BLOW A TRUMPET IN ZION
I have had something stirring in me for the past few days, so as I share this and the context of this stirring, I will try to be clear.
This is a day of many changes in the hearts of God's people.
We are hearing God as never before.
We are hearing from Him about our placement and callings both as individuals, and as the Body of believers in the earth as well.
We are appalled at atrocities of men, perhaps shocked at leadership choices, and we are hearing a call to prayer, and even more prayer.
My sharing is about our calling to prayer and to a walk with God, to a walk that encompasses His ultimate purposes for us in the earth.
This is a blog for those who understand some scriptural truths already, but if you read this and have a question to ask me, I will do my best to clarify any point I make here with scriptural evidence.
THE OBVIOUS
There is a spiritual realm that exists alongside the natural, and heavenly realms above affecting this world around us.
We know what is the natural, it's all around us.
But as the Body of Christ, in order to follow Christ, we have the need to move past what we can see and hear with our natural eyes and ears, and into the realm of the spirit. We need to see how God sees and to hear all He is speaking, for ourselves.
I hear in my spirit that we have a call to heavenly places, to higher realms, and even to the dealings in the spirit realm, as the Body of Christ moving in and according to the Holy Spirit.
Please follow me...
We know God's presence fills the earth, that He is everywhere, and He rules in His authority from the heavenlies over all things.
We read the Word, and we believe and take our stand on it, that Jesus Christ is Lord over all. And He truly is!
But we hear from scripture also that we are called to be mindful of and seeking of the heavenly, even while in this life in the natural,
to seek those things which are above, to set our affection on what is above, with specifics...
Colossians 3:1
"v 1 If you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
v 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth; for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God."
The "IF" shows us that this seeking is contingent. It hinges on being risen with Christ in our experience of Jesus Christ living within us by the Holy Spirit, that work that only He can do to make us alive to Him in our spirits, His life deposited in us.
The way to go after that, according to this scripture and others -- is UP.
DANIEL AND JACOB
Examples of the existence and the affect of the spiritual realm on the natural are in scripture for us.
Daniel waited and prayed until his prayer was answered, but God showed him that there was warring that had to be done by an angel to get that answer to him. The angel who brought his answer spoke to Daniel and told him that God had heard his prayer when he first prayed it, but that the angel had to war in the heavenlies to accomplish the delivering of that answer to Daniel.
So there's something going on above us in the heavenlies that we can't see with the natural eyes. But it's there. And it can have an affect on circumstances in the natural.
Jacob, on the other hand, experienced an openness of the heavens, seeing in a dream /vision angels ascending and descending to the earth.
Now look at Jesus Christ who said in John 3:13:
"No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man WHO IS IN Heaven."
He said this while He was walking the earth as the Son of Man.
You remember what happened at Jesus' water baptism? The heavens were torn. They were opened.
Jesus told us how He operated in this world: He spoke what He heard His father saying and did what He saw His father doing.
Now look at these things and consider them alongside God's plan for us to be Christ's Body in the earth, submitted to, and of course connected to our Head, Jesus Christ, Who is enthroned in Heaven (the highest heaven), and Who is seated at the right hand of God, seated and ruling
above all principalities and powers...
1 Peter 3:22
..."who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him."
And then we have this truth ...
I John 4:17
"... as He is, so are we in this world".
BLOWING THE TRUMPET
In the book of Joel we find Israel receiving the judgement of God.
Israel as a nation had forgotten God and His purposes for their lives, and turned from walking in His ways. They had left God and His words to them. They had turned to other gods. Made a mess.
That sowing had brought the reaping of God's judgement on them.
But if you look at Joel 2:13, God's heart is in the prophecy of Joel's words...
Through Joel, He reminds them that this judgement is of Him and how strongly He desired them to walk in His ways-- because He cannot but speak to them of how He has also made provision for them to repent and turn back to Him-- even in a time of judgement.
Joel 2:13, God says to His people:
"So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness,
and He relents from doing harm."
They were warned prior to this judgement. This was a time in the kingdom of Israel that the warnings had passed, and the judgement had come.
But here is God's heart in the midst of that judgement.
