"It was His death that was efficacious. . not His blood. . . Christ did not bleed to death. The shedding of blood had nothing to do with bleeding. . . it simply means death. . . Nothing in His human blood saves…It is not His blood that I love. . . it is Him. It is not His bleeding that saved me, but His dying."

John, in his book, The Truth War, make this accurate statement:

The war against truth is nothing new, of course. It began in the garden when the serpent said to the woman, “Has God indeed said . . . ?” (Genesis 3:1). A relentless battle has raged ever since between truth and falsehood, good and evil, light and dark­ness, assurance and doubt, belief and scepticism, righteousness and sin. It is a savage spiritual conflict that literally spans all of human history. But the ferocity and irrationality of this present onslaught seems quite unprecedented. ‘The Truth War,’ John MacArthur

The Bible says, Lev. 17:11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."

John, God has not said what you are claiming.

All men have holes in their theology. Some of these holes make little difference to the overall integrity of an otherwise safe vessel. But, other holes are of such consequence that if they are not addressed harbor great and serious results.

John has more than a few leaking seals in his theology, that have gotten the attention of quite a number of people. I do not bother myself with these that I call noncritical controversies. But, when the integrity of a weight bearing seam or wall is discovered to be faulty and dangerous by those whose job it is to look for such things, a warning needs to be sounded, even though the problem has lain dormant for three decades. Regardless of how much dust this issue has gathered, it is still alive, and is just one more gaping hole allowing the Church to take on water.

To call into question the very foundation of our forgiveness by reducing that foundation, the blood of Jesus, to a mere symbol is serious heresy. He has not retracted this belief, and in my opinion, stands in a very precarious position as a teacher, as do his followers. Can we have faith in a symbol or a metaphor? If so, maybe there is a Santa Clause; I'm just being silly here. Is reducing the very thing that God requires to a metaphor equate to having faith in the blood of Jesus?

In times past this question may not have gotten the attention that it deserves, and only barely appears on the radar at this late hour, and then only by those who thirst for truth and not the acceptance of men. Today a few are beginning to examine the statements of all the self appointed leaders who profess great wisdom by way of their institutionalized learning. This particular individual even mocks those kitchen table theologians who do not render the proper respect to schooled doctors of religion, “There is a vast difference, by the way, between the whimsical ‘kitchen table’ interpretations of laymen, and the teaching of skilled men who work very hard to rightly divide the Word.” It is primarily by way of these “gifted” teachers that we have now a dissected Body of Christ. The Church has been torn into a thousand sects and every doctrine reduced to gossamer shavings, and now, at the end of the age, is faced with this great apostasy. The revelation of Scripture is not enough for these highly educated types, they must have their opinions too. It is my guess that it is at least as much the fault of academia as it is the ignorant layman, but scholarship always trumps the un-schooled layman, who must rely on mere “revelation.”  The pride of education doesn’t stop at the pulpit.

If the blood is as important as the Bible seems to make it, then to trivialize it may spell disaster worse than the Gulf oil spill; the consequences may be eternal.

I think his error is that he has confused the blood with the Cross and made them into a single thing; it is to combine forgiveness of sins with deliverance from sin, the atonement with sanctification, and propitiation and the purging of a guilty conscience with emancipation from the sin nature. The purpose of Christ’s death had a dual result. The blood of Jesus, the perfect blood of Jesus, was the atonement for our sins. It was that perfect blood, offered to God, of which, He was wholly and completely satisfied. It is this blood that is on the door post of our hearts, that when God sees the blood, He passes over. The blood was for God.

But, something else is needed. Although the blood of Jesus achieves the entrance into the throne room of God by faith in the power of the blood, and washes away all the sins, past and present, God still has to deal with His sinner children. The death of Christ accomplished two things. His death not only atoned for our sins through the shedding of blood, it provided us with the solution to deliver us from the power of sin in our present lives, our sinful nature. We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. We were born with a sin nature, and it is our nature to sin, we cannot not sin, unless and until we change our nature, but we will never be completely free from sin as long as we are clothed with this flesh. We have gotten forgiveness for our sins through the blood, but how can we get deliverance from our predisposition to want to sin? Rom. 3:25,26 "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. The cross is the answer. Rom. 5:9 "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!" The blood was for God, but the Cross is for us, Rom 6:6,7 "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.." Jesus did not go just half way. His death satisfied God’s need for absolute justice, and it provided us with the tool to defeat Satan’s goal to keep us sinning.

So, do you see why the blood is more than just fluid and why it is important? The blood of bulls and goats would not do, it had to be the perfect, untainted blood of a sinless person, Jesus.

The “blood” was not just a metaphor for the death of Jesus, it had intrinsic value that no other fluid possessed, and it was that very fluid, flowing in the veins of Jesus, His life blood, that alone would be adequate to satisfy His Father and atone for the sins of the whole world. He not only opened the way into the presence of the Father through His blood, but He opened the way to freedom from sin through the Cross.

The big question at present is not, “how does the Cross help us to overcome the sin nature,” (that is a subject for another time), but rather, if we trivialize the blood of Jesus, that God has put such high value on, by the application of our scholarship, and reduce it to just the fluid in the veins of Jesus, of which the only value was to point to His death, can we still appropriate the efficacious qualities of what that blood accomplished? Can we reduce the blood from its atoning value, through the misapplication of words, and still claim to have faith in the blood of Christ? And again, will those who uphold this teacher in this belief and follow him share in the effects of his error?

If the blood is just a metaphor for something else, then maybe we shouldn’t trust anything we read in Scripture, and we should just join the liberal camp of creative, personal interpretations.

Any novice coming to the Bible for the first time, without a doubt, would conclude that “blood” plays an important part of our understanding of the Bible, and our relationship to God. Also, this same novice would not conclude that  “blood” and “death” were synonymous. It is only through critical analysis and scholarship that intelligent doctors of theology have come up with a new view, by way of there fallen ability to “reason” there way to a proper understanding of the mind of God. 1Corinthians 1:20, 2:13: “Where is the wise man (the philosopher)? Where is the scribe (the scholar)? Where is the investigator (the logician, the debater) of this present time and age? Has not God shown up the nonsense and the folly of this world's wisdom?”. . . “And we are setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the [Holy] Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language [to those who possess the Holy Spirit].”

I do not question John MacArthur’s sincerity in wanting to deliver truth to those who follow him, but on this point of the blood of Jesus he is wrong, and it is a serious error. I have no personal axe to grind with JM, only that he has trivialized the very thing that effects our forgiveness, and I cannot be a part of that. It is the duty of the watchman to expose error wherever it presents itself, even if it comes from the camp of the watchman himself. We are to be seekers of truth, not followers of men.

How horrible it will be for you when everyone says nice things about you. That’s the way their ancestors treated the false prophets. Luke 6:26

This is yet another sign of the apostasy of Brian McLaren. In this piece on Brian’s site, he praises an atheist for saying nice things about him, who thinks Brian is the epitome of Christian faith.

Why would an atheist praise Brian McLaren? Well, the answer is easy enough, because Brian is essentially saying the same thing as the atheist, and their goals line up. Atheist and heretics are not offended by Brian’s message, they are brothers traveling the same road. They see Brian as moving into their camp bringing presents (the young and foolish).

The early Church dealt with a similar problem. The religions of the ancient Roman world were all accepted as equally tolerable and equally valuable, and to a large number equally vain, to the Roman people. All the gods were worshiped, and the bond of unity was maintained because every god reigned with equal favor and benefits. It was the Jews first, then the Christians, who violated this universe of unity, by declaring absolutely that there was no other God, but God.

Why were the ancient Christians persecuted?

1. They separated themselves from the world and were accused of being divisive.
2. They accepted as wrong, and idolatrous, every form of religion but the one Christ established.
3. They refused to bow to the Roman leaders and throw a little incense on a Pagan altar, or burn a candle to their gods.
4. They were labeled as “atheist” because they did not believe in the other gods as equal means of salvation.
5. They gave honor to One Who was higher than the Monarch.
6. And, there was one other reason for persecution, it was because of the teaching of the Judas Zealots.  Christianity provided the Zealots with a way to defeat the  government; they were revolutionary Jews who hated Roman rule, and Christianity was simply a means to an end. They were nationalistic, and earthly minded.

Christ has nothing to do with those who don’t believe in Him, they are the world. Next Brian will be telling us that unbelievers are pleasing to God; Oh! beg my pardon, he already says that.

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Hebrews 11:6

Brian McLaren has defected from Christ and Christianity, while still wearing the uniform and using the language (although with new definitions), and is one of the new Judas Zealots now trying to use Christ to their own advantage. This is the reason that he is  pleased to now add to his ranks, an atheist. It matters not that they represent two different worlds and systems, it only matter that he accomplish “his” goals, of unification of all beliefs, government reform, and selling a few books.

Steve Blackwell

The Mystery Revealed

I would like you to consider with me the state of the church in this generation. This is a serious matter—I speak of the church that our Jesus died to present to Himself as “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish,” “and to make all (people) see what (is) the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places”!

That’s us guys—and the time (according to the Holy Spirit of God) is “now.” Do you believe that passage? Then it is also true that you must position yourselves to receive God’s grace as He desires to raise up a People, a Nation that is an “equal yoke” for the Groom—the King of all Kings!

“And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready!’ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

Some may think that you have heard all of this before. Oh, as Jesus our Lord said, be very careful how you hear! We only deceive ourselves if we “hear” but never act (Jas. 1:22; Lk. 6:43-49). Please! Now is the time—“in view of His great mercies” gather your thoughts and energies and fears and spiritual pride and all that you are, and lay it on the altar before Him… and ACT on the Word rather than bouncing around Bible verse truths to amuse (I speak boldly out of jealousy for my Lord’s church, which other than the normal speeches and scheduled rituals and programs seems to be invisible in most every city that I travel to). Please! As I would urge all of God’s People everywhere, don’t settle for anything less than “a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden,” “the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, (causing) growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love,” “the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, (growing) with the increase (which is) from God,” “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” That can’t remain theoretical any longer, OK?! Decide what you’ll do with your tonight (we know you’re tired), and your weekend and your “vacation” and… ! “You are not your own—you were bought for a price”! Get on the phone and begin to penetrate into the lives around you forcefully and relentlessly impassioned to “present everyone perfect in Christ. Labor to this end struggling with all His power”!

This is very simply what the Word of God says. My observation is that these things are almost universally disobeyed in the church world today, and the Corporate Life of Jesus Christ is replaced by a very poor substitute of unbiblical “worship services” and “mid-week Bible Studies.” Don’t take my word for it—see if you can find me that concept (dressing up to be an audience at a ceremony of two songs, a prayer by a guy chosen a week in advance, a speech by the official presenter of speeches, etc.) of “christianity” anywhere in the Bible. It’s not in there! Be honest now… Nowhere in the Holy Scriptures is a church pictured as (in the Book of Acts) or referred to or taught to be as such (in the Gospels or Epistles). The GOOD NEWS: There is a Biblical alternative! The BAD NEWS: “Few will be those who find it” because it will cost you all of your idols of television, selfishness, career idolatry, family idolatry and the like. Frankly, most will try desperately to find loopholes and create a theology to defend the fruitless mediocrity around us, and to protect their pride and orator-clergyman career path (that also doesn’t exist in the Bible—believe me I was in that category for several years and recognize the difficulty and insecurity in giving it up).

