Prophecy Update Newsletter
IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...
Time for Prayer, Faith and Trust - By Daymond Duck - https://www.raptureready.com/2020/04/05/time-for-prayer-faith-and-trust-by-daymond-duck/
Some of my thoughts on the Coronavirus Crisis: If this is a birth pain (and I believe it is), then it is the hardest birth pain (one-third of the world is in lockdown) the world has experienced, and there are more birth pains to come (Matt. 24:3-8; Rev. 6:5-8). Jesus said, "in this world you will have tribulation" (Jn. 16:33), and we are having it, but this is not the Tribulation Period (it is a mild glimpse of what the world will be like after the Rapture). This came upon the world with startling speed, but the Rapture and the "sudden destruction" of the Tribulation Period will come upon the world even faster (Luke 21:35; I Cor. 15:52; I Thess. 5:3). Some possible reasons why God is allowing the Coronavirus Crisis: He wants revival in the Church before the Rapture (II Chron. 7:13-14). He wants a harvest of the lost before the Rapture (Matt. 9:37-38). He is reminding the world that Jesus said false Christs, wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes will precede His coming, and they will be the "beginnings of sorrows" ( 24:5-8; the beginning of greater disasters). He is showing the world that borders are a good thing, and erasing borders to create a one-world government is a bad thing (Rev. 13:4-8). He is showing the world that globalization is a bad thing when essential products are not produced at home (Rev. 13:14-18). He is reminding the world that the age of grace is almost over and the end of the age is close (Matt. 24:33). Some speculation on why New York now has more cases than any other nation: God may be attacking the economic center of the world (New York; Wall Street), and the home of the wannabe world government (the UN) as a warning that He set Israel's borders and world leaders should leave them alone. Some suggestions: Do all you can to protect your family and yourself from the Coronavirus, and leave the rest up to God (I Tim. 5:8). Pray that you will be accounted worthy to escape all of the things that are coming to pass (Psa. 20; Psa. 91; Luke 21:36). Support Israel. God will bless those that do (Gen. 12:1-3). Understand that physical survival is important, but spiritual survival is more important (Rom. 3:23; Jn. 3:16, 14:6; Matt. 10:32-33; Eph. 2:8-9). Oppose mandatory vaccinations that contain chips. Know that there is a proposal to track those that are vaccinated for the Coronavirus (when a vaccine is developed) that will permit people to leave their homes to work, buy, sell, etc., and forbid (fine, jail) those that refuse to be vaccinated permission to leave their homes to work, buy, sell, etc. Know that the recent stimulus package contained $500 million for public health data surveillance and analytics infrastructure modernization. New Yorkers should be aware that their state cancelled religious exemptions for mandatory vaccinations on June 13, 2019. See Rev. 13:14-18. Prophecy Related Events: One, concerning persecution: on Mar. 27, 2020, an article in the New York Times blamed the Coronavirus on Evangelical Christians and other religious Americans that supported Pres. Trump. Two, concerning a global economic collapse: on Mar. 23, 2020, one-third of the world was on lockdown (Rev. 8:1-13, 9:15). On Mar. 27, 2020, Pres. Trump signed into law a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package, and it allows the government to get another $4.5 trillion. On Mar. 27, 2020, several states in the U.S. were under, or considering, "stay at home" orders. If this lasts for weeks or months, the global economy could collapse (that will happen in the Tribulation Period; Rev. 6:5-6). Three, concerning wars and rumors of wars: fighting in the Middle East and Africa has destroyed factories, hospitals, clinics and equipment; killed medical staff; and left millions without supplies and trained people to deal with the Coronavirus. On Mar. 26, 2020, an Iranian proxy fired rockets at a U.S. base in Iraq. At the time of this writing, there are reports that the U.S. and Israel could be planning an attack on Iran inside Iran's borders (implications for Gog and Magog). Four, concerning the cashless society: in early March, the World Health Organization said cash could be spreading the coronavirus; So. Korea stopped the use of cash for 2 weeks; the Federal Reserve started looking at ways to replace the dollar; and several major banks in England and Europe started studying the possibility of using some form of digital money. Five, concerning tracking all buying and selling: the push to track the movement of people, keep data bases on people, and share that data has been speeded up all over the world. Six, concerning wickedness on earth: on Mar. 23, 2020, U.S. Sec. of