A Last Days Odyssey

By Gary D. Abrahamsen

In "such a time as this," Almighty God shall cause more to happen on this earth in the tiniest of time frames than has been since the very beginning of time. Are we ready? 

These are not days as anyone has known.

Are these days going to pass so that "normal" life would surely resume? Or would these days upend e

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Jun 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685563431

Gary D. Abrahamsen

The author began to hear the call of the Lord Jesus in 1977. He received his Savior in 1981. In 2007, this same Savior invited him into a jolting encounter. End-times revelation poured forth. Much was hard to hear. The end-times were found to be not a fairy tale nor a "fable" (2 Timothy 4:4). Many years of writing and pondering followed. Was this an unveiling for one or was His mission greater? Welcome to A Last Days Odyssey!

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A LAST DAYS ODYSSEY

by Gary D. Abrahamsen

A Last Days Odyssey

Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

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Copyright © 2022 by Gary D. Abrahamsen

All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

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ISBN: 978-1-68556-342-4

E-ISBN: 978-1-68556-343-1

INTRODUCTION

What time is it? The time is at hand (Revelation 1:3), but these words were given two thousand years ago and have stood for every generation since that time. That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8), as every generation was to treat their own as the time, but when is that time truly at hand? When the Living God says that it is. And at which time that the Living God should declare such a thing, what do we do? Are there unique and specific revelations and commands in unique and specific provisions for such a time as this (Esther 4:14)? Could it all be scripturally outlined in the Bible already, just awaiting a particular time and generation to be unveiled and unsealed? Are that particular time and generation now and for us who are alive and remain (1 Thessalonians 4:17)? 

How can Almighty God get us to turn to see (Revelation 1:12) all that is revealed when The Revelation of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:1) begins to unfold on earth for the generation that would see it? What view does He seek to bring, that the alarm He sounds registers and is received? How can He move (Hebrews 11:7) us as He did Noah (Genesis 6:13) and as He did the Apostle John (Revelation 1:17)? What is it that inextricably unites Noah and John with us today? How may any man embrace this time with the high stakes, the gravity, and the ultimatums and warnings that this day is due? And the ultimate hope, that blessed hope (Titus 2:13)? The mission is hope. Not false hope. Real hope. Real hope with form and substance that will endure until the end (Matthew 24:13). 

The Lord Himself must do it. Secondhand information just becomes a maze of reasoning and knowledge. A potential source of doctrinal dispute. This must be personal and intimate between our heavenly Father, His only begotten Son, and any man. Following an encounter with Lion of the Tribe of Juda (Revelation 5:5), imagery recalled from a movie Die Hard some years ago strikes a chord. Is this a crude but adequate modern-day image of the life-changing encounters that changed the lives of Noah and the Apostle John from that day forth?

This is an overview account of part of that story. There was a Christmas party taking place one evening after hours in an otherwise empty office building. Terrorists entered the building and took all of those present as hostages. One man who was also attending the event was an outsider. While related to one of the workers at the company, he was not employed there. He had stepped away from the group when the terrorists came in. From the outside, he was able to safely view what was happening on the inside. He then looked to escape the immediate area of danger by navigating to an upper floor in the building. One of the terrorists saw him and followed him to that upper floor. A violent struggle ensued between the two. The man who had escaped the gathering was able to defeat the terrorist and killed him. Now he was determined to send an alarm. He called 911 and alerted the operator that they needed to send the police fast. The call seemed too outrageous and was received as a prank call. Just to follow protocol, one police officer was sent to the building. The police officer arrived at the building and casually strolled up to the security guard seated at the front security desk on the first floor. The security guard spoke softly and smiled as he assured the police officer that all was quiet and all was well. Unbeknownst to the police officer was the fact that the real security guard lay bound in a back room. The fraudulent security guard was wearing the right garment and spoke the right language. What was there not to trust? All appearances lined up. The police officer thanked the security guard for his help and apologized for any inconvenience he may have caused. They bid each other a polite good night, and the police officer walked out. The man who had escaped watched from the upper floor in disbelief. The lives of everybody who had been invited to this event were in desperate danger. These men are killers, and the hostages are their prey. Those who could do something about it couldn’t tell that something was wrong. This is not business as usual. Who could see the stakes, the gravity, and the great danger in doing nothing? The man on the upper floor is driven in white-hot fear and desperation to do all in his power, that somebody knows the truth about what is happening. As the patrol car began to move to drive away, that man on the upper floor grabbed the dead body of the terrorist and threw him out of the window from the upper floor. Just as the police officer began to accelerate to leave, the body crashed onto the hood of the car right directly in his line of vision. As he tried to regain control of the vehicle, he swerved side to side and finally came to a stop. Breathing hard and moving in fear to the core, the police officer grabbed for the car phone and shouted, Help! Send back-up now! Such is a crude but honest portrayal of the imagery of a real-life encounter this day with the Lion of the Tribe of Juda. It may well be a jolting encounter. He must get our attention. Nothing is as it appears. It is a different time. Protocol and provision from days gone by will not hold up today. Business as usual? Peace and safety? How are we perceiving and receiving this time that we now live?

