The coming Great Awakening

Time is racing towards a close and the new age is beckoning us, the earth is crying out for the revelation of the sons and daughters of the new kingdom. Before the end of this age there is going to be one more great awakening but I believe it is going to be different from the ones we have had in the past.

For the last couple of months I have been studing ends times, the possible sequence of events looking into prophecy, reading about heaven and hell and I am convinced that everything is ready for the final 7 years of Daniel and 7 years of revelations to begin. There are only a couple of key events that need to happen. There is the war of Gog and Magog in Eze 38, there is the subsequent peace treaty with the antichrist. Many Christians will point to the scripture – the Gospel will be preached in all the world and then the world will come – and they tell us the gospel has yet to be preached in all the world. Jesus comes in a 2 fold coming – there is the rapture where only those wise virgins who are ready and waiting for the Messiah are taken and meet Jesus in the air and this can be argued as a pre or mid tribulation scenario (I personally favour a pre-trib scenario for many reasons but there are very arguments for a mid trib rapture and then to confuse things further there is a theory of a 2 fold rapture which is not out of the question either) and then there is the conquering king coming to earth on a white horse at the end of the tribulation and the end of Daniels missing 7 years. The gospel doesn’t need to reach the end of the world before the rapture, only before His coming. Those Christians left behind those 144000 converted Messianic Jews will go crazy with the Gospel. The rapture, the unveiling of ancient artifacts such as Noahs arc, the arc of the covenant, the 10 commandments will be heard about through the whole earth. No one will miss these events.

I believe that before all this takes place there is going to be a great awakening that will sweep across the globe. This is what I see in my minds eye. Every nation has the opportunity to step into this awakening – we can taken the opportunity or we can miss it, we can march into glory bringing a nation with us to the praise and adulation of heaven or we can miss it. We stand on the verge of something very special and something very unique - an opportunity like no other. 

If we would risk it all and step off the cliff into the unknown we will walk upon the waters and supernatural power of heaven will be made available to His servants. This time it isn’t reserved for the few – this time the gifts and the power is for the body and not for the exclusively for the preacher….. we are God’s anointed, and if we have faith mountains will be moved….. if we would have the courage to step out these coming days will be the most exciting days that we will ever witness and nd they will be more exciting than anything we have ever heard about……

Are the judgements of God coming quickly

Today is the 9th of Av the worse day in the Jewish calendar. It is like God has removed his blessing from the Jewish people on this day and the worst of things seem to happen on this day – check it out. That is ot the purpose of this post, but it will be interesting to see if anything bad happens to the Jews today.

I have noticed that the judgements of God have been coming more quickly in my life. I don’t have to wait long for the consequences of pride to kick in, or the sin of lust, or lying. This is a general observation…. I don’t think God is going to tolerate lukewarm Christianity like he has in the past. He has been patiet with us in the past and has allowed leaders to remain leaders for periods of time while he tried to bring them back into his will andhe has allowed sin to remain "hidden" (not from himself) while he gently coaxed us back to himself  is happening anymore – I think he is in a hurry and lukewarmness will not be tolerated.

When are lukewarm he are telling everyone it is alright to be disobedient and selfish. And especially leaders – they teach people by their lifestyle and actions that disobedience is acceptable. We know its not and we also know people will see through the thin veneer of our words and see into our actions/lives. I sense that time is running out and we need to judge ourselves before God does it… the consequences of God’s judgement will be more severe than our own- what i mean by that is  can learn the easy way or we can learn the hard way – the easy way is that we can judge ourselves, the ha way is we can allow God to do it.

We need the grace of God to live out what we know.

The other thing to note is that if judgements coming quickly to the house of God it will also be coming quickly to the world live in very perilous times nd this is the time we need to be prayering living holy.

HOW MUCH LONGER HAVE WE GOT?

Not long.

There are only a few more things prophetically that need to happen before the rapture of the Church and the coming of the Lord. And they could happen so quickly. Late year I was watching the news and it looked like things could move very quickly towards the 7 year tribulation with Russia invading Georgia, a peace treaty with Syria on the cards and then everything settled down very quickly. With hindsight and more knowledge its easy to look back and go “of course its not going to happen.”

