Seeds of Destruction

Part One: The Seeds of Destruction

Introduction

The prophet Elijah is a key figure in scripture and in the history of the nation Israel.

We first meet this man in 1 Kings 17, when he is introduced to us, as Elijah the Tishbite, who was an inhabitant of Gilead.

This remarkable biblical character, plays not only a key role in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament. He appears along with another great biblical character, Moses, with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and we are told in Malachi 4v5 that he will appear at the very end of days, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. I believe this will be as one of the two witnesses that we read about in Revelation 11.

But he is first introduced to us confronting the evil King of Israel, Ahab and telling him that there would be no rain (remember that James 5v17 tells us that Elijah prayed and it didn't rain for 3.5 years, which incidently is the same length of time the Antichrist will rule) as a judgement from God for all the evil and idolatry that was being practiced in Israel.

Where did it all go wrong for Israel? Under the godly reign of King David, the twelve tribes were united, one nation under God. Blessed, victorious over their enemies and walking in righteousness before Jehovah.

But in a short period of time, following King David's death, the nation descended into anarchy and apostasy.

Before we examine the days of Elijah, we need to understand why and when this happened, as this will help us to understand why things got so bad under the rulership of King Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel.

The Seeds of National Apostasy and Wickedness 

To understand the origin of the national apostasy, rebellion and wickedness, we must go back to the reign of David's son by Beersheba, King Solomon.

In 1 Kings 11 we read that Solomon loved and went after many strange women, from the nations that God explicitly prohibited.

In addition, to marrying the daughter of Pharoah (remember Egypt was a hot bed of esoteric, demonic and occult mystery religions), Solomon also went after women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians and Hittites.

For a man who was renowned for having such wisdom, you question his wisdom, when it came to women. After all he had 700 wives and 300 concubines, that's almost 3 wives/concubines for each day of the year!

Worse of all rather than him changing and turning these women to Yahweh the opposite was true and they turned his heart away from God. v3

God had warned His people that this would happen.

v2 Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

It is abundantly clear by Solomon's actions that this indeed was the case.

4For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Look at his actions and how much they turned away his heart from Yahweh.

He went after:

• Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians

• Moloch the abomination of the Ammonites and built him a high place

• He built a a high place for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites

• So did he for all his strange wives, who burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods

v6 sums it up beautifully

6And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.

And so the demonic power and influence of these gods got a foothold in the culture of the nation and their Satanic influence grew over time, to the point of taking over the worship, adoration and hearts of the people. Yahweh was pushed out and replaced by false gods. Does that not ring a bell and mirror what has happened in Western society?

It always has a starting point or origin and in Israel's case it started with Solomon and his wives and then incrementally over a period of time it affects and permeates every part of society, much like leaven does with dough. See Matthew 13v33, 16v11.

Galatians 5v9

9A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

Speaking of the corrupting influence of evil of any kind.

The False Evil gods He brought into the Land

Who were these gods that Solomon brought into the culture of the nation and what did they represent and what Satanic/demonic power was released in the land as a result of the people bowing down and worshipping them?

Let's examine two in particular.

Ashtoreth

also known as Ishtar

Ashtoreth was a Canaanite goddess of sexual love (fertility and perversion) and war.

Notice v5 says she was the goddess of the Zidonians, which is significant, as when we will look at the days of Elijah, his nemesis and adversary was Queen Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab and guess what, she was the daughter of Ethbaal, the king of the Zidonians!

Ashtoreth was known as the Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah 7v18;44v15-18) and by many different names in various cultures, Aphrodite to the Greeks, Astarte etc and was associated with the planet Venus, the morning star.

But it as the goddess of sexual immorality and promiscuity, especially perverting sex and undermining marriage between a husband and wife - in accordance with God's divine order and commandments - that Ashtoreth invaded the culture of Israel. The door was opened by Solomon and over time this goddess became more and more powerful, possessing the culture of the nation.

Here is were we see the correlation to our day, with our culture being taken over by this ancient spirit with all the depravity, immorality and evil that accompanies it.

Much of what we are experiencing in our day, is as a result of what happened in the 1960s with it origins in the United States of America.

Why is it that the USA has been the source of spreading so much evil and sin in our world? Could it be in it's esoteric, occult and Freemasonic roots?

Drugs, sex and rock n roll invaded the USA and much of the West in the 1960s. The so called sexual revolution, "free love" and the promiscuity and immorality that accompanied it, took over the nations and behind it was this ancient goddess who had been invited back into the land. They banned prayer in the schools in the US and pushed God out of the culture. The result has been the proliferation of sexual immorality over the last 50+ years, to the point, were men can now marry men and women and women and the sanctity of marriage has been undermined, with couples just living together, people sleeping around and having countless sexual encounters with different people etc.

