False Prophets

Revelation chapter 2—we are reading Jesus’ letters to the churches. At the beginning of the book of Revelation, as you know, Jesus gave the apostle John a vision of himself and gave him a spiritual vision of what was happening in the world so that he could see what lay behind historical events, and he also gave him specific prophecies for each church near where John was—7 letters for them and for us. Because each letter speaks of a different strategy that the devil uses to try to neutralize the church of Jesus Christ.

Do you know that? God has a purpose and a plan, and sadly, the devil also has a plan for your life and for the churches. The devil uses what are called schemes to try to neutralize the church of Jesus Christ, but thank God we are not fools: we can know his schemes, we can stand against them and be an overcoming church that knows how to overcome the devil’s creativity, because our God is the supreme Creator of the entire universe, and he knows how to teach us to respond to the devil’s schemes.

We have already read about several strategies the devil uses to neutralize a church. There was a church in Ephesus that was an excellent church. They loved the Lord, they were extremely faithful people, and they did what was right, but they had lost their first love. And we learned that an overcoming church is a church that knows how to cultivate love for God—that doing what is right is not enough; we also want to worship him with hearts full of love.

Strategy 2: the church in Smyrna. It was in a city where there was a great deal of persecution; the government was killing people who refused to worship the emperor, and so the devil tried to intimidate God’s people. In Smyrna they learned that, to be an overcoming church, we must be faithful unto death, that God does not promise us an easy life and requires us to decide, “I am going to serve my Jesus no matter what, come what may.”

Strategy 3, with the church in Pergamum. The devil tried to intimidate them, but it did not work, so he sent seduction. “If I cannot intimidate them,” the devil thinks, “I will tempt them to do things that will bring them under God’s judgment.” And he seduced the Christians in Pergamum into beginning to frequent the pagan temples, worship idols, and have sex with prostitutes in the temples. The devil thinks, “If I cannot defeat them, I will tempt them to sin, and God himself will judge them.” Seduction. We learned that an overcoming church must be shrewd and not allow itself to be seduced.

And now we are going to read the letter to the church in Thyatira. In this church, the devil tried a scheme more deceptive than any of those that had come before. He planted some agents from his side inside the church—false prophets—to destroy God’s people from within. And so we are going to read about the false prophetess whom the enemy planted in that church and how God’s people had to keep their eyes open to it. Revelation 2, beginning in verse 18: “And write to the angel of the church in Thyatira:”

“The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and feet like burnished bronze, says this: ‘I know your works and love and faith and service and patience, and that your latter works are more than the first. But I have a few things against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols. And I have given her time to repent, but she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will cast her onto a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches the mind and the heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to you and to the rest who are in Thyatira, to all who do not hold this doctrine and have not known what they call the depths of Satan, I say: I will place no other burden on you. But hold fast what you have until I come. To the one who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, and they will be broken like a potter’s vessel, just as I also have received authority from my Father; and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Father, I ask you to give us ears to hear what you want to tell us, Lord. Father, I want to be a sheep attentive to the shepherd’s voice, and I ask you to continue speaking to your people, Lord, because we want to be guided by you, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.

A cancer from within—a false prophetess in the church who gave the brothers and sisters in Thyatira a profound message. She had received revelation from God; she allowed the Christians in that church to go to the pagan temple to worship an idol, eat the food offered to the idol, and commit sexual immorality with the female and male prostitutes who worked there in the temple. False prophecy.

You know that we as a church believe in prophecy. We believe that God spoke in the Bible once for all, and under that authority the Lord continues to give revelations to his people as they receive messages from him to encourage God’s people, to confirm decisions that are made, and to warn us when we are in the wrong. I thank God for the Christian prophets we have—people who have given me messages from the Lord that encourage me and warn me. And sometimes they have told me things, and I say, “But how did you know that?” It was from the Holy Spirit.

And in this church we also believe in Christian prophetesses—that women of God, women who are leaders, can receive messages from the Lord. If you read the Bible, there were prophetesses in Moses’ time: Moses and his sister Miriam. There were also other cases. When King Josiah read the Word and wanted further guidance, he sought out a prophetess named Huldah. In the New Testament, the book of Acts, chapter 2, gives a beautiful prophecy: “In the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; your sons and your daughters will prophesy.”

