When I was seventeen, my first child was born, Stephen. He lived for two days.
Two days—barely enough time to understand love,
but long enough to understand loss. “He is not going to make it.” “His lungs are not developed.” “It might be time to turn off the machine……but it’s your decision.”
Everything around me felt blurred, the world was suddenly condensed and it was pressing in on me, crushing my heart and spirit. “Do you want to hold him.” Inexplicably, and something that would torture me for many years……”No.” I did not want to hold my own dying heart, how utterly selfish.
On the day of the funeral, I sat in the back of the hearse,
a small white coffin resting on my knees.
It felt too light. Too still. Maybe just an empty box….. like my heart.
I was there but I was distant in my mind, none of it seemed real.
He was to be laid in the place reserved for stillborn children,
though he hadn’t been stillborn.
He had lived. He had tried, he had tried hard.
The driver took a corner faster than he meant to,
and the tiny body shifted inside the box.I could “feel,” him move.
That was the moment all the walls I had built
collapsed in a single breath.
I knew what was in the box.
The truth I had been keeping at arm’s length
pressed itself into me with a weight I simply could not carry.
For a long time I carried anger for that driver—
that unnamed man who broke the silence for me
before I was ready.
There are things we bury deep,
not because they are gone,
but because we cannot look at them, cannot handle the weight of it, but is still caries the same weight whether we look at it or not.
Years passed.
I came to the Lord.
Life moved on in the way life does—
slowly, quietly, with its own kind of insistence.
And then one ordinary day,
standing under the warm water of the shower,
the deep finally broke open.
Grief rose from the hidden places
like something long trapped beneath ice—
cold, vast, unstoppable.
My legs buckled.
I held the walls with both hands.
A lifetime was passing through me in moments, years
were flooding out of me, threatening to sweep me away.
My wife heard me and thought I was breaking apart.
Maybe I was.
But when it was over, I could breathe again.
The bitter waters that had filled that sealed chamber
were gone, emptied out.
In its place came something pure, living waters
from a pure crystal stream, unmistakably from Him.
The Lord leaves no room untouched.
Every locked door is His.
Every deep place is His.
He moves like a glacier—nothing stands in its way
slow, sure, reshaping everything in His path
until what was buried
finally meets the light. No chamber left untouched.
If you are carrying within you something hidden—
something buried away, unnamed, unknown to the world
know this brother, sister
it will not stay buried forever.
He will touch it.
He will open it.
And when He does,
what comes will be healing.
Unmistakable.
Beautiful in its own way.
Stephen, you are not forgotten…..but your father is forgiven.
What does it mean to have faith? What does it mean to exercise faith? And what does it truly mean to trust in the Lord? The words faith and trust are often used interchangeably, yet Scripture distinguishes their shades of meaning. The Greek word for faith, πίστις (pistis), carries the sense of conviction, fidelity, and steadfast belief , a firm persuasion of the truth and character of God. It is not vague optimism but anchored certainty rooted in who He is. The Greek term for trust, πεποίθησις (pepoithēsis), flows from pistis and means confident reliance, settled assurance, and inward persuasion. It is faith extended through endurance, faith that has matured under testing. Thus, pistis believes what God has spoken, and pepoithēsis continues to rest in that promise when sight fails and the storm gathers. Both are born of the same root: confidence in the unchanging nature of God. This is the foundation upon which all true preparedness stands, the faith that acts and the trust that endures.
Faith, then, is the spiritual substance of what is unseen, the invisible made certain in the heart of the believer. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). It is not mere belief that God exists, but confidence in His goodness, His promises, and His Word. Faith does not rest upon sight or circumstance; it rests upon the immutable character of God. It looks into the unseen and says, “Thou art faithful.” It is the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters within the veil where Christ Himself has gone before (Hebrews 6:19–20). Pistis is not a feeling to be maintained but a conviction to be lived by, it sees the eternal in the midst of the temporal and moves the heart to obedience.
To exercise faith is to act upon that conviction. Faith untested remains theory; exercised faith becomes testimony. The one who believes that winter is near cuts his firewood before the frost. His pistis (faith) moves his hands; his belief produces action. But the frail widow, who has no strength to lift the axe, exercises faith in another form. She cannot labor, but she trusts , her pepoithēsis (trust) clings to God’s faithfulness, believing He will make provision where she cannot. In both, faith lives and breathes. The strong man acts upon what he believes; the widow rests upon what she cannot see. Faith is not idleness. It is obedience moving in harmony with the will of God , for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:17). Yet these works are not self-reliant striving; they are the fruit of divine persuasion , the evidence that pistis (faith) is alive within the heart.
To trust in the Lord , to walk in pepoithēsis (trust) , is to place one’s full confidence in His sovereign care when reason falters and outcomes remain hidden. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6). Trust is faith stretched through time; it is the steady endurance of the soul that refuses to doubt the character of God though all outward things collapse. Job, sitting among the ashes, spoke this divine paradox: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15). That is trust refined in the fire , pepoithēsis (trust) at its highest expression. Faith says, “God can.” Trust declares, “God will.” Love adds, “Even if He does not, He is still my God.”
What, then, is our part in this divine partnership? Scripture tells us to “put on the whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:11), to take up the shield of faith, to gird our loins with truth, and to shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. These are commands of readiness. The armor is given by grace, but it must be worn by choice. The believer must take up what God has provided. Preparation is not unbelief — it is the living demonstration of faith’s reality. The man who sharpens his sword before battle is not denying God’s help; he is aligning himself with it. Our pistis (faith) equips us; our pepoithēsis (trust) steadies us. The one is the conviction that moves; the other is the confidence that endures.
And did not our Lord Himself prepare? The supreme pattern of readiness is found in Gethsemane. Beneath the olive trees, Christ waged the invisible war before the visible cross. “And being in agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). The disciples slept, but the Captain of our salvation fought alone. The struggle was not with men but within His own humanity , the surrender of His human will to the divine. And when the moment came — “Not my will, but Thine be done” , the victory was secured. From that garden He rose, His face set like flint (Isaiah 50:7), and for the joy set before Him He endured the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2). The battle of Calvary was the outworking of the triumph of Gethsemane. Pistis (faith) led Him into prayer; pepoithēsis (trust) carried Him through obedience.
What, then, does it mean for us to be prepared? It means to cultivate a heart steadfast in pistis (faith) and anchored in pepoithēsis(trust). The prepared soul is not caught unaware when the storm descends. It has stored the Word in its heart, for the Word is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17). It has guarded its thoughts with the helmet of salvation and girded its life with truth (Ephesians 6:14). It prays without ceasing, for prayer is the breath of faith (1 Thessalonians 5:17). It stands ready with the gospel of peace, for readiness itself is part of the armor. Such a soul walks neither in fear nor presumption, but in quiet confidence. The unprepared are like those who wait for winter with no firewood; but those who live by faith have already kindled the flame within their hearts.
The battle, as the Lord showed us, is won not first in the field but in the heart’s preparation. “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:1). Victory begins in surrender. When a believer bows in the secret place and whispers, “Not my will, but Thine be done,” the triumph is already assured. From that hidden Gethsemane he rises clothed in divine strength, able to endure the cross set before him, whatever form it takes. Faith has believed; trust has endured; preparation has secured the victory.
To have faith is to believe. To exercise faith is to act. To trust is to endure. To prepare is to triumph before the battle begins. And when the soul, through pistis (faith) and pepoithēsis( trust), comes to that holy place of surrender, it finds, as Christ did, that peace flows where agony once reigned. For the Lord who prepared Himself in Gethsemane now prepares His saints likewise , that they may stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand (Ephesians 6:13). Praise be to the Lord, for the battle is His , yet He trains our hands for war and girds us with strength for the fight (Psalm 18:34, 39).
