The Scourge Of Racism
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The Holy Spirit is absolutely critical to the life and perseverance of Christians in these latter days as He has been from the beginning. All that God allows going forward separates the wheat from the chaff; the faithful from the unfaithful so that immediately before the full outpouring of His wrath upon the disobedient, the surviving tested, faithful and true Christian remnant are glorified with the bypass of death to experience instantaneous transformation to immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)! They proceed from life to life by the agency of the Holy Spirit who indwells them and through whom they persevered in hope to that glorious moment.
Be reminded again in this edited 2012 blog repost the Lord led me to write that Christianity and the Christian life is no mere religion of manmade invention. God has marvelously revealed the divine reality and Kingdom through the life and work of His Son, Jesus Christ; work that saves and baptizes men into the life giving, dynamic activity of the Holy Spirit (John 1:1-34)! With all thanksgiving and praise, I rejoice in the triune God for having become a partaker in the divine nature and what that has meant for me in a journey that approaches forty years (2 Peter 1:2-4)! I am not worthy of this highest of honors to contain in this earthen vessel the exceedingly great treasure of the great “I AM,” (Exodus 3:13-14; John 8:48-59, 2 Corinthians 4:7, NKJV). Bless our God this Thanksgiving, you saints!
Originally Posted July 29, 2012
It is not just for some small and insignificant reason that the apostle Paul commands members of the church at Thessalonica, “Do not quench the Spirit,” (1 Thessalonians 5:19, NKJV). The Holy Spirit is the Christian’s source of new birth (John 3:1-8), eternal, spiritual life (John 6:63), instruction (John 14:26) and power (Acts 1:8) in Christ. Among the analogies of the Spirit’s presence and work in the believer are “rivers of living water” (John 7:37-39) and “fire” (Acts 2:1-4)! The Spirit of God is as elemental to the spiritual life of a Christian as oxygen is to the body. No Holy Spirit, no sign of divine life or salvation (Romans 8:5-9). This is also made clear in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics.
As I was taught from the Word by the Holy Spirit in my spiritual infancy, so, I have faithfully taught: the Christian life is a supernatural life that He leads, controls and empowers! The Holy Spirit must do this or we cannot be Christians much less fulfill the will and instruction of Christ that His disciples do the miraculous works He did and in greater number (John 14:12-14). The Lord instructs His apostles (minus Judas Iscariot) that obedience out of love for Him would pave the way for the Holy Spirit to be sent to them as a Helper (John 14:15-17, 16:5-15).
The Holy Spirit equips us to do the will of Christ. If we abide in Christ by faith, we will live and bear fruit in our service to Him through the Spirit. The Father will even prune us to bear more fruit. But if one will not abide--having quenched the Spirit and being fruitless, the Father cuts him as a withered branch from Christ the true vine and he is thrown into eternal fire on the day of judgment (John 15:1-8; Revelation 20:11-15).
All of the foregoing being true, how is it that for the majority of history after the close of the apostolic period, increasingly, the religious educated elite have attempted to dam up the living water and quench the fire of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers and the churches contrary to the apostle Paul’s command? They have done this with high sounding academic pronouncements and writings that in effect render the Holy Spirit a back seat participant and servant of the activities of outwardly pious, but flesh driven men practicing religion. They declare the Spirit does not talk to men, do miracles through them or still empower all of the New Testament listed spiritual gifts anymore.
This gives another insight into why many Western churches are stagnant, declining and dying with this kind of teaching going on. As I recently wrote, it is to the glory of God that the Third Person of the triune God has worked around human religious folly to accomplish His mission in the Gospel anyway (see Praise For The Almighty God, September 13, 2015 under the category, “Glory To God!")!
Moreover, in a grand display of mercy, the Holy Spirit has also periodically (and strategically) in history poured out renewing fire on the churches in the wake of anointed preaching by men such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield in what were called Great Awakenings nearly three centuries ago. And while there may have been some other breakouts of revival here and there since including the 1906 Azusa Street event in Los Angeles that has given rise to the fast growing Charismatic Movement with its accompanying spiritual sensationalism and abuses, parching spiritual drought and cold deadness otherwise grip so many of the churches large and small today.
No human effort can remedy this; only Holy Spirit empowered renewal can bring about the drought busting rains and rekindled fire of revival Christians and our dying churches need. It is time we begin to earnestly seek Him in all confession, repentance and heartfelt petition (Nehemiah 9:1-37; Psalm 51:1-17; Acts 4:23-31).
