How
to Overcome Terrorism
As I record my thoughts today
(1/19/15) I do so in light of an insight
I had two days ago.
BACKGROUND: There is a trilogy
of books called the "Final Quest
Series" written by Rick Joyner. The first book in the series was
"The Final Quest", first published in 1996. I was given a copy by
a friend, and it has been a major influence in my life, although there
are some significant shortfalls in the revelation of God's kingdom in
that book. I believe that this is due to the fact that no one is
given the whole picture by God, so we have to rely on Him to help us to
discern what is from Him and what is from our own understanding, and to
connect the true pieces in a manner which helps us to accomplish God's
will in our own lives and to help others to do so as well.
The major revelation to me in this
book was the crucial importance of
humility, and the need for us to seek God's help in knowing the truth
about ourselves in order to attain real humility.
The second book in the Final Quest
Series was The Call, published in
1999. It continued the visions and analysis of those visions
which were given to Rick Joyner.
The main revelation to me in this
book was the fact that spiritually
minded/hearted people can experience resistance not only from God's
enemies, but also from those who consider themselves to be God's
friends!
The third book in that series is The
Torch and The Sword, published in
2003.
There were two main topics of
revelation to me in this book. The
first was the leadership issues which are common to 'the church'.
The second was the war being waged against the valley and those living
in the valley by the evil army.
THE INSIGHT
The insight I received last Saturday
(1/17/15) had to do with the third
book in this series, The Torch and The Sword.
The world is experiencing an upheaval
due to Radical Islamic Terrorism
which appears to me to be unparalleled in recent history. There
has been an upsurge of terrorist activities in the Middle East as well
as in Europe and other places. It dawned upon me that the evil
army in The Torch and The Sword was a representation of these
terrorists. Their stated ultimate goal is to rule the world, and
their immediate goals appear to kill and to steal and to destroy
whatever they want to kill and steal and destroy while subjugating
people whom they consider to be 'infidels' to death and slavery.
One focus of these terrorists' rage is the land of Israel and the
Jewish people. They are simply jealous that the One True God
chose the children of Israel to be His messengers to the nations to
declare and to exhibit His righteousness and goodness to mankind.
Their jealousy appears to me to be a supernatural jealousy. hmmm
In this book Rick Joyner and a little
girl (aged 12 or so) are in a
beautiful valley by God's stream of living water, and the evil army is
advancing in their direction, threatening to annihilate them.
WARNING:
(If you want to read the book and
find out what happens for yourself,
dear reader, please stop here and get the books! Otherwise read
on if you want my insights including a disclosure of what happens in
the end of The Torch and The Sword.)
The solution in the book to the evil
army's advance is to give the
enemy soldiers a drink from the stream of Living Water! The
result is that any enemy soldiers who taste the Living Waters is
disarmed and turned into a devoted seeker of the Living Waters!
I believe that this represents the
fact that the world does not seem to
have an answer to the anger and frustration of the people who have
turned to Radical Islam to attain their personal goals. This is
due to the fact that God's people have failed to walk in the love of
God, and instead have trusted in their own understanding and their own
affections to build a kingdom 'for God'.
On January 20, 1994, God poured out
His love on a little congregation
of His people gathered in a room in the terminal building of the
Toronto International Airport in Toronto, Canada. The resulting
'Toronto Revival' has transformed the lives of many people, and has
spread worldwide, but 'the church' has almost uniformly rejected the
outpouring of God's love! I have witnessed church leaders sit in
revival meetings in which people were being touched significantly by
the Holy Spirit in transformational ways, but these church leaders sat
with their arms folded, rejecting this 'foolishness' for themselves and
'their congregations'.
Why? I submit that this is a
manifestation of pride of heart in
those who reject God's love and God's ways. I also submit that we are
all guilty of rejecting God in one way of another, either overtly or
covertly.
And what is the remedy for such an
affliction? I believe that it
can be found in a little passage in a little book of the Jewish Bible
(called the Old Testament by Christians).
I was told about this passage by a
church lady who had been a part of a
pastoral search committee which had hired a pastor who had not worked
out well in their congregation. She had asked God why their
choice had not worked out, and He referred her to Obadiah 3:
Oba 1:3 The
pride of your heart
has deceived you, dwelling in the clefts of the rock; his dwelling is
lofty, saying in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?
