Too Much and Too Little
When the first outbreak of the "revival" came, many people likened it to a flood wave. It struck the world with great force and spread out rapidly, swamping everything in its path.
Over the years, ten long years since 1993, further massive waves of deception have been expected - and experienced. They came slowly at first, and then gathered speed and strength (rather like the successive waves of contractions during the birth of a baby.)
Many of us spoke of the tide coming in, and recently these conversations came back to me as I watched the escalating delusion and spiritual devastation in the churches all around the world. We are no longer WAITING for the flood tide - THE TIDE IS IN.
And these waves have come upon us so thick and fast lately that there's been no time to respond. When the process began, years ago, there was one obvious wave of deception and those who knew the bible, and knew the Lord, responded by examining at length what was being said and done. They wrote books, pamphlets and articles to warn Christians, and organized debates and seminars and conferences. There was time to research and examine the evidence, and to write at length a variety of responses.
Now, one fad follows another in such quick succession, and they are so short-lived and diverse, that by the time they become known they have fizzled out and people have moved on to the next titillating bit of excitement.
There are SO MANY "waves" (but not notable or significant ones) being driven onto the beach that we find ourselves surrounded by this "water" with no time and little energy left to respond. To make a full and reasoned response to every little error would be impossible, and the deception is now so deep and so well-entrenched everywhere that it cannot be halted. Nothing is sufficiently earth-shattering to wake up the sleeping Church, but everything contributes little by little to the rot and destruction.
People are being taught, little by little, to expect the unusual and supernatural without checking that it's biblical or from God; they are being taught to turn away from God's word to "new revelations" and they are being schooled in mindless robotic obedience to all that their leaders say. What a set-up for the Antichrist!
Everywhere we go, everything we hear, everyone we meet seems in some way to be connected to this flood tide. Sometimes it seems we can't see anything but this revival water (even though we know that pockets of faith exist, with genuine churches and believers. Even so, their number seems pitifully small at times.)
No doubt the revivalists believe this is the "work of God" overpowering its opponents. Quite the reverse! The bible actually predicts that God would ALLOW a massive deception to arise in order to test the hearts of his people, and to sift the wheat from the chaff. Any success is merely the inevitable process of apostasy - as predicted in many places in God's word - working itself out in real everyday terms.
The work of sounding the warning has been directed by God, so that Christians are not left without advice, but now that the tide is almost completely covering the land, what remains to be done?
In a day when there is almost TOO MUCH to cope with, and too much to bear, strangely there is TOO LITTLE going on in genuine spiritual terms to make the waiting worthwhile. Nothing much happens that is in any way new, unique, rousing, startling - it's all much of a muchness. Just like watching waves drive into the beach - one after another, wave upon wave, wave upon wave... hypnotic and boring and endless.
Just like the servants of the household that Jesus warned to "stay awake" to await the Master's return, we are tempted to nod off. There seems no end to the waiting for the Lord to act decisively - yet he WILL. His promises hold true, no matter what.
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Luke 18:7-8
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 2 Peter 3:9-10
Longing For Fellowship
One of the most common enquiries I receive by e-mail is the request to put people in touch with a good, sound church, or provide names of people for fellowship. This is something I know is very needed, but unfortunately it's beyond my abilities to do it. I wish I could help, but there is no way one person can know that many churches! Even if I did, that would not necessarily mean I knew their character - whether they were truly sound or not. Nor whether their particular type of worship style would suit the correspondent. So you see, there is little point asking me this question. I'm sorry to disappoint you.
It's a nice pipe-dream (but totally impractical) to think of some kind of Remnant Dating Agency that puts isolated believers together. But just think it through - how could it possibly work, outside of God's perfect knowledge and direction? Even if a name was suggested as a local contact, how could you know you wouldn't end up with a no-hoper, or a nutcase, or somebody who secretly held to strange doctrines? Nobody can put you in touch with people or churches. ONLY God knows your needs and knows how to fulfill those particular needs.
I hear the pain in your enquiry’s and sense the desperation for good fellowship. I sympathize with you. We are ALL feeling isolated, weary and in need of support. Most of those who have come out of their churches have not found anywhere else to go. Most "organized" Christianity has been organized around the revival, or globalist activities, or various man-made empires .I don't have any inside knowledge, or access to any church data that the rest of you do not have.
