Question: Hello, good day! Can I ask a question? Can you please explain the following? And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars (Revelation 12:1). Who is the Woman, Crown and 12 star?
Why do you say Rev 12 14-17 is the rapture of the Church? Is it because the woman is given wings and taken to the wilderness for 3 1/2 years ?
Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful and mighty name!
It is very important and good for us to see the whole chapter of Revelation 12 and find the most important message of the Rapture within it and the left behind saints.
Here we go, Rev 12:1-17,
"A woman clothed with the sun travails
1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Michael and his angels fight with the dragon, and prevail
7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
The dragon, being cast down into the earth, persecutes the woman
13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
We see that we have divided the whole Chapter in to three section, highlighting certain aspect of its context for our own better understanding.
"1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days." (Rev 12:1-6).
(1) A WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN TRAVAILS
When God send any sign, it means He expects us to look in to it and understand it, so that we may be benefited from God through His grace and mercies that He gives to us constantly. But when we see a "great sign", it means that God in His Sovereign plan wants us to get aligned to this understanding of the great sign he is showing from heaven, so that we on earth might understand the full plan and purpose of God for which He is showing this sign to us.
Even great sign in heaven can be a partial eclipse that is seen and noted recently in the Bible belt of USA. But you can only call it a sign in heaven, but not a great sign, because a great sign in heaven is given by God to all the earth and its inhabitants, and can be noted everywhere in all the earth where it is present.
What is that great sign? It is "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars", and what do we understand from all of it? If we do not turn to the Bible to find that these signs signify to us, we can never be able to understand the importance of it in our lives. We know that John the apostle Himself said, that all or nearly most of those things in the Book of Revelation is signified and given from Jesus Christ to the Church to understand the plans and purposes of God for the existence of the present heaven and earth (Rev 1:1). Hallelujah!
To understand the significance of the signified language that the apostle John has presented to us, we need to turn to find the same allegories or signs that God has given in other places of the Bible, through which we can safely understand the message that God is conveying to us the Church. Praise the Lord!
We find the same allegory or signs when God revealed Joseph about his future life and how God is going to save His people Israel from the slavery of his oppressors and establish them in their own land, to serve Him as a chosen people and set apart holy people for Himself. This is very important and we need to get the meaning right which will set the tone for the rest of this article.
Gen 37:9-11, "9 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.” 10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?” 11 And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind."
From the above Bible passages that Joseph spoke, we see the meaning of the sun, moon and starts according to the context in which it was spoken. The sun was understood to be the Father Jacob, by Jacob himself, his wife as the moon and the eleven children of his to be the stars bowing down to Joseph the twelve'th star. In fact Jacob, rebuked Joseph for saying such a dream, but he kept the matter in heart because he knew that it must be a God-sent dream. This dream made Joseph to become envy of his Brothers.
And the fulfillment of the above dream actually happened when Joseph became the most powerful executive leader of the whole of Egypt (Gen 45:9). In the Book of Revelation when we see "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars", the woman is revealed to be not just the Israelite's as we have seen above whom God separated for Himself as a family to bless it and multiply it to become a nation in the land of Canaan, it was more than that, it means the people of God separated for a holy cause which was God's will and his intention for the whole earth. The woman when we take it as the people of God, she being clothed with a sun represents that God Himself becomes the clothing of righteousness, wisdom, sanctification and righteousness from God (1 Cor 1:30-31), so that all may glory in the Lord. The Lord is the Sun and the shield as He gives grace and glory and good things to all those who walk with integrity before Him (Psa 84:11). Sun is the source of light energy, just like God is the source of spiritual light in all the earth and heavens (John 1:4-5; 1 Peter 1:19-21).
The moon represents the angelic realm in the Bible, that means, it is a reflective power and is not the source. All that the moon does is, receive the light from the Sun and reflects it upon the earth. Moon is also given to rule the night, which means those who do not want the ruler-ship of God to shine forth with his commandments and salvation to them, have a option to choose their own will and way which is to make the reflective light of the moon and the angels to be their rulers in their lives rather than to be part of getting clothed with the Sun (Gen 1:16). The moon reveals "signs and seasons for days and years" which represent earthly life in contrast to the eternal heavenly life that God gives (John 10:28).
