THE FAMINE OF HEARING GOD’S WORD
The devil has an easy go of it these days. He knows that all he has to do is deliver his lies through an accepted authority, and people will bow down and worship him. Because that’s what it is when you adhere to the devil’s lies – you’re worshiping the devil. Adherence is a form of worship. Nearly the whole world is now bowing down in worship of the devil.
Even Christians are an easy target for the devil’s lies, as most of them don’t know scripture. Three of the biggest lies that are held as sacred truths by the majority of Christians – that Jesus is God, that Jesus is coming back soon to set up an earthly kingdom, and that all you need is “belief” and “faith” to get into Heaven – can easily be refuted with even a passing knowledge of scripture. But most Christians would rather swallow what is spoon-fed to them by their respective authorities than to take the time to read the Bible and learn the Truth for themselves.
Most Christians take the easy way out because they’re spiritually lazy. The devil knows this and is using it to his advantage.
Before I was born-again from atheism 22 years ago, I knew very little scripture beyond that the Bible existed: What was in it was a mystery to me. Within half an hour of my rebirth, I started reading the New Testament. I read all four Gospels in one sitting, and then read the rest of the New Testament the next day. I couldn’t put the Bible down. It was like spiritual mother’s milk to me, and I was ravenous. I learned about Jesus and his teachings from Jesus’ recorded words in scripture, not from someone else’s misinterpretation or misquoting of them.
I’m grateful that I learned that way. I’m still learning. You never stop learning about the Word while you’re on Earth in human form. But you can’t learn if you don’t pick up the Bible and read. That’s how you gain knowledge. And then you take the knowledge that you’ve gained and apply it to your everyday life. That’s how you endure to the end. If you don’t read the Bible and learn from it, and don’t apply what you’ve learned to your everyday life, and then don’t endure to the end, the odds are not in your favour that you’ll make it home to Heaven.
Most Christians don’t know the meaning of spiritual rebirth and/or don’t know if in fact they’re actually reborn. This is a sad and sorry state. Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice to pay the sin debt we inherited from Adam, so that those who chose God’s Way could be cleansed of their sin and have the same relationship with God as Jesus did. This relationship is enabled through the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit in a born-again soul. God’s Spirit won’t live where sin lives; spiritual rebirth is like deep-cleaning of the soul. Without it, God’s Spirit won’t come and live with you. He might make cameo appearances, like he did with Balaam’s ass, but he doesn’t move in with you unless you’re genuinely reborn.
It’s critically important to be genuinely reborn and to have God’s Spirit living with you, because without God’s Spirit guiding you, you can’t understand scripture. You can read words without the help of God’s Spirit – you can memorize them verbatim and quote them backwards and forwards, if you want to – but you cannot understand them in the way they were meant to be understood. This is the core reason for the misinterpretation and misapplication of scripture, and the devil has had a field day with it for thousands of years.
In Old Testament times, God sent prophets to interpret his Word for the benefit of God’s people. The prophets weren’t born-again, but God’s Spirit was with them from time to time, some more often than others. During the times when the Spirit was with them, the prophets were able to perform miracles, hear directly from God, and interpret scripture.
As born-again followers of Jesus, we always have God’s Spirit with us. That is the definition of being born-again. The measure of God’s Spirit we have depends on how much we choose to submit to God. Jesus humbled himself entirely under God’s mighty hand, and so God was able to work powerfully through Jesus, through his Spirit. However, most born-agains have not made the same commitment to God that Jesus made. They’ve made a partial commitment, but not a full one. They’re holding a part of themselves back. And because of that, the miracles are few and far between with them, they rarely hear from God, and they have difficulty interpreting scripture.
When we give everything we are and everything we have to God, like Jesus did (and like he advised us to do), miracles follow. One of those miracles is being able to understand scripture as it was intended to be understood. This is important, because without understanding scripture, the devil will put his lies into your mouth, you’ll swallow them down, and then you’ll regurgitate them, thinking what’s coming out of you is God’s Truth.
Nearly all of what passes for Christianity today is devil spew. This would not be the case if Christians were actually born-again (which is the very definition of being a Christian) and had committed themselves fully to God. If they were born-again and fully committed to God, they would know scripture as God intended it to be known, that is, through the help and guidance of his Spirit.
