In 1983 Leonard Ravenhill wrote: “There’s going to come an awakening. God Almighty doesn’t care if He sends America bankrupt. He doesn’t care if we have to stand in bread lines. He doesn’t care if our automobiles rust because we have no gasoline… The greatest impediment to this (awakening) will be preachers who refuse to give themselves to prayer and churches that refuse to give themselves to repentance.”

Awakening is a God thing. In our carnal, disengaged state we believers will sleep (and sleep and sleep…) It requires a supernatural response to the Word of the Lord for a soul to be awakened and remain awakened in Christ.

Awakening is also a Church thing. The world can’t wake up. Only those alive in Christ can wake up. The world is dead in their sins and trespasses. The New Testament call to wake up is to the covenant people of God who have had their souls dulled and weighed down by the paradigms, narratives and thinking of the flesh; thoughts that don’t stimulate faith, first-commandment love and the fear of the Lord in our hearts. This happens naturally in a fallen world, and at different times happens to all of us.

Waking up for a believer entails the same response to the Lord as being raised from the dead does for the unbeliever.

• Hearing the Word of the Lord

• Responding with repentance

• Taking up our cross

• Being filled with the Spirit

The Church’s waking up actually stimulates the dead. It gives unbelievers an example of how to respond to the God Who is pursuing them. More importantly, it also directs their gaze to focus on the One Who is calling them to Himself. (Romans 13:12) works for both those being awakened and those being brought to new life in Jesus Christ. There’s one Lord – one faith – one baptism…

Around the world, the Spirit of the Lord is cultivating voices who will “cry in the wilderness”; God-empowered voices that will awaken the slumbering and raise the dead. They have one Message. It’s their Magnificent Obsession: a Man; a crucified, resurrected, Jewish God/Man. The revelation of this beautiful Man is the ruling passion and preoccupation of these voices and their message. EVERYTHING ELSE is a shadow and an expendable extra to the increase of His glory.

Here’s the trick: (And in today’s politically polarized culture it IS a trick) Don’t let someone (no matter how prominent and/or popular) wake you up to a shadow rather than the One casting the shadow. Our waking up is to Him – and nothing else; not political correctness; not threat to liberties; not racism; nor deep-state. The Holy Spirit is singularly invested in waking us up to Him. The Bride belongs to the Bridegroom. He’s the One (and the only One) you want to wake up to. And as we see in John’s revelation of Jesus in Revelation 1, there’s more than enough of Him to wake up to to keep us engaged and enthralled – for eternity.

The truth of the matter is, none of us are as “awakened” as we can be. In Christ, there’s always more to be awakened to. He’s that big.

Revelation shows us how the mature apostle John was “awakened” to a new dimension of awe and fear and love for His “friend”, Jesus. Although John had watched him heal the sick, feed thousands and refute the wisest teachers of his day; although John himself performed miracles in Jesus’ Name; although John was an eye-witness to His crucifixion – felt the earth-quake under his feet – and even walked into his Friend’s empty grave; when Revelation 1 happened to him he still fell as though dead at His feet.

There’s no shame in waking up to more of Jesus. Ever. The only shame is for us to assume that we are fully awake to Him and Who He is.

Come. Let’s let the Holy Spirit awaken us further to the glory of Who He is.

NOTE: We wrote the book “Seek My Face” specifically to help us – the Body of Christ – to be awakened to this beautiful Man in an hour of trouble. If you would like an E-copy you can either email me at xaris4u@yahoo.com or download the EBook from Amazon. If you send me your physical address I can also send you the print edition.

Here’s a link to our YouTube broadcast: “Oil for the Hour”: “Being Awakened to the Beauty of Jesus in the House of Prayer” • http://youtu.be/MoKSdTDxQKo

God bless you, beloved.

____________________
JSB • May, 2022

COMMANDS for DELIVERANCE,
PRAYERS for HEALING, and
DECLARATIONS of PROTECTION

FORGIVENESS

If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)

A. Thank You Holy Spirit for helping me RECOGNIZE every wicked way in me. (Psalm 139:24)

B. Father, I REPENT of __________ and RENOUNCE  __________.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

C. Thank You for this great promise, Father. I RECEIVE Your forgiveness from these sins through the shed blood of Your Son, Jesus on the cross!

D. Father cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Fill me instead with the RIGHTEOUS order of Your Son! Thank You Father.

