(This post is the last in a series of other posts about The Storm. If you haven’t read those yet, you can catch up by clicking here.)

Final Thoughts & Faith

Let me be perfectly honest. Thinking about a possible crisis scenario can get pretty dang depressing. It can shake you to the core when you consider the depth and range and long-term impact this would have, both on our lives and, more importantly, our children’s.

I don’t believe this is going to be “armageddon,” or even the tribulation (although it very well could be). I believe this is a result of our turning away from God and His ways. I believe He’s going to remove His hand of blessing and protection on America, specifically, and we will be reap the whirlwind that’s a direct result of ignoring Him. It’s not that He’s being hateful or vengeful, it’s simply the consequence of our actions.

Drop a rock on your foot? It’s gonna hurt.

Eat a handful of red ants? It’s gonna hurt.

Ignore God and His Word? Yeah… it’s gonna hurt.

Despite this, I don’t think the future is as bleak as it could be, at least for some of us. In addition to the distinct impressions I’ve been getting that this will happen, I’ve also had conversations with multiple people who all underscore the same truth: God will provide for His people.

The skeptic in me balked at this claim. I mean, let’s be honest. I can only store so much food and water. How in the world was God going to supply for our long-term needs through a calamity like this? It just didn’t seem possible. At all.

Then I remembered Israel, God’s Chosen People. He took them out of Egypt and led them directly into… a desert. Where He met their needs by feeding them manna. From Heaven. He brought forth water from a rock. Delivered them from a rabid army that had cornered them in. He supplied their every need, and all they had to do was trust and obey Him.

It sounds so easy, but it’s not. To hear Him? To trust Him? To obey Him? It goes against everything we are as self-sufficient, American people, puffed up with American know-how, gumption and pride. Why would we ever want to wait on God, we ask? We’re Americans! We can roll up our sleeves, dig in and get ‘er done now. Right?

Sure we can… but at what cost?

The words that keep floating into my thinking is “threshing floor” and “sifting like wheat.” An American collapse, as terrifying and uncomfortable as it will be, will not be the end of the world. (The end of the world “as we know it,” perhaps, but not the end of the world itself.) God is going to allow circumstances to shake us to the core. What we believe about God, His goodness and His love will be shaken violently.

Will we choose to believe? Despite what our eyes see around us? What our ears hear? What our logical minds or voices of authority will convince us is “the truth”?

Or will we draw closer to listen to the quiet whispers of God and Choose To Believe what He’s saying to us? At any given moment?

We can’t have it both ways. We can’t pledge our allegiance to Him and then turn around and go our own way whenever we feel like it. He’s not looking for lukewarm. The lukewarm “Christians” of the world? Who think they can attend a service on Sunday mornings and tack God onto their egocentric, American-made lives? When the shaking quakes set in they will fall away the fastest as their shaky “faith” suddenly fails them.

Why? Because they worship the god of Comfort. So when the world suddenly becomes extremely uncomfortable? For an extended period of time? Well, their “god” will have left the building.

Nope. God really isn’t looking for lukewarm.

He’s looking for those who are on fire for Him. Who aren’t afraid to cling to the unpopular belief that faith in Jesus Christ truly is the only way to be reconciled to Him. Who will stand up and speak out for His Truth, even when everyone else around them is frozen and mute, petrified of committing the tongue-wagging sin of (gasp) offending anyone.

Lukewarm? Ho-hum commitment? A convenient, “safe” faith?

These will not survive.

Yes, I believe what the future holds will be extremely difficult. Profoundly painful. Incredibly uncomfortable. But I will choose to believe that God is still good. That His word is still true. That no matter what I see in the world around me, the pain that I will personally experience in my life, He is still sovereign and will work everything out for His glory in the end.

My prayer is that everyone who reads this will take a closer look at their lives. What do you worship? What are the underlying forces that direct your life? The omnipresent voice that has driven the direction of your life thus far? Comfort and peace? The goal of retirement with financial security? More and more electronic toys? Recognition? Relationships? Respect?

