PICTURES OF TRIBULATION & WRATH, Part 6

Another Coffee Break:

Pictures of Tribulation & Wrath, Part 6

Greetings to you, Oh Great, Wise, and Illustrious Ones!

When's the last time you had a Good Morning greeting like that!

Coffee’s poured.  Mmmmmm….. Love that aroma!  Double Roast French Roast from Winco Foods, thanks to Rich!  Come and join me!

Before we with our previous discussion on tribulation vs. wrath, I didn't want to do a full Coffee Break on the outcome of our election, but I would like to make a few observations that are relevant to our discussion on the wrath of God and raise a few questions for everyone to think about.

At the same time, it is critically necessary for me to state emphatically (for the sake of those who will quickly jump to conclusions) before we get into this commentary that (1) while this post may be regarded by some readers as political, that is not my purpose; (2) my objective is to address some genuine spiritual issues facing us as Christians, AND as Americans; and (3) I am NOT an Obama hater.  I simply cannot and will not align myself with the agenda he has been pursuing.

According to the latest exit poll statistics taken on November 6th, there were 42% of Protestant and Evangelical Christians (with 25% who specifically identified themselves as Evangelical or Pentecostal) who voted for Obama in this election.  Although that's down from 57% four years ago, it still begs the question.  How in the world do folks who classify themselves as Bible-believing Christians vote for someone whose agenda incorporates support and funding for the murder of unborn children?  How can people who claim to have Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives support a leader whose agenda includes tearing down the definition of family and marriage -- a tradition which has stood for not less than 6,000 years?

It gets worse, folks!  Despite a call from a very large number of black Christian leaders to vote otherwise, blacks who call themselves "Christian" voted 70% to support Obama and his agenda.

Even more, in spite of strong condemnation from American Catholic bishops of the current administration's support for homosexual marriage and ongoing promotion of abortion, as well as a warning to Catholics of spiritual consequences, a solid 50% of Catholics voted for another four years of the same policies that are dragging this nation into the gutter, and towards the judgment of God!

Although the numbers are still pathetic, at least 32% of the Jewish vote went to Romney.  That's a historic high for Republican support -- and a ten percent improvement over 4 years ago.  That improvement can be attributed in large part to the administration's overt hatred of Israel and kow-towing to Islamic leaders, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's active campaigning for Romney.

A friend of mine made the following observation to a group of evangelical Christians whose paranoia of Romney's Mormonism was quite obvious.  "We're not voting for a national pastor (or Shepherd for the body of Christ)," he said.  "We're voting on the President of the United States."  Put another way we could say, We're not electing a Pastor-in-Chief, we're electing a Commander-in-Chief.

While for a variety of reasons (the least of which was his Mormon roots) Mitt Romney may not have been my first choice to lead this nation, that didn't make him unqualified.  Considering this nation's current financial and economic dilemma, and the moral morass into which we are sliding, we could not have had an easier choice as Christians.

Honestly, the choices that face America are far less related to a political party and much more related to an increasingly intense spiritual crisis.  My comments and questions are not specifically directed at the Democratic Party despite the fact that the DNC is rapidly leaving traditional Democrats in the dust.   By the same token, I'm no great fan of the RNC because of political compromise within the party leadership which more and more creates RINO's (Republicans In Name Only) who fundamentally reject some of the party's most basic constitutional roots.

My concern is with America as a whole.  My concern is with Christians who are spiritually asleep, Christians who somehow have shut off their "discerner" gift from Holy Spirit and justify their choices because of personal pocket-book fears.  Let's make it even plainer.  They like being on the dole from the Federal Government.  They like federal handouts and ignore the long-term consequences of those handouts.

This is a byproduct of a poverty mentality that has permeated the body of Christ, reinforced by the Fear of Death and an absolute lack of trust in God's faithfulness to keep His Word.  I actually spoke with a woman yesterday who openly acknowledged that she voted for Obama because she was afraid Romney would take away her food stamps.

These "Christians" ignore the spiritual consequences of electing leaders who are driving forward an agenda which perverts the Word of God, and they think it doesn't matter because "this is just politics, and we have to have a separation of church and state!"  They close their eyes to the fact that they become guilty of moral and sexual perversion by virtue of their passiveness towards it, and their active support of those who promote it.

NO, THIS IS NOT JUST POLITICS!!!  Political choice results in spiritual consequence -- either for good or for evil.  If we choose for evil, the judgment and the wrath of God are what we head for.

Let's get something straight.  I said it before and I'll say it again!  I am not an Obama-hater!  But I hate the sin, the wickedness, the evil that he has aligned himself with.  I grieve for Barack Obama because I know what will befall him if he continues to push this agenda.  He has no idea what lies ahead for him if he continues to promote such an anti-Israel stance, his words of support notwithstanding.

