of judgments. We see a map of time.

The seals bring us through the broad progression of history. The seventh seal opens the trumpets. The trumpets move us into the final prophetic period. The golden censer takes us into the imagery of the Most Holy Place and the Day of Atonement. Atonement points toward the cleansing and preparation of the Bride. The Bride is washed by the Word and brought toward maturity. Beyond that lies Tabernacles—the dwelling of God with His people—and finally the return of Christ and the Millennial Sabbath.

Seals → Trumpets → Atonement → Bride → Tabernacles → Christ’s Return → Millennial Rest

Underneath the entire progression is one great purpose: God is bringing His creation back into His rest.

THE BUILDING BECOMES A HOME

This may be the most important application for us personally.

We can spend our lives building—reputations, theological knowledge, religious activity and systems designed to make ourselves feel safe. But God’s ultimate purpose is not merely to build a structure. He wants a dwelling place.

The journey from Passover to Tabernacles is the story of a building finally becoming a home. We are still under construction. The Word is washing us. The Spirit is working within us. The blood of Christ has already accomplished the foundation of our redemption. But God is bringing us into a deeper experience of what Christ has already purchased.

Perhaps the question is not simply “How much am I doing for God?” but “How much am I resting in God?” Not “How hard am I trying to change myself?” but “Am I allowing God to transform me?” Not “How much religious activity can I sustain?” but “Can I become still enough to hear His voice?”

Sometimes our greatest obstacle to entering God’s rest is the very activity we believe is helping us get there. There comes a time when the noise must stop, the striving must stop, the self-protection must stop, and the endless attempts to manage everything must stop.

In the silence of the inner sanctuary we discover that grace does not merely forgive us; it transforms us. The blood does not merely bring us through the doorway; it brings us into the presence. The Word does not merely inform us; it washes us. The Spirit does not merely empower our activity; He teaches us to rest.

The Bride is not ultimately prepared by striving harder. She is prepared by allowing Christ to do His work within her.

The seventh seal begins with silence. That is fitting. After all the noise of the seals, wars, judgments, trumpets and shaking of the earth, heaven becomes silent.

When the noise finally stops, we discover that God has been working all along.

The building becomes a home. The Bride becomes ready. The people of God enter His rest. The journey that began at the doorway of Passover finds its fullness in the dwelling of Tabernacles and its great Sabbath rest.

And ultimately, Jesus reigns.

 

REVELATION EP7 THE MILLNNIUM THE FIG TREE AND OLIVE TREE AND VINE NOTES

The Divine Strategist

When we study the past and possible future of our planet, the sheer volume of global disruption often makes biblical prophecy feel like a chaotic sequence of stops and starts, failed drafts and last-minute divine corrections. But if we step back and view history through the word of God as the Divine Strategist, an amazing scriptural picture begins to emerge. At the centre of this divine/human earthly drama is the single glowing seed of Jesus, highlighted as the promised olive tree seed of faith made to one man called Abraham four thousand years ago - a master stroke, that through one lineage every family on earth would receive an eternal inheritance. And Jesus is also called the vine, and his followers are the branches

So history is not drifting. It is an organised, predestined, calculated movement toward a specific and perfect goal. And by understanding God’s Divine Countdown, we are taken out of confusion into a dazzling and daring clarity. To recognise what God is doing, and where we are standing in this countdown, we need to understand the roles of Abraham, Israel and the Gentile nations under their codenames as God's plant life.

Abraham’s plant codename is the root of the olive tree. Israel is both an olive tree and a fig tree. And then you have the Gentiles, the wild olive branches that are grafted into that olive tree.

Now before we go any further, let's separate two of those trees, because they are not doing the same thing. Both the olive and the fig relate to Israel, but they operate in different spheres of God's administration. One is spiritual and covenantal - that's the olive tree. The other is national and geographical - that's the fig tree spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 24 and the national fig tree provides the historical stage upon which the wider spiritual strategy of the olive tree unfolds. When Jesus first came to his people the nation of Israel was also the olive tree of spiritual Israel, and he was rejected by both.

Let’s keep that fact in mind as we go because both the fig tree and the olive tree went through catastrophic change both spiritually and geographically. So we must first understand the nature of the olive tree we are compelled to read what Paul wrote in Romans - Romans 1I:1  ask, then, has God rejected his own people, the nation of Israel? Of course not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham and a member of the tribe of Benjamin. No, God has not rejected his own people, whom he chose from the very beginning. Do you realise what the Scriptures say about this? Elijah the prophet complained to God about the people of Israel and said, "LORD, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too." And do you remember God's reply? He said, "No, I have 7,000 others who have never bowed down to Baal!"

It is the same today, for a few of the people of Israel have remained faithful (to Jesus) because of God's grace… And since it is through God's kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God's grace would not be what it really is - free and undeserved.

Did God's people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles - the rest of the world. But he chose to have his own people become jealous and claim (his covenant favour) their own way for themselves. Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel rejected God's offer of salvation through Jesus, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.

The Olive Tree

So I want to ask some questions here. 

What does the olive tree speak of? Spiritual covenant Israel. 

What is the root? Abraham - one man. 

What is the seed? Jesus. 

And who are his fruit? All who live a new covenant life with Jesus by grace and faith.

So that's the olive tree picture: Jesus the seed, Abraham the root, some branches get broken off and others get grafted in. I’ll read those verses from Romans 11 shortly.

But first look at The Fig Tree: the 1948 Prophetic Countdown

Remember the fig tree speaks of National Israel now, not spiritual Israel, not the olive tree. Now in Matthew 24, as we discussed in the preceding episode 6 last week, Jesus gave us a specific marker for the end-of-the-age - when the fig tree begins to "put forth its leaves," the end is imminent.

For two thousand years this tree was dormant -. But in 1948 things changed in the global landscape. When the Israeli flag was raised and the nation was physically restored to its land, the fig tree officially blossomed. So that historical event speaks of a ticking countdown clock. Jesus explicitly stated that the generation alive to witness this blossoming would not pass away before the fulfilment of all things. We are not just living in "interesting times." We are living in the final movement of a strategic timeline that began with that blossoming in 1948.

