Daily Archives: July 11, 2015

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Prophets, Prodigals, & Puttin’ it off…….

 

“Cry loud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew (show) my people their transgressions…. ” Isaiah 58:1(a)

“Son of man, SPEAK to the children of thy people, and SAY unto them, when I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for THEIR WATCHMAN: IF HE SEETH THE SWORD COME upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people.

Then whoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul (save his life).  Ezekiel 33:2,3,5

So that is a pretty heavy job, a prophet is to warn of all the impending snares, and traps, and forthcoming woes that God has allowed them to foresee. But the major problem comes when the prophets pull a Jonah and decide that they are just not going to do it. Understandably, the fear, the rejection, ridicule, and constant state of having to keep a drawn sword that comes with the job. But understandable or not, you did not apply for this job, you were chosen and as the “gifts and callings of God are without repentance” you are forever in the position GOD has chosen for you in his army and you can’t request a transfer, you cannot retire and you are not allowed to check out at anytime.

The reality of this, whether you do YOUR job or not, that calling remains active and it will follow you to Hades.

Luke 15:11-32, We know it as the story of the prodigal son. As the story tells this gentleman had two sons and the younger son decided that he would not work for his father, nor would he wait for his inheritance. So the father divides everything up and the younger son leaves out on his journey to sow his wild oats, and he played, he drank, he raised Hades, and he rocked,he rolled, he partied, and he “boogie-oggie-oggied till he just couldn’t boogie no more” and oh the women, women, and never enough women.

Got to pay to play, and this was a high maintenance lifestyle. Soon the money was gone, and all his fair weather friends had soon flown the coup taking the hungry chicks with them. Hard times came and he hit bottom, he took a job feeding pigs, an animal considered so unclean it was forbidden to his family, no one offered him help of any kind and he became so starved that he would have delighted in just eating a little of the food that he fed to the pigs. Being surrounded by filthy pigs that are eating better than you can be a very effective wake up call. He started to think of how even his fathers servants fared better than he.

But he worried about going back home because he felt no longer “worthy” to be a son, but maybe he could be a hired hand.

Satan loves to do that to us, we all have made mistakes and plenty have back slidden and he loves nothing more than to tell you that you have gone too far, done too much, and that after walking out on your father to his face, that he will never take you back so don’t bother trying. He wants you to wallow around with swine and eats pigs food when your Father wants to feed you with manna! Even being a long way off, his father saw him coming back ( Just as God sees you, my wayward friends, because he watches for you) he ran to meet him, kissed him and hugged him. He called for a robe (symbolic of course of God changing even swine dirt covered garments to robes of righteousness) and for a signet ring to be placed on his finger, declaring to the whole world his family lineage and that he was not a servant, but a son.

He ordered a huge feast prepared with the best he could offer placed before his son as a welcome home dinner. The oldest brother extremely upset because he had never left, had worked, and worked, and had never been treated so lavishly, showing us that sometimes there are brothers and sisters in Christ who may not be so happy to see you return to the sheepfold. Maybe it’s jealousy, maybe they hate seeing God bless you extraordinarily for returning to him, whatever the reason, you must always remember they are still your family, but don’t worry what they will say or how they will react.

Because the father NEVER ONCE ASKED the son where he had been, what he had done, or how he spent all the money. He welcomed him only with open arms and acceptance. Because his son “who had been dead was alive again”. That is how God sees us, and he is our father and the only opinion that matters is his.

So puttin’ it off, Watchmen know their job, we all know how scary it is. This was the main group all through the Bible that God had to constantly reassure to “not be discouraged nor dismayed” or “afraid of their faces”. We know the world will hate you, it hated Jesus first. No one wants to be told that what they are doing is wrong according to the word of God, and they really don’t care what he has to say. But God WILL NOT SEND JUDGMENT WITHOUT WARNING. “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil (calamity) in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?  Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but (EXCEPT) he revealeth his secret UNTO HIS SERVANTS THE PROPHETS.” Amos 3:6

But as you step out God will bless each of those steps and as you proclaim his statues and his judgments, you really will start to develop a “streak”, sorta like the holy anger he allowed Ezekiel to feel, and if you need to ask him for confirmation over and over again, ask him! People often bash Gibeon (Judges chapters 6&7) because he asked for so much confirmation, I am not suggesting asking for “signs” but to pray and ask confirmation through his word or a word of wisdom. I personally think he was a wise man, because no one wants to “fall into the hands of the living God” !

He wants you to work and offers on the job training! Prodigals believe in their father and his work, they are just puttin’ it off till later on.

