Here is a my response/comment to a post today. I feel so strongly that God is speaking this. No...let me rephrase that...I am SURE that God is speaking this. How you read this will determine your willingness to accept what God is speaking: it can be read with SKEPTICISM or it can be read with CONVICTION and DISCERNMENT...allowing God to begin a REVIVAL in each of us...a REVIVAL which begins with REPENTANCE and OBEDIENCE to God...and a REVIVAL that could TRANSFORM our lives and our churches and our communities and even our Nation and World. It is up to US...it is NOT up to God! God WILL do HIS PART...He is simply waiting on US to do OUR PART.
This is just my personal take on this...based on what God is speaking to me: The Church has gotten so involved in pleasing people...based on what the people want to hear...that we have truly entered the time that Jesus spoke about...a time where people "will not endure sound doctrine." The Church no longer seems to want to hear about our sinfulness...our need of God...the need for repentance...the need for obedience to God in our lives. We have become complacent and somehow we believe we are to ATTRACT people to Church. God is telling me that as we seek to ATTRACT people...we are REJECTING and REPULSING Him. I was driving the other day and my fiancé and I saw a brand new church. It had just recently been built...it was not large...it was simple yet a very attractive structure. But as I looked to the right of the building...there I saw softball fields and soccer fields...all expertly manicured and kept so very nice. It was all part of the church's property. I immediately felt a STRONG impression (voice) from the Lord, saying "When did I ever speak to the Church to get into the softball and soccer business? The Church has become SO FOCUSED on keeping the people happy and entertained and LOYAL to them that they have left their primary purpose: to focus on and to worship ME." I immediately told my fiancé what I felt God was speaking. I was DEEPLY troubled…as I have been for SEVERAL years…but especially over the last 2 to 3 years. God continues to speak to me that we have fallen SO FAR from His desires and purpose in the Church. Yet…the Church is CONTENT in its present state…believing that CROWDS equate to God’s blessing on the Church. Yet…the Bible fully describes that CROWDS will gather around teaching and teachers who will say what they want to hear. And…nobody seems interested in EVALUATING their own ministry and their own church by GOD’S standards…they simply view a large crowd as the sign that they are doing things right and that they are obeying God and that they are preaching truth. There is no HOLY DISCONTENT with the status quo. Instead, happiness and busy-ness reigns. I think back to when I was young…and when ALL statistics show that the Church was at a point of some of its greatest successes. We had no gym. We had no softball and soccer fields. We had NO CONCEPT that the CHURCH was supposed to provide for us our ENTERTAINMENT in ANY area. Church was where we came to hear what God had to say to the people of God…and, even as a teen, with the same fluctuations that every teen seems to possess spiritually…I recognized the importance of distinguishing between ENTERTAINMENT and HEARING FROM GOD and WORSHIPING GOD. Church and the service was a VERY SERIOUS matter. It did not matter WHAT was going on with the youth…whether we were listening to the sermon or not…but when we KNEW God was speaking, we shut up and felt the HOLY PRESENCE of God…and a HOLY HUSH filled the room. You could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit…and the CONVICTION that was taking place. How small I felt in the Presence of God! How SINFUL I felt in His Presence! How UNWORTHY I felt before such a MIGHTY, HOLY, RIGHTEOUS, JUST, AND ALL POWERFUL GOD! Yet…today…I SELDOM, if EVER…see that occurring in MOST churches today! Instead…I see…and feel God noting in my spirit…that the Church wants to be MOTIVATED instead of MADE NEW…CHARMED instead of CHANGED…PAMPERED without God’s PRESENCE. You see…the TRUE Presence of God is AWE INSPIRING and THE MOST HUMBLING POWER ON EARTH! In Scripture…every person who faced ALMIGHTY GOD was brought down…with His Presence being SO OVERWHELMING and SO HOLY that those who experienced it fell before Him! When God’s glory filled the Temple…look what happened: the Bible says that it was SO OVERWHELMING that the priests could not even stand to minister! The Church has been told for so long that it is “the head and not the tail”…that God wants us “victorious”…that God wants us “financially wealthy”…that God’s focus in on our “blessing”…that we have forgotten to EXAMINE OURSELVES and we fail to realize just how GREAT God is and just how LITTLE and SINFUL and UNWORTHY and DEPENDENT we are on Him! We have become SELF-EXALTED by the MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKING of ministers who seek to “make us feel good about ourselves”…but we have become SO FOND of ourselves that we have exalted US and relegated God to our ALMIGHTY helper and supplier! Today, most in the Church serve God for what they can GET from Him…NOT for Who God is! God has become our TICKET to wealth and health and happiness…and He has ceased to be the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Lamb of God, the God Who will one day JUDGE all that has been said and done here on earth! We want God as the God of LOVE…but we reject Him as the God that we must OBEY and SERVE…and we reject Him as the God we must BOW BEFORE! We do NOT want to HUMBLE ourselves in any form or fashion…we want to be EXALTED and LIFTED UP and PRAISED and DEIFIED in many cases! We make GODS out of ministers who “build” a large church…falsely assuming that they did so by FOLLOWING GOD! We ignore the truth of God’s Word when He tells us that the CROWDS will follow those who say what they want to hear…a sign of the last days! Again…no minister or church seems willing to EXAMINE itself to see WHICH spirit it was that helped them grow! They ASSUME it was God…and that GROWTH is the sign of God in their ministry. Again…they are CONTENT with what THEY have built…never realizing that God’s Word shows TWO HOUSES being built…IDENTICAL in outward appearance, I always picture…yet ONE house was built on the ROCK…and the other was built on the SAND! And…WHEN the storms came…the foundation of each house was REVEALED. But…keep in mind…this parable was not just speaking of the Church…it was speaking of INDIVIDUALS who helped build each house. And…WHEN the storms come…those who built their HOUSE on the false beliefs and false teachings of false gospels will find that they do not have the FOUNDATION to endure the storm…and they will FALL in DESTRUCTION. Notice this SERIOUS distinction in this passage…as those who THOUGHT their house was built on the ROCK find out that they put their FAITH in a FALSE GOSPEL: they thought they were doing the work of the Lord…yet Jesus tells them otherwise:
Matthew 7:22-27
“Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."
We NEED a HOLY DISCONTENT with our present status! We need REVIVAL…but that is NOT a good thing! As I wrote recently, the need for REVIVAL recognizes that we are NOT in the proper relationship with God. We have FALLEN! You only REVIVE something that is UNCONSCIOUS or NEAR DEATH or even DEAD! God CAN bring the DEAD back to life…but it is up to US to do this:
2 Chronicles 7:14
“…if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
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