The Great Shaking: Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls – Part 3
The Falling Away
God is the fullness of every good thing. God only does good. The book of Revelation primarily describes the last seven years of world history where everyone who agrees with God experiences the re-birth of what God called “very good”, AND everyone who disagrees with God experiences the “beginning of death”…called “judgment”:
Proverbs 11:23 The godly can look forward to a reward, while the wicked can expect only judgment.
At this point in time, most of the earth believes they are “living”…this is not true. Right now we are in the middle of a rescue plan that REQUIRES the participation of everyone who wants to live! Right now, you are either working to see this:
Matthew 6:10 May Your Kingdom come soon. May Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Or you are WAITING for this:
Revelation 20:15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Everyone REALLY gets what they want. The Bible is clear that God is the source of life for mankind. Because we can’t generally see God right now, the world thinks that the sun is where our light comes from and without it, everything would cease, BUT, if you actually believe the Bible then the TRUTH is God is the light of mankind. Without His presence…literally the “face to face” presence of God…life is simply not possible:
John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (4) In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (5) And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Life is impossible apart from the glory of God’s presence. Adam and Eve died as soon as they ate the fruit. Life became “less than” life at that very moment that shame entered their spirits. Life is supposed to be much more full than we experience right now, because the glory we are supposed to live in is much brighter than the sun. In fact, the glory we are supposed to live in is so bright that right now the earth, and the people of the earth, could not handle it! To see the fullness of the glory of God right now would consume people in natural bodies, but there is a coming “time” when it must be revealed. God wants back into His own Garden He called “very good”:
1 Timothy 6:14-16 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, (15) which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, (16) who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
Right now, the glory of God’s presence is so bright it is “unapproachable” by people. For love, God has withdrawn from the Garden He made to keep us alive until we either choose life or death for ourselves. That life everlasting requires a new body capable of being in front of God. Moses and the elders of Israel saw God’s feet, Moses once saw God’s back. In visions, Daniel and John the Beloved saw the Father’s likeness as a throne of life-giving fire….but the truth is, until you have a new resurrected body, you simply cannot live, because you cannot stand in the presence of God…right now you are either contending to live, or waiting to die (exist apart from life)….this is what the Bible calls a “lake of fire.”
I think of it like a tree: a tree cannot live without the sun. If you took a healthy tree and built a shed over it, blocking out the sun, that tree would be firewood within a matter of months or years. A tree cannot live without the sun. You cannot live without the glory of God’s presence. For Real. Life is not possible apart from God, but GOD CHOSE LOVE! Love requires free will. For love, God refuses to force anyone to choose life! So, in His patience He has given men and women…generation after generation….time to decide if they want to live, or exist in a perpetual state of not living, called a barren lake of fire. God made people to exist forever, but to have life forever is another thing:
John 10:27-29 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. (28) And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. (29) My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
The reason that this truth…that life is not possible apart from face to face living with God… is not readily apparent for most people is because of God’s mercy and patience. He is giving the whole of creation time to decide if it wants life or death. God wants everyone to live, but soon everyone will have to choose one way or the other:
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
We are quickly approaching the end of the time of decision. I believe the earth has roughly 7 years to figure out if it wants life or death, and the decision, in ONE GENERATION, will become final. According to both Paul, in the previous 1 Timothy passage, and Peter…how we live will determine how we fare through the harvest…the last 7 years leading up to the decision for life or death becoming final. If you work for life, you will get more and more “power to live” until Jesus splits the sky, gives you a new body, and for the first time since you were born, you FEEL what life is REALLY like! If you resist laying down your life fully to live in Jesus, you will get more and more death until your choice to be firewood is made final.
To agree with, and work toward, LIFE is described by Jesus like this:
Mark 10:17-21 Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" (18) So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. (19) You know the commandments: 'DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,' 'DO NOT MURDER,' 'DO NOT STEAL,' 'DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS,' 'Do not defraud,' 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER.'" (20) And he answered and said to Him, "Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth." (21) Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."
Life forever costs literally every other thing you are tempted to seek in the middle of the rescue operation. Everyone gets what they want. If you choose to go after the “good life” now, and get distracted from fully participating in the rescue, when life isn’t really even happening, you will forfeit some, or all, of LIFE later, when it begins.