Three Visual Aids for the Church

There is an analogy that I hope that you are all intimately familiar with involving the Feasts of the Lord. Possibly this will be helpful in giving you a glimpse of the alternative to “churchianity.” The true, Biblical nature of the Church of Jesus Christ is essential for God’s People to respond to NOW, and we can be aided in our understanding of the practical outworkings of this by an understanding (believe it or not!) of the Last and Greatest Feast, Tabernacles. In the Bible, there are three major Feasts in the Old Covenant (which is, though so often ignored, the “shadow of the reality that is in Christ”—Col. 2:17; Heb. 8:5; 9:8-9; 10:1; etc.). A (very) brief glimpse for those of you who may not have been floored yet by God’s infinite Wisdom in establishing the sacrifices, the Temple, the Sabbath, the Law, the physical (geographical) nation of Israel, the Ark, the Manna, wheat fields, rivers, suns, physical families, Feast Days and a myriad of other things in order for us to have “visual aids” for our spiritual eyes in order to grow spiritually and to know the “times and seasons”! (Read again, in regards to the above statement, the following verses—I can’t take the time to go further now: Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 8:5; 9:9; 9:23-24; 10:1-2; Rev. 21:22-22:7; Lk. 12:54—56; 1 Thes. 5:4; 1Pet. 1:10-11; Rom. 15:4; 1Cor. 10:6, 11; Mat. 5:17-18; Ga1. 3:24; 1Cor. 15:46; Eph. 1:18; Jn. 14:19a, 21b).

Even if this is all foreign to you currently, please enjoy the fact that the Feasts are a great key to understanding (much like Gal. 4:24 and Heb. 9:1-9) the special inheritance that we have, and to discern the Day that we’re speeding towards (whether we believe it or not, we are obviously much closer to the Day of the Return of Christ than Paul was). And understanding the Wisdom of God in the “visual aids” of the Feasts will also help us to prepare ourselves for that Day—if we have the presence of mind and passion for Jesus, and jealousy for the honor of His Name and His Bride, the Church, to care. Here are some thoughts to hold before your Lord… analogies that I believe will be somewhat useful to your understanding of the nature of the church of the Bible. Don’t be picky. Just gain what you can from the passages referred to. If you don’t quite “get it,” don’t fret or be upset—just go on serving your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind and all of your strength! And so will I. Just pray through it and make Prov. 2:1-15 and 3:5-6 the guideline for your study.

The first of the Three Feasts of Israel is the Feast of Passover. (It also included The Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast Day of the Sheaf of First fruits.)

This first analogy is well known to us all. Our Lord and the Christ, Jesus, was that Paschal Lamb for us whose blood was sprinkled on the door and lintel in order that the Death Angel might “passover” the homes of those of us who have been prepared and cut by circumcision (Ex. 12:1-51; Lev. 23; Num. 33; Deut. 16; Heb. 11:28) and appropriate that blood by a response of faith. In addition to being “unleavened,” without sin (Heb. 4:15; lCor. 5: 7-8), our Jesus was also the single “sheaf of first fruits”—our “Pioneer,” the “Firstborn” of a new Race (Col. 1:15; 1Cor. 15:23, 45; 1Pet. 2:4-5, 8-10). Like the single sheaf of the first month grain harvest that was to be waved before the Lord “on the morning after the Sabbath” (Lev. 23: 9-14), so also the “Firstborn One” became a celebration of God’s coming Harvest as He was the lone Wave Offering before the Lord “on the morning after the Passover Sabbath,” His Resurrection Day! “But Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.’”

And so, the second great Feast that God had commanded: Pentecost (Also called The Feast of Weeks, of Harvest, of First fruits—Ex. 23; 34; Deut.16; Lev. 23; Num. 28).

This Feast was to celebrate the Harvest of the spring wheat, where a wave offering of, not a single sheaf as at the Passover, but rather a wave offering of two loaves were offered. This Feast was to be celebrated on the fiftieth day (thus, the name Pentecost) after the Passover Feast, again, not on the Sabbath day, but “on the morrow after the Sabbath.” This Feast was also to commemorate the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai.

There is so much to say, yet even a brief mention such as this must leave us staggered at the infinite mind of our God who “when the day of Pentecost had fully come” (Acts 2:1) brought the first harvest of souls up from the ground as He had His “only begotten Son” fifty days earlier, and made a “loaf” out of them as a wave offering (1Cor. 10:17; Acts 2:42-47)!

What had commemorated the giving of the Law on the Tablets of Stone, now would commemorate the Law written by the Spirit of God in the New Covenant on the Tablets of the Hearts of men (Jer. 31:33; 2Cor. 3:3, 6; Ezek. 36:26-27).

Where 3000 had died (Ex. 32:15-28), now 3000 were raised from spiritual death (Eph. 2:1-5; Acts 2:36-41)!

Both of these Feasts, though historical events (both as Feasts in the old Covenant, and in Christ’s literal death and resurrection—the Passover blood that was shed, and Pentecost—the third month celebration of the harvest of 3000 souls) are clearly meant for us to participate in currently, in the spiritual sense, or we are “none of His” (Heb. 9:22; Rom. 8:9-11).

LIKEWISE, and the reason I’ve taken the time to establish all of the above, SO MUST WE PARTICIPATE IN THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES, THE LAST AND GREATEST FEAST, IN ORDER TO KNOW THE FULL INTENT AND BLESSINGS OF GOD!!! This Feast (Test this—but not by the traditions of men, but rather in the Spirit of God by the Word of God) is primarily:

1) Not yet fulfilled (as seems clear in the following parallels and observation); and

2) Involves the Church of Jesus Christ and You! (Only those that have shared in the other two Feasts can partake in this culmination of all of the work of God).

The third and last of the Feasts of Israel was to be held after the long, dry scorched months of summer when the rains finally were renewed at the final harvest time in the seventh month. This was to be the greatest of all the Feasts (GREATER EVEN THAN PENTECOST!)

The Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering

It seems impossible to logically just call this “Judgment Day” since this Feast included the Feast Day of the Blowing of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths (Lev. 23:16; Num. 29; Deut. 16; 31; Neh. 8:14-15; Ex. 23:16; Jn. 7), and then ended with an eighth day Rest, the completion. If, again, this is hard to understand, that’s OK… I’ll bet you will still benefit tremendously from the New Testament scriptures, if you’ll be disciplined enough to look them up and obey them. Back to the analogy, the “shadow,” the “schoolmaster,” even the Old Testament that the Apostle Paul referred to as, (2Timothy 3:15-16), “the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture (a New Testament verse referring to the Old Testament, of course, in context) is given by inspiration of God, and (is) profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…” And so, the “useful” shadow:

The Feast of Trumpets, because the Day of Atonement must be introduced by the Trumpet call of men of God carrying His Words (See Amos 3:6-8; Isa. 58:1; Hos. 8:1; Ezek. 33:1-7; Joel 2:1,15; Isa. 18:3; 27:13; Jer. 4:8; Rev. 1:10; 4:1; 1Cor. 14:8). There is no question that the dry summer months of the last 1800+ years have been primarily “a famine in hearing the Word.” At least it has been a famine in hearing a “living and active Word” that doesn’t simply “educate,” but “lays bear the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” and causes men that refuse holiness and cling to the cloak of darkness and the shadow of compromise and justifying words to run (“You’re judging—don’t you dare confront me with my cesspool mind and unfruitful life!”) (Heb. 4:12; Jn. 3:19-21; Jn. 15:1-8; 2Thes. 2:11-12; 2Tim. 4:1-3; 3:1-9). And, by the way, that exact same Word will bring grace and glory and liberty from the bondage of sin to those with “good and honest hearts” (Acts 3:19,26; Jn. 8:31-32; Titus 2:11-15; 1Thes. 2:13; Rom. 1:16; 2:4-11; Lk. 8:15; Mat.7:24-27; 2Cor. 3:16-18; Jn. 3:19-21). Most definitely, the Day of Atonement will be introduced by the Trumpet Call of the Word!

The Day of Atonement is, as we view the Word of God and make its application, 1) a reaffirmation, a reawakening of the necessity of the atoning blood of the Lamb of God (not as a “doctrine” that is taught and “claimed,” but in deep, deep gratitude, as the very source and essence of our abiding Life in Him); 2) a time of fasting and repentance and a “rending of our hearts”: “Without holiness no one will see the Lord”; and, 3) a time of moving into the inner sanctuaries of our God’s heart and mind (for proof see 1Cor. 2:9-3:2, Jn. 15:15)—moving into the Most Holy Place where the Ark of God’s Glory resides, filled with the hidden manna, the tablets of God’s Righteousness, and God’s affirmation in the rod of Aaron (Heb. 9:1-5; 10:19-20). That’s the place that Jesus spoke of “in a loud voice” on that “last and greatest day of the Feast” where “gushing torrents of alive water will flow from his innermost being”—that is absolutely to be the NORM of EVERY Christian’s life on earth, according to Jesus Himself! Again, not “the doctrine of,” but the reality of a river that Ezekiel saw that changes the world around us into Christ!

(Ezek. 47:1-12) “Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar… and there was water, running out on the right side… the water came up to my ankles… the water came up to my knees… the water came up to my waist… and it was a river that I could not cross: for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea (the Dead Sea here represents the Dead Sea of humanity that the waters of God flowing out of us and our “innermost being,” the Temple of God, cause to burst into Life!) its waters are healed. And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live! There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many. But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt. Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all (kinds of) trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”

But first, the Last and Greatest Feast, the Feast of the Ingathering, must see a great Day of Atonement in God’s People.

Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

Acts 3: 23 “And it shall come to pass (that) every soul who will not hear that Prophet (Jesus) shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.”

2Tim. 2:19 “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’”

Mat. 21:43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a People who will bear its Fruit”!

Lk. 19:44 “your enemy…will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Some specific things that must be torn down in our cities, in our churches, and in our lives if we would see the fullness of God’s purposes:

1. Division amongst our number from old scars. “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” That cannot be bypassed. Please take the initiative, each of you, to help the others that you are aware of that are still holding on to this sin—for everyone’s sake. God’s visitations (take this any way you’d like) are only to those that are of “one accord.”

2. Immorality. Nothing rationalized. Septic tank minds and mouths must be repented of.

3. Covenant violations (of heart) in marriage.

4. Selfishness, Idolatry, Laziness.

5. Spiritual arrogance, critics “twice dead” (Jude 11-12; Num. 16:1-7; 1Sam. 4:21-22).

I can’t encourage you enough to move to demolish these strongholds… that you might be useful to God. There won’t be any exceptions this time around!

2Tim. 2:21: “Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.”

Acts 17:30: “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent!”

ARE YOU READY TO GO FOR IT?!

Then last of all, the part of the Feast of Tabernacles that I’d like you to take very seriously, as it has application to your life…

THE FEAST OF BOOTHS

This can no more likely be devoid of meaning and application to us than the Passover or Pentecost—so consider carefully!

“Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord (for) seven days; on the first day (there shall be) a (sabbath-)rest, and on the eighth day a (sabbath)-rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. (It shall be) a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I (am) the Lord your God.’ So Moses declared to the children of Israel the Feasts of the Lord.” (Lev. 23:39-44).

