A Prophetic Story by Thurmond Duke RE today's shooting

When I went to Germany (I was in the Army) in the early eighties I was not a Spirit-filled Christian.  Actually, I could, and did, preach quite well against the baptism in the Spirit.  But God gives gifts as He will, whether we can recognize them or not.  They are there, whether we know it or not.  [And, if we allow Him, He will take us where He wants us to go...even make corrections to our theology if necessary].  One of my gifts was the ability to sense a spiritual climate, and the spiritual climate was much different in Europe than in the USA.  It was so secularized that after a year or so it got to where I could meet someone and talk to them for a minute or two, and after seeing into their eyes I could tell them with confidence they were a true believer in Jesus.  But there was still a little remnant of the presence of God in the places in Europe I visited, more so in the countryside and small villages than in the larger towns.

A decade later I made several trips to Russia, and for the first time I was aware of something completely foreign and hostile to my spirit.  I felt the complete lack of the presence of God in a foreign nation.  It was a totally foreign spiritual atmosphere. There was not the slightest hint of the Kingdom presence there.  The only thing with which I could compare it was the aghastness in the Spirit I felt at Dachau.  God had been officially kicked out of Russia after the communist revolution and religion mercilessly hounded and Christians persecuted without mercy or pity.  There was no, zero, zilch hedge of protection or hedge of the Spirit of God in the country.  The adversary was loosed there in a manner I had never imagined, much less experienced; I was totally unprepared for it.  I have walked in divine health ever since I was baptized in the Spirit.  I pray and speak health daily over every vessel and artery and vein, over every organ, over every system, over every fiber, neuron and synapse, down to every gene being protected from damage, deterioration, and degeneration.  But every time I went to Russia I came under such attack that I became deathly ill.  Part of my spiritual heritage came through my Aunt Ruby, whose father/grandfather? was an incredible old Presbyterian preacher in Hendersonville who suffered a heart attack, but got up off of his bed to preach the next Sunday morning, declaring "The devil is NOT going to keep me out of my pulpit while I have breath and life!"  Remembering him, I preached and ministered sometimes with a fever of over 103.  As we used to say at Ft Bragg - Drive ON, Troop!

How bad was Russia?  It took my wife less than 24 hours on the ground to tell me "I will never live here, and I will never allow MY children to live here."  I had a minister friend who felt called to Russia.  He took his wife there to show her the work.  I think she had been there something less than a week before she collapsed in the middle of a Moscow street with a full "nervous breakdown."  She got pumped up with enough meds to get her on a plane and out of the country; they never returned, but later began a successful mission work somewhere in Central America.  That, little flock, is the result and the reality of a country which has no hedge of protection of God over it.  The prince of the power of the air has unhindered access to people.  And all hell breaks loose and all hell is to pay, and Christians become prey.

We are not yet where Russia has been, but we are somewhere between where Europe was and where Russia is.  That is our new reality.  This is a prophetic truth.  Our hedge is being lifted.  The glory of God is departing, and there are few who see it.  There has been a paradigm, no, a very real spiritual shift, and you would be wise to recognize it and be prepared to deal with it and live in it.

In my comment earlier I had written this...with a little lagniappe now added...

I just now opened up my computer and saw the news about the latest shooting.  As a matter of discipline, I will not turn on the tv until at least 6 pm.  This is so tragic on every level.

Yes, this is the type of person we will face if the situation ever gets truly desperate.  When people operate under a demonic spirit of murder and rage, or  when they are desperate to get what they need to survive, this is exactly what they are capable of.   When the young have been exposed to wanton sex, violence and murder from birth, when the images on the television and movies are constantly full of such things, when their music is based on anger, rebellion, and hopelessness, when the games they play are based on violence and murder and death, and when they are given no reason to hope, no real love given to them or a reason to love taught to them,  when nihilism is essentially the message they are given in schools and the media, just what do you expect the fruit of that to be in them?  This nation has sown to the wind, and now it is reaping a whirlwind...

What is even more tragic is the way Christians are actually surprised by this.  So often we say we understand scripture when we are only dabbling with its full meaning and import.  We casually acknowledge that "Satan goes about as a roaring lion" without really comprehending that a lion is a vicious stalking killer, and an unarmed person has virtually no chance of surviving an attack by one.  St Paul WAS NOT GIVING US A CASUAL SUGGESTION in Eph 6: 10 - 18.  He was talking about our survival - that was and is the reality of the world he, and we, live in.

We acknowledge that Satan comes "to steal, kill, and destroy..." but because we have lived in such relative safety so long we don't really get it that despair, death, and destruction are his aims.  They are his specialties and his goals.  Not until it (tragedy) strikes home.

Becuse my financial situation was so bad a few years ago, I had to sell all my guns save one little .22.  It's all I need for survival, for hunting small game for food, and for self defense.  If you are within 100 yards of me and I fear for my life, it's all I need to take you out.  If I have a need for something larger, I'm sure I will be able to scavenge one.

Two things.  One, we still must love, respect, and if need be, protect the ones who for conscience's sake have decided they will not bear arms.  I do not want to ever again  have to have another person in my sights.  I will avoid such a thing as much as humanly (and divinely) possible.  I treasure and honor the hearts of such people who are conscientious objectors for the Master's sake.  If they come to me for safety and sanctuary, they will find it.

Two, prayer and trust in God is our first and best defense and protection.  Spiritual warfare must become more than a conversation piece, or something to which we give mere mental assent -  it must become the new reality of our lives; for that to happen, God must remove the veil from our hearts to the reality that we are now in a full scale spiritual war, and will be for the rest of our lives.

What we see, and are increasingly seeing, is the result of God's hedge of the protection of the Spirit over our nation slowly AND SURELY being lifted.  The lifting of the hedge has a tempo that is increasing. 

Deut 28....

15 "But if you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all His commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake you: 16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country... 18 Your descendants  (your children, your young people) will be cursed, and your soil's produce, the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks.  20 The Lord will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning Me......

28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, (spiritual) blindness, and mental confusion, 29 so that at noon you will grope as a blind man gropes in the dark. You will not be successful in anything you do. You will only be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will help [you].

I ask you, do you not have the spiritual insight to see this being applied to America as I write?

THE NATIONAL CORPORATE PROTECTION IS ESSENTIALLY OVER.



There is only left the protection granted to those who pray for it, ask for it, seek for it, and believe God will protect His own - "You have not, because you ask not..."

If you have never prayed for God's hedge of protection over you and your family and your church as if your very lives depended on it, you best start doing so NOW.  Your lives DO need it and depend on it - NOW.  This day.

This is the word of the Lord, faithfully delivered to those who will hear, this day 12/14/2102.

Thanks be to God.

Even so, Come Lord Jesus.