Articles
Will You be a Wise or a Foolish Virgin?
Barbara L. Klika, MSW, Undershepherd, Life Coach
September 2020
Written for Wisconsin Christian Newspaper
And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Isaiah 13:11 KJV
As I write, we are moving into autumn, and the Fall Feast of the LORD, Sukkoth or Tabernacles; our annual rehearsal and celebration of Messiah: His birth and His soon return for the Marriage Feast of the Lamb! We continue to walk after Messiah in recognition that our eternity with Him is secure…reality is in the marriage Chuppah!...while the temporal world is in such upheaval all around us! Every day it becomes more clear to me how it will be that men’s hearts will fail them for fear of what is coming on the earth!
We are also moving toward the presidential election, with the most polarized population in the US probably since the Civil War years. I was just listening to all the projections that somehow President Trump will not win re-election and the preparation being made in the media to convince people that the election may appear to be a landside victory but over days and weeks following, the mail in vote will overturn it. (I have also heard that this is statistically impossible.) I have commented that I see far more Trump yard signs than Biden in northeastern Wisconsin, and did have to laugh at the comments others made that if yard signs are the determining factors, it looks like Trump is in first place, and “Firewood for Sale” and “Sweet Corn” are vying for second place! The mainstream media further anticipate that President Trump will refuse to leave office and that the military will forcibly remove him. All of this is projection and a low level of mind control often called propaganda, though we cringe at the realization that it is happening in America!
This season has found me working intensively with several satanic ritual abuse survivors again, with such awe and amazement at how YHWH has knit together more understanding in me as to how to help them overcome their very intense levels of mind control and demonization, to say the least. I am newly aware of the depth and depravity of those who serve wickedness; that there seems to be no limit to the cruelty and wickedness they impose on vulnerable people, as well as the cunning of planning, deceitfully leading toward the appearance of the false Messiah. And continually thankful and rejoicing with the people as we witness the REAL Messiah Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth, skillfully dealing with it all! How joyful I am that we now have a set apart fellowship to stand in strong defensive prayer for it all! A group of living stones, built together into a spiritual house, knowing how to keep rank and standing in Yeshua!
This summer, we have seen out and out anarchy in the guise of peaceful protests, invading Wisconsin, “peaceably” in De Pere, but not so peacefully in Green Bay and notably not so in Kenosha. We have seen a teen stand to defend a business, while also tending to injuries among protesters, be run down with stated intent to kill him yet his self-defense has left him in jail with murder charges while those who threatened him have no charges against them. We see people who are apparently incapable of reasoning and appear to function entirely on emotional rhetoric. Per a number of reports their bricks and homemade Molotov cocktails are giving way now to military grade automatic weaponry which is being provided to them through the cooperation of many government agencies and American corporations who do not support our constitution and want Marxism at least, and Globalization at best. They plan to target multiple cities across America simultaneously in the time before and after elections; including plans to place snipers on buildings to target police, ongoing attempts to burn police stations, and moving into suburbia as well.
We were warned this day would come:
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2 Tim 3:1-5 KJV
What are set apart people who honor Messiah supposed to do under these circumstances?
Its easy to point to some spiritual applications in Scripture but not always so easy to determine what His people are actually to DO during such an onslaught of wickedness.
The path of life leads upward for the wise to keep him from going down to the grave.
The LORD tears down the proud man's house but he keeps the widow's boundaries intact. The LORD detests the thoughts of the wicked, but those of the pure are pleasing to him.
A greedy man brings trouble to his family, but he who hates bribes will live.
The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil.
Proverbs 15: 24-28
Ephesians 5 tells believers to walk in love, to not partake of evil behaviors; and have no fellowship with works of darkness, instead expose them.
That we are to see that we walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
We are to sing songs, speak to ourselves in psalms, make melody in our hearts to the LORD: submit ourselves to one another in the fear/awe of God.
We can be confident that the words to Isaiah listed above will be carried out in the fullness of time as our Elohim brings His final judgment. Until then, do we defend ourselves physically from this onslaught of evil or is that trusting the sword which we will then have to answer to ourselves? How do you “Turn the other cheek” when there is no reasoning with people bent on death and destruction? It would seem that the protection from this violence that we thought we had in the oceans at each coast no longer is effective. We will have to personally and corporately determine how we deal with corruption and violence right in our faces. Destruction so often comes from within, even though in this case, there seem to be outside factors, too.
When I visited Israel the first time, in 1997, I was struck by the realization that Israeli’s have had to deal with this violence right in their faces while also living their daily lives, especially those in the West Bank. I was deeply impressed by our guide, a former IDF sniper, and Jewish believer in Messiah, when he said that he felt compassion for those who were fighting him because they had no real idea of what was happening, and no Redeemer. I said that we in America likely will have a lot to learn should we have to face something similar about how to maintain our quiet and peaceful confidence in Messiah through danger. When I visited our Yahweh’s Set Apart Ministries in Kenya, in 2008 I think, I was impressed with our fellow believers there and their patience and ability to function under the radar of massive corruption yet remaining hopeful in Messiah! I thought that they had as much to teach us as we may have to teach them! And now, here we are, reeling under the exposure of such massive corruption here.
Just as there has been argument over what was the “correct” response to Messiah’s crucifixion on the part of His followers, there is debate over what is the correct response today. It has seemed to me that our Father knows far better than we do all that is transpiring. It further seems to me that He has already known who will be able to respond in all the various ways and that He will lead us as He has already planned. Many will be led to defend, not attack, but defend His people; sometimes by weaponry but always through prayer. And it seems to me that these battles are always won first in our own hearts and minds, between our ears and behind our eyes.
May we prayerfully continue to lean into our Messiah and listen intently for His heart and leading as we look for that path while staying under His wings. The place where He has promised to deliver those who know His Name and who honor Him.
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