by Summer Lee
Sarah burst into tears and hugged Tall, and then everyone hugged Kenana.
“What are we all standing around here for?” said Kenana, tears streaming down her face. This time, she picked up her own satchel. “Let us hurry! We’ve got a ship to catch!”
The End
To be continued in:
Kindred Spirits
Glorious Companions #2
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COMES THE PALE HORSE
A novel by
Summer Lee
Comes the Pale Horse
Published by Summer Lee
Copyright © 2014 by Summer Lee
All rights reserved.
Ebook Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication
To my husband John.
Comes the Pale Horse
Chapter One
In my rose garden, a sudden wind fluttered the pages of my Bible and marked a verse in Psalms with a single raindrop. “I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.”
I closed my Bible and looked up. Apparently, a storm had arisen while I’d been engrossed. I zipped my Bible into its protective case, but did not make a move to go indoors.
Dark foreboding clouds, the likes of which I had never seen, roiled overhead. The wind blew hard, and I heard its rising moans—they sounded like the deep neighs of horses—but I was most mesmerized by the unusual clouds, which were lit from within by crackling forks of lightning in white, red, black and pale green.
The clouds took on a disposition of their own, shaping and reshaping into two long-tailed cones that whipped and whirled across the sky and flicked the ground, lifting debris into the vortex. The funnel clouds looked like dueling tornadoes, but we had never had a tornado in our area. And then, the twin tornadoes split, so that there were four of them.
I gasped. Now, my eyes were really riveted to the sky.
I lived in a village in a northern state where the wind blew a lot, but nothing like this. My hair snapped in that hard wind and I held it back to look at the funnel clouds.
I had been reading the Book of Isaiah, in which he had spoken of a storm. Was this it, then? A sign? Were we at the end of this age?
As I stared into the darkened haze of whirling clouds, I saw a brilliant being riding a blazing red horse. I gasped when he descended from the center of the spinning clouds and rode toward me.
The rider was an angel clothed in brilliant white, with glowing wings and a shining countenance. I gasped as the snorting horse came directly toward me, his nostrils flared and his eyes wild with an inner light. While the angel dismounted, the horse was restless to be off again—he stamped his feet impatiently.
The sight was so bright that my eyes watered. I squatted down behind a bush and hid my face, but one cannot hide from angels.
“Come forth, Martha!” he demanded, but the voice was in my head.
“Who are you?” I asked aloud, trembling.
“Do not be afraid,” he said, his voice now echoing across the land as if he breathed thunder. “I have come to bless you, not harm you.”
Still, I could not help but be terrified. I stammered, “But who are you?”
In a strong masculine voice, he said, “I am your protective angel, one sent to inform you how you will keep God’s children safe from the final destruction.”
The voice was male, but the smooth, beautiful face and hair were that of a woman. Barefoot with a glistening robe that reached to his feet, he also wore a gold belt.
“Why did you come to see me?”
“You are chosen by God to be a final messenger to Earth. You will be a spokesperson to the world.” His voice echoed as if he were standing in a box canyon.
“Really?” I was stunned. “I don’t know anything about being a messenger.”
He stood firm, a glow surrounding him, as he grasped my hand. “You are a chosen messenger, my child. God will tell you what to say.”
“How?” I asked, a tremor in my voice.
“He will use me.”
“Who are you? What is your name?” I asked.
“Your tongue cannot pronounce my angel name,” he replied as his feet glided gently across the ground. “You may call me Walker.”
He circled me and came back to face me.
“Walker, you came out of the darkened cloud of four tornadoes. Why did you choose to do so? Is this the end of the world?” I asked, staring at him. “Is that why you’re here?”
“Not exactly.”
At that second, lightning flashed across the darkened sky. I jumped and screamed. “Oh!”
“Look up into the sky,” he said.
I looked.
“What do you see, Martha?”
I put my hand over my face and peeked through my fingers. “A super storm cell is circling above my head, and there are four tails in the storm,” I answered as the thunder vibrated through the atmosphere. Now, swirling clouds as black as ebony were just above our heads, forming a four-pronged cone. I shouted, “Four tornadoes! Make them go away.”
The angel motioned to the four-pronged clouds and they moved away. “This is just a warning. Another tornado will come soon—one like no other.”
“Is it coming now? Is this is the end of the world?”
“No. This is just a precursor of things to come shortly.”
“A precursor?”
“The devastating tempest that is coming will be more than a disruption in the atmosphere,” he said. “Every good thing that mankind has produced for himself will turn against him. There will be famine and war at the same time. After it starts, there will be the tempest that will last until the end of the age.”
“What is it all about?”
“The ownership of the Earth. The Son of God will reveal himself as the king of the universe. The final decision of who really owns the world will be declared.”
“Earth ownership?”
“The title deed to the world will be given to the rightful owner, Martha. A usurper has been running it until now.”