So we believe in prophecies, and we believe in prophetesses, but we do not believe in false prophetesses. So I do not want anyone to take this teaching and say that any woman who does anything is Jezebel. No. It has nothing to do with that. What we are talking about is false teaching that neutralizes a church—teaching that justifies God’s people participating in sin by saying that it is all right. This is false prophecy. And it is a terrible deception. Today, more than ever, we Christians must be shrewd because there is a great deal of false teaching. There is teaching that justifies whatever you feel like doing, and it uses theology, revelation, and many things to deceive God’s people.

Thank God we serve a warrior Jesus who is the Son of God. The revelation says in verse 18 that he “has eyes like flames of fire and feet like burnished bronze.” This Jesus must be taken seriously, because this Jesus is not to be trifled with. He is no little Jesus.

In Thyatira they worshiped the god Apollo, who was the son of Zeus. We know that we serve Jesus, the Son of God. And I believe this is a reference to Psalm 2, and I want us to look at it together because it frames the entire text we are going to read. Psalm 2 was written to people who might doubt God’s control over history because everything seems to be going so badly that it looks as though the kings of the earth are doing whatever they please, and even the church sometimes conforms to them. But Psalm 2 says:

“…Why do the nations rage and the peoples devise vain things? The kings of the earth will rise up, and the rulers will take counsel together against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bonds and cast away their cords from us.’ He who dwells in the heavens will laugh; the Lord will scoff at them. Then he will speak to them in his fury and terrify them in his wrath: ‘But I have set my king upon Zion, my holy mountain, and I will proclaim the decree of the LORD. He has said to me: You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.’”

Jesus is the Son of God who is on his throne even when it seems that the whole world is against him. Brothers and sisters, it is important to know that because we can watch the news, go to our workplace, and think, “Could I be the only one left?” Thank God you can gather here, but on the other days of the week, you think, “But where is God?” This psalm, and the beginning of this letter to Thyatira, gives God’s answer to the question of where Jesus is. He is on the throne—the Son of God, who represents God the King over all the earth. Do not worry. In fact, we must have a healthy fear of him.

He has eyes of fire. I also believe that all of this is a reference to the revelation of a warrior angel to the prophet Daniel. In Daniel 10, he was fasting and praying, and a warrior angel named Gabriel, God’s warrior, appeared to him. It says that his face looked like lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like the color of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the roar of a multitude. I hope you have a healthy fear of this Jesus. I do. I love him; he is my shepherd; he makes me lie down in green pastures. But he also has eyes of fire, and he sees—he sees everything. And he cannot be deceived.

One night, while I was playing soccer with my son, the sun had set and it was very dark. My son said, “I wish I had two flashlights—flashlights in my eyes—so I could see at night.” My God has eyes that are like torches of fire and see everything there is. As Proverbs says, when the king sits on his throne to judge, with his gaze he uncovers all evil. Even Jezebel cannot hide and cannot deceive him. Certainly, “If I were to say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me,’ even the night will shine around me; even the darkness does not conceal anything from you.”

He is the one who searches hearts and minds, and our Jesus is not to be trifled with. He has feet like burnished bronze. I do not know whether you have seen the feet of that bionic man, Iron Man: when he lands on the ground, the ground breaks. The feet of our Jesus are like bronze, fixed to an iron floor. They do not move, cannot be moved, and cannot be pushed from their position.

The Word says that when the Lord returns, his feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives, which is east of Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives will split in half from east to west, forming a very large valley. Half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. The LORD will be king over all the earth. He has strong feet. He is our God, our King, our Judge, and he is not to be trifled with. Fearsome.

But he also sees the good; he sees what we try to do. He looks for authenticity in the church of Jesus Christ, and with those eyes of fire he seeks to separate the false from the true. He wants a genuine church, a true church, an authentic church. And there were many in Thyatira who were like that. Look at what is said about them here in verse 19:

“I know your works, your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance, and that your latter works are greater than the first.”

You know that being a true, authentic Christian does not mean we are going to be extremely flashy. Real Christianity is not always going to be flashy. But real, genuine love—the motivation of a genuine Christian—faith, trusting in your God, service, perseverance, not giving up, perhaps not being a superhero but being better than you were before, doing more today than you did yesterday. Thank God.

That is better than the Ephesians, who had forgotten and had to remember their first works. Sometimes people want to complain to me about some brother: “Oh, but that brother is bad, and how can he be a Christian?” and who knows what else. I say, “Well, you should have seen him before. He is much better than he was before. He has changed.”

