The purpose of this study is not just to know and understand the biblical prophecies concerning these times, but to be prepared for the times. This week we will briefly look at how the message of the last two weeks is crucial for this. You can know what is going to happen and still not be spiritually prepared for it. You can be ignorant of what is going to happen, but be well prepared. However, it is better to both know and be prepared.

Two weeks ago we reviewed how it was crucial for Israel to learn how to turn the bitter waters into sweet so they could cross the wilderness to their Promised Land. Therefore, that was the very first lesson they were given upon entering the wilderness. They turned the bitter waters into sweet by throwing the tree into it, which represents the cross. This is how we are going to turn the bitter things that have happened to us into sweet waters, which we, too, must do if we are going to make it through the wilderness and into the Promised Land, or the fulfillment of our promises.

To make this more practical, we must apply the cross to every disappointment, betrayal, or wrong that has been done to us if we are going to be properly joined with His body, which is essential for us to enter our Promised Land. No one will cross over and possess the Promised Land alone. This we see throughout the Scriptures, and it is specifically stated in such places s Ephesians 4:13. It is "until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" (emphasis mine).

He did not say until "some" come into this, but "all." What we are to come into is far more than just a measure of spiritual maturity, but "to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." I do not think there has ever been anywhere on the earth that any church body has come into this, and here we are told that it will be the whole body. Of course, this will be the miracle of miracles, but since it is what the Lord Jesus Himself prayed the night before His crucifixion, we can be assured that His prayer will be answered. This is going to happen before this age is completed.

Because I am identified with the prophetic movement, I have pastors in almost every place I go tell me about how they have people in their congregations who have been wounded by the prophetic movement or prophetic people. This is always interesting to me because I don't think I have ever met a single Christian who has not been wounded by a pastor. The truth is that there has been too much wounding by everyone, and I do not blame that on the prophetic, the pastors, evangelists, or televangelists, or the church as a whole, but it is simply a people problem. We are all still making a lot of relational mistakes.

In this I probably am "the chief of sinners." At any given time, I seem to have a large number of people mad at me, and I know they can't all be wrong. Many of these are "professional fault finders," which we are warned about in Jude, and I don't pay much attention to them. However, I also know there are some very good people who have problems with me, my teachings, or my prophecies, and those I do try to hear and learn from. However, there are many people mad at me because I am just so clumsy in relationships that I wounded them and did not even know it. One of my most common prayers is for the Lord to help me with these, and I know He has. If you think I am still so clumsy at this, just think how bad I would be if He hadn't helped!

When I become aware of having done something wrong that has hurt someone else, I do try to go to them and fix it. This is biblically so important that according to the Lord, we should do this before bringing Him an offering. However, a prophetic friend warned me about trying to fix something with some people I had been in a previous church relationship with; it can be a black hole that will draw us in, and if it does, it is nearly impossible to escape from. If a person cannot accept an apology and go on, you had better go on anyway. Some people do not want to be healed. These are in a prison they do not want to get free from, and they want to use their wounds to manipulate and control others to get them in the same prison so that they will not be alone in their misery.

It is right to be quick to forgive. It is right to try to make amends for wrong things we have done to others when we can, but there is a limit to what we can do in this. The cross of Jesus is the only thing that can truly turn the bitter waters into sweet ones, causing all things to work together for our good. However, we cannot make others accept the cross, and if they will not, we need to move on and trust them to the Lord. Bitterness will defile many, and if someone wants to hang onto their bitterness, they will defile us if we stay close to them.

Have you been disappointed with church leadership? Think about how disappointed with it the Lord could have been. His leaders, which He had spent three and a half years pouring Himself into, who had seen all of His miracles, and declared Him to be the Messiah and the Son of God, all fled from Him when He needed His friends the most! Yet, with the exception of the one who was "the son of perdition" (see John 17:12), He never gave up on them, He quickly forgave them, and He still gave the reins of His brand new church into their hands!

How could He put such trust in the very ones who had denied that they even knew Him, fleeing from Him the way they did? Actually, it is because He did not put His trust in them, but in the Holy Spirit. We, too, can put too much trust in people, and when we do we will always be disappointed and hurt. However, if we put our trust in the only One who really deserves it, the Lord Jesus Himself and His Holy Spirit, we will never be disappointed or wounded when people let us down.