Scripture Appendix
I. Πίστις (Pistis) — Faith, Conviction, Persuasion
Hebrews 11:1 – Faith as substance and evidence of the unseen.
Romans 1:17 – ‘The just shall live by faith.’
Ephesians 2:8 – Faith as the gift of God in salvation.
Romans 10:17 – Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.
Galatians 2:20 – Living by the faith of the Son of God.
James 2:17 – Faith without works is dead.
Hebrews 11:6 – Without faith it is impossible to please God.
2 Timothy 4:7 – ‘I have kept the faith.’
II. Πεποίθησις (Pepoithēsis) — Trust, Confidence, Assurance
2 Corinthians 3:4 – ‘Such trust have we through Christ to Godward.’
Philippians 1:6 – Being confident that He who began a good work will perform it.
Philippians 3:3–4 – Having no confidence in the flesh.
Hebrews 3:14 – Holding the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.
2 Corinthians 1:9–10 – Trusting in God who raises the dead.
Ephesians 3:12 – Boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.
Faith (pistis) is the seed; trust (pepoithēsis) is its fruit. One believes God’s word; the other continues in that belief when all else fails. Together, they form the unshakable posture of the prepared soul , believing, enduring, and standing firm until the end.
At the turn of the 20th century, we witnessed the birth of two monumental Pentecostal movements. First, in 1904, came the Welsh Revival in Britain, and then, in 1906, the fires of revival swept through Azusa Street in Los Angeles. These were no ordinary stirrings, they were powerful outpourings of the Holy Spirit that would give rise to entire movements, such as the Elim Pentecostal Church in Britain and the Assemblies of God, which would spread globally and impact hundreds of millions.
From these humble beginnings, in every corner of the land, small Pentecostal churches began to emerge. Their message was simple: salvation through Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the restoration of spiritual gifts. These fellowships sprang up in the shadow of massive denominational institutions, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, and others, hige edifices steeped in their own traditions. Yet right beside them, in modest, unassuming buildings, were these Spirit-filled gatherings where lives were being radically transformed, adults were getting saved, and the gifts of the Spirit were active and alive.
This was a profound blow to the kingdom of darkness. The enemy, seeing the explosive growth of this movement, would not sit idly by. His question became clear: How can we bring this down? And so, beginning in the 1940s, we saw the emergence of new “theological,” trends, the Word of Faith movement, the Prosperity Gospel, and of course the Charismatic movement in the 60s, which would swallow up the others and become indistinguishable.
It was a cunning strategy: If you can’t beat them, buy them. The philosophy was simple, promise the very things that human beings everywhere fear to lose: health and wealth. Whether you’re in New York City or a remote village in the jungle, the universal concerns remain the same, our bodies and our bank accounts. The enemy offered a counterfeit gospel, one that shifted the focus from the cross of Christ to the desires of the flesh.
The Charismatic Movement became a Trojan horse. It infiltrated Pentecostal churches across the globe, not with persecution, but with promises. And it worked, brilliantly, tragically. The smoke from the fire of true revival has been replaced by the smoke machines of performance and entertainment. The altars were replaced by stages, the message by motivational speaking, and the Spirit by self-help and “self,” seeking
What followed was the tearing down of the very pillars upon which the early Pentecostal movement had stood. The purity of the Gospel was traded for a gospel of gain. Faith, once the precious link to Christ Himself, was twisted into a tool to manipulate blessings. Prosperity or tge lack of it, once counted as rubbish in comparison to knowing Christ, became the goal.Christ had become but a means to a materialistic end.
It was a disaster for the Church, and a stunning success for the enemy. The people rose up and played, just as they did before the golden calf in the wilderness. Think of “holy laughter,” and roaring like animals. And today, we stand in the shadow of that fall, in the ruins of what once was a mighty move of God.
These false ideologies, health and wealth, Name It and Claim It, the separation of faith from Christ Himself, have infected almost every corner of the modern Pentecostal and non-denominational world. Rare is the church untouched. Subtle or blatant, this taint remains, and it must be recognized for what it is.
Now, in this late hour, a remnant is rising, a people who are returning to the simplicity and the power of the cross, who walk not in the counsel of the world but in the fear of the Lord. Let us not be seduced by the glitter of gain or the lure of comfort. Let us remember the foundation laid in tears and prayer and holy fire. It is time to leave the circus behind, with all its many forms of entertainment, and “come out from among her.”
The great falling away isn’t about people no longer “going to church,” since the concept of attending “church” is foreign to the Scriptures. Genuine believers are the Church. The true falling away is a departure from truth itself. A building may be packed with people, but who are they spiritually? Are they radical followers of Jesus with deep relationships with Him, or compromisers who embrace Christ but reject the cross?
Those of us who have left religious traditions—I myself am a former Catholic—are well-acquainted with the Sunday-only Christian who checks a box by attending a service, perhaps even midweek gatherings, men’s BBQ nights, or women’s retreats. I call this the processed church. Just as processed food is altered from its original state for convenience—loaded with sugars, unhealthy fats, preservatives, and lacking nutrients—the spiritually processed church has also been altered for convenience.
What are the spiritual effects of this processed church? Consider the “added sugar”: elaborate stages, entertainment-driven worship bands, and smoke machines designed to hype people up, compensating for the absence of God’s genuine presence. Many nominal believers have never truly encountered God’s authentic presence and therefore cannot discern the difference.
Think of “unhealthy fats and low nutrients”: the Word of God diluted, compromised, and stripped of its true nutritional value. These “fats” are sermons focused solely on worldly success, prosperity teachings, and self-enrichment schemes, creating spiritually unhealthy Christians who must continually rely on shallow injections of emotional hype to stay spiritually “alive.” The church system has taught its followers dependency on itself rather than complete reliance on Jesus.
What’s the solution? Revolution—a total abandonment of this processed religious system in favor of something pure, raw, organic, and unaltered by worldly additives. Without such radical change, the current system will collapse under the weight of worldliness and self-centered doctrines disguised as salvation.
There is a growing hunger, especially among younger generations raised within spiritually unhealthy environments, for authenticity, radical commitment, and an uncompromising devotion to Christ Himself. They desire a church wholly devoted to Jesus, characterized by quiet reverence and genuine holiness. A community where believers edify one another according to Scripture, where prophecy, exhortation, wisdom, tongues, and interpretations are practiced. A fellowship without hierarchical leadership, led instead by humble elders and deacons who serve selflessly, desiring no recognition or financial reward. A place that equips believers to live radically, to embrace suffering for Christ, proudly bearing the cross and the scars upon their backs as marks of their love, devotion and authenticity.
This is the organic Church—unprocessed by the world, radically committed to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.
Just to be clear, when I say “Protestant,” I mean all of it, all denominations and non-denominations. Its not that I think that there are no genuine saints there, there are, in probably all of them. It is just that I was looking for a river to be carry me to the throne, to be engulfed in, and I found, for the most part, semi-dried up creeks. I was born and raised a Catholic in a mostly Irish Catholic community on the West Coast of Scotland. My whole education was Catholic, as it was for all working class Catholics, and it was free. One night my mother came home and announced that she had “found Jesus.” She was one of those “born-agains.” I was seven. My non-practicing alcoholic Catholic father was freaked out by it…… I was fascinated. They talked about God in chapel, but here was my wee mother claiming to actually know Him. I too longed to “know Him.” One thing was for sure, she was changed and she was bold.
