God created man in His image so that man can have a special relationship with Him. Man is His greatest interest on the earth, but the earth itself is a great interest of His, too. We are even told in Revelation 11:18 that He will “destroy those who destroy the earth.”

      The first commandment to the first man was to cultivate and keep, or watch over, the garden where God had put him. Cultivating is much more than just sowing seed and waiting for a crop. It is preparing the land, sowing at the proper time, then keeping...

      Jesus did not come just to redeem man, but the whole world. He may love mankind more than other parts of His creation, but He loves all He created and will restore the earth to the paradise it was originally created to be, as the biblical prophecies declare. He may give most of His attention to man, to whom He gave dominion over the earth, and it is through man that He will restore the earth. This will begin with restoring man’s reign over the earth through those whom He has chosen to rule with Him in the age...

      Continuing with our theme of “training for reigning” by seeking to understand the book of Revelation, we can see that the entire church—and the world—will go through great troubles before His coming kingdom. These tribulations are for the purpose of helping the church, and then the world, enter the kingdom of God. As the apostle Paul said in Acts 14:22, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” So, tribulations are a gateway to the kingdom for us, and ultimately for the whole world.

      The Lord said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (see...

      As we have covered, the first sentence of Revelation is the compass that we must follow to stay on course to understand its vision. It is, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants” (see Revelation 1:1). This is a revelation of Jesus Christ to His bondservants. So, this revelation is for those who have this discipline and life as a bondservant of Christ.

      This does not mean that we cannot understand some of the things in Revelation—and maybe even a lot—before we are a bondservant. If we are not yet...

      It can be the greatest excitement to see how perfectly biblical prophecies have been fulfilled. Seeing this is not only encouraging, but it can give us a clearer picture of what is happening today—and what is about to happen. Such knowledge of the future will soon be the most valuable knowledge we can have, second only to our knowledge of God. The value of this will increase as we get closer to the end of the age and the times become more chaotic and intense.

      As we mature in our knowledge of the Lord and His Word, we...