Global Warming - Bring It On!

Symptoms of global warming. You don't have to look very far to hear all sorts of excitement and controversy about this hottest topic of debate in our world today. So, what's the big deal about it anyway? Why is there so much fear surrounding this that fuels the intensifying arguments and causes people to become environmental fanatics more radical than even religious fanatics?

Well, I am not totally ignorant about the issues being tossed around in this debate. I am aware of the consequences that might take place if the massive shelves of ice were to slip off of Greenland and suddenly sink into the waters of the surrounding oceans. The sudden rise in sea levels would certainly cause some very interesting changes in the familiar outlines of many continents and many resort islands would suddenly find themselves needing to build rather tall pylons on which to perch all of their luxury hotels and homes. Florida might become a gigantic wading pool instead of a retirement village and inland cities would suddenly be faced with building docks for ships that once stopped hundreds of miles away.

All of these things while maybe tongue in cheek are quite realistically possible if the global average temperatures continue to elevate. In addition it is believed that the central regions around the world would become much more desert-like while the colder northern and southern climates would begin to warm and dramatically change their current landscapes. There is even talk by scientists that in a very short time from now that during the summer that possibly ALL of the ice surrounding the North pole may disappear completely leaving our planet looking almost naked from outer space. There have already been news reports from several years ago of tourist ships arriving at the North pole only to discover that there was no place for the passengers to get out and walk around because the ice had melted into a large lake at that very spot.

So why am I excited about global warming? Well, let me give you a hint. Because I am starting to feel some of the effects of deep cracks developing in the titanic glaciers of ice that have encapsulated my own heart. I believe that I am witnessing some potential developments in my own heart that may soon lead to much bigger changes over which I will have little control but that will forever change the landscape of my life as well as everyone else around me.

It suddenly occurred to me more clearly this morning what the main composition is of this ice that has held me frozen in its wintry spell for so many years. It is not unlike the long winter referred to in C. S. Lewis's Narnia stories. What came clearly to me this morning was that the ice field that has kept me frozen and incapacitated from really living for most of my life has been the reign of fear in my heart.

Just like ice, fear can freeze a person making them unable to move or function as they wish, sometimes locking them into a self-fulfilling terror of being hurt by a danger that they are immobilized to respond to effectively. Fear is our worst enemy because it robs us of all our power to live as God designed us to live – with joy and spontaneity, freedom and creativity. Fear blocks the heart from being able to trust others, to form bonds with other hearts through love and humility and real friendship. Fear isolates people more and more from everyone around them as it moves all of humanity closer and closer to an eternal ice age that would become the playland of demons gloating over their victory against the light and warmth that fills all of heaven. This might be the proverbial event of hell freezing over for real.

I have suspected for a long time that I had some deeply buried glaciers that were hidden from my view from years of overfill that kept them securely cold and inaccessible to the light of day. But there is something very significant about the nature of ice cover that needs to be understood. Ice and snow block the warmth of the sun from being effective by bouncing away the light and heat that would otherwise be absorbed into the earth or water and that would cause more melting of the ice. As long as there is a cover of white on the surface, it is generally very difficult for any significant melting to be able to occur and effect any real change in the conditions on the ground.

But as scientists are now explaining, as more and more pockets of melted water appear during the warm seasons and more land is exposed to the rays of the sun, more heat is being absorbed into the surface and transmitted into the infrastructure that dramatically accelerates the warming trend. Melted water then begins to move around and cause even more melting. It forms holes in the ice and then drops down through those holes to the ground below and begins to form a layer between the ice and the rocks. This has the effect of lubricating the movement of the ice sheets so they can more quickly slide toward the ocean which in turn opens up even more exposed surfaces behind that can absorb even more heat accelerating the process exponentially.

For many scientists around the world this process itself is becoming a great source of alarm and fear in their minds. Since most of them do not believe in a sovereign God in charge of everything on this earth, they are convinced that it is totally up to humans to attempt to reverse this process of warming so as to keep the status quo as we know it as much as possible. They believe that the very existence of humanity depends on our own success in saving our planet completely by our own efforts alone. Does that sound like anything similar to other beliefs floating around in this world? We have to save ourselves – now where I have heard that before?

I have been fascinated for years by many of the macro issues in science, partly because it just seems so intriguing to watch massive changes transform the earth's landscape in dramatic ways. Volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and dramatic changes in the polar regions have always held a special fascination for me most of my life. Now I wonder if that was not at least in part due to my deep desires to experience dramatic transformation in my own life, to experience radical shifts of thinking and to break free from the emotional restraints and habits that prevented me from really living life more fully.

There is one common thing about all of these events of nature that nearly everyone agrees on. There is almost nothing that humans can really do to alter their happening. We may be able to slightly better predict their occurrences at times, but we cannot alter the explosion of a volcano or have any affect on what an earthquake does. I know that there is a huge battle going on in politics and science as to how much human activity contributes to global warming. But I suspect that the real battle comes down more to who can manipulate and control the public media in order to convince the most people of their opinions more than what actual realistic ability people have to affect what this planet does in relationship to its core and the deep space that surrounds it.

I have no doubt whatsoever that this planet really is going to experience dramatic warming of the atmosphere and that all the terrifying results will in fact take place sooner or later, with or without all the attempts of humans to reverse it. And the reason that I am completely confident of this is because the irrefutable Word of God has already forecast it to happen in our day. Revelation forecasts a time coming very soon when the sun will scorch men with overwhelming heat that will be inescapable and that inhabited islands will disappear. Does that sound like global warming to you?

