A Day of War – Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

June 23, 2012

The Church has adjusted quite well to the knowledge and reality of how God has led us into a final phase of this end-time, into the ‘day of the Lord’, the year of God’s vengeance, of the Eternal's wrath upon this world for her ways over the past 6,000 years...and all ‘for the recompense (the retribution) of the cause of Zion’.

Those verses that we have quoted here in past sermons and on the postings, they really are inspiring when you realize why God is doing what He’s doing and why He says what He says.  And after 6,000 years this is where we finally find ourselves and we get to live this; and it isn’t always enjoyable, it isn’t always exciting, but it is exciting spiritually if we understand what God is doing.  We were just talking before services here; we thought that we were going to get by rather easily coming up to May 26th and things going as smoothly as they were in the world, yet believing as we did to the very end that if God is going to put everything into a short period of time, so be it.  And that was a blessing on the side, in that respect for us, for not having to suffer very much.

But as we look at the world today and see what’s happening out there (and I’m going to read some news articles here in a moment), it isn’t going to be that easy...and this isn’t going to be an easy time.  We need to understand that.  We need to get a hold of that, get a grasp of that in our thinking and in our minds because we’re going to experience, we’re going to see things that aren’t going to be pleasant.  That’s a part of God’s purpose for what He’s doing in this world at the end-time anyway, especially because we understand what it says over and over again about the ‘day of the Lord’, the ‘day of God’s vengeance’.

And again, what God is doing ‘for the recompense’, the retribution, ‘for the cause of Zion’, for that which is about the 144,000, those who have lived through 6,000 years and also where we are right now.  We are Zion.  We are, as Mr. Armstrong used to talk about, the Kingdom of God in embryo, and God loves His Church.  God has a desire to His Church in a very powerful way.  We get to experience a transition of time from the end of 6,000 years into a millennial period and that’s what this is so very much about.  Again, ‘because of Zion’, for Zion, for His people through time, and especially at this time.

There has been a lot of suffering, much suffering, at the hands of this world and God is going to bring that suffering to an end for His people...and we need to understand we are at war!  This is a time of war!  That’s what this year is all about.  It’s already begun and you need to be aware of that in your own lives.  It’s already begun and you need to understand what that means, because candidly, I don’t feel that we really do to the depth that we need to.  That’s what God has inspired to bring out here in the last couple of weeks, especially in this past week.  And by the way, that’s the title of this sermon today, A Day of War - [Part 1].

So, it would be wise if all of you went back and devoured the sermons given since we started moving into this final ‘day’.  It would be wise to go back and more fully digest the postings since this has all begun.  And again, the reason for this is because God is revealing that we do not fully grasp the urgency, the danger, the seriousness of the time we live in.

We Are At War.  And you need to see it in that light!  The world is building up to a different kind of war, a physical war, a World War, but we are in a spiritual war and you need to be ever so aware of that because there has been so much, again, happen to bring that to the surface so that we can grasp and comprehend what’s taking place.

I’m going to read some news articles here.  If you don’t grasp the magnitude of what we’ve entered into and that this is a time of war, it’s just too easy to become a casualty.  And candidly, over the last week here, there have been more casualties.  I hate to see that; it hurts.  But everybody has choices to make and you’re going to be tried.  We’ve heard this in the past, and we thought we’d had this rather easy, all the way up to the 26th but it’s not going to be that way.  We’ve got battles to fight, we truly do.

Here are just a few articles.  Again, we’ve been doing this as we’ve been going along because (and I hope we understand the reason why), I hope we have eyes to see – this world has heated up.  The things that are taking place out there are heating up and we need to be aware of that; not only because of what’s happening physically and leading into a physical World War, but what’s happening to us in the meantime that’s so important right now to grasp and comprehend, what we entered into on the 27th.

Financial Times: World

Russia Prepares to Send Warships to Syria[1]

Last updated: June 18, 2012

By Charles Clover in Moscow and Abigail Fielding-Smith in Beirut

Russia has announced it is readying two warships to sail to Syria to protect Russian citizens, in a sign that it is taking precautions against a worsening of the security situation there.

And that isn’t all their motive, but that’s what they’re saying at this point.  Another one here, it says...

DEBKAfile

Russia, China, Iran plan to stage in Syria biggest Mid-East Maneuver[2]

Special Report:  June 18, 2012

Middle East military tensions around Syria shot up again Monday, June 18, with the news reported by the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars that a joint Russian-Chinese-Iranian exercise is to take place in Syria.  It was described as “the biggest of its kind ever staged in the Middle East”...

Now, this might not all be true, but partially it is true.  There are things that they are doing to protect their interest; whether it goes to this point or not, we really don’t know yet.  It says...

...with 90,000 personnel, 400 air planes and 900 tanks taking part.

As part of its preparations, Beijing is reported to have asked Egyptian authorities to permit the passage through the Suez Canal in late June of 12 naval ships heading for the Syrian port of Tartus, where Moscow maintains a naval and marine base.

Farther down in the article it talks about what’s taking place and what they’re concerned about over in that part of the world, about Syria, Iran, China, and Russia, and they’re talking about the U.S. and the European and Arab air military intervention in Syria that they’re trying to push back, push away, trying to fight against in whatever way they can until they’re prepared.  But it goes on to say...

A large-scale Russian and Chinese military presence in the embattled country would expect to deter the United States from leading a military operation against Bashar Assad and his regime.

No date was attached to the report but the exercise may possibly take place before the end of the month.

Another one here on the 22nd.

Associated Press

Russia warns against issuing ultimatums against Iran[3]

By Vladimir Isachenkov

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's foreign minister said Friday that Iran shouldn't face threats over its nuclear program and that a quick settlement of the standoff over it isn't realistic.

So they’re pushing for talks, more talks.  They’re trying to push Israel and the U.S. back from any intervention in some of these areas.  Another one here:

Huffington Post

Syria confirms shooting down Turkish Warplane[4]

Reuters | Posted: 06/22/2012

Did you all hear about that?  It only takes one little incident in the world to spark something major – this isn’t it, but it could lead into it.  It only takes one thing in the world.  Another one here:

Financial Times

Greece’s ailing economy grinds to a halt[5]

By Joshua Chaffin in Athens  | Last updated: June 19, 2012

An incredible article here on the 19th where it goes through and talks about how people are living, what’s actually happened to them, even though they have some of these bailout programs and things that are taking place, the lives of people over there, the businesses, they’re talking about how things have come to a total standstill in so many areas.  There is no progress.  Another one here:

The Telegraph

Debt crisis: prepare for Lehmans re-run, Bank official warns, as leaders poised to bail out Spain and Italy[6]

By Philip Aldrick, Economics Editor, and Robert Winnett, Political Editor, in Los Cabos, Mexico

20 Jun 2012

....

Without easy access to liquidity, markets could seize in a re-run of the credit crunch after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, he warned.

I’m going to go on to some other articles here.

Spiegel Online | International

Frayed Tempers at G-20; Euro-Zone Leaders Tired of Criticism from Abroad[7]

By Carsten Volkery in Los Cabos, Mexico

06/19/2012

If you read news in the light of what we understand and you understand that Europe is having a struggle to hold onto what it has, if you can see some of the things taking place and an attitude between Europe and the United States, as an example, those things are being put into place more and more.  I remember a couple years ago talking about China and Russia and seeing how those things were coming into play.  This here is indeed an incredible thing that’s taking place here.  They’re getting, candidly, sick and tired of some of the things taking place between the United States – or what they’re saying.

Another one here;

Spiegel Online

The World from Berlin: 'The US Is Hypocritical when It Lectures Europe'[8]

06/20/2012

So again, they’re ratcheting up the rhetoric, their feelings, their sentiment; they’re tired of being told how they should do it, what they should do.  They have their own things they’re trying to work out and the relationship there, like at the G-20, it’s getting worse and worse.  It goes on to say here in this article.

The closing group photos from the G-20 meeting in Mexico show the world's top leaders smiling in a show of unity. But German observers say the happy family shots belie the serious problems the world economy faces -- and the mudslinging that went on during the summit.

It's another wait-and-see game for the euro, as world leaders wait for euro leaders -- in particular German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- to come up with further proposals to shore up the common currency. Though there are lots of other economic problems in the world -- including the expanding US debt and trade barriers that have yet to fall -- the leaders of the industrialized world and key developing countries managed to concentrate nearly exclusively on the euro crisis during the G-20 summit at the Mexican resort of Los Cabos.

And you know, if they can do that, look at Europe, then it takes eyes away from their own problems.  It goes on to say....

....

European leaders were also annoyed that their problems consistently grab the headlines, while many other countries have equally serious issues to deal with. They were quick to point out the financial crisis did not start in Europe, but in the United States.

Another one here:

Huffington Post

Moody’s Downgrades Global banks[9]

By Mark Gongloff | Posted 06/21/2012

Moody's just took a hatchet to the credit ratings of the biggest global banks.

The rating agency on Thursday cut its rating for banks in the U.S., U.K. and Europe -- 15 in all, including all of the "too big to fail" banks in the U.S.

....

Bank of America's debt rating was cut by one notch. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase each took a two-notch downgrade.

Morgan Stanley's rating, meanwhile, was also cut by two notches, to Baa1 from A2 -- a break for the bank. Moody's had warned in February that it could cut Morgan Stanley by up to three notches. Since then, the bank has vigorously contested the impending downgrade, pointing to capital it has raised and risks it has shed in the years since the financial crisis.

