Perry Stone - Today Where We Are Prophetically
Summary:
From the hills near Bethlehem, Perry Stone reflects on prophetic signs unfolding in our time, linking Jesus' words about the «birth pains» of the end times to events of the last seventy years. He highlights fulfilled prophecies like Israel’s rebirth in 1948, the regathering of Jews, and Jerusalem’s unification, while pointing to positive signs such as global gospel preaching through modern technology and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all people, young and old, men and women. Ultimately, he concludes that both the positive advancements and the negative threats—like weapons capable of destroying all flesh—confirm we are living in the last days, urging believers to study and embrace Bible prophecy for blessing.
Welcome from the Holy Land
I wish to welcome the worldwide audience of the Manna-Fest telecast, and I guess you know where I am. I’m in the Holy Land. I’m in the land of Israel, and we are in a very famous area: the edge of Bethlehem. Right directly across from me, on the right side of your screen and on my left, is Tekoa, where the prophet Amos was from.
Directly behind me are the edges of the mountains of the Judean wilderness. Not far from here is where Christ was tempted by the devil in Luke chapter 4 and Matthew chapter 4, and He conquered the enemy in the Judean wilderness. Directly on the left, the right, the left side of your screen, on my right side, is a great mountain, and this mountain is called Herodium.
A Prophetic Location
It is where Herod the Great, who slew the babies of Bethlehem, was buried. His ossuary, which is a stone container that held bones, was discovered several years ago. So we’re in a very prophetic area and a great area of biblical history. Today, on the Manna-Fest telecast, however, it’s my heart’s desire to share with you where we are prophetically.
Now, in the four Gospels, Jesus gave us some references concerning events that would happen at what is called the time of the end or the end of days. These are found in Matthew 24, Luke chapter 21, and also in Mark 13. Now, it’s the same basic discourse, but sometimes the Gospel writers would add something that they remembered Jesus said that perhaps the other writer did not mention.
Jesus' Olivet Discourse
It’s like hearing a man preach. You’ll hear a man preach a message, and someone will leave remembering a story he told. Someone will leave remembering a Greek or Hebrew word study that he did. But it was the same message. So, with that in mind, if we go to Matthew chapter 24, the disciples are on the Mount of Olives.
They’re seeing the beautiful temple, and Jesus has predicted that the temple will be destroyed, so they ask Him a question. They said, «When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of Your coming and the end of the world?» The King James translates the end of the world, but actually in Greek, it is the end of the age. When will be the end of the age?
Birth Pains of the Messiah
What they’re referring to is the end of man’s governmental rule and the beginning of the Messianic kingdom. Well, Jesus gave them a list of signs: wars, rumors of wars, famines, pestilence, earthquakes in different places. But then, in verse 8, He says something very important. «All of these are the beginning of sorrows.»
In other words, the Greek word here, «sorrows, ” is a word for birthing pains. It’s when a woman goes into the early stages of her birth pains right before her child is born. So Jesus is saying, „When you begin to see certain events take place at the time of the end, you will know it’s the seasons of the birth pains or the seasons of the Messiah’s arrival.“
Footsteps of the Messiah
Now, these birth pains are known in Rabbinical Judaism as the footsteps of the Messiah or birthing pains of the Messiah, and of course, in contemporary Judaism and even Orthodox Judaism, they still anticipate the return of a Messiah. In Christian theology, we believe that Christ is that Messiah, who was predicted and prophesied by the prophets of the Scriptures because He fulfilled so many of those prophecies.
In fact, every prophecy concerning the first appearing of the Messiah was fulfilled through types, shadows, and patterns of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now having said that, I’m going to take you over the past seventy years. Let’s just say, let’s start in the 1930s, the 40s, the 50s, all the way to our present time, and let’s talk for just a few moments about some of the things that we know were prophetic that have been fulfilled in the past seventy years.
The Valley of Dry Bones
First of all, we understand Ezekiel chapter 37 is the vision of Ezekiel called the Valley of Dry Bones, and these bones were called the entire house of Israel, and they were dead. They were in their graves, there was no life in them, and God breathed life into them. According to Ezekiel’s vision, He would bring them back to the land of Israel and make them a great army.
This I believe, and many Rabbinical sources believe, was fulfilled after the Holocaust. The Holocaust, when you see these terrible pictures of Jewish people in concentration camps, and yet some survived and came back to the land and began to reestablish the land. So number one is the Valley of Dry Bones. Dry bones have lived again.
A Nation Born in a Day
The second prophecy that I can indicate would be Isaiah 66 and verse 8, where it talks about that when Zion travails, she brings forth her children. „Will a nation be born at once?“ Yes. A nation was born at once or in a day. In 1948, May 14th and 15th, that timeframe, at midnight May 14th, Israel was reestablished again as a nation through a United Nations mandate carving out the land of Israel.
