Right Now
One way that God speaks to me is with impressions that I cannot always define with words. He gives me the definition in my spirit...I can feel exactly what the thing 'is', but can't always define it with words at the time I experience it. This has been one of those times, as well.
Several years ago I spoke with regularity that delusion abounds and that the stage was being set. It was met with the attitudes of the day, which included mocking and boredom that bordered on dismissal.
Over this past winter, the Lord began to speak a message to my spirit again. It's like I could see and feel myself literally backing into a place and hunkering down. It was not necessarily a cave that I saw, but it was an enclosed place and there was only one way in...it was small and I was a bit hunched over and backing in...in a bowed over position. I was to back in as far and tight as I possibly could, with the impression of closing myself into this place. I said, "Lord, what does this mean?"...contemplating this for quite some time. In addition to this, I feel like something has changed in the spiritual atmosphere...what was open now feels flat and closed.
Ezekiel 22:26-30 says...
Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things. They have made no distinction between the sacred and the secular, neither have they taught people the difference between the unclean and the clean and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves rending and devouring the prey, shedding blood and destroying lives to get dishonest gain.
And her prophets have daubed them over with whitewash, seeing false visions and divining lies to them, saying thus says the Lord -- when the Lord has not spoken.
The people of the land have used oppression and extortion and have committed robbery; yes, they have oppressed the stranger and temporary resident wrongfully.
And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none...Amplified Bible.
How many times have you heard in messages, speeches and the like, "It's time!"? "It's time for this...it's time for change...it's time for...", etc. Well, we are past that place...we are past "it's time"...we are so past it. To say that it's time that we do such and such is to speak in terms of 'we need to get busy doing this or that'. Generally , when people hear this phrase, as we do every 4 years at election time...as we do in emotionally charged sermons...the words heard are processed, even agreed with, but that's about as far as it goes. People go about their pursuits and lives remain unchanged.
Specifically over the last several years, we had opportunity to repent as a nation. On the same day, at the same service, the physical and spiritual leaders of our nation compromised the Gospel of Christ, afraid to offend. Instead of falling on our faces in humility and repentance, people got even more into spiritual mysticism and titillating experiences, chasing after bright shooting stars who turned the word revival into a circus. There have been conferences...intercession tours...so called prophetic words and books...people quoting 2 Chronicles 7:14...and instead of building a foundation of true repentance against the rising tide of sin, these attempts to stand in the gap are as a levy with water starting to flow in at numerous spots...and shoring up one spot, all the while the erosion from other breaches is so serious that it is beyond repair.
The Amplified bible version of 2 Chronicles 7:14 says...If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves...pray...seek...crave...AND...require of necessity My face AND turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. That has not been done...whitewash is liberally applied by false prophets and ministers who continue to fleece the flock and we have come to a point where the world and the church have melded together. Sin is out of control in this world and within the church.
With these strong words, I am telling you now...you had better know where you stand...you need to know in Whom and in What is your foundation. What the Lord showed me in my spirit was not one of backing into a place and hiding...the impression was that of Psalm 91...he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty. It's not time, as in we need to get busy doing a thing...it's right now...decide right now...know, right now...and walk it out...
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand].
I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust!
For [then] He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
[Then] He will cover you with His pinions and under His wings shall you trust and find refuge. His truth and His faithfulness are a shield and a buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror of the night, nor of the arrow (the evil plots and slanders of the wicked) that flies by day.
Nor of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor of the destruction and sudden death that surprise and lay waste at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you.
Only a spectator shall you be [yourself inaccessible in the secret place of the Most High] as you witness the reward of the wicked.
Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place,
There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent.
For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].
They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot.
Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he knows and understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love and kindness - trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no never].
He shall call upon Me and I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will satisfy him and show him My salvation....Psalm 91, Amplified Bible.
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7/2009