MERRY CHRISTMAS 2007
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I have been pondering many things...
This last Sunday morning, I was panning our congregation from the platform, privileged to be able to sing when I am at home. In every smiling and worshipping face I saw, I knew a broken but grateful heart was fueling praise--from heartwrenching divorces, to rebellious children, to one personal tragedy or loss, to another life-threatening disease, to blinding sorrow, or besetting sin.
It was radically apparent to me, the joy of the Lord is our strength! He is our joy and stability!
He does cause all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Everywhere I go I see young men and women in uniform. I can't accurately describe what I feel. My parents were both veterans, my father a disabled vet--I never had to fight because of their sacrifice. I saw a bumper sticker that said it all,
"If you can read this, thank a teacher; if you can read this in English, thank an American soldier."
I get so tired of listening to the ranting of the evils of America, while those who behead captives on global media and sexually mutilate millions of little girls are defended. It is insanity and national suicide gone to seed. Insane men who butcher in the name of religion are honored! Christians and Jesus, the very base of our society, are seen as enemies. It is hideous!
I have gotten nauseous with the vulgar and unashamed attempts to discredit Jesus, Christianity, and the meaningless criticism of the celebration of Christmas. When I was a child, even unbelievers sang Christian carols and hymns! It would take a fool not to see the bias that abounds unfettered. It appears that feral people given to discernment that is earthly, sensual, and demonic band themselves together to cast off every restraint of the Holy Spirit!
Jesus was hated when He was born and is hated now!
While I was musing over this anti-Christian poison spewing over the airways I felt the Lord gave me Isaiah 31. He began to speak to me about what is happening in the Church and our society, as well as some things about the war in Irag and Afghanistan.
"Woe to them who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!". Isaiah 31:1
The Lord is challenging those in His Church who turn to the world for help and strength, and not to Him. He is confronting our dependence on and control by this present system and is shaking the foundations. He also is rising up against those who hate and oppose Him, both in the Church, and in the world.
"Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, and will not call back disaster, and will not call back His words, but will arise against the house of evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity." Isaiah 31: 2
The Lord has had enough of this foolishness. Infidels, apostates, rebels, liars, and haters of God, common sense, and all decency rule the country--the same spirits hamstring and pollute the Church. There is no shame! Many descrate themselves with no fear. The adulterous facade of religion causes many to stumble and discredit the Lord and His work.
God is going full-tilt boogy in 2008
He is rising up to defend Himself and His Name as only He can. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom--there is very little wisdom in the Church or our nation these days. This basic virtue of life is about to be experientially imprinted upon us again: the rains of the Apostasy and Revival are falling upon us. Judgment and refreshing are holding hands--it is a Holy alliance of love,correction, and End-Time Harvest.
"Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out His Hand, both he who helps will fall, and he who is helped will fall down together.
For thus the Lord has spoken to me: 'As a young lion roars over his prey (when a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him, he will not be afraid of their voice nor be disturbed by their noise), so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.
Like birds flying about, so will the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill. Like birds flying about, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending He will deliver it; Passing over, He will preserve it.' Isa 31: 3-5
Whether it is OPEC, or a Godless political coalition, or a pompous and autocratic ministry seeking its own goals, God is about to remind mankind that we are mere mortal men, whose means and methods are natural and can not stand against Him. Every alliance that opposes Him will crumble mentally, financially, and physically. Remember that King Nebuchanezzer in Daniel 4 was driven into madness for seven years because he did not honor God after he had seen His mighty works--he wrote the following words after his sanity was restored:
"And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me: and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him Who lives forever:
For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His Kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, no one can restrain His Hand or say to Him, 'What have You done?'
At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me. My counselors and nobles resorted to me, I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me.
Now I, Nebuchanezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, all of Whose works are truth,and His ways justice. And all those who walk in pride He is able to abase." Daniel 4: 34-37
I fear America and the rest of the world--even the Moslem world, for I feel the reference to Egypt and Assyria in this text is symbolic of the world system, but also applies to the Moslem hatred of Israel and the West--are about to learn the hard way we can not restrain God's Hand and He is able to abase those who walk in pride. In Him we live and move, and have our being--how self-destructive and defeating to deny the very Source of our being! He is the cohesive bond that holds all things together--small wonder we men act so crazy when we strive with our Maker: we start to come apart at the seams; our flesh inbreeds with demonic darkness from which He wants to save us and protect us.
The best way to describe how I feel about this season is summed up in the old childrens' rhyme,
"All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put humpty together again."
The man-made and God-defiant wall we have built is about to be the stage for God's Wind to dethrone pride. I wonder and tremble in fear as to what the fall off our wall will be. I have had the great cities of this country and of Europe in my heart, especially London and Amsterdam. How much madness and hubris will God allow when He is our only protection from those who would destroy us? It is almost like trying to save someone who is determined to drown!
My own fall off my own wall seems to be increasing in severity and decreasing in time--there is very little peace to be had in opposing God at any level, especially for Christians. Our trust in this world, which oppposes our Lord at every level possible, is being shaken.
