Omega Message – April 2004
Burt Asbill
(Message given at the November 2003 Sonlight Gospel Nebraska Convention)
Father, the scripture says that unless the Father draws us, we cannot come nigh unto You. Father, we are in desperate need of coming nigh unto You. And so, Father, we would ask for the drawing and the anointing of God, that draws men’s hearts. Hallelujah! Father, we ask for the moving and the hovering and the covering of the Spirit of god, to draw our hearts this morning. To draw us into that place, Father, that we would desire Thee, and that the priority of our life would be the aspect of knowing You, in the way that You want to reveal Yourself to us. But, God, it takes dedication, it takes consecration, it takes determination! It takes the desire, My God, above every other desire! It takes a preeminence of our lives! Hallelujah! The fact of wanting to know You.
Father, we desire for You to impart and impregnate within our souls this morning, that desire, my God! Oh god, that You would work within the fabric of our flesh. Hallelujah! An intensity! Hallelujah! A fanaticism, my God! That we might be able to cast ourselves before You. Hallelujah! That we might cry out of the very depth of our humanity, my God! Oh God, that You might reveal Yourself unto us. Reveal Your presence, Lord. Reveal it unto us, today. We pray in Jesus’ name…..
I had a very troubled night last night, a very troubled night. And I am kind of going into a new thing and I don’t know what quite to make of it, and it is a little scary. It is a little scary for me personally, individually. But anyway I am going to share with you that which is one of the experiences that I had last night.
I was awakened about 1:15 last night by a dream. But in the midst of praying about the dream and seeking the face of God—I don’t know, I don’t think I woke anybody. I tried to be very quiet. But I had this experience and I was lifted up in the Spirit, and I found myself in an office. It was like a corporate office and I knew that it was a heavenly office, because I was standing behind this person sitting in a chair, and I knew that the person in the chair was the Lord. And I was kind of standing back out behind Him and to the right a little bit, and looking over, as it were, His right shoulder. He had an appointment and He was there specifically for that appointment, and that appointment wasn’t me.
Now, as He was sitting there, all of a sudden there was there this entity that I have come to know as Satan. I have had several experiences, two in particular, in which Satan has appeared in the same manner and in the same fashion. Maybe that is just the way the Lord wants to reveal him to me, but he is always very much an executive type of person, dressed in a very expensive clothes. He is very suave, very debonair, and very self-assured. Except for, in this location last night, as I was viewing him, he did not have that arrogance of the self-made person. Do you understand what I mean? I do not know if you have ever met anybody who had a lot of money, and they feel like their money makes them “God,” and they are with that air of superiority about them that makes you feel that you are “a little less than dirt.” Well, that is kind of the way Satan’s air or demeanor comes off when I have met him before, but this time he was not like that. It must have been because he was confronting the Righteous One. Hallelujah!
So he found himself in a chair there before the desk, and it was very funny. The Lord was looking right at him and He didn’t take his eyes off of him, and Satan was very uneasy. He didn’t sit in the chair like I thought he would sit in the chair, but he was kind of slouched down and off to one side a little bit, and he was looking everywhere, except at the Lord. There was on time when his eyes flicked over and they came across me, and I could see the hatred and the disdain that he had for me personally; but I think that he has that for anyone that loves Jesus. I don’t think it was anything special with regards to the situation or the circumstance.
The Lord asked him, “Where hast thou been?” And Satan said, “To and fro… throughout the whole earth.” And the Lord said, “Have you seen my servants? Have you seen My people that are gathering themselves together to worship Me?” And Satan said, “Oh yes, I have seen them! I have seen them!” And he looked with kind of a sneer. He didn’t look at the Lord. It was like where you have somebody who is proud and arrogant and they don’t think much of something else, and so they get this sneer and this look of disdain. And he said, “They are easily diverted, and subverted!” The Lord paused a moment and He said, “Go do what you must!” And then he was gone. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
There is the necessity that we be aware of the position, the place that we are in with the Lord. We have to be aware that it is His presence to which we have gathered ourselves unto, and also we need the awareness of the entity of Satan that is working contrary to that intention, contrary to that thought, contrary to that will with regards to God.
You know, we gather together and we can be so social. We can become so social, when we should instead be very spiritual. Now, I don’t mean that we need to be talking religiously, and using religious clichés, and quoting Bible verses back and forth to one another, but there should be some aspect of the business of God that lays heavy upon our heart. There should be some aspect of the character or the desire that is in God that lays heavy upon us. Some of us today need God so desperately! We need God so desperately! We need God so desperately! Hallelujah!
I was making the trip here from Illinois to Nebraska, and I was listening to the Psalms on a Bible tape; and it was not the faith-building psalms, but it was a part of the Book of Psalms where David is crying out to God. Where he is crying out to God because of his enemies, that have risen up around him and that are smiting him and that are bringing him in to a place of destruction. And he is asking God to curse his enemies, to smite his enemies, to rise up against the forces of hell that have raised themselves against him to bring to naught the purpose and the will of God for his life! And it was stirring something in my soul!
