Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of their evil doings. And you shall say to them, thus says the Lord, if you will walk in My law which I have set before you to heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them but you have not heeded, ( Jeremiah 26:3-5). ( The words of Jesus, the Word of God, being also a Prophet.)
Gather yourselves together, yes gather together, O shameless nation, before the decree is issued or the day passes like chaff, before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you!
Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice, seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.
The great day of the Lord is near; it is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; there the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation, and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers, ( Zephaniah 1:14-16, 2:1-3).
The “day of the Lord” came to Zephaniah’s generation. It was a dark time for Israel. Darkness ruled their land. Somehow we tend to apply the Day of the Lord to the end of time and the final judgment of mankind…. However, there have been many “Days of the Lord” throughout time as in the Flood. When the Lord’s judgments are made manifest, it is a hard time for mankind… However, it is also a great opportunity for man to turn and know their God. By the way doesn’t A.D. mean the year of the Lord?
God does tear down what is unholy before His eyes, however, God loves to restore and renew…. As He promised destruction through the prophet, He also promised restoration through the coming Messiah…. Jesus Christ came to restore us to God, but that does not stop the correction or judgments of God in our lives….The final judgment of condemnation to the lake of fire, we are freed of in our belief in Christ Jesus. He is faithful to righteousness and destroying in us what is not righteous. As He builds His house with in us pleasing within His sight. As it is written by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17,
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
As written the “day of the Lord “or the reckoning with their God happened to that generation. They were held in oppression until they were taken away from their land and held as captives in a foreign land…. They had fallen far from their promised land and their covenant with God.
Even though time has still remained, that generation and numerous ones to follow had to live in captivity without their rights to worship the One True Living God. Now, we all know history and there have been and are terrible things happening upon this earth for over the past two thousand years…….Is it the Lord’s day or not?
Jesus Christ took the anger and the lack of righteousness in men for all men on Him. The day He died on the cross, He took all the iniquity and sin from men from the beginning of time until the end. However, the wrath of God is still available for those who do not turn and believe in Jesus Christ and get clothed in His Spirit….
The Lord is righteous in her midst, He will do not unrighteousness . Every morning He brings His justice to light, He never fails, but the unjust know no shame, ( Zephaniah 3:5).
His mercies and judgments are upon the earth daily….. We study His creation and know there is God, if we are wise….. He gives us our breath, let alone all of His provision through out our lives here…. Yet, He gave us time to spend time with Him, do we? He gave us ears to hear and eyes to see, do we seek Him out?…… Let us be found knowing Him as He is ever searching us by His Spirit. He is in our midst, so let us be diligent to live before Him as our Audience of One.
He makes Himself known by His works, His Word and His signs and wonders, and His servants….. He has not hidden Himself…… There is great wisdom in living by the knowledge and fear of the Lord. Respecting His Love and sacrifice of His Son as the writer of Hebrews warns us in chapter 6:4-8, For it is impossible for those who were enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
Strong word for the believers….
God’s plans are known by His spoken word as written in Isaiah 55:10-11: For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
So if the word is sent out by the Lord and it will be fulfilled, then why is there so much disobedience in the heart of His people? Why do we stray so easily away from the love of the Lord to be satisfied with the world’s dainties as fleeting as they are? Why are people still lead to do what is right in their own eyes, as if we had any capacity to judge righteously? Is it the lack of the presence of His Spirit- who always bring with Him, the fear of the Lord?
Why does the human heart reason that we can have both Christ and the world? Even when the Lord says not. A heart will still only worship one thing….It is up to us, to instill discipline to honor our God as our only ONE desire…..or we live for our own desire…… Hmmmmm……
Relationship, relationship, relationship leads to a strong cord of commitment……. God is faithful to us, however, we live in a generation where it is okay to be here today and be gone on something else tomorrow. God is changeless and ever waits for our companionship…… Our relationship with Him is His priority.
God is a perfect Father and wants His children gathered around Him to love Him…. As we love Him, we honor Him and obey Him as well as the laws of His household…..We give Him preeminence. As we behold Him, we are changed into His likeness from glory to glory…. He always rewards those that seek Him, always! He is a Great Heavenly Father, who so love us!
He has not kept silent and His words have been made known. America has no excuse……This country was founded on the word of God. If it weren’t for God, this country would not be America…. The people came to this land to seek religious liberty….. If they weren’t leaning on Him for the making of this country….. we would not be here as this country would not be America.
What happens to the word of God when we hear Him? For it is written in Hebrews 4:12, For the word of God is living and sharper than a two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart.
So when His word goes out and accomplishes what it is sent to do, why would there not be 100 % return of fruit for God from our lives?
The writer of Hebrews again warns us to be aware of the goodness of God and He is not to be taken lightly or should we neglect Him….. Hebrews 2:1-4, Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?
Let us study the word and have more of an understanding of our own weak hearts. We always go after what we desire….. So if we do not desire the relationship with the Lord, He knows… However, that does not stop Him from loving us….. He is God. We are to love Him with everything we have.
There is little difference in the expectation of our children. We do not expect maturity in a first grader compared to a a senior in high school… Same with our heavenly Father…..So let us come to Him, young or old, as His children. Let us learn from His word. Let us be humble in hearts so we may grow in understanding as the Holy Spirit will illuminate each of our hearts
We want to get close to You, O Heavenly Father. Bring the fire of Your Spirit within to awaken us to Your eternal life and Truth…. Come Spirit of grace, teach us learn and discern what is dark within our own hearts. We may then confirm it has died on the cross with our King so we may continue to grow in our Savior’s image. We want to be a sweet smelling fragrance of our Lord’s house… In Jesus’ name, we ask.
but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end, ( Hebrews 4:6).
Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good. And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you- the sure mercies of David, ( Isaiah 55:1-3).
Therefore as the Holy Spirit says:
Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, they always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways, so I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, ( Hebrews 4:7-13).
Jesus thoroughly explains what happens when His Word is shed abroad in us in Luke 8. There are five sets of hearts, ( actually six, the ones that do not come to even try to hear Him!), that are in front of Him as He speaks…… He already knows who will believe Him. He knows who will do His will and who will fall away from Him because of His word. But He is faithful to present His word to all.
Jesus taught the great multitude that gathered to Him in Luke 8:5-8, A sower went out to sow His seed. And He sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.
Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.
But other fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold. When He had said these things He cried, He who has ears to hear let him hear!
In chapter 4 of Mark, verse 20, the Lord separates the good ground into three dimensions: But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit; some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.
The Lord explains each heart and the degree of hardness that makes the word of God fail in the human heart:
In verses 9-15, and 18, then His disciples asked Him, saying, What does this parable mean? And He said, To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest given in parables, that – seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God, those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for awhile and in time of temptation fall away.
Now the ones that are among thorns are those when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
But the ones that fell on good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has to him more will be given;and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.
Yes, the Lord’ s day is terribly awesome and we do not know when His approaching in judgments. A better way to understand is, the Lord is present and in our midst, but we do not know when the hand of the Lord’s will be moving. But the truth remains, He is coming to return in all of His splendor, but He is with us now! Shall we be wise or be as fools in the fear of the Lord?
If we believe, all things are possible within our lives….. All things are possible, even the gift of a new heart making us born from heaven….. and are now children of the living God.
As we believe in Christ Jesus and turn from our wicked ways, He is faithful to give us a new heart that if after Him- His word and commands……Then we have to be His disciple to go the distance and renew our ways and thoughts to His……and be a good ground for His fruit to grow.
Holy Spirit, please reveal our hearts to us. Give the grace and courage to live in Your Truth. As we see the ways that are not righteous within, we humbly bow before You to make way for Your grace to take over and remake us into our Lord’s image…. A perfect heart of obedience is what we need to do the hard things in following the word of God. We want our Lord to take over our heart! Please do not leave us alone until all defilement in our thinking and our heart and ways are dead and burned by Your Holy Fire…. For we are on holy ground, You are in our midst, lest we forget.
When we hear the word of the Spirit speaking to us every day, we must be sure we still maintain a soft heart or soft ground for the seed, the word, of God to take root and grow and mature….. We have to cultivate our soul in His continued presence and to increase faith to a fuller stature in Him. God always want to increase Himself in us…. we must allow Him.
All things are possible to those that believe in God….God is always gracious to us because of the blood of Jesus Christ to wash us clean and make us His children at any time. He is gracious to set our course in Him with fire by His Spirit within.
There is no length that He will not undertake to welcome us with open arms…. The problem is not with Him, never has been…. It is with man. We have this stupid strong carnal issue—– pride. It will keep the Door shut on salvation received in any one’s heart. Pride is evil to the core and is the killer of man’s soul for through all time.
Pride will also keep people in spiritual prison through their lives as well as through their eternity….The owner’s of pride will be kept from the presence of the Holy One not just for life but for eternity, but they will remain in the company of their oppressor for all eternity- Satan or Lucifer- the dragon……
Heavenly Father, we ask and thank You the word of Christ dwells in us richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, (Colossians 3:16, paraphrase for prayer).
For this reason, we thank God without ceasing, because when we received the word of God which we heard from others, we welcomed it not as the word of men but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectively works in us who believe, ( 1 Thessalonians 2:13, paraphrase for prayer).
We know, Heavenly Father, You know what is in our hearts. Yet, You still love us with Your great love. In Your love, we can fall down in humility and ask for our hearts to be good ground for Your Son. We thank You for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. For You are there in our future as well as have been with us in our past, as You are in our midst today. So where You, we live in You! Only You could do this great sacrifice of giving us Your Son, so we may dwell with You forever. Set our hearts on fire for the reality of knowledge of Your great love that we have in Jesus Christ, by the presence of Your Holy Spirit.
Please keep us close to You in Your power…. We are weak, but Your power is made perfect in our weakness. So we glory in You because of Your great love for us. May we join with Your Spirit in alignment to make our hearts fit for our King. You lift us up because we can not. You are our Peace, we have none without You. You are our Light for with out You, we are in darkness and fear. You are there as Friend when we are alone. You are Protector when we are in the battle. You are our Warrior when we try to stand with knees shaking above all coming against us. Your Love engulfs us when we cannot see why in the hardships but we settle in Your great love and trust in You alone.
You are the Greatest God and IAM is all we need….. We need a lot, Father, and You have met all we need… You are our Sufficiency and our Rest. You are our Wit, Wisdom, Understanding and Might, as we are not in our selves. You are all we need…. You are our Guide as we cannot lead ourselves. You are our health and life if ours has diminished. You are our Life and Resurrection for we are dead in ourselves.
You ARE THE GREAT I AM! We love You and praise You!
May we bless Your name forever and ever! Amen and Amen!
Keep the list going of all the needs the Lord is to you as the Great IAM!
Join this nation of believers this Sunday, the 28th of June, to call2fall….. Please set aside this day to prayer and fasting for the strengthening of His people so this nation may turn to honor our God and His King, Jesus Christ….( P.S. Fasting is not to get God to move, but enhances our ability to hear and draw nigh to Him. Let Him know we mean business.)
Come Holy Spirit, Your Consuming Presence sets our hearts in fire!
Selah!
