Friends, while this letter is for everyone I am especially writing it for our pastors and leaders on the front line. Those of us in the middle of fighting Satan, awaiting Jesus to make His move and start the time of trouble and for anyone else tirelessly working for Jesus and wondering just where He is. Friends, even if you are not in any of the above categories I implore you to still read this letter, I pray there is something in here for you.
Awaiting God’s Time
Dear friends, our wait has been long and the devil has caused many a doubt to cross our mind. Well, today’s message is to put our minds at rest as to what it is all about. Friends, we are in the forefront of the battle and as leaders in a army are trained to perfection so also are we. Many a trial through the fires of persecution have we trod and now we are at the end of a long weary battle, the training is over friends, but the storm is just about to begin. This final battle will not have a ‘take two’ as we see in the movies, we only have one shot at this and this is the reason the wait has been long. The final trial we have to endure in this battle is the ‘wait’ for Jesus to come.
Ellen White:- “Soon I saw the saints suffering great mental anguish. They seemed to be surrounded by the wicked inhabitants of the earth. Every appearance was against them. Some began to fear that God had at last left them to perish by the hand of the wicked. But if their eyes could have been opened, they would have seen themselves surrounded by angels of God…” (Early Writings 283.1)
Ellen White:- “Could men see with heavenly vision, they would behold companies of angels that excel in strength stationed about those who have kept the word of Christ’s patience. With sympathizing tenderness, angels have witnessed their distress, and have heard their prayers. They are waiting the word of their Commander to snatch them from their peril. But they must wait yet a little longer. The people of God must drink of the cup, and be baptized with the baptism.” (Great Controversy 630.2)
Now yes, many of us have been in training to fight during the end of time, to tackle the devil and his accusations head on but this letter is referring to a different kind of training. I think these above verses make it quite plain there is going to be a delay, a wait, where God’s people are facing death but Jesus isn’t coming. Day after day they wait, day after day they expect to face death in the morning but still Jesus doesn’t come. Friends, these people will be in groups around the world, some in prison, some in the mountains or forests, these people are the ones we are training for right now. Not everyone has our ability to hold, our strength, our fortitude or our fidelity, these people are going to need to be anchored.
Friends, there are two groups that make up the one hundred and forty four thousand, one group go through but need to ‘lean’ on someone, others go through being ‘leaned’ upon, we are training for this second group, we are the supporters. Now we do know of Ellen White’s statement and the Bible verse:-
“In that time of trial, every soul must stand for himself before God. (Great Controversy Pg 646)
Ezekiel 14:20 “Though Noah, Daniel, and Job” were in the land, “as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.”
“Individually you stand before God as though Christ died for you alone; and you must render your account to him for yourself.” (Review and Herald August 18, 1885, par. 11)
But what we are referring to here is slightly different. Everyone standing through the time of trouble wrestle with God for themselves but the wait, the delay is long and if heaven doesn’t have ‘anchors’ in place these people will crumble. Let’s have a quick review of what a anchor is just to remind us.
“Anchoring God’s people means to hold them steady. Picture if you will a circle of people, all sitting side by side. A ripple starts, someone within the circle is wavering in their faith. They whisper doubts to the people sitting beside them, the ripple grows. The next person, instead of stilling the waters, adds to it their own doubts, the ripple becomes a wave. This wave has the potential to turn into a tsunami, destroying everyone within the circle. Someone within the circle must stand strong, someone must break the doubt, and calm the waters. They need to stand strong and encourage God’s people to wait in faith. This person is the anchor.”
Friends, can you see what I am trying to say? Not everybody has the well grounded faith that Jesus’ leaders have and it is rather sad to say there are now not enough people left to make up the one hundred and forty four thousand who have the steadfast faith needed to hold on through the coming crises. Time has gone on much longer than intended and the human race is becoming majorly weak. This is another reason Jesus is coming in our day and very soon, Satan is depriving everyone possible of the knowledge of Jesus and soon no-one will have the ability to withhold the devil, so the good news is Jesus is coming, the not so good news, but provided for, is people will now need extra ‘help’ to endure the trials of the time of trouble, that ‘help’ is us and a few others waiting around the globe to step in and help.
