AGAINST ALL ODDS: GOD'S PROTECTION IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE TO COME

Seeing as trouble is already increasing in the world, and will continue till a great time of trouble, including terrorism and a great war in the future, it seems common sense to talk about the supernatural protection that God will give to His people, and what the nature of that protection will often look like and what circumstances will usually surround such protection. 

In the book of Matthew, at the beginning, we see such supernatural protection of God surrounding the baby of Jesus Christ. What still stands as being so amazing is the fact that, despite what was 'conceived of the Holy Spirit' (Matt 1v20) was so small and weak in terms of the body, that body of Jesus was protected in such miraculous ways, both small and large. From the outset, Jesus was a marked man; 'When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.' However, a simple dream from God protected Jesus from the outset; v12: 'And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.' Because there will be a great outpouring of His Spirit in the days to come (revealed to me via a vision), which will mean a great display of His glory and His power, there will also be a great persecution of Christians that accompany it (Acts 5v12-20). But rather than be afraid, this will be a great opportunity for God to display His wonderful care of His people. With Jesus, a simple dream given to men of God meant that the powerful Herod could do nothing to the seemingly helpless baby Jesus. And so it will be in the time to come; God will, on-mass, protect His 'seemingly' helpless Church in supernatural and yet relatively simple ways, including through dreams and simple directions. (*Note: There will also be those that face hard persecutions and death, but God will be with them also, and will make those things possible to bare by His grace). Though the Church will seem to be much overmatched by the power of the persecutors, that will mean nothing to an all-powerful God, who will keep us despite seemingly overwhelming odds.

Secondly, the protection of God will appear to be a 'close-thing,' but it will also be constant and relentless. What is meant by this is that it will appear like God's protection will only just keep HIs peoples' lives, as they will be surrounded by trouble and threats (Psalm 23v5: 'You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.'), and it will seem like they only just escape trouble. It was only just before Herod gave an edict to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity (Matt 2v16), that God gave Joseph a dream in which an angel spoke to him: "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." (Matt 2v...13). The word 'escape' which means to 'break free,' reinforces the idea that there was a very fine line between the place of safety and the place of trouble, but again, God was faithful. The escape was also by night (Matt 2v14), which shows that Joseph also had to be secretive and crafty about the escape, using his own wits as well as God's direction in order to stay safe. 

Verse 19-21 is also very interesting in showing just how close a thing Joseph and Mary's escape was. At first they are told to flee from Egypt to Israel by an angel in a dream, but then, because further danger arose in Judea, they were warned again in a dream (v21) to go to Galilee, in the town of Nazareth. This shows that God's people will need to be extremely sensitive to the Spirit, and the Spirit's way of talking to His people in the coming time (although it will be fairly obvious if you know the clear ways God speaks). Although these escapes from trouble will be a close thing, they will also be a divinely ordained definite thing: v23 ...'and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

More to come in part 2 God willing :)