29. Back to My Two Witnesses

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The Spirit of God does not seem to be finished with Revelation Chapter 11.

Our understanding of the Bible and every truth in it was once ruled absolutely by the thinking of good versus evil and the insertion of the words of the serpent into the definitions of the gospel. If we now assert that Redemption means an individual accepting that Jesus has already accomplished all, that Jesus comes into union with us that we might know and please the Father, and if we assert that Salvation means the knowledge of God, that is, reciprocal Love, flowing out from us together into all creation, this changes everything.

Not a Human Trait. Here’s what I am saying. If these definitions of Redemption and Salvation are God’s definitions, then everything God says in the Bible MEANS something quite different from the meanings Christians have argued and known.

Humans do not Love. Yes, we feel affection and care, but self is always at the core of our actions. True reciprocal Love is not a human trait. Neither is Salvation. This fact is not evil or wrong or bad. It is how God made us, that Love might be God-only. The problem is NOT that humans do not Love; the problem is the absence of the acknowledgment of God.

A Devious Fantasy. Christians then justify the absence of Love as God-All among-us by the un-Biblical and absurd belief that, “I will just automatically love my brothers and sisters when I am ‘in’ heaven.” Yet they envision no committed life together, even ‘in’ heaven. And so the vague impression of a life of “perfection” when we have lost our physical bodies assumes that no one will bother me and I will bother no one. We’ll all just be happy.

This whole way of thinking, then, avoids entirely the issues of Life and of death, and God’s great need to bring humans into a world of life, out from their twisted souls.

The Release of Death. We have said that “My two witnesses” is another representation of the same ministry of Christ to His Church. Yet, I see now that their meaning is very specifically focused by God onto the essential problem of Redemption, that is, persuading Christians to Love.
And so, before we can look at the specifics, we must establish absolutely God’s only Salvation.

Adam unleashed the river of death into all human and angelic interaction and consciousness out from his contempt for the only other human in his life, that is, his refusal of reciprocal love. – “It’s her fault.”

Eliminating Life. “It’s her fault, it’s his fault, it’s their fault” is the murderer, the enemy of God, the enemy of life and of all mankind. And it is the murderer, not because it “strikes down,” as Cain did, but because it eliminates the ONLY SOURCE of the River of Life into creation.

Creation itself cannot know God; the knowledge of God MUST flow into the knowledge of all. And that is what God made mankind to do for Him. Paul said that when Adam said, “We are one flesh,” he was prophesying Christ AND THE CHURCH. The River of Life comes only from the Church.

From Whence Comes the River? How many Christians have died and “gone to” heaven? Yet DEATH still RULES in creation, including in heaven. We know that death rules in heaven, because they have no physical bodies and cannot walk normally as humans upon the earth. They are dead; that’s why they are longing for the resurrection. That’s why they have put all their hopes on us. If heaven remains divorced from earth, then death rules in heaven. The end of death is the return of heaven and earth to full, open, and visible marriage union. It means resurrected sons walking this heaven-earth.

The BIG question then is – from whence comes this River of Life.

The Only Source. Here alone is the source and cause of the River of Life flowing out, causing all to know a universe only of Life.

This is My full completion, that you love one another in full reciprocity just exactly as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that he should set forth his soul for the sake of his friends. – By this we have known love, in that He set forth His soul for us, AND WE ALSO are committed to setting forth our souls for our brothers and sisters (The Eighth Ruling Verse of the Bible).

The Church together is the fulness of Christ – for we are members of one another – the reciprocal sharing from every part – …………………………………………

In One Place Only. How do we know that Reciprocal Love is not fulfilled when you die and “go to” heaven? Easy – because people still die, that is, the world remains BROKEN.

And thus we assert absolutely that Reciprocal Love is fulfilled in one place only, among humans now alive in their physical bodies inside of heaven UPON earth. No flesh MEANS no life of Jesus revealed (2 Cor. 4). No committed life together in Christian Community in which God is acknowledged as Love among us in all our interactions together MEANS no River of Life flowing out, no end of death, no deliverance, no Salvation for anyone.

