Category: rapture

Posted in bible, last days, prophecy, rapture

I believe the rapture will be soon

Posted on by elizabethprata

People have been asking about the imminence of the rapture. I personally believe it will be soon. I am not the only one who believes this. Hal Lindsey has been in a prophecy ministry for 50 years and believes it to be very soon. Jack Kelley has been studying it for over 20 and has said “soon.” The two guys at the net’s oldest rapture website, Rapture Ready, have been studying last days doctrines for over 25 years and believe no other time has been as ripe as this one. Pastor JD Faraq says we are in the last moments of the last days.

All the prophecy teachers I read say that we are in the prelude stage to rapid fulfillment of the prophesied Tribulation Time and very near the rapture. Jack Kelley summed it up thus: “For what it’s worth, I believe the world is experiencing the prelude to the seal judgments right now. They haven’t begun yet but the conditions necessary for them to happen are rapidly being met. It won’t be long until everything’s in place.”

Hal Lindsey: “As I was preparing for tonight’s program, I was struck with the speed with which the events are taking place precisely as the prophets predicted millennia ago.”

The Rapture Ready guy said in August of the disasters this year: “It seems that we’ve reached a point where the kindness of God must be at a limit. If we can have nine calamities in less than eight months and still not get man’s attention, any more warning would be pointless. Only God knows for sure, but I think the judgment stage is very very near.”

Then someone pinned me down and asked about timing. “Months, or years?” they asked. So I’ll go out on a limb and if having to choose between months or years, I’ll say I think we have months to go. I could well be wrong, it may be years. No one knows, because as Romans 11:25 instructs us, the fulfillment of the church age is dependent on a number God has in mind for His church, not a date nor an event. When the full number of Gentiles has come in, then we will be raptured. Acts 15:13-18 picks up, “after this I will return and rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down”.

But I do not think I am wrong about the months part and here is why:

1. I don’t believe the world can sustain too much more sin for too long. I’m not talking about pollution, but spiritual pollution and the chaos it brings. Things are stretching at the seams as it is. For example, in one city, the street lights were re-possessed due to unpaid electrical bills. Another city, this one in GA, deleted the entire public bus system. Topeka is so overwhelmed with crime they just announced they will no longer investigate nor prosecute domestic crimes. Detroit closed literally 50%, half, its schools. Children are being molested, kidnapped, and killed at an enormously high rate. There was an attempted kidnapping in my county in broad daylight and police and sheriffs sent out an urgent plea for witnesses. Ever growing numbers of people are dying from attempted theft of copper from electrical transformers. A few weeks ago several people in a nursing home died from overheating after copper was stolen from AC units. In other places, the entire AC unit is taken- one church had theirs stolen 4 times. A humane society lost all its dogs when their AC was stolen. No where is safe any more. Thieves are getting bolder, flash mobs are getting more violent, Occupy Wall Street is spreading around the world, chaos is almost or actually in fact broken out. Rome was on fire from riots. This level of crime and chaos cannot be sustained for long. Of course it will be completely unleashed after we are gone and the Restrainer is removed. If feels soooooo pregnant.

2. I think the rapture will be soon because the isolation of Israel is almost complete. Every Middle East nation mentioned in Tribulation or last days prophecy is in place to fulfill their prophetic roles. For example, Turkey recently quit seeking the West after 50 years of trying and is now overtly Muslim. After 100 years of enmity Turkey and Armenia suddenly made up. Iran is in possession of nuclear bomb making materials. Russia is revived (Gog-Magog) and is empire building. And so on. None of the above was even thinkable as short as five years ago.

3. The natural disasters have gotten to a point of severe intrusion on daily life to most of the global population. They are happening in almost overlap fashion, one upon another, stilling whole swathes of transport and impacting food production to a near-famine degree. I include the US in this position. Did you know that right now a third of Thailand, especially Bangkok, is flooded? We don’t read in US media about the flooding in Thailand and the impacts to world rice production and to factory production of parts that we need, but it is going on, all that and more.

4. We can see clear indications over the prophetic horizon of imminent Seal Judgment fulfillments. (Rev 6). Jack Kelley mentioned that as well. If the Seal Judgments can almost be seen, and the church will be removed before the Tribulation begins, how much closer is the rapture? Close.