Are there parallels and foreshadowings all through Scripture to illuminate the end-times in our lives today? How about that day of Pentecost when the church age first began? The world was clueless. The children of Israel were clueless. And the remnant? Not until the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, did that small band of disciples receive their first command, And behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49). Will the disciple today know needed specifics when he needs to know? And will this only be known privately by a remnant who are prepared and have waited for this latter-day Promise of the Father (Acts 1:4)? Only in intimate and personal abiding in Him may we ever know. No man will stand safely in the presence of the Lord, solely by virtue of association with any church or any other man. Is it The Lion of the tribe of Juda (Revelation 1:10–18, Revelation 5:5) that has been summoned by the will of Almighty God for such a time as this? Does He now roar onto the stage of life on this earth? Will He tell any man the truth about where he truly is and what he truly now needs? Will He provide all that is needed for such a time as this? Prepare now to hear what one did not expect to hear and to see what one did not expect to see. Only this good Lion of Almighty God, can ensure that any man will endure until the end (Matthew 24:13) in such a time as this (Esther 4:14).

Our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears (2 Corinthians 7:5), as this is Scripture that we rarely reference as real experience in our Christian lives. Maybe we don’t want to know. For each life that is troubled now in these last days on this earth, whether in the world or in the church, this writing is for you. And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the scriptures? (Luke 24:32), and for each life that now experiences his own heart burn within him, and needs now to see more and hear more from Him, this writing is for you. You are not alone. For each life that has experienced a prior peace and safety (1 Thessalonians 5:3) torn away from under him, as a carpet abruptly pulled out from beneath his feet, this writing is for you. For each life that is seeking confirmation about what is happening to him in these last days, this writing is for you. Almighty God and His only begotten Son have opened a door that no man can shut (Revelation 3:8). You are not alone. We hear what we did not expect to hear, and we see what we did not expect to see. Far beyond a hidden remnant that longs for your fellowship and presence, it is His grace in the longsuffering to us-ward (2 Peter 3:9) that now rejoices with all of heaven. 

Is this the time when all the world and every professing child of God stands amongst, Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision (Joel 3:14)? May it be an informed decision. That is the will and the true love of the God of creation upon all the earth. Could there be unique and specific commands and provisions in these end times? Have we assumed that we know, and we are ready, without confirmation from Him? In the end times of these last days, Almighty God will cause more to happen in the tiniest of time frames than at any other time since the very beginning of time. Are we ready? The mission of our Heavenly Father and His only begotten Son is Hope. Real and true Hope. Hope with form and substance. Noah had Hope with form and substance. In such a time as this, can we settle for less? We stand today on the very precipice of that blessed hope (Titus 2:13). It is the heart and will of Almighty God that each and every one of His precious little ones are truly prepared and ready for this mighty and epic latter-day Promise of the Father. Turn to see and then hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Buckle up. One way or the other, we are in for the ride of our lives. The Lion of the tribe of Juda is roaring. Amen.

CHAPTER 1

FOR DUST THOU ART (Genesis 3:19)

What an incredible time to live. From a distance, the end-times of the last days always seemed such a delightful prospect. It truly seemed such a privilege to be granted the experience of being here in such a time as this. If there were a downside, we never had any thought that such a thing could impact our own lives so directly and with so much potential consequence. We would surely just rise above it. But upon hearing the roar of the Lion of the tribe of Juda (Revelation 5:5), we no longer assumed anything. Bittersweet in real-life experience has swept over the stampeding days. The bitter and the sweet, the unpleasant and the pleasant, the horror and the hope, are consuming all of life on this earth in unison. And our own lives. We had to be sure of just where we are, in the Father’s eyes. The only true comfort that we could know was in the intimate presence of the Father and His only begotten Son. The only true understanding that we could have and trust only came from being in that place. Nothing is as it seems. All our speculations and reasonings crumbled in the very presence of the Living God. So much was hard to hear, but we needed to hear it. Nothing was certain, but what He would confirm was the truth. How much we needed to hear His voice alone. We sat at the Father’s feet and listened.

No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me (John 14:6), and it was only by virtue of the Father’s most precious Son that this was possible. How could He love us so much that He would suffer the torment that He did, that there would be a pathway to the Father that we could experience for ourselves, with Him? I and My Father are one (John 10:30) as the Father and His Son are in perfect harmony. While being separate and distinct, they are One and the Same. He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father (John 14:9), and while this seemed a great mystery on the one hand, somehow the Father gave us eyes to see. While whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose (John 1:27) is the truth about our own lives here on this earth, He so loved us anyway and made a way to a new life. How could we ever have the right or be worthy to be in the presence of the Father? Each and every one of the little ones of the Father would always remember the time in their own lives when these written words from the Scriptures were personally and intimately placed into their hearts by the hand of the Father’s only begotten Son, My Father, and your Father, and My God, and your God (John 20:17). While none of us could fathom how this could ever be, somehow, His love for us made it so.

