"REMEMBER ME, CHURCH OF SMYRNA"

 

 

In the previous devotional I touched a bit on the Church of Ephesus and the theme is still that of endurance, overcoming or zeal.  The Church of Ephesus had a lot going for them with regard to exposing the Nicolations and those who said that they are apostles and were not.  They were fervent in their work, but they had one thing that counted against them.  He said, “Nevertheless”, which meant, “In spite of everything you did, you have lost your first love.” And so, we discussed the importance of first love and how it will be in that time when the ashes of suffering will start to smother the hot coals of love.  Suffering can do that.  Today we are going to talk about the Church of Smyrna. 

Some may have listened to my introduction video on YouTube and I mention the word “reality and authenticity”, which I often mention in my teachings as well.  It is such an important issue with the Lord God because, if anything, He is REAL.  In Psalm 37: 4 we read, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  I have always seen this scripture that He will purify our desires when we delight in Him and therefore He can answer your desires.  And yes, this is true.  Our desires will be in alignment with His will.  Of late I realized that HE gives desires.  Not just answer it, but He gives desires.  One of my desires that I would say that has been the most pivotal to my Christian walk would be that of reality.  My prayer has always been, “Lord, I want reality.”  What is reality, especially in a world that is so “plastic?”  We know there is a veil over the world concerning what is really true.  Yes, we can go down a serious rabbit hole for all that information, but the point is, He gave me this desire.  It came from Him and He has every intention of answering that desire when He gives it.  All good gifts comes from the Father of light in whom there is no shadow of turning.  As He was preparing my heart for this message, I have had an immense desire for reality and my prayer has been, “Lord, I want to know you more.  I want the reality of You.  A reality that transcends words.”  That is the reality that is God.  When God reveals Himself to you there is no words that can describe Him.  We may read of it and listen to people’s testimonies, but when He reveals Himself to you, you are not only changed in that moment, but your whole life takes on another perspective.  When I thought about Him being reality, I thought about how He is love, He is truth and life.  He is righteous and merciful.  All these things are attributes of Him, but they are Him.  He is seamless.  The garment that the Centurions took from Him was seamless, because His character is seamless.  All His attributes form one.  But He reveals Himself to us in a given moment, the reality of Him in the way He chooses.  Maybe I should have been more specific of how I would like Him to reveal Himself to me.  He revealed Himself to me as the “God who devastates.”  Considering that we will be speaking about the Church of Smyrna, this makes complete sense.  He is the God who devastates, the same God who slew His own Son and the same God that will cause not one stone of Jerusalem to be upon another.  He is the same God that will allow His four horses of the Apocalypse, His horses of destruction to come upon this earth.  He is the same God who will call His wrath to come down upon this earth.  He is the God who devastates.  There are a lot of people who do not know Him as the God who devastates who brings them to a place where all their categories have come to naught.  I know that the time we are going in, in the tribulation, the Christians that thought they are still in a good place with the Lord, they are doing the right things, but living double standards where one foot is still in the world and the other in the Church, lukewarm and they do not really love Him, that they are going to be devastated so much.  Being left behind and in so much turmoil.  It will be a time where World War III will start, the time of the Mark of the Beast will come in and a time of great persecution.  All their categories will fall like dust to the ground.  There will be no foundation, because when the storm comes, their house will fall.  Every person’s house, their spiritual walk, that has not been built on the foundation of obedience according to Matthew 7, walking in holiness, humility and truth, will fall to the ground and crumble.  They will be devastated by the God who devastates.   The God they thought they knew.  It will be a mercy unto them, being a season where He will draw them to Him. Then they will call out to Him.  It is in this time that the workers will need to be able to endure.  They themselves will be partakers of this devastation.  It will be in this time that they will need to know Him who devastates.  Truly know Him and not be shaken or moved, but be established in such a faith that transcends circumstances.  Who is sufficient for these things unless He prepares us?  Let’s read about Revelation 2 regarding the Church of Smyrna. 

