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 The smoke from the fire of true revival has been replaced by the smoke machines of performance and entertainment.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.”
Our small house church, though modest in number, stands as a precious testimony to a deeper reality, a reality that transcends the glittering edifices and booming stages of modern Christendom.
Over a decade ago I made the conscious, Spirit-led shift, joining countless others across the globe who have heard the still small voice calling them out of spiritual Babylon. For in every generation, God reserves for Himself a remnant, a people who will not bow the knee to Baal, no matter how cunningly he reinvents himself through culture, compromise, or counterfeit religion.
Before our very eyes unfolds the tragic convergence of the harlot church, a synthesis of worldliness and religion, dressed in finery but inwardly defiled. Its heartbeat is not the cross, but the stage; not the Spirit, but spectacle. As it was in Rome, so it is today. The Coliseum, once the epicenter of Roman life, rose from the gold and silver plundered by Titus during the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. One temple fell, another was built. Worship of the Holy was replaced by worship of self, veiled in the opiate of entertainment. Bread and circuses—tools of distraction, tools of dominion.
Yet the martyr Stephen, in his final breath, echoed the words of our Lord: “The Most High does not dwell in temples made by human hands.” Jesus, speaking to the Samaritan woman, dismantled the geography of worship and pointed to its essence—Spirit and truth. When asked, “Where should we worship?” Christ responded not with a location, but with a mandate: how we are to worship.
It is vital—indeed, imperative—that the true saints gather not around programs, performances, or personalities, but around the presence of God. In Spirit. In truth. And as the great Day of the Lord draws ever nearer, this calling becomes all the more urgent. For history has shown: men gather to entertain themselves. But few gather to worship God as He has ordained.
Let us, then, be counted among the few—those walking the narrow path that leads to life. Let us not be swept away by the many, whose feet tread the broad road of destruction. Let our assemblies be small, but pure; hidden, but radiant. May our worship rise not from stages, but from sanctified hearts. For the time is short, and the Bride must make herself ready.
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.
The opposition to President Trump from professing Christians is somewhat perplexing. Those who resist him often claim to be apolitical, yet their stance betrays a clear ideological bias. If they were honest, they might acknowledge long-standing left-leaning tendencies. Instead, they engage in virtue signaling, attempting to spiritualize a flawed position and frame it as a moral dichotomy. Strikingly, these same individuals never voiced criticism when professing Christians supported Biden or similar leaders. This inconsistency exposes motive and the political nature of their stand while all the time claiming not to be political.
Paul makes it clear that secular authorities exist to restrain evil, wielding the sword not in vain but as a necessary force against wrongdoing. When rulers abandon this responsibility, they forfeit their legitimacy. The enemy seeks to dismantle rightful secular authority, for he thrives on lawlessness, celebrating evil rather than restraining it. We have always lived in a secular world—this is our reality.
Undoubtedly, President Trump is a secular leader. He is not a born-again Christian, nor does he claim to truly know Jesus. But being a Christian is not a prerequisite for the presidency. In fact, history shows that most presidents have only paid lip service to faith, while others ignored it entirely. Yet, given the choice, I would far prefer a leader who upholds moral order rather than the godlessness seen in much of Europe, Britain, and its Commonwealth. The fundamental duty of a secular government is to establish law and order. This is why Rome was allowed to rise—Pax Romana brought a measure of stability to a chaotic world, creating conditions that enabled the spread of the Gospel. True believers recognize this: we are in the world but not of it.
If a secular leader takes a stand against abortion, protects children from harmful ideologies, defends parental rights, restores law and order, and seeks to prevent unnecessary wars, then we as followers of Christ should be thankful. I certainly am. The end times continue to draw near, and Christ’s return remains imminent. This world is still lost. The current president will be gone in four years, and we should reflect on the consequences of his last departure and the leader who replaced him. Be prepared, saints, there is great darkness ahead and we must be found to be walking in the light.
The Scots despised Margaret Thatcher—truly despised her—but even that pales in comparison to the sheer intensity of Trump Derangement Syndrome. It operates at the opposite end of the spectrum from adulation.
I once heard an interview with a German woman in the 1960s who had attended Hitler’s rallies. When asked why she idolized him, her response was profoundly chilling: “There was something in the atmosphere, and we all breathed it in.” That statement has stayed with me for years. I believe her completely. And that “something,” to me, was entirely demonic.
History shows us that at certain times and in certain places, a collective madness overtakes people—a force beyond reason, beyond individual thought. It is the satanic inversion of corporate worship. It is zeitgeist on steroids.
