Do you feel surrounded by enemies?

 Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me. Take up shield and buckler; arise and come to my aid. Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”    Psalm 35:1–3

That was a prayer of David in a time of deep distress, a time when he felt himself surrounded by enemies pressing in against him and he saw no way to keep them out. So He cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord, take Your stand against my enemies. Take up Your mighty spiritual weapons and block the way against them.”

I don't know about you, but here in California, I feel very much like I'm surrounded by enemies.  You've no doubt heard about the power outages here. More than 800,000 homes were without power this past week. Thank God, mine wasn't one of them. To be honest, I'm not buying their reasons.  I have no doubt their lines and equipment are out of date. They are a corrupt company that spends way too much money on climate change than on fixing their problems. Yet the situation goes much deeper. PG&E is owned by the Rothchilds.. one of the Deep State Illuminati Globalists. There was no wind here and our temps were cool so their excuse that we had high temps and winds was bogus. I'm telling you that I've seen and heard enough to know that something fishy is going on here in CA.

Add to that a recent discover that piers in Long Beach, CA had somehow been leased or sold to  China by the Obama administration and now Trump has recently forced them to sell them back to us?  huh?

Add to that a strange curfew was enforced for a small town near me, Morgan Hill, CA. They said it was to protect people during the blackouts, but Morgan Hill is a much smaller city than San Jose, where I live. 

Add to that recent sightings of massive UN troop movements coming over our border, and these new fires that have cropped up in Southern CA.  I'm not buying that they started on their own.

There's something really fishy going on here.  Honestly I don't know who or what to believe. Aside from all of that, I have recently felt pressed in with problems and emotional issues on all sides.  How about you?

I know many of you have serious problems in your lives.. illness, unsaved loved ones, money issues, job, health, family, loss of loved ones, and just general fear and unease.  I really don't like to be the purveyor of doom and gloom all the time, but I wanted you all to know that I, too, feel like I'm drowning in problems and surrounded by enemies. 

Yet, for those of us who follow Jesus, we don't need to allow ourselves to drown beneath these problems, nor do we need to be afraid of anyone or anything. God is on the throne and NOTHING catches Him by surprise. And there is NOTHING He can't do.  

Here's just a few of His promises from Scripture!

His arm is not too short that it cannot save your loved one
Your prayers rise up to him like incense before the throne!
He will never leave you or forsake you
He promises to provide for ALL your needs
He is your comfort, your shelter, your high tower, your fortress, your deliverer, your prince! 
He loves you with a passion that will never cool 
You are the apple of His eye! 

As I sit here in California, wondering if war will start (like so many prophets are predicting) I could easily let myself get worried about my kids and grandkids. What will happen to them? But then I remembered Psalm 27:1-3

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked came against me
To eat[a] up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.

Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.

God is always with us, and He promises to protect and deliver us. Fear is from the enemy!  What is the worst thing that can happen to us? We die!  But what is death but a promotion to a place where no tears will ever be shed again! 

Whatever your problems or fears are today, lay them at the feet of the ONE who loves you more than you'll ever know.   Look at the promises in this section of Psalm 112 for the person who follows Jesus and delights in obeying Him.

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
Who delights greatly in His commandments.

His descendants will be mighty on earth;
The generation of the upright will be blessed.

Wealth and riches will be in his house,
And his righteousness endures forever.

Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness;
He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.

A good man deals graciously and lends;
He will guide his affairs with discretion.

Surely he will never be shaken;
The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance.

He will not be afraid of evil tidings;
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

His heart is established;
He will not be afraid,
Until he sees his desire upon his enemies.


God has already won the victory on the Cross!  And we are victorious over all our enemies and over all our problems BECAUSE we are in HIM.  Never forget that. The only power the real enemy has over you are lies and fear. Defeat him with the truth of God's Word and your trust in Jesus. 

You have already won!

And soon, VERY soon, we will be gone from this place and enter an eternity that is far better than we can imagine. 

Hang in there, Saints. We are almost home! 

Happy Succot! Feast of Tabernacles!

The Feast of Tabernacles begins at sunset tonight and ends on October 20th. This is a very important feast and one of 7 prophectic feasts or appointment times God ordained for His chosen people to celebrate.  Below is an excerpt from Amir Tsarfati's newsletter.  I highly recommend following him both in his newsletter and Youtube channel! Here's his website

Of all the feasts that the Lord had prescribed for Israel to celebrate in commemoration of His relationship with them, this is the only one we know that will be celebrated in the future regularly by ALL nations that are left after the tribulation is the Feast of Tabernacles.

