WHAT GOD IS TELLING ME - REPENT, PRAY AND DON’T BE DECEIVED ABOUT THE LAST DAYS: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts

I have hesitated to write this post because it's controversial. It will make readers uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable. But God has told me it’s time to come out of my comfort zone. It’s time to speak the truth, and sometimes that’s not popular or expedient. Some will think I have become an end times lunatic or a believer in conspiracies. Well, so be it. I write from my heart and continue to ask God for wisdom and discernment.

Before I started working on Seventh Dimension - The City, Book 4, I asked God to show me the battle between good and evil throughout history and into the last days. While God wins, sometimes winning is hugely costly—it cost Yeshua His life. Sometimes winning brings an outcome we don’t expect. Sometimes we must lose the battle to win the war. I am confident of this one thing, though: God is on my side.

Be careful what you ask for. I'm sure you’ve heard that expression before, but it's true. I have spent the last forty plus years living out a comfortable Christianity. Not that my Christian walk has always been easy and not that I haven't endured trials and hardships, but compared to what's coming, I am hesitant to label anything about my Christian walk in the past, comparing it to what’s to come, as anything more than minor suffering.

As I look at what our Christian and Jewish brothers and sisters in Syria and other countries around the world are facing, don’t believe for an instant that what they are enduring won’t come to America. Believe, me, the West is not going to go comfortably into the sunset before the Lord’s return. We are ignorant to think we will escape some degree of suffering even if we don’t experience the full wrath of God.

The King James Bible in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 states: “And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”

Could I be deceived? Could you be deceived? 

In 1994, when my daughter, Manisha, suffered an epileptic seizure, the cause was nearly impossible to diagnose based on ambiguous MRI’s. It was called a "zebra" in medical parlance. We ended up going to Yale University so she could be examined by a renowned doctor in pediatric infectious disease. This physician was the only one who was certain that what my daughter had was a “worm in her head,” known as neurocysticercosis. She assured me it was treatable, that my daughter could fully recover, and that she did not have what was initially labeled as a brain tumor.

Considering that my adoptive father died of a brain tumor five years to the very day that my daughter had the partial complex seizure, I was skeptical and scared. It was this doctor’s validation that gave me the assurance I needed to go to Vietnam and adopt my second daughter, Joy, one week later. Looking back on those difficult days, it’s hard to believe Manisha is now 24 and Joy will be turning 17 in a few short weeks.

How could this doctor be so sure of the diagnosis despite the doubts of others? How could she give me that assurance? Because she knew what neurocysticercosis was—better than anyone else at that time. She was one of the leading authorities on this disease in 1994.

Do we know the times in which we live? Have we studied Scripture and asked God to open our eyes to what's coming? Are we prepared? Are we as the five wise virgins in the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25) ready for the bridegroom’s return? Or are we as the five foolish virgins who missed the wedding because they weren’t prepared and ran out of oil before the bridegroom arrived?

I have always been struck by what Jesus said in this parable: “And the foolish said unto the wise, ‘give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No so; lest there be not enough for us and you, but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.’’’

The wise virgins did not (or could not) give their oil (the Holy Spirit) to the foolish virgins. 

A few years following the health crisis of Manisha, I wrote a blog post about the experience. I explained how she had a parasite in her brain, a parasite that she contracted in Nepal before I adopted her at age 3. I wrote the article so that other adoptive parents could be warned about neurocysticercosis. I didn’t want anyone else to bring home an adopted son or daughter and face the fear and uncertainty I had faced, something that could easily be remedied with a simple deworming pill—just like you give to dogs and cats and farm animals for hookworm and other parasites.

After publishing that article on my blog, I was contacted by the producers of the Animal Planet show, "Monsters Inside Me." They had found my blog post and wanted to feature our story.

A few years after the airing of the episode, the producer emailed me once again and asked if I knew of anyone else who had adopted a child and had a similar story of a brain or other parasitic infection. I told her of one person who had contacted me and who had said he was "filled with worms and didn’t know what to do. They were destroying his body…" The producer responded back and said the person had Morgellons Syndrome. Of course, I had no idea what that was, so I Googled it. Someone suffering from Morgellons Syndrome is deluded with parasites.

