Jimmy Evans - This Is Not The End
I want to welcome our Gateway family to our third online service. Also all of you who are joining us, we know have a lot of people from other churches that are joining us, even people from around the world. We're so glad that you're joining us for this special online service. Now, we've had very large numbers of people joining us. Last week, we've had over 200,000 people view that service. So that's incredible. So the Lord is really using this as an opportunity. Let me give you another huge praise the Lord, and that is This service this weekend is being broadcast to every Texas state prison, 103 Texas state prisons, both men and women's prisons. So we want to welcome all of you who are joining us from the Texas state prisons. It's a special honor to have you join us.
So we're just so thankful you know, for what the Lord is doing during this time. But we're also mindful of the fact you know that a lot of people are hurting. And I know that many of you are hurting financially. You may have lost your job or your job is being affected. Maybe you own a business and your business is being affected. Some of you are first responders or you're working in the medical field, and there are special stresses on you also, and I just want you to know that we're praying for you. Pastor Robert and Debbie love you. Karen and I love you. The elders, the pastors of this church, we love you and we're praying for you, and we want you to know if you have a need that you can connect to us. Here's a way that you can do it and this will come on the screen there: Just text the word CONNECT to 71010 If you have a need for anything prayer, any kind of a need that you might have.
And let me give you another praise the Lord. All the people who are contacting us through this means for every one person that is asking for help, five people are offering to help. Isn't that incredible? That's the kind of a church family you are. I mean that's just truly the heart of God during this time being expressed. So there's a lot of suffering going on. A lot of people that are really struggling right now. We're praying for you, but we also want to help you in very practical ways. So please know we love you very, very much and you're being prayed for, but we're also your church family and we want to be here to help you in your time of need. So text CONNECT to 71010.
Another special need right now is blood. Many of the blood drives that were scheduled had been cancelled, and we're partnering with Carter Blood Care. And this information is also going to come up on your screen here and we're going to show you where you can go to find out how to come to our campuses to give blood. Now when you come, we want you to know it's going to be very safe. Everything, there's going to be distancing going on, but everything that touches you is going to be very clean. It's going to be cleansed, you know, antiseptically so that it's disinfected and that you're safe. But listen, there's a huge need. I'm going to come and give blood. Karen and I are going to come and give blood. And so if you possibly can during this time, we want to take what is a deficit in this blood issue right now and make it into a surplus.
These wonderful medical people who are saving lives every single day, they need our support and this is just a very practical way that we can help them. So we're asking you please consider giving blood. Just go on online. We showed you on the screen here how to do that. Go online and found out how you can come and give blood. Now Pastor Robert be back next weekend, which is Palm Sunday weekend. The weekend after that is Easter weekend. He'll be here both of those weekends. So he's home preparing right now.
But I have a special message that I want to bring you. But before I do that, Pastor Robert shared that we're joining in an effort called unite714. There's a website called unite714.com. This is a worldwide prayer movement and this is one of the wonderful things that God is doing during this very difficult time with the Corona virus. But this is, I believe, the largest prayer movement in the history of the world, and that we're uniting with churches and believers all over the world and we're praying the same prayer every week, believing for God to do a miracle in the midst of this plague, in this crisis that's hit America and hit the world. So I'm going to read this prayer. This prayer is being prayed all over the world right now by millions of believers and churches all over the world.
And so wherever you are - you might be alone, you might be with your family or wherever you are - I want you please to join me. Join your faith with mine. And I want to remind you of a promise that Jesus made. This is Matthew 18 Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven". So there's a lot more than two of us agreeing in prayer right now.
So would you agree? And we're believing the words of Jesus here, that when we come together agreeing in prayer, the Bible says if one can put a thousand to flight, two can put 10.000 to flight. Well when we have tens of thousands of believers joining together in prayer like this, it shakes heaven. So we want to believe now as we pray that God is hearing our prayer and the prayer of all of our brothers and sisters around the world, and he's going to answer this prayer. The end of this coronavirus is going to be a God event. He's going to answer the prayer of his saints. I'm going to read this now, but I want you to agree with me in prayer.
Lord, we humble ourselves before you today in prayer. Our hearts are saddened by the reports coming from our own nation and around the world of the continued spread and devastation of COVID-19. Today we draw near to your throne of grace in confidence in faith knowing you will hear our prayer. Your word says that though we are a people who were once in darkness without you, you were merciful to us and called us out of darkness and into your marvelous light. You made us a royal priesthood, a holy nation. You're a God who is full of mercy, compassion, and grace. You said we can receive mercy in our time of need. We need your help. We cry out to you because our world is in a desperate place.
