I wasnt able to post yesterday because I wasnt feeling well all day. I had to sleep most of the day to shake off the problem. I always wondered about something. When people say I dont feel like myself today, exactly WHO else is it that they feel like? What, today Im myself and tomorrow, Im Abraham Lincoln?...;>) Anyway, Im feeling a lot more like myself today and so here is todays installment on THE EARTHQUAKE PROPHECY, which is the title Ive decided to give this whole series. Enjoy! Be blessed! And always love and serve the Lord! DAY 7 -- DA TRUTH, DA WHOLE TRUTH, AND NUTTIN BUT DA TRUTH!!! The intervening days passed quickly and before I knew it, it was Sunday morning. I hadn’t forgotten my promise to the Lord. I knew that when you make a vow to the Lord, you need to honor your word and keep the vow, just as He honors His Word and watches over it to make sure that it comes to pass. Sadly, I can’t begin to count the number of Christians who have made hand-in-the-air, so-help-me-God promises to me down through the years to do this thing or that thing and yet never acted to fulfill those promises. To be fair, I’ve made more than a few promises to the Lord myself down through the years and then bailed on them. But even so, I eventually end up coming back to that vow I made and trying, again and again, to fulfill the promises I have made to Him. By the way, these failed promises on my part usually involve fasting and prayer and not doing nearly enough of either of the two things. Ironically, I’ve done a lot better in honoring my word to other people than I have in honoring my word to God. When I think about that fact, it disturbs me more than a little and makes me want to truly be a man of my word, both in divine and secular promises. So early Sunday morning, Bishop Godwin Musonda picked me at and we headed out to his first church service. It was necessary that we get going early in the morning, because the first church service started at SEVEN THIRTY IN THE MORNING! For all of you sleepy-eyed Pentecostals and Charismatics who complain bitterly about how hard it is to get up, get ready and get yourself to the church on time for the 11:30 AM worship service, consider this: the good folks of Zambia rise with the sun and set with it as well, just like rural farm-based America used to do. In fact, the following Wednesday I would preach at Dr. Mwape’s church, where the worship service starts at 2:30 in the afternoon. Why? Because the large shell of a building that is their sanctuary has two characteristics that really stood out to me. First, the platform from which I ministered was simply a raised level of packed dirt, just like the rest of the floor and the church, as large as it was, was lit BY A SINGLE LIGHT BULB suspended high overhead. Clearly, services that ended after the sun went down were not an option for them. Just as in ancient Israel, the people of Zambia gear their daily activities based on the appearance and disappearance of sunlight. In Israel, it was normal for the standard work day to run from 6:00 AM till 6:00 PM. Yes, Virginia, it was NORMAL for a person to work TWELVE HOURS EACH DAY, SIX DAYS A WEEK. There was no eight hour work day and no five day work week. In fact, in doing my research for my Birthing True Revival series, I accidentally discovered where the five-day work week in America came from in the first place. It seems that my hero John Wesley ended up receiving training and discipleship through a devoted Christian organization called the Moravians, located in Herrnhut, Germany. Herrnhut, which means God’s House or The House of the Lord in German, was an amazing Reformation Christian community founded by Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, a remarkable, visionary man of God who was almost single-handedly responsible for the rediscovery and re-establishment of the reality and necessity of the New Birth. Wesley, who had traveled to colonial America as a would-be missionary, managed to mess things up very badly for himself due to a poorly handled opportunity for romance in which he dropped the ball when he and a young lady felt mutual affections for one another and then spitefully refused communion to the former focus of his affections and her new fiancée when they attended his church, was now returning to England in disgrace when a terrible storm overtook the ship in which he was traveling. At the height of the storm, Wesley genuinely feared that he might perish and his heart was gripped with fear. But as he glanced around, he noticed what appeared to be a group of Christian believers who, despite the storm raging all around them, were gathered together in prayer and worship, their faces almost glowing with faith and peace in Him Who Lives Forever. After the storm passed, Wesley summoned the courage to ask them where they got their extraordinary faith. The leader of the small group asked Wesley if he was born again, a question to which Wesley had no real answer. Troubled by his apparent lack of faith as an ordained minister of the Gospel in contrast to the extraordinary faith evidenced by these simple believers, Wesley then traveled to Herrnhut, Germany and sat at the feet of Von Zinzendorf for a full six months, learning about the New Birth and its critical role in Christianity. Shortly after his return to England, he found his heart “strangely warmed” during a prayer meeting and experienced being born from above first hand in his own life. This doctrine and the equally critical supplemental doctrine of complete or utter sanctification would define the rest of Wesley’s life and bring about the First Great Awakening. Sadly, we in America have traded this glorious rebirth in the image of God for a lackadaisical stroll down the center aisle to the front of the church to mumble a quickie prayer assuring the individual that they are now “saved” and now heaven-bound. These falsely assured individuals then trudge back to their seats, TOTALLY UNCHANGED IN ANY WAY YET NOW ASSURED THAT A FEW