State Mike Pompeo said Iranian officials have used more than one billion dollars of EU aid that was given to help victims of the Coronavirus crisis to enrich themselves. They bought masks, gloves and medical supplies, sold them on the black market and kept the profits. Seven, concerning famine: on Mar. 24, 2020, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said the locust plague in the Horn of Africa represents an unprecedented threat to the food supply of millions of people. Eight, Israel has a new "emergency" unity government. Following the collapse of Prime Min. Netanyahu's government, Israel held three elections and the government was still stalemated. On Mar. 26, 2020, it was reported that Prime Min. Netanyahu and his closest challenger, Benny Gantz, met with Israel's Pres. Rivlin and they agreed to create a unity government. Netanyahu will serve as Prime Min. for 18 more months, and Gantz will serve as Foreign Min. during that time. Then, Gantz will become Prime Min. Some believe this "emergency" unity government came into being because Iran is becoming more aggressive. Nine, on Mar. 29, 2020, a great Bible prophecy teacher, J.D. Farag, said, "I truly believe that this (Coronavirus Crisis) may, in fact, be that which ultimately leads to the Rapture of the Church, the Antichrist's revelation, and the seven-year Tribulation, in that order. I submit that what's happening now may, in fact, be creating the perfect storm for one-world government, a one-world economy, and a one-world religion." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G76nB6THoYc Finally, on Mar. 23, 2020, Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham, said God may be using the coronavirus "to get our attention." She said, "It's time to pray . . . and turn to God in faith and trust." Prophecy Plus Ministries, Inc. Daymond & Rachel Duck [email protected] Coronavirus: China's Great Cover-up - by Giulio Meotti - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15844/coronavirus-china-cover-up We have been paying dearly for China's lies. "This is one of the worst cover-ups in human history, and now the world is facing a global pandemic," said Rep. Michael T. McCaul, the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, before the US intelligence community concluded, in a classified report to the White House, that China has concealed the origin and extent of the catastrophic global coronavirus outbreak. The Chinese Communist Party's "failure has unleashed a global contagion killing thousands", wrote Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, on April 1. "As we survey the damage done to lives around the world, we must ask who is responsible?" "... there is one government that has primary responsibility for what it has done and what it has failed to do, and that is the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] regime in Beijing. Let me be clear - it is the CCP that has been responsible, not the people of China... Lies and propaganda have put millions of lives around the world in danger... In recent years, we have seen an intense crackdown on freedom of expression in China. Lawyers, bloggers, dissidents and civil society activists have been rounded up and have disappeared." One more person has just disappeared: Ai Fen, a Chinese physician who was head of the emergency department at Wuhan Central Hospital, had worked with the late Dr. Li Wenliang. Ai, who claimed that her bosses silenced her early warnings about coronavirus, appears to have vanished. Her whereabouts, according to 60 Minutes Australia, are unknown. The journalists who saw what happened inside Wuhan have also disappeared. Caixin Global reported that the laboratories which sequenced the coronavirus in December were ordered by Chinese officials to hand over or destroy the samples and not release their findings. "If I had known what was to happen, I would not have cared about the reprimand, I would have fucking talked about it to whoever, where ever I could", Ai Fen said in an interview in March. Those were her last recorded words. There is no record at all, however, about how this pandemic began. Wet market? A cave full of bats? Pangolins? Or a bio-weapons laboratory? No foreign doctors, journalists, analysts or international observers are present in Wuhan. Why, if the virus came out of a wet market or a cave, did China suppress inquiries to such an extent? Why, in December, did Beijing order Chinese scientists to destroy proof about the virus? Why did Chinese officials claim that US soldiers brought the virus to Wuhan? Why should it be scandalous that a US President calls a virus that began in China a "Chinese virus"? Who announced on January 11 that Wuhan's wet market was the origin of this epidemic? The Chinese regime. It was later discovered that the first known case of coronavirus traced back to November 17, 2019. The