Prophecy is a strange thing, a mystery that is too deep for me to understand, even as I walk with the LORD in these dark times. A thing always mean a thing, but it can also mean many things. It never means nothing. Almost nothing ever means nothing.
During my second wave of ‘discipline’ there was a day when a phrase emerged. It reverbated through multiple spaces landing finally on a chapter in the AA Big Book as I sat down to particpate in an evening meeting. I had seen the phrase, and even found myself going to this couseling center earlier in the day:
https://www.windowsofopportunitycounseling.org/
I set up an appointment, but ultimatley was not happy with the cost. That was probably around 2 or 3 pm that. Later on that night, as I sat in the Newark Fellowship meeting hall, we opened our books to being our study and our chapter for the evening was:
https://aa-edinburgh.org.uk/pdf/bigbook/they_stopped_in_time_17.pdf
Now, to be clear, these things can always be easy to read too deeply into. And so, it is with time and over the years that I have had to reflect on what this moment actually meant. Additionally, some times the enemy can send an attack upon you, and the LORD will use that attack for his purposes. For as the Word says in the story of Joseph, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
And so, even when the enemy intends for a thing, I look to the LORD to see what direction he would give in these moments. Again, want to emphasize that I am hard-headed, stubborn and foolish. So, none of these came perhaps as easily as it could. But I would like to point to this moment, for all of those out there who, for whatever reason haven’t taken a position on th Gospel, to STRONGLY consider taking a position on the Gospel.
This is a window of opportunity. A window that is only going to come once, and is going to last for all of eternity. Not a single word that I just said is in any way, shape or form an exaggeration. That is the reality you face.
Our society, discusses the question of GOD’s existence incorrectly. There is good possiblity that this is neither accidental or coincidental. There are forces in our society and in our world, the Bible tells us, that have great incentive in “blinding the mind of unbelivers.” And there is a great deal of emphasis on the “deception of the end times,” a decision which has been for a great deal of time, and is even now as Hollywood churns out blashpemy after blasphemy. Again, don’t get me wrong, I’m not above the fray. I’ve been dancing along to Babylon’s tune pretty much all the way to this point, DESPITE the LORD’s urgingings. I’m in no position to judge. But I am in a position to give testimony and to witness.
The question of GOD’s existence is not a matter of preference, of what’s popular or convienient. It is an objective question that is of the greatest urgency to all of humanity. If and when it is determined that GOD exists, a thing which he has made manifest through his works since the beginning of time and even before, it must then be determined if any of the manuscripts which claim to point to GOD, in fact do so. Because at least some of those god’s have a timeline for existence. They have a claim for when certain things will start and when certain things will end. And if any of these god’s exist, even one, and has the power that they claim to have, then we, as humanity, MUST know that. Otherwise we are deer in headlights.
Well, I would like to tell you all that one of the those God’s, is in fact, real. And it is the GOD of the Bible. The LORD did create the world in seven days with the power of his WORD, and that WORD did come to us in the flesh, die on the cross and rise the third day. All of those things 100 percent happened exactly as they were written about. Additionally, the rest of the story, which includes the Rise of the Antichrist, the 7 trumpets, 7 bowls and 7 woes, the Two Witnesses, the Rapture, the Return of Christ, The Battle of Armageddon, the Millineal Reign, the Short Season and the New Heaven and the New Earth, all have to take place. If the previous events took place, the following events have to take place.
I know that a lot of people will tell you, “people have been saying Christ is going to return for 2000 years, what makes this moment different?”
Everything. Everything makes this moment different.
I don’t want to use this space to argue about what makes this time signifcant. There are other spaces on the website that cover that. What I want to say to you is much more simple.
REPENT and believe the Gospel. Today. Right now. Whenever you read this. Whenever you come across this page. If, while you’re reading this, something feels familiar, you hear a small still voice in the back of your mind, or a stirring in your heart, if 1 million things just clicked for you all of a sudden, or for some reason you feel compelled to take a closet look at the life and the work and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the King is WAS, and IS and IS to COME, LISTEN to that feeling. Listely closely. I do not want to appeal to emotion. To a degree, I don’t even want to appeal to intellect. And I realize how that sounds, or how it reads, or how it looks. And I also know that the Bible does not reject sound reasoning. In fact, in encourages it quite a few places. For example:
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asketh you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” 1 Peter 3:15
Proverbs 18:15: "An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge."
I could go on, no problem. There are plenty of verses that allude to all that. However, I don’t think that’s the approach that I want to take here. For three reasons.
1) It was not my experience that the primary driver for my relationship to the LORD has been my emotions or intellect. Rather, it has been his SPIRIT leading the way from start to finish.
2) Emotions and Intellect are both primary spaces subject to temptation, distraction and domination. To illustrate briefly:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”-(Jeremiah 17:9)
“Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth.” 1 Corinthians 8:1
Again, brief examples. But the third reason is probably the most important. And by probably, I mean that it is:
3) Because that’s not how the WORD says that we know him.
John 10:27-28
King James Version
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
“Paul [a]called to be an [b]Apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and our brother [c]Sosthenes,”
The Lord Calls Samuel
3 The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called Samuel.
Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”
7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
11 And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. 12 At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. 13 For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God,[a] and he failed to restrain them. 14 Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’”
15 Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, 16 but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.”
Samuel answered, “Here I am.”
17 “What was it he said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”
19 The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. 21 The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love:”-Ephesians 1:4
Again, I could go on. But the point is, if you think you here him, and if he’s pointing you towards, Christ, there has never been a better time to listen to that voice than right now.
This is your window of opportunity. I was stubborn. I didn’t listen when I could have. And while my salvation and purpose remain, there will be a cost to my disobedience. As there there should be.
Don’t be like me. See the window. See the door. Take it. Believe the Gospel and Live.
“…Making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”-Ephesians 5:16
“Truly, athese times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent…”-(Acts 17:30)
“because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.” 1 Corinthians 16:9
“Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.”(Revelation 3:3 BSB)
“9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”-(John 10:9-16.)