It’s not really about whether or not God our King is on our side, although we know He loves us, but whether or not we are surely on His side.

The flag is torn. There are holes in the red and white stripes. The sacrifices of the past are not known by this generation. They have no respect. Their parents have not taught them well nor would they listen. They have become a foreign nation.

Listen now and I will tell you a story.

A man walking down a road went into a field and stopped by an apple tree to pick from it. He looked at the tree and although its fruit was good to eat, he chose to despise it and stay hungry and unrefreshed.

The time is coming, says the Lord, and now is, when the right hand will be hooked to the left ear and the left hand will be hooked to the right ear, and the right eye will be fixed upon the left foot and the left eye will be fixed upon the right foot. Many stumble and trip over themselves and have become altogether useless to Me, saying, “Nobody knows the right from the left and the Church cannot agree what to do. Which way should we turn and whose lead should we follow, for there are so many prophets among us!”

Does the world not have prophets? Does the world not have teachers?  Does the world not have kings and rulers? Which way should you go and who should you follow if there are so many anointed among you?   But where are My prophets and where are My teachers and who are your kings and rulers?

But listen now and I will tell you a parable. A man without an ear met a man without an eye who met a man without a hand who met a man without a foot, and they said to one another, “Do I really need you if I already have one? Do I really want you if you do not have at least two?

How foolish you are to follow another and hearken to other voices, when you have the Words and the Spirit of your God to direct you, through whom you live and move and have your being, and who sets you apart and gives you work to do despite your deficiencies and handicaps, and who asks each person the question, “who is my mother, my brother, my sister, or my friend?”

Where is the Body of Christ and to Whom does is parts belong? What is the sum of its parts if it has no head? Can the Body function without a head to lead it? Can the Spirit move it if the eyes do not see and the ears do not hear and the feet do not follow and the hands do not work in unity with Him?  Your God is not a puppet master. He is your Lord and King.

Let him who has ears hear, let him who has eyes see, let him who has feet follow, let him who has hands work, for God is not waiting upon our deficiencies and handicaps, but upon those who will do His will, who will not look to the right or to the left or hearken to confusing voices.

Sometimes a house has to be gutted. Sometimes a family must move. Sometimes a body must become depleted in order to become renewed.

Where are you going and who will you hear and for whom will your feet move to follow, for God is the Author of Life and the Lord is the Instrument of Salvation, and all parts belong to Him. When all of you is hooked and fixed upon Me, then you will know which way you should go and what it is you should do, in Spirit and in Truth, for I will not mislead or confuse you, says the Lord, but all I ask of you is this, “I want all of you!” “I want every part!”

There is a growing deception that I have warned about in the past, and that is – that the message of reconciliation – the heart of the Gospel – that God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to Himself – and so that the forgiveness of sins eternal life could be preached in Jesus’ Name, with the call to repent and believe in Him (that is JESUS) – is being replaced with a “social justice” movement .

Not that social justice isn’t important because it is, and is a very big part of what is means to be a Christian – to love all, even your enemies, to right wrongs, to end oppression, feed the poor, take care of the widow and orphan, end racism, end abortion, end war, to be a good samaritan, etc. BUT it cannot replace or eliminate the cross and the act of the One who justified all sinners and provides forgiveness – even to the the police officer who killed George Floyd. If the mobs want justice – then they all must hear that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – and that Jesus died for all including the murderer and the rapist, the abortionist and the child molester, the slanderer and the gossip, the vain and the perverse, the adulterer and the pimp, the liar and the thief, the proud and the lazy, the idolater and the greedy, the violent and destructive,.etc. The Word of God and the Church declares all these things yo be sin and those who commit them to be sinners in need of God’s grace from Jesus Christ, who died for all, and therefore all died – because all have sinned – and the wages of sin is death.