I go to the Internet to read my news. I want to try to get it from a halfway decent perspective. And there are a couple of places online that I enjoy looking at. One of them is Watch.org and the other is WorldNetDaily.com. They seem to have something of a correct position or a correct perspective as they relate all of these things that are happening out there, in our judicial system, our political arena, and in the church. And as I am reading the news, something within my soul begins to rise up and say, “How long, Oh God, will You allow the iniquity and the degradation of humanity, and hell to provoke and to persecute Your Christians? To persecute Your church? How long will it be, Oh God, before the church rises up?”
I have been made to know by the Spirit this morning that there is an escalation of tribulation that is coming! Do you hear me? Individually! Individually! Individually! Collectively as individual units, collectively as units of fellowships, collectively as church, collectively as the body of Christ! I am made to know that there is an escalation of trouble, and it is not only going to be out there in the world, but it is going to be in the very fabric of our homes! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
There is a story that is coming to me with regards to that event in the Old Testament where they were rebuilding the temple. I believe it is in Nehemiah and Ezra, and with those prophets that were ordained of the Lord to encourage in the building of the tabernacle and the reestablishment of Jerusalem. And it is so apropos to our present day circumstance. Do you understand? You look at the church today, Brethren, and do you not see the gates that are burned? (Neh. 1:3) Don’t you see the walls that have holes in them? Don’t you see that it has become the habitation of all kinds of foul beasts and birds and unclean things? (Rev. 18:2) You think of the people today, how they flaunt their homosexuality. Homosexuals are no longer closet people. They are now militant and in your face: “You accept us or you die!” I have nothing against the people that are homosexuals, except that I want to see them delivered! There is a power within me (us) that has the ability to speak against that spirit of darkness, and yet some of us do not feel the concern. We don’t feel the burden. I don’t understand it! How is it that we can be so indifferent?
How is it that we can be so indifferent to the degradation and to the plight of so many? How is it that we can be so indifferent to the abomination that maketh desolate that standeth yet in the holy place? (Dan. 12:11; Mat. 24:15) We are talking about this holy place (our bodies). We are talking about this holy place (the holy place that is inside of us). Oh, my God! Hallelujah! My God! We are coming into great tribulation, and I am made to know by the Spirit that we are going to have to know God as we have never known Him before!
When I was a new Christian, there was so much wickedness that I had been involved with. There was so much degradation and defilement that I had participated with, that it had become so much a part of me that it was impossible for me not to do the things I was doing. Do you understand? Just because I was Christian was not enough, and I came to God on day and I said,
“Oh God! Oh God! God! God! God! If You can’t do something about this reprobate mind—if you can’t do something about this reprobate being—this soul that is entrenched with sin. This soul that has the nature of sin. This souls that manifests its diabolicalness in the midst of Your presence—if You can’t do something with me, I do not want to live! I cannot live in this condition, in this place, with this type of thing working in my members!” Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
And I am not talking about years ago, but I am talking about now. My humanity rising up to usurp my position, my inheritance in God. That is what my humanity is trying to do with me. Steal from me my inheritance, that is what sin is trying to do; and I have allowed him to do it! I have sat back, sitting back; letting him take this, letting him take that! Until I have almost nothing left.
“How long? How long? How long? How long will I continue to do that?”
He said, “Burt,” and I am coming to God with my lament, my cry! God said,
“It is My desire to do what you want and I desire it more than it seems that you are wanting it, but you have to give Me you soul! You have to lay your soul [upon the altar]!”
“Oh, my God, my God! My desires? My emotions? My emotional attachments? My God. My God. My commitments of responsibility? All my desires in You, God?”
Oh, I want to be in God. Do you understand me? I want to be in the approval of God’s blessing. Hallelujah! I want to hear “Well done!” But I have to lay everything that is of me, in that arena, upon the altar.
Brethren, I do not believe it is going to be like an Isaac sacrifice. (Gen. 22:1-18) Do you hear me? We think that because God spared Isaac, He will spare something of us. No! No! No! NO! That is not the way it is! He says, “Out of ashes……beauty.” (Is. 61:3) And what is left, what is beautiful, about ashes? We have tried to preserve our position of life! We have tried to preserve our position of ministry! It is not mine to preserve. It is “God gives it. God takes it away. Blessed be the name of god. Blessed be the name of God!” (Job 1:21)
I want to read to you out of Hebrews. God has told us the intent of the devil with regard to these meetings. You know what the devil wants you to do, and that is for you to leave here with less than what you came for. And what you came for is dependent upon how you respond to God in the spirit. It is dependent upon how you respond to God in the natural. We like to spiritualize things, don’t we? Maybe you don’t, but I like it. It kind of gives me an easy way out. It gives me a corner to turn. But there is a natural application to all of these things that God is saying. I want to read from Hebrews 12, beginning with Verse 18.
