357 A Two Fold Vision (Part two)

Over recent weeks and months I have spoken about the coming of “dark times” and “difficult days” and I have no doubt that our world is on the verge of some of the greatest tragedies and trials ever encountered by the human race. I speak about this simply because these things are spoken of in the Bible. As a “watchman” under the prompting and leading of the Holy Spirit of God, I must prepare you for things to come. In doing so, it is never my purpose to scare you into submission to the will of God, rather to prepare you for the move of God. For you see Satan’s wickedness is always only the opportunity for God to move in and turn evil into good, tragedy into triumph and

pain into purpose.   While there is a very real sense that HELL is coming to our world, HEAVEN is coming to the Church and we need fear nothing as long as we know that we belong to Jesus.

 

In 1973 (the late) Rev’d David Wilkerson (formerly of Times Square Church New York City) wrote a prophetic book, entitled The Vision. The first chapter of the book reads like today’s headlines, and I want to continue where I left off last week and share with you parts of that prophetic vision in these two sermons which I have entitled “A two fold vision”.

 

In addition to what I shared with you last time, …

Wilkerson sees More Riots and Demonstrations. He says …

The rioting and demonstrating, the looting and unrest of the sixties are now history. But the riots are not over. Another wave is coming. This time I see Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Mexicans deeply involved. The coming economic confusion will ignite another round of demonstrations, riots and civil disorder.

Social aid programs are going to be cut back and curtailed, and minority groups are going to be affected the most. These cutbacks, along with the curtailment of many government projects, will cause widespread unemployment amongst these groups.

 

I have never once believed that we have seen the end of violence and bloodshed and rioting in our streets. I abhor and pray that God will spare us. But more than ever, I am convinced that the worst is yet to come. Also I see great riots coming to many major cities in South America. In the next decade, South America will become a powder keg, exploding in all directions.

 

Wilkerson adds that The United States will Be Blamed

Although economic actions in Europe will trigger the coming recession, the United States will be blamed by most nations for what happened. France will become one of the most vicious anti-American nations in the world. Politicians and businessmen in Europe and Japan will place the blame on Washington and the American bankers.

 

Drastic troop withdrawals from Europe will cause even more confusion. Leaders of the European Common Market will capitalize on this anti-American sentiment to establish a firmer power base and grip on world trade. The world’s economic power base will shift to Europe.

 

Recovery from the Recession – [ Remember this was written in 1973] There may be a full recovery from the coming recession, and there may still be another cycle or two of fat and lean years. Only God Himself knows the future – (Wilkerson adds) I have received only a hazy glimpse beyond this decade. I seem to see

a picture of a partial and almost complete recovery from the coming recession – but the world economy will continue in confusion until the time of the Antichrist.   From this day on, there will hang over the entire world a sense of fear and uncertainty about future economic conditions. Never again

in the history of the world will there be a time of complete confidence and trust in world economies. Every little boom period will carry with it a strong threat of a bust. Men’s hearts will begin to fail from fear after they watch the devastating effects of crippled economies.

There will be a time in the future when men will be obsessed with buying, selling, planting, marrying and divorcing – but it will be a time of false prosperity. The Bible predicts that in this time of false prosperity, Jesus Christ will appear in the clouds

to evacuate the Christians .

 

He continues: – Beware Hoarding Will Not Help

It is not a time to hoard money, because it will not provide real security. It is still possible that we can face the time when even government-insured savings will not be paid. The only real security is in land.   Money that is hoarded will disappear like sand out of a bag with holes in it.

 

This is also a time when the Christian must pray about his giving to the church and to missionary causes. Every cent that is now given to God’s work must be given with a purpose. Indiscriminate giving, just to ease the conscience or to unload God’s tithe on the church – will no longer be acceptable to the Lord. Those who obey God’s Word and give willingly during the fat years will never have to beg for bread during the lean years. Those who see eternity as the real investment – are wise.

 

I have some advice for those who believe the message of this Vision – I believe the advice is from the Lord. Don’t buy anything unless it is needed.   Avoid going into debt – at all, if possible. Sell or trade off all questionable holdings. No matter what sacrifice is involved, pay off as much debt as possible and get your cash flow needs down to a minimum.

Trim your budget and cut your staff down to the bone. Avoid piling up credit card bills. Credit card debt will be extremely dangerous from now on.

 

Don’t panic – just be cautious. Get a good reliable car and stick with it. Don’t anticipate trading it for a good, long while. Hold on to it!   By all means, do not cheat God. Keep your books with Heaven well balanced. Your future security depends on it. Give as generously as possible – do not be robbing God at this time. Give and it will be given back to you.

The message I have received for all true believers is :

“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished” – Proverbs 27:12

 

– God’s Message For the Prepared

[Note the use of the term “true” Christians in this section.]

