APPREHENSION

APPREHENSION

                Do you ever get the feeling that something major is about to happen? Does it ever seem to you that we are living on borrowed time, like an era has come and gone and we are now entering into a new and epic era for which there are no precedents?

                Many preachers, if they talk about prophetic times at all, are now speaking in glowing terms of a great harvest. God is going to pour out His Spirit as He did on the first day of Pentecost only this time the early rain and the latter rain will both come together.

                We all know Joel’s familiar promises: “

                “And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see vision. And even upon the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. Joel 2:28, 29.

                It has been a number of years back now that I was reading this same text as quoted by Peter in Acts 2 when the Lord brought a strong conviction upon me… a revelation that we must read all that is involved in this glorious time, because unlike the first Pentecost, this final Pentecost was going to come amidst blood and fire and columns of smoke.

                Speaking of our day Joel goes on to say in chapter 3:

                “For behold, IN THOSE DAYS and AT THAT TIME, WHEN I RESTORE THE FORTUNES OF JUDAH AND JERUSALEM I will gather the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land.” Joel 3:1-2.

                Israel is very much a center of last day events. The last days come at a time when Israel is back in its land. They have come back from all of the nations, wherein they have been scattered, but something horrible happens. Israel and Jerusalem will be forcibly divided.

                Zechariah speaks of this same time saying: “Behold, a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. For I will gather ALL THE NATIONS against Jerusalem to battle and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.” Zech. 14:1-2.

                 And just in case we think that this is referring to some ancient time in the past, read on:              “Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west…” and the clincher is in verse five when it says, “Then the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with Him!

                So we are talking about the last days here and it seems to me that the trigger point for all hell breaking loose is when Jerusalem is forcibly divided and so we look at the situation in the world today and we see that in spite of everything to the contrary, Israel is about to be divided.

                 Zechariah 12: 9, 10 says: “And it will come about in that day that I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”

                So you say, “Fine,  but what makes you think this is talking about our day? Well verse ten says:

                “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication so that THEY WILL LOOK UPON ME WHOM THEY HAVE PIERCED AND THEY WILL MOURN FOR HIM, AS ON MOURNS FOR AN ONLY SON…”

                This event has not yet happened, but we are closing in on it rapidly. And concerning verse 9 where God says He will destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, the prophet Sadhu Selvarage had a visit from an angel several years ago. The angel took a mighty sword and plunged it into a map of the heart of America and said, “This is what I will do to America when she divides my land.”

                Well, God is going to destroy all of the nations that participate in dividing Israel, so why America in particular? It is because we are a sister nation with Israel. God assigned us to protect her. And whether we know it or not, the United States and Canada are made up largely of Israelites, brethren of the Jews and there would probably not be so much ant-Semitism if we understood our relationship to them.

                But we are going to betray our sister and when we do, I believe that this will be the trigger point for the final conflagration and you had better hope in that day that you are among those that have blessed Israel and not among those that have cursed her. We are closely tied to the peace of Jerusalem and we don’t know it because we don’t know who we are. We don’t understand the issues because we no longer study Bible prophecy and we have separated from the foundations upon which our faith is built.

                We think that we have replaced Israel when in fact we were grafted into Israel through Jesus Christ. We are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise… but we don’t know it and so we wrongly apply all end time prophecies and we fail to understand the issues. As grafted in people, we are much more closely related to the Land of Israel and her people than many Christians understand.

                Today the false prophets speak in glowing terms of a grand harvest followed by a catching away of the Bride into the sky before the time of Jacob’s trouble begins. But how is it that God will reward those parts of the church that hate the Jews and wish them divided. Why would He catch them away to heaven  and reward them for dividing and plundering His chosen people?

                The time of Jacob’s Trouble is upon us and according to Zechariah and Joel and Daniel and Revelation and the whole Bible, the entire world is going to be embroiled in earth’s final events. Whatever it is; Jacob’s trouble becomes our trouble too, because we have treated them poorly and divided up their land and Jesus is going to divide the nations and judge them according to how they treated His brethren. (See Mt. 25:31-40)

                The prophet Jeremiah was one called to sound a warning to Judah of coming disaster and captivity. This was not an easy task because the land was filled with false prophets saying that everything was going to be okay. They recommended revolting against the constraints of Babylon. But when they did so, disaster came, the temple was ransacked and her treasures taken to Babylon along with her choice princes and people. Many who were not taken to Babylon were killed.

