They Ought to Know Me
Part 2
By Iverna Tompkins
Transcribed by Jane Vaughn
We're talking about the clarion call of God to individual Christians as well as the whole Body of Christ today. He says - "They ought to know Me!" and we've been discussing what that means, and why. We closed Part 1 of this message with Psalm 71, verse 3: "Be Thou my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort." Foundations. We must build on Christ, our solid, secure, and sure Rock of foundation! But in order to build on Him, we first must know Him.
If we build it, a church building, in His name, then let’s know Him! Let’s spend some time with Him! If you’re not in the Word, you’re missing out on time with Him! And I don’t mean just patty-caking around in your favorite Psalms! They’re wonderful and I love to preach from them, but they are not the whole counsel of God. I can hardly believe it when a preacher, speaking in a church to all believers, draws from an unfamiliar passage – like, “We’re going to speak to you today from Micah 2…” or, “Obadiah, verse whatever…” – that the people in the congregation have to search through their Bibles (flipping the pages). Why is that? Because they don’t pick it up from Sunday to Sunday! They are not getting to know their God! and yet call themselves “followers of Christ!” You can not know Him and stay out of His Word!
Oh sure – we want the revelation today. You would be happy with me if I just stood up here and prophesied. We love that. And there is a lot of that today where the prophet just picks out specific people to give them a personal word – and sometimes they truly are from God. :-) I can let the Spirit of prophecy flow and do that and sound very authoritative: “And the Lord would say to this church…” “And the Lord would say to that church…” “And the Lord would say to this person and that person…” We love that – because we’re too lazy to find what He’s already said!
There’s a desperate need in this psalmist as there is a desperate need in every generation. Today, God is speaking to this generation about the previous one – and about the future one. Did you get that? The message today that God is speaking is about the previous generation and to the future generation. And, He is making a demand on the present generation.
Now, I’m 76 years old and am privileged, still, to be – a voice – to the Church. That’s a real privilege. Truly it is and I recognize it as an honor. I’ve been through three fairly good-sized past Revivals, and lots of little ones in between, and I’ve seen many things – I think I can match just about any story. :-) But I’m still here, and I’m presently living in the middle of a situation where the heart of God is simply throbbing within me to get across to all believers this message: “Unless you get to know God, you are not going to leave a heritage for the coming generation – who are already alive and in our churches!"
The enemy is wiser than the children of the Kingdom. He indoctrinates at very young ages. He goes after the children. Yes it’s true, that I did preach my first message at age 8. And just shortly after that, I began to see apparitions and have demonic manifestations and so on. What I’m telling you is that the enemy knows when God is going to use someone. Not because he is all-knowing as God is, but he can see all the signs and read them accurately. He is very experienced in this. My folks wisely led me out of that evil supernatural arena and into the awareness that “greater is He that is in you” (1Jn.4:4). And they taught me about the efficacy (complete effectiveness and value) of the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they taught me how to apply that truth in a practical way. I learned early on how to trust in Jesus, my only Rock and Refuge.
Are you teaching your boys and girls (kids and grandkids) the truth of God’s Word? Or, are you leaving all the educating to the professional educators? It’s good if your children are in Christian Schools – but not all of them from your church are so privileged. And they’re hearing all kinds of things in the public schools you wouldn’t believe or even could imagine. It’s only when we know our God that we can discern what is from Him and the truth. Our children need to know God so they can know when it’s the enemy trying to feed them some sort of information – or experiences.
My father rarely took us to a doctor – not because of his faith alone, but we didn’t have the money – Depression era. And so we grew up knowing that when we got hurt – when anything went wrong, actually – Dad came and prayed for us. Jesus truly was our Doctor. That was a wonderful time in our lives. What happens today? Today we have the money, or insurance policies and credit cards, so we don’t need to trust or rely on God. It’s not until we get cancer or something else incurable that we ask for prayer – something the doctors can’t handle – and so we become desperate.
Do you know that we do the very same thing about life in general? Hello? We think we can handle most of our situations with our own wisdom or abilities or intelligence or other resources. We just don’t turn to God for very much. Why? Because we really don’t understand that He’s enough! “Oh, just please pray for me. We’re just – we’re just having such a time financially.” And then that very next Sunday we’ll sing: “My God is enough!” Read the Book. What does it say about finances? Are you a tither? “Well, we can’t afford to tithe.” You can’t afford not to tithe! Are you a giver? “Oh, I tell you. If I had it, I would give it!” If you won’t give a dime on a dollar, you won’t give!