All we need for the tribulation to start is an alliance with the southern Russian states, Iran, Libya and perhaps Sudan and there is already a loose alliance at hand. All it needs is a trigger like a severe drought in the area (Israel holds huge water reserves) an Israeli attack on Iran or something and events could precipitate very quickly.

The three major events as I understand it that need to happen are 1. an invasion of Israel from an alliance heading by Gog (Russian) which ends in a major defeat for them. 2. Some sort of semblance of a one world government (which we have in a crude form in the UN) and split into 10 regions (the Club of Rome has a suggested list of 10 regions which I believe they identified almost 40 years) and the emergence of muslim leader referred to as the Antichrist. And of course there is the gospel which needs to be preached to all nations before the ends come – but that could include the tribulation period.

My point is that the tribulation could happen very quickly – there are no insurmaountable obstacles that prevents these things happening in the next 3 month. Although this is unlikely – events could unraval very quickly.

Jesus iterated in the last book in the bible 3 times ” I am coming very soon”. That is way we must watch and pray and not be like the 10 foolish virgins.

The Watchmen

I’ve been reading the bible of late in a bit of a scatter gun approach which is probably not the best way to read it, opening it up at random pages and starting to read…. sometimes its great sometimes not…

The other night (a week ago) I decide… ” God what should I read”…. Ezekiel 33…. I’m thinking to myself “I wonder what’s there”?  I then read it and I’m getting really nervous. Last night I ask the same question – Ezekiel 33…. I’m thinking to myself… ” haven’t I just read that…. what was that chapter about again….”

There’s 2 parts to this….. a message to the watchman and a message from the watchman.

As a watchman, God gives us a message for people and if we fail to share that message the blood of those who die is on our hands, if we share the message the blood comes off. The responsibility and the ramifications are enormous.

The message of the watchman is this – the good deeds of a good man will not save you if you turn to sin – there is no thing as once saved always saved – you can live how you like. The evil deeds of an evil will be forgotten if he turns from them and seek forgiveness.

The watchman must share their message and the hearer must live ready and repentant. A bit like the parable f the 10 virgins – we don’t know when our time is up or when the taking away of the church will happen (but be really really ready every feast of trumpets – 19th of September this year) – we need to be ready and full of oil and if you have a message for our friends and family which we almost certainly do…. we must share it with them and love them otherwise their blood will be on our hands.

There was an old man who lived next to me….. I was living a lukewarm, selfish, sin filled life… although I wanted to serve God I think I was only holding onto salvation with the skin of my teeth…. I saw him outside the gate of his house… I felt impressed to pull over, get out of the car and pray for him…. I didn’t…. that was the last time I ever saw him….. I attended his funeral 2 weeks later

I had a message for him…. I didn’t share it…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. pray you don’t make my mistake

Naturally I am so ordinary

….my head has never stuck up above the crowd, I’ve never had 5 mins of genuine fame, I do my thing and world keeps moving on, I take one step forward and life gets tough and then I seem to step backwards, there are ebbs and flows that I seemingly have no control over…. I am so ordinary, naturally speaking.

We are saved by grace but we are judged by works – the size of our reward depends on our works. The thing is we don’t receive a reward for doing good stuff. If we are employed to do sales and end up doing accounts and do a great job of them we’ll still get hauled into the bosses office and get a reprimand. We get judged on what we are called to do…. so we better find out what the heck we are called to do.

“I’m so ordinary I don’t know what I’m called to do.” This is a lie and one of the  reasons for this is we have been lazy and have allowed ourselves to be hijacked by a Sunday mentality. We see the glamour of the Sunday service and we look at the preacher and we recognise they are called of God to do what they do… and I’m not as good as these people… I don’t have the time…. I’m a Christian first and foremost but somehow I got left out of the “calling thing” – was I in the bathroom when when they all got handed out. Seemingly I am so ordinary….

Naturally we are so ordinary, even the ones we judge by surface appearances to be great are ordinary. I once had the opportunity to meet Sir Edmond Hillary and I said it was an honour to meet a living legend… his response… I don’t feel special…. I feel very ordinary….. in my mind he was far from that….. he was very humble which made him even more intriguing.