REVELATION 2

⁸ And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;

This first verse is very important. He is already establishing the foundation of the Church of Smyrna in that one sentence, “Which was dead and is alive.”

⁹ I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

¹⁰ Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH, AND I WILL GIVE THEE A CROWN OF LIFE.

¹¹ He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

The theme of the Church of Smyrna is that of endurance in a time of great tribulation.  In these few verses there is a theme of 3 “P’s”, which are Poverty, Prison and Persecution.  He tells them right in the beginning that they are in poverty.  Smyrna was a harbor, a financial hub, and Ephesus opposite it, two ports financially very strong.  At that time the Church of Smyrna did not want to take part in the business practices that involved orgies and bowing down to idols, before going into business.  They were shunned and could not partake in business.  They were taken more and more into poverty.  As a type and shadow we can see it is well into the time where poverty will be so real for the Christians and will be persecuted because of that.  They will be seen as those entities that need to be get rid of because they are not contributing to society, but are in fact taking away from society.  We can see that the time we are going in with the Mark of the Beast, not being able to buy and sell unless they have this mark that they will be persecuted and their heads will roll.  However, He says to them, “In spite of your physical poverty, you are rich in Me.”  Remember, He is their all in all and He is their provision.  A. W. Tozer says that in Christ we are to possess nothing, and in that we possess all.  In Him we possess all things.  In Christ we will have all our provision, but it will not be easy.  He is making it clear that it will not be easy.  He is also making it clear that this is a time where brother and sister will turn against one another, and will be thrown into prison.  Examples of that is in Luke 21.  In Luke 21 Yeshua talks to the disciples about the end time and tells them that they have to watch and pray that they may escape ALL these things.  However, it is clear that they did not escape it. There will be an escape where part of the Bride will escape all these things before the tribulation.  The workers will stay behind and they will have to endure with the left behind church.  He is talking to them in Luke 21 about what will happen to them during this time as His workers. 

LUKE 21

¹² But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.

¹³ And it shall turn to you for a testimony.

¹⁴ Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:

¹⁵ For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

¹⁶ And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.

¹⁷ And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.

¹⁸ But there shall not an hair of your head perish.

¹⁹ In your patience possess ye your souls.

Some of them will die, but at the same time He says that not a hair on their head will perish.  What is it Lord?  Which one is it?  This is a reference to Matthew 6 where He speaks about the sparrows and how He looks after them, and that all the hairs on their head are numbered. Nothing will be able to happen to us that He has not pre-ordained, even our death.  We see that the Church of Smyrna is the same that we read in Luke 21.  Let’s go to Mark’s discourse.

MARK 13

⁹ But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.

¹⁰ And the gospel must first be published among all nations.

¹¹ But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

¹² Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.

¹³ And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

¹⁴ But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:

Clearly we see that this timeline is during immense persecution, specifically making it clear that it will be from out of our own households.  We have to understand that it will be even of those Christians who cannot understand why God has forsaken them.  They will turn their backs on Him and the brethren.  Just like Judas, a lot of Judas’ will arise.  We see this in John 6:66 (666) where Yeshua spoke about sharing in His suffering by eating His flesh and drinking His blood, talking about communion.  The Word says that when He spoke about that, that many turned around and no longer followed Him.  He turned to His disciples (His workers) asking, “Are you also going to leave Me now?”  This is also a type and shadow of the time we will be going in where many that followed Him will no longer follow Him.  And those same people that followed Him, you can bet your bottom dollar on it, are those who stood also at the cross and cried, “Crucify Him!”  They too will come against those they were friends with.  Brother against brother, sister against sister or brothers, parents against their children and children against their parents, willing to put them into prison and to death.  It will happen. This is the time we are going in.  Will that not devastate utterly?  It will surely do.

A type and shadow of the Church of Smyrna is Priscilla and Aquila. 

