Is It Time to Prepare for Hardships?

Hard Times Ahead

By Paul Proctor, NewsWithViews
May 13, 2009

It’s time to prepare for hard times, my friends. And, if you’re a bible believing, Christ-following Christian, I believe the coming years will be particularly troublesome. I say “bible-believing, Christ-following Christian” because our degenerating culture has all but stripped the biblical definition of the word “Christian” from today’s collective conscience so that it has lost much of its scriptural meaning, even among many of today’s attending-church members.

The enemies of Christ have clearly risen to great power in this country and are, as I write, busy endeavoring to finish off what remains of the Church for the purpose of replacing it with a god and religion more suitable for global government. Though they may well in time take possession of the many debt-heavy mega churches and other grand houses of worship around the country in order to turn them into federally-subsidized community centers for faith-based social services, they won’t be successful at completely silencing or eliminating the true body of Christ, which will likely be forced to abandon them in order to keep hearing and proclaiming God’s Word uncensored.

Unless the Lord Himself intervenes to alter the current course of events, those now in power will most certainly rule over us for a season – and an arduous one at that.

Considering the unbiblical and unconstitutional legislation at hand, it’s looking more and more like faithful Christians could soon be viewed as enemies of the state for no other reason than having believed, proclaimed and obeyed the Word of God. Not only is the Church being attacked from without, it is also being undermined from within by charlatans who would transform it into something more spiritually pliable, socially useful, and dialectically accommodating.

I believe Christians will again and again be called upon to choose whom we will serve in the coming days in ways that will bring more persecution and suffering than we are accustomed to, requiring a spiritual farsightedness and desire for the eternal things of God over the temporal rewards of this world.

We need to be ready. We need to be willing. And we need to be empowered, not by the mere passion of patriotic zeal, but by the Holy Spirit of God and His Word. It is not we against them – it is an angry and rebellious world against God, and we would do well to remember that when the devil comes knocking at our door demanding more tolerance, diversity and unity.

Vengeance is not ours – that belongs to the Lord, as He clearly states in His Word. Those who live by the sword will surely die by it – again, not my words – His.

When our Constitution and Bill of Rights are completely discarded for the New World Order, there will be no going back to the way things were. There will only be the Word of God to edify, encourage, inspire and sustain us through the hard times ahead. Those who understand and appreciate the power of that Word know very well what I’m talking about. Those who don’t will ignore it at their own peril, because to them it is foolishness.

Best we get into His Word now more earnestly and take it to heart in preparation for a time when bibles are no longer allowed or even legal, than get caught spiritually ignorant and scripturally unarmed when temptation and tribulation come.

“For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12

© 2009 Paul Proctor - All Rights Reserve

Preparing to Live in Perilous Times in America

By Don Koenig, The Prophetic Years

I have indicated that this is the generation that will likely see Bible prophecy fulfilled. I been asked what we should be doing as Christians to prepare for the time of trouble ahead. There is both spiritual preparation and physical preparation that we need to do and sometimes they will overlap, but I will try to separate them out the best I can.

Spiritual Preparation for These Last Days

Get serious about your relationship with Jesus Christ. In other words, make Him the number one priority in your life. Obviously, if Jesus is the number one priority, you will communicate with Him daily and read the words Jesus gave to you in the Bible for your instruction and edification.

Especially pay attention to the New Testament, which is the instructions for the New Covenant Assembly born of the Spirit. Also spend a good deal of time in the Psalms and Proverbs because they give valuable keys for good living and fellowship with the Lord.

Walk by the Spirit and not by sight. God will make it clear to you what He wants you to do, but you must step out in faith and actually start doing it. If you do so, He will guide your paths.

Pray for wisdom to understand your calling in these last days, and then do it with all the strength and the spiritual gifts that God will give you to complete His good work in you. Be open to correction from sincere Christians because we all get off track now and then. Let no one judge your motives if they truly came from a sincere desire to please the Lord and out of love for others.

Be separate from the world. Do not be enslaved to the many enticements and distractions that are in the world. That probably means changing some habits that are impacting your relationship with God even though these things might seem quite normal to those in the world. You may need to get rid of material things and worldly influences that are hindering you. Find spiritual substitutes; for example, fill your mind with Christian teachings, music, meditation on the Word, and with thinking on what God would have you to do with your talents.

Times of trouble, persecution and testing will come to all Christians; some will be very subtle and some will be very obvious. You will not like them when they come, but each will help build your faith and your character if you remain steadfast by trusting in God.

Attend a Bible believing church regularly. As things grow worse in this world, this might mean that you will meet much more often than you do now, possibly in your own homes. In some places in the world where there is much persecution Christians meet almost daily.

Fellowship with other Christians. The Body of Christ has many different functions with different gifts and purposes. The parts were designed to work together for the common good. If you do not have many Christian friends, you probably need to find a home fellowship or you need to attend small group functions in your local church.

