Faith in Apocalypic Times

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. Isaiah 11:6

 ‘And I have  led  you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. Deut 29: 5.  Forgetting God’s promised provision for His children, fear is driving some faith-based groups to encourage Christians to stockpile food and supplies for catastrophic times ahead.  The practice is supposedly based on the example of Joseph in Egypt where God raised Joseph to power in Egypt (world)..to  deliver Israel from starvation during a seven-year famine sent from God.  Disasters such as the Haiti earthquake, New Orleans’ Katrina, mega floods,economic decline, global political unrest, snow storms of historical proportions,war and strife within nations is provoking much fear.   But are these realities reason for the Christian to fear???                                                                           

 According to  Bible prophecy, in the last days governments of  world will align for what scripture calls the time of Jacob’s Trouble or the time of the Great Tribulation (Matt 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.).  The stage, indeed, is being set by God…not Satan… for the last generations of man on earth. But Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Ro 8:35. But neither tribulation, famine, persecution, nor any other trouble…stops the hand of God from sustaining His children…whether in life or in death.  

 How easily we forget that God fed Israel with manna!  How easily we forget their clothes and shoes did not age during the forty years within wilderness! How easily we forget the fourth man who walked with the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace! How easily we forget Daniel’s night with the lions whose mouths God shut! How easily we forget the brazen serpent which, when looked upon by believers, saved those bitten by the fiery serpents! How easily we forget  ”The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.”   Matt 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?   32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:  for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  No matter  the  trouble and tribulation, children of God  have peace and safety in the midst of trouble…whether they live or whether they die.  God is faithful!!

                                                                                                                                                           Christians around the world, especially in China, continue to experience martyrdom for the sake of Christ.  Hebrews chapters eleven and twelve apply to the present generation  as surely as they apply to  earlier times.  The chapters remind that Christians are hated in the world. But their deaths happpen only by  the permission of God.  God took them from death to life…because the world was not worthy of their holy presence. God alone rules over life and death.  Matt 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

 

As current events become more turbulent, by God’s  permission….not by Lucifer’s power, Christians need to strengthen their senses (Faith) by reason of use…to put ‘belief’ into action…to become ‘doers’ of the Word…to come to the place of abiding in Christ.    God rules over the kingdom of men and sets over it the basest of men Daniel 4:17.  We do not place our faith in political parties…nor in men….but in God.  We know that ‘all things happen for good to them that love the Lord, that  travail  precedes birth, that faith and fear do not exist together, and that conflict among nations is foreordained by God and allowed by God.  So what reason is there to fear???  The Word forewarns about the perilous times we are experiencing.  As revealed in the Word, we are seeing ‘as it was in the days of Noe’. And clearly we are seeing the resurgence of Sodom! Yet,  all creation is  subject to God’ authority.  As He raised up and hardened Pharoah in order to demonstrate His power of deliverance to the children of Israel,  He continues to ‘put it in the hearts of men’ to carry out His purposes. Thus, fear has no basis.

 

 As we continue to see ‘spiritual wickedness in high places’ of world, national, and local rule…we are at peace knowing God is our rock, shield, deliverer, fortress, and strength…knowing that ‘He openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth,’….knowing that Christ did not come to ‘send peace on the earth…but a sword Mt 10:34′.   Faith takes God at His word and believes the following:    ‘These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace, In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world John 16:33.’  Also…’Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid John 14:27.’  Faith in apocalyptic times remembers  Daniel 2:34…’Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. ’   As man continues to live, breathe, and make choices according to the free will of each.…God has already seen to the end and worked His will accordingly.

 

 The dreaded apocalyptic Horsemen of Revelations chapter 6 scare the britches off  most Christians. But the horsemen are symbolic of  power  given from God (Job 39:19-25) .  They are pictures  from God showing the depths of evil perpetuated by Satan when God finally permits him to show himself …unrestrained .. to the world.  The apocalyptic events do not  mean that  Satan has been given authority above  God.  God forbid!!!!   All creation remains under the rule  of God….especially Satan and his son.. Antichrist!!!   GOD’S victory over all evil is recorded  in the White Horse and Rider of  Rev. 19:11.  

     ’And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.  13  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.  14  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.  15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.  16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.  17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;  18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.  19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.  20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.’

God promises His children, ‘Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Heb 13:5.’   The battle is over. GOD WON!!!  And for the children of God ’death is swallowed up in victory!’ The same God who delivered Israel from the hand of Pharoah and supernaturally sustained them for forty years in the wilderness…has not changed!!!  ‘And I have  led  you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. Deut 29:5.’   Wilderness is the place of abiding, of safety in the world but not of’ the world. Wilderness exists today for the children of God as it did outside of Egypt. It’s door is supernatural in the physical realm, in the world but not of the world, and can only be opened or closed by God.  (See related post, ‘Wilderness: God’s Unseen Place’).