As the day of the Lord approaches, the Lord is judging the nations while also turning His attention to His house. The prophet Amos describes this as a “time of darkness” as evil spirits seek to exert their influence on the churches as well as the whole earth. Importantly though, when the Lord brings judgment, He also brings salvation and love just as a father would when He draws His children near to Him. Those who overcome the darkness to abide in the light of His presence will be seen with the glory of the Lord over them (Isaiah 60 1-3)
God’s judgement is certain; but His loyal love stands firm. This prophetic word was revealed in a dream received on New Year’s Day.
The dream began with a young man arriving at an auditorium which had been prepared with circular tables covered in white tablecloths. He was expecting a celebration however, on entering, he learnt that the bride and groom had died, turning the celebration into a time of mourning.
The companion scripture for this dream is from the book of Amos:
“I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentations; I will bring sackcloth on every waist, and baldness on every head; I will make it like mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day” (Amos 8:10).
The dream, coupled with the scripture from Amos, foresees a time of mourning as judgement comes to the Church and the nations of the world. But we must remember that God does nothing without first telling His servants the prophets and that He does this as an act of grace so that we who are His can repent (put on sackcloth) and be prepared for what is to come (Amos 3:7).
Hear ye this word which I take up for Lamentation over you, O house of Israel. The virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall no more rise; she is cast down upon her land; there is none to raise her up (Amos 5:1-2).
This time of trial for the Church has come about because even though betrothed to Jesus (virgin) many in the churches have fallen away from the purity of the gospel (2 Cor. 11:2-3). They have been blinded and corrupted by Satan, the god of this world, into having a different spirit and a different gospel. Satan’s deceptions are not new as he has deceived God’s chosen ones including Israel and the church into believing his lies over the truth. “God made the world and everything in it and He does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needs anything from us” (Acts 17:25). What God desires and what He searches the whole earth for is a heart prepared for Him with a humble and contrite spirit (Psalm 51:16-17) and that it is on such a heart that God can write His laws and open the bearer’s ears to hear Him (Psalm 40:6-8). Essentially, Jesus, as King of Kings, gave us a love covenant where He gave His life for us and He asks us to “love him with all our heart and with all our understanding and with all our strength” (Mark 12: 33). False gospels which do not encourage the lordship and sovereignty of Jesus in a believer’s life block the way for the believer to be led and taught of the Holy Spirit.
The prophet Amos warned Israel of their impending judgment; while also prophesing judgement on the Church in these latter days.
Amos warned Israel of impending judgment when they rejected God laws, despite their being His and despite God having revealed Himself to them. God said to them “you only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities (Amos 3:1:2). Their lies led them away as it caused them to despise the Law of the Lord (Amos 2:4) and caused them to defiantly refuse to repent.
Similarly, many churches have mixed the gospel of Jesus Christ with lies to create a popular theology which despises the Law and His commandments (Acts 17:27-28). For this reason, the Apostle Paul says, “I marvel that you are so soon removed from Jesus who called you into His grace and have gone into another gospel which has been crafted by men” (Gal. 1:6-12). Jesus describes such believers as “those who honour Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:6-7). Christians who reject the truth to take on another gospel, are warned by Paul “if we take on another gospel we will be judged because we didn’t hold to the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess.2:12).
Therefore, the Lord said, “I hate, I despise your feast days”. “Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5: 21-24).
Judgment on the Church will manifest as a time of deception and falling away.
Judgment for Israel came in the form of an invading Assyrian army, which conquered the Northern Kingdom taking ten tribes’ captive. From there they became lost to history as they were scattered throughout the nations. Similarly, judgment on the church will manifest as an army of evil spirits (dark clouds) carrying an arsenal of deception to cause many to fall away from the truth in Jesus Christ and go into captivity to the spirit of the world.
Amos spoke of the approaching judgment when he said “the Lord God formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop; indeed, it was the late crop after the Kings mowing’s (Amos 7:1). While this prophesy was fulfilled in Israel there is also an application for the Church as evil spirits (locusts) come in these latter days.
The locusts are symbolic of Satan’s demons and spirits which will come to stop Christians receiving the living word (King’s fresh cut grass). These spirits will employ lies, deceit and deception as tools to remove the word of God by replacing it with worldly doctrines and ideas. Many churches have already seen an infiltration of these spirits however in these days these deceptions are going to escalate to the point that many will fall into spiritual darkness, thereby, fulfilling the scripture from Isaiah, “behold, the darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the people” (Isaiah 60:1).
Now the Spirit expressly says, that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons who will take believers away from the word of God (1 Timothy 4:1). Without the revelation of the word many will waver in their faith, and this will precipitate their falling away into apostacy (2 Thess. 2:1-2). The apostle Paul says, “God will allow them to perish in this way because they refused to love the truth and so be saved (2 Thess. 2:10-11)”.