The Bible is a holy book. It’s called the “Holy Bible” for that reason. As such, it contains elements that are holy. What is profane cannot understand what is holy. You can’t approach God’s Word through the eyes of the world and still be able to read scripture as it was intended to be read. You’ll see words, but you won’t see the Word. For instance, those who only see words believe that God’s Kingdom will be established by Jesus as an earthly kingdom at his second coming, whereas those who see the Word know that the Kingdom was already established when Jesus started his ministry nearly 2000 years ago, and that the Kingdom is a spiritual realm, not an earthly one, and will never be an earthly one. As Jesus said repeatedly: “My Kingdom is not of this world.”
It’s easy for the devil to fool people who don’t know the Truth. Scripture tells us of a time when there’ll be a famine not of food but of hearing God’s Word. Even though Christianity is supposed to be the prevailing religion today, there is in fact a famine of hearing God’s Word, because most Christians are spiritually lazy and are not genuinely born-again. This makes them prime receptacles for the devil’s lies. They think they’re hearing God’s Word, but what they’re actually hearing are words that have been twisted to mean something that God didn’t intend.
We have a profound responsibility as born-again believers to deliver the Gospel message as it was intended to be delivered. That means we have a profound responsibility to know scripture as it was intended to be known – not as words, but as the Word.
As the world descends deeper and deeper into tyranny, we need now more than ever to know God and his Word. If you haven’t yet committed everything to God, don’t wait another day to do it. You won’t endure to the end unless you’ve given everything you are and have to God, as a follower of Jesus. Once you give him everything, the devil will have no toehold in you. You’ll easily be able to discern the devil’s lies, just as you’ll easily be able to read and speak God’s Word as he intended.
ARE YOU DOING YOUR JOB?
If you’re not being called a religious fanatic, you’re not doing your job.
If mainstream Christianity hasn’t labeled you a heretic, you’re not doing your job.
If people in general don’t think you’re crazy, you’re not doing your job.
If some aren’t openly accusing you of being certifiable, you’re not doing your job.
Being a born-again believer living in the world and preaching and teaching the Word should be earning you every insult and slight and accusation in the book, if you’re doing your job. Jesus says you’ll be hated and persecuted, and that you should expect these things and be happy when they occur, because it means you’re doing your job.
Jesus was considered crazy by the world. Jesus was labeled a heretic. Jesus was even accused of being demonically possessed. Because the world is by definition opposed to the message of the Gospel, and so those who adhere to the lies of the world will abhor those who adhere to the Truth of God.
So embrace being called a religious fanatic. Revel in being dismissed as a Bible thumper. Agree with those who call you crazy, and tell them you’re crazy like Jesus and you wouldn’t want to be any other way.
I can’t imagine wanting to fit in with the world or wanting to get the world’s approval, knowing that the world is under Satan. The more the world laughs at me and rejects me and bans me and considers me a threat simply for speaking God’s Word, the happier I am and the more I know I’m doing my job.
I hope you’re doing your job, too.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Matthew 5:11-12
HOW TO DEAL WITH UNBELIEVING LOVED ONES
One of the most difficult things you’ll have to do as a born-again believer (besides being kind to those who are unkind to you) is to separate yourself from those who are not born-again. At some point, you’ll have to leave them behind, including family and friends. Jesus did, and so did all of his early followers. If you don’t leave them behind, they’ll hold you back and drag you down. And while they’re doing it, they’ll compromise your witness.
Oh, you say, I’m not worried about that. My faith is strong. My witness isn’t affected by my family and friends.
Really? Your witness isn’t affected by your family and friends? Then why did Jesus cut his ties with his family and then with everyone in his hometown? Was his faith not strong enough? Why did all the disciples leave their wives and children when they started to follow Jesus? Going back further, why did the Jews who’d married non-Jews leave their wives and children when Judah returned to Jerusalem after the exile in Babylon? The reason is because having close relations with people who do not share your beliefs negatively affects you. You may not think it does, but it does. You are constantly compromising what you believe in order to keep the peace. Your spiritual growth is stunted, or worse, you risk falling away.
Think about what happened to Solomon because of his unbelieving wives. He eventually became a demon-worshiper.
