Lessons in the Ladder Days

Candace Long: I’m Candace Long with Lessons in the Latter Days, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times we’re living in. Today’s episode is called My Final Assignment.

I’m going to share a lot from my heart today. It’s a series of news bulletins about my future and how that may affect you. I am extremely blessed that Lessons in the Latter Days is going all over the United States and into other nations, and I do not take that for granted.

I want to start today by telling you what happened yesterday because it says something about the times that we are in now. A ministry colleague I hadn’t heard from in a long time reached out after listening to The Slippery Slope of Betrayal. She wanted to buy a large number of my books, The Levitical Calling and Letters to Aliyah, and said, "I was up until 4:00 in the morning reading after God led me to your books again. He wants me to travel to different women's homes and teach them about what you have written."

Boy, was I encouraged. There are three things I want you to know about Isabelle. First, she is a lifelong educator. Second, she loves the Lord. And third, she is African American. Now, you should know that both of these books were dedicated to women of color who ministered to me after life fell apart during 9/11.

Letters to Aliyah was inspired in 2009 when a Black woman appeared in a dream and asked for my help regarding the custody of her children who were trying to get free. That dream led me to study the origin of the races after the flood and why people of color have suffered so much. This was God's first assignment for me as a chronicler, and I ministered for many years to empower women of color prior to their eventual emancipation around 2016.

But to be honest with you, I had not seen much fruit from that part of my ministry in years, until yesterday. And here is what Isabelle wrote: "I know it has not been easy for you as a woman and as a white woman with a call to teach and enlighten women of color, in particular African American women, my people. Each time I read or share or teach from any of your books and monographs, I gain more insight into the heart of God. Your work is timeless. It is as if Aliyah could have been written yesterday as it speaks to what is happening right now, especially the chapter on the sexual assault on the church. I love you and want to thank you for being a prophetic voice to my people. It has cost you everything and I am eternally grateful."

I can't tell you how much her words meant to me, but this is not just about me. It's bigger. It's about what God is doing now to bring things full circle back into our lives before we leave this earth, to affirm that our lives mattered. Now, I'm sharing this because if you are being prepared to be taken in the first resurrection, I believe the Lord will be showing you why He led you to do what you did in life and ways those things are now bearing fruit.

With Letters to Aliyah, for example, I didn't know it at the time, but I was fulfilling an ancestral destiny of two of my forefathers who grew up as slave owners. But once they gave their lives to Jesus, God used them to save the souls of the plantation slaves and create a way for them to attend services on the plantations to hear the Word of God every week. 200 years later, I was born and became part of that ancestral destiny.

We've discussed this before, but it's worth mentioning here. Not only do we as individuals have a God-ordained destiny, but ancestral families have destiny too. As today's sixth and final generation before the Kingdom, we are each busy filling up the measure of our fathers, as Jesus described it in Matthew 23, by either doing works of righteousness or works of iniquity. The more we contribute good works, the larger our ancestral share of inheritance is in the Kingdom.

This episode is all about sharing how God showed me my ancestral destiny, and it has to do with the proper alignment with what I refer to in Aliyah as the Tent of Shem. You see, Noah's son, Shem, was the first ancestor who developed curriculum to teach others God's ways, long before it became known as the Torah. Shem was given the mantle to teach Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and he passed that mantle down through the centuries.

Once I committed to study Judaism and realign with the Commonwealth of Israel in 2006, the clarity over my calling began to grow. Since 2021 when I began this series, I thought that producing the half-hour Lessons in the Latter Days was my final assignment. But it appears the Lord has now taken off the training wheels and opened a door for me to produce a new three-hour programming series beginning on August 9th, and I want to tell you about it.

News bulletin number one: I am not ending Lessons in the Latter Days. I will still write new episodes since we are living out biblical prophecies every day. The entire series will always be available on my website at candacelong.com/podcast. What it does mean, though, is that I will no longer air Latter Days as a program on radio.

News bulletin number two concerns the revelation of a final year-long assignment. Much of my work in 2024 and 2025 has uncovered that we are living in year six of the last seven years of the church age. My work has been progressive. I would see a little at a time, not all at once. And as I chronicled my findings in the series The Final Week of the Church Age, my convictions deepened. As a chronicler, my present understanding is that we have a little more than a year before Jesus comes to the clouds for His Gentile bride, the barley harvest in Jewish terminology. I have long believed that I will be taken. My heart and mind are already there in the Kingdom.

News bulletin number three: Sadly, I'm discovering that many believers are either oblivious to the Rapture and not thinking about it at all, or they don't want to go. They want to remain doing what they're doing here. I recently heard that many Christians believe we are already in the seven-year tribulation period, which means that a large percentage of believers are not prepared at all to enter the Kingdom. I do not believe Jesus is going to take anyone who doesn't want to go, which is why I feel a burden to teach the Jewish perspective of the end of days.

