Paul had what he called “a thorn in his flesh.” He said that it was a messenger of Satan to keep him from exalting himself. We don’t know what it was. Some say it was his poor eye sight.
I’m sure you know your weakness. That thing that torments you, that keeps you from doing your best. But that weakness can be the very thing you can be glad about, because Christ will perfect His power through that weakness—so that we can be content with our weakness.
2 Cor 12:9-10
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
We can’t be sure when the Antichrist will be Satan inspired to the point where he will know who he is and what he will do; but it seems to me that when he begins to work toward world peace, and especially peace with Israel, that that may be the point at which Satan starts to inspire him in his thinking. We know that he won’t be fully possessed and controlled until the midpoint of the Tribulation, but it could be that for a time, at certain points along the way that he will be Satan inspired, even if he is not fully aware of what Satan will want him to do. Here are a few ways in which he will demonstrate world peace and peace with Israel.
1. After the Rapture he may try to comfort the world by bringing a logical explanation of the disappearances. And he will no doubt agree with the top new agers.
2. He will bring a hearty endorsement of the new global religion, and this will be seen as the best way to draw people together in peace.
3. He may take credit for Israel’s success over the Muslim’s failed invasion of Israel in an effort to move the world toward him as a hero and as Israel’s champion. We don’t know how he will manage this, but with today’s fake news in the media, we know that any evil thing is possible.
4. He will make plans and put himself in charge of building the third temple. This will most certainly stir the hearts of most Israelis and they will see him as a hero of peace for Israel and for the world.
I think the signing of the 7-year peace covenant will certainly be tied to his promise to help Israel build their temple. And I think it will guarantee a peace for Israel as they reinstate their worship in the temple without Muslim conflict.
Now we know that the peace plan will be broken in the middle of the week (after three and one-half years), but nonetheless, all that this man will do in terms of world peace for Israel and for the world will be a sign that the beginning of the Tribulation is coming soon; and as soon as he signs that peace agreement, that will be the beginning point of the Tribulation (Dan. 9:27).
Jesus said, “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation; the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). Jesus knew that prayer was absolutely necessary to resist temptation, that without it we are weak and vulnerable to the attacks of Satan.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 that we are in a struggle, not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in heavenly places. He therefore suggests that we put on the full armor of God so that we may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
As we see in Ephesians 6:18, prayer is part of this full armor. But we should not look at prayer as just one piece of the full armor, as if to have a little significance. Prayer, in fact, is significant for the correct use of each piece of armor. Moreover it energizes the armor and holds each piece of armor in place. In the final analysis, it is our power for victory.1
Prayer, as it is used in verse 18, is not just of one kind; it is “all prayer.” All kinds of prayer, therefore, are to be used against the enemy. And with “all prayer” we are to pray “at all times.” That is, we must pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). What is meant here, according to Warren Wiersbe, is that we must “always be in communion with the Lord.”2 And this infers that we must always be drawing on His strength. Yes, we must be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might (Eph. 6:10), which cannot be accomplished without unceasing prayer in the Spirit.
Also, when we pray, we must “be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all saints” (v.18), knowing that the devil is on the prowl, seeking to destroy God’s people. We must therefore, be watchful and pray, not just for ourselves, but also for all other believers who are subject to the same temptations as we are. And when we are faithful to pray for others, God will be faithful to bless us and give us His strength.
1 Warren Wiersbe, Be Rich (Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books. A division of SP Publications, Inc., 1976), p. 172.
First, I will define what I mean byThe Evil Powers. Chiefly, it is Satan, the devil. Under him it is all the demons—the evil fallen angels. Then under them it is the evil people that follow and are controlled by Satan. They call themselves the “elite.” Most of them are billionaires. And they are always pushing for more money and more power. They are that group that is calling for the “Great Reset,” which will ultimately develop into world control by one leader.
Also, the reason why my title is on “America” instead of the world is because America is now the focus. And that is because they (the evil powers) reason that in order to control the world they will have to reduce the power of all nations; and that means that America will have to be knocked down a few notches—reduced in power and influence, until they are ready to be controlled.
Now here is what inspired me to write this post. I have been seeing so much evidence lately of things happening that would suggest that evil powers are at work to destroy our freedoms and our strength as Americans. Here are a few.
All things related to Covid-19
Oh, The Evil Powers were all over this. And if they didn’t cause Covid-19, they certainly knew how to use it to their advantage. We have seen how Dr. Fauci and others have set the Covid rules and put us all under a cloud of fear. And most of our governors have fell right in line with it, some telling us that mask wearing will be a permanent thing. And many are using their position of power to close small businesses—while the large businesses are allowed to remain open. And the most tragic thing is that churches have been forced to restrict the size of their congregation; and some have had to close.
