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The BIG Picture
"Collected
wisdom from the journey."
from Doug
Perry - www.FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com
- May, 2007
Chapter Five
– Axioms
(Printable
PDF file)
An
“Axiom” is simply a logic progression or a maxim or
statement generally agreed to be true. What I've done here is string
together a bunch of axioms to show a logical progression to a
conclusion. In a sense, it's an extension of the
“spirals”. It's like in the illustration above, I
gather all the “C” notes until we can play a chord and see
the extension into unknown “C's” that aren't on the
keyboard, but must surely be consistent with what we already
know. Sometimes it's just illustrating “C's” that we
all sort of know are there, but we don't want to admit because it
would require sacrifice or change.
I've used this
method in several different books. A collection of the Axioms are
gathered here for illustration and enlightenment (hopefully).
Take it all back to the Word and see if it harmonizes. Take it
to the Lord and ask Him to explain it to you. Feel free to correct me
if you think I'm wrong. But don't argue with me just because you
don't like the conclusions I've come to, but you can't debate the
path I took to get there. I'm tired of pastors telling me that
there is nothing I'm saying that they can disagree with, but they
just want me to go away. Just happened again yesterday!
At some point somebody is going to have to be discomforted by this
stuff and actually ACT ON IT!! Once you've been enlightened,
there's no more excuse. As of this date, no one has ever argued with
my conclusions and the Biblical nature of the Axioms, they just try
to shut me up. But if I'm right, it changes everything!
_________________________________________________________________________________
The Fear of the
Lord Axioms(excerpted from “Do It
Yourself City Church Restoration”)
Fear of the Lord
is the BEGINNING of Wisdom. You need all you can get!
IF we sin, THEN we
must not have enough Fear of the Lord. (The Father AND the Son.)
IF we don't have
enough fear of the Lord, THEN it must be because we don't see Him clearly.
IF we don't see
Him clearly, THEN it must be because we have been deceived about who
He really is.
IF we have been
deceived, THEN we might be worshiping another Jesus.
IF we are
worshiping another Jesus, THEN we are not saved.
IF we are not
saved, THEN we will go to hell.
IF we believe many
in the church, THEN we accept Jesus into our hearts as our personal Savior.
IF Jesus is our
Savior from that moment on, THEN there is no need for any further
action on our part.
IF the act of
accepting Him as Savior is sufficient, THEN we can do whatever we
want after that.
IF it is a
one-time thing and a completed work, THEN there is no further need
for obedience to Him.
IF we say
“Lord, Lord” but mean “one-time Savior”, THEN He
may not acknowledge us before God.
IF we believe the
Bible, THEN we accept Jesus as our Lord and Master.
IF Jesus is our
Lord, THEN we are entirely at His mercy and direction thereafter.
IF we accept Jesus
as our Lord, THEN He will acknowledge us before the Father.
IF we accept Jesus
as Lord, THEN He will fight our battles and His nature in us will
keep us from sin.
IF we fully accept
Jesus as Lord, THEN He can direct ALL our paths.
IF we declare Him
to be Savior, THEN we place Him in a position of one-time needfulness.
IF we declare Him
as Savior, THEN we leave open the position and title of Lord.
IF Jesus is not
Lord, THEN we won't look to Him for daily direction.
IF we're not
looking to Him for daily direction, THEN we will look elsewhere.
IF the position
and title of Lord is vacant, THEN some Man will try to become that
over us.
IF the position
and title of Lord is vacant, THEN the religious establishment
leadership benefits most.
IF the religious
establishment preaches Savior, THEN it may be because they want to be Lord.
IF we accept any
Man as our Lord, THEN we are at their whim.
IF we are at the
whim of Man, THEN we will not have peace and joy and victory.
IF we do not have
peace and joy and victory, THEN we are under the control of the enemy.
IF we're under the
control of the enemy, THEN we're on the wrong team – even if we
fed poor people.
IF we're on the
wrong team, THEN Jesus will not acknowledge us before the Father.
IF we had a little
fear of the Lord, THEN we would see that He is Sovereign and there is
no other.
IF we had more
fear of the Lord, THEN we would hate the “world” and
everything in it and seek Him only.
IF we had lots of
fear of the Lord, THEN we would weep and mourn and groan for days for
the massive blackness of our hearts (individually and collectively)
and the distance between us and Him.
IF we had fear of
the Lord, THEN we would have the beginning of wisdom.
IF we had the
beginning of wisdom, THEN we wouldn't be tossed by every wind of doctrine.
IF we had the
beginning of wisdom, THEN we would pray that He would give us more
fear of the Lord.
IF He gives us
more fear of the Lord, THEN it's really, really going to hurt.