Even the stars in the night are those angels that God uses for Himself from heaven to give His own light in the midst of the darkness of the world ruled by the god of this world, Satan (2 Cor 4:4; Matt 1:20; Luke 1:26). We see these stars and Satan himself who is the most powerful and brightest "son of the morning" who is Lucifer meaning "Day Star" to mean that the light of the entire moon itself is contained in him and channeled through him. We see in the Book of Job Satan operating directly under the sovereign power of the Sun who is God himself the source of all power (Job 1:1-22; 2:1-13; 38:6-7; Ezek 28:1-2, 3, 4-5; 1 John 5:19). Biblical references use the moon symbol to highlight cosmic events, divine epiphanies and the ephemeral ((i.e.) lasting only for a very short time) nature of human life and history (see, for example, Isaiah 30:26; 60:19; Revelations 21:23). So we see in short, the whole world fell in to darkness of the evil one from the beginning of time (Gen 1:1-2). And therefore God gave a option for human to choose to live in the light of the moon in darkness or under the light of the Sun which is the truth of the prophetic Scripture which sets him free in the salvation light of God for eternity ahead (John 8:31-32, 36; Rom 15:4). For those people of God who is the woman who get clothed with the Sun by believing the prophetic Scripture, will have the angelic realm of the moon working under their feet or they were told to fight against these angelic beings till they work or become inline to the will of God. Which is for them to be under their feet and serving them, instead of humans serving these angels as god and gods of the world (Rev 22:8-9; 19:9-10). In Christ Jesus humans who were allowed to be slightly be inferior in the present earth through sin, become greater than them in glory even in the present world system through their belief in the Scripture which clothes them with the glory of the Sun in the Son which is God Himself (Psa 8:5, 6; Heb 2:6-9, 10).
Thus the light of the Moon represents that the present world in all its glory which was put in subjection by God to the angels temporally until this age ends (Heb 2:5; Matt 28:20; Luke 4:5-6; Matt 24:3), and in the new age and the world to come is put under Christ and the Church for the Glory of God to be revealed for eternity (Rev 11:15b; Dan 2:44; 7:27; Luke 22:16, 30; Matt 26:29; Heb 2:6, 7, 8, 9-10, 11; Eph 1:20-21, 22-23; Php 3:20-21; Rom 8:19, 21, 23). Thus the woman is the assembly of the people of God even in our age of the Church (Heb 2:12; Acts 7:38). I just want to make sure that the woman doesn't change from the starting of the Revelation Chapter 12 to the end of the Chapter. And the meaning is not Israel or the Church, but to God all are the people of God and the people of faith from Genesis to Revelation of the Bible in this regard.
The woman had "on her head a garland of twelve stars" which are twelve tribes of Israel which God divided to bring the Messiah and bless the world according to His foreknowledge from the beginning to the end (Rev 21:12; Deut 32:8), the reason why the people of God should not forget the heritage it has in the nation of Israel through the 12 tribes, through which God gave the Scripture to us, and Jesus to the world (Eph 2:11-12; 3:5-6; John 4:22; 1:17; Luke 24:27; John 3:16). Hallelujah! GLORY!
Further we see the details of how the woman became pregnant with the promise of God and brought forth a Son in the appointed time God has foretold through His Scriptures (Gal 4:4-5). The verse two says, "Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth", which means when God told Isaiah regarding the sign "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Isa 7:14), the people of God became pregnant with it, and at the appointed time angel Gabriel announced to Mary of how God the Son is going to come as a baby through her and how he shall save His people from their sins and be their God to be with them forever (Matt 1:18-23; Luke 1:26-35). Hallelujah!
Further as we move on we see, "3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born."
Before the Great Sign of the woman who is the people of God, the whole episode of the fall of angels through Satan and the existing kingdom of darkness which will soon pass away is just a sign that we as humans need to understand.
