(Revelation 8:10-11; 16:4-7)
In the second trumpet, a great mountain burning with fire is thrown into the sea. This is the mountain of the Lord’s house that Isaiah said would appear in the last days. The fire represents the holy spirit.
As the Sanctified Church becomes firmly established, other churches will envy the gift of the holy spirit, but they will not receive the holy spirit when they pray; they will receive the spirit of a demon. This is the message of the third trumpet. A star from heaven called Wormwood falls on the rivers and springs. Stars in the Bible represent spirits or angels. Wormwood is the spirit of a demon that falls on the rivers and springs of false churches.
Rivers and springs signify the holy spirit throughout the Bible. In John 7:38–39, we read, “’He who believes in Me, as the scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’’’ The holy spirit as a river is also found in Revelation 16:4 and 22:1–2. In John 4:14, Jesus described spirit as a spring when He said, “The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water springing up to eternal life.” The holy spirit as a spring is also found in Revelation 14:7, 16:4, and 21:6.
The third bowl of wrath tells us that the rivers and springs became blood. Those who drink the rivers and springs of the kingdom of the beast do not receive life but spiritual death. They drink the spirit of a demon. The cleansing of the Kingdom of Heaven intensifies as we approach the 2,300 days prophesied by Daniel.
The fourth trumpet will complete the cleansing of the Kingdom of Heaven, when the grapes of the Earth are ripe and ready for the harvest.