DECLARATIONS of VICTORY

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy. (Psalm 107:2)

A. I make the sign of the cross upon my life. I declare that I, my marriage, my family and our household will “deny (the rule of) self” and live “crucified in Christ” under His victory and His leadership.

I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I but it is Christ Who lives within me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)

B. By the grace of God I declare that THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST covers my life, my marriage, my family, and our household.

C. O HOLY SPIRIT, fill me, my marriage, family, and household. Consume us with the fire of Your indwelling Presence.

D. Holy Spirit, I “put on” (Ephesians 6:11-18) the SPIRITUAL ARMOR.

E. Father, thank You for assigning MIGHTY WARRING ANGELS to encamp around me (Psalm 34:7) my wife, our family and this household.

COMMANDS

A. By the authority of the blood of Jesus of Nazareth I cancel every curse, hex, incantation, and/or spell that has come against me (my wife, my marriage, my family and/or household). Furthermore, I command every demon connected with any of these curses to be silent and to immediately present yourself to Jesus of Nazareth for judgment. I command all curses against me to be canceled and abandoned forever, by the authority of the blood of Jesus Christ.

B. By the authority of the blood of Jesus of Nazareth I command every demon effecting me or seeking to effect me, my wife, my marriage, my family and/or my household (including demons of affliction, disease, death, shame, deceit, unrighteousness, animosity, nightmares, fear, panic, torment and/or sleeplessness) to be silent, to separate yourself from me, my wife, my family and this household and immediately present yourself to Jesus of Nazareth for judgment.

C. Heavenly Father, I FORGIVE EVERY PERSON who has spoken curses against me and my house. And I ask that You would bless them with the gift of the fear of the Lord and repentance. I also ask that they would be brought into a saving covenant relationship with Your Son, Jesus. 

The Name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe… For You are a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. (Proverbs 18:10 and Psalm 61:3-4)

D. The Lord is our Strong Tower! By the authority of the Name of Jesus of Nazareth I hereby speak the construction of an impenetrable wall around our household. I declare that this wall, founded upon the Word of God and the blood of Jesus Christ, be composed of praise, the fear of the Lord, the glory of God, the love of God, faith in God, and the mercy of God. 

By the authority of the blood of Jesus, and the explicit promise of the Word of God, I declare that no demon, curse, hex, spell nor incantation may pass onto any portion of our household – under the penalty of the lake of fire. 

Thank You Father for this promise of protection from the enemy. Thank You that You set us safely on high. We say “Yes” to every person whom You bring to us Father. Bless these men and women and young ones with the goodness of Your grace and Presence in our household.

By the authority of the blood of Jesus Christ I declare Rule of the Victor, and cancel all the power of the enemy that is working against me, my family, and/or this house. I hereby command that all people who have sent any forces of evil against me, my wife, my family, and/or this house be cut off from ever again receiving or sending any force of evil. By the authority of the blood of Jesus of Nazareth I rebuke, reject and cancel all of sorcery, witchcraft and spiritual attacks.  And by the authority of the blood of Jesus of Nazareth I command all evil spirits related to these occult activities seeking to affect me and/or my household to immediately present yourselves to Jesus of Nazareth for judgment. I also command the immediate transfer of all of their funds – from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light – under the penalty of the Lake of Fire.

PRAYERS FOR THE LORD’S PRESENCE, HEALING AND PROVISION

We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses… Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16)

A. Father, thank You for Your increased Presence and glory within me, my marriage, my family and this household.

B. Thank You for Your healing light that is perpetually healing me, my wife, my family and those in this household.

I command all viruses, infections, toxins, cancer cells and ________ to immediately be removed from me, my wife, my family and this household by the authority of the blood of Jesus.

C. Father, renew and strengthen me, my wife, family and household with Your righteous order and health. Thank You Father that You’ve made all this available at the expense of Your own Son.

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

D. By virtue of my covenant with Your Son, Christ Jesus, I/we say “yes” and “Amen” to Your strategic purpose for my life. I also say “yes” to all of the promises that You’ve intended for me, my wife, our family and this household; including physical healing, the fruit of the Spirit, a long and abundant life that declares Your excellent works, friendship with the Bridegroom, first-commandment love for You, incarnational love for others, and significant supernatural power, all for the increase of Your glory!

My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

____________________
JSB • March, 2022

The tweet below, from a major conservative/evangelical figure, is emblematic of what has become our family’s knee-jerk response to all forms of calamity in our society.

If we evangelicals keep turning every crisis into a “political conspiracy” we MAY find we’ve satiated our own minds, but will have failed to satisfy the One Who’s “shaking everything that can be shaken”. (Hebrews 12:26-27)

Let me break this down a little further.