For the first time we see in the whole of the Bible, the details of the fall of Satan and the purpose of his existence. We know that the fiery "red dragon" is Satan who wants to fill the earth with godlessness through self life and an existence outside of God which is the path he has chosen for Himself (Rev 12:9). The governments of this world and religions have together been given in to the hands of Satan by our forefather Adam when he disobeyed God and sinned (Rev 12:3; Rom 5:12, 18, 19; 6:16; Luke 4:5-6), and as a result the whole economy of the earth and the power of it, representing the headband of the diadem or sovereign authority has landed in the hands of Satan who controls the whole world through it (Rev 17:18; Mark 12:17; Matthew 22:21; Luke 20:25).
The clearest indication of what percentage of angels fell in to sin and how many are still left with God is revealed so clearly by John the apostle here in the fourth verse of Revelation Chapter 12. Here we see that the first sin did not happen with Adam on earth, but rather with Satan and his demons in heaven, and as a result was thrown down by God to the earth, which was destroyed by the fallen ones to make it became void, formless, chaotic and full of darkness, this hopeless atmosphere surrounded the earth as the fallen ones wanted to stop the project of God because of their pride and jealousy over humans who will reach a higher level status than them in this physical creation through their fellowship with God, and that they as angels will all become their servants to help them serve God as the sons and daughters of God (Rev 22:8-9; Gen 1:1-2). One third of the angels sided with Satan and two thirds of the angels voluntarily chose to remain with God, the tail of Satan wagging shows how in a friendly way through lies he deceived one third of the angels who teamed up with Satan and fell from heaven being thrown out by God. With God there remains always a majority. GLORY TO GOD!
Even from the time of Moses, to Jesus, whenever the activities of angels increased to great proportion, Satan and his fallen angels suspected that the promised Messiah of God might come, as promised by God after the fall of Adam and Eve in to sin, being tempted by Satan (Gen 3:15), and started to kill children born at that time to prevent the Messiah who will come to crush his head (Exo 1:16; Matt 2:16-18). And thus "the dragon stood before the woman [of the people of God] who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born." (Rev 12:4).
"5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron."
Thus the people of God among whom Mary the mother of Jesus was one who believed God's promises (Luke 1:38), bore a male Child in Jesus who is the Christ (Luke 2:22-24), who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron (Rev 19:15-16).
But thank God for his angelic protection and His supernatural security dome which was not able to be poked through by Satan or his minions. Therefore, Jesus began to increase in wisdom, and grow both physically in favor with men and favor with God (Luke 2:52).
"And her Child was caught up to God and His throne."
We know when Jesus died and rose again on the third day, and was caught up to God and His throne where He has been honored and felicitated by God the Father, to seat him at the right hand of His power (1 Cor 15:3-4; Acts 1:9; Mark 14:62; Php 2:9-11). To be at the right hand of His power, is to refers to honor, status, and power. In ancient literature, people seated at the right hand of a king were considered trustworthy and given the king's power. In the Bible, the right hand represents God's place of honor, and Jesus is said to sit at the right hand of the Father, which means he has equal status to the Father within the Godhead (Gen 41:37-39, 40, 41-42; Heb 1:8, 13). GLORY TO GOD!
"6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days."
When Jesus was taken up in to heaven by ascension, he did not leave his disciples as orphans according to his promise (John 14:18-26), but as He had promised them, as a comforter who is in like capacity to Him as God in the Spirit (John 4:24), He sent the Holy Spirit right at the time of Pentecost to his disciples who were expectantly waiting for the Holy Spirit's filling in their lives (John 16:7, 13-15; Acts 2:1-2, 3-4).
A BIG TRANSITION
Some people when we speak about woman in this chapter, they will either stick on to Israel or the church, but might fail to make the transition which Jesus himself made and declared before his death and resurrection.
God doesn't have a banner saying, I am Israel or the Church, but rather He is with all those who are with Him (2 Chron 15:2). It is like Joshua asking the Lord, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?", the Lord replied saying, "As, the commander of the Lord's Army I have come...Take your sandal off your foot, the place where you stand is holy." (Josh 5:13-15). In other words, all who desire to live a holy life, are protected and rewarded by God for their faith. God have promised Israel physically, and through Moses gave them the law to follow, so that those who sincerely keep it will be noticed by God for sand-blessings (Gen 13:16-17). But for the Church, God has given spiritual salvation and have promised them all the spiritual star-blessings in the heavenly places (Gen 15:5-6; Eph 1:3). For both of them, the way they see the Kingdom of God is very different. Israel sees all the blessings of the Kingdom of God only physically. But the Church sees all the blessings of the Kingdom of God only spiritually.
