Jesus told the crowd, “You hypocrites! You know how to analyse the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyse this present time?” Therefore, it remains for us to judge what is right concerning the times in which we are living, so that we can respond to God’s design and purpose accurately.
Daniel 2:21-22
“It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.”
To discern the times, we must first recognise that the Lord who transacts in time is above time; He transcends time. He is not a respecter of times and epochs, for times and epochs are His instruments and servants. By His sovereign ‘kairos’ decrees (which we term “spiritual times” or “kairos seasons”), He changes the natural times of men and epochs of kings just as He desires, without the need to consult men or answer to the natural designs of the times. Natural signs may project peace and safety, but God may have decreed sudden destruction in contrary to the natural signs.
1 Thessalonians 5:3
While they are saying, “Peace and safety!†then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.
On the other hand, if we focus on the evil and darkness that cover the world today, and on the seemingly powerless church in the face of intensifying beastly onslaughts, we will not be able to discern the progressive workmanship of God that He has decreed for the transformation of the church and bride of Christ unto glory, and for the consummation of the ages in these last days.
Therefore, to look at natural signs in natural times to determine the kairos decrees of God is to jump the gun and let the cart lead the horse. Although natural signs do confirm God’s decrees from proper perspectives, looking for natural signs to discern the sovereign will and kairos decrees of God can be misleading.
Mark 13:22
“for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.”
To focus on natural signs for spiritual actions is akin to asking your child to focus on what every student in his class is doing, and then adjust his response accordingly, rather than telling him to focus on his own vision, talents, calling, and discipline. In fact, the child can never reach his full potential if he responds to the happenstance of the environment rather than to that which are intrinsic in him.
While natural signs may confirm the kairos seasons of God, the devil will always seek to make alterations to these times by enacting false signs and wonders to mislead saints, so that they will do his bidding like a wild goose chase.
Daniel 7:24-25
‘As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.’
The goal of the devil is to make alterations to God’s ordained times, universal truth, and prophetic designs concerning the last days, so that he can misinform on God, wear down the saints, and sudue the authority of the church through misinformation, distractions, and endless pursuits of his designs. If he can start fires to distract saints, and cause them to fight these fires repeatedly, then he will succeed in leading them astray from their God’s ordained task of building a fire-proof, all-prevailing church.
Matthew 16:2-4
But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.†And He left them and went away.
The sign of Jonah speaks prophetically to the purpose and works of Christ and His body, while at the same time speaks contextually to the purpose and works of Christ and His body from the Cross to resurrection. The purpose and works of Christ is to build His body, the church, in such a way that no gates of hell can prevail against it, whether in the belly of hell for three days and three nights, or in the heavens and on earth in the last days.
Jesus said that if we can tell natural times from natural signs, then we have no excuse for not being able to discern spiritual times from spiritual signs in the Spirit and from prophetic unfolding of events as revealed through scriptures. Many look to natural signs to interpret the heavenly purpose and works of Christ and His body, the church; but we must first seek prophetic understanding of His Word and spiritual discernment of His Spirit’s movements in order to know the kairos seasons in which we live in, for only then can we perform the foreordained purpose and works of Christ and His body in the natural times of these last days.
There are four major pitfalls in discerning the signs of the times in the last days.
The first pitfall is “hearing” the ‘rhema’ Word of the Spirit without harmonising with the ‘logos’ truth of the Spirit as revealed through the written Word of God.
If we think that we have heard the voice of the Spirit, but what we heard does not match up to the eternal truth, prophetic timelines, and decreed activities revealed in the Bible, then there is a high chance that we did not discern the Spirit accurately; or we have heard the voice of our own unsanctified soul; or we have been inspired by the spirit of deception. In other words, without proper knowledge of eschatological events through accurate understanding of scriptures, we will not be able to discern accurately the kairos decrees of God and the natural signs of the times.
Thus, we must be able to handle the Word of truth accurately before we can discern the kairos seasons of God and prophetic word of the Spirit without error.
The second pitfall is our inability to hear, recognise, or discern the Spirit of God owing to our weak spirit-man or poor spiritual dynamics.
We must be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, for it is our spirit-man that communicates with the Spirit of God, and the spirit of our mind that discerns the mind of the Spirit. We must renew and build up our inner man daily by praying in the Holy Spirit, so that we can cut off the noise of our unsanctified soul and of the spirits of deception, and resonate to the voice of the Holy Spirit accurately, for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. We must be trained in our spiritual senses to discern the good and the evil, in both the spiritual and the natural environment.
The third pitfall is our inability to discern and appraise prophetic revelations of the Spirit owing to the confirmation biases that we have in our mind, which is largely due to the spirit of error in interpreting scriptures.
If we doubt the authority of scriptures, interpret scriptures eisegetically, or apply scriptures selectively, then our confirmation bias will always hinder us from hearing the voice of the Spirit, understanding the consummating work of God, or discerning the signs of the times.
For example, if we do not believe in prophets and prophetic voices, we will not recognise or receive prophetic revelations of the Spirit, especially through human instruments. If we do not believe in the baptism of the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in spiritual tongues, we will not be able to edify our spirit such that we can discern the voice of the Spirit or appraise spiritual things. If our normalcy bias is “peace and safety”, then it will predispose us to callous living, misinterpreting the signs of the times, and ignoring the required preparations for the return of the Lord.
The fourth pitfall is the overly literal interpretation of end-time events without spiritual understanding of the nature, purpose, authority, and power of Christ’s body, the church, in the last days. This often leads to apocalyptic interpretations of natural events that will cause the church to cower from the beast in fear and, thus, prepare to “flee to the mountains”. Such interpretations will not recognise the explicit will of Jesus, prophetic truth of the Spirit, and the signs of the times to build the church to such a glorious stature that no gates (or frontiers) of hell can prevail against it.
Once we have overcome these major pitfalls, we will be able to accurately discern the times and seasons into which we are entering, and then gain prophetic insights of what we should do as a church.
1 Chronicles 12:32
Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command.
As a prophetic people, having prophetic understanding of the times must always be complete with having knowledge of what we should do as a church in those times, for only then can we command obedience to what God has decreed, and thus enter into the fullness of all that He has ordained for us and the nations in these last days. Indeed, this is the hallmark of the sons of the prophets, for He will give wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.
Acts 3:24-25
“And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’”
May we be true sons of the prophets in the covenant, so that all the families of the earth will be blessed through our accurate discernment and fulfilment of the kairos seasons that God has decreed for the church and through the church in these last days.
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