1. Daniel 11:36 (NIV)
[ The King Who Exalts Himself ] “The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place.
Ephesians 6:12
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
2 Timothy 3:1-13
3 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,4 Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. 9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their's also was. 10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, 11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
Fellow Doves,
I greet you one and all with an holy kiss! And hug XOX. I have been blessed and burdened with an obsessively analytical mind and perspective. Recently I began connecting some dots which the Lord brought into the light of Scripture and, I felt, directed me to share.
In short, I was pondering POTUS and his cavalier attitude and clear confidence in his ability to do as he pleases and the lack of push-back in the mainstream and lining this up with scripture, especially as everyone wrestles with his scriptural significance and possible identity. My spirit was immediately led to the verse, “he shall be successful in all that he does”. I felt the Holy Spirit instructing me that this does not mean he will be effective in all his stated tasks but rather successful in his true agendas and without opposition in the social arenas where one witnessed great opposition to similar efforts by his predecessors. I am guessing that this rings as true in your spirit in hearing it as it did in mine. I then went back and found that verse in Daniel and pondered ALL of it, and wow, what a Word, eh? The last few words, “for what has been determined must take place” are very encouraging to me, though hard to hear, for sure.
So, I was engaged into this lesson but felt in my spirit that it wasn’t done yet. I waited and listened. My mind contemplated the larger context of this teaching. Two other Scriptural truths bubbled to the top as well, and all of this in the context of pondering upon the patience of G-d as we await his return like a 6-year old on vacation in the car, “are we there YET?!” WHY will he be so successful? What is the larger picture and is it relevant to understanding things NOW? The two other Scriptural ideas that wandered into the room were that, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Powers and Principalities”, and the idea that in the end times the evil folks would wax more evil and the good folks more goodly (Godly) (2Tim 3-12-13 esp).
Again, my mind wove in another thread about the patience of G-d in relation to his coming and the Rapture of his Bride. In His Wisdom, He knows the identity of the LAST person to be born- again to fill the roster for the Rapture Train (I picture the Polar Express here, sorry). Think about this for a moment, perhaps picture a graph. As we approach the final day, the number of folks who will convert to Christianity will continue to decline and the intensity of the folks opposed to the things of G-d will continue to increase (2 Tim 3:1-13). Can you see the curves on the graph bending away from each other? Finally the last believer says “yes’ and it pops! That ‘last’ in will be the ‘first’ in and the Prince of THIS world will continue to reward his wicked ones so that “the oil and the wine” will “not be touched” during these times while the blessed ones suffer at their hands “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you “ (Jn15:20).
So, let me tie this all together. He will be “successful” in all he does (Dan 11:36) as the Powers and Principalities which indwell the unregenerate masses (Eph 6:12) will breed a spirit of acquiescence to his efforts in the public space. The working of this outcome will be so significant and odd/unprecedented, in context, that it will be noted on a grand scale (and is worthy of note in the Scripture). As the dynamic of Evangelism flat-lines, persecution will increase, power will flow to those opposed to the things of G-d and his kids (that’s us) and yet, the very presence of these things should cause us to REJOICE! (what?!) because it tells us the graph is about to go POP! Just as Jesus told us to do! Can you see it?! THIS is why we are commanded to rejoice when we see all these things BEGIN. Our Lord is saying, “Look at the chart, man, it’s about to go BANG!” As He awaits the last new birth before the Rapture, things will get very dicey as the Spirit of Ingathering completes His work. It only MAKES SENSE that persecution would increase, that us ALIENS here would seem more so and be treated as such and that the enemy of our souls would become more brazen and intense as he can surely see what is happening and is about to happen.
Summary: As we see him be unreasonably successful in his clearly unholy agenda and we cry out at our ineffectiveness in opposing this, remember that what has been determined must take place, that we wrestle not against in-laws and co-workers but Powers and Principalities and against THESE we are MORE than conquerors through Christ, our Lord. That we Fools will outshine those who are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the TRUTH and our Lord will use the Foolish to shame the wise of this world. Oh, and keep your overnight bag packed and handy….
YBIC, Jim