The Divine Strategy: How Stumbling Led to Reconciliation

So let's see how the stumbling of the original olive tree branches led to reconciliation. Israel's temporary fall was not a failure of God's plan. It became part of a larger strategy of judgement and mercy, and the hardening of their hearts was sovereignly repurposed to facilitate a wider reconciliation, not just for Israel but for the entire kosmos. 

The original olive branches lost faith in Jesus as God, and the fig tree lost its identity as a nation and was dispersed, and the wild olive branches of us as humanity were grafted in through Jesus into a new covenant that Israel had rejected.

A note on replacement theology

Now I want to make a note on what's called replacement theology. Gentiles do not replace Israel. There is only one olive tree, with branches temporarily taken off and other branches grafted in, and we Gentile believers are wild branches sustained by the original Abrahamic root of faith. Paul says it very plainly, and he says it as a warning:

Romans 11:16 If the roots of this olive tree are holy, the branches will be, too. But some of these branches from Abraham's olive tree (elaia) - some people of Israel - have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree (agrielaios - earthy/Adamic), have been grafted in. So now you also receive the Abrahamic covenant blessing God promised Abraham and his children, to share in the rich nourishment from the root of God's special olive tree. But you must not brag that you were grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just branches, not the root.

Those branches were broken off because they didn't believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don't think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. For if God did not spare the original branches, he won't spare you either. Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.

And if the people of Israel turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, for God has the power to graft them back into the tree. You, by nature, were a branch cut from a wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by grafting you into his cultivated tree, he will be far more eager to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong.

So remember, the root is Abraham and we are the branches. And this grafting is tied to a physical timeline.

The Unripe Figs of current national Israel

Now that fig tree nation has had good times and bad times. And the good times are not good anymore, and the bad times are getting worse. And many of them may think they are a covenant olive tree - but they're not – not yet. And the book of Revelation makes this clear, because it speaks of the figs on the current fig tree in Israel, in Jerusalem, right now as unripe, immature figs at this present time since 1948.

Revelation 6:12-17; 7:1-8 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its untimely figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.

Right now, let's look at that picture. The falling stars speak of believers losing their position with Christ through immaturity, lack of faith and compromise with the world, and the mighty wind shakes everything that can be shaken. That's the sixth seal.

And we also have untimely figs, which speaks of the current National Israel - the figs are there, but they have not ripened. So the fig tree is not yet ready to occupy its promised land because it has maintained its rejection of the promised new covenant – and the olive branches are still broken off.

And that promise was not vague. Let's hear what it was they turned down:

Jeremiah 31:33 I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;

A new heart, and the law written on the inside of the mind. That is the new covenant fulfilled through Christ and foretold in the Abrahamic covenant of faith.

So the immature believers and the unripe figs both face that fierce wind, which speaks of spiritual forces of darkness drawing them into the world's corrupt. And Hebrews tells us what the shaking is for:

Hebrews 12:27 ...the removal of those things that are being shaken, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

The Catalyst for Restoration: The Two Witnesses

Now all of this loops around at the end, because Scripture says God will save all Israel. How? Who is going to come and preach to Israel? Well, two men called the two witnesses. They are actually called the two olive trees, which is very interesting, and their ministry brings National Israel back into the olive tree, the new covenant in Christ.

Revelation 11:4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.

It's a legal necessity. These figures are prophetically linked to Moses, who represents the Law, and Elijah, who represents the Prophets. And they met with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. I wonder what they said to him at that time.

Israel's national, legal and spiritual identity is bound to the Law and the Prophets, and en masse the nation will only respond to a testimony that validates those foundational scriptures through these two witnesses. There is already a remnant that has accepted Jesus, and there are many people bringing Jewish people to the Lord, and that's fine. But these two have to come back and give their gospel testimony. I'll say more about them in later sessions.

And through that testimony the fig tree is brought into olive tree ripeness. Israel hears, believes, and is provoked to reconciliation with their Messiah. Paul calls this a mystery and states it plainly:

Romans 11 I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. God chose to allow the heart of Israel to be partly hardened and blinded, but this will last only until the full number of all the nations comes to Christ at the end. And then all Israel will be saved. As the Scriptures say, "The one who rescues will come from Zion, and he will turn Israel away from ungodliness. And this is my covenant with them, that I will take away their sins."

Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the Good News, and this benefits you Gentiles. Yet they are still the people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For God's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.

So that's where the loop closes. The original branches are grafted back in, and the fig tree nation gets to share, finally, not just Canaan but the entire world with all believers in Jesus. Paul says that this brings life from the dead.

And this final reconciliation sets the stage for the literal, physical return of Christ and the inauguration of a new era of governance - a thousand-year Millennium governance.

So that leaves us with one question, and the rest of this message is about answering it. 

The Millennial Bridge: a thousand-year governance

Revelation 20:4 They lived and reigned with him for a thousand years.

Upon his return, Christ inaugurates a visible, physical reign on the earth for a literal thousand years. God's people live and reign with him, and this becomes the public vindication of God's word on the very earth that humanity fractured.

The question is When? Because God has not left that vague either. And to get at it, we have to go all the way back - back past Abraham, and past the flood, to the seven days of creation

So back to the days of creation because we have to go back to creation, particularly the sixth day of man and woman and the seventh day of sabbath rest. Because God foretold the millennium when he rested on the seventh day. Why did he rest – he wasn’t fatigued – he wanted to enjoy his loving relationship with his beautiful and spectacular creation especially his human family.

Genesis 1:27 So God created human beings in his own image; male and female he created them. Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! ... And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.

Genesis 2:1 So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy - set apart.

There is an amazing parallel between the events of God's creative week and the six thousand years of God’s plan of redemption since Adam fell - which brings us finally to the one thousand-year reign of Christ on earth with his people

2 Peter 3:8 But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 

When those redemptive days are seen as periods of a thousand years, the pattern begins to unfold.

3. The Seven-Day Blueprint: Comparing Creation and Redemption

The foundation of the Divine Countdown is the "Law of Inversion" established in 2 Peter 3:8: “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” By this divine logic, the six days of creation and the seventh day of rest (the Week of Creation) serve as the literal blueprint for 7,000 years of human history (the Week of Redemption).

