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.
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