Prophecy – The way of Jesus lies in the shadow of the cross

April 8, 2024

On Monday, April 8, 2024, the Word of the LORD came to me, saying:

Hear the Word of the Lord, you nations of the earth, you tyrants of clay and dust who trample My people with the sound of your comings and goings. The season of the Gentiles is at its end. My patience has reached fulfillment; my mercy has fulfilled its purpose. Now I give you to the darkness you have chosen. As on this day the moon obscures the light of the sun for the second time in seven years for those in the United States of America, so I will cause darkness to pass between us. Though you seek Me, you will not find Me. I will conceal My presence, withhold My wisdom, and obscure My watchcare. You will have the world as you have wished it. You will experience the freedom for which you have suffered and bled in this place.

I have heard your prayers, and I will answer them. You are alone. In the days ahead, do not pray to Me, do not call out My Name into the heavens, for I will not hear you. You are alone with your inventions. You are alone with your wisdom. You are alone with your transgressions. May they serve you as they have promised. May you find the joy they have told you was your right, and may the taste of your pleasures sicken your innards and rot within you.

On the day that you have received all that for which you have fought, and on the day that you are given eyes to see the deceptions over which you have labored, you will find despair deeper and more profound than any imagined from the creation of the world to that moment of revelation. On that day you will tear your clothing, cover yourselves with sackcloth and ashes, begging for forgiveness and mercy. But I will not hear you. You have ignored My cries during your years of plenty; I will not rescue you from the years of famine.

Only those who have emptied themselves of idols, who have received My purifying fire during the years of mercy, and who have allowed me to cleanse them of their unrighteousness will hear from Me in these days. Only those whose Names are written on My Father’s scroll will feel My arms around them and My hands guiding them in the dark. Once again, I will make a distinction between the wicked and the godly; once again, I will show favor to My sheep and disfavor to the sheep of other pastures.

Come out, come out My people, that you might not share in her punishments, for the harlot has been exposed, the false prophet has gathered a flock around Him, and the beast has uttered blasphemies against Your God. Come out, come out, and follow again the warnings of My prophets, the interpretations of My Apostles, and the teachings of My Son. No more shall I tolerate divided hearts among My people. Release what is perishing, and you will live. Cling to what is devoted to destruction, and you will be devoured by your love for it. The word of the Lord has spoken.

Woe to all who will not listen, for the darkness will not lift when the moon passes by the sun. Though the light of the sun will return, the darkness of chaos will remain. Seven years were devoted to plenty; now seven years are devoted to famine—a famine of the speaking of the Lord. So shall it be. As it was at the beginning, so it will be again. Only those who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved. Cry out, My people, for help, and I shall hear. Cry out, those who are not My people, and the heavens will be as bronze. So have you wished; so have you contended; so shall it be. I am the Lord.

February 8, 2024

On Thursday, February 8, 2024 the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

Nations of the earth, long have I tolerated your nation-building, world-conquering, annihilation of My creation. Long have I looked the other way while you have committed atrocities upon My earth, ofttimes in My Name. I have shown mercy when you have been merciless; I have shown restraint when you have followed your covetous desires; I have allowed you to trample My capitals when you have assaulted the freedoms of others in your quest for dominance and order and peace. My toleration of these and other sins is now ended.

In the days to come, I will upend the lordship you exercise over your constituents. When the floods come to assault your shores, I will turn your people against you. There will be riots in the streets and armed conflicts in the cities. I will set your people free from your tyranny of lies and deceptions. I will wrangle from you your power and might, and I will give it to the humble and the poor of the land.

Long I have tolerated the persecution of My people and the adulteration of My Gospel. As I judge the leaders of the church, so, too, will I judge the leaders of men. None will escape the darkness of the days to come, for you have sowed to the darkness, and you will reap what you have sown. Chaos will reign supreme in the days and years ahead; chaos and confusion—a darkness that can be felt. I will bring ruin to the fields and to the forests, to the winds and to the waves, to the corn and to the maize, to the rice and to the wheat. I will send a blight against your growings and pestilence to consume your crops and your children. I will call upon the gods you have worshipped and the knowledge you have accumulated to save you from My hand, O nations of the earth. Devastation and ruin will remain behind when bounty was ahead.

Why would I assault you in these ways, O great nations of the earth? Are My ways unjust? No! It is your ways that are unjust. You have denied My existence, pillaged My stores of knowledge, and called yourselves gods of the heavens and the earth. You have exalted your intelligence and your knowing, claiming divinity in your comings and goings. No more, great and wicked generation, who sows to the flesh and cultivates wrongdoing as righteousness. My people lay imprisoned, the poor locked out, the sick and grieving wallowing in the streets of your greatness.

