I wanted to talk about God’s true purpose in judgment. Below is something that Rick Joyner said to help us understand in this season and time how to keep balanced in God’s perspective about both the kindness and the severity of the Lord.
It is a very dangerous thing to assume that God does not judge unrighteousness and that there are no consequences for individuals, corporations, churches or nations for disobeying God. It is very dangerous to only be focused on judgment and disaster but it is equally dangerous to only focus on God’s grace.
Let me make this clear. We are living in perilous times and very hard circumstances ARE coming to America and this world. To only speak about God’s grace in these times will only keep people from being prepared and many will suffer great loss. We cannot afford to ignore the times we are living in.
On the other hand, it is during these great times of crisis that God’s grace WILL be poured out upon the this earth. Where evil abounds grace much more abounds.
WE MUST HAVE BALANCE!
2nd Timothy 3:1 states; But understand this, that in the last days will come, (set in) perilous times or great stress and trouble [ hard to deal with and hard to bear ].
The disciples came to Jesus in Matt. 24:3 and asked Him what will the sign of Your coming and the end of the age? (We are now living in the end of the Laodecian church age. )
Jesus replied in verses 4-51. One thing He said was to be prepared for His coming. Another thing He said was it would be the beginning of the earth pangs, the “intolerable anguish”. Then they will hand you over to suffer affliction and tribulation and put you to death…..
We are living in the day of the great apostasy, the great turning away of the saints, away from God, Why?, due to the perilous times we are living in now and will go through. Read your bible saints. We cannot afford to ignore God’s clear warnings.
Neither can we afford to allow fear to set in. We must rise up and be the Church that God has created us to be. We must rise up and represent God’s true grace, intimacy and love to this very dark world. We have great power available to us but it will require great surrender in this hour.
Isaiah 60:1-2; Arise from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you – rise to a new life! Shine, be radiant with the glory of the Lord, for the light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold!, DARKNESS shall cover the earth and dense darkness al peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you O Jerusalem, and His glory shall be seen on you!
Rick Joyner goes on to say;
We have been covering how the very concept of the judgment of God is so skewed, even in believers, that it is almost all negative and fearful. Some of God’s judgments are negative and fearful, but most are greatly to be desired and are evidence of God’s love for us, as we are told in Hebrews 12 regarding His discipline. Many swing to the opposite extreme when perceiving the love of God and reduce it to what they perceive love to be
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In Romans 11:22, Paul wrote that we must “Behold now the kindness and the severity of God.” The immature, or those that Peter referred to as “unstable and untaught,” tend to think in extremes without being able to see the corresponding balance. Many can only see the kindness of God. These often pervert the grace of God by preaching a grace without judgment. Others can only see His severity and often only preach judgment without grace. Either of these distort the Scriptures, as Peter said “to their own destruction” (see II Peter 3:16).
As we have covered, there can be a great difference between human compassion and God’s compassion. God’s compassion sometimes comes in the form of the discipline that is called “the judgment of God.” Sometimes His compassion comes in the form of condemnation and the destruction of those who have become incorrigible and are corrupting many others.
One thing we can always be sure of is this: God is always just, and since He is love, all He does is done in love. We have problems understanding this sometimes because we are looking from an earthly, human, or temporary perspective instead of His eternal view, seeing the end from the beginning. To love Him is to also trust Him, trusting that His judgments are righteous and true even when we don’t understand them. That is basic faith.
Love Mark and Catherine