Exit Strategy: We Initiate the Return of Christ

Inspirations

Chapter 1. Knock, knock, knock’in, on heavens door.*

* Knock’in on heavens door.

Written and sung by Bob Dillon. CBS Records.

The groaning of the tires droned out a consistently dull note. It filled the background of my thought process with white noise but it was more like grey noise. The soft ride of the 69 Caddy Eldorado just added to the hypnotized state I was in. My mind however was anything but comatose. No, this was really happening!

A flurry of thoughts and scenarios were flashing on the heads-up screen of my windshield. I am driving but only by seeing the road through a mental map of facts and fears. I had flirted with danger and it had caught up with me.

Most of what I saw during that ride was a rear-view mirror full of concrete, a ribbon un-spooling as it distanced me from certain death. Would it be enough?

Every mile had comfort in it. A little more peace a little less fear, but was I fooling myself? I know these people. If anything it was a false sense of peace. I didn’t sleep with a gun under my pillow for nothing. I hadn’t slipped away suddenly and in stealth for no reason. I was the focus of their fear.

Besides portions of my story, what you are about to read will seem very controversial and outside the box but so are the times we are in. The content is (from) beyond me and it is absolutely scriptural. In that sense it is not really controversial, it is however far more than we have understood. Like you, I too am a beneficiary. When it comes to controversy, I have learned that controversy feels like an attack on the heart but it often sets it free!

As I did, I believe you will find written within, important parts of the all truth Jesus said the Holy Spirit would show us (John 16:13 NAS). By the Word of God we believe we have all truth but there is truth behind the truth, understanding yet to be grasped within. All truth meant there was more understanding than Jesus explained. He may have told us cryptically but it would be hidden until the Holy Spirit illuminated our way to it. This also meant the Holy Spirit would be required in our lives on such a level that we would know for sure we were being enlightened. When this expanded truth occurs to us, God is kind in that we can simultaneously and without condemnation recognize our former lack while gladly embracing His greater.

We might question the enabling truth necessary to negotiate the final stages of our eternal journey. All truth is not possible except by Him. Is the Holy Spirit guiding us? If He truly is then yes, we will find what God has intended. This truth will spare us and take us into the great beyond that we have believed in if we let it accomplish what it was sent to do, to purge us and purify us, as the Lord intended.

There are many areas of concern spoken of here that will ultimately validate the whole of this effort. Covering a multitude of interlocking truths, their connections clarify each other. Things we have looked at separately will now come together, interlocking with each other to become the greater, to become expanded truth. This is fully scriptural understanding that, it appears, has been withheld by God until now.

Like Jesus knew, God knew fear would come upon us if we were exposed to all truth prematurely. Back then, there was no supporting evidence for what God wants us to know now. Today’s events are speaking, now we must and I believe we will, be motivated to accept an understanding which is confirmed by the prophesied events we are seeing. The scriptural parts and pieces were meant to add up, to bring greater understanding. In all truth we will find those added parts and pieces which can then come together in our hearts. Isaiah tells us who will be taught and how the teaching will come.

"Whom will He teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For recept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little." (Isaiah 28:9-10 NAS)

WORDS SUCH AS THOSE FOUND WITHIN ARE NOT MEANT FOR THE BABE, UNABLE TO YET DISCERN ALL THEIR MOTHER HAS TO OFFER, REACHING AGAIN AND CRYING FOR THE COMFORTING WARMTH THAT MUST END, NOT DISCERNING THE LOVE TO BE TAUGHT THAT WILL ENDURE ALL THINGS, FEEDING THEM, …FOREVER.

(AN IMPRESSION WHILE WRITING.)

This book has been written in much the same way it came to me: line upon line and precept upon precept. For those who have learned line upon line, precept upon precept, it is now time for those lines and precepts to gather. They are coming together synergistically, forming the critical mass, the fulfillment of prophecy that has been waiting for us since Christ. You will see that we are the initiators of the Lord’s return. Concepts overlap, creating the holy-graphic image that God wanted us to see when it was time. It is a prophecy spoken by Jesus that is yet to be fulfilled. It will point the way to our divine assignment and our personal salvation.

