Our authority in Christ is, by and large, a lost revelation to the body of Christ. But God is resurrecting and restoring His authority within the Church in these last days. The Church’s eyes are being opened afresh and anew to this foundational understanding.
Brothers and sisters, we have been denying the sufficiency of the cross through our ignorance and unbelief. We come before God as beggars, as unworthy sinners, not as kings, not as sons and daughters, not understanding our new identity in Christ, and not realizing what He has accomplished for us through His redemptive work.
This is a stronghold of spiritual deception that Satan has been building for the last two millennia, and the Church has fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker.
Well, I, for one, am dismantling this stronghold of lies in my own life and leading as many as will listen to the same freedom.
Church, the Bible tells us exactly where we are as a people:
2 Timothy 3:1-7 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
I think we can all agree that we are currently living in perilous times. The Church has a form of godliness, but as a whole, she is powerless. Where is the demonstration of the gospel that we see modeled in the New Testament?
Everything in the above passage describes the condition of the Church today.
We have forgotten who we are. We know God is real, but we don’t know Him. We are far too familiar with a God that we barely know. There is a big difference between believing and having a living faith. The Devils believe, but they don’t have a living faith.
James 2:19-20 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
Most of the Church has very little evidence of a living faith. The Church has divided itself into over 40,000 Christian denominations worldwide, and every one of those denominations was birthed out of disunity and disagreement. Clearly violating the apostle Paul’s teachings to the carnal Corinthian Church (1 Corinthians 3:1-11).
With every denominational split, the gospel gets increasingly watered down. In 2 Timothy 4, we see the results of believing, living, and teaching a watered-down, powerless gospel.
2 Timothy 4:1-5 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Verse three says, “the time will come…” Well, the time is NOW! We are living in that time. Sound doctrine is not endured because the Church hasn’t died to self. Self has become our idol. Selfish desires are now our God, and the current Church culture has been crafted by the enemy to perpetuate this horrible condition.
Believing that there is a God isn’t enough. Devils believe and tremble, but the Church doesn’t even tremble at God’s holiness, His omnipotence, His omniscience. We don’t tremble at the power of His living word. The only time we tremble is when we are confronted with the word, and instead of embracing needed correction, we run to like-minded teachers that spew forth deception so we can justify our wrong beliefs.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
No one can honestly claim they are diligently seeking God and not actively and constantly in His written word. Not books written about God’s word, not a so-called “theologian’s” interpretation of God’s word. Not even commentary in our “study Bibles”. THE WORD!
Most professing Christians who have been born again for decades have never read the entire Bible. What’s worse is that we have “pastors” standing in pulpits that have never read the Bible through even once. If that describes you, then YOU are a part of the problem. FIX IT! Because the blind leading the blind will cause both to end up in the ditch.
Matthew 15:12-14 Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”
13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”
The Church, for the most part, has fallen into that ditch. Well, I finally got fed up with the ditch! I have climbed out of the ditch, and now I see all of the wonderful promises and possibilities that are available to those who have the courage to believe what God said and start acting on His word.
I WILL SEE my brothers and sisters FREE from this ditch as well! In fact, I SEE IT NOW! On the INSIDE!
The Spirit of the living God resides on the inside of us, but if we are surrounded by weak, unbelieving Christians and unqualified leaders, we need to find a crowd that challenges our limited thinking and ungodly theology. But most of all, the Church needs the fear of the Lord and constant intake of, and exposure to, the written word of God.
It will take faith and diligence in God’s word to ferret out all the ungodly leaven that has permeated the Church. But we can do it!
1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
1 Corinthians 5:6-7 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
Romans 13:11-14 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
It takes a slow reader about 110 hours to read through the Bible. It only takes about 90 hours to have it read to you on a Bible app. This is an indictment against the Church of how little we think of God and how little we reverence His written word.
When we stand before God, we will have no excuse. How much we love God is measured by obedience to His word. How can we obey Him when we don’t even know what He has already said?
John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.
John 14:23-24 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
If you say you love God and you are not even curious about what He has recorded in His written word, you are deceived by the father of lies. It is one thing to call Jesus your Lord and another thing for Him to actually be your Lord.
- Is Jesus truly the Lord of your life?
- Are you really submitted to Him and His lordship?
- What kind of fruit can we see from that relationship in your life?
- Is God’s word a priority for you, or an afterthought?
- When was the last time you spent an hour in God’s word, letting Him speak to you?
- What does your relationship with God look like when no one else is around?
The power and demonstration of the gospel will only be restored through a living, intimate relationship with God through His written word. This starts at the individual level. Just you, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit, alone, when no one else is looking.
If you read books about the Bible, watch and listen to teachings about the Bible more than you are reading, listening, and studying the bible for yourself. You are out of balance. You have itchy ears, and you are deceived.
Let God’s Holy word paint a picture on the inside of you that looks like what we read in the New Testament. That picture on the inside is the hope that your faith can give substance and evidence to. This will produce a good testimony and bear much fruit.
Hebrews 11:1-2 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
Matthew 23:8-10 But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.
We all know in part. Every believer, and every denomination (1 Corinthians 13:9). But He knows it all! So let’s put His word first place in our lives and stop scratching our itchy ears with denominational teachings. We need each other. The body of Christ can’t function and reach its full potential without unity and agreement. The word of God must be elevated to preeminence in our lives. It is the ONLY foundation worth building on.
Isaiah 66:2 For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the Lord. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.
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JESUS IS COMING!
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