“Ichabod! The Fire Has Gone Out and My Spirit Has Departed!”

Share this post:

The following word was received during my early morning prayer time on August 14 2016.

“Ichabod! The fire has gone out and My Spirit has departed! For the watchmen that watches has watched in vain! For he has let the fire go out, he has forsaken My Spirit’s dwelling and I have moved his habitation! For the Church desires the things of this earth rather than the treasures of Heaven!

I have prepared a table before your enemies but you have refused to come and dine, therefore you will be their portion! You have rejected My plans to prepare you as a Holy Bride, now your garments will be tattered and your beauty will flee!

Today you have provoked Me as in the day of provocation, now you will pay the price! I am a jealous God and I reap where I sow! I have given you My Word and you have rejected it. I have given you My Glory and you refuse to wear it. I have given you My Holiness and you have refused to walk in it. I have given you My Grace and you have abused it!

I will return to you if you return to Me. I will heal you, if you call upon Me!

Where will you go, and to whom will you run to in the hour of calamity? For when the fires of affliction fall, then you will call, then you will return, only then will I see My Bride clean, pure, without spot or earthly blemish! Your time is short to prepare, your hour is late!

To My David’s, return to My Temple and light the fire of My Presence! Guard that flame as a watchman watches at night! Find your light within My Light (Psalm 36:9)! Then I will fill the temple with My Presence and overwhelming Glory! Then I will show My Promise of restoration of the last days! For I Am suddenly returning to My Temple! There you will find Me. In the place of Holiness, I will abide.

Forsake not the assembling and gathering together in these final days says your God. There is strength in numbers and My Glory will abide with My People. I will never leave you nor forsake you!

Light the fire once again and call upon My Spirit and I will manifest My Glory!”

The Father led me to the following scriptures and prophetic teaching.

Many Church leaders in America believe their number one need is to have a political candidate in their corner, one who will fight for their right to speak to all things politically. Heaven disagrees!

The number one need of the American Church is to fall on their faces before a Holy God, repenting of the apostate and pagan lifestyle we are currently living. How many campaigns and candidates have promised us that they would overturn ROE V WADE? All they do is pull on our emotions and empty our wallets as we help “bankroll” their journey to the fairytale land called “change.” The only thing that changes is the slogan and logo for the next candidate that rolls into town!

When will the Church learn that we are only stepping stones for these political charlatans? Church, we need the fire of God to fall once again upon the altars of our hearts, consuming the sin soaked offerings of repentance! The purpose of the FIRE!

8 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
9 Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.
10 And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar.
11 And he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place.
12 And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings.
13 The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out. (Leviticus 6:8-13)

There is a purpose for the fire. It is redeeming and all consuming. True restoration comes from true repentance, and the Father will meet us at the altar, answering our cries with redeeming fire! He longs for us to go there; He longs for His Church to just admit their need of Him!

Verse 12 reveals to us the consecrated lifestyle that is not an option if we are to walk Holy before Heaven. Everyday should be a day of consecration of our life to the Father. Everyday our altar should be full of “wood” and offerings for our sin. These are all symbolic to us today of our need to be in constant contact with our Lord and Savior! Perpetual repentance produces eternal acceptance, and gives us unlimited access to the Throne of God!

The nature of the Father is discovered in the reality that He loves sacrifices from His People. The greatest sacrifice we can give Him are the ones from our hearts and lips, that are bathed in humility (Psalm 51:17)! He always resists the proud, and those are the ones who refuse to admit their daily need of a Savoir. He is our Daily Bread! Our lives should be consumed with passion and pursuit of His Holiness and Presence. We must burn daily within to know Him and make Him known.

Verse 13 reveals and confirms this fact, the FIRE IS NEVER TO GO OUT!

The pastors and shepherds of today’s Babylonian Franchise Churches have not only allowed the fire to go out, they have replaced it with another gospel producing strange fire (Leviticus 10:1, 11 Corinthians 11:4)!

The members of these churches have become so enamored by the magic shows of these modern day Simon’s (Acts 8:18), that they have no idea they are becoming two-fold more the children of hell (Matthew 23:15)! Repentance is the key that keeps the fire of God burning brightly in the House of God. We need the fire of God blazing again in the hearts of our preachers! To God we would have preachers once again asking for the Holy coals off the fiery Altar of God to touch their lips of flesh (Isaiah 6:6-8)!

Jehovah is the God who announces Himself with fire!

And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces. (Leviticus 9:24)

That’s what we need again right there! A good ole fire baptized service, where the God of Heaven answers by fire!

America, there are two fires coming to our shores, the fire of hell and the fire of Heaven, we must choose this day which fire we want to reside in! For me and my house, we choose to reside and abide in the fire that comes from the fiery Altar of Heaven! That same fire that ignited the Altar of Burnt Offering, fell on the day of Pentecost, and is still falling today!

2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. (Acts 2:2-3)

The second fire the Father led me to is found in Leviticus 24.

2. Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. (Leviticus 24:2)

Moses was commanded by the Father to have all of Israel bring pure olive oil. They were given a responsibility in keeping the fire burning. Israel was required to pay a price for the fire. The Glory and Presence of God will always cost us something! Because we have a costless gospel being preached, it’s hard to find anyone willing to pay the price that Heaven requires. We lack anointing because we lack the sacrifice for it. Talent has replaced unction, and media marketing has replaced miracles!

If I die daily, if I pick my cross, then the oil of His presence increases in my life and the fire of His Presence burns even brighter. Can you imagine what a home, a Church, or Nation would look like if we all paid the price and brought the King pure oil? What a fire that would burn, giving safe passage to those in darkness!

There is so much more to say on the oil, the fire, and the lampstands, but I wanted to show the prophetic parallel of where we are right now. This is the only one reason America is growing darker by the day, the Lamp of God has gone out!

In 1 Samuel 3, we find young Samuel in the house of Eli. The Father was preparing Samuel to lead Israel into a new day of Spirit led leadership. The old guard was being removed. Their service to Heaven and their nation was coming to a close, not due to old age, but darkened hearts. The prophetic voices and visionaries of the hour were scarce, not because Heaven was silent, but because the leadership was willingly blind. Just like it is today!

1. And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.
2. And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see;
3. And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep; (1 Samuel 3:1-3)

In my opinion, verse two is saddest verse of the Old Testament!

This is where we are right now in the vast majority of American churches! We have let the fire go out! We have refused to see that the light of God within our hearts has grown ever so dim, to the point the fire is gone! All that is left is the putrid smell of smoldering ashes! We are fireless, and powerless, while the devil rages through our homes and city streets! No wonder our nation is rejecting Christianity! We have no open visions, and true prophetic revelations, to show the world who the Father really is! The only fire we see in most Churches are the sparks coming off of our handheld sparklers! We have replaced the smoke of His Glory with mechanical smoke machines! There is no true rain of the Spirit in our Churches, just manmade irrigation systems to keep us propped up till the next show! We need a raging Holy Ghost fire to blow through our dried out wood stacks we call Churches! Don’t ever let the fire and passion of the Holy Ghost go out in your life!

Conclusion:
In conclusion, the Father impressed upon me to show where we are right now as a Church and a Nation.

In 1 Samuel 4, Israel was engaged in battle with their enemies, the Philistines, which means immigrants, foreigners, and sea people. America, we have been invaded by those who couldn’t care less about our God, the Bible, and our Constitution. They have a plan to destroy the very fabric of this nation. Our government officials are a part of this plan by allowing anyone to enter this nation, asking us to conform to their religions, ideologies, and forms of self-governance, without embracing our culture of law, order, and ethical values. The great melting pot of the world is boiling over, and no one will be able to clean up the mess!

I am not against immigration, I love the flavor of the nations, but if we don’t teach these nations our values, we will become just like the countries they fled!

Our “seeker friendly” and “let’s all get along” Churches, are worsening the matter! Just like Israel we are losing the battle, we are losing the war for the soul of our nation. To be honest with you, it already has been lost. Every day the evidence of the depth of the darkness, comes spewing out of the manholes of our society. Just pick the institution, all of them are decaying and decomposing because we have rejected the Creator, the Founder, and the only One who can keep our nation intact!

Because of our rejection of God, both in the House of God and in the affairs of this nation, we are currently running on a form of godliness, but without the power! We are a terminal patient, living like nothing is wrong!

3. And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.
4. So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. (1 Samuel 4:3-4)

Israel went to Shiloh to find their lucky charm! Just like the Churches of America, we have our lucky charms that make us feel like God is with us! Big buildings with big budgets and big named Christian entertainers who tell us sin is okay and Heaven is for us!

Just look how diverse we are! We fly the flag of the rainbow while embracing a demonized culture of sodomites whom the God of Heaven calls an abomination (Leviticus 18:22) The lucky charms of Israel didn’t work then and it surely won’t work now!

10. And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. (1 Samuel 4:10)

Eli and his sons Hophni, and Phinehas were now dead. The changing of the guard was now complete. This sin sickened leadership left a legacy that will forever be remembered by two sad events. They let the fire of Gods’ Presence go out, while leaving an indelible mark that follows every generation that rejects God and His commandants.

21. And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband. (1 Samuel 4:21)

The seed of Phinehas lived and was a reminder to every generation of his failure and that of his family. What will be said of today’s modern Church? What will be said about us and our Church, our ministry, and our family? Will we give birth to an Ishmael or an Ichabod?

This may be our final call to give birth to the greatest outpouring recorded in human history! Don’t let the fire go out, and may we never let His Presence depart from our life!

Author: Pastor Benjamin Faircloth

Benjamin Faircloth is the President and Founder of World Outreach Ministries International and also the Pastor of Ignited Church in Lavonia GA. His wife Jennifer is also a Pastor at Ignited Church, which was birthed out of a desire to see the glory of God restored to the church and to help others discover their destiny in Christ! Benjamin has been in ministry since 1991.

Share this post: