Do You Not Discern the Times?
By Deborah Wittmier
March 2007
I hope your new year has gotten off to a great start! Mine is definitely not "business as usual." Something happened to completely change my whole outlook, my focus. I want to tell you all about it, but it's rather difficult because the experience I had was so "over the top." Actually, in retrospect, I see that it was really a two-part revelation.
Part one came at our New Year's Eve service at church. We spent the entire service in worship and consecration in preparation for the upcoming year. At the end of the service, a Word of prophecy came to us in the form of this scripture passage, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:1-3). I had no idea what was to follow shortly thereafter.
Two days later, while at a prayer meeting for our government, the Spirit of the Lord came upon me in a very powerful way. I have been blessed to have many wonderful experiences by the power of the Spirit, but this one caused me to understand first-hand why visitations in the Bible often begin with "Fear not!" Even though I perceived the strong presence of the Holy Spirit which I cherish, the affect on my emotions was almost overwhelming fear at just at the sheer power I was aware of. Then the Word of the Lord clearly came unto me, "Do you not discern the times?" I shared this with the prayer group. Troubled at the inference that something should be clearer to us than what we were realizing, we prayerfully asked the Lord what it is He would have us to be discerning.
At that point, another strong manifestation of the Holy Spirit accompanied the mental image of the woman about to give birth while the beast (dragon) was poised over her to devour the child. Many of you will recognize this as coming from the Book of Revelation, as did I. However, at this point, my mind simply seemed frozen, or short-circuited by the overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit, and my own thought processes were arrested. The only thoughts that would form were whatever images or phrases were being imprinted there.
The next phrase that came with such force it was as though it was pounding to get out was, "time, times and a half a time." Again, I recognized the Biblical phraseology as being clearly tied to the end times. But my own mind was simply not being allowed to kick in, so to speak, and it was quite disconcerting to have what appeared to be such disjointed thoughts. However, I realize now that if it hadn't happened this way, my own intellect would have tried to fill in the blanks. As it was, my own intellect was simply not allowed to give input! Then, the words "Do not be afraid" brought instant peace and calm to every one of my over-charged nerve-endings. The last words He spoke during the encounter were, "These are ponderous times." And it was over as suddenly as it had begun.
You're probably wondering why I went to such detail to not only tell you the words, but to tell you the experience. I can only tell you it's because the Spirit and the Word are One. They cannot be separated, and together they bring the fullest understanding of not only the meaning of the words, but the import of them as well. What does it mean, exactly? In its simplest form, each scripture, phrase and image is directly tied to Biblical prophecies that are directly related to the return of the Lord. That is why I said things are no longer "business as usual" for me. Suddenly, for me, the rapture of the Church and The Great Tribulation have been placed "front and center." Of course I have previously recognized that we are living in the end times. But, prior to this encounter, that has always been the backdrop to my life. Now, I have had one of those Holy Ghost encounters that changes everything. And I must speak of it, because it permeates everything for me, and therefore, for Deborah Ministries International.
I have come to realize that the carrying of the message "Do you not discern the times?" is part of what was imparted to me during the whole experience. The implantation planted a sense of urgency within me. Suddenly, the rapture of the Church and the events and prophecies concerning the end of the age are of extreme importance to me. The urgency is primarily to raise awareness in my sphere of influence.
I realize now that in order for me to be willing to speak of these things from the pulpit, I had to have an encounter that would put things in divine order in my own perspective. In the past I have never been willing to teach about these things because I was very skeptical about the results. I felt that people rarely respond productively. All too often people respond with skepticism (i.e. "oh, every generation thinks Jesus is coming back"), intellectualism (i.e. a debate of who's interpretation of prophecies, events and times is right, or fear (i.e. panic-driven decisions similar to those being made around the turn of the century), or fatalism (i.e. "no need to finish college if Jesus is coming"), etc.
Now the desire to look into these things and to call people to a personal response literally burns within me. Yes, I will in the future speak to the scriptures and phrases involved with more detail, but my primary goal in this letter is to cause you to be interested enough to begin to prayerfully look to the Lord yourself.
I cannot urge you strongly enough to determine that you will be one of the ones who has ears to hear, eyes to see and a heart to perceive what the Spirit is saying to the Church in these days. The Amplified version of the last portion of Revelation 19:10 says this, "For the substance (essence) of the truth revealed by Jesus is the spirit of all prophecy -- the vital breath, the inspiration of all inspired preaching and the interpretation of the divine will and purpose. . . ."
I pray that you will look to the Lord for truth and that He will quicken your heart to the hope and knowledge of His soon coming, and that your life will be divinely ordered around this central truth.
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