This has been a good year for bad news. Our daily papers read more like chilling fiction than truth. We get daily doses of news about high food prices, disastrous weather, energy crises, and record-setting storms and floods ravaging the world.

(Again I ask you to remember that this vision was given to Wilkerson in 1973.)

Words like “violent,” “record,” “unseasonable,” and “record-breaking” will keep appearing in weather forecasts everywhere. When weather should have been fair and sunny, tornadoes and floods have struck instead. Where weather was once cold, it has become extremely and unseasonably hot.

Meteorologists do their best to predict these disasters and analyse them as they happen, but none of them can explain what is causing disastrous weather changes to happen so frequently.

 

Many people today are convinced that the world is out of control. Institutions we have always trusted seem to be falling apart. The government can no longer provide solutions, and even the most astute world leaders are baffled by world conditions. It is shattering to our confidence when high officials shrug their shoulders and confess they understand no more than we do about what is happening. There are no simple answers to our complex questions.

 

In light of what we have seen in the last five years in the way of violence, immorality, crime, lawlessness, and tragedy – can you imagine what we are about to witness in the next decade?

 

The way tragedies and disasters are striking the earth with such frequency and intensity would suggest that the earth is suffering labour pains.   This is how Jesus describes the events that will happen before he returns – read Matthew 24:8, & Mark 13:8.   The Bible says God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth (2 Peter 3: 10) . This old earth will pass away and melt with fervent heat. The very elements are to be melted away. We are witnessing not so much the death of an old world – but the birth of a new one. (Revelation 21:1) .

 

These are exciting days for true Christians. God in His love and mercy, is allowing disasters to strike the earth – to warn all who will hear, that Jesus is coming back, and that it’s time to get ready.   He loves His children too much to bring His new kingdom to pass without warning. He knows that mankind is hard of hearing and that it takes disasters of earthquake proportions to get men’s attention. These disasters are a kind of countdown, too painful to ignore, choreographed by God to set the stage for the final moments of time.   These labour pains will be more frequent and intense as we approach the last hour. There will be more famines, more pestilences, more earthquakes in more places.   And all this is just the beginning of sorrows –

 

Yet the message of the Bible is to all true believers:

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. [Jesus is coming soon!] Luke 21: 28

Men’s hearts are failing them from fear over the things happening to this earth (Luke 21: 26) . People are hoarding up, saving up, and getting ready for the coming worldwide recession. Even devout Christians are getting caught up in this wave of fear and anxiety about the future.   People are afraid the ship is sinking.   Mankind is yearning for security, and it has led to an epidemic of “grabbing” for houses, land, money, and guaranteed income.

 

In 1993, Twenty Years after His first Visions, David Wilkerson saw a coming plague on the USA and warned then, in ’93 that Ebola would come to the US in these latter days and be an even greater killer than HIV Aids ever was. Ebola is not new, it was first recognised 40 years ago, but the W.H.O., (the world heath organisation) had done nothing about it until comparatively recently. Can even the most devoted Christian remotely understand how terribly close this earth is to the midnight hour? One thing is certain – everything appears to be falling apart, as far as the natural eye can discern.   Even the most doubtful person on earth must, in his honest moments admit that there is something apocalyptic taking place in the world.

 

Wilkerson adds: Along with the vision of calamities, God gave me a very special message of hope for all true believers. I desperately questioned God about all the things I saw coming.

I asked Him to show me how and what Christians could do in the limited time left when so many were forsaking and going into hiding. How can Christians keep fear out of their hearts? How can they face all the news reports and anticipate all the calamities and disasters without being afraid for their homes and children?

 

Do they abdicate and turn this old world over to the devil and let him have his way? Do they pay off all their bills, store away some reserves in the bank, then just try to ride it out – hoping that a better day will come? Do they buy a farm or a piece of land and flee to the country – hoping they can escape the coming tragedies? Will they eat, drink, and be merry – just living it up, knowing they have death hanging over their heads? Do they let their motives die and surrender to fear? Do they abandon all their dreams and ambitions and become as hermits looking for truth?

 

(Note how God answered him) He says:

Dear friends, hear what the Holy Spirit spoke to me. Just five little words, but so powerful that they awakened in me a glorious new hope and faith. Those five little words are:

God has everything under control!

 

That’s right – everything is under control. In spite of earthquakes, famines, pestilences, hailstorms, killer heat waves, floods, hurricanes, and epidemics – nature is not out of control! Everything that we see now happening has been clearly predicted in God’s Word, the Bible.   Nothing can happen in nature, or to nature unless our God allows it. The Bible predicts that the wrath of God is to be poured out on this earth through an unleashed nature, designed to warn mankind of the coming judgment.

