Strong Man Of God Blog

            The repentance and revival of guilty professed Christian men (includes leaders) in and out of the churches is urgently needed to get them off the bench and into the King’s game during these final two minutes!  From revival will come the fresh fire, zeal and power through the Holy Spirit to engage in the Kingdom cause, work and warfare to restore men on an increasingly hostile field of play and referees that unashamedly cheat as agents of the other team!  All of what biblical manhood entails and the whole armor of God will be required.  As in days of old, our God will also soon do more to support us in foretold, undeniable wonders only He can do in the sky and on the earth!

            As the Lord has led, in other recent blogs I have already written in summary form the primary reasons guilty professed Christian men are in sin before Him.¹  The bottom line is they want to do their will and not His.  The consequences are many; not the least of which is men as God’s chosen leaders are being destroyed taking families, churches and communities out with them!  Too, the catastrophic swirl of the foretold, latter day global rebellion as an unstoppable offense is pushing the spiritually weak and constantly compromising defense of professing Christianity backward.  Our team bench is spiritually dehydrated and distracted in many ways including by religion.

            Repentance and revival among professed Christian men is God’s righteous and only remedy for those seated on the bench and sinfully not in the game!  In their present sinful state, they are as the “old wine skins” in the Lord’s famous parable (Matthew 9:14-17; Mark 2:18-22, NKJV).  He teaches that new wine cannot be put into an old wine skin lest in the fermentation process, it bursts, is ruined and the wine spilled out.  But new wine is put into a new wineskin so that both are “preserved.”  Moreover, He adds in Luke’s version, having tasted the old wine, one does not want any new wine right away because it is felt, ‘“the old is better,’” (Luke 5:33-39, NKJV).

            Like Israel--the Lord’s first audience of application for old wine skins, professed Christian men active in and spiritually deadened by unbelief, disobedience and sinful distractions cannot without repentance receive the new wine of Jesus as Lord and the Holy Spirit’s fresh fire.  They must first become new wine skins through repentance and all brokenness before God as He has plainly and graciously taught in His Word (Psalm 51:1-17, Isaiah 57:15; Hebrews 4:14-16; 1 John 1:5-2:2)!  By the way, as with individuals, so, churches!  No professed Christian or church can get right with God and become new wine skins ready for new wine without heartfelt repentance (Revelation 3:1-3)!

            Remaining in sin is not an option.  For unless professed Christian men on the bench do repent, hardness of heart sets in.  They are finally destroyed in God’s judgment because their sinful way is better to them; living in the deceit God’s love will sweep them on into Heaven anyhow (Ezekiel 18:24-32; Luke 6:46-49, 12:42-48; Romans 2:1-11; Galatians 5:16-21, 6:7-8; Hebrews 3:7-19, 10:26-31).  However, after heartfelt repentance and God’s forgiveness, the repentant gladly welcome Christ to reassert His Lordship in and the Holy Spirit to freshly fill their hearts as new wine in all personal spiritual revival (Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 7:9-11; Revelation 3:19-20)!

            Hungry for God, revived Christian men immediately return to such disciplines of the faith as daily Bible study and prayer.  They also leap up off the bench ready to get in the game and testify about their revival!  As the Lord leads, they tell what great things God has done for them and witness Him in all grateful joy to saved family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and anyone else including fellow men the Holy Spirit brings near (Mark 5:18-20).  In such encounters, they find themselves not only testifying to what the Lord has freshly done for them in repentance and revival, but about Jesus, the Savior and Gospel of Him whose sacrifice has made it all possible!  Finally, with the Spirit’s fire burning freshly in their bellies, they yearn to serve the Lord as when they were newborn in Him.

            Surely, revived pastors are eager to once again stand to lead by example in testifying of and proclaiming the grace and mercies of God to His flock; urging all to follow in their footsteps.  They fast; they pray, enlisting other leaders and whoever will to join them in calling on the Holy Spirit to fall fresh on that local assembly of believers as repentance is urged of all.  New vision comes to them from the Lord and they are ready to abandon the dead works of selfish ambition and the traditions of religion.  In their new Kingdom vision, revived pastors see the value and the Lord’s priority of restoring men; men that after proper instruction in biblical manhood will restore their families and lead the way in restoring other men that will shore up a faltering defense on the field of play.

1 Read all the July 2017 blogs, but especially Pastors In The Two Minute Drill and Churchmen In The Two Minute Drill under the category, The Cause.

