Preparing for the Midnight Hour (Part 5): Turning to the Voice

[Spanish | Creole | French]

Welcome RN Readers to Part 5 of the Preparing for the Midnight Hour series!  Today, in Part 5 “Turning to the Voice” our Prophet Shyju Mathew teaches us three key verses to keep us from sliding down the steep slope of familiarity with God.  If you haven’t had opportunity to read the previous blogs of this series, here is Part One: Building for Revival, Part Two: Jesus Lovers: Charged with Consistency, Part Three: Carried by the Spirit and Part 4: Living by Royal Standards. Please don’t forget to share this powerful series with your loved ones!

Revelation 1: 10 to 12.
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And on turning, I saw seven golden lamp stands…

Have you ever been so surprised by something in the distance, that you stopped everything and drew near to see?

Friend, you are in good company! 

Moses saw a great sight from a distance, a burning bush which would not quit burning! He turned aside to see this phenomena. When that prince-turned-shepherd took a step closer, God Almighty began to reveal Himself to Moses.

When you desire the light of God, you may think it was your great idea to grow closer to God, but it was the Lord Who has been drawing you to Him!We cannot love God on our own. Our flesh is not capable of loving God, for it is always fighting against the things of God. If you see that the Lord is drawing you, rejoice, for our love does not belong to us; that love is a gift from Above!The Bible says we love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). It is critical we do not become familiar with this great grace which we have been given.Consider Moses, who encountered God in this bush, yet did not stop his pursuit of God there.  Many times he sought to have multiple encounters with the Lord. With this hunger, God began to use Moses in a mighty profound way.

In all of Old Testament, there’s no one who was used as powerfully as Moses, yet even after splitting the Red Sea, after all those extraordinary, supernatural miracles in Egypt, this same Moses cried out to God, “God, show me your ways » and  “Lord, show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18).

The people whom Moses led experienced the same Presence of God in cloud and fire, saw with their own eyes, mighty signs and wonders with the deliverance of God after 430 years of slavery, but these same people wanted only a God they could see.

When Moses ascended to meet with God on the mountaintop, and the people didn’t see him for some time, they began to talk against Moses. Soon, they were ready to walk away and return to Egypt. They rebelled in the worst of ways.

The crowd went to up to Aaron the High Priest and said, ‘Look, we don’t know if he’s coming back. We want a god.” So Aaron devised a golden calf that they could worship.

People of God, don’t allow distance to make you forget the goodness of our Lord and don’t allow familiarity take you away from the Presence of the Lord.

Familiarity will deafen your ears to His Voice, cause you listen to a different voice, whose only agenda is to take you away from His Presence.

We can’t stop pursuing the God who pursues us!  There is always more to encounter with our unlimited Living God!

Our Lord Jesus says, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away, like a branch that withers” John 15:5.  We must not allow familiarity to cause us to leave this place of abiding.

Here are three key verses to keep us from sliding down the steep slope of familiarity:

1. 1 John 2:15, says, “Do not love the things of the world”. The Bible says you are in the world, but not of the world, so you have to identify: What are the things that take you away from the Lord? Begin to eliminate these distractions and diversions.

2. Romans 12: 2 says,  “Do not be conformed to this world”. To be conformed means to comply with. Perhaps, in your life, there is a group of people that have been forcing a set of ways, manners, culture, and you start to follow. Before you know it,  you look like them, talk like them, behave like them. The culture of this world now has come inside you. This is a dangerous place to be. Do not become like them; they must become like you. 

3. 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers”, so do not partner with the world. There is a steep progression for a believer who gets lost: You start with loving the world. You start enjoying things in the world. Finally, you become like the world. You love it, you give into it and now you become slave to it. You begin to do things that cause you to be unequally yoked. Now you come under the same yoke. Now it becomes a partnership.

Friend, look into yourself and say, “Lord Jesus, I want to know you. I want to turn around. I want to get close to You, but first, help me deal with my desires. 

Consider carefully today:

What do I love?

Who is it that I love?

What is it that I am are most engaged with this week? (Hint: That is what you love.)

It is time for our generation to turn to the Lord, to truly look up to Him. It is time for revival to take over our churches. It is time for us as a Body to become passionately in love with Him and not just be believers by name.

Like Moses and Apostle John, turn to the Voice and become consumed with knowing God in a deeper way than ever before!

Don’t let one encounter with God satisfy your soul!  Go up the mountain, again and again, and like Moses, cry out to know His ways, that you would then know His Glory!

For this full sermon, head to Revive Nations Youtube channel, to enjoy it in:

English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yahKtYs2xY
Spanish:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S28OjAgFtxY
French:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4MmviTakK8
Punjabi:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rr3e44qluc
Malayalam:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nbowuiLwe0
Italian:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA1aTSTzXRM
Hindi:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVGD_q36c9I

God bless you and stay under the Mighty Hand of our Loving God!