This coming year will be one of the most trying for the Body of Christ we have ever seen. God is not much interested in our bank accounts in 2002! He's interested in our hearts. If we as the church don't examine our hearts we are going to be swept away with the coming deception and falling away coming to Planet Earth. God has made a new covenant with us that promises us a new "heart," "spirit," and new walk of holiness. It starts with the first commandment - we have to LOVE first, then serve. When we love our Heavenly Bridegroom we can then face whatever the future holds.

By Chris McDonald

Ezekiel 36:26-29  - A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. [27] And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. [28] And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. [29] I will also save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
 

        This coming year will be unlike any we face together in the Body of Christ. Bible days are coming back to the church of Yeshua. The power of God is coming back to those who are hungry and thirsty for God. Conviction will once again touch sinners in such a way that after we preach the word of God they are going to RUN to the altars to get right with God. Those who are just seeking God to give them a new home or a new car are going to be sadly disappointed. Those type things may come and they may not. God's priority for the future is rooted in SOULS, not materialism. Yeshua ask what would it profit a man if he gained the WHOLE WORLD and then lose his soul? NOTHING! The priority of the future is the souls of men. The priority of God in the last days is for men and women, boys and girls to get their HEARTS right with Him. It's the promise of the New Covenant. Many may claim to be born again but if there has not been a HEART change then we need to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith!

A New Heart

        Ezekiel was a prophet to the house of Israel during the Babylonian captivity. He saw into the spirit world unlike any other person in the Bible other than Daniel and John the Apostle. His visions are unparalleled in their graphic nature of the power and person of GOD. But in this passage he enters into probably the very core and center of all the gospel - the promise of the New Covenant that would bring deliverance to sinful humanity through a coming redeemer. The law God gave to Moses was written on stone and tablet. The grace and power He would and will give to the New Covenant believer will not be on stone - it will be in the heart. And friend the HEART is where it all rises and shines when it comes to eternity.

        God has never been too concerned about externals. Everything He designed in the Tabernacle of Moses, then the Tabernacle of David and the Temple of Solomon, He always started with the INWARD parts of those buildings typifying that His greatest work in humanity would be from within and not without. For it is within the heart where the source of all ability to disobey God rests:

Matt 15:18-20 - But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.'" (NIV)

        Jesus said from within the HEART proceeds evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. THESE ARE THE THINGS which make men unclean. Not outward things. A man or woman may not look like much on the outside and be just as clean on the inside while others may look squeaky clean on the OUTSIDE and be just as dirty and filthy on the inside. GOD LOOKS ON THE HEART!

1 Sam 16:7 - But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
(NIV)

        God looks on the HEART. I want to restate that again just in case you missed it the first time. GOD LOOKS ON THE HEART. And the heart of man is so deceitful that we ourselves cannot even discern the depths of wickedness in our own hearts. That's why we needed a redeemer and Saviour to come into our hearts and CLEANSE us from the powers of sin and darkness that had our hearts bound in evil and had placed us under the eternal wrath of God until we repented and believed the gospel.

Jer 17:9-10 - The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."
(NIV)

        Man is lost without God. When Adam and Eve sinned they brought the whole curtain down on humanity. Before sin entered the world, man's heart was pure and honest before his Creator. After sin, man's heart became wretched, wicked, dishonest, impure, dark and demented, capable of doing the most despicable deeds ever imaginable in human terms. It is the seat of man's emotions and the door to man's soul. The choices a man makes in his heart determine eternity. The choices a man makes in his heart determine whether man spends his life in darkness or light. These choices can bring man heaven or hell. Life or death are in the heart and in the tongue because it is out of the abundance of the HEART that a man speaks. And when we speak evil things those evil things are not just coming from a loose tongue, they are coming from a darkened heart. When a man commits adultery, he is committing adultery out of a darkened heart. When a man steals something that is not his, he is stealing because he has a darkened heart. A man stealing does not make him a thief, but because in his HEART he is a thief, he will steal. You can put the man away for 100 years for stealing but if his HEART is not changed, then when he gets out 100 years later - guess what? He's going to steal!