The producer of Animal Planet’s “Monsters Inside Me” could tell the difference between someone who really had a parasitic infection from those who only thought they did. 

Do I have that kind of knowledge or perception when it comes to current world events and what the Bible says about those events? Do I know God's truth well enough to tell a fake story from a lie or a delusion? 

Luke 21:26 states: "...Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken."

To be honest, until the last couple of months, I couldn't imagine what could be so horrific that men's hearts would fail them with fear. What could be worse than a nuclear bomb? While that is scary, it would not cause my heart to fail me with fear. I guess it’s because I have lived with that possibility all my life.

I believe there are things that will be worse than that—things that are supernatural. 

Luke 17:26 states: "And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man."

When I think of these words, I imagine people living in sin, forgetting God, and being filled with wickedness. Every day I caption sports and news on television, and I have yet to caption a newscast that was filled with just “good news.” The problem with this “traditional” interpretation is that this kind of sin has been going on since Adam and Eve rebelled in the garden. What was different about the time of Noah?

How many of you have heard about the Nephilim? How many of you have heard about transhumanism and the creation of hybrids? How many of you have heard about CERN? How many of you have heard about the increase in UFO's, alien abductions, and animal mutilations? How many of you know about the connection of the Vatican with the Mount Graham National Observatory near Safford, Arizona? Why does the Vatican have a telescope in Arizona? What are they looking for? How many of you are familiar with HAARP, a high frequency active auroral secret research program that no one will talk about? 

It's linked to the chem trails that are being sprayed from airplanes all over the world. What are they spraying and why? What about Jade Helm, another top-secret military operation that ended a few days ago—why have they labeled Texas, Utah, and Southern California hostile states?

I have mentioned only a few things here to show you why it's important to know God's truth and why we need to be informed and prepared for the last days—whenever those days might come. We don't know God's timetable for anything. But there are signs. I believe the only thing that is holding back "the day of the Lord" is God's merciful hope that people will turn to Him and repent, and as a nation, we have a lot for which to repent.

This week, several significant events are taking place. The Pope will be visiting the United States and addressing the United Nations and Congress following the most Holy Day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, on September 23. It is the Day of Atonement, a day when Jews fast, engage in prayer, and ask for forgiveness. If the rapture were to take place this year, I believe it would happen on Yom Kippur. Of course, none of us knows the day or the hour. It might not be for a hundred years. Only God knows. 

Other significant events have also happened recently or are still occurring. We are at the end of a blood moon tetrarch cycle that has taken place on the Jewish holy days for the last two years. Historically, tetrarch blood moon cycles rarely fall on the Jewish appointed days, but when they do, significant events have been associated with them.

We are at the end of the seven-year Shemitah (financial) cycle and possibly at the end of the 49-year Jubilee cycle. If this is true (and it’s hard to know absolutely because the Jewish Jubilee hasn’t been celebrated in over 2,000 years), the last Jubilee year before this one would have been in 1967 when the Jews took Jerusalem back on June 11, 1967, in the Six Day War (to calculate this, you need to use the Jewish lunar calendar and not the solar calendar).

We face perilous times in the Middle East. The recent treaty with Iran puts Israel at risk. War is imminent. In my opinion, it's not a matter of "if" but "when."

I began work on my book Seventh Dimension - The City by asking God to show me the battle between good and evil, particularly in the last days. God has given me much to think about. If you ask yourself the same question and you do the same reading and research I have done, you will eventually have the same second question: What is truth and what is delusional?

I don't believe we can know these answers humanly-speaking. Because the battle we fight is spiritual, we can only discern it spiritually. As a Christian, that would be through the Holy Spirit. 

One thing I have learned: The occult is alive and well on planet Earth. Do not underestimate what Satan is about. He is the "prince of the air" and he knows his craft well. He also knows his time is short. He has plenty of “angels of light” roaming the earth giving enlightenment, but be aware. This is occult knowledge—not from Jesus Christ. Have nothing to do with these masqueraders. And there are many, including the elite, those pushing for a New World Order, and those who practice freemasonry.