Paul says not to separate from unbelieving spouses IF the spouse wants to remain with you. But the unspoken proviso here would be that the spouse should in no way interfere with the believer fully living his or her faith. I know many believers who live with unbelievers, but the unbelievers hold sway over them, so that the believers can only “be themselves” when they’re not around their spouse. This is not what Paul intended.
Scripture is clear that being a follower of Jesus requires us to die to who we were in order to come back to life as an entirely new creation. Most (if not all) of our family and friends are not born-again and so no longer have a place in our life. Does that mean we should shut them out completely? Of course not. Jesus provided for his mother by giving her into the care of John. Mary later became his disciple, as did his brother James. Jesus didn’t run them off like diseased dogs; he separated himself from them so that he could do the work appointed him by God. The same with the disciples.
The same should be with us.
In the Gospels, Jesus tells his followers that their new family are believers who do the will of God. Jesus is very clear about this. Of course, you have God-given free will so you can defy Jesus and keep on living and socializing with those who are not born-again, but you’ll suffer for it and eventually you’ll regret it, likely forever. That’s a long time to wish you’d done what God had advised you to do when you had the chance.
Again, I’m not the one who’s telling you to leave your family and friends, God is, through Jesus. As I mentioned earlier, this is one of the most difficult things you’ll have to do as a born-again believer. There is no easy way around it; it just has to be done, and the sooner, the better.
Scripture says not to go to them, but to let them come to you. Mary eventually turned and came to Jesus, as did James. Chances are that your family and friends may yet turn, if there’s still time for them, but being with them as a compromised believer and tolerating their sin is not going to help them turn. You need to separate from them, and then let them come to you if and when they become believers.
Jesus extended the redemption invitation to us when we were still in our sin, but he didn’t live with us while we were still in our sin. He only started to live with us when our sin was purged from us through spiritual rebirth. Effectively, then, we went to Jesus spiritually; he didn’t downgrade into sin to live with us while we were still in our sin. He stood apart from us, let us know he was there, and waited for us come to him.
We need to separate ourselves and let our unbelieving loved ones – if they turn – come to us, just like we went to Jesus when we turned.
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?
I usually dislike hypothetical examples, but this one is apt:
If you’re standing with one foot on a boat and the other foot on a dock, are you on the boat or on the dock? You have to be one or the other, either on the boat or on the dock, because being half-on or half-off means you’re neither on the boat nor on the dock. In other words, you’re stuck in no-man’s-land and you’re going nowhere.
That’s a hypothetical scenario. Now let’s look at reality.
Are you living your life one foot in the Kingdom and one foot in the world? Do you have a strong desire to step out in faith, but at the same time are you afraid to lose your footing?
If so, you’re not alone. Peter wanted to walk on water like Jesus, and in fact did for a few seconds before he overthought what he was doing and started to drown. Many of us step out in faith, only to fall flat on our faces after only a few steps because we start overthinking what we’re doing, and in so doing, cut God’s Spirit out of the equation.
Wanting to step out in faith requires more than just a willingness to step out. You first need to know WHY you’re doing it. And to know why, you need to know what is motivating you. You need to know what you believe.
It might help to think of faith as lived belief. Faith is belief in action. So when you step out in faith, you’re simply living your beliefs. But if you want to step out in faith, you first need to know what you believe. That may sound nonsensical (how can you not know what you believe?), yet most people are unable to readily articulate their beliefs. They take them for granted rather than seeing them as internalized agents that affect their external actions.
Belief is expressed through acts of faith. Therefore, you first need to be absolutely clear within yourself about what you believe, because what you believe is what’s motivating you to step out in faith – that is, to live fully in the Kingdom.
So, what do you believe?
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A few weeks ago, a woman came to my kitchen door campaigning for a local politician. I didn’t respond to her knock, but the woman saw me sitting at my desk (the kitchen table), and so she leaned down and yelled through the screen part of the door.
“I REALLY BELIEVE IN THIS CANDIDATE. HE’S A GREAT MAN, AND HE REALLY CARES ABOUT THE PEOPLE.”
I didn’t say anything in response, but that didn’t stop her.
“HE’S BEEN A DOCTOR FOR OVER 30 YEARS, WORKING IN THE COMMUNITY. HE’S A GOOD PERSON.”
I still didn’t say anything.
“YOUR NEIGHBOUR TOLD ME YOU’RE FROM DARTMOUTH. I LIVED IN DARTMOUTH A WHILE BACK. IT’S A GREAT PLACE. SMALL WORLD!”
