“Exit Strategy” (book seen below) is now available at most e-book venues.

What shall we say then, the Word of God is not true? The skies are red these mornings. Do we not know what that represents? Jesus, the Messiah, stood right in front of them and they knew Him not.

Is the church ready for The Storm that is approaching? Yes, I am saying “The Storm” because God prophesied it,  so in essence He is the Storm and it is a sure thing. Bible search “storm” and find the many references to God.

Mankind’s whole experience has been about God gaining a family of faithful, obedient, loved ones that are living in the second nature of His Son’s likeness. The Storm will prove Whose we are. Trials, testings, obedience versus disobedience, will do that.

The Son of God, God in the flesh, learned obedience by the things that He suffered. (Hebrews 5:8 KJV) Jesus learned what extreme obedience was as He suffered through the challenges. That being the case, where do we stand? Do we understand what course we are on? Is the church on course or are we flirting with the path of least resistance? Christ did not suffer these things so we would not have to. He suffered the learning of obedience so we would know HOW TO. Resurrection is the reward!

Is obedience, a condition of salvation? According to John 3:36 NASB, NKJV,  yes it is! Is obedience being taught as such in church? No in most it is not! The natural resistance to obedience in mankind’s heart still has a toe hold even in most Christians.

The most productive confrontation comes to us via understanding. So, what course are we on personally? Will we obediently endure to the end, whenever our personal end is? How do we do that? Do we know what must endure? Without knowing the truth, some will not! Jesus warned us so we might endure and then showed us, by obeying the Word of God Himself! His enduring intercessory love was our example and proof as resurrected life became a proven truth. Life after death fueled the disciples even unto their own deaths.

Can we do anything to stop The Storm? We might as well ask, did Jesus have to go to the Garden of Gethsemane? Why would we want to stop The Storm that initiates events that are a prelude to Christ’s return? Is there any higher standard of obedience than what Jesus showed us? Are we willing to surrender to God’s will when He has told us what it is? Can we see the likeness to Christ God’s plan holds for us? It is God’s very intention toward us and sets us apart forever.

As the last of mankind to see these events do we realize “the last shall be first?” Shall we sleep for a thousand years or through our faithful stand for Christ, shall we rule and reign with Him for a thousand years? The following verse will challenge all of us yet it is His word. We do not hear this preached, but it is there. I too want to believe, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” as Paul said. Dare we discount the following verse or do we prepare according to it remembering that hours pass every night as we sleep and when we wake up the time has simply passed and a new day has come? Peter Marshall told a class of Naval Cadets at Annapolis, and I paraphrase, like when a child falls asleep on the way home and Dad carries him in and places him in bed. The child wakes up not in the car as he last remembered but safe in the comfort of his room and his home, that, Peter said, is what death is like. Later that day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Revelation 20:4-5 (KJV)
⁴  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
⁵  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 

We know the anguish Jesus went through and Whose will He submitted to. God’s will encompassed far more than the sacrificial death of His Son for us. God’s will was for us to see the keys to the kingdom of heaven in action and grasp their importance with our hearts. We saw obedience  and a love that endured so much. God wants us to honor Him by honoring His Son with our own obedience to His teachings and example. Christ’s reward will be our reward, guaranteed!

Jesus was The Way, The Truth, and The Life. He not only taught the details of those points but He lived them. He was the object lesson we are to grasp, to understand in order to survive the climactic and tumultuous end of this world as we know it. Only by practice now will we succeed then!

In case you are worried about dying before they might decapitate you for your faith, because you do not want to sleep for a thousand years, you could decapitate yourself and your carnal thinking now, by absolute pursuit of the Lord’s Ways. That is also taking a stand for God. In fact that stand may bring about your execution for your faith. We can do this!

“When” the Rapture is to occur is not important. Our preparation is still required. Most denominations believe in “pre-trib.” What is most important? I believe God wants us ready to go today, now. If there is room for debate about when we go, and I am not debating that, let us err on the side of caution and wisdom and “be prepared” now.  Today is the day we have. Preparation will protect us no matter when or how we go. It will also help others as we wait, enduring in front of them, sharing this eternal understanding. This is the second level of blessing God is looking for from us. Multiplication!