IF we love Him and
want truth above all, THEN we'll keep asking anyway.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The Undeniable
Axioms of Church Growth(excerpted from
“Apology to the World” book)
According to
Scripture, in the last days, apostasy (falling away) will be rampant
in the Church. 1 There will be false prophets, signs and
wonders meant to deceive even the Elect. 2
It is my
contention that God seeks to have systems built on HIS plan, not
Man's. As regards AUTHORITY - His ways are not pyramid-shaped
hierarchical systems following the will of a MAN at the top. If
anything, it's a pyramid turned on it's head, with the leader being
servant to all. As for authority, there is US and there is HIM.
That's it. While there are delineations and delegations of
responsibility, and there might be a chain of command to accomplish
something, everyone in the chain should be looking to God for
authority and submit as servant leaders to those around them.
If we're walking in His Spirit, we worship no man.
God wanted Israel
to worship and follow Him only. But they insisted on a King, so
God gave them one knowing it would go badly - but that's what they
wanted. 3 They had it coming.
The Church has
fallen into the same trap. Instead of worshiping God only,
we've absorbed all the man-made models and adopted them as our own
for centuries - millennia even! Go look at your church or
denomination's organizational chart and see if it resembles the
structures of Man and follows behind one person at the top. As
for "Authority," in many cases we've usurped God's position
and inserted ourselves at the top of the chain of command and
insisted on obedience from the lower levels.
During the
Millennial Reign of Christ, we will return to the perfect model.
4 Christ as direct leader of all with no other steps or layers
of authority in between. Even though others may reign with Him
and judge, it's inside His authority, not their own. 5 God
hates man-made organizational structures because they are innately
sinful. He directed us to be respectful of those already in
place. 6 But He clearly instructed us to listen to HIM only,
never to call another “Father” or “Rabbi,” when
we were to be taught by and listening only to God. 7
A lot of thought
and prayer has gone into this. I've tried to explain the
apostasy in the church and the dangers of the coming systems in the
simplest possible terms. Based on scripture and clearly
harmonious with the basic instincts of every person with a clear
understanding of human nature. To deny this would seem to fly
in the face of a basic understanding of human nature.
The Undeniable
Axiom of Sinful Inertia
IF: You
believe the Bible is the Word of God and is Truth;8
THEN: You believe
that Man is a fallen, sinful creature and beyond redemption and
perfection on his own.9
IF: You
believe that Man is sinful (to whatever degree);10
THEN: You
have to believe that the more Men in one organization, the more
potential for sin comes with them. Like compounding interest. 11
IF: You want to
have a positive impact on the World;12
THEN: You
must acknowledge the sinful nature of Man and build structures to
restrain or minimize it.13
IF: You base
your structures on the ideas and management of Men;14
THEN: They
are flawed and cannot restrain the mass of sin indefinitely.15
IF: The
organization denies the sinful nature of Man;
THEN: It
believes a lie, it builds no effective restraints and will
immediately have a negative effect.
IF: The
organization believes Man is sinful, except their own leaders;
THEN: It
believes a lie, builds no restraints on the leaders and very quickly
has a negative effect.
IF: The
organization believes that ALL Men are sinful and builds restraints
on ALL;
THEN: It
operates in truth and can have a positive impact - to the limits of
the restraints.
IF: The
accumulation of sinful Men exceeds the limitations of the restraints;
THEN: The
organization ceases to have positive impact and becomes something negative.
IF: You are Satan
and you want to spit in the eye of God; 16
THEN: You build a
One World Church that lies about the nature of man and has no real
restraints on behavior.
The Undeniable
Axiom of Love of Money
IF: You
believe the Bible is the Word of God and is Truth; 17
THEN: You believe
the Bible when it says that the "Love of money is the root of
all evil." 18
IF: You
believe that the "Love of money is the root of all evil." 19
THEN: You
have to recognize that it's not the money itself, but the LOVE of it.
(Biblically speaking, anything that takes the place of God will do,
but most often its money that's the issue.) 20
IF: You
believe that money is a temptation when placed in the hands of sinful
Man; 21
THEN: You
have to believe that the bigger the pile of money, the greater the temptation.
IF: You have
an organization that misunderstands the nature of Man and is already negative;
THEN: You
have to see that if you give it LOTS of money, it will be VERY bad indeed.
IF: An
organization believes ALL Men are sinful and builds restraints on ALL;
THEN: You
can force it to and past the limits of it's restraints faster by just
adding more money.
