Zeal To Repent

ZEAL TO REPENT!
A Key to Personal and National Restoration
Pastor Jeffrey Daly
Acknowledgments My wife, Dr. Laurie Daly, has been patient and supportive in this entire writing process, and I thank her for her love. To be married to an attorney, a pastor, and now a part-time author has been a huge challenge! I have to pray that the Lord will restore all and will bless her enormously. God bless you and thank you, honey! And two special friends, volunteers with me on this Day of Repentance project, Debra Monterosso, and Glenda Lattimore, have also been a great help, giving up much of their time with ideas, editing, and prayers. What a great blessing to have them on this team. God bless you! Thank you both so much! My two other volunteer directors in this Day of Repentance ministry, Reverend Jim Wilson and Pastor Rodger Martin, also have been a wonderful source of prayer support and wisdom as this day of repentance project has unfolded. Above all, I have to thank the Holy Spirit. If anything within is True, its His. I love Him so much and did my best to listen and understand. Wherever Ive missed it, thats on me! Were in a spiritual battle for the soul of this and other nations. Repentance is a key tool to bring us in the body of Christ back under His Covering. Its a key to personal and national restoration. I also acknowledge the many spiritual warriors across the nations who are carrying the Cross of Yeshua/Jesus Christ in these perilous times when His Judgment could fall at any point if we dont immediately repent. Thank you for your service to the Lord in advancing His Kingdom. As you read this book may the Living God bless you with these well-known verses of Scripture, the Aaronic blessing: The LORD bless you, and keep you. The LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you. The LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.
Zeal to Repent! Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013 2
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Entering the Kingdom and Becoming an Overcomer ...................................................4 Chapter Two: Dont Abort the Spiritual DNA......................................................................................10 Chapter Three: Repentance Begins with Me and You .........................................................................13 Chapter Four: Repentance and the Body of Christ .............................................................................17 Chapter Five: Bold to Speak the Truth ...................................................................................................25 Chapter Six: Discerning of Spirits and Taking Down Strongholds Through Repentance .............29 Chapter Seven: Repentance to Ensure Gods Covering ......................................................................42 Chapter Eight: His Disasters and Repentance ......................................................................................51 Chapter Nine: Days of Repentance Grassroots and Globally .............................................................57 Chapter Ten: Days of Repentance to Reset the Cornerstone ..............................................................64 Chapter Eleven: Not All Will Repent .....................................................................................................74 Chapter Twelve: Our Living God is Our Best Weapon .......................................................................81
Zeal to Repent!
Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013
Chapter One: Entering the Kingdom and Becoming an Overcomer After defeating the devil, Yeshua/ Jesus came out of the wilderness and began His ministry preaching this one word first: REPENT. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 4:17. Its similar to the military term: about face. By repenting one turns away from the old way of life in the flesh and the world to choose to be born again spiritually through faith in the Messiah. God urges each of us to repent of our human ways, to turn from the sins weve inherited and accumulated, to choose heaven instead of hell, and to become a part of the Kingdom which Jesus declared is now at hand. Repentance requires first a revelation, a complete change of mind, what is called in greek a metanoia. Repentance then requires action to walk out the new direction towards His Holiness. Being human, we all have inadequacies; ways that compared to Him are wicked. He desires that we continue, individually and as part of His body, to remove the past through repentance and to turn to Him, in order to be an overcomer and sit beside Him on His throne as He overcame and sat down in victory beside His Father on His throne. (Revelation 3: 19-21). There is no other way to heaven and to a blessed life here on earth. Repentance is essential to enter the Kingdom of the Living God. A person has to acknowledge that he or she is a sinner, that we cant enter into a relationship with the Living God in that faulty state because God Himself is perfect and cant fellowship with wickedness. We also have to acknowledge that Yeshua/ Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb, given to us
by God the Father, to redeem us from the sin every human is born into, and that we are made righteous and redeemed only by the atoning blood of the Lamb. A person has to acknowledge with his or her free will that Yeshua/ Jesus is the anointed One, the Messiah, the only One authorized by God to perform this sacred act of redemption. Upon entering the Kingdom by Gods grace through faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit will then inhabit every believer. The Holy Spirit then becomes the Helper, the Teacher, and the One who can work with each believer to wipe away the old patterns of the flesh through repentance. This renewing of our spirit and restoring of our souls removes the lies of the world and points in the direction of Gods Purity. REPENT was not only the Lords first word that He preached. It was one of His last as He speaks to us in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 3:19-21). As the Risen Christ, now with all authority in heaven and on earth, He implores the believers in Ephesus, in Pergamum, in Thyatira, in Sardis, and in Laodicea to repent. The Lords description of Laodicea is a picture of the lukewarm body of Christ today. Its also a picture of the developed nations on this planet. And its a picture of me and you: These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing---and do not know that you are wretched, miserable,
poor, blind, and naked---I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Revelation 3: 14-22. In the amplified version, Revelation 3, verse 19, reads: Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten----[that is, ] I discipline and instruct them. So be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal, and repent---changing your mind and attitude. Thus the title of this book: Zeal to Repent! We can call upon the Lord to give us a daily zeal for repenting. Psalm 139: verses 23-24 says: Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. Current events motivate us all the more to repent this very day. Our sins individually and as a global body of Christ are enormous. In many nations we are at a tipping point. The souls of our nations hang in the balance. Do we trust in God or in ourselves? How long can His Grace and Mercy prevail over Judgment? Like forgiveness, repentance is a privilege from God. Like forgiveness, repentance first goes against our human mentality, against
our flesh, against our egos, which want to keep their own control. Its our base human nature that wants to believe in our own selfrighteousness, rather than righteousness in God through Christ. Our modern culture has trusted in the Tree of Knowledge, building up our own limited intelligence in the flesh rather than putting our trust totally in the Tree of Life. As part of modern life we have trusted in our own limited intelligence instead of Gods Wisdom, available to any person redeemed by the Holy Spirit. Its a blessed process. Hes knocking at the door of our hearts and minds to clean them up (Revelation 3:20). We need to open the door to let Him in to dine with us. We can ask Him to search the writing on the walls of our hearts and minds daily, to illuminate any graffiti that is written there, any impure or profane thing that is not pleasing to Him. All the while, while dining with Him, we can thank Him for the blessed assurance that His precious blood erases all that is sin from us. Sin is real and leads to death. Good works and playing church wont save us. Its never by might, nor power, but only by Gods Spirit. (Zechariah 4:6). There is no other way by which we can be cleansed of sin except by His Spirit, the washing by His Word, the grace of God through the eternal covenant of the Cross. He wants every human to be saved and each of us to be more like Him. Like forgiveness, sincere repentance---having a change of mind and heart and turning away from the flesh and the world, turning up His path of Purity--- brings freedom. The Lord will forgive all that is confessed, and the Lord will support every step towards His Purity.
Peter, citing Leviticus, flowing with the Holy Spirit, summarizes this perfectly: Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. 1 Peter 1: 13-16. And repentance also always brings joy. Following Gods appointed times in the Old Testament, five days after the holiest day of the year, the day of atonement-----a day to fast, to avoid work, to afflict ones soul -----comes the week-long, most joyful feast of the year, the Feast of Tabernacles. The Lord tells those participating: You shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. Leviticus 23:40. Joy and liberation follow confession of sin and sincere repentance. The world, and many in the body of Christ, misunderstand repentance and shun it, thinking its only about punishment. No--- repentance is following Christs Purity and experiencing increased intimacy with Him, flowing in His Joy. Theres no condemnation for those of us in Christ. The Abba Father and the Risen Christ, through the Holy Spirit, are simply calling us in their love to choose the Godly path of Purity. It is the Beloved calling us. I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine. (Song of Solomon 6:3.) It is Gods will for every single human being first to be saved through repentance and faith; and then, by being zealous to repent, to drop the old patterns of sin, to become an overcomer, and ultimately sit with the Lord on His throne in heaven. This is a loving, intimate process: Beloved to beloved.
Today, more than ever, every believer in the living God must be zealous to repent. Any resistance is a sign of the enemy spirit which has already been defeated by Christ. Greater is the Holy Spirit in each believer than any spirit in the world. Could the Messiahs directive be more clear? Again, this is the Risen Christs urgent call to me and to you to be ready to be His Bride, as He is the soon-coming Bridegroom: As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Zeal to Repent!
Chapter Two: Dont Abort the Spiritual DNA Repenting is the key process for a believer to enter into the Kingdom of God and also to maintain growth in Christ as an overcomer. Above all else, God desires that we love Him, believe in Him, abide in Him, lean upon Him, and seek Him and His Wisdom and purposes. He wants us to grow in Christ to be an overcomer and to sit beside Him on His throne as He overcame and now sits beside His Father on His throne. (Revelation 3: 19-21). Given Gods loving purpose in restoring eternal life with Him to those who believe in His Messiah, it is sinful not to continue to love and seek God after we first commit our hearts to Him, just as it is also a sin to pursue God for entirely selfish motives. When a believer first sincerely repents he or she immediately receives the Holy Spirit and becomes a spiritual heir of God, transformed into His image---- with His supernatural DNA if you will---- in the same way that we are born with the DNA of our biological fathers on earth. Immediately, in Gods eyes, we become sons, sharers in the resurrection, sons of God. (Luke 20:36). We are to come to Him as living stones, chosen by God, precious, being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, armed with His mind and with fervent love for one another. (1 Peter 2: 4-5; 1 Peter 4: 1,8). If thereafter we dont use the privilege of repentance as a spiritual discipline to clean up our souls with the Holy Spirits help we cut off the spiritual growth process. If we dont use the privilege of repentance we abort the spiritual birth.
If we dont use the privilege of repentance we separate ourselves from Him, separated from His glory and the blessings that flow from His Presence and His Leadership in our lives. If we dont use the privilege of repentance we play church instead of growing in Christ. We become the lukewarm body of believers in Laodicea. We risk the Risen Christ immediately vomiting us out of His mouth. (Revelation 3:16). Failing to repent grieves and eventually quenches the Holy Spirit. We become unable to receive Gods Wisdom or fruit, and we are unable to operate in the full authority of Jesus Christ. Having been supernaturally imprinted with the Living Gods DNA its almost an act of spiritual adultery not to continue to love and seek more of the Living God after we first commit our hearts to Him. With the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit we are called to grow in the Messiah, zealously praying away the old world and flesh, passionately repenting each day to be more like Him. Because He loves us---and has given us His DNA---- He disciplines us. The writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 12: 4-13 The Message) points this out as follows: In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went throughall that bloodshed! So dont feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, dont shrug off Gods discipline, but dont be crushed by it either. Its the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; thats why you must never drop out. Hes treating you as dear children.
This trouble youre in isnt punishment; its training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace Gods training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live Gods holy best. At the time, discipline isnt much fun. It always feels like its going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for its the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. So dont sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!
