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When the prophets speak to us they are charging up something in our spirits,
releasing something in us for the fulfillment of what is being spoken. The word of
prophecy, once spoken begins to set things in divine order for us. Isa 55:11 States
His word shall not return to Him void, but shall accomplish its purpose. Today's
sermon is from the book of Joel. Joel is only 3 chapters long but is packed with
wisdom for us.
Israel like America today had gotten used to prosperity. There is danger in
prosperity as it can get your eyes off of the Lord. Israel was expending its time and
energy in the pursuit of pleasure, in drunkenness and carousing. Sexual sin and
immorality were rampant. Joel issues a warning to the faithful remnant within Israel
and God is telling us today it is not because sinners are sinning that a nation
becomes judged. It is because the believers in the nation lose their savour. God is
calling His people to wake up.
Vs 1-5 Here we see Joel addressing the elders or leaders of the country as well as
its citizens. There had never been such devastation and Joel admonishes them to
learn from it. They are to tell their children and their grandchildren. The prophecies
Joel spoke of would relate to generations and generations to come until Christ
returns.
We are to instruct our children by our testimonies of how God brought us through
hard times. Vs 3 Is actually a declaration of victory. It assures them that regardless
of how bad it looks, they are going to survive and have a testimony to tell. It is when
we cannot possibly save ourselves that's when God can show Himself strong on our
behalf.
Vs 4 There are 4 waves of insects indicative of not only future events but also
nature and operation. The first locust were called cutting locust on Palmer worm
and they cut off the top of the stalks. They got the fruit of the crop. Next we see the
swarming locust and they eat the stalks, the hopping locust or canker worm eats the
stubs of the crop. When they are done there is nothing left but a bare field. If that
isn't bad enough, we then see the destroying locust or caterpillar which eats the
seeds under the ground leaving no hope for the plants to recover. So why was
Israel being subjected to such devastation? In Lev. 26 We can read about 5 cycles
a nation will go through when it rejects the Lord. God has levels of protection and
degrees of defense which, He can provide, based on our attitudes and actions.
Lev. 26:14-17 We see cycle one. When a person begins to walk in sin, one of the
first things that is going to attach itself to you is sickness of one kind or another.
Vs 18-20 Cycle two is crop failure. Israel experienced the anguish of famine.
Vs 21-23 Cycle three wild beasts will come in to ravage the nation, to kill the
innocent. We have seen an increase in terrorist acts.
Vs 23-26 Cycle four speaks of a sinning nation being overrun and controlled by an
outside power. A military dictatorship will be imposed on them.
Vs 27-39 Cycle five is destruction, captivity and enslavement in a foreign land.
Joel Vs 6-14 The reason Israel fell to the Assyrians is because the leadership and
the spiritual leaders were no longer obeying the Lord. The spiritual leadership had
become so used to prosperity that they had turned their eyes away from God.
There is a lesson here for us today. Many times disaster in the life of a Christian, as
in the life of a nation, can be directly traced back to the spiritual condition of that
person or people. As goes the spiritual life, so goes the physical. Without a strong
spiritual foundation and commitment, without a vital and active faith, the believer has
no hope of warding off the attacks of the enemy. This is especially true if the
believer is engaging in sin and is to proud or stubborn to admit it and turn from that
sin. God is demanding and expecting more personal commitment from His church.
The children of Israel had let down their standard, they had not rendered unto the
Lord what
rightfully belonged to Him. They reaped what they had sown. They had no one to
blame but themselves. If we Christians will repent and turn to God, He will heal our
land despite bad leadership or bad legislation. Israel was also failing to teach
essential truths to the people. They were failing to intercede. They were putting
their faith and trust in God's provision rather then in God himself. There was no
more praise or joy because they failed to teach more praise or joy because they
failed to teach worship, praise and repentance. The people experienced a dryness
of spirit. They loss their appetite for God's word, they had a weakness of heart and
lack of joy. The cure is to this is repentance.
Joel prophecies the invasion of Assyria and foretells of the Battle of Armageddon.
