We are confronted continually with the problem of redeeming the time because the days are evil. Satan has his own time schedule; and if it succeeds, no flesh will be saved alive, according to the prophecies of Christ (Matthew 24:22). Satan is working to bring about the destruction of the entire human race. Every science, every field of human endeavor, has been set up to contribute toward that end. Satan has set the stage for a total annihilation of the human race. Unless these days are shortened, no flesh will be saved alive; but for the sake of the elect these days will be shortened, as we read in the following Scripture.
And I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire; and he had in his hand a little book which was open. And he placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land; and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars; and when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. And when the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken, and do not write them.” And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there shall be delay no longer. Revelation 10:1–6. Even though the message of the angel will ultimately usher in the end of the age, the burden rests upon God’s elect to slow down Satan’s schedule so that the release comes on time.
Since God has begun to restore His end-time truths, you may have noticed that events have moved rapidly, but not rapidly enough. It always appears that Satan’s schedule is almost ahead of God’s schedule. You must believe God that through the violence of prayer and intercession, Satan can be prevented from hindering and delaying God’s plan in the earth.
Perhaps the enemy is battling you over God’s promises for your life. You may have thought that by now the struggle would have been ended and God would have worked His victory into your life. You must face the reality, however, that God is giving directions today which the enemy is trying to hinder. He always has. Paul wrote to the church in Rome that he had often been hindered from coming to them (Romans 15:22). In the days of Ezra, the rebuilding of the Temple was delayed for fifteen years (Ezra 4). Finally the Israelites prevailed, and it looked as if they had really won the victory—except for one detail. They had lost fifteen years. God’s people cannot afford to lose fifteen more years! They must have a sense of urgency and a violence in their hearts!
Have you sensed that God has made promises and given releases in your life, and yet something in the timing is wrong? You have the witness that the time for their fulfillment is now, and yet too much time has elapsed. It is true that God sometimes delays answers, but not in the way that believers are being hindered now. Satan is trying to hinder just long enough to accomplish his time schedule of destruction. He will not succeed, yet the believer must open up his heart to recognize the seriousness of the hour and the fact that he is being conditioned to accept delays; he is being conditioned to accept half-victories. He is being conditioned in his thinking to fall short of those exploits, those greater works, and the manifestation of the sons of God which God has promised.
Many of God’s promises are overdue. Prepare your heart to battle! Do not allow any part of the passivity of this age to be resident within you. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12b. Where is your violence? Where is your violence! Where is the violence that will stand and cry out in the name of the Lord until the futility gives way? Are you tired of the delays? Are you tired of the obstacles that keep you from the goal? If it is because of something in you, are you willing for God to deal with it? If it is because of Satan, are you willing to enter into the authority to loose God’s will? You must be dedicated!
Let this truth seize your heart until you do more than simply agree with it. You must violently cry out to God to be loosed. You can do it, and there will be a breakthrough. The Lord continually tries to draw people into this violence, and you will be released into as much of it as you insist upon. If this seems strange to you, remember that the ministry of Christ was not expressed on a reasonable, humane level. This is illustrated by the story of the woman with a devil-possessed daughter who nagged and nagged at Christ until the disciples tried to send her away. She was a Canaanite woman. (The fact that she even existed was remarkable, for in the days of Joshua, God had given the Word to kill all the Canaanites.) Jesus told her, “You cannot take the children’s bread and give it to dogs.” She replied, “Yes, but even the dogs get the crumbs” (Matthew 15:22–27). She was determined, and so the Lord drew her forth. In like manner, He does not care who you are; He simply looks for persistence.
To teach us about prayer, the Lord told the parable about the man who went to his neighbor’s door at midnight when everyone was asleep and knocked until he woke the whole household (Luke 11:5–8). He also told about a widow who kept her petition before the judge until the judge was pushed to the point of distraction. Finally, he said, “I will avenge her” (Luke 18:3–5). The Lord is trying to teach us that we must battle the Laodicean lukewarmness, the state of being neither hot nor cold (Revelation 3:15–16).
Your spirit must rise in a violent protest against the spirit of this age. Rise up above the passivity! It will try to overcome you. It will seep into your bones like a dry rot and wreck your spirit, causing you to become one who merely floats along from day to day and year to year. Nothing will happen to you, nor will any changes occur in your life. Instead, you will simply receive a little shot in the arm of blessing now and then. You need more than that! The people of God in this day must have the violence of Joshua, who commanded the sun to stand still. They need more time and a release from restrictions and limitations in order to meet the demands of a hungry generation. The doors are open, and the hungry are crying for God’s living Word.
Programs are not the answer; they are antiquated. The centuries have brought them to an end. Today the people of the Lord demand a living Word from God. Now they need prophets to speak a Word, to break down the barriers and hindrances and to loose God’s Kingdom! How many years do we have? How much time do we have? The young and the old have about the same amount, and it is shrinking every day. We must be violent to redeem the time! We must aggressively cry out to God for a release from the futility that is leading to destruction!