“….And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16-19)

None of the other 6 feasts were meant for gentiles, only this one. However this festival originally was meant only as a chapter of the love story between God and his chosen people – Israel. Yet under the New Testament (New Covenant) this festival will be fulfilled and celebrated by ALL nations every year in Jerusalem.

The two elements that are interesting in Zechariah’s prophecy are:

“…Everyone that is left from ALL nations…”- speaking of a remnant from a great global catastrophe

“…Come up to Jerusalem to worship the King…” – The nations will come up to Jerusalem to worship the Messiah who will sit on the throne of David and restore his fallen tabernacle.

This is the only time we hear the name Feast of Tabernacles in conjunction with some global events that will cause many to perish, and then gentiles from outside of Israel together with the Jews in the land itself will be coming to Jerusalem to be part of the Lord’s kingdom on earth.

The Tribulation followed by the return of the Messiah back to earth together with His redeemed ones, whom he took to be with Him to escape God’s judgment, are the major events that would usher the period of the fulfillment of this great festival.

No doubt that although Tabernacles is about the exodus from Egypt and the dwelling in booths during the long journey of Israel into their promised land, the bigger picture is the Kingdom of God on earth known as the Millennial Kingdom. The shift is made from our Tabernacles in the past to His Tabernacle among people in the future.

This is why we read in the Book of Revelation the following:

“… And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God…”(Revelation 21:3)

Book Recommendation!!! Regency Time Travel!

 This is a book you're not going to want to miss, and it's from one of my favorite authors! It was just released last month and already has 54 Customer reviews of 4.6 stars and above!  I had a chance to read this awhile back and it was fun and exciting and romantic! 

Forever, Lately: A Regency Time Travel Romance 
by Linore Rose Burkard

1816, England
Julian St. John needs a wife. An oath to a deceased guardian must be kept. Miss Clarissa Andrews, a vexatious beauty, has dangled after him all season but he has no intention of choosing such a she-devil.

Maine, Present Day
Author Claire Channing is desperate to write a bestseller to save her failing career. She moves into her grandmotherʼs abandoned cottage to write the book, but a local resort baron wants to raze the place. Without the deed, the clock is ticking on how long she can stay. She thinks she’s writing St. Johnʼs story. But when she discovers an old prayer shawl and finds herself in his Regency world, she falls in love with him, a man she thought she invented! Miss Andrews, however, is also real—and she’d rather see Julian dead than in another womanʼs arms! Claire must beat the clock to prevent a deadly tragedy, but can love beat the limits of time itself?
 
What people are saying!

Move over, Poldark! Julian St. John is our new English heartthrob!"
Lisa K. Simonds, Author, All In

"Such a fun read! I do believe it is my favorite of your books!"
Debbie Lynne Costello, Author, Sword of Forgiveness

A delightful roller coaster ride of a book! Had me reading nonstop.
Donna J. Shepherd, Children's Author, Book Reviewer

You can purchase this book at Amazon
You won't regret it!



 

Could God have given us a 120 year warning?

But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.   Matthew 24:37

Jesus gives us a huge clue with this one sentence about what things will be like right before He returns for His bride.  He compares the days we live in to the days of Noah. Of course we all know from Scripture that the people in Noah's time were very wicked. Genesis 6 describes those times.

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 
And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 

We learn so much here about the days of Noah.

• We learn that the fallen angels had mated with human women and produced a breed of giants or Nephilim. 
• We learn that every intent of every man's heart was only evil. 
• We learn there was great wickedness everywhere. 

Sounds like today, doesn't it?  (and yes, we have Nephilim today too. They are hidden. I've done posts on this)
But there's one statement in that passage that sticks out to me.When God says "My Spirit will not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

God was giving Noah a time frame. He was telling him that he had 120 more years before the flood. That gave Noah plenty of time to make the ark and warn everyone. Essentially, the 120 years is a warning period.

Biblical scholars have also speculated that it could mean other things as well.

• We know that God couldn't have meant that people wouldn't live past 120, for a quick perusal of the ages of people after the flood reveals that to not be the case.
• Many have speculated that the 120 can refer to 120 Jubilees, and after 120 Jubilees, God will put an end to all wickedness. A jubilee is 50 years so 120 of them equals 6000 years, which seems to be the length of time God gave for human history.  We are not sure where we are on this 6000 years, but many think we are there or even past it. 

