Apotheosis

We need to understand the psychological phenomenon that’s infected our culture right now. From our congressional halls, to our church gatherings, millions in our nation are being swallowed up in what social-psychologists call, “the cult of personality”. And it was on full, text-book display during Pam Bondi’s (February 11, 2026) hearings with the House Judiciary Committee. [C-SPAN] 

Instead of answering specific questions about justice issues at hand (what a United States Attorney General does for a living), Bondi repeatedly (on five separate occasions) launched into what Max Weber (1864-1920) called “APOTHEOSIS” – the technical term for the exaggerated, unquestioning adulation, and extreme idealization of a leader that involves the use of propaganda, conspiracy, legend-telling, vilification of detractors and persecution complex to portray a leader as heroic, infallible, and worthy of manifest worship.

After a year back in the White House, Mr. Trump’s efforts to promote himself as the singularly dominant figure in the world have become so commonplace that they no longer seem surprising. He regularly depicts himself in a heroic, almost godly fashion, as a monarch, as a Superman, as a Jedi knight, as a military hero, even as a pope in a white cassock.

While Mr. Trump has spent a lifetime promoting his personal brand, slapping his name on hotels, casinos, airplanes, even steaks, neckties and bottled water, what he is doing in his second term as president comes closer to building a cult of personality the likes of which has never been seen in American history. Other presidents sought to cultivate their reputations, but none went as far as Mr. Trump has to create a mythologized, superhuman and omnipresent persona leading to idolatry.

Cabinet meetings have become long, huddle-sessions in which individual department secretaries seek to outdo each other in heaping fawning, over-the-top praise upon the President.

His picture has been splashed all over the White House, on multistory banners on the side of federal buildings, on annual passes to national parks and maybe even soon on a one-dollar coin. His name has been etched on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, on the U.S. Institute of Peace, on federal investment accountsspecial visas and a discount drug programand, if he has his way, on Washington Dulles International Airport, Penn Station in New York and the future stadium of the Washington Commanders.

His White House is pressuring the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery to display portraits of Mr. Trump by his supporters. A group of cryptocurrency investors has shelled out $300,000 to forge a 15-foot-tall gold-covered bronze statue of Mr. Trump called “Don Colossus” to be installed at his golf complex in Doral, Fla.

His administration is considering designating a new class of battleships in Mr. Trump’s name. His allies are pressuring foreign leaders to endorse his bid for the Nobel Peace Prize and threatening consequences for resisting. Some supporters in Congress have even proposed adding his face to Mount Rushmore, an effort that, for the moment, has gained little traction.

What distinguishes APOTHEOSIS from normal popularity is 
A. the “demand for verbal adulation”, (the effusive glorification we heard from Bondi yesterday) 
B. unquestioned, final control over the narrative, and 
C. a “circle-the-wagons” defense of the leader himself, (what we see in Dutch Sheets’ appeal below) 
…all of which flows from the living leader him/herself.

The slavish following that surrounds Trump is about more than mere vanity. “This is not just egotistical self-satisfaction, it’s a way of expanding presidential power,” say Harvard scholar, and presidential historian, Michael Beschloss.

APOTHEOSIS is often fostered by totalitarian regimes (like Stalin, Mao, Sadaam Hussein, and smaller communities like Charles Manson and Jim Jones) to ascend to greater degrees of unrestricted power.

Indeed, last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump suggested that authoritarianism was not necessarily something to eschew. “Usually they say, ‘He’s a horrible dictator-type person, I’m a dictator,’” he said openly. “But sometimes, you need a dictator.”

APOTHEOSIS is sometimes also described as “abdication syndrome”, where followers surrender their critical thinking to a parental figure, who becomes the “savior” for the population in question, providing their subjects with the narratives that tell them how to understand, and operate within their society. 

Benjamin E. Goldsmith of the Australian National University and Lars J.K. Moen of the University of Vienna, who have studied Mr. Trump’s hold on his supporters, and published a paper on the abnormality in the Political Psychology journal, said the personality cult allowed Mr. Trump to dominate Republican primary contests, right-wing media and his party’s majorities in Congress. Those who stand against Mr. Trump are deemed traitors and punished accordingly.

