Judge Jude
The Father has tasked me with writing a weekly devotional book covering the last couple of years of my life with Him. He has been teaching me the truth of the Word, and how He wants it to be understood by the Church. He has worked in me a foundation laid in the blood of Christ, and He has been building in me a temple of purity and holiness for housing the Spirit of God. This temple is not built by hand, but by the Spirit of Christ who dwells within me. The Father has been growing His fruit in me with the most evident fruit being His love.
He has been sharing His heart with me regarding the current state of the Church in this nation and has been showing me a weakness in her foundation as Paul spoke about in 1 Corinthians 3. Paul might very well have been writing to the Church in this nation when he said in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, “And I, brothers and sisters, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but only as fleshly, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to consume it, But even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like ordinary people? For when one person says, ‘I am with Paul,’ and another, “I am with Apollos,’ are you not ordinary people?” The struggle within the Church in this nation over the theologies of doctrine, otherwise called denominations, will end abruptly when the Father suddenly moves upon the heart of the Church because it is God who causes His seed to grow, not man.
He has been addressing with me a missing key ingredient in the Church regarding His plan for her in these last days. This key ingredient is what brings about growth and maturity. This key ingredient will destroy the lies of the enemy with fire and allow her to be rebuilt only upon the foundation laid in Jesus Christ. This missing ingredient is the love of God. The Father is not happy with where the heart of the Church is currently, and He has plans, not only to restore her to her former glory as during the Book of Acts, but to bring about cleansing that will prepare her for the Son’s return to the earth. He is allowing the Son to cleanse her by the washing of water with the word as it says in Ephesians 5:26-27, “So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, our foundation can only be in Jesus Christ, and we must be careful how we build upon it. He says our work will become evident when revealed with fire because everything built by man will burn away and only the work of the Father in us will remain. He says in 1 Corinthians 3:9, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” In other words, man’s theologies and ideas are foolishness in the site of God because only God can build His building, only God can plant His fields. The pride and arrogance of man is going to be burned away by the fire of God that is coming to the earth, and it is coming very soon. Everything man has built will be destroyed, but because of God’s mercy, as it says in 1 Corinthians 3:15, “If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire.”
The Father is not pleased with the pride and arrogance in the Church today. Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians 3:18-19, “Take care that no one deceives himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the sight of God.” This word is specifically to the leaders in the Church today who believe they know better than the Father. In Matthew 11:25, Jesus addressed this point with the religious leaders of His day as well.
He corrected them for not receiving the word and revelation of John the Baptist as Elijah and for not receiving the power and revelation of Jesus Christ as their Messiah even though He manifested the power and authority of God in the earth. Jesus spoke of their refusal to repent despite witnessing the many miracles performed by Him in the surrounding cities. He recognized pride in their own wisdom and intelligence. He rejoiced that the Father took pleasure in revealing His mysteries to His disciples, those “infants” who might have been considered “foolish” by the religious leaders but who had become “wise” because they received the revelation of the Son of God being sent by the Father. The religious leaders refused the words and revelations of John the Baptist first, then they refused the signs and wonders performed by Jesus. There are those today who are speaking truth and revelation from God who are being rejected by leaders within the Church. The hope is when God begins to move in signs and wonders again like He did with Jesus, those same leaders will not reject their anointing as they once rejected Jesus.
We are entering a time, once again, where the Father is going to reveal His mysteries to “infants” who are willing to be “foolish” in their child like faith because their love for God outweighs their desire to be loved by man. Their desire for God’s approval will surpass their desire to be approved by man. They will walk in humility and pursue God’s love at all costs, and they will walk in the perfect will of the Father because they will want nothing else.
The Lord visited me in a dream to emphasize the importance of what He is about to do in the Church. After I had fallen asleep, I found myself floating in space far above the earth. Below me, I could see a bible that had been broken apart into its separate books. The books were lined up starting with Genesis and ending with Revelations. I am not an expert on the scripture though I read it often. I do not know exactly how many books of the bible there are or how many chapters are in each of those books. I do not know the exact order of them all either, but I do know if a certain book is in the Old or New Testament. I saw the last few books of the bible below me and the Book of Jude was second from the end. It was only one chapter, and it had a darkness about it that I did not expect to see being it is the Word of God. The darkness was more physical than spiritual though, but it was dark none the less.