Now someone said, „Well that was illegal because the Jewish people were given a land that did not belong to them.“ Well, the person that says that does not understand secular history nor biblical history because the Hebrew people came back all the way to the time of Abraham when he came to the land, and they lived here all during that timeframe up until the Babylonian captivity when they returned and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.
Jerusalem’s Reunification
Judea, this is where I am right now, the area of Judea, were all Jewish people back in that day under Roman occupation until the destruction in 70 AD. So the second prophecy is Israel being restored as a nation, and it has happened. The third prophecy would be the battles for Jerusalem.
In Zechariah chapter 12, chapters 12 through 14, there is a prediction of the battles of Jerusalem that will happen in the future. Those have not happened yet. But we also know that in Psalms 102:16, one of my favorite verses, it reads, „For when the Lord shall build up Zion, then shall He appear in His glory.“
The 1967 Six-Day War
So in the 1967 war, in the Six Day War, the western side of Jerusalem and the eastern side were united. The great big barrier that was up, the concrete barrier with barbed wire, was torn down and today when you tour the land of Israel or visit it, you can go from one side of the east side to the west side without many checkpoints, without a lot of difficulties as far as within the confines of the old wall of the old city.
Now we come to the fourth prophecy, which deals with Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. There is a listing of nations in Ezekiel chapter 39 and chapter 38 as well that talks about a war coming called the War of Gog and Magog. It is interesting when you study a list of these nations; they all are today strong Muslim nations who are enemies of Israel.
Gog and Magog Alliance
So the prophet of the Bible specifically listed nations and territories that at the end of days would be enemies of Israel and would try to come against this land in a major battle called the War of Gog of Magog. However, the prophecy has already been set: when these armies invade, they will be supernaturally defeated by the hand of God, and only one-sixth of all of these armies of these nations listed will survive through it.
That is, of course, when I believe the Antichrist will sign that agreement of Daniel 9:27 with Israel. That’s my personal opinion, and I base that on different references as well. We won’t have time to get into that today, however.
Return from the North
Now we have another prophecy, which is the return of the Jews to the land. Jeremiah 16:14–16, Isaiah 43 and verse 5 make it very clear that there would be a great exodus back to the land of Israel from the north country. Look at a map of Jerusalem and notice what’s directly north of it: Moscow, Russia.
Jewish people have been returning from Russia, the southern Russian states, and even Eastern Europe for quite some time now since the late 1980s, and now there are over somewhere around 1.8 million. My numbers may be off because it’s changed from time to time as it has increased. A million people have come from this part of the world and come back to the land of Israel from the northern part of the nations above Israel: Jewish people.
Positive Signs: Global Gospel
Now those are five prophecies that we could get into many more that have happened in the past seventy years. But what I want to talk about are some positive things that are happening to help us know we are truly living in the last days. Now if we look at the last days and we want to talk about some of the positive things that are happening, we have to go to Matthew chapter 24 and we have to look at verse 14.
And it says, „For this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all nations as a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.“ Now what is interesting is this, and I want you to hear this very carefully because this is so important. For many, many centuries, it would have been impossible to reach the entire world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, with a message of any kind for that matter.
Technology Enables Worldwide Preaching
In other words, you had to have somebody who would go on horseback or he would travel by perhaps, in the early days, a ship, and go from one place to the other. We call them missionaries, and Britain sent missionaries out, and England sent missionaries out, and eventually the United States began to send missionaries out. But how do you get the gospel around the entire world at one time?
Ladies and gentlemen, this is so exciting if you really think about it. In my lifetime, and for many of you in your lifetime, we have witnessed firsthand how that technology has changed. Now I go back as far as remembering, are you ready for this, phonograph records and eight-tracks. Now I’m really dating myself right now, okay.
From Records to Internet
Then we went from that to cassette tapes. Then we went from cassette tapes to CDs. Now we’re going to flash drives. Now we went in the beginning from radio, from radio to television, from television to satellite, from satellite to the internet.
Do you realize, this is what fascinates me, on our Holy Land tour, our buses have free Wi-Fi, and you can literally text, for example, Pam at home from the bus, and she gets the message, and it comes back to me. You can FaceTime her. „Honey, how are you doing?“ „Well, I’m eating breakfast here.“ „Well, we’re getting ready to go back to the hotel.“
Gospel to All Nations
This is the technology that we have today, which actually means that for the first time in world history, the nations can be reached through the preaching of the gospel. Now remember, this is a positive sign. So right now, through technology, through satellite, through the internet, we can now do what Matthew 24 and verse 14 said, and the end would come when the gospel is preached not to every person.
It didn’t even say every person would hear, but the gospel would be preached around the world, and then the end would come. Now that’s a positive prophecy.
