He Made a Way for Us!

 

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stand firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

So when you see standing in the holy-place ‘the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains…For then there will be great distress [anguish], unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again….

Immediately after the distress of those days, ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’” (Matthew 24:9-29)

Back in 2010 I felt the Lord speak to me very clearly that He was returning. At the time, it sounded crazy so, while I searched the scriptures and blogged about it, I never spoke of it for some time. Then I ended up at the International House of Prayer for a conference. When I did, it felt like I found my peeps. They were all fasting, praying and seeking the Lord’s return. When I came back home from a conference, I was so enthusiastic about it and encouraged by it, especially since He was speaking to me about it all the way home. So, I mentioned it in a devotional to a group of people I was praying with for service. As I did, you could hear a pin drop in the room. Awkward moment.

Then ten years later, COVID hit and the landscape around us is changing rapidly. In the nature, there are riots, fire, earthquakes and melting of icebergs. There is also evidence of a significant increase in addictions, mental health problems, overdoses and suicides. Crime rates and murders are at an all-time high. Suicides alone have more than tripled in just a few years’ time. And, we hear about people are becoming addicted not only to the dangerous drugs of the past, but horse tranquilizers.

Now, when people speak of Jesus returning, most people just nod their head. It doesn’t offend anyone. In fact, not only do most pastors believe Jesus is returning but even unbelievers believe it is near the end of time. Nobody denies that the world is getting darker or that things are getting harder.

And some 13 years later, I am still searching the scriptures for where God has us on the timeline. I have looked at shadows in the Bible that would reflect it, words from Scripture, evidence in nature around me, and prophetic Words the Lord has spoken as well as what He reveals in Scriptures. All of them point to around this timeframe, give or take several hundred years.

So much of what is about the End Times in the Bible is written in what is called Apocalyptic literature. That is, it is seeing into future events and describes things by pictures that have some element of reality but are also describing something from another realm that, to the logical mind, is confusing and makes no sense. This is because it is designed to be understood by one’s spirit.

When prophets and the Apostles were describing things about the end times, they were looking into another realm. They entered a door into the unseen realm where we have been born into as members of the Kingdom of God – seated with Him in heavenly places. Like my mom a few days before she went home, saw beautiful gold plants that were alive and shaped like crowns. She could describe it, but it does not exist in this realm, only the kingdom realm so it can only be seen and translated by the Holy Spirit – spirit to Spirit.

When the Bible describes some of these unusual events, they are describing what is going on and what they are seeing in the unseen realm where one can see the beginning and end at the same time. It is outside of time. It has to be received different than how we receive the natural realm. Perhaps this is why so much of our brains are untapped. We were created for another realm and rarely operate out of it. We are often like new babies in tapping into this realm. Apocalyptic literature It is more like dreams. We receive it by our spirit, bring it into the natural, and then ask the Holy Spirit to translate it for us.

Like reading the Bible, understanding comes by revelation. It becomes Rhema as we hold it before God and He begins to reveal it to us. Praying in tongues is a little like this as we speak in a unique language from our spirits that we cannot understand without interpretation. Perhaps this is why that praying in tongues frequently helps people to make the transition between the seen and unseen realm and move into prophecy, visions and dream interpretation.

In the Bible, we see many examples of Jesus and the Apostles not only interpreting dreams and visions, but operating out of the unseen realm. Jesus would disappear and show up somewhere else. We also see Phillip do this. We see Elisha seeing through the eyes of Gehazi. We see angels leading Peter out of prison. We see dreams and visions leading Paul and Peter, along with many others. Jesus said that not only would we do these works, but greater works.

Along these lines of seeing things from a spiritual perspective, some several months ago, I spent some time in the scripture about locusts. We see an invasion of locusts prophesied in Joel 1:1-12. When I wrote about it, I felt in my heart that it was the time were moving into. Locusts do not have to do with physical locusts taking over our land. Was being seen and spoken of was armies of the demonic. It is a spirit of torment coming to afflict many people, affecting the mind, creating mental health issues, devouring their dreams and making them feel desolate, hopeless, and despairing.

