Last Days Heroes: Becoming a Hero of Faith for the End-Times

By Dwight E. Link

Can one person really make a difference in a dark world? Can a nation be saved from certain judgement through the faithfullness of one person? The bible say’s yes. Not only that but the word also shows us what type of person can persuade God to withold his hand of judgement against a rebelious nation. It takes a hero. Not man’s idea of a hero, but what scriptures describe as a hero of faith. A hero deep within us all to bring us victory in these last days.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781973682615

Dwight E. Link

Dwight E. Link has served in ministry for most of his life, from musician to Youth Pastor to Senior Pastor in Oklahoma where he held credentials with the Assemblies of God. He is the founder and President of the Link to Hope Ministries in Bapatla, India. Dwight served proudly as a Paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division and as an Infantryman with 45th Infantry Division. He currently resides in Branson, Mo with his wife Delena and continues his ministry work in India.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 Dwight E. Link.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8262-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8263-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8261-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019920894

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/16/2020

Contents

Introduction

1   A Couple of My Heroes

2   The Hero Who Couldn’t Be Found

3   Heroes of Faith

4   Believing in What You Can’t See

5   The Fight for a Soul

6   When God Speaks

7   The Link to Hope

8   The Fall

9   The End-Time War

10   Get Ready

For my wife Delena. Thank you for sharing that big, beautiful, God-given heart with me and for not giving up on me when I gave you every reason to. You are the one God created just for me, and I couldn’t have made it without your love and support. I love you.

To my mom and dad. Thank you for bringing me up in the ways of righteousness and teaching me the value of God’s word and the power of prayer. I love you both.

Introduction

What are the last days? There’s no shortage of books to read and study concerning what many Christians refer to as the last days. The Bible should be your go-to manual when it comes to the last days though. When I think of last days, what comes to my mind is someone who has been diagnosed with a terminal disease and given a certain amount of time to live. They’ve basically been given a death sentence. As time goes by, this person begins to exhibit warning signs that the end days are approaching and their time on this earth is almost done. What they do with the time remaining is completely up to them. Many choose to live out their last days in different ways. Some will spend their remaining time with loved ones, while some want to go out with a bang, as the world puts it. Some will even use that time to try to right their wrongs and make a last-ditch effort to please God in hopes of having their death sentence overturned. Either way, when we know that our time on this earth is coming to an end, most of us will behave much differently than we normally would.

The Bible gives us a description of what God calls the last days for this earth, and according to the signs we are seeing now, many believe that those days are approaching fast. After growing up in church, I’ve heard for years that the last days are at hand and many have questioned this. Some have even abandoned their faith because they haven’t seen it yet, which in itself is a sign of the last days.

According to scripture (2 Timothy 3:1–5 NIV; Matthew 24 NIV), and I’m paraphrasing here, what we can expect as the last days approach is that people will become lovers of themselves. Right will be determined to be wrong and what is wrong and evil will be celebrated as good and right. False teachings will flood the church, and wars will increase as earthquakes are felt more frequently and in more places. Men and women will prop themselves up on high pedestals at the cost of the poor and naïve, and some will even declare themselves to be a type of messiah, if not the one and only. If you’re not aware of the signs, I suggest you research them. I could give you the scripture word for word, but I’m not going to rob you of the thrill of seeking it and learning it on your own. Be a student and follower of the word, not a follower of me or any other author, teacher, or preacher. I’m simply bringing to your attention what God has placed on my heart to share, but it’s up to you to discover the truth on your own through the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Trust me: there’s no greater teacher than him.

The Bible refers to many of these signs as birth pains (Matthew 24:8 NIV). Like when your wife becomes pregnant and you’re all full of excitement and as time goes on the signs of pregnancy become more obvious until the day arrives to give birth. Her water breaks, and the pain increases to the point to where the joy of becoming pregnant fades into the background of the screams and the pain until finally there’s a new life bringing back the joy again. Like the pregnant mother, we can see the signs approaching and will even get to the point of some pain and suffering as we wait for the Second Coming of our Messiah. But we know that the pain and suffering are only temporary, and when that day comes, we will have new life and the pain and sorrow will be replaced with joy.

The important thing to remember is that God is very patient and is holding off the final days in hopes that some will be saved (2 Peter 3:9 NIV). It’s in the Bible. Look it up. But as we wait and watch as evil abounds, while the murder of innocent babies is worshiped, sexual immorality in all forms is celebrated, and thieves and liars are hailed as great leaders, what type of person are we to be? Second Peter 3 (NIV) is a great place to start when trying to answer this question. It gives us many guidelines and commandments of who we are to be as we wait for his coming. If you haven’t already, I highly suggest that you make it a regular part of your study. God’s word is very clear in the fact that if we don’t follow his word and guidelines that he has set forth, then we will not enter his kingdom (Matthew 7:21 NIV). Please look it up and study it. Not only does your eternity depend on your understanding the truth, but so do others who will depend on you sharing that knowledge & freedom that you’ve come to know.