The same people who cried "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord" (see Matthew 21:9), were just five days later crying "Crucify Him!" (see Matthew 27:22) If we are putting our hope in people, even the church, especially with its proven history, we are the most foolish of all people. If we put our trust in the Lord, we will be able to trust people and the church far more than we ever could otherwise. Those who have the greatest vision for the church are those who have an even greater vision in what the Lord is doing, not people, not even apostles and prophets, but the Lord. He will have a glorious church because of who He is and what He does, not because of anything great that we have done.

If our hope and trust is in the Lord, when people let us down, we know it is for a reason. If we seek to benefit from it, we will. The greatest opportunity to be conformed to the Lord's image is to go through some of what He went through. Who suffered more betrayal than Him? Who suffered more misunderstanding, more abuse, and more injustice than He did?

After the first apostles had let the Lord down so much and then been forgiven and embraced by Him after His resurrection, they considered it a great encouragement to be considered worthy to suffer shame for His name's sake. Once they beheld the resurrection, they were far more eager to go to the cross. The Apostle John spent many chapters in his Revelation talking about Babylon, but as soon as he was carried to a high mountain he saw the New Jerusalem! Then we do not hear much more about Babylon. It is easy to tell by people's conversation if they have had the complete revelation or not.

Stephen was pretty rough on the leaders of the Sanhedrin who were trying him, until his eyes were opened to see Jesus at the right hand of the Father; then he began asking forgiveness for the very ones who were stoning him to death. The real answer is that we need to see Jesus and apply His cross to every relationship. We need to know our history and the causes of some of the terrible /mistakes made by the church. Those who have true vision will have far more faith in the Lord to complete that which He began than they will have in people to mess it up.

Jesus is the answer to every human problem and every human relationship. The cross is where we begin to find Him. The cross is where He paid the price for our sins and failures. When we embrace the cross, we are casting ourselves upon Him for our salvation. We need God, and the provision He made for us is the only way back to Him. Then we need Him to help heal every other relationship.

We should live life every day with the realization of what our sin cost Him, and are therefore compelled to take up our crosses daily to die to the sinful nature so that we might live for Him. We have been bought with a price, and we are no longer to live for ourselves, but for Him. The purpose of our life now is to serve the King and represent His kingdom. This is always lived out in relationships. The church is the crucible where the cross must first be applied if the truth of the gospel of redemption, reconciliation, and restoration is to have the power of life behind it.

The more difficult our church relationships have been, the faster the track we are probably on to true New Covenant church life. Because the Lord will always lead us in His triumph, we should never leave any situation in defeat, especially a relationship. We are supposed to be going "from glory to glory," not defeat to defeat. If the Lord is leading us to leave a situation, then it should be left in victory, not leaving a defeat or problems behind.

Most Christians I have met who have problems with the church have never considered that there is a large wake of problems and broken relationships following them too—often one that is much bigger than the one following those they are mad or disappointed with. We are told in Galatians 6:7-9:
 

Therefore, if we want to receive grace we should be trying to find opportunities to sow grace. If we want to receive mercy, we should be seeking opportunities to sow mercy. Any relationship will give you plenty of opportunities for both. See them as the opportunities that they are.

Between the place where we receive the promises of God and the Promised Land or the fulfillment of the promises, there will usually be a wilderness that is the exact opposite of what we have been promised. Isn't that the biblical pattern? Israel was promised a land flowing with milk and honey, but the first place they were taken did not even have water! Then, when they were at the point of death and they finally found water, it was bitter! What a cruel hoax! It was not a hoax, but one of the most important lessons we can learn—how to apply the cross so that any bitter waters are turned into sweet.

The Lord did not want the wilderness to be easy. He wanted it to bring to the surface all of the issues in His people that would be stumbling blocks to them once they entered their Promised Land. A whole generation had to die in the wilderness because they responded to the problems with grumbling and complaining, instead of with faith. Most Christians die going in circles in the wilderness, instead of possessing their promises because likewise they become complainers, instead of growing in the faith and patience that is required of those who will inherit the promises.

When I meet other Christians, I almost always find a way to ask them about their vision for the church. For the last few years, I think it would be accurate to say that nine times out of ten I get a download of bitterness and disappointments—almost anything but a positive vision. Then I usually hear complaints about why they have not received what was prophesied or promised them. These may be continually moving, but do not realize why they are going in circles.

If this is you, and you are reading this, there is still time to turn it around, but you will have to go to the cross and turn your bitter waters into sweet. The body of Christ is going to cross over, and it is going to possess its promises and walk in all that it is called to be. Don't get left behind.