Devotions

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

The Greek word Paul uses for iniquity in this passage literally means lawlessness. Therefore, the mystery is one of lawlessness — acting without law or restraint.

Yet, this lawlessness is not simply a rebellion against the rule of man. It’s not about rebelling against civil authority or committing a violent crime. These things do provoke God’s wrath, but the mystery of lawlessness goes much deeper. It is an outright rejection of the truth that is in Christ — a casting aside of God’s Holy Word and His commands.

This spirit of lawlessness is rampant in our nation today. It is the very force behind the legislation that seeks to banish God from our society; the same spirit that Satan used to deceive Eve when he told her, in so many words, “God won’t punish you for disobeying. You can eat the fruit and you won’t have to pay for it!”

Satan is using the same lie on Christians today; day after day, he convinces masses of believers that they can sin without paying any penalty. It is a demonic scheme to pervert Christ’s gospel of grace.

Tragically, many lukewarm Christians are succumbing to this spirit of lawlessness. Paul says the Antichrist will rise to power because people will be blinded and deceived by their own sin (see 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).

Satan will deceive masses of people, just as he did Eve, by convincing them of a subtle but powerful lie: “God doesn’t punish for sin!”

Paul says this deception will come “because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (verse 10). He then adds, “For this [reason], God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (verse 11).

The apostle is saying, “Those who refuse to obey or respect God’s Word will fall under a powerful delusion. At first they’ll wink at their sin, justify it. But soon they’ll actively seek out a message of easy grace. In fact, they will invent a grace that is far beyond what God intended. His grace never leads to license and always leads to repentance!”

“Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6, ESV).

A drifter, homeless and confused, was directed into my office when I served as an assistant pastor at Times Square Church in New York City years ago. He wasn’t interested in making conversation until he looked down and saw my fine, genuine Texas cowboy boots.

“I don’t know why I’m here,” he spat out. “You preachers are all the same, spending money on big buildings and fancy cars. And look at those boots!”

After he made that last remark, he looked down at his beat-up, ripped canvas shoes and shuffled his feet self-consciously.

“Do you like these boots?” I asked. And before he could answer, I removed my boots and gave them to him. And, yes, I walked home shoeless. Then forgot the incident.

About six months later, a pastor friend, Steve, called from Greensboro, North Carolina.

“Gary, you’re not going to believe this, but there’s a guy in my office who says you gave him a pair of cowboy boots. He’s been hitchhiking around the country and he says that every time he looks at those boots, he thinks about Jesus.”

That young man wandered into my friend’s church (obviously led by the Holy Spirit) and said he wanted to know more about Jesus. You can imagine the joy that brought to my pastor friend! But Steve was forthright with him.

“For six months the Holy Spirit has been after you. Are you ready to give your life to Christ?”

“That’s why I’m here!” And he was born again right then.

I want to encourage you to look for opportunities, even if you feel like you’re in a famine. Is your marriage in a famine? Look for an opportunity to serve, to love, to bless your spouse.

Are you in a famine with your children? Is there division and turmoil? Look for an opportunity to love, to serve, to order your household according to the ways of the Lord.

Are there difficulties in your finances? Look for a way in the midst of the famine to be a blessing to others and you will find the windows of heaven opening.

God pours out rich blessings on those who give —cheerfully. 

“Before his translation [Enoch] had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:5-6). What was it about Enoch that pleased God so much? It was that his walk with God produced in him the kind of faith God loves.

Throughout the Bible and all of history, those who walked with God became men and women of faith. If the Church is daily walking arm-in-arm with God, continually communing with Him, the result will be a people full of faith.

Some conduct faith seminars, distribute faith tapes, quote faith scriptures — all trying to produce faith. And it is true, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Roman l0:17). But Jesus is the Word. “The letter killeth,” Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 3:6. Without intimacy with Jesus, the letter produces a dead, selfish, demanding emotion that is not faith at all — and God hates it. Faith comes by hearing His Word and walking close to Him. Not by talking without walking! This intimate walk with God is missing from the Church today. Faith is really knowing who God is, becoming familiar with His glory and majesty. Those who know Him best, trust Him most.

Show me a people walking closely with Him, hating sin, becoming detached from this world and getting to know His voice, and you will see a people who will not need much preaching and teaching about faith.

Enoch’s walk with God would not have been worthwhile unless it produced a corresponding faith that was constantly growing. “By faith Enoch was translated” (see Hebrews 11:5). What an incredible truth! All his faith was focused on one great desire of his heart: to be with the Lord!

Elijah and Enoch, the only two prophets to be translated, had something in common. They were both haters of sin and cried out against it. They both walked so closely with God that they couldn’t help sharing His hatred for ungodliness.

The undeniable effect on all who walk with God is a growing hatred for sin — and not only hatred, but separation from it. If you still love this world and are at home with the ungodly — if you are a friend to those who curse Him — you are not walking with the Lord but sitting on the fence, putting Him to open shame.

“Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). We know from Hebrews that this speaks of Enoch’s translation, the fact that he did not taste death. But it also means something deeper than that: “He was not” as defined in Genesis 5 also means, “He was not of this world.”

In his spirit, in his senses, Enoch was not a part of this wicked world. He was taken up in his spirit to a heavenly realm. Like Paul, he died daily to this world while he cared for his family, worked, ministered, occupied. But “he was not” — he was not earthbound! The Lord consumed Him. Every waking moment his mind came back to Him. His heart was attached to God with what seemed like a huge rubber band. And the more you stretch a rubber band, the quicker it springs back when you let it go. Enoch’s heart always “sprang back” to the Lord.

As mankind grew more ungodly all around him, as men changed into wild beasts full of lust, hardness and sensuality, Enoch became more and more like the One with whom he walked. 

In this day, many Christians are running to hide from mounting calamities. So-called prophets are telling people to come to their safe havens. Christian Jews are being warned to get back to Israel to escape the financial collapse anticipated in America.

I know where I want to be when things fall apart. When the financial market crashes, I want to go back to Wall Street where I was during the crash on October 19, 1987. I want to be there like a modern Enoch, walking and talking with God, without fear — a peaceful, fearless witness, preaching Jesus to a people whose world has collapsed.

Jesus did not tell us to hide, He said, “Go ye!” I want to be where the Holy Ghost is — and you can be sure He will be on the frontlines of the battle, calling the troubled and fearful to Himself.

Enoch saw that his own society was wicked, and as he looked down to the very last days, all he could say was, “Ungodly!” Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied of these, saying, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him" (Jude 14-15).

Are you walking with the Lord? Then you must see the world as Enoch saw it: ungodly and full of the spirit of Antichrist. How can you be a part of what is ungodly? How can you associate with those He is coming to judge? He is coming with ten thousands of His saints to judge a sinful, lost world. Which side are you on?