You’re not the only one asking. It’s a logical question for each of us once our eyes are opened. When Covid first struck, I knew within days it was a major turning point in our world and on God’s kingdom calendar. Because I had studied prophecy and the rapture, I just knew. What I didn’t know was what to do with all I was learning over the course of 2020. It was evident, though, that time was of the essence.

“Daybreak will dawn only so much longer, then soon the sun will set and nightfall will come, casting the world into seven years of darkness. Time is of the essence.” – Daybreak

Maybe you can relate to this: It’s like I lived with a pounding headache, the words repeating, “What can I do? What can I do?” The people I told early on now tend to avoid me. I told truth – love does that– but my presentation of the rapture and the rising one-world order was way off. I told too much too soon rather than unfurling it over time. It was all so much for me to take in that, for a time, I became paralyzed and stopped doing anything at all.

Are you experiencing the same? You see the rising darkness and soon-coming Light and know you must warn the lost and wake the found. Each day you watch and read as prophecy teachers relay the latest news and how things are only getting darker. You add knowledge to knowledge but have no outlet for what you know, or maybe you fear telling. Ultimately, you wonder what your role is and struggle to find your voice.

To find your role, you will need to learn to embrace your design and circumstances. God uses us where we are. If you’re not currently on a stage, then it’s unlikely He will throw you on one, so don’t panic. How God has worked in your life and circumstances up until now has likely been your preparation for such a time as this. Might He raise one up out of obscurity to be a louder-than-most voice? Absolutely. We need only look at Moses, David, Gideon, and a group of fishermen to see examples. Typically, though, the Lord will use you as He’s already shaped you and where He’s already placed you. There’s peace in that.

“None are more uniquely qualified than others. We all just have a distinctive place to shine–to blaze our way through this ever-darkening world. You are surrounded by sleeping loved ones and unborn-again sheep. Shine so brightly for them that the found will wake and the lost will have light cast upon their path to guide them to the Shepherd.” – Daybreak

I have suggestions to help you look at your own design and what your role may be in the days to come. We’ll begin with the Prepare for Your Role Series. I’ll share how to access that below. But what can you do in the meantime? How can you share now?

God gave me a way to share truth easily and without fear, and now I’m giving it to you at no cost. Early in 2021, the Lord defined my role and elevated my voice through Daybreak, Last Days of Light. He reminded me that I’m a fiction writer and that fiction is a great avenue into the heart of the reader who might not otherwise seek out the truth of this last-days world. Many of those around us refuse to listen or see, but they may be willing to read a compelling story with truth tucked amidst its pages. Jesus was a storyteller for good reason. Hearts that may otherwise be closed off to pointed truth may well absorb interwoven truths within the story of another’s journey. That’s what I’ve done for the past decade, fashion stories that whisper into hearts that often only skim the surface of life with Jesus.

Daybreak is a free, unique, and non-threatening means for you to share what you know with your friends, both men and women alike. They will journey along with a skeptical Paige who joins a team of Daybreakers in looking for her missing father. The story systematically sheds light on the rising darkness of our world and reassures the believer that their Groom is coming to the rescue. For those who live in fear or dread over the rapture, Daybreak will be a tremendous source of encouragement and comfort. Maybe that’s you. In 1 Thessalonians 4:18, Paul reminds us to comfort one another with the reassurance of the rapture. Allow me to be of comfort through Daybreak. Then you can easily share it with those who need the same.

• Download your free ebook or PDF here. You will find a version that will work on Kindle, iPad, and most devices.
• Daybreak print editions are available on Amazon for cost at $8.50. I do not make royalties from the print edition.
• All Daybreak-related materials and subsequent sequel releases will be offered digitally for free.

About the book:

In this ripped-from-the-headlines action adventure, Paige discovers the world isn’t what she thinks it is. After an urgent phone call from her dad, she sets out on a mission to find the absentee father who walked out of her life only weeks after her mother’s untimely death.