Zeitgeist, a German word meaning “spirit of the age,” describes the prevailing cultural, intellectual, ethical, and political climate of a particular era. It defines the essence of a time. And to either wholly idolize or utterly despise a person is to be swept up in this very spirit. To partake in such extreme emotional reactions is to breathe in this atmosphere, consciously. I say consciously because we are accountable for what we allow to enter us. Yet it is a “wilful unwitingness,” if there is such a phrase.
Saints of God must not inhale this poison. To do so is a willful act. We cannot be found on the spectrum of hating or idolizing a man. Instead, we must breathe in the rarified air of the Kingdom of God, standing firm in His presence, enveloped in His atmosphere.
As the world spirals into end-times chaos, it is the saints who must remain the last bastion against total madness. The final storm has already made landfall—what we are experiencing now is merely its outer bands. Let us be found in the eye of this storm, where a supernatural peace reigns, untouched by the howling winds of the age.
The proof of our life in Christ , our resurrection from the dead, our authentic faith, is not found in a large house, a $2000 suit or a prosperous life in this world. These things prove nothing in the spiritual. The proof of our faith is how we react to carrying our cross. In the midst of death to ourselves, does the love of Jesus pour forth? Do we minister to others when we ourselves are in the midst of trial and testings? When you are crushed, does oil flow from your brokenness?
The cross does not lie. It exposes the true nature of our inner man. There is no room for hypocrisy on the cross, what the actor hides, the cross reveals. The men and women of the cross are self evident. They are sacrificial. The men and women of the cross are unmistakable, no matter what their church or denominational background is. They are the called-out ones, ever seeking to go deeper in the Lord. They do not chase after the latest trends in the church, nor do they crave ear tickling words from polished religious salesmen.
Let me encourage you saint. I know the narrow path from Calvary to the throne is often lonely. But take heart- every true saint who came before you has walked the same road. If you are blessed, you will find a few kindred souls along the way and you will strengthen one another. Religion indulges the flesh, but relationship with Christ calls us to die-to self, to pride, to the world. And in that dying, Christ rises. His light breaks forth from within us, shining like a mighty beacon into a world that is lost in darkness.Hold fast, for the cross is our testimony, and the resurrection is our hope.
There may be real submission to the will of God while we can’t help wishing things were otherwise. God does not ask us to feel that everything is for the best, but He does ask us to believe it (Andrew Bonar)
This is a deep truth. It is learned in the deepest valleys and the sorest of trials and loss. It may be well with our souls, as the beautiful old hymn goes, but our hearts can be broken. It is in the midst of that brokenness, that pain, that loss, that we draw near to God and He draws near to us. A broken and a contrite heart O God you will not despise (Psalm 51:17) Suffering produces endurance which produces character and hope (Rom 5:3-5) Blessed is the one who remains steadfast under trial ( James 1:2 ) The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit ( Psalm 34:18 )
We are to be rewarded, not only for work done, but for burdens borne, and I am sure that the brightest rewards will be for those who have borne their burdens without murmuring (Andrew Bonar ) A thankful heart in the face of great trial, is the ultimate in believing our God, in trusting Him, it is the very essence of faith. It causes that old liar, the devil, to shut his mouth and his accusations against the most high God that His people only love them because of favorable circumstances. It is out of darkness, that God Himself has commanded light to shine forth. And that light is the very essence of glory and love. It is a tangible force that heals and restores and draws us very near to our Lord and our God.
A Ms Barnett argued, at the University of Virginia in 2008, that “Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw clearly what the cost of compromise is, what the cost of complicity is. He understood something about failure, about what happens to the human soul when backbone dissolves, about what happens to the Christian church when it makes one compromise after the other. He understood that when the church does that-when it continually redefines its message, its interpretation of scripture, its very theology, so that it stays out of trouble-that these are not the sins of omission but of commission, of complicity. And that is why he was such an uncomfortable figure for protestant leaders in the early post-war period.”
Bonhoeffer knew all this because he watched the Lutheran church compromise with the world in which they lived, and their world just happened to be the Nazi world. I would argue that in our day, Christendom, has made just as many if not more compromises with the world. Ours is not the world of the Nazis, but ours is an equally godless world. Hundreds of millions of babies slaughtered around the world, in their mothers womb, as sacrifice at the shrine of feminism, and we are, for the most part, silent. Our children are daily indoctrinated with vile doctrines, perhaps even being groomed, and Christendom is, for the most part, silent.