All hell broke loose in our house. My father raged against my mother. He seemed to instinctively know that he was no longer “in charge,’ of her. There was something more important to her now than him. So he tried to beat Jesus out of her. In wild drunken nights he would rail against the Jesus that she believed in and that had changed her and won her over so completely. Black eyes and a broken jaw and nights where he almost killed her. And after fifteen years of this, at the age of forty nine, he got down on his knees and repented and gave his life over to the Jesus that he had assaulted and assailed so many times in his proxy war. He never drank again and my mum and dad retook their marriage vows and he was baptized. Such a huge thing for a man, already baptized as an infant who was raised by a staunch Catholic mother (my grannie)
So as you can see, I had saw the battle. I had saw how religion worked. I saw a genuine saint lay down her life for Jesus and be beaten black and blue for His sake. I had a ringside seat to the battle for a mans soul. So when I came to the Lord at the age of 26 I was ready to dive right in. I had only ever witnessed all or nothing. There was no middle ground in the battle of the ages. If I had metaphorically dived in I would have probably broken my neck as the church was only a few inches deep. Yet lets face it, when you had walked for almost two decades in the desert and came upon any kind of water at all, you would rejoice. Maybe not swim, but certainly rejoice. And those few shallow inches seemed so good. I saw other people come into the Pentecostal church from no church backgrounds and from dead denominational backgrounds and they all thought it was wonderful……..for a time.
There was multiple problems for me. I had such a great desire for genuine fellowship and discipleship. I wanted to be “a part,” of what was going on in the Body. Ushering and toilet cleaner or parking attendant was not exactly what I had in mind, yet for the most part, these were the “positions,’ available. Complain about that and you were simply proud. What I had in mind was what I had read about in the Bible. I had read the Word every day with a fierce thirst and hunger since coming to the Lord. As I read about the Body and every part having a function in 1 Cor 12 I wondered why we did not have such a Body. I left one Pentecostal non denominational church for another. I attended a Baptist church for a year. I went to a conservative Bible College. I went to Nazarene church for six months and I also attended IHOP (International house of prayer) for a year. Two of the aforementioned churches I stuck out for eight years and and seven years. I never found the river to swim in, only a trickle in the shadow of a dam (the dam being the Word and the manifest presence)
I saw patterns emerge in all of these churches I attended. In all of them the order of service was pretty much the same. There were variations but all within a popular theme. None of them allowed for the participation of the saints. All of them were tightly controlled by one man. This one man would appoint, for the most part, yes men for elders. In the end I had to think to myself “is this really different from the Catholic church?’ I know that will sound radical to some people, but in the end the Catholic church is all about authority and who wields it, certainly not the poor folks who sit in the pew. And what I had read in the Scriptures was not about authority at all, outside of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And if Jesus and the Holy Spirit had told us that we were to gather in a certain fashion, I could not for the life of me figure out why this ultimate authority was ignored. I was looking for the river deep, that flowed from the very throne-room of heaven.
And so I left the “organized church,”which was a semi-dried up creek, looking for the freedom of the wild river. I had studied revivals and became involved in the revival ministry. This is where I met folks from all over the world who also had a longing to see, in essence, a 1 Cor 14 gathering where all of the members of the Body operated rather than one or two and the rest sat passively by until it was time to write a check or pull out their wallets. Think about it saints, why would we want to gather in any fashion other than that which the Lord lays down in His Word? Multiple centuries of tradition had transpired and conspired against the simplicity and authenticity of the earliest Church. Its the tragedy of the ages that the Body, with multiple parts, lies unused. Imagine a car without wheels, without gas, set up on blocks where people can only stare at it, for it has not the ability to fire up the engine or go anywhere. It becomes just a dusty heirloom, and we can only read about how it used to run.
I want to name some of my findings from my studies and experiences which may help to explain why there is a just a trickle in the creek as opposed to a mighty flowing river.
.1. The senior pastor. Not Biblical, a made up position.
2. The order of service, pretty much the same in any church. Not Biblical, man made.
3. The sermon that so dominates the “service.” Not Biblical, established by man.
4. The way we “break bread,” together. Not Biblical, established by man.
5. The clergy/laity divide. Not Biblical, established by man.
6. The church building. Not Biblical, established by man.
7. Ordination. Not Biblical, established by men.
8. Where is the “two or three prophets,’ who are to speak to us? (1 Cor 14:29)
10. Where are the two or three who would speak in tongues with interpretation? (1 Cor 14:27)
11. Where are the teachings (plural) and a psalm given or a portion of Scripture? (1 Cor 14:26)
12. Where are the Apostles, prophets, miracles and gifts of healing and varieties of tongues (plural) ( 1 Corinthians chapter 12:27,28)
I want to ask you brothers and sisters. Does the above describe your gathering? How can God bless something that is so far removed from what He Himself laid down in His Word? The church as we have known it is dying. It is devoid of power and passion, and passivity is the order of the day. Let Diotrephes speak and let the rest remain silent. And the rest are quite happy to dwell in a wilful ignorance. I say wilful ignorance because they can read the Word the same as you and me. They want their Moses to speak to God and for Moses to speak to them even if the mountain burst forth with earthquakes and trembling they would fall back from it.
Will you remain silent? Will you remain passive? Will you sit by and not even question the order of service you just sat through? Did that order of service resemble anything you have ever read in the Scriptures? Do you really even care? The Word of God says this is 1 Cor 12 starting at verse 7…..But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecies, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit work all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
Do you see the richness and the depth of what has just been described. Now brothers and sisters, that is a river to swim in. That is no dried up creek. “The manifestation of the Spirit,” starts out the verse. When was the last time the Spirit of God manifested Himself among your gathering, your church, your denomination? I’m not talking about hearing a great sermon from a professional or being delighted with the professional music, I am talking about the manifestation of the Spirit. Notice that every part is “given,” by the Holy Spirit for the edification of all. These Scriptures are describing a masterful orchestra directed by the Holy Spirit Himself. Each part intimately conducted and carried out by the Conductor. It is no one man band, it is no mere trickle in a creek, but rather it is a symphony written by God Himself and it floods our souls and overwhelms our spirits and changes us as it takes us to where it wants to take us. No mere mortal can control it. Do you want to be part of the orchestra or do you want to sit by passively and listen to the tune of a one man band that entertains you for a moment?
Angie and I went to Maul over 20 years ago. It really was an enchanting place. We took a helicopter ride into its deep canyons. We snorkeled in its pristine waters. We drove up to the top of Haleakala which is a dormant volcano that towers 10 thousand feet above the ocean and above the clouds. We stood in awe and watched the gigantic sun sink slowly beneath a flat calm sea just as a sailing ship sailed across its blazing hues of orange, silhouetting itself in black and white and looking like a glorious oil painting. It was easy to see why some people considered this paradise. It was easy to understand why honeymooners from all over the world flocked to this place. Yet one of the highlights of the trip was our visit to Lahaina. It was a glorious Maui night and the sun was setting and we were seated at an outdoor restaurant that was positioned on a boardwalk. As the waters quietly lapped around the piers, I thought about all the sailors over the last few hundred years who had witnessed this very sight.
