Embracing God's Vision: A Call to Renewal

Nice guy, praise God in the name of Jesus. I'm so very, very thankful. We had a great rally here on Friday, June 16th, with 70 people in the building. God has just been breaking through more and more since then. I still feel the lingering from that service, and Christelle got the Holy Ghost that Friday night. Praise God for that! [Applause] Amen! Taylor got it at the Touch the Future conference. Yes! [Applause] In Jesus' name.

So, all right, in Jesus' name, we want to give you a good send-off for the conference. Okay, all right, Habakkuk 2 and 3. Are you ready for that one? Check your index. Some pronounce it Habakkuk or Habakkuk, and he is a minor prophet in the Old Testament. First, dismissing your Sunday school now. Thank you, in Jesus' name. Mighty God, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.

All right, God, they have a new Bible. Don't laugh! Okay, go back to Habakkuk 2 and 3. I must confess the inspiration for this came from Reverend Evangelist Danny Sinclair, who preached the anniversary service Friday night in Daytona Beach. He is a worldwide evangelist and has seen, as he describes it verbatim, a couple of hundred thousand people come to the Lord. We're talking spirit and truth around the world for many, many decades. I just couldn't get away from it. He was talking about Habakkuk's vision, and the title of his message was "Revision." Mine's a little different, and I'm playing off that a little bit.

So let's look at 2 and 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."

Okay, just that one verse. There's another verse, and we don't have to go there right now, just to give you the gist of it, where Habakkuk is writing scripture, and God is telling him, "Write it in a table." Write it in actually tables, plural. Write it on tables, write it on tables, and write it plainly so that everyone can see. Write it with big letters, Habakkuk, okay? Plainly so everyone can see. All right? And so that he that readeth it will run.

Now, bear with me because we teach in Sunday morning. We teach it's a teaching session. We're live and on the air, right? Okay, now the word "run" there, I'm calling that a dual reference inscription, right? To this vision, and we'll go into what the vision is. Put it plainly, write it plainly on tables so that he that readeth it will run.

Do a reference: run in anticipation of the coming judgment of God, all right? And to run in this race called life and walk with God. Paul said to run that you may obtain, okay? And let it be a motivator for the promises of God. All right? Because even that judgment that was coming on Judah was a promise of God, was a prophetic utterance. Someone that reads that, that has spiritual discernment and sincerity and a desire to do God's will and follow the Lord, okay, would run out of the way of that and run towards it. It's a running away from and a running towards the promises of God, the goodness of God. All right? In Jesus' name, knowing that God's justice is going to be done, and that actually motivates me to draw closer to Him. Does that make sense? Dual reference? I think it does. Yeah, amen!

In Jesus' name, I'm titling this again, "Waiting on the Vision." Waiting is not an endless task of drudgery and frustration and confusion and wavering to do something that God has called me to do or to tolerate discouragement or confusion or distraction or whatever the case might be. But waiting in the Hebrew actually means entanglement. Entanglement means that, yes, you're anticipating something coming in the future that hasn't happened yet, but you're also going to entangle or embrace yourself with the promises of God, the will of God, and the word of God, what God has spoken, okay?

Entanglement. Maybe some things are delayed, but other things we can do, and it's a time where God is using us to draw nigh to Him and consecrate some things to Him and prepare some things. It is not an activity. It is not an activity. It's not being in one place physically, mentally in another place, okay? We're waiting on the Lord, all right? And the promises, they're in great God.

In this case, the vision. The vision now, Habakkuk or Habakkuk, the name literally means "he who embraces." We have an embracer. Habakkuk is an embracer, and it means "clingy" too, all right? And so God is using this gentleman that would be somebody that's not likely to backslide, somebody that's not likely to waver, somebody that's likely to get it, somebody that's likely to discern, somebody that's likely to love the things of God, which is, again, there I go again, the word of God and the will of God.

