So many times, there are false impressions people get because they do not understand the paradox of prophecy. There is the opposite sides of God, Who is perfect mercy and perfect justice. A paradox is contrary to expectation, or opposing truths that seem to contradict the other.
Most of the prophecy in the Bible cannot be clearly understood until after it has come to pass and then it can be seen for it's accuracy. Jesus was said to come out of Bethlehem and out of Nazareth, and out of Egypt. Well, all were correct, because we know that He was born in Bethlehem, taken to Egypt, to escape the death sentence handed over Him by Herod, and after Herod died, came back to Israel and raised in Nazareth. None of the prophecies were wrong, but it sure caused confusion for many scholars looking for the Messiah.
Prophecies today hold part of a picture. God is just and is judging sin and wants people to repent. He is merciful and desires that everyone that can be saved will be saved. How does that play out in the words we hear.
One example I personally know of is Hurricane Alicia in 1983 that hit the Galveston area. It proceeded up Interstate 45 and had winds that were so strong that billboards were torn down in Dallas, and a trucker was killed there. At the end of July, my Dad, Rev Henry Alloway, was impressed by the Lord that he needed to fast for the first 18 days of August until 3:00 PM that day. He was a little surprised by the exact way the Lord told him to fast until 3:00 PM, and pondered it through that time.
On August 15th, Hurricane Alicia formed south of Louisiana. It grew to a Category 3 storm very quickly. As I saw this on the news, I wanted to pray against the storm coming in and that it would lose strength and that kind of thing. My friend Barbara and I were praying, and I heard myself commanding that storm to come in at Galveston and come up Interstate 45, which meant it would hit in my city of Conroe, Texas, 40 miles north of Houston. I nearly choked and stopped and started over and prayed the same thing, and then I told Barbara that I did not even want to pray over the storm if all I could do was call it to come in. I did not want it here just for my own reasons! I was used to praying by the leadership of the Holy Spirit and I found I could not pray contrary to it. It was a prophetic call, though I did not realize it at the time.
The Hurricane came into Galveston and right up I45 and the eye of the storm passed through Conroe at 3:00 PM August 18th, 1983. The storm did massive damage in the area, but there was minimal loss of life. My Dad pastored a church of over a hundred people who were all in the path of the storm. No one had their home or vehicles hit by the massive amount of trees that were uprooted and thrown around like toothpicks. A tree fell right beside my brother's house and did not harm it. A tree fell between my other brother's home and truck and did not harm them. One of the families in our church that lived in the country had 27 trees down all around their home and not one hit their home or cars. These were typical stories of the amazing protection of life and property in the church, family and area.
I had a short dream while the storm was moving through, and I saw a black horse with his neck and head pushed up against the outer wall of my bedroom. I knew it was like death trying to push into the places we were. It did not succeed. We went through days of no electricity and other inconveniences, but came through okay. It was a very scary storm as it came through here.
Months earlier there had been prophecies about hurricanes coming to our area. One man had a dream about seahorses coming up I45 from Galveston. The first was to be a warning, and the second would be judgement. That storm, Alicia, was a warning. The second has never come, but that is not saying it won't. It can still come, and if it does, the Lord will reveal it, and have people pray for protection. Some people turn to God by His goodness and others turn to Him through tremendous problems.
I believe that the Lord had my Daddy fast and pray the first 18 days of August until the eye of the storm hit here, at 3:00 PM that day, for protection. But at the same time, the Lord wanted that storm to come here, and thus I could not pray against it. If and when there is a second storm following that same path, the Lord impressed us to leave and go toward Arkansas. That doesn't sound too great, but that is what He instructed in the Seahorse dreams. Also, in the dreams it showed traffic going north on I45 through a town north of us in every lane. The second seahorse was bigger than the first also.
Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he knew the Lord was so merciful and did not want to bring destruction. God is the same today. He wants to save people and bless people where He can without violating Himself in His character. There is the scripture in II Chronicles 7:14 that says..."and My people,who are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
That means that there is benefit for the ungodly who are around the ones who heed the call of the Lord to humble themselves and pray, and judgements can be turned or lessened. One of the ways to humble yourself is to fast. It is a denial of your flesh in response of the call of God, to give Him preeminence in the face of hunger of your flesh. It is acknowledging His Lordship over your life.
The paradox here is that the Lord told my Dad to fast and pray for protection for people, and had me pray the storm to come here. Why didn't He just keep the storm from coming at all? It was a warning of the kind of damage that judgement could bring. People seem to think that God does not do those kinds of things. He is just a mush God who men call on at ribbon cutting ceremonies at new businesses. But, He is not that at all. He is the God Who made the universe, Who created all things, and man is one of the creations. He desires a relationship with us, but has given us that peculiar thing we can use against Him...free will. The enemy of our lives wants us to forget about God, and thumb our nose at His ways and His word. But, there will come a day of reckoning.
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