By now, many of us have heard all sorts of theories, “facts”, ideas, and opinions of how the world gets to the state of being that it is presently in.  Y’all know my heart.  I always want to know what scripture says on a matter.  Several verses have come to my heart in the last few days.  This post is about considering why we find ourselves in this position today, but more importantly, what provisions and practical steps do we take from here.

Approximately 4 years ago, the Lord lead me to the book of Haggai.. which was kind of fun as I had not even retained that there was a  book in the Bible by that name.   It hit home on such a deep level.

Haggai 1 (WEB) “This is what Yahweh of Armies says: These people say, ‘The time hasn’t yet come, the time for Yahweh’s house to be built.’”  ³ Then Yahweh’s word came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, ⁴ “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste? ⁵ Now therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider your ways. ⁶ You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you don’t have enough. You drink, but you aren’t filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it.”⁷ This is what Yahweh of Armies says: “Consider your ways. ⁸ Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” says Yahweh. ⁹ “You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says Yahweh of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house. ¹⁰ Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. ¹¹ I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground produces, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands.”

2 Timothy 3 World English Bible (WEB)
“3 But know this: that in the last days, grievous times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also. 6 For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Even as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind, who concerning the faith are rejected. 9 But they will proceed no further. For their folly will be evident to all men, as theirs also came to be. 10 But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, 11 persecutions, and sufferings: those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. The Lord delivered me out of them all. 12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.”

Isaiah 3 World English Bible (WEB)  “3 For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support,  the whole supply of bread,
and the whole supply of water;  2 the mighty man,  the man of war,  the judge,  the prophet,  the diviner,  the elder,  3 the captain of fifty,  the honorable man,  the counselor,
the skilled craftsman,  and the clever enchanter.  4 I will give boys to be their princes,
and children shall rule over them.  5 The people will be oppressed,  everyone by another,
and everyone by his neighbor.  The child will behave himself proudly against the old man,  and the wicked against the honorable.  6 Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying,  “You have clothing, you be our ruler,  and let this ruin be under your hand.”  7 In that day he will cry out, saying, “I will not be a  healer;  for in my house is neither bread nor clothing.  You shall not make me ruler of the people.”  8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen;  because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh,  to provoke the eyes of his glory.  9 The look of their faces testify against them.  They parade their sin like Sodom.  They don’t hide it.  Woe to their soul!  For they have brought disaster upon themselves.  10 Tell the righteous “Good!”
For they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.  11 Woe to the wicked!  Disaster is upon them;
for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.  12 As for my people, children are their oppressors,  and women rule over them.  My people, those who lead you cause you to err,  and destroy the way of your paths.  13 Yahweh stands up to contend,  and stands to judge the peoples.  14 Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people
and their leaders:  “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard.  The plunder of the poor is in your houses.  15 What do you mean that you crush my people,  and grind the face of the poor?” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.  16 Moreover Yahweh said, “Because the daughters of Zion are arrogant,  and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes,
walking to trip as they go,  jingling ornaments on their feet;  17 therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion,  and Yahweh will make their scalps bald.”

Galatians 6:7 World English Bible (WEB)  “7 Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”

The above scriptures convict me on so many levels.   Perhaps, one might be tempted to avoid them as the descriptions are all too familiar and the sins listed all to close to home for comfort.   (Psalm 65 and 1 John 2:1)  Praise be to God that we are assured that if we sin, we have an advocate, and Jesus has paid for the forgiveness of our sins if we are truly repentant.    Conviction is an excellent gift, one that motivates us to change directions and line up our lives with the heart and will of God.

