27. We Are the Second Witness
Audio Only:And I will give to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, enclothed with sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands, standing established inside the presence of the Lord of the earth.
The Spirit of God never changes topics from the beginning of John’s vision to the end. That one topic has two parts. The first is that the revelation of Jesus Christ comes through the Church, a vast number of people enveloped in full Salvation. The second is that those who are as Jesus devote their lives to her glory.
Interpreting Visions. John is seeing a series of visions. These are visions inside the realm of the Church. I am well accustomed to hearing and interpreting visions inside the gathering of the Church. No one imagines that God is speaking of material things. As Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are life,” in response to the accusation of His hearers that He was instructing them to be cannibals.
God is always speaking the fulfillment of the gospel, either in the life of an individual, or in the experience of a local Church, or through the Church as a whole. God is always speaking us inside of Jesus (Hebrews 1:1).
Two Gospel Truths Together. Revelation 11:1-13 is a vision given to us by the Spirit showing us a merging together of two gospel truths inside the Completion, specifically, Acts 1:8 and 1 John 3:16. – But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. – By this we have known love, in that Jesus set forth His soul for us, and we also are committed to setting forth our souls for our brothers and sisters.
The difference with “My two witnesses” is that they believe that God speaks the truth, that Salvation is complete, AND they give their lives without reservation for the Church.
Endorsed by God. Yet there is a third truth as well. – And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses” (Joshua 3:7).
For every one true witness of Christ there are ten thousand claiming to be witnesses, though they are not. Who are God’s people to believe? Consider those gathered as near as they can to knowing God, yet remaining inside of His fire, why should they give ear to any Pied Piper coming along with a new tune? God’s people must know that any witness is truly of God.
Different Metaphors Speaking the Same. Because God is speaking the same things through all the many parts of John’s vision, we understand that no one portion gives us the whole picture. Rather, we must place the different ways of seeing together to know God.
This fact is EVIDENT throughout the entire Bible. God uses many different metaphors to speak of the same things, not to confuse us, but to give us the whole one picture. You must be born again, Christ written upon tablets, redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb – these are three different and metaphorical views all speaking of one thing, that is, to give us a full picture of what happened when we asked Jesus into our hearts (literal, not figurative).
One Ministry of Christ. Those overcoming and seated inside the throne of God, the one who weeps over the Church, the two witnesses, the manchild, and the THEY of Chapter 12 are different ways of seeing the same one ministry of Christ to His Church.
Before we lay out our Jesus Secret page, however, I want to speculate just a bit on the layout of times. This is pure speculation of things I have pondered deeply for years. We’ll know what is true, however, only after whatever happens. The further I go in the knowledge of God, the less important the beast and the dragon become in my understanding. They are a distraction only, that we consider no more than we should. They present the setting of the Victory.
The Turning of the Gospel. If the Church of Jesus Christ does not stand forth inside of and as the FULL Salvation of God right here on this earth, right now in this age, then God is not God and the Bible is not true. Yet clearly, the establishment of such a glorious Church comes out from the Heart of Jesus shared with us. This is the turning of the gospel.
Our focus right now is consumed by millions of believers in Jesus all across the earth, those who have drawn near because they want to be with Jesus, though they don’t know how. Protect the Church. Provide for the Church. Be Mercy for her sake. Let the Bowels of Jesus consume you.
The Importance of the Moment. The seven years are not “tribulation,” but travail. This final travail began for us in the Passover season of 2022. Yet when we look across the earth right now, we see signs of great confusion, a plunging of all into insanity, yet there is not yet any outward “tribulation.”
I can know only God with me. And God with me tells me that I need this present time. I need the first part of the great travail to be without “tribulation.” The truth is, I have never known such peace, such contentment, such satisfaction as I am rejoicing in right now, such God-with-me in every lovely moment.
A Specific Time-Period. What is happening, however, is this. Because I know that God has established His Kingdom now with us, out from John 14:20, out from knowing that our every next step is Father with us, AND out from seeing the evidence all around of mass delusion and lying and the release of great evil, I see God preparing me to STAND in Him in all. I NEED exactly what is taking place.
Then I see three-and-one-half years coming up, possibly from October of 2025 to April of 2029, of the open ministry of Christ to His Church, establishing her absolutely as the revelation of Jesus Christ, as Salvation Revealed in the face of the last insane fury of the dragon and the beast.
The Jesus Secret Page. Out from that “speculation,” then, I want to establish what is not speculation, the ministry of Christ to His Church from the point of view given in Revelation Chapter 11. NOW is come Salvation and the authority of Christ, and it is very Personal, to us and to Jesus.