I don't visit or hear from sound churches either. Like you I just have my circle of trusted friends and colleagues with whom I fellowship. Almost everyone I know is asking WHERE do we go? If they DO go to a church somewhere it often turns out to be a disappointment, or dead, or just as much in error as the previous one.
It's disheartening, I know. But have you ever considered what God is doing? GOD is the one who is allowing this testing time, for us to drive our roots deeply into the genuine ROCK; so that we are no longer "building on sand"; so that our "anchor holds in the storms of life" and so that we are not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.
This is in fact an act of love, whereby God is drawing close to us as individuals, taking time with each one for healing, uplifting, restoration, spiritual growth, maturity - all the things that were taking so long to happen in conventional churches (or, would never happen at ALL.)
"Outside the Camp" we have the chance to spend quality time both with God and our families, and with people who truly love and honor God. We have been cut free of time-wasters, scoundrels, scroungers, abusers, and those who used up our energy and goodwill for nothing. See this as a time of opportunity therefore, and make good use of the time - even if you are on your own - to develop a rich, freely-flowing, Spirit-led and God-inspired style of worship that is not hindered by man's restrictions or fears.
See it as a time of ministry outside the normal "evangelistic" models, where you can simply chat and share your faith with others, without the need for complicated video sessions, books, studies and all the paraphernalia that Jesus and the Apostles never needed. Now, you can develop the ability to hear God and know his guidance, and be directed by HIS SPIRIT instead of church programs and the Pastor's sermon.
Now you have the chance to get before God, one to one, looking into His word and hearing from His Spirit so that you can grow, and not be dependent on others.
So - in a way - I think ending the isolation by going back to the same old meetings we had in the past would be a retrograde step. I believe God wants more for us than that. BUT - at this point I have to issue a warning against the various ministries and individuals who have been preaching a "restorationist" or "sonship" style of renewal. Or, just an organized "getting-together" but outside of God's timing and will. All this can seem VERY seductive to anyone who is pining for fellowship. But the dangers are terribly real - imagine the penalties for getting it wrong and stepping out of God's plan!
Is There Going to be a Restoration?
Some people are pushing for a purification of the saints and a renewal of the Church that sounds very attractive, but in fact they are drawing on the old-time sonship fallacies of the Holiness groups and Deeper Life groups of the 19th century. They may not even know the source of their inspiration, and may be sincere and godly, but they are missing the mark none the less.
Some men, such as Andrew Strom or David Wilkerson for example, (in their different ways) sometimes have useful things to say. There are a few gleanings of thought-provoking and even inspired messages, but in the end it's still unbiblical - because they have a grand vision for a New Church, reorganized and restored, that is not according to scripture. Often this also means following the New Apostles and Prophets of the day - Andrew Strom cheerfully hosts the material of Rick Joyner, Paul Cain and other "prophets" and in a recent message to his mailing list commended the notorious Kansas City Prophets as being the launch-pad for "God's restoration of the prophetic into today's church."
"God was restoring the 'Prophetic' ministry to the church. In fact, I regard this as the founding of the modern Prophetic movement as we know it today. ... it is very clear to me that the "foundations" of today's Prophetic movement, and the great explosion that we have seen in the Prophetic ministry over the last 20 years, stem directly back to Kansas City. This was the founding movement, the watershed-event that God used to kick-start the whole thing in modern times."
So it is worthy of note that the path Strom took to his present position entailed abandoning the "wilderness experience" outside the church system, and turning back to organized religion. Strom underwent a change of heart in 1993 (when the so-called revival began at Toronto Airport) that changed his attitude to "out-of-church" wilderness Christians. He now calls for Christians to get back under authority, and into organized church bodies.
This distrust of isolation and command to come under leadership is also evidenced in David Wilkerson's material albeit in a more subtle fashion. Because he has denounced the Brownsville and Toronto Blessing deceptions, he has made many friends amongst the "Remnant". He often writes in a supportive and encouraging way for them, recognizing the pains and sufferings of today's isolated believers. At the same time he proposes a restoration of the Church that could be taken from a Latter Rain text book.
