Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Escape Plan

Prophecy in Revelation predicts the seven last plagues that GOD will pour upon the inhabitants of the earth who will accept the mark of the beast. The plagues will be worldwide, there will be no place to escape from them except to be one of GOD's sealed remnant, who GOD himself will protect and sustain by His powerful hand.

These are the end times; we shall behold strange sights as momentous events transpire in heaven and on earth.

A recent post discusses how Proverbs chapter 2 points to that time of plagues, when probation will have closed for all humanity ( there will be no more forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ's High Priestly ministry, which is the only valid channel for justification before GOD.) This will be the prophetic day (year) of GOD's wrath prior to Christ's second coming.

There will be no pre-advent rapture by which Christians will be providentially removed from the trouble (as many blind guides teach). These days of grace are granted us that we may prepare our hearts, resolve our wills, refine our characters to pass through the days of persecution and martyrdom ahead of us. Those saints who will live to see the plagues will have to live SINLESS lives (there being no more Intercessor in the Heavenly Sanctuary) at that time, though hunted as outlaws by the laws of menm.  See Revelation 14's description of the 144,000. Is it possible to be sinless? By the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, yes.

But now, today, is the time to be fetching oil for our lamps, parting with sin, whilst our great High Priest still intercedes for us with His own blood before the Father. Now we should confess, repent, pray and read the Bible as never before, redeeming the time, for it is short.

The world today is embroiled in a man-eat-man struggle for survival. It is easy to get carried away. The love of many has waxed cold. For love of money, greed of gain, many would do anything to be rich above everything else. So rampant is this grasping selfish spirit that many believe that once they make "enough" money they will be free from troubles. It is a collective delusion of the majority, that money buys happiness, that wealth can be a shield in the day of affliction, that luxury is peace of mind.

Wealth indeed is a blessing, from GOD, no less. But what brings a curse, other than a blessing ungratefully misused and perverted? But if the blessings with which we are blessed were used in blessing others, we would then be blessed indeed from all sides.
Life is more important than possessions; having food and clothing let us therewith be content.

The multiplicity of fault lines on the planet is becoming more apparent as they widen and multiply. It is a necessary feature of the struggle for limited resources amongst natural mankind. Consider how the xenophobia in South Africa took a bloody turn. I wondered who they would start killing when all the "foreigners" left (or died) and the inequality still persisted. One fears when one considers scenarios like Kenya's almost forgotten Post Election Violence of 2007-2008. Such is the spirit of war, that Outside Enemies can easily be made of foreigners, other races, other tribes, other clans, other families, neighbours and even kinsmen. There is no abiding solidarity amongst the selfish. It is one of the many unsavory traits of the last days generation.

Inequality has become a dividing line causing worldwide unrest. Even in Kenya the recent allegations of grand corruption, bad enough as they are all by themselves, have additional unhappy outcome of polarizing the country between the eaters and the eaten. When the people see corruption so blatantly carried out in high places, they themselves feel justified in cutting corners in their own integrity to get ahead, or getting even somehow. Everybody suffers eventually, yet retribution must come, because all actions have consequences.

The Bible makes it clear that wealth is no escape from troubles. Jesus warned against the deceitfulness of riches. James chapter 5 says (paraphrasing) in the day of GOD's wrath the wealthy wicked will find that there is no escape any more. In that day, no matter how wealthy they will be, their wealth will be useless. Many will find after long years spent accumulating luxuries that they are unavailing of comfort against the plagues.

Picture it, the plagues wreaking havoc in the neighbourhood of a fabulously wealthy man, so that he can obtain neither peace nor safety, good health or clean water by any means. He boards his private jet with a stash of valuables looking to fly off to somewhere cooler. Getting there after long hours of flight over desolate waste lands, finds the occupants of his presumed paradise preparing to fly off to some other resort destination coz their home conditions are just as uninhabitable as the ones their guest has fled. This is just an imaginary scenario to illustrate that in that day there will be no place on the earth where the plagues of GOD's wrath will not be in full force. It will be worldwide.

