Preparing A Flock For
Slaughter
Take heed that no one deceives you
for many will come in My name... and will deceive many
(Matt 24:4,5).
Son of man, prophesy against the
shepherds... Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed only themselves! Should
not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves
with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock
(Ezekiel 34:2,3).
The weak you have not strengthened,
nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor
brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force
and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no
[true] shepherd; and they became food for all the [evil] beasts of the
field...
(Ezekiel 34:4,5).
...nor did My shepherds search for
My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock.
Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord! 'Behold I am against the
shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to
cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more...'
(Ezekiel 34:8-10).
God holds the 'shepherds' or leaders of
His flock accountable. But, because of self-will, pride, convenience and
expediency, 'shepherds' are actually preparing the flock for SLAUGHTER, as
the following account relates!
Do not forget to entertain strangers,
for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it (Heb
13:2, NIV).
The following story is an account of a
personal visitation from an Angel, a Messenger from heaven, who came with a
message of warning. He visited a friend of ours, George, in the north of
England. Here is George's account of what occurred.
[Editor's
comments in square brackets.]
“I was
sitting in a cafe in South Shields... The chair on my right was empty but
there was a man and a woman sitting opposite, and I spoke to them about
normal everyday things.
“A man
came into the cafe, aged around 30, 6 foot tall, medium built, brown hair,
clean cut, neatly dressed (but not flashy). You could tell he was a very fit
man. I think he wore a dark brown suit, but as this happened in November
2000 I am not sure now. He bought a cup of tea and after asking if he could
sit there, sat in the chair on my right.
“He had
no noticeable accent. He said, ‘Do you know these people?' indicating the
couple opposite.
"I said,
‘No.’
“ ‘The
way you were talking to them I thought you knew them’, he said. ‘What are
you doing here?’ ['What are you doing with your spiritual life while you are
here on earth?'] [1]
“I
cannot remember now what I said. At some stage the man spoke to the couple
opposite but I didn’t hear what was said, although I remember thinking, with
a tinge of envy, ‘It must be grand to be able to converse so freely like he
does to that couple.’ ...Were the couple strangers to the man? I don’t know.
I didn’t ask him.
“At some
stage I asked him what job he did and he said that he was a paint inspector.
I said, ‘That sounds interesting. Where do you work?’
“He
said, ‘All over the world.’
“What
does the job involve?’
“He
said, ‘With container ships. When one cargo has been emptied, every trace of
it must be cleaned out and also the paint on the inside of the container
must be cleaned off. The inside of the container is then painted again so
that there will be no trace of the old cargo to contaminate the new cargo.’
[Like the allegory of new and old wine, Matt 9:17.]
“The man
had several sheets of A3 or A4 size paper, and started to read them, but I
didn’t see him carrying them when he came into the cafe and I didn’t see him
take them out of his pocket. On the top sheet of paper I saw that every line
was written or typed on and I could see that some of the writing had been
crossed out. In fact, there were more lines of writing crossed out than left
legible. The paper was too far away from me to be able to say what the
writing was but I said the first thing that came into my mind, ‘Is that a
karaoke song list?’
“He
said, ‘No, but you might like to look at this.’
“He
handed me a sheet of paper on which there was a poem about a shepherd or
farmer who was persuading some sheep to go into his sheep fold. I cannot
remember the exact words, only that the sheep were so happy to be going into
this fold where the shepherd/ farmer said they would be well fed and taken
care of, but they would have to follow him as there was only one way in.
“The
sheep went into the pen and were well fed and contented but were horrified
when they learned they were going for slaughter.
“They
said to the shepherd / farmer, ‘You said we would be taken care of,’ to
which he said, ‘I am a shepherd / farmer. You knew what I was. The job of a
shepherd / farmer is to prepare sheep for slaughter.’
“This
description of the poem is as accurate as I can remember. I said to the man,
‘You can sense the disappointment, can’t you?’ I don’t know if he replied or
not.
After a
few minutes he got up to leave and said something like, ‘Right, carry on
talking to them.’
“This
episode has puzzled me ever since. Was this man an angel with a message of
warning for me?” George.
Answer:
Yes.
