Phyllis Beveridge Nissila

Those Abominations

I always imagine that those in modern times up to no good who peep and mutter in the dark places behind the curtains; who huddle in hushed circles behind locked doors; and who hide in secluded chambers and mute all recording devices–thinking no one will ever find out what they’re up to–are akin to those who performed all manner of abominations inside the very walls of the Temple, the apostates and demoniacs God showed Ezekiel in ancient times (Ezekiel 8:1-18).

(It’s a good but also kind of intense read, if the reader is unfamiliar. But to perform his ministry of warning and prophecy, Ezekiel was in the “need to know” category.)

As the saying goes, “you can run but you can’t hide”–especially from the Omniscient.

And in the fullness of times God blows the whistle, performs the miracle, delivers His people from disaster, reveals the next part of the eternal plan, etc.,  to those with eyes to see and ears to hear that they would “run with it” according to their individual commission (preaching, teaching, witnessing, and all other forms of ministry) to those in need.

A few commissions come from high places and impact millions of people, but most commissions do not. They are accomplished in homes, workplaces, and prayer closets, wherever God needs us all to be about His business. Particuarly in these, what both believers and non-believers alike agree, are unprecedented times.

But although the world might have its dark secrets and get away with them for a season, the revelations of what’s on the horizon are always available–in biblical prophecy.

You might say that through prophecy, what’s on the horizon is hidden in plain sight, accessible to anyone willing to study the approximately 25-30% of the ancient text dealing with the future (what once was and what is to come) in the Bible.

I say “hidden in plain sight” because although the book is purported to be the best-selling spiritual, historical, and prophetic anthology of all time, many people will not open it having believed only its critics and/or its enemies. Or they will open it, read it, and co-opt it for their own nefarious reasons.

But nowhere else are all the events of the future outlined as clearly as they are in this book, the details presented as best they could be at the time given the knowledge constraints of ancient days in describing modern days. Check it out, if you haven’t, while it is still available.

How to figure it out?

By first getting to know the Author (here’s a good explanation of how to proceed and why), and secondly, by taking a look at the work products of prophecy experts particularly those with insights for what’s going on just now.

A search engine foray into myriad information sources on that topic will start that adventure, particularly concerning the ancient descriptions of modern technological innovations that the writers of old could hardly imagine let alone actually view, yet described. Check out just this one example.

But the purpose of my post today is mainly to encourage believers in the ways of God and His plans and to perhaps give others something to seriously consider away from the emotion-grabbing, thought-stopping rhetoric of rage on the streets and in many politically-polarized minds and hearts, these unprecedented days.

Because all of that evil will come to no good end, as is inevitably and historically what happens. Happened in Ezekiel’s day; will also, in ours.

That Verse

I hope to do this by way of highlighting a discreet, humble, often overlooked handful of words tucked inside Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, yet these few lines are more telling than all the opposition with its sophisticated bombs and bombastics that, to date, have yet to achieve the ultimate goal of evil: annihilation of its opposition (and the Opposition). The main and eternal reason why it can’t, won’t, and never could is revealed in the verse.

Here’s the little powerhouse:

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. (1 Corinthians 1:25, NIV)

And God’s ways and means most often include ordinary people, events, and machinations tucked inside ordinary days that nobody would suspect are any kind of not only temporal but also eternal significance.

This explains why to man’s eyes, for example, the King of Kings was born a helpless babe–like every other helpless babe–in an animal shelter, to two ordinary humans, one of whom was already under suspicion for being pregnant before marriage. But in God’s plan, it was a very successful stealth occupation, you might say, because people were not looking for a Messiah to be born in some random manger.

This could explain, too, in a sense, why another baby was found in a basket on the Nile and “by sheer chance and luck” ends up in the royal court, later to lead the Isrealites out of slavery and into the Promised Land.

This might also give a clue as to why so many social and religious outliers were given powerful revelations–or by their stories revealed powerful information–about God, His only Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

In this group, consider: St. Paul the Christian-killer prior to his conversion on the road to Damascus; Zaccheus a despised tax collector; Rahab, the prostitute, who helped Joshua in the battle of Jericho and whose name is listed in the lineage of Jesus; and innumerable others from what mankind considered the dregs of society, thus overlooked or simply scorned.

Happens now, too. Indeed, every believer in every era is part of the spiritual motley crew, as it were, if you think about it, in one way or another, for this or that or those reasons, and saved by the same grace.

These were–and we are–the very same heroes and saints of old and new who possess the kind of hearts God looks for to accomplish significant work in the narratives of both spiritual and temporal history, for, as it is written,

The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Corinthians 16:9, NLT)

I mean, people in the world would never look to such as the biblical characters mentioned, or to most of us, as VIP material…or pay much attention…or certainly not heed any warnings or prophecies they/we might have to offer…

And yet the Bible is replete with such unsuspected, unvarnished and/or unacceptable characters in the world’s eyes who accomplished extraordinary things–in full view of the eyes of evil ever peeled for prey. And there are accounts today as well.

Here are several other ways to explain how God always accomplishes His plans in plain sight and fools even the best conjurers the world pays big bucks for, with special recognition given the babe in the manger who grew up to be our Savior, for He alone was not among the crew, but was, is, and will always be the Savior of same:

For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. (1 Corinthians 1:21)

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

In other words, to man, God’s ways and means are all stuff and nonsense, myth and legend, foolishness, but if you think about that, hmmm, it might just be another of God’s stealth operations.

For the best example, evil personified was assuredly not looking–waiting and armed–for its arch nemesis, Jesus, God’s Son, in a dusty, smelly animal shelter. But God had foretold it through prophecy, and His people were ready.

In a similar vein of thought,

The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.* (1 Corinthians 2:14, emphasis mine) 

Given God’s perfect track record of pulling off the most extraordinary things at the exact time prophesied, I wouldn’t necessarily look to the world today for the smart, connected, well-healed and ivy league types for deliverance from the current mess we’ve got ourselves into.

Nor would I look to the biggest, most powerful nations, or, for that matter, the smallest, weakest ones.

But God knows.

And His benchmarks of success rarely match mankind’s.

And come to pass at just the right time, the fullness of same.

One more thing, as a companion to the above Scriptures on all this spiritual–invisible, if you will–activity and to point out also that God is able to “hide” both His plans and His people from those in pursuit, consider the ramifications of the following:

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

So mankind just never knows–nor does our real enemy behind the scenes–where, what, when, how, why, and through whom God will accomplish His plans.

And some part of those plans are embedded inside every believer’s ministry.

This Day and Age

As to why God seems to be revealing so much just now that’s been hidden in the anterooms of evil in high places, especially prophecies related to technology, I think one reason is to prompt–more like light a fire beneath–believers to be about “our Father’s business” in what ways we can: reaching out with the Good News of salvation to those for whom we are in the “need to know” category, e.g., family members, friends, and co-workers.

Because who else is most qualified for the job? Has enough inside intel, so to speak?

And because the time might be very short for those remaining to turn to Jesus Christ for salvation, guidance, instruction, comfort, hope, clarity of mind and spirit, and ultimate deliverance from evil there is more work to be done of a more urgent nature in what many regard as the prophetic “eleventh hour”.

The harvest is, by most prophetic accounts, white in the fields.**

Carry on.

~~~~~

*In yesterday’s post I covered in part the topic of how to be in a position to be able to receive spiritual information, spiritually transmitted, so to speak.

**Even if you have come to the harvest late and doubt you can be of much help, be encouraged.