I've been swamped the past few weeks with so many things that I've literally had to take notes just so I could remember the things God has dealt with me about each day for articles that I am working on. Some things if I don't write them down, I lose forever. They were a word for a moment in time. Other things, God keeps pressing on me about until I finally get tired of the spanking and put pen to paper, or in this case, fingers to keyboard.
My father contacted me last night, prompting an edit to this article that has sat in post-Ike limbo. He has been battling a spiritual battle with a Laodicean spirit in his home church, which has been on-going for more than a year. My parents, with sons in the military and government service have bounced back and forth between two states for several years now, longing to return to the state of their birth and childhood, but occasionally venturing forth to the east coast to spend time with their children and grandchildren. Until recently they kept a home in both states. Every grandparent prays for that capability and having retired, they are now able to visit whenever they desire.
Due to their long absences, they do catch much flak though from local pastors in both areas from over the pulpit because of their extended departures from their home in one state to the other. It's sad how some among us are influenced in how they treat their saints based on the loss of those little white tithe envelopes and two solid prayer warriors that have given their selves to fasting six days a week for the past 6 months to a year. If you think that is impossible, you need to find a prayer room and get ahold of the horns of the altar. Laodicea has overtaken you.
My father is a driven man. He has pushed for prayer, fasting, and demonstrative worship for nearly 30 years in Pentecost. Sadly enough the past few years he has come under fire both in the mid-west and on the east coast from churches and ministers who have forgotten the old paths and memorial stones of the Apostolic Pentecostal movement.
Recently he spiritually gave up on one church that he attended on the east coast, because the church and the ministry would not give their selves to prayer and fasting and seeking revival. It's amazing what a velvet-lined rut will do to a revival. Programs will never bring revival.
He and mom sold their summer home and returned to his home state where they had pushed for prayer, fasting, worship and soul-winning for so years in their home church. The congregation and ministry had gotten a hold of the spirit of revival before they left and had run with it for a time, but my parents returned to find out that in their absence the fires of revival had burned down to embers with no one stoking the coals. Dad literally took a Jekyll and Hyde-style beating from the pulpit for testifying about things the Apostolic church used to preach against that we don't hear over our pulpits anymore. The same man who once got behind him and pushed for worship and prayer and soul-winning stood in the pulpit so angry the following service that he literally kicked and punched the pulpit in a fury as he laid a verbal whipping for someone to dare speak up for separation in "his church."
Yes, it was short lived and I told dad that it would be. His pastor took a whipping from God that day after service with a total change of attitude when he hit the pulpit that night. Pulpits are not for personal vendettas. The days of that kind of foolishness are soon to be over forever. God is going to judge it. I advocate this. I believe it. God told me it...and if you don't believe it, it's your right to be wrong. Close this browser page and go watch TV, because you won't like the rest of what I have to say here. It will give you a Triple-P ulcer if you don't grab some Rolaids before you read on.
Why do we as a movement feel that the word of God speaks specifically that the New Birth experience and other biblical doctrines that we hold dear are the “uncompromising” inspired Word of God, yet we build organizational and church bylaws that completely negate the commandments of Christ stating that his ministers will not bear rule over the church like the princes of the Gentiles?
If a denominational church teaches against our Apostolic baptismal principles, we call them heretics, and tell everyone they are preaching false doctrine, and rightly so, yet it is the policy of every Pentecostal Organization in our movement to establish leadership of the church in a non-biblical example of Gentile leadership.
Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:20-28
Our mentality is one that implies that Christ has no other choice, so he must accept what we do hands down…or worse that His silence is assent. We’ve lived like Pentecostal spiritual paupers so long that we think we serve a vagabond, broken, humiliated Christ who will accept anything and anyone that comes to him, no matter the grounds or conditions. We’ve damned the Baptists long enough. It’s time to wake up. We’ve critiqued and slammed the Catholics for years for feeling that they had the final say on scriptural interpretation, modification and change, yet we, with impunity, negate God’s word with our man-made ordinances as if somehow we feel that since we are right in one doctrine far above all other denominations that we somehow hold the ability and legal right to change God’s word.
Sadly enough, even our church leadership is modeled after the Catholic model of leadership and we carry over a lot of doctrines, philosophies and methods from the organizations our founding fathers migrated out of after the Azusa Street outpouring, while still critiquing the Reformationists for not tossing aside Roman Catholic dogma and starting over from the Word of God. Like papal powers of the past we have excluded ourselves from any form of correction. Fine! I’ll say it because you won’t…Welcome to CATHECOSTALISM!
Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. Mark 7:1-13
Why do we feel that organizational bylaws, procedures and methods hold sway over God’s word? Why is it that one of our ministers can cross philosophical or scriptural swords with a member of another congregation and instead of taking it to their brother as Jesus mandated in Matthew 18:15-18, we claim “ministerial ethics,” violate the word of God and go to another minister, pastor, presbyter or organization to somehow stick the screws to them and force them to acquiesce to our will, contrary to the word of God? If we can’t stop a brother with the word of God who has withstood us boldly with the word, we’ll torpedo him with the favorite Pentecostal projectile of slander! We’ll close doors to him with our Pentecostal politics. That’s okay. You just sit there reading this and pretend you have no idea what I’m talking about…hypocrite!
We’ve lived long enough in Pentecost that we have “Buddy Law.” That’s the unwritten law of Pentecost among us that says you are doomed if you upset our buddy who pastors in the next town, or worse, if you upset me, I’ll tell my buddy about it and invite him to come preach and do my dirty work and he can grind my ax for me from God’s sacred desk while I feign ignorance or better yet take vacation and establish an alibi! Don’t tell me it doesn’t happen! We’ve lived so long in Pentecost that if a brother or sister gives a prophecy or tongues and interpretation or a word of knowledge or word of wisdom that violates or corrects someone in a leadership position they are given the Pentecostal “Moses shove” and thrust away into a desert place, damned as a heretic, slandered as being in rebellion, or better yet, “listening to familiar spirits.” …We’d better hope and pray to God that they are, because if they aren’t and God was trying to get our attention, we are headed for a judgment that will bust hell wide open!
Recently I had a preacher from another state tell me indirectly that it was his job to ask all the “hard questions,” so let me grab that baton and run with it now. Why is it that our ministers have preached about unity for nearly 100 years and yet our organizational leaderships are the most fractured, dis-unified, cliquish and dysfunctional bunch of slobs that ever claimed the title of Pentecostal? We put the denominational world to shame and while the world laughs us to scorn, and rightly so, we have totally missed the message God intended for us to learn regarding unity! Pentecostal? Maybe. Apostolic? Not in the coldest day! God’s trying to tell us something. We aren’t listening.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. Psalms 133
Let me bring it down to the cheap seats where we live. Unity is like an anointing! It’s been over 70 years since Pentecost divided itself along racial lines. It was not the will of God in his Word. It isn’t the will of God now, and it wasn’t the will of God in the early 1900’s, brethren. It’s time we admit it for all the world, our churches and our saints to know, that we missed it back then. Our forefathers missed the will of God when we divided our churches along racial lines of black and white. If we as a movement had stood our ground despite the spirit of fear and doubt that let this nation and its racial prejudices divide this movement, the kids in school would be reading about how PENTECOST tore down the racial barriers in the US, not court ordered school desegregation. Don’t think we’ll stand in Judgment and tell God we did it out of fear that our churches would be burnt to the ground. There’s a church in the grave that never had a building and there are others that had theirs burned down over them, or were fed to lions and beasts in the theaters of Rome.
Sister Rosa Parks was our confirmation to take a stand against racism and segregation in the church and the world and we missed it. Let’s not miss it again! Instead of social services touting their version of multiculturalism, based on laws forcing desegregation, we missed the chance to show the entire nation and the world that brethren can come together in one mind and one accord in fellowship, unity and love, totally blind to race and the color of one’s skin. We missed giving the world a paradigm standard of what true love and fellowship is supposed to look like. What are we going to do to fix it?
These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. Proverbs 6:16-19
Now let’s bring it down to 2007-2008, where we have preached for generations to our people to “obey your pastor,” and “obey them that have the rule over you,” yet our largest Oneness Pentecostal organization has now split down technological lines over television advertisement. How idiotic we have become! How hypocritical! We’ve taught our people to submit and obey for decades, then our ministers fuss and fight and sow discord and separate from the body and like some modern Pentecostal “wisdom of Solomon” test we’ve got two old hags who have grown so hard-hearted toward their own brothers that instead of one screaming “chop the baby in half,” both parties are ripping the baby asunder. Don’t tell me you aren’t!
You don’t send out a letter calling a group of God-called ministers under your leadership, Korah, and rebels, and liken anyone that agrees with your own hard-hearted slap in their face as “God’s Generals.” Sorry, I sit in your organization. I was ready to walk out 4 years ago as soon as I walked back into this movement and find another organization, but God told me to stay because he had a job for me to do here. He had to slap a few of your pastors out of the pulpit and literally kill a few of your preachers to get me here, so I’ll stay. I didn’t leave. I don’t agree with those who did, and I sure as the coldest day in hell’s kingdom don’t agree with all those who stayed either!
