Non-Transferable Non-Refillable
Bottles
Recently the Lord has opened the eyes of my understanding
concerning bottles and filtration systems. The Lord has a lot
to say about bottles and vessels for his glory.
Jeremiah 2:12-13
Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid,
be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed
two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters,
and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no
water.
Who in this
hour has the fear of God? Who
in this hour is horribly afraid of the evils committed by God’s
people? For the last three decades Pastors and evangelists have
worked with a fevered pitch to remove any semblance of the fear
of God from the life of a believer. Shepherds and sheep alike
in this hour have no fear of sin, no fear of God’s judgment, and
no fear of hell.
Because the
fear of God has been removed, there is no more restraint and the
Shepherds and the sheep do all that they imagine. Because the
fear of God has been removed God has departed and now the people
are in great want – desolate.
Psalm 34:9 O
fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that
fear him.
Psalm 31:19 Oh
how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that
fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust
in thee before the sons of men!
And instead of God
being the fountain of living waters for his Sheep men instead
have made for themselves false fountains – false fountains upon
which the sheep are to lavish praise and worship, false fountains
that are empty and can and will not produce water nor hold water.
Mark 2:22
And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine
doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles
will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.
As it was men’s
work to hew broken cisterns so is it the work of men to put new
wine in old wineskins. The purpose is that they might gain new
life and new converts to the old wineskin so that it might be
perpetuated as a venerated long-held tradition.
When I was a child in early 1960’s soda bottles,
milk bottles were all refillable.
You paid a deposit of three to five cents when you purchased
the beverage and when you returned the empty bottle you got back
your deposit. Then the respective company would collect their
bottles take them down to the local plant, hose out the old bottle
and then refill it. Within a few days the bottle would be back
out on the store shelf again to serve another customer.
These bottles had been used over and over again,
and many had been reused so many times that the glass was no longer
clear. These old vessels were so pitted and scratched
that the glass had become somewhat opaque obscuring the product
the vessel had been created to display.
As a child when I looked at those old scratched
and pitted bottles side by side with new clear ones, I would always
select a new bottle, somehow believing that the clearer new vessel
contained a purer and fresher beverage.
Of wineskins it would seem that it might be hard
to discern that the wineskin is new or used one once it has been
filled. And if anything the peddler that is preying on the public
with used wineskins would be seeking to make quick deals and then
get out of Dodge as quick as possible before the skins start exploding
and move on to new sales territory. But the nature of the salesmen
of what Jesus was speaking of are dealing in the old dried out
and cracked doctrines and traditions of men. In order to keep
a flow of steady customers they need to gin things up a bit – so they add greater and lesser degrees of the
wine of the spirit. So they try to control the Holy Spirit allowing
just enough to keep their customers coming, but not enough to
blow the denominational still.
Romans 9:20
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made
me thus?
It seems that in this day and time that no one
wants to be a unique vessel unto the Lord anymore. Instead we
spend our every waking moment reading books, listening to tapes,
and watching videos. At the subconscious level of our spirit’s
we know we are: “Searching, but never coming to the knowledge
of the truth.” But at the level of our carnal mind we have conned
ourselves into believing that by infusing our soul with massive
doses of specific teachings we can create within us the gift or
ministry of our choice. Falsely believing that God is running some
kind of a ministry sub-shop where we can build our own spiritual
ministry with a little Hagan, a little Wigglesworth, hold the
Oral Roberts and extra, extra William Branham.
And despite us receiving the Holy Spirit’s nudging to get
us to abandon this destructive path, we keep on searching.
Believing that if we could only find the right Spirit anointed
combination of these old dead bottles, that God would somehow
be compelled to hand over to us the car keys so we go out on a
twenty to thirty year joy ride.
While I’m writing this I am picturing poor starving children
from a third world country. Covered in filth, dressed in rags
these children were working toxic dumps to feed themselves and
their siblings.
Revelation 3:17
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and
have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched,
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
And what were these poor children searching for? Initially they were told that there were treasures
and items of great value hidden among the refuse. They were told
that one only had to dig long enough and hard enough, and they
will be amply rewarded. But all too soon these children of death,
were transformed from being starry-eyed treasure hunters, to scavenging
beasts desperately searching for something, anything that they
can continue one more day in their squalor.
