The Two Witnesses

Session 2: Models of the Forerunner Ministry

I.Identifying the Forerunner Ministry:

The forerunner ministry is a preemptive strike from Heaven against the rising darkness that will overtake much of this generation. The Two Witnesses will serve as the model forerunners in the last generation, the testimony that the Word tells about their coming ministry is a training manual for the vast army of forerunners that will come up along side them.

  1. Forerunners Precede Transformation:

Due to the pressures that are coming to the Earth before the end the Church will undergo some radical changes. Two areas that will be greatly impacted are righteousness and zeal. This will transform the Body of Christ into a Forerunner Church that will move in great power and stand during the coming Great Tribulation.

  1. Picture of What is Coming:

The Two Witnesses are a prophetic picture of the heart standards and ministry that the entire Bride of Christ will embody, and they serve as a type for the Church. The whole Church will be walking out similar exploits and also facing similar perils as these two forerunners perhaps just on a smaller scale. The multitudes that they will lead will provide solutions to a series of problems that will surface; ones that are beginning to form around us now.

  1. Three Fold Anointing:

The forerunner calling will show itself in three primary ministries which we will break down in this session and the next; priestly, preaching and prophetic.

  1. Priests:

God’s priests are those commissioned by the Lord Himself to be those who minister to Him as their first priority. He reveals Himself to them and then they are to represent Him.

“For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction –because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty (Ma. 2:7).”

  1. Preachers:

Forerunners are those who go on ahead of the Lord and declare that the Kingdom of God is coming. These messengers will speak against the increased wickedness and identify how it is infiltrating our culture. Their purpose is to make known the Lord’s agenda for the final generation even as the Enemy acts on his own plans. They will be day of the Lord preachers in the hour of the great trouble just before the Lord returns.

  1. Prophets:

There is a powerful prophetic anointing that will rest on these two men and also on the rest of the servants of God. We will spend the final session looking at the details of what the prophet dimension of their ministry will look like.

II.Life is About to Change Dramatically:

If we are to appreciate the solution that the Lord is handcrafting in these men (and in all those with a forerunner calling), we must first come to understand the problems that will be presented in the coming trial. To do so we will look at the circumstances and the time frame that these men will minister in order to create a context for what life will look like when they come.

  1. Life in a Transitional Generation:

We are talking about an unprecedented hour in human history that the forerunners will come to answer, to understand this in part we can look to history and see how things unfolded in past generations where things powerfully shifted in order to create a completely new context for the people of God. There are three such generations described in the scripture; these are timeframes where the supernatural activity of God is increased and multiplied in a near daily way. While there are similarities between all three the final generation will see the combined miracles of the previous two multiplied on a global level.

  1. The generation of Moses (Exodus chapters 7-10).
  2. The generation of the Apostles (Acts chapters 1-28).
  3. The generation of the Second Coming of Jesus (150+ chapters).
  1. God’s Purposes in the Church of the Final Generation:

The Lord will do many new things with His Church in the last generation in order to bring us into partnership with His plan. Each of these points below represent messages that the forerunner ministries will embody, declare and labor to see become reality. This is all part of God’s strategy to align the Church of the last days into agreement and participation with His end time plan.

  1. The First Commandment:

He is restoring the First Commandment to first place in the Church so that we will love Him wholeheartedly.

  1. The Great Harvest:

He is going to bring in the greatest harvest of souls the world has ever seen in order to fill His house and demonstrate His supreme power in the midst of the most depraved generation.

  1. The pouring out of the Spirit:

He is going to anoint the Church to partner with Him in power at levels not currently known in Church history.

  1. Global Judgments are Coming to the Earth:

Not all the transitions are good news. God is also going to release the greatest global judgments that the world has ever seen (Re. 9:15). These disasters and negative trends will serve many of the same end time purposes as the above while also dealing with the increase of wickedness that will mark the last generation. These judgments will strike every area of society and life in order to thoroughly shake every system.

"Once more...I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land;I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory...The silver and gold is Mine,' says the LORD of hosts (Hg. 2:7-8 NJKV).”

  1. Remove things that hinder:

These plagues will remove everything that hinders love and will cause the Church to come forth as voluntary lovers of Jesus.

  1. Bring in the harvest:

These judgments will create the context for the great harvest by causing death and therefore thoughts of eternity to be on the hearts of multitudes of people.

  1. Justice for the wicked:

They also are a just release God's vengeance upon those who will have been persecuting His Church.

III.Identifying the Two Witnesses in Daniel 12:

In the first session we laid out the three main passages that we have on the Two Witnesses (Da. 12; Zch. 4; Re. 11) but did not give much explanation as to why these three passages are identified with the Two Witnesses. Revelation chapter 11 is universally understood as being about these two men but there are many indications that tip us off in the other two passages that they are about the Two Witnesses as well. In both places we see the arrival two mysterious men without their identity being made clear. In this section we will focus on the two who appear in Daniel chapter 12. There are a striking number of parallels between Revelation chapter 11, and the passage in Daniel 12 so we will do a comparison of the events, language and descriptions in both.

  1. Mysterious Nature of Two Men:

Without even understanding the context we are given our first indication that these chapters are related by simple virtue that both passages present two specific men related to the end time drama, that stand before the Lord.

“Then I, Daniel, looked, and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank (Da. 12:5).”

“And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth (Re. 11:3-4).”

