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I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, and a I'm a stickler for taking the Bible seriously and soberly. In recent years I've been drinking and pouring over God's Word. The more I read the Bible, and the more I drink it and meditate on it, I find myself out of sync with what many visible churches are doing. The more I get into sync with the Word of God, the more I fall out of sync with the visible churches. It is distressing to find so very few brothers and sisters, in Christ, who are willing to ignore long standing traditions, in order to obey what the Bible simply and plainly directs Christ's followers to do.
"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" [Amos 3:3] Of course the answer to that question is, "It's hard to walk closely with Brothers and Sisters in Christ who ignore important Bible directives."
I'm out of sync with the current evangelical movement. I'm out of sync with them because most of their churches bar the Holy Spirit from fully controlling. What I see as the "move of the Holy Spirit" they see as fanaticism. I believe the church is to operate like the church at Antioch. [See Acts Chapter 13:1-4] Notice the church in Antioch did not function in a committee format or a democratic format. Nor did that church have some kind of charismatic pastor whose slightest wish was their command. The church at Antioch functioned in a prayer format, waiting for the Holy Spirit to give direction. And we see that the Holy Spirit responded, deploying the world's first missionaries. Never before had the saints gone on such highly developed journeys of evangelism until the Holy Spirit directed that church to set missions in motion. This form of governance is a God-breathed system that is seldom fully allowed today. The Holy Spirit is the only ONE truly authorized by Heaven to be the idea person in the Body of Christ.
I'm out of sync with Christian Television, Christian radio, Christian magazines and Christian publishing. The Christian media has become the guiding light for many U.S.A. Christians. In fact I would go so far as to say that Christian media has to some degree supplanted the Bible, prayer and the Holy Spirit in the lives of some believers. Believers have tuned into Christian media for their daily feeding. The Christian media certainly uses the Word of God. But the Bible takes a back seat, as writers, speakers and authors pour out their own opinions. I believe the Word of God does not need to be processed and re-heated by men. I believe the Holy Spirit and the Bible are sufficient together to feed the believer. I believe the process has been improperly inverted in today's church. Instead of the Word of God being the main dish it has become the condiment, while the opinions of preachers, teachers and thinkers have become the main dishes to be consumed by the hungering people of God.
"...man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live." [Deuteronomy 8:3] Notice that the Bible doesn't say we live from words that come from men's mouths, but from words that come from God's mouth. We need more of the Word of God and less of men's opinions.
I'm out of sync with the Bible becoming a money-making commercial product. It breaks my heart that the New International Version of the Bible, because it turned out to be "popular," is now owned by a huge, secular, international, media syndicate. I agree more with the American Bible Society (ABS) who, at least in the past, sold Bibles at cost, so they wouldn't go into debt. For $3.00 one used to be able to buy a fairly well bound hard-cover Bible from the ABS. Today you can obtain a soft-cover Bible from ABS for something close to $4.00. I suppose costs have gone up.
I'm out of sync with the Christian music "industry." I don't believe Christian music ministry, or any ministry for that matter, should be a product of commerce. Christian music has become a multi-million dollar business. Jesus didn't merchandise HIS message! Jesus was angered when the "good old boys" of religion allowed the money changer business to reap profits in the holy precincts of God's temple. Jesus tells me in my Bible, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: FREELY ye have received, FREELY give." [Matthew 10:8]
Christianity is all about saving people, loving people and giving to people. It is not about fleecing the sheep. It is not about financial gain. Saint Paul was so sensitive about this that at times he made tents on the side in order to pay his way, rather than to take from those he preached to. He was always thankful for an offering. But he didn't like to demand a gratuity, as some ministries do. It bothers me that music authors eagerly collect royalties on the music that they say Jesus gave them. They are quick to remind us that the music is their property and we must pay them to use it. I think maybe that since they are selling their "Christian" message that I need to turn away from their little music store and go find some music in the public domain to sing for the Lord. I don't mind them copyrighting their music, but I do mind them making me buy a license to use their music in a worship service. In order to be legal all local churches who project the latest worship songs for their congregations must buy a license from Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI). In order to make a tape recording of their service that includes the worship songs a church must buy more license privileges from CCLI. This is not the Christianity the Bible portrays. If God ever gives me a worship song I'm going to give it away to the Body of Christ. I'm not going to capitalize on what God gave me.
I'm out of sync with the teaching that spectacular, high-tech worship will attract the presence of God. The Bible actually teaches us to be wise about sacred music because as in King Saul's case David's sacred harp music soothed the King, but did not draw him to God. Sacred music can at times make a sinner feel like a saint, fooling them about their true condition. We need to remember that music has a power all of it's own. And that music can move the emotions and create a spiritual mirage.
Sacred music can be and often is very divisive because there are so many varieties and styles of sacred music. There's the Ralph Carmichael orchestral and symphonic style from Southern California. There's high church classical. There's Country Western Christian, Black Soul Christian, Praise and Worship of the 80s, and then of the 90s, the Bill Gaither styles, which are a sub part of Southern Gospel Christian. There's Blue Grass Christian and Contemporary Christian music. To make things more complicated we find that Contemporary Christian music has various sub-formats within it like rap, rock, pop, and hip-hop.
I've noticed that many believers tend to enjoy only one or two types of sacred music. They are often turned off by, or down right annoyed with other types of sacred music. Jesus used very little music! Only in two instances is it reported in the Word that the disciples sang a hymn, and those are probably referring to the same incident. But today's church believes that it cannot function without mood music.
