1. Daniel is a very powerful and exhaustive eschatological book, referring to the events of the end times. Daniel is filled with staggering insight about what God is going to do with the church.

2. The topic of the end of the age is a very troubling topic for some, especially for those who have been in the kingdom for twenty, thirty, or forty years. This because of so many of the abuses, doctrinal and practical errors. As a result of that, people have begun to spiritualize the issue of the end of the age, where it no longer touches our personal lives, and indifference has begun to settle in concerning this topic.

3. Jesus challenges us in the gospels to not be indifferent about the day of His power. On three occasions, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the disciples of Jesus came to Him, and said, "Lord, tell us about the end of the age." On all three occasions, Jesus said the exact same thing. He said this: "See to it that no one deceives you." That is not a statement of indifference. When the Son of God, the uncreated God coming as a man with all wisdom, all power, all authority, comes and tells us "See to it that no one deceives you," that is a very serious statement.

4. The Apostle Paul in 2^nd Thessalonians says, "See to it that no one deceives you." The issue of deception and the end of the age is very important.

1. In Matthew 21:4 it says the disciples came to Him privately. They came to Jesus privately, and they asked him, "Tell us about the coming. Tell us about the end of the age." This is an exhortation for us as God’s people to move from indifference to zealous interest concerning the end of the age. It is also an exhortation for us to go into the secret place and ask Jesus, "Jesus, what do You have to say about the end of the age?"

2. He is very eagerly waiting for us to ask that question, because it is His finest hour in human history. This Bible calls the end of the age "the day of the gladness of His heart." It is also called the day of His wedding or the day of His power and the day of His wrath. It is the glorious day of the Son of God. He would love to talk about the day of His coming.

1. The Apostles often called the church to a life of passion by giving them the context of the end of the age. It was part of the apostolic model to do that. Part of calling people to passion for Jesus is laying a foundation and giving a context in front of them of the hour of history that we’re living in.

2. Peter, in 2^nd Peter 3:10 says, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." Everything that is created will just be consumed, and will be burned away by the fire of God. This fire is the fullness of His desire for His bride expressed, that everything that stands it its way will be removed.

3. "Therefore, since all of these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?" Peter is calling the church to holy conduct and godliness by presenting to them the context of the end of the age. All of 2^nd Peter is saying, "Look this is what’s coming ahead, therefore, live in this way."

1. Daniel 7:1-8- Daniel is standing in the counsel of the Lord. Daniel is experiencing a dimension of the counsel of the Lord, and the Lord gives him a supernatural history lesson. He sees the rise and the fall of four major empires, ending with the greatest one of all at the end of the age. This last empire will strike the greatest terror across the earth known in history.

2. "After this, I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns." This empire will be absolutely is terrifying. There is going to emerge, I believe, in this generation, such a kingdom that is described in Daniel. It will be dreadful. It will strike fear across the earth in a way that we cannot even imagine.

3. Ezekiel 9 talks about the fear that will come upon the earth, and it says that men and women would be bald in that day. People loose their hair under great stress. That is the measure of dread and terror that will come across the earth as the wrath of Satan is released against the church through this great empire.

1. Daniel is giving more of an interpretation of what is taking place in Psalm 2 when it says, "Why do the nations rage?" There is raging going on in the nations. There’s turmoil.

2. The nations are getting really unsettled in these last days. This is going on across the entire globe. The nations are stirring. Daniel says that the four winds of heaven are blowing across the earth.

3. The Lord is beginning to orchestrate the earth. He is beginning to prepare the earth for the heavenly Bridegroom to come in upon the earth and to marry His Bride.

1. The prayer movement is not just so we can have a little revival so our churches can go better. God is about to wrap up human history, and His mercy to us is to give us a prayer movement.

2. The prayer movement is strategic so that we can commune with Him- so that in the hour of terror and dread we will not be shaken, but we can walk as prophets and as forerunners, preparing the Bride of Christ for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. The prayer ministry was not birthed out of human engenuity because we got bored and wanted something more exiting. No. It’s the Holy Spirit is sovereignly orchestrating something across the globe.

4. Daniel is seeing these nations stirred. But in the meanwhile, in Daniel 7, the Lord begins to show Daniel that in that hour, that thing that He is going to do to us, He is going to show us the government of heaven. Daniel 7:9-10 to me speaks of the government of the heaven.

5. In Daniel 7:9-10, the government of God and the counsel of the Lord is revealed. "I watched till thrones were put in place…" I believe that those thrones speak of the counsel of the Lord. I believe that they speak of these thrones being set in place. There are places in heaven right now being prepared for God to call His people who say ‘yes’ to Him, to come and to sit in those thrones, to hear His Word, and to stand in and hear the very counsels of God.

