Scripture reading: Habakkuk 3:16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. 17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither [shall] fruit [be] in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and [there shall be] no herd in the stalls: 18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
This is our prayer—to be kept by the Lord; whatever the future bringeth, smiles of joy or tears of grief, still be able to cling and find our soul’s relief in Him. This is what this meditation is about. When the heavens fall, when everything that we have depended upon is suddenly lost, and there is nothing to rely upon by vision. These words “when the heavens fall” come from the following quote:
Though the Heavens Fall
The greatest want of the world is the want of men–men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall. {Ed 57.3}
Though the heavens fall. When the heavens fall, when that does happen to us, are we going to be able to stand?
But such a character is not the result of accident; it is not due to special favors or endowments of Providence. A noble character is the result of self-discipline, of the subjection of the lower to the higher nature–the surrender of self for the service of love to God and man. {Ed 57.4}
To be able to stand though the heavens fall has to do with a development of character. A character that will stand for the right though the heavens fall—this is character that we must have.
When the Heavens Pass Away
In the very near future the heavens will literally fall. This is what we are told in the word of God. The heavens will literally fall.
Isaiah 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
What does this say is going to happen to the heavens? They shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wax old like a garment. It’s easy to read and just rattle those words off, isn’t it? But what is involved when the heavens fall? What we have regarded as absolutely normal all vanishes away and everything is in chaos.
Isaiah 34:4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling [fig] from the fig tree.
What are we to expect one day? The heavens will be rolled together as a scroll. It will all fall in to not what it used to be at all.
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
What an experience that will be. The heavens will fall with a great noise,
2 Peter 3:10 …and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Without any shadow of imagination that could avoid this, it is going to happen according to the word of God. And the way it is described, can you imagine dwelling in that situation? To be able to be strong when that happens, God has to prepare us for it. Before the extreme manifestation of the heavens literally falling, of everything that we have relied upon on this planet as normal, before that extreme catastrophe happens, how real is it already now that certain things that we have depended upon collapse around us? We find in Isaiah a description of what we may identify in our world today:
When Everything Collapses
Isaiah 59:8 The way of peace they know not; and [there is] no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. 9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, [but] we walk in darkness. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if [we had] no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; [we are] in desolate places as dead [men]. 11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but [there is] none; for salvation, [but] it is far off from us. 12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions [are] with us; and [as for] our iniquities, we know them; 13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. 15 Yea, truth faileth; and he [that] departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw [it], and it displeased him that [there was] no judgment.
If you meditate on these words in practical impact, you can see that what human nature relies on for security seems to melt away. And if you just reflect back on the First World War, the Second World War, and you think of all the wars that are going on now in different places, you see that people are shattered; all that they have depended upon is shattered. The Syrian people, the Ukrainians – they are in desperate conditions there. Everything they have depended on is gone. This is happening in different places of the world. And for us in this free country, Australia, which is known to many people as the luckiest country in the world, we are also in desperate situations in trying to hold on to pure truth. Everything is in chaos.
Many Heavens Falling
Already now we can identify that what we have depended upon falls apart; the heavens fall. This has happened to me. What I have built up and carefully and prayerfully laboured to achieve, a family to the glory of God, fell down around me; because truth and justice doesn’t seem to exist much anymore. The words of 2 Timothy 3 are happening now. Many different heavens are falling around us because of the iniquitous condition of the world.
2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
What are the perils? Heavens falling.
2 Timothy 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
And that means so much in reference to the collapse of what you have depended upon. If your family is included in this particular scenario, it says, From such turn away. How can people turn away from something which is their security? But spiritual security isn’t there anymore, because this is the condition of the world. Everything that we had built up and for which we had anticipated wonderful consequences crashes down around us. This is the time in which we are living, before the literal heavens fall.
Learning to Survive Spiritually
Jesus, speaking of this time, makes a very significant statement in regards to our need of being able to survive through all this, not just in continuing to live, but to survive spiritually, to survive with a mind that is in harmony with God and will not let judgment fall in the streets in itself.
Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Everything that you have depended upon about love is gone cold.
Matthew 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
So that when the heavens fall we have learnt the skill to endure it all, from the beginning of all the heavens that are falling around us to the final display of abject chaos in everything. The living ramifications of such a thing happening is what we want to open our understanding to.
This world is our school–a school of discipline and training. {TDG 96.2}
Remember, as we have seen, to develop such a character that will stand faithful though the heavens fall, a character that will survive through it all, we are to develop a discipline.