And, (Neh. 8:11-17) “So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, ‘Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.’ And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them. Now on the second day the heads of the fathers’ houses of all the people, with the priests and Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe, in order to understand the words of the Law. And they found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.’ Then the people went out and brought (them) and made themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house, or in their courtyards or the courts of the house of God, and in the open square of the Water Gate and in the open square of the Gate of Ephraim. So the whole congregation of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness.”

During the Feast of Booths, all of the people came out of their various levels of prosperity and comforts, and slaves right next to rulers would live in little thatched roof huts. During this Feast the streets were filled with these small booths! They were made from the “branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook” and were so numerous that there was only room on the rooftops to erect these huts. For the duration of the “last and greatest Feast,” everyone joined themselves together in a oneness, purposely destroying the divisions of class and possessions and education. It all sounds so much like the church of the Bible even before Tabernacles! (Acts 2:42-47) “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common (not a “common purse,” but the heart of Jesus unattached to material things—Acts 5:3-4; Lk. 6:20-36) and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

And, (Acts 4:32-35) “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid (them) at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.”

This is not cultural.

It’s the very foundation of a life that is storing up treasure in Heaven in simple observable obedience to Jesus (Lk. 6:17-36; 9:57-62; 14:12-13, 25-34) and is a suitable vessel to “turn the world upside down” in the power of the Holy Spirit of Jesus! It is only the fruit of a people that obey Jesus’ teaching literally, rather than delude themselves by getting together three times a week to simply give speeches about, talk about and form a denomination that agrees upon what that teaching is… but never obeys it as those simple, trusting folks in the first century did. It is also the fruit of those Disciples who would see the Feast of Tabernacles and God’s full intention in His People.

If you don’t believe that, would you at least believe “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not withstand it,” “to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,” “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” As long as the “gates of Hell” continue to destroy marriages, and drugs and sex ravage the teenagers of “church folk” and conversions are oh-so-few, we have no RIGHT to defend the thing around us as “the Lord’s Church.” HIS church will blow apart the very gates and strongholds of Satan and Hell itself with the power of the Risen Jesus and His Word! (Mat. 16:18; 2Cor. 10:3-6; lJn. 3:6-9; Eph. 6:12). Nothing else is the church that He is “building.”

So why be defensive for something that does not bear the Fruit that Jesus said it must (Lk. 6:43-44; Mt. 21:43; Acts 26:20b; Lk. 3:8-9)? Let’s just be honest and humble enough to go on. We’ve paid a price to go this far—why camp out on something so undeniably (even by any intelligent heathen observer) short of the mark now?!

The Gospel of the Kingdom

Many of you have been aware of the fact that in recent years there has been a very obvious call to the intimate Knowledge and vertical Worship of, and Fellowship with, the Living King, Jesus, and His Father—rather than religious rituals and temple exercises done in His honor to somehow please a “way off somewhere inactive God.” As some of you have realized, either He’s “in our midst” (Mat. 18:20) or He’s not!

God’s call continues (Again, please test this—but don’t discard it out of apathy or justification of the idols of the middle-class American lifestyle) to be that call to glorious worship (rather than an unbiblical “song service” and “weakly” speeches to spit-polished “audiences” in the “pews”—Really, it isn’t anywhere in the scriptures!) and the drawing up of His People into a Holy Nation, a Royal Priesthood, an “Ever-Increasing Government” and “Habitation of God by the Spirit”! Not a “here or there Kingdom” “in Jerusalem or on this mountain” where someone says “here is the Christ, or there is the Christ”—but a People, a Church with “no beauty or majesty” that (one more time!) “the gates of Hell cannot withstand,” “to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places”!

Thank our God—He has put the “Second Adam” into a deep sleep (for three days and three nights) and has pulled a rib out of Jesus’ side and is building Him a Bride suitable for Him… of His nature! And that Bride, by the Spirit that “He exerted in Christ when He rose Him from the dead” is, according to Jesus Himself, more blessed by the Coming of the Comforter than we would be even with His physical presence on earth! (Jn. 14:12; 16:7). If you would prefer Jesus’ physical presence on earth to what you currently have, you’re missing what God has offered you!

The message delivered by those men who knew was continually the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom (His verifiable reign amongst His People)—Acts 8:12; Acts 28:31; Mat. 6:33. As we have focused the eyes of our hearts on a new Understanding of Worship of our Lord and King, it remains necessary to move into the Feast of Booths where we celebrate the “KINGDOM of our God and His Righteousness.” Jn. 13:35 “By THIS all will know that you are My disciples, if you have AGAPE for one another.” VISIBLE, as in, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” With one another! Is it true? Can the world see that depth of relationship in your lives with one another? One thing is certain: if we are no deeper than a church lobby or fellowship meal—the world will never know that we are truly His disciples. He said a lot when He said “By THIS all will know that you are my disciples,” didn’t He?

(lJn. 2:7-8) “Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.” No, its not a “new command” at all—but the very oldest. Yet it is new because now it is “seen” (NIV) in us rather than “studied” by us! (Heb. 8:10-13).

The very essence of the “christianity” that has descended from Heaven to earth is not primarily the passing on of knowledge, but rather, “the life became the light of men” (Jn. 1:4), the treasure, not on stone tablets or in gilded edge and leather bindings, but “living letters,” the treasure in “earthen vessels” (See Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 10:15-16; 2Cor. 3:2-6; 4:6-7; Ezek. 36:26-27; lCor. 4:19-20).

This is a Covenant, not of our words (though the Utterance of God is the very bedrock of the universe—1Pet. 1:22-25), but of the visible Agape that we have for “one another,” that Word becoming “flesh” in us, the corporate Life of Jesus Christ that looks like and bears fruit like:

Isa. 61:1-7 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations… But you shall be named the Priests of the Lord, (men) shall call you the Servants of our God… Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and (instead of) confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs.”

Obviously this isn’t a life pulled away in seclusion, but out on the streets! Is that your heart? Oh, I hope so—it’s God’s heart for you and His church!

An Appeal

I’m certain that this is enough for now, but let me end with the challenge to consider each day and night and weekend: Am I truly building with the costly materials that are only found by digging very deep—“gold, silver, and precious stones,” or am I building with the cheap, surface materials of “wood, hay and stubble” that will not endure the test of fire? (1Cor.3:9-15).

Please, for Jesus’ sake and the honor of His Name and His Purposes, take this literally as it was intended: “but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” We really need each other, Family. May the Grace of God, His Mercy and His Liberty be with you all… For Jesus’ Sake.

It is beyond me how anyone with half a brain could sit and listen to men like Perry Noble, Mark Driscoll, Rick Warren, or a hundred others in their blood line and not pickup on their falsehood. The only answer is “Strong Delusion.”

We read in Scripture of the strong drink that the nation will be made to drink of, and the drunken state that will be the result. “A second angel followed and said, ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.’” What we began to experience in the circus church was a spectacle, and still is, but it has moved on to an intoxicated fisticuff.

I have followed loosely Ken Silva at Apprising Ministries and Christian Research Net, and Lighthouse Trails documenting of Perry Noble at New Spring Church in Anderson S.C., but have never commented, till now. After reading about the account of the leadership at New Spring, going way over the line, in their attack of James Duncan for his critique of Perry Noble, and Perry’s strong arm response of intimidation, a word of warning is overdue from this site.

In an interview with Chris Rosebrough of Fighting for the Faith Radio, James Duncan, a Professor at Anderson University advises all believers to start a discernment blog to warn of the imminent danger that is at hand; this is good advise. The interview, “Perry Noble’s Employees Assassinate the Character of a Critic,” needs to be listened to. Perry is a growing influence in the Seeker Sensitive, Mega Church movement and is charting the course for many market driven Churches. This man brings violence one step closer to the elimination of all Bible believing Christians, and he gets support for his deeds.

Also, on James Duncan’s own blog, Pajama Pages, James documents, in detail, how  these so called followers of Christ, tried to destroy him for openly criticizing Perry Noble.

Perry Noble, like Mark Driscoll, preachs a very worldly and flesh oriented message, and by so doing gather to themselves large followings of those who gravitate to the base nature of man, rather than to the Cross, where the flesh and the world are put away. Perry openly feeds his congregation the filth of the world, then tries to intimidate, by his crude rashness, anyone who would dare disagree with him.

This is the trend of Church Growth today, the blind leading the blind into accepting a false, flesh gratifying, Im O.K., You’re O.K. as long as you don’t take the Bible too serious, kind of Gospel.

Perry Noble, Mark Driscoll, and Rick Warren are the worst of the worst, but there are many others who exist on the fringes of their teachings and who have not ventured out of the closets yet, but they will come. They exist up and down Main Street, in your town and across the Nation, and have listened to these men and rehearsed their methods in their own Churches, and envy their success, and secretly desire their fame for themselves. They live and play on the edge of a dangerous cliff and promote the teaching of these men as if it were their own, and encourage their flock to graze ever closer to the edge, all the while saying it is good and healthy for their soul; Peace, Peace, but there is no Peace sayeth the Lord.

These men never blush for their wickedness, but encourage others to celebrate this new kind of freedom. The freedom they celebrate is freedom from the narrow way; it is freedom from the Cross, which is freedom from Christ.

Hag 2:12-14

“If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?”‘” Then the priests answered and said, “No.” And Haggai said, “If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?” So the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.” Then Haggai answered and said, “‘So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,’ says the Lord , ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.”

These verses speak loudly to a nation caught in its sin, and it speaks loudly to these American Churches. Where did the mentality come from that says, that if we put a Christian in the midst of the world we can make it holy; that by a Christian presence we can spread holiness? Where did the mentality come from that says that a Christian can maintain their purity when simultaneously mingling with impurity? Who said that we could keep an open relationship with the world and come away unscathed? It is a lie, it cannot be done.

Haggai here declares the same; it cannot be done. The pure person cannot by being with impurity and mixing with them impart his purity to them. But, to the contrary, if a holy person touches an unclean thing the holy person becomes unclean. To say it plainly: corruption and sin are more easily transferred to the righteous than righteousness transferred to the unrighteous. So the rule seems to be plain enough. Don’t think that an evil person living in the midst of goodness will commend that goodness to the evil person. The Spirit has declared that it is not so, but this is exactly what we see, routinely, in the institutional Church. We advertise, we promote, we poll neighborhoods, we beg and we plead that the world would please come and be a part of us, and they have, and we have become corrupted and unclean, deluded, because we now see as the world sees, and we see that the world’s ways and means have great promise for the Church. We have become an unclean thing and we don’t know how to repent, so the Lord will come to us in our darkest hour, and we will see our nakedness and be ashamed.

Repentance and shame is not in the vocabulary of these men, they exalt there shame and draw ovations from their flatterers.

As we watch the world tumble and turn, and the organized church slip into apostasy, words start taking on new value, meaning, and understanding, both for the worldly Christian and for those enlightened souls who recognize the fulfillment of end time prophecy. We have witnessed, in our generation, the grand sermons of talented preachers, with their endless chatter, flowing like a fermented mash, to inebriated crowds, bellying up to the bar for a round of worldly religion, and seen them stumble home, and still manage to confess, in the face of their sin, their creedal and national allegiance, then fall for the umpteenth time while convinced, by their pastor, that they can live in the world and not be of it. They are not only in the world, they are awash in it; it covers them; they have become to the “world,” just, the “religious world,” no different than those outside, just more cocksure that’s all.

