Greetings,
The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high tower." Zephaniah 1:14 - 16
J. Edwin Orr said of revival, "The day/time of revival is just like judgement day." Meaning that when God shows up in His fullness upon His people, God cleans house. God makes that day a day of reckoning and recompense for His people to get right, right now. And all the horrors and shame of sins confessed and not confessed, sins remembered and not remembered are brought to light. And all the wrongs are made right when that day comes.
For a long time, I have wondered how that day would come. Would it come through God meeting His people that have sought and longed, in travailing spirit and HE meet them? Or would it come in the worst calamities of our judgement? I remember this because of the African man that shared with church leaders a few years ago, when he said, "in our country, the Christian church did not pray and seek the Lord out of desperation; but when calamity came and we was driven into the marshes, all night you would hear the scream, cries of the people hiding. Crying out to God, 'to help and hear us.' You see we did not pray out of desperation, but we did pray in times of desperation. And if the American church does not learn this lesson and pray out of desperation now, you will pray in desperation."
Long has this been on my mind, when does revival come? Revival before judgement, during judgement or after judgement? Our nation has been blessed with more than any other nation. And where there is much given, there is much required. And what we have done with what we have been given in some scales is good, but the greater balance is that of evil. So it is not a question 'if' we are going to be judged or face judgements. Yea, we are already under remedial judgements of God for our great sin. The only question left is 'how severe will this judgement be?' Will it be annihilation? or will we respond rightly and receive God's mercy? continuing on this same response and pattern, we are steam rolling to God 'removing us from the earth'.
Now the same belief I have of judgement I also have of revival. It is not a question of whether there will be another world wide, great revival or not. God in His Sovereign ways of grace and mercy, will usher forth one more great movement of revival upon His church to finish the task of reaching all people with the invitation of the Gospel. And out of this great numbers will be ushered into the kingdom as children of God. The prayer movement which has continued faithfully through the remnant is one of my firmest convictions that God is going to usher forth another great revivla. Why would God burden and raise up this remnant to cry out to Him day and night? why would they give their lives to seek for that which they have never seen or experienced before? Because God has birthed within them this desire; for the purpose of bringing it to pass.
One of my word/phrase studies that I did in reading through the Bible was the word study of 'day', and the phrase study of 'day and night, D&N'. In verse 14 we are told of the day, 'The great day of the Lord. . . ' All days of time are the Lord's. Yet, in this verse as in other verses, that reference is there is a 'great day'. Judgement and revival are "great days" in the Lord. For in these days, His justice and judgement is meeted out to the whole in a 'suddenly' fashion. No other days are like those days. It is filled with extreme opposites of experience; filled with great joy, yet filled with great fear.
Let us look at the references in verses 14 - 16;
1. V. 14, "The great day of the Lord. . . the day of the Lord"
2. V. 15, "That day"; 'A Day of Wrath"; "A Day of Trouble & Distress"; "A Day of Wasteness and Desolation"; "A Day of Darkness and Gloominess"; "A Day of Clouds and Thick Darkness"
3. V. 16, "A Day of the Trumpet and Alarm"
The Day of the Lord is when God comes to fulfill and do His divine will. Now God's way and will are right, no matter what it is. 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Yes, He will. Now whether that will is blessings or cursing; mercy or wrath; judgement or revival -- It is right! God does not make mistakes. He does not judge impartially or make an error. And it is necessary to understand that as time unfolds to the developments that God has orchestrated, allowed and willed, it will be for His glory and because it is right. Let us understand that the day of the Lord is the culmination and the finishing of a time period, of a purpose of history.
We see in the Bible numerous moments that God speaks and prophesies about that reveals these time periods of history. such phrases or statements, 'And it came to pass'; 'at the end of'; 'fulfilled' that all depict a time period beginning, happening or ending. And at the end of each of these moments, the day of the Lord comes upon them. sometimes for blessings, as we see Israel brought out of Egypt; Israel allowed into the promised land; time periods of the saints and the day of Pentecost. Sometimes for cursings, as we see in Babylon being destroyed; Judah and Israel carried off and destroyed. That which God had said would happen, did happen and it was the day of the Lord.
Now these 'days of the Lord' are described with horrifying descriptions:
v. 14, 'the voice of the day of the Lord the mighty man shall cry there bitterly'
v. 15 'day of wrath. . . trouble & distress. . . .wasteness & desolation. . . darkness & gloominess. . . . clouds & thick darkness'
v. 16 'a day of trumpet & alarm'
This is a day of great death and defeat. The enemy has come and God has allowed and given them place to destroy and judge His people for their great sins. This is the day of the Lord in judgement. But the day of the Lord for revival takes on the same descriptions. Although it may not be death and destruction of physical, it is lives that are turned upside down, and inside out for His glory. Great upheaval of the normal way of life for the glory of the Lord. But when God is dealing with a people, there is great lamentation, great sorrow, great anguish on the day of the Lord as sins are purged and the travailing of the souls ushers in new creatures in Christ.
