Continuing the Journey
Once the light surrounded a man and his eyes saw clearly in this light. One day the light began to dissipate ever so slightly and little by little the darkness began to creep into his world. Year by year the darkness grew around him until one day he lived in complete darkness. Now during this process his eyes adjusted to the darkness until this man felt quite at home in the darkness. At this point light was again brought to his eyes and the man recoiled because his eyes had become uncomfortable to any light. You see, light to a man who has adjusted to living in darkness has become evil and irritating to him.
A great and thick darkness has shrouded much of the church. This has happened over many years with such small steps that the church barely noticed. And now the eyes of the church have become so used to the darkness that they recoil at the pure light of God’s Word because their eyes now are at home in darkness and turn uncomfortably from any light. And true to Jesus’ own Words, “If the eye is evil your whole body shall be full of darkness”. And most of the body of Christ, even those who have not succumbed to the different streams of the falling away, still have little or no discernment about what is taking place within the church.
During the time of the apostasy of the children of Israel, and in the midst of the Babylonian captivity, Jeremiah spoke these words that are applicable for today, “The prophets prophecy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their own means; and my people love to have it so; and what will you do in the end?”. This rebuke could be translated today as, “The pastors and teachers teach and preach error, and the church leaders have authority by their own manipulation, and God’s people not only put up with it, they love it. What do think will happen in the end if this continues?”. It is heart breaking to see what has happened and what continues to happen to God’s church and the blindness that has come upon much if not most of the eyes of God’s people.
I have come to conclusion that it is worse than we can imagine and that it is not getting better but worse yet. Oh how the Spirit of the Living God must be grieved, and how the Glorious Name of the Lord Jesus is dragged through the carnal designs of man and his self serving ecclesiastical methods. The only hope is a massive and sovereign move of the Holy Spirit that breaks the hearts and spirits of the people of God resulting in a penetrating repentance that can only be viewed as miraculous. Even that must be as a result of the sovereignty of God because it surely will not be in response to the meager fasting and prayer of the ones who still see in part.
When the Children of Israel were carried to Babylon they eventually found a home in their exile. They were industrious and soon began to prosper in Babylon and their children intermarried with idol worshippers. So when men of God like Nehemiah, Daniel, and Ezra were used of God to call His people back to Jerusalem most of the Jews decided to stay in the comfort of Babylon. They were used to living in the darkness and the brilliant light of God’s Word hurt their eyes and ears. So only a remnant heard the Spirit’s call and went to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.
So it is today. Only a small remnant hear God’s Spirit calling for a Spiritual rebuilding of God’s church and to rediscover, as did Ezra, God’s Holy Word. Just railing against the false prophets and the pitiful leaders without a revival on our part will accomplish little. Do you not see that our words mostly reach the ears of those who agree and fall dead in the streets having never reached those who are now captive? All the books, all the sermons, and all the blogs serve mostly, and with some benefit, to strengthen those who have refused the sirens of error. And on my own blog I have noticed something very interesting but sad. Many times I have received e-mails from people who wish to have their names removed from the list not because of the devotional posts, no, they like them. It is because of some of the warning articles. They have recoiled at the light, not even wanting to see it.
And conversely many of those devotional posts seem to garner little interest while the warning posts gender a ravenous effervescence among those who already agreed with the premise. It is us who need a revival that allows God to endue us with His power that can rescue the captives because we should be able to see that all the talk and writing is not going to stem the tide. We must give ourselves wholly to seeking the Lord’s face in Spiritual sackcloth and ashes while committing completely to seasons of prayer and fasting. We are in a crisis which no carnal weapons can touch and all our information about the growing darkness only helps to identify the Spiritual departure but will not deliver the captives. Let us not deceive ourselves into believing that writing about what is happening will bring revival, no, God wants us to rebuild the walls of our own Spiritual lives.
When God called the remnant from Babylon to bring revival to Jerusalem they had to leave their lives in Babylon and make an inconvenient and uncomfortable pilgrimage back to the City of Zion. And when that company reached Jerusalem they didn’t just document what had happened, and they didn’t even spend their time rebuking the ones that had stayed in Babylon’s deception. No, they worked according to God’s command and spent much time in fasting, prayer, and the hearing of God’s Word. Remember it wasn’t the works or words of man that brought restoration to God’s City, no, it was “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord”. What we need today is a move of God’s Spirit. God says He pours out His Spirit upon those who are thirsty and upon those who admit their ground is dry.
