Restoration after Great Shaking (3):
Prepare Ye The Way of the Lord
A. Introduction
A great shaking is coming all over the earth.
God is shaking the earth to purify His church and to judge the wickedness of man.
Everything built by man, in the church or outside, will be shaken and removed.
Only the kingdom of God will not be shaken and will remain standing.
God therefore wants us to prepare for His great shaking.
We prepare ourselves by always seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
If we are prepared, we shall stand firm to the end and see the salvation of God in the shaking and after the shaking.
1. God’s shaking will come to purify His church
God is preparing a glorious bride for His son Yeshua.
Yeshua is coming for a bride that is spotless, without stain of worldliness and carnality and boastfulness.
God prepares the church in these last days by coming suddenly to His people, to remove all sin and carnality and worldliness from His Temple, the body of Christ.
Malachi 3:1-5
1 "See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.
5 "So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud labourers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.
God will purify His servants [the Levites], as gold and silver in the refiner’s fire.
All worldliness and carnality and wickedness will be exposed and removed from among God’s people and among the nations.
2. God’s shaking will be sudden
All children of God must prepare their hearts today to go through the great shaking.
It will come suddenly upon the Church and the nations.
Malachi 3:1
"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple.”
3. The purpose of the great shaking is to once again redirect God’s people to serve God in righteousness
All discipline from God is redemptive.
The judgement of our Father God upon all sin in the church is to bring restoration to individuals and churches.
God’s wants to restore to us our calling: “To seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.”
Malachi 3:3
He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
To serve God in righteousness is to live a holy life, a life set apart for God’s purposes.
The church that serves God in righteousness will be like a spotless bride for Yeshua, without stain or wrinkle, but glorious in beauty and holiness.
4. To serve God in righteousness is to build God’s kingdom, a kingdom that can never be shaken
The kingdom of God is not wealth, fame, luxurious buildings, great club facilities, land or possessions, or feasting and drinking, or the latest Christian fad and fashion.
The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:17-18
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
5. To build God’s kingdom is to wait on the Holy Spirit, listen to Him and obey Him
Whenever we obey the Holy Spirit, we are walking in righteousness.
Whenever we obey the Holy Spirit, we are building God’s kingdom.
Matthew 12:28
But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
When we obey the Holy Spirit and do good to others---preaching the Good News, healing the sick, casting out demons, helping for the poor and needy, we are building God’s kingdom on this earth.
When we obey the Holy Spirit and love others---forgiving others, praying for others, helping others, caring for others, encouraging others, blessing others---we are building God’s kingdom on this earth.
Galatians 5:16-17, 19-26
16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature [the flesh, KJV]. 17 For the sinful nature [the flesh] desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature [the flesh].
19 The acts of the sinful nature [the flesh] are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature [the flesh] with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
6. Daily repentance is the key to building God’s kingdom on earth
To repent is to turn from our own evil and selfish and carnal [fleshly] ways and follow after the Spirit of God.
(a) This is what the Lord Yeshua first commanded and taught, when He first preached in Israel.
The kingdom of God cannot be built by the wisdom and plans of man.
We must renounce all of man’s effort, man’s wisdom and man’s ways and turn to God’s ways and plans to build His kingdom.
This is true repentance.
Matthew 4:17
From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
(b) This is what our Lord Yeshua taught when He taught us the Lord’s Prayer
In the Lord’s Prayer, we are taught to daily pray for God’s kingdom to come to this earth, into our lives and into the church and into our land.
In the Lord’s Prayer, we are also taught to daily confess our sins [our carnal, selfish and worldly ways].
This is daily repentance.
Matthew 9:9-12
9 This, then, is how you should pray:
'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name,
10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.’
(c) Repentance is also what God commanded in Isaiah 40 if we desire to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord
In Isaiah 40, God commands His people to prepare for the coming of the Messiah (our God and our Lord), by turning from all evil ways and crooked paths.
Isaiah 40:3-5
3 A voice of one calling:
"In the desert prepare the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
We must turn from all crooked ways, making straight the paths that we take daily; forsake all pride (mountains and hills); and turn from all regrets and bitterness (valleys).
We must no longer live for ourselves but for the Holy Spirit (rough ground and rugged places become level).
In this way, we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord and His great shaking.
(d) John the Baptist prepared the people of Israel for the first coming of Yeshua by calling the people to repentance
To prepare the Israelites for the first coming of Yeshua, God sent a messenger, John the Baptist, to preach repentance to the Jews.
Matthew 3:1-3
1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
"A voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for Him.' "
Likewise, to prepare ourselves for the coming of Yeshua into His Church and His great shaking of the nations, we must prepare our hearts through daily repentance, turning from our own ways and following after the Holy Spirit.
Through this, we build a kingdom that cannot be shaken.