5. The attacks on the rapture doctrine are ramping up incredibly in these last ten years. It is almost a fever pitch now. If you even mention rapture these days, among Christians, you get the two-head look or an argument. Though the pre-tribulation rapture is not a foundational issue that should divide the brethren, a close and literal honest reading of the bible would clearly show that there will be a rapture and that it will be prior to the Tribulation. Satan’s use of doubt on this issue has allowed Replacement Theology to creep in (proposes that the church has replaced Israel in God’s plan); it steals the Christian’s hope, it causes doubt and division, and lays the groundwork for a host of other false doctrines to enter in.

If I am wrong it impacts my faith not one bit. I will say the ‘Lord is coming soon’ until we are raptured, whether that be tomorrow or 10 years from now. But I don’t think it will be that long. Look for Damascus to be destroyed as a startling sign of the rapture’s imminence. I think that will happen soon…
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Posted in bible, end time, jesus, rapture

Rapture: "This transmission is coming to you"

Posted on by elizabethprata

So, I’m sitting here with a terrible sinusitis thing and my head is pounding. I’m literally wondering if the pressure in my head can be tested, because it certainly seems outsized compared to the size of my head. I feel like I can pressurize a nuclear powered sub all the way to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. And normally I like to think of the big things awaiting me when I ‘get there’, like worshiping Jesus in person, thanking my ministering angels, seeing fellow believers worship in unity and spirit and truth. But today I’m thinking of the smaller things. Like, I won’t ever have sinusitis again. I won’t have to clean my place in New Jerusalem. (I’m speculating on this one). The strawberries won’t go moldy after just two days. I won’t have to worry about what to wear. I will never have to deal with kitty litter again. Because when my head is pounding, those are the biggest thoughts I can muster.

But I’m so grateful that HE has big thoughts. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.” (Isaiah 55:8). And frankly isn’t that a huge relief? He is sovereign, controlling all. Large and in charge. For example, I was listening to a sermon on Job 1. The preacher was talking about how God was in charge of that whole situation, limiting satan and allowing only this and that. God says to satan “Have you considered my servant Job?” and it occurred to me, satan didn’t say “Job who?” Satan knows the Godly. Satan’s response indicated he knew Job, knew of God’s hedge around him, knew even how many flocks Job had and where they grazed. Satan knew Job, likely had been trying to get at him for a long time. Do you think satan knows you? I hope so. And I mean that in a good way.

Alternately, when the demons met the Jewish exorcists of Sceva, look at what happened. “But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” (Acts 19:13-15.) Ouch.

If you are going through a trial, know that it might well be because satan knows you, and that is a good thing. It means you are being effective for the Kingdom. Know that God is in charge of it all, even if satan is hounding you. And we know that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28). And if His thoughts are above our thoughts, His purposes are above our purposes, and His purposes are good.

I can’t wait to get to New Jerusalem. I heard one sermon recently from Steve Hadley, and Steve preached about the New Jerusalem. He said that it is unfortunate that many translations put the word “mansions” in for “place.” He said, “we don’t get a mansion. It’s not like we show up at the gates and Peter is there with a map to a subdivision, saying, ‘Go down Glory Street and take your first left, your house is 1212 Faith Lane.” He said we will dwell WITH Lord and that means with. We’ll all be together in one place, with God.

There was this Australian engineer that added up the dimensions of New Jerusalem as given in Revelation. He found that the city is two million, two hundred and fifty thousand, square miles. Or 93 million acres. By contrast, London is 140 sq miles. So a city that big at the same density of population as London could hold a one hundred billion people. The ground level of the city will be nearly two million square miles, which is forty times bigger than England. And we will all love the Lord, forever, together.

Wow! I can’t wait to see it. I don’t think we will have to wait long…Maranatha!
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Posted in rapture

Looking forward to the rapture, hopefully soon

Posted on by elizabethprata

Paul was the one to reveal the mystery of the rapture to the first generation believers of Christianity and thus to all believers after that. In 1 Corinthians 15:51 Paul begins the revelation of this doctrine by saying, ‘Listen, I tell you a mystery…” A mystery in Greek is not something unknowable that is obtuse and only understood through byzantine clues. It means something not known before but is being revealed now. (source).