Just ahead of His return, there are things which must be embraced and in some cases cast off by us. We must stand in faith versus fear, grasping the disciplines that eternity requires of us, disciplines which must be taught by the mature, especially by the Five Fold League of Servants around the world. Followers everywhere will then join our task. Many will be empowered first by their pastor’s obedient confidence and concern. Let us all, as God’s watchmen on the walls, blow this Shofar of a message. Let no blood but our own be upon our heads and it be washed away by this baptism in God’s precious grace.

Cruising south along Interstate 95, through the rolling hills of North Carolina, I am alone in my escape. Few cars are seen in the distance in either direction. It has a calming effect as my mind wanders through the moments, the flashes of warning I had experienced in the previous few weeks. In my ignorance I had almost missed them. Some of those warnings were so profound I could not help but ponder my short-sightedness.

If you knew what I did you would not wonder why I frequently checked the rear-view mirror. Their arm had a long reach if they decided to extend it. I knew they would, so I looked again and again until I saw it. The very thing I feared came upon me!

I was cruising down a long sweeping hill at seventy miles per hour. Up over the hill behind me pops a black Cadillac Sedan Deville with cream-yellow Jersey plates. He is catching up fast. Oh Jesus…., came to mind and mouth. Not that I was on such intimate terms with Him. It is amazing how we speak His name as though familiar. Why does He come to mind or mouth first anyway?

The car is the right color, the right plates, dark tinting, and I imagine anger in its ominous aggressive charge. Oh God, please don’t let them catch me out here. I knew what the headlines would read in the local Podunk Gazette. Man found dead in bullet riddled car! After careening off of Interstate 95, a car and its driver, both riddled with bullet holes, were found in a ravine. The young man appears to be the victim of extreme road rage. There were no witnesses. His identity is yet to be established.

The black Caddy came on, bearing down on me. Fear consumed me as my heart raced. For some reason I did not try to outrun him. It would have been useless. I drove he drove, until he was finally upon me. He made his move to pass along side. The moment of truth had come.

Oh God…..

How does my story relate to this book? We, yes we, are facing a moment of truth. The enemy of God is now overtaking us, pulling along side of us. Do we know our enemy? Do we know what is to come, how we will react?

Now wheel to wheel, I am looking at my adversary from the corner of my eye. I floored it and jerked the steering wheel hard to the left crashing against the Black Caddy! My car was heavier and pushed the other off the road in a cloud of reddish dust. It rolled over and over moving forward with me in slow motion as I wrestled my car under control. It was then I saw a small child thrown out of the broken rear door window. Ejected like a rag doll rocket, he flew through the air toward me, I slammed on the brakes! With a deadly smash, my windshield became a massive web of fractures. Framed by the chaos, looking at me as wide eyed as I was at her was the bloodied lifeless face of a little girl. Those chasing me would not have had …"Oh God, …OH GOD…OH GOD! I screamed, What have I …?"

What have I done? Fortunately, I have only told you a story, a story of me reacting the wrong way, in a true situation. In that imagined moment, fear chose for me. I failed to be sure who my enemy was or was not. I chose violence in the face of fear. They lose. I lose. Had this really happened, the life I was to receive from God would never have happened. Likewise, the eternal life we are to receive from God will never happen if our reactions to future fearful events are not held in check by His Spirit and His powerful understanding.

As you will read of it here, this understanding will come with the help of the Holy Spirit, from the Bible and the Words of Jesus, Paul and John, and the Prophets.

Within the parables of Jesus are the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, understanding that supersedes what we see. The Holy Spirit is to reveal all truth to us in preparation for what is to come. Do we see the mysteries or just the principles for daily life, as used in the parables? Do we see the eternal or just the practical? Were we meant to, until now?

The Lord said, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come." John 16:12-13

Why do You speak to them in parables? ¹¹Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. (Matthew 13:10-11NAS)

It is grace and His intention for us to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Most mysteries have a key that explains them. Jesus said, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.(Matthew 16:19) I believe in these days, by the Holy Spirit, He is giving us those keys. Not the daily set. The eternal set. Those required…to enter. Why would we need keys except that recognizing Jesus for who He is, is not enough?