....

Also getting the downgrade knife were Credit Suisse, Barclays, HSBC and several other British and European banks.

Then another article talks about how that Credit Suisse was cut by three levels as Moody downgrades banks.  And what was amazing was to watch the stock market and different ones talk about how they’re just sloughing it off, that this was all in the works and they planned for this for a long time.  But there is more to the story than that that they’re not really discussing.  Another one:

The Guardian

Mario Monti: we have a week to save the eurozone[10]

John Hooper in Rome | Friday 22 June 2012

Italian prime minister warns that there is no room for failure in talks between single currency's big four countries

Italy's Prime Minister, Mario Monti, has warned of the apocalyptic consequences of failure at next week's summit of EU leaders, outlining a potential death spiral that could threaten the political and economic future of Europe.

And then going back a few weeks, this setting the stage for some things to come.  It says....

The Guardian

Eurocrisis: United States of Europe may be the only way to save the Euro[11]

Ian Traynor, Europe editor | Monday 4 June 2012

With France and Germany at odds, and events moving quickly, a strategy for fiscal and political union is being drawn up.

It is a measure of the speed at which the politics of the euro crisis is changing.

So again, candidly, since the 27th these things are happening faster and faster and faster.  And then I wanted to read this one here.  This one is out of The Telegraph in Great Britain.

The Telegraph: UK

Debt crisis: as it happened June 22, 2012[12]

By Matthew Sparkes, Rachel Cooper

22 June 2012

....

13.52 An update from Bruno Waterfield in Luxembourg, on the possible introduction of a financial transaction tax:

Austria has asked for nine countries to join it in "enhanced cooperation" to introduce a financial transaction tax.

Maria Fekter insisted that without a tax the Austrian parliament would not vote for the ESM, euro bailout fund.

That would mean curtains for the euro so you can be sure she has eight allies.

Germany immediately joined the coalition of the willing - it has a similar situation with the ESM.

....

EU rules allow a minimum of nine countries to press ahead with deeper integration.

And then this one here:

Press Europe

10 Countries for a United States of Europe[13]

20 June 2012 | Die Presse

Awesome!  To read something like this in your headlines?  Absolutely incredible!  ...and the speed of which it’s happening.  It says....

Ten EU foreign ministers participating in a “study group for the future of Europe” aim to exert pressure to transform the EU into a federation along the lines of the US. Together they have prepared what the front-page headline in Die Presse describes as a “Plan for transformation into a European state.” On 19 June, the ten ministers* presented an initial report to the EU officials who will likely benefit the most from the initiative....

The “study group for the future” initiated by Germany's Guido Westerwelle, which does not currently include an official French representative, proposes to put an end to the dominance of national government leaders and give greater authority to the European Commission – in particular the European Commission president, who will be elected by universal suffrage and granted the right to form a “governmental team”, making him or her the most powerful politician in Europe.

The group also recommends replacing European councils of ministers and heads of state with a chamber “of states” in the European parliament.

Anyway, it goes on to talk about some of the process here.  It says:

National competencies, most notably the management of borders, defence and public spending will be transferred to the federation, “making membership of the euro irreversible.”

And then toward the end it says....

...But everyone who wants to safeguard the euro, the single market and political stability, while preventing a widening wealth gap between the North and the South and a reinforcement of nationalist trends will ultimately accept that it is the best way forward.

And then it gives these people from the different nations here:

* Foreign ministers from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

The point is, France is in some of these, France is out of these, different ones, but they’re talking about they have to have at least nine and it keeps coming up more and more here, nine – and actually ten being spoken of.  So it’s going to be interesting to see how all this comes together.

But that’s where we live.  These things didn’t happen ahead of time back several months ago when we were kind of looking for something to materialize and wondering how it could come about.  But now they’re in front of us.

So, backing up here a little bit.  That’s a physical thing that’s taking place, that’s forming, but we need to consider the realities of what’s in front of us right now, of where we are in time and what that means to each one of us.  If you do not grasp the magnitude of the war that’s going on right now then you’ll not be on guard, not remotely to the degree you should be.  You’ll not be fighting as you should be and you will not even see the enemy when he’s right in front of you.

The kind of war I’m describing, the ambush, the trap, the sneak attack, is the most common strategy that he uses, and so often people, people in God’s own Church, don’t see it coming.

Let’s turn over to Ephesians 6.  These things mean more today than at any other time.  They’re always important for God’s people, they always have been through time, but hopefully will mean a lot more because of where we are right now.

Ephesians 6:10 - Finally, my brethren, be/become strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  That’s our strength.  Just like I’ve repeated over and over again in 1st John, the scripture about ‘Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world’.  But He’s not going to be in you if you’re not seeking Him out, if you’re not staying close to Him, if you’re not crying out to Him.  It’s something that each person has to do in a relationship with God, but candidly, what I’ve seen taking place in the last three weeks is people turning inward.

I’ve seen more and more of that in the Church of God taking place because we came up to a point in time where, yes, it was hard, yes, it’s difficult to change our thinking, yes, we made decisions based on, financial decisions and all kinds of decisions based on May 27th, and yet God said, “No, this isn’t it; there’s more.”  And then He begins to show us why and begins to help us to understand what He is doing, that there is a great war.  And I’ve mentioned over and over and over again in sermons that that’s what most of this is all about, why certain things are given to us when they are – because there is a spiritual war that’s going on out there that’s being fought.  And we don’t even see it as a whole; we experience it from time to time, we are shocked into a reality of having to address it from time to time because it sometimes gets the best of us.

But brethren, I’ll tell you, it concerns me in a great way, it truly does, different things I’ve been hearing, different things I’ve been seeing, different things I’ve talked to different ones about, different emails and so forth, different things coming in from different areas.  As I mentioned from the very beginning – the Church has adjusted quite well to the fact that there is a change... but it’s carried with it (how can I put it...), it’s carried with it devastation as well.  It’s carried with it that which because of where we are, that if you’re not careful, because of what we’re going into, a person can begin to turn inward, a person can begin to be consumed by their own thoughts about another year, another eleven months now, financial things.  After a while that’s going to become the least of your worries, it truly is.  We’re going to share some things with this world that aren’t going to be pleasant this time around.

And so we have to go forward, understanding that this is a spiritual war at the beginning, and it’ll be a spiritual war for a long time except that we’re going to be given help and God’s going to begin to intervene ‘because of the cause of Zion’, for Zion, for us, for the Church and for all the people who are scattered out there.  And when He does that incredible things are going to begin happening on a spiritual plane, but the physical part, the war that goes on there, it’s going to continue on until it gets worse and worse and worse, and it’s going to carry with it hardship.  It’s not going to be easy.  So, don’t let things distract you, don’t let anything of a normal human nature distract you where you turn inward and begin to think about self and what ‘I’m’ going through, because that’s a trap.  That’s a trap that Satan would like to get us to do, to look at our problems, to look at ‘my’ problems, to look at ‘woe is me’, or ‘how am I going to address this’, or ‘how am I going to handle that’.  Look to God.  Just keep looking to God, asking God for help to intervene, to fight battles for you, because candidly, we’re in a time when these battles are greater than what you are...and that’s what so much of this is about.

Let God fight your battles!  You’ve got to work, you’ve got to do what you can do on your part to draw close to God, to stay close to God, but when it’s all said and done we’re in God’s hands. You are in God’s hands, your life is in God’s hands, and you’re going to have to rely on that more and more and more as you go forward.

And so it says here, Finally, my brethren, become strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Because that’s our strength.  You know, there was a time in the Church of God, and there’s still a lot of scattered people out there who still believe the same thing about Petra, a place of safety, that when things really got bad – and at that time the understanding was for a full 3½ years – that God’s people would be taken to a place over in the country of Jordan to a literal physical place called Petra.  A lot of you have seen pictures of it and so forth, and it was very physical because that’s how we think.  In time God revealed to the Church it’s not a physical Petra, it is the Petra spoken of throughout the Bible, God Almighty.  He is our rock.  He is the one we look to.  He is the one who strengthens us.  He is the one who protects us.  It’s an individual thing in a relationship with God.  It’s not a physical location, that somehow we’re going to be taken way, as some talk about a rapture, and they’re going to be taken up into heaven while everything bad happens in the world.  That’s not what it’s about!  Or that God’s Church is going to be whisked away somehow to a location in some other part of the world and taken care of for a period of time.  That’s not what it’s all about.  It’s about a relationship with God and living by faith and looking to God as our defence, as our high tower, as our strength, as our refuge, as our power, as our might, as our (as I mentioned) high tower, or rock, as the word means, having to do with a rock.

Going on here, Put on the whole armour of God, it comes from God.  The ability to stand! It’s about standing!  When you put on the whole armour of God you know what you do?  You go to war!  This is a description of a spiritual warfare and it’s talking about standing in a war. You can think of different things, whatever people have worn, perhaps a knight and all the armour he puts on and the things that are there to go into war.  He puts them on and he stands firm in his place with the purpose of going into war to fight.  And that’s the kind of mentality right now we need in God’s Church more than ever before, that you are in a war!  And if we don’t grasp that it’s going to get you!  It’s going to hurt you!  And the ability to respond, to rebound from some of those things sometimes... candidly the purpose of this sermon today is to encourage everyone that you have got to stand before God makes you to stand in the sight of others.

We started out this battle this way. We started talking about some of those things.  A part of the message has been to stand firm, to stand fast so that God will make us to stand.  We’ve got to stand in God, and a part of that has to do with a willingness on our part to follow the admonition that God gives to us about being in a war.

