Discernment and Separation in a Time of Judgment

 
"Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or receive any of her plagues." - Revelation 17:4, Holman

On the surface, my family and I live a pretty normal American life. We live in the suburbs and have two daughters, two bunnies and a cat. My wife organizes a book club for our daughters' friends and plays tennis on a league. I help coach soccer and enjoy training in martial arts. 

The difference is that we know it is the end of the age and Jesus is coming back very soon. We know America has come under God's judgment for its bloodshed and immorality. The final, irrevocable phase began last summer with the noontime solar eclipse, followed by three destructive hurricanes and the mass shooting in Las Vegas. Please see these posts for more details:

A Basket of Summer Fruit for the Season of the End
Hurricane Harvey Is a Judgment from the Lord, and More Is Coming

More is coming, growing waves of calamity that will culminate in the nation's destruction in World War III. There is no pleasure in saying it, but this is the reality. Particularly watch this summer because of the prophesy in Amos 8.

What gives us hope is that there will be a great harvest for the kingdom of God. The pressures of judgment will break people down, some in a good way and they will repent and believe in Jesus Christ and find the love of God. We get to be a part of this movement and that motivates us. Life is short, but eternity is forever. 

God has been shouting this message from the rooftops for years, even decades. No one will be able to say God didn't tell them, because He has.

Separating from the Mainstream Church

A few years ago when I began to understand how late the hour is, it became hard to continue sitting in church. What my wife and I heard from the Lord did not match what we heard there. We truly believed those things and the Lord confirmed them in so many ways. Our lives changed radically. I saw there were other people around the world who heard these messages too, a small and vocal remnant. Yet at church it was like the sound of crickets.

We reached out to church leaders and pastors, but they were not interested in talking about judgment. I naively thought lots of other people would hear and receive this message and we would come together around it and prepare. I even wrote an article explaining why I believed America is under judgment and sent it to most of the pastors in my area. Few responded and those that did mostly disagreed. What was the disconnect?

I remembered what Jesus said to the religious people who opposed him:

"You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me. And you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life." - John 5:39-40, Holman

The Pharisees and Sadducees read their Bibles and went to "church," but did not recognize the Messiah standing in front of them. Their hearts were hard. Only a small minority, a remnant, received Him. Hundreds of years before Christ, prophets in Israel like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel warned about God's judgment and the need for repentance, yet only a minority received the message. The religious and political establishment rejected it and instead persecuted the prophets. They threw Jeremiah in a cistern and sawed Isaiah in half.

I realized something similar is happening in America today. Mainstream churches and Christian leaders are rejecting God's message of judgment and repentance and not telling their congregations. Only a remnant is hearing it.

I felt strongly that I could not continue to participate in this church system. It wasn't a neutral proposition to sit in a church whose leaders were not hearing and speaking God's message to America for this hour. If they are not listening to God, then who are they listening to? Jesus said His sheep hear his voice and they follow Him. There was something anesthetizing or hypnotic about being in a group of religious people who acted like everything is normal. They were put to sleep spiritually and being there might do the same to us.

We stopped attending and have our own family "church" at home. God continues to speak loudly and powerfully to us. It's not that we're perfect or special, but we are willing to hear and believe an uncomfortable message and embrace God's mission for us.

Other Spirits Coming In

As Christian churches and leaders have rejected the voice of the Holy Spirit, other spirits, unholy religious spirits, have come in to fill the void.

One of the spiritual gifts the Lord gave me is discernment. I can discern true and false based on God's word, and sometimes can discern spirits, which is telling what kinds of spirits are operating in or through a person or a place.

The Bible talks a lot about the influence of spirits on people:

"For if someone comes and proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the One you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it way too easily." - 2 Corinthians 11:4, Berean Study Bible

The Apostle Paul warned that false spirits can come in and speak false messages and false gospels. It is possible for people to receive these spirits, instead of the Holy Spirit of God, and be influenced by their messages and desires. People become vehicles for these spirits' agendas. These unholy spirits are from Satan and part of how he deceives the world.

Christians are supposed to be alert to this reality and carefully test the spirits:

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." - 1 John 4:1, Holman

Once I was visiting a conservative Baptist church and felt a spiritual presence of confusion and joylessness so strong I wanted to run out the back door. Honestly I could hardly think straight in that place and had to pray afterwards to the darkness off of me. I have had similar experiences around religious people, even while they are talking about God! As Christians have rejected the voice of the Holy Spirit, they are being infiltrated right and left with unholy religious spirits. It is toxic and spiritually dangerous.

