Everything is Coming to Light - Welcome the Fire! - Dutch Sheets - GiveHIM15 * 5/10/2022 - CLARITY..!

[ronscarpa]

• • 7 min read        https://www.givehim15.com/post/may-10-2022

 

May 10, 2022

 

DSM has been blessed with a wonderful, hard-working, and loyal team. Ceci and I are going to do a staff retreat with them, then she and I will take a much-needed vacation. I have asked some of my close friends and associates - many being regular contributors to the Give Him 15 posts - to fill in during this time. You will recognize most of the names; and I’ve thrown in one or two whom perhaps you haven’t heard from. You’re going to love the insights from all of them - this will be a wonderful smorgasbord! Enjoy!

 

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Everything is Coming to Light - Welcome the Fire!

 

 

Sometimes it may be hard to see but God is moving in the world today. He’s establishing His Kingdom on earth and He needs our participation. Yet we can easily ignore, overlook or even misunderstand all that God is doing.

 

 

There is a difference between God working in our midst and God working through us. We are called to partner with God—speak His words, call forth His will, declare deliverance and freedom on the earth, but we can’t do that as long as we are out of step with Him. We must be focused on Him and not the conditions around us. On the surface, everything could be falling apart, it could look like it's going to hell, succumbing to sin. But on a deeper level, God is transforming our world, reclaiming it for His people. When we fail to discern what God is doing, we risk failing to do our part, even if that part is to stand fast, pray, prophecy, decree, and believe.

 

 

How do we share in what God is doing? How can we know what our part is? It starts in the core of our being, the place of surrender, honor, and reverence before God. It starts at the altar—the meeting place of God and man.

 

 

We read of a similar struggle in the life of the prophet Elijah, from 1 Kings 18.

 

 

This parallels where we are today in the United States and the world. We have, in large part, in times past, forsaken the ways of the Lord, and this has brought us to the place we find ourselves where deception and death reign through confusion, fear, and lawlessness.

 

 

Thankfully, our God is a saving God. Amen! He always does things with a redemptive purpose in mind. God is not finished with America. Indeed, the trouble we see on one level is a sign that He is working on another level. We might see the disrupted soil and question what God is doing, all the while missing the plow and the seeds of restoration being planted into the very fertile soil of this nation.

 

 

No, God has not determined which nations will be goat nations and which will be sheep nations. The world is changing, it is evolving, and growing. Nations can be turned and saved in a day. Understanding the message of the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 18 is key to our ability to begin postured to reshape America again.

 

 

In this passage, the prophet Elijah meets with Ahab, the King of Israel, and tells him that he is troubling the nation because he has forsaken the commandments and direction of God. (A prophet confronting a government leader.) The trouble Elijah refers to is evidenced by a crippling drought that had afflicted Israel and its economy for several years.

 

 

Ahab has followed his wife, Jezebel, and turned to Baal worship, a form of demonic paganism. Most of Israel follows Ahab’s example as Jezebel endeavors to slaughter all the prophets of God.

 

 

Elijah, at God’s command, is ready for a showdown so he challenges Ahab to gather all the people of Israel to Mount Carmel.

 

 

Elijah is confident in the faithfulness of God, but note also, the confidence of the prophets of Baal. They go up to Mount Carmel fully expecting to prevail. Where does such confidence come from? It comes from past experience. God was not the only source of the supernatural in that day. As long as the people aligned themselves with the powers of darkness, the powers of darkness manifested.

 

 

Just as God is doing in America today, in this passage, God is letting things get to the breaking point for a reason and that's to bring things to light.

 

 

This is the hour that we are living in. We must say to the people of this nation and the world as Elijah said to Israel, “Come near to me. I have something to say; I have got something to show you.”

 

 

Still, there are a lot of words in circulation today, a plethora of prophetic messages and teachings. Some tell us to comply with the flow of society and the edicts of governmental authorities. Others implore us to separate and withdraw from the “world systems.” It seems that each side can support its position with Scripture. Most of us are just caught in the middle, confused and being pulled this way and that, struggling to hear God in the unpleasant, prolonged noise around us.

