The End is Near

Joseph Herrin (09-19-2013)

Randy Simmons occasionally speaks to me regarding how long it has been since the Father has spoken about things to come, both in his life on a personal level and on a national and global scale. The Father has not been stinting with His prophetic utterances. There have been many of them. I carry a number of personal prophetic words around with me. I have them printed out and folded into the pages of my Bible. I looked at a few of them this week. Some, like the prophecies spoken through my daughter Kristin when she was fourteen years old, I have carried for a lengthy season. Kristin will turn twenty-six in December.

Although various prophecies have tarried, this fact has not diminished my belief in their authenticity, nor caused me to doubt that they will be fulfilled. My common reply to Randy when this subject is broached is that “God’s promises are closer to being fulfilled now than ever before.” This, of course, is an irrefutable statement, and it may seem pointless, for of course God’s promises must be closer to being fulfilled than they were yesterday, or last month, or ten years ago. Nevertheless, the saying expresses well my belief that Yahweh will fulfill what He has spoken, and it is an affirmation of my expectation of the same. Of Abraham we read:

Romans 4:18-22
In hope against hope [Abraham] believed, in order that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "So shall your descendants be." And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

Some of the prophetic words Yahweh has spoken to Randy and to myself are personal promises. They are akin to words we find throughout Scriptures, such as those spoken to Abraham above. They are promises of blessing, of some fulfillment of a long awaited desire or dream. Joseph, the son of Jacob, received promises from God when he was a youth. At the age of seventeen he was given divine dreams of promotion. He would be thirty years old before he saw the promise fulfilled.

Some of the prophetic words and signs Yahweh has been revealing to His people relate to end time events and judgments to befall the nations. Yahweh has affirmed through a plethora of signs that judgment is coming. He has especially shown me many divine portents of judgment to befall America, the nation in which I reside. I first shared these signs of judgment with Randy around 2005-2007 when we were in residence at the Macon Rescue Mission together. Randy believed the signs, yet he asked Yahweh to speak to him personally, affirming that America would fall. It was not long before Yahweh answered Randy’s petition.

Randy was driving down the Interstate in Macon, Georgia one day when he glanced over and saw a line of motorcyclists riding two abreast. They were exiting the Interstate on one of the off-ramps. As Randy watched the motorcyclists slow down as they approached the intersection, an unusual, and highly symbolic, event occurred. The last two motorcycles in the group included a man who had a jacket on that was red, white, and blue, emblazoned with the flag of the United States. As the motorcyclists stopped Randy watched the rider wearing this jacket fall over. The person riding abreast with him tried to grab the man, but was unable to keep him from falling. The man lay on the ground and did not get up. Randy recognized immediately that this was a sign from the Father, and an affirmation that America would fall and would not rise again.

There is no doubt that in large degree, America’s collapse, and that of the nations of the world, is a planned event being carried out by Satan and his human emissaries. I have often written of the plans that the government is carrying out to prepare for tremendous civil unrest, martial law, and the collapse of societal order. (See the post titled Others are Preparing - Should You?) That America’s vaunted economy will collapse is undeniable. The only question is “How soon?” America is drowning in debt. Her manufacturing base has been critically eroded. Over forty million Americans receive food stamps from the government just to be able to feed their families. There are record numbers of unemployed. The government published numbers are a deceit. True unemployment in America is running at more than 20%.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/heres-the-real-unemployment-rate-2/

Two weeks ago the Bureau of Labor Statistics published a report sharing that for the first time in America there are more than 90 million people who are NOT in the work force. America is a ship that is taking on water. The more water she takes on, the faster she sinks. The process is accelerating, and soon the entire ship of state must founder.

An interesting parallel is seen in the magnificent cruise ship the Costa Concordia striking a reef and sinking. The ship lay off an Italian island for the past year being battered by the waves. It was finally righted this past week, but it will never again serve as a cruise ship. It has sustained too much damage. It is to be floated to a port where it will be dismantled and sold as scrap. Such is the fate awaiting America and many other nations. The vultures are circling, waiting to pick the meat off the bones of those nations that have lived in fatness and sensuality.

Costa Concordia on its Side

As the picture above demonstrates, the Costa Concordia, a ship much larger than the Titanic, was built for amusement and pleasure. It stands as a symbol of the wealthy nations of the world, particularly America and Europe. Yahweh is signifying that an end is coming to the mirth and pleasure of the world’s wealthy nations.

A further sign was given this past week in America when a fire broke out on the amusement pier that had been devastated last year by Superstorm Sandy.