We cannot walk in disobedience to the Word of God. We cannot just pick and choose out of the Bible what seems right (or reasonable) to us, or only the admonitions we know we can actually do. Or, our excuse is: “I didn’t know that was in the Bible.” Well, read it! Discover for yourself! Press in to know your God!
Throughout God’s Word, the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, Christ is revealed – the Messiah is revealed. God reveals Himself. And yet over and over in the Old Testament Scriptures, you find Him coming back on the scene and having to re-introduce Himself! “I am the Lord thy God!” “Ohhhhh….! WOW! I didn’t know that!” :-)
Ask any pastor how much time he (or she) spends explaining to the people something that happened in the church. We have to sit down and go through the Bible, finding chapter and verse. “You see, they did this then, and it’s thus and such…” If you read The Book for yourselves, you’d spare that! And you miss the adventure of discovery when you rely on another to answer all your questions.
A desperate need in this generation is for hope. Anywhere you go as you travel, you hear words of hopelessness. Listen to the television – you hear hopelessness. Or the songs today – the lyrics are full of hopelessness. There’s just no hope. It’s hopelessness that prevails in this generation – doom and gloom and pending disaster for the whole world. That’s the picture today.
Get the Book! THE Book. And read it. The Revelation of God is full of hope! “I will hope in the Lord who made heaven and earth” (lit.“My help is in the Lord…” (Ps.124:8); “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will hope in Him” (Lam.3:24).
Hope’s petition is: “Lord, in Thee I put my trust… Deliver me in Thy righteousness…Be Thou a strong habitation…” (Ps.71:1-3).
Hope’s declaration is: “Thou hast been” and “Thou art…” (vs.3).
Now, if I was falsely accused, but this time by my own family, I probably would respond like this: “You ought to know better than that. You know I wouldn’t do that.”
I hear the Father saying the same thing to us – “You ought to know better than that.” You doubt that He’s your… How many times has He healed you? How many times when you were broke and you put your budget down on paper – but that didn’t work or balance out – and you still were able to pay all your bills? Miraculously. And you didn’t know how it happened nor could you figure it out.
How many times has He lifted you from depression? When you got to a point where you just – “I don’t even want to be… I just – if I had the nerve, I’d shoot myself (if I had accurate aim :-)). But your despairing cry was: “I want out!” And He showed up and gave you hope again.
How many times can you look back in your life, even if now you’re only in your teens but you can look back in your life and see – right at the edge of disaster – right at the brink of problems – the Lord stepped in and said, “Oh no, you’re Mine! You are Mine. For a brief moment, you’ve forgotten Who I am, but from the time you accepted that I died for you, I brought you into a Kingdom – My Kingdom. I brought you into a higher place. And you’re not going to kill yourself – and you’re not going back on drugs – and you’re not going back on this – and you’re not going back to that!”
I have watched people who absolutely were determined to do it – end their lives – but they couldn’t be successful at that! I’ve heard testimony after testimony – “I drank this and this and this and this and I couldn’t even get a “buzz” on!” Or, “I went back to this and it didn’t work!” Of course it didn’t work! You’re divinely ruined! :-) Once you’ve given your life to Him, He writes your name in a Book, and there’s no eraser for it! Oh, you can do your little thing and be miserable (just like the Prodigal Son Lk.15:11ff) – but He waits – Father waits (vs.20). The Bible says, “The Lord waiteth for thee (Isa. 30:18) that He may be gracious unto thee.” Do you know what that means? “The Lord out-waits thee!” :-) It doesn’t matter what detour you take, He’s standing right there waiting for you to come back. The same thing is true of a church.
I’ve watched churches advancing toward a great move of God – Revival – and then they stagnate or become waylaid. Why? Because you will never exhaust knowing Him. The more you know Him, the more of Him there is to know! Do you understand? The knowledge of God is inexhaustible! So, keep on pressing in for more of Him.
