FIRST LOVE MINISTRY : To Be Left Alone of the Lord

October 1, 1992

"Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind." Mt. 15:14

The most awful judgment from the Lord is not to be upbraided, rebuked, or contended with by the Lord. The most awful judgment is to be "left alone" by the Lord. It is the most awful judgment because it is the final judgment past which there is no hope.

As long as the Lord challenges and contends with someone, it shows there is hope for a man's spiritual condition. It shows the Lord feels there is something salvageable in a man for which it is worth God's effort and trouble to put up with the man by contending with him.

But there comes a time past which contention is of any use in reaching a man to change his course and lead him to repentance. God's goodness is what leads us to repentance. (Rom 2:4) God's contention with us is His goodness in action. But after a point of certain longsuffering, God's goodness toward our stubbornness comes to an end. He declares within Himself, "My Spirit will not always strive with man… [this nation…this church…this generation, etc.]” Gen 6:3.

Once this point is reached, a deceptive calm appears in the lives of those with whom God has ceased striving. The pressure is off. They are left alone to live out the rest of their time in peace and comfort. God strives no more with them. The voice of the prophet is taken out of the way. Offense over truth ceases.

The price of this deceptive calm does not appear till much later— at the judgment seat of Christ. At the judgment, the truth of our standing in Christ becomes apparent, though here it remained hidden. At that time, the judgment of being left alone by the Lord here in peace becomes manifest as our having been dismissed from His Consciousness, being shut out from the Knowledge of Him, and in turn from the fellowship of those who heeded the prophetic voice to pass on ahead of us.

The Knowledge of God: Standard of the Life to Come

In the next life, the Knowledge of God is the standard and basis for all manifest relationship and participation in Kingdom function. As we came to know God here, so shall we appear there in closeness to Him and in immediate fellowship with those of like closeness. Such will be our "ranking.”

There will be no dichotomy between how well we know God and how much fellowship, companionship, and relationship we will be blessed to entertain such as exists now. In the present set-up, you can know the Lord deeply and have few friends. You can have many friends and church relationships yet not know the Lord. You can be given rank in the church that far exceeds your true Knowledge of God, and be of no rank in the church while knowing the Lord far better than anyone in visible leadership.

In the next life however, all dichotomy will be swept away. All level of relationship and function in the Kingdom will perfectly reflect the degree of the Knowledge of God we have developed. Since knowing of God is the only standard by which everything in the next life is measured, dismissal from the Consciousness of the Lord to any degree is the most awful judgment possible upon us. This is why it is a terrible thing to have it said of us, "Let them alone..."

Depart from Me, for I Never Knew You

"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'” Mt. 7:23

The ultimate judgment is final, total dismissal from the Presence of the Lord and of His Consciousness. It is to be finally forgotten by the Lord permanently. Whatever else may characterize hell (flames, darkness, worms, etc.), this is its essence.

But what few in the born-again church realize is that this same dismissal from Divine Consciousness is the judgment that happens to us in lesser degrees and will show itself when we finally stand before the Lord at judgment time. This dismissal comes as a result of our refusal to heed the prophetic word because of pride and self-will.

Once we reject the word, and after a period of contention from the Lord we continue to reject it, we are then "left alone" to that realm of development in our place in God. We can progress no further to know Him. We become dismissed from His Presence-ship, a dismissal that will not become clearly manifest for its seriousness until the judgment.

We become consigned to a certain level of thinking around which our thoughts will continue to make circles till we die. We will be proud of our level of attainment in Him, not realizing what we have become cut off from in Him.

Knowing Not the Day of His Visitation

“….and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation." Lk. 19:44

When Jesus came to His people, He was unrecognized throughout His life except by a few. Even those who recognized Him did so only to varying degrees, some more ignorant of His true identity, others less.

The reason Jesus was unrecognized is but one: God came dressed like an ordinary man, and nobody could take seriously the thought that God could appear through a man, least of all to them. "Is not this Joseph’s son, the carpenter?" they said.

So it was no one could seriously entertain the possibility that Jesus was who He said He was: God visiting man through the flesh. Certainly no one with a religious mindset could believe this.

As God's voice to man, however, Jesus went on to contend with the Israelite populace. He strove with them, interfaced with them—exhorting, upbraiding—seeking to bring all to the Knowledge of the Father through the presentation of prophetic truth (i.e., truth activated by the Spirit for that generation).

But at the end, He left Israel alone. The time for contention was at an end. This was the judgment marking the consignment of the Jewish people to two millenniums of God blindness and persecution.

