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Posts Tagged ‘Midnight Hour’

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Job 1:21

God has been warning us for a long time that we are heading for a fall—a very big fall! I advise you, brethren, set your affections on things above, so that when the fall comes, it will not matter to you. “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). That is where we ought to be as Christians.

I just want you to understand that we are very close into the midnight hour. The Jewish day begins at six o’clock in the evening. The day begins with night! So we are indeed in the seventh day, but the night must pass first before the sunlight comes forth. It must get darker, and darker, and darker until it gets light! “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). We are entering into night and the night is getting darker and darker; and the day will dawn, but you have to endure the night. “He that endureth to the end shall be saved,” saith the Lord (Matthew 10:22)!

At “midnight,” the “beast” must reign (see Revelation 13). I do not know if you expect to reign and rule right now, but I am telling you it is not going to be right now. Right now, you must suffer, and be born—because it is the suffering, it is the travailing that is going to birth us. We are not yet birthed. We are still fetuses. We are not yet birthed, because what we are is not the thing that God had ordained to rule the world. What we are now is too much of a deep mixture with the flesh! We cannot rule the world in this condition for we would do exactly what they are doing in the White House today. We must be changed, and we must allow the working of the Lord upon us to change us!

What is it going to take to change you? It depends upon your case. It depends upon who you are. The worse the case is, the harder the blow. You are not going to go through the same tribulation that I am going to go through. There is, however, a way to escape the tribulation. Did you know that? You can escape it completely—just give up everything to Jesus. It sounds easy, doesn’t it? Just give up everything to Jesus right now and you will escape the tribulation. As the poet says, “He that is down needs fear no fall. He that is low no pride.” If you sleep on the floor, you cannot fall off the bed.

Therefore, you need to understand what God is doing. We are entering the midnight hour and there are certain things that must happen. Firstly, the Church system must be destroyed. I know that you do not like to hear that, and you say, “What kind of preaching is this—that the Church system must be destroyed?” Let us look at it in the Scriptures.

Daniel 12:7, “And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and WHEN HE SHALL HAVE ACCOMPLISHED TO SCATTER THE POWER OF THE HOLY PEOPLE, all these things shall be finished.” Yes! That means that there is to be a scattering of the power of the Church.

Let us take Daniel 8:24, “And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, AND SHALL DESTROY THE MIGHTY AND THE HOLY PEOPLE.” I think that this is enough to answer the question.

Daniel 7:21-22, “I beheld, and the same horn MADE WAR WITH THE SAINTS AND PREVAILED AGAINST THEM; Until the Ancient of days came…”

Now, I want you notice the “until” here in this verse. There will be a coming against; a beating of the church; a destroying of the people of the church, “Until the Ancient of Days came….” In other words, brethren, until you get the fullness of Christ, you are going to be under the pressure of the enemy. There is a people who will rise up, defend the church, and bring deliverance to the church; and that people is what we are talking about, and that is what God is creating now!

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 1997, pg. 22-24)

Thought for today: There is a way to escape the tribulation. You can escape it completely—just give up everything to Jesus.

Read Full Post »

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: 2 Peter 1:19

We understand that God is telling us that we are the people of the last time, and that a lot of things are going to happen in the last time. Matthew 25 tells us of a separation in the church, and that there was a time for the separation. I do believe, personally, that this is what God is warning us about, and each person needs to make sure that you are on the right course.

Matthew 25:6-7 says, “At midnight there was a cry made, Behold the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.” 

In my vocabulary, the word “virgin” in the Bible means “clean, spotless, God-anointed Christians.” We have passed the state of dealing with the Christians who are half in and half out. We are now at the stage where we are dealing with those who were born again, who are sanctified, baptized in the Holy Ghost, and walking with God in purity! These virgins were dressed. They had on the wedding garment of Christ’s righteousness. That means that they were well prepared and ready and waiting for the Lord. More than that, they had “oil” in their “lamps.” That means they had the Holy Spirit in their spirits. They were well equipped. They were ready! However, guess what? Trouble comes. Distress comes. The time that the Bible calls “midnight” comes.

The word “midnight” in Scripture has a specific meaning. It means problems of the worst kind. In Exodus 11, it was at “midnight” that the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain, and those who were under the blood were sheltered. If God did not shelter them under the blood, they would be dead. In Ruth 3, it says that at “midnight” Boaz woke up, and found that a woman (Ruth) was lying at his feet; the Bible said that he was afraid, and he took off his coat and covered her. This woman is a picture of the Church, and at midnight we are going to need a covering from Jesus Christ, our Boaz! So then the Bible tells us what the meaning of midnight is. Look for midnight through the whole Bible and you will see that at midnight there is destruction, but also there is salvation. Always!

In the whole Jewish calendar, the Jewish year from Passover at the beginning of the year right back to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) represents the action of God for the whole 2,000 years from Jesus Christ to the end of the age. If you take everything that happens in the Jewish calendar right down to the last with the High Priest entering into the Holiest of All, you will find that it is depicting everything that is going to happen to us, the Church, from the coming of Jesus until His return at the end of the age.

