IT'S ALL ABOUT THE NAME
"O my God, incline Your
ear and hear; open Your eyes and look at our desolations and the city
which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications
before You for our own righteousness and justice, but for Your great
mercy and loving-kindness.
O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, give heed and act! Do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name." [Daniel 9:18,19]
REBELLION is so destructive. Daniel was in the midst of a people suffering the effects of profound rebellion against God. He knew what God had said (through the prophet, Jeremiah) and pronounced--70 years of punishment because of their unrighteousness, but still Daniel sought God fervently--appealing to His, and reminding Him that His Name is at stake. Daniel knew that not one of them was deserving--they were receiving justice; in fact, the justice was merciful. God had destroyed many of His people for being rebellious, idol worshipper's who turned their back to Him.
Today, we aren't exactly fervently praying Daniel's prayer for the people of Israel--we are whining and complaining. We have not walked in the standard of holiness that God has provided for us, through grace, and now we are suffering mockery, and a diminishment of our authority in what is supposed to be a Christian nation. And, we don't like it. Just like Israel and Judah, we brought it on ourselves, by our own unrighteousness. It didn't just happen--our authority wasn't taken from us, as we often claim (as in prayer being taken out of public schools, the Ten Commandments no longer being displayed on government buildings, no nativity scenes at Christmas, abortion being made legal, gay and lesbian marriage becoming "normal", etc.). We gave up our authority when we decided to compromise God's Law.
When we set the Law of Grace aside, and stopped being "salt" and "light" in the earth, hell broke loose. We unleashed the enemy. Even now, we have power over what is occurring, but we will not use it. The Word of God says,
"If I shut up heaven so no rain falls, or if I command locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,
If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer offered in this place.
For I have chosen and sanctified (set apart for holy use) this house, that My Name may be here forever, and My eyes and My heart will be here perpetually. [2 Chronicles 7:13-16, AMP]
We can reverse the curse by repentance and humility, but we will not admit our role in the degradation of American society. How are we responsible? Our lack of living according to grace, which means that we govern ourselves by love--everything works by love, even faith [Galatians 5:6]. Jesus told us that love is key. Our "New" Law--or Ten Commandments have been simplified to Two Commandments, and both of them are to love--Love God, and Love your neighbor. We have failed, miserably. We speak love, but true love is compassionate, it acts. Love is more than words. James says to us, "If indeed you [really] fulfill the royal Law in accordance with the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as [you love] yourself, you do well." [James 2:8] And then he says this to us, "My brothers and sisters, what good does it do if someone claims to have faith but doesn’t do any good things? Can this kind of faith save him? Suppose a believer, whether a man or a woman, needs clothes or food and one of you tells that person, “God be with you! Stay warm, and make sure you eat enough.” If you don’t provide for that person’s physical needs, what good does it do? In the same way, faith by itself is dead if it doesn’t cause you to do any good things." [James 2:14-17,GWT] Love and faith have to do something. Faith isn't faith without an act; love isn't love without an act of compassion.
I don't get as upset as most Christians do about homosexuality, abortions, no prayer in public schools or Christians losing their "rights", in our society. The reason that I don't is that we are the cause. It couldn't happen if we didn't allow it. The Holy Spirit that lives in us has ALL power. "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." satan does not have more power--and certainly not more authority, either than God--or those of us who have God in us. With God we have the power to put ten thousand to flight. ("And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword." [Leviticus 26:7-9]. Now, sin happens in a world marred by sin. But, when sin affects the rights of the Body of Christ detrimentally, we have done something to allow it. We have failed society and ourselves, too. We think that being saved is about going to church, but being saved is about going--into all the world, spreading the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by any means necessary. It is being properly equipped and fit for service in God's army. It is having His love and compassion, so that we don't spend time judging, damning and pointing fingers, but we utilize our time and energy loving people into His Kingdom. There is a void in every man or woman that cries out for God--whether He or she acknowledges it or not. How we present God to them is key. If we offer, hell and judgment, we will lose them; fear is not the way to win them--and it certainly won't keep them. Love lasts. We must learn to woo people to Jesus.
Conservative Evangelical Christians are up in arms about homosexuality, abortion and more--they build whole political platforms on these two issues. That is backwards. Be an example of Christ's love and that will change the heart. You cannot legislate what is in the heart of any man or woman, and that is the mistake that is made, by them. They will attempt to pass laws to change America, but if hearts aren't changed, it will be more horrific and chaotic than it currently is. Abortions won't stop--legal abortions will stop. That means women will die in back alley abortions--without a chance to hear the Word of God that will bring them to repentance and save them. Homosexuals have been in the world almost since there was a world--it won't stop, until Jesus appears; but the more we fight them, the more powerful and prolific we make them. They have the most powerful lobby in Washington, DC. The best thing that we can do, is to stop viewing them with disgust and look at them through the eyes of Jesus--with love and compassion, and win them with prayer and kindness.
