Faith to See
For the last few months, I have been noticing the weirdest thing: that the more I see the intensity of the world increase, the harder it is for me to settle my heart and mind and sort out what I am seeing in a Biblical context. This is the opposite of what I would expect. It seems logical that if God gave me insight into what to expect, and those events began to happen with increasing frequency and accuracy, that I would become more focused and settled on what is happening. But this is not my experience. In fact, exactly the opposite is what tends to happen. It requires prayer and faith...active dialogue with God about what is happening, in order to continue to see clearly. It gets harder by the week.This is Biblical. Most people think that at some point it will be obvious and everyone will just "get on board," but that isn't what the Bible promises. The return of Jesus only gets harder to see coming as time goes on! IT WILL ALWAYS TAKE FAITH TO SEE THE RETURN OF JESUS COMING!!
Luke 17:26-36 NKJV
And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.”
Unlike the Mattthew 24 passage and the Mark 13 passage, where Jesus talks about those in Judea "running" from Judea at the beginning of the great tribulation as the antichrist seizes Jerusalem, this passage from Luke is talking about the rapture, which happens at the END of the great tribulation. Jesus said through the great tribulation, most people will have no idea what is happening in agreement with Biblical prophecy. Jesus is warning Christians...those following Him...to recognize the signs. They won't be obvious. The intensity of the day increases imperceptibly...conditioning the world, including believers, to accept as normal the intense things happening right before their eyes.
Right up until the rapture, right through the seal and trumpet judgments, most of the earth won't see the intense and OBVIOUS transpiring of all the events Jesus prophesied!! Each event...each increase of intensity...if not responded to in agreement with Jesus, only conditions the heart to accept the next increase.
That means those dramatic events prophesied will mostly be missed, even though the seals alone include: 1/4 of the earths population dying within a couple of years, a complete implementation of a global currency enforced by law and the resulting famine, forced worship of the antichrist and a huge increase of martyrdom for those that refuse, and the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit on believers...signs and wonders the earth has never seen before...
Revelation 6:8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
The trumpet judgments, which conclude with the rapture, which is the 7th trumpet, include 1/3 of the sun's light diminishing, a mass poisoning of 1/3 of the earths fresh and salt water, 1/3 of the earths vegetation destroyed, and the release of visible demons which torment people who cannot die except through the brimstone and fire of the mouths of demons. The trumpet judgments result in 1/3 of the earths remaining population being killed in a matter of months. If you do the simple math, by 2020, the earth's population will be approximately 8 billion people. The prophesied death toll will be 4 billion people in 1,260 days.
Revelation 9:18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.
That is more people dying each month than all of world war II, yet Jesus says in Luke 13 that it will be just like the days of Noah right until the day Jesus is revealed at the end of these events!! How can this be??!!
This is because of a phenomenon termed "the normalcy bias" by psychologists. This is the same reason New Orleans didn't evacuate before Katrina, and many Jews refused to leave Nazi Germany. The normalcy bias is defined like this on wikipedia:
"The normalcy bias, or normality bias, refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation."
This is happening in our day. The intensity of the world has increased exponentially since I was a kid. If you plucked someone out of the 1960s... before the severe degredation of our entertainment culture, before Columbine shocked the entire globe, before 911 made big-brother police state monitoring seem normal, before the internet connected us to the most radical and perverse elements of our society more easily than running to the store to buy milk, before suicide bombers, radical Islamists, rogue regimes with high-powered weapons...if you dropped someone from the 1960s into 2014 they would FREAK OUT. But, we can hardly be bothered to tune in to the news for 20 minutes and figure out what it means. The attention span of humans has decreased to 30 second sound bites...and, in western culture, if that sound bite isn't directly about you, even 30 seconds is too long.
The more I study Jesus' plans to return, the more I see how they connect with the news events of our day. I see the unfolding of the three uprooted horns (that means regime change) by one man, the very specific peace covenant that is promised, the economic conditions necessary to be present to see a global currency implemented, all happening in plain sight!
Even more obvious is the way our country has changed from a once "Golden City" to a much different place where random murder, theft, and sexual perversion are growing, and we are exporting lust around the world. Death by natural disaster is increasing. Our government literally collects information about who you connect with via phone and internet and uses it to piece together your social networks so that large mainframes can track you! This shouldn't frighten believers, but it should cause you, at a minimum, to be certain of the hour you live in. BUT, for most they do not become more certain!...and they will not. That is Jesus' promise!
This is the hardest aspect of the "last days" to wrap my mind around, even though I see it happening to myself: the return of Jesus won't ever become more "obvious." You either know what the Bible says and connect with it, or you don't. The more intense the world gets, the HARDER it will become to settle your mind and see the truth....right up until the day Jesus splits the sky. This truth REALLY MATTERS!
The reason this is so important is that believers are supposed to know the plan so they can "watch, pray, and be ready." Casually entering into the coming time, waiting to see it more obviously, IS a RECIPE for disaster.
Soon, loyalty to Jesus will make you an enemy of the state. Mothers will turn in daughters for refusing to "go along" with the world, fathers will betray sons. "Christians" fearing for their own lives will turn other Christians holding out in loyalty to Jesus.
