Enduring What Is Coming--Mental Preparation

I believe, over a year ago, that the United States experienced a large influx of demonic spirits.  I can't prove that, or explain why that might be--I can only tell you that I feel it.

Something has radically changed in America.  There is a spiritual darkness present here now, as the darkness that envelopes the land before a great storm.  I don't know whether or  not you have sensed it too.

I'm sharing a list of suggestions, to help you protect yourself from things that are to come: deception and spiritual forces of evil (in whatever form they may manifest in our physical world).

Scripture tells us that a people without understanding (of God's ways) will come to ruin.  Jesus says that we are as sheep among wolves, yet we should be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves. 

• There is another dimension-an unseen spiritual world-that is intricately tied in with everything that happens in our world   That world is eternal, ours is bound by time.  From that world, all dimensions are seen.  In our world, much that happens is not visible to us.  Our world is secondary to that world.  In that world, the story began--the story that never ends.  This world, as we know it, is coming to an end.  A new heavens and a new Earth will take its place, by the grace of God, because this one has been irreparably corrupted (no, I don't mean global warming).
• Everything really does boil down to the battle between good and evil   That is the whole reason 'our world' was even created.  It was chosen to be the theater for the great battle between good and evil.
• Don't be so sure that you know what is going on--nothing is as it seems  Many deceiving spirits are among us.  Theories abound.  Conspiracies abound.  A lot is going on, and a lot is being revealed.  God will show you what you need to know.  Be careful you don't get caught up in the confusion and start defining people as 'friends' or 'enemies' by whether or not they share your current beliefs about what is going on--they may just know more (or less) about it, than you.
• There is one force of good--spiritual forces of evil are attacking from many sides   There is only one force for good, and it is far more powerful than the force of evil.  However, the force of evil is desperate, and is attacking from every side.  Stand firm and wait for God's deliverance (no, not the 'Rapture') when you are besieged.  Have faith.  Resist evil and it will retreat.
• Get back to the basics   Don't let yourself be taken on a tangent by new and intriguing teachings. There is much deception swirling around us.  Go back to the basics that God teaches us in the Bible, and hold on tight.
• Search your heart often   Our hearts our desperately wicked, yet if we would judge ourselves, we'd all see ourselves as innocent.  God judges the intent of our hearts.  It is your heart that decides toward what direction to point your will.  It is your heart that falls into sin first.  None of us is righteous.  Our greatest enemy lies within us, and we are blind to its true condition, and to its power to lead us astray.
• Read your Bible & pray for understanding   The Bible is God's message to us, and is for God's people only--no one else can understand it.  But, the Holy Spirit must teach you what it means.  Equip yourself for the days ahead, by learning it now.
  
