Wednesday, December
03, 2014, 4:40 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put three different songs in my mind
this morning, one after the other, with a little bit of space in time in
between each one of them. They are: “Near
the Cross,” “The Old Rugged Cross,”
and “The King is Coming.” Speak,
Lord, your words to my heart. I read Revelation
11 (ESV).
A Measuring Rod
Then
I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the
temple of God and the altar and those who worship there… v. 1
When John was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told
to go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and the worshippers there,
he was not being asked to physically measure a physical temple. He was being
asked to evaluate and to examine the church, the Body of Christ, Christ’s
temple, which is in the individual hearts of true believers in Jesus Christ, as
well as it is collectively the Body of Christ. The letters to the seven
churches give us a glimpse of the type of results that may have been found by
“measuring” the “temple.” The altar is a place where we meet God in prayer, but
it is also a place of sacrifice and worship of God (See Ro. 12:1-2 for the kind
of sacrifice and worship desired by and acceptable to God). The Word of God is thus
the measurement which John used.
So, if John was alive today, and he was to examine the
church here in America, for instance, what do you think he would see? I believe
he would see things similar as to what was described in the letters to the
seven churches, both good and bad, though I suspect more bad than good in our
time and age. I will touch only on one small area here, for it is something the
Lord Jesus showed me yesterday when I was reading Revelation 10:
I believe much of today’s modern church here in America
wants “chewing gum” instead of solid food, spiritually speaking. In other words,
I believe much of the church is clamoring for what is fake (plastic), has no
real answers for what ails the human soul, is sweet-sounding and pleasing to
the ears (to their personal tastes), has flavoring - what appeals to human
flesh - added on to make it more agreeable, and for that which has no real
(spiritual) food value to it at all.
So, although it tastes good in the mouth, it turns sour in
the stomach, i.e. it becomes less pleasant or attractive, or it turns out badly,
or it becomes unfavorable in some way. In other words, this has to do with
consequence from desiring and meditating on and taking pleasure in what is not
the true gospel of Jesus Christ; not true worship of God; not truly honoring God
for the holy God he is; not the truth of scripture; and not the kind of heart
sacrifice God desires of his people. The consequence in this case is divine
judgment (discipline; correction) of God’s people, his church (See: Rev. 2-3).
Near the Cross / Fanny J. Crosby / William H. Doane
Jesus, keep me near the cross;
There a precious fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calvary's mountain…
Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day
With its shadow o'er me.
They Will Trample
…but
do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over
to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. v.
2
I believe part of that judgment (or all of it) is this
trampling of the church (the holy city) by the nations. The Lord Jesus, I
believe, has given me a picture of one way in which this is taking place
already today across the globe, as well as inside the USA. I believe the Lord
Jesus has been showing me for the past 8 years, at least, that the government
of the USA is under the control of Satan and is working for the beast (the New
World Order). It appears we are leading the charge in this, and along with our
allies we have been murdering innocents, including executing Christians, and have
been raping, pillaging, demonizing, and falsely accusing people and governments
throughout the world, as well as we have been confiscating and destroying their
property, and overtaking their (and our) governments.
I believe very much so that our government is involved regularly
in false flag operations and in faking and creating crisis situations so that
they can come to the “rescue.” This is called “order out of chaos.” First they
create the chaos, and then they come in to bring peace and order. I have
suspected this may be the case in the situation in Ferguson, MO, and I believe
the Lord is showing me this morning that in a similar case in NY, presently, our
government (and their allies, perhaps) is involved in ordering up these
situations, like ordering food in a restaurant, perhaps, and it is so they can
bring in the nations to take us over, via martial law or using foreign troops
to help keep order or whatever evil plan they have up their sleeves. It is
their MO (Modus Operandi) across the globe.
Yet, I also believe what the Lord is showing me is that one
of the biggest weapons they use against the American people is lies, deceptions
and dramatizations of things not real but made to look real in order to provoke
discord, envy, strife, jealousy, prejudice, racial or political or moral
upheaval, etc. They love to use the media – TV news or social media – to propagate
their lies in order to pit Christian against Muslim, black against white,
Republican against Democrat, saved against unsaved, pro-choice against pro-life,
and Christian against Christian, etc. or vice versa. This is one of the biggest
ways in which they are trampling on the holy city, the people of God, the
church. They are trying to get us to fight against each other – to divide and
conquer. As well, they use these dramatizations (and/or false flags) to give
them credence (excuses) for their evil actions.
The Old Rugged Cross
/ George Bennard
…To the old rugged
cross I will ever be true;
Its shame and reproach
gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me
some day to my home far away,
Where His glory
forever I’ll share.
So I’ll cherish the
old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at
last I lay down;
I will cling to the
old rugged cross,
And exchange it some
day for a crown.
The Two Witnesses
And
I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260
days, clothed in sackcloth.” v. 3
Concerning the two witnesses, I definitely see the Old and
New Testaments as strong possibilities here. Yet, I will make no attempt to try
to specifically identify who these two witnesses are, or will be, yet what I do
understand is that they represent God’s Holy Word, for truly it is the Word of
God that is hated, and thus the messengers are only hated because they speak
the words of God. These two witnesses represent the gospel of Jesus Christ; of
salvation. They most certainly confront and address sin in sinful man, and call
for repentance and holy living via faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
They apparently also speak words of judgment against all who
refuse Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives and against all those who
would come against Christ, his messages and his messengers. The people will
hate these witnesses, because they hate the truth and they don’t want to be
confronted with their sins or told they must turn from their sin and follow
Jesus Christ in surrender to his will. This is, thus, why they trample on (crush;
squash; walk or tread on) God’s holy people, because their goal is to stop the
spreading of the gospel message, which is their true object of hate. They want
the gospel to be snuffed out so they are no longer confronted with their sins
and thus can live how they want. And, this is happening in our world today.
I
believe these witnesses may not be just two literal people, but are all those
who grieve and lament over the sins in the church and who are giving witness to
the church of this kind of measurement that John was asked to do in evaluating
the spiritual condition of the temple of God, and that these witnesses are
those who are calling out to the church to repent of their sin and to turn back
to God in faith and obedience before the time of judgment to come upon the
earth. I don’t know how much of this is to be taken literally and how much is
to be taken symbolically, but what I do know is that our Lord’s return is near,
that judgment is imminent, that judgment will begin with the family of God, and
that God is presently in the process of this kind of measuring of his church
and he is calling out to his church, via his witnesses and servants, to repent
and to give their hearts in entirety to God.
The King is Coming
/ Bill Gaither
I can hear the
chariot's rumble, I can see the marching throng
And the fury of God's trumpet spells the end
of sin and wrong
Regal rolls are now unfolded, heaven's
grandstands all in place
Heaven's choir is now assembled, start to sing
"Amazing Grace"
The King is coming,
the King is coming
I just heard the trumpet sounding and soon His
face I'll see
The King is coming, the King is coming
Praise God, He's coming for me
Older writings on this chapter: http://christsfreeservant.blogspot.com/2013/12/they-will-trample.html;
http://christsfreeservant.blogspot.com/2011/05/temple.html
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