What Do We Do Now In This Dark Hour? by Sello Molele - HTML preview

Chapter 4: Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand!

1A prophecy: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.

Israel Doubts God’s Love

2“I have loved you,” says the LORD.

“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’

“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob, 3but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

4Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.”

But this is what the LORD Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish.

They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the LORD. 5You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the LORD—even beyond the borders of Israel!’

Breaking Covenant Through Blemished Sacrifices

6“A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD Almighty.

“It is you priests who show contempt for my name.

“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’

7“By offering defiled food on my altar.

“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’

“By saying that the LORD’s table is contemptible. 8When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty.

9“Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the LORD Almighty.

10“Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me because my name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty.

12“But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’ 13And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the LORD Almighty.

“When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the LORD. 14“Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the LORD Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.

1. Because God loves us, He calls us to repent!

Repent means turning away from what we did wrong in our hearts, in action. It is asking God forgiveness in prayer. God is expecting us to be sincere and truthful before Him in this hour. As we all humble ourselves in repentance, He can open the heavens for our lands and heal our nations too (1 Chronicles 7:14).

2. Go back to our first love

- (intimacy with Him; hence He allowed the global shut down to grab our attention and hearts.)

3. Repair the altar

Altar speaks of sacrifices, and God says we have been giving wrong sacrifices.

The first sacrifice is not what we do in the church buildings physically. It is what our hearts give to Him in His secret place; hence the global shutdown is to allow us to fix that with Him by His Spirit in the secret place.

Therefore this call, forces us to introspect and not be ignorant. He is calling the global church not one church but the whole body as its the entire body of Christ that is His bride.

4. Go back to the service that honors Him alone!

He cries for His fatherhood! Could it be that we replaced His fatherhood?  Some churches turned His worship, glory, and honor to themselves or their pastors or earthly things or false gods and not to Jesus. Their devotion and reverence is no longer Christ-centred. How can the Father cry for His children to call Him Father, it means, He sees them making another a father, we are not so sure who!

He cries for His honor!

It means that honor has been robbed away from Him. We therefore need to introspect and find out the type of recognition He wants. We seem to have honored the things of the world more than Him. Who does our worship go to? 

He cries for wrong church services (false sacrifices) to the priests!

We may have been doing church services that are not necessarily His burden for the nations! 

It's crucial in this very hour to honor the Lord by asking ourselves why He allows His physical churches to be closed?

Dr. Janet usually says, "she doesn't want to do her agenda, but she wants to do His plan, what's in the heart of God.

May He enable the body to draw nations to Him and not themselves. As He speaks of offerings, God's offering is also people or people's hearts. May He enable the next restored church to take people to Him globally to serve Him with reverence, honor & His fear. Amen!

PRAYER WITH FASTING DAY 4: SUN 29TH MARCH 2020

Beloved of God, grace, and mercy and peace be multiplied unto you from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is indeed an excellent opportunity to be able to humble ourselves and lay our hearts before the Throne of God at such a time like this to be set apart to fellowship with Him in the hope of the coming revival and high manifestation of God’s glory on the earth.

"THE WORD FOR STUDY: MALACHI 1, 2 & 3"

"PREPARING FOR THE NEXT MOVE OF GOD"

1. Elijah repaired the Altar of God and turned many back to God from idolatry and wicked ways and practices
2. John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord and turned many including the leaders from their wayward and rebellious ways unto God in genuine repentance
3. Malachi: Calling for the restoration of integrity among the priests, the governors, and the leaders

"INTRODUCTION TO MALACHI"

Malachi served during Nehemiah’s day, a period characterized by the corruption of the priesthood and leaders, corrupt practices, compromised leadership, and falsehood.

The book opened with: The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

What is the burden of the word of the LORD unto this generation?

"SERIOUS ISSUES TO ADDRESS" 

1. Where is My honor or reverence?
2. You defiled My Altar
3. You act contrary to My will
4. You profaned My name
5. You have not offered your best to Me

"OTHER SPECIFIC ISSUES TO ADDRESS IN REPENTANCE"

1. Hypocrisy and treachery in the home and divorce
2. Infidelity
3. Mixed marriages
4. Profanity of the sanctuary
5. False worship and false teachings
6. Complacency
7. Arrogance of the priesthood and the leaders
8. Wrong motives and intentions
9. Negative attitudes and selfish ways
10. Causing many to stumble by our example

"CALL TO REPENTANCE"

1. Let us return unto God in genuine repentance
2. And entreat God’s favor and mercy that He may be gracious unto this generation
3. Let us ask for the refining and purifying fire to purify and restore the priesthood
4. That we may offer an offering in righteousness unto God
5. That our offering will be pleasant to the LORD.

"PLEA FOR HEART TO BE ESTABLISH IN HOLINESS"

And the Lord make you increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:

To the end, he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. 1 Thess. 3:12 & 13.

Prayer by Gbenga and Janet Adegbenro with the Global Thrones Team in South  Africa.