The first three centuries of the Church’s history prove that no earthly power can crush it. It is invincible to attacks from without. The witnesses of its sufferings and even its persecutors, became its converts and it grows more rapidly than it can be destroyed. The following period of two centuries shows that the union of Church and State, even when the powers of the mightiest Empire are put into the Church’s hands, do not enable her to save the State from destruction, for in abandoning the position which her very name implies, of being “called out,” of the world and of separation to Christ, she loses her power that comes from subjection to her Lord, exchanging it for an earthly authority that is fatal to itself. (Broadbent)
You see what this brother is saying? That no matter what power comes against the Church, even the gates of hell, it shall prevail and even thrive in the midst of persecution. Yet, when we abdicated our role of being separate from the world, being set apart from it, we embraced the world and became just like it. All of these truths apply whether individually or corporately. If we as individuals become subject to anything other than our Lord then we have set in motion a deadly slow working poison. If not checked, we shall end up embracing the world and becoming just like it. It will contaminate all of who we are and we shall lose our way and become unrecognizable as a saint. In gatherings every week, if those gatherings are not in subjection to our Lord Jesus, if it is exchanged in an un-biblical fashion for the authority of men, then the rot is on and the slow working poison begins to take hold, that gathering shall begin to embrace the world and become just like it.
Just like individuals and churches, denominations, when they take the reigns of power to themselves and usurp the authority of Jesus through His Holy Spirit, then they begin to embrace the world and before that work is done, be just like it. It is actually the exact opposite of “called out.” It is no church at all for it has taken its place with the world and is not only not separate but is very much a part of the world. Look at many denominations around the world, it is almost impossible to tell the difference between them and the world. Mega churches living their best lives now are actually oftentimes more worldly than the word, this is the fatality of not being subject to Jesus and His word.
It all begins and ends with being under His Lordship, bowing down to His authority and the authority of the word of God. This is true for all of us individually and as congregations and denominations. Replace the authority of God for the authority of men and you will fall. It may take ten years or a thousand years but there is an end to all who will not bow the knee to the Lord, they will end up bowing the knee to Baal.
If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17 . It will explain exactly why you are where you are— because Jesus has prayed that you “may be one” with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be. God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?
God is not concerned about our plans; He doesn’t ask, “Do you want to go through this loss of a loved one, this difficulty, or this defeat?” No, He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy. If we will pray, regarding our own lives, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42), then we will be encouraged and comforted by John 17, knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom, accomplishing what is best. When we understand God’s purpose, we will not become small-minded and cynical. Jesus prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself, just as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far from this oneness; yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him— because Jesus prayed, “…that they all may be one….” (Oswald Chambers)
What could we desire in heaven and on earth but the glory of God! It is necessary to desire the glory of God as He desires it. God, who knows all things, has a plan of operation. He does all things at just the right time. He waits until the right hour to accomplish His will. When Jesus entered this world He could have converted the world at once and destroyed all evil, but His wisdom did not direct Him to do so. Listen to the Lord as He says “My hour has not yet come.” Do not interfere with His perfect timing by trying to advance it or hold it back. Fall on your knees before Him and acknowledge your nothingness. Seek only to be an instrument in His hands. He may use you or set you aside as pleases. Be totally committed to His desires, and indifferent to your own. It should not matter to you whether He uses you or not. Remain in Gods hands. He may cast down or build up. Let Him do whatever He pleases, both in you and through you.( Madam Guyon)
Are we truly seeking the glory of God in our lives brothers and sisters? Do we have such a radical sold out relationship as the two authors above were alluding to? To be dead to this flesh is to be one with God. Is that not why Jesus came to that we could be one with Him as He is one with the Father, and for what purpose? So that the world would know that He came from the Father. So that we could abide in the glory. What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and when we walk in the oneness of God, the very purpose of Him coming, then we revel in the glory, we are partakers of His glory. And that glory is a light unto a dark world.
