Watching For The End

Daniel 9:25  So”Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’

Many are taught we are not to watch for the end and that it is folly to be studying end time prophecy, which God took the time to provide to us in His Word.  I disagree and believe the WORD tells us what to do and that is to watch, to discern, to be ready.  Why did the angel tell Daniel to know and understand the timeline he was giving to Daniel?  Why are the scriptures chock full of books and passages that tell us about the end times and how we are to discern what time it is?   This post will outline what the Scriptures say about this subject.

1 Thess 5:1-6  Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, ² for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.  ⁴ But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. ⁵ You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶ So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.

Here the Apostle Paul tells the early church that the true body of Christ will not be surprised when the Lord comes back.  Most professing Christians are taught that nobody knows when the Lord is coming back.  While we may not know exactly when the Lord is coming (i.e. the exact day or the exact hour), the truth is God told us we should know what time it is and be ready and watching when He returns. The Bible is chock full of declarations and prophecies about when the end times will occur with Daniel’s book and Revelation even giving us very specific day counts between events.  Why would God put all these time markers and event descriptions if He did not want us to know?  The truth is we are to watch and we are to know when Jesus is about to return. 

 The truth of God’s word about the timing of His return and our call to watch and not be taken by surprise has been perverted by the apostate church.  This keeps believers in darkness and steers them into partaking in the ways of the world.   I believe Jesus is coming soon and those of us that are not right with God have a very limited time to get right with God.  By soon I certainly mean in my life time and I am nearly 53 years old as of this writing.  We are told that the fear of the  lord is the beginning of wisdom.  My hope is that the truth about watching for Jesus’ return, a duty Jesus himself told us to undertake will instill the fear of God into lukewarm Christians so then can get ready and be saved when that great and glorious day comes.   

I don’t take lightly the fact that many over the ages have chanted the “Jesus is coming soon” mantra and have been dead wrong.  Clearly they were deceived and were not hearing from the Holy Spirit correctly.  Damage to the faith and the body of Christ has resulted.  But Daniel was told that the scrolls of his prophecy would be sealed up until the end, when their truth would be revealed.    God is revealing that truth to all who are following Him and are watching for His return.  Most are not watching and they dismiss the revealed truth as folly.  If they knew the truth, they would repent and get ready as time is of the essence.  

Daniel 12:4 “But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.” The end of time is near, many have gone back and forth (travel, mobility, transportation) and knowledge has definitely increased.  The time of revelation of these words is now upon us.

Consider the very words of the Lord regarding both our call to watch and to know when He is to return.

Revelation 3:3  Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.  Jesus told the Church of Sardis (the dead church) that they were not watching for His return and that if they did not watch, He the Lord would come upon them as a thief.   If we are not watching, we are not ready for the Lord, we are living in the world.  If we are actively watching, we will know and be able to discern the imminence of His return.  The Parable of the Wise Servant in Luke 12 provides some very deep insight into God’s instruction for the end times.

Luke 12:  Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. ³⁸ And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. ³⁹ But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. ⁴⁰ Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Jesus tells us in this parable that we are both to watch and to be ready always.  ⁴¹ Then Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?” ⁴² And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom hismaster will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? ⁴³ Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. ⁴⁴ Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. ⁴⁵ But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, ⁴⁶ the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. ⁴⁷ And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. ⁴⁸ But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.  This poor servant that was put in charge of the Master’s house, did not watch and was not ready and fell from Grace.  Was this servant saved by his faith?  No he was not, because his faith did not endure to the end.  The servant was not led by the Spirit of God, he was led by his flesh so his faith was a false faith.  Notice the punishment doled out — he was actually given a worse punishment then the unbelievers.  These are the very words of Jesus.  Take heed.  If we are watching, Jesus tell us right here we will know when His return is at hand.  If we don’t watch we will be surprised and overtaken as if a thief in the night came to our house.

Revelation 22:6 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”  What are “these things” that Jesus refers to here in the last chapter of Revelation?  These things are the end time signs and confirmation of his second coming.  Jesus has sent his angel(s) to testify and reveal these things to his true bride in the later days.  All revelation comes from God, not human wisdom and many are being given this revelation from God to prepare the true bride and to be a watchman for the church and a warning to all of the Lord’s return.

Matthew 16:2-3 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. ² He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’;  and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.  The true church, the bride of Christ will not be caught off guard by the return of the Lord.  They will be ready and will be watching.  Here in this passage, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees who could predict the weather but could not predict the coming of the Messiah even though all the declarations of His first coming were spelled out by the Prophets and in God’s word.  Jesus expects us to discern the signs and know what time it is on His clock.