And so it was with great horror that I witnessed on TV the destruction of Lahaina. It was distressing to find out that no alarm was sounded. What madness? And no water to fight the fire? The man said he did not want to confuse the people therefore he did not sound the alarm and now it is possible that over a thousand people, many of them children, may be dead. So thoroughly burned as to not even leave any DNA. Just ashes in the wind. He would not sound the alarm lest people be upset and confused. Before we rush to judge this man, is not the Church in a similar situation? Are we not assured that there is a great fire coming upon the earth? Do we not know that there is a fire that shall burn for all eternity? Do we sound the alarm? In an age of seeker friendly policies, sounding the alarm is no longer acceptable. To speak about the wages of sin being death is frowned upon. All day long we speak about the gift of God but we have ceased to speak about the wages of sin being death.
The man who refused to sound the alarm has been fired. Yet imagine having this on your conscience? Imagine you had some information or some ability to warn people, to wake them up, to cry out to them that a great fire is coming and that you must flee from the place that you are and make your way to higher ground. We have the information. We have the Word of God. We have the Holy Spirit (if indeed we do have Him) we have everything that we need to warn the people of what is to come, but most of us remain silent. And we typically call it love. Is it love? Or is it simply a lack of boldness, a lack of true and actual love for the people of the world? God knows. God help us though if we have taken our lack of power and our lack of boldness and our fears and we have wrapped them up and presented them as a virtue. It is one thing to be a coward, it is quite another to pretend to be otherwise. The Lord out God would rather we were hot or cold but this awful thing in the middle, this lukewarmness. He said He would vomit it out of His mouth.
Probably the most damaging feature of Calvin’s liturgy is that he led most of the service himself from the pulpit. Christianity has not yet recovered from this. Today the pastor is the MC, and CEO of the Sunday morning service-just as the priest is the MC and the CEO of the Catholic mass. This is in stark contrast to the church meeting envisioned in Scripture. According to the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ is the leader, director and CEO of the church meeting. In 1 Cor 12, Paul tells us that Christ speaks through His entire Body, not just one member. In such a meeting, His Body freely functions under His headship (direct leadership) through the working of the Holy Spirit. First Cor 14 gives us a picture of such a gathering. This kind of meeting is vital for the spiritual growth of God’s people and the full expression of His Son in the earth. ( George Barna, Frank Viola-Pagan Christianity-pg 59)
The liturgy or order of service is almost exactly the same in the vast majority of churches throughout the land, whatever denomination it is. Over the last several decades, some have flirted with allowing the Holy Spirit to move among them, but have inevitably fallen back on the order of service. To follow the instructions laid down by Scripture, almost all of the so called clergy would render themselves surplus to requirements. So the clergy have always been the keepers of the status quo. A union of hirelings who have usurped the actual workings of the Holy Spirit among the Body of Christ. I would think that the vast majority of them down through the centuries have been somewhat ignorant of the fact that there is simply no clergy in the Body of Christ, and that the Priesthood of all believers cannot function and be led by the Holy Spirit where the bondage of this system exists. We can have the clergy/laity system or we can have the Holy Spirit operate among us, but we cannot have both.
George and Frank say that this kind of meeting is vital for Spiritual growth, I would agree. How can we say that we have no need of the manna that falls from heaven, but rather we have our own means of feeding ourselves? It is delusional. Spiritual growth only comes from edification. A group can grow religiously under our present system, but they cannot grow spiritually. Stagnation, with occasional bursts of energy from fires of our own making is the best that we can expect when man is in charge of the service. The numbers attending “church,” are now in free-fall all over the world. Is this the inevitable end of a system that is collapsing under the weight of its own works? I would say yes. The church system worked in a mostly religious world. We no longer live in such a world. The paradoxical difference is that while the weight of men’s works crush people spiritually, the weight of Gods presence, His Holy presence liberates them and elevates them to high and lofty places and changes them. It exhorts them, it edifies them, it humbles them.
The Lord, in His manifest presence, always speaks to the whole. If a saint needs to be encouraged, then he is encouraged. If another needs to be humbled then he is humbled. If another needs to be lifted up from the valley floor of depression and discouragement then he will find himself flying where the eagles fly and his joy shall be complete. The sinner shall find conviction that he will have to bend to, or he will have to run into the night screaming. All of this and so much more comes when the Body operates as it is instructed to operate and where the CEO is the Lord Jesus Himself by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus must be preeminent. We must follow the dictates of the word of God or we shall simply be taken by the tide of this world and religion and be lost at sea. I would argue that for the most part, that which calls itself Christianity is lost as sea and the only way back is a strict adherence to the revealed word of God. It would not be a revival, nor would it be a reformation. It would be a revolution!!!, where the powers that be are upturned and the Lord Jesus takes His rightful place.
Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you,
Are we modern day Christians really any different from our Galatians brothers and sisters of old? Paul says to the Galatians that they have fallen from Grace, those who desire to be under anything other than the Gospel that he himself had presented to them, but now he was an enemy to them for telling them the truth. This word “bewitched,” means to be “fascinated by a false presentation.” In the Galatians case it was the law they were fascinated with and men, who should have known better, who seem to be something in Christian circles from Jerusalem, had enticed them away from the truth, away from the Spirit and away from freedom. A fall from grace is a tragedy for it is by grace through faith that we are saved and not of works, including the works of the law, less we should boast and then the free gift is not free indeed but rather debt.
We have so many in our day who are “fascinated by a false presentation.” Consider the Charismatics and their prosperity gospel? How about men like Benny Hinn with a singular obsession with healings? MacArthur and his denial of the sign gifts of the Spirit? Catholics and every other denomination who are fascinated by their own dogmas and decrees which are quite apart from Scriptures. One man rodeo shows in the non denominational systems who promote themselves. What is the one thing they all have in common with each other and the Galatians? “They zealously court you, but not for good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.”(Gal 4:17) Think about the horror of that statement. Men and systems of men set up to promote themselves and in doing so, exclude those who follow them from entering into the freedom that Christ brought for them. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. It is for bondage that men would have you zealous for them and their systems that elevate them. Jesus has been usurped.
Who is hindering you from following the Word? This is not from God. Who elevates themselves rather than the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. In the third epistle of John he writes to “the church,” in Asia Minor. He runs headlong into a man called Diotrephes. A man who had zeaously courted the church in that region to elevate himself. A man who loved the preeminence and just like Paul, John had become their enemy because he spoke the truth. Yet there were still men like Gaius and Demetrius. Good men. Men who followed after Jesus and who “walked in the truth.” There are good men and women today who still walk in the truth. God has His remnant. They are few and far between. And there are is a scourge of men like Diotrephes who would hinder you from walking according to the truth because when we do that, Jesus, and only Jesus is elevated.
There is an inevitable clash between God’s people and men who promote themselves. John would clash with Diotrephes if he traveled there. Paul clashed with the Christian religious men of his day, and even with Paul and Barnabas over what was right and what would cause men to fall from grace. If one were in MacArthur’s church and criticized him openly, the same fate would befall them as those who criticized Diotrephes. They would be removed from the church, with violence if need be. To criticize the Catholic church over 1500 years would cause one to be excommunicated and most likely burned at the stake. To criticize the reformers would have resulted in certain banishment and oftentimes imprisonment and burnings too. It is the mark of insecure men who have set up their own systems in direct violation of God’s Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
And then of course there is the genuine Body of Christ to be found everywhere. Oftentimes isolated perhaps. Lonely and without a church home to call their own, but always part of the Body of Christ and the family of God. Sons and daughters scattered to the four winds but not abandoned. Faithful to the Word of God and the leading of the Spirit. Illuminated by the light of Christ and the freedom that dwells within them. At liberty to speak the truth in love despite the consequences. Seeking no office and seeking no titles. Only willing to wash the feet of their brothers and sisters and feed them spiritually. Discipling everywhere they go whether to the one or the two or the two hundred. The number is not important. I encourage you this day my brothers and sisters. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made you free and do not be entangled by the religious systems of men which causes you to become entangled by a yoke of bondage.