This is WHO GOD IS!!
His heart is always Love, wanting His people to turn to Him...
He would have preferred, surely, that they did not fall away so that He would not have to send judgement!
But He Who made all things is God, He is just and He will not be mocked.
Joel's prophecy encompasses more than his day. It also encompasses us today as Joel speaks of future things that were not of his day.
We can glean already from this example, if we are in the same spot of needing a warning.
God is loving, but His ways endure. So we cannot say "Let's do as we please", or what we feel, and not reap from our sowing.
Be warned.
The day of using God's mercy to please ourselves instead of us finding out Who God truly is and seeking the heavenly things in Christ Jesus, is coming to a close.
His mercy will not be able to hold back the judgement that is coming in response to our sowings that have caused an influx of growth of tares (weeds that choke wheat) in our own field, that is - our own hearts.
There is an urgency in my spirit that we are sure to TAKE TIME OUT, even take a "time out"
to just be with God, and be in prayer - asking Him to rule over our hearts more and more,
that we might come to know His purposes in this day and hour for ourselves and for His people all over the earth.
We cannot consider any longer whether or not we will walk with God. We must get in step with Him. We simply MUST.
We must settle the first things, our salvation and our choosing, be repentant at every turning of our hearts and ask God for
His will towards us to be done.
We must turn to Him and seek Him while He may be found.
(Isaiah 55:6-9. See full quote below.)
We must put effort into prayer and asking, seeking and knocking. (Matthew 7:7)
We must FIND His way - THE WAY - to walk in.
Look again at Joel chapter 2:1,2 --
"v 1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand:
v 2 A day of darkness and gloominess
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning (clouds) spread over the mountains
A people (come), great and strong,
The like of whom has never been;
Nor will their ever be any (such) after them,
Even for many successive generations."
The Day of the Lord includes a people coming.
It is a day of judgement, but it is also the day of a people coming.
Read about them and what they are about.
They have fire before them and nothing escapes them...
We know it is an army because --
"v 7 Every one marches in formation, and they do not break rank.
They do not push one another. Every one marches in his own column."
This is the army of the Lord. It is a people who enact the judgement of God in the earth.
This is the description of the fulfillment of God's intentions in the earth, His using a people, even the Body of Christ.
"v 6 Before them the people writhe in pain;
All faces are drained of color."
"v 7 For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
who can endure it?"
1 John 4:16-17
"v 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love; and he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in him.
v 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world."
We are called by the love of God to participate in His great and wonderful purposes for us.
So - I say this in God's love -
God loves you more highly than you know! He has invited you -- by saving you -- INTO His great and marvelous work.
And He has also warned us of our reaping and our sowing.
I pray that you will DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE and do your own personal asking and seeking and knocking...
If you hear this day the knocking of Jesus on the door, look UP and open the door! (Revelation 3)
I pray you will admonish your own soul in the Word of God, pray to hear God's voice (and His only),
Commit your life to Him, provide Him your time,
Set yourself on a new course of prayer and time set apart JUST FOR JESUS,
Who is the author and finisher of your faith, faithful over you to minister all things to you, to bring you to your expected end. (Hebrews... Jeremiah 32)
We have a personal responsibility.
Please let Him do HIS PERFECT WORK in you, that you may be found complete in that great day, fulfilling your place in His plan.
(All scripture quoted herein is as always - from the New King James Version of the bible.
And I took the liberty of placing most of the words in italics in parenthesis, in order to ease alternate reading without the italics.)
Verses to Ponder
Isaiah 55:6-9
"v 6 Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
v 7 Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
v 8 "For My thoughts (are) not your thoughts,
Nor (are) your ways My ways", says the Lord.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts..."
Matthew 7:7-9
"v 7 Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
v 8 For everyone who asks receives,
and he who seeks finds,
and to him who knocks it will be opened.
v 9 Or what man is there among you who,
IF HIS SON asks for bread, will give him a stone?"
John 1:12, 13
"But as many as received Him,
to them He gave THE RIGHT TO BECOME
children of God, to those who believe in His name,
v 13 who were born, not of blood
nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man,
but of God."