We are placed here to form characters like the character of Christ, and to acquire the habits and the language of the higher life. Influences opposed to good, abound on every side. The developments of sin are becoming so full, so deep, so abhorrent to God, that soon He will arise in majesty to shake terribly the earth. {TDG 96.2}
These are the things that are happening before the earth is shaking, before the heavens fall. God is so distressed that the time is coming when He is going to shake the heavens and the earth. Why? What is happening?
So artful are the plans of the enemy, so specious the complications that he brings about, that those who are weak in the faith cannot discern his deceptions. They fall into the snares prepared by Satan, who works through human instrumentalities to deceive if possible the very elect. Only those who are closely connected with God will be able to discern the falsehoods, the intrigues, of the enemy. {TDG 96.2}
Already people are trapped by Satan’s devices; their love has grown cold. They still live, they still aim to have enjoyments; but they are not able to stand when the heavens fall because they are not standing when the spiritual and moral and social heavens are falling. They have deviated. We need to know how to endure now to develop a character that will stand though the heavens literally fall. Now is the time to develop a skill so we don’t fall apart because everything is falling apart around us. This is what the people are doing in the world around us; they have fallen apart spiritually. This is the reason why we have all these different churches, including the Seventh-day Adventist church which fell apart in the First World War. They no longer stood firm and faithful to the original beliefs, because the First World War came and they went to war, which they were not supposed to do according to the original Adventist faith. That is just one of such occasions. We are in need of surviving and enduring, not merely in life, but in regards to the right standards and principles of life, in regards to our relation and our love to God, to obey and follow Him. People have lost their ability to follow exactly according to God’s will because Satan has so deceived the people that only those who are closely connected with God will be able to discern the falsehoods, the intrigues, of the enemy. There are so many complications and artful plans that they fall into the snares prepared by Satan.
Base Metal
“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” The very atmosphere is polluted with sin. Soon God’s people will be tested by fiery trials, and the great proportion of those who now appear to be genuine and true will prove to be base metal. {5T 136.1}
How many? The great proportion. Hasn’t this happened? Those who have once been faithful Seventh-day Adventists have now deviated under the specious temptations of Satan, and they have fallen along the wayside, still believing that they are right; but they have deviated from the original faithfulness. This is what in the 1890s Sister White said was going to happen.
Instead of being strengthened and confirmed by opposition, threats, and abuse, they will cowardly take the side of the opposers. The promise is: “Them that honor Me I will honor.” Shall we be less firmly attached to God’s law because the world at large have attempted to make it void? 5T 136.1}
Already the judgments of God are abroad in the land, as seen in storms, in floods, in tempests, in earthquakes, in peril by land and by sea. The great I AM is speaking to those who make void His law. When God’s wrath is poured out upon the earth, who will then be able to stand? Now is the time for God’s people to show themselves true to principle. {5T 136.2}
Not to fold under the pressure of the heavens that are falling around us.
When Champions Are Few
When the religion of Christ is most held in contempt, {5T 136.2}
Mark this. This is why religion has changed—because the religion of Christ is held in contempt. People have manufactured a religion that calls itself Christian but is not the religion of Christ.
When the religion of Christ is most held in contempt, when His law is most despised, then should our zeal be the warmest and our courage and firmness the most unflinching. To stand in defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us, to fight the battles of the Lord when champions are few–this will be our test. At this time we must gather warmth from the coldness of others, courage from their cowardice, and loyalty from their treason. The nation will be on the side of the great rebel leader. {5T 136.2}
These tests have come upon God’s people ever since the First World War. These experiences, these tests for God’s people to stand as champions for the truth, have already been going on for many, many years now; and we have grown up in them. I never cease to ponder upon this. I have grown up in a deteriorated state of Seventh-day Adventism. I have grown up as a Seventh-day Adventist, but I wasn’t faithful, because my family originally didn’t stand true to the health reform. We ate meat, we followed unhealthful practices, yet we thought we were Seventh-day Adventists. Vegetarianism was originally part of Adventism; but the church had deteriorated to such a degree that I grew up without it. But I also grew up in a world that had been demoralised. In my day homosexuality was taboo; but now what is it? Can you see? Homosexuality was practised back in my day, and that was bad enough. But now it is made normal. This is just one extreme case of the heavens falling in regards to purity of truth. People were opposing this sort of thing in the past; but now you’re a terrible person if you stand for what the Bible has to say about this; you go to the courts for discrimination.