“For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much a s a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus (Yeshua) the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hat promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven (the heavens).”
It says, “I shake not the earth only, but also the heavens.” The Scriptures say that the kingdom of heaven is “within” you. (Luke 17:21) Hallelujah! So if God is going to shake the heavens, which heaven is He going to shake? Hallelujah! Brethren, I wish I could say something other than what I am saying this morning, other than for the fact that “To be forewarned is to be forearmed, and to be forearmed is to be girded up in the Lord.” Hallelujah! So that when the adversary comes to your door—comes into your house, comes into your husband, comes into your wife, comes into your children—and begins to move and to call forth that nature from them—there is something more that you can do about it than just wringing your hands and saying, “Oh, woe is me! I am undone!” There is a need for you and me to begin to grasp hold of the reality of what 1 John 3:2 says,
“Beloved, now are we the sons of god, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that , when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
Hallelujah! “we shall be like Him; for we shall see him as he is.”
Come, turn with me to Revelation 1, where John, the beloved is in his experience of coming face to face with the “Alpha and the Omega.” Chapter 1, and beginning with Verse 12.
“And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks (lampstands); And in the midst of the seven candlesticks (lampstands) one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.“
I believe that “the sound of many waters” is in reality the sound of the many voices that are in the singular voice of the body of Christ. Hallellujah! I believe that this is speaking of a being that has come forth in the midst of the tribulation.
Do you know something? Hallelujah! Glory to God! There is something that we are given in the story of Nebuchadnezzar in the second Chapter of Daniel in the Old Testament with regards to the image that he had seen in a dream.
“Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.”
And as Daniel begins to interpret the dream, we find that this image is indicative of the kingdoms of this world within which the prince (Satan) would be moving to construct and to bring forth the reality of his presence. But in Revelation 1, by virtue of the picture in John’s vision of the real McCoy, we are given revelation as to the thing that was in the heart of God. So the thing that Nebuchadnezzar saw is nothing more than a counterpart of John’s vision of the body of Christ. Daniel received it by vision, and it is a picture of the world power driven by Satan to usurp the position of god. Did Satan not say, “I will exalt my throne above the throne of Most High”? (Is. 14:13-14) Glory to God! And yet, now we are given this example here in Revelation 1. Only this isn’t an image, this isn’t a statue, but this is the living, walking, talking, moving entity that not only is a picture of the living Christ but it is also, I believe a picture of the endtime body of Christ, with Christ as the Head!
Turn with me to Joel, Chapter2.
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion…..”
Can you hear the trumpet being blown? I can actually hear a trumpet! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! We are not so familiar with the trumpet, but in the days of the cavalry, they had a trumpet call for everything. They had a trumpet call for charge. They had a trumpet call for retreat. They had a trumpet call for retreat. They had a trumpet call for regrouping. They had trumpet calls for everything. In the military we woke up with the trumpet! We went to bed with the trumpet! There was a trumpet that sounded an alarm if there was an alarm; and it is no wonder that God says here,
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain….”!
In the book of Revelation, there is mention made seven times about the blowing of the trumpets. There are seven trumpets! (Rev. 8:2,6,) Hallelujah! Hallelujah! It was the seven trumpets that were sounding in the day of Jericho, as they marched around the wall. (Josh. 6:1-4) And they were blowing the trumpet every day, but on the last day were they not commanded to blow all of the trumpets? All of the trumpets were blowing simultaneously, meaning that that day was an accumulation and a totality of fullness of the preceding six days. Is that not right? Would you not say “Amen” to that? Glory to God! Hallelujah! There is a trumpet that is being blown in Zion, and it is sounding “an alarm in my holy mountain…” and I want you to know what the alarm is.
Turn with me to Jeremiah 4. Glory to God! Let me read to you the sound….what the trumpet is saying. Hallelujah! Jeremiah 4, the 14th verse.
“O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness…..”
I could change that if you would give me the permission to do so.
“Wash your heart of your humanity! Wash your heart of your humanness! Wash your heart of your human element!”
It says that it is the “washing of water by the Word” that brings sanctification! (Eph. 5:26) Put your finger here in Jeremiah and turn with me over into John, the 17th chapter, and beginning with Verse 14. Jesus is praying. He said,
“I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
I remember sitting in a meeting in Florida and Brother Gruver was giving his testimony of how he got knocked off the road, and he was hanging up in a tree to dry. Hallelujah! And the Spirit spoke to him and said,
“faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom. 10:17) And you know, God brought this thing back to me, in a moment of time when I was being pressed and I was getting angry and I was feeling very frustrated about my circumstances and my inability to do something that I knew needed to be done; and yet God did not want me to do anything. And I did not have the strength to resist the pressure in my soul, when this thought dropped into my mind:
“Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”
I reached over and I got a cassette. I do not know which book of the Bible it was, but I stuck it into the recorder and turned it on in my truck and turned the volume up; and sat and listened and listened and listened and listened until I felt the peace of God begin to invade my soul! And it broke something! Do you hear me? It broke something! I said, “Yes, Lord! It is on the altar. Burn it! Burn it! Let your fire fall on it! I don’t want one thing left. God, let your fire fall on it.”
