“Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.” King Josiah in II Kings 22:13
As I traveled into Europe for the first time, my eyes were opened to a place filled with many diverse cultures and languages. A place rich in history, even to the very roots of the early church. Seeing all of the churches (most of them embracing the Christian religion), I was quite shocked to see the lack of spiritual life, in spite of this. I had always thought that America was in bad shape, when it came to religion, but not in comparison to the many countries I faced with this reflection in Europe. Many people were Christians, but most had never seen a Bible, heard a verse, or heard anything about even the simplest parts of the Gospel. Yes, everyone had heard about Jesus, but no one knew who He was. Furthermore, almost everyone we talked to heard the Gospel, but it was for the first time. And these were Christian countries!?! Countries from which many mighty moves of God had emerged from, where many hundreds of thousands of sold-out, on-fire-for-Jesus missionaries had been sent from. And the blessedness of the Spirit of the Lord was bold in this part of the world, as we ponder the history here, but by the time I had gotten there, this "once solid foundation of faith" was all broken up into rubbish. In whole, the heart and desire was gone and the oil all burned up. It is now a place filled with a young people who are beyond being burned out on dead religion. This was like nothing I had seen in America. Not to this level anyway. So, I took a minute to consider, what made Europe this way?
In II Kings 22:13 Josiah speaks of the generations proceeding him as people who “have not hearkened unto the Words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written” concerning them. Just as “our fathers” (the previous generations) have turned from His word in many ways!
For example: in the last three to four generations, our fathers chose to lay down the cross and the lifestyle of discipleship and traded them in for a culture of a cheap western religion filled with idea’s inspired by traditions and the desires of men (II Tm 4:3-4).
Therefore, because of our laying down of a lifestyle of God’s word, and instead a picking up of modern fables, we see many young people today, instead of being discipled and cultivating a heart of convictions for the Lord Jesus Christ and His works, producing fruit that is either sour or underdeveloped. A generation doing good works (playing in a praise band, putting a dollar into the bucket, going to church on Sundays, marrying another Christian person, ect.) as a duty to a western Christian culture that they have obligation to, but not out of a personal conviction and a true sense of understanding the faith.
Not that these things are bad! Its good that we establish morals into the next generation, but if it is without a heartfelt understanding or conviction, the works will bear no eternal fruit. In turn, the world will not be won over to the Gospel and it certainly will not affect the next generation under us.
We also see that many times, a young person has no active conviction of the holiness of God nor His love to turn from sin. They only harvest guilt based on their knowledge that “they were raised not to do ‘this’ or ‘that.’
What would be more exciting to see? A bunch of kids who turn into adults and proceed to only join the praise band at the family church and throw a dollar in the bucket, but don’t understand why they do these things? Or even why they are right to do? Or would it be more exciting to see a generation of young people winning their friends to the Lord as disciples of Jesus Christ, who are personal friends of the Holy Spirit, who fast and pray for a generation that is l
ost and going to Hell? Convicted because of how they personally know the Lord?
Our fathers share responsibility in this (of course they do). But so do we if we do not repent! We are the kings and queens over this generation, and we are the fathers and mothers of the next.
Will we be responsible for dropping the ball?
· The “ball” of responsibility to the next generation?
· Of our responsibility to God?
· The generation’s preceding Josiah’s generation had been that of an indecisive people, committing idol worship, spiritual adultery to God, and ultimately turning away from Him totally. With a king or two leading revival, through first repenting from their wicked ways by taking action on their generation by tearing down the idols and hedges built in worship of false gods, Josiah was a man who “Did that which was right in the sight of the Lord…and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left” (II Kings 22:2). It also says about him “And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according the Law of Moses.” And had a fire in his heart for he and all his people to repent from their idol worshipping and “do according unto all that which is written concerning us" (II Kings 22:13)
We, as believing people, have been given a dirty old rug mantle from the last generation. A mantle of insincerity and detached lip-service to the Lord by receiving man-made religion and western traditions. But let us now throw them off and put on the robes of righteousness, provided for us on the cross of Christ! Let us be a Josiah generation, turning back to the Word of God and throwing off the former ways by repenting to the Lord and falling away from our adulterous human nature and warped idea’s of godliness.