Jesus had the Holy Spirit to set the mood. But today churches use music and even special effects to set the mood. I was visiting a large Southern California worship service. During worship it seemed that the congregation was beginning to be caught up in the spirit of worship. I thought they were singing with more and more exuberance. But when I listened closely I realized that the sound man was amplifying the congregation and slowly pumping more and more of their voices back at them, to create the feeling of a growing unity in worship. What a terrible trick! That is manipulation which is a form of witchcraft.
Jesus relied upon the "power" member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to bring about the healing atmosphere for the production of the mighty works of God. "...and the power of the Lord was present to heal them." [Luke 5:17b]
I'm out of sync with the teaching that the Holy Spirit is very comfortable and pleased with what is going on in the U.S.A. church. I believe it is the opposite. The Holy Spirit is deeply grieved by the church in the U.S.A. today. The Holy Spirit is generally not allowed to be the governor and the controller of the church. Churches today are mostly run by leaders who are trying to help God out.
I'm out of sync with the popular trend in the churches of putting NOVICES quickly to work in the churches. New converts who show any sign of growth are very quickly promoted into low level positions of limited responsibility. The churches are so desperate for bodies to fill positions that they cannot resist using novices. In fact it is commonly taught in the churches that putting novices quickly into some kind of limited position of ministry helps to grow them, helps to mature them, helps to keep them from losing out.
"Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil." [1st Timothy 3:6]
One of the most unwise things churches are doing today is taking new converts, who have not received the fullness of the Holy Spirit, into drug infested neighborhoods, into bars, into jails and prisons to teach them and disciple them in ministry. This is one of the most spiritually outrageous and spiritually dangerous things that a church can do. Such geographic areas are hot beds of dark forces from the pits of Hell. New converts are easy prey. We don't take children into battle. We don't take anyone into battle without all the armour. Non-Spirit-filled believers are naked babies that some churches are spiritually offering to dark powers. This is wrong, wrong, wrong! When you go onto Satan's turf you NEVER go unless God has specifically commanded you to go through much prayer and intercession. When you do go you only take the most powerful prayed-up, anointed saints, that you've got on hand. You never, ever take novices. Taking novices into hellish pits is totally "off-the-wall" error!
New believers need a lot of time to mature in Christ. No believer should be used in any ministry until they have received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. In the First Century church even the men who were chosen to be table waiters and bus boys had to be Holy Spirit filled overcomers! [See Acts 6:2-3] Can you believe it??!! But it is true. Today believers mature more slowly than at any other time in history, because the churches have lost so much spiritual ground. Nevertheless the churches throw non-Spirit-filled believers into ministry. No wonder spiritual pride is epidemic in the churches today!
I'm very concerned about how church leaders are putting people on the platform to minister in music and other areas whose spiritual lives have not matured or who have not received the fullness of the Holy Ghost. Some churches actually hire secular musicians to augment their music ministry. People who have addictions should never, ever be allowed to be on the platform as part of the worship team. My daughter reports that at a certain church in her town, between worship sets the musicians are seen outside the stage door having a smoke together. A true follower of Jesus Christ knows, when they see this that something is out of wack in that church. Putting people up front who are not exemplary saints draws powers of spiritual darkness into the midst of the worship. Church leadership is way off base when they allow this sort of activity in the fellowship.
I'm out of sync with the KLOVE youth mentality that says, "The new, young believers are so fresh and anointed in their new found faith, that oldsters and mature believers need to follow the lead of these new converts who are in the flower of their first love for Christ."
This "KLOVE Mentality," as I call it, really began long before there were any Christian contemporary radio stations. It began in the late 1940s and early 50s when the churches began to embrace professional youth ministry. Later, what started with youth ministry expanded into specialized ministry nitches for every kind of slight variation of age and/or grouping. It wouldn't be too surprising today to find a paid minister in some church who ministers solely to "computer gamers!" Professional ministry has become so over-done!
The "KLOVE Mentality" tells us that the tried and true saints need to quickly hand off ministry to the next generation. My Bible tells me that if there is one area where on fire, Holy Ghost filled senior citizens ought to lead, it is in the church!! Read the New Testament!
"The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof... Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder..." [1st Peter 5:1,2,5] {May I say that contrary to the erroneous tradition some denominations foster, "elders" are NOT LIMITED TO ORDAINED CLERGY OR PREACHERS! Elders are the spiritually mature saints who have the overflow of the Holy Spirit, exhibit one or more gifts of the Holy Spirit and have been serving God faithfully for several years!}Yes, young saints are used of God...but the older saints are never to retire. Older saints go until they drop! But the modern church too often takes them out of service and sends them on trips, or just leaves them to rot in the Berean Sunday School class of the aged! Many older saints are going cold! They are losing ground spiritually because they are being denied their true callings! They are being told that they are out of God's will when they desire to continue in active, geared up ministry. Their Godly advice is being written off as old fashioned, out-of-date, and out-of-touch, while younger saints lead the church further and further from the direction of the Holy Ghost!
The churches today have lost the great secrets of ministry. The church today has sold out to political correctness instead of standing true. Somehow the Bible is no longer followed closely today.
I'm out of sync with the popular idea that the church of Jesus Christ needs to accommodate and adjust to current culture. I see in my Bible that the church of Jesus Christ lives in the Divine culture of Heaven. My Bible tells me that God is the author of the believer's culture, not the World.