This is the rescue plan: mankind is saved by applying the blood of Jesus’ own sacrifice to the wages of their sin. Trusting that Jesus died for you on the cross, and then doing your best to live under His leadership is what saves. It isn’t the good work you do that saves you, it is the simple trust…faith…that the price He paid was enough, and the choice to give leadership of your life to Jesus…which is called repentance…agreeing with God. The works…or evidence of your faith…are the thermometer to use to see if you are participating in the rescue operation. Everyone who is saved repents, or “agrees with God,” in different measures. This results in being “least” or “great” forever! If this is your realty you are “saved.”
Matthew 5:19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
The rescue plan is rock solid but NOT mandatory! You can sign up or cancel anytime. Jesus said “no one can snatch them from my hand” in the John 10 passage above, BUT, because of love, you can actually always choose to remove yourself from His hand. You remove yourself by changing your trust and putting it into something else to save you. Satan has a plan to try to force people to trust in a man’s idea of the perfect government in order to get the people of the earth to not trust Jesus. Satan will be allowed to confiscate every fake thing we might trust: money, reputation, our civic “good standing,” career in order to hem everyone in to finally choosing Jesus fully, or quitting.
Revelation 13:4-5 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" (5) And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.
One of the main ways satan will try to force people to quit trusting in Jesus is by removing their means of working or using money. To take the mark of the beast, or accept the new global currency, is to remove your trust from Jesus and put it in the “man with the plan”, called the antichrist :
Revelation 13:16-17 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, (17) and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Antichrist is going to lose, and everyone who trusted his plan will die with him:
Revelation 19:20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Revelation 14:9-10 Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, (10) he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
The new global currency is really coming. We can see the economies of the world are incredibly shaky right now. A man is coming who will “solve” the world’s money problems with a new global economic plan. You must not participate if you want life forever. Every plan but trusting in the invisible Jesus will fail. If you trust in someone, or something other than Jesus to save you in the coming intensity, you are actually removing yourself from Jesus’ hand and placing yourself in another hand!
I think of it like this: Jesus wants to rescue us from death…or living forever apart from God in a lake of fire. His death on the cross offered us a lifeline. Grabbing onto that lifeline lifts us out of the fire. Jesus’ lifeline is so strong, nothing can break it. As long as you hold on, nothing can break that lifeline. BUT, you can choose to let go anytime. Otherwise, you would be a slave to God once you accepted Jesus. Just like God didn’t force Adam and Eve to live in perfection, and instead gave them the option to “say no” to love, every person must be free to love, or not love, God back. The final decision for this reality is promised to be very intense.
God loves everyone, but forces no one to love Him back. To choose to trust in anyone other than Jesus for salvation is to let go of the lifeline…this is called “falling away” in the Bible. Jesus said that people that hear the Gospel…the good news of the lifeline, do one of four things:
Luke 8:11-15 "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Some refuse life:
(12) Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
Some choose life, and then quit (fall away) when the going gets rough…rough is coming!:
(13) But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
Some choose life, but for the time being don’t start living…instead they choose to try and live now, rather than work toward bringing real life to earth! Although this group doesn’t quit trusting Jesus…they end up with nothing to show for it, these are “least” in the kingdom of heaven when life begins:
(14) Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
Some choose life, and then immediately start living more and more in the reality that life is not possible until Jesus returns. They invest more and more of themselves in readying the earth for the return of Jesus. These are the “greatest” in the kingdom of heaven when life begins.
(15) But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
A falling away is coming. In fact, it will be so great of a falling away that it will be obvious it is happening. We are living, I believe, at the beginning of the “falling away.” We are living in the time many are trying to figure out how to manage the intense storms the world sees coming. There is only one rock to build your house on. If you have already started building on that rock and then decide to move, you are falling away. Once you fall away, you cannot be saved again. Paul said it is impossible. This is what Paul said:
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, (5) and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, (6) if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
The last 7 years of history leading up to life finally coming includes a great falling away of believers:
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, (2) not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. (3) Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, (4) who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (5) Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
The falling away will not be a bunch of people saying to the world “I quit Jesus!!” No! Many falling away will still go to churches. The falling away will be a bunch of Christians who don’t really believe that Jesus can save them, instead they will put their trust, or their idea of success/safety in life, in something else. Paul said they will be mostly self-focused and not preparing the earth for the return of Jesus as their primary identity, they will put their trust in their savings, their reputation, or the maintenance of their own image. Many will be trying to keep everyone but Jesus from disapproving them. This will result in them blaming God when things don’t go well (blasphemy), disobedience, unthankful hearts, unholy (casual about obeying God). This will weaken their faith in Jesus to the point that when Jesus begins allowing the tribulation events to happen, they will quit…their “folly will be manifest”…or made obvious to the whole world!
