PRESENT PAIN IS END-TIME GAIN

Revelation 20:1-6 (NLT)

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven 

With the key to the bottomless pit

And a heavy chain in his hand. 

He seized the dragon

That old serpent, who is the devil, Satan

And bound him in chains for a thousand years.

The angel threw him into the bottomless pit, 

Which he then shut and locked 

So Satan could not deceive the nations anymore 

Until the thousand years were finished. 

Afterward he must be released for a little while.

Then I saw thrones, 

And the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. 

And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded 

For their testimony about Jesus 

And for proclaiming the Word of God. 

They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, 

Nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. 

They all came to life again, 

And they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

This is the first resurrection. 

The rest of the dead did not come back to life 

Until the thousand years had ended.

Blessed and holy are those 

Who share in the first resurrection. 

For them the second death holds no power, 

But they will be priests of God and of Christ 

And will reign with him a thousand years.