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." [1st John 2:15] "...that...ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." [2nd Peter 1:4b]
Today's visible church members are taking on the attire and the look of secularists and sinners. Many believers are afraid society might mistake them for the Amish or some other odd sect. So they have made sure the world won't mistake them for any religious radical. They get a tattoo. They get a piercing. They wear the latest styles, sometimes even though it may be immodest. They explain that they are identifying with the lost sinners in order to reach the lost sinners. But in reality the lost sinners are reaching Christians. The lost sinners are evangelizing the church. The Christians are becoming converts of the World! The church is becoming imprinted with the leopard spots of the darkness! The world has come into the churches!!
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and TO KEEP himself UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD." [James 1:27]
I have some questions: Why must the culture of Christ bow to the culture of the world?? Why must the world set the trends?? Why can't the church maintain it's own trends?? The Muslims and the Sikhs have few fears wearing their attire as they shop in the Malls of America. But we Christians love the world and we want the culture and the attire of the world. So we make our little excuses in order to have what we love, what we want. The result is that the church looks too much like the darkness of the world today!
I'm out of sync with the "pot luck" church dinner tradition! The Bible tells me that a church campus needs a pantry stocked with food to assist the poor and hungry far more than the church needs a fellowship hall! I remember as a young man in church how rigorously my then denomination kept food out of their sanctuary. When I asked why this was they quoted Scripture to me. They told me how Saint Paul informed the early church to only eat the communion at church and not to eat dinner at church. That was a "no no." So what did the churches do?? They got around this ordinance of God by building another room they called a fellowship hall. Then they told folks that the fellowship hall wasn't the sanctuary and now it was okay to eat and drink in their special fellowship room. But I remember another Scripture from the lips of Jesus. "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." [Matthew 18:20] So church is not a special sanctuary room. Church is when God's people gather to honor him. Can you imagine how insulting it is to feed our faces as the King of Kings stands in the corner of some fellowship hall looking on?? I also remember that the early church had no "church grounds" or church campus. They worshiped in homes and all homes have a kitchen where food can be served. So the command of God spoken through Paul was not about rooms, or locations...it was about "THE CHURCH." When you come together to worship the Lord the only food that should ever be associated with that is Holy Communion Service. Listen to what Paul tells us: "And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation..." [1st Corinthians 11:34a] There are plenty of other venues and organizations where we can gather and eat together. There are civic clubs, schools, community organizations, granges, restaurants. Let's stop calling "feeding my face" fellowship. Go to a restaurant after church and have a meal together. But we need to obey God's Word and dump the pot luck social from our church campus. I remember so many potlucks when the worship service had been a smaller group...but people came out of the woodwork and the fellowship hall was full of eaters. What an insult to the Lord. I remember saying in years gone by to someone, "I guess we should always serve a meal right after church in order to get a good attendance. I remember another Scripture: "Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." [Philippians 3:19] The Church of Jesus Christ needs to awake and forget our belly and look to Jesus to fix our hearts!
I'm out of sync with the long believed tradition that a "latter rain" revival will come just before the tribulation. Jesus did not speak of a great revival near the end of time, but said, "...because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax [grow] cold." My Bible tells me that the next super revival to come will be DURING the Tribulation, when innumerable numbers from every tribe and nation will choose Jesus Christ, entering Heaven as martyrs. It will be a revival and awakening salted with blood and the loosing of many heads.
"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;...And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." [Revelation 7:9,13-14]
History tells us that the Northern Hemisphere had it's great revival between 1750 and 1910. The Southern Hemisphere is currently having it's great revival. Why would God send another massive revival on the Northern Hemisphere when the Southern Hemisphere has had to wait so long and God's clock is so close to hitting mid-night?? The "latter rain" revival is the repentance and salvation of Israel and the showers of blessing that will fall upon this Earth when Jesus Christ rules here, in person, for a thousand years.
"In the light of the king's countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain." [Proverbs 16:15] "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: HIS going forth is prepared as the morning; and HE shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." [Hosea 6:3] "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman [God the "farmer" of the universe] waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain." [James 5:7] God waits for HIS people to mature that he might come. HIS coming brings in the "later rain," the "showers of blessing." Ezekiel 34:26 speaks of the Showers of Blessing coming in that glorious end time when God sets the Jews totally free and peace comes upon the earth. Truly the Later rain is during the 1000 years when Christ is present upon Earth to bless it with showers of HIS blessings.
The Bible is very clear about this. The 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ, HIS coming to earth will bring in a later rain of blessedness where "...the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." [Isaiah 11:9] There can still be spot revivals and local awakenings currently, but the Gospel has now been preached World-wide. Every square inch of the planet is now being blanketed with Christian radio, TV and literature. Missionaries are now coming to the U.S.A. because the U.S.A. has spiritually backslidden so far. In other words the Gospel has circled the globe! It is almost time for the Gentile period of history to end. It is almost time for Israel's clock to begin ticking again. Israel still has a work to finish.
I'm way out of sync with the hard-shell Calvinist doctrine of "once saved always saved." That belief is spreading into the Pentecostal arena. This doctrine that basically says you can't sin yourself out of God's Kingdom, can bring people down to a devil's hell! It tells people that once they receive Jesus as their saviour, God locks the exit doors. This doctrine leaves me with questions, like "Why did Paul need to write all his letters to the churches to keep them on track if they were "once saved always saved?? Why was Paul so worried about the Galatians??" "Once saved always saved" basically teaches that God locks HIS children in HIS Kingdom. It teaches that you don't have to worry. You might lose your spiritual treasures dabbling in sin, but you will at least make Heaven, no matter what.
