Beloved Family… I could be dead wrong in what I discuss in this article. But I’m willing to take that chance. The ‘stakes’ that are involved make the risk worthwhile. If I’m wrong, nothing much will change. The stakes will stay on the table and the ‘poker game’ will continue. But if I have actually stumbled onto something… then we’ve reached a point in the game when the powers of Darkness will begin to feel forced to push every chip they have into the middle of the table and begin to place their ultimate last ditch gamble… the final Showdown… in their futile campaign to try to oppose and dethrone Almighty God.
If that is what is really happening, then everyone who’s in The Game will soon be forced to lay his or her cards on the table. We’ll have to reveal the hands we’ve been concealing and relying upon leading up to this climactic showdown moment. Many among the body of believers share this abiding intuition: that we’re living in the awesome, critically important Last Days times. And to me, it seems as if our recent presidential election was like a ‘signal flare’ that was shot into the night sky. It signaled the launch of the first stage of a Heavenly ‘D Day’ Invasion that I’ve been anticipating for almost 14 years.
I’m led to suspect that this election was the signal for the development of Israel’s history with God to enter its climactic Messiah-Era phase. In that case, the Hosts of Heaven have just begun the opening barrage of their long-anticipated attack. And this is the part of the Story where God’s Truth will pierce and penetrate the demonic Darkness deeper than it has ever done before. This time, it will pierce the Serpent’s Lie, to death!
In that case, the world will begin to experience heightened levels of intense turmoil as God’s Truth gores the falsehoods and exposes and devastates many of the Serpent’s traps that, until now, have remained hidden from public view. So I anticipate that the era of angry, easily offended, hyper-controlling, self-serving humanistic ‘Political Correctness’ that has developed all around the world in recent years will now escalate to the level of utter insanity. And bitterness, strife and life or death struggles for supremacy will soon become the norm for this poor suffering fallen world.
Even though we may not be authentic God-anointed prophets, we can still know that our Heavenly Father’s Light is attacking the Serpent’s Darkness. That’s true because our Creator is eternally omnipresent; His Nature and Life-giving Light and Truth and Reality never change! So, wherever God is present… the Serpent’s Darkness cannot prevail. The Light of God’s Truth always penetrates and dissipates whatever the enemy tries to do… simply by being present! No creature can make our Creator’s Word go away, simply by rejecting Him and choosing to try to escape the reach of His Authority! The Word of God stands and prevails everywhere… forever!
John 8:23-32
“And He was saying to them, ‘You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins!”
“So they were saying to Him, ‘Who are You?’ Jesus said to them, ‘What have I been saying to you from the beginning (since Genesis)? I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is True; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.’
“They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man (the Father’s Living Word who became flesh), then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.’ As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the Truth (the Father who spoke Me to you), and The Truth (the Word My Father is even now speaking to you through Me,) will make you free!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
It is utterly normal for the world to live at a long distance from, and at odds with, its awesome Creator. The state of Sin-corruption and living death that the children of Adam inherited prevent them from knowing God or His ways. So they remain radically independent and unwittingly rebellious and spiritually lost.
1 Corinthians 2:7-9
“…But we speak God’s Wisdom in a mystery, the hidden Wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the Wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory; but just as it is written, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Beloved, one reason why I tend to think that this Last Days D-Day has begun is because of the avid attention the entire world suddenly began to focus on our recent 2016 presidential election. That process was the most unique, unorthodox, unprecedented free-for-all that this country has ever experienced. And that is really saying something because we’ve had some amazing election seasons in the past. But this one was by far the most shocking and unprecedented one of all. Nothing turned out as expected. And as soon as it was over, a devastating shockwave of total disorientation overtook every onlooker as the results were being announced. It literally stunned the ‘experts’ and the ‘movers and shakers’ of this fallen world; it scrambled their brains to such an extent that I doubt if any of us have ever seen anything like it before!
The reactions of the experts and pundits of the secular world’s system reminded me of bulls that had just been hit on the head with sledgehammers! They reeled from the shock of the impact that had suddenly obliterated and belittled their former expectations, hopes, desires and the assumed ‘wisdom’ that their predictions and pontifications were proclaiming right up to the end. They were like weather forecasters that had been telling their audiences to expect nothing but warm sunny weather… and then suddenly they themselves were caught in the downpour of a cloudburst that came from out of the blue!
