By Charlie Johnston

I got back from the cabin only to have some intestinal bug tear through my system. It has kept me quiet for a few days, but I think I am almost back to 100%. I told you this was going to be a transitional week, anyway.

I still get a lot of mail asking for proof…or more evidence…that what I see is authentic – along with the plaintive wish by people that they could see, too. Most think if they could only see, they would do. I personally know only two people to whom that happened. One had asked for it, the other hadn’t. With both, the upshot was that they prayed intensely that they never be shown things that way again. The one who had asked for it was an attorney. (No, you can’t guess who from that – during my workaday life at least 30% of my closest friends were attorneys and judges.) For nearly a decade he had insisted if only he was shown something that way, he would believe and act with resolve and fortitude. When it came, it staggered him. As always, there was a duty attached. I was on my pilgrimage at the time. For three months we went back and forth over it. I was in south central Louisiana when he called and, for the umpteenth time, told me if he just had another sign or two, he would believe. I reacted intensely this time.

“God is not a witness to be deposed to your satisfaction,” I told him. “You asked for this sign for over a decade and promised if it was given, you would do whatever He asked. He gave you the sign, did what you asked and now you hedge. This is all you will be given. Your choice is to do or to not do. But it will not be easy either way. If you act (and what was requested, though difficult and requiring much time, was not particularly odd) you will always wonder whether your mind played a striking trick on you. If you do not, you will be eaten away with fears that you have rejected God the one time He came to you directly. Your task is hard, but completely licit under any terms. So do or do not – and accept the decision you make without the hand-wringing.”

I recommended that if he wanted peace, he should devote himself to the project while praying that he never again have to deal with such an experience. He ultimately took my advice and found peace. The project is not finished…won’t be finished until after the Storm is over. But he putters away at it even as he suspects, but does not know, the full extent of the project.

People think if they only saw, they would do. They both do not know what they ask and have it exactly backward. The Lord makes it clear what you should do. I boil it down to acknowledge God, take the next right step, and be a sign of hope to those around you. This is accessible to all. Until you do, you will not see. The more you do, the more you can see, but the less you will be concerned about understanding in order to actually agree to do what you should, anyway. Rarely will one be given a sign until he does not need the sign in the first place. And if he starts getting such signs, they will be more of a burden obligating him to more than a help to his belief, which is already firmly established. So if you want to see, learn to do. As you do, you will gain the wisdom to know you do not want to see anything more than what you need to do what you should.

Of late, people are constantly sending me links to articles that describe the latest outrage, the latest offense against God, against liberty, against justice. I have already seen most of them. I can’t read all of them. I don’t need to read much of any, for these are all lumped into the “These things must come…” category. Things are coming so fast and furious now it is hard to keep up. Did you know that last week North Korea said it has fully missilized its nukes and threatened to use them? Yeah…stuff for Page 12 in these frantic times. Chaplains are being tossed out of the military for preaching the Gospel, officers tossed out for believing it, the president is trying to actually help Iran become a nuclear power – and calling anyone who tries to stop it a traitor, the biggest lawbreakers in the country are those charged with enforcing the law, and in New Jersey, a Catholic Priest supports firing a theology teacher at a Catholic High School for saying on her Facebook Page that marriage is properly only between one man and one woman. Everything seems to be spinning faster and faster out of control. By all objective standards, from an earthly perspective, it is. But it is not what it seems. Perception is not reality.

These things must come for the goats to be culled from the sheep. The time when you can do what is right and just and have it received by God as evidence of a righteous heart is when you have the upper hand. God is not impressed when you do charity or act justly to try to get out from under a disadvantageous position. So, in these times, it has pleased the Master to withdraw His hand of justice for a time, to indulge the dark, satanic forces their hour, just as He did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Officials and authorities think they are consolidating their power in their rebellion against God and against the freedom of man. They are not. They are filling in the blanks of their own indictment. The Lord will gather His sheep in, even as the goats are sent to destruction. Those who think they are powerful are not being consigned to the goat pen by God: they are so consigning themselves. In July of 2000 my angel told me, in one of the few times he was angry with me, “You must tell them true and they must choose or perish.” We are in the final hour of the choosing – and the goats are revealing themselves, thinking they have the upper hand.

If you attack the faithful because you are ignorant and know no better, then God will give you a chance, even after the hour of choosing is finished, to see the truth and repent, just as He did for St. Paul.

If you betray the faithful out of cowardice, God knows our weakness and will give you an opportunity to repent and take courage, just as He did for St. Peter.

If you betray the faithful to try to curry favor with what you think is secular power, or to secure your sinecure, as Bishop Pierre Cauchon did in condemning St. Joan of Arc, you will perish miserably as he did.

If you take on a position of honor pledged to defend people in your care and betray them, you will perish.

If you take a position of honor in the faith, pledged to defend both the faith and the faithful and you do not defend them from the wolves, unless you repent and live your promise, you will perish.

But if you take a position of honor in the faith, pledged to defend both the faith and the faithful, and you actively join the wolves in ravaging them, woe to you. It truly would have been better for you if you had never been born.

I do not much concern myself with secular leaders these days. Their seemingly awesome power is so much smoke, which will soon be blown away in the rising winds of the time, leaving scant evidence it ever existed in the first place.

Rather, my prayers go for pastors, priests, rabbis and bishops. I know that many have persuaded themselves that God does not exist at all, that theology is just a cleverly ingenious invention of man which is a convenient path to certain secular power – and that they are its masters. If you have taken on the role of guardian of the faithful and do not believe, I beg you to retreat into solitude until you do. If you cannot believe, resign your post. God is real; He hears the cry of His people today; He has merely stayed His hand, not stopped it, until all have decided whether to stand with the sheep or with the goats. I have seen the agony of those who pledged to defend the faithful and instead ravage them. I do not even talk to my priests about it in detail. Truly, it would have been better for them had they never been born. I have told you true. Choose or perish.