Great God, in the name of Jesus, no matter what God does or doesn't do, the word of God and the will of God being paramount. I'm waiting on the vision of the Lord for some things prophesied over this church. I'm waiting for the vision of the Lord for some things that are spoken to me personally in the promises of God. I'm waiting on the vision of the Lord for some things He said He's going to do in His word towards this old wicked world of ours. I'm waiting on the promise of God for some things that He said in a vision, right? And the City of Jacksonville, yeah, great job, and a New Life Tabernacle. Praise God!

And it's not going to happen if I won't wait on the Lord and if I will not look at the vision and read it. It's written in large letters. That's what it means: write it down plainly. You can't miss it. Yeah, confirmation after confirmation. The letters are so large, I mean, anybody, you know, that can comprehend will be able to understand this vision from Habakkuk.

Okay, I remember now he's an embracer. I got this thought from Danny Sinclair, and his was "revision." This is "waiting on the vision." Okay? And vision is not just 20/20 eyesight. We're talking about, oh my God, and the Holy Ghost. We're talking about seeing Maxine in the spirit. We're talking about Cherokee that this God we serve is in us, living in us in the Holy Ghost and helping us to discern some things. Amen! He really is. He understands the human mind. He made a body, soul, and spirit. He knows how to get His point across if we'll listen and if we'll actually obey what God is saying and not consider it an option or just something that's, "Well, you know, a nice thought," but, "You don't know me, God. You don't know my situation." I think He does, and I think He knows it very well, and I think He knows it better than you do and than I do. Yeah, and I don't think He's lacking understanding, and I think He means what He says in His word, in His spoken word, His written word, and He takes His will pretty seriously.

Yeah, yeah, all right. You know, it's not a light thing I can just pick up and type down and pick up and take down and pick up and take down. That's not what He's looking for, okay? In the name of Jesus. All right, so this is, you know, just some basics too, but specifically, okay, so Habakkuk is given a prophetic word about the transgressions of Judah.

Now, who's Judah? Judah are the two tribes that were from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, but they were both called Judah. They were the Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom had ten other tribes, both formed the 12 tribes of Israel, okay? Both four of the 12 tribes of Israel. The Northern ten tribes, not to be confusing, the Northern ten tribes just did not have any heart for God. They had no heart. I don't think they had one good king, okay? As I've looked at that and researched that, not one good king. Not one. Judah had some good kings, all right? But Judah backslid, and Judah fell away from God, and Habakkuk is given the heart of the Lord.

Remember, we said when we get a burden from God, His yoke is easy and His burden is light because we know how to tie that into the joy of the Lord. Yeah, and that helps us obey God, and we try to do that and carry that burden in the flesh, okay? They that are in the flesh cannot please God, right? In my flesh, in my flesh, in me that is in my flesh, do all the no good thing, all right? We have a scripture that says, and so having said that, they were slip sliding away.

Great God, it was, you could say Habakkuk could see the phase out. He could see Judah phasing out and losing its burden, all right? And I don't know if this was the only time that Habakkuk prophesied to Judah. I suspect it wasn't, but this is recorded. Yeah, this is the one that's recorded, all right? Because nobody backslides overnight. They just don't. I mean, I've been in this too long to know better, and you can see phase out, okay, pretty clearly.

And so, all right then, all right, okay. So the burden for God's will and His word didn't backslide overnight, okay? Great God, in the name of Jesus. Now let me say this: a little background. Habakkuk knew what revival looked like. He was very well qualified, eminently qualified, because he knew firsthand what revival looked like. What are you saying? I'm saying under the good Judah King Josiah. Josiah was a good king from Judah, the two tribes, you know, and Benjamin and Judah in the South, okay, that had some good kings.

What did Josiah do? Josiah took idols out of the sanctuary. He would pull down and he would burn idols. He would remove them from the house of God. That's where they set them up. Israel, these are God's monotheistic people, the chosen people, right? Okay, the God's oneness people, the idols in the sanctuary. And there was a sodomite cult, okay, of men that were evidently reprobate in mind, and it was going on in the temple.

We think, "Oh my God, who in the world can relate to that today?" Well, we are ordaining certain people in the clergy and ministry that we would never think possible just a few decades ago, and it's splitting denominational churches, the denomination even, yes, okay? So Josiah is confronted with this cult, the sodomite cult, doing all sorts of ungodly, perverted things in the house of God. He's sick of it.