Wyatt, the soldier her father sends to protect her, sounds just like her dad, raving of conspiracies and warning of impending doom. This team, these loyal-to-her-father men, will stop at nothing to locate their leader.

Nothing about Paige’s life will ever be the same after that knock on her door and Wyatt’s two-minute warning.

What readers are saying:

– “An arrow that leads the reader to the bullseye of truth.”

– “Daybreak is like night-vision goggles.”

– “This one is a set-apart work.”

– “A holy huddle of encouragement.”

– “I devoured this book in two sittings.”

Ways to access the free training material:

Enter Mission is the introduction and landing page to get you started. This will lead you to the Training Ground section of the site. To sign up for notifications when new topics are released, click here.

Believer, even when the enemy tries to shut you down and tell you you’re the least of your people as he did with Gideon, you can refute his lies with the truth. You already have the basic skills you need to do what Jesus calls you to do. And those you do lack, He will supply by the power of the Spirit or through others He brings alongside you. Since your skills and abilities may need to be sharpened for you to effectively step into your role, it is wise to intentionally prepare your heart and soul along with embracing your design.

The sessions are only now beginning, so you will be a part of the early phases of study that will allow you to invite others to join and find their roles to be able to battle alongside you. Soldier, you are already on the battlefield. Might as well learn to fight back.

 

 

John 2:12-25, Psalm 11:4, Isaiah 6:1-8, 2 Corinthians 6:16,1 Kings 8

Summary: Jesus went into the Temple in Jerusalem and drove out all those who desecrated the house of the LORD, earning the scorn of the religious officials. The Lord Jesus declared Himself to be the true temple of God, holy, spotless, and free from corruption.

John’s account of the life and work of the Lord Jesus included the recording of specific miracles He performed to demonstrate His authority, power, and divinity to His disciples and to those among His countrymen who truly had a hunger for the deeper things of God. There were also those who witnessed these tremendous displays of power who ended up despising Jesus for His claims. His presence and teachings tended to upset the status quo of the religious community and their influence on the people. They were fearful of what Rome would do if His ministry became more powerful and influential.

I am convinced by years of study and prayerful consideration that the High Priest, Caiaphas, and many of the higher-ranking Pharisees knew perfectly well who Jesus was, yet because He cornered them on their hypocrisy and false teachings and called them out for the spiritual frauds they were, they deliberately chose to ignore the obvious presence of God in their midst. Instead, they chose to follow their deviant hearts and ideas. They foolishly believed that they could rid themselves of the Holy in order to continue in unholy rituals and practices that marked them as nothing more than rank apostates, ultimately condemning themselves to hell.

Much has been written about the corrupt state of religious practice that was being conducted within the Temple in Jerusalem. What had originated as a house of prayer and worship to the LORD God had turned into an arena of confusion, prejudice, noise, and the stench of numerous animals and birds being sold to pilgrims for the purpose of being a sacrifice for their sins in accordance with the Law of Moses.

The Temple of Jesus’ time had been one of the projects initiated by Herod the Great in his quest to build ports, cities, stadiums, and roads in conjunction with the Roman authorities who really governed the area. Herod was seen by the Jews as a usurper of the true royal line that started with King David over a millennia ago and was seen as nothing more than a puppet ruler over the former kingdom of Israel. Herod had built his version of the Temple upon the foundations of the one that had been erected by the returning Jewish exiles centuries before after being freed by the Persian Empire in 538 B.C and following.

The first Temple had been constructed by King Solomon and dedicated to the glory of the LORD early in his reign, around 960 B.C. Over the years, Solomon was drawn towards the worship of foreign gods through the influence of his numerous wives and was rebuked by God for doing so (1 Kings 11:1-14). The kingdom would be torn in two after his death, with the nations of Israel and Judah both spiraling into periods of idolatry, religious indifference, and apostate behavior (2 Chronicles 36:14-21). The citizens of Judah, which held onto the Davidic line, believed that even in the midst of this obvious evil behavior, God would overlook their sins due to the fact that the Temple was still there as a symbol of His presence and covenant.