        The church has sent the sinner to counseling sessions thinking we can change behavior and make people stop doing the demented and dark things so many in the church still do. Friend, it's going to take more than a counseling session to change the course of mankind - it's going to take a power session. It's going to take a cleansing of the precious BLOOD of the Lord Yeshuah, the Lamb of God who takes away the SINS OF THE WORLD. The blood of the Lamb that sets captives free, delivers drunks, delivers liars, delivers alcoholics, brings light to darkness, heaven to hell and salvation to sin. That's why society as a whole is not changed around us today even though there are churches on just about every corner in every major city in America. A convictionless gospel will not change a sinful society. Man needs a heart change and man's only hope to receive help for his sinful condition is a church endued with power and preachers with the pure Word of God flowing from them in unction that will so convict a sinner that sinner will NOT be able to sit under that man's preaching without leaving or getting right with GOD!

        Prophetess Juanita Bynum said the other night that when people walk up to us and say "we enjoyed your message," that that is NOT a compliment preacher! Dear God help us to get to the place that sinners are no longer complimenting us on our messages but falling down before God, so convicted of their sin, so broken because of their condition, so hurt because of their sin, so fearful of a living God because of the conviction and the unction of the Holy Spirit upon the pure Word of God. Preacher, your church does not need a book report or the latest poetry selections on Sunday morning. It needs you to dust off that dusty Bible you seldom read and get a fresh word from heaven instead of preaching that sermon you preached 15 years ago and have preached every year since you've been preaching. OH GOD give us preachers in this hour to stand in Your counsel before they speak and say, "THUS SAITH THE LORD." God help ME as a minister of the gospel to never compromise Your word for the sake of acceptance or applause of men. Forgive me Father for times in my past when I have done just that. Forgive me Father for taking for granted the need to speak from the HEART of YOUR SON Yeshuah and feel His anger over the sins of humanity while feeling HIS LOVE for the sinner. Forgive me Father for not speaking forth Your word as boldly as I should have in the past. Give me courage and grace in this coming year to make a fresh start and preach a gospel that sinners will not find accommodating but will seek safety and refuge in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ- their only source of salvation.

I Will Sprinkle Clean Water Upon You....

Ezekiel 36:25  - Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

        The church has sit back in its arrogant seat and cried out each day of how the "sinners" in the world need Jesus. Well I have a different twist on that. The sinners are not in the world, they are in the CHURCH. The Church reeks with the stench and filthiness of the world. Our people are investing their time and monies in dirty filthy movies and videos that degrade everything Godly and righteous. Our church people are spending hours upon hours in front of a television set that degrades God and slurs His name with every other breath. Even the news reports are getting so biased against God you have to watch carefully the ones you watch even today. When our hearts are cleansed with the pure water of the word the Lord said He would cleanse us from the FILTHINESS and the IDOLS in our HEART.

        The idolatry of the church is about to be judged. We can judge ourselves and get the idols out of our heart or God will deal with them later. It will be better for us and those in our churches if we do it ourselves! Jesus likened the Word He spoke to the cleansing agent that would keep us clean from the defilement of the world. The problem is we are not hearing the WORD OF GOD in our pulpits across America. We are hearing cheerleading reports and boastings about how great our churches are and how big our Sunday schools have grown and how many services we need to have now to keep the people coming. Friend, it's not about the number. If numbers were a measure of success then Jesus would not have been that great of a success at times. There were certainly times the crowds came but there were more times when His WORD SENT ALL OF THEM AWAY!! He preached a sermon one day that emptied the place entirely without saying anything but one sentence. And in spite of our 30 minutes each Sunday morning and Sunday night that we try to "motivate" our sinners in the congregation and we don't see a change, it may do us well as ministers of the Gospel to get a hold of something more than our degrees in education to change hearts. ONLY THE SHEKINAH GLORY and HOLY GHOST OF GOD can do that!

