THE THREE STORMS
THE THREE STORMS
Sunday, October 9, 2016, the Year of Our Lord
HABAKKUK 3: 4-15
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
“You Did March Through the Land”
Friday night I saw scripture written out in a dream. The scripture was set in scenery of dark skies, thunder, lightning, mountains, and large waves pounding the shore line.
I could read the scripture in the dream. However, it is not quiet that clear today. I believe it was a vision of Habakkuk 3: 4-15.
Even though I saw the vision of the night and could read the scripture, I am still piecing all of this together as I write these sermon notes. I have been preaching these same verses intermittently since August.
We had three storms hit our nation in the past three days:
- Matthew (gift of Jehovah).
- Derogatory video of Donald J. Trump.
- Wikileaks dumped 2000 of Hillary’s missing emails.
Wednesday night at prayer I gave a Word that the storm called Matthew was likened unto the Gospel of Matthew. The Holy Spirit was blowing through with His wind. When the storm turned in the Atlantic Ocean, there would be a turn in our nation. I felt in my understanding the turning would be for good and not for evil. However, in the midst of the storms, it is by faith we believe we will see the good when the storm turns.
I am convinced the United States is under a visitation.
Last Sunday I gave a prophecy that the King was in the house. The Gospel of Matthew reveals Jesus Christ as King. It is the time of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles which is a time of the appearing of Jesus as King of Kings.
Hab. 3:3-11: “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. His brightness was as the light. He had horns coming out of His hand; and there was the hiding of His power. Before Him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet. He stood, and measured the earth. He beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow. His ways are everlasting…Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? Was Your anger against the rivers? Was Your wrath against the sea that You did ride upon Your horses and Your chariots of salvation…The mountains saw You, and they trembled. The overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered its voice, and lifted up its hands on high…You did march through the land in indignation…”
These verses magnify Jesus’ progressive and complete victory over all enemies as the Word of God (3:4-6); the Will of God (3:7-9), and the Water of God (3:10-12). The Lord alone can fight America’s battles, having won the conflict of the ages.
David, Judah’s greatest giant killer learned the secret of military strategy. He sat under a simple, single tent (the tabernacle of David and sang to God (2 Sam. 6). Once established in worship, David’s authority (throne) was confirmed by the covenant through Nathan the prophet (2 Sam. 7). While the sweet psalmist ministered to the Lord, Jehovah went out and defeated all his enemies (2 Sam. 8).
The picture is clear. Jesus defeated the devil from cradle to coronation. Satan and his crowd seem to be in charge in America, but the day has come for true patriots to arise and enforce the devil’s demise.
If I had any television time this past week, I was intensely watching the storm. I didn’t know until Friday evening that two other storms were upon us. The storm, Matthew, was what the Holy Spirit revealed on Wednesday evening. So that was what I was focused on as a watchman.
Isa. 28:2: “Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.”
Isaiah is here prophesying of the demise of wicked politicians upon his own time as well as the glance of his prophetic eye over the entire world and into the far distant future. God’s word and way is unchanging through time.
The Assyrian army was to come upon Ephraim and Samaria in the metaphor of a three-fold storm: a hail storm; a destroying storm (a cyclone); and like a mighty flood, leaving the country barren as a fading flower, when it is cut down.
Prov. 10:25: “When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation.”
Habakkuk’s song encompasses the whole human family, “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran…”
The triumphant procession is continual through time and eternity.
America is in trouble. Our leaders and people are in confusion.
“Before Him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet.”
These verses set forth a full display of the glorious might of the King of Glory, Jesus Christ. The word for “pestilence” in Habakkuk 3:5 carries the idea of destruction. Its root meant “to subdue.” God is rising within His people as he marches across this land. Empowered with the name of Jesus, the Church is a sleeping giant who has begun to rouse. All unrighteousness is going to come under the subjugation of God’s Kingdom.
You might ask, if all unrighteousness is removed from our government and nation, what will be left?
There will be the separation of the tares and wheat.
Matthew 13:38: “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 power of prayer kept the storm, Matthew in the Atlantic Ocean. The power of prayer will turn the present political storms in our nation.
Through fasting and prayer, we can thwart the plots of Satan to destroy our nation, the Church and God’s people.
Hab. 3:7: “I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.”
Cushan and the curtains of Midian speak of Jesus’ victory over the flesh. The word of “affliction” means “to pant, to exert oneself in vain.” The word for “tremble” means to quiver with violent emotion, especially anger or fear.” What a description of the present chaos of all branches of the present government in the United States.
“Midian” means “strife, contention, quarreling (what flesh is all about).” The strife in Washington, the media, our courts, schools homes, and cities. All strife finds its roots in the human heart.
