It’s not just our imaginations that the world is growing ever darker. Each new morning the headlines prove us right. Still, with all that’s transpiring in the world, many fail to see things are amiss, or if they do, they underestimate its importance since they don’t know Bible prophecy. Rising darkness is a clear indication of the soon-coming Light. Many don’t believe in the rapture of the church, even professing Christians, so they go about life squinting in the darkness rather than admitting that seven years of nightfall is quickly approaching.
For some, however, the darkness is so dark that squinting can’t adjust their vision and help them find their way. My family knows that all too well these days.
On Monday, January 30th’s empty space in my calendar, I had written “HV edits.” That was my plan, anyway, to make final changes to my Rapture Ready article titled Heavenly Vision. “Many plans are in a man’s heart…” (Proverbs 19:21). Those edits still haven’t been addressed. Sunday, January 29th, we left church with little more to decide than where to eat lunch. With the decision made and our course set for Ruby Tuesday, I reached into my purse for my silenced phone. There’s a song lyric that says we’re all just one phone call away from our knees. In my case, it was several missed calls and one text from my bonus mom, Dede, that said, “Call me asap.” The song is right. The call I returned and the traumatic news that awaited have brought us, as a family, to our knees.
My dad had shot and killed himself at 9:50 that morning. When Dede told me the news, I bent over in my seat and began to weep. She wept with me. I was trying to make sense of it. I knew he had been suffering from anxiety and depression. I knew he was exhibiting signs of advancing dementia. I knew he was terribly sad, but as of the Friday before, his doctor visit had given Dede hope of help being on the way and me the hope that a reduction in medication would lessen the fog he was living in. Instead of hope for my dad that morning, darkness prevailed.
That’s all I could imagine, him in a pitch-dark tunnel with what he believed was no way out. That’s what I kept telling Dede, giving her that imagery and the assurance that he would have never done what he did, especially knowing she would be the one to find him, if he had been remotely in his right mind. We both believe he was overmedicated, something I think led to deepening despair and more rapid cognitive decline. I can’t prove that, but I know firsthand the trillion-dollar pharma and medical industries that say one pill isn’t enough.
Clearly, darkness prevailed for my dad, at least while his feet were still here on planet Earth and he was looking at the world with earthly vision. The good news, and what’s helped Dede and all of us to make it through the funeral and the past two weeks, is knowing that my dad is a believer in Jesus, literally now more than ever, with his feet planted in heavenly places. No matter what some believe about suicide, I know Jesus says no one can take those who are His out of His hand, even the believer himself. I know my dad is now living in vivid light, in a place where darkness can never prevail and where evil-inspired pharmakeia will never steal lucidity from a good man’s mind.
My point? I keep asking myself that even as I type. I’ve written and rewritten this article many times in my head in the sleepless hours of the night. Even that first Sunday night, when sleep escaped me, the words when darkness prevails were what kept coming to mind. Since I’m a what-can-we-learn-from-this kind of girl, I know there’s a lesson to be learned and shared. That’s what I hope to do with this article, to remind us all that there are times when it appears that darkness is indeed prevailing.
⁃ We watch the rise of the one-world order that John witnessed in his vision as unelected global elites determine and dictate what the future of governments and economies and healthcare will look like.
⁃ Our government officials are corrupt, and this once-great nation is flailing its arms in its last throes of certain and tragic death.
⁃ The nation’s economy and the U.S. dollar are targeted for intentional destruction.
⁃ Good men and women who protect and serve are marginalized and labeled as the enemy now that good is called evil and evil good.
⁃ A hundred more proofs-of-darkness headlines could expand this list.
In every way, when looking around us with earthly vision, the prince of this world seems to be outmatching those of us who are raising our voices in protest and warning. Our light as the church is diminishing, and darkness is darkening. It’s too much to bear most days for even the most seasoned rapture-ready believer.
Enter Heavenly Vision, the article I was working on in my pre-dad’s-suicide life. What’s happened to forever reshape my family only urges me on in my quest for heavenly vision. It also gives me one more reason to cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus!” This tragic and traumatic loss also prompts me to nudge you toward heavenly vision as well. My family is proof that when we fix our eyes on this world and its rising darkness rather than the soon-coming Light, anxiety and sadness and depression will be fostered in our hearts and minds. But when we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, we know the story isn’t over, no matter what’s happening around us.
We must take encouragement from John, who shared his vision of when Light ultimately prevails over darkness. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war…. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, ‘King of kings, and Lord of lords'” (Revelation 19:11&16).
That’s the Jesus I’m fixing my eyes upon, even in the midst of one of the darkest times of my life. I will continue pointing others to that Light, not in spite of the pain of my loss but even more because of it. Others around you and me see more darkness than light. May we become beacons of the Light.
Finally this: My dad now has heavenly vision–no squinting required. I suppose he is looking as forward to the rapture of his family as we are of being raptured. I’m glad to know his fresh grave will soon be empty as his glorified, non-anxiety-ridden body will beat me up in the air to meet Jesus.
I’ll meet you back soon with the finally edited Heavenly Vision article. If you will, say a prayer for Dede. After forty-eight years with the love of her life, this sure has left a gaping hole in that sweet woman’s heart.
May God grant you peace in the days to come,
Lisa
P.S. Love you, Paps!
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Free Resources:
Daybreak, Last Days of Light – Free ebook download
How Do I Share What I Know? Lisa’s Rapture Ready Series
Prepare Your Heart – Lisa’s Rapture Ready series
Prepare a Sanctuary – Lisa’s Rapture Ready series (Preparing for the left behind)
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About Daybreak with Lisa:
Daybreak is a way of life, one of exposing the rising darkness and telling of the soon-coming Light. We only have so many daybreaks remaining before that final sunset when we, as believers, are caught up in the air to meet Jesus.
As an author, Lisa Heaton is a storyteller with a heart for truth. Her greatest desire in her fiction and nonfiction work is to challenge the reader to discover the truth of who Jesus is and who they are to Him. Now, here as we wait for the any-minute arrival of Jesus for His church in the rapture, Lisa’s latest mission is to warn the lost and wake the found and to help others discover their unique voice to share the truth of our times. More at DaybreakWithLisa.com. Contact Lisa at Lisa@LisaHeatonBooks.com.