The Solution
Isaiah 30:1-3 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord , “Who take counsel, but not of Me, And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, That they may add sin to sin; Who walk to go down to Egypt, And have not asked My advice, To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, And to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh Shall be your shame, And trust in the shadow of Egypt Shall be your humiliation.
Everybody gets what they want. In the time of the prophets, as God was warning of judgment, Israel would often look to Egypt as its solution. An alliance with Egypt, the strongest nearby nation, was the seemingly most logical answer they could actually "touch." Mankind, by nature, favors a tangible solution over the invisible God solution, but God warns mankind throughout the Bible that He is the ONLY solution. Egypt...strong leaders...a strong military...a strong economy...these cannot save you. If you choose them to be your strength, you will be ashamed eventually.
Jeremiah 42:17-22 So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.’ “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As My anger and My fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.’ “The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have admonished you this day. For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord your God says, so declare to us and we will do it. ’ And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, or anything which He has sent you by me. Now therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell.”
Mankind is very unimaginitive on its own. We are often tempted to keep going back to the last strength we knew. Israel was no different. Even though they were slaves in Egypt for 400 years...their position in Egypt lowest of the low among the people of Egypt...when times got tough, fear would often drive Israel to desire slavery and security over freedom, which always requires trusting God instead of man. If you trust a man for protection, you become a slave to that man...everytime. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
God wants to be our source of protection. There is only ONE Man capable of handling absolute trust and power...the One who had it all and laid it all down for love. Jesus has already proven that absolute power will not corrupt Him. Jesus is the only one worthy to own the earth and get the trust...the honor...of the people. Jesus is the only One worthy to open the scroll, which is the deed of ownership of the earth:
Revelation 5:2-5, 8-10 Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” ...
...Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”
Jesus is the only man we are supposed to be trusting in. Right now, the whole earth is just beginning to shake. This time it isn't de-escalating...it is escalating. Mark my words, it will not de-escalate in intensity. The light is going to get brighter, but the darkness WILL get darker. Consider recent history: what started as a single event in Columbine in the 1990s...one that shocked the world, has now become a monthly occurrence. The media has become so saturated with lust that prime time TV would make the "Cinemax soft porn" of the 90s blush. Military movements are escalating dramatically. Natural disasters are increasing. The Church is waking up. Intensity is increasing.
Even today Russian troops are rolling through Ukraine. As we speak, God is stirring up "the spirit of the Medes," just as He promised He would when the end time Babylon forces Israel into peace. Medes were from the region between the Black and Caspian Seas...now known as Russia.
Do you think it is a coincidence that this is the area of Russia...Crimea... right next to the Black Sea, we see aggression rising up in? The USA is pushing Israel into peace, and just as promised, God is stirring up Russia to square off with the one pushing His people in His land.
This next passage is an end-time passage about judgment on the nation who's leader brokers a peace treaty for Israel that divides the land and allows the tribulation temple to be built. You are witnessing this just beginning in the news right now...today. Are you watching?:
Jeremiah 51:11 Make the arrows bright! Gather the shields! The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it, Because it is the vengeance of the Lord , The vengeance for His temple.
Right now the people of the earth are facing a decision: do we want a strong human leader to untangle the messes on earth, or do we want to repent and turn to God while there is time? We repent by gathering as communities, not to trust in or vote for a new Pharaoh...but to cry out, day and night, to God to come and fix this place:
Luke 18:7-8 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
Jesus promised to return to a people praying day and night, but then asked how many would actually make THAT...trusting in the invisible Jesus rather than the strongest looking leader...the end time Saul...the end time Pharaoh. The strongest king of the earth is making empty promises of protection, wealth, and strength. These, if you trust them, will leave you barren and ashamed when it is all said and done.
Right now, as we speak, the pundits are crazy with the USA should do this, the USA should do that. We are the strongest military on earth. We are, sadly, the strongest economy on earth. We are the end-time Egypt...the end-time humanistic rescuers the earth is looking to, yet daily, the fruit of our fall from trusting God ourselves is evident in the news. Our children are murdering each other weekly, our media is poisoning the minds of the earth with greed and lust and false promises of joy in material increase, yet a huge portion of our population is medicated for depression, our politicians are mostly corrupt and we kind of just expect it now. We can no longer pray through our issues in our schools or halls of government. Egypt isn't freedom to God's people. Egypt is slavery to God's people, and we are sloppy with the burdens of Egypts false comfort, which has become slavery to our minds.
It is time to cast off the culture of comfort and run into the an all in commitment to night and day prayer. This is what Jesus is doing. There is an end-time "valley of decision" we are in the midst of. This is the question before us: stay in the valley and arm yourself with human strength, or rise up out of the valley, come out of human strength and the slavery of temporary comfort and put all your weight on the invisible God...singing from the hilltop like Jehoshaphat did?
The worshipers won that battle!
