This world is on a collision course with the time of Jacob's trouble, also known as the Tribulation. The collision comes when the days before the flood (eating, drinking, planting, building, marrying and giving in marriage:Noah, Lot) collide head on with famine, disease, war and death.
We are living in pre-flood days. We are living in days where restraint prevails. The restrainer has not been removed yet. Here is where this writer finds a dilemma. My eyes and ears and mind tell me that I need to stock up on guns, ammo and food. Yet, I cannot overcome the Spirit's insistence within me that they won't be needed. So I struggle. Am I defying the Lord's voice within me if I buy some small things to be ready for small scale emergencies before the escape?
The witness within me says it is okay. Let me be clear, I am not trying to advise any of you. This writer is sharing the internal dilemma and dialogue he has with the Lord in the times we live in. I have started down the road of buying some serious survival supplies many times, and each time, in a different way each time, the Lord has put it on hold. The position this writer finds himself in defies everything we see around us. Since I have not made any serious investment into survival gear, and I have asked the Lord about it many times, I am laying this issue down at the feet of the Lord. He is going to have to drop manna from heaven and post angels at my front door for protection if the world turns upside down on me while I am still "in the flesh."
In the end, the Lord does all these things for us anyway, so really, what is this dilemma I am writing about? I can watch all I want (and I am commanded to) yet if the Lord isn't on the wall with me to watch, then all my watching is in vain:
Psalm 127:1 ... Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.
The floods, the snows, the winds, this world are facing biblical type events now daily....Those are not my words, I am hearing the description "biblical" from the propaganda press, so whatever is happening must be impressive. If I had to bet on it, I would be that we will see a massive, "biblical" sized earthquake sometime this year, probably here in the U.S.
I asked the Lord today, "Lord, what should I do?" and I heard (in my mind) an instant response: "do the small things."
Doing something, like praying for 3-5 minutes when you feel like you have no time instead of not praying at all, is light years better than doing nothing. This theme of doing all the small things on a daily basis that we know we should be doing has been on my mind over for weeks. What are the "talents" (Matt 25) that the Lord has given us to develop? Do something small daily to grow those talents. Watch, pray, use your talents, do the small things that matter. Focus on the essential few, and forget the trivial many. This is what the Lord has on my mind today.
Over the pasts days, the Lord gave me this mental picture of the pre-flood days (looking like a locomotive on a train track) going full speed toward another locomotive on the same track. That other locomotive was the tribulation/time of Jacob's trouble. As these two events race toward each other, in the seconds before they collide, there will be a huge unexpected (by most) event, called the escape from all (Luke 21:36), also known as the harpazo (1 Thess 4:17), also known as the rapture.
We are to be watching for this day. It is an unknown day as opposed to the day of Jesus' second coming which we can count down from the time of the abomination that causes desolation. The rapture/escape is where Jesus comes like a thief, the second coming is when He comes as a conquering King visible like lightening in the sky which is visible to all.
We are to be watching, expecting the return of our Lord when He comes 'like a thief' to take us away. The collision course that appears before us on the world stage today may just be an illusion. Perhaps the time of Jacob's trouble is further away than we think, I don't know. From my vantage point, it appears that the collision will happen soon. Regardless of when our Lord comes for us, let us be found doing what He has commanded us to do. Let us be found as a spotless bride, ready to be taken away to our mansions in heaven (John 14:2).
That is all for today, grace and peace
Be Anxious For Nothing
6 years ago