Outpouring on All Flesh
Now I want to give you a second positive prophecy that I think is extremely, extremely interesting, and this one has to do with what we call the outpouring of the Spirit. In Joel chapter 2, God made it very clear that in the last days, He would pour out His Spirit upon—watch the phrase—“all flesh.»
Now all flesh means all ethnic groups. It means the Asian people, the Hispanic people, the Caucasian people, the black folks. Whatever color you are, it does not matter because God says upon every group, upon all flesh — that’s what that phrase means — «I will pour out of My Spirit.» Then the second thing He says is «sons and daughters will prophesy.»
Sons and Daughters Prophesying
Now that’s the younger generation. First thing you need to understand is God pours out His Spirit upon all flesh, meaning all races of people. The second thing you have to understand is the phrase «sons and daughters.» This refers to the younger generation.
So, the younger generation would be children, it would be teenagers, and it would be what we call today college and career individuals. Do you know the number of ministries that have been raised up by the Lord, and I don’t want to start naming them, that deal specifically with young people? Have you noticed the young people’s conferences?
Youth Revivals Worldwide
Let me show you a picture or some video footage of Reformation or Warrior Fest, where thousands of young people are coming together at OCI in Cleveland, Tennessee, to experience the move of God. One service at Warrior Fest, over five hundred young people at one time were instantly baptized in the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is happening not just in North America. It’s happening in Indonesia, in Africa, and Brazil. Many of the churches overseas, even in the underground churches of Asia, even in communist countries where they have underground churches, the majority of the young people are literally young people. The majority of the members are under thirty years of age. This is the «sons and daughters» prophecy of Joel 2.
Servants and Handmaidens
Now watch this. This is the third part of the prophecy of Joel 2. «And upon My servants and handmaidens, I will pour out of My Spirit.» Now why is that significant? Because if you’ll read the Bible and you go into the Old Testament, the Spirit of God existed all the way from the time that He moved upon the face of the waters at the time of creation.
However, when you go to the Scripture, you will notice something. Throughout the Old Testament, which is Genesis all the way to Malachi in our Bible, it was mostly men that had the Holy Spirit poured out upon them. The Spirit of God came upon Gideon, it came upon Jephthah, it came upon Shamgar, it came upon Samson. Then when the Spirit would come, He would lift.
Women in Ministry
Now rarely, if ever, in the Old Covenant did the Spirit of God ever come upon a woman. On one occasion, God raised up a woman by the name of Deborah. On another occasion, He raised up a woman by the name of Jael, and another time in Jewish history, there was a woman by the name of Judith. But it was rare that the Spirit of God came upon women.
But God said in this last outpouring, you will see men and women. The men are the servants, the women are the handmaidens that He’s going to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. I want you to pay careful attention to this because I do realize something.
God’s Call on Women
Among the viewers of the Manna-Fest telecast, we did a survey several years ago. Now some of our highest viewers happen to be Southern Baptists, and I always tease them in the South. There are more Baptists than there are people living in the South. So our number one audience, believe it or not, are Southern Baptists and independent Baptists.
The second group are Charismatics and Pentecostals, and the third group are Roman Catholics. This is the group in North America that really watches the Manna-Fest telecast. Now what is interesting is there have been in the past denominations that have pretty much said that only men should be involved in ministry.
The Harvest Requires All
But remember this: it was God that said, not man but God that said the servants and the handmaidens will prophesy. Now the word «prophesy» in Hebrew in Joel chapter 2 can mean foretelling future events. When Peter repeats the prophecy of Joel in Acts chapter 2, that handmaidens and servants will prophesy, the Greek word there can have two different implications.
One is to be able to foretell the future. But the other is to be able to forth-tell or to speak, how would we say this, exhortations through the Word of God. So the Bible is very clear that in the last days, you will see men who will be exhorting through the Word and teaching the Word, and you will see women who are going to be exhorting and teaching through the Word.
Necessity of Women in Ministry
And I want to explain something to you for those of you that say, «Well, I don’t believe in women teachers or women preachers.» Let me explain to you the necessity of women becoming involved in the last-day move of God. Here it is: the harvest is so great and the lost souls are so many there are not enough men obeying God to go out and do the work of God and to accomplish the task, and God is going to use the youth, and God is going to use all colors of people, and God is going to use men and women as well.
And so here we are living in this time. So this is an exciting fulfillment of prophecy. I know in our own ministry we’ve actually lost count. We’ve tried to keep track over the years of just seeing how many were touched in this service? How many were saved tonight? How many were baptized in the Holy Spirit?
Negative Signs: Great Tribulation
Up to this point, it’s been well over a hundred thousand people just in churches now. This is not counting people at home. This is not counting people that watch the Manna-Fest telecast. But a hundred thousand people in person in our services have been baptized in the authority and power of the Holy Spirit, or what we call the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
So I’m being able to live in a time, and you should be excited about this. It doesn’t matter what denomination you’re with, but you should be excited about living in a day when we’re able to see these prophecies fulfilled. Now, very quickly, those are two of the great, what I call, positive prophecies of the last day.
