Prepare the Way of the Lord: Making the Crooked Places Straight

Copyright © 2013 Theresa Reyna.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-8845-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8846-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8844-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013904711

WestBow Press rev. date: 3/19/2013

Table of Contents

Dedication

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1: The Witness of John the Baptist

•   A People Prepared

•   Prepare the Way

•   Purified through Persecution

•   A Work of Separation

Chapter 2: Judgment against False Prophets

•   The Pharisee Spirit

•   A People of Discernment

Chapter 3: As It Was In the Days of Noah

•   Wake up Church!

•   There’s a Fire in the House!

•   America: Repent!

Chapter 4: The Spirit of Unity

•   The Spirit of Saul

•   Naboth’s Vineyard

•   Put off the Old—Put on the New

Chapter 5: Days of Revelation

•   Removing the Veil—Receiving His Light

•   An Open Heaven

Conclusion

JOHN’S HOME-GOING

THE SPIRIT OF JUDGMENT AND BURNING

Response From The Lord:

THE SONG OF THE MARTYRS

THE LION’S ROAR!

MAKE US ONE

LUKEWARM

FAITH WITHOUT WORKS

THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE OF GOD

PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD!

Acknowledgements

Dedication

In loving memory of Pastor John Parault. John was a burning lamp shining brightly, a beacon in the midst of this dark world. Rightly was he named, for John the Baptist’s mantle of faith, humility, and power rested upon his shoulders. Many crooked places have been made straight because of his love and faithful service to Jesus. The seeds that he planted will now come to fruition in the hearts and lives of all who received the living word that flowed so powerfully from his life; these seeds will go to the ends of the earth bringing salvation, life, and healing to many. Sister Rene and Darlene, the light of Christ shines brightly through you in the midst of your loss and suffering. You have yet to see what Jesus will do in your lives in the days ahead. My life has been greatly enriched by the love you’ve shown me as I walked on my path of suffering. I love you both dearly.

To

Those who have paid the cost to prepare their hearts and lives for the end-time move of the Holy Spirit; you are God’s faithful witnesses. Jesus has seen your pain, dedication, persecution, tears, and grief. He has seen the harvest of righteousness that you have sown, and now it will spring forth in your lives as a multitude of souls are drawn onto His path of holiness. You are coming out of the desert place and now you will walk in the spirit and power of Elijah. The Spirit of holiness will pour through your lives, and multitudes will be freed from their strongholds and chains of addiction. Rise up warriors of God, the time has come for you to take up the mantle of John the Baptist and prepare the way for the coming of the Lord!

INTRODUCTION

T here are many voices clamoring for attention all around us in this hour. Some are positive, but many voices are coming forth from the darkness in this world through television, music, radio, newspaper, worldly entertainment, and many other sources. Satan’s desire is to bind millions of souls with his chains of deception and destruction through the ungodly voices of compromise and seduction. These worldly voices have caused many ears, even in the Church, to become dull and even deafened to the voice of God.

God is getting ready to send forth His end-time messengers who will speak the truth of God’s Word; they will wear the mantle of John the Baptist and speak boldly and powerfully in a spirit of love and with a double-portion anointing. These warriors are about to emerge from their spiritual wilderness where the Lord has been preparing their hearts for many years. Through the Lord’s anointed Word in them, and through many signs and wonders, they will prepare the way of the Lord, and make His paths straight. The crooked places in the Church and in the lives of God’s people will be made straight, and the rough places will be made smooth. Through these heralds of truth, all flesh shall see the salvation of God. (See Luke 3:4-6.)

According to The American Heritage Dictionary, published by Houghton Mifflin Company, a herald is: "A person who proclaims important news; a crier or messenger. A person or thing that announces or gives indication of something to come; harbinger; precursor."

Jesus is about to send to the nations heralds of righteousness who will prepare the hearts of His people for His second coming. They carry in their hearts a message of love and repentance, and with the voice of a trumpet they will release the sound of heaven, a sound that will awaken a Church that for the most part has become spiritually drowsy because of worldliness and compromise. But the Lord has a Remnant in this hour who daily pick up their crosses and follow Him in full surrender; they walk in the fear of the Lord and obey His will implicitly. Listen, for soon you will hear the voice of Jesus through these prepared soldiers of the cross. The light of Jesus in this holy company will expose sin, and God’s standard of holiness as revealed in His Word will once again be lifted high.

