THE HOLY SPIRIT IN CRITICAL TIMES

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN CRITICAL TIMES

                In my last article, “THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE COVENANT OF BLOOD” I was seeking the Lord for a new context in which to write about the Holy Spirit. After all, there are hundreds if not thousands of books and articles about the Holy Spirit.  Eileen had asked me to write an article on the Holy Spirit and so I immediately began to pray for wisdom to write something that would specifically fit our needs in these critical hours of earth’s history.

                As I was praying, the Lord began to form a picture in my mind of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives against a backdrop of what it is that we are being delivered from, what we are being saved from. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is treated like a party favor or an optional app. We often forget the enormity of man’s fall that ripped the universe in two, bringing in entropy and death. In one careless choice we traded away the kingdom of God that we lived in and the Spirit of God that lived in us for the kingdom of Satan and the spirit of Satan that took God’s place.

                This rip in the fabric of the universe and in the hearts of mankind to whom dominion had been given was infinite in scope, for indeed it is not only men and women, but the whole creation that must be reconciled to God and restored. Nothing less than an infinite God could bring about our salvation and the restoration of all things.

                We live in the most critical of prophetic times and yet much of the church has abandoned the study of Bible prophecy and has in many cases traded in serious Bible study for quippy sound bites and self- help sermons. We need to preach a salvation that includes the blood of Jesus and the deep inner working of the Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Christ. We desperately need to enter into full repentance, for indeed we have belonged to the kingdom of Satan. We have been traitors to the Kingdom of God and nothing less that repentance and confession and the embracing of our Lord Jesus Christ for salvation will do. And the key to this salvation is to receive His very Holy Spirit into our own dead spirit, to be quickened and made alive in Christ even as we die to Satan’s kingdom.

                But the church has largely failed in its task of preaching the full Gospel of the Kingdom. Today over half of all young Christians believe that there are many roads to heaven and many ways to be saved. They have bought the globalist lie that under the surface we all worship the same God, regardless of what religion we belong to. This is at the heart of Ecumenism. This lie is taking the world by storm and whole denominations are going to Rome to kiss the hand of the Pope and to be welcomed into his coming global religion of the Beast. Ecumenism is finding unity by abandoning the fundamentals of the Gospel.

                We are entering into the time of judgment and harvest. We usually tend to think of the harvest as a great time and it is, but we must also remember that the harvest separates the wheat from the chaff. There is a great shaking coming and everyone that is not fully anchored in Christ will be swept away by the delusions and the programs of Satan.

                If you ask Christians if they will take the Mark of the Beast, most will say “No… absolutely not.” And yet they are headed willingly in that direction step by step as they embrace the attitudes and teachings of the antichrist. They can no longer discern the real Gospel from the gospel that is being sold by Satan as a more universal and convenient way to God through global unity.

                Even as people embrace the lies of Satan, fundamental Bible based Christianity and repentance and death to this world and a life fully swallowed up in Christ through His Holy Spirit becomes overbearing to them. They begin to despise the very words “Born again.” In fact there is a major division forming between fundamental Christianity and ecumenical type Christianity as part of the people embrace a globalist ecumenical view while another part of the people cling to the full Gospel of the Kingdom as their only hope. And indeed it is.

                There is a great shaking coming in which everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that what remains will be of God and not of man. Hebrews 12:25-29.

                Harvest implies judgment. You cannot harvest wheat without separating it from the tares, or grain from its husks.

                “Therefore since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.” Heb. 12:28, 29.

                The entire purpose of the tribulation is to separate the sheep from the goats so to speak. If that separation includes an early rapture of those who are wise, who have oil in their lamps and are as a Bride adorned for her husband then so be it. But that readiness requires the full operation of the covenant of blood and the Word and the Holy Spirit in preparation. A Bride is not casual about her marriage. She is prepared to give everything to her husband even taking his name instead of her own. She will no longer live for herself, but for Him. She is no longer dating the world. She is betrothed to the One and she has eyes for only that One. She hangs on every word of every letter He sends her, holding tightly to her breast His very presence upon His words. His promises of His soon return are all she thinks about. She will not be too busy to spend her best time with Him.

                In its simplest terms, Salvation is an intimate love relationship with Jesus through His Word and through His indwelling Holy Spirit and this love is transforming us into His likeness. But we can’t have it both ways, for Jesus says:

                 “Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away and also its lusts; but one who does the will of God abides forever. Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.”  

                In every current prophet and teacher of Bible prophecy, I have seen a change in recent months. Whereas they used to engage in theories of last day events, they are now staring wide eyed at their audience and saying, “We are engaging. We have entered the last of the last days. The antichrist is about to rise. The Two Witnesses are about to appear. The temple is about to be built in Israel. The final battles are forming. All of creation is in upheaval. The global government of the antichrist is forming rapidly… faster than we can keep up with it. Even now the covenant with many mentioned in Daniel 9:27 is being put together to be confirmed by the antichrist that will usher in the final 7 years.

                People who are putting their faith in the coming global government are about to say “Peace and Safety” but those who know their Bibles are preparing their hearts for what comes next… sudden destruction.

                What is going on in the world spiritually is being done in Israel physically. As Satan builds his temple as a “house of prayer for all nations, Jesus is building His temple in the hearts of men. And as the antichrist is preparing to take his place as the god of this world, so Jesus is gathering His sheep into His fold to return with them as King of kings and Lord of lords. And even as Satan prepares to take the place of Jesus in the city of Jerusalem, the city of the Great King, Jesus is preparing to arrive with His saints to destroy Satan’s kingdom and to ride into Jerusalem as the true Messiah and Savior of the world.

                Even now, as in days of old, Israel serves as a physical template for all that Jesus has done spiritually in His first coming and will soon do in His second coming.

                If we deny the foundational truths of the Old Covenant, then we will most assuredly take the New Covenant out of context. The New must stand upon the foundation of the Old for Jesus Himself…”Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:27

                “On the last day, the great day of the feast (the 8^th day of Tabernacles) Jesus stood and cried out saying: “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believers in Me, as the Scripture said, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who would believe in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

                It was on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit descended upon the people breathing life into the New Covenant and into the people that received it by faith. John had baptized them with water, but Jesus came to baptize them with the Holy Spirit and with fire. It is with this Holy Spirit and fire that we must bring in the final harvest of the Lord. Therefore let us pray like never before for the promise of the Holy Spirit in the double portion that will attend the harvest.

                Are you betrothed to the One you love? Do you have eyes only for Him?