Running on Empty
Posted by Dion Todd January 8th, 2023 2,641 Views 0 Comments
Running on Empty from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.
The great Apostle Peter was one of the first disciples of Jesus and became one of His closest companions. Peter was nearly always with Jesus, and one of the inner three, along with James and his brother John. They were with Jesus even when the other Apostles were left behind.
Peter watched Jesus transform into His gleaming heavenly self on the mount of transfiguration. He saw Him raise Jairus's daughter from the dead, Lazarus, and others. Peter and Jesus walked on water together. He watched Jesus multiply food and witnessed miracle catches of fish, including one carrying money in its mouth to cover the tax money they needed.
Peter was with Jesus the night He was betrayed and was part of the group that watched Jesus ascend to heaven. One of the last things Jesus told Peter was, "If you love Me, feed My sheep." In other words, teach My people, and you can be certain the Lord anointed Peter to do so. My point is that when Peter says something, we should listen, and something he wrote concerns me.
(2 Peter 2:4–5 NKJV) For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
A group of angels rebelled with lucifer against God and were condemned to hell in chains and darkness for eternity. Super Beings who knew what was right but chose to do what was wrong.
Noah was a righteous man, right with God, and he and his household were saved. A total of eight people in the known world survived the flood, while the rest perished. Noah was a man who knew what was right and did it. Peter continues:
(2 Peter 2:6–8 NKJV) and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)
Peter gives us another example: Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked cities. When angels visited Abraham's nephew Lot there, the men of the town tried to rape them. That didn't work out as well as they had hoped. Lot was a righteous man living in a wicked city. So the Lord sent angels to lead him and his family out before the fire rained down on the cities and destroyed them.
(2 Peter 2:9–10 NKJV) then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority.
Ouch. How many have those verses taped to their refrigerator? And did Peter have to use "especially those who walk according to the flesh"...?
This is an Apostle in the New Testament saying that what happened in the Old Testament is an example for us today because it is still relevant. What happened to those people can happen to us. It's the same GOD, and He changes not (Malachi 3:6).
Have you ever heard of the wrath of God? Yet, somehow we have turned the fear of the Lord into cuddly baby Jesus, but when our hourglass finally empties, that view will be corrected. Look at these words of Jesus written in red:
(Luke 6:46 NASB) "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"
Look at the words of James:
(James 2:26 NASB) "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead."
May God save us all from greasy grace religion. Aleister Crowley, a prominent satanist labeled as "the wickedest man in the world," wrote in his "book of the law" that "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." That's the occult's big secret in a nutshell. The great plan of darkness exposed, "Do what thou wilt."
What do you think most people in your city you are doing today?
(Matthew 24:37–39 NKJV) But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
There is a horrifying finality when God decides your fate, a point of no return. A line that can't be crossed. How much wickedness can our nation pile up before God says, "ENOUGH!"
When Israel turned their back on the Lord in the book of Jeremiah, they finally crossed the line. He had warned them through many prophets, but they beat them and killed the messengers He sent. His judgment was that Jerusalem would be destroyed and the people there carried away into exile.
The prophet Jeremiah lived there, but even that wouldn't stop what was coming. As in the days of Noah when the Lord sealed the ark, and the rain started the fall, you will find the Lord has already shut the door when the judgment begins.
(Jeremiah 11:14 NKJV) "So do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble."
Jerusalem was destroyed. A glimmer of hope is the example of the city of Nineveh. Its hourglass was running on empty, and the Lord sent the prophet Jonah to warn them, "Forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown." The people believed God's word and repented with fasting and prayer.
(Jonah 3:3–5 NASB) So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown." Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.
The king of Nineveh fasted himself and made a decree that no one in the city would eat or drink, not even the animals and livestock. Everyone was to call on God earnestly and turn from their wicked ways.
(Jonah 3:7–8 NASB) He issued a proclamation and it said, "In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. "But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.
(Jonah 3:9–10 NASB) "Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish." When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.
Nineveh's fear of God, combined with serious corporate fasting and repentance, saved their city. The Lord delayed the coming judgment to another generation. 148 years later, Nineveh was destroyed by the Medes as prophesied by Nahum.
Before the Lord destroyed Sodom, He went to see Abraham, and they had a conversation about it. The Lord called Abraham a prophet in Genesis 20:7, and He often tells His prophets first (Amos 3:7). Abraham interceded for the city of Sodom, possibly because his nephew Lot lived there.
(Genesis 18:23–24 NKJV) And Abraham came near and said, "Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it?
(Genesis 18:26 NKJV) So the LORD said, "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes."
Abraham interceded with the Lord some more and brought Him down to forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, and then ten. The prayers of a righteous man avail much (James 5:16).
(Genesis 18:32 NKJV) Then he said, "Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?" And He said, "I will not destroy it for the sake of ten."
Then Abraham stopped. Sadly for Sodom, only the righteous nephew of Abraham, Lot, lived there, and that was less than ten. In every scenario, several righteous people were needed to save the city.
What happens when your city has been weighed on the scales and found wanting? That happened to the kingdom of Babylon when the fingers of a man's hand appeared and began writing on the wall beside the King one night while they were having a party. He called for the prophet Daniel to interpret it for him, and he did. Daniel gave the king a scorching rebuke:
(Daniel 5:23 ESV) but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.
(Daniel 5:26–28 ESV) This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
The city of Babylon was believed to be impenetrable and unable to be taken by siege because the Euphrates River ran through its center. They had vast farms surrounded by double walls 57 feet thick, possibly 300 feet high, and wide enough for a chariot to run down. There were also 100 watch towers and a moat encircling the city beyond the walls. You could never starve them out, for they were self-sustaining.
Yet, unless the Lord guards the city, the watchmen stay awake in vain (Psalm 127:1). The same night the fingers wrote on the wall, the Medes diverted the Euphrates River upstream and entered Babylon on the dry river bed. They killed the king and took the city without a fight.
Most people would agree that we should save our planet, the environment, and make our world a better place. Well, this is how. Help make sure there are at least ten righteous people in your city, and volunteer to be one of them - for we are running on empty.
You can pray this with me if you like:
Prayer: Heavenly Father, please forgive me for the things I have done wrong. I stand in the gap between You and my city and country and ask for mercy! We need more time in our hourglass. Please delay the coming judgment and give us space for repentance. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!