The Gifts Part 14
Healings continued...(sort of)
We preach a neutered gospel, we receive the bread and cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, we refuse to repent and fall at the foot of the cross, yet we have the temerity to ask why it is that God isn’t doing more in our churches, why it is that our services are so dry and absent of life, why it is that we have to continually come up with more outrageous schemes, bigger productions, shorter programs, and more flowery sermons just to keep the folks in the pews.
If we preached the whole council of God, if we presented the entire gospel of truth, if we compelled men to repentance and righteousness and holiness, if we did what is our duty to do in the first place, I guarantee that we would see a greater outpouring of the power of God, of the Holy Spirit, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
We’ve gotten the masses hooked on a morally ambiguous God, we’ve told people there was no need for repentance until they started believing it, we did away with the divinity of Christ and focused solely on the moral lessons His parables could teach us, we’ve widened the narrow path, we called God a liar to His face and insisted that all could find the way, we’ve encouraged a lukewarm spiritual state giving it the fuzzy name of ‘casual Christian’, we call ourselves sons of God when we are in word and deed illegitimate, we’ve surrendered our hearts to the material world ignoring the kingdom of God altogether, then we wonder how it is that the church is so weak and impotent and powerless and purposeless.
We think ourselves evolved, we think ourselves wise, we think ourselves tolerant, we think of ourselves as having progressed from the stringent constraints of a unambiguous and uncompromising gospel, we think ourselves little gods who can blaze our own trail, invent our own doctrine and serve the idols of our hearts without repercussion not realizing that we are nothing more than phlegm and God is getting ready to clear His throat.
Revelation 3:15-16, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth.”
To those of you wondering, no I am not having a nervous breakdown in written form, I’ve just been studying and getting deeper into the gifts of the Holy Spirit, seeing all the wondrous power we have access to, seeing all the glorious things that God is readily able and willing to do through His children, and the deeper I got into my study, the angrier I became with the current state of what we call the church today.
Much of what we call the church today is a circus show, and the preacher or pastor acts as the farceur, doing his best to make people laugh, to get them to feel at ease, to make them comfortable, and to make them think that they got their money’s worth.
‘Wasn’t that a great song from the special music team, they made sure not to sing about Jesus or the blood of Christ, or the cross, they made sure to keep it ambiguous enough where you never really know if they’re singing about God or some long lost love. Let’s give the music team a special clap offering for being sensitive to those of other religious beliefs, to the agnostics, as well as the atheists, and not offending anyone by mentioning the Son of God. Next up we have a skit, followed by the morning offering, and then we will continue with our sermon series entitled ‘self-esteem: the great healer.’”
Jesus is not returning for a circus, He is returning for a bride. Jesus did not hang on a cross, bleed and die so that we could get rich, have self-esteem, rediscover our inner child, or be at peace with our outwardly appearance. He gave Himself that He might sanctify and cleanse us, that we might be holy in His sight.
What have we done to the word of God? What sort of men have we been listening to? What sort of teaching have we allowed to worm its way into our hearts, if we readily lend our ear to the aberrations being passed off as gospel truth, and not only that but we defend them and violently so?
Ephesians 5:25-27, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
A glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish, this is what Jesus is returning for, and He will accept nothing less. He gave Himself, He died, that He might present to Himself that glorious church for which He suffered and agonized, for which He bled and wept, yet with a wink and a nod we shrug our shoulders and smarmily think to ourselves, ‘I guess He’ll just have to make due with me, He wouldn’t leave heaven barren and empty just because of a technicality.’
Yes He would, He most definitely would leave heaven empty, because He is a righteous and holy God, and He would rather have an empty heaven than a heaven full of unrepentant sinners.
May we wake up to the reality of the times that we are living in, may we wholeheartedly and without reservation pursue righteousness and holiness, may we strive to be that spotless bride for which Christ is returning, and may we thoroughly equip ourselves for the coming battle having put on the whole armor of God.
Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get back on track, and continue discussing the gifts of healings, but once in a while I have to vent, or at least share what is heavy on my heart. This was one of those times.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
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