A prophecy Jesus spoke is yet to be fulfilled. Out of respect for servants everywhere who truly have sought God and inspiration, it appears we have evidently not been allowed to see it! Maybe God knew we could “not bear it” until now. The few paragraphs above are more than enough to rock our boat.

With God’s intent and knowledge of us, current circumstances prompt our searching for answers and peace. That peace only comes with understanding. We must be empowered to survive. What has been written by God, what we have studied for centuries is coming back to us now, expanded, revised by God not man. His Words have always been there. Now they will have the proper influence that the end times demand, for our sake.

These are instructions to be revealed in the end times according to Daniel 12. They will rescue those written in the “book” by awakening them to the means of their rescue. Some will receive it, some will not.

Many truly great preachers say Jesus could come at any minute. Their sincerity and credibility is without question. Maybe Jesus could return, no man knows the day or hour. Knowing however what has not been preached, as a 65 year old disciple of the Word for 33 years, I have to appeal vigorously that I have seen in His Word something that clearly must happen first, and around the world.

On a trip from New York to London the course is pretty direct until the ship approaches the coast of London. We still have the same destination but to arrive safely we must turn the ship to a different heading. This is like the call we too can not avoid. Traditional doctrines or accepted views, once useful, must now give way to the necessary priorities that God is pointing to. This will be an absolutely necessary change of course. Traditional doctrines have successfully gotten us this far but there are shoals outside the harbor. Our destination has not changed. Christ’s goal had never changed. The first of His journey was relatively safe, even wonderful as those last three years were lived out. The end for Christ was known from His birth because God spoke it through His prophets. How much more the path Jesus Himself has spoken for us and then walked Himself for our sake; not just dying but explaining life in the kingdom while He was dying! He knew, safe entrance past the shoals requires our obedience to His admonition, “He who endures to the end shall be saved.”

True belief results in obedience.

From God’s and Christ’s point of view, therefore by necessity, this understanding redirects the ship of the church so she can safely enter the harbor of eternity. What is that preparation, that change of heading, that revelation of God’s imperative priority, what is it that initiates the return of Christ as it frees the darkness to expand according to God’s plan? The teaching is that enduring love in us MUST endure as Jesus said, for us to be saved, for us to enter the kingdom, and how important it is to start practicing NOW.

We are expected to let Jesus BE Lord of our lives. Our salvation requires the Christ-likeness in our soul and spirit that His Lordship will create. It always has. Obedience along with God’s grace will achieve it. Christ had the Words of eternal life which prompted the actions of eternal life which we are witness to through the Word. Do not over think this. Just do for others what Christ did for you with a fierce determination and with a knowing compassion, so that none should go to hell (including you) because of your lack of love or lack of forgiveness. Avoid the traps Jesus avoided the Way He avoided them! Rest in the assurance and rejoice in Hope, persevere in tribulation you experience, and be devoted to the prayer that delivers both you and your offender, knowing that your transition into eternity will be the same as His, guaranteed!

John 3:36 (NASB)  “He who believes (pisteou = entrust) in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey (apatheo =to disobey) the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”  

Even this scripture above has been misunderstood by translation. Note the New American Standard Translation is quoted. Look up the verse in the older KJV and you will understand the critical difference. What you just read is the correct translation of the Greek words and calls to everyone, who has asked Jesus to be Lord, entrusting Him with our eternal lives, to actually make Him Lord by our obedience to His Way. Jesus did not give us eternal life. He made eternal life possible, to all those who believe (pisteou). What??? That’s right.

We will discuss it next time.

The Lord gets all the glory! He who is forgiven much loves much. Can we see the hope and avoid the danger?

Start linking your friends around the world. He is waiting. We must start preparing.

You are loved,   Michael

 

    Exit Strategy

   We initiate the return of Christ!  (The E-book)

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