God has a timetable of judgment that is involved with His timetable of blessings. The blessings into which the remnant is to enter have to be in harmony with God’s schedule of judgments. This is a divine principle in the Word. Abraham was led out of Ur of Chaldees and finally made it to Canaan. He was told that his seed would go down into Egypt, remain there for four hundred years, and then would be brought out to possess the land of Canaan. God said, “For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16). Over four hundred years later, when Joshua led the children of Israel into Canaan, it was time for a war of annihilation, where not a man, woman, or child was to be spared. Why such a bloodthirsty war? Because the iniquity of the people in that land had come to the full; even archaeology shows that these were a wicked people. God timed it so that His elect would come into their inheritance simultaneously with the time of judgment coming upon the inhabitants of the land.
I think we were ready to move into the full restoration of the Church twenty years ago, but God held us back because the iniquity of Babylon was not come to the full. Now Babylon is coming down everywhere, and the people of the Lord are coming out of her. As God’s people, we are moving ahead as rapidly as we can in order to point the way to these who will keep coming out of Babylon. It is all in God’s time schedule. The judgments of the earth and the period of restoration comprise one schedule; and nation after nation will fall under judgment, just as it was in the Bible times.
When people talk about tribulation, they often visualize it as happening simultaneously over the earth, but this is not necessarily so. During the past generation, one nation after another has suffered the judgment of God in a measure: yet never all at one time. God keeps dealing with one area after another. We must be alert to this and be like the fruit pickers who move with the harvest. When it is time to pick grapes, they are ready to pick grapes; when it is time to pick apricots, they are ready to pick apricots; when it is time to pick oranges, they are ready to pick oranges. Jesus said, “Look up at the harvest field. Do not say, ‘There are yet four months till the harvest.’ It is here now” (John 4:35).
There will be earthquakes in diverse places (Matthew 24:7), but the whole earth will never be quaking all at once. Judgments will strike in different places, and blessings will be poured out in various places. Each will move according to God’s timetable; and if we are alert, we can be led by the Spirit of the Lord so that an apostolic company arrives in the right place at the right time.
It will be difficult for us to live in an atmosphere of judgment without being given to sympathy over what we see taking place. In the Bible days people had the same problem with sympathy. When Korah rebelled against Moses, Korah and all who were sympathetic with him, as well as their families, were separated from the rest of the people. Then Moses said, “If these men die a natural death, then God has not called me,” and immediately the earth opened up and swallowed them (Numbers 16:29–33). The next day the people murmured against Moses, “You have slain the people of the Lord” (Numbers 16:41). Instead of learning the lesson, they became sympathetic.
This is a day of extreme tolerance. The world is trying to change all ideas of God until He appears to be just a benevolent old man blessing everyone. God has a plan and a purpose, and this age will end with the greatest judgments any age or dispensation of time has ever seen! When judgment strikes the earth, many Christians will find themselves included in that judgment because they are sympathetic. People have become so tolerant that they think it is almost a Christian principle to say, “Live and let live.” But in this day God will say to many people, “You live and let them die.”
Of course such an attitude will bring persecution, and it has already started. But up until recently we have learned about warfare mostly as a result of things which came up within the Body. It was of the Lord that we were protected from assault from without while we were learning how to cope with constant assault and oppression. I believe that within a very short time there will be restored a deep unity in the Body which will bring an end to all inner conflict. This does not mean that we are divided, but it means Satan has been allowed to war within the Body. Now the Body will draw close together, and the warfare will be with those from without who come against the Body, with those whom God judges.
Long before God’s judgments became evident in the earth, the Lord spoke to me of things that at times seemed very strange. The word came, “The slain of the Lord at thy feet will be multitudes.” It will be true. For two or three years we have heard that the judgments of the Lord will begin to come forth through His remnant. Let us believe it and start praying for it. God is laying an initiative upon us. We are not to pray as though everything is to be done apart from us; we are to accept the growing role we have as kings and priests of God. We must accept the responsibility of judgment. God will judge, but He will not do it independently. It will be as though we ourselves were completely the agents of judgment. We will speak the word. What if we are wrong? It is very important that we not be wrong, that we seek the Lord and find the mind of the Lord concerning a situation. If the individuals who are persecuting us falsely are to be redeemed, then we must pray to that end. If, however, it is a time that God is starting the judgments in the earth and these are to be examples of judgment, then we pray that way.
