The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD. And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. Jeremiah 3:6-15
I’m amazed every day at the view of some among us that so mirror the erroneous ideologies of God’s chosen people from ages past. After seeing the miracles of Egypt, their liberation at the hands of Moses, the 40 years of miracles in the wilderness, and the blessings that followed in the Promised Land, they came to believe that God was forever bound in marriage to them despite their actions. Just as ancient Israel, there is a growing entitlement attitude, spirit and doctrine among the Oneness Apostolic movement that says, “God is married to us in an unbreakable relationship that can never be ended because we are Jesus name, Spirit filled people.” For a church in right relationship with God and man, this would be true, but let’s look deeper into the dilemma of our day and see what is morphing from the ashes of the altars of modern Pentecostal philosophy.
There is a growing theory in modernized Pentecostal theology that we have somehow adopted a doctrine from the denominational religious world that says, “Once Saved Always Saved” in our mentality, and although we’ve damned for a generation the Roman’s Road dogma of, “Just accept Christ as your Savior,” and have disallowed the heretical mental gymnastics of “just accepting Jesus as our personal Savior,” we’ve now come full circle in Pentecost and declare in our spirits, “Once Married. Always Married,” and are determined that just because we have been baptized in Jesus name and filled with the Holy Ghost that we can never displease God to the point that he will not divorce himself from our presence, and that no sin, no attitude, no amount of disobedience to His word could ever cause God to file for divorce as long as we do a laundry list of do’s and don’ts! We’ve now begun to teach a doctrine that says I can never be removed from the body and bride of Christ no matter how I treat my brother or sister in the church or the world, and I can even eject people from the body of Christ if they disagree with my ideology and self-proclaimed autonomy. To a great extent we can come into a service, shout, worship…and yet we are divorced from relationship with the Groom that can influence our behavior. We worship until we feel God’s presence and can bask in it, but we never dive in deep enough to allow him to completely flood us and change our attitudes, actions and thinking. We are guilty of spiritual social drinking just to the extent that we don’t lose control of our services to the Spirit. Our services are no longer God’s services. They are our services. We control everything.
I once heard a preacher speak a remarkable statement, and that was this, “So often our worship is nothing more than allowing visitation rights of our emotions with a God we divorced a long time ago.”
I’ll sit and let that sink in for a second, because it is a phenomenal truth. Jesus told us the first and greatest commandment was one that every Jewish mother recited to her children every night as they went to bed and every morning when they got up. They were taught from infancy that they were to have no other Gods and that idolatry was an abomination.
And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Mark 12:28-33
Somehow we’ve developed a New Age Pentecostal philosophy that God is already married to us. In Western Civilization, that concept won’t fly. Here an engagement precedes a marriage. In Eastern cultures, marriage vows began at the betrothal. Once a woman accepted a man’s proposal of marriage, she was considered his “espoused” wife…not his spouse, but a bride in the making. They were legally bound by contract and could entertain no other suitors. What husband-to-be would want his future wife going out partying with every guy in town? What man would want his bride-to-be selling herself to every man in town? Sorry, friend, that would be a deal breaker. The bride has to stay pure!
The only way to end an eastern marriage engagement was through a formal divorce! (Matthew 1:18-20) Still, we One God Pentecostals have allowed a spirit to get in the door that cries out that we are God’s people when so often the only knee we bow during the week is at the altar of progress, politics and promotion. We even have some among us that are bowing their knees to the spirit’s of Ba’al and Ashtoreth in these last days. If you aren’t familiar with these spirits, their modern names are power, control, violence, sensual spirituality, spiritualism and cowardice, and just like in Ahab’s court, they are even allowed to sit with the ministry at the table of the king!
The modern idolatry that Paul and even Jesus Christ warned of for the last days church was the god of “self-worship.”