6. Verse 7 is a prophetic picture and token of what the Lord will give the final generation access to.

7. Daniel 7:9- "And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool." His garments, His priestly garments, the garments of the Judge. His hair, His head was like pure wool, His ancient wisdom.

8. Daniel 7:9b- "His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire…" His throne was ablaze with love. "A fiery flame." Its wheels are burning.

9. Daniel 7:10- "A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him." A fiery stream came forth from before Him. This fiery stream speaks of the fullness of His unleashing of His desire for His bride. This is the fiery stream of a transcendant God. This is not a creek. This is river is the uncreated, unrestrained, fire from God’s heart that is beginning to approach the earth.

10. I believe we’re living in the hour where the very beginnings of that are already beginning to touch the earth, and it’s causing just a little commotion. These are not the birth pangs; the earth is just now finding out that she is pregnant.

11. There is a river on its way, and it’s going forth. This river is mentioned Psalm 97:3. "A fire goes before Him, and it burns away all of His enemies." This river will remove everything that stands in the way of righteousness, love, of justice and humility. God is going to confront the globe with His raging desire for His bride.

1. Isaiah is linking the night watch with the judgments of the Lord. But the very first thing he says is, "I desire You greatly in the night. With my soul I desire You."

2. The night is linked with desire. The thing that keeps people awake in the night is desire. What keeps people awake in the night is desire, whether it’s desire to find relief from suffering, whether it’s desire for a loved one, or worry. Worry is a form of desire. Whether it’s desire for a job or you’re about to lose a job- ora desire for money, pleasure, or unrighteous. Pleasure is what keeps people awake in the night. The night clubs are filled with people consumed with desire in the night.

3. Isaiah is saying, "There’s this desire that is keeping me awake in the night, and it’s a desire for the Lord." Desire is the key to the night watch, not discipline or self-determination. Desire is awakened by coming in touch with His desire, which is what we see in Daniel 7:10.

1. Desire gets unearthed. Desire gets unearthed in the night- meaning, there is soil full of rocks and full of rubble, the Lord comes and He begins to remove the rocks and the rubble, and begins to unearth desire (see Isaiah 62:10). Our bodies are going to go through things, we’ll be tired, cranky, feeling left alone, feeling misunderstood, nobody sees you because you’re hiding, all that kind of stuff, and all that pain drives you to the Lord, and desire gets unearthed.

2. Desire gets awakened in the night. When the Lord calls someone into the night, its primary goal to awakening desire. In the wilderness, all the props are removed. As the props are removed, God begins to awaken desire in our hearts. And He awakens desire in our hearts.

3. Desire gets awakened in our hearts as the river of fire comes from the very throne of God. As we sit before Him, that very fire begins to touch and to tenderize our hearts.

4. The third thing that takes place in the night is that desire gets cultivated. The way desire gets cultivated is by sitting at Jesus’ feet and meditating on His Word.

1. The night watch, and it’s not the only place, that doesn’t mean that if you’re in the daytime that you’re doomed but there’s a uniqueness about the night watch, that is biblical, and that needs to be trumpeted.

2. There are very specific things in the Bible about the night watch, and one of those things is that in the night watch, God is going to raise up a generation of forerunners (Psalm 110:3, Matthew 25:6)

1. The voice in the wilderness says, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." The voice in the night says, "The Bridegroom is coming. Go out and meet Him." They are the same call.

2. Isaiah 40:3 says "the voice in the wilderness". Matthew 25:6 says that at midnight a cry was heard, "The Bridegroom is coming, go out and meet Him." This is the cry that the Lord is going to awaken in the heart of those who are in the night watch as their hearts are being tenderized by the river of fire that has already begun to flow from His throne.

3. As the flow of this river intensifies so will the cry of the forerunner. The urgency of the forerunner is fueled by the desire of God that flows from His throne with ever increasing intensity.

4. The voice in the wilderness and the midnight cry are the sounds of desire awakened in the heart of the friend of the bridegroom. It’s a sound of deep yearning, it’s a sound of intercession, and it’s a sound of proclamation. As the Lord’s desire draws near, the stronger the voice will be. The forerunner cry is awakened by the desire of the Bridegroom.

1. Isaiah is spending time in the night with the Lord. His heart is getting romanced. His heart is getting tenderized. (Isaiah 26:9)

2. Isaiah says that he is gripped with longing in Isaiah 26:9. The Word of God is just tenderizing his heart. He is experiencing, I believe, SOS 1:2- the kisses of God’s Word.

1. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, in the hour of judgment is a prophetic picture of Jesus again in the Garden of heaven tarrying, because of the judgments of God that are to come upon the earth.