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Chapter Three: Repentance Begins with Me and You The Lord looks upon the heart. Even a murderer and adulterer like David found favor with God because David repented. There is no Psalm more poignant than Psalm 51 where David says directly to the Lord: Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. (Psalm 51: 1-3, 10-11). Yes, Yeshua/ Jesus took all our sins on the cross. It was a finished, perfect Sovereign act of the Living God to cover mankinds sins and to restore us to the Creator. When we ask, those of us who are believers may now have our sins forgiven, washed in His blood. The power of sin, earlier binding us to an eternity away from the Creator, has been broken by the Messiah, the spotless Lamb of God. But we still sin. The apostle John said: This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (1 John 1: 5-10).
So repentance begins with me and you. The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. 1 Peter 4:17. Even a devout believer has some old patterns that the Holy Spirit wishes to cleanse. Today is the perfect day to take even a few minutes with the coaching of the Holy Spirit to inspect the hidden parts of our hearts. We can do the same inspection looking with Holy Spirit discernment at the body of Christ and our cities and our nations. True repentance comes from the heart when we seek a sincere, personal relationship with Yeshua/ Jesus, when we come before the throne of mercy, weak as lambs, helpless as Jesus was on the cross, begging Him to forgive our sins. When we approach the throne of God as lambs, as weak and helpless as Jesus was on the cross, we identify and are exceptionally close to Him. Our proximity to the throne of grace today is dependent upon our likeness to the Lamb. Repentance includes celebration and joy, but it also comes with a price that we must pay through suffering and obedience. To repent is to sacrifice something. We must die to the world and the flesh. Our free will decision is to die to this life to receive His. We have to crush our own will in the same way that oil comes from olives as olives are crushed. But afterwards we see the Truth in it: its like throwing off a dirty T-shirt. We throw out our old rags for His glory! Whatever we sacrifice allows us to be more like Christ to experience more of His unconditional love and mercy. This is how we will receive the same grace as the slaughtered Lamb, sharing in his resurrection power, not only for ourselves, but for a lost world. In our weakness we experience the Lords shepherding presence and power. You know the wonderful Scriptures. The Messiah is our Good
Shepherd. He leads us in the paths of righteousness for His Names sake. Psalm 23:3 in the amplified version captures this Truth perfectly: He refreshes and restores my life---my self; He leads me in the paths of righteousness [uprightness and right standing with Him----not for my earning it, but] for His names sake. Its a matter of steering our own free will away from the world and the flesh to spend time in His Presence. To experience the fullness, the abundance of life He purchased for each of us we must be willing, perpetually, day after day, to lay down at the foot of the Cross of Christ all the dirty broken pieces of who we are, acknowledging that all that we are and all that we have are His. And that He is all we have. And He covers every possible sin that we may have committed. There is no condemnation in Christ. We are forgiven by the shedding of His perfect blood as the Lamb of God. Acknowledging that He is all we really have, that we are His, then and only then, will we know and be enabled to rise up and stand boldly in His Authority and Resurrection Power. Only then can you and I move confidently forward by faith that we are being Divinely led as part of Gods Master Plan, protected and empowered by the blood of Jesus, and enabled to carry the weaponry of the Lord into the bigger battles of our time. Though we walk in the flesh we dont carry on our warfare using human weapons; the weapons of our spiritual warfare with the Holy Spirit are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, pulling down false theories and reasonings and every lofty thing that sets itself up against the true knowledge of God. (2 Corinthians 10: 3-6)
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We are to be wise as serpents, gentle as lambs. The Lord knew each of us in our mothers womb. He counts the hairs on our heads. He has a Godly purpose for each of our lives at this key time in His Creation. May we come humbly to the Good Shepherd, genuinely repenting, wishing to sacrifice the old, for the purity and holiness only He can provide. In the same way that a shepherd picks up a little lamb, His eyes will see our hearts and He assuredly will pick each of us up in His Deep, Deep Love.
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Chapter Four: Repentance and the Body of Christ Yeshua/ Jesus is a soon-returning Bridegroom, ready to meet His Bride, the body of Christ, believers in Him in every nation on the planet. When He returns we are supposed to be spotless. Were not. There are huge divisions in the body---- literally tens of thousands of denominations that call themselves Christian. As the secular world careens more and more toward national and global disasters, barriers are beginning to come down, but overall we often dont demonstrate to the outside world koinonia --------- the Holy Spirit to Holy Spirit love among ourselves and to others. That supernatural love manifesting the Lords Presence with one accord was the magnet that first grew the called out ones the church-- almost 2,000 years ago. (Acts 2: 38-47) All types of reasons and excuses could be put forth for a lukewarm global body of believers in Christ today. But isnt the failure to take the Lords Hand and repent every day at or near the top of the list? As His Judgment looms closer, Revelation 3:19 speaks more and more loudly: As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. This urgent message is captured in The Message version: The people I love, I call to accountprod and correct and guide so that theyll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God! In running after God we will pay a price even as we celebrate a victory over our old man. Repentance comes with a price that we must pay through suffering and obedience. It is a sacrifice to be like Christ and experience His unconditional love and mercy. James, the brother of Yeshua/ Jesus earlier addressed this running after God process: So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant
outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls. But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth]. (James 1: 21-22 amplified version). James lists other reasons why we dont yet present ourselves to the outside world as His Bride: You [are like] unfaithful wives [having illicit love affairs with the world] and breaking your marriage vow to God! Do you not know that being the worlds friend is being Gods enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God. Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us----and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome]---with a jealous love? But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it). So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you. Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].[As you draw near to God] be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep [over your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins]. Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant]. [My] brethren, do not speak evil about or accuse one another. He that maligns a brother or judges his brother is maligning and criticizing the Law and judging the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a practicer of the Law but a censor and judge [of it]. One only is the Lawgiver and Judge Who is able to save and to destroy [the One Who has the absolute power of life and death]. [But] who are
you that [you presume to] pass judgment on your neighbor? (James 4:4-12 Amplified version). Theres another reason why the Bride today is still in the process of getting herself ready. Theres an ongoing impact on the body of Christ of the spirit of legalism and paganism and an indifference to evil. This is pointed out by the Risen Christ in the Book of Revelation as He exposes the doctrine and the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Jesus expressly says He detests, and He hates that false doctrine which corrupts the people. Revelation 2:6,15. Nicolas set himself above other believers and was not subject to the Holy Spirit. Equally evil, Eastons Bible Dictionary describes the Nicolaitans as a class of professing Christians, who sought to introduce into the church a false freedom or licentiousness. Remnants of that same legalism and licentiousness permeate His Body today, particularly in those apostate groups that elevate men and stale tradition above the Holy Spirit. They are indifferent to evil, fearing men instead of God. In such groups anti-Christ spirits, already present in Johns time (1 John 2:18) are running rampant. As one example, instead of boldly preaching the Word in Love pointing out Jesus gentle rebuke on the sins of the flesh (John 8:11), they distort Christs Words on marriage and promote homosexually instead of encouraging the liberation of the fleshly spirit by the Holy Spirit. Israel is another reason the Bride is not yet ready. As a body of believers we are not yet fully supportive of Israel and Gods Chosen People. Do we pray for the peace of Jerusalem each day as Scripture implores? Do major denominations now claim Israel has no right to the Promised Land? The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has distributed over 45 million copies of a brochure titled "Why
We Should Be Concerned About Christian Zionism." And the Church of Scotland recently issued a report divorcing the Jewish people from the land of Israel. The report claimed that "promises about the land of Israel were never intended to be taken literally, or as applying to a defined geographical territory." Do many assume we as the body of Christ have replaced Israel? Do we honor our Hebrew roots including the Ten Commandments and the Day of Atonement each year, the holiest day of year? Yes, the Messiah shed His perfect blood as an everlasting blood sacrifice for our sins. But has that excused us from repenting today from the personal and national sins we still indulge in? This day of atonement, Yom Kippur, the Lord said was to be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict yourselves [by fasting in penitence and humility]; on the ninth day of the month from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath. (Leviticus 23:32-33 amplified version) In our chasing after the things of this world, especially in the developing world, we believers overall have taken on the Baals, the Asherahs, the spirits of the world. Many see us as the church of Ephesus, in Revelation chapter one, having lost its first love. The Risen Christ urges repentance on virtually every one of the seven churches. Clearly, we have been the church of Laodicea, lukewarm, about to be spit out by the Risen Christ. Leonard Ravenhill, an astute observer of the church, once wrote: "If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified." One believer writes: We are not working (ie the church) as we ought. The harvest is plenty but the labourers few. We are lazy, complacent, selfseeking, pleasure seeking..We have erected and worship at the Asherah and Baals of own making. We tell ourselves there is plenty of time before the Owner
of the vineyard returns. So we have neither picked nor pressed the grapes, nor prepared the new wine for which the Bridegroom thirsts. The marriage feast is looming but we have not made adequate preparations. Our lamps are not trimmed, the invitations have not gone out and the skirts of the Bride are soiled (& in some cases over her head; she is naked and exposed).. She is in disarray! We must hurry, as did Esther, to gather and assemble, to call a fast from all sin and wickedness, to prepare ourselves in beauty & holiness, to use our heavenly gifts to please the King and to confuse, expose & cast out the Enemy from the King's courts, throwing ourselves in utter desperation and all humility on the mercy of our loving King. For the Bridegroom is already at the window! He is at the window. Judgment is a gift from God to stop the mold of sin from spreading. He will protect His remnant if judgment proceeds on any nation. At the same time His mercy is fresh today. Repent! And in all these failings, greater is the Holy Spirit in each one of us believers than any spirit of the world. The Holy Spirit enables us to sacrifice and repentance has to include sacrifice. An astute believer, Leonard Ravenhill, once said: Paul never glamorized the gospel. It is not success, but sacrifice. Its not a glamorous gospel, but a blood onea gory gospel, and a sacrificial gospel. Five minutes inside eternity and we will wish that we had sacrificed more, wept more, grieved more, loved and prayed more, and given more. So we have to sacrifice to spend time with Him and sacrifice to get rid of old patterns, old generational curses, strongholds that have filtered out the Truths of the Living God. Most important to get the Bride ready for the Bridegroom is the everyday practice of abiding in Him. We live in the age of distraction. Social networks and the internet are only one example. We run around as if in a squirrel cage. The enemy, knowing his time is short, constantly
attempts to keep us from abiding in the Lord. (I John 2:24-28.) The enemy doesnt want any of us to open the door and let the Risen Christ come in to dine with us. (Revelation 3:20). Abiding in Him we can renew our minds, we can study His Word. We can be washed white as snow. We are already clean because of the Word He speaks to us. If we are wet with His Word, then the Fire of the Holy Spirit can create Holy steam with the Water of His Word. That Holy Steam can then release all wrinkles from His Bride! We cannot win any battles by our own might or power, but only by His Spirit and the testimony of His Word. As we spend time each day with the Lord He nurtures each of us. We must press into the Lord, watching and listening for His instruction and then stepping out in faith and obedience to that which He calls us to do. In our individual prayer closet or with another believer, in His Holy Name, under His Blood, with His Holy Spirit, we can then renounce and break off any pattern of sin, any stronghold hiding the fullness of Christ from us. Key Scriptures build up our faith in this area to take time to pray with the Lord. Psalm 139: 23-24 says: Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 24: 3-6 blesses us with this Truth: Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from
the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Its the Lords clear instruction for us not to be distracted but to abide in Him. John 15: 1-5: I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. As we abide in Him, moving past the distractions of a panicked world, His Holy Spirit will always be available to assist us in repenting and choosing His purity. A favorite Scripture in the amplified version is from Song of Solomon 2: 14-15: [So I went with him, and when we were climbing the rocky steps up the hillside, my beloved shepherd said to me] o my dove, [while you are there] in the seclusion of the clefts in the solid rock, in the sheltered and secret pace of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely. [My heart was touched and I fervently sang to him my desire] Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards [of our love], for our vineyards are in blossom. Take us the foxes Lord! Isnt it obvious? Especially in these increasingly wicked times? Even the ongoing disasters on the planet are one way the Lord is calling us to repentance. We need the Holy Spirit, every day, to show me and you where we have not yet repented, where we have little foxes that have spoiled the vines. Yeshua/ Jesus is the True Vine. Every branch
in Him that doesnt bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. We are already clean because of the Word He speaks to us. Hes calling us to abide in Him, being zealous to repent. Today!
