Dear Beloved Reader,
I pressed the publish button instead of save before I was able to proofread this. So hopefully this edition you are reading is proof-read a little better. You probably found out by now, I am not the best proof reader or typist. Thanks for you patience with me!
The book of Hosea the 6th chapter vs 1-3 is a prophetic word to our generation of the Lord's end-time plan. Let us read the following verses:
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. After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him. 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.
In our previous teaching, we have examined the present work of the Holy Spirit concerning the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have mentioned that the Lord Himself has come to stand in the midst of His church as a "refining fire" to prepare us to rule and reign with Him. We also have said that this "presencing" of the Lord in Revelation chapters 1-3 is for the whole Body of Christ, but few will recognize this. The revelation is for every believer but it has a condition: He that has an ear, let Him hear what the Spirit of the Lord says to the church.
This present work of Fire from the Lord's presence is for those who have an ear to hear? This flame of His presence is working in those who are not slumbering, but are sober and vigilant in seeking the Lord. This present work of the Lord is the deepest, hottest, intense work of purifying the Lord has ever done. This is the day He has longed for. It is the day to prepare for His wedding as He presents to Himself a glorious church without spot, blemish and wrinkle.
This is the season where all the church (the 10 virgins) are called to get ready to answer the call to go out and meet Him at the midnight hour. It is also the time of divine choosing on whether you will be prepared to enter into the marriage supper or not. Revelation 19:7, " and the Bride has made herself ready." We also know it is a time of separation of the wise and foolish virgins. Out of the 10 virgins, 5 will be wise and 5 will be foolish! The wise virgins have something the foolish do not. They have EXTRA OIL! Oil always represents the Holy Spirit. All 10 virgins will wake up at the call, and all with have oil in their lamps. This is the oil of salvation that caused them to be virgins. Some of these wise and foolish virgins will also have the oil of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The difference between the foolish and wise is that the wise virgins will have the "EXTRA OIL" to put in their lamps as they go out to meet Him, the foolish will not. As we read this parable in Mathew 25, that when all the virgins awakened the 5 foolish realized they did not have the oil needed to go out and meet Him at the moment He called. They beg the wise virgins, give us some of your oil!
The wise give a reply that is startling. They say no, go out to the DEALERS and buy your own, less there not be enough for you and us! The wise virgins aren't very Christian are they? You would think they would have shared their oil like good Christians do. However; they do not give them some of their oil. Why? I believe the answer to that question is another "nugget" for us to chew upon. It was impossible for them to give them the extra oil, or they both would not make it to the marriage supper. The oil is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit's working in a heart. All 10 virgins have a lamp and they all had oil in them. The 10 virgins received the Holy Spirit at salvation and some may even have the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Each one of them had oil in their lamps to work in the present moment. So why was it necessary to have EXTRA OIL!
The extra oil is what these 8 teachings have been about. The extra oil is about the Baptism of Fire and the inner workings needed to prepare a Bride for the Lord. The oil in the lamps of the 10 represents salvation and ministry gifts and working hard in ministry for the Lord. Each of the 10 virgins had some measure of oil in their lamps. We don't know how much each had, but we do know they had enough to keep their lamps burning. What they ALL did not have was extra oil to KEEP THE LAMP BURNING!
Revelation chapters 2 and 3 show us exactly the condition of the church at the close of the 2nd day and the opening moments of the 3rd day. They have lost their first love and Jesus is standing on the outside of the church, knocking on the door and inviting those who can hear, to open the door for him to have intimate supper with them and them with him.
This intimate supper is the very workings I have spoken about. The "door openers" are the wise virgins that invite Jesus into their hearts a second time for a deep working of the Holy Spirit. The wise virgins have welcomed him in and now are allowing an intimate supping together with the Lord to happen. This supping with the Lord is His ability to examine the house (which represents the hearts of the wise) to expose every trace of darkness. This supping is allowing the Lord to be intimate with us as a "refining fire and fuller's soap." This is the deep work of the Holy Spirit and Fire. This fire is coming to consume the dross or all the mixture still in our lives.
It is an intense fire because it is going to reveal our "true heart motives" in everything we say and do. It is going to burn and do nothing less than conform us into the image of Christ. Very few Christians will want this process to be done in their life because it requires the deepest humility and brokenness. Who wants to see themselves as they really are in God's eyesight? Those who love Him will! Those who love His work may not. This process requires to get us naked and real before and God and one another. This process requires absolute honesty and integrity and the desire to see the Lord as He wants us to be seen. It requires us to be naked in front of each other even with all our flaws, blemishes and spots.
