UNPUBLISHED CHRISTIAN TODAY ARTICLE: PROPHETIC WARNING FOR HILLSONG

Tim Price

June 2017

A prophetic warning for Hillsong

A controversial topic

Prophesying is often controversial. This is hardly surprising. When it’s done haphazardly or undiscerningly it can be extremely dangerous.

False prophecies cause shallow hype, ungodly fear, confusion, and even division. Rather than encourage, instruct, and warn, spiritual edification is greatly undermined.

True prophecies bring a contrasting experience.

Holy Spirit prophecy encourages Godly love, holiness, and fervent service. Real prophets sound this call which sometimes involves practical direction, like when Agabus warned the early church of an approaching famine (Acts chapter 11, verse 28). Genuine prophecy from God is unmistakable and powerful because it reveals His will and testifies of Jesus.

While prophecies can encourage, at times they warn. Prophetic warnings aren’t always given to reveal what must come to pass, but to encourage intercessory prayer to avert or lessen what’s coming.

Moses often interceded for Israel when God revealed what He was going to do in response to their rebellion. God’s pre-warnings showed how much He wanted His mercy to triumph over judgement. Time after time, Moses succeeded in procuring mercy for God’s people by standing in the gap for them through intercessory prayer.

A call to intercede

The same type of prayer is needed today. While God’s people never experience wrath for sin (sin being forgiven at the cross), he still disciplines them, just like loving parents train children (Hebrews chapter 12, verse 5 and 6).

Spiritual discipline intensifies when God’s people choose to depart from him via a life of ongoing, wilful sin (1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 32). This endangers Christians’ spiritual lives. A lack of discipline may result in ‘shipwrecking’ or ‘falling away’ from the faith (1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 19 and chapter 4, verse 1).

Hebrews warns that, in extreme cases, discipline will mirror rebellious Israel’s experiences in the Old Testament (Hebrews chapter 12, verse 25 to 29). Ananias and Sapphira died under this kind of judgment after lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts chapter 5, verse 9 to 11). Corinthian Christians similarly suffered when they tried to follow Christ in wilful, unrepentant sin (1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 27 to 32).

God uses prophesy and prophetic dreams and visions to warn Christians away from this kind of severe discipline. A few years ago I received a dream warning for Hillsong.

The prophetic warning

The dream was especially significant for me, as I was incredibly blessed by attending numerous Hillsong conferences when I was younger. I woke from the confronting dream quite shocked and grieved.

In the dream someone told me a terrorist attack had hit Hillsong. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I was incredulous, thinking it was some kind of awful joke. A newspaper allowed me to look behind current headlines to a shocking future event: Hillsong had been hit by terrorism.

I was stunned, knowing the attack would’ve brought the loss of many lives.

Normal vs. prophetic dream

Through the years I learnt to discern a prophetic dream from a normal one.

Normal dreams are products of our own thoughts and are random and chaotic. They’re usually humanistic and without biblical foundation. Recollection of such dreams is clouded, partial, and temporary.

Prophetic dreams make sense as a whole and contain obvious meaning. They have clear biblical foundation and the reason for the revelation’s impartation is obvious. The vivid pictures and events stay with the dreamer.

Prophetic dreams also come to pass. Normal dreams don’t.

90-95% of the many prophetic dreams I’ve had through the years have occurred. Fulfilled predictions include worldwide terrorism, the French and European attacks, and Australia’s great floods, storms, and wildfires.

The Hillsong dream was perfectly clear, logical, and reflected a great modern challenge. Another part of the dream linked directly with the Bible and the issue of spiritual discipline.

This calls for wisdom

It’s with a heavy heart I’ve shared this dream. God is warning that without prayer and repentance, a terrorist attack could take place against Hillsong in future years. Even if you don’t believe in spiritual discipline, the Bible specifically states that God reveals the future (Isaiah chapter 46, verse 10). 

No prophetic revelation besides biblical prophecy is inevitable, so the Hillsong attack isn’t certain. But the recent Manchester and London Bridge tragedies shows the obvious seriousness of this warning. We now face the sobering reality of a world where terrorism even reaches the West.

Great prayer is needed for Hillsong church and particularly its future conferences. Terrorists usually target popular cites with mass gatherings. I’ve already written to Hillsong but it was unclear how seriously they took the warning because they never responded to my request for comment.