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Chapter Five: Bold to Speak the Truth From time to time a believer comes along, like Paul in the depth of the Roman prison, so zealous to bring the Kingdom alive in peoples hearts that natural fear has left him. Perfect love casts out fear. Suffering was not an issue for Paul. It was a blessing because he was suffering for Christ. He was filled with the Joy of the Lord. Im nowhere near there yet. I repent, Lord. A key issue on which many of us may repent is our fear of man instead of the healthy fear of the Almighty God. Fear of men blocks our Good News. The mindset of our modern culture is dont offend anyone; dont hurt their feelings. This is in direct contrast to Pauls last instruction to Timothy: And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2: 24-26.) What would the body of Christ look like if pastors and priests included in their approach to their flocks and their communities a commitment to correct in humility, with the Holy Spirits fruits of love, patience and gentleness----those in opposition? Instead, many shepherds have retreated into their own buildings to preach to their choirs.
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Paul had an extraordinary revelation of who Yeshua/Jesus was. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and bold for Christ. He built himself up in a most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. He knew that Yeshua was, and is, and always will be the Pure Word, and the Word itself always will cause tribulation. Yeshua came not to bring peace but a sword, to separate us from the ways of the world and the flesh through His Truths. Our Lord said: Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against motherin-law. (Luke 12:51-53). The preaching of the truth has consequences: This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and man loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil (John 3:19) To a lukewarm pastor or priest, to a lukewarm body of Christ, to any believer impacted by a spirit of the world increasingly caught up in not offending anyone, Yeshua/ Jesus words call us to repent for our lukewarmness: This is what I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would treat you with affection and would love you as its own. But because you are not of the worldare no longer one with itbut I have chosen (selected) you out of the world, the world hates (detests) you. Remember that I told you, A servant is not greater than his master [is not superior to him]. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word and obeyed My teachings, they will also keep and obey yours.
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But they will do all this to you [inflict all this suffering on you] because of [your bearing] My name and on My account, for they do not know or understand the One Who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin [would be blameless]; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates Me also hates My Father. If I had not done (accomplished) among them the works which no one else ever did, they would not be guilty of sin. But [the fact is] now they have both seen [these works] and have hated both Me and My Father. But [this is so] that the word written in their Law might be fulfilled, They hated Me without a cause. But when the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) comes, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth Who comes (proceeds) from the Father, He [Himself] will testify regarding Me. But you also will testify and be My witnesses, because you have been with Me from the beginning. ( John 15: 17-27) (Amplified version). The early believers knew this Promise of the Holy Spirit and acted upon it. They called upon the Comforter, the Strengthener to speak through them. They received the spiritual DNA from Abba Father through the indwelling Holy Spirit. They could then be so bold that when they gathered they could speak with boldness from heaven: And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31). Many must have been like Stephen, who was not afraid to spread the Good News even unto death. Pauls last message to Timothy urged
him to stand for the Truth: Indeed all who delight in piety and are determined to live a devoted and godly life in Christ Jesus will meet with persecution---that is, will be made to suffer because of their religious stand. (2 Timothy 3:12 Amplified version). Christ totally defeated satan. The blood of the Lamb is our primary weapon as the people of God facing satan. When we abide in Christ and confess our faith in Christ even at the risk of offense and death we share in His victory! It is just such a stand--- to tell the Truth even to death if need be--- that, together with Yeshuas blood, overcomes the enemy of our souls: And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12:11). One brother recently received this message: Remember that My pure Word causes tribulation to arise. Let My Word have its way in your life and in the lives to whom it is sent. My Word shall triumph and so shall your testimony. It shall not return unto Me void, but shall accomplish My desire in sending it. My Word prospers and does not fail. Thank you dear witnesses for laying your life down for Me. Will you join me in repenting for not yet fully laying down our lives for Him?
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Chapter Six: Discerning of Spirits and Taking Down Strongholds Through Repentance In Christ, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The more one repents every day, the more the old man is displaced and the more room there is for the Holy Spirit in that temple. And the more that one sees spiritually the signs of the times, the more forcefully you and I can take down the strongholds in our lives and our nations. Its vital now to discern the times, to know what a nation should do, as did the sons of Issachar (1 Chronicles 12: 32). The Holy Spirit tells us to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 14:1. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Holy Spirit Who distributes to each believer as He wills. One of the key gifts is the discerning of spirits. (I Corinthians 12: 9.) We are told, in Ephesians 6: 10-13 to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Today the Lord is assisting us to withstand in the evil day by building unity in the body of Christ and by bestowing spiritual gifts. One way He assists us is by speaking to us through current events. His Holy Spirit has given certain persons the gift of spiritual discernment, Godly insight and interpretation of the spiritual significance of the name or the location of current events.
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For example, the Boy Scouts in America recently voted to allow gay young boys to be members, despite the Scout oath to be morally straight and to do my best to God and my country. The original purpose of the Christian organization was to train up men of God by holding to morally straight standards, blessing the nation and blessing God in the process. God loves the person but repeatedly declares in His Word that homosexuality is an abomination. Persons may come out of that lifestyle with the help of the Holy Spirit; and, despite much research, there is no evidence of a gay gene at birth. Christians founded scouting 100 years ago. Today, a watered-down tolerance and political correctness drove the change in policy. Interestingly, where was the vote taken?--In Grapevine Texas. It is the little foxes that will spoil the vines. Song of Solomon 2:15. The vine represents the body of Christ. The location of the vote indicates, in the spiritual world, just how important the vote was to the whole body of Christ globally. Was God giving us a not so subtle clue? This was an opportunity for the Body to be strengthened. Instead, little foxes got in. The body of Christ is now weaker because of this failure in Grapevine to follow the Lords clear standard in His Word. Jesus teaches us today: You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Matthew 5: 13. As another example, just prior to the Presidential elections, months ago the worst hurricane in hundreds of years hit the East Coast of the United States. Its name was Sandy. Shortly thereafter a hideous tragedy killed two dozen young people at a school in Sandy Hook,
Connecticut, USA. Thereafter a man in Florida sleeping in his bed was bizarrely swallowed up by a sand sinkhole. Where was it located? On Faithway Drive---a sign that our firm moral foundation on the Rock of Christ is sinking in America. President Obama has actually nicknamed himself "The Sandman" and he had the marching band "Spirit of the Sands" entertain him at his inauguration. Again, more Godly clues for those with Holy Spirit discernment. For those with spiritual eyesight Jesus words in Matthew 7: 21-27 apply to us personally as well as to America and other nations today: Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? 23 And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness! 24 Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. The more that one sees spiritually the signs of the times, the more forcefully you and I can take down the strongholds in our own lives and in our nations.
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A stronghold is a false filter, a way of thinking that is opposed to the Truths of Christ. The Greek word means fortress. Strongholds are the way the enemy first gains access and then, unless these are taken down, they can control a believers life. Its like one has an infestation of enemy spirits hiding behind a fortress of anti-Christ wrong thinking. 2 Corinthians 10: 3-6 (the Message version) reveals and edifies us with this powerful Truth: The world is unprincipled. Its dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesnt fight fair. But we dont live or fight our battles that waynever have and never will. The tools of our trade arent for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity. Using Scripture along with adopting the mind of Christ, we can become zealous to repent. We can renounce the past lies by which we were stuck and deceived. We then break up fallow ground (Hosea 10:12) effectively tearing down the enemys barriers against the Truth of God. Hosea 10: 12 speaks to us today: Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you. There is a key passage in Scripture in 2 Timothy 2: 24-26 which applies not only to an unbeliever but to ourselves, when we are stuck in a stronghold: And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and
that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captives by him to do his will. Pastors, priests, leaders in the body of Christ, all of us-----have largely failed to use this key strategy set forth in Scripture. We dont want to offend anyone. We dont want to hurt their feelings. We want to be nice. So we rarely correct those in opposition in a spirit of gentleness and Truth. Instead we have retreated behind our walls, afraid of the world outside. Current research has found in America that only three percent of believers share the Gospel with more than one person in their lifetimes. Contrast this with the comments of Peter and John in Acts 4: 18-20: So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. The believers in Yeshua in the first days in Jerusalem would be shocked at our apathy and defeatism, our fear, a fear not of God but of man. What are some strongholds, some false filters? James, chapter four, gives an excellent outline applicable to this life which he calls a vapor that appears for awhile and then vanishes away: They are: Pride. Selfish ambition. Lust. Adultery. Speaking evil of another. Judging others. And there are other false filters, idols and strongholds that the Lord wants us to remove so that each of us can be a clean vessel of the Holy Spirit, ready as the Bride to receive the soon-coming Bridegroom. For example: the inability to forgive freely; fearing man, not God; following mammon, not God; trusting government to help, instead of seeking Gods Providence; the spirit of rebellion (Proverbs 16:18-19); the
spirit of infirmity (Luke 13:11); the spirit of jealousy (Genesis 4:8, Numbers 5:14); the spirit of sexual immorality (Hosea 4:12); the lying spirit ( 1 John 4: 6---one of Satans favorite tools); the spirit of perversion (Isaiah 19:14); the spirit of depression or heaviness (Isaiah 61:3); the spirit of divination and false religions (Acts 16:16-18); the jezebel seduction/perversion spirit (Revelation 2:20) now boldly represented in all media including childrens television; the spirit of antichrist (1 John 4:3); the spirit of self in our secular culture which severely limits God and urges us--- like the builders of the tower of Babel---to make a name for ourselves. (Genesis 11:4). Who in the body of Christ hasnt by now been infected by one or more of these false idols? We all fall short of the glory of God and the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. (1 Paul 4:17). The idolatry, legalism, spirit of division, apostasy, and lack of Godly purity in the body of Christ rightly places us in the eyes of an increasingly cynical public as hypocrites. The divorce rate in the body of Christ is approximately the same as in the secular culture. Jesus says in Mark 7: 6-7, .Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men. Compared to the Lord our ways are wicked in the sense that we, as humans, are inadequate. One interpretation of the phrase turn from their wicked ways used in 2 Chronicles 7:14 thus is turn from their inadequacies. We all have inadequacies and strongholds. The good news is that with the indwelling Holy Spirit we have the Spirit of Truth to guide
each of us into which foreign spirits are present and ready to be renounced and taken down as false strongholds. The Holy Spirit stands ready to reveal this as we spend time with Him in our prayer closet, being zealous to repent and throw off the false fortresses that have blocked the fullness of Christ in our lives. In Western nations the main stronghold has been the acceptance of ungodly secular philosophies over Gods Word. This is the very first of ten Commandments: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. (Exodus 20:2-3). Instead of honoring that Commandment, many Christians in the more prosperous nations especially, have chosen a materialistic lifestyle, placing themselves, their families, and their possessions above the Living God. Instead of following Gods plan in the United States and other Western nations founded on His Liberty and Providence we have taken a full cup of deception, we have drunk the enemys false potion, the false religion of personal achievement. And our young people, twenty percent of whom now call themselves atheists, would simply say: whatever.. and go back to texting. God is not mocked. There are many Christian places of worship where lip service is given to Christ but where the god of mammon is honored and a prosperity gospel with cheap grace is served as pablum to an unknowing public.
