Post by Tom Green on Feb 21, 2007 11:51:13 GMT -5
Surviving End Time Prophetic Stress
Prepared but not scared - Blessed but not Distressed
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
“In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” - John 14:1-3
Do you believe every report you hear on the news? Do you believe every prediction that news- casters make concerning the future? Do you have total confidence in every investigative reporter? If you paid careful attention to all of the news reports and responded accordingly, you would:
Move from every major city and head for a cave in the hills
Leave all costal areas and move inland
Hunker down in a safe house with a shotgun and supplies of spam and soup
Purchase a bicycle or walking shoes to go through the city in the future
Have a gas mask, and protection from possible chemical attacks by terrorists
There are many people who faithfully watch the news and have great apprehension about the future. Christ forewarned us that men’s hearts would fail them for fear of looking after those things that were coming on the earth. This fear would be ignited by great and fearful signs and the sea and waves roaring (Luke 21:25). Today’s fears, however, are often bred through media speculation and not based upon actual facts.
What Didn’t Happen
Prior to the 1991 Gulf War, journalists from every nation were clamoring like a pack of hungry wolves fighting for food, to break the latest news from Iraq and the Gulf. As the talking heads of politics and military specialists were interviewed giving their opinions of what could happen, the following was predicted:
Saddam would use chemical weapons in Saudi Arabia and on Israel
He would scorch Iraq making it uninhabitable for years
Gas would rise to $4.00 a gallon
He would destroy all the oil fields in Iraq
We would lose about 100,000 troops
25,000 beds in Germany would be filled with injured troops
When the war was concluded, here were the facts:
America lost over 1,000 troops
We never needed the 25,000 hospital beds in Germany
Saddam never used the weapons (he was actually talked out of it)
He never scorched Iraq, or destroyed the oil facilities in Iraq
Gas remained under $2.00 a gallon
Seven years later the Y2K (year 2000) computer scare caused a panic among the most informed Americans. I personally heard “specialists” in the computer field making predictions of the dangers of the Y2K rollover. Would computers work? Would gas pumps, microwaves and other equipment dependent upon computers be operative on January 1st, 2000? The “experts” said:
It would be a world wide disaster
Many computers would not work on January 1, 2000
Billions would be spent to upgrade the computers
Storing water, food, clothes, candles, and generators was necessary
When January 1st arrived, to the shock and surprise of most people:
Y2K was hardly a blip on the radar screen
Most computers continued to work
People ate the food they had stored for months
A few years later, the second war in Iraq brought a series of predictions from those who again were considered specialists in their field. The second war in Iraq was predicted:
To be long and very destructive
America would lose 10 to 50 thousand troops
Saddam has agents in America that will retaliate
Gas will be $5.00 a gallon
Saddam will use WMDS on the troops
Here is what actually occurred and what we have since discovered:
Saddam had moved his weapons to Syria
American troops were in Baghdad in 21 days
In several years of war we have lost over 2800 troops
Saddam’s agents never retaliated
Gas never went to $5.00 a gallon
In reality, the predictions by the specialists were SPECULATIONS and not REVELATIONS.God alone brings forth revelation concerning future events:
“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” - Amos 3:7
Most of you are aware of how the Lord revealed to me in a vision in 1996 the attacks of 9-11.
A woman from Grenada saw water covering an America city (which was in an area like a bowl) three months before Katrina struck New Orleans. Twenty-nine months before Hezbollah struck Israel, my father heard the Holy Spirit say, “Great darkness was coming out of Lebanon.” These were revelations by the Holy Spirit and not someone speculating what may occur.
Many main line nominal Christians are taught from the pulpit that God no longer speaks today. The Bible however, tells a different story:
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for heshall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.” - John 16:13
Many believers become stressed out by continually watching news reports. Remember, good news does not make the news. Ratings drop like a slippery glass in your hand when the news avoids controversy or avoids reports that produce fear. Prior to any major event the experts will make predictions that often contradict one another. This is SPECULATION. There should be no fear in what might happen. In fact there should, according to Jesus, be no fear in a believer’s life even when they know what is coming. The Bible does reveal the future and at times the sovereign Lord will allow a person to peer into the future not to scare us, but to prepare us. We are told in Proverbs that, “A prudent men foresees the evil day coming and prepares himself” (Proverbs 22:3).
We are no doubt headed into various seasons and cycles of darkness that will sweep like a wind storm across the nations. We must however, not allow the circumstances of life to dictate our faith and trust in God. I have read the end of the book and the believer will win the battle. To win, however, we must use our shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of the enemy. Those darts include fear of what may happen.
