In this devotion you will identify the 3-kings who are building sieges to lockdown your witness for Jesus Christ. Discover the counter-attack of God’s Spirit to strengthening others with truth, love and perseverance in difficult times.
And Jesus began to say to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. 6 Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am [He]!’ and will mislead many.
Mark 13:5-6 (NASB)
…and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not go after them.
Luke 21:8b
And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. 6 You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. (Matthew 24:4-8)
These words of Jesus from the slopes of the Mount of Olives were given two days before His arrest and eventual crucifixion. He told His disciples Jerusalem would be destroyed in their generation. In 70 CE the Romans destroyed Jerusalem after a 4 year war with a siege. Tragically, many Jews fled to Masada and eventually committed a mass suicide rather than submit to the Roman yoke.
Is your life making things worse or better for people? Are you stirring people up toward strife, fear and panic? We must all find a way to stand strong and reach people with the love of Jesus in word and deed! We focus on bringing strength to our brethren. When someone spends time with you do they walk away filled with hope, courage, purpose and fresh resolve and joy to keep trusting and serving the Lord? Are they refreshed and healing or discouraged and beat up?
C.S. Lewis said Christianity “is a fighting religion”. We don’t fight with clubs, brass knuckles, swords, AK-47’s, M1A Abram tanks, cruise missiles, nuclear ballistic missiles etc….we fight the “good fight” with faith, hope, truth, grace, forgiveness and love! God’s forgiveness from the heart, based on the forgiveness Jesus has extended on the cross, can disarm a family member, a friend and a foe. Lewis was speaking of the ‘spiritual battle’ we are all in whether we acknowledge it or like it.
We are in a fox hole and we can play dead or stand up and charge into the fray with the standard of the gospel of Jesus Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension and His soon return. When somebody persecutes us, mocks us or rejects us, Jesus instructs us to “turn the other cheek”, but not ‘close our eyes’! We fight with the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Father, the Son and the Spirit. My father-in-law used to say, “we have a lot of fruits and nuts in the church but not enough wine and oil!”
This hour, this particular season, demands the mature fruit of the character of Jesus and the fresh oil of the Holy Spirit to live with extraordinary loving power, joyful perspective and peaceful courage. We need justice rolling down from the cross of Jesus bringing peace, unity and reconciliation with God and access to His throne of grace.
Jesus teaches we are in an asymmetrical war with the world, the flesh and the devil. We are being shot at from every direction. Things are increasingly getting out of whack, out of balance and society is crumbling around us. He is clearly warning His disciples things are going to get really dangerous spiritually, morally and physically. There are three main apocalyptic storms that are releasing their fury on the nations and God’s people. Like three-kings they sit on their thrones and seek to rule with deception, fear and urgency.
The Tyranny of Deception: Just because something has the name of Jesus attached to it does not make it true. Christian cults (Jehovah Witness, Mormons etc.) have emerged in unprecedented numbers in the last 100 years.
Like Eve before the serpent in the Garden of Eden… The first step of deception is distraction from truth. The second step of deception is a sound connection through lingering communication with the source of deception. The third and final step of deception is ingestion of the deception…you eat the lie…disobedience follows. People want to believe and follow something or someone.
The work of deception slithers from the den of Satan, the father of lies. The Deceiver hypnotically seduces humanity at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which is rooted in the soil of world wide social media, the international entertainment industry, many education systems, some religious institutions, and political platforms (only to name a few). Pick your poison! Like a mighty world wide Anaconda Python the spirit of deception slowly is suffocating humankind every time they inhale and exhale in the shade of knowledge bereft of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
The only true antidote to the tyranny of deception is the full disclosure of God in the Incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ. We must study, behold, worship and obey The Way, the Truth, and the Life to avoid the counterfeit one world quasi-political-economic-religion beast emerging in these last days.
The credulity of unbelief, a tendency to be too ready to believe that something is real or true, must yield to the Spirit of Truth and the standard of accurately taught biblical truth in love. Both the Scripture and the Holy Spirit are indispensable in making us wise to the faith and the salvation found only in Jesus Christ (2 Tim.3:15-17).