As these things strike into our space, into our very experience, and everything your mind has anticipated as normal falls into chaos, the question is, How can I endure and remain vibrantly faithful, instead of my love growing cold because iniquity abounds? Didn’t we think that “if God is on my side, all will be well”? But even though God is on your side, is everything going to continue like the fairy tale story “And they lived happily ever after”? It’s amazing; even the disciples’ heaven fell when Jesus was crucified. Jesus was right there with them, and then, the person whom they believed was the Messiah was crucified! Their heavens fell. God was with them. How can we endure even though God is with us, and remain vibrantly faithful?
David’s Heavens Falling
There is a story by which we may gain the answer to this question, very powerfully so. There is much we can learn from this story. What must we do when the heavens fall? This is a perfect case in application to when the heavens fall:
Samuel came and anointed David to be the king over Israel while Saul was still the king. And as David continued to progress from the time of his anointing, Saul was smelling danger, and he began to persecute David. Now David was the anointed of the Lord; the Lord was with him, but what was happening to him? What he anticipated didn’t happen. He was being chased by the king, endangered for his life. So what did he do, he who trusted God so much? To him it may have appeared as though the heavens were falling, and he thought, I’ve got to do something to save myself here.
1 Samuel 27:1 And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul:
In his heart he says, I’m going to die; I have to do something here.
1 Samuel 27:1 …[there is] nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.
This was the rationale that David was embracing.
1 Samuel 27:2 And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that [were] with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, [even] David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife. 4 And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him.
That is just what David wanted; “I’m safe in Gath,” in the land of the Philistines, these heathen, pagan people, the very people to whom Goliath, whom David had slain many years before, belonged. He looked for protection there; but something went wrong.
1 Samuel 27:5 And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee? 6 Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day. 7 And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months. … 12 And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.
This is what you are to expect. That was the sovereign right of the king; he thought, This person is under my protection, well, he’s going to be my servant. So David did something very dangerous because his heavens that he would one day be the king were falling. He was being persecuted by the king.
1 Samuel 28:1 And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men.
The plot thickens. Now he has to go and fight against his own people alongside the Philistines. Many details are then given from chapter 28 onwards. And after David had finally been told that he was not wanted in the battle and Achish had given him leave to return to the land of the Philistines,
1 Samuel 30:1 …it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; 2 And had taken the women captives, that [were] therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried [them] away, and went on their way. 3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, [it was] burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. 4 Then David and the people that [were] with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
Does this reveal a state of mind where their heavens were falling? That which they had relied upon for the security of their family was burned; they didn’t really know that their families had been taken captives; they could have thought, They’ve killed my wife and my children. Notice now what happens:
1 Samuel 30:6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters:
Every man was grieved. The heavens fell. And there was David in distress because the very people who had been supporting him were now threatening to stone him. But what?
1 Samuel 30:6 …but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
David had messed up terribly here, and these were the consequences. The Spirit of Prophecy now throws light upon this occasion. David had missed his path; he had gone wrong; and as a result of his wrong, all this was going on.
David was caused to feel that he had missed his path. Far better would it have been for him to find refuge in God’s strong fortresses of the mountains than with the avowed enemies of Jehovah and His people. But the Lord in His great mercy did not punish this error of His servant by leaving him to himself in his distress and perplexity; for though David, losing his grasp on divine power, had faltered and turned aside from the path of strict integrity, it was still the purpose of his heart to be true to God. While Satan and his host were busy helping the adversaries of God and of Israel to plan against a king who had forsaken God, the angels of the Lord were working to deliver David from the peril into which he had fallen. Heavenly messengers moved upon the Philistine princes to protest against the presence of David and his force with the army in the approaching conflict. {PP 690.2}
The Lord stepped in for him there. The Philistines didn’t want David and his men with them, so he didn’t have to go and fight after all. But while he was there with all the armies, meanwhile the Amalekites invaded Ziklag. David had lost his direction, and yet in his heart he still wanted to follow God’s way, so God helped him. When they had returned to Ziklag and found the place burned to the ground,
Dumb with horror and amazement, David and his men for a little time gazed in silence upon the blackened and smoldering ruins. Then as a sense of their terrible desolation burst upon them, those battle-scarred warriors “lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.” {PP 692.2}
All their heavens fell.
