March 30, 2011

“It Is Time”

Blessings Folk!

The northern kingdom of Israel was in trouble.

They had perverted the way of the Lord.
They had refuse to return to the Lord.

The Prophets have an immense amount of detail as to what they had done.

A brief list of what they had done…

• transgressed the covenant
• dealt treacherously against God
• iniquity
• dealt falsely, deceit, lies
• murdered
• wickedness
• adulterers/harlots - physical and spiritual
• devised evil against God
• did not cry out to God, cried out to pagan gods,
• gashed themselves in a form of worship
• rebelled against the law of the Lord
• mixed with the nations

There is much, much more, but you have the idea.

Simply put, they sought to worship the Lord they way they wanted, rather than the way He had instructed.

Nothing new.

It is the Way of Cain...offering a sacrifice, worshipping the way we want.

Much of the same can be observed in the professing church today.

We set up our own kings…
We appoint princes…
We take the provision of the Lord and build idols…
The Lord rejects such…

Hosea 8 
3 Israel has rejected the good;
         The enemy will pursue him.
    4 They have set up kings, but not by Me;
         They have appointed princes, but I did not know it
         With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves,
         That they might be cut off.
    5 He has rejected your calf, O Samaria, saying,
         "My anger burns against them!"
         How long will they be incapable of innocence?

Israel considered the words of the prophets to be foolish, demented.

The same today.

Hosea 9
7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.

Folk will think you a fool.
Folk will think you mad.

Yet, we are called to speak forth the truth.

The day is coming.

Therefore, let us do this…

Hosea 10
12 Sow with a view to righteousness,
         Reap in accordance with kindness;
         Break up your fallow ground,
         For it is time to seek the LORD
         Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.

Even though Israel was to be carried to captivity in the immediate future, the Lord told them to…

• sow with a view to righteousness
• reap in accordance with kindness
• break up fallow ground (ground that previously was cultivated, but has not been so recently)
• seek the Lord...it is time...until He rains righteousness

It is time for those who are the true Body of Christ to cease the strategies and plans of man.

It is time to seek the Lord.

It is time to totally reevaluate all we do “in the name of the Lord”.

It is time to live as the Body in the way the Lord instructs.

It is time for those of the world, the unsaved, to call upon the Lord...to be saved.

Do so today.

Blessings!