A prophecy from The Creator.
Genesis 3:15 "And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."
At a very high level, this is a battle between good and evil. This is The Creator Himself calling an audible at the line or scrimmage after Adam failed to warn Eve about the consequences of eating the apple. God put strife between the seed of the woman and the seed of satan to see how we would react.
You might ask, "who is the seed of the woman"? Many scholars will say the woman is Eve and her seed is Christ Himself. Many scholars also say that more broadly in refers to the Jews and most broadly to you and I.
Once I understood this prophecy, it helped me to understand why there is so much evil in the world. The good news is that good wins over evil. Additionally, we get to participate in this prophecy. It begins by you and I making the choice to choose good over evil. Our Creator wants us to be successful as we allow Him to help navigate us thru the valleys of life..
Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'
Man is incapable of ruling himself.
Daniel 2:44 And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 45 Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold--the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure."
In this passage, the prophet Daniel is telling King Nebuchadnezzar and the entire world that all kingdoms of the world will be replaced by the Kingdom of Christ. Because sin entered the world, man is in a spiritual battle that can't be won with worldly weapons.
When King Nebuchadnezzar has this dream he goes to his wise men and asks them to tell him what the dream was and what the dream meant. If none of them had the answers, they were to be "cut in pieces" and their houses made into an ash heap. Enter Daniel. He goes to The God for answers. The dream was about a statue made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay. He goes to the king and explains what God has revealed to him.
The gold head represented the kingdom of Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar. The shoulders of silver represented the Medo-Persian empire and King Cyrus and Darius. The bronze hips represented the kingdom of Greece and Alexander the Great. The legs of iron represented the Roman empire which eventually imploded from within and became the Eastern and Western legs of the empire. Finally, the toes of iron mixed with clay represent a future 10 nation federation when the anti-christ will rise up and will deceive the world into thinking he is the only one who can end all conflict in the world. Thankfully, he will be proven wrong.
We are all in recovery.
When most of us think about "being in recovery", we think about alcohol or drug addiction. The truth is, we are all in recovery from this world. I think about our recovery as being represented by the red tape on the rope in the video by Frances Chan.
Our flesh can't be saved while we are earthbound. The reality is that our imperfect flesh will be with us until we go home to be with our Creator with a body fit for eternity.
1 Corinthians 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed--52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
We are called to Greater Works.
John 14:12 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
How are we capable of "greater works" than Christ Himself? This has been a difficult one to wrap my brain around. However, a big part of the answer is contained in this verse: "because I go to My Father". It's interesting that Jesus' disciples wanted to know how to pray more than anything else they could ask Him about. When Jesus prayed, His Father answered.
According to Oswald Chambers, "prayer does not prepare us for greater works, prayer is the greater works".
I believe some of the other elements of greater works include obedience, faith, and commitment. I encourage you to find out what greater works means to you as your journey continues.
There's only one way to success.
John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
This is both truth and prophecy rolled into one. If there was one verse that points to freedom and success, this would be it. However, it's success on God's terms, which is always better than what we could ever imagine.
I found it interesting that when studying out the word "abide", one of the meaning is "to endure". For me, that puts this truth into perspective. The old adage, "no pain, no gain", applies to the spiritual as well as the physical world, in my opinion. I encourage you to memorize this verse. Bring it to conscious thought when you are tempted to go it alone, only to reap the same result you experienced in the past.
Isaiah 55:8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts."
