God Said, "I Will Shake All Nations"

God Is Shaking The Nations
by Mike Evans, Jerusalem Prayer Team,

The Earth has Shifted on its Axis
Newsletter March 15, 2011

In my prayer room this morning, God placed a mighty burden on my heart. Yesterday I watched the national news reports from Japan. First it was an earthquake, then a tsunami, and now the island nation is faced with the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe. This is a biblical scene of disaster: the earth has shifted on its axis, and the coastline of Japan shifted eight feet. The quake shifted the position of Earth's axis about 6.5 inches, Richard Gross, a geophysicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, reported in an e-mail.

The temblor also should have caused Earth to rotate somewhat faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds, he said. Down the road, data from the quake will provide an unusually precise view of how Earth is deformed during massive earthquakes at sites where one plate is sliding under another, including the U.S. Pacific Northwest, scientists said.

What the reporters were describing without even knowing it was that which is to come as prophesied by John the Revelator while exiled on the Isle of Patmos.

Over and over the words are ringing in my spirit: When you see these things, look up, look up, look up, for your redemption draws nigh. Yes, the winds of Armageddon are beginning to blow. Jesus described our day when saying that "as the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be … And they knew not until the flood came and took them all away." (Matthew 24:37, 39)

No, we're not in the Great Tribulation, beloved, but you can be sure of one thing: This old planet is groaning with birth pangs. As I watched the news reports, I was reminded of when the Mexico City earthquake and aftershocks happened on September 19, 1985. I immediately flew from Dallas to comfort the suffering. There were few on the plane. When I arrived, the roads were buckled. I asked the cab driver to take me to the city center; he refused and said he would die. I offered extra pesos. He said, "Senor, the pesos will not do me any good if I'm dead." Finally, I persuaded another cab driver to take me.

For more than a week, I comforted suffering people. It resembled a scene from the book of Revelation. There was no life; glass had been blown out of buildings; people were under tons of concrete. I had to put gauze over my mouth because the stench of death was so strong. I dug with my hands to try to free precious people buried under the concrete.

Warning after warning is coming to God's people from heaven with the declaration, "Jesus is coming soon, and this whole planet has an appointment with eternity that will not be averted." Every promise in God's Word will come to pass. One precious man, a college professor, was studying chapters 1 through 14 in the book of Ezekiel. He felt led to write a commentary on it.

The professor was a Hebrew scholar; he wrote the book in 1844. As he went verse by verse through the prophecy, he declared that the Valley of Dry Bones is a prophecy about the return and resettlement of the Jewish people from exile "back into the desolate waste and forsaken cities of the Holy Land—a return to Palestine." He said that Ezekiel spoke this prophecy more than 2,000 years before it was to be fulfilled. In his commentary, he pointed out that we must do "everything possible to be part of this prophecy." That professor's name was George Bush. Yes, a distant relative of George W. Bush.

I am working on a major book entitled Jesus is Coming Soon. This commentary is in my book. If you would like to be one of the first to be notified when the book is released later this year, please drop me a line.

Beloved, when you see these things LOOK UP! "Lift up your head for your redemption draws nigh." (Luke 21:28) The prophecies of the Bible declare that "in the twinkling of an eye, we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed."

Soon, and very soon, you will look into the eastern sky and witness the greatest event in the history of mankind. You will be blinded with a light brighter than the light that struck the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. You will hear the shout of an archangel and a heavenly choir will offer praise to the returning King. The trumpet will sound, and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Eternal Prince of Peace, will suddenly appear. Marble mausoleums will rip like tissue paper, and every grave on earth that holds the remains of the righteous will split open. Decaying bodies will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and gravity will lose its hold as the resurrection saints will soar into the heavens to meet the Savior in the air. You, in your glorified body, will enter the Pearly Gates of Heaven to be welcomed by the cheers of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

You will see Moses who stretched forth his hand to divide the sea. You'll see John the Revelator who declared on Patmos that he saw the Lord in the midst of seven golden candlesticks. You will see your departed loved ones and friends who knew the Lord. Most importantly, you will see Jesus.

