The Seven Churches of Revelation – Part 7 Philadelphia – The Church That Opens Heaven
Revelation 3:7-13 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, 'These things says He who is holy, He who is true, "HE WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, HE WHO OPENS AND NO ONE SHUTS, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS": 8 "I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 11 Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. 12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name. 13 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." '
Philadelphia…the church of “brotherly love”…is all about “David’s key.” Philadelphia is the only one of all the seven Churches that was not currently in tribulation and also not corrected by Jesus. This is because they were using…full of…the very thing Jesus addressed them with. Let’s jump into the four-fold pattern for Philadelphia and see what Jesus wants US to know in this hour:
1. Jesus addresses Philadelphia as He who is holy, He who is true, "HE WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, HE WHO OPENS AND NO ONE SHUTS, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS
Holiness and truth are the foundation of the Philadelphia church, and on that desire for holiness and truth sprang up the same thing that came out of David’s one desire for holiness and truth….David’s Key. You MUST understand what David’s Key is if you want to agree with Jesus about His end time plan.
Let me say it clearly: David’s key is night and day prayer to music, called the Tabernacle of David in the Bible.
David hired 24,000 people to keep night and day worship and prayer going in Jerusalem. This was the foundation of David’s government…David’s “throne.” Jesus is going to govern the earth in the same way…sitting on the same throne…or governmental seat…as His ancestor David. That is what the angel Gabriel told Mary before Jesus was born:
Luke 1:30-32 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
Night and Day prayer was David’s “key” because it unlocked heaven over Israel. David sought God’s kingdom first, as a governmental strategy, and God gave David ALL THE REST in addition to showing David how to worship on earth as God is worshiped in heaven:
Matthew 6:31-33 "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
David understood this truth spoken by Jesus and practically expressed it in Jerusalem by organizing a ton of people to keep prayer going night and day in geography assigned to him. Now, it was a COLLECTIVE effort, and it turned Jerusalem into God’s Holy Mountain. Specifically, it turned Arauhna’s threshing floor, a place where David wrestled with God and had his heart sifted, into the Temple Mount (you can read about that in 2 Samuel 24 and 2 Chronicles 3:1). The Temple was simply a permanent location for what David had started in a tent…a system of night and day prayer that was the basis of David’s government. Even David’s military guys had a part in the tabernacle, where worship leaders would take turns leading night and day worship in Israel:
1 Chronicles 25:1-8 Moreover David and the captains of the army separated for the service some of the sons of Asaph, of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, stringed instruments, and cymbals. And the number of the skilled men performing their service was: 2 Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asharelah; the sons of Asaph were under the direction of Asaph, who prophesied according to the order of the king. 3 Of Jeduthun, the sons of Jeduthun: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, six, under the direction of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with a harp to give thanks and to praise the LORD. 4 Of Heman, the sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti-Ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth. 5 All these were the sons of Heman the king's seer in the words of God, to exalt his horn. For God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. 6 All these were under the direction of their father for the music in the house of the LORD, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and harps, for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the authority of the king. 7 So the number of them, with their brethren who were instructed in the songs of the LORD, all who were skillful, was two hundred and eighty-eight. 8 And they cast lots for their duty, the small as well as the great, the teacher with the student.
David’s tabernacle was highly organized and included participation from the entire community. This opened heaven in a very profound way. Those military captains are some famous people in the Bible, because they are the authors of many of the Psalms. David took the key of night and day worship, and opened a door between heaven and earth that released the greatest prophetic insight the earth had seen up to that time. It also created an abundance of peace, and stability, and an outpouring of resources that left Solomon, the one who put the tabernacle in the temple, the wealthiest and wisest king earth has ever seen. This is what night and day prayer, as expressed by God’s people in a community is all about. This is David’s Key. Jesus celebrates the fact that Philadelphia has chosen what looks like weakness to be their strength. Jesus’ unusual plan is actually BRILLIANTLY STRONG:
2. Revelation 3:8 "I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
When I first heard about night and day prayer, I thought it was very unusual…maybe even cultish. It seemed like a weird way for people to spend their time. I have been in the church my entire life, and had never heard ONE teaching about night and day prayer. What I have come to realize is that, although night and day prayer to music was a very established reality for the early Church, it has been lost along the way. This was actually prophesied in Revelation 2 and 3!
The church in these last days is in BAD SHAPE, according to the Bible. As I have said several times in the last installments, according to the Bible, 71% of the Church…5 out of the 7 Churches in Revelation 2 and 3, are so out of whack that if they don’t repent and come into agreement with Jesus about what is required to endure the tribulation, they will fall away. Of those 2 churches not corrected by God, one of them is currently already IN tribulation. That leaves only 1 Church standing as a shining example of how to “get safe in a time of trouble.” That is what I want to tell you about today. Trouble is coming, friends, and if you want to know the ONLY BIBLICAL WAY to prepare yourself, your family, your church, and your city to be safe in the storm coming, you must HUMBLE YOURSELF and consider what the Spirit is saying about Philadelphia.
The more I have studied night and day prayer in the Bible, the more it has become painfully and gloriously clear to me that this concept is one of the most established concepts in the Bible, but to a modern western-mindset Christian, it is UNUSUAL. I did not like it at first. I did not want to believe it at first. I didn’t like the end time eschatology connected to it at first. BUT, after I humbled myself and began saying to Jesus “if this is your plan, show me”…what I found is that this IS Jesus end time plan for His Church. A night and day praying city led into this reality by a faithful Bride coming together in unity is the only safe place in the storm that is coming, and the benefits for agreeing with God about this are so overwhelming it is hard to cover them in one message.