The Lord Jesus spoke prophetically through a parable of how Israel is going to reject his spiritual coming for them through crucifying him on the Cross, and as a result how the Kingdom Presence of God from heaven is going to be taken away from the nation of Israel and will be given to a nation [(i.e.) the Church being a nation within the nations of the world] that will produce the fruits of God's character through His Kingdom Presence living in this world, but at the same time being not of the world for the Glory of God (Matt 21:43-44).
So now that Israel has fallen upon the this great stone of Jesus first coming for them and were completely broken to been judged and dispersed after this, to become scattered in all the world to become like a powder afterward as the great stone of the wrath of God fell on them grinding them to powder wherever they lived in all the earth (Matt 21:44), but the Church has been living under the grace and mercy of the favor of God for the past two thousand years time (Tit 3:5-8).
But again a big transition is on the cards, which means the age of the Church is coming to a close with the Rapture and God is again going to turn his Kingdom Presence on earth upon the nation of Israel as they have all returned back by His mercies and grace in the small middle eastern nation of Israel. But for the Church, all these years they hoped and lived for the resurrection of their eternal inheritance of a glorious body is so nearer than they have ever been, as Rapture is coming before the Great Tribulation will start to come strongly like never before in a unprecedented way upon the whole earth (Rev 3:10-11). The destination for the Church is the New Heaven and New Earth which is all ready already as promised by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (John 14:3; 2 Peter 3:13). Immediately after the Rapture, we will be taken to the Father's House of New Jerusalem where there are enough mansions for the whole Church already (John 14:2), there the marriage of the Lamb will take place and reception thereafter (Rev 19:7-9), after which the Church as the bride with the bridegroom Jesus Christ will be settled in the New Heaven and New Earth (Rev 21:1). At that time, the New Jerusalem will lower itself supernaturally and will start to orbit around the New Heaven and New Earth which will be illuminated by the glory of the light of God from it (Rev 21:2-3, 23-24). And the Church will rule the present heaven and earth with Jesus from that place of its home forever (2 Pet 3:12; Rev 19:14-15). Hallelujah! GLORY TO GOD!
So now as we know the whole structure of God's plan and purposes for both Church and Israel, let us delve deeper in to the wilderness that is described mainly twice, that is, one for the Church during the past two thousand years time and another wilderness for it after the mid-point of Daniel 70th week. That is, the first wilderness gave the Church its power, but the second wilderness is the surety of knowing that Rapture is ahead for all of the Church to watch and pray so that they might escape the Great Tribulation! Hallelujah!
"Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days." (Rev 12:6).
The people of God were happy to be when they were with Jesus, who covered their lives with His very own anointing as the Messiah of the spiritual world and the physical world. But when Jesus began to speak of his exit from this physical world, the apostles and disciples felt like they were being orphaned in their lives (Matt 16:21; 17:22-23; Luke 9:21-22; John 16:5-6; 14:18-26). But our Lord Jesus promised them that in His Kingdom Presence, the very Presence of the Father in Heaven and His very own from the right hand of the Father, through the Holy Spirit will come and stay in His power and protection over their lives and make home within them individually. Thus the Kingdom of God which is within the woman of the Church was spread worldwide (Luke 17:20-21).
How can the Church flee to the wilderness before two thousand years itself? This is where we need to open our spiritual eyes and see that the woman fleeing in to wilderness is not a physical or symbolic or even literal one, but rather it is the place of prayer and fasting where the fight against Satan and his demonic cohorts is overcome by faith (Mark 1:12-13; Matt 17:21; Mark 9:28-29; Eph 6:10-13; 1 John 5:4). Jesus Himself fasted and prayed in the wilderness for the Messiah's anointing to come upon him in power, to do the works of the Father God in the nation of Israel as a witness to them that God Himself has visited them (Matt 4:1-2, 17; John 14:11; 10:25, 37; Luke 7:16).