But what about the warning?  If Jesus says that the days before the rapture will be like the days of Noah and He gave Noah a 120 year warning, wouldn't He also give us one? If so, when would that 120 years have started? 

My opinion from study?  It started in 1900. Now, mind you, this is just my opinion, but let's look at the 20th century for a moment. Jesus also gave us a clue as to what things to look for that would mark the "beginning of sorrows"  or the beginning of the events that would lead to the end, or quite possibly the 120 year warning. We find this in Matthew 24

 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.

So what things would mark the start of this 120 year warning?

• Many false Christs
• Increase in earthquakes, famines, pestilences, and world wars. 
• And I'm going to add that something that Jesus didn't directly reference until later in this passage, but something that had to happen in order for Israel to become a nation in 1948.  Jews would have to start returning to the homeland. 

Let's look at the 1900s and see what we find.

False Christs: Check out this list of Messiah claimants on Wikipedia and note the increase of them after 1900
Famines:   List of Famines worldwide (check out the increase in the 20th century
Earthquakes:

Pestilences:  Interesting list of Epidemics on Wikipedia. Though it appears there were roughly the same number in the 19th and 20th centuries, look at the number who died. For example in 1918-1920 75 Million people died of the Spanish Flu. 30 million have died so far of AIDS

World Wars:  Obviously we've had 2 World Wars in the 20th century, and none before that.

It was the 20th century which would see the budding of the Fig Tree spoken of by Jesus as the major event that would occur before the end. In fact, He said that the generation that saw the rebirth of Israel would be the final generation. That occurred May 14, 1948. 

However the first Jews to travel to Israel to live (then called Palestine and not even a country, but a wasteland full of nomads) set off for their homeland in 1882 from Russia

First World Zionist Congress met in Switzerland in 1897
2nd mass immigration of Jews to Palestine occurred in 1906 , running from Russian persecution

Here's a list of the migrations of the Jews back to Israel, called Aliyah by the Jews.

First Aliyah (1882–1903)
Second Aliyah (1904–1914)
Third Aliyah (1919–1923)
Fourth Aliyah (1924–1929)
Fifth Aliyah (1929–1939)
Aliyah Bet: Illegal immigration (1933–1948)

In 1917, British General Allenby attacked and freed Jerusalem from Arab control.  The sacred city, which had been under Gentile rule for 2520 years was freed on Dec 9th 1917, the first day of Chanuka or Hanukkah

Time does not permit me to go through Jewish history, but suffice it to say that the 20th century was the century in which the Jewish people returned to their homeland and became a nation once again. Against all odds, I might add, and according to prophecy, which had predicted it thousands of years before!  It's truly amazing when you think of it.

Two other things tie into the 1900s being the beginning of the warning. 

1. The Latter Rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  

In January 1901, Parham asked the students at the Bible school to study the Bible to find out the scriptural evidence for receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Using the Pentecost account in Acts chapter two, they concluded that speaking in tongues was the confirmation of receiving the Holy Spirit. Thus the Pentecostal movement began during the first days of 1901 just as the world entered the Twentieth Century. The first person to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit was Agnes Ozman, one of Parham's Bible School students – she spoke in tongues on the very first day of the new century, January 1st, 1901. According to J. Roswell Flower, the founding Secretary of the Assemblies of God, Ozman's experience was the "touch felt round the world," an event which "made the Pentecostal Movement of the Twentieth Century."

2. The Psalms start in the year 1901. There is some evidence to suggest that God orchestrated the Psalms to correspond prophetically to years. Psalms is the 19th book of the Bible so Psalm 1 would connect with the year 1901. Before you think I'm nuts, this comes from a famous theologian J.R. Church, who wrote a book on the subject. I posted about this HERE.  If this is true, then  this would be more proof that 1900 started the 120 year warning. 

If our warning indeed began in the year 1900, and we are fast approaching 2020, I'd say that our warning is nearly over and soon we will enter the ark and escape this place before judgement comes.

Just like in the Days of Noah!

The Fastest Growing church has no buildings, no leadership, and is run mostly by women!