Funtown Pier in Flames

There is much in this particular story that serves as a spiritual parable of things to come to America. It was just off of this pier in the city of Seaside Heights, New Jersey, that the extremely popular television series Jersey Shore was filmed. This series ran for 5 or 6 years on MTV, garnering higher numbers of viewers than any other program in the cable channel’s history. The show featured 8 young men and women living together in a home, participating in a life of drinking, sex, and generally debauched living. Yahweh must judge a people who have given themselves over to the pursuit of moral decadence, and who celebrate a lifestyle of materialism and fornication.

The fire erupted on this New Jersey pier on September 12th. The pier had been heavily damaged when Superstorm Sandy struck the New Jersey shore. The pier was in the process of being rebuilt. The governor of New Jersey, and the local people, said they would rebuild after Sandy and make things bigger and better than before. The owner of the Funtown section of the pier had applied for a permit to extend the pier an additional 300 feet beyond its previous size. What Sandy did not destroy, the fire completely ruined.

The town of Seaside Heights was set to celebrate their 100th anniversary beginning on September 13th. The fire struck a day before the festivities were to begin. Note the boasting in the name of the Festival. The people were proudly going to raise their city to “NEW HEIGHTS.” Like the politicians in the aftermath of the World Trade Center’s destruction, they boasted that they would rebuild bigger and stronger than before.

Isaiah 9:9-10
Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart: "The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores have been cut down, but we will replace them with cedars."

Remarkably, the first day of festivities were to have as their highlight entertainment that centered around fire. A fireworks display, and a bonfire were to be the central focus of the festival’s kick-off.

The fireworks and bonfire arrived a day early. The fiery destruction of the pier led to the cancellation of man’s celebration of fire. Approximately thirty businesses were destroyed by the blaze which was whipped along by thirty mile an hour winds resulting from an approaching storm. At its peak, more than 400 firefighters from all across the state were called in to battle the blaze.

Another significant attribute of this blaze was revealed in the way it had to be extinguished. The boardwalk had a concrete walkway, but underneath the concrete the supports were wood. The firefighters were battling the blaze from atop the pier and the concrete prevented them from extinguishing the fire that had spread under the pier. A large piece of demolition equipment had to be brought in and a breach made in the pier to prevent the fire from spreading further. A 25 foot wide section of the pier was quickly torn down and a wall of sand erected in its place. This divide was made right where Lincoln Avenue intersected with the boardwalk.

Last Stand at Lincoln Avenue

This “coincidental” detail evokes memories of the fiery conflagration that consumed America during the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln was President. The nation was divided even as the boardwalk was torn in two between north and south. Similarly, it was the southern section of the pier that was destroyed while the northern section survived.

Readers of this blog may be reminded of other similar testimonies of what is to come to America. The last Super Bowl featured for the first time ever, two brothers serving as head coaches of opposing teams.

Brother Against Brother

Heavenly Harbinger

A divide is growing between the patriots in America and the government forces. The government is active at this very moment seeking justification to disarm the American population. Civil unrest is coming. Brother will be divided against brother. Mirth and amusements will fall silent as the land is consumed with violence, slaughter, and devastation.

Shaded yellow area of pier was damaged during Sandy.
Shaded red area was damaged in fire.
Note Lincoln Avenue at top where a divide was made.

Some may remember that I shared some months back a prophetic word that Yahweh had revealed to a brother in Christ whom I have been privileged to know for some years now. Andrew Eberly was told by the Father years ago that he would have a son to be born who would be named Jacob. He would be born during the time the Bible describes as “Jacob’s Trouble.”

Two days ago I was on a bicycle ride with the young man I have come to visit, when my phone rang. It was Andrew. He told me he was driving home to pick up his wife for she was going into labor. Andrew’s son Jacob was born a little after 5 P.M. on the 17th day of the month. This was the 17th hour of the day on the 17th day of the month.

The number 17 is an interesting one. E.W. Bullinger shares the following information.

SEVENTEEN
stands out very prominently as a significant number. It is not a multiple of any other number, and therefore it has no factors. Hence it is called one of the prime (or indivisible) numbers. What is more, it is the seventh in the list of the prime numbers.
The series runs 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, etc. Thirteen, it will be noted, is also a prime number, and is therefore important; but it is the sixth of the series: hence it partakes of the significance of the number 6, and is indeed an intensified expression of it.
In like manner seventeen being the seventh of the series, it partakes of and intensifies the significance of the number seven. Indeed, it is the combination or sum of two perfect numbers—seven and ten—seven being the number of spiritual perfection, and ten of ordinal perfection.
Contrasted together the significance of these two numbers is clear; and when united in the number seventeen we have a union of their respective meanings, viz., spiritual perfection, plus ordinal perfection, or the perfection of spiritual order.
We see a beautiful illustration in

