Opening Eyes
Psalms 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.
A couple of years ago, the Lord started to give me supernatural understanding of Jesus' plans to return. It wasn't that He told me secret things that no one had ever heard. He started to open the eyes of my understanding and show me the plain and simple things that were always in my Bible, but were hidden from my eyes by my own heart. The heart is the slipperiest thing going! People generally fit knowledge into their desire. If something doesn't fit, we tend to set it aside, like the less obvious pieces of an advanced jigsaw puzzle. The hardest pieces...the ones that appear kind indistinguishable from the others...those generally go in last. It isn't that we don't care about truth, it is that truth isn't always that obvious and we don't know how it fits.
Anything that is actually true is like those blue digital photographs from the early 90s...the ones that had a spaceship, or a shark, or Saturn hidden in the blue wavy lines...hidden within the obvious blankness of the picture. Until you see the hidden picture, it is just a bunch of wavy blue lines...once you see the picture, you cannot unsee it. Once my brain learned to pick out that shark, that is all I saw when I looked at what was before blank and blue. Truth is supposed to be that way. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
This is what started happening to me with Jesus' plans in the Bible for what I believe is very near. Once I started to see the lines connecting, I just simply cannot unsee it. The Bible is mostly about the last generation that will see the return of Jesus, but that generation, even those currently "representing" Jesus, mostly will not know it!
Matthew 24:37-39 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
The one thing that stands out the boldest to me is how often Jesus said to prepare for that time. He never mentioned His return without saying "be ready," "watch," or "pray." This is because He was crystal clear that He is going to allow great tribulation to touch the earth, including His disciples. This is because He intends to let the world "have what it wants." The world mostly wants to have "self interest" guide them. Even in the Church, believers mostly want God's presence without His leadership. That is simply impossible, because it rejects the truth of Jesus. Jesus IS truth.
The Book of Revelation is the story, told in advance, of Jesus allowing the world to taste the fruit of its true desire, and in that uncovering of truth, to allow people to finally pick what they want: man with God...what God desires and called "very good" at the beginning...or man independent of God's leadership...what satan told Eve was better than very good. Satan told Eve she could cast off God's perfect commandments and leadership and still live...nope...not possible.
As this great uncovering of truth unfolds over 3.5 years, the world is going to be thrown into violent division. The truth you stand on going in to the storm will be very important, because God is going to give everyone what they want. Everyone "mostly" wants mankind without God. Mankind trades power for loyalty, and so every loyalty is going to get "sifted" through absolute truth. Every motive is going to be laid bare. That is what the intensity is for, to allow a Bride to go from wrinkled and spotted to pure and spotless...BEFORE Jesus returns. She has made herself ready, and He gave her the Spirit and the Word to do it...IF she wants truth:
Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
The Great Tribulation is Jesus' GIFT to the TRUE Bride. She knows He is able to satisfy her in any circumstance...to love, protect, and uphold in the face of any increase of the enemy's efforts. The Tribulation is designed to sift hearts. It is DESIGNED as the least intense means to reach the greatest number of people at the deepest heart level, without EVER violating free will. It is INTENSE...it is strong soap...because the stain is so deep. Watering down the soap might feel less harsh, but then nothing gets clean. Many want to water down the soap, but the soap WILL be just as strong as it has always been intended to be, because the Bride WILL be pure and spotless...it is written.
Jesus is BRILLIANT in his ability to organize physical circumstance to uncover every true motivation. Do I pray for people because it makes others think I am holy and important, or because I love Jesus? Do I write because it increases my prominence, or because I am loyal to the one who knows my true name? Do I sing for the crowd or for Jesus? Do I give my money away to be noticed, or to be secretly obedient? Do I put money in the offering plate, even when I have already tithed, if I think someone will think I am not obedient?!