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.(Joh 17:23-24)
As long as the Church had remained separate it had been a powerful witness for Christ in the world and was constantly drawing converts into its holy fellowship. When, however, already weakened by the adoption of human rule in place of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it was suddenly brought into partnership with the state, it became itself defiled and debased. Very soon the clergy were competing for lucrative positions and for power as shamelessly as the court officials, while in congregations where a godless element predominated the material advantages of a profession of Christianity changed the purity of the persecuted churches into worldliness. The church was thus powerless to stem the downward course of the civilized world into corruption. (E.H.Broadbent- The pilgrim Church pg 46)
Broadbent is speaking of what happened when the church was swallowed up by the Roman empire in the times of Constantine. There was a purity in the persecuted church, the persecution itself kept them close to God and dependent upon Him, but when the persecution stopped and they now found themselves in the ranks of the rich and the powerful, in very short order it was totally corrupt. The western Roman empire did not survive very long after it co-opted the church. The deeper principal at play here was separation from the world enhances purity in the Church. It does this because when we are clearly separate from the world we incur the wrath of the world. We are, so to speak, the conscience of the world. The world should be able to look at us and see something very different from itself. When it does, it brings about conviction of sin and hatred from the world because of that. Yet Jesus had already told us that if the world hated Him it would certainly hate us. And so, hatred leads to persecution and along with persecution, the Church is purified as it suffers for the cause of Christ. A unique anointing rests upon us when we are fulfilling our role in this world. But in the west at least, we have wanted that anointing without any willingness to suffer or to be the conscience of the world, to be a counter-culture rather than to be a sub-culture.
Indeed, the vast majority of what passes for the church now is seeker friendly to one degree or another. We do our best to be just like the world so that we shall not offend it in any way. We become like social workers in our desire to befriend the world. In multiple denominations now it has went far beyond that, embracing as normal, the sins that have taken society by the throat and are tearing it apart. Divorce, homosexuality, living with one another and pre-marital sex have been embraced by many. We are no longer the conscience of the world but have become part of the instruments of searing their conscience. Our own worldliness has led to the darkness that is plunging the world headlong into hell. The good news is that there are some issues that are really black and white for any genuine saint. Homosexuality would be one of them. No genuine Christian could embrace this lifestyle choice and because of that we shall undoubtedly find ourselves once again the conscience of the world. This of course will lead to persecution which will lead to the particular anointing that rests upon the church when it is persecuted for the sake of Truth, for the sake of Jesus.
We shall once again be a powerful witness in the world, albeit a much smaller group than what professes to be Christian. But it will still be a powerful group of countless millions of saints. The remnant saints of God shall be compelled, because of their love for the truth and for Jesus, to come out of the world and the worldly church. We shall regain again the mantle of the Church, we shall know this because the world will hate us just like it hated our Lord. We servants are not greater than our Master, if the world hated Him it will hate us. If He suffered their wrath then so shall we. If it is His will that we shall suffer then we shall be anointed. This is, in fact, what you were called to do, because: The Messiah also suffered for you and left an example for you to follow in his steps (1 Pet 2:21)
I wrote a poem called ” I asked for a rose,” which a sister in the Lord later put to music. I have included it at the end of this piece. I wrote it at a time when I was very discouraged. I was in the midst of several major challenges in my life, one of those times where troubles and trials seem to come one after another. One time when I was swimming in the ocean, I was heading towards a large inflatable raft that was moored about 25 yards from the shoreline. I caught a wave right in the face, and when I came up for breath I caught another one at the exact moment I was trying to catch a breath, this happened three times and I thought for a moment that I would drown. This was what this period in my life was like, one trial after another hitting me in the face. There was no recovery period and it felt like I was being swept away and would go under.
For years now I have walked and prayed every day. As I was walking I was crying out to the Lord that I just wanted some peace. I wanted to lie down in pastures green, I wanted, no I longed to be in a place of rest and tranquility. I had shared for years that such a place could be found in the very depths of the valley and believe that with all of my heart, but this day was a very low day and I could find no peace and I longed for some encouragement from the Lord. I walked on and a story came to my mind. It was a story that I had used many times when sharing with others personally and from the platform. It was a true story about a man who went to the supermarket every week to buy his wife a single rose because he loved her. One week he went in and picked a rose and headed to the checkout to pay for it. He saw an older women standing there and the Holy Spirit spoke to him, the Lord simply said ” give the woman your rose.” That was all he heard, no explanation.
