It has been promised to us, judgment must begin at the house of God. This is a difficult word. But one, which I believe is true. Will you allow yourself to hear a difficult word for a moment? With boldness I believe it's time that we not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue. The sad reality is this. We have lost sight of the difference between that which is sacred and that which is profane. We have turned love into acceptance and tolerance. We have allowed the world to back us into an uncomfortable place. "Make room, make room" is the world's cry. And so we accommodate their requests. Anything to get ourselves out of a tight place. This is not a new response. In fact, it's been the unfortunate response of God's people for quite some time. Jeremiah 23:14 says "they strengthen the hands of evil doers so that no one turns back from his wickedness." And even in using the word evil doers, some of us will cringe. Can we say that anymore? Who really does evil aren't most people good? They're not evil, they're simply lost. Who are we to judge someone's so harshly? Instead, let us rewrite the moral code to accommodate, accept and tolerate. This is a much easier way. It removes us from the possibility of having to suffer reproach, persecution, or hate. When we make room for them then surely they will speak well of us. But woe are we when everyone speaks well of us for this is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. As Art Katz put it, "We are so like the world that we cannot be distinguished from it." This compromised standard, which has become the prevalent norm, may lull us into false comfort. However do not be fooled. While popular with men, it is hated by God. And severely lacks the power to have any effect on His established order. For, He has declared with words, which will by no means pass away that there is such a thing as Holy and unholy. Righteous and unrighteous. Good and evil. Lovers of God and haters of Him, children of God and "children of your father, the devil." It is time to come back to the trustworthy sayings. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance, "Christ jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst." First Timothy one 15. It is time to repent for the fact that we have exchanged such trustworthy sayings, for words of relevance, inspiration, and peace, peace. Jeremiah 2317 says, "they continually say to those who despise me, the Lord has said, you shall have peace." Make no mistake. God will not be mocked for whatever a man sows that will he reap. Therefore turn back, if you are able. Inquire thee of the Lord. First Kings 22, seven and eight tells the story of two kings. King Jehosaphat. " Is there not still a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him." King Ahab. "There is still one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." Inquire thee of the Lord as Jehosaphat and do not hate his correction as King Ahab. Welcome it. Praise Him for it. Thank Him for the love of a good father, as it is taught to us in Hebrews 12. "My son do not despise the chastening of the Lord nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves he chastens... that we may be partakers of his holiness." And finally a very clear distinction between that which is sacred and that which is profane. "If you endure chastening God deals with you as with sons... but if you are without chastening... then you are illegitimate and not sons." This is not flowery language, but a literal distinction. Without holiness, we will not see the Lord. What shall we say then? It is time to know our God again, as He truly is. Do you know the true God yet? Do you know Him as He truly is? Have you begun to hate the things He hates and to love the things He loves? Have you been made holy as He is holy? Perfect as He is perfect? Do you long for the sacred and run from the profane? Can you tell a difference between the two? It's time to sanctify the house of God again and the temple of the Holy Spirit both of which we are.

