Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
I have both been going through something which is like I am going to be swept away. And yet, in my case, there is no problem. Yet it got so bad that I didn't think I was going to make it to the end.
Paul knew he could be swept away ... Paul said: Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. I Cor. 9
Jesus said it would get so bad that if the time were not shortened even the elect would perish.
And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Mt. 24:22
Keeping control of your mind is critical. If you allow yourself to think of future or what you did in past, you can be in serious trouble. One thing each of us have to do is live in the present.
I'm keeping these two scriptures before me constantly.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. 3
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Mt. 6:34
Pam told me once she was thinking of what might happen in future and she heard to "stay in present reality".
We cannot afford to entertain lying vanities.
We have to stop ... consider this exact minute ... what is happening in my life right now? ... We may be surprised to find nothing is happening in our lives right now. It is a fear of future that is deadly ...or a grief over what we have done in past ...
So we have to stay sober and control our minds and live in this present time.
What will it be like before Jesus comes?
I Thess. 5 ...But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. 11Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
Focus on today ... that which is before us today ... That is what Paul said he did, to focus on that which was before him, meaning that which was in front of him today not tomorrow. He reached forth to do that which was "before him" immediately. Draw your mind back and focus on now and stay "sober" not letting your mind drift away to imagining tomorrow and what might happen.
It will get very bad before Jesus returns. But strangly the "badness" will be everything feeling okay ... "When they shall say, Peace and safety", then sudden destruction comes upon them ...
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Mt. 24
The destruction comes when it looks like there is no problem.
But we, who are of God, know everything is not okay. Don't we know it is getting worse out there? Certainly we see this. How much longer can it go before the cup of evil is full? For then comes the end.
In the meantime, we have to stay "sober" and endure with our minds focused on God and the word given by God.
We may reach a time we think we can't keep going. But remember the promise that for the sake of the elect the days will be shortened so we can be saved. Mt. 24:22
Check yourselves to be sure you are focused on the present and not on the past or future. Make your mind focus on today.