Stand in the Gap

Counterfeit - (Noun) A fraudulent imitation of something else; a forgery.

As I walked through my house yesterday, God continued to bring this word to my mind.  C.O.U.N.T.E.R.F.E.I.T.

 Just the night before, I stood in a church where a counterfeit message was being preached.  A message that was designed to lead the listeners astray while all the while making them believe they were following the Truth of the Word of God.  It was a counterfeit message.   "If a saved person begins to sin without repentance, then God will take them out of the world - through death - and will take them 'home'."  
"People who say you can lose your salvation do not know the word of God."  

These were only a few of the ideas spoken. 

Satan was on a rampage Sunday night at my church.  I told my husband that Satan had shown up with two double barreled shot guns and were aiming them at my husband and me.  

Why? 

The Lord had called me to complete a Statement of Faith months before - A Statement of Faith that would be sent to as many of my church's members as possible.  There was one objective in the Statement of Faith:  One Can Be in the Faith/ A Believer/ A Partaker of the Holy Spirit and Choose to Leave the Faith and Deny the Holy Spirit's Teaching.  As a result, that "once believer" will suffer damnation eternally.  Through a series of undeniable moments, the Lord called me to be a vessel through which His truth on the matter could be spoken. 

I had spent two months typing it, and through it all, the presence of the Holy Spirit was so profound that I spent many moments shedding tears of joy at His revelations.  So many nights, I found myself humbly at His feet listening as He taught me about His Word.  While others slept, I sat on my couch with the Bible and a laptop following the Spirit.  Those nights of beauty will never be forgotten.

Upon completion, the Statement of Faith was 75 pages in length, and I planned to have 50 copies made of the work for distribution to my fellow church members.  I remember using my debit card to pay for the copies that I ordered through an online company.   I will be honest in saying that financially, it was a hardship - but I knew that the Lord was calling me to carry forth this work.  So I with complete submission and hope purchased the copies. The very same day that I purchased the copies -  a letter arrived in the mail informing me that I would soon be receiving a check in the mail due to a surplus in my escrow account.  The amount of the check was very close to the amount I had just spent hours before when ordering the copies.  

Several days passed, and via Fed Ex, my box of copies arrived.  That very same day, I received the other surplus check in the USPS mail.  What timing of the Lord!    I then proceeded to three hole punch all of the copies, place them in folders and envelopes, and transported them to the post office.  Ultimately, I spent more than $60 for postage - Again, a hardship, but a hardship that paled in comparison to what my Lord was calling me to do.  I was truly thankful that He had trusted me to do this for Him.  

Within a few days, I received my monthly check as a public school teacher.  Oddly enough, the check was $150.00 more than usual.  

I did the math and realized that the Lord had allowed me to receive all of the money back that I had used to purchase the copies and to purchase postage for the copies.  Not only that, He had given me a surplus!  In fact, I have since discovered that I will receive an additional $150 on my check next month as well.  Isn't God's timing perfection?  He who knows all orchestrated perfect timing in so many matters that I was completely oblivious to in order to bless me with MORE than I gave in obeying Him!  

Members of the church I attend had received the Statement of Faith in the mail several days prior to the Sunday night service.  Satan evidently had received it as well.  He showed up with a vengeance in an attempt to destroy my husband and me by way of public humiliation and the masses pitying our "incorrect" understanding of the Bible.  The pastor used so many of the verses in his sermon that I had used in the Statement of Faith and distorted the meanings to fit into a Once Saved Always Saved mold.  I remember standing in a side room of the church with my rambunctious one year old and bowing down in the floor praying for the Lord's guidance and presence as my husband and I endured Satan using puppets to carry forth his lies.  It was a trying evening - a very trying evening.  

My heart ached for my husband who did not have the luxury of leaving the congregation as I had with a loud 1 year old.  It was a passive aggressive attack.  Nothing overt.  No hateful glares.  No one directly addressed my husband and me.  Instead, it was a cleverly coordinated event that the father of lies whispered into the ears of those willing to hear -- a group of people standing together believing  and speaking what they have always been taught in order to show this couple in their late 30s and early 40s how misled they were.

Later that night while in bed, I wept before my Lord in the darkness of my bedroom.  I wept for the state of the world.  I wept for the evil of Satan.  I wept for the confusion that he stirs.  If he can keep people confused, they can't think.  They just follow everyone else as they walk off the cliff. 

I could not sleep very well that night, so I arose early at about 2:00 a.m. and sat on my couch downstairs.  I cried some more - speaking to HIM my great King.  Before falling asleep again a few hours later, my last thoughts were thoughts of loyalty to Him.  "Guide me, Lord.  I will follow."

Not until the next day - Monday - did the Lord reveal His plans for me.  The Truth He would have me stand firmly upon - no matter what opposition comes my way.

I found myself off and on throughout Monday singing words of praise to my King - while simply performing normal household activities, I would sing praises to His perfection - His majesty - His Truth.

It has always been my heart's desire to use Facebook as a tool to spread the Gospel, so in usual fashion, I listed a scripture as my status.  It was a scripture the Lord put on my heart:

Ephesians 6:11-18

11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

These verses are common to many.  I have read and studied them many times over the years, but this time, God brought my eyes to

Above all, taking the shield of faith.

