Throwing the Baby out with the bath water

I have not felt the unction to specifically pray about COVID-19 per say, but during this period I have felt a deeper pull to take in as much personal time with God as I can. 

Really ? !  I hear someone say back there. Well,  let me explain; when this year started out, I was feeling weary from lots of fasting in 2019. So I told the LORD that I would do a week a month at most through 2020. I did that for January and February. However mid February I felt a very strong and deep unction to fast and pray starting March 1^st 2020 for 3 weeks. I actually wanted to do a vegetable and fruit fast for the period. Because I never wanted to interrupt my exercise regimen I ended up fasting for 12 – 18 hours a day on fluids and leaving out about 2 days a week for my exercise. I however determined to do the vegetable and fruit fast with fluids for the last week. I put my gym trainer on notice that I would not show for that week. By the end of that fast, the Uganda lock down drama had started. What was I fasting for ? That I may draw closer to Him in my walk with Him. I determined at the beginning of the year that my prayer item would be that.

Now today, I do not have to drive through a traffic jam (3-4 hours daily saved). Then I do not have to make time to dress up. I can directly hit my work bench and deliver on my work related outputs with ease. by 5 pm I am able to align myself to do the family alter, have time for myself on other personal development, get to bed early, and then engage in midnight prayer watch. So for me the lock down is an opportunity for the church to sharpen up.

Initially I did not understand, but as soon as I tuned in, the instructions from God of how to use this time started coming in. Those that have gone before us desired to see this time but to no avail; my pastor friend called it "Sabbath" ! the LORD has called the entire earth to a global Sabbath. But Sabbaths were meant to draw Holy convocations. Sabbaths were meant to be times of rest, reflection and personal retreat in order to revive one’s spirit. The Reference in the book of Hebrews about sabbath talks about “Entering into His rest”; His shalom !

On another front however, there has been increasing prophetic direction for the church and the nation. Many of these words do not look good and can conjure up fear if one is not careful to perceive them correctly. This is the time also the aversion of a number of Christians to gift like prophesy has become very apparent. I have bumped into a number of professing Christians that will not hear of a prophetic word, or a word of knowledge as they call is all fake! Now, I understand the effect of the false prophets; what however I do not understand is why a child of God will totally reject a mode that YAHWEH Elohim has opted to use down through out the ages. Now, if we are all crying out to God, but will not accept Him to talk back to us, why do we cry out at all? Or have we fallen so far away that we now believe in a God that does not speak? Are we not the ones making the words of God of non effect? Jesus said in Mark 7:13 "Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye." He was addressing the Pharisees who were now emphasizing tradition as if it were the oracles of God and as a result, they had grown insensitive to the workings of the Spirit.

Today we are quick to judge anyone that calls us to order or discipline as a "law" governed Christian, a “Pharisee of Pharisees”. We do not seem to appreciate that in pursuit of our pains and hurt, rather than the proper working of the gifts of God, we have now created our own version of god; it has a form of Godliness, but lacking the real power thereof (2 Tim 3:5). To this god, no one can hear from God, for direct instructions about life and Godliness; I have been told by some that those days ended in the book of Acts ! I have shared a number of prophetic words given during this recent pandemic that the entire world is working to wrestle down. I shared these mostly with the children of the House. I have received in some cases some really shocking reactions of straight rejection for the prophetic utterances !

So when God speaks back to us and we block our ears, how then shall we hear ? Another defense I have heard repeated on more than one occasion seems to form the theology of some today; some one asks "how can a loving God do this ?" " how can a loving God even say disaster is coming?"; they have said that their loving God will not give prior warnings about “negative” events to come. They do not realize that according to the tenets of the word of God, when men become evil and wicked, He (God) does not even need to punish them, but  rather allow for nature to revolt. The bible calls it "the land vomiting out its inhabitants" (Leviticus. 18:25 - For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants; Leviticus 18:28 That the land spew not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you.)

Nature has a voice; the blood of Abel spoke, the Fig tree the Jesus spoke to heard, and David the psalmists repeatedly refers to trees singing and clapping hands, and mountains jumping. Even Jesus in Mark 11:23 talks of speaking to the mountain, and it obeying the voice of our commands. The land too has feelings; nature has feelings and its only a matter of time before it reacts in repulsion and begins to vomit its inhabitants out of the land. God does not even have to be involved in this process. However, His involvement is in allowing nature to process with its course of action.

So "How can a loving God destroy His people?" He doesn’t! God in His love begins to warn us the day we first err (Isaiah 30:21 - Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.) Problem is that when He speaks to us, we like little spoilt brats will often tempt Him again, the same way your stubborn little son will want to defy your word. So we go off into the opposite direction or pretend we did not hear. So in progression he sends us our pastors, friends or family who site His oracles to us. We still turn the other way and soon our consciences begin to become seared. Progressively we no longer even listen.

Then he sends prophets; ah but remember that we do not believe in them. In that instant we become masters at discernment, and alas every prophet is false, simply because he does not repeat to us what our ears itch to hear (2 Tim 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;) this is the point at which the child of God begins looking for their own "prophets". At this point now we are our own masters and nothing stands between us and destruction. Even satan at this point will abandon you because you are already in self destruct mode; he has "better use" for his time on more serious Christians. This is the point at which nature takes over, because then it has also had enough. Nonetheless, nature never comes at us without warning; but remember we already have a culture of not paying attention ! Then disaster strikes.

So we run off to pray, and God in His loving self same begins to tell us the very same things He had always wanted to draw our attention to, but then we quite have not yet gotten to the place of humility where we are open to listen to the instructions from the prophets. so we reject the word and the cycle of self destruction repeats itself. Unfortunately, at this point, often times we hold the abort key that enables us to return to sanity.

The question is, "Will you use that key this time round ?"