 

Nature is controlled and limited by God and it cannot cross those limits unless God permits it. God told Job it was He who:

Shut up the sea with doors; set bars and doors to stay the proud waves. Took hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it. Reserves the treasures of hail and snow against the day of battle. Divided water courses for the overflow of water. Set the dominion of the earth and the ordinances of the heavens. Stayed the bottles of heaven. Sent forth lightening. And scattered the wind upon the earth – Job 38

 

Child of God, you need no longer fear the unleashed violence of nature. God is still king of the flood.   He is calling, chastising, and warning all His children to heed the signs. But there is a hiding place for believers. The Bible states:

“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them” – Psalm 34:7

If you trust God, you can look every disaster in the face and proclaim with confidence, “My God is speaking to this universe and His power is being demonstrated; I will just stand still and see the salvation of the Lord”   Even Satan is under control!

As with Job, God may permit him to touch every material and physical thing around you, but he cannot possess you or rob you of your faith in God. The devil’s power is limited and even baby [new] Christians can put him to flight simply by resisting him through the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus. The Bible says: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you“. Does that sound like defeat? No. – James 4:7 Does that suggest a victorious devil? Does that suggest Christians should fear demon possession? Never! God has everything under control, and we are under His control. Do not ever fear Satan. It is the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). Wherever you got your spirit of fear, you did not get it from God, so why put up with it? Shake it off, because God’s message for this hour is:

That God hath not given you a spirit of fear; but of power, and love, and a sound mind – 2 Timothy 1:7

 

Satan cannot swamp you with filth and smut and vex your soul with every imaginable kind of evil. He can persecute you, and the enemies of Christ can revile and hate you. You can wind up penniless, having to pray for your very next meal. You can be hated and rejected by your own family and given up by your closest friends.   But the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and His ear is open to their prayer. We are not to fear anyone who can destroy the body, but to respect and honour only Him who can touch the soul. (Matthew 10:28)   No power in heaven or on earth can touch a man’s confidence and faith in Jesus Christ. No demon, no devil, no human power can destroy the soul.

 

You and I, and everything that touches us, are under Gods control. It’s true! No matter how things look in this disastrous world, all things are still working together for good to everyone who loves God and are called according to His purpose

(Romans 8:28).

 

Let the dollar, the euro or the pound fail. Let depression or recession come with its unemployment and fear. Let pollution and inflation come. Let there be wars and rumours of wars. Let the fabric of society disintegrate. Let mankind go to the drunken brink of disaster. For the true child of God, everything is still under control! We need not fear – nothing can harm those who abide under the shelter of His almighty wings (Psalm 91:4).

The shadow of the Almighty is bigger than any fearful shadow this age can project. God’s children need fear no evil. His children will never beg for bread (Psalm 37:25) and He will supply every genuine need up to the very last minute of time.

 

God has not promised to keep His children from suffering. He has not promised to keep us from facing an hour of need. We have no promise of world peace, tranquillity, security, or continuous financial well-being. We are promised peace and security of soul and mind – the supernatural provision for every true need – and the assurance that we would never have to beg for bread. The future looks evil and foreboding. But David said in the Psalms, ” I will fear no evil.” Psalm 23. This is the message for believers today. The future is also under Gods control, so we need not fear. God has it all reprogrammed. He knows the exact moment Christ will return. The final tribulation, the judgment, and the battle of Armageddon

are all on His Agenda.

 

The God who controls all of heaven and earth said:

“The nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: . . . . All nations before him are as nothing;” . . . Isaiah 40: 15, & 17

God wants us to keep working until the return of Christ. That means simply that we are to work as though the end will never come, and live as though it were coming tomorrow.   God is still counting the very hairs on our heads. He is still counting the sparrows that fall. He is still hearing petitions before they are asked. He is still answering before we call. He is still giving abundantly more than we can ask or think. So why fear?

 

I believe the prepared Christian is going to face a time of sorrow and tribulation. I believe he will be tested, tried, and tempted.

I believe true Christians are going to witness many horrors described in this vision. But I am also firmly convinced in my own heart and mind – and I have the witness of the Holy Spirit in my heart – that God is suddenly going to deliver His blood bought children from His final fury that will be outpoured on the earth. He will deliver His Children from the most gruesome hour of disaster that the Bible predicts will fall upon the earth.

 

So my dear Friends, I have shared this Rev Wilkersons vision with you over these two messages, in order to Prepare the Church and the Christian community!   I have no doubt whatever that the vision was birthed in Heaven.   Yet we need to remember that Everything is under control and God is at work. He is saving, healing, baptising, and getting His house in order. To fear is to blaspheme. We are commanded to encourage ourselves in the Lord and to begin to sing and rejoice as we see the final hour approach. A woman in labour may scream because of the pain, yet in her heart she rejoices because

of the coming new birth.   The kingdom of Heaven is coming to this Earth – Jesus is coming. The kingdom of Satan is falling. So the Christian can, with confidence, say: “God has everything under control!”

 

Thank God- God Bless You. Amen