A FAMINE FOR THE HEARING OF THE WORD!

A FAMINE FOR THE HEARING OF THE WORD!

from The Prophet

Let's go to 1 Peter, chapter one.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

 Periodically I do a roll call to see who's present.  There's a reason for doing so.  The bible talks about a famine to come.  The passage is found in Amos 8:11. Understand the time frame of that prophecy is not during the church period. It's a passage primarily to Israel.  But so many times we have looked at the law of double fulfillment and here is an applicable example. This famine comes at the close of Israel's allotted time of seventy weeks.  At the close of the dispensation of the Church, the Laodicean or seventh and final evolution of the Church's history on the earth, a similar famine has arrived…the famine will not be for bread and water but for the hearing of the word of the Lord.  the verse says:

"Behold the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of the hearing of the words of the Lord: 

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it." (Amos 8:11 & 12)

You can go to any church and just about every minister in each one of them will stand up and read from the bible before delivering the sermon.  just about every church calls itself a bible teaching-bible believing church.  On the other hand, Jesus said that many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many.  God has revealed to us that the way of truth by so-called true prophets.  God gave us a profound statement regarding the state of affairs of the ministry in these last days.  He said, "Many are preaching out of my book, but they are not proclaiming my message"

How can that be?  How can someone preach or teach a message from the book of God and it not be His message?  The answer lies in the fact that the word of God is "quick" or "alive".  Well, what does that mean?  It means that God is not speaking from anywhere and everywhere in his book.  When Jesus stood at the door of the church of Laodicea he made a statement that few comprehend.  He said, "If any man hear MY voice." (Caps are for emphasis)  If the entire bible is written by God, then, wouldn't anyone preaching or teaching from the bible be approved of delivering God's message if the scriptures are rightly divided and properly interpreted?  Wouldn't they be the voice of Jesus speaking today? No! That's what is meant by the word of God being "quick" or alive.

Many people think the bible is a book to be read through from beginning to end. How many times have you heard someone say, in defense of their ignorance, I have read the bible through several times?  It wasn't designed as a book to be read like a nightstand novel.  Then there is another group in a far worse state who think they "know" the bible.  The beginning of knowledge of the bible is when one comes to understand that no matter how much they think they know it, they know nothing at all because the document itself is a revelation and much of it has been hidden waiting to be revealed by the last day prophet, Jesus Christ himself.  We have had countless experiences proving that fact.  How many scriptures have we looked at in the last six years, scriptures that we thought we knew well and understood completely only to find that our knowledge was perfunctory at best?

There is One Spirit having One Voice giving One Message to the entire Church.  If the message being proclaimed is from God's holy book and is rightly divided and properly interpreted but not God's current message, it is worthless for to day.

I have preached in places in times past and by merely announcing the text I have seen members of that church turn off the message at that point because it is a text they have heard before during their ten, twenty or thirty years in church and they think they already know the material. And that God has nothing current to add to it. That is why the warning is issued at the close of each letter to the seven churches:  "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

I was reading a book many years ago, when I was first called to the ministry and trying to learn how to prepare a sermon and preach.  It gave a day by day process of preparation for the Sunday sermon. Looking back now, I realize that the prescription is completely man's idea.  Peter didn't spend ten days in the upper room preparing for the day of Pentecost.  He had no idea what would happen on the day of Pentecost nor did he have an inkling of an idea that he would be the key speaker.  Now I don't mention that event as suggesting that the servant of God does not need to study.  That would be a violation of a scriptural command.  What I am saying though, is that when He is the voice speaking, the human speaker will be as surprised as his audience by the message.

There was a time when I was comfortable as the sermon flowed along nicely with my notes.  When I felt myself 'straying' from the prepared notes, I would fight to stay on track.  Now, I am not comfortable teaching or preaching unless the message does stray from what I prepared.  These days, I don't panic when I'm going to go out into the service to deliver the message and the Lord changes the message as I am walking in.

Now!  I opened this Daily Word by having you turn to 1 Peter chapter one, vs. 3.  I haven't gotten there yet.  Why am I not surprised?  This is a classic example of what I have been saying.  What I have written IS today's message.

The Holy Spirit is delivering a message of warning to the Church about a persecution that is about to arise that will be unprecedented in the history of the Church.  We, here in the U.S. have had it easy as far as being Christian and having the right to worship without censure.  In China and the Middle East people are being jailed and executed for their Christian faith.  What the Holy Spirit is telling us is that this nation is about to become hostile to bible believing Christians.  What is it precisely that the persecution of the church will target? They will object to our narrow-minded stance that Jesus is the only way to God the Father and that he alone can provide salvation.  We live in a world that preaches religious tolerance, respect for the belief of others.  The Christian is the number one violator of that creed.  According to the powers that be, we are considered as a cult and a force to be dealt with if necessary.  You know, like they dealt with the Branch Davidians---like the death with the Heaven's Gate group and then said they committed suicide.  (That was the first time a group's web site was updated after the death of the webmaster.)

God's Spirit is warning the Church about the Lie and the Strong Delusion that is right around the corner.  Most churches are not aware of the details of either.  The purpose of this page is to circulate the current "voice" message of Jesus Christ regarding those details.

To read more details about the time of the end check out Pastor Steve;'s new book on Amazon.com:

https://smile.amazon.com/Gods-Final-Secret-Stephen-Benton/dp/1976338476/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509271792&sr=1-1&keywords=god%27s+final+secret+by+stephen+benton