Warning – Judgment Prophesies – Impending Doom

[b]Warning – Judgment Prophesies – Impending Doom – VERY IMPORTANT MUST READ[/b]

Over the past year or so with the impending financial crisis there have arose many people and/or prophets predicting financial collapse and natural disaster. As the financial crisis worsens they are getting more vocal and ripe with “I told you so’s”. Now I certainly do not doubt that America is in severe financial crisis as a result of greed from the top to the bottom, and certainly do feel it is the result of the judgment of God. But I do have a few concerns about many of the messages that some of these prophets preach. With that being said, this is not pointing the finger at any one person nor does it point at all you who proclaim the judgment of God upon America, but rather general observations I have seen in the messages many of these people are proclaiming over America. Please let me state for the record that in no way am I trying to “come against” these men. In fact, I have no doubt that they are men who love the Lord, are in no way trying to mislead anyone and are doing the best they can and know how to do. I know some these men personally and count them among friends and brothers. With that being said, I do feel that many times, if not most, only one side of the coin is presented and this has the potential of being EXTREMLY harmful. Please allow me the opportunity to explain some of the concerns I have with some the messages or prophesies I hear being preached.

JUDGMENT IS IMMANENT:

First, the message I keep hearing over and over again is that the judgment that is coming over this nation is NOT stoppable. Many of these men claim the judgment of God is inevitable and there is nothing we can do to change it. I even heard one preacher/prophet say that no amount of prayer could stop the impending financial and natural disasters that are coming upon America. The message I hear is a run for the hills message, get to safe areas, take your family out of harms way and that we are doing the same. My friends, I don’t believe this to be the heart or the word of the Lord, please let me tell you why.

I believe that this message does two things which can be harmful. First of all, I believe that it causes people to stop praying and to stop preaching repentance because they feel it is too late – that the time for repentance has passed and judgment is immanent. This is just about the worst thing that could happen when the judgment of God is looming over a people. In fact we should be doing the exact opposite – we should be praying and preaching with more fervor and intensity then ever before, right up until judgment strikes and right though until the end. To keep the saints from pressing into prayer and proclaiming the Good News and repentance in such a time I feel may just be another sly trick of the devil, but is exactly the result of the messages that some of these prophets proclaim. Dear saints, do take heed, but please in hours such as this press into God in prayer like never before and keep calling those around you to repentance with all fervency. Remember the Word of God says to pray without ceasing and that the prayers of a righteous man availeth much! There are three things which will never pass away – faith, hope and love – my friends, the message that there is no hope is not from the Lord. Do not give up hope, and although judgment looms and even when judgment strikes with full force, we must not give up hope, but continue to stand in the gap!

GOD OUR HEAVENLY FATHER:

Secondly, and maybe even more importantly, is how God our Heavenly Father is represented in these warnings of judgment. Most of these warning that I hear from these prophets or watchman portray God as pouring out judgment in anger and wrath at the wicked people of American. They portray a God filled with anger, smoke coming out of his nose so to speak and just not able to take the wickedness any longer, so He must smite the people out of pent up anger, frustration and wrath.

Now before I continue, I must admit that there is truth in such statements and portrayals, and most certainly Scriptural evidence to back such views of God. I do believe that God is angry, I also believe that He is grieved by the wickedness of this country and how this country has spread that wickedness world wide. We have been hearing over and over that a great shaking and much disaster is coming to America by a God filled with anger and wrath about to pour out His judgment over a wicked, stubborn, greedy and sinful nation. And although I believe that this may very well be our plight; and that we certainly deserve nothing better, I also think we must not forget the loving heavenly Father behind all chastisement and judgment. Again please allow me to explain what I mean.

Below I will present a few specific points for your consideration.

