Lift Up Your Voice: Declaring Transgression and Sin

Declaring transgression and sin in the church

Understanding the urgency of God's voice in Isaiah 58

Recognizing the condition of the soul and the church

Taking stock of personal spiritual condition

Thank you for joining us today. I want to share with you that it was only a couple of weeks ago that God answered another of my petitioning prayers. I have a continuing urgent prayer before the throne room, and my request is one that cannot be answered at one time, although I know that God's word declares in Matthew 24, verse 42, watch, therefore, you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. Or in 1 Peter 4, verse 7, but the end and the culmination of all things has come near. Keep sound-minded, self-restraint, and alert, therefore, in the practice of prayer. But this prayer, in which I have already alluded to, it is multifaceted. It has many parts and many phases and aspects to it because it involves the last days in which we are now presently living. We have certain scriptures in which we pray over and have believed God for in that he will grant us the petition of our heart's cry. We believe that promise by faith because God's binding commitment declares in his word, I will grant you whatever you ask for in prayer. Well, how many of you know that as long as what we ask God for in prayer, it lines up with his word, he will give us the answer and bring forth the manifested results in his time because he is a faithful God. Well, these prayers that we have been believing God for are found in scripture, such as in Isaiah 42 verse 9, which declares, Also in Isaiah 43 verse 19 tells us And the last one And Isaiah 48 verse 6 You have heard these things foretold. Now you see this fulfillment, and you will not bear witness to it. I show you specified new things from this time forth, even hidden things kept in reserve which you have not known. They are created now, called into being by the prophetic word, and not long ago and before today, you've never heard of them, lest you should say, Behold, I knew them. Well, lastly, 1 Peter 4, verse 7 declares, The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with others, those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has even given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. use them well to serve one another. Well, may I tell you, as I have said so many times before, we are living in the last days. We are living in the times that the world has never seen before. We are living in the days of Noah and the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. In this last scripture, Peter is giving us lessons for the last days. He's urging us to be thoughtful and earnest and discipline in our prayers. The apostle is urging us to show deep love for one another. The sins of the people around us should invoke us or cause us or entreat and implore us to beseech God for mercy and the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to witness to these people in their lost state. the result of this continuing prayer which centers in God our Heavenly Father's mercy in showing us what is coming to America, that he would reveal what it is that is on his heart and also what it is that we need to know so that we can be effective in this last day ministry. Already God has shown profoundly in a prophetic dream the surprising condition of the church and her present leadership, and as a result, the judgment that is forthcoming. You may listen to the audio account of this dream by going to our website, ShiningLight7Ministries.com. Again, that is ShiningLight7, that is a numerical number seven, Ministries.com. Now, as I started to say in the opening of this word today, it was only a couple of weeks ago that God answered this continuing petitioning prayer in another way. In my dream, this one particular night, I was dreaming about the book of Isaiah 58. And there was so much to this dream, but what I do remember especially is that it was quite chilling upon wakening from this dream, I kept hearing the profound and the audible voice of the Lord repeating over and over again, very loudly and with great urgency, saying, Isaiah 58, Isaiah 58, Isaiah 58. And the scripture declares, cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their transgressions and to the house of Jacob their sins. And yet they seek and inquire and require of me daily and delight externally to know my ways as if they were in reality a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their God. They ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God in visible ways. Well, the first few verses of prophet Isaiah described the urgency of God's word to his watchman in every generation of time. Both my husband Lee and I felt like God was showing and giving us the final thrust and urgency of the ministry that he has given us in these end days. This is not a popular ministry, since the church is so far off track and is living like the book of Judges describes in chapters 17 and 18 and 19 where there was no king in Israel and the people did what seemed right in their own eyes. Isaiah 58 shows us that the people in this day were diligent in their fast and their praying, but God shows through the prophet that it was all fruitless. Isaiah even spoke of judgment and salvation of God and showed very clearly the conditions for taking part in his salvation. He called the people to account who were just going through the motions of religious performance while at the same time they were steeped in sin