Aligning with the Lord as a Community
We are going to look at a condition described in Scriptures, that portrays society today.
God is all about Restitution! Thus, we will identify The Problem, The Solution, and The Promise!
1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in
the days of your fathers?
A resounding: NO! I have never seen anything like this in my 73 years. My 94 year old mother said she has never seen anything in her days like we see in our country today.
Summary: The Lord has Joel to explain to His people: 1: what is going on, 2: why this hour is different,
3: what we must do as His Nation, 4: what will happen if we continue to do nothing,
5: what He promises He will do if we wake up and obey what He tells us to do!
Man wants God out of the public sector. demonic strongholds have been built in high places that rule societies. There is no restraint to evil in public. You can see it but you can't stop it. This is because the Church has been holding hands and walking with the world;
3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
People who don’t want to hear this, think about it, talk about it or do something about it are drunk!
We must wake up spiritually. Take responsibility and be accountable beyond our personal lives!
The Day of the Lord is not a onetime event for a specific generation.
Judgment is cyclic, generational; God mentions four generations to Abraham: Gen 15:16,
He tells Joel to teach it to four generations!
Q: Why would the Lord tell Joel to teach about the “Day of the Lord?”
A: I believe so the generation in time, when they see this upon the land, --
will know and recognize what is happening and why,
He is warning us what will happen if we continue to allow it to happen,
He tells us what we must do to stop it and change it
And He promises restoration if we wake up and obey His Word!
Recognizing what is happening,
Read the condition in Joel's letter. Does our day look like this.
When we see these things in our time, KNOW WHY and KNOW WHAT we must do!
KNOW WHAT GOD PROMISES He will restore to us!
Let us respond properly to God and work with Him for our city(s) and nation (s).
4 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm
eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar has eaten.
Palmer worm? Locust? Cankerworm? Caterpillar? Do we have worms? Oh yeah! It came by degrees. It started so small we hardly noticed it. We commented on it but didn't think it was that big of a deal, certainly no game changer. We thought, “surely someone will do something about this,” and we went on with life as usual.
satan is a strategist
The inheritance God gives to His heritage is not consumed and lost all at once.
1st palmerworm came, ate all he could; didn't think it was that much, but he made way for locust to come.
The locust couldn’t eat all that was left but he did open door for cankerworm to come and eat.
cankerworm came, ate his fill and prepared way for the caterpillar to come eat.
That which the cankerworm left the caterpillar has eaten.
One thing opens door for the next one thing to come in and devour another portion.
One day, we wake up, we have lost all our God given freedoms, rights and heritages.
satan is a strategist; his kingdom is highly strategic and systematic: Eph 6:11
unfortunately, the Body of Christ has not been; but we are waking up!
Application today:
When we allow one thing to happen, evil one wins a battle for society,
we think “not a big deal, not a game changer,” we let it go thinking things will stay same.
Also thinking, “someone has wisdom to stop, change this,” someone will do right
So we say nothing, do nothing and evil marches on!
1962 __ Took prayer out of school: no game changer; said that not stop me from praying,
1963 -- Next year took the Bible out of school: decades later, today, no God, no absolutes.
196(7)? – took Christian heritage out of our history books; rewrote US History, by design
1973 -- roe v/s wade: shed innocent blood -- released a culture of death into society
2014 -- remove The Ten Commandments from public: Govt., Bldgs; schools, no accountability,
2015 -- redefined marriage, ungodly judges change the ordinances of marriage;
2016 -- now you get arrested for preaching the gospel or standing for truth
Here Is The Problem
You cannot touch evil in our public sector. You can see it everywhere but you can't stop it. A spirit of lawlessness and terrorism is released upon our land.
Only God has the power to heal our nation and turn her back to her God given destiny! Only one group of people have power with God to do this, the Body of Christ!
You can't touch evil because the adversaries of the Lord are one. Unfortunately, there are breaches in His Body.
The Solution: The Solemn Assembly Joel 1:14-15, 2:15-17
God has given His people the tool to fix our problem: the Solemn Assembly.
The Solemn Assembly is not a unity meeting, per se.’ It is a call for the Body of Christ to formally assemble to seek The Face of The Lord, at an appointed time and for a definite purpose!
It is a meeting that He has ordained for us to assemble as in keeping a feast unto Him. I say this, because He does not tell us to seek His Face in vain!
We engage Heaven to Repent, Renew, and Commit to move with The Lord. We assemble as One Church in a city to seek His Face and ask Him to give us our city!
We have had National Assemblies: God has gathered His Hosts, in the natural and the spirit, in national solemn assemblies on the east coast and the west coast, on the northern border and the southern border.
Now it is time to close up those gaps in between with that same fire and move of Heaven, to engage the Lord in every city, region and state.
There is much to be said about this but I am trying to make this short as possible. We will discuss this in more detail later.
The Promise
God is not running out of mercy; we are running out of time. Because of the time we must have great expectation and urgency to do what He is saying.
He is closing up the breaches in His Body and breaking His adversaries into pieces!
Do I think it will happen immediately? No, not all of it but it will begin. And He will fulfill each of them as we continue to move with Him as One Church in our city. We will look at other promises of restitution in other lessons.
Word of Exhortation
I sense we are at a “Caleb” moment. The Lord is trying to move us into our destiny and Inheritance. Caleb followed God with his whole heart; he had a different spirit. He said, do not look at how big these giants are; they are meat for us. Do not look at the walled cities; their defense is taken away from them. Only do not rebel against God. If we show up, the adversaries will flee!
As we, the Body of Christ, gather as One Church unto The Lord, to seek, obey and to work with Him as one Church in a city, we will occupy our promised land. We will begin to see all of God’s prophesies to us begin to be fulfilled. The time between their fulfillment will become faster and shorter and faster and shorter until, -- every prophecy is fulfilled in God’s exact allotted time!