Can I suggest that in this next generation, our scriptures and theology will be further compromised. We shall be told that homosexuality is not really condemned in the scriptures. We shall be told that there are actually many ways to heaven and that each religion is merely a different expression of God. As time passes, more and more saints shall have no choice but to leave their “denomination,” or “church,” because of such compromise. And the saint that raises his or her voice against such things will be tolerated less and less in a wicked and adulterous generation. The remnant saint of the last days will simply be called to stand. Stand upon the truth, stand upon the word, stand against an ever increasing tide of wickedness.
The Confessing Church in Germany was founded in 1934 as a reaction to the “German Christians,” who were advocates of Nazi policies, especially the “euthanizing,” (murder) of mentally handicapped people. Before the Nazi gas chambers, 400,000 mentally handicapped people were taken to their local clinics or hospitals and were there murdered. The Confessing church did something very bold, they separated from mainline denominations in reaction to their compromise with the world. We need such a separation in our day. Our days are no less wicked. T.A.Sparks writes this …………………….
The Lord must have something against which hell is impotent and by which He demonstrates to the universe that strength of His might which causes to stand and withstand, and having done all to stand. If one were asked what the last issue for the Church in this age is, I would say that it stands, and that is saying a tremendous thing. Oh, you say, that is surely limiting things, are you not expecting much more than that? Progress, advance, sweeping movements? The Church will have all its work cut out in the end to stand, but its standing will be its victory. Just to be able, through testing, trial, when everything is blowing round you like a blizzard; when everything is dark, mysterious, and even God seems far away and unreal, and faith is tested and you are being assailed on the right hand and on the left, and there is every reason outwardly for your moving, giving up, falling down, surrendering, lowering your standard, just to stand and not be moved in your faith is the greatest possible victory….
We are passing through deep experiences, the enemy is doing it and the Lord is not preventing him, but we are coming to a fuller knowledge of the power of our God and a deeper rooting beyond all previous shakeableness. And the Lord is seeking to have a people who cannot be shaken, against whom hell with all its demonstration of arrogance and pride, is impotent. “And the remnant… shall again take root downward.” That is what the Lord needs.
It is not that men are inherently weak, it’s that’s God is inherently all powerful. The strongest man that ever lived, whether in body or mind or spirit, finds his proper state before and all powerful God. He falls on his face as one who is dead. He would cry out with the prophet “I am undone. He would not have the capacity to stand in His presence. He would only see his unworthy state. It takes fire from the altar, to alter his state, to enable him to stand, to have the audacity to say “here I am, send me.”
In Isa 40:28-31 God speaks. He announces Himself as . The everlasting God. 2. Lord. 3. Creator of the ends of the earth. He never faints. He is never weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He is not powerful, He is power itself and the very source of it.It is His to give and He gives it to the weak. He is not mighty, He is might itself and from the abundance of His eternal strength, He gives to those who have no strength. Who are these recipients? Who are these weak people? They are the ones who have come to understand that apart from the Spirit of God, they can do nothing, therefore they wait.
Our understanding of our own weakness kicks down the door of our ego’s and allows the light of God to penetrate the very depths of our beings. Death to “self,” is an emptying process. We must decrease so that there can be an increase. An increase of what? The Lord Himself, in us. By dying to ourselves and emptying our “self,” we are creating capacity. And into that capacity flows the fullness of God. ….That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with the saints, what is the width and the length and the depth and height -to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God (Eph 3:14-21)
For those who are filled with the fullness of God, having waited upon Him in our weakness and low opinion of our “self,” shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint. And so the “weak,’ and those who have no “might,” shall fly, shall run and shall walk. In the dying to their “self,” they have increased their capacity and are therefore filled from inexhaustible fountains.
This is the making of the mighty men and women of valor. Warriors for Christ in the battle of the ages. Those who have humbled themselves. The broken and the contrite. The weak and the meek. They all fellowship with God in high and lofty places. To get there they need the wings of eagles. To run the race we need the strength of God. And to walk this narrow walk of faith we must have the power of God
Some poor deluded folks think that by attending a church they are being disciples. Very sad. I’ve known disciples who attend a church, I’ve known disciples who gather together in small groups, I’ve even known disciples who meet just “where two or three are gathered,” but I’ve known very few disciples. They are the few. They are the remnant. Just as the Lord said it would be. The vast majority I’ve known are church goers, which is a world apart from disciples……bro Frank.
Charles Simeon 1759-1836 wrote…………
Isaiah 29:13, “The Lord says: These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me!”
In our church services, we go through all the external bodily motions; but as to the prostration of the soul, we are for the most part oblivious and unconcerned. We think that we have done our duty to God, if we have gone through the appointed external rituals, though our heart has not accorded with the body in any part of the service. In truth, our services have been hypocritical throughout.