News bulletin number four: I had an open door fairly recently to speak with executives from one of America's leading media corporations about the programming needs that I see post-Rapture. In my presentation, here is what I said: "When the Rapture comes, there will be two groups of listeners who will be desperate for programs such as Lessons in the Latter Days, taught by Messianic Jews and Torah-observant Gentiles like me. Group number one will be all those who are not taken in the Rapture and they're desperate to know why. Group number two are devout Jews who will realize that Yeshua was the Messiah and will be desperate to find teaching about a Jewish Messiah but taught in language they understand. They need to learn from those who love and study the Torah. They will not be interested in learning from Christians."

I pleaded with the company to create a separate platform for this type curriculum and offered to partner with them to lay the foundation for it. Frankly, the response I got were deer-in-headlight looks. They were speechless. They admitted I was bringing up things they had never considered and were unprepared to give me an answer then. I came away from the meeting disheartened, but I heard the Lord say, "Trust your vision. Start small. Do it at a radio station who receives you."

During the time this proposal was coming together, I had a significant dream in which the Lord revealed I had one final assignment left, and He mentioned several times in the dream that this assignment would last one year. At the time, this seemed to relate to how close we are to the Rapture, which is a little over a year away. So I put together another proposal and I presented it to the general manager of WEEI Salem Boston, who immediately said, "Yes, we want you to do this."

News bulletin number five: Carol Simmons, General Manager of WEEI Radio in Boston, gave me the green light along with her blessing to produce a three-hour programming series every Sabbath for 52 weeks. That’s one year. It's called Shabbat Shalom, which is the way Jews greet each other every Sabbath. It means "May you have a peaceful Sabbath." I will put links in the description notes to this episode so you can download the flyer that describes Shabbat Shalom, the teachers who are partnering with me, and a handout showing the Torah portions we'll be studying for the first 13-week cycle.

News bulletin number six: Everything the Lord leads us to do for Him requires great sacrifice. No, don't worry, I'm not asking you for money. My purpose here is simply to share with you how God led me to this final assignment. Once He revealed how close we are to the end of our earthly life, He began downloading ideas and strategies to meet needs in listeners that were not being met. I was called in 1972 as a marketplace minister and I turn 80 years old this year. I have an MBA and have always loved creating strategies and bringing them before the Lord to discuss in great detail. He taught me years ago how to make petitions to the Lord. What He requires are specifics, not a generalized prayer that says, "Lord, I'm here to do whatever you want." No, that type prayer does not cut it for Kingdom leaders.

I'll never forget a commercial real estate development deal I worked on for years, and the day came when I had to present the vision to the City Council where this development was to be. Creating business proposals is what I did for a living for close to 40 years, so this form of writing falls in line with my gifting. So this particular day when I was pondering a business idea, the Lord prompted me to reread the proposal I'd made to the City Council so long ago.

Reading through the pages, I thought to myself, "This is really good." Everything was there: the vision, the management team, the strategy, the permits and licenses, the architectural plans, operating budget, where the funding would come from, and of course the financial projections, which looked good. I have to admit I was really proud of all the work that had gone into this proposal. And then I heard the familiar small voice saying ten words that shook my world. He said, "Why don't you ever make proposals like this for Me?"

What? I had never even thought about such a thing. He is Master of the universe and He wants a proposal? Over time, He began to show me that this is how someone partners with Him for Kingdom work. He is the CEO and I am the steward who would execute the plan. That made sense. And this is the origin of my company, Audeo Media Group. Audeo means "with God." Deo, God, is the CEO and I’m the little "au" who carries out the work. And since 2016 I have been managing Audeo, writing and producing resources to prepare His people for the day of the Lord, which includes producing Lessons in the Latter Days.

Most recently, He began to show me a second radio series He now wants Audeo to produce: a three-hour program to air every Saturday morning for 52 weeks in Boston. But where was the money going to come from? He then drew my attention to a major asset and asked me to sell it and donate that to this Kingdom work. And with those funds in place, I contracted to purchase three hours of airtime on WEEI every week to teach the Torah and God's ways for an entire year. If listeners are blessed, we hope they may want to donate and to expand the program in phase two to go on Salem Media's oneplace.com.

When the Rapture does occur, I'm directing my executor to sell my worldly possessions and pay for Lessons in the Latter Days as well as the new curriculum for Shabbat Shalom to air on oneplace.com worldwide for the first three years of the Tribulation, when it will be most needed. This would ultimately fulfill the original vision I had. Shabbat Shalom reflects my life's work and it's what I want to be found doing when the Lord comes.

