As we come into this new year of 2010, now is the time to stand. God is getting his people ready for war against the enemy as the return of Christ comes even closer and now battle lines have been drawn.
There is no longer a gray line in between but strictly black and white. Compromise is being thrown out of the window and now it is back to only 2 sides. God has been raising a remnant of believers within the church that is already here. In other words, there is a church inside of the church where there is a remnant of saints who are serious about living for God within the midst of a majority of double-minded people who claim him mainly on Sundays but have nothing to sustain them. These are the people who are filled up with everything else but the Word of God as well as his Spirit. There are people who will believe what Oprah says before they believe what Jesus says. People who believe a gossip magazine or website before they believe the Bible. These are tares among wheat. I am not pre-judging but I am just stating what is obvious. I believe that there will soon be a separation between these groups of people within the church. God has always called for a separation between his people and the world dating back to Egypt. When God brought his people out of Egypt the house of bondage, he clearly laid out different guidelines, most famously the Ten Commandments. However, before the Children of Israel went into a different land, God would clearly lay out the rules to them before they went into that land such as not following after strange gods or wearing certain clothing. These are clear examples of what they were not to do, because if they did there would be no difference but simply confusion which would wipe them out. I believe there is power in being peculiar and being separate from the world. A great example was Daniel. When Daniel and his crew (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) were in the court of Babylon, God gave Daniel favor with the prince because he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king of Babylon's meat, nor drink wine. When Daniel did this, he kept his body pure because he knew that his body was a temple of God. Instead, the prince gave Daniel and his three friends a test by eating vegetables and water for ten days. When the ten days were over, 
Daniel and the three Hebrew boys were healthier than everyone else, therefore God gave them knowledge and tremendous skill which enabled them to become ten times better than all of the magicians, astrologers and everyone else that was of the world. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were the same 3 musketeers who worked for Nebuchadnezzar, when he commanded everyone to bow down to his golden image or else they would be thrown into the fiery furnace. When Nebuchadnezzar found out that these three brave young men did not serve his strange gods, nor would they worship his golden image, they stood in his face and boldly declared this to be true by telling him that they will not even discuss serving those other gods and that the Lord would deliver them out of the fiery furnace. As the story goes, when they escape the furnace, they are left unharmed without any burns because God was in the fire with them as the fourth man while the men that threw them in were destroyed. When Daniel himself was in the Lions' Den, he continued to stand strong in the midst of Lions by standing on his faith in God to deliver him out of the den. These are but a few examples of people who took a stand for God in the face of opposition and they were identified based on their stand. This remnant that I am referring to is the same one that will stand strong just like these examples I have used to do battle with the enemy. Currently, we live in a culture that is backwards and it is going to take people who have been empowered by God to take authority over the devil and take over their communities, bring families together and most importantly make an impact to advance the kingdom. The only way that we can do that is to dedicate ourselves to Christ and his Word so that it abides in us and we abide in him. We must not be squeezed in and be conformed by this toxic worldly system and of our culture but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, so that we can find that perfect will of God which comes through practicing holiness and righteousness. It may sound cheesy to some people but that makes a huge difference because these are the very things that can clean up the stains of sin and unrighteousness in our world today. If you have nothing to stand for, you will fall for anything.
Exodus 23:24-
-Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.
Revelation 12:17
-And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Other References:Daniel 1:5-9, 12-17, 20, Daniel 3:11-16, Daniel 6:20-23, Daniel 7:25-26, John 15:7, Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 6:17, 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8, 1 Peter 2:9,
Have a Tremendously Blessed New Year,
Vaughn Resper, Jr.
