"Expat" (Webster's definition: exile, living in a foreign country)...I was reeling! Statistical odds of one in sixty-seven million. "Ok," I thought, "God speaks through His Word, through prayer...through other believers...through circumstances...but through a validation code???" I was certainly NOT going to start packing my bags based on something as flimsy as that!
Out came the concordance. A quick search of verses concerning Babylon did nothing to calm my already frazzled nerves:
"If
only you had paid attention to my commands, your people would have been like a river...Leave Babylon, flee...there is no peace for the wicked." (excerpt Isaiah 48:18, 20-22)
only you had paid attention to my commands, your people would have been like a river...Leave Babylon, flee...there is no peace for the wicked." (excerpt Isaiah 48:18, 20-22)
"Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing. Come out from it and be pure, You who carry the vessels of the Lord...but you will not leave in haste or go in flight, for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard." (Isaiah 52:11-12)
"Flee out of Babylon, leave the land of the Babylonians, and be like the goats that lead the flock." (Jeremiah 50:8) (Hebrew for 'flee' is yatsa' - depart, exit, go forth to a place)
On May 15 of 2013 I had some serious dialogue with the Lord: "In some ways this is a time of confusion - but only because what we see is limited to the view from this moment in time. You are NOT the author of confusion...Lord God, if you are preparing us to leave our home and country - I know that You have gone ahead and are blazing the trail...We will go if You say, 'Go!' (from my journal)
May 17 - "I have to admit, I think I'm scared. There is a sense that much in our lives could change completely. Every day there is more evidence that judgment must come to this nation...there is a sense of foreboding that is difficult to shake. I am at once peaceful - yet viscerally shaken...it is CRITICAL that we practice listening to Your voice!"
May 21 - "Henry and I continue to seek You - and Your will. Sometimes it feels like we are living in the twilight zone...a kind of limbo in which You are inoculating us with the idea of leaving our home and country. We are praying to hear Your voice CLEARLY...and every day it seems you are adding fuel to the fire."
THAT SAME DAY, DRIVING INTO WORK AT THE OASIS, I TURNED ON THE RADIO.
DR. DAVID JEREMIAH WAS SPEAKING. THE TOPIC OF HIS MESSAGE?
GOD'S REMOVAL OF OF HIS PEOPLE
BEFORE BRINGING JUDGMENT!
DR. DAVID JEREMIAH WAS SPEAKING. THE TOPIC OF HIS MESSAGE?
GOD'S REMOVAL OF OF HIS PEOPLE
BEFORE BRINGING JUDGMENT!