The Daily Word of Righteousness

Ye Shall Receive Power, #5

I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the nations; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. (Isaiah 42:6,7)

Compare:

Therefore they that were scattered abroad [the church at Jerusalem] went every where preaching the word. (Acts 8:4)

We know John was an apostle of Christ. As such he would serve to perfect and unify the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11,12). John has accomplished this through his Gospel and his Epistles.

But now John is being given another ministry, a ministry to the peoples of the earth (compare Genesis 22:18). He is being charged to "prophesy"; not to the members of the Body of Christ but "before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings" (Revelation 10:11).

The charge to bear this prophetic witness to the world is now at hand for the Body of Christ. The great earth-wide preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God "for a witness to all nations" is commencing now (Matthew 24:14).

The witness to all nations is the necessary forerunner of the coming of Christ. It is the "Elijah and Elisha" anointing, the portion and the double portion, the former and latter rain. Here is the spiritual fulfillment of the two wave loaves of the feast of Pentecost (Leviticus 23:17), the two lampstands, the two olive trees.

In 1948 the Spirit of prophecy came upon the churches of our acquaintance. The "latter rain" was prophesied. It was declared that God would perform wonderful works, that powerful miracles would be wrought while at the same time the fires of judgment would burn on the earth.

These events that were prophesied mark the preparation for the sounding of the last trumpet, the period that will conclude with Christ's return to earth (Revelation 10:7-11:15). It is the seventieth week of Daniel, the week that has been delayed while the Body of Christ is being formed.

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people . . . . (Daniel 9:24)

The above announcement was made by Gabriel.

Then Gabriel proceeded to divide the seventy weeks into sixty-nine weeks plus a separate one-week period:

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Christ the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. (Daniel 9:25)

And then the seventieth week:

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27)

It appears when Christ was crucified ("Christ be cut off"—Daniel 9:26), the prophetic clock stopped ticking so to speak. But it will commence ticking again during the "week" that transpires just prior to the coming of Christ from Heaven at the end of the age.

To be continued.