Hasn't it always been the same way? Those who have studied the great revivals of the past, which seems to be the main focus of most of the leaders today, (looking backward), all point out that the Church, the overall body of those who claim to believe, have fallen into a lukewarm, polluted condition, full of mixture and wrong thinking. At points of time in our history, God has laid a heavy burden for the people on individuals, they have sought His face and interceded for the Body, and the Spirit of the Lord has come down and moved and brought change and correction to the people in what we call the "great revivals." This pattern has been repeated down through the centuries, with great moves of God coming at different times and places. They are sent to generation after generation, to wake the people from their complacency.

We are the last generation. This time is different. It is different, in that we are going to behold what no one has ever seen. All things that have led up to this time, have done a work in fulfilling God's purpose. But all things must come to an end. The long dreaded 'Day of Reckoning' is at hand. Never have we needed understanding more than we need it today. And God is giving us that understanding. We can't take it in all at once. It is so far removed from what we have always thought and from what the leaders are teaching. But He is working a strange and marvelous work, in the hearts and minds of those that are willing to admit that they don't know as much as they once thought they did. Let me quote one of the little sisters that God has blessed me with, these words and this understanding did not originate in her, but were from the Holy Spirit:

They have listened to the doctrine of men for so long that now the doctrine of Christ seems so foreign to them. We have been used to the motivational, inspirational and feel good messages for such a long time that now if we get any rebuke or correction our ears don't want to hear it.

God is love, God wants to bless, God wants to fulfill your dreams, God wants to make you prosperous, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, so if you are sinning... God still loves you!!

Where is the other side of God in all these feel good messages??? Where is the be Holy as I am Holy, if you are lukewarm I will spew you from my mouth? I am a jealous God, I will pour out my wrath on all wickedness? REPENT for the kingdom of God is at hand!!!

In the above statements, the Lord is speaking! Who will have ears to hear? That's what it's all about. The struggle taking place today is the separating of the chaff from the head of the wheat.

The whole world is the field. Mankind is the wheat in the field. The enemy has sown tares in the field that are growing up all mixed in amongst the wheat. The tares look just like the wheat. Only the process of going through the combine reveals whether there is a kernel of wheat in the stalk or not. My husband was a farmer for many years, and I just ran to check with him on the process of harvesting a field of wheat.

The combine is set for the crop being harvested. The field is cut and goes through the combine. From a stalk of wheat's perspective, a combine is an instrument of absolute terror. It's entire life to this point, the wheat has only known the field. From its germination as a seed, it has grown up in the soil of the earth. It has stretched and grown under the sun and rain, deriving its life source from both. The stalk of wheat in the field is not standing alone, but is part of a multitude of other stalks, all deriving their life from the same sun and rain and nutrients in the soil of the earth. It has grown from a little seedling, to a full grown, mature crop, ready to be harvested. Now the wheat stalk has no concept of any other life. This field, with the intermittent sunshine, clouds, rain, and wind is all that it has ever known. It cannot comprehend any other kind of life, apart from all of its neighbors. As the summer draws to an end, the wheat has reached the full maturity of life it can attain in the field. One morning a new sound fills the air. The sound is the combines at the edge of the field. The combines have come to harvest the wheat.

This is not anything that the wheat has ever imagined happening. Perhaps some of its neighbors have been tares... they look like the wheat, they make the same sound as the winds pass over them, yet they are not the same. Suddenly the stalks are all cut from the earth and pulled into the combine. They are thrown together into the grinding gears that separate the straw from the grain. The fans are set to blow the chaff out, yet allow the grain to fall through the holes in the sieve and be carried up into the hopper. Each grain of wheat is wrapped in a protective covering. As it passes through the combine, this covering is removed, revealing the mature grain of wheat. There is a certain weight to each grain. The grain is not blown away by the fans, but its weight allows it to be freed from its covering and drop into the sieve. The chaff, or covering that has protected it from the elements till now, are no longer needed and are carried out and away by the wind. The tares, that have grown alongside the wheat till now, also contain a seed. But this seed is much lighter, and does not possess the same weight as the grain. The seed of the tares cannot fall into the sieve, but is carried away as refuse. Only the whole grains of wheat can pass through the sieve and be carried into the hopper.

