AVALANCHE
There is a trend developing in alternative media and online forums, with certain “influencers” claiming that they’re finally fed up with the restrictions and aren’t going to take it anymore. What they’re trying to do with their public show of frustration is to rally the troops, with the ultimate aim of getting a large-scale organized resistance movement going.
As a born-again believer, you need to be very careful about becoming involved in any kind of resistance movement other than the one you were grandfathered into when you were born-again. I’m not going to get into a discussion here about whether or not I believe some of these influencers may or may not be controlled opposition. I’m only interested in what they’re trying to do, which is to tempt their audience to show their hand (that is, to identify themselves) and to react openly and violently against the ptb, first with words and then with actions.
Now is not the time for heroics. I had a vision a few days ago of an avalanche moving down a mountainside in slow-motion. The avalanche was moving slowly, but it was massive and unstoppable. As it inched down the mountain, it swallowed everything in its path, including people who were standing in front of it shaking their fists.
Off to the side of the mountain, just out of reach of the avalanche, a few people were standing and watching. They weren’t doing anything, these people, other than for watching the avalanche descend. They weren’t shaking their fists or trying to stop it; they were just standing and watching.
The avalanche is coming, whether we want it to or not. No-one can stop it. It has been put into motion, and no-one can stop it, any more than the flood could be stopped in Noah’s day or the rain of fire and brimstone could be stopped in Lot’s. There is no praying or fasting this avalanche away. This is not a Nineveh event, where everything will go back to normal if everyone would just repent in sackcloth and ashes. This avalanche cannot and will not be stopped.
Knowing that, if you choose to stand in front of it shaking your fists, thinking you’re somehow a hero to do so, you’ll get swallowed up by it, just like everyone else in its path.
We need to be like the people in the vision who were standing off to the side as the avalanche descended. We need to be aware of what’s going on, but not to be part of it. We need to let it happen, like Noah let the flood happen and Lot let the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah happen. This is entirely in God’s hands. We need to get out of the way and let God take care of business.
The time for spiritual heroism will come, but it isn’t now.
If you step out now, you’ll join the ranks of Barabbas and Judas Iscariot, who also believed they were fighting the ptb and were heroes.
Me, I’ll continue to stand with Jesus, off to the side of the mountain, and let God’s will be done.
THIS LAND IS MY LAND
I recently moved to a property in rural Nova Scotia that used to be a farm, with a river running through it and a woodlot out back. To either side of me there’s nothing but thick forest. Even if I used a megaphone to call out, my nearest neighbour would only hear me if the wind were blowing in the right direction.
The expansiveness and remoteness of the land is exciting and soothing at the same time. Deer come right up to my window and stare in at me while I’m working. It used to be a much larger farm that got cut back to 22 acres, and that’s what I sit on now – 22 acres of rolling fields, hedged in to the east and west by thousands of acres of forest.
I mention all this because, in the eyes of the world, I don’t legally own this land. I’m renting the property from someone who just purchased it and likely holds a mortgage on it. But even if that person bought it outright and owes nothing on it, taxes still need to be paid to make good on the ownership. If the taxes don’t get paid, the land and everything on it is eventually forfeited to the state.
The land could also be wrested from the person through expropriation – that is, the state could take it all, paying the person only the assessed or “fair market” value of the land and chattels. This happens more often than the general public realizes. Under a state of emergency, expropriation can take place within 24 hours, and Nova Scotia is currently under a state of emergency due to the ‘pandemic’.
So while the new owner holds title to the land and everything on it, the state could end that ownership by sundown today. Does that mean the state owns the land?
It does, as long as the state doesn’t lose it in a war or by annexation. If, for instance, the US invaded from the south or Russia from the north or China from the west, the property would become the victor’s.
So here’s what we have so far: I, as the tenant, don’t own the land; the person who ‘owns’ it doesn’t own the land (as she could lose it through non-payment of taxes or expropriation); and the state itself doesn’t own the land, since the state could lose it through war.
So who actually does own the land? Does anyone own it?
God, of course, owns the land. He owns everything in creation, including this 22-acre former farm and everything on it. As his daughter, I am his inheritor. Inheritor’s rights mean that I own everything that God owns, which is everything in creation.
So who owns this land?
I do. On a spiritual level, I own it because God owns it. All of God’s children – his inheritors – co-own all of creation with God. Jesus is the first among us to claim his inheritance, and we now share it with him.
So this land is my land. That land is also my land. As far as the eye can see – up to and including and beyond the farthest star – it’s all mine. But it’s also all yours, if you’re a born-again follower of Jesus, because being a born-again follower of Jesus makes you a child of God, and therefore God’s inheritor.
