The spiritual darkness in the earth is vastly more powerful, more deeply entrenched, than we have any idea. Even after the thousand-year Kingdom Age has transpired, a time of righteous rulership by Christ and His saints, Satan still will be able to deceive the nations of the earth into attacking the camp of the saints.

The earth is filled with spiritual darkness. We Christians are the dust of the earth. There is little we can do. Therefore we must be filled, filled, filled with all the fullness of God in Christ before we will have the authority and power to drive the darkness from the earth.

Also we must always be under the blood of the cross, for this is our protection from guilt and judgment in the sight of God.

We see then that the churches of today are as children playing in the religious Babylon. We have our myths and games, and little idea of the conflict of the ages that is upon us.

How then will God prepare us for what is ahead?

God will prepare us by suffering, by shaking us, by knocking out every prop on which we depend. We must come to know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

We absolutely must declare ourselves dead with Christ and risen with Christ. Until we do this we are part of the synagogue of Satan no matter how much we talk in tongues, and will continue to slander the true work of God just as the imitators of Christ have done through the centuries.

The army of the Lord is composed of dead-living people. They are crucified with Christ. They are living by the Life of Christ.

After our declaration of death and resurrection, the Spirit of God leads us into experiences that purify our spirit of all uncleanness; that frustrate and crucify our soul until the Life of Christ is formed; that put to death the passions and appetites of our body so we no longer are living in them.

Our most fervent desires are withheld from us for many years. We are brought into circumstances that are unpleasant, that keep us praying constantly. We learn to live one day at a time, one hour at a time, one minute at a time.

Perhaps we no longer are fruitful in ministry. Perhaps our home life is shaken and torn up. Perhaps we have prolonged illness, or poverty, or some other distress.

We are tried like Job, like Jeremiah, like Hannah, like the Apostle Paul. We have the sentence of death in ourselves such that from time to time we despair of life itself. Yet deep within us is the assurance that God is in control and joy yet shall come. We trust in God who raises the dead.

What is the purpose of all this frustration, this denial, this pain, this perplexity?

It is that Christ may be formed in us, that His Life may be seen in us. An eternal weight of glory is being formed in us in preparation for the Day of the Lord.

To be continued.