IS THERE A DESPERATE CRY IN THE LAND?

In North America the word of God has been proclaimed probably more than any other nation on earth. There is such a low view of who God is across the west in general. Some kindly grandfather? a benevolent santa clause? A buddy?. Of course He is none of these things, He is high and lifted up, the train of His robe fills the temple, He is majestic in holiness, He is aweful, meaning full of awe. Those around His throne can only cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty.’

And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place: (for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course: Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:) It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God. (2 Chron 5:11-14)

Unless the people have an encounter with such a God, they will continue to have a low view of Him and worship some weak anemic cultural god of their own making. What a thousand excellent sermons cannot teach, can be learned with one moment in the genuine presence of God. The church in the west is starving to death, they are dying of thirst and the tragedy is that for the most part, the majority that are called after His name do not even know that they are in the midst of a famine and drought. I thank God for His remnant people who do know. Who agonize over the state of the church. Who cry out to God and who want nothing less for the multitude of people to experience the majesty and the glory and and anguish and the joy of falling down before the throne, to be ruined for life and to walk with the grand obsession of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Neh 8:10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

There is coming a time, and we may be there already, when God is calling His people, His remnant people, who have experienced the presence of God, to rise up and testify to it. To testify of what they know of Him. Of how they come into the presence of a Holy and majestic God, of how it ruins them and changes them, of how they tremble before the throne of the almighty God. This is what the people are starved of, this is what they are dying of thirst from. There is a famine of the Word of God in the land, not the Word preached, but the Word preached with the power and the presence of God. The crisis of the age is a lack of God’s empowering presence in our assemblies.

The hearts of those who cried out as Ezra read the word was the hearts of those who had an encounter with the living God, the same living God who can replace a spirit of heaviness with garments of praise. The same God who can strengthen His people with joy unspeakable. Can we do anything outside of His presence? Unless the Lord builds the house then we labor in vain. Every church , every gathering throughout the land should shut down their activities until they have the presence of the Lord walking in their midst, until the people know that ” the heavens shall be shut up, and there is no rain because they have sinned against You; if they pray toward this place, and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict them, then hear from Heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and of Your people Israel, when You have taught them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people for an inheritance.”

When the people realize how far they have wandered from the Living God, when they are desperate enough to cry out because ” there is famine in the land, if there is a plague, if blasting or mildew, locusts or ravagers, if their enemies have distressed them in the gates of their land, with any plague and any sickness; whatever prayer, whatever cry shall be made by any man, or by all Your people Israel, when everyone shall know his own plague and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house; then hear from Heaven, Your dwelling-place, and forgive, and give to every man according to all his ways, whose heart You know. For You only know the hearts of the sons of men,” then God will hear the cry’s of the desperate heart.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When the people who dwell in great darkness see the children of the living God set on fire, when they see that the fire of God has fallen upon the temple, when the glory of God fills the temple, then those who dwell in the darkness of this world will be drawn to the light of Christ that burns at the center of our hearts and souls. Will we serve the Lord our God with all of our hearts? Are we ready to throw off the things of this world and enter into the Holy of Holy’s? The Kingdom of God dwells within us, it was and is and is to come.

Shall we take our place before the throne? Is the Lord inviting us to the marriage feast and tragically we are too busy? Do we make excuses as to why we do not come fully before Him? He is knocking at the door of your heart, will you open up your heart and let Him reign upon its throne today? Will you give Him your all today? He will have all of us or He will have none of us. To look back at the things of the world disqualifies us from serving Him. Come brothers and sisters with our whole hearts, come to Him and cry out with a desperate cry ” Lord I die of hunger today, I desperately need your word with your power and your presence. Lord today I am dying of thirst, I have an unquenchable thirst for the Living waters of life and I desire to be fully immersed in this river and want to be taken to wherever it will take me. Lord I would rather be in the center of your will and die today, than to live 30 more years of compromise in a dry and thirsty land.”

What hinders you today brothers and sisters from entering into the fullness of God? Its not the Lord, His desire is to possess all of you and be the Lord of your whole life. So what hinders you today? Lay it down and come and walk in the fullness of Him.