2017
Greetings,
"Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God. and it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to posses it." Deuteronomy 28:61 - 63
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" - Hebrews 10:31 Our nation is under severe remedial judgement. We have never seen the like in our life time of what has happened over this past year. Judgement falls over a nation, over regions, over cities, areas, over homes and families and over the individual. God sends and allows judgements for the sole purpose of causing the people to understand why this is happening and that His people would return to Him with all their hearts, minds, souls and bodies. When they fail to return to Him and the sin and evil continues in these respected places, the next round of judgements are more severe and fearful. It is always the mandate of the church to understand that we are able to stop these; we, as His people, fulfill our responsibility and right response before Him with humbleness, sorrow over sin and clean hands and hearts.
The chapter of Deuteronomy 28, is the great chapter of blessings and cursing. Long has it been the guide for understanding what God is doing and why He is doing it. The message is very clear and, as is always the case, consistent with the nature of God and responses of God. When God's people serve Him, fear Him, obey Him and love Him there is blessings from the Lord upon the land, upon the people, upon the families and He is glorified. When His people reject Him, disobey Him, sin against Him and do not take heed, the curses of the Lord follow this sinful response of man. Now this is consistent with the old testament people of Israel, the covenant people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and it is consistent with His church today of Jew and Gentile and of any other nation. God has declared to all the world what is acceptable and what is not. And when evil raises its head to defy the Lord God, judgement will follow.
The only difference in this, is that God's people should know better and be doing better. but I have not found that the case among the church, or within my own heart. 'To him that knoweth to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.' Yea, and to the Father God, who is Holy, it is offensive, provoking sin as well. and when, by His Holy Spirit, God convicts us of this evil and we do not repent nor humble ourselves, He meets us in judgement and wrath. And knowing the consistency from Deuteronomy 28 til now, God is the same, yesterday, today and forever in His response of blessings and cursings. It is not God that has brought these remedial judgements upon us, it is our sinful response day in and day out.
These remedial judgements, just looking since 2000 til 2017, we have seen detrimental to the heightening of death, destruction and doom. Always, have we been given the opportunity to seek Him and turn to Him, as His people, as the church; yet we have not done so properly, but as the Scripture says, 'you have only slightly turned to Me.' If we would see a different 2018 than what we have seen in 2017, there must be a earnest, fervent, urgent response to God to repent and restore our relationship with Him.In the past years activity of remedial judgment it is very clear that time is running out for our nation. And this is solely, upon the church and their failure to respond rightly. let me explain why I hold the church and myself more responsible:
What have we done:
1. As a nation: laws and judicial edicts have been set forth directly in contrast and conflict with what God has said is right and good in His sight. We have legalized abortion; we have legalized homosexuality into marriages; the transgender issue continues to push forward; adultery and divorce have destroyed the holiness of matrimony, in the church and in society; Marriage and home are all but becoming extinct in our society. Drugs and alcohol have continued to increase in our society as acceptable, even though we know that death, health and abuse are the direct responses of addicts, users and permitted individuals. Now they seek to legalize drugs usage, as they did alcohol for the profits and hopes of regulated it. Sundays and church are now at an all time low of holy and reverence for the day of rest and worship. Money, sports and entertainment now rule and reign for Sundays and for the church.
2. As the church: the church has become very much that which is cursed in Revelation 2 - 3; we have become luke warm; we have lost our first love; we are largely, in percentages prayerless as a corporate body; ignorant of the Word of God and the God of the Word; and very much silent in telling the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world and lost souls. We have set a priority of temporal over eternal; carnal over spiritual; and self over the Savior. Our priorities are skewed. Holiness has been replaced with humanism and happiness. And when the calls from God's mercy have come to 'return unto me, and I will return unto you' have all but been rejected and gone unheeded.
What God has done in way of remedial judgements:
these judgements come in what I define as 7 areas:
1. Natural - we see that the physical, natural world is of God's creation and He is able to use it to plague His people and nations. This comes through multiple means and different levels of severity from mild to catastrophe. The wave of this natural disasters affects our response. WE become, very humanistic, in our approach to 'we can get over this'; 'we can get through this'. And we believe that we don't need God any more. Yet the cause of natural remedial judgements is to provoke us to humble ourselves. Our natural disasters harden us, like Pharaoh, away from God. floods, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. are the means of these natural disasters that affect nations, regions, and areas of personal and public lives.
2. Plagues - disease was often sent in the Bible by God to bring judgement; severity of disease is major in understanding what God is doing. For as we saw in Egypt, the last plague, the deepest wound, was the plague of death against all firstborn in Egypt that did not have blood upon the door lintel. We see in Deuteronomy that the Lord sends plagues of disease in many ways. Life time ailments, crippling sickness, seemingly unknown plagues. I mention the Zika virus here, that we knew nothing of this disease except the fear of it over the last several years. Now the children that contradicted that disease are growing up with multiple physical affects. Lyme disease, cancer, diabetes, heart issues, etc. have been and continue to be a plague on our society.
3. Mental Illness & Demonic - there is a very thin line in the definition of these two plagues upon individuals and society; One cannot accept the one, and dismiss the other. and I often have feared that too many in the church, dismiss demonic activity and claim that everything is simply mental illness. When in very fact that demonic activity is still very real and active in our day, just as we read in the Gospels. The other extreme from the church may be that everything is demonic when blood, body counts are irregular and can be corrected with proper diet and medicine that causes moments of mental illness.
4. Political - God gives us what we deserve or God works in the government, despite what we deserve out of His mercy.
What is the Response Needed
1. Discernment of the known sin
It has been the unfortunate task, that I have had to have with church and prayer leaders this year over these remedial judgements. For while the judgements were falling and before they fell, they were warned of the coming judgement. A fore warning of judgement is given to solicit a right response. It is sorrowful for warning given, and 'they did not take heed.' Discernment is a gift from God through the power of His Holy Spirit that quickens the mind, opens the eyes and ears and touches the heart. Reading and studying the Word of God is key to this illumination of God's wrath against a people/persons sins. For they study to show themselves approved unto God and He allows for them to see His immutable nature and attributes; 'He is the God that changes not'.
2. Sorrow over sin
Upon recognizing where we are and how we got here through this discernment, there is great sorrow of how far and badly we have fallen and failed. Great greif and anguish over
3. Contrition and Brokenness
4. Confession and Repentance
5. Renewing of the Covenant
Started: December 18, 2017
Continued: 12/21;
Finished:
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