Jesus’ unusual plans are wise…they always succeed. He has not brought us to this time and this place to fail, but to win! But everyone has to choose for themselves if they will humble themselves and agree with God about what strategy actually wins! Humility is required because Jesus’ plan is very UNUSUAL…by design. We live in a very UNIQUE hour. This is the proper time for the harvest, it is the time for the “unusual act” of the Lord to be performed through His people that He prophesied through Isaiah:
Isaiah 28:21-29 For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon— That He may do His work, His awesome work, And bring to pass His act, His unusual act. 22 Now therefore, do not be mockers, Lest your bonds be made strong; For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts, A destruction determined even upon the whole earth. 23 Give ear and hear my voice, Listen and hear my speech. 24 Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow? Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods? 25 When he has leveled its surface, Does he not sow the black cumin And scatter the cumin, Plant the wheat in rows, The barley in the appointed place, And the spelt in its place? 26 For He instructs him in right judgment, His God teaches him. 27 For the black cumin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin; But the black cumin is beaten out with a stick, And the cummin with a rod. 28 Bread flour must be ground; Therefore he does not thresh it forever, Break it with his cartwheel, Or crush it with his horsemen. 29 This also comes from the LORD of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.
The plans and the timing of the Lord are VERY important. This is why watching is SO important. Entertainment and the cares of this dying world have stolen the attention of MANY of God’s people. It is time to turn off the distractions and get busy studying God’s end time plans. Your life literally depends on it. It is a judgment on the church in America that I am one of the very rare voices telling you this, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Don’t take my word for it, though. That would be a big mistake. Search the word yourself. That is what will fill your heart with zeal.
If you aren’t fully invested in what Jesus is doing, you WILL miss it. That is what we talked about yesterday for Sardis. Jesus’ plan is unusual and requires an active searching of the word with the Spirit and connecting it to the events around you…the news…by design. This is called “watching”
Luke 21:34-36 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."
The “cares of this life” are the main focus of most of the church in America. False teachers, the synagogue of satan that Jesus spoke to Philadelphia about, want you to believe that following Jesus is mostly about improving your experience of the “cares of this life”…doing stuff, or doing nothing…anything but giving yourself wholeheartedly to worship…that is what these false teachers will actively try to do. Woe to them and those that follow them. They WILL worship at Philadelphia’s feet, because Philadelphia is the ONE church who actually searched Jesus' heart, and, in humility, accepted what they found. Jesus is actually crying out “cast off the cares of this so-called life if you actually want to live.” This requires turning off the distractions and getting fascinated with the man who has longed for thousands of years for the hour WE get to live in. Wake up sleepers!
This requirement to choose wholeheartedly to understand Jesus’ plan is actually an important component of Jesus’ plan…it is part of the way He sifts the true Bride out of the earth…He is singing a song, and only those that love Him will break from what they are doing, follow the music and come sing with Him. Many who claim to love Him are not even listening for His melody…instead of searching His heart, like a loving spouse, they are most interested in how He is going to benefit them…like a harlot who does what the wife is supposed to do, but does it for pay. This calls for repentance a washing off of the stain of self and getting purer hands and a cleaner heart. Anyone can begin entering in to purity…getting washed and ready for the wedding…but YOU must choose it for yourself…the Bride gets HERSELF ready. This is for love. Jesus will not force anyone to their own wedding:
Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
This isn’t the FULL story, though. Jesus, the wealthy groom, has all of the power to help His Bride become ready…plus, He is the owner of the land…He organizes the circumstances of the earth to give His Bride the “perfect chamber” to prepare. He does not violate her free will…He does not violate love…but He commands the wind and the waves to do just what is necessary to move her through the process. The Bride makes herself ready, but Jesus gives her the “brush and curling iron”, and the perfect room to be ready:
Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Right now, the intensity of the world is heating up. This is no accident. This is the sifting process God has selected in order to sift out a Bride…the true harvest…for His Son. God is the one that is orchestrating the events of the earth. He will never let go. In fact, He will grip it harder and shake everything that can be shaken. The shaking IS the threshing process. This is the time of testing Jesus warns all of the Churches of, but tells Philadelphia her choices to agree with Him about real strength are what will keep her through this time:
3. Revelation 3:10 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 11 Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
God is throwing all things into the wind of the end time events to..test…to see what blows away. This is the harvest process that separates the wheat from the chaff. Threshing. This process is just beginning, it will get much more intense. But make no mistake, the enemy armies of the earth are not getting away with anything. They are being USED by Jesus, just as Nebuchadnezzar was used by the Lord to sift Israel. Jesus isn’t forcing them to rise up and dominate the earth…he is removing His hand of restraint to allow evil men and women to get what they want. Jesus never lets go of the earth. The LORD is at the head of the column of the enemy armies. This should COMFORT those truly loyal to Jesus. Joel prophesied this very truth:
Joel 2:1-11 Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the LORD is coming, For it is at hand: 2 A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, The like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations. 3 A fire devours before them, And behind them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate wilderness; Surely nothing shall escape them. 4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run. 5 With a noise like chariots Over mountaintops they leap, Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, Like a strong people set in battle array. 6 Before them the people writhe in pain; All faces are drained of color. 7 They run like mighty men, They climb the wall like men of war; Everyone marches in formation, And they do not break ranks. 8 They do not push one another; Everyone marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, They are not cut down. 9 They run to and fro in the city, They run on the wall; They climb into the houses, They enter at the windows like a thief. 10 The earth quakes before them, The heavens tremble; The sun and moon grow dark, And the stars diminish their brightness. 11 The LORD gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great; For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; Who can endure it?
