It has not been one week yet and I can already see the hand of God moving with this site. As you can see, several people have visited the site and a few have commented. I find it amazing how the Holy Spirit moves in us and speaks. God uses all of us to minister. This will be the beauty of this site. I so much enjoyed what was said by others. God knows how to confirm His truth to us by moving in us to speak. In this day and time, we truly need to hold on to each other worshiping our great God together. God has provided us a way to do that without being physically close. It's our hearts that bring us together and that is directly where our Father deals with us. Praise His name.
This week, as I was searching, the Holy Spirit led me to some scripture that stuck out. I encourage you to turn in your bibles to the 24th chapter of Matthew and look at several verses. Jesus was talking to His disciples and was talking about a particular time that was coming. The information was interesting to say the least. As the disciples listened, their curiosity began to move and questions started to arise in their thoughts. Jesus was talking to them about His return and the events that were going to take place. They had two questions that they asked. We can find both of these starting in verse 3. "And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?
As we continue to read, Jesus answered them starting in verse 4 by saying, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many, And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (this reference is not to the salvation of the soul of the believer who endures persecution, but to his deliverance by the Lord's return ) And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come”.
I have heard many thoughts on this subject. We will want to lean on the Holy Spirit to give us discernment on what the truth is. I want to express what I think the Holy Spirit is saying to me. First of all, we don't want to get these events tangled up. Each one of these is real and will happen at different times. The first event that will take place will be the rapture of the church. God has determined that the church will not go through the tribulation. He speaks very clear of this in I Thessalonians, chapter 4 verses 13- 18. Listen in particular to verses 15-18, "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words ". This will be the reunion of all believers. This event will be the prelude to the beginning of the tribulation. We have talked about this event for many years. God has told us to do this so we could be comforted in those days. He has also spread that news so that when it took place there would be a huge revival of non believers who will be conformed instantly. In fact, the bible states that this will be the biggest revival ever in time. This is not the second coming of Christ. This will happen at the end of the tribulation.
The tribulation is the next event to take place. The understanding here is that this event will last for a seven year period. In fact, the first three years will operate in peace. An individual will step forward and lead the world in reaching peace. This person is not the anti-christ. Satan is the anti-christ. He will take over this person to rule the world. The scripture is very clear about his capabilities. He will brilliant and well received. In fact, it talks about him overcoming a fatal blow and performing great miracles. In verse 24 of Matthew, chapter 24, we read, "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect". That's us folks. This anti-christ will be convincing. I used to wonder how on earth this could happen. As time has progressed and we have seen the things of today, it has become much easier to see how it could happen. Think about this with me for a minute, in a twinkling of an eye there will be untold numbers of people who will be lifted off this earth along with graves that will open up where those that were dead are gone. Just a hole. Not all of them, but a lot. ( the rapture ) And yet this anti- christ will be so believable that he can come up with some explanation of how this happens. Go back to the original scriptures we started with in Matthew 24." you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, for nation shall rise against nation, these are the beginning of sorrows." And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold." Do these words ring a bell with us. Everywhere we look we see these things. It's very hard to function today. Not just this country, but all around the world, we are spiraling out of control. We seem to be grasping at straws. Can anybody come up with the answer for us and even if they could, could we stop fighting with each other long enough to come together. Our political system today is a perfect picture of what we are reading in the scripture. So, I can see how if one could come to the front with a solid answer with results, how the world could fall for it. Fear will cause us to do and accept anything. The Lord has told us "believe it not ". We have not seen the tribulation that the scripture speaks of in Matthew 24, verses 21 - 24, thank the Lord. But it is coming. As the phrase goes, we haven't seen anything yet.
We can then read about the return of our King to the earth at the close of this tribulation in Matthew 24 verses 29 - 31. This would be considered the end as we speak of it here on this earth.
I want to take us back to Matthew 24, verse 14 for just a minute. Jesus says, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Every person that God has created will hear the TRUTH. Every person will have the opportunity to receive this special gift that our Father gave us in JESUS. For you see," For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light.
The only thing stopping our Jesus from taking the church out of this world right now is that there is still someone who has not heard. Let us be used by the Holy Spirit to tell the "Good News". God loves us and all he wants for us, is to know Him. It doesn't matter about anything that's going on in our life. It doesn't matter what kind of condition that we are in. It doesn't matter how bad we think we are. God is bigger than it all. His love is greater than anything else. He stands waiting with open arms for us to just call on Him. He will give us all that we need. He wants us to spend eternity with Him.
Anyone who might be reading this, I want to ask you, do you know Jesus? Has there been a void or knocking inside your heart that you have been missing something? Well that void is the call of God reaching out to you to receive Jesus. Just remember His words. He does not condemn you. He loves you. You can receive Him right now by simply praying a simple prayer. Just tell God that you can hear Him and that you know you are lost without Jesus. And then just simply ask Jesus to come into your heart. If you pray that prayer you can have the assurance that you will be saved. Praise the Lord for his perfect work. For those of us who already know Him but have been captured by this fast moving world we live in. Here is some good news for us. It can stop right now by simply turning it all over to Him and let it go. God will put us back in perfect standing with him immediately. Why? Because He is perfect and loves us unconditionally. It's not about who we are, it's totally about who he is. He is waiting. May every decision that the Holy Spirit is leading us to make be made right now. We will claim it in the name of Jesus knowing that He is bigger than the enemy.
Well, until next time may God take every step with us and make His presence known every waking minute of our lives.
In Jesus name,
Stan
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