Midnight comes just before morning, so we find therefore that that this “great tribulation,” this great darkness that is coming down on the earth, must finalize itself before Jesus Christ returns, because Jesus is our Morning! He is our Daylight. He is the Light of our lives and He is the Sun of our righteousness. It says in 2 Peter 1:19, “…until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.” The Daystar will arise after midnight, and we are first going to go through this great suffering of “midnight,” which is the “great tribulation” (see Matthew 24:21) that we have already entered.

It has already begun, but you do not feel it because you were born in it. To you the things that are going on now have become so natural, but the happenings of today are very unnatural! Nobody could have thought that the things that are happening around us would happen. It is very unnatural, but we are being “desensitized.” The Devil so fixes it that he creeps upon us gradually so that we do not really feel the tribulation. However, though we are not feeling it, the tribulation is here.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 1997, pg. 21-22)

Thought for today: Let us be sensitive to the time we live in and prepare ourselves for the midnight hour.

Read Full Post »

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Matthew 25:1-13

Matthew 25 tells us that there were ten virgins. The number ten speaks of Divine rulership. These ten were appointed to be divine rulers of God’s business, God’s work. Five of them were foolish and five of them were wise. The difference between the foolish and the wise was one little point. They were dressed alike and were clothed properly. They had oil in their lamps and their lamps were lighted. Oil in their lamps means the Spirit of God in their spirits, because the Bible says that the spirit of man is the lamp of God (Proverbs 20:27). That is where it is supposed to be. This Spirit power is supposed to fill the soul. If the soul is empty at midnight, it means that you did not store the oil in your soul, which is the place that God wants the oil anyhow. For the soul is the vessel and the vessel is the person and the person is his mind, his emotions, his will, and his desires.

If when you are in church, when you are reading the Bible, when you are among Christians, while things are all right, you have a lot of God and you can sing and pray and you can quicken people with the power of God, and yet HAVE NOTHING IN YOUR SOUL WHEN TRIBULATION HITS, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SURVIVE. This is what we mean by MIDNIGHT. At midnight, there was a cry made “Behold, the bridegroom cometh” and the virgins that were wise got up and trimmed their lamps, because at midnight people’s lamps are low. When you are in trouble, when you are in distress, your lamp is low and you need a resurgence of power coming from the oil you have stored up in your soul nature. THE OIL IN THE SOUL IS WHAT MATTERS. This the foolish virgins did not have. At midnight when the bridegroom came, they were left outside.

Matthew 25:10, “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” Now remember, these people were there waiting for the bridegroom. They were patiently waiting and ready and well-equipped but something happened. They heard the following cry: “Behold, the bridegroom cometh.” They ALL heard it. That means the whole church is going to hear, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh” and THEY WILL BELIEVE IT. They will turn around to get themselves ready for the bridegroom for their lamps were out, their vessels were out, and they have to rush outside to the store to see if they can get oil to buy. “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” A very sad note: “the door was shut.”

Verses 11 and 12, “Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.” In other words, He was saying that He had not had intimate relationship with them. They are not known to Him. This word “know” here suggests intimate relationship.

The Lord concludes, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” God is telling us to WATCH. Whom do we watch? We need to watch ourselves. God wants every man, every woman, every child to begin to watch his own thoughts, his own mind, because only you and God know what you are thinking. Sometimes very weird thoughts come into people’s minds who are supposed to be sanctified and you had better know these weird thoughts (hidden from everyone else) should not be entertained. These thoughts will come to you and if you entertain them, because nobody knows, you will come back again and get into the same line of thinking. I want each of us to go to God and ask Him to take away these weird thoughts or else teach us how to handle them.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pages 141-142)

Thought for today: Let us be watchful with our thoughts in our mind. Let us store up oil in our soul so that we are of the wise virgins ready to meet our Lord at the midnight hour.

Read Full Post »

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Job 1:21

God has been warning us for a long time that we are heading for a fall—a very big fall! I advise you, brethren, set your affections on things above, so that when the fall comes, it will not matter to you. “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). That is where we ought to be as Christians.

I just want you to understand that we are very close into the midnight hour. The Jewish day begins at six o’clock in the evening. The day begins with night! So we are indeed in the seventh day, but the night must pass first before the sunlight comes forth. It must get darker, and darker, and darker until it gets light! “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). We are entering into night and the night is getting darker and darker; and the day will dawn, but you have to endure the night. “He that endureth to the end shall be saved,” saith the Lord (Matthew 10:22)!

At “midnight,” the “beast” must reign (see Revelation 13). I do not know if you expect to reign and rule right now, but I am telling you it is not going to be right now. Right now, you must suffer, and be born—because it is the suffering, it is the travailing that is going to birth us. We are not yet birthed. We are still fetuses. We are not yet birthed, because what we are is not the thing that God had ordained to rule the world. What we are now is too much of a deep mixture with the flesh! We cannot rule the world in this condition for we would do exactly what they are doing in the White House today. We must be changed, and we must allow the working of the Lord upon us to change us!