So what he's going to do is, the Bible says, break down the houses of the sodomites. Break down the houses. Now can you imagine how would you do that? What do you do that? I don't know what they had in those days for heavy equipment or whatever. Would you just set them on fire? Would you go with a sledgehammer and just, and what would they do to resist that? And we're taking eminent domain to another dimension here, breaking down the house. Try that today. Try to go and do that today. Good luck! You're not going to get it done, okay? Because we tolerate that stuff.

And don't think that some of these things don't come into the sanctuary because they do. They did in Israel, right? And if there's no new thing under the sun, right? And, uh, Jesus, we understand a little bit about Josiah, Messiah. Now you can call him a reformer. I'm going to call him a revivalist, okay? I mean, he did that. Break down the houses of the sodomites, set up godly worship again, appointed the right priests according to the biblical lineage to go into the high places and worship God. He called the nation to prayer, repentance in the name of Jesus, and Judah had revival. Judah had revival!

And Habakkuk is watching all this stuff. He's a recipient of all these things. Habakkuk grew up in the church. Great and mighty God, in the name of Jesus. He had full exposure to what was going on and knew what to do and what was right and what wasn't. Great God, in the name of Jesus. And God could trust him, and He anointed him, and he starts prophesying. All right? And there's all sorts of judgments that are going to come on Judah, okay?

So this one who embraces, this one whose name means clinging, he's an embracer of epic, was also chosen because he never enabled Judah to get by with it. God used Habakkuk to go to Judah and call their sins out and name them and make it plain that he may run or repent that reads it, yeah, and run towards God to walk with Him closer because He's a just God. He's not stupid. He knows the score. He knows what's going on, and we can't fool Him, okay?

And so we see, yes indeed, we see great God in the name of Jesus, not just Dr. David Reagan, but others see the likening of the sins of Judah to America in 2023 and this decade and this generation and this culture. There is a parallel, and thank you, Jonathan Cahn, for saying and seeing the same thing. God has raised up some Habakkuks to point out Judah's sin, and Judah means praise. Judah was the worship leader in the name of Jesus. My God, my God, my God!

Yeah, and dare I say that there are some things, and let's pick on us Pentecostal churches in the sanctuary with worship, almighty God, that aren't right. That's all I'll say in the name of Jesus. Great God, great God! Sincere, well-meaning motives as pure as the driven snow, but just ignorant of certain things and not right with God. Oh, that's not just from this preacher. I have a plethora of sources in Jesus' name.

So amen! So he would not enable Judah's sin. It's okay, Judah, bring those things into the sanctuary. Oh, He loves that kind of worship, the Asherah. I mean, they would burn sacrifices in the temple to idols, okay? And the moral depravity, my God! Yeah, you couldn't, no, there's just no possible way any preacher could itemize the list or describe any of that stuff. My God! I mean, Judah slid hard. They slid hard, and they weren't fooling anybody. Thank God, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus.

God spent centuries telling generation after generation He's one. His name is one. The Lord is one. And they would bring in deities, plural, multiplicity of gods. They would do that, and all the things in the law that said, "Thou shalt not do this," and "Thou shalt that," and all of the occult and witchcraft, my God, in the name of Jesus. Habakkuk got so sick of it. He knew what the real McCoy was and what revival looked like, and remember the glory days in Judah? Oh, and Judah was sincere when Judah was the biggest game in town.

Yeah, and when Judah would sing the songs of Zion and the worship would break out, and the preachers would come and preach, and the souls would be saved, and a great outpouring of the Holy Ghost. I feel it right now saying this, but the day came, the date arrived, the day came when Judah decided to phase out. Almighty God! And Habakkuk was raised up to call it out. Yes, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, you're heading down a slippery slope, Judah! Almighty God! You can't praise your way out of this one. You've got to repent!