"GOD IS ABOUT TO DO SOMETHING NEW" David Wilkerson (1 Sept 2003).
"Recently, I have been preaching that God is about to do something new and glorious. This new thing is beyond revival, beyond an awakening. It is a work of God that He alone initiates when He can no longer endure the polluting of His holy name. ... God is going to do two mighty works. First, He is going to purge the nations and His church with awesome redemptive judgments. He is going to stop the invasion into His house by homosexuals and charlatans - and He is going to purify and cleanse the ministry and raise up shepherds after His own heart.
Second, God is going to glorify His holy name with a great intervention of mercy. In the throes of judgments being fulfilled, God is going to save the day by a supernatural "turning" of a remnant back to Himself. What He did for Israel when they were judged, He will do again in the days ahead. You can read it all in Ezekiel 36:21-38. (Also see Ezekiel 20:22,44.)
For God's people, glorious days are ahead. Do not fret. God's holy name, and His pure Word, will be vindicated. Something greater than revival is coming. God says, "I will do a new thing." It has to do with restoring the glory of His Name - the glory that is in Christ, the Lord."
Taken on a certain level, this could be an accurate (and welcome) depiction of endtimes events, but I believe the emphasis is on the "new thing" of the Latter Rain restoration/revival rather than the Lord's Coming. (See the "New Thing" teaching examined on Cross+Word website, link below.)
Once again, there is a desire to set up a New Church - purified, restored, cleansed, revived - a Church we all long for, but a Church that is at odds with the apostate situation the bible predicts.
The bible tells us that MANY supposed believers will fall away under testing (Matt 24:11-13/ 2 Peter 2:2); that the Church will be decimated and broken down almost to nothing. Apostasy will increase, and climax in the wholesale worship of the Antichrist by a Church that has become a Harlot (instead of the Lord's Bride.) At what point, therefore, can there be a "glorious days ahead" and a "great intervention"?
Too many years ago, in the bygone days when I also held to an endtimes glorious revival, I was praying about this very thing and after listening to my passionate prayers for some time the Lord spoke clearly to my heart: "It is not REvival but SURvival that you need to be concerned about." I have never forgotten that quiet authoritative voice of the Lord into my spirit. At the time I doubt I understood a quarter of what it might mean in the years to come - but surviving as a Christian today with all the pressures and temptations and manipulations and deceptions is no easy matter. And it's not over yet.
The days in the wilderness were not days of rejoicing and plenty - they were not days of "glory" but of deprivation, testing and hardship. Only when God's people passed the test of faith and came into the Promised Land did they experience "REST".
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. (Heb 4:9-11)
Like the Israelites in the wilderness we tend to look for short-cuts and easier options, and something to ease the load. God forbid that we should - like them - become so desperate for a recognized form of organized worship that we turn to the worship of various golden idols that represent security and familiarity. People love to see and feel something, to focus on some tangible reward, rather than hanging on for God in faith. People love to be organized! It's more comfortable, less stressful, and it takes the pressure off, if somebody else is responsible for worship and teaching.
We have to beware of attempts to "organize" God into re-forming his church, a task he wants to do Himself I believe. If there is to be a miraculous re-gathering, then only God can achieve it, because only he knows HOW to do it, WHEN to do it and with WHOM. In particular it won't be man-led! Forget the idea of self-appointed "specially anointed" super-leaders breathing down your neck.
The only way for God to re-establish genuine truth and worship, is for each INDIVIDUAL believer to come into a new appreciation of God, and to make a recommitment to Him. Yes, God needs to deal with us. Yes, like many I long to see God honored amongst believers, and to see true worship, genuine scriptural teaching, powerful evangelism - but I'm not prepared to accept a substitute, nor to stop short of GOD'S ANSWER.
"And Elisha said to him, "Take a bow and some arrows." So he took himself a bow and some arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, "Put your hand on the bow." So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. And he said, "Open the east window"; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot"; and he shot. And he said, "The arrow of the LORD's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them." Then he said, "Take the arrows"; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; so he struck three times, and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times." (2 Kings 13:15-19 NKJV)
How determined are YOU to see God's full work accomplished?
Taken from:
Cross+Word, Tricia Tillin
