Rapture 64

We are now in the time of trouble

March 7, 2007

Joel Akin

Some of the things that are written are help and some are not. When there is diversity of spirit then a man has to seek out for the hand of the Lord. For God is the only one who can help in time of trouble.

Time of trouble is the time we are now in. We are going through hardship and hardship is a little like hardtack. Tack was like an old bread and it was hard and it was barely palatable. Yet it provided for us when there was nothing fresh. And fresh was the desire we longed for.

On a great ocean voyage men bought up whatever was fresh in port. They brought in fish or fruit or bread. Yet they filled the hold with food items meant to be there for men who were hungry. Food often went bad. Insects and worms got into the food and people grew sick. Fruit vanished and early sailors developed scurvy. It was lack of vitamin c and that was the vitamin of choice.

Men needed fresh fruit for it. And when that fresh fruit was gone and fresh fish was gone and days began to drag on men they longed for fruit. It was scarce and people died from lack.

So in a way it is the desire of men of faith that they go into spiritual things so they might obtain the fruit of the Holy Spirit. This fruit is there to provide us with vitamin and nutrition. Now some might say there is no relation but I beg to differ. We need a daily intake of fresh vitamin of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And it is essential for our growth and for our very survival. And God knows this. He showed that I would be taken captive by the enemy and brought into a far land. There I would starve but the Holy Spirit came and brought life to me on a regular basis.

The problem though is that I desire to escape so I might be in the hands of the Lord. I need the fruit of the Holy Spirit and I also need the life that goes with it. Yet being provided for means I have to work for it with prayer.

Now prayer, as far as I know, wasn't meant to be so hardtack. It wasn't meant to be unpalatable. It was meant to be a time of refreshing and hope. Yet the times proved difficult and prayer proved harder then hard. And though I knew the Holy Spirit was there it seemed the fruit grew scarce and the vitamins I needed proved lean.

So what then do I do as a believer? I know God is preparing me and the crew of the ship for the return. I know this ship of which I speak is meant to be a sign to the people of the coming birth of the church. The mother, or the church, is meant to be the bride. She is meant to be part of the birth which is meant to coincide with the return. And that return is meant to be the arrival.

If we think about it there is a certain amount of sense to this story. We think that life is just what we provide. But if the rapture is to return and if the rapture is part of the arrival then that arrival is part of the life which dead men receive.

Now dead men do speak and the first cry they make is one of help. God hears the cry of the dead men and women for they awake with the minds of children crying for their mom or dad. They cry from the heart and the heart is the part that we hear.

In some ways it is hard for us to see that this birth of the church and the child born is based on life. Life is based on time and we forget that the ages have been part of the story of life. Before us have gone millions of people. Millions who have died in Christ. They have gone before us and we have gone towards them. We are part of a story that is yet to arrive. Part of a story that is yet to be told.

The Lord knows the life of men is based on birth. Jesus came that we might have life. He helped men to rise from the dead so they might have life. Yet it wasn't their first birth it was their second life. And that was a gift from the one person who could bring a second birth. They didn't really grow up from scratch they just grew up.

And when the arrival of the child comes there is meant to be an arrival of Heaven. And Heaven is going to hold men close so they can be freed from evil. And that means there is going to be a deliverance. And that deliverance is part of the birth of the Church. Not the church but the people who will come.

Now if the rapture happens in a moment then this doesn't make sense. But what if the second arrival of life is Jesus coming back as the man and the child. He comes with desire for men to return to the fold. He also comes with a rod of iron to hit men who refuse to turn their life around. And that rod of iron is not just of time but of life.

Most of us assume when Jesus comes he will rule with a rod of iron. Why say it of two men? Why have two rulers? What if the rod of iron and the manchild were the clues to who Christ was. That he would come back as a man who would help to ressurect the church? And if the church had 12 stars then maybe there were twelve churches who would survive the coming test of time and they were churches who would be the soul winners of this last age.

Now that seems odd because then we would think men like Billy Graham didn't go into as a church but as a belief. And he would be a soul winner but not a star. And that would be men then

1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.