Today was an awesome sunny day and more sunny days are coming. It is about time the sun is shinning and spring is finally coming after a blustery beginning to April. I think we can all agree that sunny days are great. Who doesn’t like a sunny day? That seems to be the motto for the Canadian government right now. Justin Trudeau said, “Sunny ways my friends, sunny ways,” he said. “This is what positive politics can do.” Justin Trudeau's 'sunny ways' was a nod to Sir Wilfrid Laurier. You can look that little bit of history up. This really is not about politics but we as a country are a long way away from a God fearing country that has the face of God shining on us and giving us peace. The truth is these really are not sunny days from God’s perspective neither in our country nor in the church. I could not help but think how many in the church are saying sunny days even though there is desolation all around us. Yes I know it is hard to see but if you look and listen closely you will see it. But to do this you have to have the word of God before you and you cannot veer from it. The truth is most people do not want to hear that God has turned his face from shining on us due to our lack of obedience to the word of God. Most will reject that teaching.
                 We live in a time where many proclaim peace when there is none. If fact what is being promoted are empty ways. Yes I know that would not be a popular platform to get elected on. Empty ways my friends, empty ways. That doesn’t have the same ring to it but we must be willing to hear the truth or else we will be led astray. The prophets of old gave their lives to speak the truth. Luke 11:7 “Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors 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.” These empty ways have been handed down from generation to generation, disguised as the gospel but in reality they are just a form of godliness and are people who deny the power of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing sunny about these ways. 1 Peter 1:18 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors.” They teach that the church is healthy and vibrant and in some cases happy but yet it lacks power so something is seriously wrong. Revelation 3:15 “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”
                Many leaders in the church are not teaching according to the word of God. For that they will be accountable before him. Ezekiel 13:8 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because of your false words and lying visions, I am against you, declares the Sovereign Lord. 9 My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of my people or be listed in the records of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord. 10 “‘Because they lead my people astray, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, 11 therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. 12 When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, “Where is the whitewash you covered it with?” 13 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. 14 I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the Lord. 15 So I will pour out my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, “The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it, 16 those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
                Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Mark 6:2 “They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” Yesterday I talked about the power that goes with the Holy Spirit and the defeating of our enemies. Most do not want you to think we are at war and will go as far as saying, demons what demons? In order to defeat the enemy we must have the power of God.  Deuteronomy 28:7 “The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.” This is how it is when the Lord truly shines His face upon us. But this cannot happen unless we repent of our empty ways. Revelation 3:18 “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” But in our day repentance is a word that has been set aside. Why repent as there is no need to they will say. Jeremiah 5:3 “Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.” People are saying sunny days my fiends, sunny days. Jeremiah 6:14 “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” We are not seeing the wonders of the Lord yet most are saying this is normal Christianity but yet that teaching does not line up with scripture. The only way to have sunny days is if we as a church repent of our empty ways. 2 Chronicles 7:13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
              Don’t be surprised if persecutions begin to rise as the church begins to stand firm on the word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. John 3:19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”