January 12, 2006 - The Beginning of Sorrows

Grace and peace to all of you from our Lord and Shepherd Jesus Christ, He in whom we live and move and have our very being. Our sincere prayer for all of you for the coming year is that you might walk ever further in His life and light, worthy of all that He is as our truth and wisdom and purpose; that He would be increased and advanced as we learn to step back in trust and confidence in Him. May our dear Lord preserve us in Himself, that we may be kept from every idol, delusion and distraction. Amen

We are so small aren't we, yet He is so grand and wonderful. We are so incapable and yet He is so able, and so ready to help us, to come along side, and within, to enliven and empower us. Only He reveals our Glorious Father in Heaven to the spirit within us, and only He is worthy of Him, shining in such perfect glory and righteousness and truth. Oh that we would pray and receive and be hungry for that full measure of His Spirit that will lift us up beyond this life of the flesh and the world!

My friends, it does indeed appear to those with spiritual eyes that darkness is advancing in this world; that all death and hell is breaking forth onto the political and international scene. This past year (2005) was indeed a year of such incessant and heart-wrenching sorrow, war, terror, disaster, death and despair. A year marked by unprecedented natural disasters, earthquakes, raging seas, disease, plague and incalculable loss. Thousands upon thousands of lives extinguished in the blink of an eye. Whole cities and communities reduced to ruin almost instantly. Panic in the streets. Hordes of people not knowing what to do. Governments and leaders too overwhelmed and impotent to respond. Many left wondering what is actually happening. Prophets and seers starting to emerge, offering their earthbound analysis and insight. No prospect for either help or hope. Another year gone... a year marked by blood.

And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:4-8)

Dear Saints - Could this be the "beginning of sorrows" spoken of by our Lord - the mounting and progressively increasing series of events leading up to that fearful and prophetic week of the final days? Is the harvest near my brethren? Is the moment we have all been anticipating, when the pure testimony of His saints is ready to be revealed; when that final outpouring of His Holy Spirit in full measure ignites His witness to all the world? Are the days of Revelation actually upon us?

So easy isn't it, to get swept away by events and conditions raging all around us. So easy to begin to doubt and wonder whether all that we believe is real or true. So easy to lose heart, to doubt, to wonder, to question; to begin to become subtly overwhelmed by all of the suffering and sorrow swelling up in the world and spilling into the streets and people's lives. Yet the Scriptures assure us that the world's darkest hour will result in the saint's (and indeed God's) finest hour. Here is when that pure and shining testimony of Jesus Christ, unlike anything ever seen, will shine ever so brilliantly to all the world; when the good news of the gospel will go to all nations and people and tongues.

Now is the time when His precious remnant, those few who hold the testimony of Jesus, must cling to Him more tightly than ever. Now is the time to hear and follow Him alone, not men or groups or self-proclaimed prophets. Now is the time to pray that our Heavenly Father would keep us from the evil one, here in the mist of Babylon rising. Now is the time to trust Him like we never have before, to lay down our lives at His feet, that He may take them up and do with them as He wills. Now is the time to entrust our souls to He who is "able to do exceedingly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us..." for His glory and purpose alone.

Here is the call of the hour to all His saints, to all those whose first and only love is the Father in heaven and His beloved Son.

Hear Him, for the hour is coming and has indeed come...

We, dear brethren, are no longer to walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds, alienated from the life of God, blind, stubborn, and stumbling headlong towards the wrath of the Living God. We are to walk circumspectly, worthy of the calling to which we were called, worthy of the life and love of the Savior and Shepherd of our souls.

In a world growing increasingly dark and evil, and hateful of all things holy, we are to walk as children of light, in newness of life, by faith and not by sight. For all that is in the world and of the world, and sustained by the god of this world - all of it will soon come under the fearful and impending judgment of the Most High.

Please listen and heed dear saints, for nothing else matters as all of man's destiny advances, and all of the devil's plans and purposes intersect with the dominion of the Lamb of God. Listen and heed, for the Lord loves us and is preparing us for all that is coming, and all that He wants us to be for Him at the close of this age. We are a heavenly nation, and the Kingdom of God is our home and allegiance. Our king is no mere man, but the Lamb of God Himself, the One who is coming speedily to judge and supplant all that devils and man has wrought on His earth.

And even the angels themselves are watching my brethren, watching intently as the Lord reveals His penultimate and eternal wisdom through the dust of the ground, human beings, redeemed and refashioned for His glory alone.