Who can stand…who can endure? This is the question before all the earth…this is the test…and the answer is clear in numerous places in the Bible. The answer is night and day prayer…the tabernacle of David. This is actually the only clear and consistent answer to the trouble.
Those who can stand are the “Generation of Jacob”…those who respond in humility and do the “unusual thing” that Jesus requires. That is what Jacob did…He wrestled with God at Peniel. WRESTLED WITH GOD??!! Yes…and He received the blessing in the very place heaven opens:
Genesis 32:24-30 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, "Let Me go, for the day breaks." But he said, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!" 27 So He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob." 28 And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed." 29 Then Jacob asked, saying, "Tell me Your name, I pray." And He said, "Why is it that you ask about My name?" And He blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
Jacob was not the best dude. If you know His story, you know His story is one of redemption …and it is all related to HOW He became Israel…God’s man. Jacob was named Israel by the wrestling…by the responding. He wrestled not just with God, but with God and men. That is what Jesus is orchestrating for an entire generation in our hour. Do you see it? Do you see how suddenly evil men are getting more successful at their evil plans and desires? This is intentional. We live in the harvest hour.
God is allowing the wheat and tares to fully mature. This is great for the righteous and TERRIBLE for the evil. The earth is being ushered into…in this hour… a divine setup to see who is willing to wrestle for the blessing, KNOWING God is good and WILL REWARD the righteous. It is a harvest of faith.
Everyone will get what they want. Those who want God…who want to ascend His “Holy Mountain” will get success in reaching the pinnacle…this is describing the Bride preparing herself in humble obedience, called LOVE. The pinnacle of the mountain of God is the opening of heaven…doing the same works as Jesus, and even greater works…is the INITIAL measure of heaven opening…the final measure is Jesus returning, but Jesus is only coming back to a Bride who has prepared herself in love as demonstrated by OBEDIENCE…we call that holiness:
John 14:12-15 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. 15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.
This is the most glorious news for our generation, because the trouble…the sifting we are beginning to see is evidence that if we will respond, we are the generation that will literally OPEN HEAVEN…like Jacob saw God face to face. According to the Bible, the Bride that is like Philadelphia will prepare a throne for the King of Kings on her night and day praise, and that very act will open heaven for her groom to come. A door no one can shut. God is enthroned on the praises of HIS people…Israel. David prophesied that HIS Son…the Messiah…Jesus…would go to the cross with THIS on His mind:
Psalms 22:1-5 To the Chief Musician. Set to "The Deer of the Dawn." a Psalm of David. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? 2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. 3 But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. 4 Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. 5 They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.
When Jesus went to the cross, when He cried out “Father, why have you forsaken me,” what was driving Him was this vision of the people of the earth once again preparing a throne for the father in night and day prayer to music…called praise. Jesus describes HIS wrestling…praying in the day and praying in the night…and it looks like nothing is happening, but faith lets Him gaze on the truth, God is actually being enthroned on this very wrestling! The past history of God’s people…trusting God and experiencing deliverance in the small measure…has built confidence that God WILL NOT LET HIS HOLY ONE TASTE SHAME. This is why Jesus obeyed the Father, even to His own humiliation and death, look what it says later in Psalm 22:
Psalms 22:23 You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All you descendants of JACOB, glorify Him, And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
We live in the hour of the generation that responds…the generation where the descendants of God…the sons of God…the offspring of Jacob…will obey this command form Messiah, will rise up, throw off the comforts of the earth, and open heaven in the costly act of night and day prayer:
Romans 8:18-19 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
This is ALL about night and day prayer in the communities of the earth, called in the Bible, the “mountains,” being the places where the true sons of God prove themselves by their response to the testing. The mountains of God are the locations of the earth that will host the night and day praying churches…the Philadelphia churches…that will provide refuge to the end time family of God through the great tribulation. This act of obedience to the unusual plan of God is what will “keep” the Bride through the storm. Psalm 72 prophesies this very truth for our generation:
Psalms 72:1-3 A Psalm Of Solomon. Give the king Your judgments, O God, And Your righteousness to the king's Son. 2 He will judge Your people with righteousness, And Your poor with justice. 3 The mountains will bring peace to the people, And the little hills, by righteousness.
