A Prophetic Word to the Church

by Dr. Gary Linton | Updated November 10th, 2023

God has a Word for the church. For those who heed there will be blessing untold. For those who refuse there will be devastation, trouble, and severity.

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Hebrews 3:7-10 – “Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear His voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.”

Hebrews 12:25-27 – “See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”

1. Judgment Upon the Lukewarm Church

We are, without a doubt, living in the Laodicean church age. God is fed up with the church’s weak watered down stance, existence, and message. Unless there’s a drastic change judgment is coming forthwith.

1 Peter 4:17 – “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”

Revelation 3:14-16, 19-20, 22 – “Unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write… I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

The church must begin seeking the face of God again, set itself ablaze by the Holy Ghost, and preach the unadulterated truth of God’s Word. God is sick and tired of the seeker friendly movement of our day that compromises His Word. We must start laying hold of the horns of the altar for a move of the Holy Spirit and proclaim the truths of the Word of God. If we don’t God will bring judgment to His house. He wants our trust to be in Him alone and not any man made institution or person. This includes the President, no matter how good he may be.

Romans 1:18 – “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”

So many churches and pastors in our day are holding the truth in unrighteousness. We have God’s Word in our hands yet we fail to present it to those under our care and to the world. Our people and the world desperately need the Word today like at no other time. Yet we are holding it back for fear of offending. God’s wrath is about to be unleashed unless we repent.

Truths We Must Set Forth

Sound doctrine. The twenty-first century church is sorely lacking sound doctrine. It’s time we return to fundamental precepts of scripture and begin teaching them from the pulpit to our people. Otherwise they will be easily led astray.
2 Timothy 4:1-4 – “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
Acts 20:27 – “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”
Titus 2:1 – “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.”
Literal heaven and hell. There’s a real heaven and hell. This has been left out of most of the churches of our day. It’s incumbent on us to return to the basics of the gospel again. There is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. We must preach hell so that people will flee it and reach out to heaven.
2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 – “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.”
Matthew 25:41 – “Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and His angels.”
Matthew 25:34 – “Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
John 14:1-3 – “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
The cross of Christ. We want to preach and teach things that are uplifting, encouraging, and what people want to hear. Feel good messages. Some of that is okay but we must never fail to preach the cross of Christ. That’s simply not a message people want to hear today but it’s the heart of the gospel and therefore must be preached.
Luke 9:23-24 – “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it.”
1 Corinthians 1:18 – “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”
Colossians 2:15 – “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through the cross.”
Galatians 6:14 – “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
The blood of Jesus. The blood must be preached! There’s power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the lamb. It’s through the blood we’re saved, our sins are washed away, access is granted into the presence of God, and victory is wrought.
Hebrews 9:22 – “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
Romans 3:25-26 – “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
Hebrews 10:19 – “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.”
Revelation 12:11 – “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
Jesus is the only way. There is no other way to heaven, the Father, and to experience victory in life than the Lord Jesus Himself. Jesus is the narrow way through which we must enter, all other ways lead to destruction. It’s all about Him. Without Him we are lost and without strength to live for God. It’s not self-help that we need but help from the Master. There will never be any fruit in our lives or ministries apart from complete and utter dependence on Him.
Acts 4:12 – “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
John 14:6 – “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”
John 15:5 – “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.”
The rest of what follows here is for the remnant of His people and the church that will repent and make Him number one again. Sadly, the rest will experience His judgment.

2. The Latter Day Outpouring of the Holy Ghost

The remnant of His people will begin to experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit beyond our greatest imagination or expectation. We are in the end times. If the Spirit was so marvelously poured out at the beginning of the last days, how much more at the end of the last days.

Joel 2:28-32 – “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved – delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.”

The rest will be completely powerless. Until now they have experienced a little power but that is about to change. From this time on they will be without power and all they do will be in their own strength.

3. A Great Harvest of Souls

If at the beginning of the last days thousands were saved (Acts 2 and 3) how much more at the end of the last days. The remnant that sells out for the Master and preaches His Word without compromise will see the greatest harvest of souls the world has ever seen. Believe it, receive it, expect it. We must pray and be willing to go forth into the fields to harvest those who are ripe for the picking.

John 4:35 – “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”

Matthew 9:36-38 – “When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into his harvest.”

The rest will be turned over to their humanistic and compromising gospel and its fruits or lack thereof.

4. Deliverance for Those in Bondage

During this end time revival we will see many delivered from all that has held them in bondage. God is still in the delivering business. During the Jesus movement untold thousands were set free from every addiction and bondage known to man. We’re about to see the delivering power of God manifest once again. People who have been struggling with things with seemingly no hope are going to experience God’s delivering power.

Matthew 1:21 – “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.”

Romans 11:26-27 – “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”

Luke 4:18-19 – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable (favorable) year of the Lord.”

Isaiah 10:27 – “And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.”

All their new age, humanistic, self-help, socialistic, and psychological methods will be brought to naught. And the delivering power of God alone will be manifest.

5. An Increase in Divine Revelation

Those who return to preaching the whole counsel of God, not leaving anything out, will begin to see an increase in revelation knowledge. Let’s cry out to the Lord for revelation of the Holy Spirit. The remnant of His people will begin to see and understand the things of the Spirit guiding them into all truth. The rest will find revelation growing increasingly dim.

John 16:13-14 – “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you.”

1 Corinthians 2:12-14 – “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Psalms 119:18 – “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.”

The lukewarm church will experience darkness. What little light they had will grow increasingly dim.

6. An Increased Anointing From on High

In the days to follow those who have completely sold out to Christ will see an increased anointing upon their lives and ministries. We will see more people saved, delivered, healed, and set free than at any other time. As Elisha received a double portion of the Spirit that was on Elijah and saw twice the miracles so will we.

Luke 4:13-15 – “When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding region And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.”

The seeker friendly, watered down gospel churches will see no power at all. All they do will be turned over to the flesh alone and nothing will be accomplished of any lasting value. This has always been true to an extent but now they will be given over to their fruitless ways.

Romans 1:28 – “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.”

7. Protection in the Midst of a Troubled World

There will be a time of trouble coming on the world the likes of which we’ve never imagined. However, the remnant of His people will experienced protection from the Almighty. As the children of Israel were protected in the land of Goshen so will we be protected. They saw all the devastation but were not affected by it.

1 Peter 1:5 – “Who are kept (protected) by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

John 17:15 – “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep (guard, protect) them from the evil one.”

Psalms 91:1-13 – “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.”

There will be no protection for the lukewarm reprobate church who have not made Him their dwelling place.

8. The Return of the Lord Draws Nigh

No one knows the exact day or hour of Jesus’ return. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36). That day is fixed in heaven in the Father’s mind and will. However, we can know and understand the times that His return is nigh at hand.

One thing I do know is, those of His people and His church that will invite Jesus in to have first place in their midst He will manifest Himself to us in marvelous ways. Sadly, I know most of His church will not but there will be a remnant that will. To the remnant we will see Him coming in power and glory. We’ll see our Lord begin to manifest Himself to us in ways we’ve never imagined. This is for the remnant who have turned back to Him with all their heart. The rest will experience dryness. What little they had will dissipate and disappear! They’ll be nothing but spiritual dryness.

James 5:7-8 – “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for THE COMING OF THE LORD DRAWETH NIGH!