The
Great Spiritual Lockdown
Micah 3:7 “Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.”
1. The General Rule
2. The Exceptions
to the Rule
3. The Silence
1. The General Rule
There are times when there is put into place [by God] … a “lock-down” … a “lock-down” between HIM and man.
The nature of this “lockdown” is this.
It is SPIRITUAL … in nature.
There is something else.
These certain times [which are found in the Bible] are the exception to a general rule.
The general rule is this.
God [WHO is the CREATOR] wants to be intimately involved with us [the CREATION].
Down through expanses of time [nearly six thousand years] … starting with Adam and Eve and all the way down to us, who are the ones living in the end of “the times of the Gentiles”, God has made known to us by revelation [by the word of God] given through the prophets and seers, that HE desires for man to worship HIM, fellowship with HIM and to glorify HIM.
Furthermore, in the matter concerning SIN and DEATH, God intends for all men to get saved and to not perish in the eternal fire of HELL [in the Lake of Fire], which sometime in the future will be placed in the outer darkness.
Now, you say, “Is there Scripture for this?”
Oh yes, my friend, God “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” [2 Peter 3:9]
God is … a personal God.
This is so clearly revealed to us in the book of the Ephesians in chapter one. We cannot help but see it.
Look at verse four: “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” [Ephesians 1:4].
God is a PERSON, and God wants a PERSONAL relationship with us … PERSONS.
Now, God has a PLAN. [P … P …P]
We can see this plan in our next verse, verse five: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” [Ephesians 1:5]
God has an intended destination for us … to be with HIM.
Look at verse six: “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” [Ephesians 1:6]
God intends to get praise from us after having made us “accepted” in the Lamb of God.
We have been redeemed. See verse seven: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” [Ephesians 1:7]
It is all according to HIS good pleasure for this purpose, that HE might gather us to together in fellowship.
Read verses nine through twelve: “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.” [Ephesians 1:9-12]
Amen! Amen! Amen!
2. The Exceptions to the Rule
I mentioned earlier that there are times when there is put by God into place between HIM and men a spiritual “lock-down”. [This is a terrifying subject.]
In Micah chapter three, we find one of those times [a spiritual lockdown], which would be an exception to the general rule. The general rule being that God wants fellowship with us.
Now, read our verse here again: “Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.”
First thing … is first. Look at the verse. What is a seer? A seer is … a prophet.
Now, how can we know this? We can know this by looking for the very first mention of “a Seer” in the Bible.
[The first mention of a word in the Bible will provide the meaning of the word … by the context.]
The first mention of “a Seer” is found in the book of First Samuel chapter nine, in verse nine: “(Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer.)” [1 Samuel 9:9]
Do you now see how the Bible provides the answers to all our questions?
Webter’s 1828 dictionary defines a seer:
SEER, n . [from see .]
1. One who sees; as a seer of visions.
2. A prophet; a person who forsees future events.
The “seer” is a prophet.
In Micah chapter three, we learn that God’s prophets will “be ashamed” in the times of spiritual lockdowns.
Now look at the word “diviners”. The first mention in the Bible of a diviner, or diviners, is located in Deuteronomy chapter eighteen, verse fourteen: “For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.” [Deuteronomy 18:14]
Now, notice something here, “diviners” are not good.
A diviner … is not from God. Here is Webster’s definition of a diviner.
DIVINER, n.
1. One who professes divination; one who pretends to predict events, or to reveal occult things, by the aid of superior beings, or of supernatural means.
2. One who guesses; a conjecturer.
This is where we are in verse seven. God is telling the people of Judah that will be no ANSWER of God … “for there is no answer of God.”
God was done talking to them.
God would no longer answer their prayers.
God will no longer hear them, or even the prophet making intercession for them.
• “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.” [Jeremiah 7:16]
God will not hear the prophet!
• “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.” [Jeremiah 11:14]
God will not hear the people!
• “Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.” [Lamentations 3:8]
God will not hear Jeremiah!
• “Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.” [Lamentations 3:44]
No one’s prayer goes through to God!
Brethren, we ourselves are living in such a time.
We are living in a spiritual lockdown.
3. The Silence
The silence is deafening!
From the prophet Malachi until John the Baptist God had not spoken through prophets or revealed anything to men all by new prophesy.
These were four hundred years of silence for both the Jew, and the Gentile [all men].
From the time of the Apostle John, who was in the isle of Patmos [Revelation 1:9] in the latter years of the first century, until now, we have had the complete word of God [the Oracles of God] which was given unto us to believe and obey.
The Oracles God were given to us [the Gentiles] just as God said did in the book of Hebrews, in chapter one: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,” [Hebrews 1:1-2]
For nearly two thousand years now, God has been speaking to us [the true Christians] by the Holy Spirit dwelling within us through the word of God, revealing all truth to us. [John 16:13] “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”
This is where we are today. Are you ready for this?
Since the year 1900, we have entered into a dangerous period of time [these are perilous times] where the spirit of the apostasy [which we identified in the book of Second Thessalonians] has made us all very dull and drowsy.
Furthermore, since the year 2000, God is withdrawing back from us [as a people and as a nation].
This is the great SPIRITUAL LOCKDOWN.
Our churches are now in a spiritual lockdown.
The TRANSLATION of the Church is next and the Great Tribulation will follow.
We need not sleep.
“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
For God hath not appointed us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,”
[1 Thessalonians 5:4-9]