In a companion verse, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Thes. 4:15) Paul is speaking of the rapture in this passage. Usually, people skip right to the good stuff, to the next verse about the Lord coming down from heaven with a shout and the dead in Christ rising, and all that.

But think for a minute, if the mystery of the rapture was revealed by Paul and was not written about anywhere prior in the New Testament, what does it mean at the beginning of the verse when Paul says “According to the Lord’s own Word…?” When Paul wrote that it always meant that it was in the Old Testament, in His Word that had already existed for centuries. But now that the Lord had come, died, and ascended, the Holy Spirit filled believers also now understood that the Coming of the Messiah was going to be in two parts, and in part two, He would return and get them and bring them to heaven. (John 14:2-3).

So if the rapture is according to the Lord’s own word, where was it in the Old Testament? It can be interpreted to be in Isaiah.

“But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” (Is 26:19-20).

Whatever the source point for the rapture, Isaiah or Thessalonians/Corinthians, it seems that many people feel that it could be very near. And that means being ready to meet Him. If you have repented of your sins, you are ready to meet Him when He comes partway to earth to gather us to Him at the place he has been preparing for us. If you are not ready now, that is a terrible thing, because that means you will go through the Tribulation period which is the worst time on earth that there will ever be and will never be so terrible again. (Mt 24:21). It could well be that you die in that time period, because right away a fourth of the world will die (Rev 6:7-8) and then a third of the remaining world after that. (Rev 9:18). The odds are you will die before you know what hit you and that would seal your fate forever. You will still meet Him, but it will be on His terms in tat case, and you will be forever doomed to hell. If you repent during the Tribulation that will be great but you will still be living through the worst time there will ever be.

Repent now and be ready to meet your Groom. It is the best of all possible situations!
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Posted in china, rapture

Why China is getting tough, and what it means for prophecy

Posted on by elizabethprata

Yesterday I read a good article in The Diplomat, an international current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific region. It offers analysis and commentary on events occurring in Asia and around the world, on Geo-political trends throughout the Asia-Pacific, defense and intelligence, environment, human security and development etc. The title is “Why China is Getting Tough” and offers an incisive analysis of the recent aggressive stance that China has adopted. They report, “In recent months, China has adopted an increasingly aggressive posture across the Asia-Pacific region – from provoking fights with neighbours in the South China Sea, to introducing provocative new military systems, to holding joint military exercises with Pakistan on India’s border. Why now?”

Good question. Why is China getting tough now? Several reasons. Remember, nature abhors a vacuum, and there does exist a vacuum in the Asia-Pacific theater.

“China’s regional environment has grown more accommodating this year as Japan and the United States have become increasingly unable to fulfil their traditional roles of balancing Chinese power in the Asia-Pacific. Tokyo’s troubles began when a number of public scandals led to growing dissatisfaction with the Kan administration.”

Second, “The onset of the Arab Spring, meanwhile, forced yet another US administration to turn its attention to the Middle East at the expense of the Asia-Pacific, a trend exacerbated by the decision to intervene militarily in Libya.” So the vacuum deepens…

Further, “Developments elsewhere in the region also seem to be working in China’s favour. For example, the so-called reset in US-Russia relations has steadily deteriorated in recent weeks… Despite stamping out calls for a Jasmine Revolution, the Chinese government continues to face an unsettling domestic situation…” and it is true that oppressive governments that face trying times at home often foment external situations to claim their attention and rally the populace, such as military incursions.

The article goes into good detail in a readable way, so I recommend reading the full article.

All this to say, that in the time of the end (The Tribulation) we know that the Kings of the East become a major military force. As Bible.org says so well, “One of the significant developments of the twentieth century is the political and military awakening of the Orient. The great nations of Asia east of the Euphrates River, slumbering for centuries, are now beginning to stir and to become a major factor in the international situation. The geographic immensity and the millions of humanity involved make it inevitable that any future development embracing the entire world must take the Orient into consideration.”

