Hour of Power - Rumor notes 37 supplement

 But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. (John 16:4)

This one is going to be very Scripture heavy, so if that tends to bore you I just want to alert you right up front. I know what that feels like from experience so I understand if you skip it. But when I read this verse it triggered my mind back onto a subject that has increasingly captivated my interest for some time now and continues to grow more important as additional clues appear on this subject.

For some time now I have been more aware that one of the key aspects of the Great War between Christ and Satan is over who is authorized to represent this world before the universe. I will not go back to review a lot of what I have studied previously on this except to say that the more I learn about it the closer I feel it should be to the center of our theology.

I am coming to believe that the issue of who we perceive as the lawful, duly appointed representative of humanity will have enormous impact on our personal relationship with both the world around us and with God. Because the enemy of our souls majors in deceptions and we are born in his culture of deceptions about reality, religion and what is really going on, it only stands to reason that our enemy wants to keep us in the dark as much as possible about this vital issue.

The more aware I become about this the more allusions I notice in Jesus' teachings that seem to be meant to alert us the the seismic importance of this issue that occurred at the cross 2000 years ago. And as I trace this word 'hour' used by Jesus in the above verse, I began to see even more inferences about a major regime change. I have been collecting information about this idea in a folder for some time now and the evidence just keeps coming in making it more convincing than ever.

What I decided to do here was to compile all of the verses that I came across in the Bible that I sense may have important contributions for better understanding this idea. If you choose to take the time to explore and ponder these I believe it might prove to be time well invested.

There seems to be categories of 'hours' indicated in the passages listed here. The first one has to do with one of the early very important 'hours' in the Great War, the 'hour' when Jesus took on the full force of the armies of Satan as well as evil human beings to dispute Satan's despotic control over this world. This was His 'hour of testing' when it would be decided who would be recognized as having legitimate claim to the position of representative of the human race for the rest of eternity.

And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come." (John 2:4)

So they were seeking to seize Him; and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. (John 7:30)

These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come. (John 8:20)

And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." (John 12:23)

Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. (John 12:27)

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. (John 13:1)

When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. (Luke 22:14)

Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You." (John 17:1)

Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. (John 16:32)

And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?" (Matthew 26:40)

And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. (Mark 14:35)

Then He came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners." (Matthew 26:45)

While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but this hour and the power of darkness are yours. (Luke 22:53)

Jesus referred a number of times to future 'hours' when other significant events would transpire in the Great War. You can draw your own conclusions as to how these hours might be defined and the implications they may have in our own lives today.

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers." (John 4:21-23)

These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. (John 16:25)

When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit. (Mark 13:11)

They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. (John 16:2)

But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. (John 16:4)

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18)

The following verse I believe might apply to several, if not all of the hours spoken of in these passages.

Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. (John 16:21)

These passages speak of an 'hour' that appears to engulf the world very near the end of history just before the climactic return of Jesus at His Second Coming. This 'hour' evidently will involve every human being alive at that time, unlike the previous 'hours'.

'Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. (Revelation 3:10)

And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, "Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe." (Revelation 14:15)

The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. (Revelation 17:12)

...standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.' (Revelation 18:10)

'...for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!' And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance... (Revelation 18:17)

And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid waste!' (Revelation 18:19)

Then there is the 'hour' of Christ's Second return that has been the hope of Christians ever since He returned to heaven. This is the hour we must prepare for diligently by coming to know Him intimately and allow Him to transform us so that when He comes will will not shrink back. Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. (1 John 2:28)

For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. (Matthew 24:44)

But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. (Luke 12:39)

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. (John 5:25)

Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice. (John 5:28)

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. (Matthew 24:36)

And he said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters." (Revelation 14:7)

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. (Romans 13:11)

Seal 7 - Rumor notes 37

 

Revelation 8

1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

2 I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

3 Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.

4 The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand.

5 The angel took the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it on the earth. There followed thunders, sounds, lightnings, and an earthquake.

6 The seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Who was the main agent in the opening of the 7 seals?

Who are the main agents preparing to sound 7 trumpets?

This verse actually belongs to the previous two chapters, but translators stuck it in here, so we need to finish up examining the meaning of the seals before we transition into listening to the trumpets.

In the last seal opening we saw what seems to be clearly a reference to the Second Coming of Jesus, the Lamb who is so full of passionate love that everyone who has made themselves allergic to love run in terror when they see Him approaching. This is not unlike what happened in the Garden of Eden originally after sin damaged the thinking and replaced the basic operating system of our first parent's brains and hearts. Then we studied chapter 7 which is heaven's answer to the burning question posed by those running in terror who cannot imagine living very long in such fire. There we found a group of people being sealed in preparation for just that very purpose – to not only stand in the fire of passionate love but to thrive in it and be ravished by it.