So we too dig deep into the dump of old waste
doctrines and traditions of men. Spending our every waking moment
reading books, listening to tapes, and watching videos. And what
are we in search of? Treasures of corruption, items that carnal
men deem as having great spiritual value, rumors of forgotten
and discarded spiritual gifts, tales of abandoned vessels just
lying out there free for the pickings, and of course the mantles
of dead Prophets, Apostles and other Holy men and women.
Our roving eye of lust is out on the pull seeking
what other’s have. Our eye of lust wants anything that could grant
us recognition of men. It
is the horseleech of Proverbs that cries day and night for more
and never is satisfied. The thing about lust is it is an inflamed emotion,
it is not a five or ten-year discipline, it doesn’t want to pay
the price to get something, it wants immediate gratification. Why should we spend precious time praying,
fasting, and studying God’s word alone? Why should we pour ourselves
out, giving all that we have and all that we are to the Lord?
When we can just go over to the dump and get it for free?
To him that hath an ear to hear let him hear;
I’m going to give some very liberating information.
The bottle that God creates within every believer is wholly
unique and forged at the foot of the throne of God. This bottle
is non-transferable and non-refillable.
So you can save yourself from wasting years of your life
trying to get someone else’s bottle. You can spare yourself the
disappointment and discouragement while at the same time avoiding
giving the devil place in your life when you discover this spiritual
Ponzi scheme doesn’t work.
John 10: 1–2 Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief
and a robber.
If we try to receive some gift, or a ministry
or someone else’s mantle by going some other way but through the
door (Jesus) we become a thief and a robber.
If you are even contemplating using shortcuts
in regards to receiving your calling, gifts of the Spirit, and/or
ministry, you are contemplating the most dangerous thing a believer
can do. You are indicating to the serpent that you are willing
to do anything to get the gift and/or ministry of your choice.
In Genesis the serpent came to Eve offering her a short
cut to the promises of God, and we know all too well what happened
there.
Jesus is the door.
Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Jesus is the
way the truth and the life. All true Ministry or gifts lead you
to the feet of Jesus. If they lead you to the feet of a Minister
or a Ministry it is false. How else can you explain the following
verse?
Matthew 7:21-23 Not
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which
is in heaven. Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done
many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
I have heard
this repeatedly preached that these people had false gifts. Counterfeit
ministry and that these people were agents of the devil.
Jesus was not confused when he spoke, this passage does
not require interpretation. If Jesus could give his unregenerate
disciples gifts of healing, power to cast out devils and perform
miracles, if in the Bible we have examples of those who began
their walk close to God and later departed, it is easy to understand
that a gift or ministry has to come through the door or through
the vine to the braches. If Jesus said I can of my own self do
nothing. If Jesus said if I bare witness of myself it is no good.
If Jesus said He could only do that which he saw the Father do.
. . how can we expect
to do it any other way?
The Bible repeatedly warns us that: “No thief
shall enter in the kingdom.”
So why are we really do this book and tape thing?
– These are actually acts of rebellion and disobedience on our
part. For when we know that we should be studying
to show ourselves approved, and meditating on his word, for when
we know that we should be spending time in prayer and waiting
on the Lord, for when we know that we should be humbling ourselves
before God and serving one another as we would Christ – We instead
push those aside the promptings of the Spirit in order and have
a flesh feast while dumpster dining.
Thirty years ago I knew dozens if not hundreds
of believers that took on this lifestyle. They gorged themselves
on tapes, books and video’s. They were on top of all the latest
truths. The sad truth is that not one of them ever came into something
solid in God. Many of these believers have long since passed away,
while those who still remain are sickly, weak, and a lot more
confused and frustrated than if they had never embarked on the
route of ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the
truth.
Acts 19:13 Then
certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call
over them which had evil spirits the name of the LORD Jesus, saying,
We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
In our day we have a lot of vagabond Christians
who take upon themselves gifts, ministries, and mantles that are
not their own so say things like: “In Jesus name whom John Lake
teacheth. Or In Jesus name whom Charles Finny teacheth. Or In
Jesus name whom Smith Wigglesworth teacheth, or in Jesus name
whom Kenneth Hagan teacheth -- be thou whole, be thou cast out,
be thou whatever, and nothing happens. I am not knocking the faith
message, I am knocking receiving 2nd hand, third hand
and fourth hand
truth. Reading a book doesn’t make it so in your
life. The word has to be made flesh – you have to experience it,
you have to lay at the feet of Jesus to be taught of him. You’re
pastor can not do this for you.
Now if that sickness, that demon, or that whatever
it is that you want dominion over would speak to you I’ll go out
on a limb predict it would say; ”Jesus I know, and John Lake I
know, but who are you?”
