“Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.” NTV
While in prayer this morning I heard the Lord say the He's declaring war on the Mammon spirit in the church. Earlier this year I had a dream where I was in a hospital and I saw people on stretchers everywhere because there were no more rooms available, and I heard doctors and nurses talking amongst themselves that there was intense fire, and the people were suffering from heat exhaustion/ This means as I sought the revelation of the dream that the people were not being burned, only the things that didn't come from the Kingdom.
Then, while with some friends, I received even more revelation of the dream that it is finally coming to pass. In this dream, in the dream, a man who represented God the Father, was wearing pants of fine Italian fabric, and the color was an almost iridescent blue, but his chest was bare signifying that the Father is now revealing His heart and exposing many things, including many manifestations of the Mammon spirit that has been allowed to influence leaders and others believers at large.
The influence of this spirit has been vast and its opposition to the prophetic and apostolic specially, has been great, until many of those raised by God to quench the fiery darts that this spirit together with Jezebel and religion inflicted on God's servants, caused them to be driven from God's house as an attempt of its retaliation.
But for these faithful servants, God the Father has come as their defender and avenger against these spirits that have opposed His true ways in His house. For this, His intense consuming fire is at the level of completing His burning process, and for that, it needed to be turned up. This is not the strange fire that Nebuchadnezzar sent to be ignited against the three Hebrew boys for which the fourth man (Jesus) came to rescue them.
This is a fire that has come with more intensity than before to quench Mammon worship, other forms of idolatry, and every replacement of the true ways of God, especially the things spoken by His servants the prophets and apostles to remove those demonic doctrines and the influence of that spirit from His church where also Jezebel was allowed to feed and sustain its false prophets at the expense of the true prophets and apostles of God not having what they need to be sustained or to serve the Lord due to the persecution they have endured for long periods.
Yet, 1 Timothy 5:18 says,
“For the Scripture says, 'You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” And in another place, “Those who work deserve their pay!'” NTV
For example, during my times of process when I was being trained by God to oppose all the ways of Mammon, and follow the ways of His Kingdom, I was commanded to trust Him for my sustenance, but because it was not the “conventional” way of obtaining sustenance many believe , some used to tell me, “if you don't work you don't eat.” They didn't know the Lord told me many years ago when He told me to quit my job, not to be afraid for He's my exceedingly great reward (Genesis 15:1), and I will have whatever I need in the way He chose to provide it while I was in my period of process.
“Stay where you’re welcomed. Become part of the family, eating and drinking whatever they give you. You’re My workers, and you deserve to be cared for. Again, don’t go from house to house,” VOICE
There have been a lot of confusion in the church about how to deal with every member, with the different ranks, callings, and functions within the church. God is not a cookie cutter God and every member has his or her unique calling. For this reason, we cannot assume that everyone in the church needs to be treated or “managed” in the same way. This is why the church needs to be more discerning of the season its members are in and whether or not they may be in a process where they're learning the ways of God for their calling.
There are some examples in the Bible of why it says that men do not eat if they don't work. This means that our ways and means of sustenance need to come from God's ways and free from Mammon influence. We need to account especial circumstances such as God's mandate for a person's calling and purpose for their lives and how He chooses to supply their needs, whether through a business, a job, a ministry, by raising people to sustain their work, etc.
Among those examples are the apostles Peter, James, John, and others. The first time Jesus led them to a great surplus of fish with a net-breaking catch, following this supernatural way of providing sustenance, after that, He commissioned them to switch from catching fish and living from the fishing industry to becoming fishers of men.
“Then He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.'” NKJV
This involved looking at their sustenance in a different way, because they would be provided from following this commission with obedience and going after souls while they followed Jesus and His instructions and demonstrations to them for how to fulfill their new commission. But then came the unthinkable. Their Master and Teacher died on the Cross, leaving them perplexed and without hope that they could follow their new found way to live and find sustenance. They forgot He promised them that He would rise again.