“For us, this is the major threat to U.S. democracy from Trump’s cult-like following,” they wrote. “Congress is transformed into an enabler, even when the executive makes disastrous policies, undermines the rule of law or might attempt to fix elections. The system can transform into an electoral autocracy.”

Apotheosis binds followers of a movement to their leader more than to any particular policy prescription, making his success or failure their own. Veneration and loyalty are central and ideology secondary. The leader is presented as infallible, uniquely qualified, even divinely delivered for this moment in history.

Mr. Trump has played to these themes since taking the national political stage. “I alone can fix it,” he declared when running in 2016. “I myself am peace. Believe it.” he trumpeted weeks days before the 2024 election. “I was saved by God to make America great again,” he said on being inaugurated again last year.

From a Christian standpoint, what we are witnessing is a significant part of the power of a “strong delusion” (2 Thessalonians 2:11) overtaking the critical analysis, and Berean thinking of a people-group. This is a supernatural distortion of reality that the Lord Himself will give to those who take increasing pleasure in unrighteousness. (v.12)

THE antiChrist will demand APOTHEOSIS – AND be more cunning and serpentine in his constraint for it, than any figure ever.

“And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.” (Revelation 13:14-15)

Whether you believe Trump is an antiChrist, or not, here’s the point: the same spirit that is demanding his defensive veneration today is the same spirit that will be demanding the veneration of the beast in fulfillment of Revelation 13 in the days ahead. If our American evangelical family can’t withstand the smaller temptation today, how do we expect to be able to stand the vastly greater pressure later?

In the Words of the prophet Jeremiah: “If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, then how will you contend with horses?” (Jeremiah 12:5)

But here’s the kicker. The “greater pressure” will not only come from the power of the beast himself. It will come from our own sisters and brothers, all around us, who shape the social mind-set that insists that there is only one acceptable way of viewing the individuals, circumstances and dynamics within the culture. Social psychologists call this corporeality, “group-think”.

Group-think occurs within a collection of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. The desire for cohesiveness, within a group produces an inclination among its members to agree at all costs. This causes the community to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision at the expense of critical (ala. Berean) evaluation.

Group-think requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions. Furthermore, groupthink can produce dehumanizing actions against the “outgroup”. Members of a group can often feel under peer pressure to “go along with the crowd” for fear of “rocking the boat” or of how their speaking out will be perceived by the rest of the group. Group interactions tend to favor clear and harmonious agreements and it can be a cause for concern when little to no exterior arguments for better beliefs, outcomes and structures are called to question. Groupthink can often lead to the creation of “yes men”, because group activities and group projects in general make it extremely easy to pass on not offering constructive opinions, and potentially more fruitful options.

Psychologist Irving Janis (Yale University) pioneered the initial research on the group-think theory. He writes: “I use the term group-think as a quick and easy way to refer to the mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-group that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action. Group-think is a term of the same order as the words in the newspeak vocabulary George Orwell used in his dismaying world of 1984. In that context, group-think takes on an invidious connotation. Exactly such a connotation is intended, since the term refers to a deterioration in mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgments as a result of group pressures… The main principle of group-think is this: ‘The more amiability and esprit de corps there is among the members of a policy-making in-group, the greater the danger that independent critical thinking will be replaced by group-think, which is likely to result in irrational and dehumanizing actions directed against out-groups‘.”

Jeremiah writes to strengthen the people against these insidious, and potentially ruinous interpersonal forces: “For even your brothers, the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; yes, they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them, even though they speak smooth words to you.” (Jeremiah 12:7)

This is the vital question before the church in this hour. Does our American evangelical family have the discipline, and prophetic fortitude that will enable us to escape the vortex of APOTHEOSIS that has engulfed SO MUCH of our Church family throughout history?