Why judgement or revival?
the day of the Lord that ushers in one of the other of these two major events is because of where God's people are at in relationship to Him. The nations, the people, and God's Own church has forsaken and forgotten Him. They have fallen into great sin, abominations and evil. And God in His purposes and ways, must do a great work in response to their great evil to bring forth grace and/or wrath. IT is not the small matter, insignificant events on this day of the Lord. But it is a great moment in time that changes history,either for the good or for the worst.
God can 'in wrath remember mercy' and bring forth fruits of revival and 'godly sorrow unto repentance'. God can also bring forth that awful verses, 'I will remove you from the earth'; 'till there was no remedy.' But the act of God, which is heralded as 'the day of the Lord' is directly due to the peoples sins and gross evil against Him and His ways.
As the people have forgotten God, turned more toward evil, God has in grace and mercy and long-suffering, sent trials and afflictions to cause them to turn back to Him. We call this remedial judgements. Remedial judgements are sent upon a nation, a people, a family, the church, for correction of their sins against the Lord. If they turn and repent and restore their relationship to God's ways, the remedial judgements cease. IF they refuse and continue and grow worse and worse, then God intensifies the judgements 7X (seven-fold). Now you would think that men would learn and turn before its too late. However, history has shown time and again that men do not learn and turn and 'the day of the Lord has come with great vengeance and wrath.
We read during these times of the day of the Lord of great wrath that they came 'suddenly'. 'This night thy soul shall be required of thee' God warned the king of Babylon. 'And in one day, they was overthrown. . . ' because they did not heed the word of the Lord nor the ways of the Lord.
but just as much during the great outpourings of revival, they came at the heighten increase of evil and God instead of severe wrath, brought forth great revival. such a contrast, and yet all for the purpose of God. Men had turned away from Him, great sin was practiced openly and hidden, great forsaken of God's house, morals were gone, evils abounded and God was angry. Yet, instead of wrath, God remembered mercy and moved individuals, the remnant to seek Him for the day of the Lord in a great outpouring of His Holy Spirit.
Where are we at?
Is the day of the Lord revival? or great wrath?
We are under judgement right now; but not 'great judgement'. The escalation in judgement is severe. Measuring by the lat 18 years, or just to view what has happened and what is going on in this century thus far, is incredible to see how the hand of God has gone out against us. things that never would have been imagined years ago, are now unfolding on us. Headlines and happenings that are 'historic' and 'record setting' are every week now. The great alarm of Ichabod on our streets, homes and future is happening. but what? even now.
But revival is God's sovereign work. God's ways are not our ways; and His thoughts are not our thoughts. So we are in a place of 'waiting upon God' to see which shall be for our future. Yea, we are at a "Y" in the road. Go to the left and severe, cataclysmic judgement; great judgement. but vere to the right and God is ready to pour out His Spirit upon us. but we are at that point now, one or the other. Ready for both, expecting either. but not void of understanding of the times we are living in. Not ignorant of God's nature and will, but accepting of it. 'Thy will be done Lord'.
Now we are not promised revival because we deserve it. But we are promised judgement, because we deserve it. Our nation has legalized, passed judicial edicts that are as evil and an abomination in His sight that any nation or kingdom has ever done. And we continue to deepen the plight of our nation toward wickedness rather than godliness. The church has not helped in this much either. For the church, who should know better, has not done better.
The accounts in the Bible that brought great judgement upon a people, rather than revival or mercy.
Genesis 6 - God saw the wickedness of men that 'it was continual';
Genesis 18 - 19 - God saw and knew the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed them; annhilated them;
Joshua - God destroyed the "-ites" of the promised land for they had defiled, polluted and abhorred the Lord God and worshipped wicked idols and gods; And God destroyed them from before Him;
II Kings 17 - God destroys and removes the children of ISrael for their great folly and wickedness;
II Chronicles 36 - "till there was no remedy"; God removes Judah from the land and destroys Jerusalem; Sending the children of Judah into captivity at Babylon for 70 years;
Luke 19 - Christ weeps over Jerusalem for their great sin of rejecting Him; God foretold that the city and people would be destroyed and they was in 70 AD;
Revelation - the last of the 7 judgements; 7 seals; 7 trumpets; and 7 vials all leading to 'the great day of the Lord";
Now knowing these truths of God's nature and characteristic, we must think of where we are in His sight. Is it wrath or mercy? If God in His sovereign will would say, 'destroy them' and remove them from the earth'; we know we deserve this. Yet, in seeking Him for favor and mercy, HE may grant an outpouring of His Divine Manifest Presence. Deserving of nothing, yet receiving from Him the blessedness of it.
Started: October 29, 2018
Continued: 10/30;10/31;11/1;
Finished:
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