The Punk, the Prostitute, and the Prisoner
"But this is a people robbed and plundered, all of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses; They are for a prey, and no one delivers, for plunder, and no one says, "RESTORE!" Who among you will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? (Isaiah 42:22&23)
I am tired of words says the Lord. I grow weary of the prophets who prophecy and yet still my children wander and die in the streets like dogs. I am weary of your crying out to me day and night and yet you do nothing for the widow and the orphan, and even that good you do is done in guilt and shame. I am weary that none grieve for their own flesh that perishes and cries from the city streets. My Spirit is grieved. He that was sent to comfort, and yet multitudes lie wasted and desperate, comfortless and lost. Freely you have received, but grudgingly you give so that it may be given back to you again. Have you so quickly forgotten the grace that rescued you? Have you so quickly forgotten your first love? I say to you in this hour, return to the first works. Visit Me in prison, sick in bed, take Me in when I am a stranger and lost, beaten and left for dead. Forget Me not when I am hungry and naked, destitute of daily food, let not the day come that I respond to your cries, "Depart from Me, I never knew you..."
I am tired of the words. I am weary with your cries day and night as the daughter of your people die starving in the alleys and streets. They pine away as you speak your words and prophecies. For I say to you in this hour, these words that draw the eyes of people to you, are not My words. They do not proceed from My Spirit. They are earthly, sensual, devilish. They do nothing to strengthen the arms of the fatherless, and set the orphan in homes. They distract my people from the task that I have commanded, '...To visit the orphan and the widow in their affliction, and to keep one's self unspotted from the world.' You speak things to be heard of men, and nothing that will save and liberate the homeless and the orphan that roam to and fro, angry at the people that call themselves by My name. I am ashamed says the Lord.
For I see a little girl, forsaken by her earthly father, forgotten by the one that gave her suck. She is dying, sighing, crying, and My people sleep, indifferent and cold. They have forgotten My heart, that suffered the little ones to come to Me, that stopped in the press for one blind man that cried out My Name. They have forgotten the stranger in the hedge that seeks the healing power to deliver her from her years of pain. You have forgotten your first love. My people play, as the world pays for their indifference. I say to you in this hour you will give an account for every idle word. Every idle hour spent upon your own pleasures as the children wandered in the wilderness of despair with no one to care for their souls. No one to bring the deliverance I paid for with My blood. I say to you in this hour, GET BROKEN! BROKEN FOR THE DAUGHTER OF YOUR PEOPLE THAT STARVE AND DIE. FOR THERE IS A FAMINE IN THIS LAND, NOT OF BREAD AND WATER, BUT OF HEARING THE HOPE OF JESUS, THE HOPE OF MY SON IN THE CITY STREETS AND HI-WAYS. I AM GRIEVED SAYS THE LORD, MY HEART IS SAD.
The revelation and the prophecy that will stand in eternity is that one that could save a child. That one that could bring a blind man the sight that he longed for since birth, his inheritance in Me. My servant Paul left you these words, but how quickly you have forgotten, "And I brethren when I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God, for I was determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God..." (1st Corinthians 2:1-5) How quickly My people have forgotten...
"Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your neighbor, "Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it," when you have it with you. (Proverbs 3:27-28) You have been marked by what you have received, now be marked by what you can give. Give away, and see if you will not have more than enough seed to sow than you can contain. You hold back, and even that little you refrain shall be taken from you. The only substance you will keep in this hour is that which you give away says the Lord. If you seek to save your life, you will surely lose it in this hour.
"If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but do not give them the things which are needed for the body, WHAT DOES IT PROFIT? Thus also faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by works, is dead." (James 2:15-17) My Church is dead as long as she speaks and then does nothing. If all she can do is prophecy, she is surely dead says the Lord. She is surely dead. "Therefore He says, 'Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, redeeming the time, for the days are evil...' (Ephesians 5:14-16) If you must prophecy, prophecy to the weak, that they can be strong, prophecy to the poor, that they can be rich because of what the Lord has done for them. For I am tired of your words. The cries of the children drowned out the cries of the prophets who prophecy their own heart while Mine is broken still for the orphan and the one who begs for bread, when I have given you so much. I have fed you with hidden manna, and yet you keep it hidden in your hearts, or for the places where you receive the most applause, while hell enlarges its mouth to receive the masses. If you must prophecy, prophecy to the bones of the children that lie decaying and brittle, wasted and washed out in your city streets, prophecy to them says the Lord, and see if I will not answer your words with the four winds of Heaven to set the captive free and bind up the broken heart of the daughter of Zion. See what I will do when you prophesy in this way says the Lord.
I will suffer this no longer. I will close the mouth of the prophet that speaks to his own gain. And in his place I will raise up the one in the dung hill to sit with princes. I will raise up Joseph from the pit to prophecy My heart says the Lord. I will suffer this no longer. For confusion will I send in the midst of those that prophesy for their own gain. Those that command the rain, "Come and go, come and go." I will close the mouth of these. I will surely close their mouth. Like Zechariah, their mouth will be silent, until they speak the words that I have ordained, the words that My heart have inspired, and not their own. A season of silence is coming. I will gag you until you have spit up the desires of your own will, and until you submit to the words of My mouth. I will gag you, and you will not speak in My name. See it this day that it is true, and will quickly come to pass.
"I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. 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) Take away from Me your prophecies that cause My people to be at ease in Zion, that cause My people to not grieve for the slain of the house of Israel. Take them away! Let justice for the fatherless, and righteousness for the widow be declared in the land says the Lord. And then I will hear your cry, "If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul; Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noon day..." (Isa.58:10)
"But whoever
has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts
up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in
Him?"
(1 John 17) Yes! Pure love, from the river of life will
proceed from My throne in this hour! It shall flow from your
bellies as a river of living water! They will know Me by the
love you have for one another! They will cry out, "Surely
God is in you, because God is love, and He must be in
you!" You will marked by the scars of My love says the
Lord. It will not be unusual to see one laying his life down
for his brother, a sister for her sister, a brother for his
sister, a sister for her brother. They will know you by the
Cross, they will know you by this kind of love. "Greater
love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friend..."
"For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." (Philippians 3:18-19) For many in this hour says the Lord, are enemies of the cross of Christ. They embrace the doctrine, but despise the sacrifice. They refuse to follow hard after me. They refuse to die. "They have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof." They refuse to 'take up their cross, deny themselves, and follow Me.' I will in this hour find those that will be a friend of the cross. I will search out in the hi-ways and bi-ways those hearts that are completely Mine, and I will strongly uphold them says the Lord. I will finance them when the world has forsaken them. I will be the lifter of their heads.
"Jesus said to them, 'Assuredly I say to you, that tax collectors and harlots enter the Kingdom of God before you..." (Matthew 21:31) The punk, the prostitute, and the prisoner, I will visit in this hour says the Lord. In that place will you witness revival. In that place you will see My face. For in the eyes of the broken boy you will see Me. In the eyes of a desperate girl you will see Me. I have chosen to hide Myself there. Come and find Me says the Lord, Come and find Me...
Chad Taylor
(8/3/99) email: chadtaylor@consumingfire.com
Lamentations 2:19