On Guard and Ready, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

February 12, 2022

Last Sabbath we went through most of the story about Gideon and you can finish the rest of the story on your own. It’s an awesome thing as they chased the different groups that were there, as it talks about the Midianites and some of the others who were along with them, and the things that happened during that period of time and how some came back to join them in finally the conquering of the rest. But it all started as that 300 ran down that hill, and it’s an awesome story.

I feel like as a group we’ve had a special affinity with that story pretty much ever since PKG began because we’ve had certain numbers, that regardless of how many people have come and gone there’s been an area where we’ve been and only since probably then 2008, 2009 was that boosted up because of new people coming along and people that God was calling. Some of them have taken the place of even others who have gone by the wayside.

So, it’s an awesome thing to see a process whereby God works with us, making it very clear, as He did at that time, He did it. He is the one that put fear in all those who were coming against them, and yet they were to follow through and do something to stand firm in what God had given them to do no matter what it looked like. They saw themselves as 300 small individuals as they looked over this horizon, as they were up higher and looked out there and saw campfires as far as the eye could see and understanding that it’s with tens of thousands of people ready to come up and destroy them.

So that’s an incredible thing. Because I think sometimes if we’re not careful we can begin to think, “What are we? We’re so small? How could God be using us?” That’s the whole point. The reality is we have truth, we have those things to prove we know that He is. Those are our strength; those are our power. It’s the truth. It’s the mind of God that He’s given to us that has gone on beyond the Apostasy that others haven’t been blessed to have yet. One day they will. They’ll understand what they went through, but most of them not until the Great White Throne.

We have gone through a lot of things. But never diminish your calling. Never look down on your calling to take it as being something small or insignificant and understand the power that God has given to you to be a part of something at the end-time that is absolutely awesome.

That’s what they came to see as they went down the hill, as they saw the people scramble, striving to leave, people turning on each other out of fear, not knowing who was on what side, thinking that others were within the camp, and here they are killing each other even as they’re trying to escape. It’s an awesome thing, the power of Almighty God to do what He does. It’s by His great power, His great might that we’re able to do what we do. We don’t do it on our own, and it’s not a matter of the size. It’s the matter of God’s purpose and the matter of God’s calling, and if we see those things then we have great peace, we have great confidence, and we have boldness in what we’re doing.

So, let’s go on with the series now On Guard and Ready, and this being Part 2 today. Let’s go back and review just a little bit here the last few verses of last weeks sermon in Judges 7. There are several things here. There are a lot of lessons in this, there truly are, that work with us on a spiritual plane and something that happened to them very physically. But again, there is a lot here.

Judges 7:16—So he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches within the pitchers. So, someone asked me last week how were they able to carry swords and so forth. Well, they’re able to do that on the side. That’s how they fit. If you’re ready for a war, if you’re ready for a battle, they’re there, as you’ll find out as you continue to read the story, they had weapons. But what they had in their hands at first were not weapons, talking about a torch inside of a container that’s ready to be burst, to break it, a pitcher, and then a trumpet in the other to cry out, to make noise, to make a loud sound as they came down the sides of the hill. So, this is a part of the story here.

And he said to them, Look on me, and do likewise. There’s that example that God sets there, “This is what we’re to be doing,” and in like manner, just saying it bluntly and candidly, and with reality the way it is, God has given us guidance, leadership through the time of Philadelphia. He let us go, in essence, through Laodicea. He let us go to learn some major lessons in life, that He wasn’t working through an apostle at that time. God’s apostle had died in 1986. He allowed something to come on the scene that was just a natural occurrence by people, by individuals after they’d been given so much – to begin to have attitude, to begin to be lifted up with pride and haughtiness, to begin to let down spiritually.

Something that individuals, if they grasp it and understand it no matter what era they lived in, should always be alert to that, not to let down, not to become lukewarm, not to become complacent, but to always strive to be on guard, to be alert in the calling that God has given to us. That takes work. It takes as close relationship with God a well.

So, he said, Look on me and do likewise. So, that comes to us in the form of things that are given as far as the truth. When God reveals truth, it’s an example through the things that have happened since the Apostasy, and we can start with the different numbers there if we wanted to, but go through the various truths, I see them, I become convicted of them, I want to live them, and you want to live them.

As you’re taught those things that’s what you choose. That’s why you’re here. You understand that. You receive those things, and you strive to live by them as well. And that’s, basically, on a spiritual plane, what this is talking about. “Look on me and do likewise.” That’s just saying it the way it really is.

In an orderly manner as well. That’s what it’s talking about as well. If you don’t do it at the same time in the same way then there are going to be problems. If they started out here and he starts down the hill and the others, “Well, I’m not so sure about this.” You know, the person kind of freezes there out of fear. I could see that happening on a physical plane. You look out there, “There goes Joshua. There go a few more…” What would it have been like if only about a dozen took off, and would the other hundreds on each side have followed as well?

So we’re in this together and we can encourage one another. The more that do and live by what God gives, embraces those things, supports those things, takes a firm stand in what God has given, the stronger potential we have in even helping others who might be held back for whatever reason or are at a point of growth or whatever it might be that is causing doubt in their mind or struggling with something where they have let down.

Those kinds of things can lift people up. Sometimes we don’t grasp the kind of strength and might we have by living this way of life with vigor, with boldness, with strength, with confidence, especially within the Body.

We’re to do it in a unified manner like they were, in a unified fashion, in an orderly fashion with the same focus and purpose. Sharp focus, they had a sharp focus. I mean, they were in a battle. Sometimes we can let up and not recognize or fail to understand we are in a battle week after week after week. There is never a time you can let down spiritually. You have to be ready for whatever comes up, for whatever comes your way to try, to test, attitudes, whatever it might be, thinking, whatever takes place around you.

And behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do. When I blow with a trumpet, I and all who are with me, shall then blow the trumpets, also on every side of all the camp. That means they’re striving to do the same thing, whatever that might be, and when you blow a trumpet, and especially for this end-time, that should mean a lot to us. To blow a trumpet. It’s about calling to assembly, it’s about us, it’s about recognizing what we’ve been called to, it’s about giving instruction, guidance, and direction which God gives us Sabbath by Sabbath. It’s about doing things together but also with that focus we have. It's about looking forward to the fulfillment of the last Trumpet. That’s our purpose. Our desire, our focus is Christ’s coming. It’s why we’ve been called. Awesome.

“I and those who are with me shall then blow the trumpets,” and we’re doing the same thing, we’re speaking the same thing, we’re saying the same things. There is no division. …also, on every side of the camp, and say, The sword of the Eternal, and of Gideon.

So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outside of the camp in the bringing in of the middle watch. Again, all these things that God inspired him to do. At a certain time God was working with it to cause the maximum amount of confusion at an opportune time.

They had just set the watch. Then they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands, and the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers and held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow with, and they cried. So they were crying out. It’s hard to run blowing a trumpet the whole time, so when they weren’t able to do that, as you’re running along you scream and you holler different things, and then you continue to blow. Basically, the word has to do with doing both.

…and they cried out, The sword of the Eternal, and of Gideon. They took their stand with every man (for us, every person) in their place. We’re to be in our place. What is that place? Well, it’s in a right relationship with God. It’s in this matter of the same mind of unity and oneness, to support, to do as we’re guided and directed to do. That’s just the way it is.

They took their stand every man in his place round about the camp, and all the host ran and cried and fled. So again here, Gideon and the 300 were used by God to reveal what everyone, what all should see. That it’s God—it’s God—who clearly gives us victory. He is the one who fights the battles. But we have to throw ourselves into the battle. We have to be ready. We have to be alert spiritually to do our part so that He can work through us.

Because He was working through them, but they had to do it. That’s an awesome thing to really understand. He’s the one that does it. He’s the one that gives greater power to it to accomplish what needs to be accomplished, but we have to do it, to yield ourselves to what comes through us and then go forward in unity.

So in now repeating what was stated at the end of last Sabbath’s sermon: “We are to take our stand and fight moving forward as we go into our final battles that are just ahead of us.”

We don’t grasp what’s ahead of us. We really don’t, and we know there are things coming, but to really grasp the reality of what it’s going to be like, we really can’t. That’s good to this point. But we have to be ready. That is a spiritual matter and a matter of thinking and our relationship with God and our relationship with one another. But it’s going to be far greater than what we can grasp and comprehend, it really is. It’s going to be far, far worse than what you could imagine.

We don’t have to dwell on those things, they’ll happen when they happen. They’ll happen soon enough. But we’re going to be able to have the kind of strength to move through it successfully in the way that God wants us to if we stand before, during, and are determined after.

So to take such a stand we have to constantly be on guard. It’s a matter of continually being ready. It’s about a relationship. All the sermons we’ve had leading up to now, it’s about this process that we have to go through, this thanksgiving, being grateful to God, recognizing what God has given to us. This matter of a close relationship with God that we’re able to have, that He wants us to have. He wants to live in us more fully. His Son desires to live in us more fully. We have to yield ourselves to that process, but we have to do it His way, not our way.

We’re not in God’s Church to do things our way, the way we think they should be or what we think should be taught, or how we think things should be taught, or not to be in agreement with certain things when they’re said. We’re going through all of this again to magnify some of these things that have happened in the past that we’ve had to address because God wants them addressed again because we still don’t see it to the level and degree we need to. He wants us to be reminded of our past.