ROMANS 16

³ Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:

⁴ Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.

Paul is a type and shadow of Christ and he is saying here that for his life, they laid their own necks down.  They are a type and shadow of those who will lose their heads because they are not willing to take the mark of the Beast.  Priscilla and Aquila were apostles.  The time we are going in is the time of the Apostolic and Prophetic Age.  The Word of God says that the Church is built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets.  When we look at the Old Testament we clearly see the apostles like Moses and Abraham and the whole Old Testament is full of prophets.  The Church is built on that foundation.  When Paul and the other apostles wrote, they wrote from the foundation of the Old Testament.  We need to understand that the Word of God is not one dimensional, but has to be read as the past, present and future.  The “was”, “is” and “is to come”. What will be again is the continuation upon this foundation.  When we read this scripture where Yeshua says, “In patience possess your soul”, the word “patience” is the word Hypominé.  It means endurance, steadfastness and constancy.  What is interesting about the Church of Smyrna, which was during the time of Alexander the Great, is that it was completely ruined after many wars and the only thing that are still standing is pillars.  Pillars have to endure two things.  They have to endure the pressure from the foundation and the roof.  It has to stand alone.  We say that someone is a pillar in society, we mean they are somebody we can depend upon.  They are someone with wisdom, is an example and mentor and somebody we look up to.  That which remained out of all the ruins were the pillars.  They were able to endure.  For me the type and shadow of the roof is God’s hands of wrath upon this earth.  To be able to endure the time of tribulation and what comes from His hands and to stand.  The Strong’s Concordance gives a short description of this word patience (Hypominé).

“It is the character of the man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.”

Yeshua was speaking about this kind of patience when He told them to possess their soul in patience.  What does it mean to possess your soul?  Keep it together, do not faint in your mind and possess it by having the character of endurance and zeal.   A good example of such a character is Polycarp.  Polycarp was a disciple of John the Revelator and from the Church of Smyrna.  He was a pillar of faith.  This was during the time where Christians were thrown into the arenas to be eaten by lions or burned at the stake for entertainment.  Polycarp had a dream where his pillow was on fire and the Lord revealed to him that he would burn at the stake as a martyr.  The next morning the soldiers came to his house and he prepared a meal for them.  He invited them in to sit down and eat.  They came all the way, they might as well come sit at his table and eat.  He went with them out of free will and was not willing to be tied to the stake.  Some say a wind came and blew the fire out.  Others say that the fire could not burn him.  Either way, he did not die by fire.  He did agree to be stabbed with a knife and this is how he died.  This is a man that was not scared of dying.  What I find so overwhelmingly clear about the Church of Smyrna, is that they are called to a faith that leads to death.  Make no mistake.  That is the faith that they are called to.  In fact, faith is not faith without a death.  There are two kinds of faith.  A faith for miracles and answered prayer.  Then there is a faith to endure.  The faith to endure is a faith that transcends your circumstances, the most gruesome, cruel and devastating circumstances.  That is a different kind of faith.  The one is a lot more costly than the other. 

In the Strong’s Concordance the word “witness” means a martyr.  We are His witnesses.  We read about them in Revelation 6.  The 5^th seal is opened up and it is they that are crying out to the Lord from under the altar.

REVELATION 6

⁹ And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

Remember, Yeshua said in the scriptures that we have read now that they will be taken to judges and that they do not need to think or meditate ahead what to say.  The Holy Ghost will give them the words to speak and that it will be a testimony unto them.

¹⁰ And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

¹¹ And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

He saying to them, “Not yet, we are almost there.  You must still remain under the altar.”  Why?  Because this Gospel must still be preached to all the nations so that the end of the Gentile age is fulfilled.  He is saying to them, “I have purposed My witnesses to lay down their lives.  This is their call and they need to fulfill the call upon their life.”