The eighth and ninth chapters of Hebrews describe the pattern of things in the heavenlies. It says that the table of showbread and the lampstand are found in the holy place, and in the Holy of Holies are the altar of incense and the ark of the covenant (Hebrews 9:2–4). It would appear that the writer of Hebrews was confused, for in the Tabernacle of the wilderness, the altar of incense was actually placed outside of the veil, in the holy place, and only the ark of the covenant was contained in the Holy of Holies (Exodus 30). But Hebrews is expressing a truth that we must understand. When we stand to worship God and to intercede, we must come through the veil. It is the pattern and the plan of God that we stand in His presence, but there are hindrances that prevent us from walking in His presence. His presence will not break forth upon you like a light; you must break into it! His presence will be just as real and as close to you as you determine in your heart that it will be. Always combine that initiative with your faith. The Lord has given this promise: “Draw near to Me, and I will draw near to you” (James 4:8). Do you want to see His glory? Do you want to walk with Him?
You probably desire earnestly to be present with the Lord, but you also feel veiled from His presence. You know what your veils are. You know what it is that seems to cloud your ability to press in. You can stand in the holy place, loving God and thanking Him for letting you feast upon the showbread and for giving you the light of the lampstand; but remember—the gold room is inside. It is there that His holy presence is ready to minister to you. The barriers to that have to be broken. Determine in your heart and mind to break through. Resist Satan. Declare to your own heart that you will relentlessly follow after the Lord. Determine to thirst after Him as the hart pants after the waterbrook (Psalm 42:1). Proclaim that you will seek first His Kingdom.
Make this statement to Satan himself: “I do not accept one thing that you are doing. The Christ in me is dedicated to destroy all your works, and this objective consumes all the energies within me. I shall serve the Lord with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength. And I shall resist you, Satan, with every resource of God within me.”
There came a time when God spoke to Moses in a burning bush because the cries of His people were coming up to Him out of Egypt. God told Moses what to do and how to do it; yet he tried to draw back. If we could have stood by that burning bush when God was speaking and Moses was making excuses, we probably would have wept and cried, “Moses, how many more mothers will have their babies plucked from their arms and killed before their eyes? How many more people will die? How many more thousands of bricks will be made? How many more men will die from eating the rotten meat in the fleshpots of Egypt? How many more generations will come and go before deliverance comes?”
There was something perverse in Moses, and there is something perverse in us today. A world is waiting for the Word of the Kingdom, and God is setting a great objective before His people. But still there are pockets of rebellion and perversity. People hear God’s Word; yet a part of them draws back from it. How long will it be before they become completely wholehearted to do the will of the Lord? How much time will elapse before they become violent against their own indifference, their own lack of motivation and submission to God? Real submission to the Lord is required. A good-looking camouflage will not withstand the test of a true walk with God. How many more victims of Babylon will there be before His people totally commit themselves to serve God?
Those who have never walked in Babylon do not know the hazards. They do not know how denominations can break the hearts of the men of God, stomping on them and breaking their spirits, crushing them and leaving them by the side of the road. There is the constant degrading and destruction. There are men who have bled their lives away for nothing. How much longer will so many of God’s people tolerate the ways of the world? How long will they coexist in Sodom, wearing blinders because they refuse to see what God wants to do? How long will they look upon the half-God, half-monster Ishmael that was created, and cry out, “O God, that this might live in Thy sight!”
You dare not be satisfied with the measure of contentment that is found in doing less than God’s perfect will. Put it away. Walk perfectly in the ways of the Lord. Determine to see His will perfectly done. The perfect will of God is not easily attained. Some of God’s people are within striking distance of a breakthrough that could be shattering dispensationally. It could lead to the rapid manifestation of the sons of God and the bringing forth of the Kingdom. There is a joy in knowing that there will be a breakthrough.
There may be casualties among those who are not willing to seek God with all of their hearts. That perversity can get into a person’s spirit. Do you have it? You do if you find your heart setting itself and rebelling against this word. Even though you want to move in it, some conditioning in your spirit may hold you back. Maybe there is not a total commitment to the will of God. What idol do you hold on to? What treasure from Egypt do you plan to keep? What is worth keeping? Do not settle for anything less than God.
Earnestly pray for this word to take deep root in your spirit. Let there be a violence within you. No longer tolerate a half-victory; yearn to prevail. Let the spirit of Joshua be upon you, that spiritual quality which is determined to possess your inheritance totally. Embrace every one of the promises of God. Do not be content with a token fulfillment. Do not be content to coexist with the Canaanites in the promised land. It is your inheritance. Possess it now. Rise up in your spirit and call on the name of the Lord! Rebuke Satan! Rebuke the walls that have hindered you and the circumstances that have restricted you! Reach into the promises with all of your heart!