As the darkness increases, they will claim to be Christians, but they will deny that Jesus is going to do all the amazing things He promised to do! They will not prepare for the tribulation…the time of persecution…and they will, when the pressure is on, QUIT trusting in Jesus. This is what the falling away will look like:
2 Timothy 3:1-12 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: (2) For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (3) unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, (4) traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (5) having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (6) For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, (7) always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (8) Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; (9) but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was. (10) But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, (11) persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. (12) Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
The transition from this broken existence into Jesus coming and bringing life is VERY INTENSE! Intentionally, God has made the transition intense. Everyone who gets ready for the transition by grabbing onto Jesus with both hands will find out that this is the greatest time to be alive. Everyone who chooses to hang onto Jesus with one hand, and hang onto this fading world with the other will find that this is a painful time to be alive…and everyone who rejects God outright will taste more and more “non-life” until their choice is made permanent.
This is the point of the seals, trumpets, and the bowls. This is God’s plan to incrementally let everyone choosing death actually taste death so that anyone willing might change their mind and choose life. At the same time, Jesus is going to equip everyone choosing life to do the most amazing things to demonstrate to the earth that the choice for life is REALLY wise. Jesus will “make manifest” the folly of choosing death, and make manifest the WISDOM OF CHOOSING LIFE:
Daniel 12:1-4 "At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. (2) And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. (3) Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever. (4) "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."
The simplest way to describe this reality that I can think of is like this: The time of “greatest trouble” will require the strongest grip on Jesus! We live in a unique time, now is the time ot let go of every other dream and wholly embrace the dream of Jesus returning!
Much is available to us, but much is also required! To hang onto Jesus into the transition of LIFE with both hands requires you to lay down whatever else you might be tempted to hold onto. This is VERY unpopular theology in the land of comfort we live in, but the Bible is actually clear about this:
Luke 12:42-49 And the Lord said, "Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? (43) Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. (44) Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. (45) But if that servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, (46) the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. (47) And that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. (48) But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. (49) "I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
I believe Jesus has just kindled the final fire!
More soon….
God is the fullness of every good thing. God only does good. The book of Revelation primarily describes the last seven years of world history where everyone who agrees with God experiences the re-birth of what God called “very good”, AND everyone who disagrees with God experiences the “beginning of death”…called “judgment”:
Proverbs 11:23 The godly can look forward to a reward, while the wicked can expect only judgment.
At this point in time, most of the earth believes they are “living”…this is not true. Right now we are in the middle of a rescue plan that REQUIRES the participation of everyone who wants to live! Right now, you are either working to see this:
Matthew 6:10 May Your Kingdom come soon. May Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Or you are WAITING for this:
Revelation 20:15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Everyone REALLY gets what they want. The Bible is clear that God is the source of life for mankind. Because we can’t generally see God right now, the world thinks that the sun is where our light comes from and without it, everything would cease, BUT, if you actually believe the Bible then the TRUTH is God is the light of mankind. Without His presence…literally the “face to face” presence of God…life is simply not possible:
John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (4) In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (5) And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Life is impossible apart from the glory of God’s presence. Adam and Eve died as soon as they ate the fruit. Life became “less than” life at that very moment that shame entered their spirits. Life is supposed to be much more full than we experience right now, because the glory we are supposed to live in is much brighter than the sun. In fact, the glory we are supposed to live in is so bright that right now the earth, and the people of the earth, could not handle it! To see the fullness of the glory of God right now would consume people in natural bodies, but there is a coming “time” when it must be revealed. God wants back into His own Garden He called “very good”:
1 Timothy 6:14-16 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, (15) which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, (16) who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
Right now, the glory of God’s presence is so bright it is “unapproachable” by people. For love, God has withdrawn from the Garden He made to keep us alive until we either choose life or death for ourselves. That life everlasting requires a new body capable of being in front of God. Moses and the elders of Israel saw God’s feet, Moses once saw God’s back. In visions, Daniel and John the Beloved saw the Father’s likeness as a throne of life-giving fire….but the truth is, until you have a new resurrected body, you simply cannot live, because you cannot stand in the presence of God…right now you are either contending to live, or waiting to die (exist apart from life)….this is what the Bible calls a “lake of fire.”
