Still in the series of the Strategies of the Kingdom of Darkness, it is important to know about the ages to come. We have already gone through the Generational Chasm Strategies and there is more to come; Welfare Strategies, Doctrinal Error Strategies, Soul Strategies etc. However, it is important to know the Truth. Once you can identify the original, you can identify all other counterfeits. It’s necessary to not be ignorant of the wiles of the enemy but all cannot be identified in one lifetime. A lot of lies can be derived from one single truth just as there is only one original and numerous counterfeits. Knowing about the ages to come can save you from pursuing something that will land you in a position for certain strategies to easily overtake you.
Is this all there is to life?
After King Solomon made us know that there are seasons and times – a time for everything under heaven – he made us understand that God has placed eternity in our hearts. If at any point in your life you have asked what the essence of life was, it was eternity calling out from your heart. If you are shortsighted, focusing only on this life, your life will be miserable. No doubt. Even if you are the richest, your life will still be miserable. Any life without the purpose of God will self-destruct. It’s a life filled with anxiety, confusion, sorrow, bitterness, malice and lasciviousness. Do you want to live this hard life on your own terms? I’m not talking about asking God to bless your own agenda. I’m talking about dropping everything for His agenda.
We really have to realise that the devil did not have a devil to deceive him. At least, we have a devil and a whole kingdom of darkness to deceive us. Ask yourself; who deceived the devil? He deceived himself. That means that your biggest enemy is self. The origin of evil is not the devil. It is self. Once you live life by yourself, you are in trouble. Everything was designed to rely on God, including you. Don’t let the temporary wealth of the world ensnare you. Life is more than what you want for yourself. Life is more than how you want it to go for you. You don’t own your life. The one who owns you is the one who gets to determine what you should do with your life. Not the purpose of your life but His purpose for your life.
It is not the guy who keeps asking for an extra sheet in the exam hall that necessarily gets the highest score. Don’t be intimidated by that person. He may have totally deviated. The same is true of life. God is the one with the marking scheme. He is the one going to determine who actually made it in life. I can assure you that the one God calls successful is certainly not the one the world calls successful. In fact, what you deem to be a success is not what God calls successful. God looked at a 33-year-old dying naked on a cross and called it successful. God called a weird Pastor’s kid who ate locust and honey and was beheaded after being in prison the greatest among those born of women (Matt 11:11). Haven’t you been shocked by the kind of marks you got for an exam before?
A Better Promise
“All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously, people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:13-16 NLT.
The promises of God excite the lover who continually dwells in Him and longs for His Heart. Jesus said He won’t drink wine again until the Wedding Feast. That means He is really looking forward to it. There’s a better promise awaiting us if we endure till the end with our eyes still on Jesus. The world wants to distract us into pursuing money and sex. Self wants to distract us into pursuing a name for ourselves. The devil wants to distract us into pursuing the world and self. In the ages to come, we will rule nations, judge angels, see God face to face, have a glorious body, exhibit the fullness of God’s glory, receive a crown of righteousness and reign with Christ on His Throne.
Christ is our vivid example of how we ought to live in this age. “We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his, he endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!” Hebrews 12:2 TPT
Shortsightedness
One of the signs that someone walks with God personally is the person’s death to self. You need to die to the idea of making it in life. This life is short! There are ages to come. Die to self! Die to selfish ambition! Die to plans without God! Die to schemes without His counsel! Die to the pursuit of money and success. If any of it is still alive in you, it can give the enemy a foothold in your life. Let me ask you a question; $1 million dollars and wisdom, what will you choose? If you hesitate or outrightly choose $1 million, it is an insignia that you haven’t yet died.
In Akan language, the semantics of the word “wisdom” is nyansa; “adeɛ a wonnya a, ɛnsa”. Nobody is saying money is not good. However, if God wants to give you something everlasting but you downplay it to be less important than money (a man-made system that only exists in this age), it tells you where your treasure is. Jesus “became poor that we might become rich”. Don’t be shortsighted. The riches of God transcend money. See, the blessings of God transcend seasons and ages. You are asking God to bless you and He has. He gives you grace to achieve, favour to ascend, dominion to overcome and power to subdue but you say you are not blessed just because you haven’t made a lot of money and bought your dream car. Aaaahhh!
2 Timothy 3:1-2 says in the last days, men will be lovers of themselves and lovers of money. If our minds are not renewed in this area, the Esau Strategy can get us. Matthew 13:22 NLT says “The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.” The worries of this life only exist in this age. There are AGES to come. There are better promises of God – and God cannot lie – that will come to pass. Once you let it sink in, you will be anxious for nothing.
Godliness with Contentment
Contentment is the cure to the insatiable thirst in man’s fallen nature. Contentment will keep you from all forms of corruption through lusts; sexual sins, greed, gluttony, selfish ambitions and the like. Don’t be deceived. Contentment is not about settling for less. It is about resting in God’s providence. Contentment without godliness is corruption and godliness with discontentment is wrong. Both have avenues for the enemy to penetrate. One will make you choose a mediocre life in the name of God. The other will make you seek and add more to God. Godliness with Contentment will keep us from corruption, making us realise that God is 100% trustworthy and will eventually reward those who diligently seek Him.
Our Contentment is for what is unseen. It is for the hidden glory prepared for us before the foundations of the world (1 Cor 2:7). “Godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come”. Godliness is the source of our Contentment. This is why we both labour and suffer (not for some temporary earthly gain) but because we trust in the living God to reveal the fullness of His Glory in us in the age to come. If you have this understanding, it will keep you from pursuing God for temporary things that will pass away.
Declare with me: “I pursue Godliness with Contentment. I lay no treasure in this world. I want only Jesus. I don’t want all these things plus Jesus. I want only Jesus. In Christ Jesus, all these things shall be added unto me. However, whether it is added unto me or not, I want only Jesus. Jesus is enough for me.”
Kingdom Mindset
There are times, seasons, eras, dispensations and ages. So far, the age we are in – beginning from the time of Adam – has not even come to an end. Now that you understand that there are ages to come, have you realised that the devil is a joke? His lease ends with this present age. All he offers is just a temporary loan. Once this age ends, his rulership ends with it. The Bible calls him the “god of this age” (2 Cor 4:4).
However, all this does not mean do nothing on earth. If you are now not pursuing your own agenda (arranging your life according to your shortsighted analysis which the devil can easily disrupt), live for God’s agenda. If God didn’t need you on earth, there would have been a ministry of killers; people who will kill you once you give your life to Christ so you go to Heaven. God needs you here. This is our Kingdom mandate;
Matthew 28:18-20 NLT
Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Just as David lived in the dispensation of the Law but enjoyed the fruits of the New Covenant, we can also carry a reality of the age to come into this present reality. Just as every Old Testament patriarch revealed a reality of Christ in the next dispensation, our lives in this age ought to be a prelude to what is to come. We are all unique and God is so vast that our individual lives have been designed to reveal a prelude of an aspect of Him that will be fully known and made manifest in the age to come. Selah!
