Social Reformation; Easy as 1, 2, 3

The next section of the message that God gave Pat promises some amazing blessings upon our families, our nation, and even the world.  The blessings include God healing our broken marriages, our discovering His presence within our homes, answered prayers over sickness and disease, children's rooms being places of worship, fathers being esteemed, times of repentance and revival, a great awakening across our land, and the enemies of God being inflicted with disease and confusion.  The message goes on to promise that God will strengthen the borders of Israel and the United States, that one terrorist attack will occur on our soil, but this will only lead to more revival, and ultimately the hand of our social compass will swing so far back to truth that the universities and colleges will actually start teaching truth and the hearts of those in bondage to sexual immorality and homosexuality will be returned to God and purity.

As I sat in church and watched the reactions of the people as they heard Pat sharing this prophetic vision I saw how excited people got.  I have to admit, these are some amazing blessings and when God brings them about it will stand witness to His sovereign power, grace, and love of us.  These truly are the answers to our prayers.  The challenge is, listening past the promises and hearing what God is truly saying and what conditions He has said must be met before He can fulfill what He has promised.  In our bliss we tend to miss the most important part of the message; what is God really saying and what does He want from us?

The first step to understanding these things is to listen to the message and discern what God’s “shouts” are.  Remember, the “shouts” are the negative physical occurrences in our lives.  As such, the answer comes when we look at the opposite of the proposed blessings.  In other words, God is shouting to us through: 

• Our broken marriages, 
• Our inability to feel God’s presence and intimacy within our homes, 
• The sickness, mental dysfunction, and disease that our prayers are not healing, 
• The brokenness & bondage that is ruling the atmosphere in our children’s rooms, 
• Fathers being mocked, ridiculed, and put down by society and within the home, 
• A fear of man that is keeping our mouths locked shut and scared to stand up for what is right, 
• Our societies love of sin and rejection of God’s holiness, righteousness, purity, and name, 
• The transforming power of the full Gospel message is not reaching the ends of the world, 
• The enemies of God are gaining power and terrorist attacks are increasing, 
• Previous terrorist attacks upon our soil have only led to short term revival and then a return to typical cultural norms returning to a worse state than before the attacks, 
• University and college campuses are perpetuating the lies of society and opposing God’s truth, 
• Satan is taking more and more hostages as the homosexual and other perverse agendas gain greater and greater momentum. 

Assuming we are capable of hearing and seeing God’s hand in all of these things, let’s take a look at what God told Pat must change and how these changes are connected to the proposed blessings.  First,  God’s people need to break free of our stagnant, comfortable, and lethargic approach to Him and His ways.  I believe that we have approached the Gospel as being about our salvation.  This has led us into a complacency that is totally contradictory to the Gospel message.  We were not chosen for salvation; we were chosen for a much greater purpose.  We have been chosen as His Bride.  This understanding should motivate us into opening up our hearts to a new kind of relationship.  A relationship based on His purposes for us instead of what we believe is necessary to maintain a righteous enough standing to ensure our “salvation". 

From here, God’s people need to come to a renewed sense of conviction where we have left God locked outside.  WOW….the locking of God outside is the product of our misguided understanding of the covenant.  When we truly embrace the covenant as being about God and His purposes and start searching the scriptures for what that really means this next step will fall right into place.  God will show us how we have allowed our flesh to choose the world over God.  He will show us where our homes are so filled with everything that is NOT Him, that there is no room FOR Him.

As God shows us these things we must kick Satan and his demonic influences out of our homes.  We must realize that we have been inviting them in as if they were relatives who have fallen onto hard times.  As God gives us the strength to kick out what never belonged He will show us how to pray, He will join us in prayer, and deliver us into deeper unity with Him.  As we dedicate our homes to God, reject Satan’s attacks through television, internet, gossip, sports, movies, materialism, and everything else the Spirit brings into our understanding God will restore the fathers to their rightful positions within the home.

Men must step up and become the spiritual leaders we have been called to be.  When we start leading our families away from the ways of this world by example instead of attempting to impose what we are not willing to follow, our wives will stand up and cheer.  With this said, wives must stop judging their husbands on a performance model.  In embracing their husbands for their effort and honest desire to make God the Lord of their lives they have earned the right to be leaders of the home.  None of us are perfect.  If wives do not embrace proper biblical order God cannot remove Satan’s influences from the home.  Women must respect their husband’s honest and sincere efforts.  This will fulfill the deep emotional needs of their husbands and drive them deeper into the role for which they were created. This will lead our families back into proper biblical order.