Israel and the Orient have had little dealings with each other. In fact, China and Japan and Korea were and still are in some cases very insular. It was quite a surprise in 1941 when Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor. China, despire having ‘opened’ to the world recently, is still inscrutable. South Korea is a closed country.

Bible.org goes on to say “Two important passages in Revelation, namely, 9:13-21 and 16:12-16 contribute to the conclusion that one of the large armies employed in the final world conflict will be a military force of great power which comes from the Orient. The first intimation of this is found in Revelation 9 where it is recorded that John:

“heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates, And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them…” (verses 13-16). Though there were not two hundred million people on earth at John’s time, now China has two hundred million in their army.

The passage goes on to describe the character of this army and the conclusion that one-third of the men were killed in the resulting military struggle. “A later development in prophetic fulfillment is portrayed in the sixth vial described in Revelation 16:12-16. There it is recorded, “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared” (Revelation 16:12). Revelation 16:14 reveals that this movement is part of a world-wide gathering of “the kings of the earth and of the whole world” in order that they might participate in “the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”

Grant Phillips asks, “Are We in the Last Days?” “Some prophecies of the last days to consider in answering our question are weather patterns, the economy, society, placement of countries who will come against Israel, modern day technology that provides the means for fulfillment of end-time prophecies, but especially those concerning the State of Israel. In addition to all this though, the beginning Scripture passage of this article should answer this prevailing and burning question. Are we in the last days? If we are now seeing signs that are preparation indicators for the Tribulation, can the Tribulation be that far off? Since the Rapture precedes the Tribulation, then obviously it would be even closer.”

It is the $64,000 question. Actually, it is the priceless question. It is the eternal question. Get ready. He is coming, whether you are ready or not.
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Posted in end of days. prophecy, rapture

Prophetic conditions are being set for rapid fulfillment

Posted on by elizabethprata

Prophetic pieces are rapidly coming together. Very rapidly. Let me explain:

When the disciples asked Jesus what would be the sign of His coming, (Mt 24:3), Jesus sat them down and held the longest unbroken discourse He ever uttered besides the Sermon on the Mount. (Mt 5-7). He described in detail what the believers could expect prior to His return. This period of seven years is known as the Tribulation, and the second half of the period as it worsens is known as the Great Tribulation.

Revelation, and indeed, most of the other books of the New Testament and quite a few of the Old Testament, describe the judgments that will befall the people who are alive at the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, as the Old Testament calls it. (Jeremiah 30:4-7; Daniel 12:1).

But it’s important to note that the judgments Jesus describes in Matthew 24 (The Olivet Discourse, because He discoursed on the Mount of Olives) is judgment, and will occur after the rapture. Believers are not appointed to wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9). However the Olivet Discourse and the other Tribulation descriptors in Mark and Luke show us what conditions will be like then, and from that, we can back-engineer what conditions may be like immediately prior to the Tribulation. It is my opinion that the rapture is close in time to happening, though there will be no sign preceding it and no particular event has to happen before believers are taken out of the world by His power and promise.

That said, when Jesus explained the signs to watch for it’s not like there will be skywriting to say “THIS is a sign.” (Except the angel that flies at mid-heaven, lol, that will be pretty obvious. Rev 14:6). There will be some signs that will be obvious to people such as Damascus being destroyed (Is 17:1; the angel flying in mid-heaven that I mentioned, the Two Witnesses being resurrected in front of the eyes of the world, but for the most part, then and especially now, we have to  scrutinize the times and put pieces together to see where we’re at. However, people who are alert will know what is going on. (1 Thess 5:4).

For example, I’ve been speaking of a condition called wealth skew. In the Tribulation, a large portion of the population will be very, very poor. They will work all day and only able to afford a loaf of bread. Many will die of famine. (Rev 6:6; 6:8). Yet there will be people enjoying incredible luxuries, buying and selling in the world’s most expensive furniture, perfumes, wood, and foods. (Rev 18:12-15). I call it wealth skew or wealth gap because the middle class will have disappeared (which we are seeing now, actually) and the poor will be very poor while the rich will be very rich. Though in recent times it can’t be said that all wealth was distributed evenly, there had been a trend over the last 40 years of a growing and vibrant middle class, even in the Latin American countries and certainly north America and Europe, and many other western nations. And though the very wealthy have always occupied a small percentage of the top levels, that percentage has shrunk while those still occupying the top rungs of financial comfort are even more comfortable than ever. Rep. Nancy Pelosi was 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and her wealth grew by 62% even after the 2008 economic crash.