In being revived, you will be able to understand the prophetic urgency of the strong man of God message and cause. In being revived, surely you will rise up from your religious diddling and aspire to become strong men and great women of God. In being revived, now you can see again the awesome greatness of our God in battle array ready to work through us in all signs, wonders and displays of power to engage and frustrate the enemy as did our Lord instead of the other way around! In being revived, you will understand all of the New Testament spiritual gifts are intended by God to enable His sons to serve His purposes in the Church until Christ returns.
Before having you read the short tribute of praise to God in this 2012 blog repost, He has sanctioned my brief and appropriate lamentation in advance for the local churches of history from the 1st century until the destruction of great Babylon. It is appropriate for the faithful to lament now, since upon our departure to Heaven (Hebrews 12:18-24) and in the resurrection to immortal glory to follow we will no longer lament or weep over what we will not remember from this present mortal age (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:4). Of course, many tears of bewilderment and loss are already being shed in various parts of the world for re-tasked, empty and destroyed buildings where professing Christians can no longer assemble; many more tears are still to come.
With understanding and our hearts properly set on God’s eternal big picture, however, let the faithful of God join me in this purposeful lamentation for the coming end of the overt local churches and this mortal epoch of the Church on earth. For we know Christ did not suffer to save temporal buildings, but the souls that become the spiritual construction material for the glorious eternal Church He builds (1 Peter 2:1-10)! Let professing Christians bound anchor and chain to this present age hear this lament as a sign and yet another prophetic warning from the Lord to get your priorities straight in all repentance (Romans 2:4)! The prophet Jeremiah’s Lamentations 1-2 and Revelation 18:21-23 serve as the Scriptural backdrop and Holy Spirit fired inspiration for my lament.
How lonely sit the churches that were once filled with people! The re-tasked, empty or destroyed buildings that once hosted the weekly parade of men, women, boys and girls into its rooms, now, only offering a kaleidoscope of bittersweet memories to them as they pass by seeking for hidden refuge elsewhere. No more ringing church bells or families dressed in their Sunday best filling seats to hear prayers, sermons, hymns and songs; the silenced voices of deacons, preachers, choirs, soloists and musicians a mere echo in the swift moving memories. No more babies crying or children rustling restlessly during the service. No more baptisms, communions, weddings, dedications or funerals.
The picnics, potlucks and fellowship meals are no more; the polite banter of adults and laughter of children at play are no longer heard. Endless meetings where members in the pride of the flesh sought to wrangle for their way have ceased; labor and activities devoid of the Spirit’s leading and power halted. The distinctive qualities which made every church formed among the ethnicities unique are no longer exhibited; the world famous emotional shouts of ecstasy, dancing and testimonies in the churches of my own black American people: gone. Re-tasked, empty or destroyed buildings certainly display the fruit of satanic hatred; the displeasure of God on the evil done in His house--no more an offense to His holiness and the shed blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:26-31)!
Originally Posted July 8, 2012
As a short postscript to my July 1st blog, Death Of A Church--One Year Later, under the category, “Glory To God!”, I offer up my praise and worship to God Almighty for the amazing work done to save souls in the multiplied millions to this hour in spite of the intense opposition of the powers of darkness as well as the failures of many professing Christians and local churches. Indeed, how awesome; how great is the triune God who has suffered long, is patient and persevering in the divine cause to redeem men from the day Adam fell through these nearly two thousand years since the Son of God was crucified because of our sins, buried and raised for our justification (Romans 4:25)!
What many even faithful Christians fail to appreciate about this so-called “church age” is that the local church was never intended to be a permanent fixture on earth. Local assemblies of mortal believers have come and gone as the Spirit of God moves throughout the earth pressing the cause of saving individuals through the preaching of the Gospel in power (Acts 1:8)! To that end, God never needed us, but dispatches His eager sons redeemed by faith in the cause (Romans 10:14-15). Truly, the everlasting Gospel will be preached one final time to the whole world by an angel not churches (Revelation 14:6-7)!
Therefore, I praise the Lord God Almighty for His steadfast work of saving sinful men like me around much satanic opposition and many obstacles of fallen men in building His eternal Church of the redeemed (Matthew 16:13-18; Revelation 5:8-14, 19:1-10). To God be the glory!
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