I’ve been reading about the world events, relating them to bible prophecy, and came upon Zechariah 14:3-5:

“3Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

4And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

5And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.”

It’s that last sentence that got me. Specifically “all the saints.” That’s us.

Psalm 16:3-“As for the godly (the saints) who are in the land, they are the excellent, the noble, and the glorious, in whom is all my delight.”

So I got to looking, and found more references to us saints being in that battle.

1 Thessalonians 3:13-“13To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.”

Jude 1:14-15-“ 14And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

15To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

So, it just struck me that we are being prepared for a real battle. It’s not just this battle on earth right now that we’re going through. We’re actually being prepared for “the” end battle, when Jesus comes back on His white horse, and all of us who believe in Him will be following Him along with all His angels!

We will be fighting the Battle of Armageddon with Jesus! I see now why our trials are so important, and how our every day victories are preparing us for the ultimate challenge, of fighting evil, with Jesus leading us on! It’s exciting (and a little scary) so it makes me want to dive into my bible more, in prayer, too, to get ready for this battle that’s even hard to spell, much less anything else.

Are you ready? Do you know Jesus? I hope you do.

I trust that the Lord’s preparing us; but how are you coming along? This life is so hard sometimes; it doesn’t seem like it could get any harder. And yet we’re gonna have to fight in that bloody battle! I wonder if we’ll be using real swords, or will it be with God’s Word? One scripture says “20And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” Revelation 14:20

I feel a sudden urge to get closer to my Lord, and ask Him what I need to do to prepare for this bloody battle. I’m so used to hearing “the battle’s not ours, it’s the Lord’s” that I got into a safe mode, thinking all I need to do is “be still” but I guess I’d better get to working a little bit harder on myself, and I’m not talking about exercise (although I know I need it). How do we prepare ourselves?

Ephesians 6:18-“Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all [manner of] prayer and entreaty. To that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints (God's consecrated people).”

1 Thessalonians 5:6-“Accordingly then, let us not sleep, as the rest do, but let us keep wide awake (alert, watchful, cautious, and on our guard) and let us be sober (calm, collected, and circumspect).”

1 Peter 4:7-“But the end and culmination of all things has now come near; keep sound minded and self-restrained and alert therefore for [the practice of] prayer.”