Physical Preparation

Don't expect that the Rapture will occur before any time of trouble in the West or in America. There could be great calamities in the nations before that event, as there were many times on earth in history. Many Christians are going through tribulation right now, and there is no reason to think that Christians in the West will escape tribulations while their nations are rejecting God and living in evil. Those who even try to change their nation may be hated and persecuted just for telling them the truth.

Take wise advice that your government gives you for your physical well being. If you think that shows lack of faith in God, you are wrong. Governments are used by God as His servants on the earth.

The U.S. government, as well as some other governments, are telling you to have at least three months of reserve food on hand. So be wise and start acquiring it. Have twice that amount for every member of your family. You do not need MRIs or bulk dried food - packaged and canned non perishable foods found on the shelves on your local supermarket will last for years, are cheaper, taste better, and you can continually use the older stock and replace it. I recommend a year's supply of food. If a deadly flu pandemic or an EMP attack were to strike in early fall, you might need to get through to the harvest of the next growing season.

In these days of just-in-time inventory, any major disruption will cause food shortages. You don't want to put yourself and your family in the situation where you will have to depend on the military for your survival. Even your ancestors knew enough to store up for the lean times. Joseph did in Egypt. Early American farmers canned several years of food in case of a lean year. Today's modern American Christians think they are unique in this world and will never see troubles like Christians in the rest of the world. They are uniquely wrong.

Don't forget you also need a source of water and a way to purify it. Five drops of laundry bleach per gallon will do the job in a few hours. There are many other ways to purify water as well.

Home school your children or send them to a private Christian school. You might think that you cannot afford to do that, but you really cannot afford to expose your children to the blatant anti-Christian amoral brainwashing that goes on in public schools. Better to go without some things than to find out your child has become brainwashed, perverted and corrupted. I assure you, most who go through the public school system today will not come out of it with Christian beliefs.

You might think you will need to save money or gold for the end days. I don't think that is necessary. You should get out of debt and stay out of debt, and try to have enough savings to keep you going for six months. If a complete collapse of the system happens, whatever money you have might become worthless and commodities like gold will become illegal and be confiscated.

The best physical preparation anyone can make for these last days or any days is to have an indispensable skill that others need. If you have a usable indispensable skill, your family will never lack what you need to survive. Of course, not everyone can acquire such skills, but if you have the opportunity to learn one, do so. I do not consider many service and clerical office jobs to be indispensable skills in a time of economic trouble.

You might consider a small cache of items that you can barter with should money become worthless. Basically that could be anything that people need to live on. Again, don't get carried away with this. If you have too much stuff on hand you are a target for someone to come and take it away.

If a deadly flu pandemic hits - like the bird flu - you are going to have to stay out of public places. Air borne flu will not spread above 86 degrees F or when relative humidity is above 80 percent. Keep that in mind. You may have to keep yourself and your family in one of those two environments until the deadly pandemic runs its course. Be aware that flu spreads rapidly in cold dry climates. If you fly in an airplane during a pandemic, you have put yourself in an ideal environment to catch it. If you pile into a cold car with other people, you most certainly will catch it if one of the others in the car is carrying it. If deadly flu or germ warfare happens, you are really going to have to think things through before you do them. Do what the government tells you in health related matters.

The government will have safety equipment for emergency personnel, but they will not have the safety equipment for general population. They may have a vaccine or anti virals that you might have to go somewhere to get. You are going to have to use your own judgment on the information that the government gives you. Certainly have a multi-band radio that runs on batteries.

If possible do not choose to live in big cites. If there is any civil breakdown, things will get rather nasty in the cities, at least until troops come in. Even then you will be under martial law and will not be allowed to travel freely. If you are in a city, you need to network with people in your own neighborhood that are trustworthy Christians.

If you are totally dependent on electric, you need to get a generator and have fuel on hand. If you live in a cold climate, you might not have heat for an entire winter. For example: gas lines could be empty, electric could be off, and propane deliveries might never come. Try to have one wood source of heat and a stock of wood even if you never intend to use it. If you have no way to do that, you might consider buying a kerosene heater and keeping some fuel on hand. It is not the safest source of heat, so you will have to keep some windows cracked to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, but the 22,000 BTU's most kerosene heaters produce will keep a large room warm in any house.

If you cannot do these things, know where you can go in a time of crisis. Perhaps that will be a friend, relative or a church that is prepared. Don't count on any significant help from casual acquaintances or neighbors; they will have their own hands full. There will be government public shelters as a last resort, but if there is air borne disease they may be deadly.

In any situation God gives wisdom to His children that ask.

Don't just believe or follow those with their own radical agendas. There will be anti government groups. If you follow them they will only get you killed or jailed.

The prime objective is for you and your family to survive the crises. The objective is not to fight the inevitable globalization or new world order that you think is coming. As good as the U.S. Constitution is, in time of world crises, the government is not going to abide by it. So quoting the Constitution to those in authority or taking up arms against the government is not going to accomplish your prime objective.

Global government is inevitable or the Bible is wrong. If it is inevitable, there will not be anything that you can do about it when the god of this age is allowed to implement it. Make the God of creation your refuge and you will not be disappointed. He knows how to take care of His own.

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