BIRTH PAINS

"There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains." (Matthew 24:7-8)

Last week there was, as you know, a massive earthquake in Chile was near the city of Concepcion. My friend Alicia called me immediately and in the Spirit she heard that word "Concepcion" and knew it was Yahweh's signal pointing us to the above Scripture in Matthew! Concepcion - or Conception - is certainly the BEGINNING of the process of birth. And birth cannot come forth without pain, as decreed by Yahweh in Genesis 3:16: "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children." And so for all these 6000 years since creation, we have known that the process of birthing involves pain. And we women have learned and experienced that when it is time to give birth, the pains grow closer and closer together and increase in intensity! So it is with Yahweh's signs in the earth today.

Within 24 hours large earthquakes struck Chile, Japan and Argentina. Yesterday magnitude 6.0+ after-shocks rocked Chile. The scientific reports are that "The earthquake/tsunami in 2004 and the recent one in Chile have moved the earth's axis." Time has even been shortened by milli-seconds because of this shift!

What is the meaning of all this? I caution you, dear readers, to remember that IT IS NOT AN END - IT IS A BEGINNING! We call these the "end times," but I think we should call them the "New Beginning Times." If we did that, we might just get our focus on the in-breaking Kingdom of Yeshua, in all its fullness and glory!

In Isaiah 24:18-20 we read: "The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder the earth is thoroughly shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind, so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls - never to rise again."

Never to rise again? Well, not as we now know it! PRAISE YHVH! The earth is reeling like a drunkard in the weight and the curse of human sin. And it will be our repentance and Yah's mercy that breaks through in Kingdom power and keeps those who love Yeshua and keep His Torah. The earth must go through its birth pains because the sons and daughters of God are being brought forth in purity. The Bride is being prepared for her Bridegroom.

As Shaul (Paul) writes in Romans 8:20-24: "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberat3ed from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God! We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to this present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redeption of our bodies. For this hope we were saved."

Our inner groaning is the Spirit within us, pushing us forth from decay and defilement, into glory and purity. We are being pushed through the birth canal, into the "glorious freedom of the children of God!" When we see the earth reeling, the seas raging, and the people perishing, let us not lose heart. Let us pray in the Spirit (which is our inward groaning) and let us rejoicing in our Bridegroom, who is coming soon! Let us strengthen our inner man, pray without ceasing, rise up in faith, be a light to this dark world, and eagerly wait for our adoption as sons and daughters of the Kingdom!