We must remember Ephesians 6:17-18: "And you will need the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the Word of God. Pray all the time. Ask God for anything in line with the Holy Spirit's wishes. Plead with Him, remind Him of your needs, and keep praying earnestly for all Christians everywhere."

II Timothy 1:7 states: “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.”

If the stock market crashes a thousand points this week, are you going to panic? If the banks close, do you have some cash stashed away that you can quickly access and live off of for a month? Do you have a few weeks of food on hand if the shelves at the grocery store are emptied by panic-driven mobs? What if there is no money available at the teller machine because our country is in the throes of a financial crisis and no cash or credit is available? What if the power grid fails and your house turns dark? Are you prepared for that kind of adversity? It could happen. It's happened before.

More importantly, if the rapture doesn't happen until after a period of trial and tribulation, are you ready to suffer? Are you ready to die for your faith? A friend of mine who has a friend whose husband is a trucker pulled into a truck-weighing station on the highway. When they checked the contents inside his truck, they found guillotines. Why would anyone be transporting guillotines in America?

We live in perilous times. My greatest fear is the true church in America is sleeping. As Christians, I don’t believe we are prepared physically, emotionally, or spiritually for what may be coming. We are too complacent sitting in front of our television screens, filling our already too full bellies with ice cream and snapping silly selfies with our latest iPhone. I am guilty also, but I am trying to do my part now to alert others—God needs you. He needs you to be a witness. He needs the sleeping church to wake up. We are His army. He needs us to be aware and ready so our oil is full and not empty.

We are either on the verge of the greatest Christian awakening in history or what the Bible refers to as the Tribulation. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather leave for my children a world brimming with the knowledge of God and the love of Jesus Christ. It’s not too late to wake up the sleeping church.

Israel needs you. Be the friend they need during these dangerous days. Yes, the Jews are living in Israel in disbelief. That’s why they need us more than ever. God brought them back in disbelief. He has not abandoned them. God needs us to be their friend and be a witness to them. They need to know evangelical Christians are behind them one hundred percent even if Washington isn't.

We need to stand for truth when it comes to marriage. Don't cave in. Don't compromise. God made man and woman this way, to cling to one another and bear children together. To believe anything other than this is an abomination. Don’t be deceived.

Ask God to forgive us for any role we have had in the greatest holocaust since World War II—the killing of the unborn child. Their blood cries out for justice. We should shake in our shoes over God’s coming judgment for this horrific crime—a crime that has not only afflicted our country, but we set the precedent and gave “permission” to legalize abortion to the rest of the world. We have led the whole world astray. 

The timing of the release of the Planned Parent videos is not without significance. We have sacrificed our children at the altar of convenience, and ultimately, Satan’s altar. We have fed the false religions of this world with the blood they crave—just like the heathen in ancient times. Don’t be deceived. There is power in that blood—the power of life. Don't believe for a second God has turned a blind eye to the one billion plus children who have been aborted worldwide. “The day of the Lord” is coming.

Pray for our country. Pray for our nation. Pray for revival. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray that no matter what happens, whether we see demons coming in UFO's who claim to be the saviors of mankind or our country is invaded with strange apparitions that are part human and part demonic (Nephilim), we will not waiver in our faith. We will not take the mark of the beast. We will die for our belief that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the Messiah and no one else. No matter what happens, remember who wins, and in the end, that's all that matters. The battle belongs to the Lord and He will give all of us the strength and grace to do His good work until His return.

Again, do not give up or grow weary. There is good in the world and it’s worth fighting for. God does not want anyone to perish, but for everyone to be saved. Let’s join together and pray for revival before it’s too late. There is still time. Return to God. Pray—in the car, in the shower, in bed, at work. Pray unceasingly—and hopefully, God will hear our prayers and delay His coming judgment.

THE DEMONIC DEATH KNELL: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts

There should be a funeral for dead marriages. There isn't.