Had a stranger come into one of our church services, and overheard our glowing praises, and our solemn confessions, petitions, and thanksgivings–he would have supposed that we were the most humble, spiritual, and devout people in the universe!
But had he been privy to the real state of our hearts–then how little would he have seen: of earnest ardor in our praises, or of honest humiliation in our confessions, or of sincere fervor in our petitions, or of genuine gratitude in our thanksgivings!
He would see that the state of our hearts indicated that we felt nothing, and meant nothing–at the very time that we professed to mean so much and feel so much!
For the most part, he would have seen that the whole of our service was only a solemn mockery; that instead of being genuine worshipers of our majestic and holy God–for the most part, we were but insincere hypocrites!
Let me ask, in the name of God Himself: What reason you can have to think that God would accept such services as these?
If, indeed, God were like ourselves, and could see only the outward appearance, then we might hope that, being deceived by us–He would be pleased with us.
But when we bear in mind, that the omniscient God knows . . . our every secret thought, our every secret desire, our every secret motive, and that He perfectly searches our heart, and knows our thoughts–then we must be sure that our very services are an abomination in His sight!
“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me! They worship Me in vain.” Mark 7:6, 7
J.C. Ryle: In all our Christian duties, whether giving or praying, the great thing to be kept in mind, is that we have a heart-searching and all-knowing God! Everything like mere formal worship, is abominable and worthless in God’s sight. The one thing which His all-seeing eye looks at, is the nature of our motives, and the state of our hearts!
“Serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts!” 1 Chronicles 28:9
1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him.
There are two broad categories of people within Christendom. They are not equally proportioned. One represents the vast majority and the other a remnant, a portion, “the few, as opposed to “the many.” This distressing spirit, spoken of in relation to Saul, is alive and well among the merely religious but who, nonetheless, call themselves after the name of Jesus. They seek the same comfort that Saul sought. And we see unfolding with David and Saul, an ancient battle that has always existed right from the times of Cain and Abel. In the end, one hates the other and determines to destroy the other. For the last 2000 years, the religious have mercilessly hunted down the genuine saint just as Saul hunted down David. David had what Saul did not. It really came down to jealousy.
In the beginning, Saul would get momentary relief when David played upon his harp. Modern day worship gives momentary relief to the merely religious. Its an opiate to them. Remember, the distressing spirit would leave Saul, but his relationship with God still ceased to exist. And then, of course, the distressing spirit would return. Like drunkenness, it lasts for but a short while and when one sobers up, they are distressed once again. The real malady is the malady of the soul. The only true solution is to come to Jesus on His terms. And His terms? Very simple, He requires your whole life. Those who try to save their own lives shall lose them, but those who lose their lives for His sake gain eternal life.
Therefore, feeling good when worshiping is simply temporary if you are not rightly related to Jesus. A pain killer alleviates the pain for a while but the source of the pain remains. It is only when the spirit is truly touched and changed forever that we are relieved of this deep malady of the soul, distress. God has a controversy with those who have not bowed the knee to Jesus and that controversy causes us all kinds of problems. Note that in this Scripture it is God Himself who sends this spirit and it is God alone, through His Son Jesus that can alleviate us from it. Men will try multiple religious acts to circumvent the need to be obedient to God and lay down their lives. Bonar writes……………..
“Men try rites, sacraments, pictures, music, apparel and the varied attractions of ecclesiastical ornament, but these leave the spirit unfilled, and its wounds unhealed. They cannot regenerate, enliven, heal or fill with the Holy Spirit. They may keep up the self satisfaction and delusion of the soul, but that is all. They bring no true peace, nor give rest to the weary, they do not fill they merely hide our emptiness.” Every Sunday in churches throughout the land and across the world there are a myriad of programs and liturgies and music that merely hide the emptiness of those who sit in pews, unchanged week after week.
What would have saved Saul? Obedience to the Word of God. We are called to obey the Lord our God with our whole hearts, holding nothing back. And the evidence of the reality of our genuine obedient relationship with Jesus is a changed life. You can raise your hands in worship every Sunday but without this changed life it is a futile as the worship of Saul. Saul was not worshiping God, for true worshipers obey God and are changed, no Saul was seeking momentary relief from his inner anguish. He just wanted to feel better. We may look upon the raised hands of a crowd and imagine that it denotes something, but the “Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7)
The more I study church history the more I see a recurring problem in every age. There is a cycle of revolution that returns us to the old paths and then within a generation or less, that which revolted against the traditions of men return to what they had left behind. The second generation worships the works of their fathers and fall into traditionalism. Even as early as 85ad we had Diotrephes, arguably the first senior pastor, building his own kingdom and rejecting the preeminence of Jesus. Now, there is no doubt that he would never have said that out loud or ever actually acknowledged that to himself, but John calls him on it.