I'm going to discuss something very serious today, and something every Christian needs to know. Believe me, after you read the article that I'm linking to in this post, it will change the way you view your walk with God. We here in the west have been blessed with over 200 years of freedom of religion. We can own Bibles, attend church, pray in public, and even share our faith without fear. All these freedoms will soon be taken away from us, as we race toward the end of the age. But what have we done with our freedom?  Yes there are some who have taken the torch God has given them and run the race with it, spreading the gospel and going into other countries. Others have not given up on fighting for Jesus here in America.  I thank God for these dedicated believers.

But they are few and far between. In the 25 years I've been a Christian, I can count on one hand the people I've met who are serious about their faith. Yes, I've met Christians who attend church regularly and read their Bibles. I've met others who even go to a weekly Bible study. All that is great, but is it enough? Are we risking anything for Jesus? Or are we far too comfortable in our religion and our Christian friends and groups to want to step out into the deep?

Let me tell you where the fastest growing church is. It's in Iran. From the article, which I'm linking HERE:

“The fastest growing church in the world has taken root in one of the most unexpected and radicalized nations on earth,” according to “Sheep Among Wolves,” the outstanding two-hour documentary about the revival that has taken place inside Iran. “The Iranian awakening is a rapidly reproducing discipleship movement that owns no property or buildings, has no central leadership, and is predominantly led by women.”

Below I'll list some things I found compelling about the church in Iran

Islamic persecution is the best thing that ever happened to the church in Iran.  When intense persecution came, Christian "converts" abandoned their faith, but the "disciples" remain, willing to die for the Lord.  The church model inside of Iran is not to convert people and then disciple them, but disciple believers so they can convert.  This really made me think about what we do in America. We may make converts in our churches who say a prayer, but do we even disciple them? Is listening to a sermon on Sunday disciplining? Even so, is this the right way to do things?

They teach an obedience based discipleship.  Everything is based on the authority of the Bible and must be obeyed. They are not just reading the Bible for information but reading it to get transformed.

Women are leading this movement in Iran. they are "going out in the highways and byways sharing with prostitutes, drug addicts, with everybody they come into contact with, and that takes courage. They are courageous women."  They do not embrace a feminist ideology either. They are submissive to church authority and the Lord.

A woman who came to America to live wanted to return to Iran. Why? This is her description of the church in America:  “There is a satanic lullaby here. All the Christians are sleepy and I’m feeling sleepy.”

They have an intense faith and belief in eternity. When asked if they fear being arrested and tortured, they reply: “When we walk outside, we really don’t care if we get arrested, we are not upset if we get arrested. What is 50 years in prison compared to eternity with Jesus?”

I wonder how many Christians here in America would say that? I had to ask myself that question too. Am I willing to go out and witness on the street, knowing I could be arrested and never see my family again? Are you?

I actually watched part of the documentary described in this article: Sheep among Wolves. I highly recommend it. It comes in 2 parts, which I will link below.  Within the documentary, the interviewer asked one of the women what they would do if a band of Muslims came into her home and started raping her because she was a Christian. Her response went something like this:

I would tell Jesus that I've already given him my soul and spirit, and now I give to him my body.
Let that sink in for a moment. Here in America if we lose a job or don't get something we've been praying for, or some minor tragedy befalls us, we get mad at God.

This article made me really stop and take inventory of my faith. How serious am I about God? What am I willing to risk?  I hope you ask yourself the same questions. We need to wake up here in America. Persecution is coming and we are asleep. The Lord will require a full commitment from us in these last days. Are you ready?

Sheep Among Wolves, Part 1
Sheep Among Wolves, Part 2

Win a chance to listn to She Walks in Love audio for Free!

I have TEN codes to hand out that will allow you to go to an Author's Direct website and through their App (which you can download on any device or computer)  listen to She Walks in Love in its entirety for free!  Even if you've already read the book, this is a great opportunity to enjoy a live version of it.

How do you enter to win?

1. Pick a book of mine that you've read but not reviewed and write a review on Amazon for it. When it goes live, send me the link. 

OR  If you've reviewed ALL my books

2. Sign up to receive my newsletter if you haven't already (form is to the right) and leave a comment below with your email in it

OR

3. Follow me on BookBub, (if you haven't already)  and leave a comment below with your email.

OR If you've already reviewed all my books, signed up for my newsletter, and followed me on BookBub, leave a comment to tell me why you are would love to listen to the audio of She Walks in Love. 

I'll announce the winners next Wednesday the 9th and hand out the codes.  

Have a blessed Wednesday!