Jesus promised this whole dynamic of casually approaching the tribulation will leave many offended, betraying one another, falling away, and hearts growing cold. The antidote to falling away is "watching (intelligently), praying (in agreement with Jesus' very specific plan), and being ready (to be ready you MUST know what to be ready for.)" It is THAT simple, but SUPER important:
Matthew 24:9-13 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Mark 13:11-13 But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Luke 17:26-36 NKJV
And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.”
Unlike the Mattthew 24 passage and the Mark 13 passage, where Jesus talks about those in Judea "running" from Judea at the beginning of the great tribulation as the antichrist seizes Jerusalem, this passage from Luke is talking about the rapture, which happens at the END of the great tribulation. Jesus said through the great tribulation, most people will have no idea what is happening in agreement with Biblical prophecy. Jesus is warning Christians...those following Him...to recognize the signs. They won't be obvious. The intensity of the day increases imperceptibly...conditioning the world, including believers, to accept as normal the intense things happening right before their eyes.
Right up until the rapture, right through the seal and trumpet judgments, most of the earth won't see the intense and OBVIOUS transpiring of all the events Jesus prophesied!! Each event...each increase of intensity...if not responded to in agreement with Jesus, only conditions the heart to accept the next increase.
That means those dramatic events prophesied will mostly be missed, even though the seals alone include: 1/4 of the earths population dying within a couple of years, a complete implementation of a global currency enforced by law and the resulting famine, forced worship of the antichrist and a huge increase of martyrdom for those that refuse, and the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit on believers...signs and wonders the earth has never seen before...
Revelation 6:8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
The trumpet judgments, which conclude with the rapture, which is the 7th trumpet, include 1/3 of the sun's light diminishing, a mass poisoning of 1/3 of the earths fresh and salt water, 1/3 of the earths vegetation destroyed, and the release of visible demons which torment people who cannot die except through the brimstone and fire of the mouths of demons. The trumpet judgments result in 1/3 of the earths remaining population being killed in a matter of months. If you do the simple math, by 2020, the earth's population will be approximately 8 billion people. The prophesied death toll will be 4 billion people in 1,260 days.
Revelation 9:18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.
That is more people dying each month than all of world war II, yet Jesus says in Luke 13 that it will be just like the days of Noah right until the day Jesus is revealed at the end of these events!! How can this be??!!
This is because of a phenomenon termed "the normalcy bias" by psychologists. This is the same reason New Orleans didn't evacuate before Katrina, and many Jews refused to leave Nazi Germany. The normalcy bias is defined like this on wikipedia:
"The normalcy bias, or normality bias, refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation."
This is happening in our day. The intensity of the world has increased exponentially since I was a kid. If you plucked someone out of the 1960s... before the severe degredation of our entertainment culture, before Columbine shocked the entire globe, before 911 made big-brother police state monitoring seem normal, before the internet connected us to the most radical and perverse elements of our society more easily than running to the store to buy milk, before suicide bombers, radical Islamists, rogue regimes with high-powered weapons...if you dropped someone from the 1960s into 2014 they would FREAK OUT. But, we can hardly be bothered to tune in to the news for 20 minutes and figure out what it means. The attention span of humans has decreased to 30 second sound bites...and, in western culture, if that sound bite isn't directly about you, even 30 seconds is too long.
The more I study Jesus' plans to return, the more I see how they connect with the news events of our day. I see the unfolding of the three uprooted horns (that means regime change) by one man, the very specific peace covenant that is promised, the economic conditions necessary to be present to see a global currency implemented, all happening in plain sight!
Even more obvious is the way our country has changed from a once "Golden City" to a much different place where random murder, theft, and sexual perversion are growing, and we are exporting lust around the world. Death by natural disaster is increasing. Our government literally collects information about who you connect with via phone and internet and uses it to piece together your social networks so that large mainframes can track you! This shouldn't frighten believers, but it should cause you, at a minimum, to be certain of the hour you live in. BUT, for most they do not become more certain!...and they will not. That is Jesus' promise!
This is the hardest aspect of the "last days" to wrap my mind around, even though I see it happening to myself: the return of Jesus won't ever become more "obvious." You either know what the Bible says and connect with it, or you don't. The more intense the world gets, the HARDER it will become to settle your mind and see the truth....right up until the day Jesus splits the sky. This truth REALLY MATTERS!
The reason this is so important is that believers are supposed to know the plan so they can "watch, pray, and be ready." Casually entering into the coming time, waiting to see it more obviously, IS a RECIPE for disaster.
Soon, loyalty to Jesus will make you an enemy of the state. Mothers will turn in daughters for refusing to "go along" with the world, fathers will betray sons. "Christians" fearing for their own lives will turn other Christians holding out in loyalty to Jesus.
Jesus promised this whole dynamic of casually approaching the tribulation will leave many offended, betraying one another, falling away, and hearts growing cold. The antidote to falling away is "watching (intelligently), praying (in agreement with Jesus' very specific plan), and being ready (to be ready you MUST know what to be ready for.)" It is THAT simple, but SUPER important:
Matthew 24:9-13 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Mark 13:11-13 But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
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