“My Exodus from Fear to Faith”

By Linda Reber

During 2007-08 my husband, Chuck, and I began hearing several significant prophetic warnings from credible prophets concerning coming disasters and crises for America. During the same time that these prophetic warnings were being given, my husband and I were having significant encounters and dreams from the Lord about coming shakings and crises in our nation.  At this time our church began having monthly Dream Interpretation Roundtables in which several people from different church bodies brought in their dreams. Roughly, eighty percent of the dreams brought for interpretation were of coming disasters. 

During this time period, the region in WV that we lived experienced a couple extended electric outages during the middle of winter.  It seemed that the Lord was punctuating the need for preparedness.  We decided to stay at our home and “weather the storm” to help us assess our areas of need. We found that we had many needs.

As a church body, we concluded that the Lord was specifically warning of a coming storm that we needed to prepare for - spiritually and practically.  We got very serious about preparing for what the Lord was highlighting through prophecy and from our own encounters and dreams.  We began to study books of the Bible that would provide wisdom and encourage our faith.  We formed a preparedness group to learn and teach new skills that have been lost to our generation (canning, gardening, dehydrating foods, water storage & purification, etc). We had monthly trainings for those who were interested in learning these skills.

I must admit that during this time period, I was fearful.  I had fear and dread of an uncertain future.  That began to change as we took definite steps toward preparing for crisis.  I was encouraged as I realized the kindness of the Lord to give us warnings of what we may be facing if our nation did not change the current course of evil.  I knew that it is His desire that we not suffer unnecessarily if we would respond in faith to his warnings.  We began to look at different scenarios that were possible for our area. Fear gave way and faith did arise as we responded to the Lord’s merciful warnings.

Faith is to Act on What God Reveals

Chuck and I delved into investigating Biblical responses to prophetic warnings similar to the ones for this day and time.  In the Old Testament, preparedness is exemplified in the in the life of Joseph as he led Egypt to prepare during seven years of plenty to survive seven years of want (Genesis 41).  It was also clearly demonstrated in the New Testament story of the church in Antioch taking prophetic warnings seriously.

Acts 11:27-32  and a companion verse in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4
   27Now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
   28One of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that
   there would certainly be a great famine all over the world (this took place in the 
   reign of Claudius).
   29And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them  
   determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea.
   30And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders.

Godly prophets have been trumpeting a clear warning, but Americans, like Israelites in Jeremiah’s day, say, “That can’t happen here; this is America!”

In 2010 I lived out a real life parable about preparedness and heeding wise warnings.  I live on a hill and had recently been spotty about pulling my car’s emergency brake when I parked.  My husband had been warning me for two to three months to engage the brake and turn off the AC before getting out of the car.  After not taking my husband’s warnings seriously, one day I found my car at the end of our driveway, balanced on top of a log.  I had gotten out of the car to run back in the house to get something that I had forgotten. In haste, I had not completely put the manual transmission in first gear, nor had I engaged the emergency brake. The car was in neutral and it rolled. I was gone literally less than a minute, but long enough! I didn’t heed Chuck’s wise warnings and we paid the consequences which cost over a thousand dollars to fix.  Had it not been for the log at the end of the driveway, the car would have been totaled.

I find many (if not most) in the church are not currently heeding wise warnings to get prepared for the impending crises which are upon us.  People that I talk with do believe that we are living in perilous times, but can not fathom that our national systems of support may fail. I challenge you to show your faith through simple preparation - to store food, water and necessary supplies for your family.  Then, as quickly as possible, store more so that you can be a blessing to other families  during these times of crisis that may cripple the infrastructure of our region or nation for a period of time.

I want to be able not only have provision for my family, but have enough to share with those who are not prepared.  If I have prepared, then I will be able to respond, rather than run around trying to gather my daily needs.  I believe that the Lord will bring the increase to what I have stored for such as time as this because it is credited as faith.

Matthew 14:18-20 (NIV)
   16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”  
   17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
   18 “Bring them here to me,” he said.
   19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the
   two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave
   them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
   20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of
   broken pieces that were left over.

We want to have our “five loaves and two fish” to present to the Lord that he may increase what we accumulated in faith to show forth His goodness!  My prayer is, “Lord, what can you do with these “five loaves and two fish”?

Some of my most vivid memories of childhood were of preparation activities that were normal for everyone. I am currently finding great enjoyment in re-learning those skills that I learned in my childhood. 

The Current Situation Facing Our Nation:

We do live in a time in which there is a clear and present danger to our way of life.

1. •Economies of nations crashing
   

2. •Political turmoil
   

3. •Wars or the real threats of war on every continent
   

4. •Catastrophic geophysical events - drought, earthquakes, tsunamis, solar storms
   

5. •Rioting, civil unrest
   

6. •Electromagnetic warfare, geo-engineering of weather
   

7. •Cyber warfare
   

8. •Weapons of mass destruction
   

Gerald Celente (trend forecaster with Trends Research) says, “When people lose everything and have nothing else to lose, they lose it.” 

The Lord invites us to be spiritually and practically prepared for such a time as this as systems crash or disaster strikes. The enemy means it for evil, but the Lord means it for good. Through Him, we may experience the best of times in the Kingdom of God; His is an unshakable kingdom. We must be salt and light to those who have lost everything and are loosing it – to bring hope.

Start the exodus from fear to faith!

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