Modern Church – Path Without End

9021 Will modern church fight the Sea Change in spite of “over whelming” evidence of her failure in America? Why do I specify America? Because it seems we have not failed so badly overseas. It appears our dollars invested to send missionaries to third world countries, and such, is resulting in much multiplication and revival! But why is that? Is it because our American version of church is succeeding there? Not according to the studies I have read. They are succeeding for exactly the opposite reasons!

These oversea revivals are not adopting the big church modern system, but they are doing it much more closely to what the Early Church of the Old Ways did! House to house! What we see throughout our New Testament! Isn’t that interesting! You say No? Maybe? We will see.

And in a time when the American church should be self examining and asking why all this has come upon us “on our watch”, we do not self-examine, but simply say to pray, vote for Trump, and we will overcome! (Where is the humble yourself, repent, turn from your wicked ways, seek my face?) If this is your answer for where we are going, then what is your reasoning on how we got here? Have you yet to even admit it is the modern church that is responsible to God for America’s condition? And if these be judgments from God, then who has caused them, the unsaved world who do not know what they do? Or a modern church who is supposed to know what they do?

I must give Mario Murillo credit for this. I believe he pointed out our SIN in scripture, and once I saw it, I needed no further explanation because it was all so plain! I don’t know the details he has taught on this, but here is what seems so prophetically accurate to me, and yes…this does relate to our new SERIES of Old Paths and Micro Churches. I’m so excited to be finally getting fully into this.

I recommend one and all to read Jonah in detail, for yourself, but here are a few points for us to “launch” with. 1)…The Lord gave a message to Jonah! This is 1:1 of Jonah! And what did he do with it? He did not speak it! He refused to even go to those people that the message was for…and he RAN from God!

He was to warn of coming judgment, but refused! You may say we have had lots of people screaming judgment for years. Yes…but did you listen to them? And the message of the modern church has not been judgment, but prosperity and success and king theology! It says in verse 3, Jonah did not preach the message of the Lord, but got up and went in the opposite direction! He went “DOWN” to Joppa and got on a ship for Tarshish, whose name in the Greek means = a stone, a jem, a reverse! And when I think of a “jem”, I think of money, prosperity, materialism!

2)…But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart! (Remember the vision I’ve shared in detail in previous articles? The whirlwinds, dry corn shucks, and wire fences? And two old gates?) Fearing for their lives these unsaved men started praying to their gods for divine help! But Jonah was not praying in the storm, he was sleeping! (Vrs. 5)

3)…The captain of the ship demands for Jonah to pray to his God also! This is like the world telling the church to wake up and pray! What are you doing sleeping in a storm like this? And soon, it is discovered, the whole storm is because of Jonah! It is not because of these ungodly men who know not what they do, but because of Jonah who knows exactly what he is doing! The storm has come on ALL of them because of Jonah, God’s man, not anyone else! This is our fault, church! And are you examining your modern ways to figure out why? Or must we be thrown overboard, by the world, into the sea, to be swallowed by a fish, before we will finally get serious about our calling as Priests in the earth!

We will be having much more to say about Jonah and the church, for example…in chapter 2, verse 10, it says the fish “spit” or “vomited” Jonah out of his mouth! That sounds a whole lot like the church of Laodicea to me! And what have we already been saying? But even as Jonah is spit out on that beach, he still has serious attitude issues! But I don’t want to just spend time on how we got here, but also where we go from here. In this series I want to talk about both. We need to speak about what Jonah did, and also what Jesus DID!

The clock is coming full circle! Is the church becoming as the Jewish church was in Jesus day? Jesus looked at the Pharisees and said, when speaking of Nineveh! > “The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah.”

“Now someone greater than Jonah is here — but you refuse to repent.” (Matt. 12:41b)

He goes on to say, “Now someone greater than Solomon is here — but you refuse to listen.”

Refusal to take this seriously. Refusal to repent or listen. I no longer claim to be a Christian. I have tried to correct my habit of speech developed over many years of being a Christian. I try to always specify “I am a follower of Jesus”. I need to go deep into that, also. The modern church has so tainted the name of “Christian”, that I can no longer use that title in good conscience.