What did He do with the Israelites over and over and over again? He sent a prophet among them to remind them of what they had done wrong, to look at their history and to realize why they got in trouble every time they got in trouble. God doesn’t want us to get in trouble. He wants us to keep these things in the forefront of our mind, to constantly be on guard, to constantly be alert and be determined to do things the way He says they need to be done. Awesome!

There are times we need to evaluate, to check ourselves. That’s why I love what it says in Corinthians when it talks about preparing for the Passover. If we would judge ourselves. That’s what it’s about. We have to do this continually, and not to think that we grasp and understand everything, but to understand there are times for correction, there are times that we have to correct course or correct some thinking, and to realize how dangerous this world is around us. To know that “I don’t want to be a part of that. I don’t want to follow the way the majority who have been in our fellowship have gone. I don’t want to do that! I don’t want to go that direction.” Because it’s too easy to do because the vast majority have done that.

That’s our history and that helps us then to see what we have to do to make sure we press forward and are determined to do so, that we love God, that we love the way of life He’s shown us, that we love His Kingdom that’s about to come to this earth.

Look at this world! Look at the insanity out there. Leaders. I was talking to some before services here about one I saw this morning. You think he talks like, he acts like, a little child. I’m sorry! But to watch him on TV is about more than I could take. When he talks to his whole nation and why they ever—of course, I can’t say too much about that—put somebody in office. But that’s the way of the world.

We think someone is going to save us, going to make things better. They’re going to come in and just hunky dory, clean things up. No, you can’t clean human nature. Only God Almighty can clean up this government, every government around the world. So some things irritate me to the core of my being when I see them anymore and thinking this world is so exceedingly sick and can’t see it, that we’re destroying ourselves in this world throughout the world.

That’s the way mankind has always been, but now we have the tools to do it more powerfully, more effectively, and well, we grasp that’s where we are. So, we have to be alert, ready for what’s coming because we see it coming.

So anyway, I get a little worked up thinking about some of these things. We should get worked up about some of these things as we see them. We should feel for the people in this world and what they’re suffering though because they’re blind. They don’t understand what they’re going through. We see it and it’s kind of hard to watch, it really is. It’s kind of hard to watch.

So again here, I want to repeat this: “We are to take our stand and fight moving forward as we go into our final battles that are just ahead of us. To take such a stand we must be constantly on guard, watchful, and fully prepared for when we are to act upon what God has placed before us.”

So, you don’t know what’s coming your way or when, or with whom you’re going to come in contact with, with whom God’s going to bring in contact with you, when their time is going to be because of what they’re going through.

So, this brings up a focus where we must review and examine ourselves to be certain we are in unity, of the same mind together with each other, of the same mind with God. That’s what this is all about, truly is, to be of the same mind.

Judges 6, going back. Judges 6:14. There are so many lessons through this story, there truly are. And the Eternal looked upon Gideon and said, Go in this your might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Haven’t I sent you? Now, we’ve already touched upon this. It’s a matter of being called. God called him to send him to do a job. He’s called each one of us to be a part of something greater than what we can grasp or comprehend.

They couldn’t grasp how great this was going to be. There was no way that Gideon could grasp what all this meant. But he made a choice of a willingness to listen to God to do it, after he had a few tests. The wool and then the wool in the opposite ways with the moisture and different things. Then finally to have to go down with his servant to listen, to the side of the camp, to sneak in close enough to where he could hear them talking. Then he heard this dream and then he became encouraged by what he heard, by what he saw.

Different things that God gives us along the way to do things like that. Awesome, truly is.

God just simply said, “Haven’t I sent you?” And if we can grasp that? That’s what it’s all about. Do we grasp it? It’s God Almighty that speaks to us. It’s God Almighty who’s called us. It’s the great God of the universe, and sometimes that’s hard to grasp. You say, “Yeah, I believe it.” Well, what does that mean? Do we think about how great God is? Do we think about His great plan and purpose? Here we are as puny and as small as we are to do something of such magnitude?

That’s the point. We can’t grasp the magnitude of it yet. We really can’t. One day we’re going to be able to look back and say, “Incredible!” Just as they were when it was all over with. When they put their heart into it and they went and did it they weren’t thinking about those things, they were just doing what they were told to do. They were fighting an incredible battle and they were winning, and they went and went and went until finally it was done.

That’s the way we have to be on a spiritual plane, and we can’t grasp the fullness of what God has given to us to accomplish. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be a cake walk. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy because it isn’t.

He said, Haven’t I sent you? He said to Him, Oh, my Lord, How shall I save Israel? It’s a good attitude. How can we be a part of something so incredibly great? How can we be a part of something as God’s Kingdom is about to come to this earth and we’re a part of that, some of us to be in 144,000, others who are going to be the foundation that goes on into a new age, the Church, who already understands and knows so many truths that God wants us to grasp and comprehend.

Just like inequality within mankind. It used to be within the family it was taught the man is above and the women and children are down on the triangle. Think, that’s pretty sick. He’s made two to be as one! And yes, there is order. There has to be a certain amount of order, so God has had to inspire certain things to be within the Church because of the way, primarily, because of the way of the world. Sometimes within the Church we have to do certain things because of the world around us so we have this point of moderation or being moderate or whatever it might be that we strive to do in order to move forward. But we strive to do it in unity and oneness.

That’s what that’s all about. Unity and oneness, support, to stand for whatever we’re told to stand for.

Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh. That’s good if we recognize how puny we really are. And we’re all puny, we really are. Of and by ourselves who are we? Who wants to listen to us? Well, we might listen to one another, but out there they don’t want to know too much because they can’t handle it. They can’t take it. They can’t grasp it. They don’t understand it, they don’t know it, and we understand that.

But to have a mind of humility, to know that we’re not great and not trying to fight to be great? Because my history in God’s Church has been one of watching people strive for power, strive for authority, strive for something that lifted them up, that made them look better. To get up and lead songs, and that was some great thing. No, it wasn’t. You don’t sound good either, but somebody had to do it. Or to get up and give an opening and closing prayer so everybody would see. That’s where humility is needed because it’s not about us; it’s about God, it’s about God’s people, and on and on it goes.

Or who should bring the cookies to Sabbath services! That’s something to get all worked up about and to have division within the Church. That still blows my mind to think about it, that as we’re trying to get reorganized after an apostasy, after the greatest division we’ve ever experienced in God’s Church, then people, it doesn’t take too long people get back together and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, and going on behind the scenes and people getting mad at each other and having fights with each other because, “No! I’m in charge of the cookies!” You think, the Kingdom of God is not about cookies. But that’s what is big in some people’s minds.

So human nature can get lifted up, but we should know we’re small, insignificant, and we’re just thankful that God called us because we know what we are. We know who we are, and we’re blessed to be a family. What makes us great is God. What makes us really great is God’s Church, being a part of the Body of Christ. Because God is great. Christ is great. One day we’ll be of that glory. Right now we’re only able to partake of it to certain levels, but we’re not there yet. The vast majority leave or have left in times past.

We’ve got to remember our history. That’s why I love this story as well. Because over and over again when the judges came along, just before that, just like in the story, a prophet had to come along and remind them, “Look what God did and you’ve murmured and complained, just like you did when you came out. You’re still doing it. You didn’t want God so what’s He going to do? Force you to have peace and force other nations never to bother you? You can go out and you can worship Baal and you can do whatever you want to do?” No, we can’t do things our way.

Anyway, ever on guard to something that can creep into our mind, into our being. Because over the past year and the year before that, and the year before that, people have succumbed to that. Things coming into their mind where they’re divisive and say divisive things to one another. There should never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever be in God’s Church a divisive word spoken to someone else, something that’s not in unity and support of what God is teaching the Church through His apostle. There should never be that, but there’s always been that. It’s always been there. Still is. Not as great, but still is, still happens, still hear it. We’re so hard-headed sometimes.

But he says, “I’m of Manasseh. We’re poor. Not only that, but we’re poor in Manasseh.” So, “We’re part of Manasseh, we’re not great, and we’re even poor within Manasseh.” I am the least of my father’s house. Then the Eternal said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike (destroy, conquer) the Midianites as one man (as one person). Beautiful things when we’re unified, when we’re at one. When we’re fighting together, when we’re strengthened together in truth, in whatever truth God gives to us, it’s a beautiful thing.

So what does it take for all to be of one person? That’s why I love this story of Gideon. One person. We’re told over and over again in scripture, basically, we’re to be of one mind, of one Body. One! But that one who’s the head of it all, the head of it all, is Christ. If we keep focused we’ll grasp that and the order that goes with that.

What does it take for all of us to be as one person in unity of purpose, belief, and order, the order that God has given to us? And again, the example is very good, of the matter of make-up. Something very physical but something very powerful if we’re not thinking right that can work against us. Because thousands left over that change. Not a few, thousands. Thousands left over that change. It was changed back and forth more than once. So thousands changed and then thousands again, and that’s the way it’s been in God’s Church for a long, long time.

You think, how can that be? Well, it reveals that not all stay in God’s Church once we’re baptized. We have that impregnation of God’s spirit when hands are laid upon us, but to stay there we have to be on guard, we have to draw closer to God, we have to strive to be in unity and oneness of spirit with what God gives to us and to be of a humble spirit like Gideon was. What are we? We’re God’s people. We’re blessed to be a part of something great, but He’s the one who’s going to make us great His way. He’s the one who lifts us up. If we try to lift ourselves up we’ve lost out and we will lose out, if we keep at that type of thing.

1 Corinthians 1. Sometimes it’s hard for us to grasp when we read something like this what it means to stand together as one. Supportive. Believe. Conviction. Because it’s not a matter of just doing something and maybe we won’t understand at the beginning, but if we support and do something, if we have a right spirit because we’re striving to do it because of God, because we understand how things are given to us, and because we want to do this for unity within the Body of Christ, God will bless us in time with understanding.

Sometimes you just have to do what you’re given even though you don’t grasp it, even though you might think that something else is better. That doesn’t matter. There are many ways of doing things. But once God gives us a way of doing something that’s what we’re to do. Just as it was in coming out of Egypt. There are different highways to go to get out of Egypt and the Red Sea was not one of them.

So, oftentimes we’re tried and tested by the things that seem like, well, that doesn’t seem quite right. We’re tested in those things, and they can be over very little things, and generally, over something physical because that’s most of the time within the Body since the Apostasy. Not always because we’ve seen people leave over different things or use it for an excuse, like when it was changed in understanding that Trumpets isn’t when Christ returns but he returns on Pentecost.

Right away that got several leaders in the Church. They went down the tubes right then and there because of their attitude, because of their thinking, and a date changed. Automatically, before we even got very far into things. We hadn’t even gotten very far into anything and yet a change because God finally gave us something to understand about Christ’s return.

We’re tried in those things. It reveals whether we’re at one, whether we strive to be at one, whether we give time to strive to learn, to cry out to God, “If there is that which I need, help me to see it!” Because it comes back to where is God’s Church. Is it somewhere else out there that’s teaching the truth, that’s teaching that we were in an apostasy and what all those things mean that we went through?

So sometimes we have to go back to the very basics to get us back on track because it reveals we’ve gone off track.

1 Corinthians 1.

This is not about me. It’s about each and every one of us in our desire to be at one with God and God’s way of doing it. It’s about God’s way of doing it. God has a way, an order within the Church that He’s given that’s been absolute since the beginning of time. I’m thankful I’ve seen what I saw within Philadelphia, of different ones who didn’t support Herbert Armstrong, of different ones who reacted in the way they did to him over and over and over again, people who fought against and had different ways of doing things and just couldn’t get to that point where they were of the same mind.

Sometimes we’re asked to do things. I’ve had some things of recent time here. I’ve asked some individuals to do some things, to change some things, and they haven’t done it yet. I think of Saul and what he was told to do when he went into this battle and what was supposed to be destroyed. He came back with the story when he was asked “Well, what is this bleating of sheep I hear, that I’m hearing. Where is that coming from? If you destroyed all the livestock what’s this? Because they were all around. They brought all these things out with them after they went into battle. They were told to destroy everything. And Saul, basically, his excuse, his reason was “Well, the people…” The people, basically, this is for them, and they want to give sacrifice – or whatever stupid thing sometimes that comes into the human mind in order to work around something that God directs us to do.

We can’t do things our way. There are things to be learned from, especially when we’re asked by the order in which God has given us to function within the Church. To do otherwise is scary. And so, those are times we need to check ourselves and say, “Where do I stand? Am I really standing the way I should be standing? Or am I really a little lopsided here, ready to fall over?” That’s the danger.

1 Corinthians 1:9—God is faithful. Awesome! If we yield to God, if we do things God’s way, if we seek God, if we desire to have that heart of David and we cry out to have a heart like David, to have a heart toward God in that same kind of manner, to dedicate our lives to strive to do everything for that purpose, that everything is weighed and measured by that relationship, everything that we do we strive to think in those terms. Everything that came David’s way, as a whole, he came to that point, “What does God want? What is God’s will in this? What can I learn from God in this matter? Perhaps there is something that I can learn from this that is from God.” Awesome! What an attitude.

Sometimes, though, pride gets in the way because we forget that we’re small, we’re insignificant. Of and by ourselves we really are nothing. It’s only with God that we have what we have.

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Joshua the Christ our Lord. Awesome, awesome, awesome if we understand it.

Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Joshua the Christ, that you all speak the same thing. Now, that really isn’t hard. When it’s all said and done that’s really not hard to understand what’s being said. It’s pretty plain. “All speak the same thing.” We’re all in unity of belief, of truth, of what we speak as far as God’s way of life. We’re not trying to insert our own ideas into a matter but it’s a matter of doing it God’s way and what we’ve been instructed in and what we’ve been shown.

…that we all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions. The word means “schisms.” I’ve never known in God’s Church a time where there are no schisms, where there is no strife. Why is that? Because we’re all human beings and we’re going to have times like that. Now, they shouldn’t be times that are dangerous to us as a Body, as a Church, but they have been, and we’ve all lived through them. As long as you’ve been in the Church you have witnessed these things, you have seen these things. We’re to learn from those things and to never want them to happen to you.

So again, these things have always been here, where we don’t all speak the same thing. Now, I feel as a Body we do more now than ever before, but that doesn’t mean we’re all there yet or that we all see that yet, or there aren’t things that we all need to grow in even more to do that far better than what we’re doing it. But there are some in some cases that are still there, and that’s a shame.

So the good thing, that we all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions and no schisms among us, but that you be perfectly joined together. That’s a beautiful phrase when we understand it. And then really, what it means in the Greek is, it’s a word that means “ready, prepared; made ready.” These are the things if we have no divisions, if we are at one in standing firm in what we’re given to do and speaking the same thing, then we’re going to be of that mind that is ready because you can’t be ready any other way. We have to be of the same mind, speak the same thing. Then we’re better prepared, we’re ready to go into battle.

…but that you be perfectly joined together (made ready, prepared) in the same mind. That’s how it’s accomplished. It just goes back and reiterates, reemphasises what was just said. It shows how we do it – “in the same mind.”

There is nothing I want more. There shouldn’t be anything in front of us that we would want more than to be at one with God. Just like Atonement teaches us, to be at one with God, to be of the same mind, unity, and oneness in judgment of God.

That’s why I love the process where God takes us through to learn how to judge. Because one of the greatest things He’s teaching us is how to judge in life. He wants us to be able to do it in a right way according to His word, according to His ways, and to have that kind of a mind that’s able to do that. Not the way we think about it, not the way we feel about it, not because of our prejudices or our thinking that we’ve grown up with, but because of God, because of the word of God that a decision and a choice and a judgment is made, because it’s based on something that is real and powerful and true that we know is from God. Then it’s easy and it’s rewarding. At times like that it’s a beautiful thing.

When you know, when you’re convicted this is of God, it is what it is because it’s of God and it’s strong. It’s powerful. It’s the way it should be in our minds, in our thinking, that there is peace in that because you don’t have to worry then. You don’t have to be torn up with guilt or other things because you’re convicted this is of God, this is in agreement and unity and oneness with God.

…but that you be perfectly joined together (prepared; made ready) in the same mind. It says it even, and in the same judgment. Because that’s what it’s all about. The same mind. It’s about judgment. Because it’s being convicted of the way of God, but we have to judge things constantly in life amongst ourselves, with the world around us and things that go on in our lives of what to do, how to do it, on and on it goes, what others might be doing, but not to be judgmental. Because that’s our tendency so we have to be careful of judgment, of how we judge matters in our lives, in our thinking.

Philippians 1:23. We read a part of this recently, but we’re going to go through more of this as we go through this. For I am held by two things, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. So, in other words, he’s living through something where he understands his overall desire is to be in God’s Family, to be in the Kingdom of God, to be changed. He’s talking about being with Christ, part of the 144,000 here.

He said, “to depart and be with Christ.” In other words, that means your life to come to an end, but then to have what you’re fighting for, what you’re working for, what your goal is, what your desire in life is, is to be in the God Family. Sometimes as we mature and grow I get kind of a charge out of how, especially as we’re younger or younger in the Church and we grow, there are things that are hard to grasp, to be in the God Family, and what haven’t we yet lived physically that we still want to do? And it shows we don’t see yet, we don’t grasp that to live with God, to be of spirit beings and spirit minds and spirit life is so far beyond anything you’ll ever experience in physical life it’s not even funny.

But we tend to think physically and there are certain things we want to have on a physical plane, which is understandable. But as we grow, as we mature, we come to understand the deeper things and the things, in essence, of what God is all about. It’s not about this here in this life. Because as long as you’re in this body you’re selfish. As long as you’re in this body every relationship will still have selfishness in it. To some degree or another you cannot help it because this is our nature. This is the nature that is at enmity with God.

The only thing that gives us advantage is the truth, God’s spirit that helps us to fight self. This is our primary battle, self. It’s us, each one of us, self is our biggest battle. It’s one of the hardest battles to see. It’s one of the hardest battles to acknowledge. It’s one of the hardest battles to own up to, truly is. This is it.

That’s why, to me, it’s like you might have any kind of horror movie you can think of on TV, but that’s nothing compared to me what it’d be like to be resurrected and have to live this again. That, to me? That, to me, is horror. I don’t want to live in this twice. I do not want to fight in this twice. It’s hard enough the first time. Why do you want to fight it for a hundred more years? Please, no!

I mean, look what we’ve been offered! It’s incredible! We don’t have to fight this twice! This fight isn’t easy. This fight is hard. This, fighting against this, our carnal human nature, it’s hard. I believe, I am convicted that this nature is the nature of Satan. I don’t have to go any longer to believe that. I don’t want it! I want God’s way, God’s mind, God’s life, God’s Family. That’s what we should see. But sometimes there is that level of growth in between that gets us there. God won’t force us to have something before our time. If we want to experience something, He’ll let us experience it in time until we value what is greatest. Awesome!

