What Are We Suppose To Do In The End Times?

The world is changing. Or is the veil being pulled back? Is it possible that it is just continuing its downward spiral and we are nearing the end? Or, is this just simply our awareness and the worse is yet to come? Sounds pretty dismal and bleak. Are we just suppose to stand by and play the fiddle while Rome burns? That's what some misguided people would have you think.

Some people have gotten to the point that Jeremiah had reached. For so long he had prayed for his fellow citizens, praying that the Lord would stay his hand but the entire time he was praying for them they were abusing him. They shouted him down, beat him, threw him in jail until it got so bad that Jeremiah stopped praying for them and told the Lord, "Bring it on. The sooner the better".

I am hearing more and more this chorus going up "Come Lord come", knowing that this would bring on the judgement. We used to pray "Tary but a bit longer Lord" not because we did not want to go but because there were so many who did not yet know him. Why do you think the Lord has waited these two thousand years? He wants the banquet hall to be full.

Put away the fiddles because we have some real work to do. Apostle Paul outlined it to the Thessalonians. It is worth reading the entire fifth chapter because I am going to leave off some of the good bits just to focus on some very important instructions for us in these days.

Verse 14: "We appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, to instruct those who are not in their place of battle." Instead of cheering on the destruction of those who offend you, look around and see who is not in position. See who is in your sphere of influence who has not understood the instructions and help them by showing them. Of course, you better make sure that the Lord's new commandment of loving each other in the same manner he has loved us is your motivation.

It is important that if we are going to engage with these instructions that we are doing so because we love our brothers and sisters and not because we want to put them in their place. They are not in their place of battle because they do not know who they are, they do not know how to fight, they do not know the enemy is not people but the dark principality. Maybe they are discouraged. It is not just those who are not worshiping and praying but those who are fighting with wrong motivations. We are to come along, be their friend and influence them into position.

Verse 14: "Be skilled at gently encouraging those who feel themselves inadequate." I am sure you know plenty of Christians who feel inadequate, who feel they can't talk, teach, lead or even pray. I have heard so many say they can't understand the Bible and they could never talk to other people about Jesus. It's all a lie of the enemy because the adequacy does not come from us but by Spirit in us. We are all possessed by him so we are all equipped by him. The Body of Christ is in great need of encouragers.

Now take note of "be skilled at". This skill is more a skill of humility, understanding that we are not able to do anything outside of Jesus. The skill is the focus, the listening and the acting upon what you hear. The skill increases as you use it and we are to use it constantly. We say we are a people of faith and yet we struggle to trust that he enables us to do all this and more.

Verse 14: "Be faithful to stand your ground." Our Father loves faithfulness. He loves when we keep our word, our commitment. He loves when we are faithful to people. He loves when we are faithful to his instructions. This faithfulness is empowered by love. Stand your ground. Do what is right according to Father's heart. Stick it out with people. Be his voice in their lives. Don't be surprise by evil but stand your ground to overcome that evil by good. Be faithful to our Lord as he is faithful to us.

Verse 14: "Help the weak to stand again." People are use to friends coming and going. They are used to people being afraid of their "sins". They are used to people not sticking to the meaning of friendship. But we are called to be more than that. As the world gets darker and more confusing weaker Christians are going to need the faithful friendship of the stronger brothers and sisters.

Verse 14: "Be quick to demonstrate patience with everyone." Are you beginning to see how we might be falling short of the Lord's design for the Body of Christ? We are in this together, weak and strong. We are responsible for each other. We have a duty to each other. "No soldier is left behind." We have all heard it said that we are the only army that kills it's wounded. The thing is, we aren't even an army. We are more like a hospital and it is all hands on deck to see everyone healed and made whole again. This will require more patience than you can imagine. But remember, "Love is patient, love is kind ..."

Verse 15: "Resist revenge, and make sure that no one pays back evil in place of evil but always pursue doing what is beautiful to one another and to all the unbelievers." Yes, the Spirit inspired these words and Jesus demonstrated it. When his followers wanted to call down the fires of heaven Jesus rebuked them saying he had come to save lives not kill them. We would do well to remember this every time we feel our blood boiling and our hearty beat increasing as we read some of the garbage on social media. According to Proverbs there is a time when answering a fool is folly and other times when not answering a fool is folly. The trick is to be so intimate with the Spirit that you know the difference.

Instead of trying to think of ways you can prove someone wrong we are instructed to pursue beautiful things to do for each other. That requires our hearts to be full of love, full of mercy, full of grace. And that only comes when your roots are found in the multi-dimensional love of Christ. So, the most important thing is to be occupying yourself with him and then everything else happens from the overflow.

