Amanuensis

Nahum 1:2-3   The Lord is a jealous God, filled with vengeance and wrath. He takes revenge on all who oppose him and continues to rage against his enemies! The Lord is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet.

You dismay over all the evil surrounding you. You feel small and powerless and it is as if the war has been lost sometimes. Remember these words, I am slow to anger. That does not mean that I don’t care. That does not mean that I will not exact my judgement upon those who oppose me, those who abuse my children, those who try to take my rightful place as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I will be heard. I will be seen. When it is time. You do not understand my timetable. Trust it. Trust me. I am conscious of every single thing that happens. Every thought had. Every desire. Every movement. Every breath. You cannot understand who I am and what I am capable of. That is all right. That is expected. Just trust. I am aware. I am in control. I will be seen, heard, and the consequences of their actions will be felt. I am a God filled with vengeance and wrath. Do not misunderstand those concepts. My wrath is against all those who purposely oppose me. Who make conscious decisions to act against me. Not against my children when they fall into sin. My vengeance will be had against those who purposefully and mindfully choose evil over good. Who choose your enemy over me. Who choose to do harm, to destroy, to usurp my rightful place in your world. I do not seek vengeance over my children when they do stupid things, when they make wrong decisions yet have a good heart under it all. This is why I am slow to anger. I choose to give all the opportunity to seek my face, to admit wrongdoing and repent and turn back to me. The day will come when that opportunity will cease to be. Not today, child. But when it is right in my timing. Until then, do not forget who I am. Do not fall for the lies of your enemy that I do not care, that I do not love you, that I am not powerful enough, that I am not paying attention. You know who I am. Cling to that knowledge and stay close. Do not allow your enemy even a sliver of space to pry you away from my side. When you hear lies, immediately reject them. When it feels overwhelming, pray, read my Word, fellowship with your brothers and sisters. But do not allow even a smidgeon of yourself to doubt, to fear, to disbelieve. Take your thoughts captive. You are now living the meaning of that Scripture. 

Nahum 1:7-8  The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him. But he will sweep away his enemies in an overwhelming flood. He will pursue his foes into the darkness of night.

This. This is Truth, my children. I am your refuge. I am your safety net. You are living in times of trouble. There is a battle raging around you – in every realm. My armies are battling for you in the unseen world. Some of you feel it. You sense it. Your spirit is simultaneously stimulated and exhausted by it. You have known of it for many years now, but are feeling the intensity of it these days. It is now relentless, high-pitched, forceful. Do not allow it to cause you fear. Be comforted by it. I am on your side, and I will crush your enemies. In the meantime, seek my refuge when you feel overwhelmed. Turn your eyes to me, remembering that you are surrounded by my forces, by my armies, by my warriors who do battle for you in my name. Pray. Sing hymns. Praise. Share my Truth. Stare into the abyss and know that you will not fall into it nor be overwhelmed by its darkness. I have already conquered it. Remember standing at the top of Half Dome and feeling as if you were being sucked into the nothingness before you, at your feet? You were terrified and did not believe you would be able to descend from the top. And, if you had tried to do so going forward – seeing the abyss, feeling it suck you towards it – you would not have been able to do so. But, you listened to me, and you descended backwards. Hands on the ropes, trusting in me, praying as you did, you descended backwards. You did not allow the visual of the danger to distract you nor stop you. You found the safe way to get down off that rock. Were some people probably making fun of you? Sure. Did you care? No. You put your trust in me, you listened to my advice and followed it and you made it back down off the mountaintop. And in doing that climb and descent, you allowed me to walk you through conquering one of your greatest fears. What happened after that? You were stronger, more courageous, and more trusting in me and your ability to hear and obey me. And your life got better. We are there again. You are standing at a precipice. The abyss facing you is not thousands of feet of open air, but this time the darkness of evil. So, same advice – go forward into it with your eyes on me – not on the abyss. Walk cautiously – choose your steps carefully. In all of it, listen to only my voice, obey only my commands, and trust your gut. You know my voice. You know when what you hear is not of me. So even when it feels as if you are walking backwards not able to see where your feet are landing or what in what direction you are going – as long as you are following my voice you know you are safe and you are heading in the right direction. Trust, child. It’s all about trust in these times. As long as it is I whom you trust, all is well. 

Ezekiel 24:14 “I, the Lord, have spoken! The time has come, and I won’t hold back. I will not change my mind, and I will have no pity on you. You will be judged on the basis of all your wicked actions, says the Sovereign Lord.” 

