The Fire has come: He will bind us up: PT 5

Dear Beloved Readers,

In the book of Hosea chapter 6, we find an important prophetic utterance from the prophet. This statement reveals the plan of the Lord for us through the ages and the last events of this prophecy are being fulfilled now in our life time. Let us look at this prophetic word.

This is from the Bible in Basic English version:

Hos 6:1 Come, let us go back to the Lord; for he has given us wounds and he will make us well; he has given blows and he will give help. Hos 6:2 After two days he will give us life, and on the third day he will make us get up, and we will be living before him. Hos 6:3 And let us have knowledge, let us go after the knowledge of the Lord; his going out is certain as the dawn, his decisions go out like the light; he will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.

Here is another translation from the American Standard version:

Hos 6:1 Come, and let us return unto Jehovah; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. Hos 6:2 After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him. Hos 6:3 And let us know, let us follow on to know Jehovah: his going forth is sure as the morning; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth.

We have studied that in Malachi chapter 3 the Lord has an intention for us. His desire is to awaken us to become His bride forever and ever. The Song of Solomon describes the process of development necessary to become a Bride for the Lord. The whole book is about a God who hides behind the lattice, waiting to see if we would notice Him. A God and Lover in whom we can ravish His heart. A Bridegroom who tenderly draws us ever closer to His heart. A Lover who doesn't see our flaws, but the love He planted in us for Him and compares us to the finest horses in Pharaoh's chariots carrying the very King Himself. He says, that His bride has dove eyes, or their focus is singularly on Him. He calls her the choicest amongst all the daughters and a Lilly amongst the thorns.

In this book we see a Lover, a King, and a Husband waiting patiently for His bride-to-be to see, love and abandon everything for Him, though she be black and comely! What a beautiful description of His abandoning love for us to draw us in such a fashion. So strong is His desire to be one with us that He withdraws His tangible presence from us not to hurt us, but to draw us deeper to seek Him like we have never seen or known Him before. He even keeps us enclosed as a garden where no other love can satisfy us until our love for Him is awakened. He says, " I charge you ,oh Daughters of Jerusalem not to awaken love, until it pleases." Another words, I won't let the church, ministry, leadership ever or anyone take the place of my love in her heart."

This usually brings great discomfort to our lives, because our life in Christ has been based on getting and receiving things and gifts from him and loving him by our works. But this can never satisfy the heart of a King. He wants to be loved just because He is worth being loved. The whole story of the Song of Solomon testifies of this great work in those who long to be married to the King. Her testimony in the end of the Song on Solomon is, "I am my Beloveds, and His desires are towards me." She comes out of the wilderness leaning upon him alone, ready to go into the vineyard not in her own power anymore but with a complete and entire leaning of her personality on the Lord her Bridegroom. Interesting to note that the definition of faith in the amplified version of the bible is the entire leaning of our personality and confidence in the Lord alone. So what we see here is the Bride is called to live the true life of faith. (please read chapters 1-8 to find these verses so you can ponder on them.)

In the Book of Hosea we begin to understand the process of this development by these words,
Come and let us return to the Lord. These are the same words found in the Book of Isaiah chapter one, let us read them.

Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isa 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: Isa 1:20 but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

Do you notice the two calls to come of these verses a divine plea from the Lord? Come now and let us reason together being one, and Come now and let us return to the Lord being the other. This is so important for us to understand for the Flame of Love to prepare us rightly for our wedding day. The deep inner workings that the flame of God can produce can only work in those who answer this call to COME!

In Song of Solomon chapter 1, we learned in our last blog there is a prayer of desire that comes forth from the Bride-to-be. This prayer crys, "Draw me, we will run after you, O King bring me into your chambers." This simple little prayer of desire allows the LORD in the power of the HOLY SPIRIT to come and personally intervene in your life. Wade Taylor former President and founder of Pinecrest Bible Training center call this the approbation of God or His favor upon our lives. This means God singularly has received permission from you to work in your life as if you were the only one ever created. This will bring about intense dealings in your life by the Lord to develop the quality of charachter needed to be His bride. This is the place where the "wise virgin" find the extra oil they will need to go out and meet the Bridegroom at that midnight hour.