One of the major sins that was popular among the people of Judah, at this time (and many other people), was the worship of idols. “Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods…(II Kings 22:17)”
What are a few idols that we worship today as a generation?
- Vanity
- Identity with the world
- Materialism (just stuff!)
- Acceptance
Idol worship, I believe many times with the Jews, was not only the desire of people wanting to carve funny faces into stone to worship them, but mostly because of the strong influence of the nations surrounding the people of Judah; historically noted, they cultivated this system of idol worship. And when they would come into Judah with all of their idols and funny religions, they would sneer at the Jews for worshipping only one God. I could imagine the idol worshippers saying “You mean you only have one God? And He doesn’t have an image in the most popular stones? And He wants you to serve only Him? That’s weird… well, we have all these cool shiny stones carved in hip shapes that we worship! Look! I have one around my neck for good luck! Man, I even have three statues in my backpack!!! Come on, everyone is doing it! And so, the people of God fell under what could only be describe in modern terms as “peer-pressure.”
To a good extent, if we are honest, today's worship still falls under the same sense of idolatry as it did in those days for acceptance sake! A conversation today could just as well go “You mean you believe in God? But it’s only because you were raised a Christian right? Well I don’t care for all of that stuff…Why do you things different than us anyways (Don’t cuss, don’t laugh at my funny sexual jokes/racial jokes, don’t check out girls/don’t flirt with boys)? Listen, no one really does that Christian thing anyway right? Besides, everyone in my family says they are Christian too, but they don’t do the things you do (or the things you don’t do!) So, you don’t have to do them either, no one will notice, because you will be just like the rest of us! Why be held back from life by a religious set of rules?
We have given into the idea that “God loves us, therefore he wants us to live our lives in a nice, socially accepted kind of way.
But the truth is, God loves us therefore He wants us to live our lives in such a way that would win others to His love
God loves us therefore we don’t need acceptance from other people. We must desire only His acceptance! We don’t need our lives to be accepted by others! (Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. Luke 6:26)
We need:
· A spiritual burdened life
· A life broken hearted for the Gospel
· Burdened for the Word of the Lord
· Heavy hearted with God’s love
· And ruined for the world system
· But the passing generations, now slowly adding in ours (broadly speaking), has given up the life of discipleship and crucified life and traded it in for a cheap replacement of The Western Christian religious culture instead.
Therefore we have traded:
· Our bright and shining lamps for “a form of godliness, that denies the power thereof (II Timothy 3:5)”
· Jesus’ revolution of true Love for a religion. We now recognize religion for being unloving and maintained by people who don’t really know Jesus.
· God’s culture for man’s broken culture.
· Romans 12:2: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that god, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
What is the will of God? It's your submission to His word.
I believe that we are at a place very much like that of the church of Ephesus where Jesus says in Revelation 2:2-7 “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And has borne, and patience, and for my names sake has laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent…He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."
We have kept many things in American Christianity that are good and even praise worthy, including: a heart for missions, a fruitful spiritual foundation that is still being built upon, and people who are willing to stand firm in their knowledge of godliness. But, by investing deeper, we can also see that the most crucial aspect of our compromising spiritual heart would be that we have turned from our first love. Overall, we have turned, as a generation, from true and heartfelt spiritual worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I believe that if we repent, as individuals serving Jesus and as a generation of young people beginning to live God’s mandates as deeply in love disciples of Christ, then we will see this scripture come to power in our generation and the generations following. When Jesus says in Revelation 2:26 “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations” Though this is specifically speaking of the 1,000 year reign with Christ, I believe that it is also applicable now. If we, through the heart, submit to the Lord Jesus Christ in both His works and words, we will have Holy Spirit's power and authority for this Great commission to be fulfilled in the next few generations. Thus, allowing Christ Jesus to return in glory like He promised He would.