This is an end-time passage about the judgments of God being released. God’s judgments are REALLY good for people that are right with God, because they stop unjust evil against them!! But ask yourself, how do mountains bring peace?! Solomon was singing about the same mountains his dad, David, had prophesied for the sons of God to arise to:
Psalms 24:1-10 A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. 2 For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters. 3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive blessing from the LORD, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah 7 Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah
The generation of Jacob will ascend Holy Mountains all over the earth by “seeking God’s face” as their main occupation…for real. This has already begun. Many are learning to do this day by day, as hundreds of night and day worship centers are rising up all over the earth. These faithful sons and daughters of God will still work, they aren’t hunkering down in bunkers with guns and food. They are out in the open living through the realities of life, but they will take shifts keeping a night and day cry to God going until heaven opens and Jesus comes down like He went up! This is becoming their one desire, and as that happens, as they seek God as their one thing, they are creating a safe place in the time of trouble. This is what David’s Key is PRIMARILY about:
Psalms 27:4-5 One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple. 5 For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
What this night and day cry…called in Joel 2 a solemn assembly…will do is heal the land in the mountains themselves and open heaven over these locations. The opening of heaven will actually be like a “force field” that keeps the antichrist armies away and begins the process of the glory of God actually breaking through to earth. The glory of God is the light of His countenance. Jesus, in all His glory, is very bright. So bright that if the earth saw Him in His glory, it would consume everything not ready to encounter Him:
1 Timothy 6:12-16 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, 15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
This light coming into the darkness is very terrible for darkness. That is the other side of the story. Everyone is going to get what they want. If you want God to be your everything, you are in for a really good time, because this activity of making God your one thing, growing in purity, WILL ACTUALLY WORK:
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
Those climbing the holy mountains…getting a vision for how night and day prayer will open heaven over a community, then putting on a hunger and thirst for holiness as their ONE desire, and letting the rest of life trail behind that seeking the kingdom first…will literally begin opening heaven and encountering God in the physical realm. This has happened in small measure all over the earth for centuries. In the last 200 years, places like Herrnhut, Germany; Moravian Falls, NC; Almolonga, Guatemala, and many others, have tasted the initial release of heaven opening in response to night and day prayer. Angelic encounters increase, the land produces more food, peace rests on the land where there was violence…these places that you can easily Google were down-payments on what is coming to the Holy Mountains. Look further into Psalm 72, and you will see this same promise for the mountains:
Psalms 72:16 There will be an abundance of grain in the earth, On the top of the mountains; Its fruit shall wave like Lebanon; And those of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
I don’t know if you know anything about geography, but crops don’t grow on the tops of natural mountains…they are pointy, rocky, and sometime covered in snow. This prophetic Psalm is talking about the Mountains of God that David prophesied for the generation of Jacob. These are the geographic locations that build the end time tabernacles of David, as a community. This is God’s plan, to orchestrate trouble in the earth so that those who love Him will agree that trouble MUST come to judge sin, and they will respond by rebuilding David’s Tabernacle…mountains of God…all over the earth:
Amos 9:8-15 "Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth; Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," Says the LORD. 9 "For surely I will command, And will sift the house of Israel among all nations, As grain is sifted in a sieve; Yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. 10 All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, Who say, 'The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.' 11 "On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old; 12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name," Says the LORD who does this thing. 13 "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it. 14 I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. 15 I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they be pulled up From the land I have given them," Says the LORD your God.
You really want to be safe in what is coming like a flood to earth. What we are seeing in the middle east right now is prophesied to spread. A man is promising to be the answer to the trouble, and out of impatient desperation, the people of the earth will empower him. God will give the earth what she wants, and this man will show himself for who he is, the end time culmination of the evil men the earth has already put her trust in. To choose the strength of a man over wholehearted seeking of God is rebellion.
Those who want rebellion will get success for an hour. The success of rebellion…living outside of a relationship with the true leader of all creation…is death. And death is coming friends…unfortunately for the people of the earth, MUCH death is coming. Stage one is the death of over a quarter of the earth’s population…that is nearly 2 billion people…in less than approximately 3 years:
Revelation 6:8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
Stage two is the death of another one third of the earth’s population in approximately 5 months:
Revelation 9:18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.
That means in less than 1,260 days, one half of the earth’s population will be killed by God giving to mankind what they desire: the leadership of a man, called the antichrist, to give the peace, prosperity, and security, and then, when they earth will not repent, giving them the leadership of satan and his demons for 5 months. Rather than participate in what God is doing, at least half of the earth wants a politician to give them what they want. Behind that politician is satan. In the seal judgments, God will allow the man the earth loves to have his way, and what the earth will get is the same thing she has always gotten when she has looked for a man to divide up the resources of the earth for her: war, famine, pestilence, and widespread death, with only a few at the top holding all the resources. We know these famous men that have promised hope and change to the earth: Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Chavez. These ones were allowed LIMITED success as a warning to the earth. The antichrist will be GIVEN AUTHORITY for 42 months…that is 1,260 days of success:
Revelation 13:4-8 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" 5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. 6 Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
This is part of the testing that will require vengeance be brought when Jesus returns. Jesus is going to return and take vengeance on the antichrist. How? By shining the bright light of His glory and singing His song of victory:
2 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
Those that choose to agree with Jesus…that choose to live LIKE Him…will live close WITH HIM…forever. The rewards for overcoming in agreement with God are bringing the Bride closer and closer to the throne. If you choose to build the temple worship on earth, you will inhabit the temple…the “white house” of Jesus’ government…forever:
4. 12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
This IS Jesus’ plan to overcome evil and drive it off the planet. His spouse must agree that this is true, yet seemingly weak strength. The opening of heaven…the releasing of glory…the singing of truth that matches what heaven is singing IS THE ONLY PLAN TO DEFEAT DARKNESS. Jesus said it will SURELY work..but then He asked the most chilling question: How many will Jesus find that have enough faith to cry out night and day that He is the good leader of the earth, when He allows the enemy armies to have the evil desire in their heart?
