GOD says Call For The Women!

Understand the atmosphere of the context of this…   See the conditions that were going on in Israel that God and the prophet Jeremiah were dealing with.  The prophet was interceding passionately in a backslidden era. He was seeking the heart of God to find remedy…

Jeremiah 9:

15 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

16 “I will scatter them also among the Gentiles [nations], whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”

17 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider and call for the mourning women, That they may come; And send for skillful wailing women, That they may come.

18 Let them make haste And take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may run with tears, And our eyelids gush with water.

19 For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are plundered! We are greatly ashamed, Because we have forsaken the land, Because we have been cast out of our dwellings.'”

20 Yet hear the word of the Lord, O women, And let your ear receive the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters wailing, And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.

21 For death has come through our windows, Has entered our palaces, To kill off the children; no longer to be outside! And the young men; no longer on the streets!

22 Speak, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Even the carcasses of men shall fall as refuse on the open field, Like cuttings after the harvester, And no one shall gather them.'”

23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;

24 But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.

25 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised;

26 “Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.”

God was responding to a man who was crying to Him over the conditions of the land. War was going on, the land was plundered. Hearts had turned away from the Lord.

Children were dying and the nation’s strength of the young men was dissipating. He was standing “between the porch and the altar” (the place of intercession in God’s courts) crying out.

God was angry because people had turned away from Him, so judgment was coming now for the believer and unbeliever alike. But God has mercy and God has answers because God has a Plan. And God will speak.

With all that deterioration and hopelessness, the prophet cried out in tears. And what did God answer?

Call for the women. If you read the whole passage there, the women were also under attacks and suffering. It was not like they were the stronger of the two at that point.

This was God’s answer and this was part of God’s Plan. Call for the women and give respect to the women. Was there another option? Not here, there wasn’t.

Women are not better than men, nor are men better than women. This was not God’s statement of “Women rule.” In fact we know that God names men as the head of their families. But I believe there comes a time when God thinks we have missed it and when we ask Him for help, He will respond with what HE wants.

The Lord has always wanted balance and respect for all His people. He never denied anyone from any nation who wanted to join the Company of believers if they were really believers. Women don’t have any special graces or charms that touch God more than men do. God wants respect for His grand Creation, in the manner and order that He designed it.

I think it is very interesting at this time in America that the news is full of the story about our country’s loans defaulting having the potential to dramatically the wreck the country even more, and the LDS trial of Warren Jeff facing child/girl/women abuse charges. I think there is something to it. (I have preached this Jeremian 9 message years before, so this did not just come to me.)

God wants honor for the men as well as the women. He wants them to have their respect. This is not about ego, but dignity. But I am making a point beyond that, too. When you look at the Church, the Body of Christ believers, who are crying out long and hard for revival and revolution in our lives, you will start to notice something – the women pray-ers.

The women intercessors are rising up. They are gaining a Godly recognition for their roles in seeking God. This is a sign that revival is coming! God has a fashion and order in the way He does things. We are not self designers in this call on our lives to live before Him and then receive His blessings. There is an order and a plan! And our fullfillments will be found in that.

As God is preparing us for a Visitation, you will find more and more anointing on the prayer groups of the women interceding. They will not be just women only, because God is no respector of persons. Men who are sensitive are not despised by God. He is not blessing hanky-panky (wrong actions) by either gender, but He will address the issues of what means something to Him and the way He wants to see things done.

We have much today going on in the way of social engineering, attempting to reorder the ways of God and it is just not going to work. He can shut it down. He has done it before and He can do it again – dramatically. He will let things go way beyond what most decent people think He will. But that does not mean He is not going to act. His ways are higher and grander than our ways are.

When He talks about us entering into His Life and Blessings, and what it takes, He is sincere. The reality that He is even willing to communicate with us on any level is mind blowing. But He knows what He is looking for. And He gave Scriptures to assist us.

Christians who have been around prayers know that they can change things. Prayers have the potential to do amazing things, but they are not “our” design tools. We are not the Designers. We are co-laborers with a great work in redeeming the earth.

God knows what He wants and He wants both men and women and children respected in the right spirit. We do need to search that out and we do need to follow His order, not in legalisms but in honoring the Life that He has designed.

Look for those weeping, wailing women intercessors and join them and bless them. According to God’s Word, it is going to make the difference.

Pursuing God As Friend

“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'” (Matthew 25:40 NKJV)

I have a friend who was raised in a somewhat well to do family and they were all raised to know the Lord. They were active in a mainline denomination and were not negative towards the more pentecostal ways. The sons went on to do well in business like their father and the daughter did well but encountered some challenges in life, not of her own making.

As one of my accountability friends in the Lord, she told me about her personal financial struggles, which seems to be in a similar pattern as mine right now, and I know she aggressively pursues the Lord with her heart. She works hard to be righteous and she works hard to love people and is of a generous spirit socially and tangibly.