The thing that bothers me most is how the media keeps advertising all the Covid deaths every day on TV. This is all for a purpose: to keep us under a cloud of fear, and to condition us to be controlled, so that we will be more and more submissive—submissive to a future dictator!
The Chauvin trial
I constantly ask myself the question: why is this so news worthy? It is always on the front page of the newspaper. And now the trial is on every major TV channel. Ironically, I don’t think that most people are that interested in watching it. Most people are sick of it. So why is it advertised so much? It is because The Evil Powers want it on. They are pushing it. They want Americans to watch it. Why? Because they know that it is inspiring racism and a hatred for the police—which will ultimately break down America’s power structure and morality.
Books
Americans have always been readers of books. And the Evil Powers know that. I like to browse the book stores in search of books I would like to read. And I have been noticing lately that many of the good books of truth are disappearing off the shelves and are being replaced by books that are lying to us.
Let me give you one example of this. Just a few months ago during the Trump administration I would see so many good, truthful books about the good side of Donald Trump and also books on the “Hoax.” Now all that is reversed. You will see almost none of those books, but instead the shelves are packed with books telling lies about Trump and also so many books on the Obama’s and the smiling Harris. So, you get the point. And it is interesting that whenever you see an Obama book or a Harris book or a _____ book on the shelves, it’s not just one or two of them. The book stores will put out a dozen or more. Why? Do they think the public really wants to read that book that much? Well, it is my guess that they put out the books they want you to read, not because they think you are interested in reading them. Conversely, they are removing the books they don’t want you to read—the books that are true.
But the book store people—the owners and the managers—are controlled by The Evil Powers. And they control what books they want you to read. And don’t you know that they don’t want you to know the truth. They want you to believe a lie. They want to deceive you and control you. And one of the best ways to do it is through what you read.
Be on your guard Americans.Look and see what is happening. Be on your guard against what is false and what is true. And the best book to read for truth is the Bible. Don’t let the devil fool you. Be filled with the Spirit—He is the Spirit of Truth.
This is our third study on this topic. Please click HERE for an intro to this study. We will begin our study for this post in Matthew 9:32-34
Matt 9:32-34
As they were going out, “a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
34 But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”
Observations
What happened to the man was clear and undeniable. Jesus drove a demon out of the man and he was healed. He could speak. And the crowd was amazed at what happened.
But what was puzzling is the response by the “righteous” Pharisees. They said that the reason he was able to cast out demons was because he called on “the prince of demons.” (the devil).
First of all, that makes no sense. Why would the devil want his demons to be cast out? His kingdom would not stand if he went about casting out his own forces (read what Jesus said in Matthew 12:25-30).
I think the real reason the Pharisees said what they said was because they hated Jesus and they were jealous of what he was able to do. So, they had to say something to discredit him.
Applications
This text reminds me of the former U.S. administration, with Donald Trump as President. He did so many good things for the country and yet the media and the Democrats were so jealous of him and hated him. And it didn’t matter what he did, they always found a way to discredit him. I have heard many times that he could have found a cure for cancer and they would have found a way to discredit it, or give the credit to someone else.
I think we see so much of the Pharisees in the Democrat party and the Democrat media. Watch how they act: so self-righteous; and Nancy Pelosi, how she was praying for everyone. But also notice how she could not give President Trump praise for anything, and publicly tore up President Trump’s State of the Union Speech.
It seems to me that the vaccinations are setting us up—preparing us—to be controlled by a future world dictator. Never before has the world been in a position where we are saying we need to be controlled. And the governments of the world are telling us that it is for our own good. And they are using fear to control us and to convince us to be vaccinated—or die!
The bible tells us that there will come a world leader who will control us by giving us a mark on our right hand or our forehead, and we won’t be able to buy or sell anything without this mark. He is the Antichrist and is controlled by Satan.
He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name (Rev. 13:16-17).
Yes, I see that what is going on right now is preparing us for the Antichrist and his mark—666.
Here are two articles of interest. The first one I will show you is about some Israeli doctors and nurses that refuse to be vaccinated.
Arutz Sheva has received testimonies from doctors, nurses and medical staff who refuse to be vaccinated for fear that the vaccine has effects that have not yet been tested.
S., (full name kept hidden), a doctor at a hospital in the center of the country for 30 years, said “Not only did I not get vaccinated, some of my fellow doctors did not get vaccinated either. We still do not know what the side effects of the vaccine are. We are keeping instructions stringently but will not get vaccinated for the time being.”