However, the name of Jesus still stands pure! If you truly follow Jesus, which is Christianity in its purest and simplest form, people will still respect you. But what does that mean? How have we sullied the name, Christian? Do you even understand? Love of money…king theology… power… sexual unfaithfulness. And related to power…”politics” now also “marks” the name Christian/church/Bible, in the eyes of the world. The world knows Jesus never went political, even though baited more than once by the disciples.

Do I plan to vote? Yes. Do I make a major issue out of politics? No. I focus on the transformation of hearts in Christ Jesus. I never want to speak of politics to the point someone will not listen to me concerning Jesus. Only if I were called of God to that work would I become that vocal, and God does call such people. But the church as a whole is meant to be preaching the Gospel! And multiplying through discipleship! Like salt out of a shaker!

Did you know the death of Billy Graham has proven itself to be a spiritual marker in time, for this nation? And consider this, even though Billy Graham was associated with every President we ever had, it seems, but he was not political! The few times he crossed that line he said he regretted! The young Rev. Graham got involved with Nixon and crossed the line. But the older Graham had learned! He was advisor to both Clinton and Reagan! He told “Christianity Today” in 2011 that he would have ‘steered clear of politics” and he had crossed the line a few times but would not do that now! He did not join the Moral Majority or the Religious Right! How do you think he was able to advise someone like Clinton and also Bush, or Jimmy Carter, and also Reagan? And yet remain above it all!

Billy Graham focused on changing hearts in the power of God, and then a right heart votes godly! And good political leaders with a true desire to serve the people become available. But in a world growing more and more worldly, it don’t matter how political you may get, soon, there will be no good choices! (And some would say we’re already there!) This storm is because of the church running from God’s true message and true ways! And the world plans to throw us in the deep blue raging sea! At least Jonah admitted it was because of him.

If the modern church fails to admit its sin, will God still prepare a fish for us? Or simply let us drown? If we are spit out on the beach, will we preach it then, or just remain a beach bum? Building sandcastles, and lamenting the days of yore?

I firmly believe when the first church in Acts was simply growing larger and larger in that one place, God was saying, “This is not what I want, guys.” So he put his Believers in a salt shaker and began shaking the bottle, because they were simply piling up in a large hump, in one place, not seasoning the whole plate at all! So he allowed persecution and sent them out like salt to sprinkle throughout the land and multiply. Invade, saturate, multiply, fight decay, and season the experience of life for all to see!

Is this thing being called “Micro Church”, the new move of God? Is it God trying to get us back to the wisdom and Holy Spirit power of the old ways? Are we in big lumps that don’t know how to truly be the “family” of God, experiencing shallow relationships instead of the deep? We have so much more to say on this subject, as to Modern Church…Micro Church…Jonah…and Jesus!

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“Gideon 101”

The warrior in the night sky is how I think of him. God branded my mind with him that night, and then sealed it forever with that message talked about in previous article. Now it’s time to take a good look at an old story and see what it has to say to a new people in our day. Will we be the people of a new wine skin? Or will it be business as usual?

The story of Gideon only requires 3 chapters in the book of Judges, chapters 6-8. Chapter 5 ends with this final line of: “So the land had rest for forty years.” The children of Israel had gone through another one of their “sin cycles”. Repent to God. God saves them from the harvest of their own bad seeds. God shows them mercy for the life of that judge, but then they have already fallen back into sin before that judge even passes and the cycle begins again.

It seems that the “blessings” and “abundance” of God is our own worse enemy. Human nature being what it is, we don’t handle prosperity well, not spiritually speaking. And then God has to look for another person to stand in the gap for righteousness that he can use. “So the land had rest for forty years. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.” (Here we go again.)

So God looks for a man again, and where does he find the one he chooses? He finds him at a wine press, threshing wheat, in order to hide it from the Midianites. He’s threshing wheat, but he’s at a wine press. He’s not at a wheat grindstone, he’s at a wine press! A new wine ready to come forth! But he doesn’t yet know it! So much of the church still grinding at this grindstone we’ve allowed to go on for far too long! But the Gideons are seeking the wine press, and bringing food for the hungry, in secret! And the Angel, (capitol “A”!) calls him, “Thou mighty man of valor!”