The men will need to take this renewed sense of family, life, and purpose and let God lead them into more frequent and deeper times of prayer.  As men respond in this area they will be flooded with greater revelation, greater understanding, and greater wisdom.  All of these things will be supported by a greater sense of strength.  This strength will lead them into being stronger men of God where they will become more and more aware of Satan’s influences upon them, their family, and their society.  Men must respond to God’s voice as He shows them the impurity in their homes, the unrighteousness in their hearts, and the weaknesses in their souls.  As men humble themselves in these areas God will raise them above these things and give them an unparalleled strength. He will use this strength to lead them into the world where their voices will be heard and the people will respond.

From here all we will need to do is return to the first step and repeat.  This is the process of growing in Christ and taking our role as His Bride seriously.  As we step into the role of being what we have been called to be the world will take note, God will step in and use what they are seeing to deliver them into deeper revelation, and an understanding of the truth.  As those that are opposed to us attempt to fight off this incredible move of God in the physical they will open the door for our victory in the spirit.  We will be given the opportunity to respond properly when the time comes.  An attack will occur and we will be spiritually ready to handle it.  As the world watches to see how we respond they will see the true face of Christ as we have allowed ourselves to become spiritually prepared.  Our response in this critical time will turn what Satan intended for evil into another triumph for God.

We must stand up and realize that the “war” we are fighting is in the spirit and not of the flesh.  Our battle ground is not in word but in self-imposed discipline followed by intercessory prayer.  Self- imposed discipline must come first as God simply cannot answer the prayers of the unrighteous.  The spiritual battle must begin with biblical order being restored within our families and the church.  As we fall into biblical order, God will break the chain of universal disorder.  This will be the catalyst that will bring universities and colleges into teaching truth instead of lies, children will be moved from disrespecting parents into respect of their parents, and sexual immorality will be turned back to sexual purity. 

Believe it or not it really is this simple.  The solution to all our prayers is really as easy as these few steps.  It begins with seeing the truth of the Gospel message, allowing God to move us beyond our goal of salvation, and to deliver us into a greater desire of what it is to be truly His.  As we fight the spiritual battle against sin, unholiness, unrighteousness, pride, and lust we win a much harder battle.    

In all reality, what chance do we have at changing the moral direction of this country through laws, political influence, or Supreme Court appointments?  Can we really change the gay rights agenda by teaching them away from it?  Can we really win a war against the radical Muslim agenda through sanctions, treaties, border control, immigration reform, or any other means?  Can we really win any of these battles in the physical?  Even if we could, how much energy would it take?  How much money?  How much time?  Wouldn’t it be so much easier to just make Jesus Lord over our lives?  Wouldn’t it be easier to kick Satan out of our homes?

The truth is, we want God to change the world without letting Him change us.  The problem is, it just doesn’t work that way.  The greatest expression of love is to make Jesus Christ Lord.  Making Him Lord opens up our heart to be His bride.  As His bride, we embrace His ways and become a suitable mother to our spiritual children.  The love of a mother is the greatest love.  God describes this love as that of laying down our life for another.  Laying down a life by definition requires death.  We must die so that they can live.  Making Jesus Lord requires that we die to the things of this world and embrace the things of God.  It really is that simple. 

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I pray that God delivers you into a perfect peace and that your effort in drawing closer to Him is rewarded with a new sense of being, a new sense of purpose, and a new fire for His ways.  Amen.

RECAP (continued from last week)

If you have not been following this blog series, this is the sixth in a series that addresses how God communicates with us and what it is that He is saying through the dysfunction and pain that we see around us.  The series includes the following blogs: 

• Is This Really How God Works? (Scriptural introduction)
• Some Kingdom Principles (Apologetic discussion)
• Time To Dig In (Pat Schatzline's message--God Shouts & first assessments)
• A Call To Leadership (How lay leaders will lead theologians into repentance)
• The Esther Decision (Understanding the critical nature of where we are in time)

The Esther Decision

RECAP

This is the fifth blog in a series that addresses how God communicates with us and what it is that He is saying through the dysfunction and pain that we see around us.  The series includes the following blogs:

• Is this really how God works? (Scriptural introduction)
• Some Kingdom Principles (Apologetic discussion)
• Time to Dig in (Pat Schatzline's message--God Shouts & first assessments)
• A call to leadership (How lay leaders will lead theologians into new understandings as God breaks flesh and pride of those who have led us so far astray)

MOVING FORWARD

Over the weekend I was working on three sermons assignments I have for LCU (Life Christian University).  As I worked my way toward the end of one of the sermons I considered how to close it out with a strong call toward leading a congregation toward the understanding conveyed.