The words of Scripture are very clear today.

2 Cor 6:14-7:1

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

Steve Blackwell

The following response to my last post, by T Austin Sparks, Vision and Vocation, is just such a blessing.

There are so few who are hearing from the Lord these days, compared to the very large numbers who listen for words from men, to direct their way into eternity. We look for markers and road signs, and directions from fellow travelers, on our way to the Celestial City, and there are many who are leading away from that City, but not all. We call these markers, road signs, and directions “ministries;” those who are pointing the way. Most direct us onto the Broadway where life is easy, but a few point to the truth, to the narrow way, a way that demands that we focus on the destination, and not on the distractions.

Here is one that I am glad to know, who hears the Shepherd and is following.

_________________________________________________

Thank you for this message that has arrived in my email box. I had just posted what I have written below on someone elses blog. Then I finally read your email and it so encouraged me…it truly is the word for me today… so I thought I would post it again here. I have been greatly encouraged by your messages that have arrived in my email box but have not always commented. Thank you so much for them. Both yours and David Wilkerson’s remind me that it isn’t a time for me to be dwelling carelessly or to be holding the truth in unrighteousness….and that He tries the hearts of all men who say they love Him. …tries them?? Why does He try us when He already knows the thoughts and true motives of our hearts. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO IS TRIED BY GOD’S JEALOUS LOVE…it is an act of our Father’s jealous love that every thought, every motive, every act and every idle word spoken, all that comes from the root of self be made known to ourselves by His Jealous Love so that we may nail this man of flesh, this man of sin who sits in the temple of God as though He is God, to the cross daily and hate him as much as God does.. .. No, we will not stand naked and ashamed on His Day, His great day that is so soon in coming. But we are not as those who walk in the dark that that day may come upon us unawares.

He is very determined to have a blameless and glorious bride. I remember that these many trials are really just His many graces to me.

I often say to Him. Father we both know that I do not love you and how I long to love you with your love and to love you fully. Only a dead man can love Jesus. There is nothing in us that we should desire Him. Isaiah was correct in saying so. There is nothing in our flesh that can possibly desire or even love Jesus. He is just too humble and too lowly for prideful men to love. It is vanity to even think we can love Him or serve Him with our love and our service. But He does say, ‘If you love me feed my sheep” And in many places in the gospels we are told that to love Him is to love one another, and then the greatest love is to be found in loving our enemies and even dying for them. It is to love those who hate us, revile us and persecute us for righteousness sake.

But how can we be made perfect in such an obedient love unless we willingly share in the fellowship of His sufferings and not as a victim but rather as a victor. It can only be done by sharing the same cup He drank from. We are not willingly surrendered men and women until we have had our agonising Gethsemane…and we really have cried to Him, “Father, please take this cup from me….it is just too painful, too devastating”….but then comes the true bride’s submission, “But Lord, not my will be done but yours”….after such a transaction His grace is made fully available to us to die just as it was to Jesus, and we are now born of His Spirit and are now victors….we now live a supernatural life..….what else can we do but surrender in submissive union with Him. …now an axe is finally taken to the root of self…..the fruit reveals the root….and this is the fruit ( fruit that is not of this world) His sheep feed from …..firmly grounded and rooted in Christ.

(Beginning Quote:)…” When the Cross has done its work there is liberation from all human limitations, and Christ breaks forth from the grave in a way which gives Him the mastery of the whole situation.
Those who have been identified with Him in His death are raised by Him to a life on a supernatural level, and through them He achieves such things as were before utterly impossible…”(End Quote)

Yes, I agree…make me a captive Lord, then shall I be free.

Blessings brother.

I believe that, for most people, the “thank you “ part of Thanksgiving is the most boring part. It has been relegated to mere ritual, where the most religious person is given the task of “saying the blessing,” and of course, including the words “thank you.” Little thought is given to whom we are giving thanks, or why, it is just one more hurdle that has to be cleared so that the next stage can begin.

Thanksgiving, like so many other events and holidays, has lost its significance with the passage of time. The bounty that America has produced was originally attributed to the providence of God, but today you rarely hear the word. The idea that there really is someone providing the things we take for granted is becoming more and more fantastic and illogical. And, for those of us who still believe in Providence, our degree of true faith is inspiring fewer and fewer these days.

During this time of year I reflect that our country was founded and built upon the knowledge and fear of God and His Word.

“On April 10, 1606 King James I granted the first charter of Virginia to the Jamestown colonists.”

“The following is how the charter opened up, giving the instructions for the Virginia Colony…”

“We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God…”

There is a growing number in our nation today who reject the fact that this nation was founded on His prescripts given to us and discovered in the volume of His Word.

“Benjamin Franklin stated the following at the Constitutional Convention of 1787…”

“ God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel”

Solomon wrote in Proverbs 16:7,
“When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

Today we are surrounded by enemies who have no fear of us, and again the question is, to whom are we giving thanks, and why?

“On reflecting where we are today, I present these words from the past, from Governor Samuel Johnston.”

“It is apprehended that Jews, Mahometans (Muslims), pagans, etc., may be elected to high offices under the government of the United States. Those who are Mahometans, or any others who are not professors of the Christian religion, can never be elected to the office of President or other high office, [unless] first the people of America lay aside the Christian religion altogether, it may happen. Should this unfortunately take place, the people will choose such men as think as they do themselves.”

[Elliot’s Debates, Vol. IV, pp 198-199, Governor Samuel Johnston, July 30, 1788 at the North Carolina Ratifying Convention]

“We are a nation founded upon the principals of God Almighty. It is His Word, the Bible that has helped govern the direction this nation would go. But fast forward to today, we no longer heed God’s Word.”

I give thanks that there still is a spark of liberty and love for The God of Heaven and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There are a few of us still who uphold the principals upon which this nation was founded. We do not forget that this nation has been blessed by God and God alone. But, do we not see those blessings disappearing before our very eyes. Can we conclude that God is not pleased? Yes, that is the Biblical conclusion.

That spark of liberty may be the spark that ignites the furnace of adversity in which the spirit of grace and thankfulness is proven.

God is the God of all our provisions, and He alone knows what we need. One of the greatest things Jesus said, is when He claimed equality with the Father by saying, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” If He merely wanted to establish His pre-existence He could have said “before Abraham was, I was.” Jesus is taking great liberty with that statement, and in it we go back to that day when Moses talked with God in the burning bush, and asked what name he should give the God who was sending him to the children of Israel. God told him to tell them that “I Am” has sent you unto them. Without getting into a detailed examination of God’s many names it is easy to see that the name “I Am” is an incomplete sentence, it has no subject, why? Jehovah (I Am) purposely left that sentence incomplete so that we could fill it in with what ever need we happen to have at the time. Jesus was reminding these Jews of God’s ability to fill every need that could arise, and that He himself is the fulfillment of our deepest desires and needs. Do you need strength, I Am your strength. Do you need healing, I Am your healer. Do you need provisions, I Am your provider. I Am_____________, you fill in the blank. But, today we just don’t get it. Jesus is still everything we need if we can unravel the riddle.

Whether we are abased, or whether we abound, Jesus still provides for our every need, and it is for this we give thanks. The Providence of God was at work in the founding of this Nation, and it is the Providence of God that is at work in its failure, if we refuse to understand to Whom we give thanks, and Why?.

Steve Blackwell

Initial Contact with Kerry Bowman

Head Pastor of Eagle Church

Kerry,

I have become very disappointed in the path the Church is taking. I especially am upset with the way you openly link arms with the world in this leadership simulcast thing. What advise can the world give the Lord’s people on how to conduct business or anything else? Doesn’t the Bible make it perfectly clear that we are to pull back from the world? Shouldn’t the leader of Eagle Church be giving advice to stay away from the world as much as possible, not joining forces with them at every opportunity? How can you not expect to receive judgment for openly leading your congregation into sin? And, I simply cannot believe that other, supposedly followers of Christ, leaders, deacons, or just plain Godly people have not spoken up that you stop this absurdity. Has the Organized Church come to blatant, open, rebellion, against God? I can assure you that the Lord is not happy with this new direction. I am preparing an open letter to the congregation to alert them of your unfaithfulness to your position in the Church and to your calling if there is no repentance. The Churches across this land are falling into a very dangerous trap and the leaders will be held responsible to God for the loss of so many souls. I for one will not be silent. I have seen this coming and it is madness.

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the FATHER is not in him.” “Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with GOD? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of GOD.” “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath CHRIST with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever?. . .Wherefore: —Come out from amonst them.”

Your immediate response is requested.

Steve Blackwell

**************************************

Open Letter to Eagle Church

ALARM!

Ezek 33:1-6
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.”

My name is Steve Blackwell. I am not on the membership roles of Eagle or any other Organized Church, but my name is written in the Lamb’s book of life, and that is sufficient. I have been part of the Body here at Eagle since it was built and have watched the transition over the last several years.

This e-mail is being sent to all whose e-mail address is listed in the Church directory, and the Church leadership is receiving it at the same time you are. This e-mail is not being sent without the Pastor awareness. A personal note was sent to Pastor Kerry alerting him of my concern and asking for his response. He has chosen not to respond.

The direction that “The Church” is taking is very serious. I am not saying I have all the facts yet, but I have enough to sound a general alarm.

About a year and a half ago an alarm started going off in my spirit alerting me to a terrible problem we have in our nation and in our Church. This alarm has caused me to change my life radically and with the help of the Holy Spirit I will tell you some of what I know.

You may not agree with what I am about to say but I am obliged to fulfill my duty as a member of the Body of Christ to sound this alarm. It would be irresponsible of me not to do so. If you smelled smoke in your home, in the middle of the night, while every one was sleeping, you would conclude rapidly that your family was in grave danger. Your sense of survival would compel you to take action and save your family and yourself.

Being a Christian is not about doing the easy things and having fun; it is about being obedient and doing the hard things, even at the cost of breaking fellowship with the ones you have come to love. I am neither a highly educated man nor particularly courageous, I am only being obedient in what has been revealed to me through my spirit to warn any and all who will listen of the obvious darkness appearing on the spiritual landscape. Because of this revelation my family and I have elected to leave Eagle Church and continue with the meetings of the Church in our home.

I cannot but think that this message will, at the very least, cause some to investigate these claims further, with the hope that the Holy Spirit would enlighten you. These are grave times we are living in, a time to be awake and not asleep, a time to read your Bible again for the first time, and to think seriously about events relating to the end of time.

What I am saying is that I smell smoke and many others, across this nation and the world, also smell smoke. So please do not pull the covers back over your head, at least consider what I have to say. The first smell of smoke is no indication of just how bad the problem is, it may be minor or it may already be too late, but it can not be ignored.

I am not an “alarmist” by nature or a preacher of “doom and gloom.” I am a Christian realist, and what I am saying is with genuine concern. Where there is smoke there is fire, and the fire of the kind I am talking about has very severe consequences and can not be disregarded.

There has never been a time in all of Church history that has stood out with a more urgent cry to its people than today. There has never been a time when understanding and discernment were more needed, but rarely to be found. There has never been a time like this, where the ability to smell smoke was so needed. The alarm was being sounded as late as the 70’s by people like A. W. Tozer, Watchman Nee, and T Austin Sparks but, has been generally ignored; then there was relative silence. Now, the alarms are being sounded again and they are coming in from every quarter, from around the world.

