In the days ahead of us, the spirit realm is going to become so real to the believer. There will be visitations that are not vagaries nor obscure impressions, as we walk in the things of another world. This is very Scriptural: it has been there in the Word all the time. We have not understood it, but we will, as the veil is taken from the Scriptures.
I Thessalonians 4:14, 15 tells us, For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep.
We who are alive and remain at the coming of the Lord will not precede them; but the Lord will bring them with Him, so that they will hover close at the time of the Parousia, the presence of the Lord. When the set moment comes, in that twinkling of an eye, the dead in Christ will rise—and if you are alive and remain to that moment, you will be amazed to learn that they have been hovering over and have been participating in the end time events.
The entire Body of Christ, saints of the old and new testaments alike, will be functioning during this wind up of the church age. When Christ comes, in the hovering end time events prior to the great resurrection, they will be participating. They already have begun.
People do not understand—and some will find it difficult to accept the fact—that there is always an Ishmael thing first, a false thing that comes and sweeps the world. The false christs and false prophets have to come before the true prophets arrive on the scene. This is Satan’s effort to try to discourage the people, so that when the true thing comes, they are conditioned to reject it. They respond automatically. Let me give you a few illustrations to clarify this.
Prior to the great divine healing outpouring, the greatest fad in the world was Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science. This was an idealistic, mind over matter teaching, but it did a great deal to discredit divine healing before it came.
In the holiness movement, people were conditioned by seeing so much fanaticism that they couldn’t accept the real moving of the Spirit when it did fall. Fifty years passed between the time that they could have opened their hearts to it and the time the denominational churches began receiving the charismatic renewal. Then it started, not in the holiness movement, but in the Episcopal Church. Always the false thing came and swept through the country, as Satan’s way of discrediting the true.
During the nineteenth century, the Fox sisters were probably the first outstanding ones to bring forth spiritualism with seances and communication with the dead. There has been some of that almost from the beginning of time. The witch of Endor is even mentioned in the Scriptures. The prophet Samuel probably saw and battled with witchcraft on a level the world has never seen. He not only succeeded in battling it, but he founded the school of the prophets, who came forth under the power of God. The witchcraft of that day was put down until even King Saul, who had cooperated with its destruction, had to look far and near to find one witch shortly before his death in battle.
In this endtime we are witnessing the renewal of witchcraft. This is Satan’s effort to try to discredit the fact that there will be not curses, but judgment. It’s just a fine line. Seeing what God is doing now, some might say, “That’s witchcraft.” Why? Because, knowing of a great revival of witchcraft on the earth, when they see God sending judgment, they say, “It’s like the curses of witchcraft.” There is no comparison. Nevertheless, Satan is again making an effort to discredit the people of God who will walk in the endtime judgments.
There is a real moving of God that is bringing forth the whole Body, the invisible church as well as the visible church, into focus once again. They are glorifying the Lord in the endtime events. There is a great difference between spiritualism and what God is giving in the spiritual support spoken of in Hebrews 12:… seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Hebrews 11 gives the roll call of faith. These all died in the faith, but they weren’t made perfect. Without us they can’t be made perfect. The endtime church will move into liberations, principles and spiritual levels beyond anything experienced in the generations past.
When the Lord takes the seals off the books, He brings forth a knowledge, a wisdom, a restoration which becomes accumulative. Even Daniel saw that. When he was inquiring about certain things, he was told to seal up the book until the time of the end.
This is the time all the seals are being taken off—the restraint of knowledge and wisdom, of the supernatural, and the intuitive world that belongs to the people of God are being lifted, and Satan is trying to discredit that by diverting public interest to ESP, parapsychology, etc., and people begin to study all of these things. Satan tries to convince them what we are doing is spooky and way out, and good people start retreating from it, for they don’t want to get involved with it.
God knows what He is doing, and we are not going to move in less, but we are going to move in more. We will see the prophets and prophetesses, the visions and the dreams, the revelations, the mighty exploits that Daniel saw. They that do know their God will be strong and do exploits (Daniel 11:32). We will see fantastic things. We will see feats like Samson performed. We’ll experience the immunities, the things that you see in symbolic form as when nothing could stop the two witnesses in the book of Revelation. God will have a remnant who will give the greatest witness the world has ever received, for the next age is the age of the Kingdom.
Be sure that you don’t miss the great thing that is taking place, for the church as a whole is drifting right on to the end of the age. Out of the church God is taking a remnant of people in whom He is bringing forth the power and authority of the Kingdom and they are being given a message. Matthew 24 tells us that the last thing to happen upon this earth is that this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached for a witness in all the world and then shall the end come—not the end of the world, but the end of that age.
This is not the same gospel that has been preached throughout the centuries—this is the gospel of the Kingdom. The beginning of a walk with God is: the message of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is Lord and He is King. This was the message at the beginning of the church age and is again at the close of the church age. At the beginning of the church age Peter preached on the day of Pentecost how God had raised up this Jesus of Nazareth and made Him both Lord and Christ (Acts 2). This was the real gospel, but His being preached as the Savior has been the great occupation of the church.
When you exalt Him as Lord and see Him become the real Lord of your life, then many things start taking place. This endtime moving of the Holy Spirit comes forth preparing a people who actually are going to be the instrument to launch that age which is coming. It is already breaking. This is almost a paradoxical thing in the world today, for in most churches there is talk about the last days, but here we are talking about the new day. The last days are coming upon the whole earth, but there is a new day dawning. I Thessalonians 5 says we are not of the night; we’re of the day. It cautions us to watch and be sober, for they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that are drunken are drunken in the night. Therefore we are to put on the armor, getting ready for the great final battle. We’re girded for it, ready to enter in.
If you have been so fortunate as to have the Lord bless you and bring you into this walk, don’t let anything stop you until God gives you a full revelation of what it is all about. To be able to see where you are, and what you were chosen to be, you will have to have it by revelation; for God has chosen you. Many are called, but few chosen. Matthew 22:14. And God has been calling, calling so many.