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In
order to understand
prophecy you MUST FIRST
do this...
Almost
daily I run across people who
have peered into the Bible
prophecies and then after a few
moments close the Bible thinking
that these prophecies cannot be
understood by the common man.
They literally give up that
easy! But think about it. Would
our Father write a book His own
children couldn't understand?
Regardless
of what some may think,
Scripture confirms that prophecy
can in fact be understood. All
we really need to do is put into
practice that which the Bible
instructs that as promised will
eventually put us in a place
that helps us to better
understand His prophecy. In so
doing we will eventually become
better qualified to evangelize
others. Notice the following
promises...
Since it is the Holy Spirit that inspires all prophecy; common sense dictates that we must be in tune with that very same Holy Spirit. Amen?
So, in reality, what do we truly need to do to gain such a blessing as this? What did Daniel do? I like to look to him because, he is without a doubt my favorite prophet of the Word. I cannot wait to meet him in New Jerusalem. By the way, that will be AFTER I meet my Lord Jesus Christ of course. :)
So,
how did Daniel get in tune?
First off, he had a desire deep
within to understand
what the prophecies meant. In
this case it was a dream he was
given.
And
by the way, did you notice the
Word said he "chastened"
himself? In the Strong's
Concordance, that word means "to
humble thyself." (See Strong's
#06031) This is one very
important aspect in
Christianity. Without humbling
oneself, we can never expect to
have the meekness of Christ. And
that is what every Christian
must strive for! Especially
today as there are exactly
144,000 of them currently slated
to go through the plagues
without any crisis of faith.
Daniel wanted to know and understand the prophecy. His attitude was such that his mind was wide open to all blessed revelations the Lord would give him. This I fear is also a major obstacle for most Christians today. They are so set in their ways by compromise in apostasy that they refuse to have a "change of mind" when it comes to Biblical truth. As prophesied in Isaiah 4:1, most are perfectly happy to uplift their denominational creed over and above the Bible. I praise the Lord my mind was open to the truth when He revealed to me His Truth regarding the Roman Catholic church back in the 1980s. Had I stayed in that church and decided to obey men over Scripture, as all Catholics are commanded to do to this day, I shudder to think of what I would be doing at this place in time, or if I would even be alive now. I also shudder to think of how that prophesied house of lies would have destroyed my wife and children as well.
The
student of prophecy must make
sure to maintain a habitual good
relationship with the God of the
Bible day in and day out. Else
the prophecies he or she seeks
to understand will eventually
become sealed to them as well.
For the only way to understand
prophecy or doctrine for that
matter is to obey the God that
wrote it.
A strong ongoing relationship with the Lord, as well as perfect desire to do His will, will create a humble and contrite heart within the obedient student. The student will also understand that which is Truth, and that which is lies. But because most in the churches refuse to do this today, many of them can actually look at doctrinal statements of their own denominations and see no danger. Many doctrines like the state of the dead, hellfire or even the Sabbath itself are taught in ways that even a babe in Christ with Bible in hand can see are false doctrines. Yet the child that is humble before His God, and is walking in His will can see that which the blind cannot. That is one major reason the elect of the Lord cannot be deceived in these last days when Satan will actually appear claiming to be Jesus. Jesus said the following to confirm this.
The
obedient student will have no
doubt in his or her mind that
the understanding of these
prophecies will not be of
their own doing or wisdom.
Unlike the Scribes and
Pharisee's of Christ's day that
hoarded the Scriptures and used
their spurious 'knowledge' of
the Written Word as a status
symbol to proclaim themselves
well-learned which in so doing,
all their flock looked up to
them as if they themselves were
holy and special, just as we see
many doing with Popes, priests
and pastors today. They
eventually became blind to the
truth within the written Word,
and like the Pharisees of old
who completely missed the
arrival of Jesus Christ as
Messiah; billions of Christians
will soon have no clue as to His
soon arrival today either. But.
the true Christian seeking
understanding will know
that he or she understands
simply because the Creator God
that knows all secrets has
revealed it to them. It is
simply not of themselves. THAT
is how the humble heart works.
It's not about self. It's all
about the Lord.
The one seeking understanding will know that he or she understands simply because the Creator God that knows all secrets has revealed it to them.
This genuine relationship will also bring the student to seek after God's perfect will. In fact, this is what makes the seeker noticeably different from the natural man "that receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14) A true child of God will seek to know His will and even pray for it. Daniel prayed for this and as we can see the Angel Gabriel was sent to give him exactly that which he prayed for.
The key is to admitting with a humble and contrite heart that we need help in understanding prophecy. No man can do it without the help of the one who spoke the prophecy. So as promised by Jesus in Matthew 7:7, we need to "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
Ask
Seek
Knock
Prayer
is the essential key to all of
this!