1. First

Our response to every judgment of the Lord in the last two + years has been to take aim at our political enemies. This lays bare the nexus of our idolatry. Our reflexive reaction to the cultural pressure points is to look for, pray for, and defend a political solution. This is idolatry.

The political solutions that we clamor for fuel a carnal spirit that’s cloaked with religious zeal. They also reenforce the cult-narrative that is attached to every idol. (Yes. Conservative MAGA America has a cult narrative…)

With our cult-narrative emboldened we feel all the more adamant about defending our idol. (The fact that we don’t call it an idol doesn’t matter a whit.) This is how idols stay on the high places. And the more we respond to the Lord’s judgments by taking aim at our “political enemies” the more we entrench ourselves in the devil’s game and the idol’s narrative. It’s literally a self-perpetuating cycle that can only be broken with (I’m serious here…) “prayer and fasting”. (A teaching for another time)

2. Secondly

1 Peter 4:17-18 tells us that one of the reasons the Lord’s judgments begin with His household is so that we can show the nations how to respond to the Father they don’t know when His judgments fall on them.

Here’s the question to consider: If our responses to the Lord’s judgments are to incessantly cry “conspiracy!” and “political enemy!” how will our unsaved neighbors respond when they experience the Lord’s judgments? We will not have given them the paradigm of salvation.

The world will give God is what we’ve given God:

• pride instead of humility

• rebellion instead of yieldedness and crucified surrender to the Lord

• the assumption that we’re already “good” instead of repentance

• taking aim at our political enemies instead of appealing to God for help

And the world WILL take aim at the people of God with demonic intensity in the days ahead.

____________________
JSB • April, 2022

If you would like a print edition copy of our book “Seek My Face” write me at xaris4u@yahoo.com . Please include your USPS mailing address. Blessings to you friends.

Welcome to the 21st century and Revelation 17.

We’ve actually been here for some time now. This 2015 article reports that a lesbian bishop in the Church of Sweden (there are now several lesbian bishops in numerous denominations world-wide) advocated that Christian churches remove the crosses from their buildings in order to create friendly space where Muslims (and people of other religious faiths) may feel more comfortable to pray.

The article is apparently accurate – but perhaps not as surprising as we might believe. Beloved, where did we think that a generation of neglecting the cross would go?

The fact of the matter is one of the denominations (a denomination that I was a part of for most of my childhood) now openly ordains gay pastors and bishops after telling us for 20 years that they never would. When I was in college and raised the issue to several of the theology profs, I was told that my concerns were “alarmist” and “divisive”. Now these same ones not only bless SSM, they ordain women and men in SSM who don’t believe in the devil; don’t believe Jesus is the only way to salvation, don’t believe in the infallibility of scripture; don’t believe in most of the tenets of the apostle’s creed…

And yet, it really shouldn’t be surprising. In their pursuit of self-affirmation, the liberal LGBTQ-affirming denominations have spent more than 40 years absolutely neglecting Jesus’ call to deny self and take up the cross. You can’t find the message of (Luke 9:23-24) anywhere in the books, seminars or congregational sermons of these denominations. It’s a complete void.

Without a cross, the human soul will embrace the self to our own destruction.

Here’s the salient part…

This is not only where our liberal denominations are. It’s where most of western evangelicalism is heading – apart from taking Jesus words in Matthew 10 seriously: “Unless you take up your cross and follow Me, you are not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:38)

This isn’t alarmist, beloved. This is doing the spiritual math.

Evangelicalism might continue to theologically object to LGBTQ, but in our crosslessness, the devil is only too happy to give us something else to embrace that is as equally contra-Christ, and equally destructive.

____________________
JSB • April 25, 2022

Note: I’d like to invite you to join us at Xrucianis (the latin word for “cross-bearer”). This FBgroup is dedicated to encouraging each other in following Jesus through the crucified life. You can find it here… https://www.facebook.com/groups/xrucianis/

Additional note: The Church’s response to the proliferation of the self-determination of lesbianism, same-sex-marriage, bisexuality, transgenderism, queerness and all other forms of sexual deviancy is the Lord’s second judgment toward the Church in America. To read more about the conversation that He is calling us into check out our book “Seek My Face“. Write to us at xaris4u@yahoo.com for your print edition copy.

This happened several times last year during our 180 days of #SeekMyFace. I would wake up in the middle of the night – walk down the hall to the prayer room to find Kathy already there, playing before the Lord, or laying quietly at the foot of the stairs – often weeping.