Preparing A Flock For Slaughter!
When God speaks He often does so in
allegory or metaphor. One reason is to cloud the meaning so that those who
don’t want God’s righteousness won’t understand the message. To the
righteous, however, it contains spiritual wisdom that can be searched out.
The Message
1. Jesus is the paint inspector. He is
inspecting His vessels. This is a modern-day allegory, similar to the one in
Revelation 11:1. There, He said He is measuring His temple and is counting
the true worshippers in it.
2. He requires vessels that are clean
inside. But sins contaminate people spiritually. Where God’s children do not
turn away from sin and revere the holy things of God, they make themselves
unfit to be receptacles of His HOLY Spirit.
3. The angel was sent to encourage
introspection about personal sin and lack of holiness. Besides being a
personal warning to this individual, it is also a warning to every other one
whom Jesus has called. All believers should seek holiness, but few really
do.
4. The list with entries crossed out
symbolises the fact that many are called but few are chosen (Matt 22:14).
People disqualify themselves (are not ‘chosen’) because of their refusal to
take adequate steps to shun sin. They tolerate sin, treat it lightly, and
live with it instead of putting it away out of their lives. Their motives
are not pure.
5. There is only one way into the sheep
fold: through Jesus Christ, our Lord. As we live the way He showed us to
live, He dwells in us through His Holy Spirit, enabling us to put on the
white clothes of righteousness. His presence in us makes us holy.
6. The believers in the sheep pen were
a flock being prepared for slaughter. The meaning is as that in Zechariah
11:4,7 (see also Zechariah's Amazing Prophecy).
Where people whom God has called (to be
part of His holy family) fail to develop His righteous character (because
they don’t highly esteem what He has made holy), He can only assign them to
this fate. There are many people scattered throughout the world, who just
don’t have a pure desire for the things of God. Their lives are mainly
centred on the things of this life and they pursue a way that leads to
death.
This is the flock being prepared for
slaughter. It’s not that the true Shepherd is malicious or vindictive. It is
because these people don’t care about God’s commandments. They don’t revere
the sanctity of what He has made holy. Two principal matters to do with
God’s holy standards, but which are widely ignored and neglected by
believers, are:
a. the
marriage relationship, and
b. God's Sabbath days.
7. Once you have put your shoulder to
the plough you must not look back. Looking back is not only deliberately
turning away from God. Most people are turned around by Satan through the
everyday physical pulls in living – various wrong desires (1 John 2:16).
They choose the physical instead of the spiritual.
Malcolm B
Heap
A Dream from God as Second Witness,
Confirming the Above (2 Cor 13:1.)
5th
March 2004. An old woman was chained by her neck like a bull. She was in
tears, trying to break the chain, but was not able to do so. I went to help
release her, but two huge strong men resisted me and prevented her being
released. They told me that she is being prepared for slaughter. I prayed to
God for her deliverance.
Kassahun Ayele
Meaning of the Dream: The old
woman represents the antiquated church. People in those denominations are
spiritually bound. They are held captive by church leaders who don't really
care for the people, so much as for themselves and their power or control.
The two huge men represent demonic strongholds. Kassahun's true concern for
those people is represented by his reaction which was to pray for their
release.
Malcolm B
Heap
Further
Reading:
God's Church – Whose Authority? (£3.00). Why Marriage? (75p).
Our Sabbath Rest (£3.00).
Education For The Nation
The prophets have always had the most
timely and necessary messages for the people. God knows what people need to
hear. And in His love for them, He does not fail to offer His advice and
warnings through His prophets.... Not that people want to hear them,
however!
Isaiah recorded the inevitable end
result:
Therefore My people have gone into
captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honourable men
[those most respected in society]
are famished [lacking the ability to
spiritually feed themselves and others], and their multitude dried up
with thirst (Is 5:13).
A captivity looms on the horizon for
this nation.[2]
(More about that later.) But there is another captivity that occurs first,
before the physical one that will soon engulf this people. It is a captivity
to delusion.
The invisible ruler of this world,
Satan, has done his dirty work:
...our gospel is veiled, it is
veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has
blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them (2 Cor 4:4).