God’s perfect love means the dream isn’t a reason to fear because he desires to bless and protect us. It’s wise however to realise that God warns as the means of protecting Christians. God wants to ensure we’re following him and aware of the dangers we’ll face if we’re continuously disobedient or just practically careless.

People who carelessly and knowingly walk into danger don’t have anyone but themselves to blame if they get hurt.

If you don’t know whether Jesus really wants you at a Hillsong conference, can I plead with you: DON’T GO, it won’t be worth the risk. Please also spread this warning. If you absolutely know God is leading you there, then go, but be aware of the danger and earnestly pray for yourself and other attendees.

Tim lives on the Gold Coast. He has a Graduate Theology degree, taught in Christian education for over six years, and is currently studying a Masters of Divinity in theology at Liberty University online. He enjoys Christian devotional writing, tennis, and spending time with family and friends.

Tim Price’s previous articles may be viewed at 

http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/tim-price.html

*This article was sent to Christian Today but they decided against publishing it

THE GREAT DISOWNING DANGER

If we endure, we will rule with him. If we disown him, he will disown us. (2 Timothy 2:12)

But whoever denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God (Luke 12:9)

If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:26)

No experience of trauma or resisting to ‘the point of blood’ (Heb 12:4) tragedies, deprivations or nights of darkness usually makes Christians who naively believe the scriptures above aren’t relevant for them (and teachers, elders and preachers who believe they’re not relevant for their congregations) or ever will be. Other beliefs can get even more creative, and usually have to do with believers thinking this present life is all they should be (and need be) living for. In light of such beliefs, the scriptures above (they believe) can be passed over for another time, consigned (unbiblically) to the biblical time period in which they were written or a misreading of the effects of the New Covenant. But such beliefs reject true and accurate contexts, cancelling out the very purpose scripture was written (for every believer in every generation of human history), the substance and intent of the New Covenant (grace, based on faith, doesn’t negate warnings given for the very purpose of dissuading believers against rejecting faith), or the obvious realisation that the Bible's MANY warnings not to reject God were given for the express purpose of ensuring all believers of all generations would continue to follow Christ.  

If you’ve never experienced such bone-rattling and nerve-shredding trauma, don’t worry, if you’re human, you definitely will, as Christ promised we would in the form of taking up our cross, dying to self (on those crosses), and sharing in His own sufferings (Philippians 3:10) (Matt 10:24 - a student isn’t above their Master, and will need to endure great sufferings even as He did). We too will have our own Job moments, and sometimes generations of Christians will experience this on mass. This is especially the case when the devil rises up against Christians, albeit for a still-greater God-overruled sovereign purpose (Luke 22:53). Although the devil always walks around as a roaring lion, seeking those who he MAY (can) devour, there are times when he is allowed particular sway over the affairs and life of men. This is worked by a spirit of anti-Christ (1 John 4:3) which he puts in men who themselves become adverse to every godly moral and belief, including those who hold them.

The purpose of the spirit of anti-Christ is not only to come against Him by coming against Christians, but by ruling that which only God is supremely ruler of: everything in the world and everyone in it. This includes creation and everything natural to God’s image in all created things, including human nature itself (he started and partially succeeded with Adam and Eve when he led them into experiencing and ultimately passing on a fallen and thus marred human nature). This manifests usually by his trying to contaminate, change, and ultimately (and entirely) transform a society’s culture, religion, and laws. This is the most effective way possible for the enemy to TEMPT Christians to disown their faith in Jesus. This was his tact with Adam and Eve because it was through the temptation to ‘know good and evil’ that Satan made the first Christians fall. Similarly today, many Christians are often tempted by the society they live in to ‘know better’ or really know what’s best for themselves by accepting the world’s claim to the highest form of thinking, reasoning and perception in all matters to do with life, thinking, and spirituality (i.e the world’s knowledge of good and evil). If the devil can get societies looking as attractive, inviting, ‘life giving’, and as reasonable as possible (all while trying to make humans believe nothing is evil or wrong), then he doesn’t need an all-out assault on their bodies through attack or warfare, because he has what he’s really after: their hearts, minds, and ultimately their eternal souls.