In this process, the Lord uses the situation and circumstances that come into our lives to bring "refinement in our nature and character from our self-will to become one with His character and nature which is selfless." This is not an easy process and some times can be quite painful when we don't understand and "kick against the pricks" or rebel against this divine work. But the pain will never destroy us, but cause us to grow nearer to Him.

Many in the Body of Christ don't want to hear this kind of knowing the "ways of the Lord." Many preach this inner works as suffering but from a wrong perspective. Some leaders in the Body of Christ preach suffering as a "work" where we can prove our love for God by being martyrs for Christ. I call this the Martyrdom syndrome.

Beloved, I do not ever choose suffering nor do I look for it. Whether I look for it or not, it does come from time to time. What I do (what comes out of me) in those times of suffering is what the Lord is after in our development as a Bride. If what comes out of me isn't of His nature or character a divine correction, discipline or chastisment may be necessary to prepare me and cause me to desire to seek the Lord for the change He must work in me.

It is the attitude of the heart in these circumstances that will prove whether or not I will qualify to be a bride of the Lord. These "pressing, tearing and uprooting times will set in motion the divine choice within us whether I really want to develop His character in me or not. I can choose my own ways in these times of suffering and try to change myself (which I have done in the past). I can even choose to make my own way out giving up my birthright for a bowl of soup. However, if I can learn the prayer of Job in the most difficult trials of his life when he said,
"though you slay me, still will I trust you," then He can refine me like Gold and silver and prepare me to be His bride.

When suffering does come into our life by our own sin or just be curcumstances, it only has one purpose. The purpose is to develop a deeper dependence upon the Lord alone for our source of strength. It produces the ability to lean upon and cling to him and never let him go lest we die. The suffering in these trials, if we cooperate with the Lord, usually comes to bring a deeper fire to burn up the pride,self-sufficiency and selfishness in our lives.

The trouble or trials come to remove any doubts and unbelief that still remains in oursoul even if we have walked with the Lord for a while. The Lord's desire is to present to Himself a glorious church without spot, blemish and wrinkle. He must come now(in our time of visitation) and remove these spots and blemishes from our hearts. That is why Malachi chapter 3 verses 1-3 are so important to us if we choose to grow up in the Lord.

Verses 1 through 3 testify that when the Lord whom we seek shall suddenly come to His temple. The prophet goes on to say, "who can endure the "day of His coming?" And who stand when He appears? For when He comes, He is going to SIT (take His rightful place of authority in our life) as a Refiner of Silver and Gold. He is thoroughly going to purge the Sons of Levi like gold and silver, THAT THEY MAY BRING TO THE LORD OFFERINGS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

The definition of righteousness in the Unger's Bible dictionary says, "Being conformed to God's will, plan and desires for our life and His way of doing things." In Mathew 6:33 we are commanded to "seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. With this admonition we have a wonderful promise that "all these things will be added unto us." Jesus teaches us the ways of God are to Seek God's councel, instruction and Hisways, not our own understanding or our own ways.

Beloved, this is what the Flame of love has come to do. The Fire will remove the "my will" from our life until we can say "not my will, but yours be done." OUR WAYS or in the word of Frank Sinatra, "I DID IT MY WAY" must be removed forever, once and for all from our being! This is the purpose of His coming to His church in the Spirit on the Lord's day in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. He comes with blazing eyes of fire and feet that burn like burning brass.

He come now in our generation to bring the finishing change to complete the work He has started in us when we were first born again. His work is to make us become a Bride. He comes to bring a fire of finishing to perfect us called a Baptism of Fire! In Revelation chapters 1-4, He reveals Himself as the one that Has eyes of fire and searches the hearts and intention of every action. (Revelation chapter 1;14-15, 2:23 amplified version)

Nothing escapes the eyes of the Lord. His eyes are spoken of as eyes of fire in Revelation chapter 1:14. He is described also to have feet that burn like bronze. This Lord of Malachi chapter 3 is revealing Himself to us right here and right now in 2008. He is ready to refine those who pray, "Draw me Lord, we will run after you," like gold and silver. Are you ready for Him to come and sup with you and you with Him? In the next blog I am going to explain what the fire comes to produce for the kingdom, but in this blog I want to examine the timing of the Lord so we do not miss our time of visitation.

