"I WILL WORK A WORK IN YOUR DAY"
“I WILL WORK A WORK IN YOUR DAY”
(Hab. 1:5 – Acts 13:40-41)
Sunday, September 3, 2016, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Behind the scenes, in the unseen realm of the Spirit, things are happening. Get ready, America! God is going to do something in our lifetime, in our generation, that we will have to see too believe. The apostle Paul used the words of the Prophet Habakkuk to proclaim the finished work of Jesus Christ, especially His resurrection from the dead (Acts 13:30):
Acts 13: 40-41: “Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.”
Habakkuk had the burden of the Lord. A burden of the Lord is put on us by the Lord and we are to travail in prayer until God answers.
Amos 3:7: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he reveals His secret unto His servants the prophets.”
The Lord answered Habakkuk 1:5: “Behold you among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously; for I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe, though it is told to you.”
God desires to write His word on the tables of every man’s heart. His ways and His thoughts are always higher than ours. He is always able to go beyond what we are able to ask or think. (Isa. 55: 8-9; Mt. 19:26: Eph. 3:20)
“With God all things are possible.”
When men try to solve a spiritual problem with a natural solution, they soon learn that the remedy God gives brings even further perplexity than their contrived plan.
The goals that men now seek after are dominated by the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. No expense is spared in this pursuit of death. It doesn’t matter if others are hurt along the way. Humanism and hedonism mark the minds and bodies of our youth on college campuses and no one dare interfere. Hedonism is the belief that pleasure and self-indulgence is the most import pursuit of life. Parents now fear their children. They fear discipline of their children for fear they will do something terrible or should I say worse than they are doing.
There is a new tongue or language among young people and young adults. They are “hasty,” hurrying themselves onward, impetuously rushing on, never resting until their goal---the satisfaction of the flesh is reached.
Christians we are to pray for this generation. You who have “overcome many battles”, must pray and intercede for a generation of whom many of them are Bible illiterate; they have never experienced prayer in school; have no sense that abortion is murder; do not have a clue about the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman; their parents are addicts to pornography, drugs, alcohol; and the Holy Bible is never read in the home.
Deut. 28:49: “The Lord shall bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies; a nation whose tongue you shall not understand.”
The purpose of the invaders is to perpetuate violence in the land.
Hab. 1:8: ‘Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that pounce upon their prey.”
These are evening wolves. They roam throughout the strata of society. These false prophets and false words prey upon the innocent. These judges do not spare, being without mercy. Evening wolves graphically picture the gangs in our cities and the Islamic terrorists.
The voice of God is shaking our nation week after week. Storms on the east and west coasts as well as the heart land; earthquake in Oklahoma; wars and rumors of wars; global warming agreement with China---we haven’t yet heard what we gave away to get China to sign that agreement or what it cost us financially.
Habakkuk 1:15 describes our present politicians in the three branches of government:
“They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag; therefore they rejoice and are glad.”
When relationships and agreements are begun for political reasons, there’s always an angle, a hook. The "angle” was a smaller net cast by hand and the “drag” a larger one weighted to sink to the bottom and drug to the boat or the shore.
Americans are being raked, caught, and swept away in a net weighted by the media and political bureaucracy.
Hab. 1:16-17: “They sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; these are the gods who make us rich, they’ll say. Shall they keep on emptying their net, destroying nations without mercy?” (Paraphrased KJV and NIV)
This is the evil of the present political powers and principalities of our nation. It seems no one cares. Lawlessness abounds and the people are not demanding that the politicians be brought to justice.
Shall these cruel wolves and leopards keep on emptying their net after having made another rich catch?
Habakkuk was a seer. His vision took place in the realm of the Spirit. Futility and frustration come when men attempt to solve spiritual problems with natural answers. Frustration is a spirit. We must see things from God’s point of view, from the perspective of eternity, not the earth. There was no vision until the prophet moved to the higher level (realm of the Spirit) transcending his present circumstances.
Hab. 2:1: “I will stand upon my watch, and set upon my tower. I will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.”
This is the place of personal prayer. We each must stand on our own watch. Habakkuk had to pray in his day for his nation and we in ours for America.
God is calling this nation to prayer. There was a powerful prayer movement in the late 90’s that ushered in George W. Bush as President. But the prayer movements became small kingdoms of ministries seeking name, fame, and pre-eminence. The prayers lost their power and we watched as George W. Bush, like so many before him, came short of the call and commission on his office. The Lord spoke to me in 2000, that He would require greatness from George W. Bush. We don’t how history will judge him, but it only matters how heaven has and will judge him.
We are all accountable for our gifts and callings. We are all accountable to stand on our watch with no agenda except to serve the Lord in our time for his Kingdom purposes. Do you have a watch, and what are you watching? Change channels…watch with the eyes of your Spirit, not the eyes of your flesh.
As the door, Jesus Christ is the only valid entry into the dimension of the supernatural. In His name, and through His Blood, we can talk to God and make our petitions known.
The phrase “unto me” in Habakkuk 2:1 is literally “in me.” Habakkuk would see what the Lord would say “in” him!
Hab. 2:20: “For the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
Jesus Christ lives and speaks in the hearts of men/women!
