Greetings,
"And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? And he said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" Acts 9:4 - 6
For over a month, the church services physically gathering together have largely stopped. The world wide virus has restricted gatherings by the church in person and most have converted to live streams and the internet. And for this past month, it has presented the church that which it needed most, 'Be still, and know that I am God.' It was the opportunity to hear from God and understand what was going on, and why this was happening. It was for the church and especially its leadership to understand that the way church, largely in North America, had been doing church was not pleasing to the Lord. Not pleasing to Him because we had largely departed from the Scriptures and the ways of God, He had taught us in the Scriptures. It was a stoppage by God, for His church to correct itself. And now for many, at the beginning of May, they are set to slowly resume church gatherings.
Many have not sought answers to the questions above. Many have not heard the voice of the Lord, 'it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.' And fewer have heard Him, and responded as Paul, 'and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" It is not a time to simply resume. The Lord hated what church has become and what we were doing. And our failure to correct now, will only invite a worse judgement on the church and on the nation. Our way of Christianity in America is built upon two things God hates: 1. humanism; 2. pragmatism.
The sin of humanism - we converted the phrase of " I can do all things through Christ Jesus" to "I can do all things". With all our ingenuity and plans; Or as I call it, the 3 "M's" - 'methods, means and madness; we have assumed we can do church. And somewhere with all these plans, and services, and ministries, we have forgotten the New Testament message, 'apart from Me, you can do nothing.' Oh, how we need the Lord to come again and rule in power and Presence. This is the reason that I plead with you, I beg of you, DO NOT GO BACK TO CHURCH, AS WE LEFT IT!
The sin of pragmatism - humanism evolved this concept, that it became about vanity; it became about success. Numbers, stats, became a driving force for 'anointed' ones and methods. If it was successful in getting the numbers up, then surely God must be blessing it, was their frame of thinking. Not caring if it was of God, or consistent with His Word; and only caring for the sake of self, and stats is a root sin of pride and vanity. Methods and means are not determined by successful numbers, but by Spirit filled believers. Pragmatism is driving our churches and denomination rather than 'are we pleasing to You, O Lord'.
There are biblical issues within the pulpits and the churches today that need to be corrected. We need to go back and find the God we lost in our fast pace of stats, numbers, and promotion. We need God to do church and ministry. We need God to remove from us the ways we have incorporated in the sanctuaries and replace them with Him alone. A biblical message; a simpler worship format; and a humble approach to God.
Biblical Message - the message of the church is no longer 'thus saith the Lord'; it is now, 'thus saith the Lord. . .and here is what I think. . . " We just need God's Word. This word from the Lord is to address the abominations of our land. This word is to address the spiritual disciplines of the body. This word is to address the saving of souls. Our invitations and calls for men to 'accept Christ' have so far departed from the Scriptures, that you can longer discern what men are being saved TO, and what men are being saved FROM. SAVED TO Christ Jesus with all our hearts, minds, souls and body; SAVED FROM sin of self, world and Satan. Oh, brethren, give much place to "know the Word of God, and know the God of the Word."
Worship Format - worship has been turned into the primary focus of services; It has escalated to the entertainment of the people, rather than the worship of God. The lines are blurred with music, genres, styles that put more focus on entertainment, cause the people to be at ease, rather than draw us before the throne of God. We sing about Him, but rarely do we sing to Him. Worship is about God and God alone. It is done through thanksgiving, blessing Him, honoring Him, glorifying Him and adoring Him. This should be done through the Word, through song and through prayer. the increase of entertainment time, makes it about the performers and about the congregation to be entertained in ease. This is humanism; for it is designed to satisfy and please self, rather than to please God. Worship format must be simplified to return to God.
