Deferred hope creates the power of rulership, the crown of life, in us. We will overcome and rule today if we will allow the Lord to afflict us as He chooses, for it is then that the power of Christ abides on us. We can only know the power of His resurrection as we experience His sufferings, the sufferings of the cross.

The new world that is coming will be a very desirable place in which to live because it will be governed by the spirits of righteous people made perfect in Christ. Each one of them will be a tree of life from which other people can draw life and healing for themselves.

Survival—not to be brought down to where we cannot control our own mind, emotions, actions, prayers.

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. (Matthew 10:22)

In your patience possess ye your souls. (Luke 21:19)

God has given us a soul. We can possess our soul or we can lose our soul. Our soul rightfully belongs to Christ but Satan desires it for his own purposes.

We are approaching an age of moral horrors. We already can see how the Internet will be used to bring pornography and other moral darkness and death to people. Satan's purpose in filling the world with moral darkness and death is to give him control of the souls of people.

The Christian churches are morally weak in the present hour. Many of the members are not nearly strong enough to resist the temptations on the horizon. They will not be able to possess their soul during the age of moral horrors. They will succumb. They will lose control over their own soul, being compelled by the power of death in them to live in the lusts of the flesh.

Only the strongest will survive in the days to come. Only those who are filled with eternal life, who are living in the Life of Christ, will be strong enough to retain control over their souls, their minds, their emotions, their memories, their tongues, their bodies.

In the coming hour the Christians who today are lukewarm and careless will be unable to resist sin. Pastors and congregations alike will be deceived by the darkness because they are not carrying their personal cross and following the Master. Pastors and congregations will stay glued to the computer screen, reveling in the moral filth portrayed until the early hours of the morning. They will become puppets moved by unclean spirits. They do not possess enough eternal life to overcome the darkness and death that is filling the earth, the hordes of demons who are counseling them and pressuring them to indulge their lusts.

If we are to survive and to stand before the Son of Man in victory we must have much, much more eternal life than is true of the average church attender of our day. The enemy is coming in like a flood and only the Spirit of God, the Spirit of eternal life, is strong enough to overcome him.

To be continued.