10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:10
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ Jesus. It’s not according to who you are. Or what you have done. It’s not according to the high position you held in this life. It’s not according to who you think you are. It’s not even according to if you believe or not. It’s this: “We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” There we will all be judged according to what we have done according to what is written in the books.
If we have hidden secrets like hate in our hearts or unforgiveness, and believe me, it will show, then the LORD, who is the judge of all the earth, will know. The Spirit of Slumber is ravaging through our world and Church taking many as its victim. Jesus is coming soon. The closer we come to that day, the more aggressive the Spirit of Slumber becomes, but don’t succumb to its attacks. Be prepared in season and out of season so that when the Son of Man, that is, Jesus, returns, He will find you doing what it is He called you to do. Then you will receive a great reward.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Prepared Regardless of the Season.
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.” ~ Isaiah 40:3NKJV
2,000 years ago, John the Baptist proudly went before the LORD, preparing a way for Him. When Jesus came, He brought with Him salvation, healing, peace, and life. Today, the world is getting darker and darker. It’s time we took up the mantle. The darkness is so thick that even the Church has begun to accept that this is just the way it is, but even though Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin was great and plenty, God was willing to spare the nation and all the wicked for just 10 righteous men for the sake of Abraham’s request.
Too often, we, Christians, accept defeat. We accept that things are just the way they are, and there’s nothing we can do to change it. But our voice is greater than even that of John the Baptist, for when we don’t know what to say, the Spirit speaks on our behalf. He speaks for us and through us. The time for silence is no more. Now is the time to prepare the way for the LORD and cry out like a voice in the wilderness.
We have the very Spirit of God Himself dwelling in us. Prepare the way with His light as it shines through us, piercing this present darkness. Prepare the way for the LORD and His Holy Spirit to melt the heart of the people who hear you speaking the Truth. The LORD hasn’t returned yet. There’s still time to change the course of the world. There’s still time to cry, just a little while longer, Jesus, so that we might get our loved ones in. There’s still time to shine the light in the darkness and prepare the way for the LORD to work in the lives of people. No one is too small or unimportant to do something. It only takes one straw to break the camel’s back. It only takes one pebble to start an avalanche. Only one domino to know over all the dominoes. So, use your voice while you still can to proclaim righteousness, speak Truth, and expose the darkness.
44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. ~ Matthew 25:44-46
As the Church, we are called to be prayer warriors, each and every one of us. We’re supposed to pray for ourselves so that we might not fall into temptation. For our loved ones so that they might be saved or faithfully run the race set before them. But often times we leave out the forgotten. We forget about those Christians in the persecuted Church. We forget to pray for their strength and endurance. We forget them altogether.
This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but this is one of the reasons that Jesus separates the goats from the sheep. Jesus isn’t just talking about physically visiting the saints in prison, but spiritually visiting them. When we pray, we are spiritually seated with Christ in Heavenly places (Ephesians 2:4-7). Therefore, wouldn’t it stand to reason that when we pray for others, we are spiritually with them as well? Paul even writes to the Corinthians that he’s with them in spirit in 1 Corinthians 5:3. We are all one in Christ Jesus, connected by one Spirit; therefore, when we pray for each other, we are connected by that same spirit.
Don’t let anyone be alone in persecution. Pray for the forgotten in those persecuting nations for strength and endurance. Pray that their hearts might not fail them, and that love may encompass them.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. ~ Jeremiah 29:12–14
This is a call for the wayward Israelites to return to God, and God will come to them and save them and take them back to the place He had promised them. We have a promise from God. One day Jesus will split the eastern sky and come back to get us, that where He is, there we will be also. Therefore, all men ought to pray and seek God before that great and terrible day for all who are left behind because great and small will cry out in fear as they see the Lamb seated on His glorious throne.
Let today be a day to seek the LORD so that He might restore you to all that the Devil has stolen. All of your hopes, dreams, promises, and, most of all, your peace. Let today be a day to return to the LORD all that you’ve taken from Him. All of your fears, worries, anxieties, and strongholds. Lay all of that at His feet. He paid the price for your freedom and for you to live life more abundantly. Don’t take the heavy yoke back from the LORD when He promised He would carry it for you. Leave it at His feet and take love, joy, peace, and every good gift the LORD has for you.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Only Take Back The Good.
1Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, ~ Joel 2:1
If we look around at all that is going on, we’ll see good is called evil, and evil is called good. The Name of Jesus is being blasphemed even in His own Church. Members of the Body of Christ are living according to the flesh. They’re living as if they will not have to give an account to the judge of the whole world. People care more for trees and animals than they care for human life. Little babies still in the womb are being murdered daily because they are not even seen as human, and it’s all done with the approval and encouragement of world governments. They call it a woman’s right to choose, while God sees it as child sacrifice. We are sacrificing our children just as those ancient civilizations sacrificed their children.
The warning blasts of the trumpet of God are sounding in the spiritual, warning His church to get ready to meet Him in the air. As a matter of fact, there are reports worldwide of people hearing the sound of trumpet blasts. So many people have reported the strange sounds that it has even made the news. We are closer now more than ever to the return of Jesus. There’re signs all around that His return is soon at hand. Are you ready for His return? Is your family ready for His return? As the Ten Days of Awe continue, take today out to pray and intercede on behalf of your unsaved loved ones so that when Jesus returns, they might be caught up to meet Him in the sky as well.
LORD God, I stand in the gap for each and every one of my unsaved loved ones. I pray that You would unveil their eyes and unclog their ears so that they might hear Your gentle knock at the door of their hearts. I pray that You might hear my plea for them and answer my prayer as You promised that You would throughout the Scriptures. I pray that You might replace their heart of stone with a heart of flesh and renew a right spirit within them. Awaken their sleeping spirit within them. I pray that when You return, all of my loved ones and I might be doing the work You have called us to do. Please guide and protect each one of us. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.
12 That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. 13 Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. ~ Joel 2:12-13 NLT
Joel prophesied to the people of Israel that the LORD was coming, so repent because that day will be a horrifying and dark day. It will be a day of great sorrow and fear, for the LORD’s wrath was coming. Today, it’s no different. The LORD is coming. He is on His way. He is preparing to come for His people to bring them to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, but for the wicked, those who refuse to bow their knee to the Almighty, He is treading the great wine press of the Wrath of the LORD.
Many of us believe that we will escape this great wrath because we’re Christians, but that word no longer means what it did so long ago. There’re Christians that don’t stand for righteousness and believe they’re okay because God loves them, but they’re not the only ones deceived. There are Christians who lack love. Paul said if you can speak in the tongues of man and of angels but don’t have love, you are like a noisy gong. You can even move mountains, prophesy, and understand all the secrets of God, but still be nothing if we lack love. There is nothing greater than love.
So many Christians lack love today. We feel no sympathy or empathy for those who we believe deserve what they get, not realizing that we ourselves deserve to burn in the Lake of Fire for all eternity because of our sin. It’s only because of grace that we are saved by faith, not because we are better than anyone. We don’t deserve this gift of God. We don’t deserve life, but God graciously gives it to us because of His great love for us. So, love others with the same love God has loved us so that when Christ returns, we might escape that wrath and be welcomed into the rest of the LORD.
Don’t just treat your outer garments so that people think that you care or that you’re a good person. Don’t just retweet or repost a post. Don’t just comment praying hands. Get down on your knees and pray. Don’t just make it an outward appearance, but an inward appearance. Let it tear your hearts enough that you cry out to the LORD for mercy and grace over the lost, hurting, angry, and deceived. Let the love of God perfect you in every way possible. Let Him turn your heart of stone to a heart of flesh so that you might not be lost with others.
40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And He said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ~ Matthew 26:40-41
I heard a man once say that Jesus was the busiest man on earth because He only had 3 ½ years to complete all that God had for Him, yet He always took time out to pray. Jesus understood the importance of prayer. He understood the importance of alone time with His Heavenly Father. Today, we lack the understanding and full importance of prayer. We can’t fully grasp what prayer does because we don’t see what our prayers are doing in the spirit realm.
Our prayers aren’t just empty words. When we pray, we are spiritually seated in Heavenly places with the LORD. The prayers of a righteous person availeth much. It overcomes the darkness, brings forth the breath of life, heals the sick, and redeems the prodigal. Your prayers aren’t useless; they move the very hand of God. So pray. Pray with all that is within you.
37 And He came and found them sleeping, and He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? 38 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ~ Mark 14:37-38
To see revelation, we must remain awake when others are asleep. Jesus went out of the presence of others and spent time in prayer and worship with His Father in Heaven. Never was Jesus without an answer for His accusers. It wasn’t because Jesus was, is, and always will be God because, on earth, He set aside His Godliness and became man. This was because He was awake in prayer when others slept. In fact, if we go to the last day before the crucifixion, we find that Jesus didn’t sleep. He spends the evening and night preparing His disciples and then spends the rest of the night not just praying for His own strength but for the strength of His disciples. Peter, James, and John were called by Jesus to come and pray with Him, but each one of them fell asleep. None were able to stay awake and pray with Him. Because of this, all of their earlier statements fell short, and each one of them fled. One, presumably John, ran away naked. Peter denied even knowing Him. Judas, who left after the Last Supper, only returned to betray Him.
