Online Journals

Rhema:

Ezekiel 13: 4 “O people of Israel, these prophets of yours are like jackals digging in the ruins. 5 They have done nothing to repair the breaks in the walls around the nation. They have not helped it to stand firm in battle on the day of the Lord.

Revelation 5: For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 And you have caused them to become
a Kingdom of priests for our God.
And they will reign[d] on the earth.”

Inspect:

What a contrast between the people being described by these two scriptures!

Ezekiel is describing bad prophets. They are like jackals who dig in the ruins for scraps to feed their own hunger. They are only trying to satisfy their own needs and nobody else’s. They are not trying to help the people to build the defenses of the nation. They don’t care that the people don’t know how to defend against the enemy. These prophets don’t show the people how to fight against those that seek to steal, kill and destroy.

In the John’s revelation, there is a description of who the Lord chooses to care and rule over the earth. These are people that come from every background. These are people that have humbled themselves and accepted salvation through the blood of Lamb. They are described as priests. God’s priests are selected for their heart to serve and sacrifice for the people. Just as it was with Jesus, they who gave up their lives in obedience to the Heavenly Father to serve others, will be raised up to lead.

We get to pick which one of these scriptures describe us.

Commit:

I want to be the people described in Revelation. I want to humbly accept the ransom of the blood from my Lord. I want to sacrificially serve the people as He has.

Exalt:

Heavenly Father, I thank you for showing me what I should be and what I shouldn’t be. Please help me not be the Ezekiel prophet who is only interested in self and not in helping people. Send your Holy Spirit to help me be the kind of priest that your Son is.

In the name of the one who died for me and is my High Priest and King, Jesus!

Amen.

Rhema:

Revelation 4: 9 Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever), 10 the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever). And they lay their crowns before the throne and say,
11 “You are worthy, O Lord our God,
to receive glory and honor and power.
For you created all things,
and they exist because you created what you pleased.”

Inspect:

What a great lesson in worship. I believe that one of the purposes in worship is to remind us of what God has done vs. what we have done. Here we see in John’s vision of heaven a lesson in worship. We see there are twenty-four elders surrounding the throne of God. We need to realize that if these elders follow the pattern of selection of elders for earthly churches that the Bible taught, where people of character and accomplishment was selected for the local church, these who are selected as elders for heaven must have incredible character and accomplishments! And yet we see how they worship God.

- They fall down and worship – they humbly fall down and lay down before the Lord. They don’t stand proudly, they don’t even kneel, they humbly fall down and consider themselves totally beneath the Lord.
- They lay down their crowns – crowns are a symbol of authority, of accomplishment, of honor. These elders did not keep these symbols on their head. They took these crowns off and put them down in front of the Lord.

These elders knew all they have accomplished has come from the Lord. They had no illusions that anything they have done was accomplished from their abilities. They fell down before the Lord, because they had no illusion that they are at the Lord’s level.

I believe this is the way we should worship the Lord as well. We must not fool ourselves and ever think we are at the Lord’s level. This was the sin that Satan had committed, considering himself the equal of God. We must give God all the glory, realizing that all of our accomplishment, our honor, our authority comes from God.

Commit:

I must learn to worship as these elders. I must always humble myself before the Lord. I must give God all the credit for everything that I am.

Exalt:

Heavenly Father, I thank you for showing me the proper way to worship you. Please send me your Holy Spirit to help me always be humble before you. Help me to always give you all the credit for everything that I’ve accomplished. Help me to guard against my pride.

In the name of the one who is far above me and has blessed me with every good thing in my life, Jesus!

Amen.

Rhema:

Revelation 3: 15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. 18 So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. 19 I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.

Inspect:

So many times when we read God’s Word, we think that a particular passage is directed toward someone else. We think that it doesn’t apply to us, at least not for now. But I think we need to be careful, we need to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. I think today, this passage is written for me. At first I thought, am I being accused of being lukewarm? Not, can’t be me. However, we learn that condemnation comes from the enemy, but conviction comes from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to point out areas in my life that need to be strengthened and built up, so that’s conviction to spur me to improve. The very same passage can be used by the enemy to condemn to point out weak areas in order to depress me and get me to stop trying to get stronger and more mature.

