Tag Archives: Satan

Christianity, Current events, doctrine, faith, Theology, Uncategorized

The Watcher on the Wall

Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.   He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.   But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. (Ezek 33:4-6)

Through the ages, armies have always kept a watch. From the watchtowers of old to walk watches today. Ask a historian about the watcher on the wall and you will be told that he had the most important job. It was the watchman’s duty look for any sign of the coming enemy. Once something was seen or heard, the watchman would sound the alarm for the rest of the troops. If he failed to do his duty, the fort fell and the men died.

As a watchman for Christ, it is duty to sound the alarm. In Israel, the shofar (ram’s horn) was the sound heard when the enemies of the Israelite nation approached. Today, we Christians (in the sense of bowing to Christ as King and Savior) are to blow the shofar. The enemy has not only approached, but has entered the gates of even the church.

Charles Spurgeon said that Satan is most effective in the pulpit. And when you look at mainline churches, of all denominations, this Satanic enemy is dressed as a pastor. And the pews are full of those that seek not Jesus as our Lord and God, but seek a false and weak Jesus that has nothing to do with the Jesus of Holy Scripture.

Churches have replaced doctrine with a watery feeling of acceptance. They have replaced hymns with songs that have no solid foundation in Christ. Hillsong has a worship song that sounds like a good song for the church. The tag line in it tells a different story. The tag is ‘ your fire fall down on us’. If you read scripture, fire falling from God is judgment.

Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;   And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. (Genesis 19:24-25)

And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.   Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.   And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.   Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. (2 Kings 1:10-14)

And when the Lord Jesus returns upon this earth, His judgment will come the same way as it came in the days of the patriarchs and prophets.

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,   And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.   And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. (Rev 20:7-9)

However, don’t be fooled. Satan, through his earthly representative, will also look to perform this to deceive those who don’t have a solid faith in Christ.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.   And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.   And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,   And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. (Rev 13:11-14)

As one sees, they have replaced worship with worldly concerts. Churches look like party venues. And the worst, men calling themselves preachers, apostles, prophets, and women who think they have the ability to preach and produce prophecy, lead people to hell not heaven. They preach acceptance of sin in the name of love. We are to bring the sinner to hear the Word of God. When the Holy Spirit convicts them to a point that they have to to turn to Christ, that person is not left living in a sinful state.

We want revival like the days of Wesley and Edwards. But they allow sin, false teaching, false teachers, and worldly songs into the house that belongs to God alone. You can’t pray for revival and sing like the world. You can’t preach revival and accept what God calls sin. You can’t love the person and say living in sin is okay (pre-martial relations, lgtbq, the idea that all paths lead to heaven, that all faiths are acceptable, etc).

You can’t have revival while preaching that you have the power to speak things into being (only one is the creator of all things). You can’t have revival when you preach life will be all wine and roses (Christ and the Apostles tell us that tribulation, trial, and even death is coming for those who truly believe).

Where is true revival? Look at Africa, the Middle East, the Far East. These places see true revival. These places see true conversion. These places see true worship in Christ. What brought that kind of revival? Was it worldly music in the church? Was it acceptance and love of sin? Was it belief in the word of faith movement or life/health/wealth? No. It is tribulation. Its is hardship that is building the muscle of faith. And it is still having faith in Christ when they are called to be martyrs. It is sing praises and evangelizing to a captive audience when they are thrown into prisons.

All of this weak and powerless type of western church is condemned in scripture.

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:   Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.   But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.   As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Gal 1:6-9)

Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.   Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. (Luke 6:22-23)

We are watchmen of the wall. It is our duty to sound the alarm. We do that knowing that we will not be liked. We do that knowing that we will be ‘canceled’. And eventually, we will do that as we face the ultimate testament of our faith. The ability to praise God alone while facing death.

One can hate or like me. I quit caring about those opinions. I would rather be judged by man than by God. Yes, I mess up and need to repent. Yes, I fail and need to seek God’s mercy and grace. You can call me a hypocrite. Join me, the church can use you too.

I am blowing the Shofar from the walls. The time of Christ’s coming is at hand. The day and time are not known by any but God alone. The signs of His approach are being seen.