Learn repentance, O great nations, and be healed. Look to the poor, the dispossessed, the vulnerable, the demon-possessed, the orphan, the alien among you. None should have so much and none so little as you deem just and right. Sell all you have and give it to the poor, and I may turn from My great wrath and delay your destruction by years or decades. But continue as you have walked, and your days will end in misery and blood.

The Word of the Lord has spoken. Amen

January 16, 2024

On Tuesday, January 16, 2024 the Word of the Lord came to me saying:

Too long have My children listened to the whispers of demons in My Name. Too long have the values of the fallen guided the children of light. Too long have My people walked in darkness while calling out My Name into the heavens. This day is the beginning of the end of the lies whispered in My Name.

I will no longer tolerate those who speak the lies of Satan in the congregations called by My Name. I will no longer listen to lessons on leadership, power, control, influence, manipulation, and prosperity. Long have these topics been the stock and trade of false prophets—the teachers and preachers who speak out of the desires of their own hearts and claim inspiration by My Spirit. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven this generation, not now nor in the world to come.

All who claim to deliver a word from the Lord that I have not spoken or an instruction to My people that I have not given will be devoted to destruction. I will now free My people from the wolves who are shepherding My flock. For those who speak their own words in My Name, there will be no mercy. I will turn the flocks against the shepherds as I turned Israel against their Egyptian masters. I Myself will send plagues against the shepherds until they release My sheep from their sheep pens. My assaults will be relentless, and My words to the shepherds who lead them are only these: “Let My people go that they may worship Me in spirit and in truth in the wilderness prepared for them.”

I wish to see My people in tents. I will tolerate no more cathedrals. I wish to see My people pray and listen to My voice. I will tolerate no more those who claim to speak to them on My behalf. Even this voice you hear now will not be necessary in the days to come. I will shepherd My people, and I will call out to My flock. My Messiah alone will lead them, and He will come to them as a child comes—humble, submissive, ready to serve, and eager to listen.

If you know of no such children, this is not because My word is false, but because your discipleship is defective. Too long have I tolerated the despoiling of the earth and the corruption of My children. I called out to Abraham in order to preserve through Him a remnant on the earth, a faithful generation, children of righteousness who shine as the stars in the night. But those who call themselves by My Name have worshipped the false gods of this age, and their children have been corrupted by the demons they have worshipped.

No more, no more, children of the earth. My long days of silence and mercy are ended. From the dawn of this new year, 100 days are allotted for preparation for judgment. Repent, My children, if you are My children. Turn from the wickedness of your ways and the licentiousness of your teachings. Why would you be destroyed? Why would you have Me turn My face from you? Judgment is coming on the world. Need the judgment of the wicked consume My people, as well?

Separate yourselves from those who speak in My Name words I have not spoken. You ask, “How will we know Your word?” You will know My word by its fruit. And you ask, “What is this fruit?” It is the fruit of obedience to the words I have preserved through My prophets and apostles. Men have not preserved My word. I have preserved My word. Many have attempted to change it, to alter it, to corrupt it, to pervert it to their own ends. But I have protected it by holy hands and hidden places that those who wished to add and subtract from what I have said have been found out. I conscripted the wicked to prove the truthful witness I have preserved that My people might hear and learn.

Listen to what I have preserved, do what I have asked, receive who I am making you, and you will shine in the dark places of the world. Continue worshipping idols of your own making hidden within ideals, principles, laws, constitutions, and cultures you have made yourselves, and I will leave you to the gods you have chosen—gods which could not save the world in the days of Noah, which could not forestall the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which have lost every nation that they have incited to arise from the beginning to now. Never have they withstood My judgment. They live now only by My mercy.

If you believe they can save you from the curse, then worship them. But those who wish to be called by My Name must separate themselves from false and useless shepherds. Return to My word, and I will speak to you again. Return to obedience, and I will rescue you from the tyranny of your fallen masters. Return to goodness, and I will break the bonds which enslave you to yourselves. May those who have ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Selah and Amen.

A Word for the Nations (August 13, 2021)

The ancient nation of Babylon was a shadow, and Israel’s exile in her was a shadow, as well. This is not to say that these events did not occur. Quite to the contrary. These were historical realities. But they were shadows, types.

History is cyclical; it repeats itself over and over again. God reveals this pattern to us in the Christian Bible. These cycles are not accidental or incidental. History is cyclical by the will of God.

