Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Rapture of the Church and a Jewish Wedding
I've been talking lately about how the Rapture parallels the ancient Jewish wedding tradition. Here is a great video I found showing those parallels.
Love in Christ,
~~Becka
Acts 2:17
17 “‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
I've never told anyone this, in part, because it's a personal thing, but also, because I didn't believe my friends and family would understand or take my experience to heart. It could be explained away. But to me, it was one of those REAL things, more real than anything I'd ever experienced. I suppose you don't fully understand until it happens to you.
You see, I had a dream a couple of months ago. A dream I believe came from God. It is one of the major reasons I've started this blog and begun to talk to my friends about the end times.
I remember the dream was longer than what I can recall. I wish I could grasp now what I'd fully dreamt. Perhaps I will remember the full dream in time. But I knew immediately I was dreaming. I knew I *had* to remember what I was being told. It was important. And somehow, I knew it was God talking to me.
I had this dream right after the riots first began in Egypt. Like maybe a day or two after, around the end of January. I was flying over a huge map of the Middle East. Each country was a different color, but I could see the geography. I flew out of Egypt to the northeast, toward Israel. I flew over Jordan and looked toward Syria and Lebanon. I heard a masculine say voice say to me, "The spirit of antichrist lives in the heart of every family."
Then I flew across the eastern border of Israel and the voice said, "The chastening has begun."
Immediately, I woke up. Like not groggily, but my eyes snapped open, and I stared at my ceiling.
I was confused. "Chastening" isn't exactly a word people use in everyday language these days. I knew what it meant, but that morning, I had to look up how it would properly be used in a sentence. "Chasten" means to punish, chastise, a rebuke or a correction.
"Catching the child red-handed, Ms.Smith felt justified in chastening the little girl."
In context of the Trib and end-of-days, "chastening" seems like a good word to describe what God is about to do. The wrath of God is His punishment upon those who do not heed His commands.
This was not what convinced me the dream was from God.
What convinced me the dream was from God was the phrase "spirit of antichrist." The voice did not say "spirit of THE Antichrist." It was not specific, alluding to a single man. After I looked up chastening, I looked through the Bible for the phrase "spirit of antichrist." What I found, I had no foreknowledge of.
Here's the verse. The specific wording in my dream is found in the King James Version.
1 John 4:3:
3And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
This verse in context is talking about testing spirits. If you see and/or talk to an "angel" or a spirit, the test to see if they're actually from God is to full on ask them if they acknowledge Christ is the Son of God and came in the flesh. Here's the entire context in the NIV translation (to make it easier to understand)
1 John 4:1-3:
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
Now, in my defense, I DID know of this spirit "test". However, I never memorized this verse, nor did I know the specific wording of "spirit of antichrist".
I thought a long time about what God might have been telling me. At the time, I thought God was telling me the spirit of antichrist was alive in the heart of every Middle Eastern family. However, as time went on, and as more horrible things continued to escalate in the world, I realized God could have been and probably was quite literal.
Every single family on Earth, even the families of Christians (because not family member is a believer), has this "spirit of antichrist", this rebellious, anti-God, anti-Christ spirit within them. Obviously not to be confused with THE Antichrist, a specific person, but an opposition, an aversion, a hatred for Jesus.
I have never (to my knowledge) been given a dream by God before. I've never heard His voice when I pray and I've never claimed to have any heavenly visions. But I DID have this dream. Could have been coincidence, I suppose. But coupling the word "chastening" with the phrase "spirit of antichrist" convinced me it wasn't my own subconscious showing me something I knew already.
Along with the knowledge that I was dreaming and watching something important, and the otherworldly feeling I had that I needed to LISTEN and REMEMBER what I was being told convinced me as well. And it wasn't just a "feeling". Somehow, I knew it was God speaking in my dream. I just knew. It was obvious.
Believe what you like. Perhaps the Good Lord will give you a dream as well. In the book of Joel as well as the book of Acts, it clearly says in the last days, your sons and daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. Is a dream from the Almighty possible? Absolutely.
