Revelation 9:13 Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
The number four represents the four corners of the earth, then entire world. The horns represent strength and a source of power:
Habakkuk 3:4 And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.
The golden altar of incense is described in Exodus 30 and it is “most Holy to the LORD”. It is where the life-giving blood is applied for the atonement of sins. It symbolizes the power of redemption for the entire world, not just a small minority with the rest burning in everlasting hell. The voice came from this viewpoint of redemption and restoration where the power is hidden. This altar is where the prayers of the saints emanate from. The prayers, praise, and worship in the spiritual realm are key factors in bringing forth the word of release.
The Euphrates river was at the border or boundary of Babylon and it had to be crossed either to enter Babylon or to leave Babylon. The name Babylon means “confusion (by mixing)”. How appropriate that Babylon plays such an important role in the book of Revelation. Men have been confused by the revelation of Jesus Christ by viewing it through carnal eyes that cannot behold spiritual truths. Out of all the books of the Bible, this book has been one of confusion and mystery for generations. The mysteries have been hidden from our understanding until the fullness of time. The key to unlocking the mysteries in this book is Love. Reading it from any other perspective only promotes fear, death, and destruction yet Jesus Christ brings forth life and more abundantly. Life swallows up death and death cannot be overcome by any other manner.
The voice from the power of the golden altar calls for the release of the four angels who have been bound by the confusion in the world. This great river separates the confusion of the carnal realm of Babylon from the inheritance of the Spiritual realm of the Promise Land.
Deuteronomy 1:6 “The LORD our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: ‘You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.7 Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates. 8 See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give to them and their descendants after them.’
These four angels represent the Word to not only leave Babylon but to cross the borders of compromise and fully enter into the Promise Land. Do not let the border or boundary of confusion impede your crossing over. You cannot entertain the world’s trappings and fully embrace the inheritance on the other side. Don’t look back! We must be fully purged and processed thereby removing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil at its roots. Let only the tree of life prevail in our lives.
Why stand at the border and camp out? Why look across at the fullness of the SPIRIT and be satisfied with a little fruit here and there. Why walk sporadically in the SPIRIT when you can be fully apprehended and walk in the fullness? The spirit of compromise would have you maintain a half-hearted walk between carnality and spirituality instead of being fully perfected IN HIM. Let no your emotions dictate your path and press on to the high calling. Don’t settle for anything less than your high calling! Let us go on to perfection, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ.
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
There is a difference between revelation and possession. The Promised Land has been revealed to those who have been called. However those who are chosen are the ones determined to possess the land. Those are the ones who “do” the Word and are not just hearers only. Love is active and as you walk in Love you do and become the LIVING WORD. You condemn not but instead you promote life to those you encounter. Our inheritance is the fullness of CHRIST, not some piece of land in the Middle East. It is found in the highest realm and Paul speaks of this inheritance beyond the border of the Euphrates in Ephesians chapter 1:
9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.
11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,
Let us receive the fullness of this message from the angels no longer being bound by confusion.