Amos, a man turned from being shepherd, to the bringing of words from God to a straying nation and to its leadership. He had been brought to a hearing of another kind, even in conflict with the wisdom of men who had acquired leadership positions in the land. The words brought before the shepherds of the nation came at a critical time – two years before a devastating shaking, well in time for these great men to repent and turn to the Lord in sackcloth and ashes. But, they were immersed to the brim by the wisdom which caused the judgment, with the kind of wisdom which was reducing the testimony of God to rubble. They were all shepherds of vanity.
And the Lord roars. . .
The voice of the Lord, and the words that were sent to the straying nation and to the forces which caused devastation, were of the mightiest kind – like the roaring of a lion. The words mobilized the strongest of force against the dynamics of vanity, the dynamics of prosperity and welfare in the land. Shepherds of vanity were devastated as well as the foreign forces which were reducing Gilead to rubble, reducing the corporate testimony to a state of being which we identify as a Ground Zero. The balm of Gilead was no more, vanity had taken its place. Its leaders were not interested in the recovering of a testimony and of spiritual stamina.
And the Lord roars. . .
Words came to another prophet after a period of breaking and devastation – to Joel. The burden of the Lord, which he had to bring before a leadership which were unwilling to take in the perspective of the Lord, was one regarding the ability to represent God and to have fellowship with God. The meal-offerings and the drink-offerings were taken away from the priests, because of their vanity. No possibility to enter into fellowship with the Holy One because of their unwillingness to repent and turn away from their carnality. And God made it absolutely clear that without the tears and the repentance between the porch and the altar, there would be no true outpouring of the Spirit of God.
And the Lord roars. . .
The controversy of the Lord is to be defined in a simple statement: The testimony of Christ in us, within the Church at large, is reduced to rubble. The testimony of the presence of Jesus Christ, as corporate spiritual stamina, is reduced to rubble. The priests, the leadership, do not care for spiritual maturity – things pertaining to godliness. The balm in Gilead, the healing of the broken-hearted, is trashed and it is replaced by amusement, the outright turning away from the ability to muse, to search for truth for the sake of knowing the Holy. The reality of Ichabod – the absence the Glory of God – is no more an issue with the Church. Eternal values are brought out of the picture for the sake of seeker-friendliness.
And the Lord roars. . .
The prophetic entity, the Church which opens for and bows to the necessity of sackcloth and repenting, will see a recovering of the testimony. The gathering of saints, godly men and women will be able to bring a word regarding restoration at their local Ground Zero. Where there has been thorough shaking and thorough response to the shaking, there will be an outpouring unto restoring of the testimony – and a radical one at that.
And the Lord roars. . .
The Lord is waiting for men to gather, for women to gather, in solemn assemblies, for a weeping between the porch and the altar regarding the testimony that has been completely threshed in Gilead, weeping regarding a restoring of the fellowship offerings, weeping regarding the unwillingness to minister in truth and humility. The Solemn Assembly dares dressing in sack cloth, the Solemn Assembly dares speaking repentance, the Solemn Assembly is the only entity which may wait on God for a restoring of the testimony, the only entity which may be granted an outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit unto corporate testimony in godly living and service.
And the Lord roars, for both shaking and restoration.
Lars Widerberg
Reading; Am 1:1-5, Jer 8:22, Joel 1:8-10, Joel 2:12-14, 1 Tim 2:8-9.
From the notes to a Church in Bronx, New York
