Instead of pouring out smoke and fire on people’s heads from the top of Mount Sinai, would you like to speak to the real Word of God? Do you want a Word from the Lord which will set creation free?
Jesus told us that when we visit the orphan, the prisoner, the widow, we are visiting Him. Have we ever received a word from Jesus through one of these instruments? The Word of the Lord is all around us. Those who have been brainwashed that the Word is the Bible or can only come from some “anointed” minister preaching behind a pulpit have been deceived and cannot hear the true Word from the Lord. This article can be the Word of the Lord to you if His Spirit should quicken it to you.
Does that mean we should throw out our Bibles and stop listening to preachers? Of course not! God can use both as tools. Just don’t limit the various ways He may choose to speak to you. He can still use impressions, still small voice in the heart, a clear conscience, an audible voice, dreams, visions, a catching up to the third heaven, prophesy, words of knowledge, a cloud, a stone, people, and a host of other ways to make clear His Word to a Christian. We must stop putting limits on Him because it is really ourselves we are limiting.
Circus fleas are trained not to jump out of glass containers by placing a piece of glass over the container. After several times of hitting the glass, they painfully learn how high they are allowed to jump. We Christians have been similarly trained. We have been trained in the ways of the traditions of men through the use of the fear of man. We dare not jump beyond what they have decreed is allowable. It’s rather difficult to jump very high sitting on pews. Furthermore, it’s difficult seeing Christ in one another in church when we can only look at the back of each other’s heads.
Many Christians prefer sitting this way. They do not like the body of Christ coming together ministering one to another. Some of us do not want to look each other in the eyes, face to face. We might be discovered for being the hypocrite we are. Look someone directly in the eyes one time and tell them, “I love you.” No, not “I love you in the Lord.” Just plain, “I love you.” If the love is not really there, your heart will tell you. And your face will reveal it to the one to whom you are speaking. I have recently come face to face with my own lack of genuine love for people. It’s time to stop pretending we are something we are not. It’s time to acknowledge our shortcomings and allow the Holy Spirit to add that which is lacking. But we must face up to our pretenses and call them what they are-pretenses, lies, cosmetics, unholy coverings.
It is time for the body of Christ to come together and see Christ in each other face to face. If your church insists you must always look at the back of people’s heads on Sunday mornings, speak out! Cry out to your heavenly Father for True Food. Allow Him to lead you to the places He has ordained for you. Do not let tradition keep you from fullness of life. It’s time to take the glass lid off our walk with the Lord. He wants us to soar in the heavenlies. He wants us seated in much higher places than the traditions of men have allowed us. By the way, these things I am writing about are things I believe we must all begin to walk toward. I am not writing from a place of perfection. We must all grow into these things. But we must stop making excuses. We must set down our traditions and begin to take baby steps into these things. As we move toward Him, God will give us the grace to mature.
The first step to being set free is to walk away from every system that holds you in bondage. Then allow the Holy Spirit to strip off those garments of self-righteousness, give you a good bath, and cover you with the righteousness of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This may be a very humbling process, but it has to be done. There is no other way. Speaking of “stripping,” he would also like to strip off your denominational tag. One pastor, when I confronted him with Paul’s admonition not to divide into sects, told me, “Well, I’m a Christian first, and a Baptist second.” No, sir! You are a Baptist!
If you can see what I am saying clear enough and have the ability and the door open to you to speak to the heads of the Church you are attending, by all means make the attempt to show these leaders that changes must be made. Be patient and loving. Do not be arrogant in your presentation. But at the same time, do not make excuses for yourself for supporting an Anti-Christ system with your money, time, and presence. If you are afraid of being rejected, confess your fear and pray for boldness! If you open your mouth, you may get rejected; you may even get labeled divisive, unsubmissive, or worse-you may be labeled a heretic. You may have to discover what real suffering for His name’s sake is all about. They may decide to throw you out of their “city.” Are you willing to expose yourself to such disgrace?
I think you would agree that few of us Christians would compare ourselves to the Israelites who worshipped the idols of the pagan nations around them while also swearing allegiance to Yahweh. This we can plainly see for the idolatry that it was. But we cannot see that joining ourselves to many of the denominations of Christianity is exactly like what Israel did many hundreds of years ago.
So often we forget that our participation or lack thereof is noticed by many around us. When we don’t go to the “traditional” Church yet still remain very outspoken in our faith and also manifest the gifts and fruit of the Spirit in our community, people take notice. They begin to ask questions. At the same time, if we attend a Hell-fire Law/Grace mixture Church whose leader has placed his congregation under the ministry of condemnation-if we sit there not protesting this abominable mixture, then will our presence there not be viewed as an approval of his message? Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad” (Matt. 12:30). Be careful to where you are leading or pointing people to. There are 22,000 different denominations “scattered” around the world that divide the body of Christ from each other. Where you have chosen to worship your God in your community speaks to them in ways you may not have noticed. I am often amazed how much people know about me who I would consider almost strangers. The world is watching us much more carefully than we realize. Perhaps that is why they don’t buy into our hype on Sunday morning. They watched our walk on Monday morning and concluded that our walk and talk are not in agreement.
