The Fire has come: You say you are rich: PT 7

Hello Beloved Reader,

As many church leaders pray for revival to come to our nation, there is another cry coming forth from the Bride of the Lord. It is not a cry for revival, but the cry of desperation to be with her lover, Kinsmen/Redeemer.

The one characteristic about revivals at least in the last 200 years is that they have a beginning and usually have an ending. Perhaps our prayer should not be for revival, but for the Finishing Work of the Lord, the Omega Work that must come to the church of the Living God.

The Finishing work of God does what its name says, it finishes us! When that happens beloved, we won't need another revival, or a new move of God. We will be complete in Him! Praise God!This is exactly what the present work of the Holy Spirit has come to do within the hearts that are seeking Him.

In Revelation chapter 3:14-20, the church at Laodecia is the last church that the Spirit of God speaks to and it is a strong word of correction. This church is called the luke-warm church and is danger of being spewed out of the mouth of God. This is in contrast with the first church in Ephesus the Spirit of God speaks to in Revelation chapter 2:1-7 who has deserted their first love for the Lord. and is in danger of the Lord removing their "candlestick" from their midst. This candlestick represents the "presence of the Lord' in their midst.

These two churches are like book ends to the rest of the words addressed to the other 5 churches. The Lord spoke to me that these churches were both natural churches in the days that these things were written, but also allegorical to the entire church age. The Lord also spoke to my heart, that all of these churches taken together would be the condition of the Body of Christ is in just before His return.

To understand the present work of the Baptism of Fire, we must understand that these 7 churches represent our present spiritual condition, and for the most part we are not in very good shape. The Lord has given me the gift to interpret dreams as He wills. In the understanding of the nature of God given dreams, He told me to pay attention to the beginning and the end of the dream. The beginning and the end of dreams usually speaks of what the dream is about. He also taught me to pay attention to the details in the middle. These details usually speaks of the problems, instructions or directions that are needed for understanding the purpose the dream was given.

The Holy Spirit instructed me that the book of revelation is not a book that should be understood just in chronological order, but must be discerned by "moments" and not time as we know it. He spoke to me and said much of this book would happen simultaneously during these last days period. He gave me a vision of an ocean with many waves and said the highest wave I saw was what He is doing presently. He told me look again, and I saw several waves at the same height and again He said this is what I am doing all at the same time.

This understanding has opened my eyes and hearts to see this book from a different perspective. Again I will remind you, that I willingly submit these things to you to discern by the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. So I humbly submit these things to you. You are free to disagree with them if the Lord shows you something different.

Since this book was shown to me as waves upon the ocean, He told me to pay attention to the beginning of Chapter 2 and the end of chapter 3 which is what I want to write about in this blog session. As I mentioned earlier, the first church in Ephesus had a serious indictment against it. This church was doing many good things. It was working hard for the Lord, and testing those who say they were Apostles and were not. He also said their works were more numerous then in the beginning. Juxtaposed to that comendation is this one "frightening" word of rebuke: "NEVERTHELESS, I have this ONE THING AGAINST YOU, You have deserted me your first love. You have abandoned the love for me that you had at first."

Beloved, at the end of the church age, the end of the 2nd day and the beginning of the third day, Jesus says to us, "you have deserted me your first love." He tells this church in Ephesus and the "church" today, that we should REMEMBER FROM THE HEIGHTS WE HAVE FALLEN! That is a tremendous statement of correction! In light of all this church was doing for the work of the Lord, He speaks to them about the heights they have fallen from the high place they had when they first knew the Lord.

Can you imagine the Lord examining your life and telling you all that you did was good, but in relationship to what He truly desired you have done NOTHING and you have actually FALLEN from the place you started your journey with the Lord? WOW! What would you do? Would you hear His word of correction to this church and to us as his people, REPENT! Would we obey and give our hearts to return back to your first love, and then do your first work?

In Revelation chapter 3 verse 14-20 we see the last word Jesus speaks to the church. Jesus speaks to the church at Laodecia, the last church mentioned in these chapters and says "you are "luke warm" and I am about to spew you out of my mouth. Beloved reader are you ready to hear the reason for this rebuke?

"And to the angel of the church in Laodicea say: These things says the true and certain witness, the head of God's new order: I have knowledge of your works, that you are not cold or warm: it would be better if you were cold or warm. So because you are not one thing or the other, I will have no more to do with you. For you say, I have wealth, and have got together goods and land, and have need of nothing; and you are not conscious of your sad and unhappy condition, that you are poor and blind and without clothing." (BBE edition)

American Standard version says:
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked:

Here is the Lord's rebuke to the church at Laodecia,"You say you are rich and in need of nothing!" Again in both of these churches they were "unaware" of their true spiritual condition. This is true with a vast majority of believers in the Body of Christ! If we pay attention to the beginning and ending of these two chapters, we see Jesus standing in the midst of the church in the midst of the 7 lamp stands. These 7 lamp stands represent the fullness of the church age! 7 is the number of completeness and the lamp stands represent the fullness of His presence.