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In the eyes of the Lord many in the body of Christ have lost their first love. Speaking to the church of Ephesus the Risen Christ speaks to each of us today, saying: Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place---unless you repent. (Revelation 2: 4-5.) The strongholds of satan have to come down if we are to survive as Christians. Using our powerful God-tools to get closer to God, one by one in our prayer time with the Lord we have to renounce the enemy spirit, the anti-Christ spirit, in our own selves, in our own way of life, in our own thinking. This is perfectly expressed in Psalm 24: 3-5: Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. What are the God-tools to renounce the enemy spirit? How can you and I get rid of the false idols? Revelation 12:11 declares a threefold weapon to overcome the enemy in this spiritual battle: the blood of the Lamb [which cancels satans right to oppress any believer in Christ]; the word of Gods testimony, speaking Gods Truths openly; and a surrendered life to Jesus. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. A perfect tool is the Bible itself; Gods eternal Truths set forth in His Holy Word. Romans 10:17 tells us: ..faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Our power source as a believer is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. Be diligent to present yourself
approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15) That Scripture is a companion to Pauls word to the Romans, chapter 12, verses 1-2: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what it that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The more were filled with His Word, the more our faith builds, the more we can break with the ungodly values, the false filters, mistakenly prized in an increasingly wicked world. Fleshly and worldly values have to be discarded. We each have a choice: personal pleasure for a brief season or the Joy of the Lord through spiritual disciplines He places in front of us to get to know Him intimately. With a living faith submitted to, and coming under, Gods promises, the enemys hold on us is broken: Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (James 4:7). James then says, verses 8-10: Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. And this is the wonderful promise: with humility and repentance He gives more grace. James 4:6. Grace is always greater than all our sins. Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. (Romans 5:20). His grace will eventually bring every spiritual warrior into victory for His Names sake.
With a humble, living faith in Gods promises, ongoing prayer then becomes a key spiritual weapon to defeat the enemy and advance Gods Kingdom here in earth. The full force of the Holy Spirit is then activated. A devout man of God, Andrew Murray, once said: We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly word, and can bring its power down to earth. We believers now have a better Covenant thanks to the Messiah, Yeshua/Jesus Christ. We believers, Jew and Gentile, are His People, the One New Man (Ephesians 2: 15). What would the body of Christ look like globally if all strongholds among us believers were removed? If all the lies of satan were torn down in our lives? If we reverently feared God instead of man? We would immediately draw people to His Kingdom to be saved! If by then Gods judgment has been stayed through His mercy, real revivalso often prayed for--- may actually begin. The greatest harvest of souls since Jesus Resurrection could then take place. This applies not just to individuals, but to nations. If His People in any nation repent and renounce their anti-Christ strongholds the preeminence of Yeshua the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, will be obvious in their lives, attracting others into the Kingdom, from darkness into Light. And the Lord with such repentance can then make the battle His own. 2 Chronicles 20: 15. Gods destiny for that nation could then advance; His Kingdom could really begin to come on earth as it is in heaven.
Every sincere believer in Yeshua/Jesus as the Messiah has His Holy Spirit living within. All the spiritual tools necessary are ready to be activated. With a living faith based on Gods Word any believer can spend time with the Holy Spirit. When we ask He will tell us the blind spots, the strongholds that need to come down. Recognizing them we can bind the enemy spirits in the Name of Jesus, the Name above all names, and loose the power of the Holy Spirit. In loosing the power of the Holy Spirit we invite the Holy Spirit to accomplish in us what the will of God is for our lives. The Lord has a Godly plan for each of our lives; the enemy spirit always seeks to distract us from it. We have to bind the strongman. Matthew 12:29 says: Or how can one enter a strong mans house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. This is exactly what Jesus taught us in Matthew 18:18-19 Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them. Regularly, to rid ourselves of strongholds, we need to spend time alone in prayer, seeking the Holy Spirits Wisdom to discern false filters and strongholds in our lives. Using the Name of Jesus, the Name above all names, whatever we then bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever we then loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. With the urging of the Holy Spirit we can exercise our free will to choose to repent. Only then can we repent and renounce in Jesus Holy Name the
enemys warped philosophies erected by the anti-Christ against Gods Truth. Only then can we experience Liberty and Joy, choosing Gods Way of Purity instead. This is a life-long process of being led by the Lord in paths of righteousness for His Names sake. Even when a person repents of sin and renounces strongholds he or she must continue to feed on the Word of God, delight in worship in Spirit and in Truth, and continue to depend on the coaching of the Holy Spirit. We are to become overcomers, a temple of the Holy Spirit, a bride without spot. God will not share us with the devil. (1 Corinthians10: 21). Without regular maintenance through prayer and repentance, unclean spirits can return. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man if worse than the first. (Luke 11: 24-25) Its His will for everyone to experience His Liberty, to be saved, and to experience an abundant life now and in eternity with Him. To that end He implores each of us, today, to discern the times, to discern spirits, and to take down the strongholds, the devils fortresses that have deceived us. As we take them down through all of His spiritual weapons, including repentance, He will lovingly show us
more and more of the fullness of Who He Is. It is an ongoing process of being disciplined by a Loving Lord. The process is perfectly outlined in Revelation 3: 19-21: As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
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Chapter Seven: Repentance to Ensure Gods Covering Repentance is not only a vital tool to grow in Christ. Its also the key action for believers in a nation to ensure the protective covering of the Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob once a land has been dedicated to that Living God. There is a Living God that rules over nations (Psalm 22:28) and has blessings for a nation that will proclaim Him to be their God and obey His voice (Deuteronomy 26:17). Psalm 33:12 (amplified version) says: Blessed---happy, fortunate [to be envied]---is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His heritage. God also has curses for those that forsake Him. Deuteronomy 28:14-15 says: So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them. But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you God covenanted that He would sanctify His house and that He would establish the throne of David if His statutes and judgments were kept. God also said (2 Chronicles 7:13-16): When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if 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 will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
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Yeshua/ Jesus came to proclaim Liberty to the captivesto set at Liberty those who are oppressed. (Luke 4: 18, citing Isaiah 61: 1,2). Because of His perfect blood sacrifice on Calvary all the nations of the earth now have been given to Him, the Christ, the Messiah, as His inheritance. Psalm 2 says: Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potters vessel. Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, And rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. The Messiah conquered satan and death and said, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28: 1820). In the same way that gentile believers are now grafted in to the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith, thanks to the blood of Yeshua/ Jesus, we have the awesome privilege of being able to pray for whole cities and nations to come under Gods covenant and earthy Kingdom.
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There are a number of sincere believers in Christ, a remnant, across many nations, who have had such an intimate experience with the Living God through abiding in Him that they are seeking to plant His Way in their land. They are not seeking a theocracy, but a free society in which there would be freedom, even encouragement, through public policies in a freely elected government, to follow Christs Teachings as the basis for laws and public service. They pray that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the name of Jesus Christ, will be Lord over that land. Just such a statement was made by a Frenchman, Jean Ribault, in 1562 as he landed near present day Jacksonville, Florida with a group fleeing France. As the first reformer in the land, Ribault and other Huguenots sought religious liberty, a new place for their religious minority to worship freely Jesus Christ and the Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Following Scripture, they believed in salvation by grace through faith in the blood sacrifice of Christ. To that end Ribault led his group of 400 in prayers and planted a column for Jesus Christ. Tragically, Ribault and his colony were pursued by Spaniards anxious to kill them as infidels for dishonoring the established religion of France. As he was being killed Ribault prayed a key passage from Psalm 132: 4-5: I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob. Ribaults column, a cornerstone for Christ in the land, was a prayerful commitment to establish a land honoring the Living God of the entire Bible. Ribault saw Israels Messiah as Lord, not mans
religion. Ribaults blood established a blood covenant for Christs Sovereignty in America. Although Ribaults colony in Florida did not survive the fury of Spain and of Rome, Ribault and the over 400 men, women and children who died there for their faith established the foundation for a nation that would emerge many years later and would be known until recently as a Christian Nation. His prayer was then furthered by those establishing a colony in Virginia in 1607 and by Pilgrim evangelists signing the Mayflower Compact in 1620. The Pilgrims established for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faithsolemnly and in the presence of God a civil body politic... for the ends aforesaid. Puritans followed the Pilgrims and sought for America to be a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. The first awakening followed through the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and others fervent to call non-believers and believers to repentance. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution then further established a Covenant with the Living God. The Covenant was that this new nation, the United States of America, would be under God, a republic of, by, and for the people, instituted to protect God-given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, including full religious freedom to worship the Living God. The Liberty Bell in 1776 was inscribed with Scripture from Leviticus 25:10: proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. Their only King was King Jesus. Patrick Henry said: "It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Upon the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adams said: We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven andfrom the rising to the setting sun, may His Kingdom come. Years later, on July 4, 1837 another Adams, President John Quincy Adams said: Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the Progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemers mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior Other governments, other nations, at least on paper have since claimed that they were constituted under the Living God. Australias Constitution, for example, states: WHEREAS the people.humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God.have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth.be it therefore enacted by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Today, the Covenant has not been broken by God. The Lord is looking for a people who will trust totally in Him as the Tree of Life, a people who trust in Him fully, including His entire Word. The Lord has kept the promises contained in the last verses of Psalm 132: Let us go into His tabernacle; Let us worship at His footstool. Arise, O Lord, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. LetYour priests be clothed with righteousness, And let Your saints shout for joy. For Your servant Davids sake, Do not turn away the face of Your Anointed. The Lord has sworn
in truth to David; He will not turn from it: I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body. If your sons will keep My covenant And My testimony which I shall teach them, Their sons also shall sit upon your throne forevermore. For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place: This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation, And her saints shall shout aloud for joy. There I will make the horn of David grow; I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, But upon Himself His crown shall flourish. The Covenant has not been broken by God. Instead, the Covenant has been broken by us, believers in Christ who are His People called by His name. Like the body of believers in Ephesus, we have lost our first love. In nation after nation over the past 100 years or more, we have taken on other spirits of the world instead of placing God first. In the body of Christ we often are indistinguishable from the world around us. In many nations many who call themselves Christians have taken on a false secular philosophy that says we dont need to depend on God, we dont need to follow in our public policies Gods entire Word including His commandments. Through His signs, including major devastating storms and catastrophic disruptions (2 Chronicles 7:13) the Living God is speaking to us that this year is a year when His People in every nation must repent and come back under His Covenant or face judgment. Yes, the set time has come. (Psalm 102: 13). Judgment is a gift from God to stop the mold of sin from spreading. He will protect His remnant if judgment proceeds on any nation.
