Yes, saints will be killed. God allows it. His plan requires that all believers be martyrs.

Revelation 6:9–11 says,

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

God does not always intend to deliver His children from harm or death.

This verse has been on my mind for several months now. I cannot shake the contrast between what we pray for and what God intends. We assume that suffering and death are to be avoided. After all, Jesus told us to pray that we be delivered from evil. Yet here God says that more saints must be killed.

This means that our prayers for deliverance from harm are not always God’s will.

We know that during the seven years of tribulation that souls will be saved and that these saints must endure the wrath of Satan, especially during the second 3.5 years when the mark of the beast is required for buying food and doing business of any kind. In fact, Matthew 24:15–22 warns,

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

The Christians saved during the seven years of tribulation must endure hardship, even death. But those who survive will be blessed to enter the millennial reign as mortals and begin raising new families. It is from these survivors that the earth will be repopulated during the 1,000 years of Christ’s reign from Jerusalem.

Here is something to ponder. God wants our lives. And a sacrificed life is a life given for Him. Paul says in Galatians 2:20,

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Sacrificing yourself for Christ is dying to yourself.

Jesus sacrificed Himself for us. Hebrews 9:26 says,

For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Ephesians 5:2 tells us to be like Christ,

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

In Romans 12:1 Paul beseeches us,

… by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And in 2 Corinthians 4:11, he writes,

For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

It sounds radical to us, but God wants us to die to ourselves and live for Him. Until we die, He has no control over us.

The idea of God allowing and planning for some Christians to be killed sounds shocking to us, but to be killed is just another way of dying to ourselves. When we die to ourselves, death and the fear of death no longer control us. Further, when we die to ourselves, we no longer control ourselves.

God’s plan for your life begins to be experienced when you die to yourself.

It is God’s plan for every one of us, not just for some. Until you die to yourself, you frustrate God’s plan for your life. God’s plan for your life begins with your martyrdom.

Are you ready to begin? Are you ready to renew your commitment to Him?