In six days God created life on earth along with its requisite cycles and seasons. And then, on the seventh day, God rested. Perhaps one of the more surprising discoveries of the book of Genesis is that creation has not yet joined God on day seven. Creation is imprisoned on day six. As the writer of Hebrews has taught the Church:

¹Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. ²For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. ³For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “As in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ” though his works were finished at the foundation of the world.
⁴For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” ⁵And again in this place it says, “They shall not enter my rest.” ⁶Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷again he sets a certain day—“today”—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. ⁹So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; ¹⁰for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. ¹¹Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.
Hebrews 4:1-11, NRSV

It was sin that led God to cage us here. When God first created humanity, He instructed us with these words:

¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; ¹⁷but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
Genesis 2:16-17, NRSV

The first woman ate of the tree, and then the man. The penalty, the consequence, the promise of God was death. But God sought to be merciful; God sought humanity’s reclamation. And so, God imprisoned humanity on day six. Sleep is a shadow–a type of death–as awakening is a shadow–a type of birth and creation. We still live on the day humanity fell, trapped in a repeating cycle of death and birth. We are barred from entering God’s rest.

As the writer of Ecclesiastes has observed:

⁹What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9, NRSV

We are imprisoned by our rebellions—the first rebellion and all that have followed thereafter. What has been is what will be. This is the shadow and the reality—the past which is simultaneously the future. There is nothing new under the sun.

As each evening we sleep and each morning we awaken, to be free from this cycle one must die and rise. As Jesus tried to explain to Nicodemus:

³. . . . “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
John 3:3b, NRSV

But the worldly mind cannot comprehend its reality. And so, Nicodemus, like so many of us, responded with the wisdom of ignorance:

⁴. . . . “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”
John 3:4b, NRSV

Only by faith, by trusting Jesus and walking in the way He carved before us can the gate between day six and God’s rest be passed through. Jesus is both the gate and the gatekeeper from day six to day seven, from death to life, from toil to rest.

History is typology—shadows and realities caught in an endless dance under the sun. Babylon was a type, a shadow, a permutation to be repeated through time. Babel, Sumeria, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, all these were both shadows and realities trapped in a timeless cycle. But the circle is not closed. The course of history is both cyclical and linear, repeating and yet moving toward a final cycle, a final reality, a final dusk followed by an eschatological dawn. History has both a beginning and an end, an alpha and an omega, an aleph and a tav. As John testifies in the book of Revelation:

⁵And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
Revelation 21:5-6a, NRSV

The Lord instructed the prophet Jeremiah to speak the following words with respect to ancient Babylon:

³⁴“King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me like a monster; he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has spewed me out. ³⁵May my torn flesh be avenged on Babylon,” the inhabitants of Zion shall say. “May my blood be avenged on the inhabitants of Chaldea,” Jerusalem shall say.
³⁶Therefore thus says the Lord: I am going to defend your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry; ³⁷and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, a den of jackals, an object of horror and of hissing, without inhabitant.
³⁸Like lions they shall roar together; they shall growl like lions’ whelps. ³⁹When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink and make them drunk, until they become merry and then sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake, says the Lord. ⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.
⁴¹How Sheshach is taken, the pride of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations! ⁴²The sea has risen over Babylon; she has been covered by its tumultuous waves. ⁴³Her cities have become an object of horror, a land of drought and a desert, a land in which no one lives, and through which no mortal passes. ⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon, and make him disgorge what he has swallowed. The nations shall no longer stream to him; the wall of Babylon has fallen.
⁴⁵Come out of her, my people! Save your lives, each of you, from the fierce anger of the Lord! ⁴⁶Do not be fainthearted or fearful at the rumors heard in the land—one year one rumor comes, the next year another, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.
⁴⁷Assuredly, the days are coming when I will punish the images of Babylon; her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in her midst. ⁴⁸Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, shall shout for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north, says the Lord. ⁴⁹Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.
⁵⁰You survivors of the sword, go, do not linger! Remember the Lord in a distant land, and let Jerusalem come into your mind: ⁵¹We are put to shame, for we have heard insults; dishonor has covered our face, for aliens have come into the holy places of the Lord’s house.
⁵²Therefore the time is surely coming, says the Lord, when I will punish her idols, and through all her land the wounded shall groan. ⁵³Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height, from me destroyers would come upon her, says the Lord.
⁵⁴Listen!—a cry from Babylon! A great crashing from the land of the Chaldeans! ⁵⁵For the Lord is laying Babylon waste, and stilling her loud clamor. Their waves roar like mighty waters, the sound of their clamor resounds; ⁵⁶for a destroyer has come against her, against Babylon; her warriors are taken, their bows are broken; for the Lord is a God of recompense, he will repay in full.
⁵⁷I will make her officials and her sages drunk, also her governors, her deputies, and her warriors; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake, says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
⁵⁸Thus says the Lord of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for fire.
Jeremiah 51:34-58, NRSV

Over and over Babylon has risen, and over and over these words have been declared from on high, and over and over these prophecies have been fulfilled. Such is the fate of all who blaspheme the Lord, the God of heaven and earth. Such is the fate of all who seek to build a city and a nation by their own wisdom, their own strength, and under the leadership of their own kings.