We have to use the spiritual weapons the Lord has given us, including prayer, fasting, worship and repentance to break off curses in our own lives and then in the land. We have to use the spiritual weapons the Lord has given us under His Sovereign authority to clean up the present and to bring forth His destiny for any nation. To regain the Liberty for which Christ shed His blood, we must by sincere hearts and prayerful declarations ask for the Lords mercy to re-set our Godly dependence on the Lord alone, the Tree of Life. There were two tragedies associated with Jean Ribault. One, his own death and the massacre of his 400 Protestant followers including children was horrific. But even more tragic, the column that Ribault planted was soon transformed into a pagan column. The column was worshiped not only by local first nation peoples; that pagan column also was kissed by a Frenchman following Ribaults death. By such false worship of this tree of satanic compromise, through ignorance, through political correctness, satan gained legal entry into the land later named the United States of America. Gods Word says: Do not make idols or set up carved images, or sacred pillars, or sculptured stones in your land so you may worship them. I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 26:1 NLT) Instead of establishing the Living Gods Grace and Truth as the foundation for both spirit and physical governments, instead of aligning with the Liberty and Love provided by Christ Who came to set the captives free, worshiping the pagan pole gave satan legal access to America. The spirit of the enemy has thus greatly impacted this nation. Knowing that his time is short, satan now is impacting the United States
as never before. The enemys tentacles of secularism, debauchery, abortion, false religion, government oppression and human misery are now strangling the soul of what had been a Christian nation. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29: 2 Believers have now learned about this historic tragedy in Florida and now prayers of repentance and re-alignment have been made. The Lord honors such prayers: But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemiesIf then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my Covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my Covenant with Isaac and my Covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. (Leviticus 26:40-42 ESV). In every nation the sins of earlier believers have opened legal doors for satan to operate. The enemy comes only for one purpose: to kill, to steal and to destroy. That Truth applies to nations as well as to individuals. By asking the Holy Spirit for His Wisdom to locate such doors they can then come down. Through repentance we can close those doors. Whatever we bind here on earth is bound in heaven; whatever we loose here on earth is loosed in heaven. Prayers of repentance are now underway in 2013 for satans presence to be removed in America and in other nations. Prayers are now being made for the land to be in alignment with the totality of Gods Word, with Gods Law, with Gods Liberty, and with Gods Love.
As believers repent and align in corporate prayer over the land for Gods Destiny to be fulfilled in the land, there will be a corporate anointing, a corporate honoring in the body of Christ of the Lord as Sovereign in the land. Curses will be broken. A place will be established for Almighty Gods presence to rest. God will arise; the enemy will be scattered! And the Good News of the Gospel will spread as part of Gods Divine Plan. New nations founded on Gods Word and His Liberty can then spread across the planet as His Light and His Liberty overtake the current darkness. In an increasingly wicked world, careening without Gods Wisdom, with human systems rapidly failing in front of our eyes, every nation needs Gods blessings and protection. Repentance by His People in that nation is the key spiritual weapon to make that happen. Combined with prayer, fasting, and worship, zealous repentance is the final ingredient for His healing of any land. Today is the day in every nation to be zealous to uncover through Holy Spirit wisdom the curses impinging on Christs Liberty in any nation. With Gods Wisdom intercessors can then repent and reclaim their nation for Gods Glory. Repentance ensures Gods covering. We will then come under the Lords Promise in Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7: 15-16: Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. Gods Divine covering then will return, and that nations Godly destiny recovered, refreshed, and restored in Yeshua/ Jesus Holy Name.
Chapter Eight: His Disasters and Repentance Having lovingly created them, the Lord knows humans well. At some point judgment must fall on a rebellious people under the thumb of the anti-Christ spirit, yet God is a patient Parent. The Lord knew that His People, time and again, would forget Him. He set up a strategy by which they might return. Its set forth above in verse 13 of 2 Chronicles 7: When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My peopleif 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 will forgive their sin and heal their land. God uses events and prophesies to motivate us to cling to Him. He is willing to scare us nearly to death in order to motivate us to action. One teacher has said: If our hope in the Kingdom of God, the resurrection of the dead and sharing life with God eternally are not sufficient to motivate us to repent, perhaps fear of a terrible calamity, the Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord or being spewed from God's mouth as a Laodicean will move us to use the present to secure the future. In the same way that disasters influenced Pharaoh to release Gods People, the Lord today is allowing increasingly devastating disasters in different nations to speak to His People called by His name to return to Him. Our God desires not to smite us, even though we deserve to be. We all exist only by the continual love, light and protective arm of the Sovereign God. Our God makes the rain to fall on believers and nonbelievers alike, such is His grace. However, God is only one half of the Covenant relationship. It is a natural consequence that as we repeatedly
compromise on our eternal agreement to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, the enemy gains entry. The enemy has gained entry in our lives and in our nations. This year is different from any in our lifetime. The signs are glaring. Massive hurricanes. Massive wild fires. The Sandy Hook shooting of 25 children. The Boston bombing. The beheading of a British soldier in broad daylight in London----questionable rulings on same sex marriage in the United States Supreme Court instead of bold support for Biblical marriage--- all demonstrate how we need His protection more than ever. He is using disasters to speak to us to return to Him. One believer recently received brace for impact. Through His signs, the Living God is speaking to us that this year is a year when His People in nations where there was an earlier Covenant with Him, (what some call bridal nations) must repent and come back under His Covenant or face judgment. Yes, the set time has come. (Psalm 102: 13). The United States and other nations that earlier enjoyed a covenant with the Living God, enjoyed Gods magnificent blessings. These nations have had the greatest personal liberties and material blessings in the history of the world. They have historically been a light on a hill for other nations. But unless they repent immediately these bridal nations are now headed back into bondage and captivity. The Living God gives either blessings or curses. A number of sincere believers with spiritual discernment see that that breaches in the walls have already occurred. Judgment is imminent unless we repent immediately. Facts point to our being in great danger, dangling on the precipice of societal destruction.
In Ancient Israel, there were three societal sins that always preceded national judgment: 1) DESECRATION of the Altar (slaughter of innocents) 2) REMOVAL of God or Godly principles from the Temple (Temple Prostitution) 3) REPLACEMENT of God with a false idol Amazingly, thousands of years later, in America we have cluelessly done this exact same thing! We have DESECRATED our altars by slaughtering over 50 million innocents in frightening intensity since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Our abortion laws now utilize public funds to pay for abortions in many different ways. In fact, one of our Presidents first acts in 2009 was to reinstate Americas funding for abortions all over the world. We truly have guilty hands dripping with blood in America. We REMOVED God fifty years ago by taking prayer and Bible reading out of the public schools. This war against God continues as we see the American Civil Liberties Union and Atheists aggressively fighting tooth and nail to remove any mention of God from our currency, our buildings and our public expressions. Finally, and most seriously, we are about to take the final plunge over the cliff. Instead of standing up for the Biblical definition of marriage as between one man and one woman (Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-9) the United States Supreme Court recently found a provision in the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional for denying federal benefits to same sex marriage partners in those states recognizing same sex marriages. And instead of standing up for the citizens of the State
of California who by voter initiative voted twice for one man, one woman marriage, in the Proposition 8 case the Court technically claimed it had no standing to hear the case, remanding it back to the federal district court in San Francisco. More litigation may follow but many see the net result as a victory for same sex marriage. If we as a nation redefine holy matrimony to include same sex liaisons, thereby directly rejecting Yeshua/Jesus specific definition of marriage from the beginning of creation as between one man and one woman (Matthew 19: 4-6; Mark 10:6-9) we will have committed the ultimate final abomination. We will have REPLACED God with ourselves! Truly this would indicate, with the physical expression of man/man and woman/woman that we are now worshipping the god Narcissus. (Interestingly, there is a new movie out starring Michael Douglas. It is a portrayal of Liberace, a well-known Las Vegas pianist who, while denying it all of his life, was clearly a homosexual. At one point in the movie, Liberace takes down an image of himself from the wall and shows it to a plastic surgeon. He asks the plastic surgeon to re-make over his gay lover to look exactly like him! This blatantly displays that our current obsession with homosexuality is, in reality, the ancient sin of idolizing ourselves! ) Sadly, in June 2013, in Bradford County, Florida Americans memorialized this replacement of God with an actual 1500 pound granite monument. It is the first of its kind ever to be erected on government property in the entire United States of America. It is an official monument to ATHEISM. In the name of political correctness and tolerance to all viewpoints, no matter how damaging they may be to the welfare of our society, we have taken the ultimate step: an actual shrine to satisfy Satans desire to slap in public the face of Almighty God. Do not be deceivedGod is not mocked. Whatever we
sow, we shall also reap. If we want to declare that there is no GodGod will allow us to see what life looks like in America when He removes His blessings and protection. Though there are signs of hope (to be shown in the next chapter) the wall has been breached. Temple destruction, bondage and captivity are not far behind. Unless repentance immediately takes hold, the United States as weve known it will cease to exist. As in the day of the Judges, everyone will do what is right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25). Exaltation to godlessness and official sanction of atheism will indicate that we have reached the sad milestone of unmistakably accomplishing all three major national sins that precede final judgment! Instead of seeking Gods wisdom, instead of being a nation delighting to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God taking delight in approaching God (Isaiah 58:2) we have lost our first love; we have broken the earlier Covenant; we have played the whore or harlot, become worldly, and have committed spiritual adultery in Gods eyes. We need, believer by believer, to get back immediately on the Rock of Christ. For those with spiritual eyesight Jesus words in Matthew 7: 21-27 apply to us personally as well as to America and other nations today: Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? 23 And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness! 24 Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house;
and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. The bridal nations now have to choose. His People in those nations, following 2 Chronicles 7:14, must repent to come under His Covering to receive His blessing. If we continue our lukewarm approach to playing church we will disregard and disobey Him at our peril.