This was my blog post at the time on it: https://longingforyourmitzvot.blogspot.com/2022/12/fearless-his-love-eradicates-fear.html

I don’t know where we are in the timeline for persecution. In many nations, Christians have been hated and persecuted for some time. As our nation was formed upon the gospel of Jesus, it has only begun to shift in our nation as well where Christians are seen as intolerant of other lifestyles and not accepted or respected. Liberalism and freedom of choice are replacing biblical freedoms of prayer and honoring God.

We are also into the time where the love of many have grown cold. I wrote about this about 10 years ago or so in my blog: "Those who are wise among the people will give understanding to many..." (longingforyourmitzvot.blogspot.com) I share a dream in this blog post about some churches that choose performance and legalism over the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. I, sometime later, had another dream that some churches were not even letting Jesus in at all. He was left on the outside all together.

Then there is “the abomination that causes desolation standing in the holy-place” spoken of through the prophet Daniel. …It says that, “For then there will be great distress [anguish], unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.”

Knowing this is Apocalyptic as it is providing an end time picture, this means that there is not going to be this big beast like a bear or a dragon that shows up at church one Sunday that is gnawing on the flesh of attenders where we can clearly say, the end is here. This is a desolation of God’s Holy Spirit in our hearts through a demonic spirit that is an abomination to the Lord.

The holy-place being spoken of here is most likely the temple of the Holy Spirit – Christians. It implies that there are Christians who will become defiled. This defilement is an abomination to God as it comes to infect some Christian’s hearts.

Proverbs 26:25 speaks of seven abominations in the heart of man. These are listed out in Proverbs 6:16-19, “There are six things the Lord hates,

seven that are detestable to him:

haughty eyes,

a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked schemes,

feet that are quick to rush into evil,

a false witness who pours out lies

and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”

All sin is an abomination as it defies God. Since as far as the east is from the west, so is our sin when we repent, it is not this combination of sin that God hates more than other sin. This is, then perhaps, a description of the abomination – the spirit of Jezebel. This demonic spirit is an abomination to God and defiles Christians. Jezebel, was the wife of evil King Ahab, who took control and used lies to kill Naboth and take over his property. She led people astray with witchcraft and idolatry to worship false gods. She was known for her manipulation, cunning, deception and seduction.

1 Kings 21:25 says, “There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife.”

She was a person but she was also an influence. there is also a demonic spirit behind Jezebel. We see that through her tactics, the whole nation began to serve Baal and forgot about God. It It was her prophets that Elijah went to war against to gain back the hearts of the people. In fact, her influence so overtook the land that Elijah thought he was the only one left that served God.

And Revelation 2:20 says to the church, His people who carry His holy place, “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.”

Time and time again, this spirit was leading people astray into idolatry, seduction, manipulation, division, and scheming. As part of wickedness growing and Christians growing cold, idolatry opens the doors to demonic realm and even witchcraft. Demonic influence will defile some Christians and take them off course.

The seduction here is of the heart. Jezebel turns peoples heart away from God. She seduces them into indulgences and filling their heart with other things that leave them empty and in want. She is a harlot or prostitute by her seduction of the heart that leads people astray and to turn away from God.

Along these lines, we see in Revelation, we see probably her mother spiritually. On her forehead is written, “BABYLON THE GREAT. THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” (Revelation 17:5). She is sitting on the dragon, intoxicating inhabitants of the earth with her adulteries. (Revelation 17:2)

Again, here it is not sexual sin that is being spoken of specifically even though this can be one of the seductions she uses. It is an influence that Satan (the beast) that rules over earthly realms (seven kings) uses of seduction of the heart. One is drawn into temptation rather than forced into temptation. And the whole purpose of this is to steal hearts from God.

Revelation 17:6 says, “I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.” This is that powerful spirit of temptation and want that comes as we try to fill ourselves with other things. It is in the media all over the place as it attempt to influence spending, what we honor, and what we value.

This spirit is everywhere. It can even be in seductive clothes and makeup that we wear to gain influence, a desire for money and power to feel important, a car that gets someone noticed as having wealth and power, the titles that people strive for to give them status and identity and on and on. It is wrapped up in the system of the world and why her name is Babylon.

It says about her, “The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet (worldly power), and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls” (Revelation 17:4). It is not that gold, precious stones or pearls are bad but all that glitters is not genuine gold. Anything that pulls us away from God is seductive and stealing our heart.

