PREAMBLE

There is strength in numbers. When you’re fighting a spiritual ‘end-times’ battle in the spiritual realm which is being played out on earth’s stage – with most of the cast of characters not even realizing that they are under attack in a cosmic drama that is now culminating in a final battle between good and evil, God and the devil, with the minions of satan, the evil one, and all his army of demons on one side, and all the saints and angels in heaven with the true followers of Jesus and true members of God’s church on earth on the other – well, it’s important to realize that: THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS. That’s why the effort is to divide us. That’s the evil at work.

In God’s plan, we were created with eternal souls – we are never not going to be aware that we exist. What that existence is going to be is up to us. God wants all to be saved and did everything possible to make that happen, even sending His only begotten Son to be born as our saviour – Yeshua – Jesus –  to die for us.

The battle is between:

(1) those standing for loving others and being true, against,

(2) those standing for serving the “self” by lying to, deceiving, manipulating, exploiting or doing deceitful and untruthful things that serve self rather than others, where truth is of no value unless it serves that end.

Bullets aren’t the weapons in this battle.

Weapons are anything that  can interfere with and redirect our attention and desire either to God (good side weapons) or away from loving God and others (bad side weapons) to make us  suspicious of others, increasingly isolating ourselves in fear. 

The goal of God’s army is to build the kingdom of God through the spreading of the gospel, of which we are foot soldiers;

The goal of the devil is to tear apart the bonds of love and understanding between people that bring them together in the Spirit of God and heart of our Lord and Saviour, the Way to the Father, the mighty author of all that is, so as to rob souls of God’s presence and glory and destroy the kingdom of God on earth and the ruination of God’s plan for eternal bliss for as many souls as possible.

FEAR: THE DEVIL’S WEAPON OF CHOICE

Fear makes us suspicious and distrusting of others. It is the “nuclear” weapon in the devil’s arsenal. When it detonates, it spreads like a mushroom cloud across entire populations mushing together a ‘group-think’ not based on truth, reason or even common sense often, but on desperation and desolation and desperate measures to alleviate the fear that nuclear weapon created in the cloud of fear created.

The big nuclear bomb was of course the fraudulent and forever fear-mongering fake pandemic that has kept people in a constant state of both confusion and fear – the gates foundation may or may not end up being given the designation ‘gates of hell,’ but there is no mistaking the ushering in of the final battle with a mushroom cloud of fear largely funded by that foundation.

The way human psychology works, and the degree of media control and political corruption currently that is resulting in the most prominent narrative being one that is false, with the majority of people relying only on those sources of information and strongly believing that false narrative, coupled with the constant high-level ‘fear-factor,’ the only way we can escape the trap of deception is to abandon the idea that we know how to know enough on our own to protect ourselves from deception – we don’t, and we can’t.

We need the meekness and humility of Jesus to abandon ourselves to the loving care of the Father, who loves us immeasurably, and because the Father has bestowed all on the Son, our Lord Jesus, that means abiding in Him, thinking of Him, desiring to be with Him, desiring to be like Him, and then doing what we know Jesus would do with the power of His Spirit He and the Father have given us in abundance.

Our suspicions and distrust of others makes us want to be alone, thinking we will be safe from others who, our suspicions tell us, we can no longer trust.

We were not created to be alone – our identity and life is in relationship with other people, where the focus of our heart (desire) and mind (attention) is other the ‘other’ and not ‘self’.  An introverted perversion of the direction of our spirit and life force freely directed by our choice results in:

(1) a focus on SELF to alleviate the negative feelings and fearful and anxious thoughts in one’s own life by protecting ourselves from others who we suspect are, or may be, a threat to us and our personal security and happiness; or

(2) a focus on the OTHER person to alleviate the negative elements in their life through acts of kindness and love.

We are in a spiritual warfare, and the damage being caused to the  kingdom of God as a result of the creation of mass fear is tragic. IT is generating a colossal “inversion” in the dominant direction of our collective unconsciousness turning us away from caring for others and making us increasingly concerned for our own well-being, creating isolation, suspicion and distrust, false accusations, the ending of loving relationships, etc., and is absolutely shocking and frightful to see happen in our province of PEI. 

Without any reasonable process of thinking, where logical conclusions are reached based on principles and beliefs and a thoughtful, informed process of reflection leading up to decision-making (decisions which often have major ramifications for the person and many others in that person’s life), terrible decisions are being made based solely on fear.

Where the force motivating people to make decisions and take action impacting how they live in society, who they associate with, etc., is based on fear, and the distrust and suspicions that fear births as it generates negative states of emotional “un-wellbeing” which are very unpleasant, and which people naturally seek to get rid of in their daily life experience if at all possible, good decision or bad, we are unfortunately doing that very thing in droves, making decisions that are heavily skewed to the ‘bad decision’ side of the equation.