I think of it like a tree: a tree cannot live without the sun. If you took a healthy tree and built a shed over it, blocking out the sun, that tree would be firewood within a matter of months or years. A tree cannot live without the sun. You cannot live without the glory of God’s presence. For Real. Life is not possible apart from God, but GOD CHOSE LOVE! Love requires free will. For love, God refuses to force anyone to choose life! So, in His patience He has given men and women…generation after generation….time to decide if they want to live, or exist in a perpetual state of not living, called a barren lake of fire. God made people to exist forever, but to have life forever is another thing:
John 10:27-29 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. (28) And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. (29) My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
The reason that this truth…that life is not possible apart from face to face living with God… is not readily apparent for most people is because of God’s mercy and patience. He is giving the whole of creation time to decide if it wants life or death. God wants everyone to live, but soon everyone will have to choose one way or the other:
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
We are quickly approaching the end of the time of decision. I believe the earth has roughly 7 years to figure out if it wants life or death, and the decision, in ONE GENERATION, will become final. According to both Paul, in the previous 1 Timothy passage, and Peter…how we live will determine how we fare through the harvest…the last 7 years leading up to the decision for life or death becoming final. If you work for life, you will get more and more “power to live” until Jesus splits the sky, gives you a new body, and for the first time since you were born, you FEEL what life is REALLY like! If you resist laying down your life fully to live in Jesus, you will get more and more death until your choice to be firewood is made final.
To agree with, and work toward, LIFE is described by Jesus like this:
Mark 10:17-21 Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" (18) So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. (19) You know the commandments: 'DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,' 'DO NOT MURDER,' 'DO NOT STEAL,' 'DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS,' 'Do not defraud,' 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER.'" (20) And he answered and said to Him, "Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth." (21) Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."
Life forever costs literally every other thing you are tempted to seek in the middle of the rescue operation. Everyone gets what they want. If you choose to go after the “good life” now, and get distracted from fully participating in the rescue, when life isn’t really even happening, you will forfeit some, or all, of LIFE later, when it begins.
This is the rescue plan: mankind is saved by applying the blood of Jesus’ own sacrifice to the wages of their sin. Trusting that Jesus died for you on the cross, and then doing your best to live under His leadership is what saves. It isn’t the good work you do that saves you, it is the simple trust…faith…that the price He paid was enough, and the choice to give leadership of your life to Jesus…which is called repentance…agreeing with God. The works…or evidence of your faith…are the thermometer to use to see if you are participating in the rescue operation. Everyone who is saved repents, or “agrees with God,” in different measures. This results in being “least” or “great” forever! If this is your realty you are “saved.”
Matthew 5:19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
The rescue plan is rock solid but NOT mandatory! You can sign up or cancel anytime. Jesus said “no one can snatch them from my hand” in the John 10 passage above, BUT, because of love, you can actually always choose to remove yourself from His hand. You remove yourself by changing your trust and putting it into something else to save you. Satan has a plan to try to force people to trust in a man’s idea of the perfect government in order to get the people of the earth to not trust Jesus. Satan will be allowed to confiscate every fake thing we might trust: money, reputation, our civic “good standing,” career in order to hem everyone in to finally choosing Jesus fully, or quitting.
Revelation 13:4-5 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" (5) And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.
One of the main ways satan will try to force people to quit trusting in Jesus is by removing their means of working or using money. To take the mark of the beast, or accept the new global currency, is to remove your trust from Jesus and put it in the “man with the plan”, called the antichrist :
Revelation 13:16-17 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, (17) and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Antichrist is going to lose, and everyone who trusted his plan will die with him:
Revelation 19:20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Revelation 14:9-10 Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, (10) he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
The new global currency is really coming. We can see the economies of the world are incredibly shaky right now. A man is coming who will “solve” the world’s money problems with a new global economic plan. You must not participate if you want life forever. Every plan but trusting in the invisible Jesus will fail. If you trust in someone, or something other than Jesus to save you in the coming intensity, you are actually removing yourself from Jesus’ hand and placing yourself in another hand!
I think of it like this: Jesus wants to rescue us from death…or living forever apart from God in a lake of fire. His death on the cross offered us a lifeline. Grabbing onto that lifeline lifts us out of the fire. Jesus’ lifeline is so strong, nothing can break it. As long as you hold on, nothing can break that lifeline. BUT, you can choose to let go anytime. Otherwise, you would be a slave to God once you accepted Jesus. Just like God didn’t force Adam and Eve to live in perfection, and instead gave them the option to “say no” to love, every person must be free to love, or not love, God back. The final decision for this reality is promised to be very intense.