Go with me to Joel 2:13 God wants you to seriously repent. So many believers
have an outward facade of repentance but their heart is far from the Lord. It is
possible to have a great emotional change, to weep in remorse for sin. It is possible
to make
restitution for wrongs. And it is also possible that all of that is not enough to work a
change of heart on the inside.
Satan comes against people for two very basic reasons: 1.) They are in God's will or
2.) They are out of God's will.
Joel is desperately trying to warn them that these calamities are befalling them
because they have let down God's protective shield around them.
Vs 18-22 Speaks of the millennial reign of Jesus and how Jesus is going to redeem
the time Israel has been trodden down and abused. Fourteen blessings are listed
Vs 23- 32 speaks of restoration in the natural and spiritual realm. There will be an
outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a harvest of souls around the globe. God has
given each church a vision that He wants us to meet with faith in our hearts so we
can fulfill His destiny for each of us and His church. Recently we as a church have
experienced a Gideon revival. That's a nice way of saying more people were
leaving than staying. It was scary, but God is taking the church to a new level of
maturity. We are in transition, a time of stretching. We have had a multitude of
prophetic words spoken to us as a corporate body and to individuals. As soon as
those words are spoken the devil responds by trying to push us into unbelief so he
can steal the word from
us. We must be militant in what God has spoken to us. The devil is like the locust;
he will try to steal your hope by presenting the illusion of an empty field. God
requires us to have a solid faith in His word.
When the Lord gives us a word He doesn't give it so we can pick and choose which
parts we'll receive. If we confess what God has said in spite of the worst
circumstances, the Lord will marvel at our faith and the prophetic word will bear
much fruit. Many times to see a prophetic word fulfilled you have to exercise your
authority over the devil in faith. You have to learn to submit and work with those the
Lord has placed over you. We need to learn about responsibility and accountability
in the church. Submitting to authority prepares us to handle the authority God will
entrust to help us deal with issues of character, relationships and attitudes. If we
don't have a humble servants heart our prophecies will be hindered. We need to
operate in corporate faith, working together, stopping at nothing to see God's
prophetic
word fulfilled. We all have to put our shoulder to the wheel to see God's word for
our church come to pass. God has called us to be over comers, the Joshua
generation who press in and on through the wilderness to the Promised land. God
promises He is before us. We've got to trust God. His word is going forth in this
hour to prepare us for what is ahead, for he new thing He is doing. We can't see
completely what it is all about, but the seed is being planted today for what God will
accomplish in the future. God is going to ask us to do things that seem impossible,
and they
are impossible without His help. He may ask us to do something foolish, but God
chooses the foolish things to confound the wise. We can't rely on our senses for
the word of the Lord. Isa 55:11 Says God's word goes forth from His mouth and
does not return to Him empty. It accomplishes what He desires and prospers in the
things He sent it to do. God used Joel, a prophet, to tell Israel what was to come.
His word was fulfilled and His word will be fulfilled. Once God speaks the word the
word goes out
and begins to set things in divine order so that when we mature according to plan,
God's plan comes to pass. The devil wants to destroy and steal the word away from
us so we cannot fulfill God's destiny. Satan will do anything to cripple, blind and
mislead us, to keep us from moving into the fullness of God.
Joel spoke of things to come that affect all generations until Jesus' return to reign
for a thousand years. Prophecy is being fulfilled on a daily basis. A day of
judgment for all nations is coming, a day of spiritual and physical restoration is
coming, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit has begun and the fields are white for the
harvest of souls around the globe.
The devil says you should give up, turn back, but it doesn't matter what the devil
says. It doesn't matter what the neighbors say, what your friends say, what your
family says or what the people say. Our God who promised is faithful! And if
nobody but you believes that, it is still enough. Will you go on with God to the
destiny He has for you? Will you go on with God to the destiny He has for your
church? It's time to wake up and get busy with the Father's work; it's time to move
out of our comfort zones. It's a time to prepare for spiritual warfare; it's time to step
forward into our destinies. Will you take that step? The choice is yours.
releasing something in us for the fulfillment of what is being spoken. The word of
prophecy, once spoken begins to set things in divine order for us. Isa 55:11 States
His word shall not return to Him void, but shall accomplish its purpose. Today's
sermon is from the book of Joel. Joel is only 3 chapters long but is packed with
wisdom for us.
