The enemy will not see you vanish into God’s company without an effort to reclaim you.
- C.S. Lewis
Modern Proverbs
There's a not so funny bumper sticker that reads, "Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself." While sad as it is true, Scripture commands we fight our human foibles. Strategic prayer and triple fasting are designed as weapons of spiritual warfare.
Prophetic Christians face a daily battle on three fronts: Sin above, about and within. We must learn to put on the full armor of God. As the Apostle Paul declares:
- "A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:10-12
- "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
Spiritual Warfare
Modern Proverbs
by Robert R. Pennington
Note: See Eternity...The Wager for a dramatic and in depth handling of the truth about Lucifer's Rebellion and how it effects Heaven and Earth. Learn how the trial in the Eternity's Supreme Court shapes the affairs and future of men! Are there ancient, powerful and malevolent demons roaming Earth? Were did they come from and how do they influence mankind? What are the End of Days? How near to the Great Tribulation are we? What will be its impact on society and the world as we know it? The Biblical faction account of Eternity...The Wager as the context of Scripture, is backstory to everything. As such, it may well be the greatest story never told!
Cosmologists theorize dark matter and dark energy make up as much as 95% of the observable Universe! Seeing how often the temporal and physical mimic the eternal and spiritual, might the influence against humanity of Fallen Angles and Demons require a similar exponent?
The influence of the sin Above on the sin around and within us may be as overwhelming in proportion and its effects as dark matter and energy is to the Universe. While this doesn't excuse our responsibility it may explain our being irresponsible.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray, 'deliver us from the evil one' for good cause. Lucifer drew 1/3rd of God's angels to himself right out of Heaven! What a strategist, what a tactician our Adversary! The principal decimator of 1/3rd of Heaven's population and more than 2/3rds of Earth's. We who've been warned, “we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with ...spiritual wickedness in heavenly realms” make what may be our greatest error by not giving, “the Devil his due.”
Unconscious of 99% of our own bodies processes, how surprising should it be to discover we've been deceived by the Arch Deceiver?
Let us pray the evil Satan means to do to us, our Savior means to undue through us.
In light of Revelations astounding prediction that even after a millennium under Christ's literal earthly reign, immediately after the release of Satan from the abyss the world is deceived into attacking God the Son and it's final doom. The fact that a thousand years of the personal rule of Christ with the countless blessings contained therein could be immediately rejected in a global betrayal under Satan's influence speaks volumes as to his current influence on mankind and the need to "wrestle not with flesh and blood" something we seem woefully unprepared to do.
A small percentage of the elect comprehend a fraction of the spiritual war ravishing particularly the Western world. We claim this confrontation all but invisible, when in actuality, given the billions devastated, aren't we simply refusing to notice?
Ever wonder why the Devil is portrayed as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour? Prowling lions don't roar unless having caught their prey or intending to flush them out.
Mankind, demonic prey, is the only short known to set up the hunter's blind in their own nest, pay for it's satellite hook-up and gather the family to be attacked, wounded and destroyed for up to 8 hours daily. I too am guilty of this. God have mercy.
Bible bookstores are filled with treatments for self inflicted wounds: ie. doubt, divorce, addictions etc. Yet, as an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, three words make a world of difference. 'Defend yourself! Fight!'
Additionally, ALL that was meant for our Good now Vexes and Vilifies us. God's glory, Heaven's holiness, Creation's beauty all assail our darkened senses. Further, our Cunning and Ruthless Adversaries move unseen reeking havoc on an Intergalactic multi-dimensional scale.
Is not Man, like birds ignorant of flight 9 times out 10 netted by the Fowler?
How often those seeming to know and value truth end up acting the fool. The most likely cause, the Sin above, Dark Matter, acting on the sin around and within.
When Christ Reduces us how quickly we cry foul! In particular, when our best suffer decrease we think God Unfair! Might humility, acquired by those welcoming Heaven's humbling, be rather a gift? In our World of weeping and slaughter, so laden with traps and snares, being smaller than the weave of the fowler's net may prove a blessing.
How do we actually "Bless" the Lord? Does Our Holiness or Worship emotionally touch God? Conversely, may our every rebellion and sin in turn hurt Him? What of the angels? Though hardly omniscient, might our thoughts, words and deeds likewise bring Satan and his host pleasure or pain? Hardly have more sobering thoughts been forwarded!
Considering the height of God's Blessings on America; Spiritually, Geographically, Economically, Militarily, Socially, Technologically, Environmentally, and so on... might we not be the Pinnacle of All the Nations of History? Similarly, might Lucifer, THE Anointed Cherub that Covered have been the Pinnacle of the Angelic? Unthankful, he Rebelled and was sentenced to the depths of Hell...Selah. What fate awaits America?
"War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!" is a song only a people born spiritually conquered and enslaved and ignorant of hostile physical oppression would imagine and sing. Those having long forgotten "Freedom isn't Free."
Are principalities and powers routed by our rousing ourselves up by volume and commands or by humbling ourselves before God, praying, "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one" until God lifts us up, and resisting the devil till he flee from us.