The Week of Creation and the Week of Redemption

So now we chart the week of redemption: seven thousand-year days laid across history. Six have run since Adam fell, and the seventh has not begun.

 

Day	The Week of Creation (Genesis 1-2)	The Week of Redemption (Human History)
Day 1	Separation of Light from Darkness.	Man’s sin and darkness separate him from God’s light.
Day 2	The Waters Divided.	The Flood: Waters divide the old world from the new; 8 souls saved.
Day 3	Plant Life Created.	Abraham is called: The Father of the Olive, Fig, and Vine.
Day 4	Sun, Moon, and Stars for signs/seasons.	Elijah to Jesus: Era of signs; Jesus as the "Sun" and full Godhead.
Day 5	Birds and Fish: "Be fruitful and multiply."	Pentecost: The "Fishers of Men" and the Holy Spirit (Dove). No longer earthbound in life form.
Day 6	Creation of Eve (Adam’s Bride).	Preparation of the Bride of Christ. Believers "eat of the truths of Israel" (1 Cor 10:11) to mature.
Day 7	Sabbath Rest: God enjoys His creation.	The 1,000-Year Millennium: Earth’s rest and the visible reign of Christ.

This blueprint allows us to discern with absolute precision where we currently stand on the timeline. The clock is no longer silent.

 

And now the inversion

Now somebody is going to say, what if the millennium is only one day and not a thousand years? Because Peter gives it both ways in the same verse: one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

So take it either way and you get the same result. That's the divine law of inversion. And the prophet Hosea does exactly that: he talks in days, but he is actually talking in one thousand year spans of time, speaking of the span from the time Jesus came too the earth the first time until he comes the second timeascension to the restoration.

Hosea 5:15; 6:1-3 I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the former and latter rain to the earth.

Now look at the verses. "I will return again to My place." That speaks of Jesus returning to his place at the ascension, and it gives us the starting point of the clock from inside the text itself, not from a date we have chosen. He says, "till they acknowledge their offense," so the condition of his return is their acknowledgement. And then, "In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me." 

"After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up." One day is with the Lord as a thousand years. So after two days - two thousand years - He will revive us, and on the third day (the Millennium) He will raise us up.

This third day is also God’s Millennial rest - Revelation 20:2-7 - to enjoy his creation in loving relationship and in redemption. Six days of work, and then a day that is blessed and set apart. So that seventh thousand-year day is still in front of us.

Let us have a look at what the Millennium Will Actually Look Like (Isaiah chapters 11 and 12 and Isaiah 65

Isaiah 65:21-22 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit... 

Socioeconomic Stability: Citizens will build their own houses and plant their own vineyards, enjoying the fruit of their labor without fear of loss.

Absolute Justice: Governance will be perfect, with absolute justice executed instantly, removing the corruption that plagues modern systems.

Natural Pacification: The "curse" of the fall is reversed; the natural world is pacified, with the wolf living alongside the lamb

So there is restoration even in the ordinary things of life - work, longevity, justice and creation itself. So that's the millennium. But the promise to Abraham doesn't finish there.

The Final Transition: from Canaan to the Cosmos

The Bible says in Romans 8 that the whole creation is waiting for this. It's groaning:

Romans 8:19, 22 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God... For we know that the whole creation groans and labours with birth pangs together until now.

And Paul makes the expansion very clear in Romans 4:13 when he describes Abraham as the heir of the world - kosmos. So the promise was never going to finish with one piece of land. In Christ it opens out until the inheritance is the renewed creation itself.

That is why Jesus can say, "the meek shall inherit the earth." He is not cancelling the promise to Abraham; he is showing us where it was ultimately going.

After the Millennium the heavenly Jerusalem descends to the earth and the new heavens and new Earth are forever established to flourish from age to age

The Living Connection: the Olive Tree and the Vine

Now I just want to come back to the vine before we close. The olive tree tells us where we belong in God's covenant story. But the vine speaks of intimacy - abiding, menō, in Christ and his life flowing through us. The olive tree gives us a share in the promises; the vine speaks of how we live in that inheritance and bear its fruit. When you're abiding in the vine, you're flowing in the life.

And just notice Joel before we finish. The fig tree and the vine are stripped and then restored, the former and latter rain comes, and finally the language changes from an untimely fig to a harvest that is ripe. So the same pattern is there again - the trees, the rain, the ripening and the harvest.

So just in closing, let's go back to where we started. One man, in a desert, and a promise about a seed. Everything since has been the working out of that one promise - the branches broken off and grafted in again, the fig tree revived, and finally the restoration of all things. It is not a sequence of corrections. It is a strategy.

And it ends with the same picture made whole: the fig tree ripened, the original branches grafted back into the olive tree, and both drawing from the promise that began with Abraham.

And Paul finishes Romans 11 by saying:

Romans 11 For God has imprisoned all humanity in their disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone and give them all his pardon of freedom. Oh, how great are God's riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the LORD's thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory in the Church.

Mercy on everyone. That's the final climax of the grand design - the triumph of divine mercy over human disobedience and the restoration of all things in the new creation.

So when you look out at a world marked by division and shifting borders, can you see the powerful, quiet triumph of a mercy that intends to restore the entire world?

 

This episode explores Revelation chapters 6 and 7, focusing on the opening of the sixth seal and the distinction between human-made suffering and the wider calamities described in the biblical text. It begins with the instability, conflict and economic pressure affecting ordinary people, before considering how these conditions relate to the events described in Revelation.

The sixth seal is examined alongside the words of Jesus in Matthew 24, with further connections to Daniel, Exodus and the story of Noah. The episode also looks at the repeated three-and-a-half-year period found throughout Revelation, the image of the church being carried on eagles’ wings, and the theme of protection during times of upheaval and persecution.

Attention then turns to the great multitude in Revelation 7, the promise of comfort after suffering, and the meaning of Jubilee as a picture of release, restoration and provision. The episode closes with a reflection on patience, discernment and the importance of remaining steady and supportive of one another during uncertain times.