Do I deliver people from demons because it makes me look powerful and anointed, or because their captivity pains the king?...or both?...how much of each is present in my heart. Am I ok with ANYTHING less than 100% loyalty and obedience. What does my emotion tell me when no one notices me? Do I want to search God's heart for what He desires and bring it to Him, or do I look for ways to fit his truth into my life to feed MY desire? These, and many more internal and secret fidelity issues will all be lain bare and sorted out in a very intense season.
The way Jesus intends to do this is to give the world, led by the antichrist, authority over all of the "strengths" of the world: money, status, food, luxury, land, media, political power, religion, and more...for 3.5 years. For the 3.5 years leading up to that time, it will be more and more painful for Christians to hold onto the strengths of the world. In His mercy, Jesus will clearly demonstrate the cost of agreeing with Him...it is submitting to His leadership, made possible by grace, not using grace to escape His leadership. Jesus led His disciples like this:
Mark 6:7-13 And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts— but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics...So they went out and preached that people should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.
Disciples of Jesus are supposed to quit earthly strength and live victoriously by the Spirit. This IS what will happen in full victory in one generation...whether I believe it or not. That generation will either get ready or it won't. I believe it and am asking...contending...for God to get me ready now. Getting ready means cutting every heart tie to earthly strength now, so that when the storm comes, I am only standing on God. This is done by living the Sermon on the Mount. Servanthood, mourning spiritual poverty, becoming "weak" by fasting, praying, giving away my money extravagantly...so my heart FEELS the earthly strength wash away! This is what Jesus did and called "meekness"...
Psalms 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
By the time the Great Tribulation starts, the true Bride will be left standing...probably quite shakily, like a newborn colt...on ONE SOURCE OF STRENGTH...God. By the end of the Great Tribulation, the Bride will be running like a powerful stallion through the earth...flying on the strength no one else wanted to choose...the very strength of the Genesis 1 creator God...The Holy Spirit living within Her, flowing through her, and releasing faith that will actually change the physical atmosphere around her.
BUT, time is of the essence. There is only one time to get ready: BEFORE it starts. I can tell you, once I saw the lines connect, I realized it is going to start MUCH sooner than most believe:
Matthew 25:1-13 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘ No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
A couple of years ago, the Lord started to give me supernatural understanding of Jesus' plans to return. It wasn't that He told me secret things that no one had ever heard. He started to open the eyes of my understanding and show me the plain and simple things that were always in my Bible, but were hidden from my eyes by my own heart. The heart is the slipperiest thing going! People generally fit knowledge into their desire. If something doesn't fit, we tend to set it aside, like the less obvious pieces of an advanced jigsaw puzzle. The hardest pieces...the ones that appear kind indistinguishable from the others...those generally go in last. It isn't that we don't care about truth, it is that truth isn't always that obvious and we don't know how it fits.
Anything that is actually true is like those blue digital photographs from the early 90s...the ones that had a spaceship, or a shark, or Saturn hidden in the blue wavy lines...hidden within the obvious blankness of the picture. Until you see the hidden picture, it is just a bunch of wavy blue lines...once you see the picture, you cannot unsee it. Once my brain learned to pick out that shark, that is all I saw when I looked at what was before blank and blue. Truth is supposed to be that way. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
This is what started happening to me with Jesus' plans in the Bible for what I believe is very near. Once I started to see the lines connecting, I just simply cannot unsee it. The Bible is mostly about the last generation that will see the return of Jesus, but that generation, even those currently "representing" Jesus, mostly will not know it!
Matthew 24:37-39 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
The one thing that stands out the boldest to me is how often Jesus said to prepare for that time. He never mentioned His return without saying "be ready," "watch," or "pray." This is because He was crystal clear that He is going to allow great tribulation to touch the earth, including His disciples. This is because He intends to let the world "have what it wants." The world mostly wants to have "self interest" guide them. Even in the Church, believers mostly want God's presence without His leadership. That is simply impossible, because it rejects the truth of Jesus. Jesus IS truth.
