Violent thunderstorms spawned tornadoes and dumped almost a foot of rain in 24 hours causing flooding in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys. The Ohio river was swollen to highest level in 30 years and in the Louisville area the river crested 14 feet above flood stage.

In Northern Kentucky, hundreds were forced out of their homes. In Falmouth it was the worst flooding in their history as the town was all but obliterated with 95% of its homes and businesses submerged. More then 10 inches of rain fell in Kentucky on Saturday alone. The Licking river rose about 2 feet an hour and flooding took at least 30 lives in Mississipi, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio where many were drowned or washed from their cars. Thousands were driven from their homes.

At the same time, nine counties in Arkansas were declared federal disaster areas; they were decimated by 14 tornadoes which cut a 260 mile path of destruction across Arkansas. Twenty Four were killed and over 4900 injured. In the city of Arkadelphia alone, 60 blocks were obliterated. The national weather service said the tornado that hit Arkadelphia was the worst of the tornadoes packing 260 mile and hour winds. The head of FEMA who toured the Arkansas tornado zone said it had more debris than was left by Hurricane Fran when it hit North Carolina last year and Gov. Huckabee described the destruction as "apocalyptic."

The number of fatalities from just Saturday's storms alone now exceeds the total number of fatalities from all of last years tornado season; and this years season is just beginning.

Meanwhile, Strong earthquakes killed thousands in Iran and Pakistan. A 6.1 quake hit N.W. Iran on Saturday and was followed by a 4.8 aftershock on Sunday. There were over 3000 dead and more than 2000 injured. The Iranian quake was followed by two even stronger quakes in Pakistan Thursday night. One monster quake registered 7.1 on the Richter scale....at least 100 died. Other Quakes have been registered in N. Turkey, W. China, N. Japan, and the Kureil islands. Japan quakes were inside the Ring of Fire area of seismic activity that lines the Pacific. In recent days the ring has experienced moderate tremors near the Mariana Islands, the Alutian Islands and Southern Alaska.

It appears that natural disasters are continuing to increase in both intensity and frequency.

But in the midst of the destruction, God was acknowledged. On the CBS evening news several people in Arkansas were interviewed. Milinda Ashley lost her home and her job, but she says, because of God, she is going make it. Matt McCarty also credited God for saving his life. In 1993, in the midst of the great flooding of that year, I heard similar testimonies of how they had lost everything, but God had spared their lives. Shaking has a way of turning mankind back toward God.

"This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear." This is what the LORD Almighty says: "In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD Almighty. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the LORD Almighty." (Hag 2:5-8)

God is shaking the heavens and the earth and the desired of the nations will come to God. This is the purpose of the shaking -- to get mankind to turn back to God before it is too late. Many people lost everything in the recent disasters, but as a result they turned back to God. Many believers, such as those mentioned in Arkansas, were also affected and for those who had build their spiritual houses upon the Rock (Jesus Christ) were steadfast in their faith and remained a living testimony to God.

What will it take in your life for you to humble yourself, confess your sins, and really make Jesus Savior and Lord of your Life?

In Matthew 24, Jesus likened the signs (earthquakes, etc.) that will immediately precede His Return to "Birthpangs." What He was saying was that as in the Birth process, the closer you get to the day of delivery, the more intense and the more frequent are the birth pains. Natural disasters are clearly intensifying in magnitude and frequency.

Consider the following graphs on earthquake:

Jesus is coming soon. And as sin in the world increases, so will natural disasters and other signature judgments as God pleads with unrepentant mankind to turn back to him before ultimate judgment is demanded.

Please understand that although God's signature judgments are righteous, that He takes no pleasure in bringing them. God "is not willing that any should perish, but that all come unto repentance and everlasting life." God does not want anyone to perish. The purpose of the shaking is to get everyone to turn back to God before it is too late. It is better to lose everything then to spend eternity in Hell.