And so, the little ones sat at the feet of the Father as He opened up Scripture and revelation. How the Father delights when we just let God be God. It is the Father who calls us little ones. Who could understand what this means to us? To some, this might seem demeaning. Are we not warriors and conquerors and overcomers? Are we not mighty men of God? Be ye, therefore, followers of God, as dear children (Ephesians 5:1). Somehow all of the true and honest presence of the Living God in our lives begins at the feet of the Father as His dear children. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in His time (Isaiah 60:22). Somehow, this is His time.

The Father seeks to do something extraordinary. We are now in an extraordinary time. Yet so much of the extraordinary was to open His truth and purpose in the ordinary, the true and honest Christian life that has been from the beginning. How the Father so loves to multiply and make so much out of so little. Sometimes he even brings abundance out of nothing at all. How can the Father convert one little one into a thousand? Is that the will of the Father in such a time as this (Esther 4:14)? How about one small one into a strong nation? Is that the will of the Father at the zenith hour for His long-lost children of Israel? Does the Father, even now, prepare and make ready the little one and the small one this very day?

Even so, it is not the will of your Father which is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should perish (Matthew 18:14). The Father now moves heaven and earth to get the attention of all. Who will be moved by the Father? The Father pours out alarms and warnings and ultimatums, and finally, hope in truth and love to all. Who will turn to see (Revelation 1:12)? Who are the little ones, and what is this great horror crashing together with the great hope upon all the earth? There is so much happening around us and inside of us. Do we even have time to sit at the Father’s feet and hear His voice alone? A thousand voices are shouting, demanding to be heard. Somehow, if the voice of the Father does not rise above them all, we will miss the boat and be drawn into a dreadful vortex. The little ones, sitting at the feet of the Father, quickly discover that in such a time as this, daily bread (Matthew 6:11) becomes meat in due season (Matthew 24:45). The ordinary is now known as extraordinary, as we hear what we do not expect to hear and see what we do not expect to see.

And so, the Father opened His word on this particular day to these particular little ones. The Father continually reinforced particular elements in the good fight (2 Timothy 4:7), to live in the narrow (Matthew 7:14) way, and the good fight to stay there. As complementing His written voice, His spoken voice would repeat and reinforce these truths and principles continually. Did we ever really get His message the first time? His honest eyes never ceased to betray our own evaluation through our own hearts and minds. How does the Father measure and balance the essential thorns (2 Corinthians 12:7) to subdue (Philippians 3:21) the flesh while measuring and balancing the essential revelation to sustain the new creature? (2 Corinthians 5:17) It is never according to our good pleasure (Philippians 2:13), but His. We would rebuke those thorns while resting in lukewarm (Revelation 3:16) revelation. The Father continually needed to move us. The Father would have us to be ever mindful of great and ever-present danger in our lives on this earth. Especially in this age of empowered dust, or flesh. The fallen creatures that we are remain a constant threat to the new life in the kingdom of God. Somebody seeks to soften or even deny this continual internal fight. Where the fight is removed, the opponent has an easy mark. The Father would continuously reinforce this truth to protect us from this grave danger. The Father loves us just too much to lose us now. The finish line is in sight. How easily we might fight for the wrong things. The very countenance of the Father has an intensity and urgency in this day that the little ones had never witnessed before. The Father opened up the extraordinary that took place at the very beginning, which is in direct relation to the extraordinary today.

For dust thou art (Genesis 3:19), as these are words from the Lord God to Adam, following Adam’s disobedience that resulted in the great fall of mankind. Adam’s act of rebellion severed the relationship that his Creator so desired to share with him. Being separated from the life-giving love of God, only the dust would remain. This dust or flesh has no life on its own apart from its Creator, For as in Adam all die (1 Corinthians 15:22). It is not possible to secure the fullness of life without first reckoning with the fullness of death. For dust thou art is not something that is desirous to be heard in such a dark hour. Shouldn’t the mission be overflowing with needed boundless encouragement in such a time as this? After all, with all that we have been going through, didn’t we all need a good shot in the arm to get us back on track? Through the Father’s eyes, if we could not embrace the fullness of the bad news, it would be impossible to embrace the fullness of the good news. To reckon with the fullness of death, anything short of God’s view must cause the flesh to yet live. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body (2 Corinthians 4:10), as one thing must replace the other, in a continuum that can have no end in this life. If we did not understand the true devastation in allowing for that dust to continue to live, that daily fight would cease to be fought. Throughout the unfolding of man’s reign on earth, Adam’s issues and stumbling blocks have remained the same for every man. How much better we understand ourselves when we first understand Adam. And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness (Genesis 1:26). If God made man in any lesser capacity than the very image of God Himself and the very likeness of God Himself, then the intimate relationship of Father and child could not be. The problem that God was keenly aware of from the very beginning was the creature’s inability to be in God’s image and likeness, and not to be tempted to be as God, or as it were, like the most high (Isaiah 14:14).

