In God's Eyes Survivalism Is Not Necessarily About Your Survival!

http://www.the-tribulation-network.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?function=display_article&article_id=120

 34 And when he [Jesus] had called the people [unto him] with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.35For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. 36For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?37Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?38Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. —Mark 8:35
And we complain about our past sufferings!  And we cringe over the prospect of sufferings we surmise  may incur when real tribulation may come into our lives before we see Jesus face to face (1 Cor 13: 12)! 
Modern Americans don't like to think about it, but Paul's testimony gives us the ideal model for Christian behavior when in tribulation.
Paul had a faith that not only endured tribulation but he relished it.  He could hardly wait to recover from his last trauma to press on to his next opportunity to suffer for Christ.  God gave Paul the covering to survive to an old age, so he could complete his God ordained mission in life with his greatest accomplishment of all, dieing as a martyr for Christ.  Few have accomplished more for Christ than Paul.  Brethren, only those who can follow Paul's God ordained example will have the mental and spiritual toughness to make it through all that is coming with your sanity and faith intact.
Keeping Spiritual Preparation In Balance

God puts His born again Christians in a position He can use us in.  So whether we live or whether we die, we are to serve the Lord with our life and in our death, enduring until the end.  Unless we are ministering Jesus Christ to others we are just serving self, and our survival is just selfishness. . . worthless dung.
But one can get dangerously out of balance with the idea of serving the Lord only and still miss God.  One post-trib-rap pastor told me he has never yet found anywhere in the Bible where we, as Christians, are told to prepare in any way other than spiritually. 
But I found some Bible passages this dear brother conveniently overlooked.  For instance, Noah's Ark building and Joseph's storing enough wheat to feed everyone in Egypt for seven years.  They were instructed by God to prepare for life; for what they knew was coming … physically. 
Let's take there example a little further.  God brought the flood and put Noah in place to prepare for it.  God brought the drought and put Joseph in place to prepare for it.  God is bringing the Tribulation and is putting people like you and me to prepare for it.  If you can get the big picture here, God is preparing some of us to prepare for the needs of others He will send to us to minister to. 
God's covering has everything to do with our obedience to His will and direction.  Look at Bible precedents like Noah's diligence to spend 120 years building that Ark and taking all that guff from the scoffers.  Look at Joseph going through slavery and imprisonment to be placed in the ideal position to grow and store wheat for seven years.  The Pharaoh ordered Joseph to move his family into Goshen, an Ark of safety in the greenest, nicest place in Egypt during the 7 year good years and 7 bad years (Genesis 47:5-7).  They were living good (comparatively speaking) during that whole 14 year period, and for many years after. 
But Noah didn't want a flood, and Joseph sure didn't want a famine, and who among us would want tribulation?  Not me!  What did not seem good to Joseph and Noah at the time turned out to be exactly what was needed.  I think these presidents are in place for us to expect God to prepare an Ark, a Goshen for His people in the coming tribulation.  We can experience that kind of covering and provision too … if we are as able to hear God and are as able to obey His directions as Paul, Noah and Joseph were. 
These heroes of the faith show us that being in the will of God is required in order to be under His covering.  This is a profound truth that gets overlooked.
God Prepared These Men For Their Place In History 

 
Before these men of God could be the man of the hour, they first had to be rejected and humiliated.  They each were put through many tests and made into the kind of man God was looking for.  Joseph did not have to suffer like he did, but he chose suffering rather than compromising his honor and dignity.  This was the kind of man needed to supervise the wealth and prosperity of Egypt in order to save that nation during the crisis ahead.  God is calling such men and women as these today.  Are you one of those that God is putting in a position He can use you in? 
If we acknowledge Him we will acknowledge what He tells us to do and where to go, not using our understanding to procrastinate, or question or disobey Him.  Then our paths will have less kinks in them, and we will be in those safe places, our Goshen, our Ark that He has provided for us individually.  No Amen's till then.
Perhaps many Preppers and Survivalists do not fully understand and appreciate God's purpose for the 70 weeks of Danial … the 7 year tribulation period.  Yet, in my estimation, that is the very focus of The Tribulation Network ministry. 
A true Christian Survivalist is Christ minded; Kingdom minded; and eternity minded.  Is not the purpose of life to be the Bride without spot or wrinkle … to prepare for eternity with Him?  Read all of Hebrews 11 again to get the mindset of first century Christianity before reading more of what I hope to say here.  We will need this Pauline mindset if we hope to be mentally and spiritually prepared.  Here is an exhortation from Paul to hold fast the faith with patience and thanksgiving.
 30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance [belongeth] unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31 [It is] a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; 33 Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. 34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. 35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. 36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. 38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if [any man] draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. — Hebrews 11
Those who are truly Yeshua's and have humbled themselves and have asked for forgiveness for all their false doctrines and personal sins will be led and guided by Yeshua through these terrible times.  The name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous run into it and are safe (Prov. 18:10).  He will lead some to safe places to escape physical harm and others to glorious martyrdom as He did with Steven (Acts 7:59). 
Moses set the president for living by miracles alone when his supplies brought from Egypt ran out.  Think tons of quail and manna for a moment ... and lest we forget … the land flowing with milk and honey.  Canaan land was complete with the buildings, the crops, the warehouses, the roads ... everything they could ask for.  Yet they did not deserve it, or buy it, or even ask for it.  God just provided! 
But as Moses found out, whether we live or we die, we are the Lords.
False Converts, False Doctrines Will All Be Judged 
Some of our most renowned preachers, such as David Wilkerson, Leonard Ravenhill and Paul Washer have said that 80 to 90% (or far less?) of those who say they are Christians had a false conversion and are not Christians at all.  They think they are Christians, but they are not.  The tribulation we see coming will begin to reveal the false Christians and doctrines.  Yes, all doctrines, and especially all eschatologies, will be tested.  Time tests all things. 
In this 7 year period God will bring judgment first to His Church, then to the world.
 I [Yahweh] also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose [that] in which I delighted not. — Isaiah 66:4
 [Even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. — 2 Thessalonians 2:9
Jesus will purge His Church to bring forth a Bride pure and ready for the Bride Groom, and to separate the clean from the unclean.  Perhaps some of those goats and tares will get saved, but the rest will viciously turn against God and His wheat, His sheep … the called out ones.  They will be compelled to reveal what they really are.  It will soon be obvious who took the mark of the beast and who didn't.  Paul makes that real clear in Hebrews 11.  He lived it, brethren!
This describes the purging and cleansing pretty well, I'd say.  And it pretty well dispels the (were out of here, sorry about you) pre-trib-rap mammy-pamby delusion.  Boy, what will they say when they step into this unexpected Hebrews 11 arena they are totally unprepared for?! 
Hoped For Revival

Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.  I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown. —Revelation 3:10-11


For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.  Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.  Selah.  I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. — Psalms 32: 6-8



He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.  Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.  Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;  Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. — Psalms 91:1-6



And his name a strong tower, Prov. 18:10. He will be not only a shadow from the heat in the daytime, but a covert from storm and rain.



O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? — Daniel 6

And as he [Elijah] lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise [and] eat.And he looked, and, behold, [there was] a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. — 1 King 19:5 

So he [Elijah]went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that [is] before Jordan.And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. 1 King 17.  The key word to Elijah's success was obedience.  God spoke to him and he did according unto the word of the LORD!  Otherwise he may not have fared so well.



The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. — Proverbs 22:12



Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.  Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.  For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? —Ecclesiastes 5:5-7 

 
Future Articles Planned
In a future article we need to discuss in more detail what an ideal homestead should be equipped with to meet your needs.  I look forward to telling you about my desire to develop my concept of an isolated self sufficient Christian community in the Ozark mountains.  A more traditional variant of my community concept is something I call Intentional Neighbors.
The next article, “A “Green Island” Prospectus,” will actually provide a list of things need for this lifestyle and a brief overview of all my articles on prepping so far.  It is a handbook on prepping...of sorts.
You can get more information than you might want on my website at http://arkhaven.org/arkhaven_christian_community.htm or you can email me from http://arkhaven.org/contact_arkhaven.htm. 
 
Classical paintings a'la Gustave Dore

Much said in that post.  And I absolutely agree with the title.

I'll just comment on one aspect of it: of suffering and persecution as experienced
by the Apostles and especially Paul.

"Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die to get there", is an old saying.
Particularly when it involves suffering.

I know that many-most-all of us have contemplated and even rehearsed our 'witness unto death' early on by the awareness of the mark of the beast. And through prayer for the Might and Power
of the Holy Spirit, have come to terms with it, as best we can.

People wonder what 'right' we have to hope to escape persecution, when martyrdom exists all through history.  Yet, at the same time, the Word says hold fast to that very hope.

Saul thought he was serving God in his scholarly knowledge and persecution of the
followers of this new faith.  Right Calling, wrong pew.  He 'knew' he was to serve God,
he just didn't understand how until he had his encounter, was born again, renamed, made a New Creature in Christ.

Then as a surrendered servant and vessel of the Holy Spirit, taking little thought for himself,
he was led from place to place, experience to experience.  We see that the Spirit restored life to his body until he completed God's real mission for him, as executed through him.

The magnitude of Paul's life proves out what he taught as he formed and framed the 'Life
of the Believer in Christ Jesus" as a witness for all the coming generations.
He "lived in" and "walked out" the Word the Spirit spoke through him.
And that, to me, is his greatest lesson:
that the flesh counts for nothing [being  fallen and not yet redeemed] BUT that we may
now know our eternal life in the Spirit, by being 'born again' of the Spirit, redeemed to
God ,and that we now 'live, move and have our being' in the
Spirit, and in the Kingdom of God, as much as can be realized and still remain in the earthly realm.

We know Paul had his moments.  He tells us so.  Yet, he counted it all JOY for the prize
that lay before him.  That wasn't based on words..He saw it and knew it by the Spirit!  It was very real to him, it filled him; and in fact, he was seldom divided in himself.
Life in and by the Spirit was his Reality.
And that is where he's told us to be as well.
See, if you're already 'dead to self'....what difference does it make if your Life, your spirit is 'here' or 'there'.  

Don't underestimate all that God can do for us. Our awareness can be long gone from the body before anything 'bad' ever happens to us.  And that's not head knowledge. I say that from experience.

BUT, can we do this? NO. And that's GOOD! Be the first to say it.
"Lord, I can't do this!" And He answers: "I know. I made you. And I
made you to LOOK TO, LEAN ON AND LET ME."
In our own strength, we can do nothing, EXCEPT look to Him to do it ALL.