Godsloveandlaw's Blog

The Elijah message tells us —

“He who controls the Scriptures is able to reveal present truth to His people at a time when needed. Therefore, though such truths are originally prophetic, they become new, and stand as a direct letter from God to men at the time revealed. “Thus saith God the Lord,… Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.” (Isa. 42:5, 9.)”(SRod, vol. 2, p.9)

Let’s face it, prophecy is sometimes so deep and mysterious that many throw up their hands and say “Well, there are more important things to know about God than prophecies. They are not so important as Jesus taught about love and that is what we need to concentrate on.”

True, God is all about love and His unfailing Word to us is about salvation and how His Son enables us to live forevermore. Amen! But the Scriptures tell us Jesus is the –Word (John 1:14), and as such the Scriptures are Him — the Word–ALL of it. Thus all of the Word, including the prophecies are about Him.

To say that one part of His Word is needed and not the other is to short change ourselves about learning about the Lord’s plans for mankind. The prophecies guide us to know about end-time events and what to expect in the future.

Our post was motivated by Brother R who recently seemed to say that prophecies are not the real focus, and that doing His will is the key. True, Commandment keeping is first and foremost, but doctrine is equally important–hand and glove as they say —

“Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” (1 Tim. 4:16)

 

To be sure, prophecies are sometimes complicated and involve symbols. The message tells us —

“These prophetic symbols of beasts, wings, horns, heads, crowns, etc., prove to be most perfect symbols in revealing the truth represented by them and when correctly applied it is certain that their meaning cannot be misconstrued.” (SRod, vol. 2, p.10)

We are to grow in our spiritual walk not remain stagnant. The Word tells us about growing up–

Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly–mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able.” ( 1 Cor. 3:1-2)

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” (Hebrews 5:12)

Here we see that spiritual growth is expected of us. We need to advance in our knowledge of God’s Word. We need to ultimately eat “solid food” and not stay on “milk” like a stunted baby all our spiritual life.

Unfortunately, some want to stay as a baby just speaking and knowing the elementary things of His Word, not attempting to take some solid food for nourishment. And once we start eating this solid food –wow, we really feel deeply satisfied and know for certain God is truly brilliant and able to show us great and wonderful things in His Word and prophecies! Symbols become understandable, end-time events come into focus.

If anyone steers clear of prophecies due to the deeper and more complicated nature of them, the Word gives us a simple solution to know them more clearly —

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” (James 1:5)

Parables also are filled with symbols and the message explains more —

“The reason these wonders were portrayed by symbols is the same as that which caused Christ to teach by parables. “And the disciples came, and said unto Him [Christ], Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” (Matt. 13:10, 11.) “But the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” (Dan. 12:10.)”

Thus we see that symbols are not freely given to be understood, but only by those who it is “given”. Those who do the will of God and receive His gift — the Spirit of Truth.

“However,  when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.”(John 16:13)

Did you read that?? The Spirit of Truth shall show us —THINGS TO COME–Prophecy! Thus prophecies will be correctly understood and we shall know what to expect. The Word will then become a roadmap guiding us to know where we are going. No longer we will have this fuzzy “well I am just waiting to go to heaven” or “I am just waiting for Jesus to come in the clouds”, etc. No! We will know His plans for the end times and what His servants (God willing we will be one) are to do in the last days.

But God has perfect timing. His prophecies are meant to be understood at their proper time. For example, the Jews had in the Scriptures the following prophecies such as —

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call Him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2).

“My people, hear My teaching; listen to the words of My mouth. I will open My mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old” (Psalm 78:1–2)

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” (Zech. 9:9)

Yet they did not dwell or teach on them as significant prophecies. They were only revealed as timely truth once His Word was ready to be understood after Christ ascended. But even then only some understood due to their willing reception to understand prophecy! The searchers of truth thus rewarded!

“The prophecies, we all know, are Heaven’s light to our feet.  If we fail to open our eyes and hearts to them at the time the Lord would have us profit by the unrolling of the Scroll, how then shall we escape being like the blind leading the blind?” (WHR, p.27)

“Truth is ever timely, ever unfolding as time goes on.  So it is that our knowledge of one phase of a message is followed by God’s revealing another phase of it.  How glad and how anxious, then, ought we to be to keep pace with the unfolding of the Scroll, as we keep pace with time.” (WHR, p.29-30)

So why do we need to know prophecies today? As mentioned they provide a roadmap of where we are going. For example, much of the Christian world does not know that Jerusalem shall be seriously devastated soon and then rebuilt quickly by the Lord for the final Gospel Loud Cry headquarters, let us read —

“Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” (Zech. 14:1-5)

A gigantic war is soon to happen over Israel. And those of us watching the news daily know that the middle east is a powder keg, ready to explode. This is all the Lord’s doing to bring back His people, beginning with the 144,000 and then the Great Multitude (Rev. 7:1-9). Prophecy confirms the ultimate purpose of the great war —

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:2-3)

What will those who have ignored certain areas of His word–especially the prophecies, think when they see these things come to past? Well just like the Jews, they will have a decision to make. Search the Scriptures to see what God revealed or stay stuck on limited ideas (milk) not letting the Lord’s prophetic movements guide you as it should–just like the Jews! The Spirit of Truth either works or He doesn’t, the choice is ours.

So we see a clear map to end time events. 1) gigantic war 2) the 144,000 and great multitiude go back to the Holy Land  3) the Word of the Lord comes from the headquarters–Jerusalem.

In closing, let us be grown men and women, who are able to feast on meat in due season. We grow up for a time on milk, but soon our growth needs more to keep spiritually fit and strong.

This entry was posted on September 21, 2019 at 4:29 am and is filed under General thoughts, Loud Cry, Our Lord's kingdom, Present Truth, Proper teachings, Prophecy study. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.