LAST MINUTE INSTRUCTIONS
LAST MINUTE INSTRUCTIONS
“Hate
evil, you who love the Lord, who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He
delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown like seed for the righteous,
and gladness for the upright in heart. Be glad in the Lord you righteous ones;
and give thanks to His holy name.” Ps. 97:10-12
We live
in a very specific time in earth’s history. It is not that there is anything
new under the sun, but rather that everything that has happened throughout
history is culminating, is escalating, and is converging with ever greater frequency
and intensity upon this one final moment in time.
So even
though it has been true of all rebellious cultures, we see a specific situation
in our country right now, and in the whole world, where good is being called
evil and evil good. In fact this is going to escalate to the point where those
who are evil are going to persecute and try to exterminate those who are good.
Darkness hates the light and we see the temperature rising dramatically. In
politics… in the growing disparity between the left and the right… in the
growing hatred of all things righteous… in the ever increasing tension between those
who love the Lord and those who hate Him we see a sort of friction that could
actually bring America into a civil war… we see everything in society, in
politics, in nature and in the religious and the financial kingdoms coming to a
boiling point.
I might
mention here as a point of reference to the times in which we live, the fact
that the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem has approached both Mayoral candidates and told
them that they must include in their financial planning funds for the
infrastructure to accommodate the millions of people who will visit Jerusalem
when the 3rd temple is built. It other words, the temple is soon to
be built and with it will come the Two Witnesses mentioned in Revelation
chapter 11. There we see that the building of the temple and the ministry of
the two witnesses and the trampling under foot of Jerusalem involves a period
of 42 months, or 3 ½ years. So we are indeed looking at end time Bible
prophecies coming to pass right before our eyes.
However,
the Psalmist, in talking about these very times, gives us surprising
instructions saying:
“O sing
to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonderful things. His right hand (Jesus)
His Holy arm, (The Son of God) has gained the victory for Him. The Lord has
made known His salvation. (Yeshua) He has revealed His righteousness in the sight
of the nations. (The Gospel is being carried into the whole world) He has
remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel. (He
remembered His irrevocable covenant to bring His people Israel back into their
own land) All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation (Yeshua) of our
God.” Ps. 98:1-3
“Shout
joyfully to the Lord all the earth; break forth and sing for joy and sing
praises. (Praise and worship has become
an integral part of the cry of the Body of Christ in these last days) Sing
praises with the lyre (today’s guitar) with the lyre (many stringed instruments)
and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn. Shout
joyfully before the King, the Lord.” Ps. 98:4-6
“Let the
sea roar and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the
rivers clap their hands; Let the mountains sing together for joy before the
Lord; FOR HE IS COMING TO JUDGE THE EARTH; AND HIS PEOPLES WITH EQUITY.” Ps.
98:1-9 (Whaaaat?)
God is
coming to judge the earth and His saints are supposed to hold a party? A joyful
party… a great celebration? What, if
anything, is good about judgment? But Isaiah said: “At night my soul longs for
Thee, indeed my spirit within me seeks Thee diligently; for when the earth
experiences Thy judgments, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.”
Isa. 26:9
Yes,
this is a time to rend our hearts and not our garments. We have come to the
threshing floor where we must be separated from the chaff in our lives… the
leaven in our lives. But we have a Savior, a Son and right arm of God who has
done valiantly. He has won the victory. He has delivered us by His mighty hand
He has set us apart and sanctified us in holiness. We can shout for joy because
we have become temples of Yeshua. He dwells in us and therefore whatever
victory belongs to Him belongs to us as well. Therefore we should spend less
time worrying about when the rapture will happen and more time making sure that
we are living by that Holy Spirit that He has placed within us instead of the world,
the flesh and the devil. In Jesus we have the victory. Let us start living in
it with joy and with celebration!
“As a
pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth, she writhes and cries out in
her labor pains. Thus we were before Thee O Lord. We were pregnant, we writhed
in labor, we gave birth as it were only to wind. We could not accomplish
deliverance for the earth, nor were the inhabitants of the world born.” Isa.
26:17-18
Here I
think Isaiah is bemoaning the fact that he along with the other prophets, have
strived in labor for God’s people and yet they have not been able to produce
sons. But on this score Hebrews 11:39, 40 tells us that even though they gained
approval by their faith, they did not receive what was promised, because God
had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be
made perfect.” We have the true Lamb of God to which their sacrifices pointed.
We have the real thing! Therefore, we have the victory and the privilege of
being the sons of God for whom all of creation waits in eager anticipation.
This is
why the great cloud of witnesses, mentioned in the very next verse, surrounds
us. Heb. 12:1 and why the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the
revealing of the sons of God.” Romans 8:19. God will bring a people to the finish
line. He will perfect a remnant people. He will prepare a Bride without spot or
wrinkle and in His mighty power we will carry the final baton to victory.
So God
reassures Isaiah, that his labor pains were not in vain saying to Him:
“Your
dead will live; their corpses will rise; you who lie in the dust, awake and
shout for joy for your dew is as the dew of the dawn and the earth will give
birth to the departed spirits.” Isa 26:19
And
then God gives instruction to us concerning the coming tribulation saying:
“Come
My people, enter into your rooms and close your doors behind you; Hide for a
little while until the indignation runs its course. For behold the Lord is
about to come out from His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for
their iniquity; and the earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer
cover her slain.” Isaiah 26:20, 21.
This
last bit of instruction about hiding in our rooms or chambers can either be
interpreted as a rapture event, or it may refer to Psalm 91 where protection is
offered to those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High. We need not
fear the arrow that flies by day or the terror by night for the Lord is our
refuge and our fortress. A thousand my fall at our side and ten thousand at our
right hand, but it shall not come near us. Only with our eyes will we see and
behold the recompense of the wicked… No evil will befall us nor will any plague
come near our house…for He will give His angels charge concerning us to guard us
in all our ways.” Ps. 91:1, 5, 7-8, 10-11
The Old
Testament prophets, whether they fully understood it or not, spoke more about
our day than they did about their own. I think they did understand it to a
certain extent. They spoke a lot about the Day of the Lord and final judgment
and the coming millennial reign of Messiah.
It is
from the Old Testament that we gain our view of God’s purposes through time.
From creation to the fall of mankind to the forming of a chosen people, to the life,
death and resurrection of the Messiah, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and
the grafting in of the Gentiles, to the last great battle between Christ and
His people and Satan and his people, to the triumphant return of Jesus Christ
as King of kings and Lord of lords… the story was all written in the Old
Testament for indeed, the book of Revelation is drawn from the Law and the
prophets, from the feast days and from all of the prophecies concerning the
Messiah and His coming.
But in
all of this, we (you and I) have been chosen to be born in the last days. We
have come to the throne for such a time as this. We have been called to apply
the victory of Jesus to our own lives… to live and to walk in it because He
dwells in us. We have been called to overcome as He overcame.
Many do
not know or understand the plans and purposes of God, but John says in 1 John 2:20:
“But
you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know. As for you, let that
abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning
abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father and this is the
promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. If you know that He is righteous
you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. You are
from God little children and have overcome them, because greater is He who is
in you than he who is in the world.”1 John 2:20, 24, 25, 29, 1 John 4:4
It is
time to put on the mantle that has been reserved for us… to put on the full
armor of God…for thou we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the
flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely
powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and
every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking
every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Cor. 10:3-5
Jesus
made promises to every one of the seven churches and even to those of us who
live in the age of Laodicea, He says: “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to
sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father
on His throne. He, who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the
churches.” Rev. 3:21, 22
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