Out of Touch Experts
Why were the ‘experts’ so taken by surprise and so totally stunned and shocked? It was because they are so habitually out of touch with God and His Word and His Truth! Without realizing it, they create their own virtual world that isn’t based on objective Truth. It is based on the passions, desires and urges of whatever the current pop culture deems worthy of attention at any given time. And that is why so many were proven to be so very wrong and misled! The forces of God’s Kingdom caught them completely off guard! Heaven’s surprise attack pulled the rug out from under God’s demonic enemies and they were suddenly flipped over on their backs! Thus the Light of God’s Truth broke into the seemingly impenetrable humanistic rebellion of their human victims. And the powerful flow of public opinion concerning what everyone thought was sure to happen, suddenly crashed into a stone wall and was forced to reverse its direction, completely!
And now, as this is being written, we see other signs that indicate that the forces of Humanistic radical independence from God are so enraged and feel so threatened, that they will be compelled to try to fight back. That can be deduced by those knee-jerk reactions that have erupted into spontaneous rebellious uprisings that are taking place all across the nation at this time. Apparently it is not politically correct or acceptable to contradict and thwart the desires of those liberal-minded people that have become so ‘politically correct.’ They reserve the right to hate and oppose God’s Word… and they think nothing of bullying anyone who opposes them because they cannot tolerate any resistance or opposition to their own words, initiatives and agendas. They will not tolerate anyone who would dare contradict whatever they have decided has to be true.
Their street protests and ‘marches’ remind me of self-absorbed children… throwing a huge collective ‘tantrum.’ Now that they’ve lost the grip on power that they assumed they had, many are refusing to abide by the courtesies required by the long-established ‘rules’ of the game. They are throwing their tantrum simply because the election did not turn out the way they anticipated and desired!
So with the bitter taste of defeat in their mouths, they are launching an era of counterattacking resistance. Their rebellion is out in the open… it has spilled out onto the streets… it seethes within the halls of schools and universities… and it has taken the Internet and all of the social media by storm. The inherited inbred traits that have always been embedded in the fallen, Sin-corrupted nature of the children of Adam are spontaneously erupting to the surface. What has always been in the DNA of humanity’s selfish, self-centered, rebellious, manipulative, predatory and self-destructive nature is spewing out. Now, because the ‘I’ll do it my way’ Humanists have temporarily lost their grip on their end of the ‘Tug of War Rope’… they are scrambling, looking for ways to regain the supremacy and the spotlights and the numerical advantage they once believed they monopolized. And, as usual, they want nothing to do with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or any of those who would dare to try to believe and serve Him. And so, if we’ve finally actually entered the Last Days Era of the age old War between Light and Darkness, and Spirit and Flesh, the world will move into the ultimate crescendo of its history… into the final era of strife and mind-boggling confusion and worldwide uncertainty.
That seems to me to be one side of it, but what about the other side? What about the Lord’s New Covenant disciples? What is their part to be in all of this? Well, I sense that we’re about to see the first stages of the ‘Real Thing’ for which our Boot Camp training has been preparing us! It’s time for the disciples of our resurrected Messiah to emerge from the shadows of their isolated Boot Camp training areas and begin to be deployed to their assigned places so that they can form their ranks in the world’s brightly lit Arena of Testimony! It is for ‘such a time as this’ that we’ve been chosen, called, and brought in for boot camp training in the first place. This is what Scripture was warning the world about, and now it has finally arrived: It’s ‘Show Time’!
Can anyone doubt that, come Inauguration Day, we’ll see the ‘counter-attack’ begin to escalate in earnest? Shouldn’t we be anticipating waves of disruptive protests and havoc and confusion? Will the opposition take this monumental setback sitting down, or will they unleash a corresponding wave of chaotic resistance? They know they’ve lost their grip on the power they’ve managed to amass in recent times. So I believe they’re not about to allow that to happen without putting up a monumental fight to the finish. I believe they are planning and plotting counter attacks and highly disruptive insurgency tactics that could very well cause many to explode into fits of violent destructive rage. In that case, we’ll see an increase in the vocal and physically violent terror-type disruptions that will be unleashed against whatever the new administration may try to say or accomplish, even as the new president is being sworn into office!
What Is Our Game Plan?