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord till He comes and rains righteousness upon you. This kind comes forth only by prayer and fasting. And shall not God avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him? If you being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? And you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
The western church still resides in Babylon, prosperous and happy, but God is calling out a remnant that will hear His voice and seek His face. Not a prideful remnant that act as if they had found the truth by their own strength and intellect, and not a remnant that spends most of its time researching the redundant sins of the Babylonian residents, but a remnant that gives herself completely to the battleground of the prayer closet which gains God’s favor without the accolades of man. The secret place is the Holy Place where God’s presence waits and beckons for His children. It must begin individually and in secret, and then in conjunction with corporate prayer meetings with seeking and humble believers. If the Lord would gather us before Him and ask us “How many prayer meetings did you call to fast and pray for Warren, Bell, MacLaren, and all the others you had rightly reproved”? The Lord could rightly observe that for every word of intercessory prayer for them, we printed and spoke thousands more about them. Whose power does that indicate we trust? And so many of the books and blogs that see the falling away of the church do not see the disgusting pride that drips from their self righteous words. Where is the prayer, where are the tears, where is the fasting, where are the broken hearts, and where is the utter humility that demonstrates the grace of God. Everyone wants to be John the Baptist but few want to be Hosea. Many Peters but few Barnabas’s.
OK, we have left Babylon but we haven’t reached Jerusalem yet. We have pitched our tent between Babylon and Jerusalem and have fed our souls with regurgitating the offenses of those who remain in Babylon. We must still speak rebuking words of truth but we must also rebuke our own lethargy and follow hard after the Prince of Jerusalem. We should never let the sins of others and the documentations of doctrinal unfaithfulness take the place of Spiritual dedication to our Lord and Savior. And if we all remove our phylacteries and become honest before the Lord and ourselves it is light years easier to criticize false preachers than to spend hours in the prayer closet. We have correctly spoken against the post modern departure but we have allowed that to be our Spiritual nutrition and we rarely hear the Spirit correct us. It is a deception of the evil One, the same One that deceived the multitudes that remain in Babylon.
How shall we then live? Let us personally give ourselves first to prayer, and in that Spirit led quantum leap, let us pray for everyone who we reprove. Jesus instructed us to pray for our enemies, how much more deceived brethren? Let us pray and make sure that we hold no bitterness in our hearts even for those who wrest the Scriptures, and before we speak about false teachers let us be sure we are filled with the love of God as well as His truth. Let us humble ourselves before the Lord repeating the obvious truth that we are what we are by His grace. Let us cleanse our hearts from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, and let us pray for personal revival, ready to obey whatever the Spirit commands. If God directs us sell all that we have and preach on a street corner, we are prepared to say Yea and Amen.
Today, we pick up stakes and continue the journey of humility and discipline, ever seeking the face of Jesus Himself and with our faces set like a flint to the New Jersusalem.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls; Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
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6 comments:
Rick,
You are exactly right. I confess that I pray very little for those apostates who are leading vast numbers of professing believers away from the truth. This is very wrong. I pray that the Lord will forgive me for this as I dedicate myself for being in the prayer closet as a major part of my walk. My prayer time now is geared mostly with dealing with my own sins, confessions as well as praise and worship. I feel like such a babe in this area. Please pray that God will lead me into doing this according to His will.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
We are commanded to pray for our enemies and false teachers would certainly qualify as doctrinal enemies. Also II Tim.2:25-26 instructs us to be patient with those who have been caught in a deceptive snare. That surely would include intercessory prayer.
To be sure praying for these men does not mean we stop correcting and rebuking them publicly, but it does mean that we should never forget that everything God does has a redemptive element. Even when the Corinthians were told to deliver a man unto Satan there was a redemptive motive in the punishment which later was revealed.
Finally, if you read each of Paul's epistles in one sitting you will find that the overwhelming teaching was to the body, and he spent a small amount of his messages in dealing directly with false teachers. There is no "watchman" ministry in the New Testament and if we are not careful we will (as I wrote) get obsessed with false teachers and dry up Spiritually while also leading others to become rabid error hunters. Our calling will always be "that I may know Him".