2. In Gethsemane, He was looking for friends. All of His closest friends fell asleep in the hour of judgment. The Holy Spirit, I believe, would say something like this, "Jesus, in the day of Your return Your friends will not fall asleep. You will have a company of people who will stand with You in the night, and they will tarry with You in the night, and they will carry Your burden concerning the judgments on the earth in the night."

3. In Isaiah 21, Isaiah is receiving a series of visions, about the fall of Babylon. Isaiah, hundreds, at about 725 B.C. almost 3,000 years ago, sees Revelation 19. He is receiving visions of the end of the age.

4. Isaiah 21:3- "Therefore, my loins are filled with pain. Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor." He says, "I’m gripped with travail and intercession." He’s gripped. Something is happening to Isaiah, later on you find out he’s very confused…"I thought the night watch was about You and me, just me feeling good about You and You feeling good about me. What is all this pangs and intercession? What is going on here?" I think this is a conversation inside of Isaiah’s (or my) mind…

5. Isaiah 21:3-4- "I was in distress when I heard it. I was dismayed; I was confused when I saw it." Isaiah is seeing and hearing things that confused him. He saw and heard things that caused him pain and anguish. "My heart wavered; fearfulness frightened me, the night for which I longed."

6. The night of romance, the night watch which Isaiah looked forward to, the Lord turned into terror. The Lord is calling people in the night, because He’s looking for people who will tarry with Him in the night, and people with whom He can begin to share His burden and His heart and the anguish of His own heart about the judgment that He is going to release in the earth.

7. Ezekiel tells us that the Lord does not delight in the death of the wicked, and yet He is the One, Who, by the release of His judgments, will cause a fourth of the earth to be killed and to be removed. These are the things that bring anguish to the heart of the Son of God. This is the anguish that, I believe, Isaiah is in touch with here- so much that his loins are in pain. Pangs have laid hold of him.

8. Isaiah is in travail and intercession as he begins to cry the very tears of Jesus. The principle of Romans8:26 has laid hold of him. Isaiah, in his weakness, the Holy Spirit begins to groan through him as the Lord reveals the judgments of God to him in the night. The Lord is going to rise up a whole company of people who will stand with Him in the night during the hour of judgment.

9. Many will be gripped with the burden of the Lord for the nations of the earth (the counsel of the Lord).

10. Jesus wants to share the pain of His heart with people. Who will come in the night that He can share with them, and they can weep and cry with Jesus as they are in pangs like women who are in labor.

11. This is why He will give us prophetic information about the things to come. He is not sharing this information that we can stand and criticize the church and when it happens says, "I told you guys." No!!! Jesus doesn’t give information just for the sake of giving information.

12. He entrusts the secrets of His heart to those who fear Him. He entrusts the secrets of His heart to those who say yes, and those who care about His heart. Jesus is sitting in heaven with tears in heaven, with the burden of His Father in His heart, wanting to share the plans and the intents of His heart with His people, and one of the places where He will do that is in the night watch.

1. The river of fire tenderizes our hearts. He’s preparing our hearts for a long-lasting journey of intercession and carrying the burden of the Lord as He has to do the thing that pains His heart.

2. I believe that it troubles Jesus, but for the sake of love, He must. It pains Him, and that’s why people are so confused. Some say, "Well, He has said that He will come soon and that the end is near, but it has not come yet. I believe that it has come because Jesus’ heart is in anguish.

3. This is what Peter means by, "He desires that none should perish, but that all the nations of the earth would turn, and turn to His heart." Jesus’ seeming delay and His longsuffering is being misunderstood. The longsuffering heart of Jesus is being misunderstood as Him not being able to come through with what He said. The patience of Jesus is making His prophets look like madmen and madwomen who are talking about fantasies. The patience of Jesus is His mercy to the human race. His own heart is in anguish, because His coming will be preceded by much trouble and judgment, and much of this trouble will come from His own hand.

1. There are things on the heart of the Judge. Daniel 7:9, 10 is a picture of the counsel of the Lord. A whole generation will stand in the counsel of the Lord, and Daniel 7:10 gives us a small picture of that.

2. Daniel 7:10 – Here we see the Ancient of Days, as a Judge who burns with desire. God is not a stoic Judge incapable of experiencing emotions. He’s not the Bridegroom Who one morning wakes up with a bad mood and decides, "I’m going to be a Judge." The Bridegroom is the Judge, the Judge is the Bridegroom, and the Bridegroom is the King.

3. A.W. Tozer says that God is does not suspend one attribute to exercise another. He’s just as much a Bridegroom who burns with desire when He releases His judgments. He’s just as much a Judge Who is fierce in His wrath when He releases His mercy in revival as a King. His passionate emotions are shown to us as a river of fire.