In the rest of chapter 12’s message, Jeremiah references the fierce jealousy of God to produce a people who are not ravaged by the destructive, and despotic ways of satan’s tyranny: “Many rulers have destroyed My vineyard, they have trodden My portion underfoot; they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate; desolate, it mourns to Me; the whole land is made desolate, because no one takes it to heart. The plunderers have come on all the desolate heights in the wilderness, for the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the other end of the land; no flesh shall have peace.” (Jeremiah 12:10-12)

Beloved. The zeal of the Lord stands in wholehearted opposition to the devouring desolation that always comes with self-adulating power. Ultimately, should we not take His prophetic counsel to heart, and see His Hand in what is arrayed against us (indeed, on behalf of our good), we will find our God in violent opposition to us. People of the Word need not be deceived about this reality.

Today is the day to avail ourselves of the full, circumspect counsel of our King. Today is the day to humble ourselves and take refuge in the watchful, inner-vigilance of prayer, and yield our flesh to the crucifying work of the Spirit, that we may develop an idol-intolerant heart, and a pure devotion to the exaltation of Jesus alone.

“O Lord, our God, masters other than You have ruled us, but we praise Your Name alone.” (Isaiah 26:13)

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JSB • February, 2026

NOTE: If you’re curious: Here’s a very accessible, thorough, non-political article that helps break down the human components of cult-dynamics, (including apotheosis) so that they become more easily identifiable in our every-day world.

DEFANGING AUTHORITARIANISM by Daniel D. Barber (June 8, 2023)

Enemies of the Cross

It’s 2026, and most Bible-believing followers of Christ honestly neither see what’s at risk inside ourselves, nor within our household. We have little perspective on what it is that the devil is attempting to wrest from our lives. And, in most cases, we give it up willingly, without even understanding what it is that we’re surrendering. The troubling truth is, without it, we (ourselves and the Bride) will never enter into the nobility of our destiny. What we’re blindly relinquishing is that precious.

Right now, the age-old deceiver is using thousands of voices (politicians, pundits, pastors, and prophets) in a full-press quest to divest the church of her cross.

These are the false christs, false teachers, and false prophets that Jesus warned us about. They have no value for walking in the manner that Jesus walked. Neither do they have a game plan for the Bride to come forth in glorious Christlikeness. They are literally hell-bent on agitating the faithful to lay down their cross, take up the power of the exalted flesh, and follow the spirit of anti-christ – no love; no Holy Spirit fruit; no humility; no death to self…

Millions around us, in our churches, our prayer gatherings, our home fellowships and our seminars are succumbing to the temptation, and enthusiastically handing the enemy of our souls, the very nexus of our covenant in Christ, and the one essential means by which we may bear the fruits of righteousness – our cross.

It is nothing short of the “falling away” from vibrant faith in Jesus Christ.

Chief among these incendiary voices are those who crusade to turn our nation back to God. Burning with an eternal flame of enmity, they intend to accomplish the feat by fiat. Their banner is a sword. Their mouths never tire of the propaganda. And, in spite of their desire to be known as “peacemakers”, their festivals are filled with the drums of war.

There is no humility in their spirits. No mutual confession that escapes their lips. No call to repentance that touches their own houses of ill-repute. Their’s is a perpetual campaign to destroy the “other”, in pursuit of an earthly utopia for the “unwoke”. Not a community of the redeemed – a society of the justified, the mutually adoring, and the worthy.

In 1930’s nationalist Germany, the new, spiring socio-political power within that nation sought a symbol to represent its vigor and devotion. The image it chose was one of a broken cross. Dietrich Bonhoeffer perceived what his sisters and brothers were being seduced by, and wrote about it in his landmark book, “The Cost of Discipleship”. Essentially, Bonhoeffer’s message was, if we take up the emblem of naziism, and champion a crossless “kamph”, we, and the world around us will only have cheap grace, and a pretentious kingdom built upon edict, hostility, intolerance, platitudes, and the unrestrained appetites of the right-minded flesh.