Things once considered taboo and shameful, like sex outside of marriage (fornication), having children outside of marriage, not getting married and just living together, adultery and homosexuality, (with first civil partnerships and now the progression to gay marriage) are now the norm and no one blinks an eyelid.

I got the following information about the goddess Ashtoreth, from listening to a message by Jonathan Cahn from his book, "Return of the Gods".

This information is amazing and explains what we are witnessing in the West, with our culture becoming unrecognisable from that of our forefathers.

1.The worship of Ashtoreth by the Israelites, resulted in the paganisation of the culture through immorality and sexuality.

2.She was known as in Greek culture as the "Great Sacred Prostitute". The Greek word is porneia from which we get the word pornography.

3.She described herself as 'I am a woman and I am a man"

Sound familiar in the light of the the transgender, gender fluid madness that has gripped our culture.

4.She had men go about in her temple dressed as women and people would bring their children to watch.

5.The spiritual power behind this goddess hated men and sought to undermine masculinity and their role within society and the family, as well defeminising women. Blurring the lines between men and women and the God ordained roles they play.

These next facts are mind blowing:

6In ancient culture Ashteroth was linked to the sign of the rainbow. 🌈

7.She was known as the goddess of parades, with men made to parade as women and vice versa.

Wait for it!

8.She possessed the culture during a specific month of the year. You've got it the month of June, which has become Pride month!

9.On the 26th June, on the Day of Tammuz l, there was a casting of a spell, to make men love men.

It's no coincidence that three of the most transformative and infamous US Supreme Court ruling were made on 26th June including the legalisation of gay marriage.

Friends do you see that history is repeating itself.

Our nations turned away from God, pushed him to the fringes of our society and culture and the false gods and goddesses have filled the void.

Now we are reaping what was sowed.

But I must emphasise that this didn't happen in one day or overnight.

It was gradual, insidious, starting with small concessions, the incremental secularising of our laws and culture, the rejection of God's laws and God Himself, to what we now see, with our culture taken over by depravity, occult and Satanic wickedness and the calling of evil good and good evil.

In the United Kingdom homosexuality was legalised in England and Wales in 1967 as was abortion in England, Scotland and Wales in the same year.

The West, with it's Judeo Christian values, ethos and influence, as exemplified by our laws being based on the 10 commandments, turned away from God, just as ancient Israel had done all those centuries ago, with the incremental and inevitable slide into "do as thou wilt" (basically live as you please and satisfy every lustful appetite) becoming the law, to the point were our society is being asked to recognise and validate those who identify as women even though they are men and vice versa.

Evil reigns and anything goes. Behind it all the false gods, the demonic entities, principalities and powers, all because we turned our back on God and now the nations who once knew and honoured God, are reaping what they sowed.

Molech

Molech (or Moloch, Milcom) was the national god of the Ammonites, whose land bordered Israel’s territory east of Jordan. A well known feature of the worship of Molech was the sacrifice of children by fire, a practice that in Israel carried the death penalty ( Leviticus 18:21;  Leviticus 20:2-5;  2 Kings 23:10;  Jeremiah 32:35).

Notice the head of the bull in the image above.

The children of Israel became so seduced by this evil god that they actually sacrificed their children to it! Psalm 106v37-40.

Imagine God's chosen people stooping to such a spiritual apostate state.

Psalm 106v37 tells us that they sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons!!

King Ahaz of Judah caused his son to pass through the fire. 2 Kings 16v3.

But surely this god is not active in our nation or the nations of the world today.?

Oh yes, he is and with all the seductive and demonic power that he had in the days of Elijah and before those days.

The only thing is that in our day children are sacrificed on the altar of self convenience and expediency.

The sacrifice has been sanitised with words like termination and abortion, women's rights and healthcare.

You talk about calling evil good and good evil. Imagine a helpless child being torn apart in it's mother's womb and calling such murderous barbarity healthcare.. But then it's not a child it's a fetus.

People can call it what they like and sanitise it but the reality is it is an abomination to God and is murder of the most grave kind, infanticide.

Now I want to make something clear. If you have had an abortion in the past their is forgiveness, healing and hope. If we truly repent and confess our sins the Lord is faithful and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us from unrighteousness. 1 John 1v9.

God hates the sin but loves and is willing and able to forgive and deliver the sinner.

60 million babies have been murdered in the United States since abortion was legalised.

The blood of the innocent cries out to a Holy God for vengeance.

As the words of the song go, "they save the trees and kill the children".

In our own land, which for so long protected the unborn, we see Westminster stepping in and legalising abortion in Northern Ireland. Shame on them and the Labour MP who was the driving force behind it. Satan always finds willing collaborators to do his work.

