Prepare Ye the Way
Back on March 3rd 2019 I made a Restoration Video entitled, A House Divided. In the video I shared a word from the Lord that He placed on my heart just prior to New Year's Day 2019. I said that God had placed on my heart that He was going to baptize America with the Holy Ghost and fire. The context was that America was deeply divided at that time, and using the Scriptures from Matthew chapter three and Matthew chapter thirteen, that God was going to separate the wheat from the chaff (Matthew chapter three) and the wheat from the tares (Matthew chapter thirteen).
Because the Lord placed it upon my heart just prior to 2019, I believed the word was going to begin in 2019 and increase in intensity thereafter. That was my misunderstanding. What I was sensing for 2019 actually began to happen in 2020. It has been intensifying increasingly ever since, to where we are now. Let me get into the Scriptures of Matthew chapters three and thirteen and then tie it into what has happened since 2020 to where we are now. In the midst of what appears to be bleak and disconcerting actually is quite hopeful if we keep our focus on what the Lord is doing.
In chapter 3:1-3 of Matthew's Gospel, he records, “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, 'Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias (Isaiah), saying, 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.'”
Later in the same chapter, the Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees came to see John the Baptist as he was baptizing people in the Jordan River. When John the Baptist saw them, he had this to say:
“And now also the ax is laid to the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. Whose fan (winnowing shovel) is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Matthew 3:10-12 KJV
Now let us look at the parable of the wheat and the tares that Jesus teaches His disciples in Matthew 13:24-30, and Jesus explanation of the parable 13:37-40.
Matthew 13:24-30, “Another parable put He forth unto them saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, there appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.'”
Matthew 13:37-40, “He answered and said unto them, 'He that soweth good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world (age); and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be at the end of the world (age).'”
In both of what John the Baptist said about Jesus baptizing with the Holy Ghost and fire, and the parable Jesus spoke of regarding the wheat and the tares, the thing the Lord was impressing upon my heart was that the common denominator was the separation, or the division of the wheat and the chaff, and the wheat and the tares. I was being impressed with how everyone in our nation is so distressed over the deep division that has been happening in America, including within the American Christian Church. The divide since 2019, and especially since 2020 has been getting deeper and wider. However, in both passages of Scripture in which the division/separation occurs, it is God that is causing the division. God is dividing what is truth and what is false.
When John the Baptist was speaking of Jesus baptizing with the Holy Ghost and fire, he was speaking of a purification and purging between the wheat and the chaff. Wheat was used to make baked goods to eat. The wheat had substance and was used for sustenance. It was for strength and nourishment. Chaff that was sometimes within the wheat was separated from the wheat with the winnowing fork on a threshing floor. Chaff was useless. It was of no value. Therefore it was burned up. Wheat had the true substance to bring strength and nourishment. Chaff was the false that was useless.
In parable of the wheat and the tares, there is separation. Once again, the wheat was the true children of the kingdom which the Son of Man, Jesus planted. The tares were the false children planted by the devil. When the wheat and tares are growing together, the tares look like the wheat. That is why as they grew, the tares could not be separated at first, because they looked so much like the wheat, and in the separation the wheat could be harmed. It was when the wheat and the tares were fully developed that the tares and the wheat could be divided/separated. The true from the false.
Since 2020, when Covid rampaged our nation, the George Floyd incident that sparked not only legitimate protests, but violent riots as well, increasing violence in our nation, we have also been witnessing unprecedented exposure of corruption and evil at every level in every influential institution of our nation. Corruption of the deepest levels of government, Federal, State and local, in churches and ministries throughout the land, academia, the justice system, news media, entertainment, and on and on. This has been the baptism of America by Jesus with the Holy Ghost and fire. The process of purging and purification. This has been the processing of dividing the truth from the false. As hard as it, and as bad as it looks, this is a good thing. It is a good thing, because truth makes us free. Truly free. Not a freedom of doing whatever we want, however we want, whenever we want. It's a freedom that brings true peace and freedom in our soul. Light dispells darkness. Darkness cannot put out light. Light always puts out darkness. The only way darkness can prevail is if we allow our light to go out.
As the purging and purification process continues, truth will come forth greater and more powerful than ever before. A revival in our nation and around the world will soon explode in such magnitude, we cannot even begin to comprehend it. The Kingdom of God will expand like never before in history. Some will claim it to be the last day or end time harvest. I believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I believe in the final Resurrection Day. However, Jesus told His disciples, which applies to us today, when asked if the kingdom would be restored to Israel at that time, Jesus responded, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And ye shall be My witnesses...”
Jesus was clearly telling His disciples that the focus should not be on whether we are in the last days or whatever. Our focus is to be HIS witnesses. The only way we can be His witnesses, which is another way of saying, we need to be the proof and the evidence of who Jesus is and claims to be. We need to be the proof and evidence that Jesus truly resurrected from the dead and is alive. The only way we can be His proof and evidence is to be so Christ and Kingdom centric by saturating ourselves in His Word and spending copious amounts of time in His Presence. The Holy Spirit can only transform us to the degree of the amount of time we spend in His Word and in His Presence.
One last thing. Jesus also said that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church. The gates of a city in that culture was essentially the strength of the city. If army could not penetrate the gates due to the strength of the gates, they would fail to prevail against the city. Jesus was saying that the very strength of hell could not and will not prevail against His Church. Since Jesus said it, we can take that to the bank. It is up to us, by His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit to prove it. To prove it, we need to prepare the way of the Lord in our lives and yield to Him to make our paths straight like never before.
Love and God bless, Pastor Paul.