Do not let our lampstand be removed

Proverbs 6:23 (AMP) For the commandment is a lamp, and the whole teaching [of the law] is light, and reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

Matthew 5:13-16 (AMP) You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.14You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.15Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.16Let your light so shine before men that they may see your [a]moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and [b]recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.

Revelation 2:5 (AMP) Remember then from what heights you have fallen. Repent (change the inner man to meet God's will) and do the works you did previously [when first you knew the Lord], OR ELSE I WILL VISIT YOU AND REMOVE YOUR LAMP STAND FROM ITS PLACE, unless you change your mind and repent.

Churches and individual ministries do not just get closed down or taken out by the randomness of life nor are they removed because of worldly debt, sickness, burned out servants, robbery, heart attacks, or the likes. Are worldly debts bigger than God? Is the devil bigger than God that the devil can take out one of His servants or His churches? Nothing can touch His children without His consent. We are the children of God and we are not subjected to the randomness of life. We are to be subjected to the Will of God and His sovereignty but sadly many of us have not surrendered all of the authority of our lives over to HIM. Is the randomness of life greater than His Word spoken over our lives regarding His Ministry and Kingdom for us? If His Words spoken over our lives does not come to pass, it is our doing and not HIS for He is always Faithful. The randomness of life is not greater but He will NOT supersede the sovereign will of an individual. We can choose to obey or rebel.

There is a difference when a church is persecuted and perhaps martyred for the Gospel and when a church is persecuted by a bill collector. One is serving for the Glory of God while the other may be suffering from the consequences of not obeying God's word.

Proverbs 12:21 (AMP) No [actual] evil, misfortune, or calamity shall come upon the righteous, but the wicked shall be filled with evil, misfortune, and calamity.

Serve the Lord with reverential Fear of HIM. He is God! What does this mean?

Deuteronomy 10:12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but [reverently] to fear the Lord your God, [that is] to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being,

Many are not walking in ALL His ways nor serving HIM with ALL their minds, hearts, and being but are rather walking in the ways of the world and for themselves. Repent and be subjected to HIM instead of being subjected to your own kingdoms and the lusts of the world. How is it that many are walking in all His ways or fully subjected to HIM when they are still subjected themselves to the fear of men, resentment, hurt, unforgiveness, entertainment, worldly addictions, liquor, drugs, smoking, lusts, and the likes!

In order for the Lord to be your Savior, He MUST be your LORD and KING as well. We are not allowed to serve two masters! Repent and cry out to HIM for deliverance! He is your deliverer! Make a choice to let such things go that fill your hearts with fear and bondage. Be FREE for the Kingdom of God is at hand! Have you used His Grace to fight to the point of sweating blood? Yes, the battle is the Lord's but you must make the choice to fight! Like the days of old, the battle was the Lord's but they had to fight and it cost them something! It cost them fathers, brothers, and sons. What has it cost you to serve and follow with ALL your hearts? Has it cost you anything? It will cost you your life! Are you dead to your sins yet? Are you really crucified with HIM? This is not a theory! Are you praying without ceasing to fight asking God to remove that bondage or sin away from you? Are you still carrying your own crosses or have you put them down? Are you praying desperately for the salvation of your families? Why must many of you wait until they are almost dead or on their death beds before you desperately start praying for them? Why are you not desperately praying for them now while they are alive!!!! Have you sweated blood like our Lord Jesus did? What has it cost you? Have you removed the hours of TV and cable from your lives? Have you removed the worthless worldly entertainment of sports, secular music and Hollywood from your lives? Some Christians can recite a whole secular song but many cannot even recite scripture verses. Am I saying TV, sports, and cable are wrong? NO, I am not saying they are wrong but there is a serious problem when many are consumed with it for hours and hours! And many are wondering why there is no spiritual breakthrough for them?

Hebrews 12:4 (AMP) You have not yet struggled and fought agonizingly against sin, nor have you yet resisted and withstood to the point of pouring out your [own] blood. 

Luke 14:27 (AMP) Whoever does not persevere and carry his own cross and come after (follow) Me cannot be My disciple.

Let us call upon HIS Name and Grace to get things right with HIM so that we may fight SIN for He has already won the war at the Cross! Let us Repent and Return to our First Love or else our lampstands may be removed. LET US REMOVE THE HINDRANCES OF OUR LIVES THAT BLOCKS PROPER FELLOWSHIP WITH THE LORD.

Joel 2:12 (AMP) Therefore also now, says the Lord, turn and keep on coming to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning [until every hindrance is removed and the broken fellowship is restored].

Hebrews 12:12-17 So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and drooping hands and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees,13And cut through and make firm and plain and smooth, straight paths for your feet [yes, make them safe and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction], so that the lame and halting [limbs] may not be put out of joint, but rather may be cured.14 Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.15 Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God's grace (His unmerited favor and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancor, bitterness, or hatred) shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it--16That no one may become guilty of sexual vice, or become a profane (godless and sacrilegious) person as Esau did, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.17 For you understand that later on, when he wanted [to regain title to] his inheritance of the blessing, he was rejected (disqualified and set aside), for he could find no opportunity to repair by repentance [what he had done, no chance to recall the choice he had made], although he sought for it carefully with [bitter] tears.

Be free now for the Kingdom of God is at Hand! Make the choice to serve HIM with ALL your hearts, mind, and being for He has given us the keys to the Kingdom!

Fire of God
Steve Yong Kim
April 12, 2012