Will we Worship the Beast and His Image or Will we Worship the King of Kings?

I have some thoughts that contrast the seal of God with worship of the beast and his image and the mark of his name.

These are my thoughts and not to be taken authoritatively. Maybe this will develop further, and the understanding will if this is understanding from the Lord. I’m not trying to be cringe-worthy here. I’m trying to be transparent because these are big ideas about serious issues.

This is a small glimpse into how my mind works: I show you so you can see how I tend to piece things together. I’m also a forward-thinking person, and I think in large, big-picture ways. This can give the illusion of being prophetic. If I am using this mind that God gave me to hear with the Spirt says and weed out the spirits of this world, then I might say things that are prophetic, but I also might connect the dots in vain. I think that needs to be made known.

I’ve been thinking lately about the “rest” of Jesus that we experience as Christians. I think about scriptures that tell us to “labor to enter into His rest.” I think about those who receive the seal of God in Revelation 14-15, and contrast that with those who worship the “beast and his image” in Revelation 13. I also think about my understanding of what it means to have received the knowledge of good and evil, and how by the Spirit we are to use this knowledge appropriately—not according to the foolishness of the flesh—but according to the wisdom of God.

You see, we are made to create. Just as God creates. We will either labor to further the kingdoms of man, or we will labor to further the Kingdom of God. One is the beast and his image. One is Christ and His Kingdom. We can worship at the feet of this world and grow rich and entitled off this world, as the Great Whore does, or we can grow in righteousness, accept suffering for the name of our Lord, and grow in humility so that we are made fit to receive more of He who is humble and meek in heart.

We can labor for Jesus Christ—which is rest—or we can labor for the world—which is not rest, day nor night.

Why is it no rest, day nor night, if we worship the beast and his image?

There is no end to man’s fighting over what will be built, and there is no peace. We will always fight over what we are to make this world into, and we pave the way with the bones and blood of those who stand in our way. Even though those who worship the final beast and his image will have “one mind” I think we can see today somewhat of what that looks like. This “one mind” is a kind of obey or be canceled oneness, and a oneness of vanity, pride, calling good evil and evil good, and all manner of slander against all that is good and true—including Jesus who IS Holy and True.

If we labor for Jesus, we enter into rest. There are things we must do in this world, and sometimes we get sullied because there is no other way. So, we wash each other’s feet. We help each other walk in the ways of the Lord and not this world.

There will come a time to rest from these labors. There will come a time to enter into the service of God in a fuller way, and that is a joyous time! Even now, by the Holy Spirit, we experience this. There is no greater rest from the beasts of this world—which was and is not and yet is—than to labor for Jesus Christ. Learning about Him, sharing Him, and growing up into Him is rest. It is work, and it is pain also. It is especially pain when our flesh still wants to worship the world. However, we can seek more grace from God to release us from the world. The blood of the Son of God was shed for us so that we could be free. Not just judicially or in some metaphorical sense, but in this present world.

So, let us labor to enter into His rest and escape the bondage of the beast and his whore. We are not of this world, just as Jesus is not of this world.

Do you agree? I think we should be of one mind too. That does not mean we cannot disagree as we humbly understand that we all “see in part and know in part.” I do believe that all sects of Christianity have something right and something wrong. I believe that if we could communicate, we would see the things of God more clearly. We could tear down the towers of babel that we have erected in His name. Let the enemy build their tower. Let them build it high. We will be low. Low even to the dust because our lives do not matter, and we know that Jesus will lay low the high and raise up the low—especially those who go so low as to forfeit their lives for His sake.

Let’s be low, and in being low we will find unity in Spirit. We will find strength. We will find rest. We will find escape from the wrath of God and the chastisement that comes for the children of disobedience.

That’s quite a lot to put together, isn’t it? There are many ideas I have wrestled with. Too many to list here, but they all come together to form this understanding and more. If we are to be one, we also need a framework of the faith that we can unify on. We cannot just say that anything goes. What is that framework? Lord willing, we will find it, but the foundation of that framework is lowliness. We cannot see clearly unless we are made low.