2 Thessalonians 2:7-10 (ESV)

⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. ⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, ¹⁰ and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

I said recently that prophecies are comforting to those who are in covenant relationship with God. I believe that and I also understand that it can be disquieting to read about plagues, earthquakes, wars, pestilence, vials of wrath and a host of other prophetic utterances. I believe you have to glean the hope of the promises of God in the midst of what is written.

I am not going to tell you what I see in this prophetic passage I quoted. I will ask you to seek that glimmer of hope that comes from the promises of God. If we believe Romans 8:28 then we should be comforted in His promises and our calling.

Romans 8:28 (ESV) And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Do you love God? Are you called? Have you found your purpose? Do you trust God? Do you believe His promises? If the answer is yes, then you should be able to find comfort in any prophesy. The Holy Spirit will bring into remembrance those promises and show you how they can comfort you when you need it the most.

2 Corinthians 1:4 (ESV) who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

That is a promise.

Luke 12:36 (ESV) and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.

I left out this verse yesterday to serve as an example of how easy it is to find and quote scriptures that serve to prove a point and satisfy our own sensibilities. I was talking about the devils schemes and how prophecy is meant to comfort you. This is true and to prove my point I misled you by taking scripture out of context.

Yes it was wrong to do that but we do this to others and often to ourselves because of exactly this point; we are looking for answers. Even if you are not trying to be the answer man, you still want to know the truth and be comforted. Who could blame you? Satan.

Since we are His betrothed and we have every expectation of being at the wedding feast, as do all brides, then He isn’t addressing His bride. There are others that need to hear this message and from their position it will have a different meaning than that of the bride. This bible talks to all mankind, not just the bride.

It is so easy to take things and misapply them if you do not hold to the basic principles of relationship communication. Who is talking? Who is he talking too? What are the circumstances? Do they have relevant meaning to my relationship with God?

If we do not keep these principles in check, being misled is the result.