A teaching by Mike Bickle on the End Times, continued from The Oil of Intimacy: Encountering the Bridegroom God:
Watchfulness is to establish a
lifestyle of encountering Jesus. It is essential in hindering Satan as the
thief from stealing our inheritance (Jn. 10:10). Our primary inheritance is our
heart connection with Jesus. Satan seeks to steal this aspect of our
inheritance, knowing that by doing this that he will also gain access to our
ministry inheritance.
In Mt. 24:45-51, Jesus addresses
leadership or those who rule over and feed God’s people. He categorized them
into good and evil leaders. Then in Mt. 25:1-13, Jesus further categorized the
good leaders into wise and foolish.
This is to leaders:
Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his
master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due
season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so
doing… But if that evil servant says in his heart, “My master is delaying
his coming,” and begins to beat his fellow servants… the master of that servant
will come on a day when he is not looking for him… and will cut him in two and
appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:45-51)
The leadership of the kingdom at the end-of-the-age will consist of two
different kinds of leaders, both of which are sincere, but there will be a
distinction between the two:
Then the Kingdom of heaven
shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went
out to meet the Bridegroom. Five of them were wise, and five
were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil
with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. (Mt.
25:1-4)
The ten virgins are all born again believers. 2 Cor. 11:2 says, “I
betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a virgin to Christ.” They each had lamps or ministries
that brought light to others (Mt. 5:15; Rev. 1:20; 2:5; 11:3-6; Zech. 4:2; Is.
62:1; John 5:35). They all went
out to meet Jesus as the Bridegroom.
