I stand in awe of the One Whose voice is Majestic and Powerful, like the thunderous roar of many rushing waters churning wildly through a narrow chasm, cascading over a great waterfall, and thundering to the depths below. [Rev 1:15; 19:6]
Shout for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O Earth! Burst into song, O mountains! For our Lord comforts His people and will have compassion on His afflicted ones! My soul will be like a well-watered garden, and I will sorrow no more! Then maidens will dance with joy and gladness; men both young and old will join in. Blessed Lord…You comfort me and turn my mourning into joy, my sorrow into gladness! [Isa 49:13; Jer 31:12-13]
Brothers and sisters in Christ…
God is grieved over His backslidden, lukewarm, worldly minded church that exists in these present days. As He beholds His children, what does He see?
- He sees a people who fret and worry about maintaining their lifestyle. Many of His children have grown indifferent and apathetic to the things of God. Instead, they’ve become wrapped up in worldly activities and material pursuits. They have no time to seek Him with their whole heart. Some even pray for revival selfishly, wanting God to be appeased so He won’t take away their prosperity.
- He sees His children worrying about Social Security, retirement funds, mortgage payments, investments. He sees them full of anxiety and fear, as if their survival depends on their ingenuity and wisdom, or upon the good faith of the government.
But all of this is about to dramatically change! The fact is…the global pandemic and resulting economic self-destruction, the trampling over and shredding of our very foundational Constitution, the social destruction, the emotional destruction…has been brought about by God for a very specific purpose. God is taking His church into a wilderness of testing, to strip away our human reserves and make us wholly dependent upon Him! Our Lord is taking away our ease, our great financial flow, our high-tech resources we thought would always be available. He’s doing it because our recent multiple generations have never had to trust Him, whether for food, shelter, jobs, or daily supplies. We’ve grown lukewarm, self-reliant, and enticed by material things. And we are now quite suddenly thrust into a different kind of world altogether. It will be a world growing poorer by the day…a world of vanishing employment, scarcity, physical deprivation, soaring costs of living. And it is happening as God’s way of drawing us back to Himself. He is awakening us to our need for faith…an unwavering child-like trust in Him, an unreserved child-like dependence upon Him, an unquestioning child-like obedience to do, and to accept, His will…and to bring His children into His promised rest…an unruffled child-like rest, and an unclouded child-like carefree joy!
The Lord has warned us continually throughout Scripture…His Holy Book. And now… the party’s over! All your wild weekends and unholy holidays, all your sumptuous gardens and ornamental fountains, all the gloating over possessions and abundance is ending right now. All these things His children have trusted in…wealth, jewels, riches… are about to turn to dust before your eyes!
My beloved child, when you received Jesus the Christ into your heart and life in a spiritual marriage as His bride…the bride of Christ My Son…to be joined together with Him in a Sacred Covenant relationship, an eternal living union of oneness through the new life conceived in you by My Holy Spirit, You solemnly vowed to have and to hold Him above all others, and above all else this world has to offer, as the choicest, most precious treasure of your heart. You solemnly vowed to love and to cherish Him above all others, and above all else this world has to offer, reserving for Him your sweetest, most tender affections.
But no…instead, My Divine Son Jesus has this controversy with you: Beloved, you are like an unfaithful, adulterous wife, having intimacy and love affairs with the world and thereby breaking your marriage vows to God! Your sweetest, most tender affections are not reserved for Me! I am not the choicest, most precious treasure of your heart! You have no longing to linger in My Presence, just sitting at My feet! Yes, I know that you honor Me with your lips…but your heart is far from Me! I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot…not willing to give up your pretension and claim to My name, yet having too much love for the world to stand steadfast and immovable with Me! I wish you were either one or the other…make up your mind, would you, please! So, because you are lukewarm… neither hot nor cold…I am thoroughly disgusted with you and am about to spew you out of My mouth! You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and am in need of nothing.” But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked! I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white garments to wear, to cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so your eyes would be opened and you can truly see! Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So, therefore, be earnest, and repent! [Rev 3:15-19]
** **, greatly beloved, you see the judgments I have visited upon the Earth. Don’t you know; don’t you understand? When a Nation sins against Me by their persistent unfaithfulness, and I stretch out My hand against it and break its staff of bread and send famine upon it and cut off from it man and beast…or suppose I were to pour out my fury by sending a plague into the land, and the disease killed people and animals alike. As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, they wouldn’t be able to save their own sons or daughters! They alone would be saved by their own righteousness. When My judgments come upon the Earth…when I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or when I command locusts to devour the land [as is happening right now in Kenya] or when I send a plague among My people [as is happening even now worldwide]…the people of the world learn righteousness. [Ezek 14:13, 19, 20; Isa 26:10; 2 Chron 7:13]
And so you say to the man of God, “Go, inquire of the LORD for me and for this people…for all the children of God concerning the words of this Holy Book that has been brought before us. Great is the wrath of the LORD that burns against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words written in the Holy Scriptures, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”
This is what the LORD says: I am bringing the doom of judgment on this place and this people, just as I stated in My Holy Book you read. My wrath burns against this place, and it shall not be quenched, because you have forsaken Me and worshiped other gods, that you might provoke Me to anger with all the work of your hands. Now I will take back the wine and ripened grain I generously provided each harvest season. I will take away the linen and wool clothing I gave you to cover your nakedness. I will strip you naked in public, while all your lovers look on. No one will be able to rescue you from My hands. I will put an end to all your festivities, and cause all your mirth to cease…all your solemn feasts and appointed festive assemblies…all your “religious” meetings. I will destroy your vineyards and orchards, things you claim your lovers gave you. I will let them grow into tangled thickets, where only wild animals will eat the fruit. I will punish you for all the times you deserted Me for indulgence in promiscuous “religion,” when you burned incense to your images of Baal, put on your earrings and jewels, and went out looking for your lovers…and never a thought for Me!
And now, this is what I am going to do: I am going to start all over again. I am taking you back out into the wilderness where I will win you back once again. I will lead you out into the desert and speak tenderly to you there. I will return your vineyards to you and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. You will respond to Me there, singing with joy as in days long ago in your youth after I had freed you from captivity in Egypt. In that coming day, once again you will call Me “My Husband” instead of “My Master.” [2 Kings 22:13-20; Hos 2:9-15]
Friends, brothers and sisters…
There is one absolutely necessary preparation for every living soul on the face of this Earth, for the soon coming and imminent return of Jesus Christ…the one preparation that will irrevocably determine in which neighborhood you will spend all eternity, whether in Heaven or in Hell. You must be a born-again child of God. I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s Kingdom. I tell you the truth, no one can ever enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at My saying you must be born again. [Jesus…John 3:3-7]
If you have never been born again,
or you are not sure whether you have been born again,
or you have been living your life as a lukewarm Christian and would now like to recommit your life and enter into a deep and intimate relationship with Christ Jesus in preparation for the soon coming marriage supper of the Lamb…
then I counsel you to get alone with God, read the solemn marriage vows you must make to become the bride of Christ and thereby be born-again, [https://preservechristianfamily.org/2019/01/21/bride-of-christ/], and with sincerity of heart from within the depths of your being, acknowledge before God, “I DO.”
Precious Lord, take my hand:
Preserve Christian Family 