Compromise

Praying this morning about much of what I have read and heard regarding the 2016 election lately. Praying about the rebellion I see in so many places in the leadership of the Church, as leaders castigate people for having an opinion other than theirs. Praying as I see so many national Christian leaders compromising basic principles of theology to craft arguments to lead people in ways that directly oppose Jesus and His clear plans to return to a repentant planet led by a repentant Church...and all those that follow these leaders....all those that are unwilling to consider that maybe, just maybe, the leadership of the Church has brought the Church to this sad state... and hence the country. Praying for the leaders that, unlike Daniel in his day who repented, assert the wisdom of their own logic rather than repent for their own leadership and the system they have risen from... they double down in arrogance.

Maybe the cult of celebrity that has invaded the Church is actually the problem. Maybe, just maybe, it is in the wilderness that the true Word of the Lord is being breathed from... And even now is beginning to burn like an oven:

Matthew 3:1In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,

2and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

3For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the LORD;

Make His paths straight.’ ”

4Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.

5Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him

6and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

8“Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,

9“and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

10“And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Many leaders are browbeating the Church into voting for a man who intentionally defines and then wraps himself in pride and arrogance. Have we forgotten that pride is literally the sin of Satan?

Psalm 73:1A Psalm of Asaph.

Truly God is good to Israel,

To such as are pure in heart.

2But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;

My steps had nearly slipped.

3For I was envious of the boastful,

When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4For there are no pangs in their death,

But their strength is firm.

5They are not in trouble as other men,

Nor are they plagued like other men.

6Therefore pride serves as their necklace;

Violence covers them like a garment.

7Their eyes bulge with abundance;

They have more than heart could wish.

8They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression;

They speak loftily.

9They set their mouth against the heavens,

And their tongue walks through the earth.

10Therefore his people return here,

And waters of a full cup are drained by them.

11And they say, “How does God know?

And is there knowledge in the Most High?”

12Behold, these are the ungodly,

Who are always at ease;

They increase in riches.

13Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain,

And washed my hands in innocence.

14For all day long I have been plagued,

And chastened every morning.

15If I had said, “I will speak thus,”

Behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children.

16When I thought how to understand this,

It was too painful for me—

17Until I went into the sanctuary of God;

Then I understood their end.

18Surely You set them in slippery places;

You cast them down to destruction.

19Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment!

They are utterly consumed with terrors.

20As a dream when one awakes,

So, Lord, when You awake,

You shall despise their image.

21Thus my heart was grieved,

And I was vexed in my mind.

22I was so foolish and ignorant;

I was like a beast before You.

23Nevertheless I am continually with You;

You hold me by my right hand.

Are we so hardened that we would want to put our name on a man who literally declares this sin without blushing...who declares this sin as Sodom:

Isaiah 3:9The look on their countenance witnesses against them,

And they declare their sin as Sodom;

They do not hide it.

Woe to their soul!

For they have brought evil upon themselves.

10“Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them,

For they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

11Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,

For the reward of his hands shall be given him.

This is just one area where you can see the arrogance of those who have political alignments, who claim to have "met with so and so", and were in the inner rooms of power... That should not impress the Church. Are we so far from Jesus' heart that we think meeting with Pilate or with Herod is necessarily a thing to parade and claim as merit?

We can all walk into the throne room of God anytime we want. Why do the leaders drop names? Why is it impressive in this hour to meet with celebrity... the Pope, or the president, or the next "Cyrus"? Because the value system of Jesus is being thrown out from those who claim to represent Him.

John 5:43“I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.

44“How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?

45“Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust.

Celebrity does not impress the true Bride. The true Bride knows and declares the greatest lives on the inside, and celebrity generally HATES Him. This is not complicated.

John 15:18“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.

19“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

21“But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.

22“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

Many leaders in the Church have turned to taking Bible verses...out of context...to accuse anyone who doesn't line up with their political agenda as being against God's purpose to redeem a man. That argument can easily be applied to the other political side. If God is using this election to redeem one person, why has the leadership of the Church picked one candidate over the other? God surely loves every person He made.

No, what we are seeing is the maturing of rebellion.

The point of my post is not to tell you how, or if, to vote...I am pointing out the arrogance and presumption of the Church leadership that has taken it upon itself to make YOUR vote, or decision not to, a point of condemnation if it doesn't agree with them. Woe to these shepherds.

As I have considered how few I see responding to the Lord in meekness, and in leading others into meekness by example I have been led to pray. Leaders should be leading the people into repentance. Repent, for the day of the Lord is at hand.

As I have been wrestling through these thoughts with the Lord this am, I said to the Father this morning " the rebellion in the Church seems so big...so pervasive. I don't see how it gets fixed. Give me eyes to see."

And He showed me...a skim on the surface...a hardening and a congealing floating on the surface, like a crust on cream. He said to me

"Those at the top have drawn together and hardened apart from the people. Each in arrogance and asserting their own rightness. Each has found it is easier to float on top of the people by asserting their difference...their superiority... And so I have allowed them to become different...harder. They will not mix. They will not be soft toward my people, towards me, or my Word, and so they have hardened. They hate the organizational model of the body, and love the organization of the pyramid. They refuse to let themselves be fed from below in order to stay soft, and in arrogance insist on their rightness. They have become dry. Yet under the surface, just below the surface, the people are soft and desire me and my ways... The rebellion is just at the top."

Then the Lord showed me He will slough off the top and cast it down, that the people might see the truth rise to the top again. We are in the hour that the body will emerge...in truth, and humility, in service...in casting down the false pyramid of leaders and people, and taking on the yoke of Jesus... Friend of sinners because it was His heart, not His job. Friend of the meek and lowly because it was His actual value system...because they best lined up with the kingdom He was shaping, not arrogantly out of charity for those he saw as "less". Friend of the outcasts not because they seemed weak and He was strong, but because they are actually like Him.

I hear the Lord saying He is casting down arrogance even now. Watch and see... There is a great overturning of the tables even now. If you consider yourself a leader, consider what will happen to you as Jesus changes the entire leadership of His body. Repent. It is not His will you be cast down, it is His will you repent and be restored. If you try to save your life, you will lose it:

Luke 17:32“Remember Lot’s wife.

33“Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

Jeremiah 25:29“For behold, I begin to bring calamity on the city which is called by My name, and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth,” says the LORD of hosts.’

30“Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say to them:

‘The LORD will roar from on high,

And utter His voice from His holy habitation;

He will roar mightily against His fold.

He will give a shout, as those who tread the grapes,

Against all the inhabitants of the earth.

31A noise will come to the ends of the earth—

For the LORD has a controversy with the nations;

He will plead His case with all flesh.

He will give those who are wicked to the sword,’ says the LORD.”

32Thus says the LORD of hosts:

“Behold, disaster shall go forth

From nation to nation,

And a great whirlwind shall be raised up

From the farthest parts of the earth.

33“And at that day the slain of the LORD shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become refuse on the ground.

34“Wail, shepherds, and cry!

Roll about in the ashes,

You leaders of the flock!

For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions are fulfilled;

You shall fall like a precious vessel.

35And the shepherds will have no way to flee,

Nor the leaders of the flock to escape.

36A voice of the cry of the shepherds,

And a wailing of the leaders to the flock will be heard.

For the LORD has plundered their pasture,

37And the peaceful dwellings are cut down

Because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

38He has left His lair like the lion;

For their land is desolate

Because of the fierceness of the Oppressor,

And because of His fierce anger.”

Ezekiel 34:16“I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment.”

17‘And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.

18“Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture—and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet?

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