In every case I can recall, we shared the same sense of deep longing love for what was happening in the household of God; in our hearts, our nation and in our region.

This morning, I wish I could say the condition of the Church in America is different. It is not. The pressure has shifted. But we, the people of God have not. When this happens, talking about revival is a feel-good panacea and foolhardy.

From my April 23, 2020 Journal

Up early (even for me). Kathy is in the Prayer room too. Playing before the Lord. The Lord says, “My throne will last forever. What’s happening on the earth isn’t over… Tell Pharaoh and the spirit of Pharaoh that the Lord of the earth says ‘nothing has passed over’. The Church is not bringing forth a lament in her weakness. The plague on the land remains. Rather than humble themselves before Me in prayer, the people cast off restraint and plunge themselves into more hostility – not humility. There is no fear of God before their eyes. I’m the One Who has brought this upon you. I’m the only One you can turn to, with weeping and fasting and repentance unto salvation.”

Lamentations 4 envelopes me in the weeping grief of the Lord. He is extending His wings over the whole earth with longing to gather us together in the shelter of the Most High, and we are not…

Through these weeks of plague, the Lord has been priming the Church, and the inhabitants of the earth to cultivate a fear of the Lord. Instead the Deliverer finds His people at the foot of the mountain fomenting strange fire:

…the fear of government overreach

…the fear of the deceit of nations

…the fear of plague

…the fear of economic collapse

…the fear of media

…the fear of new paradigms

…the fear of political plots

…the fear of foolish leadership

…the fear of kingdom failure

Beloved, in the hour of “tribulation” no one will gain enough information about their world to stave the trouble. The trouble itself is OF THE LORD, and is meant to drive us to the Lord in our weakness and need in humility. The false prophets will give you the information your heart craves – but the Lord detests, even if it should prove true. (Even satan gets prophecy right sometimes) Any word, any dream, vision or concoction in the self-will of man that does not lead the people of God to brokenness and repentance before God is not of God.”

In the time of trouble, He will lead those who give themselves to the fear of the Lord. Those who refuse this wisdom WILL be given to other fears – fears that will not redeem, that will not heal and will not save.

The word of wisdom in this hour, though it seems “off” and “unproductive” is still, “GHEEL WITH TREMBLING!” (Psalm 2:11)

____________________
JSB • April 23, 2021

Why is “Rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:11) the Lord’s Word for the Church in America? Get a copy of our book, “Seek My Face: A Guide to Praying Through the Judgments of the Lord“.

The prayer room isn’t about us getting what we want. It’s about God getting all of us.

I guarantee you when the Lord confronted Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, Ezekiel, John the Baptist, Peter, James and John, He had their full attention. They were all present to Him – even as I Am was all present to them. This was “face-to-Face consecrating space”. Here they could fully focus on the Lord and His personal Word to them. And in this “holy air” they could deeply give all of themselves in response to the Lord, via kneeling, song, tears, joy, repenting, journaling, travail, dancing, interceding, adoration, beholding and silence.

Right now God is confronting planet earth and urgently bidding 7.4 billion of us to engage Him in life-saving conversation.

We won’t respond to the judgments of the Lord “on the run”. We cannot “multi-task” sanctification. Neither will we grow into first-commandment love through “second-hand” information.

The nations are being shaken. Heaven is opening before us. Hell is swallowing cultures whole. We “need” the atmosphere of God. Period. End of discussion.

All Nations House of Prayer Southwest doesn’t have a Bible study, an evangelistic message, a prophetic word, or a book that isn’t connected to a prayer room. Not one. Not in this hour. No apology.

In light of the reality that over the last 20 years the Lord has caused houses of prayer to grow up like grass throughout the nations the only germane question for the Christian in this hour is not,
“What is your argument against corporate prayer?”
“Why are you fond of houses of prayer?”
or “How generously are you supporting houses of prayer?”

In light of history, in light of the Lord’s promises, and in light of what’s on the earth, the vital, pressing question is this: What’s keeping us from rooting ourselves and our families to the house of prayer?