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. 2 Timothy 3:1-9
Paul warns us here that there is a danger coming in the last days, and I’m going to say it again, Pentecostals, God wasn’t talking to secular religion here through his man. God was addressing his church, his espoused bride, these people who have gone down in the water in Jesus name and been filled with his Spirit. He is not addressing denominationalism, organized religions, or any movement that does not teach what the Apostles taught. We have to get off that cheap preferred “crystal meth” of Pentecost that says that every time we find a verse in God’s word addressing sin among His people all of a sudden Paul was addressing Trinitarians or some cult somewhere. Not so friend. He was talking to his church. He said they had a form of godliness but denied the power. You don’t get Godly by making a profession of faith and kissing a crucifix. These people had at one time had a relationship with Deity, but walked away from God.
How did they do that? It’s very simple. They had done the Pentecostal catechism of repentance and water and Spirit baptism only to take hold of the reins of their own life and beating the drum of pride, arrogance, prejudice and all the works of the flesh. You say, “But that’s impossible!” No, it isn’t. We need to stop preaching that an experience with God alone is enough to get us saved, sanctified and on a one-way ticket to heaven.
Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. Romans 11:18-25
We live in a generation that puts everything before God in our churches, from the pulpit to the pew, and yet we will not hear a voice of correction. You would not believe the hate-mail I receive from people who will not heed a voice of correction in their lives. Sorry to rub the fur the wrong way, but I’m not changing direction, so turn around. The mindset I battle is that they feel they are okay because they are married to a oneness organization, an assembly, a fellowship, and because of that they have somehow come to base their salvation on mere licensing with a particular organization and following a set of by-laws instituted by men. Please find that in scripture for me, because I’ve run into more than one voice among us preaching it like that!
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Matthew 15:8-14
We live in a generation even in the church which teaches a false repentance that God cannot and will not hear. It is a lip-service repentance that says, “Forgive me God, because I know I have sinned…but my brother who I have also sinned against WILL JUST HAVE TO GET OVER IT!” That is so much the spirit of the Prodigal Son’s older brother.
I’ve said it many times before, and I will continue to say it until I die. It is possible to sin against God and not sin against your brother, but it is impossible to sin against your brother and NOT sin against God. We have a hard time admitting and coming to grips with that in Pentecost!
Still, we will find a place of prayer, and repent because we know our attitudes are rotten and a stench in his nostrils, but we will not restore to our brother what we have taken from him, or make restitution for the hurt and wrong we have done, either as individuals, a body, or as an organization. We forget that Christ told us that if we go to offer our gift on the altar and remember that our brother has something against us, that we are to LEAVE OUR GIFT and go make it right with our brother. That’s telling me that all our gifts, offerings, work, and the cool stuff we do is meaningless to a God who has had one of his kids hurt! We as a people are now deaf to a God who has proclaimed…no forgiveness until you make something right with that dirty little word among us called “restitution.”
If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double. If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution. If a man shall deliver unto his neighbour money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man's house; if the thief be found, let him pay double. Exodus 22:1-7
I could go into an entirely different direction here if time would permit, but there is no restoration without restitution. We seek God’s forgiveness, but if we really find God’s forgiveness we will seek our brother’s forgiveness. Nor will we ever see divine restoration without brotherly restitution. All we are looking for is a Pentecostal band-aid on our conscience, trying to convince ourselves we are right with God because we “repented” after spiritually raping and killing our brother…when we were never sorry we did it to begin with! Nothing kills like self-justification.
In 2008, we Oneness Pentecostal Holy Rollers have learned we can tear down our brother, our saints, even entire organizations and rip them apart, fire our rockets of retaliation off at each other and let the nuclear fallout kill hundreds of spiritual children and babes in the womb and still walk around in our new suits in our multi-million dollar churches and pretend all is well. No harm. No foul. What’s done is done.
I don’t think so.
How is it that a generation of people are now content to “feel impressed” by God about a subject when God hasn’t spoken to them? Where once God spoke openly and boldly to us, now his voice falls silent and we point our finger at inspiration and seek to find what God has “impressed” upon us when God stopped speaking to us the moment we rose up like Cain and slew our brother. Inspiration has many sources. It will never replace anointing and hearing from God will never be replaced by programs, protocols and preachers who no longer hear from God. Our problem is a sub-standard anointing. It’s not because God is pouring out less than what we need. It’s because we are not centering ourselves in the place where God will pour on us what we really need for this hour. A shallow walk with God and a shallow ministry will never prove worthy of a deep anointing. That’s why we can inspire people all day long from the pulpit, but we can’t shake, bake and break them with the words that flow from our mouths. We blame the audience, but the problem is the mouth-piece. Anointing oil is not cheap. The law of supply and demand works in the Spirit world as well. If you don’t have a demand for something, the price comes down…but if we need something the price goes up. Maybe God needs to turn down our supply and increase our demand as American Pentecostals!