The vast majority of German Christians did not heed Bonhoeffer’s cry to count the internal cost of remaining faithful to Christ. Instead, in their lust to become the master race of humanity, they exacted that cost from the lives of 50 million of their fellow human beings who opposed their “jihad”.

Such is the universal way of the antiChrist: glory without the agency of the cross.

When tempted in the desert, the true Christ, turned down the offer to receive the nations from the hands of the devil, who was offering it to Him without the messy need for a cross. Jesus had already determined to follow the plan of the Father, that would deliver both the rule and the redemption of the nations into His Hands via the way of the cross.

And when we see national prayer assemblies filled with self-vaunted rancor, and the honor of killing others for the glories of supremacy being esteemed as the pathway to eternal salvation, we know the devil has come to our doorstep as well.

Friends. Family in Christ. American evangelicalism is at a watershed moment. The crafty rhetoric of the deceiver is not only echoing from the White House, its found a foothold in the pulpits of our churches. We MUST attune our spiritual ears to the pride, the lust and the selfism, and hear his serpentine beguilement.

By his siren song, our apostolic virginity is being raped. The Name of our King is being coopted. Our witness is being bastardized. The fame of our God is being defaced. And unless we wake up from our intoxications, we are going to rush ourselves, our families, and many in our nation toward an everlasting fire that was only prepared for the devil and his angels.

We need the pure holiness of the Lord within our own bosom, twitching at every promise of greatness through self-promotion. Evil isn’t (only) coming with horns, dressed in drag. It’s coming wrapped in red, white and blue sentiment, and the magical touch of Meidas.

We MUST, in all our praying, speaking, meditating, studying, gathering, and debating cry out to the Spirit to bring us into the way of our cross! Should we not, we WILL exact the same price upon all others who oppose us in our gilded zeal.

“For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they set their aspirations on earthly things.” (Philippians 3:18-19)

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JSB • February, 2026

  • * At the February 5, 2026 Prayer Breakfast, Secretary Pete Hegseth made the following incredible statement to the assembled guests; pastors, evangelists, intercessors, government officials etc.:
    “The willingness to make sacrifices on behalf of one’s country is born in one thing: a deep and abiding belief in God’s love for us and his promise of eternal life. The scripture says, ‘For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.’ The warrior who is willing to lay down his life for his unit, his country, and his Creator, that warrior finds eternal life. (Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War • February 5, 2026)
    …and no one rose to object.

    The idol is now on full display. The trumpets are bidding the “faithful” to bow. The sheep are being divided from the goats – real time.

    Christian leader. In this hour, if you’re not making the way clear, you’re playing the role of Aaron. You’re an impediment to Jesus’ exhortation to His disciples. We are watching nothing less than the usurping of American evangelicalism by the spirit of antiChrist. Period.

    After his curse-filled rant, (…at the NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST!) Trump announced that in a May 17 festival, he intends to declare the United States a Christian nation. Tragically, this assembly will be hailed by millions of our sisters and brothers, as a monumental step in the ascendency of the Kingdom of God. In truth, it promises to be the greatest desolating abomination our culture has ever witnessed – satan himself serving as the master of ceremonies where he will bestow glory upon a people who exalt self, and repudiate the need for a cross.

See this same article at my SUBSTACK Page.

Babylon

The Babylon of the end of the age is Sodom with all the wealth, and commerce of the nations. It’s the consummate picture of the unfettered, dominant, excess-driven human heart. Babylon will be God’s way of showing all of human history: “See? This is who humanity will continually tend to become, apart from yielding to the reign of My Son.” 

Babylon is the spirit that refuses restraint; the natural spirit that lies within every one of us. Babylon is a mirror to our own uncrucified soul when we have all the wealth, all the power, all the freedom, and all the unifying potential to do, create, say, conspire, and believe anything we want. Babylon is the unsurrendered rich, young ruler on demonic steroids. 

There’s never been a generation on the earth that’s fit this category more than us. 

If this IS the hour of Jesus’ return, Bible believers need to spend much less time wondering “Who is the antiChrist?” – and MUCH MORE TIME inquiring of the Lord: “How are we (how am I) operating in the spirit of Babylon?” 

