Amos 8:11: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.

 In this article, I want to write about the famine in the land for hearing the words of God.  I would like to show both sides of God.  God is good and God is love but there is another side of God.  That side of God is his wrath that He will bring upon the people that become disobedient unto His words, and refuse to walk in the light.  There is a time when God will have to let the people know what He wants the people to do.  The wise man Solomon in Ecclesiastes said in 3:1 said that to everything there is a time and a season.  The word "Famine" really does not sound good - and it's not good.  Yet - God will use things like famines to bring His people where He wants them to go.  God created both evil and good (Isa. 45:7).  He had to create evil and good and there is a purpose for it.  (Eccl. 3:17)  In the New Testament, Paul said in Romans 8:28, "All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose."   This shows us that sometimes God has to let things come upon us to get us to move because people will not move from a place where they are as long as everything goes good, they have a job, they make good money, have a nice home, they have everything that they need, so why should they move from one place to another?  In the natural.  So is it with the people of God today.  Why should anybody that has a big church, got everything going the way they want it to go, increasing daily, prospering and everything - why would they want to move to another place and start all over?  But since God has a people that are going to have to keep moving forward until they reach a state of perfection, God's going to have to let something come upon them  - which is a famine - that it will cause them to move and that's the only way God sometimes can get us to move out.   A famine has a good part and a bad part.  The bad part is that it will bring destruction.  It will bring hunger in the natural, not enough land to live on, not enough food is raised, you don't have a job.  Just like in the natural in the days of Abraham. 

 In the Book of Genesis when God was getting ready to bring forth His people upon the earth, he told Abraham to go out and look for a land that God was going to give him because Abraham's seed would be as the stars of heaven.  The people would be so many that the land where he was it could not contain them.  Abraham had to leave his mother and his father, his kindred.  Therefore, it caused Abraham to move out and search for a land.  But later on Abraham and Lot's goods increased and their families increased and the land could not bear enough for both Abraham and Lot.  So there was another split and Abraham and Lot went their separate ways.  There was actually a famine for land.  (Gen. 13:6)  A famine means many different things in the natural and in the spiritual.  When we read of famine in the Old Testament it could mean, land, food, or water and so forth.  Famine would cause people to move on to another area.  This is a shadow, or an allegory, to reveal the spiritual side of the word.  Paul in Hebrews 10:1 said that the law is just a shadow of that which is to come during the dispensation of grace in the fullness of time.  Therefore, he said, God has provided some better thing for us that they without us will not be made perfect.  (Heb. 11:40)  Meaning, we are not living under the law any more, we are living in the dispensation of grace so He is bringing it from the natural things which they used under the law into the spiritual which is a famine for hearing the words of God, or the moving and power of the Holy Ghost the way is was on Pentecost.  We find that in the book of Amos 8:11,  and because of a famine for hearing the words of God, meaning being taught that people can understand it by rightly dividing the word of God on the subject you are talking about, it's causing the people of God to faint by the wayside, not knowing what to believe anymore.   The biggest controversy today that is bringing a famine of the words of God is that it is the day of the Lord's vengeance and there is a controversy about "who is Zion?"  (Isa.  ____)  Meaning - who is the Church?  It is a known fact that by listening to preachers and these churches, that everybody believes that if you are born again you are in the church and you are the church.  THIS IS NOT SCRIPTURAL!  The wise man Solomon made it plain in the scripture.  In Song of Solomon, he says that there are threescore (many churches), concubines (helpers - churches that preach salvation, sanctification, Holy Ghost), and virgins (born again people without number).  And out of ALL OF THEM, he said "My dove, my undefiled, she is but one."  This shows you that out of the kingdom of God, there must be a people that is going to be the Church, the Bride, the Lamb's wife.  Now we need to find out who these people are. 

