I think that we all go through various ups and downs in our lives. There are days when we feel elated and days when we’re down in the dumps… even when we have everything in the world to be thankful for. As a minister, these days aren’t any easier for me than they are for the average person because I too am just an average person who is no better than anyone else on the face of this earth and in fact most definitely far worse than many.
For all my faults though, I do try very hard to remain focused on the task at hand and keep my eyes cast upon our heavenly Father, work hard, and remain full of faith and trust and always obedient to Her will. But some days are harder than others. There are some days and even weeks when I feel full of the Holy Spirit and my heart is light and full of love for mankind. And there are some days and even weeks when my heart is weighted down with worries and anxieties and many not-so-great things of this world – and especially on days when the bad news in the news is only getting worse.
I’m writing this article right now because I’d been talking with a fellow minister when all of a sudden I felt motivated within my heart to write. It’s like a gentle push from behind that you can’t ignore and it has always been for me a key indication that the Holy Spirit is at work. At the same time writing has also always been a way for me to sort things out in my own mind and even to take a load off my shoulders when the load starts to feel a little too heavy. It’s why I journal each night. It’s just something I do in addition to prayer and meditation. Seeing the words on the screen as my fingers fly across the keyboard, or seeing the words trail across the paper as my pen slides over the page… there’s just something about it. I’ve also discovered that it’s a way for Father to speak with my heart and tonight the words come without any difficulty at all.
As a past card toting optimist and wearer of rose colored glasses, I’ve become a realist over the past three plus years. I see the world for what it’s become and what it actually is because my eyes have been opened to truth. Have you noticed? Do you see? People (not just terrorists) are killing one another, children are acting out in unheard of ways, the economy is on the verge of complete and worldwide collapse, people are losing their homes and whole families are resorting to living on the streets, there are natural disasters galore, and animals of all species are suffering and dying. Drug cartels are beheading people in droves; people are being kidnapped, raped, robbed, stabbed, bludgeoned to death and sold into sex slavery. Wars and civil unrest is erupting everywhere including here in the U.S. Food is becoming scarcer and more expensive by the day. Companies are rapidly going out of business or at the very least laying off their employees in record numbers. Our food, water and even the air we breathe is poison to our bodies and people are becoming scared, even desperate and you know what? It’s a heck of a lot to take in let alone wrap your mind around.
Some deal with this by burying their heads in the sand. Not watching the news. Not reading the papers. Not discussing current events. They absorb themselves within a world that seems more in control than it really is. Some watch, read and discuss but maintain the belief that it’s been worse than this in the past therefore, like in the past, it will only get better because after all these things have been going on for what seems like forever – so long that we’ve all come to expect it or even become numb to it. Others simply don’t know what to believe. As a minister these things that are now in the news are things that I’ve known would come for the past three plus years - but it’s still hard to see, and hear, and read.
I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve sat and watched Good Morning America with tears welling up in my throat and my eyes because they’re interviewing someone who has endured a recent tragedy in their life. My heart goes out to all people who experience these things and I always wonder if they turn to Father in faith or if they feel alone and neglected by our God and Creator. I wonder if they realize why things like what they’ve been through happen and if they understand that there is a Spiritual War raging around them and that while the fallout of that war and what happens to the inhabitants of earth is so very unfortunate, I wonder if they comprehend that these things must take place in order for Father’s will to be done and for evil to be once and for all eradicated from the face of the earth and all of creation.
Last night, I saw something that quite literally touched my heart and it made me think about how Father and Her Holy Family interact with mankind. It’s what inspired the writing of this article and I’d like to share it with all of you.
We were about to have our closing prayer of our online Sunday night Bible Study, and I was seated in a chair that faces the dining room area. The dining room light was not on, so that area was quite a bit darker than the rest of the house and from over the top of my computer screen and across the room I saw a large white oval shaped orb of light appear in the center of the room and slowly fade away. As I continued to stare in that direction, I allowed my eyes to relax and in that same spot I saw a large white letter M appear, followed by a large white outline of a heart.
My first thoughts… Michael the Archangel and Love.
My heart swelled with emotion like I hadn’t felt in what seemed like a long time, because I was so buried in the goings on in the world and happenings in my personal life that I too had become somewhat numb and it didn’t feel good at all and in fact it’d been really been bothering me – enough to even keep me up at night with racing thoughts and a furrow between my brows.
And then a complete calmness and peacefulness filled me from within…and it was just…quiet. An utterly complete feeling of peacefulness.
I closed my eyes and took a breath in and focused on our heavenly Father, allowing Her love to enter every crevice of my heart and restore it to where it’d been before I began to feel bogged down and filled with worries and anxieties and fears.
And almost instantaneously… I felt… Loved. Restored. Strengthened. Uplifted.
This was most recent, but there have been many times in which this has happened and in many different ways; via prayer and meditation, in dreams, visions, synchronicities, and even in photographs or just a soft touch of the hand or a few words that flow through the mind. Some have contained warnings that helped to keep me on track, but most have contained messages of love and encouragement from the other side of the veil.
The lesson is this; Father is a God of love. And no matter what occurs in our everyday lives now and in the near future She is always there for us and ready and willing to fill our hearts with love and peacefulness when we need it most. My prayer is that those reading this article remember this. She is and She will continue to bring calamity upon mankind, but She first brought calamity upon the one She loved the most; Her son Christ Jesus… to prove Her love to mankind.
Remember this and know, that when you need it most there are many ways that Father works whether it be via Her Holy Spirit or via Her Holy Family to let you know She’s there, and to give you… the gift of peace. Always be on the lookout for it and when you see it or sense it, be ready to receive it.
"Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.” John 14:27
John 9:25He answered, "Whether or not He's a sinner, I don't know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!"
The words of the above scripture and of the song Amazing Grace describe what happened in my life just three short years ago. I too, was lost and found. I too, was blind and now see. And now that I see, I also see how many are blind.
They’re good people. Church going people. Co-workers. Friends. Relatives. They’re the people on TV. They’re the lady standing behind me at the checkout. The girl in the car next to me. The man who changes the oil on my car. The kid at the drive thru. They’re busy living their lives. Trying to make ends meet. Dating. Enjoying their children and grandchildren. Working overtime. Going to school. Planning for retirement. Shopping for the holidays.
Thanksgiving was last week and I had much to be thankful for. We all did, my family and me, as we have all been blessed with good health, good jobs, roofs over our heads, the clothes on our backs, food in our bellies and all the necessities of life. It felt rushed though, because everyone had somewhere to go and something to do after the short visit with family and a meal. Half the family disappeared into the media room to watch the game. A few others left to attend other family gatherings. The house was like a beehive of activity for about three hours and then they were gone.
I had brief opportunities to speak of our ministry and the work we are doing in various conversations with family members. I also had the opportunity to warn of the coming wrath when discussion came up about the economy and all the financial difficulties that surround us. It’s a common conversation these days because if the people who bring it up aren’t experiencing it themselves, they know someone who is. When they ask me what I think about it, I tell them “I hate to say it, but it will only get worse because we’re in the middle of the Tribulation.”
Of course that makes me in their eyes, a “downer” or a “dooms-dayer” and a “fear mongerer”, because everyone wants to speculate that things will get better in time. Many have seen hard times before or heard the stories from Grandparents who lived through the Great Depression and World War II. They say people have been predicting the end of the world for thousands of years and it had yet to happen. They hear the media saying it will be a year or at the most fourteen months before we’re able to climb out of the financial crisis we’re in and they hold out hope that they won’t be one of the ones affected like those they see on TV living without electricity or in Tent Cities. They pray they’ll keep their jobs and that next summer or Christmas they’ll get to take that big family vacation and that the stocks will again rise and their retirement funds and pensions will remain intact.
Isaiah 43:8 “Bring out a people who are blind, yet have eyes, and are deaf, yet have ears.”
They don’t believe me when I say it will get worse. They don’t believe me when I say we’re experiencing the Tribulation. But it’s the truth, and they are blind just as I was three, nearly four short years ago.
They don’t see that we are all being poisoned from food, water and the air supply and that the entire world is becoming a cesspool of ill health because their health is good.
But what about the millions around the world who are suffering and dyeing from cancers and various diseases, illnesses and plagues?
They don’t see that global warming will continue to happen, with drastic weather changes that are here to say until Father’s plan is completed because they only watch the news for the weather where they live and the weather where they live is just fine.
But what about the millions around the world who have lost their lives and their homes and crops in Hurricanes, mudslides, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis, tornadoes and cyclones?
They don’t see that global monetary collapse is around the corner because they have savings and good jobs and a roof over their heads and haven’t yet been touched with financial distress.
But what about the millions around the world who have lost their jobs and/or their homes either due to the global financial crisis, religious persecution and natural disasters?
Satan has blinded people with false information and false beliefs and he also keeps them busy just trying to make ends meet so that they don’t have the time to evaluate what is really happening unless they stop and make time for it. But who has time to stop when the day is already filled to the brim with work, responsibilities, bills to pay, kids to chauffeur around, errands to run, chores to do and worries and anxieties galore? They are living each day as it comes and perhaps planning for years ahead in the future when they are old, but they aren’t stopping to take a look around at the reality of the world we currently live in.
When I shared my experiences at Thanksgiving with members of my family and the fact that despite my efforts to warn them they simply did not see, the following was shared with me via one of Father’s Holy Angels:
“Faith is believing in something that does not seem logical to fleshly thinking, and because of this they cannot figure out why things are as they are, and cannot understand why Father has permitted evil to flourish down to the end times, nor can they figure out how Father can right the injustice of a world that seeks only science for its answers. To them, logic is man's way and not that of a God that promises destruction upon a world that does not obey Her. Father's ways are not those of mankind's. Because some believe that Father is love - and rightly She is, they think love will not also bring calamity upon those She has spawned forth. But Father brought calamity upon the flesh and blood of the very one She loves the most - Christ Jesus, Her Word. She did so in an effort to not only show Her love for the lower creation, but also to prove Her love by not wiping mankind off the map of Her creation.”
It was our Christ Jesus who healed the blind. I cannot heal the blind. I cannot make them see. All I can do is warn them of the impending wrath so that when it happens they will not fall away but instead realize that it represents the end of all that is evil and the promise of the Kingdom’s establishment and eternal life. All I can do is continue to serve and pray that there will come a day that those who are blinded will see.
“I will lay waste mountains and hills,
and dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn rivers into islands,
and dry up marshes.
I will lead the blind by a way they did not know;
I will guide them on paths they have not known.
I will turn darkness to light in front of them,
and rough places into level ground.
This is what I will do for them,
and I will not forsake them.”
Isaiah 42:15-16
On my drive home from the Thanksgiving family gathering, as the sun set off to my left and turned the sky into glorious colors of reds, oranges and pinks. And as off to my right, the moon made its first appearance of the night the thought came to me… “Even amidst the darkness, Her light does still shine.” It was like a visual message calling out to Her children walking in the darkness of this world. A reminder that even when calamity does strike, and it will, She will still be there for all who were blind but now see.
Mark 10:49 “Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called the blind man and said to him, "Have courage! Get up; He's calling for you."
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