Sound The Alarm

“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand.” Joel 2:1

The Lord is speaking to us. He is calling out to sound the alarm. He is saying that it is time for a turning back to Him. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I will relay to you what the Lord has placed on my heart.

Judgment is falling upon us. God’s wrath is approaching us faster each and every passing day. Jesus teaches us the signs of the end of the age in Matthew 24 and these signs are in evidence all around us. A comparison of scripture and current world events will reveal that we are surely living in the last days. We are a sinful nation and the time to repent, pray, and seek God is now.

“Gather together, you shameless nation. Gather before judgment begins, before your time to repent is blown away like chaff. Act now, before the fierce fury of the Lord falls and the terrible day of the Lord’s anger begins. Seek the Lord, all who are humble, and follow his commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly. Perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you-protect you from his anger on that day of destruction.” Zephaniah 2: 1-3

We live a very comfortable life. Americans are extremely blessed with luxury and comforts not experienced in other parts of the world. We have taken these blessings for granted and now we live as if we are entitled to these comforts. We move through our day at a furious pace, our eyes focused on things to be done, bought, or obtained for our pleasure and closed to the signs that we are living as the last generation. We care more about our jobs, earning promotions so we can earn more money to buy more goods that we believe will bring us contentment and joy. We have never been busier. Our children have never been busier. Where is God in all this busyness? Where is worship, teaching the Word to our children, being a light unto the world? All this busyness may help us keep up with the Jones’s but it is driving us further away from Him. We are living in bondage to money, property, work, and activities. We have removed God from his rightful place on the throne and replaced Him with ourselves. We are foolishly deceived into thinking we no longer need Him to meet our needs, to fill us with joy, contentment, and His perfect love. Oh, we say we rely on Him…but does the way we live our lives reflect our true beliefs? Is our reality that we have become enslaved to the world? God is opening our eyes to the truth. The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” Isaiah 29:13

We have conformed to the patterns of the world. The Word is clear that we should NOT conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. That’s a daily process. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”Romans 12:2.

To conform means to give the same shape, outline or contour; to bring into harmony or accord. When we fail to be transformed by the Word and choose to conform to the patterns of the world, believing the world and living like it, then we are enslaving ourselves to the world. Our knowledge of God’s truth is weak in comparison to our knowledge of the world’s truth. We are a people belonging to God and we are supposed to look different so that the lost are drawn to us and desire to know why we are different. Jesus came to set the captive free and to send us out to bring light into a dark and dying world. It is time to become a people of prayer. We need to reconnect to Jesus, to fill our hearts with His word and be transformed!

We have turned into a people who do not want accountability in our lives. We do not want others to tell us what we need to do to get our lives right with the Lord. We do not want to hear truth. We want to be told what our itching ears want to hear. We want to rationalize our ungodly decisions. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 warned that this would happen. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. This lack of accountability in our lives has led to complacency and laziness in pursuing a thriving relationship with our Father. Instead of living out our faith, we make excuses for why we can’t. Where has our reverent fear of the Lord gone? We have put our Holy Father on our level. He is God! He is not okay with our disobedience. Our excuses and rationalizations will not be heard. “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, ‘The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad’.” Zephaniah 1:12 It is time to repent and seek wisdom. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. Psalm 111:10

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7 Our brothers and sisters in Christ are supposed to redirect us with love when we stray. The old saying “pride comes before a fall” is true. Don’t let pride keep you from hearing truth. Accept that we all need accountability to stay on an upright footing.

Judgment day is approaching and on that day we will stand before the Lord and be held accountable to Him for every idle word spoken and every deed done. “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from His presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelations 20:11-15

So the question is are you ready??!! If Jesus was to return today could you honestly say, “I am ready”? Could you honestly say, “I have done everything I know the Father has asked of me”? Could you say, “I have been a good and faithful steward of my time, my money and service to Him”?

If we answer no to any of those questions then repentance is needed. It is time to turn back to the Father and repent! Now is the time to allow Him to create in us a clean heart. Now is the time for us to allow him to heal us from the inside out. We must confess now any sins we have rationalized or made excuses for. We must cast down the idols that have been allowed to come in, control us, and deceive us. Cast them down and lay them before the Lord! Repent for not making time for God! People, we must submit now to our Father, to see what God wants from us and then do it. Right now is the time to repent and seek the Father again and come back to the one who longs to embrace us and hold us in His arms and sing over us sweet melodies. He is drawing us to him, but we must take the first step to lay down the things that keep us from him.

“Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!” Hosea 14:1
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” 2 Corinthians 7:10

After repentance comes the restoration process and everything that the enemy thought he had is given back to us seven times fold. Satan cannot keep what is not his and when the Lord begins the restoration process within us He will take the ruins around us and rebuild them into a beautiful showcase for His glory and His glory alone. He will cause our enemies to flee and favor to fall upon us. Doors that seemed locked before will sling open and we will see the hand of the Lord upon our life in everything we do. Things that once seemed like obstacles will be like pebble stones to walk over. We will not have to jump over hurdles because there before you will be a well paved street.

“Then will I purify the lips of the peoples,
that all of them may call on the name of the LORD
and serve him shoulder to shoulder.
From beyond the rivers of Cush [b]
my worshipers, my scattered people,
will bring me offerings.
On that day you will not be put to shame
for all the wrongs you have done to me,
because I will remove from this city
those who rejoice in their pride.
Never again will you be haughty
on my holy hill.
But I will leave within you
the meek and humble,
which trust in the name of the LORD.
The remnant of Israel will do no wrong;
they will speak no lies,
nor will deceit be found in their mouths.
They will eat and lie down
and no one will make them afraid.”
Sing, O Daughter of Zion;
shout aloud, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O Daughter of Jerusalem!
The LORD has taken away your punishment;
he has turned back your enemy.
The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
On that day they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”
“The sorrows for the appointed feasts
I will remove from you;
they are a burden and a reproach to you.
At that time I will deal
with all who oppressed you;
I will rescue the lame
and gather those who have been scattered.
I will give them praise and honor
in every land where they were put to shame.
At that time I will gather you;
at that time I will bring you home.
I will give you honor and praise
among all the peoples of the earth
when I restore your fortunes [d]
before your very eyes,”
says the LORD.


Zephaniah 3:9-20
I want to close with a personal note. I have an urgent request that you do not wait for the judgment of the Lord to fall upon you. I could have come with a nice fluffy word of ‘peace, peace’, but that is not what God wants us to hear. He wants us to realize that our complacency isn’t okay! America is in need of a great move of God and it will not happen until we repent and start seeking God with all our hearts. The time is near for His return. I do not know the hour or the day. All I know is that I have been compelled to relay that now is the time to come back to the Father.

The other day I was about to read my bible when I shut it and said, “Lord what would you like to tell me today? I will open this book up and where I open it I will trust that this is a word from you.” That is not something I typically do. God took me to Zephaniah, one of the Minor Prophets. I can only tell you that God used those pages to reveal to me that we in America are like those people at that time. It is simple. We need to turn back to God and start reaching a dying world instead of becoming the world. You don’t have to have a minister's’ license to witness, your greatest testimony is the Love of Jesus you have received. Start sharing that and allow God to do the rest.

Rooted In Christ,
Jackie Burgess