I knew he meant…Satan. “Who is the rightful owner?” I asked, just to ensure that I was talking to one of God’s angels.
“The one who paid the price for it,” he said. “The title deed is written on a scroll which the Heavenly Father hands to the Lamb of God.”
“Why is the title deed of the Earth on a scroll?” I asked.
“Earth is the property that God gave to Adam. All Adam had to do was obey God, and he could keep it.”
“But he disobeyed.” I knew that from childhood, but was confused why it was an issue now. “Was there a dispute?”
“The serpent in the Garden of Eden was possessed by the devil himself,” said Walker. “That devil lied to Adam and Eve through the serpent. They believed his lies. The rest is history.”
“So, Satan won the dispute and began ruling over the Earth,” I said hesitantly.
“Exactly.” Walker spoke earnestly. “He had control until the cross. Jesus bought back the world, paid for it with his own blood.”
“So, God will give the title deed to the Lamb because he earned the right to open it.”
“Precisely.” Walker turned, motioning with both hands. “Jesus died, rose again and has been growing a large family to share the Earth with ever since. As soon as all his children are born again, he’ll come for them.”
“And that will be when the tribulation begins?”
“Exactly.”
“How will I know?”
“You’ll know. You will learn all about it, beginning now.”
“How so?”
“You will have visions and dreams.” Walker tilted his head.
I was puzzled. “I will? Really?”
“Yes, and to
make sense of them, I, personally, will give you instruction to read in the Word of God.”
“You mean in my Bible?”
“Of course. The whole truth is in there.”
“It is a thick book. What part should I read now?” I asked.
“I will guide you. The power is in the Word. You must read it for yourself in order to absorb it,” he said. Motioning to the horse and raising one hand toward heaven, he pointed and said, “Go.” Lightning flew out of his fingertips, and his horse disappeared back into the cloud.
Suddenly, I saw another horse with an awesome angel ride out of the cloud and follow the first one across the sky. And then, another. And another. The cloud now had a silver lining—the tornadoes had vanished. I felt a peace. “Can you explain this?” I asked the angel as raindrops splattered around us.
“The Great Tribulation will be here soon,” Walker said sternly. “You must tell everyone.”
I felt suspicious. Studying his eyes, I muttered, “Me? Really?”
“Find a dry place to sit down, Martha, and I will tell you about the Great Tribulation,” the angel said. There was thunder and lightning again. It rained harder.
I motioned toward the house. “Let’s go inside, out of the rain.”
He followed me into the house, and I made us each a cup of steaming tea. We seated ourselves at the kitchen table. Placing a platter of butter cookies in the middle of the table, I said, “Okay. Tell me about the Great Tribulation. How is it that I was chosen to warn people about escaping the wrath of God?”
“There will be four strong kingdoms in the end times. One from each corner of the Earth—North, South, East, West. The Tribulation will begin with them and last seven years, but the last three and a half years will be a living hell with one man being the world leader. The Bible says the big war is coming, even though that is not what mortals want.”
“I see. How is that connected to my assignment?”
“You will prepare people on Earth to receive the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”
“Which are. . .”
“Which are described by John of Patmos in his Book of Revelation.”
“The last book of the New Testament?”
“Yes. Chapter six tells of a scroll that God is holding in his right hand. It has seven seals holding it shut.” He moved to the other side of me. “The Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah are one and the same. It is how Jesus Christ reveals himself. You will need to go online and to the library to find examples of world reactions to blessings and curses of God.” He sighed. “The horses of heaven have been on many assignments through the annals of time. They are like a border patrol.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Since the end is nearly here, will this be the last time the horsemen patrol the Earth?”
“They will usher in the Great Tribulation, and you must warn the world to prepare to meet God.” He looked me right in the eye. “There are seven seals. When Jesus opens the first four seals, he will summon four beings riding on white, red, black, and pale horses.”
The sky lit up at that moment, as thunder rumbled across the sky. I closed the window, finding myself shivering in fear.
“Do not be afraid.” He then told me that I was to tell the world that Armageddon was at hand. It was important to know that the horses would come on the scene first, before all the tribulation. It felt to me as if Armageddon was already here. “People in your day need to know the signs of the times. It is your Divine Destiny to tell them, so that some will repent.”
I felt weak and frightened. “Walker, I can’t do that alone. I need help,” I said. “Will you please send someone to help me get the message out?”
“Yes; you do have a guest room, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Amanda the prophetess will come stay with you whenever you need her help.”
“Really? Have you already arranged this?”
“Yes, I have. Amanda will be here in the morning.”
“I do not even know her!” I protested.
“She is likable.”
“How long will she be here?”
“Invite her to stay a night or two at a time.”
“I’ll do that,” I said. “Will she tell me something about the future, Walker?”
“I can’t promise you what she will say. She is a gifted woman.”
