Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)

by Brian Shilhavy

On October 28, 2017, in an article titled “Brian Shilhavy: 40 Years Later – I’m Still Here“, I wrote:

To everyone in America reading this let me give you my advice after serving God as a disciple of Jesus for almost 40 years now. Change is coming. It is inevitable. If you are not suffering now, if your life is not falling apart now, just wait.

Look at everything you currently depend upon, everything you cherish, and be prepared to lose it.

If that was true almost 6 years ago now, how much truer is it today?

Above my desk is a single Bible verse I have printed out and hung on my wall that serves as a daily reminder of just where my priorities and loyalty need to be:

Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:33)

Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? See:

How to Determine if you are a Disciple of Jesus Christ or Not

If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, you were not born into this world to be “happy,” or to live “the good life.”

That’s the lie that is called “the American Dream” and that is primarily taught by Corporate Christianity. See:

The American Dream was Always a Lie – The Path of Christ is a Lonely, Difficult One

If you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ, you were born into this world to do battle against the evil world system, and to suffer for doing so.

In the Bible it is called “The Way” and it is the same path that Jesus walked when he was here on earth, which led to his suffering and torturous death.

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.

Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. – Jesus (Matthew 10:34-38)

What we are promised is “comfort”, and the strength to endure the suffering from being attacked by the enemy.

Paul perhaps described it best in his second letter to the believers in the city of Corinth back in the First Century:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.

But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.

On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us. (2 Corinthians chapter 1)

We are now coming upon the days where the true disciples of Jesus Christ will become clearly evident, because we have access to a power that the enemy cannot match.

We are willing to die for the cause, to stand for the Truth. We do not fear death, so the enemy has no leverage over us.

But watch yourselves, for they will deliver you up to local courts. You will be beaten in churches. You will stand before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them. (Mark 13:9)

This will enrage the enemy, because the evil things they have been doing mostly in the darkness, will now be revealed in the true light.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.

Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

Get ready for the storms, because they are coming. The United States has become the most evil country on the face of the planet, and judgment is imminent.

Beware of the false prophets, who are proliferating today, just as they were during the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah, preaching “peace and prosperity,” right before their societies were destroyed.

This is what the LORD says– your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of fortune tellers, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense… (Isaiah 44:24-25)

This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:16)

Judgment begins with the household of God.

For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God? (1 Peter 4:17)