____________________
JSB • April, 2022

2022 note from Jon: I wrote the following one year ago; 18 months (October, 2019) after the Lord called our House of Prayer to “seek His Face” (Psalm 27:8) because “the time of trouble” (Psalm 27:5) was coming. After 1700 hours of corporate prayer our House of Prayer released the message found in our book “Seek My Face”. Email me for a free copy. xaris4u@yahoo.com

April 18, 2021

“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to REPENT, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man Whom He has ordained.” (Acts 17:30-31)

Last year, many prophets marked Passover, as the final day that COVID-19 would ravage America. None had foretold of the plague’s arrival, but now, after failing to predict it’s departure at Holy Week (two weeks prior) they claimed to have heard from God: “It would cease at the end of Passover”. Christian periodicals trumped these false assertions. Millions of believers used these proud statements to bolster their ire against evil forces at work in our world.

On April 17, 2020, the day AFTER PASSOVER Johns Hopkins recorded 4593 Corona virus related deaths.

Instead of ceasing on this date, the date marked a record number of contracted cases, and more deaths than any prior day. I don’t need to tell you where the statistics went after that. The judgment of the Lord has proven to be very “real”; the prophets and their prophecies, very “wrong”.

As we continue in this hour of trouble, it is wise for believers to keep the failure of these prophetic messengers in mind. Many redacted their accounts, shifting their predictions to the day of Pentecost. When those forecasts also failed, many turned their attention to the political firestorms that raged throughout the summer and autumn of 2020. These same soothsayers, declared a landslide victory for the incumbent President – someone who was currying their favor, turning their churches into campaign rallies, and injecting poisonous, contra-Christ rhetoric into the body of Christ. Throughout the rest of 2020 it was primarily his narrative, (and tragically not the Lord’s) that ruled the hearts of millions of evangelicals. Rather than humble ourselves before the Face of our Deliverer, (Isaiah 40:26) we allowed ourselves to get caught up in conspiracies to explain away our need to face our own unrighteous ways. We took up his rage against civil rights, foreigners, political enemies and traitorous allies rather than prayerfully, intently examine the scriptures and let the Holy Spirit identify the sin, rebellion, impurities and worldly attachments in our own hearts.

This continued unabated, for even months after the election, as our indignant Commander-in-Chief, in spite of 72 failed local court cases, the determination of 16 conservative Governors and AG’s, and the assertions of his own cyber-security chief, Attorney General and Vice-President, continued to foment hate-filled storylines to explain away the embarrassment of his defeat.

And through it all, the failed prophets of spring, became the failed prophets of the fall, became the failed prophets of winter. In spite of a string of endless prayer rallies, feverish prayer initiatives and bogus endeavors to counter the alleged election fraud, their champion left office after a pathetic, yet violent insurrection attempted to keep him in power at the final stroke of midnight. Every step of the way, encouraged and not discouraged by the prophets.

“And many false prophets will appear and deceive many.” (Matthew 24:11)

“Your prophets saw visions for you that were worthless whitewash. They failed to expose your sin so as to restore your fortunes. They saw oracles for you that were worthless lies.” (Lamentations 2:14)

“The prophets prophesy lies.The priests exercise power by their own authority. And my people love to have it this way. But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes!” (Jeremiah 5:31)

The poison that gave rise to the many, many false prophecies in 2020 still courses through the veins of our body in 2021 – greatly undiagnosed, ignored and even justified by many. Over the past three months the urgency has receded. The spirit has returned to a mode of pretense. But the same proud spirit refuses to hear; refuses to bend; refuses to come near the Lord’s circumspect gaze, and refuses to turn from its wicked ways.

What was 2020 all about?

I’ve written, but more importantly prayed, a great deal about what the Lord is/was speaking to the Church over this past year. The most simple way to state it is “2020 was about the Lord arresting the Church’s attention, inviting millions of saints, churches and ministries to ‘reason together’ with Him in His tent of meeting over the state of our heart, and the nature of our ways.” In a word, the Lord is judging His household and calling us to repentance.

“Our Christian walk is an ongoing refining process. The Lord loves us too much to leave us where we are today. Our spiritual intention (where we want to be in our depth of love and biblical understanding) matters, but He wants to show us our reality—which is our present condition. The Lord wants to wake us up to our real condition so that we can deal with it in light of His truth and grace. He has plans to take us places richer and deeper than we’ve ever known.” The International House of Prayer Kansas City

Now, four months into 2021, the Church that was embroiled in false prophecy, self-justification, and hostile idolatrous nationalism continues with the same poison in her veins, believing that they are all the more persecuted for their own righteousness sake; unmoved by the pressures that the Lord is putting on their heart; and while still raging with accusatory anger, are plying God’s favor to receive the ascendency of revival within their old, corrupted wineskins. It is as ludicrous today, to believe the Lord will pour out new wine in this hour as it was to believe the Lord was going to abruptly crush the plague without the people of God giving ourselves to repentance last spring.

