Falling Away
This is an end-time passage...this is the heart of many in God's family. There is a message they want to hear, and it isn't what God is saying:
Isaiah 30:10-11 Who say to the seers, “Do not see,” And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get out of the way, Turn aside from the path, Cause the Holy One of Israel To cease from before us.”
Paul described them like this:
II Timothy 4:2-5 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
The world is heating up and events are coming that will severely offend believers. At exactly the wrong time, many will fall away from trust in Jesus, because they haven't given Him their whole heart...they feel better having gone to church, or singing the songs...they are shopping for an experience that makes them feel more complete, makes them feel secure...an accessory to life. This, according to the savior whose name we claim, is a formula for failure:
Matthew 24:9-13 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Luke 8:13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
II Thessalonians 2:2-3 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
The falling away...a spirit of offense that rises up in the Church... is sure to come. Woe to those shepherds that "cause the offense"...the teachers whom give no warning as the day draws near:
Matthew 18:7 Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!
For 2,000 years, the entire plan for Jesus' return has been written out. It is plain and it is knowable. The Bible says what it means and means what it says. The intensity coming is plain to see. The strategy of the enemy to sift the Bride is plain to see. The strategy of Jesus to prepare the Bride is plain to see. We are in a time that matters more than any other season of preparation the earth has EVER seen...and almost all of the shepherds are sleeping. This was prophesied thousands of years ago:
Jeremiah 10:21-22 For the shepherds have become dull-hearted, And have not sought the Lord ; Therefore they shall not prosper, And all their flocks shall be scattered. Behold, the noise of the report has come, And a great commotion out of the north country, To make the cities of Judah desolate, a den of jackals.
But at the same time, Jesus is raising up shepherds after His own heart, to reveal who He is to those who have "backslidden"...those who have settled for a lower view of God, the intensity of His plans, His vibrant desire for them to love Him wholeheartedly, and what He desires for His Bride:
Jeremiah 3:14-15 “Return, O backsliding children,” says the Lord ; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
"Shepherds according to My heart" is a very specific term. God, through Jeremiah, was referencing the heart of David...the man after God's own heart. He was saying, in the last days I will raise up "worshiping warriors" who I will appoint as shepherds. They will see the wisdom of wholehearted devotion...they will make the first commandment first in their own lives to lead many into wholeheartedness. They will see the value and strength in pressing into God night and day (like David putting all his strength into the tabernacle worship), they will know where to direct those who love me, and will resist the temptation to tell everyone what they want to hear.
Trouble is coming, and a wise shepherd moves the flock to prepare it...to guard it. The true shepherd leads the flock, makes the hard choices to journey where God is leading, takes a risk on addressing the weather he sees coming, listens to the bleating and whining of the sheep as he makes them move, and leaves the results to God. The false shepherd...the hired hand...is mostly concerned with his own skin...keeping people happy so they won't stop supporting him:
Zechariah 11:4-5 Thus says the Lord my God, “Feed the flock for slaughter, whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord , for I am rich’; and their shepherds do not pity them.
John 10:11-12 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
There are two places in the Bible where a promise is given for teaching the contents: the Book of Revelation and the Sermon on the Mount. These two parts of the Bible are divinely and intentionally intertwined:
Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Matthew 5:19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Revelation describes, in detail, Jesus' brilliant and intensely offensive plan to use the least intense means necessary to reach the greatest number of people at the deepest heart level without ever violating free will. This plan will increasingly heat up the earth so that one generation will make a final dramatic and fiercely resisted choice to either be loyal Jesus or loyal to a man who threatens them with intense persecution for not backing down and going with him into one last grand socialistic experiment.
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' handbook for how to train your heart for this time. It is a recipe for living fascinated with Jesus, free from the fear of circumstances, and to love in an intense time...victory through all circumstance. This is what the whole Body should be about. Time is of the essence. The plans are knowable and should be being taught. The students and the teachers are expected to stand...not hide in a corner. Now is the time to get in sync with the new thing Jesus is doing so we know if a right turn or a left turn is next...this is the time to throw away everything the rest of the world sees as "valuable" and go hard after God:
Isaiah 30:20-22 And though the Lord gives you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left. You will also defile the covering of your images of silver, And the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing; You will say to them, “Get away!”
This is the beginning of the third transitional generation. The generation of Moses was a unique generation. The generation of Jesus was a unique generation. The generation that sees Jesus return will be the most blessed yet intense generation to ever live on earth. Are we ready??
Luke 17:26-30 And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
Noah and Lot weren't whisked away from the trouble. They prepared for the trouble...Noah at the expense of his entire reputation. Lot journeyed to a city of refuge of his choosing. There is much to do.
Isaiah 28:22-29 Don't laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard the Lord Almighty's decision to destroy the whole country. Listen to what I am saying; pay attention to what I am telling you. Farmers don't constantly plow their fields and keep getting them ready for planting. Once they have prepared the soil, they plant the seeds of herbs such as dill and cumin. They plant rows of wheat and barley, and at the edges of their fields they plant other grain. They know how to do their work, because God has taught them. They never use a heavy club to beat out dill seeds or cumin seeds; instead they use light sticks of the proper size. They do not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and they know how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains. All this wisdom comes from the Lord Almighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed.