Israel like America today had gotten used to prosperity. There is danger in
prosperity as it can get your eyes off of the Lord. Israel was expending its time and
energy in the pursuit of pleasure, in drunkenness and carousing. Sexual sin and
immorality were rampant. Joel issues a warning to the faithful remnant within Israel
and God is telling us today it is not because sinners are sinning that a nation
becomes judged. It is because the believers in the nation lose their savour. God is
calling His people to wake up.
Vs 1-5 Here we see Joel addressing the elders or leaders of the country as well as
its citizens. There had never been such devastation and Joel admonishes them to
learn from it. They are to tell their children and their grandchildren. The prophecies
Joel spoke of would relate to generations and generations to come until Christ
returns.
We are to instruct our children by our testimonies of how God brought us through
hard times. Vs 3 Is actually a declaration of victory. It assures them that regardless
of how bad it looks, they are going to survive and have a testimony to tell. It is when
we cannot possibly save ourselves that's when God can show Himself strong on our
behalf.
Vs 4 There are 4 waves of insects indicative of not only future events but also
nature and operation. The first locust were called cutting locust on Palmer worm
and they cut off the top of the stalks. They got the fruit of the crop. Next we see the
swarming locust and they eat the stalks, the hopping locust or canker worm eats the
stubs of the crop. When they are done there is nothing left but a bare field. If that
isn't bad enough, we then see the destroying locust or caterpillar which eats the
seeds under the ground leaving no hope for the plants to recover. So why was
Israel being subjected to such devastation? In Lev. 26 We can read about 5 cycles
a nation will go through when it rejects the Lord. God has levels of protection and
degrees of defense which, He can provide, based on our attitudes and actions.
Lev. 26:14-17 We see cycle one. When a person begins to walk in sin, one of the
first things that is going to attach itself to you is sickness of one kind or another.
Vs 18-20 Cycle two is crop failure. Israel experienced the anguish of famine.
Vs 21-23 Cycle three wild beasts will come in to ravage the nation, to kill the
innocent. We have seen an increase in terrorist acts.
Vs 23-26 Cycle four speaks of a sinning nation being overrun and controlled by an
outside power. A military dictatorship will be imposed on them.
Vs 27-39 Cycle five is destruction, captivity and enslavement in a foreign land.
Joel Vs 6-14 The reason Israel fell to the Assyrians is because the leadership and
the spiritual leaders were no longer obeying the Lord. The spiritual leadership had
become so used to prosperity that they had turned their eyes away from God.
There is a lesson here for us today. Many times disaster in the life of a Christian, as
in the life of a nation, can be directly traced back to the spiritual condition of that
person or people. As goes the spiritual life, so goes the physical. Without a strong
spiritual foundation and commitment, without a vital and active faith, the believer has
no hope of warding off the attacks of the enemy. This is especially true if the
believer is engaging in sin and is to proud or stubborn to admit it and turn from that
sin. God is demanding and expecting more personal commitment from His church.
The children of Israel had let down their standard, they had not rendered unto the
Lord what
rightfully belonged to Him. They reaped what they had sown. They had no one to
blame but themselves. If we Christians will repent and turn to God, He will heal our
land despite bad leadership or bad legislation. Israel was also failing to teach
essential truths to the people. They were failing to intercede. They were putting
their faith and trust in God's provision rather then in God himself. There was no
more praise or joy because they failed to teach more praise or joy because they
failed to teach worship, praise and repentance. The people experienced a dryness
of spirit. They loss their appetite for God's word, they had a weakness of heart and
lack of joy. The cure is to this is repentance.
Joel prophecies the invasion of Assyria and foretells of the Battle of Armageddon.
Go with me to Joel 2:13 God wants you to seriously repent. So many believers
have an outward facade of repentance but their heart is far from the Lord. It is
possible to have a great emotional change, to weep in remorse for sin. It is possible
to make
restitution for wrongs. And it is also possible that all of that is not enough to work a
change of heart on the inside.
