Luke 21: 13-38

¹³ And it shall turn to you for a testimony.

¹⁴ Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:

¹⁵ For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

When standing before the judge to give account of our beliefs, we do not want our flesh answering for us, so rehearsing what we will say is not the way to go since you want the flesh completely submitted to God and you want to allow the Holy Spirit flowing through you testifying about Jesus. If anything spend the time waiting in prayer as the Holy Spirit leads you.

¹⁶ And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.

People are going to be convinced that the Christians are the reason all the bad things like famine and disease are happening…I base this in the 2 witnesses who have the power to stop the rain…and to do miracles. These two witnesses of God will be causing hardship on the evil men and women…so being one of them will cause people to hate you and to betray you. After these two witnesses are slain in the street, the people celebrate…. they send gifts to each other and throw parties. Also, if food and medication is scarce, people will betray one another to get those things. Right now there is a move to control information complete with a global gaslighting so that people don’t know what or who to believe….this creates paranoia and when paranoia takes over, people turn on one another easily. This is one reason why we need to shut down all other sources of information and rely only on the word of God.
Revelation 11:3-10 ³ And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.⁴ These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.⁵ And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.⁶ These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.⁷ And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.⁸ And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.⁹ And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.¹⁰ And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

¹⁷ And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.

The level of dislike that Christians in America experience will seem like nothing compared to the HATRED that is coming. We here in the US think having our religious rights challenged is persecution, and it is…but not the level it will become in the end times, when they will hate us so much they want us dead. The consensus about Christians in that time will be that they are the enemy. Remember how Jesus was brought before Pilate with the crowd calling for his life…. Jesus who had spent his entire life loving everyone, healing the sick, raising the dead, delivering people from demons… feeding the hungry….this same Jesus was turned on in a flash…. and he stood there as the crowd chanted to put him to death. That same hatred is going to cause people to call for the lives of all of us Christians…. they will hate us because of Jesus that lives in us and through us.

¹⁸ But there shall not an hair of your head perish.

¹⁹ In your patience possess ye your souls.

A promise and instructions from God.

²⁰ And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

²¹ 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.

Revelation12:6 ⁶ And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
(There is a time frame for this event…1260 years or 3.5 years, the same time frames the 2 witnesses will have….the last 3.5 years of the 7-year tribulation. The people of Israel are told to flee to the mountains…where they will be sustained and protected.)

²² For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

God instructs the people of Israel to flee to the mountains before the days of vengeance. It seems to me there will be actions taken by the antichrist and the people following him and actions also taken by the 2 witnesses. The second 3.5 years are the hardest of the years….so things will be intense and escalating every day.

²³ 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.

Recently we had a formula shortage, parents were distressed looking for food for their babies. Relief came quickly enough, none of the babies actually starved or had health issues as a result of not having formula…. but what will happen when that relief doesn’t come at all? What will happen when the sick baby can’t get medical attention?

²⁴ 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.

The greatest persecution of the Israel and the Church in all of the history….and also, one of the greatest revivals.

²⁵ And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

²⁶ Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

²⁷ And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

²⁸ And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

²⁹ And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;

³⁰ When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.

This verse struck me… this part “…..,ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.” So like if someone comes along, looks at the shoots and says… Yep, it’s the beginning of winter… you should know in yourself that isn’t right… the shoots mean summer is coming.

³¹ So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.

³² Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.

³³ Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

³⁴ And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

We need to focus on the Word! Keep our spiritual eyes open…. pray for God to show us…. we need to be spiritually minded and focused on the things of God and not get all tangled up in worldliness….at all times and even more so in the end times. Like in the days of Noah… the people had seen this man preaching and building the arc forever it seems…. and they blew it all off, kept on partying and carrying on….and they laughed when he and his family, with all the animals entered the arc…. they laughed until the rain started. I imagine they knew there was no hope because they heard Noah all those years and knew what he said was coming was actually going to happen… they sat with that information until the floodwaters swept them away…too late to change their minds now.

³⁵ For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

³⁶ 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.

This is my prayer… DO NOT GET SO PUFFED UP THAT YOU THINK YOU WOULD NEVER… remember Peter…. Peter loved Jesus… he walked with Jesus… he told Jesus he would never deny him…. but he did. Peter didn’t know his own heart, but Jesus did…. and Jesus knows my heart too….so my prayer is Lord prepare me… let me be accounted worthy…. let me be strong to stand to the end and hold on to my testimony… I need YOUR STRENGTH…. my own strength has failed me in the past. Stay humble before the Lord.

³⁷ And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives.

³⁸ And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.