Preparedness is key!

End of times – End of World as we know it

Are you prepared? Are you ready?

Time is running out! 

Choose which plan is for you, but choose wisely…

 

For many years people have been talking of how to be prepared for the fall of our economy and our world as we know it by stocking up on food, supplies, and basic needs. Many believers in Jesus the Messiah have been taught to prepare for the end-times and to have their hearts right with Jesus so they can spend eternity with Him.

In both cases, these groups could be labeled “Preppers”. Their goals and mindsets are totally opposite though. Let’s break this down for a better understanding of their differences and learn who will actually be prepared for what is to come.

 

Who is who?

Let’s keep it simple by breaking these down into a few different groups. Read and see which group you fit in.

• Non-Preppers
• The worldly non-believers
• The worldly Believers in Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God
• The wholehearted Believers in Jesus the Messiah

• First, you have the Non-Preppers, non-believers in anything but themselves. They live in fear and pride; stubbornness consumes them. They are determined they don’t need anybody or anything. And when they do, they will get what they need in whatever means necessary. 
• The worldly non-believers are obviously the ones that aren’t looking to God or His son Jesus for their hope and eternity. The ones that are determined to do life in their own strength and who worship idols, man-made things, to put their hope in.
  • Those two groups above are what the Bible calls the lost souls. The ones that Jesus wants Believers to spread His Gospel, His Good News too, so that they will find salvation through Jesus and spend eternity with Him. They need Jesus, they need prayer. 
• The worldly Christians are those who believe in God, our creator, and His son Jesus the Messiah, and perhaps even His Holy Spirit that Jesus sent when He ascended into Heaven. They have seen miracles. They believe God can heal, but they don’t have the level of belief that He will. They are not patient. They pray but don’t wait on God to answer. They are in the habit of helping God answer their prayers and tend to move without waiting for God to tell them to move. They wear themselves out doing life in their own strength and when they fail, they either get mad at God or believe that He doesn’t care about their day to day life, only their souls.
• The wholehearted Believers in God, Jesus the Messiah, and the Holy Spirit power. These are the ones that put all their faith and hope in God our Creator. They know His Word, thereby they know His promises in His Word, and they believe He will do what He says He will do in His Word. They let God fight their battles and trust Him to provide and protect them. They rest in His arms without fear and experience His Shalom peace in the midst of the chaos and storms in life.

These groups remind of me the story in the Bible about the seed that was thrown on the various parts of the ground.

(NOTE: All of these descriptions are generalized traits, not strict categories. You may find some similarities that relate to your life.)

 

The Non-Preppers

This group is living la-vida-loca; living the crazy life or a life of crime, doing what they want, whatever feels good to them. They rebel against authority. They may or may not believe in God, but they don’t care about anything except what feels good to them in the moment. They don’t plan for anything. They may even still live with their parents, as adults themselves.

They are not happy but may experience moments of euphoria when something goes their way, but the feeling of happiness isn’t real but fleeting. This quest for happiness keeps them in a cycle of trying to find those moments of momentary euphoria or they become depressed and do things to numb the pain of unhappiness. They aren’t concerned with death or what happens after. They simply don’t care. If they need something they will do whatever they need to do including stealing and killing to get what they want.

You can’t reason with these people because they don’t want to hear anything that is contrary to the way they want to live their life. They don’t want to be told what to do, but they won’t hesitate to tell you what to do. It is extremely difficult, but not impossible – when directed by God, to talk to talk to these people about Jesus and their salvation. The best thing all of us can do is pray for their salvation.  There are many testimonies over decades of where some of them have chosen to turn to God and receive salvation. We should not give up on them but always pray.

 

The worldly non-believer preppers

The act of becoming a Prepper has become a billion dollar business. There is something created for anything you might possibly need when off the grid. It’s mind-blowing the things that have been created, books that have been written, and the amount of people jumping on this train of thought preparedness.

The worldly non-believer group of people have been planning for many years to be prepared for the end of the material world as we know it. They watch the government actions and moves to try to know what to expect and to be ready. They have built bunkers and filled them with ready to eat meals and supplies that they will need. They have created special generators and electronics that run on solar power and are prepared for no water, no power, and no food sources. Most of them have stock piles of guns and ammo to defend themselves and what is theirs.

