Be Prepared for Persecution

“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.” Revelations 6: 9-12

It is biblical to believe that God has not appointed us His wrath. It is completely false to believe that the church is free from persecution. John Wimber founder Vineyard Fellowships years ago pointed out the every reference in the New Testament related to suffering is a reference to persecution. The Revelations 6 persecution is in the middle of the tribulation. The true church of God has always been persecuted. Jesus says Luke 6:26 “Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” It is time for us to stop making friends and influencing people and time for us the preach the word in season and out. If we are not listened to then at least our hands are clean. This blog will be sent out to more than 900 facebook friends. It will be read by about 10 of them. The average readership of one of my blogs is about 20. I am not complaining, Jesus keeps me company as I write and the Holy Spirit teaches me as I go. There is nothing more rewarding than that.

Jesus also said in the beatitudes ” Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.“Blessed are you when people insult you,persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The preaching of Hebrews 11 has always encouraged me but the rarity of the preaching of verses 35 - 40 in the pulpits of the body of Christ is sin. It is a sin because we leave our saints unequipped to cope with persecution. It includes these words, “There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning;they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.” These kinds of things don't happen to preachers who preach you can live any way that you want to without consequence. It does happen to those the continue to preach the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ without compromise.

Let me also make this point. The church is persecuted by religious and political structures not sinners going about their lives. Sinners stumble upon preachers through the sovereign hand of God and are gloriously saved. Pharisees, and their type, listen intently to the words of Gospel preaches seeking opportunity to silence and destroy them. We can be like those in Hebrews 11 that “were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

Like the future saints referenced in Revelations 6 we are to “wait a little longer.” They were waiting for the heat of persecution to be turned down. I am stating emphatically we will only be “waiting a little longer” for the heat of persecution to be turned up. The words of the prophets are being written on the subway walls of our generation. Stand firm and do not faint.