All of the purposes for Jesus giving us The Book of Revelation revolve around guiding us to know the REALITIES of ETERNITY-> the REALITY that HE has gone to prepare a place in HIS Presence for those that will trust in HIS Saving Mercy (John14:1-6,”Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;believe also in me.In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.And you know the way to where I am going.”Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”). King David is an Old Testament example of knowing the REALITIES of ETERNITY, and he was severely distressed by what could separate him from the ETERNAL place that Jesus was preparing for him to live forever-> it was sin that could separate him from the presence of God forever. David knew this and he cried the prayer of Psalm 51-> ”Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.....Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.... Create in me a clean heart, O God,and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence,and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit...”! David knew the significance of the Great Harvest that Jesus describes in Rev 14:14-20, that Jesus Himself would eventually gather those to Himself those whom sincerely receive HIS Mercy & Grace to be with Him forever in Heaven. And that Jesus would also gather those that rebelled from HIS Mercy & Grace in their refusal of HIS Sacrificial Offering on their behalf ->”Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.”.T his describes 2 harvests/2gatherings! 1 harvest/gathering of the earth (those saved by Receiving God’s Mercy&Grace through Christ); and another harvest/gathering of grapes/vine of the earth (those that choose to reject God’s Mercy&Grace through Christ)! The 1st harvest is destined to spend Eternity in Jesus’ presence where HE has gone to prepare a place/Heaven. The 2nd harvest is destined for the wrath of God & away from Jesus’ prepared place forever. The  fact that there is a “Wrath of God” is used by Satan to create misconceptions about God and His Love! These trip us up from knowing the depth & breadth of God’s Love, which is The Reason that Christ gave EVERYTHING in our stead, & for us to know the AWESOME LOVE of God (Ephesians3:16-19,”I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”). Satan knows that if we fail to grasp the Love of God & that HE FIRST LOVED us,we will be more inclined to turn away from the Mercy & Grace Christ only can offer. Satan also knows that when we have “hangs ups” about the Character of God, we will wane from knowing how wide and long and high and deep is the Love of God! The devil is so clever as to even use well meaning Christians to paint an inaccurate characterization of God based on His Wrath, leading to many choosing to not receive His Mercy through Christ and to blaspheme the Name of God! This is why it is so important to both better understand God’s Wrath along with IT’s reasons for being. If not, we who do seek a relationship with our Father in Heaven through Christ will fall short of the immeasurable joy that God so greatly desires us to have in fully knowing His Awesome Love. And others will be turned off by the deceptive mischaracterizations of  “A Loving God”/The Only Loving God!

SO, I found some trusted resources that talk about the wrath of God-here is 1 (the link of which is at the end of the excerpt)”.... One of the most common mischaracterizations about God stems from what many say about GOD being angry about sin, when they say, “it’s wrong for God to get angry like that” On the contrary, it is as much a part of His glory and perfection as is His holiness, His justice, or His love. In fact, it is required by all three. Sin is an outrage against God’s holiness; His justice requires that He punish it. And His love for His people demands that He destroy sin because it threatens their well-being. Wrath is God acting in love to destroy sin, to purge His universe of what is detrimental to its best interests. God cannot love what is good without hating what is evil and moving decisively against it, any more than a parent can love his child without acting quickly and ruthlessly to destroy a wild animal that threatens the life of that child. God’s wrath is the perfect response of His perfect being to that which poses a danger to His children. https://bible.org/seriespage/18-grapes-wrath ”Therefore, the fact that God does have Wrath is even more evidence of HIS Great Love for HIS children, those who will trust in HIS Great Mercy through Christ to be cleansed from all unrighteousness and become HIS sons & daughters. This also speaks to how Wickedly Bad sin actually is, & how deceptive all things are that set themselves up against the Heart of God as HE expresses through HIS Word and through HIS Spirit. This is what the apostle Paul is taking about when he says in 2Corinthians10:3-5, ”For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (The Bible), and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. This battle begins in our mind/what we decide to believe about God. So! We need to be determined to know what the Bible truly says about the Character of GOD, and especially what the Bible truly says about the LOVE of God! Dear Lord,I admit that I have let wrong ideas about You and Your Love exist in my mind & heart without challenging them with what You truly say in Your Word about Your Love and the lengths You go to look after me, for my Eternal Security and my Eternal Well Being....and what You are doing to prepare a place for me.Let me not be remiss in allowing false ideas about Your Character and Your Love to keep me from knowing how wide and how deep and how long and how high Your Love is for me.

