KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, AND UNDERSTANDING OF PROPHECY

By Pastor Mike Taylor

6 “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.” (Matthew 24:6-8)

Everyone that is alive in this hour of the last days of man-kinds last gasp of ruling themselves, can see the chaos that is virtually enveloping this world. If it hasn't hit you directly, you may know someone who has felt the upheaval that is coming upon this world, and the neighborhood around you. Be it either natural environmental disasters, flooding, earthquakes, volcanoes that have come awake all up and down the Pacific coastlines and elsewhere, raging fires that are out of control in California or other states in the western section of the USA, or see the wars that have broken out in the Middle East and the threat of wars that could effect every man and women on this planet.

But with all this surrounding us and many that are in fear of what is coming upon the earth, it is good to step back and survey the surrounding landscape of historical details along with current events that can only be related to Bible prophecy that is being fulfilled in these last days. Let us, for a moment, consider the awesomeness of this big picture that is coming quickly into clearer view.

UNDERSTANDING WHERE WE ARE IN PROPHECY

For two thousand years, since the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ to the right hand of God our Father, mankind or the generations of those who put their faith in our Savior, have looked expectantly at the clouds and believed that they would see the coming of our Lord in their generation.

There have been so many signs that points to the nearness of the Jesus return for His church, that people have become almost complacent with the routine they have seen down through times past. Many disbelieving people who scoffed at the very idea of the Lord's return came to believe He wasn't coming at all.

2 “That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:

3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (2^nd Peter 3:2-4)

Those of us who are living in this generation of the last days are eyewitnesses to events for which the ancient prophets had no words to describe, but can only be decipherable to that generation that lives in it. To the prophets, to them it was “somewhere in time”.

DANIEL'S VISION OF THE FUTURE

For example, the prophet Daniel was so confused by what he witnessed, and so unsure of how to describe it in words that made sense, that he actually complained to God's Messenger about it:

"8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand."(Daniel 12:8-10)

Just try and see it from Daniel's perspective. He had just absorbed a vision of Israel's future, divided into seventy weeks of years.

God revealed to Daniel the rise and fall of four successive world empires; Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Much of Daniel's vision would have been somewhat familiar; the mechanics of government and technology of war didn't change that much from the 5th century BC to the 1st century AD.

But Daniel's vision took a hard right turn following the 'cutting off of the Messiah.'

26 “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”(Daniel 9:26)

The Messenger of God jumped from the first century AD to somewhere in the 21^st Century when Jerusalem would be sacked and the temple destroyed in 70AD by Titus and then jumping forward near 2000 years to the confirmation of a seven year treaty between the many nations and the coming Anti-Christ and the start of the Tribulation period of 7 years, or Daniel's 70^th week.

Daniel had seen things that staggered him so much he didn't know where to begin.

Consider the angel's reply carefully:

"And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." (Daniel 12:8-9)

There is a principle in Bible scriptures that dictates that God doesn't repeat Himself unnecessarily, but has a purpose if He does. If God tells you something twice, then it is really important and those who read it should really take notice, as God wants you to get what He is saying.

That is the case here. Earlier, Daniel had voiced a similar complaint, and the angel had already told him:

"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end," but in more detail, adding that, 'in the time of the end', "many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." (Daniel 12:4)

The visions were so complex that the prophet was left near speechless to understand what it was he was being shown. This is the same man, who was so in tune with the Mind of God that he could divine and interpret dreams, but this vision was designed only for the generation that would actually live it and see its fulfillment.

As mentioned, each generations has watched for signs of the times that pointed to the imminent return of our Lord, but they all lacked one thing. That one thing will be mentioned further in this message.

Take for example, the Church at Thessalonica that was so convinced that the Day of the Lord was upon them, and that they had missed the rapture of the Church and were sore afraid. Paul had to comfort them and tell them what the signs would be before the coming Day of the Lord, and they were not living in it yet.

 “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?” (2^nd Thessalonians 2:1-5)

But the angel that came to Daniel said that the signs of the times would only be understandable to those who were actually living in that particular time of the generation of the end.

KNOWLEDGE VS. WISDOM

There is a world of difference between 'knowledge' and 'wisdom'. One can have great wisdom without much knowledge. Some of the wisest men I ever knew had little or no education. But it is equally true that you can have a tremendous amount of knowledge but have no wisdom, but is known to have book smarts, but no common “horse sense”. I've known many just such as I describe.

The bookstores are full of examples of Ph.Ds who have dedicated themselves to proving just that and it fills our universities of those who have knowledge but very little wisdom.

Wisdom and knowledge is what Daniel was seeking when he made inquiries of the Angel Gabriel, which is who the Bible says was sent.

