This study and this chapter and this book, it’s all very much about choosing the Lord. It’s also a revelation that He has already chosen you. And if you have chosen the Lord, then the call to arms in your heart of hearts is to grow in that decision. Here’s the thing, if you have received Jesus Christ and through Him redemption, salvation and acceptance into the family of God, that’s great! But that is not the end, it’s the beginning. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:22-23, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God…”

You see, what you have received from God is a seed. And Peter goes on to teach what you and I need to do in order to allow that seed to produce fruit in our lives…leaving behind the flesh and walking daily in relationship and communion with Jesus. Joel is a tough one…a lot about hardship and judgement and condemnation…but there is also the promise of God…that His desire is to provide for those that are His. So, I just wanted to give you that…that first, please choose the Lord. Hear His call on your heart, on your life…and if you have chosen Him, it’s not like you now stop hearing His call because you’ve already answered…grow in faith. Seeds are promises…but the will of God in my life and in yours is a great harvest, some 30, some 60, some a hundredfold…

Joel Chapter 3 Verses 1 – 2
• Where is the Valley of Jehoshaphat? The truth is that we really don’t know. Most people associate what Joel is saying with the Valley of Megiddo, or the place in Hebrew called Armageddon which is mentioned in Revelation 16 as the place where the kings of the earth are gathered to face God. Entirely acceptable…
• What you’ll also discover is that Jehoshaphat himself is mentioned in Matthew Chapter 1 Verse 8 which is the lineage of Jesus. I am going to make a connection here that to me is personally key. All of the issues that I am dealing with or facing, thinking through and praying about, God enters into judgement with me, I find clarity, when I stand it up in the presence of Jesus.
• Now, that’s not judgement in a bad sense at all. It’s more like, He helps me to see it rightly. What is right here. What is good here. What is healthy here. What is going to bring life…no matter really what the issue is. The Valley of Jehoshaphat for me, for the Christian is the lineage of Jesus. 1 Peter 4:17 says that, “Judgment begins in the house of the Lord,” and 1 Corinthian 6:19 says that, “You are the temple of the Holy Spirit,” God Himself…and so whatever your thought, situation, thing, problem or decision, take it and stand it against the standard and righteousness and goodness and holiness of Jesus Christ and what you or I should do is made very clear very quickly.
• Jesus is the standard of judgement in our lives. Not the circumstance or the data or the emotion or whatever. Let the Lord guide and decide…do that with your stuff, man. Yea you’ll have to make some momentary calls and decisions that aren’t exactly convenient, but in the long run, you will be exactly where you want to be and the person you want to be. This is exactly what Paul was talking about in Romans 12.
• Also notice, God takes very seriously the mishandling of His people. Absolutely talking about Israel in context of Joel Chapter 3 for sure but you are also His. Not a replacement of Israel but rather a grafted in addition to Israel.
Joel Chapter 3 Verse 3
• One of the saddest indictments that God could deal out. Essentially, people being used as payments. More practically put, money and getting for yourself, prioritized over people. A right heart and a clean spirit prioritizes God first and others second. It’s just as simple as that. Confusion and complexity and consternation…they all enter and virally spread in a heart and life when priorities out of whack.
Joel Chapter 3 Verses 4 – 8
• God will take care of His people. I mean, that is one of the best promises found in all of scripture. My job is really just to hold it together while I wait and that looks like trust…it might be able to be stated as trust…but honestly for me, and perhaps I’m not alone, sometimes its just plain holding it together with barely an ounce of hope.
• I want greater faith than that, how about you? Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of God. I can honestly say that the times when my hope is the lowest, its when I’m spending the least amount of personal time alone with the Lord, and specifically in His Word. By the way, this is consistent in my observations of others as well…
• Prayer is essential, worship is essential, corporate gathering of the church is essential, ministry is essential…but nothing compares to time in the Word. Hebrews 4:12, “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit…” As I spend time in the Word, this is the only thing that can pry off the soulish fleshly death that is clinging to my weary spirit.
• Psalm 119:105, “Your Word is a lamp to my feed and a light to my path.” What to think, what to feel, what to rationalize, where to go…a guide post and light house in the stormy sea of my mind and heart! John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” It is the Word of God that pulls us into the heavenly calling that God has placed on each one of us. Luke 11:28, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!” The blessing is in the learning, receiving, embracing and applying the Word of God. It is so essential.
• I want greater faith. I want to get to a really tough day or a really tough situation or get some really tough news or in the face of some really tough discouragement, I want to stand in faith. This is how to grow in this area of my life.
• 2 Peter 3:17, “Beware lest you fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked (version of myself), but GROW in the grace and KNOWLEDGE of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” I need and you need one thing. To grow in the Word of God. And as you increase your hunger for the Word of God, you decrease your hunger for the things of the flesh.
• And then I’ll read and hear that God will take care of His people and instead of that being a single drop of cool water on my thirsty soul, it will be sufficient grace for the entire day! This is really what happened by the way…to those who sold God’s people, who persecuted the people of God….
• Nero led a tragic life, lost his mind, lost his power and empire and was so hated by the senators of Rome that they forced him to kill himself. Domitian was murdered by his own soldiers. Trajan died of disease. Severus died in battle. Maximus was cut to pieces together with his own son. Decius died in exile. Valerian was flogged to death after being captured by the King of Persia. Aurelian was killed by his own soldiers. Diocletian poisoned himself and Maximum hanged himself. All of these idiots live in my heart of hearts too…and I don’t want to listen to them because if I do, I become them.
• God has a great plan for me. And a great plan for you…waiting for each of us on the other side of deciding to follow and to trust Him…and the will to make that decision grows strong, you and I grow strong in the Spirit, when we feed it the Word of God.
Joel Chapter 3 Verses 9 – 16
• The nations, the things of this world rise up against God in battle and He just sits and judges. There is no victory for any enemy of God. But rather there is a revealing of the decision that they have made… If you are fighting against God, you are on the wrong side…
• Jesus taught in Matthew 25:31-46 about this event. And the crux of the decision is who did you choose in your life? To serve self, or to serve God. (Read) Boil it all down…sin and salvation…saved or lost…filled with the Spirit of God or rejecting the call of God on your life. That really is the single decision. Who have you decided to serve?
• And in the last day and even in today, the light diminishes and the earth shakes but that decision will shelter the man or woman of God. God has promised that He will be a shelter for His people. The truth and the word of God is a hope (that’s the actual word here) and a shelter and a refuge for those that love Him and it is a curse for those that refuse Him. Both now and on this day. All will know this next line…
Joel Chapter 3 Verses 17 – 21
• Remember, Zion is the heart of the land. This is where God desires to dwell and really the only place He will dwell. God is with me, I know this. He is in my life. He is in my plans. He is in my desires. In my thoughts, in my circumstances, in my waking and in my sleeping…I know all of this…but He will only dwell in my heart of hearts. That’s where I’ve got to welcome Him and allow Him to set up His sovereignty in my life.
• Edom and Egypt are always a picture of the world in the Bible and the world is going by the way of desolation and wilderness…but God’s plan for you is good. His plan for me is God. Lasting abundance. Days of drought are a long-forgotten memory. New wine, speaking of a continual, daily, new filling of the Holy Spirit and milk always speaks of health and nourishment which is what God desires to give and do for me and for you.
• After the rapture, after the Great Tribulation, the thousand-year reign of Christ and the White Throne Judgement, this is the end-game for us church and for Israel. Acquitted, declared innocent and right, because of the love of God through Jesus. And the best thing to think about it…this decision for you…to invite and welcome you…to fill you with His Spirit…to make you clean and right…it’s already been done.