Listen to this articleIn part one we looked at why the seven seals and why Jesus was the only one worthy to open. We also looked at what a seal actually is and how by breaking the seals, Jesus was bringing to light, revelations of the spirit that were once hidden from understanding.
In part two we looked at how the four living creatures are connected to the four horses which are described in Zechariah as the four winds. We then looked at how these connect to the seven spirits of God and to the fourfold ministries of the Spirit in the church. We finished part 2 by looking at how Mathew 24 gives an outline of the seven seals.
With all this information we are now ready to breakdown the seal.
THE FIRST SEAL – DECEPTION
*Revelation 6:1-2 New King James Version (NKJV)*
6 Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
Matthew 24:5 New King James Version (NKJV)
5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’and will deceive many.
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The first beast is like a Lion which corresponds to the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord which corresponds to evangelism. So by John is being shown that Jesus has opened a season of evangelism in which the spirit of God is being sent forth to conquer in unchartered territories.
However, we are told that the rider had a bow. There is one problem with a bow, it is not straight. It bends backwards when it wants to go forwards, it is deceptive. God tells this to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 9:3
“They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,” declares the Lord.
David also says concerning the Israelites:
Psalm 78:56-57 King James Version (KJV)
56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:
57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
So while this is a season of evangelism, in which the knowledge of christ must conquer the world, there main rider of this season will have a bow, he will bend his tongue into falsehood.
THE SECOND SEAL – WAR
Revelation 6:3-4 New International Version (NIV)
3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!”
4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.
Matthew 24:6-7 New King James Version (NKJV)
6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom…
Every seal that is opened, affects the church and affects the world. Sometimes the effects in the church and the events in the world are different.
So the Ox and the red horse represent the spirit of wisdom and understanding which corresponds to Pastors and teachers. So the breaking of this seal, shows that in the church, God will release a teaching movement following the evangelistic movement. However, as this is happening in the church, peace shall be taken away from the earth, nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
Testimony
Fora long time I used to struggle with this, I would say to God, there have always been wars and roomers of wars since Cain and Abel, kingdom has always risen against kingdom and nation against nation, it has always been there.
One Day the Holy Spirit asked me a question. I was reading this portion of the second seal:
Revelation 6: 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth
The Holy Spirit then asked me and said, “When you take peace away from the earth what do you get?” He then opened my mind to know the answer and I replied, “You get a world war” He then said, wars have always been there, but there had never been a world war, where peace was taken away from the earth, and nation rose against nation and kingdom against kingdom all at the same time.
I then realized that we have only had two world wars, and these two world wars occurred in a space 32 years. This was the length of the second seal. From 1914 to 1945.
THE THIRD SEAL – FAMINE
Revelation 6:5-6 New International Version (NIV)
5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
Matthew 24:7 New King James Version (NKJV)
7 … And there will be famine pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
After the war comes unexplained famines and diseases. An increase in natural disasters. New diseases such as Ibola, Aids, Cancer rise in the world. But for the church there is a different kind of famine
The third living creature is like a man. He represents the apostolic and the spirit of the LORD. It is a release of an apostolic movement into the church. Where God is raising and establishing apostles. However the rider has been given a scale. The pairs of scales are symbolic because God is weighing the hearts of his ministers to see if they have integrity. Job says this:
Job 31:6
Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity.
_Verse 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine_
This is what God is doing. He has placed two things on each side of the scale. We have food on one side of the scale and money on the other side. Wheat was food for man and barley was food for horses. Jesus says this to the apostles concerning food…
John 4:34
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work
So in this season the ministers of God are being weighed to see their integrity. It is a time of hardship; will they maintain a balance to do the will of God and finish his work or will they be lured by seeking prosperity.
do not harm the oil and the wine
The oil represents the anointing of the Holy Spirit (1 Samuel16:15) and the wine represents the blood of the new covenant (Mat 26:28). So when the voice says do not harm the oil and the wine, it is saying that, The Anointing of the Holy Spirit and The saving blood of the New Covenant will not be affected by the trials of the third seal.
THE FOURTH SEAL – DEATH
Revelation 6:7-8 New International Version (NIV)
7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Matthew 24:8 New King James Version (NKJV)
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
The fourth living creature is the eagle which represents the prophetic. After the evangelistic movement , then comes the teaching movement then comes the apostolic movement and then to the church comes the prophetic movement. This is not to say, there were no prophets in the church but it simply the prophetic movement.
As this is happening in the world, there is an increase in sorrows in the world, and a lot of unexplained death from natural disasters and wars and such. But this death is also reflective of the spiritual death that is happening in the church as a result of the rise of false prophets.