This was a man of God who loved the Lord with all of his heart but he struggled at this request. He was fearful which seemed silly but he was. He wondered what the woman would think of him. Even although she was much older, would she thing he was trying to hit on her? Most of all the man just feared that she would think he was a weirdo. Yet, the command persisted, give the lady the rose. So, he took a deep breath, walked over and said to the woman ” I know you are going to think this is strange, but the Lord has asked me to give you this rose.” He held out the rose and with a trembling hand she slowly took it but not before large tears drops began to roll down her cheek. She tried to compose herself, her lower lip trembling, she told the man. “My husband died six months ago and this morning I was overwhelmed with Loss and loneliness. I cried out to God and asked Him if He had forgotten men. And now you have handed me this rose. You see, my husband used to buy me a rose every week, the Lord has answered my prayers, now I know He has not forgotten me.” The man was stunned.
As I walked, pondering this story, feeling very discouraged, I cried out to the Lord that I would “like a rose,” meaning that I would like to be encouraged like that. About an hour later I received a call. It was from a dear old friend and saint whom I had not heard from in a few years. She was a lot older than me, been on the road for a long time and very sensitive to the Lord. She told me that the Lord had laid me upon her heart and she spent the next thirty minutes telling me how much I ministered to her over the years and so on. I was deeply encouraged by her words but more than that, I knew that this was the Lord Himself responding to me, encouraging me. I had asked for a rose and He had given me a garden, hence the name of the poem. Maybe you are deeply discouraged today. The trials of life have stacked up against you, you just long for a place of peace. You long to be found in the depths of Him. You simply need a touch from Him. Perhaps in the reading of this piece the Lord is answering your prayers, reminding you that He has not forgotten about you and that He loves you deeply and cares for you. Ask for your rose this morning and then walk in the depths of His glorious garden as you listen to this song.
The Lord gave me a word not so long ago based on Isa 19, it really opened up to me what is going on among us in society and the world. The truth is we are being judged. Jehovah has come down, and it not a good thing for the world when He comes down. Society is set against each other and hate and mistrust reign in the hearts of men. We saints must be on guard against the spirit of this age for it surely comes for us, it especially comes for us. I am reminded of a lesson I learned, how to love your enemy, that almost ripped my heart out and killed me.The enemy had come and took from me the apple of my eye and I raged with the injustice of it. I remember crying out to God, lying on the floor “It’s not possible, your asking me to do something that is not possible.” Actually I was kinda shouting it. Then the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart. I had not heard Him in such a long time, so when He spoke I was like a dying man in the desert drinking life saving water.
He reminded me of Abraham and how Abraham stood in front of Him. The boldness of that. Then Abraham interceded on behalf of Sodom, and the Holy Spirit repeated that for effect “Sodom, Frank, you know that even until this day that Sodom is a byword for wickedness.” He showed me that Sodom was indeed judged but the Lord was happy with the spirit of Abraham interceding on their behalf. He told me that if Abraham could intercede for Sodom, I could love my enemy who had stolen from me by getting close enough to slip the knife in between my ribs and penetrate my heart with poison and left me slowly dying. Then the Lord spoke to me and told me that He did not skip to Calvary. The path that He took to Gethsemane and then Calvary, He knew that once the work was completed that not only would mercy flow, but judgment too and He wept for all those who would be lost. It was a fresh revelation to me of Calvary and I got up from the floor. I had walked the floor so many nights and the battle that I had waged for several months, that had consumed me, where anger and bitterness and hatred and even murder had tormented me, the battle was now over. I will be truthful, I almost did not make it. This was no foregone conclusion even although I had been on the road for a long time.The Lord reminded me that justice was His and mines was to love my enemy and do good to those who spitefully used me.
Just a few months ago I sat beside my former enemy in Church as my grandson was baptized. In front of me was her sidekick who had also caused our family so much heartache. I was amazed at the love I had for both of them in my heart. This was no mere grudging stoic acceptance where I just did the right thing because it was the right thing to do, this was a deep and abiding love and I knew that it came from the Lord Jesus in me, it penetrated every part of who I was. Frank in the flesh would have destroyed them, the old man in me. But the old man is defeated and the new man reigns. We live in a day, much like the saints of old lived, where it is so vital to love our enemies who hate us so much. Now more than ever we must be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Maybe you are struggling this day with un-forgiveness. Your flesh is screaming so loud you can barely hear anything else. It has consumed you and the bitterness of it is hollowing you out. There is a way of escape my friend. It is time to give it up. It is a death process but if love is to prevail and heal the poison of your heart you will have to lay it down and leave it with God. Can you do that? I pray for you even now that you can. The light beckons you to come home and leave the darkness. Come home to the warmth of a brand new day and leave the night behind.
