Come Out of Her!

Monday, October 18, 2010, 8:19 a.m. – When I awoke this morning, I lay in bed talking with God for a few minutes before I got out of bed. When I was in prayer, this song came into my mind:

Give Them All to Jesus / 1975 / Phil Johnson / Bob Benson Sr.

Are you tired of chasing pretty rainbows?
Are you tired of spinning 'round and 'round?
Wrap up all the shattered dreams of your life
And at the feet of Jesus lay them down.

Give them all, give them all,
Give them all to Jesus -
Shattered dreams, wounded hearts, and broken toys.
Give them all, give them all,
Give them all to Jesus,
And He will turn your sorrows into joy.

He never said you'd only see sunshine.
He never said there'd be no rain.
He only promised a heart full of singing
About the very things that once brought pain.

My third child (second son) was born in January of 1979. I can remember being up with him in the night feeding him and being so tired and just wanting to go back to bed and to sleep. One or both of us may have been sick. I know this was not normal circumstances. As I fed him and rocked him, there were times when I sang this song to him, but the song really was for me, and the purpose was to teach me to give to God my sleeplessness and my human desire to just go back to bed, etc. It was also for the purpose to teach me to ask God to give me the strength I needed, i.e. to learn total dependency upon God, and so that I would learn to rejoice in God in those times when my body felt as though it could not go on. This reminded me of this passage from 2 Corinthians 7:4-6:

I have great confidence in you; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.

For when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us…

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The Lord woke me last night at 11:58 p.m., so I got up and spent some time with the Lord in prayer and in the reading of His Word. I had read the first two chapters of Jonah the day before, so I began to read chapter 3 next. I sensed the Lord telling me to keep reading until he told me to stop. So, I read the rest of Jonah and then I read all of Micah before I sensed the Lord saying to stop. I journaled about what I had just read in Micah (very encouraging), and then I went back to bed.

So, this morning, I read the book of Nahum. I will quote just chapter 3 here:

Woe to Nineveh
1 Woe to the city of blood,
full of lies,
full of plunder,
never without victims!
2 The crack of whips,
the clatter of wheels,
galloping horses
and jolting chariots!
3 Charging cavalry,
flashing swords
and glittering spears!
Many casualties,
piles of dead,
bodies without number,
people stumbling over the corpses-
4 all because of the wanton lust of a harlot,
alluring, the mistress of sorceries,
who enslaved nations by her prostitution
and peoples by her witchcraft.

5 "I am against you," declares the LORD Almighty.
"I will lift your skirts over your face.
I will show the nations your nakedness
and the kingdoms your shame.
6 I will pelt you with filth,
I will treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle.
7 All who see you will flee from you and say,
'Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?'
Where can I find anyone to comfort you?"

8 Are you better than Thebes,
situated on the Nile,
with water around her?
The river was her defense,
the waters her wall.
9 Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength;
Put and Libya were among her allies.
10 Yet she was taken captive
and went into exile.
Her infants were dashed to pieces
at the head of every street.
Lots were cast for her nobles,
and all her great men were put in chains.
11 You too will become drunk;
you will go into hiding
and seek refuge from the enemy.

12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
with their first ripe fruit;
when they are shaken,
the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Look at your troops—
they are all women!
The gates of your land
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has consumed their bars.
14 Draw water for the siege,
strengthen your defenses!
Work the clay,
tread the mortar,
repair the brickwork!
15 There the fire will devour you;
the sword will cut you down
and, like grasshoppers, consume you.
Multiply like grasshoppers,
multiply like locusts!

16 You have increased the number of your merchants
till they are more than the stars of the sky,
but like locusts they strip the land
and then fly away.
17 Your guards are like locusts,
your officials like swarms of locusts
that settle in the walls on a cold day—
but when the sun appears they fly away,
and no one knows where.

18 O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber;
your nobles lie down to rest.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with no one to gather them.
19 Nothing can heal your wound;
your injury is fatal.
Everyone who hears the news about you
claps his hands at your fall,
for who has not felt
your endless cruelty?

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I was surprised to read that this book of Nahum was also addressed to Nineveh. I had forgotten that. I believe the Lord had me write about chapters 1&2 of Jonah - http://www.christianforums.com/t7507225/ - and then he moved me to the book of Nahum, because the message he has now for “Nineveh” is that judgment is inevitable and it is imminent. Nineveh was located on the Tigris River where modern-day Iraq is now situated. As I read this chapter in Nahum, I could not help but notice the obvious parallel to the prophecies against Babylon in Revelation 14, 16-18. Babylon was also situated where modern-day Iraq is now situated. The United States of America are the occupiers of Iraq, have an embassy there the size of the Vatican that is a self-contained city, and we are truly the ones in control there. I believe very much that these prophecies against Mystery Babylon are against the USA, and that this passage in Nahum against Nineveh is also being applied today to the USA, and that these prophecies against Nineveh and against Mystery Babylon, in application to today, are basically (for all practical purposes) one and the same.

A friend sent me this devotional this morning (source unknown):

“God has come to test you.” Ex 20:20 NKJV
Life Will Test You

Do you remember the tests you took in school? You passed or failed, but you couldn’t avoid them. Life works that way too. When it comes to life’s tests - you must prepare yourself in advance! Jesus said: “A wise man…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…A foolish man…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” (Mt 7:24-27 NKJV). The first man built his house on rock because he knew it wasn’t a question of “if,” but “when,” a storm will come. The second man built his house on sand because it was cheap and easy. When the storm came the first man’s house stood and the second man’s house fell. What’s the point Jesus was making? Your talents, your résumé and your reputation may get you to the top, but if you haven’t built strong character you won’t stay there long. Furthermore, your beliefs may be sincere and line up with what other people around you think, but unless they’re founded on God’s Word they’ll fail you when you need them most. Three times in the Bible we read, “The just shall live by faith” (Ro 1:17 NKJV). When the tests of life come you’ve got to be able to rise up and say, “I may not have all the answers, but I have proven God’s character and track record and I’m trusting Him to do what He’s promised in His Word!”

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Amen to that! How perfectly fitting to receive this in my inbox this morning!! God is definitely speaking to America. He is saying,

Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
"Come out of her, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
for her sins are piled up to heaven,
and God has remembered her crimes. [Revelation 18:4-5]

This brought to mind this passage from Jeremiah 10:1-3:

Hear what the LORD says to you, O house of Israel. This is what the LORD says:
"Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the sky,
though the nations are terrified by them.
For the customs of the peoples are worthless…

And, this one from Romans 12:1-2:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

God is calling on his church, particularly the church in the west, to not adopt the ways of our nation (the USA), to come out from her worldliness and her wickedness, to repent of our wicked ways, to call on God, to turn our lives back to Jesus Christ, and to follow Him with our whole hearts, minds, souls & bodies, so that we won’t share in the sins of our nation and the sins of the apostate church in our nation who has turned from pure devotion to Jesus Christ and is following, instead, the teachings of man and worldly philosophies.

God is calling us to build our lives on the Rock, Jesus Christ, instead of on sinking sand, so when the cares and the trials and the tribulations of this world (the storms of life) do come, our faith will stand, because it is built upon the Rock (Jesus Christ), instead of on the sand of worldly teachings and philosophies. And, in all of this, Jesus wants us to give our trials over to him, and to rejoice in him in what he desires to teach us through our trials and tribulations, instead of allowing the storms of life to overcome us.

Give them all, give them all,
Give them all to Jesus -
Shattered dreams, wounded hearts, and broken toys.
Give them all, give them all,
Give them all to Jesus,
And He will turn your sorrows into joy.