Depravity
de·prav·i·ty /diˈpravitē/ - noun - moral corruption; wickedness.
synonyms: corruption, vice, perversion, deviance, degeneracy, immorality,
debauchery, dissipation, profligacy, licentiousness, lechery, prurience,
1. a wicked or morally corrupt act.
2. the innate corruption of human nature, due to original sin.
2 Timothy 3:1-5, 8-9 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!.....These teachers oppose the truth just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. They have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith. But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and Jambres.
Paul warned Timothy that in the last days depravity would infiltrate the Church in a remarkable way. Corruption has always been present in the Church since the time Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, but the seed of wickedness in and out of the Church is maturing...just as the wheat of righteousness is maturing...this maturing is being brought about by the coming of the harvest season. Just like God brings about a harvest season each fall by changing the light (glory), shortening the days, and cooling off the nights...He is bringing about a final harvest season for the people of earth...He is releasing a different measure of glory...hastening the days with the events promised, and removing His hand of restraint from the wicked. This is allowing man-based love to grow cold, and God centered love to burn hotter. All of these events are perfectly designed to mature both love and wickedness. Depravity will mature in, and out of, the church at a level unseen. This is promised by Jesus. The outworking of this depravity is betrayal within the believers, which leads to much tribulation IN the church first:
Jesus told His disciples that tribulation starts in the Church, with the "falling away"...which is the "giving in" to depravity as Paul warned Timothy about:
Matthew 24:3, 9-14 Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world? ”... “Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.
This is all about the changing of the season into the harvest season. Many mistakenly believe the Jesus could show up in the sky any minute. This is an anti-biblical idea. Jesus could, but He won't. He will not violate His word. In Matthew 24, Jesus gave a perfect chronology of how the events of the harvest will transpire: tribulation, which touches the church for 3.5 years (according to Daniel 9, 11, and 12), and then, once the Bride is prepared with a testimony of overcoming her OWN tribulation, she will lead the nations as a beacon of light through the "Great Tribulation" for the second 1,260 days. We overcome by the Blood and our own testimony. To overcome, the Bride must have a testimony!
Paul warned the believers not to fall for any other chronology: first the "falling away" which is the same subject as little "t" tribulation...then the "abomination of desolation" which begins the Great Tribulation:
II Thessalonians 2:1-7 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 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, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
Right now, the Holy Spirit is restraining the fruit of rebellion in, and out of, the Church. But, the promise of the Word is that the restraining hand of God is being slowly (from heaven's perspective quickly) removed over a period of 7 years. Everyone gets what they want. God in His mercy is slow to hand people over to depravity, but there is a "day" where the season shifts and the seeds you are sowing begin to mature in to the full harvest. We live in "that day," the harvest generation.
Much is available to the harvest generation...the generation of the Bride. We see signs that all of creation has waited to see. Before us daily are the signs the Bible describes, and many so easily dismiss them. They are intended to drive us into righteousness, but scoffers work hard to convince the Bride to "settle down...don't get too excited...this always happens."
To live in this time...to have tangible indications of the soon coming Joel 2 "outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh" and NOT respond? This is the fruit of depravity. This generation is a wonderful blessing if you are sowing to righteousness...oh the curse of sowing to depravity in THIS generation:
Luke 12:46-51 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.
The human being was made to function in a certain order. Adam was made from dust and given the Holy Spirit...God's spirit within...to provide leadership to His heart, which provided leadership to His body. When Adam chose to gaze on evil, that order of operations ceased functioning correctly.
Adam was given what He desired: freedom from God's leadership of His heart and His body. Evil isn't a force equal and opposite to God, it is the absence of God...like dark is the absence of light and and cold is the absence of heat. Evil is the absence of God's leadership, and depravity is the fruit of that condition.
The fullness of depravity looks like this: a man's appetites...his body...leading His heart (mind, will, and emotions), and the spirit dead inside of him. This is the exact opposite of God's perfect order for man. Right now, much of the world is stuck between God's design, righteousness...the Holy Spirit leading the being... and satan's desire, depravity...the appetites of man having the lead. Right now many are led by mind, will, and emotion...subjecting the Spirit to their leadership. This WILL NOT ENDURE.
This is the season that yielding to the Spirit...sowing to righteousness... will yield a quick and glorious harvest. You yield to the Spirit by dying to self. The sermon on the mount is the "farmers almanac" of man's being...this is it in the simplest of terms:
1. Poor in spirit - take a personal inventory of my walk with the Father compared to Jesus' perfect example. Honestly look at the areas I fall short. Don't reason them away because they get in the way of what my mind, will, emotions, or appetites desire. Face the head on and tell them to God.
2. Mourn the poverty of my spirit. Don't accept it, but rather cry out day and night for it to change UNTIL it changes...inch by inch, I allow God to make me a new man, not by discipline, but by asking, seeking, and knocking
3. Be meek - as God works the incremental changes in my walk with Him, be honest about who really did it...not me in my righteousness, but Him in His mercy towards my poverty
Fuel it all with secret fasting, secret praying, secret giving, and looking for opportunities to "test" the work by forgiving offense, loving and blessing those who even spitefully use me, and considering others better.
Now is the time to pull the weeds of depravity in my own heart lest they mature with the wickedness of the earth. The days are growing shorter and the light is changing. I need to move from the light of the sun to the light of the Son...now, while there is time.