God had already been through this with His angels and was neither surprised nor caught off guard when He would need to go through it again with man. The Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:9). There were many trees freely provided by God and all at Adam’s disposal. These trees contained elements of the pure and holy true love and truth of God so that Adam might taste and experience God’s love and know that the Lord is good. God intended that upon having tasted, Adam’s will would turn to his Creator and that he would freely choose to consummate in full agreement with God this relationship by choosing to partake of the Tree of Life. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis 2:16, 17). Did Adam understand death? Would he cease to exist, or was it something else? And the serpent said unto the woman; Ye shall not surely die (Genesis 3:4). At the moment of the great fall, the serpent may well have added, and certainly implied, that he was eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and was not dead. Did Adam fully grasp that eating from this tree would bring separation from God and that this was God’s binding and eternal definition of death?

Adam fully well knew that these two trees, amidst the garden, were the keys to his destiny. Adam fully well knew that this was his valley of decision (Joel 3:14) and that this decision needed to be made one to One with God. God refused to procreate and multiply from Adam until he decided. One might well understand that God even initially withheld Eve from Adam with the perfect intent that Adam would make a decision first and perhaps avoid so much trouble. But Adam would not eat from either tree. God knew quite well where Adam was headed. 

 Because of God’s absolute love for Adam, He would not violate Adam’s will. God’s heart desired that Adam would partake of the Tree of Life, and men would safely begin their existence in the bosom of God. The first of many heartbreaks would begin with Adam. Now God would need to wait and put His kingdom together piece by piece, man by man, suffering much loss and heartache every step of the way. God began to allow concessions to make way for Adam’s heart desire. First, God allowed Adam’s relationship with the rest of His creation to be changed. God’s original decree was that Adam have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Genesis 1:26, 28). To have dominion is to be given supreme authority and power to rule over something. God granted Adam a great ability to accomplish all that He desired Adam to do. This same ability would be rendered unusable after the fall. In the unfolding process leading up to the fall, Adam’s heart moved to the creation over the Creator.

And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam, there was not found an help meet for him (Genesis 2:20). While Genesis chapter two is an overlay unfolding of Genesis chapter one, the distinctions between the two tell an underlying story and genuinely depict the elements of man’s demise that have prevailed ever since. They will prevail until God’s kingdom comes. In giving names to God’s creation, Adam moved from having dominion to establishing bonds and being friends. This shift became a critical reality when Eve was under deception while entertaining the words of the serpent. Since they now had a relationship with the creatures, man would consider views other than God’s. Rather than having dominion over them, opinions and viewpoints could be exchanged. God allowed for this shift so that Adam might experience a taste of the intimacy in the relationship that God was seeking with him. God well knew of the grave danger, that the creature might replace Him. But for Adam, there was not found an help meet for him (Genesis 2:20). Only when Adam’s relationship with the creatures changed did he seek more from them. God did not create the other creatures to be Adam’s help. Only God would ever be the help that could fulfill and satisfy Adam. 

It is not good that the man should be alone (Genesis 2:18). Adam was less alone than any man who would ever walk the face of this earth after him. While God gave everything to Adam, Adam gave very little to God in return and did not achieve the relationship for which he was created. The Tree of Life would have put an end to this one-sided relationship and consummated it to be mutual. If Adam could not receive the fact that God first loved (1 John 4:19) him, he could not truly love God. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would galvanize man’s dependence and relationship with the creation and leave the Creator outside of it. 

God well knew that as He allowed Adam’s heart to have its way in relationship with the creature before Adam had a full relationship with God, He would lose Adam. Adam was alone because he yet was not in union with God. God waited to bring Eve to Adam with the intent that Adam would render a decision between the two trees in the garden’s midst, or He could lose both. Adam knew that a decision for the one tree would be well-pleasing to God and the other a grave disappointment. God knew that Adam’s inability to render any decision revealed his disposition to the latter tree.

Now that Adam’s heart was turned to the creation of God over the Creator of creation, and he was friends with all the creatures around him, rather than having dominion over them, the serpent also had become not only Eve’s friend but his as well. ...And gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat (Genesis 3:6). Adam offered no resistance because he had made this decision within himself a long time before. Acting on it was a fearful thing for Adam. He was well aware of God’s pending displeasure with him. He chose instead to hide behind the woman as he realized his true heart’s desire. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression (1 Timothy 2:14), as in the estimation of Almighty God, rendering even a disobedient decision is still preferred over deception. A fundamental disconnect with God is required before deception can take root. Deception has the appearance of victimization and thereby a modicum of innocence. God has a different view. Where is the innocence in choosing to hear and heed other voices over God’s voice? All through the biblical account of mankind, it is those who are deceived who have perpetrated incalculable damage and suffering, not only to themselves but to so many others who were called of God. Adam was not deceived; he finally rendered a decision. Adam’s steps have been followed by humanity ever since. Eating from that same tree enables every man to find a home within himself; in this world, with the animals, the people, and even the serpent, who reinforces and seeks to reward all of it. 

