Kalamazoo

There is something special about my city. God feels strongly about SW Michigan. He really does. When I first moved here in 1991, I knew this was the place for me. I moved away for a few months in 1992, and when I got back into town, I knew I would never move again. I was made for this time and this place. God put a little bit of His love for this area in my heart.


Over the last couple of years, God has been revealing to me, little by little, how clearly the events of Revelation...the events surrounding the return of Jesus...are in the Bible. Not just in the book of Revelation itself, but throughout the Bible. Once I started to see how plainly it is laid out, I couldn't "unsee" it. I think of it like those techy pictures in frames at the mall that have the hidden picture in them. You can look at one of those for hours and just see blue lines...then bam...once you see the shark, or spaceship, or whatever is in there, you can't unsee it! This has changed my entire life.


What I realized is that a great majority of the information in the Bible centers on the events that will occur in the last 7 years leading up to the return of Jesus.


In the broadest strokes Jesus' plan is really simple: sin and righteousness both increase until the end. The light gets brighter and the darkness gets darker. Mankind chooses if they want the invisible Jesus OR the man who has a plan to make everyone's lives the way they think they want them.


During this process, a ton of people will, for the sake of "coexisting," abandon the fundamentals of their religions and join together to do all the good things this man (the antichrist) supports. As this mass exodus from the Bible-believing Church occurs, Christians that are loyal to Jesus as the only way of salvation will be seen as the enemy for resisting unity.


Many will choose the man-centered plan and reject waiting on the invisible Jesus. The pressure of world and economic events will force everyone to choose...Jesus is forcing the choice before He returns. He doesn't force WHAT we choose, but He allows the pressure to come so people HAVE TO choose. As people choose Him, Jesus will release an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that the first apostles, those who healed the sick, cast out demons, and raised the dead, would be shocked at. Simultaneously, as many choose the man with the plan, Jesus will lift His hand of restraint from the world system and let mankind see the actual effects of the evil plan they are choosing.


We have seen Jesus do this before. He lifted His hand over Nazi Germany for a few years. Concentration camps, famine, widespread death and world war occurred. 6 million jews and 4 million christians were systematically killed in a few years. Jesus lifted His hand, just a little bit, in Stalinist Russia, and Maoist China, the result was the same: widespread death, poverty, famine, and a total loss of freedom...


Jesus will lift His hand fully off this last run at global socialism once more for exactly 42 months (3.5 years):


Revelation 13:5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.


This will be the greatest contrast of the light of Jesus in the world and the depth of darkness that is hidden in the heart of mankind. Jesus let's everyone get what they want.


This is judgment: Jesus, in the abundance of His love, lets everyone sample their future before they get the permanence of it. Want a life free of God? The world will get to make that choice and taste the death that comes with rejecting the author of life. Want a life connected to Jesus? The wonder-working power that comes with that choice will make the sting of the world's rebellion seem so small in comparison...it really will!


In a time of judgment, geographic areas get what they want, too! God told Abraham that for 10 righteous people, 10 people that lived for God as their sole purpose in life, in Sodom God would save the entire wicked city..sparing everyone the fire sent down from heaven. He couldn't find 10!


Genesis 18:20, 23-24, 32-33 NKJV


And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave... And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it?... Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.


This same offer is available today. Judgment IS coming on a global level. Mankind, by and large, doesn't seem that interested in waiting on invisible Jesus. We all have a choice to make. What will be the fate of my city? It really depends on the response of those who live here. This is the choice: go all in for Jesus and walk in great light as a witness to the world that God makes a difference between His people and those who choose a life free of Him, or flow with the world into a global nanny state run by the wicked step-nanny? God makes a difference between those who agree with Him and those who don't. None of the plagues that touched Egypt damaged the Gods people in Goshen, right next door:


Exodus 8:22-24 And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the land. I will make a difference between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be.” ’ ” And the Lord did so. Thick swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted because of the swarms of flies.


Several months ago the Lord spoke clearly to me and said "I have selected your city for mercy, will your city agree with me?" Prophecy is an invitation. It requires a response. Because God chose love, He chose free will. He doesn't force anyone into His plan for them. His statement is an invitation for agreement with Him to choose the mercy He wants to give.


After He said this to me, He said the neatest thing. He said " look, I have named the roads in your city as a sign. Won't I sprinkle my love on Sprinkle Road, and center hearts on Me on Centre Avenue? Won't I angle hearts toward me on Angling Road, and romance families on Romence? Won't I love my people on Lover's Lane? Won't I lay children in my arms on Lay Boulevard and pour out streams of living water on Lake Street? I will ransom families on Ransom Street, and build my Church on Church Street."





I am seeing those loyal to Jesus getting this basic message across this region in hundreds of different ways. He is setting us up to inherit a glorious promise of light in the midst of what is promised to be a time of increasing darkness. If we will "pray the prayers" and just try to "do the stuff," (contend to agree with Him with our words and actions) flowing in with the Holy Spirit, God will do everything else. How many would it take to make our city a "land of Goshen"? I intend to find out!