It’s just like the Israelites, they marched into war, sometimes just playing musical instruments.  I read that example, (I believe it was in Chronicles there), where they were singing, they were playing musical instruments and they got there and the enemy, tens of thousands, had killed each other.  God fought the battle for them but they marched in to it in the way God said to do it and they were ready to do their part; and that’s the attitude of mind we have to have, a willingness to fight, an attitude of fighting, recognizing this is a war, it is a spiritual warfare, and we have our part in it but understanding all the while that God has to do it.  That’s the mentality.  Mr. Armstrong used to talk a lot about that, to do it as if you’re doing it all yourself understanding all the time it’s God in you, it’s God with you that’s doing it, that’s giving you the ability to fight the fight.

And so it says here, Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the... you know what that word ‘wiles’ means in the Old King James – ‘strategies’...strategies of the devil.  He has a lot of them.  He has a lot of them to get at people, to get at you, he truly does.  And you have to be alert and on guard understanding that right now more than ever he is trying to get at you, because this is the time where we’re being tried, this is the time where we have the opportunity to respond to the messages God’s giving us, to stand firm, to stand fast, to do exactly what it says here in Ephesians.  And then as we do this God will intervene and make us to stand.  It’s an individual thing with each one of us.  God will make us to stand.  This isn’t the time to lose out.

I hurt every time I hear of somebody else who’s given up.  I heard of someone else this morning over in Europe; just gave up, just quit, not fighting the fight anymore.  And I hope that they can be jarred at some point, I hope that everyone that’s done this can be jarred.  There are others that have come dangerously close.  I’ve been encouraged by seeing some turn around, because my experience in times past is that people don’t turn around so quickly when they go as far as some have.

...that you may be able to stand against the strategies of the devil – and so it’s an individual thing, if we do this, if we take seriously, if we grasp where we are, if we’re sobered to the core of our being far beyond what we experienced on the Last Great Day sermon.  I’m talking about something far beyond that experience that has to be so strong in our minds that we grasp the reality of the danger of what we’re going through.

And we can all look at our individual lives and perhaps see our response to a change that’s been taking place.  It’s not easy, but this way of life was not meant to be easy, it truly wasn’t, especially because of what God is offering to mould and fashion within us.  If you’re going to receive, which you will if you stand firm and stand fast in all of this, is an experience, is an opportunity to share in the glory of God Almighty.  I hope we understand that.  When God makes you to stand in the sight of others, just the 63,000 alone, to whatever degree you come across any of them at some point in time here, different ones, let alone things that begin to happen in the world, if He makes you to stand in their sight that’s receiving something from God that you can’t take to yourself in thinking you’re great...but you have to have a humble spirit...but to understand this is what God is going to let you share in.

I hope you understand the magnitude of what that means because it’s awesome, it truly is, of what God is preparing to share with us.  But we’ve got to be able to handle it spiritually, we truly do, and this is a part of the preparation for that.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, it’s not a physical war; we know a physical war is coming but we wrestle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world; demons, Satan himself, because of their broadcastings.  He is so stirred up right now and you don’t really grasp the magnitude of his power.  And sometimes by the time a person experiences that it’s too late. That’s why we have to be sobered, that’s why we have to be a little afraid. A little fear is good, truly is.  Not without hope, not without understanding, but that kind of soberness of mind to fear what it means if you don’t put on the whole armour of God, if you don’t respond in the way you need to.

...against rulers of the darkness of the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  Wicked spirits, that’s what it’s talking about.  It’s repeating some of the same things over and over again here in different ways because it’s about a spirit realm, a spirit realm that broadcasts at God’s people and seeks to tear people down and seeks to get you sidetracked, seeks to get your eyes off of the focus you should have on to something else, and you know what that something else is?  Very carnal, very physical instead of spiritual.

It says, Wherefore take/receive unto you, in other words...  I love these words sometimes that you look at in the Greek language.  In other words, you’re to take it, you’re to take hold of it; you’re to take something that God is offering to you through what He’s saying here.  He’s offering it to you but it’s something you must receive as well from God, it’s something you must have a desire to receive, that God is offering it, to recognize God is offering it, but He wants you to take it.  That means you have a part in reaching out and grabbing a hold of it then.  That’s how you’re able to receive it into your life.

Therefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, now, this is written in a context of time, when you’re attacked that will be your evil day.  ...‘in the evil day’, when they attack you, principalities and powers, when they come at you, when they have set a trap, when they do the things, the strategies of Satan as it talks about, when he’s done those things the desire is when those things happen, that in that day you’re able to stand, ‘withstand’ as it says here ...that you may be able to stand, that’s what it’s about, or withstand that power against you in that day... but candidly, for the time we live in right now we’re in an evil day; we’re in an evil day to the degree, to the magnitude that you haven’t experienced.

So all of you who are new – you have never experienced anything like this.  Those of us who experienced the apostasy, we experienced this to a degree during the apostasy.  It’s the same kind of war, in a different sort of way because of different strategies of Satan at this time.

But going on here again ...and having done all, to stand.  That’s what we’ve been talking about; stand firm, stand fast!  You’ve got to have the armour on!  That’s how you stand in place, ready to battle, always ready.  You know, that’s one of the major things Jesus Christ said over and over again, especially on that last night and even before, but over and over again the parables and different things He said about being alert, being on guard, being at watch, that word that means the same thing in the Greek language, the word ‘watch’.  In the daytime it just talks about the hours of the day, but at night-time it uses the word ‘the watch’, because of the guards, because of those who would guard the gates of the city or guard a city.  They were on guard in the night watches and so that’s why that word has so much meaning when Christ said ‘to watch’, to be on guard.  Spiritually that’s what it means...and it’s a spiritual thing, it’s not a physical thing.

So one of Satan’s main tools is to get you focused on physical things.  That will distract you because we are physical human beings and if we’re not on guard spiritually the physical things in relationships, in our life, those are the things that can get you, that will get you, that get people over and over again, that have already taken a few here and there.

...and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, isn’t it amazing how it just says it over and over and over again, to withstand against power that’s against you, to be able to stand firm, to stand fast, to withstand the onslaught of a power that’s greater than what we are individually and to stand firm in place in the way of life that God has given to us, in faith, in this day because we believe this day.  That’s what these things are about!  To stand with whatever God give us as our weapons, as our warfare, as the things we gird ourselves with.

Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth!  How often have you heard me talk about – “Go back to the truth!! That is your strength!  The things that God has given to you!” Why do you understand things that others don’t?  Why do you understand some of the most basic things out here, in the scattering, about the walls that have come down, the stones of the Temple as an example, about the apostasy, the great falling away?  Why is that so clear in your mind when others can’t even begin to see the simplest phase of those things? It’s something that God gives to you; there is strength in that!  That’s what it talks about in Revelation when it talks about the two witnesses, the power, as I gave that sermon a while back here.  The power there is of the truth that God gives through His holy spirit!  That’s the power we have, in the truth that God has given to us – tremendous strength of spirit!  Those things are the things that give you strength spiritually, on a spiritual plane.

Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness: What does that mean?  That you’re striving to live life right!  That you’re striving to fight against sin, that you’re crying out to God to fight against whatever sin is there. And most of the time you know where these things are?  They’re in relationships.  That’s what they’re about.  They’re about your relationships with others, and generally the ones who are the closest to you because you’re not around others that much – maybe at work, you’re with them more often so that’s where you’re going to be strained – in a marriage, in a family, with relatives, whomever it is you’re around the most that’s where you’re going to be tried the most, because that’s how Satan works.  He’s going to try to get at you through different means, through different ways, to tear you down, to get at you.

...and having on the breastplate of righteousness.  A breastplate; look at it that way, something that’s on you, that’s protecting you, that gives protection in it; because the opposite of this...  You know why it gives this example?  You know what a breastplate is?  Something that protects you from arrows, something that can stab you in the heart and take your life and something that can repel that when it comes at you, a spear, a sword, whatever it is that comes at you and it just bounces off because it has no effect.  Righteousness; living God’s way of life.  See, to sin means you don’t have strength, to sin means that God’s spirit is not there, God’s protection is not there, because this is something from God.  If we sin and if we sin in relationships, we cannot deceive ourselves, the reality is we are weak and we do not have strength and we cannot resist the blows when they come our way.

And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; What does this mean?  This is how you’re able to move forward!  Your feet!  It’s about your feet and the movement of moving forward; that’s what we’ve been talking about ever since we’ve come into this ‘day’, is we move forward as God’s people.  That’s what we’re doing, we’re moving forward into a final phase, into just a little bit more time – little less than eleven months now – it’ll go by fast. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; What is your purpose in all this?  What is your desire in all this?  What is that which burns inside of you?  Is it so the whole world can have peace?  ...the gospel?  ...the good news of where we are in time?  ...that Satan is almost ready to be put away?  ...that the demons are almost ready to be put away?  ...so the rest of the world never has to experience what you have had to experience, and because you’ve experienced it God is going to give you more.  That’s how God works.  You’re going to be able to share more in the glory of Almighty God, truly...things you’ll receive in the future, just the recognition alone that won’t go to your head, that you’ll be able to handle at that time more so.

And above all, taking the shield of faith, a shield!  So now you have different things, that which helps you to move forward into battle; the breastplate, the various things that are taking place here, and now a shield on your arm to help you in pushing forward as you’re moving forward.  Because that’s what it’s about – you use the shield in pushing forward, in fighting the fight.  It’s something to be used!  It’s not something that’s just there as a decoration.  God gives it for the purpose of being used.