The wicked are being unveiled. Their acts are coming to light. They have had plenty of time to repent. Plenty of time to change their ways. Plenty of time to do what is right. They have chosen to stay in their sin. They have chosen to reject me and continue to worship their idols, to worship themselves. So, I will judge them without mercy. I will not change my mind as to their fate. They will not escape me, whether that judgment comes while they are alive or after they leave the earth and stand before me. I will have my say. They will not escape. (2018)

Hosea 2:2-8 “But now bring charges against Israel – your mother – for she is lo longer my wife, and I am no longer her husband. Tell her to remove the prostitute’s makeup from her face and the clothing that exposes her breasts. Otherwise, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. I will leave her to die of thirst, as in a dry and barren wilderness. And I will not love her children, for they were conceived in prostitution. Their mother is a shameless prostitute and became pregnant in a shameful way. She said, ‘I’ll run after other lovers and sell myself to them for food and water, for clothing of wool and linen, and for olive oil and drinks.’ For this reason I will fence her in with thornbushes. I will block her path with a wall to make her lose her way. When she runs after her lovers, she won’t be able to catch them. She will search for them but not find them. Then she will think, ‘I might as well return to my husband, for I was better off with him than I am now.’ She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has – the grain, the new wine, the olive oil; I even gave her silver and gold. But she gave all my gifts to Baal.”

This is what your Nation has done. This is how I see you. You have prostituted yourselves. You have sold yourselves for comfort, money, fame, celebrity, sex, drugs – any and everything that causes you to feel pleasure. You have traded all of my gifts for garbage. You have turned your backs on me and chosen to worship the darkness. You choose to believe in lies and reject Truth. You choose to worship yourselves, your own lives. You may believe that you are in charge of your lives, you may believe that you can change my creation, that you can reject me and survive – you may believe anything you wish to believe. You may choose to worship whatever or whomever you wish. That is free will. That is a gift – another gift – that I gave to you. Another gift you are, in essence, throwing away. Another gift you are choosing to use against me and – ultimately – against yourselves. I will not honor every choice you make. I will honor your ability to do so and allow you to make those choices, however I will not protect you against the consequences of your poor choices any longer. As you have seen, my protective covering is being removed from your Nation. Once it has been completely taken from you, your Nation will fall. It will no longer exist as it once was. I will never leave nor forsake my children, but I will not protect your nation much longer. It is a cesspool of evil and darkness and if you do not rise up and take it back it will fall. Soon. Another choice you must make. Will you stand up and protect what I gave to you over 200 years ago? Or will you allow it to be swallowed up by evil? I will honor whichever choice you all make. 

Daniel 11:28-32 The king of the north will then return home with great riches. On the way he will set himself against the people of the holy covenant, doing much damage before continuing on his journey. Then at the appointed time he will once again invade the south, but this time the result will be different. For warships from western coastlands will scare him off, and he will withdraw and return home. But he will vent his anger against the people of the holy covenant and reward those who forsake the covenant. His army will take over the Temple fortress, pollute the sanctuary, put a stop to the daily sacrifices, and set up the sacrilegeous object that causes desecration. He will flatter and win over those who have violated the covenant. But the people who know their God will be strong and will resist him.

Pay close attention. This is already happening. It has already begun. The Temple fortress – My Church – has been taken over. The sanctuary – My Word – has been polluted.  The daily sacrifices – prayer, worship, real communion with Me – has been stopped. False teachers have taken over. You have seen it with your own eyes. You have seen the false doctrine both inside and outside the walls of My Church. False teachers — prosperity gospel, social justice, critical theory – all of these and more have been taught inside My Church as though they were equal to – or better than – My Word. The Word given to you in written form has been desecrated. It has been robbed of meaning and power. It is being taught in part, the meaning twisted. It has been demeaned, belittled, presented as fiction. It is being presented as out of date, out of context – as if anything I have said, anything I have commanded, anything I have created is anything less than perfect or eternally valid.  My Church is a weak, feckless place these days. Not only is it NOT strengthening My children, not strengthening your relationship with Me, not teaching the truth about Me and the world I have created, it is actually weakening all of those things. My commandments are being sacrificed on the altar of social appropriateness, of feelings, of false pride, of virtue signaling. My family units are being decimated. The holiness of marriage has been tainted. Truth has been shredded and is being stomped into the dust. My creation is being murdered in the womb. My little ones are being victimized. The sacrilegious object that causes desecration? At the moment it is false doctrine – socialism, critical theory, social justice, fake science, gender theory – all of those ideas and movements and beliefs that are antithetical to My Truth, that tear away at My teaching, that shatter all that I have created and protected. Do you not see? First, the enemy infected My children with doubt, with anxiety, with self-consciousness, with low self-image, with lies about Me and My love. Then he swoops in with false doctrines – all in opposition to My Truth, all meant to make them feel better about themselves while ignoring Me. So is created his greatest and most successful weapon – division. You who know Me cling to and defend that Truth. Those who have violated the covenant – those who reject Me and My Truth – forcefully oppose you who know Me. Families are shattered, communities destroyed. Countries taken apart from within. All the while, the lies continue, more and more unbelievable every day – yet easily accepted by those who would rather live in lies than accept Me and Truth. Distractions abound while your enemy marches on – toward his ultimate and forever goal – equality with Me. He boasts of his capability to change My children’s DNA – to “create” life. You are just an experiment to him, a means of ascending to My Father’s throne. He will never succeed, but as you know and see daily, as he marches forward in his journey, he does and will continue to destroy My children. Yet, you believe. Yet, you stay strong. I am here, I will continue to support you. Stay focused on Truth. Stay on the narrow, straight road. Do not be distracted nor waylaid. Show Me to the world. Show My love, yet not without showing My wrath for evil. Do not fear. This is just another battle in the war that you know I win. Yes, I could end it all this instant. But many would be lost. Help Me reach them. Be a walking demonstration of what I do when I am in My children’s lives. 