(Note: The word in Greek for children in this verse is actually "sons".)
And many more... :)
This is a day of many changes in the hearts of God's people.
We are hearing God as never before.
We are hearing from Him about our placement and callings both as individuals, and as the Body of believers in the earth as well.
We are appalled at atrocities of men, perhaps shocked at leadership choices, and we are hearing a call to prayer, and even more prayer.
My sharing is about our calling to prayer and to a walk with God, to a walk that encompasses His ultimate purposes for us in the earth.
This is a blog for those who understand some scriptural truths already, but if you read this and have a question to ask me, I will do my best to clarify any point I make here with scriptural evidence.
THE OBVIOUS
There is a spiritual realm that exists alongside the natural, and heavenly realms above affecting this world around us.
We know what is the natural, it's all around us.
But as the Body of Christ, in order to follow Christ, we have the need to move past what we can see and hear with our natural eyes and ears, and into the realm of the spirit. We need to see how God sees and to hear all He is speaking, for ourselves.
I hear in my spirit that we have a call to heavenly places, to higher realms, and even to the dealings in the spirit realm, as the Body of Christ moving in and according to the Holy Spirit.
Please follow me...
We know God's presence fills the earth, that He is everywhere, and He rules in His authority from the heavenlies over all things.
We read the Word, and we believe and take our stand on it, that Jesus Christ is Lord over all. And He truly is!
But we hear from scripture also that we are called to be mindful of and seeking of the heavenly, even while in this life in the natural,
to seek those things which are above, to set our affection on what is above, with specifics...
Colossians 3:1
"v 1 If you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
v 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth; for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God."
The "IF" shows us that this seeking is contingent. It hinges on being risen with Christ in our experience of Jesus Christ living within us by the Holy Spirit, that work that only He can do to make us alive to Him in our spirits, His life deposited in us.
The way to go after that, according to this scripture and others -- is UP.
DANIEL AND JACOB
Examples of the existence and the affect of the spiritual realm on the natural are in scripture for us.
Daniel waited and prayed until his prayer was answered, but God showed him that there was warring that had to be done by an angel to get that answer to him. The angel who brought his answer spoke to Daniel and told him that God had heard his prayer when he first prayed it, but that the angel had to war in the heavenlies to accomplish the delivering of that answer to Daniel.
So there's something going on above us in the heavenlies that we can't see with the natural eyes. But it's there. And it can have an affect on circumstances in the natural.
Jacob, on the other hand, experienced an openness of the heavens, seeing in a dream /vision angels ascending and descending to the earth.
Now look at Jesus Christ who said in John 3:13:
"No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man WHO IS IN Heaven."
He said this while He was walking the earth as the Son of Man.
You remember what happened at Jesus' water baptism? The heavens were torn. They were opened.
Jesus told us how He operated in this world: He spoke what He heard His father saying and did what He saw His father doing.
Now look at these things and consider them alongside God's plan for us to be Christ's Body in the earth, submitted to, and of course connected to our Head, Jesus Christ, Who is enthroned in Heaven (the highest heaven), and Who is seated at the right hand of God, seated and ruling
above all principalities and powers...
1 Peter 3:22
..."who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him."
And then we have this truth ...
I John 4:17
"... as He is, so are we in this world".
BLOWING THE TRUMPET
In the book of Joel we find Israel receiving the judgement of God.
Israel as a nation had forgotten God and His purposes for their lives, and turned from walking in His ways. They had left God and His words to them. They had turned to other gods. Made a mess.
That sowing had brought the reaping of God's judgement on them.
But if you look at Joel 2:13, God's heart is in the prophecy of Joel's words...
Through Joel, He reminds them that this judgement is of Him and how strongly He desired them to walk in His ways-- because He cannot but speak to them of how He has also made provision for them to repent and turn back to Him-- even in a time of judgement.
Joel 2:13, God says to His people:
"So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness,
and He relents from doing harm."
They were warned prior to this judgement. This was a time in the kingdom of Israel that the warnings had passed, and the judgement had come.
But here is God's heart in the midst of that judgement.
This is WHO GOD IS!!
His heart is always Love, wanting His people to turn to Him...
