Is This The End of Days?

It has been a long time since my last blog. The Spirit has not been silent but rather, on the contrary, He has been giving me the information I needed in order to fulfill an assignment in service to my Lord Jesus Christ.

Together with one of my daughters, I was given a vision of a woman's day retreat to be held outside in the forest where I live. The preparation has been intense and typically whenever I have been given a lesson to teach or share, first I must live the lesson. It must become a reality to me or I cannot export it. I must live it or I cannot lead it.

The last weeks have been just that. The Spirit has called me to receive, glean, and apply what I have been given. I am now able to blog what I have been taught and what was shared at the "Further in Faith Fellowship", a ministry that I am now a part of. The next days of this blog will follow the teaching I was given by the Spirit to share with the women and you.

Further in Faith Fellowship Women's Retreat 10-23-2010

As we look around us there is no denying that this is end times, end of days, last curtain call, shop about to close. However you look at it, the end of all things is drawing near. One of the most telling fact of end times is that man has no answers for what is happening. We hear of wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and floods in various places.

I come from California and I have felt earthquakes. I don't know about you but earthquakes are pretty scary to me. We lose our footing, the bottom drops out from under us, the earth and everything shakes down during an earthquake. I never lived through a flood but I can only imagine the helplessness one must feel. The one good thing about living through an earthquake or a flood is that it helps us to decide what is important. We grab our family and head for a safe place.

Forget trying to save the sofa,all the stuff that seems so important the minute before an earthquake or flood is forgotten as we huddle together and cling onto each other.

There are different kinds of earthquakes or floods that shake us down. Some are physical, some are emotional, some are financial, some are relational. One thing they all have in common is, once they hit us, we figure out what is most important.

Jesus spoke about the end of days in Matt 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21.

In Matt 24, Jesus says, "No one knows the day or the hour not even the angels in Heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. He went on to say that, just like the days of Noah before the flood, people would be going about the business of living: eating, drinking, marrying."

Back then no one knew what was about to happen, except one man named Noah. Noah was listening to God. Noah was in lifestyle obedience and was saved during the flood that wiped out every living person except him and his family.

Gen 6:9-22 is the account of Noah. Notice that in 6:13, God SAID to Noah....and then He proceeded to give Noah important directives that Noah heard and obeyed. In the end Noah was saved from the destruction that God ordered due to the corruption of people on earth. If Noah had not been listening, or if Noah had not taken God's directives to heart or ignored them, he would have been swept away like everyone else. But Gen 6:22 says, "and Noah did as God commanded". Noah was in a relationship with God.

The study I have been given by the Lord to share with you is on the subject of prayer. Prayer is so much more than just asking for things. Prayer is God's call to relationship.

When Paul says that we are to pray without ceasing, it's hard to imagine how to do that unless you understand that prayer is our end of the love relationship with our Creator God who we call our Heavenly Father.

To pray without ceasing is to remain in constant contact with the One who created us for fellowship with Himself. To pray without ceasing is to communicate in endless conversation with our Beloved. On earth we stay in constant contact with those we love. When they are gone from our sight, we text, we call, we e-mail, we figure out ways to keep in constant relationship. This is what prayer should be.

The Lord has given us an acronym to follow with each letter representing an important facet of prayer, made easier to remember. He wants us to focus on the bullet points.

"P" stands for preparation

"R" stands for repentance

"A" stands for acknowledge our dependency

"Y" stands for yield His Will AND His Ways

"E" stands for expect answers

"R" stands for ready to serve

Over the next week I will post to this blog the details of what the Spirit has shown me in each of these categories that is in His heart for His people. I was amazed to hear from Him and realize how much more depth of relationship and victorious living is available for all of us through what He has shown. I pray you will read this and then take the time to just get away with Him and let Him speak to you heart.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?