A brief overview (continued)- Where we find ourselves today.

Gideons300

Our awakening is beginning. Prepare to be amazed.
Jun 26, 2015
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Thanks for continuing on again with me as I share what God has shown me. Lastly, I want to step back and talk about the big scheme of things, God's plan for the church.

On the day of Pentecost, the church was born with an explosion of power and love. Over the next seventy years, the apostles oversaw the church that turned the entire known world upside down. No one joined the church on a whim. There was no cost to becoming a Christian, other than the fact that all was placed on the alter. ALL. They were the possession of Satan, men walking in the fleshly nature, but with their conversion, they put off their old nature by faith and in the same manner, put on their new nature. The miracle of truly being born again began.

Their lives were radically changed. Then the cost kicked in. Satan has no issues with a religious organization doing good things. Bo-ring. But when believers learn to walk out their time on earth as new creatures, with their spiritual armor on, with their shields of faith up, with them combining the blood of the lamb with the words of their testimony and walking now as overcomers? Satan knows he is in trouble, his reaction is..... persecution.

Jesus said hat if they persecuted Him, they would persecute us. Hmmmm. So why are there churches today on every corner, with no persecution at all? Why are we, if not particularly liked, at least mildly tolerated? It is simple. We are no threat to his plans, and our lives in no way testify that their lives are evil. We have no power to get ourselves free, let alone to help others. Our lack of joy tells the world that something is missing, yet we ourselves are blind to it. No one exclaims "Behold how they love one another," No threat at all.

For most of the rest of th first century, the church spread like wildfire. For the early believers, it cost them they families, their culture, their friends, their possessions, their self-love and self-rule, yet still they chose to follow Jesus with all that was within them. Every single one of the apostles, Paul included, lost their lives sharing the gospel (oh, except one.... John. He was simply boiled in oil and sentenced to exile on an island. to die alone) and it slowed them down not one day. It was like pouring gas on a fire.

Thousands and thousands of disciples were killed, imprisoned, tortured, fed to lions, or even burned as human torches, yet the church could not be stopped. THAT is an alive, awake church. Nothing less.

But Paul gave us a hint at the plan God had in store for the church. He said that the Lord showed him that after his death, grievous wolves would enter the church. Wolves in sheep's clothing, not sparing the flock. And slowly but surely, over time, they would succeed in turning the most amazing, most joy-filled, most God-like body of on-fire believers into a dead, lukewarm, compromised hypocritical religious organization. Welcome to what we know as church.

The early rain had done its job. It's time was up but the church was birthed and nurtured as it took hold. Was God not able to keep the church on fire and pure? After all, in the early church, He did so quite effectively with Ananias and Saphire. Look, if those same standards were in place today, most of us would never darken the doors of our churches again, for fear of our own fates. Am I off base here? We both know the answer to that.

No, the entire history of the church has been orchestrated by the God we serve. We are part of a story of redemption. And for nineteen hundred years, the long dry spell set in. Oh, there were periodic showers, so that the church would remain. The crop had life, but not enough for real spiritual fruit. And sadly, we never recovered the purity and snointng of the book of Acts church? It has never even come close. Thank God for those men who pressed in and had showers show us He was still alive, still answering those who sought Him with their whole hearts.

But as we enter the last days (and yes we are still in them), do we find the church alive, awake, on fire, occupying as we were instructed, overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil by faith? Let's be real here. Spirit fllled? Like those in the book of Acts? Not even in the same universe, tongues or no tongues. So is our situation hopeless? Will we, like the millions that have gone on before us, live out our lives joyless, visionless, and satisfied with a Christianity that sets no one free? Oh hopeless ones, may I give you some amazing news? The rain is about to fall again, and when it does, when we are awakened from our religious going-through-the-motions Christianity, we will experience what it is to be part of the real church. We will all be ONE. No denominations. Jesus and followers of Jesus, that's it.

Do you remember the story of Elijah and the drought he prayed for Due to the wickedness of Israel? The king went up to see him on the mountain and Elijah asked his servant what he saw on the horizon. "A cloud the size of a man's fist" was his reply. Elijah told him "Tell the king to get off the mountain, and hurry, for it is fixing to rain."

