As I have repeated, this study is intended to be a broad perspective that connects history to prophecy, the past to the present to the future. When I was a new Christian more than thirty-five years ago, I felt compelled to study church history. I wanted to understand what God had done so that I could better understand what He is doing now and perceive what He is going to do. After thirty-five years of such study, I know I still only see in part, but I do now have a grid or paradigm for current events from which the unfolding future tends to make sense.

It is interesting that the Lord compared knowing the signs of the times to knowing the signs of changing weather (see Matthew 16:2). This is because there are principles to knowing the signs of the weather that are similar to knowing the signs of the times. As a pilot, I determined I would learn to know weather and all of its changing systems in such a way that I would never be surprised by the weather conditions I found on a flight. At the time, weather forecasting was something of a joke, so I had to go far beyond the general knowledge available at the time to do this. I observed the weather constantly, talked to older pilots about it, and read every book I could find on the subject. Soon I could pick up a weather forecast and tell very quickly if it was accurate or not, and if not, what was wrong with it. I got to the place that I was rarely surprised by the conditions I found. I want to do the same with the signs of the times.

I did have a secret available to me as I studied weather that the National Weather Service did not have—I asked the Lord to teach me about weather. He created it, so I knew He knew much more about it than I could have ever gotten out of books. However, without the general knowledge that I accumulated by my studies, much of what the Lord showed me would not have made any sense to me and would have been useless. My point is that He can give much more revelation to those who have been diligent to study.

Is this kind of study necessary for a prophetic perspective? No, but it is required most of the time. The Lord can just drop into His prophets the knowledge of what is going to take place, but I have found that this is rare for the big picture of what He is doing and definitely the exception. The main difference between the "major" and "minor" prophets in Scripture is not the amount of prophecies as much as the scope of their prophetic perspective. The major prophets had a vast knowledge of both history and current events that gave them a grid for understanding their times and the future.

Of course, we should ask the Lord to guide us in our studies so that we don't just accumulate knowledge, but knowledge that will be useful. We are told in I John 2:27 that "...His anointing teaches you about all things...." You know when you are being taught by the Holy Spirit, or led on a trail of knowledge by the Holy Spirit, and we must always be devoted to this first.

We have covered that one of the primary ways we prepare the way for the Lord is to build a highway. Those who build highways have a hard and usually very slow moving task. They must bring down mountains and hills and build up valleys. They cut through the woods and sometimes jungles. Then, after it is built, we drive on the highway and blast ahead at 70 miles per hour hardly thinking about those who worked so hard enabling us to do this. That is part of what studying is like, too. I can spend thirty years digging in difficult places for knowledge, write it in a book or a study like this, and a reader can absorb it in a few hours!

This may seem unfair, but I want to see what I spent so much time and effort on used by others to make their way easier and faster. We, in this generation, have benefited greatly from all who went before us and prepared the way. Our goal should be to build every highway we can to help others get to their destinations faster and easier, so that the kingdom may come. There are many others doing this, and we need to be appreciative and supportive of all of them.

Already some of these highways are beginning to link up and broaden. This is exciting. To me, this is one of the sure signs that the kingdom really is near. There are many movements emerging in the church in our time that are all working to help prepare the way for the kingdom. At this time, they may seem disconnected and may not even recognize each other or perceive how one day they will fit together, but they may not need to at this time and you can be sure that they will at the right time.

We must always keep in mind that the Lord is the Head, and the only one who really needs to see the whole picture. It is good for some to begin to see the big picture or at least part of it, but it is not really essential for most at this time. For this reason, I am not trying to write these Words for the Week for Christians in general, but to those who have a maturity and depth that would even make this kind of thing interesting, as well as useful. If you are even inclined to this kind of study, it is a gift, and it is for a reason. Do not neglect it just because there are not many others on the same path at this time.

Even so, we need to each see our own part more clearly, and be faithful to what we have been called to. The great Heavenly Engineer, who put together the whole creation, will bring all of the parts of His body together in due time. Then we will probably all marvel at how we fit together, as well as whom we fit together with.

When the highways start to merge, we know that the time is near. Some are doing this already, to the great benefit of each. Any time two parts of the body come together, both are edified. The Lord blesses the unity of His people like almost nothing else, even to the point of saying that if just two of us get together and agree on something and ask it of Him, He will do it (see Matthew 18:19).

Of course, "agree" means much more than just intellectually assenting to something, but is rather a deep merging of the spirit. Just as the koininia we often translate "fellowship" means much more than just getting together to have a good time, or slapping each other on the back once a week before a church service, the Greek word koininia is much more accurately translated "communion," or common-union.

My point is that if we are truly devoted to preparing the way for the Lord, then we should also be fundamentally devoted to the unity of His people and to developing meaningful relationships with other parts of the body of Christ. For many years I have enjoyed a good relationship with some of the leaders of the Baptists, and I have always greatly appreciated them and what they give to the whole body of Christ. Lately, I have developed a relationship with some even more conservative evangelical leaders and have been greatly edified by them. I deeply appreciate the scholarship and devotion to biblical truth they bring—even though we may disagree on the present use of the gifts of the Spirit (which some of them have changed their opinion about). Another major area of study that I really love is apologetics, which is really a crucial field of knowledge for the overall spiritual health of the church.

I don't think you could say that the road we have been trying to build in pursuing the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy, have really merged with any of these other movements. However, I do think that now there are many paths between them, and a lot of the interchange is benefiting us and them as well. I can see this causing the two roads to draw closer, and down the road a bit, they might even merge as one.

There is another major highway being built by Christians in the marketplace which is crucial for the times. They often have a hard time seeing how they fit in with the church, but they need the church and the church needs them, urgently. Another is with military leaders. There is a military aspect to God's very nature to the degree that He uses the title "Lord of hosts" or "Lord of armies" over ten times more than all of His other titles. He is a martial God, and His people will increasingly come into "martial array" to fulfill their purpose at the end of this age. Of course, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal weapons, but spiritual, and the nature of His people will take on an increasingly martial character.

I do see many highways now, which are like roads being built toward the coming kingdom. I could see some of the military leaders coming together with some of the business leaders to form an amazingly powerful and effective team which would greatly impact the whole body of Christ. I also know that they need some of what the apologetics movement adds, and then they all need that which is added by the great leaders of the devotional and prayer movements.

All of these are helping to prepare the way, which I do believe will someday merge into a single highway, but they must not merge prematurely either. The unity of the body that is coming is a unity of diversity, not a unity of conformity. It is like the different parts of our bodies merging to form a single body that can do many things, not just one. We need to know we are a hand and that we do not have to change that to become united with the wrist, and the rest of the arm, and then the rest of the body.

So in a few paragraphs, we have gone from a vast perspective of God's work in history, the present, and the future, to knowing our individual part in His body. This is an important point. Knowledge is not just so we can know more, but should have a practical application to our daily lives. I have tried to sow practical applications into these perspectives daily, because truth that is life needs to be living truth, something that changes us. We need to see the mountain peaks we are to climb, but we also need to see where to put our next step.

As we close out this year, we need to tie a few of the loose ends together that we addressed, so we can get a little more specific and practical this coming year. Of course, my purpose is that you, those who faithfully read these Words for the Week, are used to help prepare the way for the Lord in the way that you were put on this earth to do. Next week we will address the most important element in our lives if we are to be used in this way.