What is it going to take to change you? It depends upon your case. It depends upon who you are. The worse the case is, the harder the blow. You are not going to go through the same tribulation that I am going to go through. There is, however, a way to escape the tribulation. Did you know that? You can escape it completely—just give up everything to Jesus. It sounds easy, doesn’t it? Just give up everything to Jesus right now and you will escape the tribulation. As the poet says, “He that is down needs fear no fall. He that is low no pride.” If you sleep on the floor, you cannot fall off the bed.

Therefore, you need to understand what God is doing. We are entering the midnight hour and there are certain things that must happen. Firstly, the Church system must be destroyed. I know that you do not like to hear that, and you say, “What kind of preaching is this—that the Church system must be destroyed?” Let us look at it in the Scriptures.

Daniel 12:7, “And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and WHEN HE SHALL HAVE ACCOMPLISHED TO SCATTER THE POWER OF THE HOLY PEOPLE, all these things shall be finished.” Yes! That means that there is to be a scattering of the power of the Church.

Let us take Daniel 8:24, “And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, AND SHALL DESTROY THE MIGHTY AND THE HOLY PEOPLE.” I think that this is enough to answer the question.

Daniel 7:21-22, “I beheld, and the same horn MADE WAR WITH THE SAINTS AND PREVAILED AGAINST THEM; Until the Ancient of days came…”

Now, I want you notice the “until” here in this verse. There will be a coming against; a beating of the church; a destroying of the people of the church, “Until the Ancient of Days came….” In other words, brethren, until you get the fullness of Christ, you are going to be under the pressure of the enemy. There is a people who will rise up, defend the church, and bring deliverance to the church; and that people is what we are talking about, and that is what God is creating now!

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 1997, pg. 22-24)

Thought for today: There is a way to escape the tribulation. You can escape it completely—just give up everything to Jesus.

Read Full Post »

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: 2 Peter 1:19

We understand that God is telling us that we are the people of the last time, and that a lot of things are going to happen in the last time. Matthew 25 tells us of a separation in the church, and that there was a time for the separation. I do believe, personally, that this is what God is warning us about, and each person needs to make sure that you are on the right course.

Matthew 25:6-7 says, “At midnight there was a cry made, Behold the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.” 

In my vocabulary, the word “virgin” in the Bible means “clean, spotless, God-anointed Christians.” We have passed the state of dealing with the Christians who are half in and half out. We are now at the stage where we are dealing with those who were born again, who are sanctified, baptized in the Holy Ghost, and walking with God in purity! These virgins were dressed. They had on the wedding garment of Christ’s righteousness. That means that they were well prepared and ready and waiting for the Lord. More than that, they had “oil” in their “lamps.” That means they had the Holy Spirit in their spirits. They were well equipped. They were ready! However, guess what? Trouble comes. Distress comes. The time that the Bible calls “midnight” comes.

The word “midnight” in Scripture has a specific meaning. It means problems of the worst kind. In Exodus 11, it was at “midnight” that the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain, and those who were under the blood were sheltered. If God did not shelter them under the blood, they would be dead. In Ruth 3, it says that at “midnight” Boaz woke up, and found that a woman (Ruth) was lying at his feet; the Bible said that he was afraid, and he took off his coat and covered her. This woman is a picture of the Church, and at midnight we are going to need a covering from Jesus Christ, our Boaz! So then the Bible tells us what the meaning of midnight is. Look for midnight through the whole Bible and you will see that at midnight there is destruction, but also there is salvation. Always!

In the whole Jewish calendar, the Jewish year from Passover at the beginning of the year right back to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) represents the action of God for the whole 2,000 years from Jesus Christ to the end of the age. If you take everything that happens in the Jewish calendar right down to the last with the High Priest entering into the Holiest of All, you will find that it is depicting everything that is going to happen to us, the Church, from the coming of Jesus until His return at the end of the age.

Midnight comes just before morning, so we find therefore that that this “great tribulation,” this great darkness that is coming down on the earth, must finalize itself before Jesus Christ returns, because Jesus is our Morning! He is our Daylight. He is the Light of our lives and He is the Sun of our righteousness. It says in 2 Peter 1:19, “…until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.” The Daystar will arise after midnight, and we are first going to go through this great suffering of “midnight,” which is the “great tribulation” (see Matthew 24:21) that we have already entered.

It has already begun, but you do not feel it because you were born in it. To you the things that are going on now have become so natural, but the happenings of today are very unnatural! Nobody could have thought that the things that are happening around us would happen. It is very unnatural, but we are being “desensitized.” The Devil so fixes it that he creeps upon us gradually so that we do not really feel the tribulation. However, though we are not feeling it, the tribulation is here.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 1997, pg. 21-22)

Thought for today: Let us be sensitive to the time we live in and prepare ourselves for the midnight hour.

Read Full Post »

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