Now, for you fat cats that claim this incident was a “cancer” leaving the body of Christ, I’ve got a word from God for you, gentlemen. No organization is the body of Christ. If that were true then only preachers are a part of the body of Christ because, because most of our organizations are only ministerial fellowships. We don’t consider our saints as members of the organizations, only the preachers. Some of us would do to listen to some of those in our assemblies for once! Learn something about cancer. Cancer is the uncontrolled division and multiplication of cells. You might divide, but both cells are still cancerous! Both organizations are dying from the cancerous growth of bitterness, disunity and hatred. Don’t make God judge this matter further than he has by revealing it to the Body! You will continue to divide until you learn the lessons of unity, love, forgiveness and restoration.
I’ve had some of our icons of Pentecost preach to me for years that, “this is what the word says, but if your pastor preaches it different, you obey him.” Nonsense! No wonder we split, splintered, fractured and identified ourselves publically as completely dis-unified Pentecostal hypocrites. How embarrassing to the Throne of Grace! How could something like this happen?
Sit back. Strap yourself into your Lazy Boy and grab some Band-Aids and some icepacks. We are going to need them. Don’t put the footrest up. If I can’t step on your toes, then you are part of the problem!
Four years ago, God pulled me back into his church. I spent 10 years outside of any church body. I did not avoid them. They avoided me. They knew my number, my address and where I worked. They did not visit me, mail me one of those stupid form letters, or jingle my cell phone and I’ll tell you why. When you are one of the very few in the church who backs your pastor completely, prays, fasts, worships, witnesses, intercedes…and stands with sword drawn ready to fight off any and all attackers that would try to take your pastor down, you are a target. When the congregation is full of those with the sole intention and purpose to dethrone the man of God, or force him into early retirement, the only way to take him down quickly is to take out those who back him first.
I watched as the enemy took down every single young minister in his church, including his assistant pastor. From outside the camp I was notified when he retired and even as a backslider, and I knew it was not the will of God. How did the enemy take them down? Discord…Seven young preachers all fighting over the pulpit and who would speak, preach or teach. Pushing it to the point that they would not even fellowship each other, broke of into cliques and eventually backslid out of the church. I knew them all by name. I also knew who was trying to force my pastor out of the church. I know their spirit. They replaced him with a well-known man, but one who was ready to retire and would not stand against sin, politics, disunity, or the spirits running those in charge.
After I came back to God, I walked in one Sunday morning for a visit and the Holy Ghost immediately spoke to me “kingdom building” and pointed me to a man on the platform who God later identified to me. I didn’t fully understand it then, but within weeks, it had been fully revealed. God forbid and destroy the politics of Pentecost when we run off the man that God called to an office and replace him with politicians who place their kinfolk in offices to take over when they retire! A spirit-led church will never be led by politics. If you think it is, get ready to get shaken until your teeth rattle. God’s done with that foolishness, friend.
They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth? Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest. 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. Jeremiah 3:1-8
God is tired of the ministry of the Apostolic movement prostituting their calling, their church leadership, their unity, their fellowship and their anointing for politics, financial gain, personal pride, respect of persons, man-made theology, retaliation, discord, disunity, and building our own kingdoms so our sons and daughters that God never called to ministry can take over after our retirement or demise. God is tired of us prostituting the move of His Spirit in our lives and services for carnal programs and the traditions of men. Nothing ever piped out of a headquarters will ever take the place of men and women fasting, praying, REPENTING and crying out to God for revival and worshipping in Spirit and in Truth. This nation needs a revival and we as One God Apostolic Pentecostals have not had the goods up to this point.
God’s Spirit is calling his church to repentance…or an eternal bypass. What will we answer him? God is calling our people to repentance, but first, He is calling His ministers to repentance. We’ve cut ourselves off from a latter rain out-pouring of God’s Spirit and a revival of signs wonders and miracles in the dimension and proportions that God wants to give us.
For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. Isaiah 54:7-8
Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make hast to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. Isaiah 59:1-15
Within a few short days I will be mailing a copy of this to several men in leadership in our largest organizations and asking them to consider what I have written here. If you feel this was written in error, then by all means, feel free to write to me. I, however, know what the Spirit has been calling out over the church for the past several years. WE are not listening, but Jesus spoke to the end-time churches and said for those who have an ear to hear.
For those of you who would continue to steal your words from other men and speak only peace and love and not judgment and justice, have at it. I'd prefer to listen to what God gives me personally than to tell you what other men says who may not be listening any more. I can't speak for them. I can only speak for myself and what God gives me. That I'll say.
God bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment