BEGIN MARKING AT MY HOUSE!
Ezekiel 9: 1-11;
Ezekiel 9: 1-11; is the vision the Lord gave to the prophet 2700 years ago. It depicts the same things taking place today that were happening around the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. Then he cried in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, cause ye them that have charge over the city to draw near, every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which lieth toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man in the midst of them clothed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side. And they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house: and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer's inkhorn by his side. And Jehovah said unto him, go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in my hearing, go ye through the city after him, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity; slay utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the old men that were before the house. And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and smote in the city. And it came to pass, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, ah Lord Jehovah! Wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy wrath upon Jerusalem? Then said he unto me, the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of wrestling of judgment: for they say, Jehovah hath forsaken the land, and Jehovah seeth not. And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way upon their head. And behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.
Begin marking at my house! When God speaks, we need to listen. The prophet Ezekiel heard from God and he listened. God told him to go throughout the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof and when it was done, he came back and reported it. He said, it is done, I have finished, the last one is sealed, the door is closed.
This vision came to the prophet nearly six hundred years before Jesus came; before the destruction of Jerusalem, and now it makes nearly 3000 years since he saw that vision. He saw that vision of Jerusalem, the church, the conditions of the church and the world, but especially the church.
But, folks, we are living I believe in a parallel time today. The same things are taking place today just as they were in Ezekiel’s time. Just prior to the Tribulation, just before the wrath of God is poured out without mercy on the people who have rejected Him, God said the things would be the same as they were in the days of Noah. They are actually worse as far as we can tell. In the prophet’s day the Lord showed him the awful condition of the church and then these things came upon the Jewish nation. This time the day of wrath is going to come upon the whole world.
The Jewish nation had sinned against God. They were God’s peculiar people, they were God’s called out people. He said,
“I did not call you out because you were the greatest, strongest, wealthiest or best, but because you were the fewest”.
Interestingly, we, God’s chosen have always seemed to be the minority. We are few but we are mighty in Him. But God said,
“But I have called you, chosen you, set my love upon you”
And it was from these people came the Law and the prophets and then came Christ. God gave the Law from Mt. Sinai with all manner of signs and wonders surrounding it. And when the Temple was dedicated, the presence of God was seen. God appeared, gave them priests and prophets and revelations from Heaven. Spiritual signs, visions and angels appeared. God talked from Heaven and did these things while His people obeyed; but it did not take long and they became proud and haughty or puffed up and they began to take glory in the multiplying numbers. They were taking people from other nations who were unsaved and whose hearts were not right with God and gave them high places in the church. They gave them authority and power and they gave them charge of God’s holy vessels and they ruled the holy vessels with a rod of iron.
God had warned them and warned them and finally began to show them that they had left the fountainhead of living waters. But they hewed them out broken cisterns that would not hold water. You will remember what God did at this point. The glory of the Lord appeared to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 8:4; and God picked him up by a lock of his hair and carried him to a place between heaven and earth and set him down in Jerusalem. God instructed him to look and see the awful things in the earth. The holy places filled with pictures of serpents and devil worship today. Ezekiel 8:10; says,
“So, I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round about.” Ezekiel 8:10;
God showed him things that were unclean, He showed him abominations. He took him to the holiest place where He found twenty-five men sitting with their back to God and worshipping the sun. I believe at this point God told him. . . “Now you go and take the pattern of the church in all its glory, when the glory of the Lord filled the house and you warn these people and take the pattern of the glorious church and go and compare it with the pattern today and show them where they failed and see if they will repent.”
Ezekiel said, “They will never do it.” But God never says we are to run things to suit ourselves. The people were warned, “Son of man, I am not sending you among heathen people. I am sending you to the house of Israel.” Did you get that? He was sending to the believers. But even believers do not want to hear or be warned. They did not want to hear it then and people don’t want to hear it now. The Israelites would not listen and they would not hear the Word of the Lord through Ezekiel. They failed to recognize that there was a prophet of God in their midst. One sent by God to warn them of impending doom. So, Ezekiel stood and warned them, but it did not do any good. Pretty soon the last prophet came and they rejected him. It was here, sad to say that the love and mercy and the glory of God left them.
For nearly four hundred years, maybe more, the children of Israel were left without holy priests and prophets. No visions or revelations except for a few little ones, broken hearted little ones who were faithful and true to God. Now the people began to cry out, “How long O God, there is none that can tell us anymore. We have no prophets, priests, visions, revelations and where are the signs?”
Remember this and check it out for yourself. All through the Bible when people were right with God, they saw signs of the invisible God. But when they backslid, they lost the connection. The pipe got choked with weeds and the living flow of water stopped; they trusted in broken cisterns and they trusted in man’s wealth and knowledge, all of which is an abomination to God. So, when Christ came four hundred years later, we see the degraded state the church was in and when He did come upon the scene, the people did not know Him even though they had been looking for Him for those four hundred years. He said to them, “Why is it you do not discern the signs of the time. Your prophecy is fulfilled and you are living in the days when the Son of Man should come.”
They had been saying, God has forgotten; God doesn’t see; God left the earth and the signs and wonders are all gone. And they began to follow men’s wisdom; but they did not want the power of God. They left the fountain of living water. They did not want to hear a shout in the camp; they did not want to see God’s power.