They live in constant fear of being ready when disaster strikes. All their hope is in their preparedness. Many have no faith in anything, then there are those that believe in man-made gods, like crystals, statues, and objects they’ve created. Many also rely on tarot cards, mediation, yoga, mediums, sorcerers, and now many are straight up calling themselves witches and satanists.

These need much prayer. They are looking for hope and peace, but in the wrong place. This is usually because they have had a bad experience in life and blame God in some way and think they have to do life alone, erroneously believing that He doesn’t care about them. They have believed the lies that God doesn’t love them. Or in some cases they have never been taught about Jesus.

 

The worldly Believers in Jesus

Who are the worldly Believers? They go to church on Sunday, they volunteer and serve at church and sometimes participate in church related community events. However, the other six days of the week, they are doing life their way. Some believe that Jesus doesn’t care about their everyday lives, only their souls. While others believe that they are good people; they pray, go to church, tithe, and serve, believing that is what’s required to get them into Heaven.

This group is usually impatient. Meaning, when they pray they don’t wait for God to answer. Either they don’t believe God will answer quickly enough, or they think they need to help Him answer it the way they want. It never crosses their mind to wait on God for His perfect timing, and His perfect plan for them. They don’t want to risk His plan being different from what they think would be best for them. They try to be good and do the right thing but they have no patience for waiting on God to answer their prayers.

They also think they have to be a good Christian to get to Heaven and that their good works are required to help them get there. They think that doing good works balances out the bad things they do. As an example, you sin during the week, so on Sunday you are going to serve two services, or do extra acts of service to erase the sin you committed. They have no conscious knowledge of what Jesus actually did for them on the cross. Mostly, because they weren’t correctly taught what it meant for Jesus to die for their sins, so they are caught in the trap of the works-based salvation lie. In this lie, they are wearing themselves out “serving” God trying to make up for their sins, and finding no peace or relief. Some keep at it, others give up and walk away from God believing that they can’t be good enough to get to Heaven.

They go through the motions of being a good person and a regular church attender because that is what they were taught to do, but they don’t know God. They don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. These people have not experienced the true joy that a relationship with Jesus offers. They are exhausted from trying to be what they think is expected of them by others.

They may or may not have a bunker for the end of the world; most likely not. They may have some extra supplies and groceries but in reality they are to stressed out to worry about the end-times because they are to busy trying to do everything they think God expects them to do to earn His grace, while also juggling trying to work, pay bills, and support their families.

In many cases, end-times are not even on their radar; survival of the day is all that matters. The dark hopeless predicament they have driven themselves into has caused many to be more focused on finding happiness, peace, and relief from their stress through means that are contrary to God, than on Jesus calling them up before the tribulation.

 

The wholehearted Believers

This group is where you will find peace, hope, and serenity that can only come from God. This group has seen the “Light”, the Truth of God’s Word. They have had a life-changing encounter with Jesus and have given their lives wholeheartedly to Him. Now this group of people is not perfect, they are still sinners. The difference is that when they gave their life to Jesus, they turned from their old ways and willingly and joyfully wanted to wholeheartedly follow His ways. When they make mistakes and sin, they immediately repent and ask God to help them do better to stay on the path He has for them. God sees and knows their hearts and that they are wholeheartedly trying to stay on His path for them.

These Believers have put all their hope and trust in Jesus, God our Creator, and the Holy Spirit. They walk in pure joy and peace without fear through the storms of life and everything the enemy throws at them because they know they are protected by God and His Mighty Angels. They know that God fights their battles for them. These still feel pain, are persecuted for their faith, and cry tears like others, but it’s different for them because they take everything to God and ask for His help. They know that when they fall, He will pick them back up. God knows them through relationship, and trusts them.

This group is singular focused. They stay in God’s Word, spreading His love, and are looking for the signs that Jesus told them to look for when it is the season of His soon calling of them up to Heaven. (1st & 2nd Thessalonians) They are prepping for the “end-times” when Jesus calls them up but it looks very different from the other prepper groups. They aren’t storing up worldly things because they know they will not be here during the tribulation but with Jesus in Heaven. They aren’t storing up food and supplies or shopping and spending money or living vicariously, they are being frugal while they study and pray and look up for Jesus.

