Today God is moving in the overcomers by growing in them (Col. 2:19). He is making them mature to arrive at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13; Col. 1:28b). The maturity comes out of our growth in life. In Ephesians 4 we see that we are growing up into the Head in all things and that all the Body causes the growth of the Body (vv. 15-16). This growth comes from God's growing in us. That growing is God's operating, and that operating is God's moving.

Before the three and a half years of the great tribulation, many firstfruits will be raptured to the heavenly Mount Zion, the center of the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. 14:1-4). They take the lead to mature first among the saints. Then there will be the harvest of the majority of the believers at the end of the great tribulation (Rev. 14:14-16). Between the rapture of the firstfruits and the harvest will be the three and a half years of the great tribulation (vv. 6-13).

In between the firstfruits and the harvest, there will be another group, the late overcomers, who will be killed by Antichrist and who will stand on the glassy sea (Rev. 15:2-4). During the three and a half years of the great tribulation, Antichrist will set up his image, forcing all the people on earth to worship him (13:4, 12, 15; 2 Thes. 2:4). Whoever chooses not to worship him will be martyred. These ones are the late overcomers.

Then at the end of the tribulation, the Lord will harvest the majority of the saints. Because they did not become mature, the Lord will leave them on earth to become ripe under the suffering of the great tribulation, which will be like the parching sun. This sun will dry up the earthly waters from all the believers who are left on the earth in the great tribulation, enabling them to ripen. This is why the angel cries out that "the hour to reap has come because the harvest of the earth is ripe" (Rev. 14:15).

The believers who were not overcomers will suffer a dispensational punishment during the thousand-year kingdom. Through those thousand years, they will become mature to be included in the final consummation, the ultimate consummation, of the New Jerusalem mentioned in Revelation 21—22. The New Jerusalem is built up by God's progressive, gradual work from Adam to the last believer of the New Testament. They all will be placed into the New Jerusalem by God's growing and operating in them. This growing and operating is God's moving and God's work through the generations. All of this work is God's history.