A., a nurse at a hospital in Jerusalem has been afraid to get vaccinated for 15 years due to fear of harm to pregnancy and fertility. “I have only one child and I am still of childbearing age and want to have another child. My and many nurses’ fear of harm is a real fear and we have still not received a promise that there is no harm or damage to fertility after the vaccine.”
It should be noted that the testimonies of doctors and nurses in the health system that were received by Arutz Sheva also indicate a fear of fertility problems in men. “Serious journals and studies published in recent weeks show that male fertility is indeed impaired. We have to wait a few months before it is possible to understand the effect of the vaccine,” said one of them. Some have indicated that if Edelstein’s law goes into effect they will get vaccinated out of lack of choice.
In recent days, the Minister of Health, MK Yuli Edelstein, has proposed a bill to authorize the government to establish regulations restricting the entry of an employee to the workplace, and obligating an employer to prevent an employee from entering if he has not presented a recovery certificate, vaccinated certificate or negative result. The issue is currently under investigation by the Ministry of Justice.
Shaare Zedek Medical Center told Arutz Sheva, “There is a discrepancy in the data with the Ministry of Health, especially regarding those who have not been vaccinated at the hospital. We are working on improving the data. The vaccination rate is 75-80 percent.”
Ichilov Hospital reported: “90 percent of our medical staff have been vaccinated.”
Hadassah Medical Center responded, “We are pleased to announce that Hadassah’s hospitals have the highest vaccination rate, which stands at 95% for physicians, 92% nursing staff and 90% administrative and maintenance workers. Overall, the vaccination rate among hospital staff is 92.3%. “.
“We will continue the vaccination campaign for the hospital staff until its complete end,” emphasizes Hadassah Director Prof. Zeev Rotstein. “This in parallel to vaccination of yeshiva students from Jerusalem, whom we invited in an organized fashion to receive the vaccination at designated stations under accompaniment of the community leaders, as well as in parallel to the vaccination of those suffering from various allergies who need the vaccine in the framework of a day’s hospitalization in order to vaccinate them safely and under the supervision of allergy specialists.”
Here is a very recent article where it appears that Israeli authorities are trying to force all their people to be vaccinated.
The Knesset gave final approval on Wednesday to controversial legislation allowing the Health Ministry to give local authorities personal details of residents who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The proposal passed into law in its second and third readings, 30-13, after a Knesset panel amended the legislation so that details of those who are fully vaccinated will not be given to the municipalities.
Under the terms of the bill, for a three-month period the Health Ministry will be permitted to provide the local authorities and the Education Ministry with personal and contact details of residents for the purpose of promoting
Information will include data on those who have had the first of the two-shot vaccination but did not turn up for the second dose three weeks later, as well as those who had no injections at all.
In addition to possibly swaying the opinion of those who are against being vaccinated, the program would enable local authorities to locate and provide assistance to those who need help leaving home to get to vaccination centers.
The law stipulates that the information can only be used to encourage vaccination, and any other use is prohibited.
Among the opponents was MK Tamar Zandberg of the left-wing Meretz party, who called on the public to get vaccinated, saying the inoculation campaign is “the most important thing at the moment in the State of Israel.”
“However, the trigger finger is too itchy when it comes to passing laws that violate citizens’ privacy,” Zandberg said. “Handing over such data is a slippery slope,” she added, noting that it could fall into the wrong hands.
Labor head MK Merav Michaeli also voted against the measure, charging that it exemplified Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to deal with the pandemic.
“A huge and terrible number of deaths and patients, students who did not study or meet friends for a year, hundreds of thousands who lost their livelihoods without economic rehabilitation,” Michaeli said, addressing the premier.
“You try to hide everything with public relations and obfuscation. This information belongs to citizens, and today you are taking their right to privacy about their medical information,” Michaeli said.
The head of the Knesset Labor, Welfare and Health Committee, Likud MK Haim Katz, responded to the criticism, asking, “Is the value of privacy more important than the value of life?”
Katz said that the committee had removed clauses allowing the transfer of data about children or those who have received both doses of the vaccine.
“It will only deal with people who are allowed to get vaccinated and have not done so… Two months after the transfer of the data [to local authorities] it will be destroyed,” Katz said. “The sanctity of life is above all.”
According to Health Ministry data released on Wednesday, 4,537,244 people in Israel, or some 50% of the country’s total population, have now received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Additionally, 3,146,509 people have received both doses of the two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech inoculation Israel is almost exclusively using.
Younger people have shown more reluctance to get the vaccination and the Health Ministry hopes the legislation will enable local authorities to advocate immunization among residents who don’t want the shots.
