Y Safle

“Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.”

Joel 2:15,16

Joel calls the people to pray and fast before their God. He has called them to repentance, and now he stresses the urgency of the situation. Everyone is called to this great assembly, even the children and babies, and the point is reinforced when we hear that even bride and groom are called to attend.

This situation was urgent. There could be no tarrying, and no one could be left out. The whole nation was called to an assembly before God. The congregation was called together to become once again a consecrated people before their God.

Now then, surely God calls us to do the same. Surely the onus is upon us to gather together in solemn assembly. Each member of each church must surely assemble together and pray and fast and plead before the Lord that he may heal his land.

God says: “If my people who bear my name [and CHRISTians bear His name] will humble themselves and pray… then I will heal their land.”

O Lord, I pray for my land which suffers under the dual yokes of a dry and dead formalism within its churches and a moral depravity beyond the churches which suffocates the believers and blinds the unbelievers.

The church, it seems, is a dry branch. All the cells that make up the branch are there, but there is no life therein, because the sap has dried up and has not been replenished.

Lord, remake us. Revive us. Send the fountains of living water, the water of your Spirit. Send the water that the branch might once again be green and living.

But why is the water not flowing? Has God withdrawn his Spirit for no reason? Of course not!

If I break a branch from the trunk of a tree then of course it will die. It is not because there is no more water, but because the branch is no longer connected to the source of its supply of water.

“For my people have committed two sins. They have turned away from me, the fountain of living water and they have hewn out cisterns for themselves. Broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

So said God to Jeremiah, and so he says now.

Let us turn back to the fountain of living water. Let us all turn back. Each and every one of us. The time to turn back is now and we all are called to turn to him. Call a solemn assembly. Sanctify the congregation. Declare a fast.