The Enemy

Exile is his name… the stripper of dignity.  He wants to banish the citizens of the Heavenly city to a land of intimidation and shame.  He wants to strip them of their robe of righteousness, put on in the waters of baptism (“for as many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ”.  (Galatians 3:27)  His efforts are calculated to conceal the Child of God’s true spiritual potential in Christ and to exile him to the land that sees all through eyes of worldly assumptions.  He is the enemy of faith and his name is Goliath. 

He asserts his superior size, his larger weapons, and his more fearsome look in an effort to cause faith to diminish within the heart of the believer.  His booming voice echoes across the separating valley pronouncing his supposed superior position.  It would appear that he is going to attack for the battle is set in array, but he will not attack, he only bellows his intimidation… his attempt to dissuade the believer’s resolve to fight the fight of faith.

His appearance is frightening; his voice chills the soul; the thought of him in battle is terrorizing… but he is a loser.  He is a loser by design… he is playing the part of the overpowering herald who must shortly be silenced by the still small voice of God.

Indeed the Word of God is a still small voice in comparison to the world’s lie dispensing megaphone.  The men of God who voice the word seem insignificant in comparison to the giants of the world’s media; movies, internet, radio, print and TV.  But these ministers of the word are the “giant slayers” of our day and they carry, as did David, five smooth stones… one for Goliath and each of his four brothers.

Swoosh… swoosh… whizzz... a stone is propelled through the air at a seemingly supernatural speed.  Smack… the sound of a rock, splitting forehead flesh and crushing bone of a giant’s skull quickly made its journey through the space separating the giant and a boy.  The unbelieving ears of God’s cowering army were shocked into awareness.  From the vantage point of the fearful army of Israel, the rattling sound of armor, sword, shield and spear followed both the sight of the falling enemy and the sound of the rock reaching its tiny target.  A small spot between the eyes of a bellowing, intimidating man was the one vulnerable mark that would bring this giant down.  A shepherd boy with a stone yielded to a God with a plan had accomplished the impossible and now the stunned army of God was feeling the effects of the faith of a grain of mustard seed and another sound began to rise in the valley that separated two armies… it was the sound of victory… the sound of praise and soon it would become the sound of battle as the space of separation diminished to nothing… as did a Philistine army and its champion of intimidation.

The streets were full of shouts of joy.  A new name was on the lips of the people of Israel and new songs were being sung.  Jubilation, joy and… jealousy were in the city that day.  And four more stones were in a bag that hung by the side of a young shepherd boy named David.  The following pages are a consideration of those smooth stones… and the one that was still lodged in the rotting forehead of a giant whose name means “exile… to strip”.

Spiritual Clothing

The efforts wrought of God on the behalf of fallen mankind have always been to clothe him and deliver him from the shame of his sin.  Man can be clothed by God when baptized in the name of Jesus… he actually puts on Jesus and is clothed with the righteousness of Christ.  Adam and Eve found themselves exiles from the Garden of Eden, yet God did not send them forth without first clothing them with the skins of a substitutional sacrifice. 

The desire of God to cover man’s sin and shame is more than evident in the scripture.  The Ark of the Covenant had a covering of mercy, man in the church has a covering of Christ, woman in the church has a covering of her husband, and the saints have robes of righteousness.  God has no desire to expose our nakedness to public scrutiny or even to the private condemnation of our own consciences.  He does want us to see when we are naked, but only for the express purpose of him providing a covering for us.  We must confess before we can be covered, but we cannot confess what we have not seen in ourselves.  While God desires for us to prostrate ourselves in repentance, he does not want to see us grovel for the mercy he wants to pour upon us.  It is his pleasure to forgive so that he can take our sin and shame and cast it far from us and clothe us with his garments of grace.

