Preparing for the Small and Great Time of Trouble

The Bible warns that before the return of Christ, God’s faithful people will face a final crisis over worship, obedience, and allegiance. Revelation describes a time when economic pressure will be used to force compliance with the beast system:

“And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark… and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark…”
— Revelation 13:16–17

This final crisis appears to unfold in two broad phases.

The first may be understood as the small time of trouble — a period of increasing pressure, restriction, testing, and difficulty. During this stage, buying and selling may become increasingly limited for those who refuse to compromise with the beast system. Yet some personal trade, local exchange, barter, and practical arrangements may still be possible.

The second is the great time of trouble — the final and most severe stage of the crisis, marked by direct persecution, the death decree, and the complete removal of earthly support. At that point, God’s people will not be preserved by stored supplies, money, technology, land, or human planning, but by the direct protection and miraculous provision of God.

Therefore, the small time of trouble is the season for wise preparation, but the great time of trouble is the season where faith must stand when every earthly support is removed.


🌾 Preparing for the Small Time of Trouble

In the earlier stage, practical preparation is wise, biblical, and responsible. God does not call His people to panic, but neither does He call them to careless presumption.

When Joseph understood that famine was coming, he did not merely say, “God will provide,” while doing nothing. By the wisdom God gave him, he stored grain in advance and preserved many lives. Noah also prepared an ark before the flood came. These examples teach us that faith does not cancel preparation; true faith obeys God’s light in advance.

In the small time of trouble, God’s people should seek to become less dependent upon Babylon’s centralised systems and more prepared to live simply, faithfully, and practically.

Key areas of preparation may include:

• Food security – Establish vegetable gardens, fruit trees, herbs, and simple food production. Store durable foods such as grains, legumes, rice, oats, seeds, and other long-lasting essentials. Use proper storage methods such as sealed containers and oxygen absorbers where appropriate.

• Water security – Secure access to clean water where possible. Rainwater tanks, water filters, wells, dams, or other reliable sources may become very important when normal systems are disrupted.

• Energy independence – Solar panels, batteries, backup generators, and other off-grid options can reduce dependence upon public utilities. These things may help for a time, though they should never become the believer’s trust.

• Heating and cooking – Firewood, gas bottles, rocket stoves, wood stoves, and other simple cooking or heating methods may be useful where legal and practical.

• Simple living skills – Gardening, preserving food, repairing tools, basic first aid, cooking from simple ingredients, caring for animals, and working with one’s hands may become more valuable than money.

• Transportation – Fuel access may become restricted. In some situations, electric vehicles charged by home solar may provide temporary mobility. However, mobility itself should not become the main security, because eventually God’s people may need to flee or be led in ways beyond human planning.

• Community and local relationships – Faithful believers should learn to support one another. Isolation can be dangerous. In times of crisis, spiritual fellowship, mutual encouragement, shared skills, and practical cooperation may become a blessing.

• Trade and barter – Local exchange of goods, skills, labour, food, and services may become important if formal buying and selling becomes restricted.

• Temporary financial tools – Decentralised systems such as cryptocurrency may possibly serve as a temporary transaction tool if traditional banking systems begin to restrict access. However, crypto, cash, gold, silver, or any financial instrument must never become the believer’s ultimate trust. These tools may help only for a short time, and they may also fail, be controlled, restricted, or become useless.

The goal of practical preparation is not to build a survival kingdom on earth, but to reduce unnecessary dependence upon systems that may soon be used to pressure the conscience.


⚠️ The Danger of Fear-Based Preparation

There is a difference between wise preparation and fearful survivalism.

Wise preparation says, “Lord, You have given light. Help me to obey faithfully and use what You have placed in my hands.”

Fearful preparation says, “I must save myself. My land, food, weapons, money, technology, or intelligence will protect me.”

This distinction is extremely important.

The beast system will be built on fear, force, control, and self-preservation. God’s people must not prepare in the same spirit. If our preparation makes us selfish, suspicious, harsh, worldly, or obsessed with survival, then we may be physically preparing while spiritually becoming less ready.

The final issue is not merely whether we can grow food or live off-grid. The final issue is whether we have the faith of Jesus, the patience of the saints, and obedience that comes from a surrendered heart.

Preparation is useful only when it is submitted to God.


⛰️ The Shift in the Great Time of Trouble

When the final crisis escalates into the great time of trouble, the situation changes dramatically.

At that point, God’s faithful people will face not merely inconvenience, but direct persecution. The death decree will reveal the full spirit of the beast system. Earthly protection will fail. Human support will disappear. Normal buying and selling will no longer be available. Stored supplies may be taken, exhausted, or impossible to access. Technology may fail. Money may become useless. Human plans may collapse.

This is why physical preparation cannot be the final foundation.

In the great time of trouble, God’s people will have to depend entirely upon Him.

The same God who fed Elijah by ravens can feed His people again. The same God who gave manna in the wilderness can provide again. The same God who preserved Daniel in the lions’ den and the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace can protect His faithful people again.

The wilderness has often been the place where God trains, humbles, tests, and preserves His people. Israel was led through the wilderness. Elijah fled into the wilderness. John the Baptist was trained in the wilderness. In the final crisis, many of God’s people may again be led away from cities and human dependence into places where only God can sustain them.

But they will not be preserved because they are clever, strong, wealthy, or well supplied. They will be preserved because they know God, hear His voice, and follow His leading.


🙏 The True Balance: Preparation Without Trusting in Preparation

Practical preparation has its place. But it must remain in its proper place.

It is wise to grow food, store essentials, simplify life, learn useful skills, reduce debt, move away from unnecessary dependence, and prepare one’s household. These things may help during the small time of trouble.

But none of these things can save us in the great time of trouble.

The danger is that preparation can quietly become an idol. A person may begin by preparing in obedience, but gradually begin trusting in land, food storage, solar power, crypto, gold, weapons, or their own ability to survive. When this happens, the heart has shifted from faith to self-reliance.

God is not merely preparing people who know how to survive. He is preparing people who know how to trust Him when survival seems impossible.

The greatest preparation is not in the pantry, the battery bank, the garden, or the bank account. The greatest preparation is in the heart.


✨ The Real Preparation

The small time of trouble is, in many ways, a training ground. It teaches God’s people to simplify life, loosen their dependence upon Babylon’s systems, develop practical wisdom, strengthen spiritual endurance, and learn to trust God day by day.

But the great time of trouble will reveal where our true confidence lies.

If our faith depends on comfort, income, property, food, technology, family support, or religious freedom, then that faith will be shaken when those things are removed. But if our faith is rooted in Christ, then even when every earthly support is taken away, the soul can still stand.

The real preparation is:

• To know the Father and His Son personally.
• To receive the Spirit of Christ into the heart.
• To surrender every known sin.
• To learn obedience through faith, not fear.
• To study and treasure the Word of God.
• To pray until communion with God becomes real.
• To simplify life before crisis forces simplicity upon us.
• To develop a faith that does not depend on visible circumstances.
• To learn to hear and follow God’s leading.
• To love not our lives unto death.

God is not merely preparing a people who can survive physically. He is preparing a people whose faith cannot be shaken.

In the small time of trouble, we may use wisdom to prepare.
In the great time of trouble, we must stand by faith alone.

And in both stages, our only true safety is not in what we possess, but in whom we know.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
— Psalm 46:1