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!
“SPIRIT”
Are we Skypeople or Earthdweller? They are two very different ways of living. One lives by their wings, the other by human reasoning. One has a focus on Infinite, the other finite. One goes on forever, the other trapped in the numbers. One walks by what he hears within, the other by what he sees without. What we hear from above, or what we see from below. Two very different ways of living. It cannot be hidden or faked for long.
The city has checked it and it is clean. The water has filtered through the ground and that is all it is. Our basement pumps it into my hole and it became part of our bird sanctuary. It became an ecosystem of its own and the birds love it! But why am I sharing all this? People of God, we’re meant to live “higher”. And some of you immediately think dollar signs $ when I say that, and you reveal your lack of Spirit!
Who can tell me what the very last word in the Old Testament is? Who can tell me the last word God spoke before hundreds of years of silence? It is the word “curse”.
Greed is not green!
Imagine you’ve set yourself aside from the world and isolated yourself on a sailboat with all the coffee you could need and a good book. The sound of the water against the hull and the wind in the sails are your only distractions. You are surrounded by beauty and nature. You find your favorite reading spot, got your coffee in hand and now for the book! A real mind-twister! A murder mystery! A real “Who-Done-It”?
“Burning Ancient Foundations”
“Simply Jesus”
It was a rough night last night, as temperatures dropped and a cold breeze blew through this teepee and under my cot! I froze from the bottom side all last night, but I will have that corrected tonight, and now we dig into more of Gideon and what I believe to be the message of the hour for us today! I want to take a close look at how God says Gideon’s 300 were chosen. This will be good, folks!
Path Without End 