The temptation form of the attack of the spirit of antichrist (well and truly alive right now) still comes with the necessity to disown Christ. Such a spirit can be easily recognized as a push by the world to fully identify with it in what it accepts, loves, and demands. If its ways aren’t fully embraced one first becomes misunderstood, secondly estranged, then fully isolated. The last stage is outright rejection, which sees the devil and his anti-Christ followers and leaders, including a society’s system itself sinfully overrun and satanically controlled, go beyond tempting Christians to disown Christ and instead, directly ATTACK them to do so via making them the actual objects of society’s hatred. At this stage, society’s members see Christianity as a virus it needs and will do anything to rid itself of. This even happened in the age of the Apostles, when many, like the Sadducees and Pharisees (and thus also ruling authorities) tried to rid themselves not only of the Apostles, but all those who followed the Way by threatening’s, witch-hunts and the vilest and cruel persecutions. So the Apostles experienced the wrath of the sum of its God-hating citizens by first being misunderstood (anger at their doctrine and teaching), then estranged (i.e. ‘speak no more in this name’), then isolated through arrests and being forced to flee from cities. The final stage of rejection meant imprisonments, and all-out attacks as beatings, stoning’s, torture, and many being martyred.

The point to all this is simple because the devil has two ways He attacks Christians to try and get them to disown (leave/ reject Christ) Jesus and their faith. One, he does it through tempting them, not only through normal temptations and trials, but through society itself offering them the tempting fruit of ‘knowing’ better than Christ; knowing the better and higher way (knowing good and evil). The more a society plunges in morality, the stronger this temptation becomes. The second way is the physical attack on our lives. It has been rare in the West, at least in the last half generation, for believers to experience physical attacks. Christians have experience the other levels mentioned (misunderstanding, estrangement, isolation), but rejection in the form of attack has been something we’ve thankfully avoided. It seems likely that, at the very least, believers will soon experience attack that manifests as rejection in the form of subtle or outright mistreatment and eventual persecution. War is also likely, which will mean an extreme attack on our feelings of wellbeing and contentment. These are not the product idle or fanciful imaginings or a pessimistic outlook. The enemy walks around as a roaring lion, and when he can, he will manifest as this in every way possible to him as societies and the Lord Himself allows.

The Lord has promised in His Word that all who live godly lives will suffer persecution, there will be times where we must resist even unto blood (unto the harshest and severest of trials) (Hebrews 12:4), and that loving discipline can come to us in the most daunting and traumatic of experiences. These are times when it will appear and actually be extremely difficult for even the righteous to be saved (1 Peter 4:18). It is NOW when we must draw our line by counting the cost of what we are willing to pay. Waiting will likely be too late, for raw emotion, rattled nerves and the possibility of broken hearts and expectations may tempt us to do even as Job’s wife, who before she faced any devastations probably thought herself a strong and steady believer. My motto over time, especially in light of the prophetic, has always been, “Hope for the best, expect the worst”. The Bible says that in this life we WILL (not may) have tribulations, even many of them, so we must strengthen ourselves in faith right now and determine with wholehearted devotion that come what may, we will always be Christ’s. Our hopes and association with God do not rest upon what we hope our lives will be in the future, they rest upon the WAY ahead Christ has made for us in the midst of the severest paths, Jesus's presence with us, and the destination at the end of all our troubles. God will never forsake us to trials, but make a way through and finally out of them, whether we experience this in the present life, or by entry into the next.

Psalm 23v4:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
 I will fear no evil;
 For You are with me;
 Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Stephen L. Bening: 'THE BELIEVER MUST FUNCTION'

The LORD JESUS' CHURCH (NOT men's) was never meant to be a place where His people come to simply sit and listen. Instead, Paul describes it as a body wherein each member's participation and engagement is crucial to bring about the the overall function the body was designed and purposed for. The body needs each member to be healthy and also to fulfil its OWN purpose (i.e what a hand/foot can do as opposed to what an ear and eye can do) and its purpose related to what the BODY's sum of its overall parts was intended to produce (i.e if a foot and hand work in conjunction/cooperation with each other, they can perform tasks not possible with what each can do on its own). The article below by Stephen L. Bening (he wrote it for his own prophetic fellowship group) describes this biblical truth with amazing clarity and context. It's not a long read. I highly recommend it! I don't believe that the church in its current form is necessarily entirely unbiblical--there are elements which are definitely biblical and definitely fruitful. However, overall, the current forms of church seem to be working much more against the entire engagement of the people of God than for it, and this is a very big problem that needs tackling. It's my opinion that we can do a lot to help this, especially by making sure we as individuals are fruitful for the Lord Jesus in our own lives, ministries, and services for Him. However, it's also my suspicion that it will take (like Stephen describes below) the Lord dismantling/taking down what now exists in order to remake/reform it (i.e Ecclesiastes 'a time to build up and a time to destroy' in order to remake):

…2A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. 3A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.
-Eccl 3:3

The article below is one of, if not the best thing I've ever read to summarise what the most biblical form of church looks like. Well worth the read! 

