What will you do with this light?

by Matt Lockett

We are all experiencing a dramatic development right now in the preaching of the Word. The Body of Christ is being exposed to the doctrine of shedding innocent blood at an unprecedented scale thanks to TheCall and God TV to name a few outlets. Tens of thousands are gathering in stadiums and living rooms around the globe to hear this mysterious truth revealed perhaps for the first time in their lives. This message is not a new one by any means, but it has been largely misunderstood and absent from our pulpits. It is not taught in seminary, yet it remains a basic truth that transcends both Old and New Testaments. It defies being dismissed simply as “an Old Testament thing” or something that doesn’t affect us anymore.

Without it there can be no strong case made for the immediate urgency for ending abortion. Without it abortion never rises beyond being an “issue” allocated to the extreme right wing of the Church.

But that’s changing.

First let me say that’s very sobering. Judgment isn’t based on the level of wrongdoing so much as it reflects the light God has given us. That means once we’ve heard the truth of bloodguilt, we are then held responsible for it. The message of Matthew 12:38-45 has to do with an entire generation being judged based on what they did with the light given them. Jesus said that the men of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba will rise up at the judgment and condemn an entire generation that rejected him.

What will it mean for our generation when God moves to set the captives of the womb free? If we continue to reject His light, then no excuse or alibi will remain. He will be completely justified as He was in the 1860’s. Abraham Lincoln understood this when he said,

“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue . . . until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Isn’t it interesting that the Civil War was immediately preceded by the Second Great Awakening? God revealed Himself in greater dimensions, and with it came the exposing of His heart regarding slavery. Lincoln understood the times and seasons of his day knowing the importance of preserving the union at that critical moment. This generation is in a similar moment, and the future of the nation hangs in the balance.

But God is raising up deliverers right now. Be encouraged because Deliverers can mean only one thing–God intends to act. Rees Howells said that, “God Himself had declared war on Nazi Germany.” I believe that God Himself is moving to end abortion.

So this moment in time holds both a great question and opportunity. What will we do with the light that we have been given? Will the Church respond to truth, or will we turn away from this stark spotlight? Will we experience a dramatic turn like the people of Nineveh did, or will we be held responsible for the cumulative shed blood of the innocent like the generation Jesus rebuked in Luke 11?

47 “Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. 49 Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ 50 Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all. 52 “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” (Lk 11:47-52 NIV)