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BRACE YOURSELF! THE HAND OF THE LORD IS COMING DOWN UPON THE CHURCH!

In a startling prophetic experience, the Lord said, "I have a message for the Church!"The message is - "Brace yourself! The hand of the Lord is coming down upon the Church." I said "Lord!" that sounds threatening, He replied, "It is!"

THE HAND OF THE LORD

The hand of the Lord deals with His Divine Government. His hand will come down and commence to shake down everything He has not built. The hand of the Lord also speaks of the functioning fivefold ministry flowing together. The Word of God declares in Psalm 127:1 "Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." The writer of the book of Hebrews warns us concerning this upcoming shaking, in Hebrews 12:25-29 declaring 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, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth but also heaven." 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. 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. For our, God is a consuming fire.

God Is Going To Deal With Our Foundation

God will Demolish Man s Self-glorifying Efforts.

God is beginning to reveal and shake down every work that is not of HIM. The example of how He dealt with the tower of Babel is a warning for all who attempt to build a name for themselves. In Genesis 11:1-9 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They had a brick for stone, and they had slime for mortar. And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we are scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth, and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

God is again destroying every effort of mankind to build a name for themselves and attempting to get to heaven without God. This coming judgment of God will deal with fruit as well as foundation. The Refiner s fire will only serve to purify and make more precious the true faith. (See Malachi 3:1-3)

The Tower of Babel was an ancient tower symbolizing man's pride and rebellion that was built during the period after the flood. The teachings are many for us in this display of God s disapproval of our efforts to seek a name and a place for ourselves apart from the Spirit of God. We must remember salvation is from the Lord, man cannot work his way into the kingdom of God. (See Eph. 2:8-10) also (Titus 3:5-7).

Brick In The Place Of Stone- Bricks Speaks of the work of man.

The tower was constructed of brick, brick is always the type of man's labors and man's work. Man builds with a brick because they are all formed alike, uniformity is not a substitute for true unity, however, bricks are an inferior substitute for stone. ( see Is. 9:10). No matter how big a tower we build it is nothing for God to shake down. To men, the tower is an architectural monument Deut. 1:28, but to God, it is so small that He must come down from heaven to catch a glimpse of this tiny endeavor. The construction of the tower and city is described as an act of self-glorification by the builders. Mankind continuously plays the role of a fool when he attempts to seek for his own protection, attempting to be his own salvation. It is a mistake to seek salvation and help from any source except God. See Proverbs 14:12, and Acts 4:12.

OUR FOUNDATION IS FUNDAMENTAL

Foundation is the strong, stable base on which a building is built. Jesus spoke very powerful about foundations in the Sermon on the Mount, teaching that believers should build their faith on the strong, solid foundation of obeying His Word. The apostle Paul also referred to Christ as a foundation for believers (See1 Cor. 3:11). The Prophet Isaiah reveals how precious and powerful Christ Jesus is in Isa 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily.

In this vision, I was told that we must examine the foundation to make sure it was solid. It is crucial that we have the correct foundation. Hear the warning of Jesus Christ spoken in Matthew 7:20-27 "Therefore by their fruits you will know them. "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. "Now everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its fall."

Notice Jesus was inspecting the foundation not just the deeds being done. This is a strong warning, against just trusting in what one does as evidence that they are right with God.

EXAMINATION TIME

It is time for some very close investigation and examinations. Hear these instructions found in 2 Cor 13:5 "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?-- unless indeed you are disqualified". It is time to ask the Spirit of God to turn on the searchlight and expose everything false and fake in our life.

The only sure foundation is the Word of God. Paul writes in 1 Cor 3:11-15 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. The fire of God s judgment will only work the work of purifying if our foundation is correct and will only prove what we have built.

THE SURE SOLID FOUNDATION

Jesus Christ is the only true Cornerstone and Foundation. Ps 118:22-23 The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

This was the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builder together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

THE FIVE-FOLD MINISTRY

This coming Government of God s hand will be the functioning five fold ministry spoken of in Paul s letter to the Church at Ephesus in Eph 4:11-14 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

We are experiencing the unfolding of the promised five-fold ministry. Thank God for how the Spirit of God is releasing understanding about the roles and responsibilities of these ministries. God is bringing about a team ministry that will prepare the Saints for the work of service. The Christian life was never intended to be something we observed someone else doing. It is time to be actively serving Jesus.

THE PROPER POSTURE AND POSITION

In response to the warning of "brace yourself" I questioned "Lord! How can we be ready for the hand of God?" He said only in the place of true humility. It is time to get honest and humble before the Lord. We have been brought to a place of real repentance. It is a broken and contrite heart that touches the heart of God. (See Psalms 51:17.

May God grant us the grace to fall upon the Rock in true humility. Asking God to prune us and cut away from our lives anything that would keep us from being fruitful for the Kingdom of God. We welcome this coming shaking in order to deal with any deception. Remember it is only in Christ the Solid Rock we can stand, all else is sinking sand. (Amen)