But there are other prophecies that make me even more excited because they have to do with the landscape of billions of hearts of the people all over this planet. While externally the global warming of this planet is inevitably taking place, God declares that there is going to be a massive and irrepressible display of the glory of God that is going to fill the whole earth with its warmth, its light and its transformational power. Nothing that humans or all the demons of hell can ever do will be able to prevent or thwart this outbreak of fresh life and revelations about God's love that will flood the whole planet with an exhibition of the real truth about God. But that global warming event will polarize every person and bring them to decide fully on which side they are going to be in the great battle over souls taking place primarily right here on this planet.

When this explosion of glory takes place in its fullness as described most clearly at the beginning of Revelation 18, the titanic forces of evil that have kept this world frozen in a cold wintry fear about God for so many millennia will not be able to stop the massive thaws that will occur in every home and heart and family throughout the whole earth. But that does not mean that the forces of evil will give up in dismay. No, evil never gives up as long as it is in existence, for the very nature of evil is resistance against the love of God and all demonstrations of the truth about God. The mighty battle of Armageddon is going to revolve around the forces of cold darkness confronting the release of this mighty heat of God's truth and glory that will permeate every place in this battlefield.

The outcome of this mighty battle, which is not military in nature as many Christians have mistakenly assumed, is possibly going to result in the true conversion of an amazing percentage of the world's population according to some people's beliefs about prophecies in Revelation. Quite possibly one fourth to one third of the whole population of the world will be converted to obedience to God's ways and will keep all of His commandments and devote their lives totally to His service.

But that is not the end by any means. The rage of the enemy will become so intense as never before in the history of the whole world that a counterattack will take place that will produce a time of bloodshed so horrible that it is impossible for us to imagine. But by what I am starting to perceive in my observations about these prophecies, nearly every one of those people who embrace the truth about God plus a great many more will be slaughtered in various ways in a last-gasp attempt by Satan to eliminate every loyal follower of God from this planet and claim this planet as his own through the use of brute force.

Only a very small number of God's people will survive this massive time of terror if I understand prophecy correctly, but this small group of people will be those who are so totally possessed by the Spirit of God that they will demonstrate the perfect spirit and reactions of Jesus in every situation, for Jesus Himself will be fully living out His life from within them without any resistance at all on their part. They will be totally surrendered to His Spirit, they will be pure followers of the Lamb who have become completely absorbed by His presence and will demonstrate in the last days what Jesus demonstrated Himself during His last days when He lived here on earth.

What does this have to do with me or global warming?

What I have detected the last few days are shock waves emanating to the surface of my consciousness of deep cracks beginning to happen at levels far deeper than I have detected for a very long time. Like pockets of superheated gases escaping to the surface in a volcano that cause earthquakes before a major eruption, I have felt some deep shudders of internal earthquakes that alert me to the fact that something very big may be about to happen. I also am detecting an unusual amount of thawing taking place of the ice and snow that have been in place in some areas of my life that have been frozen for as long as I can remember.

All of these symptoms are actually making me excited more than afraid. Do I have fear? Do I have FEAR??? Well, let me say that fear is an understatement at certain times. As I was sharing with a friend quite recently, the pockets of emotion that have unexpectedly shown up for brief moments have been more along the line of almost unexplainable terror instead of just fear.

But at the very same time another part of me welcomes these events and signs of something beginning to happen deep inside my soul. There is a growing desire for a real climate change in my life that will result in a much warmer personality, the liberation of vast areas of potential natural resources that have been frozen deep under glaciers of fear for many decades. I am sensing that the warmth of God's love seeping into deep passageways in my psyche that I have no direct control over are preparing my heart and mind for some very startling surprises in the near future. I probably don't even want to know right now what those are going to look like, it might exceed my capacity to even accept it at this point.

But what I can do and must do is to cling to my growing confidence in the heart and motives of the One who is orchestrating all of this taking place in my life. He has been working for years to thaw out key control centers and repair and replace many of the deep lies about Him that have kept me at too much of a distance from His warming presence. I have been experiencing more and more regional thaws over the past few years and months as I come closer to Him, but I suspect that they will pale in comparison to the staggering dimensions of the total meltdown that is awaiting me in the near future.

This brings up a key issue that I have to make a daily decision about. If I want to maintain control over my life, to try to continue to protect my own reputation or manipulate what others think about me, I will not be able to move fully into this thawing experience and will find myself sliding toward an even deeper darkness that will encapsulate me in even deeper glacier's than I have ever been in before. The only viable option that I can choose as I move forward is to practice the art of letting go of control over my life, of releasing my grip on my guidance systems and to increasingly trust the heart of the One who offers to lead me to a place that I am currently too afraid to go to by myself.

As I keep letting go, as I become more and more willing to die so that His life can thrive within me, I am assured that the outcome is not only going to be amazing beyond belief but that everything I have ever longed for or could even dream for will be realized in dimensions that I do not yet even have capacity to imagine. This is the future promised for everyone willing to lay down their weapons of defense, who surrender to the offers of love and forgiveness and allow themselves to be swallowed up in the waves of passion and love that flow from the very throne of God. That is what I want and this is what I choose. And as Luther said in his greatest hour of terror, “So help me God!”