This is what the end times are suppose to look like to us. It is not a time to celebrate the destruction of our enemies but the encouraging of one another. It is not seeking revenge on our enemies but pursuing ways that we can do beautiful things for them. This is the Body of Christ, occupied with the mission to rescue as many as we can while supporting each other in the mission. May our Lord find us faithful to the tasks assigned when he returns.

The Anointing Of Second Place

We are addicted to leadership. Everything in the Church seems to be geared to developing good leaders. Seminar after seminar, conferences, books, internet teaching all centered around leadership. We have developed quite the industry on just this one subject.

We seem to have this compulsion that when we find an intelligent or gifted person we fling the leadership mantle around them, whether they are gifted leaders or not. We don't look for the anointing. We don't examine God's calling. We don't see if God's hand is on that person. As long as they are educated, intelligent, gifted and good looking, they fit the bill. We will even overlook the last two as long as the first two are in place. Sometimes, if we are desperate enough, it is sufficient that they are educated.

What happened to the training of the warriors? You know, those guys who are not anointed for leadership but are anointed with God's gifts as workers in the Kingdom. Those guys who take the anointed vision of God, laid on the hearts of the leaders, and put it into action. Those guys who are anointed with energy, enthusiasm, intelligence, strength, determination, and a servant's heart.

We all consider King David to have been a great leader and we often lift up leaders with the same hope that they possess a David's heart, but what would David have been without his mighty men? There is a reason God took time to make sure that all their names were recorded for us. These are the men who responded to David's love for God, his vision and his compassion for the people of the nation. They chose exile with him. They chose to face death with him. They chose to defend him. They chose to give up the right over themselves to obey him as their chosen leader.

We all consider Peter, John, James, Paul as great leaders of the Church but Stephen was not any less anointed by the Spirit. He was a leader but not of the variety that we think about. His was a supporting role. He took the pressure off of the Apostles by looking after Church affairs so they could preach and teach. He was still full of the Holy Spirit, powerful, standing out in a crowd, but he was a warrior, carrying out the vision of the leaders. He was a mighty man.

I don't think it's leaders we are lacking in the Church but rather the warriors to follow the leaders. We are missing the Jonathans, Stephens, Timothys. All leaders in and of themselves but also mighty men who stood with and fought for the anointed leaders of the day. I mention Jonathan here because, even though he was the crown prince according to the flesh, he knew he was not God's appointed leader. In fact, he told God's appointed leader (David) that he would gladly serve him as one of his mighty men. That takes more guts than what a lot of people realize.

This is a call to my fellow mighty men. Let us not be tempted to take on a mantle that does not belong to us. We know, we can see for ourselves, where God's anointing lay. Let us pledge ourselves to these imperfect, chosen, anointed leaders of our day. Let us not try to out due them but encourage them by standing with them in the fight. It is not easy bearing the mantle of leadership but neither is it easy to resist the flesh and take our appointed position in support of God's anointed. Know the ground you have been given, and stand.

    

Content Of Our Prayer

What is the subject of most of your prayers? Most often they are about ourselves; usually rushed emergency prayers. If they are not emergency prayers then they are about us getting closer to God, asking for our eyes to be opened, wanting to sense his presence. How often do we pray for other people? How often do we listen to what is going on around us? How much do we watch and pray? You are a power house of God's mercy and grace with the ability to affect what is happening around you. That's the authority you have through Jesus.

How often do you contend in prayer for those who have been called as leaders in the Body of Christ? You know, those men and women who have set everything aside to make people their business, for the sake of the Kingdom? Doesn't matter if you call them elders, pastors, missionaries, evangelists, prophets or apostles, they are all in great need of your prayer support. How many do you know? For how many do you pray?

Apostle Paul was not above soliciting prayer from the Body of Christ:

And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. (Colossians 4:3)

All the human effort on this planet cannot even begin to budge some doors, but prayer flings the doors wide open. I can't explain why God has chosen to work through our prayers but he does. Prayer is an absolute necessity in the work of the Kingdom and people who are looking for doors to be opened so they can preach the Good News need us to be praying. But it is not just about opportunities.

Apostle Paul added:

Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. (v. 4)

We need to pray for the anointing of the workers. We can do a lot in our flesh but we can't do in our flesh anything that will be of any eternal good. The work of the Kingdom needs the anointing of God so it will be proclaimed "clearly", as it should. Without the anointing our words land on deaf ears. Pray for the anointing.

We should each have a list of leaders we are supporting in prayer. Let them know you are one of their prayer supporters and I am sure they will supply you with a list of their prayer needs. Fight for them every day. Make the vast majority of the content of your prayers about others and you will see things begin to change for you.