King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 10 notes
1And 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:
2And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Such imagery.
What an anomaly — in the perfect kingdom of God in the heavens, the heavens of our holy God, there appeared a great red dragon.
So out of place. The dark son in the place of light... And with him stood an army of rebellious luminaries.
Stars, yet dark — another anomaly.
4And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
So all of the drama in heaven was because of a small planet 🌏 called earth 🌎.
Earth 🌎 then must indeed be very important.
I suspect there may be none like it in the universe 🌌.
I mean, for the God of the whole universe to give us such attention and personal touch, including his own Son's death ☠ for us.
Earth 🌎 is one of a kind in my estimation.
5And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
6And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
7And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
At this time all saints were in heaven, and so spoke from a heavenly perspective.
They were glad that the devil's 👿 place in heaven, which he still has access to even now, was taken from him.
Now heaven had permanently gotten rid of this accuser, whose access to heaven was a perpetual pain to the saints of God, the never-ending railings of accusations against us.
Now the saints are in heaven, and heaven has rid itself of the devil 👿 and his cohorts forever by an act of war.
Meaning if the angels of God tried to eject Satan from his current place in the realm of God, there would be war.
Now the saints, and heaven for that matter, could rejoice greatly because the devil has been ousted.
Why would the devil accuse us before God,
except to obtain judgement against us, or to justify his persecution and abuse of the saints?
In his accusations it is stated that the saints overcame him by the blood of the lamb,
which is in reference to the shed blood of Christ, thus justifying us and making us righteous before God,
but despite our sins and right standing with God being paid for, the devil still accuses us and seeks condemnation against us.
So the word of our testimony comes into play, and we confess that we have accepted the shed blood of the lamb and are in alignment with his finished works on the cross.
We acknowledge what has been done by Christ for us and keep to that testimony. We refuse to be condemned nor pay for what Christ has already paid for.
However, that is not enough for the devil; he would not budge and continues to persecute the saints using his power and human agencies on the earth.
He causes us pain because of our acknowledgement of Christ and his finished works in our lives.
He still accuses us and insists that we are not only not worthy but have not really received Christ for real in our hearts and lives 💕, and this we refute by not loving our own lives even to the death.
We hold firm our confessions and stand our ground and our belief even unto death.
And these accusations and persecution of the devil Christ forewarns us about. He says in this life we would have trouble, but we must be of good cheer, for he has overcome the world.
It is therefore actually counter-Christian to teach that in Christ we have all things and no pain or suffering.
Indeed, the pain and suffering and our standing our ground is the proof of Christ in us, and not the opposite: that Christ in us means no pain or afflictions.
That belief is a lie of the devil to validate his accusations of us before God and win his case that we are fake and are hovering around just for convenience; thus we are not worthy of the kingdom and to stand before the presence of God and his holy angels.
Who wants fake subjects before him or serving in his castle, in this case his temple and presence?
And I think the devil wins his case sometimes; why else would he keep at it this long if it didn't really matter, because after all Christ has completed his work and finished it?
But he wins sometimes, I think, and his evidence is our change of allegiance from service of God to compromise because of discomfort.
Not just some random compromise or falling into temptation, but a perpetual and permanent drift from God, and thus his face, to follow after vanity.
I'm sure sometimes the devil brings an accusation, seeking to take the life of a believer in apostasy and claim him for himself as having rejected God and followed the devil.
But God overrules the accusation and gives the person more time to repent, and sure enough the person turns over and is on fire more than ever before, and with the enemy fuming because he lost.
He wins some other cases as well.
Why he has taken the posture of condemning God's people is a subject for another teaching.
12Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Who are the inhabitants of the sea? 🌊
I believe that as a result of this great work of accusation of the enemy,
Many a strong 💪 Christian has been lost, lost through pain and affliction, and some even from the faith, all because of the work of the accuser who must be disproved.
So we must suffer even unto death for the Lord in order to meet the demands of divine justice.
He has a short time to do what? To convert many to his ways and deceive men, as many as possible, to their own doom and rebellion towards God.
The time for him to do this before he is finally judged and ostracized is short. Time was coming to an end, and his time was thus far running 🏃 out on him.
Who are the inhabitants of the sea?
I want to know.
His time is short for what? I have explained some of the reasons for which his time was short, as time coming to an end as prophesied, but not just that but also because,
His place in the heavens has been cleared, so the space was vacant for the taking, and the victor in the war would take all the strategic positions, mount their defence and finally usher in the coming of Christ with his host of saints and angels.
As things stand now, the third heavens are taken by the enemy and his angels, but in the end it will be for Michael and his angels to finally usher in the descent of Christ with his vast host.
Oh, what a moment, what a triumphant entry.
13And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
Why didn't the dragon pursue the woman but rather fought Michael in the heavens?
Because his target was the man child, who was now caught up to God in the heavens.
So he had to go for him in the heavens.
It was upon failure to win the heavenly war that he came for the woman. And when that failed too, he went for the rest of her seed.
The heavens were the first priority, because once he conquered the heavens, the earth was his for the taking.
14And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
15And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
16And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
17And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.