I want to share the Word of the Lord that He is speaking to me today:
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place-unless you repent.
Revelation 2:4, 5
Part of my testimony is that at the time of my ultimate brokenness, and subsequent restoration, that the Lord told me:
"I HAVE THIS AGAINST YOU...RETURN TO ME, I'M YOUR FIRST LOVE..." this word from the throne broke my heart, but it was necessary because I had embraced the junk of this world.
Somehow I had strayed so far away from my first love, Jesus...it had happened slowly, insidiously...I had pursued other loves, and I had failed to realize and understand who The Lord really is, and how jealous, ragingly jealous the Lord our Bridegroom is regarding relationship with each of us, and how important we are to Him.
"Yet even now," declares the LORD,
"Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments."
Now return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
And relenting of evil.
Joel 2:12, 13
Our home coming can only happen when our hardened hearts are broken,
when we are willing to lose our own lives to gain the Abundant life.
In Joel 2, His spirit is poured out, but only after our hearts are broken.
We are to be transformed, yielded, holding nothing back.
We may think that we understand God, that He is altogether like us, but He is not!
Let us not think that we can have hide things, dark things, from everyone, including Him and put on a nice show, a nice god-like veneer, but God sees everything, and knows everything!
In this time, even now, the Lord is exposing everything: deception, lies, rhetorical hair-splitting, and rationalizing away idolatrous, sinful living.
That is a weighty and sobering thought, don't you think?
We are in the valley of decision, beloved, we can either fall on the Cornerstone and be broken and surrendered to Him, return to Him, and enter into real relationship with our First Love, or eventually be crushed because of our unbelief, our unwillingness to surrender self interests and self desires.
The Children of Israel were at a similar place, as Joshua spoke plainly to them, and I will leave you with this:
If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:15
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place-unless you repent.
Revelation 2:4, 5
Part of my testimony is that at the time of my ultimate brokenness, and subsequent restoration, that the Lord told me:
"I HAVE THIS AGAINST YOU...RETURN TO ME, I'M YOUR FIRST LOVE..." this word from the throne broke my heart, but it was necessary because I had embraced the junk of this world.
Somehow I had strayed so far away from my first love, Jesus...it had happened slowly, insidiously...I had pursued other loves, and I had failed to realize and understand who The Lord really is, and how jealous, ragingly jealous the Lord our Bridegroom is regarding relationship with each of us, and how important we are to Him.
"Yet even now," declares the LORD,
"Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments."
Now return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
And relenting of evil.
Joel 2:12, 13
Our home coming can only happen when our hardened hearts are broken,
when we are willing to lose our own lives to gain the Abundant life.
In Joel 2, His spirit is poured out, but only after our hearts are broken.
We are to be transformed, yielded, holding nothing back.
We may think that we understand God, that He is altogether like us, but He is not!
Let us not think that we can have hide things, dark things, from everyone, including Him and put on a nice show, a nice god-like veneer, but God sees everything, and knows everything!
In this time, even now, the Lord is exposing everything: deception, lies, rhetorical hair-splitting, and rationalizing away idolatrous, sinful living.
That is a weighty and sobering thought, don't you think?
We are in the valley of decision, beloved, we can either fall on the Cornerstone and be broken and surrendered to Him, return to Him, and enter into real relationship with our First Love, or eventually be crushed because of our unbelief, our unwillingness to surrender self interests and self desires.
The Children of Israel were at a similar place, as Joshua spoke plainly to them, and I will leave you with this:
If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:15
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