Many years ago my mother was homeless. After many long years living with a violent alcoholic husband, she entered a shelter for battered women. There was no intention on her part to ever divorce my dad, simply to separate from him fifteen years after coming to the Lord. The day she came to the Lord was the day that violence erupted in our house. When she was in the home for battered women she witnessed to many of the women in there. Every night she would cry out to the Lord for a place to live. Typically you would get a government house in a housing scheme or what my American friends would call the projects.
The ladies would often remind my mom what kind of apartment she would get because she was telling them that the Lord had something for her. She had put a little money aside and had given it to a trusted family friend for safe keeping. After three months of living in the homeless shelter with my young brother, my mum was wearied. She felt in her heart that the Lord had let her down. She confessed this to her closest friend and the friend prayed with her. As she left that friend the Lord spoke to her heart. He told her to go and get the money she had put aside with the trusted friend and then she was to go to the private landlord’s office who owned the property she had left my dad in. She was to ask for an apartment to rent.
Now, my dad, being an alcoholic had not paid the rent in a long time, they were $800 in arrears which thirty-five years ago, in Scotland, was a huge amount of arrears. My mother thought about this as she made her way to the office to speak to the office manager, a well-known stern woman. My mother felt the humiliation long before she got to the office but she was determined to be obedient. She took a deep breath and was ushered into the manager’s office. She poured her heart out to this woman and told her everything that had transpired. The women gave little away in her expression. When my mom had finished her story and had asked if the lady had anything to offer her, there was a moment of silence as the woman just stared at my mum. She reached over and opened a drawer and took out a key. She held this key up to my mum and told her that she had held onto this key of a nice apartment for three months.
She told my mum she had no idea why she had done this and then said these words that have burned themselves into my mom’s memory, she said “Surely there is a God.” From the very beginning of my mom’s homelessness God had set aside a key. He had it all in hand. Not very long after my mom moved into this apartment my father gave his heart to the Lord and they were reunited and retook their marriage vows after my dad was baptized. Over the next three years they paid every penny of the $800 arrears to the landlord. Often times when we are crying out to the Lord for something or we are in some kind of situation, we have no idea that the Lord already has the solution in hand, we just cannot see it. Maybe you are in some kind of situation today, you have cried out to the Lord and at this snap-shot in time you cannot see anything. Can I encourage you that God knows, He has not forgotten you, He has it all in hand, your prayer will be answered right on time, the Lord’s time. He is the key and He will open up a way before you.
Eleven years ago was my 25th wedding anniversary. My wife and I had decided to go to the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia and use that as our headquarters and travel for 16 days through-out the region. Shortly before leaving for the trip the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He told me I was going to have a significant encounter and that it would change everything. I assumed I was going to meet someone. We rented a house that was actually attached to the walled city, it was part of the stone drawbridge and had a magnificent stone terrace that overlooked the enchanting harbor of the city.
As I stood there one day, basking in a warm sun that was rising majestically from behind ancient mountains, a glorious and indescribable presence enveloped me. I had experienced the manifest presence of God many times before but nothing like this. It seemed to permeate my very DNA. Every part of me was alive and captivated, from my head right down to my toes and all around me and then suddenly I was in another place. The strange thing was that I was consciously aware that my body was still standing there but my spirit was “standing,” in this vision.
I was looking at some amalgam of the old testament Tabernacle and Solomon’s temple. In a grand square there was a great number of people. I asked who they were and was told they were the vast majority of people who called themselves Christians.They were standing in what I was told was the court of the gentiles. A great sadness came over me as I witnessed a tremendous amount of activity going on in the court. I wondered why they were not passing through a low door that was in a wall that led to the inner sanctuary. I was told that they would not bow down which would enable them to pass through the door. I could see what was behind the door in the wall, it was the inner sanctuary.
There was first a brazen altar. It was a foul-smelling place but deeply loved by God. The few who came though the door brought sacrifices of sin it seemed to me. They were coming forward not to get something but to give up foul-smelling sins that had so easily beset them. It took great humility to come before this place and acknowledge these secrets of their heart but they were readily burned up in a fire that continually burned. People sacrificed rags and were clothed in fine white linen. People sacrificed perversions and were given purity. Lies were sacrificed and truth was given. All manner of sin was replaced by holiness and purity.