We live in a sin sick, evil world but praise God the day is coming when "judgement and justice will run down like water and righteousness as a mighty stream". Amos 5v24

Our Heritage

Britain produced the Wesley brothers, the Welsh (100,000 souls saved in one year) and Hebridean revivals, the Kells revival here in Northern Ireland and men like Duncan Campbell, Evan Roberts, the Jeffrey brothers and Smith Wigglesworth.. Not to mention the miracle of Dunkirk when 350,000 men were saved from annihilation by the Nazis and God in His sovereign grace saved our nation from Hitler and Fascism.

In the United States they had the Great Awakenings including the First Great Awakening in the 1700s with the Lord using the British evangelist, George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards in a mighty way. (Jonathan Edwards preached the famous sermon "Sinners in the hands of an angry God").

The United States produced great men and women of God including Dwight L Moody, Charles Finney, John G Lake, AW, Tozer, Kathleen Kuhlman and TL Osborne to name but a few, not to mention the Azuza Street Revival, with the restoration of the Pentecostal experience and baptism in the Holy Ghost evidenced by speaking in tongues at the start of the 20th century.

Both our nation and the United States sent missionaries all over the world. At one time the world was blessed through our Christian witness but we have turned our back on God and bit by bit pushed Him out of our culture.

The inevitable result is what our children now face. Satanic confusion in the classroom with an all out attack on not just that which is called a abomination but God's very image in mankind and gender. For goodness sake teenagers are identifying as cats etc and the authorities are going along with this nonsense.

Our Challenge

It's time to wake up before it's too late!

This is happening before our very eyes and the church continues to sing in the sweet bye and bye and waits to escape persecution through the rapture.

We are completely unfazed and almost desensitised to what is happening in our land.

The church has been conditioned to accept what was once called evil, the same as the world. There is no discernment, urgency or concern.

It is as if, in a lot of cases, we have become cocooned in the "church system" with our faithful attendance at meetings and paying our tithes satisfying our religious conscience but leaving us ill equipped to stand against the darkness.

I assure you the danger is clear, real and present and it's only going to get worse.

We need Power from on High and to be conformed to the image of Christ, in order to be burning and shining lights, that can reach precious souls who are being held captive by the kingdom of darkness.

Romans 13

10Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

11¶And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

12The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

13Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

14But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Folks are we going to just wait selfishly to be raptured (as long as I'm alright Jack) and never have an impact on our families, communities and nation.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in the blessed hope, the catching away of the church, our gathering together unto Him.

But Jesus and not the rapture itself should be the source of our hope and focus.

Yes, we should be looking for the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ but not selfishly so that we will not have to endure persecution.

We can't have an impact and drive back the powers of darkness by playing at church and going on the way we have.

Religion will not save and rescue the dying souls that face the blackness and darkness of eternity.

Churchianity will not save our children who are being targeted and attacked by Satan and his cohorts.

The hour is a lot later than many believe and the danger is far more real and present than we realise.

Our Future

We need the Spirit of the Living God to awaken our hearts to the lateness of the hour and the darkness and danger and impart to us such a yearning and insatiable hunger to be prepared and positioned to receive the promised last day outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

James 5v7&8

7¶Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

8Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

Are we waiting expectingly for the former and latter rain, the endtime outpouring that is inextricably linked to the coming of the Lord.

I believe on the basis of scripture that God will have an army, a true pure and spotless bride that is equipped, empowered and endued with Power from on High to take on the powers of darkness head on and to see countless souls saved in the endtime harvest.

Our salvation was never meant to be a fire insurance policy. It's about more than going to a building every Sunday.

Do you want to know what it's about?

It's about being disciples and witnesses, who take the gospel of the kingdom and preach it with signs and wonders following.

It's about being fishers of men, labourers in the harvest field.

Not living unto ourselves but becoming bond servants to Christ. Becoming bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh until once again Jesus and Jesus only is seen and the Word once again becomes flesh and dwells among men through a sanctified, separated and saturated people. By saturated, I mean filled to overflowing with Christ Himself.

Paul could say in Galatains 2v20

20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

This is where we have to come too. The complete death of self effort, self righteousness, self aggrandisement, self reliance everything that is of our old nature. Religion loves self and appeals to self.

But that's not the way of the Kingdom of God.

We must become dead men and women walking..

A dead person can do nothing. They have no will, strength, ability etc.

This is who God will raise up and use in these last days. Those who have sacrificed self on the Altar, those living sacrifices who are not conformed to this world but who are transformed by the renewing of their mind. Romans 12v1&2.

No longer us living but Christ who is our life, living His life through us, through empty earthen vessels, that have been sanctified and fitted for the master's use. 2 Timothy 2v21.

Be encouraged today. God is for us and not against us.

He has prepared good things for us.

He is in control and He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

In the next message in this series, the Days of Elijah, we will examine how the kingdom was divided and led deeper into the grip of a counterfeit religious system and apostasy under the power of the gods that had been invited into the land.