The angel tells Daniel that "At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee" If it wasn't for his prayers, ("supplications") the vision would have remained sealed!
Prophetic understanding and faithful prayer are strongly linked in His Word. Especially for end time prophecy. This is a major reason today most people do not understand prophecy. They simply don't ASK, SEEK, or KNOCK in faith that He will reveal these truth's to them. And when I say "ask in faith," I mean they need to be one that is in tune 100% with the Lord. One who has the fruits of a Christian; specifically the two major fruits of obedience that Revelation 12:17 so amply describes as being those Christians that are "keeping the Commandments" and "having the Testimony of Jesus Christ."(NOTE: Testimony of Jesus = Spirit of Prophecy. See Revelation 19:10)
If
you have those two major fruits,
I believe all the rest are
simply going to be added unto
you. Fact is, if you cannot obey
the Lord by keeping His Law, how
can you expect the Lord to give
you the understanding of the
prophecies? You have to be in
His will to receive His
blessings do you not? And by the
way, and it has to be said,
seeking the "future" from so
called "psychics" is merely
setting yourself up for a major
fall as some Christians actually
do today. For are we not warned
not to do this in God's
Word?
Psychics and the like disobey God by luring Christians away from Him and so they simply have not the Light in them. That means they are speaking lies. Plain and simple.
The
Word of the Creator God is not
to be taken lightly. Our
attitude towards this blessed
book should be of overwhelming
TRUST. We must believe this Word
of the Christian God is factual
and 100% accurate. And if we do,
we must then act accordingly and
follow the examples outlined
within it. Our life must be
fashioned after that which is
written. To do otherwise would
mean we are outside His will,
and to be outside His will would
mean the prophecies in His Word
will be sealed from our
understanding. And because of
this sealing, we will not be
ready for what prophecy says
will happen next! We will echo
the words of Jeremiah 8:20 that
says, "The harvest is past, the
summer is ended, and we are
not saved."
We must be in the Bible daily. In so doing, whenever we hear a preacher or teacher speak, it is back into the Bible we must go to make sure they speak truth. Even the Bereans of old knew to do this.
The Word of this Creator God must be our final source of infallible truth. PERIOD! To take verses out we don't agree with as many bogus Bibles have done today, or even add verses God never wrote, is deadly unto our souls and when we trust a pastor or priest who shares a sermon we know have statements in it are not in the Bible, then we are placing that pastor or priest above the Bible! The apostle Paul clearly said in Romans 1:25, that such as these are those "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen."
And just so you know, the "creature" they serve above God is the apostate preacher or priest. And the apostle John gave the most graphic warning on this in Revelation 22:18-19 when he said, "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."
And
before sharing that which is
revealed unto us; we must always
be careful as to not add
anything to that which is
written or take away from it
either. Doing so is plainly
described here as against His
will. No matter how much the
revelation of prophecy may be to
us, we must not "gild the lily"
so as to not offend. If people
have a hard time with the Truth
as it is written, it is not our
place to alter it to convince
them. The Roman Catholic church
tried that, and look where it
lead them. Sadly, right now in
our day, another church that had
the understanding of these
prophecies in her infancy is now
displaying bold signs of having
them sealed from their eyes.The
General Conference of the SDA
church has opted to "gild the
lily" so as to not offend the
Roman Catholic church recently
in numerous watered down sermons
as well as other fruits of a
sister in Babylon. And now
we see they too can no longer
understand prophetic fact. Sure, they
continually have "prophecy
seminars" but anyone can do
that by simply echoing the
studies of the obedient SDA
pioneers. But as prophesied,
the SDA church is no
longer Christian church.
Yes, on the surface they appear to have much truth; but most of it is borrowed from previous scholars and the like. Do you hear of any "original" revelations concerning current events that are biblicaly accurate coming from this church lately? I don't. So, ALL those that have opted to re-write that which is written by our Creator will see the plagues fall upon them. That is prophetically accurate no matter how much it offends!
Not only is obedience and important factor in understanding prophecy; perseverance is as well! Another prophetic fact is.
As all true Christians today have discovered, obedience has its heavenly perks. It is the Lord's "condition" for granting us the continuous presence of His Holy Spirit who actually guides us in the study of prophecy. Now that we know the basic attitude that is needed to study prophecy, what are some ways to unlock the Bible's hidden truths?
We must NEVER give our own opinion as to what His prophecy means. The Bible clearly interprets all of its symbols on it's own. For example.. there are 404 verses in the book of Revelation. Did you know that 278 of those verses can be found almost word for word in all the other books of the Bible? That being the case, why bother giving your own opinion in the first place? Sooner or later you are going to be exposed as a liar by someone who has done their homework and can show using a Bible what every symbol in prophecy means. And in so doing, they openly expose you. You cannot refute the Word. So why try?
