Proximity to Christ - the Key to overcoming in the End Times

"We're more than conquerors, why? 'Through Him that loved us.' Where does the strength to overcome come? It comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. And your deliverance, your Bible study, your prayer will help you get close to Him, and to that end, they're extremely valuable to help you get through the hard times. If Christians don't get ready for hard times, when they hit they're going to think God died...

"We're more than conquerors, but it's through Jesus Christ. Now everything that gets us close to the Lord is going to get us further from these things that can overcome us. It's the consciousness of His presence with us that's going to cause us to look past the tribulation and see the glory coming, past the distress, past the persecution, past the famine, past the nakedness, peril, or sword. If you don't have that, then you're going to crumple and pile up and you may have a nervous breakdown.

"When the hard times hit...and when the bottom drops out, as it one of these days will, when that happens, you're going to see a lot of Christians have nervous breakdowns. A lot of preachers are going to have nervous breakdowns. Because they honestly have no earthly way to cope with disaster. Some of these so-called great ministers are going to just completely come apart at the seams, because they've been built on a pipe dream, and on a bubble, and when that bubble pops, there'll be nothing left to support it; it'll come crashing down...

"The people have not been taught to do anything but gather together in great big bunches saying 'Hip-tee-doo!' and 'Hallelu,' in one extreme, or they sit together like wooden Indians, saying 'Amen. Now let's go out the door.' But either way they're not getting anything that's going to take them through hard times when they hit. They have not been taught to be individual believers, and households to be individual groups, locked together for the purpose of resisting the enemy and reaching out to minister to other believers and others who are in need. It's wonderful to have a church to come to, and we should thank God every week that goes by that we're still permitted to worship without soldiers breaking through the back doors back there, and police coming and marching the preacher off to jail, because you never know when that's going to cease. The enemy is working ceaselessly...

"But you have to realize that most believers are not ready for anything like this. Their whole lives are geared to the world system, the economic and social thing, and when that tears and rips, they'll have nothing left, nothing to cling to. Have you ever thought how it would be if you came to a situation where you were suddenly swept away from your church and your preacher and you didn't even have a Bible? And all you'd have to go on spiritually would be what you could remember, from the messages you had heard, from the scriptures you had studied...all the songs you could remember and bring back to mind to sing. And maybe you're off in an isolation ward someplace by yourself. How are you going to keep from going crazy?

"You say, 'That's scary stuff. That'll never happen.' That's what everybody thinks....Do you remember the first time you had an accident in your car? You knew you'd never have an accident, you know, because you were very careful and everything. You forgot that there were other people involved. You remember the shock you had the first time you had an accident, how fast it happened? It happened so quickly you could hardly remember what happened at all. All of a sudden everything was all crumpled up, and it couldn't be! It was like something out of a dream, it happened so quick. 'Where did they come from...I didn't see anything," you know. And yet here's the two cars all smacked up, all torn up, in a moment. It happened *so* quick. And that's exactly the way the disaster will strike the world. It says like labor pains coming, just suddenly, out of nowhere...bang! Now the signs are here.

"You know, a lady who's carrying a baby has many signs that she's going to have one. You're a fool if she walks around for nine months and when she has labor pains you think, 'Oh, I never expected that!' You know, that's a little ridiculous. Because she's obviously been going to give birth for a good while. And you'd be a fool not to anticipate and make some type of preparation for the time when that's going to happen. But that's exactly what's happening in our world. This old world is pregnant with evil and wickedness, and it's going to be birthed one of these days, and we'd be a fool to stand by and say, 'Oh, I didn't expect anything like that!' And yet that's where many believers are. They have no idea that there's anything wrong at all. It's roses and buttercups all the way down the path. But God's people aren't supposed to get like that. But we *are* supposed to get close to the Lord, because in the times that are hard, whether they're moderately hard, very hard, or extremely hard, no matter how difficult they become, it's going to be your relationship to the Lord and your geography concerning the Lord that's going to help you."