God's purpose of repentance can even be seen in the Book of the Revelation where final judgment is being poured out. We see a series of terrible final judgments poured out, each worse than the previous, but God notes: "And still man did not repent." The purpose of all such progressive judgment is cause man to repent and turn back to God before it is too late.

Sadly, many are so hard, they may never turn back to a God that only wants to love them, fulfill their innermost desires, prosper them, and give them life. Repentance is concept that is widely not understood. Repentance, for example, does not begin with man, but with God. If you are feeling remorse for your sins against a Holy and Righteous God, then recognize that this is the Holy Spirit convicting you of your sin and drawing you to Jesus. Jesus himself said: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:44) In other words, unless the Spirit of God draws you, you would not have the desire to give your life to Jesus Christ. But also recognize that although repentance (which means to turn around back toward God) starts with God, that you have no guarantee that you will ever feel repentant again. The Bible says: "My Spirit will not contend with man's spirit forever, for he is mortal..." (Gen 6:3) Once you die, it is too late. This is why the Bible says "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: `In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.' Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Co 5:21-6:2)

Therefore, today is your day of salvation. Once you die or Jesus returns, it is too late. So if you are willing to now accept the sacrificial death of Jesus on your behalf and His rising from the dead as a guarantee if eternal life for all those who make both Lord and Savior, then you need to ask Jesus to save you from your sins, to come into your heart, to be the master of your life' and to take you to heaven when you die. So if you are not sure of your salvation today, and the desire of your heart is for Jesus Christ to come into your life to be your Lord and Savior, make this your prayer.

Dear Lord, I am a sinner. I confess my sins to you and right now ask you to forgive my every sin. I confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead. So right now I invite you Jesus to come into my life to be my Lord and my Savior. Thank you for coming into my life. May never be the same again. Make me a new person in Jesus Christ for I thank you in Jesus name. Amen.

If you did not pray the above prayer, the Bible says in Heb 2:3: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him." How shall you escape what is coming upon the earth? Only one way, and that is God's way, the way he ordained before the foundation of the earth through Jesus Christ. You can not earn salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9) nor is their any other Name (Jesus) by which you might be saved. (Acts 4:12). There is only one narrow way to heaven and eternal life (Matthew 7:13) and that is through you acceptance of Jesus' ultimate sacrifice in your stead. For a description of what Jesus had to endure to buy our salvation, click here. Remember, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death" (Proverbs 4:12) If you ignore God's way to salvation through Jesus Christ, do not blame God on judgment day.

But if you prayed that prayer of salvation and really meant it in your heart, then praise God. Even the Angels in heaven are rejoicing. Please write (or Email) to us and we will send you something to help you get started on your walk with Jesus Christ.

Time is running short. The world, including America, is under God's hand of chastisement. But it is not too late to repent. Consider God's word in 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If My people who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

Notice that this passage says that it is God's people who must humble themselves and repent before God will heal their land. This is exactly what happened to Nineveh. Jonah was sent to Nineveh when it was just 40 days from judgment. Then a miracle happened. From the king on down, the entire country humbled themselves and repented. Although judgment had been pronounced and God had even given them a date for their destruction, God relented and Nineveh survived another 100 years before meriting final judgment.

Will the people of God repent of their sins and seek God's face. The problem for many is that they want a Holy and Righteous God on their own terms. They want a God that overlooks unrepented of sin. God is a loving God, but He is also a Holy God of righteous judgment that can not even look at sin. But for our sake, out of His great love, He may let unrepented of sin go on for a while in order to give us time to repent before judgment comes...but not forever. Because God is long-suffering, some individuals are still playing with sin in their lives. They think "because they got away with it", that God is overlooking their hidden sins. Not so. "God is not slack concerning sin as some suppose, but he is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish." God continues to draw mankind to repentance and salvation through Messiah Jesus, but in the fullness of time, God will judge sin. God does not want to bring judgment, but He will when an individual, a nation, or a world goes to far. Remember that God once destroyed all mankind (save 8) in the flood of Noah because of rampant sin. Jesus told us that the general conditions before the Day of the Lord will be like it was in the days of Noah.

