STRANGE FIRE

STRANGE FIRE

                “And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying I am the Christ and will mislead (deceive) many.” Mt. 24:4, 5.

                “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it (the day of the Lord and our gathering together to Him) will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God.” 2 Thess. 2:3, 4.

                “And He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One and he will intend to make alterations in times in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times and half a time.” Dan. 7:25.

                “Thus days the Lord God, “Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing. They see falsehood and lying divination who are saying, “The Lord declares” when the Lord has not sent them; yet they hope for the fulfillment of their word. Now you son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who are prophesying from their own inspiration. Prophesy against them.” Ez. 13:3, 6, 17.

                We live in an unprecedented time of deception. Deception is the name of the game in these last days. And let’s face it, devil worship doesn’t deceive us. Obvious evil does not deceive us, rather it is that which seems good and sounds good that is most likely to deceive us. The smooth and assuring words of the prophets who have not heard from God but prophesy out of their own spirits that is what deceives us because we choose to hear what we want to hear and we don’t much like reality.

                There was an incident in 1 Kings 22, when the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah had joined forces to go and conquer Ramoth-gilead and to take it from the Assyrians. Verse 12 says: “And all the prophets were prophesying thus saying, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and prosper for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”

                In this case, there was only one true prophet by the name of Micaiah and it is almost funny, because a messenger was sent to Micaiah and he pleaded with the prophet saying, “Behold now, the words of the prophets to the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them and speak favorably.” But Micaiah replied, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.”

                So when the king had his audience with the true prophet, Micaiah said to him. “Go up and succeed and the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But the king answered Micaiah saying: “How many times must I adjure you to speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?

In other words, in a sense the true prophet was saying, “Do you want me to simply agree with the other prophets, or do you want me to tell you the truth? Well, the king knew better so he relented and Micaiah recounted to the king how he had seen the counsels of heaven and how they had sent a deceiving spirit to speak through all of the false prophets.

                Incredibly enough though, the King decided to go with the words of the many prophets instead of the words of the one true prophet and he died that day in battle and Israel and Judah were scattered.    

                How do we sort out the last days when there are so many prophets and dreamers and visionaries? How do we deal with so many opinions concerning the last days? Some say we are heading for times of peace and prosperity and a great harvest. Yet others say that we are on the verge of calamity and tribulation. Some believe that we have many years, maybe even decades ahead of us, while others believe that we are on the verge of the apocalypse. Who are we to believe?

                Jeremiah faced a similar problem as Micaiah. God had spoken to Jeremiah telling them to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar and to take their punishment for their disobedience, but the rest of the prophets were saying, “No, let’s fight against Nebuchadnezzar and hold onto our land, the Lord will be with us.” So they chose to believe the many prophets over the one true prophet Jeremiah. They fought against Nebuchadnezzar and ended up in Captivity in Babylon with their city and their temple destroyed.

                It seems that our biggest challenge then is to know how to discern the voice of the one true prophet over the voices of the many.

                In preparation for the deceptions of the last days it seems that the devil has infiltrated the church with many false prophets and in the place of the true Holy Spirit he has offered strange fire. There are ways that we can determine who is true and who is false. Just like Joshua circumcised the men of Israel before they went in to conquer the Promised Land, so the true Holy Spirit will cut us off from our flesh and He will take us out of Babylon and Egypt. He will call us to repentance and to holiness and righteousness. He will cause us to keep the commandments of God and to bear the testimony of Jesus. He will do away with our worldly ways and He will produce the fruit of His Spirit in us. He will guide us into all truth and as we know, the Bible is our only source of truth.

                The Holy Spirit will lead us to be born again, for unless we are born again we cannot see the kingdom of heaven. John 3: 3. He will cause us to walk by the Spirit and not be the flesh. Rom. 8:5-14. For those who live by the Spirit are the sons of God. He will lead us to deny self and to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Mt. 16:24. We must enter into His death and resurrection, for as Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been 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.”

                We must live by faith for without faith it is impossible to please God” Hebrews 11:6. If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set you mind on the things above not on the things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life is revealed then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” Col. 3:1-4.

                As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” Col 2:6 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Eph. 4:30

                There is a whole lot of church going on these days in which the prophets are prophesying great things, but they are not calling the people to repentance and true holiness. They may not be the most popular prophets on the block, but those who call us to repentance and holiness… who call us out of Babylon and to be separate from the world, these are the ones to listen to.

                Bible prophets rarely had good news to bring to their rebellious nations. They were forever calling people to repent, to humble themselves and to pray and to seek God’s face lest judgments fall upon them.

                The call of the true prophets is no different today than it was in days of old. We live in a rebellious nation that is teetering on the brink between revival and calamity. If we do not rightly perceive the times in which we live, we will surely be plunged into the greatest time of trouble the world has ever seen… and I don’t think that Jesus is going to rapture His saints out of here until they have been purged, refined and purified.

                As it says in Ephesians 4:11-13, Jesus equipped His church with apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

                Well, how are we doing so far? Statistics would tell us that there is very little difference between us and the world. And given the standards given here in the above text, if the rapture were to happen today would even 10% of the church be caught up?

                Hebrews 12:14 says: “Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” We must be temples of the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor. 3:16.

                Much of the church has become careless in its walk with the Lord. Some depend upon emotions, but emotions are of the flesh. Feeling chilly bumps is not the best gauge of God’s presence. Strange fire will give you chilly bumps as well, and music can hype you up and emotional preaching can stir you up, but it is the Word of God mixed with faith that transforms us.

                “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” 2Peter 1:4.

                “And so we have the prophetic word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”

                Is Jesus arising in our hearts? Do we have the kind of relationship with Him that is transforming us into His image, or are we just running with a crowd that is saying “everything is okay… God is good… we don’t need to overcome sin because grace covers everything?”

                We don’t know precisely where we are in time, but Jesus said, “And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars and upon the earth dismay among the nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken and then they will see the son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Luke 21:25-27.

                And in Joel 2:30,31 it says: And I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

                On the day of the super blue blood moon on Wednesday, a river in Russia turned blood red as it flowed between snow- covered banks. It was much too cold for algae bloom and they have not been able to detect any sort of chemical or dye that could have caused it. They are baffled.                This makes the 36^th such river to turn blood red in diverse parts of the earth over the past few years.

                Daily there are signs going on in the sky, in nature, in the distress of nations, in the great falling away from the faith that is now occurring… and we can certainly see the agents of the deep state that are doing everything in their power to bring on the global age of the antichrist. We saw their seething hatred at the State of the Union address. It was as if they were under some kind of mind control.

                 For the moment God has intervened and I hope this gap in their plans lasts for a while, but we can know for sure that when God lifts His hand, they will sweep in with a vengeance to fulfill Lucifer’s desires… And it will happen because it is spelled out for us in great detail in the Bible.

                Whatever you do, stay close to the Lord and to His Word. Our only safeguard is in following His instructions and living by His Spirit until He comes.