The Falling Away – Part 2
One of the greatest lies to have been foisted on the believers in our generation is that the return of Jesus will occur at any minute, that no one could know when that minute is, and that there is nothing to be done but do your best and wait to be sucked up into the sky. This is so far from the action plan Jesus left for His disciples. In fact, it is a satanic setup to produce a great falling away that will steal many from the harvest God desires. Not knowing or participating in what Jesus is doing in this hour will, when the intensity increases to a level no one has ever seen, create great offense in those who think they know Jesus. This offense will, according to the Bible, cause many to go with the rest of the world in rebellion because they are afraid of the consequences of staying loyal to Jesus. Jesus gave very clear instruction to His disciples regarding how to hasten the intense Day of the Lord (pray), what to watch for to mark the progress of the intense Day of the Lord (watch) , and how to prepare for the intense Day of the Lord (be ready).
Every time Jesus spoke of His return, He admonished His disciples to watch, pray, and/or be ready. There are very specific things we MUST do to participate with Jesus in His return. To be able to do those things in obedience and agreement with our King’s BRILLIANT plan, we must know the plan and watch for the signs. Certain actions are required at different times. We are supposed to know the times! Listen to this end time statement God made through Isaiah:
Isaiah 28:21-29 The Lord will fight as he did at Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to do what he intends to do—strange as his actions may seem. He will complete his work, his mysterious work. Don't laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard the Lord Almighty's decision to destroy the whole country. Listen to what I am saying; pay attention to what I am telling you. Farmers don't constantly plow their fields and keep getting them ready for planting. Once they have prepared the soil, they plant the seeds of herbs such as dill and cumin. They plant rows of wheat and barley, and at the edges of their fields they plant other grain. They know how to do their work, because God has taught them. They never use a heavy club to beat out dill seeds or cumin seeds; instead they use light sticks of the proper size. They do not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and they know how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains. All this wisdom comes from the Lord Almighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed.
Knowing the plan and the intensity we are supposed to be getting ready for prevents the Bride from being offended when things get hot! The greatest preventative for falling away is knowing and being realistic about what to expect. I have taught Revelation for a couple of years. What I find from teaching it is that people who come into Revelation afraid, once they understand God’s plan, go out from Revelation confident and excited about the time they live in. But it takes an intentional study of the information. God has very intense plans promised! Not every earthquake is a bad earthquake. There are specific things to pray for in specific ways. Once you see them and participate in them, confidence builds for what is next! Our Father, who requires our loyalty to His judgments, has some pretty rough stuff in store. We need to know when and why He is doing what He is doing so we can declare things in agreement with Him and grow in oneness with Him! That is the point of Revelation. It is the story of our wedding!
There are over 150 Chapters in the Bible dedicated to describing the final generation on earth that will witness the return of Jesus. The Bible is actually mostly about our generation! The Bible has more way more information regarding Jesus' return than it does regarding His first coming. There are 89 chapters that comprise the Gospels, several of which primarily describe events related to Jesus return, while there are over 150 Chapters throughout the Bible that primarily describe Jesus' return. There is no lack of information to digest to be equipped to understand exactly what God is doing, when He is doing it, and WHY He is doing it in our generation, yet Revelation is one of the least understood Books in the Bible. This is a strategic deception the enemy is implementing in order to maximize the falling away.
Teaching Revelation comes at great cost. Many existing leaders in Jesus’ body actually oppose the simple teaching of Revelation! That is why Revelation is one of two places that promise a blessing for reading and keeping (or making choices that agree with) the book. The other place in the Bible that promises a blessing for doing and teaching the contents is the Sermon on the Mount, or Matthew 5,6, and 7, which promise greatness to those who do and teach it!
Revelation 1:1-3 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Matthew 5:18-20 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 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. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
The reason that this promise is found in these two places is that Revelation and the Sermon on the Mount are divinely connected to each other. Revelation is the motivation to do the Sermon on the Mount because the Sermon on the Mount is the antidote to the trouble that will touch the earth through the events described in Revelation! Wherever Revelation is taught in its main and plain meaning, the fruit is always the same: an increased focus and desire to prepare by following the road map in the Sermon on the Mount to wholehearted zealous love for Jesus that ruins a person for this world. If you want to be ready for heaven to come to earth, you have to train your heart to let go of your desire for earth without heaven. It is really simple and is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about! BUT, this retraining of my heart takes time. You need to take time in advance to store up oil to make it through the darkest part of earth's natural history.
Jesus' first coming was a "down payment" on the fullness of the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah to deliver the earth out of darkness and back into the face to face presence of God. The entire Bible is the story of the process God has chosen to restore everything that was lost in the fall. God made the earth to be a dwelling place where He could meet face to face with His beloved family of mankind. THAT is what God called "very good" in Genesis 1:31, and that is what He is in the process of restoring. The climax of the story happens in the final 7 years leading up to the return of Jesus. We call that final seven year period the "tribulation" and the second half of the final seven years...1,260 days to be exact...we call the "Great Tribulation." The tribulation, which turns into the great tribulation, will be the hardest time the earth has ever witnessed, but it will also be the greatest time to be alive if you are ready for it! Listen to what Daniel was told about the Great Tribulation:
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. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. 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. “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.”
Jesus himself said the wise ones in our generation, which the Bible calls "the time of the end," are ready with information, called "food," and confidence, which we call faith, to give to others that information they carry at the proper times:
Matthew 24:42-51 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Many will use the excuse "no one knows the day or hour" in order to comfort themselves that there is nothing to be done to prepare for Jesus' return, but that is exactly the OPPOSITE point Jesus was making! A carefree attitude towards the return of Jesus is a satanic deception most of the church in the west has fallen for! Jesus used the analogy of a thief breaking in...Jesus said HE IS THE THIEF! There is great loss waiting for those who refuse to pay attention and participate in Jesus’ very specific plans.
Jesus was saying the same thing about the wise servant at the end of Matthew 24 that he declared in the Sermon on the Mount: doing and teaching the truths of the hour sets you up for greatness forever... comforting yourself and others to ignore the events of the hour by saying "no one knows for sure" actually is considered REBELLION by Jesus! This careless attitude sets people up to fall away, which means to become offended and quit in the time of intensity! That is what it means to have a portion with hypocrites and to weep and gnash your teeth...this is what it means to be shut out of the kingdom at that exact moment the entire prepared Bride enters in!!
A hypocrite is someone who claims to be one thing but makes actual choices counter to the identity they claim. According to Jesus and the apostles, there will be many Christians who fall away when the “rubber meets the road” in the seven-year tribulation. They will fall away because of hypocrisy, because they claimed to be ready, but were not actually prepared the way JESUS said to prepare. Because they do not know the plans of their stated savior, nor did they take the time to get ready, they will follow the masses into rebellion against God and actually, out of fear of punishment from earthly powers, give up their salvation. Jesus and the apostles warned over and over about this. Look at what Paul told Timothy about OUR generation:
2 Timothy 3:1-7 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 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, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
“Having a form of godliness but denying its power.” Understanding the true power in creation and knowing how to draw on it is the answer to the intensity of Tribulation. This is what is learned by intentionally practicing the Sermon on the Mount. Paul was not describing lazy people to Tim! He said they are “always learning…yet they never come to the truth!” Paul is describing believers in our day who never enter into the Sermon on the Mount…instead they listen to the crowds, they hear the messages, the get excited, they dance and sing and tingle…but they never connect these experiences to what Jesus is ACTUALLY doing in their hour of history!
Jesus is preparing the earth, and anyone who will listen, for His return. His return is great…lots of people will agree with that until you dig into the details…but Jesus’ return is ALSO terrible…most people have no idea the intense dynamics that they will be here for and need to get ready for. Because they do not want to approach their relationship with God from the perspective of what He desires (to be back in the garden He made for His own pleasure), but rather from their own desires (to make the most of their 70 or 80 years)…they will MISS the very thing their savior is doing!
Jesus comes like a thief! Anyone not ready and paying great attention will suffer great loss! That is what a thief does! But not for YOU dear brothers…you should know when He is coming and BE READY!
1 Thessalonians 5:1-8 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
Right now, everyone who is truly loyal to Jesus will cast off the strength of this earth without Jesus…the desire for a “good life” now…and completely invest in the new season…the new thing…Jesus is doing. The Bride has always been expected to live this way…fasting sacrificially, praying sacrificially, giving sacrificially…training her heart like an athlete. The Bride is supposed to be all about giving away natural strength because she believes in the real and greater power of the supernatural un-created God.
Many false teachers have risen up to connect the Bride to natural strength. Corporate world natural thinking has invaded the Church and she is throwing off the true power found only in sitting before the God of all creation, hearing his instruction, and simply making herself available for Him to use in power. Focusing on the true invisible power behind all of creation by forgoing natural strength. The church is seeking man-based strategy, when that is the very thing God is in the process of judging! Woe to those who blindly follow the blind.