Not only are people deceived in the
world, but there is an equal range of deceptions gripping the Church. Isaiah
prophesied of that, too. There are worldwide deceptions in the Church!
depicted by the number of the chapter (52 = 4 x 13) where the account
occurs. 4 is a numeric symbol for the world, or the whole earth, and 13
depicts Satan.
God had Isaiah write these veiled
prophecies down. Their impact is greater today than in his time, because it
is meant to be a time of revelation and deliverance for the Church, now.
Yet, more and more, we see a people who willingly succumb to the traps of
the devil. Too many prefer error to truth. They prefer to stay in bondage!
Awakening the Church
In Isaiah 52, the Church is represented
by the metaphor of Jerusalem, or Zion. She was the city where God had placed
His name at that time. It was the place where people were commanded then to
come before Him at appointed times (Heb. moedim) of the year (the
annual festivals, see Leviticus 23) to pay homage to Him and to be
recommitted in obedience to the laws revealed by God to Moses.
In today’s Church, obedience is
downplayed and even dismissed when it comes to observing these appointed
times! While we don’t need to go to Jerusalem to keep these occasions (John
4:21-24), the record of the apostolic Church shows that they were certainly
still kept (see our booklet The Festivals of God), and should be
observed today.
These truths are on God’s agenda to
restore before the end of this age, prior to their complete acceptance in
the Millennium to follow (Zechariah 14:19). So, the Church is sent a
messenger from God who alerts her to her lack in this respect.
He calls for her to:
Awake! Awake! Put on your strength,
O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the
uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. Shake yourself
from the dust, arise; sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds
of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion! (Is 52:1-2.)
She can’t see the captivity in which
she is held. Nor can she see the false ministers (the uncircumcised and
unclean) who deceive her over these customs. But the fact remains that she
needs to put on these beautiful garments which God originally gave Israel to
be markers in His calendar. They are the times HE appointed, not times
Israel appointed. They are not “Jewish”.
In Isaiah 52:2, she is commanded to
rise up, throw off the filth of human (satanic) traditions (these include
Easter, Christmas, etc.),[3]
take her position beside the throne of God, and loose herself from the bonds
men have bound her with. How many in the Church will do this, however? God
has shown us that half the people will not!
This is directly in line with the
parallel parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25, where half of them were
foolish and half were wise. When the Midnight Cry rings out to prepare for
the coming of the Bridegroom (Jesus), half of the virgins won’t make the
necessary preparations. Devoid of the oil of the Holy Spirit, they fail to
see.
The startling revelation of that
parable is that half of those who profess to be Christ’s are not His at all!
Another shocking home truth is that the
whole Church is asleep! Not half the Church. The whole Church![4]
A few months ago, I received a circular
from one of the most prominent evangelists, who has outreach activities that
reach vast numbers of people – millions! He wrote about that parable, saying
that half the Church was asleep. It’s surprising how many misread Jesus’
actual words!
Perhaps one reason is that it seems too
bizarre to be true that the entire Church of Jesus could be asleep?! But it
is.
One way is that which I am moved to
write about here.
Virtually the entire body of Christ
does not recognise the relevance of God’s holy days (other than a very small
segment of believers who keep these festivals [and who are not Jewish] ).
Most are deluded by false teachings into thinking that they were superseded
by other observances that are ‘Christian’ such as Easter and Christmas.
Ironically, the majority of those
believers who do keep the Festivals of God, are themselves asleep on other
essential points of true belief and practice. There is an abysmal lack of
the moving of the Holy Spirit in these ‘Sabbatarian’ churches! Most of them
don’t appreciate the baptism in the Holy Spirit, or accept the complete
quota of gifts of the Spirit on offer through this experience.
Whichever sector of the Church you look
at, she is certainly sound asleep! And there needs to be an awakening. That
awakening comes via the parable’s description of a Midnight Cry. It comes
late in the plan of God, just before Jesus’ return. It comes in a time of
increasing darkness over the earth. And it is a prophetic call to awake and
put on garments that she has not yet put on.
Those robes of righteousness are being
presented to the body of Christ NOW!