Indeed, the angel Gabriel went on to say;

"Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand." (Daniel 12:10)

The Proverbs of Solomon explain 'understanding' as an equation that could be expressed this way: "wisdom plus knowledge equals understanding."

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." (Proverbs 9:10)

That is the whole purpose of the Proverbs;

"To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding." (Proverbs 1:2)

Daniel was a very wise man, but he had nothing to compare the revelation he was receiving to what was evident in his world at the time and had no understanding of what was being revealed. It left him totally confused, but to write what was seen, as the understanding of this knowledge was not for him, but for another time. I believe it was for our time in the generation we are now living.

THE BIG PICTURE

As we look around us and try to understand what is happening and the Big Picture, it comes down to the sign that Jesus told us would be the sign of the last generation. That is what was lacking of all past generations...the rebirth of Israel.

32” Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Matthew 24:32-37)

It began when, for the first time since the times of Daniel, there is, in this generation, a political and national entity called "Israel" composed of Daniel's people and living in Daniel's city.

24 “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon they holy city to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.”(Daniel 9:24)

From the day that Israel was reborn it was unheard of for a nation to be reborn in just one day, but was prophesied that it would happen just that way when Israel would, against all odds, be reborn once again in one day.

8 “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” (Isaiah 66:8)

But on 14 May 1948, the countdown clock began ticking down. As the prophecy spoken of by Jesus came to pass, and as I have mentioned in many messages past, Israel is the door to end time prophecy, and Jerusalem is the key to that door. God made a promise to the Prophet Daniel, and God keeps His promises. As noted, the Messiah was cut off after 483 years of a 490 year prophecy that still has 7 remaining years for the prophecy to be completed. That clock is now ticking away. But one doesn't need only to judge by the “fig Tree” of Matthew 24's prophecy to make that point. The point makes it all by itself. Virtually every major component of Bible prophecy makes the Big Picture by tracing it to this point in modern history.

Many things are linked with the restoration of the nation of Israel and it all began in the same year of 1948.

-The war on terrorism and the rise of Muslim atrocities began in 1948 and continues to the present time.

-The prophesied coming of the Anti-Christ began with the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple, and those legions of the Roman Empire as spoken of in Daniel 9:27 .

-Those “people” became the modern version of the Roman Empire in 1948 when the European Union was formed out of the Benelux Treaty.

-The current East/West geopolitical alignment in the Middle East is a direct result of the US/Soviet Cold War which officially kicked off with the 1948 Berlin Airlift.

-The first Constitution for a global government, the Universal Declaration of Rights and Freedoms was ratified by the UN Member States in 1948.

-The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Treaty establishing global economic policy rules (and ultimately evolving into the World Trade Organization) was signed and ratified by the UN in 1948.

-The World Council of Churches was established under UN auspices in Amsterdam in August, 1948.

-China and Taiwan were divided by the 1947-1948 Communist takeover of the mainland, giving birth to the inscrutable People's Republic of China.

-Muslim Pakistan broke from newly independent India in 1948, creating the Islamic republic that ultimately gave the world the first Islamic Bomb, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden.

This is all historical facts that anyone can point to that speaks of the co-ordination by Divine authority to put in place the final actors on the world stage to wind down this generation that we are living in. But if a person does not have “wisdom” then the knowledge of these historical events mean nothing to them in the Big Picture that God is orchestrating to come to pass to bring His will into being completed.

When Jesus said that “this generation will not pass till all be fulfilled” We must re-emphasize what a generation is. The Psalms in chapter 90 says that a generation is 70 years, and 80 years by strength, then we fly away. So when in 1948, that timeclock of 70 years began for a generation born would see all things be fulfilled. And this year in May will be 70 years since Israel was reborn. It means that on the outside of 80+/- years, Jesus will be back on this earth, reigning and ruling for a thousand years. But a Tribulation of 7 years must be sandwiched between now and that end time of 80 years, somewhere of what was written of a generation in the Psalms. If the tribulation is that close, then the removal of the Church is even closer. This is the picture we see, and it remains to be seen when and how the generation of the Lord's return plays out according to God's plan and not ours. God gave us a general time frame.