COVID-19 has created a dire time of need, but we are standing in faith on the promises of your word. Today we are believing that as you appointed the Old Testament priests to stand in the gap as intercessors to see plagues and disease eradicated, so you will use the church to intercede and see COVID-19 eradicated from the earth. Therefore, we stand together as your royal priesthood and take authority over the COVID-19 virus. We pray COVID-19 will be eradicated. The victims will be healed. The doctors, nurses, scientists, first responders and the vulnerable will be protected. We ask all these things in your name, Jesus. And everyone said, amen.
COVID-19 has created a dire time of need, but we are standing in faith on the promises of your word. Today we are believing that as you appointed the Old Testament priests to stand in the gap as intercessors to see plagues and disease eradicated, so you will use the church to intercede and see COVID-19 eradicated from the earth. Therefore, we stand together as your royal priesthood and take authority over the COVID-19 virus. We pray COVID-19 will be eradicated. The victims will be healed. The doctors, nurses, scientists, first responders and the vulnerable will be protected. We ask all these things in your name, Jesus. And everyone said, amen.
We're believing that. We're standing on that. So thank you for praying with me and we're going to continue to pray now together for the next seven weeks with the believers all over the world. So this is in all these difficult times, this is something very exciting that God is doing. I want to bring a special message to you. Pastor Robert called me a few days ago and asked me if I would be willing to speak this weekend. And I told him that I would. And when I hung up from talking to him, the Lord gave me this message in about three minutes. I mean, it was just a download. And so what I'm bringing to you is, is the word that the Lord gave me for this weekend. And the title of my message is called, This Is Not the End: Comfort in Calamitous Times. This Is Not the End.
And so I want you to know this is not the end. And this entire message is designed to comfort you and to encourage you, And at the end of this message, I believe that you'll be comforted and encouraged. I want to encourage you, if you have some friends or loved ones who are upset or fearful, have them listen to this message. I really do believe it will help them. We're living in unprecedented times. And we're seeing the signs of the end, the things that Jesus talked about that I'm going to read some scriptures here and tell you that some of the things that Jesus talked about and they're very comforting.
Now when I talk about the end times, there are some people who become fearful. If you become fearful when someone talks about the end times, it's either because you don't understand it or someone may have taught you wrong in the past. I'm telling you is the most comforting thing in the world to understand what's going on. About 30% of the Bible is prophecy, and most of it relates to the times that we're living in. So God does not want us to be ignorant. In fact, one of the things I've heard most often in the past few weeks from people and also on television is the worst thing about this is the unknown. You know how many people are going to die? How long is this thing gonna last? What is it going to do the world? A lot of people are very fearful of the unknown. That's why God gives us prophesy because he's telling us the future in advance.
For believers there aren't the unknowns that exist in the world. We don't know every detail of what's happening right now, but we know what the Bible says about the end and where we are. So I'm going to make three statements in this message that will comfort you. They're designed to comfort you and to help you in these difficult times. And my first statement is, this is not the end. This is not the end. And I'm gonna show you this in scripture. I've had a lot of people ask me about the end times and especially I've had a lot of people ask me, "Jimmy, are we in the tribulation"? A one man's specifically said, "do you believe that these are", that what we're saying right now, "these are the four horsemen of the apocalypse from Revelation 6"? And I said to him immediately, "absolutely not. We are not in the tribulation. I can promise you that".
And let me just read you a scripture text that will prove it right here. This is Revelation 6. This is one of the horsemen, the four horsemen, Revelation 6:7-8, "When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth". That's 2 billion people. Right now there are almost 8 billion people on the earth. So one, one of the horsemen kills almost, or a fourth of mankind, almost 2 billion people right now. And so we're not there. You know, I know that there are a lot of people dying of this flu, but also other other things right now. We are not in the tribulation. I just want you to know that.
And so, so what is going on? You know, I mean, where are we in the end times, and how's it all going to end all? I want to answer this in two ways, okay? And the first is just Bible prophecy and showing you what the Bible says, which is very clear. And the second is I want to tell you what two very reputable prophets that are friends of mine, and Pastor Robert's friends, I want to tell you what two very reputable prophets are saying that God spoke to them about what we're going through right now.
Let me begin by Bible prophecy. And this is Matthew 24 beginning with verse 3, "Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows".
And so we're not in the tribulation. This is not the end. And we're not going to go through the tribulation. I'm going to prove that to you in scriptures here in just a minute. We're in the beginning of sorrows, and I think that we've been there since really 1948 when Israel became a nation. We're seeing all those things, you know the famines, the earthquakes, the pestilences. We're right now in a worldwide pestilence, but we've also seen many other diseases and you know, things that have happened in the world that are certainly pestilences: nation rises against nation, kingdom against kingdom. All of those kinds of things are happening. So we're in a season that Jesus described as the beginning of sorrows.
