The Last Shout

How cool.  I just realized that this will be the seventh blog in this series and I have already named it "The last shout".  I just feel like there is something really appropriate here.

For those of you who have not been following, on February 9, 2016 we started a series that was designed to help God's people learn how to "hear" Him through what He is communicating through His physical interactions with us.  The following week we went into a little more detail and ended with a challenge to the readers to bring up things that are happening in the world and to discuss together how God might be attempting to communicate to us through these things.

The following Sunday we had an evangelist teacher by the name of Pat Schatzline as a guest speaker at our church.  He addressed all of the primary issues in a message called "God's 16 shouts for 2016".  Since that time this blog series has been dedicated to breaking down the specifics of that message.  We have discovered how God gave Pat not just His proposed blessings that are set to fall upon our nation, but He also provide Pat with the conditions for those blessings.  Even deeper within the message is how God is using the very brokenness, sickness, addictions, perversion, and immorality of this world to point us to the very things that He wants us (His people) to repent of and what we are to turn toward.  Today we are going to discuss the final three aspects of the message.

Continuing from where we left off:

The first of these final messages is that God will surprise us with something "major" during the US presidential election.  One of the scriptures quoted in the blog that started this series was:

 [Isaiah 3:4 NASB]  And I will make mere lads their princes, and capricious children will rule over them.

Isn't it amazing that the message that God gave Pat ends by addressing the very issue that the first blog brought up.  The point is, if His people seek to have spiritual leaders who feed us false teachings, tickle our ears, and tell us what we want to hear, God will listen and put those people over us.  If this is who we ask to lead our Sunday morning services He will not stop there, He will continue by putting the same kinds of people over every aspect of our government, judicial systems, businesses, and every other aspect of society.

We can't argue that we want society to bend their knee to "God's standards" six days a week and then ask our pastors and teachers to bend their knees to "Satan's standards" on Sunday.  When we seek truth, God will give us leaders that will lead us to truth.  Until then, He will give us leaders that give us exactly what our hearts truly desire.  God’s direction with this “major event” hinges on God’s people standing up to the leaders of our churches and our temples and telling them that we want to be held accountable to the whole counsel of God and that we want to be taught the meat of the scriptures.  God will give us the leaders we choose.  It is that simple.

This leads us into the final two aspects of what God showed Pat.  Pat saw that the "global (financial) market will continue to grow increasingly unstable." and that  "His shout will not be heard by all, but only by those whom have made themselves attentive to His ear!". 

These two notions may seem a bit unrelated but in truth they are incredibly related to one another.  As the financial markets become more unstable so too will the faith of those who are not as well rooted as they think they are.  When God starts taking away our idols we will have two choices; we will either focus on our idols of luxury, comfort, good food, vacations, and the lives we have known, or we will keep our eyes focused on God.  We simply cannot watch both at the same time.

This image reminds me of Lot's wife as they were leaving Sodom.  God was leading them away from their past, their old lives of sin, and their old ways.  God was leading them into the unknown, into something new, and something filled with promise.  Lot's wife was too consumed by what she was leaving and could not help but look back.  She was turned into a statue of salt.  We simply can't watch where God is leading us while mourning over what He is delivering us from.

God showed Pat that when the financial markets become unstable there will be those righteous people who remain financially strong and in their righteousness will use their financial strength to bless the churches that are continuing to grow in the direction established through the earlier aspects of the message.  For the churches that have not bent their knee, readjusted their compass headings, and turned their hearts, minds, souls, and strength toward the true ways of God, there will be no future.  The money will not flow, and the people will turn away.

We have to understand that if people are attending churches that are promising a pre-tribulation rapture, health, wealth, and prosperity for God's people, and having their ears tickled, those people will not be prepared to look where God is leading them.  They will fall away and their churches will fall with them.  For those people who have remained steadfast on what is true, demanded that their leaders and teachers preach the whole Gospel message, and seek the deeper meanings of the scriptures there will be peace, comfort, and power.

God is about to turn things upside down.  The churches that have watered down the scriptures for the purpose of numbers who will keep them financially strong will become insolvent.  At the same time, the churches that have continued to trust God, preached His Word, and who have been responsible disciples over the members they have been entrusted with will flourish.  This is a message that every church leader, teacher, and administrative body needs to hear, pay attention to, and respond to in an appropriate manner.

I pray that you are one of the few who will watch, observe, and hear.  I pray that you will allow God to communicate with you through the circumstances of life and that you allow Him to grow your understandings in such a way that you always feel His presence and hear His voice as you travel about your days.  Amen.