same Chinese regime later claimed that this coronavirus "may not have originated in China". What respected scientist or institution can now trust anything that comes out of China? Many leading scientists have dismissed the claim that the Covid-19 virus was an engineered pathogen. This conclusion was seemingly based on the fact that Wuhan has two major virus research labs: the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which is apparently less than a mile from the market, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory, handling the world's most deadly pathogens, located just seven miles from the market. The story was immediately and emphatically trashed as a "conspiracy theory". Those scientists claim that the virus likely originated among wildlife before spreading to humans, possibly through a food market in Wuhan. They say that, through genetic sequencing, they have identified the culprit for Covid-19 as a bat coronavirus. End of story? Science, thankfully, begins by asking questions and then seeking answers. Bats were not, it seems, sold at Wuhan's wet market. The Lancet noted in a January study that the first Covid-19 case in Wuhan had no connection to the market. The Lancet's paper, written by Chinese researchers from several institutions, detailed that 13 of the 41 first cases had no link to the market. "That's a big number, 13, with no link," commented Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University. So how did the epidemic start? "Now it seems clear that [the] seafood market is not the only origin of the virus, but to be honest we still do not know where the virus came from now", notes Bin Cao, pulmonary specialist at Capital Medical University, and the corresponding author of the Lancet article. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that China's Communist Party is withholding information about the coronavirus. If we do not know, it is necessary be open to all possibilities. "Less than 300 yards from the seafood market is the Wuhan branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention" wrote David Ignatius of the Washington Post. "Researchers from that facility and the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology have posted articles about collecting bat coronaviruses from around China, for study to prevent future illness. Did one of those samples leak, or was hazardous waste deposited in a place where it could spread?". "Collecting viruses" presumably does not exclude the possibility of a "leaked virus". Worse, if China is not able to protect its laboratories, it needs to be held accountable and made to pay for the devastating global damage. "Experts know the new coronavirus is not a bioweapon. They disagree on whether it could have leaked from a research lab", stated The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Professor Richard Ebright of Rutgers University's Waksman Institute of Microbiology, and a major biosecurity expert, agreed with the Nature Medicine authors' argument that the coronavirus was not manipulated by humans. But Ebright does think it possible that the Covid-19 started as an accidental leak from a laboratory, such as one of the two in Wuhan, which are known to have been studying bat viruses: "Virus collection or animal infection with a virus having the transmission characteristics of the outbreak virus would pose substantial risk of infection of a lab worker, and from the lab worker, the public." Ebright has also claimed that bat coronaviruses are studied in Wuhan at Biosafety Level 2, "which provides only minimal protection" compared with the top BSL-4. "We don't know what happened, but there are a lot of reasons to believe that this indeed was a release of some sort", China expert Gordon Chang said to Die Weltwoche. "No one has been able to study it. How can you say it's not a release from a lab if you can't go to the lab? Indeed, we have seen Beijing do its best to prevent virologists and epidemiologists from actually going to Wuhan. The World Health Organization team went to Wuhan for like half a day with only part of the team." That is another major problem. The potential major investigator of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic's origin, the World Health Organization (WHO), is now accused of being "China's coronavirus' accomplice". As late as January 14, the WHO quoted Chinese health officials claiming there had been no human transmissions of the coronavirus within the country yet. China poses a biosecurity risks for the entire planet. One year before the first coronavirus case was identified in Wuhan, US Customs and Border Protection agents at Detroit Metro Airport stopped a Chinese biologist with three vials labeled "Antibodies" in his luggage. According to an unclassified FBI tactical intelligence report obtained by Yahoo News: "Inspection of the writing on the vials and the