Walk in and according to the Spirit and men shall know you by the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, gentlesness, and self control. They shall also know you by your fierce loyalty to the Lord and to the Gospel of the Kingdom and to the Word of God. Live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and you shall avoid jealousies pride and envy. Those who sow these things shall reap everlasting life. We shall run and not grow weary, we shall walk and not faint. We shall not lose heart when we pay due attention to the condition of our heart and walk in the aforementioned fruit of the Spirit. Love the Body of Christ with a lavish and reckless love. Let us boast in nothing other than the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross upon our own backs. Let us rejoice in infirmities that God may be glorified by the excess grace He pours upon us. The world has been crucified to us, it no longer courts us. We have been crucified to the world and we no longer have any taste for its pleasures. Let the peace and the mercy and grace of God fall apon the genuine saints today and let all who read this be encouraged.
In the last days the prophets of old still speak to us. None more so than the prophet Isaiah. The prophetic word of God echos down through the ages. It spoke to its first audience and it has continued to speak down through the corridors of time. God has always had a remnant in the land and in these last days they still remain. They have ears to hear what the Spirit says. God is still instructing His sons and daughters through the prophetic word from thousands of years ago. In Ecclesiastes we are told that “to everything there is a season.” We are further told that “He has put eternity in their hearts.”
The Lord our God is doing a work in this, the last season and He is calling out to His remnant saints, the ones who have eternity in their hearts, to come forth from the world and stand. Isaiah stepped forth and cried out with a loud voice “send me.” He took the prophetic words from God to a sinful Judah who were surrounded by sinful nations. Today there exists a sinful Christianity which is surrounded by a fallen world. Shall you stand? Can you hear? Can you see the fallen world and the state of the church? In Christ alone there is truth and we stand upon His word which never changes.
This book journey’s through many of the chapters of Isaiah that stood out to me. The Lord spoke to my spirit and I put pen to paper. As the world grows ever darker and shakes it angry fist, the prophetic word of God becomes all the more vital. What is God saying to His remnant saints? What is He saying to those who refuse to bow the knee to the gods of this world?
Our role in the coming days (lengthy)
The Body of Christ has not changed down through the centuries. Always at her core she has been called to be an eye-witness to God’s glory. This is the essential heartbeat of Gods remnant bride and always will be. She is a tabernacle in the wilderness, she is Gods temple here on earth. At the same time she has always been despised by the religious spirit because she speaks truth to power. In these days God says in His word through His prophet Zechariah that ” In that last day a fountain shall be opened up for the house of David.” God Himself says again through the prophet that (speaking of Christendom) “Two thirds in it shall be cut off and die. But one-third shall be left in it. I will bring the one-third through the fire, I will refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer them. I will say ” This is my people.” (Zec 13:8-9)
And so we see that a fountain shall be opened in that day for the house of David. Can you imagine how welcome a fountain would be in the midst of a dry and thirsty land, a land racked with drought and famine? I want us to look at two men of God and see what parallels we can draw. Let’s look at Noah and as we do let’s think about the context of the time in which he lived. It’s a time and a place of great wickedness and there would only be a tiny fraction saved out of this. Noah is commissioned to build an ark over a long period of time. We know that Noah faced ridicule and scorn. What he was building have never been built before. And, rain had never fallen from the sky and the notion that the whole earth would be covered by a flood was preposterous to all who lived then.
Every day the people could hear Noah’s hammer. Every day the ark took shape and was rising up. The continuous hammering would have been a great source of irritation to all around him. Noah would have to keep building despite the ridicule and the scorn and the anger because the rain was surely coming and he was being obedient to his calling. We too as Gods remnant people have to keep true to what the Lord has called us to do. We are also in the ark business. There was one place of salvation when the rains of judgment began to fall, it was the ark. Can I put it to you brothers and sisters that the remnant church of God is God’s ark built by the hands of Jesus. The Body of Christ.
With the judgments beginning to fall, with the beginning of the birth pangs, it will become apparent that God has a people who have not bowed the knee to Baal. God is getting ready to reveal His ark by bringing judgment and allowing the rise of the anti-christ. This ark will be a witness to the glory of God and His way of escape. This ark will be used as a last chance for the un-redeemed of the world to be saved before final judgment. This ark will be revealed to the world by persecution. All of the world will see this ark and they will be without excuse when that day comes. This ark is the glory of Christ here on the earth and He reveals Himself through what He has built.
Now lets consider Joseph and consider the context and the back-drop of his day. Here we have Joseph who has been called to save a remnant. “And God sent me before you to save a Remnant in the earth and to save your life by a great deliverance.” ( Gen 45:7) Before Joseph could do this he had to be scorned and ridiculed by his own. Because of dreams and visions, that scorn turned to anger and hatred. He was then rejected and sold into slavery. He is then wrongfully accused and ends up in prison, seemingly forgotten and forsaken. God of course had never left him. This is way of the remnant. Yet God had not forsaken Joseph and even in prison Joseph moved in the supernatural and he found God’s favor. He was able to interpret dreams and visions and this would lead him to see that a great famine was coming upon the land. He was able to make provisions that would save “A Remnant in the earth.”
Can you see the pattern behind this brothers and sisters? Can you relate to the suffering and the rejection and the fact that he seemed forsaken? Joseph was surely plagued by this as he languished in prison. The pattern is clear. When there is great judgment coming upon the land, God has a people or a person whom He will send ahead to enable whoever will, to escape that judgment. God has created such a vehicle in the Body of Christ. And they too, just like Joseph, must be despised and rejected by the very one’s they have been sent to save. This is the divine pattern. We see our Lord Jesus walk down this path. He came from the glories of heaven and the right hand of the Father, emptying Himself and humbling Himself in order to walk amongst those who He had come to save. He became despised and rejected, tortured and killed.
And now with the final judgment fast approaching, the ark which Jesus has been building for 2000 years is almost ready. God’s remnant church comes from every possible background and across all denominational lines. ( artificial walls built by men and not by God) Through the last 2000 years they have been scorned, ridiculed hated and despised and hunted down and killed and almost all of this was done by "their own.” Their own being people who would profess God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him. Yet God in His mercy will reach out and continue to reach out through His Body while there is yet time. A witness until the very end. A faithful Body and a people without excuse.
The Body of Christ is everywhere. It is in every village, every town , every city and every nation on the earth. There are countless millions of Gods own children around the world. For the most part they are swallowed up in Christendom with its multiplicity of divisions and man made walls. Yet, the closer to Christ’s return is, the more and more difficulty the Body of Christ will find within the denominations of men. Could a saint really stay within the confines of any organisation that has corrupted itself with the world?
This will be the ever increasing pressure that will be brought to bear on the saints in the coming days. Only the individual saint can answer this question for his or her self. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit must be a lamp unto our feet. As the darkness increases our need for the light that shines forth from the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit who gives us not only revelation but inspiration only becomes greater and greater.We have a God who will never leave us nor forsake us. We must trust Him with our whole hearts.The Word of God and His doctrines were written to be understood by even the simplest among us, in fact God delights in confounding the wise by the foolish things of this world. The doctrines of men are generally complicated and confusing. Stay with the Word, lean upon the Holy Spirit for understanding and insight. Do all of this with your whole heart and you will not go far wrong. He did not leave us as orphans, praise God.The Holy Spirit will lead and guide His children through not only good times but through the darkest valleys and the narrowest portions of the path that leads us home.