and promoting injustice and sinful practices and violations of God's holy commands and precepts. So why did God answer my prayer this night with Prophet Isaiah's cry aloud and spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet and declare to my people their transgressions? Well, the answer is quite simple. The same abominable, sinful, religious, and hypocritical practices that were going on in Prophet Isaiah's day are going on in our day too only in an extremely fast and reckless speed which will usher in the return of Jesus Christ at his second coming. God knows that his people are not ready. God knows the condition of his church and also the status of each and every soul who purports to be a Christian. This urgency of the Lord's voice in answer to my prayer that night through Isaiah 58 was almost demanding and insistent to where I felt the weight and responsibility in speaking about the warning of the times that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24 and also the book of Daniel and the other imperative and foremost scriptures which demand immediate attention regarding the last days and how close we are to the great tribulation. It is my prayer, also in this word today, that I do justice to the Lord's urgency and importance in Isaiah's words, in parlaying how critical and important it is that you personally and individually, me too, take stock of the condition of our souls. You see, when Isaiah was inspired by God at the time he delivered this word to the backsliding people in his day, he was addressing the whole mass who only had a form of godliness. And this is what angered God. He called on the prophet to show them their transgressions in their hypocritical religion. In this chapter, after Isaiah delivered this word, the people asserted or claimed that they could not see what they were guilty of. They said, we are faithful and we are diligent. We go to church every week. What more does God want from us? What more does he expect? Some today will even say, I go to church twice a week. And others say, I went on a mission trip and served God in feeding the poor or building houses. But God made it crystal clear that the people in Isaiah's day had a form of godliness. He said, they go to church and they even seek me daily. God also said, they love to hear good preaching and they also delight to know my ways. You know what, dear church? So did Herod. Herod loved to hear John preach. But when John talked about the sin in Herod's life, he didn't hesitate in having John beheaded to appease a sinner. The ground of Herod's heart was stony and hard, or else he would have received the words that John spoke with joy. But instead, it was just as the Lord spoke in Ezekiel chapter 33, to them your voice is as a lovely song. It is the same scenario in the church today. People love to hear a good preaching and also they delight to know God's ways, but they do not submit to them. They will not be persuaded by hearing the truth because they will not part with their favored and beloved sinful practices. Did you know that by not putting Jesus Christ first in your life, it is sinful? Did you know that by putting other people, places, and things first in your life is denying Christ? Many people never think of this as a transgression of God's will. And this is the first and greatest commandment stated in the New and the Old Commandment. Did you know that the impure and sinful thoughts that are allowed to roam around in your head are transgressions of God's law? Multitude of millions sitting in the pews of church each Sunday love to hear the word of God, but they make no conscientious effort in fulfilling it by obeying it. Millions of professing Christians are building up on the sand and deceive themselves into thinking that God will have mercy on them in the day of their judgment. But I must say, their unbelief and carelessness in caring for the condition of their own soul will certainly not make God's word of no effect. God will confirm the words of the prophet one day, even though by the people's actions and their words and their deeds, They condemn it and make light of it by taking the grace of Jesus Christ lightly and submitting to his commands to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, your mind, and your entire being. To cry aloud and spare not in this word today is to sound the trumpet in hopes of awakening a lethargic and slothful church who have not kept their lamps filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit and His presence. This word is to awaken a hypocritical professing church to where they shall not regret their folly before it is too late. and when the time comes suddenly they shall know it to their cost and to their confusion that one has been amongst them crying aloud though they may know more of him or her than one that only had a pleasant voice those who will not take serious that the voice of God is amongst them and will not advance or improve the day of their visitation while it is here they will be made to remember that the voice of God through his human agents has been amongst them when the things that belong to their peace are now hidden from their eyes. The day is coming very soon when vain, worldly, lazy, thoughtless men and women who call themselves a Christian will have other thoughts of things than they presently have and will feel the full effect and the weight of those things that they have made light of. They will feel the pressure and the weight of regret and the consciousness of the time that they had wasted