How much better we understand ourselves when we understand Adam. How easy it is to feel initially empty should we stop pleasing and satisfying Adam. A decision has been required by every Adam and every Eve ever since that cataclysmic fall at the start. As with Adam, the appearance of making no decision is a decision. For the people called by God, sooner or later, a binding decision must come to light. How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him (1 Kings 18:21), as God requires a decision, even if it’s wrong. In these last days, God tells Laodicea, the final church, I would thou wert cold or hot (Revelation 3:15). Would God really rather that we were cold than lukewarm? Isn’t lukewarm closer to the right thing? The entitlement and complacency in a lukewarm setting are fostering and breeding dangerous deception in the last church. And the gospel is being brought to others in the same fashion. I will spue thee out of my mouth (Revelation 3:16) is God’s drastic response to a largely unseen and unknown drastic collapse. Perhaps if His presence is removed entirely from us, we will miss Him. In this day, perhaps more than at any time since the beginning, it is essential that we grasp the real gravity of the choice that Adam rendered in the Garden on that day. Did Adam believe that he would remain in the Garden, and nothing of consequence would really be lost? The impact of that decision on every life reverberates from Genesis to Revelation throughout the Scriptures and prominently in our very lives in these end times last days. 

Back to the beginning, once a decision was made, Adam and Eve were permitted to multiply, as God had intended all along. Scripture reveals that the angels of God perpetrated their own rebellion before Adam and Eve were created. Scripture also reveals that Satan persuaded a third of all the angels to separate from their Creator and go out from the presence of the Lord, as Cain was likewise persuaded. Could it be that after man’s reign on earth, humanity’s salvation will entirely replenish the kingdom of God by restoring what was lost with the angels? We can never underestimate the perfect symmetry in every detail in all that God does. 

When the angels of God fell away from God, they were fixed in eternity, and there would be no turning back. When Adam and Eve heeded the serpent’s words over the words of God, the serpent had every reason to believe that, as with the fallen angels, fallen man would likewise belong to him and be fixed in eternity. What were time and mortality? None of God’s creation had ever seen such a thing before. The Lord God would stun the whole universe and all of the existing creation with His alternative to this apparent terminal end. God would not allow this to happen to His new creation, thus igniting the serpent’s wrath and ongoing venom toward God and man. The trophy victory of humanity would not stand as it had for the fallen angels.

God drove the man out of the garden and out of eternity and granted him the priceless gift of time and mortality. Man would now have the opportunity in the arena of time to overturn the destiny into which he was initially born. No, the serpent’s victory would not be absolute and would not be eternally binding, but this outcome was still unquestionably the hard way to go. Much heartache, bloodshed, and loss would follow all the days of man. In securing back to Himself the few, He would lose the many. God would now establish a template for living on this earth through the generations, in which each of the players involved would be bound. This template would include decrees and boundaries.

The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat (Genesis 3:12) was Adam’s initial reply. First, Adam blames God, implying that God should have known that the woman was prone to deception and, therefore, must be implicated in this folly. Then Adam blames the woman. Because God is perfect justice, He plays by the rules when confronting Adam. God’s first response back to Adam was, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife… (Genesis 3:17), which rightfully corrects Adam and places the blame squarely on him. God will not be credibly implicated in any abomination or debauchery or folly at the hands of any man on earth. The creation today continues to point a finger and accuse Anybody and everybody but himself. Certainly, somebody must be blamed. Eve would continue to deflect blame as God questioned her, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat (Genesis 3:13). God never questioned the serpent. That conversation with him had taken place a long time before. Thou art cursed (Genesis 3:14) is God’s answer to the serpent. God did not say those words to Adam or Eve. God goes on to say, Upon thy belly thou shalt go, meaning that the days of being face to face in direct dialog with mankind were over. The serpent has resorted to a covert operation using subtlety in clever and sophisticated manipulation from that day. This decree holds fast until the end times days, the days we enter now.

This serpent has already accomplished much and done untold damage from his belly. Scripture identifies him as the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). God does not mince words. And there was war in Heaven...and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, as the day approaches when he is cast out into the earth, and his angels are cast out with him. For a short space of God-granted time, that old serpent will inflict ultimate damage. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time (Revelation 12:7, 9, 12). For the first time since the Garden, that old serpent loses his subtlety. For the first time since the Garden, that old serpent will have his way upon all of the inhabiters of the earth. The groundwork and the framework for all of this are being put in place at this very time. 

These days are pending and pressing upon our lives on this very day. Scripture is quite vivid about the clear and present danger in these end times. This clear and present danger is not just inundating and bombarding those in this world, but also all who would be the children of God. God continues to address the serpent at the beginning, as He says, And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life (Genesis 3:14). This directive is essential to know and must be understood. Regardless of being upright or on his belly, this is the trophy that the serpent won in the garden, and so it will remain. In the arena of time, this trophy may always be all or nothing for the serpent.