The Prophet Amos goes on to elaborate, “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 9:11).
The deceptions coming on the world and the churches will be so apparent that many churches will not teach the word of God. Partially because they do not value the bible as the inspired word but also because they have moved away from the Lord and cannot hear Him speaking to them. Alluding to this spiritual darkness without the light of the word Amos posed these two questions (Amos 5:20)?
“Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light”?
“Is it not very dark with no light in it”?
Our salvation is assured when we seek the Lord.
The dream continued with a demonstration of our Heavenly Father gathering us unto Himself where we will be protected from being deceived as we abide in Him.
In the dream, after the celebration became a time of mourning, the scene changed, and I was looking at a pool of pale blue water. Swimming contentedly in the water was a group of children. However, degree by degree, the water temperature in the pool was dropping until reaching the point where the safety of the children was threatened. My attention then focused on a young boy, who was struggling to stay afloat before going under the water. Then in a determined show of strength he raised his head out of the water to looked directly at his father.
Witnessing this, his father who was standing, nearby, in the water, picked him up and tenderly and lovingly cradled his son to his chest. Immediately the boy put his arms and legs around his father so that the cold water was not touching him. Clinging to his father, the child felt warm, safe, and comforted as the heat of his father’s body flooded through him. The father enjoyed the embrace as much as the child because he loved his son and he loved the contact with him. While continuing to hold his son, the man walked around the pool, and on one occasion when he walked into deeper water the water covered the child’s foot, but the child remained oblivious to this as he was warmed and protected by his father.
The scriptural parallel for this part of the dream is found in the book of Acts.
“God intended that we would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and grope for Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said we are His offspring. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world” (Acts 17:27-31).
The love the Lord feels towards His Church is portrayed in this portion of the dream. Here it is easy to envision the Lord longing to reach out to us to draw us away from the dangers surrounding us. His desire is to keep us close so that in Him we live and move and have our being. As we abide in His love covenant, He will write His laws on our hearts, we will not fall foul to the deceptions which threaten to take the life away from us like the cold water in the dream. In the book of Amos, God offers His children salvation from judgment when he said, seek ye me, and ye shall live (Amos 5:14). Therefore, the way to be saved from the deception which is coming on the whole earth is to “seek,” the Lord with all our heart. The word seek is so important that it appears four times in the book of Amos pointing us to the Lord. As we seek Jesus and His Spirit whom we received when we believed He will reveal His word to us. For it is written, “you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you remain in Him” (1 John 2:27).
Christians who hear the word will have the light and will not be in darkness so that the Day of the Lord will not overcome them like a thief (1 Thess. 5:4).
By seeking the Lord to hear the truth while hating evil (lies) the prophet Amos encourages us that the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious to us as He was towards the remnant in Israel (Amos 5:15). Even when the Israelites were dispersed among the nations there remained Jews living in Israel and similarly even after a great falling away into apostacy within the church there will be a remnant faithful Church.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord rises upon you. For behold, the darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen over you “(Isaiah 60:2)
Before the children of Israel went into captivity the Lord promised to bring them back when He said, “I will again plant you in your land where you shall no longer be pulled up, from the land I have given you” (Amos 9:14-15). Similarly, the church, early in her history fell away from the purity of the gospel where she was planted, by Jesus and the apostles and lost the full the power and authority of the gospel. Where, the early church had the glory of God over them and demonstrated the kingdom of God with signs, wonders and miracles. However, just as Israel has been restored to her own land, God will use this time of trial to restore His true and faithful people to the fullness of their glory in Christ Jesus. The apostle Paul encourages us with this truth when he said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18-19).The Lord says that “on that day I will raise up the Tabernacle of David which has fallen and repair her damages; I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old” (Amos 9:11). This time of judgment on the church will produce a redeemed remnant who will be a holy nation of God’s special people, who will rise out of the deception (darkness) into His light to become His glorious church (1 Peter 2:9).
Seek Him that makes the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into morning, and maketh the day dark with night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out on the face of the earth (Amos 5:8).
Jude reminds us of God’s past dealings with unbelieving Israel, “the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 1:5). As the day of judgment approaches, and deceptions come in like a flood to cover the whole earth, Christians should not be caught off guard. The challenge is great but so is our God who will keep us when we seek Him, as He will turn the impending darkness shadow of death (darkness) into an illumination of light (morning) for those who seek Him, while those in the church who refuse Him will find their light (day) turned to darkness.
Additional revelation from the book of Amos
As we approach these “latter days” the prophet Amos gives us further insights into the times we are living in when he tells us, “The Lord of hosts, He touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell there mourn (Amos 9:5). As we are facing unprecedented global warming and future challengers, we can be assured that as we seek the Lord and cry out to Him our life will be protected in Him.