Isaiah 30:10-11 Who say to the seers, “Do not see,” And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get out of the way, Turn aside from the path, Cause the Holy One of Israel To cease from before us.”
Paul described them like this:
II Timothy 4:2-5 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
The world is heating up and events are coming that will severely offend believers. At exactly the wrong time, many will fall away from trust in Jesus, because they haven't given Him their whole heart...they feel better having gone to church, or singing the songs...they are shopping for an experience that makes them feel more complete, makes them feel secure...an accessory to life. This, according to the savior whose name we claim, is a formula for failure:
Matthew 24:9-13 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Luke 8:13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
II Thessalonians 2:2-3 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
The falling away...a spirit of offense that rises up in the Church... is sure to come. Woe to those shepherds that "cause the offense"...the teachers whom give no warning as the day draws near:
Matthew 18:7 Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!
For 2,000 years, the entire plan for Jesus' return has been written out. It is plain and it is knowable. The Bible says what it means and means what it says. The intensity coming is plain to see. The strategy of the enemy to sift the Bride is plain to see. The strategy of Jesus to prepare the Bride is plain to see. We are in a time that matters more than any other season of preparation the earth has EVER seen...and almost all of the shepherds are sleeping. This was prophesied thousands of years ago:
Jeremiah 10:21-22 For the shepherds have become dull-hearted, And have not sought the Lord ; Therefore they shall not prosper, And all their flocks shall be scattered. Behold, the noise of the report has come, And a great commotion out of the north country, To make the cities of Judah desolate, a den of jackals.
But at the same time, Jesus is raising up shepherds after His own heart, to reveal who He is to those who have "backslidden"...those who have settled for a lower view of God, the intensity of His plans, His vibrant desire for them to love Him wholeheartedly, and what He desires for His Bride:
Jeremiah 3:14-15 “Return, O backsliding children,” says the Lord ; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
"Shepherds according to My heart" is a very specific term. God, through Jeremiah, was referencing the heart of David...the man after God's own heart. He was saying, in the last days I will raise up "worshiping warriors" who I will appoint as shepherds. They will see the wisdom of wholehearted devotion...they will make the first commandment first in their own lives to lead many into wholeheartedness. They will see the value and strength in pressing into God night and day (like David putting all his strength into the tabernacle worship), they will know where to direct those who love me, and will resist the temptation to tell everyone what they want to hear.
Trouble is coming, and a wise shepherd moves the flock to prepare it...to guard it. The true shepherd leads the flock, makes the hard choices to journey where God is leading, takes a risk on addressing the weather he sees coming, listens to the bleating and whining of the sheep as he makes them move, and leaves the results to God. The false shepherd...the hired hand...is mostly concerned with his own skin...keeping people happy so they won't stop supporting him:
Zechariah 11:4-5 Thus says the Lord my God, “Feed the flock for slaughter, whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord , for I am rich’; and their shepherds do not pity them.
John 10:11-12 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
There are two places in the Bible where a promise is given for teaching the contents: the Book of Revelation and the Sermon on the Mount. These two parts of the Bible are divinely and intentionally intertwined:
Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Matthew 5:19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Revelation describes, in detail, Jesus' brilliant and intensely offensive plan to use the least intense means necessary to reach the greatest number of people at the deepest heart level without ever violating free will. This plan will increasingly heat up the earth so that one generation will make a final dramatic and fiercely resisted choice to either be loyal Jesus or loyal to a man who threatens them with intense persecution for not backing down and going with him into one last grand socialistic experiment.
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' handbook for how to train your heart for this time. It is a recipe for living fascinated with Jesus, free from the fear of circumstances, and to love in an intense time...victory through all circumstance. This is what the whole Body should be about. Time is of the essence. The plans are knowable and should be being taught. The students and the teachers are expected to stand...not hide in a corner. Now is the time to get in sync with the new thing Jesus is doing so we know if a right turn or a left turn is next...this is the time to throw away everything the rest of the world sees as "valuable" and go hard after God:
Isaiah 30:20-22 And though the Lord gives you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left. You will also defile the covering of your images of silver, And the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing; You will say to them, “Get away!”
This is the beginning of the third transitional generation. The generation of Moses was a unique generation. The generation of Jesus was a unique generation. The generation that sees Jesus return will be the most blessed yet intense generation to ever live on earth. Are we ready??
Luke 17:26-30 And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
Noah and Lot weren't whisked away from the trouble. They prepared for the trouble...Noah at the expense of his entire reputation. Lot journeyed to a city of refuge of his choosing. There is much to do.
Isaiah 28:22-29 Don't laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard the Lord Almighty's decision to destroy the whole country. Listen to what I am saying; pay attention to what I am telling you. Farmers don't constantly plow their fields and keep getting them ready for planting. Once they have prepared the soil, they plant the seeds of herbs such as dill and cumin. They plant rows of wheat and barley, and at the edges of their fields they plant other grain. They know how to do their work, because God has taught them. They never use a heavy club to beat out dill seeds or cumin seeds; instead they use light sticks of the proper size. They do not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and they know how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains. All this wisdom comes from the Lord Almighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed.
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