I need to warn you. These religious spirits will one day animate people to persecute God's true remnant. Jesus said persecution will intensify in the end times:

"You will even be betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will kill some of you. You will be hated by everyone because of My name." - Luke 21:1-17, Holman

For Jesus, the greatest persecution came from the religious establishment. The Pharisees and Sadducees harassed and opposed Jesus more than anyone else, and it was the Sanhendrin, the council of priests and rabbis, who consigned Him to death. Fast forward to the future portrayed in Revelation 13. There you see the second beast, the false prophet, will force everyone to worship the image of the beast and take his mark or be killed. The second beast represents the one-world religion that will align with the Antichrist during the final years of this age. The Vatican is the center and it will include all the Christian denominations and other religions that align with it. This is the real 

meaning and ultimate intention of the popular symbol "COEXIST." In the end it will mean "assimilate or else." All real Christians they get their hands on will be put to death and everyone else will receive the mark of the beast which alters their DNA and turns them into humanoid biological robots under control of the beast system. This is what it means in 2 Thessalonians 2 where it say the man of lawlessness "sits in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God." Human bodies are the temple and the mark is seat of control for Satan and the Antichrist.

My point is that we need the Holy Spirit's discernment about who to associate with and who to avoid, because the times are becoming more dangerous. Like Jesus said, be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. God will protect us if we draw near, hear his voice and do what He says.

Separation for God's Protection

In a previous post, I wrote about an unexpected conflict with a group I was fellowshipping with. The conflict was about a woman prophesying by a false spirit that others believed was of God. After a period of expressing concerns and confronting this spirit, the Lord used a curious passage in 1 Kings 13 to let me know that I needed to break fellowship.

The story is about a man of God from Judah who traveled to the Northern Kingdom of Israel to pronounce a judgment from the Lord because of its idolatry. God told the man to go straight there, return by a different route and not to "eat bread or drink water in this place." However, an old prophet deceived him by saying an angel said the man should come back to his house to eat and drink. The man of God did, and then the old prophet prophesied for real and said that because he did not keep the Lord's command, his life would be forfeit. On the way home the man was killed by a lion.

A strange story indeed. Note that eating and drinking at the prophet's house was fellowship. The Lord impressed on me that I too needed to break fellowship or would suffer a judgment, like the man of God. I don't know what the equivalent of being killed by a lion would be for me, but I didn't want to find out.

The man of God was to sent proclaim a message during a time of judgment. God wanted him to get in, deliver the message and get out. It seems there are special requirements for separation during a time of judgment. As another example, during Korah's rebellion against Moses in Numbers 16, Moses told the people, "Get away now from the tents of these wicked men. Don't touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins."

Looking back, there were two occasions while confronting the issue of the false spirit when I became persistently ill for weeks. I heard of others involved in the group who also experienced health problems and one a financial problem. That spirit was a curser! Fellowship was an open door for spiritual attack. Separation was God's way of protecting me, as well as pressuring the people involved in the spirit to repent:

"Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, either by our message or by our letter... And if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take note of that person; don’t associate with him, so that he may be ashamed. Yet don’t treat him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother." - 2 Thessalonians 2:15, 3:14-15

Conclusion

I believe the Lord has a handful of missions or battles He wants each of us to engage in. Discernment and separation are important tools for making sure we don't run into harm, fall into traps or expend our energy unnecessarily. Otherwise we won't have the strength for the missions that are His will for us. 

The only way to do this is to stay in a close relationship with God - praying, worshiping, studying His Word - and following His instructions only.

Update - "Witch hunts," false prophecies, supernatural experiences

I just wanted to share a few comments to follow up the article Exposing Bette Stevens.

The realization and message in that article came about in an unexpected, organic way. I did not imagine something like that would happen. One thing led to another and, in hindsight, it was the Lord directing my steps.

Some people took the message to heart and others rejected it. I thank God for those who did receive it. It makes me feel like all I went through was not in vain. It cost me a lot in relationships, strain and illness. Of the people who rejected it and considered me a slanderer or something like that, not even one refuted what I said with the Scriptures. No one refuted the fact that Bette’s vision of the lake of fire inside hell is unbiblical, or that a vision uttering the cynical words “burn, baby, burn” about nuclear destruction of America is inconsistent with the loving, just character of God, or that Bette’s messages are sharp arrows of religious condemnation and fear. I think it says something about how they value the word of God, as compared to how much they value supernatural experiences or place blind loyalty in religious people who may be leading them astray.

