We are Conquerors

Wednesday, September 14, 2016, 6:00 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Love Lifted Me.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Revelation 15:1-4 (ESV).

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.

And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

“Great and amazing are your deeds,

    O Lord God the Almighty!

Just and true are your ways,

    O King of the nations!

Who will not fear, O Lord,

    and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy.

    All nations will come

    and worship you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

A Sea of Glass

What is the sea of glass? On this subject I yield to the Bible commentators and their thoughts. It would appear, according to these commentators, that what appeared to John as a sea of glass mixed with fire represents God’s peace, purity, consistency, steadfastness, righteousness, love, and transparency, as well as His divine counsel and will (purposes) and justice. In context, this seems to make sense. Source: www.biblehub.com.

The Beast

To understand who these conquerors are, we must first of all understand the meaning of the beast, its image and the number of its name. That takes us back to Revelation 13. From what I understand, the beast out of the sea is a one-world government, i.e. the New World Order, which is presently forming and is rising to power in our day and time. This global order is ruled by the wealthy and powerful, i.e. by the elite of the world. It is comprised of the Bilderbergs, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, various heads of state, bankers, CEOs of corporations, NATO and the UN, etc. They serve, at least in America, as a shadow (de facto) government behind our legal government. In other words, they are truly the ones who make the decisions for what happens in the USA and in the rest of the world.

There is a second beast, though, and this one comes out of the earth. It is two-horned. A horn is a symbol of power. Horns generally stand for people (or groups of people) in positions of authority (rule). This beast is the false prophet, i.e. the antichrist, i.e. a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I have, at times, seen this second beast in the persons of Barack Obama and Pope Francis, both representing the false (state) church. These two individuals, and other governmental and church leaders worldwide, have spoken much about bringing the religions of the world, and the people of the world, of all walks of life, together as one. They talk much about unity among all people of the world and of how we need to do away with all that divides us as the people of the world so that we can live together in unity as one people. This second beast is about leading the people of the world into a one-world religion.

The first beast (out of the sea) – New World Order - has been given power to make war against the saints (followers of Christ) and to conquer them. This second beast (out of the earth) – false prophet - exercises all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and he makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast. This second beast – false prophet – false church – antichrist – is a great deceiver. He ordered the people of the earth to set up an image in honor of the first beast – this one world government.

Now, this reminds me, here in America, of how, since most of today’s church has partnered with the US government under the 501c3, the institutional church has pushed government worship, at least in my life time (since the early 1950’s). The American flag hangs on a pole which is situated usually in the front of the room where most of the church meetings are held, so that when you are listening to a sermon, or singing gospel songs, the flag is always in sight. We were taught in church to put hand over heart and to pledge allegiance (a vow of fidelity) to our government, and we learned to sing patriotic songs, which taught that God blesses our nation, and we also learned to give honor and praise to our military, for we were taught that they were our saviors – the ones who keep us safe from harm.

A much bigger image, though, of this beast, is TV. TV also came out in the early 50’s (or late 40’s). Via television we can be deceived into believing most anything is true whether it is true or not. So much of what we see on TV is totally fabricated or partially made up, including in the news. Our mainstream media is all owned and operated by this New World Order, so there is only a façade of competition among news sources. The same is true in politics. There is no real right or left. They are two sides of the same whole, and the people who serve in government are mostly just actors playing a part which is all orchestrated by world powers, for the purpose of distraction, deception and entertainment. Our election process, as well, is just for show, and this time around it is a circus, from what I have heard.

Anyway, this beast (out of the sea) – one world government – and the beast (out of the earth) – false prophet – false church – have the same goal, and that is to conquer the kingdoms and people and Christians of the world and to make them their slaves. They will do so through deception, through war, through persecution, or whatever means they have available to them. The US government – The White House, in particular – has been leading the charge in much of what this beast (which is still forming) has been doing in nations across the world. First they create chaos in various nations, and then they go in as “saviors,” but not as saviors, but as conquerors bent on conquest, and in order to make these various nations subservient to the New World (Global) Order. And, this is happening now in America, too.

The Conquerors

We learn in Revelation 12 that the dragon (Satan) has gone off to make war against Christ’s followers, i.e. against all who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. We learn in Revelation 13 that all this calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints. And, in Revelation 14 it says, with regard to what has been spoken of concerning these beasts, the dragon and Babylon the Great – the Great Prostitute – that “this calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus Christ. And, much of this is already happening in our day and time, and it requires now – today – for us to patiently endure and to remain faithful to Jesus despite all opposition.

So, if we, the saints of God, want to be victorious over these beasts – this New World Order with its One-World Government and One-World religion -  we need to remain faithful to Jesus, hold true to the gospel of Jesus Christ in thought, word and deed, and we need to obey all of God’s/Christ’s instructions to us as followers of Christ. We need to not give way to fear and to intimidation and not be caught up in a wave of deception, but we must be clear-minded and self-controlled so we can pray. The only way we can do this is to keep our mind and our bodies pure from all forms of evil. And, we need to bathe our minds in the Word of God and in his truths, putting on daily the armor of God with which to fight off Satan’s evil attacks against us.

We can’t have purity of thought, though, if daily we are taking into our minds all the junk of this world via TV, movies, the internet, secular music and the like. We can’t be free from deception if we are filling our minds with all which the deceiver is throwing at people on a daily basis via TV, movies, music and the internet. We are taught in scripture that we are to be holy as God is holy. To be holy means to be separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are becoming like Christ. We are to come out from the world and be separate, and we are to no longer pattern our lives after the ways of this sinful world. If we are allowing ourselves to be daily entertained by the sins of others, and we daily digest multiple dramatic situations which involve cheating, lying, stealing, sexual perversion, adultery and the like, then how can we have purity of mind and heart?

We also need to be spending lots of time with our Lord in prayer, in the study of his Word, in listening to him speak his truths to our hearts, and then in following him in obedience to what his word teaches us. So many people who call themselves Christians today spend very little time in prayer or in the word, but they have lots of time for TV and for surfing the Net. That is backwards, and it will not lead to godly living and to preparing ourselves spiritually to be conquerors over this beast and its false prophet.

The Song

It is easy to sing songs, and to proclaim what we don’t mean, because we are just repeating words put to a melody. So, singing praise to God is not just opening our mouths and saying or singing words. It has to come from our hearts, and our hearts need to be given over to God and to true worship of him.

In Romans 12:1-2 we learn the true meaning of worship. There it says that we need to present our bodies (our lives) to God as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him, which is our reasonable and acceptable worship of him. We need to no longer be conformed to the ways of this sinful world, but we need to be transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God so that we can show forth, from our lives, what is the good, pleasing, acceptable and perfect will of God for our lives. This is true worship of God, when we praise him and his deeds not with lip service only, but with hearts and minds given over to God to his service in obedience to his will for our lives.

And he (Jesus) said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Lu. 9:23-25)

Love Lifted Me / James Rowe / Howard E. Smith

I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,

Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more,

But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry,

From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.

All my heart to Him I give, ever to Him I’ll cling,

In His blessed presence live, ever His praises sing,

Love so mighty and so true, merits my soul’s best songs,

Faithful, loving service, too, to Him belongs.

Souls in danger, look above, Jesus completely saves,

He will lift you by His love, out of the angry waves;

He’s the Master of the sea, billows His will obey,

He your Savior wants to be, be saved today.

Love lifted me!

Love lifted me!

When nothing else could help,

Love lifted me!