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The story of Josiah is recorded two times in scripture. II Kings 22 & 23 and again in II Chron. 34 & 35. He was an amazing young man who ascended to the throne of Judah at the age of 8. Just the fact that so much is recorded about his brief time on the stage of Israel’s history is note worthy in itself. Josiah is more than a historical figure, he is prophetic of this season in time. Josiah stepped up to power following 57 years of rulership that had degraded Judah to a place of national apostasy. Idol worship was the norm of society. Even to the point that the practice of sacrificing their babies by throwing them alive into the fire to appease the gods Baal and Molech was acceptable. With no godly parental heritage---his father and grandfather before him were extremely wicked---Josiah, by the age of 16, begins to have a stirring in his heart to seek after the Lord God. By the time he is 20 years old, he rises up with a passion to tear down the places of idolatry that were all over Judah. He begins to do the unthinkable---tear down the traditions of past generations that were leading a nation away from the living God. Ideologies that had been in the land for years and years and had been embraced as an acceptable lifestyle by the masses, were suddenly coming under attack by this radical young king. He started tearing down their high places. He began demolishing altars built to gods that gave them satisfaction in their lifestyle choices. He even went so far as to burn the bones of priests who had served those altars upon the very altars they served! He was a radical young man, used of God to bring a massive revival to the nation. You’d think everyone would applaud, right? Wrong. The Bible records that they tore down the altars of Baal and other false gods with “mattocks” in their hands. That word means, axes, swords…weapons. Meaning, they violently demolished the altars but also they were armed to fight anyone who resisted. They literally had to fight the nation in order to save it from it’s own destruction. After this tremendous act of courageous obedience on the part of a young king barely out of his teens, the Bible records what happened next. In the process of cleaning out the temple from it’s defilements, the Torah was discovered. The Word of the Lord came forth and was received again, once the land was cleansed from its idolatry. This is a great example of a truth that is often overlooked to our own hurt. The Word of the Lord will only be revealed to those who are willing to obey the Word they already know. I find that people everywhere are desiring to hear from God. They want to know what the Word of the Lord is for them. But I find that in a lot of cases, while they are genuinely desiring to hear from heaven, they often are not willing to obey what they already know! Prov. 1:23 says it this way: “Turn you at My reproof; behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.” The Word of the Lord will only be revealed to those who are willing to obey the Word they already know I don't normally trust people who are ALWAYS hearing from God about EVERYTHING. I know that there are prophets who hear from God through what we would consider weird ways, and God is always communicating to them through all sorts of means, but that's not what I'm referring to here. What I am talking about is people who's home and personal life is in a wreck, but they are so "super spiritual" that God tells them "turn right, turn left, blow your nose.....yadah, yadah, yadah". If they are SO EXPERT at hearing from God, then why can't they hear and receive correction about their own life? If they hear from God so intimately, why is their personal life in such a wreck? Though I guess there will always be those kind of people, we can't let that disillusion us into thinking it's all a bunch of "spiritual hog wash" and God doesn't really speak to people personally, because nothing could be further from the truth. GOD DOES TALK TO US......and it's imperative that we learn to hear and obey Him. If we want to live a lifestyle of hearing from and fellowshipping with God, then we must begin by hearing, acknowledging and turning at His reproof. Repenting of things WHEN the Holy Spirit convicts us of it. Making things right that He tells us to make right. DO what He says to do…and THEN we will be open to hear from the Lord as a lifestyle! His Spirit will be made available to us and His Word will be opened up to us in greater fashion. The simple fact is this: Why should God reveal more to us when we’re not willing to DO what we already know? This doesn’t mean that I hear God speaking to me every minute of every day. But what it DOES mean is, when I NEED to know the Word of the Lord for whatever situation I may find myself in, it will BE THERE and I will have ears to hear it. The Spirit of God, the strength of God, the wisdom of God is made available to me to meet the challenges at hand. I just can’t imagine trying to live any other way. Once the Word of the Lord was revealed to Josiah, he was horrified at how far the nation had fallen from the laws of God. He sent a message to the prophetess Huldah to inquire of the Lord for the nation because he saw that great wrath was decreed upon them from the Lord. The Word of the Lord came back that what was decreed would come to pass. The nation had gone too far in it’s idolatry and debauchery to be able to turn away the judgments decreed. BUT because Josiah had repented and turned his heart towards the Lord and had destroyed the high places, God would not bring judgment during his reign. Instead, God would provide a protection for those who had grieved over the sin of the nation and had turned their hearts to follow wholly after the Lord their God. God granted the nation revival. He gave them a chance to come under His holy