• Live by Biblical principles:  even if you don't understand them--they protect you   God's rules form a hedge around you--not a hedge to keep you in, but a hedge to keep evil out.
• Don't follow the crowd   Jesus told us that the path to destruction is wide and many people will go that way and, conversely, the way that leads to life is narrow, and few will find it.
• Don't be distracted by the trivial  God, and his people, are being attacked from every side.   Stay focused, there are many important issues right now--don't let the enemy distract you.
• Be very suspicious of 'miracles' and supernatural displays   Jesus promised that false messiahs and workers of miracles would abound in the latter days.  Don't be surprised, and don't be taken in, no matter how elaborate a 'miracle' may seem.  A lot can be done with money, technology, and demonic power.
• Deceptions come in all sizes  Don't think something is too big and powerful, or too little and unimportant, to be fake.
• Turn off your TV!   More than anything else, this is the tool that Satan uses to unify people in their beliefs and actions.  It's not about what shows you watch--it's the whole paradigm for life, the whole package of values and beliefs, that is presented over and over and over and over . . . molding you without you even being aware.
• Trust no one 100%   Sadly, unfortunately, we have come to this point.
• Be skeptical, think critically   Don't believe everything you see and hear, no matter  how often you see and hear it.  Don't believe everything you are told--no matter who tells you.
• Blindly follow no one   Think for yourself.  It is largely your choices that will determine the course of your life.  Everyone has an agenda.  As times get tougher, people will become more self protective, deceptive and manipulative--in a word: less trustworthy.
• Be responsible for yourself and your children   Start taking on the responsibilities God gave you, because soon you will have to fight tooth and nail for them.  Everyone's children will soon be taken away--because parental authority will be usurped by international treaty.  The irony is, you'll still have the expense and responsibility for raising them, they'll still live with you, but you will not have the freedom to choose what is in their best interest, or how you will raise or teach them.  (What do you think your family life will be like when your teenager realizes you have no legal authority over them?  Who will be running the show then?)
• Protect what is important to you   You are standing on the verge of losing everything that matters to you--and you don't even see it.  Trust me--you'd better wake up and stand up to protect what is important to you now, while you still can.  After that, you're going to have to decide which of your values and freedoms you are willing to die to hold onto, and which you'll learn to live without.
• Diligently protect your children!   The real battle is for the hearts and minds of your children.  If you don't believe me, look to history, look to other countries and their kidnapped child-soldiers, look to how our mandatory, liberal/progressive-run educational system is turning children against their parents.  'There is nothing new under the sun'--history repeats itself.  To see the future, examine the past.  Fight now, before it's too late!
• Teach your children   Equip your children now, to face the deceptions ahead of them.  Your window of opportunity is closing.  Not only will you not be legally able (your parental authority will be gone),  your children will be turned against you in the schools where they are spending 30 or more hours a week under intense pressure from people whose values are in direct opposition to your own--people who have already begun a revolution, against the values we represent.
• Think long and hard before surrendering your freedom for security  An enemy will say anything to get you to surrender--it's much easier on them than having to fight you!  They will even create a crisis, to convince you to surrender your freedom to them, in trade for the promise of peace and safety.
• Remember that what you agree to do voluntarily, will later become mandatory  Seems to be a basic principle in life.
• Remember that if you don't use self control, you will end up under someone else's control  Another seemingly basic principle in life.
• Don't be proud and arrogant  Pride comes before a fall.  It's pride and arrogance that got America into this mess.  It's pride and arrogance that God hates.
• Don't be sucked in by flattery  Oldest trick in the book.  It works most effectively on those with low self esteem, excessive pride and arrogance, or narcissism.

Deathbed Conversions

I think deathbed conversions are a crock.  I doubt the sincerity of someone who waits until their dying breath to call out to God for a pardon because suddenly they can see what lies ahead.  I think it's an insult to God and an abuse of His grace.

My attitude reminds me of someone else's:  a guy who had a brother that insisted on having his inheritance early, and then ran off and blew it partying and whoring around.  He was understandably irritated when, after hitting rock bottom,  his brother decided it was time to come home.  After all, he'd stayed home and had to pick up the slack. 

But, as I look at the father of these guys, I see a man who is running down the driveway to meet his son.  He welcomes him back and showers him with gifts.  It's not that he loves one of his sons more than the other--it's that this one was lost, but has come home.

So, if that's the way God feels (and I know it is, because Jesus told the story), then I'm just going to let it go.  If God isn't offended, then why should I be?

However, If you're that one who's lost, and you are planning to wait until you are on your deathbed to make that commitment, consider this: sin will harden your heart.  Every time you feel the Holy Spirit tugging at your heart and you pull away, your heart gets a little harder.  By the time you are on your deathbed (if you even get that chance), you may not be able to muster the repentance you need in order to be forgiven.

Beyond that, the stakes are even higher now!  God is sending a powerful delusion to those that refuse 'to love the truth and so be saved'.  He sends them this powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie of the Antichrist and be condemned (those who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness).

The time for taking God's grace for granted is nearly over.  Who knows. . . this may be YOUR last chance!

The Gates Of Hell Shall Not Prevail Against Us
It's Time To 'Shake The Dust Off'

He Sent A Rainbow Made of Corn

I spend a lot of time thanking God for small things, as I go through my day.  That's the way it is between Him and me.  I share with Him all the things in my life, big and little.

