The Biblical Response to Increasing Judgment

Ezekiel 22:27“Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain.
28“Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD had not spoken.
29“The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger.
30“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.
31“Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord GOD.

To 'make a wall and stand in the gap' is to pray.

You can watch the judgment unfold with fear and dread and try to avoid it, or even worse, try to resist it, and let it destroy you, or you can agree with judgment and let it heal the land.

This is the only story the Bible tells. Agreeing that the judgment is necessary, right, and helpful, since it is from the Lord, is what lets the judgment help you.

The point of judgment is to humble the people. If you call the judgment evil and don't change in response to it, your heart gets harder and it takes MORE judgment to break it open.

Now is a really good time to give yourself to prayer...to standing in the gap and making a wall...not by wishing the judgment away, but by repenting into the judgment.

Ezekiel 13:4“O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts.
5“You have not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of the LORD.
6“They have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD!’ But the LORD has not sent them; yet they hope that the word may be confirmed.
7“Have you not seen a futile vision, and have you not spoken false divination? You say, ‘The LORD says,’ but I have not spoken.”
8Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you,” says the Lord GOD.
9“My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
10“Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace—and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar—
11“say to those who plaster it with untempered mortar, that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it down.
12“Surely, when the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the mortar with which you plastered it?’ ”
13Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume it.
14“So I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

This is what happened when Nebuchadnezzar invaded Israel: God told the people through Jeremiah to go over to the Babylonians and they would be safe. That meant 'agree with the judgment' and stop trying to resist what God is doing. They could not believe that accepting the judgment was the safe place and they died miserable deaths. Look at the book of Lamentations. They literally ate their own children.

The end time judgment is much worse and global. Now is the time to decide how this works so that it can work for the good of you and your kids. It really is.

Jeremiah 42:6“Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.”
7And it happened after ten days that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.
8Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
9and said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him:
10‘If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you.
11‘Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,’ says the LORD, ‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand.
12‘And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.’
13“But if you say, ‘We will not dwell in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the LORD your God,
14“saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be hungry for bread, and there we will dwell’—
15“Then hear now the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah! Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you wholly set your faces to enter Egypt, and go to dwell there,
16‘then it shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.
17‘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.’
18“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.’
19“The LORD has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have admonished you this day.
20“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.’
21“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.
22“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.”

Right now, much of the church is like ancient Israel... Fearing people...mostly 'liberals' and 'conservatives'...more than God. When the church dehumanizes people into groups like 'liberals' she is becoming entirely apostate. Jesus loves people, He doesn't dehumanize them.

If we don't learn to see things rightly, everything we are trying to save will be destroyed.

God isn't trying to preserve a political or economic system. He is trying to save people out of them all and into an entirely different kingdom. Don't listen to the false prophets. Listen to the Bible.

The falling away is happening with triumphant anthems of 'victory' in the 'name of our God' at exactly the moment we should be repenting and softening our hearts...weeping over our arrogance and hard heartedness. It always happens this way.

Atheists aren't the problem, adulterers...corrupt believers... are.