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Chapter Nine: Days of Repentance Grassroots and Globally The concept of repentance is coming alive as the wickedness of the world increases. As we see the world systems of mankind increasingly failing without Godly Wisdom, many sense that we are in the end times. We have to get ready; the Bridegroom may be coming very soon. How can we face Him as a spotless Bride without cleaning up our souls every day through repentance? As a result were now in a season of repentance. The Holy Spirit has been speaking to many believers to search the Scriptures and begin the time-honored practice of repentance in their own lives. Many are seeing that repentance is the key practice to drop the old strongholds and grow in Christ. One friend has said repentance is one of those gems hidden in plain sight, waiting for each beloved child of God to discover it, in every generation until the Lord returns. Many are discovering that they misunderstood repentance. Believing that God was angry and distant and was punishing them, repentance was the last thing an uninformed believer wanted to pursue. But to the contrary, Yeshua/Jesus stands at the door of our hearts, knocking, waiting for each of us to invite Him into our hearts to support us in cleansing our souls. He urges each of us to be zealous to repent so that we each can be overcomers and sit with Him on His throne as He overcame and now sits next to His Abba Father. (Revelation 3: 19-21). A new intimacy with God follows repentance. He forgives what we confess. He joins us in renouncing old patterns of sin and generational curses. Intimacy with Him builds as we repent with the
Holy Spirit. Most wonderfully, His Joy follows repentance! There is a wonderful tool, increasingly used, to bring Purity to the Bride of Christ: global repentance, fasting and prayer events. Such events connect us with our Hebrew roots of repentance and build unity across boundaries and denominations among brothers and sisters in Christ. Psalm 133 tells us: Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment poured on the head, that ran down on the beard, even the beard of Aaron [the first high priest], that came down upon the collar and the skirts of his garments [consecrating the whole body]; [Exodus 30:25,30]. Like the dew of [lofty] Mount Hermon, and the dew that comes on the hills of Zion; for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, even life for evermore [upon the high and the lowly]. A nonprofit, nondenominational Christian ministry, National Day of Repentance, was formed in 2011 to encourage repentance in the body of Christ. A website was created, www.dayofrepentance.org, staffed by volunteers, to connect interested believers, to post resources on repentance, and to hold occasional national days of repentance across the body of Christ. On days of repentance, individuals and ministries in various communities agree to hold a service or otherwise personally focus on repentance that particular day in their communities and homes. Connected to the internet and in our prayers for each other, we become a solemn assembly of repentance, in effect following the technique of King Jehoshaphat in calling all Judah to prayer in 2 Chronicles 20: 3-15. Following the Lords directive to Moses in Leviticus 23: 26-32 a decision was made to hold a day of repentance, a time to afflict your
souls each year on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur. Such a practice not only reconnects our Hebrew roots of the Christian faith but complies with the Lords directive to Moses: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Leviticus 23: 32. The Day of Repentance project has never been about numbers; the Lord points us to the examples of those men and women of God who repented for themselves and for their nation such as Daniel, Nehemiah and Esther. Making connections through the internet on the topic of repentance and holding days of repentance soon also had the added benefit of building unity in the body of Christ. As the number of participants grew in various states and nations one could see the Hand of the Lord building unity in the body and blessing the various days of repentance. Ephesians 4: 1-6 came to life: I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. For example, the Hand of the Lord reached over to Africa to bless the nation of Cameroon during the national day of repentance. A church elder, Eno-abong Valentine Eno, gave this praise report: The National Day of Repentance was a very wonderful one in Cameroon. Our plan of action was successfully carried out. Church service took place in the morning
during which praises, worship, and a special message of repentance was preached by myself with focus on repentance. I had a mastery of the subject title; and the topic was: LET AFRICAN TRADITION GIVE WAY FOR GOD'S PURPOSE TO BE ESTABLISHED SCRIPTURE MARK 1:15, Matt 3:2. Do you know that the world was not created the day you were born, before you were born the environment was there for us to learn both the good and bad things. Traditional beliefs, unwanted culture, the African mentality, the worship at the shrines, the use of negative languages, cheating, bribery, corruption, laziness and so many others. When a true repentance takes place, our African values will give way for the spirit of God to use us. We need repentance every day in our lives, so as we celebrate true repentance today, it is not once a year that we repent but everyday in our lives. The service was attended by some 70 and above persons amongst whom were men and women. Three Pastors; Ps Ebo, Ps Alfred and Pastor Dickson, many Elders, Deacons and Deaconesses and other chosen ones of God. Pastor in a life service that brought Christians from different denominations came together for this wonderful day. One thing I will want you to know, the way you may observe this day in the USA and the western world is very different from the way we took ours depending on our mentality and attitudes. The most interesting part was the one in the evening when we all sat together and pointed out our past errors. The topic and the scripture in the morning acted as an introduction to the so many wrongs we have been doing without realizing. We all made prayers of confession and asked God to forgive us in any bad thing and bad tradition we had held that has hindered the presence of God in our lives. We did not see the need of going out and meet others one on one to beg for forgiveness. The day was very excited and even those who did not know what it was all about, God gave me much wisdom, organizing skills, and sense of directives to lead Christians from so many denominations. We also shared in a common meal. Before we departed, we have scheduled another meeting that will help us
come together to start spreading the Good News of the Kingdom come first week November 2012. After the national day of repentance on Yom Kippur in 2012 another day of repentance was held on January 20, 2013. Then on February 10 a national day of repentance was held, focusing on Australia. Many intercessors from multiple states and nations joined in Australias national day of prayer for Gods destiny in that nation. In so doing, many hearts were touched and praise reports from Australia followed. At the end of forty days of additional prayers for the sanctity of life, key legislation was introduced to narrow the types of abortions permitted in Australia. Repentance not only affects a believers walk with the Lord but clearly also can affect a nations destiny. April 30, 2013 was then chosen to be the next national day of repentance. April 30 marked the 224th anniversary of President Washingtons inaugural address. In this address he added so help me God to his oath and gave all credit to God for the miracles that birthed the new nation. April 30 was also the 150th anniversary of President Lincolns call in the middle of the Civil War for a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer. God answered that process of national repentance. Two days after that day, in 1863, key events began to unfold bringing that horrific war to a close in Gods mercy. Key prayer leaders in Australia, Warwick Marsh and David and Marilyn Rowsome, together with New Zealands Warren Lyons, recommended bridging the April 30 Day of Repentance with Americas National Day of Prayer on May 2. This made it a 72 hour international
event among prayer intercessors across the body of Christ, combining repentance, fasting and prayer, focusing on the United States. The power of the final day of national prayer appears to have been magnified by the earlier day of repentance, by the extended period of fasting and prayer, and by the participation of so many Christian prayer warriors from so many nations. David Rowsome, one of the Australian organizers, wrote, Now as we look back we stand amazed at what the Lord has done. The response from the Nations of the world to this prayer call surprised us all. Jonathan Edwards, the mighty American revivalist of the First Great Awakening and widely acknowledged as Americas greatest theologian, wrote in 1740, When God has something very great to accomplish for His church, it is His will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of His people. We believe this is what we have just witnessed in this world-wide call to prayer. Many media outlets and prayer networks, including several global ones, very quickly took up this call. Confirmed reports from 28 countries around the world have been received and we believe there could very well be many more. We will not know the full response this side of eternity. But God does! A strategic prayer partner was the International House of Prayer Kansas City www.ihopkc.org . At short notice they responded with a special focus on America in the times of intercession for three days. The live global web-streaming from the 24/7 Prayer Room captured the heart of the call to prayer. In the atmosphere of continuous worship we saw the faces of many nations as they offered urgent, fervent and heartfelt prayers for the awakening and revival of America. Many ministries around the world linked hands. An intercessor from Ireland responded to the call with these words Yes, Gods global army awakes, moves by His Spirit and will glorify His precious Son! Clearly, Gods end-time army is taking its place, preparing for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as promised in Acts 2:17-21. The National Day of Prayer reached a new and exciting level reporting the day as the single,
largest mobilized effort to prayer in the history of our nation with more than 42,000 events. We can only believe that God has indeed used the extraordinary prayers of His people around the world to bless America! In view of the response to the recent worldwide call to 72 hours of prayer and fasting for the USA the Australian and New Zealand prayer leaders, with support from other international prayer teams, have issued a call throughout the body of Christ for an International Day of Repentance on September 14, 2013. That date coincides with Yom Kippur and Australias national election day. That Day will be preceded by 40 days of prayer and fasting for global revival and transformation, the release of 1 billion souls into the Kingdom of God, the turning back of the culture of death and immortality that is sweeping our nations and the release of prayer, praise and worship for the glory of God. We all desperately need the intervention of God in our world today. Praise God for His Holy Spirit and for unity in His Body. Days of repentance, fasting, and prayer at the grassroots and globally now can be seen as one of His ongoing strategies in these end times to build up His Body for His Glory. To God be the Glory!
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Chapter Ten: Days of Repentance to Reset the Cornerstone In Matthew 21, verses 33-44, Yeshua/Jesus tells the parable of the Wicked Vinedressers. At one point He quotes from Psalm 118 and Isaiah 28, saying: Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lords doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. So the Lord Yeshua/Jesus, the Messiah, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, is the Chief Cornerstone of the Body of Christ. And while forever loving Israel He has been willing to lease His vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to the owner of the vineyard the fruits in their seasons. (Matthew 21:41). He has been looking to give the kingdom of God to a nation bearing the fruits of it. God has always had a plan for the Messiah to spill His blood to save the sins of the world and for the Messiahs Liberty to set the captives free (Luke 4:18-21). The Lord knew that in due season nations would be founded on Christs Liberty, as part of Gods Eternal Plan: His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in Him; All nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. (Psalm 72:17-19). There are now several nations on planet Earth, sometimes called bridal nations where earlier explorers, Christians with a personal
revelation of Christs Liberty, sought to plant Christ on the new land through their prayers. Jean Ribault, in 1462, escaping religious persecution in France, took Huguenot Protestant settlers with him and planted a column for Christ in present day Florida. Unfortunately that column soon was adopted as part of the pagan practices of the local indigenous tribe. The corruption of that column has meant that enemy spirits have been granted entry into the roots of what later became the United States of America. Other Christian nations may also have granted entry to enemy spirits who have been attacking the roots. The enemys attacks have left the Christian roots of Christian nations at a dire point. The Lord is now repeatedly sending out distress signals. One very patriotic soldier, always meticulous as he presented the flag of his nation that fought bravely against evil in earlier world wars, recently was called upon to raise his nations flag in a memorial ceremony. Despite the soldiers fanatical attention to detail the flag was inadvertently raised upside down. Those with Holy Spirit spiritual discernment immediately recognized this as a distress signal for their own nation. This nation is now choosing public policies on marriage and abortion far from Gods Word. They also realized this was a distress signal internationally, across the body of Christ, where those very same issues are being ruled upon by other legislatures and courts, directly opposing Gods standards.
