Revelation 19:10: And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

The angel in Revelation 19:9 made a solemn declaration that his sayings were true,¹ and John mistakenly believed² the angel was the God of Truth.³ John, therefore, fell at his feet to worship him,⁴ just as John fell and worshiped the Savior in Revelation 1:17.⁵ Some scholars assert that John consciously worshiped this person whom he knew to be an angel because of the magnificence of the angel's person or message.⁶ That seems highly unlikely, but regardless of John's motive, the angel emphatically told him: See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant.⁷ This means the angel was a ministering servant of God who once lived upon this earth.⁸ He was faithful and diligent in mortality,⁹ had the testimony of Jesus,¹⁰ and was still in God's service after his death.¹¹

The angel directed John to worship God only.¹² This refers to worship of God the Father, since Jesus is distinguished by name in the same verse.¹³ The Father is also separately referred to in Revelation 19:5.¹⁴ This angelic rebuke should discourage everyone from participating in the worship of saints, the Virgin Mary, prophets, angels, Joseph Smith or pious people of any kind.¹⁵ The same angelic admonition is repeated for emphasis in Revelation 22:8-9.¹⁶

The angel also defines for John what a testimony is, saying, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.¹⁷ Some scholars interpret this phrase to mean that the testimony given by Jesus is prophetic.¹⁸ However, the phrase actually means that people can only know¹⁹ or have a testimony that Jesus is the Christ from the Father through the power of the Holy Ghost.²⁰ This revelatory power or spirit of prophecy²¹ is a gift of the Spirit.²² Everyone that possesses this revelatory gift²³ is a prophet or prophetess.²⁴ Salvation comes only to those who know that Jesus is the Christ.²⁵ To know this, however, people must also keep his commandments.²⁶