The Spiritual Treadmill and the Life of Grace Or Salvation: Our Two Identities
Scott Kardash
19th July 2026
Introduction: Two Identities
I named this talk "The Spiritual Treadmill and the Life of Grace," and today I want to contrast both of these. The song we heard talked about letting go. That represents the left-hand side... the treadmill that we're on. I had a little alternate title: "From Striving to Flow: Our Two Identities," because we all live out of two identities. It's a matter of moving from one identity, our old self, to our new self. In my view, that is in fact what salvation is all about.
We have a bit of a different view of salvation which has been taught, particularly in the Western church. If we step back and think about it, what actually is the gospel? What is the good news? If someone asked you today, "What's the gospel? What's the good news?" your answer might be a bit different to what's commonly taught... or even preached... today.
Let me give you an example, because some of us might have heard a version of it that goes a little bit like this: "God is sending you all to hell forever. Well, unless Jesus stops him, of course. And that's the good news."
It's a caricature, obviously. No-one actually says it quite like that, but it's a little clip just to give you an example. It's a fear-based gospel presenting an angry God, not a God of love, but an angry and unforgiving God. Now, God tells us to forgive even our enemies, but this view says, no, God can't forgive. There's actually something wrong with this picture.
The Impact of a Fear-Based Gospel
I lived in Japan for three years. Some of you may know that Japan is only about 1% Christian. It's not because there haven't been missionaries going there; there have been. But it has something to do with the Japanese culture, and even the broader Asian culture, where they revere their ancestors. In fact, they have these ceremonies where they practice ancestor worship. When their ancestors were alive, they didn't hear this gospel, so they didn't know Jesus. For them to accept this modern Western gospel message is essentially to condemn all their ancestors to hell forever. So, it goes down like a bit of a lead balloon, as you can imagine. It's not well received.
It can be experienced a little bit like this: picture Jesus knocking on the door of our heart... which is a misquote of Revelation 3:20... and the little guy inside saying, "Well, why should I let you in?" And Jesus replies, "Because of what I'll do to you if you don't." It comes across a bit like a threat. Where is this loving God that we're talking about? I think it's a complete distortion of what the gospel actually is.
Paul's Gospel to the Gentiles
If we look at Paul the apostle, his job was to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Jesus preached to the Jews... His mission was for the Jews first, then the Gentiles. So Paul went and preached to the Gentiles. Not many people realise that Paul didn't even mention the word "hell." He didn't even mention it. He wrote most of the New Testament and didn't mention the word hell. He talked about judgment, and Jesus did warn the Jews about Gehenna... which is a physical place outside Jerusalem with a very shady past... and he talked about outer darkness, and John warned about the lake of fire. Paul... I'm sure he will cover the lake of fire in his upcoming Revelation series if he hasn't already, and talk more about its purpose.
But there's a good example in Acts 17 where Paul is preaching on Mars Hill. You might remember when he talks to the men of Athens. He doesn't go up there and say, "Turn or burn forever." He doesn't say that. He says, and I'll quote, "God is not far from each one of us, for we are all God's offspring. The times of ignorance God overlooked. God now commands all men everywhere to repent"... which means to turn to him. "He has appointed a day in which He will be judging the habitable earth in righteousness by a man he has appointed"... which is Jesus. And listen to this: "...offering faith to all by raising him from the dead."
I want to pick up on this phrase later... "offering faith to all." This is something very much in line with what Paul's been talking about.
The Modern Transactional View vs. True Transformation
The common, modern-day process of salvation goes something like this: you'll likely begin with a prayer. More often than not, before you know what's happening, you'll be asked to pray at the end of a meeting. You'll be asked to "repeat after me" and just say these words. The words might include a declaration of future repentance, but that's optional. But repentance isn't something we say we will do; repentance is something we do. It's not a verbal promise, it's an action.
Once you say this prayer, you're then deemed to be saved. People will ask, "When were you saved?" and you'll say, "Well, I was saved on the day I said that prayer." It's a very common view, presenting salvation as a finishing point rather than a starting point. What I want to put to you today is that making that declaration is actually just the starting point.
Here is a bit of a challenge. The proposition is: to be saved from hell, you say this prayer, and you're now saved from eternal punishment. Try to find a passage in the Bible that talks about hell where this is the criteria for not going there. It's pretty hard to find. I can tell you the passages that talk about hell don't talk about some sort of verbal declaration. Under that view, salvation becomes a legal transaction where God is now obliged not to send you to hell forever. You were just lucky enough to find the legal loophole before you died, whilst most won't find it.
Unfortunately, this can lead to an attitude that sin doesn't matter, or "cheap grace," as it's known. Some of the most devastating moral failures occur in church leadership and congregations. I suspect this kind of mindset contributes to the problem. People think, "I said the prayer, I'm saved, I'm not going to hell, so what does it matter?" Sin does matter, because it damages us and it damages the people around us. As we will see later, it's evidence that we're operating out of the wrong, false identity.
Unpacking John 3:16 and Perishing
Here's the classic "ticket to heaven" verse, John 3:16. We can probably all recite it: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that everyone who is believing in him should not perish but have eternal life."
A couple of things here. "Believing" is the translation, but Paul would have covered pistis with you... to have faith. It's talking about having faith. It's not a matter of, "Did I believe hard enough so that I'm not going to perish?" No, it's about having faith. Paul has talked about having faith in Christ to allow the faith of Christ to flow.
People often conflate perishing with judgment and eternal punishment. But actually, this word "perish" in the Greek is apollumi. It's the exact same word used for "lost" in the stories of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son. It doesn't mean "destroyed beyond existence" or "beyond redemption." In Luke 15, which contains those three parables, the father of the prodigal son says, "Listen to this: my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost"... was perishing, same word... "and is found." To perish doesn't mean to cease to exist.
People often conflate judgment with perishing and endless punishment in hell without any hope of redemption. But we're talking about God's righteous judgment, and God's judgment always has a righteous purpose.
What is Eternal Life?
What is eternal life? The picture many of us have had is sitting on a cloud in heaven playing a harp, thinking, "What am I going to do for the rest of eternity? Will it get boring?" Well, actually, your eternal destiny isn't up in heaven. Where is it, Zara? Where will we be eternally?
Zara: New Jerusalem.