Luke 18:7-8 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Philadelphia…the church of “brotherly love”…is all about “David’s key.” Philadelphia is the only one of all the seven Churches that was not currently in tribulation and also not corrected by Jesus. This is because they were using…full of…the very thing Jesus addressed them with. Let’s jump into the four-fold pattern for Philadelphia and see what Jesus wants US to know in this hour:
1. Jesus addresses Philadelphia as He who is holy, He who is true, "HE WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, HE WHO OPENS AND NO ONE SHUTS, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS
Holiness and truth are the foundation of the Philadelphia church, and on that desire for holiness and truth sprang up the same thing that came out of David’s one desire for holiness and truth….David’s Key. You MUST understand what David’s Key is if you want to agree with Jesus about His end time plan.
Let me say it clearly: David’s key is night and day prayer to music, called the Tabernacle of David in the Bible.
David hired 24,000 people to keep night and day worship and prayer going in Jerusalem. This was the foundation of David’s government…David’s “throne.” Jesus is going to govern the earth in the same way…sitting on the same throne…or governmental seat…as His ancestor David. That is what the angel Gabriel told Mary before Jesus was born:
Luke 1:30-32 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
Night and Day prayer was David’s “key” because it unlocked heaven over Israel. David sought God’s kingdom first, as a governmental strategy, and God gave David ALL THE REST in addition to showing David how to worship on earth as God is worshiped in heaven:
Matthew 6:31-33 "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
David understood this truth spoken by Jesus and practically expressed it in Jerusalem by organizing a ton of people to keep prayer going night and day in geography assigned to him. Now, it was a COLLECTIVE effort, and it turned Jerusalem into God’s Holy Mountain. Specifically, it turned Arauhna’s threshing floor, a place where David wrestled with God and had his heart sifted, into the Temple Mount (you can read about that in 2 Samuel 24 and 2 Chronicles 3:1). The Temple was simply a permanent location for what David had started in a tent…a system of night and day prayer that was the basis of David’s government. Even David’s military guys had a part in the tabernacle, where worship leaders would take turns leading night and day worship in Israel:
1 Chronicles 25:1-8 Moreover David and the captains of the army separated for the service some of the sons of Asaph, of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, stringed instruments, and cymbals. And the number of the skilled men performing their service was: 2 Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asharelah; the sons of Asaph were under the direction of Asaph, who prophesied according to the order of the king. 3 Of Jeduthun, the sons of Jeduthun: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, six, under the direction of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with a harp to give thanks and to praise the LORD. 4 Of Heman, the sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti-Ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth. 5 All these were the sons of Heman the king's seer in the words of God, to exalt his horn. For God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. 6 All these were under the direction of their father for the music in the house of the LORD, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and harps, for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the authority of the king. 7 So the number of them, with their brethren who were instructed in the songs of the LORD, all who were skillful, was two hundred and eighty-eight. 8 And they cast lots for their duty, the small as well as the great, the teacher with the student.
David’s tabernacle was highly organized and included participation from the entire community. This opened heaven in a very profound way. Those military captains are some famous people in the Bible, because they are the authors of many of the Psalms. David took the key of night and day worship, and opened a door between heaven and earth that released the greatest prophetic insight the earth had seen up to that time. It also created an abundance of peace, and stability, and an outpouring of resources that left Solomon, the one who put the tabernacle in the temple, the wealthiest and wisest king earth has ever seen. This is what night and day prayer, as expressed by God’s people in a community is all about. This is David’s Key. Jesus celebrates the fact that Philadelphia has chosen what looks like weakness to be their strength. Jesus’ unusual plan is actually BRILLIANTLY STRONG:
2. Revelation 3:8 "I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
When I first heard about night and day prayer, I thought it was very unusual…maybe even cultish. It seemed like a weird way for people to spend their time. I have been in the church my entire life, and had never heard ONE teaching about night and day prayer. What I have come to realize is that, although night and day prayer to music was a very established reality for the early Church, it has been lost along the way. This was actually prophesied in Revelation 2 and 3!
The church in these last days is in BAD SHAPE, according to the Bible. As I have said several times in the last installments, according to the Bible, 71% of the Church…5 out of the 7 Churches in Revelation 2 and 3, are so out of whack that if they don’t repent and come into agreement with Jesus about what is required to endure the tribulation, they will fall away. Of those 2 churches not corrected by God, one of them is currently already IN tribulation. That leaves only 1 Church standing as a shining example of how to “get safe in a time of trouble.” That is what I want to tell you about today. Trouble is coming, friends, and if you want to know the ONLY BIBLICAL WAY to prepare yourself, your family, your church, and your city to be safe in the storm coming, you must HUMBLE YOURSELF and consider what the Spirit is saying about Philadelphia.
The more I have studied night and day prayer in the Bible, the more it has become painfully and gloriously clear to me that this concept is one of the most established concepts in the Bible, but to a modern western-mindset Christian, it is UNUSUAL. I did not like it at first. I did not want to believe it at first. I didn’t like the end time eschatology connected to it at first. BUT, after I humbled myself and began saying to Jesus “if this is your plan, show me”…what I found is that this IS Jesus end time plan for His Church. A night and day praying city led into this reality by a faithful Bride coming together in unity is the only safe place in the storm that is coming, and the benefits for agreeing with God about this are so overwhelming it is hard to cover them in one message.