Jesus said, “Sanctify them…” There is a sanctification that is being required by God. My God! What do you think we need to be sanctified from? We need to be sanctified not only from the wickedness of diabolical nature of influence, but we need to be sanctified in the aspect of our “flesh.” There is nothing of your flesh that is going into God! Do you hear m1? There is nothing of my flesh that is acceptable in the sight of God. My flesh is a stench in His nostrils. It is a stench! It is a stench! My flesh! It is not acceptable! Hallelujah.
Turn back to Jeremiah 4.
“O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.”
That thou mayest be what? “saved”! Oh my God! Let us go into one more chapter here in Jeremiah. I believe it is Chapter 17, and Verse 5.
“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm….”
You know, there is a spirit in my family that is “independence.” And there is a spirit in my family….(I don’t know about your family but I can talk about mine.) There is a spirit in my family, that is very arrogant and very proud of their ability and strength to be able to pull themselves up, no matter what the situation, by their own strength or by their own bootstraps. Have you ever heard the terminology, “Self-made man”? I am telling you, I have a classical, documented heretical nature that is bona fide stamped! My father had tuberculosis when he was 16 or 17, and he spent eleven years in the sanitarium. Now, I don’t know if any of you know what that is, but when they had tuberculosis, there were no shots, there was no cure. There were just these places of rest and therapy and things where they would send them. And they sent him off to one of these places, basically to “die.” But you know, he fooled everybody, because there he met my mother who was also in the sanitarium because of scarlet fever. Hallelujah. And my dad spent eleven years in the sanitarium.
Now, I am telling you the strength of the nature of the spirit that I have to deal with! The strength of the nature of the spirit. ELEVEN YEARS! And he caught some sort of disease. I do not know what they call it, but it is where there is the rotting of the tissue, inside. You rot inside. It is like gangrene, but they don’t call it gangrene. It gets into the lungs, around the lung cavity…They may have called it pleurisy, I don’t know. No, it is not emphysema. But, anyway, what they had to do was, they cut a big hole in his back. They cut a big hole just to let everything drain out. Now also, I want you to know that when he was twelve he had polio, so he was crippled up in one leg. Do you understand? Physically disabled!
They didn’t have all of the disabled parking then either, by the way. But do you know something? He never considered himself disabled. He lost all of one lung. He lost half of the other lung, so all he had was one half of one lung!
He taught himself ham radio operation. He taught himself how to repair radios. He came out of that sanitarium. We didn’t have TV then, and he came out of the sanitarium with his trade. His mother and his father gave him a little place to work. He fixed radios in the front room, and lived in the back with mom and the family. Self-made man!
You know, he built that one little room shack into a multi-million dollar business! SELF-MADE! SELF-MADE! Arrogant! Do you hear me? It didn’t change him as far as humility is concerned. It made him more arrogant! It made him more proud! Hello? Spirit! Spirit! Spirit! Spirit!
That spirit I inherited! I inherited that spirit, and I have had to deal with that spirit time and time and time again! God, putting me in the crucible of where that spirit wanted to take charge, wanted to rise up, wanted to be angry, wanted to be arrogant, wanted to be able to demonstrate and prove; and yet knowing that I had to submit myself to the process of “humiliation”! In order to be delivered of my propensity to be human! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
And I still….He is not finished yet. He is not finished yet, but I am telling you, I am on the upward side of it! I am on the upward side of it, and I am not making my boast in this flesh. I am making my boast in the aspect of what the Scriptures say, “Hope thou in God….”! (Ps. 42:5,11,) Hallelujah!
So then, if you want a strange combination, you take that which was in my father and mix it up with my mother’s side of spiritual inheritance. (She was easily intimidated.) What a mess! What a mess! One time, “timid and fearful” and the other time, “proud and arrogant.” Boy, what a mess! “Who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord.” (Rom. 7:24-25)
Let us go back to Jeremiah4. It says,
”O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness.”
Do you want deliverance? If you want deliverance it is going to take fasting and prayer; and you may not like the form of the deliverance that God brings into your life! I don’t like any of it! I personally don’t enjoy it! My flesh, my makeup, does not enjoy humiliation! It does not enjoy being stripped of its “covering.” I do not want to be exposed, and yet being exposed is a part of cross bearing. Do you know that the man Jesus (Yeshua) was stripped naked? And He was hung out there in front of everyone! My God! My God! My God!
