As it is this servant's custom to ask the Lord before the end of each year what His guidance is for us in the coming year, the Lord anticipated this request and has already provided most of the answer already. The guidance for 2023+ is based on this:
Psalm 34
1I will bless the LORD at
all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
1
Thessalonians 5
16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Philippians 4
4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5Let your reasonablenessd be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
If we rewind a couple year back to around 2020 the Lord was impressing the need for us to develop and employ our talents, skills and abilities. Now, He is adding the need to bless and rejoice always. At first glance we may look at this and think "great, seems uplifting!" And it is, but....
The fact is "they" are still working hard to eradicate millions of carbon based life forms (me and you) from the earth. "They" are using coerced injectable poisons to sterilize and euthanize. "They" are also attacking our food, water, electricity, gas/diesel supplies and communication systems. It is an all out assault on humanity and to look around at how many people are completely oblivious to it all is quite shocking. Healthy athletes in the prime of their life along with young seemingly healthy people from all other walks of life are dropping dead in their tracks every single day now and the media along with an accomplice population who seemingly does not care is of the attitude "nothing to see here!"
The command to rejoice always is not so hard to do in good times but when times get tough, we are forced to take a second look at what the Lord has asked us to do. How can we rejoice in the face of an enemy trying to eliminate us from the earth? Or how does one rejoice when they have been unjustly imprisoned etc?
The Lord is not asking us to rejoice that something bad has happened. We are being told to rejoice as a counter to the bad things. We are being told to choose our response not just let our feelings run away with a response. We are being told to engage both faith and discipline in order to do this because our "feelings" will be selling us down the river if we do not.
If the priests, pastors, politicians and press are the problems in this world, His presence, power and promises are the answers. There are two parts to the answer "how" we can rejoice in challenging times. First, we are responsible-that is response-able or able to respond. We choose our response as a matter of faith and discipline not feeling. Second, we shift our focus from the problem(s) that are local and limited to this world to His presence, power and promises that are eternal and not "of" this world but "in" this world (He will never leave us or forsake us).
This is the only way that everything in this world can be taken from a person and they are still able to rejoice, the focus has to be above and beyond this world. And, in order to do this one actually has to believe. The faith has to be real or this is all just an exercise in futility.
The bad news is the Lord is impressing on this servant we are going to need some advanced Christianity tools to face what is coming in 2023+. The good news is we have these tools and the Church remains on this earth which means restraint remains on this earth which means the enemy is on a choke chain. Yes, he/they can still inflict some widespread pain and suffering on humanity but no "they" cannot implement their new world hell order until they get their superman (the anti-Christ). And that isnt going to happen while the Restrainer is alive and well working on planet earth.
2 Thess 2
7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
We will most certainly need daily, hourly, by the moment help from the Spirit of the Lord as time moves forward. The Lord has given us everything we need to do what we have been asked to do on this earth. Keep the faith, be patient and do your job. Our job is everything the Lord told us to do in the Word and we are to do all this through the use of our God given talents skills and abilities.
This servant prays we can enjoy the balance of time we have over the holidays, then its time to buckle up. Glory to God.
Grace and peace