So we won’t see a something that we can point to overnight and say “There! that is a sign!” but we can read the warnings that the bible gives us and know that we’re given conditions to watch out for. Like this one in an article describing the US problem of flash mob robberies and the use of social media to plan these mob robberies and riots:

“You are essentially having a world where you have 25 million people who are underemployed and 2 percent of the population doing better than they ever have,” Taplin said. “Why wouldn’t that lead to some sort of social unrest?”

People are upset about their economic conditions, either being tired of always being poor and protesting, or the newly poor are shocked into violence to protest their new status.

This article from CNBC says “Riots break out around the world amid economic anxieties“. Global unrest…yet another condition that will permeate the Tribulation. Peace will be taken from the earth. (Rev 6:3-4). There will be no peace. There will be nations against nations (ethnic groups against ethnic groups) wars, and rumors of wars. We are seeing that prophesied condition being set in place for fulfillment now.

source

Another condition being set up for rapid fulfillment is this one spoken of in Luke. In Luke 21:25 Jesus is recorded as saying, “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;…” Though certainly the interpretation can be made that this is literally the seas roaring, indeed, there are so many natural disasters occurring now and will occur in the Tribulation it is more than possible, but I don’t think it means only that. In Isaiah it is explained what the metaphor means: “Isaiah 17:12 Oh, the raging of many nations–they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples–they roar like the roaring of great waters!”

There IS great uproar now.

London England riots (Tottenham) Source

Rasmussen recently conducted a poll  and the results were astonishing. Pollster Pat Caddella sea of anger is churning” among Americans who “want to take their country back” and that the nation stood on the brink of a “pre-revolutionary moment”.

Unwittingly he used almost exactly the phrase from the soon-to-be fulfilled Luke 21:25 verse of the seas roaring and tossing. We are very close to the rapture, but if it does not come for a month or a year, it still does not matter. He WILL come for us. Meanwhile, believers, do not fear. How many times are believers told not to fear? Many!

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)

“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

“This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’ (Haggai 2:5)

We have only joy in anticipation of His soon return, and only relief to know that we escape the wrath and are considered His children, washed clean and pardoned from the sentence we deserve of our wrongdoing in His eyes. The conditions we’re seeing in the world, far from worrying me, are giving me hope that we may soon see Him. Cling to that hope, for he is the Blessed Hope!
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Posted in bible jesus, end of days, rapture

It’s evening in America, and the sun is setting on the world

Posted on by elizabethprata

Well. Here in the good old United States, things are getting very severe. They are getting very crazy. I look at today’s headlines and I do not even know where to begin. I sit numbly in front of the computer screen, shaking my head.

I’m in awe of how the Lord works. How this little thing and that little thing over time now connect to make a worse thing. And this nudge is repeated and that connection repeated since time immemorial, the dots are connecting and it is all coming down. I’m amazed.

The stocks crumbled today in the aftermath of Standard and Poor’s downgrade of our previous AAA credit rating to AA+ with Negative Outlook. Gold is at record high on the stocks crash. The UK Daily Mail’s headline was screaming veritable panic: “Bloodbath! Panic grips Wall Street as desperate investors rush to sell and Dow goes into freefall”. The stock market is not only tanking, but the big financial corporations are turning on each other. Kind of reminds of the book Lord of the Flies.

The drought in the American central south is deepening. A Texas town ran out of water today. What a horror for the residents! Israel suffered the worst earthquake (4.2) they have had all year.

The killing in Syria continues. Jerusalem deals with enormous protests, 320,000 march in the streets. London is burning in massive riots. The damage is incredible.

