UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES AND SEASON WE IN "NOW"

UNDERSTANDING THE TIME AND SEASON WE ARE IN “NOW”

It is truly my pleasure to be in touch with you at this great time of opportunity in God.

I bring you Calvary greetings from the Throne of Grace in Jesus name, Amen!

How are you, your lovely family and all that is in your hands? I join you to give God the glory for His mercies and strength in your life.

Beloved, we are in a very sensitive time in the earth today, it is a time of great Crisis, difficulty and uncertainty that is upon everywhere we look in the earth today, whether in Ikorodu, Lagos, Abuja, Cairo, Tanzania, Accra,  or all across the Earth as a whole. And yet, more than ever before the Lord has been speaking and has been drawing us close to Himself…

                            “the train of His Glory- highly and exalted, dominion and authority;

                             His faithfulness and tender mercies… His judgement and glorious

                             entrance- fills the whole earth and seeks greater place in our hearts

                                                                           (Isaiah 6:1).

But, the darkness that looms over the Earth today has engrossed so many and they seek solace in the wrong places. The Prophet Isaiah prophesied  this thousands of years ago ;

         “See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples,”

                                                                                                                 Isa 60:2

                                                                                                                 NIV

And this tells us that it is not new to God, neither is it new to His servants. The darkness that is upon the earth today is for a purpose, and until its purpose is meet the darkness will not clear nor move away. Instead deeper darkness will cover the earth like never before.

But, in the midst of this darkness only a few will be identified with the scriptures that the Prophet Isaiah mentioned in 
                 verse 1 and verse 3 of Isaiah 60 

                    “1Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the Glory of the Lord

                     Rises upon you.    2See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness

                    is over the peoples,  but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears

                      over you.     3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the

                               brightness of your dawn.
                                                                                                                   NIV

    

Only a few shall arise and shine a certain light, that shall be needed in this age of darkness.

This darkness like I said earlier on is for a purpose and the idea of praying it away will prove abortive and futile…

So, friend that note brings me to why I write you this article, it is to bring your mind to where we are at the moment and a to what will be needed to be done for us all to understand the events that are unfolding before us as a people and as a nation.

Permit me to say that there is a current emphasis on Kingdom reality in the Church today as contrasting to the former emphasis on religious Christianity, the current Kingdom emphasis demands the requirement for genuine  strategic impact and a more correct and complete expression of Church.

The current emphasis is much more accurate than what our fathers gazed upon and dwelled upon for too long…

Where is God now?

I’m glad to say that God has MOVED and He is doing new things in this time and age, and be sure it is not the kind of things you and I know Him with or LIKE.

Friend God is always on the move, the problem is that we have allowed Religion to make us think that God is still in His old move.

Remember:   Numbers 21: 1-9  the event that took place at EDOM after God had delivered Israel from her enemies, they slandered God and Moses, and in the process God sent forth venomous snakes into the camp of the Israelites which bite them and there was so many casualties. The same people went back to Moses to ask for help as they had sinned against God, now the next event after Moses prayer on behalf of the people to God is captivating. “(Verse 8) – God said to Moses to make a serpent of bronze and put it up for as many that look on it will be saved.”  God instructed Moses to set up the image and funny enough the people were carried away by the event and not the intents of God at the point of the predicament. Some many years after the people of Israel was engrossed with the event of the Bronze Serpent, which became a religious event which God was not ok with it.

God moved in that dimension for a purpose and after His purpose was gotten He expected the people to focus on Him and not the image. So, 2 Kings 18: 4 makes us to understand that that same image became and ‘idol’ in the hearts of Gods people, remember “whatever God has left will be preoccupied by Satan” and King Hezekiah knew the only thing to please God was for him to destroy all that made God jealous. Already that same image that had no name when God instructed Moses to erect it for the salvation of the people at that moment had now gotten a name called “Nehustan.”

  

Note: that the same God that instructed Moses to make the image, was the same God that said “thou shall not bow before any graven image”

                        Exodus 20:4-6 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.”

        (Read: Exodus 20:4-6, Deuteronomy 4:23-24, Exodus 34:14, Deuteronomy 4:16-18 
         Leviticus 26:1)

And still the people were carried away by the event and did not focus on God and His intents.

Now this brings us the move of God upon the earth as at now, God is never static and will never wait for man to initiate a move for Him, the problem here is that man is always dwelling on His “former moves and wonders” forgetting that God is always doing a new thing and He expects us to always focus on Him as He moves.

Upon the earth today God has moved away from the old move and is now doing a new thing that defines His “intent” for the earth. It will be dangerous for men and women to keep drifting towards Gods old move thinking He is still there. Remember- the bronze serpent was still potent after God had finished using it to save the people (Satan took over from that move and branded it Nehushtan).  

