Tipping Point – Be Still!

Everybody knows we are at a tipping point – not just the United States, though the 2020 Election and its ongoing aftermath is the obvious focus right now. In fact, the whole world shares in the danger and uncertainty of this crucial time.

The War For The Earth

We are in the grip of a life-and-death struggle against the forces of evil, to put it bluntly. Satan is rising up to bring his long-term agenda to fruition. On what we see in the natural, he appears to have come perilously close to achieving that.

The CCP has for years been working to establish its power through the world – and, face it, world domination is the goal. The strategy at its simplest has been to build a web of control to entrap other nations via trade, labor, manufacturing deals, bribery, intimidation, re-education and the dissemination of Marxist doctrine and methodology.  All this is effectively aimed at acquiring compliant high-level administrators, and driving division between races and levels of society, in targeted countries.

In the last 12 months both Australia and New Zealand have been hit with the sting of CCP arrogance.  Unfortunately – for NZ at least and probably also Australia – China is now their biggest trade partner, and it relies on that factor to enforce its will against countries it trades with.

Check out CCP infiltration in UK banks, consulates and universities.

Where is God in all this? Frankly, if this regime has its way, God will be ‘annihilated’.   That, of course cannot happen, and it has not happened even in Marxist countries, but the Church has been harshly persecuted and driven underground.   Truly, Totalitarian regimes hate the idea of people having an object of worship greater than they are.

Christians over the centuries have watched the workings of God in the nations. God’s plan was to give man dominion in the earth. To that end, He gave them free will. God wants men to use that free will to work and be creative in relationship with Him.   Satan – who gained control of earth itself by a cheating lie – wants men to use that free will to come into subjection to him.

Sadly, there are many people today who are blind to the difference between the two.

The battle-lines are drawn.  The American people are in turmoil.  The Church is in turmoil.  What now?

There Is A Solution.

“Be Still!”   Calm down and take a deep breath.  Above all, “Be Still!”  Many times, God instructed His people to Be Still.  This is not a coincidence: He wants us to trust in Him and get out of His way.  He will work through whomsoever He chooses.

Read carefully and ponder on these things:

• “For I am the Lord, I do not change;
  Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” (Malachi 3:6)
• “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. “ (Hebrews 13:8)
• “Be still, and know that I am God;
  I will be exalted among the nations,
  I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10)
• “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. “ (Exodus 12:13)

And finally, this is how we should be praying, not “Father, please do this, Father, please do that!”  Stop trying to steer!  Just hand over the reins to Him and pray quite simply, along with Jesus:

• “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

To Draw All This Together

We know who wins this battle in the long run.  Again, scripture tells us this many times.  Just two examples:

• “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. “ (1 John 4)
• “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. “ (John 16:33)

Be sure of this: God did not create the United States on the basis of His freedoms and for His purposes, to have it fall into the hands of the enemy now. He knows where the evil in the US has come from, and He is not about to punish the nation as a whole for it. He is about to destroy that evil and its perpetrators – but, in His own timing, for His own glory, and to advance His plans for the future.

The public must take its hands off the wheel, step back, quit speculating, quit agitating, quit counting dates and times.  All these activities are signs of self pride, and a lack of faith.

We must step back in Humility and Trust.

And we must powerfully pray as Jesus instructed us to pray, “Thy Will Be Done!” as an act of humility and as an empowerment.

God does not NEED us, but He created us to co-labor with Him on this earth.  He wants our acquiescence and consent.

To the above information, I add the following advice re having wisdom to discern these US election times:

Check the latest: Troubling Foreign Ties Behind Voting Machines Used In US. Also Tucker on How China Owns Biden and has Deep Connections with Top Democrat Officials If the whole thing does not play, find it on YouTube.

Free yourself from deception by totally avoiding the following media outlets which have now become leftist propaganda machines – CNN, MSN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, even some parts of Fox. Also beware of The New York Times and The Washington Post – both have lost all commitment to independent reporting (USAGM video).

Instead, check out NewsWars, Newsmax, NTD News, The Epoch Times, One America News, Voice Of America, USAGM – for starters. Also Tierney Real News Network aggregation of news (a private site but WELL WORTH LOOKING AT).  I see their Facebook page has been closed down – that speaks for itself.

Be sure to look also at Deep Capture – classical liberal overview from a tech perspective.

In the light of new leftist censorship by YouTube, many patriot channels are moving to Rumble

Christian: Breaking Christian News, CBN, Victory Update

Warrior Girl 2

It isn’t easy to find Christian artworks of female warriors.  People who have bought my works on Redbubble tell me this. There are plenty of pagan, fighting females, yes – but Christian woman fighters are in short supply.

However, in the present day women, as well as men, have to take up their spiritual armor and do battle in the spiritual realms.  And great numbers do that. This was also true in the early days of the Christian church.

Some years ago, while minding the shop of the art co-operative I belonged to at the time, I sat down under inspiration of Paul in Ephesians and rattled off 6 designs of Christian warriors (2 of them female) – almost without thinking.

I have to admit to a very strong grounding in Classical warfare, going back to an interest that started when I was about 13 years of age, so the armor details and anatomy were no problem.  And of course when he wrote the passage in Ephesians, Paul lived in a world dominated by one of the greatest fighting forces of all time – the Roman army.

Warfare In The Spirit

I read a comment only yesterday on the website of one of today’s well-known prophetic voices,  that many people do not believe that spiritual warfare exists in the Bible.  Well, read on …

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with the belt of Truth, having put on the breastplate of Righteousness, having shod your feet with the sandals of the Gospel of Peace; above all, taking the shield of Faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of Salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”  (Ephesians 6: 13 -17)

That is one of the most specific descriptions of the details of spiritual warfare that exists.  Yes – it is straight from the New Testament.

