WHAT IS GOD TELLING US?

WHAT IS GOD TELLING US?

                I believe that God has been writing definite messages to us in the heavens over the past few years. We can read them or ignore them.

                Is God judging America? Yes I think so and as such, we have only seen the beginning of it. IS God picking on Houston? No. We have to look at case histories of judgment in the bible for clues. God brings judgment upon nations (especially nations that He has blessed abundantly and called according to His purposes). If that chosen nation then turns away from Him and begins to worship other gods, or act in rebellion, or follow the ways of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Then God brings judgment. Sometimes His judgments are remedial and sometimes He brings them to an end. America has done all of the above.

                When a nation comes under God’s judgment everyone suffers whether righteous or unrighteous. The unrighteous suffer for their sins, while the righteous suffer for failing to be salt and light.

                It is the job of the righteous to warn and to preserve a nation, but when the righteous people become so much like the world that they have all of the same symptoms and statistics as the world, then they no longer have the power to change the course of the nation.              We only have to look at the towering statesmen and heroes of American history and the people who under great conviction gave their lives for our freedom to realize that our salt has lost a lot of its flavor.

                When the church becomes a club that hides inside its four walls and no longer preaches the Gospel in words and in deeds in the community, the church becomes irrelevant… the youth leave and the old people eventually dry up and die. And the more we compromise the gospel for the sake of expedience, the less relevant we become. The more we become like the world, thinking to win the world, the more we delude ourselves. It is better to be hated for our righteousness than disdained for our phoniness.

                We have the illusion of church growth today because there are so many mega churches, but in truth, people are leaving the traditional churches and flooding into the seeker friendly churches where they can enjoy anonymity and escape accountability. And so the mega churches look good with their vast crowds and super bands and all the excitement, but there is something missing at the core of it all.

                People are spiritually sick and so they pay their psychiatrist $80 an hour to tell them that they are okay.  They go to buy spiritual self-help books and go to conferences where they are told that they are okay and everything is grand and glorious. But they can’t lie to themselves. It doesn’t work… so they suck down their mood altering drugs and learn self affirming mantras and look for calming peace through Yoga, or they just keep themselves too busy to think about it. The radio and the TV play day and night to drown out the still small voice that cries for attention.

                The church doesn’t need another revival. A revival, like CPR only gets a person breathing again but doesn’t heal the problem. We need a complete reformation of godliness and righteousness and holiness in the fear of the Lord. We need to walk in obedience to the word and to live by the Spirit and not by the emotions that pass for Spirit.

                It is not what we feel that transforms us, it is rather what we believe… what we believe enough to take action and to do. Only a life or death commitment will do. We can’t just look through the door of salvation. We have to enter, to receive, to be transformed, reborn, dead to the old man and alive to Christ.

                Christianity is the most radical thing a person can enter into in this world. It is a portal into another kingdom, a new creation, a death, burial and resurrection. Like Paul said: “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave His life for me. Gal. 2:20. The old Saul, the old persecutor of Christians is dead, and in his place a living dynamo of conviction and truth named Paul. And yes, he was killed for his faith because the kingdom of darkness abhors the light.         

                Most people coming into Christianity today are unaware of the contract they have signed. The contract is that we can only enter by death. We receive Christ’s death in our place. But in doing so we become dead as far as the world and the devil are concerned. We are dead as far as the law is concerned as well, and now we will live by a different law called the “Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” But when we trade our life for His, we discover that we no longer own ourselves. We have been bought with a price. We now live only to please and to glorify God. We are on His agenda now. We learn to listen to His voice. We learn to walk in obedience to His Word. We have but one mission in life and that is to finish what Yeshua started and demonstrated for us in the world and to bring Him back.

                In this transformation Christ has placed His own Spirit in us… to empower us to both obey Him and to do His works in the world. His mission to save the lost has now become ours. This is our training program, for when we graduate from this one we are going to reign with Him as kings and priests. If we have been faithful over the little things here, He will make us ruler over many things in His Kingdom. Mt. 25:27

                This is why Jesus asks us to count the cost. In Luke 14:27 Jesus said, “Whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” Then He goes on talking about counting the cost before one starts a building project, or to fight in a battle. Do we have enough to finish what we have started? Then Jesus finishes by saying: “So Likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsakes not all that he has, he cannot be my disciple.” vs. 33. So, the cost of being a Christian is all that we have and all that we are.

