|
The church is the Body of Jesus
Christ and was established by Christ to be the showplace of God.
If God is not visible in His House, then He is not there. All
that the majority sees in our churches today is religion. Only
the vibrant and mighty power of the Holy Ghost can change this
dire situation. As long as we are no more powerful than the
Muslims, the Buddhists, or the Hindus; we should not complain
when our national leaders try to tell us that all gods are
equal. If nothing supernatural is happening; we really are not
that much different.
Our New Testament leaves no doubt
that God intends for the church to be a place of power –
supernatural power. The true New Testament church is a
reflection of the life and authority of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. It is not just good and solid theology that we
need, it is the Holy Ghost anointing upon that Gospel spoken by
God’s servant. Here’s how Apostle Paul said it by the Holy
Ghost, “Who also hath made us able
ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the
Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life”
(II Corinthians 3:6). Most ministers do not claim to be
preachers but have settled to be teachers. It is a good cover
for the absence of the anointing, but it only feeds the mind and
not the spirit of the worshipers. It produces intellectual death
in the House of God. Yes, we need teachers, but, first, we need
anointed preachers.
Remember, God hath chosen “by the
foolishness of preaching” to reach into the spirit of man and
convict him of his lost condition. Nothing arouses conviction of
sin like a mighty man of God in the pulpit. In our fleshly
wisdom we think that a loud annoying voice in the sanctuary is
out of style for our modern day church. But, God is wiser than
us because He is omniscient. He says,
“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew
not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe” (I Corinthians 1:21). Unless there
is this annoying voice in your church, you are out of business
and do not even know it.
The church world is full of strange
ideas in promoting the church of today. Men, calling themselves
preachers, are making their sanctuaries a distorted auditorium
of worldly music and fleshly titillating sounds. They are
fashioning the House of God into a display of carnal flesh and
ideas that are loved by unconverted souls and calling the
results, “revival.” This strange fire that is in what used to be
called the House of God has already attracted the attention of
the Father and He is readying His response. You do not want to
be there when He reveals His wrath, as He surely will.
God’s programs of the past are still
His plans for the future. He has always preserved a remnant to
speak and act for Himself when departure from truth has taken
the day. The power of God is a mighty display as has often been
revealed. Apostle Paul reminds us of the First Testament
revelations and promises us even greater results.
“But if the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the
children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses
for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done
away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather
glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much
more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory”
(II Corinthians 3:7-9).
As we wait for the glorious Rapture
of the church, we have a right and a duty to pray for a
sovereign visitation of the Holy Ghost. It cannot be stopped
because the Scripture cannot be broken. Apostle Peter settled
this on the Day of Pentecost, “And it
shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out
of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your
old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my
handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they
shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and
signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of
smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into
blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:”
(Acts 2:17-20).
“Saith God”
is a shattering statement that inspires my soul to
shout aloud. Let the worldly church produce their idols of
compromise and strange ideas of faddish religion. God is not
finished yet. He has always had the last word. The harvest of
the earth is His heartthrob. Even the coming of His Son to reap
the souls of His saints is awaiting His passion to save the
lost. The unsaved are called “the
precious fruit of the earth” (James 5:7b).
My Father is drawing to Himself
saints that have been transformed and set apart, and He is
filling their souls with a passion for His harvest - not theirs
- but His harvest. These saints are weeping, interceding, and
anticipating His visitation. They are not of one color or of one
class except the sanctified heart. The moment of this beginning
glory cannot be far away. His church will be His showplace at
the chosen hour. |