photo courtesy of James Coleman, Unsplash
This morning in my quiet time I was praying in the spirit and I found myself saying, “You first, God! You first, God!” over and over again. I need to tell you I go into my quiet time with no agenda other than to thank God for what he’s doing and to listen for what’s on his heart each day. These are the words he spoke today:
“Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man reaps, he sows. My people have sown tares into their own lives. The tares of compromise.
It began slow. A little lie. An omission of truth. A stay-at-home-Sunday. Now they have walked away from their first love.
Sow money first, reap poverty.
Sow lies, reap deception.
Sow itching ears, reap false doctrine.
Sow lust, reap adultery. Reap the ruin of your family.
Sow tarot. Sow Enneagram, reap witchcraft.
These are MY people. MY PEOPLE! An adulterous generation.
I will come in like a flood and cleanse. I will wash over them, their motives, their agendas. Personal kingdoms will fall. The righteous will remain. Do not be surprised when those you called brother and sister fall away. Because many will fall away, and many will turn their backs on my kingdom. Pray for all believers in this hour. My standard will be lifted up!”
The Tares of Compromise
So, what is a tare? It’s basically a weed. If you’ve ever had a garden or flower bed, you’ve probably witnessed the damaging effects of weeds. Weeds choke out the living things. Their root sources take water and nutrients that grass and plants need to thrive, and the thing you’re trying to nurture into something beautiful dies. In the picture above we see wheat and tares growing together. The wheat that bear the harvest (heads of grain) are bowed down low while the tares remain high in the sky. You might even view this as an allegory for the humility of the people of God versus the pride of man and his works.
The Lord is saying today that his people, not the world- the CHURCH, have sown tares of compromise into their own lives.
What is compromise? The Oxford Dictionary defines compromise as danger by foolish or reckless behavior; accepting standards that are lower than desirable.
You could call this lukewarm living. Professing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord but living by your own standards rather than those outlined in the Bible. The book of Revelation makes a deep dive into the 7 archetypal churches we will find at the end of the Church Age, and to summarize it for you, out of the 7, only 1 is uncompromising (The Church of Philadephia) in their faith walk. I’m going to list the churches here with links to the scripture so you can measure your church and faith walk alongside those John describes:
The Church In Ephesus | The Church in Smyrna | The Church in Pergamum | The Church in Thyatira | The Church in Sardis | The Church in Philadelphia | The Church in Laodicea
Speaking specifically to the Church in Ephesus, the Lord says in Revelation 2:4, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
Repenting is not something that today’s church-at-large discusses. The church at Ephesus, much like young people who fall in love, the Ephesians fell hard when they first came to Christ. Their hearts were captivated by their love for Jesus. There were no limits to what they would surrender to Him, no boundaries to their obedience. They were willing to sacrifice and leave behind anything to follow Him. By the time Revelation is written (which is a blueprint for the future) the Lord says that their agape love (a pure love of choice; the love of serving with humility; the highest kind of love; the noblest kind of devotion; the love of the will (intentional, a conscious choice) and not motivated by superficial appearance, emotional attraction, or sentimental relationship) for him is no longer.
How Modern-Day Christians Are Compromising
Well, the Lord details that in his word too. Worshipping money over him. Prioritizing your schedule and Sunday preferences over going to church. White lies. Twisted truths. Two-faced living. God’s principle of reaping and sowing applies to everything in your life, not just your money. And what you choose to practice will become your habit. Your habit will reap something. If you want to be given the tolerant Jesus who “gets us” as the commercial campaign aired during the Superbowl, you’ll get your ears tickled in exchange for your palatable Jesus who tolerates sin, and in the process, you’ll be deceived. The devil is sneaky like that.
Yes, Jesus understands us, but Jesus condemns the sins of all mankind. Our sin paired with his undying love for us was the reason he came and died on the cross- not so that we would keep on sinning, but so that we would be redeemed and called to a life of holiness. Jesus sat with sinners, and he loves sinners, but he remained without sin. Our sin demanded a price we could never pay. That’s why Jesus came.
I have two very close friends who I speak to daily, and the foundation of our friendship is woven around Jesus. There are times where we’ve had to have confronting conversations about mindset, motives, and mission as it aligns with God’s word. Real friends won’t let you compromise- they see the future God has for you, and it’s their job to help pull you back on the path if you’ve taken a step to the left or right. I say this because it’s not easy to be that kind of friend. The majority of people won’t sharpen you. I know, because for the majority of my life, I’ve had those type of friends. Compromise is, “I’ll support you no matter what you decide” rather than saying, “Jess, this isn’t going to end well if you stay on this path, and as your friend, I love you enough to have the hard talk.” This word that the Lord is delivering today is the hard talk that you may not want to hear, but you NEED to hear it.
An adulterous generation was a term used by Jesus in Matthew 16:4, “The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven (that he was Lord). He replied, “When evening comes, you say, it will be faith weather, for the sky is red, and in the morning, today it will be stormy for the sky is red and overcast. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given except the sign of Jonah.”
The Jewish people in Jesus’ day were generally moral and conservative people, but Jesus referred to many of them as ” evil and adulterous ” because despite outward behavior they were not faithful to God from the heart but demanded a sign from Jesus even though he had already performed many. When he said that the sign of Jonah would be the only sign they would receive, he was prophesying that his death (Jesus’) and resurrection would be the sign of Jonah- where Jonah was in the belly of the whale for 3 days like Jesus would be in the tomb. On the 3rd day, Jonah would be spit out, just as Jesus rose from the dead. Just as Jonah then went to preach the message of repentance to a pagan nation, Ninevah, Jesus’s resurrection would mean salvation to both the jew and the gentiles (who were hated by jews and considered pagan by the jews). Jesus is gangster.
Modern-day church culture has relegated the Saviour of the world to a storybook character. They don’t live for him. They profess with their mouth- they have their fire insurance, but they aren’t living as disciples. I pray that you’ll take this to heart and check yourself for where you fall in your walk with Jesus. Have you taken up your cross to follow him, no matter what it costs you? Or are you a lipservice Christian only?
The Standard of God
We are in a war. It’s a spiritual war, and the devil is racking up casualties via his methods of complacent Christianity. Hear the word of the Lord today. Read what the Lord says in Isaiah, chapter 59.
“Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; in transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence. So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and forever.”
Let me recall what the Lord spoke at the beginning of this word:
I will come in like a flood and cleanse. I will wash over them, their motives, their agendas. Personal kingdoms will fall. The righteous will remain. Do not be surprised when those you called brother and sister fall away. Because many will fall away, and many will turn their backs on my kingdom. Pray for all believers in this hour. My standard will be lifted up!”
The Lord is raising up his standard because the enemy has come into the church and the world like a flood. And as wheat is separated from tares, as sheep are separated from goats, the Lord is giving us another chance to come back to him before the great separation. As he says, many will fall away but he who perseveres to the end will stand. We as disciples are the standard-bearers of Jesus in this world. May he be high and lifted up through us in this season, and may all who have drank from the cup of christian compromise come back while there is still time.
Please be earnestly praying for all believers throughout the world in this hour. We who are pursuing our high calling are called to stand in the gap as Daniels, as Esthers, as Moseses, as Deborahs, and intercede for all mankind right now.
Raise your standard,
jess
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