Still nothing from me.
“OK, I WON’T BOTHER YOU ANYMORE. I CAN SEE YOU’RE BUSY. WHERE SHOULD I LEAVE THE BROCHURE?”
That was a question, and societal norms dictate that I need to answer a question, so I told her to leave the brochure in the mailbox at the end of the driveway. And off she went.
The woman was an unstoppable force for her political cause. She knew exactly what she believed, and she had no problem articulating her beliefs and living her beliefs. She was motivated to act by her beliefs. It’s a shame that all her passion went to politics, but she does serve as a good example of the mechanics underlying stepping out in faith and living fully in the Kingdom.
After she left, I felt a little bad about not engaging her in conversation, but I make it a rule not to talk to people campaigning for political parties. They’re like a cross between a cult member and a door-to-door salesman. The human part of them is so deeply buried underneath the brainwashing that it’s like trying to engage with one of those wind-up toy dogs. All you get is “yap yap yap yap”. It’s frustrating and frankly a waste of time, so I don’t do it anymore.
Yet I had to admit that the woman’s focus and passion were admirable. She had zero doubt that her candidate should win the election and she wanted to share her certainty with everyone.
We likewise need to be 100% certain of our beliefs before we can successfully step out in faith. If we don’t 100% believe in what we’re doing or we don’t 100% know why we’re doing it, God’s Spirit can’t work through us, and if God’s Spirit can’t work through us, we’re going to fail. In other words, we’re not going to live fully in the Kingdom.
Peter started to drown because his faith was weak. Peter thought he should have faith in Peter (that is, “I know I can do this”), when instead he should have had faith in God (that is, “I know God can do this”). Peter started to drown because he knew that, by the laws of nature, he shouldn’t be walking on water, and he stopped his thought process there. What he should have done is shift his thought process into the belief that God can override the laws of nature and do anything, including making him walk on water.
If you feel like you have one foot in the Kingdom and one foot in the world, it’s probably because you do. It’s also why you’re stuck in a spiritual no-man’s land and going nowhere. Maybe you could spend some time thinking about what you believe (not brainwashing yourself into believing something, like a creed, but thinking about what you authentically believe) and what is motivating you to want to step out in faith to live fully in the Kingdom.
As an example, I believe that God loves me and that I love God more than I love anything or anyone else. I also believe that God can do anything, and that everything he does, he does for my benefit, as long as I do what’s right in his eyes. These beliefs motivate me to want to live fully in the Kingdom so that I can “endure to the end” and make it home to Heaven. I’m a born-again believer and, as such, the Kingdom is open to me, so I need to get in there and stay in there fully and full-time, or I won’t endure to the end and I won’t make it home. This I 100% believe and this is what motivates me to step out in faith to live fully in the Kingdom.
What you believe and what is motivating you may or may not be the same as what I believe and what is motivating me. Even so, you need to be able to articulate your beliefs before you can act on them. Weak faith doesn’t mean you don’t believe in God or don’t believe in him enough; weak faith means that you don’t really know what you believe or how that belief can be lived in real-time; weak faith means you’re relying on your own abilities rather than on God’s. The main reason you’re relying on your own abilities is that you haven’t yet articulated your beliefs to yourself.
The political canvasser who came to my kitchen door had zero faith in herself. Her faith was entirely in her candidate. She was just the vessel carrying his message, which is why my silence didn’t faze her in the least or deter her from her mission. She was walking on water while she was hollering through my screen door, and for that she has my respect.
We need to be equally devoid of faith in ourselves. Our faith should always be in God and in his Messiah, Jesus. We should have zero faith in ourselves and zero faith in our own abilities. As long as we hang on to having faith in ourselves, we’ll remain with one foot on the worldly dock. But if we put everything we are and everything we believe into God and into Jesus, we’ll not only step off the dock and fully onto the boat, we’ll step off the boat and fully onto the water.
And then, my friends, we’ll truly be living in the Kingdom.
TELL ME
Tell me – will you still worship God when you can’t get into restaurants and cinemas?
Will you still worship God when you can’t fly or take a train or even get on a bus?
How about when you can’t get into grocery stores? Will you still worship God then?
Because those days are coming, when access will be denied. For some, those days are already here.
