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A Child in the Womb of God
The true church is a child in the womb of God; what the Almighty feels affects us.
We absorb into our spiritual DNA the great loves of God; His compassion becomes
our compassion. However, what God hates we must not be afraid to also hate, for
our thoughts and attitudes must exist in yielded surrender to His own.
I am thinking of Ezekiel. The prophet was commanded to walk through sinful Jerusalem
and take note, not only of its perversity, but those who were affected adversely
by it.
"And the Lord said to him, 'Go through the midst of the city and put a mark on the
foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being
committed in its midst.'"
Caring About What He
Thinks
It was important to the Lord to identify those who were united to His heart, who
cared more about what He thought than finding acceptance in a godless world around
them. Beloved, there is a great, false tolerance in the church today. Instead of
the kingdom of God, we serve a "philosophy" called Christianity. We have learned
to live with a deceptive compromise that masquerades as virtues. If we truly possess
godly convictions, there will be times we will be labeled offensive or "extreme."
I fear that many of us have so adjusted to living in the midst of sin, that we no
longer "sigh and groan" over it.
The Lord continued His word to the prophet, "But to the others He said in my hearing,
'Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity, and do
not spare. Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women,
but do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from my sanctuary'"
(Ezekiel 9:1-6).
Perhaps we have felt heartache concerning the sins of our society, but we do not
know w what to do. So we buried our feelings. Today, we barely hear the whisper
of what once was the voice of outrage in our hearts. Even when alone before God
we have become silent concerning our vexation about abortion and child abuse; we
have learned to quietly accommodate the multi-leveled invasion of immorality into
our society; we have accepted with but a whimper the loss of virginity among our
youth.
The Lord said, "strike . . . and do not spare" those who do not mourn. And then
He warned, "And you shall start from my sanctuary."
Being Willing to be
"Out of Step"
Dear pastors, as leaders, we must not be afraid to show our heartache and distress
concerning sin in our land, even if we seem out of step with our times. I, for one,
refuse to use the anticipation of a soon rapture as an excuse to stop caring about
my nation. I tell you, even when the trumpet sounds, as I rise at the command of
God, you will hear me pleading for mercy for my nation!
Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn." If the church today isn't a revelation
of the heart of Christ in the earth, if it isn't mourning over wickedness and weeping
over the suffering masses, it is only because we have positioned ourselves outside
the passions of God.
The Lord told Ezekiel to put "a mark" on the foreheads of "those who sigh." The
Hebrew word for the "mark" was the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the "tau."
Its symbol was that of a cross without the top, similar to our letter "T." This
sign was often used in first-century Christianity as the symbol of the cross. Looking
at it from God's eternal perspective, it was as though the Lord said to Ezekiel,
essentially, "Put a cross on the foreheads of those who grieve over sin."
Interestingly, although judgment had fallen upon Jerusalem, it occurred prior to
Ezekiel's vision. There is no record that, prior to Israel's exile to Babylon, people
were physically marked on the forehead with a tau; as best as we can tell, neither
was anyone slain who hadn't groaned and sighed. It seems likely that what happened
with Ezekiel was a "yet to be fulfilled" vision, not a physical reality he witnessed
in his day.
The Future "Seal"
Consider also that the Book of Revelation declares there will come a time prior
to the judgments of tribulation, when the Almighty shall indeed send forth His angels
to seal "the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads" (Rev 7:3). This "seal
of God" on their foreheads shall identify them during the ensuing plagues. Whatever
this mark is, it shall become a shield of immunity in the days ahead. Because of
the similarities between Ezekiel and John's revelation, I am struck with a question:
Is the Spirit of God still seeking to identify those who sigh and groan over the
injustices, heartaches and abominations of their land?
Dear friends, let us shake off the intoxication of compromise. Too many of us are
entertained by things we should weep over. God destroyed the world during Noah's
day because of violence, yet we sit before televisions and in theaters amused by
violence. The Lord ultimately destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their twisted
morality, yet we do nothing to protest similar perversity entering our lands. A
simple letter or email to the sponsors of immoral television shows carries great
weight in their decisions concerning what they will pay for; a letter to government
officials stating you will not vote for anyone who supports legalized homosexuality
or the further degradation of our society can, under the blessing of God, begin
to sway elected officials.
I am talking about being alive to the feelings of the God in Whom we dwell. Yes,
we should be grateful for all He has done, but let us be thankful while we break
the spell of compromise. We can transform our land and God will help us! He does
not want us only to react with outrage, but to turn our anger into intercession
and godly action. His desire is that we reconnect with the passions of His heart.
Ask Him how He feels about the needs in the world around you. If the church indeed
is a child in the womb of God, can we open our spirits again to the passions of
His heart?
by Francis Frangipane
http://www.frangipane.org
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Power of Covenant Prayer
Holiness,
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The
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The
Stronghold of God
