June, 2017
". . . or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." Revelation 2:5
The pieces are falling into place for the United States and for the church in North America. Pieces coming together for revival in the church or judgement upon the church and the nation. 'Let judgement begin in the house of the Lord' I Peter. The responses of God may be one or the other, or a combination of both. Most just want a great season of revival; few, if any desire a great season of judgement. There are biblical instances of when God spoke and revealed what He was getting ready to do to His people and the nations. And we are in such a time that God is speaking and revealing these things for the ones , 'that has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying'.
Such moments in Scripture where God revealed what He was getting ready to do
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1. Daniel was brought in to read and interpret the hand writing on the wall from God to the king of Babylon; in it was written, 'Thou art weighted in the balances and found wanting; this night thy soul shall be required of thee." That very night the Medes and the Persians invaded and conquered Babylon and the king was dead.
2. And as the Egyptians cried out in the Red Sea 'that God was fighting for Israel'. For He was causing the chariot wheels to fall off and leave the Egyptians defenseless. Then the Lord caused the Red Sea to return to its place and drowned the Egyptian army. Thus, God is causing and making the chariot wheels fall off our society, structures and churches.
3. And as God told King Josiah, 'for the sins of Manasseh, the innocent blood he shed, I will require it. You will be gathered to your fathers, but after your death I will judge the land.' Now it was almost 20 years after Josiah died before ultimate judgement fell on the land. But even in the midst of those years, the prophets were foretelling what was coming and what they needed to do. They needed to humble themselves, obey and turn to the Lord. For 70 years would be upon the land for rest and restoration. And he caused Judah to fall to Babylon and the city was destroyed and the people sent off into captivity for 70 years, just as He had said.
4. In Genesis, as God came down to deal with Sodom and Gomorrah, He stopped and visited with Abraham. 'Shall I tell Abraham of that which I am getting ready to do?' and then Abraham knowing what God was going to do to that wicked place, and that he had a nephew who was there and in harms' way, Abraham sought to deliver Lot from the Lord's wrath.
So 'in that day' we see that God judges the nations, judges His people for their idolatry and adultery against Him. He judges for them forsaking Him and forgetting Him. And His judgement is severe and ends an age of what was. The life that we have known in the United States of great prosperity, great advancement, technology, health, education, resources, entertainment is at the highest any society of any people in all of history. This is God's great mercy to us. But as this greatness increased Satan took advantage of it. This increase of goods, and self and pride has caused us to contaminate ourselves with it, thus provoking the Lord God to anger. And now He is ready to come meet us and He will require for us to answer for what we have done.
The candlestick of the church in North America to be removed would be God's judgement. 'In that day' the church will know how much it had, and how little it did. And the reports of what other churches around the world faced in persecution, distress, hazards will become our reality in that day. In that day God will remove our candlestick as judgment on the church and on the nation for its departure from HIm. And He will, as He always does, move to the next and possible last dispensation of the end. "in that day' the church will be purified, cleansed, empowered and full grace and truth. 'in that day' His bride will be ready for His return.
Why would God remove our candlestick?
"I have this against you" The Lord spoke with the seven churches His favor and His displeasure in what they had done and were doing. God has always spoken and declared what He wants from His people. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses declares clearly what will happen if they obey, and what will happen if they disobey. And when the Lord has 'this against you' it is for not giving heed to His commands. Christ declared to the apostles and the first church exactly what was required of them in being lights in this world of darkness. And for the church of the 'Gentile' age we have been given our task of reaching the nations with the Gospel. 'And when they shall have heard, then the end shall be.'
With all this time, all this money, all this man power, all this opportunity, we have not done it. And the Lord says, 'I have this against you.'
When the Lord has something against His people, it is because they are representative of Him. How often people have refused to come to Christ, or be a part of the church because they look at the witness of the people rather than the truth of the Gospel of Christ. Satan wins in these things because men fail, God does not. But rather than them looking at the perfect law of liberty in Christ and through Christ, they look at sinful, frail, fault filled men that do not represent their Lord well. And when the church becomes so much of a despairing visage of Him, He will correct it or remove it.so the first thing the Lord has against us is that 'we have given an occasion against Him.'
David had been made king. He had multiple wives and children, nothing was lacking. Yet, in the moment of his sloth, 'he arose from his bed in the evening and walked upon the porch and saw a young woman bathing' and he took her. Committing adultery and later on because she had conceived his child in adultery, he took matters into his own hands to rectify the sitaution and murdered Uriah the Hitite.
In the first church, when Ananias and Sapphira brought a great rebuke by Peter for their high offense against the Lord, they died on the spot and great fear was upon the people. God struck in the midst of the church to correct it. How much more will He strike when the body of Christ celebrates great sin, abominations and evil. Still failing Him and His purpose, they continue on as if all was well. But let there be no doubt, He will respond. He will meet them where they are and demand a response from them. Just as He did to Job, 'gird up your loins and answer Me.' Job in fear, 'was in awe and humbled himself there.'