And less than 10 years later comes the book of Revelation with its dire warning to the “churches.” So, this usurping of the preeminence of Jesus in our services or order of service or liturgy or call it what you like lies at the heart of the downfall of Christendom ( not the Church, rather the system of the churches) in the west and beyond. Add the clergy/laity system and the downfall was always inevitable even if not overt.
The solution is the same as it has always been over the last 2000 years, getting back to the Word and rejecting everything that is not found within the Word. For me, it starts with 1 Cor 12 and 14. If we strove for anything that looks like that, we would be on our way to recovery/revival/reformation/revolution, call it what you may, but in it’s essence it would simply be a return to our roots and our foundation, the Lord Jesus Himself and Him high and lifted up.
And unless we stay there, within the confines of the Word of God, the coming movement would barely last a generation. Where are the men and woman who will stand and challenge those within the church systems? In the Hebridean revival the leaders asked of themselves “are my hands clean, is my heart pure?” They looked first to themselves. What does it even mean now to your average church to desire to not lift up their souls unto vanity? Rather, to desire to ascend that hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place?
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:(Isa 44:3) What if we are so blind to our state that we cannot see the dry ground nor sense our state? Ask the average non denomination senior pastor how “his church,” is doing and almost to a man he will say “we are doing great.” Can the man who refuses to acknowledge his sickness be made whole? How can the Holy Spirit be poured out upon his seed and his offspring be blessed?
And since the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been almost entirely done away with in every church service, how will they be called back from their sin? Even although the prophets have been banished and usurped by “senior pastors,” who perhaps follow in the traditions of Diotrephes, they still have the Word of God. The first few chapters of Revelation still cry out to the churches. The warnings are still the same. And so in the end they shall be without excuse, for the Word never changes. So, if the Lord tarries, God bless the next generation of those who rebel against the traditions of their fathers which nullify the word of God, but beware when you stand, stay tightly within the confines of the Word or you shall fall in your second generation.
The Spirit of glory and of God rests upon those who suffer for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. That suffering may take many forms. Fiery trials, tribulations and infirmities. Yet one thing is for sure, it is not common in Christendom. It is certainly unknown to the world. I have personally met a number of saints whom I would say the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon them. And it is those who suffer and are yet joyful. It is those who are in the throes of infirmities and yet they are the ones who minister to you. It is quite a glorious thing to behold. And as always, the glory of God, His manifest presence changes people. I would argue all genuine saints have encountered God in a manifest way. It may only have been a moment, or moments. It might just have been a glimpse, or glimpses. Yet note what 1 Peter 4:14 says, it says it rest upon those who suffer for His name sake. That word “rest,” means to remain. It settles down upon their hearts and spirits and they walk in the glory of God. They are truly the anointed ones in that sense. Quite rare I imagine.
Now consider the days into which we are headed. A day when the world turns against us wholesale. A day where God’s remnant saints are persecuted and suffer for His sake on a worldwide scale. A day when we boast in our infirmities. Where we boast in the things that we have lost for His sake and count it all as rubbish because we are “found in Him.” Imagine the light from millions saints shining in the gross darkness of a world nearing its end. Imagine the power that will rest upon us that emanates from the glory that simply remains upon us. Think about the power of love that flowed from Stephen even as he was being stoned. We know he was a man “full of the Holy Spirit,” but we do not really know what “full of the Holy Spirit,” meant in the context of the very early church where power abounded. We do know that Stephen was emulating and manifesting the power of Christ from the cross who could cry out “Father forgive them.”
