Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts

February 6, 2012

End Times Witnessing: 'killer winter' is no surprise to the watchman



The news on the sudden onslaught of cold and harsh 'killer winter' is no surprise to the watchman. He saw related visions at two preceding consecutive February. On both occasions he saw the speaker standing in the snow. In the first one he saw her (a senior prophetic intercessor) standing in the wilderness confronting the vast emptiness, speaking. The snow was up to her ankle. An avalanche of snow was fast moving toward her but she was relentless. She just spoke on. In the second year, he saw the same speaker standing in the snow. This time he was looking out of a window. The snow has reached neck level. The same speaker whose body was covered by snow had only her head seen. There were other heads sticking out of the snow. The land was empty and frozen. The watchman also received one verse one day after he had these visions. He heard, “Do you have winter clothes?” So he put it in writing and also called up his friends.
This year another intercessor had a dream. She saw the sudden freezing of the sea and big hailstones rained from heaven. She and another were trying to escape but soon the other person was hit. There was no escape.

Soon after this dream the news came. People were even dying of extreme cold. It sounded incredible. But it is real. The winter in February is unusual and unnatural. Again, sudden killer flood came to places normally free of such calamity in the past 100 years!

The watchman continued with weekly Bible reading with a group of friends (members of three families, including his own. This time there were two other new guests. Another guest who came last week dropped out.) in his house on last Saturday. This has become a pivotal and refreshing event in their ordinary lives. When the others left in the evening, he continued reading the Bible on his own. He was led to read Matthew 22-24. Chapter 22 started with the Parable of the Wedding Feast. The warning verse 22:14For many are called, but few chosen” stood out (exactly as his guests came and went). By the time he read 24:12, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold”, the watchman knew this was the message for this generation with the physical cold winter as a sign!

He knew the urgency of asking the Lord for the right teaching of God's words to counter the spiritual coldness. So he asked. He stayed up on Saturday night to search the Bible. But he was too tired and he had to give up and sleep. When he got up on Sunday morning he was led to open an audio CD holder which someone had recently re-organized and placed in his car. Among others there were three CD with the label “Hardness of Heart” by Andrew Wommack. He listened and found the key verse: “For they had not considered the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were hardened.”

What are the reasons for hardened hearts? Cold cold loveless hearts (toward God)? The wrong focus of the disciples (on the natural and physical but not on spiritual matters, i.e. the supernatural divine God, His nature and His power!). The same for today's believers. Jesus Himself gave the reason that because lawlessness abounds, the love of many grow cold. What are the things of lawlessness? How to be saved from this lawless and cold heart crisis? Jesus said: “But he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matt.24:13) How can one stand firm to the end? (2 Thess2:15; 2 Pet3:11, 17-18); These are important questions for this time. Take note that the Lord hates lawlessness: Matt.7:23; Heb.1:9. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived” (1 Cor.6:9).

In addition to what Jesus has warned in Matt.22-25 about lawlessness, some of the other Bible verses are as follows.

Godlessness in the last days 2 Tim.3:1-5; 3:13; 4:3-5; The man of lawlessness 2 Thess2:3-4,7-8; The scoffers 2 Pet3:3; 2 Pet2:8; 1 John2:18; 3:4; Jude 18-19 (Scoffers; men who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit of God).

Indeed, how shall we stand? “What manner of persons ought we to be in holy conduct and godliness?” (2 Pet.3:11) Let us take heed to this question and some of the answers in the following verses.

Our Lord Jesus thus warned the disciples, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36) He however promised, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” (John 14:23) In Revelation 22:14, this essential qualification is confirmed by the Holy Spirit through the recording of John, “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.” (the heavenly city of New Jerusalem, the city of God).

The Apostle Peter thus urged believers to know our status in Christ: “You therefore beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.'' (2 Pet.3:17-18) “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.” (1 Pet.1:15) “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.” (1 Pet.2:9)

The Apostle Paul therefore taught the believers to stand fast by knowing and holding the truth in the Scriptures.(2 Thess2:15): stand fast in the Lord (1 Thess3:8); by faith you stand (2 Cor.1:24); watch, stand fast in the Lord, be brave, be strong (1 Cor.16:13); God is able to make you stand (Rom.14:4); take up the whole armor of God to withstand in the evil day and stand (Eph.6:13-14).

The Apostle James thus reminded, “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:21-22)

The Holy Spirit bears witness for us: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Rom8:16); the Spirit Himself makes intercessions for us (Rom8:26); For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Rom8:14); he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Cor6:17); your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor6:19); you were washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor6:11); by this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. (1 John 4:13)

The ultimate weapons against Lawlessness: How to overcome the spirit of lawlessness?
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus) and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” (Revelation 12:11)
____________________________________
Andrew Wommack"s Hardness of Hearts (audio download)
http://www.awmi.net/extra/audio/1003 
excerpts: 
"Here are some of the major things I’ve learned that determine the sensitivity of your heart. First, whatever you consider, your heart becomes softened toward. Conversely, whatever you fail to consider, your heart becomes hardened to. That’s what Mark 6:52 reveals. Again, that verse says,
For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.”

2024 Advent Deeper Christmas Devotion Day 7: Whom did Jesus come to heal?

Jesus was born for this. The Bible is full of stories of the downs and outs. Crowds thronged Jesus, including the rich, the famous and the p...