So I believe I need to reflect on how I do things and ask myself am I lukewarm? Is what I do neither hot or cold? Is this “minimum necessary” another way to describe lukewarm performance? I think I am. And what are the consequences of being lukewarm? God says that he doesn’t want anything to deal with me, He will spit me out His mouth. He can deal with me when I hot, He can deal with when I’m cold, but He doesn’t want to deal with me when I’m neither hot nor cold.

I believe it is because of the attitude of the lukewarm. We think we’re okay, we don’t need a thing. However, we are fooling ourselves. We think we’re okay, when in reality we’re poor, we’re blind and we’re naked. We have this attitude that deceives us that we don’t need help, so we don’t seek help, and we get stuck where we are.

What is the solution? We need to humble ourselves and go to God and get what we need to get us out of where we are.

- We think we are rich but we are poor. We think we have gold, but our gold is impure. Our values need to be adjusted. We need gold from God, and His gold is purified by fire. We need to get our pure values from the Lord, values motivated by love and righteousness.
- We need to get garments to cover our nakedness. Our garments are dirty, torn and tattered. They cause us shame. We need to get new white garments from the Lord. So we will never have to be ashamed in front of anyone.
- We need ointments for our eyes. We can’t see our nakedness, we can’t see our dirty garments, we can’t see our tarnished gold so we need to get our eyes fixed. I believe the anointment is God’s truth. His truth will open up our eyes and take the distortion away caused by sin.

We are reminded that God will correct and discipline everyone that He loves. He doesn’t want us to remain poor, naked and blind because He loves us. But it is up to us to diligently work at changing and to turn from doing “minimum necessary.”

Commit:

This scripture is written for me. I am lukewarm. God doesn’t like it, and I must not as well. I must humble myself and accept His correction and discipline. I must take His gold, His garments and His ointment.

Exalt:

Heavenly Father, I thank you for convicting me of my “minimum necessary.” Please send me your Holy Spirit to humble me so that I may accept your discipline and correction. I want your pure gold. I want your white garments. I want your ointment for my eyes. Help me to be diligent to turn away from my mediocrity.

In the name of the one who will make me hot, Jesus!

Amen.

Rhema:

Ezekiel 2: “Stand up, son of man,” said the voice. “I want to speak with you.” 2 The Spirit came into me as he spoke, and he set me on my feet. I listened carefully to his words. 3 “Son of man,” he said, “I am sending you to the nation of Israel, a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have been rebelling against me to this very day. 4 They are a stubborn and hard-hearted people. But I am sending you to say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says!’ 5 And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for remember, they are rebels—at least they will know they have had a prophet among them.
6 “Son of man, do not fear them or their words. Don’t be afraid even though their threats surround you like nettles and briers and stinging scorpions. Do not be dismayed by their dark scowls, even though they are rebels. 7 You must give them my messages whether they listen or not. But they won’t listen, for they are completely rebellious!

Ezekiel 3: 8 But look, I have made you as obstinate and hard-hearted as they are. 9 I have made your forehead as hard as the hardest rock! So don’t be afraid of them or fear their angry looks, even though they are rebels.”

Inspect:

I believe there is a parallel between these instructions from God to the prophet Ezekiel and between God and the prophets of our times. We are the prophets of our times. So I believe the instruction from God to Ezekiel is the same message from God to each one of us.

- I am sending you to a rebellious nation who has rebelled against me. Ezekiel was being sent to people who not just ignored God, they actively rebelled. They turned their back on God and focused on themselves and other interests. The people would definitely be unsympathetic to the one bringing the message.
- They are a stubborn and hard-hearted people. Ezekiel was being sent to people who would stubbornly resist anything other than their own opinions. These were people whose hearts were unsympathetic outside of their own desires.