Some who believe Calvinism become very angry at those who believe otherwise, because when they hear that you can become a "castaway" [See 1st Corinthians 9:27], it knocks Grandpa McCoys tombstone over. Grandpa McCoy was a wonderful Calvinist Sunday School teacher on Sundays, but everyone knew that when he got really mad, down at the office, that his tongue could tear his employees to ribbons. Calvinism takes care of such problems. But I don't see that doctrine in God's Word!
Read about all the Scriptures I'd have to plug my ears and ignore if I decided to accept the Once Saved Always Saved Doctrine. Here's the link:
http://www.cnm-vra.com/essays/osas/
I'm out of sync with some popular Christian writers, because they teach that you can't grow in God except in a group of some kind. But the Bible teaches that our greatest growth happens alone, outside our church, in our prayer closet, in the School of the Holy Spirit.
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." [Matthew 6:6] "...God...is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. [Hebrews 11:6b] "Pray without ceasing." [1st Thessalonians 5:17] "Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually." [1st Chronicles 16:11] "Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore." [Psalms 105:4] "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." [Isaiah 40:31] "For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock." [Psalms 27:5]]
The Word of God is packed with Scriptures that tell me that I will grow best through my secret life alone with God, not by my group ministry. My group ministry is to strengthen the weak, to draw the outsider. My group ministry is for the benefit of others. But my greatest personal benefit is alone with God! The group may help get me started, help point me to the Lord...but until I'm hooked up with Heaven in the "..secret place of the Most High..." [Psalm 91:1] I cannot expect much growth. Did you notice how the scriptures talk about a continuous seeking of God?? Very few believers can live continuously on the church property! The "tabernacle" and "pavilion" of God's presence is with the believer, not with the church real estate!
I'm out of sync with the idea that when Jesus removes true believers to glory in the "Twinkling of an eye," [1st Corinthians 15:52] that just about everyone in Sunday School and Church is going to be in Heaven the following Sunday. My Bible tells me that as many as 50 percent of born again believers WON'T BE RAPTURE READY at the moment Jesus calls true believers to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
"Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." [Luke 21:36] Jesus tells only the perfected Philadelphia church that they will miss the Tribulation times. "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." [Revelation 3:10] "And while they went to buy(the five foolish virgins went to buy oil, which symbolized their lack of the fullness of the Holy Spirit.), the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage(The Twinkling of an Eye took place and the wise virgins are translated to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb): and the door was shut." [Matthew 25:10] The foolish "VIRGINS" are born again believers who will be left behind, to be purified through Tribulation and execution, because they let the flame of the Holy Spirit go out within their being. They were foolish because they had not the overflow of the oil or the Holy Spirit fullness. They ran only on their "first love" salvation experience with the Holy Spirit. They were out of spiritual gas! Their flame of the Spirit of God had gone out or was going out at the moment of the departure to glory. They had a Holy Ghost oil shortage!
I'm out of sync with the half-truth that the "word of faith" movement pushes, that if you stand on the prosperity promises, in faith, God MUST give you a lucrative cash flow. That cash flow, they hint, will be enough to send your kids to college, give you the richer life, and you will have so much abundance that it will make worldlings envy you. Sinners will come to you to be converted because they will see all your material blessings and know God treats HIS kids luxuriously.
But, the Bible teaches that if we have enough food to eat, clothes to wear and a roof over our head that we are very wealthy indeed! God is able to trust some of HIS people with large and growing cash reserves. However, I see in the Bible that God values a rich bounty of humility, holiness and godliness far above material wealth. I see that the Lord promises spiritual overflow more surely than material bounty.
God isn't stupid!! HE knows that many, many, many of HIS children would be ruined if HE pressurized their purses. Just two weeks of financial overflow would be enough to bring masses of God's people into spiritual jeopardy!! They would go on a materialistic shopping spree, and some would even forget to pay off their debts! Sad to say, many of God's people need their financial trials to keep them on track and on their knees seeking God. If life got any easier they would lay back and fall into darkness. Here in the U.S.A. we have some of the softest, weakest, and easiest targets for downfall among the redeemed. As a result God has to send them just enough to make it each day. Their eternal destiny is on the line and God isn't going to sink their ship with gold.
"Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth." --JESUS [Luke 12:33]
I'm out of sync with the fact that many churches I watch on TV and churches I visit can all agree on "ask Jesus into your heart"....but after that they push bunches of other emphases. Outside of "making your decision for Christ" the churches have many varied messages. When they do get united on some work or message it is only because pastors got together for a "pow wow" and they cooked up some program together. These facts tell me that they are not moving by the Spirit of God, and that they are not getting their orders from the command center in Heaven. I can see THAT by mere observation!! Pagans can see it too! Pagans know that the churches are in disarray! As I read God's word and listen to the Holy Spirit I hear Heaven giving different orders than what most churches are carrying out! The Holy Spirit doesn't give mixed messages! There is insubordination in the body of Christ. That insubordination is against the Holy Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit has no disagreement with HIMSELF or with Jesus or with the Father. The Bible has a lot to say about growing in God. God wants HIS people to go beyond the basics of "I'm a sinner. Jesus come into my heart." But the visible church seems unable to get very far beyond salvation! Salvation is terribly important, like the "first grade" is terribly important. Kindergarten and first grade are not enough to graduate High School on. In today's world salvation is sufficient for a person to get up from the altar, have a heart attack, drop dead, and go to Heaven. But to live day in and day out, in the modern, wicked World, it takes major growth in God to stand and not fall. The Holy Spirit is asking the churches to get their people to HIM and to help the converts come to the place that they are hungry for the fullness of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is warning that the departure of the "wise virgins" is very near and that many low-grade saints ("foolish virgins") will be left behind to go through the tribulation. There is little time left to make corrections and to enter into the fullness of the Holy Spirit-filled life..
