I always thought that at the end of time when we will stand before people in high places it will just be men that don’t believe in God. Yet when you study his word and how history has a tendency to repeat itself you can’t help but see, that at the end of time it will again be religious people that will be our enemies. To see what will come to pass in the future we need to study the past.
That day when we shall stand before men to give account for our faith, it will be religious people that will have stirred up people in the government to persecute the people of God. To persecute those who dare follow where the Shepherd leads them.
John 16 1 These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 3 And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. 4 But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.
Paul stood before a king but the king wasn’t his enemy, it was the religious people behind the king that had a problem. Will we be a Paul, that will stand there and be more concerned about lifting up the Son of God and saving the souls of our enemies then we are in saving our own life’s? Will we endure persecution as Paul did and stand up for a crucified Savior and his word, even if all hell breaks loose and the rulers of darkness fully unleash their wrath against all who dare stand on a thus says the Lord? Will we be among those that will persecute those that will rather die, then follow the crowd and be loyal to God?
In Revelations there is a verse that explains what will enrage the dragon against the women. The dragon is symbolic and means the power that will persecute the church at the end of time. The women is also symbolic and means church. In prophecy, a woman is a symbol of a church (Jeremiah 6:2). Revelations 20:2, describes the dragon.
Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
If we don’t quite understand this verse there’s another one in revelations. This verse is much clearer, it talks about the patience of the saints. It will need a endless patience that is only possible through the one that came down on mount Sinai in the midst of fire, who made the whole mountain quake greatly and wrote his commandments with his own hand on 2 tablets of stone. This same hand that wrote it on stone is the same hand that will strengthen and give us the patience we need to endure trial and the wrath that is to be unleashed. Is it any wonder that at the end of time we will be face to face with a power that will not allow a person to follow their conscience? Is it any wonder because at that time there will be no more religious freedom, the right to be obedient and to have a clear conscience before God will become quite challenging with a power that will not accept it.
Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
The 3 Hebrew men did not bow down to the kings demands because their conscience did not allow them to go against God’s commandments, to serve other gods and this is an illustration to how it will go for those that at the end of time will desire to have a clear conscience and will keep his commandments. The idol that was being built in Daniel’s day did not happen overnight but brick by brick it was built without many people realizing what the results would be. So it is now, slowly in the darkness without many people realizing it the stage is being set but we can with Daniel and his friends purpose in our hearts right now that we will not bow down and go along with the majority so that when the actual test comes we have the strength to stand as did these faithful men. I’m sure the men that helped build this idol that stood in the plain of Dura did not think that the time will come when there will be a life and death situation tied to it. So today we have many people that are watering down his 10 commandments not realizing that this will one day also have a life and death situation attached to it.
After all is said and done and we shall there stand before the tree of life we will be called blessed for doing his commandments because we now at last have a right to this tree of life and and we may enter in through the gates into that city prepared for us! Interesting to see that eternal life was robbed from Adam and Eve because they disobeyed God’s command and it’s interesting to see that this tree of life that they lost access to will one day be given to those that have been found worthy to reclaim eternal life by this tree of life, those who obey his commandments. Also interesting to see that the enemy convinced Adam and Eve that they can still have access to this tree even if they disobey God’s command and now he has convinced a great multitude that they can have access to this tree of life even if they knowingly disobey God’s commandments. He has convinced many but let us not miss the fact that he will make war against those that keep them. Let us not miss the fact that he has a great wrath against those that dare keep them. Do we think he is interested in us having access to this tree? His wrath says it all…
“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Revelation 22:14
The frightening part is most of the Christian world thinks that God’s law has become less then it was before Jesus died but John saw in vision how at the end of time there will be much controversy and rage against the people that can’t help but be obedient to the law of God for their love for God is a love that can’t bear to hurt him.
They show that their love is real and even if they have to die they will not hurt him by forsaking or being disobedient to his commandments. They will have the same power working within them as the reformers in the dark ages had, they rather laid down their own life then knowingly sin against God. This is what the power of the blood of Calvary can and will do when Christ dwells within a heart that has helplessly fallen in love with him. These examples in the past should show us what power is ours when the hand of the almighty is linked together with our hand.
John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
He manifests himself to those that have and keep his commandments.
