by Rick Joyner, used with permission

Hebrews 6: 11 declares, “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end.” In contrast to this, many, if not most of the teachings on last days are filled with doom. Hope is the foundation of the true knowledge of prophecy, not fear. God, with His goodness, righteousness, and justice will prevail in all ways over the darkness that has enveloped this earth.

Any eschatology which focuses on doom instead of the glorious promises has fundamentally misunderstood the prophecies of the end times. Certainly there will be troubles, even the greatest time of trouble that the world has ever known. Even so, troubles are not the main point! In fact, they are not even worthy of a side show. We are coming to the time of the greatest revelation of the glory of God that the world has ever known. That is the main point.

Neither are Christians doomed at the end of the age. We are coming to a time when Christians will prosper as never before. They will walk in the power, provision, and glory of God in a way so spectacular that Israel’s deliverance from Egypt was only a “shadow” of reality to come. There will be a distinction made between those who live in “Goshen” and those who worship the idols of this world. Just as Israel left Egypt with its treasures, the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous.

However just as Israel was not immediately taken to the closest shopping mall to spend their new found wealth, but rather into the wilderness so they could use it to build a dwelling place for God, it will be the same for us. The wealth of the nations is not coming to us so we can live luxuriously, but so we can build God a dwelling place to live among us. This is for the building up of the body of Christ, His church, His dwelling place. The presence of the Lord among us is a far more wonderful thing than all the luxuries of this earth could ever be.

We cannot understand what the Lord is doing on the earth without understanding His most basic purpose for the earth, which is what Peter called “----- restoration of all things.’ (Acts 3:21). We know His first priority is the restoration of His temple, the church, so that He can dwell among us. However, the church is not the whole purpose of God, but it is a means, the vehicle through which He intends to restore all things that were lost by the Fall. The earth, and all it contains, is the Lord’s, and will be restored.

One of the main goals in our gaining knowledge of the times is the process of our growing in discernment. The true gift of discernment is a gift we are certainly going to need in the times ahead. Many years ago, several prophetic friends and myself were shown that almost the entire leadership at that time was devoid of the true gift of discernment. This does not mean that they did not have discernment, but they lacked the gift of discernment, which is a supernatural gift that transcends the human wisdom, or what we call “street knowledge.” The Lord also made it clear to us that this gift was one which we were all going to need in the times ahead. He not only wanted to give it to His leaders, but to all of His people.

It was very soon after this that another prophetic friend of mine, Bob Jones, was shown by the Lord that the church was being continually misled by a “false gift of discernment” He said a “spirit of suspicion” was masquerading as the gift of discernment in the church, and hardly anyone recognized it. He was then told that the true gift of discernment could only work through compassion, and He had given him Philippians 1: 9 “ And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.” The Lord went on to tell him that “anything but love will distort discernment.”

My thinking at the time was “love is blind,” more prone to cloud your discernment of a person rather than help you to discern accurately. However the Lord said the opposite was true. As I sought the Lord on this matter, He showed me over and over how suspicion had caused me to misunderstand many people, and how I had often missed His will in matters because of it.

It was at this time that the Lord began to speak to some of us about how all true spiritual authority is founded upon love. We see this in the Lord’s own walk on the earth. It was when He had compassion for the sheep that were without a shepherd that He became their Shepherd. It was when He had compassion on those who sat in darkness that He became their Teacher. 

I was then shown that I would know when He was sending me because I would feel His love for those to whom I was being sent. I would know that I was being sent to a church when I started to feel His love for that church. I would know that I was being sent to a ministry when I started to feel His love for that ministry. The same is true for a city, a country, a culture, or a people group. It was only through this love that I would be able to discern the roots of their problems and bondage so that I could help

Truly loving someone does not mean that you will only see the good in them. It means that you will see them as they are and only seek good for them. It is for this reason that Paul wrote in II Corinthians 5:14 “For the love of Christ controls us - “ This leads us to one of those ultimate questions. What would we be like if the love of Christ was controlling all of our thoughts and actions? Then add to this the power of Christ abiding in us to do the works He did, and even greater works. What would our days be like if this were true?

There will be a people who walk this earth before this age is over about whom this will be true. They will have His love in them and will therefore walk the earth like He did. As we will see, this is sound, biblical prophecy, concerning the end of this age.

Because our goal for knowing the Lord’s will is to be prepared to do His will, let us be even more practical. What would you do today if His love was controlling you and His power was in you? Who would you heal? What devils would you cast out? For whom would you multiply their food? To whom would you preach the gospel of the kingdom?

We might also add some other practical questions to this. Would we have watched the television programs that we did? How much of that gossip would we have even listened to, much less helped to spread? Would we have become that angry with our neighbor over such a small thing? Would we have gloated over the misfortune which struck a person whom you do not like, or would we even dislike them? 

A most important, eternal truth is now being restored to the church. This truth is the truth of the power of the cross. This is going to change everything. It is even going to change us. There is nothing that reveals the love of God, or the power of God like the cross. We are coming to the time when we are going to see His love demonstrated through His people, and it will come with the power of His love to help people. The cross is the power of God that is the answer to every human problem, and we are going to begin to see this. This is the “full assurance of hope.” (Hebrews 6:11) that will keep us to the end.