The crazy thing here is . .. I never said Patmos was the place that John died and that was the nitpick . . . it was understood that I said he did . . .so . . .the argument going on out there is based on a misunderstanding in the first place . . .ain't that just like how our minds always work?? There reallly is just a bit more I wanted to throw out to you guys while I still have the stage on this if you don't mind.
Wow . . .I thought I'd be able to cover the whole chapter . . .but jeeze . . .this is a long friggin' chapter!! But I digress . . .
25Behold, I have told you before.
26Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
There was A LOT of these warnings coming forth to the readers. There would be A LOT of fakes coming out of the woodwork and Jesus was trying to ingrain in them what truth sounded like so that when the fakes came, the hearer could discern the difference between the sound of truth and the noise of reasoning. Take a look around you at all the churches and ask yiourself this question . . .which are producing sound, which are producing noise? How can one tell the difference? Those who reverberate the sound of truth manifest with messages of freedom, love, liberation, easy yokes . . those with religious noise produce messages of warning, alarms, reservations, caution . . .those in bondage may be able to talk about freedom, but they can't produce it. The water in them is a stagnant pond as opposed to a flowing river.
What I'm trying to say is, church as we've known it has been duped. The fakes are the ones running the business of religious hatcheries rather than intimate birthing rooms. God is calling us back to the birhing room. We must be born again . . .again in order to "see" the kingdom of God. How many of us know people that are church chasers, running down the next revival, the best worship, the most popular teachers and preachers? Oh . . .God is moving over there, lets go to that church!! He's not in the desert, he's not in some secret club or society . . .the kingdom of heaven does not come by observation, it is IN YOU. You want to see the kingdom? Look "inward".
27For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
When God shows up . . .the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea . . .it's not here or there . . .when he shows up, it'll be everywhere, all at once. Now we get to the verse I love to play with.
28For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
There are so many translations that will try to say the accurate rendition here is not eagles, but it's vultures . . .sorry . .. I disagree. In fact, I looked this up in strongs and it ticked me off. Because the definition went something like . .. "it appears to be saying eagles but we all know eagles don't eat dead flesh so this has to mean vultures instead . . . To switch it to a vulture just because it doesn't "make sense" is an atrocity!
First off, what is the reason for Jesus saying this? he's answering the "where" question. Where will this take place? Where the eagles gather together. Where what will take place? That's what this chapter has been dealing with from the beginning. The "what" is the removal of the old covenant system. Where will it happen? where eagles gather together? Are we still talking about the same thing here? What does eagles have to do with where this happens? The real question is . . .WHO are the eagles? Let Scripture intrepret Scripture . . .Isaiah 40 . . .those that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as . . .eagles.
Who are the eagles? Those that wait upon the Lord. What's the connection? This whole time frame is pertaining to the removal of the old system to make way, oh boy . . .gonna make a jump here so hang on a sec . . .but in Revelation it talks about the Euphrates river drying up . . .Euphrate's means "fruitfulness" the river dries up in "preparation for the kings of the east." Church taught me to believe this is talking about China accumulating a million soldiers to march in on Jerusalem and make war . . .PUH-LEEEZE . . this is talking about the fruitfulness of carnal minds, of religious mindsets, they are going to dry up in preparation for the kings . . .Revelation also says "WE" are kings AND priests. That was actually against the law. You couldn't be a king "and" a priest. Anyeay, these just aren't any kings, these guys are kings of the "east". East speaks of resurrection . .the rising of the son. It's saying religion will dry up and give way to sons of God who have a message of resurrection life on their tongues rather than control and intimidation.
The eagles are the true believers . . .Jerusalem is where the church was born out of the side of Jesus, blood and water, then manifested later in the upper room . . .Jerusalem is where the eagles gathered together because "that's" where the carcass was . . .what was the carcass? Did Jesus not say we must eat his flesh and drink his blood? he is the carcass that draws the eagles together and that is "where" these things shall be.
29Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Whenever you say "tribulation" to a religious person, their eyes roll back into their heads and they put on a face of fright and immediately revert to the destruction of the world as we know it. And everything that carries with it as well actually . . .lots of doom and gloom . . .But again, this is not literal in the sense that the stars are literally going to fall from the sky. But prophetically, Israel represents the sun, moon and stars by way of Joseph, the kid with a super colorful coat his Dad made him . .he had the dream where he saw the sun and moon bow down to him along with twelve stars . . .it was depicting his family, but it was also the infrastructure of Israel's heritage. When the old covenant was removed, Israel went dark. She lost her sense of identity.
30And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
There's so much in this chapter . . .but I'm almost out of time so this will be it for today . . . I hope you guys are having as much fun reading this as I am in sharing it . . .there's a charge being released here . . .anyway . . .I will say this is a HUGE verse, but it's not what we've been taught to think it means.
This verse is revealing the reason "why" these things shall be. There was lots of dark tension settling in over the first part . . .which happens a lot when you're describing hell for someone . .Jesus was explaining the hell they were about to encounter and at the lowest point, Israel's lights went out . . .'THEN' . . .that's a word implying a shift in the storyline.
This is going to happen where the eagles gather together . . .where the righteous who know the sound of my voice within them gather around "me" . ."and then" . . .a sign shall APPEAR unto them the tribes of my earth will mourn . . .tribes of who? Tribes of what? the earth . . .anything that is connected to earth is not godly, spiritual or heavenly . .it's carnal. Those with carnal minds will mourn for Israel being wiped out . . but . . .to the eagles . . .they will see the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven . . .in other words . . .they're eyes are now opened and where natural people see death and destruction, the eagles see the son of man surrounded in witnesses (Hebrews 12:1) proclaiming his glory
31And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Hmmm . . .another "gathering". Still thnk this has to do with the end of the earth as we know it? The removal of the old covenant system HAD to happen because those in the old covenant could not see the true nature of Jesus. But those who transitioned from old to new were the ones in the clouds with him which is where eagles soar, in the jetstreams of truth, of life and of freedom.