Amid God’s decree to Adam, God states, For dust thou art. Again, to the serpent, Dust shalt thou eat. Then to Adam, For dust thou art. In other words, serpent, you own Adam. You won him fair and square, and he belongs to you. We may begin to perceive the great evil intent of that old serpent, to keep Adam alive and well in the Christian life. The dust is the flesh of Adam and would be the flesh of every man. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die (Romans 8:13). In this heightened age of the flesh’s empowerment on this earth, the serpent is on fire to keep the flesh vibrant and alive in all of mankind, including every man called by God. There is no negotiating possible here. This battle is sneaky and insidious and absolute.

While the serpent’s victory in conquering the flesh is absolute, it would be one-dimensional. While the dust or flesh would now be under the serpent’s ownership and authority, the man’s spirit would be under the subjection of the will of the man. Under man’s will, the spirit could be brought into full alignment and agreement with the flesh, or it could be moved by its Heavenly Father and its Creator to choose to align itself and come into agreement with God. This choice is God’s sole purpose in granting humanity the gift of time and mortality. We have the opportunity to choose to remove Adam from the equation and have the flesh consigned to the cross and put to death. God promises that a new creature in Christ would have life if Adam could be put to death. 

It is critical to fully comprehend the serpent’s total and absolute ownership and authority over every man’s flesh because the flesh does not go away. The flesh does not lay down and automatically dies when we become Christians. Warfare over the soul begins that was never there before. God’s written word speaks of one of the great dangers in the end times, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 3:7). Is this knowledge just in the world, or is this knowledge in the church? Or is it both? In other words, could we learn about and memorize many Scripture verses and yet, never know what they really mean? If the truths of God are carnally received and understood, are they also lived that way? Somehow in these end times last days, that dust or flesh is being allowed to not only live but to prosper and flourish, just so long as it seems to be following protocol and is being nice. Scripture reads, O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24) The man is struck in the heart when the Lord reveals the vital significance of the fact that the Apostle Paul speaks in the present tense. Paul never says that he was a wretched man, but he no longer is. He remains a wretched man, and that changes everything.

Scripture bears out from beginning to end that this wretched man will continue to scratch and claw and use everything in his means to not die, as the serpent aids and abets him every step of the way. The plight of every man is extreme and total by the design and will of God. It was the only way, and it remains the only way that God could save any man. Life would be too tangled and conflicted and impossible to unravel otherwise. Once Adam aligned with the serpent, God had to allow the serpent to consume Adam’s dust utterly, that no good thing could dwell or abide in the fallen man. 

It is the serpent who continues to relentlessly persuade the flesh that it needs to live and deserves to live. If this must be done in the name of Jesus, then so be it. The man is easily convinced that while the Saviour died for his sins, there are undoubtedly other attributes that may yet live. This is not to be confused with God-given talents and abilities that await God’s direction and control. If there were truly some elements of God’s life allowed to mingle in the fallen dust, no man could be saved. The dust would yet have a viable and bonafide power base to continue to live and have control, as would the serpent. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live (Romans 8:13). Once the fall of mankind was consummated, the only hope was that God allowed the serpent to consume the flesh entirely. The serpent’s total victory in possession of the natural man is the very means that God has used to provide a way out.

The serpent is most acutely aware that if he can cause the flesh to remain credible and continue to have sustenance, it will yet live, and he can yet operate in the life of that man. If the serpent can convince the man that God is making him a better man through Jesus, his power base remains. If the serpent convinces this man that he has amassed sufficient doctrine and wisdom to truly understand God, this man will cease being dependent on the leading of the Spirit of God. He will be convinced that he already knows where the Spirit of God is leading. He will be convinced that God does the same thing in every situation with everybody. He will believe that it is now God Himself who is well pleased with him and now commands him to take control and authority and to do so boldly.

The more deeply entrenched this persuasion becomes, the more convinced he becomes that those in his company who do not follow those steps are stumbling blocks, holding back God’s bringing heaven on earth. These old school ones must be either enlightened or marginalized. Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5), and what are these imaginations? Could these imaginations enter and corrupt the Word of God and the truth of God? It is the knowledge of God that concludes that every thought and idea conceived inside of the natural man is an imagination. These imaginations are driven to lift themselves beyond the truth. 

There is none that doeth good, no not one (Romans 3:12), as only the man’s imagination believes itself to be good, wise, confident, and self-sufficient, whether in the world or the church. To understand how the serpent thinks and reasons, the man needs to go no further than to understand how he himself thinks and reasons. God will never glorify the serpent in the Scriptures, but the truth between the lines is that he has amassed a tremendous power base on earth, and Scripture makes it clear that he will ultimately deceive the whole world.

That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves (2 Corinthians 5:15), as the multitude of whole-hearted inhabiters of the earth are enthralled today with each new upgraded device and innovation. What the serpent had first inspired with building and inventing with the fallen children of Cain, who went out from the presence of the Lord, is now in full-blown freefall. Who can resist indulging or at least dabbling? Who cannot help but live for themselves either in the world or in the church? Understanding the fragile constitution of every man has been buried and lost. The warning alarms are blaring. Are we able to hear them? So many best-selling Christian books are sophisticated self-help manuals to bring one to a place of maximum personal peace on earth in joy and blessing. The Christian life has become enmeshed in teaching and doctrine to manufacture and maintain a satisfied and sedated Adam. This persuasion intensifies every day, now that prophecy is mandated to be edifying and uplifting only. The Savior’s warnings and cries are faint and distant. Finally, they are drowned out. 