From the highest to the lowest in our natural order we all have opportunity to be supernaturally extraordinary. Empowered by the Holy Spirit from spending time with the King we take on a different look in the spirit realm – we are not ordinary in God eyes. If we live up to the calling God has given us we will be greatly rewarded. If we walk righteously before our king, keeping ourselves pure and leaning on Him in our times of need, repenting of sin and we work with all the power God has given us on the things he has called us to do we will be far from ordinary in the eyes of our King. 

We may look ordinary but supernaturally we are so extraordinary.

….doing what is right….

….it is too easy for a typical “westerner” to what we feel like. Sure there are tings we have to do but now more than any time in history we can seek pleasure… and there are so many pleasures readily available…. we can do what we feel like…. yet this is a snare waiting o trap us and unless we free ourselves from this snare or get some help it will be eventually our ruin.

We more then ever have to do what is right and not what we feel like…. and unless we learn to do this we will always be ineffective and unfit to join the front line ranks of the army that will fight in the final great battle of our time. As individuals and churches we have to forsake ourselves and what we want and pursue God and what he wants.

We will never be a great light that shines in the darkness if we do what feels good – we’ll spend our time in front of tv or the internet, we’ll never fast, get out of bed early to pray, we’ll do our best to fill our lives with what we want and God will be a quick prayer and a pin on our chest. I am describing my personal experience and the observations of this around me – as a Western culture we love to pleasure ourselves and we become soft and weak and have no strength to fight the sin that is crouching at our door that wants to ensnare us. Because we love to pleasure ourselves and we don’t do want is right consistently I see many Christians getting dragged away by lust, pornography, alcohol, boredom, pride, anger, shame, unforgiveness.

The only way we can do what is right consistently, both in the good times and the bad, is to spend time with his consistently. Our souls have the strength to do what is right but its strength will fail at sometime – it is when our souls have been strenghtened and guided by our spirit we become a supernatural warrior that sends the enemy into a panic.

Living like there’s no tomorrow….

…. for the last several months I’ve been doing my own study, prophecies, end times, daniel, revelations and I am convinced more than ever that we are living in the end times. Since I became a Christian some 15 years ago I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a sunday morning message on end-times, rapture, the judgement seat of Christ etc etc. That’s just the church I go to….. and they may have good reason for doing so.

My study into this area kicked off about a year ago and I have to say it reinvigorated my Christian walk. I started to get a fear of God….. not just a “reverence” but genuine fear that I would stand before a Holy God and my eternal position in either heaven or hell would be determined at that meeting. It feels like the headmasters office but worse….. I have friends who tell me I should feel like that – God is love. I don’t think they get it – he is also judge. I had a vision of Jesus when I was a new Christian – I was terrified, I was so terrified I couldn’t move…. I was totally at His mercy…

The fear of God will keep us from sin. We also need to know God’s love but I see a lack of fear in His kids and because of this many might find themselves swept away or found wanting before the judgement seat. Just because we know and believe in Jesus is not a get into heaven free card. If we love the world more than Him, if we hold onto unforgiveness, if we hold onto sin… we stand in a very precarious position and many “christians” may not find themselves walking through the gates of heaven……… it’s not a popular view, something I never hear preached in my church but we read it over and over and over again in the new testament…. liars will not enter the kingdom of heaven, the sexually immoral will not enter the kingdom of heaven… and on and on it goes. I have concluded that these are not idle words… it is the truth…. what has changed my behaviour more than anything is the fear of God…. it will rattle our cages and produce a more holy life. To my shame I say it wasn’t the love of God that caused me the follow Christ closer…. but the fear of God.

The start of wisdom is the fear of God…. we need it, I need it as a foundation stone….. and of course the fulfillment of wisdom….. Love – it is the greatest

Be still and know that I am God

Very few of us slow down for long enough to be still… ours minds shift this way and that, worrying about this thing, family, work etc etc. God wants us to know Him. He wants us to know what he’s like what he’s thinking, what he wants to say to us and because of the busi-ness of life many of us don’t.

…but when we do the blessing that follows is awesome. Our spirit yields to the peace and serenity of His presence and maybe nothing “happens”, there is no thunder bolt – bu the blessing of His unseen presence goes with us into that day and we more equipped to live in truth, avoid sin, overcome temptation. Without really knowing it we have run to His presence and shelter under His wings. We have been in the presence of the King….. that itself is an honour and something not to be taken for granted and right now…. that’s where he wants all his children to come.

