Dear Doves,

 

In studying the prophecies in the Bible, I seem to have noticed a simple, but amazing pattern.  It APPEARS that, when the Lord provides a prophecy, it has many details, but not enough to conclude a certain event's timing or result with absolute certainty.  I believe that the Lord does this so that, after the fact, we can look back and say, "Whoa, that unfolded exactly as predicted".

 

Mathematically speaking, here is where I am going with this.  The Lord may outline timing, result, event etc. wherein He basically tells us that something could unfold in one of, say, 10 ways.  However, in reality, said timing, result, event could, in theory, unfold in one of, say, 1000 ways.  Therefore, once the prophecy occurs in one of these 10 ways, we can look back and see that the Lord's prophecy was indeed fulfilled in the exact way that He foretold.  The fact that there was a 99% chance (1000 - 10 / 1000) that it could have unfolded a different way tells us this wasn't simply random chance, but Him speaking through His designated vessel.

 

Non-mathematically speaking, why would God do it this way?  Why not simply give the exact timing, the exact result, the exact event, etc.?  Why make it so that something can be fulfilled in multiple ways, but yet wherein we who are watching see that it is His steady Hand at work?  I believe that this is for two fundamental reasons:

 

-      Reason #1 - Keep the Enemy Unbalanced:  Make no mistake. The enemy is watching all that the Lord has prophesied about in the Bible.  Information is power, power which the Lord does not want the enemy to have.  The fact that the enemy, and us as well, can't plan perfectly, but knows it is coming with certainty, is the exact balance I would expect from God and APPEARS to be the case.

 

-      Reason #2 - Grace thru Faith:  Jesus said that blessed is the man (or woman) who believes without seeing.  This is the very definition of "Grace thru Faith".  IMO, this means a prophecy must have enough in it to make us who believe know that the prophecy came from God Himself.  But, in order to preserve the blessing of "believing without seeing", it must be vague enough that an unbeliever isn't forced to believe "with seeing", therefore circumventing the blessings of believing without seeing.  I believe this is similar to the World itself.  We who believe see His glory in Creation and know it is by His Hand alone, but yet it is somehow still rational to a non-believer that this is scientifically explained by random chance.

 

In other words, prophecy APPEARS to outline a selected number of possible options that will occur from an infinite array of possibilities.  While we cannot always discern with certainty how this will unfold, we usually can discern the variety of possibilities.  This keeps the enemy off balance, but us informed.  This is why the benefit of hindsight is so conclusive - we can actually see one of the selected number of possible options unfold after it has unfolded – AMAZING (as is the God we love serving)!!

 

In contrast, this is also why we have so much controversy in prophecy, even amongst fellow believers.  One believer may see one of the possible options as the only option, while another believer may see an entirely different possible option as the only option.  While both could be right, one may argue with the other that only he or she is correct.  Of course, when the dust settles, one may be right or NEITHER may be right, but yet the actual event still remains as one of the possible options outlined, thus fulfilling the prophecy succinctly and precisely (assuming, of course, that such prophecy was TRULY from the Lord to begin with – hence, discernment is always required).

 

Anyway, I was thinking about this for a few days and thought I would just put this out there.  Perhaps others have noticed this as well.  This is why Heaven will be so awesome.  God will no longer need to "hide" the Supernatural to allow for "believing without seeing".  Things can simply work without scientific explanation (like a lamp that doesn't need to be plugged in, perfect weather all of the time, traveling at the speed of thought, etc.).  What a wondrous and wonderful day when we can all walk together in the Golden City and leave this increasingly anti-God World behind!

 

This is the end of my original article.  However, in putting this article together, I subsequently asked a few fellow watch people for comments.  These are included below (with some minor editing for context and brevity):

 

Comment #1:  I think you are on to something.  This is why the enemy and the minions of the enemy appear to be in a constant "any moment now" phase".  In actuality, they are standing ready to respond to the Lord God, who has the first move (and knows all of their moves) and has to 'approve' of the moves of the enemy first, which, in the “end”, are all for His good purpose.  We perceive the enemy's "any moment now" posture as evidence that it will be "any moment now", when perhaps we should instead be actually looking at all of it through the Lord's eyes and mind.  Great thoughts brother.

 

Comment #2:  Mathman, I completely agree and actually, for me, this is one of the things that sets the Bible and Erin's dreams (aka SparrowCloud9) apart as truth.  Although we haven't yet seen the final fulfillment of all of the prophecies, we do see a very similar kind of prophetic language, parables and stories in Erin’s dreams that very much remind me of the Word of God.  We are expected to "see" by Faith and the Holy Spirit.  Likewise, we often hear in Erin's dreams that “it is the Glory of God to conceal a matter, and the honor of Kings to search it out.”  God gave us this inquisitive nature.  He knows we enjoy puzzles and digging deeper into His Word.  He uses this also to draw us closer into relationship with Him and to give us an even greater appreciation and understanding of His Majesty and His Divinity.  As such, Erin’s dreams are much more than simply providing for us possible clues as to the date of His return, they are yet another window into the Character and Essence of who God is and how He interacts with His Creation.

 

As you stated above, God is also giving us this level of "vagueness" to throw the enemy off-guard.  The enemy is very aware of the goings-ons of God's people, and is very much trying to ascertain when Jesus will be returning himself because he wants to stop God's Plan!  We know that the enemy is trying everything he can to thwart the plan of God and the Second Coming of Messiah Jesus and His Glorious Kingdom the same way he tried to thwart Jesus' First Coming.  But his evil plan will fail.