And what was Gideon’s response? “And where are all God’s miracles our fathers told us about?” Are we not in the same boat today? Where is the power? Do you think these political battles are the answer? These are the miracles of God? I fear you have placed your faith in man-made ways and will be greatly disappointed. The Midianites and the Amalekites are coming and it won’t be a politician who saves your day, it will be a Gideon! It will be a man who God speaks to, and he obeys! His strategy will be godly, because it will be from God, and it will be light in the darkness, spirit of a breaker, and a very “small” army sounding very large! Because of the power of God, not man!

Gideon was also very HUMBLE. Does your politician fit that mode? In response to the Angel calling him “mighty”, he says: “Oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least of my father’s house.” (vrs 15)

According to Gideon, God had chosen the least of the least.

So Gideon prepares an altar to the Lord and calls it, “The Lord Is Peace”. And the Lord tells him to tear down the idol of Baal your father has, and cut down the wooden image, and build an altar to the Lord on top of this rock. In verse 27 we find he took ten men with him and did it in the “night”, because he feared the reactions he would get, and sure enough there were those who wanted to kill him. Gideon has caused a great disruption as to what had become the status quo! He attacked the idols that had been set up in his father’s house! He built an altar to the Lord! Does anyone see our modern churches doing that? Maybe we haven’t suffered enough yet. Maybe Gideon is still in the secret place, in the wine press. Maybe he has not yet made the move that will disrupt the status quo, but it’s coming.

The Midianites were actually the descendants of Abraham, from a man named Midian. Can you believe it? The children of Israel were being tormented and robbed by their own family tree! And the Amalekites were descendants of Esau, who God judged because he sold his birthright for beans! This is all in the family!

Now the idols they worshiped are very interesting too, because they represented SEX and PROSPERITY. According to 1st Samuel 12:10, not only did Israel fall into Baal worship, but also Ashtaroth. Our churches today are full of these idols, falling down to sexual sins of all sorts and the love of money! If ever a Gideon anointing was needed, it’s today! Divorce rates in the church match the world! And babies were sacrificed to Baal! America is overflowing with the sin of abortion! (I hope not the church!) Both Baal, Ashtaroth, and Tammuz is very much alive and well in the modern churches of our day.

I believe there is a Gideon anointing coming to a few, a remnant, whom God will be moving through in this time of judging his church! God still says… “If MY people!”

So what does this mean for you and I? Are you one this anointing has come upon? If you’re still dwelling in the status quo, then probably not. When I told someone God had showed me we were crossing some kind of a spiritual line at beginning of June, they said, “So what?” They didn’t know what to do with that. It wasn’t specific enough for them, and if I would have tried to tell them all these details, they didn’t have time.

But even so… there is much I have done because I knew this line was coming! I was faithful to prayers, fasting and Passover. And I was even led to prepare for Pentecost this year! (First time God did that to me.) And I’m about to have 3 days at the teepee. I have not done this since October 2018 when God showed me these events.

There is always much we can do in spiritual preparations. I went to the wine press! I was threshing wheat in the secret place! Because I knew something was coming! And now it is here and it is changing everything, almost over night! And we do not know its final form! But we must come out of the harlot church and enter the wine presses with God! I’ve torn down the idol Baal in my own life! And Jesus is showing up speaking to us! The idols must come down!

This same person is very busy developing a video game teaching site. He’s having good success with it so far. Even beginning to earn money! I hope it does not distract him from being in the wine press with God. He does not read my blogs even though we are related. His church fits the typical mode of today, in which a nephew of mine, who thought he was close to the Pastor, never got a call from him when they left. Just too big to be that personal. What does it all mean? But a Gideon army is growing, and will be ready to go forth right on time.

Through Moses, God brought forth water from the rock, but with Gideon he brought forth fire from the rock! “Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; (note: this sacrifice sounds like a Passover meal!)… and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.” (Vrs 21)

Now Gideon realizes he has seen the Lord! He starts to freak out! He thinks he’s going to die! But the Lord says to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” The altar was named, “The – Lord – Is – Peace”.

And so… we near Gideon’s battle. That will be next episode. But I know of no other Bible hero in which a “Sword” is mentioned like it is with Gideon, when it is shouted: “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!” And yet… there is no swords in the hands of Gideon, or the 300 when they execute that first battle! Huh? They have a torch emitting fire and light in their left hand, and a trumpet in the right! No sword in their hands! But a sword certainly coming out of their mouth! (Interesting.) This is the beginning of our look at Gideon, thou mighty man of valor!

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