This is so important to us because the book of Revelation is all about the fullness of His presence, authority being established forever and ever in reality! So in the day that Jesus chooses to reveal Himself in His fullness to the church they have done two evil things. First, it has abandoned Jesus as their first love. Second, the church says they are alright with God and in need of nothing.

This is sadly the heart in many of the church in America. This has come about by disconnecting ourselves from the true life that exist in the true vine Jesus Christ, and trying to get our spiritual life from the branches (the church) instead of the vine. Because we have deserted our first love Jesus Christ, we have become luke warm by filling our hearts with "church" or the things of the world. It is hard to imagine that deep in our heart we are filled with sin, mixture and the world so much that we can't even discern our spiritual condition.

Our lack of discernment of our spiritual condition is the reason whythere is no genuine repentance happening in our nation or in the world. Maybe once in a while we have a little flicker that we should repent, but not much more that a flicker. The church in America is very good at seeing the speck in our brothers eye. We also are pretty good at seeing the sin in the world, and shake our head and say "at least I am not as bad as them." But what we have not seen is our true spiritual condition. We have not been willing to see the "sin" that is still in our life. Some preachers have recently said that "they don't have to preach about sin anymore. They just preach about the God that loves them and wants to bless them."

It is with this backdrop of the churches end time spiritual condition that the book of revelation begins. In Chapter one John the beloved is about to get a "new" revelation of Jesus Christ as He really is in the present. This is John that put his head on Jesus chest. He is not going to have a revelation of the Jesus he knew on earth, but the revelation of Jesus Christ as GOD ALMIGHTY, THE FIRST AND THE LAST, THE BEGINNING AND THE END! This revelation of JESUS CHRIST is about to cause him to fall on His face as a dead man in the sight of the living God. So powerful is this voice that calls him up, that it sounds like the VOICE OF WAR TRUMPET!

This revelation of Jesus in chapter 1 we will go into detail about in the next blog. This revelation sets the stage for all of chapter 2 and 3 in revealing the true state of the church in the last days. It comes with one message, REPENT, and HE WHO HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE CHURCH!

Beloved, the sin of abandoning Him as our first love and first desire is an act of the greatest disrespect for Him as our God. It reduces this intimate fellowship with God to a place of working for God as our Employer and we His Employee's waiting for our paycheck. "Well done, good and faithful servant." Did you notice how many times the Spirit of God says, " I KNOW YOUR WORKS AND WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN DOING, BUT I HAVE THIS AGAINST YOU! If works alone was the measuring stick of our spirituality with God, then there would be no indictments against the church in any of these cities or in the end time as well. However, working for God alone is not the measuring stick that God uses to measure our spirituality, FAITH THAT WORKS BY LOVE IS! To this church in Ephesus He declares, "You have deserted the LOVE THAT YOU HAVE FOR ME AT FIRST!"

I pray you that you are getting understanding into the heart of God as I write this blog, because if a majority of God's people in our nation does not recognize our need for repentance we can never change. The church can never grow up until we realize what the Lord desires truly are, and that is for HIM TO BE FIRST LOVE OF OUR LIFE! He must be ABOVE every other thing always and forever. He alone deserves FIRST PLACE AND HONOR in our heart for what He has done for us in reconciling us back to God. He is so jealous over us, that He reveals Himself to John "one that Jesus loved" in His full power and Glory that even John the beloved didn't recognize Him. We must never grow content with yesterday's knowledge of the Lord. We must "press on to know the Lord more each and every day."

John's revelation of Jesus ih this chapter is so needful for us today because many Christians in America only know Jesus as the lamb of God who gave his life for the sins of the world. Beloved, this is the entry point of our relationship not the ending point. Not many believers press on to know Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Beloved, He is not coming back as a lamb to take away our sins, but as the roaring Lion of the tribe of Judah to put all things under His power and dominion.

Thank you Father that Jesus will forever be the "Lamb that was slain" and by that sacrifice of His life we are saved. But He is so much more than just a Lamb, He is also the King Eternal, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last! This REVELATION of Jesus Christ that John witnesses as the Alpha and Omega God is the power of God to finish the work the Lord has started in us. This is brought forth in the 1st Chapter of Revelation verse 4-6 as well.

Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from him who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits that are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood; and he made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

And He has MADE US TO BE A KINGOM, TO BE PRIEST UNTO HIS GOD AND FATHER!
This is the testimony of those who over-come and allow to do this deep work of the FLAME OF GOD in their heart. This is fruit of those who will return to their first love and genuinely repent!
As the Lord reveals Himself in Revelation chapter 1 as the Alpha and Omega we get a picture of what He looks like now of His personal Being. We see the character traits of many of His features that have a purpose for us to understand the work He must do in us in chapters 2 and 3. We will take that undertaking of study in the next blog. For now we must understand that this Jesus, the one that stands in the middle of the 7 lamp stands with feet like bronze or a hot oven is the FLAME OF GOD that will finish the work He started in us.

He is appearing in His church today to purify her and prepare her as a bride ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. To recieve this finishing work in our hearts, the Lord needs our participation and cooperation with His desires. We must allow Him to have complete access to our hearts by our actively seeking Him as a Refining Fire. This work is conditional and is based upon this one statement, " If anyone has an ear to hear, let him hear. This is the condition necessary to enter the Rest of God or the 7th day rest reserved for the people of God. Beloved we must be ACTIVELY SEEKING the Lord to "Hear" His present word of correction to the church and to be changed in His presesnce by that very word. The second condition is that we must "REPENT! This means to turn around 180 degrees and change the direction of our life or we will face OR ELSE of God."

I don't particularly like "OR ELSE," The OR ELSE of God is for Him to remove our lamp stand from His place. It means that He will come and fight against us with the sword of His mouth, or o throw us on a bed of affliction and strike your children dead by tolerating Jezebel. The OR ELSE of God will cause the Lord to come as a thief in the night when we don't expect Him . Yes Beloved, this JESUS CHRIST is speaking LOUDLY to His church with the GREATEST WARNINGS ever given to His people.

Why would He speak to us this way, isn't God love? Yes, He is! Again we must view these two chapters from the beginning and ending perspective. In Revelation chapter 1, He comes to stand in the midst of His church as a Flame of Fire. He has eyes of fire to see the true motives of the heart, and feet like bronze to burn up everything not like Him in our lives. Why?

This is the saddest part of this blog for me to write. It is the saddest because I want you to see where Jesus really is in relationship to the majority of the church called by His name. Revelation chapter 3:20-22:

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches."

Do you see where Jesus is? Jesus, the lover of our soul was supposed to be in the center of our hearts. He was supposed to be the reason why we live, move and have our being. Yes, beloved we say all the "right things" and even sing the "right songs," but the truth is that HE IS NOT FIRST. HE IS NOT OUR FIRST LOVE IN AMERICA"S CHURCH, HIS WORK IS FIRST!

In America, the needs of men come before the needs of God. That is why we have "seeker friendly churches." That is why we have reduced the Glory of God to a "service" or a meeting. We have replaced passion for Him with 16 weeks of church vision. We have replaced the Glory with a "purpose filled life of who we are in Christ." These are good things, but the attention of most of our efforts is all about God meeting our needs and us meeting the needs of men.

There is truth in these needs and they are not to be neglected, BUT THEY NEVER WERE TO BE FIRST IN OUR HEARTS! The Lord was to be FIRST ALWAYS! We have put our needs above God so much we have worshipped ourselves and what we do for God above God. This is "false ministry idolatry." We base our whole life on "what we do for God" instead of the God in whom we do these things. Many in the Body of Christ are convinced that "well done" good and faithful servant means "much done."

Beloved it is not the "amount" of work we do for the Lord that matters, but the heart in which we do the work. Is it out of our pure love for God and man?" Without love we are a useless nobody and a clanging bell 1st Corinthians 13 tells us. When Simon Peter received the revelation of Jesus being the Christ, Jesus told Him, "flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father which is heaven revealed this to you, and upon THIS ROCK, I will build my church."

What a wonderful moment for Peter! YEAH GOD! But a few minutes later this same Peter is going to be rebuked directly by Jesus. Jesus is going to tell his disciples on how he is about to suffer be crucified and rise again. When Peter heard this He immediately rose up and said, "Jesus, God forbid, THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN TO YOU!"

Jesus immediately looks at Simon Peter and says, "STAND BEHIND ME SATAN, FOR YOU ARE CONCERNED WITH THE NEEDS (THINGS) OF MEN AND NOT THE NEEDS (THINGS) OF GOD!" This was a strong rebuke was it not? The great sin in America is that satan has deceived us into putting the second commandment above the first. The first and greatest commandment is to LOVE THE LORD THY GOD, WITH ALL THY HEART, SOUL, MIND AND STRENGTH! The second commandment is to LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOUR SELF!

