<p>19:10 <em>And I fell down before his feet to worship him, and he said to me: You must not do that I am a fellow-servant with you, and with your brothers that hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy</em>- The Angels are right now serving the same Lord we do; our work for Him is done in invisible partnership with them. The preaching or testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, says Rev. 19:10. I understand this to mean that our testimony to Jesus is in the spirit of the Old Testament prophets. For Rev. 22:6 associates the God of the holy prophets a phrase referring to the Old Testament prophets in Lk. 1:70 and Acts 3:32 with the same God who is with us in our witnessing to Christ. And Rev. 18:20 speaks of those prophets rejoicing in the last day together with all preachers of the Gospel. This is why incidents from the lives and teaching of the Old Testament prophets are repeatedly alluded to in the New Testament and applied to all of us. James 5:10 puts it bluntly- the prophets are to be taken by us as our examples. Jeremiah was warned: &quot;Be not dismayed of <em>them</em>, lest I dismay <em>you</em>&quot; (Jer. 1:17 RV). This is alluded to by the Lord when He tells us that if we are ashamed of Him and His words, then He will be ashamed of us (Lk. 9:26). The connection surely indicates that the Old Testament prophets and the spirit of their commissioning is intended to apply to us today in our fulfilling of the great commission. Thus the prophets become our pattern for witness; they are our &ldquo;brethren the prophets&rdquo; (Rev.22:9). And so an understanding of them becomes programmatic for our witness today. Our audience, the world in which we live, is in essence that in which the prophets lived. Isaiah was up against the attitude that &ldquo;Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die&rdquo; (Is. 22:13)- and Paul quotes that passage as relevant for all Christians who hold the hope of resurrection amidst a world that does not (1 Cor. 15:32).</p><p>The Angel had made prophecies, and John felt that this was something so wonderful that it separated him from the Angel. But John like us was bearing &ldquo;the testimony of Jesus&rdquo; (Rev. 1:9). The same essential spirit which was in the prophets is in all those who in <em>their</em> spirit or attitude bear the witness of Jesus. Hence the prophesying Angel encourages John not to worship him, but rather to recognize that he is John&rsquo;s &ldquo;fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book&rdquo;, i.e. all believers (Rev. 22:9). And again, this was radical stuff for the initial audience of the Apocalypse. They were being told that they had the prophets as their brethren, and on account of their spirit / attitude of bearing the testimony of Jesus, the same spirit which was in the prophets was in them. The very act of bearing witness to Jesus in our spirit / disposition is in fact to have the same spirit in us which was in the prophets and was the basis of their prophetic witness. This makes the prophets our &ldquo;brethren&rdquo;, not distant white faced &lsquo;saints&rsquo;.&nbsp;See on Mt. 8:22.</p>