July 2, 2006

The changing of the guard

Joel Akin

Lets begin with hope. Hope is the substance of desire, the heart of faith, the center of wishes and longings. So if hope is so important to our faith then what is it that we really wish for as Christians and as people of the world? Do we not hope for change? Nearly everyone of us cries from the burden of our heart for a change of the guard. But who is the guard and why have they been in control for so long?

Well, we do know that God is in control overall. He keeps the walls up and makes sure that things don't happen to us beyond what a man or woman can bear. The problem is, especially lately, it seems that what we can bear is bushed into the lions den for some additional beating up. And once that is done then we have to endure months and years of suffering. And its not easy to deal with.

So who then brought us to this mess? We could blame sin but think of sin as a radioactive material. It has to be brought to a place, aka the lake of fire, where it can be destroyed. So sin is a problem and it is a difficulty but it is not the true issue here. Some may disagree and say sin is directly at fault so lets look at some of the main culprits.

Time-Time is like the mostly blind character who carries sin. His job is to move forward with it to make sure it doesn't escape. The death guard surround him to make sure everyone stays on watch. Unfortunately they've been around sin too long and it plays a negative role in their reactions.

Death-Death is a mysterious character who works with the death guard. He waits in the grave for those who come to him via one of his death angels. He was there in the tree (time) and carries sin to hell and the grave. He doesn't worry about the Spirit, which is in man, because that belongs to God and returns to God.

Satan-He is a loose character who keeps or kept all things under his authority. Sickness, disease, suffering and so on submit to him and carry sin to men.

Men are born in sin and are tainted by it because sin is in the world and affects everything in it from our parents to all of creation. The more men sin the more taint they carry. Eventually they become men of sin. That is rare and indicates an individual with little understanding and strength of their own.(as in under the control of spirits) Sin owns them and at this stage I believe even Satan has little control over them. Their wages are death which means they reap death and sow death and inherit death. It is a strange sort of mercy for those of us who remain because full men of sin are rare. They tend to be leaders of nations and as such bring down the world to a flare of flame and fire.

Hell-The abode of the devil and his angels-Now here is a mystery for you. If Satan is in hell how can he be on earth? The answer is his physical body is in hell but his spirit is on the loose. He is responsible for carrying the toxin (sin) to heaven (third heaven) so God had to put it in a tree for safe keeping. Satan strove to break it out through men and succeeded so they had to be tossed out of the garden to make sure sin/death did not inherit life. And even stranger for you? Adam and Eve 'died' in the garden spiritually but didn't die physically until they had been cast 'down' to earth.

Grave-This is the abode of death. Death is a spiritual being who was cursed by sin. He plays a key role and is really a good guy. It seems he is in constant battle with time and there is some truth to that, but he makes sure that souls are kept safe and sleep in his care until they are called forth for judgment. Satan likes to think he is friends with death but in reality Satan is afraid of him.

The lake of fire-This is the final place for Hell, the Grave and for those who cling to sin. Now what is it? Basically its the true depository for the great toxic element we call sin. Sin is a worm and it refuses to die or give up. Those who cling to the worm, which has infected their flesh, will end up in the lake fire. But its not meant to be for those who don't need to be there. Everyone talks about hell but hell will give up its dead for judgment and believe me there will be some highly unusual things that will happen to shock Christian and non Christian alike.

Now we finally speak of the changing of the guard. Think of it this way. Spirits have been in control of earth but they have wasted their time and spent their inheritances foolishly. I believe the change we are about to see is truly a spiritual one. Satan has been in charge simply by having countless numbers of spirits at his beck and control. They, like men, needed a savior. Now some may question that but think of spirits underneath Satan as his inheritance. Now think of them as former men and women who may have lived on earth when Satan lost his body. They were not under the authority of death because Death was still in the grave and thus even sin may not have touched some of them as yet. Its a little like Christians being stuck behind enemy lines. They go to work for the enemy building bombs and bullets and we curse them but they have little choice as to what they are made to do.

Does this mean we should have compassion on evil? No. It simply means that Jesus went to Hell and the Grave and it said he preached so lets think about it. God had righteous men in Paradise. God had placed Death in an advantageous position and death was one Gods side. A form of mercy so that the body would sleep and the spirit would sleep.

