Scripture reading: Revelation 13:18
VICTORY OVER HIS MARK:
The mark of the beast is in the forehead or in the hand. A mark in the forehead speaks of the mind being taken over, and a mark in the hand speaks of committed works. Those who have the mark of the beast cannot be saved, because they have committed the unpardonable sin of blaspheme (rejecting the Holy Ghost for the last time). When the word speaks of the mark of the beast, it is taken by a person; it means that that individual would never accept Christ in time or in eternity. Judas sold Jesus, but he did not go to hell for that. He committed the unpardonable sin. He received the goodness of God, then rejected it and with it he rejected God and His Christ. He had his second chance when Christ preached to the spirits in prison, but Jesus tells us that he was lost, therefore he must be still in hell. The mark of the beast is a permanent disfigurement of the soul into a demon creature which has no desire for God.
VICTORY OVER THE NUMBER OF HIS NAME:
In Revelation 13:18 we are told that the number of the name of the beast is 666. In Scripture all figures are symbolic and this one is no exception. From ancient times man had come to regard numbers as having specific meanings. It is God who first applied meanings to figures and numbers to letters. For instance, the Hebrew “Alpha” is not only the first letter “A” but the figure 1. It became to be a symbol of God who is One God, the First and the Last. The number six in the same way is the number for man. Everything that began in Genesis must come to its full measure in Revelation. In Genesis the devil was shown as a serpent with one head. In Revelation he is a dragon with seven heads – his fullness – he and his kingdom. The fallen man is shown in Genesis and the completed man is shown in Revelation 12, also the fallen woman and the completed woman. Symbolically when a number is repeated three times it shows that that number has come to its fullness. The number 666 therefore, is the fullness of 6. Now in the end of time everything must come to its fullness and must have its full manifestation.
God is helping us today to have the victory within, for without this we are losers.
(Excerpt from The Omega Message, May 1986)
Thought for today: Let us press into God and submit to His guidance so that we may have the victory within and not be losers.