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A Great Shaking and Burning
By David A. DePra
God has promised
the following from the epistle of Hebrews:
But
now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also
heaven. And
this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are
shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may
remain.
Wherefore
we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may
serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
For our God is a consuming
fire.
This promise of a
great SHAKING is repeated using another picture -- that of God as a consuming
fire -- in Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians:
For
another foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ.
Now
if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay,
stubble;
Every
man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it
shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
it is.
If
any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be
burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
God has
repeatedly promised that when He is finished with His purpose in this age that
all that is going to remain is that which is of Christ:
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in
one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth;
even in him:
Do we realize
what this means? If all that will
remain is that which is of Christ, then nothing will remain that is of man.
But do we think God is talking merely about world governments, etc.
No. Actually, those are
secondary. Read again the passage
from Hebrews. God does intend to
once again shake all that is earthly.
But He is also going to shake to the foundations all that is heavenly.
Thus, God is going to shake to the core all that appears to be spiritual,
built upon Jesus Christ, or of Christ.
That means churches, denominations, ministries, and movements.
But most of all, that mean the personal spiritual life of believers.
God promises to SHAKE us; expose us to a great fire -- such that
everything will be exposed for what it is.
And all that will remain eternally is that which is of Christ.
People call for
revival. Do we realize that this is
exactly what revival is -- revival is JUDGMENT?
Revival is God shaking and judgment all things by Jesus Christ so that
what remains is only of Christ.
You will note
that when such a revival and judgment of God does come that people will, by
their own choice, be divided into two camps -- there will be those who
voluntarily lose all that God wants to burn, and there will be those who hold
onto those things. Thus, the very
cause of APOSTASY is going to be REVIVAL.
Revival is the judgment of God upon that which is contrary to Christ.
People will hold onto that which is contrary to Christ, and thus, stand
apart from Christ. That is apostasy.
Any time
God brings light there is a choice to choose either darkness or light.
Every time God shakes us there is a choice either to hold onto what God
wants to shake loose, or discard it and hold onto Christ.
We are already seeing the prelude to all of this.
But now it is merely that -- a prelude.
The great shaking and burning is yet to come.
A Personal
Shaking
There are
millions of professing Christian people who, right now, have a faith and a life
in Christ, that is built of perishable materials.
It is not real. It is
religion. Certainly ALL of us begin
that way to a certain extent. That
is why God allows trials in our lives.
What is the purpose of these personal trials?
Is not the purpose exactly what is stated in Hebrews -- to shake us so
that only that which is of Christ remains?
Is not the purpose to BURN up, through the fires of the trial, all that
is temporal, so that only that which is eternal in Christ remains?
Absolutely. Thus, many of
God's people have experienced, in a personal way, what these passages promise.
But again, there is yet to come a more universal fulfillment of these
promises of God.
There is going to
come a time when God shakes the core of what we today view as Christianity.
He is going to shake it all -- so that the Truth about it will be
exposed. Whether our faith resided
upon the institutions, churches, ministries, and preachers -- or upon the person
of Jesus Christ -- this will all be exposed.
God is going to knock out from under us all of the crutches.
This is going to be REAL and it is going to be traumatic.
Again, people are
predicting some great end-time revival that is going to sweep millions upon
millions into the kingdom of God.
Almost like it is going to be a big party.
But so many Christian lives are built upon sand.
So many Christian people are living in a delusion of religion.
Thus, a revival of any substance is going to require a tremendous
COLLAPSE of everything that constitutes those houses that are built upon the
sand. Indeed, the sand itself must
be overturned and exposed, and those houses must fall.
Only then can there be the true house of God built upon the Rock Himself.
But when this happens, and it is going to happen, many will fall away.
Thus, the great end-time revival that people cry for is going to bring
about on a greater scale the great end-time APOSTASY.
Note:
God is going to shake the heavenlies.
He is going to shake to the foundations all that is spiritual in nature.
This is judgment, yes, but unto the redemptive end that only that which
is of Christ will remain.
How will this
happen? We cannot know.
But it is possible that we are seeing the beginnings.
More and more Christianity is being openly mocked -- and is actually
becoming illegal. What would you and
I do if it became a crime to be a Christian?
If churches were outlawed? If
all preaching was deemed a hate crime?
Today Christianity continues to be big business.
Someday it will again be big trouble.
God is going to expose our faith for what it is.
What if there was
absolutely nothing you could rely upon for your spiritual life except the
reality of Jesus Christ IN YOU? What
if everything else were in chaos spiritually?
Or even materially? What if
there were no affirmations, no assurances, no crutches, no place of spiritual
ease, and no hope whatsoever, save Jesus Christ Himself in His people?
I guess we would find out what is real.
This is going to happen on a scale that most of us cannot fathom.
There are many of
God's people who, at risk of sounding critical, are simply arrogant and
self-assured in their Christianity.
They think they are hot stuff. They
think God is going to AFFIRM them.
They feel invincible because they think that they have been so faithful to God
that He could not possibly let anything bad happen to them.
Think again. What happened to
the disciples? To God's own Son?
But the real
question is this: Do we really want
Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ?
Are we willing to allow God to do whatever it takes to bring to pass His full
will and purpose in Christ? Well,
look around you. What do you and I
think that IS going to take? It is
going to take a great shaking -- the core and foundation of this fake
institution we call Christianity is going to have to be shaken.
And then Jesus Christ will be seen.
For the time is come that judgment
must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what
shall the end
be of them
that obey not the gospel of God?
(I Peter 4:17)
If we want to
know what we need to be doing in these times, so that we might be ready for the
great shaking, the answer is that we need to allow God to shake us NOW.
God wants to establish us in Jesus Christ NOW -- and if He does -- then
we will have a Rock and an anchor that is eternal.
See that ye refuse not him that speaks.
For
if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not
we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet
once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And
this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are
shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may
remain.
Wherefore
we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may
serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
For
our God is a consuming fire.