But if we do not repent, if we do not turn away from our idolatry, Jesus will come quickly and remove our candlestick from its place and give it to someone else. I believe that that candlestick represents the flame which is the bright burning desire and the true effectiveness of the Bride of Christ. And if we do not turn back to our first love, God will make us into a “…desolation and a curse"(II Kings 22:17)
Now what is the “Crucified life?” what is the heartfelt active worship that God desires from each of us as individuals (effecting our realm of influence) and collectively (effecting the world)? Paul describes
Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
II Corinthians 5:14-21 “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
As individuals and as a people, God desires that we would die to our will, to our emotions, and to all of our uneternal desires, making our lives a “living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God (Romans 12:1)” That we wouldn’t walk in the flesh. Instead, we live as new creatures, fulfilling our job as the true tribe of the Lion of Judah and reconciling the world to God.
THIS IS THE CHALLENGE
Live in ways unlike the world, in that you are like Jesus (Remember? The name “Christian” means “like Christ”)
II Timothy 3:1-5 says: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
This is what the generation of the last days would look like. How similar is it to our culture? Rebel, look at each of the characteristics described here and live out the opposite everyday.
- Instead of being a lover of yourself be selfless
- Rather than being covetous be a free giver!
- Don’t boast in yourself but rather in the cross!
- Instead of being proud, be humble
- Blasphemy Challenge? Live lives that make the devil sweat!
- Instead of striving with your parents, lay down your pride and obey your parents
- Unthankful? “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God is Christ Jesus concerning you (II Thessalonians 5:18)”
- In stead of “unholy” “be holy as I am holy” that’s what Jesus said.
- Without natural affection- here he is talking about homosexuality, but you can also apply this to keeping your emotions in check!
- Instead of being traitors, be faithful to God, and one another
- Heady, and highminded? Instead by lowly and humble, cheek turners!
- Rather than being “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” reject materialism, and selfishness though tempting, and cling to the Holy Spirit.
- And Finally, don’t be “a form” of godliness that denies the power, but allow God’s power and image to flow through you.
- Also, The first part of II Kings 13:22 “Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book” in other words, pray for the condition of your heart, that it would be softened before the Lord, pray for all the Christians in America, and the West to turn back to being Jesus’ disciples.
So let us begin to intercede for ourselves and for the worldwide Bride alike.
Conclusion: II Kings 22:19 :”Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and has rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord”
The ultimate action that is going to turn away this desolation from Jesus’ Beautiful bride is our repentance back to Him. We need to go back to his Word and go back to being His disciples.
As I traveled into Europe for the first time, my eyes were opened to a place filled with many diverse cultures and languages. A place rich in history, even to the very roots of the early church. Seeing all of the churches (most of them embracing the Christian religion), I was quite shocked to see the lack of spiritual life, in spite of this. I had always thought that America was in bad shape, when it came to religion, but not in comparison to the many countries I faced with this reflection in Europe. Many people were Christians, but most had never seen a Bible, heard a verse, or heard anything about even the simplest parts of the Gospel. Yes, everyone had heard about Jesus, but no one knew who He was. Furthermore, almost everyone we talked to heard the Gospel, but it was for the first time. And these were Christian countries!?! Countries from which many mighty moves of God had emerged from, where many hundreds of thousands of sold-out, on-fire-for-Jesus missionaries had been sent from. And the blessedness of the Spirit of the Lord was bold in this part of the world, as we ponder the history here, but by the time I had gotten there, this "once solid foundation of faith" was all broken up into rubbish. In whole, the heart and desire was gone and the oil all burned up. It is now a place filled with a young people who are beyond being burned out on dead religion. This was like nothing I had seen in America. Not to this level anyway. So, I took a minute to consider, what made Europe this way?
In II Kings 22:13 Josiah speaks of the generations proceeding him as people who “have not hearkened unto the Words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written” concerning them. Just as “our fathers” (the previous generations) have turned from His word in many ways!
For example: in the last three to four generations, our fathers chose to lay down the cross and the lifestyle of discipleship and traded them in for a culture of a cheap western religion filled with idea’s inspired by traditions and the desires of men (II Tm 4:3-4).
Therefore, because of our laying down of a lifestyle of God’s word, and instead a picking up of modern fables, we see many young people today, instead of being discipled and cultivating a heart of convictions for the Lord Jesus Christ and His works, producing fruit that is either sour or underdeveloped. A generation doing good works (playing in a praise band, putting a dollar into the bucket, going to church on Sundays, marrying another Christian person, ect.) as a duty to a western Christian culture that they have obligation to, but not out of a personal conviction and a true sense of understanding the faith.