This earthly logic invading the Church is a satanic setup to create great offense in the Bride so she will fall away as that very man-based plan falls apart. We don’t need advice from the corporate world. They need power from our Groom. We don’t need to learn how to save more of our money, we need to learn how to give it away extravagantly. We don’t need to be more committed to the second amendment, we need to be more committed to the second commandment! There is more power in the name of Jesus than in an entire military brigade…but you must train your heart to live in this reality. That takes time. That must be done in advance.
The Book of Revelation tells the story of the entire Bride globally living in the desert places like the Israelites in the Book of Exodus. The Bride will literally live on manna and water from rocks, multiplying food like Jesus, casting out demons like Jesus, getting resources from fish like Jesus, getting words of knowledge and direction…to the right and to the left…just like her Groom. Jesus said “greater things” will be done by His Bride. We live in the time that word will be true! The Bride will be so much like her groom that the world will know Jesus is the Son of God because of the glory the Bride is releasing. This will require great faith. Faith is confidence, according to Paul:
Hebrews 11:1-2 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.
Confidence is learned over time. Those who are faithful with a little confidence…praying for the healing of every sniffle and headache…are given more…eventually restoring sight and limbs. This growing in confidence takes time and focused desire. The oil in the lamp of the 10 Bridesmaids in Matthew 25 is a history of encountering God in times of need. That confidence stored up in the easy times is what lights the lamp of the heart in the dark times. You cannot share the confidence…the actual power of faith… in your heart from your own personal history of encountering God. The Bridesmaids oil cannot be shared, it MUST be bought at a cost. To purchase the oil, you give up what everyone else is paying attention to, and begin intentionally paying attention to the vast amount of information the Holy Spirit has set in the Bible for you to know…you begin restraining your life like a focused Olympian preparing for the biggest race ever, because you are going to compete whether you want to or now! This is what Revelation is for…it gives us a vision for what we are about to enter into! Where there is no vision…there is no focus…no restraint:
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.
Right now, the whole Bride is supposed to be working overtime in preparation…looking for those confidence building opportunities…learning to live…training their hearts to live in the power of God, which IS the Sermon on the Mount training program. There is a very specific program every person, every family, every church, and every city that wants to can enter in to.
We will go after the vision we have. Right now, many are willing to contend for revival, because the teachers are willing to give vision to the positive aspects of revival, this is exciting and true, but a simple vision for revival WILL NOT CARRY YOU THROUGH THE TROUBLE. In fact, this limited vision will cost you the revival because of the promised falling away. The end time revival comes in the middle of the greatest trouble the earth has ever seen. You need to endure just to see the HOUR it comes. Did you know God already told us EXACTLY when the final big “R” revival will come?! According to Joel 2:28-32, the end time revival we are contending for will come at the sixth seal, well into the Great Tribulation. Revival comes when we NEED revival to come. You need oil to BE the revival…the light… in the darkness promised to come:
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.
Every time Jesus spoke of His return, He admonished His disciples to watch, pray, and/or be ready. There are very specific things we MUST do to participate with Jesus in His return. To be able to do those things in obedience and agreement with our King’s BRILLIANT plan, we must know the plan and watch for the signs. Certain actions are required at different times. We are supposed to know the times! Listen to this end time statement God made through Isaiah:
Isaiah 28:21-29 The Lord will fight as he did at Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to do what he intends to do—strange as his actions may seem. He will complete his work, his mysterious work. Don't laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard the Lord Almighty's decision to destroy the whole country. Listen to what I am saying; pay attention to what I am telling you. Farmers don't constantly plow their fields and keep getting them ready for planting. Once they have prepared the soil, they plant the seeds of herbs such as dill and cumin. They plant rows of wheat and barley, and at the edges of their fields they plant other grain. They know how to do their work, because God has taught them. They never use a heavy club to beat out dill seeds or cumin seeds; instead they use light sticks of the proper size. They do not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and they know how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains. All this wisdom comes from the Lord Almighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed.
Knowing the plan and the intensity we are supposed to be getting ready for prevents the Bride from being offended when things get hot! The greatest preventative for falling away is knowing and being realistic about what to expect. I have taught Revelation for a couple of years. What I find from teaching it is that people who come into Revelation afraid, once they understand God’s plan, go out from Revelation confident and excited about the time they live in. But it takes an intentional study of the information. God has very intense plans promised! Not every earthquake is a bad earthquake. There are specific things to pray for in specific ways. Once you see them and participate in them, confidence builds for what is next! Our Father, who requires our loyalty to His judgments, has some pretty rough stuff in store. We need to know when and why He is doing what He is doing so we can declare things in agreement with Him and grow in oneness with Him! That is the point of Revelation. It is the story of our wedding!
