The path that God would have me walk is not fickle. It winds and bends with the contours of a changing life, but never once is prone to slippery footing. My boots find purchase and payment in the stretches to be remembered as passing victories, lands gathered and friends richly met at each juncture, path and season. We were meant to follow Him. Whereto we may not see for the time is not upon us. For the walk with God is the pleasure and the reason of our making and in its hopeful pursuit the purpose becomes discovery.
We having departed from His blessing must make way back to the foundation of our rest. Writing His Word upon our wanderings that only path to certainty in the desert of no marking. A Father leads His Children into good things but in a life with passion of present and past pain is inherent and must be treasured, fostered and bourn as equipping for time’s coming. To listen, watch and obey even when the orders lead to trials beyond my authority or capacity. For in that faith upon His Power, eschewing the uncertainty of my own I find the source of completing the Impossible tasks for which I was transformed.
It is a gracious thing to stand apart from a world that’s corrupted. Not only abstaining from its moral judgment but also letting go of its pursuits, ends and heroes. For there are none who have a true heart for God and we know though we won’t admit, that as men and women we all fall short of God’s Glory. That is why salvation is solely of God through Christ, because we could not do it nor would we if we could. We would put it off for the last possible moment hoping that we could get one more temporary injection of our chosen sin before turning over the new leaf. In effect we will make the wrong choice if left to our own design and pleasure. We must be provoked by trial, pain or loss to cry out for God’s Mercy and ought be truly thankful for the chastisement He provides.
I am no self appointed leader of Christ’s Body. He alone is the Head of the Church, but that does not preclude me from observing His commands and expectations for the Body of Christ where my own salvation and those sheep that have been given under my care for His Good Purpose and Pleasure. In that I can see that we have for thousands of years now allowed the enemy free access to our places of Worship. To the point where we have become businesses with very little to distinguish Believers from the Corporate World without Christ. This is anathema to what God intended but his Brother Jude told us clearly this would be our state in these last days and what should be done to set ourselves apart from it.
First we are to GO, which we seldom do without some expectation of vacation or reward. The Body is about Service, Christ was very clear about the greatest among us is the greatest servant of all. It is illogical therefore to adopt a process of building expensive domiciles or places of worship when the work is on the road or frequently in the enemy camp where those who have yet to contemplate the Gospel are found. Again there is no judgment in reviewing Christ’s example. He went to them where they lived in their towns and possible places of wickedness, preached, healed, baptized and then came to the home of welcome believers to fellowship when the work was done. Even departing from believers to go to garden or mountain to dwell in God’s Holy Presence and Prayer, nightly. We cannot ignore Christ’s example and expect that we are in fact upon the right Path for the Church.
How can we have faith in God’s Provision when we are consistently going about raising money for the Church fully dependent upon the tithe to cover the mortgage of some distant or unbelieving banker. And what of the Government’s Control for being a non tax status entity. There are no gifts from Government, it has no heart for the downtrodden or for Christ. If they bestow a non tax status it is in exchange for leverage within the Church, for controls or what is Preached, Sung and done for God or how it is pursued. We have become so much like the world in our organization and practice that we cannot hope to produce anything of Heavenly comport. Nowadays so many churches are involved in internet porn, adultery, Corruption and even trafficking of Children that we know God would never include among the things of Righteousness He intends.
Without the indwelling Seal of the Holy Spirit we have nothing but an empty promise and prayer for salvation. Evidence of the Presence of The Spirit is what Christ counseled the Apostles to wait for in Jerusalem. Without Spirit we are neither sealed, adopted nor are we empowered to become called the Son’s of God filled with His authority as solid witness for Christ. Why then are our churches walking as businesses without the Spirit of Christ’s leading. Without that seal we cannot be heard and expect answer to our Prayers for many of them may not be expressed to God without the Spirit turning our groans into intelligible requests translated to the Father for Consideration and answer.
The follies and foolish pride of denominations must end. Certainly belief based upon Jesus must be established but the enemy has won a huge section of ground in Church by getting us to separate our Body into sects, typically along grounds prideful argument or racial/nationalistic boundary. We are ONE Body, ONE God and ONE indwelling Spirit born to be unified and given shared Glory by God to be so. Do not be mistaken this is not the same venture as the Ecumenical Church sponsored by Rome that is looking to combine all Faiths even Pagan into a one world religion against God’s Will. This is all believers putting aside their arguments and professing Christ Jesus as the Head of the Church, not cardinal, bishop, Priest or Pope.
If we got out in the streets, neighborhoods and towns with the Spirit guiding, empowering and filling us with His Power then we would be what God intended a Power with which no Dominion, Principality or worldly organization or government may contend. A Force for Good, caring, loving, sharing and truly spreading God’s Love in our works not just our empty Word. Feed the Hungry, Shoe the shoeless, give hope to the desperate and shine the Light of Christ to this desperate world. Church is not a place I go it is in me, where I go the Church goes. If the seek and forgotten are always to be found on the road then how may I sit in a building with a bunch of clean folks expecting the dirty to show up and worship a God they don’t know with people who didn’t care enough to come find them?