Gods old move will always be occupied by Satan and he will always have signs and wonders ready for those who keep their gaze and sights off God.

God wants to bring the Church to a Level of maturity that will Fast-forward the Church to the End of Time.

Ø    God is Emphasizing on “The End”                - Completion of all Divine Purposes

- Return of Jesus Christ

- Gathering up of all the Saints

Ephesians 4:12-13

  12… so that the body of Christ may be built up      13.  Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, 

Ø          God’s required standard for the current move

Complete maturity- this is the sight from the elevation of God:

Final maturity is fully growing up to a complete functional and totally appropriate purpose for the intents of God in the earth for the end time

Required heart position:

ü  Oneness of the body of Christ

ü  Complete Knowledge of the Son

ü  Fullness of His purpose in the earth

ü  A people immune to the “winds” of doctrine

ü  Growing into the Head (total Command & Control from God)

The Maturity I Speak Of Is Being More Like Christ

Maturity is becoming more like Christ, for the birth of Jesus Christ was not just another “event”, but was Gods “intent” for man to be “patterned and live like Jesus Christ.” Gods final intent for sending Jesus Christ to the earth was to save the sinners from their sins and also basically for Him to ‘Destroy the earth and establish His Kingdom’…

13.  until we ALL reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to  

      the whole measure of the fullness of Christ

Ephesians 4: 13

ü  This Maturity must be seen in real and actual sense as personal transformation and complete change of the man

–      Requires powerful personal choices to be made in your lives

–      Starts at home and within the marriage and family. This is critically important. All must participate

–      Requires partnership with the power of the Holy Spirit. Does not rely upon the strength of the flesh and of the earthly character

GOD is accelerating towards the finish and I can confidently say that with the crisis on the surface of the earth now it is indicating the Gods ultimate intents for the earth.

God is at the end and He is Fast-forwarding everything towards the finish…

    

3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

                                                                                                          2 Peter 3:3-10

                                                                                                          NIV

The Finish is the ultimate Presence of God, so then we must rise now to walk in complete submission to Him.

Know this friend: if the Finish is requires total maturity, then we cannot rest in our present immaturity.

Religion

“God is after a church (a people) that is focused on building and equipping the people to become genuinely like Jesus Christ, this is void of religious mentality.”

The Apostles, Evangelists, Prophets, Pastors and Teachers were not called for man’s praises or to make BIG those offices, but to make sure Gods children are well equipped with His word and patterned or configured to be like Jesus Christ.

The old move celebrates religion and idolatry, and with no regards to the main purpose of the call.

God hates religion.  And my reason for saying that is; God is after relationship and religion is not relationship. 

Religion is all about man trying to impress God with earthly possessions and fleshly righteousness.  But, and this may be hard to hear, God’s just not interested in us impressing him. God is not after the outward man, but He is keenly interested with the inward man.

Always remember that;

-             Jesus is more than a good man

-             The Bible is more than a rule book

-             Christianity is more than a Religion

ü  Religion sees man trying to DO different things to please God and earn His favor, While true Christianity is knowing that Christ dying on the cross to save sinful man (John 19:30) is a price that has been paid.

ü  Religion is Man hoping to save himself, while in the real sense God is saving a hopeless man (1 Tim. 1:15).

ü RELIGION is man trying to BRING HIMSELF TO GOD by human effort, good works, ritualism, traditionalism, sacraments, etc. ,while genuine CHRISTIANITY is Christ BRINGING US TO GOD on the basis of what He did for us on the cross (1 Peter 3: 18).

ü  Religion encourages religious ritual,  true Christianity brings us to the place of real relationship with God (John 17:3).

ü  Religion is all about following rules; genuine Christianity is all about enjoying life in Christ (John 6:47; 10:10).

ü  Religion says "I must quit something’s in my life and turn over a new leaf”, true Christianity tells you; "I must be born again” (John 3 :7) and daily guide my salvation with fear and trembling.

ü  Religion is “Man trying to please God” in the wrong way (Rom. 8:8--"So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."), but true Christianity is “Man truly pleasing God” which is the only way (Hebrews 11:6--"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.")

ü   The religious man compares himself with others (Luke 18: 11), The saved man sees himself as God sees him (1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 53:1-3; Rom. 3: 10-12)

ü  A religious man is always Seeking to earn God's favor by works, a true Christian receives God's favor by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8 and see Eph. 1 :6).

