"The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valour..." Testimony regarding the beginning of the End..

And the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and said, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valour.”

“Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wonders of which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Has not the LORD brought us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”

The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?”…

Judges 6:12-14

Greetings ATS, and welcome to the strange times that we live in. These are days in which we will be tested by the difficulties we are faced with, days in which we will see wonders, in which we will need discernment & yes, even a passion for true holiness. Because in order to ascend the hill of the LORD, we will need clean hands & a pure heart. These things can only be found by supplication to God, and so humility is needed first and foremost.

The scripture I have quoted above is dear to my heart, as it is the first statement of the Old Testament which was given to me by the pastor who led me to Christ. I had reached a point of rock bottom, total desperation in which I felt lost beyond all measure. In my distress, I looked up to the stars above & cried out to God: "If you're real, show yourself to me, and I will follow you all the days of my life". The next day, feeling that nothing had changed, I was drinking vodka in the town centre, slumped in a doorway, drunk at 11am, drowning my sorrows. Suddenly, I caught notice of a woman in front of me. She had walked a little past me without noticing me, but suddenly stopped, turned to me & pointed at me. "You've been praying.." she said, "God answers prayer - come with me."

With that, she led me to an Evangelical Church a bloack away from where I had been sitting. On entering, she introduced me to the pastor & explained that the Lord had told her to bring me there. The pastor sat with me to understand my situation, and he explained the gospel to me. At the time, I had been a spiritual seeker, but I was also deeply troubled by spiritual persecution. I'd had a few supernatural experiences, including an out of body experience in which I was attacked by a demon, and a very peculiar dream, in which the Lord Jesus had appeared to me, demonstrating miraculous powers, and offering a promise of conferring the same upon me in the future, as tools for a purpose that He would one day reveal. At the pastor's explanation of the gospel, the weight of the previous five years fell off my shoulders as I prayed to accept Christ. Having done so I felt lighter, free, full of hope for the first time in a long time.

The pastor suddenly looked thoughtful, and after a moment, he said: "The Lord has given me a scripture for you, which He wants me to explain - it's Judges chapter 6, verse 12 - "..the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and said, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valour.” Naturally, I didn't understand this business of God 'giving me a scripture', but the pastor explained the gifts of the Holy Spirit, saying that he had felt God speak to him inwardly, impressing upon him the need to share the message of that Biblical verse. He stated that in no uncertain terms, God was referring to me as a warrior, called to warfare on behalf of the Kingdom of Heaven.

At the time, I felt exactly like Gideon, I felt weak & insignificant, totally incapable of leading anyone into battle, totally overwhelmed by the thought of the spiritual enemies I had encountered in the preceeding years of my difficulties (at the time of my conversion, I was nineteen years old, and had struggled due to the effects of a drug-induced psychosis since I was sixteen. At the point of my conversion, much of the spiritual oppression I had been suffering with dropped away, though some remained, which was cleared over the next couple of years through prayer with fellow Christians, particularly those with the gift of discernment, who practised deliverance ministry, who blessed me with words of prophecy, healing & wisdom as the months passed. A friend who was in my accommodation witnessed a vision of two angels casting out a demon from me when I was sleeping - a gift from God, preventing the trauma which would have been incurred in the process had I been awake when the exorcism took place.

You see, I am just as human as anyone else, just as susceptible to the perils of this fallen world, and the foolish decisions which I made during my troubled youth. God has called me to speak words of faith, hope & grace, but He has also called me to warfare, to battle forces which have cursed Mankind since the earliest days of our sojourn in this world. All power, all gifts, all titles & names are entirely God's to give, as He sees fit, and the days are coming where much that was hidden, or obfuscated, will be made plain, easy for all to understand, so that everyone can make their choices, in the full knowledge of the Truth.

Continued...

This world is currently at war. The people of all nations are being assaulted both physically & spiritually by powers which care nothing for any of us. The humans who do their bidding are diabolical, near-irredeemable, because they too made their choices from a place of knowledge, not ignorance. That is why so many of the world's peoples will be forgiven their sins, even if they do not know the One who is king of all Creation, because they only ever acted out of ignorance, from the hurt & pain which are derived from the trauma caused by those who should have known better, who were accountable before God to show love to the children in their care.