No Flesh Saved
But let me give you about two or three if I can get through this in the next four and a half minutes of what I call negative examples of living in this generation. Number one, Jesus said this: «For then shall be great tribulation such as not been since the beginning of the world to this time nor ever shall be; and unless those days are shortened, no flesh shall be saved: but for the elect’s sake, those days would be shortened.»
Now how could the days—well, let’s not talk about the days being shortened. Let’s talk about what He said: no flesh being saved. Now think about Ebola. If Ebola really got out and people really caught it, it could become pandemic. In Matthew 24, when Jesus said «there will be pestilences in diverse places, ” the Greek word means a plague that ends in death.
Modern Threats
Ebola is one of those that, if not caught early, can end in death. There are all sorts of other plagues that are on the horizon. We know that biological weapons, chemical weapons, and nuclear bombs are out there. Now here’s my point: we are the first generation, the first generation since Jesus Christ gave this prophecy, that can actually fulfill the prophecy of no flesh being saved on the earth.
If people got ahold of nukes, if terrorists got ahold of nukes and somebody started a nuclear war and went crazy, the entire planet could be destroyed. If an asteroid—and it’s going to happen—in the book of Revelation, it makes it clear. When the star falls from heaven, the Greek word is „aster, ” which is an asteroid. But when it falls, a third of the sea, the plants, the trees, the fish, and the boats are destroyed.
Weapons Matching Prophecy
So this is going to happen. In other words, the negative part of this is we are the first generation that could actually live in a time where no flesh would be saved if all of the things came together to cause that to happen. Now here’s the second thing. We are the first generation to have the weapons of mass destruction that some of the prophets may have seen.
Now, the reason I say „may have seen“ is I want to read this to you. Here’s what it says in Zechariah 14, verse 12: „And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.“
Zechariah’s Plague and Modern Weapons
Now we know that the brightness of Christ’s coming, He will destroy the enemies of Israel and the enemies of the kingdom in Armageddon. We know that. Okay. The brightness of His coming, 2nd Thessalonians 2. But look at the rest of this verse: „And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the donkey, and the beasts that are in their tents, as this plague.“
In other words, the same thing that happens to men is going to happen to the animals. Now that makes me think, „Now wait a minute. I can understand the coming of the Lord and the brightness of His coming destroying the enemies, but why would His coming destroy the ox, the beast, and the animal?“
The Neutron Bomb
Let me just say it to you this way. There is—and this weapon is denied, but this weapon exists—something called a neutron bomb, and I don’t want to go into details, but I know for a fact it has been used, and it has been tested in limited measure. The neutron bomb, what it does—and this is really abbreviated—but it sucks out the moisture out of something.
It leaves buildings intact. It leaves certain things intact. It can leave like a bus— it’ll leave the bus intact. But anything that has moisture in it—and the human body is about seventy or eighty percent water anyway—it just sucks it out, and it literally does what the Bible says. It causes the tongue to be consumed, the eyes in the socket. It literally makes a person a skeleton, and that is called a neutron bomb, and that exists.
Good News and Warning
Now, I’m not telling you that when Jesus comes back, what is going to happen is there’s going to be a neutron bomb used. I’m simply saying to you that if you read the book of Zechariah and you begin to read what happens to people who attack Jerusalem, there is a weapon that exists that could make that thing happen.
Now yes, can it be the brightness of Christ’s coming? Certainly, 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. But the thing I want to share with you is we’ve got some good news in that we’re preaching the gospel to the nations of the world, and the end is going to come. The Holy Spirit is being poured out. We gave you the three-fold phase of the outpouring of the Spirit from Joel 2.
Closing Encouragement
On the other side of it is the first generation in history that no flesh could be saved if plagues and earthquakes, and all of these things—including biological weapons—are used, and the first generation that has the weaponry that could fulfill the most bizarre prophecies of the Bible.
So this is what I would like to say to you in closing: because we are living in these times, it’s important that you study the prophetic word. Not just for yourself but for your children and for your family. You say, „Well, they don’t believe it.“ Well, when Jesus comes and they’re left, they’ll believe it then. All right?
Blessing of Prophecy
But you need to be one who proclaims the Word of God because the Bible says this in Revelation: „Happy and blessed are you if you read the prophecy of the book and you keep it.“ The most blessed people I know are people in our ministry who love Bible prophecy.
They are financially, emotionally, spiritually, and physically blessed because they have a blessing because they love the prophetic word of God, and I hope that you do too. Now we’re coming to the conclusion of my teaching. I’ve got something to show you and I’ve got some things to tell you that are about to happen that you can participate in, so we’ll be right back on the Manna-Fest telecast. God bless you.