Great and mighty God! All right, so, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, Judah is not just going to feel conviction from the prophet but is going to go into Babylonian captivity. Brothers and sisters, church, hear me! Babylonian captivity! All the Babylonians weren't that bad. No, they were that bad! Yeah, the Babylonian nation is Iraq today and had part of Iran in its territorial boundaries, Mesopotamia, ancient boundary distinctions. Okay, what does Iran think of Israel today? Right? God, they're going to be involved in what some would think or say would be World War III, Ezekiel 38.

Okay, great God, in the name of Jesus. And in that day, in that day, the anathema, the repulsiveness of this prophet going around telling people, "If you don't repent, you're going to go into a Babylonian captivity, and they're going to come in here, okay? And they're going to raze this city, and they're going to take out the temple treasures and haul them away to Babylon, and this land will be desolate for 70 years, a man's lifetime." It wasn't just conviction, you know? It wasn't a slap on the wrist. I'm sorry, it wasn't a slap on the wrist, okay?

Red and mighty God! And this embracer, yeah, this one that would cling, yeah, released the hand of God to deal with Judah as He needed to deal with Judah. Yeah, great God! And God would have held him accountable if he did not. Habakkuk, the full force of judgment is coming! Don't you sugarcoat it! Don't you water it down because it's said in love. It's the only thing that's going to wake them up and shake them, right?

My God! Days of just conviction were long over. This has been happening. This has been happening for decades. Nobody backslides overnight. Phase out! Great God! I feel the Holy Ghost! Yeah, that's where she got real quick. Thank you, Jesus! Jesus, help us! Help us to hear and see and understand what You're trying to do and what thus saith the Lord. Raise up some Habakkuks in this church to, without fear or favor of man, say thus saith the Lord.

And we need to realize that every time God has a word that is requiring repentance for someone, yeah, almighty God, if I am an enabler and I stand in the way between God and them, almighty God, I am out of the will of God. I have disobeyed the Holy Ghost. I have not listened to the message of the preacher, and I have justified an action that God said step back from. Where are you getting that in the book? I'll show you in the name of Jesus. Pray the mighty God! Here we go, okay?

Now, there's a story in the Bible. It's about, just remember Josiah. We've just been talking about a good king, Judah, right? Good Josiah, son of David, Josiah. Okay, now he, in the midst of this revival in Judah, in the midst of this revival, I mean, it's breaking out everywhere. Israel is becoming, you know, maybe a light to the world at that particular time for the first time in a long time, as they should be. Yeah, and so they're obeying God. God is blessing them. Priesthood's re-established. They're offering sacrifices to the Lord only, and the Lord, He is God, and there was one God.

Okay, now what happens? Okay, Josiah, all right? He's flush from the success of revival, okay? And his motives are as pure as the driven stone. He means so well. Josiah is sincere. Now, Josiah hears about Pharaoh Necho, okay? Pharaoh Necho, it's from Egypt, all right? And Pharaoh Necho was talked to by Almighty God, believe it or not, even in the Old Testament. I have a Holy Ghost chill right now. God Almighty could talk to people like Cyrus, allowing people, the Jews, that is, to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. The Jews called them righteous Gentiles, okay?

And this may have been a righteous Gentile because Pharaoh Necho gets on his horse or his chariot with his caravan, and he goes into Israel, into Palestine, okay? And God has spoken to him, and Necho said to Josiah, who came out to resist him, "Josiah, leave me alone! I've heard from God! I don't mean you any harm! Please stand by! Please stand back! Please stand down! I'm under unction of the Holy Ghost! I've heard from God! Josiah, get out of the way!" And he wouldn't listen.

And it's very clear, and the Bible records it for a reason, yeah, okay? And so he doesn't listen, and Josiah, meaning well, could only think one thing: "Well, Pharaoh Necho couldn't have heard from God. He doesn't have the best interests of Israel at hand. He's going to invade our country." But believe it or not, Pharaoh Necho heard from God because he was on his way to Babylon, okay, to fight against the Babylonians who would eventually come and raze Jerusalem to the ground. God knew what He was doing and what He was talking about.