Satan, our enemy, is quite opposite in his desire toward us.  He, working in cooperation with his worldly system, is the Goliath of our walk with God.  Intimidation, humiliation and frustration are the result of his tactics.  By fear he intimidates, by believable lies he humiliates, and by confusion he frustrates.  The last thing the enemy wants is for the child of God to get a realistic, honest, appropriate view of who they are.  It is the desire of Satan to strip God’s people of all things that are true about themselves… especially those things that are meant to cover us from shame.  “The blood of Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness”. 

The devil (literally: accuser) has accused the brethren day and night until man is so bombarded with the sin and shame of his state that he can no longer even lift his head high enough to gaze into the mirror of the word of God.  The gaze revealing a reality of compassion, forgiveness and restoration is not allowed because we cast our eyes downward in shame.  Therefore, we miss seeing the gift that has been provided for us through a substitutionary sacrifice.  The sacrifice of Calvary has endued us with a covering that vanquishes shame, but the devil wants to strip that knowledge and experience away from us.  He desires us to be beaten down… shameful, sinful, and banished from our rightful existence… the existence provided for by the crucified Christ. 

The effectiveness of this demonic plague is evidenced on every hand.  We are as we see ourselves… that is we have a propensity to become what we think about ourselves.  Spirits of the other side, the evil side, lie to us with thoughts and they lie to us with feelings.  Not every though is true and not every feeling correct.  These are the things that Satan uses to convince us that we are not what God said we are… images of the living God.  Satan has concocted a lying image of each of us and the more we believe that image the more we become that image.  God did not create murderers, adulterers, child abusers, child molesters, liars, thieves, and the like… lying feelings and lying thoughts have perverted the image of God in man into something shameful… something sinful.  We have become a race of sick, selfish satisfiers of satanic desire because we were not aware of the truth.  Psalms 82 declares the need for a different, true perspective of our own image as well as the image of the fallen race; “I have said, ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.”  The Psalmist continues, “But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.”  The problem with Saul and the army of Israel is that they did not possess a proper image of themselves or of their God.

The truth is we need to discern that the giant bellowing from across the valley is a liar and a loser.  He will do nothing against you until you listen to him and believe... believe the lie that he is propagating about YOU!  Oh, but he is effective, don’t think he isn’t.  He had an entire army believing… not in the strength of a giant, but in the weakness of themselves.  Selves who were created in the image of the mighty God!  You are created in the image of the “mighty one”, why do you believe the lie of the fallen one?  Someone needs to build you up!

Making it to 2017

We, as a nation, seem to be at a definite fork in the road.  The passion on both sides of the isle politically appears to be near an all-time high and it is evident that the electorate is sick of what has been taking place in the upper tier of our government.  A drastic change of course seems to be the desire of a greater and greater percentage of our population as we hear, not just a clamoring for change, but on the outer fringes of the political spectrum on both sides, for “revolution”.   There seems to be a rallying toward the extremes… one side or the other.

This squaring off of the extremes may be indicative of the dire circumstances our nation has found itself in as it has either drifted haplessly from its foundational principles, or worse, has been intentionally weakened through a conscious effort to make this great country more like the other deceived nations of the modern world.  Marco Rubio’s backfired effort to bring this possibility to light during the recent debate may have had much more merit than its delivery seemed to indicate.  He warned for us not to be deceived, “This president knows exactly what he is doing.”

Whether by unintentional weakness in leadership or by deliberate design we are in a precarious position and the world around us is a dangerous place!  The radicals have already demonstrated years ago that they are much attuned to the strength of our presidency, or again in worst case, the purposeful cooperation of it with those who desire to weaken this nation.  They played upon the weakness of Jimmy Carter for 444 days as they held captive 52 Americans after the U.S. Embassy was stormed in November of 1979.  However, minutes after the inauguration of Ronald Reagan these hostages were released.  The message as I heard that news 35 years ago was clear.  Radicals will take advantage of weakness, but they will respect strength… it was a near shock to me as I realized the blatant display of cowardice by the Iranians when a stronger president stepped into the office of commander and chief.

