This article may be found at: www.spiritdaily.com:
NEW ORLEANS EVENT RANKS AS ANOTHER SPIKE IN A SERIES OF EVENTS THAT INTENSIFY
By Michael H. Brown
Prophets have been dismissed in every period and so now prophecy runs into the same resistance as applies to disasters like "Katrina."
Amos. Jeremiah. Jonah. What would they say?
We have a feeling they would have said what was said at Sodom or Nineveh and that it would be dismissed, of course, in a modern world that has gone "politically correct."
It is not politically correct to point out anything "negative" (the evil in our society tries to intimidate anyone from identifying it), even though the real negative is ignoring and tolerating evil that if not purged will cause thousands more to die in the future.
The cruelest thing we can do right now is to ignore the aspect of the Church that (like Christ Himself) is prophetic and to ignore the fact that God in His mercy purifies.
When it leads to repentance, and prayer, prophecy saves lives. It can't save lives if it is ignored. Nor can one be Catholic without believing in the Bible, which is chock-full of situations whereby societal darkness led to calamities like what has occurred in New Orleans (a city we love in a special way).
Perhaps it is time for the Roman Catholic Church to revisit passages such as Matthew 24.
Quakes. Roaring seas. Was Jesus "negative"?
At any rate, down to business:
Periods of purification or "chastisement" have occurred throughout history, the last major one during the Middle Ages, when -- as in our own period -- there were huge storms, famines, unusual droughts, quakes, the breakdown of infrastructures, and last, but hardly least, the bubonic plague.
God speaks to us through nature; always has; is doing so now -- in His mercy.
The current phase of purification began with special earnest in 1989 and was marked by the earthquake in San Francisco -- which affected another stadium, this time Candlestick Park during the World Series.
In quick sequence we saw tremendous northeasters, El Ninos, record blizzards, a storm system that shut down every major airport on the East Coast (for the first time ever), the great Mississippi flood, Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Opal, record tornado years, the onset of frequent tropical storms, gargantuan floods in India and China, glaciers melting, the "perfect storm," the L.A. quake, and other events through the following decade.
After that came a new century and a new millennium and increasingly dramatic climate shifts, far more intense weather, record heat, record storms in the Pacific, great tempests and fires and drought in Europe, wildfire too in the American West, the Florida hurricanes, and the Asian tsunami as each up-tick, it seemed, gained in intensity.
Not to mention September 11.
The cycle that kicked off in 1989 hit a higher stride and now we see a higher stride still with what can only be known as the New Orleans catastrophe.
Such events were foreseen in the "1990 prophecy," which, recorded anonymously on December 3, 1990, was a "word of knowledge" that was supposedly from Jesus. We have taken it seriously in part because it correctly foresaw September 11.
"These chastisements will differ according to regions, and like the great evil, will not always or usually be immediately noticeable for what they are," the alleged inspiration said. "In the period also will be a warning that involves not fire from the sky but fear of fire from the sky, and strange loud rumblings. This, according to mankind's response, will then be followed by another chastisement, or the inevitable onset of the change of era. Your era is ending. Soon the world will not be the world you know. I am not speaking of a barren world, or one depopulated, but of the end of your technological era. Many inventions of mankind will be broken down and there will be more of a peasant attitude and way of life everywhere."
Fifteen years later, as the purification takes another spike upward, it certainly looks like a preview of things breaking down there at the Superdome or on the highways near New Orleans. Women are carrying their children to unseen lands like scenes from the Dust Bowl.
And how true: no one will admit the event for what it is. Prophecy has been usurped by bureaucracy.
Was it the long-prophesied "mega-storm"?
"Katrina" was certainly an event that was expected in prophetic circles and it will now rank as one of the three greatest natural disasters in history, even if the death toll does not reach the level of the great Galveston flood of 1900 or the Great San Francisco Quake, which killed 6,000.
The prophetic is as hopeful as it is realistic (there is nothing to fear in Jesus, Who will protect us in all circumstances), but prophecy knows that when we confront the truth -- especially about ourselves -- we dispel evil.
What have been some of the prophetic pulses? Something called the "Elijah list" carried a prediction from a man named Kim Clement, who on July 22, 2005, heard the words:
"O New Orleans God speaks to you from Houston tonight and says enough of this! For a judgment is coming says the Spirit of the Lord, and I will take the men that have stood in faith, raise them above the flood that shall destroy... Enough of this! For I will take the curses and the bodies will even rise and they will come forth on the water, but I will keep you, and the stench of death will only last a few days. And then what I promised two years ago will come to pass for August, September and October of this year I made a promise it would happen, and God said be strengthened now, be strengthened now for enough is enough says the Lord."
We cannot vouch for all such things and as usual leave it for you to decide. We can state from the mailbag that there is an uneasiness among many people (let us know your experiences). We often get the word, "prepare."
"It was in the middle of the night, I was restless and couldn't sleep when all of a sudden I heard these words, not in a voice but in my heart," writes Sharron Patraw of Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. "'Be vigilant and persevere.' I was shocked and for a minute it startled me."
From a small group that claims prophetic dreams came the alleged vision -- two weeks ago -- of a woman whose husband worked on a Gulf oil rig.
