Jerusalem is The City of God. Today my heart is filled with joy. The Lord revealed to me that all is well and we are on the verge of experiencing something unimaginable. The bible speaks of this in I Corinthians 2:9, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

For the last few years the state of some in the Church has been somewhat troubling to me. For those that have been reading my blogs you are probably familiar with some of the issues I have had with those that have erred in the Faith and are comfortable with being carnal Christians. Primarily I was disturbed by their lack of focus. It seems that they have become so preoccupied with temporal things of this life that they have begun to devalue the eternal things of God in their hearts.  As I began declaring this message more and more I noticed my social network of family and friends began to reduce in number. I mean no one tried to purposely hurt my feelings, but my revelations started being perceived more and more as pessimistic and as a result I realized my phone started ringing less and less with each passing day. And as a pastor, I have gotten use to having only a limited number of people coming to visit me at my home, but even that small number began to shrink more and more. Finally, it had gotten to the point that it would almost startle me whenever my doorbell would ring. Often times it would just be the FedEx or UPS man delivering a package. Lol!! Pretty bad, huh?

All of this is a direct result of me caring the burden of the Lord. At first the burden of the Lord can seem to be a little heavy in the natural, but after awhile the spiritual man grows accustom to it and you begin to realize that if you are truly going to do a work for the Lord all of this comes along with the territory. That’s why you better learn to allow the Joy of the Lord to be your strength, because the initial response to this new reality can be somewhat depressing.

Nevertheless, today was a day of rejoicing. The Lord encouraged my heart by allowing me to glance at the Plans of God. What I saw drove out all doubts that I may have had concerning the affairs of men and the will of the Lord. God assured me that He has everything under control.

God already knew what condition the world would be in at the time of Jesus return. God knew that Gentile believers would fall into the same trap that the Israelites fell into whereas we too have reverted back to worshipping the creature or creation instead of the Creator. Yes it’s sad, but true. One may ask, “What caused this?” Unfortunately, it’s a result of the human condition that we all are subjected to. However, the Christian has been given the power to avoid this, if they endeavor to remain sober and vigilant.

You see, although the soul of the believer is redeemed and set free when he accepts Christ as his personal Savior, the corruption of the flesh still lies dormant inside of man and will seek to find expression as long as that man or woman lives in the natural.  When Jesus went to the cross He overcame the curse of death on our behalf, but some of the effects of the curse will still seek to find expression in our natural bodies even though the soul of man has been redeemed. This thorn of iniquity will continue to try and cause us some discomfort in this life, but it’s remarkable how God will use even this adverse deficiency that is inherently a part of us to bring glory to His name.  That is why we that have been born again must continue to strive everyday to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. God is not looking for a perfect person, but what He is looking for is a person that will surrender their life to Him and allow Him to perfect them.

The first thing we must realize is that God has an agenda. That agenda is not simply focused on Him handing out blessings to the Christian because he publicly confesses faith in His name. Yes God does load the Christian down with benefits as a result of their confession of the Faith. However that is not the sole reason why we live, move and have our being. We don’t exist simply to enjoy the blessings of God. The bible lets us know in no uncertain terms that we exist for the glory of God. To bestow upon Him blessing, honor and glory; the psalmist David said while I live, yet will I praise Him. We don’t praise God simply because of the blessings He has given us. We praise Him because we understand that He is God and there is no one besides Him.

However I can somewhat understand why some of the believers have gotten off track. For the last 2000+ years the benefits of serving God have been on display. Before an individual can really love and worship God they first must have an intimate relationship with Him. Whenever God enters into a covenant relationship with an individual they can expect to be blessed by God. That’s why the scripture says in Jeremiah 31:3 that God first draws us into an abiding relationship with Him by showing us loving, kindness. Although God uses this as a drawing mechanism and an incentive to serve Him, the blessings were never intended to be the “meat and potatoes” of our faith. The core of our faith is rooted and grounded in love, “We love God because He first loved us.”

Just like Adam and the children of Israel, certain Gentile believers have begun to take God’s love for granted, becoming more desirous of the blessing instead of the One who gives the blessing. But like I previously mentioned, God is not worried about the idiosyncrasies of mankind. Nothing catches God by surprise. We must remember that He is the Author and Finisher of this book called Life and He knows exactly how it’s going to end.

