Revelation 13:10

If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

Meditate on that Word for a moment.

Take your time. Don’t rush.

Psalm 27:5

For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

Colossians 3:3

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

1 Thessalonians 5:8

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

Consider this if you will. Since He is our Lord and our life is hidden with Him, and He will not let go of us, we should not fear that day of trouble that we may never see. Even if we do, and that is unlikely, we are covered, we are high and lifted up.

Revelation’s call to endurance and faith is to know the truth and not allow that to pull us off course in serving God’s will. We have been shown the truth to spur us on to good works, not to cower at the sound of that old serpent hissing at us.

While we are still in this world we will hear lies but we know the truth. Wisdom will tell us what to do in those moments. Faith endures.

John 1:1

The Word Became Flesh

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

For those who have followed Christ for some time it is understood that everything Christ has to say to us is contained in the Word. Access to the Word can only come by faith. Hearing the Word can only come by hearing the Spirit of Truth.

Placing our faith in Christ comes with the presence of the Holy Spirit who teaches us all things that Christ has to say to us by a confirming Word.

John 14:17

even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

1 Corinthians 3:16

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

Psalm 119:11

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

How can we store up His Word in our hearts if we have never read it? How can we access it by faith if we cannot hear the Spirit of Truth? His Word knows the way into our hearts where the Spirit abides to remind us of all that Christ has to say to us. How do I know this?

Ezekiel 36:26

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

When we placed our faith in Christ, we became His and this new heart is His dwelling place.

Ephesians 3:17

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

All of this comes about by taking the faith that God gave us to believe in Jesus Christ to plant Him in our hearts to grow this life of faith.

But we still need to read the Word in order for the mind to hear what our hearts are telling us.

Our minds are flesh and decay is inevitable. We must renew our decaying minds. Romans 12:2