I have been following the controversy over this movie that this fellow is making called “The Passion of the Christ.” He is touching some sensitive nerves. He is touching something that is really, really, really, really, really in the Lord! Do you hear me? Hallelujah! And I will tell you what, that it is one thing that I am going to see. I have heard reports by every kind of heathen, and some Jews that say that this is the movie that we need to see! Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
”O Jerusalem, wash thyself…”
It was the responsibility of Jerusalem! Brethren, don’t you understand? We have come to the end of one dispensation. Don’t you understand? WHAT HAS WORKED FOR YOU AND ME PREVIOUSLY IS NOT GOING TO WORK FOR US NOW! Not for you and me, who have the awareness or the knowledge that there is yet a better way. Jesus stood on the hill overlooking Jerusalem. Do you remember the cry? I can hear it in the Spirit this morning.
“Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, (JERUSALEM!) which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!” (Lu. 13:34)
And it says that He wept!
“And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” (Lu. 19:41-44)
We weep because we don’t have any money. We weep because our physical flesh is being afflicted. We weep because we are not comfortable, because there is this trouble or that trouble, or because things are not coming in line with our thinking—BUT DO WE WEEP AS CHRIST WEPT OVER THE CHURCH?
Oh my! Oh my! Can you imagine the hardness of the disciples’ hearts? They had lived and had been with this Man, and here He is looking out over Jerusalem and weeping. And they, you know, are so thrilled with the spirit of healing. They are so thrilled with the spirit of casting out devils. (Lu. 10:17) What a feeling of power. It is marvelous. There is nothing like it. But it does not necessarily change the souls of men!
There was a sister that we ministered to recently there in the Czech Republic. I am telling you, we had such a tremendous, marvelous time of the Spirit of God moving. I have never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER been in such a marvelous meeting! It must have been a little segment of what used to be, when they had the Latter Rain movement and the things of that nature going on. I have never been in a deliverance service where God just totally, absolutely, divinely—took charge! And moved against principalities, powers—breaking the power of ruling spirits! There is a ruling spirit of dominative power in certain areas that says “I am Lord, you are slave!” that brings those people into a place of subjugation. And God moved in such a marvelous manner to expose this spirit and to break its power over them.
“Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mightest be saved.”
It was the responsibility of Jerusalem, as God pleaded with them, to cleanse their heart. Do you know what the message in Joshua was to the children of Israel as they stood on the banks of the Jordan River? Do you know what the first command was that was given? It wasn’t “March!” but it was “SANCTIFY YOURSELVES!” (Josh. 3:5) “SANCTIFY YOURSELVES!” We have danced around the brazen laver. Danced around it! We have tipped our little fingers in it and sprinkled ourselves—we are all Catholicized! Hallelujah. We seem to have the Catholic interpretation of Scripture when it comes to our understanding of the verses in Romans 6 that speak of our being buried with Christ by baptism.
(“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death…” (Rom. 6:3-4)
It says that we are baptized with Him by baptism into what? By baptism into death! DEATH!
“Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness THAT THOU MUGHTEST BE SAVED.”
Oh my! Next verse,
“How long shall thy VAIN thought lodge within thee…”…
“lodge” where?
“within thee…. In thy heart, in thy being, in thy soul…. in your emotions….”
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Do you know, they wandered around in the desert, for how long? Forty years? And what do they say, how long a journey is it really? Somebody said that such a journey would normally take three to four days…or five or six days. Okay, make it seven days—and yet it took them forty years! FORTY YEARS! How long have you been struggling with you? How long? How long have you been going to this encampment and that encampment, and to this encampment and that encampment—-murmuring!
“We have no meat to eat? Did you bring us out here to die? Where are you, God?”
Of course you are probably not guilty of that, right?
SOME OF YOUR HOMES ARE GOING TO GO ON THE ROCKS…BECAUSE YOU WILL LET THE DEVIL COME IN. And if you think that the effort that you have expended up to this point is going to be of any value, you are mistaken! You are in the place of desperate, desperate, desperate need!
You are in desperate need for the touch of god, and there is only one way. He said, “They that seek me, they shall find Me….” (Deut. 4:29; Prov. 8:17; Jer. 29:13) Do you know that the word “seek”, it is not speaking of a haphazard exercise that is casual. It is something that one does with all of his heart. I will give you a very good scriptural example. (It is from the thirteenth Chapter of Matthew.)
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”
Suppose someone says to you “Out in that field, there is buried a very valuable prize. Money beyond your dreams! Money! And it is just buried out there, not very deep. It is just buried out there! All you have to do is find it!” Right? Now, you cannot buy the field before you fine it, because it says that once he has found the treasure, then he goes to buy the field. Right? And he has to sell all that he has in order to purchase the field. (Mat. 13:44; 19:21;) He has to sell all that he has, and that means that there is no reservation, there is no holding back. There is no, “Well, I have this little piece here that I am going to hang on to.” Hallelujah!
“wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mightest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?“
The brazen laver was made out of the women’s looking glasses. (Ex. 38:8) Do you know that? It was the thing that gave forth the reflection of themselves. It deals with the all-inclusive “I”! “ME!” Hallelujah!
Verses 15-16,
“For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim. Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out theri voice against the cities of Judah.”
All of those names are symbolic. Hello? It was out of Judah that the scepter of righteousness came forth. (Heb. 1:8; 7:14;) Jerusalem, it was in the midst of Judah, or in the possession of Judah, was it not? And in Jerusalem was mount Zion. Hallelujah! It says here that the “watchers….give out their voice….” Does that bring a scripture to your mind? It brings one to mine. It’s in the New Testament, in Matthew 25, where it talks about the bridegroom. Was there not someone watching? Yes. And what was the cry of that someone that was watching?
“Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” (Mat. 25:6)
Now, do you think he is talking about a “natural” wedding event? Do you? No! Then what would be some symbolic aspect of the cry, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh…” in your life? In your personality? In your confrontation with adversity? That begins to stir something in your soul. Hallelujah.
How about the story in the fourth chapter of Daniel where we are told about “the watchers” and the word that they brought (“the decree of the watchers,” the decree of the Lord) against Nebuchadnezzar? (Dan. 4:17) Where it said, “Cut down the tree and band it!” (Dan. 4:23) Hallelujah. You know, “Nebuchadnezzar” is a type of our flesh. Do you know that there was a blessing of God upon Nebuchadnezzar? (In more than one place in the Scriptures, God called Nebuchadnezzar His servant. [Jer. 25:9; 27:6; 43:10]) Did you know that? There was a blessing of God. I am not making the man righteous, but I am telling you that there was a blessing of God that was upon Nebuchadnezzar, as there was a blessing of God upon Adam. And because Adam sinned….it didn’t mean that God removed his blessing. Hallelujah!
Back to Jeremiah 4, and Verse 16,
“Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.”
Verses 17-18,
“As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD. Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.”
Now, Verses 19-20; and this is His lamentation and this is what He was saying; and I believe that this is what the trumpet is sounding,
“My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.”
Whose tents? “my tents…” This is the Lord lamenting the condition of His church. This is the lamentation of god concerning the church! He is not talking about the church then; He is talking about the church now! Right? Hallelujah.
Turn over to Revelation, Chapter 2, Verse 1, where we have the first of seven pronouncements, seven words. The first indictment begins in Verse 1.
“Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil….And hast borne, and hast patience….”
Verse 4,
“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, BECAUSE THOU HAST LEFT THY FIRST LOVE.”
How many times have we heard it? How many years has it been spoken? And yet there is a deterioration and a degradation going on in many of the lives. Not everybody, but in many of the lives of individuals and homes, collectively. You know, we should be a whole lot wiser than we really are with regards to how the devil works! Hallelujah!
Let’s go back again into Jeremiah. From Verse 19,
“…I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. DESTRUCTION UPON DESTRUCTION IS CRIED; FOR THE WHOLE LAND IS SPOILED: SUDDENLY ARE MY TENTS SPOILED, AND MY CURTAINS IN A MOMENT.”
Now I want you to go back into Joel, the second chapter, and the first verse.
“BLOW YE THE TRUMPET IN ZION, AND SOUND AN ALARM IN MY HOLY MOUNTAIN: LET ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND TREMBLE: FOR THE DAY OF THE LORD COMETH, FOR IT IS NIGH AT HAND.”
How many of you remember the message we received some months back concerning September the 11th? Do you remember what the message was? It was a message concerning the events on September 11, 2001, that they marked the opening of the sixth seal spoken of in Revelation 9. Brother duCille brought a message on it and Brother Mark brought a word on it. I want to turn over there just for a minute. It is in Revelation 9, and beginning with Verse 13.
“And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar (the altar of incense) which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels…”
“Loose the four angels….” That means that life will never be the same again! Hello? Life will never, ever be the same again! DO YOU BELIEVE IT? Does your lifestyle demonstrate it? I am asking you a rhetorical question, because you yourself know what has been your attitude. Has it been “business as usual”? Because that was one of the problems in Matthew 24, wasn’t it? The Lord warned us there that the time would come that would be as the days that were in the days of Noah. Let’s turn there, to Matthew 24. Let’s read it, beginning with Verse 37.
“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, AND (they) KNEW (it) NOT UNTIL THE FLOOD CAME, AND TOOK THEM ALL AWAY…”
We are not just talking about “they” out there somewhere, but we are talking about “they” in here! [We are talking about us.] Every one of us has been given some responsibility, and many of us are shirking that responsibility! Hallelujah. Even if it is nothing more than fasting and praying! Hallelujah.
So there was a message that came to us about this trumpet being sounded, and we have had two years! What have we done with the two years? What have you individually done? Now, don’t start looking at someone else and pointing fingers. What have you been doing? Two years! What have we done? WHAT HAVE WE DONE WITH THE TWO YEARS?