As always, Paul was very precise about his descriptions.  By the time he wrote Ephesians, he was in prison in Rome.  As well as a lifetime of mixing with Roman soldiers ‘in the marketplace’. he had spent many days cooped up with them on the vessels that took him across some wild Mediterranean seas to his ultimate destination: Rome itself.

He must have given a great deal of thought to this explanation about how fully the Christian warrior is protected and empowered in the course of spiritual warfare by God’s defensive – and offensive – weaponry.

End Times Warfare

With the world as it is, we really need this battle armor now.   We were meant to use every part of it – every day.  Note that the sword of the spirit is the Word – and that is what Jesus used to counter the temptations of the enemy after His 40 day fast in the wilderness of Judea.

For my take on some criticism of Full Armor illustration technique, read my post at Battlefield Of The Mind 1. I wrote that in 2016 and sadly, it is even more true today than it was then.

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The Goads

“I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’

And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’” (Acts 26:13-18 KJV)

So began the momentous conversion from Saul the persecutor to Paul the apostle.

Saul was blind for 3 days. His release from blindness, both physical and spiritual, was brought about by his conversion through Ananias, a believer in the Damascus church that he had intended to destroy.

This would not have been the first encounter between Saul and Jesus. It is highly likely that Saul’s zeal in persecuting Christians was his attempt to overcome the first seeds of doubt in his own faith sown over months as the Jewish leaders heard and challenged Jesus’ teachings in the temple courtyard and the marketplace.

The brilliant argument put up by Stephen which led to his death by stoning drove yet another wedge into Saul’s belief in his faith.       And so he went on an all-out rampage to destroy Christ’s followers – even requesting a commission from the High Priest for this Damascus assignment to arrest Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial.

Jesus knew right well what state of mind Saul was in. Saul was in turmoil: the foundations of his faith, as a disciple of the great Jewish teacher Gamaliel, were under threat. Hence Christ’s reference to ‘kicking against the goads’ (pricks of conscience). Saul’s behavior in attacking the church was going to cause him greater pain even though he didn’t realize it. He wasn’t fighting against people, he was fighting against God.

He was the author of his own discomfort.

We bring about our own troubles by wrong beliefs and wrong behavior – the whole Bible (especially the Old Testament) is evidence of that. But God knows how to use evil to bring about good outcomes. Paul’s story is one of the greatest examples.

As one of the most highly educated men of his age, with dual citizenship and at least 3 languages, Paul became the main initiator of God’s purpose to bring Christianity to the Gentiles, and in the process wrote letters to the Gentile churches in Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, that form approx 28% of the New Testament.

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My Sheep Hear My Voice

Early morning at the most famous church in New Zealand, and certainly the most photographed. This is the Church of The Good Shepherd on the shores of Lake Tekapo in the wild mountain country of the McKenzie Basin in the South Island.

The church was built in 1935 by a number of families farming remote hill stations in the area, originally for their own use. It has a large window behind the altar that looks out on the mountains across the lake.  Clearly, those farmers saw the magnificent country around them as evidence of the Creator’s hand, and they wanted to be reminded of that as they came to worship.

Jesus (The Good Shepherd) said,  “The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
(John 10:2-4, 27)

He also said (at John 10:11), “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

And that is exactly what He did.

Even now, the world has not come to a full realization of what that means.

He saved every one of those who will follow Him once and for all by paying the ultimate price on the cross.  That offer of salvation is still open, and as spiritual beings we all have an eternity of life ahead of us.  How are we planning to spend it?

So many still rush blindly to destruction, thinking only of the first death, the death of the body.  Thinking, “Once that’s over, it’s all over.  May as well get the max out of this life.”  How foolish that is.  For there still remains the second death, which is the lake of fire where all who have chosen to separate themselves from God by their sin and ungodly living will dwell for eternity.

Jesus made it clear, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep…      I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”  (John 10:7, 9)

But He will not allow sin and all its ramifications into the New Heaven and the New Earth.  Once was enough.

Think on it.

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Prayer For Help

Who among us has not been in this situation?

Who has not felt themselves dwelling among the tents of the wicked?  In a strange land?  Surrounded by enmity to which there is seemingly no response?

David the mighty king and quintessential warrior knew this so well.  And while his fame lay in his mastery of the slingshot and the sword, he knew the most effective weapons, and in fact the only truly effective weapons, are spiritual:

“I call on the Lord in my distress,
and He answers me.
Save me, Lord,
from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
What will he do to you,
and what more besides,
you deceitful tongue?
He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom bush.
Woe to me that I dwell in Meshek,
that I live among the tents of Kedar!
Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
I am for peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.”

Psalm 120.

Meshek –  a son of Japheth, the people descended from him, and their land (Russia – Scythia).
Kedar – a son of Ishmael, the people descended from him, and their land (Arabian Desert).

Leave vengeance to the Lord.  It is His prerogative, not yours.  If you are truly walking with Him, He will take care of you and your reputation.

Sometimes the hardest thing of all is to say with Paul, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)    This is not an empty phrase, and it helps to remember that the desire for revenge is one of satan’s favorite mind controls.  With it, he keeps people on endless treadmills of bitterness and retaliation.

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Free Indeed

This post carries a friendly message to the American people : “Remember your Beginnings!  Remember your heritage and the values it was founded on!”

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  (John 8: 31-36)

Acrylic painting collage.

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