This traditional phrase of Christ’s time the keys to the kingdom told any young new Rabbi that the citizens of his village would look to his spiritual guidance as, keys (for them) to enter the kingdom of heaven. The people trusted that by obeying the Rabbi’s guidance they could go to heaven and could have favor with God. Today people look to pastors. I ask, Pastors, what keys are we giving them? You are about to find what I expect was not taught to you. Do not blame anyone. God is the only conspirator who has held us back. We all required the Holy Spirit’s touch. Holy Spirit only moves when told and in God’s time. We are not guilty up until now but are you their watchman…or not?

Rabbi Jesus offered us the keys. The only difference is, unlike the common practice of most young Rabbi’s Jesus did not cite any elder Rabbi as His instructor. I run the same Holy risk. He said He only spoke His Father’s direct instructions. I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world. (John 8:26 NAS) These were the real keys! The granting or understanding of those privileged mysteries and of those things they could not bear, were to be revealed upon the arrival of Holy Spirit in their lives. It is likewise for us. By the Holy Spirit, we are to know the mysteries and at the least, what is to come. This is not just to our advantage, it is meant to save others!

In fact, as the black Caddy eased along side, sudden fear had enveloped me. I had already imagined my demise. There was a pause in the passing car’s progress. I was hesitant to look, surrendering to what might happen next. Then the engine roared. Like a rejected lover, the darkness stormed off. I imagined, behind the dark tinted windows, a demonic snarling driver stomping the car forward in anger, leaving me behind. Why, I did not know or care. I was delirious with relief.

Thank you God, thank You God, thank You God, I repeated for the next five miles. Releasing a long breath just short of a whistle through pursed lips, the fear drained away like the hiss of an uncapped pressure cooker.

Almost dizzy with relief, my blood pressure returning to some semblance of normalcy, I mumbled a few thoughts to myself. I had been to church as a kid but it was a pretty thin experience, or so I thought. I said with some sense of regret for being in that situation to begin with, God, all I ever wanted to be was a young daddy, play ball with my kids and be a good guy. Look what I have done to my life. I am fleeing from where I enjoyed living, left everything behind, including my Jewish girlfriend. People are trying to kill me! All I see ahead is darkness.

I was so wrong, as I realized later. I was leaving darkness behind! That is how deceived I was. Are we deceived today? Are we deceived on any level? Are we in a place of darkness that we have mistaken for light, a place we need to leave? If so, would we even know without being shown?

Exposing deception within ourselves requires wanted comparisons. If willing we will find if we are not deceived but are just underdeveloped in our spiritual understanding. With all truth being offered, how can there not be more to understand, especially as the darkness that God has spoken about approaches.

We only rise (develop) as high as our teachers, as our Master, as Jesus said. Why would we ever resist further wisdom or understanding? Who was our teacher, a professor, a parent, a pastor? Have we chosen their teaching over that of the Holy Spirit? Most have sincerely sought God and His unlimited understanding. What if He has withheld critical instruction for His last teaching semester? What will our condition reveal? Are we then hindered by past understanding? With God and the Holy Spirit, there is always more, a higher, expanded understanding!

God knows if we are either deceived or under-developed. It seems evident and certainly for God’s own loving purposes that He will make all critical enlightening truth available for us to follow (or reject), especially before the Lord returns. "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: …he will shew you things to come. (John 16:13 (KJV)

" All truth" would be that which requires a guide to get to! To a place, in the realm of truth, we have not yet been! Things to come would be a pre-view. Holy Spirit is charged with guiding us to a pre-view and into all truth at the same time. One will require the other. All truth, addresses the things to come, it develops our understanding of the future and what will be required of us. It is preventative truth, how can it not be?

We are supposed to recognize the keys to Christ and His kingdom as things we need. We all may think we have the keys but in reading on you will find as I did, that after Jesus reconciling us to God, testing of the keys takes place (in this life) that might shake us from our foundations. Better we are shaken now. We need it, if the keys are not working consistently. By grace, God shows us the truth. It was always in preparation, to help us exit the struggles of this life, opening the doors to the next level or course of our journey until we actually enter the kingdom of heaven. Consistency in Christ and His ways will keep opening the exit doors from our daily situations and life-long challenges until we finally exit this life. God forbid it be under duress like Christ but it might be.

