Volume 17 Issue 6
The Red Sea was conquered by Gods east wind. The seed of Abraham was established by supernatural intervention. Paul and Silas prison release was arranged by a sudden great earthquake. Noah and family were spared death from a flood while locked behind a God shut door on a God designed floating miracle. The Spiritual revolution of mankind was revealed to a small remnant group of Jesus disciples huddled in an upper room, stripped of human understanding (Lk.24) waiting. Waiting, praying, when suddenly a rushing mighty wind sent from heaven brought to mortal men access to eternal power, revelation, and divine speech. Have these dramatic events fallen from our collective memory? Can a man forget his maker? Can a nation forget her foundations? Do children curse their parents? Do institutions turn from their core values? Do whole civilizations lose their memory of its past glory? History suggests that the answers are, yes. The notion that some evil spirit and a negative anti-Christian mass consciousness is gripping America is becoming increasingly evident.
You would have to be completely unobservant not to see the collapse of American society. We are in a free fall in term of morals, values, and our Christian heritage. Of course it is possible to be completely unobservant. Possible and as human history shows us, likely that many will sleep the sleep of death even while their civilization crumbles into rubble.
I know my readers are godly people and lovers of the Apostolic doctrine so I hasten to make my point. We must remember that we are not of this world. We are not debtors to the flesh. We are birth into the body of Christ by His spirit, not by our might, power, intellect, schemes, interpretations, or personalities. The Old Testament prophets struggled endlessly to keep Gods people in touch with Gods freedom. Gods’ way. Gods’ alternative options. Divine options. Holy options.
You would have to be completely unobservant not to see the shift in the church away from a dependency on the Holy Ghost. As our good Pentecostal folks get smarter, in terms of worldly wisdom, richer, in terms of carnal wealth, and more independent in terms of attitude, we are losing the memory of our roots, of Gods ways, (psa.103:7) our connection to divine means, (psa. 91:11) and the faith in God. That faith alone makes us free from the world. What we once sought deliverance from, (the world and its systems of validation), we now seek those former things (worldly things) to deliver us. The Holy Ghost revivals that brought us out of the world, convicted us, changed us, stirred us, sanctified us, transform us, renew our minds so much that we rightly judged the world as being of little use, is now, far too often, being put aside so that we may go back to the world. Nothing, however, we find in the world will help us. It never did, and it never will. That is the whole point of being a Pentecostal. God birthed us by his spirit to show us that we have no life but his life, no light, and no hope but through the Power of His Name.
Are we are forgetting to walk in holiness? Why wait for God, we lament, when we can figure this out. Really? Have we become so smart, so rich, and so clever that we dare to tell their children, why wait for the east wind Are we thinking that we have other options? Do we arrogantly believe that we have become such a bright new breed of progressive Pentecostals that we may now turn to human solutions, philosophical solutions, political solutions? Are we thinking, who needs a rushing mighty Holy wind to inspire our praise, when we can choreograph our dancers, and imitate the sound of true worship without having to repent? Has the cry in our voices become a vocal technique rather than the passion of a broken preachers heart? There is a Big difference.
Holy memory leads to holiness. The recall of our spiritual birth by the power of God demands we wait on God. The more the 21st century apostolic church leans on its own understanding the more we will fail. The deeper our understanding about our dependency on God alone the more we will cry out to him. (1pet.1:5) Only Then will our prayers will be for a table to be spread in the wilderness, for sudden earthquake to come and break the chains, for an east wind to push asunder the red sea, and for a thousand Pentecostal mornings, that leaves us standing in complete humility as we put off the works of the flesh and lay aside our human pride, yielding over and over to Gods Glory Until the church breaks free from our misguided desire to be loved by the world instead of being an antithesis to the world, we will fail. Until we stop using the worlds definitions for success we will continue to destroy our children’s desire for the Holy life and spiritual anointing. Until we quit emphasizing how proud we are when the world drapes our shoulders with accolades then we may expect very few of our sons and daughters to become prophets. Remember who you are and how you made it over.