...And above all, it says here, take this shield, because this means you’re moving forward into the battle, you understand where you are, you’re sobered by it and you’re at war and you know you’re at war...and it’s a matter of faith.  Faith in what?  Everything, every truth you’ve been given, whether you believe it.  Everything we have in this last ‘day’, every sermon we hear, every posting we read.  Now, do we digest it with all of our being?  And this is where we all are in unity and agreement and oneness of spirit, because this is where people are tried.

Satan likes to put doubts in your mind.  And the attitude of mind, I’ll just be candid with you, I don’t care if this goes on ten years or twenty years – which it’s not – but I just throw that out at you, because if you’re in it for the ‘time’ and for the ‘moment’ and that you’re not going to go any farther... because you know, that’s what’s happened to some people.  “It’s too much to ask me to go another year.”  “It’s too much.”  That’s what some have said.  “It’s too much for me to go on another year. I can’t take it anymore.  I can’t take the shame.  I can’t take what people are saying.  I can’t live this anymore.  I can’t stand up for this anymore, it’s just too much!  Family, and different ones and the mocking that they do, I can’t live through that another year!”  It’s choice.  That’s a choice.  But that’s exactly what you do!  That’s exactly what you do when you put on this armour, you press forward, because this is about your relationship with God Almighty and what you believe.  Some people have been tried as to whether or not they really believe it, or if they’ve been kind of going through the motions and “I’ll go through it that long to see if it really happens, but no longer.”  That’s not what this is all about!  It’s about a way of life!  ...and it is about faith and what God has given to us.

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.  Because that’s where they come from; it’s about the demonic world, it’s about Satan and what they’ll throw at you.  And so they have no effect upon you if you do what God says here, doing all you can do, knowing you have to throw yourself into this and do these things.  You have to cry out to God every day, and if you’re not doing that, in sincerity and truth, in earnestness because you’re sobered to the core of your being at the time you live in, then you’re not doing what God says and you’re standing out there partially dressed in a time of war and you’ll be a casualty.

And take the helmet of salvation, knowing what God’s promised us, that we’re blessed to have, that we’re blessed to have and others don’t even have it, they can’t wear such a helmet yet.  It’s going to be given to them, to those who are able to live into a new age, but we’ve been given that way ahead of time.

...and the sword of the spirit: How powerful is that?  The ‘sword of the spirit’, the truth of God, the way of God, the spirit that God gives to us so that we can grow in and be stronger in ...which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication, that means don’t let up in your prayers!  Going through things like this can actually...well, they can make you stronger.  Coming to a point in time where you realize your weaknesses, where you come face to face with them, where you realize you need God more in your life, are the very things that can make you stronger.  That’s the way it’s always been through time.  Those things can be good or they can destroy you.  They can make you stronger or they can make you weaker.  It depends on your choices and how you respond.

...praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, that means everything has to be done in a right relationship with God, in spirit and in truth; and watching, that word ‘to watch’, on guard, spiritually alert.  ...and watching thereunto with all perseverance, that means you’ve got to work at this!  It means we can’t just get up in the day and go through our motions and go to bed at night and start the same routine the following day – just going through the motions of a physical life until we get to the end of this – because I fear that far too many were doing that leading up to the 27th.  Truly!  And we need to be sobered and realize we’re not going to have it so easy right now as what we thought we were in before and we need to fight!  You need to understand this is a war and that you are in a war.

...watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints; we’re in this together.  We are a Family.  It’s not just consumed with your own physical life.  You know, we can think about our woes, our problems, our difficulties to where when we pray... that’s all we pray about is ourselves, if we’re not careful.  What about others?  You know, when you get to know  others, when you really know others and what others are fighting, sometimes it just makes your battles look a little puny – a little puny indeed in the scheme of things – even within the Body. You don’t have to look too far within the Body and there are people out there having incredible battles and struggles that make yours look very small, that they would be glad to be able to exchange with you if such a thing were possible.

So we need to think about others and pray about those things and pray for each other and understand that we’re a Family, that we need each other and we’re here to, indeed, pray for each other as well.

Let’s go on to 2nd Corinthians 10. I get a little worked up on some of these things because I hate to see people going by the wayside.  I hate it when I see battles taking place and people losing some of the battles and the wars in front of them.  It hurts!  But we need to be sobered so I get a little worked up, but I’m not trying to ‘chew’ anyone out or chasten in a bad way, but in a Godly way, out of love, because we need to be sobered in understanding where we are, we truly do.  We need to take seriously what God has placed in front of us.

2nd Corinthians10:4 - (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, not a physical thing, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;)  What are those strongholds?  What are they?  Do we understand what strongholds are?  You know what some of the greatest strongholds, where they are?  They’re in the mind!  They’re in the way you think, they truly are.  Things that sometimes are so difficult for us as human beings to see in ourselves, that sometimes we have to go through various kinds of trials for them to come to the surface so we can see! That’s how we learn!  It’s like that gold that goes through the fire and the impurities come to the top, and then when it comes to the top there’s your chance – there’s your chance to take it off the top and get rid of it, to address it.  But so often what happens in life is that the trial goes and it isn’t addressed and the impurities go right back into the gold again - no change.  We’ve got to get rid of the impurities in our life.  We’ve got to address them when things come to the surface in our life.

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God...) In other words it’s something that God has to be involved in in our lives because they’re on a spiritual plane.  Casting down imaginations, that word in the Greek, you know what it is? ‘Reasoning’s’ – So where are the strongholds?  In the mind.  They’re in our own mind, the reasoning, the reasoning we have of why we do the things we do, the justifications that come out in our lives where we justify ourselves.  That’s just the way we are, that’s just the way we think!  It’s just the way of the human mind, casting down ‘reasoning’s’.  Either everything we do agrees with God in unity and oneness or it doesn’t.  It’s as simple as that.  And that which doesn’t you’ll find reasoning’s involved, human reasoning, of why that doesn’t apply to us or why we see it in a different way or why we can do something in a different manner or whatever as we do.

Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, so if we’re not in 100% unity and oneness with everything that God teaches us and shows us, then there’s a battle of reasoning going on in the mind, of why we don’t agree with certain things, of why we don’t believe what’s been given to us – and God calls it a ‘high thing’, a high thing like an obelisk, a high thing like an idol that’s lifted up.  In other words it has to do with pride because that’s where it comes from; we decide that we can make a choice about something that God candidly tells us, “No, it’s this way...it’s this way... do you agree with this way?”  Because there’s no other way.

...and bringing into captivity every thought¸ So, see it’s about us, it’s about our reasoning, it’s about our thoughts, it’s about the strong holds that we put up in our own minds sometimes, or we can’t break through and make the kind of progress and growth desires us to do.  ...and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And again, do you know where most of these situations are?  Relationships, how we think toward others, how we think toward one another, what we say to each other, what we say about each other.  It’s about relationships.

So, what are some of the big obstacles in your life at this time?  What is it that can distract you from a stronger spiritual focus?  Is it marital?  Family?  Finances?  Job?  Health?  Age?  Fear?  Loneliness?  Rumour?  Gossip?  Something of a sexual nature that’s not right?  Unemployment?  Impatience? Impatient perhaps for where we are in time?  ...thinking that it was all over and now it’s another year and it’s just a matter of waiting?  You can’t afford to wait, you’ve got to be in war; you’ve got to enter into the battle this time.

I think if we could look back, that in too many cases perhaps, we were waiting rather than warring.  There’s a big difference in passing time, in waiting for time to pass, and that of understanding we are in a great war and that we’ve got to stand firm in what God has given to us more than we did before.

So again, impatience?  ...perhaps for where we are in time?  Selfishness?  On and on we could go.  So, do you know what battles you are in right now?  And if you’re not in any battles... ah, something’s wrong.  Because if that’s the case then we’re just going from day to day without understanding...without understanding indeed.  Or are you sobered?  ...as I  mentioned earlier, somewhat fearful, so that you are responding and being on guard because you are fearful?  Fearful of what we can do, fearful of what can happen to us.

Let’s turn to an insert chapter in the book of Revelation and strive to grasp the magnitude of a warning it contains, because it’s awesomely sobering.  I’ve gone through this many of times in times past but I’ll tell you, this time here it truly struck me in a more powerful way, far more sobering, looking at history, looking at what we’ve gone through.  It’s something that should shake you; it should stir a much sharper focus in you.  It’s Revelation 12 – a much sharper focus if you hear what it says, because this is for us right now, it truly is, in a very powerful way magnified many times over.

On the first Sabbath after Pentecost God gave us great admonition, great warning, and again, we need to take those things seriously.  That’s why I’ve encouraged everyone to go back and listen to some of those things again, think about some of the things that were said, because, you know, God works in a very powerful way in moulding and fashioning us and He gives us things in a timely fashion.  That’s something I’ve been in awe of through time, is that God gives us messages, guidance, and direction in sermons in a very timely fashion for what we need right then and there.  Every Sabbath we hear a sermon we need to realize this is so important right now in ‘my’ spiritual development.  This is what ‘I’ need more than anything else in ‘my’ life right now.  And if we go through Sabbaths and we don’t grasp that each Sabbath and take that to heart in that kind of a spirit and that kind of a mind then we’re not going to be able to glean and receive out of it everything that God was giving at that time.  And so I think this is a wise thing to do, a wise time to go back and look at some of those things.