Jesus warned that because of the increase in wickedness (sin), love of most would would wax cold (Mt 24:12). The godless want to be rid of us Christians so that they can be in ‘peace’ but even before the Restrainer (Holy Spirit) is taken out of the way (2 Thess 2:7) that sin is rising and giving rise to evil deeds. Like this one:

“Housekeeper Says Queens Monk Kept Her As “Slave” or this one, “Chained up with the dog: The Chinese boy kept as slave by uncle“. Or this one: “Elisabeth Fritzl was forced to help build the dungeon where she was kept by her sadistic father Josef, it emerged yesterday. For the first nine months of her 24 years in captivity, she was also tethered with a 5ft dog leash around her neck to prevent her escape.” So a dad turns sadistic, forces his daughter to build her own dungeon and then chains her up. Unbelievable.

Paul warned Timothy that in the last days people would be without natural affection, meaning, without the natural affection felt between kindred, as a parent to a child. Or an uncle to a niece. Headlines like these are not just headlines. They involve real people. Real people betrayed by the very people they should be able to trust most, and forced to live a horrific life devoid of humanity. I could continue with posting the headlines that would shock and cause anxiety and dismay to one and all. But the thing that really should cause anxiety and dismay is the fact that the Restrainer is still here, restraining, and these are already horrific headlines. The rapture has not occurred and the Days of Lot and the Days of Noah haven’t even begun yet. Meaning, it will get worse. A lot worse.

Please, please, please PLEASE repent. If you have not already confessed your sins and asked Jesus to be your Lord (who will forgive you), the tensions and distress of these days will be so much more magnified beyond all imagining. You will be left behind to wallow in your sins and everyone elses’s and if you still have any sentience, conscience, or morality, you will long for days when ALL they did was chain you up. The horror of daily life during the tribulation will be all riots. All brutality. All cold-heartedness.

But you can repent now and become part of the Bride of Christ, His church, His brethren. The rapture will take us out of all this and the worse part to come. See, He has told us ahead of time: “Come, my people, enter into your rooms And close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while until indignation runs its course.” (Isaiah 26:20). He wishes that no one perish in their sins, and that means you. He knows your name, and He wants for you to be one of His. Please do it now. The time is short.
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Posted in bible jesus, miracles, rapture

A comment on miracles

Posted on by elizabethprata

Today’s people want miracles. They want fabulous signs and wonders, and flock to places where they think God is performing them. I happen to believe that once the scriptures were closed that the signs and miracles all but ceased. God used the signs and wonders through His designated apostles (the 12 plus Paul) to authenticate the performer of those miracles as being from God. Acts 2:22 says, “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” 2 Corinthians 12:12 says, “The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance”. Hebrews 2:4 says of the Gospel, “God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.”

Once the canon was set, once the apostles were dead, the signs ceased, because we now had the miracle of God revealed in His closed Word. In my opinion that is why we don’t see the large swathe of validated miracles and signs occurring today.

I’d like to make a distinction about the Tribulation. During that 7-year judgment period, there will be signs, wonders, and miracles. Many will be false (Matthew 24:23-24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9). Some of them will be true: (Revelation 11:1-6; Revelation 14:6-9). The very judgments themselves will be miracles, in that the laws of physics will be set aside and magnificent but deadly miracles will occur such as oceans turning to blood and 100 pound hailstones, and a sun that goes dark.

But between the period of the close of the canon and the death of the original apostles, and the tribulation, showy miracles have all but ended. In His wisdom here and there the Lord may certainly perform a sign in His sovereign will. In Mark 8:12 Jesus signed deeply and asked of the people, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.” He was saying that their belief rested in the show and not in faith. It is like that today.

Back to the clamor for miracles. In the ever-questioning God’s authority, emergent church, counter-reformation, ‘God spoke to me’ generation, they want a show. They desire a sign that will confirm the faith. But I remind us all, we overlook the miracles every day! There are so many. But they are getting lost in the clamor.

What about the miracle of a sinner repenting and coming to faith? It is the greatest act of a Holy God to draw a sinner to Himself for cleansing in redemption and forgiveness. It never fails to make me cry to see someone set aside the old man and ask Jesus to take over their life. It is a miracle of the Holy Spirit, since no man can make that decision for himself, being completely craven. (John 6:44). What about an adulterous marriage restored through faith and love? It is a miracle, because they chose God as their foundation and not their lusts. What about a teen or youth involved in cults, or cutting, or depressed and suicidal, brought to joy in the Lord after prayer and tearful prayers of the family and church? What about the birth of a child? Each child, formed by the Lord Himself. (Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13). What about answered prayer? A miracle that we have a God who listens to His people, though he is so High and we are so low. He listens and responds to us. A miracle. These are miracles. I praise the Lord for them all.

