“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” 1 Timothy 4:1

“Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Matthew 7:15

“Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.” Matthew 24:11

We live in the last days. Look around and see. We live in crazy times. Believers need to be aware and open their eyes to see.

I’m about to step on some toes and offend people. I don’t mean to, but I know it will happen. Last week I was going to talk about this same thing and I couldn’t get into my website. I tried and tired and tried. Finally, just before my bedtime, I figured out what was wrong. It was a weird glitch. Hmmm. I couldn’t write my blog. Why? I think the enemy didn’t want me to.

Right now there is something going on here in Southern California called “Saturate OC.” It’s supposed to be a revival. They’re meeting on the beaches, preaching and baptizing people. That sounds good right? Wrong.

I looked up “Saturate OC” to see what they were all about. A friend of mine alerted me to them. If you look up “Saturate OC,” you will find several people connected to Bill Johnson’s church-Bethel Church in Redding, CA. Now Bill Johnson has some interesting things going on in his church. I barely scratched the surface and this is what I uncovered.

His church does grave soaking. Grave soaking? What in the world is grave soaking? Well it’s just what it sounds like. People lay on the graves of Spirit filled Christians and “soak” up the Spirit from them. Where in the Bible are we directed to grave soak? No where. It’s unheard of in the Bible.

They do holy laughter. When you watch a video of them doing it, it looks like these people are demon possessed. They roll around on the floor laughing hysterically. The problem with this is, it’s like something from the Hindu religion in which you try and invoke a demon by laughing hysterically.

There’s a video of Bill Johnson preaching and saying Jesus Christ was born again. Jesus Christ was not born again. He didn’t need to be. He was sinless. This is heresy. Yet, this is what Bill Johnson preaches at his church.

If you look up “Saturate OC” and follow the trail of names, you will see that many of them are connected to Bill Johnson’s church. Or, if you do a simple search you will see that each of these people have some sketchy backgrounds and are considered false teachers. We live in the last days. We need to be aware. “Saturate OC” is not what it seems. Do the research yourself and check it out. Please Believers, God warned us that there will be false teacher and preachers. We need to be careful. We need to watch and see. If it doesn’t match up to scriptures, it’s not good.

Faith is believing in things unseen. God has made many promises to us. He says He will never leave us or forsake us. He tells us to pray without ceasing. He says that He loves us.

Often, when we hit a major wall or problem in our lives, we stop believing those promises. We can’t see God working. We can’t feel His love. We feel abandoned. And yet this is the moment when we need to put our faith into action. It’s exactly at this time, right when we feel cut off from God, that we NEED to believe His promises. That’s what faith looks like. We believe and trust God even though our feelings are completely different.

In those moments when you can’t see your way out of a problem. When you feel there is no possible solution. You feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. You feel utterly alone and abandoned. You feel there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You have no hope. You feel like curling up and going away. It is in that very moment that you must believe in things unseen. You must believe that God HASN’T abandoned you. You must trust that God is working, though you can’t see anything He is doing.

That is what faith looks like. Faith is believing in things unseen. God doesn’t ask us to solve the problem. God doesn’t ask us to work it out ourselves. He asks of us to trust in Him. Like Peter walking on the water. Peter could walk on the water as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. The minute he took them off, he sank. That’s our job as believers. We must keep our eyes on God, otherwise we will sink.

Feelings schmeelings. We can’t trust our feelings. We need to trust facts-promises. Has God promised us help? Yes He has.

Hebrews 13:5 “…I will never leave you or forsake you.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not into your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”

Right now we are all going through something. All of us are struggling with these shutdowns and restrictions. Most of us are also going through things in our personal lives. Believers all struggle. God told us we would. But He said our struggles will be momentary. So whatever you are going through, hang on to God’s promises. He never abandons His children. And though you may feel like you’ve been forgotten, you haven’t. Sometimes it helps just to tell yourself the promises of God. Remind yourself of those things. And do not trust your feelings. Trust in God’s words instead. Soon the problem will be solved. God doesn’t leave His children.

I set up a moth trap in my kitchen a month or so ago. I have those pesky little moths that like to hang around the kitchen. I set up the trap which has some kind of smell the moths love and then this sticky stuff all over, so when the moths fly into the trap, they get stuck on the sticky stuff and die.

When I first put up the trap, I looked in it after a couple of days and there were no moths. I thought, “Cool, maybe I don’t really have a problem.” A few days later I looked in the trap and saw a moth inside of it. I realized I wasn’t clear and free of those little pesks. As I looked in the trap, the little thing just flew away! What?! It’s supposed to get stuck there. What’s going on? I thought it must be old or not working, so I went and got the second trap. As I opened up the second trap I quickly read the directions and realized I hadn’t removed the wax paper that was protecting the sticky stuff. You have got to be kidding me! I removed the paper. Then I picked up the first trap and removed that paper too. Two days later there were a few moths caught in that first trap. It wasn’t defunct, I hadn’t taken that one step in removing the wax paper.

