Chag sameach Rosh Chodesh kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome to this New Moon gathering for the beginning of the ninth month.

Yesterday some were surprised to discover no sermon and therefore no broadcast and I need to explain that before I do anything else this morning. This is because it was necessary to make a prophetic statement to mark an important transition point in the ongoing unfolding of the Penultimate Judgment by saying absolutely nothing other than to announce a moment of silence in heaven:

"When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour" (Rev.8:1, NKJV).

I will explain why in a moment but first some background which is of a personal nature. As you know, I have been in the ministry now since 1986, when this work started its gestation period. For the last 35 years I have scrupulously avoided making any serious study of the Book of Revelation. Each time I have wondered whether I should, the Ruach (Spirit) has always blocked me. This is not because I do not believe the book (like Martin Luther who wanted it removed to an Appendix along with other New Testament books he didn't like) and it's not because I don't understand it at all (like John Calvin who avoided it altogether). I had skimmed through various commentaries on it and left completely confused. I've actually got a few books dedicated to expounding the Book of Revelation but I have never managed to get past the first few pages...I have always been blocked. Yes, I have dipped into it for a number of important passages here and there, but I have never made an expository study, nor have I felt the need to.

Then something very strange happened a few months ago. I could not open my Bible without feeling a sense of aridness - dryness. It wasn't speaking to me, at least not in my personal devotionals. And then about a week ago, I opened a paraphrase of the Book of Revelation and only put it down when tiredness overwhelmed me. And ever since it has been the only book I have been able to seriously get 'into'. And then about a week ago as I sat down to prepare the sabbath message for yesterday, I quite clearly heard the words, "there was silence in heaven" which I knew was from the Book of Revelation but which I had never before preached or discoursed on. Expecting a message to follow immediately afterwards, I wrote the passage out and then waited. Nothing. I read the verses immediately afterwards and then the verses before to get the context. Nothing. Every day for a week I sat in front of my computer to write and nothing came. And then quite suddenly I realised I was called to simply publish this verse on the sabbath and say not a word more.

And then, the day before, I knew: this verse was an announcement from Heaven that the 'preview', if you like, of this actual event which will take place in a few years' time, had begun yesterday for the Penultimate Judgment. We are about to see a series of distressing foreshadowing events - you can read the Seven Trumpets Revelation in chapter 8 and onwards which I am not going to cover today because I do not know in exactly what form they are going to take, only that they will be distressing. Nor am I going to speculate as the possibilities are limitless including new virus outbreaks and lockdowns (possibly with one even more terrible like Ebola), economic collapse (which we have known was coming for some time), cosmic events, UFO disclosure, political upheaval, a globalist coup d'état, the arrest and internment of anti-vaxxers, and so forth. I am not actually concerned about them. I am only concerned that I, and those who take what I say seriously, are adequately prepared spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically by being in right relationship with Yahweh. That's all I care about right now.

The Heavens have been so active the last week with so many visions being opened up to me that I wouldn't know where to begin were I to share them all, which I can't anyway. Three days ago, as I started understanding what it was Yahweh wanted me to do and say yesterday, a vision opened up to me on the morning of Tuesday 2 November when I saw a very large trumpet emerge from under a cloud at an angle of about 45³ and pointing toward the earth. The strange thing about this trumpet - strange to me because I have never seen anything like this before - was though it was stationary it also seemed to be simultaneously moving toward the earth. I could see these parallel lines or streaks of motion behind, alongside and in front if it as though whatever was represented by this trumpet - which, of course, was issuing a warning sound, though I couldn't hear it - is about to come very close to the inhabitants of the world (or at least all believers) so that they will be in no doubt that Yahweh is addressing them, as though it is going to be shoved right up in their ear.

Yesterday (Thursday), as I was awaking, I was aware that I had a message to deliver and that I was to present it to a man who was running away from me with all his might. In the vision I chased him through the busy, narrow streets of a town or city, but he was determined not to hear the word that I had for him. And I knew, upon the vision closing, that this man represented those people who absolutely do not want to receive or hear the emet (truth) that Yahweh would have them receive! The man was terrified! I did not, however, relent but maintained the pursuit until the vision closed.

I don't know about you, but I certainly hope you are in agreement with me, when I declare, along with the centurion, Marcus Furius Camillus, who was addressing the senators of Rome around 390 BC as the Gauls invaded the city and the senators wanted to abandon it for the relative safety of the nearby town of Veii - HIC MANEBIMUS OPTIME, literally, 'Here we'll stay excellently' - in other words, we will stand our ground even if the circumstances appear adverse, even if the odds seem stacked against us. And I know that many believers are reacting with dismay as they see the élites stepping up their attacks day by day, getting more and more bold, more and more totalitarian, and apparently winning unopposed. Don't worry, He who is within us is greater that he who is in the world (1 Jn.4:4).

So you may be wondering, why did Yahweh command Heaven to be silent 'for about half-an-hour' prior to the last seal being opened and its instructions executed? What does that mean? Why the pause? There are three reasons that I can think of:

• 1. It is a sign of deep respect, reverence and awe as we stand before the Judge of the whole earth in this time of this Penultimate Judgment. As earthly court rooms demand silence whilst the judge passes sentence, so too does the heavenly courtroom:

  "Be silent in the presence of Yahweh-Elohim;
  For the day of Yahweh is at hand" (Zeph.1:7, NKJV).