John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
Paul followed the orders of the religious leaders and he found himself enraged at the people of God. Here we see the rage against those who keep the commandments of God and is it any surprise that at the end of time religious people will be zealous with persecuting these people as was religious Paul? He believed that he was truly doing the right thing but as we can read he was enraged and directly striking against his crucified Savior. We already know that it is prophesied that we will be put out of the synagogues (church) and that the time is coming that whoever kills you will think they are offering God service. Sounds pretty clear that these people are not atheists but rather workers in the church that think that they are doing God service. People that will cast out God’s people from the church and even kill God’s people as did Saul. Jesus tells us that this they will do because they have not KNOWN the Father nor me.
Would it be that hard to believe that the final test will be on how much we truly love God? Seeing he has shown us what a heart will do that’s in love with him. He shows us that such a heart will keep his commandments. We have either forsaken his commandments as did the people of Elijah’s days and many other people all the way down through the ages, or we follow them only half heartily thinking we can pick and choose which ones we follow as if they were not equally as essential. Much greater is the zeal and passion to follow the commands of men then there is to obey the commandments of God.
We keep his commandments because our Lord has removed the scales from our eyes and we have now accepted him into our hearts. He has now placed his Spirit within us and has CAUSED us to do his commandments. We now walk as he walked for he who is living within our hearts empowers us and causes us to walk as he walked when he was walking among men. Why would we walk any differently then he walked before his death? How do we even walk as he walked when we pick and choose which commandments we follow? He kept his father’s commandments and if he will manifest himself in our hearts, he will cause us to keep his commandments as he has kept his Fathers commandments. It is his Spirit dwelling within us that causes us to do them and if we want to go about it any other way, then it will not be accepted and neither will be have the power to do it for without him we can do nothing.
Ezekiel 36:27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
I pray that those of us that have been led to believe that his commandments are burdensome or not essential any longer, go to the cross of Calvary and there see our Savior hanging in his agonizing pain. May we there dwell under the shadow of that cross and fall on our knees and cry out to God, to give us a heart that no longer wants to cause him any pain, to change our desires and if we ask with all our hearts, our prayer shall be answered.
Without truly seeing what he did for us it is impossible to stop hurting him and we do not have that power for it needs a power that’s Devine, that’s supernatural. It will not be given to us if we don’t even see the importance to stop doing those things that killed him. He wants a glorious church, one that will not have a spot or wrinkle. He wants a church that will be holy and without blemish. Let us not lack faith that with him not all things are possible for he is a Father that desires to give us great things and may we not underestimate the almighty power that works in us, the power of the spotless lamb of God.
Ephesians 5:27“That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
This world desperately needs a people that will not be afraid to call sin by its right name, it needs a people that will stand for the right even if the majority will not be on their side. Dare we be a Daniel? Dare we stand alone? Caleb was told that the giants were stronger then they were and that they will not be able to go against them. But Caleb said let us go at once for we are WELL able to overcome it. Scripture says that these men brought an evil report, why was it an evil report? It was their unbelief of what can be done through God. So today there is an evil report amongst us that we are not able to overcome sin and keep his commandments. Behind this message is a spirit of unbelief, a unbelief of what can be done through the blood of the lamb. Let us be a Caleb and not believe this report but rather proclaim, we are WELL ABLE to overcome! They said we are like grasshoppers compared to them with absolutely no mention of how they will win the battle with God. So today many of us compare ourselves with the enemies might and we utterly FAIL to mention, that GREATER is he that is in me, then he that is in the world!
These very men that brought this evil report to the people, died by a plague before the Lord Numbers14:37. When everyone will have made their decision on whom they will follow at the end of time there will also be plagues that will be falling on those with a Spirit of unbelief. Also those people that believed their report, did not enter the promised land and so will it be with us when we listen to unbelief and believe it, we will fail to enter that heavenly Canaan. Revelation shows us how we will overcome this power, by the power of the blood of the lamb. The love for their lamb, being so much greater then the love they had for their very own life’s. Have we tasted the power, that is ours through the blood of our lamb?
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Revelation 12:11
And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:23
May we rather endure the wrath of Satan, then one day stand before the lambs wrath and hear him say, depart from me.