Truth And Belonging Will Go Hand In Hand

On several occasions on this blog I have mentioned that many Christian people do not join or attend churches because they are searching for truth and a desire to live it out under the power of the Holy Spirit.  Every so often I am reminded of this when meeting up with someone that I have not seen for a period of time.  When coming face to face with him/her, the first thing I notice is the smile … a kind of “switch-it-on-now” smile, followed by some “appropriate” Christian-speak such as, “Good to see you, what a lovely day God has given us, how are you?”  It’s not that they are expecting an answer to that; it’s simply something that rolls off the tongue.

A Christian lady, not seen for a long while was asked what the Lord was doing in her  midst. Intentionally or not, the question was by-passed by talking about current events happening in her church.  Not by what God was doing in it but rather, people.  Someone had died and the house was left to a family member who sold it for a good price and moved away from the area.  Another person was getting older and more frail, “the poor thing.”  Somebody else was experiencing unpleasant circumstances and was, “not coping all that well.”  The government, the economy and world uncertainties got a mention but apart from, “the Lord knows what He’s doing,” that was the extent of it.

Some years ago I visited a church and met a man who had recently returned from a tour of “the Holy Land.”  He told of the blessing it was for him to get baptized in the Jordan River and, “you’ve just got to go there.”  The man was emotionally charged that morning.  Israel was all he talked about for thirty minutes and he did it with little mention of the Lord of Israel.  I met him in a shop the other day.  No mention of Israel or the Lord, but plenty  about his retirement and his church plus the, “need for everyone to attend church.”  He  has also developed a debilitating disease and as I understand it, he quotes the negative predictions of his doctor, but not the positive predictions of his Lord, or His promises.

In company with some young Christian adults, I discerned much enthusiasm for their church programs, preparations and forthcoming events, but I couldn’t help thinking that there was little difference between them and non-Christian young adults who express the same for their sporting or service clubs.  Just like the older people, there was some indication of the Lord’s presence amongst them but not much more than mere generalities given when asked what God was doing in their lives.  They had the smiles and the Christian-speak, but not a lot of the life of God flowing from them as one should expect to witness it.  Does that mean none of these people mentioned here have God or know Him? No, not at all.

But it does seem they are products of leaders who have plenty to say about the Lord inside the four walls of their church who, at the same time, have little to say about that same Lord inside themselves.  In other words, each has confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believed in their heart that God raised Him from the dead, qualifying them as saved from hell Romans 10:9.  Probably too, they have been baptized in water, but it seems that’s as far as they have gone with the Lord.  For the rest of their lives there’s every chance they’ll simply sit comfortable with the reality that they have their fire insurance all paid up – no white throne judgment to face, no hell for them.

As mentioned in those other posts, it is the need to belong which causes most Christians to become churched.  Belonging is primary, truth is secondary; hence the sick, anaemic  state of the church all over the western world.  That’s not the way God  ordained it to be. Lately I’ve been asking myself, what would happen to the church if truth and belonging went hand in hand?  The answer to that, I believe, can be found in the New Testament Acts of the Apostles.  When the Lord Jesus sent His Holy Spirit into the lives of those one hundred and twenty people gathered together, “all with one accord in one place” Acts 2:1-4, they immediately became not only filled with the Life of God, they became an expression of the nature of God.

In other words, this first church immediately became an expression of the Lord Jesus Christ, not an expression of their individualistic selves, or their leaders, religious groups and denominations.  When they stood up to speak and to minister the word of God into people’s lives, God moved in miraculous life-changing ways.  But this only happened because the people came together as a unified one; one in the study of God’s word, one in fellowship, one in communion or the breaking of bread and one in prayer.  They had no agendas of their own, no doctrinal hobby-horses to ride, no political wheelbarrows to push and no church title/positional axes to grind.

Unlike the holy huddles that take place in most church groups today, that first church knew the objective God gave them was not to simply meet in seclusion once or twice a week, but to go out and share the Lord’s message of love and forgiveness to all of those around them.  They didn’t care as to who got the credit either, there was no one-upmanship amongst them; so long as God’s work was being done under His power and anointing, that’s all they cared about.  It was a joy for them to see people’s lives change just as theirs had been changed; putting an end to bitterness, fear, selfishness etc and taking on a positive, fulfilling life in Christ, for Christ.