Case in point.. Hal Lindsay in his book, "Late Great Planet Earth" stated that the vision Ezekiel had in chapter one of his books was the Vietnam war. However, obedient students of prophecy know that's a lie. And now there are literally millions of people on earth right now that have documented proof in their own Bibles that Hal Lindsey is a false prophet. Bottom line is, there is always someone who knows what those symbols mean.And if you're a false prophet, as Jesus said in Matthew 24:11 many will be claiming in our day, the Lord will make sure you're exposed.
Fact remains.. the Bible identifies prophetic symbolism just fine on it's own. For example.
For a quick example we see in John's vision a whore sitting on many waters. And then we see..
Then
later an angel actually tells
John what that means! Absolutely
no room whatsoever is left here
for human opinion.
Let's see another easy example.
So, what do the ram, the goat and his large horn symbolize?
Here again, the Word of God gives us a very precise answer. No room for human opinion once again. Fact is. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" The nice thing is, God's obedient remnant know this, and so they act accordingly.
Remember what I said earlier about the 404 verses in Revelation? The entire Bible helps us define the symbols in prophecy. However, not all the symbols are as easy to find as the ones I just shared. You will be expected to study and show yourself approved before finding the harder ones. Prophecy is a lot like doctrine. You need to investigate it fully to understand it completely
As you will discover in your studies, much of prophetic symbolism refers to the sanctuary, it's articles and the religious services held within it. So, it would behoove us all to study up on the sanctuary itself. Otherwise, a lot of the symbolism may appear to be confusing to us. And in that confusion Satan can tempt us to give our own opinion. For example.. the next verses from Revelation show a literal mention of the sanctuary and the things related to it.
#4 Prophetic symbolism also refers to Old Testament nations.
The
literal and local events that
actually played out in reality
quite often becomes both
symbolic and universal in
prophecy. Just as Babylon became
desolate long ago, the whore of
Babylon is to be desolate
once again. First and
foremost we see all
"inhabitants" of Roman
Catholicism to be confused
away from Bible
Christianity, and
secondly, after plague #7,
nary a soul will be standing
alive in that desolated
church, or any others that "wonder
after the beast" in
Rome.
#5 Prophetic symbolism refers to Old Testament characters.
Prophecy can also refer to the characters attitude toward God, and to their past deeds.
Notice
that all those that embrace the
apostasy of Jezebel will die
with "death" and that "death"
can only be administered at the
second death as prophesied unto
her at 2Kings 9:36-37. When we
look at the fruit of Jezebel and
match them to the vicious fruit
of Roman Catholicism wherein
"Thyatira" (Revelation 2:18)
resides in the years 538-1798AD,
we see a perfect match. In
short, the Papacy is a whore, a
satanic witch and a persecutor
of God's people enveloped by
devils just as Jezebel was.
Therefore, so shall be her
children.
#6: In prophecy, numbers express more than just quantity.
All the numbers in these passages I am about to share, which are, 24, 144 and 144000, are multiples of 12. Now, 12 is a number playing an important part in the Bible. Which of course is a completely different message and study. So I won't go into that here. But we must understand that numbers don't always mean quantity. They can be used to represent importance, size, and yes, even quantity. Now do you see why it's so important to be an avid Bible student as well? Without the Holy Spirit, man simply cannot decipher the prophetic Word.
#7 Milk first, Meat later
We must do as babes in Christ do with Scripture. Milk first, and the meat later. We should never try to decipher the more complex prophecies without first understanding the basics all prophecies adhere to.
It is very important not to cut corners. If we jump into areas we aren't ready for, we may get a misunderstanding of what the prophecy is saying. Let's take our time and do it using the perfect timing of God's will. There is a reason for the milk, just as much as there is a reason for the meat. Just as an infant can only handle milk early in life, it is the same for a babe in Christ that cannot handle the meat of Scripture on day one.
We don't know when or even why our Father reveals what He chooses to reveal when and if He does. Had the apostles known certain things beforehand they may not have been able to understand other truths later on or they may have been too fearful to remain faithful if they knew about the persecution beforehand. So again; trust comes in right along side the obedience we already stand in. Truth is, trying to learn the meat first is like building the roof of a house before the foundation.
Someone untaught or unstable may unknowingly (or knowingly) twist Scriptural facts making a prophecy seem to say another thing. Case in point, the Roman Catholic Jesuits that twisted the "week of Daniel" so as to preach a 7 year trib theory, caused literally billions to have a twisted understanding of the prophetic Word of God which if adhered to may cause them to lose salvation. And now, low and behold, almost the entire Christian world believes their error as if it is truth because they never bothered to do as the Bereans of old did.
Only the obedient student that follows the Bible method for understanding prophecy will be able to use the keys our Lord provides to open the doors that have the amazing hidden meanings of prophecy. Once these keys are found, the child of God can become very effective in sharing the prophecies with those the Lord sends their way.