Please hear my heart here, and do not make a law out of my words. God could have you sit in a dead Roman Catholic Church sitting on the front pew genuflecting 60 miles an hour for all I know. His ways are certainly higher than ours. But I am afraid too many of us are compromising our witness in this world and as a result have lost our flavor. We have lost our light. Fear, pride, not willing to be rejected or unwilling to stand out as unusual, afraid of being labeled a cultist, and a host of others excuses often prevents us from being the witness to the Truth. Being a part of the right kind of Church is “respectable.” We sometimes mistake this “respectability” for the glory of God. We need to be stripped of this form of pride.
The book of Revelation is the unveiling of Jesus Christ
Speaking of undressing, stripping, etc., here’s a little tidbit which may open some understanding. To “unveil” something or someone demands the removal of something obstructing our view. The “unveiling” of Jesus Christ, is not the unveiling of the antichrist, the end of the physical world, credit cards, computers, and all the other nonsense being perpetuated by Christian doomsday book writers. The book of Revelation graphically lays out the removal of the Old Covenant Mosaic Law under which was hidden Jesus Christ!! The rolling back of the veil (Mosaic Law) was painted with highly apocalyptic visions. The putting off of the Old Covenant and its people was indeed as earth-shattering in the natural as the book of Revelation so graphically described. A look into the actual historical fulfillment of these visions as told by Josephus, the Jewish historian, would open up much understanding to a Christian believer. Most of the modern Fundamentalist Evangelical church is producing many false teachings regarding the “end of the world” because they have not “rightly divided” the word in this regard.
A thorough reading of books number five and six in Josephus’ “War of the Jews” would open many eyes. Josephus’ account of the destruction of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel in A.D. 70 lines up perfectly with the prophetic warnings Jesus gave to the very generation to which He was speaking-that the end of their world was at hand. No, not the end of the physical world, but the end of the Mosaic world, the end of the Old Covenant and its priesthood (the heavens). The Mosaic Law and all it stood for was the “fleshly” garment which Jesus hung on the tree (Col. 2:14). Another way of putting it was the removal of the chaff from the wheat, the Mosaic Law being the chaff. The outer shells, skins, casings, of many foods are necessary to preserve the food inside while ripening, but is discarded when ready to eat. “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and every man presseth into it (Luke 16:16). Grapes have skins which hold in the juice. When the grapes are ripe for wine, the skins are pressed to release the juice. The skins are discarded. Jesus came at the end of the Mosaic Law age to press the grapes to bring forth the wine. The grape harvest came just prior to the feast of Tabernacles at the end of Israel’s religious year. It was a time of great expectation and hope for a joyous celebration. The Bible uses several other illustrations to teach the same truth.
I really cannot go any deeper into this subject because it would require too much more space. I will leave the subject of the unveiling of Christ through the rolling away of the Mosaic Law with this thought. We, as a part of His true body, must look past the flesh of those around us. We must press through the flesh to discover the kingdom within every person on earth. When we look after the flesh, we judge unrighteously. In the flesh, we find ourselves looking at outward beauty, dress, position in society, what side of the tracks one is born on, to which denomination one belongs, race, the “laws and rituals” they keep, etc. We must learn to put off the flesh and its earthly ordinances and observances, whether they be religious, political or social. We must see people as if they had no skin. (Funny how we all look ugly when only our fat and muscle tissue is showing.) Moses is tied up in the flesh. Here is where there is judging, condemning, racism, prejudice, divisions, etc. When our hearts are towards God, we break down the walls of partition among us. Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal-words such as these must go. There are no Baptists in the Kingdom on Heaven. There are only Saints.
Looking past the flesh is like the removal of the foreskin of the penis as the covenantal sign of the Covenant of Faith. This portion of skin allows all manners of uncleanness which could possibly cause infection which would prevent life from coming forth. Cutting off or rolling back this skin helps prevent this potential for infection. When we stop judging people after the flesh, then we can receive the life deposited in their hearts. But as long as we see people in their weaknesses and judge them according to Moses, we cannot see the Life of Christ buried deep within them. We must change the way we look at people!! If we are to be children of faith and not of the flesh, then we must begin to roll back the skin of all those we see. We must look past the flesh with the eyes of faith and look for Christ within each person. I pray that I have written the above in a manner that the reader can hear these words by the spirit and not after the flesh. The carnal (fleshy) mind will not understand a word I just wrote.