Copy – Paste – Send

HAVE WE LOST THE UNIQUENESS OF THE SAINTS?

This will be one of the more difficult articles I have set my hand to write, only because it could be easily misunderstood, which would be a tragedy, for I believe the Lord has something for His people. It seems that the uniqueness of the saints is being lost, the uniqueness of the body of Christ is being overshadowed by religion and ritual. Either the Holy Ghost is at work in such a way that many assemblies of God’s people are hearing the exact same things to do, or there is a lot of copying going on. I hope that my words will not be misrepresented here, for there is nothing wrong with programs and activities if that is what God has shown you to do. If the Holy Ghost is speaking these things to you then they will bear fruit, but I fear there is much mimicking going on, simply because it works. We seem to confuse results with fruit in our modern day Christianity. Fruit takes time, is nurtured and grows organically; it is brought forth by life. Results are church committee, dollar driven and produced by good works and religion. In the book of Jeremiah, God says that He is against the prophets because they borrow their words from one another. In other words, they see what works and they use it. While it is true that we can hear something from another brother and it can be real to us in life and power. It is also true that we can simply borrow: download a message, a lesson, or a study plan with no real spiritual insight. Paul says in II Corinthians that when we compare ourselves to ourselves and among ourselves, we are in trouble. Only in the light and presence of Jesus does all become clear. I do not know if it is that we have become lazy, lost our way, or simply lost our faith. Where are the men who are getting fresh words from God? There is a reality, a freshness, a life to the word of God. When was the last time you really – I mean really – heard someone preach on Calvary, in simplicity and power? Where are the meetings where the sinner can’t wait to either run up to the front and repent or run for the door? Where are the congregations that can’t help but interrupt the preacher with the amens and hallelujahs? We have such a sophisticated Christianity that we have strangled the life out of it.

Church should be marked by life, and let me be clear here with what I mean by life. I am not speaking of dynamic music or sister Lucy having some new and strange prophecy to shout out. In fact when there is real life among us in an assembly of believers there will be some meetings that touch heaven and others that may appear dry as dust. They may be filled with tears, or joy. I am not speaking of random for random’s sake, but of letting the Holy Spirit truly have His way. You cannot have Holy Ghost meetings without Jesus being Lord and present. I have seen a few meetings where I have questioned if Jesus was there as Lord. Sure, things were happening but we shouldn’t be looking for things, we are looking for the Lord Jesus. We are all uniquely made, with God’s eternal purpose in hand and in view. The fall marred us beyond repair yet when Christ comes in and He makes all new, we must die to ourself, to the flesh, but the Lord wants the child, the son or daughter that He created to come forth in who they really are in Jesus. Yet our convenient, run them in and out, drive through services, does not allow the Holy Spirit to breathe through the individuals. When I was a young man there was a lot of uniqueness around, I can name quite a few preachers who were different, some would even say strange, but what was evident in their life and preaching was anointing. We have our worship down to such a fine point in twenty-one minute segments and we have our preacher  boys so trained up to pontificate to perfection, that in some circles, anointing doesn’t even seem to be necessary anymore. Just copy, paste and send.

Really, is this what Jesus died for? So that we could all look the same, act the same, instead of His life flowing out of us? You see, individualism, like any  ism has an error, it pushes and shoves and says this is who I am. The individual has a husk about him. True individuality in Jesus, allows the husk to be stripped away to the seed of Christ. Through discipleship and even godly despair at times, that life will come forth and God can accomplish what He wants. Could it be that we have eaten so long from the tree of good and evil, that we have forgotten what it is like to really take from the fruit of the tree of life? Church has become so convenient: pick your service, pick your preacher, pick the type of music you like, pick your parking place, get your take-away and go. No need for prayer, real heart felt, devil defying, soul-crying prayer. No need to study, with Bible in hand, on one’s knees before the Lord, praying God open this book up to me. No need to let the Holy Spirit invade our life and turn it upside down. Merely go to church, ask God to bless what you are doing, say that Jesus is your savior and live your life anyway you please, with your ticket to heaven in hand. Is this what Jesus died for? I think not. Paul knew he was called to the Gentiles, Peter knew he was called to the Jews, James had the large church in Jerusalem and died by the sword. Stephen was filled with power and faith, he had no successful ministry by today’s standards, in fact one of the shortest ministries in all of holy script; yet one of glory. He preached fire and received rocks. Unique men with unique calls, all giving God what He required, fulfilling His plan. Once again, where is that uniqueness today in our cookie-cutter Christianity? It is time we get back to open hearts and empty hands, acknowledging all that we don’t know, knowing that He possess all we need to know. Quit numbering and naming and measuring, for God never measures, He weighs. As it says in Corinthians, every man’s work will be weighed for what sort it is, not what size it is. It is time to let God get our priorities right. Many years ago I went to one of Leonard Ravenhill’s prayer meetings that he held at Last Days Ministries. Before he prayed he said, “the church down the street has a congregation but no prayer meeting, I have no congregation but I have a prayer meeting.” With that, this old man of God, turned his chair around, got on his knees and began to pray. Where are these gray hairs now? We could use them. In their place we have men who tell us how to build churches not the Kingdom, how to make people happy not hungry. How to have sweet marriages instead of sanctified ones. How to raise nice Christian kids rather than ones that will grow up to be something of God. The nation is undone and tearing itself apart. We have social Sodom and Gomorrah, evil education and polluted politics. Yet here, especially in the Bible Belt, we have churches with: bowling alleys, gym memberships, daycares, bookstores, coffee shops, restaurants. Cries of hallelujah can be heard but the cry of the prophet is silent and the cry for God to have mercy on us, as a nation, is unheard.