THE END TIMES

Prophesies Pertaining To Our Days

A Change Of Heart

     I am going to share another true story with you.  I was living on a farm and isolated for several years.  One day, I received a call from a man, who wanted to know if I would like to buy five baby pigs.  I did not hesitate for a moment.  I already had a farm with every other kind of animal, why not pigs!  So he brought them to me.  For one year I raised the pigs.  At the time they matured, I sold most of the meat, and I kept a portion for myself. The pork was processed and delivered and I had enough pork in the freezer to last about a year.  I was pleased with myself and I thought that I did pretty well.  The next morning, I prepared bacon for breakfast and for some reason the bacon did not taste as good as I thought it would.  I was awfully disappointed with it, so I did not finish my plate.  Later that evening, I had a powerful vision.  I saw several different animals in front of me, one after the other, and each time I saw an animal; there was a circle stamped around it, with a slash going across it.  The same kind of symbol you see, when you are in a non-smoking area or a walk/do not walk zone.  I saw a lobster, a shrimp, a pig, etc…  I knew that the animals I saw were considered unclean in the Laws of Moses, because I had just read about this law earlier in the week.  I realized that the Lord was forbidding me from eating anything that was considered unclean.  I went to the Lord in prayer and I said: “Look, I understand if you do not want me to eat unclean food anymore, it is alright.  But where were you when I bought the pigs?  Why didn’t you tell me before I spent a year feeding them?  I would not have even had them brought to the farm!”  Little by little, week by week, I threw the meat in the garbage dumpster, the same morning that the garbage truck came; so that the meat would not have time to thaw, and release an awful stench.  I did not have the heart to sell the meat to anyone else, because if I could not have it, I was pretty sure that the Lord did not want someone else to either.

     Another evening, I had the following vision, just before I fell asleep:  I saw a hand that was strong, like the hand of a man, and his thumb was black and blue at the nail bed.  It looked as though his thumb had been hit with a hammer.  Later that evening, I had this dream:  I saw a man in my closet, throwing all of my pants on the floor, and then he violently stomped on them.  In the morning, I realized that the Lord wanted me to wear modest dresses―another law in his Word.  But I was not very happy about this, because I was living on a farm; bending over in gardens, cleaning cow pens, barns, and feed trailers, and climbing up into tractors; doing the same work as a man.  I was supposed to wear dresses?  Long dresses!  Women stopped wearing dresses during World War II.  I was not raised in dresses.  I grew up as a tom boy, running around barefoot and climbing trees.  I suddenly blurted out, “I will stick out like a sore thumb!” (Look unusual or out of place) Then, I remembered the vision that I saw the night before.  I knew that I was meant to be like the sore thumb, and the Lord wanted me to stand out and be different.  That same day, I removed all of my clothes that I thought were inappropriate.  Little by little other garments were directed to my attention and they were also removed.

     As a child growing up, I was raised like a wild hair, and I had very little discipline.  I had some Christian background; however, it was very little.  Before I moved to the farm; I was a person facing in one direction and then I found myself facing in another direction.  I was one person, but then I became someone else.  The Lord took me far away from my environment, and he began to mold me in a way that was more pleasing to him.  This was not always easy.  Sometimes I became angry and I could feel my heart become hard. Sometimes the Lord was angry with me and he disciplined me.  I eventually realized that the Lord wanted me to obey all of his laws, according to the Word of God, and that the laws and decrees defined the Ten Commandments.  When I realized how important the laws were to the Lord, I wept bitterly.  I regretted my life and the lack of discipline that I received as a child; but most of all, I was disappointed with my ignorance.  I began reflecting on my life and I tried to remember all of the times that I had broken the commandments and how much I must have hurt the Lord and disappointed him.  I was embarrassed and ashamed of myself.  I began to wonder why I had not died a long time ago and why I was still alive.  I wondered how I would ever be able meet the Lord face to face, considering the past that I had.  I was thirty-five years old and I was just now beginning to learn how to walk.  I wished that I had known the Lord sooner and raised in a place where I was taught the law.

     Then I saw a ray of hope!  I remembered an old bush in my garden that I thought was dead.  One day, I cut the bush down and I tried to pull the stump out, but it was too large. So I cut the stump as low as I could, beneath the ground.  Several days later, I noticed a new shoot appear from where the stump remained.  Later, the shoot grew up and became a very nice bush in my garden again.  I may have been humbled, but I was not dead!  My past may have been sorry, but that did not mean my future had to be.  If the Lord had the patience to teach me, then I could learn how to walk according to his will.

     There will come a time after the tribulation, when those of us who are able to dwell with the Lord, during the next millennium, will no longer be considered Jewish or Gentile, but we will all be referred to as the children of God. (Romans 3:27-31, 10:12, and 1 Corinthians 15:20-28) Perhaps we, more than any other generation before us, should be able to understand the concept of this meaning; because many of us have experienced a divorce and separated and then found ourselves living with other people.  Many of us have become stepparents or stepchildren, half-siblings, or were adopted.  Some of us have experienced both sides of the coin; living as stepchildren, as well as stepparents.  In every household, we were expected to obey the same rules.  The oldest children (the children of Israel) became examples for the younger children or the stepchildren (the Gentiles).  The first action parents made in a household containing two united families, after introduction and acceptance, has always been to set ground rules that were agreed upon, by both parents; because it is impossible to maintain a peaceful home, if the home is divided. Therefore, everyone had to learn to adjust to the same rules, together.  In the Word of God it is the same principle.  We need to understand that if we are to live together, with the Lord; then, we will be expected to obey the same rules.  Otherwise, we may find ourselves separated again.