June 29, 2009

• Postcards from England: "the fog is lifting on My Church"

  
  

  The first morning after we arrived in England, I woke up just before 5 AM and looked out our window.

  

  "the fog is lifting on My Church"

  I had a strong reassurance from the Lord that He does have His hand on us, that indeed the fog is lifting on His Church, that He is lifting the fog, but He is now looking for people whom He can use to help lift it.

  When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, He said:

  I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians...
  

  But then look at what He tells Moses:

  Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

  We must pray for the Lord of the harvest to send workers out into that harvest field of the dead, lukewarm and dry Church. And we must be ready to go if He is sending us.

  In my post yesterday I wrote about the great need of the Church, and surely it is great. But I do not want to be misunderstood. I am not without hope for I know that our God has not left us. Can a mother leave her child? Will our Husband leave us? Has our Father left us as orphans? No, never. We are His and He is ours. He is hovering over His Church as we speak. His Spirit has not left us. I know our God is with us and He has already been sending His revival fire, but it is yet like a small match, it has not yet become a great flaming fire.

  
  Photo Credit: Streichholz.JPG
  (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license)

  But now that I've seen the match, I'm not content with the match. I want that little flame to grow and become a great blazing fire which will sweep through the entire Church like wildfire! If you've felt the heat and seen the light of that match, you know what I mean, and you can't help but long for more. Oh, yes, seeing the match be lit has been so glorious and wonderful and good, but my heart cries for more because I know the match is only the firstfruits of what God wants to do in His Church! I know that the fog is lifting on His Church!

  Therefore, though I do know there are other devoted, passionate souls in the church, I'm not content with that. I want more. So I'm going back to God and saying, "Yes, you have been reviving some dry bones, and I praise and thank You forth that, but I pray You're not through yet. There are many more souls who need Your breath! There are lambs and sheep of Your flock who need reviving. Will You pour out Your Spirit on them and shake them out of their complacency? For years I was lukewarm and complacent and all but dead, flat on my back and on life support, but in Your mercy, You put raised me back on my feet and breathed life into me. So now I long more and more for my brothers and sisters to truly taste and see that You are good. To wake up. To become truly alive. To stop going through the motions. To breathe in deeply of Your Spirit and to drink of Your new wine."

  I'm like the man who went to his friend at midnight; He was demanding bread for his friends. I'm coming to God now and saying, "Father, You have children who are hungry, children who are languishing and all but starving. They have settled for eating fluffy worldly bread rather than Your living Bread. I know that I ate that fluffy bread for years and thought I was full but wasn't truly full. Satan deceived me. Will You not give Your children a hunger for Your living bread and a distaste for the worldly bread? Do you not love them? Oh, yes I know You do. You have chosen them as You chose me. You have fed me and keep feeding me until I want no more. I so long for them to taste and see You are good. To eat of Your heavenly bread. Bring them back to dine at Your house once more. Many have eaten in the pig sty for so long, they don't remember what it was like when they ate at Your table. Show them You are ready to welcome them back home with a feast beyond their imagination. Show them You are ready to welcome them back home with open arms and without shame. There are others who have eaten at Your table but have not truly delighted in You because they have not understood Your grace. They've labored diligently in Your name, but they have left their first Love. They've worked for You but they are unable to rejoice in You. Restore to them the joy of their salvation and sonship. O Great Shepherd of the Sheep, will You not nourish the languishing and starving sheep of Your flock?"

  We must never close our eyes to the current state of the Church. If we do not see ourselves as God sees us, will we ever get down on our knees and cry out for Him to revive us again? Do we really believe we are living up to the glory God has intended for us here on earth? Do we believe we are hallowing His Name? Is His will being done in our lives and in our churches?

  Do we see our current state and excuse it by saying, "God will perfect us in the end, so it doesn't really matter. Why do we need revival?"

  Tell me this, is the Church really a burning torch to the nations? Is the Church really a crown of glory and a royal diadem in God's hand? Is the Church really a praise in the earth today?

  In the coming days, Lord willing, I will challenge you and push you to see how often our view of the Church is not God's view. We can say all we want about ourselves and about the Church, we can spin as hard as we try, but what really matters is what God is saying about us and about the Church. I will challenge you to ask God to show You how He truly views your heart, your congregation, your denomination and the Church as a whole. We simply can't sit back and say, "Peace, peace," and deceive ourselves and say everything is hunky dory. "Everything is fine with me, everything is fine with my congregation, my denomination, my Church." I'm sorry but it's not fine. If it's so fine, why are we not turning the world upside down? Can any of us say we have arrived? Can any of us say we have already attained or already been made perfect? Brothers and sisters, we must be careful not to quench or grieve His Spirit. We must not close ourselves off to the work of God in our lives and in our churches. We must continue to ask God to give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to each one of us, to each of our congregations and denominations and to the Church as a whole so we might be restored to the glorious place God has for us.

  Just as the unsaved need to hear the bad news about themselves (that nothing good dwells in them, that they are unable to save themselves) before they can see their need for the good news, so too the Church today must hear the bad news about ourselves: that apart from Christ, nothing good dwells in us and we are unable to be the glorious Church God has intended, we are wholly incapable of being a praise in the earth, unless we turn to Him, confess and repent of our sins, acknowledge we are poor and needy and spiritually bankrupt. We must come to see that we must wholly rely on the power of God in order to be the Church He has intended. For too long we have been trying to be the Church apart from His power. It is time for us to cease working in our own power and ask Him to baptize us once more with fire, for it is only then we can be a burning torch to the nations, a crown of glory and a royal diadem in God's hand and a praise in the earth!

  For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
  and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,
  until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
  and her salvation as a burning torch.
  2 The nations shall see your righteousness,
  and all the kings your glory,
  and you shall be called by a new name
  that the mouth of the Lord will give.
  3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
  and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

  6 On your walls, O Jerusalem,
  I have set watchmen;
  all the day and all the night
  they shall never be silent.
  You who put the Lord in remembrance,
  take no rest,
  7 and give him no rest
  until he establishes Jerusalem
  and makes it a praise in the earth.
  (Isaiah 62:1-3, 6-7)

  • 6:18 PM
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