stated recipient led inspection personnel to believe the materials contained within the vials may be viable Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) materials." Why is China trafficking in dangerous viruses in the first place? According to Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations: "A safety breach at a Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention lab is believed to have caused four suspected SARS cases, including one death, in Beijing in 2004. A similar accident caused 65 lab workers of Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute to be infected with brucellosis in December 2019. In January 2020, a renowned Chinese scientist, Li Ning, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for selling experimental animals to local markets". In February, Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao, from Guangzhou's South China University of Technology, wrote in a research paper: "In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level [sic] may need to be reinforced in high risk biohazardous laboratories". Xiao later told the Wall Street Journal that he had withdrawn the paper because it "was not supported by direct proofs". Chinese laboratory mistakes have happened before. By 2010, researchers published as fact: "The most famous case of a released laboratory strain is the re-emergent H1N1 influenza-A virus which was first observed in China in May of 1977 and in Russia shortly thereafter". The virus may have escaped from a lab attempting to prepare a vaccine in response to the U.S. swine flu pandemic alert. In 1999 the most senior defector in the US from the Soviet biological warfare program, Ken Alibek, revealed that Soviet officials concluded that China had suffered a serious accident at one of its secret biological plants, causing two major epidemics of fever that had swept China in the late 1980s. "Our analysts", Alibek stated in his book, Biohazard, "concluded that they were caused by an accident in a lab where Chinese scientists were weaponizing viral diseases". In 2004, the World Health Organization disclosed that the latest outbreak of "severe acute respiratory syndrome" (SARS) in China involved two researchers who were working with the virus in a Beijing research lab. The WHO denounced Chinese breaches of safety procedures, and director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Li Liming, resigned. Science magazine also stated that "for the third time in less than a year, an outbreak of SARS seems to have originated from a failure in laboratory containment". Moreover, three years ago, when China opened the laboratory in Wuhan, Tim Trevan, a Maryland biosafety specialist, told Nature that he worried about the safety of the building because "structures where everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important." Free speech and open information: exactly what Chinese regime fought against in December and January. A Chinese video about a key researcher in Wuhan, Tian Junhua, which was released a few weeks before the outbreak in Wuhan, shows Chinese researchers handling bats that contained viruses. In the video (produced by China Science Communication, run by the China Association for Science and Technology), Tian says: "I am not a doctor, but I work to cure and save people... I am not a soldier, but I work to safeguard an invisible national defense line". Tian is also reported as having said: "I can feel the fear: the fear of infections and the fear of getting lost. Because of the fear, I take every step extremely cautiously. The more scared I feel, the more care I take in executing every detail. Because the process of you finding the viruses is also when you can be exposed to them the easiest. I do hope these virus samples will only be preserved for scientific research and will never be used in real life". For a month, the Chinese Communist Party, instead of fighting the contagion, did everything possible to censor all information about the Covid-19 outbreak. After President Xi Jinping declared "a people's war" on the epidemic on January 20, Chinese security services pursued 5,111 cases of "fabricating and deliberately disseminating false and harmful information". The Chinese Human Rights Defenders documented several types of punishment, including detention, disappearance, fines, interrogations, forced confessions and "educational reprimand". After that, China lied about the real number of deaths. There are photographs of long lines of stacked urns greeting family members of the dead at funeral homes in Wuhan. Outside one funeral home, trucks shipped in 2,500 urns. According to Chinese official figures, 2,548 people in Wuhan have died of the Covid-19. According to an analysis by Radio Free Asia, seven funeral homes in Wuhan were each handing out 500 funeral urns containing remains for 12 days, from March 23 