Approaching Storm

by Moriel Ztiv

As I write this piece, I am reminded of watching a vast electrical storm that occurred on the Canadian Prairies last summer. It slowly, noisily and broodingly approached my house one evening from the distant horizon;,   beginning to frighten the wits out of me as it drew closer and closer.

On one level I recognized it didn’t have any personal enmity against me; I was just being a spectator to its power. It was a “˜phenomenon of nature ‘, as the saying goes. An extensive mass of electrical charged clouds and booming thunder, which driven by strong winds lit up the entire night sky. ‚  On the other hand, the thought of being hit by one of those multiple ground strikes was making the matter a personal one!

What I didn’t realize was the coming impact and effect that this storm was going to eventually produce that night. A couple of hours north of me, the gusting winds and lighting had produced numerous uncontrolled forest fires. ‚   ‚  On top of that, some downed power lines had started grass fires on the sides of a road that were close to a town called Slave Lake. Within minutes the blaze had leaped across the highways onto the houses of the town, causing the police to issue a mandatory mass evacuation. People were literally running to their vehicles out the front door whilst fire was coming in through the rear entrances. Within hours an exodus of refugees came flooding down the main road to the town where I live, desperately looking for shelter and help.

In the same way, at the moment many of us are looking at the approaching storms of judgment that are gathering over the nations and the church. But few realize just how profound the force of this event will be for everyone involved.

In the book of Hosea we see described the devastating effects of the Assyrian storm upon the ten apostate northern Tribes of Israel. There had been warnings, judgments and rebukes to these synchronistic backsliders; that ultimately had resulted in a final act of judgment, exile.

So in our time, the apostate liberal church having ignored the calls to repentance will come ‚   ‚  to an ultimate decisive end. Just as the northern tribes were removed; no longer to be called God’s people (Hosea 1:9) and not ‚   allowed to dwell in the Promised Land. So the multi-faith Anglicans, Lutherans and Methodists etc will no longer be allowed even ‚   to be called ‚  a Church of Jesus . I believe soon, unless they repent, they will a face such devastating act of exile and banishment, that it’ll cause even the unbelievers of this world to shudder in fear.

But this is not yet the most profound impact of the storm. In the opening chapters of Jeremiah we see this warning given;

Jeremiah “3: ⁶ Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. ⁷ “I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸ “And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. ⁹ “Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. ¹⁰ “Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the LORD. ¹¹ And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ” (NASB)

The faithful remnant “church” that”˜s left will not take into their hearts this act of warning. Instead because they have worship in the “house of the Lord” and have some minor outward reforms, they will believe no rebuke will come against them. It will indeed have a form of godliness but there won’t be a true turning in their deeds back to the Lord. The prophets instead will speak of God’s blessing, peace and prosperity. ‚   But then an even greater Judgment will occur; instead of being taken to Assyria, the remnant will be taken to Babylon.

As I wrote in the beginning of this piece, many of us are observing the storm clouds approaching are wondering what the ‚   ‚  affect is going to be. Not realizing that we too will be profoundly affected by the bush fires that are bound to be spread. On the one hand it will present great opportunities of witness and healing to the survivors of these mainline denominations. On the other, the deception of being “safe” will cause many to be at peace, when there will be no peace. Jeremiah wrote that the graciousness or restoration of the Lord is given only to those who have firstly repented and turned from their duplicity.

Jeremiah 3:12-13 (NASB)
¹² “Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not be angry forever. ¹³ ‘Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the LORD your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the LORD.

To believe that the church and Israel is going to enter into revival, when there is no heartfelt evidence of return to him, will be to enter into a greater deception and judgment.

Jeremiah 4:10 (NASB) ¹⁰ Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; whereas a sword touches the throat.”

May we indeed learn the lesson of the fig tree (Matthew 21:18-22); after Yeshua clears the temple. He will come looking into our lives, to see if we have produced the fruits of repentance.