This mystery is already at work and it manifests in different ways. Remember that because it is a mystery, it cannot be immediately recognized. That means it is not easily seen or noticed. Its \”interwovenness\” with the common things of life makes it all the more elusive (difficult to pin down). A mind that is given solely to secular thinking, without a spiritual altar of dedication to God that regulates understanding, will be blind to the constant tricks of the adversary, and process all things in the physical world as mere chance happenings or what the more educated will call, \”matter\”.
Tough times coming upon the elect
In these last days, there is going to be an increased, almost \”unexplainable\” hatred against those who do not hide their spiritual identity, as God\’s covenant people; and the bone of contention is simply Christ. In the story in Exodus 5, we have the Pharaoh, King of Egypt, refusing to allow the Israelites to go and worship God in the wilderness.
\”And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.\” Exodus 5:1-2
Moses came to Pharaoh with a message from the LORD. \”Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness\” With this, we see a parallel to what will be happening in these end times. God wanted to take His people out of Egypt, to catch them away (rapture), if you like, but Pharaoh refused. He said, \”Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD\”. If you look beyond the face value of those words, you will see that it was actually a reaction from the devil himself. Since the first rebellion, he has been an opposer of God\’s agenda on earth, especially as it concerns His people. That is why he is called the adversary.
\”And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.\” Exodus 5:6-7, 9
An offer to trade holy for the \”unholy\”
Rather than releasing them to go and worship their God, pharaoh made the work of the people unbearable. The government normally supplied straw for them to make bricks but he instructed his men to stop the supplies, and to allow them to gather straws themselves, without reducing their daily work targets. Pharaoh, here, is showing us how the mystery of iniquity will work (or is working) in our time. He calls the request to go and worship God, \”regarding vain words\” (please check verse 9).
First, it means that those who are serious about following Jesus will come into very tough situations at their workplaces and in the society. Personal devotion to Jesus will be ridiculed as laziness. Spending time to pray and to study the Word of God will become very difficult because there are satanic forces on a mission to make you \”reasonably\” use your time for every other thing, like sitting before the TV, doing office work at home, and chatting with friends on your smart phone, which may not be wrong in themselves, but are stealthily and very smartly reducing your love commitments to the LORD.
So we see that the Israelites came under an unimaginable pressure, which we can liken to the tribulation we see our LORD Jesus speaking about in Matthew 24, of which He said they are merely \”the beginning of sorrows\” (verse 8). Perhaps, the little time they had for God before will now be wasted on looking for straw and then finishing their tasks for the day. This was a very unsettling experience for God\’s people. The LORD wanted them out of Egypt to the wilderness to worship Him and make a feast unto Him, but Pharaoh stood in the way. [We could see the wilderness as the midpoint or halfway between Egypt (the world) and Canaan (Heaven or New Jerusalem)]. The mystery of iniquity, so to say, was at work. And it was determined to keep them in Egypt.
Losing sight of eternal things
The heads of the men of Israel met Moses and Aaron on their way out, after losing their appeal to Pharaoh to restore the former work conditions, and they said, \”The LORD has seen what you have done and will punish you for making the king and his officers hate us. You have given them an excuse to kill us.\” Exodus 5:21 (GNB).
Which means, the suffering or tribulation that was coming upon them is changing the way they reason to the point that they lost the vision of leaving Egypt to go and be joined to the LORD their God. The pressures of keeping themselves afloat in Egypt is now veiling their vision for oneness with their God. That is exactly the goal of the lawless one, who is spreading the mystery of lawlessness across the nations: to make the pressures of keeping oneself afloat in this world a task that knocks off the heavenly vision from one\’s mind and makes the contemplation of eternal things an impossibility.
\”For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.\”
\”The secret power of evil is already working in the world now. But there is one who is stopping that secret power of evil. And he will continue to stop it until he is taken out of the way.\” Easy-to-Read Version
\”The mystery of this sin is already at work. But it cannot work effectively until the person now holding it back gets out of the way.\” God\’s Word
2 Thessalonians 2:7
God always has a remnant
The goal of this secret power of evil is to make you lose your first love for Jesus (Matthew 24:12), to make you drop out of the faith (Matthew 24:24) and to make you cast off the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:7) as a vague thing. When there is a compromise of these three (love, faith and hope), apostasy must set in (Hebrews 6:4-6). No matter how many people may compromise, God always have His overcomers\’ company, the 7000 who have not bowed their knees to baal, who are, by the grace of God, restraining, holding back and stopping the mystery of iniquity from coming to a point where the man of sin himself, the antichrist will be revealed.