Well you say, "Well. Jimmy, how far until we get to the end and how do things end"? Well let's go to Luke 17 this is Luke 17, and we're going begin with verse 20. Again, Jesus is addressing the signs of the end, okay. They're asking him what's going to happen at the end, and Jesus is extremely specific here. And we can be thankful for this because it instructs us about what things are going to be like when Jesus returns for his Church, the rapture of the Church.
Luke 17, "Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day". That's the rapture. Lightning flashing from the East to the West. The rapture will be an immediate event like a lightning flash where Jesus takes his Church.
This is verse 25, "But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day"... Now, I want you to remember that phrase: "the day". Definite article. Not "a day", but "the day". He's talking about one historical day here. "until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day", there's again one day in history, "but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day", okay?
There was a historical day in the days of Noah. He's pointing to that. It'll be just like that day. There was historical day in the days of Lot when Lot went out of Sodom before judgement came. He said it's going to be just like that day. He said, "Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left".
That's the rapture of the word "taken" there is the Greek word paralambanō, and it means to receive into yourself. The rapture is Jesus is in the skies, and he receives us unto himself in the rapture. "Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.” And they answered and said to Him, “Where, Lord?” So He said to them, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together”". They're up in the air. The second coming of Jesus is a very physical event that happens at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem where every eye will see him. At the end of the tribulation, the second coming happens on earth. Jesus comes down to the earth very publicly. The rapture is a very private event that happens in the air between Jesus and his Church.
So the days of Noah, Jesus compares his coming to the days of Lot and Noah. So what are the similarities here? First is rampant immorality and violence. Both in Noah's day and in Lot's day violence and immorality covered the earth and those societies just like they do ours today. Business is usual atmosphere with economic and social normalcy. Jesus said there's going to be buying and selling, marrying you've given in marriage. This is not the end. This is a very serious event, and I know for some of you who are suffering, maybe you've lost your job, your business is suffering right now, It may seem like the end. It's not. This is going to pass.
And I'm not saying the world's all going to be the same. There may be some things that change, but one of the reasons that Jesus was so specific when he was telling us about what the Earth's conditions would be like when he returned is he's trying to comfort us. Every time there's a bad economic event, people are asking me, do you think that this is a worldwide financial meltdown? You know, is the economy going to collapse? By the word of Jesus I'm telling you this will pass and there will be an economy and life when Jesus returns.
So let me go back. A righteous remnant. The third thing, this parallel between Noah and Lot in the days we're living in is a righteous remnant living in a corrupt and unrepentant world. That's what we are. We are the minority, and we all know that. There's a lot of us, but there's lot more people that have not received Christ. And the number four parallel between Noah and Lot's day and our day is the sudden rescue of the righteous before the wrath of God falls. So I want to, I want to go back again and I want to say, so Jesus talked about the day that Noah got on the boat. Okay, so what happened that day? People were buying and selling, marrying given in marriage. Okay. So this is why we know that Jesus, that the rapture is not at the end of the tribulation.
In Revelation 6 we already read that the rider on the pale horse kills a fourth of mankind. Three plagues in Revelation 9 kills a third of mankind. That that doesn't include all the other judgments in the book of Revelation. I'm telling you, at the end of the tribulation, over half of humanity is dead. Sea life is dead. The earth is burned up. It's been hit by a meteor, wormwood. All these things have happened to the earth and the Antichrist has martyred millions of Christians. And so I'm saying it's a bloodbath. The earth is a smoldering ruin. If the rapture... if we were going to go through the tribulation, Jesus would not have described the world as a place where there's business as usual. Okay?
So understand, Noah and his family got on the arc. Not a raindrop hit their head. God sealed them up in the arc, then the destruction came. But some people would still argue and say, "But they went through the flood". Well, they actually didn't. They were lifted above it and we will be lifted above the tribulation. Okay, we're with Jesus in heaven at the marriage supper of the Lamb while the wrath of the Lamb is taking place on the earth. We're lifted above. So let me go to Lot because you can't argue with this one. Jesus said on THE DAY, the day of my coming will be like THE DAY that Lot went out of Sodom. The angels came to get Lot and his family and take them out of Sodom and Gomorrah to safety. And the angel said, because Lot wasn't hurrying, and so the angel said, you've got to get out of this place. We can't judge it until you leave here and arrive safely at your destination.