The latter works are better than… a little better every day. The Lord is not looking for us to be completely mystical and perfect. The Lord looks for love in your heart. Do you have faith? Are you trusting in your God? Are you serving, helping with the Lord’s work? Are you persevering, doing better than yesterday? You know that being a genuine Christian is not about being a superstar; it is about being faithful to him. That is what God is looking for.

But Jezebel does not want that. The prophetess Jezebel had profound revelations. “No, no, no—not love and faith and perseverance. No. I have revelations for you.” And we are going to hear what Jezebel says and how God seeks to separate what is false—the false church—from the genuine church. Verse 20:

“But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.”

I do not know whether her real name was Jezebel. It may have been, or it may not have been, but I believe she moved in the spirit of an Old Testament queen who bore that name, Queen Jezebel. How many here have heard or read the stories about Jezebel in the Bible? Okay, half of you, just like in the morning service.

Queen Jezebel was a queen who lived hundreds of years before Christ, a queen of Israel but from another nation. Her father was a priest of the demon god Baal, and she too was a priestess of Baal, and King Ahab fell in love with her. Brothers and sisters, I encourage you not to fall in love with satanic priestesses, please.

But look, she’s beautiful—look at that makeup, and all that… She had a charm, literally, with which to dominate that man and control him. That man was fertile ground because he was already evil; it wasn’t that she corrupted him—he wanted to be corrupted. They married, and then she, the queen of Israel, got down to work turning Israel into a pagan country. She began to institute the worship of the demon god Baal in Israel, as well as that of the goddess Asherah. And the Bible says that she had 400 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah who ate at her table every day. What a table! Now that is a big table.

The thing is, she paid them; with the official approval of the state, they employed satanic prophets in the nation and paid them. And they passed laws forcing people to worship idols. You had to do it, and she set out to fight against the prophets of Jehovah, the foremost of whom was named Elijah—the prophet anointed by God who represents the sound teaching of biblical doctrine: that Jehovah is King, that Jehovah is Lord. And she was in conflict with him and with the other prophets of the Lord; she even killed several of them.

But there were some who hid in caves, and Elijah himself had to hide in another country for three years, eating what the ravens, a widow, and the Lord provided for him, because he was hiding from Jezebel, who seemed to have all the power. But thanks be to God, our Lord laughs at those who seem to have all the power. Elijah returns to Israel to have a showdown with the prophets of Baal.

He says, “Why not? Let’s build two altars, and then you prophets of Baal can cry out to your god, and I will build another altar and soak it with water, and I will call upon the name of Jehovah, and we will see which God answers with fire.” Do you remember the story? And Elijah stands there watching while the prophets of Baal cry out to their little god, calling upon him all day long, and Elijah begins to make fun of them. “Where is your little god? Maybe he’s on vacation; maybe he’s in the bathroom.” He said those things. A strong man, a little rough around the edges.

Then he calls out, “Jehovah, answer me.” And fire falls from heaven and consumes the offering he had placed there. And everyone cried out, “Jehovah is God! Jehovah is God!” And the prophets of Baal were killed. For a moment, God was winning in Israel. But then Jezebel, the queen, comes along, a little upset. What happened to her employees? And she comes and says, with her makeup on, “Elijah, tomorrow you will be like one of them. I am going to kill you.”

What would you expect from Elijah? Courage. “Jezebel, you don’t scare me.” But how many of us know what the prophet Elijah did? He ran away like a madman and hid under a tree, and there, discouraged, he says, “Jehovah, I am no better than my ancestors. I have had enough; take my life.” And God says, “All right, rest. You need to eat and rest a little because you are not seeing things clearly.”

How did this man of God allow himself to be intimidated? It is because it was not merely a person, but a spirit behind her. It is the spirit of Jezebel engaged in spiritual warfare against the prophetic spirit of Elijah, the Spirit of Jehovah upon Elijah. And it is a war, a conflict between them, and it is intimidating.

And we see something similar with John the Baptist, who moved in the anointing and mission of Elijah in the New Testament. And the Bible says that he was also the one who had an encounter with an evil and weak king named Herod, who had taken his brother’s wife while his brother was still alive. He had taken his brother’s wife away from him. And Elijah says that this is not right, that the Word says this must not be done. And the wife did not like hearing that, so Herodias had John the Baptist arrested. And in prison, John the Baptist becomes discouraged and even sends a message to Jesus asking, “Are you really the Christ? Or should we wait for someone else?”

