SAMSON & the END TIME CHURCH
-by Steve Goodyear

To those that KNOW their God and HEAR His voice.. there is a true Spiritual Revival going on. You won't see it on TV or hear it on the radio or read about it in the newspapers. It is not being publicized or even talked about in most "churches" but it is truly happening in the hearts of individuals who are sold out.

Its just like the story Samson, near the end when his HAIR that was SHORN, his perfect covering, his righteousness before God, the source of his power and authority was completely cut off by the woman he LOVED AND TRUSTED! (Yes. Her name was Delilah and she's a type of this end time APOSTATE supposedly
SPIRITUAL, counterfeit CHURCH). The motive of her heart was never really to serve and love him but to find out the SECRET to his power and strength and to CAPITALIZE on it so SHE could buy a BIGGER HOUSE and live an ABUNDANT LIFE of PROSPERITY and POPULARITY with THE PHILISTINES OF
THE WORLD as her friends and allies!

She feigned love and thus entered in to the SECRET of his fellowship, but she betrayed him, like Aiken or Jezebel. Like Uzza or Judas. Her TRUE motives were exposed and she couldn't help seeking the GOLD and the SILVER instead of the creator of Heaven and Earth! And for a moment it looked like she'd won. No doubt she thought so. But in the darkness of the prison, alone, reviled and persecuted, Samson's hair began to grow back!!

The unsuspecting Philistines celebrating their "temporary" VICTORY (and no doubt, Delilah with her newfound PROSPERITY!) were OBLIVIOUS, caught up in their own deception and totally unsuspecting when Samson revealed the REAL power of Godliness and toppled their entire kingdom.  What he gave up in love was given back to him pressed down shaken together and running over and his END was greater than his beginning. Samson is indeed a pattern of Christ and the Resurrection, but he also presents a very vivid picture of the end time overcomers. Those who are willing to lay down their lives and their "lifestyles" for the Kingdom of God! Those like Daniel and his three Hebrew friends who KNEW THEIR GOD and who against all odds refused to compromise or bow down to the King, his "IMAGE" or the Kingdom of this world! No matter what the apparent consequences. They each, like Abraham, believed that it was GOD who gave them life and it was GOD alone who could RAISE THEM BACK UP AGAIN! "Whoever seeks to SAVE his life WILL LOSE IT! and Whoever LOSES his life for
my name's sake will FIND IT!"

The Bible is replete with examples of God moving OUTSIDE the city or outside the church! Samson, whose life is a true prophetic timeline for end time events, clearly reveals this. Notice when He was with the "prostitute" he only stayed until the middle of the night! Then he got up, in the midst of the darkness, took hold
of the door and the doorpost at the gateway to the city, a clear type of Jesus (the door) hanging on the cross (the posts.) He uprooted it and carried it away on his shoulders where he RELOCATED IT ON a HIGH PLACE OUTSIDE the CITY! Doesn't that seem like a pretty clear picture of someone's "candlestick" being removed?

WE need to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness! Wherever it takes us. Even if its to a high hill OUTSIDE the hustling and bustling big city! We need to return to the true GOSPEL, the Cross and the Blood of Jesus. REPENT. BE BAPTIZED and RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT!!

The Prostitute in this story represents a people interested only in a LEGALISTIC contractual agreement with God. What's in it for me? What do I have to do to get MY REWARD or MY profit! She's more interested in the BENEFITS than the BENEFACTOR!! She's in it for The GIFTS and not for the GIVER! SHE wants the "fruit of her labors" for herself, not as an offering to the Lord.

This is indeed a STERN warning to true Christian Believers. WAKE UP or lose everything you thought you had! THIS IS WHAT it TRULY MEANS WHEN IT SAYS.. "Give and it shall be GIVEN BACK TO YOU!! Pressed down, shaken together and running over.." That's NOT a prosperity message - its the GOSPEL!! Train your eyes on JESUS and let go of all you are holding onto.

Look at Jacob who in the end had to GIVE UP EVERYTHING before he could face the angel of the Lord and receive his NEW NAME. He first GAVE UP his flocks and herds. His servants and his wives and children. EVERYTHING he'd gained under the Blessing he'd received from his father, everything he'd worked so long and hard to acquire while serving Laban. THEN he approached God and laid down his life in order to obtain the blessing! In the end not only did he receive the new name but everything he gave up was restored to him as well as his LIFE and his relationship with his older brother! Only by surrendering his ALL and falling on the rock of humility before God and being broken could he face his older brother (a TYPE OF JESUS at the second coming and judgment). He received GRACE and RESTORATION instead of judgment and the sure Death that was DUE him for his sin against his brother years earlier!

This process is the eye of the needle! That small place we all must enter in by. The STRAIGHT AND NARROW GATE which FEW find.

Steve Goodyear,
California.