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Articles 2018-2020
Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
When the Lord first called His people, it was not because they were something special in themselves; they were like all others in the world who did not know Him. It was His sovereign choice of them, of Abraham and his descendants that established them as a special and unique nation among all other nations.
In fact, He likened His initial intervention among them to a man who discovered a rejected infant left out in a field to die (Ezekiel 16:4 - 5). And His call upon them was an act of mercy.
And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, “Live!” I said to you in your blood, “Live!”
Here is our common plight. None of us had anything going for us. None were righteous, no one sought for God, and all had become useless (Romans 3:10 - 12). And when the Lord spoke “life” to us, His word came to pass, and we lived.
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
The spoken word of the Lord brings the manifestation of His power (Genesis 1:3; Romans 1:16).
But as time passed, it became clear that He intended to do more for us. Through Ezekiel, He likened His people to a girl who had grown from infancy into puberty but who needed to be clothed (Ezekiel 16:7). At that stage of life, her condition was totally inappropriate.
Today, the Church does not seem to understand the total inappropriateness of our present state. It is not due necessarily to major sin, but simply the passage of time. The coming visitation of God is not merely an appealing but unnecessary impending event. We absolutely need Heaven’s breakthrough.
When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.
Here is the language of covenant, the language of betrothal and marriage. It was the time for her to understand a new dimension of God’s love and commitment for her and at the same time to come into a new measure of faithful love for Him. All visitations from heaven have this characteristic. While they all will have different nuances of truth and emphasis, they all will reveal new depths of God’s love for His people and His intent to draw them into a deeper devotion to Him.
Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil.
Here was an event some years after the exposed infant had come to life. The Lord was bringing a further application of His cleansing power, a further dimension of anointing for service (Ezekiel 16:9), an increased arraying with the wealth of heaven (Ezekiel 16:10 - 13), and a beauty beyond what she could have foreseen (Ezekiel 16:13 - 14).
Here is where we stand today. God is arising to again pass by and spread His garment over His bride. We are on the verge of Heaven’s transitioning us into the next phase of His work among the nations. To put it simply – we cannot change the earth in our present state. But God has a plan. Through His people He will cause the world to experience new dimensions of eternal wealth, deeper expressions of His humility, of His grace, of His judgments, and of His power over sickness and disease. Until Christ’s return, Heaven’s dawning glory in Zion is the only hope the world has.
But the continuing problem we will face is the same one Israel faced so many years ago. As we experience His glory among us, will we then trust in His beauty among us as though it came from us?
But you trusted in your beauty…
The result of her flawed perspective was indeed dreadful (Ezekiel 16:15 - 59).
When we look to the New Testament, we discover here as well a local church that did not understand her nakedness, the total inappropriateness of her condition.
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: “The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
It is doubtful that the seven churches listed in Revelation 2 - 3 symbolize more than what they actually were. They were gatherings of God’s people meeting in a specific general locale – the Roman province of Asia Minor. And they had identifiable problems that needed to be addressed through apostolic input. So John included seven apostolic “notes” within the larger general epistle – The Book of Revelation. And John loved these believers. So did Paul. Though he had never met them, Paul had great concern and an intercessory burden/struggle on their behalf (Colossians 2:1). So, like John, he also wrote an apostolic epistle to the believers in Laodicea (Colossians 4:16).
What were some of the struggles the believers there faced?
I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Again, God’s people were losing their way. In their apathy, they were on the edge of losing something of eternal value. Whereas the mouth of the Lord was revealed among His people when He spoke through His prophets in the Old Testament (2 Chronicles 36:12; Isaiah 1:20), in the New Testament, the mouth of the Lord revealing His present emphasis in/to a particular region is to be revealed in and through the local church as it is served by New Testament prophets and apostles. As these ministries are integrated and accountable members of local congregations and as they are released by those congregations to serve the larger Church, they will help to facilitate the corporate expression of God’s mouth through His people.
But the believers in Laodicea were about to lose this precious privilege. And in his apostolic role, John saw this as catastrophic.
Since one’s mouth speaks out of that which fills their heart (Matthew 12:34), God wanted to make His heart known in Laodicea. But to be ejected from that role would be a great loss for the church there and for the surrounding region as well.
Too often, local churches not having seen the inappropriateness of their condition, and having failed to see their desperate need for God, have settled into a form of godliness but lacking the power of His present emphasis revealed through His word. In fact, the believers at Laodicea had even developed a stated theology justifying their present condition. They not only thought they were rich and needed nothing, they even said so.
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
The counsel of the Lord for the believers in Laodicea was clear (Revelation 3:18 - 19); His solution was simple.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
Imagine, the Lord of heaven and earth wanting access to the gatherings of His own people! Of course, He already lived in their hearts. But He wanted to make himself known among them. He wanted to reveal himself through them to each other as well as to the lost in ways far greater than He could at present. Keep in mind – His vision for the earth is superior and grander than ours. His work of preparation among us is often deeper and more painful than we think is necessary. But He knows what He is doing, and He knows what He wants to say. And apathetic hearts are simply incapable of conveying the depth of His heart, the reality of His kingdom.
In the midst of all that was going on, if anyone in the fellowship heard the Lord’s desire to be more known among them and then opened the door of his/her heart, He would come in to that individual and dine with him/her. The solution to the church’s need was quite simple – a table for two. This word was not addressed only to leaders in the church; it was to anyone who could hear the Master.
God’s door of entrance for His people’s corporate salvation is simply one individual heart. No one can open anyone else’s door, only their own. Trying to pressure others in God’s house to change and “get with the program” is not the way forward. But notice the spiritual authority that comes from “the table for two”, from intimacy with Christ.
He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
(Revelation 3:21 NASB)
Here is the key for bringing change to the whole earth. It will not come from self-righteous/religious judgment of others. It will not come from trying to change all the physical and spiritual needs we see around us whether in the church or in the world. After all, how can we change the world when we cannot even change ourselves? But if we will humble ourselves before Him, admit our great need for Him, and spend precious time dining with Him in prayer, worship, and in His word, He will establish us in oneness with Him in the expression of His authority. Here is what humanity needs – Christ’s reign disclosed, our God making himself known through His people, all other agendas set aside, one mind revealed, one kingdom coming into focus.
Is He up to the task? Can He indeed build His house to Heaven’s specifications? Can He bring His body to full stature by the power of the Holy Spirit? Will His bride turn to Him in these days seeing her own inappropriate condition?
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Donald Rumble – May 2018
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