1.\t “Judgment is Mercy” I feel many fail to understand this concept and I believe the root of this failure in understanding can stem from wrong or distorted concept of God and the nature of God. The way I see it and propose to you, is that if God was to pour out His wrath in anger upon the nation of America, the worst possible thing He could do short of completely annihilating the entire country and sending everyone straight to hell, would be to do nothing at all. That’s right, doing nothing at all would be the worst possible thing God could do to pour His wrath upon this country short of complete annihilation. Why is this you ask, because people are fast asleep in strong delusion and on a grease slide to hell, while at the same time over 90% of them claim to be Christians. This is the worst possible state one could be in - to say, “but Lord didn’t we…” and hear the response, “but I never knew you” and be cast into hell. For God to allow things to go on as they are, the church filled with greed, no cross, no repentance, no self denial, false grace as a license to sin, false gospels, false security, and the worship of every American idol from Mammon to entertainment all while people are lulled into the strong delusion of actually thinking that are on the narrow path that leads to heaven, this would be the true wrath and anger of God. The most wrathful thing that God could do is to let things go on just as they are. On the flip side the most merciful thing God could do is to rip down these altars of mammon, self, greed, entertainment and the many others that have captured the hearts of His creation and have flooded His church and defiled His son’s bride. To tear these things away and shake people awake out of their slumber, complacency and the strong delusion that has fallen upon them, although it maybe harsh in appearance and to our finite minds,it is in fact the most merciful and loving thing that a Heavenly Father could do. Yes, God is our Heavenly FATHER and Jesus was faithful in making sure that we understood this in His words, parables and actions. The problem is that we, and many of these prophets seem to have forgetten or have never even known God as a Father and thus misrepresent the very nature and character of God. This brings us to the next point – God as Father.

2.\tWe must not forget that God is our heavenly Father even in times of Judgment. In fact, we must have a correct understand of God as Father to even understand judgment at all. Jesus used analogies of earthly fathers to illustrate the nature of God, so I will do the same.

Imagine you had a son who loved to roller blade down the steep hill in front of your home. The only problem was that your son did not like to wear his helmet. Now of course being a good father, you tell your son that he MUST wear his helmet at all times when he is roller blading, for his own safety and protection. Now you have warned your son several times, each with a bit harsher admonition, until one day when driving home from work, you turn the corner to head up the hill and here comes your son flying down the hill on his roller blades with yet again NO HELMET! As you swerve to miss hitting him, you know that a more severe discipline is now essential. You tell your son to get in the house and because you are a loving father you proceed to punish him – you ground him to his room, possibly spank him physically and most of all take away his roller blades – that’s it no more roller blades they are gone forever! Sure you may be angry that your son was disobedient and maybe even quite mad, but ultimately as a good father you punish your son not out of your anger, but out of your love and concern for his safety and, yes, even his very life. Even though your son may think you are the meanest dad in the whole world because he does not yet have the maturity to understand the concept of what it means to be a loving father, nevertheless, your actions in the punishing of your son were not mean at all, but rather they were the most loving thing a father could do in order to protect his son and even preserve his very life. The worst and most unloving thing a father could do to his son is to allow him to go on continuing in his disobedience flying down the hill with no helmet and very possibly lose his life or be severely injured.

I am sure you can see that God is the father and that we are the children on the roller blades. Yes, we have been disobedient, yes, we are rolling blading down a hill with no helmet, yes, our very eternal lives are in danger, and yes, God our loving and merciful heavenly Father will punish us and take our roller blades away if we do not mend our ways. But if and when He does, it will be out of the heart of a loving and good Father and not just out of the heart of anger, spite and wrath as many prophets today seem to suggest.

In the analogy described above, you can imagine a wise and loving mother entering into the boys room after the father has left to talk to her son and maybe even hears him cursing his father under his breath. But in her wisdom and love she explains to the boy that his father loves him and although it may seem cruel at this time that his father would do anything necessary to protect him and keep him safe. His father loves his so much that he would even die for him if it meant keeping him from harm. The mother explains that the boy had been warned many times and that the actions of the father are loving and for his own safety in spite the fact that at this time they seem to be cruel. In the coming judgment we can be that mother to the people around us who God is trying to shake awake, if we have a correct concept of God as father. In order to understand the financial and possibly physical judgments that are poised to strike American and to be able to preach to and help those who are going through such judgments, we must have a correct understanding of God as father and the nature of God, which leads us to point number three.