Sorry, there may not be much later left to put off until! WE ARE IN THE END OF DAYS, IT IS THE END TIMES, HENCEFORTH, THE END OF THE WORLD. No other way of saying that. The world is so wicked that it is coming under divine judgment. Babylon will without warning (well, secular warning) be destroyed from the face of the earth immediately after the rapture. And then all of Revelation will be fulfilled. It is time to pack it up and come back home to your father’s house. We are not promised our next breath, but we are promised that we will stand and give account for our lives and what we accomplished with the gifts he has given us.

As I write this and as you read it, and every second of every minute of every hour in every day of every year, year after year  there are people who are very much ALIVE and in HELL. Just as the “rich man lifted up his eyes in hell.” They are really there, and they are really suffering and they will never, ever have the chance escape that fate again. If he ever allowed you to hear those cries (and he just might) and make you painfully aware of their eternal presence there (and yes, he can arrange that too) you may look at your jobs a little more seriously.

Prophets, ever time you resist that fire that is trying to come from your mouth, this is what you are doing “BUT if  the watchman see the sword come, and BLOW NOT the trumpet, and the people BE NOT WARNED; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; BUT HIS BLOOD WILL I REQUIRE AT THE WATCHMAN’S HAND.” Ezekiel 33:6

You will be held personally responsible for the deaths of all you fail to warn.

Prodigals who refuse to return and “be about their father’s business” could very well get a bird’s-eye view of what became of those that they were to minister to and the consequences suffered in the lives their disobedience affected. Maybe see the eternal fire and hear the eternal screams of someone YOU were supposed to witness to, or someone whose suicide that could have been prevented had you been in the place of the will of God, where you could have been used to stop it. “He that gathereth in summer is a wise man:  but HE THAT SLEEPETH IN HARVEST IS A SON THAT CAUSETH SHAME.”

So end of story, THIS IS NOT ABOUT US! It is not about our comfort, our fear, our shame, our vices, or things we just don’t wanna let go! This is not about fitting in with the crowd as opposed to being singled out. IT IS NOT YOUR LIFE! YOUR LIFE BELONGS TO THE ONE WHO GAVE IT! It is about helping the wounded be healed, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and lead the lost back home. It is ABOUT PUTTING THE SOULS OF OTHERS BEFORE YOURSELF. It is accountability, the book is written, that will never change, so  never put off today what you are not promised tomorrow to do!  

εν Φλογίζω  N.Brown Johnson 2015

 

 

by

Prophets, Prodigals, & Puttin’ it off…

“Cry loud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew (show) my people their transgressions…. ” Isaiah 58:1(a)

“Son of man, SPEAK to the children of thy people, and SAY unto them, when I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for THEIR WATCHMAN: IF HE SEETH THE SWORD COME upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people.

Then whoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul (save his life).  Ezekiel 33:2,3,5

So that is a pretty heavy job, a prophet is to warn of all the impending snares, and traps, and forthcoming woes that God has allowed them to foresee. But the major problem comes when the prophets pull a Jonah and decide that they are just not going to do it. Understandably, the fear, the rejection, ridicule, and constant state of having to keep a drawn sword that comes with the job. But understandable or not, you did not apply for this job, you were chosen and as the “gifts and callings of God are without repentance” you are forever in the position GOD has chosen for you in his army and you can’t request a transfer, you cannot retire and you are not allowed to check out at anytime.

The reality of this, whether you do YOUR job or not, that calling remains active and it will follow you to Hades.

Luke 15:11-32, We know it as the story of the prodigal son. As the story tells this gentleman had two sons and the younger son decided that he would not work for his father, nor would he wait for his inheritance. So the father divides everything up and the younger son leaves out on his journey to sow his wild oats, and he played, he drank, he raised Hades, and he rocked, he rolled, he partied, and he “boogie-oggie-oggied till he just couldn’t boogie no more” and oh the women, women, and never enough women.

Got to pay to play, and this was a high maintenance lifestyle. Soon the money was gone, and all his fair weather friends had soon flown the coup taking the hungry chicks with them. Hard times came and he hit bottom, he took a job feeding pigs, an animal considered so unclean it was forbidden to his family, no one offered him help of any kind and he became so starved that he would have delighted in just eating a little of the food that he fed to the pigs. Being surrounded by filthy pigs that are eating better than you can be a very effective wake up call. He started to think of how even his fathers servants fared better than he.

But he worried about going back home because he felt no longer “worthy” to be a son, but maybe he could be a hired hand.

Satan loves to do that to us, we all have made mistakes and plenty have backslidden and he loves nothing more than to tell you that you have gone too far, done too much, and that after walking out on your father to his face, that he will never take you back so don’t bother trying. He wants you to wallow around with swine and eats pigs food when your Father wants to feed you with manna! Even being a long way off, his father saw him coming back ( Just as God sees you, my wayward friends, because he watches for you) he ran to meet him, kissed him and hugged him.