                So Jesus ends that by talking about salt that has lost its flavor. It no longer seasons the world around it. It has lost its savor.

                America is faltering and coming into judgment because for many years now, we have not presented the Gospel as it is in reality. It has lost its power to transform and to radically change. People no longer have to count the cost, because they have been taught that being a Christian brings happiness and God is a big Santa that just gives us what we want and we can have it our way. We would do well to warn people that becoming a Christian can be dangerous and may cost them everything. Then those who come to Christ will come for the right reasons. They will come out of deep conviction that truth is truth and light is light and that no one comes to the Father but by Him.

                They have left out the parts of the truth such as Bible Prophecy which warns of judgment. Our favorite saying nowadays is “God is good all the time… all the time God is good… and that is absolutely true, but in many cases this is code for, “God will not judge.” We don’t have to obey His Word. Each of us follows his own path. We can do what we want and God will understand.”

                Nobody counts the cost of discipleship any more. They just listen to their super star preachers and get enough “Feel Good” to make it through another week (with the aid of another trip to the psychiatrist and a bottle of pills) and then we wonder why Jesus doesn’t just rapture us all out of here to reign with Him.

                To tell you the truth, there may actually be a pre-trib rapture, but I am pretty sure that it will only involve the wise virgins… those who have matured in Christ… who have been conformed to His image. You see, we have skipped all of the verses in the Bible that talk about growing in grace and knowledge. We love to talk about justification, but not a word about sanctification and holiness without which no one will see God. Hebrews 12: 10, 14.

                We have been sold a bill of goods and no one wants to talk about it. So yes… we have now entered a time of judgment and no, God is not picking on Houston. But it is time, as Sadhu Selvarage is now saying: “to put our house in order.”

                “Seek the Lord all you meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger. “ Zeph. 2:5

                Do we really think that all of these signs in the heavens occurring on God’s appointed times, mean nothing? This total eclipse over America came on Elul 1 and it begins a 40 day season of fasting, praying and repentance. It begins on Elul 1 and ends on Yom Kippur. (The Day of Atonement.) We need to give serious thought to what this might mean.

                Did you know there was a sign in the heavens when Abraham was born? It tells about it in the book of Jasher. Nimrod sought out the child’s father and asked to see him. Tera, sensing trouble brought the son of one of his servants and Nimrod dashed the child to death upon the ground. Nimrod thought he had killed the child of promise.  When Moses was born Pharaoh killed all the baby boys in his age range. Did Pharaoh’s astrologers see a sign in the heavens for Moses as well? Likewise when Jesus was born, the wise men followed his star. All the baby boys 2 years and under were killed as the dragon sought to destroy the child of promise that was born.

                Jesu is the head and we are the body. Is it not possible that there is a sign for the birth of the Body of Christ that will take place when we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air? This church age is about to close. The times of the Gentiles is about to end and the man child is about to be born. That is the church. The dragon is standing by to destroy us as soon as we are born but we will be caught up to heaven. Then the woman who gave birth to the child (Israel) will flee to the wilderness and the dragon will pursue her. This will be the time of Jacob’s trouble. Israel’s time clock is about to begin counting down the final seven years of Jacob’s Trouble. It is intended to bring the Jews to Yeshua, but it is a time that may be shared by all who have never really received the Holy Spirit and been transformed by the renewing of their minds into His image. Yeshua is looking for a bride that is like Him. What else can I say?

                Nobody knows if this event will happen this fall; but if it does, I want to be ready. And I would be responsible before God if I did not warn my friends to prepare. I may be thought a fool… but I would rather live with that than to live with the regret that I did not warn my friends. We are at the end of the age and whether we stay or go, we want to be in the middle of God’s will , doing what He gave us to do… and living by the fruit of the Spirit and walking in His Word.

                I think God is telling us the time is up. And whether it happens in a day or in a series of events over a protracted period of time, we need to start reading God’s signs and walking in righteousness. Selah