in coming into the intimate knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ while today is called today for them. My husband Lee and I have just returned from a 2400 mile trip here in the United States. And we have talked and ministered to people all along the way. we heard their excuse excuse after excuse when it comes to their Christianity and why they do not do the things that they know to do that are in keeping with God's mandate to come to him through his son Jesus Christ one lady wrote after listening to a cd teaching we had given to her that she says it was very inspiring. And the words are a reminder as to how far she has to go in working on her faith because she is too busy making herself tired with her career. She said, I guess I will just have to do the best I can. She said also, I will save the teachings for cold weather and shorter days that will be coming. But thank you for your concern and your love. You see, dear church? This individual and many like her, they do not attend church. They grab a little spirituality here and there. They know they have lack in the things of God, but they are too busy with the affairs of life. They put off the most important thing that has spiritual consequences, and that is their salvation. God's word makes it known that they shall know that one has been amongst them when they see the events unfold exactly as it was prophesied. The words of the one speaking shall be a witness against them because they had fair warning given to them but would not heed the words of the advice given. There are so many professors of the faith who have made up their own form of religion. They have a little biblical knowledge but find their delight in approaching God of their own making. It isn't God they are approaching because he has his own prescribed ways in which his people will come to him, but multitudes of millions have deceived themselves into thinking that God is pleased with them with whatever they throw his way. God declares in his word that these people appear to the eyes of the world as if they were conscientiously doing their duty. He said, yet they seek me, they inquire and require me daily and delight externally to know my ways as if they were in reality a nation that did righteous and forsook not the ordinances of their God. They ask of me righteous judgments. They are delighted to draw near to God in visible ways. One man on this journey said, I want to have a more intimate relationship with God. He said, my denomination does not encourage this, and I know that I need to know Jesus Christ more deeply. When we tried to introduce him to various ways that this would be possible, he was disinterested in putting forth the effort into listening. Human nature hasn't changed from the time of Isaiah's prophetic words in Isaiah 58, verse 2, when he said, They ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God in visible ways. But understand, please, their hearts are not in what they ask for. You see, a form of godliness denies the power of Jesus Christ being able to work out salvation in one's life through his Holy Spirit. Many people are so busy with life's worries, life's cares and pleasures, that they deny Jesus Christ's power and his ability to make all things new in their lives. They end up being lovers of pleasure and make merchandise of Jesus Christ. And I'm speaking about those who are called leaders in the church too. The prevailing sins and the crying abominations in the church in America today are pride, luxury and fame, pleasure, gluttony, drunkenness, using God's name in vain, not attending a church, fellowship, lying, covetousness, greed for money and the desire to be rich, adultery, fornication, profane contempt for the things of God, jealousy and hatred, and the list goes on. Flagrant insincerity in the church and lack of keeping one's word is like a cancer that is permeated in the church, and especially in leadership. No wonder God shows his concern where his church is concerned when he says, cry aloud and spare not, make known to my people their transgressions. You see, this is very shameful. Cry aloud and spare not is an insult to God. He abhors any kind of devotion or sacrifice where sincerity of heart is not found. Selfishness, insincere religion or piety, no matter how passionate it is, is absolutely disgusting and despicable of all impieties or irreverence to God. It is most damaging and dangerous to the soul This selfish religion inflicts enormous and countless injury and pain upon these kinds of individuals It warps the judgment and deadens the conscience and awakens false hope within the soul It creates diseased affections and dehumanizes the mind of the individual. And you must know also, these self-inflicted injuries to the individual are not confined to this kind of person, but they do affect and infect those all around them. One professing Christian on this journey said in response to our conversation about sin when I said, yes, even a child taking a cookie from the cookie jar can be sinful for that child. The individual retorted with a laugh. You think that little child sinned just because he took a cookie from the cookie jar? You've got to be kidding. I said, yes, the little child sinned if his mother or father told him not to help himself. The child disobeyed the parent, and a little sin is not okay with God. And I explained how the Christian parent teaches his child obedience. and God's word teaches that parents must train up a child in the way that he should go. I said as well that the