“For the time has come for judgement to begin at the house of God…
if it begins with us first…”
(1 Pet 4:17)
The Lord has spoken to many in the Global Body of Christ that 2024 is a season of open doors. He has also highlighted Psalm 24 as a focus for the year 2024 to different ones in the Ekklesia.
As we sought the Lord further, He showed us that in this season of open doors, He is inviting His people to ascend into His holy hill and enter into the fullness of our destiny and the promises He has for this generation.
Psalm 24:3–4 tells us that there are Biblical “criteria” in order to ascend and enter — clean hands, pure heart, not lifting our souls to idols and not swearing deceitfully. In other words, in order to partner with God and enter into the fullness of our destiny, there are things that we need to possess. At the same time, there are things that may hinder and eventually disqualify us from fullness that we need to remove.
The 1 Peter 4:17 Moment
On 14 December 2023 during a time of prayer, Kay-Chong heard the Lord say, “I am coming in this time of 1 Peter 4:17 as the Righteous Judge, with a plumbline in My right hand and the Refiner’s Fire in My left.” As he subsequently read 1 Peter 4:17, the phrase “for the time has come” came forth as a rhema word and struck his heart.
This is the kairos time. This is the moment! This is the 1 Peter 4:17 Moment where God is coming to judge.
Who is He judging?
In this hour, God is judging His people first. In His zeal for us, Jesus is coming as a righteous Judge, with eyes like flames of fire, to remove the things that disqualify us from entering into the fullness of all that He has for us. He is fighting for us by first “fighting against us” — specifically against the internal enemies that are in our lives: the sin, compromise or idolatry that we consciously or unconsciously harbour. He is jealous for His Bride and is angry with every enemy that perverts and hinders us.
Is this Biblical? It sure is!
Matthew 22:14 says, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” We have to be found qualified to enter into God’s call and election for us. We have to walk in His standards of holiness and righteousness. This is what the plumbline in His right hand is all about (Amos 7:7–8)!
The Apostle Paul bears witness to this. In 2 Corinthians 7:1, he exhorts believers to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness” while “perfecting holiness in the fear of God”, so that we may enter into the promises in 2 Corinthians 6:16–18. He also warns us to examine and test ourselves as to whether we are in the faith, because we can be found disqualified (2 Cor. 13:5).
This is why God is coming to judge.
Understanding the Judgements of God
By and large, God’s judgements are viewed by many in the Body of Christ as being negative. Some even avoid talking or teaching about the subject altogether. This has led to a lack of understanding and many believers having misconceptions about God’s judgements.
The truth of the matter is that God is good, and His judgements are good!
There are four general categories of judgement:
- Punitive — This is punishment directed against the rebellious and not meant for sincere believers of Christ.
- Evaluative — This takes place at the Judgement Seat of Christ where believers will be given rewards.
- Vindicative — This is where God vindicates and fights for His people.
- Redemptive and disciplinary — This confronts and removes things that hinder believers from entering into the fullness of our destiny. This is the Hebrews 12 “chastening” of those He loves so that we may be partakers of His holiness.
The “judgement” in 1 Peter 4:17 is primarily redemptive and disciplinary. God’s purpose is to expose and confront every sin and compromise and to remove and cleanse us from every filthiness. God is good. He is not angry with us and is not here to destroy, but to confront and remove sin so that we may have life and enter into fullness.
Why Judgement Begins with the House of God
Some of us may be wondering — why does God judge His people first?
Firstly, we are nearing the End of the Age where God is going to judge the earth. If He is going to judge the world, He will first judge His people, for He does not want us to be condemned with the rest of the world (1 Cor. 11:32).
Furthermore, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:2 that the saints are called to judge the world. If we are called to judge nations, God has to first judge us so that we will be found qualified to partner with Him in administering judgement.
Hence, God is judging us now so that we will be found qualified to enter into the fullness of partnership with Him in the days ahead and in the Millennial Kingdom.
Entering into our fullness is very important to the Lord and He does not want any of His people to miss out. He directed us to Ezekiel 44:4–31, which gives a glimpse of the divine separation of His people into two groups based on how each responded to God. The Lord is so zealous that He began the passage with this exhortation, “Mark well, see with your eyes and hear with your ears…” (Ezek. 44:5).
One group of God’s people will be those who enter into the fullness of their destiny and promises. The other will not be able to. Those who qualify will partner with the Lord and serve Him from the place of proximity, while those who do not will still serve Him, but sadly from a distance (Ezek. 44:10–16). (The fullness of this partnership will especially be at the End of the Age and during the Millennial Kingdom.)
May many of us be found qualified to enter into our fullness!
