5.15.25 ~ 40 days past His resurrection (Pt. 20)

Good morning!

Welcome to the 33rd day, the 4th week and the 5th day of counting the omer. One of the fundamental reasons why we count the omer is to help one another. Lifting each other up. Working together to accomplish a unified goal. We are one body, working in one Spirit, under one Master, with one message (Eph. 4). All different, but functioning as one (1 Cor. 12; Rom. 12).

Years ago there was a Disney production meant to tear the hearts and minds out of our young people called "Tomorrow Land". Currently there is a movement of God on college campuses where revival is spreading in the opposite direction of Disney's perversion...praise God! There are a lot of good actions taking place in the lives of people that are driving back the darkness. What will be the next momentum booster that will manifest in 17 days? Only time will tell...keep counting, while you wait with anticipation.

Whether we are made aware of cult prostitution in its most alluring form, as in "Tomorrow Land" or the onslaught of traditional, biblical family value, one thing we can be sure of. These opponents to the One True Elohim are functioning as a unit and they aren't too concerned about the followers of Yahweh stopping them. Why? They know when there is very little individual responsibility for the task at hand, there will not be unity in accomplishing the goal...in many realms that's changing :-)

Too many of us (me, myself and I) act as a bunch of individuals holding tightly to our personal positions and spiritual idiosyncrasies that isolate us and make us weak and vulnerable in our piety. Yes, those positions make us feel spiritual, but are they producing actions that are combating the darkness? Are we being salty light? Are we taking cities for the King?

When it comes to the work of the enemy and us learning a lesson from them we might want to take a  page out of Habakkuk. He said,

"They are dreaded and feared; their justice and authority originate with themselves/mimenu." (Hab. 1:7)

We've all heard the chicken little story "the sky is falling, the sky is falling". Well, Habakkuk was letting Israel know that the sky was falling because the Chaldeans are coming!

Habakkuk’s warning is a call to immediate repentance in advance of certain destruction.  Some of Yahweh’s people are about to be chastised in a most severe way.  As if that isn’t bad enough, Habakkuk provides an insight into the reason the Chaldeans are so dreaded and feared.  What he says about them is true of every nation that does not serve YHWH.  It ought to make us shudder in our spiritual army boots and take the counting of the omer and its purpose much more seriously.

Mimenu is the Hebrew for “of himself.”  Our English translation makes it into a plural because we normally view a group of people (the Chaldeans) as plural.  The Hebrew language merely recognizes that these people come as if it were a single enemy: Unified, acting as one.  Just like Israel, the body of Messiah, the Chaldeans are one – one dreaded executor of Yahweh’s justice.

What makes them so dreaded and fearful?  It's not just their unity! It's because they make up their own rules to the game and they are unified at it...now that's dangerous!  Their view of justice and authority does not depend on the character of Yahweh.  They have assumed the role of Yahweh's sovereignty.  They come to do their own bidding.

If history teaches us anything at all, it teaches us that men are the harbingers of "H-E-double hockey sticks" on earth.  The Devil hardly needs to enlist fallen angels to bring death, destruction, suffering, torture and torment to humanity.  We are more than capable of inflicting unspeakable evil upon our own kind.  Without Yahweh’s standard of justice and authority, human civilization quickly becomes human degradation.  Any people who believe that they make up the rules as they go along are a people to be feared. Feared to the point to seek Yahweh's wisdom on how to defeat their rebellious agenda and reconcile them to the One True Elohim. Yes, they may offer many apparent rewards, but in the end, they serve themselves at cost to everyone else.  Habakkuk knew what was coming.  Mimenu is the religion of “I am my own god!” With our +45,000 different denominations (AI generated stat), apparently we have learned very little since the Chaldeans.

What do the righteous do in circumstances like these?  One thing we do know is they inherit collateral damage.  When the people fall, the righteous usually go with them.  No wonder Proverbs says that the righteous weep when the wicked come to power.  They know what Habakkuk knew.  Sometimes salt and light stings and burns.  Sometimes the only way to be the redemptive change-agents in a world in collapse is to be carried off with the powerless or to fight with those who take a stand.  Being Yahweh's man or woman doesn’t seem to mean escape or turn a blind eye to reality.

Many are paranoid about the revelation of the mark of the beast, 666, but for most, the mark of the beast is the self-proclamation of divinity.  The mark of the beast is not doing justice, not loving mercy and not walking humbly with the One True God.  That should be a lot easier to identify.

The Chaldeans are coming. They always have. When we are divided. When we are not walking in the ways of Scripture. When we revel in our +45,000 denominations, we are not a force to be reckoned with. We are sitting ducks in our pseudo-light lifestyles.

During these 50 days of counting the omer, let's not grow weary in well-doing (Gal. 6:7-9)! There's a day of empowerment coming. There is power for today. But no man can be an island to himself and win. It's going to require teamwork with egos put aside and Yahweh lifted up. We're all in this boat together. We each have an oar in our hands. It's time to dig deep in the water as a unit to make it through the rapids that are directly in front of us. Don't you think it's time to stop fighting the wrong enemy and prepare for the Chaldeans (Deut. 32:30; Isa. 30:15-17)?

Can't wait to see what waits for the unified body of Messiah (Lev. 26:8; Deut. 28:7; Prov. 28:1)!

Shalom!