So, he’s talking about this, “I’m held by two things.” I don’t like the way it’s translated there because it’s not really accurate. He’s just throwing out something that both of these things, they tear at him, because one he wants so bad. We do as we grow. We want to be in God’s Family, we want to be beyond this carnal life and the way we think as human beings, to be able to be at one with God all the time. Incredible.

For I am held by two things, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better; nevertheless, to remain or dwell in the flesh is more needful for you. What an awesome thing Paul was saying here. Awesome! “Nevertheless, to remain, to dwell in the flesh is more needful for you.” So, I understand that as well for this end-time.

I think of Herbert Armstrong and when he was given strength to come back more powerful than ever before and how much the Church needed that at that time because we went through some horrifying things that most of the Church was protected from in the last four years of his life. A lot of division was taking place, but he came back stronger, and individuals weren’t able to stand up against that. They tried and some went off and did their own thing, and some went to join some of those who went off to do their own thing.

By the time it was over with, before we even got to the Apostasy we had thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people who left God’s Church because they went with different groups who felt like they were still in the Church, but someone else that they believed now was leading it. If you can convict yourself, if you want something, of anyone to say, “Well, let’s make them a leader to go back into Egypt,” because you want something different so bad because you don’t want to really obey God and do things God’s way. Incredible.

Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. That’s why I’m very thankful that God has blessed me these different times of not being dead yet. Could have died in 2005, could have died several times in between, could have died over in camp very easily. Because I did die sort of for a little while; they had a blue code or whatever it is and bring me back. Then by the time I got over here had some more stuff done. Then, finally, another rip open and put some more arteries in there. Took them out of the arms. Took them out of the legs.

It’s like, where do we get anymore? The doctor came in and, “well, we’ve pretty much gotten them everywhere we can get them. The next time, I don’t know. You have some in this arm.” It’s like, not again! Famous last words. Maybe. I hope not. But it’s like, I don’t intend to come back again so I don’t really want to hear that.

So anyway, for your sakes. Because you see, I know what would happen to God’s Church right now or would have happened back in 2005. Where would you be today? I mean, seriously. Do we understand how merciful God is to us, to give us the help we need through that which He started with in order to help us move forward? And again, those things just have to do with the reality of this is the way it is. Not a matter of haughtiness or pride or anything else, it’s just the matter of the way God works.

And think, well, maybe so-and-so. No one has been given the training. I’ll just say that very boldly. No one has been given the training, and it takes training. You have to go through things to come to a certain point. Joshua had to go through certain things before God gave him what He did.

Paul, even Paul was trained before he came to the point he did. He was trained at one of the highest within the Sanhedrin. He was going to be a leader in Israel over the Jews. He already had the authority to put certain ones to death, just like he did Stephen. But then he was called. He was highly trained, highly educated, the most educated of all of them. But God was able to work with him to train him on certain things that he lived through in his life so that by the time He brought him to that point to do what he did, to strike him down, to go through an experience like that where Christ spoke to him and told him who he was battling, who he was fighting against, God knew him.

God knew what was in his being, knew what it would take to change him, for him to be able to be called, when He began to give him of His spirit and brought him to a point where he was able to listen. God knows that about us. That’s an amazing thing. Here he was prepared and ready to go, but he had to be trained for what he was going to do and had to suffer a lot more because of some of those things because of what he was going through and what he lived through in time and always being reminded of what he had done. That humbled him.

So everyone goes through different things to get where they’re going. It’s not a matter of about who does it, it’s a matter that we do it, whatever God gives to us.

So again, I hope we understand that, because I believe these sentiments as well. Nevertheless, to remain or dwell in the flesh is more needful for you. Yet having this confidence I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your progression (your advancement), and joy of faith. Now, he didn’t know how that was going to happen, but he believed that because he saw the need that was there and knew that God wouldn’t abandon them.

So even by letter, even once he was taken as prisoner and imprisoned in Rome, it took him time. As he worked with different ones that could come to visit him, he would send them out to do what they did, it was still him leading and guiding and directing the gentiles for a long time. He didn’t have to do it person to person, in that respect, as far as going to each one of those areas. God takes care of His people whatever the situation, whatever the time it might be. He just does it in different ways at different times.

I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your…and the word means for your advancement and joy of faith. In other words, there’s that need to grow, and he knew he was going to be there to continue. He started and he knew that there was a work to be finished there and it hadn’t been accomplished yet.

That your rejoicing… Until they were of greater strength. That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Joshua the Christ for me by my coming to you again. Nevertheless, let your conversation be in a worthy manner of the gospel of Christ. So, what you do, what you speak, let it be in a worthy manner wherewith you were called into the Body of Christ. And what does that mean? Speaking the same thing. Being of the same mind. Being of unity and oneness. Supporting what is given.

…so that whether I come and see you or else remain absent I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit. Awesome! Because that’s what we’re talking about. So, we can read a story about Gideon, about them standing, and we see them in a battle and ready to stand fast, to enter into a battle standing together, and sometimes it’s hard to grasp then what it means to do that on a spiritual plane within God’s Church.

…with one mind. That’s unity of agreement, support. …striving together. I think back around 2008, about some who immediately began to rebel within the ministry, began just to harbor certain feelings and certain things at times that God revealed in time where they really were, what they really thought. Things that led up to 2012 and betrayals, betrayals that happened in God’s Church that led up to 2012. Then on it went past that because it was God’s purpose and God’s plan to allow that.

So, we learn from those things. Those are the things that make us stronger as we live through them. So again here, different things that happened at different times and God reveals it, but not everyone was standing together in unity and oneness of support. That’s an incredibly dangerous thing. But they couldn’t see it because they became so weak spiritually they couldn’t grasp what they were doing, the kind of spiritual suicide that they were committing. That’s a horrible thing to take lightly the sacrifice of Christ that we take every year, the Passover, and then to fight against God? To take the Passover with distain, in essence, spiritually? That’s what God tells us we’re doing. To spit upon that?

Anyone who has ever turned against God, turned against God’s Church, they spat upon him as much as those individuals did as they were slapping him in the face when he was bleeding, and you couldn’t even recognize who he was. Sick. Sick minds. That’s why sometimes I think we need to be sobered to understand just because there are millions and billions and billions, it doesn’t mean billions and billions and billions are going to be in God’s Family when it’s all said and done.

We’re weak human beings and to want what God has shown us we can have, you have to fight for it. You have to recognize why He did what He did, to make us the way we are, to know what the battle is and to be willing to fight against that, to fight against our wrong thinking, to seek to repent and overcome when we see certain sins that grab a hold of us and to fight against them because we see the filthiness and the ugliness of sin.

That you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Did that happen when make-up came along, changed one way or the other? It doesn’t reflect this at all; not standing in one spirit with one mind striving. Striving together means you’re working, you’re fighting together “for the faith of the gospel.”

Verse 29—For unto you it’s given concerning Christ, to not only believe in him, in other words, that he is the Messiah… So you think about how the protestant world treats some of these things. It’s like these fake and false things that they think. And how blessed are we to grasp what this means? We know he is the Christ. We know what that means.

They call him Christ, but they don’t know what that means. We know that he is the Messiah; they’re the same. We know what that means. Anointed to reign. Anointed to be King. That’s what the words are all about. Anointed to be the King of kings. Awesome! But the world doesn’t believe that. The world that calls themselves Christian, they don’t grasp that at all.

For unto you it’s given concerning Christ, to not only believe in him, in other words, that he is the Messiah, but also to suffer for his sake. We’re called to enter into his sufferings. What does that mean? By living this way of life we learn even more so. We become even more deeply convicted of what human nature is like. How? Why? Because of how everyone treats us when they learn too much. And it doesn’t take too much. It might be the Sabbath. “Oh, you’re kind of like the Jews, huh? You believe in Christ but you’re kind of like the Jews.” Yeah, it’s pretty close. That’s all they can understand. Then they really embrace you because of that. Joke!

So, we learn what it’s like to suffer for saying, “I’m not going to work on Friday nights.” “I’m not going to come in during the Sabbath any time, period.” A lot of people just don’t like being told that. “You’re not what?” Well, now-a-days they get around certain things because they just kind of write you out quickly, hopefully before you get into the company, so they don’t have to deal with that later on. They instantly judge you.

We know what it’s like to take off for the Feast of Tabernacles, to go to schools and say your children are going to be taken out. They think nothing of letting them off for holidays, but you’re going to take them out for over a week for what? A feast? The Feast of Tabernacles?!

We know what it’s like when you obey God and live God’s way of life. Christ lived God’s way of life and he was hated for it; he was loathed for it. He taught what was true and they hated him, the Jews hated him. Because Judaism wasn’t in unity and oneness with God by any measure. Incredible! And neither is the world around us.

So, we understand what it’s like to live this way of life, to stand up for what is right, and not to do what the world does in whatever it might be; in all of our physical life we don’t do the same things. We don’t party. We don’t go to great parties where people basically are just drunk out of their minds and that’s why they’re there. We extricate ourselves from that environment. We don’t want to be in the environment because we know what it will lead to. Or if we don’t, we will learn if God will have patience with us and mercy upon us until we learn that lesson, whatever that might be.

