We’ve heard a lot of teaching from Rabbi Cahn and others about this Shemitah year that we are in right now, and most of it is focused on the nations of the world and how they will fare in the End Times based on their actions concerning the things of God.
But have you considered that this Shemitah year is also applied to what’s going on in your heart and life? This is not only a global initiative, it is individual as well.
It’s a time that God gave us to get back in right standing because if we don’t, the judgment comes. If our hearts are right, it could be a time of great blessing! The good news is that judgment belongs to the Lord and He is kind and good to those who are working out their salvation. This life in Christ is not a spectator sport, it is active involvement in God’s plan for redemption, fulfilling the reason we are here.
We are preparing the way of the Lord before His return. God’s plan is so much more intricate than any of us can figure out but we are getting a glimpse of the future. We may well be on that narrow path but there are still intersections on that path that look very tempting, but we are to stay on that path. We won’t get lost as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus and draw closer to Him. Our God is able to deliver us out of dire circumstances all around us as we watch what happens to a world that has mocked, blasphemed and rejected Him.
It’s a stunning revelation when you understand that every Shemitah principle applied to the nations is also applied to you personally in every part of your life. What we do, or don’t do, within this Shemitah year will determine whether we are judged or justified in the season to come – which we all know will be a season like no other before it or ever again.
In this Shemitah year, there is opportunity for reflection, repentance and course correction. Not to do so brings the promise of certain judgment – a judgment that the Lord must bring to right the wrong course of His creation. This Shemitah principle has existed since the beginning of time until this day, and is now wrapping up the final countdown to the Lord’s return for a Bride without spot or wrinkle.
God is about to show up in a grand way. An undeniable alignment with every prophetic scripture is set in motion and we will soon see the fulfillment of things written about long ago and revealed in these Last Days. This fulfillment of scripture has two profound realities: judgment or justification.
I don’t know about you, but I want to do everything in my power to NOT be judged by a Holy God and found wanting! God must judge the nations, and He will judge them according to what they have done, or not done, according to His commands. Within the nations, He will deal with every heart to make the adjustments and alignments that are needed so that they may be justified and found holy and acceptable to Him. He wants each and every one of us to be at the Wedding Supper and He is beckoning for us to prepare!
Next week, we will get into the detail of how to search the recesses of our hearts; what to look for and what to do to make sure we have done our best to cleanse the temple and make things right with our God! Just a preview: we’ve accepted many things as the “new normal” based on our culture, but are we like the proverbial frog in the pot of hot water, unable to discern the moral temperature of our world until it’s too late?
Lori,
God may get so “severe” in judging His own children; whereby, if it is His will, He may decide – out of His own sovereign prerogative – to pronounce the “sentence” of DEATH upon any hypothetically disobedient saint who would have, at first, received the very GRACE of God to hear “warnings” to REPENT; but yet and still, the hypothetically recalcitrant believer REFUSED to heed the Lord’s warnings. [For example, please read the account of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, whereby you see that there’s even a married “Christian” couple that the Lord immediately struck “dead” for “lying” to the Holy Spirit, in regards to breaking a “vow” that they had made to give a certain amount of money to donate to the Apostles, for the cause of propagating the Gospel].
The Lord’s warnings themselves may take the form of that which is ALREADY given to us in God’s written “word”; or the warnings may take the form of a “spoken” word, either directly from the Holy Spirit itself – OR indirectly from another “believer” that God may use to carry a message of warning to the targeted disobedient disciple. But however God chooses to warn his people; that accordingly, all of us are still WITHOUT excuse. As disciples of Christ, we have both the written “word” of God and the Holy Spirit itself to testify to any hypothetical misdeed that we may flagrantly (or surreptitiously) commit. It is only by the MERCY of God that He has long “put up” with all of our foolish mess!! However, even the Lord himself tells us in His word that He will not ALWAYS tolerate our deliberate or willful sins. The most explicit New Testament verse that I could give you on this matter is Hebrews 10: 26-31, whereby the writer says that
“If we [the Church] sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth [i.e., the words of Jesus Christ], there remaineth no more sacrifice [of the shed blood of Christ] for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment [by God] and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries [i.e., the “backslidden” Church].
He that despised Moses’ law DIED WITHOUT MERCY under two or three witnesses:
Of how much SORER PUNISHMENT, suppose ye [Christians], shall he [a disciple] be thought worthy [by God], who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
For we know Him that hath said, ‘Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord’. And again, ‘The Lord shall judge his people’ [i.e., His “backslidden” Church].
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” [KJV].
And 1 Peter 4:17…………..
“For the time is come that JUDGMENT must begin at the House Of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the END be of them that obey NOT the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” [KJV].
But oh, Halleluyah, Lori!!!………..
The Lord left a most gracious, most merciful REMEDY for the saints, to AVOID the above two mentioned scriptures above, dealing with Him having to “judging” even so-called “Christians”……………
In 1 Corinthians 11: 31-32, we read the following:
“For if we would judge OURSELVES, we should NOT be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” [KJV].
And lastly, Lori; even if God does indeed see the NEED in “chastening” us – without having to take out our very lives [like He did with Ananias and Sapphira]; that STILL, though, what Christian in his/her “right mind” would want to “play around” with God, in willfully sinning all of the time!!??
So, I share your same sentiment when you state above, “I don’t know about you, but I want to do everything in my power to NOT be judged by a Holy God and found wanting!”
Nahum 1:6 states: “Who can stand before His indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him” [KJV].
And Malachi 3:2 says; “But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap” [KJV].
I agree with you, Lori…We have been given information and have been warned..I pray all that hear will hear with their hearts, also…Thanks again, Lori…Love you with the Love of the Lord..Doris
Thank you Jim and Lori Bakker for words of truth in a world of illusion.