Lifting Restraint
The restraint of the Lord is being lifted. You can see it as evil men are getting their way more and more. That is because we are in this time:
II Thessalonians 2:1-8 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 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. 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, 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. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
Paul described this obvious lifting of restraint as a major sign of the Day of the Lord! This is great and terrible. In fact, the terrible is designed to refine the greatness, and vice versa. The terrible events happening in the earth right now are forcing a decision in the hearts of people all over the world. You have three basic options:
1. Do I ignore it...pretend it will go away?
2. Do I hope for the right army to come and save the day, or the right politician? Or,
3. Do I cast off every other desire because I see that Jesus is the only solution and that His plan to return is in the final stages?
This is really what every person is wrestling through right now...even if they aren't conscious of it. God promised this "valley of decision" would mark the "Day of the Lord", which is the process of Jesus' return:
Joel 3:9-14 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, Let all the men of war draw near, Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ” Assemble and come, all you nations, And gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord . “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow— For their wickedness is great.” Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
What you are literally seeing in the news, if you are willing to even take the time to look, is the beginning of this event. The fullness of the "Valley of Decision" will literally result in the armies of the earth all gathered to Israel in the final battle for Jerusalem, which will include the "Armageddon" campaign...but it is beginning now. It all has to do with what Joel said: the harvest. The whole earth is beginning to get "threshed."
When something is threshed, it is thrown into the the air and the wind carries away every light thing. If you are too light, you will not endure and you will be carried away with the wind. That is the point of threshing...Jesus is going to get a pure and spotless Bride...for real. He isn't going to look at a bunch of lukewarm believers that mostly care about themselves and simply lie and call them wholehearted, pure and spotless! No! He is only going to marry a pure and spotless Bride. This is the problem with those who lie and say "no trouble will come to you!" They prevent the Bride from making herself ready!
Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
According to the Bible, the Bride must make herself ready in righteous acts...that is holiness. But now listen: the holiness isn't how you get saved...it is how you get ready! Ready for what? To make it through the the time of the tribulation. All of the disciples who wrote the New Testament had this in mind. They were all talking about the end times. The time of trouble was their incentive to get ready...just as Jesus instructed:
Matthew 24:42-44 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.
Having a vision for how intense the events of Jesus return will be causes you to get ready.
Listen friends, I have been saying for a couple of months "the trouble you see in Iraq and Syria will go global." Are you watching the news? It is already clearly happening. Jihadists who claim to be loyal to ISIS are taking selfies in front of American landmarks. The stories are now shifting to how global the fighters in the Islamic State are...British, American, Chinese, Indian....ISIS in Mexico...
What our brothers and sister in Iraq and Syria are enduring is a very deliberate warning to the rest of the Church prophesied in Revelation 2:
Revelation 2:8-11 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, ‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life: “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” ’
The persecuted church, Smyrna, was promised "10-days" of tribulation, as opposed to what the rest of the church expected: one week...or 7 years as prophesied in Daniel 9. The persecuted middle eastern church went into tribulation on December 19, 2010, with the start of the Arab Spring and the Muslim Brotherhood's persecution of the Coptic Christians in Egypt. It quickly spread to Libya, then Syria, now Iraq...it is growing. It took a giant step forward in December 2013, when it began spreading like crazy out from where it started...it will eventually come here, according to the Bible:
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.
There is a way to prepare: intentionally growing in holiness. Intentionally going after a closeness to God like your life depends on it...in many ways it really does.
Many are preaching against zeal and holiness right now. They are specifically confusing what it means to be "saved" and what it means to be "ready". Righteous acts don't "save"....they make you "ready." Sanctified Bride...pure and spotless... is the only Bride at Jesus' wedding.
I have heard some very specific teaching lately that does not distinguish between being saved and being sanctified. These are two very distinct realities of following Jesus. Jesus is a "gate" and a "way." Being saved is NOT the same as being ready...you cannot get ready unless you are saved, but once you are saved you MUST get ready to endure the hour of trouble.
Faith alone saves us...faith that Jesus paid the price for my sin, and in that belief choosing to repent of my own leadership and follow Jesus through the gate is what saves me. But, if the kingdom is the safe place, I want to be as deep into it as possible when the storm hits! If I am in the kingdom, but still keeping one foot in the world, the flood of trouble that is coming can clearly still wash me right out of the gate!! This is called "falling away"...Jesus defined falling away as "saved people who quit when trouble comes":
Luke 8:13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
Testing IS threshing. Threshing tests the whole lump to see what is wheat and what is not. The trouble you see is God's mercy...He is warning you to add some weight to yourself...to bulk up with the Word and the Spirit so that, as the wind picks up, you aren't carried away with it. Anyone who teaches you to remain calm and act normal is opposed, whether they know it or not, to the very specific plan Jesus has to make you ready to endure "while there is time."
Joel 2:11-13 The lord is at the head of the column. He leads them with a shout. This is his mighty army, and they follow his orders. The day of the lord is an awesome, terrible thing. Who can possibly survive? That is why the lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.
The Joel 2 "tearing your heart" (that describes a very zealous and intentional action) prepares you for the Joel 3 valley of decision!
