STEPPING OFF THE PIER

STEPPING OFF OF THE PIER

                Bonnie and I have been listening to a prophetic conference on YouTube. It is called the “Lancaster Prophetic Conference 2018” and the Prophets that spoke there are men whom I believe to be authentic and real. We have been following these conferences for about five years now.  Every year this conference is held at the Shekinah Worship Center in Lancaster California. The pastor there is Joe Sweet. He doesn’t operate at quite the prophetic level that the other two prophets operate in although he has had a couple of face to face encounters with Jesus.

                His prophetic calling is to call the church to purity and holiness and obedience and I want to tell you something. These prophets that have spoken around America over the years are narrowing their efforts down pretty much to a very few churches. This church, under the pastoring of Joe Sweet, has been receptive to the prophetic messages and they have been walking in obedience to what the Lord is saying. Therefore God has chosen them to bring some of His final messages to the world.

                That is not to say that other churches cannot become receptive, but most reject prophetic teaching and so these conferences are beamed freely all over the United States and all over the world from this one spot. Otherwise these prophets are spending their energies in third world countries where the Gospel has not been so freely given. (Just as a hint, these guys are not traveling around in personally owned jets and living lavish lifestyles and neither are they merchandizing the Gospel for the sake of gain.

                Another of the Prophets to speak at this conference is Bobby Conner. He is funny and has you laughing with some of his stories, but in all of his stories he is teaching us how to hear God’s voice and to obey it immediately. No matter how strange God’s command may be, He obeys and it results in divine encounters and people coming to Christ in the least expected places. His message is powerful as he reveals that all of us can hear God’s voice and obey it and that this is becoming increasingly essential if we are to make it through the days and years ahead. There is a price to pay for hearing God’s voice and that price is immediate obedience to God’s Word and Bobbie seems to know large portions of the Bible by heart because he quotes it extensively just off the top of his head.

                The third prophet at this conference is from India. I have spoken of him before. His name is Sadhu Sundar Selvarage. Sadhu has almost daily encounters with Jesus and or with angels who instruct him on what to preach and when to announce certain things to the people. He is regularly caught up into heaven before the divine council where Moses an Elijah and other prophets of the Old Testament (from among that number that rose with Christ at His resurrection) convene. These Old Testament men now sit on the divine council in heaven where they decide along with Jesus how best to carry out God’s prophetic plan for the last days. In their councils the fate of nations is decided including which leaders will rise and which will fall. Yes, God takes human men of faith and experience into His divine councils.

                The announcement made by Sadhu this year is that the specific end times spoken of in the Bible have now begun. The journey into and through all that is spoken of concerning the day of the Lord has commenced. This is not to say that we are in the tribulation yet, butrather in that period of time known as the beginning of sorrows, or birth pangs that involve the separation of wheat and tares. Those who are going to be faithful to God at all costs are being separated from those who will compromise and take the Mark of the Beast. 2 Thess.2:4

                We keep waiting for things to unfold the way our traditions have pictured it, and they will in principal, to a certain extent, but the choices that we are making right now are really deciding how we will react when the full pressure of the Tribulation is upon us. We are entering the time of the great shaking, the great falling away and the final birth pangs leading progressively into the tribulation. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but none of these men believe in a pre trib rapture as such. They all believed it at one time, but in their encounters with the Lord He has shown them that this doctrine is causing much of the church to not prepare for tough times ahead. And even though I have no desire to argue doctrine with people and even though I have wondered about these things myself, I must say this: The pre-trib rapture is built upon some shaky presumptions. Therefore we need to hope for the best, but we need to prepare for the worst. What I mean is that most of the church cannot hear God’s voice and most have not entered into the disciplines of obedience and separation from the world that we must now enter. Either way, we simply must detach from this world system and its sins.

                For this cause God is about to bring a strong delusion upon the world that will cause all but the very elect to fall away. Mt. 24:24 says: “ For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible even the very elect.”  We are about to see signs and wonders like the world has never seen before and it is going to fool all who do not have the ability to discern the spirits behind these things.