Why do movements fail?
Because people are pattern conscious.
I Corinthians 12:15-17
If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of
the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall
say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore
not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the
hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
Let’s
put this in modern terms we all need faith. We all need working faith. But God made only
one unique vessel named Kenneth Hagin. If everyone goes to Rhema
and patterns themselves after Kenneth Hagan, as good as that would
be, the body of Christ would be diminished by this action. Because
the body would be deprived of many otherwise unique vessels with
unique operations and gifts of the Spirit that along with the
real Kenneth Hagan would greatly edify the body. – But instead
we end up with 10,000 Hagan clones most of which are bad knock
offs.
Filtering
Lets now move on to the subject of filtering.
Most of us sometime in our lives have played the game of telephone.
A message is given and passed down a line of people and as the
message goes down the line bits are left out, bits are added,
and bits are interpreted. And generally the message that comes
out at the end bares little resemblance to what was originally
spoken. What happened?
Heavy filtering. Filtering to the place where the original message
has become of none effect.
Matthew 23:13
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut
up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves,
neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
I have a personal confession to make. When I
read the Bible, when I pray, when God gives me some revelation
and I speak it unto you, it is filtered. As much as I would like
to tell you that I am a transparent vessel and add nothing or
remove nothing to what God speaks – it still has been filtered.
How? I filter it by my eyes, I filter by my understanding, and
I filter by my experiences. I emphasize the things that tend to
be most meaningful to me, I tend to de-emphasize what is not.
This is not to say I am holding the truth in unrighteousness but
it goes a long way to explain what John the Apostle said.
That which our eyes have seen that which our
hands have handled concerning the word of life that speak we unto
you.
John is not speaking of head knowledge as being
his final authority of what he is preaching, instead John is speaking
of a more vital experience. Until the accepted savior walks in
you breaths in you and lives in you he is not truly living in
you. He is only a boarder, a temporary lodger.
It is from this experiential standpoint that
one needs to teach. Think of this, Peter preached Peter, Paul
Preached Paul and John preached John. Paul did not preach Peter
and John did not preach Paul. Did they know something that we don’t? I think they did. We pollute our souls with
books, tapes, and videos continually and we preach everyone except
ourselves because we are blind deaf and naked.
So now lets look at what we are doing when we
add the filtering effect to the other people’s teachings that
we so readily use.
If my pastor preaches and I take his message
and preach it, it has now been filtered twice.
And like in the game of telephone when I speak it to the
next person I drop bits that I deem unimportant, I may even add
bits that I see that were not part of the original message and
I will emphasize and de-emphasize what I see as important. So
in most cases because my experience is less than my teacher the
message becomes less with my filtering.
Now if we lived in a vacuum this would not be
too bad, because in a vacuum there would be little or no loss.
But we don’t live in a vacuum instead there are 10,000 voices
trying to distort or compete with that single message. And within
days, weeks, or months, the words you originally heard or read
become hopelessly scrambled as we have already long moved onto
other messages and teachings.
We also need to grasp the level of filtering
that we are facing when we receive teaching.
If my pastor had been sat under Paul the Apostle the level
of filtering that we would receive might not be dire, but you
see your pastor did not sit at the feet of Paul.
And he who taught your pastor’s teacher did not, and he
that taught him did not.
So that on all to much that we receive as being
straight from the throne in actuality has filters on top of filters
on top of filters and that all the life of the Spirit has long
been filtered out from these generational doctrines of men and
generational teachings of men. People no longer understand the
teaching’s true significance; people no longer understand the
teaching’s true meaning.
You say I don’t know what kind of church you
go too but my pastor is a man of God and he gets everything he
preaches from the word of God. Well unless your Pastor fell from
heaven he was taught of men – he was indoctrinated as all of us
were. We all have problems even reading simply what is on the
page of the Bible, because all to often the indoctrinations speak
louder than we can read. And this is even before the Spirit can
enlighten these passages to us –we are another 10 –12 verses down
the page.
If this filtering problem exists where is it
in the Bible? I’m glad you asked
Mark 4:12 That seeing they may see, and not
perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest
at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be
forgiven them.
Now wait a minute
I thought it was the will of God that all be saved? Yes it is,
but all have a will and all can all to easily believe whatever
they want. We can all to easily filter God out.
Isaiah 42:19-20
Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I
sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD's
servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the
ears, but he heareth not.
