Then, Now – And What About You?

Old Testament prophets often lived out, on a smaller scale, what the entire nation of Israel was about to experience when God poured out judgment. Examples include Ezekiel laying on his side for over a year, bound, as a means of drawing attention to the corporate sins of the country. During that time, Ezekiel was told by God to “eat it (bread) as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung.” God went on to say that He would “break the staff of bread in Jerusalem [and the people of Jerusalem would] waste away for their iniquity.”

Fast forward to now: if you have prophetic gifting, have you ever experienced something or understood something personally that later seemed to apply to others as well? I have, many times. Here are a few of my examples, and how they apply to what we are all experiencing in 2020.

Sword, Famine and Plague: I’ve been seeing these words used together semi-regularly this year. If you’re not familiar with the origin of these three words in this sequence, check out the biblical examples found in Jeremiah 44 and Ezekiel 3, 4 and 7, or Revelation 6:8.

The reason I know about these words is the research I did for a study on the spiritual underpinnings of eating disorder. My researched started way back in 2003, and ultimately became a Bible study and a book which I published in 2007.

I want to be crystal-clear on this: eating disorder and all mental health issues spring from genetic traits, as well as personal, often traumatic, experiences. Depression and anxiety are common for people on the autism spectrum, and I am pretty close to meeting Level 1 diagnostic criteria. Mental illness is not directly caused by sin, but sin can make mental illness worse. People with mental illness and those who do not have mental illness alike are all equally born sinners, capable of sinning. Personal experiences influence personal choices, and often choices I make or others make can be sin, which means you or I choose a way that is not God’s way, usually because my experience or belief system tells me that my choice is right. But reality is that God’s way typically doesn’t make sense unless you are repenting and earnestly seeking Him with your whole self.

Choosing God’s way doesn’t guarantee physical healing of mental illness. I promise You, if personal repentance, Bible study and public confession of sin were the be-all and end-all solution to anxiety and depression, I wouldn’t still need to take medication. Rather, choosing God’s way leads to wholeness, which means that spiritual healing has taken place.

I wrote what I did in the book and study because I genuinely wanted to understand what God says about choices that I made that were in conflict with His Word. In my opinion, the most stark statement on the conflict between personal choices and God’s word is in James 3:16: “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.”

Jeremiah and Ezekiel both said that idolatry (AKA “selfish ambition and jealousy”) and adultery would lead to sword, famine and plague. God said that those who should love Him with all their hearts, minds and strength were not only idolatrous when they loved something more than Him—and proved that lack of love by their actions—but that these same people were also spiritually adulterous. So if I put anything in the center of my very self that conflicts with God’s law, God says that not only is this idolatry, but it is also adultery. God describes the relationship believers have with Him as like a marriage—not sexually, but so intimate and open that nothing is held back. There is to be total trust between me and God.

My relationship with Christ is supposed to be so central to everything I do, that if I put anything else in that place, God says it’s equivalent, in human relationship terms, to cheating on my husband. My relationship with Him is supposed to be that close, that I don’t hold any secrets back from Him. There are to be no pockets or hidden rooms in my heart where God is not allowed.

Photo credit: Pixabay on Pexels.com.

God applied those words to the ancient Israelites, but they also apply to modern Christ-followers, because God’s Word is true forever. So if you have an idol, anything you put ahead of God’s law, and you’ve ever made a commitment to Christ, you’re also adulterous. And that’s leading to both personal and national judgments of sword, famine and plague.

Please understand: this is not talking about prosperity gospel-based giving and getting. This is talking about God’s eternal laws around blessings of obedience and curses for disobedience. There is a big difference between the two; again, a difference that has to do with the posture of your heart towards God and the things He says He blesses.

Back to my question: has God ever given me experiences that also apply to other scenarios at a much later time? Unquestionably yes.

I believe God led me to this information and conclusions about idolatry and adultery leading to sword, famine and plague not only for 2007, but also for now, for 2020. Prophecy always has a now and yet later aspect, because if it’s really from God, it will have eternal application.

First Peter 4:17 says, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God, and if it begins first with us, what shall the end be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” Judgment begins with the house of the Lord.

God’s Word speaks so often and thoroughly about the coming difficult times that it is impossible to actually read His Word and avoid the concept. And yes, I believe that we are here, at the front door of tribulation. While there may be a rapture later, I don’t believe that Christ-followers will escape the judgment that’s coming.

Along with understanding the connection between idolatry and adultery and sword, famine and plague was the understanding of the absolute necessity of personal and church-wide repentance. Many voices are calling for repentance; please do your part to repent from your personal sin, that hidden thing that only God knows about. I’ve had to do this many times. Those little moments of integrity are some of the most important moments in your life, I promise. God sees and knows the heart.

Two final thoughts: Long ago, when I was in high school, I very much got the sense that American freedom of speech was dying. I felt way back in the early 1980’s that a sincere Christian couldn’t actually talk about faith and repentance without being laughed out of school or work, and socially shunned for good. I’m responsible for my own sin, and have publicly shared my faith journey, including the icky sin parts, from the very beginning of the ministry God has given me. But sadly, this accurate perception of the effort it took to stand up for Christ in the relatively Jesus-friendly 70’s and 80’s made it easier for me to walk away for many years.

Last, the very first time I taught my Bible study, there was a small group of faithful ladies who attended each week. But on the final session, none of the faithful few showed up. I was audio-recording each teaching, so I taught to an empty room. Sound like anything that’s happened this year?