4. Deep desire flows from His very throne.

1. The counsel of the Lord is an actual place, it’s a reality in the Holy Spirit and more than a place, it’s proximity in God’s heart itself. In the counsel of the Lord, we hear the word of the Lord that causes in generation of people to turn to the heart of God. In the counsel of the Lord gives us divine understanding and interpretation of His activity in the nations.

2. One of the things that cause us to misunderstand the activities of the Lord is nationalism. This is true for every believer in every culture and nations. We can stand in the place of the counsel of the Lord and still have nationalistic pride.

3. The Judge is inviting a generation, both young and old, to put aside nationalistic opinions. To put aside nationalistic opinions. God is looking for prophetic people who will put aside nationalistic opinions. This doesn’t mean that we become irresponsible and negligent citizens.

4. Jeremiah confronted nationalism in his generation at that time. The nation of Israel said that judgment was not coming to Israel because of the temple. They said, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." The nation thought that because God put the temple in Jerusalem that God would not come against them.

5. There are many of those in the church today who believe that because God sent a covenant people to America, that He won’t deal with America.

6. We do not want to awaken any ungodly criticism against the church. I don’t want to awaken any unrighteous criticism against America. The judgments of the Lord our about love being established in the hearts of God’s people. It’s about us loving justice, mercy and humility (Micah 6:8). But, Israel was blinded by their nationalistic pride, and I’m afraid that America and the church of America are blinded by the same thing.

1. The example of Sodom and Gomorrah is not an accurate passage to use to determine whether or not God will judge America. We say, "No, God will not judge America because of the righteous." Sodom and Gomorrah were not judged- they were annihilated and destroyed.

2. God will not annihilate America because of the righteous, but God will discipline this nation. He disciplines those who He loves, so that we can become partakers of His divine nature. That is what the judgments of the Lord are about.

3. God is going to deal with America, because He loves America and He loves the church. God is going to call us back to His heart because of this river of fire, this desire that is stirring in His heart.

4. The Judge is the kindest, most gentle person we will ever know. He is calling us, as His people, to stand in the counsel of the Lord and to hear His word.

1. Though there are those whom the Lord has sovereignly taken to the counsel of the Lord, most of us must posture ourselves and position ourselves before Him to go there. Here are some scriptures that give us some insight as to how we are to posture ourselves

2. Psalm 1:1, "Blessed is the man who does not stand in the counsel of the wicked." The counsel of the wicked is the direct opposite of the counsel of the Lord.

3. Psalm 1:2- "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night." This verse is a direct athesisis to the counsel of the ungodly and the wicked. A key entry point into the counsel of the Lord is night and day meditation on the word of God.

4. God is looking for a company of people who will spend day and night having their hearts romanced and tenderized and just feeling the pleasures of the kisses of His Word.

5. "Open our eyes that we may behold marvelous things in Your law", "The entrance of Your Word brings light." "I’ve seen the consummation of all perfection and Your law is exceedingly broad."

6. The depths of the word of God are going to bring feelings of pleasure and tenderness to our hearts that we cannot even begin to fathom. Long and loving meditation is key.

1. In Zechariah 3:1-6, the Lord is preparing Joshua to come and stand in the counsel of the Lord. Joshua is being accused by Satan, and his garments are defiled. And the Lord has mercy on Joshua and He says, "Give him clean robes." We must place our confidence in the mercy of God and grow in our understanding that we’ve been forgiven.

2. We must settle it in our hearts that the cross has done it all, and begin walking in boldness and confidence in the grace and the mercy of God.

3. Knowing that He enjoys us in our weakness is the very thing that gives us confidence to come before His throne, and knowing that we have a human High Priest who sympathises with us in our weakness gives us boldness to approach the throne of grace. The throne of grace is the counsel of God.

1. "If you keep My commandments, and walk in My ways." The commandment of God is love. "I will give you charge in my courts, and I will let you stand among these." Who are the ‘these’? These are the angels who are standing in the very presence of God, the counsel of the Lord. The Lord promises promise Joshua authority and access to the counsel of the Lord.

1. In Revelation 5, we see Jesus the Judge and Bridegroom-King as One Who is standing in the counsel of the Lord. Jesus is standing before the throne of God, and He lays hold of the scroll in God’s hand. The scroll are the divine edicts and judgments of written that needed to be executed on the earth.

2. The breaking and loosing of the seals are done in partnership with His people.

3. Revelation 5:8 is part of the protocol of the counsel of the Lord. We worship and intercede. Worship and intercession is the protocol of the counsel of the Lord.