The Lord God has prepared me already with multiple dreams to show me that I am a worker and that I will stay here and will be going to consecration camps.  One dream I dreamed that I was sitting in a concentration camp.  The woman and men were sitting separately in a line.  We had to sit close to each other where our knees had to touch the person’s back in front of us.  At one point a German officer called this lady behind me, but she did not understand him and did not get up fast enough.  He walked over to her and started to hit her over her head with his baton.  I could feel every blow as he bludgeoned her to death.  I woke up completely shocked.  He is preparing me that these are the type of things we will be going through.  He even told me that I will be in prison for three years.  Why is He giving these dreams to so many people?  He is preparing them.  The dreams are not enough to prepare us, but He wants us to understand that He is preparing us even now to be pillars of faith to be able to endure. 

Hebrews 11 is called the “faith chapter” of the Bible, giving us a long list of faith heroes that have gone before us.  There are no chapters in the Bible.  Hebrews 12 is part of Hebrews 11 and these faith heroes are called the invisible cloud of witnesses.  They are the witnesses that have gone before us.  And we form part of them, we too are His witnesses.  Witnesses are martyrs and our testimony is our life.  Not our words.  Yes, what we will speak will be significant, but how we will die will be our testimony. Whether we die well and willingly. 

HEBREWS 11

¹Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Many a preacher, specifically prosperity preachers, have butchered that scripture and have not taken into consideration the rest of the chapter, neither the previous chapter.  Taking into consideration the time we are going in and that we are forming part of this cloud of invisible witnesses, the list that is written here tells us that they were looking for a city that could not be seen.  This is what the faith speaks of, the faith which is the evidence of things not seen.  It is speaking of that city that cannot be seen.  Not your car or your house that you want to buy.  It is talking about the city that cannot be seen with physical eyes that they were willing to die for.  Abraham and Sarah were willing to leave all behind for that city.  They were looking unto a city they could not see.  That is what my devotional “The Eternal Weight of Glory” is about.  It is about a cause that is greater than us.  That city that He has prepared for us where we will be Kings and Priests to rule and reign.  The promise given to those who go through the tribulation and lay their life down. 

HEBREWS 11

⁹ By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

We are the seed of Abraham.  We live not by sight, but by faith, just like Abraham.  We live for the same purpose. 

¹⁰ For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

¹¹ Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

¹² Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

¹³ THESE ALL DIED IN FAITH, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

¹⁴ For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

In this particular chapter it says that the world is not worthy of these faith heroes.

³⁵ Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

³⁶ And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

³⁸ (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

³⁹ And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

⁴⁰ God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

We are still running the same race of faith they ran.  These are the apostles and prophets upon which the foundation of the Church was built on, and we are continuing the work they have started.  The key verse here is, “These all DIED IN FAITH.”  There is a faith that requires such a death in us, requiring of us to endure even if we do not receive the promise.  Will you be able to endure if you do not see the promise?  It is one thing to endure for a short while, and quite another thing to endure for years.  To never give up, to be strong, to hold fast to that faith, to die in your faith and not receive the promise.   This is the call of the Church of Smyrna.  They are under the altar and many more will be added under the altar, only to receive their reward at the end when He places His feet on the Mount of Olives. 