There are over 150 Chapters in the Bible dedicated to describing the final generation on earth that will witness the return of Jesus. The Bible is actually mostly about our generation! The Bible has more way more information regarding Jesus' return than it does regarding His first coming. There are 89 chapters that comprise the Gospels, several of which primarily describe events related to Jesus return, while there are over 150 Chapters throughout the Bible that primarily describe Jesus' return. There is no lack of information to digest to be equipped to understand exactly what God is doing, when He is doing it, and WHY He is doing it in our generation, yet Revelation is one of the least understood Books in the Bible. This is a strategic deception the enemy is implementing in order to maximize the falling away.
Teaching Revelation comes at great cost. Many existing leaders in Jesus’ body actually oppose the simple teaching of Revelation! That is why Revelation is one of two places that promise a blessing for reading and keeping (or making choices that agree with) the book. The other place in the Bible that promises a blessing for doing and teaching the contents is the Sermon on the Mount, or Matthew 5,6, and 7, which promise greatness to those who do and teach it!
Revelation 1:1-3 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Matthew 5:18-20 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 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. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
The reason that this promise is found in these two places is that Revelation and the Sermon on the Mount are divinely connected to each other. Revelation is the motivation to do the Sermon on the Mount because the Sermon on the Mount is the antidote to the trouble that will touch the earth through the events described in Revelation! Wherever Revelation is taught in its main and plain meaning, the fruit is always the same: an increased focus and desire to prepare by following the road map in the Sermon on the Mount to wholehearted zealous love for Jesus that ruins a person for this world. If you want to be ready for heaven to come to earth, you have to train your heart to let go of your desire for earth without heaven. It is really simple and is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about! BUT, this retraining of my heart takes time. You need to take time in advance to store up oil to make it through the darkest part of earth's natural history.
Jesus' first coming was a "down payment" on the fullness of the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah to deliver the earth out of darkness and back into the face to face presence of God. The entire Bible is the story of the process God has chosen to restore everything that was lost in the fall. God made the earth to be a dwelling place where He could meet face to face with His beloved family of mankind. THAT is what God called "very good" in Genesis 1:31, and that is what He is in the process of restoring. The climax of the story happens in the final 7 years leading up to the return of Jesus. We call that final seven year period the "tribulation" and the second half of the final seven years...1,260 days to be exact...we call the "Great Tribulation." The tribulation, which turns into the great tribulation, will be the hardest time the earth has ever witnessed, but it will also be the greatest time to be alive if you are ready for it! Listen to what Daniel was told about the Great Tribulation:
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. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. 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. “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.”
Jesus himself said the wise ones in our generation, which the Bible calls "the time of the end," are ready with information, called "food," and confidence, which we call faith, to give to others that information they carry at the proper times:
Matthew 24:42-51 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Many will use the excuse "no one knows the day or hour" in order to comfort themselves that there is nothing to be done to prepare for Jesus' return, but that is exactly the OPPOSITE point Jesus was making! A carefree attitude towards the return of Jesus is a satanic deception most of the church in the west has fallen for! Jesus used the analogy of a thief breaking in...Jesus said HE IS THE THIEF! There is great loss waiting for those who refuse to pay attention and participate in Jesus’ very specific plans.
Jesus was saying the same thing about the wise servant at the end of Matthew 24 that he declared in the Sermon on the Mount: doing and teaching the truths of the hour sets you up for greatness forever... comforting yourself and others to ignore the events of the hour by saying "no one knows for sure" actually is considered REBELLION by Jesus! This careless attitude sets people up to fall away, which means to become offended and quit in the time of intensity! That is what it means to have a portion with hypocrites and to weep and gnash your teeth...this is what it means to be shut out of the kingdom at that exact moment the entire prepared Bride enters in!!
A hypocrite is someone who claims to be one thing but makes actual choices counter to the identity they claim. According to Jesus and the apostles, there will be many Christians who fall away when the “rubber meets the road” in the seven-year tribulation. They will fall away because of hypocrisy, because they claimed to be ready, but were not actually prepared the way JESUS said to prepare. Because they do not know the plans of their stated savior, nor did they take the time to get ready, they will follow the masses into rebellion against God and actually, out of fear of punishment from earthly powers, give up their salvation. Jesus and the apostles warned over and over about this. Look at what Paul told Timothy about OUR generation:
2 Timothy 3:1-7 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 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, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
“Having a form of godliness but denying its power.” Understanding the true power in creation and knowing how to draw on it is the answer to the intensity of Tribulation. This is what is learned by intentionally practicing the Sermon on the Mount. Paul was not describing lazy people to Tim! He said they are “always learning…yet they never come to the truth!” Paul is describing believers in our day who never enter into the Sermon on the Mount…instead they listen to the crowds, they hear the messages, the get excited, they dance and sing and tingle…but they never connect these experiences to what Jesus is ACTUALLY doing in their hour of history!