Article:
'I touched upon the concept of the function of the believer in my last article, and it is a very simple image and thought process to engage in: that God created each of His believers to have a river of living water flowing through them. Now think about it: every river must have an outflow! You simply cannot have a continual supply of fresh water running into a place and it has nowhere to go. It must find a way out, or the water will stop flowing into it, the river will turn into a reservoir. The reservoir will turn into a dank swamp if no water ever goes over the dam. 

We have considered in years past that before Jesus left this Earth, His own disciples were jockeying among themselves: arguing which of them was the greatest. Jesus put them in their proper place at that time. Then, some few years after Jesus' ascension, James was seated upon the throne of the church of Jerusalem. We know this to be true because his burial box was found, several years back, inscribed with that notation. Jesus had made it quite clear that His disciples were not to rule over or Lord over any one, but that did not slow the apostles down from doing just that with the half brother of Jesus, right there in Jerusalem. Then, several years later, John makes note in his third epistle of one Diotrephes, who desired the preeminence and would not even receive visiting ministers, even controlling others to the extent of casting people out of the church on his own single authority in violation of every precept Paul ever laid down regarding excommunication. And that merely covers the first century. 

The predominant theme of the 19 centuries that followed the first century is one of a single man, put on a pedestal. He is expected to be God's man, part of a "priesthood" for Christians that Jesus never authorized. This single man does, on the apparent average, about 90% of the preaching. The other 10% is usually filled by ministers who are also single senior pastors who are traveling a repetitive circuit. With some variation depending upon place and denomination, down through time, this has described "pastoral function". There have been some brief moments where the charismatic gifts flourished, but even these are usually found to be functioning among the family of the senior pastor or among his approved inner circle of supporters. In short, everything you have been taught as a church member is that you are not EXPECTED to do anything in church unless someone in the pastor's office asks you to do something. Then, you may volunteer to teach Sunday school, or take part in the landscaping committee, or perhaps be on a church trustee council that pays the bills of the church and perhaps may be charged with hiring another priest if the present occupant of the pulpit is found to have gone AWOL. I have found it to be true, especially in the sixty short years of my lifetime, that most especially and more so every year, you are expected to part with your money. Laws have even been developed that require Christians to give specified amounts that Jesus never burdened His church with and Paul never mentioned as having anything to due with the practice of Church. In short, nothing you have participated in has really encouraged you to function or has trained you in how to function. Everything about your on the job training has discouraged you from finding any outflow for your very own, personal river of living water. Nothing has led you to believe that God requires you to do anything more than sit with mouth shut, listen and tithe. That is how you have understood "Church". However, God requires "Assembly" and "Assembly" requires so much more than "Church". Assembly requires you to do many things: you are required to function. In fact, the true Godly "Assembly" cannot survive without the function of every member of the body of Christ. Can your hand survive without your fingers? How will your mouth do without your brain? You have learned church in a "doomed to fail" system. Jesus Christ will destroy it himself. You had best depart from it and learn how to function as soon as possible. We at Watchmen Prophets Assembly are dedicated to promoting the maximum and efficient function of every member of the body of Christ. 