protection and to be “set aside” under His mercy when that which was decreed would come. And come it did. After Josiah died, Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and took multitudes of Jews to Babylon as slaves. Jeremiah spoke the Word of the Lord for the people during that dark time in Judah’s history. Part of the account is recorded in Jer. 24, where basically God sorted off those He wanted to protect and had them taken to Babylon “for their good”. Four of those that were taken to Babylon were, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Where do you think these 4 young Israelis had learned to not bow down to other gods? Where did they get such courage in the face of such fierce adversity? How did these young teenage boys have such brave hearts to defy the most powerful king in the world and the strongest nation on earth? Why did God move on their behalf so mightily and literally turn a heathenistic king’s heart around to acknowledge the One, true God? Because of what Josiah had allowed God to do in his generation. By his courageous acts of obedience to God, Josiah opened the way for God to turn an entire generation back to Himself. Those who turned, came under God’s protection and provision during times of judgment and upheaval. Those who did not turn, were left to fall under the judgments decreed. It's time to get violent and radical against the sin in our lives and in our land We are living in a season not unlike Josiah’s and also Nehemiah’s. It’s a time to get violent and radical against the sin in our lives and in our land. God desires to build a “wall of protection” around His people, as in Nehemiah’s day. But as in his day, so it is in ours…passive obedience will not be able to withstand the evil of our times. Josiah and his men strapped on swords and tore down the high places. Nehemiah had his men strap on swords so as to build the wall. Both had to fight wrong mindsets and false doctrines amongst their own people. Both had to get radically violent against the sin in their own camp. And both were raised up in a land and amongst a people who “called” themselves by the name of the Lord but were in fact living far from Him. Both were used by God to bring revival back to the land. God used Josiah to prepare a place of refuge for those who were destined to go through the dark times that were ahead. Where once there was fire, now there are merely cold ashes... sad thing is, most people like it that way This is a Josiah generation. Those who have held the responsibility for the direction of our nation in decades past, have for the most part, failed miserably. Leaders in the church have all but let the Word of the Lord become non-existent in their congregations. A watered down rendition of the Bible as if it were merely a history book, has replaced the life altering, Word of the Lord. My generation and the one before me as well, have practiced “playing church” for so long, that most people don’t even recognize it as such. Where once there was fire…now there are merely cold ashes…and the sad thing is, most people like it that way! But, thank God, not every church is a cold shrine to what has been and not every heart is a lifeless example of a powerless god! God is on the move! A holy fire has been lit that CANNOT be put out by those who are satisfied to serve at cold altars! Not much longer will man be able to place God’s name on his own dead works and call it the house of God! God is an all consuming fire! Where there is no fire and where there is no life…I can promise you…God is NOT there! He CANNOT be hid! He WILL NOT be controlled and I tend to believe He’s had enough of being misrepresented! A Josiah generation is arising that will not be deceived by man made altars and dead works! This generation longs to see the fire of God! And see it she will! A righteous anger is arousing in the hearts of a generation that God is stirring and turning to Himself. A call to holiness unto the Lord is being answered. God is preparing a people unto Himself. This is a generation where leaders are being raised up that fear God and not man. Leaders are coming forth who are not afraid to confront the evil of our time. Just like God used an 8 year old boy/king to turn a nation back to Himself, God is stirring the hearts of our youth back to holiness. They will refuse to be satisfied with play acting as if God is moving in their midst when in fact He isn’t, and HASN’T moved in some churches in decades! Why pretend? Who do we think we are fooling? When the fire isn’t there…it isn’t there! Why blow on cold ashes and say the Spirit of God is moving? Lets clean out our hearts and ask God for FIRE---REAL fire--- from heaven! Fire that turns a nation’s heart back to the God of our fathers! Fire that brings the manifest Presence of a Holy God in our midst and puts us face down! Fire that burns out the junk and replaces our shallow, empty lives with the power of His all consuming Presence! We have this one, glorious opportunity to be a part of the generation that will not just SEE God move, but will experience THE MOVE OF GOD! I personally believe that we will not be able to keep what has been decreed upon our nation from coming to pass. Dark times are ahead and what they hold, none of us know. But God is preparing a place of refuge and it’s found in the flames of His Presence. Embrace the fire of God and live. Run from the purging, cleansing, holy fire and suffer the consequences. Just as in the times of the 3 Hebrew children, the fire is being turned up and all who simply want to hang around the fire with no intention of entering into it, will die. Those who embrace the fire of God, may enter that fire as slaves, but they will come out having won authority to rule! The safest place on the planet is in the fire, because that’s where |
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