So where does that leave us? What should the Lord’s disciples do? Is it time for us to take to the streets as well? Is it time for us to begin to argue, debate, oppose and attack the disruptors? Should we try to beat them at their own game? Or should we ‘hunker down’ in bombproof shelters with a hoard of food and water and wait for Armageddon? Well, our fallen flesh may feel that those types of reactive tactics would be appropriate and strategically wise; but that too would be a deception!
Remember that God’s Living Word is a two-edged Sword! It cuts both ways; not only does God have to crucify the fallen flesh that the people we oppose and dislike are exhibiting… but, thanks to His Boot Camp training, our Master has already been crucifying the fallen flesh that is also in us! And He must continue to do that on an ongoing basis!
So now we must remember and continue to practice and do, as well as possible, what the Holy Spirit has been admonishing and training us to do:
Ephesians 6:1-3
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.” (Emphasis added.)
Why on earth would I quote that text at this time? What does obeying our parents have to do with anything? Well, I sense that the Lord has much more in mind than just conformity to the wishes of our natural parents. I believe He’s talking mainly about our spiritual parents, the fathers of the Faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the way in which God taught them to interact with Him! If that’s the case, then Malachi was redirecting the focus of the Israelite people back onto their Torah revelation and instruction roots… back to what God’s Word impressed into Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So I quote that text from Ephesians because it reminds me of something the Holy Spirit told Israel and the rest of the world to do… at the very end of the Hebrew Tanach… just as the Lord ended the Sinai Covenant portion of Scripture and was preparing to send His Living Word to become one of us so that He could introduce and launch the era of the New Covenant that He had promised to make with Israel. This is how Malachi ended his message:
Malachi 4:1-6
“‘For behold, the Day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the Day that is coming will set them ablaze,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.’
“‘But for you who fear My Name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with HEALING in its wings; and (as you enter the New Covenant that will fulfill the Torah) you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked (demonic powers of Darkness), for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the Day which I am preparing,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘Remember the Law (Torah) of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb FOR ALL Israel.
Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible Day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) to their (Jewish and non-Jewish) children and the hearts of the (Jewish and non-Jewish) children to their fathers (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
And I believe this is what Yeshua was referring to when He said these words:
Matthew 11:13-15
“For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who (according to Malachi) was to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
So I feel led to link what Father said through Malachi… before He launched the New Covenant Era through His Living Word, Yeshua, and His apostolic Jewish disciples… to what He said through Paul, to the New Covenant disciples, concerning the ongoing conflict between God’s Light and the Serpent’s Darkness. God’s New Covenant Israelite Remnant was created to serve as the manifestation of God’s redemptive, restorative, healing Light, which He intends to shine into the bowels of the Darkness with which the Serpent has enshrouded and captivated the earth and all of its fallen self-adoring systems. Every true disciple is required to make his or her Exodus out of that Darkness! And we are not to rejoin the Darkness or slip back into any part of it, ever again! We are assigned to live in it, for the time being, but we are never again to allow ourselves to be part of it! From now on, we must always live and operate as one with the Light of God’s Word… and with one another, so that we can faithfully reflect God and bring His Love Light with us… into the surrounding demonic Darkness:
Ephesians 6:4-9
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the (Torah-revealed) discipline and instruction of the Lord. Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eye service, as men-pleasers, BUT AS SLAVES OF CHRIST, DOING THE WILL OF GOD FROM THE HEART! WITH GOOD WILL RENDER SERVICE, AS TO THE LORD, and not to men, KNOWING THAT WHATEVER GOOD THING EACH ONE DOES, HE WILL RECEIVE BACK FROM THE LORD, whether slave or free. And masters, do the same things to them, and GIVE UP THREATENING, knowing that both their Master and yours is in Heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
So God’s written Word is telling us that even when we have to interact with other people in this world, we’re never really dealing with them directly. We always deal with them indirectly because there is always another with whom we are to deal directly – Almighty God Himself! It is the Lord, who is their Creator and Sustainer, with whom we must always directly interact. We’re really dealing with the Lord’s own possession! When we deal with any other person, we’re dealing with the one who was sent to love, provide and guide them to His Heavenly Father’s arms! So, to deal with them is to deal, at all times, with GOD’S PRECIOUS LIVING CREATIVE, LIFE-GIVING WORD!