By the end of the kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C., the house of God had turned into a place of wickedness and reprobate behavior by the very priests who had been entrusted to observe the Laws of the LORD and to teach the people to heed them as well. Prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel warned the people of the consequences of going after pagan deities and their abominable practices that even included child sacrifice.

God punished His people by sending them into a seventy-year period of exile into Babylon that finally purged them of idolatry, but unfortunately, not of rote ritualistic observance of traditions and practices that had been interwoven into the teaching of Scripture to the point where the traditions all but buried the Word of God and worship ended up an empty, meaningless system with God’s name put on it for good measure (Isaiah 1:11-15; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:22; Micah 6:6; Matt. 9:13; Romans 1:21-25).

By the time Jesus appeared (Galatians 4:4-5) on the scene, the order of worship in Herod’s Temple had become nothing more than a cacophony of confusion and frustration to the few who truly wanted to commune with God. This was more than the LORD could stand, and in righteous anger, He drove out the moneychangers who were fleecing the public with high rates of exchange and the selling of “Temple-approved” sacrificial animals for outrageous sums. Everything that had been held as sacred had turned into a religious racketeering scheme that made the High Priest, Caiaphas and his equally greedy and corrupt father-in-law Annas rich and influential. Jesus’ justifiable actions and words to them were a sharp and much-needed rebuke for what had been allowed to go on for years.

The officials demanded a reason or sign that gave Jesus the authority to do what He had done. He answered by pointing to Himself, telling them to “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (2:19). The authorities thought that He was referring to the Temple complex that had taken years to construct, and was still being built, and would not be finished until 66 A.D., the year of the Jewish revolt against Nero and Rome, eventually ending with the destruction of not just the Temple, but the entirety of Judea by the hands of Vespasian and Titus and their legions in 70 A.D. This disaster would be predicted by Jesus at His Olivet Discourse during the last week of His ministry (Matthew 24:1-2; Mark 13:1-2; Luke 21:5-6).

This devastating event is strong proof that the majority of the New Testament had been written prior to the destruction of the Temple, since it was not mentioned in any of the writings. John’s gospel, letters, and the book of Revelation, which came later in the first century A.D., made no mention of it for the fact that the prophecy was already known, the event had occurred, and not something that needed to be presented again.

Jesus’ words were a condemnation of the apostate and corrupt religious practices that had turned Judaism into nothing more than a collection of rote practices that meant nothing and did nothing to awaken sinful humanity to the need to repent and adhere to the teachings of God. The Temple was nothing more to the Lord Jesus than a gaudy building full of dead men’s bones and all corruption. By walking out of it, He condemned it. God no longer lived there.

The work of redemption by the Lord Jesus that freed us from the curse of sin, death, and hell (John19:30; Romans 5: 6-11, 8:31-39; 2 Corinthians 5:17) by His death, burial, and resurrection has also initiated a new dwelling place for the Lord, which is not housed in any building, monument, or physical construction. The new Temple is within us when we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Acts 4:12, 16:31; Romans 10:9-10). We are His dwelling place, and He has promised never to leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

The True Temple could never be destroyed, not by the actions of men or the schemes of the devil (1Corinthians 2:6-9). We are His, now and forever when all of the temples, cathedrals, and buildings of current rituals and worship will be regulated to the fires of God’s final purge of this corrupted world and with it, the sin, evil, and malevolence that cursed it eons ago (Romans 8:18-23; 2 Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 21:1-7). We are the body of Christ, His people, and we will see Him, who is the center of our worship, hope, and life. No mere building, however grand and great it might be, can make that claim.

donaldwhitchard@gmail.com

www.realitycityreverend.com

My YouTube broadcasts titled “The Reality City Review” will be posted on Facebook, GETTR, Parler, and on my website when completed. My main area of discussion will be on the basics of the Christian faith but will also deal with prophetic issues and other topics as the Lord impresses upon me to handle.