Scripture, as we have heard so many times now, admonishes us to seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness.   I believe that this is the heart of the where to do we go from here question.  Many of might recall a song we learned in Sunday School about the “Wise Man building his house upon the Rock”… Living in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Number one thing to do in every circumstance is build up and deepend your relationship with the Lord by spending time with Him alone in prayer, in the Word, in meditating on His Word (thinking about it over and over again and letting it transform your life).  I can easily spend several months in a relatively small portion of scripture just chewing on it and mulling it over and over.   This process often leads me to repentance as very often there are areas of my life that need renewing that are mentioned.   At the end of the day, knowing God IS eternal life.  Not knowing God, is by definition the opposite.  So this is THE central thing for all of us.
2. No less important, is to accept God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are LORD…   Isaiah sums up THE reason why people get into trouble and have always gotten into trouble.   They start to think that they are smart enough or they become ignorant enough to forget that God MUST be honoured and treated with REVERENCE. God is not our buddy that we can treat irreverently.   He is not a genie in a bottle who we try to rub the right way to get what we want.  He is “I AM” and we must be totally submitted to Him and subject to Him in all of our ways.
3.  Store up your treasures and focus your time, resources and energies into building up things that have eternal value.    James 4 tells us to store up our treasures in heaven where the elements of this world cannot touch them.  Scripture tells us to do these things in secret (our left hand is not to know what our right hand is doing Matthew 6:2-4) for only things done in secret and without bragging and boasting result in treasures in heaven.   Isaish 58 is a good starting place of the many of the things we can do to store up treasures in heaven.   (see down below)
4. Get serious about repenting for yourself, your family, your neighbours and our nation.    Moses is one excellent example of a man who stood in the gap (this simply means he took responsibility for his people before God and repented on their behalf), Hosea is another.    Their are biblical abominations that have been taking place in our countries and across the world for some time.   We can repentant and ask for mercy on behalf of ourselves, our neighbours and nation for mankind’s sin against God.  This is the central thing I am hearing from various prophet’s right now followed by others that have come to my own heart.
   • The shedding of innocent blood and sexual sins have both been mentioned.   We must guard our own hearts from being judgemental and seek and foremost for God to remove the logs out of our own eyes and lifestyles.
   • As mentioned in Isaiah, a common reason for a curse coming upon the land is that all of our words and actions do not glorify God.   As those who represent Him, we are called to glorify Him in all that we say and do, to be thankful and full of praise in all circumstances.   Many of us struggle with this and need true freedom from the other voices and influences in our hearts and head that  incline us to complaining, being critical and being judgemental or bitter.
   • self-centredness.   Many of us have invested our lives in building up our own houses…   perhaps we are mostly absorbed by our relationships with certain people, and this consumes our thoughts and energies.  Perhaps it is a  business, job or hobby that crowds out God and pre-occupies us…  Whatever it is that we do with our time and resources that centres around our agendas and our plans instead of God’s are worth repenting about.
5. Learn to listen to Him attentively with the sincere desire to let Him transform every part of your being and life, one sincere and committed baby step at a time.   2 Timothy talks about how we are capable of forever learning without ever really getting the point or being transformed by the Truth.     We can fall into the trap of having our ears “tickled” by exciting revelations and promises which capture our imagination for a moment and then flee from our minds just as quickly when the new revelation or tidbit comes.   For many of us, this requires slowing way down and focussing on just one or two major areas of transformation.    Find a verse or two and chew on just one or two things in the Word that God highlights to you until every part of your life has been transformed into the likeness of what you read there.   If you are prone to complaining.. meditate on verses about being thankful, hold yourself to account, ask God for help even in this and start to guard your thoughts sincerely… train them… cut off the bitter thoughts and replace them with prayers of blessings over those who have wrongly used you.    If you approach the Word through this perspective, the Holy Spirit will teach you and enable you to make far more progress in one year than many make in a whole lifetime.  It takes patience, perserverance, humility and endurance (a healthy sense of humor helps too) to walk down this road.   Sincerely godly friends and family will motivate along these lines.
6. Do not neglect the gathering of the Saints.

Hebrews 10:25 Amplified Bible (AMP)”25 not forsaking our meeting together [as believers for worship and instruction], as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more [faithfully] as you see the day [of Christ’s return] approaching.”