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The upside down flag is a clear signal for international distress. As a body of Christ we need immediately to repent, personally and corporately. Days of repentance are part of that process. Then we individually need to continue with the spiritual discipline of repentance in order to build up the body of Christ which has been so lukewarm, if not completely asleep. Strongholds can blind and hold an entire nation captive. enemys work can spread to infect a whole nation and a region. The
Unless satan is exposed and the Living God restored, the enemys work will soon engulf the planet in the guise of good works to solve global problems. The number of social welfare programs that leaders will claim only government can effectively accomplish will proliferate. In the guise of good works generational bondage to poverty will be even more deeply rooted. Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11: 14. The Liberty for which Yeshua/Jesus spilled His blood to set the captives free will be lost. The enemy spirit that has gained entry as a huge strongman in many Christian nations is the same spirit of Baal and Ashtoreth in the Old Testament (Judges 2:13.). Its the spirit of personal achievement, the same spirit at the tower of Babel when the people said lets make a name for ourselves. (Genesis 11:4). That has never been Gods Way. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Proverbs 14:12, Proverbs 16:25. That very spirit of self achievement so angered the Living God when His Chosen People began to worship at the pagan temples that God quickly delivered His Chosen People into the hands of plunderers
who He knew would despoil them. God sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed. (Judges 2:14-15). To varying degrees our Western society has followed this very same pagan spirit of living for the flesh and for pleasure. The spirit of Baal and Ashtoreth and Jezebel represents the depraved spirit of living without Godly standards. Those spirits today find a home in the humanistic thinking of the new world order and in groups such as the freemasons. Those spirits also find a home in the spirit of pride, the spirit of self. We humans were designed by the Lord to worship Him. When we worship the god of self or some other enemy counterfeit that false worship affects not only ourselves individually but affects the nation we inhabit, the ground on which we walk. A people who live in a land either bless it or defile it. The Church, the called out ones itself falls prey to this secular spirit and only rarely stands up boldly to oppose this lifestyle. Instead, a watered down prosperity gospel is spooned out leaving ears tickled and the spirit hungry. Often a believer goes to a lukewarm church on a Sunday and then follows the spirit of mammon the rest of the week. To the Lord this is kneeling at the altar of Baal and Ashtoreth. Its time to repent. In the body of Christ in Western nations especially many have lost their first love. Self and money have replaced Christ. Sadly, the spirit of
mammon is rife in the body of Christ, not only in the huge mismanagement of funds often leading to scandal but also in the stronghold against tithing. Many follow profits instead of prophets. Instead of tithing, as Jesus clearly instructs (Matthew 23:23) less than 10% of Christians tithe to a church. And in general fewer now attend church than in previous generations. Today 20% of young people in America declare that there is no God, up from less than 10% only a few short years ago. By placing pagan gods above the commandments of the Living God, only Gods mercy keeps the Lord from delivering us today into the hands of new plunderers who would further enslave us. Believers are at a critical point in history. We must choose, each of us, between self-reliance and the practices, the diversions and the opinions of men or dependence on Gods blessings as we follow His Way. We must follow the world or turn away now in humble repentance to the Lord. Hosea 14: 3: Nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, You are our gods. The Lord is waiting. Judgment could fall. Its almost as if theres the same half hour of silence in heaven as will take place after the opening of the seventh seal. Thank God the Lords mercy is fresh every day. As in the time of the Judges, the Lords Heart is still to raise up a Judge by which His Chosen People can be delivered out of the hand of those who plunder His People. (Judges 2: 16). Yeshua/Jesus is now that Judge. He is soon returning to judge the
living and the dead. And He is the Way, the Truth and the Life for each believer to follow. He calls each of us to follow Him through the narrow gate. He calls each of us to be zealous to repent, to let Him in to our hearts, so that we can then become overcomers to sit with Him. (Revelation 3: 19-21). This also clearly follows Joel 2: 12-19, 32 where the Lord tells us what to do in these alarming times when darkness is increasing: Now, therefore, says the Lord, Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And he relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him---A grain offering and a drink offering For the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, Spare Your people, O Lord, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God? Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, And pity His people. The Lord will answer and say to His people, Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, And you will be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations..And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the Lord has said, Among the remnant whom the Lord calls. In this spirit of repentance we can each have a part in resetting the Christian cornerstones of our nations. The column of Jean Ribault can
be reset. Any curse over it can be broken by the prayers of believers. On April 30-May 2, 2013 prayer warriors from twenty six nations held a 72 hour international call for repentance, fasting and prayer, focusing on the United States to come back under Gods covering. Having seen such a spiritual decline in our nation and other nations, many sought the Lords mercy that we might at this late hour be His trees of righteousness. Those who had repented, fasted and prayed sought the Lords healing of our land in keeping with Isaiah 61: 4: And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations. God most assuredly saw our unity internationally as one body. (Psalm 133). It had to have appeared to Him as precious oil flowing down Aarons beard. The Lord also had to have been pleased that the Hebrew roots of the nation were acknowledged through repentance, fasting and prayer. The Lords Mercy is fresh. More than one person believes that on May 2, 2013, at the conclusion of the 72 hour international call for repentance, fasting and prayer, God heard our prayers to reset the Christian cornerstone of the United States. Only a few days later, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, author of The Harbinger, spoke in the United States Capitol building. Here is his account of what the Holy Spirit did: Near the end, they asked me to come up. As I was speaking, I thought someone was shouting against it. Then I realized the mans voice was coming from the sound system. Then I realized it was the enemy. It only happened at that time, that night. So I spoke even louder
and more forcefully. The distraction then stopped. I spoke of the connection of America to Israel, of Americas spiritual descent, of the warnings of judgment, of the call to repentance. The Lord was there and I felt His power. I ended with a call for national prayer and revival. As I finished, the gathering erupted in a standing ovation. As I came back to my seat, I was greeted by a Member of Congress who congratulated me and gave me a big embrace. At the end of the event, they called me up again. I told them about the Aaronic Blessing. Then instead of simply doing it, I asked for everyone to turn around, lift up their hands, and join me in the Aaronic Blessing to go forth from Capitol Hill to America. They all did. I sang the Aaronic Blessing & then spoke it in English - It had to be the first time that happened there. Afterwards, more than one Member of Congress came up to me to tell me they had read The Harbinger, were fans, and that we had to keep praying for America. In a nutshell, the Lord showed up. It was incredibly powerful. And most of all, thank you for your prayers. I believe that makes the difference. With Christ Jesus again declared as Sovereign, a new alignment in Americas national destiny was reset with Christ being the Cornerstone. Now that sin was repented for, and the Cornerstone was reset, the Lord could work His Providence: Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people. (Proverbs 14:34). Psalm 127, verse 1, says: Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. As a result of the resetting of the Cornerstone, within a very few days, by mid May, 2013, key issues ---the IRS scandal, the Benghazi talking points scandal, the AP/ Fox reporters wiretapping scandal--surfaced as part of the nations healing. What had earlier been whispered in private began to be shouted from the rooftops.
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The Lord is blessing these prayers for repentance and renewal of the Covenant with Him as Lord over the United States of America. There is a new plumb line. He is Lord. In Him alone we trust. This was always the vision for government in the United States. The White House was barely finished when the John and Abigail Adams moved into it in November, 1800. In writing to his wife, Abigail, the President composed a prayer which was later engraved upon the mantel in the state dining room where it stands today: I pray Heaven to bestow THE BEST OF BLESSINGS ON THIS HOUSE and All that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof. Honest and Wise Men to John Adams had to have meant one filled with the Holy Spirit. There are many unseen spirits in the world, but only one Holy Spirit. Adams prayed that only Holy Spiritfilled Presidents would occupy the White House, so that public policies would reflect the eternal Truths set forth in the Bible as opposed to shifting human concepts, fashionable and always changeable by the limited tides of human opinion. Believers in all nations have to pray without ceasing. May repentance become a daily practice personally and for our nations. If we continue to repent and to pray, Christians can once again be a force for morality in the culture; God will open doors for us to serve as public servants; other blessings will follow which only He now knows about. Now that the Cornerstone has been reset in one nation the Holy Spirit can move through believers to revive a once blessed Christian nation which earlier had been a beacon of Liberty and Light to other
nations. May the Cornerstone be set or reset in all nations, in Yeshua/Jesus Holy Name. May this repentance, fasting and prayer process be repeated frequently across the body of Christ as the Lord leads, all for His Glory, in Jesus Holy Name.
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Chapter Eleven: Not All Will Repent The dire condition many nations find themselves in has moved many in the body of Christ to repent personally. Many now are urgently praying for God to help. In so doing we realize we need to repent first. The Holy Spirit is nudging His Bride to awaken. We are now in a season of repentance in the body of Christ. In the same way that the prayers of the saints are preserved in heaven for the Lamb (Revelation 5:8) daily acts of repentance anchor the Cornerstone in a persons life and in any nation. And we believers all have fallen short of the glory of God. Turn from your wicked ways can mean turn from your human inadequacies. So theres no excuse not to repent. Its time to let Him restore our souls and lead each of us in the narrow path of righteousness for His names sake. Its time to sacrifice the old man in each of us to become more like Christ. Daily acts of repentancebeing zealous to repent--prepare us, anchor us, to become overcomers--- to act as kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:10). But not all will repent. In this season many sense that there will be a separation of those who simply call themselves Christians from those who sincerely are devoted to Christ alone and are willing to die for Him if need be. Those devoted believers honor Yeshua/Jesus word in John 15:5: Without Me you can do nothing. He wishes us to become more holy, as He is holy. As troubles come upon the earth, its His will that no human would perish but would receive His salvation. Its His will that not one of His disciples
should suffer from ignorance. He urges each of us to get right with Him, turning from the world and the flesh to follow His purity, coming under His safe covering as the times get increasingly darker. One prophet sees our condition in the form of a harvest. In the same way that barley is the first harvest season, soft-hearted believers will be the first ones to repent, reacting to the least amount of Gods pressure. Barley can be thrown in the air and simply separated by the wind, in this case the Ruach Elohim-the Holy Spirit. Then later in the year there will be a season of wheat, which requires a sickle, and later, grapes, requiring a winepress. Ultimately, this prophet sees some believers repenting very late in the process, as God allows more pressure, in the same way that olives have to be hard pressed to release their oil. Lastly, if there still is no repentance, some believers may fit the category of sheep or goats. In that case, blood is required, if those animals are to be harvested. May we all react and repent from the least amount of Gods pressure; may we fit into the barley category! Sadly, many will fit in the sheep or goats category. There may not be extensive repentance until there is a serious chastening. By then the church may be increasingly apostate. In the Parable of the Persistent Widow, Jesus questions in Luke 18: 8 whether He, the Son of Man, will really find faith on the earth when He returns: Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, Get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this
widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Then the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?
