This message is for me and anyone else who needs these words at this time.

Maybe you’ve been there: A pivotal moment when discomfiting realization washed over you, after years of believing you had correct understanding about something. One such moment happened for me while reading the Bible, when I saw clearly, from the Word of God, that what I’d believed about this world, religion, God, and all that goes with this was deeply flawed – and in many matters, grossly incorrect – if I were to believe God and His Word, which I do. If you’re one who “sees the writing on the wall” for the days we’re in, and if you care about your eternal destination, grab a beverage and get comfortable: some things need to be said here.

Apologies to anyone unfamiliar with the movie The Matrix (the first one, that is; ignore the other two). We are in a Matrix: The screenwriters got that right. In the movie and in the Bible, there was a devastating, scorched-earth war. In the Bible, a new Earth was formed but taken over by the Enemy. In the movie, “reality” that didn’t exist was made to seem believable, with the real, decimated world and the false one run by Agents. There are Agents (of Lucifer) in our Matrix, though we call them politicians, bureaucrats, Deep State, and so forth. We find them in every facet of society, including religion. (Did you see that the Pope just told children/the world we don’t need Jesus?)

As did the Agents in the movie, our Agents also use humans as batteries to sustain them and their lifestyles, through taxes or – other means. They assign numbers to us as we enter this world, as every prison inmate receives. They poison minds and souls, for sure, but also food, water, and air so we need their medical treatments that cost a bundle and sometimes heal and often make everything worse, even unto death, and which supply and fatten bank accounts of many arms of this “octopus.” We even supply babies and children for … either you know or you don’t; either you want to know or you don’t. Either way, WE ARE THEIR COPPER-TOPS.

To be candid, I still struggle with changing my mental and relational grasp regarding this: The Matrix illusion is so clever, and I’ve lived it for nearly all the decades of my life, until 2016. Yet, there is still a struggle inside me, like the character (Cypher) in the movie who wanted to remain oblivious in the Matrix so he could eat the steak, even though he knew it was an illusion. But then I remind myself of who my God is, what Messiah Jesus did to rescue me, others, and the groaning world, and Who took back the keys of death and the grave from our Enemy and His. But the struggle continues. God knew this, and we’re told in Romans 8 that the carnal mind is hostile toward God. More about that in a bit.

I’m frustrated no one ever told me – nor told most of us – that we exist in a spiritual war happening on a doomed prison planet, and that a major role of our opponent in this war is to persuade as many people as possible that the spiritual war is an illusion and all is well, for the most part. You can almost hear a smarmy circus ringleader, arms outstretched, say in a peppy yet “assuring” sing-song voice, “This is your best life now. Enjoy!” Watch this 6:20-minute: John MacArthur Rebukes Joel Osteen (youtube.com)

In John 18:37, Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” He was looking Truth in the face and couldn’t see Him for Who He was – is. Pilate believed the Matrix illusion, as so many of us still do. Even those who’ve spent a lifetime in church, Bible study, reading the Word – can still be Olsteened, in whatever form that takes – as long as it “tickles” our ears with what we want to hear rather than the truth found in God’s Word – His Journal, Manual, and GPS created for us: He even, by His grace and mercy, re-calibrates for us when we err.

A solid truth is that Messiah Jesus did not willingly go through that “bloody sacrificial death” so we could have our best life now. He did it to set us free by unlocking our mental-prison doors, yet allowing us our free will to decide whether to stay inside our familiar (doomed) existence or join Him in this temporary spiritual warfare and rescue mission, until the Harvest is complete. I don’t recall if I heard or read this accurate statement: Hell is the prison that locks from the inside. That’s a statement to ponder regarding every aspect of our lives. I also STRONGLY recommend you watch Jamie Walden’s “HARVEST TIME,” link provided below.