I think of some of the sermon titles, and again, I’ve mentioned that as we’ve gone along here.  But let’s pick up the story here - Revelation 12:1 - And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; again, this is an inset chapter because it brings into a story flow things that are following up here about the different Trumpets and what happens.  But now it brings in some history to bring us up to the present of what is being discussed in the book of Revelation, all leading to the final time, all leading, closer and closer, to the end, just like we are now up next to the time of Trumpets more than ever before in our lives, obviously.  But it says...  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, in other words labouring in birth, ready to give birth, and pained to be delivered.  In other words, in pain, ready to be delivered, so it’s at that moment.

And I think of all the examples – this has spiritual meaning too – but this is something that was happening at a time past in the world.  But anyway, going on it says, And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.  So we know what this is about, we understand that which leads into the final period of man’s time of earth and the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, and then the final one, just like we read about a moment ago, ten countries.  Something that God gave to Mr. Armstrong so long ago, to understand there would be ten nations at the end coming out of Europe who would combine together.  For me, when you come to that time and you read it in your newspaper, it’s just dumbfounding, it truly is!  This is where we live right now. We’re going to see more and more things.  We’re going to experience this more and more, all those things that have ever been taught come to pass, things you read about, things you hear about on a regular basis, stirred up more and more, becoming greater and greater as we go forward.

And so it talks about this because this is what’s leading up to, this is a part of the story here, of what has to do with passage of time that leads up to the very end and finally the return of Jesus Christ.  And it speaks of this ‘great red dragon’, speaking of Satan, and it says, And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven: stars, so often that’s the example that’s given of angelic beings.  And just like the ‘star’; they talk about the ‘star over Bethlehem’ and people can only see something physical.  How did this great light point down on this one little town and... anyway, goofy, goofy.  It’s about angelic beings and how they guided, led them to that particular place.  And so it’s talking about this being, this is where it’s understood, it’s given in understanding by inspiration from God that this had to do with a third of the angelic realm that followed this being.

It says ...and the tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her Child as soon as it was born. Speaking about Christ.  Satan has always been there.  Satan has always tried to thwart God’s plan.  There are things with an unsound mind that we can’t grasp – thinking that’s not sound, why he thinks the way he does, distorted, perverted.  That’s what God said from the very beginning when pride entered into him, He talked about his very mind, that he’d distorted his mind, his thinking process, that he couldn’t think normal anymore.  Basically that’s reiterating what God said; he twisted his own mind because he turned from God, because he turned to something else.

And it goes on to say here, And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God and to His throne. So it talks about this process here through time...of this great moment in time of Satan, of what he did earlier on.  We don’t know how long before...millions of years before?  ....drew a third part of the angelic realm – again, this constant fighting against God and God’s plan and God’s purpose, that it finally came down to a time when the very One spoken of over and over again in the Bible, the Messiah, the one who’s to rule in the Kingdom of God was born, the very Son of God, and here Satan is still fighting against God’s plan, still trying to thwart God’s plan and God’s purpose – a battle, something that’s just been going on for ages and ages and ages.  They fight and they war!

It’s hard for us to grasp that on a spiritual realm but that’s what’s been taking place.  And God’s people through time have been in the forefront of so much of that warring and battling that’s going on because it’s on a spiritual plane.

And then it goes on to say...  so it says here Christ was caught up into heaven, He’s at the right hand of God Almighty and He’s getting ready to come back now.  That’s the story flow of what we’re going through here and this is that story.

And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. Known as, this period of time, of 1260 years in this case.  It’s talking about a period of time of something that happened when a great church came on the scene, a counterfeit church came on the scene and tried to destroy God’s Church because of who was behind it, because of who was leading it, this being.  And so literally from a period of time here that’s so often been given in literature, about 325 AD to 1585 AD, a period of time when all through...especially when you go into Thyatira, through the longest period of time, and what was happening to the Church... and this great church, because it was the primary religion on the earth.  God’s Church was always small and it wasn’t until this time that things began to change, that things in the world began to change with some technology, in one respect, when you think of the ability to print books, when you think of things that began to take place in Europe in a religious battle that began to take place when other religions began to, or groups, began to try to break away from this great church.  And through that period of time God gave protection to His Church because Satan was after the Church to destroy it.  Tried to destroy things about Christ, tried to destroy the Body of Christ, the Church of God, and especially had that power then beginning in 325 AD when everything was changed concerning Passover to Easter, the Sabbath to Sunday, and the trinity and all the things that came after that, all to try to destroy God’s Church – and yet God said He protected it, kept it alive.

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against, the words literally have to do with battle, battled with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought: Greek here, ‘battled’.  War!  We don’t grasp this!  We don’t really grasp how this takes place.  How spirit beings can battle.  We know how physical human beings battle and kill each other and blood spills to the earth and people die and their life is gone, but what takes place in the spirit world, we really don’t know what that means.  We haven’t see it, God hasn’t spelled it out to us. He just says that it is, that there are these battles, that there are these wars, and God has allowed, as a part of a plan and purpose, the angelic realm to be involved in war and battling.  Dumbfounding!  I don’t understand it.  One day... and maybe we can’t until we’re a spirit being, and maybe that’s part of the story, that when we get to that point in time we’ll be able to see and understand it.  As a physical human being it’s not meant for us to have to understand it right now, but it’s incredible to grasp this, to grasp the reality of it.

And so here it talks about Michael, a great warrior, a great archangel.  He was a warrior; Gabriel was a messenger.  How God made them?  He made them different.  We’re all different, we all have different abilities, things about us that make us unique as human beings, and in the angelic realm there were those who were more cut out for this, this is what they were made for more...yet the others can fight too because Gabriel talks about that, about warring and battling and being engaged in that with Michael, but Michael is the one who evidently has more, given more in the sense of battling and warring.

Again, things we don’t fully understand, but let’s go back to Daniel and read about some of this, because  angels fighting in war, in battles against Satan, is not something new, it’s mentioned, especially back here in the book of Daniel.  Again, battles in the spirit realm are real and these things are written here to understand they fight, they battle but these beings also battle against us on a spiritual plane that has to do with the mind. There are things that God won’t let them do to us that affect us directly physically, as can happen in a spirit world.  God won’t let that happen, but He does allow for those things that are broadcast in the air, those things that come at us, attitude and things that affect us as human beings in a spirit that’s in us as to whether or not we’re going to receive it or stand and fight against it.  Because that’s what Ephesians is about; it’s about standing and fighting against the strategies of Satan, to understand how he works and how he broadcasts... and to enter into those battles.

And so again here, we read about these in the spirit realm.  They’re very real, very powerful, and they have much to do with God’s people.  They’re different when they affect us – we don’t know exactly what’s taking place when Michael and the angelic realm is fighting against Satan and the demons, we don’t grasp those things but they’re real.  God points out that they’re real.

Daniel 10 describes an occasion when Daniel was seeking God’s help and intervention and it talks about how there are things he wasn’t eating and drinking for three full weeks and he was so weak by the time that Gabriel (it doesn’t say Gabriel here but...) Gabriel is the one who was sent to him before, and God makes it very clear to Gabriel – “You’re to go and give these things to Daniel.”  So he is the archangel who was sent in God’s stead, for God to Daniel.  And so he’s describing some of these things, about his own weakness and then an angel was standing before him in a vision that he saw and that literally changed from a vision to other things that began to happen very real with him.

Daniel 10:10 - And, behold, a hand touched me which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And he said to me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto you, God loves His people.  He’s called us into a relationship to love us, to share in a relationship with us which is one of love that comes from God.  And He’s always there, He’s always there desiring to hear from us, desiring to give us - just like we talked about - to receive the things that He wants us to take, to take the whole armour that He’s offering to us, to be strong in the power of His might.

And so he says, ...the words that I speak unto you, and stand upright: for I am now sent unto you. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. We can’t grasp something like that, especially in times like that.  I think because of the technology and because of understanding we have of God’s word in the way that we do now that we might respond a little differently... and then again maybe we wouldn’t.    Probably scare the tar out of you, initially.  And this is a part of what he was experiencing, this experience of an angelic being working with him, doing something with him, the awe that he was in, and a fear that was there too.  And that’s a healthy thing!  It’s a healthy thing!

To understand beings that are far more powerful and majestic than what we are as physical human beings, and in the spirit world even those beings that are demons and Satan himself – powerful beings – we are not able to resist them by ourselves.  You can’t!  Otherwise you’re deceived like the world is.  The only reason you’re not deceived is because God has placed a protection upon your life, in your mind, and given you blessings and restricts certain things that they’re able to do.  You have a blessing of a relationship with God, of His very spirit dwelling in you, which is your strength, the truth that is your strength.  Those things back in Ephesians that we’ve just gone through, that’s the power that God wants to share with us to be able to stand against them.

And so he said ...I stood trembling. Then he said to me, Do not fear, Daniel: for from the first day that you did set your heart to understand... He was an old man by this time.  Daniel was an old man by this time.  Had he not set his heart to understand before, to draw close to God?  Sure.  But now was a little different because there were things that God began to give to him toward the end, to see and understand things about Judah and about the end-time that God hadn’t been giving him before.  And so some of these things God had begun to give to him and he wanted to understand more of what was taking place and things about Judah as well and their captivity and some of the things they had gone through.

