As I was reading about the fall of Jerusalem, I couldn’t help but see the similarities to our current times. We are still a nation fighting for the soul of our land and on the brink of losing all that God has given us because we have turned our hearts away from God. Honestly, I know we are looking to President Trump to save this nation, and while I believe He was called by God to be the President in this season, President Trump is NOT the savior of this world or the nation. We the people, the Church, MUST rise up and unite together in Christ, to save this nation. We need to do our part, but before we can, we need to break free from the things that keep us from uniting.
Jerusalem has been destroyed by Babylon and the jews are in captivity in Babylon. They are mourning the fall of Jerusalem. In verse seven the Jews are asking the Lord to remember what Edom did to Jerusalem. In verse eight and nine the Jews are speaking to Babylon saying “Blessed is the one who does to them what they did to the Jews. Blessed is the one who seizes and kills their babies against a rock.” (see Psalm 137:7-9)
In Ezekiel 33:21-33 we learn why Jerusalem had to fall and what God had to say to the Jews that just wanted their land back. The people were detestable in God’s eyes. They were eating meat with blood in it, they worshipped idols, and they murdered the innocent. Sounds eerily familiar to our current times doesn’t it?
God goes on to explain how the people are still lying to the prophets just to hear what God is doing but they have no intention of doing what the prophets say. God is telling Ezekiel just how detestable the people are and he shares with him their true hearts intent, to seek only after what they covet in their heart.
Then Obadiah explains Edom’s judgement, punishment and destruction for what they did to the Israelites when they were suffering the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. (see Obadiah)
The Edomites and Israelites were relatives, but not just any relative, they were brothers from the lineage of Jacob (Israel) and Esau (Edom). It became very clear to me that the sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau was still alive during this awful time for the Israelites and honestly still exists today. When will we be able to embrace our differences and simply love one another for what God created us for?
Obadiah 10-14 tells us exactly what Edom did to the people of Israel/Judah while they were suffering. Edom should have come to their aid and helped them but instead gloated over their loss, continued plundering their land, all while rejoicing over their destruction and seizing their wealth.
The good news…Edom loses the battle, they will be destroyed and Israel will be restored. The spirit of Edom is still operating today and God is going to destroy it. (See Obadiah 15-21)
And the Lord himself will be King!
All will know! Every tribe, every nation, every tongue will confess Jesus is King, mighty counselor, Holy One, King of ALL!
Our enemy seeks to have a one world government because he is still working on his plan to be like God and rule over everything. He hasn’t changed. Nothing about him has changed since his fall. He won’t stop trying to rule over everything until his time is up.
Adam & Eve had authority to rule over all the earth and everything in it so the enemy came and stole their (our) dominion and authority. But God…sends Jesus to earth to die for our sins and take back dominion and authority, and return that authority to His chosen people.
The enemy comes along again and tempts Jesus with rulership over all the Kingdoms he can see if he will just worship him. It was his way to gain the world, but Jesus, thankfully said NO! It is written not to worship anything other than God.
Do you see his plan is to run a nation, all the nations because he is trying to steal what already belongs to God? The enemy knows he loses this war, but he also knows, he currently rules this world we live in and he will not stop until he takes as many of us down with him as he can.
The enemies only power is through what we the people give to him. If he can get us to vote for people that create policies aligning with evil and vote for evil to rule in our Nation, then he is one step closer to ruling the world through a one world government. He is only seeking power and unfortunately, so many of us are handing it to him every day.
We are supposed to be every tribe, every nation, every tongue united in Christ bowing only to Him as our one true King.
We are supposed to be every nationality embracing our culture while loving our neighbor who embraces their own culture ALL looking to our one true King who unites us in pure love.
We aren’t the same! We can’t be the same! We must never be the same! We must be who we were created to be in order for God’s Kingdom to work. Unity requires us to be different! Society and the world hates differences. Why? I believe it is because same opposes God and the current ruler of the world opposes God. Things that oppose God are easy and we are lazy people. Lazy loves easy. We don’t want to work hard.
Unity among people with strong differences is hard and requires work. It requires us to lay down our pride, to lay down our need to be right, to lay down our need to prove we are right, to lay down everything that divides us.
