I wrote this back in December of 2006, it seemed appropriate to post it again now nine years later.
"Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say we are delivered to do all these abominations?"
-Jeremiah Chapter 7 vs. 9-11
For the last couple of weeks, I have been studying a lot in Jeremiah. I love reading in the book of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. There is so much information that we can use and compare to things going on in our world today, God flabbergasts me with His Word. 
In Jeremiah chapter 40 vs.2-4 the Captain of the guard took Jeremiah and pronounced to him that the Lord thy God had spoken evil upon this place and had brought unto the people as He had said. Because they had sinned against God and had not obeyed His voice, therefore wrath came upon them in the consequences of their sin.
The Captain of the Guard (Nebuzar-adan) whose name means "Fruits, Prophecies and/or judgment" came to Jeremiah to tell him that this thing had come upon the people because of their disobedience. He then tells Jeremiah, "Now behold, I loose thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hand."
He tells him that all the land is before him that wherever it seemed well for him to go, and wherever it be convenient, for him to go there. In other words, be patient in your decision making of where you are to step next, however as long as you stay faithful to God, all the land is before you. He has a place He wants you to go with Him, but if you choose another place, it is still before you and He will still bless you. God said wherever you walk you will take blessing with you. Are you faithful to Him to receive that blessing?
There were two that Jeremiah went to Gedaliah "meaning Yahweh=great", Ahikam, "meaning brother of support or helper". He went with them and dwelt in Mizpah (vs.6)
Mizpah "meaning-look out or watch tower". Isn't it ironic how Yahweh is another name for God and Ahikam is that of support or helper which is what the Holy Spirit is unto us, and shouldn't we as Christians be dwelling on the watch tower on the look out to warn those who are being misled by watered down doctrine and false teachers?
Regardless of how people look at us are we not supposed to stand up and look out with the help of our Father in Heaven using wisdom and discernment to test the spirits by that of which all is taught?
In vs. 13 Johanan (Meaning –God is merciful) tries to warn Gedaliah what Ishmael (meaning God will hear) was going to do to them. Johanan asked that they let him kill Ishmael privately but they would not let him. Though Gedaliah did not heed the warning, pride overtook Ishmael and later after the warning, it came to pass. The people did not even know that Gedaliah had been slain until after two days of his death. (41:4). You see many times God is merciful and He hears our prays when we have repented of our sins that we so often commit. He hears our prayers and our cries, but grace is not there so that we may abound and many times we wonder why we still must suffer consequences after we have repented. However if we ignore the warnings spiritual death can occur causing an eternal separation.
What we don't recognize is that many times we don't repent until we are already walking in our consequence, so even though God is merciful, and forgiving we must realize that on that second day, when we experience his mercy, sin has already killed a certain area of our life. That is where the restoration from God is applied to our hearts. It's best to heed the warning from the Word of God and stay faithful to His mercy so that the wages that come from sin, we don't have to face. Now in 41: it mentions four men who were concerned about Gedaliah, they came from "Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria" which means (The shoulder of God is great; watch) Ishmael misled them and slew them and casts them into the pit. (41:7).
"Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads. Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee."
Now the Word says here that Judah "mourns" and Judah means praise. A little further you see where they sent little ones for water. Many churches today, including those operated by younger Pastors are expecting young Christians to be able to bring fresh water. Many young men who are teaching in churches today have not gone through the proper growth process that the Bible encourages before going off and teaching others.
The ground represents the foundation of the body, which here says was chapt. Meaning cracked, because of a drought that was caused by lack of the fresh flow of water. The plowmen - the workers - the Pastor and Teachers, Apostles, Evangelists and Prophets – were ashamed and covered their heads. The hind, those who are hungry for feed (New Christians or others who were unsaved) forsook it because there was no grass.
It seems we have a watered down gospel that makes a lot of Churches look like the world. Void of Christ and full of dry ground that creates no new life in the people who sit in the pews listening to charming words of inspiring "feel good in your sinful lifestyle" messages while the false prophets misguide hundreds and hundreds of people straight to an eternal separation from God.We must test the spirits and not be ignorant of discerning such false teachers. God wants a generation of ministers to begin to not only acknowledge His righteousness but begin to walk after it by sharing the truth of the Gospel with others. I personally support three ministries outside of my regular tithe because I have confidence in the Word that those men share, and I know they are about the truth of the Gospel. God is our provider!
However, when they begin to use their counsel as a money changing outlet, they have turned the house of God into a den of thieves, and as Jeremiah 14:14 says, "They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart."
If Pastors are sharing a message to massage the sin in peoples lives and only teaching a "God of love" they are going to stand before God with the blood of many children on their hands. (Ezekiel 3:20 and Ezekiel 33:6)
When a person is placed in a position "by God" to lead others onto that straight and narrow, they must teach a God of Love, Mercy and Grace, but also share and teach with them the consequences of sin and disobedience to the Word of God. He is just in His judgment and we will all stand in front of the Judgment seat of God and give an account. I would that our eyes be as Jeremiah (14:17) says "Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grevious blow."
Innocent youth born into the body of Christ are being torn away from the true teachings of Christ, led away by emotional highs and watered down milk. It's time we recognize it's not about quantity it's about quality. It's nice to have a church of 10,000 people. But how many of those people are truly living a sanctified life?
Innocent youth born into the body of Christ are being torn away from the true teachings of Christ, led away by emotional highs and watered down milk. It's time we recognize it's not about quantity it's about quality. It's nice to have a church of 10,000 people. But how many of those people are truly living a sanctified life?
We cannot stand idly by while mega Pastors pervert the gospel to a lost and dying congregation of people who trust him to lead them to salvation.
The mercy and grace of God is STILL there as long as "My people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and I will heal their land."
As the body of Christ we must stand in the gap and if given the chance to plead with those misleading others to repent and turn to the truth. Will we continue to stand in the house of God and live a life of sin without transformation or repentance?
We need to realize what revival is all about. Revival is not a time for the "saints" to get fired up and stirred up and jump around and shout and walk right back out into a world and not lead a single soul unto the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Revival is about bringing people into the knowledge of Christ and leading souls to the cross of repentance. Revival starts within' the heart of a true Christian and never ends. It's not something that comes around once or twice a year. Revival is a lifestyle ~ It's like fire shelled up in my bones…..my mouth shall never cease sharing the love of Christ with others because that is who I am. Who are you?
Sin is sin folks, no matter how you paint it or try to pretty it up if you do not repent and turn from it your heart will wax cold to the truth. God's love is relentless and His desire is that none should perish but that all should have everlasting life. The only way to do that is to surrender your life to the Christ pick up your cross and follow His lead, not a fable or man but Christ and the Word of God alone.
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