If You will, Hear His Voice!

 Loving greetings from Engeltal! We are delightfully enjoying Pastor Tony Kemp’s deep, humble, and humorous teaching as he is obeying the Lord’s mandate to help prepare God’s people for the current and coming moves of God. We hope that you are joining us on our YouTube channel for “Equipping for Global Outpouring.”

The first night he taught on “Overcoming the spirit of procrastination.” It was powerful! I’m sure that the vast majority of us need help on that issue! We will not be able to stand in this day or in what is yet to come without immediate, if not instantaneous, obedience to the Holy Spirit. He’s working on getting us through “the process” of losing our selfish, fleshly nature and becoming mature sons of God, partakers of the Divine Nature.

He allowed me to use the following from his notes:

In Jeremiah 4: 14, the prophet asked this question in the word of the Lord, “How long shall vain thoughts lodge within you?” Recently the Spirit of God gave this scripture to me as I was meditating.

One issue I think we sometimes face in our lives is that of procrastination. Procrastination by definition is the act of putting off or delaying something that needs immediate action. It means to vacillate, to hesitate, to be uncertain, not to act when it is needed or warranted.  Procrastination means that a person puts off things intentionally and habitually. When a person procrastinates, they delay and move too slowly to get something done or to make a decision. Procrastination causes one to be left empty. Vanity means to be empty. Instead of coming up with something, you end up with nothing as the result of procrastination.

To procrastinate means to postpone a decision which needs to be made, a decision which preferably should’ve been made earlier and sooner that would have given an individual an advantage. In other words, procrastination puts you, and/or a person or persons concerned with a decision and action to a disadvantage.

The spirit of procrastination convinces a person through fear not to make a decision because of the anxiety of making the wrong decision. The spirit of procrastination could take a person captive. This kind of procrastination can result in a paralysis. It could be personal procrastination, professional procrastination, relational procrastination or ministry procrastination. When a person procrastinates, it could be as if this person just hung himself.

Believe it or not, procrastination is a dark spirit that observes a person, comes up with a plan and gets them to delay or postpone a decision that will cause them not to enter into divine purpose or fulfill destiny. Once a person overcomes procrastination, they can step into their destiny and fulfill divine purpose. Many times a person does not perceive that the spirit of procrastination is trying to hold them back because of a fear of failure, fear of success, a sense of inferiority, inadequacy, or insecurity, but in any case, is trying to keep the person from destiny or shorten a person’s time in their destiny.

A good example of this would be how procrastination keeps a person from making a decision to receive Christ. The spirit of procrastination attempts to undermine a person’s confidence in the Word of God, the voice of the Holy Spirit, and the will of the father. The spirit of procrastination tries to block, hinder, restrict or contain a person’s progress both in the individual’s private life, relationships, profession, church or ministry. The spirit of procrastination will always lead a person into passivity, inactivity and eventual loss. You see, the spirit of procrastination will operate in both the lives of those who are living in sin and those are trying to be righteous.

In the book of Exodus, God speaks to the prophet Moses and tells Pharaoh, “Let my people go!” When the Lord spoke to Pharaoh, this man decided to procrastinate obeying the word of God. As a result, he lost his kingdom and Egypt had great pain and losses.

Procrastination can lead to personal loss, family loss, financial loss, and spiritual losses. The Word of God makes it clear that Pharaoh hardened his heart against the Word of the Lord. It is very clear by the voice of the Holy Spirit that procrastination is the hardening of the heart against the will of God. Remember Hebrews 3:15, “Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” And 2 Corinthians 6:2b, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

It looks as if procrastination is something that needs to be repented of in the eyes of God. It is considered vanity. And the Lord is very clear when he asked the question, “How long shall vain thoughts live within you?” Any time you listen to a spirit of procrastination, you’re missing something that God has for you, that Jesus purchased, that may be part of your inheritance. It is possible that the spirit of procrastination can cause you to miss the will of the Father.

In Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus was teaching about the ten virgins. Five of those virgins put oil in their vessels and were filled with light and five of them procrastinated putting oil in their vessels and did not have the light when they needed it. In this case, the spirit of procrastination caused the foolish virgins to miss the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the Return of Jesus, and the Kingdom of God. The five wise virgins prepared for the future. The spirit of procrastination kept the five foolish virgins from being ready for the opportunity, purpose, destiny, and future fulfillment that Jesus had for them. The five virgins were considered wise because they did not delay or put off what needed to be done. The five virgins that chose to put off what needed to be done were called foolish by the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Matthew 23:23, Jesus was talking about giving tithes and offerings. He spoke to religious leaders and said, “These you ought to have done and not to have left the other undone.” Procrastination causes you to leave things undone that are valuable and important to God.

Do not let uncertainty, indecision, dread, and the opinions of others who repeat what the spirit of procrastination is saying, keep you from being, doing, and having your destiny. It is very clear from the Word of the Lord that God honors those who are immediately and instantaneously obedient to His voice. In 1 Kings chapter seventeen, the great prophet Elijah is honored because this is what the Holy Spirit has to say about him, “He went and did according to the Word of the Lord.”

When you look at the ministry of Jesus, those who obeyed His word instantly, were healed instantly. Those who obeyed His word immediately, were healed immediately. It appears that instantaneous and immediate obedience releases the Presence and the power of God into one’s life. Procrastination causes a person to lose the manifestation of the Presence and the power of God. When a person procrastinates, they delay the promises of God from coming to pass. When a person does not hesitate and makes a decision to obey the Word of the Lord, it causes the promises of God to come to pass faster, quicker, sometimes immediately, and on occasion instantaneously! Turn now from the spirit of procrastination to the spirit of God and receive the manifestation of God’s promises. Receive now dramatic answers to prayer and God’s power to manifest the miraculous!

A Perspective on the Current Situation:

So how does this fit with our current situation with the Psalm 91 pestilence? We so often quote 2 Chronicles 7:14, but if we take it in context, we see a much bigger picture that applies to the present circumstances. “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people (the current virus); If my people, which are called by my name, shall (1) humble themselves, and (2) pray, and (3) seek my face, and (4) turn from their wicked ways; then will I (A) hear from heaven, and will (B) forgive their sin, and will (C) heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14).

When a child is being disobedient, a loving parent will bring the necessary correction to restore the child to right behavior. Go study Hebrews 12 again and understand that in the context of laying aside every weight and besetting sins, our Father’s discipline is a clear indication of His great love for us. After all, He gave His only begotten son to be “wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities [and] the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus bore the punishment so that we could be restored to right relationship with our Father. If we love Him, we will keep His commandments, but if we disobey, there are consequences to be suffered. Jesus bore it all to give us the grace to overcome.

So if our loving Heavenly Father saw that we are in need of His help in laying aside the sins and distractions that are weighing us down, He might remove His hand of protection to allow a cause to bring the effect of His people being “ordered into their homes “until this indignation be overpassed.” This gives us the opportunity to have an appointment with Him to get our hearts right and let His Holy Spirit turn on the searchlight and bring us to repentance and restoration, elevating us to the place where we need to stand in these last days, aligned with His heart and Word, above reproach.

So, what are some of the “wicked ways” that God’s people might need to repent of and turn away from? Here’s a partial list:

Procrastination (delayed obedience is disobedience).

Hypocrisy

Unbelief

Compromise

Selfishness

Control

Backbiting and gossip

And then of course, there are the big five that also bring a curse on the land:
1) shedding of innocent blood (abortion, and Jesus said that if you hate your brother, it carries the same judgment as if you murder him), 
2) sexual immorality and perversion (do I need to elaborate?),
3) idolatry (why are there so few churches that have Sunday evening services? Is it because God’s people prefer the sports and entertainment that is available to them on television, the Internet, etc.?),
4) witchcraft (this not only includes witches on assignment in the church pews, but also Christians who pray soulish, manipulating prayers),
5) breaking of covenants (there are at least as many divorces among church members as in the world)

While we are shut away, let’s intercede on behalf of the church and repent like Daniel in chapter 9 so that this pestilence will be ended at Passover according to the word of several prophets.

Your handmaiden and servant,
Sharon and Philip