The quiet miracles from the Holy Spirit’s work are daily occurring around us. Take some time to thank Him for them. They are just as powerful, if not a more powerful witness to His everlasting love in this deeply fallen world.
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Posted in bible, drought, end of days. prophecy, famine, rapture

US drought: "Desperation the only thing growing"

Posted on by elizabethprata

This is Cimmarron National Grassland, Kansas. Not much grass. The Grassland director explains that it is already drier than the driest of the Dust Bowl years.

Video here, explaining what is going on. The Cimmaron Grassland Director there is saying that there has been only 2.99 inches of moisture in the last 10 months, when the normal amount is 19 inches. The topsoil has blown away, and the grasses that remain have exposed roots. When the tender roots are exposed to constant blasting of wind and sand, they die. Compounding the issue has been fire. On Mother’s day there was a fire in the Grasslands that incinerated 15,000 acres, and could not be controlled due to 50 mph winds.

This report says that the Dust Bowl may be returning.

“Desperation is the only thing growing“
Since last September — 10 months ago — Morton County near Elkhart has received 2.99 inches of moisture. The normal average rainfall for that corner of Kansas is about 19 inches. There was no dryland wheat harvested in the county this year; more than three-quarters of the county’s acres are dryland. Farmers are selling cow-calf operations in record numbers because there is not enough feed. Newborn calves, less than a day old, are on the auction block.
Roads have been closed due to drifting sand, blocking access to gas and oil wells and causing some companies to shut the wells down temporarily. “I’d describe this drought as very bleak,” said Morton County agricultural extension agent Tim Jones. “You can’t do anything. It is hot, dry and windy. We are at a complete standstill.”

“Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a drought disaster declaration for 49 Kansas counties, nearly half the state.”

Blogger BayouRenaissanceMan has these two photos of the Kansas grasslands showing before and after:

He ended his blog entry with a plea for those who are so inclined, to pray for rain. I second that.

USDA Drought monitor for July 26, 2011:

We reel from one disaster to another, the flooding in the nation’s midsection was and still is monstrous, while just a few hundred miles to the west there is no water. Heat sears the east, while the west shivers in record cold. Crops are dying in many drought-ridden states and the deepening of the tragedy is now having impacts on next year’s cycle. The Dust Bowl cycle is also returning. Naysayers claim that there has always been a cycle of drought and lushness, and that is true, but the Dust Bowl was man made due to mismanagement of the land, and after a certain tipping point there was no recovery. The issue today may or may not be man’s mismanagement but surely the things the Lord has said will come to pass. Those things include famine and drought. During the Tribulation, the Two Witnesses sent by God will prophesy for three and a half years and will be given power:

“These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.” (Rev 11:6). So the naysayers who claim this is just part of a cycle and that we will return to normal soon are wrong. It will only get worse.

Worse, that is, for unbelievers who choose to deny Jesus and thus ultimately choose to remain on earth when the worst of the worst will hit. This is nothing now. During the Tribulation people will be longing for these days when at least sometimes it rained. Believers will be raptured from the earth to be with the Living Water, who is Jesus. We will be refreshed with life everlasting! Why will we receive these blessings? Because Jesus willingly came to earth to die in propitiation for our sins. He accepted the wrath of God as judgment for sinful man, replacing us whose punishment is deserved, with Himself, who deserved none. Since your sins have been punished already all you need to do is accept that His work on the cross was your punishment for your sins, and ask Him to forgive them. The punishment has been rendered but so has the forgiveness! You have to claim it though.