We have to recognize that we have a responsibility to care for people, practically, as well. The "least of these" have needs, while we heap lavish wants (lust of the eye) upon ourselves while they suffer--and, even die. It is unrighteous to tell a woman that she cannot have an abortion, and at the same time end social programs to help her care for the child that you forced her to have. We cannot have it both ways. It is unrighteous for so many people to have nothing and many less to have so much and feel justified in withholding help and care from those that have such great need, and we know it! [1 John 3:17]. Christians have the greater responsibility--our churches should be places where people can come to have their whole needs met. Church should not simply be about Sunday morning--nor should it minister mainly to those who are already in relationship with God. Where is the Gospel in that? If we really want our churches filled, we will have to begin to benevolently meet the needs of our communities. We need programs to feed them, clothe them, educate them and support them in the ways that are needed most in our community. We must be missions-minded, local, and world-wide. The needs of others must become a priority to us; not our desires for more, and more. We cannot be insatiable--except when it comes to God; we need to learn contentment with having our needs met. We have to realize that our prosperity is for the Kingdom of God, not our greed and selfish pleasure. Need and desire are not synonymous. God promises to meet our needs as we seek His Kingdom. Seeking His Kingdom is caring for the world--and those in it.
Our selfishness, pride, prosperity is going to destroy us, if we don't repent. It has happened before:
"Therefore, O harlot [Israel], hear the word of the Lord!
Thus says the Lord God: Because your brass [coins and gifts] and your filthiness were emptied out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers, and because of all the [filthy] idols of your abominations, and the blood of your children that you gave to them,
Therefore behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those whom you have loved with all those whom you have hated; I will even gather them [the allies you have courted] against you on every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness [making you, Israel, an object of loathing and of mockery, a spectacle among the nations].
And I the Lord will judge you as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged, and I will bring upon you the blood of [your divine Husband's] wrath and jealousy.
And I will also give you into the hand of those [your enemies], and they shall throw down your vaulted place (brothel) and shall demolish your high places [of idolatry]; they shall strip you of your clothes and shall take your splendid jewels and leave you naked and bare.
They shall also bring up a company against you, and they shall stone you with stones and hew down and thrust you through with their swords.
And they shall burn your houses with fire and execute judgments upon you before the eyes of many women spectators [the nations]. And I will cause you to cease playing the harlot, and you also shall give hire no more.
So will I make My wrath toward you to rest and My jealousy shall depart from you [My adulterous wife], and I will be quiet and will be no more angry.
Because you have not [earnestly] remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me with all these things, therefore behold, I also will bring your deeds down on your own head, says the Lord God. Did you not commit this lewdness above and in addition to all your other abominations?
Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb against you: As is the mother, so is her daughter.
You are your [spiritual] mother's daughter who loathed her husband and her children, and you are the sister of your sisters who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
And your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters who dwelt in the north and at your left hand; and your younger sister who dwelt in the south and at your right hand is Sodom and her daughters.
Yet you were not satisfied to walk after their ways or to do after their abominations, but very soon you were more corrupt in all your ways than they were [for your sin, as those taught of God, is far blacker than theirs].
As I live, says the Lord God, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.
Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, overabundance of food, prosperous ease, and idleness were hers and her daughters'; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
And they were haughty and committed abominable offenses before Me; therefore I removed them when I saw it and I saw fit.
Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins, but you have multiplied your [idolatrous] abominations more than they and have seemed to justify your sisters [Samaria and Sodom] in all their wickedness by all the abominable things which you have done--you even make them appear righteous in comparison with you." [Ezekiel 16:35-51,AMP]
It is past time for God's people, in this generation, to recognize that it is ALL about His Name, His glory, and Him having a people who fit His Image and Likeness. It is a choice. He makes us righteous, and He will sanctify us, by His grace--if we want Him to. Can we do it, no; but we can invite Him to do it, in us. We can have that Daniel spirit, and pray reminding God that we want His Name to be glorified in us. Justice or mercy--it's completely up to us.
Walk in love [Matthew 22:37-40; Romans 13:10; Galatians 5:14].
"And what this love consists in is this: that we live and walk in accordance with and guided by His commandments (His orders, ordinances, precepts, teaching). This is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you continue to walk in love [guided by it and following it]."