Our every thought, choice, decision, action, reaction and interaction is to be a revelation and impartation of the Perfect Presence of God’s Word who is named Yeshua! He has become one of us! He is our Source and our Head and our new Eternal Life! So we’re now dealing and interacting with Him, continuously, by the Power of the Holy Spirit! Yeshua is the only real Life we have! So He must be OUR RESPONSE to everyone and to everything!
Sowing Seeds of Power and Authority
And our job now is to resist the lies and deceptive traps of the Evil One by remaining one with the Lord who has already exposed, discredited and routed him! So by remaining focused on the Lord of Lords… we’re refusing to sow any of the Serpent’s demonic ‘seed’ into our own hearts or the hearts of the people that are around us. We are here to sow the seeds of the Presence, Authority and Power of God’s Living and written Word into everyone and everything with whom we come in contact! We’re not here to interact with the world or anything that is of the world. We’re here to interact with our Lord and Master, exclusively… and to reveal Him as He lives and works from within us! Because we’re spiritually equipped to contain His Presence, we are able to assist Him as He personally invades the demonic realms of this world to do whatever His Father sends and commands Him to do!
I’m reminded of what the Holy Spirit said through Paul to the Gentile believers that belonged to the congregation in Rome, after their elder Jewish brethren were expelled from Rome by the emperor Claudius. Paul urged them to remain faithful to their union with God and faithful to their New Covenant union with their Jewish elder spiritual brethren! They were not to slip back into their former selfish, ego-adoring pagan Gentile habits and traditions that they once learned and practiced in this God-less world. They were to join with their Jewish brethren so that together… under Messiah’s Headship… they could carry the Light of His Truth into the Darkness that enshrouded the fallen world that surrounded them! Paul entreated them to refrain from forsaking their God-created New Covenant ties to their Israelite brothers in the Faith. He told them to see through and past the fact that most Jewish people could not yet recognize Yeshua as their Messiah and were still arrogantly rejecting Him. Despite all the opposition and resistance the unbelieving Jewish and Gentile peoples would raise against them, the Jewish and non-Jewish disciples were to remain together, as one New Man. Their union in their Messiah was to form God’s New Covenant ‘Menorah’ from which the Light of God’s Word and the Fire Power of their New Covenant union would continue to invade and overcome this world’s demonically induced Darkness.
So amid those incredibly difficult first century circumstances, Paul reminded the Jewish and non-Jewish disciples of their utter need for each other… as together… they continued to defer to, interact with, and receive whatever they would need from their risen Lord who was perpetually abiding within them both. And we disciples, who are living at this most critical time, have been training to learn to do the very same thing!
Our fallen human flesh will never be able to fulfill the enormous responsibility that God has entrusted to us. Jewish disciples can’t do this alone, nor can non-Jewish disciples do it alone. We do not have the wisdom or the strength or the authority or power or devices needed to surpass our own inherent limitations! This is a task that only Almighty God Himself can do! And that is why only our risen Messiah will be able to do what His Father requires of us. And He will do it. But if we’re to be included in what He does, we must remain faithful to Him and to each other and continue to defer to His abiding Preeminent Presence within us and in our midst. Then He can remain free to live His Perfect Life from within our yielded, crucified flesh and meet His Father’s Standards in our name! And this is why we’re being trained to abide and interact with Him directly, at all times.
Nothing Can Resist Yeshua
Yeshua is God’s Living Word… the very same one that became one with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in God’s Eternal Blood Covenant! He is here in our midst to give substance and perfect fulfillment to every revelation, command and promise that His Father gave to Israel through those fathers of the Faith and through her prophets and New Covenant apostles. And His Holy Spirit is here to train and equip and empower us to keep our focus on Yeshua, and to love one another, so that we can embody and reveal our Master, to whoever is around us, at all times. If we do that for our Father, He will fulfill His promises to the fathers of the Faith. And He will completely fulfill His will and His Plan for all of Creation… through us!
Yeshua, as Israel’s Messiah-King and Covenant Representative, is the Perfect Foundational Source of all of the Word’s Finished Works of Creation and Redemption that God has established from all Eternity! He is the Ground that the Holy Spirit has been training us to stand upon and to hold, regardless of what the rest of the human race may be deceived into doing around us to the contrary! Nothing can replace or resist Yeshua! Only God’s Living Word and His infinite Authority can deal with this fallen world and whatever may be happening in it. And that’s why our Messiah commissions and trains us to embody Him! He is our Head and our Life; and we are His Body on Earth. Our job is to embody, reflect, reveal and proclaim Him – at all times and in all situations – to every created being and circumstance we encounter in this dimension of time and space!