YES- the Church should lead in the correcting of injustice – but its primary task is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ – who redeems and justifies the sinner by faith, offering the forgiveness of sins, salvation and sanctification, for and leading to Eternal Life, in Jesus Name. It is the Love of God that we preach, and not mankind’s limited version of it.

We have been given the message of reconciliation!

Not every Word from the Lord is “uplifting”.  Sometimes it is edifying or perhaps corrective, which is still good and necessary when God our Father. brings it.

In my zeal, one of the issues I have been struggling with recently is what I erroneously judged as a poor witness of the universal Church during this pandemic crisis.  Actually, I was more disappointed with God then the Church, which only affirmed the proverb, “Zeal without knowledge is not good”, which I applied to myself.

My struggle was around wanting to see Christ glorified through His people, by seeing the Church gather together to worship Him as He protected us from viral infections, thinking what a great opportunity of witness and wonderful miraculous “sign” this could be that would prove our faith and draw many others to Christ. However, what actually happened was the opposite. The churches stopped gathering and some supposed reports came in that people became sick because church goers did gather.  Whether accurate or not, either way I struggled with reconciling this in my mind.

When I finally got down in focused prayer time over this specific issue, asking the Lord for understanding why the Church was NOT EXEMPT from the pandemic effects, the Scripture verse I believe He brought to mind was 1 Peter 4:17

“For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; And if  it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

And

“if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?

What I believe God impressed upon me, was that God was using this time as a sanctifying and sobering time for the universal Church; to humble the Church, to help it see that although those in the Church are in a better position regarding salvation, that the Church too will be subject to judgement, and that it is NOT EXEMPT, just like from the virus.  And more so, that the Church will be judged first.

This was a sobering thought, but sobriety is good.  Sober thinking is good and biblical, and God uses His Word to bring us to sober thinking.   I am not saying that the virus is a judgment from God, but that God is working in His Church through this crisis time to sanctify and soberize it, for something greater ahead.

Then were a few other sobering NT Scripture verses that came to mind, such as,

“Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord”, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven”,  – Mt. 7:21

And,

“For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself…” –  1 Corinthians 11:29

And then, I was reading Job chapter 40-42 , where Job, who was a righteous man, but was “drunk” in his thinking effected with and from suffering, contending with God and complaining that if he was righteous then why was he not exempt from the sick suffering.   Though his friends, who lacked knowledge were unable to reprove Job, God was not unable.  Job was sobered up by God’s questioning of him and for his contentions against God, to which Job shut up and repented in dust and ashes, saying that he had spoken without knowledge also and that God could do whatever God wanted without explanation.

So, in similar fashion, God did not agree with my contentions as I was hoping for, but instead sobered up my thinking, humbling me with with His answer. Instead of working miraculously THROUGH the Church at this time, I believe that God is allowing the Church to suffer just like everyone else, because He wants to work something out IN the Church, which involves some humbling towards sober thinking.  Certainly, God can still draw people to Himself through this time anyways, as I believe He is, but right now it seems to me that God is more interested in the Church’s virtue and right thinking, than performing a miraculous sign to prove His own worth.

Like Job who said, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand…” this just shows me how little I understand about God and that is very sobering too.

What I do know and understand a little better is that Gods ways are way much higher than mine and that I still have so much more to learn about and from Him, as I grow up in Christ.

I have revealed myself to the nations.
I have revealed myself to you.
I have done so because I AM.

But what I am about to do is going to shock many, because they do not know the depths of my love and grace, and they do not know the heights of my ways and thinking.

I am going to flip the nations, says the Lord.

Those that were not mine will become mine, and some that were mine, will become lost, but for a while.

For I am the God who hides and well as reveals.
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will refrain from who I refrain.

Do not ask me, “but why?”, but be glad that I have mercy, says the Lord.