[2 John 1:6,AMP]
Grace,
Lisa
O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, give heed and act! Do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name." [Daniel 9:18,19]
REBELLION is so destructive. Daniel was in the midst of a people suffering the effects of profound rebellion against God. He knew what God had said (through the prophet, Jeremiah) and pronounced--70 years of punishment because of their unrighteousness, but still Daniel sought God fervently--appealing to His, and reminding Him that His Name is at stake. Daniel knew that not one of them was deserving--they were receiving justice; in fact, the justice was merciful. God had destroyed many of His people for being rebellious, idol worshipper's who turned their back to Him.
Today, we aren't exactly fervently praying Daniel's prayer for the people of Israel--we are whining and complaining. We have not walked in the standard of holiness that God has provided for us, through grace, and now we are suffering mockery, and a diminishment of our authority in what is supposed to be a Christian nation. And, we don't like it. Just like Israel and Judah, we brought it on ourselves, by our own unrighteousness. It didn't just happen--our authority wasn't taken from us, as we often claim (as in prayer being taken out of public schools, the Ten Commandments no longer being displayed on government buildings, no nativity scenes at Christmas, abortion being made legal, gay and lesbian marriage becoming "normal", etc.). We gave up our authority when we decided to compromise God's Law.
When we set the Law of Grace aside, and stopped being "salt" and "light" in the earth, hell broke loose. We unleashed the enemy. Even now, we have power over what is occurring, but we will not use it. The Word of God says,
"If I shut up heaven so no rain falls, or if I command locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,
If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer offered in this place.
For I have chosen and sanctified (set apart for holy use) this house, that My Name may be here forever, and My eyes and My heart will be here perpetually. [2 Chronicles 7:13-16, AMP]
We can reverse the curse by repentance and humility, but we will not admit our role in the degradation of American society. How are we responsible? Our lack of living according to grace, which means that we govern ourselves by love--everything works by love, even faith [Galatians 5:6]. Jesus told us that love is key. Our "New" Law--or Ten Commandments have been simplified to Two Commandments, and both of them are to love--Love God, and Love your neighbor. We have failed, miserably. We speak love, but true love is compassionate, it acts. Love is more than words. James says to us, "If indeed you [really] fulfill the royal Law in accordance with the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as [you love] yourself, you do well." [James 2:8] And then he says this to us, "My brothers and sisters, what good does it do if someone claims to have faith but doesn’t do any good things? Can this kind of faith save him? Suppose a believer, whether a man or a woman, needs clothes or food and one of you tells that person, “God be with you! Stay warm, and make sure you eat enough.” If you don’t provide for that person’s physical needs, what good does it do? In the same way, faith by itself is dead if it doesn’t cause you to do any good things." [James 2:14-17,GWT] Love and faith have to do something. Faith isn't faith without an act; love isn't love without an act of compassion.
I don't get as upset as most Christians do about homosexuality, abortions, no prayer in public schools or Christians losing their "rights", in our society. The reason that I don't is that we are the cause. It couldn't happen if we didn't allow it. The Holy Spirit that lives in us has ALL power. "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." satan does not have more power--and certainly not more authority, either than God--or those of us who have God in us. With God we have the power to put ten thousand to flight. ("And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword." [Leviticus 26:7-9]. Now, sin happens in a world marred by sin. But, when sin affects the rights of the Body of Christ detrimentally, we have done something to allow it. We have failed society and ourselves, too. We think that being saved is about going to church, but being saved is about going--into all the world, spreading the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by any means necessary. It is being properly equipped and fit for service in God's army. It is having His love and compassion, so that we don't spend time judging, damning and pointing fingers, but we utilize our time and energy loving people into His Kingdom. There is a void in every man or woman that cries out for God--whether He or she acknowledges it or not. How we present God to them is key. If we offer, hell and judgment, we will lose them; fear is not the way to win them--and it certainly won't keep them. Love lasts. We must learn to woo people to Jesus.
Conservative Evangelical Christians are up in arms about homosexuality, abortion and more--they build whole political platforms on these two issues. That is backwards. Be an example of Christ's love and that will change the heart. You cannot legislate what is in the heart of any man or woman, and that is the mistake that is made, by them. They will attempt to pass laws to change America, but if hearts aren't changed, it will be more horrific and chaotic than it currently is. Abortions won't stop--legal abortions will stop. That means women will die in back alley abortions--without a chance to hear the Word of God that will bring them to repentance and save them. Homosexuals have been in the world almost since there was a world--it won't stop, until Jesus appears; but the more we fight them, the more powerful and prolific we make them. They have the most powerful lobby in Washington, DC. The best thing that we can do, is to stop viewing them with disgust and look at them through the eyes of Jesus--with love and compassion, and win them with prayer and kindness.