Because the spirit of Jezebel had discouraged him to that point—with sexual seductions and deceptions through which Herodias managed to deceive her husband Herod into killing John the Baptist in prison and serving his head on a platter. The spirit of Jezebel against the spirit of Elijah. False prophecy against genuine biblical prophecy.

That same war was taking place in the city of Thyatira. There, this prophetess—we do not know her name—moved in the spirit of Jezebel, deceiving God’s servants, even leaders in the church, into believing that it was all right to do something the Bible clearly says is sin. That same spirit. And God is calling the people of Thyatira to move in the spirit of Elijah and not allow themselves to be manipulated like Ahab or intimidated. What she was doing had to be stopped; it could not be tolerated.

You know that tolerance is generally something lovely and good. Tolerance is something beautiful. We must tolerate the brother who is difficult or complicated. If you are a husband, I hope you tolerate a great deal from your wife, and I especially hope that if you are my husband, you tolerate a great deal from me, because you have to, because I am not always easy; none of us are. We are all imperfect; we have to tolerate one another. May God cause us always to be a church that is tolerant of broken people, where people can come to Lion of Judah just as they are, with all their faults and all their problems; where they can be here and be borne with, tolerated by the Lord and by the church of Jesus Christ; where they can find love.

Tolerating people is good, but tolerating false teaching is sin. Tolerance of every idea is not from God. Jesus himself said to the sinful woman, “I do not judge you; I do not condemn you. But go and sin no more.” Jezebel was saying, “You can keep sinning because it is not sin.” She had her deceptions. She had terrible deceptions.

We read the Apostle Paul’s dialogue with the brothers in Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 6:10, the Apostle Paul is correcting them because I believe they too had allowed themselves to be seduced by Jezebel’s false prophecy. They thought they were so spiritual, so anointed, that nothing they did with the body mattered. They thought, “I am so anointed, so spiritual, that I can go to the pagan temple, eat food offered to idols, have sex with a prostitute, a priestess, and it does not affect me at all because I am so spiritual. The body does not matter; it is the spirit that matters. I am under grace; everything is permissible for me. I can do whatever I please because I am not under law; I am under grace. Everything is permissible for me.”

The Apostle Paul says, “You say, ‘Everything is permissible for me,’ but not everything is beneficial.” He says that you think your body is worth nothing, but your body is a member of Christ himself. How can I take the members of Jesus and unite them with a prostitute? Flee from sexual immorality. He says that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You were bought at a price; you must honor God with your body, because the body is for God, not for sexual immorality.

So they came to him with another deception, perhaps claiming some deep insight through revelation: “An idol is nothing. Idols are not real gods; they are statues of stone. They are not God.” So they said, “That means you can go to the temple and worship idols because the idol is nothing. So worship it, eat the meat, do whatever you have to do, because it is not a god. You can do it, and it will not affect you.” Do you see the deception?

The Apostle Paul says, “The idol is nothing, but the sacrifices the pagans offer are offered to demons that stand behind the idols, and I do not want you to participate with demons. You cannot eat at the Lord’s table and at the table of demons too. Do you want to play games with God?” He says, “Do you think you are stronger than he is?” These are deep things, but they are not the deep things of God; they are the deep things of Satan, and you are better off remaining ignorant of them.

Brothers and sisters, the deception continues in our generation. Teaching is spreading through the evangelical church of Jesus Christ in this country that justifies every kind of sexual immorality, saying that it is not wrong, saying that we Christians can approve certain activities that the Bible clearly says are sin. The Lord expects not tolerance from us in this matter, but clarity of thought.

There are also all kinds of foolish Christians who, after coming to know Christ, remain tempted to continue the superstitious practices of their former lives. Perhaps it involves saints or amulets, casting spells, and things like that, because they are afraid to stop doing it. The Lord says, “Do not be afraid to stop trusting in a superstition. I am the Son of God; my eyes are flames of fire; my feet are like burnished bronze. I am your King. Trust in me; you can let go of these things.”

The Lord seeks a clear-minded church, not a church tolerant of sin. Brothers and sisters, these are serious times. Our God is also intolerant of false teaching. I believe that we as a church should be as tolerant as possible of people and as intolerant as possible of teaching that deceives people whom God loves.