Sometimes believers forget a step. I know for me, I often get stressed out by all these Covid lockdowns and restrictions. I work myself up in my brain, then realize I need to pray. I missed a step. I’m back to forgetting to take the wax paper off the sticky stuff. I shouldn’t be worrying and fretting, I simply need to pray.

It’s easy to miss a step. We get busy with our lives and all the distractions in the world and we forget to simply peel the wax paper off the sticky stuff. It could be a simple misstep like forgetting to pray.

Don’t be like me and forget to take the wax paper off the sticky stuff. God is waiting for us to pray and not fret. He hears all of our prayers. He knows all of our frustrations. Go to him. Especially in this day and age of insanity. I live in California and our governor just shut parts of our economy down again. It’s so frustrating. But every time I get worked up and remind myself to pray and that gets me through.

As Christians, we don’t look at life the same way as others who don’t believe. God tells us in His Word how we should think. As I look around at the world right now I think it seems to have slipped off the rails and into complete insanity. I wonder how much longer we can last under all this chaos.

I found this passage in Eric Metaxas’ brilliant book, “Bonhoeffer Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.” In case you haven’t read the book (it’s very long) I will give you a synopsis. Bonhoeffer was a German Christian during the time of Hitler’s reign. He figures out that Hitler is truly evil and must be assassinated. He gets caught in the plot and jailed. He spends time in jail until he is executed for his crime. While in jail he wrote this:

“Whether we are young or old makes no difference. What are twenty or thirty or fifty years in the sight of God? And which of us knows how near he or she may already be to the goal? That life only really begins when it ends here on earth, that all that is here is only the prologue before the curtain goes up-that is for young and old alike to think about. Why are we so afraid when we think about death? Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it. Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God’s Word. Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves. Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in Him. Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle, it beckons to us with heavenly power if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace.

Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith. But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death.” (Eric Metaxas, “Bonhoeffer Pastor, Marytr, Prophet, Spy”)

When we look at the world, we don’t even view death the same way as the rest of the world.

“Where, O death, is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55)

We as Christians must remember where we are going. When we leave this planet, we are headed to glory beyond our imagination. This world with all of its angst and pain is so temporary. Like Bonhoeffer says, “What are twenty or thirty or fifty years in the sight of God?” This helps me to be encouraged. All of this is very short-a tiny, tiny blip of time. I don’t need to fear anything, even death. God hasn’t left the throne. God isn’t unaware of our problems. He is working. We believers simply must trust and anticipate our future. This life is a “prologue before the curtain goes up…”

I know I’m speaking of the obvious. The times we live in are crazy. And that’s an understatement. It seems like life has become absolutely bonkers. We shut down our economy for almost 3 months. We’re told we don’t have to wear masks. Then we are told we have to wear masks. Now we have to wear masks in certain situations. We’re told to social distance. People are rioting and looting everywhere. When the riots first happened I got an alarm on my phone to tell me that two neighboring cities now had a curfew to stem the violence of the rioters and looters.

I lost my job just like all the other millions of people. My husband and I have considered traveling this summer, but now we’re being told you have to be very careful where you go because there could be rioters. Every where I turn, it seems there is mass chaos.

To keep me from going completely bonkers, I recalled a phrase my pastor told us from years ago. I don’t know where he got it, so he gets the credit. He said:

“The main thing is to keep the Main Thing, the main thing.”

You might be saying, “What?!” But lets break it down. The main thing in life. The most important thing to do. That’s the first “main thing.” This simplifies things doesn’t it? So what is the “main thing.” What should I be doing? Well the main thing is to keep the main Thing. That main thing is God. Keep God at the center of your life. Keep Him the “main thing” of your life.

There. How’s that for simple? In the midst of all this chaos, I simply remember to keep God at the forefront of my mind. He is not the author of chaos. Loving God means: love, peace, joy, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. Those are the fruits of the Spirit. I want those things. I want all of them. I need all of them. When we face the chaos we face right now, we reach out for the thing that brings us comfort. God will bring us comfort. He promises that. He promises never to leave or forsake the believer.

So if you need encouragement. If you need a break from all the bad news. Simply remind yourself, “The main thing is to keep the Main Thing, the main thing.” It will help immensely.

I chose a lighthouse for my picture because God is exactly that. In the darkness, He shines as a beacon to bring us light and direction.