We have to recognize that we have a responsibility to care for people, practically, as well. The "least of these" have needs, while we heap lavish wants (lust of the eye) upon ourselves while they suffer--and, even die. It is unrighteous to tell a woman that she cannot have an abortion, and at the same time end social programs to help her care for the child that you forced her to have. We cannot have it both ways. It is unrighteous for so many people to have nothing and many less to have so much and feel justified in withholding help and care from those that have such great need, and we know it! [1 John 3:17]. Christians have the greater responsibility--our churches should be places where people can come to have their whole needs met. Church should not simply be about Sunday morning--nor should it minister mainly to those who are already in relationship with God. Where is the Gospel in that? If we really want our churches filled, we will have to begin to benevolently meet the needs of our communities. We need programs to feed them, clothe them, educate them and support them in the ways that are needed most in our community. We must be missions-minded, local, and world-wide. The needs of others must become a priority to us; not our desires for more, and more. We cannot be insatiable--except when it comes to God; we need to learn contentment with having our needs met. We have to realize that our prosperity is for the Kingdom of God, not our greed and selfish pleasure. Need and desire are not synonymous. God promises to meet our needs as we seek His Kingdom. Seeking His Kingdom is caring for the world--and those in it.
Our selfishness, pride, prosperity is going to destroy us, if we don't repent. It has happened before:
"Therefore, O harlot [Israel], hear the word of the Lord!
Thus says the Lord God: Because your brass [coins and gifts] and your filthiness were emptied out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers, and because of all the [filthy] idols of your abominations, and the blood of your children that you gave to them,
Therefore behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those whom you have loved with all those whom you have hated; I will even gather them [the allies you have courted] against you on every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness [making you, Israel, an object of loathing and of mockery, a spectacle among the nations].
And I the Lord will judge you as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged, and I will bring upon you the blood of [your divine Husband's] wrath and jealousy.
And I will also give you into the hand of those [your enemies], and they shall throw down your vaulted place (brothel) and shall demolish your high places [of idolatry]; they shall strip you of your clothes and shall take your splendid jewels and leave you naked and bare.
They shall also bring up a company against you, and they shall stone you with stones and hew down and thrust you through with their swords.
And they shall burn your houses with fire and execute judgments upon you before the eyes of many women spectators [the nations]. And I will cause you to cease playing the harlot, and you also shall give hire no more.
So will I make My wrath toward you to rest and My jealousy shall depart from you [My adulterous wife], and I will be quiet and will be no more angry.
Because you have not [earnestly] remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me with all these things, therefore behold, I also will bring your deeds down on your own head, says the Lord God. Did you not commit this lewdness above and in addition to all your other abominations?
Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb against you: As is the mother, so is her daughter.
You are your [spiritual] mother's daughter who loathed her husband and her children, and you are the sister of your sisters who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
And your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters who dwelt in the north and at your left hand; and your younger sister who dwelt in the south and at your right hand is Sodom and her daughters.
Yet you were not satisfied to walk after their ways or to do after their abominations, but very soon you were more corrupt in all your ways than they were [for your sin, as those taught of God, is far blacker than theirs].
As I live, says the Lord God, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.
Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, overabundance of food, prosperous ease, and idleness were hers and her daughters'; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
And they were haughty and committed abominable offenses before Me; therefore I removed them when I saw it and I saw fit.
Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins, but you have multiplied your [idolatrous] abominations more than they and have seemed to justify your sisters [Samaria and Sodom] in all their wickedness by all the abominable things which you have done--you even make them appear righteous in comparison with you." [Ezekiel 16:35-51,AMP]
It is past time for God's people, in this generation, to recognize that it is ALL about His Name, His glory, and Him having a people who fit His Image and Likeness. It is a choice. He makes us righteous, and He will sanctify us, by His grace--if we want Him to. Can we do it, no; but we can invite Him to do it, in us. We can have that Daniel spirit, and pray reminding God that we want His Name to be glorified in us. Justice or mercy--it's completely up to us.
Walk in love [Matthew 22:37-40; Romans 13:10; Galatians 5:14].
"And what this love consists in is this: that we live and walk in accordance with and guided by His commandments (His orders, ordinances, precepts, teaching). This is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you continue to walk in love [guided by it and following it]."
[2 John 1:6,AMP]
Grace,
Lisa
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