The Spirit led me to share:  “I could end this sermon in a few different ways.  I could tie in Galatians 5 and provide an overview of the Fruit of the Spirit.  We could then use the image of what these scriptures say to hold a mirror up to our own lives and allow our considerations to bring the truth of our existence into the light.  What we would see would surely provide a true look at who we are, where we are, and what we truly have faith in.  And for the years gone by, this would have been a perfectly fine way to end this sermon.  But we are not in the same time as the years gone by.  We are at one of the most monumental times in salvation history.  We are at a time as critical as when Jesus came the first time.  This isn’t just another day, this isn’t just another sermon.  We are in a time period when every word counts, every thought counts, and every action counts.  As we read Esther 4:14 we come into an understanding that shows that the weight of some decisions far exceed the weight of others.  “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”  

Those people who God ordained to be the religious leaders of our day were put into that position for such a time as this.  They have a calling on their lives and God has been showing them that the direction they have been leading us is not in accordance with His will.  It is not in accordance with His Word.  And it has not been what is necessary to bring about what needs to be brought about.  We all need to understand that the decision that Mordecai put before Esther is the exact same decision that is being put before the leaders of the church today.  They will follow His leading or they will perish.

This takes us to the weight of our responsibility to respond.  Their blood is on our heads if we do not tell them that we want to go deeper, we want to hear the whole Gospel, and we want to be held accountable to a greater truth.  God is shouting to us through the pain and brokenness of our lives.  He is telling us we have been allowing their false teachings to lead us astray.  As we have fallen away from the truth of God’s Word our lives have become a toxic mixture of stress, frustration, and brokenness.  We have only marginal intimacy within our families and sickness, disease, and mental disorders are growing at an alarming rate.  The land is about to spit us out as we go about our lives believing that this is what life is supposed to look like.  God is trying to get our attention so that He can use us to get theirs.

In Pat’s “16 Shouts of 2016” we find a grave ”warning for the leaders who no longer preach a message of conviction and truth, and those who declare their pre-packaged humanistic messages.”  Earlier in the message that God gave Pat we see words being used that lead us to an understanding of a great truth. 

If God’s people do not seek out the truth of the scriptures, become strong in the unity we were called to live in, and rebuild His church the way He intended it, He will take action.  The first action will be to destroy those that stand in opposition, those that hold on to the old, and those that are too prideful to repent and see the error of their ways.  If this is not enough, He will destroy everything and start over with a new remnant; a group of people who are willing to hold onto the truth regardless as to what it means to their natural lives, reputations, or influence.  Simply put, no cowards will enter the kingdom of God (Revelation 21:7-8).  This is a courageous journey.  It is time we step up and take our position.

Romans 11:17-21 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.

God is going to restore His olive tree to what He called it be and what was intended from the beginning.  This is our last opportunity to step into His will and be the witnesses that He called us to be.  Let us listen to the words that Jesus prayed to the Father when He was in the garden just before the events of His trial and execution began to play out.

John 17:22-23 "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;  I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me”.

We must let ourselves come into the full appreciation of what Jesus was feeling at this very moment.  I have to wonder if He already saw what His future church would look like.  I have to wonder if He already knew how little unity we would have.  I have to wonder if He saw how we would make the same mistakes as those who came before us.  I have to wonder if this is why He prayed this prayer to the Father.  How awful it would have been if even before He went to the cross He would have already known what was going to play out in His name through the course of the next 2,000 years.

Do you think He saw His own people chasing those that believed in Him out of the synagogues?  Do you think He saw Rome changing everything and making “Christianity” their official religion?  Do you think He saw the crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the control, manipulation, and legalism?  Do you think He saw the protestant reformation and the 40,000 denominations that would ultimately follow?  Do you think He saw the Holocaust?  When we think about Jesus sweating blood in the garden I believe this is what He was seeing, what He understood, and what made everything so hard.  I don’t think it was the sin of the world that was so hard for Him to bear.  I think it was the sin of His church, the twisting of His Words, the infiltration of the flesh, the politics, and the control.  I believe this is what was going through His mind as He spoke to His Father “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  By that point He would have seen, known, and understood what the future of His church held.

The point is, we have reached the end of the line.  2,000 years ago Jesus allowed Himself to be put on a cross so that we could have the Holy Spirit.  Through the Holy Spirit we were to walk in unity and bring Glory to God and Christ.  We have failed but God will not be put to shame.  The message that God gave Pat is the beginning of the re-unification of what Satan tore apart.