Jesus’ unusual plans are wise…they always succeed. He has not brought us to this time and this place to fail, but to win! But everyone has to choose for themselves if they will humble themselves and agree with God about what strategy actually wins! Humility is required because Jesus’ plan is very UNUSUAL…by design. We live in a very UNIQUE hour. This is the proper time for the harvest, it is the time for the “unusual act” of the Lord to be performed through His people that He prophesied through Isaiah:
Isaiah 28:21-29 For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon— That He may do His work, His awesome work, And bring to pass His act, His unusual act. 22 Now therefore, do not be mockers, Lest your bonds be made strong; For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts, A destruction determined even upon the whole earth. 23 Give ear and hear my voice, Listen and hear my speech. 24 Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow? Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods? 25 When he has leveled its surface, Does he not sow the black cumin And scatter the cumin, Plant the wheat in rows, The barley in the appointed place, And the spelt in its place? 26 For He instructs him in right judgment, His God teaches him. 27 For the black cumin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin; But the black cumin is beaten out with a stick, And the cummin with a rod. 28 Bread flour must be ground; Therefore he does not thresh it forever, Break it with his cartwheel, Or crush it with his horsemen. 29 This also comes from the LORD of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.
The plans and the timing of the Lord are VERY important. This is why watching is SO important. Entertainment and the cares of this dying world have stolen the attention of MANY of God’s people. It is time to turn off the distractions and get busy studying God’s end time plans. Your life literally depends on it. It is a judgment on the church in America that I am one of the very rare voices telling you this, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Don’t take my word for it, though. That would be a big mistake. Search the word yourself. That is what will fill your heart with zeal.
If you aren’t fully invested in what Jesus is doing, you WILL miss it. That is what we talked about yesterday for Sardis. Jesus’ plan is unusual and requires an active searching of the word with the Spirit and connecting it to the events around you…the news…by design. This is called “watching”
Luke 21:34-36 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."
The “cares of this life” are the main focus of most of the church in America. False teachers, the synagogue of satan that Jesus spoke to Philadelphia about, want you to believe that following Jesus is mostly about improving your experience of the “cares of this life”…doing stuff, or doing nothing…anything but giving yourself wholeheartedly to worship…that is what these false teachers will actively try to do. Woe to them and those that follow them. They WILL worship at Philadelphia’s feet, because Philadelphia is the ONE church who actually searched Jesus' heart, and, in humility, accepted what they found. Jesus is actually crying out “cast off the cares of this so-called life if you actually want to live.” This requires turning off the distractions and getting fascinated with the man who has longed for thousands of years for the hour WE get to live in. Wake up sleepers!
This requirement to choose wholeheartedly to understand Jesus’ plan is actually an important component of Jesus’ plan…it is part of the way He sifts the true Bride out of the earth…He is singing a song, and only those that love Him will break from what they are doing, follow the music and come sing with Him. Many who claim to love Him are not even listening for His melody…instead of searching His heart, like a loving spouse, they are most interested in how He is going to benefit them…like a harlot who does what the wife is supposed to do, but does it for pay. This calls for repentance a washing off of the stain of self and getting purer hands and a cleaner heart. Anyone can begin entering in to purity…getting washed and ready for the wedding…but YOU must choose it for yourself…the Bride gets HERSELF ready. This is for love. Jesus will not force anyone to their own wedding:
Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
This isn’t the FULL story, though. Jesus, the wealthy groom, has all of the power to help His Bride become ready…plus, He is the owner of the land…He organizes the circumstances of the earth to give His Bride the “perfect chamber” to prepare. He does not violate her free will…He does not violate love…but He commands the wind and the waves to do just what is necessary to move her through the process. The Bride makes herself ready, but Jesus gives her the “brush and curling iron”, and the perfect room to be ready:
Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Right now, the intensity of the world is heating up. This is no accident. This is the sifting process God has selected in order to sift out a Bride…the true harvest…for His Son. God is the one that is orchestrating the events of the earth. He will never let go. In fact, He will grip it harder and shake everything that can be shaken. The shaking IS the threshing process. This is the time of testing Jesus warns all of the Churches of, but tells Philadelphia her choices to agree with Him about real strength are what will keep her through this time:
3. Revelation 3:10 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 11 Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
God is throwing all things into the wind of the end time events to..test…to see what blows away. This is the harvest process that separates the wheat from the chaff. Threshing. This process is just beginning, it will get much more intense. But make no mistake, the enemy armies of the earth are not getting away with anything. They are being USED by Jesus, just as Nebuchadnezzar was used by the Lord to sift Israel. Jesus isn’t forcing them to rise up and dominate the earth…he is removing His hand of restraint to allow evil men and women to get what they want. Jesus never lets go of the earth. The LORD is at the head of the column of the enemy armies. This should COMFORT those truly loyal to Jesus. Joel prophesied this very truth:
Joel 2:1-11 Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the LORD is coming, For it is at hand: 2 A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, The like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations. 3 A fire devours before them, And behind them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate wilderness; Surely nothing shall escape them. 4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run. 5 With a noise like chariots Over mountaintops they leap, Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, Like a strong people set in battle array. 6 Before them the people writhe in pain; All faces are drained of color. 7 They run like mighty men, They climb the wall like men of war; Everyone marches in formation, And they do not break ranks. 8 They do not push one another; Everyone marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, They are not cut down. 9 They run to and fro in the city, They run on the wall; They climb into the houses, They enter at the windows like a thief. 10 The earth quakes before them, The heavens tremble; The sun and moon grow dark, And the stars diminish their brightness. 11 The LORD gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great; For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; Who can endure it?