to the traditional tomb-sweeping festival of April 5, a time that would indicate up to 42,000 urns, or ten times higher than the official figure. In February, it was reported that Wuhan crematoriums were working around the clock to cope with the massive influx of infected bodies. Wuhan's officials are apparently pushing relatives of the victims to bury the dead "quickly and quietly". "Natural virus" does not exclude its fallout from a laboratory where pathogens are collected and studied. The Nature Medicine authors "leave us where we were before: with a basis to rule out [a coronavirus from] a lab construct, but no basis to rule out a lab accident", Professor Ebright commented. "Debate may rage over which center it is, but at this point it seems undeniable that a center has been directly involved with research on viruses, although not necessarily on the creation of a virus" wrote Father Renzo Milanese, a longtime Catholic missionary in Hong Kong. "In other words, the virus passed from a research center in Wuhan early on. More importantly there is also no question that the authorities were aware of the dangerousness of the virus, that they did not inform anyone and that they tried to keep the facts hidden". US Senator Josh Hawley has introduced a resolution calling for an international investigation into China's handling of the spread of the virus. According to Hawley: "The Chinese Communist Party was aware of the reality of the virus as early as December but ordered laboratories to destroy samples and forced doctors to keep silent. It is time for an international investigation into the role their cover-up played in the spread of this devastating pandemic". Admitting a fault, as the Japanese did after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, might be one way for a country to be accepted again by the international community. Censoring, denying and covering up, as China is doing, will not. "China claims that the deadly virus did not escape from its biolab," said a China specialist with the Population Research Institute, Steven W. Mosher. "Fine. Prove it by releasing the research records of the Wuhan lab". Israel Watch: Israel and the Plague - Jim Fletcher - [email protected] As of this writing, Israel has 7,500 cases of Coronavirus, and 44 people have died. These numbers don't seem particularly high, but we must remember that this is a small country, with only several million citizens. (I do find it moving and amazing that this week, the very secular city of Tel Aviv "boasted" one tower building illuminated at night by the famous "Hear O Israel" verse. I think soon and very soon the Israelis will return to their God.) Evidently several haredi communities are being watched closely, with even IDF paratroopers deployed to Bnei Brak. Jerusalem, with one million residents, has 1,132 cases. On a side note, having been in the Old City many times, I'm struck by the fact that China is taking severe (and deserved) criticism for its "wet markets," where people buy animals to eat. Jerusalem's Old City has several vendors in the Arab sections that sell meat hanging on hooks, with flies all over it. Gross liquids run down the narrow alleyways and streets. I'm sure the Israelis are locking-down the Old City. But I digress. To me, the weirdest aspect of this virus pandemic is that the projected numbers seem way off, so far. In the U.S., a week ago we heard that catastrophic deaths were coming. We've had this week a few thousand added deaths. Each death is tragic of course, but something seems off. Israel is well-equipped to deal with this crisis, and I'm confident they will weather the health storm. Other cities, like Tel Aviv and Petah Tikvah, have a few hundred cases at most. To me, the larger issue is how this will damage economies. There seems to be an agenda to do that, frankly. No one knows how this will pan out, but if the deaths are drastically less than have been predicted, many more people will distrust their governments and media. Meanwhile, the scare tactics continue. From a Jerusalem Post report: "Speaking at a press briefing Friday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom called on all countries 'to ensure core public health measures are fully funded, including case-finding, testing, contact tracing, collecting data and communication and information campaigns.' "He acknowledged that the world is 'in a shared struggle to protect both lives and livelihoods,' but confirmed that 'the best way for countries to end restrictions and ease their economic effects is to attack the virus, with the aggressive and comprehensive package of measures that we have spoken about many times before: find, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact.' "'If countries rush to lift restrictions too quickly,' he cautioned, 'the virus could resurge, and the economic impact could be even more severe