The Battle of Deception

Battle of Deception
3/12/06
It is important to know the times we are living in so that we will not become disappointed and fall away. We might be looking for the Lord to come a certain way, to do a certain work, and become discouraged; therefore we are admonished to encourage each other (Heb 3:13).

Sin is deceitful (same verse). It pounces on disappointment and discouragement in the form of grumbling and complaining, then if left unchecked, can turn into bitterness and rebellion against God. Though we do not see ourselves as rebellious, little by little our offence causes us to resist His will in our lives. An exhortation, which is encouragement, can help us to gain a heavenly perspective. There will be a great rebellion, or falling away from the faith (2 Thess 2:3), and we do not want to see this happen in our churches or ministries, much less in ourselves.

Today the Lord resumed a lesson He began a while ago which, like many lessons, I asked for more understanding of. The lesson concerns itself with the depiction of a desert-like experience, both for the woman in Rev 12:6 and by the Harlot in Rev 17:3. They are in the desert, or wilderness. This seems to be a dry time, yet the woman in Rev 12 is nourished there. It seems to be a time of war yet her seed overcome satan by the word of their testimony and the blood of the Lamb (Rev 12:11). What I have come to understand this morning is that it is a depiction of a time we are approaching, and is also depicted in Rev 16:12. “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.” In reality, the Euphrates is the longest river in Asia and separated Israel from it’s enemies, Assyria and Babylon. The entrance of the enemy into God’s people’s territory is seen in the symbolism of the following verses; “Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are spirits of demons, performing miraculous sings, and they go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty”. We are entering into a time of great testing; the testing of deception.

In times of God’s great works and revival we are very secure in Him and what He is doing. But with the Euphrates, the great movements of His Spirit, dried up, we quiver. Where is the God of Abraham? Or where is the promise of His coming? If Babylon is coming to us, what does it look like? So many fears, and yet such a great and powerful time of the Lord to live in! Let’s look at one of those desert experiences.

In Rev 12 we read how the woman who bore the Man child is nourished in the desert. The brethren overcome satan, even though he is pursuing them in fierce hatred. In Rev 16 we read about the calling out of God’s people from the spiritual pollution that is in Babylon (Rev 18:4), signifying the separation of the wheat from the tares, the goats from the sheep, the good fish from the bad fish. When we have eyes to see the times we now live in, we come to understand that Jesus’ parables are preparing us to stand in the hardest time in which to live, but the most powerful time of overcoming.

How should we live in these times? Simply put, one thing brought to my mind I already wrote about; we should encourage each other as we see the Day approaching. Secondly, we should enter into a time of praise and worship like as has never taken place before. These 2 things (and I’m sure there are more) will keep our hearts pure. These may be dry times for some of us, but they are also times of deepening our love of the Lord and His Word, which are able to keep us in truth. It will not always be dry. God is sending a river into the desert (Is 35:1,6). Let’s put our trust in Him, for He is good and loves His people. Amen.