Rapture Delayed, Dealing with Disappointment

Rapture Delayed, Dealing with Disappointment

November 5, 2014

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Clare: The latest buzz about the rapture is that it will be before Thanksgiving.

Ezekiel: You better eat your turkey early.

Clare: I think we are all waiting for the next blood moon and we are anticipating that something will happen between this blood moon and the next one.

Ezekiel: Which would be springtime, right? A lot of us are trying to recover from a letdown when the Lord didn't catch us out of here around the time of the blood moon. I think we want Him to come back so badly that I think I grab on to the first date.

Clare: And I'm the opposite. I wasn't really expecting anything right away. I didn't want to be disappointed. The Lord said we would not know the date or the hour. I know the Lord's nature and He likes surprises. I know how He is. We'll never be able to figure Him out. It seems that we should know the season. I know that everyone's hearts feel we are in the season and that's because we are in the season. We are all feeling it.

Ezekiel: It brings up a question in my heart and what I've been feeling lately is, "Lord, do I just want the goodies? Do I just want out of this life because I'm tired? Or do I just want You?" I've come out of a real dry time after the letdown, and I have to say as He was letting those affections purify my intentions. At this point, I do just want to be with the Lord. Nothing in Heaven, even being free of this Earth, isn't worth it without Him.

Clare: It reminds me of a minister on Youtube: her name is Suzette. I recommended her under Teachers on our site and I encourage everyone to listen to her. She had a rapture dream and she saw her dress and it had stains on the bottom. She thought, 'Oh no, it's time to change it.' In the next scene she already had been raptured and was at the banqueting table. The Lord was at her side and He looked at her with this beautiful loving eyes. He was totally in love with her. In the dream she looked at Him and thought, 'I love You Lord, but I'm not in love with You.'

That was a wakeup call for her - and me, too. It's hard being in love with the Lord. If you get too close to Him, you start to get depressed because you can't have Him. If you back away from Him, the pain is not so bad, but then you risk losing that intimacy. He says in Revelation 2:4, "Return to your first love".

Ezekiel: I remember some years ago, I would go into our chapel up front, in the early morning hours, and I really wanted to press into the Lord. I was hungry and thirsty for Him. I wanted more of Him. I would go in at 8 p.m. at first... then it was 20 minutes, and then 3 hours. Then after a few weeks of doing this, I remember seeing the sun come up. Now that was from 8 p.m. till then.

During the midway point of that 3 week period I realized, 'I don't love You the way I should. I don't love You the way You deserve.' I began to beseech Him and say, '"Lord, I need that. I want that." I know that's the way it should be. I can't do it or make it happened. I don't have that. It made sense to me that He could give that to me.

From that moment on, I pressed in every night, hour after hour. I would read my Scriptures and spend time with the Lord, but the prayer in my heart was, 'Please give me a love for You the way it should be.' After that 3 week period, all of a sudden something went really deep. It was like it says in Psalm 42:7, "deep calling unto deep."

It was such a sweetness and more than a personal relationship. It became a familiar, intimate relationship. The reason I bring that up is, after a letdown like a lot of us have been through, you can go through some pretty dry times. I've just come out of some of that. I realize that the Lord is purifying my motives. It's not just the goodies, or Heaven, or "I'm tired of being here"; it's just wanting to be with Him more than anything.

Clare: With worship and thanksgiving we're just stunned by His love, that we can't do anything without Him but just be there with Him.

About three days ago we got hit with that longing for Him. I don't know if you have experienced that and we had the worst longing for the Lord, we couldn't do anything but sit and cry. I thought, 'surely the Lord is preparing us for the rapture.'

Ezekiel: I felt like I was dying. I felt grief, as if someone had died. Toward the end of it, it was me. The Lord was allowing some things to die off inside of me.

I got this neat devotional reading that talked about, "I'm allowing you to die for those things to fall away, so you can be empty completely and I can come and fill you completely with My wonderful, magnificent actions in your soul.

Clare: That was a little bit different than what I had experienced. I was praying for you, because that really was a dry time in your life. You didn't have interest in anything - music, or anything. Just empty.

Ezekiel: I felt almost a physical pain in my heart that pained me. It followed me day and night. I thought, 'Oh Lord, I don't know what's going on here.' Then "bing" it was the Lord. He was hiding himself behind a cloud so to speak; kind of like playing hard to get, but deeper than that. It's like when a child is not feeding properly, the mother will draw him away from the breast until he is really crying. Then she'll bring him back to eat properly and have a healthy intake. By the time the Lord lifted the veil, I clung on to Him with everything I had. I sucked it up and soaked it in.

Clare: I'd love to hear from our Youtube family. If any of you have been through this grace, where the Lord put you in that place where you couldn't stand being away from Him anymore, please let us know.

I thought surely we would be gone by Thanksgiving - look at the hunger He is giving us.

Ezekiel: If any of you are going through that dry place, all hope isn't lost. Don't give up. There's a way out. The enemy will come in and tempt you with everything. You might be thinking, 'Lord, just come take me.' I'm saying to hang on. Sunday is coming, so to speak. There is a resurrection coming.

Clare: There was something else, too, that has been coming up. As I've been preparing videos for our Youtube family, I've been finding more sins in my nature. I've been repenting everyday.

Ezekiel: It's amazing how we can be like the Teflon gospel. "It goes on thick, but doesn't stick." "We're saved by the Blood." "He bought it on the Cross and then we're just gone." I don't know that we're trying to spend that time to ask the Lord to help us to be ready and to be properly clothed for the banquet.