In which case, all of creation is your inheritance as much as all of creation is my inheritance.
So I guess, on a spiritual level, you and I both own the land I currently sit on.
Jesus said that those who purposely die to this world to follow him will get houses and land aplenty in this life, and in the world to come, eternal life.
So who owns this land?
God, and all his children.
Verily I say unto you, there is no man that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,
But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
Mark 1:29-30
But big proviso here – just because we own all of creation together doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t follow the laws of the world while we’re still in human form. God put the world under the authority of Satan and gave him laws to institute – including laws of land ownership – so we’re duty-bound to adhere to those laws for the rest of our time on Earth.
Remember when Jesus was coming back to his house in Capernaum, and a state official requested tribute money from him and the disciples? Jesus asked Peter:
What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?
Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.
Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shallt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.
Matthew 17:24-27
From scripture, we know that everything that is God’s is ours, which is everything in creation. But Jesus – the Messiah himself – scrupulously adhered to the laws of the land by paying tribute, even though he openly stated that, on the spiritual level, he did not owe it. When these conflicts occur between what is ours by spiritual inheritance and what the world demands of us by local and state laws, God will always intervene to provide for us. And when God provides, he does so miraculously, as we see by the gold coin in the fish’s mouth.
If you’re genuinely a follower of Jesus, you know exactly what I mean when I say that God will intervene and provide for his children miraculously, because you live those miracles every day.
That, too, is an inheritance of God’s children.
PEEKABOO!
Jesus wasn’t a fan of grandstanding. He had nothing good to say about the ostentatious show of religiosity that characterized most of the religious establishment, or what he called the hypocrites.
Jesus was clear that when you pray, you pray in private to God, not in public for show. Ditto for giving charity and donations, which were to be done anonymously, expecting nothing in return – not even a thank-you or a tax receipt. If we give charity and donations for the thanks or the tax receipts, that’s all we’ll get. That will be our reward. But if we do them secretly so that only God sees us, God will give us our reward.
Everything we do and say (and think) is known to God. We cannot hide anything from him. It’s impossible to hide from God. If you think you’ve ‘gotten away’ with something, it just means that God’s giving you the time and space to repent. If you don’t repent, you’ll get what’s coming to you. No-one escapes God’s justice.
The measure of your faith and your character can easily be determined by what you do when no-one sees you. When I say “no-one”, I mean no human. God sees you, whether you accept he does or not.
Paul says we should do everything as if unto God. If that’s our default – to do everything as if unto God – then we’ll always choose what’s right and do everything to the best of our ability. Sadly, I don’t think that’s the default for many people. I know it was for Jesus, and I’m pretty sure it was for Paul, but is it for you?
God sees everything we do, hears everything we say, and knows everything we think. Jesus says that everything we do, say, and think will form the basis of our judgement. When figure skaters prepare for a competition, they practice in their training gear, which is any clothing they find comfortable and functional. But when it’s time to compete, they wear special clothing and make-up, and they fix their hair in a special style. Then they go out before the judges and spectators and perform their routine, the same routine they’ve performed hundreds of time during training before an empty arena and in comfortable clothes. They have only one chance to get the routine right when they’re before the judges. No matter how brilliantly they skate during training, it counts for nothing at the competition. All that matters at the competition is how well they skate before the judges.
God’s judgement is nothing like that. God doesn’t judge us on our costume and make-up and performance under pressure. Jesus says that we’re accountable for EVERYTHING we do and say, not just what we do and say when others see us and hear us, or when we’re all dressed up in our Sunday best and on our best behavior, sitting in a pew.
I think that for many, this thought is incomprehensible. They can’t accept that God can see and hear everything, so they live as if God can’t. When they think no-one is looking (or at least no-one of importance), they do whatever is expedient for them at the time, even if involves breaking commandments.
This is the true measure of who we are – what we do when no-one sees us. Jesus didn’t accuse the religious powers-that-be of being hypocrites for what they did in public, but for what they did behind closed doors. God saw them, heard them, and read their thoughts, and that information was made known to Jesus, who then delivered the damning verdict of hypocrisy.
We do not want to end up where hypocrites end up – in the lake of fire. We should instead want to do everything as if unto God, to pray in secret and give charity in secret. We should want to choose what’s right and to do everything to the best of our ability, knowing that our every move is being watched and recorded. We should want to do everything precisely as Jesus says we should, veering neither to the left nor to the right, but keeping straight on the path.
It can be sobering to acknowledge that God knows everything about us, but acknowledge it we must. It is by far the most direct way for us to do the right thing in every circumstance, whether we’re seen by others or not. We are judged on everything we do, but God pays special attention to what we do when we think no-one sees us.
So what do you do?
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 