A Season of Abstinence...

The Lord spoke very clearly to me this morning. He said, "Behold, I am calling many to a season of abstinence. Because my people have failed to seek my face. Many have trusted the prayers of another and attempted to glean from the fasts of others. They trust the anointing on my people, yet they refuse to seek Me. They seek the Prophet yet, they have not sought my face. Their physical churches and ministries have become idols before Me. They love my people, but do not know Me. As I did in the days of Hosea, so shall I do in this hour. Their idols will no longer be able to deliver them from calamity and destruction. The prophets will prophesy judgment rather than blessings. They must cry out to Me. They must seek Me. They must pant after Me. When the people they idolize fail to comfort for a season, my people will turn back to Me. Again, I will receive the worship and reverence. Proclaim unto my people a season of abstinence. Do not be amazed when the old no longer prospers. The methods of the past will not prosper in this hour. I am a jealous God. My people will receive redemption through none other than my Son and deliverance through none other than me - the Father."


Hos 3:1 THEN SAID the Lord to me, Go again, love [the same] woman [Gomer] who is beloved of a paramour and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins [used in the sacrificial feasts in idol worship].
Hos 3:2 So I bought her for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley [the price of a slave].
Hos 3:3 And I said to her, You shall be [betrothed] to me for many days; you shall not play the harlot and you shall not belong to another man. So will I also be to you [until you have proved your loyalty to me and our marital relations may be resumed].
Hos 3:4 For the children of Israel shall dwell {and} sit deprived many days, without king or prince, without sacrifice or [idolatrous] pillar, and without ephod [a garment worn by priests when seeking divine counsel] or teraphim (household gods).
Hos 3:5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, [inquiring of and requiring Him] and [from the line of] David, their King [of kings]; and they shall come in [anxious] fear to the Lord and to His goodness {and} His good things in the latter days.