Wherefore know we no man after the flesh (2 Corinthians 5:16), and the first man that cannot be known after the flesh is the man himself. He will be deceived and blindly deceive others. While the flesh yet lives and remains viable, it all makes sense. The voice of the Lord is simply not heard or understood, as the serpent’s rationalizing and reasoning continue to seduce the carnal mind. Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more (1 Corinthians 5:16), and if we yet know men after the flesh, we follow suit in knowing Him that way, after the flesh, as well. In this well-constructed setting, it will all make sense. At least, to Adam. Seeking contentment and happiness in the world is shifted to seeking contentment and happiness in the church. The language shifts to joy and blessing, but the quest does not change. Worldly pride is traded for spiritual pride. Following Jesus becomes a new and more efficient means to achieve the same end. 

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves...having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof (2 Timothy 3:1, 2, 5). The world has no form of godliness. We must know that this is directed to those who are called to the kingdom of God, we who profess Jesus. How did this happen? Where am I in this mess? Many of us live better on this earth in these last days than kings and queens ever did. The flesh not only lives but it is being provoked and satiated every day. Such a living is creating a powerful seduction over the fragile constitution of man. None of this requires cognizant engagement. It works without even trying. The deeper and more prolonged it goes, the more entitled and complacent we become. Massive casualties are inflicted in the world, and in our Christian lives, and in the kingdom of God. We are all impacted in one form or another, to one degree or another. Who is exempt?

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:11), as this place in the kingdom of God must begin with a reckoning of the will unto death. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world (Galatians 6:14), as this place in the kingdom of God must conclude with living this death. It must be understood that this new life of salvation offered to each of us includes a reckoning and a crucifixion. It must be equally understood that upon this reckoning, and upon this crucifixion, a real-life manifestation of sin being dead, and the world being dead in their effectual control over one’s life, would be realized. Scripturally, what begins as a reckoning unfolds experientially. This is never to be confused with living a perfect life in the flesh. This is the heart quest in love and allegiance to Him. The fight goes on. In this day of explosive rampant spiritual wickedness, many are weak with battle fatigue. Sometimes battles are lost. The desperate need for continual forgiveness, deliverance, and healing seems to go on and on. Sometimes it is all overwhelming. The little flock of the Lord keeps encountering difficulty and continuous struggles. Others around them hear them speak honestly about such things and believe that correction is in order. There seems to be no apparent joy. For thou hast a little strength (Revelation 3:8), as there is One who is seeing far beyond the surface image. Jesus knows and understands. As the little flock remains as faithful to Him as they know how to be and continues to step into His light, the weakness that won’t go away continues to be exposed to them. In the right hands, this weakness may go a long way.

Meanwhile, the spirit in the terminal church in Laodicea continues to gain momentum and numbers. They are persuaded that any weaknesses and struggles are never to be part of their Christian lives. As such, the authority that they are taught that God has given them is to be deployed to demand and declare that these things be gone. There can be no registration that such distresses (2 Corinthians 12:10) could be at work in the kingdom of God on their behalf. That such distresses could be used to drive them closer and more ever dependent on the Lord. And that such distresses might be used in love by Almighty God to derail a most subtle and deadly spiritual pride that can take a devastating toll. Scripture verses of their choosing are claimed in an effort to uphold and justify all of it. The honest conversation itself about such things is increasingly met with harsh and stern correction. It is said that this should never be spoken over anybody’s life, and certainly not over one’s own life. An honest conversation about real life is seen as some form of treason from the faith. It is said that such honest conversation will overrule God’s good pleasure and doom the outcome. It seems that there exists some sort of new-age positive thinking mysticism at work here. How did this happen? Jesus has said, Take no thought for your life (Matthew 6:25). Yet, we are pounded into submission relentlessly by the world and so much of the current atmosphere in the churches to continuously care very deeply and even obsessively about our own life. But only so long as it is to make our own life better, our best life now on this earth. Who in the Bible thought that way and lived that life? As our flesh seems not to resist but to yet live, we enter that vortex in our very thinking and then in our very living.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away (Revelation 21:4). We may reason that, indeed, God wants us to be happy. God makes it very clear in the lives of every man spoken of from one end of the Bible to the other that there is an eternity waiting for each one who will give Him their hand. He will eternally put an end to every bit of suffering endured in this life. Death, sorrow, crying, and pain have entered the lives of every man, on His left hand and His right hand. While this verse is cherished by so many, it is worth noting that the full unfolding of this comforting promise to His beloved children is at the end of man’s reign on this earth. Can we wait for it? It is after that great and terrible day of the Lord and even after the thousand years that follow. Only the advent of a new heaven and a New Earth (Revelation 21:1) can put a final and eternal end to all the suffering on this earth for God’s people. When He does end it, it is personal and intimate. He has felt and experienced all of it with us. It is our Heavenly Father Himself who will take His Almighty loving hand and wipe away all tears from their eyes, never to come back again. It is worth the wait. Hyper-empowered flesh has muddied the waters in the world and in the last church. Except that our Heavenly Father’s voice alone be fervently sought and heard, the voices of ten-thousand others are pouring in. The written Word of the Father has concisely revealed only two possible courses for every man, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man (Jeremiah 17:5), or Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord (Jeremiah 17:7). These verses hold a decidedly clear and conclusive assessment for every man who would ever live on this earth, provoking either fear or comfort. But which man is which? The answer may depend on who is being asked the question. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9), or in other words, no man can trust his own evaluation of which man he is. 