Now it does get more interesting. Why? Think of it this way. We know that life is in the blood. And we know there are aspects of death, such as murder and killing which fell under the power of sin. We know that spirits need blood and this is one of the ways that Satan utilizes blood to empower his evil by stealing the blood of the innocent.

A good illustration is this. We walk alongside time. Time has a whip in his right hand to beat us forward and we bear the mark of time as we age. In his left hand Time carries a spear which he uses to keep death or the death guard at a distance. Now when Time beats us it produces 'blood' which the spirits take for their own use. Remember life is in the blood and that includes us. Its how they survive as they have lost their bodies but not their life to death. They are like roaming spirits. Now Satan seems to be the one in charge. Though he doesn't have control over time he has set up an assembly line to catch the drops of blood and then uses it as he pleases. The end result is a person who suffers with pain, sickness, disease because we have been infected by sin on two counts. That which time carries with him and that which we continuously infect the spirits with. We have tainted blood and there is not one righteous man on earth that doesn't have tainted blood.

Thus there needed to be a righteous being that could pay the blood price for sin, time, death, us and the spirits. And that person was Jesus Christ who was born of a virgin woman (untouched by men). He carried a sinless nature (pure blood) and thus provided for us a way of escape from hell and the grave.

And that brings us to the purpose of the rapture and the second coming. I believe there was a delay and has been a delay. You ask why so I'll scare you a little bit. I believe there have been no men who have achieved the necessary righteousness with wisdom, knowledge and understanding. And if so they have not walked the earth for 500 years.

Now in this age of knowledge and wisdom and men's ministries that cover the earth with the word of God, isn't this enough? Think of it this way. Men create ministries and create faith and create kingdoms and yet the word of God does not move forward into true revival. There are miracles and a few signs and wonders but nothing that points to a move of God. So what happened? There has been a long battle with Satan and Satan has increased in evil abilities. Some may not like that thought but its true. That which we call the Beast, from the abyss, is that which came into mankind in the beginning but is even now moving.

The Beast-Most don't understand who or what the beast is. The beast is the wisdom of animals. It is the nature of animals and the understanding of such. It is the flesh men carry. The original flesh, as made by God, was meant to be pure and holy. So we will give you a secret of what happened in the garden. When Eve and Adam partook of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil the bible says their eyes were open and they saw their nakedness. Now it leaves a lot of things out and there is a purpose for that. Their spirit man was put to death but death was not meant to be permanent. Death was and is a spirit that came under a curse himself. There is a long story to that but he was carried to the tree because the tree was his grave. The curse of death was the burden of sin and sin was the burden of time and time as we know it was a curse to all. We see that Jesus bore the curse of time in Revelation 14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

So what really happened at that moment in the garden when they ate of the fruit? Something very, very sad.

Their spiritual bodies took on the flesh of the beast and their spiritual man died or was put to sleep. That is the secret. Death is the one that reigns over the Beast and the beast is meant to die. So now you know why our flesh is sinful. And why death was there and time also. Satan wanted us to turn our authority and inheritance over to him and we did. Thus people believe that when man fell it was up to God to raise us up again. This He did through Jesus Christ. He provided us a way so we could become spiritual men again. But we didn't understand that Satan still owned our flesh which was still under the authority of the beast, death and time. And he still owned the world even though Christ had provided a way of escape so we could overcome the beastly nature.

God wanted us to find a way of escape and be men again. But we forgot and followed after the lusts of the flesh and became as animals in our desire with each other.

Until God taught me personally. Now you may not like what you are about to read but know this, "God intends it for you" so listen carefully. You all carry what we will call the sinful flesh. It is in two forms. That which is of the spiritual flesh which is tainted and that which is of the physical flesh which is tainted. The spiritual flesh is overcome when you overcome the law and the law is that which keeps you under bondage to death. The second form is overcome in much the same way but we must be resurrected or changed by God Himself or through Jesus Christ. This change comes about when the rapture takes place. So this is for those of us who are alive and remain here on earth.