We cannot allow our emotions to enter into our ministry. The early Church had to learn that. Imagine how many people the Apostle Paul ministered to who were widows or orphans because of his persecution of the believers before he was converted. They had to accept this man and submit to him as an apostle of the Lord, even though he had been responsible for some of the greatest sorrows and griefs they had ever known. We too must be impersonal. Human emotions must be absolutely subjugated to our doing the will of God. We are willing to be agents in the hand of the Lord, but we must be sure we are not vindictive and emotional people who start on a retaliation program. That absolutely cannot be in our thinking. We move as the children of God with a real dedication.
It was not vindictive when the Apostle Peter said that Ananias and Sapphira were going to drop dead (Acts 5:1–10). It was something that God spoke, and Peter accepted it as God’s way of protecting the unity of the Body which had been violated. It was essential that it be protected, for if the internal integrity and unity of the Body had been broken then, the Church would have been destroyed by the persecutions that followed. God had to maintain that unity, and it was maintained even when the Body was scattered all over the world after the death of Stephen (Acts 11:19).
There can be no vindictive feelings in our hearts. Anyone who has that spirit should pray earnestly about it. The Lord has never been interested in vindicating any ministry who suffered persecution. Vindication is never really the issue. Blessed are those who suffer for Christ’s sake because they are going to rule with Him. Let us come forth with a right spirit, so that when it is all finished, we can honestly say that our only concern was that we do the perfect will of God exactly as He wanted it, every step of the way.
We are not even in the beginning of sorrows (Mark 13:8); we are just at the fringe of it. What is going to happen now? What are we supposed to do? Some of the answers are found in a passage in II Thessalonians. When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day. To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and every work of faith, with power; that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. II Thessalonians 1:10–12.
Christ is coming to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at. We will be facing many things in the days just ahead of us. The Lord is setting the stage on which He will be revealed and glorified and marveled at in His saints. The way we react in all of this is very important. This is the day of the revelation of the Lord. God will not do anything just to vindicate us. It is very important for us to understand that. He may place us in a position of real suffering for only one reason: so that He can be marvelled at in us. We must keep that in mind.
This is not a time when we will suddenly avenge all the evil that sinners have done to us. Instead we will have a chance to show the sinner that Christ is in our hearts, by loving him, feeding him, and caring for him in days of disaster, by helping the neighbor who was ready to sue us or was insulting to us. When the pressures and difficulties come, that is the time people reveal their selfishness. In the days just before us, to give a cup of cold water will be to show the love of God.
What do you think will happen when real disaster comes? People will shoot one another down to get five gallons of gasoline or a loaf of bread. That is the reason you will show forth the Lord. He will be marveled at in you and be glorified in you.
One of the most dishonest men in the Old Testament was Laban. He even cheated Jacob; and that took some doing, for Jacob was a master at cheating. Jacob lied to his own father and cheated his own brother. Fearful for his life, Jacob fled from Esau, his brother, and went to work for Laban. He agreed to work seven years for Laban’s daughter Rachel; however, Laban deceived him, and Jacob found himself married to Rachel’s sister. He worked another seven years for Rachel. Laban changed his wages many times. Finally Jacob decided to leave secretly. Laban caught up with him and would have killed his own son-in-law, but God spoke to him and warned him. Although Laban had been mean to Jacob, he still wanted him to stay. He told Jacob, For I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. Genesis 30:27b.
Do not be surprised if a lot of mean people hang onto your coattail when disaster comes. A man shall be for a hiding place in that day (Isaiah 32:2). There will be no protection in money or anything you can save. The only protection is that God has made you a refuge in the sanctuary of the Lord, a person in whom the Lord will be revealed and glorified and at whom people will marvel.