See, God didn't tell a Lot to build a bunker and to buy guns and food because he was going to have to go through it, but God was going to protect him. Lot was not present, okay, whenever judgment fell on Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed them all. Jesus said, it's going to be just like that day. There is going to be a rapture and the tribulation begins. The clock starts on the tribulation. Seven years. But we will not be here. We're going to be with Jesus. And again, Jesus graphically describes all of that, the rapture and everything. By the way, Jesus said this phrase: "In that day", okay. And "In that night". He's talking about the day that he comes. In that day, you know, there'll be women grinding at the mill, but in that night there will be two people in bed, one taken, one left.
Why did Jesus say "in that day" and "in that night" talking about the day that he comes to rapture the Church? Because when Jesus returns, half the world will be in daytime and half the world be in nighttime. So if the rapture at five o'clock in the afternoon in Jerusalem, well it's daytime in Jerusalem, but it's going to be nighttime and other parts of the world. But the point there is be ready because he could come in the day or in the night. We don't know the day or the hour, but we certainly know the signs of the times. And so Jesus is coming for us. He graphically describes it here when they're asking him about the end. He graphically describes it.
Then let me go to another text and this is 1 Thessalonians 4. This is another very comforting and encouraging texts from the Apostle Paul. Beginning... this is chapter 4 verse 13, "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air".
Okay, this is an event that takes place in the air, Just like Jesus said. Let me say this. So you have relatives that were believers that died. Their body is wherever their body is, okay? On the earth, okay? Their spirit is in the presence of Jesus. When Jesus returns, the first thing, the rapture, the first thing that happens is their spirits are reunited with new glorified bodies. The dead in Christ will rise first, okay? Their bodies will be perfect. My father, a believer, died about 12 years ago of six cancers, and my dad's body was eaten up with cancer when he died. And when we buried him, we buried him knowing that that old dead body- my dad was in the presence of the Lord and he is in the presence of the Lord- but one day very soon my dad's spirit is going to be reunited with a glorified, eternal body that comes up out of the ground. And so the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive will be caught up to meet the Lord in the clouds, in the air.
The English words... because some people say rapture's not in the Bible. Yes, it certainly is. The word caught up, the English words caught up is the Greek word harpazō. It means to seize hastily. It means to come and grab and take away really quick. Okay? But it's the Latin word rapturo. If you have a Latin Bible, the word rapture is in your Bible, okay. And so rapture is a Latin word and that's the kind of the popular word that we use. But this is a graphic description of the rapture. Let's keep reading, "And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words". I'm comforting you by telling you that this is not the end, and we are not going to live here during the tribulation, which is literally hell on earth. We're not going to be here for that. Our end is when Jesus comes to receive us unto himself at the rapture of the Church, which I believe could happen at any time.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, "But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape". Okay, this is talking about unbelievers. 4-8, "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation".
Let's stop right here. When the Bible says that Jesus comes as a thief in the night, that's to unbelievers, they have no idea. They don't believe in the word of God. They don't believe in Bible prophecy. They have no idea what's going on. The Apostle Paul says, but to you, brethren, that day shouldn't come on you like a thief. You should be aware of the signs of the times and you should be aware of the coming of Jesus. They're saying peace and safety and they have no idea that sudden destruction is about to come, but you know exactly what's about to happen. Listen to these, these words now that I'm about to read. These are very critical. 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11, "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing".
I'm saying to you, God has not appointed us to wrath. The tribulation is wrath, and let me prove it to you right here. Revelation 6 beginning in verse 14, "Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”"
The wrath of the tribulation is the wrath of Jesus. First of all, he would never put us through that. 1 Thessalonians 1, the Apostle Paul says, "And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come", that we are to wait for his Son from heaven. He comes to deliver us from the wrath that is to come. The tribulation isn't judgment. It is wrath. It is the wrath of Almighty God that's going to last for seven years and billions of people will die. We, at the beginning of the tribulation, there's going to be a rapture. Paul described it. Jesus describes it. We're going for seven years into heaven to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Jesus said, "I'm going away to prepare a place for you in my Father's house". That's what a Jewish man did when he was marrying. He went to his father's house and prepared a place for his bride and then he came to get her. It was a surprise. She didn't know when he was coming, so she had to be ready when he came. He would come back to get her and he took her back to his father's house, and their wedding lasted for seven days. And so Jesus is preparing a place for us right now in his Father's house. He's coming back for us. We don't know when. Okay. We know it's going to be soon and he's going to take us back, and we're going to be involved in the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is described in Revelation 19.