I'm out of sync with the idea that all we need to do is just get people saved. My Bible tells me that if you get people saved, but don't help them find the Spirit of God that they will very probably fall back into sin and be worse off than if they never got saved in the first place. "Non-Spirit-filled," born again believers are easy prey for Satan.
"For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning." [2nd Peter 2:20]
"Non-Spirit-filled" believers and churches are people and churches who may have all of the Holy Spirit...but the Holy Spirit doesn't have all of them. God is NOT like Satan. When you give Satan an inch he takes a mile. But when you give God an inch, God only takes an inch. This is why receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit is not automatic, nor is it necessarily a quick second trip to an altar. It can't be these things unless our God grabs territory presumptuously in our heart of hearts. And God isn't like that. God is above all gentlemen. God is courteous to the extreme!
I'm totally out of sync with the idea that churches and pastors need to come together and formulate a game plan in order to have unity. God Almighty wants to work with HIS churches like HE worked with the Azusa Street movement churches between 1906 and 1910, when thousands were converted and filled with the Holy Spirit, all over the World, and hundreds of new denominations were formed....and few of them really knew much about the specifics of each other's work.
In other words, God's Spirit desires to direct HIS army discreetly, so that each soldier only needs to know what God wants he or she to do that day. It really isn't any of my business what God has asked Brother "Joe Doaks" to do or not to do! We just each pray and we each are to obey...and the whole thing comes together because God is at the controls and God knows what HE's doing.
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." [Romans 8:14] The Holy Spirit does the complex work. We just take orders and follow our wonderful Lord's simple commands.
We need to let the non-Spirit-filled churches and the non-Spirit filled intellectuals do their own thing, their own way. God will judge each work, perhaps with a little different point of view based on what light they have. But, we need to obey the Word of God concerning those who "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: FROM SUCH TURN AWAY." [2nd Timothy 3:5] God's Word stands against marrying ourselves to non-Spirit-filled churches. We need to love them...but we also need to give them room to do their thing, their way, without our assistance. They are opposed to the Holy Spirit empowered gifts that are so needed in evangelism today. Let's be kind to them and let them work in peace. Why must the Spirit-filled churches unite to work with those who oppose the mighty leadership of the Holy Spirit in signs, wonders, healings, prophecy and hearing direct from Heaven?
I'm out of sync with this idea that the saints need to get smarter and more well educated. I believe that is part of the problem. The saints are so smart and so well informed that they are better prepared to doubt and be skeptical than they are prepared to believe for the impossible. They are smart enough to know how impossible their task truly is. And that just increases their tendency to doubt. And it increases their tendency to try and do God's will in the natural.
God has not called us to be like whales, porpoises, elephants, chimps or any of the other extraordinarily intelligent animals. My Bible tells me that God has asked us to be like sheep. Sheep are stupid! Sheep don't know much of anything. Sheep just follow their shepherd. Good sheep simply obey the shepherd and ignore all others. Sheep are only as successful as their shepherd.
Modern theologians and religious intellectuals have successfully converted the generally simple words of the Bible into an ever expanding complexity, of "geek speak." They've converted it into a genius science, complete with a vocabulary that rivals medicine! They have made Christianity into religious rocket science.
The true complexity of salvation, religion and faith is all carried on in the Throne Room of God. God never expected our little mental computers to certify, check, grade and proof-read the intricacy of God's grand operation. The theologians have not done us a lot of good. They have brought confusion into the body of Christ. They have become proud. The visible church has certified the Doctors of Theology as the truest and most correct interpreters of the Bible and Bible truths. But the Holy Spirit says to turn to my Bible and away from the theologians and religious intellectuals. The Holy Spirit affirms that HE, HIMSELF, is the only Heaven-certified interpreter of Scripture and God's truths. The man-made Christian educational systems have married themselves to the secular educational systems. It is a great debacle, and a horrible failure that has happened within the visible church! The deception is so complete that few can even see this foul fallacy.
Recently I read that people like myself are called "Sunday School theologians" by one of the "appointed" intellectuals in one of the great denominational colleges. That is a "put down" label that indicates that there is no way the church janitor can understand more deeply than the doctors of theology, unless the church janitor goes to college and seminary and gets degrees, writes the papers, passes the tests, gets good grades, or at least digests and masters the "must read" books the theologians have selected. Many theologians are lost in a deception that is swallowing them alive! They don't seem to understand that God can and does come upon lowly nothings and teaches them from on High. The doctors of theology would be appalled to discover that their discipline and their technology is only needed by those who choose to avoid the School of the Holy Ghost!
I'm out of sync with the idea that knowledge won't puff us up, but that knowledge sets us free. I'm surprised how the churches get the two types of knowledge, in the Bible, all mixed up. The knowledge that sets us free is the intimate knowledge of God, like Adam "knew" Eve which led to the birth of children. The wholesome knowledge is the knowledge of deep intimacy with God. But the bad knowledge is the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.