Such a timely word, Rick! My husband and I have been noticing an increase in what we call shrill language among many of the discernment things we read. While I am thankful for the information I've gained from these sources and the way my eyes have been opened, I have been tempted to despair at times and say, "Ok, I see the deception and error, but what are we to do?" You are so right to encourage believers to prayer and fasting. And, I confess, this is something I have not done nearly enough as I've become aware of the false teaching creeping in. Also, I'm convinced that we lay people are not reading the Bible. We say we believe it and that it is God's Word, but we don't know what it says! How are we to recognize the wolves if we don't even know the Shepherd's Word to the sheep? So many of the young adults in my husband's class that he teaches have grown up in church but don't know just basic things that they really should know if they'd spent any time at all in the Word. That's scary, because if we don't know the Truth, we are ripe for these deceptions that sound good to the spiritually naive. I, for one, am resolving to spend less time reading the blogs and more time praying - for eyes to be opened, for the deceived to begin to see their error and for a renewed hunger for the Word of God among the people in the pews, and for good pastors to have an increased sense of burden to preach the Word correctly. Thank you for that encouragement.
Rick says:
"but God is calling out a remnant that will hear His voice and seek His face. Not a prideful remnant that act as if they had found the truth by their own strength and intellect, and not a remnant that spends most of its time researching the redundant sins of the Babylonian residents, but a remnant that gives herself completely to the battleground of the prayer closet which gains God’s favor without the accolades of man. The secret place is the Holy Place where God’s presence waits and beckons for His children. It must begin individually and in secret, and then in conjunction with corporate prayer meetings with seeking and humble believers."
I believe that we are told in Acts that the promise is for our children and for those far off. From this and the witness of the Apostolic churches, I believe that God will continue his remnant through His covenant community or the Church.
For myself, the true Church isn't a building or a local assembly but those around me who are truly leading a life of repentance. I have brothers and sisters in Christ whom are my close friends from different churches in my area. I also have my dear brothers and sisters in Christ that I'm able to edify in small ways and am edified and encouraged by them, online.
The 'Church' or the whole catholic Church will always be imperfect as we are imperfect. There will always be false teachers and those in a local assembly that reject the light of Gods truth and instead want their ears tickled. It has been a long road, but I have come to a place in my faith, where it isn't much of a concern for me, how fallible, corrupt or week the 'Church' is.
For myself, it's about sharing Gods truth to others and serving with a humble heart, no matter what assembly I'm in. I believe that when we come face to face with our Lord, prophecy, tongues and knowledge will pass away but Love will endure. Doctrine and truth are very important, but Love is more important.
As we see in the New Testament, the Apostolic Churches all needed exhortation and rebuking. They all had fallen short in various ways and that has never changed.
For me, I'm not concerned about false teaching, error and sin in the church as much as I'm concerned about loving and serving my brethren. Do I believe that there ought to be revival? Absolutely! Do I believe that the church in America has become very short-sighted? Absolutely. When we have so many brethren in other countries being persecuted for their faith, It is very discouraging to see American congregations continuing to be oblivious to all that could give to those in need.
But there needs to be those who are willing to remain and serve God and be His light bearers. Even when the pastor isn't leading their flock, for the small remnant that belongs to every congregation.
Thank you for your words Rick.
They have been a reminder to me on just how important prayer is. We can get into the habit of making prayer an after thought and it should be the very act that we focus on most. Let the enemy not distract and trick us into being careless in our corporate prayers, let us come together and prayer earnestly for all the brethren who are suffering for Christ and pray that God will bring a revival to the darkness that has crept in over time. Let us always embrace the light of truth and seek His ways and turn from ours.
May His grace always be with us and flow through us to touch those around us.
Y.B.I.C,
Dave.
P.S. Rick, we are told to worship in 'truth' and 'spirit.' Amen? There is a need for loving, inspirational and encouraging words and deeds. But there is also a place for rebuke, truth and exhortation. Both are edifying and essential in our walk with the Lord. Thank you for your commitment in proclaiming His truth.
"And conversely many of those devotional posts seem to garner little interest..."
I just wanted to address this thought by sharing that your devotional posts quite often bring me to a place of devotion and worship. Comments seem unnecessary when you've lifted my eyes to the Lord.
In Christ Alone,
jules
Thank you, Jules.
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