God loves everyone, but forces no one to love Him back. To choose to trust in anyone other than Jesus for salvation is to let go of the lifeline…this is called “falling away” in the Bible. Jesus said that people that hear the Gospel…the good news of the lifeline, do one of four things:
Luke 8:11-15 "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Some refuse life:
(12) Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
Some choose life, and then quit (fall away) when the going gets rough…rough is coming!:
(13) But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
Some choose life, but for the time being don’t start living…instead they choose to try and live now, rather than work toward bringing real life to earth! Although this group doesn’t quit trusting Jesus…they end up with nothing to show for it, these are “least” in the kingdom of heaven when life begins:
(14) Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
Some choose life, and then immediately start living more and more in the reality that life is not possible until Jesus returns. They invest more and more of themselves in readying the earth for the return of Jesus. These are the “greatest” in the kingdom of heaven when life begins.
(15) But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
A falling away is coming. In fact, it will be so great of a falling away that it will be obvious it is happening. We are living, I believe, at the beginning of the “falling away.” We are living in the time many are trying to figure out how to manage the intense storms the world sees coming. There is only one rock to build your house on. If you have already started building on that rock and then decide to move, you are falling away. Once you fall away, you cannot be saved again. Paul said it is impossible. This is what Paul said:
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, (5) and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, (6) if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
The last 7 years of history leading up to life finally coming includes a great falling away of believers:
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, (2) not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. (3) Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, (4) who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (5) Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
The falling away will not be a bunch of people saying to the world “I quit Jesus!!” No! Many falling away will still go to churches. The falling away will be a bunch of Christians who don’t really believe that Jesus can save them, instead they will put their trust, or their idea of success/safety in life, in something else. Paul said they will be mostly self-focused and not preparing the earth for the return of Jesus as their primary identity, they will put their trust in their savings, their reputation, or the maintenance of their own image. Many will be trying to keep everyone but Jesus from disapproving them. This will result in them blaming God when things don’t go well (blasphemy), disobedience, unthankful hearts, unholy (casual about obeying God). This will weaken their faith in Jesus to the point that when Jesus begins allowing the tribulation events to happen, they will quit…their “folly will be manifest”…or made obvious to the whole world!
As the darkness increases, they will claim to be Christians, but they will deny that Jesus is going to do all the amazing things He promised to do! They will not prepare for the tribulation…the time of persecution…and they will, when the pressure is on, QUIT trusting in Jesus. This is what the falling away will look like:
2 Timothy 3:1-12 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: (2) For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (3) unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, (4) traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (5) having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (6) For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, (7) always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (8) Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; (9) but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was. (10) But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, (11) persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. (12) Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
The transition from this broken existence into Jesus coming and bringing life is VERY INTENSE! Intentionally, God has made the transition intense. Everyone who gets ready for the transition by grabbing onto Jesus with both hands will find out that this is the greatest time to be alive. Everyone who chooses to hang onto Jesus with one hand, and hang onto this fading world with the other will find that this is a painful time to be alive…and everyone who rejects God outright will taste more and more “non-life” until their choice is made permanent.
This is the point of the seals, trumpets, and the bowls. This is God’s plan to incrementally let everyone choosing death actually taste death so that anyone willing might change their mind and choose life. At the same time, Jesus is going to equip everyone choosing life to do the most amazing things to demonstrate to the earth that the choice for life is REALLY wise. Jesus will “make manifest” the folly of choosing death, and make manifest the WISDOM OF CHOOSING LIFE:
Daniel 12:1-4 "At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. (2) And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. (3) Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever. (4) "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."
The simplest way to describe this reality that I can think of is like this: The time of “greatest trouble” will require the strongest grip on Jesus! We live in a unique time, now is the time ot let go of every other dream and wholly embrace the dream of Jesus returning!
Much is available to us, but much is also required! To hang onto Jesus into the transition of LIFE with both hands requires you to lay down whatever else you might be tempted to hold onto. This is VERY unpopular theology in the land of comfort we live in, but the Bible is actually clear about this:
Luke 12:42-49 And the Lord said, "Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? (43) Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. (44) Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. (45) But if that servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, (46) the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. (47) And that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. (48) But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. (49) "I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
I believe Jesus has just kindled the final fire!
More soon….
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