Session 7_The Battle Over the Human Heart.doc

The Battle Over the Human Heart

Foundations & Lifestyle of the Forerunner—Deborah Hiebert            16

I.                   THe day of the Lord

A.                 Every human being stands in the Valley of Decision. Choosing who they will give their affections to. Which will it be Jesus or Satan? Which will it be the Everlasting Life or Everlasting Shame and Everlasting Contempt? Time is running out.

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of Decision! For the Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision. Joel 3: 14

B.                 The great and terrible day

For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; who can endure it? (Joel 2:11)

C.                 There are two dimensions of God’s leadership in the Day of the Lord: its greatness and its terribleness. Joel proclaims, “the Day...is great and very terrible” (Joel 2:11). Malachi referenced the Day of the Lord, calling it great and dreadful (Mal. 4:5). Isaiah calls it the year of favor and the day of God’s vengeance (Is. 61:1-3). These two distinct characteristics have to do with the way God leads and the way we respond to Him in the Day of the Lord activities.

D.                 I refer to these two dimensions as the diverse divine two-fold strategy. The tension of these two realities will perplex the people of the earth, yet God has brought them together to bring about the greatest transformation possible. Both of these massive components of the Day of the Lord, the great and the terrible, are comprised of divine activities with distinct manifestations.

E.                  Throughout Scripture, God uses two primary Old Testament events as central stories to illustrate the two sides of the Day of the Lord activities. The story of Moses in Exodus is a picture of the “great,” of God’s miraculous deliverance for those who call on Him; and the events of the Babylonian military invasion in 586 BC portray the “terrible,” God’s war against sin and rebellion that exist, even amongst some of His people.

F.                  Right through the Old Testament prophets, instead of using a hundred different illustrations of deliverance, God emphasizes the events of Moses and the Exodus. And instead of using the many different examples of His discipline, He often refers back to the Babylonian invasion.

G.                 These two events teach us God’s principles related to both the end-time judgments of God and the end-time blessings of God. God considers these events as central in expressing His nature. Repeatedly, He speaks of them to His people, as if to say, “Let the deliverance that I worked through Moses show you the quality of My delivering power and let the Babylonian invasion make known the manner of My disciplining zeal.” It is through grappling with and understanding the issues of these two historical realities that we are more prepared to understand God’s deliverance and judgment related to the final Day of the Lord.

H.                 Our experience of the greatness or dreadfulness of this coming Day comes down to our response. To those that respond to God, living righteously, the coming Day will be a glorious day. Though it will entail suffering and testing, it is the day the righteous have longed for. The privilege of experiencing the fullness of the Day can be seen somewhat in the statement that Jesus made related to His first coming, “I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it” (Lk. 10:24).

I.                    The great dimension of that Day will include the outpouring of the Spirit with extraordinary signs and wonders (Joel 2:28-32). Yet for those who resist God, it is a terrible day. It is a day of destruction across the globe. The terrible dimension of the Day of the Lord speaks of God’s judgments coming upon the earth as He shakes all that can be shaken (Heb. 12:26).

J.                   Because of these two distinctive dimensions, we need to be prepared for both the judgment of God upon His enemy called sin and the vindication He will bring to His people, the redeemed, who say “yes” to His refining fire.

K.                 He is coming and a Fire goes before Him. We either agree and say yes to the fire early and therefore are saved or we resist the fire and it devours us.

L.                  The wheat and tares will grow up and mature together. Righteousness and wickedness will fully mature and ripen in the final generation. Will you be found with the righteous or will you perish with the wicked? Which one will you be when He says to His angels, “gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into My barn.”

M.               To those on His right He will say, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” To those on His left, He will say, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels and these will go away into everlasting punishment.

N.                 Blessed are those found blameless before His appearing in that Day. Blessed are those counted worthy of the Son of Man when He appears with His mighty angels with flaming fire!

II.                The Greatest transition of human history

A.                 We are living in the Greatest Transition of human history. King Jesus is returning to rule the whole earth. As He comes He will destroy everything that hinders love.

B.                 The curtain to the final act of natural history is being drawn. What has the Godhead in their infinite wisdom come up with? They’ve had all of Eternity past to come up with a plan. This plan was in the heart of God when the world was spoken into being. The End of the Story was already written before the foundation of the world. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have designed the framework needed to bring forth the greatest number of people at the deepest level of love without violating anyone’s free will.

C.                 There is an appointed end for natural history when the Son of Man in all of His glory will come and rid the world of all wickedness. He will set up His righteous Kingdom and rule and reign with His saints for a thousand years. There is an appointed end when He will bind Satan and cast him into the bottomless pit. Satan and His Kingdom will be removed from the earth. There is an appointed End of natural history ushering us into the New Age.

D.                 Because of this appointed end there will be a great battle. It is the “Great Battle” before the Happily Ever After. The Day of Vengeance is also the Day of Gladness. It is our wedding Day! We are living in this glorious transition. Transition doesn’t happen without opposition. God has an answer. It is called a people made ready, walking in the depths of love.

