The Gathering

It is time. It is the time that all the saints and prophets have long awaited. It is the time heaven and earth have awaited. It is the time God and the angels have awaited. It is the time of the gathering of the elect. NOW is the time.

This time has never been before. Not only of that earthly Jerusalem was our Lord speaking when He said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kills the prophets, and stones them that are sent to you; how often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen does gather her brood under her wings, and you wouldn't." He was speaking to the elect, the called and chosen of God, to you and to me and all those who are the Lord's. But we have all sought our own ways and have resisted the Lord Jesus Christ tooth and nail. We have, each in his and her own way, sought out our own inventions, pursuing our own pleasures, thinking our own thoughts, doing our own thing, doing that which was right in our own eyes, presuming to worship the Lord and to be doing His will. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way..."

I tell you, we have all been scattered to the four winds in our rebellious, independent, obnoxious, arrogant, unprofitable and religious ways and have all ended up, as the prodigal whom WE are, with the swine, and envying them. I tell you that now is the hour of the coming to our senses, not because we have it finally figured out, not because we have studied and read and learned, nor because we have gained any virtue in our sufferings and fruitless toils or even yet because we have earned anything, but because now it is the Day of the Lord.

"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they SHALL GATHER TOGETHER HIS ELECT FROM THE FOUR WINDS, FROM ONE END OF HEAVEN TO THE OTHER" (Mt. 24:30,31).

There are basically three SOLEMN feasts of the Lord in a year...Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Each of these feasts represents an inner reality that occurs in the heart of the spiritual pilgrim in Christ. The first feast represents our conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ through faith and repentance. The second feast of Pentecost represents our receiving the Spirit of God, the beginning of our inheritance, the down payment, the "earnest" portion of God's Kingdom and God Himself. This feast is also known as "The Feast of Weeks," "The Feast of Harvest," and "The Day of Firstfruits."

The Day of Firstfruits comes to a finish. While men have been teaching for the past two thousand years that God was seeking and trying to save everyone (and doing a very lousy job of it because men on the whole were so naughty and incorrigible that they refused to be saved and God could not save them from their wicked attitudes), in fact He was only gathering the firstfruits unto Himself. And you know what? He got every last one of them that He intended to get. He knew who they were, where they were, when He was going to get them and how. He was actually big enough and smart enough and caring enough to do it. Isn't that something? Now this is a God worthy of praise and honor and glory, is He not? Nothing could resist His will...nothing! Maybe you think you have, as a slave to sin, a free will, but His will is even "free-er." He did as He pleased and does now as He pleases.

Now I tell you that it is His pleasure to give His chosen the Kingdom. It is the day of His gathering of the elect from the four winds of heaven (the spiritual realm in which state or place are all those born of the Spirit).

We must, as confirmed souls of God, through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God, soul by soul, every man in his own order. "Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Acts 14:22).

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's AT HIS COMING" (presence, parousia - I Cor. 15:22, 23). One dictionary defines "parousia" as "the presence in anything of the idea after which it was formed." "Christ in you, the hope of glory!" We are formed to be in His image, His presence in us coming to the fore, to be manifest, unveiled in us, through us to this world for its sake and His glory, of which we become partakers in fulness.

Again, the Day of Firstfruits is completed. Now it is the Feast of Tabernacles, otherwise known as The Feast of Jehovah and the FEAST OF INGATHERING. This is the Day of the Lord, that third and final day, the day of gathering complete. It is the day of our rest, the day of ceasing from our works, the day to receive the rest of our inheritance.

We, as men, have tried to gather and have gathered, according to our own understanding, according to our own desires, ambitions and pleasures, and have reaped sorrow and wind. We also have been gathered, by men, believing we were gathered by God but we were not. Gathered by men we were deceived, abused and hurt. In gathering and being gathered, we became bitter and disillusioned. (This is not to say that the Lord did not speak to us and use us here and there; it is not to say that He wasn't with us, determining our correction, disciplining, purging, teaching, development).

We blamed others, we blamed both people and circumstances and yes, we blamed God. "God," we protested, "we have tried to serve you, to witness on Your behalf to others, to win souls, to heal and deliver, and this is the reward we get!" But each of us "is the man," as Nathan said to David, whether in gathering or being gathered. We all had false, selfish motives, idols; we wanted to be praised, coddled, appreciated, recognized, accepted, free of responsibilities which were rightfully ours but which we pawned off on men...at a price, oftentimes at a terrible price.

