Like the little boy who cried wolf, time is short. Somebody has to be ready when others do not know. God has called us to be a people who are ready. How many disciples did Jesus have? What really mattered was their commitment and desire. We are not ready because we have not heeded the Lord’s warning. This theme is not occurring only in this place, but all over the world.
What are the reasons that we are not ready?
– The first enemy is nonchalance. EVERYTHING is going well.
That is not what is happening in the spirit! There is incredible spiritual warfare going on in the heavenlies. Earthquakes and other disasters will occur. We are going to be tested for who we are and what we believe. This is the time to be serious about loving the Lord and each other. We will be more exposed to fear and terror. Worldly systems will be shaken and some will fall. The devil will attempt to snatch our faith from us by fear, intimidation and confrontation.
The second enemy is that we are focused on self and not on Jesus. Self-centeredness leads us toward consuming, but the spirit of God leads us toward giving. We are busy consuming the values of the world and not feeding ourselves with the values of sacrifice and selflessness. Self-centeredness leads to spiritual sleep and death to ourselves and others. Selflessness brings life to us and to others. Jesus gave us life through His selflessness, while Satan brings death with his selfishness.
The third enemy is bickering among one another and not loving each other. We should build up each other in order to tear down the fortresses of evil that we have allowed to grow.
The fourth enemy is petty differences and jealousies. We have worshiped individuality and separateness. We have concentrated on what divides us more than who will bring us together. Pride and arrogance feed jealousies under the name of religion. Instead of declaring the truth, we possess pieces of the truth to prove ourselves more correct than someone else. The truths of God are a free gift, and not a doctrine that must be proven. God is perfectly capable of defending Himself.
The fifth enemy is that our kingdom is more important than the Kingdom of God. Get use to the idea that God’s kingdom will prevail. The building of the kingdom of God is started when we spend time thinking about the love that Jesus has for us. From this point, the Holy Spirit can move us toward what God wants for our lives. We will build up and live in whatever we think about the most. The spiritual battle for our hearts is reflected in the thoughts that we have each day.
The sixth enemy is being distracted by the things of the world and our own problems. We need the presence of the Lord, which is the oil for our lamps; but the world distracts us with its goods, services, riches and dreams. Like the virgins who prepared in Matthew 25, we need to also prepare. The Lord will send circumstances to get our attention and events will test our preparedness. Those who seek the presence of the Lord and learn to listen to His voice will be prepared. As we learn to listen, God will send the gift of obeying Him. Our greatest defense and security is a passionate relationship with Jesus. We need to walk closely with Him. A humble heart attitude and a flexible spirit best describe this. In the days ahead, God may ask us to do unusual things that fit only into His mosaic. These cannot be understood in the natural mind but only in the spirit. Our natural minds will rebel unless we embrace the gift of sweet submission to the Holy Spirit. The sheep will know His voice and will identity more readily with His presence and instructions.
The times ahead will require more radical obedience and a quick-heartedness to please the Lord. In past times, we have tried to instruct the Lord on what to do, but in the times ahead, the Lord will assume the proper place. He will be the general and we will be the soldiers. Only the Lord will see the complete battle, and we as soldiers will be asked to do our part. Some families will be divided in the days ahead because of differences in approaching the crisis. New families will be formed to fill in the gap. These will consist of many people who were not put together before. Doctrines and tradition will assume less importance and the forces of necessity will come to the front. God will return resources to His people and they will be miraculously distributed.
The world is lurching on the brink of a new order. Financial markets are very tenuous. The weather is becoming more unpredictable and even dangerous. We are troubled by uncertainty and chaos in our families and in our spirits. The Christian church stands weak and divided against itself. For the most part, it has lost its passion for God. Men have been looking inward rather than upward for solutions. We have lost our desire of repentance because of our murky minds and souls. Our relationships with the Lord and with each other need to be refreshed and strengthened.
We need to walk with God and not play church. In the coming days we will be walking through fire and testing; we will see what we are really made of. Even the most predictable and most stable place in our lives can be taken away with the snap of a finger. Because of this great shaking, big changes are coming in all of our lives. We must throw off the attitude that we are here to have a good time. We will experience great anguish if we do not take our relationship with each other and Jesus more seriously. Our very lives will depend on relationships with Jesus and with each other.
The Lord wants to take simple and ordinary people and make them extraordinary. He will use them to accomplish miracles and to change environments and societies. The most unlikely people will be gifted with the most extraordinary power to fight evil. Their simple ways will amaze the world. They will bring healing and hope to complicated situations and sophisticated minds. Beware! Don’t be asleep! Treasure the moments with those whom you love because things will no longer be the same as in the past. We need to pray for humble hearts and flexible spirits. Qualities like independence and stubbornness will only be useful if they are under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
I would like to discuss about what to do to prepare for the coming crisis:
1. We need to simplify our lives. We need to remove physical and spiritual clutter. If we don’t use it, we do not need to keep it. A preoccupation with physical things clutters our minds and makes unhealthy emotional attachments in our souls. God wants us to love people more than things. Attachments that do not place God first weaken our spirit and cause to us grow numb and blind to the ways of the Lord.
2. We need to be a people of increasing prayer. Our relationship with God is fed by our prayer life. Listening leads to obeying. God will give us the fruit of obedience if our hearts are committed to listening to Him. Prayer should be a way of life, not just time in the prayer closet. We pray to receive God’s mind, not to change it. In our prayer conversations, God is revealed to us and a relationship is formed that will last forever.
3. Keep our priorities simple. We need to love Jesus first and the people that we meet second. In this way, we fulfill the law and satisfy the first two commandments that the Lord gave us.
4 We need to be generous in our thoughts and actions. God is near to those who are generous, especially to the poor and needy. We may never know when we will be in need of the same generosity that we have given to others. Kind thoughts lead to kind actions that are a reflection of God’s heart. This will give us the heart of Jesus. In future times, we will be increasingly empowered by the Holy Spirit to build the Kingdom of God.
5. We need to think about who’s important in our lives and take time to grow in those relationships. Relationships will provide both a refuge and solutions to us in the days ahead. God will use our relationships to both speak to us and direct our steps. They will be a vehicle where our needs will be met and will be a place where God reveals our future. They will be an important part of the foundation of God’s kingdom in the days ahead. We need to commit our time and energy to building relationships that bring us closer to Jesus and to each other.
6. Ask God to give us small steps to build up our faithfulness and obedience to Him. The walk with the Lord starts with baby steps in expressing our faith and learning obedience. We will have many opportunities to express our faith in the everyday situations of our lives. God has given us a relationship with Him and will faithfully build it for us if we keep turning to Him in everyday situations. Great victories in our lives are made out of many small decisions to trust in and to turn to God.
7. Keep trying. Life and victory come to those who are the most persistent. Crisis and problems will not last forever, but the power and victory of God will stand. The future champions and heroes of God will be defined and created by their persistence and their steadfast belief in the promises of Jesus. Crisis and difficulty are allowed by the Lord to reveal His glory, and to save the souls of men.
The Eagles Cry 