Instead, the Church (who claims to be experiencing great revival) is found blindly, and with seared consciences, trumpeting the dominion of Babylon. 

The difference between the court prophets in Jeremiah’s day, and the court prophets in our own day is that in Jeremiah’s day, the court prophets saw Babylon as the looming threat to Judah, and the covenant people of God. The court prophets in our day make no distinction between Babylon and the Kingdom of our God and King – and patently refuse to stand up to a Babylon who even claims to have the power to “save God” Himself – while they heartily defend and take part in her excesses. 

Friends. This is about SO MUCH MORE than politics. It’s an MRI into what’s at work within our souls. Where are the people of God who will come to the Lord in an hour of propaganda, and lavish abundance and ask, “Holy Spirit, show us our ‘whoredom’!”??

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JSB • November, 2025

10 Good Things Our King Did On Saturday

Instead of Protesting “NO KINGS” This Past Saturday, Our Little House of Prayer Came Before Our King In Prayer and Exaltation. Here’s 10 Things Our King Accomplished During These 3 Hours…

1. Our King amplified His glory and power in the hearts of 100,000 neighbors that we prayed for w/in our 100 mile radius. (One of my favorite times from yesterday was declaring 100 distinct, beautiful qualities about Jesus from the Bible into the atmosphere over our region.)

2. Our King humbled us under a contrite spirit of repentance, and the fear of the Lord, re: His judgments that are upon the earth – and upon all of us.

3. Our Lord filled us with increased zeal to bring ALL of our ways into obedience to His reign. AND He gave us increased power to do so.

4. Our King struck a blow against the rampant principality of rebellion and lawlessness in our hearts, in our relationships, and in our land.

5. Our King filled our hearts with increased tender loyalty to Him and His transcendent ways.

6. Our King manifest His tender mercies toward 100,000 individuals in our region: white, native, brown, young, old, believers, unbelievers, antifa, MAGA, and non-political

7. Our King gave many of us an increased vision of the eternal Kingdom power of prayer that He longs to extend through His Bride, in this age, and the next.

8. Our King fell upon us with a glorious love that fostered deep, humble, first-commandment love, unity.

9. We heard our King tell us that He likes us.

10. Our King prepared our hearts with a grace to bear our cross, and remain fiercely loyal to His heart through the intensity that’s mounting in our nation.

BONUS
11. Our King fortified a crystal clear resolve to take every thought captive against a tyrannical, antiChrist spirit that seeks to prostitute American evangelicalism.

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JSB • October, 2025

The Vital Need for the House of Prayer in the Hour of the Judgments of the Lord

Beloved. The only way the household of God will stand through this hour of judgment from the Lord re: idolatrous, political nationalism is NOT by becoming people who broadcast endless proof of the evil that fills our hallways of power – an evil our family is readily ingesting, and promoting. We will ONLY OVERCOME the strategies of hell’s stronghold being erected against His Kingdom as we, the church, become a people who are more enthralled with the God of Joshua, Isaiah, John the Baptist and Revelation, Who they meet in the tent of meeting, than the cadaverous god that is being conjured as a mascot by the court prophets, and the false shepherds.

We will neither perceive the nature of the delusion, nor overcome the various issues that are confronting our hearts, our relationships, and our fidelity to Christ, without becoming people of ardent prayer, who see what the angels see, and bow low to the eternal God of 300 trillion galaxies.

If prayer isn’t an integral pattern of your daily life right now, you already are being spun by the god of this age, and will not traverse the fearful way of the Lord through this hour of monumental tribulation.

Hear the Word of the Lord through Isaiah 28
“Therefore, listen to the Lord’s message, you who scorn and boast – For you say, ‘We have made a treaty with death, with Sheol we have made an agreement. When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by it will not reach us. For we have made a lie our refuge, we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word’.” (Isaiah 28:14-15)

The rest of Isaiah’s message can only be heard and appropriated in our lives, families, churches, and culture by giving ourselves to being the people of the tabernacle of God.