I have actually
heard several people preach on this verse in Isaiah as being a
good thing spiritually. But it is a lament of God. This verse
is speaking of a spiritual rot that has come through the root
and infected the entire plant. This blindness and deafness of
the Priesthood of the Watchmen of the Shepherds and of the Prophets
is a spiritual pestilence like a plague of locusts that eat and
contaminate every green thing among the people of God
Isaiah 6:10-11
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with
their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and
be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until
the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without
man, and the land be utterly desolate,
The rot of the
Pharisees that Jesus condemned with hellfire and brimstone came
into the Church 1800 years ago. The speaking of parables was originally
reserved for the blind unsaved masses and Pharisees – But it moved
into the Church in 90 AD when the Apostle John wrote the book
of Revelation. Did it start there? No. It was already evident
in the Epistles some 30
years earlier. But in by the time the problem was written about
in the book of Revelation Jesus appears with flames in his eyes
and a sword. And he’s threatening to remove almost all to the
seven churches of Asia minor. It may be hard to receive but historically
all seven of these churches were destroyed. Filtering can be deadly
to not only churches, but to the believers within them.
Isaiah 30:11-14
That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that
will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See
not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak
unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way,
turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease
from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because
ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness,
and stay thereon: Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a
breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking
cometh suddenly at an instant. And he shall break it as the breaking
of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not
spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it
a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal
out of the pit.
The more filtering
and the less understanding of the meaning of a message the more
there is a tendency to cut corners, preach smooth things and flat
change the way and path we are call to walk in. Once the rot settles
in, once we are blind we can justify practically anything. Filters
are debilitating, filters lead to death and destruction, filters
are part and parcel to backsliding movements, instead of bringing
you in contact directly with Christ on the throne they are an
endless wire snarl that leads you in circles.
And one thing that the devil has on his side as compared
to the children of men is time. He can wait for the spark to go
out in your life. He can wait for you to wear yourself out. He
can wait for frustration to sink in. And when your ready to deal
he’ll send out off on some branch line into the middle of nowhere.
So we grow older 5, 10, 15, 20 years and we have nothing more
than when we first started. And the serpent is just biding his
time – because you have been heading down the path of corruption.
You’ve planted seeds and watered them and he’s ready to help you
with the harvest. Repent! Get off this road. Start praying. Confess
your blindness. If you are earnest God will rescue you.
Jeremiah
23:1-2 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and
scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. Therefore thus
saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my
people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and
have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil
of your doings, saith the LORD.
Blind
At the scene of an accident you have ten witnesses,
and the police arrive and gather the witnesses and ask them individually
what happened and they generally end up with half a dozen different
stories. What’s happening? And
bare in mind this is only a single level of filtering – bad filtering
but a single level – be picky who you put your trust in for teaching.
I recommend Jesus and the Holy Spirit, but that isn’t for all.
Others wholly depend on Pastor’s and teachers. If you find yourself foraging for teaching
in tapes, books and video’s it could be a sign that your pastor
and/or teacher is not feeding you. You might pray for guidance
to be led to a church were you will be fed.
DUMP FEEDING IS VERY UNHEALTHY. It can permanently injure or kill you over time. Very few can survive
dump feeding over a prolonged period of time.
I tape and book binge because I want people to
know by the words that I speak that I am someone in God. If you make yourself known unto God – If you humble
yourself before God. If all you do is to glorify the Father and
the son. If you become his peculiar treasure, then he will show
you forth. And when that time comes forth -- you won’t have to speak for yourself. The
Father and the Holy Spirit will bear witness of you.
True
ministry is made when the Potter has clay that doesn’t argue about
the process and results.
We need to pray, fast, read God’s word and seek
God until we come into that solid experience that he would have
for us. A Holy experience that is completely unique between us
and the Lord. And as we walk in that experience, that gift, or
that ministry, as we continue to hold it before the Lord and offer
it to the Lord our life and ministry becomes our worship. A sacrifice
that is wholly pleasing unto the Lord.
To our lustful eyes, reading books and listening
to tapes and watching Video’s is far easier and far more exciting
than praying, fasting, reading God’s word and seeking God until
he is found of us. We try to be spiritual barnacles and ride off
of someone else’s walk. We try to leech off of the life of Christ
in someone else, and in so doing we end up very limited.