Then they moved forward to the laver bowl where they washed themselves before moving on to be fed by shewbread which filled them in a way that they would never again hunger. Then they stood in the light of the lampstands, no longer ashamed but washed clean and made pure and able to stand in the light of God for He had cleansed them. Lastly their prayers began to rise up and come before the throne of God Himself. I looked again at the vast crowd outside of the manifest presence of God, engaged in much activity in the court of the gentiles and I was amazed that they would not enter. So close to entering in, but so unwilling to give up the things of this world, too proud to bow down and enter through the door, too ashamed to give up their innermost foul-smelling sin.
Suddenly I was back standing on the terrace. I looked out over a motionless sea where it met a cloudless sky and the rising sun warmed me with such a fierce intensity. In this fire of His presence I was alive with a life I knew would never end. This was my encounter with my glorious indescribable Jesus. When I returned home I was given a word from the Lord by a dear saint who knew nothing about this. I was to “write to the nations.” It seemed such a grandiose word, “write to the nations.” Nevertheless I was obedient to the Word. I started a website and began to lay bare my heart with what the Lord had taught me.
I was to speak to the remnant. I was not to try to convince anyone of anything but simply speak to those in the courtyard and encourage them who had ears to hear, to bow down low and enter through the low door and into the inner sanctuary. Just over ten years later I have written over one thousand articles,more than 300 poems, two books and many hymns that have been recorded. and the inspiration for all of that flowed from that encounter. Amazingly I have reached over five hundred thousand people from over 160 nations. God is faithful to those He calls, may we be faithful to His calling.
I want to be honest. Shortly after I had a second vision. It was somehow connected to the first. I was standing in church one Sunday morning and suddenly I found myself plunged under a fast flowing river on a bed of smooth stones. It took my breath away and I immediately began to struggle and panic. I was going to drown. The Holy Spirit held me gently but firm and spoke to me ” breathe Frank.” That was all He said. I fearfully opened my mouth and found that I could breathe. Then I somehow “knew,” what this was about. The waters that were rushing over me were troubled waters. The Lord wanted the troubled waters of this life to remove my hard edges, I was not to fight it. The following ten years were the most troubled years of all of my Christianity. Trial after trial. Despair. Wretchedness. Loss, like an incoming tide, came to me over and over again. Sleepless nights pacing the floor, sometimes on the floor crying out to God. And I thought often of the time I had cried out to God with somewhat naive optimism saying “whatever it takes Lord to make me useful in your Kingdom.”
All of this brothers and sisters I have found along the narrow path that we sojourn together. Like all the pilgrim saints , the long narrow way home is often a lonely, weary and exhausting road. But we have glimpsed something glorious have we not? We have in our mind and soul and spirit saw something of our eternal destination. It is high and lifted up. He is high and lifted up. The Lord Jesus is not only our companion along the way He is our destination. Don’t ask me to explain that. He is behind me and He hedges me around about, He goes before me and He dwells within me. Yet my destination is the unadulterated presence of the living God where the flesh is no longer a barrier that limits the glory. A place where this world is no longer a distraction nor competes for my attention. To finally dwell in a high and lofty place where I know as I am known. Oh to know as I am known, tis another world indeed, it is our world, it our home, it is our destination and every step we take is another step closer. Keep on walking saints though the road seem hard and lonely, keep on walking and lift up your head and see the glory. It is closer than you think.
The truly spiritual man is something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his Savior glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation for being dull or overly serious so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces( see psalm 45:8) and finding few or none he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.
It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God………Two things remain to be said. One, that the lonely of whom we speak is not a haughty man, nor is he the holier than thou, austere saint so bitterly satirized in popular literature. He is likely to feel that he is the least of all men and is sure to blame himself for his very loneliness. He wants to share his feelings with others and to open his heart to some like-minded soul who will understand him, but the spiritual climate around him does not encourage it, so he remains silent and tells his griefs to God alone ( Tozer-The Radical Cross)
Can you see what Tozer is saying? There is so often a lonely path for those who have chosen the narrow way. And the days in which we live only intensify that all too common reality that has been with us down through the ages. Truly, if one is to follow hard after God one has to come to the place where he no longer considers the opinions of men. This has been the hardest lesson for myself to learn in my 25 years of following Jesus. Fear of man is a major obstacle in the life of the saint. To walk the path of conviction is to walk a lonely narrow path.
