When the Lord begins to move upon a nation, He will first address falsehoods within the Church. His challenge will prepare us to deal with what is coming. What was prophetically spoken to the Church will be examined to determine its validity. Worldly mindsets that led people astray into delusion will be exposed.

While the time and historical context of what the Lord said through Zechariah specifically referred to Israel, the process of how the Lord works in His people remains the same today: “On that day, the Lord will defend the people of Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:8). The Lord’s defense of His Church and His confrontation of the lies we assumed to be the truth, is an expression of His love. 

When the Lord begins to defend His people, a fountain of truth and revelation will be revealed, “On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and impurity” (13:1). We are part of the lineage of David. We can expect the same defense from the Lord today as what happened in the time of Zechariah.

In the Lord’s defense of us, whatever we believed that was false will be exposed, “And on that day,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, ‘I will erase idol worship throughout the land so that even the names of the idols will be forgotten. I will remove from the land both the false prophets and the spirit of impurity that came with them” (vs. 2). 

As the defending work of the Lord intensifies, false prophets will be humiliated in their exposure. They will be offered an opportunity to repent of the falsehoods they spoke, “On that day people will be ashamed to claim the prophetic gift. No one will pretend to be a prophet by wearing prophet’s clothes” (vs. 4). The day of pretending will end when the truth of God is revealed.

In that moment of exposure when what was prophesied is determined to have been false, we will be offered a chance to repent of what we naively believed to be true. We will ask the Lord, “What is it you want to say to us?” All works of God among His people begin by asking that one question. 

The Lord speaks to each of us individually. When the “prophets” have failed in their task, we are not without hope of a fresh word from the Lord. The Lord is always speaking to those whose ears are tuned to His Spirit. If we are listening, we will hear the word of the Lord and with that word, He will be faithful to lead us forward out of the confusion and disarray into a new place of revelation and freedom.