And so it's all good, and now, now, So I've taught on the end times for a long time, and I know some people are watching this, They say, "Jimmy, you're an escapist". I want to confess, "I am", okay? "I am an escapist, but I'm an obedient escapist". Let me read you the scripture where Jesus told us to be escapist. Luke 21, talking about the end times, "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare". That's a trap. Remember the days of Noah, the days of Lot. As soon as they were safe, the whole world was ensnared in judgment. Listen to the inclusive nature of Jesus' comment. "For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth". You can't get more inclusive than that. Jesus is saying every single person on the earth is going to be trapped as soon as the rapture comes.
"Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”" Pray. Would Jesus tell us to pray something that couldn't happen? Okay? Of course he wouldn't. When Jesus says, "pray that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of man", what he says there is, it can happen if you don't have to go through judgement. You're you're, you're not... If you're a believer, you're not going to go through judgment. That's what I'm trying to tell you. What I'm saying is, it's not the end. This is not the end. It's the beginning of sorrows. We're certainly in the end times, I believe, but this is not the end.
Now let me talk about some specific prophets, two very reputable prophets who are friends of mine. One I talked to recently. One I talked to yesterday. And I want to tell you what they're saying about what's happening in the world right now. Now Amos 3:7 says, "Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets". God does nothing. He doesn't do anything unless he reveals it to prophets, because God doesn't want us in the dark. First of all, there's Bible prophecy, but secondly, there's prophets that are telling us what's happening. Let me tell you about two of them. One is Chuck Pierce. I've known Chuck for 20 years. He's the most accurate prophet I've ever known in my life. I've heard him prophecy many things, worldwide events before they happen over the last 20 years. And this is well documented in his books, in his talks that you can hear on YouTube and things like that.
So Chuck had a word last September, September of 2019 that the nations would come into turmoil until Passover. That's April 8th to the 16th, Passover. On January 26 Chuck had a word that he gave publicly that there would be a massive plague-like invasion that would test us through Passover. And so I talked to Chuck yesterday because I didn't want to miscommunicate what he was saying in this word. And I said, "Chuck, are you saying that this is going to be over at Passover, Easter"? And he said, "no, but there's going to be a transition". He said, "a season is going to end, and a season is going to begin". And he said, when the Lord spoke to him about that word, about this lasting until Passover, he studied Passover and the Lord said to him, "this year is going to be a true Passover".
Well, what happened? What happened in the original Passover in Egypt? You remember there were plagues, that God came to Egypt and he judged them for what they had done to the Jews. And there was plague after plague after plague until the final plague was the death of the firstborn. And God said, every family has to take a lamb, and you have to slaughter the lamb and take the blood of that lamb and apply it to the doorpost of your house. And when I see the blood of that lamb on your house, I will pass over and death will not come to your home. So Chuck said to me, it is time for God's people to remember the power of the blood and apply it to their lives and their home.
Remember, every family had to do it individually. This was not a group or a national thing, it was an individual thing. And what I'm saying to you is the blood of Jesus, by his stripes we are healed. He set us free from the power of the devil. He defeated the devil. He gave us eternal life. There's power in the blood of Jesus this time for every husband, wife, father, mother, child, It's time for every family to remember the power of the blood of Jesus and apply it to the doorpost of your house. Chuck also said that he believed there would be a tremendous redistribution of wealth that would take place during this time. Let me remind you, when the children of Israel left Egypt, they left rich. God said, "ask the Egyptians for their gold", and the Egyptians gave them a tremendous amount of gold and they left with it.
Now, unfortunately, they took that gold and built a golden calf. They misappropriated the funds that God had given them, but later they use those though that gold for the temple that God built. So I'm saying God's going to do miracles during this time, and you may be suffering right now financially, but I want you to stand up. I want you to believe in the power of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection in your life for miracles to come in your life. That's what Chuck is saying, is that we must remember that the power of the blood of Jesus and what Jesus has done and who we are. But we have to do it individually. No one can do it for us. We have to do it individually. No fear, no fear not being down or depressed. We stand up and we declare we're the people of the blood were the people of Jesus. And we had been delivered from the plagues, from death and hell.
And so Jim Laffoon is another prophet that I want to tell you about. And so when Pastor Robert and I - Pastor Robert told you about the phone call that we were on with about 20 leaders from across the nation, spiritual leaders. The purpose of that phone call was mainly to listen to Jim Laffoon's word. Jim is a friend of mine, a phenomenal prophet, a great man, great prophet, very, very integrous, very well respected internationally in the Body of Christ. And so I spoke with Jim last week about this word. but Pastor Robert and I were on the call, the most anointed phone call I've ever been on in my life. And Jim shared what God has spoken to him about this time. And it began about 18 months ago, when God began to share with him what was going to take place.