Religion will be horrified at the light that comes from the true and genuine saint for it will highlight the darkness that they actually dwell in. This can only complete the separation of that which is genuine and that which is not. Darkness consumes its own, it swallows it whole. Light also consumes light and we who walk in the light as He is in the light will have fellowship one with another. There shall be no greater fellowship that that of the saints of the last days. Through the fires of affliction and persecution and a refusal to bow the knee to the gods of this world the Spirit of glory will rest upon us. Christ with us in the flames. He will never be sensed as close as He will be in the times when we suffer for His name sake. His grace is all sufficient for these times and His strength is made perfect in our weakness. And Paul uses the exact same phrase to talk about the exact same thing as Peter does in 1 Pet 1:14. Paul says “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Brothers and sisters, we have nothing to fear from the trying times to come. Those who have never actually experienced the manifest presence of God cannot possibly understand what Peter or Paul is talking about. The notion of suffering, period, is actively prayed against by much of Christendom. Weakness, as the Scriptures count weakness, is despised in many so called Christian circles. And yet the Lord says His strength is made perfect in out weakness. I would put it to you brothers and sisters, if His glory is out highest ambition, then His glory shall rest upon us in the days of our sufferings. If it is our daily habit to take up our cross, then when the day comes to suffer greatly for His sake, then we shall be well prepared. Oil in your vessel comes little by little, piece by piece, step by step. This is how we prepare for the times which are soon to come upon us.
Religion knows nothing of this. The little oil in their lamps will soon burn out when the gross extended darkness comes. Can you not sense that darkness even now lapping around us like a mighty incoming tide that cannot be stopped? Those who walk in the light, those who suffer for His sake gladly, those who take up their crosses daily, those who boast in their infirmities, those whose chief end is to glorify God, it is those who will stand in that evil day. This is how we prepare. It will not be a last minute thing but rather it will flow from the natures and character that has been formed as we walked down the narrow path. In that day when the Lord appears and the virgins are called to trim their lamps, only those who have filled their vessels in their daily walk with Jesus, season after season. In season and out of season. In good times and in bad. It plenty and in want. In sickness and in health. In having much or suffering much loss. Only these will go into the marriage feast of the Lamb.
One last thing brothers and sisters. Let us suppose that we are not that generation that sees Christ return. Let us suppose He tarries yet. The same principles above apply to our individual lives. If we are not a people who die to ourselves daily, if we are not in the habit of taking up our crosses or giving glory to God and counting it all honor to suffer for His sake, then our end days will not be good. The flesh needs to know who is boss or the flesh will not treat you well in your old age. If we live into our older years then we should be beautiful representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ here on earth. If not, then all the worse elements of the flesh will come forward and get even worse. Bitterness and ungratefulness, unhappiness. I have seen both examples. One, a life well lived in the Lord continues in the beauty of holiness, the other a life lived as unto themselves and degenerates. Let us consider our ways and how we would like to end the race. Let us, with all of our hearts, desire to finish the race strong that we might hear the most beautiful of words “well done good and faithful servant.”
Let me go out on a limb a little bit and prophesy. I see the time coming when all the holy men whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit will desert worldly evangelicalism, one by one. The house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God, a man to whom the Holy Spirit dwells, left among them (A.W.Tozer, The dangers of a shallow faith.)
This prophecy was made over 60 years ago. He goes on to say…. “as the church stands now, the man who sees this condition of worldly evangelicalism is written off as being somewhat fanatical. But the day is coming when the house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God left among them. I would like to live long enough to watch this develop and see how things turn out. I would like to live to see the time when the men and women of God-holy, separated and spiritually enlightened-walk out of the evangelical church and form a group of their own, when they get off the sinking ship and let her go down in the brackish waters of worldliness and form a new ark to ride out the storm.”
Can I say, for the most part, what passes for the church now, has sunk beneath the brackish waves or worldliness to which Tozer prophesied. What passes for church now would be entirely unrecognizable to the men and women of God who are now the arms of the Lord. Has the prophecy come to pass as of now? No. Evangelicalism has certainly sunk beneath the waves, but those who have come out of her have not found their place yet. The time will come. Persecution on a scale never seen before will draw us together as we have never been before. It took persecution to scatter the saints in Jerusalem so that they would go out and fulfill the commands of the Lord. It will take the great tribulation to bring us back together.
We will stand before an angry world, most likely led by the sunken Evangelical and religious movements, and not be moved. They will see how a saint stands in the midst of the fire with Jesus by their side. They will see a purified bride, having been stripped of everything this world has to offer, yet covered by the glory of the risen Lord. They will see a people like Job who will fall to their knees and cry out to God in worship “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” In short, they will see the glory of God cover the earth as the brackish waters cover the sea. The worldly church, the world and everything religious in it sinks into these foul waters. The Body of Christ rises up in the pure and undefiled waters that flow from heavens throne and it is crystal clear and will stand in complete contrast to the defiled waters of this world.
On my recent vacation to the lake, I met a young man in his early 30s. He was sitting beside a communal fire where one could make s’mores, that great American favorite. As I sat down beside the fire I introduced myself and we began to talk. It turns out I was talking to a theologian. He had two masters degrees in divinity and theology and was in the process of getting his doctorate. He was also an ordained elder of his local Presbyterian church. His day job was computer programming. And so our discussion began.
