2 Words in 1

A Time to Weep
It is now Revealed,
unto His Holy Apostles and Prophets

 

A Time to Weep

Once, we had something called, a burden. If I do recall, we were all expected to have one. The chorus of an old song comes back to me now; “Lord lay some soul, upon my heart, and love that soul through me. And may I ever do my part, to win that soul for thee.” A real burden for the lost, for our family, our community, and for our church. The Spirit could trust us, to wake us up, in the middle of the night, to pray; not even knowing who or what we were praying for. The tears came easily.

Jeremiah was known as ‘the weeping Prophet.” We need to ask ourselves anew, what was he weeping about? He wept for the backslidden state of God’s people; for all the ways they had turned from God and disobeyed Him. But more than ever, he wept for the things he saw in the house of God. So many of the priests, the prophets and those who served in God’s house, had gone the way of the world, and corrupted the things of the Lord. He also wept, because he knew what God was going to do to all of them, for their blindness, and disobedience. God had informed him so.

Jesus wept. It’s almost amusing today, that this wast he first scripture that so many of us as children, learned to memorize. Two words; yet some of the most powerful ones uttered. He wept over Jerusalem, over the people of God, over his friends and the plights of so many. He wept over all of the people; he saw them as sheep, who had no shepherd; no one to love them and care for them. He was always going off to himself to pray. He had one of the most intense prayer meetings the world has ever known, in the Garden. A groaning, a travail, like never before seen in our lifetime.

Can we be moved, by the plight of our people. People are dying, all over the world, from disease, from starvation, from natural disasters and from war among their own kindred. And yet, our eyes are dry. People have even stumbled from our assemblies, from fellowship among us, into the world; to be swallowed up by darkness and evil men. Our own brothers and sisters in the Lord, have tripped over something, been shot down by those they thought loved them; and nobody weeps, few tears are ever shed. Yet we want to be entertained, we want happy faces and a party spirit. We want to play, among out own peers and pat each other on the back; as the world slides further into despair and people die, believing no one cares.

There’s been enough running; enough shouting and more than enough cheer-leading. Without assuming airs, may I share, that I have shed bitter tears these past couple of years; for terrible sickness, intense oppression and loss of every kind. But even so, I can yet be moved. I can’t talk about those who are wounded and lost, those who feel no one loves them, those who think their life’s over, without crying out. It just comes out.

I wrote a note last evening about people not being prepared for what might arise in their lives, those who will be caught unawares by something the enemy throws against them, and I burst out sobbing. Do we know, that Jesus Christ is weeping over the condition of His church, because He sees every thing that is going on in it? Lambs lost, and no one is searching for them.

One last old song; “He washed my eyes with tears, that I might see.” It will take those tears again, in order for us to see, how much people need us.

 

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It is now Revealed,
unto His Holy Apostles and Prophets

Yes, It is now Revealed, unto His Holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit. The things of which the minister was speaking of, had been hidden for a long time. God had not revealed all of His plan, to anyone. It’s a bit strange, to understand, that many wrote in the old part of the Book, when they did not even know what they were writing about. They just spoke as the Spirit led them to speak, and they wrote, as the same Spirit told them to write. They knew a little; they prophesied it and foretold it. We know that the Holy Ghost moved on them to write in the old, just as it did the men of the new.

The prophecies about Jesus Christ, came to pass; just as they said they would. A new dispensation opened up; and God began to reveal more of Himself, to those He had chosen. The preparation to enter the door, was set up, while Jesus was yet here; as He taught his disciples about what was to come. He gave them a taste of it, as He sent them two by two, on a mission to practice, what had already been ordained for them to do. It just messes with some folk’s theology, but they were healing people and they were casting out devils, before the Holy Ghost fell on the day of Pentecost. Some people were already full of the Spirit, before the fire fell in that room.

God must find it humorous, that men still think they can figure Him out. It doesn’t matter that He plainly told them they can’t, they yet try, as if all of the revelation, just has to belong to them.

From the beginning of man’s time on this planet, God has been revealing things to people. The depth of experiences that some possessed, throughout the old writings, continue to astonish me to this day. The miracles, the wonders, the signs and all of the great acts of God they did, makes some of us look like kindergarteners. We might only hope, we might perform as they did; know God as they did.

But God wasn’t finished. He had a plan for this new church also. And we need to say it, whether many do not want to hear it or not. He set things in this church; and nobody, can take them out. The gates of hell, shall not prevail against it; and neither will any high-minded mortals.

In writing to the Ephesians, Paul said, NOW, God is revealing these things. And I like the next couple of words, unto “His” holy apostles and prophets. Some folk don’t get that; they belong to God; not to some man-made affiliation or some board of governors.

Just because men did not accept what God was revealing to his chosen vessels, did not mean that He stopped revealing things to them. If men had listened, instead of trying to stamp out, some of the very things God had set up in the church, we’d be further along in this.

That was in chapter 3. To cement his thoughts, the writer went on in the next chapter, to say just how God had set these people in His plans. Until when? Until we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the fullness of Christ.

We didn’t get there. We are all not in that unity of the faith, we do not have that measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ. And the saints, certainly have not been perfected. We’ve actually, been going in the opposite direction. Why? Because too many feel, that if it is not revealed to them, it can’t be revealed.

Right now, the Spirit is speaking to all of the apostles and prophets of this hour; just like He has been all along. Will we hear them, or will we not? Know this. God, has people, who will listen.

 

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Robert Blackburn