            After many years in and among churches around our nation, it is very clear to me that zealous Christian men sold out to Jesus and Kingdom work are truly a small minority.  Many church pastors have resigned themselves to this situation as a norm not willing to accept any responsibility for being in major part, the cause of it in the practice of Christianity as a powerless, manmade religion.  In contrast, however, one of the important common characteristics the Lord Jesus and His Spirit-filled apostles had was zeal for God and Kingdom work!  Clearly, those already in Christ must be revived first, if more men will be restored to God in these last two minutes of the game!¹

            Many of the relative few Christian men that make up our nation’s local churches are typically content in their own minds that they fully satisfy any requirement by the Lord to serve Him by doing church works.  These are works churches create with at least some biblical basis generally for anyone of any gender such as teaching Sunday School, singing in the choir or ushering.  They also make up gender specific activities such as meal prep and service, hosting teas and sewing clubs for women.  As a token acknowledgement of their unique skill sets, men by default are to do building repairs, custodial chores, clean up, yard maintenance, heavy lifting, security etc.

            These works are standard to local churches settled down in brick and mortar buildings as they have developed over the centuries practicing biblical Christianity or manmade forms of it as religion.  The majority of long standing churches operating in religion today, carryout in sinful human strength and tradition what are their dead works; works that are faithless and without the Holy Spirit’s power as they ignore the Lord’s call to repentance and revival (Revelation 3:1-6)!  Their few men do what is expected of them while sitting spiritually zoned out on the bench with not a flicker of desire to get in the King’s game contrary to even the natural passion of men to compete!

            A number of more vibrant churches recognize they should be doing something more with men.  So, they also offer their member men all of the same traditional opportunities for church works and add a regular fellowship breakfast, annual golf or basketball tournament, denominational men’s conference or foreign mission trips.  A relative few engaged in church facilitated or at least endorsed “outside” ministries experience the Lord’s joy and power in their service.  Still, the remaining majority sits the spiritual bench; passively content to show up to worship and participate in an activity or two as their presumed acceptable service to the Lord since this is all the church requires.

            But while practicing biblical Christianity in Kingdom driven churches men should step up to do all of the needed works and participate in ministries of the brick and mortar house, the more “weightier” calling and assignment of God should not be neglected (Matthew 23:23; Luke 11:42, NKJV).  For church leadership and men alike should be utmost concerned about what God considers “acceptable” service in His sight (Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 5:8-10; 1 Peter 2:4-5, NKJV).  Do you not believe God’s prophetic Word that in these last two minutes brick and mortar churches will be thoroughly destroyed as many around the world already have been (Revelation 17:16-18:8)?

            What then will become of church works?  In the fiery persecution of that hour, do you think a choir will be formed to sing in the ashes?  No, brethren, think righteously as our Lord instructed (John 7:24)!  So, then, God has called men to salvation and restoration as aspiring strong men of God in the image of His Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29)!  As assignment from God, every restored man is to be engaged zealously in the Kingdom cause, work and warfare to restore other men through the Gospel along with teaching and mentoring them in the faith and biblical manhood to the end as Christ and the apostle Paul also exemplified (Matthew 4:17-22; 10:16-39; Luke 23:39-46, 24:46-49; Acts 1:8; Ephesians 5:11-6:20; Philippians 2:5-11; 1 Timothy 1:12-2:7; 2 Timothy 2:1-13, 4:6-8).

            Anything less than carrying out God’s assignment is disobedience which in His eyes is also sin, lawlessness and unrighteousness (Genesis 3:9-11; 1 John 3:4-9, 5:17).  If men sold out to Christ in obedience are in the minority as I have seen and statistics bear out, then the majority of professed Christian men in and out of the churches are guilty of disobedience!²  Therefore, those that are not impostors or Christ denying, willful apostates should immediately repent and be revived by the Holy Spirit!  The lack of your pastor and church’s participation, endorsement or permission (which if needed, flee since you are in a cult) is irrelevant!  The assignment has come to you personally from the Lord Jesus Christ, the highest Authority (Matthew 28:16-18; John 20:21-23)!  Get off the bench!

1 As  the Lord led, I launched 2017 crying out to and warning pastors and churches to come to terms with this inescapable truth.  Read the January three part Blog, In God’s

  Revival Men Are Restored, under the category, The Cause.

2 Statistical data on the absence and low participation of men in the churches is ubiquitous!  I cite them in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics available in the

   Strong Man Store or you can certainly quickly Google for example, “statistics on men in the churches.”