Speaker: New Jerusalem, exactly... the new earth. Our destiny is actually here. Jesus will return here as King. Heaven is just a waiting room until he returns. We're not going to stay up there forever sitting on a cloud playing a harp; that is a waiting room.
Fortunately, Jesus defined eternal life for us. He said, "This is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." So, eternal life is not about the length of time. We have this Western mentality that eternal life means a long period of existing alive. No, it's about the quality of life. It's about knowing God. The word "eternal" is actually translated from the Greek term aionios, which means "of an age." It doesn't inherently mean endless. But when it got translated into Latin... which is where a lot of Western doctrine comes from... the Latin word used really did mean endless eternity. We've lost some of the nuances of the original language in our English translations.
It is an age of life where God is the source of our life. In Jesus' view, salvation stops being a transaction to avoid punishment and becomes the process we go through to know God and experience this life. Salvation isn't just a one-time event or a prayer; it's a process.
The Post-Pentecost Reality
I think this leads to one of the most startling verses in the Bible. How can we actually know God? Paul tells the Corinthian church that he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. That's quite amazing. When did this become possible? It only became possible at a certain period of human history: after Pentecost. God said, "I will pour out my spirit on all flesh." We now have the Holy Spirit. Prior to Pentecost, they didn't have the indwelling Holy Spirit in the same way; they were dealing with rules, regulations, and laws to try to be good or obedient enough. After Pentecost, we are equipped with the Holy Spirit for a transformation process. We're moving way beyond the concept of just wanting to escape punishment or go to heaven forever. We're talking about a total transformation.
Does anybody remember what I presented last time? It was in November last year. It's all right, because I didn't remember either! Yes, Barbara? Do we have an award for Barbara?
Very good, Barbara. Paul and I did a series on the Ten Commandments, and the summary was about living by the law... what they used to have to do to live up to those commandments. Today, we flip those commandments completely through the Holy Spirit into a transformed life. Instead of "don't steal," it becomes "be a generous giver." Everything is flipped from "don't do this" to "do the opposite." That is the transformed life available to us because we have the Holy Spirit, the spirit that heals and reshapes us.
The Three Dimensions of Salvation
Today I want to build upon that concept and pick up on some of the things Paul has been talking about recently. I'll reuse one chart from my last talk, which highlights the fact that we are spirit, soul, and body.
* Our spirit has been saved in the past... Jesus accomplished that for us.
* Our soul is being saved now... that is present tense, and that's what the healing of the soul is all about. It's the ongoing transformation process.
* Our body will be saved at the resurrection, when we receive our new bodies.
That is the complete salvation process from soup to nuts. To say "I was saved on this date"... well, okay, but that was just the beginning of the journey.
The Two Operating Systems: Striving vs. Dependence
We live in a culture obsessed with life hacks and self-optimisation. It's incredibly easy to drag this exhausting striving straight into our walk with God, treating holiness as a behavioural self-improvement project. Does that sound familiar?
I know kids who are on their devices all the time, with constant, on-demand entertainment. They never have a chance to get bored. I tell them that boredom is a necessary ingredient for creativity. If you're constantly receiving input, you can't be creative because there's no space for it. We can get trapped in the exact same exhausting treadmill... like a hamster wheel... where we're striving to be better and trying to fix our flaws. "Oh, I keep doing this and I need to stop." It becomes exhausting. We are running on the wheel but getting nowhere.
Why does that happen? Because we operate out of two distinct operating systems. The first is the system of self-reliance. Picture a rigid, geometric tree of self-reliance, which represents the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden. On the other side, we have the flowing tree of dependence. As believers, we often operate out of both, but the goal of salvation is to shift from the left to the right.
Living out of the system of dependence results in an organic union and spontaneous fruit, modelling Jesus, who only did what he saw the Father doing. But dependence requires trust... or believing loyalty. It's much harder for us to let go, like the song was saying, and trust. We'd rather be self-dependent and ensure everything is controlled. Andrew was talking about OCD earlier, and that is essentially a striving to control everything around us. We need to let go.
I call the system on the left the "old self." I couldn't think of a name for the one on the right at first. What could the one on the right be called? The "new self." Okay, that's a good label!
Crucifixion, Not Rehabilitation
Looking at the old self, it cannot be upgraded or rehabilitated; it must be crucified. That is a pretty startling statement. When we operate out of the old self... which the Bible often refers to as the flesh... trying to fix it is like trying to dress up a corpse to make it look good. Our old self must die so our new self can live. There is no resurrection without crucifixion. We have to die first before we can be born again.
We all go through two births and two deaths. We are born physically and we die physically. We also have to die spiritually to be born again spiritually. Everybody will go through this process at some point.
Paul talks about this specifically in Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Notice he says, "I have been crucified." It's past tense and decisive. Paul talked in one of his recent sermons about this being ontologically true... it is objectively true. It's just that it is often hidden from us, or we fail to acknowledge it. The old system is finished. The old self has been put to death, and we have a new source of life. It is Christ living in us, requiring a present and continuous dependence... a believing loyalty. You can see the echoes of John 3:16 rephrased here: living by faith in the Son of God who loved us.
Dead people don't require a more rigorous rule book; they lack the capacity to be resuscitated. When someone dies physically, their body is still there, but their life force... their spirit... is gone. You cannot rehabilitate a corpse. It is an error to think we can reform the old man. We see many religions trying to do exactly that... trying to perform better, strive harder, and follow rules. That's the old man. We don't need a rehabilitation programme to dress up a corpse; we require an entirely different kind of life. As Paul says in Ephesians 2, we were dead in our trespasses. We need to shift from a corrupted identity to an entirely new species.
On the left, you have a protective castle driven by self-protection, hiding, performance, and control, cut off from the primal source of life. Who is that primal source? Jesus. He is sustaining us all right now. There is nothing about us that he doesn't actively sustain, but we need that spiritual awakening. The model on the right is a creation model, not an evolutionary upgrade of the old flesh. It's a complete paradigm shift. The old self has to die. As Paul told the Corinthians: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
The Faith of Christ
