The ability to sense danger is a life-saving quality.

We see this lesson everywhere in nature. Take the herd of antelope grazing peacefully on the sun-soaked prairies of Africa. Danger stalks these beasts constantly. They are the fillet mignon of lions, cheetahs and other carnivores prowling the plains in search of fine dining.

For the antelope, staying alive is a function of their ability to sense danger and react quickly.

Perhaps you’ve seen a documentary of this scene: A herd of antelope grazes blithely, unaware of the lion hunched nearby in the tall grass, stealthily stalking the herd. He crafts his assault, contemplating the best attack route, the timing, the target. Suddenly, the peaceful colony becomes restless. Heads dart up, ears twitch, noses whiff the ominous scent, alert eyes scan the horizon. A few beasts begin to move, then suddenly, though the lion remains hidden, the herd stampedes.

The outcome of this story varies. Sometimes the antelope dodges death, sometimes a comrade is taken. Whatever the case, the antelope’s keen sense of danger is what causes its preemptive stampede, thereby reducing its chances of being mauled by the lion.

Hunters see this life-saving quality in action. They know that even the faintest scent of human odor is enough to arouse a sense of danger, causing the prey to flee the crosshairs of the poised rifle.

In nature, life and death are often separated by a keen sense of crisis!

How keen is your sense of crisis? How acutely do you perceive the dangers facing your life, your family and your nation? Does an accurate sense of crisis energize your actions and drive your life forward?

Our planet is being besieged by terrifying predators. Billions are stalked by starvation and languish without water. Social anarchy rips through the Third World, and is creeping into the First. National economies and the entire global financial system are being overtaken by economic calamity. Western states are being attacked by disease epidemics, family maladies and cultural disintegration. The rule of law, which underpins national stability and success, is being torn down by moral relativism. Islamic terrorists could soon snatch hold of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, and Iran has the capacity to build nuclear weapons. The list of predators goes on and on and on.

Human survival is now our number-one problem. Like the antelope grazing on the prairie, the proximity of these many lethal predators is palpable. It ought to arouse a sense of crisis inside us so deep that we feel a motivating urge to flee danger. But sadly, most of us simply stand there, obliviously grazing on the prairie.

There are two primary reasons for this. First, human nature dislikes and readily discards the truth when it threatens to disrupt one’s own interests, desires and lifestyle. The human mind will go to extreme lengths to hide from the truth or at least color it, if the truth demands a certain response. But a sense of crisis allows no leeway for inaction. When a human is frightened or faces immediate danger, the brain demands fight or flight. A person either jumps up and fights, or quickly takes flight. Either way, if your sense of crisis is working, you automatically react.

If you have no sense of crisis, you don’t react. Britain and American societies as a whole are boats that don’t want to be rocked. We want inaction and passivity—everything to just stay the same. The U.S. and the UK manage external threats by relying on diplomacy and appeasement rather than bold action. They create environments that sanction economic irresponsibility rather than curbing it. They pass laws condoning moral depravity or illegal immigration because it’s easier than enforcing laws that would prevent these crises.

Having a weak sense of crisis, or none at all, means weak solutions, weak reactions, weak defenses against the creeping lion. It means passivity and procrastination.

Second, this individual and collective lack of crisis detection is the by-product of a self-gratifying culture. Too many people are like the antelope so consumed with gorging itself on lush green grass that it fails to sense the predator stalking a meal of its own. Absorbed in materialism and an unbalanced desire for satisfying the senses, too many people have simply lost touch with reality!

Such selfishness is a deadly state of mind. An accurate sense of crisis is a healthy and important function of our mental state, nationally and individually. Like the antelope on the prairie, having a sense of crisis can help us preempt danger and deal with it before it strikes—before lives are taken. A sense of crisis precipitates action. No sense of danger, no action—until you’re in the jaws of the predator.

In Matthew 24:36-39, Jesus Christ describes the time of Noah, when mankind was consumed with gratifying fleshly lusts and had no sense of crisis. Mankind was then shocked when the heavens opened and the flood came. Why did Jesus rehash an event that occurred more than 2,000 years earlier? Verse 27 furnishes the answer: Because the same mindset will prevail just prior to His Second Coming!

How keen is your sense of crisis? Do you truly feel that there is a predator in the field? Do you feel you must act? We all need this reality check from time to time. Like the antelope, we must go about our daily activities, feeding and watering our minds and our bodies, and those of our families. But these duties must be performed selflessly and with a watchful, vigilant, outward focused mindset. We must look for the danger and act on it! “Watch ye therefore, and pray always,” Christ warned in Luke 21, “that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (verse 36).

When you get an accurate sense of the crises preying on your nation, your life and your family, you will assuredly feel the urge to flee the danger. Confronted on every side, you might feel there is no safe place to run. This is not true. In the same way God protected Noah from the Flood with the ark, God’s promises to provide His faithful people a safe place to hide from the horrors of the events that precede Jesus Christ’s return.

That’s the beautiful thing about possessing a godly sense of danger: It comes with a reassuring sense of hope!

To learn more about this place of safety, and what you must do in order for God to take you there, read Chapter 5 of our free booklet Daniel—Unsealed at Last!