A sister in the Lord sent me an article about about someone who had visited a church and it was dark. Now, the author was speaking of physical darkness, the lights were turned down so low that she could not read. The irony was not lost on her that the opening song was about the Lord being the light in the darkness The last time I was at a church it was also dark. It had stadium seating as they do in the cinema. It was not dark when I entered, but soon enough the lights were dimmed, I guessed the “show,” was about to begin. Now why are countless churches operating in the dark? Could it just be a trend? Another fad? An attempt to appeal to a younger generation? Or, could it be as simple as the fact that this darkness truly represents their spiritual state? I tend to go with the latter.
“Entertainment.” Without the presence of God we must entertain the masses. So, just like the movies and secular concerts, we dim the lights and highlight the platform, put a spotlight on it. The platform in and of itself is an idol. I believe Luther tore down the idol of “The Eucharist,” and helped raise up the idol of the pulpit, the platform, the elevated place. People can sit in darkness because nothing is required of them. All the “action,” is taking place front and center and elevated. Then add the dry ice smoke machines and you have the whole ghastly package. Entertainment rules supreme, concert style worship and dimmed lights make sure the spotlight is on “the front.” Actual congregational worship and the proper 1 Cor 14 setting is dead, and in its place Hollywood rules supreme. Hollywood meaning that which is contrived is made to look real. May God bring down the curtain on this abomination.
I want to share a personal testimony. Many of you, my brothers and sisters in the Lord, over the years, have prayed for my family. I praise the Lord for that. Prayers for youngest son Daniel who has Down Syndrome, and prayers for my oldest son Christopher, who had, to say the least, a very challenging life due to sin and breaking the law. He is 38 now, but all of his troubles really began back in high school. The police were at our door a lot. After he left high school he just kept on going. Alcohol and drugs and crimes related to that. Violence and lies. It broke me as a father and I threw myself at the feet of Jesus. If I tried to get up on my own two feet, I would quickly be knocked back down. I was in over my head and I had no idea how to handle that. The old Frank was constantly screaming for control. It was really an exhausting battle. I was being thoroughly broken. I cried out to God from the depths of my heart, on my knees, more times than I can remember. In the quiet of the night, walking the floor, many many tears. In the morning getting up, and being strong again for the family.
It all came to a head when he was arrested for a very serious crime. The police had been watching him for many months and they had turned one of the guys who bought from him and sent him in to make a purchase and that is when they swooped in and arrested him. They wanted him to turn on the guy above him, but he refused to. And so he was under house arrest awaiting trial. He had to blow into a machine which also takes your picture. Unbeknownst to me, he had a bottle of Whiskey in the basement. A surprise call on the machine at 2am in the morning caught him of guard. He was to turn himself in immediately to be incarcerated. Rather than doing that, he cut the GPS unit of his ankle ( a felony in and of itself) and went on the run for well over a year. We had the US Marshals at out door. He ended up in Scotland and then finally he was caught by the Federales in Mexico. Extradited to Florida and then extradited to Kansas. He was finally home. I agreed to get him a “good,” lawyer, but only if he pleaded guilty to his charges. He reluctantly agreed.
He was remanded in jail and was eventually sentenced to three years in Lansing state prison in Kansas. For the first time in our whole lives, we really began to establish a relationship. I would visit him most Saturdays. In the middle of all of this we faced two horrible court battles in order just to see our grandson. Through every moment in this story there was miracle after miracle, not least the miracle of our sanity. My wife and I grew much closer together and a few times we would just look at pictures of Christoper and Mason and cry together. It was “our pain.” It is hard to explain God’s favor sometimes but every step of the way, He was one step ahead of us. When I was down and thought I could not get back up, He picked me up. When my mind was like a violent sea with mountainous waves, He came to me and whispered that He was jealous for my thoughts and suddenly the waters were still.
It has been around eight years now since Christopher has been released. He committed his life to Jesus and has been out of trouble. A few months ago he came to me and told me he was going to apply to have his three felonies expunged. I was delighted with that idea. Myself and a dear brother prayed about this, as did Christopher’s Godly grandma. Two of the three records were expunged but the most serious of the crimes, the drug dealing was not. When he was sentenced he was put on a drug dealing registry. Very few States have them but Kansas did. For 15 years he has to register with the local Sheriff every three months and pay a fee. If he traveled anywhere in the county, the local Sheriff of where he was going had to be notified. The Judges hands were tied, by law, he could not expunge it. We thanked and praised the Lord for the two that were expunged and committed the other one to His will. About three weeks ago Christopher got a letter from the prosecutors office. The law had just been changed. If you had stayed out of trouble for five years after your probation was over, then the judge now has the discretion to expunge. Yesterday Christopher was in front of the judge and this final part of his history was erased.
I thought about the world expungement. In practical terms it means that if you look up Christopher’s record now, he does not have one. It is like he never had this past. How many of us have been Spiritually expunged? No matter our past, the forgiveness and mercy and grace of the Lord wipes it all away, born again. Renewed. I want to take a minute today to publicly thank my Heavenly Father! And my Lord Jesus Christ who sticks closer to us than a brother. And the power of the Holy Spirit to move over and over again. No matter how many waves threaten to drown us, His hand kept our heads above water. We stand, because of His great love. An incredibly broken situation that seemed to be irreparable, has been put back together by the magnificent Hand of God. Maybe you think your own situation or your family situation is broken beyond repair? Its a lie. There is nothing that God cannot put back together. Take your pieces and bring them before the throne. It is there alone that an all powerful, loving God can take the ashes of your situation and make something beautiful out of it. There is a history of rebellion in my family, but there is a greater history of redemption.
Suppose a company of ugly, unattractive persons lived together in one house. Suppose that they never saw any other man or woman, only themselves, they never saw anyone that was arrayed with the splendors and perfections of physical beauty. They would not be capable of comparing themselves with anything other than themselves, and consequently would not know and not be disappointed at their own ugliness and natural defections. Now, bring them them out of their cells and holes of darkness, where they have been shut up by themselves, and let them see the beauty and attractiveness of others and then, they will be sorry and dejected at the view of their own ugliness.
This is the case, men are marred by sin and are rotten, corrupted and depraved. When they dwell together in the dark they see neither God, nor angels nor saints in their excellent nature and beauty. Therefore they are apt to count their own ugliness and deformity as things of beauty and glory. Now, let such, as I said, see God, see saints, or the beauty of the Holy Spirit and know themselves that they have not any of this, and they cannot but be affected and sorry for their own deformity. (John Bunyan, The excellence of a Broken heart. )
John, very ably speaks, in his analogy, of a broken ugly world marred and deformed by sin. Those so marred rarely have any desire to be around what is beautiful. Think of David as he worshiped God and Saul tries to pin him to that wall with a spear. Saul hated David. He hated David first and foremost because David had God and every time he saw him it was a reminder to Saul that he did not. The saints of God would be hated is they never spoke a word. The beauty in them, that shines upon their face and is displayed by their love and forgiveness, is a terrible reminder to a dark and ugly world that they are dark and ugly. The worlds solution is simply to never be around Gods excellent ones. they must only be around their own.
Then their ugliness and sin is swallowed up by the perpetual darkness of their fellow ugly people. Lest some people make the claim that they are good and not ugly and deformed, God says that all the righteousness of men are like filthy rags before His eyes. The people of the world are ultimately united in their ugliness and their desire to avoid, at all costs, the mirror of truth. To look into this mirror is to see the vileness of the one looking back. The world has its own mirror and it is as deceptive as their blackened hearts. This is why, to genuinely encounter God is to fall down as one who is dead. To cry out “is there mercy for me.” To shout out from the depths of their exposed darkness “what must we do.” To see the ultimate beauty of God in His perfection and glory is to cast His light onto the lying mirror and suddenly we are horrified to see what is looking back.
