If you think you already know what I am going to say, you might not be correct. Although it is surely based upon 2 Chronicles 7:14, this word spoken to me by the Holy Spirit on Sept 12 @ 4:42 am exposes a larger understanding than many people consider when quoting or praying this verse. Let us not be so familiar with the passage that we actually miss what God is saying in this hour!
Wake up! Sound the alarm. Blow the trumpet in Zion! It’s time for my people to rise up and begin to mobilize. Time is short and there is much work to be done. No more wondering what you should do, but instead, it’s time to act. It’s time to put your shoulder to the plow and dig deep into the work at hand. I have plans for America. I will save her, but it requires my people to join the crusade. If my people … if my people … if my people!
I will act supernaturally but I will only act as you join me in the cause. Stand up on your feet and do the job. Act upon that which I have put in your hearts. When my people arise, call upon me, then I will do that which you are crying out for – to save your land. Do not take lightly your responsibility in the matter. ‘If my people’ is not just a suggestion, it is a command. This is the time to partner with me, to learn from me, and watch the salvation of your God. It’s not too late! It is time. NOW is the time. Don’t wait, don’t trust that others will get the job done. It requires my people – ALL of my people to respond.
First demolition, then construction. The building will take place quicker than you think – quicker than you expect. It’s time to repair the cracks in the wall, to shore up the foundation, and build my house. Haggai is not being overused in this hour. Haggai is exactly what I have planned for my House. Put aside your own ideas and agendas and align yourselves with my building plan. There’s a time to tear down and there is a time to rebuild. This is the time that both are happening simultaneously. Get busy building my house. Let’s repair the faulty foundation and place each stone upon the solid rock, stone by stone.
Reformation of laws, the transformation of people, restoration of my ways will all be a part of this building project. Grace, justice, righteousness are all my ways. It’s time for a fuller knowledge of who I am to flood the world as I make myself and my ways known. I will teach you and show you my ways. I will provide the blueprints so the job will be fulfilled according to my standards. Just as I gave the blueprints for the building of my temple, I am giving the blueprints for the restoring of my temple made with living stones. So, wake up my people, arise and seize your part in the job at hand. If my people, if my people if my people! That is my heart’s cry to you”!
I hesitate to add to this word from God because it is pretty straight forward, but as we spend time with Him, here are some things to consider:
Humility: It is vital that we have a deeper, fuller grasp on what God is saying in this verse. It is not simply to pray. Nor is it to simply quote the verse or post it on Facebook, thinking that it will suffice and get the job done. There is so much more to it. It is a HEART cry from the Holy Spirit meant to penetrate our hearts! To humble ourselves as we draw closer to Him. True humility can only come from the heart. It will never be effective coming from the place of our intellect, our traditions, or our religious ways. Rather it is the true desire, from deep within, that draws us to seek His face. Laying our expectations, needs, and desires aside, and allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us in a way that transforms us. True transformation looks like something! The result manifests in our lives revealing a change within our core belief structure – a shift in our understanding, along with a submission to God and His ways. Our old ways suddenly begin to conform to the ways of God – that is the evidence of true humility. Humbling ourselves is the first key. With the humility of our hearts allowing the Holy Spirit to search us, try us, and see if there be any wicked ways that need that need to be aligned with God’s ways. It becomes a purifying, transformational work of the Holy Spirit from the inside out, as we lay our ideals, traditions, and deeply rooted beliefs aside, allowing His ways to make the changes of lasting transformation. We actually begin to see things differently, act differently, respond in a different way to the Holy Spirit as He works in us. No longer fighting to keep our own thoughts, ways, and habits.
Pray and Seek His Face: I mean, really praying. The kind of prayer that costs us something and goes beyond quoting scriptures and praying out of our intellect and traditions. This type of prayer costs us! It costs the time spent seeking and submitting to the Holy Spirit. It costs us in humility and submission to the deeper ways of the Lord that can only come from deep within our beings. By allowing the Holy Spirit to search us and lead us to pray beyond our formulas, training, scripture quoting, and declarations. Then we find when we are weak in prayer, we are made strong through our willingness to yield to the Holy Spirit.
Turn From Our Wicked Ways: I’m not talking about our laundry list of things or once again asking forgiveness of the things we have done wrong in our past – the ones we continually ask forgiveness for (although they might apply if we have not yet forsaken them). As we consider the ‘ways of sin’ in our lives that run contra to the ways of God ingrained within our personal belief systems. These ways cause us to defy God in areas of our lives many times because we don’t recognize, on a deep level, that we have accepted them as ‘part of who we are’. From this place of humility and prayer, the Holy Spirit quickly reveals things and empowers us to embrace His ways and align ourselves, and we begin to reflect the changes in our thoughts and beliefs. He is so much more than we can imagine! Let us allow the LIFE and LOVE of Christ to be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. He is the One who convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It’s for our good that we allow this deeply transforming work to be worked in our innermost beings. We cannot conjure it up, it must come from submission to, and fellowship with, the Holy Spirit. I’m not talking about religious acts of submission. I’m talking about a yielding to the Holy Spirit like never before. Our world is in crisis so there is no better time to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways!
Then, He Will Forgive Our Sins: It’s to our benefit to allow Him to transform us during this direst time in history. We can go on living without it, but we will not be able to go on in God’s plan for our lives without it. In the book of Haggai, God said through the prophet that the crisis came because they (His people) were busy building their own houses while God’s House laid in ruins. We don’t have to look too closely to see that indeed we are those people. God’s House throughout the world lays in ruins. BUT, GOD! God is moving and His plan is for HIS PEOPLE to align ourselves to His ways and plans. As we get to know Him, align ourselves, and arise to do our part in the rebuilding of His ways in the gates of society. Not just within the walls of the church building, but out there in the market place, in government, in arts & entertainment, in our families, our neighborhoods, and all the areas of which God has given us influence. For the wrecking ball and the rebuilding are taking place simultaneously in the midst of an era of time that we would not previously ever imagined ourselves to be privileged enough to be alive.
And finally to … HEAL OUR LAND! Oh, America! America! God shed His grace on thee! “Lord, may your Bride, your Church, those of us who call ourselves by Your Name – May we hear your cry and rally ourselves to the cause for which You are calling us: To Rise Up, to Wake Up, to Humble ourselves, to Seek Your Face, to Turn From Our Wicked Ways, and then to ENGAGE ourselves in your plan for the rebuilding of Your House in the Nations of the world. Let us grasp that we cannot simply entrust the work to other people, but we also must go outside the walls of church buildings, into the gates of society in which you have placed us, to build with you, and to establish your work in our cities, our states, our Nation, and the Nations of the world.
Then the governor, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and the high priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak, and all the people with them listened, really listened, to the voice of their God. When God sent the prophet Haggai to them, they paid attention to him. In listening to Haggai, they honored God. Haggai 1:12 (MSG)