Although God has hidden this from the world in a mystery, He has revealed it to those of us that have made a covenant with Him through faith. The bible foretells of how it’s going to go down and when. If you ever take the time to think about it, civilization is already beginning to implode from within. There is so much division in the world that it’s leading to wars and rumors of wars. We are seeing widespread famine in the land and there seems to be a constant outbreak of sickness and disease. Last, but certainly not least, there is an increase in fervent natural disasters and the rise of unexplainable human behavior leading to violent crimes. Even the world can sense something cataclysmic is on the horizon. The best they can do to describe it is to try and explain it scientifically. They say it’s related to what the scientists call global warming. However the bible calls it by another name…….The Judgment of God. And there is nothing mankind can do to stop it.

All of these horrific events point to one thing, “The King Is Coming!” These things must come to past because the world doesn’t believe that there is a God. Unbelief is the original sin. There is a penalty that has to be paid when sin is committed. Like when an individual is caught breaking the law of the land, first they are tried to determine if they are innocent or guilty. If they are found to be guilty then they are judged and sentenced as payment for breaking the law.

In the Garden of Eden when Adam rebelled and broke the law of God by eating the forbidden fruit, he committed the original sin of unbelief and was later found to be guilty after God questioned him about his actions. Judgment was then passed and the penalty for sin had to be paid. God knew that Adam and Eve did not fully understand the extent of them breaking the Law of God, so He only required partial payment for the penalty of their sin at the time. Although they would have to undergo the 1^st death as a result of their sin, the grace of God was extended to them and God did not immediately call for man to experience the 2^nd death. God knew that man couldn’t sufficiently pay for this penalty in its entirety so God made one exception to the rule. God said in order for man to avoid the 2^nd death he must now eat from the Tree of Life (Jesus Christ).

Jesus Christ, the Son of God came down from His lofty place in Glory and paid the penalty for sin on the cross of Calvary for anyone that accepts Him as their personal Savior. When they do so, their payment for the penalty of sin is paid in full. Although it does not reverse the sentence of death in the natural, it does allow him to avoid spiritual death, which is far more important. For natural death is considered to be the first death which is only temporal, but spiritual death, also known as the second death is eternal.

The individual that rejects Jesus Christ must pay the penalty of sin themselves both naturally and spiritually and that is what we are about to witness. The horrific events that are about to take place will be the payment required for the penalty of sin for all those that did not accept Christ.

Although these horrific events will be heart wrenching, remember God has given mankind over 2000 years to accept the gift of His Son to pay for the penalty of sin. Time is running out and the penalty for sin must be paid.

It is a very dark time for the unbeliever, but it is a time of celebration for the Church. Our Lord and Savior is about to make His return. Jesus makes a reference to it in Matthew 24 where He states that when the fig tree begins to put forth leaves you can know that summer is near. In bible prophecy the fig tree represents the nation of Israel. In May of 1948 the nation of Israel’s statehood was recognized by the League of Nations. A people that had been displaced for thousands of years were born again as a nation in one day and they reclaimed the land of Judea on behalf of God. Jesus tells us that the generation that witnesses the rebirth of the nation of Israel will witness the return of the Lord.

Although the nation of Israel was divinely reestablished by God, they were met with much opposition by the Arab nations that surrounded them. The land was now inhabited by Arabs and Jews and those Arabs that now lived in the land opposed to the reestablishment of the nation of Israel.  The Arabs (Palestinians) had laid claim to the land in the years of Israel’s absence. But everyone knows that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital given to them by God Himself. After many years of skirmishes and uprisings they officially went to war in 1967. It is coined the Six Day war because it took only six days for God to give the Israelites a decisive victory over Egypt, Jordan, Syria and the surrounding Arab nations. That’s why the Arab nations are hesitant to go to war with Israel today. They remember the shellacking God put on them back in 1967.

Well, we have again come to a very special time in history because this year will mark the 70th year anniversary of Israel being recognized as a sovereign nation again. Not only is it a historical moment, but it’s also a prophetic moment for the bible speaks of this time in Jeremiah 29:10, where it states that God will visit them and perform His good word toward them.

Oh my friend, if you believe the bible to be true as I do, we can anticipate the 2^nd coming of the Lord soon! I am not going to state any erroneous dates for the bible states that no man knows the day or the hour, but I am exuberant because I KNOW IT TO BE SOON, VERY SOON FOR US TO MEET OUR LORD AND KING!

Let us rejoice together! “Even so, come Lord Jesus!”