Friends, this is what we are training for at the moment. Let me give you a insight into exactly what is involved. The saints waiting at the end of time, as we know from prophecy, are tormented extremely by the devil. They are hiding for their lives but eventually they are found and a date for their execution is given. They are pleading for Jesus to save them but:-
Ellen White:-
“The angels longed to deliver them; but they must wait a little longer, and drink of the cup, and be baptized with the baptism. The angels, faithful to their trust, kept their watch. The time had about come when God was to manifest his mighty power, and gloriously deliver them.” (Ellen White Spiritual Gifts Vol 1 page 202.1)
“As they cried day and night for deliverance, their cry came up before the Lord.” (Ellen White Spiritual GiftsVol 1 page204.1)
This time, waiting for the appearing of Jesus, waiting for some sign that Jesus will save them is the ‘make or break’ of the entire time of trouble. This ‘time of trouble’ friends, is for a reason, it is the final battle between God and Satan, proving to the universe and to everyone for all time that God’s law can be kept. Now there are things deep within the covenant that right now we don’t understand and we probably won’t till we get to heaven, but there are things in this final fight that are imperative to the saving of the entire universe and to our blessed heavenly home. Now Jesus isn’t going to place anyone into this battle if they don’t have what it is going to take to survive but these people are going to be sorely tried and without prior training or without someone who can steady them they will fail. It is the ‘waiting’ that is going to be the hardest to endure, to all appearances it will seem as if God has forgotten us or cast us aside – now does that sound familiar?
(This concept was written in the document ‘In A Crowd Of Friends But So Alone’ and is on this website but for the sake of ease let’s have a quick refresher here.)
Feeling cast out, tossed aside or forgotten
Deuteronomy 31:8 “And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.”
Joshua 1:9 “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
There is many a example in the Bible where Jesus has kept His promise, proof, we don’t have to ‘take His word for it’. One of the major ones I believe is the Jews returning to their native homeland after many years of bondage in Babylon. We also only have to look to Daniel, Esther, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, for proof of Jesus’ promise to protect and never cast anyone out. Even Jonah when he tried to run away wasn’t ‘cast’ out, by a amazing experience Jonah was brought back into connection with Jesus and the same Jesus that was alive then is still alive today and He will never cast us out.
So, why do we often feel cast aside and forgotten. Well, I strongly believe that at these times we are being targeted by the devil
Psalms 55:22 “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”
Basically, in a nutshell this document is about feeling that we have been cast aside and forgotten. No, we haven’t been ‘cast aside’, forgotten, oh no far from it. Jesus knows us intimately, He knows when we are ok and patiently waiting, this is why He can in good conscience ‘put us on hold’ while He sorts out the rest of the world. He can say, “I know these children of Mine are ready, faithful and waiting, I can safely ask them to wait till others are ready and in the fold”. Jesus loves us dearly, but we must remember the devil is always on the bandwagon and he is more dangerous now than ever before, it is the devil whispering doubts into our ear, it is the devil telling us that God has ‘forgotten’ us. Oh no, please don’t fall for his (Satan’s) deception, Jesus loves us dearly, He knows we are ready and He is just asking us to wait, there is so much more to this world than we realise and yes, I’m just so glad we have a beautiful Saviour to hide behind, and hide behind Him we can. Don’t be waylaid by the devil’s conniving ways, Jesus will never leave us, we are His and He loves us dearly. Jesus is always with us and we can claim His promise:-
Genesis 28:15 “And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest…”
But back to the main content of the message. Friends, we have just been discussing ‘Awaiting God’s Time’ and relating to the feeling of being ‘cast aside’, friends, can you see it? This is what we are training for, the final wait, we (those of us training and our leaders for this end time event) of all people are going to be able to say for a certainty that Jesus will come, we will be able to speak from experience, “yes, the wait was long, yes we were in despair of it happening, but happen it did and as Jesus kept His promise and the things of earth we are now waiting for happened, so too it will happen for us now awaiting His appearing. We have walked through this fiery path, when we thought all was lost and we were going to fall Jesus came in with strength and gave us the ability to endure, the wait was fiery and we all doubted at times but friends, as it happened for us before it will happen for us now, we only have to hold onto Jesus”. In this paragraph my friends, lies the answer to everything we are going through at the moment, this exact scenario we are in at the moment is going to be repeated but friends, next time we will have people looking to us for answers, people desperately needing some form of reassurance that Jesus is coming and they haven’t been deserted. Next time we will be upholding the saints of God.