Not that these things are bad! Its good that we establish morals into the next generation, but if it is without a heartfelt understanding or conviction, the works will bear no eternal fruit. In turn, the world will not be won over to the Gospel and it certainly will not affect the next generation under us.
We also see that many times, a young person has no active conviction of the holiness of God nor His love to turn from sin. They only harvest guilt based on their knowledge that “they were raised not to do ‘this’ or ‘that.’
What would be more exciting to see? A bunch of kids who turn into adults and proceed to only join the praise band at the family church and throw a dollar in the bucket, but don’t understand why they do these things? Or even why they are right to do? Or would it be more exciting to see a generation of young people winning their friends to the Lord as disciples of Jesus Christ, who are personal friends of the Holy Spirit, who fast and pray for a generation that is l
ost and going to Hell? Convicted because of how they personally know the Lord?Our fathers share responsibility in this (of course they do). But so do we if we do not repent! We are the kings and queens over this generation, and we are the fathers and mothers of the next.
Will we be responsible for dropping the ball?
· The “ball” of responsibility to the next generation?
· Of our responsibility to God?
· The generation’s preceding Josiah’s generation had been that of an indecisive people, committing idol worship, spiritual adultery to God, and ultimately turning away from Him totally. With a king or two leading revival, through first repenting from their wicked ways by taking action on their generation by tearing down the idols and hedges built in worship of false gods, Josiah was a man who “Did that which was right in the sight of the Lord…and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left” (II Kings 22:2). It also says about him “And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according the Law of Moses.” And had a fire in his heart for he and all his people to repent from their idol worshipping and “do according unto all that which is written concerning us" (II Kings 22:13)
We, as believing people, have been given a dirty old rug mantle from the last generation. A mantle of insincerity and detached lip-service to the Lord by receiving man-made religion and western traditions. But let us now throw them off and put on the robes of righteousness, provided for us on the cross of Christ! Let us be a Josiah generation, turning back to the Word of God and throwing off the former ways by repenting to the Lord and falling away from our adulterous human nature and warped idea’s of godliness.
One of the major sins that was popular among the people of Judah, at this time (and many other people), was the worship of idols. “Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods…(II Kings 22:17)”
What are a few idols that we worship today as a generation?
- Vanity
- Identity with the world
- Materialism (just stuff!)
- Acceptance
Idol worship, I believe many times with the Jews, was not only the desire of people wanting to carve funny faces into stone to worship them, but mostly because of the strong influence of the nations surrounding the people of Judah; historically noted, they cultivated this system of idol worship. And when they would come into Judah with all of their idols and funny religions, they would sneer at the Jews for worshipping only one God. I could imagine the idol worshippers saying “You mean you only have one God? And He doesn’t have an image in the most popular stones? And He wants you to serve only Him? That’s weird… well, we have all these cool shiny stones carved in hip shapes that we worship! Look! I have one around my neck for good luck! Man, I even have three statues in my backpack!!! Come on, everyone is doing it! And so, the people of God fell under what could only be describe in modern terms as “peer-pressure.”
To a good extent, if we are honest, today's worship still falls under the same sense of idolatry as it did in those days for acceptance sake! A conversation today could just as well go “You mean you believe in God? But it’s only because you were raised a Christian right? Well I don’t care for all of that stuff…Why do you things different than us anyways (Don’t cuss, don’t laugh at my funny sexual jokes/racial jokes, don’t check out girls/don’t flirt with boys)? Listen, no one really does that Christian thing anyway right? Besides, everyone in my family says they are Christian too, but they don’t do the things you do (or the things you don’t do!) So, you don’t have to do them either, no one will notice, because you will be just like the rest of us! Why be held back from life by a religious set of rules?
We have given into the idea that “God loves us, therefore he wants us to live our lives in a nice, socially accepted kind of way.
But the truth is, God loves us therefore He wants us to live our lives in such a way that would win others to His love
God loves us therefore we don’t need acceptance from other people. We must desire only His acceptance! We don’t need our lives to be accepted by others! (Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. Luke 6:26)
We need:
· A spiritual burdened life
· A life broken hearted for the Gospel
· Burdened for the Word of the Lord
· Heavy hearted with God’s love
· And ruined for the world system
· But the passing generations, now slowly adding in ours (broadly speaking), has given up the life of discipleship and crucified life and traded it in for a cheap replacement of The Western Christian religious culture instead.