        BUT A CHANGE IS COMING! God is going to have a glorious church. We can either let Him sprinkle us with clean water through the WORD OF GOD or we can keep sinning and try to make heaven. GOOD LUCK ON THAT LAST ONE. That's a fool talking who says, "I can keep sinning and make heaven." I don't care how many times you've confessed Christ or said a prayer. THOSE WHO ARE CHRIST'S have crucified the affections of the flesh and the lusts and desires of the world and are now walking IN THE HOLY GHOST!

Gal 5:24-26 - Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (NIV)

I Jn 3:3-11 -  Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.  Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
(NIV)

        John says those who have had a new heart put inside them by the Lord purifies HIMSELF, even as HE (JESUS) is pure. Yeshuah appeared unto us to TAKE AWAY SIN and in HIM IS NO SIN! Little children, don't let anyone fool you, those who are Yeshuah's will not be practicing sin or looking for ways to sin or looking for an excuse why they sinned. They will be people with a NEW HEART, a heart that is tender and humble before the Lord and HURT whenever they fail the one who paid for them with HIS LIFE! John makes it clear - he who does what is sinful is of the DEVIL, because the devil sins from the beginning. NO ONE BORN OF GOD (in other words, who has a NEW HEART for when we are born of God through the Spirit of God we receive a NEW HEART and a new SPIRIT) can keep sinning because the HEART that God places within him is a GOD HEART now, not a heart of stone.

        Furthermore, when we have a NEW HEART placed within us, we will love our fellow man. We will love in deed, not just in words. We will reach our hands out to the poor and needy, the widows and the orphans, those who are fatherless and those who are strangers and aliens among us. John said if we say we are of Christ and don't love our fellow man and keep sinning we are a liar!!!!!

 I Will Put My Spirit Within You And Cause You To Walk In My Statues

Ezekiel 36:27  - And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

        If there was ever a time we needed to be near the power of God it is now! This past September we turned a page in history I believe we will never come back from. We stepped through a door that holds nothing but trouble and turmoil for the Church of the Living God. The prophets and preachers may be proclaiming "peace, peace," but friend NO PEACE IS COMING! Peace is not coming to the Body of Christ - at least in the way the modern church is proclaiming it will. Those who know YESHUAH will have peace (SHALOM) but it will be a peace that is inward. It will be on individuals and not necessarily on corporate bodies. The church as a corporate whole is apostatizing rapidly. I'm not sure what all 2002 holds but I can tell you this. The only place I want to be - even it's under an oak tree in the back yard of my house - is where the POWER AND PRESENCE OF ALMIGHTY GOD IS.

        The reason the church has to have counselors on staff is because we have exchanged the old fashioned altar for a couch. We used to bring sinners to our altars and just allow the HOLY GHOST to so convict them they would run out of the church mad or run TO the altar of God weeping, begging for God to save them. I can remember vaguely the times when I was younger going to church with my two Aunts in Atlanta, Georgia where men and women knew the power of tears before the Lord. We'd get before the LORD and WEEP for souls because the power and conviction of the HOLY GHOST was REAL in our churches. It was not bragged about behind pulpits to keep the people thinking it was there. NO. In those days you didn't have to advertise anything or say anything. YOU FELT IT! A person who drank alcohol might sit in their pew for a few minutes but they wouldn't sit long. A person may come into our churches with demons and last a few minutes but they wouldn't last long in that condition. Demons would scream out in our services. Now they feel right at home. And don't think I'm just talking to the non-Charismatic and Pentecostal churches. I'm talking to you Assembly of God, Church of God, Foursquare, Pentecostal Holiness minister. The Charismatic and Pentecostal branches of the church in these last days have so pushed the power of God out now that some of our people are leaving to go BACK to the Baptist and the Methodist churches they came from because they are so thirsty hoping to find a drop of cleansing water and a word that will not allow them to feel comfortable!