This group is living in peace during the chaos of the world because their trust is in Jesus and His promises. They believe He will do what His Word says He will do. With anticipation and excited expectancy, they watch and wait for His trumpet to sound.

 

The Parable of the Sower

The different groups of Preppers is very similar to the parable of the sower. Here Jesus tells us a story in Matthew 13 about a farmer who went to sow seed. Consider this story about the four types of ground the seed fell on as in comparison to the four types of Preppers.

“That same day, Yeshua went out of the house and sat down by the lake; but such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there while the crowd stood on the shore.

He told them many things in parables:

“A farmer went out to sow his seed.

• As he sowed, some seed fell alongside the path; and the birds came and ate it up.
• Other seed fell on rocky patches where there was not much soil. It sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow; but when the sun had risen, the young plants were scorched; and since their roots were not deep, they dried up.
• Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.
• But others fell into rich soil and produced grain, a hundred or sixty or thirty times as much as had been sown.

Those who have ears, let them hear!” Matthew 13:1-9

There was only one place that the seed would grow, in the rich fertile soil. We can prep for years to be ready for the end of the world but if we aren’t in the rich soil, with God, then all our work is pointless.

 

How to make sure you are in God’s group

My husband used to always say, “God gave us a brain and expects us to use it.” That statement is true but incomplete. God expects us to use our brains to listen and obey His commands and follow His ways. He never intended us to do what we think is best; our view is limited, as is our knowledge. He gave us the freedom to choose Him and expected us to use our brains and choose to follow Him. Many have made the wrong choice. Here God tells Moses how much He wishes the people would choose Him and follow Him.

“Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!” Deuteronomy 5:29

Many say, it’s to hard to trust a God that you can’t see and never answers your prayers when you need Him too. God goes on to say that it’s not to hard to follow Him.

“For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.” Deuteronomy 30:11

“But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.

If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish.” Deuteronomy 30:14-18

He is such a gracious God that He gives us choices; He doesn’t force us to serve Him. However, He repeatedly makes it very clear in His Word the two choices and the consequences of both. Those who have chosen to try to be in control of their lives suffer the consequences of not following Him and they live in constant stress and disappointment, caught on the hamster wheel of life; going nowhere.

Those who choose to wholeheartedly put their hope and trust in Jesus only need to hold His hand and follow Him. They don’t have to stress, worry, or fear, they just trust and obey Jesus. They are persecuted just like Jesus told them would happen, but He fiercely protects them. He is the only one they can trust to never let them down. He always comes through in His perfect timing. They are patient and wait on the Lord.

Choose you this day who you will serve, God or yourself. (Joshua 24:15) Just know that peace and hope can only be found through a relationship with Jesus.

 

Prayer

Father God, please forgive me of all my sins. Thank you for sending your son, Jesus, to die for my sins so that I can spend eternity with you. Thank you for your grace and mercy and for not giving up on me. Thank you Father that I can now put all my hope and trust in you and can finally experience your Shalom peace. Thank you that I no longer have to fear the lies and threats of this world. Thank you that I can focus on Your Word, Your Truth, Your Love for me, and on your son Jesus, who is calling me up to Him in Heaven very soon. Amen.

 

Tools for wholehearted Believers

• Study your whole Bible daily
• Read daily: Isaiah 43:1-7
• Read daily: Psalms 23
• Read daily: Psalms 27
• Read daily: Psalms 91
• Read daily: Psalms 121
• Pray daily: Matthew 6:9-13

Added encouragement scriptures:

“Those who sow in tears will reap with cries of joy.” Psalms 126:5

“Our help is from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” Psalms 124:8

“Those who trust in the LORD are as secure as Mount Zion; they will not be defeated but will endure forever. Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, both now and forever.” Psalms 125:1-2

“Unless the LORD builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the LORD protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good. It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.” Psalms 127:1-2

“How happy is everyone who fears Adonai, who lives by his ways.” Psalms 128:1

“I wait longingly for Adonai; I put my hope in his word.” Psalms 130:5

 

May God bless you and keep you as you look up and listen for His calling to you.