By and large, Christianity is conducted as a moral choice by autonomous freeman rather than a military conquest between Titans with the life of man's soul, besieged above, about and within, as occupied territory. On a day to day basis, few Christians glorify Christ or give the Devil his due, and almost none do both.
Admitting that the, "god of this world'" has duped two billion Christians while brainwashing the rest of humanity makes conspiracy theories like M.K. Ultra and the Illuminati not only possible but probable and the least of our worries.
The ideology of "the war effort" is desperately need in the Western Church today. Men, women and children working and sacrificing together, setting aside and limiting themselves for a time (lifetime on earth) for the greater good of engaging the enemies (Principalities and Powers) occupying our land (Earth).
If the "Devil is defeated" then why is the Church allowing humanity, and perhaps even itself, to be "decimated" 10 to 1? If the Enemy of our Souls is truly a conquered foe what does this reveal about us?
Lucifer's feat of deceiving Angels out of Heaven itself may only be rivaled by tempting mankind with diabolic pride; beings who must eat, drink, crap and sleep much of our lives away till for all our pomp we "die like dogs."
Was Lucifer's fall his own alone or a conspiracy of silence among his friends and colleagues?
In the Western World an overwhelming vast majority deny, ignore or disengage in the Divine Vs angelic Vs human drama unfolding about them. Billions on center stage love, hate, aid and destroy, playing parts that will type cast them for eternity. Yet finding the final act of the ultimate cosmic drama uninteresting we immerse ourselves in sitcoms, sci-fi and reality shows. This is the equivalent of, a moment before dawn, descending into a bottomless pit by flickering candle light while muttering against the darkness of the fading moonless night.
Man invariably disappoints. Lovers, families, neighbors, organizations, communities all feel the sting of failed relationship. From heartbreak to abuse to violence to war no people at any time are spared. Why is this a universal constant? Certainly achievements in science and technology, businesses and travel, education and healthcare, architecture and the arts... all testify of an amazing ability to advance ourselves both individually and collectively.
Why should a race wise enough to jump and touch the moon and able to kneel and split the atom be so foolishly addicted to the waist of discord and violence? We our dualistic beings, to be sure but don't such criminal levels of stupidity and evil argue that, as a race and individually, we are being led or pushed along a self destructive path?
It can hardly be re-stated often enough. The answer to the blindness of darkness is light And sight.
Few believe in an interactive Devil much less minions staging an elaborate conspiracy.
Of course one hardly need identify architects of evil while choosing to ignore it.
Just switch off the lights in a closed room to see that nothing is as suddenly and completely opportunistic as darkness... Except light! (Switch light on).
To what extent are modern 1st World lifestyles the product of human wisdom, Divine providence and/or devilish cunning?
Ant like in reasoning, billions follow tiny chemical trails of thought laid out by their colony practically largely unaware of Heaven above and hell below.
I love the movie "Reign if Fire" as metaphor. Our Enemy has spiritually, and too often physically, left the world a smoldering waist land. So much so one wonders if any left among us can "bring down the Beast." The movie's dragons were nearly impossible to slay. Reality is far worse, seeing ours are as wise as they are ancient, immaterial and they've not just killed but enslaved mankind, "taking them captive to do His will."
Gabriel, the arch angel of message, was so resisted by the Prince of Persia that he battled for 3 weeks with Michael the arch angel of war to break through to deliver God's message to Daniel. What of we who dwell under the blackened blood red shadow cast by the Prince of Abortion to whom we have sacrificed 2 billion (8 times Earth population in Daniel's day) of our children?
Modern Israel's forced vigilance against invasion and terrorist attack reveals the reality of a militarizes state seeking to defend rather than suppress its citizens. The earthly church "militant" could learn much from their zeal. But who in Churchianity has eyes to see the danger surrounding us? Israel's drowning in a sea of Muslim hostility, we in deadly temptations. Their land is filled with clarion calls to worship Islam's false God and prophet five times a day. We are enticed to give our soul in adoration to the lusts of the media every hour or half hour on hundreds of channels in HD clarity and convenience.
Christianity's either a cruise or battleship. Those insisting on the most pleasant aspects of either find neither.
Should Satan and his hosts be as great a foe as it would appear from a thorough reading of scripture (see Eternity...The Wager) what hope dies a man have when in comparison the entire human race was born yesterday only to die tomorrow? Perhaps no more chance to prevail than that of a well placed microbe. See War of the Worlds.
It's been noted that the perfect crime requires not getting away with it but pinning it another. This being the case, who has been a more perfect criminal than the Devil.
It was the “best of times”, the “worst of times” and the end of time.
Is a blind army an asset or liability?
Spiritually, If we're not soldiers we're prisoners or casualties. There are no civilians.
From an angelic point if view, humanity as a whole was born yesterday and dies tomorrow. How serious a foe is mankind to Satan's host seeing we keep upright be means of toes.
Other Modern Proverb topics include:
- God
- Living Faith
- Salvation
- Prayer
- Miracles
- Revival
- Sin
- Repentance
- Churchianity
- The Kingdom
- Judgment
- Pro-Life
- Reward
- Human Condition
- Emotion
- Strategy
- Theology
- Personal
- Family
- General Observations
- 2,000 New Observations 2011-2017
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