The mask is ripped away. The fig leave falls to the ground. And there we are, naked before God and we know, no one has to tell us anything. We know of our deformity and ugliness. And now we must be swallowed whole by His majesty and glory. The mountain of our sin and darkness melts like wax in the presence of the Lord. That which was ugly now reflects the beauty of God. That which was deformed now is made whole. From the ashes of our fallen flesh rises the beauty of our risen Lord and He rises up in us. Now the world sees something of His majesty in us and sees their own wickedness reflected back. Only in this state, when a man or woman is confronted with who he or she truly is, and then discovers that there is mercy and grace to be found in the beauty of His holiness, can that man or woman truly be saved. To truly fall and rise again in the newness of birth, the second birth. Those who reject this revelation of who they are, their conscience accuses them, condemn themselves to an eternal life of ugliness.
Daniel said to me today “I miss you dad.” I knew what he meant. What he meant to say is that “I’m gonna miss you.” You see we are going out of town next week and this is one of the ways that Daniel conveys to you that he loves you. And so when he said that, I put the cups song on in which one of the lines goes “I’m gonna miss you when your gone.” We danced. He twirled, I twirled, we interlocked arms and danced in a circle in a Scottish fashion. And when the dancing was over we hugged. As I walked into the backyard afterwards, with the sun shining warmly thought the Locusts trees, and the birds watching me from their various perches,wondering if I was about to fill their feeder ( I was) my heart warmed to the thoughts of what a privilege it was for me to have Daniel. When we need someone to look after something that is very precious to us, we pick someone we know and love and trust. And as I was thanking God for entrusting me with something that was very precious to Him……I realized that my heart was full.
Daniel is my youngest son who is 29 and has Down Syndrome.
The term “quiet quitting,” is a relatively new term and for the most part, would be unknown to most baby-boomers. It is a phenomenon among today’s generation and its spreading quickly. In essence, quiet quitting means not going above and beyond at work. Showing up, ticking the necessary boxes, doing just enough to cover yourself and guarantee your salary. Notions of loyalty and ambition to climb the corporate ladder are forgone in favor of pursuing that which personally fulfills you. Now some may say that this describes lazy workers that have been among us in every generation, those who do just enough to get by. That may be true of some of the quiet quitters, yet our younger generations have grown up in ease and they expect that their personal ambitions and desires should be fulfilled.
Is this what decadence looks like? We are far removed from the pre-war generation who lived through a decade of dire poverty and want. Who then passed on their attitudes to the baby-boomers and they in turn lived them out to a lesser degree but who wanted much more for their children and grandchildren. The faint echos of a bygone age are now drowned out by the aspirations of the decadent who are on the march, not helped by the fact that they are just about to inherit the greatest fortune every gathered by any generation in the history of the world. Perhaps if we knew just a little more about the Fall of Rome we would be able to see our own rapid decline in the luxurious desires of a generation that knows little if anything about struggle?
What puts steel in the backbone of any generation is a certain amount of suffering, the experience of doing without. The desire to rise up above unfavorable circumstances builds in men and women something of what we saw in “the greatest generation.” They came out of the farms, many of which had been ruined by the dust bowl, and they came out of the mean cities where one had to really compete just to put a roof over the head and food on the table. These circumstance gave us the strength to overcome the axis powers of evil and save civilization. There were no safe spaces on the battle-field. No special toilets for those who were confused about their gender. They did not have the luxury of quiet quitting. Everything was put on the line and many paid the ultimate price.
In the church today, Christendom is full of quiet quitters. Those who do just enough to get by. Who show up to a service and tick the box. Who have desires and aspirations quite apart from serving God. Who would claim that they are just not being fulfilled by their life. Who would be horrified at the prospect of suffering for the cause of Christ. Who would perhaps curse God because of great loss. Where are the warriors for Christ? Where is the Church militant? Is there any cause worth dying for in a generation that only sees God as a means to an end? Where is the generation of the cross? Where are the people who willingly step forward to go above and beyond their own selfish desires and whose highest ambition is to serve God on this battlefield of life? If your fulfillment in this life is more important to you than the job that the Lord has assigned you, and you are a quiet quitter, then is it any wonder that we live our lives in shades of grey? Chasing rainbows rather than seeking God is a sure sign that you are an entrenched quiet quitter in the spiritual walk of life.
Today we are being driven by the form and not the substance. Jesus is the substance. Jesus is the primary object. Jesus is the preeminent one. Without Him high and lifted up, front and center, without His presence in our midst we only have a form. A religious structure built by human hands to house our own desires. We have abandoned the real Jesus and constructed another Jesus. This other Jesus serves us. He serves our needs and desires, he entertains us through his creators. This other Jesus has never carried a cross nor does he require his followers to carry one either.
This cultural Jesus is a mere reflection of his adherents. He never judges, he never corrects. He has no particular requirements. He is a genie in a bottle even although they vigorously rub and he never appears. He does not walk with them, they walk alone. He does not talk to them, they merely engage their own imaginations. He lies to them through the prism of their souls. They hear him say peace and prosperity. He is a reflection of the better part of their natures and they do not realize that the better part of their natures is like filthy rags to the true and living God.
If these people ever actually encountered the true and the living Christ He would devastate them and upturn their lives. Everything they know or thought they knew would come crashing down. A God who judges? Hear the screams. A God who calls them to enter into His sufferings? Hear the wails. A God who requires their whole lives, their whole hearts, their whole allegiances? They writhe in agony. The flesh that refuses to die is enmity to God. He bids that flesh to voluntarily pick up its cross, the means of its own death. It shall surrender or it will rage against the author of the cross.
The narrow path never deviates as it winds its way home. It is fraught with danger. It slowly strips away all of the baggage that we took with us for our journey. It tears away at the flesh and passes through refining fires and floods. It often winds it way through hot and arid deserts. The narrow path has many exits and every exist is a path of least resistance. As soon as one steps onto it one can hear the haunting intoxicating sound of the siren call as it draws that one away from the narrow path.
For those who stay the course and stay on the narrow path, every so often, always suddenly, the Lord comes to us. He reminds us that we are His, He encourages us. He bids us look down and see that the path itself is the Word of God and that the path lights up and directs us in the way that we should go. We are instructed to turn neither to the left nor to the right. The Lord embraces us in His love and His kindness.
He heals our wounds, He tenderly touches our weary hearts. He feeds the deepest parts of us and sustains us for the journey. He restores the brokenhearted and gives strength to the weary. He gives us hope when there seems to be no hope. He gives us joy when there is nothing at all to be joyful about. He gives us a garment of praise and takes away a heavy spirit. He bids us to lift up our eyes and see the celestial city, from where our help comes from. Stay the course brothers and sisters. Stand fast in the time of our vexation. Our Lord is coming soon and our journey will be at an end.
Isa 8:6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly………….Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many.
The still small voice of God that leads His people, whether through quiet times or tumultuous times, it leads them on. His people rejoice in it. They are comforted by it. Every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God, whether written or softly spoken to the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, is manna to the souls of His very own. Yet to those who claim to be His, this is not sufficient for them. They are discontented. They see the things of the world and they want them them and are jealous for them. They admire cultures and other countries and they despise their own, Whether in the natural or in the spiritual, the same disaster falls upon them in the end, they get what they want. And the tumultuous waters of their own desires rises up and shatters them.