And now we can lay out our Jesus Secret page. After the statements of faith (in this lesson) are the two boxes found in the last lesson, “The Measurement of Christ” and the Jesus Secret box focused on “I will give.” They are then followed by “The Second Witness,” and our final box, “To Prophesy Christ as the Unveiling.”
Our Statements of Faith. We measure God’s people into the fulness of Christ, all who draw near, desiring to know the Lord. We receive all that Jesus is, now flowing through us into our world. We are the second witness of Christ; God proves Jesus faithful and true through our love for one another. The living, personal, Spirit Word out from God flows through us into the Church in all purity, that she might be clothed with Jesus. We give our lives for the sake of our brethren; God raises us up into life.
Establishing Word. So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:11). In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word will be established (Deuteronomy 17:6 & 2 Corinthians 13:1).
It is an absolute with God that one witness is not adequate. There must be two or more witnesses before any word can be established as the Truth and then – return to the Father. Jesus was complete in all ways – as one witness of the knowledge of God. God requires a second witness.
And We Also. Jesus, as the Word coming forth from God’s mouth into the earth, is the first witness. We, as that same Word, now returning to the Father fulfilled, are the second witness. I have believed this truth since my early twenties, but only now has the profound depths of what this really means opened up to me.
Let me make a bold assertion. The entire picture given in Revelation 11:7-13, the two witnesses being killed and then rising again and ascending into the sky – I interpret all of this as a visible depiction of 1 John 3:16, AND WE ALSO, the completion of the ministry of Christ. I no longer look for anything else but the Jesus Secret.
A Completed Seven Years. For 3 ½ years, Jesus spoke a measure of the gospel into those who would hear Him. Only in the upper room did Jesus begin to hint at Paul’s gospel, though none then understood Him at all. Then Jesus died and rose again, that He might begin the Salvation of God.
For 3 ½ years, we speak the fullness of the gospel of Christ, Paul’s gospel, into the Church. There is no more limitation or restraint, for LIFE is the only reality of all. Then we “die and rise again” (and we also), that we might complete the Salvation of God as Jerusalem upon the earth.
Faithful and True. None of this is about us. All of it is about a Church clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ, that she might hear Him. Yet God requires Jesus to prove Himself faithful and True in all that He speaks inside of and through those who believe.
God has placed everything upon a second witness of His Word, that it accomplishes all. All testimony of the in-part Church age has been that the witness of Jesus DOES NOT COUNT – because He was “God” and thus no half-baked Christian can be like Him. But when Jesus proves all that He speaks faithful and true through humans on this earth, then all accusation ceases.
Following in All. Ever since 1 John 3:16, AND WE ALSO, inserted itself into my writing in late 2011, I have considered this vision of the two witnesses being killed and then rising again as a profound picture of this ruling verse. Whatever the outward appearance of our lives going forward, the gospel fulfilled is what it’s all about.
“These are those who follow the Lamb” does not mean Jesus walking along with a bunch of people behind Him. It means that as He is, so also are we in this world, and as He does, so also do we. It means that everything that was God inside of Jesus is now God inside of Jesus inside of us.
The Completion. 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. You are My friends, if you [become and] do what I speak into you (John 15:12-14). A Church loving one another is the completion of the Lord Jesus Christ; there is no other completion.
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 (1 John 3:16). – There is not one thing that Jesus did for us that we do not give back to the Father in doing the same for our brethren.
Christian Community. In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word will be established. – Every Word. Did God indeed say? – Indeed, He did, and this Church upon this earth is His established PROOF.
The age of human folly is not a thing; it is a delusion (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). Yes, in their delusion, humans must hurt one another. BECAUSE – Loving one another is only God, the acknowledgment of God among us. Christianity today is utterly shattered, connected by falseness, every man for himself, die and go to heaven. Love is Christian Community, God among us. Christ is a many-membered Body.
The Second Witness. God establishes all truth by the testimony of two witnesses. Jesus was the first witness of God; we are the second. Just as Jesus is, so are we now in this world. All that Jesus does for us we give back to the Father by giving the same to our Christian brethren. The full completion of Jesus is that we love one another, reciprocally, in exactly the same way that Jesus loves us. There is no other proof of God than millions of Christians on this earth loving one another as the fulness of Christ. Our Christian Communities are the second witness.
Normal Christians. What are “the two witnesses?” They are – absolutely and completely – normal Christians who believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They possess nothing, they are given nothing, they know nothing, except that which is common and freely given to all who believe into Jesus. They are the simple gospel.