By the same token, people who consider themselves to be Bible-believing Christians are plunging headlong into the wrath of God who think they can continue to ignore the Enemy's unfolding schema.  That's where we are going with today's discussion on the wrath of God.

Let me conclude this commentary by quoting from the 139th Psalm where David writes, "Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?  I hate them with perfect hatred.  I count them mine enemies."  (Psalm 139:21-22)

David isn't talking about people as his enemies; he's talking about wicked spirits, idols, idolatrous purposes.  Consider what he says next.

"Search me, O GOD, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

You need to see this in the Hebrew text.  Where the KJV translates the text to read, "and see if there be any wicked way in me," the Hebrew text uses the word, 'otseb, for wicked, and dehrek for way.  The word, 'otseb, is more accurately translated idol (as in something which is fashioned, either by hand or by thought), whereas the word, dehrek, means: a course of life, or a mode of action.

Thus those that hate the Lord, those who are His enemies, are the idolatrous spirits that rise up within men and women.  When men and women align themselves with those wicked spirits and come into agreement with them, whether passively or actively, they subject themselves to the same wrath and judgment that awaits Satan and all who fellowship with him -- whether passively or actively!

We've been talking about the wrath of God as compared to tribulation, and we finished up last time talking about how His wrath is targeted against anything and anyone who deliberately and unrepentantly seeks to pervert His creation and perfect order.

To restate what has already been said, Creation was set in motion for the express purpose of creating a species of being who would be like God, created in His image and likeness, set in an environment where this species of being would have the opportunity and responsibility of duplicating here what already exists in Heaven.  The primary objective for the creation and existence of this species was so that the Lord would have for Himself a family of beings with whom He could fellowship and share who and all that He is at His level of existence.

Sin perverted that.  Eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil contaminated and began to pervert both the existence and the DNA of this species -- US!  None of this caught God off guard.  He was not taken by surprise when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  A redemptive plan had already been initiated by and through Jesus Christ, of whom John writes as having been "slain from the foundation of the world."  (see Revelation 13:8)

The purpose of God's redemptive Plan through Jesus Christ was to recapture and restore to relationship with Him those who had been the "servants (more accurately, the slaves) of sin."  It was an opportunity with consequence.  Choose the redemptive and restorative Plan made available by and through Jesus Christ, or choose to continue to live as you please in and under sin.

Choose redemption and in so doing enjoy the benefits, the privileges, the Covenant of life -- both now and in eternity -- along with deliverance from sickness, poverty, disease and the curse!  Have access to what the world inaccurately refers to as "the realm of the miraculous."  Live in the midst of God's grace, His mercy and His Love!  Have power over all disease, all sickness, all weaknesses of any kind; access to the Blessing of God with wealth and riches -- mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and financial -- beyond natural understanding.  Have authority over all the power and works of Satan.

On the other hand, choose to live as you please, ignore the redemptive price that Jesus paid, and you live under the curse.  With that curse comes sickness, disease, poverty, weakness, mental and emotional diseases, the affliction(s) that come as a byproduct of the dominion of evil spirits, and -- when all is said and done -- if one does not repent, they will experience the wrath of God in a dimension they don't even want to think about.

Before we get too far along here, I need to point out something regarding the wrath of God.  Except for the wrath of God being exercised against Satan, his hosts and all who rebelliously align themselves with him, (and that wrath is determined for eternity!) the anger of the Lord is not long-lasting.

I've already noted that -- for the most part -- God's wrath is redemptive.  His objective is to bring His people back into fellowship with Him.  That said, let's take a quick look at some things Isaiah was commanded to prophesy.

"In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.  For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.  For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee."

Notice the context of what Isaiah is saying.  This Word is targeted towards God's people, Israel, during a time when they were chasing after idols and other gods.  The Lord is making clear the fact that, even in the midst of His anger towards them for their adultery towards Him, He will still keep His everlasting Covenant by showing mercy.  They would still feel His wrath, they would still endure captivity, they would still suffer at the hands of their enemies, but it would only be for a time, after which God would once again extend favor and mercy.

Without getting into the entire prophecy (you can read it in Isaiah 10) or quoting the entire passage here, let me extract one piece for the sake of illustration.  In this instance you have the wrath of God again being executed against Israel for their whoredoms and their hypocritical representation of Him in the earth.  This time He takes advantage of the neighboring enemies of Israel whose hatred of the Israelites is not simply a case of political jealousy, but rather an intense hatred of God Himself.  Because the nations of the earth knew that Israel was God's chosen people, they took out their hatred of God on His people.

Here we have God's people in rebellion themselves, behaving contrary and antagonistically towards His Word to them.  So God permits the surrounding enemies who hate Him to exercise their military might against Israel as a means of pouring out His wrath, and then turns around and exercises that same judgment against the enemies of His people.  Watch how the Lord does this!  (see verse 12)

"Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks."   Now look at verses 20-23 [NASB]!

"Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.   A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.   For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant within them will return; A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.  For a complete destruction, one that is decreed [against Assyria], the Lord GOD of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land."

See the picture?

Folks who've been programmed with the religious slop that says "A loving God would never allow wrath and judgment and tribulation to come upon His people" unfortunately do not see the larger redemptive picture.  They don't know the heart of the Lord.  What a lot of folks seem to miss is that God is far less concerned with the comfort of His people, and far more concerned with the development of His character in them.  For lots of people, it is no small thing for them to get rid of the contamination and perversion of their hearts, their minds, and their souls.  The more they resist the dealings of God, the greater the pressure that comes to bear in their lives.

There's one more aspect to this picture that we need to cover before we quit for today.

When people ignore the redemptive plan of God made available to them through Jesus Christ, they open themselves wide to demonic activity in their lives.  Often folks blame God for the things that have befallen them, and they fail to understand that the things happening in their lives are a direct result of Satan's anger and wrath directed towards God.

Consider the prophecy against Lucifer the Lord ordered through Isaiah: "That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!  The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.  He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.........Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.  They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;  That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?"

That's only a tiny part of the entire decree against Satan from Isaiah 14.  Ezekiel was commanded to also prophesy against him, and he expands (in Ezekiel 28) on the picture of Satan's pride, his arrogance, the unbelievable conceit he had to think he -- as a created being -- was equal to or superior to God.

John, in Revelation 12, is taken back into eternity before time began to see the war that occurred in Heaven when Satan, in his arrogance and pride, rose up against God.  John sees the devil defeated, not by God Himself, but by Michael and his angels acting at God's direction.  Satan is cast out into the earth where he gets locked into time.  From this point forward, every bit of fear, hatred and anger in the core of his being is targeted against God and against His creation -- including mankind.  The fact that God gave possession of the earth to mankind (Psalm 115:16) and relegated his existence to a time-space dimension only increased his hatred.

Hence, Satan's wrath.  Hence, the chaos that follows him.  Hence, his desire to take control of the human race in order to get back at God and destroy any chance of the Lord having a family.  Hence, his desire to usurp the place of the Bride of Christ.

This is where we will leave this discussion.  Now you can understand the wrath of God, and where that wrath is focused.  And -- finally -- now you can see the difference between the wrath of God and tribulation.

I'll be back soon.

Our Founding Fathers were just as afraid of the tyranny of the masses as they were the tyranny of the king. They had witnessed in the French Revolution what happened when the masses ruled, and they established in our Constitution firewalls against the tyranny on both sides. Both of these firewalls have been breached or torn down altogether now, and as the Founders warned, the Republic cannot now long survive.

Thomas Jefferson warned that the Republic could not last if the people learned that they could vote for themselves the resources of the national treasury.  That was breached a long time ago, and we are now at the point where the entitlement mentality it has created in the masses is about to destroy us.  We were led down this road by both the Democrats and the Republicans. This is not sustainable, but one is not likely to get elected to office if they even talk about trying to correct this.  We are now very close to collapsing the whole system.  Then elections will no longer be held at all and we will face a terrible tyranny. We will first face the tyranny of the mob, and then we will face the tyranny of the tyrant.

Even the former Labor Party British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is now warning everywhere he goes that the entitlement mentality that has been created will destroy Western civilization if we do not stop it now.

Could Obama become one of our greatest Presidents?  Interestingly, President Obama, who many think is purposely trying to weaken America and Western civilization, may be the only one who can now turn this around and pull us back from the precipice.  Obama does not have to run again, and he can do what is right regardless of the political consequences.  He has the potential to be one of our greatest Presidents if he is given the illumination, and then has the courage and the support to follow it.  That is how I will be praying.  He is in the best position of all to save us from the pending economic doom, but if he doesn’t change course, he will go down as the worst President of all time, because the meltdown will begin on his watch.

President Clinton, along with the Republican Congress, started to turn us around on this road to collapse.  They made brilliant choices and remarkable progress.  As Christians, we are commanded to pray for our leaders, not just those we wanted, but those we have.  I for one will be praying that President Obama be given the wisdom and understanding to save us instead of destroying us. He could do either.  If he does the right thing, we will all be winners.  If he does not, we will all be losers.

(excerpted from a prophetic word this week by Rick Joyner)

Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES

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