What do you worship?

…and how will it save you when the world stops spinning?

Take the time today, while you still have it, to draw closer to God. To honestly and completely confess your sins and ask for His forgiveness. To repent for doing it your way, and seek to be led by Him once more. Ask Him what He would have you do, and how to best prepare for what’s to come in your life.

Worship Him. In Spirit and in truth. With your whole heart.

‘Cause lukewarm worship makes God wanna vomit.

-Kevin

(This post is part of a series of posts regarding The Storm. For it to make the most sense, you’ll wanna start at the beginning here. Just scroll to the bottom and work your way up… as counter-intuitively as possible…)

Tick Tock Timeline

I want to emphasize to you that I’m not a prophet (at least, not that I’m aware of…). I don’t feel called to preach a doomsday message from the mountaintops or create an end times podcast. I’m not claiming dates or times or key passages of scripture to fuel the fire of all the 2012 apocalyptic mass hysteria. I’m just a guy who tries to seek God on a regular basis and believes He has spoken to me with this very specific warning. So I’m going to do what I can to prepare while there’s still time / money / resources left to prepare with.

And after that? It’s back to life as normal, knowing there’s a plan and a system in place when the time comes that we need it. Regardless of whether it’s sooner or later. Preparing for a crisis is not unlike insurance, except your money doesn’t go down a big hole in someone’s pocket. I’m hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. And like most people, I soon discovered my family was woefully unprepared for an emergency (of any scale).

So before the end May, I’m preparing my family for a minimum of 30 days with:

No electricity. 

No heat. 

No food. 

No water.  

No money.

No communication. 

…and no time left to prepare.

I imagine as people read these posts you’ll be tempted to dismiss all of this as nonsense. After all, it’s just one guy’s testimony, right? You might chalk it up to insanity, paranoia, fear-mongering, or whatever makes you feel better by pushing the possibility of discomfort far away. (Heck, that’s sure what I did when I first heard what He said to me.) Again, I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I’m just sharing what I, personally, am hearing from God, seeing in the world around me and doing to prepare for it all.

Thinking about a drastic change to life as I’ve known it? It’s uncomfortable. But my comfort isn’t my god. I’m responsible for more than just myself in this life. I have a wife and children to take care of. Ignoring what I feel God’s clearly been telling me simply isn’t an option. So I’ve made the decision to prepare now. To educate myself and buy whatever supplies I need now. While there’s an Internet. And an Amazon (Walmart, eBay, etc.…). And food, water and other necessary supplies readily available on the shelves.

And if I’m wrong about what I believe I’m hearing? If I’m completely misinterpreting these signs and absolutely nothing happens in the immediate future? Well, then we can all sit back and laugh about it over hot chocolate and scones someday in the future.

But for today?

I choose to prepare myself and my family for what I believe is coming.

Kevin

(This post is in relation to my other posts about The Storm, so if you haven’t read those yet, you can catch up by clicking here. Otherwise, confusion might set in, then jaundice… maybe even insomnia and incontinence. Personally, I wouldn’t chance it…)

As I’ve prayed for clarification about what “the storm” is, my current impressions are two possibilities: a solar storm and an economic collapse (most likely related to oil). I’ve provided some research and website links into both of these in the following section, but I’ll go ahead and describe them in a nutshell for you here.

Solar storm - The sun is extremely active lately and the chance of it burping a solar flare (Coronal Mass Ejection) is higher now than it’s been in decades. If it hits the earth square on, it’ll fry a whole bunch of electronics, including the U.S. power grids that keep electricity going and make everyday living possible. Even worse, repairing them would take a long, long time, because the machines used to make the parts would require — you got it — electricity.

Economic collapse - Our country’s dependence on foreign oil was news to me. (Hey, raising three spirited, super-fun kids and flirting with an über-hot wife takes a lotta time, you know). Anyhow, just doing a minimal amount of research was educational and extremely… disconcerting. If the price of oil shoots up? The price of everything shoots up. And in an economic climate where people are feeling squeezed already? It won’t end well.