I find it so interesting to see to see how God was so very clear with warning Ezekiel. God didn’t try to downplay what Ezekiel would be running into. No God told Ezekiel, exactly what he run into. But God told Ezekiel how he would be supported by God. God loves everyone so much that He wants to send words of warning to them. It doesn’t matter so much if each one is individually successful, what matters is that God is continually wanting to reach out to the people to warn them. God warns Ezekiel that the people will be stubborn and threatening. However, God said that He would make Ezekiel as stubborn and obstinate as they are. Ezekiel was not to fear them, but to be as determined as focused as they are.

I believe this message is for us as well. We are being sent to people who are rebellious, stubborn and hard-hearted. They may threaten us, intimidate us, but we should not fear. Not only will God protect us, He will equip us to deal with them. We are to be as determined and as passionate as they are. However, we must deliver the message. The people are in dire need to know that the Heavenly Father loves them. We may be discouraged from their reaction, but nonetheless we know that the message is an act of love from our Heavenly Father.

Commit:

I must know that my mission won’t be easy. I will be bringing God’s message to a rebellious, stubborn and hard-hearted audience. I must know that I know that I know that God will protect me. I must know that He will make me as determined and as passionate about God’s message as they are with theirs.

Exalt:

Heavenly Father, I thank you talking again to me about my mission. You have warned me that the job will be tough working with tough people. Please send me the Holy Spirit to remind that you will protect me from any attack. Please keep preparing to be as stubborn and hard-hearted as they are with delivering your message to them. As Ezekiel was the prophet to Israel, I know you have called me to be a prophet to your people around me.

In the name of the who is my sanctuary, who will make me as stubborn and obstinate as they are, Jesus!

Amen.

Rhema:

Psalm 144: 1 Praise the Lord, who is my rock.
He trains my hands for war
and gives my fingers skill for battle.
2 He is my loving ally and my fortress,
my tower of safety, my rescuer.
He is my shield, and I take refuge in him.
He makes the nations[a] submit to me.

Inspect:

The Lord has a purpose for our lives and he trains us for it. We are not here to just take up space. Our mission is to battle for souls. We need to battle for our own souls and for the souls of others. The enemy wants to take our lives both present and eternal and trash it. The enemy wants to do the same for every other person. So it is up to battle for our souls and it is up to us to battle for souls of others. That is our mission.

The great thing is that the Lord just doesn’t give us a mission, he trains us for it as well. The Lord is our foundation. He is our stability and someone we can always depend on. That’s why He is the rock.

The Lord trains us. He teaches us what it takes to defeat the enemy.

The Lord is our ally. The Lord is on our side. He comes to our help when it is needed. He protects our backs and our sides, as an ally should.

The Lord is our fortress and safety. We can always run to the Lord for protection. In Him we can take a time to recover and refresh so that we can go back into battle.

He makes the nations submit to me. It is the Lord who brings the victory. Yes, we need to do our part. The Lord trains us. We need to execute to the best our heart and passion and strength. But it is the Lord that brings in the win. We must be patient, we must trust and know that God will bring the victory.

Commit:

I must trust that the Lord is my rock, my foundation, my stability and my weapon. I must be diligent in training. The Lord trains me, but it is I who must submit to the training. I must not be anxious when the battle seems to be going bad because I will know that the Lord is my refuge and rescuer. He will never leave me to be defeated. I can always run to Him where I can recover and rest in total safety. I must not be anxious about the victory, because it is God who will bring it, and there is no doubt that He will win.

Exalt:

Heavenly Father, I thank you for showing me my mission and how you will help us to win it. Please send your Holy Spirit and help me to train diligently under your instruction. Help me to not fear the enemy because you are my rescuer and my protection. Help me to know that you are my rock and that you are the one to bring in the victory. Help me to focus on doing my best and let you take care of the win.

In the name of my trainer, my rescuer and the winner, Jesus!

Amen.