Without these times we cannot soar with the eagles on the winds of the spirit, we cannot run in the power of His might…we either end up running ahead in our own strength and getting weary or fear binds us and we never leave the nest.

Be still….. surrender…… and cosy up…… there are untold blessings in store for you….

What an opportunity????

I was reading Ezekiel this morning where he describes the seraphim and the son man come down out of heaven in awesome glory and this is the thought that crossed my mind. In heaven Jesus will be our king – the Bible tells us we will be continually and eternally be in awe of His presence – we will be captivated by it, we will want to be as close we can to the Him. However in heaven there is only 1 Jesus - I don’t think we will all be able to invite Him around to dinner and have Him sit at our table in heaven at the same time. The more honoured and esteemed among us will be invited to his table to eat and spend time with our King but for the majority who slip into heaven as a man escaping from the fire (people who are more concerned about their earthly lives than they are of their king) will not enjoy this privilege. They will be able to adore and praise Him from a distance and will mingle with the crowd to somehow reach out and perhaps touch him and perhaps exchange eye contact as he walks amongst His people.

But we right now have the privilege of being able to invite Jesus to dinner every night, we have the honour and being able to spend all day with him. He will be as near to us as we want Him to be right now. This life is a window of opportunity that we may never get in heaven – and I am sure everyone of us will look back at this life and wish we have done it different, not realising the opportunities that we have missed as we lived for ourselves – and perhaps the degree to which we forsake ourselves and spend time with Him now will be a direct reflection of  how much time/access we have to the King in heaven .

In this world of darkness we have the opportunity to call upon His name and now he is listening searching reaching out desiring for us to be close to Him – he longs to protect us, comfort us as a hen comforts her chickens – he won’t deny any request that is “Good” – he will stretch out his arm and sweep our enemies aside and if we are willing He will come and eat with us every night…. he wants to guide us through this life on into glory where we can receive a great reward.

Our greatest reward could be right here in front of us every day – spending time with the King – an opportunity that has a very small window of oportunity… in fact so small it is called a….  vapour…..  and then it is gone…..

Not just our problem….

This is my observation from going to church for the last 16 or so years. The problems I had, even though I didn’t know it was a problem at that time, were not unique to me (not always but often). At the time i thought I was isolated… but as I look back, it wasn’t just me who had the problem many people faced the same challenge at the same time.  As long as there are people there are always problems but it took me a while to notice this pattern…. in hindsight it is so clear at the time I was blinded to it.

As individuals we are united with our church families, as church families we are united with churches across the nation and national bodies are united with the gobal body of Christ and then betond that we are united with the eternal body of Christ. This thought/revelation for me comes back to indivuals and the church but applies to the other levels for sure.

This was the most obvious example – there was a time I was really struggling with lust – there was months and months of it – everywhere I looked I was falling into sin… I thought I was going crazy…. soon after this period of time, I felt things geting better… I’m certainly not immune from lust but the intensity and weigh of it had changed… it was then revealed 2 prominent leaders in the church had made bad decisions in terms of keeping themselves sexually pure and both had to step down over separate problems. Then I noticed it happening with pride, materialism, jealously, envy – it wasn’t just me… it was happening to lots of people….

This is part one of my thought – as individuals we march with our local church body on a spiritual battlefield. The attack that is thrust at us is not just my battle but a battle that the whole local church body has. And this is my thought – we don’t have to be the church leader to take the battle to the enemy. In fact a few indivuals within the church can repel a whole attack (1 can put a thousand to flight 2 10 thousand) and no one will be any the wiser at the time….. except God, and it will surely be revealed at the time of judgement – which doesn’t have to be all bad. It will be for some but for others it will be great joy – some escape like those through fire when they discover their live are but stubble and others will receive rich rewards.

We have the opportunity to pave the way throught paryer, persistence, making hard decisions, doing difficult stuff alone and we can make a path for others to follow……. our problems our just not ours…. our victories are not just ours….

The rewards will be great for those who perverve in the hard times…