Our interaction with God’s Word will be especially critical now, during these Last Days! Every human being in existence is in desperate need of Him! And those who are still deceived and deluded by the powers of Darkness are not spiritually equipped to know or see or recognize the Redeemer of the human race for themselves. That is why Father sends us Spirit-filled disciples into their midst. If we maintain the discipline needed to reflect God’s Word to them at all times, instead of reflecting the circumstances that rage all around us, then even God’s deadly enemies will have a chance to know and respond to Yeshua’s Perfect Presence and Absolute Authority! They’ll begin to know Him as we embody Him to them. They too will see and hear and be able to feel His soul-shattering touch! So ponder what the Lord told the first century disciples… (and us)… through Paul, His Israelite apostle to the Gentiles:
Romans 12:3-13
“For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each(group, Jews and non-Jews, that God joined together to work as one New Man) a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are One Body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly (the way members of an integrated, synchronized healthy body do): if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality…”(Amplification and emphasis added.)
Ephesians 3:10-16
“He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things. And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the Body of Christ; until we all attain to The Unity of the Faith, and of the Knowledge of the Son of God, to a Mature Man, to the measure of the Stature which belongs to the Fullness of Christ!
“As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the Truth in Love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole Body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the Body for the building up of itself in Love.” (Emphasis added.)
Beloved, it is utterly impossible for our poor flesh and fallen faculties to carry out these utterly Divine supernatural orders! This is something that is totally Heavenly, totally in the realm of Almighty God! Only His own Living Word and Holy Spirit can fulfill God’s awesome cosmic revelation, commandments and promises! But we’ve been given the awesome honor and privilege of being included in what He is here to do! We are the Lord’s points of entry and bases of operation from and through which He can do His work on Earth. That is why God’s Word and Spirit live within us. In our name, God can do whatever His infinite Wisdom and Plan require! And this is why we are dealing directly with Yeshua, God’s Living Word, at all times and in all things! We are to embody our Messiah’s Life, Character and Disposition… without ceasing… regardless of circumstances… and regardless of what it may cost us to do it! This is how God can reveal Himself to all of Creation and fulfill the awesome promises He made to Abraham:
Genesis 12:1-3
“And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed!”
God puts His Word’s Light and Life and Love Nature into His Word’s disciples so that the Word can be and do what only Almighty God is able to do! And that’s why He tells us Jewish and non-Jewish New Covenant disciples to remember the condition we ourselves were in, before His Word came to save, forgive and restore us.
John 15:15-17
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10)
“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his Master is doing; but I have called you (My Blood Covenant) friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear (My) Fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, THAT YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
So we go out to fulfill our calling out of total gratitude for the mercy we ourselves have received from God, even while we too were living as His enemies! And that is why we are now commissioned to let the Word’s Merciful Light shine in us… and through us… into the Darkness of this fallen, Sin-corrupted world, for the benefit of all of the others. In this way God will be able to speak His Life-giving Word into the innermost being of more and more of the people that He loves and cherishes and values so much!
Matthew 5:14-20
“You are the (bearers of My Presence, My) Light of the world. A City set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand (menorah), and it gives (MY) Light to all who are in the House (of Israel’s God). Let your (New Covenant Word-embodying) Light shine before (Jewish and non-Jewish unbelieving) men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets (that command you to love your neighbor as yourself); I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until Heaven and Earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law (Torah’s revelation, commandments and promises) until all is accomplished (at the very End, after the Last Days have run their entire course).