Remarkably, I spent several moments examining that portion of verse 16 - in a manner unlike ever before.  After those moments of pondering the verse, I moved on with my day.  

Later that night, the Lord orchestrated a series of events shedding light on His Truth and His direction for me.  By way of a phone call, I was led to listen to a preacher that I had never heard before.  In fact, I knew very little about the man, so I was somewhat hesitant - yet I chose to listen to one of his messages.  

Early in his message, he shared a story that had occurred several years before.  A young man in his small hometown was involved in a car accident.  While in the hospital, his life appeared over.  A preacher visited the family - in particular - the mother who was beside herself due to her son's tragic and poor prognosis.  The preacher spoke these words to her:  "Because you have a chink in your armor, I am going to stand in the gap for you."

The moment I heard this part of the message, I knew the Spirit was moving.  This was a message for me.  Just two weeks prior, I had been upstairs preparing to go to bed when I very clearly heard:

"Stand in the gap.  Stand in the gap."

In that moment of being upstairs preparing for bed, I knew God had spoken to me, yet I did not completely understand what He was calling me to do when He had said, "Stand in the Gap.  Stand in the Gap." -- At least not until this moment of hearing the preacher use the very phrase God had spoken to me two weeks prior.  I continued to listen to the preacher's message.

  The preacher then went on to read Ephesians  6: 11 - 18 -- the very verses I had placed on my Facebook page earlier that day.  He even drew special attention to the same portion of verse 16 that God had drawn my eyes to earlier in the day.

He went on to describe Roman shields.  Specifically, the shields used for warfare were very large shields that spanned almost the length and width of a man's body.  It was truly a shield of protection.  He continued by illustrating how soldiers would gather together - unite and form a barrier of protection.  They would group together and place several shields in front of them, and they would hold shields above their heads.  He said that, effectually, these shields were used as a turtle shell.   Just as the turtle shell is used to protect the turtle housed inside, so did the shields.  Fiery darts could not penetrate such a barrier.

I nearly wept upon hearing these words.  Let me take you back to my life five years before.  I was led into the wilderness five years previously, and Satan greeted me with his evil there.  I was mentally and physically assaulted by the liar himself.  For more than a year, I lived under such torment. He wanted me dead.  He made every attempt to bring destruction to my life.  I drew close to Jesus.  I can recall so vividly, even now, all of the times I found myself yelling out for Jesus to rescue me while I lay in the floor being trampled upon by Satan.  The battlefield is the mind.  It is where Satan seeks to capture his victims.  And what a battle it was.  I will never forget the moment Satan lost his stronghold on me.  He was breathing down my neck thoughts of suicide.  "The only way you can escape this torment is if you die."   Even now, I do not reveal what the torment was, but his last resort was planting thoughts of suicide to escape the agony of those times. Oh, how I cried out to Jesus!  I don't think words could ever capture the intensity of those desperate times.  I fasted, I prayed, I wept, I read the Bible almost nonstop.  I went to sleep calling out to Jesus.  I woke up with inner dialogues of speaking out to Jesus.  My dreams were of Bible pages.  

There was one day in particular where Satan's whispers were wounding me, deafening me, seemingly destroying me.  All I wanted was to hear the Shepherd's voice.  That was all I needed to breathe and to live. 

 I sat on my couch and noticed a crumbled up sticker no more than an inch large on my floor.  I picked it up and saw that it was a turtle.  Although this may sound like a simple thought, the utter dejection behind my thoughts were suffocating me.  I held the turtle sticker and thought, "If I were any animal, I would be a turtle because no one hears the turtle's voice."  I said this because again, all I wanted was the Lord to speak so that I would know to follow His voice because the demon Satan's voice had been so loud and so despicable that I just wanted to hear the Truth speak instead of the liar.

I rose up from the couch, not thinking anymore about the sticker or my passing thought about being the silent turtle whose voice is not heard.  I walked outside and sat near a tree in my yard.  So broken.  After only a few moments, something other than myself moved my legs across the yard and back into my house.  I was ultimately brought back to the couch, where very robotically, I opened the Bible to a book I had never read before that moment.  

Song of Solomon. 

 My eyes began reading at chapter one, and without any control on my part, I started weeping the most uncontrollable tears of joy.  All the while, I had no idea why, but something kept urging me to continue my reading.  I found myself laughing while I read and read and then... all became clear when I read chapter 2 verse 12:

"the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."   (KJV)

My Shepherd had spoken!  He HAD heard my cries - my broken voice was heard in His land.  I weep even now years later; Oh, how I love Him!  Satan shriveled up and departed for a season.  

Just a few days before this event, a person called me and said that God had told her to tell me that I needed to purchase a KJV Bible.  I had been using another version.  It wasn't until a few years later that I opened up the NKJV I had previously used to the same verse.  I saw that the single word of the turtle was not phrased in the same manner in that version.  My, how God works!   He had heard me and knew the precise moment He would reveal himself to me!

