Luke 17

¹Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!

This verse seems to be about causing someone to stumble. A way to put it would be ” Sin is going to happen, but if a person causes another person to sin, they are going to be held accountable and it’s going to be really bad for them.

² It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

The woe that will come for the person who causes another to stumble will be severe. The word “Little-ones is used here, and it means anyone who is newly born again or even on their way to being born again, and this includes all children who rely on the surrounding adults to guide them in to truth. This speaks directly to the destabilization of children. Teaching children that their sex can be determined by choice and not by biology… introducing small children to deviant and perverse sexual practices and normalizing the behaviors. The little-ones in this verse also include newly born again or God seeking people who are lied to and lead astray. We are seeing a lot of that with the churches that have become less about salvation from sin and more about reaching your goals and getting wealthy. NO MAN CAN SERVE 2 MASTERS. We are seeing colleges providing safe spaces for people who can’t take hearing the opinions of others, so they never grow and become emotionally and mentally stable. There are children being trafficked and abused, and babies being murdered in their mother’s womb in the name of convenience.

³ Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.

Don’t let resentment and contempt take root between you and your brother/sister. The root of bitterness grows fast, I know because I’ve been there. I’ve had a dear friend who does one thing that is offensive, something I should talk to them about and expose the roots of. When you have a weed in your garden, you expose the weed to kill off the offending plant before it starts to choke out the good things you have growing near it…. and the thing about a weed is, they always grow faster than the desired plants do… so you have to get right on top of the weed the second it pokes through the soil. So, when something comes up between you and a brother, address it right away, or you could end up like I did with my friend. See, after the offense, I became bitter and suddenly every single fault she ever had was larger than life… it was all I could see. Then, the devil, being like he is, sent in a new friend who would spend time talking badly about my offending friend. Before long, I was no longer walking in blessings… I was shady, bitter and annoyed. It took years to work through.

⁴ And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

Be as long-suffering and merciful as you are going to want Jesus to be when you stand before him.

⁵ And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

⁶ And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

Here is my question… is there any such thing as a teeny bit of absolute faith? Like, can you even measure how much believing wholeheartedly is? You either do or you don’t, there isn’t an amount. A mustard seeds worth of absolute faith with not even the teeniest bit of doubt… is an atom splitting event in your walk with God. And like a mustard seed that grows into a tree that the birds of the air come to roost in, others will be drawn to you because of the work of God in your life, and you will be able to use your faith to grow theirs.

⁷ But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?

⁸ And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?

⁹ Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.

Trow not means I think not or I believe not.

¹⁰ So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

¹¹ And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

¹² And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

¹³ And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

¹⁴ And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

¹⁵ And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

¹⁶ And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

¹⁷ And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

¹⁸ There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

¹⁹ And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

²⁰ And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

²¹ Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

²² And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.

In the end, during the great tribulation, we will be super thirsty for the appearing of Jesus because the times will be very hard to endure. All the seal judgments, the trumpet judgment and the vial judgments written about in the book of Revelation will be happening around us…. the time will be a time of fear, hunger, persecutions, death, disease….wars… a time so grievous this world has never seen before. Think about that… the bubonic plague… the flood… the inquisition ….all of the wars…. the natural disasters…. the horrors of terrorism…..crimes….mass murders…. people being slaughtered in the streets… we have endure these things in the past, but not all at one time… and not all mankind at one time. We always had other people that were not affected that survived and in many cases, helped the others who were affected to recover…. but this time, there will be no one that is unaffected. To top that off, there will be a bounty on the heads of believers. In this time, people will wish for the return of Jesus to come soon… the Maranatha Cry– Lord Jesus, Come!
In a situation like that, where all of these things are happening with no relief on the horizon other than the hope of the coming of the Lord, people will be ripe for deception and will be susceptible to the false prophets who will offer hope and resources in exchange for their solidarity. These Angels of light will be so convincing the Bible says in Matthew 24:24 “For false christs and false prophets will arise, and will do great miracles and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible, the very elect should be deceived.” So settle it into your heart now, you will not be going to Jesus… Jesus is going to come for you and gather you where ever you are. Settle it in your heart now, you will suffer… but it will be nothing compared to forever in hell, away from God… and all goodness… in torment forever more. Hell is forever… you have this time on Earth to receive Jesus… after death is Judgment. Look also at the parable of the 10 virgins again….these were all CHRISTIANS… all 10. The wise virgins are right now as I write this, gathering oil for their Lamps… they are preparing for DARKNESS… because that is why you need oil for your Lamp, so you have fuel to light the fire and drive off the dark and see your path clearly. They all had LAMPS…but a lamp without oil is not enough to drive away the dark and light your path. We need more than simple head knowlegde and luke warm connections to Jesus to survive the coming trial…. we are going to need the Light of Jesus and now is the time to get that… once the Bride Groom comes and the prepared virgins enter into the chambers the doors will be shut.

²³ And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.

²⁴ For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.

The Kingdom of God is not something that comes through the eyes, but it comes up inside our spirit, which communes with God. Because of this, we can all safely dismiss any sightings of Jesus or God or things that pertain to God’s Kingdom coming. When Jesus does come back, we who are ready are going to know because he will change us incorruptible and rapture us to accompany him when judgment falls on the inhabitants left on the earth that are rebelling against God. When Jesus comes back in the second coming, he will find us and gather us to him, we do not need to go looking for him.

²⁵ But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.