Having a King and Lord is not easy for those who possess the typical American mentality. The spirit of this country’s people, born here or legally immigrated here, is independence. We’re not used to or conditioned to a ruler who has the right to command anything of or from us. It’s a reason we balk at certain socialized programs and their umbrellas of Socialism, Marxism, Communism, and these days we must also include Luciferianism – all leading to the brief, albeit horrific, soon-to-happen rule of the Anti-christ. The closest we come to being willing to be commanded is through military and or certain first responder service, and that takes either a person born with a true heart for service or gets birthed into a person through training as part of a team. Or put there by God, as He replaces stony hearts with hearts of flesh at the right time in an individual.

God understands this lack in our nature, but He cannot excuse it past a certain point. At some point in time, all who choose to follow Him need to leave spiritual boot camp and get onto the field of battle. Spiritual warfare requires those with a heart desiring and willing to serve their Commander, Who is also their King and Lord, Who left His throne to come here to teach, to be an example, and then to be God’s Sacrificial Lamb in our place so that our personal prison cells could be unlocked through His shed blood, though leaving it up to us whether we cross that threshold or not. However, He does not set us free to party or lounge, but to join the spiritual warfare rescue mission. Jesus has won the Victory: though the battle is His, participating in the rescue is part of our mission.

Before you panic about this – what God may require of you, you’ve noticed those God saves are of all ages and states of health and financial means and various pasts. Human tendency is to panic, which is satanic, not godly, and to mentally turn in circles like someone with their foot in a shoe they nailed to the floor, moving but going nowhere. This is a worldly trap of “You have to do something! Right now! To make up for what you haven’t been doing!” That’s a load of Satan: Get a person so busy, confusing activity for productivity, whether physical or mental/emotional, so they won’t “be still” before the Lord, on their knees in prayer or in the Word, so God can speak to their hearts about what HE wants them to do. Unless He answers immediately, we are to “wait in the Word and in prayer,” and not for some “flash of inspiration” that may not be from God at all. Jamie Walden, in his “GET IN THE FIGHT” sermon (link provided below) gives a brilliant explanation of the ways God may ask us to serve Him. It’s a must-watch video, especially if you believe you’re beyond being useful to Him, for whatever reason (age, health, finances, location, education, etc.).

Here’s the thing about our participation: To be a true, proper warrior or fighter in God’s Army, we have to empty ourselves of ourselves so His Holy Spirit can live in us. That’s the only way to receive direct instructions from our Commander of God’s Army – Messiah, King, and Lord – Jesus. A. W. Tozer has a small published booklet titled, How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit. In it Tozer asks the questions every would-be follower of Jesus should be given, to – as Jesus said, “Count the cost,” before agreeing to follow Him throughout our lives, however long or brief that may be. To be clear: It’s not about works or anything we can do, it’s only and always a matter of the heart, which is something Holy Spirit made clear to me in 2017, in those exact words.

For example, Tozer wrote: “Are you sure that you want your personality to be taken over by One who will expect obedience to the written and living Word? Are you sure that you want your personality to be taken over by One who will not tolerate the self sins? For instance, self-love. You can no more have the Holy Ghost and have self-love than you can have purity and impurity at the same moment in the same place. He will not permit you to indulge self-confidence. Self-love, self-confidence, self-righteousness, self-admiration, self-aggrandizement, and self-pity are under the interdiction of God Almighty, and He cannot send His mighty Spirit to possess the heart where these things are.”

Did you, too, feel the sting of those words? There are several more pages of similar, pointed questions Tozer posed, which I’ve marked in that booklet for deeper conversation about with my God, because I am certainly still giving tenancy to those things in some measure, even if I don’t want to. They are habits developed over a lifetime of trying to survive in an often-hostile environment and being told by society that it’s up to us to fix everything, to come up with every answer, and to appear clever or brilliant while doing so.