Now I'm actually gonna read to you a part of Jim's word. This is not the exhaustive word, but I want you to be able to see this for yourself because like Chuck's word it's encouraging, that that we're ending a season, we're about to begin a new season, and God is going to do some great things for us as we stand up and believe him for it. This is Jim's word. It's called "Intervention: Responding to COVID-19".
On December 31, 2018, at 10 pm, while attending a New Year’s Eve service, the Lord spoke to me about a great crisis that was coming to the United States. He showed me that it would come within 17 months. As I sat there praying, I saw the New York Stock Exchange and money markets beginning to sink. As New York continued its slide, California was flipped up in the air, and the entire nation began to slide into economic chaos. People began to cry out about recession and depression. Just as the turmoil in my heart reached a crescendo, the hands of the Lord reached out and caught our nation. I knew then that the United States was rapidly approaching a tipping point, and the Church was the answer.
By the following Friday, the Lord began to clarify the intervention He desired. This clarification began with the Holy Spirit reminding me of the story of Aaron being used by God to mitigate the terrible plague described in Numbers 16. I use the word “mitigate,” because 14,700 people died before Aaron’s bold act of worship and prayer was used by God to end the plague.
…and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces. And Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.” So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, when the plague was stopped. (Numbers 16:44–50, ESV)
We know that the severity of the plague mentioned in Exodus 32:25 was mitigated by Moses’ intercession before it ever started (cf. Numbers 32; Psalm 106:23). The plague of Numbers 25:9 was stopped through Phineas’s intervention—after 24,000 people had died (cf. Psalm 106:29–30). Why were all three men from the tribe of Levi? Obviously Moses was Israel’s leader, and the other two were priests, but I think there was a deeper reason. The consecration rituals and purposes of the Levites are described in Numbers 8:5–22; verse 19 is germane to this discussion. In this verse, we find there was something in the lives and ministries of the Levites, not just the priests, that was directly related to keeping Israel free from plagues. What does this have to do with us?
“And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the people of Israel, to do the service for the people of Israel at the tent of meeting and to make atonement for the people of Israel, that there may be no plague among the people of Israel when the people of Israel come near the sanctuary.” (Numbers 8:19, ESV)
The answer is, “Everything!” If the Old Testament priesthood and the Levites had the power to mitigate plagues, what about those God declares to be His Holy Priesthood?
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9, ESV)
What about us—and the movements we represent? I am convinced that if we will unite and rise up as one body across the United States, we can mitigate this plague and prepare the way for the move of God’s Spirit we all desire. This, however, will take more than a conversation. Could it be that God will use us to birth a movement of prayer that captures the hearts of America’s preachers and the people they lead? In an hour when the only buildings we have left to meet in are “temples made without human hands,” may the homes of the people we serve become houses of prayer!
This is a phenomenal word from the Lord and he is in sync with what Chuck is saying, and that is it's time for us to rise up. And I bless our government, our medical community. These are wonderful people who are sacrificing and working so hard, but we must remember our hope is in God and the Bible says it's Christ in you that's the hope of glory. We are God's priests. When we were on that call and Jim Laffoon was speaking this word, he said, if one man and the Old Testament could grab a sensor and go stay a plague, what can the body of Christ do right now in the earth if we rise up is priests? I'm saying it's time for our houses to become houses of prayer. It's time for us to unite in prayer and come together to believe God, and the Church becomes the answer. This is what he said in this word here. God is using his Church, his priests to become the answer in the midst of this plague.
And here's my prayer: In the midst of all this going on in the world. May Jesus Christ get all the glory, and may this be used to turn millions upon millions of people to Jesus, for them to get saved for their hearts, to be penetrated by what's happening right now and not for them to become hopeless, but for them to put their hope in Jesus. But it begins with the house of God. Let me read you 2 Chronicles 7. Pastor Robert read part of this last week. Let me read this to you again to remind you of what it says. 2 Chronicles 7, "Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land".
I'm believing for an Easter miracle. I'm believing that as we rise up and pray that when Passover comes, this thing is going to shift. Something is gonna happen. I don't know exactly what's going to happen. I don't know exactly how things long things will last. I just know what the Spirit of God is saying. And what the Spirit of God is saying is we have the power of the blood of Jesus, and we are the priesthood of God, and we are not helpless in this situation. We have the power of God on our side and it's time for us to rise up and pray, apply the blood and believe for the power that Jesus has given us.