These shadows are with us still. Babylon has arisen again. The cycle has repeated. And John heard Jeremiah’s words spoken anew with reference to the final permutation of Babylon in Revelation 18:

¹After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was made bright with his splendor. ²He called out with a mighty voice,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul bird, a haunt of every foul and hateful beast. ³For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxury.”
⁴Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and so that you do not share in her plagues; ⁵for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. ⁶Render to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed. ⁷As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, so give her a like measure of torment and grief. Since in her heart she says, ‘I rule as a queen; I am no widow, and I will never see grief,’ ⁸therefore her plagues will come in a single day— pestilence and mourning and famine— and she will be burned with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”
⁹And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning; ¹⁰they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,
“Alas, alas, the great city, Babylon, the mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.” ¹¹And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, ¹²cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, ¹³cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, choice flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, slaves—and human lives. ¹⁴“The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your dainties and your splendor are lost to you, never to be found again!”
¹⁵The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
¹⁶“Alas, alas, the great city, clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! ¹⁷For in one hour all this wealth has been laid waste!”
And all shipmasters and seafarers, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off ¹⁸and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?” ¹⁹And they threw dust on their heads, as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, the great city, where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in one hour she has been laid waste.
²⁰Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints and apostles and prophets! For God has given judgment for you against her.”
²¹Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,
“With such violence Babylon the great city will be thrown down, and will be found no more; ²²and the sound of harpists and minstrels and of flutists and trumpeters will be heard in you no more; and an artisan of any trade will be found in you no more; and the sound of the millstone will be heard in you no more; ²³and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more; and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more; for your merchants were the magnates of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery. ²⁴And in you was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slaughtered on earth.”
Revelation 18:1-24, NRSV

Church of Jesus Christ around the world, those who have been faithful to the testimony of the prophets and apostles with Jesus as the chief cornerstone, who have not soiled their garments by adding or taking away from what has been written, who have never adulterated themselves with loyalty to the nations of the earth, God is now assaulting Babylon. The prophecies of Scripture are again being spoken and finding their fulfillment. Take heed and hear the call of the Spirit to the churches:

“Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and so that you do not share in her plagues; ⁵for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

Come out by repentance; come out by the confession in word and in deed that Jesus is Lord; come out by forgiveness, by generosity, by hospitality, by patience, by kindness, by self-control, by the denial of self, and by faith in Jesus.

Thus says the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the One True God of the heavens and the earth and the Lord Jesus Christ:

The current tribulations of the earth have been asked for, even demanded by the wise and the learned of your nations. You have wished for a universe without me, and you have prayed for my death. If I answered your prayers, the waters would overwhelm you like a flood, and life would be extinguished. But, in the days of Noah I promised never again to allow the waters to overwhelm the earth and extinguish all life. I am a God of hesed, and I will not change my mind.
And yet, I am giving you a taste of your desire. I keep the chaos at bay. I set the boundaries and preserve life in my creation. By my Word the universe is maintained, and by my Spirit you live and breathe and have your being. The atheists and agnostics have described a world to you without me, and, as Goliath in ages past, they have blasphemed my Name. I am allowing you to sample the world for which they have wished, and the world in which they have longed to live. They are the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you from your tribulations.
I am making war against the false gods of the heavens and the earth. Come out, come out, My people. Trust in them no longer. I am the God who became flesh in the Person of Jesus. I am the God Who lays down my life only to take it up again. I am the God who, while you were in your rebellion, stayed my hand and made a way from life to death for those who believe in Me and in My way. Put no faith in principalities and powers. I am the Lord who delivers you. Come, enter my rest, by trusting the way and Word of my Son with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your life.
But, to Babylon and her children, the way is made for you into the waters. Logic and reason are taken; wisdom is darkened; and order is turned back. Light is darkness and darkness is light. Heaven and earth are turned against you, and no rescue will come for your transgressions. When hope is within reach, it will depart from you; when peace is at hand, strife will erupt; when respite arrives, despair will dispel it. So shall it be until you repent of your rebellions and ask my faithful ones to intercede on your behalf.
Am I a human that I desire the death of the wicked? Am I not the crucified Lord who desires that the lost be found and the rebel be reconciled? Come to me in repentance, and I will hear. Turn from your selfishness and lustful desires, and I will make you whole again. Can life persist without my Spirit? Can orderliness be maintained without my faithfulness? Can a covenant be upheld without my hesed? This is the way of things, people of the earth, and they can be no other? Do not persist in your rebellions. The Day of the Lord is at hand.