40 It is in "the time of the end" that the seals of the "book" will be opened.

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (Revelation 5:9) All that God is revealing today has been in the Scriptures from the beginning. It appears, from Daniel 12:4, that the "book" has been "sealed."

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has prevailed and the Book now is opening. The Holy Spirit is making clear to us the mystery of God. The truth of God has been before us in the Word all these years. Apparently we have not possessed the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that we must have in order to perceive correctly what the Spirit of God has placed in the holy Scriptures.

The Scriptures cannot be interpreted by the mental efforts of scholars. The Scriptures were written by holy men who were being moved by the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures can be interpreted only by holy men (and women) who are being moved by the Holy Spirit.

No prophetic passage of Scripture will yield to a private interpretation, an interpretation derived from the wisdom and intelligence of a scholar. None of us can comprehend the mysteries of the Kingdom of God except as the Holy Spirit of God makes the meaning clear to us. When the Holy Spirit is guiding us we all come to the same understanding of the Scriptures. It is our fleshly minds that cause division among us.

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4:13)

It is not the knowledge of the Scriptures that will finally unite the Body, it is "the knowledge of the Son of God." It is the growth of Christ in us that brings us together. This is why all the efforts of well-intentioned Christian leaders to attain unity are doomed to bring forth Babylon (man-directed Christianity), not the Kingdom of God.

The denominations, the divisions in the one Body of Christ, have been created as Christian leaders have attempted to comprehend the Spirit-breathed Word with their mental capacities.

The huge angel assumed control over the earth by placing his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. This symbolizes the dominion over the planet that will be given to the elect who are bearing the end-time Divine testimony.

Today the population of the earth is expanding so rapidly that our attempts to bring the Gospel to all the nations seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the multiplied millions of people who are being born at an ever-increasing rate.

The idea of testifying in the fullness of Divine power of the atoning death and triumphant resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ to every creature appears to be impossible of achievement. However, Jesus commanded: "Preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).

When the Lord from Heaven says, "every creature" He does not mean nearly every creature. There is no person on the earth, no matter how unimportant to us, who is not authorized to hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus.

No person is an animal to be despised, a creature to whom the Gospel of the Kingdom may or may not come at our whim. God loves every person on the earth with His Father’s heart.

Every person, young and old, is in the image of God. Each human being can be a joyous member of the nations of saved peoples of the earth.

The three-month-old baby, dying from lack of protein in some area of the earth remote to us is greater in the Kingdom of God than the tremendous angel we are studying, unless this angel is in fact a saint. For no spirit-angel can receive Christ into his person and become a son of God.

The little starving baby, if he lives long enough and has the opportunity to hear and understand the Word of the Gospel, can receive Christ into his or her person and become a son of God. He has been born in the image of the Lord God of Heaven, being a descendant of Adam and Eve.

What, then, is God’s answer to the gap between the need in the world and what the Christian churches are doing to meet that need?

The Divine answer is power—an outpouring of the Spirit of God so vast, so awesome, so total, so earth-filling it will command the attention of every person until the testimony has been completed according to God’s measure of completion and fullness.

The Divine testimony will stand astride the earth with one fiery foot commanding the sea and the other fiery foot commanding the land.

And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. (Revelation 10:3)

The end-time, latter-rain testimony will be a loud voice indeed—loud enough for everyone on the earth to hear. It will be the roaring of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. It is the conquering roar of the mightiest of all kings.

The testimony of the churches of today, in many instances, is weak, craven in some instances, man-pleasing, almost nonexistent because of the worldliness, sin, self-seeking, confusion, lust, covetousness, fear, and unbelief that prevail. There is a lack of Divine truth and vision and the people are perishing as a result.

The colossal angel roared as a lion. The end-time testimony will be powerful, defying all the enemies of righteousness, ready to drive out all challengers to its domain. The latter-rain witness is not the cooing of a dove, it is the terrifying roar of the king of beasts.

The angel from the Throne of God roared as a lion, taking control of the earth. The seven peals of thunder, the perfection of Divine power, roared in response. We are living in the days when God’s power will be displayed as never before in history. It is the age of power as far as the testimony of the Christian Church is concerned.

And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. (Revelation 10:4)

John heard what the seven thunders stated but he was instructed to seal up those things and not write them.

Why would the Lord not allow John to record the statement of the seven thunders? The reason is, the seven thunders represent the perfection of Divine power, and each member of the elect, of the Body of Christ, must be proven "at the waters of Meribah" before he or she can partake of the fullness of the Divine power of the end-time, latter-rain revival.

Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. (Psalms 81:7)

"In the secret place of thunder." The secret place of thunder is the hiding place of God’s power. And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. (Habakkuk 3:4)

No person can know the secret place of God’s power until he or she has been proven at the waters of Meribah. Meribah is the place of thirst, the place of human need and extremity. It is at Meribah that God proves us and discovers what is in our heart.

There, at Meribah, God satisfies our needs from the Rock when all our natural resources have dried up.

Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not? (Exodus 17:6,7)

God tested Israel with thirst. Israel tested God with their grumbling and presumption.

God demonstrated His faithfulness and His ability to perform the impossible. The Israelites demonstrated their lack of faith in the Lord who had destroyed the Egyptians and had parted the Red Sea in order to bring them out of the nation that had kept them in bondage.

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