We live in an hour when we need to hear strong voices through uncompromised hearts that will set multitudes free from their sin and shame. As the knowledge of the truth of God’s Word is spoken, embraced, and applied daily in the hearts of His people, we will then see the way of the Lord established in the lives of His children, and they’ll walk on His highway of holiness.

Many prophets are talking about the new thing that the Lord is about to do across the face of this earth, but there must first be a time of accelerated preparation in the corporate Church and in the individual hearts and lives of God’s people. Many of God’s children will fail to ride this coming wave of glory unless they are prepared inwardly through godly sorrow and repentance. Only as the Church embraces the fire of God’s holiness can His people walk in the power, discernment, wisdom, and the inner purity that is necessary to stand in the midst of the judgments that are quickly coming to the Church and the world. The Lord is calling forth a holy company of apostles and prophets, teachers and pastors, to lift up His standard of holiness to a corrupt and sinful Church and nation. We must once again walk in the holy commands of the Lord and be doers of the Word, not merely hearers.

God’s glory is departing from many churches throughout our land and the nations of this world, and many have been crying out to the Lord for revival and a return of His manifest presence and glory. Many wonder why there are so few signs, wonders, and miracles being manifested in the American church, and they are hungry to see the power of the Lord. People have tried to bring back His glory by creating man-inspired ministries, new methods of worship, and through Christian outreaches that have come from the human mind and not from the heart of God.

In the book of Ezekiel we read about the gradual departure of the glory of God, and many churches in this hour do not even realize that the Lord has departed as they go on with their man-made ministries and works. (See Ezekiel 10:1-4, 18, 11:23.) Many churches are so dead and devoid of the Spirit that their spiritual eyes cannot see and their ears can no longer hear the voice of the Spirit. (See Ezekiel 12:2.) There are many leaders in the Church bound with iniquity, and they have refused to repent; they have stroked the sinful with a light, false gospel, but persecuted the godly with harsh words of judgment. (See Ezekiel 11:2.)

Who can deny that the hearts and lives of multitudes in the world and in the Church walk on crooked paths of darkness and rebellion? Like bones that have not healed properly and may need a surgeon to break and realign the bone properly, so are many in the Church about to experience deep brokenness that will change the course of their lives. The crooked places in their souls will now be aligned with God’s will, and they will begin to walk on a straight path with Jesus.

God’s ax is about to be laid to the root of our deepest sins. The deep, hidden places within our hearts that have long been covered will now be exposed and lanced with the truth of His holy Word. His Word will be as a fire deep inside our souls revealing even the thought and intents of our hearts. God’s end-time battle axes will be His sharpened instruments, the tools that He will use to cut out these roots of iniquity that lie deep in the hearts of His children and the lost. These people have been prepared and honed in the desert, and now, in the fullness of time they will come out of the wilderness as John did and bring the Truth to lost and bound souls. We have not yet seen the full release of these desert saints, but soon they will come forth in the power and might of the Spirit.

This is a time of exposure in the Body of Christ, for judgment must begin in the Lord’s house. …For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known (Matt. 10:26). We will see the hand of God move in our generation in a way that few have ever dreamed they would. He is a God of love, mercy, and grace, but now in His love we will see Him move in a way that will cause many to pull back in fear. Millions follow the Lord as long as they hear light, flowery words and see His miracles, signs, and wonders, but when He begins to speak hard words of truth many will fall away and say: This cannot be of God, for He would never speak such a hard word to me or allow me to enter into such dark circumstances. (See John 6:60-66.) The Lord will allow intense suffering to come to His people in order to prepare them for the wedding feast; all spots and wrinkles must now be removed in His fiery presence.