As your desire for information increased this week, most likely too did the number of words you consumed. Perhaps two, three, or even four times the amount of words that you normally would hear. Words upon words, compounded by more words. For many of us, the words we heard made us scramble for safety, stockpile basic goods in the name of scarcity. Smart. Common sense. Important. But for all the words spoken, did you find comfort? Or complete peace? Did you hear from heaven? Were the ways of God made clear to you? Have you made sense of it all? You see, there is a shortage, felt much more than the current scarcity of basic goods. A rare thing that cannot be easily found even in times of plenty or peace. And when in times past this has been found on the earth, it has conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle and put foreign armies to flight. What is it? It is men and women who speak more than words. They carry a voice. A voice which is known more before God, then before men. A voice that speaks with so great authority, we do not question their credentials. It needs not to raise its volume in tenor, nor ramble on in length to cut to our very core with even a handful of words. This voice cannot be purchased nor bartered for. It will not be found on a store shelf and no degree or diploma can award it as a well earned and deserved gift. No, this voice is born only in anguish. Anguish. "When Jesus saw her crying and the Jews who had come with her crying. He was deeply moved groaned in the spirit and greatly troubled." John 11:33. Anguish. Groaning. And just two verses later. Jesus wept. Anguish. Groaning. Weeping. John Knox, the great Scottish reformer is known for a single prayer, which led him through untold dangers and threats on his life. "Give me Scotland or I die!" After his exile from Scotland and upon his return, it was said, "John Knox could put more life into his hearers than 600 trumpets." That's from the homiletic review volume 67 written in 1914. A voice worth 600 trumpets. So powerful was this voice that even his rival Mary queen of Scots is said to have declared. "I feared the prayer of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe." Our words so often clamoring, noisy, ineffective. Yet here was one whose voice shook a nation and made a queen tremble. First Corinthians 2:4, "My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom. But with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." We know these verses and perhaps we've even heard these stories. But do we yet scramble in haste to obtain a voice like this? Are we driven in desperation to get alone with God? We want the authority of this voice. But are we content to be strangers before men? A voice like this comes with anguish, groaning, burden, sometimes isolation, and always much weeping. Acts 20:31, "Remembering that night and day for three years, I never stopped warning each one of you with tears." David Wilkerson poses the question this way, "Whatever happened to anguish in the house of God? Where are the Sunday school teachers that weep over kids they know are not hearing and are going to hell?" We have many words, but few voices like this. We have crowds who will scramble for safety and stockpile in scarcity, but few who will get alone with God and weep in anguish over a lost and dying world. Jesus rebuked the experts in the law this way, "You have taken away the key to knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves."

I didn't know Him. Not truly. And so I created a version of Him made in my own image. The implications of this were two part. One, as I worshiped Him, I was able to still worship myself. And two, ultimately this imitation cannot satisfy. So I was not satisfied in God. I had no joy in Him. Because He was who I wanted Him to be. Not who He truly is. What changed? The true knowledge of God found me, intercepted me, confronted and rebuked me. He in His kindness, which leads us to repentance, mocked my carved image and toppled it over with a single breath in the night. From First Samuel five verse three, "And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again." The broken cistern I drank from was revealed for what it truly was - broken. For years I had called it whole, let astray by the strong delusion that I could satisfy myself. It wasn't until what was all along broken was actually broken into pieces before me, tha my eyes were opened to the sham and travesty that was my version of God. First Samuel five verse four, "And when they arose early, the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were broken off on the threshold. Only Dagon's torso was left of it." The hand of the Lord was heavy upon my idol as it was upon theirs in First Samuel. Finally, I found myself in the exact place I needed to be, fallen on my face to the ground before the Lord. Can you save yourself? No. Can you keep yourself unto salvation? No. Can you sustain yourself? No. "With men, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible." Matthew 19:26. What rose up out of me was a cry, not unlike that of Isaiah, "Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Lost. Undone. Unclean. Undeserving. My most unlovable state. Seeing myself in this condition made the next moment so startling. "While we were yet sinners Christ died." And then even more direct, to one so unlovable, these words. "He brought me to the banqueting house. And his banner over me was love." And the Spirit and the bride say, come! Can you hear Him calling you as well? And let him who hears say, come. And let him who thirsts, come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. And whoever drinks of this water, the water that He gives, will never thirst again. Will never, thirst, again.