"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." (Matthew 24:37-39)

Today the unrepentant world is continuing to move farther and farther away from God and His ways. Some are open enemies of God, others have embraced the false gods of materialism, self-reliance or eastern-mysticism. Still others are just oblivious to the things of God and are so caught up with everyday living that they do not even acknowledge God -- let alone recognize the warnings signs of impending judgment. This is how it was before the flood of Noah, "until the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away."

God does not want to bring judgment on the United States on the world. He is warning us to repent, before it is too late. Sometimes, God in His great love, will even sovereignly send revival to turn our hearts and minds back to God; before greater judgments are poured out.

Consider No in the Old Testament. They were 40 days from utter destruction. But when confronted with the prophets message, they repented of their wicked ways. From the highest to the lowest, from the youngest to the oldest, they all repented and turned back to God. This was a miracle of grace. How could an entire country turn to God in such a short period of time unless God sent sovereignly called them to repentance.

I believe there are signs that God is now drawing America into repentenance with a new intensity as the time is growing short. This is evidenced in the revival that is starting to spread across America. Revival always starts with repentance and if America is to be saved, the church in America must be revived.

God is continuing to warn America through signature judgments, but at the same time He is also pouring out a spirit of repentance and the church of Jesus Christ is starting to respond. Churches across America are starting to humble themselves before God. In Reno, Nevada 14 churches came together for 40 days of prayer and fasting for revival. In Oregon, over 40 churches came to gather for the same purpose. At one church in Florida, Brownsville Assembly of God, revival is in full swing. As of February 1, 1997, over 90,000 people, in just 20 short months, have prayed a prayer of salvation making Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior. As a result of this one Church's revival, over 90,000 souls have been saved. What happened?

It starts with the revival of luke-warm believers. You cannot re-vive anyone unless they were once alive. But when a church is revived, they are no longer luke-warm, they have returned to their first love and once again are doing the first works of witnessing and properly representing God through their love as ambassadors for Christ. And what a difference that makes. 90,000 were saved through their revived witness and God's confirmation with signs and wonder. Some came as curiosity seekers to see miracles, others were invited by friends who earned the right to ask them, others were drawn by the Spirit of God. But God alone does the work. There are no magic formulas or 12 steps to spiritual revival. Do you want revival in your life? Them humble yourself before God, confess your sins and ask him to give you a new supernatural love for Him and His ways. Do you have a burden for the lost? Do you want to be used by the Lord? Then you must become a holy vessel of honor to be used in the Lord's service. (Romans 9:21, 1 Thes. 4:4, 2 Tim 2:21) If you have hidden sin and can't seem to get by it, then ask God to deliver you from it. He is faithful and He will deliver you, if that is earnestly the desire of your heart.

Do you want to be used by God in a supernatural way? Do you want to see His power manifested in your life? Then you first must prove yourself faithful in the little things that God gives you to do. Then, at the right time, God will empower you for bigger tasks. You can't buy God's power like Simon tried to do in the Eighth chapter of Acts. Nor can you go to a particular church for a quick fix and suddenly poof, you are a dispenser of God's power in signs and wonder. If you are faithful (and that means obedient) in the small things God gives you to do, He will be faithful to His word and entrust you with more of HIS POWER. But that power will only be manifested as He wills. Our job is to be obedient, to humble ourselves, to seek His face, and to strive to hear His voice.

Remember, the Apostles were Disciples before they were Apostles entrusted with Jesus's power. Apostle means "sent out one." Do you want to be sent out by God with power to heal the sick and drive out demons, then first become a disciple. Before Jesus sent them out, they spent years with Him in intimate fellowship learning the ways of God. So humble yourself, repent, and grow close to God. Learn His ways. Spend time with Him through prayer, fasting, and by staying in His Word. Seek His Face, learn His ways and be obedient. Study the Bible and see for yourself what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

A revived church is a witness to the lost and hurting. A revived church will be used of the Lord to bring an awakening and spiritual rebirth to the un-saved such as is occurring at Brownsville Assembly.