Joel 3:9-16 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, Let all the men of war draw near, Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ” Assemble and come, all you nations, And gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord . “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow— For their wickedness is great.” Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the Lord will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel.
Revelation 18:2-5 And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues...
Everybody gets what they want. In the time of the prophets, as God was warning of judgment, Israel would often look to Egypt as its solution. An alliance with Egypt, the strongest nearby nation, was the seemingly most logical answer they could actually "touch." Mankind, by nature, favors a tangible solution over the invisible God solution, but God warns mankind throughout the Bible that He is the ONLY solution. Egypt...strong leaders...a strong military...a strong economy...these cannot save you. If you choose them to be your strength, you will be ashamed eventually.
Jeremiah 42:17-22 So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.’ “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As My anger and My fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.’ “The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have admonished you this day. For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord your God says, so declare to us and we will do it. ’ And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, or anything which He has sent you by me. Now therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell.”
Mankind is very unimaginitive on its own. We are often tempted to keep going back to the last strength we knew. Israel was no different. Even though they were slaves in Egypt for 400 years...their position in Egypt lowest of the low among the people of Egypt...when times got tough, fear would often drive Israel to desire slavery and security over freedom, which always requires trusting God instead of man. If you trust a man for protection, you become a slave to that man...everytime. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
God wants to be our source of protection. There is only ONE Man capable of handling absolute trust and power...the One who had it all and laid it all down for love. Jesus has already proven that absolute power will not corrupt Him. Jesus is the only one worthy to own the earth and get the trust...the honor...of the people. Jesus is the only One worthy to open the scroll, which is the deed of ownership of the earth:
Revelation 5:2-5, 8-10 Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” ...
...Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”
Jesus is the only man we are supposed to be trusting in. Right now, the whole earth is just beginning to shake. This time it isn't de-escalating...it is escalating. Mark my words, it will not de-escalate in intensity. The light is going to get brighter, but the darkness WILL get darker. Consider recent history: what started as a single event in Columbine in the 1990s...one that shocked the world, has now become a monthly occurrence. The media has become so saturated with lust that prime time TV would make the "Cinemax soft porn" of the 90s blush. Military movements are escalating dramatically. Natural disasters are increasing. The Church is waking up. Intensity is increasing.
Even today Russian troops are rolling through Ukraine. As we speak, God is stirring up "the spirit of the Medes," just as He promised He would when the end time Babylon forces Israel into peace. Medes were from the region between the Black and Caspian Seas...now known as Russia.
Do you think it is a coincidence that this is the area of Russia...Crimea... right next to the Black Sea, we see aggression rising up in? The USA is pushing Israel into peace, and just as promised, God is stirring up Russia to square off with the one pushing His people in His land.
This next passage is an end-time passage about judgment on the nation who's leader brokers a peace treaty for Israel that divides the land and allows the tribulation temple to be built. You are witnessing this just beginning in the news right now...today. Are you watching?:
Jeremiah 51:11 Make the arrows bright! Gather the shields! The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it, Because it is the vengeance of the Lord , The vengeance for His temple.
Right now the people of the earth are facing a decision: do we want a strong human leader to untangle the messes on earth, or do we want to repent and turn to God while there is time? We repent by gathering as communities, not to trust in or vote for a new Pharaoh...but to cry out, day and night, to God to come and fix this place:
Luke 18:7-8 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
Jesus promised to return to a people praying day and night, but then asked how many would actually make THAT...trusting in the invisible Jesus rather than the strongest looking leader...the end time Saul...the end time Pharaoh. The strongest king of the earth is making empty promises of protection, wealth, and strength. These, if you trust them, will leave you barren and ashamed when it is all said and done.
Right now, as we speak, the pundits are crazy with the USA should do this, the USA should do that. We are the strongest military on earth. We are, sadly, the strongest economy on earth. We are the end-time Egypt...the end-time humanistic rescuers the earth is looking to, yet daily, the fruit of our fall from trusting God ourselves is evident in the news. Our children are murdering each other weekly, our media is poisoning the minds of the earth with greed and lust and false promises of joy in material increase, yet a huge portion of our population is medicated for depression, our politicians are mostly corrupt and we kind of just expect it now. We can no longer pray through our issues in our schools or halls of government. Egypt isn't freedom to God's people. Egypt is slavery to God's people, and we are sloppy with the burdens of Egypts false comfort, which has become slavery to our minds.
It is time to cast off the culture of comfort and run into the an all in commitment to night and day prayer. This is what Jesus is doing. There is an end-time "valley of decision" we are in the midst of. This is the question before us: stay in the valley and arm yourself with human strength, or rise up out of the valley, come out of human strength and the slavery of temporary comfort and put all your weight on the invisible God...singing from the hilltop like Jehoshaphat did?
The worshipers won that battle!
Joel 3:9-16 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, Let all the men of war draw near, Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ” Assemble and come, all you nations, And gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord . “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow— For their wickedness is great.” Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the Lord will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel.
Revelation 18:2-5 And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues...
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