This is not the case simply because I say so. Paul did not found or establish even one single church that was invested with only one solitary pastor or elder, yet that is what we find today. Paul always appointed a plurality of elders: more than one. Furthermore, there are specific signs that Jesus said would follow a Godly Assembly. These are the same signs that follow THOSE WHO BELIEVE, for they follow even more powerfully in a Godly Assembly. They are found in the sixteenth chapter of Mark. The signs are not said by Jesus to follow THE PASTOR. They are said to follow THOSE WHO BELIEVE. Are those signs following you? Those signs are important. John Baptist questioned the Godly identity of Jesus; was He the one they were to expect? Jesus answered the question by referring to the signs and the miracles that He had done. SIGNS ARE IMPORTANT! Are these signs following you? They are supposed to. They follow me. They follow my wife. They are supposed to follow this assembly. People are supposed to be healed when this assembly prays. Demons are supposed to flee. You are supposed to have more prayer authority when you are part of a Godly assembly, but when that Godly assembly fails to function, you are on your own, with only the authority in God that you possess. That is what it means to be a partaker and you are a partaker of a Godly Assembly, to the good, or a church, to the bad. One can chase a thousand. Two can chase ten thousand. Which are you, the ONE or the TWO? Hopefully, you are at least doing some chasing. And if two in agreement and function be powerful, then what might ten obtain? Yet if every individual grows silent and sleeps, the assembly ceases to function and all multiplication of power and authority is forfeited. How long will God allow this fruitless situation to persist? Have mercy Lord Jesus. 

Stephen L. Bening'


PART 2:

Today I posted about what the best and truest appearance of the Church of God should look like. When we talk about Church, we talk as much about us as individuals, as we do about us being members of the whole, because we are all temples of the Spirit who are being made into ONE temple in the Spirit (as we are the body of Christ in Him). This is an encouraging subject because it makes us realise just how integral we all are to the Kingdom, and HOW to be integral. Recently, the Lord has laid it on my heart that the nature of HIS Kingdom is a fluid thing. This is because Jesus describes His Spirit as a WIND, and His power, purpose, life and presence as a STREAM that flows through and out of a believer:

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]
-John 3:5-8

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
-John 7:38

This fluidity means that while church is a gathering of believings to encourage each other in Christ, the purposes of the church are daily, multifaceted and very diverse. This is because Jesus Himself ministered to men in MANY ways and in many manners, whether He was teaching at the temples or not, and whether He was with many or few. This also shows us that the purposes of church are also the purposes of individual Christians who see what the Father is doing, then they do that thing (whatever that specifically is for that individual according to the will of the Spirit). Like Jesus, they also listen to what the Father says, then they speak that thing. Christians, therefore, should not only follow Jesus, but copy Him. This won't bring schism to the body, but unity and power because the Lord does not design the gifts of the Spirit to contradict or compete, but to complement and to accomplish the greater good. The role of elders and pastors, therefore, is not to take over ministry for the whole body of Christ, but to minister so that each member can become as much a part of ministry as they are and have been called to be. Elders and Pastors are not 'above' the body of Christ, but overseers to lead and encourage each member to be equipped and active in their own lives for Christ. The Lord does not limit His work to one meeting, place, and time, but desires that the body of Christ be encouraged in such times to continue to operate each day in their service for Him. The Church of God is not to be boxed, but it is supposed to be living, active, and sharper than any two edged sword, just as the Word of God is (for the Word of God dwells in and works in and through us to work His purposes). The Church itself is an active, flowing thing (just as a river is active and flowing), designed to reach into and influence every crevice of society for the good. Every member of the body is therefore as effective for Christ in a Sunday Church service, as they are in their work place, in socialising, with family, in giving, in speaking encouragement or the Word of God, and whether singing to others, being hospitable, or in any other ministry that the Word speaks about and provides precedent or foundation for. 

If we think about it carefully, in the New Testament Jesus actually did nearly all of His work, ministry and teaching OUTSIDE of formal church/teaching/building settings. This allowed Him to work with the many as well as the few, with the rich as well as with the poor, and the healthy and unhealthy alike. It allowed Him to reach the 'sinners' with the good news of the Gospel, heal the sick, testify to and witness against the Pharisees, and teach and grow His disciples all at the same time. It also allowed Him to work IN THE SAME WAY and AS EFFECTIVELY in the temples and more formal church gatherings. Jesus did this to give us the perfect and most effective pattern of what Church IS and how it BEST and most biblically operates. 

In the same vein, I've also posted below another article of Stephen Bening's. The article was directed specifically to the prophetic group itself, but it holds true and reveals what the NATURE of every part of the Church should be:

'Let us begin with "Assembly". That is what the God of the New Testament requires believers to gather to. The word "church" really does not properly express what the ancient meaning really is. "Church" has all types of ungodly connotations that have stuck to the word over the years. Let us set it aside discussion of that for now (discussed elsewhere). God intended an assembly where everyone could and should participate and where no one man or group would Lord it over others. The more participation, the better. Members who do not function or participate may be viewed by the Lord as not bearing fruit. A tree that bears no fruit is a biblical image that Jesus dealt with. Trust me: we all should want to bear fruit.

