‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’ | John 3:16
‘You must be made new in mind and spirit, and put on the new nature of God’s creating” | Eph 4:23,24.
‘Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.’ | James 4:7
THESE ARE THE End Times. I say this with confidence; I’ve traveled far & wide in my faith, enough to recognize the signs.
The signs are everywhere. And what they presage and signify is that this little ball of light is about to go dark. Very dark indeed.
I can’t tell you how I know in a way as convincing for you as it is for me other than to say that the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which transcend the temporal boundaries of our life here in Exile, shed light on the soul’s ability to grasp far beyond what the eye can see.
Please note, I will cover the signs of the End Times in my next letter. For now, as a bit of a lead-in, I thought we should focus on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit — Rex
THE GIFTS OF the Holy Spirit are incalculable spiritual assets for all people everywhere, but especially now for reasons that are obvious (or maybe they’re just obvious to those of us in possession of the Gifts; I hope not).
The 7-fold Gifts of the Holy Spirit, distilled from Isaiah 11:2-4 and ventilated in 1 Cor 12, speak mainly to the Lord’s own gifts as outward expressions of Divine love for service.
The 7 Gifts are Wisdom, Counsel, Knowledge, Understanding, Piety, Fortitude, and Fear of the Lord. The order is less an issue in my humble opinion (I group them this way according to kind to segment their values and remember them easier) than what they represent. The 7 Gifts expand and extend the virtues of those who receive them, and we are far worse off without them.
The interesting thing about the Gifts is how the first four — Wisdom, Counsel, Knowledge, and Understanding — are specifically useful for seeing in the dark, supernaturally speaking, turning our emotional and intellectual sensors into a sort of probing defense against diabolism: The works & wiles of the Devil.
We need the Gifts precisely to help us discern various aspects of the spiritual night and the demonic infiltration of our lives and our world, for the Enemy is clearly exercising unprecedented powers evidenced by their overpowering ubiquity & effect.
Evil’s method, in case you’re wondering, hasn’t changed much over the years and goes something like this:
(1) Peddle endless distractions and fine-sounding lies to a people caught between worlds, then (2) Push God as fake news and (3) Squeeze the vise of guilt & condemnation that is the sinner’s reward (4) Trapping those who now possess no hope in a Redeemer they don’t believe in, and finally, (5) Accuse them of deserving every lousy, rotten thing on the elevator ride down.
Yeah, I know. Just like a 5-point star.
People fall for his tricks all of the time, of course. In our day, mortal sin is the common coin of both personal annihilation and coexistence. And like the American dollar, it’s everywhere.
INNOCENT TRUST IN the Lord as a signature characteristic of the saved soul is blessed and admirable always; while faithlessness & naivete among the unsaved, especially in times of robust Evil such as now, are cause for alarm, even a sounding death knell.
In spiritual terms, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, meant to awaken the inward and outward senses — particularly our soul sense — are fundamental to steering the ship of life clear of deadly rocks and jagged objects hidden by depths divorced for many from the deeper meaning of salvific navigation.
This is not only true but essentially true, for we safeguard our protection from the monsters lurking below the waterline only by learning how to read the signs above and below simultaneously. Reaching the finish line alive isn’t a lark or mere pleasure cruise, after all — finding safe harbor in Christ is the foundational purpose of your existence and the reason why the Devil has committed every moment of his eternal damnation here in space & time to pulling us all apart at the seams.
A BIG PART of what separates the ardently faithful from the unbeliever is the former’s anointed awareness framed by the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. The mature believer fully accepts the rules of spiritual engagement and sides with victorious Christ; while the lost & vainglorious side, if not with the Devil directly, then with their own worse and often predatory instincts (arguably the same thing).
The built-in prompting in each of us to answer God’s call (to enter into restored fellowship with our Heavenly Father severed by Adam & Eve’s betrayal in the Garden, through the Sacred & Forgiving Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ as our ONLY way of return) helps us to understand why Satan would so viciously attack our feelings & senses, and why he constantly baits us to abuse ourselves and others through our embodiment of sin.
He does so to confuse us.
He does so knowing sin separates us from God.
He does so knowing the wages of sin is death.
Again, the Devil bombards our soul sense (equilibrium of body, mind, soul, and spirit) by every manner of temptation available to him, appealing to carnal appetites that obscure and ultimately damage our preternatural capacity to see and follow God (and properly love ourselves and others) until all that remains is the obsession/fixation on things that rob and never satisfy; that leave us painfully estranged from God’s favor and ravenously hungry for more of the same devouring lies.
We’re the target, and our free will surrounding our poorly understood yearning for God is Satan’s soft point of entry. He too knows ominously well our born need for consolation and (re)connection to the living God; he knows if he can keep us from accepting Christ we’ll eventually turn to something else for comfort & succor. He knows the farther we drift from God, the harder it is for us to see the shore, to remember where we come from, and above all, to find our way back home.
Again for emphasis, the Devil boils to convince us, by dint of our convictions and memory of sin, that we are what we eat, so to speak — sinners disqualified from God’s saving grace — and that the most we can do is continue down the slippery slope of ever-diminishing returns until, eventually, only the waiting abyss remains.
LIAR!!
In fact, your Heavenly Father has made EVERY provision for the lost & broken to be found and miraculously restored, opening to each of us the place between time and eternity where Christ patiently and eagerly waits to Save us. It doesn’t take math or science or great feats to cancel the Devil’s controlling tactics … even a faint, heartfelt whisper, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner,' will do.
Once committed to our overhaul, the light of repentance (God’s saving help) brings us back to shore and leads us inland, turning us from perpetually wounded, sensually-striving beings forever patching up self-inflicted wounds into … healed and transformed New Creations.
GOING FORWARD, THE convert learns to tamp down the flesh with its incessant demands and blame, and take up the yoke of Christ Who now leads us on the path to healing and ascent. The old urges and compulsions start to fade in the sunlight of prayer and partaking of the Sacraments (Eucharist and Confession for the forgiveness of sins). If we feel pain for a time stemming from the withdrawal of our former way of life then it’s also for a reason — to help us better appreciate in a profound personal way the cost of Christ’s Crucifixion; that is to say, to produce Holy gratitude.
Having been freed from the distortion of sin, we now lift our eyes to the heavens to see the brightness of the new day pierce the darkening gloom of a world given over to Evil and, like us before Jesus, perishing from its curse.
Hence, the always abiding and eternal value of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Counsel, Knowledge, Understanding, Piety, Fortitude, and Fear of the Lord.
In a pinch, it might help to remember them this way:
The first four Gifts grant us the supernatural means to cross the wasteland, while the last three, beloved, get us up the mountain and down the other side.
In Him,
Rex
.30.
See in the dark …
by Obsidian_Rex, All Rights Reserved, 2023
Always find value for life in your writing. I wish others could see it.
"or maybe they’re just obvious to those of us in possession of the Gifts; I hope not"
Actually, at this point, I think that's still true. It may change as the future is coming upon us more quickly, but honestly I'd rather the powers of darkness not be aware of any gifts the faithful might possess, and only those who need to be shown the way are aware of them. At least until more are saved.
This is very instructive and uplifting. I worry so for those who don’t know Jesus particularly in the past two years. Every single day is a new level of evil. I know people who just go right back to whatever mindless distraction they were onto and never think to pray. Hopefully they will read this many times and take that action now. Thank you for taking the time to reach out to me and to others. I also desire that none should perish.