This generation of hearer’s with itching ears;
truly believe by pouring greater and greater amounts of volume
into our eye gates and ear gates we will receive more than those
who spend a lifetime fasting, praying and seeking God in the prayer
closet. Further we have developed an even more hideous doctrine,
that by sheer force of will we can select any of the promises
of God we desire, and ignore everything that we don’t like. We
of this self gratifying generation believe that we can demand
our way to healing and prosperity.
I am acutely aware that there is one who is more
than willing to grant you the fleshly desires of your heart –
the subtle salesman of Genesis. He won’t ask you to trade your
salvation as some have supposed. He won’t ask you to compromise
your beliefs. At issue is your pleasure and your corruption. Once
you are turned out of the way of the path that leads to life,
once you are one the self-serving path of corruption it leads
you to more and more corruption all the while eating your soul
out from within you. Few after tasting the sweet fruits of the Lust
of the flesh of the lust of the eyes and the love of the world
ever want to turn back. Because they get all they want when they
want it and they have it now in the flesh.
But the path of life – the highway of holiness
is diametrically opposed to such lusts and desires. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these
things shall be added unto you.
See the credo of the flesh is seek ye first all
these things and when you have all these things God will have
to use you.
If you want to walk with God, you want to experience
his power – let him create that unique bottle in you at his feet.
If you want to learn of him rid yourself of all these filters
and he will give you profound truths that can not be found in
any book.
If you give unto the Lord and to those who can
not reward you, it shall be given unto you.
In our
current level of experience we can only:
We commit random acts of Prayer
We commit random acts of Praise and Worship
We commit random acts of Fasting
We commit random acts of Repentance
We commit random acts of Denial of Self
We commit random acts of Giving
We commit random acts of Faith
We commit random acts of Testimony
But as a full and complete vessel unto the Lord
you will move beyond random acts of prayer –to a life of prayer.
As a full and complete vessel unto the Lord you
will move beyond random acts of praise and worship –to your life
becoming praise and worship.
I think you can see that God has so much more
for you.
We are told that people are too busy today –
they don’t have time
Sin is exhausting.
Death working in your members is exhausting. So we wake
up exhausted can’t pray in the morning, we eat breakfast we can’t
speak to God there because we are eating, we drive to work we
can’t speak to God there because were driving, we arrive at work
and we can’t speak to God there because we are working, we get
legal breaks we can’t speak to God ton them because we’re on break
or on lunch. We get back to work we drive home and we can’t speak
to God because we’re driving. We arrive home we’re exhausted from
work. So we sit and vegetate we can’t pray because we are resting,
We eat dinner we can’t pray because we’re eating again we sit
down now to really relax either watching TV a Video listening
to radio or a tape or curl up with a book – so many parents and
we can’t pray. Many Christian Parents then complain that their
children need attention with homework and want attention so they
can’t pray then they tuck them in bed and the parent fights of
sleep with entertainment as long as possible and goes to bed –
they can’t pray their because they are too tired and fall asleep.
And the cycle begins again.
Now did I make the above scenario up? No.
Surely you have overstated it no one person could
go through a day like that. This is the exact testimony of dozens
and dozens and dozens of believers that I heard with my own ear.
Surely this is the testimony of someone just
saved or backslidden. No word of God, Spirit filled “On Fire”
believer would be so carnal and crass. No. This is unfortunately
the exact testimony from the best and the brightest in many churches
I have been over the years. These people are our song leaders, choir members,
deacons, Sunday school teachers, and Bible study teachers. There
are the people that everyone looks up to as being spiritual among
you.
How dare I suggest this? I suggest this because
these people have said these things in my hearing in a variety
of fundamentalist and Pentecostal Churches located all over the
U.S. These people were confessing their carnality and indifference
toward God. So finish the story and tell me that they repented,
saw the light and became a beacon on a hill. I can’t because that didn’t happen.
Recently a Pentecostal the Pastor not just a
Church pastor but the second highest-ranking person in Alaska
for that particular denomination spoke on prayer in church.
I was there for an hour he spoke of his personal spiritual
inadequacy’s. He spoke
that for decades in the ministry he did not know how to pray.
And that a unequipped Pastor he sought out people he thought
were spiritual, and he would invite them out to his church and
had them stay in his house for a week at a time that he could
see how they prayed. He would question them, though he didn’t
say it, I could read his disappointment as those who seemed to
have had something in fact had little or nothing. – He had seen
behind the curtain of the great OZ and what he was really testifying
to the Church was unspeakable. He was reporting that he along
with the leaders of his denomination were deaf, blind, and naked,
and wretched. He affirmed that like the false prophets that
he and the other shepherds only spoke the smooth things the people
want to hear. He affirmed that he and his fellow watchmen upon
the walls were blind and deaf and were unable to give any warning
to the people of their charge.