As I said earlier, alarms started going off in my spirit, a short while back. I have been a Christian for thirty years and nothing like this has ever happened before. In those thirty years of serving God and seeking the “good life” the “good life” had never been produced. I followed all the direction of the different preachers I sat under and read my Bible through many times, but the promise of happiness never materialized the way they predicted. My life was very ordinary, not rich, not poor, just your average person. I was not from a Christian home, but my mom and dad were good people and had Christian values, by default more than practice. We were just a normal average family with all the regular amount of chaos to deal with, seeking the American Dream.

I had this illusion that I was living the exemplary Christian life. Once saved, I quit my insurance sales job because of lifestyle conflicts, Marilyn, my wife, was a stay-at-home-mom, we sent our three girls to Christian schools, went to Church three times a week, worked hard and went to Bible college, we watched very little T.V., and rarely went out on the town, and never to bars or clubs. We were often complemented for our disciplined life style, and we were blessed in many respects, but something was lacking. The chaos and problems we were seeing in other’s lives started showing up in our lives also, and our normal, average, American Christian lifestyle started coming apart at the seams. A year and a half ago the Lord re-entered my life in a very dramatic way after going through a kind of spiritual death. When He revived me I at once realized I was seeing things through different eyes and had a new understanding, as if I had been blind before this. The Bible, which I have studied continuously for the past thirty years, became a totally new book, as if I had never understood it at all in the past.

The First Alarm

I do not blame any of my past Ministers; I had all the same resources that they had, even though they had put themselves in the position of knowing the will and direction of God. They all talked about attaining to the “good life” and led their flocks down rosy paths, and rarely spoke of the extreme cost associated with such a venture. So, what I ended up with was a religion of the flesh, which was little different, in its final results, than the flesh of the world I had left behind. This is precisely the reason that statistics, of divorce, pornography, and abortion, inside the Church and outside the Church read the same; it is the same worldliness only dressed up in a different costume. This was the first Alarm! A very simple observation; there was no difference of quality of life of those inside and outside the Church, none.

Immediately prior to this renewal, I had laid out a set of questions to the Lord in the context of frustration; something like this: why Lord? Why this? Why that? Why me? Haven’t I tried to do all you wanted me to do? Why? Why? Why? And then I just gave up on ever hoping to receive an answer; I just slipped into death. It took me thirty years of building up a history of failure to finally realize that the Lord had allowed me to become an utter failure so that I could know Him in the power of His resurrection. I had never died before, like the Bible teaches that we should. I only died on paper, my certificate of baptism, not like Paul describes in chapter six of the book of Romans. And, it was at this point that He showed me my problem, and my problem was me; I was still alive in the flesh. I had never died with Christ. Now I understood that all that stuff about death and dying, that I had read through all those years past, was the secret threshold that had to be crossed that opened up the new life of trust and faith, a life lived by walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh. This is a life of really believing that God is able to do all He said He would, and walking in that belief; after all, what can a dead man do? Dead men don’t build Churches.

The Second Alarm

The Holy Spirit brought to me, with great force, that all the problems of the world that we hated, were present in the Church, that the world had successfully and completely infiltrated the Church, and that what we are seeing in the Organized Church today is the ultimate completion of a grand plan arranged by Satan himself. Actually you don’t have to look very hard or be very smart to see it; you only have to open your eyes.

The Church in America has failed. Drugs are in the Church, abortion, divorce, pornography, they’re all there, just like on the outside, and in some cases the Church exceeds the world. Even a small child can add 1 + 1. Even a novice businessman can see the failure of the Church as a Christ building business. Unless of course you’re looking at the money, then you might see some success and a motive to keep the Organized Church going. The Church as a numbers game does have promise, as we are seeing. So, Paul’s words that “your meetings do more harm than good,” really apply to the modern Church. If a person from the world comes to the Church seeking solutions, he or she will not likely find the ultimate answer, the answer they need.

The Third Alarm

The third alarm was a simple fact. All that I had read in the Bible for so many years just did not add up in real life and in the Church in America. Example #1, Jesus asked Peter who he said He was and Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus said to Peter that he had just received a supernatural revelation from the Holy Spirit and that upon this revelation, of who Jesus really was, His Church would be built and that “the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” But, is that what we actually see with our own two eyes in America? No! In America the gates of Hell are prevailing. Americans have slipped into a coma and sin is out of control. Why? The Biblical conclusion is that we have departed the narrow path; we are pursuing “another gospel,” the American Dream, which is turning out to be a nightmare and completely off the narrow path. The dream of the “good life,” as we have come to know it in America, is an illusion and we are a country lost, in search of something that doesn’t exist. What we are given are policies, programs, more programs, creeds, and classes that have failed one after the other, but never led down that narrow way of dying to the flesh where the real answer awaits. The ways of men have never produced holiness, which is what our soul hungers for, in any of its people and can never prevail against the gates of Hell.

Example #2, In 2 Tim 3:12-13 Paul states as a matter of fact that “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted….” Well, the obvious question is, who do we know that is being persecuted in America? If we want to find persecution we need to look in India, or China, or other places, but not in America. Why don’t we see persecution in America? Because what we say from our pulpits and the lives we live are no threat to Satan and his kingdom. I would dare say that he is very happy with the message; it is very social, very tolerant, very non-offensive, and very attractive to the world. One solution, to the problem of not being persecuted, might be to seek out those who are being persecuted and find out what they are doing and copy them. If we did we would very likely find that we too would begin to run into evil forces who do not take lightly the message of truth. We are a sick and dying bunch in America, who only has the appearance of health. If we would only be weak and humble, then would we be strong and healthy. If we would only be obedient with the simple message of truth instead of hiding the light under all our worldly programs then we too would discover that dark forces oppose the children of Light.

Example #3, The cost of following Jesus. All the scripture given in the Bible would lead one to believe that the cost of following Jesus is beyond money and resources, and will cost your very life, indeed it will cost you everything, money, resources, and your life, to follow Jesus. Here are just a few of the cost that are enumerated in the Bible:
What is the cost of discipleship?
1. The true follower of Jesus must leave everything to follow Him, meaning that Jesus must have first priority in our life, over anything, or anyone else.
2. Another cost is to deny oneself. To do the will of Jesus is to be more important than our own selfish ambitions and desires. We should pray, not my will, but yours be done.
3. We are to follow Him unconditionally and not let the concerns of this world prevent us. A total separation from worldliness and a total commitment to Jesus is required. In Luke 9: 57 to 62, we read of three people who desired to be disciples of Jesus, but their priorities were not right. Jesus required their undivided attention and loyalty, but they were more concerned with possessions, personal gain, their livelihood and families. A person who does not put Jesus first cannot be a true follower.
4. Another cost of following Jesus is that we must Love Him supremely, from our whole heart, even more than we love ourselves and more than those closest to us, even our wife or children. Jesus said, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37) and for those of you who say, “It doesn’t mention ‘wife’” read Luke 14:26. In comparison to the love we have for Jesus, it is like hating those who in the natural sense are closest to us (Luke 14:26). This does not mean we do not love our family members; rather, Jesus used this expression as a means of comparison.
5. We must be willing to sacrifice for the sake of following Jesus. There may be a heavy price we must pay to follow Jesus with utmost commitment. For some, it may mean giving up extra income, or giving up comforts, even giving up position, honor, or reputation. Let us have the attitude of the Apostle Paul who said, “But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Do you really believe this?
6. As followers we are to count the cost, and consider the hardships that will arise for the sake of Jesus. It could cause much division in the home, if one or two are believers in Jesus and the others are not. With this scenario in mind, Jesus said, “Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother . . . “ (Luke 12:51-53). Converts to Christianity from other religions have experienced division and have even been abandoned and cast out by their families (Matthew 24:9). For them, there is no peace on earth, and yet they do have peace in their hearts, for they have peace with God and they will one day have peace in eternity with God.
7. Another cost of following Jesus is total surrender (Luke 14:33) and undying allegiance. We are to follow Him always, go wherever He leads, and obey His every command. He commands that we repent of sin; submit our wills, renew our minds, be baptized, consecrate our hearts, worship Him and have full and complete obedience to Him.
8. This brings us to the eighth item in our list of what it costs to follow Jesus… we must be willing to submit to Him, keep His commandments, and live a life worthy of bearing His name, that of being a “Christian.” Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Every aspect of our life must be God-honoring.
9. Lastly, to use the expression of Jesus, the true follower must “carry his cross” and follow Jesus (Luke 14:27). This means that we must endure pain, suffering, persecution (Philippians 1:29), and to even be willing to die for Him. The Apostle Paul exhorted the young man Timothy, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3).
I had fooled myself for years, and that foolishness was reinforced by the Church leaders, that I was O.K. with the Lord, when all along I was being deceived by Satan. The cost to follow Christ today has been so cheapened that a multitude of Pagans flood the church sanctuary looking for a free lunch; at the most it only cost a little in the collection plate, and they go home satisfied that they have worshiped God and all-is-well with their souls. We only delude ourselves into believing that we have paid the cost, but it has cost us nothing.

I could go on and on with numerous examples of how our lives do not measure up to what we read in the Bible, but you can read it for yourself, it is all there, on every page, you don’t need that any man should show you.

A little more then I’m done. These things were the beginning of my enlightenment. It never came through study but by the Holy Spirit through revelation, it just flashed upon me and I could see. The Holy Spirit has given me much insight into His Word and speaks to my spirit often now. What I have come to know now is that very much that goes on inside the Organized Church walls is totally worthless and that what is called the “church growth movement” is of the Devil and this is the main point of this letter.

Holy Scripture makes lots of things clear and one of those things is that man was born blind and has no capability to see unless sight is given to him by God. Man, in and of himself, is a stumbling, blind, creature. And also, it is clear that that blindness is through the deception of Satan. The Bible says he is the deceiver of the WHOLE world. It also says that in the end Satan will be cast into the bottomless pit, that serpent that deceived whole nations. Is it conceivable that the people of America have believed a lie? Is it possible that through our disobedience and pride that God has allowed us to continue in that lie? Is it possible that we have gotten so involved in the lie that we won’t believe the Truth? Is it possible that we love the lie more than the Truth? Is it possible that we believe the Lie to be the Truth? All these things are possible as the Bible states and also that in the last days before Jesus’ return, we should expect these things, and be on our guard. The sad thing is that many who we call brother and sister will never see the Truth and continue on in their delusion. But, there will be some that will see and come out from amongst them.

The Fifth Alarm

Don’t get caught up in the bigness or business of the Organized Church. This should be another sign that something is wrong. Bigness, showiness, loudness, drama, twin video screens, gymnasiums, the mysterious disappearance of the Cross, and the like are all geared to appeal to the flesh and the world and are not of Christ; it is of man for man. As I said earlier it is a numbers game. The contention is that the end justifies the means, the end being that the Church will get large numbers of unbelievers into the building to hear the message. This is a lie. With Christ the ends never ever justified the means, never. The Lord doesn’t need the help of godless unbelievers to build His Church; He never has and never will, Not Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, not Robert Schuller, not Peter Drucker, not Bob Buford, or the worldly methodologies used by them such as, Hegelian dialectics or Diaprax, thesis and antithesis, change agents, new paradigms or any other thing. A few have tried to warn us about this new “marketing and managing of the Church” movement: John MacArthur, and Oz Guinness to name a couple. Tozer warned that the Church was coming to this, and in 1 Tim 4:1-2 “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”

2 Peter 2:1-3

“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”

For the Church to openly admit that it is committing spiritual adultery with the world and not blink an eye is beyond me, and as far as I know none of the leadership is objecting. The Scriptures are explicit in this regard:

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the FATHER is not in him.” “Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with GOD? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of GOD.” “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath CHRIST with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever?. . .Wherefore: —”

“Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
And touch no unclean thing;
And I will receive you,
And will be to you a FATHER,
And ye shall be to Me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

We have to take our choice: we cannot enjoy both the world and CHRIST. Pastor Kerry in one of his last e-mails admitted that some of these who would be “impacting” you are NON-Christians. Should shepherds lead God’s flock where He says danger waits?