        No, we want to deal with externals. We want people to see how holy we are on the "outside," instead of seeking INNER heart purity and purpose. Jesus said the Pharisees made the outside the plate pretty but inside they were "DEAD Men's BONES!" Friend, our churches may have the prettiest stain glass windows in the city. Our churches may have the most expensive sound system in the city. Our churches may have the nicest carpet and nicest pews in the city. Our church may have the biggest Sunday school in the city. Our church may have the largest television outreach in all the community. BUT IF THE POWER OF ALMIGHTY GOD, THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST, THE ANOINTING AND THE UNCTION OF THE SPIRIT FO ALMIGHTY GOD IS NOT IN THE PREACHER PREACHING THE WORD OF GOD UNDER THAT SAME UNCTION THAT CHURCH IS JUST FULL OF DEAD MEN'S BONES!!!!! And dead men's bones STINK! And the world smells our STENCH! They are vomiting the gospel out of their mouths we're offering them because it's not making a change or difference in their lives!

Matt 23:27-34 - "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.
28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.
30 And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
32 Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
33 "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
(NIV)

        Paul warned Timothy that in the last days men would give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. He told Timothy men would heap to themselves preachers who would speak things to "itching ears," or would speak things to make us feel "good" and "positive," and "blessed." Listen friend. The blessings of the Lord are only ONE PART OF THIS COIN! There is a side of God who hates and abhors sin. And the call in 2002 for the New Covenant Church is to CLEAN YOURSELVES! Allow the living water of the HOLY SPIRIT and the WORD OF GOD to wash over you and be CLEAN. GET YOUR HEARTS RIGHT! He paid a price to give us a NEW HEART, not a heart lusting after the filthiness and idols of the world. Some of you reading this right now own more "things" than you could ever hope to use in two lifetimes yet your heart is so cold to God that you wouldn't know Him if He came up behind you and sat on your shoulder. I'm talking to church people here. Preacher, God hasn't called you to tickle ears. He's not called you to seduce the people into thinking things are going to be ok. They're not going to be ok. TROUBLE IS COMING. TROUBLE and turbulence is ahead. And only those with a NEW HEART, a CLEAN HEART will be able to keep themselves from the deception that is coming upon Planet Earth!

1 Tim 4:1-2
1 Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

2 Tim 4:3-5 - 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
(NIV)

        Paul told Timothy to "KEEP HIS HEAD" and "ENDURE HARDSHIP," and DO THE WORK OF AN EVANGELIST. Friend,  we need men of God in this hour that will speak with such clarion voices that those listening will loose themselves from a sinful, wicked world that is destined to be judged by God very soon. I used to think when I'd get up and preach I didn't need to preach to the "sheep" like this because that might offend the sheep. Let me tell you this-some of the sheep NEED to be offended before they slip off into eternity without God and with sin in their life. Repentance is necessary in this final hour before God.

The Reproach Of Famine Among The Nations

Ezekiel 36:29-30  - I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. [30] And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.

        There is grace for the humble, judgment for the proud. Grace for those who heed the word of the Lord and TREMBLE at what He says and REPENT of their evil deeds. We need to do what JUDE declared - "hate the garment even stained with a 'speck' of FLESH." Ezekiel says that when the Lord gives us a new heart, He will save us from our uncleanness. He will then call for the corn and will INCREASE IT and lay no famine upon us. There is a famine in the church today - Amos called it a famine of hearing the WORD OF GOD. If we truly want to see society change then we will start preaching the WORD.

        There is a great famine among the nations. The gospel we preach is convictionless. The gospel the modern church shovels the world has no call for self-denial or taking up a daily cross and dying out to ourselves. I heard Steve Gray say it best, "when we come to Jesus, that's the END OF OUR WORLD!" People who haven't come to the end of THEIR world will always seek to save THEIR world and live unto themselves instead of living UNTO GOD. But when God gives us a NEW HEART, those things will pass away. When God gives us a NEW HEART, our devotions and plans are unto HIM, not us. Our passions are not on worldly entertainment but on HIS BEAUTY and HIS GLORY.