Robert Murray McCheyne writes on the seven churches in Revelation. He speaks to this edict against the church at Ephesus. HE went on a mission trip to Israel, and passed through this city. Looking for the church of Ephesus, he found a foundation of it, but it was covered by a corn field. And he simply states it, 'God removed their candlestick'. And even worse in the old testament, God rebuke the wicked for their folly and said, 'I will remove you from the earth.' Nothing is too hard for the Lord and He is mighty enough and holy and just enough to remove His church's candlestick for their departure from Him and His ways. May we learn this truth and correct it before it becomes our reality.
What signs are telling us that our candlestick may be removed?
God does not just come down and pull the candlestick up; blow the fire out and remove it. God is longsuffering, patient, willing, merciful to His church, His bride. And in that He endures for long periods of time with their folly, their backslidings, their sinfulness, in the power of redeeming them back to a right relationship with Him. He always gives warning before He does it. But when, after time and time again, of rebuking, correcting them sending forth remedial judgements to stir them up to get back on the straight and narrow path and they refuse, then He comes and finishes it. It is the signs of the remedial judgements that He allows and causes upon the church to bring them back to Him that shows the signs of what may be, if they refuse.
These remedial judgements are sent as 'wake up calls' by the Lord. Currently we are under great series of remedial judgments on our land and on the church. Recognizing these remedial judgements are needful to see that we have gone from the ways of the Lord and need to get back to Him. These remedial judgements are to affirm the obvious, 'we aren't right with the Lord'. And it is a pleading to get us back to where we need to be. Remedial judgements are corrections to keep us from getting to the point of no return. A heightening of these judgements should alarm and concern the church that something isn't right. Very deep and painful judgements are revealing the severity of God against sin, even from His Own people. The refusal to correct and repent only deepens and brings greater woe upon the people.
when the hand writing comes on the wall, God is getting ready to respond severely. The church should recognize the signs that have led up to this, in order to stop the sinful behavior. Failure to recognize this, respond to this, or correct, will bring the removal of the candlestick. No Christian, no church body, wants to be removed or sidelined. Even the Apostle Paul wrote, 'after I have preached to others, I myself should be set on the shelf, no longer to be used.' the need then is to have men that discern the remedial judgements, the handwriting on the wall. 'Call for Daniel' and he will tell us what these things mean. Without men, like Daniel, especially if God restrains the church from recognizing their plight, He is bringing about their removal.
Now none of this is by chance, or unbeknownst to God. He already knows how these things play out. It is His ultimate desire and will is that we remain perfect, holy and upright. But alas, how often the church has failed, faltered and been faithless. He sends remedial judgements to correct such things. But He also sends revival and refreshings to restore and return His people to where they need to be. All of us would rather see days of revivals and refreshings than remedial judgments. All these things are directed by His righteous hand; He Who knows best and does best governs which comes or if they both come, how it all works for His glory.
Another indicator that God is getting ready to remove our candlestick is when Ichabod becomes the standard of the church. The power and Presence of the Lord is removed from our midst. Now the only reason God would remove His Presence is sin. God's people yielded to sin, submerged in carnal, worldly ways , and practicing sin without an acknowledgement of their sin is sure to quench & grieve Him from our midst. And a warning goes forth from God to the children of Israel, which is the same for us, that 'teach your children My ways and commandments'. Now when the Word is not taught, read, studied or proclaimed then the people will not know what is sin in the eyes of God. Questionable, vile, carnal ways will be allowed and practices, never really knowing that they are in direct offence against God. But where the Word is taught, read, studied, and proclaimed they will know the difference between holy and unholy, between right and wrong.
The absence of the Word of God is primary today in the pulpits and in the pews. `somewhere a long the line we, as the church, thought it was okay or acceptable to neglect the personal spiritual discipline of 'studying to show ourselves approved unto God'. We neglect and reject the Word. As it happens in the personal development of young Christians, they seem to live a consistent life without it. this practice flows over into the body of Christ. 'A little leaven leavens the whole lump'. and soon entire body is affected; multiple bodies are affected; whole demoniantions; and then the whole body is sick. Return to your first love; return to Him, Who is called repeatedly, The Word of God. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Him." 'He Who is called the Word of God.' Return to the Bible, the Word of God.
Once the Word is neglected and rejected, Satan can do great harm and bring about great alarm of compromise, carnal, fleshly ways into the church which is far from God's purposes and will. Lies, false doctrines, and questionable practices become the norm. And the first church and its ways of pleasing to God are eroded and forgotten out of mind of what the church is really supposed to be in this day and time. And in due to the first neglect of the Word of God, now the Presence and Person of God is gone. It is not longer a church but a community building for fellowship and social purposes, but not eternal purposes.
Now there are many 'signs & wonders' that impose themselves on the church leading up to the removing of the candlestick. The neglect of the Word is a dominant one. Telling others about Christ, speaking of eternity to lost souls is another sign. Powerlessness in miracles, answered prayers, saving of lost souls are another wonder of heaven and earth to see how great God is and His promises and Presence and yet, how little the church is doing in building his kingdom. A wonder that evil and sin should be so rampant in the midst of such power from God through His people. Yet, another hand that joins the neglect of the Word is the sign and wonder of the sin of prayerlessness. A prayerless house of God, a prayerless peopole of God, a prayer less soul is the collaborative hand in causing God to withdraw His Presence form his people.
