In The time Appointed
By the Watchman Dana G Smith
keywords: time, appointed, LORD, God, Jesus, believer, disciple
In 1962 an album was released titled ‘The Bitter and the Sweet’ on Columbia Records. On this album was a song that did not become popular right away. The song had been composed to music by Pete Seeger in the 50′s and recorded on his 1962 album. The Song, however, did not gain much notoriety though. The song if I mentioned it would immediately come to your lips and the chorus as well. Before Pete recorded it the Limeliters put it on their RCA records label and in their album called “To Everything there is a Season”. It would be later recorded and released in an album in October of 1965 by the Byrd’s who were formed in Los Angeles in 1964. The song was called, “Turn, Turn, Turn!”
During the turbulent 60′s with Vietnam, unrest, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the assassination of President Kennedy, many young people were swept up in this tide. A tide that was described so well in Pete Seeger’s song which was made number one by the Byrd’s release of “Turn, Turn, Turn”. It was indeed a time to be born, to die, to plant, pluck up, kill, heal, break down, build up, weep, laugh, mourn, dance, to get, to lose, to keep, to cast away, to rend, to sew, to keep silent, to speak, to love, to hate, to war, and a time of peace. It was this generation that protested the government for these kids did not trust them, and about this time came the ‘Jesus People’ or ‘Jesus Freaks’ upon the scene.
From Drugs, alcohol, free sex, rebellion, tune in, turn on, and drop out! This was the motto, all brought to a stoned generation of young people who listened to Dr. Timothy Leary. It was the generation that would epitomize the song itself. Today as I look back, truly, the song describes perfectly this generation of Americans.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 ¶To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
This has been the richest generation of all in America. We have been swept up in the greed of the century as banks fail, company’s fall, and nations go under heavy stresses of debt laden markets. We as Americans today have eaten more and with much more gusto. There is nothing we do not have to enjoy. The finest of Foods, wine, cheeses, meats, and seafood! The finest of everything!
We live in the biggest houses, most luxurious living accommodations on the earth at any time. We drive the biggest cars and trucks, using oil to fuel them. Fuel which we don’t have. Our farms and ranches are some of the most productive on earth. We have technology that makes the public forget the way things use to be. Today we are dependent on instant messaging, world wide Internet, satellite radio, pictures from space, men on the moon, and much more. Our churches are the biggest on earth with the most luxurious fixtures ever. From crystal, gold, silver, brass, and more, we fill up the sanctuaries across the land. We are rich, not only rich, but filthy rich. We are comfortable, not just comfortable, but lie amidst our furnishings as if tomorrow’s judgment will never arrive.
In short, if you follow the song from Ecclesiastes and understand why the generation accepted it so well, you too will see this generation in that song. It is time tested!
Moreover, in a ‘time appointed’ God made sure this land America was founded. In a ‘time appointed’ there came true believers to this land. In a ‘time appointed’ there was great revivals and people who walked in holiness in the fear of God. In a ‘time appointed’ there was wars, peace, and much more. Amidst all this, evil was around! Evil men acted wickedly, and plotted against the righteous and against their God. Today this plotting of the Wicked is summed up on Psalm 2 and we are seeing it unfold before us today!
I want to tell you that there is a ‘time appointed’ for all what God does! It is in his timing. When I first told someone about the visions I had as a young man it was 1973 to my wife. About that time, David Wilkerson came out with a startling book called ‘The Vision’, which described judgment coming on America. Now all that time has passed and this judgment of total destruction has not come yet! Yet much has occurred! When I started working to do as the LORD called me to do as a Watchman, I knew it could be anytime when all these things would or could occur. I lived and still do from day to day, believing this could be the day. Yet it has not come, but I know it will. Be it 2 years, 3 years, 7 years, or 30 more years, I know, that I know, this judgment will hit America and she will never be the same. Jeremiah preached destruction to Israel so much, they hated his message and him. He preached for decades about coming judgment, yet it did not come for many years. There is an expanse of time that God allows, it is called the ‘word of his patience’.
The Apostle John was in Patmos and knew well of the patience he would need to walk day by day. He did so and in this walk suffered tribulation and trial. We are all to keep the LORDS ‘word of his patience.’ In his own timing, according to his plan, while we keep his patience, he will fulfill all that he has said!
Revelation 1:9 ¶I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
When we first were called into the ministry years ago, my wife and I sold our home, left our jobs, packed up the kids and our belongings and took a uhaul across the plains to a little ‘bible college’. We did this to fulfill what the LORD had called us to do. During that time we found others with deep callings, some to a far away nation.