\”Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.\” 1 Kings 19:18
Which means the level of iniquity will keep increasing such that there will be trying times for God\’s people (both the church and Israel). Paul was teaching the new disciples \”Confirming…and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.\” (Acts 14:22). That is, it is taken for granted that you should know, if you have been a Christian for any length of time, that there will be difficult times.
The love of your self is the fuel for the mystery of iniquity
In Paul\’s first letter to Timothy, this times are called perilous times (3:1), when men will become \”…lovers of their own selves…\” (3:2) and because self is given free reign, it will open up new levels of wickedness (3:2-4). And even among church people and the very religious, these wickedness will be camouflaged with a deceptive godliness that nullifies the power of the cross (3:5). This is the reason why in the church today so many people are \”Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.\” (3:7).
And we have this category of people \”growing\” in hierarchy in the churches today, which has led to a sharp increase in sexual compromises/abuses among both the married and unmarried. \”For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts\” (3:6). Especially, the luring of vulnerable well-to-do (middle-aged) women into the sexual captivity of a wicked, immoral leader, whose eyes are full of adulteries. \”Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices…\” 2 Peter 2:14
Destroying the veil…
This veil is the presence of iniquity. Iniquity is lawlessness. This is when sin is indulged in, because of a false understanding of grace, until it becomes a settled, unashamed way of life. Wherever this is present, like Achan stealing the accursed thing (something of Babylon) in Joshua 7, the LORD will withdraw His presence, and will allow His people to suffer a defeat by the powers of darkness. This becomes a veil that divides God and His people.
It is this general rise in iniquity in the world system that is now flooding churches creating a veil that must be broken by faithful men and women (in prayer) for the Word of God to penetrate the hearts of men and to deliver them from their natural capacities or tendencies for hypocrisy.
\”And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.\” Isaiah 25:7
Indeed, the LORD will not disclose to anyone the actual day or time of the gathering of the saints to Himself, but He has revealed what the prevailing conditions upon the face of the earth will be prior to His appearing.
\”For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect\’s sake those days shall be shortened.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.\”
Matthew 24:21-22, 29-31
The mystery of iniquity will eventually reach a climax that will release the antichrist. It is the faithfulness of God\’s Overcomers\’ company that is denying the measure of iniquity to reach the proper zenith that will activate the antichrist. This is the time for you to check and be sure you are on the LORD\’s side.
Majority of \”Christians\” don\’t know that they are not a threat to the devil at all that is why they don\’t feel sorry for their sins; and because of this, they have begun to create new doctrines to accommodate their sinfulness, not knowing that it is the secret work of iniquity determined upon those who choose to be deceived, to keep them thinking they are \”born again\” until they have lost their souls to the enemy. Sin works secretly first, and it takes its time to spread into the fabrics of your inner man, before it makes you bold enough to express it publicly. This is the mystery of iniquity.
If you are winning the secret battle with sin in your private life, then you are a pain in the devil\’s neck. You are one of the reasons why the antichrist cannot yet manifest. You may not be known by men, but you are known in heaven and hell. Heaven rejoices over you, while hell groans. May you keep the testimony of Jesus Christ like the saints of old.
If you are failing to stand erect to denounce sin, and all the subtle manifestations of self in your life, then you must go to the throne of Grace now and ask the LORD for mercy. You only need to believe that Jesus did not primarily come to heal people and work miracles, He actually came to save you from your sins (Matthew 1:21). Praying with that belief in your heart will dismantle the sin apparatus in your life and you will experience the Grace and Truth that is in Christ Jesus (John 1:14).
Let us pray together:
LORD Jesus, thank you for your mercies. Please save me from all my private compromises. I don\’t want my life to add to the iniquity that is growing in this last days. I want my life to actually hinder it. Make me an overcomer. Give me ears that hears what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Revelations 2:7). Come O LORD and become eternally One with your bride. Thank you LORD. In Jesus\’ name. AMEN.
If you have not given your life to Jesus before, please pray here:
LORD Jesus, thank you for coming in the flesh to settle once and for all the matter of man\’s separation from God. I am sorry for my life of sin. Please forgive me and separate me unto Yourself, permanently away from sin. I believe that you are the Son of God and your death and resurrection have set me free from sin. From today, I am a New Creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). Thank you LORD. In Jesus\’ name. AMEN
Note: Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Photo credit: prophetic explorer