What the secular world sees, being devoid of understanding, is chaos, terror and upheaval of this world all around them. This lack of understanding breeds nothing but fear, as the world doesn't know what is happening, but the minute you start to tell them what is happening on God's Time Clock, then that is when they begin to shut you out or flee from your presence and label you a “prophecy nut”

But remember in the first destruction of this planet that was flooded over with a deluge of water, Noah preached for 120 years without a single convert? I would call that most discouraging. So it is with the day that we live in, as men scoff at the idea that the end of this age is close at hand, they close their minds and their hearts to the reality of what is actually happening. Although they have knowledge of the events, they have not wisdom that leads to understanding. We as “watchman on the wall” see the sword coming, and we are commanded to warn the people. As it is written in Ezekiel:

3 “If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;

4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.” (Ezekiel 33:3-6)

So we continue to warn the people, to give them knowledge, to hopefully produce wisdom and to lead them to understanding. We know not all will listen. But if only one comes to the understanding and escapes what is coming upon the earth known as the Tribulation, then that soul is priceless in the eyes of God. Our work is for even that one who believes, but we pray for more.

So, in this message, I think it is good to step back once in a while and drink in the awesomeness of the events to which we are now almost daily witnesses of.

As we see the hand of God moving directly in the affairs of this World to fulfill His Word in this generation, then our individual setbacks pale in comparison.

We all should be encouraged to know that God is in control and that His Word will NOT come back to Him void.

“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

RECEIVING ETERNAL REWARDS

It is encouraging to know that those who look for the Glorious Appearing of our Lord and Savior will receive a special crown, a “crown of righteousness” that is reserved in heaven for all who have believed by faith and followed our Lord Jesus and seek to do His will in this time of the last generation. Paul speaks of this special crown that is reserved for the Children of God:

8” Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2^nd Timothy 4:8)

Even more encouraging words are spoken by Titus in chapter 2 that believers should not be quaking in fear of what is coming upon the earth, but we are looking for that “Blessed Hope” which is Christ, the Lord.

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." (Titus 2:13)

Looking at the signs of the times is terrifying. Understanding the times of the signs means a 'crown of righteousness' and represents our 'blessed hope'-- the soon Rapture of the Church.

Still, it is natural to feel a sense of fear, as after all, we all want to go to heaven, but none of us want to hasten that process by dying. It is as the old saying goes “everyone want to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die”. It's a natural human response that is fueled by the sympathetic nervous system, of the “fight or flight” desire to preserve life at any cost. But being fearful at times is not a sign of a lack of faith, it is a sign of being human.

Paul explains that we are dual-natured creatures, part carnal and part spiritual, so it is not disloyal (or schizophrenic) to be afraid with the natural part and overjoyed at its spiritual implications.

That is what 'understanding' is all about.

6 “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” (1^st Peter 1:6-9)

LET ME ASK YOU A PERSONAL QUESTION.

Are you afraid of what is coming upon this earth? Are you fearful that your family could be swept away, or that death could be right around the corner for you or any of your loved ones? With all the violence even now in our schools, I don't blame you. It is entirely human to fear something you don't have understanding of.

To be afraid of evil men who want to destroy the innocent lives around them is totally human but is devoid of Godly faith. Because you have nothing that you can hold onto and take courage that Jesus is the answer to that fear...For it is written:

7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2^nd Timothy 1:7)

The whole world knows that something “BIG” is coming. Those who have nothing to place their anchor in are fearful of what is coming. They can see how the world is starting to implode upon itself, and evil is growing unabated and it is right on our front doors steps of even this country.

Men's hearts are failing them for what is coming upon the earth. But if you think it is fearful now, just wait, if you be so unfortunate, to see what WILL come upon the earth in possibly a few short years.

 “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:25-26)

Men and women can't explain what is coming, they just have knowledge, but no wisdom or understanding of what God said would happen in these last days.

A time of terrible suffering is fast approaching this world, even to the shores of this once great country known as the USA, which may not be so great in the time that is still to play out.

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

2 “ A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.” (Joel 2:1-2)

21 “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-22)

A time that anyone who has wisdom coupled with knowledge will receive understanding and turn to the only Source of not being afflicted with this time called Jacob's Trouble. It is calculated that during the time that is fast approaching 80%+ of all man-kind left on earth will be destroyed. That is 5-6 billion people in 7 short years. Will you be amongst those who meet an untimely death and devoid of any hope for eternity? Many people will miss this coming span of death and destruction, but many people will endure this intense suffering and most assuredly death from something none of us want to think about. But make no mistake, it is coming. Jesus is coming, and His wrath will fall on all who have not believed the following verses and confessed who Jesus is in their lives.

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18)

8 “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” (Romans 10:8-11)

My question to you, are you ready to meet Him? Him? Jesus Christ our Lord, for readers, He is coming, and He is coming soon.

This is pastor Mike Taylor sounding the alarm. Jesus is coming and coming soon. If you need prayer, counseling, or just a listening ear, then email me at realteam1999@sbcglobal.net, or visit me online at www.pastormiketaylor.blogspot.com. God bless you all.

TILL WE MEET AT JESUS FEET