But before that day comes, first, the mark of the beast. In fact that mark is what will trigger the seven last plagues, when every living soul will have decided for or against it. Do you know it? Are you ready? It is a weighty decision, because accepting the mark of the beast will earn the wrath of GOD (plagues) and rejecting the mark will earn the wrath of the beast (persecution, imprisonment, death.) With this in mind only one question remains: in the Great Tribulation, why will you suffer? Not whether, for all will suffer, but  why? Will you suffer for doing right of for doing iniquity? For following Jesus or for worshipping the beast?

Friday, April 24, 2015

Satan's Weapons of Mass Destruction - Introduction

The war for your mind, heart and soul proceeds apace. GOD, with love, grace and mercy vies for your life. Satan in wrath and hatred kills, steals and destroys while promising peace and prosperity.We must discern his lies and identify his weapons of mass destruction, otherwise in ignorance we are prone to destruction.
Proverbs 1:17 "Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird."
Let us pray for spiritual eyesight. Wisdom comes from GOD.

Satan desires total dominion on earth. He gauges the extent of his kingdom on earth by whether he has deceived mankind into breaking GOD's law. Satan is a rebel commander, desperate for more recruits to his army, seeking strength in numbers, trusting in his own might. His dominion over the earth is not total or permanent so long as there are many who willfully obey GOD. To strengthen his kingdom, Satan strives to tempt and harden men in decided law breaking, to greater outrages in proud rebellion. He deceives man to destroy himself - it is the spiritual equivalent of suicide-bombing, only the target (the law of GOD) being impregnable stands unhurt while its opponent is defeated and lost. 

All of Satan's WMDs are illegal: they rely on sin for their effectiveness. Through sin, man is separated from GOD, and defenseless against Satanic attack. Yet the devil is more interested in claiming the man's soul and chaining him to sin's bondage. So the man while he yet lives (life is a blessing from GOD) expends that life in the bondage of sin (a curse) in rebellion against GOD, and exhausting his life in the service. Such is Satan's hatred for mankind - in this war his projectiles aimed at GOD are people who his arts have perverted, his shields are human shields, he cares only for his pride.

Satan's weapons of mass destruction are those things he has perverted in order that, as human beings embrace them, knowingly or not, they may bring upon themselves curses.
Proverbs 26:2 
As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.
This verse tells me that curses do not roam the earth looking to fall upon whomever hapless passerby they randomly chance upon. Curses have specific causes, they can be called the consequences of someone somewhere breaking spiritual laws, or they can be the outcome of misuse of blessings. But let us continue.

The love of GOD for his children is vast, we fall short of understanding it; he strives to save each one of His children. By His omnipotent power and boundless love, GOD gave His only begotten Son to offer salvation freely to everyone who, hearing His warning, will access that salvation BY FAITH, turning from sin by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The devil knowing this designs that souls chained to his miserable service will be deceived into loving their bondage and rejecting that salvation! By the love of the world, by worldliness, the devil satisfies men with this world's illusory "good", so they do not seek a better country, where righteousness dwells. They settle - and fight - for far less: fool's gold, survival for the fittest; a brutal and meaningless existence - but for sin, which alone can stir passions perverted bythe devil's black arts.

We shall go into a step by step analysis of Satan's WMDs - the curses he intends for us to claim under deception - in future posts in this series.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The Close of Probation (in Proverbs!?)

This passage (Proverbs 1:20-33, quoted below) explains a timeless principle about wisdom and folly.
Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
But then it also struck me as applicable to the soon coming close of probation and the seven last plagues of the wrath of GOD. This can be deduced from the "fear", "calamity", "desolation", "destruction", "distress," "anguish" (you get the picture) mentioned.  This will be the global condition during the plagues.

Consider also, "Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you,"... That means "Repent and I will give you the Holy Spirit". That is another prediction of the promised Latter Rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit for the last generation prior to Christ's second coming.

Also, note in verse 28 that "then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:" it is a situation particular to the close of probation, the one time when prayers for repentance will not be heard any more because Christ will have finished His high priestly ministry preparatory to His second coming. It was foreshadowed by GOD Himself closing the door of Noah's ark seven days before the flood began so that none could enter who ridiculed his message.

Wisdom still "cries out" today calling us to repentance, but humanity must listen today, while grace remains, before it is too late to seek GOD.

I'm admittedly quite surprised to find this in Proverbs. GOD has hidden nuggets of prophetic truth all over the Bible.