I believe the time is coming where He will "..turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” (Malachi 4: 6)

We are at war, with those who care nothing for the blessings which God wants to bestow, despite the fact that they have known that God is real, that He loves us, that He has a plan for us - they who willfully rebelled, who willfully abused the young whom they were supposed to love, as part of the schemes of the Devil, inducing deliberate trauma to fracture the minds of the little children, as part of their advanced diabolical rites which were intended to purchase for them temporal power at the expense of their souls - they believed a lie, knowing it was almost certainly a lie, and they did so with reckless abandon, fuelled by hedonistic fury & a spirit of rebellion.

Those are the ones who use sophistry & political machinations to secure their worldly power & status (the corporate behemoths of the World Economic Forum), who will throw away their eternal inheritance for a bowl of soup, relatively speaking. They have been willing to conduct the greatest attempt at genocide that the world has ever known - far worse than the Holocaust, because this scheme involves an attempt to wipe billions off the face of the Earth, not 'mere' millions. They, and the powers which fuel them, are the enemies of Christ for what they have done, and the time is near that He will bring justice to the Earth. Nobody knows the day or the hour at which He will unleash His vengeance against them, but I believe it is coming relatively soon, because I have seen fulfilled several signs which were revealed to me many years ago in a series of dreams, which offered precise renderings of events which would unfold in the years prior to the coming of the LORD in glory.

To be clear, I am not predicting that the Day of the LORD is upon us, only that the initial signs have been fulfilled exactly as I foresaw them in the dreams which the LORD sent me over the preceding thirty five years. In my next thread I will present a list of every single dream which I believe has relevance for the times we are living through, with an explanation of its fulfilment, or the predictions which I feel I can make based upon the content & affect which each dream impressed upon me in the Spirit. Dreams are & always have been the key mode by which prophecy is made known to the people - in the Old Testament times the pepole would journey to the home of a prophet & ask him a question, something which they felt was important to them in the struggle of their lives. The prophet would then withdraw to pray, to seek the LORD on the matter which had been laid before him/ her. He or she would then settle down for the night, and during their sleep, the LORD would supply them with a dream which comprehensively answered the questions which the person seeking His will had brought to the prophet. The gift of prophecy often functions in the exact same manner these days, but in my case it has been matters of the world's general progress which God has provided information regarding, largely unsought, in that God simply began speaking to me one night, and then continued to do so, even though nobody was directly asking me to answer the questions which were being answered.

If you would like to check out my next thread, I hope that you will see that this is one of the ways in which the LORD has fulfilled the gift of spiritual warfare which was bestowed upon me at my conversion. Although I am anonymous in worldly terms, I have been persecuted horrendously by the Enemy, with diabolical nightmares interrupting the sacred dreams which the LORD has blessed me with time & again, and with seemingly unknown persons accusing me & reviling me in the street constantly, even though I have not committed any crime. I am glad to say that I have also been supported tremendously by an organised conspiracy of God's grace, with angels & men both seen & unseen blessing me with their words, prayers & discipline, keeping my head up despite the many hardships I have faced, despite the isolation which was unavoidable, despite the learned helplessness which was programmed into me since my youth - as well as the diabolical assaults which began when I was five years old, including physical torture & sustained psychological abuse.

Thanks for reading - I hope that you will keep your ear to the ground & keep youe eyes scanning the horizon for the signs, the wonders which will be the same or greater than those of ancient days, those which we have heard & dreamt of our entire lives through, as we move ever closer to that day when all things will be revealed, when injustice will be met with ultimate justice, when our Enemy will be trampled beneath the feet of Christ, when the redeemed shall be raised victorious, presenting the world back to God, holy & triumphant. Amen.

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Cheers,


FITO.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

With respect.

What you have written brings up a question I have pondered over a number of years


"How does one trust, follow, and "love" a "god" who offers its greatest presence only in extremis?