Friends, we cannot and will not have the ability we need to walk through the time of trouble without this experience. This trial of waiting we are going through will hold us in good stead for the future trial. See friends, it works like this:- during the end of time people are going to be desperately seeking the appearance of the Lord, Jesus. They will be facing death, and over and over again they will expect Jesus to appear to save their lives and Jesus won’t. As we read above there are reasons deep within the covenant for why the saints are required to traverse this final battle, reasons we won’t fully understand till we get to heaven, though one of importance is to show and prove our love, support and devotion to Jesus. The universe has to know that God’s law can be kept, that it is just, even under the most trying circumstance, this is what we are doing. So the saints waiting at the end of time will expect Jesus to come to save their lives, when Jesus doesn’t appear they will doubt and their composure will slightly tremble. Something will happen and their lives will be spared but the scenario will repeat and once again they will lose some of their composure. What is going to happen if they lose their composure completely? I think you know, the plan of salvation will be ruined. Now it wasn’t supposed to be this way as Jesus intended to come earlier, now the human race is weaker and if Jesus delays His coming again there will be no human left able to withstand the devil. So Jesus is coming, but let’s go back to this ‘waiting’ we have been going through. We know some people have been chosen to be a anchor for these people, they will have the fighting spirit and holding ability that brought them through these trials and they have the willpower and resilience needed to hold on, Jesus has His people ready for this fight. But once again we have digressed, so back to the waiting. These people going through have the love and determination for Jesus required but they don’t have the ‘waiting’ ability, they have never had to exercise that muscle therefore it is too weak to be able to stand the test of time. This is where Jesus’ specially trained people come in. They will be doing this ‘waiting’ again but once they ‘see’ these events finally happening (start up to the time of trouble that is) after so long waiting it will establish deep within them the knowledge that God’s word is true, after waiting so long for the signs of Jesus’ appearing, so many deviations, doubts, the events really did start. This is proof and it will strengthen us (God’s people) for the storm to come and we will be able to say to others – “just hold on Jesus will come. I have experienced this delay in the past and I know for a fact that Jesus is true to His word and He will come and save us.” This will strengthen the group we are in and help to stabilise the composure of others, it will anchor them and enable them to keep their hold on Jesus.
Friends, Jesus is coming, yes, we have waited long but more than ever before we can see the ‘writing on the wall’, we can see from the affairs of this world that it is ripe for destruction. Man has gone feral and the world is falling apart, the knowledge of Jesus is waning and while there are still many good people in the world their knowledge of the true Jesus Christ is pretty much obsolete. The powers that be are oppressing the people without care or concern for the effects of their ‘rules’ and ‘regulations’ and many a poor soul is suffering, and while heaven won’t hold these poor people guiltless for their crimes against humanity the powers that be that have oppressed them to this state will also be held accountable for their crimes. These people holding the world to ransom will also have to account for the sins of the people they oppress as they are responsible for turning well-meaning human beings into animals. It is very sad friends, and it is for this reason that Jesus is coming, no longer will He stand back and watch His people being oppressed. Jesus is the liberator and believe me He is on His way. Hold on dear friends, Jesus knows our pain and Jesus alone will give us the strength to endure. Please friends, lift up your head our salvation is at the door, gird yourselves with the whole armour of God and stand prepared to face the devil in this, his final day. Amen.