Let's talk about our faith allowing Christ's faith to flow. Paul previously shared a crude diagram of this, which I've significantly improved, and I'll let him use it whenever he wants! He'll probably listen to this recording, so I'm sure he'll follow up.
In modern translations, many verses are translated as faith in Christ rather than the faith of Christ. That comes down to the theological bias of the translators. Every translation acts like a tightly worded commentary. Because there are far more English words than Greek words, they have to choose the word that fits their doctrine. If they believe it's purely your personal faith in Christ doing the heavy lifting, they will translate the phrase pistis Christou that way. But it is actually the faith of Christ.
Remember what Paul said to the men of Athens: Jesus is "offering faith to all." Paul was saying this to Gentiles who knew nothing about Jesus until Paul opened his mouth. The faith of Christ is the very environment of God's grace. Our faith in Christ is simply the valve. It allows God's faith to anchor us and his Spirit to flow into our spirit, connecting with our soul. Our soul then becomes the expression of our spirit. Relational authenticity and believing loyalty to our King is what biblical faith is all about.
The proclamation of the gospel originally meant the declaration of a new King. That's the good news: we have a new King, so swear allegiance to Him. Isaiah 45 says: "By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance." That is the end state God saw for humanity. It's not forced submission; it's a voluntary allegiance once everyone finally sees who the King of the cosmos actually is.
As Paul writes in Corinthians, once all that is done and Jesus has reconciled the world to himself, he hands the kingdom back to God the Father. That is the ultimate end of the story, where God is "all in all"... all things in all people. In Revelation, you see people in the lake of fire, but that isn't the final chapter. The end of the story is when God becomes all in all.
Inside-Out Transformation
As Peter Carbless would say, when we're "fair dinkum" with God, we step out of the anxiety of daily performance reviews. (I like using Peter for Australian slang because he's Greek... it's a nice flip, he should be teaching us Greek instead of Aussie English!)
Under the old operating system, we try to improve our quality of being through an upward movement. We try to set external boundaries and learn rules, hoping they will eventually change our heart. That's the Ten Commandments approach. You use the rules to manage behaviour.
I tell my kids they have to wake up early, so they set an alarm. Zara had to work at 6:00 this morning at the bakery. Her alarm went off, and what did she do? Went straight back to sleep! She was operating under a rule. She didn't set the alarm because she passionately wanted to wake up; she set it because she had to. The alarm clock became the rigid focus. She wasn't responding to the internal reality of needing to be at the bakery.
God works the exact opposite way. The old man works from the rules upward. God starts at the very top: the quality of being. He begins with an internal infusion of divine life. He joins his Spirit to our spirit. How do we access this? We turn the valve of faith. That transformation then affects our principles. We receive a new nature that naturally understands God's ways, and the external boundaries become completely obvious. We want to do what is right because our core identity has changed, not because we're managed by a checklist. Sin management attempts to fix the perimeter to heal the core. God heals the core, and the perimeter naturally aligns.
True Fruit vs. Dead Works
Let's talk about works. People often say, "I'm a good person." But who is actually good? No-one. We can manufacture good actions out of self-reliance, but they are still dead works. Who is truly good? Jesus. We could copy his actions perfectly, but if they come out of the old self, they are just forced labour. True good works are a natural fruit blossoming out of our new life in him. We become his masterpiece.
Galatians 5:22 says: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit."
We can exhibit nice attributes from either operating system, but the source is what matters. If they come out of the old man, they are dead works. This is why the author of Hebrews talks about "repentance from dead works." It's not just repenting of obviously bad things; it's repenting of the good things we tried to manufacture out of our own fleshly identity.
Summary of the Framework
To pull this framework together, let's contrast the two systems:
The Old Man (Flesh) The New Man (Spirit) Self-protective castle New creation & resurrection life Performance-led striving Absolute rest & conjoined union Adam (Dust of the earth) Christ (The life-giving spirit) Pre-Pentecost (External law) Post-Pentecost (Indwelling Spirit) Damaged, unhealed soul Healed, transformed soul False identity / Dead works True identity / Fruit of the Spirit When we operate out of the new man, our desires naturally become his desires. Instead of praying for a new model Porsche because our current one is out of date, we pray into his desires. That's what the Lord's Prayer is all about.
We all have a damaged soul that needs healing. This transition from a damaged soul to a healed soul is what the present process of salvation is. We often believe a false identity ("This is just who I am, I can't help it"), but we need to move into our true identity in him.
I have gathered a lot of scripture that maps this out, and I'll share the slides later. Please be like a Berean: don't just accept what someone says from a pulpit. Check the scriptures to see if these things map out accurately. Look at Ephesians 4, which tells us to put off the old self, renew our minds, and put on the new self. Scripture is full of this paradigm. It is completely different from simply saying a sinner's prayer and assuming you're completely done. This is a call to total transformation.
Application: Presence Prayer
How do we apply these principles? We begin with presence prayer. Paul recently put up a brilliant six-episode series on the Uncreated YouTube channel about this. The goal of presence prayer is to restore us to the exact purpose for which we were created: full communion with God. Jesus prayed, "That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be in us." That is full, beautiful integration.
Our primary responsibility is simply to open the valve of faith and allow the life of Christ to flow. When you notice yourself slipping into striving, stop. Take a physical breath, open your lungs, and receive his grace like oxygen.
To close, I'll share the Peter Carbless translation of Romans 5: "Therefore, since we have all of our ducks in a row because we are fair dinkum with God, we have peace with God. We stand and we rejoice in the hope and glory of God."
That is what salvation is all about. It's not a transaction you did once at the back of a church building years ago.
My mother used to get up at 3:00 am and sit in a small study chair. Sometimes she had a Bible on her lap, sometimes she didn't. I'd come home at all hours, see her there, and ask, "What are you doing? Are you praying?" She would always say, "No, I'm just waiting on the Lord." She didn't have a laundry list of demands. She was simply waiting on the Lord actively and deliberately. That is what presence prayer is.
Closing Prayer
Let's pray.
Lord, bring us into the full communication and organic union for which we were created—the secure reality where we are already seated together with you in finished victory and absolute rest. We simply thank you as we permit your life to flow through us, naturally growing your beautiful fruit and transforming us into a healing presence for everyone around us. In Jesus' name, Amen.

