I told you that a superflu from China would come two years before it did. I have told you many times, for years, of a coming second civil war, of food shortages, of unusual weather patterns and natural disasters, of forced vaccinations, and of many other things that, when spoken, seemed impossible and crazy. Very few believed me, perhaps with reason, but not many more have believed as more and more of these things has happened.
I tell you again, plainly:
- There will be more and more severe famine.
- There will be an extreme economic downturn.
- There will be tremendous civil strife.
- There will be more disease, including another disease far worse than covid.
- There will be great natural disasters. The sun will turn black, and there will be a tremendous widespread earthquake.
- The United States will be invaded.
These things are still the beginning of the end.
As people begin believing what they have been shown, they will flip from completely ignoring the warnings to reacting to them in the wrong way. God's understanding is as far from ours as the earth is from the heavens.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are my ways your ways. [A word of Yahveh]
9 For as high as is the sky above the earth,
so are my ways above your ways,
my thoughts above your thoughts. (Isaiah 55, Anchor Bible)
Because our natural expectations of what is to come are completely wrong, God must tell us what is going to happen. And he does (Amos 3:7). Because our natural reaction to what is to come will be equally wrong, God also tells us how to react to what is to come.
There are many things you ought to consider that I have spoken about in the past. As appropriate, you ought to:
-Move into employment where you are less subject to fools.
-Move to places where there are fewer people and you have a greater ability to grow more food.
-Move to places where you have a greater concentration of people who live by higher standards.
-Acquire the skills and tools to grow more of the food you eat.
-Store up long term food and water and other necessities for times when they may not be as plenteous or as inexpensive.
-Take charge of the education and religious practice of your children instead of outsourcing it to others.
-Prepare hiking packs for each person in your family focused on sustaining life for as far as possible on a long trek on foot.
-Get in shape.
-Be very, very careful about investments, even in traditional safe-havens.
Those who considered these things early experienced the lowest cost and highest benefit of doing them. The price has increased, and the window has closed for some. It will continue to increase, and it will close for many more.
Some people who have done these things have been blessed tremendously. At least a few have encountered many obstacles in pursuing their plans and desires. Here is what you need to understand.
What a man has in life is not measured by his material possessions (Luke 12:15), and preparation for the desolation is not mainly a matter of temporal circumstance.
The best preparation we can have is found inside, in the decision to yield completely to God, joyfully, no matter what. Zion consists only of those who keep his commandments in all things (Genesis 9:21, JST).
The Psalm says I’d rather be a doorman in the house of the lord than dwell in the palaces of the wicked (Psalm 84:10). Can you say--and mean--the same? While we do not prefer whatever path the Lord has for us--including loneliness, poverty, pain, and suffering--to anything else found outside complete submission to him in all things at all times, we are not prepared for what is to come. [1]
In order to get the most of what is coming later, we must do what lies in our power now to prepare according to his word now. This does not mean preparing according only to the temporally-applicable parts of his word. The preaching of the gospel does not profit if it is not mixed with faith in them that hear it (Hebrews 4:2). You can hoard all the goods and build up all the places you want, and if you do it without first hoarding up submission to God, trust in God, and joy in God, all you will accomplish is a bigger fall when it all comes crashing down--and I promise you that it will. God is shaking everything, and he will not stop shaking it until all that remains is his kingdom. It is a long process, and everything that is not of and through him will bend and break and crumble.
Heeding warnings and making preparations for things to come is not for the purpose of conquering coming challenges with the arm of the flesh, or for maintaining unjust modern standards of living into the end times. The intent is not to provide goods and places sufficient to weather the storm. Instead, the warnings and time given by God are to foster faith in his people. They are a call to show through one’s actions and desires whether one submits to God: how much, how early, and with what spirit.
God’s justice will be restored, God’s people will not bring the flesh pots of Egypt into Babylon, and God will save his people through the power of his arm.
The path ahead is an eye of a needle, and the gate will strip away everything a person has. Your goods will not be enough. Your places will not be enough. Through showing you their inadequacy, God will call you to greater destinations. God will gather his people. He will build his house on his rock.
What then, is the point of preparation for the desolation? The point is the same as the desolation itself: to give successive experiences to people who yet lack the faith to receive the bounty of what God desires to give them. The preparation is just as important as what follows it, and those who heed the Lord's voice now will have greater outcomes than those who do not.
The places established will provide the experiences necessary to prepare for successive experiences. Preparing itself is an experience that provides benefit to ourselves and others through faith. For those who happen to have something to give when it is needed, they will have the experience of blessing others through their faith, and instilling faith in others through having had faith first. Those who receive will be given a bridge to greater trust in God. And when the preparations are exhausted--and they will be, in every case--both parties will have the blessing of seeking God, not to preserve their lives, but to submit to his will for them, in faith, whatever it may be.
Some people will go through the eye of the needle before others. Whenever he brings you through it, and whether it is all at once (like Job) or in waves, when it happens, do not be surprised as if some unexpected calamity has overcome you, or woeful as if some horrible tragedy has befallen you (1 Peter 4:12). God knows what he is doing, and everything he does is for the benefit of those who love him. He will show you that what you value is not what you ought to value, and that you value what you shouldn't far more than you think. He will show you that you value what is from him far less than you should, and far less than you think. Exactly how that happens will be different for everyone, though some of these experiences will be shared by many.
As he takes you through the eye of the needle, remember that the point of all of this is not to preserve your carnal security. That's not why you were doing any of these things. The reason you were doing these things was to show that you love God, you trust in his love for you, and you trust in his knowledge of what is good better than your own. So when these things happen, show him that you love him and trust him by joyfully submitting to his revealed will--not just when it aligns with your present desires, but especially when it does not. For these are the times when he revealed will has greatest value for you, because it directs you to a place much better than you could ever find for yourself.
There is a tremendous additional amount that must be said on these topics. However, this is more than enough for now, and just about all that can be transmitted through a blog post. More will be said about these things, and the best way you can prepare yourself to receive those things when they are given is by earnestly and honestly considering and acting on what has already been said.
[1] - I receive more than a little correspondence from people beset by the different-mindedness of their spouse. What better way to learn total submission to God than to learn unconditional love for your spouse? Love God with all your might, mind, and strength, and show that love to God by loving your spouse with all your might, mind, and strength. Do not worry if doing so prevents you from making temporal preparations for what is to come. You are not after temporal preservation, but spiritual growth. The former will not yield eternal growth if it is not done for the purposes of the latter. As with many things, this short piece of advice on a complex topic can be easily twisted to justify what a person knows is wrong. You can take this too far in either direction. Those who write me are those who err on the side of doing what they want in spite of the different viewpoints and desires of their spouse, but you can go too far the other way by absolving yourself of any responsibility to help your spouse improve or sustain the difficult task of reconciling your viewpoints. Loving someone does not mean giving them everything they want and nothing they don't.