Like Jesus going to the Garden of Gethsemane, no one is exempt from this test if we ever expect to enter the kingdom through Christ. Remember, He now has the keys to both places, the keys to the kingdom and the keys to death, hell and the grave! In Christ, and I do mean IN Christ, the devil cannot condemn you. Only you can condemn you! God’s Words are the keys to the kingdom or to hell. Obeying is life. Rejecting His Word, not obeying His Word, is then disaster for any soul. (John 3:36 NASB)

Once obtained, the keys we hold are applied more to others than to us. With the keys, we exit the conflict, we defuse the disaster, we sooth their soul. Greater works shall you do. Why? Because now that Jesus has died and gone to heaven, we believe in the power of His keys. There were many questions before He was resurrected. Now many of those questions have been answered. The keys work if we use them. It is all up to us! Many may have heard about the keys but with the exception of Christ, they have not seen them at work in the heart of a true possessor. I believe they are about to on a major scale.

This development, the turning of the keys to the kingdom, will be seen as very significant. We have been told and do believe no man knows the day or hour of Christ’s return. Christ said only the Father knows. He said it is about events, not an hour or a day! He said, Even so you, too, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. (Luke 21:31 NASB77)

As the title speaks of, the Lord’s return depends on us and that is why only the Father knows when the Lord will return. God knows us and our deepest motivations. He also knows when the Holy Spirit is to inspire us in a specific way. Has that time come? I believe yes, it has. Time is needed to absorb and then begin discharging our duties.

I will prove that what God is looking for from us is a specific Christ-like act of obedience, ordained from eternity, it will reveal millions of Christ-likes; He will have multiplied Himself no matter what the devil has done to stop us. Not just one Son of Man but millions will now defeat the enemy again, overcoming like Christ did, capturing even those last ones, for Christ Jesus. God also knows, some will act upon His inspiration but many will not. He told us. (John 13:18, Romans 11:7, 2 Timothy 2:10.)

What act is that? You will find out but some foundation needs to be laid first. The answers to questions centuries old will change everything for us. By those keys, as His disciples and witnesses, as His followers, He is upping the ante as to what can be permitted or not permitted in this Christian life. There are things that must be done here, as they are in heaven and things that can not be done here because they can not be done in heaven. Will we just unenthusiastically submit? May it never be! If it is not from our heart it will not work for us. Will we rejoice in the clarity, the freedom? He hopes so.

As I escaped south that day in my Caddy, I was almost numb from thinking about all the possible ways I could still be harmed. Paranoia was my partner. I had not grasped my own deliverance yet. God had literally plucked me from the hands of my enemies, by a plan I had not a clue about. I was in His protective will and knew it not.

Some weeks later, safe in my parent’s home, the phone rang on a Sunday morning. Mom answered it. (This is) John, Mike’s friend…she repeated. It was their first of many attempts to reach me. Like the guy on an aircraft carrier flight deck, I waved off the conversation. Interpreting my flailing arms, Mom replied, He’s not here. Tell him his friend John called. Sure, good bye.

She hung up, looking me in the eye. She had officially joined in the defense of her son. I left the house and picked up my new friend and her children. On my first visit to a church in years, I heard a scripture in adult Sunday school. I was captured by God’s reach into my life after such a concerning moment at home. It is a declaration of rescue by David. It is my story also. Immature at best in my childhood remembrances of the bible, you can imagine how a still somewhat desperate person would react at such similarity and coincidence. I too had called upon God, as many do in desperation. That day, I was called upon to read it, when I had been living it!

2 And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;

³ The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my savior; thou savest me from violence.

⁴ I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

⁵ When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid;

⁶ The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;

⁷ In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. (2 Samuel 22:2-7 KJV)

This event was one of the first pillars in the building of my personal faith. God was telling me, He had been with me and had been listening and He knew, what I had not.

You just read David and are now reading about another rescue. Sure, I was rescued back then and I am being rescued today, but this is about a rescue mounted by you, me and the others in the grasp of inspiration. That is what this book is about. I say it is inspired because I also say it is not from me. Jesus said the same thing of what He spoke. All of this has inspired me, it applies to me! Was Jesus the Son of Man inspired? Yes! What He spoke to us, for God, also ended up delivering Him!

Yes, of course Christ was inspired. Whatever God had spoken to Him in those first thirty years, was added to in the next three years. It had to penetrate the Son of Man’s soul and would. Serious concerns were to be dealt with by inspiration. By the Holy Spirit Christ understood and He became the Horn, the Shofar, of our salvation! As sure as the Horn blows, in our heart’s we know what it means. We are either rescuing or being rescued!