But there are certain things, obviously, we just don’t do like the world does. And so, because we’re not like them, the world doesn’t love us because of that. So we enter into Christ’s sufferings to live this way of life. But it’s really not suffering. We learn that it’s a joy to go to the Feast of Tabernacles, to observe the Sabbath, to live this way of life regardless of what the world thinks because they can’t grasp what’s ahead and we know what’s ahead and what we’re a part of. That’s what we hold on to…or are supposed to.

…but also to suffer for his sake. Having the same conflict, which you saw in me, and are now hearing, in essence, to still be in him as he was saying. In other words, he was going through a lot of things that were happening to him. He had gone through things, and they were aware of them as they happened, and now he’s hearing of it by letter and so forth, and from those that were sent out at different times.

Philippians 2:1—So if any… This is a very awkward translation here, and in context it’s basically saying, If any are to have, if we are to have this then this is what must take place. So, this is what he’s saying. If any encouragement, if any of us are to have that, in other words, that’s coming from God in Christ, if any comfort, if any are to have any comfort in love, in agape, if any fellowship of the spirit. So, there’s a fellowship we’re able to experience of the spirit, of this unity of oneness of mind, a unity that makes us a family that is unique that we see, we come to grasp and appreciate in one another, seeing each other in different light, that we recognize God’s in this. Who are we to judge God’s people? We learn those things and what that means to us then a far as relationships are concerned.

…if any fellowship of the spirit, if any even, or if as it is here, if even any inward parts, mercies, in other words, if we have this in us and we’re to experience this, the mercies and so forth that we’re able to experience in our lives from God and then toward one another, fulfill my joy that you be like minded. In other words, this is what Paul was saying that we’re to have. If we’re to have it then this is how we have to be. As he said, “Fulfill my joy that we have the same mind,” that you have the same mind that he had.

He was their teacher. He was their apostle. He wanted them to have the same mind. And what mind he knew he had, he wanted them to be in unity with that because he knew that this was of God, he believed and understood this was of God. He wants that to be with everyone, obviously.

…fulfill my joy that you be likeminded. The word literally means, “of the same thinking.” …having the same love. Would everyone want everyone to have that? If we are experiencing the love of God in our lives and we know it, shouldn’t we want the whole Body to be filled with that, to have that, to share in that, the same mind? The more we see the more we understand and rejoice in, we want everybody to see that.

…being of one accord. One accord. We’re getting closer, but we are not there.

…of one mind. “One thinking.” That’s what that word “mind” is. What thinking? The mind of God, the thinking of God because of God’s ways. To think that way, to judge things by that thinking.

…but of lowliness of mind. Always there, always has to be there, like Gideon said. “I’m the poorest within our family, within, even within Manasseh. …but in lowliness of mind, it’s humility, let each esteem others better than themselves. He goes back to something very physical here in thinking that is a matter of something that will help us to grow in understanding of spiritually.

It’s not a matter here of a difference in God’s way. It’s not what he’s talking about. It’s about how we think then toward one another. He’s talking here about “let each esteem other.” It’s not like doing this in a fake sort of way like the protestant world would take this and somehow be fake about trying to raise up others or live this in a fake way. It’s not about that at all. It’s about how we think toward someone else. We want them to enjoy themselves, their life.

It’s something as simple as you’re driving down the road and here you come to a point and there’s McDonalds, Burger King, Chick-Fil-A, whatever here on the four corners, and we’re all going to stop, and you really want Jack-In-The-Box. Anyway, whatever. I don’t know why that one came to mind. Maybe because it’s not here. But that’s what you want. But everybody else wants Chick-Fil-A. It’s very simple. Do we want to see, do we want to esteem others wants and desires above our own or are we just going to stay selfish and try to get our own way in different things we want to do in life?

So, make that larger then in relationships and things we do within the Church and how we think toward one another, and on and on it goes when it comes to the Church, especially when you get close to the Feast of Tabernacles. Oh, I could go into a lot of things here that I won’t when it comes to esteeming others, other’s wants, other’s desires better than our own, to have a better Feast of Tabernacles. If we could do that in greater spirit we’d have far greater happiness at the Feast of Tabernacles. But sometimes that’s there for us to learn lessons and see ourselves, if we’re able… Anyway.

When you put a lot of people together in an environment together we’re tested oftentimes. If it’s beyond three days there’s wisdom in that. We’re oftentimes tested as to how we’re going to respond to different things around us, how much we’re going to tolerate, how much we’re going to, whatever it might be. But we do it God’s way for God’s purpose and there’s a different thinking that goes along with that. So often that thinking has to be one of sacrifice. To esteem other’s desires and wants more than your own is so often a matter of sacrificing what self would rather have or do.

Do not look everyone on their own things, their own desires, what “I” want. That’s what it’s talking about. In other words, this is what I’m pushing for because I really want everyone or someone else or whatever is to do this my way. “No, let’s all go to Jack-In-The-Box. It’s going to be faster. It’s going to be easier.” I’m sorry, but anyway, it’s very physical but it’s that simple too, if we can grasp it. If you can apply that to other things in life, whatever it might be? Think about the Feast of Tabernacles.

Do not look everyone on their own things, just ourselves and what we want. You know, some of the greatest things of life is to share with others to let them have experiences or to experience various things and to see that in them, the joy of that. That’s where real rewards in life begin to come from.

Rewards in life don’t necessarily, and most generally, don’t come from getting our own way when someone else is not able to experience something that they would rather have done. Is it wrong to do that for someone else then, to give into that? No. Think about it.

Do not look everyone on their own things, but everyone on the things of others. Let this mind be in you which also was in Joshua the Christ. He was willing to sacrifice himself to give the greatest of what he could to others. We have to have, strive for that same kind of mind in relationships. That’s easier said than seen and done within God’s Church.

So, there are many great lessons for us from this story of Gideon. We’ve been talking about different ones. We are to live these lessons on a spiritual plane. They did something very physical, but we’re to learn that which is spiritual from it, and that’s what we’re striving to do.

We’ve reviewed where it says that each person is to stand in their place. And hopefully, we’re able to as we think about some of these things more. Because don’t think we automatically understand what that means. You have to think about these things and pray about these things. “What does it mean for me individually to stand in the place that I’ve been given? What does that mean spiritually in my relationship with others in the Body of Christ?”

So again, so many things come down to, to stand in the truth, the way and the order that’s been placed, that we’ve been placed in, that God has given us in a unity of spirit. So again, we’re to be of one person, one mind, the same mind, the same judgment.

At this point I’m going to repeat the introduction to the series that was in Part 1. “Today we’re beginning a new series entitled On Guard and Ready, with this being Part 1. As a result of the next chapter, speaking of the new book, speaking of chapter 7 that’s now been put online…” I hope everyone has had the opportunity to read that. Because if you haven’t you need to think about where you stand and what you support and what you’re a part of.

So again, reading this “…that’s now been put online. There are some sobering realities that we need to embrace concerning where we are and what’s now beginning to bring us face to face with what was addressed in that chapter. That chapter was entitled The Seven Thunders—A Prelude to WWIII.”

You know, it’s almost like a bit of déjà vu here, going back. Because this book reminds me (except in a matured way), of 2008—God’s Final Witness. Here we are again.

“Those Thunders are indeed very sobering.” As I was writing through some of that stuff, reading it and going through it again, thinking about where we were then, where we are now, what’s in front of us now, it’s kind of night and day in many respects. It’s far more meaningful, far more powerful.

Anyway, reading this again here, “Those Thunders are indeed very sobering, let alone what is about to follow shortly in the midst of them as the horrifying prophetic end-time storm hits this world. We must all be prepared for it, ready for it by making sure we’re truly on guard and watchful.”

So, so much of this has to be with being of the same mind, being in unity. It’s a matter of being where we need to be spiritually. Because I’m going to repeat it: What we’re getting ready to go through, you really don’t grasp. You can’t. You’ve never lived it. None of you lived during WWII in a war-torn area where you know what that’s like. At least I don’t believe anyone has. But we’re about to experience that in ways that we can’t imagine, what’s going to go around us.

That’s why we can have a confidence and a boldness to know that God is there, God protects us, and our lives are in God’s hands for whatever that purpose might be. And whatever that is let Him do it. Let Him perform it. Yield yourself to it. Don’t be afraid of it. Awesome. Right now, it’s knocking so hard on the door it’s not even funny.

So the reality is that we’ve had some difficulties over the past year in the Body that shows we’re not fully prepared and ready like we need to be. God lets us be tested and tried in various things to bring things to the surface so that we can see there is more to do here. A lot of that is a matter of repenting and a matter of seeking to be more at one with God, to draw closer to God and be thankful. All the sermons we’ve had leading up to right now, to live that more fully in our lives.

Some of those things have had to be made clear, what we’ve gone through. In the past year we’ve talked about conspiracy theories, we’ve talked about participating in some sketchy health practices that have to do with physical, mental, and even spiritual things that sometimes we don’t recognize, we don’t grasp when they’re happening to us or around us. Then there were the Covid guidelines that were given within the Church.

And so, I thought about, why we are going through this again right now. I hope you understand when God gives us something, God’s giving us something because there’s more to take a look at, there’s more to focus upon, to realize we have work to do, and not to take lightly where we are.

