{"id":2601,"date":"2020-08-11T15:26:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T20:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/?p=2601"},"modified":"2022-01-10T21:35:59","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T03:35:59","slug":"speak-to-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/?p=2601","title":{"rendered":"Speak to the Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cSpeak to the pandemic and to these videos,\u201d I was recently asked by two different friends, spiritual men and seers themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first video was by a pastor in Hawaii<\/a> who provided some historical and political insights he thought were very relevant to our times and circumstances, which he saw as prophecy being fulfilled. They certainly speak plainly about socialism, communism, technology and what we are seeing today in the streets of some of our cities and in the news. You can decide for yourself. I think it\u2019s worthy of your time. It\u2019s always been important for disciples from Jesus time forward to look for the signs He told us would be a prelude to the end of the age. Among other benefits, it keeps us more focused on heaven, His kingdom there and here, and reminded of where our true citizenship and allegiance lies. He told us to be watching and aware for a reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second video was by a pastor in KY<\/a> who had some dreams about the pandemic and riots before they happened and told his people about them. Then he had some following dreams with time stamps of things getting worse, and when. This video has gone viral I understand, and again I would recommend you watch it for the reasons mentioned above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As is my practice, when I see something of spiritual, prophetic, or Biblical import relating to some current situation, and it\u2019s not absolutely clear to me how to interpret it, I ask a spiritual mentor, elder, and one with a gift of wisdom in my life, let\u2019s call him Charles, to weigh in on it with me. To give me his time tested discernment and what he hears and sees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, he listened and watched the two videos above and then sent me a third video, by a Messianic Jew,<\/a> which he said pretty much echoed his take on the two above and was amazing in its insight and clarity \u2014 in the tricky business of interrupting prophetic words and dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So there, I\u2019ve shared all three with you, for your watching, listening, and discerning pleasure. If you find yourself wondering, what in the world might be going on in the spiritual realm and spilling over into our earthly realm?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That friends, is something much more real and commonplace than any of us know. Read your Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could share how I answered my brothers who sent me the videos, before I heard from Charles, and I might do that later, but I\u2019ll leave it as is for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Word About Prophets<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess the brothers who asked me know I\u2019m very interested in prophets and prophecy, and I become more so each passing year. Others over the years have told me they thought I have that gift. Oddly on a backcountry flying trip to Idaho and the Western US last year, one of my least religious groups of friends gave me the nickname or call sign \u201cProphet\u201d with no input from me. No one dares give input when these names are being awarded! Because it can go very poorly if you do, and these names stick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Really I see myself more as a seer, and hearer, not a prophet, just a spiritually sensitive one trying to become more so by time in the Word and mediation and reading and journaling and solitude. Trying to abide in Christ, John 15:5. It\u2019s \u201clife in the Vineyard\u201d as we have come to call it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would also add, that churchmen and theologians have tried to strain at a gnat and swallowed a camel when it comes to defining a prophet and identifying prophetic people. In it\u2019s simplest form I believe a prophet is someone who hears from God and tells others what he heard. And there is also an element of being sent (by God to tell what he or she heard). As an example, Balam was gifted by God as a prophet and seer in Moses time, but he wasn\u2019t sent to do what he set out to do; thus he became a false prophet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would also add the emphasis should be on the God of the message, then the message, and then the prophet or messenger. It\u2019s not a perfect gift, but must be tested and fine tuned in the practitioner or else there would be no need for the New Testament injunction to let one prophesy and two or three prophets pass judgment on the word. It\u2019s obvious in the stories of the Bible that dark spirits hail on the same spiritual frequencies as does the light. It\u2019s a bit mystical isn\u2019t it? And relational in the end? Who do you hear? And how well do you know their voice? One must always be aware that Satan can appear as an angel of light. This is not a system we made up, it\u2019s a reality we learn, in practice, with the Bible as our guide, and the Holy Spirit our Companion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plague and Riots<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about this plague and these riots?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially I saw a country and people gripped by fear, acting out of that fear and hysteria way out of proportion to the facts known at the time. Being swayed by a news media that\u2019s anything but objective, but rather driven by profit and greed, their own philosophical and political agenda, and so deceived they don\u2019t even recognize they are such. Indeed, I think this was true, is true and will be true for some time into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now as time has passed and I\u2019ve continued to read, mediate, listen and read the Bible, I have received a different view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This pandemic is from the Lord I believe. It\u2019s going to get worse before it gets better. It is by His grace and mercy that it\u2019s no worse than it is. It is a \u201cgrace attack\u201d of sorts. And invitation and impetus to wake up and live. It\u2019s God showing disciple and non-Christian alike what we are without Him, and left to our own devices. The Creator is showing us what we really believe and who we really trust for our future and our day-to-day. Partly by stripping us of activity and idols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The riddles surrounding this virus have been so hard to solve and are still somewhat, if not largely, unknown. How you get it? How it spreads? Who it effects not at all, and who finds it fatal? It\u2019t origin? How to contain it? The list goes on and on. Its brilliance, if it is such, is how it\u2019s stopped a world obsessed by speed, profit, and progress in her tracks, and encouraged her to spend time outside, with her families and friends, and take a sabbatical from sports, entertainment, and our normal idols, that we may not have regarded as such? Some eyes will be opened to this, and some will not. It seems to be his way \u2014 and ours. But I\u2019m going to call it Grace, \u201cDivine action on mortals for their benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s not just this evidence, plus more I could point out. The Bible tells us \u201cGod is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.\u201d Something and Someone stable we can cling to in chaos and storm \u2014 the only One dependable and worthy. And Solomon, the wisest man to have lived, said \u201cThere is nothing new under the sun.\u201d \u201cEverything that is has been, and will be again.\u201d In other words, God has to interject Himself, His Grace, into human kind from time to time or we would implode, explode, erode, or otherwise destroy ourselves. It\u2019s a story demonstrable from history, that deserves its own future blog. This appears to me to be the latest in that series of times \u2014 help from the Lord. Judgment mingled with mercy, and His ever abundant Grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acts 17 comes to mind. Paul addresses the intellectuals of Athens and reacquaints them with their \u201cUnknown God” The One they had lost track of or weren’t aware of any longer. Some saw and believed but most didn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read a summary of all this just yesterday morning, Psalm 106, a three thousand year old insight by David \u2014 poet, seer, prophet, King of Israel. Coming up in the next blog\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSpeak to the pandemic and to these videos,\u201d I was recently asked by two different friends, spiritual men and seers themselves. The first video was by a pastor in Hawaii who provided some historical and political insights he thought were very relevant to our times and circumstances, which he saw as prophecy being fulfilled. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,9,12,8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friendoftheking","category-be-a-leader","category-be-a-man","category-bread-for-the-spirit","category-the-book-journey","category-understanding-our-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2601"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2612,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601\/revisions\/2612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}