This is to be a renewing charge for us as we make sure everyone knows what we now know. The keys to the kingdom of heaven are a life preserver while here and access upon our arrival there. You will read, in the Lord’s own words, things you very likely have not understood before. I had not. It may be that you feel skeptical because this message is not common among preachers. I have listened for it from the great preachers of our day, thinking someone else surely knows this. I have heard parts and pieces, each never going far enough, never reaching the conclusion Jesus speaks of. What I heard was good and meaningful, but it did not have the impact or the conclusions that I believe God is orchestrating because of the times we are in. What we have hesitated to say, God is saying absolutely. We may not have seen it but the proof is in the existence of it.

As we share this with others, we can expect some skepticism. It is acceptable for a season but I can assure you scripture will not be denied. God is expanding for us, by the Spirit, what Jesus said, by the Spirit. Just be open to what you read. You can always decline these thoughts if you can disprove them but to be spiritually honest considering them must come first. I firmly believe the Holy Spirit is, at this critical time, correcting in some cases and making known in others, profound expansions on the truth, all truth if you will. Jesus expanded the truth also, leaving the Holy Spirit to expand it further!

Our Father God, the Lord Jesus and Holy Spirit have always known that our understanding this mystery, this wonder about the kingdom, would make the difference between eternal life and eternal torment and not just when the time comes but until the time comes.

It will take practice to maximize our adeptness at handling this understanding. Many feel we do not have much time before Christ’s return. Many preach the rapture could happen any day. It can not happen any day without the fulfillment of prophecy. It will happen when Jesus said it would. We are a critical part of His prophecy about when. We or at least some, have much more to do with Christ’s return than we apparently have ever realized! Scripture confirms this.

I believe the Spirit will confirm in your heart that this understanding is from God and not a man. Will it go viral, as they say in the world? Oh, that is up to us! It was always supposed to. If the subtitle can be proven, and I am saying it is proven, then yes, I believe it will spread because it is God’s understanding and power. It is a challenge for us to accept with supernatural comfort or to reject in foretold denial.

I firmly believe the time has now come, just ahead of coming events, giving us the time we need to assimilate the critical. This will take time to sink in, for our roots to become rooted and grounded in this understanding. Michael, the Word says rooted and grounded in (His) love! That is absolutely right. We have no time to loose. It is love that lets your enemies kill you, as you intercede for them! Oh boy, now I’ve done it. Ok, ok, God will take care of our enemies. He may let them kill us first, like He did…Jesus. Why let them? He wants them! It will be by our witness but it will be their choice. It must be.

The mystery, hidden in plain sight, has always been within our reach but not within our understanding. Now, more than ever, in light of our deteriorating world circumstances, it must be attended to by us. The importance of our receiving this cost our Savior His life! Yes, Jesus did far more than die for us. His death is what it took to show us the how, when and why of our future. His example is the premier example but not the only example. There is a confirmation, another who knew. Steven got it. (Acts 7:60 NAS)

With a larger view, a friend and Jewish Christian named Sandy Kulkin, Founder of The Institute for Motivational Living, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a terrific motivational speaker, said in a series of meetings we (thankfully) helped to arrange years ago, The place of agreement is the place of power! We may have known this but do we really know it? Have we seen the power Sandy was alluding to, in the church? Have we found that one thing, that key we could all agree on, that would supersede all of our denominational differences? I believe we are about to grasp it. When we do, it will be the key, unlocking the great beyond, the place of power so incredible that once enveloped in it we all will disappear as individuals, we will truly be in Him. I believe it is His intention for us to discover the key here and now, the one mind and one Spirit our ranks have lacked but many have looked for. (Philippians 1:27, 2:2 NAS)

The key unlocks the narrow Gate of eternal life. Jesus specified differences, wide versus narrow, many versus few. What is the difference? Let me make this clear. By the time we are done, I believe you will also see that there is a key to our salvation that Jesus Himself has shown us and although offered to us by Christ, this key must be turned by us and that this act on our part will bring Him back. This action and the understanding required is still not clear to almost all who profess His name. This is a real danger to us and our fellow believers. We must address this with the courage of a rescuer, first being rescued ourselves, so we may bear the life preserver to others.