One of the consequential TRUTHS in Revelation is in chapters 13&14. So,it should be no surprise that Satan has leveraged his creative evilness in making these verses less than the Eternal Significance they are (The Book of Daniel also talks about these things in chapter 7) .Understanding all of these verses is beyond me. But I do get the primary message that as we move closer and closer to the time that Jesus returns, the devil is going to be ramping up his efforts to increasingly deceive humankind, and rob us of knowing in TRUTH The One True God that has proven His Overwhelming Holy & Righteous Love from the Beginning of Time. Throughout history the devil has been weaving his web of deceit, creating a perpetually growing masterful ruse aimed at obstructing humankind from knowing the Truths about God and HIS Great Desires for us to know HIM as Father God. One way Satan has been doing this through the ages is with the question, ”did God really say?” This is the very first tactic the devil uses in the lives of humankind->Genesis 3:1, ”Now the serpent (the devil) was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Questioning The Word of God & chipping away at the significance of Whole Bible has been at the core of every single scheme that Satan has devised, displacing one Truth after another with one Deception after another. And this always leads to horrible effects on humankind, including persecution, victimization, tyranny, witch hunts, badgering, torment, harassment, bullying, Fascism, subjugation, etc. From Genesis to Revelation you can see Satan’s strategy growing in scope and intensity, with each one of his successes coming from another Biblical Truth being questioned, & replaced with a lie. And he always uses some kind of temptation to put a wedge between us and knowing God in Truth! In Revelation 13-14 Jesus reveals the beginning of Satan’s End Game for all of the scheming Satan has been up to for thousands of years. Satan’s core vindictiveness & narcissism has always driven him to deceive humankind away from a Holy Reverence for God, & toward a worship of false gods of any kind. When this happens persistently over time, the world stage is set for what Rev13-14:13 describe->”And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea (Satan’s persecuting power; power of a demonized state with no regard for TRUTH)...the whole earth was astonished and followed the beast...and he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God (lies about God & His Ways). All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast-all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world...And I saw another beast..and he performs great signs (deceptions)...and deceives those who dwell on earth...telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast...that the beast might even speak and cause as many who do not worship the image of the beast to be killed...And I looked and behold, the Lamb was standing in Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000 (representing all the His faithful believers)...These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.” Anything that sets itself up against TRUTH is a lie->Proverbs 1:7 says, ”The fear(awesome reverence) of the Lord is the beginning of (foundation of) knowledge (TRUTH) :fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This is why Satan sets up questioning about any part of The Bible! If he is successful in any measure, he can then begin to gnaw away at everything God has given us that proves His Great Mercy & Grace is to be trusted & nothing else...that Almighty God is the ONLY Living God, and HE desires for all humankind to be saved from sin by The Gospel of Christ! We need to seek God’s Great Gift through Christ as the Greatest Treasure ever discovered->Matthew13:44,”The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”! If we are not seeking THIS TREASURE through CHRIST ALONE and in Gods Word, then we are susceptible to the schemes of the devil,& potentially fools for his schemes. Dear Jesus, I pray for Your help in keeping my mind/heart/life free from the webs of deceitfulness that the devil would like to use in my life...and wherever there might be some of his nasty web entangled in me...that You miraculously help me to be freed....and shored up with TRUTHS of Your awesome love...