                Through Jeremiah, God had warned Judah that they had drifted from God. They were worshipping idols and they had failed to set aside the land Sabbaths for seventy Sh’mitahs and so God took them into captivity to Babylon in order to enforce a rest of the land.

                We fail to understand God’s relationship with both the land of Israel and the people of Israel. We ignore the eternal and irrevocable covenants that God has made with them. (Romans 11:29) and so we don’t understand how Israel is the central timepiece for all end time events and the trigger point for God’s wrath.

                I believe that the recent Revelation 12 sign that appeared in the sky for the only time in earth’s history on September 23, 2017 is a signal to us that these events are about to happen. The woman (Israel) will soon have to flee into the wilderness for 1260 days and the Remnant of her seed, the faithful church will be pursued by the dragon Satan who knows he has but a short time left. This remnant is identified as those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

                If you are watching and praying and studying God’s prophetic warnings and time tables, you will recognize that the time is approaching rapidly. Everything in the world is shaping up for the great final conflict and if there is to be a rapture of God’s faithful before the tribulation or before the wrath of God is poured out, it will not happen for those who hate God’s chosen people and it will not happen for those who at present are falling away from the faith.

                A humble preacher by the name of Benjamin Faircloth has had a revelation from the Lord that the year 2018 will be the year of the great falling away. He describes this falling away within the context of the false grace that is being peddled these days, but it is more than that. It is a specific departure from the faith… an apostasy from belief in Jesus as the Son of God and the Bible as God’s Word. They will deny every fundamental teaching of God’s Word in order to join with the global religion of the antichrist.

                We need to prepare our hearts like never before. We need to know what we believe and stand upon it with unshakeable conviction. Beginning this year, true Christianity is going to be hated like never before. Persecution is coming to the church and especially against born again, bible believing, Spirit filled Christians. Obviously, the dragon (Satan) is coming to get those who are obedient to God and who faithfully bear the testimony of Jesus, which is the Holy Spirit of Prophecy.

                Notice if you will that the church’s abandonment of prophecy is tied to the great falling away. You can hardly find a church today that will even talk about it. But it is prophecy that keeps a church from falling asleep. So we are reaching a boiling point right now and most of the church is still asleep and unaware of where we are in time. For them the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night… as an overwhelming surprise and they will be caught without oil in their lamps.

                So yes, for those of us who study Bible prophecy there is a strong sense of apprehension… not fear… but an understanding that all of Bible prophecy is now racing toward fulfillment as the last pieces of the puzzle are fit into place.

                It is time to seek the Lord with our whole hearts. It is time to dwell in the secret place of the Most High. It is time to fill our lamps with oil daily and to watch and pray, for the Bridegroom is on His way and His Bride is making herself ready.

                Will there be a pre or a mid trib rapture? I don’t know. I do believe that there are those who will be accounted worthy to escape all of these things. (Luke 21:36) and I do believe there are those who will be delivered from the wrath to come. (1 Thess. 1:10) But it will be granted to those who are people of faith like Enoch or Elijah and not to those who are falling away from the faith, nor will it be for those complacent Christians that are still participating in the sins of the world.

                Now is the time to come out of Babylon, lock, stock and barrel… to walk in the Word and in the Spirit… to put away sin by God’s abundant grace and to live life in the Spirit and not in the flesh.

                Apprehension means anxiety, uneasiness, worry, trepidation, nervousness, fear, hesitation, dread, fearfulness, angst, misgiving, alarm, disquiet, foreboding and concern. And today’s church would quickly jump in to tell us that Christians don’t need to be any of those things, but God may not agree with them, for Joel 2:1 says:

                “Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near.”

                And Revelation 13:7-10 says:

“And it was given to him (The antichrist) to make war with the saints and to overcome them; and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, every one whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain              . If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if any one kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.

                No matter when Jesus comes for His own; this one thing we must know. We need to be filled with abundant oil. We must be living by the Spirit and not by the flesh. We must be completely out of Babylon. (The world system) and we must have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord.

                For us then, apprehension has been turned into anticipation. Selah.