- Pastor Win Worley, January, 1985

Prepare for Opposition

"Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews. He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, 'What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?' Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him and he said, 'Even what they are building—if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!'” - Nehemiah 4:1-3

As a Christian, whenever you begin to do any kind of work for the Lord - whether it's getting your own life together, engaging in some form of ministry that honors the Great Commission, or teaching people to follow Christ - you will inevitably come under fire. The Bible is clear that "the whole world lies in the power of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19). This world and the influences that saturate it are at war with God. As a believer, you are in occupied territory, wearing the uniform of a detested enemy. And if you take that role at all seriously, you will be attacked, just as any human army would immediately attack and to try either kill or capture the soldiers of an opposing force that had entered their territory. It's not a question of 'if', but 'when'. It will begin with ridicule and then progress to direct opposition. But then most wars of men progress in this way, don't they? The propaganda starts long before the shooting does.

"So we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry. All of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it." - Nehemiah 4:6-8

It's important that this be understood. Many who try to live for God often wonder why it seems that everything in their life goes wrong, and why they can't overcome addictions, emotional problems, and other "hang ups." The western church as a whole has been remiss in teaching about the reality of spiritual warfare beyond one's personal struggle against sin, and even this has been reduced to a mere consideration of the flesh. Satan has been largely reduced to a figurehead, an ethereal placeholder for whatever we find disagreeable, more of an idea than an actual person. He is, in fact, intelligent, powerful, and a wonderful organizer. He was created to be one of the chief administrators of creation, and while he has fallen and evil has dimmed his understanding, he is not to be taken lightly. In the words of Martin Luther:

"His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate.
"On earth is not his equal."

If you're a disciple of Christ, and serious about following Him, understand that you are in a real war with a real enemy who will attack you in very real ways, drawing on thousands of years of experience in dealing with human beings. Fully 1/3 of Jesus' ministry involved direct confrontation with Satan's kingdom, and are we to believe that he and his hosts have simply gone away since then?

     Study the Bible to understand how your enemy works. Do not be "ignorant of his schemes" (II Corinthians 2:11). Do not think that you "wrestle" only with "flesh and blood" (Ephesians 6:12). And do not think that religious works, counseling, and man-made programs are sufficient to withstand the enemy. The modern approach to spiritual warfare has largely amounted to holding self-help classes in the middle of a battlefield. No wonder we're seeing so many casualties. Again, in the words of Luther:

"Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing..."

Christ must be our never-ending focus. We should have a proper understanding of our enemy, and maintain a healthy respect for what he is capable of, but always in light of his defeated state. As Luther put it, we have the "right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing":

"Dost ask who that may be; Christ Jesus it is He!
"Lord Sabaoth His Name, from age to age the same.
"And He must win the battle."

How, then, are we to respond? How do we engage with this enemy?

"...this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith." - 1 John 5:4

Hold fast to Christ, no matter what. Do not let the battles you face dim your faith. An army that loses confidence in its commander and begins to fight as each soldier sees fit will be slaughtered in the face of an organized foe. This is why Satan comes against our faith, first and foremost: to separate us from Christ, whom he knows he cannot defeat.

     Further, respond with the Word of God. This is what Jesus did when He was personally confronted by Satan in the wilderness. In response to each temptation, His reply was: "It is written..."

     Get into the Word. Memorize those passages that have to do with victory in Christ, and repeat them often when you face hardship: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31); "We are more than conquerors," (Romans 8:37); "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world," (1 John 4:4); "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil..." (Ephesians 6:10-18), etc. Command the enemy to leave you in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Learn how to apply the victory that Christ has already won on our behalf.

"That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
"The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
"Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
"The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
"His kingdom is forever."

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." - Revelation 12:11

Further resources: 

- "Basics of Deliverance": http://youtu.be/Ec_NgpvS2os
- "Release from the Curse": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkQn30Qt1Cc
- "They Shall Expel Demons": http://www.amazon.com/dp/0800792602/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

- sword image courtesy of Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scottish_claymore_replica_(Albion_Chieftain)2.jpg)