Yeah, yeah, in Jesus' name! And Josiah ends up with an arrow in his belly and dies in Megiddo, Armageddon. Trying to help you, man! Yeah, yeah! It's called me to go and deal with him. God's called me to take them out, and you don't want that. Well, guess what? Not only did Josiah not listen, Judah didn't listen. And the king that came to the throne when Josiah died was none other than the infamous Manasseh, who did twice as bad, okay, as the nations around him, including the occult, including witchcraft, including child sacrifice.

Literally started buying fire, and they go, "Pray God, in the name of Jesus, put them in the crematorium." And the Bible says about Manasseh, he shed innocent blood from one end of Jerusalem to the other. That's who succeeded Josiah because Josiah wouldn't listen. Josiah dies with an arrow in his belly in Armageddon, and here come the Babylonians. Once Judah, under Manasseh, this is the kind of backsliding that borders on reprobation.

What's reprobation? You can't discern right from wrong anymore, and you will not listen to God. Saul ended up at Endor with a witch, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Yeah, so they started with stubbornness. Didn't repent. An unrepentant stubbornness leads to rebellion, which leads to witchcraft. And the voice that we're hearing is the enemy coming first person and saying, "Yeah, that's right, boy! That'll show them!" Well, yeah, man, you've heard from God.

Anything! And God raised up the embracer who wouldn't put up with any evidence. Not at this point in the beginning when there's just conviction, sure, but Judah reached a point and got so bad. So what's the point, preacher? Judah, the house of God, the praise of the Lord, the church, if it's not careful. Why does 2 Chronicles 7:14 say, "If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways, then I'll hear from heaven, I'll heal their land"?

Or backsliding, right? Judgment doesn't begin in the White House. It doesn't begin in the courthouse. It doesn't begin in the state house, right? It begins in the church house. Yeah, that's right! Waiting on the vision, waiting on the vision. Danny Sinclair talking about revision. In other words, what he was saying, pick up the vision that you've lost. Revision. We get the word revised from that, yeah? And let God revisit because we're in phase out because it's obvious, because the prophet of God can see it, because you can't rationalize it, because he's not going to buy it, because God isn't in that.

May God help all of us! None of us are so high that we can't fall. Read God! Yeah, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. He that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Something Judah would never do. They're riding high. They are in love with their press clippings. Let me tell you a success story. I got a praise report. It's all looking and sounding good until the prophet of God steps in and says, "I've seen down the road. I can see beyond the testimonies and the praise reports." Right? Hello! If Judah isn't right, it's going to come out in the end, and Judah was notorious for blowing off the counsel and admonition and direction and request of the man of God.

Yeah, in Jesus' name! Last week I talked about removal before revival. Danny Sinclair confirms everything. I can't get away from it. Pray God, saying, "Oh God, don't let your vision die, preacher! Don't get discouraged! It's that time to quit, right? Not to throw in the towel!" Those of us that have just come to the Lord recently, they'll be sidetracked, they'll be fooled, they'll be distracted, they'll be deceived. It's real! What you experience was real, and God is not so stupid to die for this truth that we love and embrace and then change His mind later down the road because we don't feel like it.

Let's worship God right now! I need a few of these intermissions. That's very heavy. Yes, it's intense! Settling, preacher! This old story about Judah can be applied to our culture today. Yeah, oh friend of mine, brothers and sisters, you had better believe it! In Jesus' name! Are you condemning the homosexual community? I'm not condemning them. The Bible says, "Such were some of you, but now you're washed, now you're sanctified, now you're justified." So take solace in that!

Yeah, it's not a message without hope. Yeah, it's a message to the unrepentant, and He wouldn't send it and give them one last chance and raise up Habakkuk without the possibility of them repenting that he may run. Look at that! Read between the lines! He's still giving them a chance! I challenge you to go on YouTube today and pull up Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and pull this message up, "The Return of the Gods." It's happening in this culture right now!

Yeah, I have a Holy Ghost chill! You turn the gods, the very gods of this culture America wouldn't tolerate in its beginning, are now returning! Yeah, and they manifested themselves in ancient Israel exactly like they're manifesting now. Even the names of the idols, same thing as being worshiped right now. Same thing, same name. Great God, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus!