We alone are to blame IF there is any blame to be had. Nothing but nothing ever happens to us unless we either need it or deserve it. I repeat: Nothing ever happens to us unless we either need it or deserve it. God reigns over all; both the deceiver and the deceived are His; He it is Who creates both darkness and light, evil and good and does all things according to the counsel of His own will; by Him and by Him alone do all things consist; not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father; it is God Who sends the sword and famine and pestilence and wild beast; it is God Who raises up nations and brings them down, setting up rulers even from the basest of men as He sees fit; it is God Who reigns Supreme everywhere in the universe; all the silver and gold are His and the cattle on a thousand hills, and the hills too, upon which grows His grass which He clothes.

Let us stop blaming others; let us stop blaming our circumstances; let us stop blaming God; let us not forever blame ourselves. Instead of hanging our heads in despair and shame, gnashing our teeth against our neighbor and shaking our fists against heaven and God in so many of our ways and words and thoughts, let us forgive one another and all; let us lift up our heads because the hour of our redemption is here, people, holy brothers and sisters of our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ. Our redemption is here.

Mark now, I am not telling you "any minute" or "almost" as so many others say in unbelief with feigned faith. I am telling you, This is it; this is the gathering; the Lord is here, now. Let the eyes and ears be opened; let our fears be washed away and our tears wiped away. Yes, in the world we will and do have tribulation; yes, all those who live godly in Christ Jesus suffer persecution; yes, we must forsake, take up the cross, suffer the loss of those things and persons dear, even our own lives; yes, we must battle; yes, they of our own house are our foes, but we enter into the third and final feast, a solemn feast of great cause to rejoice. It is time to lay down our lives for the brethren, denying ourselves. The time is here that we no longer live for or unto ourselves.

Though there have been many and great gatherings throughout the earth and its history, there has not yet been this gathering of which I speak. It is an internal gathering, one wrought by God and God alone. This gathering is not anything man can do in the least part unless he can catch all the wind in his fist. This is that "rapture" many speak of and look for, though not as they have imagined. The Voice of the Lord as a trumpet speaks and says, "Come up here." It is the sound of the last trumpet.

The first portion of the last great Feast of Tabernacles is the Feast of Trumpets, held on the first day of the seventh month. There were many purposes for the sounding of the trumpet...a call to assemble, announcements, a warning of danger, a call to war. In this Day of the Lord, on this last day, that great day of The Feast, as the day when Jesus in His flesh stood and cried, "sounding the trumpet" (John 7:37), the trumpet is sounding for all these purposes at once. It is a call to assemble in and unto Him (the gathering); it is the announcement of His presence ("coming"); it is the sound of warning and calling to prepare because great and terrible is this day, like none other before or after; and it is the sound of a call to war. The Lord is a Man of war, leading His army on white horses to destroy the enemy, convincing the ungodly, as Enoch prophesied, and to take the land at long last, completely.

Finally, it is the sound of the proclamation of freedom, of restoration, full and complete redemption because you see, the second portion of the third and final Feast of Tabernacles is the Day of Atonement when all sins are cancelled and this is the day on which was Jubilee...the tenth day of the seventh month.

We have been gathered in part in the Lord. When converted, we came into a new life, partaking with others who experienced same. When going on to receive the Spirit and receiving, we again entered yet another dimension and found others who did so. Thus we were gathered in part again. But now there is this final gathering, the Gathering of gatherings to end all gatherings because in THIS gathering we become ONE, one with the Lord, and one with each other as each is gathered. In this last great day, we melt, mix, join, becoming one spirit, one heart, one soul, one mind, one body, bone of bone, flesh of flesh, blood of blood, spirit of spirit, one Christ. In this third feast, the Lord's prayer on earth in John 17 is answered and fulfilled: "That they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that You have sent Me."

The like of this gathering has never been before, ever, not even between two persons, any two. Where it says that the souls of David and Jonathan were knit together, take notice that David went his way and Jonathan his; David succeeded the throne of Jonathan's father while Jonathan died on the battlefield with his father. Even the early church which was of one heart and one soul and in gladness was not gathered in the way that is now upon us; it was gathered in part but as with the Corinthians, Galatians and the seven churches of Asia who had yet to overcome, only in part; there was division.