“Whoever then (disregards or omits, or bypasses, or) annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be (counter-productive to My Purposes and thus he shall be) called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever (believes, honors and) keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I say to you that unless your (Word-given, Spirit-taught) Righteousness surpasses (that is, fulfills and completes that original level of My Righteousness) of the scribes and Pharisees (that still cling to the Covenant of Sinai and do not yet believe, embrace and submit to My Living Word, who is their New Covenant Messiah) you (also) will not (be willing to) enter the (New Covenant Fulfillment that I am revealing in My Eternal) Kingdom of Heaven!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
We’re speaking of the supernatural Love of God, that Stephen demonstrated so beautifully and with such compelling convicting authority and power, to his hate-filled murderers… on the day he gave his life as a testimony to His risen Lord! And the impact that his testimony had on Saul of Tarsus, and on what he later taught and wrote as an apostle, continues to bless the entire world to this day! Paul was an eyewitness to, and a personal recipient of, God’s supernatural Love, Mercy and Forgiveness! He saw it displayed through Stephen’s awesome supernatural reaction to the horror of all that demonic hatred and venom and the violent threats that were pressing in all around him. It was a totally supernatural, Spirit-empowered reaction that came as a result of how firmly fixed Stephen’s inner mental heart focus had been trained to remain riveted on the Perfect abiding Presence of His risen Lord! It was the focus that was common to the original Jewish disciples who were the first to answer the Lord’s summons to serve as His disciples:
Hebrews 12:1-4
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith, who for the Joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin…”
In the midst of that utterly demonic firestorm, all that Stephen could see and experience was his beloved Master… the one he had spent the last few years getting to know and the one with whom he had learned to abide and live from. Stephen could never forget the awesome mercy and forgiveness that he had received from His beloved Lord; and he remained eager, even up to the point of his own death, to make sure that his hate-filled enemies would come to know the Master the way Stephen was privileged to know Him. Thus he kept his focus riveted on His resurrected Lord:
Acts 7:54-56
“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into Heaven and saw the Glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
Can there be any doubt that Paul had this very scene in mind as he penned his epistles to the first century disciples? How could he forget what he saw that day… in the light of the awesome question that His resurrected Messiah later asked him on the road to Damascus… ‘Why are you persecuting Me?’ Was there ever a possibility that Paul would forget his last recollection of faithful, Spirit-filled Stephen, or can we doubt that Paul had Steven in mind when he wrote these words to the disciples of Colossae?
Colossians 3:1-4
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (Be like Stephen!) Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died (with Yeshua on the Cross, just as Stephen once did) and your life is (also, just as Stephen’s was, a product of God’s awesome grace and forgiveness that is now) hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our Life, is revealed, then you also (just like Stephen) will be revealed with Him in Glory!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Acts 7:59-60
“They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!’ Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them!’ Having said this, he fell asleep.” (Emphasis added.)
And that beloved, is the Fulfillment into which I believe this ‘D-Day Invasion’ is leading us. I’m doing my very inadequate ‘best’ to try to articulate what is boiling inside… in response to what is currently going on all around us. I’m trying to link that to what the Lord has commanded us to do as we follow Him on the ‘Narrow Path’ that God has reserved for all true disciples of His Son:
“BLESS those who persecute you; BLESS and do not curse. (in the midst of the worldly rebellion all around you, stand your God-given Ground) Rejoice (in your knowledge of the Lord’s Perfect Finished Work and in His absolute Perfection) with those (brothers and sisters) who rejoice (in His Eternal Perfection and All-Sufficient Grace with you), and weep with those (brethren among you who are wounded and) who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another (that your Heavenly Father has when He regards you); do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. NEVER PAY BACK EVIL FOR EVIL to anyone. Respect what is (revealed in God’s Word to be true and) right in the sight of all men.
Romans 12:3-21
“If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. ‘But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will (embody your indwelling Lord and glorify your Heavenly Father and His Righteousness coming out of you will) heap burning coals on his (still blinded and ignorant and unsuspecting) head. (Do for the people you encounter, what Stephen did for me and the others who murdered him when they were thirsting for his blood!)’ DO NOT BE OVERCOME BY EVIL (but learn from our Messiah and His faithful disciple Stephen. Keep drawing from God’s Eternal Perfect Treasury of Grace), BUT (remember always that you are being equipped, endlessly, by the Holy Spirit of your Father in Heaven, to unfailingly draw everything you need from the Fullness of your risen Messiah. And He is the Life and Power and Authority that abides in you and empowers you to) OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Beloved, which of us would be able to obey such commands if all we have to rely upon is our own will power and our soulish faculties of intellect and will and resolve? Who could withstand such pressure to retaliate? Who could persevere and, like Stephen, remain obedient to God’s commandments, even in the face of his or her own death, if all we have to draw from is our own self-serving flesh? Could we summon up such a pure, self-less degree of Love? Could we give ourselves up for the sake of our own killers? No, of course not! Only God and His Perfect Self-less Love can do that. And this is exactly what the New Covenant that God has made with Israel is going to fulfill, in us and through us, during these Last Days! So because of this eternal, unshakable New Covenant Reality and Truth, which our awesome God has entrusted to our stewardship… the Holy Spirit urges us with these words:
Ephesians 6:1-18
“Finally, (always remember that your Father continually reinforces and reassures you! So,) be strong in the Lord and in the Strength of His Might. Put on the full armor of God, (which is the Eternal Perfect Finished Works of Creation and Redemption that His beloved Son, the Living Word, your Messiah, has done on your behalf to equip and prepare you to be invincible, for such a time as this,) so that you will be able to stand firm against the (pathetic lies and groundless) schemes of the devil.