Right now Christians are being murdered for their unshakable faith in Jesus because they refuse to deny Jesus. Right now there is a campaign that calls good evil and evil good so the people feel justified in persecuting Christians… and later when they begin killing us, their conscious will already be so used to their beliefs that they are righteous and Christians are the problem… they won’t think twice and will celebrate at the death of believers in Jesus. On social media you can see a sudden and profound shift of the minds of the masses against Christians. In America we have NEVER seen actual persecution for believing in Jesus, we’ve seen push back that we called persecution, but never the real deal. There is a weakness in the Christians who when facing pushback immediately cry “PERSECUTION” because it gives the idea that, 1, you are weak spiritually and are crushed under the weight of not being liked or facing an opinion that opposes your own… and 2, that you are being persecution by someone saying something that opposes your beliefs. People who are… at this very moment… trying to survive in a place where the armies are searching for them to put them in prison or to death find this tragic for you… for us in the pampered US…. because they realize how utterly unprepared for the coming trials we are about to face. We here in the US operate under 2 mistaken beliefs… 1, the RAPTURE will come and save you from WRATH because God didn’t appoint us to WRATH… ok, lets talk about that. The belief that being put to death and enduring the tribulation is the wrath of God is mistaken….the wrath of God comes with the Vial or Bowl Judgments….and those don’t happen until the end of the 7 years… which means, SURPRISE, you will be here during this time of trying. You will not face the wrath of God, but you will face the wrath of the devil as he works out his anger toward God and all his children. So, we aren’t appointed to receive the wrath of God… but not all wrath comes from God. The 2nd belief is that of entitlement and the notion of being exempt from the same trials going on in these countries killing off believers… the whole “I’m so blessed to be an American” needs a good examination. Lets get in to that now… While we are blessed to be American, even now as the moral decay is happening, we are blessed… but, with that blessing there is a cost and a dues and a responsibility. The cost is, we are so weak we think being told off for being a Christian is the same as what the Disciples endured when they had to answer for their faith… and tragically, this brings American Christians to tears and deep discouragement because the faith we have has NEVER been tested the way the faith of the disciples has or the faith of the Christians being put to death for their beliefs have. And heres the thing… those Christians were converted to Jesus in that atmosphere of persecution… and we in America compromise our beliefs to be inclusive. So Blessed… hardly since the lack of a challenge has caused us to fall asleep on top of our Bibles… with the intention that one day you’ll read the word. The dues we pay is we are losing this country because there are not enough dedicated Christians praying for our leaders… myself included…. I find myself just tossing up my hands and fighting the feelings of why bother… only to be convicted of the verse in the Bible that commands us too. King Saul was rogue… and David prayed for him even as Saul actively attempted to kill David, he prayed for him. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
Our repsponsibilty is to prepare. We have all this time now to load up in Oil for our lamps… to ready our faith for the trial that’s coming. I see videos on youtube, Tiktok and reels of other Christians desparately trying to shake our brothers and sisters in the Lord to wake them up…and when I see these videos, my heart is quickened with a sense of urgency. If it wasn’t, and instead I considered the warnings coming forth of late as simply the same message as always, then I would question my connection to God. The Holy Spirit that lives in all believers is bringing this message out , so if I wasn’t getting that message… then my hearing is dull and I am in real danger.

²⁶ And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

Yes, like back in Noah’s day when he was for years and years building that Arc in a drought while preaching of a coming flood… trying to wake up the people and get them to start getting ready for the coming rain… the people mocked and laughed and went on with life as always. Like people are doing now… and you know, I’m going to also guess that some of the people that were swept away in the flood believed in God, they just weren’t commited to him the way Noah was and they lived a life of compromise and spiritual procrastination.Now when people say things to describe someone who is lost this way they sometimes say the person had no faith and for years and years I didn’t get that saying… but today I know it means, they didn’t believe in God enough to form a connection with him and they didn’t believe the word enough to prepare for the events the Bible warns is coming.

²⁷ They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

²⁸ Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

That is how convinced these people were that judgment wasn’t coming… so convinced they weren’t paying it any mind. They were singularly invested in the life they were living with no space given for God. They weren’t even worried that they were about to be judged because they didn’t believe it was going to happen.

²⁹ But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

³⁰ Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

³¹ In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

³² Remember Lot’s wife.

Let go the things that this life has and focus on Jesus…don’t get caught up in the life here so much that you are relying on the world more than God.. Lot’s wife was not really ready to leave that life behind her. Her focus was not on the path ahead, but the world behind her… the one that God was saving her from… this is the warning to us not to be entangled with the things of this life so much that we aren’t 100 percent invested in the things that Jesus has for us and laying up treasures in heaven.

³³ Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

If we get all tied up trying to live in this world we don’t even have time for God, we will lose our soul….but if we die to this world, we will gain eternal life with Jesus. The time is coming when this is exactly the choice you will have to make. And while we can sit here and say… I KNOW WHAT I’M GOING TO CHOOSE… JESUS..I DON’T CARE IF THEY KILL ME…that doesn’t make you strong enough to endure to the end….Reading the word and learning about God… and Jesus… and the Holy Spirit… filling your spirit up on the things of God…, growing a spiritual resource to draw from in your time of testing is the only way any of us stand any kind of a chance. NOW… NOW… RIGHT NOW is the time you have, because at any minute your time can come. Look at how fast the covid thing changed society… and as I write this they are moving to control all of your money by getting rid of cash completely and filtering all of your purchases through the federal government… they want that in place by I think it’s July, could be June though.

³⁴ I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.

³⁵ Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

³⁶ Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

³⁷ And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

Judgment is coming … right now is the time to get ready for what is coming our way… in less than a month things can change dramatically and the life you live now will be a thing of the past. Get oil for those lamps…. get spiritual supplies in your spirit.