Over the past couple weeks I have heard a couple comments about teaching too much about love, and not enough about tribulation. Interesting enough the Lord has been speaking with me about tribulation. “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). That the tribulation being spoken of there has not yet happened is obvious; “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:29-30).

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6). Malachi wrote of the same time period, before the coming of the Lord. An angel spoke of John the Baptist in this way; “He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands” (Matthew 17:11-12). Jesus spoke of an Elijah who is coming and of John the Baptist who was already. The scriptures teach of one coming in the spirit of Elijah before the coming of our Savior as our Lamb of Salvation, and another coming before the coming of the Lion of Judah – our King of kings.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6). There is to come (and maybe already in the earth) one to come in the spirit of Elijah, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the father, or a curse is coming on the earth; and this will happen before the return of our Lord Jesus. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away (1 Corinthians 13:8). The word whether is the word if. What we read in Malachi 4:6 has an implied “if”. If the hearts do not turn a curse will come. That is not a curse because of the law, but a curse because hearts did not turn – grace offered not being applied to the hearts.

To turn the heart is the idea of returning to a relationship. Look around us, the fathers are missing from so many children’s lives. The enemy broke the family using the lust of mankind – a misuse of the heart. Children by the millions have been emotionally aborted and are a walking dead, accept for the grace of God who is our Healer. Too many of the fathers who remained in the homes are dictators who abuse, or weak and are ruled over by greed and lusts of the flesh. Jesus said to love one another, and that love has to start in our own homes first (Judea and then the world). The church begins in our home; if we are not the church there first then we are not the church in a building filled with broken hearts on Saturday or Sunday mornings. In reality, the church begins in our heart, as does revival and the kingdom of God.

Why do I teach so much on love? We are known by our love and not by our tribulations. Hearts returning may prevent the tribulation; during the tribulations hearts will be made hard and not return. Only one church is promised to be kept from the tribulation, Philadelphia. Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth (Revelation 3:10). Philadelphia is the church of brotherly love; the command preserved is the command to love one another – and it is their identity – and they are not known by tribulation.

© 2010, Tim D. Coulter Sr.