The Alarm

In August of 2008, I awoke one night to the sound of a crash so loud that one could only think that someone had just broken in. I found nothing to explain the noise as I searched the house, until I came to the bathroom. There lay a picture on the tile floor that had fallen from the wall. Amazingly, the glass in the picture frame had not broken. Even more amazing was the fact that the picture hook was still perfectly intact on the wall, as was the wire on the back of the picture frame. How had it come off the wall?

I returned to bed, and as I lay there, I heard the Lord ask, “What do you hear?” I could clearly hear the hand of a watch ticking in the night. Then I heard from the Lord:

Yes, Lord? Wake up Son. Listen for I have worthy things to say. Hear the second hand as it ticks. It ticks and answers to the minute and the minute ticks and answers to the hour. And the hour ticks and answers to Me. The hour before the alarm is upon you. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Oh, sleeping church. Wake up before the hour answers to Me. What will it say about My sleeping church? Do not let the alarm take you by surprise. The pictures of the earthly house are falling with loud crashes because this earthly house will not take much more. These are warnings for My house to wake up before the hour must answer to Me. Wake up! Wake up! For I the Lord your God have worthy things to say. The hour does not own me, I own the hour. I do not answer to the hour, the hour answers to Me. My people have turned to worship the hour rather than turning to worship Me. They say “How many minutes do I have left in the hour? I must go here. I must go there.” They say, “I must know how many minutes I have left in the hour to fulfill my dreams to live out my life; to earn money.” All in the name of my God…your God has become yourself. Your God has become your time, your hour you fools. Don’t you know that the time and the hour will answer to Me? My people have turned to worship themselves, their destiny, their purpose, their careers, their money, and their time rather than Me. Don’t you know that I have said you cannot worship both God and money? Your gifts have become your gods. You think only for yourselves. Your worship has put you to sleep! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

I sat there for a minute, and at this point I could not hear anything. No ticking of the watch. Nothing. And then He said:

The second hand ticks no more, it has answered to the minute. The minute hand ticks no more, it has answered to the hour. The hour is drawing to a close and it will tick no more. It will answer to Me. What will it say? Wake up and worship! Everything that you have turned to worship answers to the Lord your God.

I have been discipling men in the word for over 20 years. I feel a growing urgency in me because I recognize the timing of God. “Do not let the alarm take you by surprise,” he told me. So many people can feel this alarm approaching, but they do not understand what they are feeling. They are looking to man for answers when they should be looking to God.

This is my question to you. Do you recognize the timing of God and his coming? Do you understand the season that you live in?