If you go onto my blog, you'll see that since February of this year I've been warning about a coming storm, an unexpected desert and God's protection for His people that is coming. The first post I did on it was called, 'Relegation and the Coming Storm' (23/2), in which I warned about a war that the Lord showed me is coming. One of the most recent posts I put out was on the 28/2 called 'The Coming Storm: An unexpected Journey.' I also did a short series of posts on the coming storm as well.
I didn't write any of those things to cause fear, but rather simply so that people will be as prepared as possible for what is coming, so that when it comes, we'll all still know that God is sovereign and that He will continue to be right next to us all, just like He was with the three Hebrew men in the fiery furnace. Just like Jesus told His disciples what was coming before it came, so He warns us too, so that our faith can be strengthened in the present for what is to come: John 14v29- I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. We tend to believe that our trust in God is rock solid in the good times, and that no trial will ever shake us when life is easy, but Jesus knows that we are all much weaker than we think. Rather than berate us, He lovingly gives us the gift of prophecy, to reaffirm to us just how much He is in control. He lovingly and patiently gives us prophecy in order to solidify and strengthen us in the faith He has given us. If we know these things now, when they happen, instead of freaking out and running away from Jesus, just like the disciples at the cross, we'll stay with Jesus, continuing to follow and pray as we go. That's why Jesus said, 'Watch and pray.' We must be very vigilant to watch what is going on in the world right now, especially with North Korea, and pray accordingly.
Praying keeps our minds and hearts with Jesus, and is the conduit for the grace that we'll need at every step of the future that is about to unfold. Jesus watched and prayed in the garden of gethsemane, and so wasn't surprised, shaken or put off from continuing to be obedient to the Father when the time came for Him to experience the attack of the enemy, because He knew it was coming and that God had allowed it. God had sent Him the comfort He needed (the angel), and God will likewise send us the comfort that is needed just before the the storm hits, and that comfort is often in the form of prophecy. Jesus Himself knew that the cross was coming and had known for a long time. He had even told the disciples about it on quite a few occasions, but they never seemed to quite 'get it,' and really their focus and concerns were on other things, so they were never truly prepared for it.
This is very much like we often are, and so Jesus is very patient with us to continue to reiterate to us time and again the important things of the future that He knows we need to know about (not everything, for 'we see in part and we know in part'). Often we don't get it at the time, because it just doesn't seem to make sense to us, especially because, like the disciples, we don't really believe that God would allow so much trial and so much suffering, especially to His own people. We also often can't understand the 'why' of it, so instead of grappling with and thoroughly searching out the truth to see the basis for such things like judgment and wrath in the Word of God, we choose to avoid it at all costs, because it just seems to much for us to bear, too hard to try and understand, and to scary to look into. If, when Jesus had warned the disciples about the coming judgment and wrath that would be poured out on the cross, they had really listened, taken it to heart, and then gone and searched the Word to see the basis for such a thing in scripture, they would've understood exactly what was coming and why it had to come, and from everything we know of how much the Apostles suffered and endured after the cross, I personally don't think they would've ever left Jesus at the cross. I think that, like Jesus, they would've set their faces to the trial and faced it like the incredible men of God that, by the grace of God, we later saw them to be.
Similarly, if many today, instead of simply ignoring warnings about the future, judgment and wrath, and why God does and allows these things, and focusing on just the aspects of God they like, that are easy, that feel good, and that they think will benefit them in some way, and actually went to the Word to find out about all these 'harder' things of the Word, they'd find that they do have a basis in scripture and they would be able to understand and accept them and profit by them. Often the meaning of prophecy is hidden from us, just like it was from the disciples, because really our hearts aren't open to it.
