When Peter made his great confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord promised: “... upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18 KJV). The gates of hell are the entrances through which the powers of darkness gain access to this world. They are strategic, usually planned as counterpoints to the important purposes of God. We are coming to the time when all of the gates of hell will be fully opened.

We are dealing with some of the most important questions being asked at this time: If the foundations of the nations are crumbling, is it not a waste of time to try to shore them up? Why should we not spend all of our efforts and time in building the kingdom and forget about the nations that are doomed anyway?

This week I need to make a departure from our subject on Mobilizing the Army of God. There is much more to be said about that, and I hope to get back to it later. By far the current events are weighing on people’s hearts and minds, and as a watchman/pastor I feel that I need to address some of the crucial events of this time.

As we discussed last week, the Lord had the legal authority to bind the devil and take authority over the earth immediately after His resurrection. However, He did not do this for our sakes. He did not bind the devil because He did not want it to be easy for us. The more difficult the training, the greater the results.

Last Sunday morning in one of our services, I polled those attending by asking the following questions:

1. How many had come to the Lord through a revival?
2. How many had come to the Lord through a crusade or evangelistic campaign?
3. How many had come to the Lord through Christian television?
4. How many had come to the Lord through the witness of a friend or relative?

There were roughly a thousand people in that service. The following are the approximate results to these questions:

     The Christian disciplines, such as daily reading of the Scriptures, prayer, worship, witnessing, etc., are all crucial for a healthy, balanced Christian life. While we should never neglect these disciplines, they alone are not enough. In the Scriptures, we find that experiences, encounters with the Lord and even angels, changed people more radically and propelled them toward their destiny far more than any amount of study could have done.

Some historians have argued that World War II actually began with the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. Many of the factors that contributed to the rise of the Nazis were the result of the unfair treatment of a vanquished enemy. There were other contributing factors as well.

     “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Will we learn from it or will it be repeated over and over? If we do not learn from this one in Boston, we can be sure we will get a chance to see it again, and again and again, and probably near us.

Last week we began to discuss how making the path clear is important for motivating those who have been mobilized. In Proverbs 4:18-19 we are told, “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.” So, if we are on the path of the righteous or the right path, the path itself should be getting increasingly clear.

     I once watched the local news for thirty days straight to see if there was any good news. There was none reported. Of course, there was some good news, but just not newsworthy by present network standards. I turned on the news as I sat down to write this and was quickly overwhelmed by the problems and crises that came cascading down at me from the television set. It’s easy to understand why some are saying we’re in “the great time of trouble” now. How much worse could it get?