It is time beloved to remove the religious mask we have been wearing. As we studied yesterday, the 7 churches in Revelation had no idea of what their spiritual state was in the sight of God. In Ephesus, they lost their first love but were working hard for the Lord. Yet, even to them He told them to repent and return to their first love for they had fallen from the heights of love they had for him at first. The Lord warns them to repent or else I will take my candlestick (my presence) from your midst. The last church at Laodecia they are even worse. Their eyesight is so off concerning their spiritual condition they proclaim, " I am rich and in need of nothing." The truth of their condition in God's eyesight said, "you are blind, poor, pitiable and naked."
This is the difference between the wise and foolish virgins. The wise virgins will be open to the "Truth" of their spiritual condition. Some of them will be alright like the church at Philadelphia, and others will need to change. Some will have a reputation of being alive, but our dead. These wise virgins in the time of the Lord's visitation will CHANGE! They will repent and do what the word says and "buy the Gold tried by the fire." This Gold comes when we repent and allow the Lord to change us through our circumstances that He uses to remove the dross from our hearts.
This working of the Holy Spirit is now beginning to burn in the Western USA and the Rocky Mountain states. The Lord gave me a word about the Gold Rush of the 1800's on how everyone in the east came west to GET THE GOLD! The Gold was so valuable to make them rich, they were willing to "change their life." They were willing to move from the east to the west to get a chance to find the GOLD! They gave up their life as they knew it to find this gold and maybe become rich.
The church at Laodecia said they were rich, but were poor! They were at best luke warm and the Lord is about to spew them out of his mouth because they are not hot or cold. His admonition to this church was to go "buy the Gold tried by the fire." To buy this gold we must allow the Lord to examine your hearts, and bring us to a place of true repentance. This is where the elements He needs for preparing His bride can be found. The gold that God needs from our lives is brokenness and humility. He tells us in His word, "that a broken and contrite heart, He would never despise."
This brokenness and contrite heart is in contrast to the arrogant heart found in Laodecia. This arrogance was produced by loosing sight of their first love, and replacing that love for Him with working for Him. The church has begun to boast of the "much done" for the Lord instead of the "well done" that comes by the quality of the work and not the quantity. Jesus is coming for His pure and spotless bride who obeys out of love not reward. Not every believer will be a bride or an over-comer. Only those who qualify, those willing to pay the price to be His will be a bride. This over-coming quality has to be produced in them by the flame of God, Jesus Christ.
The bride must over come all selfishness, self-seeking, self-righteousness, and have developed in her the heart of brokenness, meekness and humility. The bride must become "poor in spirit" to inherit the kingdom of God. She must develop a pure heart so they can see God. she must hunger and thirst after righteousness so she can be filled. This is the quality that the wise virgins have purchased from the Lord. This is the EXTRA OIL needed to be a bride and make it to the wedding day.
The foolish virgins are the ones that either do not have ears to hear, or the ones that hear and don't obey His call to come and walk in the flame. They are like the man who builds his house upon the sand when the wind and waves come "great is the fall of that house." The foolish virgins lack something very important to their spiritual development, the desire to be ready.
The foolish virgins are unaware that the Lord requires us to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling." These foolish virgins are content just being saved. They are happy going about their life as business as usual. They go to church on Sunday and pay their tithes. They even may work in a ministry or even attend Wednesday night service. Their spirituality is based upon "their own understanding of God." They are satisfied with the "workings" of God and not God Himself. Let us read Mathew 25:1-13 fully to understand the real tragedy of the mistakes the foolish virgin are about to make.
Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, the friends of the bride, who took their lights, and went out with the purpose of meeting the husband. And five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For the foolish, when they took their lights, took no oil with them.
Here is their mistake number one. They take their lamps. (The lamps represent their initial salvation. Remember in Mathew chapter 5, they are not to put their lamp under a bushel, but out to be seen?) What the foolish do not bring is extra oil. We already spoke of what that extra oil was. It is the inner workings of the Holy Spirit's fire to remove the spots, blemishes and wrinkles in our lives. It is the work of preparing us for being a pure and spotless Bride.
The foolish are content church goers totally unaware that the day for the Bridegroom to come calling was sooner than they think. The foolish thought they still had time to get ready or worse didn't plan to get ready of all. There hearts was I am OK, your OK, why should we change. Once we are saved, always saved is their mentality. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
Do you see the difference beloved reader? The wise took EXTRA oil with them. Beloved reader do you have extra oil to take with you if your Jesus/Bridegroom called you tonight. Have you been honest with the Lord? Are you seeking the refining fire to burn up everything that is not like Jesus in your heart? Are you crying out "search me O God and see if there is any wicked way in me? Or are you content going to church, giving your tithe and doing your ministry? Are you content with living a mixed life of the best of the world has to give and the best of God?
It is this heart of the foolish virgins that would not be prepared or desire to have the extra oil to finish the journey. The Wise want to finish the course set before them. They want to be married to the Lord. They want to please Him in every way, so they are not afraid of the light or the Fire of God to search, sift and remove all the darkness in their hearts.