Who can stand…who can endure? This is the question before all the earth…this is the test…and the answer is clear in numerous places in the Bible. The answer is night and day prayer…the tabernacle of David. This is actually the only clear and consistent answer to the trouble.
Those who can stand are the “Generation of Jacob”…those who respond in humility and do the “unusual thing” that Jesus requires. That is what Jacob did…He wrestled with God at Peniel. WRESTLED WITH GOD??!! Yes…and He received the blessing in the very place heaven opens:
Genesis 32:24-30 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, "Let Me go, for the day breaks." But he said, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!" 27 So He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob." 28 And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed." 29 Then Jacob asked, saying, "Tell me Your name, I pray." And He said, "Why is it that you ask about My name?" And He blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
Jacob was not the best dude. If you know His story, you know His story is one of redemption …and it is all related to HOW He became Israel…God’s man. Jacob was named Israel by the wrestling…by the responding. He wrestled not just with God, but with God and men. That is what Jesus is orchestrating for an entire generation in our hour. Do you see it? Do you see how suddenly evil men are getting more successful at their evil plans and desires? This is intentional. We live in the harvest hour.
God is allowing the wheat and tares to fully mature. This is great for the righteous and TERRIBLE for the evil. The earth is being ushered into…in this hour… a divine setup to see who is willing to wrestle for the blessing, KNOWING God is good and WILL REWARD the righteous. It is a harvest of faith.
Everyone will get what they want. Those who want God…who want to ascend His “Holy Mountain” will get success in reaching the pinnacle…this is describing the Bride preparing herself in humble obedience, called LOVE. The pinnacle of the mountain of God is the opening of heaven…doing the same works as Jesus, and even greater works…is the INITIAL measure of heaven opening…the final measure is Jesus returning, but Jesus is only coming back to a Bride who has prepared herself in love as demonstrated by OBEDIENCE…we call that holiness:
John 14:12-15 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. 15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.
This is the most glorious news for our generation, because the trouble…the sifting we are beginning to see is evidence that if we will respond, we are the generation that will literally OPEN HEAVEN…like Jacob saw God face to face. According to the Bible, the Bride that is like Philadelphia will prepare a throne for the King of Kings on her night and day praise, and that very act will open heaven for her groom to come. A door no one can shut. God is enthroned on the praises of HIS people…Israel. David prophesied that HIS Son…the Messiah…Jesus…would go to the cross with THIS on His mind:
Psalms 22:1-5 To the Chief Musician. Set to "The Deer of the Dawn." a Psalm of David. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? 2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. 3 But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. 4 Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. 5 They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.
When Jesus went to the cross, when He cried out “Father, why have you forsaken me,” what was driving Him was this vision of the people of the earth once again preparing a throne for the father in night and day prayer to music…called praise. Jesus describes HIS wrestling…praying in the day and praying in the night…and it looks like nothing is happening, but faith lets Him gaze on the truth, God is actually being enthroned on this very wrestling! The past history of God’s people…trusting God and experiencing deliverance in the small measure…has built confidence that God WILL NOT LET HIS HOLY ONE TASTE SHAME. This is why Jesus obeyed the Father, even to His own humiliation and death, look what it says later in Psalm 22:
Psalms 22:23 You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All you descendants of JACOB, glorify Him, And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
We live in the hour of the generation that responds…the generation where the descendants of God…the sons of God…the offspring of Jacob…will obey this command form Messiah, will rise up, throw off the comforts of the earth, and open heaven in the costly act of night and day prayer:
Romans 8:18-19 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
This is ALL about night and day prayer in the communities of the earth, called in the Bible, the “mountains,” being the places where the true sons of God prove themselves by their response to the testing. The mountains of God are the locations of the earth that will host the night and day praying churches…the Philadelphia churches…that will provide refuge to the end time family of God through the great tribulation. This act of obedience to the unusual plan of God is what will “keep” the Bride through the storm. Psalm 72 prophesies this very truth for our generation:
Psalms 72:1-3 A Psalm Of Solomon. Give the king Your judgments, O God, And Your righteousness to the king's Son. 2 He will judge Your people with righteousness, And Your poor with justice. 3 The mountains will bring peace to the people, And the little hills, by righteousness.
