Shaking

Hebrews 12:25-29

“See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.”

As we look in the portion of Scripture, God gives us two reasons for the shaking. The first reason is so that we will hear His voice. The reason God came down and shook Mount Sinai was that He wanted to speak to the children of Israel to reveal himself in His greatness and His power and to reveal to them His ways. Their failure to heed the voice of God resulted in their failure to enter the Promise Land and their destruction in the desert. God is shaking the world again because He wants to speak to us. God is shaking up economic, political and religious structures, shaking up our comfort zone because He wants us to stop in our business and hear His voice. The shaking is fearful, just as it was for Israel at Sinai, however it is not for our destruction, but to bring us into the promise, if we will hear His voice and obey.

The second reason for the shaking is to remove those things that are made, man-made or temporal, so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Our response to this shaking is for us to transfer our trust from the man-made economic, political and religious kingdom, which is being shaken and disintegrating because of sin, and begin to put our trust and all our assets in the kingdom which cannot be shaken. We must begin by God’s grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

In Daniel chapter 10, Daniel received a revelation and a message concerning a great war. He then set himself on a 21-day fast to understand the message God had given him. On the last day of his fast, after three weeks of spiritual conflict, the angel Gabriel came with the revelation Daniel was praying for. What we are seeing in Egypt today is a result of a national prayer movement of thousands in Egypt over many years. The cry of intercession has risen up before God Almighty and He is shaking Egypt. The ripple effect is sweeping through the Islamic world.

God is shaking the Muslim world today because He wants to speak not only to them but to us, His church. What happens as a result of this shaking depends upon our response to the voice of God. These countries lie in the balance. They can move to greater freedom or greater bondage. Our brethren in the faith in these countries are crying out to God for freedom. We as the church, the people of God, cannot be passive observers. God is trying to speak. We must take the time to cry out to Him, to hear His voice and to respond to Him. We the church were created for such a time as this. I want to encourage you as you see the shaking in our world to begin to be more intentional in your prayer life and kingdom walk. Challenge others to do the same.

“See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven.”

Andy