and prolonged.'" We are being controlled by the powers-that-be on an unprecedented scale. Individuals are less able to make their own decisions due to this outbreak. In any event, as with other global issues, I expect that Israel will come out of this ahead of the game, ahead of other countries. More from the Post: "Today, European countries, the US, and Russia are using Israel as a barometer of what to do and how to manage the crisis. Even the UK, which dangerously toyed with the idea of herd immunity, had to abandon their initial response when it became apparent that the National Health Service were going to have to be making life or death decisions and face hundreds of thousands of deaths. While cynics in Israel were still touting the notion that Netanyahu was creating directives to serve his political interests, close friends from abroad were flying in as soon as they could, before the country closed its doors to noncitizens, as they knew they were safer here." I look forward to visiting that wonderful place again. Stunning Poll - Almost Half Of Americans Believe Pandemic Is Divine Wake Up Call - By PNW Staff - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=3947 Almost half of Americans believe the coronavirus pandemic is a "wake-up call" from God "to turn back to faith," and one third see it as a sign of "coming judgement" or that we are in the "last days" as foretold in the Bible, according to a new national poll. The poll was conducted among 1,000 likely voters between March 23-26 by McLaughlin & Associates for The Joshua Fund, a Christian ministry founded by well known author Joel Rosenberg with an emphasis on "mobilizing Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus." Rosenberg called the results "stunning" as Christians and non-Christians alike are turning to the Bible for answers in this time of crisis. "Americans in near full lockdown are anxious, and understandably so. Yet millions are turning to God, the Bible, and Christian sermons for answers, some of them for the first time". "This survey provides a fascinating window into how Americans see the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is dramatically increasing their interest in spiritual matters," he said. Some of the questions and responses to the poll included: Are We Experiencing a "Wake Up Call To Return to Faith in God" and/or "Sign of Coming Judgment"? While 43.4% of all respondents say yes, we are experiencing a "wake up call," coming judgment, or both, how do specific groups of Americans respond? * 42% of Jewish people say yes * 25.4% of self-identified "secular" Americans say yes * 39.3% of single people (compared to 49% of married people) say yes * 54% of military households say yes * 51.7% of Hispanic Americans say yes * 63.6% of African Americans say yes * 40.3% of whites say yes * 26.3% of Asian Americans say yes * 41.8% of young people, age 18-29 say yes * 46.6% of people age 30-40 say yes * 42.8% of people age 41-55 say yes * 50.9% of people age 56-65 say yes * 39.6% of people over 65 say yes Is the Crisis Creating More Biblical Interest Among Non-Christians? While 21.5% of all self-identified non-Christians responding to the poll say yes, the crisis is causing them to start reading the Bible and listening to Bible teaching and Christian sermons online even though they usually don't, search online for teaching on Bible prophecy and God's future for mankind, and/or engage in more spiritual conversations with family and friends, how do other groups of Americans respond? * 37.6% of Jewish people say yes * 22.7% of Americans who say they have no religion say yes * 7.2% of self-identified "agnostics" say yes * 7.8% of self-identified "atheists" say yes * 35.1% of non-Christian Hispanic Americans say yes * 35.6% of non-Christian African Americans say yes * 25.4% of non-Christian Asian Americans say yes * 27.5% of non-Christian young people age 18-29 say yes * 36% of non-Christian people age 30-40 say yes * 16.3% of non-Christian people age 41-55 say yes * 9% of non-Christian people age 56-65 say yes * 6.9% of non-Christian people over 65 say yes * 28.5% of non-Christian military households say yes Are We Living in the Last Days? While 29.4% of all poll respondents say yes, the crisis reveals that "we are living in what the Bible calls the last days," how do other groups of Americans respond? * 29.5% of Jewish people say yes, we are living in the last days * 25.4% of self-identified "secular" Americans say yes * 28.5% of single people (compared to 31.6% of married people) say yes * 36.6% of military households say yes * 50% of Hispanic Americans say yes * 40% of African Americans say yes * 24.7% of whites say yes * 14.2% of Asian Americans say yes * 28% of young people age 18-29 say yes * 33.3% of people age 30-40 say yes * 28.9% of people age 41-55 say yes * 33.4% of people age 56-65 say yes * 23.8% of