This truth was very clearly confirmed by Jesus Himself. The Bible verse Luke 5:35 says, "But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast". In other words, when Jesus was taken up in ascension to be seated at the right hand of the Father God, the disciples began to flee in to the wilderness of fasting and praying for the anointing of God to cover them supernaturally and protect them as a continuing witness to the name of Jesus in the world around them (Acts 1:14; 4:27-31; 9:31; 10:9; 12:5; 13:2-3; 16:25).
THUS, THE CHURCH FLED IN TO WILDERNESS AFTER JESUS' ASCENSION UNTIL RAPTURE TAKES PLACE!
In the wilderness, God feeds the woman with the rhema word that sustains her spiritually and physically and in all other dimension of their lives for the Glory of God. Jesus Himself experienced the Rhema Word of God after the forty days of fasting and prayer, so that the devil was defeated through the Word of God and ran away until a opportune time for him in the life of Jesus to tempt and attack him spiritually (Matt 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13; Mark 1:12-13, 14-15). The place of protection prepared by God in the wilderness, for the woman of the Church is the place of PRAYER AND FASTING to RECEIVE THE MIGHTY ANOINTING OF HEAVEN ON EARTH (Luke 3:21-22; Luke 4:1-2, 3-13, 14; Matt 17:20-21; Mark 9:28-29; 2:20; Luke 5:33, 34-39)! Hallelujah!
Why "one thousand two hundred and sixty days"? The secret of it is, when Jesus came to Israel to do the works of the Father in His name, He did as a witness for nearly three and half years time (i.e. 1260 days time of 30 days month of Jewish calendar) to establish His Messiah-ship, but Israel as a disobedient nation not only rejected Jesus but also killed him according to God's foreordained plan for salvation of all humans (Acts 2:23, 36; 15:18). So the three and half years of Messiah's anointing was taken from Him and given to the Church for a longer period of time to do greater work than Jesus did, not in terms of quality, but in terms of quantity (John 14:12-14), how much it is, till the time of Rapture when Jesus will return to take the Church to be with Himself in the New Heaven and New Earth (Luke 19:13; Eph 2:10; Ecc 9:10; 2 Cor 5:10; Tit 2:7, 24; 3:1, 8, 14; Rev 22:12).
IN OTHER WORDS, THE ANOINTING OF JESUS WHICH PROVED HIS MESSIAHSHIP FOR 1260 DAYS WAS TRANSFERRED UPON THE CHURCH TILL THE RAPTURE, WHERE, WHEN THEY BY CHOICE FLEE IN THE WILDERNESS TO GOD THROUGH FASTING AND PRAYERS, THEY ARE FED WITH HIS RHEMA WORDS OF POWER WHICH OVERCOMES THE WORLD OF SATAN AND KEEPS THEM UNDER DIVINE PROTECTION OF HEAVEN.
GLORY!
Praise the Lord!
(2) MICHAEL AND HIS ANGELS FIGHT WITH THE DRAGON, AND PREVAIL
"7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” (Rev 12:7-12).
When the weakest of all the saints becomes greater than the greatest Old Testament prophet John the Baptist, through prayer and fasting, Satan and his evil minion lose their power over the people of God as they are kept in Divine protection of His anointing shield, through which no one can poke through and reach those who are anointed with such power (Acts 10:38; Matt 11:11).
So the only thing now Satan can do is to keep the saints out of prayer, so that they remain in the wilderness for too long and does not come out in power to do good works for the Lord and make a eternal difference in this world through saving souls for eternity.
Now that Satan loses power when saints pray and seek God with fasting to receive the Rhema food of the word of God that is fed to them from heaven, they are led or driven by the Spirit in to the wilderness just like Jesus was.