What is for us to know, however, is that God has not changed the way He presents Himself to His people, the Church. Jesus still presents Himself through the prophetic voice of ordinary saints. God is still coming to man through man.

And the same scenario is being repeated hourly at all levels of relationship throughout the present church: men declaring the prophetic truth of God to their brethren, contending for relational truth with the forthright meekness of Christ, yet failing to be recognized as the voice of God, perpetually rejected as meddlers and troublemakers.

In prophetic relationship, the same truth applies in which there comes an end to prophetic contention. Prophets are released from their burden because a stiff-necked man or woman will not listen to them. It may be an entire church. It may be a family. It may be a single individual:

Jer. 7:16 "As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you…. 11:14 Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster.”

God comes to that place where He calls His prophetic saints into His rest, passing the final judgment that says, "Let them alone..." All the while, these saints knew not that they were being visited by the Lord.

The story of church history is the sifting out of those who knew the Lord from those who didn't. It is the ranking of the people of the Lord according to their reception of prophetic relational truth into their lives—a ranking to be revealed at His coming.

Many have not known the Lord, period. Others have known the Lord, but not as well as they thought, certainly not well enough to recognize His visitation of them through prophetic relationship. Thus they have consigned themselves to a certain realm of circular thinking, a realm they remain unable to transcend because of their repeated rejection of prophetically personified truth through an unbroken will. They are decreed by the Lord to be left alone, dismissed from His Consciousness beyond their present level.

Remember Not the Former Things

"Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past.” Is. 43:18

When we appear before the Lord, our memory of our past lives based in the time continuum will be wiped away. Hence every relationship based on that memory will be undone. We will not stand before the Throne to claim the earthbound fellowship of our earlier "church mates" as we knew it, lived in it, and preserved it. At that day we will only know one another based on the compatibility of our development into the Knowledge of God.

Our degree of development into the Knowledge of God will form the basis on which we recognize and relate to one another. Church mates we knew well on earth only after the flesh will become strangers to us. Those we never met here but with whom we shared the same quest for God will become immediate intimates.

Because of this, whole church consciousnesses will disappear. The memory of churches whose primary relationships were built through people's natural compatibilities will be wiped away! It will be as if such churches never existed. This is the meaning of the “removing of a church's candlestick” (Rev. 2:5). The church will simply be forgotten.

All memory of any and every set of church relationships on earth will occur through the manifestation of the Knowledge of God we obtained through those relationships. Our recognition of one another (hence our memory) will be based in that manifestation.

No one who contended with our knowledge of God will be known or remembered. Those who contended with us but are still found in the Kingdom through some knowledge of God in them will be known by us only for that degree of their knowing of Him, known at a distance. Again, all this is a part of the judgment that does not appear now.

For this cause, it is a dangerous thing to be forgotten of the Lord in any degree. It is a terrible thing to be left alone by those through whom He has contended with us. For those we knew so well as church friends only after the flesh will have no contact with us in the kingdom. And those whom God sent to us for prophetic relationship that we rejected will rule over us, no longer found as outcasts from church fellowship. They will be close to Christ, and close to one another.

These are they who will sit down at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob while we look on at great distance, or worse, are shut out (Lk. 13:28-30). Neither at that day will we be able to draw upon the support of natural family members when we stand before the Lord. At that time, all sense of family relationship will be totally based on our Knowledge of the Heavenly Father through the practice of His will (Mt. 12:50).

The Nearing Manifestation of All Things

"Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” Mt. 10:26

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Heb. 4:13

The voice of the Lord continues to go forth, contending with the church through a new generation of prophetic relationship rising within its midst. A certain harvest of hearers is beginning to appear, a generation that will lead the remaining earthbound church through its coming trials unto victory.

But in the overall church, there is a lull before a storm. It is a lull in which God has ceased to speak to the church by a certain generation of prophetic people. He has ceased to contend. He has said, "Let them alone." So He has removed that prophetic generation from any further contention with the church. He has brought them a rest in which they still await something to come.

What is that "something"? It is their manifestation as Kingdom sons of God in the last days at the coming of the Lord. It is their revelation through translation into a new realm of glory never beheld before—a glory that for a number will include new immortal glorified bodies.

But meanwhile, the overall church sleeps on in ignorance. No more from that prophetic generation are being sent to wake it. They have heard, and in unbroken willfulness they have refused. And now the Lord has said, "Let them alone…for they knew not the time of their visitation."

In light of the momentous historic precipice on which we stand this hour, it is imperative that to whatever remaining degree any of us has ears to hear anything from the Lord, let us bend our will to hear it. Let us not reject any "package" in which it may come to us saying "Is not this the carpenter’s son?"