Have You Been Inked?

Have You Been “Inked”?

If you read and study God’s word, the one thing that becomes increasingly clear is its accuracy.  The prophetic words given to the prophets in dreams and visions astound historians with the details to which they are fulfilled.  Believers who seek growth can find it in the power of the study of God’s word.  God opened the eyes of His prophets to details of events that had not yet happened.   He illumined their eyes to concepts that had not yet been discovered and practiced. 

The magnitude of the vastness of God becomes about as clear as our mortal minds can phantom when we see the accuracy of the written prophetic word.  I have recently been studying the prophets and it has increased my capacity to believe God’s word for it is infallible! 

Men and women who were called to speak God’s prophetic word suffered greatly in the natural.  However, they knew their experiences were being generated by a supernatural Almighty Power (God Himself).  He never abandoned them no matter how hard the task, how rebellious the people, or how long it took to deliver the message.   God was motivated by love for His people and He had to send the righteous word for them to obey and have favor with Him.

I am in my second full year of studying the prophets beginning with Isaiah. As I read, meditate, and make notations on each chapter, I realize why God has given Eternity to Believers.  We will need Eternity to begin to unveil the mounds of revelation contained in each written word of God (Thanks be to God for Eternity to get to “know” Him).  God’s word has the power to change us.  His word conforms us to the image of Christ.

Ezekiel the ninth chapter outlines an event that parallels a principle that should be understood today. It is fascinating reading.   Ezekiel has a vision of six men (with destroying ability and weapons) being called to God’s house.  One of these men was clothed in linen and had a “writer’s ink bottle” at his side.  God instructed this man to go through the city of Jerusalem and “ink” or set a mark on the ones who loathed the sins the people were committing.  God was marking and identifying His true Believers.  The other five men were to follow in the streets of Jerusalem and kill everyone who did not have this mark on their foreheads.  WOW!  Wrong choices will bear wrong consequences.  The wages of sin will always be death (Romans 6:23)

We live in a world where sin manifested in greed, lust, hatred, arrogance, and decadent lifestyles are showcased and promoted.  The people who are victimized by sin scarcely notice that they are destroying the temples that God gave to them.  They proclaim the greed as “Good”.  They proclaim the lust as “Having fun”.  The hatred and arrogance are just “Looking out for myself”.  And the decadent lifestyles they proclaim as, “My right to do so”.

Every person in Jerusalem had the freedom to hate sin or to participate in sin.  This is the free will given by God to man.  The regrettable part of making the wrong choice (participating in sin) was that they payed for it with their lives.  “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).  Sin always ultimately produces death.  Death is the natural and progressive by-product of sin.  This crime has a fixed sentence.  This word is infallible.

The understanding in Ezekiel implicates that God does know the righteous and He spares them as a man spares his own son (Malachi 3:17).   His eyes are over the righteous (Psalms 34:15) and He hears their cries to Him.  If you are a believer, you are marked with the indelible ink of the “Blood of Jesus Christ”.  You will be brought into a place of safety and refuge as you know and understand who you are in Christ.

 I have found many Passovers in the Old Testament, but this one spoke to my heart directly.  It is because of the times in which we live.  All the ancient boundaries of righteousness, morality, honesty, and purity have been removed.  It is easy to see that many people have not been “inked” with the blood of Christ.  This is so unnecessary because He died for all mankind.  God constantly extends Jesus to a death-sentenced world. 

There is life after being “inked”.  Those of us who have been “inked” experience life at its finest no matter the challenge, hardship, or test.  We have “Eternity in our hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). God makes us ready or fits us to live with Him throughout Eternity if we have been INKED.