So many in this world do not understand the ways of the Lord, but now God’s true leaders will arise and teach and preach the true ways of the Father. Many will be set free from their old mindsets and be catapulted into the glorious future that God has planned for them. As the plank is taken out of our eyes first, we will then be able to see clearly and prepare the way of the Lord in the hearts of those around us. (See Matthew 7:3.) We must first build a highway of holiness in our own hearts and lives, and then we can help others straighten out the crooked paths in their lives.

I believe that our generation will not only experience a reformation, but a radical revolutionary move of the Spirit unlike anything this world has ever seen. Reform, according to The American Heritage Dictionary, means: To improve by alteration, correction of error, or removal of defects. To behave better; give up irresponsible or immoral practices.

Revolution, according to the same publisher, means: "An assertedly momentous change in any situation. A sudden political overthrow brought about from within a given system, especially: a. A forcible substitution of rulers or of ruling cliques. b. Seizure of state power by the militant vanguard of a subject class or nation" (emphasis added).

Reform, many times, means outward moral change, which is good, but God is looking for so much more; His desire is to see radical, deep changes in our hearts, in the hidden place. All around us we see people who live good moral lives, but in the sight of God this is not enough; He wants all of us: our minds and emotions to be transformed and healed, and our wills to become one with His will. He desires truth in the inward parts, those places that lie deep within our souls. Satan must be completely dethroned, and we must be loosed from every lie and stronghold through radical repentance and the Spirit’s delivering power. There must be only one Lord and Ruler in our lives—Jesus Christ. Everything in our lives must bow to His lordship. The lordship of Christ will be established throughout this world in many nations, and we will now see the gates of hell come down as this radical end-time army, this Baptist Company, goes forth setting multitudes free from their captivity.

These revolutionary, revival carriers will soon come in the power of the Spirit and they will spread across this world, releasing the holy fire of God that will bring these revolutionary changes in the hearts and lives of His people, in governments, and in the very structure of society. They will be called Prophets of the Highest, and will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way. They will give true knowledge of salvation to His people and will give light to those who sit in darkness. These warriors will guide multitudes into the way of peace and deliver many from the hand of the enemy. This company will serve the Lord without fear, for they will be filled with the perfect love of Jesus. (See Luke 1:71-79.) These end-time prophets will warn multitudes concerning the wrath that is about to come. They will speak the truth to those who call themselves Christians but are not, and call many back to a lifestyle of repentance and holiness. They will be burning lamps, shining brightly, filled with the light of Christ. (See John 5:33-35.)

We are in the season when we will see the changing of the guards, and those who the Lord has prepared and set aside—even His chosen ones who have been rejected and cast out by the traditional church—are the very ones that God will raise up and send forth to the nations to preach and teach His whole truth and the ways of the Spirit to the hungry and dying. They are the revolutionary warriors, the prepared ones who will go in the spirit and anointing of Elijah and bring in the greatest harvest that this world has ever seen!

The Lord is not only calling us to repent and put away our idols and detestable things, but He’s calling us to greater heights of intimacy and revelation in this final hour. He’s calling us to a place of unity in the Body of Christ, where we will walk in oneness with the Lord and with each other. We shall be His people and He will be our God, as we walk in His statutes and keep His judgments. (See Ezekiel 11:18-20.) For those who are longing for God’s truth and who desire to ride the wave of the next move of God—this book is for you.

As we prepare our hearts and lives and allow the Spirit to have His way in us, we will be used to be His end-time messengers of grace and mercy to this lost and dying world. We will prepare a highway of holiness for the Lord to walk on so that He can visit His children in unprecedented ways. A holy company of set-apart believers will now come forth and be used to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord.

Never has there been a more desperate hour than the one we live in right now. Now is the time to prepare our hearts—now is the time to prepare the way of the Lord and make the crooked places in our hearts straight.

Chapter 1:

The Witness of John the Baptist

N ever have families been more torn apart because of incest, drugs, rebellion, pornography, alcoholism, divorce, poverty, bitterness, domestic violence, and many other sins and issues. Every day we hear devastating news of children who are being abused and murdered, and even children violently killing their own parents. Such tragedies have divided families and caused them to split or crumble in despair. We see a generation whose hearts are filled with hate and bitterness, and many youth have turned to drugs or crime or have run from their homes in fear and anger. I recently met a patient in the hospital where I work whose child died from an overdose of drugs. Her heartbreak is not unique; many young people have died from this demonic stronghold. It’s no wonder that the youth in our society are called Generation Rx. We live in a season of unprecedented chaos and confusion, and the heart of Jesus is bleeding profusely because of the devastating effects of sin and rebellion in our society and throughout the world.