Simulcast – Maximum Impact @ Eagle Church
May 5 – 9:00am-5:00pm
Invite a business associate or friend to join you and 80,000 other
business professionals nationwide for one unforgettable day!

At a time in our history when we should be getting back to the basics of God’s Word and the simplicity found in Jesus, the Church is exploding into madness and heresy and open fornication with the world, and sincerely believes that God will bless it!

There is so much more that needs to be said but, I don’t know how to say it. All the Prophets and the Apostles foreseen these days and warned those who would live during the Last Days and we are “those” people. The alarms are sounding now. That little cloud on the horizon, we realize now, is a storm cloud, and it’s headed our way. I am afraid for many who will pull the covers over their head, push the snooze button, and just go back to sleep. “We live in America, what can harm us here?” We boast that “we are America” and that “there is no other” and while we sleep, we will be taken away, without another warning.

I know these words will draw fire and I fully expect it and am prepared for it. Not all will see the urgency. This letter, for most, will only be the ramblings of a silly man trying to spoil the fun and fellowship of God’s people. For a few others it will be the signal to flee the wrath to come. I have never advocated that anyone take my word for anything, but check it out for your self. I will be praying for you.

I have fulfilled my duty to the Body of Christ @ Eagle.

May God bless you, and have mercy on us all.

Steve Blackwell

**********************************

Rebuttal by Tim Swarens

Vice Chairman of Eagle’s Board of Elders

May 1, 2006

Eagle Church Family

Many of you recently received a lengthy e-mail from Steve Blackwell, who used to attend Eagle. As vice chairman of Eagle’s Board of Elders, I would like to respond to various assertions Mr. Blackwell made in his letter. Another elder and I will attempt to meet with Mt. Blackwell later this week. As always, if you have questions or concerns regarding this or any other matter, please feel free to contact me or another elderly directly.
It’s important to note that Mr. Blackwell’s letter was sent without the knowledge of Eagle’s pastoral staff or elders. An e-mail was sent to Pastor Bowman late Friday informing of Mr. Blackwell’s intention to send the letter, but the message was not read until after the letter was distributed Saturday to about 300 e-mail addresses.
Among the accusations that Mr. Blackwell made in his letter is the claim that “the Organized Church today is the ultimate completion of a grand plan arranged by Satan himself.” I have no idea how Mr. Blackwell arrived at this conclusion, but such accusations are not new. In Mark 3:22, the teachers of the law asserted that Jesus himself “is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” in verse 23-29, Jesus responded to his accusation by saying, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand…”
Look at Eagle in the past month: More than 900 of us celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and Savior on Easter Sunday. In the latest sermon series, Pastor Kerry challenged us not to turn Jesus into our personal mascot, but to make him our Monarch. Pastor Eric challenged small group members to confront and repent of sin in their lives. Pastor Brad and his team challenged us with dynamic, powerful worship and praise. Clint and Jen challenged high school and middle school students to grow in their faith through weekly teaching and through the Believe Conference at Anderson University. Pat Dragon challenged our children through, yes, fun, but also substantive teaching in our rainbow of zones on the lower level, plus the monthly KidStuf service. We have sent a team of short term missionaries to Spain. We have begun preparing missionary teams for service this summer in Bosnia and Louisiana. We have prayed for and supported missionaries around the world, including our own Petula Myers in Bosnia. We have prayed for and comforted the sick, the hurting, the poor and the downcast. We have challenged one another, loved one another, and worshipped with one another as only the Body of Christ can do.
Above it all we have been privileged to witness lives changed for eternity. Just yesterday, several people came to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Others were baptized. And hundreds of others were challenged by Pastor Kerry to live their lives fully for Christ.
Eagle is “the ultimate completion of a grand plan arranged by Satan himself”? I think not. More important, I am confident that Jesus himself thinks not, but is in fact rejoicing at the souls saved and the lives transformed.
Mr. Blackwell also condemns Eagle’s leaders and other evangelical leaders such as Bill Hybels and Rick Warren for playing “a numbers game.” Again, such criticism is not new. For decades, some Christians protested outside Billy Graham’s crusades because he was using the “wrong” methods and associating with the “wrong” people. The Rev. Graham was “too worldly” for these believers. I believe Jesus would point such critics to Luke 6: 37-45. He also could point them to 1 Corinthians 9: 19-23, including this passage written by the Apostle Paul, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.”
Please believe that Eagle’s pastor and elders strive to do everything for the sake of the gospel. Do we make mistakes? Yes, we are fallible humans who at times unintentionally irritate and even hurt fellow believers. We always will listen to concerns and correction honestly and humbly given. We will strive to correct true mistakes and lower obstacles that keep believers from growing in their faith. But we will never apologize for answering the call to introduce a lost and hurting world to a friend and savior named Jesus Christ.
Finally, I do agree with one statement Mr. Blackwell made in his letter: “With Christ the end never justified the means.” that includes following the principles outlined in Matthew 18 for correcting a fellow Christian whom you believe is in error. Practicing those principles is essential for the healthy operation of Eagle Church or any other church. I pray, as an elder at Eagle, that each of us would follow Matthew 18 principles as we strive to serve together in Christ’s church. Thank you and God bless.

In Christ

Tim Swarens,
Vice chairman, Elder Board
Eagle Church

***********************************

Rebuttal of the Rebuttal

by Steve Blackwell

A Rebuttal of the Rebuttal

Steve Blackwell

May 15, 2006

To All My Friends @ Eagle Church:

Of course you are all aware of the open letter I sent to Eagle Church. It was my intention to say my piece and then just let it go, but upon further thought and prayer I have decided to say something more.

In England they love to hunt fox; it is a great contest of hunter and dog skill. I mention this, not because what I’m doing is some sort of sport to be won or lost, but because of a tactic used, unfairly, to spoil the sport of the hunt. The night before the hunt, while no one is watching, a member of the opposing team would pull a little stunt to confuse the dogs. He would take a dead fish (red herring) and drag it across the field in front of where the opponent’s dogs would start. Dogs, even well trained dogs, depend on and are controlled by their sense of smell; they both love to hunt and to eat. Older dogs can overcome this trick through discipline, but younger dogs will give in to their appetite and follow the smell of the red herring. This trick has one purpose, and that is to throw the dogs off the trail of the fox to follow a false trail.

Tim Swaren’s rebuttal is a red herring, or worse, it is subterfuge, chaff, rubbish; I could have used stronger words but I’m trying to be polite. He is using his hunting skills of deception to manipulate the congregation’s, supposed ignorance, and lead them onto a different path. He knows that if the main issues of my letter are kept silent and played down they will go away; people have a short memory; they want to believe in their Pastor; they want to be kept out of such things; they want to think that everything is peachy, even if its not; they don’t want to be confused by the facts. He is purposely leading people away from facing the issues addressed, by focusing on incidentals and side issues, and skirting around major issues of unfaithfulness and worldly dealings and methodologies which are contrary to God’s word. The issues he stresses in his rebuttal concern only me, but the questions he avoids in my letter, if they are valid, concern the whole body, and have eternal consequences.

Red herrings are usually employed to avoid having to face an issue where the findings will not likely be favorable, so it becomes necessary to raise other issues, by re-stating the questions using different words, and directed at dirtying the questioner’s character. We see this all the time in politics and it is very effective, and it is also deceptive and dishonest, especially coming from the vice chairman of the board of Elders, who handles ethical issues. This in itself is worthy of investigation.

I am not trying to protect my character from assault but rather allowing the light of the Gospel to shine in truth. Let the assaults come, I make no defense for myself, the Word of God can speak for itself, and it is speaking loudly for those who can hear.

I want to apologize if my approach to the situation affected the Body in any adverse way by not adhering to the strict rule of “conflict resolution” as found in Matt. 18, although it would not have changed a thing, and as it turns out it was exactly the right thing to do. To allow the deacon board to have its shot at me before the mail went out, in hind sight, probably wouldn’t have been a good idea.

I am going to clarify a couple of things I said in my letter, that I assumed anyone with knowledge of the Bible would have understood.

No. 1 “The Holy Spirit brought to me, with great force, that all the problems of the world that we hated, were present in the Church, that the world had successfully and completely infiltrated the Church, and that what we are seeing in the Organized Church today is the ultimate completion of a grand plan arranged by Satan himself.”

Tim said that he has no idea how I arrived at this conclusion, and then aligns me with the Pharisees, asserting, like the “leadership” of Jesus day, that Jesus possessed a devil. I am surprised that an Elder, especially the vice chairman, could make that statement, but I shouldn’t be considering the Bible forecast such blindness in the last days. To begin with I stated right in the letter how I came to that conclusion; I opened my eyes, or I should say the Lord opened my eyes, and then the Bible confirmed what I saw. It’s funny that he would use Mark 3:22-29 as his proof text, because it proves my point. The Pharisees accused Jesus of having an evil spirit; now we know that that is impossible. Is Tim saying that it is also impossible for the organized church to be deceived? Is he putting himself and the church on the same level as Jesus? Does he really believe that he and the church are perfect and above reproach?

Jesus Himself was trying to reason with the organized religion of His day, but they simply could not see it, they were blind; the blind leading the blind. In Matt 23:13-36 Jesus confronts organized religion with these words:

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double-damned. “

“You’re hopeless! What arrogant stupidity! You say, ‘If someone makes a promise with his fingers crossed, that’s nothing; but if he swears with his hand on the Bible, that’s serious.’ What ignorance! Does the leather on the Bible carry more weight than the skin on your hands? And what about this piece of trivia: ‘If you shake hands on a promise, that’s nothing; but if you raise your hand that God is your witness, that’s serious’? What ridiculous hairsplitting! What difference does it make whether you shake hands or raise hands? A promise is a promise. What difference does it make if you make your promise inside or outside a house of worship? A promise is a promise. God is present, watching and holding you to account regardless. “

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment — the absolute basics! — you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons? “

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something. “

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You’re cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count. “

“Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It’s on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation — and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse.”

“You can’t squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah’s son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I’m telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation. ”

“Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God’s news! How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me. And now you’re so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I’m out of here soon. The next time you see me you’ll say, ‘Oh, God has blessed him! He’s come, bringing God’s rule!’”

I wonder if Jesus adhered to Matt. 18 concerning conflict resolution?