Satan’s ultimate fate was sealed when Christ suffered and died on the cross and then rose from the grave to walk and teach more before ascending to Heaven and sitting at His Throne. When Jesus was born;while He grew;while He talked;during His ministry;through His persecutions;through His sufferings;through His death;through His resurrection;and through His ascension, Jesus FULFILLED around 400 prophecies in the Old Testament. The odds of winning Powerball or Mega Millions lottery are about 1 in 290,000,000. The odds of ONE MAN fulfilling only 8 of the Old Testament Prophecies is 1 in 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000. Jesus fulfilled every single prophecy told about Him in the Old Testament, around 400!Those odds  have so many 0’s...so many that make it is absolutely MIRACULOUS PROOF of God’s Word being TRUE & THE ONLY MESSAGE worthy of seeking it’s TRUTHS...ESPECIALLY The Gospel of Christ! When Jesus fulfilled the prophecies about him, died and rose from the grave,HE SECURED FOREVER all of God’s Promises of Mercy and Grace for those that will decide to turn to Christ and TRUST HIM with their minds/hearts/lives! AND in doing all of this, Jesus provided Satan’s ultimate personal defeat! Satan is furious that his scheming to kill Jesus as a baby failed...his scheming to tempt Jesus failed...his scheming to break Jesus’ resolve through temptations, persecutions, torture, & a horrible death failed...that death failed to hold Jesus in the grave...and that Jesus’ Power overcame all Satan could muster against Him when Jesus ascended to Heaven and sent HIS Holy Spirit to be our strength and our helper in finding and clinging to Faith in Jesus as we seek to find, and live through the purposes this current life has for us(Romans8:28).Now that Satan knows he has suffered his personal ultimate defeat, he is LIVID/FURIOUS&VINDICTIVE! Jesus has defeated all of Satan’s schemes to have sin reign forever & to take humankind totally away from the Mercies&Graces of God that Jesus Secured as absolute promises for those that decide to Earnestly Trust that Christ is The Messiah,& that HE has personally provided The Only Way to know the Eternal Securities that the Bible Promises.>Revelation 12:10-17

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.... But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman(all humankind )who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings(including God’s Great Mercy &Grace)of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness(God’s Promises), where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach.Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water(deceptions;lies;evil schemes)like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.....Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war(temptations;deceptions;persecutions)against the rest of her offspring-those who keep God's commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus”! One of Jesus’ reasons for giving us the Book of Revelation is to warn us about what Satan is up to currently!

Satan knows God’s Greatest Heart Desire is for all to Trust in His Promises through Christ. So Satan has turned his VINDICTIVE SCHEMES on us! Satan knows how it hurts God’s Heart so deeply for even one to turn away from God’s Provision of Saving Mercy and Grace (Isaiah45:22,”“Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;

For I am God, and there is no other.”;2Peter3:9,”The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise,...not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”)! So, since Satan cannot effectively focus on Jesus personally any more, he is now focusing on Jesus’ Heart for humankind, including those that decide to turn to Christ as Savior & Lord! Satan’s evilness now has a single focus -> to hurt the Heart of God by going after the Desire of God’s Heart, that being for everyone come to repentance through the Mercy of The Gospel of Christ. SO, Jesus gives us these verses in Revelation that we may KNOW everything God teaches through HIS Word is TRUE & TRUSTWORTHY for our benefits AND for our protection against the devil’s schemes! The unfathomable odds of The Bible being true have been statistically proven by Jesus! Therefore,the LIFE/SUFFERINGS/DEATH/RESURRECTION/ASCENSION of Jesus are calling us into God’s Word to discover all GOD gives for us through HIS Word for our GOOD!Because of this, God’s TRUTHS are the core at which all of Satan’s schemes are focused! Therefore, we must make seeking God in His Word a priority! Seeking His wisdom; encouragement; lessons; discernment; truths about life; truths about purpose; and Especially TRUTHS about His Love...all within the pages of God’s Word! When we fail to make Bible Study and Prayer a priority of every day, we enhance the “odds” of Satan’s schemes having their way in our life. Dear Lord,I pray that reading Your Word in the mornings become more than a box to check off! May Your Spirit remind me of the Awesome significance of Your Word...and that You have miraculously provisioned Your Word and Prayer to be for my personal protection and for my good.