I had what I believe was a New Years Eve Service vision of what started out as a view of a background of the blackest darkness into which tongues/flames of fire appeared and then lined up in a row side by side like in a piece of wallpaper border going around the tops of the walls of the church. I believe the Lord was saying it’s time the Church caught fire again because of the increasing darkness all around us, that the light we are to be is more than just a reflection of the Son but we need the fire of the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel in love to those who hate the truth and who are also destined for blackest darkness reserved for fallen angels. The border of flames around the wall also protects the Church from the extreme darkness trying to penetrate the walls of the Church. Saints cannot remain lukewarm in such a dark time as this.

There are some “in the Church” and perhaps outside, who would like to separate Jesus and the Gospel, because they would like “another”, that is, one more acceptable and likeable that doesn’t require “repentance and forgiveness of sins”, one that doesn’t cause separation between family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, the younger generation and peoples of the world with other beliefs.  They prefer a Jesus and a Gospel that brings peace and not a sword, one that everyone would have to like, one that is all inclusive and welcoming in such a way that doesn’t require anything from anyone accept an irresistible and popular acceptance.

Why?  Because than there would be no rejection, persecution, and cost to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their hope is that the numbers would increase in both people and payments to the more likeable church.  And so who does this profit?

Hence, they want to present a different Jesus and a different Gospel than the one that appeared and was made known and was preached before. They want to change or eliminate the demanding and challenging Words of Christ by their own presumed authority, perhaps out of felt necessity, in the name of a love that is separated from the truth. They are false prophets seeking false profits.  What will they exchange for souls?

I have not come to bring peace but a sword, but if you are afraid of the sword, what will you do when My house burns?  Will you fan the flames then?  So, I tell you, be strong and courageous and do not fear the sword.  Otherwise you will have no peace.

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” – Deut 30:19

The nation is at a cross-road, and even the Church to some extent because it is divided, in relation to the intensification of the battle between good and evil, light and darkness, life and death, as it pertains to abortion, which is infanticide, even before the babies are born.  Where the nation sides, and which side prevails, will determine not only the life or death of millions of more babies, but the life and death of this nation as we know it.  The two are inseparable!   We will either choose life or death, as a nation.

The pivotal determinant of the outcome is the Church.  If the Church will not unite and advance on this issue to tear down and overthrow the forces of wickedness supplying, supporting, and sustaining the abortion industry, it will simply not occur. Not only that, but the heinous profitable murdering of the innocent will expand, and as their blood cries out to God, the land will be cursed and the nation, as we know it, destroyed.

There is no turning back.  There can be no let up.  There can be no middle ground. The time is now. Decisions have to be made. The battle can be won and will be won if the Church unites and chooses life.  Indecision will cost the lives of millions more babies and the death of a nation. The blood bleeds, but will the river run dry?

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” – says the Lord.

While meeting at an “interdenominational network” of pastors this morning, with whom I’ve been having fellowship with for the past five years, the Word of the Lord came to me while we were praying and worshiping the Lord, in the lower room of the building, and He said,

When I said “I have not come to bring peace but a sword” I did not just mean a sword the will cut into relationships, such as husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and neighbors, but a sword that also cuts into a man between his soul and spirit, for discernment and decision making; a sword that convicts a man of my will that he might also do it. And my will, whether I meet with you in an upper room like I did with the apostles, or in a lower room like I am with you now, is not for you to hide behind closed doors, but to go out and make My Salvation known to all peoples and to declare My Glory to all nations, the Glory of the One and Only-Begotten Son of God.

…And of course I could not stop shaking for a while. Let him who has ears hear.

So as I was worshiping on the Lord’s Day, last Sunday in the back of the church, a vision came to me….

I saw a black firepot with flames burning out the top, flying in all directions across the face of the earth, wherever the Spirit of the Lord took it, and then it came towards me, and there was in the pot were burning coals, and I asked the Lord what this meant…

And He said, “Wherever you step and wherever you stand I will place burning coals before you under your feet so that wherever you step and wherever you stand will be holy ground, when you go where my Spirit leads.”