Beat The Rush - Fear God Now!
April 22nd, 2009 | Michael Q. Pink
I left off last time saying I would address the fact that if adversity is a test to reveal our strengths and weaknesses, then how can we prepare for the test so we can pass it and not be numbered among the ones Scripture declares as being small in strength (Prov 24:10)?
Well, to answer that question, let me ask you something… What do you do when a storm of adversity comes? Do you pray? Fast? Search the Scriptures? Get Godly counsel? Get in fellowship with other believers? All these are good things, but when the storm hits, it’s not the time to start putting a roof on your house so to speak.
You need to prepare now. Jesus said, “My sheep know My voice.” Was He just saying that or is it true? Of course, it is true. So, how well do you know His voice? One way I have found to recognize His voice is to spend lots of time in the Word. Reading His thoughts helps me recognize how He speaks and the kinds of things He would or would not say. Develop your prayer life now. Feed on the Word now. You will need it when the storm comes.
Several years ago on a sunny day in Tucson, my wife and I were in the pool when a whirlwind came out of nowhere sucking a float up high into the air and out of sight. Sand blasted us so we quickly got under water till it passed. When I inquired of the Lord about it, He showed me a number of things. One of which was there is a day of adversity coming that will come unannounced and pin people down so to speak. We need to walk in the fear of the Lord now or be very afraid of Him later. I choose the first. How about you? From that understanding, I created a new screen saver for my computer which read, “Beat the rush… Fear God now.”
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:20 am
Michael, i would like to see your screen saver, Beat the Rush…Pray Now.
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:20 am
Michael, i would like to see your screen saver, Beat the Rush…Fear God Now.
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:26 am
THANK YOU MICHAEL!
You’ve hit the nail right on the head here!
It seems that so many have serious trouble in “hearing His voice”, because there is so much “static” in their heads.
Father is using me as a bridge to help Christians learn facts of toxins in their food/beverage supply, bondage brought about by pharmaceutical monopolies/government policies etc. A Christian’s healthy, uncluttered mind will live in a healthy body, and will hear the Voice of the Lord.
Please pray for my work to fulfill His calling!
New postings on my website: select Kingdom Vision scroll down to
links at bottom select A Higher Law
and others following
Blessings to you and your associates, in Yeshua’s dear Name, amen!
Raylyn
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:23 am
Great message Michael. and very timely I must say. Too many of God’s people come undone when storms hit through lack of preparation; namely spending time in God’s presence and geting to know Him in a more personal way. Time is very short and we need to be prepared for whatever comes our way.
God bless
Carmel.J
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:27 am
All Things for Jesus—Even Evil
Proverbs 16:4: “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” God has done this in his own mysterious way that preserves the responsibility of the wicked and the sinlessness of his own heart. All things were made through Christ and for Christ (Colossians 1:16). And that includes, Paul says, the “thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities” who were defeated by Christ at the cross. They were made “for the day of trouble.” And on that day the power and justice and wrath and love of Christ were displayed. Sooner or later, every rebellion against him comes to ruin.
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:57 am
Thank you Michael, what an awesome message again this morning. I would also like to see your screen saver. We all have CHRIST and the cross in us, weather we want to believe that or not. There is a protien called Laminin, which holds the tissue of the body together. It is awesome, because the symbal for Laminin is the cross. Colossians 1:17 also says, “And HE is before all things, and by HIM all things consist.” Check this web site out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e4zgJXPpI4
Thans and GOD bless,
Kenny G.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:05 am
Michael,
The word on fearing the LORD is timely and necessary.
I think however that much of the church does not even understand what it means to fear the LORD, there is in many no concept of it.
Maybe some specific teaching in that area would help.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:30 am
[...] his humorous writing style. It brought a smile to my face when I read today’s post called Beat The Rush - Fear God Now! In it he points out that when the winds of adversity blow over your house, it’s not time to [...]
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 am
Thanks for the post this a.m. I am still in recovery mode (6th grade boys and abstinence message wear an old lady out). I am continuing to seek HIM about the Bible Study for teens, “Why Me.” The interesting side here is all the (older) adults talk about this (molestation) too, so there is truly, “nothing new under the sun.” I do enjoy my Mondays fasting, seeking HIM, and really don’t like when I have to use them for anything else! Bless you! Kara
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:27 am
Michael,
The Lord bless you, indeed the fear of the Lord is the begining of Wisdom.
Wisdom exixsted before the very first fine dust of the earth! Let’s join together to fear God to beat the Rush Amen.
Shalom
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
Amen!!
