And the third angel followed them,
saying with a loud voice,
If any man worship the beast and his image,
and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture
into the cup of his indignation;
and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the holy angels,
and in the presence of the Lamb:
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever:
and they have no rest day nor night,
who worship the beast and his image,
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Here is the patience of the saints:
here are they that keep the commandments of God,
and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:9-12
The Mark of the Beast will have
a component of Worship of the Beast to it
My suspicion when the mark of the beast is revealed
is that Satan will compel Christians to take the Mark,
to lie and convince them that it is okay to do so,
to seduce, ensnare and beguile God’s people
that Jesus will forgive them and understand because,
after all, they can’t let themselves
or their children to starve or be killed
I think times will get much tougher than we realize
and without the Holy Spirit guiding us and comforting us,
it will be impossible to make it, to stay close to God
It is also important to realize
that the component of Worship of the Beast or Satan will be a part of acceptance of the mark
The bible tells us that much:
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast,
that the image of the beast should both speak,
and cause that as many as
would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
Revelation 13:15
If we are here when it is revealed,
we will have to make a choice
We will not be able to buy or sell without the Mark
God is the God of provision
I believe we will see great miracles of provision
He also has made it no secret
that we shall suffer and even die for His name’s sake
And fear not them which kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul:
but rather fear him which is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28
It is hard to understand in our human minds
That is why we must get closer to Him than ever
Jesus has laid out the whole future for us
that, if our eyes are opened,
we are seeing it come to pass, little by little
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9
It seems just to pray a little here and a little there is not going to work
It won’t be enough anymore
Jesus needs to be our first priority, our first love
our most important consideration in everything
If we’re not engulfed in His word,
in His spirit, in Prayer and fellowship and communion with Him,
we may not make it
All those warnings about filling our lamps with oil
and all the trials that are about to come on the whole earth
are going to happen
The stage is being set and time seems to be going faster
and escalating at exponential speed
It is an honor to be here on earth now,
at the culmination of time
Preparing for the last battle between good and evil
The fact that we know Him,
that He has revealed himself to us, is a great privilege
If our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life
from the foundation of the world,
then what we need to do is be obedient,
stay close to Him
and allow His Holy Spirit to get us through faithfully to the other side
Whether that means we are going to die a natural death,
a martyr’s death
or meet the Lord in the sky when He returns,
whatever the case,
we are going to be given
whatsoever we need from Him to be successful
Behold, he cometh with clouds;
and every eye shall see him,
and they also which pierced him:
and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.
Even so, Amen. Revelation 1:7
Each person is responsible before God for how they spend their life
One person cannot give another person
a scripture or a pass to salvation
Each person must reconcile his or herself with God
Each person must take up their cross and follow Him
Each person whose hand takes the plough must not look back
There is nothing here worth seeing anyway
All this earthly beauty is wood, hay and stubble
The only things that will remain will be our work done for Him
And when we shall see Him in His glory,
we will be very glad we chose Him
Here is a glimpse of what He looks like from Ezekiel, then John:
And above the firmament that was over their heads
was the likeness of a throne,
as the appearance of a sapphire stone:
and upon the likeness of the throne
was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
And I saw as the colour of amber,
as the appearance of fire round about within it,
from the appearance of his loins even upward,
and from the appearance of his loins even downward,
I saw as it were the appearance of fire,
and it had brightness round about.
As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.
And when I saw it, I fell upon my face,
and I heard a voice of one that spake. Ezekiel 1:26-28
And his feet like unto fine brass,
as if they burned in a furnace;
and his voice as the sound of many waters. Revelation 1:15
Beloved, now are we the sons of God,
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:
but we know that,
when he shall appear,
we shall be like him;
for we shall see him as he is.
1 John 3:2
I promise you, this will all be worth it!