Don’t get me wrong, there is much wisdom in seeking the council of Godly men and women whom you know and Godly men of the past in their writings. Yet in every age, God speaks to His children and we must have an ear to His voice and His leadings. He is an ever present help in time of need. In every age He leads His children and feeds them with the fresh manna of revelation and inspiration. And it must be so if we are to rely ultimately on Jesus for directing us in our walk and how we walk in this present generation.
Consider chapter six of the Gospel of John. The greater the revelation of who Jesus is, the smaller the crowd got until there was only His twelve Disciples left and He asks ” will you leave me too?” The deeper into the Father’s heart you journey, the smaller and narrower the crowd around you will become. The more ungodly the world and the church becomes and the more you are convicted and determined to follow hard after God, the more unpopular you will become even within your own ranks.
Yet, if your life has been radically changed by Jesus and you follow hard after Him, you too will be left with this thought ” where else could we go Lord for you have the words of life.” Where else can you go saint? Where else? There is no where for you to go but to follow after your Lord. You cannot go back to the world from which you were delivered for you know that is but mere death. You cannot follow the religious crowd who seem so eager to appease and compromise with the world for a mixture is even more nauseating than the deadness of the world.
In the Tozer quote above he stated that two things remain to be said. Here is the second thing ” The second thing is that the lonely saint is not the withdrawn man who hardens himself against human suffering and spends his days contemplating the heavens. Just the opposite is true. His loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the brokenhearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised. Because he is detached from the world he is all the more able to help it.”
We must be aware of the condition of our hearts. It requires a diligence and an abiding in the Lord. If we are not diligent and if we are not abiding in the Lord and in His word then we are in danger of drifting away from a nearness to His heart. As we drift away, our own hearts will grow cold and distant and powerless. And when that happens, we are vulnerable to temptation in a way we never were when we remained close to Him. It is a vital act to understand the condition of your heart and make the condition of your heart the priority of your life.
And so brothers and sisters, no matter how bad the world becomes or how compromised the church becomes we saints must follow hard after the Lord with a soft heart towards all but a fearless heart when it comes to men. Fearing God rather than fearing men may lead to a lonelier walk but those of us who know Jesus personally will understand that He is life itself and in Him we find our life and our joy and our peace. We are fulfilled in Him and He is our constant companion is He not?
Better to walk an intimate life and relationship with Jesus than to be popular with men.So brothers and sisters, stand fast in the power of His might. He who has begin a good work in you is faithful to complete it. He is our ever present help in time of need. And that time of need will never be more felt than in the coming days, yet to those who stay close to Him He will empower them to endure and to overcome. Stand fast brothers and sisters in the beauty of His Holiness……………….bro Frank
It is well for us to consider here that religious people are prone to select a favorite Bible doctrine or truth and to hold to that one truth at the expense of other basic tenets. We may overemphasize important truths so as to obscure other important truth which may actually disappear as a result. This is what I mean by a truth disappearing-it falls into disuse and therefore is easily forgotten. I would illustrate this.
Suppose there is one key on the piano that is not properly attached and it gives forth no sound when it is struck. The pianist is sure to be wincing when he strikes that key and nothing happens. If you would photograph the keyboard, that key would be in its proper place in the picture, but it will not produce any sound no matter how hard you touch it. That is an illustration of what I mean by a basic doctrine of the Christian faith that has fallen into disuse, so that it is not longer talked about or thought about or preached about. If you go to the book of discipline , the statement of doctrine, you will find it still in its place because it will say that we do firmly hold this truth.
But it no longer plays-it is no longer heard. It has no emphasis and no power because it is slurred over and forgotten. This is how a basic Bible truth may fall into disuse because certain doctrines have been overemphasized to the obscuring of others. Then, finally some prophet of God has to come and reassert the forgotten truths and reemphasize and trumpet them forth. That person be considered a heretic because that segment of Bible truth has been obscured for generations. But in the midst of grumbling, the prophet of God keeps persisting until the church awakes, readopts that truth, so that a sense of life comes as if it were raised from the dead. (A.W.Tozer)
Tozer is here speaking in profound terms. Luther would be an example of this, he did not invent a new doctrine when he announced that we are justified by faith alone and not of works. He rediscovered it and presented it to a church that had long ago forgotten this most fundamental and vital aspect of what it means to be saved. Many centuries before this most basic and fundamental truth was lost in religiosity and liturgy. Century after century Christendom slowly drifted away, each generation losing something from the previous generation until they were totally adrift from the truth. Once they were totally adrift from the truth then more centuries past affirming and confirming their error. Then comes Luther and as he hammered that nail into the door, the whole of Christendom shook. A bloody revolution then ensued as the keepers of the error and the status quo fought with all of their might against this upstart priest of no account who was challenging their religion and their liturgy. I believe a similar revolution would have to take place in order to rediscover the truths of 1 Cor 14 and how we interact in gatherings. The sign gifts and their purpose of edifying the saints and the unsaved and the unlearned have fallen into disuse and have been forgotten.