Will you still worship God when you lose your job or get court martialed or a dishonorable discharge?
How about when you lose your home and your bank account is frozen and you have no money? How about when you can’t get on the Internet anymore and your driver’s license is suspended?
What will happen to your worship when you’re being rounded up for incarceration in a containment camp? Will you still worship God then?
Because those days are coming, too, for some sooner than others.
We need to worship God no matter what’s going on in our lives and no matter what the world throws at us. Worshiping God doesn’t mean going into a certain building and saying certain things. We can worship God wherever we are and under whatever circumstances we find ourselves. In fact, the worse the circumstances, the more we need to worship and the more we need to thank God.
LOVE FOR OUR ENEMIES AND PRAISE AND THANKFULNESS TO GOD IS OUR WORSHIP, as born-again believers, and it shouldn’t stop just because we can no longer get into restaurants or are being hunted down like animals. The worse the times, the more fervent the faith must be; the worse we’re treated, the more we must love in return.
So tell me – will you be worshiping God just in the good times or also in the bad?
THE DIVIDING LINE
What I am about to state here is considered heresy in most Christian sects, even though the truth of it is backed up by scripture.
Throughout his ministry years, Jesus withdrew from and rejected his blood relatives, including his mother and his siblings. Why? Because they didn’t believe he was the Messiah. They knew he was a prophet sent from God, but they didn’t believe he was the Messiah.
So Jesus had to choose between his family and God.
He chose God.
I mention this now because we are also faced with a similar choice. Society is becoming increasingly divided along a line that even two years would have been unimaginable. Families and friends are finding themselves on opposite sides of that line, with no neutral zone in between. One side is staunchly pro-government and its mandates, and the other is not; one side does whatever is demanded by the government, and the other does not. Even though the obedient and compliant far outnumber the disobedient and non-compliant, families are being torn apart, life-long friends are becoming estranged, and neither side is willing to compromise.
Which side of the divide you stand on is your business. It’s your choice. You have God-given free will. I’m not interested in discussing the virtues of one side over the other or to persuade you to cross over from one side to the other. As far as I’m concerned, the right choice – the godly choice – is more than obvious and doesn’t need to be stated or discussed. Even so, I hope you’re aware that the side you choose will determine your eternity.
Scripture tells us about people who cowed before the religious powers-that-be in Jerusalem because they were afraid to be kicked out of the synagogue. To be kicked out of the synagogue essentially meant that your life as you knew it was over. You would not be permitted to attend religious or cultural events; you’d likely lose your livelihood, as you’d be shunned by the general public; you would even have difficulty carrying out everyday tasks like grocery shopping, as again, you would be shunned and shamed. You would live as an outcast for the rest of your life or until such time as you “came to your senses” and accepted the dictates of the religious ptb.
To avoid what for many would have been a fate worse than death, people tolerated the tyranny and corruption of the rich and powerful so that they could live their daily lives unmolested by the authorities and participate in society.
Recall that Jesus had these “privileges” revoked in many areas where he was under constant threat of arrest. Recall also that even under threat of arrest, Jesus did not alter his position or in any way make concessions, other than to avoid certain areas until God told him it was his time.
As born-again believers, we’re called to live our lives like Jesus lived his life during his ministry years. Jesus is our example. Jesus’ mother isn’t our example; Jesus’ siblings aren’t our example; even Jesus’ early disciples aren’t our example: JESUS IS OUR EXAMPLE. If Jesus chose God over his family and God over his society, then so must we. If our choice means we live as outcasts, then we live as outcasts. Jesus lived his life as an outcast during his ministry years, so why should we be any different?
Jesus is the Messiah. His mother and siblings refused to accept that truth during his ministry years, so he rejected them. He walked away from them, and when they came to get him to take him home (presumably to correct his way of thinking and to keep him from being arrested), he publicly shunned them. He didn’t compromise his position and he didn’t give in just to keep the peace. On the contrary, he doubled down on his affirmation of who he was by replacing his blood family with his spiritual family. From that point onward, only those who did the will of God were considered by Jesus to be his family.
Think very carefully about the choice you make regarding the dividing line. As a born-again believer, your mission is to follow Jesus, not your family and not the world. Don’t be like the people who did whatever they had to do to remain in good standing with the ptb. Jesus was not in good standing with the ptb; he wouldn’t have been doing God’s will if he were.