 In the words of Jesus, that before His return, the people are not getting the word taught to them to understand, Jesus said to the disciples (when he spoke to the multitudes in parables, which is a dark saying or a prophecy) that the mysteries of the kingdom of God were not for the kingdom of God to know, but to the disciples it was given to know.  Meaning, they were the church.  When Paul came to the realization that there only was going to be one true church, one body, He became a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ for us Gentiles.  He said to reveal the mystery which God is making known to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit to make all men see what is the mystery, the difference in the kingdom of God and the Church that He is coming for.  Eph. 4, the Bible also said, it is the Church that will have the manifold wisdom of God, and not the kingdom.  I am not putting down the kingdom in any way, for they are doing a good job and they are doing a job that God sent them to do, preaching born again experience, salvation, the Holy Ghost, but it's time to move in to the fullness of God that we might be ready for the coming of the Lord.  Jesus said about the baptism of the Holy Ghost, "Howbeit, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you, he will lead and guide you into all the truth."  So, besides salvation, sanctification, preaching the Holy Ghost, you don't stop at that.   Jesus said, because of the famine in the land, if you stop there and it's bringing a famine in the land, Jesus said, the kingdom of heaving is likened unto 10 virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom and while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.  The kingdom of God is slumbering and sleeping today.  The whole kingdom of God.  But at midnight there is a cry made, which we know, according to Revelation 22, it is the Church that is making the midnight cry. 

 To hear and understand.  Rev 1 - hearing the word of God. 

 It's time for the people to know the real meaning of the word.  You can hear something said, preached, or taught, as far as the principal doctrines of Christ, but if you don't understand what the word means or what they are saying, you are not hearing.  It's like the Apostle Paul when he was on his way and brethren with him, all of a sudden the brethren heard a voice that spake with Paul in one verse of scripture, the brethren heard not the voice that spoke with Paul. Meaning - they heard a voice, they heard someone talking to Paul, and Jesus said they did not hear, he meant they did not understand what that voice was saying to Paul.  So is it today when the word of God is being preached.  If it is not rightly divided and put in its context, the people will hear you speaking, hear you saying words, bring in pictures before them, but if they don't understand what you are saying - THEY HEAR NOT. 

 Joseph was a type of individual that lived within the kingdom of God but God was working with him specifically and the people around him did not understand what was going on and, therefore, they would not listen to Joseph.  They called him a dreamer.  But then God, in His plan, allowed Joseph to be taken to Egypt and there he prepared the land for a famine that was to come according to the dreams that the Pharoah had.  After the famine in the land for food, the brethren of Joseph and his father Jacob knew they were going to have to do something because they were starving to death for food.  The same way it is today with people for not hearing the words of God and they are starving to death.  Therefore, Jacob's sons eventually went to Egypt to stay, and they did not just stay through the famine, but they stayed afterwards too.  That's why the children of Israel were still in Egypt at the time Moses was sent for deliverance.  So this famine for the food in Joseph's time ties into the famine of Amos because it is a hearing of the word of God and the Word of God is food. 

 The Bible does say, they shall gather themselves together and say, "Let us join ourselves unto the Lord, for out of Mount Zion shall come the words of the Lord." 

 Eccl. 3:1:  "To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under the heaven."  (17)  "I said in mine heart God shall judge the righteous and the wicked.  For there is a time for every purpose and for every work." 

 This brings out the bad and the good.  When God sends a famine, His purpose is to bring out the true and also the false.  Those that are true believers, a famine will cause them to move to where God wants them to move.  The disobedient, the rebellious, will not move.  Especially when they have everything.  A lot of people that have everything they need, you will never get them to move.  These big kingdom churches - as long as they have people, they will never move.  But there are some people that are hungry and God will move them out of there.  That's what it's all about.  From this famine, He will reveal the true and the bad.   It's like when Moses told the children of Israel to get ready to move, some of them did not want to move.  They wanted to stay where they had plenty to eat.  Everyone will not move to where the food of God is. 

Three main scriptures concerning why the famine. 

Suggestion:  Water as a famine concerning the Spirit.  Today it is the famine for the Spirit of God and of the words of God. 

Therefore, it is as the scripture says in Revelation 22:16:  "I, Jesus, sent mine angel (or minister) to testify these things to the churches.  I am the root and offspring of David, I am the bright and the morning star.  The Spirit and the Bride is saying Come.  And let him that heareth tell others to come, and let him that is athirst, Come and take of the water of life freely.  Isa.  ____:  Come and buy bread without money.  Therefore, we invite you to come to our services, send in your questions, find out and worship with us for we are living in the time of the soon coming of Jesus.  Let us get ourselves ready. 
 Spirit has to accompany the Word of God in order for people to understand. 

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