And so this was a special moment in time, as we go through different moments in time where some are more special to us than others. I think of things that stood out in my life, of moments in time where there is that greater desire to cry out to God for help, for understanding.  There was that awesome moment of time, if you will, during the apostasy.  There were other times when the Church was attacked and we had to restructure and refocus, and all those things, all the pain that goes with it.  But there are times that you cry out more to God because you recognize the need for more of His help to know what to do and how to do it.

I think of periods of time that we’ve gone through at different phases here toward the end-time; 2008, those were momentous times of things we didn’t grasp and understand but God had given us a certain amount of seeing and understanding to a point, a framework that we didn’t fully grasp and understand, and then we began to live certain things and God gave us a little bit of a time to... the past 3½ years, and led us right up to the end – right up to the last day.  And we had no understanding; God did.  He prepared us for it.

The timing of everything that’s worked out exactly in God’s hands, and brought up to that very last day and realize it’s a ‘day’, it is the last ‘day’ but it sure is a long one...and we shift gears.  And we’ve done that in an awesome way, but we need to do some more shifting right now and really, really start moving forward more so with greater focus, with greater strength spiritually so that God can begin to make us to stand.  Because it’s about our standing first.  We have to be tried.  There are things we have to go through sometimes to get to the point where we grasp what we are in, where we see what God is doing with us and why at a moment in time, the humility that must go with it like in the last sermon I gave about the 63,000 that are coming, that we shouldn’t be lifted up with pride, that we shouldn’t have jealousy in our mind toward others when they come along, but to receive them – our Family – and to understand the great changes they’re going to make in their life, so many of them, very quickly as they whisk by us.  Because that’s going to happen, and how we respond to that is important and God wants us to be forewarned, to understand we’re a Family, and God places every one of us in the Body where He wants, where He chooses, and sometimes people have difficulty with that but we can’t.

...and to chasten yourself before your God.  So he says ...since you set your heart to understand, and what’s the next one?  ...and to chasten yourself before your God...  So what was he doing?  He was looking deep into his own life.  “What is it I need to change?”  He was doing what Ephesians talks about because that’s a lot of what Ephesians is about.  It’s about searching out our own life, it’s about striving to understand ourselves and our relationship with God and where we stand, and what we believe, and what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it, and what our commitment is to it, and whether we really are, going all the way back to baptism, and living what we told God at that time:  “My life is Yours to do with it as you will.  It’s not mine; it’s to Your service.  It’s to Your service, whatever that is!”  Whatever it is we’re to go through, whatever it is we’re to experience, whatever it is that He’s moulding and fashioning within us, that we don’t resist it – because we tend to as human beings!  We tend to resist what God is seeking to mould and fashion within us.  And so this is what chastening ourselves is about.

...and to chasten yourself before your God, it’s a much sweeter thing before God when we will do that ourselves.  He says, your words were heard, and I have come for your words.  In other words, because of your words, I have come to reveal to you, I have come because of this.  God has sent me because of that.

Verse 13 - But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me, word literally means ‘took a stand against’ me, tried to prevent me, the kingdom of the prince of Persia.  You know, there are, again, things that have happened through time – this was a period of time, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greco-Macedonian Empire was to follow after that, and different things that God gave at different times here about wars and battles and countries, nations, or kingdoms, that would exist at certain times and in the midst of all that Satan is the god of this world and Satan gets involved with the kingdoms of this world and the leaders of that world.  He strives to lead and guide and manipulate according to his desires in their life, to wreak havoc in nations.  And rather than going to nations that are weak he goes to the ones that God has made strong.  He goes to the ones who have power, because that’s where he wants to be, that’s where he wants to influence the most, because that gives him more power to do more damage, hurt, pain, suffering to mankind.

So, that’s how he works, and so this is a particular period of time where this being, speaking of Satan, speaking of him being there, and it says, he withstood me for twenty-one days: twenty-one days!  Three weeks!  I don’t grasp that!  They fought; there was this battle for three weeks.  Gabriel couldn’t make it to Daniel, where Daniel was to be able to address Daniel in this matter because...he goes back and he talks about this period of time that Daniel was doing all this, three weeks.  And he says “From the day that you did this,” basically, “I was sent to you.”  But God didn’t make it that easy.  God could have gotten him there that day but God didn’t choose to do it because there’s more to the story, and more that we’re to learn from that’s been written so that we can grasp and understand there are wars and battles that are real out there, that the angelic realm fights, just as there is in a physical world, just as there was during the time of physical Israel and Judah and battles that God let them engage in through time.

He said ....he withstood me for twenty-one days, but, behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; so here Michael and the angels who are with him, those he has charge of came with him to fight in this battle, in this war; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. We don’t understand all this, we don’t grasp everything that was taking place there.  It just states certain things as a matter of fact and I don’t like to speculate so we’ll just go on.

Verse 14 – so it obviously had to do with leaders, power that was there - Now I have come to make you understand what shall befall your people in the latter days: for yet the vision is not for many days.  In other words, I’m going to give you more understanding of things that are to happen later on, things that will be to be written here as well by Daniel, but this thing is not for a long way away yet.  That’s what he’s basically telling him.

Dropping on down to verse 20 - Then he, speaking of Gabriel, said, Now you know why I came to you...  I return to fight, again, that word ‘to battle’, ‘to make war’ with the prince of Persia: it wasn’t over with!  Here Michael is back there fighting; there’s still a war going on, Gabriel was able to come through, talk to Daniel, speak to Daniel and spend some time with Daniel (and there’s more that he gave to Daniel here), and then return.  So he said, I am going to return to this battle.  So there’s constant battling going on out there.  It’s not just a few events through time.  There’s constant battling going on in the spirit realm that we do not grasp, that’s very real.

He says, and when I have gone forth, then the prince of Grecia shall come. What does that mean?  Talking about a change in time here; that in time (he’s letting him know things), that there’s going to come a time when another kingdoms going to arise, the Greco-Macedonian Empire, if you will, Greece.  They’re going to rise in power and that prince then will be there.  He’s going to move on to the next great power in the world, to influence, to deceive, to hurt mankind in wars and killings and all the things that Satan stirs up.

Verse 21 - But I will show you that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none who holds with me/strengthens me, is what the word means here, strengthens me in these things but Michael your prince. So he’s showing there that Michael is there to help Gabriel in the work that God has given him to do.

So, let’s go back here to Revelation 12.  The point being is these wars, these battles, are very real in a spiritual realm. They’re going on today.  There are things going on in this world we have no comprehension of.  There are things that have already started happening some time back, as far as Russia and China is concerned, and we see a little blurb here and there in the news, more and more blurbs, candidly, and things that are happening in Iran and Syria and some of these nations over there.  A lot of this, a lot of things that happen physically, that we can see physically, are because of spiritual wars that are taking place as well, where literally, indeed, Satan and demons battle and war, where literally Michael and others are warring, and we’re not told about those things but they’re real. Because this has been ongoing.

That’s why he told him, after this it’ll be Greece, it’ll be Grecia, that’s where the war will be.  After this one’s over with it goes on there, and then from there it goes on to the Roman Empire, that’s what happened.  And then there have been different risings up and down of the Roman Empire and now we’re at the last one.  They’re fighting again!  Every time it rises up again they’re fighting again, they’re preparing for a World War!  That’s what’s taking place!  That’s what Satan is doing, and God is allow him to do that...in His timing, in God’s timing.  And all these kingdoms, when they rose and when they fell, every one of them was totally according to God’s timing.

So back to Revelation 12.  Awesome story!  Awesome things that we have to think about or need to think about now in this light of this sermon, of things that so often never really cross our mind.  But we need to understand these things are real and we need to understand they’re taking place right now and that being, at the same time, he has that power, that ability, when wars are going on and how he fights them day by day, but there are those times when, as well, he battles and the demonic world battles and it’s against us, truly, and God allows things to a degree.

But we have strength and we have power and God wants us to stand.  This is the time that we are to stand more than we’ve ever stood in our life.  Those of you who went through the apostasy, God wants us to stand more now, on guard, alert, applying what we read in Ephesians more than any time we’ve ever been in our life.  Those of you who are new, that’s what God wants you to do, focus on Ephesians, focus on the sermons you’ve been given here since we entered into this period of time.  Focus on those things and pray about those things and ask God to help you to stand.  Ask for help to see what that means in your personal life, because God isn’t going to make us stand until we’re standing.

Revelation 12:7 - There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against/battled with the dragon; and the dragon with his angels fought/battled: Now, this is getting to a specific moment in time.  There are battles that have taken place in different areas on this earth; this one here is taking place in heaven.  Awesome what’s being described here! And they could not prevail; speaking of Satan and those angels that followed him, the demons.  The words here, ‘not to prevail’, in the Hebrew means ‘they were without strength’, ‘not strong enough’, ‘without power’.  Something was happening that’s different than times past.  Something happened at this moment in time that was much, much different than any other time in the previous ever how many tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or whatever years it was since Satan rebelled.  This was unique.

It says, neither was their place found any more in heaven.  Their place! It’s talking about a place for them, their place, it wasn’t found there anymore.  Whatever happened they were stripped of it, it was taken away.  This is awesome to understand, what God is showing here.  There was no longer any place, in essence, for them in heaven.  Before this there was that ability – whatever that means, ever how they were able to do it, whenever they did it I don’t know - but there was that ability of going back and forth, whatever, that God hasn’t spelled out for us at this time.