Let me close by answering five questions you may be asking. Number one: Will you still be producing Lessons in the Latter Days? Yes, and you will always have access to the full series at candacelong.com/podcast. I will continue to produce new episodes and they will always be free and available to you 24/7.

Question two: What if other stations want to air your new program? The funding would have to be there and upper management would need to see the need for programming taught by Messianic Jews and Torah-observant Gentiles. My team and I are believing they will, but it will take time. My focus now is to produce an excellent program, and I have a huge learning curve ahead of me of pulling together multiple teachers and creating a template that honors the Lord.

Question number three: Can anybody listen to it? Absolutely. Many listeners have written over the years saying they want to learn how to study the Torah and God's ways but they don't know how, and that's who Shabbat Shalom is for. You can stream Shabbat Shalom live each Saturday morning from 6:00 to 9:00 on weeiradio.com. Again, I will put a link to the flyer in the description notes to this episode and it explains what the program will include. I encourage you to download and print the handout of Torah readings and come to the program prepared to learn. WEEI will be archiving the programs on its website, so if you miss something, you can return and listen anytime.

Question number four: Who will be teaching? I’m excited to introduce the teaching team to you. Each hour will feature two teachers, one each half hour. You'll find the exact teaching lineup on the WEEI program guide beginning August 9th. Please print out the flyer which shows you the teachers who are joining me and their areas of expertise. You're going to be learning from two gifted mentors whom I reference a lot in this series: Messianic artist Rabbi Michael Washer, who teaches Judaism as pictures from which to learn, and Dr. Elizabeth Hairston, known as God's Ambassador of Worship Arts, who will teach what she has learned in how to carry God's anointing through worship.

You're going to also learn from Andrew Gabriel Roth, whose expertise in biblical Hebrew and Aramaic brings great clarity to some of the most misunderstood passages in the New Testament. And our weekly Torah portions will be taught by Pastor Matt McEwen, who is an ordained Torah teacher serving in an international Messianic organization helping Christians recognize the Jewish foundation of their faith. I will be bringing two separate Lessons in the Latter Days that are applicable to that week's Torah portion, and we come to you each Saturday morning from 6:00 to 9:00 as a team committed to glorifying the Lord, teaching His ways, honoring Him on His day, and pioneering a new Torah-based curriculum for Christian radio.

The fifth question: How can we plan financially for those family members who may be left behind? This is a complex question and falls more in my area of expertise than the other teachers, so I'll be addressing it as part of the Latter Days series. We need very specific guidance and legal documentation to prepare for what we each want to do for our families. There are no lawyers that I know of who have documentation that can be drawn up and signed pre-Rapture and go into force post-Rapture. As you can imagine, the world at that time will be chaotic.

If you are a lawyer listening and you see how this can be done, this is a huge need that is not being addressed. Please reach out to me at candacelong.com. The question you need to ask is: If you suddenly disappeared, do you have notarized in writing what you want to happen? I have ministry colleagues who are leaving notes all around the house for when they disappear so that those who take over their home, most likely as squatters, will learn about Jesus. This is their way of preparing.

I advise you to spend time before the Lord analyzing your gifts and strengths. Do you want to leave your family members key teachings that will explain where you have gone and that they have seven more years to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and trust Him to keep them safe through the birth pangs? I suspect there will be financial chaos on the earth at this time because it's in the area of finances where God gets our attention most.

Some people are more gifted in practical areas than in financial, creating safe places for their family off the grid, storing up food and supplies. Others may choose to meet with their family and tell them you believe you may be going soon and if they are left behind, discuss what you want to leave them by way of help. God will show you what to say. At least tell them where whatever you are leaving them can be found.

I have a statement included in my will saying that if the Rapture has occurred, then scrap the distribution plans for Plan A and execute Plan B, and then I outline specifically what I want done with my assets in that eventuality. Choose someone as an executor that is a decent person but who shows no interest in being taken in the Rapture. Because I am a teacher who has invested everything to create curriculum for these days, this is what I'm leaving money to perpetuate as my written and audio legacy to help those left behind. You may want to mass-produce thumb drives with godly teaching on them so your family can grow closer to the Lord. Again, what you leave behind should reflect your own interests and gifts.

I hope this episode has been helpful. I want to thank you for being with me today and listening to My Final Assignment. In the description notes, I will leave you links to the Final Week of the Church Age, my three-part Rapture series, as well as the Shabbat Shalom flyer and Torah portion handout. You can access the Lessons in the Latter Days series anytime by going to candacelong.com/podcast. And I hope you join me each Saturday morning from 6:00 to 9:00 Eastern time at weeiradio.com for Shabbat Shalom. God bless.[_]