The string of words that John uses here is verbatim the string he used in Revelation 1:1. The word must
translates a Greek term that describes the concept of divine necessity, meaning that sovereign God has determined the particular things that must occur along the road to the outcome God has preset. The details are contained in the revelation disclosed between the first use of this string of words and its present use, that is, the bulk of the book of Revelation. Be aware that the details of what is to take place must occur in John’s future, not ours (who live two millennia after John received this revelation). That future captures the entirety of the new dispensation.
6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”