The malcontent is left broken. The mighty waters of their own greed and lack of thankfulness has swept away everything. If any structure is left it is full of stinking mud and the stench is awful. This applies to individuals and nations. There is a mighty flood coming and it is coming because the people have rejected the still waters of Shiloah. It will reach up to the neck, bringing terror to those caught in its swift flowing power. Yet, there is a remnant who love to hear the still small voice of the Lord. Who love to dwell beside the still waters. The Lord Himself has led us there. He has planted us beside the waters and we are like evergreen trees which gives its fruit in season and whose leaves do not wither. Rejoice and be thankful brothers and sisters in the still small voice of the Lord that flows gently through the depths of who we are. It is the waters of life, the river of life, that flows from the throne of God.
Job 2:10 ….shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?
Brothers and sisters, this matter drives at the very heart of who we are. We are much more likely to discover who we are in the depths of adversity, than in any other state. So much energy in Christendom is expended in the stand against adversity. Rather than embrace it, as we certainly embrace the good, we fight it, often with everything that is in us. The adversity, and how it affects us, becomes the towering idol in our lives. Shall God not praised in any circumstances? Shall He not always be our primary focus? Should our eyes ever be moved from a gaze upon Him? In all my years walking through the corridors of Christianity, this single issue is the most pervasive. Our attitude towards infirmity or dire circumstances ultimately shape us and identify us. The fundamental core of who we are must be, whether we live or whether we die we shall praise the living God. Every other issue, if it is allowed, draws us away from God and towards ourselves. Rather than being fixated with God, we become fixated on ourselves and our circumstances.
In this verse Job addresses his wife. She, because of their circumstances, expresses what happens when circumstances are more important than God. She encourages her husband to curse God, abandon God, abandon his faith, abandon his life. For her, the circumstances of their life was more important than God Himself. She is a foolish woman and has been branded as such in the eternal word of God. Paul learned to be content whether he was hungry or full, in sickness or in health, in liberty or in the dungeon. He learned this. He learned that all loss, is mere rubbish, in comparison to being found in Him. In the end brothers and sisters the only thing that matters is being found in Him. Everything else, if we allow it, is idolatry. It is the curse of the last one hundred years that much of what identifies itself as Christianity, demands that God heals them and prospers them. This is the foundation of their so called faith. Madness and foolishness to stake your faith on the circumstances of your life rather than the holiness of a God who not only gives us good things, but also gives us adversities. Shall you accept that saint, or shall you rage against God and die in the wilderness?
What are we intended to be? We are intended to be in our experience, in our spiritual life, in our presence here, a living proof that Jesus is the Son of God, not just declare this as a tenet of our faith and creed, but to be here as children of God growing up into Sonship (T.A.Sparks)
Is there a difference between those who declare the tenets of our faith and who agree upon the creeds, and those who are sons and daughters of God ? A living reality as opposed to a set of truths. The Galatians are a great example. Paul says to them “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another…………..but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any gospel to you than which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” This is intense. Paul is leaving no room for doubt. Anything other than Spirit led experiential transformation, is a gospel of works and is perverse and no gospel at all and those who teach it are accursed by God Himself.
The works of the law were being presented to the Galatians by those from Jerusalem. They had begun in the Spirit but now they were resting on the flesh, the works of the law. Paul calls them fools who have been bewitched. In most of modern day Christendom it is not the works of the Jewish law that bewitches men, although there are whole sects of folks who will tell you that you must keep the law and the feasts and so on. No, it is our own mental assent to orthodoxy that has replaced the living reality of sons and daughters of Christ. No experience necessary. A mental assent to a series of abstract truths is all that matters. This represents to the genuine believer today, what the Judaizers were to Paul and the saints. It is in conflict with the saints. It is amazing that the same truth can be what divides us. One is a living example of it, the other is a mere professor of it. And the one who professes it almost always resents and comes against the one who has been changed by it from the inside out.
How many times has it been said to you, in a resentful fashion, when you give your testimony of being born again “well, I never had any such experience, I just grew up in the church.” Or, if you relate any kind of supernatural experience and transformation there are any number of people who will resent you. Sparks says this ” our testimony must not be …I was brought up in a Christian home, and sent to Sunday school and taken to church and instructed in these things and given a sound Bible teaching. There has to be something more than that.” Of course, the something more is Christ Himself burning at the center of who are by the power of the Holy Spirit. We do not share abstract truth, we share a living experiential Jesus. Anyone can agree that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The devil himself knows that to be true. What the world needs to hear is a first hand account of the living Christ living in us, speaking to us, leading us and guiding us and changing us.
Brothers and sisters, we are a living proof of the risen Christ. We share with people who we know, not what we know. Now, can a man or a woman come to Christ by the Spirit of God and then fall away into mere orthodoxy, relying on the arm of the flesh to come to maturity? Yes indeed. Of course they never shall come to maturity. Teachers of every stripe will woo you away, they will want you to be zealous for them. Your church shall replace Jesus. Your pastor shall replace Jesus. Your favorite teacher will replace Jesus. Only by continuing on in the Spirit can you grow from mere babes in Christ into maturity and sons and daughters. Why is so much of Christendom stuck on the rudimentary elements, sharing milk week after week? It is because they have replaced the living reality of the Spirit of God with the mere orthodoxy of men. The orthodoxy and the truth of it is not the matter here, for genuine Spirit filled and Spirit led saints will be among the most orthodox people you will ever meet. The matter is being Spirit led.
The path of least resistance is to tick the boxes of orthodoxy without being a living reality of what that very orthodoxy teaches. It is one thing to believe that we have been called to be salt and light, it is quite another thing to actually be salt and light. You see the difference? Now apply that to every other aspect of what we believe. In order to live out what we believe we have to be led forward by a very real Holy Spirit. In almost every church up and down the land the folks are led, not by the Holy Spirit, but rather by men, who, for the most part will be teaching orthodox teaching of the basic kind. The systems of men has become another Gospel. It is like the sacraments in the Catholic church. Vacuous rituals devoid of any power. The words and the teachings and the sermons of much of Christendom, devoid of the actual power of the Holy Spirit, have become nothing more than sacramental activity, promising something without the power to deliver.
Sons and daughters of the Lord will always be in conflict with the merely religious. A mental assent is no match for a living reality. One has power and the other has a mere appearance. One is playing a character, the other is the real person. We used to say, back in the day, that there were no grandchildren in the Kingdom of God, only sons and daughters. Christendom has been swallowed up by the grandchildren. By osmosis and an accident of birth, there are millions of false professors all over the world and yet we know the words of Jesus from Matt 22 “many are called but few are chosen.” The many that are called prove themselves to be unworthy of the calling by the fact that they consider the calling a mere religious adornment. They busy themselves with the things of the world and disqualify themselves. Therefore, God finds for himself the few. He clothes them in righteousness and this clothing is worn to the marriage feast.
In the days to come, the divisions will become much deeper, much more apparent. The lifeless orthodox church will become more and more powerful as they ally themselves to the world and its system. It will reach its zenith in the one world system to come. The great whore church and the one world order will unite in an unholy alliance against the saints who shall refuse to acknowledge their authority and the authority if the evil one to come. The delusion shall be so great that only those sons and daughters, led by the Holy Spirit, will be able to see what the rest of the world cannot see or refuses to see. The marriage feast is coming brothers and sisters and only those clothed in the righteousness of God that is attained by the power of the Holy Spirit shall enter, the few. The many, in an attempt to save their lives here in this world, will lose their eternal lives in the world to come. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
A Call To The Remnant 