Omega Message – December 1987
Cecil J. duCille
Jeremiah was called of God and sent to speak to Israel at a critical time in the history of the Chosen, people of God. The clouds of war were gathering against Israel and Judah from her northern neighbors and the kings of Babylon were about ready to pounce on her as a lion pounces upon its prey.
Jeremiah 1:14 “Then the Lord said unto me, out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
1:15 “For lo, I will call all the families of the Kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about and against all the cities of Judah.”
Jeremiah 2:11 “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
2:12 “Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord.
2:13 “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
Prophesies and warnings like this continued through Jeremiah for approximately thirty years until all the religious factions of Israel, (of which there were many), got Jeremiah thrown into prison, but this could not stop the prophesies from coming to pass. Can you imagine what it would be like for foreign armies to surround the U.S.A. and a prophet to come forth and tell them to surrender, thus saith the Lord? This was the exact situation with Jeremiah. He was given the word of the Lord to tell the king and the people to surrender and not to fight the king of Babylon:
Jeremiah 37:15 “Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.”
Disobedience and unbelief paid off for king Zedekiah and his family and his army and his people. They were slain by the sword of Nebuchadrezzer and Zedekiah’s eyes were plucked out and he was taken in chains to Babylon. On the other hand he gave the following command concerning Jeremiah the prophet of God:
Jeremiah 39:12 “Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.”
It is amazing that a heathen king should so accurately obey the word of the Lord, whereas the priests and princes of Israel had just put him in prison for the word of God.
While Jeremiah was in prison the Lord told him to tell Ebedmelech the ETHIOPIAN that he would be delivered because of his trust in God.
The king of Israel, who was anointed with oil is a type of the Christian who is baptized in the Holy Spirit. They were destroyed because of disobedience, but an Ethiopian who is a type of an outsider was called and given a word of deliverance. IT is a very auspicious word that the king of Israel, Zedekiah by name, had his eyes plucked out, and this represents the Holy Ghost baptized Christians of today. Paul the apostle declares that blindness is happened in part unto Israel, but in our day we see this same blindness in a greater part happening to the church which should be seeing with the eyes of God.
According to the word of Jeremiah’s prophecy, the king of Babylon came and destroyed Israel and Judah, and took them off to Babylon, but he gave Jeremiah his wish to remain in the land. After all this it is reasonable to think that the people would turn to God, but they did not. They decided to flee to shelter under the power of the king of Egypt. Again the Lord warned them not to do so, but instead of obeying, they arrested Jeremiah and took him to Egypt with them.
Since one cannot escape from God, the next thing that happened was that the king of Babylon attacked and defeated Egypt and took them as prisoners to Babylon.
Out of Babylon:
For Seventy years the captive Israelites bowed under servitude of Babylon until God raised up a king whose name was Cyrus to return the Jews to the land and to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem.
There are many in the church today who do not believe that the Old Testament Scriptures are being fulfilled in us today, but Jesus Christ himself said that all these scriptures speak of Him. I believe that the rebuilding of the temple directly refers to the rebuilding of the Body of Christ, back to the same fashion and power as when Jesus Christ Himself was here walking the earth as a man, with only one exception, that is, instead of having only one man with the fullness of God, it will be many sons in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. This being so, makes the return of the Israelites from Babylon a very important part of our contemporary Gospel.
It was a secular heathen king whom God used to command the people of God to gather the GOLD AND THE SILVER AND THE VESSELS OF THE TEMPLE and for the expense of the journey. Through our secular laws; through printing and distribution of Bibles and spiritual books, concordances etc.; through the spreading of knowledge and the working of the Holy Ghost within us, we have gained higher ground in understanding the things of God, which creates within us the terrible hunger to be like our Lord Jesus Christ. Babylon is no longer a city in Persia, but a way of life and more so a way of thinking which is the modern norm. We have sucked the milk of death and partaken of the cup of her abominations; thus the road back is a long and arduous one, and one which most of us do not believe is necessary. Babylon has etched upon the hearts and minds of the people its worship, its hypocrisy and its multitudinous abominations.
The Lie Perpetuated:
This Christmas of 1987 is the worst I have seen of ungodly abominations. Both in the media and in the schools a redoubled effort has been made to convince the children that Santa is a living and real person. More stories of this nature came forth, and although the message was in itself counter-productive the children were too excited with the gifts etc. to notice. In most of the stories, Santa was shown to have died and then revived by elves and returned to continue his work of distributing toys, going down through chimneys without a smear on his clothes and disappearing at times, and even speaking of four hundred years ago did not catch much of the children’s understanding that he was spirit and not a real person. The awe in the eyes of the children and reverence with which they speak of Santa is tantamount to worship. Children will tell you that the main figure in Christmas is not Christ, but Santa. The churches perpetuate the lie with all the Pagan rites of a mass with the misnomer of Christ. It is the feast of Bacchus, the holiday of harlots, and the greatest farce of all, the giving of gifts. No wonder the little boy asked, “Granddad, you said giving is a good thing why do we only do it a Christmas?” Because, a traditional giving is not the manifestation of the nature of God; but only a seasonal exercise.
When Israel returned from Babylon, confession of their sins and the sanctification of their lives were priorities in rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem. Ezra prayed to God thus:
Ezra 9:1 “…The people of Israel, and the priests, and Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.”
All these heathen nations were worshipers of the devil and his fallen angels and his demons; but they were all given other names like Venus, Zeus, Aphrodite, Ishtar (Easter), Baal etc. It was traditional and cultural and was all part of the fine arts of the day. Music and drama were essential ingredients of their worship, but no one was told that it was Satan that they were worshipping. Our modern mythology is about Santa Clause and all the cartoon stuff which comes in on the tube on Saturday mornings, bringing the occult right into the homes.