The Word says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse (Mal. 4:5-6). Concerning John the Baptist, the Bible says, "And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:16-17, emphasis added). When Jesus walked on earth He confirmed that John wore the mantle of Elijah. (See Matthew 17:10-13.) I believe this is the very season when the Lord will fulfill these promises to us. When John came, he came in the power and anointing of Elijah, and in like manner, the Lord is about to release prophetic voices throughout the world that will shake multitudes and wake up a slumbering, compromising Church.

God’s Spirit of restoration will be released to the broken and forsaken; the disobedient will see the crookedness of their ways and turn from their path of darkness. Through a powerful outpouring of the Spirit, godly sorrow and repentance will work in the hearts and lives of a generation that knows little about the holiness of our God and King. The light of Christ will break through the darkness in their souls, and the holiness of God will be revealed to them. All man-made ministries in the Church will be burned up as the fire of His presence reveals the works that have been birthed in the flesh. Maturity will come into the hearts and lives of God’s people through the suffering and persecution that is about to increase exponentially.

We will begin to see a prepared people who have been set apart by God, go into this nation and the nations of this world in great power. They are not a passive company; they will go forth in an ardent zeal and passion and push through gates of hell that have held a multitude of souls captive. A strong forerunner’s anointing will be seen resting upon and in them, and they will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, just as John did. There will be a double-portion anointing from on High resting upon them that will shatter strongholds and send demonic powers fleeing. As the love of Jesus flows through them, many broken hearts will be mended. They will walk in great wisdom and authority, and the anointing that rests upon them will bring restoration between husbands and wives—and children and parents. We will see many souls come into the Kingdom in this hour as they are released from the clutches of Satan. The crooked paths will be straightened as they teach and preach repentance and reveal the truths of God’s Word. Many distorted mindsets and strongholds will be broken as the Spirit works deep repentance in the hearts of God’s people.

According to The American Heritage Dictionary, a forerunner is: Someone who or something that precedes, as in time; predecessor. Someone who or something that provides advance notice of the coming of others; harbinger; precursor. These powerful end-time witnesses will announce and prepare the way for the soon-coming appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will prepare a people whose hearts will be open and ready to receive the whole truth of God’s Word, not just the parts that are appealing. What is dark and detestable to the Lord in the hearts of His people will be exposed as His Word is preached in power and authority. Multitudes in the Church will fall to their faces as the manifest glory of God and His holiness are revealed.

As we study the call of John and some of His characteristics, we’ll see many parallels in the lives of this end-time Remnant, this company of radical, passionate prophets.

John was:

Called before his conception.

But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall neither drink wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.

-Luke 1:13-16

God’s set apart prophets have been called even from their mother’s wombs; they have been prepared and set apart for God’s end-time purposes. They are filled with the Spirit, and they will turn multitudes away from their sinful lifestyle to the heart of the Lord.

Prepared in the wilderness. So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel (Luke 1:80). This desert company has grown strong in their trials and dry wilderness experiences. They are strong in their spirit-man and will soon fulfill their vision and calling in Christ. Their preparation has been arduous, but they have not fainted in the day of adversity. They have been set apart, and they have forsaken the things of this world in order to obtain their inheritance in Christ. They are a new breed of people who no longer conform to this world’s system. Their time in the wilderness has dried up in their hearts all that has been worldly and sinful. They have narrowed their interests down to one thing: doing the will of the Father and accomplishing His purposes on the earth.

Visited and commissioned by God. …while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness (Luke 3:2). John did not preach a message of his own making, but God burned His Word in him as he sought the Lord earnestly in the desert. In the same way, those who God has commissioned in this hour to speak His truth to this generation will be as burning torches filled with the light of God’s presence and power. They have encountered the living Christ in their secret place, and they’ve been transformed and empowered