Here we see that Satan and his demons did not want to give up their wholesome power which they handled in the Old Testament times, even on behalf of the saints that God would channel his power through them then (Job 1:6-12, 13-22; 2:1-6, 7-10). Thus the evil rebellion with in their hearts began to manifest itself against God and His Christ and the saints, "7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer." The opportunity for Satan and his fallen angels to present the saints before God in the second heaven, was taken away from them and the ability of the believers staying in the wilderness of prayer and fasting to receive that power of God directly from God's throne was made way through Jesus Christ our Lord who lived a sinless life, and did the Job for us so that we in Christ Jesus can learn to victoriously reign in this earth. Hallelujah!
Why Michael and his angels were involved in this fight, when they are the ones who just represent the nation of Israel before God and take care of them alone? Because this was the time when Jesus was in the wilderness and was praying through with fasting for those 40 days time. In the first heaven there was fight in the Old Testament times, whenever God wanted to do anything in the nation of Israel (Dan 10:13; 12:1), so this time too, "war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer." (Rev 12:7-8; Mark 1:13). Once the new last Adam and second man of the heavenly origin came on earth without sin, next only to first Adam who was sinless son of God before his fall in to sin (Luke 3:38; Rom 5:12), Jesus Christ came in to being as a sinless lamb of God representing the people of God (John 1:36; 1 Cor 15:45, 47), and Satan took the fight to Jesus, and ended every temptation but could not even have a micro millimeter of space to control Him and even after years of temptations from him, he still had no space of sin within Jesus to step in and control him or influence him to deceive (Luke 4:13; John 14:30). Hallelujah!
As a result of it, "9 ...the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down." (Rev 12:9-10). Jesus spoke about it and said later during His Ministry when Satan could not resist the power of His anointing and His apostles whom He sent on His behalf, when these apostles and disciples saw Jesus again, here is what happened, "17 Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” 18 And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:17-20). Thus the power to control the people of God and his free reign over them has been thrown out, along with it, he could not accuse them anymore of wrongdoing and sin, because personally Jesus took their sin from the time of baptism which he took at the river from John the Baptist, the greatest and the final prophet of the Old Testament times (Matt 3:15-17; 11:9-10, 11). Already when Jesus did his ministry, Satan and his fallen angels, could not resist the power anointing that Jesus and his apostolic disciples operated with, and so fighting against them, again and again they fell like lightning down to the earth. But since the Cross of Jesus Christ, all the people who looked to him for salvation (John 3:14; 12:32), because Satan was judged and thrown out forever against controlling them anymore or stand before God to receive power on behalf of them (John 12:31-32), now all believers directly can come before the throne of God and receive power of God and His anointing to do good works as Jesus is the one who speaks to the Father on behalf of them (Heb 4:14-16; Acts 1:8; 1 John 2:1-2; John 14:12-14).
After Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior victoriously overcame Satan, Jesus, "Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them [on the Cross where He bled and died], triumphing over them in it." (Col 2:15). Hallelujah!
Thus from that time onward, "11 And they [(i.e.) the believers of the Church] overcame him [(i.e.) Satan and his fallen angels] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth [(i.e.) Israel] and the sea [(i.e.) the Gentile world]! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” (Rev 12:11-12; 1 Cor 10:32). The simple cross carrying life of a believer, that rejects their own self, and confesses the blood of Jesus to be their righteousness, cannot be handled by Satan or his minions forever and ever, as these are those who will be anointed with power to do good works and be a testimony to the name of Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior (Matt 11:28-30; Luke 9:23-24, 25-26; Acts 1:8). GLORY TO GOD!
These believers who turn the world upside down and down side up (Acts 17:6), are never afraid of their own lives, because Jesus has told to them that Satan at the maximum can only take their physical life, but God has the power to throw people both soul and body in to eternal hell fire, and therefore Jesus has instructed all believers to fear God rather than people whom Satan uses to cause fear of death or even death itself (Matt 10:27-31). God has the last laugh, and all those who fear Him will also have it without doubt!
For the past two thousand years time, the great wrath and atrocities of Satan and his fallen angels through deception and persecution has been increasing rapidly and it has reached its zenith in the end of end time in which we are living before Daniel 70th week starts. So until Rapture happens, we should continue to take up the Cross that God has given to us personally in our lives and live in faith so that Satan and his demonic cohorts could not stand against us to continue to fight against us spiritually till Rapture, but run away from us like he ran away from Jesus and look for a opportune time to tempt us again and be defeated again and again. GLORY TO GOD!