But to be more specific concerning Satan’s desire to infiltrate the church, here are some Scripture references:

Jer 8:4-7
“‘When men fall down, do they not get up?
When a man turns away, does he not return?
Why then have these people turned away?
Why does Jerusalem always turn away?
They cling to deceit;
they refuse to return.
I have listened attentively,
but they do not say what is right.
No one repents of his wickedness,
saying, “What have I done?”
Each pursues his own course
like a horse charging into battle.
Even the stork in the sky
knows her appointed seasons,
and the dove, the swift and the thrush
observe the time of their migration.
But my people do not know
the requirements of the LORD. ”

This is a reference to the then present infiltration of Satan into the Jewish religious institution during the time of Jeremiah. It is also indicative of an ever repeating cycle in mans search for God. We cling to deceit! We have fallen and we need to get up! We have turned away and we need to return! We have strayed far from the requirements of the LORD. He doesn’t mention Satan by name, so are we to deduce that there was some other reason for their stupidity? No! It is Satan at work here and it is Satan at work always. It has always been Satan’s plan to destroy the Church, from the inside out. This is why judgment will start at the House of God.

Mark 12:1-11
He then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
“He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
“But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you read this scripture:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

I have to concede a point here. If Satan could have killed the Son then he would not have a Church to infiltrate. Today Satan has the Church to deal with and blindness and deafness are such effective weapons against it. Just like the Jews, so is the Church; we never heard the voices of the Prophets who are read every Sabbath; when Jesus came they missed Him, even though they lived, ate, and slept with the Scriptures. Will we miss Him, with all our vast intelligence?

2 Peter 2:1-3
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them — bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.”

Need I point out that this is talking about the demise of the Church as of 2006.

You might still be asking along with Tim, “I have no idea how Mr. Blackwell arrived at this conclusion,” if so consider the following. What do you say Christianity is? If I say I’m a Christian does that make it so? If I raise my hand at some prompt and say I accept Jesus, does that make me a Christian? What does a Christian look like? Who is a Christian by definition?

Pretend for a moment that you are someone who desires to be as rich as Bill Gates but at last tally had only accumulated a mere $50.00. If you were to call yourself a billionaire, should we go along with you because you are trying; would we be foolish enough to believe, because you use certain language, that you are indeed as rich as Bill Gates? I think wisdom would say, “Say to yourself my son, my daughter, ‘I am not a billionaire’ and guard against being called a fool.”

The point is this: if there is to be any meaning to what you have said you must at least resemble whatever it is you are striving towards. In order to hide the fact that this person is not a billionaire it simply becomes a matter of “confessing” positively that you are a billionaire and that you are at least trying to become a billionaire. Having said that you can conclude that a person has to do nothing to become as rich as Bill Gates; how ridiculous. Anyone who reads the New Testament with any kind of desire to see what Christianity looks like has to see that there is nothing around us that “at least resembles” what we are trying to become. Consequently we are all made out to be fools: duped, tricked, and deceived. Jesus never once asked for admirers, supporters, or want-a-be’s. He only wanted followers and disciples.

Or, what about this? Is the Gospel for the poor or for the rich? Jesus said “the Gospel is preached to the poor.” Was this just a historical study or was He saying the Gospel was to be preached to the poor? My conclusion from reading the Bible is that the vast majority of the preaching was to the poor, by the poor. It was preached not just to the poverty stricken, but the poor wretched, the poor wronged, the poor oppressed, the poor crippled and lame and leprous and demonic. The Gospel was very Good New to them. It wasn’t money, good health, status, and all that garbage—No, this isn’t Christianity. Poorness in the world today, in this great United States, is turned into, not misfortune, but guilt. Originally, poorness was looked at as nearness to God. To be poor in this world is to be rich in the next. That is the way it was originally; this is the Gospel of the New Testament. It was preached to the poor, by the poor.

But soon there came a change. When preaching the Gospel became a livelihood, then the gospel became the good news of the rich. It became in the best interest of the preacher to swing the door open wide and secure the ranks of the rich and famous and the connected. It was then that the Good News ceased to be good tidings, transforming suffering and sorrow into joy. Now it has become a warranty of good times and a life intensified by drama and video and orchestras, and all wrapped up and secured with the hope of eternity. Today the gospel is preached to the rich and influential. Now, wait a minute. Aren’t we right back, all over again, to the very state Jeremiah talked about, to the very state that original Christianity opposed? The rich, wise and powerful get their cake and eat it too. They get to keep all their riches here on earth and then go bounding off to heaven, how absolutely wonderful Christianity has become, it has surely been perfected, how pleased Jesus must be.

Tim, Tim, Tim, I am afraid if you can’t see it, you won’t see it. School is almost out, finals are almost ready, and then we will know who passes. If we will discover, which I’m sure most will not, the way back, if we will return, if we will follow that inner leading to let go of this world, then we will know whereof Jesus spoke, whether it was from Himself or from the Father, John 7:17.

I said I was going to clarify a couple of things. The other thing I wanted to respond to was Tim’s remarks to my statement concerning Rick Warren. I think I will wait. What I will say though is that simply to use religious language and write best selling books does not make you favorable in God’s eyes. Remember Satan and the garden?

My heart aches as I write this because I know the time is so short and we are so blind.

God help us.

If you need more proof that that is where we are today go to God’s Word, it’s all there.

It is a perfectly obvious fact that wherever the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ has been most faithfully preached and presented – while bringing hope and new life to many – it has almost invariably been the cause of trouble.

Wherever it has gone it has aroused antagonism. As it was a stumbling-block to the Jews and an absurdity to the Greeks in the first days, so, ever since, it has been unacceptable, not only to the men of the world as such, but to the religious communities also. This we unhesitatingly affirm to be as true today as ever, in spite of the fact that it is the most popular symbol in the world. There is hardly a city in Christendom where the architecture, galleries of art, collections of literature and conservatoires of music and religious institutions do not declare to the world a certain regard and honour for this sacred sign.

This may be a tribute to something deeper but it is that deeper thing which is absolutely unacceptable to the greater part of Christendom and the world.

It is found necessary even in certain phases of some missionary enterprise today to eliminate from the text-books and hymn books the mention of the Cross lest it offend.

Much of the preaching and teaching in the Christian Church is either confined to the “Historic Jesus”, which presents a Crossless Christ, or gives a very modified meaning to His death. And yet it is surely necessary to get rid of the Bible before we can get rid of the fact that it unites in all its parts to declare that the Cross is God’s Way of salvation, God’s sufficient and God’s only way.

It is, further, surely very clear that the Cross has proved to be the means upon which God has made to rest the full weight of His mighty saving power. It was dominant in New Testament days. The recovery of, or re-emphasis upon some vital and essential phase of that Cross gave rise to such movements as are signified by the names of Luther, Moody, Finney, Jonathan Edwards, Whitfield, the Wesleys, Spurgeon and many other especially God-honoured men.

Now we ask why has the Cross always been such a maker of trouble and such a cause of offence? And why is it that it is today behind much of the upheaval even in many of our professedly evangelical institutions and denominations, Christian homes, local churches and individual Christian lives?

This we will seek to answer, but first let us discriminate. It is not the heroics of the Cross or the aesthetics that cause the trouble. Sacrifice, suffering, unselfish devotion, self-effacing service for the good of others, enduring the penalty of setting oneself against the evil current of the times, etc.; these are romantic elements and are seized upon as the themes by which multitudes are captured and captivated. It is the deeper meaning which the Bible gives to the Cross which causes the aggravation, this can be seen in one or two clearly defined applications.

1. The Cross condemns the world.

In His Cross Christ created a great divide between the old world and the new, a divide which cannot be bridged. Two distinctly different systems, scales of value, standards of judgment, sets of laws, prevail on the two sides of the Cross, the system of each is not only entirely different, but irreconcilable and forever antagonistic to the other.

The Cross demands an absolute distinctiveness of interests and objectives, relationships and resources. It draws the final distinction between the saved and the unsaved, between the living and the dead.

The apostle Paul said that by the Cross he had “been crucified to the world” and the world crucified to him. The Word of God emphatically declares that the age is evil and that “the whole world lieth in the wicked one” and that its ways, motives, purposes, ideas and imaginations are all the opposite of God’s and that it is utterly incapacitated from either receiving the revelation of the divine mind, growing of itself into the divine image, enjoying and appreciating real fellowship with God, or being entrusted with the privilege of co-operation with God.

These are alone the consciousness, capacities, relationships of the newly-born or regenerated soul. It is this verdict, condemnation, and demand of the Cross which is unacceptable and irritating to a very great number of professing Christians. Further, it is the presence of much that is called “worldliness” both in the individual Christian life and in the Church which absolutely neutralises their effectiveness in the realisation of the essential purposes of the Cross.

2. The Cross crucifies the flesh.

By it the Word of God declares that “our old man has been crucified with Christ” (Romans 6:6). “One died for all, therefore all died in Him, that they which live should henceforth live no longer unto themselves, but unto him” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). We have tried to bring some of the old creation life into the new creation and God won’t have it. The history of the fallen race was concluded so far as God was concerned at Calvary. From that time onward, God’s entire concern was the new creation, but alike our human capabilities as well as our infirmities; what we call our better side as our worse; our goodness and our badness have been included in that death. Henceforth we are called to live not on a human level but on a divine. Humanly we possess nothing which is acceptable to God.

It is always the assertion of some human element, some like or dislike, some fad or fancy, some ambition or some personal interest, which paralyses the real spiritual work of God. To regard not only our sins but ourselves as having been taken to the Cross by Christ is the only way by which those purposes of God can be wrought out through our lives. It is strange that while we ourselves are the bane of our own existence, the trouble of our own lives, we are so slow to accept our crucification with Christ, to have the Cross wrought out to our death in order that the life of Christ might be made manifest in us. Herein lies the offence of the Cross, not only for the worldling but also for the Christian.

3. The Cross casts out the devil.

Here we touch, perhaps, the deepest cause of the offence, for the world and the flesh are only the instruments and weapons by which the great hierarchy of Satan maintains its hold and its existence as the controlling force. Christ said as He approached the Cross, “Now is the prince of this world cast out” (John 12:31). Paul reflecting upon that Cross said that by it: “Christ stripped off principalities and powers, making a show of them openly, and triumphed over them” (Colossians 2:15).

It is perfectly natural, then, that the great hierarchy of evil should by every means and resource seek to make the Cross of none effect. By the “pale cast of thought” it will dilute the message of the Cross; by pushing in the world’s methods, its means, its spirit, it will sap the spiritual vitality of the Church; by stirring up the flesh, the self and the old Adam it will cause schism, strain and disintegration; or by making much of the human element in its artistic, aesthetic, heroic, humanitarian side, it will be blind to the need of regeneration. Reputation, popularity, bigness, the world standard of success, are all contrary to the spirit of Christ, but they are the toys with which the enemy engrosses the minds of many, even Christian ministers.

If, therefore, the Cross is preached in the full victory over and emancipation from the world, the flesh and the devil, it is to be expected that by hook or by crook the intelligent forces of evil will leave no stone unturned to stop it, and will stir up every cause of offence to lay to the account of the Cross.

In conclusion let us not forget that the enjoyment of the full life of God, the experience of victory, and executive co-operation with Him that sitteth upon the throne in the sure realisation that His eternal purposes are ours just in so far as we are one with the full and essential meaning of the Cross as set forth in the Word of God. “I have been crucified with Christ, henceforth… no longer I but Christ.” “They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they counted not their lives dear unto the death” (Revelation 12:11).

This particular chapter has been a great help to me in the last few days, I pray it will be a balm of healing to you also.

