God's Plan or Human Manipulation? -Part 2: Urgency, not Obsession.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

As a refresher, we learned last week that there are those who use prophecies and apocalyptic scriptures for their own benefit, we call it Conspiracy Theory Eschatology aka CTE. We also learned of our need to read apocalyptic and prophetic scriptures in context. That means learning about the context of the time of the book of the Bible we are reading. We do this by looking up when it was written, who wrote it, and who it was for. We also learned that there are prophecies that have already been fulfilled. We see this by reading in the old and new testaments where they were already fulfilled or searching online.

The last thing we need to understand to defeat CTE, is that prophecies being fulfilled are nothing to fear, for those who are right with God. The misconception of many is that if we see the signs before the prophecy occurs, then we can live longer on earth and Jesus will come later. However, if Jesus said it was going to happen, your attempts to delay it or being afraid of it doesn’t stop it from happening. Also why would you want to delay Jesus from coming?

If you see signs get urgent and excited, stop freaking out. Grow up! You are not a child who screams whenever the lights go out. You are an adult and a child of God. If the lights go out, turn on your light. If you are so afraid of growing darkness within our society and country you must be bold enough to shine the light of Christ.

We must not be overtaken by fear, hopelessness, or suspicion because the end is drawing near. We are children of God, set free through Christ alone. We grow from the fear of the Lord, not the fear of persecution. We can’t be ignorant of what is happening in society, we must speak up and show them Jesus. Not by being judgemental or excusing their sin, but by bringing love and righteousness. We cannot choose love over righteousness and we can’t choose righteousness over love. They are inseparable and if separated, can cause terrible damage to people.

We have a huge opportunity by being aware of the signs. Use it! We only have a short time left before Jesus comes, so let’s use it wisely. If God can use us to bring more people home, why wouldn’t you want to be part of that? Let’s spread the good news! The king is coming!

We need to grow up as believers and realize that the signs and fulfilled prophecies are here for our encouragement, a warning and also our growth into Christ. It’s intention isn’t to freak us out and to accuse one another of not being holy enough. If you don’t understand your eschatology you need to! Get into the word and educate yourself. Read your Bible and pray if you see prophecies being fulfilled, don’t bunker down because of CTE. You are a child of God and these signs are just a reminder that the king is coming. If the king is coming, that means we’re going home. Let’s take as many people home with us as we possibly can!

Takeaways:

1. Don’t obsess over every single sign of the times, let it get you excited!

2. Signs and fulfilled prophecies create an urgency for you to share the gospel and check if you are right with God.

Adrian Espinosa is the leader and founder of Lighthouse Ministries, and has worked within a variety of ministry positions for 10 years. He has led evangelism teams, served in homeless ministries, and led anti human/drug trafficking outreaches to at-risk youth in Dallas. He has a bachelor in Secondary Social Studies Education, and has been theologically trained at Southwestern Assemblies of God University. Originally from California, he now resides in McKinney, Texas.