We are at war, just as Jesus was.
Jesus chose to fight on God’s side.
We need to do the same.
SPIDER
As some of you know, this blog hosted a Bible read-through in July and August. I’m not sure how many of those who initially said they’d do the read-through actually made it all the way to the end, but I do know for sure that Bibles got into hands that hadn’t been in hands for a while, and that’s a good start. God can take it from there.
After I finished the read-through on August 31st, I asked God the next day what I should read. This is my usual habit, to ask God what I should read, and he always tells me. On September 1st, the day after the Bible Read-Through ended, I asked God what I should read and he told me to read the Bible all the way through again.
So back I went to Genesis.
A few weeks later, when I was just shy of a third of the way through the second Bible read-through, God told me it would be a good idea if I’d finish reading it by the end of the month (September), so that I could read it again during the first three weeks of October.
The Bible Read-Through in July and August was 40 days. The September read-through is 30 days, and the October read-through will be around 20 days. I’m not sure what’s going on, but God’s never advised me to read like this before. Usually he suggests a book or a chapter, or sometimes even just a single psalm or verse. But advising three read-throughs, one after the other, is unprecedented. It’s like marathon training, especially since the second and third read-throughs are much deeper than the first and in progressively shorter time-spans.
So I asked God what’s going on with all the Bible read-throughs (we can ask him these things; that’s what he’s there for), but all he’d tell me was “Preparation”. Just like that: “Preparation”. And when I tried to get more details out of him, he clammed up.
We all prepare in different ways, depending on our relationship with God and Jesus and what’s coming up around the bend. To a certain extent, we can know the depth of our relationship with God and Jesus, but we can’t always know what’s coming up around the bend. Sometimes we can know, but other times God keeps the details hidden for reasons that are best known to him. God isn’t guiding me to prep food or supplies; he’s not guiding me to learn survival skills or join a network of like-minded people: He’s getting me to cram his Word.
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If I could, I would stick a straw through the middle of the Bible cover and just drink it all up. One of my older Bibles has started to disintegrate, with pieces of the cover and corners of some pages falling off. I kept the pieces for a while; some of them I taped back on, but some of the pieces were so small, I didn’t know where they belonged, so I put them on an end table under a lamp, and left them there.
And then one day I ate them.
Don’t ask me why. I just felt prompted to eat them. They were only little pieces of paper, some thicker than others, but none any bigger than a fingernail clipping. I felt it was the best thing to do with them. They are now part of me. I like that the Bible is now part of me not just as an impression through words, but as a physical symbiosis. The Bible is feeding me figuratively and literally.
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I lived in Australia back in the late 1990s. A big black spider took up residence in my bathroom one day, and when I showed it to my then-boyfriend, he said to kill it. The way he said “Kill it”, just like that, made me realize it must be very poisonous, as normally he just let things be. The spider was too big for me to squish underfoot, so I thought instead I would try to drown it in dishwashing liquid and then scoop it into the toilet. Well, the Aussie dollar store dishwashing liquid must have been made of pure rainwater, because the more I poured onto the spider, the livelier it got. Finally after about half a bottle, the little legs stopped jerking and I thought that was that… but a few seconds later, the spider sprang to life again.
By that point I was completely freaked out, and had also started to feel bad for the spider. So I got a glass jar with a lid and scooped the spider into the jar instead of into the toilet and screwed the lid on tight. My plan was to suffocate the spider (I figured it would just fall asleep) instead of trying to drown it. I know how nasty that sounds, but those were my atheist days, and I didn’t have the same sensibilities about God’s creatures that I have now.
For three months I watched that spider in the jar. It somehow survived having half a bottle of dishwashing liquid poured onto it, and then it survived months of living in an air-tight container. It would spin a web and then eat it, and then spin another web, and eat that. It got everything it needed by eating its own web.
After three months of watching this, I’d had enough and declared the spider the winner. I’d never seen survival on that level before. As an atheist, I couldn’t explain what was going on with the spider, and it weirded me out. As a believer, I understand. The tiny creature’s God-given instinct to survive was perfectly supported by its God-given built-in survival tools. The spider was a self-sustaining ecosystem, courtesy of God.
I hope I get to meet that spider someday, if and when I get to Heaven. Of course, we both won’t remember what I did to it, but we’ll know we’d met somewhere before, and we’ll be friends.
