Although we have not yet reached the main objective, it seems many other things are being loosed and are falling away. I am trusting God with all my heart that this Feast of Tabernacles will mark the end of the battle we have been in. You may wonder why we choose a feast for a deadline like that. The feasts are significant events that seem to be based on God’s timetable. Because of the spiritual significance and the prophetic import they have, He fulfills His promises at that time. As I see it, the breakthrough will involve mortal judgment.
I am usually able to trace the sources by which the pressures are coming; there is a principle involved. Christ knew that Judas would betray Him. He told His disciples, “Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil (King James says “a devil” but actually it is “the devil”). Satan entered into the heart of Judas on the night of the Passover, and he went out for the final procedure of betrayal. I do not believe it is the will of God for this move to be betrayed. However, at one time the Spirit showed me that a certain individual had the potential of becoming the Judas to this walk. At the present time this individual’s spirit is persistently present, through every kind of uncanny contact. The body of Christ is going through something again. When Christ came forth the first time, He went through certain things in His sacrificial work for the perfection of the Body. Now He is coming forth in His Body to be glorified, to be admired in all the saints.
We see a reverse procedure until it seems as if we are going through some of the same steps that Christ went through in the flesh. We must pray. The heaviness has to end. This is not a Gethsemane in which the disciples can sleep; this is the glorious unity of prayer, in which we all come alive and our eyes are to be opened. We are following a reverse pattern; instead of the heaviness being upon us, we battle it. If we give in to the heaviness and weariness that the demon spirits are bringing against us, we will see the pattern of betrayal. But if we contend earnestly, if we reach in with faith and constantly rise, refusing to be discouraged, if we associate with one another in this hour of transition and intercession, we will rise in the spirit into resurrection life.
It seems as if we are right on the brink of everything that is good, and yet there is an ominous feeling with us, that though it is not dependent upon our strength, we must watch and pray. The end-time warning is the same as it was in Gethsemane, “Could ye not watch one hour? Watch and pray. Be alert.” There’s a dullness, a heaviness. Men’s hearts are being overtaken with cares and problems, and the day is coming upon them unawares. But God has sounded the trumpet in Zion, and we are refusing to be a part of this heaviness. We are coming right into the end-time witness, and Satan is making a bid to put a heaviness over the whole world so the world will miss it. We are not going to miss!
God is trying to prepare the hearts of the people. Key principles and revelation have been given as an apostolic foundation to prepare the body for the end time. One of these principles is the danger of sympathy. It can be deadly because it opens the door for you to participate with another man in his judgment. After God brought judgment on Korah in his rebellion, and the earth swallowed him and his family, some of the people confronted Moses furiously, “You killed the people of the Lord.” Because they were sympathetic with Korah they participated in his judgment, for they became just as guilty as he. If you have an identification with a man through either sympathy or compassion, you share with that individual what happens to him.
Likewise, when you open your heart to a prophet and are identified with him and his ministry, you will receive a prophet’s reward. When you reach out to the elders and pray for them and bless them, you are identified with them, and you will receive the same reward they do. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. You cannot give a cup of cold water without receiving your reward (Matthew 10:41–42). How important it is that we be identified with one another in the Lord, with a compassion and oneness that God wants us to have. And how important it is also that you not be sympathetic toward rebellion or God’s chastenings and dealings. When God deals with a situation, you keep your hands off of it, for if you become sympathetic with another person, you will become oppressed in it.
One illustrative example of that is right here in the church. Sometimes God cuts off members of your own family and you have to say in your heart, “If God cuts you off, I cut you off. I think God’s thoughts after Him.” You have to love Him first. It is true, this is a walk by grace, but you have to understand that your faithfulness to the Lord and to His Word is not a faithfulness on a human plane to any individual who wanders in error or sin. You pray for him but you do not identify yourself with him through sympathy. If you do, that sympathy makes you a partaker. Paul wrote in I Timothy 5:22, “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins.” Pray for the situation, but remain remote. Do not identify yourself with another person’s transgression to excuse or condone it, to be sympathetic with it. Hate it. Have compassion for the individual and pray for him; God will bless you in that. That is one of the principles God has given us to prepare us for what is coming in the future. When God begins to deal, you say, “Amen. Let it happen.”