I bet if someone gave you a lottery ticket you’d put it in your wallet. You may forget about it. But perhaps your friend comes up to you to share the good news, saying, ‘Hey, I was watching the TV and the lottery number they gave was the one on your ticket! You won!” I am sure you would take the ticket out out, check it, and hurry right down to the lottery office to claim your reward. You might even get a speeding ticket, you rush so fast to get that money! But instead, in rejecting Jesus, it is like you say, ‘oh, yeah, I won a billion dollars’ and you go, ‘maybe I’ll claim it later. Or not. Ho hum.’ Yet the treasure that He offers, the treasure that He IS, is so much more than a billion dollars. Money rots away, it decreases in value, but the treasure of everlasting life with Jesus never rots away. It is priceless because it is infinite. Why don’t people claim THAT Good News?

Stay parched and thirsty if you want, but I sipped the living water and not only am I refreshed right now, in these dark days, but I am looking forward to everlasting refreshment with Him, in New Jerusalem! You can as well.

Pray for our brothers and sisters in the drought states, they are suffering. Thankfully, that suffering will end when the rapture comes. But for those who remain behind, it will be a very thirsty time indeed.

“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” (Is 55:6)

““Behold, the days come, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst…” (Amos 8:11-13 KJV).”
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Posted in psalm 83, rapture

The world is all shook up

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here are a couple of nuggets for you. I did not come up with these. Smarter people than I posed the question and brought the thought forward. The first is from a Q&A at Jack Kelley’s site Grace Thru Faith regarding the first line in Psalm 83. The second is a thought from Joel Rosenberg.

Jack Kelley:
“Q. Psalm 83:3 says “They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.” The word “they” refers to the Arab confederates, and “thy people” refers to the nation of Israel. Who are the “hidden ones?” Could this be the raptured Church? If so, it would be a pretty strong hint that the Church is raptured before the battle of Psalm 83 takes place. What do you think?”

[Isaiah 26:20 states: “Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by.”

“A. Since Psalm 83 and the rapture are not connected, there’s no reason why we have to be here when it happens. The phrase translated “hidden ones” in Psalm 83:3 means exactly that in Hebrew. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that in Isaiah 26:20 a group of God’s people is told to hide themselves in advance of God’s wrath. Since this instruction immediately follows a resurrection in verse 19 it can’t be referring to believing Jews, whose resurrection takes place after the Great Tribulation (Daniel 12:1-2). I believe Isaiah was referring to the Church and that Isaiah 26:19-21 is the source for Paul’s teaching on the rapture in 1 Thes. 4:15-17. (If so this would lend more support to the view that he taught a pre-trib rapture to the Thessalonians.) If Psalm 83:3 and Isaiah 26:20 refer to the same group of hidden ones, then you might just be correct in saying it’s another hint as to the sequence of End Times events.”

This morning Joel C. Rosenberg wrote about shaking the nations. “The LORD is shaking the nations physically, spiritually, financially; Why? And how should we respond?”

It is a good essay outlining what, in his view, the nation-shaking is (Greece, US, Iran, Israel, Arab Nations etc). Then the verse from Haggai is presented:

“The Lord said through the ancient Hebrew Prophet Haggai that the nations would be shaken in the future. “For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations….I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations.” (Haggai 2:6, 7, 21, 22)”

“In the New Testament, the Lord reinforced that theme. “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven’….Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:25-29)”

I appeal to one and all to be engaged in an acceptable service with reverence and awe. It IS the way we show gratitude to a Holy God all the things He has done for us. And that though the nations are shaken, our faith will remain upon the Rock that is the Eternal Savior.
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Posted in end time, peace, prophecy, rapture

Peace be with you

Posted on by elizabethprata

Good morning,

Did you ever have a feeling of peaceful well-being that was saturating you completely? A feeling of rightness in the world, though it is fallen and corrupt, but of sweetness with the Lord anyway? Of needing nothing and wanting nothing, just content with what you have and relieved that all has been taken care of and provided for by the Almighty? Of gladness that you know the Holy Spirit and can feel Him doing the regenerative work in you? That is how I feel this morning.

“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21)

Because He was loving and obedient to the Father:

We soon share in His peace forever

Please accept His free pardon that He offers for your sins. Pray to Him and confess, making Him Lord of your life and you will be cleansed from the sins that weigh you down so. You will then know true peace, being reconciled to the Prince of Peace.
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