"And the third angel sounded, and a great star fell from Heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on
the springs of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood; and many men died from
the waters, because they were made bitter."
I personally believe this comes in the form of terrorist attacks on our water supplies.
Since this is a Biblical prophecy, is there any way that we can be protected from this? Yes. Whole regions, and maybe even whole nations,
can be protected. Even though we may have a high regard for our FBI, CIA, and other intelligence agencies, they will not be able to
stop these attacks alone. Turning to the Lord can break the drought, and it can stop many other potential disasters. He will be gracious
and help those who seek Him and obey Him.
What Is Wormwood?
The attack on the water supplies in Revelation 8 is called "Wormwood" for
a reason. In Amos 6:12 it says, "you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood." The greatest
injustice of all was the Cross. The One who was perfect in all of His ways, who did nothing but good, was tortured and crucified by
the very ones He had made. This was the ultimate rejection of God by mankind. The ultimate injustice is for those who are made to
reject their Maker. Turning from God in any manner is the ultimate injustice and will ultimately become wormwood for those who do
it. The "great time of trouble" that we are told the end of this age will be is simply the result of mankind rejecting the Creator.
Likewise,
righteousness, or the right way, is to turn to God. It is seeking to do His will instead of our own. Most of the injustices that men
seek to address are injustices between men, but we will never have true justice if it is not built upon the ultimate justice of men
giving to God what is due Him.
Because God is love, and He truly loves all men and desires for them to be saved, it does hurt Him when
even one turns from Him. It grieves Him deeply when a whole nation turns from Him, especially one that has been so devoted to Him,
like the United States. Even so, He is not smiting us out of His hurt and rejection, but to turn us back so that we will not have
to reap the fruit of our own sin. The fruit of our rebellion against God is to have the creation rebel against us, as is indicated
in Romans 8:19-21:
"For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was
subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set
free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God."
As we are told in Amos, the fruit of righteousness
can be turned into wormwood by injustice, and if we are going to be free of the plague of wormwood we must be devoted to justice,
first toward God, then toward one another. It is justice that when we rebel against God, the creation that He placed us over will
rebel against us.
So is the drought in the South the result of the South turning from God? Yes, but it is also evidence that He loves
the South enough to discipline us. A drought in the Southwest is natural since it is mostly desert, but a drought in the Southeast
is unnatural. The drought is a wake-up call.
Don't Worry, Be Happy!
In spite of all of the hope we have from the Word of God, many come
close to having a nervous breakdown if they hear about anything bad coming. We must grow up. If we respond rightly, we can change
our destiny. All we have to do is turn from our wicked ways and turn to the Lord. Then He will send rain and heal our land.
In Biblical
symbolism, rain often speaks of teaching. This is why Moses said in Deuteronomy 32:2, "Let my teaching drop as the rain." The land
is lacking physical rain because it is also lacking spiritual rain, the teachings of the Lord. The teachings of the Church right now
are so weak, studies have shown that 75 percent of our children will turn from the faith within one year of leaving home. Studies
have indicated that among Southern Baptists, considered to be one of the strongest evangelical denominations, this number may be as
high as 94 percent. Even the most optimistic have to admit that something is very wrong.
Do our children hear one thing at Church,
and then see something else at home? How can our children believe us if the rate of divorce among evangelical Christians is higher
than it is among the heathen? How can they believe when there is no longer a distinguishable difference in the basic integrity and
honesty between Christians and the heathen?
The Lord will help us. He is letting certain conditions become serious to get our attention.
Let us always keep in mind the exhortation of Hebrews 12:5-7: "'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint
when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.' It is for
discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?"
The discipline
that our nation and many others have been going through is not because the Lord has rejected us, but because He loves us. Those who
follow Him will be ready for what is coming, so that they will be able to stand when others are falling.
Get Ready!
Remember Y2K? Most
want to forget about it and for good reason--many Christians and many of my prophetic friends predicted something close to the end
of the world and nothing happened. For a while, I was the only one who stated that Y2K was not going to be the disaster that everyone
was predicting. It has always been interesting to me that I was persecuted more for being right about this than I think I ever have
for being wrong about something. I was also right about the rest that I said then--that even though the preparations for Y2K would
not be needed for Y2K, but for other things that were coming, learn the lessons, and hang on to that stuff you set aside.
Remember
the bird flu? Many think that it has just gone away, but the opposite is true. It is moving relentlessly toward the worldwide pandemic
that has been predicted. Governments have been wary of saying too much too soon because of the malaise that tends to come if you get
ready for something and then it does not happen for awhile. They are trying to time their warnings right, which is the right thing
to do. However, when the warning goes out, there may not be enough time for all to get ready.
It is also true that Christians do have
the spiritual authority to stop this plague for every place that they have taken their spiritual authority. However, we only have
true spiritual authority to the degree that we are obeying the King and abiding in Him, and not many Christians have been doing too
good at that. Secular scientists have said that the coming Avian flu pandemic looks like the Biblical plague in the Book of Revelation
where a third of mankind dies. If it is that plague in the Bible, we will not be able to stop it, but we do not have to die or have
our children die in it. If God's people will turn from their wicked ways and turn to the Lord, we can stop this plague from coming
near our houses, and possibly even protect our heathen neighbors as well, which will be to their spiritual as well as their physical
salvation.
Hurry Up and Wait!
There are practical things we can do to prepare for the times, but first let's look at why we are going
through so many seemingly contradictory conditions.
When going through boot camp or infantry training, we were constantly given orders
and then seemingly contradictory ones right after them. This was to teach us to obey without question, because our lives and the lives
of our units often depended on instant obedience. The more serious the conditions, the less time those in charge would have to explain
orders. We have been going through similar training also, and it is intended to save lives.
After the South was clobbered by the mega
storms, we prepared for storms and a drought came. Not many of the items we had set aside for storms are very useful in a drought,
but some of them are. It would also be a mistake to forget anything we learned from our hurricane relief work or the drought.
Likewise,
on the West Coast we need to learn every lesson we can from the fires and the mudslides. Mudslides may seem like the opposite problem
of fires, but they are actually the result of fires. Fires strip the land of vegetation that holds the ground in place when the rains
come. If that vegetation is gone, there will be a serious threat of mudslides after a fire. These are not unassociated problems.
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