“For our struggle is not against (the) flesh and blood (human opponents that oppose us on this fallen Earth) but (our struggle is) against the (desperation and hopelessness of the demonic) rulers, against the powers,(and) against the world forces of this Darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (that manipulate those people and that strive to act out the lies of the Serpent that our Messiah has already soundly exposed, discredited, routed and totally defeated!)
“Therefore, (in light of the fact that you have already been raised up in Resurrection Glory with your victorious Messiah, and abide with Him at the Father’s right hand in Glory) take up the full armor of God (as He assigns you your place in the Arena of Testimony), so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with (Yeshua’s unassailable, Eternal Victory and) Truth, and having put on the breastplate of (His impeccably Perfect Covering of) Righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of (His Eternal, Perfect) Peace; in addition to all, taking up the Shield of Faith (in His Perfection and Fullness) with which you will be able to extinguish all the (pathetic lies and delusions of the Serpent, which come against you in the guise of the virtual) flaming arrows of the Evil One. And take the Helmet of Salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (and all He has done in your name and on your behalf). With all prayer and petition (with Eternal Thanksgiving) pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints…” (Amplification added.)
Beloved Family… we do not place our faith upon fallen Sin-corrupted humans or groups of humans. We do not place faith in temporary man-run political administrations. We place all of our faith, hope, trust and expectation upon Almighty God… and on the Perfection of His All-Sufficient Finished Works of Grace. His Infinite Heavenly Treasury of Mercy is our sole Source of Provision and Protection. He is all that we will ever need! Our Heavenly Father has unleashed His Vengeance and the Fury of His beloved Son’s Righteousness against all those satanic forces that dare defy Him and come against His Beloved Ones. God Himself is our Righteousness and our Covering Shield and our Invincible Fortress and Shepherd and Covenant Champion!
So we can afford to be patient and forgiving and merciful with all human victims of those dark forces… just like our Heavenly Father is patient, forgiving and merciful with us. We don’t need to look to or trust in or rely upon anything created. Because we always draw from Almighty God Himself, we can afford to love and bless all the other humans upon which He has showered His Mercy and Grace!
Matthew 24:42-51
“Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.
“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his Household TO GIVE THEM THEIR FOOD AT THE PROPER TIME? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
“But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the Master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” (Emphasis added.)
The Lord has been preparing His disciples to be good and faithful stewards of His New Covenant Treasury of Grace. And the time for them to begin to fulfill their duties and responsibilities is at hand. And this is why the powers of Darkness are in such a panic. This is why they are screeching and running back and forth in utter helpless terror, before the onslaught of Almighty God’s Infinite Goodness! The demonic powers know that we have been in training to resist them from our Messiah’s unassailable supernatural position and to proclaim His Truth, thereby exposing their shabby pathetic false fronts and lies.
So it is the terror of their own demonic masters, the unclean spirits of Darkness, as the approaching Light of God’s Invasion comes ever nearer to them, that their poor still-deceived human victims are now acting out before our eyes! The sense of doom and desperation that have filled the demonic realms is causing them to feel and act out that panic and desperation. And that is what is driving so many into the streets! The Serpent knows his time is running out and that his ‘wick’ is about to be forever extinguished! And the demonic panic he feels is what is stirring up the portions of this poor fallen world that still remain trapped in his deceptive coils.