Come on, Brethren? I want you to turn with me again to Joel, the second chapter.
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess…”
We are not ready! We are not ready! We are not ready….We are not ready! We are still just trying to think of how to survive. We are thinking of how to secure our position of safety, our security. We are not ready! We are not ready! WE ARE NOT READY!
It says, “A day of darkness and of gloominess. A day of clouds and thick darkness…”
Oh God!
Turn to Revelation, Chapter 11, and Verse 3; where it is talking about the “two-witness company.”
“And I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and three score days clothed in sackcloth.”
Do you have any idea what sackcloth is? Have you ever tried to put on sackcloth and wear it around for a while? It is one of the most uncomfortable things. It makes your skin itch. Some people are allergic to it; it makes them break out in a rash. It chafes. If you wear it long enough, it will open sores on your body. And it is in this condition that they were, and in this place of great woe and great lamentation. You know, in the book of Esther, Mordecai had a revelation. Do you understand me? He had a revelation of what was facing the Jewish nation—total annihilation. Right? TOTAL ANNIHILATION! And I somehow think that that word in that story is not to the church, per se, as much as it is to “the elect of God.” Hello? Because in Esther, they were in a place of captivity. We also can identify with that position of captivity—we are in a position of captivity! Hallelujah! And yet…it says here in Joel,
“A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong…”
Oh Hallelujah!
“there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.”
Brethren, then it says,
“A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth.”
Turn to Revelation 1, where John was viewing the Christ. Beginning in Verse 13,
“And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man…His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.”
It says that His feet were like “fine brass…” and that His feet were “as if burned in a furnace.”
Turn with me over into Hebrews, the first chapter, and beginning with Verse 5,
“For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?”
You could just as well also turn over there to John, the first chapter, and Verse 17. It says,
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of god, even to them that believe on his name”
He says back here in Hebrews, Chapter 1,
“For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of god worship him. And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever….”
And you can go over there to Romans, the eighth chapter. He says, beginning in Verse 16,
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
Hallelujah! Hebrew, Chapter 1, beginning with Verse 9,
“Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?”
Hallelujah! Turn with me over into 2 Peter. Glory to God! Hallelujah! Let’s read 2 Peter, Chapter 3, and Verse 10 (You know, 10 is the number of “law”).
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
We read it back in Joel 2, where he said this concerning the people that God was going to raise up,
“A great people and a strong….A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth.”
There is a fire before them and there is a fire after them. A fire burneth. A flame kindleth. It means there is flame, and where are they? They are in the midst of the fire that is before them and in the midst of the fire that is behind them! They are FIRE people! They are fire people! Hallelujah!
It said in 2 Peter,
“Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therin shall be burned up.”
I Corinthians, Chapter 3, beginning in Verse 9,
“For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of god which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth theron. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.”
He is not talking just about the ministry. He is talking about the individual responsibility that everyone of us has, as a building of God. I could take you into 2 Corinthians, the fifth chapter, where it says that we are clothed upon from heaven with a house. Let us go there. Let me read it. 2 Corinthians 5, beginning with Verse 1,
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved….”
And the word here “dissolved,” it is the same root form for the word “dissolved” being used in 2 Peter 3:12, where he said,
“Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”
He is not talking about the melting away of the earthly composition of your molecular structure. He is talking about the soulishness of your “soul,” the nature of your being that is “earth”; and if all of the restraints are removed or if the restraints that you do have aren’t sufficient.
You know, being a builder in California, I have watched the progression of the building code transform itself to accommodate the measure of a geological disaster that they have suffered. And they have found out that in certain places, certain ways of building will not be able to take the measure of the earthquake force that is going to be exerted against the structure that was built. Isn’t that right? I was building over in San Joaquin Valley, and I was accustomed to doing a certain nailing pattern of sheeting. I think it was 8-10. You had to put so many nails around the outside edges and so many nails in the body of it; and it was 8 inches apart around the outside and 10 inches apart in the field. However, when I went over to Livermore, I did that and it flunked the inspection. They wanted it 3 inches apart. I don’t know what they are now, but it is because there is something that they have found out. Eight inches was not significant enough to hold the plywood to the framing members with regards to the type of quake that that place was accustomed to having. How did they know that? By the collapsing of houses all around that were built that way! Hallelujah! (You can take this and make a parable out of it.) Hallelujah!
It said, “and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.”
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly design to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”
THE SHAKING HAS COME! Thank you Jesus. (I am closing. I think you have been hit pretty hard.) Hallelujah!
Turn to Hebrews, back where I started. Chapter 12, and Verse 25. He says,
“See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven“
“much more shall we not escape….” Is there any other way to interpret that, other than that in the shaking that in the shaking that is going to come, IT IS GOING TO BE SOMETHING THAT IS MUCH WORSE, MUCH MORE TERRIBLE, MUCH MORE EXACTING, MUCH MORE DEMANDING THAN ANYTHING THAT HAS EVER BEEN SHOOK BEFORE! And what we have had in the past that has given us the ability or the opportunity to come out with minimal damage—will it be sufficient with regards to this thing that is going to happen? Absolutely not! Absolutely not! Absolutely not!
