Phyllis Beveridge Nissila

Tucked in-between all the (increasing) political hoopla and (decreasing) hope concerning what has been transpiring in Washington D.C. of late regarding the “impeachment hearings” and Senate trial to follow, one little-discussed factor is coming more and more to light: conviction of the real criminals may not happen.

Even in the Senate.

Yup.

Sorry.

That remaining flicker of hope in real justice finally coming due looks like it’s nigh snuffed out, that is, what many are desperately waiting for, as in the cross examinations of the real criminals suggested in the newly-minted Inspector General report, “Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation” is likely not going to happen.

Why do I say this?

Consider just these few reports here, here, and especially here that detail the why and how of this very discouraging news.

Oh, the Senate will probably render the House impeachment (that happened minutes ago) DOA, but as to any of the real criminals being held accountable, the real traitors, bribers, quid-pro-quo-ers, obstructionists, abusers of power, etc. being convicted, that is not likely to happen. Soon, anyway.

Of course, as noted in the reports, we are assured this is for a good cause. They want to put a quick end to tearing the country apart further and just get this thing over with and behind us. And such like.

CYNIC ALERT:  Couldn’t have ANYthing to do with how much deeper, wider, and higher the stuff of the (deep) state really is, of course, right?

I mean, we wouldn’t want TOO much investigation, now, just in case the surface-level criminals who go about with smirks on their faces displaying an uncanny amount of arrogance (not to mention seeming to have a GREAT deal of confidence that they won’t suffer any real consequences) aren’t the ONLY ones involved in that which smells to high heaven underfoot…

But that discouraging, if predictable, news is not the focus of this post because, well, to more and more disappointed Americans, the beat simply seems to go on in the D.C. swamp.

And ordinary Americans can only do so much to counter the expansive evil as we lack the power, money, and position to do much more besides vote (hoping the voting mechanisms aren’t hacked), peacefully protest, pray, run for office ourselves, and/or fundraise for the remaining few officials who seem to be the good guys and gals.

But in spite of the sorry state of affairs, what yet encourages me these days is the much bigger, prophetic picture, the real “behind the scenes” realm where good and evil clash and good, at length, wins.

Because just as, it seems, humanity has exercised its lesser angels and corrupted will to the point of no return, God delivers those who turn to Him for help.

For He, too, knows that if you give a flawed human a free will, what shines and seduces may prove too much to resist.

But, still, greater is He…and His love always outshines and outpowers the purveyors of corruption crowding the halls of fame and influence and everywhere else, tearing down nations, controlling minds, and crushing spirits.

If the purveyors can get away with it.

This is the kind of awareness, i.e., the prophetic, that helps keep my mind calm, emotions in check, and spirit increasingly hopeful, despite what mayhem may ensue (which is also part of prophecy, as in it’s usually pretty dark before the dawn of truth, justice, and deliverance).

This real behind-the-scenes is a glimpse of God’s deliverance from evil, His justice that begins in the spirit and emerges in the material.

It’s about His justice coming through just when, it would seem from our perch, all hope is lost.

And we may well be getting close to a 21st century replay of something very similar to what occurred ages ago (see below) when the people on earth were also deep in the muck and mire of depravity and a righteous man called Noah was commissioned by God to prepare a means of escape–which he completed in the nick of time.

This story is, I believe, a good reminder for these days, lest we succumb to the real enemy of our minds, emotions, spirits–and system of Judeo/Christian-based governance–by becoming too discouraged and giving up.

Hope “In the Days of Noah”

Many prophecy scholars and students cite evidence that we are in what are termed “the last days” (of the so-called Church Age) which Jesus compared to Noah’s:

³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; (Matthew 24:37-38, NIV).

Because…

⁵ The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5)

I mean, doesn’t this sound eerily like these very days, and not just in the U.S. but across the globe?

Many, spiritual and secular alike, talk about sensing something BIG, and not good, is about to happen (while others, mostly in the shadows, are preparing at least some of it…).

But Noah’s story isn’t the only evidence of God’s justice–and His deliverance (just in time). Indeed, His intervention seems to be a pattern throughout history, not only spiritual but also human history.

For a few more examples besides Noah and his family’s rescue, think of the rescue of the Israelites from Egypt, of Lot and members of his family from Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the Jews in Esther’s time who were destined for genocide but spared by her courageous intervention*.

If one thing can be discerned from a close read of God’s ways and means of saving and delivering His people of Old and of New Testaments, it is that He is a God of patterns, then, today, and always.

Which is something that not only informs but also encourages and strengthens.

Thus, no matter our discouragement here in the United States just now over a government gone wild, or the discouragement innumerable other people in other lands are experiencing where they live, and where, for all of us, the corruption of absolute power tends to consume those in charge of things–or who think they are in charge–there is One Who really is and Who, if we accept His invitation, waits to enfold us in the “shelter of His wings” so to speak, a place of sound mind, peaceful spirit, and firm resolve, to see us through what may well come. For, as David put it,

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; (Psalm 24:1) 

For, as the Holy Spirit through the prophet Isaiah adds,

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:10, NLT)

And don’t forget to look up from time to time, for our redemption, what it will look like here in the twenty-first century, may well be nigh.

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It occurs to me that what is linked a couple of lines below might also be of some comfort and encouragement to the reader today. It is a free, downloadable collection of reflections on the verses of Psalm 91 entitled “In the Midst of the Fray” featuring some modern-day true stories of God’s help and deliverance.

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*The Esther story might be an especially appropriate comparison to the times we are in because the man who would have destroyed God’s people ultimately hung on his own gallows. Only today, there would be more than one hanging there, as it were, by evidence even now (finally) emerging…