As I floated around the book (it was the size of a large truck) I noticed that only part of it was dark. The dark portion of it was almost like a black hole in outer space. I could feel a sort of evil presence in it which caused me alarm because it seemed so out of place, and I asked the Lord if He would explain to me what I was seeing. He said, “The Father placed the Book of Jude at the end of the bible because He wanted you to be able to read the entire truth of the gospel before you would have to make your decision. It comes before the Book of Revelation because the content in Jude occurs right before the end of time.” I am ashamed to admit it, but I was not familiar with the Book of Jude enough to know what the Lord meant, and I was woken up immediately after He said those words to me. I immediately went to my bible and to my amazement, the Book of Jude was the second to the last book of the bible and it was only one chapter long.
I know there are some out there who might tell me that I probably knew this information from having read it before, but the content of Jude was not something I was familiar with at all. I only knew it was towards the end of the New Testament, and it was a shorter book. I could not have told you exactly where it was, how long it was, or the message in it prior to having this dream. When I started reading it, I knew what the Lord was trying to tell me though. Jude is about apostasy in the Church. Jude was the brother of Jesus, and his message was one of growing in love and purity while leaving the grumblers and deceivers in the Church to God and His judgements. His message was very similar to the devotional book the Lord has been having me write these past few years. His epistle is the conclusion to my book.
Jude wanted to expose the false teachers who had “crept in unnoticed” as it says in Jude 1:4. He said these false teachers “turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Christ Jesus.” Licentiousness refers to a lack of moral or legal restraint, especially in sexual content. It can also refer to a disregard for rules or lawlessness. We have seen an exposure of sexual promiscuity in the Church as of recent years, and this exposure will only continue until the Church is rid of this filth from its congregations, especially its leadership or teachers. We have also seen certain theologies in the Christian faith that allude to the possibility of receiving salvation while disregarding the Laws of God. Grace has abounded so sin might increase as Paul might put it. Is this possible in the Church today? Unfortunately, it is.
Jude goes on to talk about God’s judgement upon those whom He saved from Egypt who did not believe, upon the angels who did not keep their own domain and slept with human women, upon cities in the bible who indulged in gross immorality going after “strange flesh” rejecting authority, and all other sorts of evil and lawlessness. He speaks of them as “clouds without water” and “trees without fruit.” These are those in the Church today who are not filled with the Holy Spirit, “following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.” These are leaders in the Church today who are leading their congregations astray, so they can have riches and wealth here on the earth. These leaders or false prophets who seek fame and fortune at the expense of their followers’ souls. God is coming in judgement of them, and He is bringing a purity back to the Church that will make her spotless and without wrinkle.
Jude encourages us to keep ourselves in the love of God. He reminds us that “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” He says they will be grumblers who seek to cause divisions because they are void of the Spirit. These are those leaders and members in the Church who are not filled with the Holy Spirit and are led by their own flesh instead of the Spirit. Not all these members of the Church will be in leadership roles. Many of them will be followers of these false teachers, but all of them will seek to destroy the Body of Christ even though it will be a loss cause for sure.
Jude said we should have “mercy on some” who might doubt of this existence of evil in the Church while saving others as if “snatching them out of the fire.” He says we should have “mercy on some with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh” meaning we are to love them but not allow their sinful lifestyles to become a stumbling block to us. He encourages us in this though by reminding us that Jesus “is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make us stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” He is telling us if we stand in love when we share His truth, we will not be able to be touched by the enemy because we will be abiding inside of God. For those who are called to speak this truth or walk in the powerful anointing coming soon to the earth, remember to always pursue love over anything else. You will face rejection as Jesus did because He promised us that we would, but you will not suffer any loss because you will be abiding in His love.
This is the purpose of the devotional book the Lord is having we write. It is meant to help us be founded in the love of Christ, to learn to seek the Father’s will so that His works might be lived in us, to grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God, and to bring the light of His love into the world as revealed sons and daughters of God. I hope it will be a blessing when you are able to get ahold of it, and that the seeds of His fruit will grow within you until you are producing it in abundance to share with the rest of the world. As soon as I get it published, I will let you know. Until then, let the Spirit of Christ and His word guide you in your pursuit of His love, so you might be able to lay a foundation of Jesus Christ in the lives of those with whom you share the Truth of the Gospel. He is at the door! Listen closely, so you do not miss Him.