KNOWING THE TIMES AND SEASONS
(week 50/10)
OLUBI JOHNSON
1 Thessalonians 5:1-4 MKJV: But of the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that I write to you. (2) For you yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. (3) For when they shall say, Peace and safety! Then sudden destruction comes on them, as travail upon a woman with child. And they shall not escape. (4) But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that the Day should overtake you like a thief.
Here the Holy Spirit through Paul tells us that we should know perfectly or accurately the times and seasons of the Lord’s return so that His return will not overtake us like a thief.
We are now in the 3rd day: the 3rd millennium from the birth of Christ and just about to experience the 1st stage of His coming: the coming to and in the church in His perfection and fullness:
This return will cause a manifestation of the glory of God by the release of the Spirit without measure that will cause the church to break, rule and disciple the nations, starting with the church after which the Lord will now return the 2nd stage: the rapture.
It is vital that we have an accurate understanding of the times and seasons of this advent so we will not be overtaken as a thief.
In fact we need lucid apostolic and prophetic preaching, teaching and utterances so we will know what we ought to do and how and when to do It, hence this message and others like it that are being sounded out like a trumpet from prophetic ministries in the body of Christ. This truth is typified in the following scriptures:
1 Chronicles 12:32 MKJV: And from the sons of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, the heads of them were two hundred. And all their brothers were at their command.
Joel 2:1 NIV: Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand-
In particular it is crucial to know that we are to go to break, rule and disciple the nations after the glory and not before!
Zechariah 2:5-8 MKJV: And I, says Jehovah, will be to her a wall of fire all around, and will be the glory in her midst. (6) Ho! Ho! Flee then from the land of the north, says Jehovah. For I have scattered you as the four winds of the heavens, says Jehovah. (7) Ho! O Zion, escape, you who live with the daughter of Babylon. (8) For so says Jehovah of Hosts: He has sent me after glory, to the nations who stripped you; for he who touches you touches the pupil of His eye.
Observe that the Zion church is instructed to escape from the Babylon spirit in the church and it is doing this that triggers the manifestation of the glory of God and the breaking, ruling and discipling of firstly the church (1 Pet. 4:17) and then afterwards the nations.
This escape from Babylon is effected by consistent effectual watching and praying by partaking of abundant (Jn. 10:10) measures of the divine nature: the life of God.
Luke 21:36 KJV: Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
2 Peter 1:2-4 MKJV: Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, (3) according as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and virtue, (4) through which He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
It is vital to know that there is a spiritual force coming from Satan and his cohorts (Eph. 6:12) through the air attacking our souls and bodies seeking to draw us into and keep us in Babylon: the harlot church. We must overcome this force by watching and praying always using an abundance of the divine nature: the life of God.
Ephesians 2:2-3 ESV: in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience– (3) among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
1 John 2:14-17 MKJV: I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (15) Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, (16) because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (17) And the world passes away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.
1 John 4:1-4 MKJV: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits to see if they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (2) By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God; (3) and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the antichrist you heard is coming, and even now is already in the world. (4) You are of God, little children, and you have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
In our article next week. we will see that the Lord Jesus knew the times and seasons of God’s purposes in His ministry and how we are to copy His example.
