One More Door Closed

I was about to write, “I’m afraid I may start to appear obsessed with the rapture, but…”, and then I realized I don’t care if people think I’m obsessed with the rapture. If the rapture is really almost here, we should be obsessed with it. So here I go.

I have a Youtube channel. Actually, I have several, but Youtube denied me access to some by changing the login procedures. I guess the videos on those channels will be up, being ignored, when the Lord returns.

I don’t link to my main channel from my blog. I don’t have any desire to involve my blog readers with my videos.

Originally, my channel was about tools. Over time, it changed, and for quite a while, it has mostly been about God.

Yesterday I made a video about my recent boat dream. I was on a boat that started to sink, and I told someone to start the engines and get the boat moving so the water would run out. The dream was about prayer in tongues. When you don’t pray in tongues often enough, your life becomes like a sinking boat.

Last night, I tried to upload the video. Ordinarily, Youtube takes you through a few pages, and on the last page, you click a button labeled “Publish.” After that, the video finishes uploading, Youtube processes it, and it appears before your audience.

This time, the “Publish” button was greyed out. I was informed that Youtube would run a “check” on the video before it appeared. The ostensible purpose was to check for copyrighted material in order to prevent me from infringing.

Uploading finished some time last night. It’s 1:20 p.m., and the video is not published.

What’s happening? Will it ever appear? No idea.

Earlier today, when I realized the video was going to be a pain to publish, I felt God was telling me I didn’t have to do videos any more. I felt he was saying, “You said what I told you to say, and virtually no one listened. It’s only going to get worse. You are free to delete your channel so you won’t continue fighting a pointless battle.”

Yesterday, I had a similar feeling. I was praying with Rhodah. We were interceding for other people. We have a long list of people we have prayed for. I thought about all the people who hadn’t changed one bit since we started praying. I realized the problem wasn’t with God or ourselves. The people we had prayed for were refusing to change.

I came up with a list of people who had shown improvement, and we prayed for them. If you’re going to sow, you should sow in good soil. There is no point in continuing to pester God about people he has already tried to help.

I have been thinking about a lot of applicable scriptures.

A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

This all relates to the rapture. God is going to pull us out when our presence on earth ceases to produce adequate results. The phrase “turn again and rend you” is a description of persecution from an unreceptive world.

Jesus mentioned pearls because we are his pearls.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

We have been taught that the pearls are the good things we say to other people about God, but that isn’t true. Jesus is the merchant in the parable, and Jesus had no need to buy the gospel. He bought the saved. The word says we were bought with a price. Jesus gave all he had on earth in exchange for us.

When Jesus went to towns where they rejected him, he didn’t stick around, begging and cajoling. He left quickly, sometimes speaking judgment against them.

Jesus isn’t going to leave his pearls here forever. There is a limit to what he will let us endure.

I don’t pray for my sister to be saved. I used to. Then God showed me she was the obstacle. I was willing, the many people who have prayed for her were willing, and God was willing. God didn’t deny our requests. My sister denied his.

In 2015, God told me he had cut my dad off. I stopped praying for his healing and salvation, knowing it was a waste of time. My dad became demented and sick, and it wasn’t until he had been nearly destroyed that he accepted salvation.

On the other hand, there are people who listen to me and put what I tell them to use. I don’t have to chase after them and beg them. Life is much better when I focus on such people. The others bring discouragement. They make me doubt God, even though they, not God, are the ones denying my prayers.

God gives up on people. That’s not a popular thing to say, but it should be repeated over and over. He gave up on Sodom and Gomorrah. He gave up on Pharaoh and the Egyptian army. He gave up on the entire world in Noah’s time. He gave up on the Hebrews under Moses, and Moses had to remind him of Abraham in order to dissuade him from killing them all. He will give up on you, too, if you become so stubborn you can’t be helped. It’s important to know when you’re fighting a battle God told you to give up.

I think God is about to give up on the world. He has given us every chance. He even sent a plague, and there has been virtually no effort on our part to repent and get relief. Even in the midst of a pandemic, the celebration of sin, including homosexuality and pride, is burgeoning like never before.

Revival is going nowhere. There are individuals who are being used successfully to save others, but the numbers are minimal. There is no big movement anywhere. God restored the Holy Spirit to us over 100 years ago, and the response has slowed to a trickle.

I used to think the rapture and tribulation couldn’t come until we saw armies surrounding Jerusalem. In the book of Luke, Jesus said this:

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

He said that during a discussion of the end, but if you look at it closely, you can see it’s not about the apocalypse. It’s about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. He said Jerusalem would be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles was fulfilled. That trampling, and that age, clearly started when the Romans sacked Jerusalem. Muslims are trampling the temple area right now.

When will the age of the Gentiles be fulfilled? When we become as hard-headed as the religious Jews of Jesus’ time. We’re already there.

Should I be so pessimistic about other people when I took so long to come around? After all, the Hebrews danced naked before a golden calf, and Moses still asked God to save them, and Abraham prayed for the Sodomites. I think it’s different today. Christians have been interceding for the lost practically forever, and they haven’t changed.

It seems like the world is stuck in the mud. Travel and commerce are restricted. The plague and the hysterical responses to it are getting worse, so relief may not be coming. All over the world, people are staying home and doing nothing. Maybe this is the end of progress. Maybe we’re just waiting for a big event.

It will be interesting to see how the year finishes.