It will be through the spirit of revelation that God leads those with an open mind, open heart, and open spirit into the full revelation of the Gospel message.  These people will start a “Christian Revolution” that will restore unity to the Body of Christ.  Every 500 years (roughly) God brings about a major transformation in salvation history.  Every 2,000 years (roughly) He brings about something monumental.  We are at one of those transitions.  We are not talking about the creation of another denomination that throws in their two cents on what the truth of the scriptures are.  We are talking about a complete and total Re-Formation of Christianity and Judaism.  The result will be the Bride of Christ, prepared for her role entering the Millennial Kingdom.  God has said “IT IS TIME”.

The words Mordecai spoke to Esther should weigh upon the souls of those church leaders who see what is going on and stand in resistance.  This is something they cannot fight.  God is bringing about this change and He will have the unity that we are commissioned to express.   “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise (for God’s people) from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. (Within parentheses changed for relevance to this message).

For the past three years God has given me a vision of a new Re-Formation within the church.  It will be a putting back together of what man, politics, and Satan have torn apart.  This is the message we are to take to the world.  We want the truth.  We are ready to embrace the truth.  We want the truth to set us free.  It is our responsibility to take these words to the religious leaders, and it is their responsibility to listen.  Do you have the courage?  Are you ready for Re-Formation?

I pray that this message has given you hope, given you a new purpose, and given you something to consider.  I pray that you have the strength to stand up for what we know to be true, and join this movement to restore God’s people into the unity in which we were called to stand.  Amen.

A call to the leaders

RECAP

This is the fourth blog in a series that addresses how God communicates with us and what it is that He is saying through the dysfunction and pain that we see around us.  The series includes the following blogs:

• Is this really how God works? (Scriptural introduction)
• Some Kingdom Principles (Apologetic discussion)
• Time to Dig in (Pat Schatzline's message--God Shouts & first assessments)

MOVING FORWARD

Several years ago God showed me that He has chosen me for such a time as this.  He has spent the past 7 years preparing me to share this message with a sense of urgency, in truth, and in love.  Pat's description of the people who God is calling is a perfect fit to what God has been molding me into, bringing me through, and welling up within me.  This is why I do what I do and what I truly live for.  This is not about being right or about theology.  This is about listening to God, hearing what He is saying, and helping others hear the sound of His voice.  This is about doing everything we can to change the course of the direction we are on.  We must open our eyes and accept that God is bringing a sword across the land in the same manner as He did with Babylon against Israel almost 2,400 years ago.  As His people we must listen to what He is saying and return to Him.  If we do, He will take care of the rest.  Ancient Israel did not listen to the words of Isaiah.  The question is, will we?

Moving on from where we left off in Pat's message, we find him addressing incredible transformation within the church body itself.  Picking out a few key words we find the understanding including a declaration of God's holiness, the pure Gospel, repentance, the whole council of God, prayer, and intercession.  From there the rest of the message includes the promises of what God will bring about contingent upon the awakening He is expecting.  The future would include youth services coming alive with a heart of God instead of a heart for a great social event.  We will see a time of restoration and growth within the churches instead of the exodus that we have been experiencing.  This infiltration of people would add services and come with a heart hungry for the Word of God and less interested in the pot lucks that follow.  The message includes retired pastors returning to the ministry and the healing of the hearts, minds, and families of existing pastors who have become burnt-out through the struggles of the modern church scene.

The "shouting" is the pain and suffering of our broken families, the depression, sickness, perversion, lust, hate, materialism, envy, and idolatry that runs through the veins of the church.  These are the things that are on our minds and why we approach church with a lack luster desire, why only limited transformation is taking place, and why our churches are becoming more and more empty.  These are the things that God is showing us that He can change if we listen to what He is saying.  We must let Him show us how not embracing His holiness while rejecting His precepts and putting forth teachings that are not heavenly minded are all directly connected to the dysfunction and sickness within the church.  Once we allow Him to show us the truth, we must repent for not following those precepts and become who He has called us to be.  This is what God is asking of us, it is what we must do, and it is the keys to releasing the blessings Pat saw in the message God gave him.

So, specifically what is it going to take?  How can we use what God has given Pat to unlock the future of this great transformation?  The answer can be found in taking a close look at the list of key words that were shared in the message God provided for the first group alongside what he has seen in this part of the message:

• Those called to lead the way will be humble, bold, holy, righteous people who will dig deep into God's Word and who will set themselves on living out His precepts.
• The righteous churches will declare God's holiness, the pure Gospel message, and the whole council of God.  They will lead the way in repentance, prayer, and intercession.