                The world is full of false prophets right now… tickling people’s ears, prophesying smooth sailing, denying the truth about many things, entertaining people and keeping them absolutely blind concerning God’s prophetic instructions found in the Bible. Most churches today avoid the subject of Bible prophecy like the plague and so they entertain themselves with parlor tricks and prophecies that basically amount to psychic powers and unknowing Christians go to church to have their fortunes read so to speak rather than to hear the genuine Word of God spoken.

                But the true message is that the  prophetic boat is departing from the pier and we must decide right now whether we are going to live in absolute obedience to God and His Word and His Holy Spirit, or if we are going to hold on to the security and peace and safety of the pier.

                Now, let’s move beyond the mega trends of the world and get down to our own personal level. There is a great deal being made about stress these days. Stress affects us mentally and even physically, for doctors find that stress is often times a factor in sickness and addiction whether to food or drugs or to alcohol. Stress is at the center of many maladies and we like to blame it on our frantic pace in a tortured world. But stress has a very spiritual component to it as well.

                James tells us in chapter 1:5-8: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts, is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, BEING DOUBLE MINDED, UNSTABLE IN ALL HIS WAYS.”

                If you want to know what it means to be double-minded you only need to picture a man who has one foot on the pier and one foot on the boat as the boat is pulling away. He is torn between the security of the pier that is firmly fastened to the world, and the boat that is pulling away into the unknown. He knows that the boat is going to go through some storms and in fact, when he tries to place his full weight on the boat it seems to sink a little. Faith doesn’t feel like a very solid thing to step onto at first.

                And so he tries to keep one foot on the pier and one on the boat, but the boat is pulling away and he is caught in the ever widening stretch between the two. THAT IS STRESS!

                Over the years, the church has tried so hard to make this stretch more comfortable. Either they avoid talking about the fact that the boat is leaving, or they try to provide a place of comfort and forgiveness and grace in which one doesn’t really have to decide whether to step fully onto the boat or stay on the dock. But the result is that much of Christianity is just as neurotic as the rest of the world and sometimes even more so. There is nothing more stressful than being stretched between two opinions.

                Many say that we don’t really have to make that drastic decision, because Jesus will come and zap us to the other shore without having to face any storms or make any tough decisions. They say in effect: “Just stay where it is stable and wait for Jesus to come.” But what if Jesus is on the boat? What if He is forming a Remnant people of faith and obedience that must separate from the world system? What if we really are being called to face the storms and overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony? What if it is true that we must not love our own lives even to the death if need be? What if Jesus is asking us to be faithful, as were the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, or Daniel in the Lion’s den, or the early Christians facing wild animals in the Circuses of Nero?

                What if we are called to put on the full armor of God and having done all to stand? What is the armor for if we are not being called to battle? What if Bible prophecy was written to US upon whom the ends of the age have come and not just to the Jews or some past generation? What if we are the Remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and who hold to the testimony of Jesus? Jews don’t have the testimony of Jesus. Are we not the remnant of the seed of Abraham who have become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise by faith in Yeshua? Are we not the Remnant of her seed?

                There is a very real and personal sense in which we, in the privacy of our own homes, must now determine before the Lord if we are going to stay on the pier, or step fully into the boat. We may not know what all this means or where it may take us. All we know for sure is that it means complete obedience to God and His Word. It means complete faith in Jesus Christ as the captain of the boat.

                Bear in mind that even if Jesus does zap us to the other shore, we must be in the boat when He does it as we can see from John 6:18-21.

                “And the sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When therefore they had rowed about three or four miles, they beheld Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” They were willing to receive Him into the boat; and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.”

                Are there any coincidences in God’s Word? Did Jesus just act randomly or did He do only what He saw the Father doing and say only what He heard the Father saying? Did Jesus’ life have any prophetic meaning or was He just going randomly through his life?