Humble - How often over this last month have I heard II Chronicles 7:14. And most of which, has come from spiritual leaders and prayer leaders seeking for God to do what He promised to do in that verse - hear, forgive and heal. All the while quoting the verses, the focus is on God's response, and not our response. Our response is humble, prayer, seek and turn from our wicked ways. In the midst of a nation and a church attitude, we are too proud. We have not been humbled in this month. We are still defiant, 'we' is pronounced and spoken. Rather than, 'without You, O God, we can do nothing." there must be a humbling of our minds and hearts before Him. There must be a desperate need for God, like never before.
And what comes next. . .
If we return to church and worship and preaching, like we left it and have not heard His rebuke, then this stoppage of time for the world, our nation and the church will have been all for nought. God does not do things for no purpose, it is always for His glory. Its not about us, its about Him. And He has spoken, He has withdrawn Himself for years from us. It is evident and as real as we can get. The evidence is in our last 20 years, the first 20 of this new century. Look at it and consider:
--evil has multiplied and increased 4x;
--good is called evil; and evil is called good;
--God's remedial judgements have increased to EPIDEMICS;
--death has filled our land;
--prayer meetings and prayer has largely been diminished; God's house is not a house of prayer.
--baptisms decreasing;
--holiness is not a priority among the body of Christ, happiness is;
And my greatest lamenting over this; it happened on my watch! on your watch brethren! OH, we will have much to answer for. How I plead with you to give time and place to God.
If these are not signs of our times and our 'kicking against the pricks', I don't know what is. I implore do not go back to church the way we left it!
SUGGESTED RESPONSES IN OUR RETURN TO CHURCH:
1. Humble - knees bowed, if not prostrate on the church floors of thank God for allowing us to return; thankful and humble before Him, that He has not consumed us; that He has not removed our candlestick; that He has extended grace and mercy to we, who are so unworthy of either;
2. Prayer - to restore prayer as a major priority; to make the house of God, a house of prayer; to increase our secret closet times; to increase our corporate times; Remember, the stat of our over 45,000 churches -- 85% of churches did not have 1 hour of corporate prayer during a months time; only 15 % prayed corporately at least 1 time per month; This has to change!
3. Preach the Word - if there was ever a time, now is the time to preach the Word; it is an out of season, but it is still time to preach 'thus saith the Lord'; Tell people the truth of our situation and Who God is and what God has done and what God is going to do! And if you don't know; then sit down until you do know the Word of God!
4. Finish the Task - within out life time, we must finish the task of reaching the world; If any thing this plague has shown us, it is that we are at the end of times. souls are perishing and with all our talents, money, technology and resources of people, there is no reason why we have not reached the world. One goal - if there is estimated to be 7.8 billion on the planet; and 1 billion are under the age of accountability, children; and 1 billion are Christians, that means every person in Christ must tell 5 people about Christ and eternity. That does not seem like a lot. But all 1 billion must do it, that is the catch.
All of this is absolute dependent on one thing, 'ye must be endued with power from on High'. 'Be filled with the Holy Ghost'; it is absolutely dependent on it being the work of the Holy Spirit and not of us. May we keep our hands and fingers off the things of God. Don't touch the ark! Holy Ghost, come do, what only You can do and God be glorified to the ends of the earth. Blessed be the Name above all Names, the Names of Jesus.
Coming up. . .
There are 3 events within the first week of May:
1. May 1 - was a prayer initiative to have a World Day of Prayer for 1 billion souls to be reached;
2. May 5 - Prayer on the Mountain in NC; over 100,000 signed up to pray and fast for spiritual awakening;
3. May 7 - National Day of Prayer - hosts of gatherings and opportunities;
And this, coming off our last weekend of 'A Call for a Solemn Assembly' should put us before the Lord in urgency and desperation. If we do not see a major rekindling of fire from above in the month of May; then know 'its because we are still kicking against the pricks'. We are returning to church without fixing whats wrong. Take heed, brethren. I fear for what may come next if we 'are disobedient to the heavenly calling.'
Until,
Dan
Started: May 2, 2020
Continued:
Finished:
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