Luke 8:16-19 No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets iton a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light.  For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.  Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”  If we have faith and ask for wisdom and revelation, the Lord will answer us.  We must have faith and believe His word.  God is making known his truth, the truth that was sealed up by Daniel until the end times.  Those times are at hand now.  The truth about the Lord’s return for judgment and establishment of His eternal kingdom is not a secret, it is indeed being revealed to many and is coming to light for those truly following Jesus.  I am not saying that all true followers are being directly given revelation from God, but God in His way has opened up the scrolls and appointing some to bring forth these truths to prepare the way for the Lord’s return.

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Jesus told us, the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and I believe He meant all things we need to know.  We need to know, His return is imminent and this teaching is now going out thru the true bride of Christ.

John 16:13 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. The Spirit of Truth is going to tell us things to come and this includes the Lord’s return.  Many are being told this right now, He is coming soon.  Are you ready?  If you believein Jesus, believe He is both Lord and Savior, what could possible be more important in your physical life right now then making sure you are ready?  The Holy Spirit is now telling me things to come, this is helping to prepare me and prompting me to tell others including writing these posts on this blog that was all initiated by God.

Matthew 24:35-36 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. Some say this verse shows we cannot know the time of the Lord’s return.  Others say this verse is being misinterpreted and that this verse is not talking about the day and the hour of the return of Jesus.  Some believe that this verse is instead talking about THAT DAY in which heaven and earth will pass away.   Jesus will establish is Millennium Kingdom and will reign with us on the earth for 1,000 years.  At some point God’s plan is to have the earth pass away.  That is a different event from the day of the Lord’s return. 

I believe the “day and the hour” that no man knoweth refers to the Hebrew time between lunar months, when a new moon would appear and restart the next Hebrew month.  Two Jewish witnesses would stand on the Temple Mount and watch the western sky, waiting to see this sliver of moon and announce the new month.  The reason no man knoweth this is because the visibility of the moon was controlled by weather which God himself controls.  This time between lunar months was historically referred to as the day and the hour that no man knoweth.  Jesus words here were not intended to tell us we can’t know the time of His return as that would contradict everything else I have shown you here that the Lord said on the matter.   I am content to not worry about knowing the exact day or the exact hour, but confident I will know when the last trump is going to be blown.  I will be discerning the signs of the times and trusting the Holy Spirit to tell me about things to come.

So I believe in the context of all scripture that we are to discern the times, the seasons and know when the Lord will return.  We may not know the hour or the day specifically but the Holy Spirit is unraveling the mysteries of Daniel’s prophecies so the true bride will not be overtaken by the suddenness and unexpectedness of the Lord’s return.  The true bride will be expecting the Lord when He comes.  It is time to get ready and watch and wait on the Lord to show us more as the end approaches.   

The Holy Spirit has led me over the past few months to recognize the urgency of our need to repent of our sins and prepare for the return of the Lord.  Periodically, I have been awakened in the middle of the night and I have been prompted to get up to pray instead of just going back to sleep.  In nearly every case, the WORD I have heard has affirmed the urgency and pending judgment of God.   Tribulation is at our door, the shaking God speaks of is about to begin.

The global economic malaise is a sign of the end times.  Based on God’s word from scripture and spoken directly to me, I know this is just part of the beginning of the great tribulation.  I knew this in my spirit.   I expect we will see deepening economic woes and that they will eventually lead to wars between nations spoken about in Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation.  We are on the cusp of this happening.  I watch our news and think of what God said and wait upon Him for further instruction and wisdom.  Another indicator Jesus said would indicate His imminent return would be an explosion of knowledge.  Think about how the Internet, cell phones and wireless and satellite connectivity have changed the face of the world and spread knowledge rapidly.  The Apostle Paul even warned Timothy that in the later times science would create opposition to the truth and lead to error concerning the faith.

2 Timothy 6:20-21 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith.  Think about how the so called science about evolution and creation has been used to discredit Christianity.  Many professing Christians now believe parts of the bible but not all the bible.  Instead of trusting in God and His word, they are trusting in the knowledge and science of mankind to tell them the truth.  Those who have hardened their hearts towards God will be prime victims of the delusion God Himself sends to deceived people that take pleasure in their sins.   I believe God purposefully confuses and confounds science as a means of testing the faith of his followers.  Who are we as man to understand His creation, we only know what He has allowed us to know?

Pray that God will send out more workers into His fields in these end times.  The harvest for souls is ripe but the door will only remain open for a little while longer.  Pray for wisdom from God.  Call out to Him and ask Him to teach you great and mighty things you do not know.  Do not be idle and do not fear man or any of these worldly events.  Fear God and trust in the Lord.  

Remember what Paul said.  To live is for Christ and to die is gain.  Do not fear, the Lord is with you if you are with Him.  He will never leave you or forsake us, but we must follow Him and not the ways of the world.  If we choose to walk away and not endure to the end we will perish. Deception is Satan’s primary weapon and the majority are deceived. 

May God Bless You Richly!

“As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord”