Jeremiah 34:8
The spirit of revolution is coming to God’s end-time remnant as they enter into wholehearted spiritual warfare against the religious systems which actually bring people under bondage.
The Lord is forging a tool of spiritual revolution.
There is no hope for a nation’s liberties except that which comes through the sons of God who can proclaim liberty and loose all creation from futility and into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God (Romans 8:21).
In the days before the American Revolution, England had put a tax on tea and almost everything else. The American ships could not sell anywhere except in British ports. There was a despair in the colonies because there seemed to be no future and no recourse. When the Americans began to rebel, the greatest expeditionary force that had ever been loosed by any nation in the eighteenth century was loosed against them. British troops, well-equipped and well-armed, came to fight against men who did not have enough clothes. Some had no boots or shoes; their bare feet bled in the snow. Others were actually naked. The American army was in such a desperate state that sometimes they even salvaged cannonballs which the British had fired at them in order to have ammunition to shoot back.
It is almost unbelievable that the colonies could actually win that war. Likewise, it is almost unbelievable that a remnant of believers today will be able to stand against religious systems and bureaucracies and believe that God will change today’s situations. God is going to change everything. There will be a liberty. There will be a release from the futility that wars against people. It was a miracle that America could win a war against England, but it does not begin to equal the miracle of a remnant of Christ coming against the religious systems and against the satanic hosts to see liberty truly restored.
In the Scriptures we can look back to the days of tyranny and despotism when the first cries for liberty were heard. The book of Exodus tells about the Passover, the beautiful story of how God delivered His people out of slavery. The struggle for liberty is perennial, because the need for it springs up with every season. Even when people are free, they do not know how to guard their freedom. They become so corrupt that someone with an iron hand and a crooked heart must come to govern them. It is not to be so among the family of God. Isaiah prophesied that many lords have had dominion over us, but the loftiness of man will be brought down and the Lord alone shall be exalted (Isaiah 26:13; 2:11, 17). The Lord will bring down the many kingdoms of this world, whether they be commercial or religious.
In Jeremiah 34, we read what happened when God gave a command to proclaim liberty for those who were in bondage in the land, and the people failed to do so. Beginning in verse 1 we read of the siege set against Jerusalem: The word which came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof.
We cannot understand the nature of this prophecy unless we realize the vastness of the assault that was coming against Jerusalem. A similar situation exists today. Once again, everything is set against what God is doing in the earth. There is such great deception that it is very difficult for a person whose mind has become conformed to this age to understand what God really wants. We can come to a better understanding by looking back at history when everything was against the people of God. All the kingdoms of the earth were under Nebuchadnezzar’s dominion, and they were all fighting against Jerusalem and the cities of Judah.
The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Go, and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire: and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon. Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O Zedekiah king of Judah: Thus saith Jehovah concerning thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword; thou shalt die in peace; and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings that were before thee, so shall they make a burning for thee; and they shall lament thee, saying, Ah Lord! for I have spoken the word, saith Jehovah.
Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, when the king of Babylon’s army was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities.
The word that came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them; that every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, that is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should make bondmen of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother. And all the princes and all the people obeyed, that had entered into the covenant, that every one should let his man-servant, and every one his maid-servant, go free, that none should make bondmen of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go: but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. Even though the prophecies said that it was inevitable that Jerusalem would fall to Nebuchadnezzar, if the people had kept God’s covenant of liberty, even at the very end, they would have been delivered.
Therefore the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, At the end of seven years ye shall let go every man his brother that is a Hebrew, that hath been sold unto thee, and hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. And ye were now turned, and had done that which is right in mine eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: but ye turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and ye brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Ye have not hearkened unto me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim unto you a liberty, saith Jehovah, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth. Jeremiah 34:2–17. When God brought the children of Israel out of the slavery of Egypt, they were perhaps one of the first nations to learn that they could have a bond servant, but they could not have a slave, in the sense that they owned another man. A man might be bought as a servant only to pay his debt.
Many immigrants came to America in this way. For example, the inmates of Newgate Prison in England, a terrible place, were allowed to come to the United States. They did not have any fare, but they were willing to go. They signed their indebtedness to shipmasters who then sold them to plantation owners. They had to serve for a certain number of years before they were set free. Often that worked a hardship, because during that time they would usually fall more deeply into debt, until it became almost a perpetual slavery. The same kind of situation existed in Australia where many political and religious prisoners, as well as criminals, were sent.
