Signs of the times
Act 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: Act 2:18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: Act 2:19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: Act 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: Act 2:21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
All this and more is happening right now. When we preach the gospel of Jesus, we must preach the whole gospel or else, we will not be doing it justice. In the verses above, Peter speaks of many types of signs of the times. They range from God pouring out His Holy Spirit on flesh to doom and gloom during the end times. Signs are for the times and work on the prophetic. If you want to know the signs of the times now, you must look at prophecy to see what is going on around you that reflect prophecy and then you will see the signs. Though some signs have been around for a long time, they are not the fulfilment of prophecy as they were only symptoms. It is always the intensity of a sign that indicates the ripeness, like when a pregnant woman receives birth pangs. Isa_26:17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.
The cry of our hearts are based on the signs of our times, of which there are many, mostly bad signs of doom and gloom. Have we been born for such a time as this? It seems we just may have been. Even if we escape the worst of what is coming, the next generation is certainly not going to because the momentum has begun and things are pretty bad now. The question is, how bad is it? Is it bad enough to come to pass now or is the pregnant woman still travailing in her birth pangs?
The other signs of the times involve massive moves of God in various places of which many of them are in quite unlikely places. Added to this, countless thousands are coming to Christ through much persecution and through the boldness of many saints who have taken up the challenge of preaching the gospel. Another sign is, the increase in power and healing. Demonic forces are being routed and much healing of the body, soul and spirit is taking place. Though this may seem like a drop in the bucket, many are still coming to the Lord. The other sign of the times is the exit of many from the Church. This too is a sign of the times. Unprecedented numbers of people are disillusioned with the Church and leaving for greener pastures or into oblivion. The increase of falsity in the Church worldwide is another sign. False preaching, teaching and practices are all signs of the times. The problem with all these signs are, they are scattered in amongst the good seed. So, another sign of the times is the wheat and tares growing together. Many do not understand this and play into the hands of people who are actually not Christian but pretend to be. Since they do not want to throw the baby out with the bath water and because it is too hard to discern, they do not want to judge the Church.
So, it seems there are many signs of the times for this generation to be aware of and avoid colliding with. Preparation is the cry of the Holy Spirit just as in the days of John the Baptist. “Prepare ye the way” says the prophet. This was his cry in the wilderness which is really the cry of the Holy Spirit. Though many are coming to know Christ, they are compromising their walk with God and mixing the world with the gospel by not mixing their faith with the gospel. This is a tragedy because we are seeing much of the form of Godliness. In some quarters of the Church, this is taken to be spirituality and much is allowed in the way of compromise and lack of repentance. I do not hear people genuinely accepting their faults and saying sorry. Instead, I see a lot of self justification based on their past. Yet, they profess to be Christians washed in the blood of Jesus with no past. Hmmmmm! It seems we are dealing with hypocrisy and self righteousness. Without true assessment of one’s ways, repentance cannot take place. Conviction alone is not going to cut it. One must recognise the evil in their heart and repent and be restored.
How does a Christian who is genuinely trying to walk in the Spirit make it? He or she must take up the cause of the gospel with authority and preach it to a dark and evil generation without fear. The more we compromise, the more we will suffer.
The other signs of the times are what is happening on a natural basis with the weather and natural disasters. More and more of these types of events are happening resulting in loss of life, destruction of economies and rendering places inhabitable. Animals are becoming more aggressive and they are taking human life too. This will increase as a sign in the days ahead.
In the spirit realm of darkness, we see increased activity of the demonic amongst men. The introduction of the demonic is no longer a problem to people. Many corporations are feeding off this frenzy through Harry Potter, Halloween, demonic movies, video games and the like by making billions of dollars while introducing mental illness and fear. Added to this, the drug and alcohol culture is out of control causing many problems in society. Nearly every family has a drug related member in some way. Sexual promiscuity and looseness is out of control and anything goes now. So much so, men do not know whether they are male or female. God has given them over to their lusts. Rom 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
The end is near but which end? I think this age has to end to allow the next one to begin. If Jesus does not come back soon, the days will be unbearable. Unfortunately, they are going to become unbearable before Jesus comes back. Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Mat 24:16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Mat 24:17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Mat 24:18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. Mat 24:19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! Mat 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: Mat 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. Mat 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
The emergence of a world leader will be the ultimate sign that our age has come to a close. Not many years after that, the end of this age will come. How do we react if we are on earth? Teaching preparation is the key to a soul being saved in body, soul and spirit. Many will lose heart because of what they experience and will face all manners of evil and even death because of this age.
It is my heart’s desire to preach the whole gospel of Jesus just as He did. He was sent to save us from our sins but also to direct us on how to live in an evil world. According to His teaching, it is possible for a person to have love, peace, joy, prosperity and a future in a dark and evil world. However, many will die badly in the process of living out a life for Jesus on earth. It is foolish to think, especially in these last days that nothing is going on that has not happened before. The other view point is equally bad and that is to think that nothing good can come out of all this evil. God has a plan. Those who are discerning of this truth will employ the plan, even if it is going to be at a great cost. Many, in the history of the faith have paid a terrible price for understanding the truth and trying to preach it. The persecution has been mostly at people who preach the truth. The devil has blinded the eyes of many people so that they cannot see the truth even when it is staring at them.
Signs are given by God in various ways and we must learn through the Holy Spirit to understand signs. No one drives down the road and ignores signs. They do so at their own peril. We need to STOP and take stock of our Christian faith regularly and not just go from one to the next because we think we are saved or anointed. Watch for the signs in our own lives that indicate, error, decay, sin or some other form of evil that is not pleasing to God. We must pay special attention to those signs that have intensified in us because we know that the manifestation of those signs will take place soon. We must avoid sin at all costs and determine in our hearts to walk uprightly with God and our fellow man.
Take time to examine your own heart and see what you are coming short of, based on the word of God. Correct the path and go slow where you have to and stop where you have to. When liberty comes, move with it and do not lag behind. Use signs as discernment in your own life and ministry. Above all, allow the Holy Spirit to read the signs for you because there is much confusion out there and the heart is evil above all. It is easy to be fooled by one’s own interpretation of the signs of the times. The Holy Spirit on the other hand will always reveal the truth because He is the Spirit of Truth.
Lots of love
Pastor Noble
12/11/17