MERCY updated August 12, 2008
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I am alarmed at my own "softness of life"--how fragile, how easily disrupted, how collapsible is every aspect of what I have been groomed to believe is normal and permanent! I wonder whether my fruit will be bitter or sweet in the days ahead.
I made A's in science,and kept up with all the latest, even subscribing to several related magazines as a pre-teen. The great body of the scientific community believed we were slowly entering into another Ice Age.
Global warming doesn't fly with me. There were orange groves in South Georgia a century ago. Now it freezes too consistently there.
Frostproof, Florida is no longer frostproof.
Actually, global drought, flooding, and record snowfalls seem to be the trend.
This following Scripture is my take on much of our weather and environmental problems: our sin is manifesting in the natural world:
"For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right." Jeremiah 23: 10
What is happening is the beginning of global revival and judgment. There is a disruption of the natural flow of the creation, of politics, of finances, even of thought processees.
Confusion: call it EMERGENT CHAOS.
"And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land herself vomits out her inhabitants." Leviticus 18: 25
The whole creation is groaning and travailing.
I realize I am danger of sounding mystical, but this is a time of upheaval. Cruel days and shortages will face different places--I have had a Scripture burning which I do not like to consider, but it is there nevertheless,
"When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, 'Come and see.' So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, 'A quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barly for a denarius; and do not touch the oil and the wine."--Revelations 6: 5-6
Three or four years ago I was asleep in the mountains of North Carolina. I had driven several hours and had not slept well the night before--as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was down. Less than 2 hours later, I awakened with a start.
I had an open vision of a huge black stallion being held back by invisible hands, but stamping and snorting, ready to gallop at the moment of release. A voice spoke to me,
"This must soon be!"
There was a famine in the Roman Empire and early Church when one man's food for a day cost a day's wages--luxury items were still in abundance, but basic food sources dwindled.
I know in my heart that shortages and contamination will soon strike our basic food supplies. I have known for many years that the agricultural might of America would be stricken and become regional, but the great abundance of the West and Mid-West would move to the South.
I have seen the streets full of people wandering with no place to go, no food to eat, no money, and no way to get any. I can be in the yard, puttering(my therapy), and have open visions of people, refugees, wandering the streets, leaning upon my fence, staring at me with blank, hollow eyes.
I see stores with armed security and escorts to and from the parking lot. Just this morning (august 12th--I update newsletters as I get revelation) I awoke with the knowledge of a profound event, I believe another well-orquestrated terrorist attack: I saw myself walking in the woods. There were people everywhere resting in the shade of the trees and drinking from a pond. I was stunned wondering how I could help them, to feed them, to house them?
I know this will be for a season, but will overthrow many.
I still have to stand on the Word,
"I have been young and now am old: yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."--Psalm 37: 25.
God will protect us and provide for us--we have a better Covenant through the Blood of Jesus.
The cruelest of all days will be hoaxes, flames of strange fire. My heart is turned within me--I realize I must be turned to the Lord as never before or have a heart of stone.
These are days of standing. These are days of knowing Jesus, of resting in Him, of heeding the admonitions of Scripture and the urgent prodding of the Holy Spirit to come closer.
The pride of this nation must soon be stricken. God help us.
I have been praying for Los Angeles. I have been praying the inhabitants of Los Angeles will cry out to God for mercy, that judgment be withheld. Other great cities have been in my heart. Something is stirring in the Pacific.
I have heard prophecies spoken by others--they speak of peace, of unheralded prosperity, of national unity: I hope they represent the Truth and that I am deeply deceived. I know there are incredible events and days of shaking, socially, politically, militarily, financially, but more importantly, spiritually.
Let me preface my proceeding comments with the absolute certainty that in the midst of and after the shaking, the best days are ahead for the Church.
The Moslem world is about to show the world their true colors--AGAIN. Read Ezkiel 38 and 39. Russia will ally with the Moslems. The only reasons Moslems are tolerated are money, oil, fear, and the common, uniting bond of the "global community", the anti-christal hatred of Jews and Christians.
Politically, the greatest danger for this country is a movement that will be ultra-conservative financially and morally bankrupt.
Socially, I see the marketing of racial strife and division, the use of race riots to clear out low-income areas for financial re-development, all the while touting the plight of those so manipulated.
There is a low place in hell for those devils who would use the bonafide needs of minorities and the poor for manipulation.
There is a lower place for those who would engineer destruction to create fear to reconstruct societies--Emille Durkheim called it "The Theory of Controlled Chaos".
The premise is that whenever change is too drastic to be achieved through the normal political process, then events are "helped along" so the masses will accept any change to feel secure again. It worked for the Nazis.
A "New Deal" from hell is being launched onto America without absolute Mercy and Divine Intervention.
Hatred is seething in this country. I feel it.
It is profane.
A perverse patriotism that is simultaneously uniting, and ultimately anti-American is brewing. It will exclude true Christians. The theme that America is evil is weaving through media and academia.
I was working in a restaurant in 1983 in a large Mid-Western city, setting up a luncheon for a local Rotarian group. The guest speaker, a global businessman, arrived early to inspect the set-up and do last minute preparations. He asked me a few questions, then said,
"You seem like an intelligent young man--let me tell you about what is going to happen on the earth soon.