Satan comes against people for two very basic reasons: 1.) They are in God's will or
2.) They are out of God's will.
Joel is desperately trying to warn them that these calamities are befalling them
because they have let down God's protective shield around them.
Vs 18-22 Speaks of the millennial reign of Jesus and how Jesus is going to redeem
the time Israel has been trodden down and abused. Fourteen blessings are listed
Vs 23- 32 speaks of restoration in the natural and spiritual realm. There will be an
outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a harvest of souls around the globe. God has
given each church a vision that He wants us to meet with faith in our hearts so we
can fulfill His destiny for each of us and His church. Recently we as a church have
experienced a Gideon revival. That's a nice way of saying more people were
leaving than staying. It was scary, but God is taking the church to a new level of
maturity. We are in transition, a time of stretching. We have had a multitude of
prophetic words spoken to us as a corporate body and to individuals. As soon as
those words are spoken the devil responds by trying to push us into unbelief so he
can steal the word from
us. We must be militant in what God has spoken to us. The devil is like the locust;
he will try to steal your hope by presenting the illusion of an empty field. God
requires us to have a solid faith in His word.
When the Lord gives us a word He doesn't give it so we can pick and choose which
parts we'll receive. If we confess what God has said in spite of the worst
circumstances, the Lord will marvel at our faith and the prophetic word will bear
much fruit. Many times to see a prophetic word fulfilled you have to exercise your
authority over the devil in faith. You have to learn to submit and work with those the
Lord has placed over you. We need to learn about responsibility and accountability
in the church. Submitting to authority prepares us to handle the authority God will
entrust to help us deal with issues of character, relationships and attitudes. If we
don't have a humble servants heart our prophecies will be hindered. We need to
operate in corporate faith, working together, stopping at nothing to see God's
prophetic
word fulfilled. We all have to put our shoulder to the wheel to see God's word for
our church come to pass. God has called us to be over comers, the Joshua
generation who press in and on through the wilderness to the Promised land. God
promises He is before us. We've got to trust God. His word is going forth in this
hour to prepare us for what is ahead, for he new thing He is doing. We can't see
completely what it is all about, but the seed is being planted today for what God will
accomplish in the future. God is going to ask us to do things that seem impossible,
and they
are impossible without His help. He may ask us to do something foolish, but God
chooses the foolish things to confound the wise. We can't rely on our senses for
the word of the Lord. Isa 55:11 Says God's word goes forth from His mouth and
does not return to Him empty. It accomplishes what He desires and prospers in the
things He sent it to do. God used Joel, a prophet, to tell Israel what was to come.
His word was fulfilled and His word will be fulfilled. Once God speaks the word the
word goes out
and begins to set things in divine order so that when we mature according to plan,
God's plan comes to pass. The devil wants to destroy and steal the word away from
us so we cannot fulfill God's destiny. Satan will do anything to cripple, blind and
mislead us, to keep us from moving into the fullness of God.
Joel spoke of things to come that affect all generations until Jesus' return to reign
for a thousand years. Prophecy is being fulfilled on a daily basis. A day of
judgment for all nations is coming, a day of spiritual and physical restoration is
coming, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit has begun and the fields are white for the
harvest of souls around the globe.
The devil says you should give up, turn back, but it doesn't matter what the devil
says. It doesn't matter what the neighbors say, what your friends say, what your
family says or what the people say. Our God who promised is faithful! And if
nobody but you believes that, it is still enough. Will you go on with God to the
destiny He has for you? Will you go on with God to the destiny He has for your
church? It's time to wake up and get busy with the Father's work; it's time to move
out of our comfort zones. It's a time to prepare for spiritual warfare; it's time to step
forward into our destinies. Will you take that step? The choice is yours.
| A MESSAGE FROM JOEL BY RABBI ESTHER BOUCHER |
Ministry of Gates of Praise Ministries, Inc.Copyright Gates of Praise Ministries 2007