Ours is a covenant of faith. When we look at the covenant the Lord God made with Abraham, he was told to sacrifice a heifer, a goat, a ram and doves. All the animals were cut in half except the doves.  These are types and shadows.  What happened during such a covenant was that after they made the sacrifices, they would point to the sacrifice and say, “May what has been done to this sacrifice, be done to me if I ever break covenant with you.”  Tribulation is the wrath of God upon mankind who has broken covenant, of which His Son is a type and shadow on the cross.  You only have to look at the cross to see what the tribulation will look like.  This is why He cried, “My God! My God, why hast thou forsaken me!”  That is exactly what will come.  Who is sufficient to stand before those who will be devastated in such a way and be able to say, “Do not fear, the Lord thy God, He will surely come and save you.”  Who will be able to bring hope at such devastation?  It will not be with words, it will be with your life.  In the same way that He demonstrated His love for His enemies, whom we were, in the same way His Body, His Workers, will lay their lives down.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.  They will willingly lay their lives down so that many will be saved.  This is His words being fulfilled when He said to the Father, “Lo, I come.  In the volume of the book it is written of me.  A Body thou has prepared for me that I may do Thy will.”  We are His Body.  We will be lambs given up to the slaughter.  We will not be victims, we will be witnesses.  This will be our testimony.  This is why unless we know Him as the God who devastates, and are able to worship Him in spite of what we see or feel, not having receive the promise and to die in our faith, we will not be able to be that testimony where others will give their lives to Him.  Because when we lay our lives down willingly, sinners will be converted and a harvest will come in.  Not just with words, but with our lives.  Our very life is the witness.  It is our testimony.  Just like we find with all the prophets.  They had to enter into the devastation.  Jeremiah prophesied of the destruction of Jerusalem and he wrote in Lamentations what he went through, even though he was not in Jerusalem at the time of the destruction.  He was in complete identification with their suffering.  The Lord God guided me to write about apprehension of priesthood.  Why?  Because as His workers we will need to identify with the reality of their devastation and we will be devastated.  Yes, He is the God of mercy, but there can be no mercy without judgment.  Just like there can be no life without death.  He has called us unto a resurrection life that comes from death.  We are co-heirs with those who have gone before us, the invisible cloud of witnesses, so that we may obtain the promise with them at the end.  That we may rule and reign in the Kingdom of God, that city made without hands.  We will not receive it yet.  Are we willing to wait?

He gave me a dream not long ago.  In this dream I was sitting next to the road at night.  There were these couples standing up, holding hands.  Behind me a cushion was placed and I knew in my dream that it was my boyfriend.  This cushion I realized was actually a baseball base.  My boyfriend started to run a homerun and I knew that he was proposing to me by doing this.  Whilst he was running a crowd was cheering him on.  When he got to the home plate where I sat, we gave each other a high five.  I was still facing forward.  Then my brother came from out of the crowd and started to criticize my high five, saying that I did not know how to do it.  Then my boyfriend finished his second homerun, and went for the third.  Once he finished the third, he came to kneel before me and proposed to me, placing a ring on my finger that was in the shape of a flower.  Just circles forming a flower.  End of dream.

The homeruns speak of the different time periods that He will come to this earth.  It will be the pre-tribulation escape, then it will be the rapture and lastly He will place His feet down on the Mount of Olives.  These are the three homeruns.  My brother in the dream is an example of those who will persecute us in the time to come from out of our own households or even the church.  The ring is a sign of covenant.  We walk in covenant with Him.  Covenant cannot come without blood.  Each covenant has to be sealed with blood.  Hebrews 11 starts with Abraham and we are the seed of Abraham.  All those who have gone before us are the seed of Abraham.  We are a continuation of those who walk by faith in covenant with God. 

The next day I was listening to some background music and my eyes caught the video showing some beautiful flowers, Poppies.  Poppies are my favorite flowers and I started to tell Father how much I love them and how beautiful they are.  They are such humble happy flowers.  The next morning I woke up at 4:38 and the Spirit guided me to look up the number in the Strong’s Concordance.  Well, it means flower. Not only that, but it means, “Especially Poppies in a field.”  What are the chances of that?  Why did He show me this?  He wanted me to look up specifically about Poppies.  Poppies are called remembrance flowers and people wear these Poppies on their clothes on a day of remembrance for those who died in war, remembering those who died in battle.  He was saying to me through this dream, “Are you willing to wait?  Are you willing to wait till the last homerun for Me to propose to you?  Will you remember Me and our covenant that I will never break?  I will be with you right to the end.  No matter what you have to endure, are you willing to die in your faith not having received the promise?  Are you willing?”  I am asking you today, “Are you willing that He devastates you in such a way?  Are you willing to see all your suffering in the light of what is to come and how He is preparing you?  Are you willing to stop moaning about it and be molded by it?  Are you willing to share in His suffering in such a way?”  It will not come easy, but His promise to us is that He is a God that will never break covenant.