                The disciples were in the middle of a storm in the middle of the lake rowing for their lives when Jesus appeared. (It sounds like Revelation 13:7, 8 to me) Jesus had gone away and He didn’t appear to them until they were in the middle of the storm. Likewise Jesus has gone away to prepare a place for us and He will come again, but it may be in the middle of the storm that He will come to us… and when we are finally willing to let Him into our boat, He will deliver us.

                Again I am not trying to force doctrine upon people, but what I must say is that we are at a critical point in history in which we must either step into the boat with both feet, or stay on the dock, but we can’t have it both ways. This is the very reason for the storms ahead. The harvest is a time for separating grain from its chaff and wheat from tares. Chaff represents our own personal sins of the flesh, while tares represent those servants of Satan who have infiltrated into our churches. And the choices we make by faith on a daily basis will determine which side we will be on.

                In any given church there are remnant people of God along with those, who by their choices or even by their indecision, are choosing to stay on the dock. Their security is in the world and they can’t let go of it.

                I believe that the Lord is now offering us by His grace, an opportunity to make choices and to prepare for what lies ahead. It is not about doctrine. It is about our hearts. The boat is leaving the dock and the days ahead are uncertain. All we know is that there is a growing storm at sea and we must row with all of our might. Our goal is the other shore. Between here and there we need to learn how to wear the full armor of God, to fight a good fight and finish our course. We must be prepared for great delusions and waves of persecution. We must learn how to defeat the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. We must learn obedience from the things that we suffer and to make eternal choices.

                Jesus is looking for a Bride that is adorned for her Husband. He is looking for a bride that is without spot or wrinkle. The problem is that we have been taught that grace is something that is done strictly FOR us and outside of us, but what God is telling us now is that Grace is the power of God working in us and through us transforming us into the image of His Son. We have thought that the boat to heaven was a party boat, but now we are learning that it is a boat of faith and faithfulness and obedience. It is a boat that is filled with the fruit of the Spirit. It is a boat in which loving God with all of our heart and soul and might and loving our neighbor as ourselves is a major requirement.

                The Law must be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. And what we are now being called to do is absolutely impossible to do in the flesh. We must learn how to walk in the supernatural power of God. The boat is powered by the supernatural power of God alone.       The dock, on the other hand, is securely fastened to the shores of Babylon. We must decide in which one we will place our faith… in the boat or in the pier. But the boat is departing the pier and God help those who cannot decide upon which one to place their full weight. Either way they will end up in the storm.

                We can no longer be double-minded and unstable in all our ways. We must choose one side or the other, and we must do so now, for the boat is leaving the pier and we are entering into the final journey home.

                Getting to heaven is no cake walk. The seeker friendly churches have been trying to make it look like a journey in which no moral and spiritual decisions need be made. It is a lie and believing this lie will land you squarely in the camp of the antichrist. Much of the church is even now heading straight into the global religion of the Beast. So if you don’t want to be a part of that false church you must step into the boat of the Remnant people of God. We will be hated by the world. We will have tough decisions to make in favor of faithfulness to God. Some of these decisions may even bring us into persecution or even death.

                I would invite you to look up the Lancaster Prophetic conference for 2018 and to listen to what the prophets of God have to say. The time is at hand. It is an 11 part series and well worth your time even if you have to extend your day to listen to it.

                As for Bonnie and I, we have taken that final step onto the boat and onto that uncertain journey of faith and complete obedience to God. Actually we started that journey when we left our security in Washington and moved to Tennessee based on nothing but the word of God. It was a step of faith for us and each step after that has been a step of faith as well. We came out here presuming to do one thing, but God has led us to do another. But it is important for us to be in the geographical place of His anointing.

                Jonah found out the hard way that he must go to the geographical place of His anointing. When finally did so, he saved an entire nation. When He didn’t do so, he ended up in the storm and sinking. We really need to learn from these things now and to hear God’s voice and to obey. Selah