Your Enemy. Whatever there might be inside your own soul that prevents your participation in committed reciprocal Love with other believers in Jesus IS your enemy, the enemy of God, and the enemy of Life and all created things. It is for this reason that Jesus comes to you to redeem you, if you will allow Him to do so. Yet, as we have seen, the actions of Jesus in redeeming us are sometimes as Fire.

Let’s paraphrase Revelation 11:10. – And those Christians who refuse Jesus’ redemption, accusing Him of being against them, will rejoice and make merry, because these two prophets had tormented them with the penetration of a Living and Energeoing Word.

False Stories of Self. Now we are able to look squarely at God’s reality for those Christians who refuse reciprocal Love here and now. You see, the false stories of self are not found in the body, but in the spin of heart and mind, the dance away from honesty. Thus, those false spins do NOT vanish with the body, but remain in the grip of a Christian’s self-story even after they are dead.

The truth is that “Purgatory,” a season of waiting for faith to come, is the only way Christians thought in the first two centuries of the Church, and it is the only thing the Bible teaches. The issues of reality refused by every Christian now will continue to face them for centuries after they have died – until they say, “Yes, Lord.”

Will Refuse to Enter. Those who are dishonest now will be dishonest “in” heaven. Those who do not believe God now will not believe God when they are “in” heaven. And I put “in” and “go to” in quotation marks when referencing heaven, because all humans live in heaven now, and in God now, and yet refuse to know what is real.

Those who are dishonest about themselves, that they are WRONG and incapable, and those who will not believe the Word God speaks, will refuse to enter into Jerusalem, that is, into Christ Community, into reciprocal Love. It’s not that actions of sin “offend” God; it’s that they prevent a Christ self-story, which blocks God-Love.

Must Come out of Her. This is God’s problem, for all Christians alive today are dishonest and refuse to believe God. All are found inside the harlot, and all must come out of her. And this is why the ministry of the second witness of Christ is followed immediately by the most Glorious of all Glories – a woman clothed with the sun, a Church, inside of heaven UPON earth, clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ, screaming in travail to bring forth the KNOWLEDGE of God into the knowledge of all – the River of LIFE!

We are talking about Christians loving one another inside all the love of God in committed Christ Community, right here on this earth, right now in this age.

You Will Say, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Whatever keeps you away from real Reciprocal Love is your enemy and God’s, and God sends those who call forth Christ into your life to remove that horror from you. If you fight them, it will burn you up. If you refuse them, you will be very glad when they no longer bother you. And if you refuse them, you get to continue without reciprocal Love for centuries – until you say, “Yes, Lord.”

Paul promised that you will say, “Yes, Lord.” It’s so much better to do it now, to rush into the full life experience of a glorious Church. God’s redemption takes you to Church.

The Issues of God. Just as we know that Jesus did not mean outward cannibalism in John 6, so we know that the ministry of “My two witnesses” does not mean outward circumstances of no real value. And because we know that the issues of God have never been “good versus evil,” but always “Life, not death,” we can look at the specific things John said about this second witness of Christ and know what reality must be.

God wants a Church, millions of believers in Jesus, living in all Salvation now, and going forth into all creation as the Ark of the Covenant, as the River of Life, as the aroma of the knowledge of God entering into every place.

The Impossible. The task of those who call forth Christ is to convince millions of Christians on this earth that Jesus loves them, that they are Redeemed, that “heaven versus hell” has turned them away from God, that Christ is Community, and that the knowledge of God must flow through the Church together for LIFE to prevail. In short, their task is to convince you that reciprocal Love is your only option, whatever the cost.

God has tasked them with the impossible, yet Revelation 12:1-5 assures us that they win the day. Then, as we saw earlier, Revelation 11 presents the critical dividing line.