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:27 am
When I read about adversity, I quickly recognize the importance of preparing for the times when adversity happens without predictions or plans. I read Ephesians 6 when we receive instructions to be clothed with spiritual armor. The word stand is used in 3 ways in this passage:
1. “stand against the devil’s schemes” - This is when Satan attacks us on our turf. The strong wind of the enemy’s attacks tend to force us to be out of balance. When he gets us out of balance, we tend to respond out of fear and not of faith.
2. “stand your ground, “When we experience growth and our walk with God is progressing, we do not want to lose ground. We want to maintain our growth. And we need to be properly clothed in God’s armor to hold our ground.
3. “Stand firm then” - We played a game when I was a teenager. We would get on a pier with water all around to be what we called “the man of the mountain”. The man of the mountain had won victory over all opposition. Th
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:43 am
Michael, Are you aware of this prophecy? See below..
Should We Heed Wilkerson’s Warning?
When I was a kid, I read about David Wilkerson who took the Gospel to the gangs of New York. I even saw the movie “The Cross and the Switchblade” that was made about him. Many know about that, but most don’t know what happened in his church just eight years ago.
In the fall of 2001, Pastor David Wilkerson, of Times Square Church in New York City, was warned by God that a calamity was coming. For six weeks they felt an intense burden and enormous heaviness. A critical need for intercession was so profound that Pastor Wilkerson canceled everything on the church calendar – mission’s conferences, youth events and every guest speaker.
For six weeks, there wasn’t a sermon. Instead, there was intercession for our nation with weeping and repentance. They knew something was coming and that something was bad. And that something was soon. So they prayed. And prayed … and prayed.
Then Wilkerson felt God telling him something that seemed rather bizarre. He felt God telling him to make sandwiches – lots of sandwiches. What were they for? Who would eat them? That part wasn’t clear, but his church did what they believed God was telling them anyway.
And on the 10th of September they stayed up all night making hundreds and hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. By morning they had about 2,000 sandwiches. At 8:46 a.m. the first plane hit the World Trade Center and Times Square Church was ready to feed and minister to rescue workers and victims of our nation’s worst attack.
Making sandwiches all night is a strange thing to do. If someone told me to stay up all night making sandwiches, I’d probably tell them they were crazy. But if David Wilkerson says he’s heard something from God today, I think we’d be crazy not to listen.
He now says he feels the same thing he felt leading up to the attack by radical Islam. In an “URGENT MESSAGE” dated March 7, 2009, Wilkerson said:
AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE – EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US.
For 10 years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires – such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.
There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting – including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath. In Psalm 11 it is written:
… God is judging the raging sins of America and the nations. He is destroying the secular foundations.
The prophet Jeremiah pleaded with wicked Israel, “God is fashioning a calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh, turn back each of you from your evil way, and reform your ways and deeds. But they will say, It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart” (Jeremiah 18:11-12).
In Psalm 11:6, David warns, “Upon the wicked he will rain snares (coals of fire) … fire … burning wind … will be the portion of their cup.” Why? David answered, “Because the Lord is righteous” (v. 7). This is a righteous judgment – just as in the judgments of Sodom and in Noah’s generation.
WHAT SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS DO? WHAT ABOUT GOD’S PEOPLE?
First, I give you a practical word I received for my own direction. If possible lay in store a 30-day supply of non-perishable food, toiletries and other essentials. In major cities, grocery stores are emptied in an hour at the sign of an impending disaster.
… I will behold our Lord on his throne, with his eye of tender, loving kindness watching over every step I take – trusting that he will deliver his people even through floods, fires, calamities, tests, trials of all kinds.
Note: I do not know when these things will come to pass, but I know it is not far off. I have unburdened my soul to you. Do with the message as you choose.
Warren Buffett has said that our economy has “fallen off a cliff.” With the election of the most pro-abortion president (and Congress) in history, there’s no question that we deserve God’s judgment.
Just yesterday, Barack Obama signed an executive order to use children for spare parts. So much for defending the “least of these,” as he so often quoted during his campaign. Cannibalizing the weak to help the strong. And by the way, don’t believe everything you hear in the news – Obama didn’t say he was against cloning. He said he was against “reproductive” cloning. Killing a new life after cloning one is another matter entirely: welcome to Obama’s “Brave New World.”
The bottom line is that we are economically and morally bankrupt. And it’s reported that Iran now has all they need to build nukes.
So, when the guy who made the 2,000 sandwiches on Sept. 10 warns us: “AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN,” I think we would do well to heed it. And follow the words Wilkerson quotes from the prophet Jeremiah and “turn back each of you from your evil way, and reform your ways and deeds.”
