“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! ⁵ You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” Deuteronomy 6:4-7 (NASB)

In prayer I asked where to read. The Spirit said Habakkuk 6. I was not sure at first, there was no verse? I prayed. Finding this location I saw there were three 6’s, one in each of the three chapters? Coincidence of course; or am I seeing man versus God?

In Chapter 1:6 the Chaldean’s are being raised up by God against Israel.

“For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous people who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs. ⁷ They are dreaded and feared; their justice and authority originate with themselves.”

Is God doing this again?

In Chapter 2:6, “Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him, even mockery and insinuations against him and say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his— For how long— And makes himself rich with loans?” Habakkuk 2:6 (NASB)

Who is “him?” I found verse 4. “Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith. ⁵ Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man, so that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself all nations and collects to himself all peoples.”

I love our country. Can we see ourselves as our nation has become? Did we become proud? Is our nation’s soul “right?” Have the intoxicating things of our society betrayed us? Have we left the home and security of our Godly heritage and His Ways as a nation? Is there any satisfying that addiction to our own thinking and our own wisdom? Is the global “way” leading us to draw nations that do not share our once dearly revered Ways?

Do these peoples we draw in our weakened state (verse 2:6) take up taunting-songs against America, mocking this nation which has renounced its Christian strength? Has not our leadership rebuked our nation to others saying  “Woe to him (America) who increases what is not his— For how long— And makes himself rich with loans?”

Most of you reading this love America as it once was! Many in the world are wondering how this could have happened. Our reluctance to see her as she has become is with a sigh and a groan. That may save us personally on the day that counts.

Chapter 3:6 God surveyed. “He stood and surveyed the earth; He looked and startled the nations. Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered, the ancient hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting.” Habakkuk 3:6 (NASB)

“His Ways are everlasting!”

In my spirit a thought came. “Speak to the mountain be though removed. Whether it is doctrines or policies, people or places, God is shaking what can be shaken.”

Yes our loving God is moving against the mountains immovable. That which He sees as a hindrance to His will shall be shattered as far as we are concerned. Ancient high places of doctrine and understanding shall collapse as far as we are concerned. Why, because they no longer apply or have been distorted from being His Ways. “His ways are everlasting.” His Ways are to forever be our ways. If they are not, we shall dislodge ourselves from Him, from Jesus, and God forbid from the Holy Spirit who has been sent to guide us into “all truth.”

“Nothing shall separate us from the love of God.” (Romans 8:39 NASB) This is not about Him not loving us. It is, however, about us not loving Him! “If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15 (KJV) Again, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10 (KJV)

“If, “ is a qualifier.  “If” we do not keep His commandments, we do not love Him, we also do not abide in His love. We are not living and loving others in life the Way He has loved us, according to the Father’s commandments. This is one of those collapsing mountains! Yes we actually must love others the Way He loved us in order to not fall away with the shaking that is to come.

Each of us knows we too shall be shaken. God shakes all to find out all.

The last of chapter 2:4 came to mind. “But the righteous will live by his faith.”  Habakkuk 2:4 (NASB)

The book of Habakkuk has severe words of rebuke in it. In chapter 3:3 he is inspired to write,

“ I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us. Habakkuk 3:16 (NASB)

Habakkuk then says (I paraphrase) No matter what,  “Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. ¹⁹ The Lord GOD is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places…”  Habakkuk 3:18-19 (NASB)

“But the righteous will live by his faith.” His high places of righteousness must become ours!

Shall we seek God’s high places and be prepared to endure “no matter what?” Does any of this sound like today’s conditions? Can we explain our nation’s departure from righteousness by anything less than our elective will? What was unacceptable then is un-acceptable now. God can and will use our enemies as tools to get our attention.

My calling is to warn, appeal, teach and beg if necessary, for our return to the “ancient ways.” (Jeremiah 6:16 NASB)  I am to point to the restoration of “all things” those things embodied in the righteousness of our Holy God, His commandments through Christ. A loving God has made Himself known to us through Jesus the Christ. Is there any rejecting Him? Is there any rejecting the Christ of our salvation and specifically His Ways; the Ways of God?  The Lord our God the Lord is One!

Our defense in these days is to choose Him in anything where choice indicates allegiance to God and His righteousness. The national election at hand will go the way God wants it to go. Shall the enemies of God rise up as a rebuke against the whole nation, the rain falling on the just and the un-just? “They are dreaded and feared; their justice and authority originate with themselves.” Habakkuk 1:7 (NASB)

Maybe we (yes me too) should vote as if our personal salvation depended on it. Shall we choose God’s help or the help of others? (See Ahaz, and his story, Isaiah 7:1-14 KJV)

Let us not vote according to our flesh and the desire to see our enemies get theirs! Let us vote for the Godly and God will take care of our enemies!

Remember the verse 1:6. God allowed it then He can allow it now for the same reasons.  His word warned us. A sifting, a shaking is taking place world-wide and He is just getting started!

The Prophet trembled at what he knew was coming. Do we not know what is coming; whether soon or not? Do we run from our trembling? Are we not living in days of distress already? Can we not know it will get worse? Are we seeing birth pangs brought on by the birthing of the Millennial reign of the Son of Man? Are we able to anticipate the joy in the midst of the pain which that birth requires?

Our choices determine our personal stand in God’s observation. “The righteous shall live be faith.” The un-righteous will die by theirs. Oh yes, they believe they are right, “their justice and authority originate with themselves.”

Blessed be the name of the Lord. His name means Salvation!

It is clear this world is in the throws of upheaval. God will give us hind’s feet to walk on the high places of his righteousness if we will be obedient to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.

Once we set our minds and hearts to this, we can be joyful in the promises of our loving heavenly Father. The obedience, grace and intercession we learned from Jesus will insure our resurrected life, just as it did for Him.

“If we remain in His grip, how far from His heart can we be!”

In the guardianship of Christ,

Michael

    Exit Strategy

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