But you know that they were under great pressure to do these things. If you lived in Thyatira and did not go to the pagan temple with all your coworkers—there were guilds, like labor unions, in Thyatira—if you did not go, you could lose your job. And this is not so far removed from us either. How many of us know that if you stand firm in certain Christian beliefs regarding certain aspects of our society, you can even lose your job? There is pressure to conform to the world around us, and God invites and challenges us to be a courageous church, a church that clings to the truth and resists Jezebel’s false teaching.

Look at what it says—some very strong words in verse 21: “Jesus says of Jezebel, ‘I have given her time to repent, but she is unwilling to repent of her sexual immorality. Therefore, I will cast her onto a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am he who searches minds and hearts. I will give to each of you according to your deeds.’”

Brothers and sisters, those are very strong words. First, I would like to say that I believe the adultery to which these words refer is not literal adultery, but spiritual adultery. The Bible says that idolatry is spiritual adultery; it is as though we were being unfaithful to God, our husband.

So I believe that is what this is about. Nor do I believe that her children are literal children. I believe this is speaking about her disciples, and thus it is speaking about her idolatry, but it is a threat of severe judgment against her.

Returning to the Jezebel of the Old Testament—I hope you are following; we are going to end on a happy note here—in the Old Testament, the medicine for Jezebel was strong medicine, as though she were a cancer in the country that had to be treated with powerful radiation therapy. The Lord raised up a king named Jehu, who was a king fiercely opposed to idolatry, and he waged war against the children of Ahab and Jezebel. When he was approaching the city where Ahab’s sons were with another pagan king, and he drew near in his chariot with the horses, they say that the watchman saw a chariot approaching the city, but its driver was driving like a madman, as though he were from Boston—driving like a madman—and he says, “It must be Jehu because he is the only madman who drives his chariot like that.” This is not a justification. Do not do it.

But so zealous is he for the things of God that he approaches the city, and a soldier comes and says to him, “Jehu, do you come in peace?” He says, “What peace can there be with the sexual immorality of Jezebel, your mother, and her many acts of sorcery?” And he begins to wage war against the sons of Ahab, kills 70 sons of Ahab, and also kills Jezebel herself.

I believe that when this prophecy says, “I will strike her children,” it is referring to that event in the Old Testament. I do not believe Jesus wanted to kill babies; I want to make that clear. I believe he was saying that in the same way Jehu waged war against Jezebel, Jesus is going to wage spiritual war against Jezebel’s false teaching. So be careful.

Now, having said that—and it is something sobering to acknowledge—how can there be peace? I believe there should be peace among brothers and sisters who are in conflict. I hope that we will be a church of great peace, so let us be tolerant of one another. But there can be no peace with deception and lies. There are certain things where there will always be a conflict between truth and falsehood, and this church had to stop tolerating Jezebel’s teaching and begin resisting it, because God was coming there to punish falsehood.

But something must be clarified: it is God who punishes, not us. Our role is not to punish the brother who is teaching something false, but to correct him and be clear about what we believe. Look at what Jesus says: “We do not need to worry, but simply hold on to what we have,” even when we feel that we are a very small minority because society makes us feel insignificant, as though what we believe were a thing of the past. Like Elijah, who said to the Lord, “I am the only one left; there are no more prophets of God, and now they want to kill me too.” And God says, “Look, calm down, Elijah. There are 7,000; there are more. There is a remnant.” And today there is also a remnant of people who are clinging to the truth.

Jesus says to the rest who were in Thyatira, “To all who do not hold to that doctrine and have not learned what they call the deep things of Satan, I say: I will not impose any other burden on you. Only hold on to what you have until I come.”

Do not let go of biblical belief, brothers and sisters. Even if everyone thinks you are crazy, even if everyone accuses you of being old-fashioned, of being different, I am going to hold on to what God has given me. And this requires courage; it requires strength of character to hold on to what is authentic when there is deception, even in the church of Jesus Christ. Love and faith, service and perseverance, doing a little more today than I did yesterday, being genuine, being authentic, and not giving up.

Perhaps being a genuine Christian is not flashy, but that is where the power lies, brothers and sisters. Look at the promise Jesus gives at the end. He says in verse 26, “To the one who overcomes and keeps my works to the end, I will give authority over the nations.”

