Deeper Still: The Event - Kay Arthur

I have heard Kay Arthur on the radio numerous times and over the years have read a few of her books. She refers to her listeners and/or readers often as "precious one" or "beloved". She has that motherly tone in her voice that is comforting, gentle and just makes you feel special and very loved by a caring Father. She has a love for the Word of God that is very evident whenever you hear her, and her passion for the Bible inspires her to teach others how to read it and study it for themselves. She started her ministry in 1963 and has been going strong ever since. Some might even call her the matriarch of modern women's Bible studies and she has obviously set the standard.

I had preconceived notions about what I would be hearing when it was time for Kay Arthur to speak on Saturday at the conference. I imagined a message peppered with the kind of stuff I had always heard from her in the past. I was totally off base, totally and completely. The message Arthur delivered was a hard message to hear. It was convicting and it was spoken with passion and through tears. That woman can preach! Whew!

She can also "break it down"! Check out this agile 74 year old woman dancing without "Shackles"!


Deeper Still from on Vimeo.

While there were many fun and humorous moments during the weekend, Arthur gave a very sobering and prophetic message. It obviously weighed very heavy on her heart, so much so that she confessed she was physically ill. I started thinking about the prophets of the Old Testament, like Jeremiah, who had the not-so-wonderful job of telling Israel that she better get her act together or else. He wasn't very appreciated in his day, and Kay Arthur is delivering the same kind of message this day.

"Our nation is in grave danger."

She repeated the warning emphasizing each word slowly and deliberately "our nation is in graaaave danger".

The 19,000 women in attendence at once were quieted.

Much of Arthur's message came out of Jeremiah, and some from Ezekial and Isaiah. What I found interesting is that while the text of her message was from the Old Testament, she used all of it to support her "answer" to the disconcerting Word God gave her to share.

My notes from this weekend are rather scattered, so this post may be as well, but there was so much information being dished out, it was hard to get it all down on paper. I've been able to take the past week to absorb it, and now I'm going to attempt to put it out there for everyone, because everyone needs to hear it.

After the crowd was stunned into silence, Arthur reminded us that "Truth is a Person, it is a Book, anything else is sinking sand."

The basic message was one of warning, that America is in danger of losing it's heritage and that this nation is under God's Judgement. She gave some examples about how in our country there is no absolute truth and that apostacies are many. She used some examples of how the media often distorts truth and that we don't know what to believe anymore. Right and wrong are clouded. She recommended a book by David Kupelian called "The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised As Freedom".

She spoke about the "Word of God being lost in the House of God". In some American churches we are being taught untruths and all kinds of stuff contrary to the Word of God. There are many false teachers and prophets out there teaching things like health, wealth and prosperity, the word of faith movement and all sorts of other things. She used 2 Kings 22 when the Book of Law was found in the temple after having been "lost" and forgotten. We need to return to the Law and make a covenant to obey His Word, live in the light of the Word, gird up our loins and proclaim the Word. It is spiritual warfare and Arthur said "I could retire...but, there is no retirement in a time of war."

Arthur said "it is not the desire of God to bring judgement -- it is the necessity in His character when we will not obey".

She used some of what is happening in today's America to support her statement that we are experiencing a level of God's judgement, from the natural disasters, such as the Midwest floods that will cut off our bread supply (Ezekial 14:13), that we have a lack of knowledge of the Word of God (Isaiah 5:13, Hosea 4:1-6).

Arthur says we don't spend enough time in the Old Testament and encouraged us to dig deeper in the OT to understand God's character. Because we lack knowledge, and show no delight in the Word (Jeremiah 6), we too easily start to prefer false prophets. ( I see this in the way people are spellbound by Joel Olsteen and Oprah Winfrey.) What is so dangerous is how "good" their messages sound.

After delivering this very difficult message, Arthur gave us "7 Things to do in light of this message":

1. Break up the fallow ground, the hardness of our soul. (Jeremiah 4:3). We need to ask God to break our hearts with the things that break His.
2. Mourn (Jeremiah 9:17-18). We should be brokenhearted over the state of our churches and the state of our nation, and send out "destroying angels".
   
3. Pray (1 Timothy 2). Pray for our nation and those in authority.
   
4. Love God's Word (Jeremiah 20) Love it above yourself.
   
5. Love others as Jesus loves them (Jeremiah 31:3, John 13). The church should exemplify unconditional love and show kindness to hurting people. We need to help each other through our struggles.
   
6. Introduce people to Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 31:31, Jeremiah 33: 1-9, 15, 17). God will heal a nation that repents and returns to Him.
   
7. Rest "Believing God is with you is the rest of faith." (I like how she made "rest" a noun in that statement.)

Interesting side note Kay Arthur shared with us that day is how she hopes to die. She said she prays to die of a quick heart attack on stage in front of a large crowd such as we were, 19,000 people. She then went on to say that her hope is in the moment she drops to the stage floor that someone, most likely from the ministry team she happens to be with I suppose, would run out and give an invitation! LOL

I was blessed having had the opportunity to hear the wisdom and prophetic proclamation come forth from an anointed mouthpiece of God. Kay Arthur delivered a daunting message that was hard for her to give, and hard for us to receive, but it was so necessary. God gave it to her for a reason, let it not be lost in the House of God.

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For more information:

Deeper Still Blog
Kay Arthur: Precept Ministries International

READ KAY ARTHUR'S OFFICIAL RESPONSE TO "FAMINE AND CALAMITY" (added 08/04/08)