During our service on July 31^st, 2022, I was given a vision of the Lord kneeling with a hammer in His right hand.  He was hammering a man, hitting him on the head, driving him deeper and deeper, with the intent of driving him completely into the ground if needed.

Visions are powerful means by which the Holy Spirit communicates His truth.  Immediately seeing the hammer, I remembered what the Lord revealed to the prophet in Jeremiah chapter 23 –

Jeremiah 23:25–33 (NASB95; emphasis mine) — 25 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ 26 “How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, 27 who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal? 28 “The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the Lord. 29 “Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock? 30 “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who steal My words from each other. 31 “Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who use their tongues and declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ 32 “Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,” declares the Lord, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares the Lord. 33 “Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you saying, ‘What is the oracle of the Lord?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What oracle?’ The Lord declares, ‘I will abandon you.’

The entire chapter outlines the Lord’s view of the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep (v. 1).  Beginning with denouncing shepherds, He rebukes the prophets –

Jeremiah 23:10–12 (NASB95; emphasis mine) — 10 For the land is full of adulterers; For the land mourns because of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course also is evil And their might is not right. 11 “For both prophet and priest are polluted; Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the Lord. 12 “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them, They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it; For I will bring calamity upon them, The year of their punishment,” declares the Lord.

The Lord declares that He has found their wickedness (v. 11), and as direct result, He states that He will bring calamity upon them.  These are sobering if not distressing words of impending doom for those who discovered to be polluted.  It is important to note that unlike the current view among America church leaders, the Lord places Himself as The One behind the judgment He finds necessary to pour out by His hand.  This is in direct contradiction to today’s popular heresy that the Lord does not bring judgment; if anything bad comes it is the devil and must be resisted and we must take authority.  If we attempted to tell that to Moses, Aaron, Korah, Saul, and David along with Ananias, Sapphira and many others who were judged by the Lord, they would mock that misguided teaching to our face!

The vision the Lord released to me is yet another in a long series of prophetic revelations concerning His intention to judge His leaders if they will not return to Him and heed His voice.  He is sending forth His word which is designed to break the stony hearts and minds of His leaders and bring them to repentance.  He will bring His word repeatedly, but if they do not yield, He will drive them into the ground.  If they do not change, they will perish.  The Lord continues to pound the truth of the revelation He first gave to me in 1997.

The drift in the Church and among many of His leaders has come to a level where the Lord will rebuke them to their face.  The Lord sets forth a stark contrast between the deceptive dreams of the prophets and the minister who has His word and speaks it in truth.  For the Lord, they are as different as straw and grain (Je 23:28).  But then the Lord goes further saying, “Is not My word  like fire… and like a hammer which shatters a rock?” (Je 23:29)

In the very next verse, the Lord emphatically states that He is against those who steal their words from one another, proclaiming, “The Lord declares,” when in fact they have not heard, because they no longer hear from the Lord because they do not stand in His counsel (Je 23:22).  Having eyes to see they cannot see; having ears to hear they cannot hear.

The days of the wrath of the Lord are here and will continue to increase in intensity of judgment if the leaders of the Church and His people do not repent, turn to hear the word of the Lord and obey His voice.

Mark C. Biteler