Who Are the 144,000?

Amos 3:7 tells us that the Lord does nothing on the earth until He reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets. Why does God do it this way? It’s in order to give those who hear the prophets a chance to become a part of what God wants to do. Before God begins to move, He reveals His intentions to the prophets to declare and forewarn His people. At that point, it’s up to the people to decide.

 

We need to move by faith instead of waiting for God to do something to bring change in us. God is waiting for us to do something about it. Faith without works is dead. We can say we believe and have faith, but where is the faith? Jesus asked if He’ll find faith when He returns (Luke 18:18)? We can read and study all day, but unless we put it into practice, we are just the hearers of the Word but not doers. 

 

Early church teachings completely destroy modern-day, false teachings that the 144,000 in the book of Revelation are Jews after the flesh. The Apostle Paul said that we are now the true Jews (inwardly) whose hearts have been circumcised (Rom. 2:29). In the early church they taught and expounded on how we are the  spiritual Israel. 

 

The modern church has been teaching an end time eschatology that is fairly new. The earliest Christians did not believe that the physical Jews were the ones who were the 144,000. Jesus Himself rebuked the Jews, saying that they were not sons of Abraham but were of their father the devil. The physical bloodline of your ancestry is irrelevant to Christ. Jesus said the reason the Jews could not understand His teachings was because they were of their father the devil. Jesus did not recognize those men as true Jews, as true sons of Abraham, but in fact as descendants of Satan. 

 

The twelve tribes each represent the virtues that we are to acquire, which are the fruit of the Spirit, or the character of God. In Revelation 22 it says that there were two trees on each side of the river of life and these trees produced each month (just as there are twelve months in a year). These trees reveal that there are twelve fruits of the spirit. Paul mentions only nine of them, but I found the other three that Paul mentions. I taught this years ago: the other three fruits of the spirit are righteousness, praise, and truth. 

 

To be a true Israelite, we must be born of the spirit, and the 144,000 are the remnant of the church. Numerous early church fathers taught that the remnant would be trained by Elijah. Elijah is not really in any modern-day, end time eschatology teachings, but this was not the case among early Christians. Elijah plays a pivotal role in the preparation for the end time church. The teachings of Elijah would prepare the remnant to be partakers of the glory of God. We can also see that Elijah is also a major figure in Jewish eschatology. 

 

In Malachi, the Lord is not pleased with where the church is at, with the priesthood. Peter calls us a royal priesthood, so the priesthood was never done away with. They could not cleanse the people and were ignorant of how they were displeasing to God and were robbing Him. Because of this God must send His angel, His messenger Elijah, in order to restore the covenant of Levi. That is the priesthood. 

 

The early church taught how we have to be acclimated into God’s glory. Every revelation that we receive is an impartation of His glory. We need to keep our minds pure. The high priesthood were trained to put every thought into captivity because one thought that would go astray in the Holy of Holies could cause the priest to die in God’s presence. We need to be stepping into a lifestyle of fasting and consecration for this next season. It’s time to be set apart for what God wants to do. Amen. 

Sincerely,
Apostle Michael Petro