Matthew 13:24-30 Another parable He set forth before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while he was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed also darnel (weeds resembling wheat) among the wheat, and went on his way. So when the plants sprouted and formed grain, the darnel (weeds) appeared also. And the servants of the owner came to him and said, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Then how does it have darnel shoots in it? He replied to them, An enemy has done this. The servants said to him, Then do you want us to go and weed them out? But he said, No, lest in gathering the wild wheat (weeds resembling wheat), you root up the [true] wheat along with it. Let them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will say to the reapers, Gather the darnel first and bind it in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my granary.

The Lord is about to Harvest His Church! This is what is coming. It is not anything man will or even can do, the work is the Lord's. Peter told us in 1Peter 4:17,18 For the time [has arrived] for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will [be] the end of those who do not respect or believe or obey the good news (the Gospel) of God? And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the godless and wicked?

As the Lord deals with each one of His own, we are being brought into a deeper relationship with Him. The darkness and confusion in the world is only going to increase. Our only place of refuge and safety is in our relationship with God. He is bringing each one of us, by various ways and means, into a place of total dependence and reliance upon Him.

The religious mentality in the world today is not in alignment with the Word. Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. Men have always attempted to find ways around the Word, to use it for their own ends. People have been fed an easy gospel, not the Gospel of Christ. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Men have tried to soften and change what Jesus said, in an attempt to make it more appealing to the people, by leaving out the things that require total commitment and dying to the flesh, as if that were possible. Men have given the people a false vision. I believe that many, and by many I mean multitudes of people, would choose much differently if they were told the truth. Sadly, the majority of Christians, at least in the west, are lazy and lukewarm, because ministers have stopped preaching that hell is real. That we cannot love God and mammon. That in this world we will suffer persecution. Jesus said, John 16:33 I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

We have only known the planting of the seed. Man's thinking is so locked into planting, that we cannot conceive of harvesting. We have been taught the erroneous teaching that when someone comes to the Lord, receiving the message of salvation through Christ, that they have been harvested. This concept is false. The newly converted have received the 'seed of God' within... they still have to grow up in Christ. The parable Jesus taught of the good seed and the bad seed, bears witness. The great revivals of the past have been planting of the seed. Depending upon what kind of soil is in their heart, they will either grow up in Christ or wither and die, ultimately rejecting Christ. All man has been granted to do since the days of the early Church, is to plant. It is God alone, who can give an increase.

1Co 3:6-9 I planted, Apollos watered, but God [all the while] was making it grow and [He] gave the increase. So neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters, but [only] God Who makes it grow and become greater. He who plants and he who waters are equal (one in aim, of the same importance and esteem), yet each shall receive his own reward (wages), according to his own labor. For we are fellow workmen (joint promoters, laborers together) with and for God; you are God's garden and vineyard and field under cultivation, [you are] God's building.

Wherever God has us, is where He wants us. Some are still in the organized church, some are outside. We need to remember that it is not our choice. God places each one where He will, and He doesn't have to explain to us why we are where we are. We are never told to compare ourselves with each other; that is the way of the world. We are challenged to grow up in Christ, to the full stature of the fullness of Christ Jesus our Lord. In ourselves we can do nothing; but Christ in us can do all things. The understanding of the "last days" has been kept hidden from man. The Lord said in Daniel 12:4 But you, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the Book until the time of the end. [Then] many shall run to and fro and search anxiously [through the Book], and knowledge [of God's purposes as revealed by His prophets] shall be increased and become great. [Amos 8:12.] We are now in the last days Daniel saw in vision so many centuries ago. Even now God is opening understanding long kept hidden. He is doing a finishing work on those He has chosen, to prepare them for all that lies ahead. From the world we hear the fear of what is coming. All kinds of doomsday books and movies are being made, by believers and non-believers alike. And they all have the same thing in common. A complete lack of knowledge concerning what comes after.