Jesus is preparing the earth, and anyone who will listen, for His return. His return is great…lots of people will agree with that until you dig into the details…but Jesus’ return is ALSO terrible…most people have no idea the intense dynamics that they will be here for and need to get ready for. Because they do not want to approach their relationship with God from the perspective of what He desires (to be back in the garden He made for His own pleasure), but rather from their own desires (to make the most of their 70 or 80 years)…they will MISS the very thing their savior is doing!
Jesus comes like a thief! Anyone not ready and paying great attention will suffer great loss! That is what a thief does! But not for YOU dear brothers…you should know when He is coming and BE READY!
1 Thessalonians 5:1-8 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
Right now, everyone who is truly loyal to Jesus will cast off the strength of this earth without Jesus…the desire for a “good life” now…and completely invest in the new season…the new thing…Jesus is doing. The Bride has always been expected to live this way…fasting sacrificially, praying sacrificially, giving sacrificially…training her heart like an athlete. The Bride is supposed to be all about giving away natural strength because she believes in the real and greater power of the supernatural un-created God.
Many false teachers have risen up to connect the Bride to natural strength. Corporate world natural thinking has invaded the Church and she is throwing off the true power found only in sitting before the God of all creation, hearing his instruction, and simply making herself available for Him to use in power. Focusing on the true invisible power behind all of creation by forgoing natural strength. The church is seeking man-based strategy, when that is the very thing God is in the process of judging! Woe to those who blindly follow the blind.
This earthly logic invading the Church is a satanic setup to create great offense in the Bride so she will fall away as that very man-based plan falls apart. We don’t need advice from the corporate world. They need power from our Groom. We don’t need to learn how to save more of our money, we need to learn how to give it away extravagantly. We don’t need to be more committed to the second amendment, we need to be more committed to the second commandment! There is more power in the name of Jesus than in an entire military brigade…but you must train your heart to live in this reality. That takes time. That must be done in advance.
The Book of Revelation tells the story of the entire Bride globally living in the desert places like the Israelites in the Book of Exodus. The Bride will literally live on manna and water from rocks, multiplying food like Jesus, casting out demons like Jesus, getting resources from fish like Jesus, getting words of knowledge and direction…to the right and to the left…just like her Groom. Jesus said “greater things” will be done by His Bride. We live in the time that word will be true! The Bride will be so much like her groom that the world will know Jesus is the Son of God because of the glory the Bride is releasing. This will require great faith. Faith is confidence, according to Paul:
Hebrews 11:1-2 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.
Confidence is learned over time. Those who are faithful with a little confidence…praying for the healing of every sniffle and headache…are given more…eventually restoring sight and limbs. This growing in confidence takes time and focused desire. The oil in the lamp of the 10 Bridesmaids in Matthew 25 is a history of encountering God in times of need. That confidence stored up in the easy times is what lights the lamp of the heart in the dark times. You cannot share the confidence…the actual power of faith… in your heart from your own personal history of encountering God. The Bridesmaids oil cannot be shared, it MUST be bought at a cost. To purchase the oil, you give up what everyone else is paying attention to, and begin intentionally paying attention to the vast amount of information the Holy Spirit has set in the Bible for you to know…you begin restraining your life like a focused Olympian preparing for the biggest race ever, because you are going to compete whether you want to or now! This is what Revelation is for…it gives us a vision for what we are about to enter into! Where there is no vision…there is no focus…no restraint:
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.
Right now, the whole Bride is supposed to be working overtime in preparation…looking for those confidence building opportunities…learning to live…training their hearts to live in the power of God, which IS the Sermon on the Mount training program. There is a very specific program every person, every family, every church, and every city that wants to can enter in to.
We will go after the vision we have. Right now, many are willing to contend for revival, because the teachers are willing to give vision to the positive aspects of revival, this is exciting and true, but a simple vision for revival WILL NOT CARRY YOU THROUGH THE TROUBLE. In fact, this limited vision will cost you the revival because of the promised falling away. The end time revival comes in the middle of the greatest trouble the earth has ever seen. You need to endure just to see the HOUR it comes. Did you know God already told us EXACTLY when the final big “R” revival will come?! According to Joel 2:28-32, the end time revival we are contending for will come at the sixth seal, well into the Great Tribulation. Revival comes when we NEED revival to come. You need oil to BE the revival…the light… in the darkness promised to come:
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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