Lamentations 1:10 (ASV)
The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: For she hath seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, Concerning whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thine assembly.
The radiance and the beauty that once clothed the Church has been spotted and deteriorated in this generation. Surely the adversary has spread out his hand upon all of her pleasant things. The Holy presence that once abode within her has seemingly left and we are now substituting for the perfection that has been lost. We are seeing things entering the sanctuary that we would have never dreamed of only one generation ago. Unholy things have entered into the assembly that have been forbidden.
One of these unholy, what the Prophet referred to as "nations", that has entered to the assembly is religious entertainment. Religious entertainment in the assembly is nothing other than a substitute for Truth that has been forsaken. That Mighty Holy Ghost of God that draws men to Christ has been tremendously grieved by the dark hearts and corruption within the Church and He has seemingly left all together.
You may say this man is a radical, an extremist, but when was the last time you left the assembly so shaken by the awesome presence of God that you dared to speak of it? When was the last time you experienced such a move of the Spirit of God in the assembly that men's hearts were pricked and melted by the Refiner's Fire and formed by the Master's hand?
The truth is we haven't experienced this supernatural phenomenon because the tender Spirit of Christ has been grieved and the manifestations of these supernatural activities have ceased! This is a great tragedy! Oh the losses we have suffered in this era! It seems that our efforts to fill the vacancy created by the fleeing away of the Spirit of Truth have produced such substitutes such as religious entertainment. We poor Christians seem to feel a need to work up some type of hype and dramatic performance to draw spectators to support the weak, feeble infrastructure of a dying organism.
WE NEED REVIVAL OR WE WILL HAVE A FUNERAL!!!
Are we content with the sub-standard disciplines, the forfeiture of spiritual authority and loss of the Holy Presence in the Church? If not why don't we do something about it? There is a great need for a mighty reformation in this hour and I believe we are sitting at the threshold of the greatest shaking the Church has ever seen. I am praying for and living for the day when God breathes through His Church again. The day when an organization becomes a living organism the way it was intended to be. I have only read about the way the assembly (the Church) should be. I have never experienced what I call normality within the Church. It has been diseased since my birth and re-birth yet there is something within the depth of my heart that has been crying out for this reformation for years. I pray that this restlessness of heart and discontentment with substandard disciplines fill your very being as well.
This is the very uneasiness that caused Jeremiah to weep! This is the very burden that drove Isaiah to his knees crying "I am a man of unclean lips!" This is the call to spiritual revolution that urged Martin Luther to nail his ninety-five thesis to the door of the Wittenburg Church. That man of God was not content with the rotten corruption that had filled the Church and he became the voice of God to bring reformation to a diseased organism. In essence he protested the vulgarity and perversion within the doctrine of the Church in the power and might of the Spirit of God. The result of all of this was God breathed into the Church again and raised it from the dead!
Have we taken the time to search the Scriptures to have revelation of what it means to live the normal Christian life? Have we studied the Word of God to have an accurate portrait of what the Church is supposed to be? If we are judging and drawing a plumb line by denominational standards we will never see the discrepancy. If we do not see the discrepancy we will not be moved towards reform. These men of renown have measured the standard by the plumb line of Gods Holy Word. They have received abundant revelation from above of the discrepancies and deficiencies lurking within the Church and they all have been willing to give their lives to the cause of fasting, prayer and confrontation.
Our list of good programs can never replace the missing element of God's presence. Our religious entertainment will never regenerate the wicked hearts of men, it will only feed their carnality. Our concerts will never make converts, they will only make entertained sinners! We need Divine Presence instead of doctrinal programming, Holy Passion instead of hilarious comedians! God's eyes are running to and fro over the earth to find one person that He can show Himself strong through! Yield yourself today to become a servant of righteousness and pursue His perfection through an intimate relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ.
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