The Book of Revelation is the story, told in advance, of Jesus allowing the world to taste the fruit of its true desire, and in that uncovering of truth, to allow people to finally pick what they want: man with God...what God desires and called "very good" at the beginning...or man independent of God's leadership...what satan told Eve was better than very good. Satan told Eve she could cast off God's perfect commandments and leadership and still live...nope...not possible.
As this great uncovering of truth unfolds over 3.5 years, the world is going to be thrown into violent division. The truth you stand on going in to the storm will be very important, because God is going to give everyone what they want. Everyone "mostly" wants mankind without God. Mankind trades power for loyalty, and so every loyalty is going to get "sifted" through absolute truth. Every motive is going to be laid bare. That is what the intensity is for, to allow a Bride to go from wrinkled and spotted to pure and spotless...BEFORE Jesus returns. She has made herself ready, and He gave her the Spirit and the Word to do it...IF she wants truth:
Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
The Great Tribulation is Jesus' GIFT to the TRUE Bride. She knows He is able to satisfy her in any circumstance...to love, protect, and uphold in the face of any increase of the enemy's efforts. The Tribulation is designed to sift hearts. It is DESIGNED as the least intense means to reach the greatest number of people at the deepest heart level, without EVER violating free will. It is INTENSE...it is strong soap...because the stain is so deep. Watering down the soap might feel less harsh, but then nothing gets clean. Many want to water down the soap, but the soap WILL be just as strong as it has always been intended to be, because the Bride WILL be pure and spotless...it is written.
Jesus is BRILLIANT in his ability to organize physical circumstance to uncover every true motivation. Do I pray for people because it makes others think I am holy and important, or because I love Jesus? Do I write because it increases my prominence, or because I am loyal to the one who knows my true name? Do I sing for the crowd or for Jesus? Do I give my money away to be noticed, or to be secretly obedient? Do I put money in the offering plate, even when I have already tithed, if I think someone will think I am not obedient?!
Do I deliver people from demons because it makes me look powerful and anointed, or because their captivity pains the king?...or both?...how much of each is present in my heart. Am I ok with ANYTHING less than 100% loyalty and obedience. What does my emotion tell me when no one notices me? Do I want to search God's heart for what He desires and bring it to Him, or do I look for ways to fit his truth into my life to feed MY desire? These, and many more internal and secret fidelity issues will all be lain bare and sorted out in a very intense season.
The way Jesus intends to do this is to give the world, led by the antichrist, authority over all of the "strengths" of the world: money, status, food, luxury, land, media, political power, religion, and more...for 3.5 years. For the 3.5 years leading up to that time, it will be more and more painful for Christians to hold onto the strengths of the world. In His mercy, Jesus will clearly demonstrate the cost of agreeing with Him...it is submitting to His leadership, made possible by grace, not using grace to escape His leadership. Jesus led His disciples like this:
Mark 6:7-13 And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts— but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics...So they went out and preached that people should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.
Disciples of Jesus are supposed to quit earthly strength and live victoriously by the Spirit. This IS what will happen in full victory in one generation...whether I believe it or not. That generation will either get ready or it won't. I believe it and am asking...contending...for God to get me ready now. Getting ready means cutting every heart tie to earthly strength now, so that when the storm comes, I am only standing on God. This is done by living the Sermon on the Mount. Servanthood, mourning spiritual poverty, becoming "weak" by fasting, praying, giving away my money extravagantly...so my heart FEELS the earthly strength wash away! This is what Jesus did and called "meekness"...
Psalms 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
By the time the Great Tribulation starts, the true Bride will be left standing...probably quite shakily, like a newborn colt...on ONE SOURCE OF STRENGTH...God. By the end of the Great Tribulation, the Bride will be running like a powerful stallion through the earth...flying on the strength no one else wanted to choose...the very strength of the Genesis 1 creator God...The Holy Spirit living within Her, flowing through her, and releasing faith that will actually change the physical atmosphere around her.
BUT, time is of the essence. There is only one time to get ready: BEFORE it starts. I can tell you, once I saw the lines connect, I realized it is going to start MUCH sooner than most believe:
Matthew 25:1-13 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘ No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
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