Steve Blackwell

The Release of the Spirit

Watchman Nee

Brokenness And Discipline

CHAPTER VI

Brokenness And Discipline

For THE OUTWARD MAN to be broken, a full consecration is imperative. Yet we must understand that this crisis act alone will not solve our whole problem in service. Consecration is merely an expression of our willingness to be in the hands of God, and it can take place in just a few minutes. Do not think God can Finish His dealings with us in this short time. Though we are willing to offer ourselves completely to God, we are just starting on the spiritual road. It is like entering the gate. After consecration, there must be the discipline of the Holy Spirit, this is the pathway. It takes consecration plus the discipline of the Holy Spirit to make us vessels fit for the Master’s use. Without consecration, the Holy Spirit encounters difficulty in disciplining us. Yet consecration cannot serve as a substitute for His discipline.

Here then is a vital distinction: our consecration can only be according to the measure of our spiritual insight and understanding, but the Holy Spirit disciplines according to His own light. We really do not know how much our consecration involves. Our light is so limited that when it seems to us to be at its greatest, in God’s view it is like pitch blackness. God’s requirement so far exceeds what we can possibly consecrate, that is, in our limited light. The discipline of the Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is meted out to us according to our need as seen in God’s own light. He knows our special need, and so by His Spirit He orders our circumstances in such a way as to bring about the breaking of the outward man. Notice how far the discipline of the Holy Spirit transcends our consecration.

Since the Holy Spirit works according to the light of God, His discipline is thorough and complete. We often wonder at the things which befall us, yet if left to ourselves we may be mistaken in our very best choice. The discipline He orders transcends our understanding. How often we are caught unprepared and conclude that surely such a drastic thing is not our need. Many times His discipline descends upon us suddenly without our having prior notice! We may insist we are living in “the light” but the Holy Spirit is dealing with us according to God’s light. From the time we received Him, He has been ordering our circumstances for our profit according to His knowledge of us.

The working of the Holy Spirit in our lives has its positive as well as its negative side, that is to say, there is both a constructive and a destructive phase. After we are born again the Holy Spirit dwells in us, but our outward man so often deprives Him of His freedom. It is like trying to walk in a pair of ill fitting new shoes. Because our outward and inward man are at variance with each other, God must employ whatever means He thinks effective in breaking down any stronghold over which our inward man has no control.

It is not by the supply of grace to the inward man that the Holy Spirit breaks the outward. Of course, God wants the inward man to be strong, but His method is to utilize external means to decrease our outward man. It would be well nigh impossible for the inward man to accomplish this, since these two are so different in nature that they can scarcely inflict any wound on each other. The nature of the outward man and that of external things are similar; and thus the former can be easily affected by the latter. External things can strike the outward man most painfully. So it is that God uses external things in dealing with our outward man.

You remember the Bible says that two sparrows are sold for a farthing (Matt. 10:29) and that five sparrows are sold for two farthings (Lk. 12:6). This is certainly cheap, and the fifth sparrow is included free. However, “one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father; but of you even the hairs of the head are all numbered” (Matt. 10:29, 30). Not only is every hair counted, but every single one is also numbered. Hence we may be sure that all our circumstances are ordered by God. Nothing is accidental.

God’s ordering is according to His knowledge of our needs, and with a view to the shattering of our outward man. Knowing that a certain external thing will thus affect us, He arranges for us to encounter it once, twice, and perhaps even more. Do you not realize that all the events of your life for the past five or ten years were ordered by God for your education? If you murmured and complained, you grievously failed to recognize His hand. If you thought you were just unfortunate, you were in ignorance of the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Remember that whatever happens to us is measured by the hand of God for our supreme good. Though probably it is not what we would choose, God knows what is best for us. Where would we be today had God not so disciplined us through ordering our circumstances? It is this very thing which keeps us pure and walking in His pathway. How foolish are those who have murmurings in their mouths and rebellion in their hearts at the very things the Holy Spirit has measured to them for their good.

As soon as we are saved, the Holy Spirit begins to deal out discipline; but He cannot act freely until our consecration is complete. After one is saved but not yet consecrated, and while he still loves himself much more than the Lord, the Holy Spirit is nonetheless working to bring him under control and break down his outward man that He may work unhinderedly.

Finally, there comes a time when you realize that you cannot live by yourself and for yourself. In the dim light you have, you come to God and say: “I consecrate myself to Thee. Come life or death, I have committed myself into Thy hands.” This will strengthen the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Herein lies the importance of consecration: it allows the Holy Spirit to work without restriction. So think it not strange when many unexpected things befall you after your consecration.
You have told the Lord: “Lord! Do whatever Thou deemest best in my life.” Now that you have thus put yourself unconditionally in His hands, the Holy Spirit can freely work in you. To wholeheartedly decide to follow the Lord, you must pay close attention to the disciplinary work of the Holy Spirit.

The Greatest Means of Grace

God has been bestowing His grace upon us from the day we were saved. The ways by which we may receive grace from God are called the “means of grace.” Prayer and listening to a message are two examples, for through them we can draw near to God and receive grace. This descriptive term, “the means of grace,” has been universally accepted by the Church down through the centuries. We receive grace through meetings, through messages, through prayers, and so forth. But surely the greatest means of grace which we cannot afford to neglect is the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Nothing can be compared with this means of grace, not prayer, Bible readings, meetings, messages, meditation, or praise. Among all the God given means of grace, it would seem this is the most important.

Tracing this means of grace can show us how far we have gone with the Lord. What we experience daily, at home or school or factory or on the road, is ordered by the Holy Spirit for our highest benefit. If we are not profited by this greatest means of grace, we suffer terrible loss. None of the other means can replace it, precious though they all are. Messages feed us, prayer restores us, God’s word refreshes us, and helping others releases our spirit. But should our outward man remain strong, we give all who contact us the impression of being mixed and impure. People will recognize our zeal but also our mixed motives, our love toward the Lord but also our love for ourselves. They feel we are a precious brother, yet a difficult one, for our outward man has not been broken. Let us not forget that though we are built up through messages, prayer, and the Bible, the greatest means of edification is the discipline of the Holy Spirit.

Henceforth there must be on our part a complete consecration so that we submit to what the Holy Spirit orders. Such submission brings blessing to us. If, instead, we quarrel with God and follow our own inclinations, we shall miss the way of His blessing. Once we realize that all of God’s orderings are for our highest profit, even things troublesome to us, and are willing to accept these as disciplinary measures from Him, we shall see how the Holy Spirit will make use of all things in dealing with us.

Dealings of Various Kinds

Whatever the things to which you are bound, God will deal with them one after another. Not even such trivialities as clothing, eating or drinking can escape the careful hand of the Holy Spirit. He will not neglect one area in your life. You may even be ignorant of your affinity for a certain thing, but He knows and will deal with it most thoroughly. Until the day comes when all these things are destroyed, you do not know perfect liberty. In these dealings you can finally recognize the thoroughness of the Holy Spirit. Things long forgotten are brought to mind by the Lord. God’s works are perfect, and nothing less than perfection can satisfy Him. He cannot stop short. Sometimes He will deal with you through others, arranging for you to be with someone whom you are angry with, or whom you despise or are jealous of; or very often it is through those you love. Before this you did not know how unclean and mixed you were, but afterwards you realize how much “rubbish” there is in you. You thought you were wholly for the Lord, but after receiving the discipline of the Holy Spirit you begin to see how far-reaching are the effects external things have upon you.

Then again the hand of God may touch our thought life. We discover that our thoughts are confused, independent, uncontrolled. We feign to be wiser than others. Then it is that the Lord allows us to crash into a wall and hit the dust, all to show us that we dare not use our thoughts inordinately. Once we have been enlightened in this, we shall fear our own thoughts as fire. Just as a hand withdraws immediately from a flame, so we shall instantly draw back when we encounter our uncontrolled thoughts. We shall remind ourselves, “This is not what I should think; I am afraid to pursue my own thoughts.”

Further, God will so arrange our circumstances as to deal with our emotions. Some people are extremely emotional. When they are elated, they cannot contain themselves; when they are depressed, they cannot be comforted. Their whole life revolves around their emotions, with their elation resulting in dissipation and their depression in inactivity. How does God rectify this? He places them in situations where they dare not be too happy when elated, nor too sad when depressed. They can only depend upon the grace of God and live by His mercy, not by their fickle emotions.

Although difficulties with thoughts and emotions are quite common, the greatest and most prevalent difficulty is with the will. Our emotions run wild because our wills have not been dealt with. The root is in our will. The same is true with our thoughts. We may be able to mouth the word, “Not my will but Thine be done,” but how often do we really allow the Lord to take over when things happen? The less you know yourself, the more easily you utter such words. The less you are enlightened, the easier submission to God seems to be. He who speaks cheaply has proved he has never paid the price.

Only after being dealt with by God do we really see how hard we are and how ready we are to have our own opinion. God must deal with us to make our wills tender and docile. Strong-willed people are convinced their feelings, ways and judgments are always right. Consider how Paul received this grace recorded in Philippians : “Do not trust in flesh” (3:3). We must also be led by God to such a place that we dare not trust our own judgment. God will allow us to make mistake after mistake until we realize that this will be our pattern for the future too. We truly need the grace of the Lord. Frequently the Lord permits us to reap serious consequences from our own judgments.

Finally, you will be so stricken by your failures that you will say: “I fear my own judgment as I fear hell fire. Lord, I am prone to mistakes. Unless Thou art merciful to me, unless Thou dost support me, unless Thou dost restrain me with Thy hand, I will be wrong again.” This is the beginning of the destruction of the outward man: when you dare no longer to n List yourself. Your opinions usually come easily until you have been dealt with repeatedly by God and have suffered many failures. Then you yield and say: “God, I dare not think, I dare not decide.” This is the discipline of the Holy Spirit: when all kinds of things and all sorts of people are pressing in from all directions.

Do not think there will be any slackening of this lesson! Very often the supply of God’s word may be lacking or another means of grace may be insufficient, yet this special means of grace, the discipline of the Holy Spirit, is ever with us. You may say you have no opportunity to hear and be supplied by His word, yet this can never be true of the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Daily He is arranging ample opportunities for you to learn.

Once you yield yourself to God, this discipline will meet your need to a far greater extent than will the supply of His word. It is not just for the learned, the clever, the gifted; no, it is the way for every child of God. The supply of God’s word, the power of prayer, the fellowship of the believers none of these can substitute for the discipline of the Holy Spirit. This is because you need not only to be built up; you need also to be broken, to be delivered of all the many things in your life that cannot be brought over into eternity.

The Cross in Operation

The cross is more than a doctrine; it must be put into practice. Do not think that the way to humility is to be constantly reminding ourselves not to be proud. We must be stricken again and again, even if it means twenty times until we surrender and are proud no more. Let us never assume this comes about merely by following the teaching of a certain brother. No, it is because our pride has been broken through God’s dealing.

Through the operation of the cross we shall learn to depend upon the grace of God, not on our memory. Whether we remember or not, the fact remains, He is accomplishing a work which is dependable and lasting. Formerly, the outward and the inward man were not able to join hands; but now the outward man waits meekly, in fear and trembling, before God.

Everyone of us is in need of this discipline from the Lord. As we review our past history, we cannot but see the hand of God in dealing with the independence, pride, and selfishness of our outward man. We discover the meaning of the things that have happened to us.