'Elijah' Is At Work
I make no bones about the fact that
this work we are involved in is part of the prophesied activity of the
end-time Elijah.[5]
While there are certainly many others involved in this task besides
ourselves, I know of no-one else to whom God has given the prophetic
commission of bringing these two sectors of the Church together via a
public witness.
I have heard of others who are doing
this in their own local areas and churches and fellowships. God is moving by
His Spirit to bring together the movements of Word and Spirit about which
Smith Wigglesworth prophesied in 1947 (explained in the leaflet The Last
Outpouring of the Spirit). Jesus has been reaching scattered
individuals, primarily in the pentecostal / charismatic sector of the
Church, convicting their hearts of the need to keep the Sabbaths. But, as a
proportion of the entire Church, this is small. Much more is going to be
done via a public witness.
When the entire nation of Israel was
challenged by God through Elijah (see 1 Kings 18), it was one man who was
given the assignment. The prophet Elijah. When the way was prepared before
Jesus’ coming, one man – John the Baptist – prepared the way. God only
needed one man – a prophet – to sound the call to repentance, and to reach
the entire nation.
It is somewhat different today in that
the witness which God is taking to the world is a global witness, and more
than one man alone can achieve. Revelation 11 indicates that with mass
publicity, two are sufficient for the final task. However, we are not in
that phase just yet. That is to occur during the 3½ year Tribulation which
is a matter of a couple of years away. For now, prior to that time of
worldwide calamity, others are involved in the task. And it is a privilege
to be used.
Our contribution is primarily through
the written word. God separated my wife and me from our former church
association in 1990 and then led me to write a set of publications which
address these pressing issues for the Church. He gave Helena a dream about
me digging and concreting foundations under the clock tower in Aylesbury.[6]
That dream has now been fulfilled. The written foundation is laid. It has
taken about eleven or twelve years to complete.
What is contained in our literature is
sufficient to form a complete doctrinal basis for the Church. The body of
Christ need not wonder about whether there is a secret rapture, or argue
about whether the Holy Spirit is a third person in a trinity, or whether
hell burns forever. More importantly there need be no argument over the
relevance of Sabbaths to the Church today, or the viability of spiritual
gifts. These questions are all answered by accurate biblical exegesis in our
publications.
“Isn’t that a bit arrogant of you to
say that?”
Was it arrogant of Elijah to claim he
had a divine right to challenge all the false prophets in Israel? Was he
presumptuous in claiming that he alone had a divine prerogative to
re-establish true worship in the land? No. Because he had that commission.
God appointed him for the task.
And if I, by divine appointment, have
been commissioned to lay down a doctrinal foundation for the Church at this
late hour, all who would challenge that commission are challenging, not just
me, but the One who has commissioned me. So I say to all who question,
“Check it out!”
The Prophetic Witness For
Britain
Son of man, when a land sins
against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against
it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine upon it, and cut off man
and beast from it (Ezekiel 14:13).
On 30th September 2000, Helena had the
following dream.
There
were no eggs in stock. She said, “I tried to buy eggs from a
supermarket, but there weren’t any. I asked someone where the eggs were and
they said that there weren’t any. I felt that the eggs were unavailable
because of the risk of disease.”
Significantly, the Daily Mail
carried a front page article on November 4th, 2000, entitled “Food Bug Fear
Over Chickens”. The dream may be predicting a further development concerning
eggs, which will cause them to become scarce in the shops here.
As of writing there is no outbreak of
disease affecting chickens or the egg supply, but it will come. We have seen
the terrible consequences of the Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic among farm
livestock which began in February 2001 in Britain. As God showed me in a
dream on 21st March 2001, these troubles are the mere tip of an iceberg.
(See the companion leaflet, Dreams From God About The Judgement Of
Britain.)
Ezekiel 14:13 is highly relevant to
Britain!
What people don’t see is the connection
between what happens in the physical and what they do in the spiritual. Tell
people in the street that their evil thoughts, sexual debauchery,
selfishness and dismissal of God in their lives have a direct bearing on the
lack of eggs in the shops and they would think you had just escaped from the
‘funny farm’! A minority, however, will listen.
God has His ways of reaching people.