It is easy to see the state of the world, with wars and genocides being carried out in many lands. Natural disasters are accelerating in strength and number. All eyes are now on the Mideast, a hotbed of strife and turmoil. The average Joe on the street senses that things can't continue as they are much longer. The Church is a sham today. The world laughs at what the Church has become. They do not see any evidence of what it is that is supposed to set the Church apart from the world. The Church today should hang her head in shame. She is bringing unjustified reproach to the name of God. She does not practice what she preaches, and in many what is preached is indecipherable from the philosophy of the world. Daniel received visions from God. He saw into the days we are living in, and it made him physically sick. We too, can expect to see and experience things that we have never imagined or anticipated. And some of the things we will see, will be revolting to us as well. Dan 4:19 Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonished and dismayed and stricken dumb for a while [concerned about the king's destiny], and his thoughts troubled, agitated, and alarmed him.

Do we think that God hasn't noticed? Is God indifferent to the fact that His people, who call themselves by His name, are full of mixture? How can we speak of the fact that we believe that Jesus is coming to claim His Bride; His Bride that is pure and spotless, and imagine that we are the Bride of whom He is speaking, when our garments are soiled with the 'love of self' and the 'lusts of the world?' How ready are we really?

Can we hear the voice of the Lord? Have we grown up in Christ enough to recognize His voice amid the clamor of all the voices that are crying out today for our attention? We need to know (fully comprehend) that we cannot judge anothers heart condition. Only God sees the thoughts and intents of every heart. We are told to judge the fruit.

The state of the world, the pressures and troubles in our own lives, should cause us to seek the face of God as never before. Change is coming, to each and every person on the whole earth. God is preparing to send in the reapers, for the earth's harvest is ripe and ready to be brought into His barns. We cannot stop what is coming. We cannot change the course of events, as the culmination of the ages begins to unfold worldwide. What we can do, is choose this day 'Whom we will serve.'

There is a time and a season for everything, and the administration of them are in God's hands. There is a place of safety: our relationship with God. Jesus is not coming back for Organized Religion. He is coming for those that are His own; those whose names are written in the Lambs Book of Life. Everything that man has built, is coming down. All of our works will be tried by fire; only what is of God will remain. Just as when Jesus prophesied of the destruction of Jerusalem (the city), those who heard him could not comprehend such a thing happening, so it is today. We cannot comprehend the removal of all of our Churches. As long as we cling to the teachings we have received sitting at the feet of men, we will not be able to comprehend that God is going to destroy all that we gaze upon with such tenderness. We will not be able to take in that the old must be removed, before the new can be established. We cannot conceive of the Kingdom of God ruling over the entire world, but that is what is coming. We cannot imagine how we would function without all of our systems and structures, but we will learn how.

I pray that we will seek the Lord; that we will ask for understanding; that we will begin to see God's plan, and walk in it, 'loving not the things of this world.' If you are in the Church, then seek God's face and be led by the Spirit. If you are out of the Church, then seek God's face and be led by the Spirit. Attacking organized religion is not the answer. There are many starving lambs within the systems built by men. Know that God's angels are already actively working, separating the sheep from the goats; the good fish from the worthless. Fellowships and families are being both broken & established, in an unprecedented manner. Only the Spirit of God can bring about the required unity of the Body of Christ...by HIS SPIRIT!

We cannot precipitate or bring about anything before it's time. It is critical that we be in perfect union with our head, which is Jesus Christ. All that we say and do must be acceptable before God. For the fire is coming that will try all of our works. Jesus said in Mat 12:37 For by your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced. We would all do well to guard our hearts with all diligence, as the Word states... "From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh;" may we guard our lips, may we seek the face of God, and conform our will to His will.

We may all be living in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, but that cannot stop us from rejoicing in the Lord; from allowing God to transform our minds, renovate our thoughts, and ignite us with His living fire! We are called to be lights in the darkness! Don't hide it under a bushel...let your light shine! We will know soon enough when the combine has entered the field, and the time has come to give an accounting. Our reaction will be rejoicing or absolute terror, one or the other, there is no middle ground on which to stand. Jesus said, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad"Mathew 12:30.

Now is the time to prepare.