And because lawlessness is increased, the love of many will become cold. Matthew 24:12.
But if I say, “I will not remember Him Nor speak anymore in His name,” Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am tired of holding it in, and I cannot endure it. Jeremiah 20:9.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Extraordinary. Ordinary should be days filled with miracles, signs, and wonders so extraordinary should be a day of overflow of glory—more than you can contain. A day where everyone has to pause and shout “Glory!” A day of awesome wonder.
The first believers had awesome days. They saw prison gates swing open with no hand touching them, they saw people raised from the dead, they saw cripples leaping and running who had never walked, they saw demons cast out, angels transporting them to preach the gospel, and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit in operation among them. They beheld prophets rising up from among them and directions and warnings from the Holy Spirit. They spoke in tongues, prayed powerful prayers that caused the places where they prayed to shake, and boldly declared My Word. And they rejoiced when they were persecuted and had to suffer for the sake of the Name of Jesus.
They turned the world right side up and went about doing good and healing those oppressed by the devil. They imitated Jesus as My dear children—so much so that people called them “Christians.” But they called themselves, “followers of the Way.” I called them the Church of the Firstborn.
What made that fire that burned in the hearts of the early Christians grow cold? What turned the burning hearts to lukewarm ones? What took place over the years that made your love turn cold?
Jesus told you one source of the problem, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:12-13. The increase in lawlessness. The spirit of lawlessness that is at work in the sons of disobedience. The spirit of rebellion that is in the world.
It also goes back to the first parable My Son told about the sower and the seed, the seed being My Word. Of the four types of ground the seed fell upon, only one bore fruit and that in different measures. But the thorns are one of the greatest barriers to fervent intensity of purpose. They choke off My Word in you with the cares, trials, lusts, and various entrapments of the worldly life. And this is what compromised the church from being on fire to lukewarm, too much acceptance of worldly values and cares into the lives of the believers. False charity which became acceptance of sin, “Let us be one people.” This is what happened at Babel. You become more concerned with the opinions of the world and prospering in the world than with Me. You see parents do this with their children even now. They look for what has prestige, power, and makes money in the world not at the Kingdom. But I tell you to seek first the Kingdom and My Righteousness and all these things will be added to you.
But what does light have to do with darkness? What do believers have in common with unbelievers?
The failure of the Church to stay strong and act as Christ in the world is not just the problems that come from outside the church in a godless world but divisions within. Denominations to Me are a terrible thing in My Son’s Body, which is one. The powerful prayer of the early church resulted from that they lifted up their voices in one accord. Acts 4:24. “And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonged to him as his own, but all things were held in common.” Acts 4:32. And abundant grace was upon them.
Paul called those who argued over what preacher they followed and created divisions among the Body of Christ infants in Christ who were still of the flesh and not in the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3:3-13, 1 Corinthians 11:18-19.
Come up higher to where Christ is seated at My right hand and where you who believe are seated with Him and in Him, blessed with every spiritual blessing in Heaven. Walk in heavenly realms while still on the earth, like a bubble over snares. Why crawl with the snake in the dirt when you can be higher, where the snake cannot survive? Let the sphere of Heaven surround you on earth, let Me surround you with Kingdom benefits and protection, knowing Me as LORD of Hosts, hearing the songs of Zion in your heart.
But what is the answer when love grows cold? Even your own on those days when your hopes seem dead and gone, for disappointed hope makes the heart sick, and that is why many grow cold over the years. What is the answer? Stir it into flame. Even dying embers can become a blazing fire when fanned into flame and new fuel added. Let Me show you how: On the Road to Emmaus, My Word, Jesus, whom I had raised that day in glory, took two cold, dead hearts of disciples and set them on fire by “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in the Scriptures.” Luke 24:27. When He first approached the two disciples “they stood still looking sad.” Luke 24:17. Why, when they were disciples? They tell you why, “We were hoping that it was He (Jesus) who was going to redeem Israel.” Luke 24:21. But they had seen Him die a horrible death and His disciples were now hiding in fear. Yes, hope disappointed makes the heart sick. And, yes, that is why some of you have grown cold. But think of Zechariah and Elizabeth, they had given up hope for a child, and then came John the Baptist, a champion child. And think of Joseph, sold as a slave by his own brothers, and then a prisoner, falsely accused by his master’s wife, and all this for thirteen years, and his dreams of greatness seemed gone, but they were not, and he became the ruler under Pharaoh of an Empire and saved millions of lives. And consider David, anointed by Samuel as king, and then running as a fugitive from Israel with Saul and the armies of Israel trying to kill him for thirteen years, and all seemed gone, but it was not, the glory came beyond all he could have hoped or imagined. And think of Abraham, your father in the faith, who had a promise of a son that came 25 years after the promise, and Moses who thought his dreams of standing on that holy mountain in the Promised Land were gone and one thousand years later he was standing on it with Elijah and talking with Jesus as Peter, James and John gazed at him in wonder and awe. Never lose hope in My promises. And Jesus had promised His disciples that even though He would be put to death on the third day He would be raised up and see them. But they let their hope die by what they saw.
Well, what happened as He spoke to them of Scriptures and revealed Himself in those very Scriptures they had read all their lives? The two cold hearts were fanned into flame for the entrance of My Word gives light and puts the fire of My Spirit in your heart, and they said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking on the road, while He was explaining Scriptures to us?” Aw, you see what sets your hearts afire? Swiftly runs My Word. I send My Word to heal you and deliver you from the pit. But you must read it seeing Jesus revealed in it. The anointed one whose anointing oil will light your lamp.
There is a reason I told Moses to tell the Israelites and their children: “You shall therefore take these words of mine to heart and to soul; and you shall tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead. You shall also teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your sons may be increased on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as days of Heaven upon the earth.” Deuteronomy 11:18-21. Fan your hearts into flame by the fire of My Word, for My Words are not idle words but your very life, eternal life. They are Spirit (and He came down as tongues of fire landing on each disciple and going straight to their hearts) and life. Jesus baptizes you in the Holy Spirit and FIRE!
If you will step out as My witness and show the world My love manifested in Jesus– show them who Jesus really is to them– show them that He is the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering and the Lamb who took away the sins of the world– you will set hearts on fire! Start with the Church, My Son’s Body, and unite them in My love and then the fire cannot be contained, like in the early Church, out will go the members to make every nation and people burn to the ends of the earth. Phillip was just one follower, a man waiting on tables in the early Church community of believers, but out he went to Samaria and set the people’s hearts on fire and then he did the same for one Eunuch from Ethiopia whose heart caught fire and he went back to share it with the Queen and with the nation! Acts 8.
I love you. If your love is cold today, fan it into flame. Take an Emmaus walk with My Word, Jesus. He is with you always and you will always be with Him. Forever. And then take someone on the walk with you. You notice on the Road to Emmaus there were two disciples but they ran back and set the whole group aflame and then Jesus was there in their midst, revealing Himself to all in the room as He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, Luke 24:44-45, and then out they went and the fire spread. And that is why you are here today. Once it starts, it cannot be contained! Jeremiah said My Word in his heart became like a burning fire shut up in his bones that he could not silence. How about you?