A very strange thing happened last night as I was reading chapters on 1 Samuel, and got to an intriguing verse from God:
1 Samuel 3:11
King James Version
11 And the Lord said to Samuel,
Behold,
I will do a thing in Israel,
at which both the ears of every one
that heareth it shall tingle.
I wondered what that could be, so I continued reading:
1 Samuel 3:12-13 (KJV)
12 In that day I will perform against Eli
all things which I have spoken concerning his house:
when I begin,
I will also make an end.
Wow!
Only God can make such a statement, and MEAN it.
And I wondered what caused God to anger:
1 Samuel 3:13 (KJV)
13 For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever
for the iniquity which he knoweth;
because his sons made themselves vile,
and he restrained them not.
And then, I learned of this:
1 Samuel 4:2-11 (KJV)
2 And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel:
and when they joined battle,
Israel was smitten before the Philistines:
and they slew of the army in the field
about four thousand men.
3 And when the people were come into the camp,
the elders of Israel said,
Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us to day before the Philistines?
Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord
out of Shiloh unto us,
that, when it cometh among us,
it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.
4 So the people sent to Shiloh,
that they might bring from thence
the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts,
which dwelleth between the cherubims:
and the two sons of Eli,
Hophni and Phinehas,
were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
5 And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord
came into the camp,
all Israel shouted with a great shout,
so that the earth rang again.
6 And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout,
they said,
What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews?
And they understood that the ark of the Lord
was come into the camp.
7 And the Philistines were afraid,
for they said,
God is come into the camp.
And they said,
Woe unto us!
for there hath not been such a thing heretofore.
8 Woe unto us!
who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods?
these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians
with all the plagues in the wilderness.
9 Be strong and quit yourselves like men,
O ye Philistines,
that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews,
as they have been to you:
quit yourselves like men,
and fight.
10 And the Philistines fought,
and Israel was smitten,
and they fled every man into his tent:
and there was a very great slaughter;
for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.
11 And the ark of God was taken;
and the two sons of Eli,
Hophni and Phinehas,
were slain.
As I read more into the account of how the ark of God was taken, and the significance of it, I noticed the sky was "rumbling".
Actually, it had been rumbling for sometime since I'd been reading 1 Samuel.
A deep, steady rumble, almost like a HUGE plane traveling the skies, but it seemed long, and steady.
I looked out my window into the night sky, and saw flashes of light from the sky, quiet bolts of lightning springing everywhere -- the sky periodically illuminated from above -- for a full hour.
I called a relative to witness it, and she became afraid.
I had never heard that sound before.
A long, sustained sound.
As if God was gathering His forces, for an opportune time.
It was too strange not to pay attention to.
I live in a country where half of the year is sunny, the other half rainy.
And yes, it's only January.
We don't have these deep rumblings in January.
Storm season is still months from now.
And this much I can attest to you.
What I experienced last night, as I read about the seizing of the ark of God, was like no other.
I truly FELT God's POWER!
He was definitely making a statement.
Of His MIGHT, POWER, and RESTRAINT.
Oh yes, for it felt like He was "restraining" something.
As I watched, I wondered if JESUS was about to return, gathering the dead, and letting His faithful come up to meet Him in the sky.
It was a thought, and I waited, for I remembered the verses:
Acts 1:10-11 (KJV)
10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up,
behold,
two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said,
Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
this same Jesus,
which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner
as ye have seen him go into heaven.
After an hour of such deep rumblings, the rain fell.
This morning, the sky was overcast, and more rain fell.
With snow blanketing sands in the Sahara, the mist over Dubai, volcanoes and earthquakes acting up in my country, and a world gone mad, I certainly knew what I ought to do, or do more of.
Get even closer to the LORD, and continue studying SCRIPTURE, making sure I got His WORD right.
Which I share with you -- prompts and discoveries -- every chance the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD inspires me to.
It is really TIME to GET RIGHT with the LORD now.
What's stopping you?
There is certainly no time to waste, for JESUS can come any time -- this time, as a man of war, as the LORD OF LORDS, KING OF KINGS.
Further reading:
15 Bible Verses about the Second coming
Updated 22 January 2022
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