 

As stated above, the Lord uses the same type of prophetic language in these dreams as He uses in His Word.  This definitely lends validity to the dreams!  We see this same vague, and yet specific, language all though out the Bible.  This is what makes an epiphany difficult to determine at the time of the occurrence, but is very clear from hindsight.  From our vantage point of "the future", we can very clearly see how Jesus has already fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament regarding His First Coming.  But even though there were numerous prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament that nearly every Jewish person was aware of; many, many people of His Day were still unable to see or discern that Jesus WAS (and remains) the Prophesied Messiah!  This was partly because of their pride and arrogance, partly because God partially blinded them spiritually for His purposes, partly because the Word employed the same type of vague and yet specific language to describe Jesus' First Coming, and partly because they had an expectation of what Jesus' First Coming would look like.  The actuality of His First Coming was different than what they had expected, so many missed Him completely!  Everyone, including the enemy, was expecting Jesus' First Coming to be as a King that would rescue the Jewish people from the Romans, or from whatever evil dictator was ruling at the time.  Nobody was expecting a baby born in a Humble Manger.  The enemy caught on a couple of years after Jesus' birth and tried to have all babies killed under the age of 2.  But, God as always, has the upper hand and warned Joseph in a dream to remove the baby from the area!  I fear that many have an expectation of what Jesus' Second Coming is going to look like as well, based on their interpretation of Scripture.  It may potentially be easy for them to not understand the Rapture and the events leading to the Rapture if He comes in a different way than what is expected.  This may yet be another reason for the dreams, to prepare many of us for a different type of Rapture experience than what is commonly expected, perhaps so we won't miss it and perhaps so we can help the others.

 

Jesus Himself even said this to His Disciples in Luke 8:10:  “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’”

 

Comment #3:  Yes, MathMan, I think you are dead on with these thoughts.  In spite of the amount of detail and specificity we have throughout the Bible and Erin’s dreams, it is fascinating that we cannot put our finger right on certain events we KNOW are in there somewhere.  That is God and His Master Plan.  Also, how many untold numbers of people over the centuries rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  How many babies were born in Bethlehem and the parents or family wondered, is this the one.  How many babies did Simeon see brought before the Lord as He waited and, yet, as was said so well, when it was Jesus, those that intended to know, knew that prophesy was being fulfilled and many more later looked back and said, yes, see, He fulfilled God's Word exactly as it was prophesied.

 

Comment #4:  Mathman, good article... also, how many thought true PROPHETS were FALSE and got ANGRY when they did not see the results RIGHT AWAY???!!!  This ANGER the enemy will use against these people...BLESS YOU!

 

Comment #5:  So now I'm wondering about similar tactics used by the enemy in non-biblical prophecies...let's say Islam, Nostradamus or psychic readings...vagueness is also used. Satan is always mimicking God to lead mankind astray.  How astute a Christian has to be to rightly divide truth…this only shows how important and relevant the Word of God is, along with His Spirit to illuminate it and give wisdom to understand it.

 

Comment #6:  I cannot but wonder, as example by the prophets in the Bible -- each one wrote their prophesies for a near-term fulfillment.  But each one had a long term fulfillment as well.  For example, the prophet who wrote of the baby being born of a virgin -- isn't it true that this had a near term fulfillment from the prophet's age, as well as the long term fulfillment hundreds (thousands?) of years later?  Jesus' and Paul's prophesies had short term fulfillment when they spoke of persecution, but they have long term fulfillment with the period of time before the Second Coming of Christ.  If Erin (SparrowCloud9) is a prophet of a similar caliber as what we find in the Bible, her dreams will have a near term fulfillment as we expect these events to occur soon…in our lifetime.  But I can't help but wonder if they will have a long term fulfillment after Jesus' Thousand Year Reign.  I have already put forth that the war of Gog and Magog might actually be in that future post-thousand year time-frame.  Could part of these dreams actually be for that time as well?  Not everything of course... like those parts dealing with the pure evil of the enemy and what will happen with our governments and rule of law.  But her dreams are extensive... and cover a lot of ground.  It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, perhaps some of it watched from Heaven.

 

Comment #7:  Deuteronomy 18:22:  "When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”

 

John 16:13-14a:  “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you…”

 

True Prophesy must glorify Jesus, not the prophet (or as Jesus has said in the dreams "profit").  Those who don't know God's Word or don't have God's Spirit will be more likely to stumble into falsehood, but it's something that we all must be on guard against.

 

Note to the comment contributors:  Thanks to each of you for the 7 comments.  I believe that it helped enforce what I was seeing and perhaps many others out there see as well.

 

Note on Erin’s Dreams:  For those interested in SparrowCloud9 (Erin’s) dreams, these can be found at the following site:

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sparrows-Dreams-Series-Volume/dp/1493782843

 

Btw, when I first heard of these dreams from my dear brother, Gerry Almond, I was very skeptical.  However, after literally hundreds of hours of studying them, and without ever finding any contradiction to Scripture or her previous dreams, I just knew that only the One True God of the Bible could have dictated such a marvel!  Indeed, I simply see no mathematical way anyone could remain so consistent with the Bible (along with all the other material she has previously written), with no less than five lengthy books, unless Erin has the infallible help of the Lord Himself in writing these for our enlightenment and encouragement in an otherwise darkening World.

 

*             *                  *                  *                    *                *

 

Brothers and sisters, are you ready to meet the Lord in the sky?  Repent and believe that grace is by faith alone and can ONLY be attained through Jesus Christ.  Get ready and leave the temptations of this world behind and ready yourself as a Bride.

 

Surely, time is almost up.

 

YbiC, MathMan