这周我们继续学习启示录12章
"And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
弟兄胜过它，是因羔羊的血和自己所见证的道。他们虽至于死，也不爱惜性命。
"For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time" (Revelation 12:11-12).
所以诸天和住在其中的，你们都快乐吧！只是地与海有祸了，因为 魔鬼知道自己的时候不多，就气忿忿的下到你们那里去了。”
Here we are given the ultimate strategy for overcoming:
1) The blood of the Lamb
2) Our testimony
3) We do not live in fear of death
这里我们看到胜过仇敌终极的策略：
1）羔羊的血
2）我们的见证
3）我们不活在对死亡的恐惧里
How much do we believe in the power of the blood of the Lamb? I was once asked by a council of leaders in the body of Christ to oversee the restoration of a high profile evangelist. I knew I was supposed to do this, so I accepted. Then many of the leaders came to me separately and tried to impose their standards and guidelines on the restoration. I welcomed their inpuqt until I realized that what virtually every one of them was suggesting limited the power of the cross to redeem and restore. They wanted to inject their opinions in place of the power of God. Let me explain.
对羔羊的血的能力，我们相信多少？
These leaders would place limits on the power of the cross by placing their own time limits on the process. I asked them where they got these guidelines, if they could give me examples in Scripture, and they could not. It was based on their opinion of what needed to be accomplished, some of which I doubted they could have lived up to themselves. As I dug deeper, I found that the severity of the process they wanted implemented depended more on the level of embarrassment endured by the body of Christ because of this fall than on what was needed to get this brother to repent, be healed, and strengthened against this type of failure again. Restoration is not about punishment—it is about getting the person to repent, be healed, and restored.
This was illuminating and alarming. Later, a person shared with me that they had followed many who publicly attacked this evangelist and condemned him for his failure. They had all either fell themselves, were divorced, or passed away. I am not saying this to shame anyone, and being on the other side I may have been guilty of the same thing. I am sharing this for the education and protection of those tempted to be presumptuous in limiting the power of the cross to redeem and restore. That is often a more serious transgression than what those who need restoration may be guilty of. The more influence we have as leaders or teachers, the stricter the judgment we can expect, as James wrote.
It is high level presumption for us to exalt our opinions to determine how long it will take the power of the cross to do something. If we determine a certain process should take three years, or five years, what are we basing this on? As Peter said, “With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” (see II Peter 3:8). One thing this means is that the Lord can do in one day what we think should take a thousand years. He can also take a thousand years to do what we think should be done in a day. Timing is in the hands of the Lord.
I asked some of those who approached me with what I thought were unbiblical opinions about this restoration process if they thought denying the Lord was worse than what this evangelist had done. They all concurred that denying the Lord was worse. I would then ask why the Lord restored Peter so fast and exalted him to the pinnacle of leadership in the church in just a few weeks when they wanted to take something less serious and stretch it into years.
We are told in Galatians 6:1, “If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted” (NKJV). This could have been translated “if any man is caught in any trespass….” That’s pretty much all encompassing. We also see here that “the spiritual” should be able to restore anyone who is caught in any trespass. Nothing is beyond the power of the cross to redeem and fully restore.
By Kyle Mantyla | January 24, 2017 11:05 am
Right-wing pastor Rick Joyner posted a video on his Facebook page yesterday in which he declared that last weekend’s Women’s March on Washington was a “blatant manifestation of the Jezebel spirit” brought about because Satan knows he is about to be cast out of America, thanks to President Trump.
Joyner said “there was a meanness, there was a rage” in the women who participated “that was very unattractive,” lamenting that they were so crude that even the things he heard while serving in the Navy “didn’t seem as bad as what coming out of some of these women during that Women’s March in D.C.”
The Jezebel spirit, he explained, “is a spirit that seeks to seduce God’s people into sexual immorality and into the worship of idols” and has managed to take over much of the nation in recent years but is now flying into a rage as it realizes that its influence over the country is about to be lost.
“Why was there such a rage?” he asked. “I think it’s because that Jezebel spirit is about to be thrown down in America and I think much of the world and it knows its time is short. As you see in the Book of Revelation, whenever Satan is cast out of heaven, he comes to the earth with great wrath … I think that’s what’s been going on here too and I think Trump is a real serious threat to the general Jezebel spirit.”