“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” Rev. 3:15-17
Although the heart of God towards mankind is always for restoration, promotion and blessing; man’s freewill makes him want to be sin-indulged, rebellious and wicked towards his Maker. Still, God loves his handiwork and never wants to leave man at the disposal of Satan – whose aim is to cause man to sin and displease God.Since God is intentional about His creation and has a purpose for man to fulfill, He extends longsuffering to allow man the opportunity to repent and make his way right with Him. It is not God’s desire to destroy men, so He works through the issues to bring man back to Himself.
However, the enemy still tries to dominate, arrest and destroy this divine destiny for man and he makes their hearts to be callous and hardened towards God. Man continues in the negative way and sometimes witchcraft can permeate society like the worship of Baal and evil did during the time of Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel. That society exhibited the lack of fear of God and went far away from Him. This was despite the fact that God wanted Israel to be the light and standard for the nations because God gave them guidelines to live by. Israel took God’s love for granted and gradually compromised and turned away from Him. After extended warnings and the process of trying to get them back to the place that He wanted them to be, God was still determined to redeem and restore them because of His covenantal love for them.
Today, the wickedness of man is experienced even in the Church of Jesus Christ just like the Laodicean Church in Rev 3:15-16. God said He wanted to spew the Laodicean Church out of His mouth because they were neither hot nor cold. The present day Church has compromised and drifted away from God in the same way.
The Church has gone so far that in many cases, it has become more of a social club; has failed to make impact in the culture of the society and the spirit of witchcraft has taken root.
So, instead of being fit witnesses for God, the Church has become in some cases a “den of thieves” (Matt 21:13), and many are all about money, self and slumber. In such instances, the spirit of religion sets in and the believers think they are rich and lack nothing when in fact they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked (Rev 3:17). Like the days of old the condition of the Church is that there is a house of Saul- a religious-centered dynasty whose emphasis is on getting things their way and for themselves.These crop of people want to build self and not promote things in God’s heart. If Saul had continued to be the king, the destiny of Israel would have been destroyed. Since God’s heart is always for the redemption of mankind, He stepped in and saved the day by raising up David – a man after His heart to restore sanity, the worship of God and fear of the God to Israel.
In the same way, God always intervenes in the downward spiral of society to rescue mankind.
One of the ways that He starts the process of restoration is to cause men to begin to pray and cry out to Him.
Through prayer and intercession, God sensitizes men’s hearts to want to change and come to the place of repentance. Because God is holy and as a principle, cannot accept man in his sins, He makes a way for them to turn back to Him and return man to the place of his destiny and not self destruction.
Where man still proves obstinate and unrepentant because sin beclouds his vision and understanding, God introduces other things such as allowing natural disasters and other difficulties to cause man to respond through repentance (2 Chron 7:13-14).
According to 1 Pet 4:17, judgement begins at the House of God.
In this new season, God is awakening His Body again and there will be the release of another level of fire to be lit in the Church and everything that is shakeable- wood hay or stubble (1 Cor 3:12), will fall so that only those things that glorify Him will stand. This fire will bring a cleansing, purification and a shift so that God’s power can be manifested in the world through His people.The goal is that the Church and ultimately, the society will turn back to God in true repentance and fulfill their destiny.