Did my God talk to me in a dream? I believe it. And I will cherish that dream for the rest of my life, because I heard His voice.
~~Becka
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
I've never told anyone this, in part, because it's a personal thing, but also, because I didn't believe my friends and family would understand or take my experience to heart. It could be explained away. But to me, it was one of those REAL things, more real than anything I'd ever experienced. I suppose you don't fully understand until it happens to you.
You see, I had a dream a couple of months ago. A dream I believe came from God. It is one of the major reasons I've started this blog and begun to talk to my friends about the end times.
I remember the dream was longer than what I can recall. I wish I could grasp now what I'd fully dreamt. Perhaps I will remember the full dream in time. But I knew immediately I was dreaming. I knew I *had* to remember what I was being told. It was important. And somehow, I knew it was God talking to me.
I had this dream right after the riots first began in Egypt. Like maybe a day or two after, around the end of January. I was flying over a huge map of the Middle East. Each country was a different color, but I could see the geography. I flew out of Egypt to the northeast, toward Israel. I flew over Jordan and looked toward Syria and Lebanon. I heard a masculine say voice say to me, "The spirit of antichrist lives in the heart of every family."
Then I flew across the eastern border of Israel and the voice said, "The chastening has begun."
Immediately, I woke up. Like not groggily, but my eyes snapped open, and I stared at my ceiling.
I was confused. "Chastening" isn't exactly a word people use in everyday language these days. I knew what it meant, but that morning, I had to look up how it would properly be used in a sentence. "Chasten" means to punish, chastise, a rebuke or a correction.
"Catching the child red-handed, Ms.Smith felt justified in chastening the little girl."
In context of the Trib and end-of-days, "chastening" seems like a good word to describe what God is about to do. The wrath of God is His punishment upon those who do not heed His commands.
This was not what convinced me the dream was from God.
What convinced me the dream was from God was the phrase "spirit of antichrist." The voice did not say "spirit of THE Antichrist." It was not specific, alluding to a single man. After I looked up chastening, I looked through the Bible for the phrase "spirit of antichrist." What I found, I had no foreknowledge of.
Here's the verse. The specific wording in my dream is found in the King James Version.
1 John 4:3:
3And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
This verse in context is talking about testing spirits. If you see and/or talk to an "angel" or a spirit, the test to see if they're actually from God is to full on ask them if they acknowledge Christ is the Son of God and came in the flesh. Here's the entire context in the NIV translation (to make it easier to understand)
1 John 4:1-3:
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
Now, in my defense, I DID know of this spirit "test". However, I never memorized this verse, nor did I know the specific wording of "spirit of antichrist".
I thought a long time about what God might have been telling me. At the time, I thought God was telling me the spirit of antichrist was alive in the heart of every Middle Eastern family. However, as time went on, and as more horrible things continued to escalate in the world, I realized God could have been and probably was quite literal.
Every single family on Earth, even the families of Christians (because not family member is a believer), has this "spirit of antichrist", this rebellious, anti-God, anti-Christ spirit within them. Obviously not to be confused with THE Antichrist, a specific person, but an opposition, an aversion, a hatred for Jesus.
I have never (to my knowledge) been given a dream by God before. I've never heard His voice when I pray and I've never claimed to have any heavenly visions. But I DID have this dream. Could have been coincidence, I suppose. But coupling the word "chastening" with the phrase "spirit of antichrist" convinced me it wasn't my own subconscious showing me something I knew already.
Along with the knowledge that I was dreaming and watching something important, and the otherworldly feeling I had that I needed to LISTEN and REMEMBER what I was being told convinced me as well. And it wasn't just a "feeling". Somehow, I knew it was God speaking in my dream. I just knew. It was obvious.
Believe what you like. Perhaps the Good Lord will give you a dream as well. In the book of Joel as well as the book of Acts, it clearly says in the last days, your sons and daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. Is a dream from the Almighty possible? Absolutely.
Did my God talk to me in a dream? I believe it. And I will cherish that dream for the rest of my life, because I heard His voice.
~~Becka
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