1 John 3:7-24 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. 

Here it is – the key to all of this in your world today. You know this is true. You know that a person shows the world who he is, what he believes, to whom he belongs, by his actions. So, how can your enemy overtake so many of my children? How can he steal so many from me, the Creator, the Way, the Truth and the Life? By making them believe lies. Your world today has no basis for determining what is sin and what is not, because there is no absolute truth, there is no objective truth, there is no moral truth. Abortion? Reproductive rights. Gender? No such thing, a social construct. Marriage? Whatever you make it to be. Jesus? A good teacher. Tolerance? Letting everyone do whatever they want without judging them. Restorative justice? Rewriting history and throwing money and favor at the “oppressed”. Satan? A myth. Christianity? Oppression. Race? Dictates who you are and what your life will be. Truth? Subjective. Morality? Relative. You live in a quicksand world – there is nowhere firm to step, no solid ground on which to stand. Every day you are swept from side to side by the lies and manipulations of your enemies. You are kept off guard, off kilter, unable to stand firmly. Unless you know me. Really know me. And your enemy knows that, which is why he spends so much time and energy on decimating true faith. So much time and energy on spreading lies about me and the Father. So much time and energy on defeating you. But, as we both know, he will ultimately lose. The day of his defeat is drawing near. Thus the fevered pitch of the battle. Hang on. Do not pay attention to what is around you. Look up. What you see in your world is temporary. What you see in me is eternal and unchanging. And I am beside you to make sure you do not lose sight of that.

Jeremiah 30:33-34 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

That day is coming. For you, I have already forgiven you. I have already written my instructions deep within you, in your heart. Stand firm. You are already there. I will bring the rest, in my time. 

Daniel 2:46, 3:4-6 The king said to Daniel, “Truly your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings, a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this secret.” …..  King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then a herald shouted out, “People of all races and nations and languages, listen to the king’s command! When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and other musical instruments, bow to the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s gold statue. Anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”

How quickly you forget. One minute Nebuchadnezzar was astounded at my power and the next he is raising a statue to his “god”. One minute he recognizes that I am the God who is worthy of praise and worship and the next he is ordering everyone to bow down a worship a statue he created. This is how my children become lost so easily. You take your eyes off of me.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Daniel 2:28 “But there is a God in Heaven who reveals secrets, and he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the future.” 2:30 “And it is not because I am wiser than anyone else that I know the secret of you dream, but because God wants you to understand what was in your heart.”

Reveal who I am to those who do not know. I will show you how. I will show you when. Remain ready. 

I am not a God who delights in keeping secrets. I am not a God who delights in leaving my children in the dark. I want you to know me. I want you to know what lies ahead. I want you to know what to do, when to do it, how to do it. I want to help you. I love you. You are my children. You know that. You believe that. So many do not. Be my voice in a world that is too spiritually blind, deaf and dumb to access mine. Be my hands. Be my feet. Minister to your brothers and sisters in my name and in my place. Reach those that will allow you to. Pray for those who will not.

Daniel: 2:24 Then Daniel went in to see Arioch, whom the king had ordered to execute the wise men of Babylon. Daniel said to him, “Don’t kill the wise men. Take me to the king, and I will tell him the meaning of his dream.”

Daniel was, for all intents and purposes, a captive, a slave of Babylon. Yet, when the wise men could not interpret the king’s dreams, instead of standing by, he saved their lives. He could have just allowed them to be executed, then stepped forward to interpret the dream. He had every mortal right to allow his enemies to be killed. Yet, he did not. He graciously intervened to save their lives. This is what I expect of my children. Yes, you have been persecuted for your beliefs, for your knowledge, for your protection of the body and health I have given you. Yet, when it is time, when they need you, I expect you to step forward with kindness and graciousness and help them. Do you not see that this is one of the reasons you are still here? This is one of the reasons I gave you the knowledge, strength and yes, faith, to be defiant? They need you.