Now this resurrection of the flesh has to happen for all things to be fulfilled. Each one of us that desires change must understand the purpose of this transformation.

For if we do not overcome the law then we do not overcome the spiritual flesh. This means, as Christians, that when you get to heaven your flesh will be left behind and your spirit man will be awoken(resurrected) from death and carried to heaven. But because you will be carried up in a body that is not 'whole' you will be as little children. You see part of your knowledge and understanding is carried in the sinful flesh. And though we don't understand fully yet what that does we do know that has to be cast away as you didn't overcome it. Now overcoming your flesh is something most Christian take for granted. Some think it is a question of sanctification or baptism or Christian ministry or calling. It is none of these though these might be stepping stones to overcoming. The real key is twofold. One is continuous prayer to God and the other is overcoming the law. I can tell you that neither is easy to do and requires a depth of relationship with God that most Christians simply do not have nor do they understand.

Satan is continuously battling with us to steal our understanding. He has brought a wild spirit into the church to subjugate us into submitting. All these things are even now being broken but they are not yet crushed. Crushed means they most likely cannot be resurrected.

Now it was and is Gods desire that men rule with Him in His kingdom but that ruling with Him is based on His desire for us to work with Him in overcoming the enemy. You have to remember that all creation bears sin. Most of you don't have a clue what that means. ALL of creation bears sin? Sin is that worm and the worm is understanding of doing wrong. So if we on earth are arrogant to think we are alone in the universe the very Bible itself leads us to a different conclusion. For sin is what the universe is burdened with and God decided to make earth the center of the cure.

Now there is a lot to go through for us to have understanding. Frankly none of us can comprehend fully the depth of Gods plan. But we know that sin infects creation and creation is more than earth but the stars and galaxies of the universe. And if sin is understanding of doing wrong this means that through out all the universe the creatures of the worlds are seeking a cure to their sin. God doesn't do things small and don't think for a second that we are the only ones. Otherwise scripture doesn't coalesce like it should. We think the battle is small but its not. And it doesn't include just the dimension we see but it seems to have infected all heavens even up to Gods own in the third heaven.

Now we know that sin entered heaven and one of the greatest to fall was Lucifer.

So this brings us back to sin as being like a toxic element. God had to find a way to heal it or deposit it in a place where it would be safe. And it was carried from Gods home to the garden where it was deposited in the tree and guarded by death and time. Satan broke it free by lying to Adam and Eve. They carried it from third heaven(Eden) to Earth, part of first heaven. But that which was out in the second and first heaven still carried the curse of this.

Now if God did destroy all things or all things were destroyed then this means that creatures of that time died in their sin. I won't go into it too much but remember that the spirits that fight us do so with intelligence. The beast was not made intelligent but was made for food. Yet if part of the secret to sin was to give understanding to the beast then we would be dealing with a war above all wars.

So what is next? Satan is being overcome with all his powers and authority. God has raised up faith and the man of faith is being used by God to overcome all power and all authority on earth while he overcomes sin over all the universe in all places and times. This authority is real and is happening even as we speak. But there is a continuous warfare taking place over the capturing of Satan and his strongholds. Once this is completed these are the spirits of those who have died including those who were evil. They will all be carried to heaven for judgment.

Satan himself will have to kneel before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and then I believe he will be thrown to earth where he will fall like lightning.

Then knowing his time is short he enters into the one who will be called the man of sin. The man of sin will be one to whom is ascribed great death. The man of sin may even be called Death for it was the destiny of sin and the beast to submit to death.

So why would Satan be given extra time on earth? I believe that when he is brought before God for judgment there will be several judgments of those who were dead and those who are still under his authority and marked for death.

There is much more that I could say but I believe the changing of the guard will be a time when the spirits who were in authority will give way to men who for seven years will be in charge of the affairs of earth. Though they have a spiritual head, as in the devil/antichrist/man of sin/the beast this spiritual head will strive to bring all men under authority of death so that all men will be brought down to the grave and to hell.

We are close to this time and its important that you strive for time so that you might spend quality moments with God seeking Him above all things. Do this on a daily basis for our time is short. Don't give up for remember God will finish all that He started.