All Are Uncovered. For the Word of God is living and energeoing and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating through as far as the dividing of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is capable of judging the pondering and purposes of the heart. And there is no created thing unseen in His presence, for all are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom is our word of account [our story of self] in return (Hebrews 4:12-13).

What is the purpose of lying? What is the point of pretending? Why do Christians imagine that God does not mean what He says? Why do we accuse God of falseness? Why do we blame others rather than give thanks?

The Penetration of Word. The Living and Energeoing Word of God flowing out to penetrate, and the golden oil flowing from the two olive trees into the Church, are the same thing.

May I suggest that you read Prepare a Path and see the meaning of this penetration of Word into the life of a desperate man contending with God over many decades. Your outward experience has been and must be very different from mine, but the issues of God remain the same.

Revelation 12 is the story of those Christians who say, “Yes, Lord,” but Revelation 11 includes the story of those who refuse. The penetration of Word to “divide” is very real.

As with Elijah. The message of Revelation 11 could be stated in this way. “Dear Christian, you will either receive the Love of Jesus for you now, turn your back on ‘go to’ heaven, and let God take you to Church with your brethren, or you will wait for a thousand years wondering every moment why you were so stupid as to strike down the great care Jesus has for you.”

The terrible thing about “My two witnesses” is that they won’t let anyone waffle or halt between two. As with Elijah, it’s all one or all the other. The In-part Church Age was all about waffling. That age, “the valley of decision,” has already come to an end.

Authority to the Heavens. Let’s look again at the specific things said about these two.

These possess the authority to the heavens, that no rain should fall in the days of their prophecy. And they possess authority over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every wound or affliction as often as they want. When these two shall have completed their testimony, the beast who ascends up out of the abyss will war against them and will overcome them and kill them.

And those dwelling upon the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets have examined by torment those dwelling upon the earth.

The Wave of Pure Light. Remember these lines from Annie’s vision.

This new wave, full of powers and forces of light and life, was His instrument and had a double function: one opened as the incision of a sharp sword, and the other penetrated and went through beyond all defense and accomplished what God had proposed… He showed me how this new wave operated: there were like gigantic arms that collected in an increasing scale countless multitudes of souls for Christ. In amazing operations of God, in great power and strength, thousands and millions were taken for Him.

This is the gathering in. Notice the word “penetrated” and its full meaning.

The Foolish Virgins. Then again, the foolish virgins in Matthew 25.

And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

This is the same word as Annie’s vision and the verses from Revelation 11.

Rain from Heaven. In Revelation 11, those who have drawn near, who have allowed God to fill their souls with His Spirit, an oil that never runs out, are kept inside the wave of pure light. These are those now dwelling in “the heavens.”

Here is the same thing as “the rain from the heavens” in Annie’s vision. ~ Those who walked above the storm had a very intimate relationship with Him, characterized by a great intensity, as if they were linked with the same fires and torrents of the divine nature. When the new ones took abundant blessings from God, it was due to the fact that they rebounded from His chosen ones. The blessing of one had an impact as a blessing for another one.

Those Who Have Not. Yet, according to Jesus, when those who refuse discover that the rain from heaven, the flow of the Spirit, is cut off from them, they seek for it, but do not find it. And what they do have (water) goes bad, that is “turns to blood.” These are those who dwell upon the earth, that is, the five foolish virgins. Or, as Jesus said, those who “have not” lose even what they had.

Now, the beast from the abyss, that is, modern political/ bureaucratic government across the whole earth, controlled by the Pharisees through money and blackmail, comes in fighting for control over Christianity on the earth.

The Most Terrible Thing. It is clear, then, that Revelation 11 is nothing more than a visible demonstration in power of the many warnings Jesus gave in the gospels. BUT – Revelation 12 is about those millions upon millions of Christians alive today who say, “YES, LORD,” and run with joy into All Salvation now.

The most terrible thing in this whole passage, however, are these words. – And those dwelling upon the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets have examined by torment those dwelling upon the earth.

