Two The Sleeping Bride

Chapter Two

The Sleeping Bride

The Scriptures record for us, in the Old Testament, the story of someone else who was sleeping in the boat. Unlike Jesus, though, his slumber was not due to his obedient walk, but rather because of his rebellion.

In the book of Jonah we read about a prophet who was called by God to cry out against the sin of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. It was a very large city that was filled with wickedness, much like our nation’s capital. Jonah refused and tried to run from the presence of God. I see in this a picture of the American church that is, presently, running from their calling from the Lord to warn others of what God has already begun to do in the wicked cities of our nation. She too is sleeping in the ship while a great storm is taking place around her.

Because of her rebellion, the Lord has placed a spirit of deep sleep over her (Isaiah 28:9-10). In this spiritual state of slumber she is oblivious of the raging sea that is about to shipwreck her faith and destroy others. It will take a great shaking, one that has in fact already begun, to awaken her. In the meantime, our entire nation is being affected by her sin.

Like the sailors on the ship with Jonah, fear will grip many hearts in the multiple calamities that will strike us if she does not turn from her wickedness. As we’ll see, the cry of impending judgment is actually the mercy of God to let us know what He is about to do. Through it He is offering a window of opportunity to repent and be spared, whether that be an individual, a community, or even a nation.

If, like the leaders of Nineveh, the leadership in these cities will issue a similar proclamation, asking its citizens to earnestly fast and seek the Lord, turning from their evil ways and their violence, and the people turn from their wickedness, God will relent concerning the calamity which He has declared He would bring upon them.

If the proclamation of repentance were to come from Washington DC, as some have in the past, an entire nation could be spared. May those with ears 7

to hear be burdened by the Lord to pray for their families, their city, and their nation.

If My People

Because of the great increase of wickedness across our nation, I often hear people quoting 2 Chronicles 7:13-14. It is a declaration to Solomon from God, after building the temple, of granting forgiveness and healing when the blessing over His people is removed. He said that if “My people who are called by My name [i.e. Christians, not the world] humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

If we truly believe that these verses are applicable today, which I do, then the responsibility for removing the judgments that we, as His people, now find ourselves submersed in, including pandemics (2 Chronicles 7:13), is ours alone, not the governments or some other health agency. They may develop a temporary measure of relief from the suffering, but it will only be as Christians repent of “their sin” that full restoration will come.

You rarely, if ever hear someone expound on the rest of the text in second Chronicles, chapter seven. After giving Solomon a conditional promise of healing, based on His people repenting, the Lord then declares what will occur if they do not turn back, but continue in rebellion against Him. This would become obvious, then, that the lack of blessings from God on a land are due to the disobedience of His people, if we truly believe these verses apply today (see Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 for the blessings of obedience and the curses of disobedience).

God continued His warning to Solomon, saying;

“But if you turn away [“to turn back, to apostatize”] and forsake [“to leave, to let go, to loosen from”] My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword [“a sharp (cutting) word, a taunt”] among all peoples. As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.’” (2 Chronicles 7:19-22/NASU)

Per “the rest of the story” in this passage, the current adversity in our land is

due to the forsaking of God by His people and our worshipping “other gods.” We have forsaken the God of our Founding Fathers who brought us out from the bondage of tyrants into the freedom that only the Spirit of liberty found in Christ can provide.

It is not the wicked rulers in our government, or even the multiple groups among us who wish to destroy our nation, but the wicked found among God’s people that is the root issue. Our walls are down because we, the Christians of this nation, have forsaken our allegiance to Christ and gone after other gods. Our national borders are a manifestation of our hearts. The reason for insecure borders are, like the children of Israel, the insecure, unguarded hearts within God’s people.

Notice in God’s warning that He will “uproot” His people from the land which He gave them, the place of their inheritance given freely to them, as well as the house consecrated for His name. The Hebrew for this means, “to tear away, to expel, to pull or pluck up.” This same expression is found in the book of Jude in the New Testament.

Creepers In The Church

In His warning to Christians regarding the guarding, or the keeping of their place in Christ, Jude warns against those who have “crept in unnoticed” into the church, “ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness [“unbridled lust, excess, shamelessness, absence of restraint”] and deny [“to contradict, to disown”] our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4). He says that “the Lord after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 5). This does not mean they did not believe that God existed, but, per the Greek definition, were not continuing to place their confidence in Him, to trust Him through a submissive, obedient heart while on their journey to the Promised Land. They exceeded God’s established boundaries with no fear of reprisal or consequence for their actions.

The Bible tells us that after Israel saw the great power of God used against the Egyptians when He released them from their enslavement that they “feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31). Further on in their wilderness journey, which represents the journey of every Christian to the promised eternal inheritance in Christ, their fear of God had disappeared. The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?” (Numbers 14:11) Through rebellion to His leading they had become what I refer to as “unbelieving believers” (I will discuss this further in chapter seven). In so doing they were disinherited by God (Numbers 14:12), never obtaining their place of destiny in Him they had been destined to receive. Their dead bodies were strewn

across the wilderness.

In part of His warning, Jude uses the example of angels who did not keep, or guard carefully their place, their domain near God and are now “kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6/NASU). He then reinforces his point by referring to those in Sodom and Gomorrah who “indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh” (Jude 7/NASU). The NIV version of the Bible says, “they gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.” Both of these are New Testament warnings to Christians concerning the need to guard our hearts so as not to end up as angels who rebelled against God and were cut off from Him and imprisoned in eternal chains under the power of darkness, or the wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah who were incinerated.

Jude says that these “creepers, ” those who “crept in unnoticed” in the church, are “hidden reefs in your love feasts [meaning they will cause others in the body of Christ to shipwreck their faith] when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever [like the angels who did not guard their place near God].”

These “uprooted,” shameless people found among God’s people are said to be “doubly dead,” or “twice dead” in other versions. Through continued disregard of the Holy Spirit’s conviction to return through repentance, they are given over to their sin and acquire a seared conscience, one that no longer feels conviction of right and wrong.

The only person, scripturally speaking, that can possibly become twice dead is a Christian that was originally, as all mankind, dead in their sins and trespasses (Colossians 2:13). Once repentant, they have been made alive in Christ, but then turn away and forsake God with an apostate spirit. It is a spiritual death, a spiritual separation from God that, without repentance, leads to death, again. This falling away from Christ, AFTER the receiving of His invitation for salvation, has been accelerated at the end of this age through well established doctrines of demons in the church. They have produced a yielding to the broadway theology of salvation that leads to physical destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).

God’s offer of repentance is given to His people, those within the church, first. If they reject it, thereby judging themselves as being “not worthy” of the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb that they received sometime earlier in their life, He has then commanded His servants to give the invitation of repentance to others outside the church, both evil and good, compelling them to come to the feast (Matthew 22:1-10).

It’s interesting to note that Jesus said in this parable of the wedding feast, His wedding feast actually, that after those who had received Him and then

rejected the call to come when everything had been made ready for them at the end of this age, the king became enraged. They had seized His slaves, mistreated them and even killed them. Jesus said that the king then “sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire” (Matthew 22:7). At the very moment I am writing this, some of our major American cities are on fire from the hands of lawless protestors.

This parable is a picture of His wrath that occurred because of those who had received His invitation but “paid no attention and went their way” (Matthew 22:5). Wake up church!

Chapter Three

The Missed Opportunity

Looking at Luke 1:68-79 which is the declaration of hope from God through Zacharias regarding the call of his son, John the Baptist, and Luke 19:41-44 which is Jesus’ frightful declaration of missed opportunity, we see what will occur for all in the church in America who reject our current “opportune time” to repent before the Lord and the door into His ark of deliverance is shut. For Israel, their rejection of Jesus as their deliverer was destruction by their enemies. Why should it be any different for His people, in the church, today?

Due to unbelief of the angel Gabriel’s proclamation to Zacharias that his barren wife, even though elderly, would become pregnant with a son, he would become unable to speak (Luke 1:18-20). After their son was born, Elizabeth was questioned as to her choice of John as her son’s name. Zacharias then wrote on a tablet, “His name is John.” Immediately his tongue was loosed and he began to speak in praise of God. He was then filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying;

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant — As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old — Salvation FROM OUR ENEMIES, And FROM THE HAND OF ALL WHO HATE US; To show mercy toward our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE HIS WAYS; to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins [see 2 Chronicles 7:14 which refers to His people and that He will “forgive their sin”], Because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit 12

us, TO SHINE UPON THOSE WHO SIT IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:68-79/NASU)

At the moment of this prophecy, Israel was under the heavy hand of rule by the Romans. It was a word of hope for an oppressed people, God’s people.

After a lifetime of preparation by God, John’s public ministry would only last about six months before he would be beheaded. It was short but filled with an eternal impact on all of mankind. He was sent ahead of the Lord, preparing His way with a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

John, as a forerunner, proclaimed a form of liberty and justice for all that began from within. Mankind desires to be set free, rightfully so, from external oppression, but the greatest freedom is from within by the Spirit of God. External liberty without internal liberty from God is only temporal and, as we are seeing in America, can quickly change at any moment. Internal liberty is eternal freedom in Christ, no matter the external circumstance.

The Jewish people believed per the prophets that, as the Messiah, Jesus had come to conquer their enemies. The first enemy to be dealt with, though, was the oppression of a sinful nature that enslaved all people. This is the way of the Lord. His kingdom starts from within and then manifests itself outwardly. Man, without God, attempts to only work outwardly, without an inward change.

