The Spirit of
Prophecy
The angel said to
John, “I am a fellow
servant with you and with your
brothers who hold to
the testimony of Jesus. Worship
God! For the testimony of Jesus
is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation
19:10, italics mine) Even the
angels obey the testimony of
Jesus! There is a good reason why
the testimony of Jesus is called
the “spirit of
prophecy.” The testimony of
Jesus comes through a special gift,
the gift of prophesy.
(1Corinthians 14:1) During the
Great tribulation, the 144,000
will frequently prophesy.
(Revelation 10:7,11) They will
expose hidden and secret things.
They will have knowledge about
matters that will confound their
enemies. Remember how the Holy
Spirit revealed to Peter that
Ananias and Sapphira had lied
about the money they received
from the sale of their land.
(Acts 5) Remember how
Jesus knew the thoughts of the
Pharisees when He healed the
paralytic lying on the mat.
(Matthew 9:1-6) Remember how
Daniel was enabled to interpret
the dream given to
Nebuchadnezzar, even though the
king could not remember it.
(Daniel 2) These are prophetic
samples of things to come. The
144,000 will confront the
thoughts and hidden sins of their
enemies. The 144,000 will perform
mighty miracles, and their
enemies will be astonished and
left speechless! The gift of
prophesy is not to be confused
with the nonsense that goes on
today in many churches. Many
people are prophesying out of
their own imagination and calling
it “a word from the
Lord.” God hates this. When
people claim to have received
“a word from the Lord,”
they had better be telling the
truth or God will destroy them
for blasphemy. (See Ezekiel 13.)
When Almighty God has something
to say, He speaks and there is a
revelation of information that is
otherwise unknown.
Prophets of God
encounter God as though He were a
real person, as one person speaks
to another. (Genesis 32:30;
Exodus 33:11; Daniel 10:4-14;
Revelation 1:10-19;
2 Corinthians
12:1-9)
Carefully consider
this verse: “I, John,
your brother and companion in the
suffering and kingdom and patient
endurance that is ours in Jesus,
was on the isle of Patmos because
of the word of God and
the testimony of Jesus.”
(Revelation 1:9, italics mine)
John was acquainted with
suffering for Christ’s sake.
He was exiled on the island of
Patmos for obeying the Word of
God (instead of the laws of men)
and for speaking the words that
Jesus gave him to speak. As a
prophet of God, John spoke the
truth regardless of the
consequence. This is why he was
on Patmos. The Spirit of prophecy
is a powerful sword, an
inflammatory testimony, and the
living word of God. (Hebrews
4:12) When Jesus speaks through
His prophets, He speaks with
perfect knowledge of any
situation. Jesus has divine
wisdom and the penetrating power
of the Spirit at His disposal.
When a prophet speaks the
testimony of Jesus, people with
rebellious hearts are left
defeated, fuming, and speechless!
On many occasions, Jesus silenced
His opposition on Earth with
divine wisdom and the ability to
read their thoughts. (Luke 9:47)
This incredible gift explains why
the life span of Israel’s
prophets was rather short.
When He was on
Earth, Jesus lamented the
untimely death of the many
prophets that He had sent to
Israel. He said, “O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who
kill the prophets and stone those
sent to you, how often I have
longed to gather your children
together, as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings, but you
were not willing.” (Matthew
23:37) The 144,000 will deliver
the testimony of Jesus without
deviation (no weasel words) and
this will make their enemies
furious! As we learned from our
study on the Two Witnesses, the
144,000 will remain faithful.
They will speak the truth without
regard to the consequences. “No
lie was found in their mouths;
they are blameless.”
(Revelation 14:5)
When we see the suffering that
the 144,000 will experience for
speaking the testimony of Jesus,
the words of Revelation 14:5 will
become profound.
Synthesis
of Revelation 12
Thus far, we have
examined each verse in Revelation
12. Even though Prophecy II does
not end with verse 17, this is a
good place to summarize all that
we have learned so far from
Revelation 12:
Prophecy I
– Revelation 12:1-6
1.
John saw a pregnant woman
standing on the moon wearing a
glorious garment.
2.
John saw an enormous red dragon
standing before the woman, ready
to devour her child the moment it
He was born.
3.
John saw the male child taken to
Heaven, to God’s throne.
4.
John saw the dragon chase the
woman to the desert for 1,260
day/years.
Prophecy
II – Revelation 12:7-14:5
1.
John saw the devil cast out of
Heaven on Resurrection Sunday.
2.
John saw the devil chase the
woman into the desert for a time,
times, and half a time.
3.
John saw the devil spew a great
torrent of water out of his
mouth. The metaphor of a flood
indicates the devil attempted to
sweep her away with waves of
persecution.
4.
Earth helped the woman. God
raised up the United States in
1776. This nation enabled
Protestants to translate and
distribute the Bible and the
gospel of Jesus throughout the
world.
5.
When the devil saw the authority
of the Catholic Church broken in
(1798), he began preparing for a
final assault on the remnant of
the woman. He is armed and ready.
6.
The woman will be easily
identified during the Great
Tribulation: God’s saints
will obey all twelve commandments
and the testimony of Jesus, which
will be spoken through the
144,000.
We Are
Now Living Between Revelation
12:17 and 13:1
Consider these two
verses and our position between
them: “Then [after
1,260 years of trying to destroy
the woman in the desert] the
dragon was enraged at the woman
and went off [that is, he
gave up his efforts against the
woman in the desert so he could
prepare] to make war against
the rest [the last or
remnant] of her offspring
– those who obey God’s
commandments and hold to the
testimony of Jesus. And the
dragon stood on the shore of the
sea [waiting for the first
four trumpets to sound. When the
wrath of God is released on
Earth, the whole world will
suddenly become afraid of God.
When the world attempts to
appease His awful wrath, it will
create a church/state monster].
And I saw a [leopard-like
beast, also called Babylon]
had ten horns [representing
ten future kings] and seven
heads [representing the seven
religious systems of the world],
with ten crowns [of
authority] on his horns, and
on each head [was written] a
blasphemous name [that is,
each head insults God].”
(Revelation 12:17,
13:1, insertions mine)