 The same day that the Lord let me know He heard my voice, I called my sister with the news, for she had been such a sister in Christ to me during this time.  She would call me at all hours of the day during that year of torment to check on me and to speak God's Truth to me when the devil made every attempt to distort it.  Oh, the number of times she prayed mighty prayers rebuking that evil serpent while I wept on the phone line listening to her fight for me using the power of God!  I can recall a time when I was being brutally assaulted by Satan.  I knelt in my son's dark bedroom and begged my Lord to speak to me.  In that moment, the phone rang, and I heard my sister say, "I was washing dishes, and the Lord said, 'Call Joy.' "  And she obeyed the Shepherd's voice.  These are times of beauty.  These are times of the true body of Christ rising up and standing for one another.  

Again, that same day I called her telling her about the turtle sticker, and she interrupted me, "Joy, I have tell you something."  I said, "No, you have to hear the end of the story."  After I finished my story, she then shared hers.  She had spent most of the day working with a severely handicapped student - a five year old in a wheelchair, blind, and almost deaf.  She said that the little girl rarely spoke to anyone - even her family, but she went on to say that day was different.  

She stated that around 11:00 a.m., the little girl inexplicably began saying repeatedly, "Turtle, turtle, turtle."  Everyone was at a loss as to why she continued saying that.  

My sister said she now realized why she was saying TURTLE over and over again.  That little girl began saying "turtle" at the same time my Lord had shown me that He heard my voice. 

Isn't that amazing?  Isn't that amazing!!!  Jesus IS amazing!

So as I sat listening to this preacher's message and heard him use a TURTLE as an example for the shield of faith, you better know my God was speaking directly to the girl He rescued 5 years before.

First, Stand in the Gap - and now Turtle.  I was listening intently. 

The preacher then went on to describe the anointing of the shield with olive oil and water in order to maintain its strength.  

By the end of his message he was quoting 2 Timothy 3:5 to describe the enemies of TRUTH:

 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

He focused on the word power and explained that it was the same form of the word power used in Acts 1: 8 :

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

Power = Original Greek DUNAMIS

Once again, God was speaking to me because the Greek word dunamis was a word that I had only recently been exposed to by way of another preacher.  

After I listened to the message, I then looked up Stand in the Gap in the Bible.  I had never looked it up before.  That exact phrase is listed in the Bible one time and one time only.  After reading those words in context, I know why He had me type the Statement of Faith.  I also know that He would have me continue to Stand in the Gap for those specifically at my church and others that He has revealed to me.  

He is calling forth people to cease listening to lying prophets who profess to hear from God when they do not - who claim that God has shown them that Once Saved Always Saved is true.  He is calling people forth to repentance and servitude to Him.  

If they do not, there will be wrath.  There will be wrath for them.  

Ezekiel 22:

²³ And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
²⁴ Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.
²⁵ There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
²⁶ Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
²⁷ Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
²⁸ And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken.
²⁹ The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
³⁰ And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
³¹ Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.

The Lord had specifically told me two times to STAND IN THE GAP just two weeks prior to hearing this message.  So as I read these verses in Ezekiel for the first time, I see that the Lord was preparing me for  Satan's counterfeit message from a preacher at my church who says that he hears from God - when he does not.  It was preparation for the coming deception in these final days before the Lord's return.

Another verse from these passages caught my attention in a profound way:  


²⁵ There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey;  

About six months ago, the Lord spoke to me in  a dream.  In the dream, there were women surrounding what represented Jesus.  And these women blended into the body of Jesus in such a perfect way that a bystander wouldn't be able to tell where Jesus ended and the women began -- this is truly what the body of Christ looks like.  They never took their eyes off of Jesus.  Great light shone from this body of Christ.  

However, this dream was not without darkness.  In fact, the dream took place at the darkest point of night, and the only light available came from the Body of Christ.  

These women were also surrounded by the most horrific lions I have ever seen.  Those lions were roaring, prowling, and clawing the dirt just inches away from the women.  As they roared and clawed, dirt and dust surrounded them, but most amazingly the women NEVER took their eyes off of Jesus.  In fact, the women never seemed aware of the lions.  There was nothing but an expression of peace on their faces as they stared at this figure that represented the Lord.  The women sat with their legs tucked underneath them - in much the same way a child sits when playing in the floor.   

The lions clearly sought to kill something, but they could never  touch the women.  Their claws dug at the dirt just an inch or two from the feet of these women, but the lions could never touch the faithful women.

When I read verse 25 in Ezekiel 22, the Lord reminded me of this dream from at least six months before:  

²⁵ There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey;  

False teachers and false prophets seek to devour, but ONLY THOSE WHO KEEP THEIR EYES ON JESUS CAN SURVIVE!

I will speak my Lord's Truth -  my eyes are on HIM!  He will keep His FAITHFUL children safe.

 

 Dear Lord, help me to complete what you have called me to do.  Help all of your warriors to stand with the shield of faith in the gap as we face the adversary who seeks to devour so many who refuse to hear your Truth.  Lord, hold back your wrath a while longer as the remnant is drawn in to your glorious body!  Hallelujah!