In chapter five which is called The Underground Church, in my book Small Groups And Discipleship, I wrote the following;

“The Israelites came out of Egypt looking for an external change in the form of who ruled over them. Most, though, failed to recognize and submit to the internal change the Lord desired first from within. It would take another forty years of wandering before that inner issue would be resolved. They would not be allowed to enter Canaan, the Promised Land, until Egypt was driven out of them. Many would rebel against the Lordship of God, forfeiting their right of entrance into the place of their inheritance.

External reform alone is not why God is presently calling His people out of the corrupt church system in America. After having their eyes enlightened by the Holy Spirit to the questionable practices within the Body of Christ, many are being led to come out to the home church movement. The problem, though, is that most end up looking only for the right external form of “doing church.” That is not God’s first priority for this pilgrimage. His ultimate purpose is to cleanse the hearts of His people from the contamination of the worldly religious system (i.e. “Babylon”) they came out of in preparation of what is to come.

He is bringing us out, preparing His people to govern the world after He judges the earth. In Deuteronomy 6:23 Moses told God’s people, “He brought

us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our (fore)fathers.” According to the Word of the Lord, it is time for God’s people to gather at the “Jordan”, in preparation to cross over to the other side. All of His true sheep will hear His voice to come out from “Egypt”, leaving the bondage of denominational slavery behind them to enter into the promised rest and freedom of their Master’s Kingdom.

“There” in Deuteronomy 6:23 is Egypt, the house of bondage where God’s people were building a house for someone else. It was the wrong master, a slave-driver. The houses were being made with man-made bricks. The Most High, however, does not dwell in houses made by human hands (Acts 7:48). Many laborers are presently laboring in vain, plastering whitewash on walls that stand upon a shifting-sand foundation. It’s all coming down with a great crash.

The Lord declared to Pharaoh through His servant Moses, “Let My people go that they may serve Me”. He says the same today. In time, God brought them out with an outstretched arm and great judgments. He will do it again in this land. The “pharaoh’s” will not let them go except under compulsion.”

The increasing chaos that we are currently experiencing in America is not just a rebellious coup against the principles of God that our nation was founded upon, but against God Himself. The pressure we are feeling is, I believe, from God to move His people out from their comfortable place of spiritual lethargy, preparing HIS WAY within us. It has been too easy in America to be a Christian. A faith that has not been tested in the fire cannot be trusted.

As with Lot and his family, the pressure is also being used to get God’s people out of “there,” that which He is about to judge. As John heard in his revelation;

“Then I heard another voice from heaven say: ‘Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup. Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, “I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.” Therefore in one day her plagues [“pandemics”] will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.” (Revelation 18:4-5/NIV)

The persecution that is building will reveal all of our hearts. It will manifest who we really serve, ourselves and a corrupt religious system that exists to

serve and glorify itself, or Jesus Christ.

The truth regarding “the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their [God’s people] sins” for the last days is now being revealed to the church through the John the Baptist’s of our day. Understanding the time we are in, they have been given the knowledge of what God’s people must do in order to be saved. Unfortunately, not many are listening which is why the pressure will continue to increase. It is out of God’s mercy to get our full attention.

The Visit From The Sunrise On High

“…Because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, TO SHINE UPON THOSE WHO SIT IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

The Greek for “Sunrise,” referring to Jesus Christ, is anatole (an-at-ol-ay'). It’s defined as “a rising of light, i.e. dawn.” Like the morning sunrise, it’s a picture of God coming to visit His people. This rising of light is the mercy of God, “to guide our feet into the way of peace,” out of the ever-increasing chaos.

The Greek word interpreted in Luke 1:78 as “visit” means “to look upon or after, to inspect, examine with the eyes.” It wasn’t that He didn’t already know what was happening in their midst, but I believe mainly to allow mankind to look upon Him with their own eyes so as to be given an opportunity to see for themselves and repent and be saved.

Jesus was a burst of light in a very dark world. When Jesus came to visit the Jewish people He was saying, “I am here to have you inspect Me, to look at Me and choose Me that I may guide you into the way of peace.” He came to save them from their sin. “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own [“pertaining to oneself, used universally of what is one's own as opposed to belonging to another”], but his own did not receive him.” (John 1:10-11/NIV)

Jesus’ visitation was for their benefit, their salvation. He gave the Jewish people, His own, a chance first, among all other people groups, to be saved before bringing judgment. He does the same today among His people. He’s not willing that anyone should perish, especially among His own children (i.e. the church), but that all would turn in repentance and receive the knowledge of His salvation in these last days (Luke 1:77).