I feel prompted by the Spirit of God to encourage you today. An unbelieving world is like Nero playing his fiddle as Rome burned. He was totally oblivious to what was happening around him, as are many people today; but not you, precious saint. When you go to bed tonight ask, "Jesus, is this the night you're going to come?" And when you awaken in the morning ask, "Lord, is this the day that I'll see your face?"

The prophet Haggai described the day we're living in when he declared in Chapter 2, verse 7, "And I will shake all nations." Hebrews 12:27 says it like this: "God's voice shook the earth … yet once more, I will shake not only the earth but the heavens, signifying that all those things that can be shaken … until those things which cannot be shaken will remain."

We are living in perilous times as described in 2 Timothy 3:1: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come." But the prophet Daniel reminds us that: "The people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits." (Daniel 11:32) In the midst of the shaking, God promises grace and strength and hope.

A few months ago, I sat in a small room with the president of Iran. The private meeting was arranged for me by the Iranian foreign minister. Before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ever said a word to me, he prayed in Farsi: "Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by you and make us among his followers."

The mullah who was his spiritual advisor had told me earlier that President Ahmadinejad was going to usher in the Mahdi through a great apocalypse in the Middle East. He said to me, "There will be a multitude of martyrs who will fight against the infidels—Christians and Jews. It is a great honor to be a martyr. A martyr does not die; his soul doesn't go into the ground, but goes directly to Paradise. A crown of glory with the jewel of the wealth of the world is placed on a martyr's head. He is given 72 black-eyed, incorruptible virgins in his mansion. He attends a glorious wedding—his wedding—and through the shedding of his blood, the martyr atones for 70 of his relatives that they may escape the horrors of hell."

I'm sure you can see the parallels between this and what we believe. There is a shaking going on in the physical and spiritual realm—a battle between two books, two kingdoms, and two spirits.

The good news is that WE WIN! All of these signs point to the return of our beloved Lord and Savior. The best is yet to come because of His promises. Jesus declared in John 14:12: "Greater works than these shall you do because I go unto the Father." He also said in John 17:21-22: "And the glory which You gave Me, I have given them that they may be one as We are one."

As you pray for those who are experiencing such great tragedy in Japan and throughout the Middle East and the world, remember Jesus is coming soon. He is praying for you. His Word declares that He makes intercession for us as our High Priest.

The Apostle Paul prophetically cried out, "Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him …" (II Thessalonians 2:1)

When we realize what is happening to this old planet—the earthquake in Japan, the tsunami that followed, and now the nuclear meltdown, it should quicken our spirits and affect the way we live and think and carry on our relationships. It should affect the way we invest in the Kingdom of God. Jesus is coming soon! The Spirit of the Lord is crying out, "Live your life in the light of eternity as you wait for the coming of the Lord!"

The word "coming" in the Greek is parousia or presence. We wait for the presence of the Lord. It is the same word that deals with the presence of the Lord which you experience today—except in greater measure. The Greek word for "gathering" is episynagoge. It means to "quickly collect." It describes our day as one when many scoffers are "walking after their own lusts saying 'Where is the promise of His coming?'" (II Peter 3:3-4)

The Greek word for "scoffer" is empaiktes meaning "to mock one another with disdain, scorn, derision, or ridicule." It's the same word used for those who mocked Jesus when He hung on the cross.

We're reminded of the words from II Peter 3:11: "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of person shall you be in holy conversation and godliness." In verse 10, the Bible declares: "When the day of the Lord comes … the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."

The phrase "great noise"—rhoizedon—is a sound so loud that it is deafening to those who hear it—so loud that none can escape it. The word "melt"—lyo—means to loose. In this case, it pictures the dissolving of matter and the complete dissolution of the earth's elements. "Fervent heat"—kausoo—depicts a fire so intense that nothing escapes its blaze.

The great news is that for we who believe, this world is not our home. Jesus has truly prepared a place for us in heaven. The same sweet Holy Spirit who we sense in our lives—the presence of God—will not only abide with us, but will increase in our lives until God's glorious presence is manifested. It will one day draw us into His presence with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. Hallelujah!