He called for a robe (symbolic of course of God changing even swine dirt covered garments to robes of righteousness) and for a signet ring to be placed on his finger, declaring to the whole world his family lineage and that he was not a servant, but a son.

He ordered a huge feast prepared with the best he could offer placed before his son as a welcome home dinner.

The oldest brother extremely upset because he had never left, had worked, and worked, and had never been treated so lavishly, showing us that sometimes there are brothers and sisters in Christ who may not be so happy to see you return to the sheepfold.

Maybe it’s jealousy, maybe they hate seeing God bless you extraordinarily for returning to him, whatever the reason, you must always remember they are still your family, but don’t worry what they will say or how they will react.

Because the father NEVER ONCE ASKED the son where he had been, what he had done, or how he spent all the money. He welcomed him only with open arms and acceptance. Because his son “who had been dead was alive again”. That is how God sees us, and he is our father and the only opinion that matters is his.

So puttin’ it off, Watchmen know their job, we all know how scary it is. This was the main group all through the Bible that God had to constantly reassure to “not be discouraged nor dismayed” or “afraid of their faces”.

We know the world will hate you, it hated Jesus first. No one wants to be told that what they are doing is wrong according to the word of God, and they really don’t care what he has to say.

But God WILL NOT SEND JUDGMENT WITHOUT WARNING. “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil (calamity) in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?  Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but (EXCEPT) he revealeth his secret UNTO HIS SERVANTS THE PROPHETS.” Amos 3:6

But as you step out God will bless each of those steps and as you proclaim his statues and his judgments, you really will start to develop a “streak”, sorta like the holy anger he allowed Ezekiel to feel, and if you need to ask him for confirmation over and over again, ask him! People often bash Gibeon (Judges chapters 6&7) because he asked for so much confirmation, I am not suggesting asking for “signs” but to pray and ask confirmation through his word or a word of wisdom. I personally think he was a wise man, because no one wants to “fall into the hands of the living God” !

He wants you to work and offers on the job training! Prodigals believe in their father and his work, they are just puttin’ it off till later on.

Sorry, there may not be much later left to put off until! WE ARE IN THE END OF DAYS, IT IS THE END TIMES, HENCEFORTH, THE END OF THE WORLD.

No other way of saying that.

The world is so wicked that it is coming under divine judgment. Babylon will without warning (well, secular warning) be destroyed from the face of the earth immediately after the rapture. And then all of Revelation will be fulfilled. It is time to pack it up and come back home to your father’s house. We are not promised our next breath, but we are promised that we will stand and give account for our lives and what we accomplished with the gifts he has given us.

As I write this and as you read it, and every second of every minute of every hour in every day of every year, year after year  there are people who are very much ALIVE and in HELL. Just as the “rich man lifted up his eyes in hell.” They are really there, and they are really suffering and they will never, ever have the chance escape that fate again. If he ever allowed you to hear those cries (and he just might) and make you painfully aware of their eternal presence there (and yes, he can arrange that too) you may look at your jobs a little more seriously.

Prophets, ever time you resist that fire that is trying to come from your mouth, this is what you are doing “BUT if  the watchman see the sword come, and BLOW NOT the trumpet, and the people BE NOT WARNED; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; BUT HIS BLOOD WILL I REQUIRE AT THE WATCHMAN’S HAND.” Ezekiel 33:6

You will be held personally responsible for the deaths of all you fail to warn.

Prodigals who refuse to return and “be about their father’s business” could very well get a bird’s-eye view of what became of those that they were to minister to and the consequences suffered in the lives their disobedience affected. Maybe see the eternal fire and hear the eternal screams of someone YOU were supposed to witness to, or someone whose suicide that could have been prevented had you been in the place of the will of God, where you could have been used to stop it. “He that gathereth in summer is a wise man:  but HE THAT SLEEPETH IN HARVEST IS A SON THAT CAUSETH SHAME.”

So end of story, THIS IS NOT ABOUT US! It is not about our comfort, our fear, our shame, our vices, or things we just don’t wanna let go! This is not about fitting in with the crowd as opposed to being singled out. IT IS NOT YOUR LIFE! YOUR LIFE BELONGS TO THE ONE WHO GAVE IT! It is about helping the wounded be healed, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and lead the lost back home. It is ABOUT PUTTING THE SOULS OF OTHERS BEFORE YOURSELF. It is accountability, the book is written, that will never change, so  never put off today what you are not promised tomorrow to do!  

εν Φλογίζω  N.Brown Johnson 2015  / REVISTED 03/18/2021 because if there has ever been a time to step out in faith, now is beyond time!