At first the rain fell softly outside my bedroom window. Soon it increased in intensity. What began as a light mist quickly turned into a torrential downpour. The closed blinds could not shut out the lightning bolts that pierced the darkness. Thunder rocked my already frayed nerves that kept me up most of the night. Light finally arrived but the rain continued to pound relentlessly.

I dressed and ran out the door. I didn't know where I was going. Part of me believed I would never return. I wanted to run away from everything—life; Tim, my husband; the future, the past, the present—mostly I wanted to run away from myself. I wandered down the street through the pouring rain soaking through my clothes. I was a bad wife, I convinced myself, and deserved to be punished and sentenced to a life of misery. I walked around a fenced-in retention pond and headed down a pathway into the woods. I was ready to end my life of thirty years—a life that I saw no value in—wasted.

“God, why have you abandoned me,” I cried out. “Where are you?”

Lightning imprinted and disappeared across the angry sky. I felt fearful and fearless, in control of my thoughts, but my emotions spun out of control.

A stream bordering the woods near my house caught my eye. I approached the crest of the hill and was surprised to see it rambling on in the distance; I climbed down the slippery slope as raindrops seeped into my cold, waterlogged clothes.

As the rain fell harder, the sides of the creek turned to mud. I lost my balance and stumbled down the embankment as the cold water oozed into my shoes and socks. I smeared the slimy mess over my arms, legs, face, and into my blonde hair. The smell of the rancid water sickened me. I continued to cry out to a God I wasn't sure I believed in anymore, but if He did exist, I was angry with Him.

“Where are you?” I cried out. “Why don't you save my marriage?”

Over the seven years of marriage, I had kept my faith hidden because Tim couldn’t or wouldn’t relate to that part of me. If anything, he had belittled my search for understanding of the deeper things in the Bible, much like others had bullied me as a child. Anything from the Bible always stirred up controversy. I dragged Tim to church despite his protests because it was too hard to go alone. All Tim’s promises of a wonderful life as a doctor’s wife and supporting me so I could return to school had vanished—the way of  everything else in the marriage.

The religion classes I took at Santa Fe State College had given me an academic understanding of the Bible, but not the kind of heart knowledge that reached down into my soul. With the resignation of the pastor a few weeks earlier at the church we attended occasionally, Tim vowed never to go back. Rejected and feeling unloved, I’d given up.

The limestone from the muddy creek burned my eyes and scratched my skin. How many creepy, crawly things filled the water that now covered by body? I rolled over and stared up at the darkened, gray sky. Is this all there was? Was there nothing more to live for?

As dirty as I felt, it wasn't enough. There had to be something more I could do to become the ugly, dirty, unloved person that I was. I climbed out of the creek and headed back to the house. The rain had let up but not the seething pain that lashed out at me. When I returned to the house, I washed off the dirt in the shower knowing I had not accomplished what I wanted.

Then I remembered the pills in the medicine cabinet. I tried to dismiss the thought but I couldn't. I wanted my torment to end. Rejection consumed me. I longed to be loved, held, and needed. I felt like God had abandoned me. The lies were deafening.

I opened the medicine cabinet and searched for pills—anything I could find. I pulled out several bottles—an assortment of Tylenol, Bayer, and other things accumulated during our marriage. Not concerned with what they were, I opened each bottle and threw the contents on the table.

I sat for a long time staring at the scattered pills that threatened to end my life. They spoke my name, called out to me, and taunted me. I was in a trance. I took them and made a face—my face, with a mouth contorted into an upside‑down smile. Nobody could hurt me anymore. I took pleasure in the fact that the last act in my life was mine, not something somebody did to me.

As I reached for the pills, I was stopped by something far bigger than myself. A voice spoke to my heart out of the recesses of time and space, a word‑thought that was not of this world. It was not an audible voice, but it was as real to me as if it had been.

I saw myself standing in front of Jesus, outside the gates of heaven. He was waiting for me. From his lips came a question I had no answer to.

“Lori, how can you do this thing when I died for you two thousand years ago? How can you throw your precious life away?”

I stopped. The words were said in a gentle, pleading tone, spoken in a language I understood. I was in the presence of Goodness, even as I sensed a spiritual war waging in the unseen world around me. I felt fallen angels battling against the armies of God.