  1. Duration of Their Ministry:

Both passages indicate they will minister for three and a half years. One of the two shows interest in the amount of time it will take for things to be fulfilled (Da. 12:6). The answer given to him is three and a half years, which is the stated timeframe start to finish for the ministry of the Two Witnesses (Re. 11:2-3). The answer this man is given is not in terms of how long from the time the question is asked it is in reference to how long the individual asking it will endure and experience the things being discussed.

“One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?”…“It will be for a time, times and half a time (Da. 12:6-7).”

“They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth (Re. 11:2-3).”

  1. The Timeframe of the Rapture:

Both passages indicate that these two men will minister during the time immediately preceding the rapture.

“at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt (Da. 12:1-2).”

“Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on (Re. 11:12).”

  1. The Time of Michael Arising:

The context of both of these passages names Michael the Archangel as present and active in the surrounding events.

“At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise (Da. 12:1).”

“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down (Re. 12:7-9)”

  1. The Time of Israel’s Destruction:

Daniel and John’s accounts both make it clear that Israel will experience great hardship and that these two men will be present to see it.

“When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed (Da. 12:7).”

“Go and measure the temple of God…because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months (Re. 11:1-3).”

  1. Those Who Shine Brightly Like a Lamp:

God bears witness in both places that He will have those who will stand in righteousness shining brightly in the midst of the great storm.

“Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever (Da. 12:73).”

“They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth (Re. 11:4).”

IV.Seeing the Two Witnesses in Zechariah 4:

Just as we were able to identify the parallels between Revelation 11 and Daniel 12 now we will look at the similarities between Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 in order to see the Two Witnesses in this passage as well.

  1. Stand Before the Lord of the Earth:

The two witnesses are described by Zechariah and John as standing before the God of the earth. Zechariah describes them as the “two anointed ones.” The literal translation of the phrase “two anointed ones” is “sons of oil.” It means that these two men are fully immersed in the anointing of God. They have been standing before the throne of God receiving and incredible impartation of the anointing of God at least since the time of Zechariah’s vision. As “sons of oil,” these two prophets will manifest a completely unprecedented measure of the power and presence of God in the planet.

“So he said, “These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth (Zch. 4:14).”

“And I will appoint my two witnesses…and “they stand before the Lord of the earth (Re. 11:3-4).”

  1. Called the Two Olive Trees:

As John looks on at the unveiling vision before him, he understood that these two men were the two that were referred to by Zechariah the prophet. Through the Holy Spirit, John describes the two witnesses as “the two olive trees.” The prophet Zechariah also prophesied of two olives tree, who stood before the Lord of the whole earth (Zch. 4:11-14). He specifically described them as the “two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.” The two witnesses, described as the two olive trees, are the same as the two “anointed ones,” whom Zechariah prophesied about.

“He asked me, “What do you see?” I answered…“there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left…Then I asked the angel, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” Again I asked him, “What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil (Zch. 4:3, 11-12)?”

“And I will appoint my two witnesses…They are “the two olive trees (Re. 11:4)”

  1. Called the Two Lampstands:

They are not only described as “olive trees” but also as “lampstands.” An olive tree is the source of oil, while the lampstand holds the flame that the oil fuels. The two witnesses are fully endowed with the oil of the Spirit (i.e. the anointing of God). They are fully capable of sustaining this flame, or carrying the power of the Spirit in their life. Just as Jesus called John the Baptist a “burning and shining lamp” (Jn. 5:35), the two witnesses are also burning and shining lamps. A burning and shining lamp is a faithful, prophetic witness. The metaphor is that the faithful, prophetic witness provides light so others can walk in righteousness. Just like John the Baptist heralded the first coming of Jesus to the planet, the two witnesses ministry will herald His second coming to the planet.

“He asked me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamps (Zch. 4:2).”

“And I will appoint my two witnesses…They are…“the two lampstands (Re. 11:4)”

  1. Symbols of Things to Come:

There is one key interpretive phrase in the Zechariah passage that lets us understand the chapter’s end time fullness. During the Reign of Darius I, Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor were the two commissioned with laying the foundation and rebuilding the temple after Israel returned from captivity in Babylon. This prophecy was specifically related to Joshua and Zerubbabel as the “two anointed ones.” But it then points us to the end and says that Joshua and Zerubbabel are foreshadows of the ministry of the Two Witnesses.

“Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch (Zch. 3:8).”

“They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth (Re. 11:2-4).”

  1. Revealed By an Angel:

The Lord sends a powerful angel to speak to His prophets in both accounts. Then the angel steps the men through the role these witnesses will play and the context of their coming.

“Then the angel who talked with me returned and woke me up, like someone awakened from sleep. He asked me, “What do you see (Zch. 4:1-2)?”

“So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it.”…I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it... I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings. I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth (Re. 10:9-11:3).”

  1. Ministry Related to the Temple:

Both chapters speak of these men being somehow related to the ministry at the Temple in Jerusalem. These passages along with dozens of others tell us that the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt.

“Then the word of the Lord came to me: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you (Zch. 4:8-9).”

“I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. But exclude the outer court (Re. 11:1-2)”

V.Their Priestly Calling:

The Two Witnesses are appointed as end time messengers who will serve God as priests before the whole world. They will be put on display as two unique ones who carry unusual authority in prayer and stand before God to represent mankind. As prophets they will pronounce judgments but as priests they will intercede.