ROMANS 8:35-39
which concludes the first great division of that all-important Epistle, and sums up the blessings of those who are dead and risen in Christ. First we have a series of seven, then a series of ten. The seven are marked off by being put in the form of a question, while the ten are given as the answer to it.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall

1        Tribulation,
2       Or distress,
3        Or persecution,
4        Or famine,
5        Or nakedness,
6        Or peril,
7        Or sword?

as it is written, For Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that,

8        Neither death (1),
9        Nor life (2),
10        Nor angels (3),
11       Nor principalities (4),
12        Nor things present (5),
13        Nor things to come (6),
14        Nor powers (7),
15        Nor height (8),
16        Nor depth (9),
17        Nor any other creature (10),

shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
[Source: http://www.philologos.org/__eb-nis/13666.htm#17]

Thus we see the relationship of the number 17 to trials and suffering for the purification of the people of God. Further insight is obtained as one looks at the relationship of the number 17 to the number 153. I have written about this in a number of posts. Following is a further quote from Bullinger.

The sum of all the digits up to and including 17 amounts to exactly 153. Thus, 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 +14 + 15 + 16 + 17 = 153.

As the result of our investigations in numbers, 153 = 9 x 17, and see in this number all judgment (9) exhausted for the people of God (17) in the person of their Surety.
[End Excerpt]
   
Bullinger points out that 9 is the number of judgment, and 17, as we have seen, is related to trials and suffering that results in the perfecting of the people of God. Little Jacob Eberly was born on 9/17, and we additionally find that 9 multiplied by 17 equals 153.

The number 153 appears prominently in the Scriptures at the third appearance of Christ after His resurrection. We read that the disciples, at Peter’s suggestion, had returned to fishing. They spent all night fishing on the Sea of Galilee and had caught nothing. In the morning they approached the shore and observed a man with coals prepared cooking some fish. The man called out to them to inquire if they had caught any fish. They replied in the negative. He instructed them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat and they would catch some fish.

The disciples obeyed and they encompassed a great number of fish. John recognized that it was the Lord, and told the other disciples. Upon drawing the net to shore and counting the fish, they found that there were 153 large fish in the net. The Lord told them to bring some of the fish, and He added them to the fire He had already prepared.

This entire event is a grand parable. Fish represent men, for Yahshua told these same disciples, “I will make you fishers of men.” The fish have to go into the fire. It is a fire that has already been prepared ahead of time. So too must the people of God pass through fiery experiences to be purified and made ready for the coming of the Lord.

It is worthwhile to examine what the Scriptures have to say about the period known as “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” Following is an excerpt from the prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 30:1-7
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, "Thus speaks Yahweh God of Israel, saying: 'Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you. For behold, the days are coming,' says Yahweh, 'that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,' says Yahweh. 'And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.'" Now these are the words that Yahweh spoke concerning Israel and Judah. "For thus says Yahweh: 'We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale? Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.’”

Note particularly the comparison to these days and a man giving birth. It seems more than coincidental that the news reported last week (on September 11th, a day of infamy) that a “man” gave birth to a baby in Germany. This transgender man was the first in Europe to give birth. See the following account.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10301862/Transgender-man-gives-birth-in-Germany.html

The prophet Jeremiah indicates that the time of Jacob’s trouble will be a worldwide event. The nations of the world who have persecuted Yahweh’s people will suffer tremendous judgments. (Read the entirety of Jeremiah chapter 30 for this information.)

During this season of anticipation of soon coming judgment, I am being led to get all things in readiness. My chief focus is upon my personal life. I have long struggled with being overweight, and the Father has dealt with me on this area of the flesh for many years. I have at times gotten down to the target weight goal the Father set for me of being 165 lbs. or less, but I have not consistently remained there. I sense an urgency to bring to completion all obedience that the Father has laid upon me. I believe the anointing we will bear in these coming days, and the fulfillment of Yahweh’s promises to His people, will be contingent upon their obedience to Him.

I am placing a focus at this time upon altering my eating habits, and bringing my life into full alignment with the revealed will of the Father. I believe we are in a final season of preparation before a great shaking comes to the earth. The promises of the Father have delayed, but the delay has been for a good purpose. These recent years have been used by the Father to perfect, purify, and instruct a remnant of His people who are destined for promotion in the days ahead.

I encourage you to press into the Father at this time. Ask Him to reveal to you if there is anything in your life that has not been brought under subjection to His will. King David prayed:

Psalms 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

The hour is late. Do not delay.


Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws    

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com    

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063