A Spirituality for the Conflict

(See Revelation Chapter 13)

End-Time Spirituality

The Bible presents us with conflict from beginning to end, from the "enmity" (Genesis 3:15) between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, to the dragon making "war on the rest of her children" (Revelation 12:17). And the New Testament gives us some great images of conflict for end-time spirituality:


· We have the example of Jesus, driven by the Holy Spirit into the desert, where Satan offers him the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would worship Satan. (See Matthew 4:8-11 & parallels)


· St Paul gives us the prophecy of the great apostasy and the coming of the “wicked one” (anti-Christ) who will take over God’s sanctuary. And he encourages us to stand firm. (See 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2)


· The Book of Revelation has a dramatic scene (see Chapter 13) featuring the dragon and the two beasts. The dragon is Satan, the first beast is Caesar, and the second beast represents the advocates of emperor worship.


“Take care that no one deceives you” (Mark 13:5) is the hallmark of this spirituality. Jesus spoke a lot about deception in his end-time talks. Deception is a major weapon of an intelligent enemy.


The ascetical dimension of end-time spirituality is about shouldering the burden that the world gives us as we walk in the path of Jesus (See Mark 8:34-38 and parallels.) It is not so much about fleeing from the world or confronting internal demons or doing great penances as it is about facing the pain of the conflict with the sinful world.


The mystical dimension of end-time spirituality is the realization that God is walking with us as we carry out our mission (See Matthew 28:20 and parallels). As the experience of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane shows, Jesus not only faced the pain, but he was still using the familiar term “Abba” (Mark 14:36) for God and he was encouraged by an angel (See Luke 22:43).


End-time Spirituality is future-oriented. The Spirit, our advocate in the conflict, “reveals the things to come” (John 16:13) and gives us a longing to hear those words from Jesus, when he returns to judge the living and the dead, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21) And as we look at the evil around us now, the Spirit gives us an understanding of what the world will be like when the effects of sin are finally cleaned out and we have a “new heaven and a new earth.” (Revelation 21:1)

Catch the Fire

The way to catch the fire of the Spirit is to follow Jesus. He would begin a very busy day’s work by going off by himself to spend time with God (See Mk 1:35). He would address God as “Father”; he was familiar with figures from the Old Testament and he talked of pressing issues (See Lk 9:30-31). His prayer was caught up in loving God “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Mt 22:37)

So spend time each day with the indwelling Spirit on God’s terms (See Rm 8:8-9). Think of God as revealed in the Scriptures. When you have a “movement of the heart” towards God stay with it for as long as it lasts. Then move to the next thought. A sense of awe, thanksgiving, sorrow and determination are examples of movements of the heart, as is a simple “gaze” towards God.

Sometimes you will experience only “aridity”, which is a spiritual dryness. Check to see if there is unconfessed sin. If there is none, stay in prayer for your regular amount of time presenting your aridity to God. It is likely that God is strengthening your faith for an even closer walk with you. Watch out also for attachment to even “the things of God” instead of to “the God of things”. The Spirit will be leading you to a more simple faith in God, like the faith of Abraham (See Heb 11:17-19) so that you depend on nothing else but him.

When you leave such a daily time of prayer, you will find it easier to think like Jesus, feel like Jesus and act like Jesus. And when you follow Jesus that closely, you will catch the fire of the Spirit. Then nothing that the New World Order throws at you will overcome you for you will be "clothed with the power from on high" (Lk 24:49).

Charisms Revisited

In 1969 I first heard of “Catholic Pentecostals”. Wanting to dismiss them, I said that we don’t have to recognize the Holy Spirit since he will get on with his job anyway. In the group was a professor of dogmatic theology who told us that a person would only be fully present if we recognized that the person is there. Similarly the Holy Spirit will not be fully active, if we do not welcome his presence. On the strength of that thought, I had a look at and then joined the Charismatic Renewal (as it became known).

In recent years, I walked away from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal because I had seen so much emotional self-indulgence and emotional manipulation. More especially, New Age practice had so permeated the meetings that the reality of sin and the power of the cross were actively avoided. There was none of the prophecies, miracles, deliverances and profound conversions that I had previously known.

Yet, the Church in western civilization needs the Spirit’s powerful presence even more, now that the social engineering of the NWO has a stronger grip that it had 40 years ago. So I have revisited St Paul’s teaching on the charisms that is found in 1 Corinthians 12-14. The teaching is wonderfully simple. The power that Jesus had in his ministry is shared among the members of his Body when we come together in prayer, bringing a “psalm, teaching or prophecy” (14:26) to build up the community (12:26) and to let the Spirit move us with “many different gifts” (12:4).

St Paul encourages us to “be ambitious for the higher gifts” (12:31). Instead of presenting us with programmes, techniques or seminars, Paul puts before us the way of unconditional love “which is always patient…is not boastful…and endures whatever comes.” (13:4-7)

We are to “be eager, too, for the higher gifts, especially for prophesying” (14:1) which not only teaches and encourages us but which tests the hearts of non-believers bringing them to “worship God, declaring that ‘God is indeed among you.’” (14:25)

Yes, I could buy into a charismatic renewal that is like that!

"Practicing the Presence of God"

Recently, when I hit a “brick wall” put up by agents of the New World Order, these words came to mind, “Whoever abides in me, as I abide in him, bears much fruit; for cut off from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5) The Lord is exactly right. We can get so caught up in recognizing and analyzing “the increase of lawlessness” that “love in most people will grow cold.” (Mt 24:12) It is more important to put time into relating with God than in trying to solve the problem by ourselves.

“Practicing the presence of God” is even more important for us when we are confronting the evil that is trying to destroy Christian civilization. In the brutality of Calvary, the image of St John and the Holy Women reminds us of gentility of the abiding love of the Lord. In fact this image is an ‘icon’ of Christian civilization in a hostile world.

The New Testament provides three approaches to abiding in Christ, one for the reflective mode, another for the active mode and the third for the endurance mode:

1. There is the heart-to-heart abiding in Jesus. We show Jesus what is happening in our hearts and we let his words permeate our hearts. (See Jn 15:1-17) This fits very well when we are meditating, or ‘day-dreaming’.
2. There is the step-by-step following of Jesus. We imitate what Jesus did, adapting it to our situation. Our pray is, “Jesus, give me the grace to do what you would do here.” (See Mark 8:34-35)
3. There is the beyond-the-horizon awareness of cosmic Christ that St Paul expresses, so well in the Colossians hymn (See Col 1:15-20; also 2 Cor 5:17). When we are simply enduring the overpowering force of the enemy, being aware that “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) puts the enemy into perspective and maintains our communion with God.

Practicing the presence of God needs discipline. One exercise I do when I am walking is to set my mind to walk with Jesus to the next corner, then the next and then the next. (Distance runners will know what I am talking about.)

Another exercise is when I take a break, during the daily routine, I ask our Lord, “How am I doing?” Then I thank him when I have got it right or ask forgiveness when I got it wrong and then thank him.

Obviously when we “make the sign of the Cross” we are putting ourselves in God’s presence. And things like grace-before-meals should do the same.

It would be interesting to read of some of your practices.

An inspiration to many is a French lay-brother who lived in the 1600s. You can read about Brother Lawrence at http://www.catholictreasury.info/Presence/Default.htm

Ultimately practicing the presence of God is not about particular methods or techniques but an abiding relationship with the Blessed Trinity. Like any personal relationship, we have to work on it. So when we stand firm against the NWO we will “go out and bear the fruit that will last.” (Jn 15:16) There is no winning formula; but there is a winning relationship.