Joel 2:12-13 That is why the lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. 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.
synonyms: corruption, vice, perversion, deviance, degeneracy, immorality,
debauchery, dissipation, profligacy, licentiousness, lechery, prurience,
1. a wicked or morally corrupt act.
2. the innate corruption of human nature, due to original sin.
2 Timothy 3:1-5, 8-9 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!.....These teachers oppose the truth just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. They have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith. But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and Jambres.
Paul warned Timothy that in the last days depravity would infiltrate the Church in a remarkable way. Corruption has always been present in the Church since the time Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, but the seed of wickedness in and out of the Church is maturing...just as the wheat of righteousness is maturing...this maturing is being brought about by the coming of the harvest season. Just like God brings about a harvest season each fall by changing the light (glory), shortening the days, and cooling off the nights...He is bringing about a final harvest season for the people of earth...He is releasing a different measure of glory...hastening the days with the events promised, and removing His hand of restraint from the wicked. This is allowing man-based love to grow cold, and God centered love to burn hotter. All of these events are perfectly designed to mature both love and wickedness. Depravity will mature in, and out of, the church at a level unseen. This is promised by Jesus. The outworking of this depravity is betrayal within the believers, which leads to much tribulation IN the church first:
Jesus told His disciples that tribulation starts in the Church, with the "falling away"...which is the "giving in" to depravity as Paul warned Timothy about:
Matthew 24:3, 9-14 Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world? ”... “Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.
This is all about the changing of the season into the harvest season. Many mistakenly believe the Jesus could show up in the sky any minute. This is an anti-biblical idea. Jesus could, but He won't. He will not violate His word. In Matthew 24, Jesus gave a perfect chronology of how the events of the harvest will transpire: tribulation, which touches the church for 3.5 years (according to Daniel 9, 11, and 12), and then, once the Bride is prepared with a testimony of overcoming her OWN tribulation, she will lead the nations as a beacon of light through the "Great Tribulation" for the second 1,260 days. We overcome by the Blood and our own testimony. To overcome, the Bride must have a testimony!
Paul warned the believers not to fall for any other chronology: first the "falling away" which is the same subject as little "t" tribulation...then the "abomination of desolation" which begins the Great Tribulation:
II Thessalonians 2:1-7 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 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, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
Right now, the Holy Spirit is restraining the fruit of rebellion in, and out of, the Church. But, the promise of the Word is that the restraining hand of God is being slowly (from heaven's perspective quickly) removed over a period of 7 years. Everyone gets what they want. God in His mercy is slow to hand people over to depravity, but there is a "day" where the season shifts and the seeds you are sowing begin to mature in to the full harvest. We live in "that day," the harvest generation.
Much is available to the harvest generation...the generation of the Bride. We see signs that all of creation has waited to see. Before us daily are the signs the Bible describes, and many so easily dismiss them. They are intended to drive us into righteousness, but scoffers work hard to convince the Bride to "settle down...don't get too excited...this always happens."
To live in this time...to have tangible indications of the soon coming Joel 2 "outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh" and NOT respond? This is the fruit of depravity. This generation is a wonderful blessing if you are sowing to righteousness...oh the curse of sowing to depravity in THIS generation:
Luke 12:46-51 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.
The human being was made to function in a certain order. Adam was made from dust and given the Holy Spirit...God's spirit within...to provide leadership to His heart, which provided leadership to His body. When Adam chose to gaze on evil, that order of operations ceased functioning correctly.
Adam was given what He desired: freedom from God's leadership of His heart and His body. Evil isn't a force equal and opposite to God, it is the absence of God...like dark is the absence of light and and cold is the absence of heat. Evil is the absence of God's leadership, and depravity is the fruit of that condition.
The fullness of depravity looks like this: a man's appetites...his body...leading His heart (mind, will, and emotions), and the spirit dead inside of him. This is the exact opposite of God's perfect order for man. Right now, much of the world is stuck between God's design, righteousness...the Holy Spirit leading the being... and satan's desire, depravity...the appetites of man having the lead. Right now many are led by mind, will, and emotion...subjecting the Spirit to their leadership. This WILL NOT ENDURE.
This is the season that yielding to the Spirit...sowing to righteousness... will yield a quick and glorious harvest. You yield to the Spirit by dying to self. The sermon on the mount is the "farmers almanac" of man's being...this is it in the simplest of terms:
1. Poor in spirit - take a personal inventory of my walk with the Father compared to Jesus' perfect example. Honestly look at the areas I fall short. Don't reason them away because they get in the way of what my mind, will, emotions, or appetites desire. Face the head on and tell them to God.
2. Mourn the poverty of my spirit. Don't accept it, but rather cry out day and night for it to change UNTIL it changes...inch by inch, I allow God to make me a new man, not by discipline, but by asking, seeking, and knocking
3. Be meek - as God works the incremental changes in my walk with Him, be honest about who really did it...not me in my righteousness, but Him in His mercy towards my poverty
Fuel it all with secret fasting, secret praying, secret giving, and looking for opportunities to "test" the work by forgiving offense, loving and blessing those who even spitefully use me, and considering others better.
Now is the time to pull the weeds of depravity in my own heart lest they mature with the wickedness of the earth. The days are growing shorter and the light is changing. I need to move from the light of the sun to the light of the Son...now, while there is time.
Joel 2:12-13 That is why the lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. 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.
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