Turn to Christ and from sin as if He is coming today. I’d rather you be upset with me all the way to Heaven (only through the blood of Jesus the Christ) than be happy with me as you enter the gates of hell.

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Christianity, Current events, faith

The Storms We Face

While watching a sermon out of Ireland on Jesus calming the storm on Galilee, it got me to thinking about the storms we deal with. So in this article, we will look at three types of storms we encounter as Christians. One point he made I’ll throw into a section later, it changed the way i looked at the storm on Galilee.

Natural Storms

The first is the easiest to talk about. These are the storms that occur naturally but bring fear with them. I was seven during the Blizzard of 1978. It shut down a lot of the country. I’ve also lived on the east cost (South Carolina) and my mother lived in Florida. So I feel for coastal areas when hurricanes go through. I’ve seen the devastation of floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, and wildfires. These occur often.

Scripture tells us that as the end days approach, these natural occurrences will increase.“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.All these are the beginning of sorrows.” (Matthew 24:7-8)

Now, before someone starts yelling ‘climate change’ rhetoric, let me say this. These patterns of increased weather related issues have been going on for ages. The magnetic poles shift, the earth cleanses itself, and there are other myriads of reasons these things happen. Carbon and methane from cars and cattle are not a huge part of the issue. Now we scream about global warming. In the 1970s, they were sure a new ice age was coming.

I’ll take the word of scripture over the talking head rhetoric and just say that it was already predicted. Christ shows the increase of natural disasters. We have seen recently about the Euphrates drying up. That was foretold by John on Patmos. “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof dried up, that the way of the kings of the east be prepared.” (Revelation 16:12)

God Given Storms

Another set of storms we deal with are those that God himself sends. These can be physical storms that seem like natural storms. The two best cases are seen in the stores of Noah and Jonah. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord...And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die...And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.” (Genesis 6:5-8,17; Genesis 7:10)

“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. (Jonah 1:3-4)

Both of these were storms created for a reason. So was the storm of fiery hail in Egypt. These are physical storms God used for a purpose. With Egypt, it was to finally lead His people Israel out of Egyptian bondage. For Noah’s day, it was to rid the world of evil. And in Jonah’s case, it was to put Jonah where he needed to be.

We also know that God sends or allows things to strengthen us. The storms of life faced by Job were allowed storms to show Satan that not all would look to self interest and disavow God, no matter what occurred. We face these as well.

The Storms of Satan

As we have seen from the above mention of Job, Satan is allowed to send storms into our lives. However, I truly thinks he can manipulate the weather as well. I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the storm of Galilee. I stated that a pastor made a statement that made see this story in a different way. This story is in three books of the gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke).“And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (John 4:35-41)

Anyone who has been in Sunday School or been to a good Sermon has heard of this story. And has garnered from it that Christ calms the storms in our lives. However, this pastor from today made a point I didn’t see before or even consider. That is this. That Satan caused the storm. And before you scoff, let me explain why I have a tendency to agree with him.

The pastor, when talking on this story said to look at the next set of verses. So, let’s look. “And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.” (Mark 5:1-13)

When you put the storm and the immediate placement of Jesus after it together, it makes a bigger picture. Was it just a storm on Galilee like any other? Or, was it Satan trying to stop Jesus and his disciples from accomplishing the banishment of demons?

Application of Scripture

So you can view the story of the storm in two ways. The traditional look at it. Christ calming the storms in our lives. Or you can view it for I what I now believe it to be. Satan brings storms in our lives to keep us from accomplishing what God has planned for us and our mission for Him.

We see the shirts, posters, and memes that have a knight with a sword in his hand and his head bowed. The wording is is two parts. The first part is of defeat. ‘The devil thought he had won when he saw me with my head bowed.’ The second part is the part of a warrior heading into battle.’Until I said AMEN.’

So when a storm comes, remember that it can be one of three reason. Natural, which you just prepare for and pray. God given, you pray and seek the answer to what God is trying to teach you. Or the third. Satan doesn’t want us to do the will o r fulfill the mission of God. And when these third one comes, are you the first part of the knight’s message or the second. Is your head bowed in defeat? Or is it the second, and you are preparing for battle against the enemy?

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