The sign of the end of the age and Israel’s involvement
1- Taking heed to not be deceived
Matthew 24:3-4
3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.”
2 Thessalonians 2: 3
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition”
The Lord’s return is imminent and the Bible teaches us of many signs that will take place before His returning. In these two passages we see one of the signs will be “deception,” many believers will fall away from the faith, the Lord tells us to be alert and watch out for these signs.
In Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”This is what we call “Apostasy,” believers who abandon biblical principles embracing what is contrary to the faith. This is the fake church that supports bad things as if they were good, such as abortion, immorality, transgender, feminism, anti-semitism, antifa, chrislam, and more. It’s an evil culture of believers, including leaders and pastors who are turning away from the Word of God.
2- The beginning of sorrows
Matthew 24:6-8
“And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
Notice the word “pestilence,” Covid-19 is one of many to come, but the Blood of Jesus can cover us and break any affliction and disease. Keep in mind verse 6, “See that you are not troubled,” don’t be afraid and trust the Lord. Study the whole chapter 24 to learn more of the signs, but what we must remember is that the Lord will return for us, see verse 30 and 31 of Matthew 24: “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
3- Israel’s involvement.
Habakkuk 1:5
“Look among the nations and watch—Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.”
One nation that we really need to be aware of and watch carefully is the nation of Israel, we need to be praying for the Jewish people because the End Time events and the Second coming of Christ are going to centre in Jerusalem and Israel.
In Jeremiah 31 we see that the restoration of Israel has been prophesied and in Isaiah 43:6 it says, “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth—” in 1948 Israel become a nation again and Jewish people from around the world began to return back to their land. This is also another sign of the coming of Jesus.
What is happening to Israel right now is what was prophesied in Daniel 9:27, the breaking of peace treaty by the Islamic nations around it and attacking Israel, this too is a sign of the soon returning of Christ. The anti-Christ spirit is already in operation. Anyone that denies that Jesus is the Lord is an anti-Christ spirit. This anti-Christ spirit is like a great octopus with many tentacles, one of them is the ideology of Islamic terrorists, their ideology wants the complete destruction of Israel. This is the nature of Satan, who seeks to kill, steal and destroy. (John 10:10)
Daniel 9:27 NKJV
“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”
In Ezequiel chapter 38 and 39 we see the prophecy of Gog and Magog and how the Lord will defend Israel. Gog and Magog is Russia and many don’t know that a great part of Russia is Islamic. Not only Russia, but verse 5 and 6 tells us that,“Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you.”
Persia is a reference to modern-day Iran. Libya is located in northern Africa. Gomer is the people who settled in Germany. Togarmah is Asia Minor and Turkey.
Many nations are against Israel even now, the hour is near and we need to be praying for Israel. Israel is not saved yet, the Jewish people need to turn to the Messiah, and as Zechariah 12:10-11
says, “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. 11 In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
Israel will come to the Messiah and the Lord will intervene and defend Israel, He will show grace and Israel will be saved. See Romans 11:26-27, where it says: “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”
All of this will coincide with Last Days events. Also remember the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
4- Playing your part.
We as the Church must be praying and stand in the gap. The Lord said in Ezekiel 22:30, “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.” Let’s be those who stand in the gap of prayer for Israel and the nations to come to Christ. Don’t miss the opportunity to pray in the prayer meetings every Friday at 7pm, don’t miss Church on Sundays. Get in the gap, pray alone and pray corporately. Ephesians 5:16 says, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Don’t waste time with things of this world that will stay behind, invest time in the Kingdom. Many Christians say, “one day I’ll go to the prayer meeting, one day I’ll go to evangelism,” but that day never seems to come. Our prayer needs to not only be for ourselves, but others. When the Lord returns, millions will die and they need to hear about Christ now. The great tribulation is coming, who will stand in the gap? This is a call to prayer and you have to be in Church or you will fall away. The vehicle for safety and protection is the house of the Lord, today many are in deception, they think they are Christians but don’t need to go to Church. Be careful! Church is not just watching services online, it’s the gathering of the saints together. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” Stay in the vehicle and be alert, fight the good fight of faith. You need to start playing your part now.
Perception and Perspective
Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Many will read this passage and think that we can never get God’s thoughts or ways, it is true that in our own natural way we could never think like God thinks, or do things like He would, because of our sinful nature, but when we are born again and surrender to Christ, He gives us the Holy Spirit and He will illuminate us showing us God’s perspectives and we will be able to perceive properly His will and ways.