“16 Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord, says: ‘Look, I am laying a stone in Zion, an approved stone, set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation. The one who maintains his faith will not panic.” (Isaiah 28:16) 

The judgments of the Lord isn’t merely about Him rebuking a wayward people, He’s setting the order of His Son in place upon the earth so that the peoples of the earth can either agree with this administrative order, or faithlessly disagree with this administrative order. When we agree with this heavenly order – the order of the King – our hearts can be set at peace – though they be greatly constrained by the demands of faithfully heralding the true prophetic Word of the Lord to a deaf, and deluded people. When we surrender to the One Who is bringing His order of stability to our world, we can be filled with the peaceable fruits of righteousness – which is the administrative order of King, Jesus – even though we know that the setting in place of this eternal Kingdom will cause great great disruption on the earth.

17 I will make justice the measuring line, fairness the plumb line; hail will sweep away the unreliable refuge, the floodwaters will overwhelm the hiding place. 18 Your treaty with death will be dissolved; your agreement with Sheol will not last. When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by, you will be overrun by it. 19 Whenever it sweeps by, it will overtake you; indeed, every morning it will sweep by, it will come through during the day and the night.” (Isaiah 28:17-19)

Again. The Lord’s promise to establish His Son’s order upon the earth, will greatly disrupt the paradigms of men and demons. When God arises, His enemies are about to be scattered – often with alarming tumult, and typhoons of chaos. It’s pure foolishness to think that when the Lord’s storm comes to the earth, (and we are already being tossed by the early winds) we will automatically stand securely, because we have a “theology of security”, though we have never parsed the ways and means, and details of the beautiful roots of that security in the place of much prayer, and dialogue with the Spirit over scripture.

“When this announcement is understood, it will cause nothing but terror. 20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap around oneself. 21 For the Lord will rise up, as He did at Mount Perazim; He will rouse himself, as He did in the Valley of Gibeon, to accomplish His work, His peculiar work, to perform His task, His strange task.” (Isaiah 28:19-21) 

Who is able to say, “Lord, bring the fulness of Your Presence, even though it comes with great terror…”??? Only the one who has been terrified by the Lord in the secret place; in the crevice of the Lord, as His glory has passed by, and then discovered that he/she has not been destroyed in the process. This is the necessary strength that can only be cultivated and accumulated in the place of face to Face encounter with the Living God of Mount Sinai, and the transfiguration.

“22 So now, do not mock, or your chains will become heavier! For I have heard a message about decreed destruction, from the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies against the entire land. 23 Pay attention and listen to my message. Be attentive and listen to what I have to say!” (Isaiah 28:22-23) 

There is no place for mockery in the household of God. In the Presence of the Lord, all forms of ridicule and scorn is irreverent “racca”… making one guilty of hell-fire itself. (See Matthew 5:22) The work being done within ourselves in the tabernacle of the Lord will produce a holy sobriety of the spirit, that knows full well the disastrous consequences that will come to those who do not avail themselves of the Lord’s summons to His threshing floor.

“24 Does a farmer just keep on plowing at planting time? Does he keep breaking up and harrowing his ground? 25 Once he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter the seed of the caraway plant, sow the seed of the cumin plant, and plant the wheat, barley, and grain in their designated places? 26 His God instructs him; He teaches him the principles of agriculture. 27 Certainly caraway seed is not threshed with a sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin seed. Certainly caraway seed is beaten with a stick, and cumin seed with a flail. 28 Grain is crushed, though one certainly does not thresh it forever. The wheel of one’s wagon rolls over it, but his horses do not crush it.” (Isaiah 28:24-28) 

The one who goes into the tabernacle of the Lord will soon learn there is nothing more necessary, needful, efficacious and life-giving than for the human spirit to seek out, receive, and perceive encounter with the Holy One. This is where the wisdom that is necessary to navigate the hour of tribulation is given. Nowhere else.

“29 This also comes from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, Who gives supernatural guidance and imparts great wisdom.” (Isaiah 28:29)

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JSB • September, 2025