people over 65 say yes Daily Jot: Gaps are important and so is gap standing - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com Gaps are important. Ancient military strategy had people who would stand in the gaps to defend a position. In football, the gaps between the center, guard, tackle and end are lettered A, B, C, and D respectively. From a defensive position, plays are called to penetrate or control certain gaps, and the offense is required to protect the gaps. A double A-gap blitz, for example, is two additional defensive rushers on both sides of the center. It requires a double team on one side and an extra blocker in the backfield for the offense to defend the A gaps. In other words, extra players are needed to protect the gaps or the play most likely will fail. Similarly, in society there are gaps that also must be protected for people to succeed. Gaps also are noted in the Bible. Psalm 106:23 speaks of the Israelites forgetting the works of their savior in Egypt by tempting God in the wilderness, saying, "Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath, lest he destroy them." Speaking of the time of the end in Isaiah 63:5, the word of the Lord came, "And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold." In Ezekiel 22, the Lord is lamenting the sins of Jerusalem and how the prophets have conspired to devour souls. In verse 30, He says, "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none." Christians using this verse often leave off the part about finding none. Standing in the gap in football or a military battle shows alignment with the will of the coach, or commander. Standing in the gap is a form of intercession. Whether it be by prayer or by action or, preferably, both, when we stand in the gap for the land before the Lord, it shows the Lord that we care about the things that he cares about. When our will and God's will align, God is then moved of the importance that we are interceding and working toward His will being accomplished. When our intercession and God's will align, a spiritual force is often released. As in Isaiah 59:16 where there was no justice or truth and the righteous were a prey to evil, the Lord's arm brought salvation. Are you one who stands in the gap? When you stand in the gap, you inspire others around you. When you stand in the gap, the Lord sees your heart and is moved by His mercy and compassion. If you are a farmer, you are standing in the gap. If you are a first responder, you are standing in the gap. If you are a health care provider, you are standing in the gap. If you are an encourager, you are standing in the gap. If you are a grocery store clerk, you are standing in the gap. If you help those in need, you are standing in the gap. If you love your neighbor as yourself, you are standing in the gap. If you pray and act, you are standing in the gap. Gaps are important during this time in our nation and around the world. Fill them with your love, kindness, prayer, and action. Be a gap-stander! Daily Devotion: Easter Brings Hope - by Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.' -John 11:25 Easter is not about brightly colored eggs, wearing pastels, or enjoying a big meal, although it could include these. Easter is about the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. For many, Easter will be another reminder of how different life is as we're being asked to stay home and apart from family and friends. For others, it will be a reminder of a loved one who has died and is now so desperately missed. Especially in times like these, death seems so cruel, so harsh, and so final. That is what the disciples were feeling when they saw their Lord, whom they had left everything to follow, hanging on the cross. They were devastated. Death had crushed them. But if they would have gone back in their memories, they would have recalled an important event and statement Jesus had made. They would have remembered Jesus standing at the tomb of His close friend Lazarus. They would have remembered that Jesus did something completely unexpected: He wept (see John 11:35). Jesus wept, because He knew that death was not part of God's original plan. Humanity was not meant to grow old, to suffer with disease, or to die. But because of the fall of Adam and Eve, sin entered the human race, and death followed with it. And death spread to all of us. Jesus wept because it broke His heart. But standing there at Lazarus' tomb, Jesus also delivered these hope-filled words: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live" (John 11:25 NKJV). Death is not the end. And the Resurrection of Jesus Christ proves it. If you have put your faith in Christ, then Easter means that you will live forever in the presence of God. Easter brings hope to the person who has been devastated by death. 
FROM THE HEART
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