Well, guess what? The spiritual drought we have all known as the church, where we are satisfied with religious husks, where our preachers muddy the waters before we sheep can drink, where any who say we can walk in purity and holiness all the days of our lives are branded as deceivers or religious zealots, the long dry spell is about to end. It is fixable no to rain...... again. The latter rain is on the horizon, even if it looks now as just a small cloud on a barren plain. If you are not in it for the duration, get off the mountain. The sleeping giant, God's church, is about to be awakened and put on strength. We all are about to light our lamps.

Am I dreaming this all up? Just another crazy zealot with a prophet's syndrome. Look, I am no prophet. Never claimed to be. I am just a grandfather raising his adopted seven year old son and seven month old great-grandson. But God showed me this in a miraculous visitation and what He shared works. ITWORKS! The truth is, it matters not what you think of me. But it matters totally what you do in following the Lord. Half hearted ness will soon no longer cut it. Soon, willful sin will have a price attached to it.

Do I exaggerate? If you want a "picture" of what I share in the word, simply turn to Ezekiel 36 and 37. Those talked about are US. In Ezekiel 36, God, the same God who chastised the church of Laodecia, shares His plans for us, His religiously steeped sleeping children, content with husks, yet claiming we are walking exactly as He desires. This is what He says and I paraphrase, but read it yourselves if you have any doubts.

He says that we, His own people, have blasphemed his holy name wherever we have gone. Ouch. But His chastening message is really a message of hope and our redemption. He says that a final revival is coming, and millions will be swept into the kingdom, not because of us, but despite us. He says that it is not for our sakes He will do this, but to rescue the honor of His Hly name, for we have been a fleshly, stiff-necked people content with outward show, with no hunger for true inner purity.

And how will these millions in the world come to know Christ? Here is where it gets good. "The heathen" He shares, "will know that I am the Lord when I share Be sanctified IN YOU before their very eyes." My Lord and my God. Did you hear that? He loves us enough to rescue us from us. And listen. This is what those in the world will exclaim.
"Look! That which bore only briars and thorns (that's us) has become again like the garden of a Eden."

He goes on on chapter 37 to tell us of the valley of dry bones (us again). We are the lifeless, dried out remains of the once glorious church. Hopeless? Praise God, no! Do you get it? We are about to be rescued, made fully alive, and find out what real Christianity is like. No more compromise. No more secret sins we either can't or won't give up. The first raindrops are beginnng to fall.

The first church started out with an explosion. The second, however, will begin gradually. But make no mistake. It will reach a crescendo that will dwarf even the early church, for the latter rain is our heritage and it will be greater than the former. Glory to God.

So how does it start? We first have to discover who we are, overcomers, not the overcome. We first have to learn that God's salvation is salvation FROM sin, not salvation IN it. Am I talking about sinless perfectionism? Ha! That is us doing it and it is impossible. But I am talking about us re-discovering the promises of God, taking them quite literally. No more will we water them down to make them fit our spirituality. No, we will, by faith in the God who cannot lie, be lifted up to be kept from falling. Willful sin will disappear among us. And our self loving old natures, finally put off by faith, will allow us to begin to grow real palpable spiritual fruits. We will begin to see our lives transformed. We will begin to look, to think, to act like Jesus.

Much has to happen still, but for you, for me, nothing stands in our way of walking in our new natures. If you still are quite content where you are, having a form of godliness but with your lives denying the power of it to the world, now is not your time. But there are many out there who have this spiritual itch that can never seem to be scratched. You may be totally overcome by sin, or hate the fact so are still living a life that in no way honors Jesus. Listen. It is your time. It is those who have no strength that will mount up with wings as eagles. Feel like worthy? Unable? Scared of commitment that you cannot follow through. Lay it aside. We ARE unworthy. We ARE unable. And if the Lord didn't promise to cause us...... yes, CAUSE US..... to obey Hm (Yes, that little overlooked blessing is found clearly stated in... yes... you guessed it, Ezekiel 36), we would stray.

But praise the Lord forevermore, He has promised to keep us from falling.

He has equipped us with shields of faith that will quench EVERY armor from tthe enemy of our souls.

He has made us more than conquerors, not in theory, but in real time.

He has promised us that no matter the temptation, He will make sure we can walk through it without falling.

Awake, dear brothers and sisters. Our lives are about to be..... well... made alive. REALLY alive. Live, bones, live. And they will.

Ever joyful,

Gideon