Hebrews 12:25-29
25 “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’ 27 Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.” NKJV
In this post, I'm going to reveal and explain a dream I had earlier this year. In it, I was at a well-known mega-church looking at what was happening on the pulpit when suddenly I got to see what was transpiring in the spirit realm from that very pulpit. What I saw was disturbing but not surprising to me. I saw that a demonic spirit was speaking through the preacher who had opened the door to that influence through idolatry; more specifically, I could discern it was Mammon worship.
Then suddenly, Jesus appeared facing the demon and dressed in His white tunic and red sash draped from one of His shoulders. At that moment, with anger, He looked at the demon and opened His mouth, and fire came out, and the demon was then fully consumed. One of the reasons Jesus showed up to consume the demon is because it was cursing through the preacher His true apostles and prophets. These are His vessels forged in His purifying fire to bring the unadulterated truth of the Gospel of His Kingdom when they speak.
The opposition of the enemy against His very needed vessels for this hour has been greatly contested by the enemy and many of His leaders have been brought under his influence to allow this opposition to come from the very pulpits where truth should be the standard in His house and where Jesus is to be acknowledged as the head with reverence and godly fear, so He can move by His Spirit as He pleases.
Galatians 3:1-3
“Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. 2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. 3 How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” NLT
The Lord had me seek Him concerning this dream ever since I dreamed it and now released me to reveal what He has shown me that He is bringing to His church because although the setting in the dream was a mega-church, there are many pulpits in churches of different sizes where this scenario has been playing out one way or another. For this reason, He is now coming with His consuming fire to drive out all demonic activity from His houses of prayer for all nations.
The Lord showed me that this consuming fire is bringing humbleness as well as humiliation, even public humiliation, and He took me to five passages from His Word to reveal what this will look like.
The first example of humbleness or humiliation is shown through Goliath the Giant. 1 Samuel 17 says that this giant had come with his Philistine army to try to defeat the army of Israel led by King Saul, who was a man led by fear and had transmitted that fear to his soldiers and none of them, within the forty days the giant had been cursing them day and night, dared to go and confront him. This went on until David showed up on the battlefield to deliver lunch to his brothers.
David was a young man whom God had trained on the back of the mountain while he was tending his father's sheep. God gave him steady victories whenever attackers, whether a lion or a bear, tried to devour the sheep under his care. These victories gave David the courage to know that he had been set up to defeat and remove just another enemy of what was trying to come against what he cared about. But this time, this fight was going to be public, and the victory he already knew he had, was going to be of giant and public proportions.
David counter-decreed every curse the Giant who was a sorcerer was spewing out against the army of Israel (read more about this in my blog post titled: The Judgment of the Neck. Posted on November 11, 2021), and instead, prophesied the Giant's demise because His God was going to give him into his hands. This meant that as David partnered with his God, a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God to the generations of His people, who had already announced and anointed David as the next king of Israel through the Prophet Samuel. Therefore, the battle belonged to Him, and the removal of the opposition to His promises for his generation was imminent.
1 Samuel 17:45-47
45 “Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.” NKJV
Through this undefeatable partnership between God and David, the Giant fell face down on the ground before his head was cut off with his own sword. Let me explain that when a person is said to fall backward, spiritually, this posture represents rebellion and pride. The person may be experiencing exposure that may lead them to repentance, but this is not true repentance because they may just be sorry they got caught in their sin or willful wrongdoing. But Goliath fell face down. This posture represents the true repentance of those who once were under the influence of some bewitchment, including in the church, and the Lord is now removing this veil of bewitchment. (To learn more about this read my blog post titled: Taking Down the Giant of Mammon Worship in the Church Today, published on January 19, 2019). However, sometimes, this becomes a public occurrence that brings shame to the person and those around them because it is the only way God could get their attention.
We can see the second example of humbleness or humiliation that is coming to the church in 1 Kings 18. This passage refers to the confrontation between Elijah, the prophet, and the 450 false prophets who worshipped their god Baal. Baal is the Old Testament name for Mammon, the god of greed and covetousness in the New Testament. This is the same demonic entity that many, even in the body of Christ, have been bowing their knee to for so long. At the time of this confrontation, the people of Israel had been experiencing a severe famine due to the idolatry in their land provoked by their governmental leaders. The God of Israel and His prophets were driven out of the land and many were killed or in bidding, and the worship of God was replaced by worship of Baal and Ashtoreh.