So, instead of trusting God to provide for their new calling, they went back to their old ways, not realizing that that door of provision to their old ways was already shut to them. Therefore, as they tried to go back to their old ways of “fishing,” they found the heavens shut because if they were not working according to the way Jesus had established for them. They could not find in any other way the level of sustenance God wanted to entrust to them.
This is something that cannot be taken lightly. In order to come out of the ways of Mammon, as believers, we need to trust God and allow Him to show us how He wants to provide for us and follow His direction to be positioned to receive what He promised. This requires intimacy with Him, as He knows what will help us receive from Him in ways that will endure the fire of testing later on.
If He's choosing to speak to some people to be the ones to supply a need for others but they refuse to obey, those hoarders make themselves enemies of God because we are but stewards of the things, the true owner, God entrusts us with, knowing that whenever He deliberately chooses to shift stewardship of His possessions to another, we need to obey and hand over stewardship of those finances, resources, relationships (whether ministerial or business alliances, or some friendships), positions, or titles to the one He shows us to give them to.
In addition, because Mammon worship has taught many believers to become debtors, and also to trust in the work of their hands instead of the supernatural power of God to supply their needs, they ignore His promptings to shift stewardship of the things they think they own, but it's not theirs, they belong to God.
‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts.” NKJV
“The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.” NKJV
That is why when the devouring fire comes to test people' believes and how they seek to obtain sustenance whether according to the ways of God, or by following the ways of the Mammon spirit, when the latter has been the choice, what is seen as a result is a shaking and a burning of those things, according to Hebrews 12:25-29,
25 “Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! 26 When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: 'Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.' 27 This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.
28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. 29 For our God is a devouring fire.” NLT
Another extreme that many people, even believers follow, is the way of greed which is also driven by Mammon influence, even in the house of God. One of those ways is reflected in our seasons to receive or abstain from receiving in our own ways. Whenever God is taking us to a season of learning to drive out any idolatry in the area of receiving sustenance or even gifts, we need to receive only when and in the way He chooses for us, until we have learned the difference between the ways of God and the ways of the world and its contamination.
Elisha understood this and refused to receive lavish gifts from Naaman, a commander of the Assyrian army who was healed of leprosy at the word of the Lord through the prophet and by following his direction in order to receive the healing.
“But Elisha replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept any gifts.” And though Naaman urged him to take the gift, Elisha refused.” NLT
The commander, acting in an extremely grateful way towards the prophet, wanted to empty out the loads his donkeys were carrying with gifts for the prophet, because this was a season when Elisha could not receive such gifts, thus, he refused them even though Naaman insisted.
But his assistant Gehazy still showed signs of his contamination with the greed of the world and went after those gifts, thinking he could manipulate his way and hide from his mentor as he pursued those gifts. As consequence, he was not only confronted by Elisha, but his disobedience granted him and his sons the leprosy Naaman was healed from.
26 “But Elisha asked him, 'Don’t you realize that I was there in spirit when Naaman stepped down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to receive money and clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and cattle, and male and female servants? 27 Because you have done this, you and your descendants will suffer from Naaman’s leprosy forever.' When Gehazi left the room, he was covered with leprosy; his skin was white as snow.” NLT
Another one who displayed greed with his prophetic gift was Balaam, known as the prophet for hire because he went where he saw gain, not counting whether or not God had sent him. He's also known for his false teachings that lead away from the way of truth.
“They have veered off the right road and gotten lost, following in the steps of Balaam, the son of Beor, the false prophet. Balaam loved the reward he could get by doing evil,” VOICE
In essence, God is warning His church that His heat has turned up higher and this consuming fire is here to devour everything that did not come from Him, including in the area of finances and how we go about finding sustenance. I found in Google that in order for the fire to turn blue, (the color of the pants the man who represented our Father was wearing in my dream) there has to be a temperature of 3,600°F (1,982°C), and one of the variables that influence the color of the fire is the supply of oxygen which represents the Holy Spirit.
“If a man’s work is consumed by the fire, his reward will be lost but he will be spared, rescued from the fire.” VOICE
To God alone be all the glory.**
Image by Google Images