I'll be the first to confess--I can't sit down and have a scheduled prayer time.  I just can't do it.  I don't know why.  It's just a very negative thing for me, to sit still for a certain length of time and have to pray whether my heart and mind are there or not.

I prefer instead to try to stay in constant contact with God--like you would with a partner.  You may sit together in the same room and not talk--or you may have a great conversation!  But, either way, you are enveloped in the companionship you share, and you are well aware of the other's presence. 

When I read about Enoch (his story is just a short paragraph) one sentence came alive for me:

'Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.'

This verse made me hungry to live that way! I think I live as Enoch did--just conscious of, and present with God always.  It's as if we're taking a walk together.

So, anyhow, little things . . . and thankfulness.

I grew some corn this summer, to save some for seed and to save some to eat.  (I think it's a good time to put some food aside.)

As a teenager, I went to West Virginia to live, alone, deep in the heart of the state.  As it turned out (what was I thinking?!), I needed quite a bit of help to get by!.  You can't just pack your car and take off with your dog to live deep in the mountains without any money or supplies to speak of, with no 'know how', and not knowing a soul! It was a journey of faith, I guess.  Many kind folks helped me out and I learned a lot.  I lived a fairly 'old fashioned' life (no electricity, a well in the yard, later a wringer washer, etc.) and I learned a lot of post-Depression values.  So, psychologically, I know how it is to live 'a life of deprivation' as some would call it.

With that in mind, and believing such days are fast approaching, I had chosen some very pretty corn--'Oaxacan Green'.  I knew it would cheer me up, when food was scarce and I was limited to a rather 'boring' diet.  In fact, I would look forward to eating food made with cornmeal from my beautiful green corn!

Well, it has just gotten to where I can pick it and, as I started shucking the ears, I was quite surprised!  Very little of this corn actually looked like what I had planted!  Instead, I had been blessed with corn in my favorite colors-many shades of green, turquoise, blues and purple!  I thank God often for it, when I look at it hanging up to dry. I'm not calling it a miracle-- I know enough about plants to understand how these things happen.  But I am calling it a gift, because it happened for me and it made me happy.

And yesterday, the pièce de résistance: an ear of corn that seems to contain every shimmering color of a pastel rainbow!!  I think it is one of the most beautiful, natural things I have ever seen!  I thank God a lot for it too.  It's like He's telling me He was thinking of me, and He's going to be right there with me when things get tough!  When the time comes to eat that corn, I'll remember that!

It may seem like silly stuff,  but thankfulness is a powerful way to guard your heart! 

I have to believe that Satan was not thankful.  His sin was pride, but I think in order for someone to become prideful, thankfulness first makes an exit. 

The Bible tells us that in the last days, one of the characteristics of people will be that they are ungrateful.  It also talks about people who God 'gave over to a depraved mind', and lists many characteristics of their wickedness.  According to that passage, the root of it all was that ' . . . although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him . . .'

And, one of the repeated problems with the fledgling Nation of Israel, as they made their exodus from Egypt through the desert, was that they repeatedly turned to grumbling and murmuring.  This was ungratefulness put to words--and it really roiled God's temper.  He had just done awesome and amazing things for them, to release them from slavery--slavery!  It doesn't get much worse than that--and yet they were busy focusing on what they didn't have!

Granted, if we were in their shoes, we probably would too.  If we aren't disciplined in our minds and hearts, we all tend to do the same thing!!  It's nice to have their story as a lesson so that we don't.

I've been a Christian for more than 25 years now.  As a young Christian, struggling to overcome sinful behaviors, I remember a more mature Christian telling me that they didn't really struggle with things like that as much anymore--that, instead, they found themself struggling more with their attitudes.  I was kind of amazed, but now I can relate.

If you don't already know--what you DO comes from what you think.  What you spend your time thinking about will almost inevitably lead to your doing it someday. The battle over sin begins in your heart and mind.  That's the place to focus your energies on being disciplined.  That's the place where you need to let God live. 

Guard your heart!!  Thankfulness is a great way to begin!!