However, the country’s public health union issued a warning on Tuesday against the bill over privacy concerns, and a top democracy expert said the information could be used to target those easily persuaded by conspiracy theories to sway their votes in the coming March elections.
The Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians published a letter cautioning that the “legislation will cause short-term and long-term damage to the local authority itself, undermining trust when the benefit is limited and questionable,” Channel 12 reported.
“Hasty legislation that may infringe on the rights of the individual will not significantly contribute to the aim, and could even harm it,” the IAPHP warned.
The letter was sent to Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, coronavirus czar Nachman Ash, and other senior Health Ministry officials. A copy was also given to Katz by representatives of the Israeli Medical Association, the country’s largest doctors union.
“The medical information centralized by the HMOs is an important resource for promoting the vaccination campaign, in part because it is a tool used by the HMOs to prioritize vaccines according to age and background diseases. However, the information in the possession of the HMOs is information that has been determined to be kept confidential,” the letter stressed.
Chair of the public health union Prof. Nadav Davidovitch told Channel 12 that the union fully supports the immunization program, “but we distinguish between actions to encourage immunization and violation of individual rights.”
“This change in legislation is a slippery slope that can undermine public trust and lead to disproportionate enforcement actions,” Davidovitch warned. “Local authorities should not be exposed to confidential medical information.”
Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, raised concerns that information on the lists given to local authorities could also be used for political gain ahead of the March 23 elections.
“The list of people we have not vaccinated is valuable to those who want to know who among us is susceptible to conspiracy theories, so it is valuable to those who want to win the election,” she told Army Radio on Monday. “I am very worried about it making the rounds.”
I think that the more people that are convinced to be vaccinated, and therefore controlled, the better prepared, or the more willing the world will be to face the future—the Antichrist.
There are certainly many indications today that we are living in the last days, and that we are inching closer and closer to the coming of Jesus Christ to rescue the godly ones from this evil world. One of these indications (or signs) is the increase of lawlessness spoken of in Matthew 24:12. In this context Jesus is speaking of that period of time called “the Tribulation,” in which many false prophets will arise and mislead many (v. 11); and because of lawlessness (sinfulness), people will grow to hate and betray one another (vv. 10-12).
And during that time of tribulation there will arise one called the “lawless one,” who is known as the antichrist. At first, during the first part of the Tribulation, he will be restrained by God from doing his great evil; but at the midpoint of the Tribulation those restraints will be removed, and being empowered by Satan, he will then be free to do great lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:3-12).
Of course, we are not now in the Tribulation; but, as I said, we have indications that we are fast arriving. I say that mainly because of the present attitude we have toward law enforcement and the police department. Certain groups like Black Lives Matter, along with many liberal democrats and the media, are now pushing the idea of defunding the police department and even abolishing it. Can you imagine what will happen if that idea becomes a reality? There would be chaos and no law and order—lawlessness!
According to Scripture (2 Thess. 2:7), “The mystery of lawlessness is already at work.” This means, according to John MacArthur, that the “The spirit of lawlessness [is] already prevalent in society, but [it is] still a mystery in that it has not been fully revealed [in the coming antichrist].”
Hence, what I get from that, is that this attitude we have in society about wanting to be free of the police, is in our sinful spirit. But we do not see what is coming and how damaging that spirit can be in us. In a sense we all want to be free of the law, because we are all sinners. But we often fail to see how God has given us authority figures like the police to help us and keep us safe.
I think this country should do all it can to shut down this radical idea of defunding the police department. But if it happens that we are not able to do it, or if our government isn’t willing to do it, we Christians need to be aware, and even comforted in the fact that His coming is near!
Chinese traveling from China to New Yorkand around the World.
Just today I read that Peter Navarro, the Presidents top aid, suggested that for two months the Chinese hid the Covid-19 virus from the world and then sent hundreds of thousands of infected Chinese on aircraft to Milan, New York and around the world. However, the President doesn’t think that it was deliberate, but accidental.
Nonetheless, whether it was accidental or deliberate, we can believe that it has been Satan’s plot to kill people. And in case you didn’t know it, it has been that globalists dream to reduce the population to 500 million people. So, why wouldn’t they use covid-19 to help fulfill that goal. And you can bet that more viruses—accidental or not—will be on the way. We should be prepared.
Who are the globalists? I think most of the world is, but the die-hard globalists are certainly the Chinese, and the World Health Organization, and Bill Gates, and people like Nancy Pelosi and the Clinton’s and the Obama’s. Stay tuned to more globalist news—but at the same time keep trusting the Lord!
Stephen Nielsen 