Is it not a repeated evil offense against God that His people stop praying unto Him? Did He not warn and judge them in the Old Testament because they turned to false idols to pray? did not Jesus stand and condemn the Jews in the holy temple of Jerusalem that 'My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of theives'? And thus they were driven and destroyed for their unrepented folly against Him, began when they stop doing it God's way through powerful, person, prevailing prayer. And what is the key missing point throughout the church's history of waywardness, is it not at this key issue of prayer?
For if any act of revival and out pouring of God's Manifest Presence came about due to God's people praying again; then surely we can surmise that the cause of His departure was for their failure to pray rightly. And God is not a liar, but holds forth His promises is waiting for His people to do it as He has said. He has said it, 'seek, ask, call, beseech, draw near, abide, find Me' and He will fulfill His part. But He has made it upon His people to do it His way in the prayer closet. And out of that prayer closet comes great outpourings, refreshings, revivals, and Manifest Presence.
so it is ever needful not only to examine where we are in our Bible studies, reading and proclamations; but as well, where are we in our prayer life? Are we 'praying without ceasing'? Are we 'continue in prayer'? Samuel Chadwick said it, 'A prayer life is a life that prays.' And in order for God's Presence to be upon us and near us, there will be a prayer life that is pleasing to Him. But remove prayer from the body, from the altars, from the secret closets, then God is removed. And once God is removed, withdrawn, then we start on the path of our candles being removed.
And of all these signs and wonders that God, Who has highly favored us, should ever depart from Him; we have not understood these things. We permit, allow, excuse them in our daily activity, homes, churches, and in our own hearts. We are rapidly approaching the point of no return, we see our candle light ebbing dimmer and dimmer. And sometimes it is not that God comes and removes it, He simply allows for it to extinguish itself. And soon someone looks around and says, 'what happened to those people at that church?' they once was full; they were sharing; they were caring; God was there. but now they are gone. As Vance Havner said, 'the 4 worst words of the English language, 'what might have been'. And when all these signs and wonders come together over a period of time, this become the death epitaph of the church.
All these signs from remedial judgements, to a departure from spiritual disciplines will permit and allow for the churches candlestick to be removed by God, or His allowance of its extinguishing. The fear of such a thing, in our lifetime, on our watch should horrify us. It should alarm us to the place of truly seeking Him and pleading for it not to happen. Where's the cry? Where's the pleading? Where's the warnings? All of which should make us consider, tearless , unbroken people are also signs of candlestick being removed.
What's the remedy to preventing our candlestick from being removed
Your day is filled with fever, sickness, aches & pains. You are constantly restless and weary. You take aspirin, but the days have turned into weeks. Now there is bleeding, other symptoms of something is not right. You finally come to the conclusion 'this isn't normal; somethings not right' You finally go to the doctor, you tell him all your symptoms. the doctor runs tests and tells u you the news, you have major health issues. Corrective measures must be taken fast in order to deal with this and correct the disease. The delay in seeking a remedy has caused the erosion to widen, deepen and leave matters far worse than if they had been dealt with sooner. An abrupt, about face of action is taken to correct the issue. A half hearted, attempt will not suffice; but whole measures must be dealt with.
The signs and symptoms previously mentioned, coupled with the remedial judgements should be enough for a wake up call. Yet, surprisingly the explanation of humanism pervades and adequate fix to our dilemma of avoiding our candlestick from being removed. 'We can fix this'; 'we can correct this'. Have we learned nothing at all?! We can do nothing apart from Christ. Oh, how we need Him; we must have Him. Now turning our eyes off of self and the predicament that we are in, we look to Him. For He has already spoken, 'Unless you repent and do your first works' is a clear command for the remedy is, and what our response should be. so as we gaze upon Him, do we have eyes to see? do we have ears to hear?
The remedy is clearly set in rectify our heart condition. We have become cold, complacent, content, carnal and we have lost the red hot fire of His Presence and purpose. Where once the Word burned within us, now we can go days and weeks without it. Where once the prayer closet was our favorite moment and time, somehow now it no longer appeals to us. Church was once a priority and must for every time the doors were open, but now it is a cold, mausoleum that we care not to occupy or visit. souls heading into hell once caused us great sorrow, grief and much tears, but now we care only of self. Our attitude has gone from empathy to apathy. All of these are symptoms of a diseased heart. And only by recognizing this, confessing, repenting of these unholy actions can the Lord hear us, forgive us and grant us a new heart. Lean on the promise, 'I will give them a new heart and take away the fleshly heart'.
You see it is found in being a cardiologist of the matters of God's work that is at the center of this remedy. With no new heart aflame for Him and His ways, and only juiced up by emotion or Adrenalin we will quickly fall back and our plight will be even worse. No we know that we must have nothing short of a Divine heart transplant that gets back right with Him. 'Without faith it is impossible to please Him' and the souls and the heart of the church is
Started: June 12, 2017
Continued:6/15; 6/16; 6/19; 6/23; 7/4;
Finished:
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