So, many have repented of wrong responses, and some have not. There were wrong responses, nevertheless, that went along with what’s happened over the past year, and that is a shame. I wish those things didn’t exist, but they do. Just with what happened with Covid, were there different ways of doing it? Absolutely. But God asked us to do it in one way. Because you know, I know something, I’m convicted of something very powerful, and I know it’s true. Whatever is bound on earth, if it’s not a matter of right or wrong in the sense of something is bound for the sake of the Body of Christ—if it’s a matter of right, it’ll come out as a truth and be preached that way—if it’s a matter of administration, if it’s a matter of unity and oneness so that we’re all doing and thinking the same thing (which we’re held accountable for to see where we are, oftentimes), we were asked to do various things in order to have that, in order to be at one, in order to have the same Body. Certain practices we were going to do to be responsible in the sense of government around us, whether it was good or bad, right or wrong as far as the government, it’s still out there. There are things we have to yield to at different times in different ways.

Anyway, if we were getting graded in high school, grade school, college, we didn’t get 100%. And we should have. So, where are we? Well, those are the parts that I fear for, and I hope that we grasp and understand, and that we have made the changes necessary because God’s moving forward.

The Church is moving forward, and I know that not everyone is going to be there at the end. It’s been that way for nearly 2,000 years. Nothing is owed to us, you have to want it, you have to fight for it because you love it, God’s way of life, God’s truth, the way God works with us, the way God teaches us, the instruction, the guidance that God gives to us. Yet there are still some out there still resisting, still have their own way of doing things. It blows my mind!

Many have repented of wrong responses. That’s what it’s there for. God gives us things to shake us up at times so that we can realize, “Hey, I’ve got to get a stronger hold on this.” And we all have repentance to do at different times in our lives, even whether it be something small. We need to see the small parts to repent of. Because if there is resistance, whatever resistance that is it needs to change. But some haven’t.

I wanted to take this time here to look at some of the things concerning chapter 7 and some of the things on the news again. I’m just going to go back right at a couple weeks here and just read a few headlines of some of the news things that are out there right now, and maybe discuss a few of these things as we go along. Because I think sometimes by just taking a look at what’s going on in the world, hopefully, hopefully we’re not becoming numb to it.

Because I’ll tell you, I hope you see this in the world too, that people are at a point where, you know, you can go through something for a period of time and you kind of become numb to it. And after a while, it’s like okay, that just becomes the new norm. We’re never going to have certain things be maybe the way they were at one time, but you can adjust, you can change, you can shift, and you can have this new kind of norm, whatever that might be. Still a matter of chaos and confusion and disagreement and so forth, but it’s out there. Sick world.

Here is a headline, “’War May Be Necessary’: Russian Lawmakers Push For Donbass Independence Recognition.”[1] “The speaker of the Russian State Duma is calling for parliamentary consultations over the question of the status of the Donbass region of Ukraine. In a move…”

Now, this is just not too long ago and look where we are today. Crazy! Reminds me of things that happened before WWII and how governments played games, how governments knew things were coming and knew certain things were happening, but you try not to rock the boat too much in certain areas because you don’t want to receive the blunt end of this. In WWII it was more the blitzkrieg type of thing, and you don’t want to get on the wrong side of that. If there is any way of staving that off by compromise or whatever goes through the minds of people.

Just like we tried to stay out of the war for a long, long time and played some incredible shenanigans and wouldn’t give weapons of war. I mean the carnal physical nation, shameful, some of the things that were done, where some things had to go up to the Canadian border. They had to pull them across by horse or something. They couldn’t transport them across to give them, so they got into Canada and then finally were able to send them overseas. Because certain rules and things had been passed in congress.

You think, give me a break! Liars! Liars! Cheaters! Cheaters! Liars! Liars! Putrid liars! They knew full well what was taking place. It was just a matter of time, and if they’d geared up for it more quickly? You can go back and a lot of “ifs,” “if-if-if-if” but man can’t govern himself. Mankind can’t rule himself. We’re doing worse today than we did back then. And if we don’t see what’s coming and don’t realize where we are, because of everything that’s happening over…

Please, have a focus of understanding that things that are written about what’s going to eventually take place in this country, you don’t know all the things that are going to lead up to it. You don’t know all the Thunders and things that are going to happen beforehand where we might be very involved as a nation before it’s over with. You don’t know. You don’t know how that’s going to affect your life.

You don’t know the hardships people might have to go through before we get to that point in time where someone finally does the unthinkable, when finally the First Trumpet event takes place. Because they’re all going to follow quickly right there in a row anyway. It’s all a part of the process. The first four happen pretty much all at once.

Something to be taken seriously, of where we live. This is where we are. This is our calling. We’re on top of the hill and we see that huge army out there and it’s massive – massive, massive, massive – and it’s going to be hard.

So anyway, “…the question of the status of the Donbass region of Ukraine. In a move the West would without doubt see as a huge political provocation…”

Yeah, but what are they going to do about it? I sometimes cringe when I hear different ones talking about, like, well, Germany, they’re going to support. They’re going to talk and they’re going to support it. You don’t know Germany then. You don’t know what they’re doing. And what about their people who want gas? What about their people who need gas? And where are they going to get that gas? Are we going to all of a sudden provide it for them when we ourselves have cut our own throat in our own country? And all of a sudden we’re going to give them what they need? They know they can’t bank on us, so what are they going to do? Play some political games of some sort, refuse to send people into the Ukraine? Hmm, surprise, surprise, surprise.

I hope you’re sickened by what you see in this world and by what people do, what governments do. Mankind cannot rule itself. It’s just it’s leading into a third world war and people are starting to see that. There are people out there that are actually starting to see it, it’s coming.

They “…see as a huge political provocation, there's a push among pro-Kremlin lawmakers to formally recognize the independence of the war-torn, Russian speaking region from Ukraine.”

I wonder why that’s coming out now. I wonder why they’re doing that. Hmm. Wonder anyone brave enough to get up and stand up and say something that doesn’t agree with what comes down from the top. Anyway.

“Further, such an action would likely trigger the biggest flare-up in fighting since 2014 and 2015. Reuters reports additionally that ‘Russian-backed separatists in east Ukraine would expect Russia's army to fight with them against Ukrainian government forces if Moscow follows through on a parliamentary proposal to recognize their independence, a pro-Kremlin lawmaker said on Thursday.’" Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sorry.

Anyway, another one here, “The Times and Bloomberg tie Russian invasion to Beijing.”[2]

So, here we go: “…Alexander Pavlyuk, lieutenant-general in the Ukrainian army, has claimed Russia could invade Ukraine on February 20…”

So, this is just a few weeks out for us now. We’re at the doorstep now aren’t we? We have arrived. At this point in time it’s right in front of us. “…the day the 2022 Winter Olympics wrap up in Beijing.” So almost there, little over a week. “Pavlyuk described it as a ‘date that concerns us,’ surmising that the Kremlin would not want to spoil the sporting event hosted by China.”

So, they’re letting out these little blurbs here and there and it’s like, okay. Accident?

“Germany Roiled By ‘Political Earthquake’…"[3] You know, a headline like this, “political earthquake.” We read things in Matthew 22 about earthquakes in different places and we understand there are those things about the Church, but there are physical things in this world as well that when it talks about earthquakes that are prophetic it’s not about literal earthquakes. There are things about shakings. It has to do with shakings and things that shake the world and things that shake governments in the world. They’re powerful, they really are.

Anyway, this one here says, “Germany Roiled By ‘Political Earthquake’: Navy Chief Resigns After Saying ‘Putin Deserves Respect’, Warning China Is ‘Not A Nice Country’” Hmmm. Anyway. You think of the politics. They’re caught in a vice over there. If you think about where they’re located, you think about their history, you think about the rest of Europe, think about Russia on the other side, and this is a pretty tough time to make choices and decisions about things. It’s not like what happened in WWII, that they’re anxious to go out and conquer the world and there’s a mad man leading it. With their nature they’re being pressed in, forced into a situation that they will respond in a certain way in time. It’s the German mind.

Everything that’s happening right now is about God moving things, allowing things to be moved into a place, to have it in a certain place in a certain way or a certain time, if you will, that when it’s all ready it’s going to happen powerfully so. So everything that’s happening over there right now, it needs to be observed in that regard, that whatever takes place it’s all for positioning. It’s all started.

Another one here, “Take only what you need. DC asks people to limit supermarket purchases as empty shelves persist.”[4] Well, that’s just an article I tossed. You think all the things going on out there in the midst of all this, truckers up north, all the hype. This world has really gone nuts.

Here’s one; it’s entitled “This Sucker's Going Down...”[5] “Indeed, the fate of the nation and the fate of the currency are one and the same. We’re headed for complete financial, moral, and political collapse.  But it’s not all bad…” You take some of these reports that sometimes come from people who have financial interests and what they believe and teach, but they see certain things happening but always trying to look for that little glimmer somewhere up there to make a buck and to tell others how to do it.

It goes on to say, “You can count your blessings. You have front row seats for the greatest crack-up the world’s ever known. The dollar’s doomed. The nation is too.” Now, I don’t know exactly, I didn’t read this whole article, but I think, okay, doesn’t all look bad? I mean, after what they just said, I mean, how much worse can you get? They basically said what the title of the book is and what’s going to happen, and you think, “Okaaay…”

Another article: “Russia Preparing 175K Troops For Ukraine Offensive, US Intelligence Now Claims.”[6]  Now, they’re not talking about just those massed on the borders. They’re talking about those on the Black Sea and others support and so forth throughout the country that are organized now for what they believe might be coming.