The last thing that Jesus said would occur before the end of the age is the world-wide preaching of the Gospel. As a result of revival, already many have been called to the mission field. Some to foreign lands and some to their own neighborhood. Before the Lord's return many will have the opportunity to receive Christ. The Harvest is white, but the workers are few. Therefore pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send in the workers.

Prophetically, this current world-wide revival may be the end-time awakening seen by the Prophet Joel since it is occurring at a time of unprecedented "signs in the heavens." It is one more indicator of the nearness of the Lord's return. The prophet Joel saw the great end-time harvest just before the "Day of the Lord". "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." (Joel 3:14) Joel also saw signs on the earth below; blood, and fire and billows of smoke. He may have also seen the Ezekiel 38 invasion of Israel (it is left for the reader to explore this possibility by studying Joel chapters 1 - 3).

There have been many signs on the heavens lately. For example, you may have heard about the Hale-Bopp comet which is being billed as the Comet of the century. What is intriguing is that it will be closest to earth on the feast of Purim (3/23) which is celebration of the deliverance of the Jews from Haman. (Ha-Satan) The current Israeli Defense Minister's name is of all things is Mordecai. In addition there is a 92% lunar eclipse (a possible blood red moon - one of the signs given by Joel that would precede the Lord's Return) predicted for the same day.

There has been an increase in the signs in the heavens. For example, the 1994 Jupiter impact by asteroids was an awesome display. However, if they had hit earth, virtually all life would have been destroyed.

There were also two blood red moons last year and they both occurred on Jewish feast days; Passover and the Feast of Booths. These are Biblical signs. Joel prophesied that the moon would be turned into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord. This comet is certainly a curiosity. From a distance it was said to cast a pale green hue as it approached the earth in the constellation Pegasus (see the 4th horse of Apocalypse - Rev. 6:8 - "pale" is from the greek word "chloros" which means "green" - so pale as in pale green).

Since the Jewish feast days are prophetic of Jesus' first and second comings (the word for these feast is "moed", which means appointed time) something big could be in the works. I have seen new pictures of Hale-Bopp as it passed Jupiter. Apparently the strong gravitational/magnetic fields caused five more pieces to break-off and travel with it. It is apparently not a just gaseous "snowball", but has significant mass. There was also some speculation that the explosion may have disturbed several outlying asteroids on the outer rim and may have jolted them out of orbit (but this is speculation at this time, but will be clear in the days ahead). But relax in this: Hale-Bopp's flight path does not take it closer then approximately 100 million miles from earth. However, a day is coming, when the earth might sustain a meter impact. (See Rev. 8:8)

In addition, March 23 is exactly 3 1/2 years from the signing of the Middle East peace accord on Sept. 13, 1993 (which was signed in Washington, D.C. and arrived in Israel the evening of Rosh haShanah, when the shofar was being sounded in Jerusalem.) There were other "strange" things about the covenant. For example, when Israel received the Old Covenant with Moses and the tablets of stone, 3,000 sons of Israel died the day after sacrificing to the golden calf. When Israel received the New Covenant with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, (on the same anniversary day that Moses received the tablets) 3,000 sons of Israel were saved. At the signing of the Middle East Peace Accord, the White House announced that there were 3,000 guests to witness the ceremony.

Also, Daniel 9:27 says this covenant will be made with "the many". Another coincidence is that the Hebrew for "the many" has the same root as Rabin (the Israeli signer).

"Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." (Luke 21:28)

Maranatha!

Prophetic Links:

What in Heaven is happening to America - Part 1 of 3 What in Heaven is happening to America - Part 2 of 3 What in Heaven is happening to America - Part 3 of 3 Ezekiel 38 Invasion of Israel - Part A Ezekiel 38 Invasion of Israel - Part B Ezekiel 38 Invasion of Israel - Part C Ezekiel 38 Invasion of Israel - Part D Two Lunar Eclipses in 1996 on Jewish Holy Days! Could this be a Sign? Are Earth Quakes on the Increase?