Now, I believe that we are absolutely on the brink of coming into an exciting fresh knowledge of the Lord that we’ve not had previously. I don’t think He is willing for anyone to stop or stagnate or just embrace the present day knowledge. I believe the reason that there is a divine mandate of missionary outreach concerns in many of His churches, and on the hearts of pastors, is because we’re finally going to see – finally – at the end of this generation – my generation – we’re finally going to see that the Kingdom is much bigger than the Church!
That doesn’t mean the Church will pass away. The Church is His Body! Christ died for the Church! Is that not true? But Jesus’ opening sermon was – “Change your mind (or, “Repent!”) – the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Mt.4:17; Mk.1:14,15).
How do you reckon or balance those two seeming opposites? The Church and the Kingdom? Which are we? Are we building the Church or are we to be concerned with the Kingdom? The answer is “Yes.” God is building the Church and that’s us. The trouble, as I view it, is that the people of the Church never seem to understand that the seeds that are sown for the Kingdom harvest – are the sons of God – YOU! You are the seed sown. I know, on one occasion, the seed sown is the Word (Mk.4:14; Lk.8:11) – but on another occasion, it says, the seeds are the sons of God (Mt.13:24-30 and 36-43 – the parable of the tares and wheat). You’re the ones being sown! And if we don’t come to that reality… But the sad truth is we come to church and other Christian meetings and conferences all the time, to have someone else sow into us! We come to church – so empty – waiting to be filled – and then we’re bored because we already know those things that are being spoken. Do you want a higher level? Rise!
I didn’t have to keep saying to my kids – when they were younger – “Clean your room” if their rooms were clean. I didn’t have to repeat myself to get them to do something – if they were already doing it. Are you there? But the Lord is saying the same thing over and over because – we don’t get it! We have missed or ignored His point. He’s so patient with us that He brings all different kinds of speakers – even women! :-) – and says the same thing over and over through them. One person is humorous about it. Another person is prophetic about it and another… You listen! Listen carefully and you’ll know I’m telling you the truth. You can go to all the many available conferences from now until Jesus returns but until we get this present message and He speaks differently, we’re just going to hear the same thing through these different voices.
So pastors – don’t be discouraged and pray, “Oh, dear Lord, I need a new revelation to bring to my congregation.” No! Nobody would get it yet but you! :-) But soon… I’ll prophesy now. Really. Are you ready? Very soon, the Lion is going to say, “They’re beginning – to know Me.”
I’m sorry that it takes pressure to get us to a place where we say, “I’ve just got to know this is God. I’ve got to know this is God.” We’re going to know Him. But we are going to see some disasters. Yes, we are, more of them. Now, I’m not a “doom and gloom” preacher but I think – you don’t even have to be very wise just to look around and realize – things are not getting better. Things are deteriorating in our society – and in the whole world.
“Well then, how can you say that the Kingdom is here, and the Kingdom is expanding?” I promise it is. I’ll tell you why the Kingdom of God looks so tiny right now. There are a couple of reasons – do you want to know? :-) One of the reasons it looks so small is that the Lord hasn’t connected the marketplace with the Church – yet. He hasn’t connected them up till now. But that’s alright, He will. It’ll just take a second to do that because what He is doing first is waking up everyone in the marketplace who has known Him and has said “Yes” to His call. They’re out there!
There are thousands and thousands of Christian businessmen that are doing very big things for God! They’re doing them quietly and on their own. I have met dozens of them and it’s just exciting to see what they’re doing – things that the Church has only thoughts about – dreams, maybe. But if those successful people come into our churches, we don’t know what to do with them, so we just make them ushers. :-) I rest my case.
God is going to change us – individuals in the Church and Christians in the marketplace. He’s bringing us up higher – with the different idea that not everyone serves Him exactly the same way you do or just like I do. That isn’t important – the “how” of serving God. What is important is – do they serve the exact same God that you do?
When God connects the two arenas – those He’s preparing out there in the marketplace and these He’s preparing in here in the Church – the Kings of the Lord with the Priests of the Lord – when God gets us all ready – Kings and Priests are going to come together and the Kingdom of God is going to see itself! (see Rev.1:6). It is going to be very big, His Kingdom. And we will be surprised – maybe even shocked – at the revelation of it all. But He is going to remove the curtain – the veil? – that has prevented us from seeing with clarity before now.
Go to Part 3
