Part I

During praise and worship at a service, in a vision I saw the Lord and He said, “Come up here!”  I yielded to His call and by the Holy Spirit I found myself in a place of nothing by white.  I looked around to see what the Lord might want to reveal, but I saw nothing.  In the Spirit, I looked behind me and I saw a wall of white, it was like a fog bank that I could not see through.  Suddenly, the army of the Lord came through the wall of fog galloping on horses.  They were coming directly towards me, passing in front and behind me.

I turned in the direction they were headed, and I saw the Lord turn and looked back at me.  As He rode, He said, “Tell My leaders that if they will allow Me to come in, the armies of Heaven will back them up.”

I then saw a map of the United States below and in front of me.  I then watched as the Lord and His armies were coming down from Heaven in all directions; to the East and West Coasts, to the north and to the south; from sea to shining sea and from border to border, the Lord was coming to do battle and to bring war.

Part II

In the service, the left-hand of the Lord appeared in front of the lectern with the palm open facing the audience.  I pondered what the appearance of His left hand could mean because I had no recollection of the Bible mentioning it.

I asked the Lord, “What does this mean?”  Immediately the understanding came.  The interpretation was that the Lord has two hands, and He is and will move in revival and judgment.  In this hour He is moving in both ways.

Comments

As I have meditated on this vision, it becomes clear that the Lord released both parts to explain to all of us what He is and is about to do in the earth.  The Lord has been speaking to me for several years that He would move in judgment and revival simultaneously.  Many leaders, and others in the Church, no longer believe that the Lord moves in judgment saying and teaching the false doctrine that Christ took the judgment of the Lord upon Himself on the Cross.  However, the New Testament is clear that Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, still moves in judgment within His Church and in the nations.

We dare not forget the words of John the Baptist speaking of Jesus said, “…His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:17, NASB95).  Lest we think that judgment is reserved for the Book of Revelation, we just listen to Jesus Himself when He spoke of the judgment that would come to Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple:

And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.” (Mark 13:2, NASB95)

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near.  Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. (Luke 21:20–22, NASB95)

Both Paul and the writer of Hebrews made it clear, reminding all of us of the Lord’s words, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay.” (Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30a)  Hebrews 10:30b emphasizes that the Lord will judge His people, quoting Deuteronomy 32:36 which is in the context of the Lord telling of the judgments He will bring upon His own people for their sin and perversity.  We have become that people by no longer listening to the voice of the Lord and by continually and habitually grieving His Holy Spirit.  What are we observing?  The Scriptures pull the reality of the Lord’s judgment together from both the Old and New Testament.

There is no coincidence that is again in the book of Hebrews where we find, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)  And yet, we must go further and deeper into the Scripture.

We must ask ourselves what happened to Ananias and Sapphira?  Peter said plainly that Ananias had not lied to man but to the Holy Spirit.  When Peter finished speaking, Ananias died in the assembly of believers having been struck down by the Lord and was buried (Acts 5:3-6).  If this was not enough for the unbelieving, it was revealed that Sapphira conspired with her husband to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test and Peter pronounced the same judgment upon her and immediately she died (Acts 5:7-10).

Can there be any doubt that when Peter was called upon by the Holy Spirit to pen, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God” (I Peter 4:17), that the memory of Ananias and Sapphira was vividly clear to him?  Fear fell upon the Church as a result of judgment; I would submit that there is little of the fear of the Lord in His Church and the only way this will be rectified is with judgment.

And what shall we say of Paul as he called upon the Corinthian church to take on the responsibility for cleansing themselves of the sin of a Christian who had taken his father’s wife (I Corinthians 5).  Paul says the following-

“For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.  In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.  Your boasting is not good.  Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?  Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.  For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.  I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.  But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders?  Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges.  Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” (1 Corinthians 5:3–13, NASB95 – emphasis added for clarity)

Paul is not patting the man in question on the head and back saying, “Good job!”  No, he is pronouncing judgment, not on his own, but by direction of the Holy Spirit in the form of delivering him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh in order that he might be saved.  The Lord is not absent in Paul’s decision.  This is exactly what the Lord did with Israel and Judah when they continually and habitually moved in disobedience; He handed them over to their enemies.

A few chapters later, Paul teaches that judgment (using the words judgment, or judged five times in six verses) is a reality when a person does not examine himself when taking communion-

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.” (1 Corinthians 11:27–34, NASB95 – emphasis added mine)

Paul purposely drives the point home saying that the proof that judgment from the Lord has come to the Corinthian church – “For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.” (I Corinthians 11:30; NASB95)  Discipline from the Lord from Paul’s standpoint includes judgment and it is the direct result of guilt.

Our western mindset limits our ability to pull Paul’s teaching from chapter 11 into his discourse on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but he placed no such limits.  We must reckon with the fact that Paul is discussing the building up of the body of Christ through the gifts in chapters 12-14, and we must read these in context.  The point is that if we do not allow the Holy Spirit to flow through His people, i.e., not properly discerning the Lord’s body, we are then guilty, and the Lord will release His judgment.  Can any leader deny that judgment has been released against the Church across America if not the world because of our habitual practice of not honoring the Holy Spirit in our services by allowing Him to move among His people?

Mark C. Biteler