Yet another crazy article: “PPT Rescues S&P From Worst-Ever Start To A Year; Rate-Hike Odds Tumble.”[7] So again, this is financial jargon, the financial institution of this world. And it goes on to say, “But, at its lows today, the S&P 500 had never - ever since 1920 - started a year as badly as 2022...” “…The last two times that the S&P 500 dropped 4% and rebounded into the green were as follows... Oct 16, 2008… Oct 23, 2008.”

It's amazing how everything always relates back to that and what happened then. Incredible.

Another article here: “Analysis: US enemies are lining up to test the president. On the other side of the globe, a strategic ballet of military might is playing out as the US and China maneuver armadas [armadas because that’s what they are] and warplanes amid tensions over Taiwan, and other disputed territories, in a long-term duel for dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. While the prospect of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is fixating the world right now, a future Chinese strike against the self-governing democratic island is the more likely trigger for a disastrous superpower conflict.”

You know, it doesn’t take a genius (or it shouldn’t), but today it probably does because we don’t see many out there, if any. I’m not trying just to be totally facetious here because that’s kind of a reality. You see a lot of stupid things being said and done.

It’s like it reminds me of the Old Testament when different ones, they strayed so far away from God that they would do, sometimes, the stupidest things. It’s like, where did their mind go? Well, they didn’t have help from God if they were doing the things they were doing. So they didn’t have favor from God and God was going to let them go the way of their carnal human nature. And different ones would come into power and it’s like, how did you ever get there? Why are you there? And why is anyone even listening? Mind-boggling.

But to see what’s happening over there? This is a big, big test in the world right now because very likely something will happen. And if it does happen there what do you think timing would be for China to do some things it might want to do? They know what we’re like as a power. They know how impotent we really are, and not willing to do what a nation normally would want to do or would do if pushed in a corner like that. Because they’re afraid to and they’re not resolved to do the same thing, and it’s all about politics and the next election.

So what do you think other nations are going to do when some of this stuff starts happening? We don’t always know all the things that are leading up to what happens in the first event of the First Trumpet. Because it’s coming, but don’t be deceived. There can be those things that preclude that that are massive in this world and that are scary in this world. But it isn’t the First Trumpet yet. You’ll know when that happens because of what happens here.

Going on here… I don’t have a lot of time for some of these things, but sometimes we just need to think about what’s happening in the world and think about why things are happening in the way they are.

Here is an article: “Hong Kong may maintain COVID isolation until 2024, risking exodus - Euro chamber.”[8]

“US Weighs letting diplomats leave China over tough Covid rules.”[9] Do you think it’s all about Covid for China? Or do you think it’s about a country that’s so strong in it’s security to know where everybody is and what everybody is doing, and especially everybody who’s not a part of their nation, and everybody who is a part of your nation when you’re preparing for some other things that are coming and you’re already planning them.

They’re already planning for WWIII. That’s already been in the works for a long time. Anybody that doesn’t believe that is a fool. The things they’re building up, the things they’re doing, it’s not for the purpose of having peace, especially for a nation and a people like that and the way they think. They’re looking for dominance of the world. They want to replace the United States. That is their goal. Anyone who doesn’t function like that and deal with it accordingly really isn’t too bright.

So you think about why would they have such strong restrictions? Because they can watch the flow of people, they can control the flow of people much easier this way. They have power this way so that when or if they ever do anything they’re very much on top of their game. That’s a scary thing.

Another article: “No NATO member prepared for large-scale deployment to Ukraine…”[10] You know, I think of how stupid can we be. Look at what we did when missiles came into Cuba. Shouldn’t they be upset as a nation if you want to put missiles next door? I mean, what do we expect from Russia? So, are we pushing them into a corner? You know, there are a lot of people accusing this country of pushing the world toward a war. Is that possible? Hmmm.

“No NATO member prepared for large-scale deployment to Ukraine, UK PM admits.” “Not a single member of NATO is ready to send a large fighting force to Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told MPs.”

Now, they’re not a part of the EU. You know, here we have NATO, they do have a part in NATO, and then there is this opposition that’s taking place on the mainland between the two. There are some nasty things going on because they’ve made their choices. So, they don’t get along. But still, there’s what’s called NATO, and it has no power anymore. It really doesn’t. That’s Russia’s goal anyway, is to dismantle, see NATO destroyed, in essence that there is no cohesion. They see it. They understand it. Awesome.

“However, the Prime Minister stated that while ‘many people would yearn to send active, physical support in the form of NATO troops to Ukraine [I don’t know what he’s smoking]  I don’t believe that to be a likely prospect in the near term. Ukraine is not a member of NATO.’”

Another article: “The End of the World order as we know it.”[11] CNN Politics. “The era of America the superpower is being tested in new ways across the globe. … All of these situations are years in the making, but the emerging question is what role the US will play going forward. The standoff over Ukraine suggests US opponents sense weakness and see an opening now.” Do you think?

“The building challenges to US authority come at a moment when there is a widespread perception abroad that Washington is not the power it was for the second half of the 20th century," … I can’t imagine—well, we can—how other nations think about this nation right now. It’s almost hard to watch.

He adds: "Despite Biden's assurances that 'America is Back,' the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan last year raised questions about US competence and commitment. US adversaries know Americans are exhausted by 20 years of war abroad, a factor that may lead some to calculate that Washington could waver on its strategic obligations for political reasons."

So the world is in a quandary. Everything is upside down. It’s amazing what’s in front of us.

And then just over this past week nearly, here’s an article: “Biden Admin To Regulate Bitcoin 'As A Matter Of National Security'; Report.”[12] How many believe that? It’s a matter of national security. Hmmm. No, it’s a matter of them not controlling the dollar around the world. They want full control, and the world is so sick and tired of it. That’s why other nations like Russia and others are using bitcoin and other things to bypass the system of the United States.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand some of those things. Because we have control. They can come in and they can cut people out. Their sanctions have to do with cutting people off from their banking funds and so forth, just like they have, well, almost. They do it in the states, they do it abroad. Power, to where they threaten.

They’ve threatened the Church many of times already, so I don’t know where things are going to end up before it’s all said and done. So, this little adventure isn’t over with yet. Never has been, won’t be until it’s over. So you live through certain things. It’s God’s fight.

Anyway, it says, “[ZH: May we dare to suggest crypto has only become a 'matter of national security' for the US since the idea of Putin using it to get around US sanctions and the nuclear-threat of SWIFT-deactivation started to circulate.]” [SWIFT is the banking system.]

“US Conducts Nuclear Weapons Use War Games Amid Continuing Tensions With Russia Over Ukraine.”[13] Isn’t that smart? Let’s not only have some war games within NATO at different times here and push at each side on the Russians here and keep having these different war games as close as we can to them, but now let’s ramp it up a little bit and have some nuclear war games as well. So what does Russia do? Has some nuclear war games.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Ultra-stupid. It only takes one stupid mistake, yet we know that’s not how it’s going to start.

“The US Strategic Command, which controls American nuclear armaments, and everything related to their use (including strategic communications) has launched Global Lightning…” That’s the name of it, “global lightning.” Tries to say it in different words like blitzkrieg. Global blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg means “lightning war” in German. Just words in this case, doesn’t mean anything and they know it.

“…drills designed to test the branch's readiness to engage in nuclear warfare.”

Another one here: “North Korea confirms test of missile capable of striking Guam.”[14] Well, they’re just getting bigger and bigger and all they have to do is put them in little submarines that they have anyway and run it ashore, which doesn’t take much, and it does the job anyway. Or they have it in the satellite already orbiting around the earth.

Anyone that doesn’t think they haven’t don’t that already or aren’t capable of doing that isn’t dealing with a full deck either. Do you realise they can put them up there? They have that. Just like we have over here. It doesn’t take that much to put a satellite into space. In many ways it doesn’t take that much to put something inside of a satellite that you can bring down wherever and wherever you want or let it go off.

Another one: “"This Is Just Madness!" Paul Craig Roberts Warns ‘America Is Very Unstable.’”[15] “‘This will eventually lead to some kind of conflict. If it is a conventional war, the West does not have a chance—no chance whatsoever. So, what would Washington do when it’s faced with a massive defeat? It would save face by resorting to nukes. That’s the way Washington is.” I’d say any country is like that. If they started something they don’t want to end it by just doing a ground force or whatever, they’re going to use something bigger. And we understand that’s exactly what’s going to happen in time here.

I’m not going to read through all these.

Here is one: “US Seeks Direct Discussions With North Korea After Most Powerful Ballistic Missile Test In Years.”[16] You think, what has this ever done? What’s it going to change? And candidly, they’re the ones that, if they just grasp it, are the ones that have the greatest capability of sending something over, or made to look like they sent it over, and start everything. Amazing.

You know, it’s pretty easy to have something right next to shore and something set off that makes it look like it came from a certain area, and by the time it goes off it’s too late to know if it did or didn’t come from there, but it most likely did… Anyway.

I’m going to pass up a lot of articles here. There is just so much out there anymore. It used to be that two or three months an article would come out, that’d have something like one of these things here. And yet now it’s every week it’s just filled with things. So much so that it’s a danger to us. That’s what you need to understand. You can become numb to this.

Just like you kind of become numb to Covid. You’ve accepted it. It’s just a way of life. We do what we have to do. You get on to a plane, coming from Hawaii you’ve got to wear it for at least 14 hours or more. By the time you’re in the airport and are there two and a half hours, how long was that flight, eight hours from Honolulu then over to Atlanta. You’re in the airport another maybe hour and a half to two hours, and then another hour and a half up to here. And by the time you get here you’re so sick and tired of masks that you’d like to have a giant burning of some sort, fire right there at the airport and everybody just throw their masks in and let’s start something. But you can’t or you end up with a pokey, and been there, done that. Don’t want to do that again.

