Run With It: A Rebellious House

Friday, September 20, 2013, 4:57 a.m. – The Lord Jesus woke me with the song “Do Not Fear” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Ezekiel 12-14 (ESV) this morning for my quiet time with the Lord Jesus.

Peace and Security

…Thus says the Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! … You have not gone up into the breaches, or built up a wall for the house of Israel, that it might stand in battle in the day of the Lord…

Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall!

“…You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death souls who should not die and keeping alive souls who should not live, by your lying to my people, who listen to lies… Ez. 13:1-19

I read several news stories which I will reference below. Evidently, the General Assembly of the United Nations is presently in session, with the general debate beginning in just four days from now and going through October 1^st. And, supposedly the new president of Iran is there or is planning to attend. Purportedly a senior Iranian legislator made some comments with regard to the president’s visit, and this visit being “a good opportunity to foster peace and security in the world,” and that Iran’s presence will “prepare the ground for establishment of security and order across the globe” [1].

In another article, the president of Iran evidently made some statements of his own with regard to the whole nuclear issue, stating that his country would “never seek a nuclear bomb.” The White House responded to this by stating that they remained “ready to engage with the Rouhani government on the basis of mutual respect to achieve a peaceful resolution to the nuclear issues.” And, the author of the article posed the question concerning Rouhani’s message: Is it “a sign of thawing relations or more diplomatic deception?” [2]

This is what I believe the Lord Jesus is saying in response to all this. I believe he is saying these are false prophets, i.e. they speak lies and/or else the news media speaks lies. They are promising peace, but peace is really not what they have planned. I don’t know about the Iranian leader, but I do believe the Lord Jesus is definitely showing me that our leaders are speaking lies to the people, and that the “thawing relationships” are truly taking place between them and their own people, i.e. they are turning their backs against their own nation and are aligning themselves with the enemy, i.e. they are committing adultery against their own people and are plotting ruin for them, not peace. They are not serving to protect us, and they have made no plans for peace and security for our nation.

Stumbling Block of Iniquity

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house. As for you, son of man, prepare for yourself an exile's baggage… ~ Ez. 12:1-3

Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.” Ez. 14:1-6

I believe the idols that are before our government leaders and their allies, which they have taken into their hearts, are a thirst for power, authoritarian and dictatorial control, world domination, suppression of the human race, and the elimination of all those who stand in opposition to them (in opposition to Satan’s rule), et al. Their words are deceptive. They can’t be trusted. They are occupiers; usurpers who do injustice to the people of this world. They practice “war-mongering policies,” and they send people to Syria “to slaughter innocent civilians.” They are wolves “in sheep’s clothing.” They are “long on smiles but short on substance,” and they are people of aggression and practitioners of injustice throughout the world. They mouth empty words of loyalty, devotion and commitment, but “actions are more important than words.” In other words, they don’t and they will not keep their promises. They are adulterers and murderers and extremely hypocritical as they pretend one thing but they do another, and they blame others for what they do. [3]

Yet, it is not just our political leaders who are at fault here. The church is at fault because a large percentage of today’s church has watered down the gospel of Jesus Christ, and thus they have not turned people away from their sins, but in many cases have actually helped facilitate professing Christians to continue in willful and unrepentant sin. Idolatry has become a huge problem within today’s evangelical church, as is spiritual adultery. With the introduction of home computers and the internet, and now with tablets, IPads, and smart phones, children and adults alike across these United States have unfiltered and private internet access to a world of evil 24/7. To many, their smart phones, IPads and the like have become their Bible replacement, and are what are in front of their faces 24/7 instead of God/Jesus Christ, and the truths of his word. And, this has been the moral downfall of a large percentage of the church population, including a large percentage of clergy.

So, God is calling out to us as a nation, and he is calling out to his church here in America to turn from our sins of idolatry and spiritual adultery, and for us to turn our faces away from all our abominations, specifically the idolatrous use of the internet leading us to sinful practices, i.e. that of allowing our idols to be taken into our hearts, and covering our sinful practices with lies, deceptions and spiritual and religious hypocrisy. God is saying that we can pretend all we want, and we can continue in our lies and deceptions, but he is not fooled. When we willfully continue doing what God has said not to do, we show great contempt for God. God says he will judge us (See Rev. 2-3 for NT parallels).

Potential Results for Acting Faithlessly

“Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls whom you hunt go free, the souls like birds. Your veils also I will tear off and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand as prey, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life, therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the Lord.” ~ Ez. 13:20-23

“Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.” ~ Joel 2:23 ESV (Bible Gateway Verse for Today)

“For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! But behold, some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; behold, when they come out to you, and you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord God.” Ez. 14:21-23

Concerning these “magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds,” the Lord is definitely showing me these drones that our government uses against people of other nations and now against our own people; which are what are truly “looming” overhead [4]. They can shoot to kill with no arrest warrant at all. He is also showing me military might, nuclear weapons, guns (these mass shootings being of them), and “natural” (man-made) disasters (they can control weather). I believe we are responsible for these storms in Mexico [5], the uprisings in these various countries of the world, including inside Syria, these mass shootings in our own nation, etc., and I do believe God is going to bring these things down upon our own heads in judgment – it will come back to bite us, in other words.

I believe one of the judgments coming from God, in addition to shutting down our government [4], is a shutting down of the internet. We, as followers of Jesus Christ, have been called out of the world. In Christ, we no longer belong to the world and its practices. Yet, so many Christians don’t get this, for they behave just like the world, and they are just as addicted to the pleasures this world has to offer as the world is, and have made them their idols which they put in front of their faces, and which have become their stumbling block. “I pray, Lord, that I will not be taken captive to the world, but that I will remain steadfast in my commitment to obey you in all things. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

I also believe we are going to see our land taken over by an enemy, and that we are going to experience economic hard times, great tribulation, famine, sword, pestilence, etc. because of our many sins, and because we have refused to listen to our God and to obey him and his statutes for our lives. Yet, we are not to fear what is coming. If we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and we depend upon him for all things, and we remove our idols from in front of our faces, and we return to our first love, he will give us all we need to make it through these days of hardship ahead. And, I believe revival of the church and the salvation of many lives will result from this judgment of God. Amen!

Do Not Fear / An Original Work / June 2, 2013

Based off John 14

Do not let your hearts fear.

Trust in God. Trust in Christ.

“In My house you will find

Many rooms I have

Prepared for you,

And I will come back

And take you to heav’n.”

“I will take you to be with Me;

You’ll be where I am.”

“I am the way and