Where is the prophetic voice for our nation for our world? It seems a strange question to pose, yet, in light of the crisis nature of current events, it is one we must be asking. Leonard Ravenhill said, "Prophets are God's emergency men for crisis hours." This is the time for a voice to ring out, to sound the alarm, to issue a decree. Make no mistake, we have no need for the type of peace, peace prophecy, which has infiltrated our airwaves. Sadly, there will always be those who can be found making profit dishonestly from prophet to priest. That's Jeremiah 8:11. They will seek to declare gain is godliness as they treat the brokenness of God's people superficially. Claiming peace, peace when there is no peace. Equally tempting is the posturing intellectualism which poses as prophecy. We live in a time where squabbles are considered holy discourse. Squabbles: a noisy quarrel about something petty or trivial. True prophecy is not petty, nor is it trivial. It has little concern for winning arguments. Or for winning the approval of a select group of men. True prophecy is too preoccupied with God for any of those matters. So we press on. Not despising prophecy, but rather desiring it. We long for the true prophets, the emergency men as Ravenhill puts it. We have heard it repeated "without revelation people run wild without vision, the people perish." Yet, how rare it is to hear this type of pure unwavering unquestionable holy decree. The brokenness is felt. The perishing is evident. Yet the revelation is absent. The collective cry rises within us, just as it always has with God's people during these crisis hours. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Jeremiah 8:22. Why no prophet? Why no voice crying out from the wilderness? I fear of the price of isolation is too costly. Too reckless. Too at odds with the influence at all costs society in which we live. "What good is a message from heaven if we can't share it with as many people as possible," we think to ourselves. Before long, our love for the reach of the platform overtakes our reverence. Our sensibilities of maintaining the system take precedence over purity. "Far too costly," is the cry. "Much too extreme!" Amos three, seven and eight tells us, "Indeed the Lord does nothing without revealing his counsel to his servants, the prophets. A lion has roared who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken who will not prophesy." Catch a vision with me and let it start with the Lord God who has spoken. He made the earth by His power, established the world by His wisdom and spread out the heavens by His understanding. Jeremiah 51:15. This God is One of when not if statements. When He thunders. Catch a vision with me, of One high and lifted up. It is He who creates, forms and rules both before and after and unto everlasting. This vision is of One who holds all the rights for mercy and also for judgment. He is the Lord God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth. Maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations. And He disciplines with justice and who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. This prophetic revelation of the One true god will lead you not to perishing, but to everlasting life. Are you able to see it? This nation needs a prophetic voice, this world as well. Cry out then for a prophet. One who prepares the way. Long for the vision to be revealed. And once you have cried out, once you have desired, wait. You say, "I have cried out. I have longed to see. Yet still I am blind, thirsty, broken." Wait. Believe. For we know without faith, it is impossible to please God. Since the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6. He will come. He will have compassion upon you. For, He has promised to be One who rewards those who diligently seek Him. Diligently seek Him today.

Knowledge is closely linked to wisdom and a far cry from intellect. Knowledge is to see a thing as it truly is. To comprehend what it is. In a sense to breathe it in and then breathe it out. It is possible to speak intellectually accurate words, yet lack knowledge. “Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge?" Job 38:2 NKJV Wisdom is much the same as knowledge, yet with attributes personal in nature. A living, breathing entity. One who exists, who was there and who lives on. "The Lord possessed me [wisdom] at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth." Proverbs 8:22-23 NKJV And then even more personal: "Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men." Proverbs 8:30-31 NKJV Have we delighted in the pursuit of wisdom as wisdom delighted with us? Or as God delighted daily in her? Have we pursued her? Sought her out? Or have we simply darkened His counsel by words spoken without knowledge. Even worse, perhaps our chief delight has been not in wisdom nor her Maker, but in the sound of our own voice. These words spoken without knowledge. This, my friends, would be a grave misplacement. From where do knowledge and wisdom come? In books, lectures, life experiences, or the trusted counsel of one who holds a prestigious title? Perhaps in the words of those who have been there and done that, the pragmatists of our day? Maybe it is found in the collective voice of the crowd, crying out loud, declaring a thing to be good or true or right? And finally, could it be found within ourselves, the common decency of humanity? No, sorry friends, it can come only from one source, God, and it begins to take root in ourselves only through one posture, fear. Knowledge and wisdom begin here - in the fear of the Lord. The fear that would cause us to stop speaking, rather than to darken His counsel with empty words. The fear that would keep us from interpreting His actions on His behalf. Those with fear dare not to call God a liar, but realize it is every man who is the liar, and God alone who is true and will always show Himself to be true. We don't like fear though. We don't know what to do with it and more often than not we excuse it away with a cursory label of awe or wonder. No longer does it make us shudder, nor stop us in our tracks. This imitation of fear has no power to shut up the mouths of lions or cause the rain over the land to cease. It is a form without power. A shadow. Not unlike the type of shadow which darkens His counsel by words without knowledge. We worship that which we take delight in. Whether it be intellect, shadows, experiences, morality, pragmatism, humanism or any other imitation. What have we taken delight in? Who have we pursued above all else? As we take an account today, will we find ourselves lacking? Will we see that maybe we have chased shadows and misplaced our delight? Will we turn again to Him, in fear and trembling, and speak thus as Job did, "Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.” Or will we find this to be far too indecent a response for people of our stature? credits