Adam and Eve went for information and facts instead of more intimacy with God. They wanted to know all the facts. Satan basically told them a half truth. Satan told them that God wasn't sharing all the facts with them. "...Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." [Genesis 3:4b-5] That is a half truth that Satan used so skillfully. God was trying to keep some knowledge away from them...but for their good, for their purity, for their joy, for their life to go on. I'm very out of sync with this take-your-notebook-to-church, mentality, that has swept into some congregations and movements. We don't need facts as much as we need intimacy with God. We will never be able to assimilate all the facts on earth, with a mind of flesh and blood. The Bible points out one of our most serious problems in the church today:
"Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." [2nd Timothy 3:7] Mind knowledge is not useless. But it must come after our spirit is fed. We need to feed our spirits with the Word of God. We need to seek for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Then when God gets us into the school of the Spirit of God our minds will begin to catch up with our spirit. But the knowledge of God must be percolated through God's and our spirit first. The carnal mind cannot feed our spirit properly. But our spirit can feed our minds appropriately as the Holy Spirit controls and directs.
I'm out of sync with this idea that the churches need to network with each other. What it does is open up more and more channels between Christians, while suffocating or drowning out the Throne Room channel. So we have only one Christian in thousands who can hear the voice of God....but everyone is listening to the telepreachers and teleteachers. And the result of that is that second hand ideas and even man-made ideas are becoming the controlling factor in the visible church.
I'm out of sync with this idea that real preaching is a good Bible-based Christian speech composed by the speaker. The Bible tells me that authentic preaching is the Holy Spirit majorly taking over a speaker and using that speaker like a puppet or a mouth piece to speak direct from Heaven. The true preacher may start out in the natural...but at some point the Holy Spirit takes over and the preacher no longer is the composer of the words that are spoken. The Sermon Peter gave at Pentecost and the message Stephen gave to the Sanhedrin are prime examples of God becoming the "ghost writer." I believe the Holy Ghost needs to be a preacher's "ghost writer." How else could Paul have preached all night long without losing his crowd?? [See Acts 20:7-11] Paul had to be speaking under a powerful anointing from Heaven. Perhaps that is why Paul asks his readers to pray that he will be given utterance?? [See Ephesians 6:18-19]
I'm out of sync with the idea that wine, in moderation, isn't a serious problem. I don't believe drinking wine will always send a person to Hell...but I do believe that those who drink in moderation can only have a moderate experience with God. Even if they don't lose their soul, they will never reach the spiritual heights that God calls them to. Alcohol is a recreational drug!!! Jesus drank fermented grape juice. But, Jesus wasn't a Christian. He was an orthodox Jew. Jesus didn't live in a scientific world that knew all about the negative medical aspects of alcohol. Jesus would have been laughed off the pages of history if he had preached that alcohol can harm fetal development, cause liver disease and kill brain cells. But even for Jews there is a lot more Scripture warning about alcohol than the "wine for your stomach's sake" scriptures. John the Baptist was able to soar to the altitude he soared to partly because he was totally alcohol free. There is a lot of Bible material on this subject that the modern church has neglected. You can read more about what the Bible teaches concerning alcohol here:
http://www.cnm-vra.com/essays/alcohol/
I'm out of sync with the idea that the power of prayer is magnified by how many people you can harness all praying for the same prayer request. My Bible tells me that the prayers of one righteous person, who is praying by the direction of the Spirit of God can move nations! My Bible does not teach that much is much when when God is in it. My Bible teaches that "little is much when God is in it." God doesn't get the glory as well when HE has to save by many. My God likes to save by few. Remember Gideon!
I'm out of sync with the idea that the Bible is NOT sufficient as a reading text for believers, that Christianity needs many other books to help believers along. I'm finding that all these "Christian" books are doing a great job keeping people FROM growing deep into the Word of God.
I'm out of sync with the idea that the Word of God, stripped of the Spirit of God, is safe. The Bible itself teaches that "...the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." [See 2nd Corinthians 3:6] The Word of God separated from the control of the Holy Spirit is a double-edged sword that can be a meat grinder, an instrument of death! But if the Spirit of God is not grieved away, then the Spirit guides the sharp surgery sword of the Word. Then the Spirit pours the healing Balm of Gilead upon the surgery. This is why the churches that are out of kilter with the Holy Spirit will always be going in circles around Mount Sinai, wounding themselves and others through the wrong use of the Bible..
I'm out of sync with the belief that with ONLY the salvation crisis experience most believers can get through 60 years of trials and temptations, and make it to Heaven in a world that has broken all past records of evilness. Satan has had 6,000 years to practice on bringing people down. Christians who do not grow toward the fullness of the Holy Spirit are no match for a Devil with 6,000 years of "practice makes perfect" in destroying lives!
I'm out of sync with the current church philosophy that ministry is a complex science; that understanding and implementing the complexities of this imagined science brings advancement and improvement. Just in my life time the complexities of local, district, denominational and interdenominational church operations have mushroomed like a flu epidemic. New words are constantly being coined to describe simple ideas that have now become sciences. Revival has morphed into "Spiritual Formation." Every age group, every slightly different cultural group now has a ministry science. Everything is a scientific, ministry-technology all it's own.
In my life time I have been an employee of a local church, and I have been an employee in a denominational headquarters of a 5,000 congregation denomination. Those experiences tell me that many of these complex structures in the modern church are extra bells and whistles that have been implemented to replace the guidance, direction and empowerment of the Holy Spirit of God Almighty.