Jesus is Heaven’s Arbiter. He makes strife and chaos shake in its boots. Fully God and fully man, He brought reconciliation by arbitration.
Heb. 6:16: NIV “Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all strife.”
Jesus’ word became law, the law of the Spirit of life. God could swear by no greater, so He swore by Himself.
Matthew 5:18: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
Jesus Christ is our peace. The Prince of Peace became the King of Peace (Is. 9:6-7).
There will never be peace in America’s streets until there is peace in the hearts of its people. Then “strife” will be afraid to speak or act.
Hab. 3:8: “Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? Was Your anger against the rivers? Was your wrath against the sea that you did ride upon Your horses and Your chariots of salvation?
The economy, immorality, violence and storms are flooding America. Our cities are racked with violence. Three policemen were shot in California yesterday. Our election system has been taken over by political crooks. Our Oceans, rivers and lakes are flooding our cities.
Our founding fathers entered into a covenant with God. The earliest documents, such as the Mayflower Compact, made it abundantly clear that the first Americans were Christians. They made a covenant with the Lord for our nation. As a nation, we must repent and renew covenant with the One who is the Will of God.
This past Tuesday, we studied the covenant of Shechem, made by Joshua and the Israelites: 24:14-15: “Therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve the Lord. If it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
America has broken covenant with the Lord. Our leaders have been seduced away from the Bible and the constitution. Our Maker and Husband wants to be jealous for this nation again.
Habakkuk then sings about the “chariots of salvation.” The psalmist describes the throne-chariot of the Lord going forth in great power. The metaphor of the “chariot” has one primary thought victory (2 Ki. 6:17). Jesus is not going to win---He won! What can we do? Nothing. Doesn’t He need our Help? No. We must rest in the day of trouble. How? By letting the Lord teach us how to sing when there is no visible evidence of Him anywhere. We can then sing with Habakkuk as a testimony to real faith.
Whether there is disease in the body, trouble in your marriage, your ministry, your church, your business…everything has to be healed from the inside out. This generation is going to die of old age in the counseling chambers. Each of us must get on the watchtower until we see the victory of the Lord for ourselves. Get in His chariot, and He will carry you through.
The Lord comes on the chariot of the clouds and the wind. He is the Driver: mighty, resolved in purpose.
Hab. 3:10: “The mountains saw You, and they trembled; the overflowing of the water passed by; the deep utters his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.”
The “mountains” are the kingdoms that men have built, “tremble,” or “writhe in pain.” Has America begun to fear the Lord? Is our nation travailing before God?
The overflowing of the water is a sign of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Let it be Lord. Let it be. God’s purpose is clear: to water the earth, to send His Word and His Holy Spirit to the nations. The might and power of man cannot compare with the might and power of the Spirit. An unprecedented outpouring of the Holy Spirit throughout the nations is bringing tremors and earthquakes to every political system.
The Word which came forth Wednesday night was that the Spirit of God was moving in the storm.
Hab. 3:12: “You did march through the land in indignation. You did thresh the heathen in anger.”
The prophet sums up this section by telling us again what the Lord did when he came from Teman. As a man, Jesus defeated the devil. He threshed the “heathen in anger,” overcoming death, hell, and the grave. Then he ascended passing through the heavens on the way to His coronation. Jesus strode through the earth, defeating sin, sickness, poverty, and death. Then he mounted upward, passing through the heavens to ascend the throne.
The word for “anger” in Habakkuk 3:12 is the same as verse 8, speaking of the Lord’s “passion.” It describes His avenging wrath. Majestically, the Lord marches through America on a corrective expedition, to expose and discipline those opposing His Church.
The word for “indignation” in verse 12 has the thought of the Lord’s anger “boiling up.” There are a lot of things that are cooking in this nation. The pot is boiling and the fire is hot. Jehovah is threshing and trampling. Church arise and ride with Jesus to the finish line.
Hab. 3:13: “…You wounded the head of the house of the wicked by stepping on the foundation of the neck.”
Hab. 3:15: “You walked through the sea with your horses through the heap of great waters.”
The procession has ended. The King now sits enthroned triumphant over all enemies.
There is no limitation to His power, and His mercy is past finding out. Habakkuk climbed the mountain of faith and trust.
The Lord shall ride through the heap of great waters, through the wildest and stormiest waves of persecution and bloodshed threatening to over-whelm and swallow His people. The Church triumphant is alive and well.
The prophetic Church has seen the Lord. We do see the Lord and His appearing in our midst.
Thank you Jesus for giving me the vision of the storms, your Word on the storms and your assurance you are in the midst of the storms.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. Vision was given to Carolyn Sissom, 10/7/16. Comments and conclusions are my own. I entered into the labors of Rest in the Day of Trouble by: Rev. Kelly Varner (1949-2009).