There appears to be cascading ‘disconnection’ and realignment phenomena happening as the great divide that is sifting those who:

(1) will accommodate themselves through compliance and conformity to a system that will help them remove consideration of facts and truths from their daily thinking process, and provide assistance and supports to foster and make it easier to be able to focus exclusively on increasing one’s own ‘pleasant feelings’ to replace the anxiety, stress and other dreadful and negative feelings and states of awareness of holding to the truth and those, 

(2) wanting to know what it is, no matter how much pain it causes, and those who won’t compromise the truth nor their foundational moral and religious beliefs.

The only way we can be liberated from the fear-trap that is currently sweeping the  masses to the edge of the pit, is to do what Jesus said we would need to do: “Take up our cross daily,” like our Lord did:

That’s the question to us all now: “Are we willing to lose our life for Jesus’ sake so as to SAVE OUR LIFE FOR ETERNITY?”

To do that today – in the midst of the great deception prophesized in Matthew:

Jesus answered, “See to it that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.  You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and mislead many. Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.”

So let’s see if we can’t somehow do that – PERSEVERE TO THE END.

The only way that will be possible is to abandon ourselves entirely to love and care of God by trusting in Jesus.

TRUST IN JESUS: GOD’S SOLDIER’S WEAPON OF CHOICE

This will be my last daily reflection. What I felt needed to be said as we approach what is coming next in these last days has been said in these daily writings over the past number of months.

I have also tried to provide tools and tips to help readers engage in more meaningful study and reflection on Scripture throughout those writings with the hope that the practice will carry on with people when my daily reflections ended.

If we don’t know what we need to know at this point we’re somehow blocking ourselves from knowing…somehow, for reasons beyond our pay-grade, the Father has not ‘granted it’ for that person to come to Jesus, has not opened the eyes to truth, or the person, more likely has refused the invitation (because we know God wishes all to be saved).  As Jesus says in today’s Gospel:

“Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.  And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”

If we haven’t made a choice to give ourselves to God and trust the promises of Jesus, and obey His commandments….if we haven’t made a choice regarding whether we are ‘all in’ for good, all-in for God, given the attack on life and love happening in the world at this time, and that choice is made primarily by either:

(1) embracing fear engaging in daily negotiations with compromising with evil, or,

(2) making a firm decision to stand for God and always testify to the truth (and obey what that truth commands), no matter what, knowing that persecution is on the horizon, and much suffering before even more glory.

Trust in the Father’s love for us is the only way forward, and that trust is made visible in trusting and following the Father’s only begotten son Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, and the only Way to the Father. 

To trust Jesus is to abide in perfect love, in his most Sacred Heart which poured out blood and water on the cross when pierced with a sword, as a fountain of mercy on the whole world.

That is the answer. That is the reason we need not fear…the reason we need to believe that deeply and truly let go off fear entirely, giving absolutely NO thought ever again to us having a ‘bad outcome’ – our outcome is going to be GOOD – very good – if we endure, persevere in faithfulness, and wait for the saving power of God to bring forth His triumphant glory.

That triumph will be much sooner than most realize.

When I read the Gospel this morning what hit me was a wave of sadness when I read the words disclosing that Jesus felt compelled to ask his closest friends: 

 “Do you also want to leave?” 

To think of all Jesus did, all that He was willing to sacrifice for us, all that he said just for our benefit, then to see him stand there watching the crowd return home, abandoning His offer of life, unwilling to accept the truth for which He was born into the world to testify to, again, entirely for our benefit, all so we could recognize the truth, repent of our wayward, sinful, lost life leading to death, and be healed and saved, rather than left broken and lost.

Then to hear Him ask, sincerely, His closest and most intimate friends whether they too would reject His gift of eternal life and walk away from Him – a decision that would have been made out of fear and distrust – was sad, mostly because it seems so many are doing exactly that today – giving in to their fears rather than trusting in the goodness of God and the promises of Jesus.

If we could only grasp for one second the boundless torrent of life that God is and wants to pour into us without reserve!

God bless you all, and all the best as we journey forward together in the Spirit, standing firm in God’s love, trusting Jesus, knowing that the perfect love He has for each and every one of us can and will “cast out all fear.”

The victory has already been secured by our dear Lord in his most sorrowful passion and death. We need to trust in that; we need to trust in Him, we need to surrender ourselves completely, take up our cross daily, and have NO fear, but manifest nothing but the peace, joy and glory of God’s presence in our life, as a beacon of light to others and a testimony to the life eternal we have accepted from God in the gift He gave us – His Son Jesus, who is perfect love that casts out all fear – let us abide in Him!

SUGGESTION:  Come back to this particular post from time to time in the days ahead and take 10 minutes to do a ‘reflection’ on each quotation in the list of 100 quotations below from Scripture with passages that speak to trusting God and not fearing. Consider this list an ‘armaments factory’ for disabling the enemies ‘fiery darts’ thrown through the day and His cowardly terrors of night.

DAILY PRAYER

“May God keep us all safe in the palm of His loving hand and carry us through the darkness and suffering that lies ahead with His inexhaustible compassion and love for us, bringing us safely to the reward for faithful perseverance, eternal peace and joy in the communion of saints in union with God.” Amen.

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FODDER FOR REFLECTION IN THE DAYS AHEAD