We need His help in making that garment be without spot or wrinkle. Again, it's not something we can do on our own. He is cleaning us up and getting us ready. It's amazing how things that you look over and not pay a lot of attention to then, but they tweak your conscious now.

Clare: I became more acutely aware of what I didn't do for someone that I should have done or someone I didn't forgive. You've actually been having dreams about old enemies and relatives haven't you?

Ezekiel: I have. I remember years ago I thought I had forgiven so and so. It was times I was hugging the horns of the altar saying, "Lord this is hard. I can't forgive this person. I can't get over it, but You can forgive them through me." Just give it to the Lord as an act of my will to forgive them.

Clare: Sometimes that's all we can do. We can pray, "Lord, I'm willing to be made willing to forgive so and so." We have an invisible enemy who is constantly trying to cause us to fall and to lose grace. He's a reminding us of things and trying to make us jealous, get angry, and to make misunderstandings.

We had a week where I would say something, and you would hear something else, and then I would hear it differently. We finally figured out that it was a demon trying to twist our words. We started binding it. The Lord told me that the demon in our communication was trying to cause division. We both slowed down to take a look at that.

Ezekiel: It's interesting that they did that back in every war that's ever been. They would have psychological warfare intentionally and would put out mis-information. They would blast it over the speakers. These poor GIs are away from home, depressed, and missing home. The enemy got to them in many areas because they would break their morale down. I know that the enemy does that.

There was a 6-year-old boy I saw in an interview. The interviewer asked if he had seen the devil and the boy said, "Yes". Then he asked, "What do demons do?" The boy answered, "They mostly sit on people's shoulders and tell them lies." These demons are professional murmurers. We don't want to be doing that ourselves. For the children of Israel, that was their biggest sin. Someone once said if the devil brings up your past, just remind him of his future.

Clare, you had mentioned earlier when we were talking something about wedding gifts.

Clare: Yes. Things get frustrating and difficult. You know accidents can happen, things that don't go well. Like tonight, it took me forever to set up. Also, taking care of people can be difficult. We have an elderly woman living with us on the property. That can be pretty trying at times. She has dogs and we have cats.

The Lord has told me early on, "I know you're hurting, because you aren't able to be with Me yet. But while you're waiting, give Me some wedding gifts. The things that are hurting you, the longing you have for Me - go out and do something nice for someone. Do something nice for people. It's about what you can do for them and offer those things to Me for our wedding day."

The other aspect of that is, when you're taking care of someone, like when they're sick or at the nursing home - you're taking care of Jesus. What did He say about the goats and the sheep? When you did it to the least of these you did it unto me (Matthew 25:45)."

Ezekiel: Boy, we don't want to hear those words, do we? For a lot of us that are called into a prayer ministry, whether it's intercession and or intimacy with the Lord, by its nature it should overflow. If He pours in, it's in abundance and He gives more than we need.

Clare: It's for the body. The things He gives is not for us, it's for the body. It's to share with you. It's our whole job to share what He gives us.

Ezekiel: We receive from other teachers and brothers and sisters. We share with each other and we accompany alongside each other. I don't like this thing about, "So and so is ahead of so and so." We're all on the way.

It could be your neighbor, but while we're waiting, if we take some time out of prayer where we're not just tunnel vision, it's going to help pass that time. We're going to be busy about His business when He does come back.

Clare: The happiest people in the world are serving others.

Ezekiel: Again, if any of you have experiences, suggestions, or feedbacks - we may not be able to go through every single one, but we'd like to share those in these segments and to read a few.

Clare: We're all experiencing similar things as we are waiting upon the Lord. One of the things that I'm trying to be careful of, is not letting my guard down; not letting myself slip or slide at all but being real cautious about what I'm saying and what I'm doing. I'm really asking the Lord to help me keep that.

Ezekiel: Those little Holy Spirit nudges that says, "Mmmm, it might be better if you don't say this" or "Maybe don't go there." Here's another example, "I normally wouldn't say this but we need to pray with so and so about this situation." It's gossip - just leave it. Many things don't need to be said.

I try to offer my day to the Holy Spirit. I've had some real breakthroughs by asking the Holy Spirit, "Would you inspire me today? Would you do for me what I can't do today?" It might be cutting wood, going to the nursing home, or changing a flat tire. It sounds fundamental, but we forget to ask and turn it over. Towards the end of the day, it's nice to ask, "Well Lord, how did I do today?" It's not like I went out on my own and did this and that. The Lord takes us along with Him during the day. It's nice when He comes back and says, "Remember that lady, or such and such?" He'll encourage us. He'll even bring up things about ourselves that didn't seem like a big thing, but it really ministered to Him.

Clare: Oh yes, He is so grateful for everything; for every little thing that we do for Him. Here we are talking about Almighty God. I've had times when I've come into prayer and the Lord has just sat there with me and smiled and said, "I'm so pleased with what you did today. I'm so grateful, Clare, that you've given your life to Me and you want to serve Me." He's actually said that to me. It reminds me how vulnerable He is to rejection and people who don't care, or from the times that I didn't care and I turned away; to hear Him say something like that it just breaks my heart. "Wow, Lord, it means that much to you?"

Ezekiel: Give Him that time without the phones and the 'this' and the 'that'. It's amazing the encouragement that He will bring.

Clare: I can remember Him telling us He is appreciative that we have given our lives to Him.

Ezekiel: And so we should be about everything; just constantly thankful and grateful.

Well, thank you again for joining us tonight on Heaven Talk. Hopefully, God willing, if He doesn't catch us up before Turkey Day, the next time we see you it will be here, there, or in the air. God bless you.