Here is the Lord's provision for His faithful saints. We must die in the Lord. We must cease from our own plans and ambitions and enter the rest of God.

Revelation, Chapter Twenty. The spirit of Antichrist is the spirit of self-will. We must die to our self-will. We must become completely obedient to God. We must be "beheaded," so to speak.

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)

The only way in which we can keep from worshiping the beast or his image, from receiving his mark on our forehead or our hand, is to be beheaded because of our testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God.

Those who are willing to lose their own life (their own head) so God's commandments may be honored will rise to meet the Lord Jesus when He appears. They will be with the Lord forever because like Him, they always honor and keep the commandments of God.

Those who save their life, maintaining their own way before God, will be judged in that day and appointed to their proper reward.

The Feast of Tabernacles—God's Provision for the Lawless Era

There are three great symbols of Israel: the altar, the lampstand, and the booth.

The altar represents the atoning death of Christ on the cross of Calvary.

The lampstand represents the Holy Spirit by which all saved people are to live.

The booth represents the ultimate purpose of God—that God might dwell in the heart of each saved person as he or she lives in perfect obedience to God's commandments.

Thus far in the Christian Era we have learned of the altar. We have come to understand that our sin cannot be forgiven except through the blood of God's Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot save ourselves by our own good deeds. We must receive the Divine atonement if we would be acceptable to God.

We have learned of the lampstand. We now realize that life lived in the strength and wisdom of the adamic nature is death. The adamic nature of each human being is hopelessly corrupt. No matter how hard we try we end up sinning and rebelling against God and dying spiritually as a result. The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness and an abomination to the adamic nature.

It is only as we live in the Spirit of God that we find the wisdom and strength to keep God's commandments. We are to be governed by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ. The Spirit of life makes it possible for us to escape the law of sin and death that governs the adamic nature. We cannot possibly please God except as we leave the life and things of this present world and look to the Spirit of God for every aspect of our thinking, speaking, and acting.

To be continued.