I believe…

…the cost of living will escalate drastically as gas prices increase to unprecedented amounts. 

…the average American will be caught completely unprepared and will panic. 

…the comfortable world we’ve come to know as America’s standard of living is about to get very ugly, very soon. 

…what we see happening in Greece, Egypt, Syria and Europe is foreshadowing what could one day happen in America. 

…the majority of us are either completely oblivious to the danger or in complete denial. 

Frankly, I think we’re too busy to see the signs. We’re more focused on our careers, making more money, plotting our retirement, updating our social statuses, catching up on reality TV, watching the latest movies, and ensuring we’re as utterly comfortable as possible at any given moment. We’re too distracted with the shiny baubles of life to take the time to pray and listen to what God is telling us.

Even when a natural disaster does get ample coverage? It’s only a matter of days before we completely forget about it, resuming the hectic pace of our own lives.We become so numb to the news that it just doesn’t faze us anymore. The signs are all there, but most of us are too ignorant and frantic that unless a disaster immediately affects our own status quo, we go through life utterly unaffected by the tragedies that continue to happen “over there.”

We simply don’t realize how good we have it right now.

As I sought God in His silence the past few months, He led me to be intentionally thankful for every single day. Well, when I was depressed with non-productivity and seeking His direction for something to actually do, this wasn’t well-received.Thankful? For twisting in the wind? I stubbornly refused.

Now, however, it makes more sense. Because when I combine His directive to “be grateful for every day” with His message that “a storm is coming,” it becomes clearer. Life can change in an instant. I’ve grown to appreciate my family more, laughing and loving on them more, rather than making sure everyone’s “behaving” at all times. I try to show everyone more grace as I’ve come to recognize how much grace I’ve been shown, day after day.

We need to make the decision to recognize how blessed we are today instead of thinking how much more we want in life tomorrow. We keep comparing ourselves to each other, in a country where we’re all incredibly rich and clueless. We are out of touch with the rest of the world as we surround ourselves with luxuries and comforts unheard of in other cultures. And we never, ever think we have enough. Of anything. EVER.

It’s sad. And it’s time we woke up to realize that all those passages in the Bible that talk about the “rich” and the “kings”? They’re talking about us.

To Be Continued…

- Kevin

(This Part 2 of my blog posts concerning “The Storm.” To read Part 1, click here.)

New Year’s Eve 

It was in the middle of the night on New Year’s Eve when God spoke to me again. I had been sound asleep when He said, quietly but quite clearly, “The Storm is Coming.”

I immediately sat up and opened my eyes in shock (because, you know… I had been sound asleep up until that point). His words were absolutely clear, and they echoed in my mind, but I had no idea what they meant. Whatsoever. So I prayed for clarification, heard no response, then filed it in the back of my mind and went back to sleep.

I admit that it would be easy to write off a midnight message like this as a figment of my own imagination, but in the two months since that moment (both during and after my 3-week Daniel Fast), God continually underscored His words with multiple confirmations through His Word, devotionals, and “random” conversations and events.

In one instance, a friend had asked how we were adapting to life in Washington, and I lamented how I was still in standby mode, eagerly waiting for God to direct me next. At that point she reassured me, saying “Well, I’m sure there’s a reason for it. In fact, I recently read about how God usually has us wait because He’s preparing us for a storm.”

Yes. My jaw actually dropped open. Because at that point, I had told no one aside from my wife about what God had said to me the few weeks before. This was Confirmation #1.

Confirmation #2 arrived the following week when I left a message with another friend, saying we should try to connect and talk sometime soon. He messaged me back and said that at the very moment my message came through he was hitting SEND on an e-mail that he had wanted to send to me a few months earlier, but he had resisted because he didn’t want to come across as “weird” or “alarmist.”