The American colonists who started out as indentured servants were somewhat like the Israelites, but the Israelites had one advantage: God had said that six years of servitude was the limit. In the seventh year, they were to go free. No man, no matter how great his debt, was to be held in bondage more then six years. Today there is a legal bankruptcy procedure for an American who would otherwise be perpetually bound through having his wages attached because of his indebtedness. He would become a slave of the economic system if he were not given some release by a fresh start. Under the old Hebrew justice, a man in a similar predicament would have to serve for six years to straighten him out; then he could go free. Everything would be cancelled against him, if he served for six years (Jeremiah 34:14).
Not only was a servant to go free after serving six years, but the land was to have rest every seventh year. After seven such periods had passed, comprising forty-nine years, the following year was to be a Sabbath. That fiftieth year was proclaimed a year of Jubilee. Every captive was to go free. When the trumpet (shofar) sounded throughout the land in that fiftieth year, everyone was released from debt and from prison in an automatic pardon. Everyone returned to the land that had been alloted to his fathers. This procedure served as an automatic land reform (Leviticus 25).
Originally, Canaan had been divided among the twelve tribes, and each tribe divided portions among the families. In the course of time, through ill fortune, accident, or death, a family might be forced to sell the land of their inheritance. The price of the land was always fluctuating. If it was sold the day after the year of Jubilee, it would bring a high price because the buyer could own it for forty-nine years. But in the fiftieth year the property would revert back to the original family which had lost it because of some disaster. If the land was sold forty years after the year of Jubilee, the buyer would have only nine years of service from the land, and so the price he paid for it was automatically lower. This provision constituted a built-in land reform, the lack of which is probably one of the greatest reasons for revolution.
Throughout history, most of the revolutions have been based upon the need for land reforms. Without land reform, the rich become richer, the poor become poorer, and the middle class is virtually eliminated. The hope of every nation is the middle class. In general, the people of the upper class are by nature selfish, self-centered, and oppressive. The poor do not have the facilities or the ability to rise above their poverty because circumstances are against them. However, a strong, vigorous middle class seems to see to it that the lower class is not oppressed and that the upper class does not oppress the entire society.
For this reason, concentrated effort is being made by every liberal, socialist, and Communist doctrine to eliminate the middle class from the United States. It is a nation that contains mostly middle-class people. Today the only hope America has is found in the sense of righteousness and the contributions made by God’s people who are mostly middle class.
God said to Israel, “Let the bond servants go free.” If they had done this, God would have turned the tide, and King Zedekiah would have been delivered from the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews could have been delivered after they first turned their servants free; however, they reversed King Zedekiah’s order and pulled them back into slavery. When that happened, God sent them into slavery for seventy years. Many were the Sabbath years the Israelites had broken, until finally God decided to let the land lie idle for seventy years, a multiplication of all the Sabbath years they had not kept. It would have been much easier if they had just let the land lie idle every seventh year to be blessed of God; and if they had had the sense of liberty, they would have allowed the oppressed to go free after six years of bondage.
In Nazareth, on one apparently insignificant day, an important event took place. Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the book, and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: he hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down: and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, Today hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth… Luke 4:16–22.
These words of Jesus were like an Independence Day message. He was saying to the Jews in His day, in effect, “I have come to proclaim liberty to the captives and to those who are in prison. Go back and remember, O you who are here in the synagogue. Remember the warnings of Jeremiah. This day we are proclaiming liberty. We are proclaiming a year of Jubilee. We are bringing back the laws of Jubilee when every man rejoices and every man goes free.” If there had been cannons, they might have fired them, celebrating in the same manner as they kept the Feast of Tabernacles. By custom, during that Feast, they drew water from the pool of Siloam and poured it out in the court of the Temple while they quoted Isaiah 12:3, Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Then they made a loud noise that could be heard all around—the clanging of cymbals, the beating of drums, and the blowing of trumpets.
Today let us proclaim liberty in the land. Liberty is not something that just happens to people; it is not merely a political state of being. The Lord is telling us that it is time for a spiritual revolution, a time of proclaiming liberty. Proclaim it by faith wherever you see that there is no liberty. When you prophesy, prophesy something as though it already were—as God Himself does when He calls those things that are not as though they were and brings them forth by the Word of faith (Romans 4:17). By faith we understand that this is the way changes will happen.
With all your heart believe for God’s end-time liberation in the earth. Believe in what God is proclaiming. Open your eyes to see what is happening. You may not have noticed, but the mountains are moving and the valleys are rising. There is more opportunity now to break through to God than ever before. Continue proclaiming liberty. Proclaim the release of the firstfruits of that freedom. Perhaps you wonder about the full extent of that freedom. Is it freedom to do more work? Freedom for greater responsibility? No, it is a freedom of spirit. You cannot understand it until you read the eighth chapter of Romans. The groaning and the cry of travail are heard like the trumpet in Zion, because the sons of God are protesting the futility of creation. They are crying to enter into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, in order that all of creation can be loosed.
When you open your mouth to prophesy, proclaim the potential of a new age. That potential will become reality because of the anointing of the Spirit of the Lord that is within you. Blow a trumpet in Zion. Proclaim liberty for others and for yourself. The command of the Lord through Jeremiah was to proclaim liberty, every one to his manservant and to his maidservant. Proclaim liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor. Proclaim that there is freedom. A thousand kinds of chains will be broken, including those chains in your thinking and in your mind that you are not even aware of at the present time.
At the time of the American Revolution, a large percentage of the colonists were against it in principle, even though they were totally involved with it. It was amazing that such a small percentage of the population who were addicted to the concept of liberty were able to go ahead and fight for it. In this day, God’s dedicated disciples who proclaim liberty also do not comprise a great percentage of the general population or of the religious world, but they are a people of spirit who have been anointed by God to proclaim this liberty.
It will be difficult to be a part of God’s end-time army. Those who do so will have to pay a great price, just as the American soldiers did at Valley Forge, when they walked with bleeding feet upon the snow. What happened in American history can be likened to what the saints of God are experiencing at the present time. They are learning to share their bread with one another. Throughout the earth they are sharing the living Word of the Lord that is coming in this hour. They are only a remnant, like a handful of corn on the top of the mountains, but the harvest will shake like Lebanon, like the great trees that shake and move (Psalm 72:16).
A great harvest will come out of every seed that you sow. It is not understandable. There is no calculated plan behind it, except that you stand and speak the Word of the Lord. Proclaim the Word and speak as an oracle of God to see God create. Like Ezekiel, position yourself before valleys of dry bones, and prophesy until standing armies come out of them (Ezekiel 37:1–10). It is already happening. All over the world people are being liberated to move in God.
What will take place next? We cannot foresee the future any more than could the handful of men who pledged their hearts, their hands, and their fortunes for the cause of liberty in the United States. Many of them lost their lands. Their farms were burned. It was discouraging for them to see the destruction that the enemy soldiers left behind. For instance, when the cherry trees were ripe with fruit, the enemy troops cut them down in order to gather the cherries. They shot the cattle only to cut out a few steaks. Household furniture was hacked to pieces and the wells were filled in. Everywhere the land was devastated and farming equipment was destroyed.
The British themselves testified that the retreating American army left tracks of blood on the ground, indicating that many were without boots or stockings; yet they fought on through the winter. Their dead were found without pants or shirts; some were totally naked. Can you imagine the price that was paid by a few to give privileges to so many? Do Americans really appreciate their heritage? May God help us to rise up and fight for the liberties we have, so that we do not see them washed down the drain into a complicated socialism of bureaucracy. May God give us liberty again. Not one founding father of the United States, if he were brought back to life today, would fail to object thoroughly to the regimentation by the bureaucracy upon the liberties of the people.
We must be a people similar to them. We must break through to this liberty, even if we have to suffer. Probably our hearts will bleed many times, but God’s will must come to pass. At the present time, it looks as if everything has yet to be done. The big religious systems still seem to be intact. They are still raking in millions of dollars, while starving the people by failing to give them a living Word. There is not a living Word being preached in all of traditional Christianity. Some churches preach a fundamental teaching that causes people to be born of God; but they seem to wither on the vine because they are not taught how to go on with God and walk with Him. Some people go to church month after month, praying that there will be one service in which they will receive a word to live by. However, in the New Testament churches that God is restoring, the living Word is flowing. The believers prophesy to one another and grow strong. Those who were the poor and outcast of the earth are becoming the sons of liberty. They are being delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
America has become the last stronghold of liberty. Most of the world’s missionaries are supported by Christians there. Regardless of anyone’s opinions about the land of the Stars and Stripes, it is there that God’s remnant of the earth in this end time is being brought forth. There will be a remnant in every nation on the earth, but they will be established by men who were trained to a dedicated walk of discipleship through the living Word that is coming in this hour from America.
Pray for America. Abraham asked God if He would destroy Sodom if He could find ten righteous persons. The answer was no (Genesis 18:32). Will God destroy the United States if He can find a remnant that are determined to glorify Him and see His will come forth? No. It is not the majority who are living in wickedness and sin that count; a minority can change the nation. That has always been true.
During the American Revolution the British soldiers were well-equipped, and they spent hours every day washing their white breeches, powdering their hair, and polishing their metal work. At Valley Forge and at Morristown in 1780, the American forces scarcely had tents to pitch. There were few blankets or clothes. Without shoes and stockings they worked in snow knee-deep. Thousands of men retreated who were naked or too thinly clothed for service. The hardship and hunger were so demoralizing that defeat seemed evident. One doctor, who struggled daily to present a soldierly appearance, poured his heart out in anguish in his letters. He wrote of the pitiful condition of friends and fellow-soldiers. Their clothing was not sufficient and was tattered, their entire appearance was that of discouragement, their bodies were sore and plagued with a tormenting itch, and their feet were lame.
Does this move you? Can you identify with it as a member of the end-time army of the Lord which God is raising up? You must cleave to your brothers in the Lord and pray for one another, because many are wounded in spiritual warfare. There is a demonic assault against the physical, the psychic, and the spiritual natures of God’s people. They could live some other way, but they have chosen this way; and they feel exalted to be partakers of the sufferings of Christ in order to bring forth His Kingdom.
As a soldier in Christ, you must get ready for war. Begin to intercede. Begin to be violent in spirit. When Christ made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, it was in order to suffer for our sins. In this day, a humble people are making a triumphal entry in order to bring to Christ the reward of His sufferings, that He rule and reign over the nations. There is still the pharisee who will protest the sincere cries of God’s people. But once again the Word comes that if these hold their peace in this hour, when the army of the Lord comes forth, surely the rocks will cry out His Lordship, that He is King of kings and Lord of lords.
The time has come for the expression of this truth. The time has come for the proclaiming of the Kingdom. It is the time for the army of the Lord to prophesy for God and claim the whole earth with all of its realms. Satan must become a displaced foe, no longer usurping that which belongs to Jesus Christ. Psalm 24:1 tells us, The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof… Too many centuries have passed with the earth under futility, and the human mind has become conditioned to accept a rule of satanic order. No longer shall it be so. All authority in heaven and on earth is Christ’s (Matthew 28:18). Every knee must bow and every tongue must confess the claims of Christ over every realm.
It is difficult to believe that the early American army, destitute as it was, could defeat the eighteenth century’s strongest nation. Many of the American soldiers ate dried alligator, and even the leather of their boots to survive. What an encouragement it must have been for those who saw the signal being given for the final battle at Yorktown, as the star-spangled banner was raised to wave majestically in the face of the foe.
By the world’s standards, the people of God are outnumbered and out equipped, but they have the sword of the Spirit, the living Word of God. All they need do is be open to become channels of God. The earth has never seen such a tremendous release as that which will come from the army of the Lord that will prophesy the Word of God. No force has ever been turned loose in any realm—whether natural, soulish, or spiritual—that will be as tremendous as a people who prophesy. Even if they prophesy the Word of the Lord in the desert, with nothing around but the cactus to hear, that Word will go forth and be effective. God will loose creation according to the Word that is proclaimed, because the victory is based upon His authority and His right to rule. It is based upon His will for His people, and they are the agents and the instruments of God to accomplish His will in the earth.