Yes, I understand that the government is encouraging social distancing etc at this time.   Make the effort to connect with others via the phone, facetime, via meeting in smaller numbers or outdoors etc…   The enemy loves to isolate the sheep.   Scripture commands us to gather.   We must do what we can to honour the government and the lawgivers in our land, but never at the price of disobeying God and His Word.   We need wisdom to walk this out but cannot lose track that this time is essential to the body.  Corinthians tells us it is when we work together that we can measure up to the fullness of Christ.

I also underlined the verse about having the form of godliness but denying it’s power.   Christ came to restore us to our original likeness.    Quite broadly now, the church has largely forgotten that the power of the gospel, is simply the power that restores us to our original created value, to our originally intended state of being.   Made in His likeness, made to have dominion over all the creatures of the earth. Made to love as He loves and reflect Him and His Kingdom in all our ways.   My own heart’s prayer and that I will fully accept what He says about me and my life and recognize that He is THE way, THE truth and THE life and He is fully capable and willing to finish the good work that He has begun in my life.

7. Acknowledge Him in all our ways.   Meditate on the verses about His faithfulness, about His Love, about His willingness, about His capacity (exceedingy and abundantly beyond our needs) until our peace is perfect and resolute in the face of all circumstances.   Psalm 84 talks about even if the mountains were falling into the sea (even if the earth itself were coming to an end), we can live in a place of no fear, because our God is with us.   Keep our eyes on the Father, on His true nature and unfailing love and faithfulness.    I believe these are the early shaking and tremors mentioned in Hebrews 12 and that greater shakings are to come.   I think it is a mercy and a reminder to get very serious about these things.    There are often tremors that proceeds a volcanic explosion or earthquake.  Those who heed the warnings tend to do well.  Those who ignore them often discover their folly too late.   It is a time a build up our sure foundation…   So when then final shakings comes, we are firmly established like than house built on the rock of Christ.  I have invested several hours listening to well-known/confirmed prophets.  I do believe it is a season to get very sincere and serious in our seeking.  This is a season of great anticipation and joy, yes, our Lord will come back one of these days/years and soon.  I am thankful for this personal reminder to keep my lamp full at every hour.   And whether in my lifetime (I think likely) or in the lifetime of my children (I am almost sure of) knowing Him more is always THE thing.  Blessings and with great anticipation and excitement for these coming days.

Isaiah 58 New International Version – UK (NIVUK) ‘Is not this the kind of fasitng I have chosen:

• [Do all that we can to free people from oppression and injustice]to loose the chains of injustice  and untie the cords of the yoke,  to set the oppressed free  and break every yoke?”
• [Feed the poor, even from our own portion, think the boy who gave up his own lunch to feed the 5000 plus, he certainly risked giving up his whole meal to feed others]7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
• [Look after the poor in generosity and joy]and to provide the poor
• [provide homes for the homeless and traveler] wanderer with shelter –
• [provide clothing and essentials to those in need]when you see the naked, to clothe them,
• [care for elderly or needy family members]and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
  [Amazing promises that follow this lifestyle]8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,  and your healing will quickly appear;  then your righteousness will go before you,  and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.  9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;  you will cry for help, and he will say: here am I.  ‘If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
• [immediately stop coming into agreement with offense, bitterness, gossip, slander, blaming others, accusation, judging others heart motives etc]with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

[more promises]10 and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. 12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”

• [die to self-serving and live for God’s purposes and according to Kingdom principles like the ones in this list]13 ‘If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day,
• [being thankful and full of praise while serving and obeying and considering this life of dedicaion]if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honourable,and if you honour it by not going your own way
• [eliminating idle \fruitless time wasters/ entertainments especially words and activities that can devour our days]and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.’ For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Proverbs 19:17 “ESVUK Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”

Luke 6:38 New International Version – UK (NIVUK) “38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’”

Hebrews 12 (WEB) “2 But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, 23 to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,Jeremiah 31:31 and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.  25 See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven, 26 whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”Haggai 2:6 27 This phrase, “Yet once more” signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.Deuteronomy 4:24”