And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. Revelations 6:5-6
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Revelations 3:15-19
Doctrine does not make us right with God. We are so quick to point out any other church’s false doctrine as a false hope that will not save anyone…yet neither will true doctrine, if the person teaching it has no relationship with the God who saved them. We need not let Acts 2:38 become a modern day Ark of the Covenant where we dance around it, feel the glory of God’s presence…then walk away unchanged having never let it get any deeper than our goose bumps. Jesus was trying to inform the misguided mind-set of the last days church that he does not correct us because he hates us, but because he loves us. Still, the spirit of this hour says, “Do not speak against us. Do not correct us.”
Now after 100 years of Pentecost in America, we’ve failed to become anything but another denomination when the Apostles and the early church in their time turned the entire known world up-side down in less than 20 years. We are missing something. We have the Holy Ghost, but we don’t have the fire. Now as God brings judgment on a nation that has turned its back on him, he’s looking to the church in this hour and is asking who has the goods? Who will repent for the sins of this nation and the sins of his church? If we will not divorce ourselves from the God’s of prosperity, programs, career, peer pressure, prejudice, pride, arrogance and apathy, we will find ourselves cast into the very judgment God brings on this nation.
And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass; I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. Revelation 2:18-23
The very fact that God is speaking to his people and telling them that he will cast them into great tribulation if they do not repent tells us the hour and time that he is speaking of in this passage. God has given the church in America a space of time to repent. Judgment will begin at the house of God and it will start with his ministers. Our ministers, like the priests of Israel, should be planting their faces between the porch and the altar and weeping for this generation and this nation, but we are not. We are not crying aloud, nor will we tell this people about their sins. We have let political correctness silence our pulpits, muzzle our ministries and even silence those who will speak out. We have become silent and have also silenced the voices among us that have called for repentance and change.
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. 1 Peter 4:17-19
Peter knew that there was a time of judgment coming. The early church lived every day as if God was coming back at any moment. Now 2000 years later, the burden of the body of Christ is on our shoulders. Will we carry it, or will we turn and serve the queen of heaven and pour our our meat and drink offerings to idolatry of self, wealth and sensuality and just what pleases us? We live in a generation that has forgotten the sacrifices of our forefathers and have taken to worshipping an image that is not the image of the True and Living God. Like the prophet of old who saw the angels with weapons of destruction and one with a writer’s inkhorn, God is sending out his angels to find every man and woman in our movement who is sighing and crying for the sins of the people and for this nation and he is marking them. Why are our prayer rooms silent? Where are the mourners? Where are our intercessors? Where are those who lay all night in prayer and intercession for this people. They have not died out, Pentecost. We’ve killed them off like the prophets of old and we have blood on our hands because of it.
And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. Joel 2:11-18
We’ve been guilty of spiritual abortion and like Israel of old, God is ready to present us a bill of divorce. Not only that, but I recently received an article from a friend telling how Sister Nona Freeman spoke of God’s judgment on this nation for not taking a stand against abortion. I’m afraid it will go much farther than that, as even the Old Testament priests knew that this would happen. God has always been the avenger of the defenseless and any innocent blood that is shed in the land (Deut. 21:1-9).
We are not crying out for the sins of a nation and the sins of the church. Like impudent Israel, from least to greatest among us we’ve looked up to heaven and declared, “Where is our sin?” God already gave his answer all through his word. We cannot stand before him blameless as the only voice of truth in a land that has totally turned from his word. We have not repented for our leaders, our government, our people and the church. Restoration of this land hangs in the balances of the Oneness Pentecostal movement. Only our voices, our hearts and our prayers can turn the tide not only of an election, but of judgment from God’s throne.
If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. 2 Chronicles 7:13-15