Kathy — Works of darkness ultimately end in death. God makes the truth even more vivid pointing out to Pharaoh that He could have wiped out the nation rather than just plague it with blood, frogs, gnats, flies, death of livestock and boils. Yet Pharaoh stubbornly held his economic ace, intent upon keeping Israel as slaves. After the hail, Pharaoh was so strung out on his greed that he would not even listen to rational counsel from his own ranks. His own servants asked him if he understood that the plagues had destroyed Egypt and that he needed to get Moses out of the country! After the locusts, the Lord gave them a taste of the deep darkness they were allied with. Pharaoh tried at this point to negotiate saying they could leave but not take their livestock. His greed still blinded him to his hopeless situation. When Moses would not negotiate, Pharaoh banished him and threatened to kill him if he ever came before him again. Moses said, “You have spoken truly; I will never see your face again.” The lesson was over for both nations. The firstborn, the pride, the joy, the hope, the future of Egypt died. Discerning works or workers of darkness may not always be as obvious as in the showdown between Moses and the Egyptian magicians. It will not always be their acts and abilities that expose workers of darkness, but being confronted with truth and light will always reveal their motive and their source of power. The showdown between Moses and the magicians exposed everything.
In His wisdom Father has placed opportunities & choices before us (Deut.30:19; Matt.7:13). Whether or not we go through the many divinely-ordained opened doors God has put before us this year will depend upon how we make decisions this year. There are many doors open before you. They are not just barely cracked open but wide open for His Kingdom purposes, for His Name’s sake.
Kathy — Lovers of darkness worship power. It is interesting that everybody in Egypt was plagued until the magicians stopped competing. Evidently, Israel was also being convinced that worshiping power was not enough. The one true God was to be worshiped. It was the Lord who withheld His grace that would allow Pharaoh to have a change of heart. He was obviously pushing the envelope to teach the truth. In the next plague, God began to show the benefit of being allied with Him. The flies did not reach the Israelites’ region of the city. They were spared for the purpose of demonstrating that Jehovah was Lord in the midst of the earth. Powers of darkness are never noble in their ultimate purpose. They seek to intimidate by demonstrating their skills, and when there are harmful consequences it is of no particular concern to them. But here, God demonstrates that His acts are for His purposes in the earth and that He is drawing a line between those who worship Him and those who worship power. (Kathy will be speaking at Kingdom Congress 2021 which is Mar.3-5) *****CLICK HERE FOR all information for Kingdom Congress 2021*****
At times the future is depicted by a picture of an open door. The way to the future, to fulfillment, to glorifying the Name of the Most High God is open before us now—wide open. There are open doors before us to take us where we have never been before. We will go through those doors and be successful because the Kingdom purposes of God for us in our generation will propel us there to glorify His Name. (Rev.3:8) There are open doors. However, there is a process of decision-making that we must give ourselves to. We must choose the way of life or of death (Jer.21:8). God commands us to choose life instead of death, and blessing instead of a curse. We have choices to make as to how days, events and people affect us; as to how we will affect those days, events and people. We can be bearers of life or of death, blessing or curses.
Kathy — The source of their empowerment was limited which revealed it was not Almighty God. When Pharaoh asked Moses to pray the frogs abate, Moses said he would so that Pharaoh would know there is no one like the Lord God. However, Pharaoh recognizing that truth did not make him want to submit to that Lord God. When next came the biting gnats or mosquitoes, the magicians had reached their limit. They could not produce gnats from dirt and certainly couldn’t turn gnats back into dirt. The magicians themselves admitted to Pharaoh then, “This is the finger of God!” We can’t top that! Only God is All-Powerful. All the abilities and manifestations of darkness will forever be limited by comparison.
As the people of God assemble today may they join hands and hearts and look toward the coming year with expectancy for the purposes of the Lord in each other and the victorious intervention of the Lord in their behalf. “Paul, Silvanus (Silas), and Timothy, to the assembly (church) of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah): Grace (spiritual blessing and divine favor) to you and [heart] peace.” (1Thess.1:1, Amp)
Looking in the Bible and looking at the decisions and actions of its victorious characters, it is obvious that the possibility exists for us to have a Kingdom mentality and act victoriously out of that mentality regardless of the pressure of overwhelming circumstances and insurmountable opposition. When we pray “Thy Kingdom come” we are praying: Thy will come, Thy authority come, Thy power come, Thy rule come, Thy order come, Thy sovereign activity come, Thy heavenly culture come (cf.”Kingdom of heaven; as it is in heaven”; also Acts17:6). If we truly pray “Thy Kingdom come” we will not be of the mentality that dismisses the extraordinary of God Who is able to “do the undoable, change the unchangeable and provide the impossible”. If we are of a Kingdom mentality when it comes time to break loaves and fishes, we will not be thinking, “Oh, swell, now I will simply have two pieces of fish and two pieces of bread.” Rather we will be set up for the extraordinary of God since we know that, in our lifetime, we have only seen a fraction of the many-layered, many-sided wisdom (Eph.3:10) of God that can feed 5,000 with a sack lunch (Jn.6:9).
Kathy — The competitiveness of the Egyptian magicians was destructive to their own nation because their determined pride and worship of power was more important than loyalty or any benefit to their kingdom. In the beginning stages of the showdown, the magicians did the same supernatural acts as Moses, turning their rods to serpents, turning water to blood and producing frogs. It is interesting that the Egyptian magicians could not and did not even try to reverse the plagues loosed by Moses, (which would have been really beneficial to their nation.) Their only goal was to compete in a power display. Instead of trying to help, they simply battled to prove themselves superior, no matter what the cost to their people. Of course, it is also evident that they would not have been able to reverse the plagues. In Exodus 9:11, they could not even keep themselves from the boil plague and you know they would have invoked personal protection and relief to save their own hide if they could! There is a key insight exposed here about the nature of the powers of darkness: they are selfish and competitive. There is no loyalty or benevolence, just worship of power. Being interpreted, that means they will work against each other or their human agent when necessary. The human agent for darkness is totally deceived if he or she believes the powers of darkness will be loyal or trustworthy or ever think about unity of purpose or a common good. God can be trusted that His love and faithfulness insure His power is released for good. Since ONLY God is good, all other sources and agents have lesser motives. No matter how humanely and beneficently packaged, powers of darkness will always be deceptive and ultimately abusive. And those human agents who ally with darkness will ultimately face the hidden but costly consequences of betrayal.
Where are you going to stand? Will you stand with the national news broadcasts or with reports of demographics or with unrighteous legislation or, in spite of it all, will you stand on God’s Word? Every night before retiring, we might should sing the words of that song, “Whose report will you believe? We will believe the report of the Lord!” We are not subject to rumors, corruption and terrorists. We are subject to the Word of God if we will agree with it. (Matt.18:19-20) 1Cor.1:18 “For the WORD of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the POWER of God.” (NASB) We are praying you discover daily God’s Word working powerfully in your life.
martygabler 