This is about all of us. Not just the unsaved. It is about any of us that, while professing to, do not actually walk in the depth of Christ’s ways. It is also about us not knowing the whole truth, only facets of it. These Christians, us or others, have no burden because we do not know any better. We were cleansed at one time but many were never taught how to keep a zero balance with God. Zero balance? The same Zero balance God’s forgiveness purchased through Jesus death. We are lost unless we expose ourselves and others to this critical understanding in time. We may truly think, we see but we do not and to God’s glory, we will be able to say to those we rescue, We thought we saw but we didn’t see either. That will make it easier for them to follow us and it is the truth.

Warning! After reading this, we will have no excuse. We will have a God ordained opportunity that any true servant of God has prayed for! We are to rescue souls for the kingdom. Many of them are already sitting in our churches today!

God is revealing eternity to us, out of patience and love for us. They, as well as we, will get weighed down and even drown without this life preserver. They will never receive it if we, the Five Fold League of Servants, fail to become of one mind and one Spirit ourselves. Our agreement is the place of power. This is God to them because we are saying what God has said to us, for all of our sakes.

Sure this is a hard thing but the core power within this key and the commitment it requires must be preached. This is not about preaching Christ and salvation. Of course we are to do that to the uttermost parts of the earth. This however is something else. This initiates everything that gets us to the finish line. Christ has spoken it.

I pray His inspiration will be obvious so you will receive these, your set of keys to the kingdom of heaven. We know forgiveness by the Lord’s sacrifice is the first key to eternal life. God through Christ and His disciples also made it clear that He has given us additional keys. Some folks say Christ did everything. Yes He did everything He was supposed to do, not to give us some sort of Carte Blanche but so we could do what He said.

We seek eternal life but fail to think eternally. We want to live forever but fail to grasp how to do so. Shall we enter eternity naked of the disciplines critical to the governing of our eternal free will? (An impression while writing.)

"Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom." (Psalms 51:6 NAS) First, God cleanses us. Then He desires that we fill our souls with the right stuff, so He will find eternal truth and wisdom in our innermost being. The Gospel of the Reign of the Kingdom is the wineskin that holds the better wine. That Wine is not to just save our wedding celebration, but like Christ at Cana, it makes our participation key in the success of the whole affair.

What came from within Him is the key we must possess to unlock heaven. It is the truth within the truth. We must acquire it in preparation. Otherwise, like the five unprepared virgins, we will only be Knock, Knock, Knockin,’ on Heaven’s door.*

Chapter 2. A Divine event!

What was that? I heard myself say out loud? I wasn’t in the habit of talking to myself but …what was that? I knew what I had seen but…

I was standing in the dark, in the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen. By reflex, I tried to reproduce what I had just seen. Reaching out, I flipped the nearby light switch on and off several times to no avail. In my heart and my head I knew better, the lights had been out to begin with. Was it a reflection of some kind? No it was dark outside. A kitchen nightlight cast a glow on my back as I looked into the now dark dining room

In the darkness I had been walking along one wall, the length of the dining room, toward the doorway where I was now standing. The soft glow of a small night light in the kitchen had marked the entrance. As I turned right to enter the kitchen, out of the corner of my left eye something got my attention. I quickly turned my head, looking back over my left shoulder toward one end of the dark room. There, in a slightly prolonged moment, I saw… a pillar of fire!

It was only there for a second or so but I saw it clearly. It was about 3 feet in diameter, made up of individual flames, several hundred of them I would guess, each the size of my hand.

The feeling I got was like being in a waiting room full of people, like I had caught someone looking at me over their magazine, looking me in the eye momentarily and turning away quickly.

While brief in duration, the column of fire was floor to ceiling high (10’). It was there and then it disappeared. I didn’t even have time to blink. I really did see it, I said to my skeptical, carnal self. Preoccupied but pondering, I came back to my original plan and got something to eat.

The proof to me that I saw it, then and now, is that I can still see it, saved forever on the hard drive of my mind. In time it would become an anchor for my faith, as God events do. Back then I had no idea what it was or meant.

The next day, I agreed to go to a location where I knew, I was going to be assassinated!

Interspersed among the more important things written here, are small but hopefully meaningful portions of my testimony. I share these portions so that you will know I have had a significant experience with God. The experience has continued now thirty-two years later, resulting in this book, His book.