It seems somehow the basis of a coercive relationship, at best.


Bear in mind that I am the product of a 12 year parochial education, and have discussed this topic with many clergy....to no satisfaction.

It should also be noted that I, myself, have personally had the experience of "hitting rock bottom", to the extent that I quite seriously considered ending my life.

And yes, in that darkest of moments, I, too, was offered "deliverence", or "salvation" if you will, for nothing in return except for my lifetime devotion.


I rejected the offer. I could not bring myself to accept the help of anyone who would withhold their aid until it was all but too late, and then hold out rescue for the price of devotion.


I refuse.

And, I survived.


My life, my world, is mine....to make, or to break.

A God that requires worship is a dictator - Man has written the word of that god and man can not be trusted besides a all knowing God would be a very bored God what would it's purpose be ?

If any of the stories are true Satan actually gave us knowledge and has never asked for anything .


Truth be told we have been left here to our own demise we were created and used or transplanted and when are worth was no longer needed They left that's why everyone looks for a return and stares at the sky waiting .

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Screw it I'll be the non-believer giving some positive feedback, at least I think it is.

For decades now I had religious friends saying these are the end times and of course back then they were wrong.

But you don't have to be a believer to see that this time around it would appear to be the case as world leaders have been co-opted to betray their own countries for the bigger goal of a new world order.

And since I find can't stomach this retarded route the world has chosen to go I guess I'll be fighting alongside the religious when this kicks off.

The only problem I see is that believers are still just content to sit back and watch it all play out as if waiting for someone or something to wake them from their slumber and tell ok now it is time.

I'm not advocating for violence, I'm just wondering when will people stand up for what they believe in?

Has the line not been crossed already?

a reply to: 19Bones79

What are we supposed to do?

I look forward to your future thread.

Recall that this venue for self-expression is expressly and distinctly disinclined towards proselytization. I have always believed that we can express ourselves effectively without it. Some may not feel that way.

Distractions will abound here. Navigate them well...

There is wisdom in patience, and there is strength in faith. Both can provide.

originally posted by: Mantiss2021
a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

With respect.

What you have written brings up a question I have pondered over a number of years


"How does one trust, follow, and "love" a "god" who offers its greatest presence only in extremis?


It seems somehow the basis of a coercive relationship, at best.


Bear in mind that I am the product of a 12 year parochial education, and have discussed this topic with many clergy....to no satisfaction.

It should also be noted that I, myself, have personally had the experience of "hitting rock bottom", to the extent that I quite seriously considered ending my life.

And yes, in that darkest of moments, I, too, was offered "deliverence", or "salvation" if you will, for nothing in return except for my lifetime devotion.


I rejected the offer. I could not bring myself to accept the help of anyone who would withhold their aid until it was all but too late, and then hold out rescue for the price of devotion.


I refuse.

And, I survived.


My life, my world, is mine....to make, or to break.

So, you acknowledge that God exists, were offered salvation, and knowingly rejected the offer. That’s called free will, and It’s your God given right.

There are consequences to every decision, I think we can both agree to that. You say that you seriously considered suicide, I believe by rejecting God that you have committed spiritual suicide. It’s still reversible.

It all comes down to the choices we make in life. If you are right in your thinking, no problems. If your wrong, well that remains to be seen doesn’t it. Once your end comes the choice of what happens next is no longer yours, either way.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Those powers DO care about us, they HATE us, the devil is very real and he HATES humanity, the idiots that think they are serving him are simply disposable tools to a being that hates them.

The Devil KNOWS he is already finished, that he has little time left and with each passing second one second less which for a being that thought it was going to be truly immortal is like being trapped in a tiny shrinking cupboard.

But his hatred of mankind created in the image of the God he rebelled against is so great he will seek to destroy as many souls as he can, he will use the tools of greed, fear, lust and war, sow hatred and discourse and in his persecution of the Church he will seek to destroy all Christians that have the truth even if they don't know it.

To cast the world into darkness as absolutely as he can for the time he has left.