The Lord laid it upon my heart to speak about John chapter three and the love of God for the world that motivated Him to send His only Son to die for the whosoever and the necessity of being born again. I really could not have guessed at his reaction. He spent most of the rest of our conversation trying to prove that God hates, and quoted psalm 5. He agreed with me that the Scriptures are not broken but insisted that God hates sinners. Hard as I tried, I could not persuade him otherwise, and talk about the Old Covenant and the New yielded no fruit. So I tried another tactic. I asked him if he could tell me about his own new birth, about him being born again.
He told me that when he was 16 or 17, he was asked what salvation meant by some of his high school friends. Despite growing up in the Presbyterian, he was ashamed to admit that he did not know. So, he went and educated himself as to what the Bible says about salvation. That was it, that was his “salvation.” Education, knowledge of facts. A mental assent to a series of abstract truths. Now we know that the Devil himself knows and gives assent to Biblical truth, and trembles. Oh that men would tremble at the truth of God. Here is what Tozer says about truth. “Divine truth is of the nature of spirit and for that reason can only be received by spiritual revelation….Gods thoughts belong to the world of spirit, man’s to the world of intellect. And while spirit can embrace intellect, the human intellect can never comprehend spirit.”
Everything this young man had was in his head. It was all human knowledge. His reason and his intellect caused him to know about God, but not “know,’ Him. Therefore he had an inability to talk about God the Father or Jesus or the Holy Spirit in any intimate way whatsoever. The intellect is not how we “know,’ Jesus. It is by the work of the spirit and of revelation. Yet for centuries Christendom has been dominated by “theologians.” And the interesting thing about theologians is that they are wall builders and historically people burners. Of all of the hundreds of thousands of martyrs in the last two thousand years, no one was every martyred by a “layman.” Every denomination has its own theologians and each of them build walls of theology, bulwarks if you like, against others of differing views on the same Scriptures. Their weapons are proof texting and they are not afraid to use them.
As an old stonemason, its ironic that I would echo Kennedy in saying “tear down that wall.” We are spiritually led. The Holy Spirit leads and guides us into all truth. Does He use teachers? Yes, he often does use them, but He uses those whom He trains and raises up. How the educated class marveled at the unlearned men such as Peter and other fishermen. Where did their knowledge come from? Did Jesus not open up the Scriptures to the disciples on the road to Emmaus? Did not their hearts burn within them? These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.(1Jn 2:26-27)
Builders of walls, builders of kingdoms, builders of denominations, builders of fires. We have not been called to build walls or kingdoms or fires brothers and sisters. What we learn from the Holy Scriptures by and through the Holy Spirit and teachers He raises up, is not what a theologian would call “hermeneutics,” which is to say the art and the science of studying the Scriptures based on human reasoning. What the Holy Spirit teaches is neither art nor science. “Man cannot know God, he can only know about God………..Man’s reason is a fine instrument and useful within its field. It was not given as an organ by which to know God.” (A.W.Tozer) And so I think it was no mistake that I met this young man around a fire. I have no doubt in my mind that if we had met 500 years ago, it would also be around a fire and he would have given his consent for me to be burned as a heretic. Take this to the bank brothers and sisters, no genuine born again Christian down through the corridors of time, ever burned another human being to death, let alone someone who called himself after the Lord’s name.
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?
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.
Events in the history of the churches in the time of the apostles have been selected and recorded in the Book of the Acts in such a way as to provide a permanent pattern for the churches. Departures from the pattern has had disastrous consequences, and all revival and restoration have been due to some return to the pattern and principles of Scripture (The Pilgrim Church ,E.H.Broadbent)
A permanent pattern for the Church, set down in the Word of God, found in Acts and Corinthians in quite some detail, yet almost universally ignored down through the ages. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church ( Act 20:17) Now the word “elders,” and “presbyters,” and “overseers,” and “bishops,” all refer to the same men. It is Ignatius who starts the deviation. He as born around the year the Lord ascended into heaven. He died in 107ad. In less than 70 years we see the true birth of the clergy/laity divide, the great disaster as I call it. Now its roots had already begun to grow and around 85ad we see Diotrephes being described as “loving the preeminence.” It’s just like men to desperately want a hierarchical system and then climb the ladder to the top.