What is prophecy for the purposes of Watchmen Prophets Assembly? Any member who hears, receives or has the Holy Spirit quicken anything to him or her is in receipt of a word from God. That is a prophetic word. It may be just for that believer, but many times, it should be shared. It does not have to be predictive about some future disaster or event. Believers need to ask for boldness from God so that they freely share what they have been freely given. It is quite easy to fall into harlot church patterns where members only listen, sit silently and take part in assembly life, but this has never been God's intention.

Watchmen and Prophets have been members here and a few still are. Other members are expected to be believers in Jesus Christ. We should all be being filled with the Holy Spirit. You should be growing in the Kingdom of God Daily and going deeper into God as individuals. This can only be done through prayer, fasting and time spent in God's word. As you grow, you should share.

God intended every single one of His born again believers to be a river of living water. Every river has a source. The source of this river is God. This river is supposed to RUN THROUGH you, but where will it run to? Where will its' outflow be? 

Watchmen Prophets Assembly is one place where your river can flow out to, for there must be an outflow. Where there is no outflow, there is no river, but a lake, sitting behind a dam. Water sitting long enough, without a flow, begins to grow dank. Unclean things grow there. We have better hopes and prayers for better things for each of you.'

-Stephen Bening'

BRACE YOURSELF - PART II

A main reason the Lord sometimes reveals particularly severe future trials is so that we'll spiritually brace ourselves for them. This involves taking a particular battle ready stance that expects a massive spiritual and practical hit in order to not be bowled over by it. This guards against the power of emotion to try and wrench us from Christ, even as the disciples allowed such a thing to part them from Him for a while when they fled from the cross. The battle ready stance also involves refusing to let perplexity and pain undermine faith and trust. It is a resolving to walk by faith and not by sight, no matter what the cost, and no matter how random and naturally unexplainable our experiences may be. It dethrones 'reason' to throw itself on the character, all-sufficiency and all-knowingness of Christ. 

Bracing for what's coming involves EXPECTING trouble, and spiritually leaning into it. This means continuing to be open to the prophetic, the Lord's voice in His Word, and the 'watching' of the signs of the times. Such things are the Lord's way of preparing us emotionally and mentally as well as spiritually. Job was ready in this way for the tragedies that befell him, but his wife was not, and it showed. Job's wife let the emotion of the trial and its torturous pain cut her to the core and take away all her faith in God, to the point where she encouraged Job to give up, die, and curse God. Job, however, expected what came: ' He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" - Job 2:10.

Bracing for the coming storm means praying about it in order to prepare our way spiritually in order to walk through it. This is what the Lord constantly did throughout His life, and particularly so in the garden of Gethsemane. Praying about what's coming also allows the Lord to change our hearts to be able to face it resolutely and head on. This is why the Lord eventually prayed, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done". The Lord showed us throughout His life that we always need to pray, not only for present grace, but also FUTURE grace. Without prayer, we cannot spiritually brace ourselves fully, or in the way God intends.

Bracing for what's coming also means taking the time to decide how much we're willing to give up to continue on with Christ. This is a process that often takes time and considerable thought (honest thought which challenges our own hearts/expectations/desires etc.), which we won't necessarily have much or any of when all the future trials of the storm hit. The Lord reveals the future so that we'll be able to measure just how costly our crosses are, and what it will take to continue to carry them when things get harder and more costly:

Luke 14:
27And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?

Bracing is also a mental process that accepts that life will not always be rosy and will not necessarily follow our expectations or hopes. Bracing refuses to except that this present life is all there is, and that there are purposes far greater than our own which only God knows and is working in our lives and throughout the earth. Bracing even surrenders our own spiritual views if necessary, and owns that we only see and know in part. Bracing also humbles itself to submit to the will of the Lord, though we may not understand or agree with it in the natural, and owns that there is an end to all things, and that we cannot take one thing with us when we die (and thus that even loss itself is a temporary thing). Bracing is needed for all storms in life, and it will be particularly needed for the great storm which is ahead.

COMING STORM PREP DOCTRINES PRT5: BRACE YOURSELF

There’s a difference between experiencing the peripheral effects of a storm, and actually experiencing its effects in earnest and the actual heart of it. The outer storm of trial and God’s judgment has arrived, but what the world is experiencing at the moment is just that; the first touches of what is to be an absolute monster of a storm that will rock the entire world. This is a storm the Lord has repeatedly shown me in dreams and visions throughout the years. About a month or so ago I felt that by the Spirit this ‘monster storm’ had arrived, and I posted about it on my blog and online. We have already begun to experience the peripheral effects of it. This has been seen in various ways, though few in Christendom want to acknowledge it. Its arrival has been obvious during the last year by the worldwide avalanche of immorality and its institionalisation, terrorism (especially through historic mass immigration into most of Europe), economic and governmental instabilities and upheavals, natural disasters, a resurgent Russia and China, and increasingly strong North Korea. But knowing it’s coming isn’t enough; we need to be prepared for it. This being the case, I’ll be continuing the Coming Storm Prep articles I started writing about a year ago now. The one below is Part 5: Brace Yourself.

In one sense writing like this, at least to myself, seems a little redundant now. The arrival of the storm has already made itself obvious, yet we're still on the outskirts of it--the big stuff is still to come. Just over a week or so ago, the song 'It's the end of the world as we know it' started playing through my head. The Lord often speaks to me through prophetic songs, and this one has taken on a whole new meaning recently, especially living in America for the last few months. Many now believe we've entered a new time of prosperity and peace, and perhaps, for the short term at least, we have. Regardless, the long term future hasn't changed, and my personal feeling is that recent events have actually sped up and solidified the reality of what's coming. In the last few months the Lord has shown me the Red Horse of Revelation once again, and continued to reiterate the need for His people to enter the Ark of His protection--to remain abiding in Him. This article below, including its title, has stayed with me for a few months now. It hasn't left me. Precious Bride of Christ, the Word of the Lord to us for what's about to happen is summed up in these two words: BRACE YOURSELF

There’s a massive difference between a Christian who braces themselves for approaching tribulation, and one who doesn’t. We see this in the starkly different ways Job and his wife reacted to the suffering God allowed to come upon them:

Job 2:9

His wife said to him, "Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!"

Job 2:10

But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

These scriptures reveal an obvious truth: Job was ready for tribulation, but his wife was not. People like to be exasperated and condemnatory towards Job’s wife, and even joke or completely write her off when they read her response. Yes, her words were awful and wrong, and we can’t excuse them, but we also need to consider something, which is this: if the tribulation that ended up rocking them had been tough, but ‘do-able’ so to speak, and nothing as horrific as it actually had been, it’s unlikely Job’s wife would’ve ever said such a thing, or anything close to it. But that’s the thing, the trial wasn’t just ‘bad’, it wasn’t just ‘hard’, ‘uncomfortable’, ‘irritating’, or even just pretty painful or fairly distressing. It wasn’t even ‘really rough’, it was completely and overwhelmingly agonising and heart-wrenching. It was life-altering tragedy after life-altering tragedy, and even that is putting it somewhat mildly. What came upon Job and his wife was so horrific it overcame and tortured every inch of their inner man in a vortex of life-crushing pain, and not just in a single moment or event. Their suffering lasted months (if his wife even stayed with Job. Pause for a minute. Really think about that and digest it. We condemn Job’s wife, mock, and write her off, but consider this: how would we have faired? How would we have responded to those around us or the Lord Himself if we had experienced Job’s sufferings? We probably already know, because we always know how we’ve faired under trials much, much easier then he faced.

On one level at least, nothing can prepare us for the great trials that lay ahead. In one sense they will be unprecedented, just like they were for Job. How does anyone prepare for trial after trial? And devastating/world altering trials at that? We’re all human, and what’s coming will all hit us all like a ton of bricks. But it’s clear that Job expected to see tragedy from the Lord, and that helped him guide his brokenness and overwhelming emotion in the right way:

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship

-Job 1:20

This is one major reason the Lord reveals difficult prophetic events of the future because He wants us to be ready for them:

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

-Ephesians 6:13

Being ready for what’s coming will mean we’ll arm ourselves with a soldier’s mentality, rather than a victim’s one, knowing that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord (Rom 8:28). This is how Paul encouraged Timothy:

Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

-2 Timothy 2v3

Knowing what is coming will help us to envision how to continue through the suffering and endure it. This we’ll be able to do by looking at the example of those in the Bible who endured great suffering. The Lord will also give us the hope of its end and the result He intends to bring about at its conclusion:

10Brothers, as an example of patience in affliction, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11See how blessed we consider those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen the outcome from the Lord. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

-James 5:10-11

If we don’t expect the great severity of the coming storm, like with Job’s wife, our perplexity, pain, emotion, and natural ‘unanswered questions’ will lead to faithlessness and a rejection of the Lord and His ways. We must also remember this: none of us deserve anything; not one single thing. All we have is by the grace, mercy, and undeserved favour of God. Even the very air we breathe is a gift of God, and if the Lord deems it best to take, not only a few things, but EVERYTHING from us, including OUR VERY LIVES (and/or the lives of those we love) for our eternal state and His own purposes, then we must accept it, just as Job did:

For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

-1 Timothy 6:7

This will be a continual battle of faith (a ‘fighting the good fight of faith’) and a daily sacrifice and death, but it will all be worth it in the end, whether we witness this in the present life or the one to come:

17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

-Romans 8v17-18

VISION: THE RED HORSE OF REVELATION IS COMING

A few months ago the Lord gave me a dream concerning the Red Horse of the Book of Revelation. It was nighttime in the dream, and as I looked into the sky I saw the silhouette of a massive red rider on a red horse. The rider and its horse galloped in the sky, then turned and started galloping straight towards the earth. I received that dream after specifically asking the Lord to show me what He knows His people need to know is coming in the future. To refresh everyone's memory, the book of Revelation reveals what the Red Horse symbolises:

Revelation 6v4:
And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

Fast-forward to this morning (27/9/16), and, in a vision, I received a second revelation of the Red Horse. The vision includes more details about what is coming. I saw the following vision while awake, with my eyes open; I saw it clearly:

Vision: I saw a red horse riding in the air. The horse then turned to ride/gallop straight towards the earth. Then it turned again and the horse I saw became a unicorn.

I'll be honest, at first I wasn't sure whether this vision was from the Lord, after all, I thought to myself: 'Why on earth would the Lord show me a unicorn?' The red horse made sense (in light of the book of Revelation), but not the unicorn part. To double check whether the vision could've been from the Lord, and though I felt ridiculous doing it, I did a Biblical word search using the word 'unicorn'. I was shocked to find that there are actually a number of scriptures which mention the word. In light of the  obvious context of the dream (i.e the spiritual significance of the red horse), two scriptures stood out to me in particular (pay particularly close attention to the end of the second scripture):

Numbers 24:8:

God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.

Isaiah 34v6-8:

6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

8 For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

The combined obvious meaning of the Red Horse with the scriptures above show us clearly what is coming and why: the Lord has a controversy with the nations and a set time to bring that to fulfilment, and that time is very close--the Red Horse of death and destruction is coming. Even the high, lofty, powerful, and proud (the unicorns - see Matthew Henry commentary) will be brought down in what the Lord is about to do. Furthermore, the Red Horse and its rider are not merely nations and their wrath, but the hand of the Lord which allows them to go forth in order to accomplish His purposes. Very soon now the Lord is going to send forth His vengeance upon the ungodly and wicked, and in doing so He's going to bring about a foreshadowing and portent of the coming eternal justice and wrath upon the earth in fulfilment of the scriptures. The Lord is revealing this to prepare the loins of our mind (so we can begin guarding them up now), strengthen weak spiritual hands and knees, make straight paths for our feet, and so we can make sure that we are making Him our refuge and hope by faith. This is the kind of encouragement, strengthening and admonishment (Col 3:16) the Lord is wanting to provide through this prophecy. The Lord is also giving us a heads up to prepare our hearts and so, like Job, we can brace ourselves like men for what is coming (Job 38:3). God spoke to Job and it terrified him, but that didn't mean it wasn't good for him--Job himself knew and owned just how good it was! The coming storm and tribulation will not drown out the voice of God, or His sovereignty over His people. Extraordinary times are coming, but these are also the days prophesied of old! All of scripture shows us one thing: our God is greater than any storm and trial--and will be so for His people in the days ahead.