Communism has served its purpose--it will collapse by the end of this decade (1980's). Cuba will be redeveloped. The United States will control the Western Hemisphere.
The world is being divided into three spheres of economic and political control. Communism was floated by American and European money--it has run its course. The fear of communism to control people will be replaced with fear about environmental concerns."
I worked and listened, thinking he was successful, smart, but a little kooky. I have since realized he was not kooky.
The demand that the United States must atone for our prosperity and military strength is great throughout the world--we have few friends in the world and seem bent on denying the only One Who can help us.
Really, the only spiritual ace we have maintained with the Lord as a nation has been our support of Israel--we are throwing this in His Face as well, with our whorish slavery to Moslems.
Militarily we are dealing with the Moslems with the same delusion Europe and the rest of the world dealt with the Nazis--false peace. Spiritually there is little difference between the dark forces that fueled Hitler and the Nazis, and the Moslem Jihad.
Spiritually, I wonder if the depths of the bottomless pit have begun to open. I ponder if because of our idolatry and rebellion, and thirst for things anti-christ, if the Lord has allowed some of the angels held in Tartarus to be released?
We have been having the oddest storms, days of clouds, wind, lightning, thunder, ever some damage. When it rains, it is tortured and intense, but only lasts for a few minutes. It appears to rain, but the ground is bone dry under the image of dampness.
When I was a boy I despised the long and soaking rains we had often--now I long for them. There was time I would have seen our "fake" storms as real rain, not realizing the fruit of the earth could not come forth without the soaking rain.
I liked the flashy storms as a child--my farmer dad wisely told me,
"Son, this is not the kind of rain that makes things grow. When the rain comes so fast, it does some good, but it runs off when the ground is dry. We need a slow soaking rain for a day or two to really make a crop."
So does the Church!
A few months back I had a dream that was rather lengthy, it seemed, but was redundant. All I saw was extensive forests, bone dry, being hit repeatedly by thousands of bolts of lightning and burning to a crisp.
Later my natural inclination was to believe it was a symbol of the annual holocaust of fires in the West, but I have changed my perspective.
There is so much spiritual hunger among the saints, but a greater stubborness, and seemingly universal shallowness. We have become a satire of ourselves, a self-fufilling parody. We want to be saved, healed, blessed, delivered, prospered, but we do not want to conformed to His Image.
We have embraced pagan idolatry and call it faith. Just because our religious demons enable us to receive "all" the Gospel we choose and it seems "more" than many other Christians will walk in, we think we are "Full Gospel".
Sadly, the truth is we are full of the Gospel we want, but tend to omit the weightier things of the Law.
I have recently been in several meetings with people crying out,
"Lord, send the Fire, send the Fire, send the Fire!"
My thought now, is, "Lord, send the Rain first so we won't burn up!"
Once my dad burned off a field in dry weather--it got out and into the woods. I was only about 4. We fought this fire into the night. Afterwards, he only burned the fields off after a soaking rain had come a few days earlier and the ground was wet.
That way, only what was dead was burned off, the field was fertized, vermin were gone, the fire was easier to control, and the forest was spared. The next crop and harvest were rich!
Our cry for experiences and manifestations must not overstep and precede our desire for and submission to obedience and the working of the Word and Holy Spirit to make us progressively more like Jesus.
Our well needs to be clear, our river flowing--the soil of our soul must be well watered to bear the Consuming Fire of our Lord.
I try not to be hyper-spiritual, but the Lord has recently been trying to get my attention through natural things. I was out on our patio puttering early one evening--there are several large pots there I was intent on weeding.
I was reaching for the first pot and the Lord spoke to me,
"Water it first--it will make the weeds easier to pull."
I put the hose to it, and out of that pot crawled the biggest and maddest Black Widow Spider I had ever seen, fangs bared in battle array. This spider was as big as a quarter!
Had I stuck my hand in that pot without the flushing out of the water, I would have surely been bitten! I have since sprayed all the pots with insectide.
God had been speaking to me before this incident, and much more plainly afterward(since I'm listening now!,
"I'm weeding My garden."
From what I can see in the Scripture, our choices are to be weeded and pruned, or the axe laid to the root and be burned.
Don't get me wrong--the Fire of God is a good thing. While I have perused these thoughts the last few days, I keep realizing His Fire is beneficial. I want the Fire of God.
One of my questions and thoughts in this season, is do I, do we, know the differece between the Fire of God and strange fire? I used to be a lot "flashier" in my meetings than I am now, but I saw a film of an occultist doing a lot of the same--I know the enemy counterfeits what God does. My point is, I don't presume upon the Holy Spirit to manifest as I once did, and I don't pounce upon every ripple of His Presence to "do it again".
I was very reticent as a new believer to flow in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit because of my experiences around those immersed in the occult. My pastor finally came to me and told me the Lord was trying to use me. I told him I was happy just being saved, and I was not comfortable or confidant because of my prior exposure. That good man had to work with me for a while to assure me a line had been drawn, that he wanted me to remain cautious, but God wanted me to flow, and he would oversee.
He has remained a friend to this day.
I believe the point the Lord has been making, is that we are too quick to put our hands in something without knowing what's there first, and that we need the Rain of His Presence to cleanse, water, and flush out.
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