Here again David was chastened for the lack of faith that had led him to place himself among the Philistines. He had opportunity to see how much safety could be found among the foes of God and His people. David’s followers turned upon him as the cause of their calamities. He had provoked the vengeance of the Amalekites by his attack upon them; yet, too confident of security in the midst of his enemies, he had left the city unguarded. Maddened with grief and rage, his soldiers were now ready for any desperate measures, and they threatened even to stone their leader. {PP 692.3}
David seemed to be cut off from every human support. All that he held dear on earth had been swept from him. Saul had driven him from his country; the Philistines had driven him from the camp; the Amalekites had plundered his city; his wives and children had been made prisoners; and his own familiar friends had banded against him, and threatened him even with death. {PP 692.4}
How much lower can you come? The result of our own mistakes can cause us depravation to the uttermost and total heavens falling. But what?
David Encouraged Himself in the Lord
In this hour of utmost extremity David, instead of permitting his mind to dwell upon these painful circumstances, looked earnestly to God for help. {PP 692.4}
What do you do in your mind when your heavens fall? Do you think about the negatives all the time? Do you think about all the sad, sad stories of what has happened? David did not permit himself to dwell on that. This suggests something very powerful. We must learn the skill of not permitting our mind to get away from us, and lead us down the path of negative thoughts. You know when you can’t go to sleep at night because thoughts are running round and round in your head? David did not permit his mind to dwell upon these painful circumstances. He looked earnestly to God for help.
He “encouraged himself in the Lord.” He reviewed his past eventful life. Wherein had the Lord ever forsaken him? His soul was refreshed in recalling the many evidences of God’s favor. The followers of David, by their discontent and impatience, made their affliction doubly grievous; but the man of God, having even greater cause for grief, bore himself with fortitude. “What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee” (Psalm 56:3), was the language of his heart. Though he himself could not discern a way out of the difficulty, God could see it, and would teach him what to do. {PP 692.4}
If you read the whole Psalm 56, it is David crying and relying on God and encouraging his heart. What did he say? “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee”; even though he had messed up. But his heart was still wanting to be true to God. So in this time he had exercised something that we are to learn from him—how to turn disaster to comfort and failure to restoration. This is the skill we are to learn. What was the first element?
How to Turn Disaster to Comfort:
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Being True to God
…it was still the purpose of his heart to be true to God. {PP 690.2}
Even if we have messed up. To be true to God
What was the second element?
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Looking Earnestly to God
David … looked earnestly to God for help. {PP 690.2}
To look earnestly to God, and not to dwell with your thoughts upon all the negatives. Look earnestly to God.
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Recalling God’s Favour
The soul refreshes itself in recalling the many evidences of God’s favour. What you think, what you are meditating on, should be in regards to the times when God showed His favour. Here was David comforting himself:
Psalm 56:9 When I cry [unto thee], then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God [is] for me.
It didn’t look like it, but he knew it was his own mistakes that led him there. And God, he knew, would be for him, because his heart was still relying on God. So he encouraged himself by those words.
Psalm 56:10 In God will I praise [his] word: in the LORD will I praise [his] word. 13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death: [wilt] not [thou deliver] my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
This is the language of David’s heart. And this is the meaning of what God has spoken about David. What will He do for us if we will be like David, and meet the heavens falling in perfect dependence upon the Lord? God is speaking here:
Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, [even] the sure mercies of David.
We are seeing here that God would have mercy to David; and He says, “I am going to make a covenant with you who meet the same problems of your heavens falling; I am going to show you the sure mercies of David.” Why? Because He has chosen David.
Isaiah 55:4 Behold, I have given him [for] a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
In spite of all his human failures, but with a heart that wanted to serve God, God had said about David, He is a man after my own heart. This is what it means. When the heavens fell, David did not become all discouraged, like we are often prone to do. We think, Well, that’s too bad! and we lose ourselves in the misery. But no; David would go and encourage his heart with God. This is what we need to develop, that skill. He, David, to whom God had shown the mercies, is chosen to be our leader and commander, that we may follow his example. This is why Jesus was called the Son of David. Did all the heavens fall also for Jesus? All the heavens fell for Him, and what did He say about that?
All the Heavens Fell for Jesus
Isaiah 49:4 Then I said, I have laboured in vain,
After all the work that Jesus had laboured to do, He comes to the point where He says in His mind, Oh, I have laboured in vain,
Isaiah 49:4 …I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain:
When did He really feel like that? Remember his words on the cross: My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? What was it that helped Jesus, as the Son of David, to practise the same thing that David practised?
Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, {DA 756.3}
David could have felt that too, couldn’t he have? Charred remains of his home, his children and his wives gone.
Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe. In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father’s acceptance heretofore given Him. {DA 756.3}
This is also what David did; he reflected upon how the Lord had led him.
He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father’s favor was withdrawn. By faith, Christ was victor.{DA 756.3}
Jesus encouraged Himself at the cross, so that with all the racking misery of chaos that He went through, even to the very depths of His psychological makeup, He broke through it all. And as He took by faith that God, and what He was like, was His God, He surrendered all into God’s hands, and by faith He was conqueror; conquering when all the heavens fell around Him, when even the heavens of the sense His Father’s presence was gone. I know that experience; it happened to me. And I want to tell you, brethren and sisters, that what Jesus went through, what David went through, we will all go through sooner or later, and then when the literal heavens fall, we need to be able to endure; because when those literal heavens fall, everything is in chaos, everything, and you have lost people in your own life whom you have depended upon; gone…
How Jesus Encouraged Himself
Let us contemplate once again the words of Jesus:
Isaiah 49:4 Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain:
And here is now how He encourages Himself, the exact same way as David encouraged Himself:
Isaiah 49:4 …[yet] surely my judgment [is] with the LORD, and my work with my God. 5 And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb [to be] his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength. 6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
He encouraged His soul. Jesus is the ladder that was lowered to the depths of our broken, heaven-fallen condition; and in that experience Jesus will lift us up in Himself.
If our eyes could be opened, we would see the angels of God all around us, and the evil angels are here also, trying to destroy us, but the good angels are pressing them back. {CTr 86.2}
Jesus is there with us in the midst of all this depraved, heaven-fallen condition. And it continues:
Now we find that the battlements can be reached, that God is above the ladder and is waiting with arms outstretched to help every soul who will come into the everlasting kingdom of our God. Praise His holy name! Ye inhabitants of the earth, praise Him! And why? Because through Jesus Christ—whose long human arm encircles the race while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Almighty—the gulf is bridged with His own body; and this atom of a world, which was separated from the continent of heaven by sin and became an island, is again reinstated because Christ bridged the gulf—Christ has bridged it! {CTr 86.5}
Here is a soul in danger; well, God stands ready to help that soul. All the heavenly angels will be sent to assist that soul.—Manuscript 5, 1891. {CTr 86.6}
When our heavens fall, we have this beautiful answer. And when the literal heavens fall, an accumulation of all shattering sensations will break upon the living. Everything you live for… You know, when you are very close to death you see everything within a few seconds. All our shattering sensations will break upon us, Satan will be permitted to take us over the shocking, messed up situations of our life; and at that time we must remember what we have just studied here. You and I must be equipped to meet this horrifying, chaotic experience and not fall apart. Now is the time to learn to develop skills by which we will be fortified. Past catastrophes, disasters, broken-heartedness, and present difficulties that have shattering influences upon us—these are God’s method to take us over the ground again and again, as we repeatedly flee to Him and develop the habit until it becomes part of our character, to successfully meet the great final test.
If we don’t learn now to flee to the Lord and trust Him through all the madness and the chaos, do you think we are going to succeed then? Not at all. So now the Lord permits things to fold up around us and the heavens to fall. This is what I believe the time of the end is there for—to prepare God’s people, the 144,000. It is such a long, stretched out period of chaos ever since the First World War that God’s faithful people can go through these terrible and horrendous experiences and strengthen themselves by fleeing to God and trusting Him even if they have messed up, to pick themselves up again, to repent, and to trust Him; so that when the literal heavens fall, which is going to be the most horrendous experience, we may say with Habakkuk,
Habakkuk 3:17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither [shall] fruit [be] in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and [there shall be] no herd in the stalls: 18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation
May God continue to help us though the heavens fall. We are a few people left here. The heavens fell with many of those who used to sit in these pews; and they are no longer within the framework of the truth that we are standing on, because their heavens fell and they did not trust fully. We pray for them; but we must pray for ourselves, because if Noah, or Job, or Daniel were in the land, they could save neither son nor daughter; they could only save their own soul. May God help us to gather that strength that will stand in the day when the literal heavens fall.
Amen.
(Painting: The Great Day of His Wrath by John Martin (1789-1854). Public Domain)