1 Thessalonians 5

New King James Version (NKJV)

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

 Quench not the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt, test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.

 In a dream, I was in a market place and went to take an elevator to another floor. When the doors opened I began to step in but was shocked to discover there was nothing but an open shaft with no carriage. The first thing I thought of was the people who would not be careful to look, as I did before stepping in. I went back to those I was standing with, previously, and warned them of the elevator. We all stood and watched again as the elevator doors opened wide, this time the carriage was misaligned and tipped leaving a gap wide enough to fall through. It wasn’t enough to let those around me know. Now, I’m on a mission to let all the occupants in the market know there is a dangerous mode of transportation in this building.  (There is a way that seems right to a man but the end of that way is death.) I decided that by going to a central desk in the building, I could better broadcast the dangerous condition of the elevator.

They Shall Cry, “Peace and Safety!”

My task seemed cumbersome, I had to go through a lot of effort just to get to the desk, while I was concerned I wouldn’t get the message out in time, I hoped no one would plunge down the broken elevator shaft. Finally, I get to the desk where there was a line. I realized I’m going to have to push past the others to get out my warning hoping they will understand once they hear the reason. Now that I’m at the counter, I realize I just need to shout for every one to hear, so help could be dispatched more promptly, and a life may be saved. But, as I shouted with concern and emotion in my voice, a Christian woman walked up to me, who had nothing to do with the desk, and postured herself to “handle the situation” by commanding peace over me. Somehow it stripped the message of its urgency and diverted its focus to the woman. I knew what she did was out of order, and stemmed from her own root of fear, and warped idea of what the word-  for edification, really entails. She could have waited on the Lord and stood back in observation, staying neutral; ironically, her attempt to put forth a false sense of security, while dowsing the impact of the voice of alarm immediately aligned herself in judgment of those watchman who would NOT sound the alarm to warn the city when the enemy comes.  This one should have remembered the scriptures:  “… despise not prophecy and forbid it not. Let the prophet  speak and the others stand and judge.  We ought not to be quick to meddle with the dealings of God, regarding the souls He has made.  The times we are living in warrant GRAVITY.  How we speak to our four year old child in the yard, verses how we speak to them attempting to dart across a busy parking lot, would vary in the natural, so also, in these end-times depending on the cost of failure, for the WORD of the  LORD to be unheard or not acted upon.

He that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God.

For those of you who have experienced this odd attempt to douse and flatten the spirit of the voice of alarm, in God’s mission to save lives, know that your responsibility is yet not lifted. For if they HEAR, and do not respond, you’re not responsible, but if the warning is dampened or hampered it is still for the watchmen to press on and persevere. Remember, many of the prophets were threatened, beaten, incarcerated, driven out of the region for their sound of alarm. That spirit that declares peace in lieu  of warning is in bed with Anti Christ, false prophets, Jezebel, Ahab, the foolish servant, and if nothing more is a FEAR FILLED Christian who does not understand that the mercy of God is present in warning, correction, and rebuke, and all are needed in strengthening,  and for the edification of the saints. The warning of pending judgements have been used as a tool for evangelism that moves many to repentance. It is hard to understand that people are actually believing a lie, these days, that prophetic words that sound an alarm are not of God because they promote fear. Sometimes fear is healthy, like how we fear fire. Like how we are suppose to fear God. the full measure of the Spirit includes the seven, one of those is the Spirit of Fear. The Spirit of the Fear of the Lord is here to rest upon His anointed, as is the Spirit of the Lord in power and might.

Mercy is Love in Action

It is mercy that exposes our hearts, so that we will not die in our sin. Pronouncements of judgements with out an opportunity to repent, or instructions to do so, is not God’s mode of operation. In the new testament, in the acts of the saints, we see occasions where confrontations occur and hard words are spoken. We have the account of Peters dealing with Ananias and Sapphira who lied to the Holy Ghost, and Simon, who thought to purchase Him. These dealings are no less critical now than they were in the beginning. Nothing has changed to alter them. The Spirit of The Lord still speaks to the church, HIS lamp stands in various places, and circumstances, are still in danger of being removed. This is why I warn those now who would posture themselves over words of the prophets of God, to dilute their impact, or divert their intent. If you succeed and lives are lost, the blood will be on your hands. Warnings, in their very nature are acts of mercy, pronounced judgments with instructions for repentance the same, we see this in Acts 8:20.

Acts 8:20-25
New International Version (NIV)

Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. “Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan village.

We who are of the day are not appointed to wrath, yet, we are reminded to stay awake and alert. To watch and pray. Who does this? Is it not the watchmen of the night who sound the alarm? What would become of those who cried peace in the day of his wrath?

Watchman Of The Night  Dream  2/23/2014. Revised 2/26/2014.

deana barnes