sinful act is called rebellion and this is why Satan was cast out of heaven. Well, we've all heard the story in the Bible of Eli and his sons. Eli was a doting and a foolish father who did not correct or discipline his sons for their rebellious acts And needless to say, this displeased God a whole lot. And as a result, God's righteous punishment came swiftly and all too soon. There was a battle with the Philistines. Israel was defeated and the ark of God was taken from them. And both of Eli's son were killed in the battle. And upon hearing of his son's death, Eli fell to the ground and he broke his neck. This whole story is an account of a judge and a high priest who would not correct his sons. And not only are parents lax and lazy and too lenient these days in disciplining their children, but church leadership, who should be fathers in the church, are like little children leading little children. God commanded the prophet to cry aloud, spare not, and to lift up his voice like a trumpet and tell the people of their sinful hypocrisy and apostasy. But what a farce we have in the church today. There are a whole host of people who have seven or ten steps in how to fast. How God shows these individuals that if you buy their book and fast for 40 days, there will be a great worldwide awakening. This is one of the reasons in our opening scripture in Isaiah 58 that he was to cry out. These hypocrites fasted and had a form of religion that was abominable to God. Isaiah 58 3 declares, Why have we fasted, they say, and you do not see? Why have we afflicted ourselves and you take no notice of it? Behold, O Israel, on the day of your fast, when you should be grieving for your sins, you find profit in your business and instead of stopping all work, as the law implies you and your workmen should do, you extort from your hired servants a full amount of labor. I think the great awakening is that these people who bought these fast talkers books will have realized in the end that they only made the author of the book rich. Other apostates sell their communion kits and peddle a testimony that people who needed money after taking communion with this kit were blessed with $50,000. Well, many of these kinds of apostate teachers have grown fat off the sheep by packaging their special revelations and insights for profit. Others say if you give a gift of $159, you can take root in Israel by adopting an olive tree, and your name will be put on that tree, and you will receive a certificate of authenticity. From the harvest of these trees, they produce an anointing oil called the king's oil. made to biblical guidelines. And so they sell this along with your certified tree. And others sell rocks from Israel, they say, holds the voice of the prophets within them. Dear one, I could go on with the disgusting apostasies taking place in the church today. These are only highlights. There are so many and so flagrant in violations of God's word. The prophet said they seek me day by day and desire to learn my ways like a nation which has done righteousness and has not forsaken the right of their God. Having a form of religion is not okay with God. A form of religion or better called formalism means that professors of the faith in Christ have derived ways of worshiping God by external forms of observances which have come from their imaginations. These are doctrines of men who believe that by these acts are in themselves right and are peddled to deceive millions of ignorant Christians who do not know the truth in God's word. They are too lazy to learn for themselves. Having a form of religion or formalism stems from defective knowledge. It's void of true acquaintance with the only way to salvation, which is found in Jesus Christ alone. Formalists do not know the work of Jesus Christ on the cross for themselves personally. Oh, yes, they're full of the knowledge of God's word and can spout the scripture, scripture after scripture. but they do not know the jealousy in which Jesus Christ hates in the interference that comes against his work leading multitudes of millions of souls to salvation. Formalism, or having a form of obedience, causes these people to come short of the requirements to which they are called to comply with. They lack spiritual sincerity, and therefore they are left in the dark. God's reason for his people fasting as spoken of in Isaiah 58 is to lead them into a deep and devoted prayer life. Prayer that is so real that your voice is heard on high to where God hears and answers your prayers. Fasting should lead one into realizing communion with God is essential and that his voice can be heard in this place of communion and also that he hears your voice. This is a place of intimacy with God where you draw close to him. Fasting is meant to expose personal sin in your life and will give you the desire to loathe and hate it. And you will be given the power to turn completely away from it when you are obedient and faithful to God. In a nutshell, this is ultimately and essentially what fasting is meant to do in a believer's life. Fasting is the avenue to walking in the Spirit. Fasting is the avenue to living in the Spirit. When we realize the words of Jesus, when he spoke to his followers and he said, be you perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect, Jesus was in effect saying, grow up and mature in my truth. In other words, he is saying, stop sinning and lean on my understanding and the truth will set you free. The truth will set us free from what, dear ones? The truth will set us free