During this time of testing we believers, His People, have to cry out day and night to Him. The Cornerstone of any believers faith and the Cornerstone of any Christian nation will need to be anchored through ongoing repentance. We have to prepare today for additional anti-Christ, anti-Liberty legislation. Today we are confronted with court decisions upholding the death of innocents through abortion, exalting the spirit of perversion over Gods Word on marriage, and increasingly kicking any mention of God out of the public square. We have to stand up for Truth in the public square seeking to elect Christians, championing public laws, advocating for court decisions which align with Gods plumbline. Unless countered by repentance, the anti-God spirit will grow in strength in any nation. The fabric of Gods Divine protection over that nation will be torn. In the same way that God used Israels enemies to chastise that nation, God could use North Korea, China, or the Muslim world to injure any one of us drastically. The 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and the Boston bombing could seem minor in comparison.
The typical message from the lukewarm church of today is everything will be okay. They will say that life goes on as it always has: 2 Peter 3:3-4 is right on point: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. In lukewarm churches saying it will be okay the word repent is omitted in the drive to rebuild. To the contrary, Scripture is refreshingly blunt. Isaiah 47:10-11 states: For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, No one sees me; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart, I am, and there is no one else besides me. Therefore evil shall come upon you; You shall not know from where it arises, And trouble shall fall upon you; You will not be able to put it off, And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, Which you shall not know. We cant rebuild on sandy foundations, creating more sand castles. Those sand castles will not stand the test of time in the stormy days ahead. Repentance through the blood of the Lamb is the only foundation stone that will establish us firmly to endure, and even to flourish under Christs protection, in the end times ahead. Years ago our public servants in America knew these Truths. If we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity. ~ Daniel Webster
The signs of the times are very clear. Unless the Lords people, called by His name, repent, every nation faces disaster. Those nations, especially America, fit the tall and strong tree, about to be cut down, described in the Book of Daniel, chapter four, verses 11-17: The tree grew and became strong; Its height reached to the heavens, And it could be seen to the ends of all the earth. 12 Its leaves were lovely, Its fruit abundant, And in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, The birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches, And all flesh was fed from it. 13 I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven. 14 He cried aloud and said thus: Chop down the tree and cut off its branches, Strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts get out from under it, And the birds from its branches. 15 Nevertheless leave the stump and roots in the earth, Bound with a band of iron and bronze, In the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven, And let him graze with the beasts On the grass of the earth. 16 Let his heart be changed from that of a man, Let him be given the heart of a beast, And let seven times pass over him. 17 This decision is by the decree of the watchers, And the sentence by the word of the holy ones, In order that the living may know That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, Gives it to whomever He will, And sets over it the lowest of men. The tree that grew very tall and strong, reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see is the United States; at one time no nation ever possessed more power and wealth. And all the world was fed from this tree refers to the military sent to do battle against evil and for freedom in many lands. The tree also refers to the spiritual battle against evil; to the many American missionaries sending forth Christs Light into the world. The cutting down of the tree, lopping off its branches, but keeping
the stump and roots, shows that the Lord knows how to prune His creation. It also shows that in His merciful Way He will remove the deadwood of his lukewarm church. He promises (John 15:2) to do this by cutting away any branch in Him that does not bear fruit. He also repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear richer and more excellent fruit. He has already begun a process of reforestation through repentance. A key verse is Isaiah 44:14 (Amplified): He hews him down cedars, and takes the holm tree and the oak, and lets them grow strong for him among the trees of the forest; he plants a fir tree or an ash and the rain nourishes it. Cedar trees represent the spirit of defiance, as in Isaiah 9:10 (Amplified version): The bricks are fallen, but we will build all the better with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will put costlier cedars in their place. This very sign of defiance was pointed out by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn in The Harbinger book. Instead of repenting, instead of searching why the Lord was signaling distress literally with a 911 call, American leaders defiantly said and did the very same thing out of their own defiant strength after the horrific attack of 911. Cedar trees also represent the unbendable, legalistic, mancentered apostate church. God will cut them down and has a plan to replace them with ash trees--- bendable, repentant believers. The rain which will nourish is the latter rain of the Holy Spirit which will be poured out on all flesh. (Acts 2:17; Joel 2:23,28).
May all sincere believers in the Living God receive spiritual eyesight in these end times. We can ask the Holy Spirit to give us this key gift to see and discern the signs of the times so we can save ourselves and others. We can bring many nonbelievers into the Kingdom. We are called by our loving heavenly Father to be the voice for repentance in our churches and communities. Repentance is the one way to avoid judgment, for individuals and for nations. Increasing judgment is part of Gods loving strategy to turn us from our human inadequacies, our wicked ways. Give us this day our daily zeal to repent!
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Chapter Twelve: Our Living God is Our Best Weapon Were in a spiritual battle. Scripture gives us great lessons to achieve victory. A key lesson is presented in 2 Chronicles 20:3-4. King Jehoshaphat, after learning that a great multitude of nearby armies were coming to do battle, first had a very natural human reaction: he was frozen with fear. But then the king did something very powerful which began the process by which the Lord went to battle for His People and defeated the enemy. Scripture says: Then Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself [determinedly, as his vital need] to seek the Lord; he proclaimed a fast in all Judah. (2 Chronicles 2:3 amplified version). The king determinedly, as his vital need, moved past his emotions and exercised his free will to seek the Lord. He didnt stay stuck in the limbic portion of his brain, the site of his emotions. He set himself to seek the guidance of the Lord and to trust in the Lord regardless of the appearance of the dire circumstances. He then declared a fast, a key spiritual weapon to defeat the enemy. And he next brought all Judah together to ask help of the Lord, creating a sacred assembly. Scripture says: All Judah gathered together to ask help of the Lord; even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord [yearning for Him with all their desire.] (2 Chronicles 20:4 amplified version). That yearning for Him with all their desire attitude is central to the repentance process. The Lord is after our hearts. Each of us is His beloved. He rightfully is a jealous God. He wishes each of us to exercise our free will to yearn for Him, to want to be intimate with Him, to repent to experience His joy and Liberty, to fully embrace His Heart.
He wants to restore each of us to the fullness of His Kingdom, not just in heaven but now here on earth. Our High Priest gives us free will to exercise--- or not exercise---our will to pursue His path to purity by regularly confessing our sins and repenting. At no point does He close the door on us. He says we can call him our Friend. He wants us to be more like Him. He wants an intimate spiritual relationship--- Bridegroom to Bride. The Risen Christ stands at the door and knocks. If anyone hears and listens to and heeds His voice and opens the door to his heart, the Risen Christ will come in and have a wonderful meal and fellowship time with Him. (Revelation 3:20). Its the Lord purpose to support each of us to become an overcomer and sit beside Him on His throne as He overcame and now sits besides the Abba Father. (Revelation 3:21). He urges us to be zealous to repent, to clean up the old patterns of sin into which we were born or which we picked up in the world. Proverbs 3:12 tells us: For whom the Lord loves He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights. To become zealous to repent one first receives the revelation of its awesome value in becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. Its a privilege to repent! Next, like Jehoshaphat, one determinedly seeks the Lords help in the process. This process doesnt happen by accident; each believer is accountable for the cleaning up process. Like Jehoshaphat, we have to set ourselves determinedly, as a vital need to seek the Lord. He will forgive our sins when we sincerely repent. The Living God is our Strong Tower in our personal lives and in our nations. Global events point to our being at a tipping point in nations. Will we trust in God or man? There is still time to reset the
cornerstone of Christs Liberty in any land. Believers need to follow Ribaults commitment that any land can be a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob. (Psalm 132:5). When we follow the Lords instructions, the battle is the Lords. (2 Chronicles 20:1-30.) Having called upon the Lord, admitting that we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You (2 Chronicles 20: 12) the Lord spoke through a Levite in the assembly and said (2 Chronicles 20: 1518): Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: Do not be afraid or dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but Gods. Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem! Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Jeremiah 18:8 states: if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. The very same Living God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He takes pity on our distress whenever he hears our cry. (Psalm 106:44.) Jesus tells us in Luke 18: 7-8: shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.
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Our Living God is our best weapon. And in His name Gentiles will trust.(Matthew 12:21, citing Isaiah 42:1-4) Using prayer, fasting and repentance, the Living Gods miracles formed America as a nation. Other nations also have Christian roots which are still strong. The Living God was, is, and always will be our best weapon. Demonic strongholds, false filters blocking Christs reality, have blinded the eyes of our nations. We must take them down through prayer, fasting and repentance--- personally and for our nations. Time is of the essence ! Judgment is a gift from God to stop the mold of sin from spreading. He will protect His repentant remnant if judgment proceeds on any nation. If we repent Isaiah 42:13 gives us great hope; He is waiting for us to call on Him to assist us: The Lord will go forth like a warrior, He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies. Our part is to repent. We have to offer the sacrifice of our lips (Hosea 14:2), speaking in our prayer closet with the Holy Spirit, sincerely repenting, as He leads us in the paths of righteousness for His Names sake. The Lords instruction to Moses in Leviticus 23:26-32 now has been expanded in Rev 3: 19-21: for end time believers in the Living God, repentance is more than a once a year exercise. Now it must be an everyday practice! Now we have to be zealous to repent because satan knows that his time is short. Believers now alive face a huge spiritual battle that earlier believers didnt face. We have to be like the persistent widow, always praying and not losing heart, asking the judge
for justice from our adversary. Luke 18:1-8. When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? Luke 18: 8. Our prayers are blessed all the more when they are mixed with repentance. God will avenge His own elect, speedily, who cry out day and night to Him. We believers who know their God will be strong and will carry out great exploits. (Daniel 11:32) The Lord God Almighty has many powerful Names. None is more powerful than the God of the Battle. Joshua 23:3 sets forth this key Truth: You have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you, for the Lord your God is He who has fought for you. The Lord, God of the Battle, has been fighting for you and me, for everyone in His Body in all nations. His banner over us is Love. All authority has been given to Yeshua/Jesus the Messiah in heaven and on earth. Now He has commissioned us to take the Good News throughout the world. May we continue to bless Him with our prayers, fasting and repentance, lovingly anchoring Him in our lives and in the process, our nations. One by one, prayer team by prayer team, when we fast in the way that He sets forth (Isaiah 58), when we repent, when we afflict our souls, when we align with His Word, the Lord blesses and restores us (Isaiah 58: 10-12): If you extend your soul to the hungry, And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many
generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. The Beloved is calling us. He wants us to love Him. He wants us to worship Him. He wants us to be zealous to repent. He wants us to trust Him, like a little sheep in the arms of the Good Shepherd. Yes and Amen, Lord. Pick us up! We love You!
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ZEAL TO REPENT!

A Key to Personal and National Restoration

Pastor Jeffrey Daly

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

Pastor Jeffrey Daly 2013

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