The title is bold but it is absolutely true. I know I am repeating myself but the content is from beyond me but then again God always is beyond us! I welcome the testing of its content. I am wonderfully driven to rise up and share it. I have a portion, a privilege, in Christ’s return. You are meant to also.

God’s inspiration has blown the lid off of my understanding. I feel like Ray Kroc talking to the original McDonald’s brothers. I see a world-wide franchise as God’s eternal life saving message spans the globe. It is not a message about Jesus alone. It is about the kingdom He preached, as did Paul and the rest. Forgive the analogy but lots of places have the burger. Think of God serving a Kosher burger. Think of the Gospel of the kingdom as a franchise that says it another way, not having it my way or your way but doing it God’s way, finally answering to a higher power.

One thing John Maxwell, the best selling author of The Law of the Lid shares, is that leadership will take you further than personal talent or skill. Jesus picked 12 knowing He was never meant to be enough, He was to be taken out of the equation. The enlargement of, the accomplishment of, God’s plan depended on the Exit Strategy of Christ! His Exit Strategy set the course of His life. Our Exit Strategy must also!

(http://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog/the-law-of-the-lid)

The knowledge Jesus brought to them (and us) although it appeared to be lost with His death, was resurrected when He was, compelling them to a life-giving, world changing commitment. The Christ we honor for His sacrifice must be resurrected in our lives. We acknowledge His living existence by our obedience.

If short of God’s unhindered input, we fall short of the dunamis, the power of inspired leadership and understanding. (Proverbs 8:14 NAS) I believe John is saying, leadership can accomplish things that your knowledge or talent alone cannot. God is speaking to you leaders, giving you the information and motive to now exercise your God given ability for Him and for His. I speak to this more in the last chapter, An Epilog or an Epiphany.

In order to escape this lost and dying world, more than ever before we must grasp the grace of these several critical things found here. We must implement them faithfully, or be like the many, which asked, sought and knocked. They were believers who rejected God’s personal help when He answered them in Matthew 7. Their destiny of doom has been spoken by Jesus, from the Father. By rejecting His help, we will have said to Him, You never knew us. He will agree, as Jesus said and we read in Matthew 7:23.

This book is about our mission, updated orders, orders that may take us where we will be assassinated, but not a hair on our head will be harmed (Luke 21: 16-19 NAS). This is where, according to Jesus, if we resist passively, if we intercede for His enemies, we may physically die but we will not be lost! He would know. He did what He did so we could do what He said!

Like Jesus, do we have a Gethsemane that we must willingly enter? How can we not? Mike, how can that be? Jesus did it all! That is a song. Yes, all to Him I owe. Because we are seeing His return, much more is required of us. Why do we think He has given us the last 30 plus years to get stoked up on His Word, building our faith? The Lord’s resurrected life really began in the garden upon His submission to God’s will. Joining Him in an anguish of our own, ours will too. Seeing ahead like Christ, the foretold begins daily. For sure, conditions will worsen revealing our garden of surrender! Be at peace, the Christ, all the fullness of Deity, dwells in us. He has entrusted His soul to us. Let us forsake our soul and cling to His. This will bring us through whatever and bring Him back, as foretold!

We often hear the phrase, It’s all about Him, and when it comes to praise, glory and thankful hearts, it is all about God. While wanting to avoid thinking too highly of ourselves, while fearfully and rightly so putting His sacrifice first and the price He paid in the absolute place of honor it deserves, we are almost fearful to consider His point of view. I believe His view of us, revealed by Him example, demands something from us as sons of men! Because He did not run, we must not. There is no exiting the life He gives!

The Lord’s self-sacrificing mission objective was about us! To Him, it is all about us! To us, that makes it…all about Him. As Christ grows within us, it becomes all about them? As believers and followers, do we really know what that could mean? We should evangelize, but I believe it is now more about those who we call brothers or sisters in the Lord who are in jeopardy by self disqualification and they do not know it! The people in Matthew 7:22-23 thought they were OK with God.

Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

Does He know us or have our actions and choices declared You don’t know me! like Jesus had to declare to those folks in Matthew 7.

