Re-Post: Nearing Midnight for April 24th (Part 2)

Zola Promoted!

It was at the Sherlock Bali prophecy conference at Branson, Missouri, a number of summers ago. Several of us were standing around the hotel lobby just outside the main conference room where the lectures and presentations were taking place. My great friend, Zola Levitt, was finished with his presentation, and was making his way through the lobby.

Someone of our group had just asked where in the Bible it explains when the Old Testament saints will be resurrected. About that time, Zola grabbed me, and smiling, with that little laugh he always had, answered the question instantly, when one of us asked it directly of him. He went into detail. He was one who was tremendously qualified to go into detail. There were few with the knowledge Zola had. Then, when he was asked when he might be coming out with another book, he patted my back, and said, "Ask Terry, he's my publisher." (Zola wrote many chapters for me in my books of compilation.)

That bit of kindness, I assure, could have caused a mighty swelled head -if it hadn't caused such a lump in my throat, from the emotion in my humbled heart. That's just the kind of friend Zola was, and I loved him very much. And will, for all eternity. He was and is my brother forever.

Zola, of course, died last Wednesday, April 19, after a brief battle with one of the most virulent forms of cancer. He had been diagnosed in February of 2006.

When asked about the cancer that -barring a decision by the Lord to perform a miraculous physical healing-would end his life on earth, Zola, with that typical little humorous chuckle he was famous for, said "If the Lord wants to give me a promotion, I certainly don"t object." He wasn't being flippant. He meant it with all his heart.

Zola received his promotion last Wednesday. Now his assignments will far exceed even the things to do for God's service he was assigned while in this mortal flesh. His gifts were far beyond those given most of us. Perhaps that was because God knew His servant, Zola, would make full use of what he was given. Zola Levitt certainly did that, and the world is a more eloquent realm for his having performed his services as a very special royal ambassador.

Iran Leader Uses Prophetic Language

Thinking about Zola made the recent, vitriolic talk by the Iranian leader all the more significant. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ranted about the thing Zola Levitt loved most, second only to His Lord and Savior--the nation Israel. About God's chosen people, the Iranian tyrant said: "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm" ("Iran Leader: Israel Will Be Annihilated," April 14, 2006, Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press writer).

Those who follow the "Zola Levitt Presents" TV program or "The Levitt Letter" know Zola many times addressed Israel as the "fig tree." He specifically dealt with the following prophecy, given by the Lord Jesus, himself:

"Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors" (Matt. 24: 32-33).

Those of us who recognize Israel as the key indicator of the lateness of the hour know that far from being "a rotten, dried tree," like the Iranian dictator proclaims, the nation Israel is putting forth the new growth of its modern nationhood. It is the most productive nation in the Middle East by far, and takes second place to no country in the world, so far as contributing to the advancement of civilization is concerned.

So, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vile words are the antithesis of God's prophetic truth. Israel is, rather than a dried-up tree, a live, vibrant one that is the center of the world of nations, especially from the viewpoint of international media and the international community. The Iranian president's declaration that Israel "will be eliminated by one storm" will one day be proven satanically false by a Persian tyrant's own forces. We see the prophecy concerning this in the following:

"Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land" (Ezek. 38:9-12).

We are told what will happen in this "storm" against God's chosen people:

"And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone" (Ezek. 38: 18-22).

The modern-day Persian leader, Ahmadinejad, is deceived and deluded by the same creature that leads all who oppose God in the direction opposite of the Lord's ways. My great friend Zola knew there is only one way, and that is Jesus Christ, who is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).

That's why the newly promoted Zola Levitt, even before his elevation to a higher position, always ended his time before us with words about the Prince of Peace: "Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem."
--Terry