It was in this environment we learned, fellowshipped, and found that in all this, we still had much to learn. But we also found Gods hand hard to bear as he would lead us and if we got out of line or needed correction, he would as a Father correct us. Believe you me, I know his firm hand. We studied, prayed, and worked through it all. Today I still remember fondly those days. We had ‘koininia’ groups, or what many call ‘cell groups’ where we would gather. We backed one another, shared with each other, and truly loved one another. But today, we have been divided by time and miles. Although I remember how I loved them and still do, it is not the same. I have not heard from them for many years. I have also seen how the enemy has struck them. Some finding hardships on the missions field and after all the years of preparation, came home early, then divorcing. I also found others, friends whom I loved splitting up and leaving each other after all the years of preparation. There are many times when those who are called, in the journey find the attacks of the enemy so severe that they give up. Believe me, in all this, I have learned, ‘There is a God appointed time.’ There is in this ‘time appointed’ a time for victory, a time for defeat, a time for everything that is under the sun to happen. For in all this, our enemy is never far away from us, but neither is our LORD who is our strength. This then is the choice you and I must make daily, to understand the ‘time appointed’ of the LORD and to make the best use of it all for him.
When we went to bible college, graduated, and finally had our Ministry credentials, we all thought we had made it. But sadly, that was just the beginning! What we had done was just open up a whole new level of warfare against us. In this war, which became a battle, and at times we lost, the whole point was to one way or another in Gods grace to keep going. Even though it was tough, and even tougher than you could ever know, we kept going!
I remember in school we were told that ‘ if this is where you are called too, that is to bible school to prepare for the LORDS ministry’, then this is where your to be! If the LORD was to come at that point, then even if we never made it to full time ministry, we were where the LORD had called us too! Even today, we know that judgment is here and will get worse. As I write this, more young people are graduating from schools as we went to and are beginning their ministry. Many others are leaving America’s shores for a four year tenure as a Missionary! What if it all falls apart? What if all hell breaks loose and they are stranded in some foreign country? What IF? That is the call they accepted! In Gods appointed time, it will happen, no matter where you are or what you are doing! If they are stranded in a third world nation, with not a dime or any food, what then? Well, they will seek the LORD God who is their help, he will hear! But in all this, there is a ‘time appointed.’ So today, seek the LORD, pray, and follow him with your whole heart! Be not fearful, but walk in faith, having the testimony of Jesus Christ. Let this be with you wherever you go or whatever you do, then when ‘Gods appointed time’ occurs, you will be where your supposed to be and in his will!
Acts 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
Here are some scriptures for you to consider in the ‘time appointed’!
The LORD set a ‘time appointed’ for Sarah to have a son, it was not Sarah’s or Abram’s time appointed, but the LORDS!
Genesis 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
The LORD set a ‘appointed time’ for Judgment to strike Egypt
Exodus 9:5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land.
6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.
David’s Sin of Numbering the People, there came a ‘time appointed’ for judgment upon Israel for the sin.
2 Samuel 24:10 ¶And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
11 For when David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,
12 Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
13 So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
14 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.
Job saw an ‘appointed time’ for man on the earth as a hireling! This chapter describes the fullness of this righteous mans miseries, such a strait that even his comforters saw his sufferings and thought him to have sinned against God.
Job 7:1 ¶Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
At the ‘time appointed’ of the father, he sent for his Son, made of a woman, made under the law! To redeem them that were under the law that we might be adopted. Because we are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father!
Galatians 4:1 ¶Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
The ‘time appointed’ describes when those of understanding who stand against the ‘Son of Perdition’, the beast, in the end times shall fall. For there will be those who do wickedly against the covenant [blood of the covenant] through Christ, and of God. This section describes what I believe is the endtime war between the beast and the children of the woman. For the beast will make war against them, being those who have the faith and testimony of Christ Jesus and keep the commandments of God.
Daniel 11:32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
33 And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.
34 Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.
35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.
36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that is determined shall be done.
We live day by day, in the faith and keeping the testimony of Jesus Christ. We have been grafted in [Romans 11] to the vine [John 15] and are now part of Israel. Both Jew and Gentile, male and female are one in Christ. But we are to have patience and keep the Word of his patience, for in due time, he will come!
Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 13:10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Originally posted 2009-03-01 11:02:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