The most important crisis facing the Body of Christ is the Sunday morning service. It really helps to know a little bit about the history of the early church and what it looked like. For the most part it would be in houses or for special occasions if there was more than one house gathering in a town or city, they would come together in an open field, especially if someone like Paul was coming. The gathering was just that, and there was a meal. Breaking bread meant just that, it did not mean a communion wafer and a ritualized affair. People were actually together, hanging out, singing hymns, sharing, giving testimony, asking for prayer. This thing called “the church service,” is something that morphed out of that. Bottom line, it really was not that complicated, the most important aspect of the gathering was that the Holy Spirit was there, Jesus was preeminent.
Can this be changed? Not in any meaningful way. I do believe however that the time is coming soon when the enemy will tear down every religious building in the world that will not bow down to him, only then I believe will the Body of Christ return to its roots, by necessity. If we were to take the pastor out of the average church in America, the congregation would be at a total loss. For centuries they have taken on the role of spectator and not participant and this has rendered them, for the most part, impotent and reliant upon “the guy at the front,” and not the Holy Spirit.
Oh how I would love the problem that the Corinthian church had in their midst and Paul had to correct. Everybody had a tongue or a word or a spiritual song or a prophecy. Paul wrote and told them to limit it to two or three of this and two or three of that and let there be order in all of it. You can take a wild man, full of life, and tone down his behavior, but what can you do with a dead man? What would your church service look like if there were two or three tongues and then interpretations. Then two or three prophecies, then two or three songs initiated not by a “worship leader,” as part of a practiced program but by the Holy Spirit Himself through the vessels of His choice. I think I am safe in assuming it may not look like anything you have ever seen, but there it is, laid out, in the Scriptures, directions from God how to conduct our Sunday gatherings.
Part of the problem is that the vast majority of churches not only do not practice the gifts but do not even believe in them, so there would be no chance of a reverting to 1 Cor 14. The very service itself for the most part, has a design that would make it impossible for most congregations to gather in a Biblical fashion ( 1 Cor 14) even if they wanted to. So we are talking about something very radical here, very primitive, something that would counter endless centuries of the traditions of man. It now seems like if we were to return to the order of worship that was first laid down for us, it would take a revolution to bring it to pass.
But lets suppose we do have a willing congregation. What would that look like? Well, some of us may remember the different kinds of professors at college. Some were great teachers and many were not. They all had qualifications, but clearly there were teachers that you could tell were called to their profession. The best professors always included the whole class. They elicited questions on whatever the subject at hand was and through those questions and the response of the class, we were taught. These classes were always invigorating and these teachers had a great skill at keeping the class on topic because in every class there were always left fielders who would ask unrelated questions. To me, this would be the gifting of an elder or teacher in a 1 Cor 14 setting, gifted by the Holy Spirit to do what secular institutions do all the time.
We have fleshed this out. We had a series of meetings in Missouri a few years ago. People came from all over the country. There were many pastors there. We had three days of meetings without any agenda at all. We would start around 8 or 9am, gathered around in a large circle and someone would open with a prayer and a Scripture. 12 hours later we would finish. Throughout the course of a day there would be singing, praying, sharing, testimony, laying on of hands and none of it was scheduled, the Holy Spirit was our leader. Now, if a group of men and woman from varying backgrounds, mostly pastors ( who can be the most difficult to deal with because they are used to being in charge) can yield and follow the leading of the Lord through His Holy Spirit for 12 hours, how easy would it be to have this kind of service on a Sunday morning for a few hours or however long it lasted? Not difficult. It is not about the degree of difficulty, it is about yielding and surrendering to the Holy Spirit and having Jesus preeminent in the meeting. Ultimately it is about obedience. Scripture is out touchstone, it is from Scripture that we stand or fall. How does your Sunday morning service compare to 1 Cor 14. Not at all? Why not?
A Call To The Remnant 