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Fulfilling the Mystery
Now when they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three and a half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
The enemy of our souls hates authentic prophetic ministry. Notice how the Beast (that which represents Satan’s interests on earth) makes war against and crushes the very ministry that God would use to draw His people to himself and His purpose. We must be clear. The call to the prophetic ministry is not a call to a comfortable life. Rather, it is to warfare, to being crushed. When we consider the prophets in Scripture, we see not only intimate communion with the One who sent them but also great personal loss as well as intense opposition from religious and wicked people.
Today the cost remains the same. The war continues; the trumpets are sounding, and many are experiencing personal crushing and loss. Remember, when authentic prophetic ministry goes through death, is silenced for a season, and appears to be eradicated from the scene, their opponents always rejoice and celebrate because God’s prophetic heart tormented them in their comfort. Present prophetic truth always exposes those not living in the “holy of holies” and challenges them to repent for believing that is okay.
Notice that their enemies (also known as “earth dwellers” in the Book of Revelation) gathered around them and rejoiced for 3 ½ days while their bodies lay in the street. One encouraging note: the time of their death experience was but one day for every year of ministry. Said another way, the time of powerful effective service for the Lord was 365 times as long. If you have been called by the Lord to carry His prophetic burden in this generation and are presently in a place of what seems to be sure death, having been set aside from what looked like a potentially productive ministry, I would say: “Take heart. The time of the crushing is but a short season compared to the eternal fruit that will follow if you will continue to trust Him and do not faint.”
Now after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand men were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.
When the Lord calls His faithful servants out of their death experiences and up into new realms of heavenly life and revelation, it brings new shakings in God’s city and new dimensions of the fear of the Lord upon those who thought they knew His ways.
My own personal testimony is that in the late 1980’s I got wounded in the war. At the time, I did not understand how serious my injury was, but to help me through the process, the Lord gave me a dream. I was lying on the ground wounded in the midst of battle. He came riding to me on the battlefield, picked me up off the ground, put me on His own horse, and took me to His house to perform surgery on me.
Without going into all the details concerning my specific spiritual wound, one of the Lord’s surgical methods involved pruning shears (John 15:2). One by one, He took away what were to me fruitful areas of my life. The first to go was the traveling ministry (at the time over 50% of my income came from extra-local ministry). Then He settled me into a small church in Saugerties, NY while He continued to “whittle away” my branches. Next, I lost the anointing to lead worship with my guitar. For me, this was a rather traumatic experience. God used to arise in the meetings and bless others when I strummed and sang. Now, no matter what I did (trying louder or faster songs), nothing seemed to happen. At one point, He said I was to stop preaching the word and stop going to leaders’ meetings. Because the local church was not financially supporting me because of what I could produce in their midst, but because they believed God had told them to, they never wavered in their commitment to me. It was a kingdom relationship not a business one. Nevertheless, the obvious action for me to take at that point was to begin seeking the Lord about “secular work”. How far was the pruning to go? In the midst of considering this issue, the Lord sent a prophet with the word that He was beginning to put the sword back into my hands in order to release me to the nations with a fresh anointing on my life. Good news indeed!
The great spiritual war that we are presently in is very real. At the same time, the disciplines of the Lord, our experiences of pruning and crushing are just as real. But what comes out the other side of these traumas has a much greater impact on the nations than what we had when we started.
When Jesus was to be circumcised in the temple, Simeon prophesied over Him that He was destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel (Luke 2:34). At first glance, Simeon seemed to have spoken incorrectly. Did he not get the phrase backwards? Did he not mean the rise and fall of many, rather than the fall and rising of many? Historically, we read about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the rise and fall of the Third Reich, etc. What arises eventually will fall. However, Jesus was appointed for the fall and rise (Greek, ANASTASIS – resurrection) of many. While we all want God’s resurrection life, none of us really wants to die. But it is specifically this process of death and resurrection that is the Lord’s secret weapon in the war. Satan never foresaw Calvary and it was his undoing. But the cross is more than a historical event; it is a lifestyle. When the prophets and the rest of the Church embrace the cross and experience spiritual resurrection life and power, earthquakes will occur in God’s city and enemies of the cross will fear the Lord!
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