- Perry Stone, Jr.
Prepared but not scared - Blessed but not Distressed
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
“In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” - John 14:1-3
Do you believe every report you hear on the news? Do you believe every prediction that news- casters make concerning the future? Do you have total confidence in every investigative reporter? If you paid careful attention to all of the news reports and responded accordingly, you would:
Move from every major city and head for a cave in the hills
Leave all costal areas and move inland
Hunker down in a safe house with a shotgun and supplies of spam and soup
Purchase a bicycle or walking shoes to go through the city in the future
Have a gas mask, and protection from possible chemical attacks by terrorists
There are many people who faithfully watch the news and have great apprehension about the future. Christ forewarned us that men’s hearts would fail them for fear of looking after those things that were coming on the earth. This fear would be ignited by great and fearful signs and the sea and waves roaring (Luke 21:25). Today’s fears, however, are often bred through media speculation and not based upon actual facts.
What Didn’t Happen
Prior to the 1991 Gulf War, journalists from every nation were clamoring like a pack of hungry wolves fighting for food, to break the latest news from Iraq and the Gulf. As the talking heads of politics and military specialists were interviewed giving their opinions of what could happen, the following was predicted:
Saddam would use chemical weapons in Saudi Arabia and on Israel
He would scorch Iraq making it uninhabitable for years
Gas would rise to $4.00 a gallon
He would destroy all the oil fields in Iraq
We would lose about 100,000 troops
25,000 beds in Germany would be filled with injured troops
When the war was concluded, here were the facts:
America lost over 1,000 troops
We never needed the 25,000 hospital beds in Germany
Saddam never used the weapons (he was actually talked out of it)
He never scorched Iraq, or destroyed the oil facilities in Iraq
Gas remained under $2.00 a gallon
Seven years later the Y2K (year 2000) computer scare caused a panic among the most informed Americans. I personally heard “specialists” in the computer field making predictions of the dangers of the Y2K rollover. Would computers work? Would gas pumps, microwaves and other equipment dependent upon computers be operative on January 1st, 2000? The “experts” said:
It would be a world wide disaster
Many computers would not work on January 1, 2000
Billions would be spent to upgrade the computers
Storing water, food, clothes, candles, and generators was necessary
When January 1st arrived, to the shock and surprise of most people:
Y2K was hardly a blip on the radar screen
Most computers continued to work
People ate the food they had stored for months
A few years later, the second war in Iraq brought a series of predictions from those who again were considered specialists in their field. The second war in Iraq was predicted:
To be long and very destructive
America would lose 10 to 50 thousand troops
Saddam has agents in America that will retaliate
Gas will be $5.00 a gallon
Saddam will use WMDS on the troops
Here is what actually occurred and what we have since discovered:
Saddam had moved his weapons to Syria
American troops were in Baghdad in 21 days
In several years of war we have lost over 2800 troops
Saddam’s agents never retaliated
Gas never went to $5.00 a gallon
In reality, the predictions by the specialists were SPECULATIONS and not REVELATIONS.God alone brings forth revelation concerning future events:
“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” - Amos 3:7
Most of you are aware of how the Lord revealed to me in a vision in 1996 the attacks of 9-11.
A woman from Grenada saw water covering an America city (which was in an area like a bowl) three months before Katrina struck New Orleans. Twenty-nine months before Hezbollah struck Israel, my father heard the Holy Spirit say, “Great darkness was coming out of Lebanon.” These were revelations by the Holy Spirit and not someone speculating what may occur.
Many main line nominal Christians are taught from the pulpit that God no longer speaks today. The Bible however, tells a different story:
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for heshall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.” - John 16:13
Many believers become stressed out by continually watching news reports. Remember, good news does not make the news. Ratings drop like a slippery glass in your hand when the news avoids controversy or avoids reports that produce fear. Prior to any major event the experts will make predictions that often contradict one another. This is SPECULATION. There should be no fear in what might happen. In fact there should, according to Jesus, be no fear in a believer’s life even when they know what is coming. The Bible does reveal the future and at times the sovereign Lord will allow a person to peer into the future not to scare us, but to prepare us. We are told in Proverbs that, “A prudent men foresees the evil day coming and prepares himself” (Proverbs 22:3).
We are no doubt headed into various seasons and cycles of darkness that will sweep like a wind storm across the nations. We must however, not allow the circumstances of life to dictate our faith and trust in God. I have read the end of the book and the believer will win the battle. To win, however, we must use our shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of the enemy. Those darts include fear of what may happen.
- Perry Stone, Jr.