We need to pay attention to deal with anything that may disqualify us. We have to cooperate with the Lord and let Him search our hearts and remove everything that hinders us. And we need to allow Him to do so now.
The Care and Wisdom of the Refiner
If 1 Peter 4:17 is coming to pass now, as God’s people, we want to submit to His process of judgement and cleansing. While many of us may find ourselves “bracing” for this, Jesus is inviting us to embrace Him as the Refiner’s Fire and to embrace this process instead (Mal. 3:1–7). This is because He is the One who refines and purifies with great care and wisdom — with a heart of tenderness and full knowledge of just how much fire to bring us through.
Through Malachi 3:3 and 3:6, the Lord reveals this heart of His even as He judges and takes us through the process of refining.
In verse 6, the Lord declares that He does not change. This has a dual meaning: His standards of righteousness and holiness do not change, and His heart towards us does not change. He is always merciful and tender towards us, and His plans for our fullness still stand.
In verse 3, the prophet Malachi uses the analogy of the silversmith who sits beside the fire as he refines silver. Just as a silversmith intently watches and never takes his eyes off the silver throughout the entire process of refining, Jesus never takes His eyes off us because He is intimately concerned with and acquainted with our ways (Job 23:10). At the right time when all dross is removed, He will swiftly take us out of the fire. He knows just the right temperature and duration of the fire needed and will never put us there for longer than necessary. Praise God!
And how does Jesus know when to take us out of the fire? Just as the silversmith removes the silver from the fire the instance he sees his own image in the pure silver, Jesus refines us until His own image is formed in us. The end goal of this refining is to be conformed to the image of Jesus — especially in holiness, wholeheartedness, and righteousness.
Wow!
Surely, the Lord is for us and not here to destroy us. We need to have clarity of this refining process so that we do not misinterpret His work and resist Him. In the midst of His judgements, we can trust and have confidence in Him, His heart and His process because our Refiner is good.
Our Acceptable Response
Now that we know all this, how should we respond?
First, find out what the Lord wants to remove from our lives and what He desires to give us. Scripture is replete with revelation of what pleases God, what He is looking for in His people, and what He hates. It behoves us to pay attention and watch out for these things in our own lives.
Specifically in Ezekiel 44:6–9, the Lord reveals what He deems abominable and thus wants to remove as He refines. These include:
- Compromising on standards of righteousness (when Israel allowed foreigners to minister in the temple);
- The lack of holiness, righteousness and purity in our hearts (uncircumcised in heart);
- Having a worldly spirit as laid out in 1 John 2:15–16 — the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (uncircumcised in flesh).
In Malachi 3:5, God reveals what He desires to give us even as we go through the fire — a reverent and holy fear of Him. Indeed, restoring the fear of the Lord to His people is something that He promises to do with all His heart and all His soul (Jer. 32:40–41). Wow! If this is so important to Him, let us respond and cooperate with Him by intentionally choosing the fear of the Lord (Prov. 1:29; 23:17)!
Finally, Hebrews 12:25–29 reveals five aspects of an appropriate response to God’s shaking and judgements:
1. Do not refuse Him who speaks (v25) — We are exhorted not to resist the Lord, or deny the misplaced confidences, weaknesses, fault lines, and sins that His judgement reveals. Instead, we need to embrace His correction wholeheartedly and deal with issues thoroughly.
2. Allow Him to remove (v27) — God wants to remove everything that can be shaken. Besides sin, there may be “good” things in our lives that are not of God, not what He desires, or that do not matter in His Kingdom. We are to exercise discernment, let God remove these things, and not hold on to them.
3. Let the things that cannot be shaken remain (v27) — As He shakes away things that are not of Him, we need to cooperate with His grace to replace them with Kingdom foundations that He wants to establish in our lives. These include love for His truth, living according to Kingdom values, the promises of God, confidence in God, and intimacy with God.
4. Receive the Kingdom that cannot be shaken (v28) — As the Lord shakes and removes, we also need to come to Him with faith so that we may receive, inherit and possess His unshakeable Kingdom in fullness.
5. Serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (v28) — Finally, God calls us to serve Him out of a heart and posture of reverence and godly fear.
The author of Hebrews ends chapter 12 with, “For our God is a consuming fire”.
Indeed! He is a God who is jealous and zealous for our fullness. That is why He is coming to judge His people in this 1 Peter 4:17 Moment. He will remove every sin, evil and compromise until we have clean hands and pure hearts, do not lift up our souls to idols, nor swear deceitfully.
Then we may ascend into the hill of the LORD and enter into the fullness of all that God has prepared for us as His End-Time Generation!
Word of the Lord 2024 | Teaching Series
“The 1 Peter 4:17 Moment”
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