In hindsight, I learned a lot not only from the spider’s willingness to survive, but from its mind-boggling ability to survive. I don’t believe that God gives this willingness and ability only to spiders in Australia: I believe he’s given it to all his creatures, including us.
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When I read, and then reread, and then reread again God’s Word, it gets impressed on me deeper and darker each time, like lines being traced and retraced. They become more vivid and also more physical with each tracing, moving from the page into my mind and then physically into my body. The impression they leave is not just an idea, but an imprint that stays on me and in me for life.
What’s coming down the road or just up around the bend, we don’t always know. We might prepare for a flood, and then get a fire. But I do know that whatever tools we need to survive, God has given us already. They’re within us, waiting for the right time to be used. God has also given us the willingness to survive, even captivity in an airtight container with nothing to eat but his Word.
TEMPTATION
They didn’t hide it from us. They told us outright that this would be the last generation. They even called it “Z”, in case they hadn’t made themselves clear enough. We have no excuse not to know, other than that we’re not paying attention, not watching, as Jesus told us to do.
This would be the last generation of humans, but not the last generation overall. What comes next is a new breed of humans, a human-machine hybrid that, over time, will become more machine than human. The capacity for pain and emotion will slowly be reduced until it seems to have disappeared, and with it the capacity for empathy, for sympathy, for love. It is easy enough to remove those capacities. It has been done already through shock treatments and lobotomies. But physically or chemically lobotomized humans also lose their ability to function beyond a vegetative state, and shock treatments are reversible. So these methods are inadequate for the task of creating new homes for demons.
Because that’s what it is – creating new homes for demons. Spirits are disembodied beings. They can only occupy souls that have welcomed them in; otherwise, they are permitted only drive-by possessions that last a few minutes or even seconds, but they can’t remain in their hosts unless they’re invited to stay. The new human-machine hybrid that has a near non-existent capacity for love or fear becomes an ideal vehicle for these beings, who then have full use of a fully-functioning body not for a few seconds or minutes, but for a life-time.
This is our future. We know that when the curtain falls on the age of Mercy, the age of Judgement begins. We also know from scripture that the age of Judgement is peopled for a time, and that there are two kinds of people – those marked by God, and those marked by Satan. Those marked by God can still fall (scripture says they’ll be tried, and some will fall), but those marked by Satan will no longer be able to convert. The time for God’s Mercy will be over.
We also know from scripture that many of those marked by Satan will possess superhuman abilities, including the ability to avoid physical death for a time. Those who are eternally beyond God’s Mercy will, by default, be vehicles for demonic spirits. When I say “demonic”, I mean all fallen spirits, including angels.
So as we enter the dawning of human-machine hybrids, we know that the age of Mercy is coming to an end and the age of Judgement is not far off. Injections of nanobots have been proven to reduce the capacities both for pain and emotion, while physical implants and prosthetics have been proven to increase human physical strength and endurance. The people who embrace these new technologies will be the new giants who will not only have a profound physical advantage over “mere humans”, but also a profound mental advantage.
Evil spirits used to be known as intelligences for their supernatural capacity to know things. When these spirits move into their new supercharged human-machine hybrid bodies and take control of them, they will be like gods.
But we born-again believers have one God, and we will not fall prey to the propaganda of wanting to have extended lives in a human-machine hybrid body with the intelligence of demons. We will patiently wait in our fully human mortal body with all its limitations and weaknesses – we will patiently wait for God to take us home in his time, where we will receive our glorified body. Even super-charged human-machine hybrid bodies with godlike intelligence are but filthy rags compared to glorified bodies.
The temptation to know more than we should, be more than we should, and live longer than we should is as old as humanity. Eve was tempted with these very same things in the Garden. The temptation hasn’t changed since then, other than to be glossily repackaged as science. But Satan leaves his fingerprints all over whatever isn’t from God, so we can clearly discern the devil in the details.
Be strong and stay true to God. Be grateful for your God-given natural body. Don’t hate it, don’t deny it, don’t shun it, and don’t mortify it; look after it as the temple of God’s Spirit. God has put your body into your hands to look after, so look after it the best you can: “Let your food be medicine and your medicine be food.” And then one day, if you stay true to God and keep to the path laid out for you by Jesus, you’ll receive a beautiful, youthful, God-given perfected body, and you’ll live in it in glory forever.