I have spoken about God's approbation, His favor as He works through our circumstances and choices we make, good or bad to bring about His purpose for our life. When we choose wrongly we often go through a period of suffering that God has to work through since we made the wrong choices. In these wrong choices, we must learn why we made them ,and what His real desire for us was for us in these circumstances. We need to learn what was the right choice in God we did not choose. This is such a hard lesson for some because of the spirit of rejection that has dominated them. When God comes to correct them, they see Him as a hard task master ready to destroy them instead of a loving God that wants to show them where they went astray by THEIR OWN CHOICES NOT HIS!

So often we blame God. Why didn't you stop me? Why did you allow me to suffer? Why didn't you love me enough to stop me or save me from going through this? How this must break His heart as we put the blame of our failures upon His character of love for us instead of seeing the miserable results of our sins that still plaque this world. Even when Christians see this, they still blame God for not being loving enough to allow all this to happen to them in the first place. Many form this opinion of Him because they do not understand the nature of God is LOVE, and He never chooses evil for us. The Lord always provides a way out of the evil when we choose to cling to Him in the midst of the fire.

Free Will is a hard concept to understand with God, but it is His eternal nature. Love can only love freely, and it never forces the object of that love to love in return. The greatest act of love is to allow your creation to choose to love you or not, knowing they may reject you and the love you bring anyway! Wow! I hope you see how vulnerable the heart of the Lord is towards us to give us that choice! Can you begin to understand how it breaks His heart when we reject Him and love the created things he has made more than the Creator?

Hosea chapter 6 begins with a call: Come and LET US return to the Lord. In Genesis chapter 11 mankind said, COME LET US MAKE BRICKS, LET US BUILD A CITY, A TOWER AND LET US REACH INTO HEAVEN AND LET US MAKE A NAME FOR OURSELVES! This is the very heart and nature of sin itself. Let us (mankind) be like GOD ALMIGHTY! This nature is inherent to all of us in our fallen nature, and it is the reason why we must be born-again of the Spirit of God to have that nature changed from darkness to light.

Unfortunately most of our thoughts, actions and patterns have been shaped by that"Let us" mentality. We, to often I am afraid, want to be the leader and author of our life instead of God. That is why in Romans 12:2 says we must have our minds renewed by the word of God. We can only have the renewal or new mind when we answer the call to "COME AND RETURN TO THE LORD", and seek Him for it! The Lord whom you seek, shall suddenly come! Who can stand when He appears and who can endure it. I Can't! It makes me fall on my face like a dead man!

Hosea chapter 6 verse1 describes the process of developing this new mind by tearing down the old one. " He has torn us, and He will heal us! It seems kind of mean to tear us, but when we understand the "how He will do it" it is not as difficult as we could imagine when you are wrapped in HIs arms of love. The Fire will come to refine us as it did with the Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace, but all that happened to them was the rope bonds that held them were removed! They didn't even have the smell of smoke on them, and neither will we if we begin to cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit. Hosea chapter 2 verse 14 explains this process:

Hos 2:14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, (Woo her by love to let me do this work in her) and bring her into the wilderness,(this speaks of a place of divine separation from all activity including churchy stuff) and speak comfortably ( Hebrew word: tenderly) unto her. (Do you see how He will bring the flame? Tenderly if you will let Him bring you to the Court, Brad saw in the last blog) Hos 2:15 And I will give her her vineyards (this speaks of means to do bring about this change by true repentance)from thence, and the valley of Achor (Hebrew word: trouble. This trouble is like a day of reckoning where we answer the question, will we stand before the Lord naked, exposed as we are, yet be unashamed for His love will remove every stain?) for a door of hope;(Do you see this? The very thing we are afraid of being honest and real and exposed in front of God and one another is a DOOR OF HOPE for us who will say, YES LORD SEARCH ME!) and she shall make answer there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. and she shall make answer there, (the desert is the place of separation where you must make the same choice as you did when you were first saved. This choice will allow the Lord to bring His finishing work to your life by a Baptism of Refining fire!)as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. Hos 2:16 And it shall be at that day,(the day He comes to His house, Malachi 3) saith Jehovah, that thou shalt call me Ishi, (my husband, yeah God!)and shalt call me no more Baali. Hos 2:17 For I will take away the names of the Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned by their name. (notice who is doing the work..for I will take away the names of Baal out of her mouth)

Hos 2:18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the land, and will make them to lie down safely. Hos 2:19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in justice, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. Hos 2:20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know Jehovah. Hos 2:21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will answer, saith Jehovah, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth; Hos 2:22 and the earth shall answer the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they shall answer Jezreel. Hos 2:23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them that were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God. (Here God will give you all He has to complete you into the image and likeness of Jesus as his bride! This is finishing work and the fruit that will come forth from our life in heaven and on earth!!)