John, who excoriates Diotrephes In 3rd John, just a few years later writes Revelation. And of course the beginning chapters start out with grievious warnings from Jesus Himself to most of the churches in Asia. His first warning was that outside of repentance He would “remove your lamp-stand.” A lamp-stand holds the light. If it is removed then comes the darkness. Nothing grows in the darkness. There was various threats made against the churches by Jesus and God does not make idol threats. To the corrupted church at Thyatira Jesus says to her that if she did not repent of her sexual immorality that He would “cast her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill their children with death and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts.”
Lets face it brothers and sisters there are very few who can handle this Jesus. The Jesus who can strip away the lamp-stands of churches and leave nothing but the bare bones of religion. Without the light of Christ one is left only with a vain philosophy. Yet ambitious men can stand upon the bare bones of religion and elevate themselves above the others. While Jesus has no pleasure in institutions and denominations, men love them and men love numbers, they must have more. The more numbers, the more buildings, the more services the more one can boast in “their work.” In fact before the second century is out we come to another major deviation, infant baptism. What a great way to add to your numbers. No longer a believers baptism but an initiation ceremony that guarantees full and ever expanding buildings.
It all begins with men loving the preeminence. The desire to have authority over others. A self elevated position among the group. No longer would it be possible to invite men like John to “your,’ church, he would take the limelight away from the “clergy.” No longer would it be possible to worship in a 1 Cor 14 fashion where a plurality of peoples would be able to speak and share, this would take the limelight away from the ones who loved the preeminence. And so that old ancient curse that began with multiple churches refusing to repent even when Jesus Himself called them to it, still exists today and for the same reasons. How could these men repent of their un-biblical clery/laity divide? Admit they are wrong and always have been? They know it would end their “career,” their authority,” their standing in their community. They know they would just have to take their place with all the other brothers and sisters.
And so brothers and sisters, if there is to be a revolution among the Body of Christ the first thing to fall must be the clergy/laity divide. Only then could there truly be a return to the “old paths,’ to the Word of God and the pattern laid down. For clergy rely upon being clergy for their identity. It is who they are. They are keepers of the status quo and could never allow a 1 Cor 14 model to develop in their midst, because in a relatively short order, when order is reestablished and the Church leaders are but “elders,” and “presbyters,’ and “overseers,” then none are elevated above the other. If you have the courage, and it will take courage because of the negative reaction that will come against you, next Sunday, ask your “senior pastor,” ( a made up name) to justify to you from the Word, the clergy/laity divide. If he deems to answer your question, it should be very interesting. Please share any replies here for the saints to read.
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?
1Sa 8:1 And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel………………….And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.
Is it not an incredible thing that Samuel’s sons turned out to be corrupt? After everything Samuel saw in the family of Eli he now faces much the same issues. It seems that while his sons were under his influence and had no official capacity, they did well. Yet as soon as they get out from under the influence of Samuel and are given positions, their true nature comes forth. The second generation of anyone is never guaranteed. We are told that around 80% of young adults “lose,” their faith when they go to college. Yet, it seems clear that when these young people move away from their parents Godly influence their true nature comes forth. They are corrupted by a world they are drawn to, whatever their vice is. Bonhoeffer tells us in his book “The Cost of Discipleship,” that just one generation removed from the founders of the Lutheran church, cheap grace had taken hold.
Now, rather than dramatic conversions, there was mental assents to abstract truths. If their children could tick boxes one through seven and say yes to these truths, then they were counted as saved. The fire was gone, the glory had departed so to speak. The world had invaded and the “ark,” was captured. Ichabod was on the move. The second generation is often a pale imitation of the first. They are given positions as gatekeepers of the status quo by their parents and the main objective becomes keeping their positions. They create sacraments and traditions that are self-serving. These sacraments and traditions become the pillars that hold aloft the very structures of their denominations and organizations. Men who come along and challenge the status quo and speak the truth become enemies because the truth threatens to tear down the very pillars that hold it all together.
The only solution to all of this is the new birth. The genuine conversion of men and woman. Men and women who actually encounter God and are captivated by the truth that they find in the Scriptures. That truth burns in their veins like molten lava. It courses through every part of them and they are simply compelled to speak the truth no matter the cost. And the cost, for much of the last 2000 years, has been death through martyrdom. Has been rejection by their peers. They have been shunned and ridiculed and scorned by those who have but a mental assent to the truth. Why did Saul hate David so much even although David loved him very much? Jealousy. Jealous of the relationship David had with God. Some things never change. The heart of the merely religious man is fundamentally jealous of the heart of the man who is intimate with God. And just like the flesh wars against the spirit, then the once born man wars and rages against the twice born man. There can be no other way as there is enmity between the two.
A Call To The Remnant 