Deceit is a driven propensity to lie and draw wrong conclusions. Desperately wicked deceit incites reckless reasoning in drawing the conclusion that will only suit the man. The man must conclude himself as the blessed man, irrespective of God’s evaluation. It is always somebody else as the cursed man, irrespective of what God sees and knows. I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings (Jeremiah 17:10). While these words apply to all men, regardless of place or lack of place before the Creator, God speaks expressly here to the man called of God. It is the man called of God who must be driven to his knees in knowing that he can assume nothing. God forbid that he lay claim to a life that God would declare is not genuine and real. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth (2 Corinthians 10:18). That man shudders as he is made to see that his first reaction is exactly what the Lord God is warning him about. Of course, he is the blessed man. His own view dictates this evaluation. Deceit and desperation in wickedness will hear nothing less. Can we know that God’s evaluation in truth is always and only for our good? 

Upon yielding to the Lord’s search of his heart, the man cannot help but speak these words and mean them, Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved (Jeremiah 17:14). Was not Jeremiah chosen by God and set apart already? Was he not healed and saved before he cried out to the Lord with these words? Jeremiah has been called the weeping prophet. One might reason that he was only weeping because his brethren had fallen so far away. Perhaps Almighty God is raising up a Jeremiah on this very day. When the dust yet lives and prevails, the whole counsel of God must be rejected. Every ultimatum and warning given by God to keep His children from falling into the ongoing danger at every turn in this life is dismissed and routinely applied to somebody else. This to the peril of the man. And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me (Luke 9:23), as this one verse contains an overview of the whole of this new life in Christ. It is only God that may cause the will of the man to turn and choose to come after Jesus. No man may correctly make this choice by himself. To truly enter into this new life, the Lord commands the man to exit his old life and deny himself. Like Jeremiah, when made to see the deceitful heart as God sees it, the man called to come after Jesus must sooner or later see the utter futility in denying himself. At least, in his own strength and volition. He cannot do it. The flesh does not just go away. It refuses to be denied, much less to die.

Herein lies one of the great crossroads en route to life. As much as the man loves his flesh, that old serpent loves it even more. He owns it. It is his base of operation and where he seeks to master full control. The whole world lieth in wickedness (1 John 5:19), and how easily that deceitful heart may dissect the world and retain that which it may reason is not so wicked at all. As such, there is no need to deny it. And how easily we may be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:4). More than, Scripture reads. These are lovers of God, but He is not their first love. While maintaining the right profession and a Sunday routine, the remaining days of the week make known the greater pleasure. The serpent is most adept at these crossroads, and Adam is only too happy to cooperate. If somehow the Heavenly Father does not move upon his life in ways far beyond his comprehension, to cause the man to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength (Mark 12:30), the man and the serpent will align in the serpent’s compromised halfway house called, religion.

After many scraped knees and bloody noses, the man of God learns that staying true and safe in the kingdom of God is indeed a vicious and bloody war that remains a fight to the finish. Only by the power, faith, and love of his Savior can he fight through and stand fast amidst all sorts of troubles. The wayside (Luke 8:5) held him bound for many years. The fowls of the air remained perched nearby. A superficial and double-minded life seemed to ease the battle, but without taking root, the Lord’s original provision began to wither away (Luke 8:6). God’s love was too great to allow the man to continue out of the narrow way, so He kept calling him back. Oh, the relentless war to believe that he could hold onto the hand of the Lord while entertaining the cares and riches and pleasures of this life (Luke 8:7) at the same time. But he kept blindly choking at every decision and crossroad. These temptations and battles are ever-present on this side of heaven. After all those scraped knees and bloody noses, the Lord made known the meaning of true grace. Grace is not provided that the man would now have the right to circumvent His will and be forgiven, but to fulfill His will in the face of humanly impossible circumstances. This revelation provides a safeguard to never allow the flesh to find a resting place on the wayside or upon the dry rock or among the thorns of this world. Sooner or later, His light to endure and navigate through will go out. The war rages on to seek and find and then stay on the good ground (Luke 8:8).

When the Apostle Paul was about to finish his course in this life, he stated, The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight… I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:6, 7). The man who will endure has learned in much suffering and travail, that without a good collective fight each day, getting through this life God’s way till the time of my departure is at hand and never letting go of his Lord’s hand, is impossible. Denying himself is equally futile. Through the Lord’s eyes, the man has witnessed for himself how easily he