So beloved, don’t be afraid of the poor humans that the Serpent still manages to deceive, delude, manipulate and victimize. Pity them! Cover them with God’s Compassion! Shine the Light of Yeshua’s Truth into the bowels of those demonic powers that still have them in their clutches. Don’t despise or attack the victims; come to their defense! Bore in on the spiritual powers that are enemies of us all… and fire Yeshua’s Glory and Truth into the depths of the Serpent’s deceit… Open fire on the Serpent and the spiritual Darkness that is created by his lies. Attack that Darkness with all of the Light that God’s overwhelming Presence is continually putting into you!
Genesis 15:1
“After these things the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a Shield to you; your Reward shall be very Great!”
Exodus 14:13-14
“But Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear! Stand by and see the Salvation (Yeshua) of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent!’”
Joshua 10:24-25
“When they brought these kings out to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, ‘Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings.’ So they came near and put their feet on their necks. Joshua then said to them, ‘Do not fear or be dismayed! Be strong and courageous, for thus the Lord will do to all your (demonic) enemies with whom you fight.’” (Amplification added.)
Psalm 112:6-8
“For he will never be shaken; the righteous will be remembered forever. He will not fear evil tidings; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is upheld, he will not fear, until he looks with satisfaction on his (demonic) adversaries.” (Amplification added.)
Proverbs 3:24-26
“When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes; for the Lord will be your Confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.”
Isaiah 11:2-4
“The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him (Messiah), the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and Strength, the Spirit of Knowledge and the Fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear; but with Righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with Fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the Rod of His mouth, and with the Breath of His lips He will slay the wicked!”
Jeremiah 10:6-8
“There is none like You, O Lord; You are Great, and Great is Your Name in Might. Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? Indeed it is Your due! For among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You. But they are altogether stupid and foolish in their discipline of delusion—their idol is wood!”
Matthew 10:25-27
“It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household! Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the Darkness, speak in the Light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.”
John 3:19-21
“This is the Judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the Darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the Truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God!” (Emphasis added.)
1 John 4:17-19
“By this, Love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in Love; but Perfect Love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in Love. We love, because He first loved us!” (Emphasis added.)
John 16:32-33
“Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have Peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD!” (Emphasis added.)
So beloved Family… I trust that after you begin to habitually soak your innermost being in the awesome Reassurances of the Eternal Victory that Yeshua has already won for us… and absorb into your innermost being what God feeds to you through the abundance of reassuring promises contained in His written Word… the Holy Spirit within you will empower you to experience the inexpressible Reality of God’s own Eternal Shalom!
May you always stand your Ground, anticipating the appearance of the Total Victory of your Lord and Master. Anticipate it with an outrageous spirit of confidence! Know that God’s Living Word (the one who lives and abides and works within you at all times) is MUCH, MUCH MORE to you… in you… and through you… than anything that would dare to try to oppose Him in this fallen temporary world!
For that reason… INTERCEDE! AND SERVE GOD… for the sake of the human victims of that demonic Darkness! Pray for all of Israel! Pray for those that are part of our nation… and all the other nations of this world. Pray for the newly elected president and those that will be part of his administration, and all other world leaders. Pray on behalf of the coming inaugural events… and pray over all of the enormous changes that are coming. And above all… intercede for those poor people that continue to be victimized by the lies and traps that are being laid for us all… by the insanely desperate powers of Darkness. Pray and stand and maintain your hold on your God-given Ground. Do it for the sake of God and His awesome Kingdom and its ever-expanding growth… no matter what may be happening around you!
This is what our Master did while He was atoning for us on the Cross. And this is what people like Stephen have done throughout the ages… they allowed the demonic forces to see how the Holy Spirit was empowering them to bask in, and reflect the Light of God. And there was nothing that their enemies could do to extinguish that Light! And that is the Spirit-empowered, Word-validated Light, that is always coming into you and radiating out from you as the Redeemer of the World continues to give of Himself to you… in you… through you… for all of us!
May New Covenant Israel, and all of the disciples of God’s glorious resurrected Word, be equipped and prepared to fulfill their God-assigned tasks and give their testimonies to Him with excellence and wholehearted devoted faithfulness… in the Arena of Testimony!
Isaiah 60:1-3
“Arise, shine for your Light has come, and the Glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, Darkness will cover the Earth and deep Darkness the peoples the Lord will rise upon you and His Glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your Light, and kings to the Brightness of your Rising!” (Emphasis added.)