No one, prior to 2016 – later actually, ever brought any such personal queries to my attention about what it means to be a follower of Jesus (except Jamie Walden who does say, “You better count the cost!”) so that the day I stand before Jesus, I won’t hear what He spoke of in Matthew 7, where it ends with, “I never knew you.” It isn’t about whether we know His name, but whether He knows ours, which is a metaphor for how committed we were/are to receiving Him as Who He is to and for us, with a heart’s desire to spend eternity with Him, and not be solely recipients of “fire insurance.” This must happen according to His qualifications, not our preferences. Do we know our God – not know about Him, but know Him? To know someone, you must spend much time with them, speak to them, listen to them, watch them – as in any close relationship, especially bridegroom and bride/loving husband and wife, which is why He uses that metaphor throughout His Word. Do you speak to God as someone you know well or hardly at all? Are your prayers   “preacher-formal,” or worse, formulaic or repetition of the same prayer, which He said in His Word not to do – or as a son or daughter speaking to a revered, beloved father?

We cannot do what we need to do on our own: We need Jesus. We need His Holy Spirit to reside within us. This means we need to clean house. Clean up our thoughts and words. Clean up our act, as it were, so we can be like His followers in the book of Acts.

From Tozer’s book, I Call It Heresy, “The popular and accepted manner of life is followed by the average man, not because he thinks that is all there is, but because he really doesn’t think about it at all…. It is only after we yield to Jesus Christ and begin to follow Him that we become concerned about the laxity and thoughtlessness of our daily lives. We begin to grieve about the way we have been living and we become convicted that there should continue to be aimlessness and futility and carelessness in our Christian walk.

“I have been forced to admit that one of the things hardest for me to understand and try to reconcile is the complete aimlessness of so many Christians’ lives…. We have been schooled theologically to excuse this kind of Christian life on the basis of weakness and frailty, and we tell ourselves that it is not really sinful. Personally, I think there must be some kind of limit to the time that believers can continue their selfish and aimless habits of life without bordering on sin!

“Actually, I think that we can get so prodigal with our talents and so careless with our time and so aimless with our activities that we will be faced with the fact of sin in our lives—for we know what we should do and what we should be, but we would rather excuse our failure!”

Again I ask, Did you, too, feel the sting of that as well? Hear what Jamie Walden says in “THE HARVEST” about reaping what we sow. Major sting … or major joy.

Does this mean God wants us to become paupers? Take a moment to listen to or read this very brief sharing from David Wilkerson, who mistakenly believed this and how God corrected him: Victory in Christ’s Sufferings | worldchallenge.org

If you can/will take one more possible sting for spiritual growth purposes, here’s this one from The Epistle of Jude: An Uncompromising Message for A Compromised Generation by Michael Boldea, Jr.

“It’s not as though the Bible doesn’t warn us about deceivers and deception; we ignored it because we liked what the deceivers had to say. The deception they peddled was soothing to the flesh, and when they gave us the option of having our cake and eating it too, of going to heaven but living like hell, we jumped at the chance.

“It didn’t matter that what they said contradicted the Bible; all that mattered was that we could roll in the mud without the guilt of feeling dirty or the effort of cleaning ourselves up. Everyone was saved, but no one lived like it, and if anyone dared to point out the inconsistency of character, the absence of fruit, the worldliness the newly minted soldiers of the cross continued to exhibit long after they ought to have known the way of righteousness, the chorus of works salvation was so shrieking and loud that it drowned out every other voice….

“To those with itching ears, Jude’s Epistle is akin to an incessantly blaring horn, something they feel the need to circumvent and distance themselves from because he does not allow for the wishy-washy, half-hearted devotion that has become so prevalent in today’s contemporary church. Jude’s message is clear: If you are of the faith, contend for the faith. If you are of the light, then be light. If you believe the truth is worth fighting for, fight for it as though your life depended on it.

“If viewed through the prism of compromise this generation has adopted, Jude’s message would be deemed caustic, divisive, unloving, and needlessly cruel. It is often ignored, overlooked, and marginalized because it is direct and unwavering, and nowadays, such boldness is anathema.” (That word “divisive” – be sure to watch Jamie Walden’s video, link at the end, “THE SIFTING,” and be prepared to hear unvarnished biblical truth. Also watch Boldea’s video, “HOW MUCH TIME DO WE HAVE LEFT?”)