Therefore, whether through temptation or trials, we should learn to rejoice as we belong to heaven and not the earth which is going to be judged by God very soon through Great Tribulation wrath for all the sins and godlessness happening in all the earth (Php 4:4; Jam 1:2-3, 4, 12; Rev 3:10; 2 Thess 1:6-8; 1 Thess 1:10; Php 3:20). Praise the Lord!
Satan has only a very very short time, therefore, he is becoming mad at every believer who is anointed with power to destroy them all, because they are destroying his power and are challenging it before all his subjects and slaves who are living in the world. May God help us to continue to be a witness in all the world in our generation for the Glory to God!
(3) THE DRAGON, BEING CAST DOWN INTO THE EARTH, PERSECUTES THE WOMAN
"13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Rev 12:13-17).
Even though the power of Christ and His Kingdom has come for the past two thousand years on this earth, yet Satan has been fighting with the Church openly and the Jews in secret where ever there were in the world, to completely destroy them on earth if possible. But to his utter dismay, he has been defeated again and again and he could not prevail over them even for sometime because of the power of the Cross, that brought them to the forefront with great power, he could not withstand from heaven whenever they prayed and fasted (Mark 9:29; Acts 4:31; 16:25-26; Rev 12:7-9). Here is a very important thing to note in order to understand this whole Chapter. The first time, Satan was thrown out with his angels from the second heaven, He could not prevail over the angels of God, and also he could no more receive the power of God that was channeled through him in the Old Testament times on behalf of the people of God. But instead the "salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come" directly to the people of God on earth. So that Satan and his fallen angels could no more accuse the believers before the Father God anymore as Jesus Himself as a advocate was not only representing them before the Father God, but also was speaking for them to receive favor for them from Him (Heb 4:14-16; 1 John 2:1-2). Hallelujah!
So on behalf of the world still Satan receives power from God to channel it to them according to his whims and fancies (Luke 4:5-6), Satan and his angels deceives and keeps the world in darkness and blindness away from God the Father's and Jesus's light which only the believers will be able to experience now and for eternity until the unbeliever repents and turns his life towards God (Rev 12:9). Therefore, Satan remains the god of this world by deceiving the world, and still it continues to keep all those living in darkness away from the light of God and make it harder for them to come to their senses through the gospel of the light of Christ (2 Cor 4:4).
Thus we see that in these end of end time we live, very soon in the middle of Daniel 70th week, "13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent." (Rev 12:13-14). The key to understanding the time of the Rapture and the very process of how God will operate it is clearly drawn in the chapter 12 of Revelation. The moment the "abomination of desolation" starts in the middle of the Daniel 70th week (2 Thess 2:3-4; Matt 24:15-16), Satan and his cohorts will be "cast out to the earth", immediately he will start to persecute the Church of God by searching to arrest and seal them with 666 mark of the beast, above all this is the time when Jesus himself has instructed the Church to flee both physically if possible, but definitely to "watching and praying" in faith and above all to places of isolation where the believers can be in private prayer to God (Luke 4:42; 5:16; Matt 14:13). Because the sealing of the mark of the beast will start from Jerusalem to the whole world by the instruction of the false prophet (Rev 13:11-18; Matt 24:16-20; Luke 17:21-22, 23-24, 25-37). When the believers will flee away from the clutches of the Antichrist through watching and praying, and when they look forward to the Rapture in faith, "the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent".
As we look deeply in to what this flying and not fleeing as before in to the wilderness means, the very physical bodies will become the glorious bodies to be taken up in the Rapture. Thus when they will all be taken to the New Jerusalem to be glorified further in the marriage of the lamb and the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:7-9), they will all be kept from the presence of the dragon until they will all come as "armies of heaven clothed with linen" (Rev 19:7-8, 14).