3.\tThe New Testament God and the Old Testament God - Now I must say that unequivocally, God is the same yesterday today and forever, for He says so in His word! But I have heard many people suggest or portray God the same God of the Old Testament in terms of wrath and reaction. Of course God is the same but the convents have changed. The Covenants of the Old & New Testaments were changed. This resulted in a change in how God through His character and nature deals with His people. Let me explain what I mean by again using another analogy.

Imagine you had a judge that was sworn to uphold the law. Two men are to appear before him in court both for committing the exact same crime. Both men are convicted criminals and have been convicted of previous crimes in the past. Yet one of the men has done his time, completed his parole and has paid his fine in full, so he is completely free from his past crime. The other man is still on parole and under a very strict set of rules and laws that he must obey or his parole is revoked.

Both men appear before the judge. The man who is free from his past crime is told to pay a fine for his current crime and he is free. The man who is still under the rules of parole has his parole revoked, is sent back to jail to finish his previous sentence and is punished to the fullest extent of the law for his current crime.

Now here we have two men, the same crime, the same judge, yet two very different sentences. Why? The two men were under different “covenants” or “agreements” so to speak and that is how the same judge was able to react differently to both men and yet still be a fair judge and uphold the law as he was sworn to do.

This may not be a perfect analogy, but I think you can have a better idea and appreciation for what I am trying to say.

Under the old covenant man was subject to the law along with a set of blessings and curses that went something like this: If you obey the law then you will have financial increase, your land and property will be increased, and your physical enemies will be defeated or destroyed On the other side, if you did not obey the wrath of God was upon you, your enemies would rise up against you and God would strip you of your wealth and prosperity. We see this over and over again in the major and minor prophets. But you see, we are in a new covenant and no longer under the law. We have been freed from the law and can not equate Old Testament or old convenant reactions to new convent reactions. There are many major differences, such as now we have the blood of Jesus to wash away our sins and not the blood of an animal to cover them. We now have been set free FROM sin and have power and victory over sin and death. We now have the Holy Spirit to not only convince us of sin, righteous and judgment and to strive with us unto repentance, but to give us strength and power over sin and the enemy. We have the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit, just to name a few. None of these things were available to Old Testament believers. As one of my favorite teachers so aptly says – “Under the old covenant God said ‘Thou Shall’ and ‘Thou Shall NOT’ but under the new covenant God says ‘I WILL’ and ‘I WILL”

We can not put the same reactions that God had on Old Testament Israel on to the reaction that God has upon modern America. If we do this the result can be a severely misrepresented view of God. With that being said the heart of God in the midst of judgment does not change form the Old to the New Testament. I believe this is clear when one is to compare and contrast Hosea 2:1-13 to Hosea 2:14-23. These verses although using a different analogy than I have given, give a clear picture of God’s heart in the midst of judgment. Please click on the following link and have look at these verse in the NLT - http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hosea%202;&version=51; Even though the phrase heavenly father is found nowhere in the Old Testament and God is not represented as such under the old covenant we can in the verses in Hosea see that His heart remains the same.

CONCLUSION:

Dear friends, we are very possibly about to embark upon some very difficult times as either or both financial and physical judgment descend upon the nation of America. As this time approaches and even as we are in the midst of the storm please do not give up hope, do not think that your prayers will not change things and do not stop from standing in the gap for this nation even as the storm rages around you.

Also, please remember that even though these times may be extremely difficult, that they are necessary and allowed to happen out of the heart of a loving Heavenly Father and for our protection and good. Please do not forget the analogy about the loving mother and remember that you can be that mother to many of the hurting and suffering souls around you that may be even be cursing the name of God.

