Faith has come to our hearts in a very real sense. In years past, faith would somehow sustain us with hope or wishful thinking. However, once the word of God has come to us on a personal level and the Scriptures become not something unrelated to us, but God speaking to us right out of His Book, as well as by prophecy and revelation again confirmed to us by Scriptures, we come to the place where we are really believing God. And that is where the problems start. All the forces of hell may be pitted against us, but our faith whispers, “Tomorrow could be the day; this could be the time.” We feel as if we’re believing for something explosive. We know a process is taking place: we are growing and being positioned as we wait—not passively, but poised like a fighter waiting for an opening. And when we get that opening, we’re going to swing hard. We know God is with us; we sense something is going to break.
As we look around, the whole world seems to be a contradiction. In spite of the blossoming trees and the lovely flowers we see on a beautiful Spring day, we know it is all a lie. The world isn’t that beautiful; it’s ominous. It was probably a beautiful Spring day in Sodom too, when the fire of God fell. The Scripture says that the day of the Lord comes as a day of dark clouds (Joel 2:1, 2). No matter how beautiful a Spring day is, it isn’t real to me and hasn’t been for some time, for I am continually aware of the principalities and powers, the darkness that is coming over the face of the earth, and the glorious presence of the unseen ones—the angelic hosts and the spirits of just men made perfect. There is no rattle of sabers, no sound of munitions and tanks coming up. There is only an ominous silence as everything is poised and waiting for the conflict of the ages to be resolved. God is getting ready to slay the wicked one with the brightness of His coming (II Thessalonians 2:8). The age is getting ready to pass away with a shriek and a whine, and the Kingdom of God is coming forth within us.
There is something grim about this walk and we are living with it every day. In very few of our services do we feel a sweet peace and release. They are building faith toward the grim, vicious, and deadly front-line battle we’re in.
I’ve had to come to the place where I walk up to a man without any vindictiveness, and speak the truth to him, slaying him with the word of God. And that is very difficult. In prizefighting they call this a “killer instinct,” meaning that you wait for just the right moment when you can knock your opponent unconscious.
God is requiring of this walk and of this body, that they come against the witchcraft and Satanism and hit it hard, that they come against principalities and powers, that they loose the people of God to flow out of Babylon by the thousands and tens of thousands, that they stand ready to sacrifice so that when they do come out they get the right word, without wandering and perishing in the wilderness. This must be in our thinking. We can believe God to come against the hosts of sin. There dare not be any tendency toward tolerance. When you read in the Scriptures about the end time you will see that God is going to show mercy to those who call upon Him; but the rest of the world will experience His judgments. Let’s accept that. Let’s pray about it. Let’s stand ready and believe for God to bring it.
At the very beginning of this church, year after year the prophecies came concerning judgment. I knew that if God would bring judgment then, the people would react just as they did when the earth opened and swallowed up Korah. The next day the people came to Moses and said, “You killed the people of God.” They were sympathetic and blamed Moses for it. People would still be sympathetic today. Satan will prey upon this tendency toward human sympathy, and therefore you’d better get rid of it. Have the compassion of God, but when God brings judgment, beware that you don’t become sympathetic with the rebellious because of the rebellion in your own heart. Be ready for God to move with His Spirit and accomplish His will.
We’re not going to be afraid to speak forth the prophecies, for God will speak through His instruments. Our understanding or feelings concerning it will not mean a thing. If we are sympathetic concerning a situation, we can be deluded and blinded to the truth. When God gives a word and confirms it by His prophets, the judgments will sweep like fire across the earth. God will bring it to pass.