There is one difference only regarding these “whosoever will.” – They believe that God is telling us the truth, and in believing, they say, “Yes, Lord. Be it unto me.” I am writing an entire textbook defining these most simple of Christians – Symmorphy VI: Mankind.
Heretics. And what is their ministry? The ministry of “the two witnesses” is to bring millions of their fellow believers in Jesus into their same walk of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in loving one another, that is given to all. They are, to put it simply – heretics.
Who are they? We have already answered that question. First, whosoever will, and second – we are they. We are they, by the confession of Christ Jesus, our only life, because we want to share His Heart, because He shares all that He is with us. He has given Himself freely to us.
Revelation 11:3-6. And I will give to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, enclothed with sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands, standing established in the presence of the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to commit injustice against them, fire goes forth out from their mouths and eats up their enemies. And if anyone wants to commit injustice against them, it is inevitable for them to be consumed. 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.
A “Jesus” of Wrath. Because most Christians agree with the devil that God knows evil, they envision a “Jesus” appearing a second time in the opposite stance in which He appeared the first time. They see Him coming as wrath to physically destroy those who refuse Him and to cast them into hellfire.
These verses are the first of several in John’s vision that seem to give us such a picture of Jesus, that the meek and lowly Savior of the gospels, who laid down His life for all, is no more, but that “vengeance” is His only expression now. And since Christianity is a “failure” and the gospel “doesn’t work,” then God reverts to the Old Testament for His completion of this age.
How to Interpret. Indeed, these verses combine the outward actions of Moses and Elijah, that is, “no rain,” and “waters turn to blood.” How do we interpret these verses?
First – It is the Spirit that gives life, the thinking of the flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are life (John 6:63). Second – We do not fight against humans, but against spiritual evil in the heavens (Ephesians 6). Third – Lawlessness will be unveiled which the Lord Jesus will eliminate with the breath of His mouth and will render inoperative by His presence made visible and known (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
Coals of Fire. Fourth – If your enemy should hunger, feed him; if he should thirst, give him drink; for in so doing, you will be heaping coals of fire upon his head. Do not be overcome under evil but overcome evil inside of good (Romans 12).
But then we have this interesting statement Jesus made. – But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?” (Matthew 26:52-54). The meaning of our text must conform with all of these.
To Make Jesus Known. I will give to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy. To prophesy Christ is to make Jesus known; it is the Jesus Secret. Jesus known is love one another – this is My completion. Christians loving one another is what renders inoperative all that opposes Christ.
In the midst of all opposition, Jesus could have defended Himself outwardly. If He had done so, there would be no Salvation. In the same way, we are well able to defend ourselves outwardly by “divine power.” If we do, there will be no Salvation revealed.
Through a Ministry. The ministry of calling forth Christ through His Church is best taught through Revelation 12. But I believe that the metaphors given to that ministry in our verses in Chapter 11 serve a unique purpose. – And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.”
The Church belongs to Jesus and to nothing and no one else. And Jesus comes to His Church through a ministry. That ministry is NOT the pope nor any other that claims any authority over Christians, temporal or spiritual.
Get Their Attention. But the woman who is to be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is to bring forth the knowledge of God into the knowledge of all, is right now inside the harlot. She might be drawn near, but still, she does not see and she does not know – because she has heard only the in-part gospel, a “gospel” that contains Jesus, yes, but then against Him come all the words of the serpent in the garden.
So yes, there is an anger inside of Jesus, an anger TO SET HIS PEOPLE FREE! And that anger is very much inside of Jesus giving all that He is to us that we might speak Christ. Something will get the attention of millions of Christians, that they might know that we are calling them into Christ.
Clothed with Sackcloth. The mark of this ministry is that they are “clothed with sackcloth.” The meaning of that metaphor is very clear. We have NO sufficiency in ourselves, but only in God. We seek not our own, but only that which belongs to Christ Jesus. We do not present ourselves as anything but beneath of all, that each might be lifted up into Joy.
I have two pages on the Ekenosis in The Jesus Secret II, Philippians, “I Share the Same Heart-Thinking with Jesus,” and “The Ekenosis – God Revealed through Me.” Everything on those two pages fits right here. Our ministry is to call God into visibility, not through us, but through His Church – and us as part of that Church.
By Mighty Demonstration. Let me stop circling around what I want to say and say it directly. Israel in Egypt belonged to God, but they would not hear Him. God sent Moses and, by mighty demonstration, God convinced them to submit to Moses, the meekest man of all. Then, by a similar demonstration, He persuaded His people to turn the same attention to Joshua. And, by similar demonstration, He showed Himself through Elijah.