Demonic beings wanted my soul and unseemly forces beckoned, “Take the pills and end your suffering. You belong to us. Nothing in the world of light will ever change you because you are unlovable.”

Evil is relentless, especially when it thinks it can win. The clamor would have been deafening if my earthly ears could have heard it, but the battle belongs to the Lord. He knows His own and I was His. The choice was mine, though, to choose life over death. God's unconditional love lets us choose who we will follow, a love that does not condemn or control. Would I allow love to conquer hate or would deception convince me that despair was the only answer? Could I accept forgiveness as the path to freedom? Did I believe Jesus loved me, would never leave me, and had forgiven me?

I closed my eyes and prayed for deliverance from the darkness.

Jesus stood before me, His eyes seeing through to my soul. Hope would emerge if I could believe in His healing power. The Risen Savior created a sense of calmness where chaos had existed. An overwhelming sense of peace enveloped me. Love pierced the darkness and Hope raised His scarred hands, reminding me of the price it cost Him. The shadows began to lift, grudgingly at first, refusing to accept defeat. A veil of light embraced the dark surroundings and the demons fled. They recoiled because they could no longer see. They were lost—lost in the darkness because the light had blinded them.

I knew at that moment, that I couldn't do this heinous thing. I no longer believed the evil—an evil that tried to hurt me. I had been deceived. The fallen angels knew they had lost their hold on me—at least for the moment. The screams of hate by the demonic powers slowly trailed off as the darkness dispersed, leaving behind a cat-o’-nine-tails reduced to whimpering.

They would go in search of their unsuspecting next victim. For the moment, I was free from their taunts. An overwhelming sense of love caressed my soul. A deafening silence waited on cue for the celebration to begin. God’s angels began to shower me with grace.

The Immortal Being of the universes cast out my despair with His perfect love and covered me with mercy. No longer fettered with chains in a dungeon of defeat, I was free. For the first time, I felt loved.

I was now at one with “The One” who knew my greatest need. He embraced me as I had never been held, loved me as I had never been known—unconditionally. I was given another chance at

life. Poor in spirit, I had seen God.

I quickly cleared the brightly-colored pills off the table and threw them away. Their enchantment had lost its magic. No longer condemned, I was a new creature, a new person, redeemed by the Redeemer. Exhausted but renewed, I had seen a great light. Jesus had won—life over death. A celebration was at hand. If the rocks could have cried out, they would have.

Jesus said in Matthew 15:7, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” 

“God, please show me the way,” I begged. “Please forgive me."

For the last twenty-six years, God has never left my side, but I will never forget the day He delivered me from that demonic death knell. I thank God for reaching down and saving me, the wretch that I was. Little did I know then the great plans He had for my future.

By the grace of God, since that experience, God has restored by life many times over. I finished college and obtained my Master of Arts in Creative Writing. God brought me two beautiful daughters from the ends of the earth that are now fourteen and twenty-one. I was blessed with a job that allowed me to stay home and even homeschool them. I have published four books and lead a network of Christian authors from around the world. 

Most of all, my relationship with Jesus Christ has never wavered. Even though at times I’ve made mistakes and disappointed Him, God has been faithful and provided for all of my needs. I feel blessed for the doubts I once had because God showered me through those dark days with His perfect love and gave me hope. God is sufficient to meet every need, even when I am weak; and for that, I am thankful.

To check out Lorilyn’s latest book, Seventh Dimension – The Door, a YA Christian fantasy, you can purchase it at the following websites:

To buy Seventh Dimension – The Door at Amazon:  http://amzn.to/UBE1Mr

To buy Seventh Dimension – The Door as an audiobook:  http://bit.ly/11YrzMI

To buy Seventh Dimension – The Door at Barnes & Noble (Print):  http://bit.ly/WRkUha

REMEMBER: There is no pit so deep, no hurt so painful, no secret so horrid that God can’t cover it through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. Open up your heart to the infinite possibilities of living a life of love, no longer warped by bullying or scarred by deceitful words. Where there is life, there is hope—and healing!