No couple, not even believing husband and wife have ever experienced this gathering. Since Adam and Eve, there has never been the pure order between husband and wife. Wife has always ruled. There is not a marriage on the face of this earth, because impossible until now, wherein husband is head of the house and wife is submitted to that husband as the Scriptures declare should be. Let us be honest and put away our fantasies, our self-deceptions, our compulsions to appear otherwise than we are. As the soul has ruled over the spirit throughout man's entire history, so has the woman ruled over the man. Men have tried to take their "rightful places" as head of the house, and women have tried to submit to their husbands; they have gone through the form; they have sincerely tried and have sincerely failed, foiled by that man of sin within each of them, the soul opposing the spirit. I do not know of one marital relationship wherein the man "wears the pants" in the family, not one. I have seen the woman rule every time, whether openly or behind the scenes, loudly or quietly, boldly or meekly, consciously or otherwise, obviously or not. This has been the law until now.

This gathering is about being turned upside down through sanctification (being set apart as was the scapegoat), the spirit laying down the life for the sake of the soul, the soul taking it's rightful place in submission to the spirit, the spirit assuming leadership of the soul; the males appearing before the Lord the third time; it is about overcoming to the end; it is about entering rest; it is about the coming of the Lord; it is about the Feast of Tabernacles; it is about Jubilee; it is about the REDEMPTION OF THE MAN OF SIN, IT IS ABOUT THE RESTORATION OF THE FIRST ADAM WITHIN by the sacrificial obedience of the CHRIST WITHIN. This is that GREAT AND FINAL DAY OF THE LORD. It is about GOD BEING ALL IN ALL! Unity? We've never known it...but we will now.

The gathering comes as scattering (I sound the "warning to prepare" portion of the trumpet now). So often is it so with the Lord Who does not think and act as do we. "You are He that divides us as wood and casts us into the fire." As we entered by the cross in the first two feasts, if we entered truly and not as thieves and robbers coming up another way, so must we enter now by the cross. ALL feasts are solemn feasts and are partaken only by the cross. Now in this feast only was there the affliction of the soul with fasting. On this feast only was the scapegoat sent into the wilderness and on this feast alone did the High Priest enter into the Holy of holies, the third part of the tabernacle of God. All these things occurred on the Day of Atonement, the second, central portion of the Feast of Tabernacles, the most solemn day of the year.

I say that it was difficult to enter Passover, to part with your sins, your old doctrines or ideas, your family and friends, lusts of the flesh and friendship with the world, to resign yourself to the Lordship of Jesus. It was also difficult to part with your "brethren," your new found associations and some of your new doctrines and ideas when coming to receive the Spirit of God. It seemed like much gained ground was suddenly lost, yet in the spirit you knew you were climbing a higher mountain though it seemed you were descending into a valley. In the flesh it was painful, in the spirit exhilarating. But you had to choose; you had to forsake; you had to suffer, to pay the price. Now I tell you that once more you must pay the price, only this time the price is on a new plane requiring everything. Now is the prince of this world judged; now is the supreme price paid, now is that man of sin who has troubled you all your spiritual life to be destroyed, never to trouble you again. Now is the day of victory, the day of the crown and the throne, if you overcome unto the end, holding nothing back for His sake.

This third and last time is not a matter of works, of giving, of loving neighbor as we know it, of living the good, charitable, morally upright, clean, holy life, of putting away sins. No, this time it is not. This time it is the laying down of your life, once for all, alone, with nobody to help you, with nobody to go with you. It is the final and absolute surrender of your will, the reality of "Thy will, not mine be done." God will arrange the circumstances, the details of specific obedience...He will do it all, and when He is done, you will rest and rejoice in the Lord, knowing He is All in all, that He has orchestrated all things to this very hour in every detail. You will know He is Sovereign, always has been and always will be. And you will be prepared to proclaim so with power and conviction, even when your lips are sealed, knowing so.

I had a vision of heaven. Each one there was crucified to self, being for the others, all of them. What beauty! What joy, peace, fulfilment, love, rest! It had been held out to all of us and all of us rejected it out of hand because we sought our own selfish agendas. Seeking to get, we got hell. If we give everything away, we receive all and far more than we ever hoped to get. If but one among us seeks his own, the whole body is sick. Unrepentant, that one must be expelled..."a little leaven leavens the whole lump." I saw it. We have all sought for ourselves to receive, to be served, respected, pampered, provided for...get, get, get. How frustrating and destructive!

I have felt a preparing, a swelling, a "coming to the fore" of something within, a compassion, a growing desire to gather the hurting, the lost, the discomforted, the "homeless," the sick, naked, hungry, thirsty, lonely, confused and fearful...into a family that cares for and genuinely comforts one another. People, upon whom is the drawing of the Lord, are searching for that family, that home, that safety, that haven of rest. It is these to whom we must open our arms and receive, without looking to gain for ourselves in any way. In giving, we will receive more than heart could want. This is love. I do not say we do these things everywhere to everyone always, without wisdom, without discretion nor discernment, by the law and not as led and given by God. As it is written, "If a man does not work, let him not eat" and many other such counsels are there. What I am saying is that we make our lives and everything we are and have available not for ourselves but to serve the Lord and His people whom He now gathers. It is not a set of rules or acts but an inner motivation which God alone can give and does give to those He calls and apprehends.