There is a deeper sorrow in me than I have ever known--it is beyond human emotion. My personal prayer is that repentance and not destruction will be my portion, and that of my house, for this is a season of separation bar none. I know in "my knower" these times are transient, temporary, and radically changing quickly.
No flesh will stand in His Glory.
For those who would be honest, there is a persistent and gnawing, discomforting fear, like the threshold of hearing or seeing, and straining to discern what is just out of earshot or sight--what we are feeling is the spiritual instinct which animals have naturally. Animals know when there is something unseen and unknown coming.
So many Christians now are plucking at a wound which refuses to heal, an inner resource, a Divine instinct given to us by Father to get out attention while we are asleep and soon to be blinded in Delilah's lap. This system and all that is in it--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life--is a slow poison which produces euphoria and intoxication while it kills the life of God.
So many of us are gluttons at the banquet table of the bonfire of the vanities, in a great hall of Babylon, drunken and overwhelmed with self and sin, while the temple of God is destroyed and our self-serving pleaure dens contain the treasures and vessels from the Holy Place.
We barricade our souls inside the house of cards we presume to be a fortress without realizing our flesh hates God...
....and on the gluttonous walls of our flesh the Hand of God is writing,
"God has numbered your kingdom and finished it; you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; your kingdom has been divided..."
This shaking it to the core and on the floor! There is more to come. If there has ever been a time for Christians to seek God and ask Him to change our hearts, it is now.
"Return to Him against Whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. For in that day evey many shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold--sin which your own hands have made for yourselves." Isaiah 31: 6-7
All the things and systems we have trusted in and drawn comfort and resources from will not supply or succour us--with rebellion against God exposed in 2008, there must be a restoration of return to our Rock and Shield. The Philistines took the captured Ark of the Covenant into the house of their god, Dagon. The Philistines were a seafaring people who drew wealth and power from the ocean--Dagon was a fish god, half-man, half-fish: in essence the Philistines worshipped what made them money. These pagans foolishly believed they had conquered not only the apostate Jews, but had subdued Jehovah as well; they brought the Ark of the Covenant into the presence of their idol, Dagon, which they had made with the works of their own hands.
The first day the Ark was placed in the temple of Dagon, the idol was found face down, knocked off his pedestal by the Presence of God; the second day, God's power had thrown the idol to the threshold of the door of the temple, and Dagon's head and hands were broken off. The fearful Philistines wisely removed the Ark! These delusion and spiritually darkened pagans actually believed what they made with their hands, which symbolized their flourishing commerce and power, was superior to Almighty God. I believe the Philistines entered into a time of financial and nationaly woes after this, for the head and hands--the natural wisdom and ability to produce--were stricken by the God they sought to humble.
Dagon is about to have his head and hands broken off to challenge our delusion. We have brought the Presence of God into the temple of our idols for the last time. 2008 is a year of new beginnings, but for the Glory of God, and for those who will trust in Him.
God is about to lift Himself up.
I also believe the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is going to turn favorably in 2008, despite the best efforts of the press and many in politics to railroad it--what the same elements did to Vietnam, our society, and the Vietnam veterans, will not happen again.
"Then Assyria shall fall by a sword not of man, and a sword not of mankind shall devour him. But he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall become forced labor. He shall cross over to his stronghold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the banner," says the Lord, Whose fire is in Zion and Whose furnace is in Jerusalem.' Isaiah 31: 8-9.
There is more to come in this world than the political manipulations of those who hate America and Israel, both from within and without. Shame is going to cover those who have sought to destroy us from within as traitors.
We are coming into a season in America that those who have served politically and in the judiciary will retire under psuedonyms to places no one knows them for protection's sake; they will not be payed respect or large fees for making ridiculous speeches which rewrite history. The ire of reality is often minimized in the deception of impunity. What goes around eventually comes around.
Globally, the whole Moslem system is one of treachery, misery, butchery, slavery, and brutal oppression and repression--to believe anything else is simply not dealing with facts.
This shaking is to the core, on the floor, and literally at the door. Don't be surprised at earthquakes that will make other disasters look tame!
Discern that change is upon us, and avail yourself by availing to God.
The Lord also showed me He is going to give those who turn to Him some backbone, pluck, and reserve in 2008, in the face of those who hate Him in this nation.
"For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they are impudent and hardhearted. Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Like adamnant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house." Ezekiel 3: 5-9.
God is equipping those who turn to Him to stand against opposition in 2008. I believe we will be undergirded and sustained by His power and sheltered in His wisdom, grace, and love.
Those who stand in their pride, their attempts to discredit Christianity and minimize Jesus, even in the celeberation of His birth, will not stand. Those whose unity and interdependence is fueled by demonic grace, the spirit of antiChrist, and commonly shared hatred and rebellion agaisnt God, will fall. It is like trying to stand and work while chisling away at one's one spinal chord--it can not and will not succeed, ever.
God will not be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he reaps.
Don't forget the place of blessing is the wonderful table the Lord has prepared for us in the presence of our enemies. Jesus is our Sustainer, our High Tower.
He never fails.
Most of all, Happy Birthday, Jesus!
"For unto us a Child is born, unto us, a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord will perform this." Isaiah 9:6-7
Vaughn Allen Clark Psalm 23: 5 Psalm 2
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