Back there, in the Book of Esther, when the decree came by the King Ahasuerus for the slaying of the Jews, what happened? What happened? What was the decree that went out in the spirit? Do you remember? No, it was not that the people should arm themselves. I am talking about before that event. What was the decree? What did Mordecai do? He took off his kingly robes; he displaced himself from himself. He took off his garments. (Esth. 4:1) And this is one that was honored by the king. Hello: For it was said of him, “So is he in whom the delight of the king is upon.” (Esth. 6:6-10) Right? And the Bible speaks of you and I as being what? “The apple of God’s eye.” (Zech. 2:7-8) And yet Mordecai removed his vestments. He removed his coat, and he put on “sackcloth.” He put on sackcloth! And he brought a word to the church.
He spoke to Esther. He spoke to the church! Do you hear me? What did he say to Esther? “Think not! Think not that you will escape—because of your position, because of your relationship with god, because of the revelation that you have, because of the favor that you have of the king, because of the queenly garments….!” Hello? (We have the story in Revelation 12 of the woman “clothed with the sun.”) Mordecai was asking her to act on the behalf of the lives of all her people and to go before the king and petition for them, at the risk of losing her life and all that she had. HE said, “Think not…Think it not that if you hold your peace at this time that you will spare yourself! Do you not think that is was for this purpose that God elected you—-that it was to put you in that place?”
[She sent back this answer to Mordecai,
“so will I go….and if I perish I perish.” (Esth. 4:16)
Brethren, you could preach another whole message on the aspect of her response. BUT IT IS HER RESPONSE THAT IS INDICATIVE OF THE RESPONSE THAT GOD WANTS FROM YOU AND I!
Not just today, or tomorrow! Not just in the days to come, but we are to make for ourselves “a style of living.” And I believe that it says that she called for three days of prayer and fasting. Wasn’t it three days? We sang the song this morning.
“After two days, death’s hold is broken.
On the third day He will raise us up.” On the third day, what is He going to do? “Raise us up!” But you have to go through death and burial before you can come to resurrection”! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hebrews 12 again, beginning with Verse 25,
“See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For it they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying YET ONCE MORE I SHAKE NOT THE EARTH ONLY, BUT ALSO (THE HEAVENS). And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”
What do you do when you remove something? It is taken away! It is discarded! Do you know what they did with all of that rubble from the quake that they had in San Francisco, and from all of that Los Angeles stuff that happened? And in New York City and in Alaska? Do you know what they did? They came in with big bulldozers and big dump trucks and they just took it all away. It signifies the REMOVING! I don’t know if we really believe it. I don’t know that we really believe that we are going to have to suffer in a physical sense. Hallelujah!
“Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also (the heavens).”
What a quake! What a shaking! I don’t know about you, but I have been in an earthquake. They are not fun! Do you know that? There is no place to run! No place! If there is water coming, you get up to high ground (unless you have something like a flood). If there is a fire, you run someplace where there is no fire. But with an earthquake, there is no place to run! Everything is moving! Trees are moving. Rocks are moving. Buildings are moving! Hallelujah! Everything is unstable! You are unstable! Everything is shaking!
“Yet once more….”
Come on, Brethren? Come on? I am not trying to put fear into your heart. I am trying by the Holy Ghost this morning, to stir you with regards to the position or the place that we are in.
“And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”
You know, I was seeking the Lord for a word, not for this conference but for my own personal situation; and I wanted to know where to put my focus and my energy, my spiritual energy, with regards to my being. I wanted to know from the Lord, and the Lord was very faithful to bring me that word. Mow, I would have wanted Him to whisper it in my ear. I feel like I have a fairly good relationship with Jesus. Maybe not as good as some, but somewhat good, so that if there is something wrong with me He is going to speak to me about it. But He didn’t choose to speak to me that way about it. He spoke to me via another avenue, and it pricked something in my soul. No, not something righteous, but something diabolical! Until God said something to me one time in my prayer. I was lamenting before God about the situation, and God said, “You asked me for something and I gave it to you. Why are you so down and out about it?”
Well I had to change my position, my attitude. I had to adjust my attitude to an appropriate attitude, so that I could begin to work on the thing that God revealed to me about it. You and I have to have a certain awareness of the reality of what God is trying to do in our individual set of circumstances. Hallelujah!
Verses 28 and 29,
“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptable with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.“
Hallelujah! I trust that as we progress through these days to come and through the weeks ahead that we will prove the devil to be a liar. And that we will keep it in the forefront of our minds, that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but that we are wrestling against principalities and against powers. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Glory to God….
God bless you.
Sonlight Devotional 