Our “OVERCOMING” (Rev12:11) that is so GLORIOUSLY MAGNIFICENT IT should change our lives from the inside out is what is described just a couple verses before in Rev 12:7-9. In fact, verses 7-9 should open our eyes to the spiritual battles that are constantly going on as we think, talk, walk & live every day! These verses describe the “war in Heaven” that went on as Jesus was taking our sin upon Himself on the Cross at Calvary. As Jesus was suffering bodily on our behalf, simultaneously there was a FINAL FATE being fought for in Heaven - the ULTIMATE BATTLE that only Jesus could fight. This fight was for the ultimate sake of our Eternal Life & a final victory over all of Sin’s claims for our mind/heart/life. The only “STRENGTH” that could WIN this fight was that which Christ Empowered when HE took the ENTIRE battle on HIMSELF through HIS Bodily Sufferings & Death. When Jesus laid down His Life for us, ALMIGHTY GOD PERSONALLY took the fight on for our Eternal Life! HE PERSONALLY took on everything that Satan could ever throw at us->all guilt; all shame; all condemnation; every single weapon Satan could ever form against us! AND JESUS DEVASTATED all of the enemies Satan could ever form against us->Rev12:7-10, ”And there was a war in Heaven, Michael and his angels waging a war with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in Heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in Heaven saying, ”Now the Salvation, and the Power, and the Kingdom of our God and the Authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before God day and night.” So, as we live and breathe every day, and as we confront whatever happens in the midst of our days, we should be aware that simultaneously there are still battles of deceit going on for our mind/heart/life that can only be fought spiritually! Ephesians6:10 emphasizes this by saying, ”Finally, be strong in the LORD and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the LORD's people.” Unfortunately, we do not take these verses to heart as we should, and the devil’s deceitful schemes are effective in “scheming” us away from a RIGHT&TRUE appreciation for the VICTORY that JESUS won for us, and the OVERWHELMING PRICE HE PAID for our victory....,AND what HIS VICTORY calls us to! HIS VICTORY calls us to an AWESOME CONFIDENCE/FAITH that should compel us to knowing more and more about what else HE has for us personally as we trust Him to guide and instruct us with HIS Ways every day. THIS is what Ephesians 6:10-18 is talking about->being prepared every day to see/know and battle for what Jesus desires to show us; teach us; prepare us for; lead us to; bless us with; etc. THE WAR has been WON! Jesus desires to now be the source of our Strength ;our Wisdom; our Discernment; our Encouragement; our Perseverance; our Steadfastness; our Confidence; our Readiness; & THE WHO we depend on for all things...as we take every step through every day we live. When we do not do this, we are certainly going to be impacted in some way by the deceitful schemes of the devil, which always target an AWESOME REVERENCE for God, His Ways, and His Word...What God has DONE for us and What HE has given us through His Word. Oh Lord, help me to be in total AWE of the WAR that You were Victorious over for me...what You did for me, and what You want to do for me now as I begin a new day...may I be more aware today of the spiritual significances of this days moments...and be prepared through Your Help, with Your Full Armor and Readiness...and especially with The Overwhelming Love of Your Gospel.