  "Yahweh is in His qadosh (holy, set-apart) temple.
  Let all the earth keep silence before Him" (Hab.2:20, NKJV)

  You see, the wicked don't know what's about to hit them, and so we stand in awe before the Almighty, El Elyon, and we worship Him silently, soberly, and in stillness. That's the first reason;

• 2. This time for sombre reflection on what has been revealed and is about to come to pass, will enable us to prepare for the breaking of the 7th Seal by Yah'shua (Jesus) because what is about to happen will reveal fully how Yahweh executes His punishment after a long period of apparently doing nothing. All of heaven and earth will now be able to see that you don't mess around with the Creator of this Universe. You don't! All of heaven is silent as Yahweh's righteousness is put on display. As we read through the following chapters - which I urge you to afterwards and soak them up, our response should be, with Job, as we realise that we too are far from being without sin:

  "Behold, I am vile ('I am of small account' - NRSV, ESV; 'I am nothing' - TLT; 'I am unworthy' - NIV; 'I am insignificant' - NASB)
  What shall I answer You?" (Job 40:4, NKJV).

  And the only possible response is silence. Have you ever reached that point, when you are laid bare and have no further excuses left, and can only await your fate? We have no self-defence left if we have truly come to a recognition of our sins and want to have things put right between us and Yahweh. The terror is the wicked who do not, and what lies in store for them; and

• 3. The third reason for the pause and silence is because of the severity of the judgment that Yahweh is about to execute. For many this will mean death, not just from mortality but from the possibility of repenting until the Cosmic Jubillee is announced many æons in the future. Though the final scroll described in the Book of Revelation is not going to be opened at this time, because this is not the Final Judgment (I do have to emphasise that again and again), something like it will, and what will transpire will be unlike anything previously witnessed in history, either now in this day of Penultimate Judgment or the Final Judgment that is yet to come. So silence is the appropriate response at such a momentous time that is simultaneously terrible (for the wicked) and wonderful (for the righteous):

  "Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh,
  for He is aroused from His qadosh (holy, set-apart) habitation! (Zech.2:13, NKJV)

This is the calm before the storm. How long exactly 'almost half a prophetic hour' is I cannot say but I do not think it will be long, certainly not longer than this winter - before the New Year in the spring - and possibly much shorter, but I could be wrong. And remember, the seven events announced by the seven trumpets today need not necessarily be the same as those listed for the Final Seventh Seal's opening which is yet future, but some might be.

Some days ago I saw a vision (one of two) of a massive rock like a meteor with flames coming out from behind it hurtling toward the heart at a 45° angle (like the angle of the trumpet poking through the cloud) which could either be literal or symbolic.

This was followed immediately by a second vision, of a man driven to his knees because of the exceeding great weight of his sins which he was carrying on his back, like a huge jet-black sack with not a particle of light in it. Such is the condition of mankind at this hour.

Quite clearly the Book of Revelation is now extremely important to us so we can't afford to neglect it or misinterpret it. I know for myself the time has come to plunge into it and that I have Yahweh's permission and blessing to do so now. I believe many others are doing the same though under the mistaken belief that this is the final hour. If it's what He wants, and if there is sufficient interest, we may perhaps start studying it in earnest together if there are no other more pressing projects that need completing. However, you can't study this apocalyptic book as you would the rest of the Bible for this is a category of sacred literature that is completely different from all the others. It does not - because it cannot - obey the same exegetical rules.

Indeed when I was asking Yahweh about this the other day He showed me another vision, this time of myself, in deep spiritual travail, reading this book as though I were somehow a part of it. It's hard to describe because I was 'seeing' a spiritual reality. I was doing so without lexical or other aids and simply operating in the prophetic whilst in deep, soul-searching prayer.

Obviously the Book of Revelation or Apocalypse (as it's called by some denominations) is not completely dissimilar to the rest of the Bible and there are certain rules that must be followed, of which there are four chief ones which we will go into if we decide to make a study. One group of people who can never understand the Book of Revelation is unbelievers, no matter how scholarly they may suppose themselves to be, since it is not intended for them. It is inaccessible to them as Yah'shua's (Jesus') parables were to those unbelievers (including, and especially, the 'religious' unbelievers) in the crowds who came to hear Him. Someone trying to analyse the book using logic alone will either go insane or simply walk away. And yet, as I have already hinted at, the great reformers like Luther, Calvin and Zwingli, did not even believe Revelation was a book that should be in the Bible! That ought to serve as a warning to uncritical devotees to any of Protestantism's reformers. Moreover, it took four centuries before the early believers could decide to recongise the Book as Scripture and includ it into the Bible canon! This is a book of, by, and for, the nevi'im (prophets) of every grade.

Satan is a mortal enemy of the Book of Revelation yet his followers read it. He hates the first few pages of the Tanakh (Old Testament) which reveals the deceptive methods by which he gained control of the planet and he hates the last pages of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) because they reveal how he will ultimately lose control of the planet! This Penultimate Judgment is not something he will enjoy either because it will be a reminder to him that his time is almost at an end. If he can convince people that Genesis is made up of absurd myths and Revelation of impenetratible mysteries, he is content. And, of course, he particularly hates Revelation 20 that describes how he is finally thrown into the lake of fire along with his spiritual domain (hell). Remember that as we enter the bad times because we are thereby assured that the end of this fallen world is nigh and make especial note of those people and denominations (typically liberals and Catholics) that stay away from Genesis and Revelation or otherwise attempt to reduce them to myths or allegories exclusively.