The Lord is going to tare, and smite us, but ONLY as WE RUN TO HIS LOVING ARMS! Only as we run to the JUDGE OF THE COURT, as Brother Brad wrote in the previous Blog can we see God as He is and be changed BY HIS TOTAL FORGIVENESS. Then we can bring offerings of righteousness to the Lord or give Him what we were created to be! WHEN WE ALLOW THE FLAME OF LOVE to do it's work to purge, cleanse and purify us bringing the dross (all the things not like His nature in us) to the surface, then we can be changed and transfigured with Glory! It is the Flame of God (WHO IS PERFECT LOVE) that can remove the spots, blemishes and wrinkles from our lives by the full power of the "NOT GUILTY He paid for by His blood and by sending the Baptism of Fire to complete it. Beloved ,it is from that same cross Jesus said these perfect words of love, "IT IS FINISHED!"

As I close this blog, I want you to understand the timing of WHEN THIS WORK IS TO BEGIN, because many Christians are so busy working for the Lord they are missing the WORKING OF THE LORD! THE TIME HAS COME AND NOW IS HERE TO DO THIS FINISHING WORK! He desires to do this refining in our life NOW to prepare us to be His Bride. Hosea 6:2 begins to unfold this "now" timing to us, "After 2 days He will revive us!

What has been the great cry of Pastors, Evangelist and Men and woman of God over the last 3 centuries? What are we all still praying for in this nation? REVIVAL! We still want to have REVIVAL meetings or MOVES OF GOD! For the last 3 hundreds years God has brought REVIVAL and MOVES OF GOD to the earth! This is proof of this process of God desiring us to "Come and let us return to the Lord." This is the work of the second day and the first few moments after 2 days! Jesus speaks of this when they come and speak to Him about Herod, "

Luke 13:32 And he said, Go and say to that fox, I send out evil spirits and do works of mercy today and tomorrow, and on the third day my work will be complete. Luke 13:33 But I have to go on my way today and tomorrow and the third day, for it is not right for a prophet to come to his death outside Jerusalem. Luk 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, putting to death the prophets, and stoning those who were sent to her! again and again would I have taken your children to myself, as a bird takes her young ones under her wings, but you would not! Luk 13:35 Now see, your house is waste, and I say to you, You will not see me again till you say, A blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord.

Beloved, Something GREATER THAN REVIVAL IS COMING! REVIVAL is not the finishing work of the Bride! It is only the call to "return to the Lord!" There is more to come! After two days HE WILL REVIVE US! (Beloved REVIVAL is not the destination, it is the awakening, but there is more)

BUT ON THE THIRD DAY, HE WILL RAISE US UP! (YEAH GOD, DO YOU HEAR THIS BELOVED READER) THAT WE MAY LIVE BEFORE HIM! Beloved reader, this is not a REVIVAL MEETING, this is the REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO HIS CHURCH AS KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORD FIRST, THEN TO THE WORLD IN THE JUDGMENTS THAT ARE YET TO COME!

IT IS A HOLY REVOLUTION IN THE BRIDE OF THE LORD TO SEE THE KING OF GLORY COME IN, AND BE CHANGED IN THAT GLORY. THE BRIDE WILL BEGIN TO ARISE AND SHINE FOR THE LIGHT HAS COME, AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD SHALL BE RISEN UPON HER ! WE WILL SEE THE LORD AS HE WANTS US TO SEE SEE HIM, AND BE WITH HIM WHERE HE IS NOW, NOT WHEN WE DIE! HE HAS GONE TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR US SO THAT WHERE HE IS, WE SHALL ALSO BE! Gloria A Dios!

In the next blog we will try to develop this thought and see the ingredients that God needed to bring this work about in our hearts. I hope you are getting excited for the He, "Who is yet to come."

In His love always!