Again, whether by weakness or design our president has placed us in an extreme position of jeopardy, because while we may not have learned the lesson well, it is possible the Iranians have!  We should have learned by the 444 days of humiliation due to a weak leadership that the “hand wringing” situation could have been resolve by one day of strength turning the humiliation upon the heads of the captors.  But as the recent capture and mockery of our 10 sailors has demonstrated we are once more weak, or worse yet, going through the motions of weakness.  The question is now; “Has Iran learned the lesson better than we have?”  They surely are watching our election process with as much interest as we are, and understand there is an excellent chance a stronger and more patriotic president will soon fill the oval office.  They know the possibility of a leader more along the lines of Ronald Reagan will arrive within the year.  They must be at this moment considering strategic plans for that event. 

As the election nears in the fall of this year it is very possible that, as they see a stronger leader in the U.S. begin to emerge, fool hearty acts of radicalism could propel the world into unthinkable disaster.  Because if we make it to January 2017 and a strong, patriotic man fills the White House the same respect that caused the release of 52 hostages in 1981 will at least begin to bring a semblance of sanity to a region of radical lunacy.  But the ultimate question right now is “What might they try between now and next January to keep us under feckless leadership without the resolve to do what needs to be done?”  The possibilities are endless.  I will be on my knees… a lot.  It is the year of Jubilee you know! 

Prelude to Revelation

There are two ways to learn.  In the physical realm we learn by observation.  The advancement of knowledge in this realm is accomplished by science... a process of observing and making conclusions.  In the spiritual realm observation is not the ultimate means of knowledge (although it can verify spiritual knowledge).  It cannot bring spiritual knowledge to the learner.  Knowledge in the spiritual realm comes by revelation.

Revelation is the unveiling of that which is hidden (or covered).  Prelude to Revelation is a consideration of the process of spiritual learning we call revelation.  More precisely, it is the study of the necessary position that must be in place for revelation to come to the learner.  This position is one of curiosity... Spiritual curiosity.  One must have this vital quality in order for the unveiling of hidden truths to be accomplished.

Peter (and the other disciples) was asked by Jesus, "Whom to men say that I am?"  Peter responded with the correct answer and was informed by Jesus that he did not know the answer by "flesh and blood" (i.e. by natural observation or calculation), but by revelation.  Jesus went on to say that this was the means by which the Kingdom of God would be built.  Spiritual revelation is the means of receiving knowledge of the unseen (not observed) world. 

Prelude to Revelation explores this fascinating subject by considering the mysterious ways of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus almost exclusively taught using stories (parables) that were really clues to the invisible spiritual world.  The desire to know the answers to the mysteries He put forth may have been the single most important factor as to whether the student would come to spiritual knowledge and ultimately, eternal life.

It is human nature to desire salvation, but it is also human nature to have answers that are laid out in very precise (dare I say, scientific) manner.  It was not to be the method Jesus chose in imparting knowledge.  His words in prayer were, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.  All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him."   (Luke 10:21 &22)

It is, indeed, questions (spiritual curiosity) that set the stage for spiritual revelation and subsequently spiritual knowledge.  The teaching of Jesus was so designed to provoke curiosity concerning the Kingdom of God that it was prophesied concerning it (His teaching) that he would not speak without doing so in parables (stories about the mysteries God).  It was His method of teaching because revelation was His chosen method of learning.  And before revelation can come, curiosity must be present.  Thus the subject and title of this book Prelude to Revelation.

For forty years the Children of Israel were fed in the wilderness by a little round "thing" called manna.  It came during the night by the hand of God.  It came in the darkness (in the realm of mystery), but was available to any and all in the morning.  It literally means "What is it?"  Manna was a question, it was mysterious, it was miraculous, it was their food, but mostly it was God's way of saying, "Don't you want to know more about me?"

Science may confirm many revelations, but it cannot be the source of spiritual knowledge.  If God is to be truly found it will be by the means of the revelation of spiritual mysteries and that must be preceded by SPIRITUAL CURIOSITY!

Prelude to Revelation