Easy is the road that opposes God
Hard is the road that opposes the world
Unity requires us to embrace our differences which oppose flesh, opposes world view. So we fight over our differences, trying to get everyone to agree with our point of view which they can’t even see because they haven’t experienced what we have and vice versa. Life is like looking through a kaleidoscope, every time you change direction the view is different. We do not have the ability to see all, know all, or even understand all. So what makes us think someone else’s point of view is wrong? Pride…
In God’s world you are called to plow the field the way he created you. In man’s world only the leader plows the field and you are required to follow.
I saw two pictures of this massive field of wheat and one of them had a huge group of people all walking in one line following someone that was plowing the field. There were only a few workers plowing and everyone else just following behind. They had made this huge lane in the middle of the field leaving wheat on either side of them untouched.
At first, it looked like perfect unity, everyone working together in one direction. As I looked closer I realized everyone was fighting over their differences and frustrated with how the leaders were plowing and leaving so much wheat untouched. It was really mass chaos, turmoil and fighting to be heard and for a leadership position so they could fix everything.
In the second picture I saw the same field and everyone was spread out among the whole field all working their own way, the way they were created. They were all contributing to the plowing of the field. They were covering more ground at a rapid pace than the first picture,
but it looked unorganized and messy.
At first, this looked like mass chaos, no plan, no rhyme or reason, no process, just people everywhere doing what they do. When I looked closer, I saw people were happy, over joyed, encouraged, and embracing one another as their paths crossed in the field, learning from one another. That is when I realized that everyone was working in the manner they were called and that created purpose and unity. Perfect unity because all eyes were on Jesus and all direction was coming from above.
The first was a picture of man’s world and the second was God’s world. I naturally asked myself, why are we always fighting in man’s world?
I believe it is because each of us was uniquely created for a specific purpose. That purpose is engrained in our DNA, it’s part of our genetic makeup. It is who we are at our core. We then spend our entire lives trying to figure out who exactly that is and what exactly we should be doing. When we do not live our purpose, depression, sadness, confusion, anxiety, anger, hurt, and comparison all become the emotions we vacillate through from day to day. All because we are not living in our identity, we are living someone else’s identity.
When seeds are planted, watered, fed and nourished they bloom into a plant. We often think the plant is a new identity of the seed but in reality the identity was already in the seed before it was planted.
When the seed blooms into a plant or whatever it was destined to be, that is not a new identity, it is the fruit of who it was meant to be from the beginning. The identity of the seed already exists and so does your identity. It was determined before you were created in the womb. God knew exactly who you would be and what you would do. He fashioned you for His purpose and plan for this moment right here, right now.
So, who are you? If you do not know, ask Him, He knows all and He wants you to know!
If you take an oak tree seed (acorn) and you plant it in a pot, nourish it until it becomes a seedling and never transplant it outside you will stunt the growth of that oak tree. They were never meant to be house plants. They were meant to grow big and tall.
In the same way you can’t plant a lemon tree and expect or try to get apples. All you will get is bitter fruit.
Bitter because it was not accepted as a lemon.
Bitter because it could not be who it was meant to be.
Bitter because it was told it was not good enough.
When we accept who we are, we can bloom and blossom into what we were meant to be fulfilling our purpose and design, bringing forth freedom, love, passion, and wholeness.
Man’s world breeds resentment for not being able to be a lemon tree because it feels you need to be an apple tree. The only way to live in perfect harmony is to live for and in perfect unity with our Creator, God!
He is sovereign over all, He created all! He knows what we need and will provide our every need!
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame burn you.
For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;... (Isaiah 43:2-3a)
God’s world while living in man’s world does not come without trouble but it does come with comfort, grace, protection and provision.
I pray that every person called by God will begin to embrace the differences of those around them and begin to walk in the calling that God has placed on your life so we can begin to see a glimpse of His perfect love and unity.
No matter what happens in this election process, no matter which side wins, I pray that we the Church will embrace even those that persecute us and begin to show the world what unity in Christ really looks like. I pray that unlike Edom we can embrace our neighbors, our differences and come to their aid when they need it most. I pray we will not plunder them when they are down.
May we always love God with all our heart, mind and soul and love our neighbor as our self.
Remain Rooted
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