He would have preferred, surely, that they did not fall away so that He would not have to send judgement!
But He Who made all things is God, He is just and He will not be mocked.
Joel's prophecy encompasses more than his day. It also encompasses us today as Joel speaks of future things that were not of his day.
We can glean already from this example, if we are in the same spot of needing a warning.
God is loving, but His ways endure. So we cannot say "Let's do as we please", or what we feel, and not reap from our sowing.
Be warned.
The day of using God's mercy to please ourselves instead of us finding out Who God truly is and seeking the heavenly things in Christ Jesus, is coming to a close.
His mercy will not be able to hold back the judgement that is coming in response to our sowings that have caused an influx of growth of tares (weeds that choke wheat) in our own field, that is - our own hearts.
There is an urgency in my spirit that we are sure to TAKE TIME OUT, even take a "time out"
to just be with God, and be in prayer - asking Him to rule over our hearts more and more,
that we might come to know His purposes in this day and hour for ourselves and for His people all over the earth.
We cannot consider any longer whether or not we will walk with God. We must get in step with Him. We simply MUST.
We must settle the first things, our salvation and our choosing, be repentant at every turning of our hearts and ask God for
His will towards us to be done.
We must turn to Him and seek Him while He may be found.
(Isaiah 55:6-9. See full quote below.)
We must put effort into prayer and asking, seeking and knocking. (Matthew 7:7)
We must FIND His way - THE WAY - to walk in.
Look again at Joel chapter 2:1,2 --
"v 1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand:
v 2 A day of darkness and gloominess
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning (clouds) spread over the mountains
A people (come), great and strong,
The like of whom has never been;
Nor will their ever be any (such) after them,
Even for many successive generations."
The Day of the Lord includes a people coming.
It is a day of judgement, but it is also the day of a people coming.
Read about them and what they are about.
They have fire before them and nothing escapes them...
We know it is an army because --
"v 7 Every one marches in formation, and they do not break rank.
They do not push one another. Every one marches in his own column."
This is the army of the Lord. It is a people who enact the judgement of God in the earth.
This is the description of the fulfillment of God's intentions in the earth, His using a people, even the Body of Christ.
"v 6 Before them the people writhe in pain;
All faces are drained of color."
"v 7 For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
who can endure it?"
1 John 4:16-17
"v 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love; and he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in him.
v 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world."
We are called by the love of God to participate in His great and wonderful purposes for us.
So - I say this in God's love -
God loves you more highly than you know! He has invited you -- by saving you -- INTO His great and marvelous work.
And He has also warned us of our reaping and our sowing.
I pray that you will DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE and do your own personal asking and seeking and knocking...
If you hear this day the knocking of Jesus on the door, look UP and open the door! (Revelation 3)
I pray you will admonish your own soul in the Word of God, pray to hear God's voice (and His only),
Commit your life to Him, provide Him your time,
Set yourself on a new course of prayer and time set apart JUST FOR JESUS,
Who is the author and finisher of your faith, faithful over you to minister all things to you, to bring you to your expected end. (Hebrews... Jeremiah 32)
We have a personal responsibility.
Please let Him do HIS PERFECT WORK in you, that you may be found complete in that great day, fulfilling your place in His plan.
(All scripture quoted herein is as always - from the New King James Version of the bible.
And I took the liberty of placing most of the words in italics in parenthesis, in order to ease alternate reading without the italics.)
Verses to Ponder
Isaiah 55:6-9
"v 6 Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
v 7 Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
v 8 "For My thoughts (are) not your thoughts,
Nor (are) your ways My ways", says the Lord.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts..."
Matthew 7:7-9
"v 7 Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
v 8 For everyone who asks receives,
and he who seeks finds,
and to him who knocks it will be opened.
v 9 Or what man is there among you who,
IF HIS SON asks for bread, will give him a stone?"
John 1:12, 13
"But as many as received Him,
to them He gave THE RIGHT TO BECOME
children of God, to those who believe in His name,
v 13 who were born, not of blood
nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man,
but of God."
(Note: The word in Greek for children in this verse is actually "sons".)
And many more... :)
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