The foreign wives of the modern church are many and various, and she does not see them. What shall we say to the Promised Bride who fornicates with wives from other nations, but refuses to see them, refuses to call them what they are? Standard procedure is to ignore the sin and choose to "love" her anyway. Christian, you are both the Bride and the bridesmaid, the helper of the Bride. You are both the Bride and the friend of the Bridegroom, who is Christ. You cannot pretend that nothing is wrong while Jesus weeps for His Beloved. It is not love.
"Teach me Your way, O Lord,
that I may walk in Your truth;
unite my heart to fear Your name."
Psalm 86:11
When did this stop being the right song? When did the Bride begin to listen to her foreign wives as they plead for the right to keep sinning, keep blurring lines, keep adjusting the Lord's way to fit their agenda? When did the gifts given to the Bride start letting her foreign wives have their way?
"For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
and He ponders all his paths." Proverbs 5:21
None of the sin has escaped the Father's notice. Every time the reward of His Son's suffering is trampled in the dust. Every time the Holy Spirit is grieved. Every time the victory of the Cross is diminished by our foreign wives' insistence that sin is normal, and we all mess up, and it's impossible to be holy. We cannot be in agreement with the Father and continue to tell the Bride that the Father doesn't care about her foreign wives.
So the prophets are sent out. They are lowly and despised, for it is rare that the wise and learned of our age will be foolish enough to listen. They are shut up again and again. Sometimes they themselves do not understand what they say--and you church leaders do not help them, you do not sit and listen and try to comprehend, you just laugh them off and ensure that their disruptive behavior will no longer disturb your sleep. Compliant with every whim of the foreign wives, your "worship format" becomes more dignified, more structured, more prescribed, more locked into what you think you know, while the possibility of repentance or change or collective sanctification remains locked outside with the Holy Spirit.
However, if so-called prophets appear and claim to have visions and dreams and words about the effectiveness of your ministry, your sweet sacrifice before the Lord, your love and devotion to Him, His tender pleasure and delight in your church...you accept it with all the false humility that can be robbed from the truth!
If you were truly humble, you would do your due diligence and listen, even the Lord's Word is coming from a child! You would care less about the source of the prophecy, and more about the content of the prophecy! You would listen MORE carefully to the words that instruct you to repent! You would care less about what theologians have to say about the danger of prophecy, and more about what the Lord says about the danger of ignoring prophecy!
When will you see that the Lord does not desire for you to remain babies in Christ, but rather to grow up into all maturity, functioning in perfection, living with MORE of the Holy Spirit's power than the early Church had, not less!
But these kinds of words are dismissed as divisive, unforgiving, negative. It's as if all the books of judgement and wrath are suddenly forgotten, and you believe that God would never be harsh.
"For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods."
1 Kings 11:4-8
Here is the right way to deal with foreign wives. Let this reality soak into your heart, and don't try to water it down or make it softer than it is:
And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the Law. Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it.”
Ezra 10:2-4
"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."
2 Timothy 4:3-4
2 Timothy 4:3-4
"For they are a rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear
the instruction of the Lord;
who say to the seers, 'Do not see,'
and to the prophets, 'Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.'"
Isaiah 30:9-11
These are the ways of the Bride when She is led astray by foreign wives. There is but one spouse for Her, and He is Christ. There is no room for anyone else.
"I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ."
lying children,
children unwilling to hear
the instruction of the Lord;
who say to the seers, 'Do not see,'
and to the prophets, 'Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.'"
Isaiah 30:9-11
These are the ways of the Bride when She is led astray by foreign wives. There is but one spouse for Her, and He is Christ. There is no room for anyone else.
"I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ."
2 Corinthians 11:2-3
How are we to deal with foreign wives? We are not to trust in our wisdom or our leaders or our good intentions, that is for sure. This is what happened to the wisest man who ever lived, who was a rightful king of the Lord's chosen people and began with the best of intentions:
How are we to deal with foreign wives? We are not to trust in our wisdom or our leaders or our good intentions, that is for sure. This is what happened to the wisest man who ever lived, who was a rightful king of the Lord's chosen people and began with the best of intentions:
"For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods."
1 Kings 11:4-8
Here is the right way to deal with foreign wives. Let this reality soak into your heart, and don't try to water it down or make it softer than it is:
And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the Law. Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it.”
Ezra 10:2-4
Find those prophets who spoke the truth to you. Find the Lord in your prayer closet. Break open your heart and mourn, and ask for help. All the wives and their children must be put away. Not reasoned with, not converted, not altered. They must be put away.
Some may say, "Oh but the Lord would never mean for these men to actually send away their wives and children! Surely there is another interpretation." I assure you there is not. The severity of the Lord's response is always a just and equal match to the severity of the sin.
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