We the church in America have put the needs of people above the needs of God. We have services that are limited by a time frame BECAUSE PEOPLE CAN'T HANDLE TO LONG WITH GOD! REALLY! We have 3 services on Sundays to meet the needs of people, so we must limit them to two hours or less. This way we can have more people. We choose how many songs to sing, how long we can worship. We choose the number of announcements, how long the preaching is to be. We choose how long the ministry time is as long as we can get everyone home for Sunday dinner.

We bring the Superbowl into church because this way the men will come out instead of staying home and watch the game. We have to come up with new and creative ideas to reach the youth, the singles, the elderly, etc. These things are NOT WRONG in themselves and much of these things need to be done. But do you see what we are doing?

WE ARE PUTTING THESE THINGS ABOVE SPENDING TIME WITH THE LORD! WE ARE PUTTING THESE THINGS ABOVE SEEKING HIM. WE PUT THESE THINGS ABOVE TEACHING PEOPLE TO REALLY KNOW HIM AS A PERSON. WE PUT THESE THINGS ABOVE HEARING HIS HEART BEAT, GETTING HIS PLANS AND STRATEGIES AND JUST BEING WITH HIM AS A FRIEND!We are so people pleasing and seeking we HAVE FORGOTTEN HOW FAR WE HAVE FALLEN FROM MEETING THE LORD'S PERSONALLY!

How dare you say that to me, Pastor Henry! Who are you to judge us? I am not, remember I am one with you. This is us, not them to me! It is the Lord who is judging us in the books of Revelation 1-3. He is the one telling us our spiritual state. He is the one that says He has "one thing against us." David's cry was "one thing I desire of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the presence of the Lord all the days of my life, and inquire in His temple."

David got the "one thing" right. Today's church in America has gotten the "one thing" wrong except for a small remnant of believers. The spirit of anti-christ has so gotten a hold of the church that we have reversed the order of the great commandments and put men's needs above God's. I realize this is hard to hear and could be easily misunderstood. It is not that our works are wrong in themselves. What is wrong is when we worship the "work" above God. When we worship "our success" above God this is idolatry in the name of God!

When people's needs supersede the need of the Lord of us being with Him, and replace the Glory of God with a "service, meeting, training time," then we have lost our FIRST LOVE. So strong is this spirit that the last church in Laodecia, CAN'T EVEN DISCERN HER SPIRITUAL CONDITION! That is what I am writing about in this blog. This is us, American Church!Here is the good news, There is a REVOLUTION of the Holy Spirit FIRE OF GOD that is about to change all that! Now you can get excited! We have become so blind in this nation, that we say WE ARE RICH AND NEED OF NOTHING!

Yet, look at where Jesus is in Revelation chapter 3:20! He is standing on the outside of the church, knocking on the door! I know, I know, you always thought this scripture was the "invitation" to the lost and dying world. It is not! This book is not written to the lost, but the SEVEN CHURCHES! Jesus after 2000 years is standing on the outside, trying to get back in!OUCH!

He is outside because we abandoned our first love for Him and because of that all of Revelation 2 and 3 was allowed to come into the church of the living God. With that said, you can begin to understand Revelation chapter 1. That Jesus Christ returns to His church IN THE SPIRIT to those who have an ear to hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church. He is standing in the midst of the 7 golden lamp stands as a REFINING FIRE AND FULLER SOAP!

This appearing is not being seen by the vast majority of Christians. Why, because they are not seeking His face as their vital need. But there is a remnant, a Peter, James and John that are being led up the mountain to see Him like this! Everyone can come, but only a few will respond because only a few are listening. Remember Malachi 3:1, "and the Lord WHOM YOU SEEK, shall SUDDENLY COME! Do you see the condition to this REVELATION that will bring a SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION of the Lord's finishing work? YOU MUST BE SEEKING HIM as your FIRST LOVE! You must be seeking to live in the FLAME OF GOD with all your heart and be willing to be changed.

That is the voice that is beginning to cry in the wilderness here in the western USA and mountains states: PREPARE YE THE WAY OF THE LORD! This is the work that is beginning to be done here where you can come and BUY THE GOLD TRIED BY THE FIRE! THE WESTERN GOLD RUSH HAS BEGUN! It is not a geographic location that matters, but there is a work begining to happen here to awaken a bride to her feet. Praise God!

In the next blog, we will study Revelation chapter 1 and it's meeting for us today. I pray this word has convicted you as it has me, to return with all our heart to our first love. I pray that we would repent of putting the second commandment above the first, leaders of the Lord. I pray we will begin to bring God's people back to Him and to listen for His very heartbeat and become one with them as a bride and bridegroom. May it be so Lord Jesus, now in our day!

Shalom!