Authenticity and authority go together. You do not have to be some great prophet or prophetess with deep mysteries: love and faith, service and perseverance, a little more today than yesterday, authority over the nations. And he says that we are going to reign. Even if Jezebel is the queen, our Jesus is the King forever and ever, and there is nothing and no one who can take that away.

The One who is in the heavens laughs at those who say that he is already a thing of the past. He says, “I have established my resurrection, my holy mountain,” and there we have the promise at the end. And this is something wonderful, but it is also very important for us to know as Christians and as a church: Jesus is firmly seated on his throne, and you are there with him.

The Bible says that if we suffer, we will also reign with him. The Bible says that we are seated with him in the heavenly places. Brother, you have more authority than you think. If you are holding fast to the truth, there is nothing that can cancel what God has placed in you.

And this is going to be inaugurated… I believe—and I believe it from the Bible—that when Jesus comes, this world is going to change. He is going to come through the clouds, as we discussed; there is going to be a change on this earth, and this planet is going to become Planet Jesus. It is going to change from being Planet Earth to being Planet Jesus. He is going to be the King of kings and Lord of lords. The government will be upon his shoulders.

And the Bible says that Jesus, speaking to his disciples when they were suffering, said, “And you are those who have remained with me in my trials. So I assign to you a kingdom, just as my Father assigned one to me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Jesus has given us the right to serve with him in the heavenly government. Now this is an administration in which I do want to serve. I want to be part of the cabinet, part of this team. And some people think, look, I am not cut out for that. You are, if you have love and faith, service and perseverance, a little more today than yesterday; you are qualified. The power lies in the authenticity of the church, in being faithful to the Lord’s revelation.

Jesus can intimidate even Elijah himself, but it is the meek who will inherit the earth. The Word says, “Ask me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession.”

One day the kingdom of God will cover this whole world as the waters cover the sea, and we will be part of that. But this letter ends with a very special promise. It says, “I will also give you the morning star.”

I do not know whether we have any astronomers here, but I understand that after the long night, the last star shining in the heavens is a planet, Venus, which shines upon the earth. Before the sun rises, there is a star that is like a sign that the day is coming soon.

There in Thyatira, they worshiped Apollo, the sun god. When our Jesus comes, he will shine upon this earth in such a way that there will be no need for a sun, because day and night the light of Jehovah will shine in this world. One day that long night will end, and a new resurrection will come, in which there will be no more weeping or pain, no death, no war, no sin, or anything like that; God will be among them and will wipe away every tear from their faces. He will be the King, and we will reign with him.

But this letter ends with encouragement for us: to know that although the sun has not yet risen, this morning star is already shining within us. And Jesus gives us that star. His authority—the sign of the new day—is here now: the authority of Jesus shining in the church. And I believe that he wants to shine much more brightly in us. He wants the church to shine like a star, proclaiming the Word of God in the midst of a perverse generation. But that requires authenticity. We are going to have to resist the false teachings that will spread throughout the nation, justifying sin, and hold fast to and retain what we have; and that authority God has given us will begin now.

Jesus said, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the—in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded; and I am with you every day until the end of the world.”

Brothers and sisters, God wants this church to have the morning star, which is Jesus himself shining in his authority among us. And for that, we must stand firm, hold on to the truth, and be genuine; and our God is stronger than anything else. Let anyone who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Let us stand. Let us pray. And I invite you, if you are here and perhaps something I have said has confused you in some way, I hope you will open yourself to the Holy Spirit at this moment and that, all together, we will affirm that we want to be that overcoming church in the last days, that we want to resist this spirit of Jezebel that deceives the nations. And Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before you and say: Lord, you are our God. Jesus, you are the Son of God, whose eyes are like fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze, Lord. You are the morning star, Lord; you are the way, the truth, and the life.

I ask you in the name of Jesus to give us the morning star, Lord. May you shine among us, and may authority over the nations be demonstrated here. You are great and mighty, Lord. In the name of Jesus, I ask you for a spirit of truth, Lord, for the prophecy of Elijah in the last days, so that this church may rise up with a prophetic voice, the voice of Elijah, and even if Herod and Ahab intimidate us, may we be clear in the message you have given us, Lord. And may we see, Lord, the power, the authority, of the kingdom of God advance through us. Thank you, Jesus; we give you thanks in the name of Jesus. Amen.