Naivety and gullibility must be refined from the church and replaced with discernment of spirits, grace and the Revelation of Jesus. The nobility of the Berean Christians, who searched the Scriptures to evaluate whether or not Paul’s teaching was accurate, is sorely needed in our day of a plerotha of teachers, prophets, so-called apostles parading their version of the gospel.
The Tyranny of Fear: Local, regional and international wars and potential wars are to be expected, “these things must be”. The response of the faithful apocalyptic-disciple is not to PANIC.
The Greek word choice of Jesus for “frightened” in both the Luke and the Matthew narrative are synonyms (ptoeo {Lk}; throes (Mt.). He did not use the typical word for fear/phobos which is a neutral emotion in our soul that can be positive or negative. Luke’s word for “frightened” implies becoming so agitated by fear that someone can psychologically detach from reality. Like a startled herd of animals they break into full stampede mode at the perception or reality of a predator.
Matthew’s language for “fear” is the intense emotional uproar that manifests in irrational behavior, insanity and/or fits of terror accompanied by screaming. The fear of death is the strongest foe we can face in this life.
The asymmetrical persuasive presence of war, famine, pandemics, and natural catastrophes feeding off one another combined with amoral or immoral political, religious and economic leaders can crush a society with fear, throwing it into confusion and mass deception.
The primary general driving this “fear” is the news media. The Mass Media is king propagating both deception and fear. The ‘prince of the power of the air’ waves is tactically attempting to dominate the hearts and minds of all flesh/humanity with the constant stream of half-truths, fear-mongering, conspiracies, promotion of lawlessness, filth, wickedness, fashion, ungodly desires etc.
The Tyranny of the Urgent: Delay is not denial. What seems “slow in coming” to us is actually God working to transform us and to save the lost. His patience, He is slow to anger, provides an area of repentance and transformation.
The world-powers and the world of false religion are constantly trying to get you to buy, sell, read, watch, listen and join something to make your life more comfortable, more informed, more relevant and in “the know”. . Many will use the name of Jesus to promote urgency without discernment of the times and the seasons of the Lord. A crisis will typically create a sense of urgency. In the crisis you will be strongly urged to think, act or behave in a certain way.
How to War against the king’s of deception, fear and urgency?
Build on the Unshakeable King of Truth: Submit yourself to the Truth of Jesus Christ. Love the truth and speak the truth in love. The more we know and experience the ways, thoughts and character of Jesus as revealed in the Gospels, the Epistles and the Revelation…the more we will be able to see the counterfeit truth. We defeat deception by devotion to Jesus. Another way is to avoid lying like the plague. There is not ‘greater joy’ than when we walk in obedience the Spirit of Truth and Grace revealed in the glorious.
Shake-off Fear and Embrace The King of Love: Submit to the King of Love. God is love! Perfect love drives fear away. In the Gethsemane, Peter picked up a sword and swung it in fear…Jesus picked up a severed ear and healed the servant to the high priest. The love of God in our hearts can create a safe place in the midst of strife and death. The Resurrection of Jesus trumps all advances of fear upon the nations, our cities, our churches, our families and our individual lives. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ…nothing.
Shake out the Salt of Trust in the King of All Perseverance: Resist the tyranny of the urgent with humility and trust in the Lord. Love endures all things (1 Cor.13). Take your emotions off the market place and cultivate a quiet place of solitude, quietness and stillness in the presence of the Most High God. Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7) During the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians, Isaiah said to king Hezehiah and the people of Jerusalem,
“ For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said,
“In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.”
But you were not willing,” (Isaiah 30:15)
This world is under siege by the spirit of the anti-Christ, disingenuous leaders, deception, irrational fear and the urgent herding of the masses toward destruction. HOWEVER, the Spirit of the Lord is raising a standard of the Truth, the Love and the Perseverance of Jesus Christ. We must get to this high-ground and stand strong in the strength and grace of God. We must lead others to this high ground of the Most High God and bring as many people with us who are doubting, discouraged and lost…
Are you willing to fight the good fight with “rest, repentance, quietness and trust”?
Very timely word!! Thank you for laboring in this field!!!