These difficult times may be extremely painful, but we must remember that they are also a wonderful opportunity for two things.

One, they are an opportunity to have Christ further formed in you. In these times please allow and ask God to use these difficult situations to further mold you into the form of His son, and remember that we are in the new covenant and no matter how hard things seem to be and how difficult it seems to bear, that God has said “I WILL”. Surrender yourself to God and all struggling and effort and allow Him to form you into the image of His son so that you may also be able to say with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” No matter how hard it may be praise and thank God for this wonderful opportunity to have the life of Jesus formed in you and to partake in fellowship of the sufferings of His son – let your praise and worship of the goodness and righteousness of God in these trying times lift your spirits and be a testimony to those around you.

And secondly these times are an opportunity for the salvation of others who have gone astray after idols and who have worshipped the things of this world, being adulteress against a Holy God and who are on their way to hell well thinking they are on the path that leads to eternal life. My friends, these times maybe the necessary shaking that many need to be awakened from their current state of slumber and strong delusion. If need be for us to go through some pain, suffering and difficult times for the salvation of others around you, this is just then again another opportunity to partake in the suffering of Christ yet to a much lesser degree. Please consider the suffering that our Lord and Savior endured to bring about our own Salvation and consider it a blessing and an honor to suffer ourselves that others may live.

Please ask the Lord to speak to you through His Spirit as to the words of this article. If the Lord confirms that this word is from Him and His heart you may want to print this article and keep it in a spot where it can be retrieved and reread during the judgments which very well may fall upon this country in the near future.

Here are a few sermons for you that deal with God as Father and the Old and New Covenants.

Zac Poonen – Knowing God As Father
http://www.cfcindia.net/tbsaudio/53_The_Spirit_Replaces_The_Law/01_Knowing_God_As_Father.mp3

Zac Poonen – Superior To The Law
http://www.cfcindia.net/tbsaudio/55_New_Covenant_Truths/01_Superior_To_The_Law.mp3

God bless,

Patrick Ersig
www.jonahproject.org

This is a very timely message, thank you for posting this, I needed to hear this, too.

When some saints see all those pseudo Christians and the viciousness and greed around and people getting away with it, they may become embittered and want to see the just retribution for their behaviour. I am reminded of Jonah.

It is even possible that during a period of judgement some of the worst offenders and greatest apostates may repent and be mightily used by God as and example of His mercy. Paul is the best example. When that happens will we, who count ourselves as those who have stayed away from excesses and upheld our purity, be able to embrace those prodigals?

narrowpath

Job was a great example of a prophet who went to Nineva and proclaimed judgment, period!!

but they responded correctly and even made the animals repent...cool.
maybe some here will repent,
Theres remedial judgments and final judgments...
If this is truly a final judgment then God in his faithfullness will make a way of excape for HIS People, and Prophets, and faithful intercessors.

"With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments [are] in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness."(Isaiah 26:9).

God's judgment upon His own people is always redemptive in it's nature and purpose. It is out of His great love and mercy for His own, and His correction is for the purpose of turning us from sin to righteousness, that we would be partakers of His holiness.

God is not willing that any should be lost but that all would come to repentance and the knowledge of the truth. However, the Lord's judgments will be destruction unto those that choose to live in their sin and reject Him that came to save us from our sins.

Mike

I just want wanted to bump this article up that I had posted a while back because I think it has bearing on the latest warning that Wilkerson has posted. Please do not think that this in any way is attempting to come against brother David, but rather trying to bring perspective to coming judgment. I have great love and MUCH respect for David Wilkerson.

Let me also say that it is, in my opinion, completely useless to argue over the validity of brother David's warning. We just need to wait and see. To argue is just distracting and causes division. Let us continue to abide in Christ, stand in the gap, be about the Fathers business and wait and see.

Patrick
www.jonahproject.org