And it goes on to say, And the great dragon was cast out, the word literally means, ‘to be thrown out’, or ‘hurled down’ is what it means; that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world: he was cast out, again, ‘thrown down’, ‘thrown out’, ‘hurled down’ if you will, unto the earth, and his angels/the demons were cast out with him. Thrown down, thrown out, if you will.  What an awesome event!  Incredible!  Mr. Armstrong believed this happened prior to the attempted take-over of the Church by the State of California.  I believe he’s right, I believe it’s true.  Absolutely!  He was inspired to say that.  He was inspired to speak of this moment in time.  And now going through the history of this that conviction becomes greater and greater – to understand what happened, to understand why it happened at that time.

You know, Mr. Armstrong set the pace for things that were to follow.  The things that God gave to him, the 18 Truths, the ‘Mystery of the Ages’, the book that was written before he died, that was released in ’85, all those things that built up and reflected his ministry and everything that God gave to him over that fifty-plus years of time – absolutely awesome!  Because the Church had almost died out through Sardis and God raised up a man to do what he did over a long period of time – one battle after another, preparing for the time we’re in right now.  We’re here because of the work he did.  We exist today, the Church, and what we’re going through and what we grasp and the foundational truths, because of what God gave to him at that particular moment in time through that period of time in the Philadelphian Church.  Awesome!  And he knew all this was leading up to the end-time, the return of Jesus Christ.  We looked for it.  He looked for it; it just wasn’t for him in his time, in his age, speaking of Philadelphia.  There was one more era to come and those things were to be fulfilled in that era when Mr. Armstrong was gone.

So again, he believed this happened prior to the attempted take-over of the Church by the State of California in 1979.  There are some incredible things that took place...  I want to read some of this and I’ll come back and make some comment about it.

That was the very event that was the beginning of Satan’s greater wrath against the Church at that particular moment in time, if you will, because Satan was cast out of heaven.  There was a war, there was a battle in heaven and he had strength and power taken from him at that time; it’s just the beginning of that.  This is an awesome thing to understand, that God, candidly is just giving it in a more powerful way now, to understand that there was a moment in time where God began to strip him of power and he didn’t have strength and the demons didn’t have strength.  They were not allowed to be able to exert power and strength in heaven anymore.  And Michael and those who fought against him, those who are part of that war, God blessed them in what they were doing in the fight that was there.  And that ability to go back and forth was no longer there.  It was up to a moment in time.  Why?  What was taking place?  What was happening?  It’s an incredible story.

Mr. Armstrong nearly died in 1978 and Satan had already been working, as he always does, to try to hurt, to destroy the Church, and there began to be those who were vying for power as they saw Mr. Armstrong getting weaker, the very ones he taught in class in the very beginning of Ambassador, the very ones who were scrambling for power.  Who is going to take over? And these politics that began to take place in the environment of God’s Church, which should never have been there.  But the Church lived through that.  Thankfully the Church was fairly ignorant of what was going on behind the scenes; we were protected from that.

And all of a sudden God began to give this man strength again, determination, and somewhere in that period of time was the time that Satan’s wrath became greater than ever against God’s Church, because now some of the very things Satan had been planning and working for, again, faltered.  He’d just been cast down from heaven, no longer able to have the power that he did to do what he’d been doing before – and he’ll tell some more of the story here in Revelation in a moment – but something began to happen.  Incredible!  That led up to... Satan was so stirred up, that he used some of these same people and some of the same thing...  Because some of the battles from within – it came from within and from without, working together – and so a take-over was taking place here.  And yet God gave victory, God gave help, intervention in a timing of events that took place.  But awesome what was experienced at this time.

But again, Mr. Armstrong believing that it was in this period of time that power was taken from Satan.  And so Satan had a response to that which wasn’t good for God’s Church, but God allowed it because it was good for God’s Church.  Nothing happens to God’s Church without God fully being there allowing what He will for a great purpose and not allowing other things for great purpose.  God is the one who moulds and fashions His people.  And so God allowed the Church to go through various things at that moment in time to strengthen the Church.  It gave Mr. Armstrong greater resolve at his age to fight in a war, in a battle more than he had previously.  It truly did!  He came back strong!  He talked about ‘getting the Church back on the right track’ over and over again, and by this time he had understanding of things that he didn’t have ten years ago before that, or fifteen years before that.  Now he was at the height of his spiritual strength as far as God’s apostle, and God was giving him more power and more strength to do his job.  Awesome what was taking place!  All for a purpose... all for a purpose of a final phase of a work that God had for Mr. Armstrong to conclude by the time he died in January of ’86.

So I think of this period of time, of the things that came out against Mr. Armstrong that began to flourish, that have a ‘type’ that is good to learn from – by those who hated Mr. Armstrong, of those who accused him of all kinds of things, the G-2 would come out, things about his different homes and where they were, things that Mr. Armstrong did.  You’ve got to understand sometimes, brethren... and I say these things because things don’t change.  It’s good to go back and maybe read about some of that history if you have the ability to, and most of you have the ability to, just to be reminded that there was a spiritual war that was going on back then and to see that there are ‘types’ of things that happened back then and types of things that happen now, that’s the way Satan works – always has worked in the Church.  But it hurt some people.  Some people gave into some of those things, they truly did.  It’s good to go back and think about some of those things and what they mean.

I think of something that I have told the ministry here recently to help them, to pass along to others if need be, that there are times that I understand more deeply now than I even did back then, but I understood a part of it back then even – because of all the onslaught of those who hated Mr. Armstrong and what he was doing, it didn’t matter all that was being said out there - but Mr. Armstrong came to a point in time where he said...there was an expression he used that always stuck in my mind.  He said, “I’ll not dignify those things with an answer.”  And I thought about that.  I have meditated upon some of those things and what that meant and why he wouldn’t and why he didn’t.  And basically it comes down to one simple thing that we all should understand – and I want to read part of this:

The reason for that [response] is because those who follow God "hear Christ's voice" and those who do not are listening to other voices, but not Christ's.

And that can happen to people in God’s Church.  It has already happened to some who were baptised in God’s Church.

It is of no value to get caught up in such battles [and arguments], for you will lose in this world.

That’s not what it’s all about. People will believe what they choose to believe, it’s always been that way.  How many people have you changed who’ve been against you for what you believe, for what you stand up for concerning the Sabbath or the Holy Days?  We can’t.  And you can’t get caught up in those battles.  It’s better – some people talk about, “We’re not going to talk about politics or religion,” in order to get along in their families. I’m talking about religions even in the world, people have that common sense.  How much more with what you’ve been given?  But there are those things you cannot give to people, and it is of no value to go into battle against those things with others, because until God gives it it’s not their time, it’s not for them.  It’s all a matter of God’s time.

So, you can’t convict anyone of what is true.  Only God can do that.  People choose to believe what they choose to believe, that’s within their own power.  And so it really came down to at that time, either Mr. Armstrong was God’s apostle or he wasn’t.  Anyway... I could go on but I think I’ve said enough there.

Revelation 12:10 – if you don’t grasp that there are some great spiritual wars and battles going on out here and that it’s after you as well in a very powerful way, all of you, you need to be on guard and need to have on that armour we talked about in Ephesians 6.

But notice this incredible story, how it goes on - And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God, and the power, this word in Hebrew means ‘authority’; and the authority of His Christ has come: Awesome what He’s saying here!  There came a moment in time where God said, in essence, where God was revealing that these beings were no longer to have the ability to go in the presence of God, He wasn’t going to have it anymore.  He wasn’t going to have that coming to His throne.  He gave up peace a long time ago and God started the process of taking away power, and that’s going to continue on.

When God makes His people to stand more and more He takes away more of that power until we come to a point in time where that being and all those beings have no power whatsoever, period, except a little bit at a moment in time when God says they’re going to be released for a little season to do what they do for a purpose, for a great purpose that God has in His Kingdom, for His Kingdom, for ‘the cause of Zion’ even then, and God’s going to allow that, and after that no more...the end of existence.  Satan has been given those things a little bit more as we’ve gone along.  He experienced something that he never experienced during that period of time with Mr. Armstrong, when he came back down to fight against Mr. Armstrong and to fight against the Church, to try to destroy the Church...but it didn’t work.  God actually gave the Church greater strength and greater power – truly did.

So, then, after Mr. Armstrong died, then that being began to work again.  To do what?  To destroy the Church again.  That’s what Revelation is all about.  This chapter is all about this process we’ve gone through since the time he was stripped of his power in the sense of being able to go before God’s throne, to be in heaven, and he was confined now to the earth...and more and more, he’s going to be more and more confined, less and less power.

Now is salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power, the authority of His Christ has come: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down/struck down, who accused them before our God day and night. God wasn’t going to hear it anymore!  God wasn’t going to have that before His throne anymore.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, so it’s going back through and showing, in essence, this is the history of all who have fought the battles.  This is how everyone conquers and overcomes; and by the word/Logos of their testimony; It’s the word for ‘witness’.  What do we witness?  What have we all witnessed in our life that has to do with the Logos?  It’s what we live.  The witness is in our life.  That’s what 1st John is so much about. The ability to know anti-Christ or that which is Christ is because of what lives within us, of what’s reflected in our life about how we’re living.  It’s all about how we’re living and what’s reflected in our life, that that witness, that we witness, that Jesus Christ lives in us, that that’s what our life is a testimony to in a very powerful way.  That’s the greatest witness of all.

...and they loved not their lives unto the death. In other words, they didn’t love their life to the point of not willing to sacrifice.  They understood it was a matter of a sacrifice, it’s God’s life, “My life is God’s”.  A willingness to sacrifice even in the face of death, even to death.  And there are people, many, who have had to do that.  We haven’t had to do that.  Who has had to do that in this age?  Who had to do that during the time of Mr. Armstrong?