What has puzzled many throughout the years is why in pretty much every set of 7's, it appears that the Second Coming seems to be placed at number 6, though that is not consistently clear either. Personally I am leaving this open for the Spirit to continue to bring new insights and not to resist them with preconceived settled opinions. I rely on emerging patterns to help verify what I am seeing.

We began our examination of the seals with the premise that the seals represent a perfected system of lies intended to lock away forever the real truth about God's character of pure love, truth, fairness and graciousness. As a result the world has lived in constant fear, misapprehension and confusion about how God feels about us and what His intentions are to resolve the problem of rebellion. Until these truths are made clear and evident for everyone in the universe to see and appreciate, it will be impossible for God to govern fully in the way He designed creation to operate – in complete freedom and harmony with love alone and no trace of fear.

It is from this perspective that I study Revelation. That means that everything we propose in interpreting the symbols must always be in harmony with a Jesus-looking version of God.

Silence in heaven

What might be reasons for all heaven to suddenly be silent? Here are some options:

Stunned silence over the immensity of sin's effects and how God chooses to respond to it.

For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of Yahweh shall name. (Isaiah 62:1-2)

Stunned silence as there are no words to describe the surprise and shock at discovering that God is not like what we have imagined Him to be all our lives.

Like as many were astonished at you (his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men), so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand. (Isaiah 52:14-15)

Silence is usually associated with an imminent event of God's impending judgment on the earth, or the result of such judgment when all the objections, lies and unbelief are exposed as being unfounded.

for about half an hour

Keep in mind the context of what we are studying. It is the Lamb who is still the primary operative at work here. Yet at the same time He is increasingly communicating through His faithful followers in this world. What is important to realize is that what Jesus experienced during His life and death as a human on earth will be in many respects repeated in the lives of His special ops forces who allow His Spirit to fully possess them to reflect the same glory of God's heart that the Lamb exposed. So we can find many parallels between the experience of Jesus on earth with the prophetic predictions of what is going to be repeated in the lives of His saints.

The symbolism of the word hour is important to allow Scripture to be our guide for interpreting rather than defaulting to stock interpretations we may have relied on for many years. While there might be some validity in looking at numbers involving time in prophecy through the key of a day for a year principle used for Daniel's prophecies, I am not at all convinced that the same thing works equally when it comes to last day events of earth's history. If we insisted on this approach, it would force us to push out last day events for possibly thousands of more years which I find untenable as do most other students of prophecy. So instead of trying to calculate how long a half an hour might be after running it through the day/year calculator as I was taught to do growing up, I prefer going to the words of Jesus as He has already given us some good clues that fit far better in this situation. (Reference Hour of Power document)

The idea of hour can apply to an event or experience. For instance, the death and resurrection of Jesus occurred over about a 36 hour period of actual time. The first half was darkness in the hands of evil and finally in the grave. The second part of this experience was full of life starting on the morning of the third day. Might this help inform us as to what this half an hour might be referring to?

What if the experience of those following the Lamb as His representatives in the end is limited to their only passing through the first half of the experience of Christ's sufferings but without dying, like Job was not allowed to die at the hands of Satan? We are told elsewhere that these 144,000 do not love their own lives unto the death. So we know they reflect the same disposition as did the Lamb when faced with choosing between survival by relinquishing their complete dependence on God or death. Jesus already suffered the death that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt the truth of God's integrity and trustworthiness, so there is no need for anyone else to repeat in full everything Jesus has already accomplished – the full revelation of the truth about God's heart all the way through death. But while many will indeed follow Jesus all the way into death, it will not be caused by the same experience of death from the crushing weight of sin that Jesus experienced, but rather they lay down their life in temporary sleep trusting in the fact that the One in whom their identity is secure has the keys and will soon spring them from their grave and gift them with immortality.

One observation here is that the Seals begin with weeping and they end with silence. This might be a pattern of the grand finale, the ultimate solution by which God chooses to resolve and expose the mystery of evil. This may be a preview that victory over the accuser and his demise is certain and how every lingering question in the minds of fallen and unfallen beings everywhere will at last be fully answered, yet without resorting to any of the methods of the enemy, including railing accusations or coerced punishments. In this way every mouth will be stopped, yet not through intimidation but rather full exposure of the truth that God is love and love alone. This assurance comes through a revelation of what has been hidden from eternity past that can only be unlocked by sufficient evidence provided through the slaughtered Lamb and reinforced by the reflection of those who allow the Lamb to live in them fully.