The Opportune Time To Repent

As we will see in the next passage from Luke, chapter 19, we, the church,

are in an “opportune time,” a “seasonable time” to repent, before it’s too late and the door of His mercy is shut. Unfortunately, like the Jewish people, not all of His children in the church are willing. Remember, He came unto His own, but they were not willing to receive Him and be delivered. Are you and I willing in this opportune time of mercy?

What was once a prophecy of hope now became, through the sobbing declaration of Jesus, a tragically missed opportunity. Their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah who is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6) would allow their enemies to destroy them.

“When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept [“to sob, i.e. to wail aloud”] over it, saying, ‘If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize [1097- “to know, understand, perceive”] the time of your visitation.’” (Luke 19:41-44/NASU)

There are three specific things Jesus declared that were specifically spoken of in Zacharias’ prophecy. The first is in regards to “the things which make for peace.”

In Luke 1:79 Zacharias said concerning the visitation of the “Sunrise from on high,” which referred to Jesus, that He would “guide our feet into the way of peace. ” Like the church in America today, those referred to as “His own,” many refused to be led by Jesus and would perish.

The second thing to observe is what Zacharias, and then Jesus, declared about Israel’s enemies. Zacharias said, “Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us… To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear.” Because of their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah, He said, “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another…” He offered to protect them from their enemies, if they would turn from “their sins,” but they were unwilling.

In His rebuke of the religious leaders, Jesus declared;

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!” (Matthew 23:37-38/NASU)

The desolate houses of worship across our nation testify of the desolate hearts within the church. The enemies of our nation wait for an opportune moment to pounce on us. It all depends on how the church in this nation reacts to our opportune moment to repent. “If My people” never meant more than it does at this present moment in our history.

The promises of either protection or destruction now lie before us. Our borders will be as secure as the hearts of God’s people are in Christ through obedience. Jesus said the enemy of the Jewish people would level them and kill their children within them. We better take this statement very seriously. Could this occur to the families of God’s people in our nation? If we stubbornly and arrogantly deny Jesus’ present call to draw near to Him we will find out.

The offer of protection from their enemies did not apply to many among the Jewish people because they refused to submit to the Way to receive it. Rebellion to Christ’ leading after receiving Him removes His wall of protection (Hebrew 10:26-31). Repentance and continued obedience keep it intact.

The third promise proclaimed through Zacharias to examine is “of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.” Jesus indictment against the Jewish people in Luke, chapter 19, as He rode into Jerusalem sobbing as he prophesied their imminent destruction at the hands of their enemies was, “because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” The Greek for “time” is defined as “an occasion, i.e. set or proper time; opportune or seasonable time, the right time.” Jesus’ coming to them at that time in history was all of these.

While Zacharias was performing his priestly office before God, the angel Gabriel appeared before him, declaring that his wife, Elizabeth, who was barren, would give birth to a son. When Zacharias questioned Gabriel because of their age, he answered him, saying;

“I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.” (Luke 1:19-20/NASU)

The Greek for “proper time” is the same word interpreted “time” in Jesus’ declaration above. Remember, John the Baptist’ ministry was “to turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God” (Luke 1:16). It was their opportune, or seasonable time to return to God, their God, before the season changed and the door of mercy shut. It is the same for the sons and daughters

of God in America at this very moment.

To not return to the Lord in this time of “tender mercy” of your God is to be unprotected in the horrific judgments coming upon our soil. Before the justice of God is poured out, though, I have been shown a revival that will occur during the most “difficult” times, times which we have begun to encounter.

The pressure the Holy Spirit has begun to apply to God’s children is to awaken us, to move us out of our spiritual lethargy back to the Lord. He has intentionally moved us out of our buildings to expose the popular business of dead religion and useless rituals that has leavened the church in America.

Christian, to not turn back in this last call is to forfeit the grace of God that was yours originally, when you first received Christ, but have now received in vain. Jesus said that it will result in your being assigned to “a place with the unbelievers” (Luke 12:46). Jesus actually said that not only will your place be reassigned, but that you would be “cut in pieces”!

Not many of our man-pleasing hireling preachers would dare proclaim this truth today because it would most likely hurt their offering plates, and their numbers. That’s not what you do to build a megachurch. Instead, as the Holy Spirit spoke to me while watching a church in a stadium filled with people, you simply “Tell them what they want to hear.”

Jesus’ words of destruction from their enemies was fulfilled a few years later when the Romans came into Jerusalem and leveled it. How much time do we have left? Many watchmen on our walls have been crying out for a long time, warning us of impending judgment if we, the church, would not turn from our wicked ways.

Based on what is now occurring, not many have been listening. There are so few these days with ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. Like Zacharias, unbelief has shut their mouths (and their ears!). The good news in this is that God, in mercy, is about to visit us in the most powerful way ever seen on our soil so as to wake up His sleeping bride in His last call.

Church, REPENT for the Kingdom of God draws near!