I am convinced that in God’s eyes, after receiving us initially, it is then about us making the spiritual transition that we all must make into Christ that saves us. It is now all about them! It is now our turn, as His Christ-like children, to play a role that may accomplish the same in them that Jesus did in us. For the few who will get this, our salvation is secured by the understanding (power, Proverbs 8:14 NAS) we have received. I am talking more than maturity of course. Can God now safely and gloriously use us to carry out end-time prophecy the way He used Jesus? Oh yes, in being about them, it becomes about us and our eternal life, just as it was with Jesus.

Creation in total, every visitation by God up to Christ and the giving of Himself, has been about us! Sending the Holy Spirit was all about us. God wants us to be a family that willingly and absolutely listens to, trusts in and willingly gives themselves to Him and His ways. Like any bride during the engagement period, this life is where we prove our love. She is faithful and looks to her groom only. She adjusts her thinking and choices according to his. In fact because of her Groom’s wisdom, she also learns what He has learned from His Father. The Groom’s respect for His Father becomes her respect. Yes, respect, adoration, honor and loving obedience should fill her heart. These new ways of His, are becoming to her. We still can rise to this beauty and holiness in the church?

So we can become family, Father God fulfills a father’s responsibility teaching both of us His ways. He taught Jesus who taught us. Through Christ, the Father supplied more than enough information so Holy Spirit could reveal all that is necessary for us to invest our new life properly. Bringing more than a return for the Master’s investment, we become His child in Christ-like innocence. To that end Holy Spirit will continually remind us by the Word, what to do or not, expanding our ability and understanding for one reason. He is preparing us not as much for this life but for eternity and its disciplines!

From those who have never acknowledged Jesus at all to those saved in proclamation only, they must be taught the level of faith that we all must be willing to demonstrate. Any thought that I am speaking of works, is wrong. God gives us our chance via reconciliation. From there we must obey. "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." (John 3:36 NAS, NKJV) Expected obedience is not works, it is obedience. In God’s will, Jesus obediently died (first at heart) while still in the Garden. So also must we and long before it might actually be required of us physically. Obedience prepares us for anything with a righteous response to it. Christ-honoring obedience, from our hearts, will be a turning point for the body of Christ and will, by us, be the fulfillment of prophecy trumpeting the Lord’s return. His words spoke it!

Chapter 3. A Divine Death

3.1 In the beginning

The next day, I agreed to go to a location where, I knew, I was going to be assassinated." It is true. In late August of 1981 I was the target of an organized murder plot. God had other plans.

The details would make a good movie according to those who have heard my testimony. Five short months later, by the first month of 1982, I had become a Christian, a husband, a dad, and to say the least, a changed man. I consider what has happened since then, even more exciting. A Godly family of children their spouses and grandchildren, years of privileged leadership in church, hosting Governors and State Attorney’s, to Russia on missions, on radio, television, teaching, praying and healings for many, 26 years of successful business, and all during those times, God is showing, showing, showing to me, what you are about to read. I am not well known but He is. I believe there will be no doubt when you are done that the critical content is,…from Him, for us!

It was January 22, 1982 that I married the girl of my dreams. She was not fully aware of my past, but had faith in the person she believed she knew, the person I was becoming.

Janis had become a Christian a few years before meeting me, and had been praying for a husband that would love her and her two children as his own. According to her, God brought me 1200 miles to be an answer to her prayers. I had never been anybody’s answer to prayer.

Her children, Leah, 11 and Scott, 15, liked me. Because God was already moving in their lives in a big way, the blending of our lives went very well. We did not have the normal conflicts some joined or blended families have.

After asking the children for their approval of our marriage, I told them, We will all follow the same rules. The Bible will provide us with the guidance we need. As you can imagine there were reasons, which they were not aware of, that prompted me to relinquish my authority, my understanding, my wisdom (?), in deference to God’s.

Janis had included in her prayer for a husband that he would love God and put God first in his life. She also wanted him to be taller and have a mustache. I was taller and I did have a mustache. Was I a Godly man? Not in those late months of 1981, when I first came to Florida. When we met, she did not know… I was running for my life.

3.2 F.E.A.R

Before meeting my Janis, I was in fearful contemplation of assassination. I had literally run miles at the beach playing an imaginary phone call over and over in my mind. I needed to tell my drug smuggling friends, I am not coming back, forget about me (and what I know) and leave me alone. I absolutely knew they would want to talk in person one more time or a threat would be made before the call ended. I just kept rehearsing the call." It always ended the same. I was totally