And I want everybody to say Amen, wherever you are right now, I just want you to say Amen. I want you to agree with that. I want you to take this to your heart and I want you to know this is not the end. This is not the end. And when our end comes as believers, it's the most glorious thing in the entire world. We're in the beginning of sorrows. We won't be here for the bad stuff. The really bad stuff we're going to be with Jesus. This is a wonderful thing. My second statement, the next two statements won't take very long at all. But my second statement is, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. THIS IS NOT THE END, and YOU ARE NOT ALONE. This is David in Psalm 23:4, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I will fear no evil;For You are with me;Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me".
David said, I'm in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The reason I'm not afraid is because God's with me. You're not alone. Wherever you are right now, I'm telling you, Jesus loves you and Jesus is with you. He would never leave you alone. You are not alone. And so psychologists right now are saying on the news very publicly that there will be people who are psychologically damaged from what's happening right now through all the stress that's going on. I want to tell you, and I'm going to read a promise to you in just a minute about what God, the promise that God makes to his people, but this is the Valley of the Shadow of Death, by the way. They're doing body counts all day long on the news, counting how many people are dying the United States and around the world. This is the the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and if you don't know the Lord, and if you don't know the Lord is with you, it can be terrifying.
David said, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I will not be moved. Fear is reality minus God. Fear is just looking at what's happening and not remembering that God is with us. Faith is reality plus God. David saw everything through a God filter. He saw everything through a God filter. Because I've set the Lord always before me, whatever I'm looking at, I'm looking at it through my God filter. Remember David killed Goliath and he said, "you come against me with sword and spear. You're a 9 foot tall guy and I'm a little bitty guy, But I come against you in the name of the living God". David knew that God was with him, and he was a fearless person because of that.
Twelve men went into the land of Israel to spy it out. God took Israel miraculously out of Egypt through the wilderness and brought them to the border of the promised land. Remember there were giants in the land and 12 men went into spy it out. 10 men came out and they were terrified and they terrified. And they terrified the people. And they said, "giants are in there. We were like grasshoppers in our own site". Joshua and Caleb came out and said, "these people are nothing. There'll be our prey. God has withdrawn his protection from them". Let me tell you the problem with the 10 spies, they compared themselves to the giants. They looked at the giants, then looked at themselves and they became overwhelmed because they were trying to figure out how they could do it. The difference of Joshua and Caleb is they compared the giants to God.
See the problems that we're dealing with right now compared to us in our abilities, it's overwhelming. But our God is able to do anything that needs to be done. He has power over everything. I heard some preacher say one time, it's time for us to stop telling God how big our mountains are and start telling our mountains how big our God is. And I'm saying that COVID-19 is nothing compared to our God. It may overwhelm us, but it doesn't overwhelm our God, and he's going to have preeminence in this and I pray he gets all the glory when this issue is resolved. You're not alone. Now let me tell you this promise from Philippians 4, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus".
The promise here is if we won't worry, but if we'll pray that the peace of God will supernaturally guard our minds and hearts. When psychologists are saying people be psychologically damaged, they will. There will be people who are terrified right now. and they don't turn to God, it'll wear them out. I mean there's, there's going to be damage done, but did you know if you won't worry, if you'll pray that the promise here is that God will supernaturally guard your mind and your emotions. The word for guard here is the Greek word phroureó. It means to guard against a military invasion. As the devil would use this to harass you and attack you, you will have, if you'll pray to God and trust in him, you will have a supernatural force field that the devil cannot penetrate. That will guard your thinking and your heart by the peace of God. Supernatural peace, even in the days that we live in, if we'll turn to God and trust in him.
Here's my third statement, final statement. THIS IS NOT OUR HOME. This, this is not our home. In times like this, we have houses, we have dwelling places that we live in and that's great. I hope you have a wonderful place that you're in right now, but I'm saying, this is not home. And Jesus said In Luke 17, the scripture I read from Luke 17, interesting thing Jesus said. Remember Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife. Remember what happened to her? She turned into a pillar of salt. And the angel said, get outta here. We can't judge this place 'til you're gone. Get outta here. And lot's wife looked back. And it wasn't just a looking back in reflection, it was a looking back in longing. She loved the world more than she loved God, and she became a pillar of salt and Jesus said, you need to remember Lot's wife.
This isn't our home. Our home is in heaven with Jesus. Our home is in the presence of God. And this is a reminder. This world is being judged. This world is cursed because of the fall. And yes, we're blessed because of Jesus, but we live in a cursed world. The Apostle Paul went to heaven. In 2 Corinthians 12 he says that he went to heaven. He said, I don't know if I was in my body or out of my body. I don't know. But I was caught up into the third heaven, the presence of God. And then in Philippians he comes back and says, I have a desire to depart and be with the Lord, for it's far better.