They understood the reality of the demonic realm too and exercised spiritual power and authority over it. Just like their Lord they cast devils out of people with a word; they didn’t allow themselves to be duped by the gobbledygook language of secular, Christ-denying, Bible-denying psychologists and psychiatrists.  They called those demons for what they were and sent them on their way in the name of Jesus Christ.  The result?  People got released or set free from mental and physical sicknesses and diseases that had been holding them in their grip.  Not only did those people get released but they too became disciples of the Lord Jesus and went out sharing their healing testimonies, being used of God to set others free.

In those days Christians went out into the world and cast devils out of people.  Today, Christians need to go into the church and cast them out!  That’s never going to happen of course, you’d be thrown out if you tried it on; so the next best thing  for truth-seeking Christians is to take themselves out of those places.  A common question in Christendom; Can a Christian have a demon?  Answer? Yes, sure can.  I’m not interested today in getting caught up in whether it’s ‘demon possession’ or ‘non-possession’ more importantly I want to address demonic influence in Christians … strong demonic influence.  And perhaps the strongest demonic influence in the church today comes from the spirit of unbelief; unbelief in the Scriptures.

If all we are in our churches is a product of our leader/s and not a product of the Holy Spirit, then we will never progress any further than they have spiritually.  And given the increasingly shabby and grubby state of the church around the world today perhaps regress is the more accurate word, not progress.  Example: I don’t know how many sermons I’ve heard with preachers using, “But be doers of the word, and not just hearers only.”  The passive audience sit in their pews with their arms folded, their Bibles closed but heads nodding their “amen” in response.  Looks good, sounds good, but it’s a sham!  While they’ve labored that part they’ve omitted to labor the equally important, “deceiving yourselves” James 1:22.

That’s a scary piece of Scripture – self-deceived not Satan-deceived, that comes later when he sends the spirit of unbelief.  In other words, Christians are sitting in their churches week in week out listening to the word of God being used in the 4-point PowerPoint sermons, but instead of becoming sensitive to the truths the Holy Spirit yearns to impart they’re becoming more and more desensitized.  For one reason or another where they truly need to act on what it is they’re hearing, they are not acting. I too have been guilty of that and I praise God for removing me from those places so as I could see it for what it is – unbelief!

Recently I’ve written a couple of posts here on what God has shown me from His word about divine physical healing.  No sooner had I written the second one when I received a phone call from a Christian friend asking that I pray for a man in their church who was recently diagnosed with cancer.  I asked her what the church’s current stand on physical healing was, because when I was part of it they never really spoke about it.  She replied by saying that the church believed in healing.  I asked, “Do they?”  She said, “Well, I think so.”  A couple of people, still many years off their “threescore years and ten” have died in that place.

I wonder what might have happened to them if the entire church had prostrated themselves to the floor, fasted and prayed, took a stand on the word of God and called on Him reminding Him of His redemptive/covenant promises regarding this matter. The lady said, “Well, we know sometimes God doesn’t heal when we ask for it.”  I am learning that the gifts of God for both our soul and body are not simply promised, but offered as well.  In other words, all God’s gifts are offered to us as well as promised and therefore, we need to meet the conditions and accept them.  It has been said that the responsibility for their transfer is ours, clearing God of any failure.  To me, this is starting to make sense.

I’ve never been taught that in a church.  But I do believe if this truth was taught in  churches and was allowed to sink in as deeply as the truth about spiritual healing, then more of God’s people would experience divine healing from sickness and disease and less of God’s people would die before their appointed time.  It grieves me deeply to think of sick and diseased Christians sitting in church on Sunday, but sitting in the doctor’s surgery on Monday.  It’s too late now for most churches though; too much unbelief in there.  Those who want to learn to stand on the word of God have got to come out so as to be personally taught by the God of the word.

God is already preparing individual people for the purpose of becoming doers of His word.  Presently He’s delivering them from unbelief in His Scriptures.  At some stage He’s going to bring them together with others – probably in small groups.  Whilst they will be far from perfect, each group will become one in Christ just as that first church became one in Him.  Truth and belonging will go hand in hand.  And should any one of them be asked what God is doing in their midst there will be no shortage of testimonies to share. “…..Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you” Mark 5:19. “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs” Mark 16:20.