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Q. What does it mean to “Tremble at His Word’?
“Fearing the Lord and trembling at His Word”. I know that having these
attitudes and reverential character traits help keep a person from presumption and pride. When they have been mentioned, people tend to think on the more legalistic side of understanding of “The Fear of the Lord and trembling at His Word.” People have ignored it by blanket statements of love covering all things type thing. Mercy triumphs over judgement.
It is so great to be around Christians who have a sure foundation in the Word and arent impressed by persuasive intellectual words.
Thank you,
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Dona,
Two things give me pause in Wilkerson’s extra-biblical specifics.
First, it does not resonate with my spirit when he claims that God told him to “lay in store a thirty-day supply of non-perishable food, toiletries and other essentials” because when disaster comes “grocery stores are emptied in an hour.” God might have said this. But it doesn’t smell authentic to me. Too prudential. Too reminiscent of the embarrassing Y2K excesses.
Second, my confidence level drops when the Scriptures are not handled carefully. Wilkerson says, one way we can respond is: “As David says, ‘He fixed his eyes on the Lord on his throne in heaven—his eyes beholding, his eyelids testing the sons of men’” (Psalm 11:4).
This does not have the feel of authority to me because what Psalm 11:4 really says is: “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.”
So my take on this prophetic word is that the scare will probably do good for a lot of people. The Bible is a scary book. And the future that is coming on unbelievers is scary beyond anything any preacher could conjure up.
But my own effort to be discerning says: Stick with the Bible, David. It is scary enough. And it is absolutely true. And your credibility will never fall.
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I enjoy your writings. They are always on point. This message couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve been speaking with a few people on this very message and then came my email. Thank you! I forwarded hoping that your ministry can reach many!
God Bless
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Hi Michael I saw you in Grants Pass, Oregon years ago.
This is what God has been showing me.
March 2009 an angel said, a storm is coming. Micah 5:11
April 6, 2009 the Lord Jesus said to me… Act or you will suffer lose. This is the second time that I’ve seen His face.
April 17. 2009 The Holy Spirit showed me a fairly long vision..I saw a woman looking to my right she was growing a mustache, as I watched the mustache it turned out to be the flesh burning and falling off her face. Then I saw men’s faces the flesh was burning and falling off their faces and then they would vomit or something would fly out of their mouths. These people were all in the dark it was hard to see them, and they were all looking to my right.
Then as I looked passed these people I saw a very bright fire burning, it was a white fire that burned for awhile and when it burned out I saw white ashes on the ground and on other structures,,,then I saw a strong healthy man stand up quickly to his feet out of the ashes,,,He was wearing a white robe trimmed in gold…It was the Lord, the body of Christ raising out of the ashes.
End of vision. Psalm 14:5
Thanks KiM
So. Oregon
April 23rd, 2009 at 6:26 am
Very good read. Its is true for the Lord has said be ready in season and out of season. Well we have a hurricane season that we prepare for every year so as well as we prepare for that, we should already have our selves girded up for the spiritual storms that come. I’ve faced many storms and can say I haven’t weathered all of them easily. Some have left me a lot of spiritual brokenness that GOD has to repair. If only I had but the shutters of faith up, I wouldn’t have experienced so much damage…Be blessed.
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:58 am
I have to agree with Kern. David Wilkerson has proclaimed numerous apocalyptic prophesies that did not occur. The danger in adhering to the latest prophetic utterance is that YOU my not be hearing God for yourself and fulfilling his purpose for your life. We SHOULD Fear God Now regardless of the circumstances and in spite of the circumstances. Ask yourself what you would do differently if you KNEW Jesus was coming back tomorrow. If you would do anything differently then start doing that now! The date of His return (read Acts 1:7) should not dictate our actions on earth. Do what He has ordained for you to do!
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:49 am
Dona -
Thank you for sharing - it definitely gives one pause for thought! All anyone can do is pray about it and let the Lord guide them from there. I will say that several of my family and other believers we know have felt like they’ve been told to store food.
April 24th, 2009 at 12:35 am
Thank you so much for this timely word. I think it should be shouted from the housetops. Blessings to you.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:54 am
I agree about the importance of fearing the Lord, something often not spoken of in the church of today.
I’ve recently written a book called “The Christian Behind Closed Doors.” Its about legalism in the Christian church today. You can see it here: http://www.christianbehindcloseddoors.com. Thank you.
August 13th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
In HIS word Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Romans 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This puts us on check as to who we fear, in the articles there is alot to do with fear but scripture is assuring our safety in the Lord, Amen
May 18th, 2010 at 2:19 am
Wonderful insight:-)