He spoke that he had searched for years on how
too pray – the words that he spoke were empty and lifeless. And
then he said I finally decided that I knew how to pray all along.
He gave up seeking and accepted that the nothing
he had was the fullness of what God had in a prayer life. He read
books, he referred to some. He listened to tapes, and he saw video
taped meetings. He is a featured speaker in conferences. Yet he
is a white washed sepulcher filled with dead men’s bones.
His experience is exactly mirrors most believers
experience. He saw in the word or sensed that there was something
more in prayer – a relationship a reality and just like us. But
he didn’t want to pay the cost, so he tried to enter in some other
way than the door.
He had gotten a pastorate that way, he had gotten
into the number two position in his denomination that way, but
none of that will work with God.
God did not have pity on his congregation and fill him
with Gifts and spiritual ministry that he would meet their needs.
The members in his church are starved for life and truth from
the true vine, but since this branch is barely grafted in the
vine the grapes they produce are tiny dried out and flavorless
– the grapes or sheep are lean and starved.
So this Pastor to get God’s life some other way
reading books, tape sets, going to seminars, and looking for a
gifted ministry to hand it to him on a silver platter. But in
all this he was being disobedient and rebelling trying to get
in the door of a prayer life by some other way. The man was disappointed, he became disillusioned,
he then accepted being a child of death. No longer a treasure
hunter he became a scavenging beast searching for something, anything
that they could continue one more day in his squalor.
It the meeting he spoke of prayer being hard, and that
prayer required time. He offered no verses to instill faith in
his hearers, he did not speak of any prayer victories in regards
to himself or any believers.
He then opened it up to church members and it
should be of no surprise to you that three to five of the members
spoke almost word for word that they had no time to pray and it
was hard and they were getting no where. – To this the Pastor
offered no correction or encouragement. Two testified that they
were praying two minutes a day in small gasps during work and
that had revolutionized their walks. The pastor smiled and said
praise God.
30 years ago in a survey in a leading Christian
magazine it was revealed that believers on average were praying
two and a half minutes a day and that Pastors -- the guy your
paying for to be full time in the presence of God that he call
do all your praying and hearing from God was only praying on average
seven minutes a day.
With
that all said now I still have to give you a does of reality 100
years ago people worked slavish work intensive jobs for 60, 80,
and 100 hours a week. Any yet these people still found hours to
pray and read the word together as a family daily and there came
great revival. After WWII the workweek was shortened to 40
hours and the menial backbreaking work that people once had to
do was done increasingly by machines, even in that day people
still prayed hard and sought God and there came great revival.
Today most work in air-conditioned comfort sitting at desks
and leaning on counters having the lightest possible workloads
in world history and no one has time to pray or seek God.
How is this possible? Well, 30 years ago I heard
a survey on radio about entertainment that people time for personal
entertainment had risen from the 1960’s – 1970’s dramatically
with the coming of TV. They closed the survey with this revealing
statement that what once was considered frivolous entertainment
was now considered a necessity.
Since that time VCR’s have come into every home, Cable
TV has come into every home, Nintendo and electronic gaming systems
have come into every home, Personal Computers have come into every
home, and now the Internet.
It has been observed within the last ten years
that people work harder at play and entertainment than at work.
And Christians work a lot harder at tapes books and Christian
entertainment then at working out their own salvation with fear
and trembling
This generation has truly become lovers of pleasure
more than lovers of God.
I fear for the church. I fear for believers.
God is fed up with this entire movement. God is standing with
a rod of iron at the ready to smash this ungodly idol that has
been called Fundamentalism, Pentecostalism, Evangelicalism, and
Charismaticism. He is going to grind it to dust and let it be
as chaff in the four winds. God will no longer revive this festering
corpse –it is restoration of what was once delivered unto the
early church or nothing.
We are not playing a game here. We are in the
fight of our life. Do you want to be a unique vessel unto the
Lord? Do you have a deep yearning cry in your spirit that I might
know him? Then separate your self from these contaminated filtered sources,
leave the doctrinal dump, beg God to cleanse your soul and spirit
and seek him as you never have before.
If you do He will be found of you. And . . .
Isaiah
64:4 For
since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived
by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what
he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
1 Corinthians 2:9
But as
it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him.
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