Oba 1:4 Though you rise high as the eagle, and though you set
your nest between the stars, I will bring you down from there, declares
Jehovah.
This
interesting passage is addressed, in translations of the original text,
to someone named 'Edom'. But I suspect that it is included in the
Holy Scriptures by the Holy Spirit because it applies to mankind -
'Adam' if you will, rather than Edom.
At any rate, my observation over the
years is that pride has been the
source of all of the evil which has happened throughout the ages.
Pride drove Adolph Hitler and his Nazis to try to rule the world
because they were convinced that the 'Aryan Race' was superior to all
other humans. They thought that they were the 'chosen people of
God' just as the Radical Islamic Terrorists believe that they are the
chosen people of God. And pride drove the communists to kill,
steal and destroy millions of people whom they considered to be
inferior to themselves. And pride has driven every nation which
wanted to dominate others.
But pride also rules in our hearts,
and we seldom realize it.
Pride causes one person to be jealous of someone else who gets what the
proud person believes should belong to him or her. We should be
happy for blessings to come to others, but our pride prevents us from
such a happy and harmonious attitude!
So, who can save us from such
destructive attitudes of heart?
Thanks be to God, Who has given His Son, Jesus, not only to pay
for our sins, but to die and be born again to generate the grace which
we all need to die to selfishness and to live for God rather than for
ourselves!!!
I have observed that every true
Christian knows that Jesus died to save
them from their sins, but hardy anyone knows that Jesus died and rose
again that we might no longer live for ourselves, but for God! (2
Corinthians 5:15) As a result, we have enjoyed the first grace of
forgiveness of the sins which we recognize in ourselves, but we have
failed to benefit from the grace of God which alone is able to
perfectly form the nature of God in our lives!!!
By the way, I do not claim to have
this revelation because of some
special ability I have. I know from the Bible that God chooses
the nobodies of the world to shame those who think that they are
somebody. So I conclude that when He began to show me the truth
about myself in 1976, it was to establish me as a 'nobody' whom He
could use to minister to others. [Grin] And as I look back
over my life, I can see that all of my trials and tribulations have
resulted in me seeing something in myself (which I could not see by
myself) which God wanted to get rid of so that He could improve my life
with a fuller impartation of His Spirit in me. And I have been
amazed at how stubbornly I have adhered to myself while God patiently
and as gently as possible continues His gracious work in my life.
To Him be all glory, honor and praise now and evermore, through our
Lord Jesus Christ!!!!
I have come to suspect that I am not
the only one with whom God is
working so patiently and gently. If you, dear reader, can
identify with me in this perspective, please recognize that it is
because God loves His creation and His creatures, and wants the best
for all, and for all to die to selfishness and to live in His goodness
and generosity by abiding in Jesus as a branch of a vine has live only
if it is connected to the vine.
There is an interesting passage where
God cuts branches off of a wild
vine, and grafts them into His cultivated vine. I believe that is
God's plan for each of us creatures, but we tend to hang onto the wild
vine even as we are being grafted into the cultivated vine! The
result is that we maintain a degree of wildness while the new live of
God begins to work in us. This, I believe, is the cause of there
being a mixture of goodness and evil in all of our lives. Yes, we
are created by God for good, but all we as sheep have gone astray from
Him after our own ways, and are guilty of treason against God and His
Kingdom. Fortunately God does not just destroy us and create a
new batch of creatures, but He patiently lets us go astray from Him
until the light dawns in our hearts that life in the confines of
Father's house is better than living away from Father and suffering the
consequences of relying on ourselves and others!
How long does it take for the light
to dawn? You tell me, dear
reader, if you have come to a dawning of understanding of the truth
about yourself, or if you are still in the darkness of denial of the
truth and the delusion that you are right in spite of the evidence to
the contrary!! It didn't take me long to realize that He could
not do any worse in managing my life than I was doing!
[grin] After that realization the decision to surrender to Jesus
as Savior and Lord was easy!! That was the best decision I ever
made, and thank God for the new life I have in Christ!!!!
[biggest grin]
rharms@woh.rr.com