5 Wouldn't the wicked love to have God abandon the earth to them?

But the earth belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the coheirs, the saints. The fullness of the earth belongs to the Lord. All the peoples of the earth belong to the Lord. Everything belongs to the Lord. Nothing belongs to Satan or to Antichrist.

The Lord will give Satan authority in the last days, but the final authority belongs to the Lord Jesus. He purchased the authority over the creation on the cross of Calvary.

We are to fear the Lord Jesus, not Satan. We are to keep Christ holy in our heart and let Him be our fear and our dread.

Satan cannot harm us when we are in Christ. Yet we must be wary and watchful in prayer because Satan will deceive many in the last days.

The authority and power for witnessing will be assigned to the two witnesses at a specific time and will be withdrawn at a specific time. The two witnesses will not be withdrawn; rather, their authority and power for prophesying will be withdrawn. God will permit their testimony to be overcome so sin can come to maturity in the earth.

God does not lift the Church off the earth. He anoints, and then withdraws the anointing, at specific points of the Church’s development. Great benefit comes to the Church when the rain of the Spirit is falling. Equally great benefit comes to the Church when the burning sun of tribulation is maturing the wheat. The Church must have both rain and sun in order to come to maturity, to completeness and perfection, as is true of natural wheat.

We can see this pattern in the first century. The former (planting) rain fell on the saints. The Apostles were given the authority and power of Christ for the purpose of planting the Church of Christ in the earth.

But what had occurred by the time the Apostle John died? The authority and power that had rested on the Apostles of Christ had been withdrawn.

The Christian Church was not withdrawn. The Holy Spirit was not withdrawn. Rather, the former-rain anointing of authority and power was withdrawn so the Church could begin its long, torturous growth in the wilderness of this life, and through these trials understand that man cannot build the Kingdom of God—only the Lord Himself can build the Kingdom of God.

One day soon the Bride will come up out of the wilderness leaning on her Beloved. She will have been purified by the various blessings and tribulations that have been necessary to prepare her for her marriage to the Lamb.

A study of the major revivals of Christianity throughout the world reveals the flowing and ebbing of the waves of glory. Meanwhile the tide of glory is rising steadily. Eventually the whole earth will be "filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14).

We understand, then, that the authority and power of the Christian witness and ministry is assigned and withdrawn at certain intervals in order that the Kingdom of God may be built according to the plan that is in the mind of God.

The authority and power given to the two witnesses will prepare the peoples of the earth for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the power of the witness will be withdrawn so the Divinely controlled work of Antichrist can bring to the attention of Heaven and earth the folly of sin and rebellion against the most high God.

The saints who bear the end-time anointing of power cannot be harmed as to their relationship to Christ, for there is no power that can separate one of the elect from the love of Christ (Romans 8:38,39).

Rather it is the power to bear witness that will be "overcome." God will allow the Christian testimony to be overcome during the season He has set aside for the full revelation of lawlessness and its consequences.

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