The Lord is delivering His people from this wicked, evil age, and we, the body of Christ in America are intent on bringing all of our idols with us while we mock, condemn and disparage the wicked culture we’re leaving behind.

The Lord will not have His Bride this way. If we’re intent on remaining in this condition, He will let us, but He will not have “us”. He is the Lord.

The fact that He is Lord means He calls the shots. He determines our way. He leads. We follow. He calls. We respond. To press Him for blessing and more power in an hour when He’s calling us to abase ourselves and repent of the way we’ve been using our power is an insurrection spirit. It’s telling the Lord, we will have Your Kingdom our way.

It’s that serious.

When Jesus rebuked the “rich” Church at Laodicea (Revelation 3) as “poor, wretched, blind, naked, and miserable” they understood that they needed to stop investing in their old definition of wealth and repent before they would be able to “sit with Jesus on His throne”.

In Isaiah 1 the prophet declares the summons of the Lord to a people who had equal problems hearing the clear voice of the Lord:

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! for the Lord has spoken: 3 “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; 4 The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider.” 5 Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! 6 They have forsaken the Lord; they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel; they have turned away backward. 7 Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. 8 The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. 9 From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment. 10 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 11 So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 12 Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah. 13 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah: 14 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. 15 I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. “When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? 16 Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. 17 The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies – I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 18 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. 19 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. 20 Your hands are full of blood. “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, and learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. 21 Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 22 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 1:2-22)

It would have been one more sign of their self-indulgent ways for the Israel to seek the Lord’s provision for their conferences and worship festivals while He was calling them to “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.”

At Sinai (Exodus 32), when God confronted Israel with her idolatry the people understood they’d go no further toward the promised land until they repented and let the Lord remove the cultural adultery from their midst.

The Lord is calling the Church in America to respond to His judgements. It’s time to repent. Any other course of action, pursuit, strategy, zeal, or focus is not level-headed. When the Lord is telling us our foundational ways are unsound – He means for us to let Him demolish our old ways, so that He can establish sufficient ways that will support the house of His choosing. Any effort to continue to build on old foundations is not only futile, it is insubordinate.

When the Lord of the Church calls us to repent, it’s time to repent. Any alternative course is not only unwise, it is unworkable.

When the Lord commanded His disciples to “remain in Jerusalem” and “wait and pray” (Acts 1), they would have missed the promise from the Father had they “taken their liberty” of the city and “not prayed”.

Beloved, there IS a sure Word from heaven coming to the Church in this hour. It is THE GLORIOUS remedy to all our fears and maladies! One that vastly outshines the alternative many of us have become fastened to. But we must enter into it.

The good news is, availing ourselves of this remedy, while ardent, will be the most exhilarating, healing and empowering thing we can do in this hour. It’s where we meet HIM.

Yes. I still believe this, one year later. Only with more urgent intensity coming from Jesus that His Bride trust His leadership and respond to His judgements.

I deeply believe, if in gathering after prayer meeting after Bible Study after staff meeting, the whole Church were to embrace the Lord’s exhortation in this hour, press into the New Testament paradigm of corporate prayer (more ardently that we’re pressing into learning new technology), humble ourselves, and deeply repent of our unrighteous ways – we would experience the Holy Spirit’s wind of viral repentance, mourning, prayer-filled humility, can’t-make-it-stop-surrender, longing, abasement, adoration and utter yieldedness to the approaching Bridegroom.

Throughout our nation, this “spirit of (Isaiah 40) repentance” would launch the household of God into a new expression of Kingdom power that
a.) the Word promises,
b.) would dethrone our cultural/political idols,
c.) would release billions from demonic bondage,
d.) explode the conventions of 21c western churchianity,
e.) unite the Bride, together with the Voice of the Holy Spirit,
f.) would usher in a world-wide harvest of souls,
g.) pierce Israel with the revelation of their Messiah,
h.) kindle an unquenchable first-commandment love for Jesus
and
i.) together we would hasten the return of our King.

____________________
JSB • April, 2021

Final Note from Jon: For a full transcript of this message along with seven judgments of the Lord, and the story of how the Holy Spirit led our little House of Prayer in the mountains of Arizona into His tent of meeting just weeks prior to COVID 2020, secure a copy of our book “Seek My Face” at AMAZON. Or email me xaris4u@yahoo.com and we’ll ship you the print edition.