Luke 18v31 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. 32 He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; 33 they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”
34 The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.
This happens because we really aren't willing to receive from God in this way. Really we don't have 'ears to hear' prophetic things, so we don't hear them. Jesus won't force prophetic revelation on us, and if we're not open to hearing His voice in that way, He won't give it to us. I few years ago I knew a person who had been getting prophetic dreams from the Lord. There came a point though when they didn't want to hear from the Lord like that anymore. For them it was scary and so they asked the Lord to stop giving them dreams. And so the Lord did as they asked, and that person stopped getting prophetic dreams. They got what they asked for, but the question really is, what did they miss out on? What information will they not be benefitted by now, and what will the consequences of that be for their lives now and in the future? We must be very careful to not just receive the revelation that we want, but to receive every revelation He wants to give us (Mark 4v9), because all of it is intended to help us and our walk with Him. If we just receive what we want, we are in danger of envisioning, worshipping and serving the God of our own hearts and of making an idol that is only like God in the shallowest sense. However, if we receive the prophetic revelation He wants us to have, and the basis for such things in the Word of truth, then we'll profit by them in just the way He intended. If we now believe the prophetic revelation He is giving WE WILL PROFIT FROM THOSE THINGS IN AN INCREDIBLE WAY when those things start to take place. When the storm hits, His people will already have known it was going to hit, will be prepared for it, will understand that such things have a basis in the Word, will and ways of God, will know how to live and follow God in such a time, still serve Him in such a time, endure through such a time, and understand that God will have His perfect will through that time. If we don't listen we may very well come to severely doubt God and His goodness, doubt His sovereignty, doubt His love, be overcome with sorrow because all those dreams and goals that merely originated in us and were really just selfish come to nothing, and simply just flee God during such a time because we'll feel that God has failed and that the enemy has won. So the encouragement for us is to listen to what God has been speaking about, heed the prophecies He gives, and seek to gain a firm understanding and basis for them in the Word of God, If we listen and understand now, we'll be able to obey Him in the time to come.
I say all that because for a long time now the Lord has been warning me about a coming storm that is about to take place. I've written about it again and again, and so the Lord has been clearly warning and making it as plain as possible that trouble is on its way. Now, that storm may or may not just be about to start. Just after the series of posts I wrote about the coming storm, North Korea started its threats to the US and to South Korea. On 11/3 North Korea declared that they had nullified the Armistice between it and South Korea, and from there we all know about the threats that have taken place (even before that the threats had started). From here it seems like anything could happen with North Korea. They are moving missiles around and telling people from foreign embassies that they won't be able to guarantee their safety after April 10. So was it a coincidence that just after the posts I wrote about the coming storm North Korea began making threats? Does this mean that the storm is just about to break out? Personally I have no idea. It could be coincidence or it could be incredibly divine timing, only the Lord knows. Either way, God has told me very specifically that we as His people must now be watching. So we watch: we watch North Korea, Iran (if you don't know about Iran, google 'Iran, Barak Obama and Timeline' to find out what's going on there), current events, our own lives and ourselves, and we watch for coming trials just like the disciples were told to do, simply because we need to obey Jesus in this. Prophecy is a way that Jesus prepares our way before us, because being an eternal God and an eternal author of our lives and salvation, He is as much concerned with our present as He is with our future- Matt 11v10:
..."I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'
I'd encourage everyone to make use of the comfort and prep that the Lord is providing at this time. Just like God gives the gifts of preachers, teachers, evangelists etc, so has He given the gift of the prophetic, and that is because each of these gifts have their role to play in being the means by which God gives His people what He wants to give them, comfort them, prepare them, and equip them. As for myself, I don't claim to be anything but the chief of sinners and a very ordinary man who doesn't even know what's going to happen a hour from now, let alone any other time in the future, but mercifully there is a God in heaven who knows these things, and I do believe very strongly that what He has shown to me and many others will come to pass. There has only been a handful, if that, that have read each of the posts I've put on my blog, but they are still there for anyone who believes that they might be useful and profitable for them and their walk with the Lord in the time to come. I pray that they would be profitable for you if you decide to read them, and that whatever is of the Lord will speak to you, but whatever is of me will be burned up in the reading of them. There are many other people online that God has shown similar things to as well, and in much more detail. I'd encourage everyone to look at the following websites to see confirming prophetic revelations:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Watchmen-Prophets-Assembly/
http://www.handofhelp.com/visions_michael.php
http://www.thegospel.com/clients/the-prophecy-club/html/v006/
*Just a disclaimer to say that I don't believe everything all of these men believe about the Word, but I think it's very rare that we all believe exactly the same thing. When it comes to the fundamentals though, they are very sound. So obviously use discernment, test all things by the Word of God, by prayer and by the voice of the Lord.
God bless
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