ü   A religious man is always TRUSTING in SELF (Luke 18:9) and BOASTING IN SELF (Luke 18:11-12), but a true Christian is always TRUSTING in CHRIST (Eph. 1:12-13) and BOASTING IN THE LORD (1 Cor. 1 :29-31; Eph. 2:9)

Religion is a promoter of hypocrisy, and what is hypocrisy? It simply means “a person who tries to deceive others into thinking he is something which he is not”.

Religion is an active form of hypocrisy in which people try by law keeping, good works, and religious ritual to make themselves acceptable to God.  They do this apart from the only way God says we can be saved, forgiven, and have assurance that Heaven is our eternal destination.  

The difference between religion and true Christianity is that religion is man’s attempt to improve himself by his own sincere efforts to become acceptable to God, while Christianity is a personal relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ who paid in full, once for all, the price of your and my sins on the cross.

Now What Time and Season are we in NOW?

We all believe in prophecies, right?, and we all know the potency of the Prophetic in the world we live in today. The word prophecy simply means ‘Knowledge of the future (usually said to be obtained from a divine source) or A prediction uttered under divine inspiration’, God will always reveal His intensions to His children through prophets.

We are going to set sights on two events and two prophecies which are key in the scriptures.

First,

    

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, b Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne

and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness

from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:6-7

NIV

These were words of prophet Isaiah to the children of Israel in the days of chaos, rebellion and unrest. This words gave a certain few glimpse of hope for the soon to come savior. But, truly the prophecy of the servant of God was not meant for the people of his days which he spoke these words, but for a people who came afterwards over four hundred years (400yrs) after the prophecy was declared. The significant event here was that when those words were declared, the prophecy was set in motion and waiting for the generation which it was meant for. We all know that this prophecy came to pass in the Roman times, and this lead to birth of Jesus Christ. All that happened in the days of Jesus, had already been set in motion over 400 years earlier through the prophecy of prophet Isaiah.

Second,

Read the book of Daniel 2: 1- 49, but I’m going to just bring out few verses from that whole chapter in other to make my point known at this time.

        

   

27 Daniel replied, "No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you lay on your bed are these:

29 "As you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. 30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.

31 "You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue — an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

36 "This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.

39 "After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron — for iron breaks and smashes everything — and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

Dan 2:27-44

NIV

Friends this prophecy came hundreds of years before the prophecy of Isaiah’s, and this was shown to one which we would term today and as one who is not qualified to prophecy (King Nebuchadnezzar), but the servant of God (Daniel) saw this as message from God and explained the meaning of the prophecy to the king as at then.

 

Please also note from the image above, that Jesus Christ came in the days of the Iron Legs, and this shows that both the prophecy of prophet Isaiah and that of Daniel are pointing towards a new System, Government and the establishment of a new Kingdom.

So, What Time are we in NOW?

Surely the prophecy before now had come Thousands of years before now, and just like the prophecy of prophet Isaiah which was set in motion this prophecy was also set in motion immediately Daniel made this vision known to king Nebuchadnezzar.

43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

Dan 2: 43-44

NIV

The establishment of this new Kingdom will be in the days where the kings of the earth will not agree with each other, will not succumb to the other and more… in this days their won’t be any dominant reign of any king.

When you look at the world today you’ll notice that we do not have a king that we all answer to, or rather let me rephrase my previous statement; “when you look at the world today you’ll notice that we do not have a PRESIDENT that we all answer to”, all presidents are trying to make themselves look big and make their nation look intimidating for others to fear and respect them. In this our days the display of nuclear war heads, machinery and ammunitions with military manpower, and the display of economic strength shows that we are that generation that the prophet Daniel was referring to.

So, in this generation the end of all the systems and ways of this world will soon come to an END, and the beginning of a Pure and True system will emerge that will make the image of the old system never seem to have ever existed before.

Friend we are in the days of the END and in this days all sorts will come forth just to stop the prophecy of Daniel just like that of Isaiah, Herod tried to stop the prophecy from coming forth. But, we all know the end of the story.

So, what will be your path now, stick with the soon to crumble system or join the system that will know no end!

I and my people that the Lord has given me have chosen to join the system that is about to unfold very soon, why not join us as we wait for the Second Coming of Our LORD.

My name is Pastor Chidi Ohanum, the lead pastor of THE CHRONICLE ARK CHURCH, and we are a church tracking the complete maturity in Christ Jesus and we are developing a sincere love for the body of Christ daily and for those who have not come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Please feel free to contact us any day any time, or you can join us for any of our Sunday services which is always a time of learning, as we are also known as the Christian School.

Thanks for taking time to go through this article and I hope it was of great gain to you? Please drop your comments on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/thechroniclearkchurch), on my Twitter page (@pastorchidioha) and on this blog.

Thanks and God Bless!

                                                                                  Pastor Chidi Ohanum