See, most of us, we've never been to heaven, So it's unknown to us except what the Bible describes. But for people who have been there, Pastor Robert almost died a couple of years ago, And he had to deal with anger at God because he didn't let him go to heaven, because he caught a glimpse. He caught a foretaste of what heaven was like, and he was disappointed that he had to come back here. We love our families. You know, we love people. We may love the communities that we live in or our jobs or something like that. But this is a wonderful reminder to all of us. This is not our home. We need to put our eyes on Jesus. We need to live for eternal things. If anything comes out of this, besides people getting saved and God doing miracles, it could be that we get our priorities aligned and that we remember we're on our way to eternity. We're on our way to heaven, into the presence of God, and everything we have in this world except for the people that we love that believe in Jesus...
See, what I care about the most is what you care about the most, is my family, and thank God they're all going to heaven. But everything else is going to be burned up. Everything else is under judgment. All of our possessions, all of our money, all of our cars, all of our houses, All, everything, it's going to be, it's going to be, it will go up in smoke literally, But I heard someone say one time, you can't take it with you, but you send it on ahead. As you serve the Lord, as you serve Jesus, you're gathering riches in eternity. This is not our home. This is not the end. You are not alone, and this is not our home.
Those are three truths, and I pray that that encourages you to today. And I want to pray with you, and I want us all to make a determination within our hearts that we're not going to sit back in fear as these things happen, but we're going to believe the words of the Bible and the words and the prophets, and that we're going to stand up in faith, and we're going to apply the blood. We're going to use our authority and we're going to become the priesthood that's going to mitigate this plague among the people. That God is going to use the Church in a supernatural way, and that's you. That he will use you in a supernatural way during this time.
Let me say this because I'm going to pray for you. If you want to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the most important decision you'll make in all of eternity. If you don't know that Jesus is in your heart and that you've received him, this is the time to do it. You can text DECISION to 71010 and someone from Gateway will contact you and talk with you and pray with you and help you in the next steps of being a believer and living for Jesus Christ. But text DECISION to 71010 if you would like prayer. And remember also CONNECT to 71010 if you want someone to pray with you about your family, about your finances, your job, your business, healing, anything that you need in life, we're here for you to connect to you.
And I want to say one more time before I pray, We love you. We love you very much. At times that we're not touching each other the way that we used to, and I'm preaching here in an empty room, my heart's not empty because I love you very much. Pastor Robert and Debbie love you very much. The elders, the staff here, we love you. You're our precious flock and congregation and we love you. We're praying for you. We're here for you. But let's join together in prayer.
Father in Jesus' name. We're living in a difficult time, Jesus, that you called the beginning of sorrows, and we're sorrowful, Lord. We're sorrowful for people who are hurting. We're sorrowful for what's going on in the world right now. But we're not hopeless. We are the people of the blood and we were reminded right now that on the Friday afternoon when you died, Jesus, there was an earthquake, and the veil in the temple was ripped from the top to the bottom. And the Holy Spirit no longer lives, no longer dwells in a tent or a temple in Israel. We are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. You live within us now. And you have invested your authority within us. You defeated the Devil and you gave us authority over him.
And we rise up right now, and we believe that the blood of Jesus supplied to our lives will cause death to pass over us, that we are supernaturally protected, that our family is supernaturally protected by the blood of Jesus. We declare right now we're the priests, we're the holy priesthood of God, and we rise up and we run between the dead and the living, and we say, God have mercy on this world. Please stop this plague and let the rest of the people hear the news of the gospel and have an opportunity to receive Jesus as the Lord of their lives. And use this event as an opportunity for the kingdom of God and the glory of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray you'll bless every church right now. There are churches really, really struggling right now. Bless those pastors, bless those congregations in a supernatural way. But we come together as the Body of Christ and we thank you in advance for the victory because it's coming. We believe it. We declare it in Jesus' name. Amen.
And we rise up right now, and we believe that the blood of Jesus supplied to our lives will cause death to pass over us, that we are supernaturally protected, that our family is supernaturally protected by the blood of Jesus. We declare right now we're the priests, we're the holy priesthood of God, and we rise up and we run between the dead and the living, and we say, God have mercy on this world. Please stop this plague and let the rest of the people hear the news of the gospel and have an opportunity to receive Jesus as the Lord of their lives. And use this event as an opportunity for the kingdom of God and the glory of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray you'll bless every church right now. There are churches really, really struggling right now. Bless those pastors, bless those congregations in a supernatural way. But we come together as the Body of Christ and we thank you in advance for the victory because it's coming. We believe it. We declare it in Jesus' name. Amen.