The knee no longer calls itself the body but serves the body. This is love.

There are those who search for a "church" home. These are not necessarily ones the Lord is drawing. Many are the malcontents and the bitter and rebellious who wish, out of pride and self-serving, bitterness and revenge, to identify with a group, looking to get, not to serve, hoping to gain, and to pay and obey and give in nothing except that it would bring reward, be it social, financial, psychological or any other way.

Let the rebellious dwell alone, let the covetous do without, let the sluggard not eat, let the proud rule over, or cling to his empty domain, let the socialite be isolated from the people of God. As it is written, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still."

Let the people who seek after God Himself, without conditions, without reservation, without an agenda other than to do His will, no matter how hard or contrary to their own desires and pleasures, let these come. Let them come home after so long in being strangers and misfits everywhere in the world and in Babylon. Let them return to build the old waste places, not according to the ways of man and the Harlot but under the hand, the mighty hand of God Who gathers His sheep into His flock, providing them with protection, guidance and provision hereafter.

It is time. Beware and be forewarned. The Day of the Lord is at once a great and terrible day, great for the righteous and terrible for the wicked, great for the spirit and terrible for the flesh, great for the Christ-serving and terrible for the self-serving, great for the son of God within and terrible for the man of sin within. It is the Day of Judgment and Reckoning. But it is the Day of Promise, the Day of Reconciliation, the Day saints, writers and prophets have desired to see and have not had. It is the day for which we and all of creation have been groaning.

You will not experience more pain than you do in this day or will you ever again, but it will be well worth it. It will be not as thought nor expected. It will be worse and it will be better. And it doesn't matter. It is time.

Are you not tired of fighting? Are you not wearied with the life of a dog, fighting other dogs for scraps? Are you not wearied with labor and strife and resistance? Are you not tired of games and guessing? Are you not tired of running and hiding from the Lord, from others, from yourself? Why live for death when you can die for life? Will you win or profit by your ways and have you ever done so? Is it not time for your eternal rest and profit and to be profitable to the Lord and to others? Is it not time to take upon yourself His yoke and burden instead of your own? Find out that His yoke is easy and His burden is light compared to your own. Face yourself and your ways.

It is not about "men of God," doctrine and knowledge and the heaven and hell that are "there" but about God and you and what is here. Heaven is not there hereafter but here thereafter. "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." If we "get real" and speak the truth, "telling it the way it is," it is about ourselves firstly, and our neighbor secondly. Each one's first convert must be not his neighbor but himself. It is time for us to be not two nations nor two kingdoms within, striving within as was the case with Rebekah, but one, as Ezekiel has prophesied. It is time that the warfare ceases and is accomplished.

"Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto Your holy Name, and to triumph in Your praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise the Lord" (Psalm 106:47,48).

"The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy: the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of you: you shall not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Don't be afraid: and to Zion, Don't let your hands be slack. The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over you with singing. I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of you, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict you: and I will save her that halts, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, says the Lord" (Zeph. 3:13-20).

Now I ask something of you. Read the following references. I have quoted verses above because I am aware of the fact that we, in this day of preoccupation and haste, do not take the trouble to read references given. However, it is true that those whose hearts are drawn and hungry will search out these things, every crumb, if these things have the germ of life in them. I believe that if I speak life to you, if the things I say are witnessing to you by the Lord, then you will, without hesitation, search out the Scriptures, not only those I present, but others as well. Indeed, all of Scripture will testify to what I say if I speak by the Lord. I hope that you will receive an understanding of what the following passages are saying, that you will see them in the light of present reality, that you will see that they have never been fulfilled in history, in the world, in you, until now. Is it your time? He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.

Deut. 30; Ps. 50:1-6; Ps. 126, 147; Isaiah 43:1-44:11; Is. 54 and 56:1-8; Jer. 23:1-8; 31:1-14; 32:36-44; Ezek. 11:16-21; 20:33-44; 34:11-31; 37:21-28.

"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be" (Gen. 49:10).

"That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him: in Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who works all things after the counsel of His own will: that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ" (Eph. 1:10-12).

"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

Victor Hafichuk