For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
The above scripture crossed my mind this week as I was talking to a friend from squash who I recently had a discussion with. During that recent discussion he elaborated on his past and the fact that he was no angel. He told me of the drug addiction among many other things he had dabbled in. I listened intently, as now that I am getting a little older I am less interested in myself and the things of this world, and more intent on listening to those that are lost, I now prefer to give my time to them at every chance I get. So the scripture above runs through my thoughts while I was listening and I felt a prompt from the Holy Spirit. As I was listening I was thinking how much my friend needed Christ, we all do. But then I felt the prompt from the Holy Spirit saying “there will be people like my friend that will not be fooled by the wolf as they have lived with him before and know his traits but there will be many Christians who will be as they have been paying little attention. I will call my friend Tom for the purpose of this article. A few weeks earlier as I said, Tom and I were talking and at the end of the conversation I told him I would text a You Tube link that he would relate to. It was a testimony / sermon that Sam Childers gave to a bunch of youth. Later that week Tom texted me back saying “Wow that was still a little raw for me but it was good. God certainly is in control.”
Shortly the squash courts will be demolished and a childcare centre will be erected in its place. It is already sold and this time will come to an end. Tom has told me that he will be moving north to Rockhampton where he will be running another Squash club. I travel four times the distance to this court than the closest court, I was invited to this court by a friend and I reluctantly agreed to start playing there. If I had rejected the offer to go I would not be having these conversations with Tom. I made a statement at the end of the night about this world and the end times, it was a test to see if anyone was alert to reality or just the typical brainwashed populous. Tom looked at me and said “I think you and I would agree on a lot of things Clinton, you seem to know what’s going on and where the world is headed.” I think back in the day Tom has had some sort of encounter with God, but somewhere along the line he was diverted. I will do what I can to assist the Lord to re -divert the lost.
It would seem the church today is all about the 99 and forgetting the 1. It is fruitless if we pamper the 99 IF they will be, out of their laziness, deceived in the end, and forget the 1 that is savvier to the truth than the 99. Today I look across the church at times and almost feel helpless as they generally just want good times and great music. Correction, challenge, teaching, and a general clean up, isn’t on the priority list. Still we all must press on doing what we can, led by the Spirit and engaging who we can for his glory and the people’s salvation. Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats in the end.
If you feel led by the Spirit, then run with the Spirit, you can’t go wrong because even if you are a little inaccurate he will make it work for good, he will activate something in someone’s life because you acted ultimately out of compassion for someone else. Jesus felt compassion, that’s why he did what he did, fed the multitude, heeled the sick of their sickness / sin, and ultimately ---- the cross. I believe with absolutely no doubt what so ever that the 1, is where Jesus is focussing today. As we get now so close to his return, I’m not saying he isn’t doing a work in numbers but ultimately we stand before God alone, by ourselves to give an account.
Steve Quayle said a few years ago that “God isn’t in the church anymore he is in the highways and the byways.” I could write another several thousand words in this article based on that statement and produce enough proof to back it up to sink a battleship that statement at the time spoke very loud and very clear to me. Was Steve saying that the church is asleep? If we take into account the 10 virgins and the fact that they were ALL asleep then we are absolutely staring down the barrel of Jesus second coming and it very possible that the church is very much snoozing. Not a nice feeling when someone gets woken up from sleeping and is taken by surprise.
Let’s continue to challenge ourselves and those around us, keeping each other sharp. Bit like a sword.
I have left 2 youtube clips below, the first is an overview of the last fifty odd years or so, the second is right up to date throwing out some food for thought.
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