This is an end-time passage about the judgments of God being released. God’s judgments are REALLY good for people that are right with God, because they stop unjust evil against them!! But ask yourself, how do mountains bring peace?! Solomon was singing about the same mountains his dad, David, had prophesied for the sons of God to arise to:
Psalms 24:1-10 A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. 2 For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters. 3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive blessing from the LORD, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah 7 Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah
The generation of Jacob will ascend Holy Mountains all over the earth by “seeking God’s face” as their main occupation…for real. This has already begun. Many are learning to do this day by day, as hundreds of night and day worship centers are rising up all over the earth. These faithful sons and daughters of God will still work, they aren’t hunkering down in bunkers with guns and food. They are out in the open living through the realities of life, but they will take shifts keeping a night and day cry to God going until heaven opens and Jesus comes down like He went up! This is becoming their one desire, and as that happens, as they seek God as their one thing, they are creating a safe place in the time of trouble. This is what David’s Key is PRIMARILY about:
Psalms 27:4-5 One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple. 5 For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
What this night and day cry…called in Joel 2 a solemn assembly…will do is heal the land in the mountains themselves and open heaven over these locations. The opening of heaven will actually be like a “force field” that keeps the antichrist armies away and begins the process of the glory of God actually breaking through to earth. The glory of God is the light of His countenance. Jesus, in all His glory, is very bright. So bright that if the earth saw Him in His glory, it would consume everything not ready to encounter Him:
1 Timothy 6:12-16 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, 15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
This light coming into the darkness is very terrible for darkness. That is the other side of the story. Everyone is going to get what they want. If you want God to be your everything, you are in for a really good time, because this activity of making God your one thing, growing in purity, WILL ACTUALLY WORK:
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
Those climbing the holy mountains…getting a vision for how night and day prayer will open heaven over a community, then putting on a hunger and thirst for holiness as their ONE desire, and letting the rest of life trail behind that seeking the kingdom first…will literally begin opening heaven and encountering God in the physical realm. This has happened in small measure all over the earth for centuries. In the last 200 years, places like Herrnhut, Germany; Moravian Falls, NC; Almolonga, Guatemala, and many others, have tasted the initial release of heaven opening in response to night and day prayer. Angelic encounters increase, the land produces more food, peace rests on the land where there was violence…these places that you can easily Google were down-payments on what is coming to the Holy Mountains. Look further into Psalm 72, and you will see this same promise for the mountains:
Psalms 72:16 There will be an abundance of grain in the earth, On the top of the mountains; Its fruit shall wave like Lebanon; And those of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
I don’t know if you know anything about geography, but crops don’t grow on the tops of natural mountains…they are pointy, rocky, and sometime covered in snow. This prophetic Psalm is talking about the Mountains of God that David prophesied for the generation of Jacob. These are the geographic locations that build the end time tabernacles of David, as a community. This is God’s plan, to orchestrate trouble in the earth so that those who love Him will agree that trouble MUST come to judge sin, and they will respond by rebuilding David’s Tabernacle…mountains of God…all over the earth:
Amos 9:8-15 "Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth; Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," Says the LORD. 9 "For surely I will command, And will sift the house of Israel among all nations, As grain is sifted in a sieve; Yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. 10 All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, Who say, 'The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.' 11 "On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old; 12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name," Says the LORD who does this thing. 13 "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it. 14 I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. 15 I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they be pulled up From the land I have given them," Says the LORD your God.
You really want to be safe in what is coming like a flood to earth. What we are seeing in the middle east right now is prophesied to spread. A man is promising to be the answer to the trouble, and out of impatient desperation, the people of the earth will empower him. God will give the earth what she wants, and this man will show himself for who he is, the end time culmination of the evil men the earth has already put her trust in. To choose the strength of a man over wholehearted seeking of God is rebellion.
Those who want rebellion will get success for an hour. The success of rebellion…living outside of a relationship with the true leader of all creation…is death. And death is coming friends…unfortunately for the people of the earth, MUCH death is coming. Stage one is the death of over a quarter of the earth’s population…that is nearly 2 billion people…in less than approximately 3 years:
Revelation 6:8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
Stage two is the death of another one third of the earth’s population in approximately 5 months:
Revelation 9:18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.
That means in less than 1,260 days, one half of the earth’s population will be killed by God giving to mankind what they desire: the leadership of a man, called the antichrist, to give the peace, prosperity, and security, and then, when they earth will not repent, giving them the leadership of satan and his demons for 5 months. Rather than participate in what God is doing, at least half of the earth wants a politician to give them what they want. Behind that politician is satan. In the seal judgments, God will allow the man the earth loves to have his way, and what the earth will get is the same thing she has always gotten when she has looked for a man to divide up the resources of the earth for her: war, famine, pestilence, and widespread death, with only a few at the top holding all the resources. We know these famous men that have promised hope and change to the earth: Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Chavez. These ones were allowed LIMITED success as a warning to the earth. The antichrist will be GIVEN AUTHORITY for 42 months…that is 1,260 days of success:
Revelation 13:4-8 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" 5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. 6 Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
This is part of the testing that will require vengeance be brought when Jesus returns. Jesus is going to return and take vengeance on the antichrist. How? By shining the bright light of His glory and singing His song of victory:
2 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
Those that choose to agree with Jesus…that choose to live LIKE Him…will live close WITH HIM…forever. The rewards for overcoming in agreement with God are bringing the Bride closer and closer to the throne. If you choose to build the temple worship on earth, you will inhabit the temple…the “white house” of Jesus’ government…forever:
4. 12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
This IS Jesus’ plan to overcome evil and drive it off the planet. His spouse must agree that this is true, yet seemingly weak strength. The opening of heaven…the releasing of glory…the singing of truth that matches what heaven is singing IS THE ONLY PLAN TO DEFEAT DARKNESS. Jesus said it will SURELY work..but then He asked the most chilling question: How many will Jesus find that have enough faith to cry out night and day that He is the good leader of the earth, when He allows the enemy armies to have the evil desire in their heart?
Luke 18:7-8 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Comments
Post a Comment
I appreciate your comments.