Compare the Divine declarations and goals with the belief that the Gospel is a good idea that God wishes people would consider and try to obey. Do you see the difference? Man's belief is defeated before it begins. God's decree is destined for glorious success, far beyond the imaginations of humans, well beyond our ability to envision.

Let us prophesy the burden of the Spirit of God, for God shall bring to pass the Word abundantly. Our task is not to build the Temple of God. Our task is to declare what God has spoken and to "speak to the Rock" as the Spirit directs.

The work is of the Lord God of Heaven. Let us believe the Lord's Word to the fullest. Then we shall see the glorious power and faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Body of Christ shall be brought to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

The Temple of God shall be completed according to the Lord's standards.

And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. (Ezra 6:15)

Note in Ezra 6:20 that the returning Jews kept the Passover. So it is true today. As we "return" in the Spirit to the things of Christ, then the blood of God's Lamb, Christ becomes exceedingly precious to us. We make haste to insure that we and our families are "under the blood," under the protection God has provided from the beginning—the blood of Jesus.

The work of restoration can proceed only as we pay strict attention to the Word of God.

For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. (Ezra 7:10)

It is our point of view that the period of history just before Jesus returns will be momentous indeed. Spiritual activity will increase greatly. The fallen angels will be hurled down to the earth. Earth's peoples, having set aside every moral restraint, will participate in abominable orgies of which the saints will not be allowed even to speak.

The elect angels will be extremely active and will appear from time to time. Supernatural signs and wonders will multiply in occurrence. The spiritual forces and pressures will increase to the point that human nerves and emotions will crumble under the buffeting.

There is coming an hour of temptation that will test every person on the earth, including the saints. We shall not be spared the testing. We shall be kept by the Lord from the evil one—guarded from the corrupting, destroying works of Antichrist. We shall come through the hour of temptation successfully, standing in victory before the Son of Man, provided we diligently watch and pray that we may escape all the spiritual harm associated with the coming testing.

Throughout the coming temptation and tribulation, Christ will furnish each individual who serves Him faithfully and patiently with greatly increased spiritual strength—strength that will make him more than a conqueror no matter what comes to pass on the earth. We shall survive gloriously, serving the Lord Jesus Christ until He returns.

To be continued.