God’s people are so ready to follow any Pied Piper, from the Pope to the latest spit-slinging holiness preacher. But the Church does NOT belong to any of them.
Whatever It Takes. The Church belongs to us, to Jesus through us, and to the Word of Christ which we carry, the Jesus Secret. The Church belongs under a covering that is meek and lowly of heart, that sets forth their souls for her sake. The Church belongs inside of Christian Community all across this earth. The Church belongs to All-Salvation now, to the knowledge of God flowing out from her as LIFE into all.
Here is what our text speaks to me. – Jesus will do whatever it takes to get the attention of 100 million believers and to bring them quickly into submission to those who love her.
Will Finish Their Testimony. We have already considered the meaning of “My two witnesses” following the Lamb into death and resurrection. Here we want to know this fact, that the second witness of Christ WILL finish their testimony. This is an incredible statement and an enormous promise of God.
The result of Jesus “finishing His ministry” was the Church on the Day of Pentecost and eight years of Christ Community in Jerusalem. The result of the “two witnesses” finishing their ministry is the Church on the Great Day of Tabernacles, Rivers of living water, and Christ Community across the earth.
A Little Moment. But there was a brief gap between Jesus’ resurrection and the Day of Pentecost, during which His disciples waited quietly and in secret, staying safe. I see a similar thing, again – speculating only, from the completion of this ministry during the season of Passover, a time of which Isaiah speaks – Hide thyself for a little moment until the indignation be overpast. – Until the real and final fulfillment of Tabernacles in September-October.
We will consider those months later, when we look at the ruin of the beast and the dragon in chains. I think it will be a time when it dawns on humans on this earth that LIFE is the only reality there has ever been.
To Prophesy Christ as the Unveiling. We speak the Jesus Secret; we call forth Christ Jesus unveiled through His Church. The full completion of Jesus is Christians loving one another as the Body of Christ, in committed daily life together. The Church, clothed with Jesus, is His glory. We call every Christian on this earth and inside the heavens, who wants to be with Jesus inside of His glory, into Christ Community, into God among us, into Love made visible. We gather all who love Jesus into the fulness of Christ, into all Salvation now, into living turned around, the revelation of God, the revelation of Love. As our brethren rush into Christ Community, clothed with LIFE, so we teach them to know the Father, to be His Mercy inside creation. It is Love that makes our enemies tremble; it is Christian love that causes all the world to know Jesus Sent.
I Will Cause Them to Know. I feel as if I have hardly scratched the surface on what is found inside this first part of Revelation 11. Yet I know that, as we go forward, the Spirit of God will be adding so much more to our understanding of this ministry that brings the completion of Christ into the end of human folly. Revelation 11 simply sets the stage, coming out from everything that has come before, and being expanded by everything that follows after.
Here is our bottom line understanding, from earlier in our study. – I will cause them to know that I have loved you. Here is our bottom line response – God, You have answered us.
Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is titled, “We Are the Ark Now Seen.” For that lesson, read Revelation 11:14-19 two or three times. This is the final lesson of the first half of our study; our topic has become VERY profound.
Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet and there were great voices inside of heaven saying, “The kingdom of the world-cosmos has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign into the unfolding of the ages. – Then the sanctuary of God inside of heaven was opened and the Ark of His Covenant was seen inside of His sanctuary, the place of His dwelling.
This is the completion of the knowledge of God, that is, Life.
Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, You have set us in this earth as Your second witness that everything Jesus speaks is faithful and True, every Word is fulfilled in Your Church on this earth. Father, You have placed that same Word into our mouths that we might prophesy Christ, that we might call Jesus forth as the Life and Energia of all who belong to Him.
“Father, the full completion of Jesus is that millions of Christians would love one another just as Jesus loves, as the Body of Christ, inside committed Christ Community. And Father, we call You into Your Church, into the acknowledgement of all, into God-among-us.
“God, our Father, inside of the name of Jesus, we call Your people right now into Love, into You among-us, into the unveiling of Jesus Christ. Father, we call all believers in earth and heaven into Christ Community, into committed life together, into the full completion of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Christian brethren, be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ, put Him upon all that you are and have ever been. Jesus is your only LIFE; He has always energeoed all inside of you. Death is not salvation; Salvation is the Church, Christian Community, loving one another with pure hearts fervently. Be together the revelation of His Love, be together the knowledge of God entering into the knowledge of all.”