The Entrance of Word. We understand this by contrast. Here are a number of familiar lines that are speaking of the same thing, that is, the entrance of Word.

The entrance of Thy Word giveth Light. – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. – Being born from above by an incorruptible Seed, the Word of God. – If a seed planted in the earth dies, it brings forth much fruit. – The Word of God is Living and Energeoing, PENETRATING through and dividing between.

But here is what these “Christians” call that same precious word. – Examination by torment. – And they are thrilled when that Word, the Lord Jesus, leaves them alone.

A Great Contradiction. Consider this great contradiction. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:22-23). – His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord’ (Matthew 25:23).

I have never understood those who place “depart from Me” upon others, as if it has no meaning to themselves.

I Need a Savior. Since I was nineteen, the awfulness of Jesus’ words caused me to NEED a Savior with all my heart and soul, that I might never hear them. Time and again, when the Word came as Fire into me, penetrating through all my defenses, sweet in my mouth, but bitter in my belly, when I wanted to cry and run, when I wept in my own darkness and loneliness, this great clash between “Depart from Me” and “Well done, My son,” kept me ever inside of that Word, regardless of the cost.

And when I left move community, I purposed absolutely that I would know Jesus inside of me, my Savior, and that I would know nothing else.

Why? Many rejoice in “grace, grace.” Many find great relief in discovering that God intends no “hellfire forever.” Many never imagine that “Depart from Me” could ever be spoken to them. What causes them to block out any penetrating Word that they might remain in the darkness of their own hades?

We could paraphrase John Milton. “Better to remain in control inside of my own hades than to love one another inside Christian Community.” God gave us hearts to rule, that we might share His Heart, that we might Love. They prefer control over the spin of their own story.

Be Silent and See Salvation. Here is how Moses put it. – Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.

Here is how Paul put it. – That every mouth might be closed, and the entire cosmos brought under judgment before God (Romans 3).

Here is how Elijah put it. – How long will you falter between two opinions [two minds]? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him. And Joel – Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.

The Completion. And thus we see again that Revelation 11 is nothing other than the gospel of Jesus Christ shown in power and in completion.

When they shall have FINISHED their testimony. – Here is what “finished” means. – And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. – That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him (Matthew 34:31 & Ephesians 1:10 - NKJV).

Gathered into Christ Community, into “love one another.”

Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is titled “The Trumpet and the Ark.” I have just added this chapter as well before we begin the second half of our study. You might read Revelation 11:14-19 again.

Also, if you have never watched The Matrix with Keanu Reeves, you might benefit by doing so. The climax of that story is very similar inwardly to the climax of our story. If you watch it, think of the “matrix” as a lifetime of living inside the knowing of good versus evil and then think of that one moment of victory, when the bullets are no more, as that one moment in time when we know that the Father is and has always been the only knowing that is real.

This is the meaning of the Trumpet and the Ark.

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, Your Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, has entered into us, and we have received Him in all that He is. Father, Your Word has penetrated deep into every part of our beings and split us wide-open at great cost. Yet as we have continued to say, “Yes, Lord,” and “Let it be to me,” so Your Word has become our Life and our Joy.

“Father, we ask now that this same Word, the Lord Jesus, would flow out from us into all our Christian brethren across this earth as we prophesy Christ. Father, let our Devoted Spirit flow as Rivers out from our faith together to enclothe Your Church with the Lord Jesus.

“Father, we know that this Word of Jesus-All will be welcomed by many and that it will be refused by many, yet it must be so, for You do not know violence. Father, we carry the glory and sorrow of Your penetrating Word. We receive with open arms those who receive Your Word with joy, and we bear the cost and the sorrow of each one who regards Your Word as torment and drives it away.

“Inside of the name of Jesus, we call all Christians upon this earth to receive Jesus as All-Salvation now, to turn your back on “going to” heaven someday, and to enter into Christian Community, that the Love of the Father, God among you, might be known inside of creation as God always intended. Let it be so; it is so. God has answered us.”