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Explosions, storm clouds, dreams: are they metaphors for the spiritual reality that approaches or already engulfs us?

The above photo, from Global News, contains what one could see as obumbrated profiles of the demonic bursting and rolling forth onto the scene.

That’s what one correspondent of ours recently dreamed about: huge, towering entities coming from dark clouds rising from the ocean and tearing up the terrain, ripping off the front of a bus, heading for homes, where there was a sudden and dense swarm of “mosquitoes.” He saw them filling a home. The air was nubilous — and about to darken precipitously.

Similes. Metaphors. 

There are different types of evil spirits in the demon hierarchy, the greatest being those that tower over a region and the least perhaps represented by those insects — the least and yet also the most pervasive. 

If we are entering a period of greatly heightened battle — and we certainly seem to be — what is the best defense?

Mass. The Bible. Especially the Bible, and especially Ephesians 6! Blessed Salt. The Benedict Crucifix. The Miraculous Medal. The list is long, in what we are offered by our great Faith. Holy Water.

Others have had similar dreams of a massive and imminent offensive by the netherworld. Some envision the offensive coming with extra-special fury this autumn — not just a societal, political, or cultural maelstrom but spiritual stuff: one directed against all who serve in the various denominations of Christianity (though be assured it “rains” on the evil as well as good).

Is it (above, the explosion in Beirut) like some angry thing is looking at us — peering through a slit in our earthly dimension? Again, metaphors.

Some see the same “eyes” below. Assuredly, many see nothing: just the capricious whorls and curls of smoke, which can make any shape one might impute through imagination.

But there are signs of the times, and there are words of knowledge. One from several years back:

“When you see the great smoke rise, Satan will have touched the earth. His manifestation will be near. He will seek to destroy what Christ has built, as Jesus came to destroy the work of the devil. In the end, the Cross will predominate, but not before the end of an era that has strayed.”

Does an explosion like the one in Beirut qualify, or does it have to be much larger: a volcano, a nuclear explosion, an unprecedented wildfire, the strike of an asteroid that blasts dust upward?

And what about “holy smoke” — as has been seen on Mount Kricevac in former Yugoslavia or was seen at Mount Sinai?

“And the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished,” says Revelation 15:8.

Psalm 18:8: “Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.”

Below from Sky News:

It’s a little like September 11.

Remember this from the fires in Victoria, Australia?

Is it Jesus or Satan?

Let’s choose to look for Jesus.

And let’s choose to brace ourselves with prayer and fasting, which can halt the intrusion of any demonic force into our homes and families.

NGC 5189: An Unusually Complex Planetary Nebula