REVELATION EP5 - Martyrs and Grace and The Bride

Today, we are continuing our deep dive into the Book of Revelation with Episode Five: Martyrs and Grace.

When we look at the opening of the Fifth Seal, we encounter the souls under the altar. But there's a profound theological shift we need to make here. Martyrdom isn't just a historical tragedy; it's a structural witness. In the original Greek, the word for witness is Martys—the two concepts are linguistically identical. It’s about a shared life passing through suffering to display something far deeper.

I’ve wanted to sit down and untangle these theological concepts for years, getting them into proper historical and scriptural order once and for all. In this episode, we do a bit of a reality check on the concept of the "Antichrist." The word actually never appears in the Book of Revelation. More importantly, the Greek prefix anti- doesn't mean "against"—it means "instead of." We're looking at a system of substitution rather than outright opposition, and understanding that linguistic nuance completely changes how we view the prophetic timeline.

We also trace the fascinating convergence of history and theology since the 1517 Reformation. We unpack the architectural blueprint of the six foundational principles found in Hebrews 6—moving from metanoia (a total shift of the mind, rather than just external penance) to the four distinct historical dimensions of baptism, the laying on of hands, and the high-authority realities of resurrection and judgment.

Ultimately, this trajectory points toward telios—the Greek concept of full maturity and completion. It’s not about rigid, moral perfectionism, but a deep, structural reliance on a larger divine framework. It’s a massive paradigm shift that completely changes the way we look at where history is heading.

Revelation Ep 4: Seven Seals - Wars and Much More
In this episode we continue our journey through the Seven Seals of Revelation, taking a closer look at the first four horsemen and considering how they relate to the unfolding events of history.

We explore the White Horse as a picture of Christ preparing His Bride, the Red Horse and the growing loss of peace among the nations, and the contrast between the sword of human conflict and the sword of God’s truth that brings light, discernment and transformation.

The episode also revisits Ezekiel 38, discussing Gog and Magog and why this remarkable prophecy may still point to a future fulfilment, while reflecting on how it fits within the wider biblical story.

Finally, we consider the Black Horse and the Pale Horse in the context of economic uncertainty, war, disease and global instability, before finishing with the encouragement of Psalm 91. Throughout the discussion, the emphasis remains on hope rather than fear, inviting us to cultivate discernment, confidence in God’s faithfulness, and a deeper awareness of His presence as we anticipate Christ’s return together as a church family.

Podcast Summary: Revelation – The Heavenly Prelude and the Opening of the Seven Seals

This episode introduces the opening of the seven seals in the Book of Revelation, beginning with the heavenly throne-room vision of Revelation 4. Before any judgments unfold on earth, John is taken into heaven where he sees God’s throne, surrounded by worship, twenty-four elders, and four living creatures. This scene establishes God’s absolute sovereignty over everything that follows.

The speaker presents the view that John’s heavenly guide is Enoch, based on references in Jude and Revelation, and argues that Revelation from chapter 4 onward describes events that occur after John’s lifetime, supporting a futurist interpretation of the book.

The twenty-four elders are understood to represent God’s covenant leadership—twelve leaders of Israel and the twelve apostles. The four living creatures symbolise key aspects of Christ’s ministry:

• Lion – Christ the conquering King.
• Ox – Christ the humble Servant.
• Man – Christ’s compassionate humanity.
• Eagle – Christ’s heavenly perspective and exaltation.

Revelation 5 introduces the sealed scroll, containing God’s end-time purposes. Only Christ can open its seven seals. Each seal, once opened, remains active until Christ’s return, progressively unfolding God’s redemptive judgments upon the earth.

The speaker gives an overview of the seven seals:

• First Seal – White Horse: Represents the victorious Church, beginning with the Reformation in 1517, restoring the truths of faith and grace and progressively preparing the Bride of Christ.
• Second Seal – Red Horse: Represents war and the removal of peace from the earth, beginning with the world wars and continuing until Armageddon.
• Third Seal – Black Horse: Symbolises economic hardship, inflation, and famine.
• Fourth Seal – Pale Horse: Brings widespread death through war, disease, pestilence, and societal collapse.
• Fifth Seal: The cry of the martyrs for justice.
• Sixth Seal: Cosmic disturbances and worldwide upheaval.
• Seventh Seal: Opens the seven trumpet judgments.

The episode also connects Revelation with Daniel 12, where the prophetic book is sealed until “the time of the end,” identified by unprecedented global travel and a dramatic increase in knowledge. The speaker suggests today’s world—particularly the rise of artificial intelligence—fits this description and highlights the moral responsibility to use knowledge wisely.

Isaiah 29 is presented as another prophecy of a sealed book, linking Israel’s present spiritual blindness with future restoration under the New Covenant. The discussion emphasizes that the final events of Revelation will profoundly affect three groups:

1. The Church, through testing and purification.
2. Israel, through judgment and eventual restoration.
3. The kingdom of the Beast, through God’s final judgments.

The episode concludes by focusing on the hopeful message of the White Horse. Rather than symbolising deception, it is presented as Christ leading His Church through progressive restoration toward becoming the spotless Bride described in Revelation 19. Despite increasing global conflict, God is preparing a triumphant Church that will finish its race in victory before Christ’s return.

THE FLOW OF GRACE AND FAITH 

The Gift of God’s Grace shifts the burden of spiritual growth from us to the divine Creator God – and the very logos DNA design of being a New Creation in Christ makes the pursuit of holiness no longer a behavioural project but the natural manifestation of a new grace-filled nature. Grace is not an add on to become more spiritual - it is the Primal Source and the genetic blueprint of the New Creation.

Ephesians 2:4-10 (ESV)
4. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 
5. even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— Paul says that before Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit all of humanity was in a state of being "dead in trespasses." it is a description of a state of spiritual being - dead-end. We once were lost (vs 1-3) but now are found in Christ. He says we were trying to achieve spiritual output from a dead-end source without the life of Jesus. 
A dead-end nature cannot rehabilitate itself; it require a different kind of life entirely.
If a person does not have a revelation of being reconciled katalasso –being conjoined in spirit with the Spirit of God and made partakers of the divine nature. 
No behavioural modification bridges the chasm between Old Creation consciousness and Spiritual age to age life. This state of total "Deadness" demands faith in the divine intervention that is above and beyond the human system.