The e-mail was a PDF attachment by someone named John Paul Jackson, entitled… The Perfect Storm. It concisely detailed much of what I felt God had been impressing on me over the previous weeks (and what I’m preparing for(. You can download it directly from my Dropbox folder at the following link:

John Paul Jackson – The Perfect Storm

Both instances were very freaky, inexplicable, and — needless to say — convincing. As much as I wanted to dismiss these things as random coincidences, I couldn’t. Because they kept happening.

- Kevin

Next post: What Is “The Storm”?

September – December 2011 

When my family moved from Lubbock, Texas to Washington, D.C. in September, I immediately started praying to God and asking Him what He wanted me to work on as my first priority (i.e., promoting my book, Baby Codes, write a follow-up book, work on iPhone apps, develop consumer products, etc.). To my surprise (and somewhat dismay), He clearly led me to “WAIT.” As in, to do absolutely nothing, work-wise. At the same time, I also felt Him prompting me to become bolder in sharing my faith.

So September plodded by. And October. Then November. December. Throughout these months, I felt increasingly distant from God. Constantly praying for guidance, a specific leading, something to do that would feel “productive,” instead of just… waiting. But there was nothing. Just silence.

Looking back, I now realize this time was critical by forcing me to reexamine my faith more closely and acknowledging exactly how shallow it could be at times. Sure, I say I’ll do whatever He leads me to do, to follow where He leads, but my own personal comfort was still my secret idol, at times causing me to trump His promptings.

Do nothing but wait on Him? Agonizing. But the longer I did nothing, the more I was able to relax and just rest in His presence and in His promises. Rather than being so focused on what I wanted Him to give, I redirected my attention to worship The Giver. When presented with the choice between being obedient to what I felt God was leading me to do or being comfortable, I decided to choose obedience.

One direct result of waiting on God and experiencing His silence was my drawing closer to Him. Granted, it was between pity parties, confusion, fist-shaking and basic immaturity all around, but I pressed into Him and sought His presence regardless. More than seeking a word or divine direction, however, I primarily just prayed for His presence.

In the end, I believe that His suggestion to stop working and just WAIT, along with His subsequent silence, were combined for one specific purpose: to position me squarely at His feet, free of work commitments, distractions and background noise, to hear what He had to say next.

(To be continued…)

- Kevin

I used to be normal.

Well, normaler, I should say. Up until a few months ago, I was your typical American. Enjoying the good life, surrounding myself with endless streams of entertainment, never really thinking much about the underpinnings of the “magic” that made stuff work. My iPhone, my MacBook, the Toyota Sequoia… I used these things on a daily basis. But I had no clue how they actually worked.

Every day I flip a switch to turn on lights. Twist a knob to take a hot shower. Pick up a phone to talk to a friend in another state. I tap into resources that I honestly have no earthly idea how they work. But they do. And I’ve enjoyed them for my entire life.

The problem is, I don’t think they’re always going to be there. In fact, I believe that life as I’ve come to know it is going to change drastically in the near future. For all of us, really.

To be perfectly honest, I wish I could go back. I wish I could unlearn what I’ve learned about the world the past few months. That I could somehow transition back to when I was blissfully enraptured with the magic around me, rather than seeing the serious case of ugly that was hiding behind the curtain. Grab a pair of ruby sneakers, smack ‘em together and go back home, if you will.

But I can’t. And as uncomfortable as I’m going to make people in the future with my updates, article posts and semi-coherent rants, I won’t be stopping anytime soon. Because I sincerely believe we all need to educate ourselves about what’s really happening in the world around us now, so we can be better prepared for the future.

It’s almost ironic. I’ve always hated the subject of history in school. Why waste time studying the past, when there was a present to enjoy, a future to plan for? The past was useless, I thought. Until I started to see the patterns of what happened before… and overlayed them with what’s happening now.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing how I went from a clueless casualty waiting to happen to a (slightly better) prepared person. It is my sincere hope and prayer that you’ll follow along.

Seriously. Start stalking me now. It’ll be worth it.

- Kevin