I came across a poem.  It is about a French war where the fields were red with Poppies, this speaks of the blood.

FLANDERS’S FIELD

In Flanders’s field the poppies blow

Between the crosses row and row

That mark our place

And in the sky, the larks still bravely singing fly,

Scares heard amidst the guns below.

 

We are the dead short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow

Loved and were loved

And now we lay in Flanders’s Fields.

 

Take up our quarrel with the foe

To you from falling hands we throw

The torch be yours to hold it high

If you break faith with us who died

We shall not sleep, thou poppies grow in Flanders’s Field.

The Church is an Apostolic and Prophetic entity that is called to be the message and not just speak a message. The greatest reality of God’s love is the cross.  The greatest reality of God is the cross.  That is the reality that will be the message in the time to come. 

Let’s read about Paul and Silas when they were thrown into prison written in Acts 16.

ACTS 16

¹⁶ And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:

¹⁷ The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.

¹⁸ And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.

¹⁹ And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,

²⁰ And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,

²¹ And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.

²² And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.

²³ And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:

²⁴ Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

²⁵ And AT MIDNIGHT (The darkest time representing no hope, the darkest hour) Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

The prisoners heard them.  The Word could have said, “God heard them”, but it says, “The PRISONERS” heard them.  Have He not said to you that He has anointed you to teach good tidings, to set the captives free and to open the prison doors? 

²⁶ And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

²⁷ And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.

²⁸ But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.

²⁹ Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,

³⁰ And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Never a sweeter word than “What must I do to be saved.”

³¹ And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

³² And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

³³ And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.

³⁴ And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

³⁵ And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go.

This is the testimony and the type of things my heart yearns for.  Miracles are great, but those magic words were, “What must I do to be saved? When I see you in the prison, in the dungeon, singing, when you do not answer in kind, “What must I do to be saved?”  When you were also devastated and know this God who devastates and do not fall to pieces, “What must I do to be saved?”  This is the light that shines the brightest at midnight.  His Church, His Body, the prophetic and apostolic entity, the sent ones.  Not everybody is a prophet or an apostle, but the Church is an apostolic and prophetic entity corporately by laying down their lives.  What a glory!  This is the reality He is calling us to.

Herewith a word He gave me called “Remember”.  It is a word for the time to come, but also a word for those who are now going through a very difficult time that requires them to endure.

REMEMBER

Endurance is what I require of you My child. 

Having done all, to stand.  As a tree constantly faces new seasons, every season determined by Me, so it is strengthened.  From the outside it may seem as if withered by storms, but I often work in the dark where no eye can see.

Have I not formed you in the depths of My womb, birthed by My Spirit?

Have you not through every season grown stronger in spite of how weak you felt?

Deeper and deeper your roots grow in the knowledge of My love for you.  As it grows deeper, so you are strengthened to withstand all seasons and all storms.  Have I not said, “The higher the trees, the deeper the roots?”

Will it then not stand to reason that just as a tree’s roots have to grip with all its might to stand, so you too have to grip with all your might in the knowledge of who I am.

I AM LOVE.

And love endures all things…even this.  When all of you no longer can, remember.

Remember My love.  

Remember what I have taught you. 

Remember the price I have paid to make you mine. 

Remember the former days of deliverance. 

Remember Me.

I love you and I am faithful.  Endure to the end even if you do not know when it will come.  Endure every season by remembering.  Stir up your remembrance of who I am.

To know Me is life, life eternal.

Nothing and no one can take that from you.  Not a season and not a storm.  Nothing can separate you from My love.  Just like Paul, if you endure you will find your roots secure in the soil of My love to endure all things.

I promised, remember? 

I will never leave you.