Winter?!?!

 Within the last, eh, maybe 6 months, I've been having some dreams about winter. 

         

The first one was actually a dream. I was in a forest or on the mountain maybe, I was with somebody else, and I was going to have to start walking. It was literally a winter wonderland. There was feet of snow on the ground and the beautiful snow was falling from the sky. It was honestly a beautiful scene. But as I was about to start walking, a beautiful white horse came. I got on the horse and we just rode off, leaving the person I was with back there to walk. It was such a peaceful dream, I did not really think too much of it. 

So we go on a few months, and this time it was more like a vision. I was not asleep when it happened. I was in the car and just closed my eyes. I saw snow falling on a dark grey background. There was nothing else. Just snow falling. And this one felt urgent, it honestly made me feel a little uneasy. Not at all peaceful like the first one was. 

God was urging me to look into it and seem what it meant. We got to Coure D'alene ID and that night I stayed up in the motel room studying. 

First, I looked up winter in the Bible. A verse that really got me was...

 Matthew 24:20 And pray that your flight 

will not be in winter or on the Sabbath.  

That is interesting!! We all know that Matthew 24 is talking about the end times. 

The Bible is parabolic, so I looked into the words. Of course, I started with flight. To me when I think of flight, I think of an airplane. Flight in Greek is phuge, which means a fleeing or an escape from. Well, what do we as Christians need to run away from? Is it talking about winter, like snow? Do we need to run from that? I looked up the word winter. In the Greek it is cheimon, which means a storm (pouring rain), the rainy season. 

Things still just are not adding up for me. I have to keep reminding myself that part of Matthew is talking about the END TIMES. 

Then I have to ask myself, what is our escape from that? JESUS! Jesus is our way out right? Not that I believe Jesus is JUST an escape, but that is what we need to avoid the terrible time on the GREAT AND TERRIBLE DAY. Yeshua is our SALVATION. 

Okay, well I know Jesus and I have a relationship with Him, so STILL I am asking myself what does this mean?? I know I should ask God, because I know that is where it is coming from. How do I figure this out? 

Keep studying!!! Study to show yourself approved! 

                I am in a Hebrew study every Sabbath. We watch Mark Biltz sermon livestream. He talks a lot about times and seasons and the importance of the Feast Days which were/are celebrated in Jerusalem. One of the feasts is The Feast of Trumpets. Which is in the fall. It is what he calls a fall feast. Fall is well from about late August to early October. And what comes after fall??? WINTER!

I begin to dig around some verses and notes that I have. In Israel, there are three main harvest times. spring is barley harvest. Summer is wheat harvest. And autumn (fall) is grapes, fruits, olives. Hmmm....I know I have read a lot about grapes in the Bible. 

Let's take a look at that shall we?? 

Next, we look up grape in the Bible. First verse that caught my attention was... 

Revelation 14:18 And another angel came out from the alter, 

which had power over fire; and cried with a loud 

cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, 

                                Thrust in thy sickle, 

                              

    and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; 

for her grapes are fully ripe. 

Another one was :

Joel 3:13 Swing the sickle for the harvest is ripe, 

Come tread the grapes, for the winepress if full.

 The storage vats are overflowing with 

the wickedness of the people. 

The grape harvest is being used as a parable about the end. The time when we are separated from the wicked. Matthew 13:39 tells us that the harvest is the end of the world and the harvesters are the angels. 

To be honest I am always pretty nervous about believing people that I listen to about these things. Yes, Mark teaches a lot of good stuff, and is very knowledgeable, but I do try not to just take people word for it unless I study it out myself. Well, that is what I did. 

Maybe that dream and that vision, was a warning! Are we getting close? The urgency of the vision was intense. I know that I want to be ready. And I know that I want to help as many people as I can get ready. I do not want to be wasting God's time. I do not want anyone's flight to be in the winter. I want everyone to be in the shadow of the Almighty, under His wing. 

My pray for all of us today, is that God would teach us to number our days that we may present a heart of wisdom. That as my friend says, put feet to the faith. Help us Lord to not just talk about it, but to be about it. Lord, that we would start just speaking nothing but the Bible. Help us to not waste words. Lord, we know that we will be held accountable for every word that we speak, so let us speak only things that are worthy of the time. Help us to not miss any opportunities that you place before us.

My Pastor Scott last week talked about not missing the moments of opportunity. I want to be sure that I am never missing an opportunity to speak about Jesus or plant a seed. I really struggle to talk about Jesus with my family for some reason. But I REALLY want them to know the Lord. Tonight, I was praying Ezekiel 36:26-27 over them on the way home from work. Before I could even finish, the Lord said Why would I give them a heart of flesh when nobody is plating seeds into it? WOW OUCH.....BUT THANK YOU GOD! Thank you for being honest, for convicting me, for telling me what I did not really want to hear but needed to hear. 

(Side note, NO I'm not saying that I know when the Lord is coming back, but I know I need to stop acting like it can't be right now!)