PAST THE POINT
There comes a point when it’s too late for the patient, when the injury is so catastrophic or the disease so widespread, the body can’t be saved. Doctors and nurses know this point.
Spiritually, there is also a point when there is no saving a soul or a people. God and those he gives understanding to know this point. It was reached in Noah’s day for all of early civilization, and again for Sodom and Gomorrah, and again for Judaism during the Roman occupation. There is no coming back from spiritual flat-lining. It is the death of an entity.
I mention this because there is a growing trend these days to “Pray for America” or “Pray for New York” or pray for whatever country or city the organizers believe should be prayed for, but this is a waste of time. The former Christian nations and the cities in them are past the point of saving spiritually. They might hang on for a few more years materially, but spiritually they are so diseased there is no saving them. They are past the point of prayers.
It’s a hard thing for doctors to reach this point with a patient, to have to declare that nothing more can be done and that the patient should be kept as comfortable as possible until the inevitable end. The comfort is usually administered via drugs to dull the pain and provide an artificial high. God administers similar comfort to those at the end of their spiritual road. Remember that when Noah was busy building the ark and gathering the animals together, everyone else continued on with their regular daily activities and suspected nothing of the flood until it washed them all away. Recall, too, that the people of Sodom continued in their sin until fire started raining from Heaven and destroyed them all. In former Christian nations, God is keeping the condemned likewise comfortably numb and unaware. They won’t know what hits them until it does.
If we’re to pray for anyone or anything, it should be to strengthen the remnant. It’s God’s people who need our prayers now, not those who have definitively turned their backs on God and his Messiah, Jesus. They are past the point of our prayers. Recall how David wept and fasted while his son was on his deathbed, but the minute he got word that the son had died, David dried his tears, washed himself, and had something to eat. David realized there was no more point in praying for his son. He was past the point of prayers. Christian nations and all the cities and towns in them, as well as most of the people, are now likewise beyond prayers. They are being kept comfortable by God in preparation for their end.
It’s a hard thing for God to draw this line and declare a person or a people beyond saving, as once it’s done, there is no undoing it. We can weep and pray all we want for those who will be drowned in the coming spiritual flood, or we can direct our prayers to those who still have a chance at Heaven. I’m praying for the remnant. I’m still loving my enemies and wishing them comfort in their final days, but my prayers are now solely for the remnant.
GO FISH
I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping your head down over the next while. Whenever God “takes care of business” using his unholy agents, you do not want to be the one who is sticking out like a sore thumb. You do not want to catch anyone’s attention. You want to be the one that no-one notices, or if they do notice you, it’s for something other than that you’re a Christian. Jesus often traveled anonymously and without informing anyone of his whereabouts when he was in hostile territory, and everywhere is hostile territory for us now.
Lots of outspoken people (and their families) are dying suddenly. Whole isolated religious communities that never before were affected by circulating illnesses are becoming sick en masse. These are not natural occurrences. These are clearly targeted events, and they’re being done as a warning. The warning is to us, and we need to pay attention to it.
Keep your head down.
Whatever your opinions are about what’s going on in the world, keep them to yourself. Limit your online activities. Don’t leave comments. Remember that we’re in a state of war, and if you’re a Christian, you’re the enemy. Jesus tells us to be as wise as serpents, but as gentle as doves. Give no-one any grounds to arrest you. Steer clear of protests. Best to steer clear of cities altogether. Best also to stay on the move from one isolated community to another.
Be like Jesus in the months leading up to his arrest. He didn’t sleep rough and keep on the move because he couldn’t afford to pay rent; he slept rough and kept moving for the same reason that David did – there was a price on his head. I’m not saying there’s a price on your head or on my head; I’m just saying that the wood is very, very dry and we need to act accordingly.
We’re of no value to the Kingdom if we get targeted and eliminated for protesting. Protests are the business of the world. They are not our concern. Let the world be. God’s justice is perfect, as is his judgement, and we should never get in the way of either. The early church survived because the members kept their heads down and kept moving. Those were the years of tracing a fish in the dirt to identify themselves. The dirt fish will soon be making a comeback.
Keep your head down. Keep close to God and keep following Jesus, but keep your head down.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 