He is not interested in killing the mortal body but the soul, creates false religions and twists the truth through the teachings of false pastors and priests and leads as many as he can through false teachings to there doom, teaching such as the so called Prosperity Gospel.



Soon the third temple will be built, soon the beast will lead many astray and away from Christ, soon the Armageddon will occur.

But it is not the beginning of the end, it is only the end of the beginning, for the saves and the damned alike the return of Christ is a NEW day, there is another short night to come for he will as has been told let Satan out for a short time a thousand years later then full judgement day and the END for the DEVIL and the start of an endless and beautiful kingdom a new earth and a new heaven.

Not the Beginning of the end but the end of the beginning, we live in darkness but the light is coming again to us and his words are light, like anyone living in a ruined house sometimes we want to hide what the light shows us but if we trust in the light we can mend our house at least a little for the time being until we have the new house Jesus will give us.

When you understand how much Jesus really loves us and how wretched we mostly really are but his teaching is still hard for us, for so many of us.

But beware of the false teachers, the little devils leading you off the path that IS Christ, following him is hard, how many of us are following him, I am far from the path but I hope you will walk it even if I stumble over my faults and the temptations of this world.

It is not the end though but the new beginning.

Christ makes everything new and the darkness of the devil will be gone in Jesus new.


The signs' are every more clear though, the Euphrates river is drying up and soon the four angels bound there will be unleashed, the way is clear for the army's to besiege Jerusalem and soon the false temple will be built.

But it may not be the time yet, the Euphrates may yet run with water, the Damns Turkey has built may yet be opened by God and the time can yet be put off if HE decides, one thing though is certain he KNOWS what is best and his will be done.

a reply to: Topcraft

I make no such acknowledgement.

I do not know from where the "choice" ensued, only that at my lowest point the option was formed.

Whether that option was the product of some supernatural entity, or merely a manifestation of my soci-cultural indoctrination (which suspect is far more likely), seemed less important, at that moment, than rejecting the option and thus establishing, and maintaining my independence.


As to my spirit...


As with my body, Better death than Enslavement.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

That is why so many of the world's peoples will be forgiven their sins, even if they do not know the One who is king of all Creation

I don't think so.

Heartlight

Later Jesus said to [the people] again, "I am going away. You will search for me but will die in your sin. You cannot come where I am going."
The people asked, "Is he planning to commit suicide? What does he mean, 'You cannot come where I am going'?"

Jesus continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You belong to this world; I do not. That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I AM who I claim to be, you will die in your sins."

John MacArthur

John 10:9
9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[1]They will come in and go out, and find pasture.

John 14:6
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I find some of the responses in this thread ironic.

If God requires us to worship Him, He's a dictatorial tyrant and thus too controlling.

If God waits until you need Him and ask Him to take a hand, you resent that He did not directly take a hand before you were ready to ask for it because you absolutely had no other choice and were ready to see that. In other words, He wasn't controlling enough.

Basically, you all just resent the idea of and implication of the reality of God.

The Lord does things for us in such a unique and special way. And it takes effort and the seeking of understanding to discover it more and more.
I can't put into words how much I love God.
I am glad he has blessed you with your path you are on, because you can walk it with his light shining the way.

a reply to: Mantiss2021

His presence is always with us. In fact, without His presence we would have no presence. So the better question to ask is why man only turns to God as a last resort. Instead of nurturing in the great love that experiences everything we experience. All the pains and all the joys. Only magnified by the population of the universe. We should complain about our miserable lives eh.

a reply to: 19Bones79

Has the line not been crossed already?

All the time on an individualistic level, it's why collectively I say we're idiots.

Decent individuals always find themselves playing the blacks at chess, it's always one more move and we'll start this showdown...

Meanwhile we obsess about who should have position behind us. Those pieces shouldn't even matter when you're destined to punch 2nd.

Ever played with a pro and all that move counting malarkey? Terrible game.

a reply to: ketsuko

What if everybody refused to pay taxes?

Maybe hold protest rallies like Woodstock but without the fun, I'm guessing.