You need to do it now...while there is time.
II Thessalonians 2:1-8 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 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. 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, 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. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
Paul described this obvious lifting of restraint as a major sign of the Day of the Lord! This is great and terrible. In fact, the terrible is designed to refine the greatness, and vice versa. The terrible events happening in the earth right now are forcing a decision in the hearts of people all over the world. You have three basic options:
1. Do I ignore it...pretend it will go away?
2. Do I hope for the right army to come and save the day, or the right politician? Or,
3. Do I cast off every other desire because I see that Jesus is the only solution and that His plan to return is in the final stages?
This is really what every person is wrestling through right now...even if they aren't conscious of it. God promised this "valley of decision" would mark the "Day of the Lord", which is the process of Jesus' return:
Joel 3:9-14 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, Let all the men of war draw near, Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ” Assemble and come, all you nations, And gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord . “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow— For their wickedness is great.” Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
What you are literally seeing in the news, if you are willing to even take the time to look, is the beginning of this event. The fullness of the "Valley of Decision" will literally result in the armies of the earth all gathered to Israel in the final battle for Jerusalem, which will include the "Armageddon" campaign...but it is beginning now. It all has to do with what Joel said: the harvest. The whole earth is beginning to get "threshed."
When something is threshed, it is thrown into the the air and the wind carries away every light thing. If you are too light, you will not endure and you will be carried away with the wind. That is the point of threshing...Jesus is going to get a pure and spotless Bride...for real. He isn't going to look at a bunch of lukewarm believers that mostly care about themselves and simply lie and call them wholehearted, pure and spotless! No! He is only going to marry a pure and spotless Bride. This is the problem with those who lie and say "no trouble will come to you!" They prevent the Bride from making herself ready!
Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
According to the Bible, the Bride must make herself ready in righteous acts...that is holiness. But now listen: the holiness isn't how you get saved...it is how you get ready! Ready for what? To make it through the the time of the tribulation. All of the disciples who wrote the New Testament had this in mind. They were all talking about the end times. The time of trouble was their incentive to get ready...just as Jesus instructed:
Matthew 24:42-44 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.
Having a vision for how intense the events of Jesus return will be causes you to get ready.
Listen friends, I have been saying for a couple of months "the trouble you see in Iraq and Syria will go global." Are you watching the news? It is already clearly happening. Jihadists who claim to be loyal to ISIS are taking selfies in front of American landmarks. The stories are now shifting to how global the fighters in the Islamic State are...British, American, Chinese, Indian....ISIS in Mexico...
What our brothers and sister in Iraq and Syria are enduring is a very deliberate warning to the rest of the Church prophesied in Revelation 2:
Revelation 2:8-11 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, ‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life: “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” ’
The persecuted church, Smyrna, was promised "10-days" of tribulation, as opposed to what the rest of the church expected: one week...or 7 years as prophesied in Daniel 9. The persecuted middle eastern church went into tribulation on December 19, 2010, with the start of the Arab Spring and the Muslim Brotherhood's persecution of the Coptic Christians in Egypt. It quickly spread to Libya, then Syria, now Iraq...it is growing. It took a giant step forward in December 2013, when it began spreading like crazy out from where it started...it will eventually come here, according to the Bible:
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.
There is a way to prepare: intentionally growing in holiness. Intentionally going after a closeness to God like your life depends on it...in many ways it really does.
Many are preaching against zeal and holiness right now. They are specifically confusing what it means to be "saved" and what it means to be "ready". Righteous acts don't "save"....they make you "ready." Sanctified Bride...pure and spotless... is the only Bride at Jesus' wedding.
I have heard some very specific teaching lately that does not distinguish between being saved and being sanctified. These are two very distinct realities of following Jesus. Jesus is a "gate" and a "way." Being saved is NOT the same as being ready...you cannot get ready unless you are saved, but once you are saved you MUST get ready to endure the hour of trouble.
Faith alone saves us...faith that Jesus paid the price for my sin, and in that belief choosing to repent of my own leadership and follow Jesus through the gate is what saves me. But, if the kingdom is the safe place, I want to be as deep into it as possible when the storm hits! If I am in the kingdom, but still keeping one foot in the world, the flood of trouble that is coming can clearly still wash me right out of the gate!! This is called "falling away"...Jesus defined falling away as "saved people who quit when trouble comes":
Luke 8:13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
Testing IS threshing. Threshing tests the whole lump to see what is wheat and what is not. The trouble you see is God's mercy...He is warning you to add some weight to yourself...to bulk up with the Word and the Spirit so that, as the wind picks up, you aren't carried away with it. Anyone who teaches you to remain calm and act normal is opposed, whether they know it or not, to the very specific plan Jesus has to make you ready to endure "while there is time."
Joel 2:11-13 The lord is at the head of the column. He leads them with a shout. This is his mighty army, and they follow his orders. The day of the lord is an awesome, terrible thing. Who can possibly survive? That is why the lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.
The Joel 2 "tearing your heart" (that describes a very zealous and intentional action) prepares you for the Joel 3 valley of decision!
You need to do it now...while there is time.
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