“Can you tell me something right now? What will the nations do in the future?” I felt my heartbeat quicken. “What do they want?”
“Peace, of course, but people want peace without the Prince of Peace.” His hands were shaking, which frightened me. “What about you? If you could ask, what would you want in the future, Martha?”
“Peace, joy, love.” I momentarily clamped my lips together, thinking. “It is not what I want, but what is actually coming on Earth that matters. I fear that there are those who want to control the nations and make everyone live passively, like robots that serve humans instead of God.”
“You are right,” said the angel. “Most nations have evil leaders. Your main assignment is to write a pamphlet that exposes the evil coming from each nation that has a wicked agenda for Israel and their king.”
“Their king? You mean Jesus. Is he their king?” I still felt fear. Just having a real live angel in my home was scary. The storm outside made it worse.
“Yes, Jesus is the king of the universe. Those usurpers who want to oust him will be destroyed. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will come to Earth to expose them.”
With those words, he faded away.
The clouds above were getting lighter by the moment.
At that moment, I saw four heavenly horses galloping through the clouds across the broad heavens. One was white, one was red, one was black, and one was pale green. Before returning to heaven, they whinnied and pranced in place, eager for the battle to begin, preparing to come to Earth:
Galloping, galloping, galloping.
Chapter Two
The next morning, I showered, straightened the house and made coffee as I prepared for my guest. Dressed in my favorite black-and-white floor-length dress, I combed my now-graying hair behind my ears. The doorbell rang at exactly ten o’clock.
When I answered the door, I saw a smiling middle-aged lady standing there. I smiled in return. She had a purity about her that one would see on the face of a child. A circular brown skirt hung to her calf-high boots. The beige shirt was of simple design and had handmade buttons on it, made of abalone shells. All of her clothing was hand-sewn, even her boots. Her chestnut-colored hair was pulled back into a ponytail and tied with a length of ribbon. “Prophetess?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “You may call me Amanda.”
“I am Martha.” We shook hands. “Prophetess Amanda, please come in.”
She entered and glanced around the room. “Your abode is truly welcoming.” I noticed she spoke in archaic terms, but I did not mention that to her, nor would I.
“I washed the sheets in the guest room,” I told her. “The room is ready for you.”
“I am grateful for your hospitality.” She followed me into the kitchen.
“Coffee?” I asked.
“Ah, the customary beverage. Please.”
After I made the coffee, we sat at the kitchen table, smiling at each other. I needed to strike up a conversation. I said, “My name is Martha Smith, and I am new at serving God.”
Sipping her hot coffee gingerly, she said, “I am called Amanda, and God speaks to me.”
“Really.” I felt nervous. I hoped that God did not tell her any of my sins or secrets. I thanked her for coming and offered to show her my home, my back yard, and my rose garden. “So, do you know the angel?” I asked.
“The one you call Walker? Yes, I know him very well.”
We walked through my place while we became better acquainted.
I showed her the guest room. “Walker thinks you should be my house guest until we’ve solved our puzzles.”
“I would enjoy that
.”
“Walker suggested that you stay a night or two at a time until I complete my project.”
“I will consider that.” She had a serious expression on her face. “I do have obligations back at home.”
“I’m going to need a lot of help.”
“So I have been told.”
The tour was quick, because I had decorated the home with modest, simple designs and colors in each room. Back in the kitchen, she accepted a refill on her coffee before we sat outside in the rose garden. “It is obvious that you love the outdoors. Your garden is so bright and colorful.”
“Smells good, too,” I said, snipping a bright yellow rose and handing it to her. She smelled it, inhaling deeply.
“Would you like to begin with prayer?” I asked.
“Yes, I would.” Amanda spoke softly. “However, I must tell you something. Sometimes when I talk with God, he gives me prophetic words. Would you be offended if I shared them with you?”
“Not at all, Amanda. I would be honored.”
I bowed my head as she prayed. Then there was complete silence. I waited.
She spoke in an otherworldly voice:
“This is a Word from the Lord. It is a prophecy against the desert by the sea, like whirlwinds sweeping through the south-land. An invader comes from the desert from a land of terror. A dire vision has been shown to me. The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Enemies attack! Foreigners lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning they cause. Thus says the Lord.”
Amanda paused for a moment, and then sighed. “Selah.”
A holy word! I knew that a couple of the meanings were, that is all or forever.
“I liked what you just said.” I closed my eyes to soak in the presence of the Lord. We had much to discuss. I took in a breath and let it out slowly. “Where do we start?”
“Let’s begin with you,” she said. “Tell me about yourself.”
“I am interested in Bible prophecy,” I said. “As a mother and Sunday School teacher, I’ve always told Bible stories. But now, my children are grown, and so are the ones I taught. My husband is on a cruise with our son. I didn’t go because I get terribly seasick. They will be out of town for a month and there is no Internet on their ship unless they are in port.”