6. and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The Divine Initiative of God was an act of death and resurrection for our sakes that was entirely apart from human faith, obedience, or response. God acted out of love to give his life to humanity. This was the act of universal reconciliation – katalasso – the divine outcome of the incarnation of Jesus and his death and resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit. But for it to become a conscious reality for us it requires our faith in that act of divine reconciliation.
Paul calls us a New Creation – a creation model and not an evolution model – not trying to improve the old one. 
This is not just some legal status but a spiritual merger where the individual is woven into the life of the Divine. This union is categorized by three specific dimensions of being "Together with Christ". Verses 5 and 6
Made alive together: The new life-essence that terminates the state of deadness.
Raised up together: The elevation into a higher state of being. The word id ontology.
Seated together: The establishment of a new position of authority and rest, centred in the divine life rather than human effort.

7. so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  9. not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 

This Gift of Grace shifts the burden of spiritual growth from us to the divine Creator God – and the very logos DNA design of being a New Creation makes the pursuit of holiness no longer a behavioural project but the natural manifestation of a new nature. Grace is not an add on to become more spiritual - it is the Primal Source and the genetic blueprint of the New Creation.

The way this New Creation model works is by shifting from "trying to acquire grace " to "permitting the flow of grace " In the old framework, we try to earn or generate spiritual value. In the New Creation model, we acknowledge that the grace life-force is already in effect. This is the "Logos logic" (vs.8) of Paul – see also in Romans 5.
Romans 5:2. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God 

Faith does not create grace; it accesses a pre-existing faith/grace system because Grace is the gift of the act of Divine Universal Reconciliation.Faith is the how-to of Access: Faith is not an achievement that produces salvation. It is the process of conscious agreement of letting the grace and faith OF Jesus flow from our spirit to our soul. It is the act of not frustrating the grace but allowing Spirit life to manifest through to the human soul as though through a pipeline connection. The operation of our faith is simply turning on the valve of the ‘faith of God’ and not resisting or frustrating the flow of grace – and for this we are accountable.

In the diagram - there is a red and yellow vertical line that represents Jesus bringing his human and divine Holy Spirit life into the life of humanity, represented by a horizontal purple pipeline. At that point there is a yellow circle representing the fullness of the grace (gift) of God’s life. That life begins to flow from left to right as a pipeline of the grace of God right to the end where there is a bubble that represents our soul. 
Halfway along the pipeline there is a yellow circle which represents a ‘faith valve’. That faith valve is where our faith in Christ is able to turn on or off the faith OF Christ and either maintain or frustrate the flow of grace to our soul.

Galatians 2:20 And the life I now live in the flesh (the embodiment of my soul) I live by the faith OF the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness (alignment with God) were through the law, then Christ has died in vain

Our soul bubble at the end will either be filled with a grace-filled hatch of yellow and purple or by stark lines of our own human effort. It is in our soul bubble where we meet the outside world – seen for who we are in our emotional and cognitive and spiritual life, along with the signs of bodily stress or calm. It will reflect a self-willfulness that has frustrated the grace or a self willingness that reflects the grace that puts God on display in our life.

Our faith is not merely a personal belief in Christ, but belief in the faith OF Christ - Christ's own faith and life already operating within us.
Galatians 2:16"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ..." Again:"...that we might be justified by the faith of Christ."
Galatians 3:22 The scriptures have concluded all under sin, that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to us who believe - our faith participates.
Ephesians 3:12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him." (KJV)
Philippians 3:9"not having mine own righteousness... but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."
Romans 3:22"Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe."
9. Revelation 14:12 "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
10. Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith."
11. Phil. 2:13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good purpose. 
12. Phil 1:6 he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion …because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace.

Our faith is therefore not an independent human achievement but a sharing in the faith life of the Son through the indwelling Spirit. Spiritual health is not about "getting" more of God’s life but about accessing and "permitting the flow of the fulness of God’s life" by turning on the tap of faith for the flow of grace that is already provided. This is perhaps the deepest implication of Paul's repeated phrase, "the faith of Christ”.Top of Form

10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
 
This distinction introduces a new ledger of accountability. Under the old human performance framework, people are judged by their willpower to adhere to external rules in honouring God. Under the New Creation model, the only measure of accountability is our access to the provided age-to-age life. This demolishes self-effort religion, as it proves that a legal pardon only juggles the ledger, whereas an ontological shift (a change in essential being) changes our very nature itself. This internal mechanism of faith naturally leads to the external manifestation of what Paul calls God’s Workmanship (vs.19)

The doing of "good works" is the natural fruit of a new nature rather than the "forced labour" of the old self. In this model, we can function as a "display case" for divine grace. This is the ultimate Workmanship (poema): Holiness becomes the spontaneous outward display of an internal change of a divine/human species, where the divine life is literally woven into the fabric of our spirit in the new mind and the new heart. This integration is the only process capable of the "salvation of the soul"—a feat that legal pardon is structurally unable to achieve. That’s why I run the course.

Old Self Framework (Effort) New Creation Framework (Expression) Frustrating the Spirit through strain
"Being still" and "flowing"
This "Expression Over Effort" model is the subjecting of self-will to God’s will. When this happens the strain of religious performance is replaced by the natural "flowing" of the New Creation. This ceasing of self-will is the terminal point of the old nature and the realization of the soul's salvation. It is called Repentance from dead works. (Hebrews 6:1)
The life of the Creator is woven into the very fabric of our mind (1Corinthians 2:16). This is not a psychological adjustment; it is a structural reality. Please understand!
Superseding the Rehabilitation Myth: We must stop attempting to improve the old nature through more persuasive social rules. What was dead accepts a katalasso reconciled life
Cultivating Permission over Performance: The goal of spiritual growth is the "being still" that allows the life of Christ to become the prime mover, resulting in the natural expression of the New Creation.
The "rest of the New Creation" is realized only when we stop trying to improve the old self and begins letting the New Creation live through us. When the strain of self-resurrection ends, the authentic life of the New Species begins.