The prophet had a made-up mind. He “set” or planted himself firmly before the Lord in prayer and did not move until he heard from Heaven. He wasn’t trying to get a word that he could make a name for himself as a prophet. NO! This was between Habakkuk and God. Few are willing to offer themselves this way in intercession. Habakkuk was a lonely sentinel in the day of trouble. He continued in the posture of humility until the heavens opened. We must pray for our people and our nation. We must pray until we see the Lord.
Today we have groups who are gathering to pray all over this nation for no agenda but to seek the Lord to hear his Word, for the soul of our nation and His leadership over it through his civil servants. We also have those who are gathering to pray to gather a following.
2 Chron. 7:14: “If My people who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
The “tower” in Habakkuk 2:1 speaks of that which is strong, firm, and reliable
Prov. 18:10: “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run into it, and are safe.”
W can stand on the solid Rock, Christ Jesus, the Word of God. Also, the Constitution of our great nation “towers” over the landmark decisions of the spirit of antichrist. We must return to the basic freedoms that our fathers died for. Let us call America back to its Christian roots. We must re-establish fences (borders), or limits---we used to call them values and civil laws.
The word for “will watch” in Habakkuk 2:1 is most descriptive. It means “to lean forward, to peer into the distance; to observe, to wait.” Habakkuk was a “watchman.” A watchtower was an observation tower upon which a guard or lookout was stationed to keep watch, an elevated structure offering an extensive view. From that vantage point, the watchman could lift up his eyes. Habakkuk took his station in prayer like a servant awaiting the word of his master.
Here is the key to understanding this ancient prophecy and the answer to our present national situation. Men must transcend a time-space world and enter the dimension of eternal spirit, the throne room of the living God! We must peer off into the distance until we, like our Heavenly Father, can see the end from the beginning. Until we receive a vision of the “bigger picture,” we will worry over the economy, immorality, and violence. We must ascend the hill of the Lord. We must climb Jacob’s ladder. We must rise above the sob of an order that is passing away. We must wait upon the Lord until we are “reproved,” literally, “chastised or corrected.” This word comes from a root which means “to be right.” Everybody can’t be right. Who’s right? He is! Who shall stand when He appears? He will!
Hab. 2:2: “The Lord answered me, and said, write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.”
What comfort! What relief! When we call, the Lord will answer! He wants to “write” His words upon our hearts. We are to be His letter, His epistle, until all men subscribe to His voice (2 Cor. 5: 17-21).
The word for “vision” means “a sight, dream, revelation, or oracle.” Is your dream His dream? Your vision His vision? Your pleasure His pleasure? Your will His will? The American people and the American Church have set their sights on other things. Many have succumbed to the “angle” and the “net” of those who use international corruption to line their pockets.
Every pastor and leader must continually ask our selves this question. “Have I stayed true to the original vision?” Or have other voices seduced me away from the simplicity, the singleness that is in Christ? I will tell you that I ask myself this question almost daily.
Every leader in our nation’s capital must search his/her heart. The Lord told me a few years ago when I was in D.C. that I couldn’t trust any branch of our government.
2 Cor. 3:3: “They can see that you are a letter from Christ, written by us. It is not a letter written with pen and ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not one carved on stone, but in human hearts.” (TLB)
Our only hope as a nation and a people is that somebody is watching and praying until God’s purposes are made “plain.” When God speaks everything is made plain. He speaks on His turf and in His time.
“That he may run that reads it,”---Americans are a mobile generation always running and moving about. May we become a mobile people who run with the vision and Word of Jesus Christ.
Hab. 2:3: “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
The writer to the Hebrews quotes this verse. Moving from the Old to the New Testament, we discover that the “vision” is a person! Habakkuk saw the Lord! His sob became a song because he saw Jesus.
Heb. 10:37: “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”
The “it” becomes a “He”. Everyone is waiting in his own way for “it” to happen. The nation waits for a new president with a new policy package. The Church for some new revelation, maybe “it” will give us light on the coming of the Lord; or the signs of the times. We must be delivered from this futility. “It” was not the answer for Judah and is not the answer for America. “He” is the answer and His name is Jesus! While men wait for “it” to happen, or for some leader to do “it,” or the next powerful Elijah to roll through town, “He” is here!
The five things that Habakkuk said about the vision (‘it) are true of “Him.”
- It was yet for an appointed time.
- It would speak at the end.
- It would not lie.
- It would tarry.
- It would surely come.
Habakkuk saw something greater than Judah, more powerful than the Chaldeans, bigger than America’s problems, Habakkuk saw Jesus, the Word made flesh. What he saw became a song about the Lord and His ultimate victory over all His enemies.
Jesus is Savior in the Feast of Passover and had victory over all of his enemies.
Jesus is the Holy Spirit in the Feast of Pentecost and baptizes men with the Holy Ghost.
Jesus is King and Lord in the Feast of Tabernacles, harvesting the earth and filling the earth with His glory.
Secondly, Jesus Christ would “speak” at the “end.” Jesus is the Word. He is the sum total of all that God has spoken to man.
We will start here next week.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Rest in the Day of Trouble by: Kelly Varner (1949-2009). Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Rev. Varner.