 

 

Like Elijah, we have to reach a place where we hear what God is saying. His voice! Not the voice of the media or conspiracy theorists or dooms-day prophets.

 

 

Elijah was confident that he had a word from God. Let’s face it: The odds of 850 to 1 are not very good odds...unless that one has the One True God on his side.

 

 

1 Kings 18:30-31 says, And he [Elijah] repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down. Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob…

 

 

Get this picture. Elijah has 850 frustrated and armed-to-the-teeth prophets of Baal ready for him to fail so they can cut him to bits, and the first thing he does is rearrange some rocks?

 

 

Really? The conversation could have gone something like this:

 

 

“Hey God, save me and your nation of Israel from these demon-fed liars, but first, let me get these rocks in the right place.”

 

 

Yeah, that’s exactly what he did.

 

 

Elijah was challenging the reigning force of evil in his day, counting on God to respond to his preparation of the sacrifice. So, after arranging the rocks into an altar, he pours water all over it, soaking the wood, the dirt, and even the bull.

 

 

Think about this, why did he use all that water, especially in the midst of a three-year drought? Three reasons.

 

 

First, it’s clear that Elijah got the water from the people because, in 1 Kings 18, we see King Ahab sending people throughout the land to search for water and finding none. So, this must have been the populace’s personal stash. Now, imagine the faith it takes for the people to make such a sacrifice of that precious commodity. This is about more than showing down; it’s about having a dog in the hunt, like we say in the South. The people are being asked to commit life-giving water to prove that God is the God of Israel.

 

 

Secondly, Elijah needed to cleanse the altar, both physically and, more importantly, spiritually. The water represented a spiritual cleansing.

 

 

Ephesians 5:26 says, “So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”

 

 

Finally, the water demonstrated God’s dominion over the demonic realm. God had stopped the rain in Israel, and he would restore it...if the people gave their all.

 

They did and God did and the rest is history.

 

 

God heard Elijah’s prayer. The fire fell. The sacrifice was consumed. And the people were changed.

 

 

As great as this miracle was, it is too easy to focus on the spectacle of what God did and miss what it took for God to do it. If we are not careful, we can miss the true process at work as God performs miracle after miracle.

 

 

Elijah’s motive for following God was crucial to the successful outcome that day, just as our motives are for everything we do. If we are seeking to do anything instead of expanding the Kingdom of God and turning people’s hearts to God, then we are missing the mark. Even if we are having great success, drawing people to us, exercising our gifts, or seeing fire fall from heaven. If our motives are wrong, we are on the pathway to error. We cannot allow that to happen. We have to keep our hearts constantly before the Father.

 

 

Elijah knew that the stakes could not have been greater. The fate of God’s nation hung in the balance. As does America’s today. Evil reigned, figuratively and literally, for years. It was time to right that wrong. And yet, the first thing he did was rebuild the altar of God that had been torn apart through Baal worship.

 

 

It is time to take up our part in rebuilding the broken altar of the Lord—the place where God meets man, and the fire of God falls. God does not reveal His presence just anywhere. There has to be an altar—a surrender, a sacrifice, a place satisfactory to God to pour out His Holy Spirit into the earth.

 

 

Pray with me:

 

Father, we thank You for what you are doing in America and the world even though we don’t like some of what we are seeing. We know it is necessary. We thank You that you have called us to partner with You in this great restoration process. We are asking you to give us ears to hear what YOU are saying to us, Your Ekklesia. Give us the boldness of Holy Spirit, in order that we stand and act in the face of great evil. Amen

 

 

Our Decree:

 

We decree that we will stand. We will be God’s voice to this Nation of purpose as it goes through this cleansing process, and turns its heart back to Jesus Christ! We decree, Light of God come and expose the evil. Fire of God come and consume it! Rain of God come and restore us! America, move into the salvation God has provided for you through the Kingship of Jesus Christ.

 

 

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Portions of this post were taken from my book Rebuilding the Broken Altar - Awakening out of Chaos. You can find us at greghood.org or most social media platforms.

 

 

 

Click on the link below to watch the full video.