It is no different today. But God is a God of love. He does hear and helps you to see that. When Jesus came, He gave them another call just like the latter rain. He said the day would not come without a falling away. God knows how they fell away. God is visiting the earth again. Before Jesus came His coming was prophesied and when He came, the Jewish nation had another chance. He offered them the kingdom. But they spurned him and turned Him away and finally He wept over them bitterly. And spread out His hands. Just what He is doing today.
“O Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered you from the destruction that is coming, now I leave you.” “This time your house is left unto you desolate; your city shall be destroyed; the enemy is coming; armies are coming in to lay your place desolate and blood shall flow like rivers.”
But God warned His people. He had a people that had accepted Christ and they had followed the Lamb. They tarried at Jerusalem until baptized with the Holy Ghost and God revealed Himself to them and revealed the Word to them. He said, “One day,” when speaking of the temple,
“the day is coming when the beautiful temple will be destroyed, not one stone will be left upon another and the city will be destroyed.”
The disciples said,
“Lord, tell us when that evil thing will happen, we want to know what will be the sign of thy second coming and the end of the world.”
So, Jesus tells them and give them signs how we will know today. Jesus is soon coming and the signs today prove it more and more. He gave them signs and told them to make ready for the escape. When you see the signs, you should have made preparations for the flight. If you are on the housetop he said, do not go back inside. If you are in a field, do not rush home to get a coat but flee to the mountains. The gates are soon to be closed he said. They believed what he said and took him at his word by faith and they knew that if they did not believe in the saving grace of Jesus they would never be safe. They were the ones who had the mark of the Lord on their foreheads. When you see things are making the world turn pale and tremble in fear, lift up your heads and rejoice because redemption is just ahead.
In Ezekiel’s prophecy there was a man with an inkhorn. This man with the inkhorn represents the Holy Ghost people. In a short time all these things prophesied will come to pass and people will either listen or reject. We see the saints of God filled with the Holy Ghost. We see them go through the offices and stores and business places, and here are the people that are coming in this great army of destruction, going back and forth about their business. But the man with the inkhorn was to do the work, getting ready for the great work, but no one knew what was going on.
Please hear this message today. We are being warned by many preachers of the Gospel that it will soon be too late to come into the fold. “Judgment is coming, destruction is coming; the city will be taken.” The preachers of that day were laughed at as fools and fanatics and everything else. Preachers of today are also being laughed at and called fools. No difference. The people would not listen. But the saints knew destruction was coming and the city would be taken; their business would be no good; they would take everything. The only thing they could do was to warn the people destruction was coming. Your money will do you no good. Blow the trumpet in Zion, the tribulation is coming. The day of the Lord is near. So we are going around getting people saved and filled with the Holy Ghost and sealed with the finger of the living God in the forehead. The Israelites had to have a mark of God in the forehead to understand these things. So do we.
“Go through the city, cry and sigh, put the blood mark on them, and the fire mark on them, seal them with the finger of God.”
And that is what God is doing today. Glory to God! That is what they did then and the Word went out. In spite of the warnings, they were laughed at and scorned and persecuted and everything else, but they saw the signs coming faster and faster and the more they did the more they were laughed at. God told them to prepare and those that had the mark of blood and fire on their foreheads were protected by God.
You and I need that mark as well, so, when the trouble is upon us we will be removed in the Rapture. God will know you by the fact that he has marked you for himself. God will take every baptized saint. He will not suffer us to be brutalized if we have His mark of blood and fire on our foreheads. Christians are a hated people. We are not wanted by the secular world. We are the only religion that it is politically correct to ridicule and hinder the spread of our message. When Jesus returns, will you be embarrassed to be called a holy roller or a Jesus freak? Or will you stand proud with the mark of blood and fire on your forehead. The blood of Jesus and the fire of the Holy Ghost.
The prophet Ezekiel saw these things happening to us. The thing is, he saw them in his day and lifetime a few thousand years ago! He saw when Jesus comes, there will be such tribulation on the earth as was never seen. Or known before. The darkness will be so great it will be like you can touch it. Such a time unheard of before when Jesus comes to catch His bride away.
Everyone that cries and sighs in the earth over the abominable things that are going on in the earth. Those who are marked by God are His children and they will not be overtaken as a thief in the night because they know to be ready. We will not need to take a thing with us and the devil and his cohorts will be left to fight over everything. Go for it!
We are living in perilous times. Jesus is coming again and He is pouring out his Spirit. We have no time left for frivolous things in the church. We do not need an amen corner anymore, we need amens from all over the house. War, famine, disease, pandemics, flood, earthquake, tidal waves, volcanoes, fires and destruction, it is all around us and Jesus said when you see these things, wake up!
If you are not marked by God it will be a devastating time for you. Shut yourself in with God and he will preserve you and mark you for His own. Now, listen to what I have found in the Book of Isaiah. This is a Word directly from the Lord that He is going to take us out of here just before the tribulation starts and that He wants us to be protected. Look at Isaiah 26:20-21;
“Come up my people, and enter into the place prepared for you and shut the doors about you (or behind you), and hide you for a little while, for the Lord cometh down to punish the inhabitants of the earth and their blood shall flow like dust and their flesh like dung and they will not be buried”
Are you ready today? Are you marked for eternity? If not, get ready now!
Do it like this…Lord Jesus. I recognize today that I need you in my life. I ask you to forgive me of my sins and cover me with the blood of Jesus. I accept you as my Lord and Savior and I am now born again. I will serve you until you return for your saints to take us all to Heaven. In Jesus Name. Amen.
If you did that, would you drop me a line at rcoutts60@gmail.com and let me know you have decided to follow Jesus. I will pray for you.
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