Even as born again believers filled with the Holy Spirit we can still have wrong perspectives and perceptions, because we let the old sinful nature dominate us, we haven’t renewed our minds in God’s Word. Ephesians 5:8 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” We have to walk in the right perspective and perception.
Perception is the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. Perspective is a particular attitude towards or way of regarding something; a point of view.
John Newton who wrote the hymn “Amazing grace,” was a slave trader and after becoming a Christian, he didn’t immediately stop the evil slave trading business, because in that time, it was seemed as a good honest job. It was much later that he got God’s perspective of the evil of it, that he repented and wrote the song. Just like John Newton, we too can hold on to things that are not godly or biblical just because we don’t perceive things with God’s perspectives.
1- Why is it important to have God’s perspective?
God is the creator and judge of all the earth and we need His perspective because one day, we all have to face Him and give an account of all we have done. He will judge according to each one’s work, I Peter 1:17-18 tells us so, “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.”
2- Learning to think like Him
I Peter 4:1-7
“Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.
In the Passion Translation verses 1 and 2 say it like this: “Since Christ, though innocent, suffered in his flesh for you, now you also must be a prepared soldier, having the same mind-set, for whoever has died in his body is done with sin. So live the rest of your earthly life no longer concerned with human desires but consumed with what brings pleasure to God.”
And the Message says, “Since Jesus went through everything you’re going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you’ll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannised by what you want.”
The way we perceive will either bring us close to God or push us away. In John 8:44 Jesus said that the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. The devil will try his hardest to give you a distorted vision of God and your old carnal nature contributes to a wrong perception of God, but thank God the Holy Spirit is stronger than them both when you hunger for the truth of God. According to this passage in 1 Peter 4, we can actually learn to think like God the Father, it’s something we learn as we get into God’s Word and begin to practise what it says.
When we begin to see like God sees, we can see the bigger picture. Sometimes things appear to be big, but in the big picture, it is actually something small. We need to learn to have God’s perspective not our own. For Him nothing is impossible, He can make a way where there seems to be no way, he can make a river in the dessert and He can save a nation in a day!
Faith sees the impossible because it sees with the eyes of Jesus. This is why without faith it’s impossible to please the Lord, how can we please Him if we don’t know how He thinks or how His ways are? We need faith, we need a spiritual perspective and a spiritual perception.
Many times when we find ourselves in tough situations we pray but not necessarily a prayer of faith, the prayer is full of concerns and anguish and fear for the terrible situation we find ourselves in. I have experienced personally the little nudging of the Holy Spirit convicting me and showing me that my prayer is not in faith. Thank God for the Holy Spirit that can bring us the different perspective to see that whatever we can be going through is not more powerful than the Almighty God.
Because the Lord loves us He sometimes allows us to experience different situations in order to get His perspective. Through it we gain wisdom, compassion and our faith is strengthen. In Christ we have His mind (1 Corinthians 2:16), all of us together have the mind of Christ, not just one person, one pastor or one prophet, but everyone who is filled with the Holy Spirit has the mind of Christ. Some encourage us in worship, others in prayer, someone else in evangelism and someone else in discipling, yet together we have the mind of Christ.
If we have been born again, we have renounced the old nature, so how can it be that we still think the same old way? This should not be, we must learn to think like Christ. Read Romans 6:6-14, “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
3- He who has an ear let him hear
In the book of Revelation and in the Gospels every time the Lord told a parable, He said the Idiom: “He who has an ear let him hear,” which means: You’d better listen and you’d better listen well. Why? Because many hear but they don’t hear well and don’t perceive things with God’s perspective. Someone once said, “Many times we don’t see things as they truly are, but we see them how we are.” In other words, your perspective is limited to your experience and you can only understand a little bit but when we let the Holy Spirit teach us to think right, we will see things as they really are.
Wrong perspectives will make you judge others wrongly, for example, an immoral man that has come to Christ but has not renewed his mind can fall in the danger of jealousy towards his wife and judge her thoughts according to how he used to be. But just because he was immoral and had evil thoughts it doesn’t mean his wife has the same thoughts. He needs to renounce jealousy and renew his mind. “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.” (Titus 1:15)
Another example could be that we find ourselves in a bad situation but we are blaming God for it, when it was actually our doing, God still has compassion and will forgive us as we humble ourselves before Him.
Our opinions are not important, what is important is that we are in the centre of God’s will and with the right perspective and perception. Take time in getting to know the Father through Jesus and His Word and begin to think like Him. Jesus made the way for us to be like Him. Hallelujah
Pastors Steve and Karina Maile