When the Lord told the prophet Elijah that it was time for the rain to return to Israel and the surrounding territories, before this could happen, the prophet Elijah needed to rebuild the altar to the Lord in Samaria, the capital of Israel. For this, he summoned King Ahab and the false prophets who worshipped Baal. He then told all who were present that they needed to stop being torn between two opinions and choose to worship either the One True God or Baal.
Following this, after both sides prepared their altar to see which god was going to send the fire, the prophets of Baal did a lot to try to provoke their god to send the fire to no avail. But one single plea from the prophet Elijah to the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, together with the sacrificial offering of the people of Samaria of the one thing the land lacked (water which was poured on the altar 12 times to represent the government of the Kingdom of Heaven), the fire fell on the altar, causing those who were torn between two opinions to prostrate themselves on the ground and cry out that the Lord is the One True God. This represents those who are going to be confronted about their double-mindedness about the things of God which they have mixed with other doctrines and worldly beliefs knowingly or unknowingly.
James 1:5-8
5 “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” NLT
The third example of humbleness or humiliation finds its way in Acts 9:1-35. In this passage, Saul of Tarsus, a man driven with much determination to do away with the people of the Way, who were serving the Lord but he persecuted them zealously because he was greatly influenced by a religious spirit. Saul sought to stop the will of God through His servants until, one day, on the way to Damascus where once again, after obtaining permission from leaders of the Synagogues, he was going to bind and bring to Jerusalem those he was after.
But suddenly, the Lord confronted him and blinded him with the light of His glory which exposed him to his wrong view of things. This way, Saul of Tarsus was publicly humiliated by the Lord because by persecuting His people, he was persecuting Jesus Himself. Thus, the Lord knocked him off his high horse (pride), and with an audible voice that everyone with him could hear, the Lord demanded that he (Saul) stop coming against His will for His people, and instead, he needed to go to a place until help came to him to remove the scales off his eyes, so he could see according to God’s perspective. This began his journey of repentance and following the will of God for his life and true calling away from the influence of the spirit of religion.
We can see the fourth example the Lord showed me in Revelation 3:8-9.
8 “‘I know your deeds. See, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut, for you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not renounced or denied My name. 9 Take note, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—I will make them come and bow down at your feet and make them know [without any doubt] that I have loved you.” AMP
This passage talks about the people of the church of Philadelphia, a people who were used by God mightily in power and authority to open and shut doors on behalf of the Kingdom of Heaven, but they experienced persecution by those who served Satan and used the name of Jesus to try to infiltrate God’s house and bring their demonic agendas to shut what God wanted open in His house: prayer, true worship, and following the agenda of the Holy Spirit on behalf of His people. These infiltrators pretended to be Christ’s followers, but in reality, they came to the church to persecute and turn the worship of the people away from God.
This is still happening in God's house and He’s coming with His fire to expose them, confront them, and hopefully with true repentance, they can acknowledge that God loves and fights for His people. Their lack of repentance, however, will turn them into enemies of God for which no one will be able to interfere in how he deals with them (See 1 Samuel 2:25).
We find the fifth and final example in Luke 23:48-49.
47 "Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he began praising and honoring God, saying, 'Certainly this Man was innocent.' 48 All the crowds who had gathered for this spectacle, when they saw what had happened, began to return [to their homes], beating their breasts [as a sign of mourning or repentance]." AMP
The fire of the Lord is also going to consume every veil of lies and deception that kept many people seeing with eyes of idolatry, calling the things of God evil, and the things of the enemy good. God is purging every form of idol worship from His house that has kept it from operating in its true Commission from Him to raise disciples of all nations. Disciples are people who follow the teachings of their Teacher (Jesus by His Spirit through the vessels He raises to fulfill this Commission throughout the generations).
Matthew 28:19-20
19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.” AMP
Many people outside the church will be touched by God and exposed to the truth of the Gospel of His Kingdom and will run to His house in repentance and with contrite hearts. For this reason, God is purging His church from every demonic activity and influence that would try to send the people back to captivity and bondage to the enemy they were set free from. Jesus will not allow His name to be tarnished anymore by the things that crept into His church and many leaders opened themselves to this mixture between the things of God and the things of the world and its ruler.
God's house is supposed to be the house that raises true sons and daughters and not sheep. Sheep and shepherds belong to two different species. These shepherds are supposed to, with the help of God’s apostles and prophets, evangelists and teachers, raise true sons and daughters who are continually transformed into God’s image and likeness and grow steadily in their faith and maturity to advance, expand, and defend the Kingdom of God in their spheres of influence and authority. Anything less than that is not of Him.
To God alone be all the glory.**
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