Thus when the Church armies of heaven come again with Jesus Christ, they first will defeat all those who are with the Antichrist and False Prophet in Armageddon, and will send them all in to the lake of fire after that immediately (Rev 19:20-21). And then the Church will face Satan straight with the power and glory of God, and will be instructing an angel who will come down from heaven and will have the key to bottomless pit. The angel will open the bottomless pit and will cast Satan in to it, to shut it up and set a seal on him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But only Satan will be allowed by the Church "a little while" after that thousand years rule on this present earth, when Satan once again will incite the unbelieving nations of the world to come around the camp of the saints in Jerusalem to destroy them, once and for all time then the Church will then judge Satan and his angels even before the White Throne judgment, and they will all be caught up and thrown in to the same lake of fire for eternity ahead (Rev 20:1-3; 1 Cor 6:3).
Further we see the great events that John the apostle reveals by saying, "15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
The serpent who is the Dragon always speaks lies and is the father of it (Rev 12:9; John 8:44), so the Great United Nations "peace and safety" lies of the end time one world government will come like a flood to sweep everyone and the whole world in to it (1 Thess 5:3), the world will not escape the wrath and the Great Tribulation of God, but we the Church who had obeyed the word of Jesus to "watch and pray" will be counted worthy to escape through Rapture all these things that will come to pass, and stand before the Son of Man Jesus the Christ in the clouds (Luke 21:34-36; 1 Thess 4:17-18).
The flood of lies and deception that Satan sends in to the world is to trap the woman to be carried away by the flood of lies and deception (2 Thess 2:9-12), the woman being the people of God and people of faith on earth, Satan wants to take them in to the Great Tribulation of God so that they could experience the wrath of God against the will of God for them.
The earth opening its mouth is a literal one, where the dead in Christ rise up with the resurrected glorious bodies and then those alive being caught up in the air along with them to be taken to the New Jerusalem. The peace and safety lies of climate change will be forever be swallowed by the resurrection and rapture truth, which the earth co-operates to open its mouth by the instruction of God given through Jesus from the mid-air.
Remember the first time the woman of the Church fled in to wilderness, it is to receive power from God to be a overcomer over sin and evils of Satan and his cohorts by faith, and to do the good works God has prepared beforehand for it individually person after person that they should walk in them (Eph 2:8, 9, 20). But the second time, the woman was given wings to fly out of the world, to the place of New Heaven and New Earth which is prepared for her (2 Peter 3:13; John 14:3-4), is to escape the wrath of God which will fall upon the whole wide earth through Great Tribulation (Rev 3:10; Luke 21:34-35, 36). What is the water like flood that comes out of Satan's mouth? When Satan's comes like a flood [of lies through signs, wonders and miracles of all kinds to deceive (2 Thess 2:9-12)], the Spirit of God raises up a standard against him to resurrect the believers by opening the mouth of the earth (Rom 8:11), which will open up its mouth and swallow the flood of climate change, UAP — Unidentified Ariel Phenomenon or UFO — Unidentified Flying Object, peace and security lies with the resurrection of believers that causes Rapture which is the truth that saves (Isa 59:19). The woman given the "two wings of the great eagle" is the power to fly in the air towards God the Son and be just like him to appear wherever we want in the will of God, in a fraction of a second at the speed of the thought (Exo 19:4; 1 John 3:2; Luke 24:36-43).
How do we know what has been described as earth opening its mouth and swallowing the flood of Satan's lies and deception is Rapture? Because in the next verse we see, "the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Rev 12:17). Who are these? These are the left behind tribulation-saints whose eyes get opened and come to realize how they have been deceived by the lies of Satan, they will suddenly ask God to save them, through which supernaturally God will give them the faith to become a martyr, and thus become a part of the first resurrection to rule and reign and work as a priest in Jerusalem the city of the Great King Jesus Christ for a thousand years time (Matt 5:35), and after that be resurrected in the second resurrection in their glorious body to live forever in the New Heaven and New Earth after that (Rev 20:4-6; 7:9-17; 13:6-10). In the first resurrection itself, there is a God given guarantee intertwined with it regarding the second resurrection that will take place at the end of the Millennial rule of Jesus and the Church. When someone cannot be overpowered by second death, it means they were empowered by the Second resurrection glorious body to live for eternity in the New Heaven and New Earth forever (Rev 20:6). GLORY TO GOD!
Much Blessings.....
Posts