When they don’t listen to prophets, He uses ‘ordinary’ folks combined with
circumstances. Amazingly, in London’s Daily Mail of 26th March 2001,
the letters page included a selection of comments by readers, some of which
suggested that there could be a Divine Hand behind the recent devastating
Foot and Mouth outbreak and other disasters. There were three such
letters:
Someone Up
There Isn’t Pleased With Britain
1.
...For the religious-minded, one could easily consider that the storms and
floods that have ravaged the UK reflect the first Horseman of the
Apocalypse, train crashes the second, and mad cows / foot-and-mouth disease
the third.
I expect
if New Labour win a second term in office [which they have done – Editor] we
shall get to see the fourth, which I predict will arrive in the shape of a
complete financial meltdown – which is probably the only thing New Labour
really fears.
One
thing is sure: someone up there doesn’t seem very pleased with us all down
here. If I were Tony Blair I would be shaking in my boots and be thinking of
changing parties. [Political parties are not the solution. God is the only
Party who matters! Editor.]
Acknowledge
Guilt
2. In
view of recent and present disasters, whether acts of God, malicious or
accidental damage, is it not time for the nation to consider her
relationship with God?
When God
pronounced blessings and curses, they were the natural consequences of doing
good or doing evil, following God’s wise laws or rejecting them.
Let us
all acknowledge our corporate and individual guilt and ask God that Great
Britain and Europe will be delivered from evil.
Sins Punish
Us
3. There
have been so many tragic happenings recently that all over the country there
will be the cry: ‘How can God allow these things to happen?’
Many
years ago I read something that made a great impression on me; we are not
punished for our sins, but by them.
The
Creator had two choices when He made Man. Man could either be a robot, or
someone with free will. We all know the choice He made and we ought to bear
this in mind whenever we are tempted to cry out, “Why?”
Forgive me for repeating myself, but
Britain will receive a prophetic witness. Ephraim (Britain in Bible
prophecy) will be punished as “their congregation has heard” (Hosea 7:12).
Because Ephraim has made many
altars for sin, they have become for him altars for sinning. I have written
for him the great things of My law, but they were considered a strange
thing... Now He [God] will remember
their iniquity and punish their sins... For Israel has forgotten his Maker
and has built palaces... (Hosea 8:11-14a).
Judah's Wound
Hosea’s prophecies centre on Ephraim,
the leading tribe of Israel, but God also speaks to Judah (the Jewish
people):
...Judah also has multiplied
fortified cities; but I will send fire upon his cities, and it shall devour
his citadels (Hosea 8:14b).
When Ephraim saw his sickness and
Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jareb;
yet he cannot cure you, nor heal you of your wound (Hosea 5:13).
Britain was sometimes referred to in
post-war years as ‘the sick man of Europe’. To heal her economic maladies
she has looked to the European Union. How ironic that Israel’s former enemy
Assyria is now in Germany, and Israel goes again to seek help from ‘King
Jareb’ (the powerful ruler of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser III, or Pul). Instead
of returning to her God, Israel woos her lovers, seeking a humanistic way
out of her difficulties.
And Judah? What is her wound? There is
a jihad (‘holy war’) being mounted by Islam against the Jews in the
nation state of Israel. Suicide bombers will stop at nothing to achieve
their evil aims. It will not be long before this dreadful wound will be
evident to all.
And where will Judah go to look for
help? Once again will it be King Jareb’s descendants in the European Union?
With America and Britain wanting to retreat from the world military scene
more and more, Germany and its European allies will fill the vacuum,
eventually with a new pope playing a significant rôle in diplomatic
negotiations.
But these Gentiles will not care for
Israel...
...and they will tread the holy
city underfoot for 42 months (Rev 13:2b).
Because of the flashpoint Jerusalem has
become internationally, and because the city’s holy sites are claimed by
three world religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam – a papal move at
being the ecumenical intermediary could well establish him as some
‘peacekeeper’ in Jerusalem.
But such 'peacemakers' will not bring peace, rather a
sword. In America, Britain, Israel, and throughout the Church, a flock is
being prepared for a terrible slaughter!
Malcolm B
Heap |