The way that I’ve come to understand what type of person to be in these last days is to sum everything up into one word: hero. Not your typical type of hero as the world uses the label, but a hero of faith. The kind of hero who will face the giants when no one else will or lead others out of a situation that appears to be hopeless and give them hope. A hero of faith who hasn’t fallen for the normalization or humanization of Christianity and compromised their faith to the point of being useless. Following Christ should not be normal and certainly should not be boring. We are to die to ourselves daily to become the heroes that the world needs for these last days.

What Is a Hero?

A hero is defined as a person who is admired or idolized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. So who qualifies to be called a hero, and who makes that decision? Basically, anyone can consider anyone else a hero, depending on how they see that person. If you ask a child who their hero is, you’ll get some pretty entertaining answers. When I was a kid, my hero was the creepy dude who drove the ice cream truck around the neighborhood and always seemed to arrive at just the right time—when I was broke.

But as we grow older, our idea of what makes up a hero changes. As teenagers, many look to professional athletes as heroes, or we may even idolize a movie star or musician. As adults, our heroes change even more. We look at the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy or parachuted in behind enemy lines on D-Day as true heroes. For many of us, a family member may even qualify as a hero. The qualifications of a hero will vary from person to person, and in my opinion, the qualifications have become a bit hazy.

Hero does seem to be a term that gets used more often these days than ever before. I bet if I were to ask you who your hero was, it would be different from mine. If you’re a Christian, your response would probably be Jesus Christ. That’s a given. Personally, I believe he far exceeds what a hero is and the term hero doesn’t do him justice. He is the Savior of the world and endured more than any hero had to endure; no other person is equivalent to him. Because of this, you’re not allowed to choose him as a hero. At least as far as this book is concerned.

So who is your hero? Take a moment and ponder this question. You may have several—most of us have more than one—but I want you to think of who makes the top of your list. By the way, your hero can’t be generalized, such as the police or our military. Your answer must be personal and can be any one person in any profession, according to the previous definition of hero. Let the pondering begin. Who is your hero?

So who did you name as your hero? Was it a family member? An athlete? Maybe your hero is a member of the military or wears a badge every day. Maybe you chose one of the many biblical characters who went above and beyond their abilities to achieve God’s will. Certainly Moses, David, Sampson, and so many others qualify as heroes.

For me, it’s the biblical warrior Joshua. He is the soldier’s soldier. A military genius who overcame surmountable odds, one of those being his fear to lead a nation to the Promised Land. Being a former soldier myself, there’s one way that I can relate to Joshua. I too must be reminded constantly to be strong and courageous and to rely on God’s ability instead of my own. I even have Joshua 1:9 NIV tattooed on my forearm, along with my jump wings, as a daily reminder to be strong and courageous. But it also serves as a reminder of a time when I was strong and courageous.

But this book is not about Joshua or the many heroes you may have listed. This book is about the hero who could have been but never was. It’s about a hero who never was but can be. It’s about a hero who is desperately needed for these end-times that we are living in. It’s not about a hero who will bring revolution but revival. Not a hero who will slay many but save many. A true hero of faith. Will that hero exist in you or in me?

In this book, we’re going to be looking at what it takes to be a hero of faith. As you read this book, you’ll notice a few things that may seem out of the ordinary. For one, you’ll see (Look it up.) at the end of some sentences. You’ll find this when I refer to scriptures. The reason for this is to challenge you to seek God’s word on your own. Seeking the truth is crucial to becoming a hero of faith. I will vaguely refer to scripture to make my point, but it’s up to you to find the truth. With the technology we have available today, truth can be discovered faster and easier than ever before. You just need to know where to look. When we stand before God, we will not have the excuse of not having the opportunities or abilities to find and know truth. It’s available in so many forms. We will always find a way to make time for what’s important to us. One sermon on Sunday that you’re likely to forget by Monday morning is not enough.

The other thing is I will be using some of my own personal experiences to achieve the goals of this book. I’ve learned the hard way what can happen when you live a façade of Christianity and what it’s like when God redeems you from it. Some of the experiences you read in this book are good, and some may be quit shocking. Some may be difficult to believe, and some will be totally unexpected. I will not be using real names and locations unless required to, for obvious reasons. Let’s just say that the fifty years that I’ve lived on this earth have not been boring. I will also be the first to admit that I am not the most qualified person to write a book.