III.             the beauty contest between God and satan

A.                 Who can win the affection of the human heart?

1. 1. 1. What is in the heart of Satan, what are his plans to allure, deceive the globe? He knows his time is short, and He has a plan to win the affection of the human race.
      2. What is in the heart of God the Father to secure His Son’s inheritance? There is a plan in the eternal counsels that is according to Infinite Wisdom Himself, and God’s heart of Mercy.

B.                 The Holy Spirit has been commissioned to reveal Jesus as beautiful This is an unprecedented hour where the Holy Spirit has been sent to awaken our hearts in love through the revelation of Jesus’ beauty and glory.

In that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped.  (Isaiah 4:2)

C.                 Three unprecedented Holy Spirit activities in the final generation:

1. 1. 1. Restoring the first commandment to first place

“Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.” Mt 22: 37-38

2. 2. 2. The Holy Spirit will gather the Great Harvest through and unprecedented demonstration of the power of God.
      3. The Holy Spirit will release the temporal judgments of the Lord.

D.                 Beauty preparations besides our allowance. We are living in a generation when the Bridegroom God is going to uniquely grace us to receive favor and beauty from Him.

Now the young woman pleased him, and she obtained his favor; so he readily gave beauty preparations to her, besides her allowance. Then seven choice maidservants were provided for her from the king's palace, and he moved her and her maidservants to the best place in the house of the women.  (Esther 2:9)

E.                  Satan deceives and seduces the nations

1. 1. 1. Satan has been given an hour in human history where He will have the signet ring so to speak to allure and deceive human beings more than any time in all of history. Evil will reach its height; it will come to its maturity. The mystery of lawlessness (sin) will cover the earth.
      2. Satan’s two main goals in his war against God is to raise up a false worship movement (Rev. 13) and to exterminate the Jewish race.
      3. Satan’s two weapons of war: Antichrist and False Prophet (Rev. 13).
      4. The Antichrist’s strength: having the largest army (10-nation confederation) and the most money and power (spiritual/political) of any man in history (Rev. 13: 1-2). He will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped. He will sit as God in the temple showing himself that he is God. (2 Thes. 2:4)

IV.             Crescendo of good

A.                 Jesus will have His show.

1. 1. 1. Haggai 2—they shall come to the Desire of All Nations

`and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,' says the LORD of hosts.  (Haggai 2: 7)

2. 2. 2. Voluntary Lovers in the Day of His power

Your people shall be volunteers (voluntary lovers) in the day of Your power; in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, you have the dew of Your youth. (Psalm 110: 3)

3. 3. 3. A Bride made ready for her Husband

"Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready."  (Revelation 19: 7)

4. 4. 4. Unprecedented power demonstrations, signs and wonders

“And is shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions, and also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.” Joel 2: 28-32

V.                 Crescendo of evil

A.                 Satan will have his show.

1. 1. 1. The Father has given Satan the signet ring to use all His power to win the affection of the human heart. There will be a great falling away. Many will be deceived by the schemes of the enemy.
      2. Lawlessness - 2 Thess. 2:7
      3. Deception
      4. 1. Delusion by God - 2 Thess. 2: 8-11
         2. Deception by Satan – Dan. 11: 21; Mt. 24: 5,11, 12, 24; 1 Tim. 4: 1-3; 2 Thess. 2:3-4; Rev. 13: 3-4, 8, 12-15; 16: 13-14; 14:11; 9: 20-21;
      5. Immorality – Rev. 9: 21; 16: 13; 17: 2; 18: 3; 19:2; 2 Pet. 3: 3
      6. Murder—Rev. 6: 9-11; 7:13-14; 9:21; 13:7, 10; 16:6; 17:6; 18:24; 19:2; 2 Tim. 3:3; Dan. 7:21, 25; 8:24; 11: 33-35; 12:7,10; Mk. 13: 12-13; Lk 21; 12, 16-17
      7. Theft – Rev. 9: 21
      8. Hatred of God – Ps. 2: 1-3; Is. 63: 6; Rev. 11: 18; 13: 5-6; 16: 9,11,21. Declaring war on God – Rev. 13:7; 17: 14; 19:19; Dan. 7:21
      9. Fear – Lk. 21: 26, 11; Rev. 13:11, 13; Ps. 46
      10. Relational Breakdown—Matt. 24:10-12; Mk. 13:9,12-13; Lk. 21:12, 16-17

VI.             jesus The  judge

A.                 The Judge—The Father has entrusted His Son with the title deed of the earth. He perfectly trusts His Son to carry out every decree without violating His mercy.

1. 1. 1. Psalm 50—Perfected Light on a collision course to our planet

God shall shine forth, our God shall come, and shall not keep silent. A fire shall devour before Him and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that He may judge His people. Let the heavens declare His righteousness for God Himself is Judge. (Ps. 50)

2. 2. 2. Rev. 5—The only One worthy

And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?" And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals." And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth." Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the...