Recently Stevens released a video entitled “Witch hunt in the church.” I did not listen to it, but would guess she says a “witch hunt” is a bad thing, divisive, based on false accusations. Her choice of the phrase “witch hunt” suggests medieval witch trials of dunking women in water to determine whether they float and are guilty. But what do the Scriptures say? We are supposed to test the spirits, root out false prophets and discern what is true and false:

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." – 1 John 4:1, Holman

"But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." – Hebrews 5:14, ESV

Jesus warned us that the end of the age would be characterized by false prophets and great deception:

"Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many… False messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Take note: I have told you in advance." – Matthew 24:11,24-25

In fact, false prophets and witchcraft have become common in the modern church. I see many false prophecies on Christian websites that collect and post prophecies from various people. For instance, all the prophecies that hail Donald Trump as chosen by God to restore America or give it a reprieve, a type of “King Cyrus” – those are all false. But where do the messages come from? Perhaps the fertile imagination of the person writing them, but in many cases I think the messages are fed to people by evil spirits. They are “channeling” spirits, which is witchcraft. That’s why we are commanded to test the spirits. There is only one Holy Spirit, but many impostors and many false prophets who give them voice.

Heeding and following false spirits is a form of idolatry:

"But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer who is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. " - 1 Corinthians 5:11

This is why I separated from the group who uphold Bette Stevens as a prophetess. They are not safe. Fellowship with them is an open door to attacks and deceptions. I pray they repent of this idolatry and are restored.

One more thing, and I've said this before: Seeking after supernatural experiences can be dangerous if we value them more than love, the fruits of the Spirit and truth revealed in the word of God. It can be a slippery slope into witchcraft. Witchcraft is real and gives people a sense of power and importance, appealing to the carnal flesh, because it taps into something other-worldly and beyond ourselves. God certainly gives supernatural gifts and experiences, but we need to keep it in perspective and make sure it is led by the Holy Spirit.

Remember, the greatest is love:

"Love never ends.

But as for prophecies,

they will come to an end;

as for languages, they will cease;

as for knowledge, it will come to an end."

- 1 Corinthians 13:8

"To Keep and Bear Arms" is about the Basic Human Right to Self-Defense

There is a lot of emotion after the mass shooting Parkland, Florida. My gut feeling is that things are different this time and the nation is moving closer to gun control, which is why I feel compelled to write this post.

Let's set aside the emotional discussions about the 2nd amendment, school shootings, etc. The issue of "keeping and bearing arms" is about the basic human right to self defense. In a world where the predominant and effective personal weapon is a firearm, we must have firearms to defend ourselves. Sticks, knives, martial arts, etc. are insufficient when facing a gun. Without a firearm of your own, you are completely vulnerable, with no ability to protect yourself, your families, people you care about, from those who have firearms and intend to harm us. 

In ancient history, the predominant personal weapon was the sword. I believe even Jesus Christ affirmed the right to self-defense when, at the end of his ministry, He told his disciples to buy a sword if they did not have one:

"Then He said to them, 'But now, whoever has a money-bag should take it, and also a traveling bag. And whoever doesn't have a sword should sell his robe and buy one.'" - Luke 22:36

The only purpose of a sword is to kill, and the modern equivalent of a sword is a firearm.

In addition, where do you think all of these mass shootings are coming from, suddenly and out of nowhere? Please don’t just believe what the media and “authorities” tell you. Look very closely at the forensic evidence and eyewitness testimonies to Parkland, Sandy Hook, Aurora and Las Vegas. Things are NOT as they seem. 

In a CNN interview, a girl student present at Parkland, FL, said there was a rumor circulating among students that there would be a "fake code red" with "fake guns" that day. Hmmm, what? In fact, many students thought it was a drill at first.

Another student in a local news interview said there was "definitely three" shooters, describing a situation where students were moving one direction away from a shooter, when a second shooter came from the opposite direction and corralled them. She said there was a powder on the floor of the school (consistent with shooting blanks, not real bullets) and when the "army guys" showed up, they stacked the bodies in a corner and put mats on top of them so people couldn't see them. What??? Multiple shooters, army guys. And why did they ruin the crime scene forensic evidence by moving the bodies like that? 

A third Parkland student said that, after the gunfire started, the allegedly shooter Nick Cruz was walking with her and her classmates down the hall. She knew him and was talking with him. Asked by her interviewer if she was afraid, she said no, because the shooting had occurred in another part of the building and there was "definitely" another shooter.

Maybe the four Broward County sheriffs who did not enter the building during the shooting were also told there would be a "fake code red" with "fake guns." Maybe they were ordered to stand down, or thought they were supposed to, or were complicit in a staged event.

Much more can be said about Las Vegas, Sandy Hook, Aurora. Again, look closely at the evidence and testimonies. I have and here is the inescapable conclusion: All of these are staged events intended to whip the public into a frenzy for gun control. It's the same protocol followed in some other Western countries where gun control has been enacted (Australia, UK): A mass shooting with many inconsistencies and peculiarities, followed by a media and political frenzy, followed by gun control laws. America is just particularly resilient about guns, so the mass shootings just keep coming. 

We're being played. Don't fall for it.