From The Jesus You Can’t Ignore: What You Must Learn From the Bold Confrontation of Christ by John MacArthur:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:3-12) [*Personal note: Not a word there from Jesus about making this your best life now.]

“The order is significant. The more faithfully a person lives out the first seven beatitudes, the more he or she will experience the persecution spoken of in the eighth.

“All those qualities are radically at odds with the world’s values. The world esteems pride more than humility; loves merriment rather than mourning; thinks strong-willed assertiveness is superior to true meekness; and prefers the satiety of carnal pleasure over a thirst for real righteousness. The world looks with utter contempt on holiness and purity of heart, scorns every plea to make peace with God, and constantly persecutes the truly righteous. Jesus could hardly have devised a list of virtues more at odds with His culture.”

Back to I Call It Heresy by Tozer: I got to his segment with the header, Save your life by losing it. “The Christian saves his own life by losing it and he is in danger of losing it by trying to save it…. Another strange thing about him is that he is strongest when he is weakest and weakest when he is strongest. It is God’s principle in his life that his strength lies in his weakness for when he gets up thinking that he is strong he is always weak. However, when he gets down on his knees thinking he is weak, he is always strong!”

AND, I finally understood what was being said.

Anyone who says they follow Messiah Jesus, but wants to remain on or save this doomed prison planet, no matter what that requires or who might suffer (e.g. sex-trafficked children), doesn’t understand God’s truth or His promises. Anyone who relies on his/her personal strength, doesn’t understand the truth of this prison planet and who his/her God is and what He’s willing to do for His sons and daughters. I’m not talking about taking logical care of ourselves: We are to be a temple for our holy God to live in and operate through. I’m talking about being afraid to speak up about Jesus and His truth because of potential disapproval or persecution or even being martyred (aka fearing man more than God). Or believing we must have every solution to every situation, rather than first turning to God to find out what He wants.

The wrong choice about this makes clear to God that we choose ourselves and or this world over Him (we become that idol He warns about). We affirm that His sacrifice to save us isn’t enough for us to trust Him implicitly and want eternal life with Him more than to stay alive here, aiming at or hanging on to that “best life now”. To choose this life, this world, is to rebuff or reject God and His promises, and to cling to this temporary life that results in eternal living-death. God prizes obedience over sacrifice. This is for our protection, though that isn’t usually explained to us. Obedience brings blessings (see Deuteronomy 28).

Jesus told us in Matthew 18:3 CJB, “Yes! I tell you that unless you change and become like little children, you won’t even enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” I revisited the paragraph above from Tozer/How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit, where count-the-cost questions were posed. That’s when Matthew 18:3 came to mind. I’d always thought of that passage in terms of trusting God in the way children are innately trusting of adults. In fact, that’s how I’d heard priests and preachers explain it. But I realized it’s so much more.

How does a toddler see his or her father? I refer to a loving, responsible, involved father. Answer: Larger than life; with much love and adoration; with reverence of a kind; with complete trust in the father for provision and protection; with obedience born out of fear of making the beloved father angry or making him sad, as well as a desire to please him. And if you revisit those questions as I did, you also see that a father would teach his child that there are always others to be considered, that not only can we share what we have with others but also find joy in doing so, when we are a cheerful sharer. (This does not refer to forced “equity” by government taking from us what we’ve earned, more than what they should need to do their job).

We find something related in Spurgeon on Prayer & Spiritual Warfare: “Never expect that the King of heaven will pardon a traitor if he will not confess and forsake his treason. Even the tenderest father expects the child to humble himself when he has offended, and he will not withdraw his frown from him until with tears the child has said, ‘Father, I have sinned’…. Would you have Him ignore your faults and wink at your transgressions? He will have mercy, but He must be holy. He is ready to forgive but not to tolerate sin. Therefore, He cannot let you be forgiven if you hug your sins or if you presume to say, ‘I have not sinned.’”