The operation of Jesus Christ's church is truly a very complex thing. And that is why God has given HIS Holy Spirit to be the governor of the church and churches. God's computer is infinitely bigger than all the thinking of people combined! The only reason I can see that men want to run the church is to show God how excellent they are at it. But cockroaches taking the professorships at M.I.T. is still a joke no matter how you look at it. Why can't we let the Holy Spirit do the job? We are not impressing God with our ability! Our thinking stinks! Our thinking is like Mr. Toad from Toad Hall driving his "auto car" down a railroad track. It's laughable...but it is also a horror because souls are falling into a devil's Hell because men are trying to run the churches.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." [John 14:26]
God designed the complexity to be carried on in Heaven between the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. But down here the church was designed to be very, very simple, with a simple saving, sanctifying and empowering Gospel. God has the complex calculator that comes up with the amazingly simple instructions for simple people like you and I to obey. Those simple, but very precise instructions from Heaven are the only instructions that work correctly.
Most of these layers of church administration and church ministries, down here on earth, have the stench of man upon them. These layers of administration are in place for one reason: they are there to control, to manipulate and to build man-made kingdoms, domains and infrastructures.
"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." [2nd Corinthians 11:3]
I'm quite out of sync with the visible church on the subject of women in church leadership. Saint Paul spoke about this and said that what he said about women in the church was a command of the Lord. But the modern churches have so often over ruled this command of God concerning women. I've written a separate essay on that subject which you can read at the following address:
http://www.cnm-vra.com/essays/women
I'm out of sync with the great lack of interest in the gift of discernment in the visible churches today. Let me give you a prime example. I had the privilege of ministering in two sister denominations, whose general doctrines were similar. When God called me to become the pastor of a church in the second denomination I had to traverse many man-made obstructions, in order to obey the Lord.
Both denominations were determined to make sure that I would under no circumstance come out being a member of both groups. My former denomination insisted that if I pastored in the second fellowship that I must bring regular reports of my work back to them, unless I totally transferred my membership and ordination and vacated their communion.
The second denomination said I had to surrender my ordination from the first denomination directly to them ONLY, so that they could be sure I did not somehow remain connected to the first group. They were in no way going to allow a pastor from a sister denomination to pastor in their communion. And so I was forced to withdraw from my childhood denomination, and come into the second denomination.
I had to go before committees. The committees were suspicious as to why I was changing. They wanted to make sure I believed as they believed. They had little if any regard for the heavy scrutiny I had been given originally by their brothers in the first denomination. They seemed to have great difficulty reading me in the supernatural using the gift of discernment. They simply did not function on that level! They had to read me in the natural, like as if I was making application for a job in the secular world. I had to give them the names of people close to me that they could privately interview. It reminded me of when I had worked for the Federal Government and got an F.B.I. check and a security clearance.
If I remember correctly, I was even given a psychological questionnaire. The transfer from denomination one to denomination two seemed more like an executive of Coca Cola transferring to the Pepsi Cola Company. The two groups really weren't talking much to each other. I felt a little like a traitor leaving one country and trying to get asylum in another country. But God was the ONE who had commanded the move, not I.
That experience exposed to me the great blindness in the modern church. If Ananias and Sapphira were in our churches today they might never be noticed because the leaders of the modern church seldom hear the directives of the Holy Ghost as Saint Peter heard in the First Century church. [See Acts 5:1-11]
Today's church follows the directives of men more than the directives of the Holy Spirit! The leaders I dealt with in both communions didn't seem to have any strong sense that God Almighty was moving one of HIS servants from one place to another within HIS body. I truly sensed that I was moving from one controlling group to another. I realized that if Jesus Himself had accompanied me to the various meetings in the flesh that HE too would have had to go through the same red tape. Truly it was not HIS church, but "THEIR" church.
"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh..." [2nd Corinthians 5:16a]
Peter read Ananias and Sapphira in a flash because the Spirit of God read them and revealed the spiritual cancer that they were bringing into the Body of Christ. Peter did not know their hearts by the flesh, the natural things, the psychological, or by their speech. Peter knew them by the Spirit of God as carriers of darkness. By the Spirit he could see they had become darkness.
My experience transferring from one denomination to another exposed to me the spiritual hearing loss that has become standard issue in the body of Christ. There is a terrible blindness because the Holy Spirit has been excluded. The Holy Spirit is allowed only in symbol, but not in reality. The Spirit of God is supposed to be the absolute governor, the leader of Christ's church on earth. What a travesty has been perpetrated!
I'm out of sync with the Holy Spirit being moved into a "figure head" status while the organized church has become the acting "prime minister" of the whole operation! The organized church has assumed that it is the acting governor of God's works on earth.
"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:" [1st Peter 1:22]
Today's churches operate as if that Scripture really read, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Church unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:"
We can get along without the organized church! But we can't get along without the full control and governorship of the Holy Ghost! Todays church and church leadership have set themselves up as the interpreters, the organizers, the controllers, the keepers and the establishers of the true faith.
When a saint asks the Lord for the understanding of some passage of Scripture, if these soothsayers hear about it they jump in first to tell us what Dr. Rubboard said, and Dr. Somebody and Rev. Whoever. Even I have been guilty of this baloney. God forgive me! Seldom have I ever heard todays leadership say that the Holy Ghost has said, "Thus and so."
They don't hear from Heaven!! Hearing from Heaven is too subjective for them. They need the objective, black and white printed answer from the pages of some committee validated theological work or some Christian self-help book to clarify and bring out the truth! The "scholars" meet together to discuss such things. If a majority of the "egg heads" can come to an agreement then they decide they have the witness that they have come upon the truth. But no one dare say that God has spoken to them by the Spirit, or in a dream, or by a vision. Such stuff is too subjective, to weird, too much for these ones locked "in the vanity of their mind..." [See Ephesians 4:17]
I'm out of sync with how the modern church fails to follow Jesus' directive to let prospective converts know that although salvation is a free gift in one respect, it is very, very costly in another respect.
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?...So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." [Luke 14:26-33]
Churches don't tell those they witness to that if you want to become a Christian that Jesus Christ must be elevated above every other person, place, thing, condition and situation in their life. You name it, Jesus must be above it, over it and IN CHARGE OF IT in every believer's life. Otherwise that prospective convert is wasting their time praying the sinners prayer! God won't allow half-baked disciples in HIS family! Praying the sinner's prayer is inviting God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost to be absolute boss over that person's life.
Because of this foolishness of hiding the real cost of following the Lord Jesus Christ from prospective converts, we are tricking people into praying the sinners prayer, not telling them about the fine print in the contract. As a result we are getting converts that are sometimes not truly saved, but think they are saved. This whole "Make your decision for Christ" mentality that requires no repentance, no restitution, no total sell out to God, is robbing and cheating and plainly dishonest stuff. The churches need to repent for swindling people and robbing people of real conversion to Christ!
I'm out of sync with "popular" Pentecostalism. I'm out of sync with "extroverted" Pentecostalism also. I find myself more in sync with the Azusa Street Pentecostals of 1906, because they believed in Entire Sanctification and in tarrying (time spent seeking God in prayer) for the Spirit of God. "Popular" Pentecostals have jettisoned those two truths. But the Bible supports those truths! Extroverted pentecostals have tried to fix the failure of their "popular" cousins, only to bring wild fire into their midst.
"Popular" pentecostals have pretty much not known the fact that they wouldn't be here today if it hadn't been for some people in the holiness movement to which God revealed HIS next step. Those holiness people had to tarry and find the fruit of the Spirit of God, and perfect love before they were ready for God to empower them. First Thessalonians 5:23-24 talks about how God desires to sanctify HIS people, purifying them and filling them with the love of God. That second step of Entire Sanctification was what became a stepping stone to the Baptism of Fire.
Tarrying is just waiting before God. God has a proper timing for everything. Isaiah 40:31 tells us that if we wait on the Lord, or tarry. that we "...shall mount up with wings as eagles..." Cornelius, the centurion, had to tarry in prayer for a long time in order to receive more of God. He prayed "alway," or continually. God heard his prayer and sent an angel telling Cornelius how and where to contact Peter. [See Acts Chapter 10.] The angel told him that his prayers had come up before God. That's tarrying! The result of Cornelius' tarrying in prayer was that he and his whole household received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost. Tarrying in prayer can bring us into Entire Sanctification and on into the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
The "popular" Pentecostals have so retracted from their roots that about the only thing that differentiates them from non-pentecostal churches is the name on the sign out front.
"Extroverted" Pentecostals have tried to over compensate for the backsliding of their "popular" cousins by putting people on the spot in their congregations, drawing attention to themselves by acting out strangely, and looking down on people who are timid and shy in the worship arena. I have more to share on the subject of the Pentecostal movement here:
http://www.cnm-vra.com/essays/azusa/
http://www.cnm-vra.com/essays/pentecost
I'm find myself so out of sync with the visible church, because it has become so out of sync with God's Word, that I have great difficulty assembling with the visible church.
I find that when I worship with them I lose ground spiritually. I must keep my eyes closed because in front of me I see someone immodestly dressed gyrating as they worship. Perhaps their worship is pure, but the vision of their worship is a snare. Just as I am centering in on God, focusing on my Lord, the worship leader cuts in to tell me that all those truly seeking God must come to the front or raise their hands, or do this or that. Or the worship team and the sound man turn up the music until I'm having pain in my ears and I lose contact with the Lord because of the pain of the pumped-up audio. Or, the Holy Spirit begins to move upon the worship and immediately the leaders cut worship short and change the order of things. Or those on the platform show by their actions that they are not Holy Spirit filled people. I see marks of the world upon them. It seems as though the head worship leaders believe that if they can get some talented worlding helping out with worship that the worldling will convert and change. But instead it brings a wrong atmosphere. Or the worship leader and/or pastor talks the Holy Spirit right out the door by saying much when nothing should be spoken. Discernment seems to be totally missing from the modern church scene. Instead worship has become a production, a dramatic presentation, and "the show must go on!" I've written a separate essay on that subject which you can read at the following address:
http://www.cnm-vra.com/essays/showbiz/
The Book of James warns the churches about these things. But the visible churches are not listening:
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and TO KEEP himself UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD." [James 1:27]
All these and many more troubles in the visible church makes my fellowship in their midst a great temptation and a falling backwards time. I have to pray God's protection around about myself more strongly than in the past. The Bible tells me "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." [Hebrews 10:25] But what do you do when you discover that the local church you are attending is NOT "ourselves??" When that happens I believe another Scripture takes over:
"Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. [2nd Timothy 3:5]
These "cool" believers may have enough of Jesus to get into Heaven, but they don't have enough of Jesus to mentor me or anyone else...and how they serve the Lord is between themselves and God Almighty...but for the sake of my eternal destiny I must walk the path of holiness. Maybe they can walk a lower way...but the Holy Spirit tells me that God expects more of me and I must walk away from temptation and away from things of this world and away from church folks who love the world.
Begun Sept. 19, 2005, last edited April 10, 2007
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