It is difficult to understand the time that God is bringing; but we know it has to come. I cannot see the earth going on at this rate, with iniquity abounding, without God doing something about it. I cannot see a remnant being swallowed up by the tide of satanic evil. I cannot see us remaining open to be hit and slaughtered continually by demonic oppression.
It is very important for us to be prepared in this hour. People who have been in this walk with God for ten years will look back, thankful for every day they have been under the teaching and in preparation, because human thinking will take over unless the divine principles are observed. You do not go up before a judge and say, “I think it ought to be this way or the other way.” In a court of law, what the law says counts—not what you are inclined to feel or what your sympathy might dictate—because the processes of law must adhere to the evidence.
A walk with God in the end time will follow the principles that God has revealed. We will have to think the way God thinks and not the way we would normally follow certain ideas. God will have a witness, a living word, that will go around the world. We have already been tasting of it. Every day the flow has less and less of the human, and more of the divine flow in the Word. Instead of sermons, the word is nearly always pertinent foundational truths and principles for a walk with God. This living word will multiply and increase beyond the level of prophecy even as we know it.
How beautiful it must have been to sit at Christ’s feet and marvel at His doctrine and the authority with which He spoke. Men who came to seize Him were amazed at that word and said, “Never a man spoke as this man speaks.” Isn’t it significant that Christ will again be speaking, this time through His Body? He will have lips to speak, hands to heal, and eyes to perceive, in depth, the great many-membered Body which will be even greater in its operation than was Christ Himself at any time or in any event. Then all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in one man. Now the fullness of God will dwell bodily in a many-membered Body.
the enemy will work in clicks, in the spirit we can see people, who we discern have a certain spirit, sit in a certain spot and other people whom they didn’t even know come and sat in front of them or beside them. They were strangers, but they had the same devils, the same kind of spirit, and they would group themselves together. That happens quite often.
People can be drawn together by devil power into a unity of purpose to destroy the work of God. Apparently, they are the best of friends, but when they do not succeed, they go off in every direction and will not even talk to each other again.
Only two forces will unify people beyond the spirit of cooperation, beyond any family tie or other loyalty: the Holy Spirit and the devil.
We are being hit by everything that can come at us because we have come into unity. The devil cannot produce anything but a temporary false unity. Its very nature splits it up. It only gravitates together for a moment, but the Body is coming together for eternity!
This unity can destroy every momentary unity presented by any kind of a satanic front. We are receiving wisdom to understand what is coming.
A number of Satan’s tricks are mentioned in the book of Nehemiah. When they were trying to build the walls again, rumors, lies, distractions of every nature were presented. They came to Nehemiah on the wall and said, “Come on down; you don’t know what they are plotting against you.”
He refused, “I’m doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work of the Lord cease while I come down to you?” He would not even stop for a conference.
A principle you will have to learn is that of being undistracted by lesser things that would discourage or terrorize you or create fear in you to break your unity.
We are being hit by many things for only one purpose: to distract us from the course we are on, because we are ready to hang the gates on the wall. Zion will become a fortified city again, where no one will pass through except those who are clean.
It is amazing how a walk with God will be without hypocrisy from the very beginning. The minute something is wrong it becomes glaringly apparent. No one will be successful in creating a hypocritical situation in this walk with God.
This is the first move of God’s Spirit to reach this level in the restoration of transparency, which means we are coming into a fulfillment of I Corinthians 13, where we will know even as we are known.
You perceive and understand what is in your brother’s or sister’s heart, and they do not have to be phony because you see through them anyway.
No one in this walk with God has to put on a religious air or front. You can be spiritual, seeking the face of God, and all your needs will be out in the open.