They couldn’t stay awake in prayer, and so their spirit was weak. I’m not saying that we must never sleep; what I’m saying is that if you want to be able to withstand the coming persecution of the Church (Matthew 24 & 2 Thessalonians 2), then you have to seek God early in the morning and late at night when all others are asleep, especially in times of distress or when seeking a specific request from God or in times of need. All of us will give up sleep for something, whether it’s TV, spending time with family or friends, food, concerts, books, games, etc., but very few of us will stay awake for prayer to see a breakthrough in our lives, or to receive peace or strength. If you can stake awake for the world but not for God, your love has already begun to grow cold. Now is the time to build up your faith and love for God. Store up your food in the summer, don’t wait for the winter when the harvest is over. Prepare yourselves now. Seek God while He can still be found.
9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. 10 In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come. 11 Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and tie sackcloth around your waist. 12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, 13 for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers, yes, for all the joyous houses in the exultant city. 14 For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks; 15 until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. ~ Isaiah 32:9-15
The LORD warned the women of Judah that their complacency would bring disaster upon the people. In fact, the grape harvest would fail, and they would no longer be able to gather in the harvest. To us today, that doesn’t mean much. What does it mean for the grape harvest to fail and the gathers unable to harvest their crop? Why would that be the punishment for complacency? I don’t believe that LORD is speaking physically. The grape harvest still came in Israel and Judah. The gathers still harvested their crop in Israel and Judah. God was warning them that if they remained complacent in their sin and at ease about it, then the grapes would be no more.
The grapes are what we make wine from. Jesus compared wine to the Old and New Covenant. On the Day of Pentecost, some who heard them speaking in tongues mocked them, saying they were drunk on the New Wine. I believe that the LORD was saying that He would remove the Spirit of God from them, and they would no longer see or hear a Word from the LORD. I believe God, through Isaiah, was prophesying and warning about the 400 years of silence that was to come to Israel. For He ends it with, “until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,”
What day was the Spirit poured out on all of mankind? The Day of Pentecost. After the Day of Pentecost, there arose prophets, healings, signs and wonders, like never before. And even more so, it gave the chance of salvation for all of mankind. Never had there been a time in history when the Greek believer was equal to the Jewish believer. For in Christ, there is neither Greek nor Jew. God shows no partiality.
So what does this mean for us? If we are like the women Isaiah prophesied to and remain complacent in our sin and at ease unrepentant, then the LORD will remove the grapes from us. He will cause those grapes that we once had flourishing in the fields to fail each time. For God cannot dwell in a temple that willingly houses other gods. When we willingly live in sin, we are willingly bowing down to sin and making it our god. If we remain complacent, history will repeat itself in us, and not only will the Word of God be shut up from us, but the new wine that represents the new covenant and the blood of Christ that washes us clean and covers us will be removed from us as well. Complacency will bring domination upon us, for to be complacent is to be a friend of the world. And to be a friend of the world is to be at enmity with God.
Over two decades ago, the United States experienced a terrorist attack that shook the nation and the people, changing America forever. Every year we take time to remember the 9/11 terrorist attack as Patriot Day. America’s foundation was strong enough that it didn’t completely crumble after the horrendous attack on that tragic day. Though America is no longer under a physical attack, she is under a spiritual one. The soul of each nation rests in the hands of the people. If the people are righteous, the nation will be righteous. If America is spiritually under attack, then her people are spiritually under attack. Jesus said that He would build His Church on the rock, and nothing would be able to prevail against it. Who is that rock that Jesus built His Church on? And how do we build our lives on the rock? Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he opens our eyes to the constant attacks of the enemy on our souls in his powerful message, The Firm Foundation.
Ephesians 6:10-12 2 Corinthians 12:10 Matthew 16:18 Acts 10:26 Matthew 7:24–27 Matthew 16:13–17 1 Corinthians 3:10–15 Proverbs 18:10 Psalms 55:22
The Firm Foundation
Build Your Life on the Rock
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of [hades] shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 16:13-19
Who is the Rock?
Jesus is the rock.
24 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
Matthew 7:24-27
Jesus is the rock that we, His Church, must build our lives on because He is the rock that cannot be moved.
4 As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.” 7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Jesus is the living rock, the cornerstone, that is the firm foundation of the Church to build our lives on, but the stumbling block of all who refuse to believe.
