THE CHURCH

THE CHURCH

                In my younger years I was sort of a Maverick. I thought of the church as a sort of babysitting station for those who wanted to be spoon fed and in some ways that may be true, but on the other hand, I believe more in the church today than I ever did in the past.

                Jesus established the church as His Body and He assigned it to “equip the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” Eph. 4:13

                To accomplish the church’s mission Jesus gave to us apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. So the church is intended to be a dynamic force in this world for good and for righteousness. We are lights in an otherwise dark world and our fellowship in Christ is a most wonderful thing. We share a love that the world can never comprehend.

                So if I say, as I did in my last article that we must personally have a base of authority even greater than the church, it is because parts of the church are falling away from the faith right now and we must by all means establish our own personal foundation upon Jesus Christ, the Rock of our salvation, the great I AM.

                So when Pope Francis tells us that we cannot have a personal relationship with Jesus, but must have it mitigated to us through the church, he is establishing the very basis of the great deception that is coming upon the world. He is in effect saying that we must have a foundation other than the one the Jesus laid for us.

Jesus said: “Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts upon them I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the rock…”  Luke 6:47, 48.

                The church is a most wonderful thing and as such we enter into it to love and to serve as if loving and serving Jesus Himself… and we do not grow weary in well doing for we are energized by the Holy Spirit, who renews our strength like the eagles every day. We want to be vibrant parts of the body of Christ fulfilling whatever part we were designed and gifted to play in His body.

                We are all organs in the body of Christ, some hands, some feet, some eyes, some ears, some teachers, some preachers, some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and all of us brothers and sisters of Jesus and joint heirs with Him in the coming kingdom.

                It is therefore sad to see so many denominations, or groups falling away from the faith once delivered to the saints and literally joining forces with the global religion that will worship the beast. We live in an unprecedented time of deception and that is why, we must make sure that we are in a church that has not abandoned the foundations of the Gospel.

                We must be based upon the infallible Word of God. We must believe that Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be. We must be born again and we must be growing up in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Eph. 4:13.

                Anything less than that means that we are just playing church; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. The very life of Jesus is brought into us by the Holy Spirit making us new creatures in Christ Jesus. We must learn to live by that new spirit that HE has placed in us when we were born again.

                We are involved in a three step process of justification, sanctification and then glorification. And of this heaven born agenda, many will become foolish virgins. They say “I do” at the altar, taking the name of Jesus as if married to Him, but they refuse to consummate the marriage by entering into the Holy Place of Sanctification and intimacy and therefore Jesus will have to say to them at the marriage supper of the Lamb. “I never knew you.”

                So yes, we must by all means be members of the church, the Body of Christ and we must participate in it not just as spectators, but as organs of the body. And each of us must take our orders from the Head. A hand doesn’t just go out and do something apart from the direction of the head. Just imagine how embarrassing it would be if our hands were acting independently from our brain. We would look pretty silly right?

                So no matter what part of the Body we are, we must take our orders from the Head, even Jesus as He directs us through His Word and His Holy Spirit. So when someone like say Pope Francis steps in there and tells us that he has taken the place of the head and we must follow Him and confess to Him and receive life from him, it should be a no brainer. We have only one head and that is Jesus Christ, the great I AM.

                Sadly many churches today are unknowingly or otherwise detaching from Jesus and His Word and they are following the imposter in the formation of his global religion and that is what I am warning about. Do not be deceived, for as time goes by it will become less and less politically correct to believe in God’s unadulterated Word, or His cross, or the New Birth, or Repentance, or the Spirit filled, Spirit empowered life. We will become a threat to society because we stand as a beacon against their rebellion. They will want to kill us even as they wanted to kill Jesus.

                So we wait in faith for the rapture of the body of Christ, but no matter when that takes place, we must stand firm upon the foundations of our faith and that is Jesus Christ… His Spirit and His Truth, the Word of God.