Being somewhat prophetic too, we talk about the times with a shared understanding and we believe that God is proving people to Himself in people in this season. People are being tested in ways that don’t seem logical or fair except that God is testing them and is proving their character in Him.

We talk about what it means to be a Christian and to be in ministry and about who is real and who is not, and what is real and what is not, even in our own lives. When she told me about her struggles – and believe me, I know she has been a big giver – and that her relatives own several houses for themselves while she struggles to make ends meet, I know something is wrong with that picture.

God has blessed her family and they are ignoring her in her time of need, especially when you look at it according to their means versus hers right now. We also talked about people who were serving the Lord and those we knew who were wavering and what it meant to be a friend to them, even fellow ministers. People go through stuff!

In this day and time everyone is encouraged to minister and all hands on deck are needed. But the times are hard for many people, even many more than in months past. Finances and/or the lack of them are a strong testing area of the Lord.

My friend is one who would rather not see a dime and have the love of family and friends. Of course you need money to pay your bills but money does not drive her, and she knows what a better life is because she has lived it in her childhood and adult life. She is not bitter, but in sharing we do question people who have a way to make for others and don’t do it. When you look at it from the bigger picture of our world and national events, it speaks.

We have another friend we know who has struggled and is backsliding some. We talked about the role of love in that situation. That friend has even been in the ministry and there have been times because of the backsliding that we have had to cut that friend off of some socializing because of the wayward ways that were destructive.

When we began that conversation about our friend I was encouraging her to be strong in the Lord about what was right because I know her tender heart. We both care and want to see the best and not the worst for our friend. But that is the friend she told me who called and asked her if she was in need and if she could help and she did!

It’s really strange when the friends of the world are better than the friends of the Church! She brought up the Scriptures in Matthew 25 about those who were needy and who responded and how Jesus said to those who did not that He never knew them – and the word “knew” there means to intimately know Him.

We were talking about the fine line of righteousness and benevolence. This seems to be a proving season, especially when the economy is as tough as it is for so many more people, and how we need to not lose heart.

As someone like her who has seen better days financially, I shared how I have seen some do their benevolence as a token work and brownie point rather than it being real love. You may need the help but you feel slimed by the charitable act because it was not done with real love. With some you feel like they have done you a favor because they are in a better position at that moment and they expect something in return for it later.

The Church is more than a social network! It should be that, but it also should be more than that. If it operates on love, then you want to feel that love when it is given. Many have talked about the Spiritual abortion that they have experienced or seen when it was the “right thing to do” to get souls saved.

They got them to the altar, counted their brownie points for their merit badges, and then totally forgot the souls there. They left them without help or assistance and for all practical purposes abandoned them and thus they floundered and went back to the world. Some just expected them to be a financial resource for them!

Well, if you read the Word of God and think God won’t judge that, think again! God must be anchored in your own soul before you can do any kind of effective ministry and the Church (which includes the local church and all its conferences) is the place where that is supposed to happen!

How is it that we go from acquaintance to friendship? As Christians we can only do that in the Spirit of the Lord. Good works do not always equate with Christian ministry and some people in the world can give with more love than the church people do!

God alone knows the heart, and the fear of the LORD is wisdom. Many live by the fear and approval of man, but do not regard the struggles of their fellow man. If they help, it is only to gain an advantage. Prophetically speaking, it seems that God is dealing with some of this!

I appreciate my friend’s accountability in making me to see love. Our backslidden friend still had love at work in her while we know people active in the ministry who do not have so much. It’s important to know what real friendship is. We have been through a season of betrayals that I had hoped was mostly over, but as yet I don’t see that season as over in the basic sense.

I was flabbergasted to see my friend’s struggles while she has as wealthy of a family that she does. She is not a big backslidden sinner. If anything, it seems to me the reverse! Some people who are efficient in finances will label people “sinners” when those others are less efficient than they are, but their “label” is really about the discipline of the flesh more than the Spirit.

My friend would give up everything she had to see her family saved and in the love of God. And while I want to be mad at them, she is an intercessor for them, because she really loves them. But the point is, for all their appearances, do they really KNOW Him?

To know Him is to really love Him and those He cares about. It’s not about the brownie points. It’s not about how efficient we really can be. God will use the wealth of the wicked to minister to the righteous. The wicked may save it up only to die and leave it to those who will spread it around. But there are some who are sad for the loss of their souls. They will mourn for them!

The Kingdom of God works by love. Friendship with God has fruit and evidence. My friend was even quick to point out to me when I said that discerning of spirits was important that that was a gift and not a fruit of the Holy Spirit. How grateful I am for a friend like that!

Yes, they come from the same Holy Spirit but the nature of God is more important than the gifts of God. Even though hard times may be here for many, it’s important to know the nature, character and ways of God more than His acts and gifts.

In the “big world view” of things right now, we may not be on the radar, but in Heaven I hear a reading. We must pursue love.