Worse than being seduced is when a spirit seeks to possess or reside in us. As I recently attended several sessions of, “Come Out in Jesus Name” and prayed for many folks to be delivered, I was astonished by the amount of Christians that were being demonically influenced and impacted by spirits coming to reside in them. Having a door open to bitterness, unforgiveness, unrepented ongoing sin, or idolatry, and even witchcraft, or generational sin, there were people in literal anguish that were being tormented and not able to get free. Sometimes we could even physically see the spirit holding onto them and not wanting to let go.

This brings me back to the swarms of tormenting locusts. These demonic spirits that are afflicting people with lies and causing famine in the life of the person being tormented. Like Saul, who began to struggle with anxiety attacks and then later pursued David at the expense of his kingdom, there was a demonic spirit afflicting him that influenced his behaviors.

In more subtle ways, these little locusts influence thinking, create anxiety, cause people to feel overwhelmed, create mental health crisis, self-hatred, hopelessness, despair, and other difficulties. Or, perhaps even as simple as believing the demonic lies that they are not enough and letting it eat away at all the things they dreamed of doing or cause them to quit and walk away from it.

We even see these kind of lies impacting David in his marriage to one of Saul’s daughters. He killed Goliath and, as a reward, was given the first born daughter of Saul. He refused this because, while he dreamed of it, he felt unworthy. Only after much convincing by Saul’s servants did David agree to the terms of killing 200 Philistines and obtaining their foreskins.

Joel speaks of this invasion of locusts that are eating away everything. It says that at the sight of them, nations are in anguish; every face turns pale (Joel 2:6). Then it goes on to say something similar to that spoken of in Matthew 24:29, “Immediately after the distress of those days, ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’”

In Joel 2:29, as the result of the locusts, it says, “Before them the earth shakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.”

Joel goes on to prophesy the solution to all of this. He says to return to the Lord, with fasting, weeping and genuine mourning (Joel 2:12). He goes on to say to declare a holy fast, a sacred assembly, and cry out to God from the bottom of their hearts to spare them. As a result, He will certainly leave an overflowing blessing for His people.

Afterward, “He will pour out His Spirit on all people.” God’s answer to darkness is the outpouring of His Spirit. These verses in Joel about God pouring out His Spirit on His sons and His daughters were spoken of by Peter at Pentecost. Peter proclaimed that the outpouring of that time in Acts was what was spoken of by the prophet Joel. Sons and daughters will prophesy, dream dreams and see visions. Since then, we have been in this open heaven time where the outpouring of the Spirit and it is fully available to us.

While we have been in the end times since the death and resurrection of Jesus, I love that the Lord’s solution to seeing what was to come in the tribulation, poured out His Spirit at the very start of the end times so that we would be fully equipped right from the beginning. He didn’t wait until the time of the very end under anguish. He fully equipped us from the start and it is open for us to enter into.

Doesn’t that sound like an amazing Father looking out for His children? He gave us the fullness of the solution right from the beginning – the outpouring of His Holy Spirit. We need only receive it and step into all He has for us by faith.

We have all the solution we need. We are in lack of nothing. If it wasn’t enough to equip us ahead of time, He tells us what to expect and how to navigate it all to not only survive but to thrive. Joel ends with multitudes coming to the valley of decision as the harvest is ripe.

Then again, it mentions in Joel 3:15 that the sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine and there is thundering, shaking and trembling. It goes on to say, “But the Lord will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.” That day the mountains will drip with new wine, the hills flow with milk, and a fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house to provide water.

As times are getting more difficult. God keeps speaking to me from 2 Chronicles 7:14. I see it read on my clock 7:14 all the time. This verse says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Lord has already risen up a standard. It is us. We, filled with the Spirit and dripping from the sweet wine, are the answer to the anguish around us. As we humble ourselves before the Lord, step forward and align ourselves with the Kingdom of God, His power flows through us for healing, deliverance and miracles. He is very much in our midst as not only a shelter from the storm but a place of light, refuge and healing for those who are broken and hurting.

Lord, for everything that the enemy can do, you already went ahead and made a way for us. You thought of everything! You blessed us and made us untouchable. We are wrapped in Your arms of love and taken up into Your goodness. We are never forgotten or abandoned. We are safe, secure, and loved.