After the dragon and his angels are cast out of heaven, there will be a loud declaration in heaven. Verse 10 says, “I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now is come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ, for the accuser of our brothers has been cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night.” The fighting of the overcoming believers against Satan is to usher in God’s kingdom. The Lord teaches us to pray for the coming of the kingdom (Matt. 6:10). Along with our prayer for the kingdom’s coming, we need to fight for it.
The rapture of the man-child to heaven, the casting of Satan to earth, and the declaration in heaven signify that the man-child will bring the kingdom to earth. When the man-child is raptured to heaven and Satan is cast down from heaven to earth, that will be the time for the kingdom of God to come. Not only will the kingdom come, but also the salvation of our God. Although we have God’s salvation today, we do not yet enjoy it in full, to the uttermost. But when the kingdom of God comes, we shall enjoy God’s salvation in full. It is the same with the power of God and the authority of Christ. We have participated in God’s power and Christ’s authority today, but our full enjoyment of them will be in the kingdom age.
We have seen that there are two aspects to the kingdom of God: the aspect of the reality of the kingdom (Matt. 5:3) and the aspect of the manifestation of the kingdom. Today, in the proper church life, there is the reality of the kingdom. However, in the church life we do not have the manifestation of the kingdom. The manifestation of the kingdom, which will be brought in through the overcoming believers, will come after the man-child has been raptured to heaven. The words, “Now is come...the kingdom of our God” denote the manifestation of the kingdom of God. If we are the overcomers, then we are living in the reality of the kingdom today. Since we are in the reality of the kingdom now, we shall certainly be in the manifestation of the kingdom in the future. Being in the manifestation of the kingdom requires us to be in the reality of the kingdom.
In these messages we have seen a vision regarding what is taking place in the universe. We are sober and know what is transpiring. We are not viewing things from the earth— we are viewing them from the heavenlies. We see a bright woman representing God and a dragon signifying God’s enemy. We also see that these two are fighting. Praise the Lord that we are not only part of the woman, but we are also becoming part of the man-child, the stronger part of the woman that fights against the dragon. We are fighting the dragon today and one day we shall be there in the heavens to give him the word to leave heaven. No human mind could have devised such a picture. Once again, we are forced to believe that this is the divine revelation. Who could have written such a record? No one, including Plato or Confucius, is wise enough to compose this. This record is simple, wonderful, profound, and all-inclusive. It affords us a universal view of what is taking place in the universe. From now on, none of us can say that we do not know what is happening. We all must say, “I have seen the vision and I know what is going on.” Hallelujah for this vision! I am glad that among the many crucial matters in the second section of the book of Revelation the first is this vision of the universal bright woman with her man-child warring against the dragon. This must be a governing vision. As long as we see it, we shall know where we are, what we must do, and where we shall be. We are in the church, we must be in the man-child, and our destiny is to be raptured to heaven that we may issue the order to Michael to cast Satan and his angels out of heaven. If we see this vision, we shall surely be beside ourselves.