Therefore rejoice heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.  And since that period of time, going through the 80’s and then Mr. Armstrong’s death, and then finally the build up to an apostasy, it’s a short time at the end of all the whatever it is, we don’t know.  Hundreds of thousands of years?  I don’t know.  God doesn’t say how long it’s been since they were created and since pride was there and the demonic world that went and then the destruction of the earth that followed and then ever how many tens or hundreds of thousands of years later that God came and remoulded and refashioned... we don’t know.  I don’t understand that time span and why and what happened.  It hasn’t been given to us.  When God finally came along and remoulded the earth and finally put man upon it to become a part of Elohim in time.  There are things we just don’t grasp and don’t comprehend.  Awesome things!

And so again, Satan came down with great wrath, more stirred up, more determined to destroy, to destroy God’s people, to plot, to plan, to connive.  And you know what?  God allowed it.  God allowed it.  It wasn’t going to happen as long as Mr. Armstrong was alive but as soon as he died he started getting his hooks in there, he started working in people’s lives – slowly but surely he began to work through the ministry; slowly and surely things began to be torn down, watered down, that God gave through Mr. Armstrong.  And slowly but surely we came to a point in time when we were so weak that by the end of 1994 we had an apostasy, a great falling away in the Church.  Incredible what we experienced...Satan doing what he did.  God allowed it.  It’s the only time He has allowed an individual to be set in authority in government, in His government, and for something like that to happen to them, for a purpose and for a reason.  He allowed one to become the head of the Church who would do what he was going to do, just like Judas Iscariot.  God knew him.  God knew what he would do.  He was there for that purpose, to fulfill that purpose; just as much as Satan and the demons are there for a purpose that they have that we’ve talked about at the Feast of Tabernacles before.  They do it by their own choice.  They have their own choice...and God allows certain things to take place, by their own choice knowing what people will do, knowing that beings will do when left to their own choice.  The only thing that makes you and me different is that God called you away from your own choice.  God shook you up and brought you to a point of humility in your life where you would accept the truth, where you would accept what God gave.  He worked with you!  God has to do those things, you don’t do them!

You know one of the things that used to blow my mind in times past in listening to people, that I had to watch sometimes, almost to bite my tongue, when someone talked about how they come in the Church and they would talk about how, “I had been searching for Christ and then I found the Church, I found this truth, I knew the Sabbath and I knew the Holy Days, and I knew this was the truth.”  And I think, “No, you didn’t!  You didn’t do this because of your ability!”  And that’s the way... I’m speaking of the times when it came across in that way; it came across as a matter of pride, “This is what I’ve done.  This is what I’ve found.  This is what I’ve understood – so then I understood God’s Church and that’s why I joined God’s Church, because this is what I believed.”  Think... “If you saw anything that was true it was because God gave it to you.”  When we take it to ourselves that’s what it is, it’s of the self, it’s selfish and it has no value whatsoever; only when it’s a matter of something that comes from God, a conviction that comes from God.

And so that’s what makes us different, otherwise we’d be the same as the rest of this world – and sometimes we lose sight of that, we lose understanding of that.

Let’s go on here to finish this chapter.  Verse 13 – awesome, awesome story here, it really is!  And so Satan knows he has a short time because God was getting ready to launch the Church into and the world into the final end-time.  Something had to happen first.  What is the greatest prophecy of all time concerning the return of Jesus Christ?  That it could not happen until there was a great falling away, then – just like Mr. Armstrong reading Matthew 24:14 talking about the gospel going into all the world, unto all nations, and then shall the end come.  That’s exactly how God worked it.  That’s exactly when Satan was put down, just before that happened, in order to do what he was going to do with the Church during Laodicea.

Verse 13 - And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man child/man.  Speaking of, again here, going back to that whole process again from when some of these thing had begun and now the Church that was there, and his desire to destroy it, and now he had a greater wrath, a greater desire to destroy it.  And you know what?  God gave him leeway.  God gave him leeway to work in certain people’s lives, that they were not protected like you are protected today if you rely on God.  God allowed people to go off on a tangent, to do their own thing. And you know what some of the things that led up it?  Jealousy was the biggest one.  Envy of Mr. Armstrong.  Envy of things that Mr. Armstrong wrote.  An envy of not wanting to hear any more about Mr. Armstrong because somebody else wanted the power and the glory, and they didn’t want to share it.  Things were said, things were stated, books were burned.  Incredible!  ...to get rid of a name.  Incredible what took place!  Satan works that way.  And so He let individuals become filled with pride, didn’t pull them out of that, He let them choose and they went into that.  God allowed it to their own folly.

And so it’s talking about here all that led up to finally this apostasy, because this is what this is about.  And it says, And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.  We’ve talked about these things.  It’s about what we went through.  It’s about what happened after the apostasy.  It’s about the protection that God gave the Church for a period of time until He established the Church finally on Pentecost of 1998.  Before that, He protected, He protected the Church. Satan believed that he had destroyed it.  He hadn’t destroyed it, God had another plan, and notice how he did it.

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.  That’s how God describes what took place in the apostasy; just like a flood that came out of his mouth to destroy, sweep away the Church.  And it swept everybody away!  It did!  It swept everyone away.  It swept people away to the point of going back to what they came out of.  It swept another third away to where people didn’t know what to do because they were so disillusioned, this is the Church... if this is the Church how could this happen to God’s...  There weren’t answers so they just quit.  Understandable!  Another third tried to hold onto some resemblance of the past, scurried off into other groups that had already started or tried to get started in separate groups.  And all the things... and finally 500-600 groups in that period of time there.  Incredible what we experienced.  Carried away in a great flood.

And the earth helped the woman, notice this; this to me is awesome.  And the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. You know what that means?  What we lived through?  It means here and there the earth swallowed up the flood, and here and there throughout the world individuals, in a sense popped up, were there, and it was relatively unnoticed by this being, of what God was doing, because of what God did – a few here and a few there, a person here and a person there and God began to work to reformulate, to restore if you will, to bring about a remnant.  By the time we got to 1998 this is what God had done.

And the dragon was angry with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, once he saw what God had done, and what God had done with the flood, and how God was using that, and what God was doing with a very small group of people... Satan relishing, rolling in what he thought he had done and accomplished, but God wasn’t through.  Incredible what we’ve gone through!

...and went to make war with the remnant of her seed: Who is that?  It’s us...and it’s still there.  His desire against us, to destroy us, is greater than it’s ever been because the short time that he knew that he had back then, he knows now it’s much shorter.  He knows, because of what he’s involved in and what God has said about Europe and ten nations.  He knows because of what’s happening with China and Russia that he’s involved with, that we’re very close to the end...and because of things that God has given through sermons, because that’s how they learn.  He knows!  He knows we’re in the ‘day of the Lord’.  He knows what that means!  And so more than ever Satan’s stirred up.

But like the time of Mr. Armstrong, if we can grasp it, we can become stronger.  God is going to make us stronger, but it’s an individual thing where each individual has to do what we’re being told today, what we’ve been told since we entered into this period of time of holding fast, of standing fast or standing firm in what God has given us to do; and now to apply Ephesians more than ever before in our life, to look into your own life to see where it is you stand indeed, to understand how this being is trying to attack you, and that is by your seeing... where is it you’ve been distracted in the last few weeks?  Because I’ll tell you, you have been!  Things have been happening in your life – God’s making that very clear that there are things that have been happening in our lives that are distractions, and God wants us to rebound and look forward and see what He’s offering us and see where we are and fight now, put on that armour and now move forward in a way we’ve never done before.

To talk about standing fast and standing firm is just words – to do it is another matter, to live it is another matter, and that’s what God is offering us.  He wants us to do that, again, going back to the very reason why...because His reason is He’s going to make us stand, but each one of us is going to be tried as to whether or not we truly stand firm with Him and what He’s called us to. Truly!

And notice who it says here, who it is ...who keep the commandments of God, who have the witness, that’s what this word means, the witness of Jesus Christ... that He’s in your life.  That’s Ephesians 6.  That’s what that’s all about – the witness, the testimony that He’s in your life is what you’re able to live; and the vast majority of that is about your relationships, it’s about your own personal life and your focus in your life.

But again brethren, to me this is exciting!  That God is revealing to us these things, to help us to understand where we are, that we’ve made an incredible transition here, to be able to come up to that day like we did in the kind of faithfulness that existed there - that was awesome, it truly was!  But now the faith is truly tested and tried by what God has told us that we have a final ‘day’; that the 27th was a day, but it’s one that we didn’t grasp just how long it was.  And so God has given us that, and His message, His desire for us now is to move forward into it, in a war, in a battle, understanding what’s taking place in the world right now is on a spiritual plane of the magnitude that goes above and beyond anything that happened in the days of Daniel.

What’s happening right now is about the end of an age, it’s about the final battles that are taking place.  It’s about the final war that’s taking place, because God is not going to allow another war.  Do you know that?  God is not going to allow another war to exist.  You say, “Well, how can that be because he’s going to be let loose for a little season.”  It’s not much of a war because they plan, they do what they do, and God destroys it.  They’ll never have any impact against God’s people whatsoever when that happens.

We are witnessing the last wars of mankind.  We are witnessing the last wars in a spiritual realm.  We’re at the end, and that’s good news; that’s awesome!

~~~end

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