The reason it is so important to overlap the two is that the first group will be the spiritual leaders that bring the current leaders of the churches into an understanding of where they have gone astray.  It is the sickness, depression, and brokenness within the churches that will break the pride of the religious leaders to the point necessary to let go of their religion and listen to the heavenly knowledge, wisdom, and understanding the Holy Spirit delivers from His simple, uneducated, and non-religious servants.

I totally understand why pastors are in the condition they are in.  The truth is, they have bought into a set of theological principles called religion.  They have embraced these religious views, and have dedicated their lives to the belief that their religion will change the world.  Every day they wake up and have to face the reality that it is not working.  Because they believe so deeply in their religion they have nothing else to turn to as the source of the failure but how they see themselves.

In no way do I want to minimize the amazing healing, transformation, and delivery being brought about in the name of Jesus Christ.  I agree that there are amazing things happening around the world and these things are being brought about as God uses amazing people for His purposes. In addition to key theological issues, a problem comes in when we continue to treat people within the church as if they were still outside the church.  The other side of this coin is when we treat people outside the church as if they were inside.  The understanding of the balance between truth and grace must follow the patterns of God as witnessed by the New Testament church.  In our imbalance we end up working against God instead of for Him.

The journey of the pastors and leaders who allow themselves to see and understand these things is going to be one of great difficulty that leads to ultimate freedom.  As they come to see that the theologies of the modern church are greatly flawed they will have the choice to grieve over their pride, the lost years, and the ease at which they allowed themselves to be led astray or hold onto their pride and ignore the wisdom of the reality of what God is showing them.

This is the same choice that Jesus put before the Pharisees in John 8.  The truth is, our religious institutions have done the same thing as the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  We have become polarized.  At one end we have a works based mentality that instills the fear of God to such an extent that we have become more focused on behavior modification than relationship.  At the other end we have used the Gospel message to create Christian relativism where there is no truth except Jesus and love.  Once the teachings move beyond these two foundational precepts everything else is up for grabs and based on our own personal relationship with Christ and our unique revelation of the Holy Spirit.  I hate to say it but, the definition of this is spiritual anarchy.  We now have over 40,000 denominations, no unity, little to no holiness, and are attempting to fight the same chronic dysfunction and disease within our own congregations as we are seeing with the rest of the world. 

Assuming the pastors are capable of embracing their humility, repenting, and being restored into a right standing with God, they will return with new freedom, understanding, and love.  Instead of seeing themselves as failures, they will see themselves as wonderful people of God, capable of being used by Him to preach the "pure Gospel message" and the "whole council of God".  He will use this understanding that He puts into them to kindle in them a fire that they bring back into the churches and use to ignite their congregations.  With new revelation, new wisdom, the true Gospel message, preached in love and in grace they will lead their congregations into their destiny of becoming the royal priesthood that God has called us to be.  As the congregations step into their priestly attire they will begin moving in the Spirit, feel the love of God as they intercede for others, and gain an entirely new understanding of what true love really is.  This will change how we approach the gay rights agenda, abortion, and the general decay of our society.  Instead of fighting for our rights we will turn off our TVs, take our kids out of public schools, and shut down the financial systems that do not stand for righteousness, purity, and truth.  Instead of voicing our opinions we will simply change the world by separating ourselves from it.

For the first time in the history of God's people, we will approach His precepts and His ways from a true heart perspective.  We will drop our legalism of what we need to do to be saved, make Him happy, or receive our rewards in heaven and we will drop our legalism of what we don't need to do because it isn't "required".  Instead we will be filled with the Spirit, search the scriptures for new and exciting ways to facilitate deeper intimacy, greater understanding, and greater wisdom.  For the first time since the Acts church, the people of God will have leaders who are capable of leading their congregations to these passages because they have embraced them, allowed themselves to apply them to their own lives, and as such have discovered the truth of the promises offered in God's Word.  Through this process God will create Romans 12 disciples who will lead the world to Him and His ways.

The thing is, I know this process to be true because what God led our family thorough is a micro scaled version of this exact same process.  As God dropped me to my knees and showed me that I was following Satan's ways more than God's I became free, He transformed me into the Priest I was called to be, and my marriage began to blossom.  As my marriage blossomed my wife and I went through the spiritual transformation referenced above.  The more I have embraced His precepts the more healing and love He has brought into our family.  Through this journey God started working on the hearts of our children and their lives have changed in the same ways as we have outlined regarding the congregations mentioned above.  If you can't trust me on this, trust Jesus...."the truth will make you free".

I pray that this blog has been a blessing to you, that you have found comfort in the words that have been shared, and that you have an amazing week.