“With All Eyes on Russia, China Warns U.S. of Full Blown Military Conflict Over Taiwan.”[17]

There are so many articles here of things that are happening, Thunders going off right and left, of different things happening in the economy, of different things happening with inflation, inability to stock the shelves with things, things happening with meat and everything going up like mad right now.

I think some of the craziest things right now going here too, the US has said something to Russia about certain sanctions that they think they have in their pocket that might scare them, and I don’t know if it’s something as stupid as destroying Nord Stream 2, but it’s, anyway, there’s something screwy going on right now that if they do something stupid like that it’s just going to throw the world faster into a WWIII. You think the Germans want to cut off all that supply coming from there? They’re trapped. So you think about people taking sides and why they take the sides they do, and this is a biggest political miss the world has ever seen. Far worse than WWIII.

Here is an article, interesting: “Russia and China sign major energy deal.”[18] Oh, surprise.

It’s amazing the articles coming out now about Russia and China getting closer and closer in things that they’re doing and their timing of things. Incredible. “Putin arrives in Beijing for Winter Olympics with gas supply deal for China.”[19]

And then in the midst of all this I thought this was interesting: “Elizabeth the Steadfast: Queen marks 70 years on throne.”[20] It’s kind of interesting in itself, 70 years on the throne and you think about what’s coming.

Which throws me back to an article I had here that I was going to read and I’m just going to take the time to do it because it has to do with some of the things that some are saying out here in the world. You see how the world is thinking.

“US-UK Antagonism of Russia Threatens to Pull NATO Apart at the Seams.”[21] They’re happy about that one. They love to see the disarray of things going on that started in the presidency before where NATO was put down and they’re sick and tired of being told what to do by the US. Then they’re trying to get their own military together without the guidance and the powers and pressures of the US. And so we see this taking place and the world sees it.

“US-UK Antagonism of Russia Threatens to Pull NATO Apart at the Seams” … “‘The split within NATO is a function of geography. Those farthest away from the conflict zone, e.g. the US and UK, are the most bellicose because they have the least to lose. Those closest…” [Now, this is from a Russian source news.] … “Those closest, most notably Germany, know that they're direct in the line of fire and therefore are the most trepidatious. After two wars with Russia in a little over a century, the last thing Berlin wants is to get dragged into a third - yet that's what NATO is pushing for … Russia has no fear of Western sanctions - now that's clear, and it is rather interesting to say that most of the Western aggression against Russia at the moment is being led by the Five Eyes [they call it the Five Eyes group, which I’ve never heard of before] - that is to say, the four Anglophone countries of the former British Commonwealth or Empire: the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia.’”

I think it’s kind of interesting because it’s about Ephraim and Manasseh and what happens in the end here. They’re at the forefront of what starts here. The US takes the greatest brunt, but the others suffer because of it.

Not through yet… “Russia has the troops in place to invade Ukraine ‘at any time’ and American citizens should leave within the next 48 hours, the US has warned.”[22] Now several other countries have said the same thing. The UK is saying the same. Some Scandinavian countries are saying the same thing, “Get out of the Ukraine. You have, basically, less than two days to get out.”

So all these all at once are turning more and more to the reality there is something coming, there is an invasion coming, and they’re just kind of setting themselves up to that reality so they’re telling them all to get out of those countries. So, I hope you see watching the news, of what’s taking place. They fully expect kind of what happened in WWII, they’re going to do it and they just let it happen. They’re not going to try to stop it. They know they can’t without a full-scale war, meaning nuclear war, eventually, so they’re going to allow it to happen.

They have a pittance here and there to put on a bit of a show and be a part of politics, but there is no intention of stopping them from coming into the Ukraine. They’re going to allow it. They’ve already said it. Isn’t that amazing to get up and say something like that to the world, “Well, if they don’t go too far…” Are you crazy? It boggles the mind.

I hope you’ve watched the rhetoric just in three days, how much it’s ramped up to the reality they know it’s coming. So there is enough chatter going on in the world as far as security, as far as countries and their security measures. There are different ones who spy and so forth on each other. They hear, they know certain things that are taking place and so they’re giving warning by what they’re hearing already. That’s why these things are taking place, because it’s real.

I’ll tell you what, sometimes just overnight you don’t know what’s going to have happened in the world that’s just going to sober the you-know-what out of you. Then the next time it’s going to even be worse. You wake up and you think, you’re going to be in shock.

The first time I saw a building on fire in New York I could hardly talk that day. I could hardly have a discussion with anyone else that day. You see two buildings on fire, then you see one collapse, and I candidly didn’t feel like talking to anyone that day. I don’t know if you remember what you felt like on that particular day, when you see something of such reality hit the world and you think, where is this leading, what’s happening? It takes everything out of you.

Well, that’s going to be multiplied many times over before this is done, where you’re going to have feelings like that, where you’re not going to feel like talking to anyone, where you’re going to have a kind of a shock by what you see happening. And yet all these things have to happen to get us where we’re going. And so we hold on.

I’m going to stop there. I went longer than I intended to go through things, but it just shows you how fast the world can change sometimes. And it’s, to me, been incredibly interesting just watching one week here of things that have progressed closer and closer to another powerful Thunder that’s going to kill possibly tens of thousands of people in a horrifying way. And basically, the world doesn’t want anything to do with it.

It's horrifying. It’s horrible. We hate to see it because so many are going to die when something like that takes place. A lot of innocent people in life. You think, that’s going to happen, but there’s going to be things that are a whole lot worse.

And so, it’s a part of being made ready, but it’s not a pleasant thing. It’s a hard thing but you keep going forward, especially when you’re in the midst of it. Then everything changes even that much more. We have to be alert, sobered, and ready for what’s in front of us because it’s not going to be easy. This is a time to cry out to God, to be closer to God than you’ve ever been in your life.

And if you’ve got sin in your life, stop it! It should scare the you-know-what out of you if you’re meddling with sin right now in your life. And some are! I know it! Playing around with sin still. Whatever that sin is bring it to a screeching halt and pray that God have mercy upon you, that God forgive you and help you to go forward with a deeper sense of commitment, dedication, desire to be of the same mind, to stand firm in what God has given to us, to live this way of life.

We can’t do what we want to do that opposes and is against God. It’s not a choice. And if anyone wants that God will let you have it. You’re giving everything up, everything that we’re so close to having.

That’s what’s mind-boggling. Can you imagine in the Great White Throne having a conversation and saying, “Yeah, I was six months away…” “I was only a year away…” “I was two years away from everything that we had looked for to come before it came, and this is what I kept doing. This is what I did. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”

When it talks about there’s going to be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth, that’s what it’s about. It’s about people who see the stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid choices that people make sometimes in resisting God Almighty when they could have had the opportunity and chance to fight, when God gave every opportunity for it, and yet did the stupidest things. Not sending in offerings in a year. Not tithing. Fooling around on the internet in things you shouldn’t be fooling around with. Believing and holding on to things of conspiracy theories or different ideas than what you’re told. Whatever it might be.

Sin is sin and we have the choice to repent of it and pray that God stir us up in the power of His holy spirit and to humble ourselves mightily before our Great God. He is merciful but He expects us to change, to repent, to yield to His holy spirit, to want His holy spirit, to cry out for His holy spirit every day of our life.

[1] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russian-parliament-discuss-donbass-independence-recognition-war-would-be-necessary

[2] https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/272221937/the-times-and-bloomberg-tie-russian-invasion-to-beijing

[3] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/germany-roiled-political-earthquake-navy-chief-resigns-after-saying-putin-deserves-respect

[4] https://www.zerohedge.com/political/take-only-what-you-need-dc-asks-people-limit-supermarket-purchases-empty-shelves-persist

[5] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/suckers-going-down

[6] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-preparing-175k-troops-ukraine-offensive-us-intelligence-now-claims

[7] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ppt-rescues-sp-worst-ever-start-year-rate-hike-odds-tumble

[8] https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/hong-kong-may-maintain-covid-060938326.html

[9] https://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-prepares-allow-diplomats-leave-013646335.html

[10] https://www.rt.com/russia/547323-johnson-ukraine-nato-deployment/

[11] https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/25/politics/biden-us-foreign-affairs-what-matters/index.html

[12] https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/biden-admin-regulate-bitcoin-matter-national-security-report

[13] https://sputniknews.com/20220130/us-conducts-nuclear-weapons-use-war-games-amid-continuing-tensions-with-russia-over-ukraine-1092625158.html

[14] https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/30/north-korea-missile-test-guam-00003531

[15] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/just-madness-paul-craig-roberts-warns-america-very-unstable

[16] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-seeks-direct-discussions-north-korea-after-ballistic-missile-test

[17] https://www.newsweek.com/all-eyes-russia-china-warns-us-full-blown-military-conflict-over-taiwan-1674001

[18] https://www.rt.com/business/548304-russia-china-major-energy-deal/

[19] https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/russian-president-putin-arrives-beijing-winter-olympics-state-tv-2022-02-04/

[20] https://ca.news.yahoo.com/elizabeth-steadfast-queen-marks-70-072516969.html

[21] https://sputniknews.com/20220128/us-uk-antagonism-of-russia-threatens-to-pull-nato-apart-at-the-seams-1092566001.html

[22] https://www.jagonews24.com/en/international/news/60318