Spirit of Travail

“I am sad, but I don’t know why.” My 6-year-old grandson said this to me a while back, and I understood this sentence as if I spoke it with my own breath. “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Romans 8:22-23 The Spirit of our Lord that takes up space in me grieves the actions of the children of disobedience in this world. You cannot possess His Spirit within you and not feel Him. When we sin against Him, we grieve in His Spirit. He cannot reside where evil is at home, our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, and how many temples has He fled from where evil is at work and darkness dwells? He is light and stands as a witness to the destruction of His creation, and if you are closely abiding in Him and fully surrendered to Him, you partake in the sorrow of your Lord and Master. An amplified version of Ephesians 4:30 says, “Don’t break His heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.” I explained to my grandson that sometimes we can feel things that happen around us as if it were happening to us. He is a child of God and has had many spiritual encounters over the last couple of years. I am a witness to a call being made by the Heavenly Father to a young child and I try to guide him and teach him through prayer and obedience to listen to His voice. He recently ran into the house excited to have received his first vision from the Lord and eager to tell everyone. I am thankful to be able to teach him to understand many of the things I experienced as a young girl, so that he understands it is of God and that he isn’t crazy. I did not have that guidance; I contemplated a permanent solution to my temple to blow the crazy away. Thank God for the still small voice within us when we are desperate for help. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18 Now as a grown woman I know where the sadness comes from and am thankful to share in the sufferings of our Lord and Savior. This world is not for me, but while I am here, I can pray. I pray for the Father’s heart; I pray for those that provoke the wrath of a mighty and longsuffering God that has held back a furious storm for a long time and O how mighty and strong that storm is now. I feel it stirring and churning within me. My right arm is constantly reminded of the presence of the Holy One as I look to see what has a grip on me. I see nothing; and I feel everything. “Behold the storm of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has executed and accomplished the intents of His mind. In the latter days you will understand this.” Psalm 30:23-24

Israel, your Holy God demands glory and honor, and He will carry out that which he spoke through His servants the prophets long ago. The earth is in travail like a woman in the throes of childbirth. There is pressure and pain and crying out, but this must take place to bring forth the birth of a new creation. This promise of new life must pass through the blood and water of the purification process to be holy and anointed into the light, into its purpose. “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world.” John 16:20-21 The God of Israel has beautiful plans for the restoration of His Holy Nation, but first they must pass through the fire of purification to bring forth a holy remnant. While the birthing pains are still being felt, the new life is still being formed and it is only born when the creator says it is ready at His appointed time. We know there are still things that must take place in the Lord’s prophetic timeline before the restoration of Israel, and Gog as an instrument of God that was spoken by the prophet Ezekiel is to be watched, for there is still more to endure before you can look upon the face of the Lord. “All these are the beginning of sorrows. But all these things are the beginning of travail. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” Matthew 24:8 When a woman is nearer the birth, the Doctor watches her contractions to see where they are strongest and how close together, they are. This lets him know how close she is to delivery by wrapping a pressure-sensitive device around her belly. The stronger and more intense the pain and pressure, the closer she is to delivering, and we see Israel being pressed on all sides feeling the weight of travail. Those of us that love her, hold her hand and encourage her to be strong as we stand beside her as her pain becomes our pain. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” Isaiah 40:1-2

Many recent events point to the war of Gog and Magog in the prophetic timeline of the end times, and there has been much speculation as to when this will take place. People have tried to decipher the many hidden meanings in the bible and truly God is the only one that knows, but He did give us things to watch for and we would be ignorant to dismiss them if we value His word. I have my opinions, but I have discovered that what I feel far outweighs what I think I know as my body acts as a spiritual barometer. Still, this is all in the Lord’s plans and it is His to drive forward to serve the purpose He has for it. Are we about to witness the one who is in control of all things turn Gog around and put hooks in his jaws and drag him and all his troops away to invade Israel? “You will attack my people Israel like a storm moving across the land. When the time comes, I will send you to invade my land in order to show the nations who I am, to show my holiness by what I do through you. You are the one I was talking about long ago, when I announced through my servants, the prophets of Israel, that in the days to come I would bring someone to attack Israel.” The Sovereign Lord has spoken. Ezekiel 38:16-17 

Ancient rabbinic sages held that the ninth day of Av was preordained to be a day of tragedy. We are fast approaching Tisha B’Av in the Hebrew calendar, and it would not be a shock to see Israel invaded by Iran, with the assistance of Russia and Turkey on August 9. Historically, the suffering of Israel comes like the waves of the ocean that can always be expected to hit the shoreline at its appointed time. This day is considered the saddest day in the Jewish calendar as it marks several tragic events in their history, including but not limited to the destruction of the first and second temple. When the time does come that Gog invades Israel, it will be His doing, and it will be His will to fight them. “On the day when Gog invades Israel, I will become furious. I declare in the heat of my anger that on that day there will be a severe earthquake in the land of Israel.” Ezekiel 38:18-19 Israel is never alone in their suffering, even if they feel their God has forsaken them; He never will. Like a firstborn son that is Holy to the Lord, He will chasten and rebuke and correct His children, but He will never leave them. “I will make sure that my people Israel know my holy name, and I will not let my name be disgraced any more. Then the nations will know that I, the Lord, am the holy God of Israel.” Ezekiel 39:7 I pray that Israel is spared an additional tragedy on Tisha B’Av, and that we soon have much to celebrate instead of mourning, but I will not fight against the will of the Lord by wishing away the birthing pangs of new life. It is the hope of joy and our faith in His word that we must cling to as we await His promises. “I will comfort them and turn their mourning into joy, their sorrow into gladness.” Jeremiah 31:13