THE FIFTH SEAL – TRIBULATION
Revelation 6:9-11 New International Version (NIV)
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.
10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”
11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.
Matthew 24:9 New King James Version (NKJV)
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
When the fifth seal is opened, we see the saints that were killed for the word of God and for the testimony. We know when this happened. The first saint to be killed for the testimony was James the apostle who was killed by Herod. After that a Roman emperor named Nero issued an order to kill Christians for 3 and half years between 66AD and 70 AD. All the apostles except John were killed at that time. The church was still small and about 6000 christians were brutally murdered during that time.
John, who had witnessed these things and being the only apostle to survive, he sees his brethren in heaven crying for vengeance. But God gave tells them that before the end, the church must face a similar persecution to the one that it faced at the beginning. The last day apostles and prophets must face the exact same persecution that the first apostles and prophets faced. After Jesus has restored all the offices in the church, to become as it was at the beginning, the church must be tested in the exact way it was tested in the beginning.
There number of christians who were killed is not complete, there is a set number who must be killed at the end time of the church, in the same way as the last. The end of the church, will be like it’s beginning.
Jesus says, you will be hated by all nations for my sake.
THE SIXTH SEAL – COMING OF THE SON OF MAN
Revelation 6:12-16 New International Version (NIV)
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,
13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.
14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.
16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
Matthew 24:29-31 New King James Version (NKJV)
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
When the sixth seal is opened, all sources of light from the heavens are switched off. The sun represents the grace and glory of the Father, the Moon reflects the light of the sun and represents the Mother which is the church and the Stars represents the sons of the father.
Genesis 37:9-10 New King James Version (NKJV)
9 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.”
10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?”
Psalm 84:11
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly.
So when the sun is darkened, it means the grace and glory of God has been removed from the earth. We are now entering into the time when the antiChrist will rule the world. This time is called the Night.
John 9:4-5 New King James Version (NKJV)
4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.
5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Jesus is still in the world, through his spirit in us.
heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up
There is a firmament called heaven which separates the physical world and the spiritual world. That veil shall be removed such that the spirit world and physical world will interact in ways that were never possible. This is in preparation for Jesus to come and take millions of people directly from the earth into heaven.
every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Mountains represent world powers and kingdoms. The EU, AU, UN, America England, Russia, China, South Africa, and all these nations shall be moved out of their place. The whole world will be restructured. Some countries will seize to exist as countries, and the nature of rulership will change. As the grace and glory of God has been removed, and the antiChrist system is now rising and taking power and control over the earth and restructuring countries.
Before the rain came. God closed the door to the ark for seven days.There were seven days in which Noah and his family were in the ark yet rain had not come. There is period in which God will shut the door of salvation, The church has not yet been taken, but the door of salvation has been called.
This scripture will then be fulfilled…
Revelation 22:11 New King James Version (NKJV)
11 He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”
In 2008 God showed me what this period of time will be like, and it was the most heart breaking experience.
The Rapture.
In the midst of all these global changes, Jesus will appear and take his church.
Mathew 28
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
So immediately after the persecution of the church in those days, the number of saints will be completed, the door of grace will be shut, and Jesus will come and snatch his living saints to himself. We can never know the exact day or hour he will come. We will know the general period but never the exact hour.
REVELATION CHAPTER 7
The sixth seals are given in Chapter 6 of revelation. Chapter 7 seems to break away from the seals and in chapter 8 we return to the seven seals.
At the end of the Sixth Seal, John sees two events.
- The Sealing of 144 000 Israelites.
7 After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, 3 saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” 4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:
- The great unnumbered multitudes who were taken in the rapture of the sixth seal now in heaven.
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11 All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.
16 They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
I will not get much into this. But On Earth there will rise 144000 Israelites who have the Seal of God on their foreheads which is the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
These 144000 Israelites will be the saints who will face the antiChrist. They will go through the 7 trumpet judgements but will not be affected. Then in heaven John now sees the church which has been taken in rapture from every nation, tribe and language. They are now serving in heaven.
After this, the seventh seal is now opened.
THE SEVENTH SEAL – JUDGEMENT
Revelation 8:1-2 New International Version (NIV)
8 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
God silences everything in heaven for half an hour. The four living creatures ad the 24 elders who were shouting Holy Holy are silenced. The voices and thunderings from the throne are silenced. God had once silenced his saints who were crying to him, but right now he is now listening to each and every one of their cries for judgement against the world system.
After considering all the cries that the saints had given him, it is now time for him to announce judgement to the earth, and to the worldly systems accordingly. The seven angels stand in place with seven trumpets, ready to announce the seven judgements of God against the world system.
