On My Way to Rome

heavy as they knew that I was giving them final instructions. I could also feel that they were holding onto my every word as though it were treasure and fine gold. There was a sorrow in my voice as I continued to speak, "I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you, and they won't spare the flock. Even from among your own number, men will arise and teach perversions of the truth, in order to drag away the disciples after themselves. So stay alert! Remember that for three years, night and day, with tears in my eyes, I never stopped warning you!"

  I stretched out my hand towards them and invoked the blessing of the Lord upon them, saying, "Now I commit you to God and I commend you to the Word of His grace. That it may build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who have been set apart for God. I coveted no man's silver or gold or costly garments. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have provided not only for my own needs, but for the needs of my co-workers as well. In everything I have given you an example of how, by working hard like this, you must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself, that it is more blessed to give than to receive." When I had finished speaking, I knelt down with them and prayed.

  I pray, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation of insight into mysteries and secrets in the deep and intimate knowledge of Him. By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints. So you can know and understand what is the immeasurable, unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe. Which He demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly realms. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and world which are to come. He has put all things under His feet and has appointed Him the universal Head of the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Himself.

  That He may grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthen with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit. May Christ through your faith, actually dwell, settle down, abide and make His permanent home in your hearts. May you be rooted and grounded in love. That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That you may be filled with the richest measure of the divine Presence and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself. To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen, so be it!

  They wept bitterly with sore hearts as I prayed. They threw their arms around my neck and kissed me fervently and repeatedly. They were very distressed and sorrowful because I had stated that they would not see my face again. After I consoled them, they accompanied me to the ship. When we had torn ourselves away from them and withdrawn, we set sail and made a straight run to Coos, an island in the Aegean Sea. At the mouth of the harbour at Coos a huge Colossus statue of brass stood seventy six cubits high which we sailed beneath, between its legs. His fingers alone were the size of a ordinary man. The following day we went to Island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea and from there to Patara, a port in Asia Minor. There we found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, a region of Palestine, so we went aboard and sailed away. After we had sighted the Island of Cyprus, leaving it on the left we sailed on to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload her cargo. Tyre was a major city of Phoenicia with a seaport situated in the Roman Province of Syria. Wine and purple materials were exported from there that were highly valuable.

  Having searched out the disciples there, we remained with them for seven days. Prompted and guided by the Holy Spirit, they told me not to go up to Jerusalem. But when the week was over, we left to continue on our journey. All of the brothers at Tyre, with their wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the town. Kneeling on the beach and praying, we said good-bye to each other. Then we boarded the ship and they returned to their homes. When the voyage from Tyre was over, we arrived at Ptolemais, a town in Palestine. There we greeted the brothers in Christ and stayed with them overnight.

  The following day, we left and came to the city of Caesarea, where we went to the home of Philip the proclaimer of the Good News. He was one of the original seven, along with Steven ordained by the apostles in Jerusalem to attend to the tables. So we stayed with him. Philip had four unmarried daughters, still virgins who had the gift of prophesy. While we were staying there, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea to visit us. As it is the gift of the prophet to act out parables, Agabus took my belt and with it bound his own hands and feet. He prophesied, saying, "Here is what the Holy Spirit says, the man who owns this belt will be bound and tied up by the Judeans in Jerusalem. They shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles."

  When the residents and the disciples heard this prophesy, they all pleaded with me not to go up to Jerusalem. I answered them, "What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart like this? I am prepared not only to be tied up, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." When they could not persuade me to change my mind from going to Jerusalem, they said, "May the Lord's will be done." Then they kept quiet. So at the end of our stay, we packed and went up to Jerusalem contrary to what the prophet had prophesied.

  I told Cassius that's how I ended up in Jerusalem and in the Temple that day, with my head shaved and the angry Jewish elders beating me. It was on that day when you first came to my rescue. I ended up in chains just as the prophet had said. I embraced Cassius with both arms, slapping him on the back in the process, as a token of my gratitude for his service to me. I had received word from Nero, the Roman Emperor that I was exonerated. I had packed a bag and I was leaving Rome. I was heading out once again, this time on my fourth missionary Journey. I had to see how the church of the Lord Jesus Christ had grown in my absence and if they had paid any attention to my letters. I didn't think that I was going to see Cassius again. The one thing I did know is that I had saved his life. If I had died he would have died.

  I turned my back on him and started walking away when I heard him say, "Greetings citizen!" I replied, "Shalom citizen," with a huge smile on my face.

  I am Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you, and Shalom - peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly realms in Christ. According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestined us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved.

  Amen - so be it.

  Final Hour. #18

  It was dark, extremely dark. I had not known such thick darkness like this before. If that darkness was a reflection of hell then I never wanted to go there. I was sick with sorrow, as I was in a dungeon in Rome. My soul was seeking to find rest. Ones soul can only find rest in God alone. Although my soul was full of troubles, and my life was drawing near unto the grave. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ felt so near to me. I knew that He would never abandon me.

  God looks down from the height of His sanctuary, from heaven does He behold the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoners and to loose those that have an appointment with death. Christ was abiding in me, the hope of glory. I was in chains, a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the Gentiles. I was in chains for preaching His Gospel. I was surrounded by thick darkness, yet I wasn't alone. God was with me.

  Even though I found myself in a dark dungeon and in chains, I was in the perfect will of God. The master of the darkness was trying to flood my mind with questions that were contradicting God's purpose for my Life. The devil is a master at sowing lies and discord. He will always try and get you to
question the promises that God has made for your life. In the Garden of Eden he got Eve to question what God had said. He also tried to get Jesus to question the Scriptures when he tempted Him in the desert. "Has God said?" has always been his mode of operandi. I had to cast down those vain imaginations and every high and lofty thought that exalted itself against the knowledge of God. I had to take every dark thought captive and bring it into subjection to the obedience of Christ. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against princes that rule in the invisible heavenly realm. Darkness enveloped all around me but I refused to allow it to take a hold of me. I refused to give the devil a foot hold.

  I had to remain in the Spirit and walk according to the Spirit. For who knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of a man. Who knows the thoughts of God except the Holy Spirit of God. I had to continue to walk according to the Holy Spirit's promptings, for He knows the thoughts of God. I had to have the mind of Christ. I had to gird up the loins of my