Word: Fear Not -- The Three-Ledged Shelf

It's been a while since the Lord has shown me a vision. He's shown me pictures here and there, given me a personal word for edification now and then, for which I'm thankful, but I admit I had started to wonder if I just wasn't listening closely enough or if I was exhibiting lack of faith.

Three days ago on August 2, 2022, I was reading in Daniel, and since I've been in the final chapters of that book over the last few days, I've had some of that apocalyptic literature in my head. The Lord asked me over a year ago to keep an eye on world events; He has some things He wants to show me, and so I've made a practice of skimming headlines for world news -- not obsessing over them, but just to watch, to see what the Lord is doing and in so doing, to encourage others with how the Lord is working.

It's a mixed bag, honestly. My heart breaks over how very blind we can be to the faithfulness and goodness of God, to the Truth, to the ways that He asks us to walk. But even in the blackest darkness, there are powerful moments where I can only sit in awe and worship the Lord, because of how He moves mountains.

On December 18, 2021, the Holy Spirit gave me a vision that warned of coming war. Even though the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out a little over two months after that, I don't believe that that conflict was the whole fulfillment of the vision.

This time (August 2), as the Lord showed me the whole world as He had done in that earlier vision, I saw -- set over the continents of Europe and Asia, a large three-ledged shelf. All three ledges were of different sizes. The top shelf stood out from the shelf-backing fairly far, but the second shelf down protruded nearly double the length of the top shelf. The lowest shelf was the smallest protrusion, and was deeply shadowed by the second shelf.

On each shelf were people. The top shelf held the leader of Russia and several of his administrative officials. The second shelf held the leader of China and his officials, and the third shelf held the leader of Iran and his officials. 

I don't know that this needs much interpretation: These are three world-powers that seem to be cementing themselves in an alliance, and the length of each shelf seems to match the influence they hold in the world and with each other. 

But as I watched, a sandstorm blew across the map and hit the shelf and the map so furiously that all of it was pummeled by the fury of the storm. The lines of the shelf began to bleed over the continents of the world, so that all of it -- the whole world -- was covered by running lines of sand and shelf.

Back to Daniel. In Daniel 9:26b, it says: "The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed."

The main thing that the Lord brought me back to was this: Don't focus on the war; focus on the end result. In Phil Wickham's song Battle Belongs, he sings: "When all I see is the battle, You see the victory." The war is only the beginning; the end is glory and eternal peace for the faithful. And because of that, we can -- as in the December vision -- raise our hands with joy and excitement, in jubilation and joy, as the Spirit of the Lord anoints us with His power -- even in the decreed desolations. 

We should not fear. "Fear not, I have redeemed you; I have called you by name. You are Mine" (Isaiah 43:1b).

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging.

"There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her; she will not fall. God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar; kingdoms fall. He lifts His voice; the earth melts.

"The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

"Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations He has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the shields with fire. He says, 'Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'

"The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress" (Psalm 46).

The Scriptures are spectacularly clear on a few things, one of which is that the end, just before the return of Jesus in His glory, is not going to be a picnic. It's going to be hard, the hardest time that any of us will ever go through. Rapture or no rapture theology, we are still not going to get an exit ticket that exempts us from pain and suffering, and the church, especially the church in America, in our semi-comfortable existence -- by and large -- is not prepared to face it. 

The other thing the Scripture is spectacularly clear on is that we are not to fear. The Lord is with us. The Lord is sovereign. And the Lord does not abdicate His throne to the kingdoms of man. He is victorious, and He is coming soon. "I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes... how my heart yearns within me!" (Job 19:26)