"The same week, when he was offshore, I had this dream," she said. "I wasn't in my house, but another house much smaller. I went outside with intentions of going to a neighbors home. Children followed me, not my own and much younger.
"When I opened the door, I wasn't surprised to see the wood floor of a porch, nor the boardwalks connecting each house to the next within a small community. There was a small bateaux (boats -- flat bottom, usually aluminum) tied up close to each porch. Water was everywhere you could see, with only small rises on which a couple-three short trees were growing in the surrounding marsh. It was a marsh riddled with tiny canals and very tiny 'cheniers.' (the tiny island like rise of ground that supported the trees.) In the middle of the boardwalk was a huge alligator.
"As soon as I saw the alligator, I turned to shoo the kids back inside, then returned inside, too. The dream ended when the door closed behind me, separating the danger (alligator) from the kids and myself. The buildings were not the normal 'camps' you would find in the marsh areas around here, yet that is where they were. They were real homes, houses. In the marsh, if more than one camp is in an area, it's nothing unusual for them to be connected by board walkways.
"The camps are usually scattered rather randomly, these were not. These were like any neighborhood, in a nice neat line, only in the water instead of dry land. These two dreams were two weeks ago."
Last January, another woman in the group from Louisiana got the numbers, "29."
The storm struck, of course, on August 29.
"There are big upheavals coming soon," says another who claims prophecy. "That is all I can say for now. Dick Cheney will assume a major role in our fate. Big explosions."
We'll take that under advisement. We'll try to discern it. We try to be careful but we don't despise prophecy. God is watching out for us, and even if such prophecies come true, will keep us secure if we love, fast, and pray.
"I do like the idea of praying-interceding in great numbers for certain prophetic revelations," wrote Connie Etie of Highlands, Texas a while back. "I thought it might be great if Catholics could do the same for some of your readers most powerful prophetic dreams, etc. I especially say this because I had a dream in which much of the Louisiana coastline disappeared. Might not many of your other readers have similar stirrings in the spirit requiring increased prayer to benefit someplace or some event?"
That's what prophecy is for -- and the Church will revive when it realizes this.
There were also personal events.
"Signs from Heaven: ten days ago my husband who is a software engineer and was looking for a job got an exceptional offer," said a female reader. "We live in Florida and the job offer was to start this week in New Orleans. But something was not right, we prayed for guidance and strange signs happened: at the parking lot we found a red piece of fabric, later on a red flag show up at the computer screen and did not go away…red flags. He called back to say that he couldn’t take the job… it was not easy, there was no logic reason… just the signs from Heaven."
Said a woman from Upstate New York:
"Below you will find the briefest account of what appears to be a visionary experience that I can make. I have been praying about it for several months and have also sought discernment, which has been uniformly positive.
"In August of 2001, while driving past Manhattan, I heard very clearly: 'Take a good look at the World Trade Towers -- you will never see them again.' I only told this to one or two people because I was afraid to take the risk of being wrong. This time, I am willing to be mistaken, but I feel that there is something real here.
"Sometime in early November, 2004, I woke up around four a.m. Whether the following experience was a dream or a vision, I don’t really know because I was in that drowsy half-awake state for a while when this experience started.
"I saw the continent of North America as though from very high up above it. It appeared to be normal green and brown colors. Suddenly the whole continent turned into a flat plain uniformly gray in color as though covered in dust.
"I saw Jesus, enormously huge stride across the continent in about a dozen or so steps. Each place He stepped left a deep footprint — an impression in the land. In each of these footprints clear water sprang up like a fountain and lush green grass filled in the depression in the ground.
"Suddenly the scene changed. Jesus, still huge in size, was standing in the middle of North America right at the border between Canada and the USA, looking south toward the USA. His Face was very grave — stern and sad. Suddenly, He lifted up His right foot and stomped it down very hard on the ground just on the south side of the border. There was a huge booming shaking which rippled outward from Jesus’ foot like ripples on a pond when you throw in a stone. The ripples of shaking moved outward until the whole North American continent was terribly shaken.
"When I awoke in the morning, I was very shaken up by what I saw. I didn’t want it to be true. I deliberately pushed the whole thing out of my mind to forget it. I did forget about the experience completely.
"However several weeks later the same experience happened again in exactly the same way: North America turned gray, Jesus walked across it leaving oases of water and grass in His footprints. Then He stood right in the middle of North America (measured from East to West) at the Canadian border, looking at the USA. He lifted His foot, stomped it down in the middle of the Northern part of the USA so that there was a huge, deep boom. The ripples went outward so that the whole continent shook all the way to both oceans. I knew I was dreading something coming in early August, I just didn’t know what it was. I believe that this dream/vision is a call to prayer for mercy on our land and its people."
Again, we'll take it all under advisement. The view from here: the purification has hit a high stride but has a long way to go.
I'll be back to blogging tomorrow. But I wanted to share Mr. Brown's article because of what he has to say about the forces of evil and how these forces attempt to intimidate authentic followers of Christ from exposing them.
Mr. Brown's website: www.spiritdaily.com
God love you,
Paul
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