The Offer of Life or Death

—My heart is heavy for many reasons today. Dear LORD, my God, help me remain humble. Direct my thoughts through your perfect love. May the words of my mouth be pleasing to you and may the Holy Spirit reveal your heart to the Church today. 

Dear brothers and sisters, as it is written ‘do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good. Abstain from every form of evil.’1 Don’t you also know that 'every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men’?2

My heart breaks for those of you who have fallen into the misguided path of cessationism. It is also written: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”3 For ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit’ says the LORD, God Almighty.4 ‘God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.’5

Almighty Father, remove the scales of doubt from their eyes that they might see the Spirit at work today! Pluck from their ears the words of fleshly wisdom that they might hear the true word of your testimony within them! Oh, Precious Savior, soften their hearts toward your Spirit that they might receive all that you have to offer your Church! For ‘this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.’6 Father, you desire that we experience eternal life NOW, but so many of your children live as if knowing you is for a time only after this life on earth has ended.

The LORD, God Almighty, has poured out His Spirit on the earth, but I hear the Holy Spirit say: “I have spoken to them, but they have not heard; and I have called to them, but they have not answered.”7

Have you not heard that the LORD has revealed that which ‘men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen’8 through His mighty works? It is by the Holy Spirit that our eyes and ears have been opened ‘for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.’9

The division among believers breaks the heart of the Father. God searches hearts that He might pour out His Spirit upon sons and daughters prepared for the coming of the LORD. Very few are ready to receive what He has to offer. For ‘you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God’ but ‘you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles’ you believe overshadow the work of the Spirit.10  You follow the teachings and understanding of men as if from the LORD, but neglect the work of the Living Spirit IN YOU.

Many of you play with treacherous sin, and your eyes have been blinded to it. You worship other gods of money, wealth and social status, political parties and power, earthly knowledge and worldly causes. You subject yourselves to ungodly chatter, Satanic entertainment and self-indulgence. You chase after all causes of ‘social justice’ and the approval of men, but all the while neglect the justice and approval of God! Sexual immorality, gluttony, divorce and adultery, the destruction of God-defined marriage, the destruction of the family, complacency toward the slaughter of the innocent and prideful hearts go unchecked and your lack of prayer against such things makes you no different from the world. You blindly support causes and platforms that uphold and promote such evil. 

Your great disbelief and cynicism toward the Holy Scripture and the work of the Spirit in the Church has quenched the Spirit. The Holy Spirit marvels because of your lack of faith and unbelief. You are playing with blasphemy as you mock the Spirit of God and shake your head at His work among believers! My heart grieves, because you do not even recognize such things in your life. You have been blinded by the enemy and no longer hear the voice of the Spirit calling out or see His mighty works among you. Repent and turn to God! In all of His infinite wisdom, mercy, love and grace, the Father reaches out to you today and speaks life over you. He calls out to you by name. His promises hold true for those who keep His commands and worship Him. What are His commands? Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as you love yourself.

I prayed through the night and the Holy Spirit gave me a vision of an eagle flying high over the earth. In its right claw was liberty and in its left was justice. Peace was hanging from its beak. The eagle was strong and flew high. As the eagle flew, bright and shining stars encircled its head and then spun quickly, encircling its flight like a banner. It was quite beautiful and amazing to see. The scene quickly shifted when two dark vultures knocked the stars from the sky; they then encircled and pecked at the eagle, attempting to rip justice and liberty from its claws. The eagle, which once soared high, now flew low. What once was strong, now grew weak. When the vision had ended, it puzzled me and I did not know its meaning.

Many nights later, the Holy Spirit gave me a word: "Deuteronomy 30:17". The “17” in the image I saw in the Spirit began to flip quickly from number to number, like the flipping numbers of a score board or as the changing months and days of a calendar. I sensed the Holy Spirit direct me: "Start at 17, then observe the context." I got up out of bed very early in the morning and began to read Deuteronomy 29-31. Read it.

"But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away and worship other gods, and serve them, I declare to you today that you will surely perish."

I will explain how the word applies to the vision: 

We come to the end of Moses’ life. God had already brought the people through great trials and tribulations. He had already delivered them from Egypt and remained with them through the desert of rebellion, idol worship and distant hearts, faithfully keeping His promises. God used this time to renew His covenant with His people. The Israelites continued to reject God by not keeping the covenant He had established with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; they worshiped other gods and did not obey the LORD’s commands. The word of the LORD then came to Moses and directed him to remind His people of their covenant. He set blessings and curses before them, life and death, and urged them to choose life so they might not perish. God then gave Moses a glimpse into His ultimate plan through Jesus Christ to “circumcise” the hearts of the people and their offspring by the work of the Holy Spirit. God then told Moses that he would not see the promised land, but commissioned Joshua in his place. God finally warned Moses that this same people would once again prostitute themselves by worshipping other gods and breaking the commands He had given them.

The eagle represents the body of believers in Christ Jesus. The stars represent the light we bear in the world. The ancient foundations of freedom were formed by the Biblical truths of justice, His commands in action and belonging to the LORD alone, and liberty, freedom to worship God in Christ Jesus and our freedom from the shackles of sin and death. We are the peacekeepers; we speak a message of peace over the earth as children of God. When we trust in the LORD, we mount up on wings like eagles. 

The two vultures represent the spirit of division as he testifies against us; a warning of what is to come if we do not repent and allow God to renew His covenant by the circumcision of our hearts in Christ Jesus. As they rip at justice and liberty from beneath our feet, they tear apart the ancient foundations established in God Almighty.

I believe this message also to be true for the Church today. God is speaking to us all: “But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away and worship other gods, and serve them, I declare to you today that you will surely perish."

We have two options, Church. Because we are living the “here and now” in the year 2020, it is our responsibility as the Church of Jesus Christ in the United States to wake up, listen up and obey the word of the LORD. If the light goes out in this nation, and if justice and liberty are ripped from beneath us, and if the peacekeepers are no more, this nation will surely perish and many will perish with her; its usefulness will be no more. We will be to blame. We are the light of the world. We are the salt of the earth. Right now, the Holy Spirit is saying: “Your light has grown dim and your saltiness is weakening.”

When people guided by the Holy Spirit speak of persecution, we are not referring to what is seen today, but what is unseen and what is soon to come; we are referring to what the Holy Spirit has revealed to our spirits. When we speak of 'End Times', we are speaking of an “alertness” required to lift up prayers and petitions to the LORD and a "readiness" and "urgency" to reach the lost for Jesus Christ. If we appear to be heavy burdened, which can sometimes be misconstrued as fear, it is because we are. We are burdened for the lost souls the enemy has already claimed and for our brothers and sisters who do not see what we see in the Spirit. But the JOY of the LORD is our strength! No where in scripture does it tell us to ignore the labor pains or “signs” of His coming. On the contrary! We are to be ready with our lamps in hand and our oil jars full; for the day of the LORD is near.11

Let’s stop the division and be united in the Spirit of God. Let’s put aside our own “reason and logic” and ask God, the Almighty Father, to open our eyes and ears in the Holy Spirit. If God has somehow changed His mind and discontinued the work of the Holy Spirit here on earth and if cessationism is somehow true, then the Word of God is a lie.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The testimony of His Word remains true today.12 The choice set before the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is still ours to make today; blessings and curses, life and death have been set before us all. The hope of the promised land still remains; the new heaven and earth, the new Jerusalem. The choice is yours. The choice for unity in the Holy Spirit is ours. Which will you choose?

1. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22
2. Matthew 12:31
3. Hebrews 13:8
4. Joel 2:28
5. Numbers 23:19
6. John 17:3
7. Jeremiah 35:17
8. Isaiah 64:4
9. 1 Corinthians 2:10
10. Galatians 4:9
11. Matthew 25:1-13
12. Revelation 1:9