JESUS CHRIST is not a baby in a manger; He is not hanging on a cross every Sunday morning; He is not having a resurrection every Easter; He is My Lord and King; Born and resurrected within me many years ago and ruling and reigning in His Kingdom of which I and all those who obey him area a part. This is a present reality, and I do not see how those who know Him as I do can enter into the Babylonish hallucinations and enjoy them the way they do.
Under Ezra the people had left Babylon and were now in Jerusalem building the temple, but Babylon had not left them. The proof of salvation is in the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and the PROOF OF THE HOLY GHOST IS THE CHANGE WHICH HE CREATES IN EACH BELIEVER. Little by little He changes us and changes us until we one day will be like Jesus. It is not possible that one can have the Holy Spirit in His life and not show some measure of change. MANY OF US ARE MISTAKING THE GIFTS FOR THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. I know many gifted men and women who are on their way to HELL. They are not following the Holy Spirit, but are ardently following many seducing spirits. The Spirit of God reveals God, but the seducing spirits reveal a distorted picture which is not God at all.
Seducing spirits are let loose in the church. Many of our leaders are being deceived by them. Currently one of these leaders said God told him to raise a certain sum of money by a certain date for missions or he would take his life. This is not of God. It gives to the world and the brethren a distorted picture of our loving heavenly Father. God is able to touch the hearts of His people to give to his cause. I cannot see Him placing the burden on one person to take his life if he does not raise a certain amount of money. The seducing spirits, with doctrines of devils are at work among the people and many who believe they are saved and are being exalted by what they call their ministry, are only being deceived and deceiving others. Do not allow the devil to use these thoughts to cast you down. The people who are living a lie, know it for themselves. Those who are trembling at God’s word are among the poor who Jesus is helping to stand on their feet. 2 Thessalonians 2:11 says that because the people did not love the truth, that God would send them strong delusions that they might believe a lie. Let us pray that God will help us to love the truth.
Within ten years after the temple was built, Nehemiah began to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Among the Jews there were many enemies, even as it is today in the Gospel, for some do walk as enemies of the Cross of Christ.
Nehemiah 6:1 “Now it came to pass, when Sanbalat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;)
6:2 “That Sanbalat and Geshem sent unto me, saying Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.”
People with names like those mentioned above could not be good, especially noting that in those days you were given a name to fit your character.
Enemies of Christ:
To be an enemy of Christ, or an anti-christ, one only has to submit to the spirit of the age. It is possible to be preaching Christ and be anti-christ. These were all religious men. As a matter of record, the more religious an individual or faction is the more rigorously they persecute the true believer in Christ. A person who is motivated by religion is generally an enemy of Christ. If this sounds wrong to you then take another look. Is the Ayatollah Khomeini a religious person? Yet one that could be favorably compared with Hitler and Stalin. History shows that the greatest persecution of the early church was carried out by religious Christians. In England the Pilgrims and the Puritans were persecuted by the church. Man cannot serve God by religions practice. “Them that worship God must worship Him in Spirit and Truth.” It is not possible to worship God by practice.
Isaiah 28:8 “For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.”
The table is the place where God feeds His people, but the “priests” and the prophets have filled them with sour food which could not be digested and was rejected by their own stomachs.
How Then Shall We Return:
Locked up in the prison house of Babylon, the captive children of Israel asked themselves and their God, How shall we return to our inheritance? I believe that God has heard our prayers, even as He heard their cry, and that even as there was a time that He answered them, that the time has now come when He is answering us. Nevertheless, there was a sad note in Ezra’s time, and so it is in ours. Some of the people decided not to leave Babylon, they had become Babylonians; and yet some others decided to leave Babylon and go to Jerusalem, only to take with them the Babylonish ways to make Jerusalem another Babylon.
The first move of deliverance came from God Himself – “The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia.” The first move will always come from God.
When God moves within us, the same God also moves without us. The door of deliverance is opened of the Lord, but the next move is ours.
Ezra 10:3 “Now therefore let US make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my Lord and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.
Ezra 10:19 “And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass.”
Let us look at this spiritually. They were married contrary to God’s laws, even as we have been married to sinful thoughts and traditions. They made a covenant with God that they would put away that part of them which was of Babylon. They offered a ram as a trespass offering to the Lord.
The Holy Ghost will open the way for us to understand that we are at the very ending of a GREAT TRANSGRESSION AGAINST GOD, CALLED BABYLON. He will help us to make that covenant to get rid of it though it might cost us our own flesh and blood. Our God also will help us to accept the trespass offering of Calvary for our cleansing and be true ambassadors of Christ.
Some Cannot Return: It is written in the word that there are some Christians like Lost Coins. They have the brand of God on them, they are made of pure metal, but they do not possess the power to return. Their only value is in the purse of the WOMAN, but lost, they are out of their jurisdiction. If the broom is the Holy Spirit, then the Woman, the church must search for those coins, and the Holy Ghost, the broom must sweep the floor until the coin gives out a cry and can be found.
The Lost Sheep, though a living creature with a nature that pleases God, cannot return to the Shepherd, because it is a sheep. Every Sheep must have a Shepherd. Shepherds must seek after sheep. Every Shepherd must know that God places the ministry of the Shepherd in the Church in order that sheep might be found. Do not wait on a sheep to come looking for you. It is your duty to seek the sheep.
The Lost Son must return home by his own free will and volition. He has within him the Spirit of the Father, and to him is given the strength to return. Though he be ragged, worn and weary he will never mistake a pig-sty for his home. He will come to himself.
May God help us and richly bless and anoint our eyes with eye salve that we might recognize where we are and find the road back to Zion.
Sonlight Devotional 