Therefore we have traded:
· Our bright and shining lamps for “a form of godliness, that denies the power thereof (II Timothy 3:5)”
· Jesus’ revolution of true Love for a religion. We now recognize religion for being unloving and maintained by people who don’t really know Jesus.
· God’s culture for man’s broken culture.
· Romans 12:2: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that god, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
What is the will of God? It's your submission to His word.
I believe that we are at a place very much like that of the church of Ephesus where Jesus says in Revelation 2:2-7 “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And has borne, and patience, and for my names sake has laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent…He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."
We have kept many things in American Christianity that are good and even praise worthy, including: a heart for missions, a fruitful spiritual foundation that is still being built upon, and people who are willing to stand firm in their knowledge of godliness. But, by investing deeper, we can also see that the most crucial aspect of our compromising spiritual heart would be that we have turned from our first love. Overall, we have turned, as a generation, from true and heartfelt spiritual worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I believe that if we repent, as individuals serving Jesus and as a generation of young people beginning to live God’s mandates as deeply in love disciples of Christ, then we will see this scripture come to power in our generation and the generations following. When Jesus says in Revelation 2:26 “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations” Though this is specifically speaking of the 1,000 year reign with Christ, I believe that it is also applicable now. If we, through the heart, submit to the Lord Jesus Christ in both His works and words, we will have Holy Spirit's power and authority for this Great commission to be fulfilled in the next few generations. Thus, allowing Christ Jesus to return in glory like He promised He would.
But if we do not repent, if we do not turn away from our idolatry, Jesus will come quickly and remove our candlestick from its place and give it to someone else. I believe that that candlestick represents the flame which is the bright burning desire and the true effectiveness of the Bride of Christ. And if we do not turn back to our first love, God will make us into a “…desolation and a curse"(II Kings 22:17)
Now what is the “Crucified life?” what is the heartfelt active worship that God desires from each of us as individuals (effecting our realm of influence) and collectively (effecting the world)? Paul describes
Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
II Corinthians 5:14-21 “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
As individuals and as a people, God desires that we would die to our will, to our emotions, and to all of our uneternal desires, making our lives a “living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God (Romans 12:1)” That we wouldn’t walk in the flesh. Instead, we live as new creatures, fulfilling our job as the true tribe of the Lion of Judah and reconciling the world to God.
THIS IS THE CHALLENGE
Live in ways unlike the world, in that you are like Jesus (Remember? The name “Christian” means “like Christ”)
II Timothy 3:1-5 says: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
This is what the generation of the last days would look like. How similar is it to our culture? Rebel, look at each of the characteristics described here and live out the opposite everyday.
- Instead of being a lover of yourself be selfless
- Rather than being covetous be a free giver!
- Don’t boast in yourself but rather in the cross!
- Instead of being proud, be humble
- Blasphemy Challenge? Live lives that make the devil sweat!
- Instead of striving with your parents, lay down your pride and obey your parents
- Unthankful? “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God is Christ Jesus concerning you (II Thessalonians 5:18)”
- In stead of “unholy” “be holy as I am holy” that’s what Jesus said.
- Without natural affection- here he is talking about homosexuality, but you can also apply this to keeping your emotions in check!
- Instead of being traitors, be faithful to God, and one another
- Heady, and highminded? Instead by lowly and humble, cheek turners!
- Rather than being “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” reject materialism, and selfishness though tempting, and cling to the Holy Spirit.
- And Finally, don’t be “a form” of godliness that denies the power, but allow God’s power and image to flow through you.
- Also, The first part of II Kings 13:22 “Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book” in other words, pray for the condition of your heart, that it would be softened before the Lord, pray for all the Christians in America, and the West to turn back to being Jesus’ disciples.
So let us begin to intercede for ourselves and for the worldwide Bride alike.
Conclusion: II Kings 22:19 :”Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and has rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord”
The ultimate action that is going to turn away this desolation from Jesus’ Beautiful bride is our repentance back to Him. We need to go back to his Word and go back to being His disciples.
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