Pastor has had a dream about someone that's familiar to somebody in this church, but he can't share it because we'll enable it. I have a dream. I still remember. Great God! Hallelujah! The vision is a promise of revival and regeneration. A little from last week: removal before revival. A new generation in Judah. Revival will happen again! My nasty might be on the throne right now, but Josiah's day will come again!

And there sure enough is Danny Sinclair in the pulpit talking about the great end-time outpouring that's coming to America and not just overseas. I didn't say boo to it over and over and over again, and if we want to, we can have our part in that in this city! Amen! Amen! If we don't want to, make a regeneration is not an option, and it's necessary for ultimate salvation. We're saved now, but we have within us the capability of falling away from God just like Judah.

Yeah, the washing, regeneration of the Holy Ghost is not an option or icing on the cake. It's something we've got to do daily, weekly, monthly, at least weekly! Yeah! Why is church attendance important? What you're getting is the washing, regeneration of the Holy Ghost. How about, "Pastor, I read my Bible in the state park." That doesn't have the same effect. That's good! That's glad! God goes everywhere! God is everywhere! Those are good things! Those are good things to do!

But this generation is also told, "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, and so much the more as the day approaches." What day? The day Habakkuk saw when he judges Judah.

All right, two very mighty God! And before He judges Judah, thinking of Judah right now in the context of a political entity, yeah, He'll judge His church as a spiritual entity. The time has now begun! The time now is! The time is now where God will judge His church! Judgment begins in the house of God! New Testament writing, the judgment begins in the house of God!

Wants to do more than just overthrow people in Washington, D.C., who aren't nice. He's looking with laser focus at His church that doesn't cause us to get intoxicated with our press clippings or be prideful in going around condemning everybody that isn't just like us. That's not the message or the point right now! Don't misunderstand that! But if it's His people that tip His, if His people are the tipping point that moves His hand, right?

And there's an important part for the church to play. Time is now for judgment to begin in the house of God! In the name of Jesus! Pray God! Almighty God! Pastor, you're saying all these things are happening here? No, I'm not saying what happened here in this church. I'm saying that anything is possible in the church corporately if we aren't seeking God and experiencing the washing, regeneration of the Holy Ghost.

You're that important! You're that important! When you're here, He's here also! Of course, I know even if it's two and three, the more the merrier! And that presence that comes down when His bodies gather together, I draw from as a preacher, and you draw from as well, and I hope to add something to that. And we're here for such a short period of time! Great God, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus!

Salvation, of course, the sinner will experience. That's revival! To the saint, it is regeneration! It is renewal! It is restoration! And it is removal that causes us to run towards the vision and run towards God and run towards the body and run towards His presence! I need every bit of church and the presence of God in your presence that I can possibly get, and vice versa! The church needs the church, right?

I don't know enough, and I'm not strong enough, and I don't get clear enough direction to freelance and go off on my own without any kind of accountability or oversight. Me, a preacher? I can't do it! I can't! Amen! In the name of Jesus! Waiting on the vision! Waiting on the vision! Great God! In Jesus' name! In Jesus' name! Amen!

Oh, let's worship God one last time here as we're going to close. As we're going to close, as we're going to close. Heavy message, but a timely message! My Lord! In Jesus' name! I've got to have more than religion! You've got to have more than religion these last days! I've got to have more than religion! The mighty God! And if God is dealing with someone, convicting someone, I am actually standing in God's way when I go and try to enable in the name of Jesus what they're involved with that God's convicting them for.

Here's the word again: running from! I am not in the will of God or in the mind of Christ when I do that! Saying, "I!" Oh, great God! In the name of Jesus! He who embraces, he who embraces, the clingy one, yeah, was embracing the word of God and the call of God and the word of the Lord and His revelation and the pronunciation of the Lord. That's what he was embracing! Yeah, yeah!

That's what he was clinging to! You like, uh, as if Israel didn't have enough persecution and trouble, then to hear God say He's going to lower the boom. Well, who in the world wants to deliver that message? Oh, preacher, look, I gotta go!