Pray for one another and believe for one another. It is not in my heart to judge anyone. I watch people going through their problems, but I never condemn them because these are a people in motion, seeking after the Lord in their spirit, struggling to maintain an open spirit before the Lord.
Nehemiah faced the distraction and said, “I’m doing a great work and I can’t come down.” What would have happened if Nehemiah had looked aside to the trouble and gone down to have that little pow-wow?
The same thing that happened to Peter when he attempted to leave his limitations, to leave the boat where he was safe with the usual run of things he could cope with. He knew the rules; he was skilled in seamanship; he could sail a boat with his eyes closed.
Now he was to try something he had never done before: crawl outside the boat, place his foot on the water and start walking. He did really well until the distraction came, as the spirits brought strong winds and boisterous waves, trying to shake him up.
Peter took one look at them and started to go down, crying out, “Lord, save me.” That is a good prayer too. The Lord lifted him up and helped him back into the boat.
If you are attempting to walk on water, if you are trying to come to the end of your own limitations and move into something beyond anything you have ability to move in, if you are believing for the grace of God to bring you into something far above it, the one thing you must guard against is distractions. You cannot be distracted. The mark of every man who has ever moved on in God is that he set his focus and he did not move away from it.
What kind of distractions could come to you? Lesser burdens that appear to be worthy projects may be set before you by the devil. However, God sets before us the most important things.
I am never burdened about popular charitable organizations. I would rather subscribe to the elders’ and deacons’ fund and back up some of the struggling young prophets who are coming forth than to back a charity that is largely promotion.
Nor am I in favor of denominational missionary programs because the greater part of their income is also siphoned off for organization. Denominations tend to spend a great deal of money on side issues that God is not in.
I am trying to illustrate how we could be distracted by taking a lesser burden—something that is not so important—instead of doing the thing God has set before us to do.
Frankly, I feel that the few people who walk with God should be totally dedicated to that walk, with their money, their time and their prayers. I do not know of any group of people this small that has had as much of an impact on the spiritual world as this remnant has had—and we have just started. But we have to be dedicated.
Physical distraction can also be diverting. It is difficult to pray when you have a headache or when you are being hit.
Financial problems can present distractions. Often you recognize a satanic quality in the events that create these financial problems.
Distractions can come in relationships that the devil places before you. We have seen many fine young men, who were called by God to the ministry, lost by this route. They were distracted by a pair of well-turned ankles and a beautiful smile. Without stopping to think about it seriously, they found themselves married to someone who would not go near the ministry, and they had to look for something else in life because they had not found the right wife.
Moral distractions are common (I am not thinking primarily of the things of lust by the term “moral”). It is easy to suddenly become ambitious for something you want.
A man who is really seeking God may have an opportunity for a good promotion in his work which would take him away from the church and his walk with God. Moral or prestige distractions can pull you away.
Spiritual distractions and multiplying interests could come. You must watch what God gives you, and what the devil shoves at you, making you think God has given it to you. He will bring so many friends and so many interests that you will not need any problems to destroy you.
When you become busy and involved with too many responsibilities, you will miss the one necessary objective. I have taken my responsibility for the people very seriously for many years. I do not take vacations or time off like I should. If I do not watch it, I will be missing the one thing God called me to do. He called me to walk with Him. What I can do for His people is incidental. My first responsibility is to seek the Kingdom of God.
One can become so laden with responsibilities and a false sense of responsibility that they do not serve God or the people. I have seen homes where they missed the ministry because of this.
Instead of the wife ministering to her husband and to her children according to the course God had indicated in prophecies, she was trying to take care of everybody else’s business.
Consequently, the husband and the children did not fulfill their ministries. First things must come first. I am not saying that you cannot minister to anyone else, but you cannot unless God speaks to you to do it. That makes it your prime concern.
We do not want to be distracted. Lest we be wearied and faint in our mind, we are looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith!