The beagle dog and the way it was seated reminded me of statues I had seen previously of seated lions. These statues are in Denver, CO. - http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=45820cb6-f8cf-4c7c-ac01-525082322487. As we know from scripture, not only is Jesus Christ described in terms of a lion, but Satan is also described as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Only this seated beagle (hunting dog; warm; affectionate; playful) gives a different kind of image from the roaring lion, yet I was to see that they were one and the same. The fact that the beagle is seated means he is in a position of power and authority. And, he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He is a false teacher, a liar, a manipulator, a deceiver, and his main goal is to deceive the minds of believers in Jesus Christ and to destroy the true church.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Isaiah 36:
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field, Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.
The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah,
“‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have strategy and military strength—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man’s hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. And if you say to me, “We are depending on the LORD our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?
“‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’”
Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?”
Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
“Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.
My Understanding: The Lord helped me to identify the main characters in this story:
1. The King of Assyria – Satan
2. The King of Jerusalem – Jesus Christ
3. Jerusalem – the true church; the redeemed of the Lord; the saints of God
4. Assyria – Satan’s kingdom where Satan has his throne
5. Isaiah – the Lord’s servants and witnesses
Satan has conquered the governmental kingdoms of the world now, and so he now has his sights set on conquering the saints of God, which is why the dog was looking at me and was licking his tongue into the air as if to let me know he was coming after me, but not just me – all true followers of Jesus Christ. The dog is a beagle because it looks harmless and playful and you want to just be affectionate with the dog, but it is a dog, i.e. it is of Satan and it is out to destroy us, so don’t let it fool you. Satan and his dogs (false teachers) are master manipulators, deceivers, liars, unholy, unfaithful, charmers, playful, witty, fun, sexually immoral, and filled with all manner of evil. When they feel threatened because you are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, they will come after you like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, but they may do it in a way that tries to make you feel as though they really care about you and they just can’t understand why you won’t listen to them, and why you won’t believe them, but they can’t be trusted, because they have a snake’s bite.
The Bible warns us against such men (read Jude) who infiltrate our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. Yet, we won’t recognize them if we are not walking closely with the Lord Jesus so that we are given a spirit of discernment to spot what they look like in character (Jude) and in facial expression (in particular the eyes). The Lord has given me a clear and very distinct picture of the face of this dog, and that is that of a Koala Bear, a clown with a sheepish grin, and most especially that of Herman Van Rompuy - http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01515/Herman-Van-Rompuy_1515613c.jpg.
As God is my witness, I have seen this same look on the face of my husband. The change took place on the 23rd of November. I knew immediately that this was not the man I married but there was something very evil and eerie about him. He acted like he was in some kind of euphoric state of mind. His eyes are glassed over, too. The Bible says: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:7-8). I would not say this if I were not so concerned for the safety of God’s children who are easy prey for such a liar and deceiver. I say this at great personal risk to myself, yet I must protect the children.
This “dog” is out to deceive the church and to capture as many as he can for Satan’s kingdom. God has shown me him as trampling underfoot the covering of love that God has for his children, using the authority of Christ as footstool for his foot, and as having a love affair with someone else. The Lord has given me so many visions and dreams about my husband and his many lies, adulteries, deceptions, evil plots, etc., and the Lord has confirmed the truthfulness of most all of those now. The Lord has had me confront him with his deceptions, his lies, his deceit, his treatment of me, etc. so many, many times.
On the 21st of this last month the Lord led me to write a letter to my children, telling them about their father and how he needed to come clean. My husband had prayed that morning and had asked God to break his stiff-neck. After I told him about the letter and after his verbal attack on me and his obvious suggestions to me that were lies of Satan, the Lord led me to remind him of his prayer. At that moment, he broke down crying and he wept because God had heard his prayer, and yet I watched as Satan just snatched that moment of tenderness to God’s voice right from him, and by Wednesday he changed into a person I don’t know, but I do know his mind and heart are now controlled by Satan. And, I know he is out to get me and tries Satan’s lies against me, yet God is rescuing me and is giving me such peace and confidence in the Lord Jesus.
The Words of Satan
As I read through this passage of scripture I saw so vividly how the king of Assyria was Satan and how the things Sennacherib said to Hezekiah and to the people sounded so much like what Satan says and sounded so much like the things my husband says to me, too. My husband is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does, and he sounds just like this, too. The king of Assyria said:
1) “On what are you basing this confidence of yours?” – Satan tries to get us to doubt God, to doubt God’s word and his voice to us, and to doubt our relationship with Jesus Christ.
2) “You say you have strategy and military strength – but you speak only empty words.” Satan likes to try to make us feel weak and helpless and to convince us of such in order to get us to not obey the Lord.
3) “On whom are you depending that you rebel against me?” – Satan likes to try to make us question our dependency on Jesus Christ and to even suggest we are listening to him instead of to Christ.
4) “Look now, you are depending on Egypt.” – This might be the truth. The church today is depending on the U.S. government. – Satan will say some things that are true, but he will mix lies in with it and will twist and distort the truth.
5) “If you say you are depending on the Lord our God – isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar?” – Satan will try to show us that belief in Jesus Christ and the true gospel, which removes idolatry from people’s lives, is “legalistic” and that he can provide a church and faith that is “fun” and free from the guilt of sin.
6) “Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria” – Satan will try to get us to compromise our beliefs and convictions by trying to shame us into a compromise. He will try to convince us to bring ourselves back under the slavery of sin and of men, when Jesus Christ came to set us free.
7) “Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord himself told me…” Whereas it is true that the king of Assyria was God’s divine instrument of judgment against Jerusalem, it was not true that he had a personal relationship with God to where God spoke to him. Satan will try to convince you that he hears from God and his followers will even pretend to be believers in Christ.
8) “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord.” Wow! Satan tries to tell us not to put our trust in the Lord Jesus but to put our trust in man. He preys on our weaknesses and tries to convince us that we are helpless and that we need him.
9) “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me.” Wow! This is the voice of Satan telling us not to trust in the words of the Lord but to trust in the words of man instead, and to let men give us the counsel and direction we need and to let man be our gods.
10) “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’” I see this both as Satan trying to convince us not to believe in the promises of God nor to believe the Lord’s servants when they tell us those same promises of God.
When Satan throws his fiery darts at us, and he will use human beings as his instruments of his deceptive messages, we must know the truth so that we can put on the full armor of God. Satan’s messengers are charmers, sweet talkers, liars, manipulators, wicked, abusive, sexually immoral, dividers of the people, plotters of evil, always doing their evil deeds in secret so that no one can see what they are doing. But God sees. They prey on those who are emotionally weak and who doubt themselves, so we must remain strong and we must put on the truth to counteract their lies. They will try to convince us that we are weak and powerless, but we are not. We are children of the King. They will try to pull us away from doing the will of God and from sharing the gospel and will try to convince us we are crazy and/or that we are hearing from Satan. Know this! - They said the same thing about Jesus. They said he was crazy and they accused him of being of Satan, but he refuted that lie by telling them that Satan does not drive out Satan or else his kingdom will fall. Satan is not going to be giving out the gospel and calling people to repent of their sins and to turn to faith in Jesus Christ. He will try to make you believe you can go to heaven and still live in your sin because of God’s grace. And, that lie is going to send many to hell.
I believe the day of evil is upon us, that judgment is near, and that the lion has come out of his lair and he is out to attack, kill and destroy believers in Jesus Christ. His greatest weapon is deception and manipulation, charm, smooth talk, i.e. he will try to make you feel like he is your best friend. He may look like a warm and cuddly beagle, but he is dead and he has the roar of a lion and he is bent on devouring each and every one of us. So, we must resist him, and we must daily put on the armor of God so that we are not led into the devil’s trap. The voice of God says “Repent of your sins and believe the good news!” The voice of Satan says, “Have a good time” and he says that those who are preaching messages about repentance, obedience and judgment are crazy and need to be put away. The Lord gave me a picture today of the beheading of believers in today’s world – lock them up and drug them up so that they can’t think, pray or witness for Jesus Christ, and they are beheaded. Oh, how I pray and believe the Lord Jesus for deliverance from the evil one.
No comments:
Post a Comment