The Archangel watches The Devil

As on the day of the great heavenly battle, I, with the Lord, saw the satan fall from heaven, I watch him, at set times, approach God’s throne.  I, Michael, the archangel, who defeated the liar before God made man, share with you, the creature, a glimpse of what you will see for all eternity. 

As it was on the day the satan accused Job, the time came for the accuser to stand accused, giving an account before God.  It is always the same.  The liar lies to his demons under his oppression as he departs his dark kingdom and leaves his dark throne.  “Fair well, princes of darkness.  I go now to receive worship from the so called creator, his so called creation, and the so called heaven.”  “Hail, Lucifer, son of the morning!”  “I receive your praise, as I receive all praise,” the satan says, with the smirk of pride personified…until he leaves his assigned realm of darkness.  I always see this.

Entering light from his assigned eternal night, his face quickly changes.  He is ensouled hate.  Hate mind.  Hate emotion.  Hate volition.  Hate in motion.  Hate moving towards love, unloved.  Ascending from the night into the light, approaching slowly the pearly gates, he waits.  Shivering as in earth’s winter cold, the satan becomes hesitation.  He is four steps away from God’s gates.

I hate me.

The first step is taken.  The last three he cannot imagine.

God hates me.

Step two nearly broke the spirit who is now nothing.

Then the part comes that the accused accuser dreads the most; it always came at his third step towards the gate of heaven.

Heaven hates the satan.

He heard them all in unison, and is the personification of heart broken barren existence.  The last step undoes him, with the last words of his unwelcome:

Creation hates the satan.

I, Michael, the archangel, saw the accuser accused. 

Ugly. 

Stupid. 

Weak. 

Naked. 

And Ashamed.

How the AntiChrist will Deceive Christians (1)

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.  John 1:18 NIV

The Antichrist is not the opposite of Christ; he is another Christ, and not the true Christ.  This is how the apostasy will begin: the church will fall away because we are worshipping another Christ.  Many of us who say we believe in Jesus really believe in the Antichrist. 

But if you want to resist deception, keep reading.  I will show you how the Antichrist deceives Christians, and how to avoid his deception.

DECEPTION BEGINS IN OUR IMAGINATION

Remember the story of the golden calf?  Many of us think the Israelites were worshipping a false god.  But look carefully at their words:

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”

Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 

Exodus 32:1-4, NASB, italics and bold text mine.

Do you see the Israelites imagining the true God?  They were not attempting to worship a pagan deity like Dagon or Ra.  They imagined the true God was strong like a calf and glorious like gold, trying to picture what Yahweh was like. 

But they had already heard God's voice from Mount Sinai.  They did not see Him or his form.  By imagining a visible God, they worshiped another god, though picturing the True God. 

They took a path away from the true God to a false God, a path away from Christ and towards the Antichrist.  We are also on the path towards the Antichrist if we imagine God in any way other what He truly is.  (Click HERE for part 2.)

How the Antichrist will deceive Christians (2)

How can we avoid the deception of our imaginations and know what God is truly like?  The answer is in this scripture:

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Colossians 1:16 NIV

Jesus alone shows us who God is and what God is like.  The real Jesus, mind you.  Not the American republican right wing conservative Jesus, or the democratic liberal Jesus, or the socialist Jesus, the hippie Jesus, the militant Jesus, or any other Jesus of our imagination. 

The real Jesus, born of a virgin named Mary, a Hebrew, of the tribe of Judah and the line of King David, is the only one who can and does give us a picture of what the one true God is like.  He is the "exact representation of God's being," according to the book of Hebrews. 

The Antichrist will deceive us when we imagine the Lord Jesus in any way other than what He is.

The way we can resist this deception is to accept the absolute truth about God and ourselves.  The Lord Jesus, and His Spirit, reveals both.  Listen to Jesus' words:

All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 
Matthew 11:27, NIV

The truth about God is the same as the truth about any other person we want to really know:  we can't know God, or anyone else, unless they reveal themselves to us, as it is also written:

For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:11 NIV

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:7-8 NIV

"When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you."  Psalms 50:21 NIV

In all of these scriptures we see one common theme:  we can't know God unless He reveals Himself to us.  (And He has revealed Himself to us through Christ, and Christ alone.)  He is not like us, nor is He one of us.  We are infinitely below Him.  Unless we humble ourselves, we will inevitably deceive ourselves.  We'll make God like us, which is what the Antichrist will offer us in the end.  He will give us a god in our own image and likeness, a god focused on us, instead of us focused on Him. 

The Antichrist will give us an American god, an American jesus, a government of the people, by the people, and FOR the people, and NOT kingdom of God, in which God's will ALONE is done, on earth, and in heaven. 

This is the core of the deception:  our will being done instead of God's will being done. 

Heaven is not a democracy. 
It is a kingdom.
God is a King.

The rejection of God as an absolute King is the acceptance of the Antichrist.

Look into your own heart, or at your church.  Who is really ruling and reigning?

• If it is Christ, then you and your church will be at odds with this world, with America, with all who refuse to bow to God the King. 
• If it is not Christ, then you and your church will be seeking the same thing people in this world seek: your will being done instead of God's will being done.

"If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:15 NASB