Something is starting to happen in America. I say it's starting to happen, but the truth is it started some years ago, yet the wave is still cresting. Seeds long ago planted are starting to sprout and there is about to be an amazing harvest.
I don't know where the idea came from that the "end times" were going to be scary and dark for Christians. I imagine it must have come at some point during the Middle Ages, when people started wrongly thinking of God as an angry being ready to pour out destruction at any moment. When you start getting the wrong picture of God it changes everything, as we will subsequently view everything we learn about Him through that lens and it will influence our theology. Since the ascension of Christ this has been an issue with His people. Paul wrote to believers who couldn't get the idea of a judgmental God out their heads and so they kept going back to the Law (Galatians) as well as believers who believed Grace canceled their sin to the point that now sin wasn't even sin anymore (Corinthians). John wrote to believers who turned to gnosticism, a belief that totally devalued Jesus as deity and believes that all the material world is evil. All of these happened while the Disciples still walked the earth and it still happens today. Believers get a wrong understanding of the nature of God and change their beliefs to accommodate that understanding.
As believers, in order to better understand truth we must start with a correct understanding of God's nature. While the Bible is full of words to describe His nature (healer, love, judge, jealous, good, etc...) we could not understand what it all looks like in reality if it weren't for Jesus. Jesus showed us all the aspects of God in a way we could understand. He did it as a man. And while He came to save us and give us access to God and Heaven, He also came to show us what God was really like. After centuries of being misunderstood except by the few who actually took the time to know Him personally, God sent Jesus, God incarnate, to show us, once and for all so that there could be no mistake, exactly what He is like.
Therefore we now have no excuse. Our entire reading of scripture, our whole understanding of who He is, must always come through the lens of the life of Jesus. Through Him we see the absolute love, devotion, mercy, and Grace of our loving Father. Through Jesus we see a God who is in no hurry to punish us, a God who wants to save us and have relationship with us. He doesn't take any nonsense, but He also isn't afraid of sin. He hates religion and is zealous for His house (which is now us). He doesn't live in anger, He isn't looking to smite us for screwing up. He is eager to heal, eager to deliver, and He is always approachable.
The idea that the God Jesus displayed is simply waiting around for us to screw up so bad He can finally unleash judgment is inconsistent with what He has revealed to us. Peter knew this so well that in writing about the end times he said, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come into repentance." (2 Peter 3:9). God is patient, He has a plan. He will not come until every single person He knows will turn to Him has a chance to do so.
But even if that time is coming soon, what are we so worried about? The best is yet to come! Towards the end the church will fulfill her destiny by coming into unity and by purifying herself, in order that we might be presented a ready Bride for Christ. Jesus prayed that the church may be unified,
"I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one-- I in them and you in me-- so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you loved me." - John 17:22-23
I find it hard to believe that Jesus would never see His prayer answered. Especially when Revelation tells us that the Bride will be made ready for Him when He returns,
"Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready." Revelation 19:7
If this truly is the beginning of the end times, it is time to get excited! The end means a revolution is coming. A revolution where the church finally rises up in unity, purity, and power! The world will change and we will experience the greatest glory the church has ever known before the end. Jesus is not coming to rescue a weak church. No, He came to rescue us the first time. The second coming will be to marry His ready Bride and to judge those that stayed outside.
Does it mean we will face persecution? I'm sure we will. As the light grows lighter the darkness will grow darker, for the enemy will pull out all the stops as he knows his end is approaching. But why are we afraid? Have we forgotten that times of great persecution have always produced the greatest harvests? A billion soul harvest has been prophesied for these coming times, and it is consistent with what God tells us in scripture if we understand His nature. If we are hard-pressed, if times get difficult, it only means that God will be MORE faithful. It only means that more amazing things will happen. We will be so focused on what God is doing that while it may affect our bodies our spirits will only grow stronger!
And there is more! In the end the Spirit will pour out as never before. Isaiah (44:3), Joel (2:28), and Peter (Acts 2:27) all have prophesied so. Jesus told us that we would do greater things than He (John 14:12). To ignore that is to call Jesus a liar, but since He isn't, we need to be expectant! Miracles, signs and wonders are starting to pour out in greater fashion than since the beginning of the church. This is not a mistake, nor a coincidence.
It is a revolution!
The next period of time, whether it is the last on earth or not, we are to be expectant and excited! One way or the other we are in the last days, and every day grows closer to when Jesus returns. It may be tomorrow, it may be in a 1000 years, but it is growing closer. For us, the church, this means only good things. We are not to fear man or look to the world for determining our excitement, we are only to look to God.
What is coming is the greatest revival the world has ever seen. What is coming is the greatest outpouring of the Spirit the world has ever seen. What is coming is the unifying of the church into the unleashing of her ultimate destiny!
I suggest you get ready!