Back to Tozer on the Holy Spirit, challenging me and perhaps one or more readers here:

“Again, are you sure that you need to be filled? Can’t you get along the way you are? You have been doing fairly well: You pray, you read your Bible, you give to missions, you enjoy singing hymns, you thank God you don’t drink or gamble or attend theaters, that you are honest, that you have prayer at home. You are glad about all this. Can’t you get along like that? Are you sure you need any more than that? I want to be fair with you. I want to do what Jesus did: He turned around to them when they were following Him and told them the truth. I don’t want to take you in under false pretense. “Are you sure you want to follow Me?’ He asked, and a great many turned away. But Peter said, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou has the words of eternal life.’ And the crowd that wouldn’t turn away was the crowd that made history. The crowd that wouldn’t turn back was the crowd that was there when the Holy Ghost came and filled all the place where they were sitting. The crowd that turned back never knew what it was all about….

“There are some of you who are not ready for this sermon at all. You are trying to face both ways at once. You are trying to take some of this world and to get some of that world over yonder. You are a Christian, but I am talking about an advance upon the first early stages of salvation and the cultivation of the presence of the Holy Ghost, so that He may illuminate and bless and lift and purify and direct your life. You are not ready for this, because you haven’t given up all that you might have the All. You want some, but you don’t want all; that is the reason you are not ready.”

That last paragraph slaps me in my spirit. Hard. Yet…

“But maybe you feel in your heart that you just can’t go on as you are, that the level of spirituality to which you know yourself called is way beyond you. If you feel that there is something that you must have or your heart will never be satisfied, that there are levels of spirituality, mystic deeps and heights of spiritual communion, purity and power that you have never known, that there is fruit which you know you should bear and do not, victory which you know you should have and have not—I would say, ‘Come on,’ because God has something for you tonight.” – A.W. Tozer, How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit

“Those who are expecting the Lord Jesus Christ to come and who look for that coming moment by moment and who long for that coming will be busy purifying themselves. They will not be indulging in curious speculations—they will be in preparation, purifying themselves!” – A.W. Tozer, I Call It Heresy

) If you’ve read this far, I can only imagine Holy Spirit prompted you, for which I thank and praise God (He is holy) – (or you’re a relative or friend). Here is my prayer, which I invite you to join in with me:

Father, help me to be “as a little child” – childlike as an adult, not childish – who loves, adores, reveres, and obeys her/his beloved Father, You Who have proven You would die to save me – and did. Help me, Father, to walk out this way of being Yours. My flesh/ego, of course, balks and stumbles. Help me to always get up by taking Your ever-present outstretched hand. It’s been a long time since I was a toddler. But in the larger frame of eternity, I’m an infant, one who has a loving, patient Father, Who expects me to grow up and mature spiritually, according to His ways and righteousness, and into the image of His dear Son. My Father is also over all in Creation: I’m expected to represent Him – You – at all times, in thought, word, and deed, according to Your instructions left for me in Your Word. Help me, Father, to be a proper, respectful, representative daughter/son of Yours and also a spiritual warrior for my God and Commander of God’s Army, Messiah Jesus. I ask for Your help with this, Father, in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.

LINK(S)

From Jamie Walden (I cannot recommend these enough):
*HARVEST TIME: THE GREAT REAPING IS UPON US! (youtube.com)
*(101) the Suddenly: No More Warnings! – YouTube
*GET IN THE FIGHT!- (youtube.com)
*(112) HIGH STRANGENESS – YouTube
*THE SIFTING: IT IS UPON US! (youtube.com)

HOW MUCH TIME DO WE HAVE LEFT ?? INTERVIEW WITH DUMITRU DUDUMAN’S GRANDSON MICHAEL BOLDEA (youtube.com)

(142) KIB453 RaIsing a Standard in the Kingdom in Prayer – YouTube – Truly anointed teaching about how we are supposed to pray effectively.

Eager to understand more about God and His Kingdom and your role in it? No-Cost: Online teachings with Dr. Michael Lake for the Remnant or those who want to become Remnant: BLTVKP 01 Kingdom Priesthood Session 01 (youtube.com)