Now is the time, dear ones, to walk in Him, in the power and life of His Spirit, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith, complete in every manner, having all that we require in Him alone, fearful of nothing and no one. His call to us in this hour is the same as in every age, and it is is to walk just as He walked, to follow Him in child-like trust, dependence and devotion. His call to us is to hear Him and come as He draws us out of every ungodly thing - whether it be the church caught up with the world or a family or a city or even a system. It just doesn't matter my friends - If you have heard Him call your name, then you must leave whatever it is that seeks to pull you back into the darkness.

Oh my dear saints, so much is on my heart right now I fear there are no words sufficient to express it all. Yet I know and trust that our Lord is indeed calling His little ones to Himself, and that you know precisely what the Spirit is saying in this hour. Those who are true will never settle for any simulated life or reality. They will see and know, for the Lord will reveal unto them all that is false, duplicitous, artificial, white-washed, half-hearted, man-serving, temporal, earthbound, humanistic, and devil sent. All these, you understand, represent the currency of he who has fallen - Satan the Adversary. And we who are the Lord's are now wise to all of the wiles of the devil, at least we should be.

Don't allow yourselves be fooled dear saints - for the power to attain and to apprehend is always at hand. Don't let anyone ever try to convince you that you need anything other than what the Lord has promised in Himself; that we might advance in Him, and overcome in Him, and achieve victory in Him, and move closer to the heart of our Father in Him. There is no, and never was any "self-help in the redemptive plan of God. It is either pure and unadulterated spiritual life, bound together in the Son of the Living God, or there is no life at all.

Your little step-by-step program of the hour won't help you brother, when the winds of holy war howl up from hell, and start tapping at your window; when you hear the violent rush of angels wings fluttering towards the epic battle at the close of the age.

As we wrote last time, all the world, and all that is bound up with it, is of the devil, and is teetering on the knife blade of God's fiery judgment. Everything in it, and everything it represents, from the stolen dominions of the world's nations, to a church sparing no effort or expense to align itself with the principalities and powers of the air, stands in stark opposition to He who will not be opposed.

The time is coming and is soon upon us, when everything we know and think we know about everything pertaining to life and matter and reality will be suddenly annihilated by the awesome intervention of our Holy Father, His Glorious Son, and His heavenly host of mighty angels.

War is coming, dear saints, and whose side will you be on? Will you be found one of his true and faithful witnesses, exposing the darkness, and proclaiming the testimony of Jesus in power and mighty wonders? Or will you shrivel up, turning back upon yourself, your instincts, your religion or whatever else you trust in when life gets messy?

If indeed the "sorrows" of Matthew 24 have begun, and that final harvest stands at the ready, then what we shall witness in 2006 may just in fact stir the soul and refine the saints even more. More death perhaps. Mightier earthquakes and floods threatening even larger population centers. Greater acts of homicidal terrorism killing and maiming innocents. More deadly outbreaks of plague and disease defying modern medicine and man's deluded trust in his own power over life and death. More blood. More pain. More despair. More corruption. More false prophets seeking a following after themselves. More evidence that the devil, Satan himself, is itching to reveal himself more directly. More, more, more...

If this be true, then what will we do? Indeed what can we do? To whom can we turn? Who alone has the power and desire to help us, to fortify us, to enliven us, to prepare and refine us, to separate the world from us and us to it, to quicken us to life, to build us up into that holy and heavenly people prepared for His Glory and Purpose?

Oh that we would go to Him now, my friends, keeping nothing from Him, holding back nothing, and letting go of all that keeps us from loving Him perfectly. Oh that He would refine and purify our hearts, and that our love for him would grow ever hotter as the cold darkness spreads over all the earth.

"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him" (2 Chronicles 16:9)

Will He find you my brother? Or perhaps me? And do we trust Him that He will show Himself strong on our behalf? Here I believe, is the faith of the saints, the spirit and loyalty of a martyr's heart, and a disciple's love.

Our prayer is that all of you would be found by Him in such fashion as the curtain of the world's final act is drawing out. The revelation of all things false and true, light and dark, pure and stained, real and simulated, heaven-borne and hell-bound is at hand, my friends. Take heed of the times, and pray with all the saints -

Come dear Jesus, please come! Amen.

Please pray for us here at Living-Walk, that we would watch and see the Master at work, and understand what He would have us do.

Your friend in Christ Jesus,

Wayne