        I'm going to draw a sword here for a few seconds. The church of the modern 21rst century has a serious problem in wanting to be entertained. We hire quartets, singing groups, professional ministries and ministers to come in and "thrill" us. All that in itself may not be that bad but I'm just going to be honest with you. All those "singing groups" do is appeal to our fleshly desire to be entertained so when our guilty consciences tell us we can't find our entertainment in the world we go looking to our church. AND THE CHURCH IS VERY QUICK TO OBLIGE. Friend, God is not looking to entertain us in this hour. We are living in such a crucial time in human history that entertainment should be the LAST THING ON OUR MIND. DID SEPTEMBER 11 do ANYTHING TO WAKE US UP?????? DID the tragic loss of 4,000 souls do ANYTHING to the CHURCH to get us to realize that life is but a VAPOR and we call could be called to go out into eternity at any second??????? This is not the hour to be entertained. This is the hour to repent! This is the hour to CLEANSE OUR HEARTS and allow God to give us A NEW HEART and a NEW SPIRIT.

        Most Sunday morning Christians go to church and remain totally unmoved by ANYTHING the preachers says. I'll just say what Juanita Bynum said the other night - "IF THE WORD DON'T QUICKEN YOU NOW IT WON'T QUICKEN YOU AT THE FIRST RESURRECTION! BECAUSE THE SAME WORD OF GOD THAT IS GOING FORTH NOW WILL BE THE SAME WORD THAT WILL CALL US FROM THE GRAVE WHEN JESUS APPEARS IN THE CLOUDS TO GET HIS CHILDREN!" Oh, GLORY TO GOD. I feel the anointing of the HOLY GHOST on that! I feel the unction and the power of the HOLY GHOST on that right now. God is wanting to give us a NEW HEART and a NEW SPIRIT.

You Will Remember Your Evil Ways And Deeds And Loathe Yourselves

Ezekiel 36:31  - Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

        As I close, I want to address the PRIDE and haughtiness in the church today. We're not loathing ourselves, we are praising ourselves. It never fails when I go to any church that the minister always gets up and brags and says, "GOD IS HERE, GOD IS HERE!" Friend, if God was in our services like we boast that He is - believe me - no one would be bragging -we'd be weeping and wailing out to Him because of our condition. Isaiah cried, "WOE IS ME FOR I AM UNCLEAN and a MAN OF UNCLEAN LIPS" when he saw the Lord. When the Lord is in the house, PRIDE MUST GO! Pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. The church in its pride thinks all of its building and activity is impressing GOD. THINK AGAIN. He's not after building buildings - He's after making NEW HEARTS. He's after changing our calloused, cold, idolatrous, worldly HEARTS and cleansing them with HIS WATER and HIS SPIRIT and making us vessels of GLORY AND HONOR as we enter into 2002. Friend, that is the hour we are facing and the choice we have before us.

        Father, in the name of Yeshua Ha'maschiah, Jesus our Messiah, Sar Shalom, The Prince of Peace, I speak to everyone reading this article right now. I speak life and FIRE to come into their hearts right now. I pray the very convicting power of almighty GOD to break forth in their hearts and minds right now. Anoint us with power Lord only when we are ready to be anointed. Anoint us with your CONVICTION first. Give us the grace and courage to REPENT of our condition before You Lord for it is only then that we will be able to be fit vessels to be used by You in these coming days. Lord, forgive Your church for its pride. Forgive Your church for its lust for worldly entertainment. Forgive Your church for substituting true worship for contemporary alternatives that we think is bringing glory to YOU when in fact they are only bringing applause and glory to men. FORGIVE YOUR CHURCH for not allowing our HEARTS to be changed and as a result Lord the countless numbers of people who are in our pews every Sunday who are lost and without salvation and damned to hell unless they repent of their sins. FORGIVE YOUR CHURCH Lord for its blindness and lack of vision for the poor and needy. Forgive us Lord for being so busy building and "doing" instead of LOVING you with ALL OUR HEARTS and SOULS and MIND. Lord, time is so short. Give us the grace to sell out to You totally. Give us the courage to take that step of faith and have YOU change our hearts today. Our hearts are WICKED, SINFUL and WORLDLY and they need CHANGING by the power and grace of YOUR HOLY SPIRIT

ONE DROP OF BLOOD CAN STILL SET THE CAPTIVE FREE!