There must be some way to mobilize without it having to turn violent and still grab the attention of everyone.

a reply to: 19Bones79

We're human beings. If there's a way to screw it up, we will. The US was vanishing rare - a revolution with a positive result, but we have pretty much sh1t that bed now. It only took us a bit over 200 years.

We don't learn. We do the same tired things and convince ourselves that they're new and this time will be different.

originally posted by: 19Bones79
a reply to: ketsuko

What if everybody refused to pay taxes?

Maybe hold protest rallies like Woodstock but without the fun, I'm guessing.

There must be some way to mobilize without it having to turn violent and still grab the attention of everyone.

I can't seem to figure out a scenario where mobilized citizenry aren't easily victimized... Despite nobility of purpose (in fact, maybe because of it) it is so easy to turn any protest violent. All it takes are a handful of pretenders, throw a rock at a cop, smash a window, yell something foul then pretend it was someone else and start swinging... You can even stage a confrontation with a well-briefed outsider.

Add to this a man wearing the armor of "free press" and you suffer complete mischaracterization or even vilification. We've all seen the reporters saying things like "mostly peaceful" as the world burns around them; or saying "white supremacist" as a young man is chased and beaten by people of color.

"Protest" must take a different form to be immune to this "optical imagery." But how?

In some fantasy scenario of mine I envision protestors so aware and coordinated that any agent provocateur would stand alone and visible the moment he or she acts to subvert the movement they infiltrated... but that is just a fantasy.

The key issue here, the most immediate threat to peaceful protest, is sudden and unanticipated violence by one of their own. And since membership in a group is for the most part only lip-service... that potential is always there.

I find it interesting that refusing to pay taxes will be seen as violence against our society. It is strange that money equates to free speech... but it is compelled in taxation... I suggest you pay what they deem are your taxes. "Give to Ceasar that which is Ceasar's ..." and all that.

Whether it be childishly trusting to believe so, I think we actually have the means to change this up, America is self-correcting, unlike many other national models... we just need to understand that the parties of politicians that exist are beyond capable of changing the system into which they are entrenched.

They will never do it... unless we change them... and they have been working on making that impossible for the last three or four decades... they call it "continuity of governance" ... and they do it in as much secrecy as they can muster... if they are allowed to have their way, we will never see anything but a faux two-party system - where only the party can authorize someone to run, and only in their name.

It's never too late in America though... never.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

If you would like to check out my next thread, I hope that you will see that this is one of the ways in which the LORD has fulfilled the gift of spiritual warfare which was bestowed upon me at my conversion. Although I am anonymous in worldly terms, I have been persecuted horrendously by the Enemy, with diabolical nightmares interrupting the sacred dreams which the LORD has blessed me with time & again, and with seemingly unknown persons accusing me & reviling me in the street constantly, even though I have not committed any crime. I am glad to say that I have also been supported tremendously by an organised conspiracy of God's grace, with angels & men both seen & unseen blessing me with their words, prayers & discipline, keeping my head up despite the many hardships I have faced, despite the isolation which was unavoidable, despite the learned helplessness which was programmed into me since my youth - as well as the diabolical assaults which began when I was five years old, including physical torture & sustained psychological abuse.

I'm not sure I understand who these seemingly unknown persons are that are accusing and reviling you in the street - do you mean the streets in your nightmares, or are you out in the streets preaching? Nightmares can sometimes point to mental disorders, just a head's up.

Well, either way, that's another spiritual war you obviously need to address.

But what I mostly wanted to relay to you was that it seems to me that you were ready to accept help from others and God because you prayed to God for help and I know that people who want to be helped can be helped, and other people can see and feel that. Good luck.

a reply to: Antisocialist

So just a small group of believers in one small sect in the white western world will be saved.

The billions of non-Christians, even other Christians, and all those before Christ was here on earth are all going to hell?

That’s a stupid, ridiculous doctrine of ignorance refuted by common sense and justice.

Even Islam teaches that non-Muslims who have done good deeds DON’T GO TO HELL
But are judged according to their faiths.

Only some Christian sects have such dogma in the unjust and crazy idea that ONLY they get saved.

Most of all, other religions don't have such a ridiculous doctrine.