Now the husband was a long time in coming, and they all went to sleep. In the last blog, I wrote about spiritual timing. I mentioned to you that we are in the season of "60" minutes and not the TV show. We are in a time where we must hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church and make ourselves READY! This call of preparation has been there for 2000 years, but the intensity of it's fulfilling moment has now come to the church in the 21st century. Revelation chapter 1 is the awakening that comes before the call to go out and meet Him. A new and deeper revelation of Jesus Christ is now available to those listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit so we won't miss that call.
The entire 1o virgins are portrayed as sleeping when the call comes after such a long wait. But the sleeping time for the wise and foolish is quite different. The wise are prepared to wake up and go and be with Him. The foolish are not prepared when they wake up and now want the wise to give them some of their oil. We have already written the wise can not give it to them. The extra oil is the personal work of fire in your heart preparing you to be a bride. This personal work can't be given to another human being. Each person must get this oil for themselves from the Fire of God's love exposing and cleansing their hearts.
The wise say even if we could there is not enough for me and you, go to the dealers and buy for yourself. If you were to share the work God has done in your heart with another, the part you give away would now hinder you from entering in yourself. So the only thing the wise can tell them is to "allow the process they have received from the Flame of God to do the same work in them." Now here is the great tragedy that makes my heart break. The foolish start to go and get what the wise had in their hearts or buy the extra oil. They might even begin to surrender to the deep inner working of the fire that God wants to do. But while they are on the way to get this work done in their heart look at what happens:
But in the middle of the night there is a cry, The husband comes! Go out to him.
Then all those virgins got up, and made ready their lights. And the foolish said to the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lights are going out. But the wise made answer, saying, There may not be enough for us and you; it would be better for you to go to the dealers and get oil for yourselves.
And while they went to get oil, the master came; and those who were ready went in with him to the feast: and the door was shut, after that the other virgins came, saying, Lord, Lord, let us in. But he made answer and said, Truly I say to you, I have no knowledge of you.
The Bridegroom comes while they went on their way to buy the oil! This breaks my heart so much. They finally get the message that the Bridegroom has called and they need to get ready. They finally get the understanding their hearts have to be purified and prepared for their bridegroom. They finally have the desire to go out and meet Him! But on the way to get the extra oil that the wise virgins already had, THE MASTER CAME!
He came on a day and at a hour the foolish virgins did not perceive,and were unprepared for. This is where so many in the Body of Christ are right now. Stuck in this same place of religion or business as usual, that their hearts are not prepared to go out and meet Him. Can you imagine being on your journey to get that oil, an a voice says 'Here I am!" So you look all around and you Jesus waiting there and you do not have what you need. Now you have to run and try to get yourself ready in a hurry. As you turn to see Him, you also see the wise virgins entering the the marriage supper doorway. They enter into the door where the feast is taking place and the LORD HIMSELF CLOSES THE DOOR!
The foolish still don't quite understand the finality of the choices they made wrongly during the season of preparation. They finally approach the door and knock upon it expecting they can still get in. They cry to Jesus, LORD, LORD LET US IN! Then the voice of the Bridegroom rings out, "Go away from here, for I have never known you." I ever was intimate with you. You never allowed me to come in sup with you and you with me. Oh dear Lord, do you understand this church of the living God?
I pray that you will not let that happen to you. This blog is written to warn you not to miss your hour of visitation from the Lord. This is the time of the "refining fire" like never before. This fire is going to burn so hot that every trace of sin is going to be removed from our lives. As this cleansing power works in your heart, you begin to fall more and more in love with Jesus every moment. You understand that this work must be done and you embrace it and welcome the Flame of God in the deepest recesses of your heart.
If you don't listen to His voice today as you are reading this blog nor head the warning it is bringing and not repent, then you may find yourself being rejected as well. You too may here the bride groom tell you, "Go away, I never knew you." Which position do you want to be in? The position of the wise virgins or a foolish ones? You and I have a divine choice to make now, and more choices in the future.
So what will you do dear reader. Will you ask the Lord to help you get ready in every area of your life to be His bride? Or do you want to go on living your Christian life as it is now? If you do choose correctly to become a wise virgin than His Glory awaits you. If you choose to become a foolish virgin, even by not choosing, then the door slamming in your face awaits you. I pray that each one of you will chose life and not death by following on to know the Lord as He wants you to know Him.
At the end of this parable a word to all of us who are waiting patiently for the Lord is given as instsruction. Mathew 25:23 declares, "Keep watch, then, because you are not certain of the day or of the hour of your Lord's coming. Be ready beloved and don't miss your hour of visitation! This is our destiny moment. The time of the "Anointing of the Moment!"
Shalom!
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