EMPTY WORDS HAVE GUARANTEED THEM ETERNAL LIFE. This is why there is no power in the church, particularly in the evangelical portion. This is why there are no changed lives and why people who claimed to be recreated in the image of Christ still continue to conduct themselves as if nothing had happened in their lives when they prayed that quickie, two-minute prayer, usually because IN MANY CASES, NOTHING DID HAPPEN! Now we have churches and whole denominations who have never experienced the transformative power of God through the Holy Spirit, think that they are automatically sanctified as well when their actions are clearly unsanctified and also think that they are headed for the sky when they die when everything about their lives says that their likely destination will probably be in the opposite direction. Am I too harsh? Too judgmental? Perhaps, but not by much. Thirty-five years of pastoral ministry have done nothing but reinforce my assessment of the Body of Christ in America. And, sadly enough, AS AMERICA GOES, SO GOES THE REST OF THE WORLD. Like us, hate us, fear us, it doesn’t matter. The whole world, regardless of how they view us, desperately and constantly tries to EMULATE US. And as I have traveled across the world, I have discovered, to my horror, that ALL THE FLAWS OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH HAVE FAITHFULLY BEEN DUPLICATED ACROSS THE REST OF THE WORLD. Is the American church carnal? African, Indian and Pakistani churches are more carnal. Is there no genuine repentance or conviction of sin in the American church? There is even less in the church worldwide. Just as the positives of the Pentecostal, Azusa Street movement have been duplicated worldwide in the most extraordinary period of change in the history of Christianity, so also has the deadly flaw of the abandonment of the doctrines of the absolute necessity of both the New Birth and Complete Sanctification been transmitted as well, with the unfortunate result that other religions, particular those of the Muslim faith, look at us and our claims of All Grace, shake their heads in amazement at our conduct and totally disregard our testimonies of regeneration because of all the lack of regeneration that they see all through the church. Frankly, I don’t blame them. I didn’t mean to get on a soapbox on this topic, but the church is like the Emperor in his new clothes, naked and clueless about his horribly embarrassing condition. The Final Great Awakening will restore the absolute necessity of TARRYING UNTIL YE ARE FILLED WITH POWER FROM ON HIGH and THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD, EVEN YOUR SANCTIFICATION. In addition, once these two critical steps have been properly re-established, the Church will FINALLY be able to move forward from being a baby to the ultimate fulfillment of what Paul said would happen in Ephesians 4:11-13, to a PERFECT MAN, to the FULLNESS OF THE STATURE OF THE MEASURE OF CHRIST. And then, at long last, THE BRIDE WILL HAVE FINALLY MADE HERSELF READY and THE HEAVENLY GROOM WILL RETURN FOR HIS NOW-PREPARED BRIDE. What I have just told you is deep, Brethren, and not widely accepted by the Body of Christ in general, but without the restoration of what Von Zinzendorf and Wesley gave us, we will NEVER be able to move forward into the destiny which God has planned for us. But, by the Grace of God, He will enable us and all those who stand with us to help to do just that and trigger the Final Great Awakening and the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. Remember all that stuff about the six day work week (“six days shalt thou labor”) and a twelve hour work day? Well, it was Von Zinzendorf who invented the five day work week. It seems that there were two competing versions of his Moravian group located in Pennsylvania. One group firmly believed in and practiced Sunday as the Lord’s Day, as practiced through the entire Middle Ages and still practiced today. The other group, based on their research into the matter, felt that the backslidden, compromising Church of the Middle Ages had given in to pagan influences and switched the Day of the Lord from Saturday to Sunday. Both groups were equally adamant in their views and it appeared that no compromise was possible in the matter until Von Zinzendorf, who was famous for carving out common ground between disagreeing Reformation Christian groups, hit upon the perfect solution. Instead of being forced to decide between the two diametrically opposed viewpoints, thus thrilling one group and alienating the other, Von Zinzendorf decided that BOTH groups were correct, based on a very insightful reading of Romans, Chapter 14, where the Apostle Paul observed wisely that one person held that a certain day was holy while another man viewed ALL days as holy! Thus was established the 5-day work week in the United States of America! Well, I didn’t necessarily intend to go in this direction, but I promised you DA TRUTH, DA WHOLE TRUTH, AND NUTTIN’ BUT DA TRUTH, and it is bone-jarring truth that I have delivered to you today. Always remember, I AM NOT A MILK PREACHER. I give you MEAT. Paul said that SOLID FOOD IS FOR THE MATURE, THOSE WHO HAVE THEIR FACULTIES EXERCISED BY REASON OF USE. If you’re choking on some of what I’ve said, it’s because you’ve never had to develop or use your spiritual teeth. Grow some, come back and start chewing on this spiritual steak that I’ve placed in front of you. The Church has grown fat and lazy on a diet of nonstop spiritual carbohydrates; taters and milk. But in order to grow strong, the Body needs MEAT, in order to gain the necessary protein to develop the muscles to go with those dry bones of yours…;>) Tomorrow, we’ll return to DAY 8 – DA TRUTH, DA WHOLE TRUTH AND NUTTIN’ BUT DA TRUTH – DA SEQUAL! Until then, may God richly bless you as you walk in faith and obedience to Him! Amen and Amen!!!
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 14:22:36 +0000
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