As John begins the Book of Revelation,he describes the conditions/perspectives/beliefs/convictions/attitudes of his mind/heart/life that quite frankly enable anyone to personally know the presence of The Lord, and God’s Heart to our heart “communication”...to personally know Almighty God as our Father in Heaven as John obviously did& what enabled him to know what God was talking with him about->Rev1:10”...I was in the Spirit,& I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said..” ”In the Spirit” means that John was in a state of EXALTING the FULLNESS of The Holy Spirit in all of his heart/mind/life (to exalt means the ACTION of elevating someone or something in rank, power, or character.The ACT of raising someone or something to a more important position). John was doing something that all of us can do -> placing what The Lord Says and what The Lord Demonstrated for us...,above all other things & influences in his life! ALL of what The Spirit offers (the FULLNESS OF THE SPIRIT) was EXALTED in John’s life above everything else! We know John is speaking about this FULLNESS because of what he says in Rev1:4-5, ”..Grace and peace to you from him who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness...”! When John says “from the seven spirits before his throne”, John is honoring/exalting the COMPLETENESS/FULLNESS of The Lord/The Fullness of The Holy Spirit....,John is saying that his heart/mind/life were TUNED INTO and IN TUNE with (EXALTING) the completeness available to all of us through Christ-> completeness being everything that God created for us to have in/through HIS SPIRIT as we sojourn through our life on Earth-the complete package of what The Holy Spirit of God is meant to be in our lives-> for HIS SPIRIT to be EXALTED in our lives! The “Seven Spirits” that John conveys in the Book of Revelation represent “THE COMPLETENESS/FULLNESS of THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD”->what God desires for every Christian to have. Isaiah 11:1-3 tells what makes up the COMPLETENESS OF THE SPIRIT/THE SEVEN SPIRITS of Christ->”The Spirit of The Lord will rest on him-the Spirit of Wisdom & of understanding,the Spirit of counsel & of power,the Spirit of knowledge & of the fear of (reverence of/for) the Lord-& he will delight in the fear of (reverence of) the Lord.” These are the SEVEN SPIRITS of Christ that are “the complete package” making up The Holy Spirit that Jesus places in our hearts when we turn our lives over to Him. I don’t know what all of these fully mean to me as a follower of Christ. But because John is identifying with THEM ALL, we can also identify with THEM ALL! It is John’s identifying with and EXALTING  ALL 7 SPIRITS/COMPLETENESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT in all of his heart/mind/life that made it possible for him to hear a voice that speaks what no words can fully convey. John was not born with anything that made him special in any way...,nothing that would have inherently made him significantly different from anyone of us! John is no different from any of us, other than the characteristics of his awesome faith in WHO Christ IS, and faith in WHAT HE has done, & faith in WHAT HE is doing, and faith in WHAT HE will do! John’s faith is not just a part of his life on Sunday’s, or when he goes to Bible Study’s, or when he does “religious stuffs”, or during his “quiet times” as he prays and seeks The Lord. NO! When John says he was “in the Spirit”, he is telling us that his faith was much more! John’s faith was such that his heart/mind/life were TUNED INTO and IN TUNE with ALL parts of God’s Spirit/the FULLNESS of The Spirit! What John did have on the island of Patmos when he was led by The Lord to write the Book of Revelation was this STATE OF EXALTING THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST in his heart/mind/life. This is something that Almighty God makes available to anyone that would do the same thing that John is talking about in these verses! When we become “Christians” we tend to rest/relax in the security of the “Fire Insurance” we have through Christ that provides for us to “go to the better place” instead of Hell! When we stop here and fail to push into and EXALT ALL that is the FULLNESS of The Spirit that Jesus gives us...we miss out on so much more than just having the fire insurance->we miss out on what John has on Patmos. We miss out on knowing the “voice of God that is like a trumpet”. When we miss out on this FULLNESS of what Jesus died for us to have, we suffer the consequences of NOT knowing the COMFORT & EMBRACE of The Lord’s Voice in our life...the Voice that is so different from any other voice that John likens THIS VOICE to a trumpet...a VOICE that speaks to our heart and the core of what makes us...a VOICE that speaks to the essence of who & what we are. Like some music will stir us so deeply in ways that are more significant than any words heard through ONLY our ears...some times this is similar to the way that our Father in Heaven desires to speak with us->in ways that no words can fully convey. Dear Lord, I believe You are calling me to “sit here” in these verses for a while...and learn more about having what You spoke through John for me to grab on to. Help me over the next days to discover the TRUTHS of what You desire for me through the FULLNESS OF YOUR SPIRIT coming alive in me.