from sinful practices in our lives. And the aim of growing in spiritual maturity is to know the holy from the profane. It is to know good from evil. And once you know evil, you flee from it. you make this a practice. And you cannot know God if you do not turn away from sin. Prophet Isaiah was crying aloud and sparing not in his addressing the hypocrites for living a life of performance. They thought God should take notice of them and that he, God, would be indebted to them because of their religious service unto him. They thought they had marks of God's favor upon them. They invented ways of advancing honor and prosperity amongst the people. They were guilty of fleecing the sheep and taking advantage of them rather than leading them on the tried and true path of God's righteousness. It is all too evidence in the church today that we are no further advanced in any one of these human failings than were the people in Isaiah's day. Being an itinerant ministry, whom the Lord has wonderfully opened the door to almost all denominations and non-denominations, we have been privileged to see both the positive and the negative sides of the church. And overall, I believe we can say the church collectively is far from being ready for the soon coming return of Jesus Christ. It is frightening to see the great numbers of nominal and weak professing Christians who think that they are in right standing with God. It is saddening to see many and most who call themselves a follower of Christ have such little interest in the condition and more so the salvation of their souls. My comment should not be a surprise to anyone who knows what God's word declares regarding the latter days before Christ returns. in 2 Thessalonians 2.3 the word tells us let no one deceive or beguile you in any way for that day will not come except the apostasy come first unless the predicted great falling away of those who have professed to be Christians has come this word of Paul is telling us that there is going to be a great apostasy of God's word and by this term we can surmise that the essential principles of God's truth is going to be profaned and there will be an abandonment of Christianity such as we have never seen it before in the history of the church. This word is so close to fulfillment in our day, dear church. This word is to be a notice to all who will have ears to hear and eyes to see in that you and I are put on notice today and are called to examine our own hearts and our lives and our own standing with Jesus Christ this very day. And this is not a herd mentality suggestion. This is a personal call to you individually. This is the cry in this day and hour while today is called today. This is the message that the Lord himself spoke that morning with Isaiah's prophecy in chapter 58, ringing in my ears, sending chills up and down my spine with the urgency of raising the trumpet to say, examine your own heart in light of a pure and clear conscience which has been cleansed from all guilt and sin and defilement. Are you there yet? Have you been faithful to live your own Christianity in the light and truth of God's word? To be able to examine your own heart and life with a pure and a clear conscience is one that is free from deception, from condemnation, from compromise and pride, and the list goes on. We have a message you can access on our website by going to the audio Christian teachings. It's called To Examine Your Own Heart Takes a Good Conscience. We talk about this very subject in this message, and I urge you to hear it. Now I leave you with the words from 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 7. But the end and culmination of all things has now come near. Keep sound-minded and self-restraint and alert, therefore, for the practice of prayer. Above all things have an intense and unfailing love for one another, for love conquers a multitude of sin, forgives and disregards the offenses of others. Peter's words are words of warning, words of watchfulness, and words of love. The miserable destruction to come upon the world is foretold by our precious Savior, Jesus Christ, in Matthew 24. We are told to be sober and watchful. And this is saying, do not let your former sins or temptations and worldly pleasures take hold of you. Be faithful to the end. Dear listener, be diligent in prayer every day over your own soul and over the souls of others. This is true love. The soberness of what is happening in the world all around us ought to be a reason enough to find ourselves immersed in fervent prayer. I cry aloud to say, be watchful over your own soul and your own spirit. Do all you can do to further the kingdom of God in your own heart and in the hearts of others. This is the kind of fasting that God is looking for. He is looking for those who will loosen the bands of wickedness and who will undo the heavy burdens of his people. And he is looking for those who will help the oppressed to go free and help those to throw off the mass of religion. Jesus Christ has done this once and for all. But God the Father will use those who have learned the true fast, and that is the fast from sin. who walk in the Spirit and live in the Spirit, helping others to be free, by crying aloud and sparing not when it comes to the issue of sin in their lives. Please, I say with all urgency, examine your own hearts and lives today and see and know where you stand with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ while today is called today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Playlist coming soon.