IF: An
organization says it is positive but it's leader expresses a clear
"Love of Money";
THEN: You
can assume that organization has passed it's restraints and turned
"Evil" and it is a lie. 22
IF: You are Satan
and you want to spit in the eye of God; 23
THEN: You build a
One World Government that controls ALL the money and has no
restraints on the leaders. 24
The Undeniable
Axiom of Synergy
IF: You want
to prove the Bible to be True and right about the nature of Man;
THEN: You
combine sinful Man and lots of money and watch to see what happens.
IF: You are Satan
and you want to spit in the eye of God; 25
THEN: You build a
One World Government and a One World Church, remove all restraints,
thereby consolidating ALL of sinful Man into one mass and thus
achieving "Maximum Possible Sinfulness." 26
IF: A Christian
leader believes that the prophesied Millennial Reign of Christ is a
time when Man will create a perfected, universal Christian church and
Christian government on Earth to prepare the way for Christ to return;
THEN: That leader
shows a flawed understanding of the nature of Man, has believed the
Lie of Eve, and is (knowingly or unknowingly) playing right into the
hands of the Enemy. Either way, you should RUN. And fast. 27
Basic Axiom Graph
As Population goes
up and Money goes up, sooner or later the Inertia of Sinfulness
exceeds the restraints of the organization and it becomes something
else entirely. It may still think it's positive, but it's not
anymore. Government, church, business, family, individual - it
doesn't matter, it's all sinful Man.
The reason it's
hard for the "Rich" to enter the Kingdom 28 is because it
all happens so much faster. The reason the poor churches of
Smyrna and Philadelphia aren't chastised in Revelation Chapters 2
& 3 is because the "Rich" churches have already
"jumped the shark" or crossed the line into being something
other than their original nature. The poor churches are too
worried about survival to have time to be in-fighting, debating new
theology or getting lazy and soft. You can't stop and build a
new gymnasium when you're on the run from the government. The inertia
never accumulates sufficiently to make the building the idol and take
their eyes off of God – and the needs of each other.
What is this
Truth and Lie stuff?
Let's say a church
starts off as a small group of committed friends in an affluent
community wanting to worship together and care for each other.
They say, "We are a family. We care about each
individual." The start as a home group, but their numbers
grow and with growth comes lots of cash. They build a building,
they hire staff, they start new programs for outreach and care.
They say, "We are a family. We care about each
individual." At some point, if they're not VERY careful,
they cross a line and their ACTIONS through their committees, their
strategies, their staff decisions, their spending habits say, "We
need more people here to pay the bills. We need to grow to justify
the new gym. We need to be careful not to challenge or offend anyone,
or we'll stop growing." But, they continue to SAY to
themselves and to others, "We're a family. We care about each
individual." But more and more people begin to feel that
it's a lie. They sense the dissonance. Then leadership
begins to "urge" people out of the church who disagree and
wave a flag of warning. Then the pastor writes a best selling
book about how he grew his church so big - so that other pastors can
learn how to do it to their own churches. Then the pastor has
lots of money AND lots of people to contend with - exactly the way
Satan likes it. Even if they do manage to somehow resist the
inertia of sinfulness until they are very large, there is constant
need for watchfulness because a new leader (or a new heart in an old
leader) can remove or diminish restraints very quickly.
Meanwhile, the
poor church accumulated many times the number of members without ever
changing their basic nature because they don't have enough assets to
be covetous and contentious. They have just enough to care for
each other and to worship God. No Christian coffeehouse, no
amusement parks, no aerobics classes, no budget ministries, no best
selling books, no giant egos. They say, "We are a family.
We care about the individual." And while someday they
might cross over the line, they can sustain it much longer because
they are much more reliant on lay leaders and not paid staff and
fancy programs and facilities. They have to be mobile and
entrepreneurial. They don't have any resources to waste.
Even so, there is need for watchfulness because a new leader (or a
new heart in an old leader) can remove or diminish restraints very quickly.
This Axiom asserts
that Mega churches with Mega assets are not Biblically what we should
be striving for - and should always be treated with suspicion and
much care. The burden of proof that they HAVE NOT crossed the
line should constantly be on the pastor and lay leadership to verify
to the people that in all things their actions and decisions match
with their words. Steps should be taken to raise the restraints
so that the threshold is higher - OR - steps should be taken to
dramatically reduce the size of the organization and it's
assets. One option would be to split into smaller units and
divide up resources. Or to funnel money away from themselves as
quickly as possible and get it directly to the most effective,
Scripturally-justifiable ministries.
If a large
organization is not able to give extravagant attention to the needs
of each and every individual, then it's not going to be able to
really heal and grow and disciple anybody. If people just become a
number (or worse an average dollar equivalent per head), then we have
invented a system that is not consistent with the desire of God to
personalize and meet the needs of each individual. This is NOT the
new wineskin.
What About Governments?
We should be wary
of governments because everything is bigger and stronger and the
mountains of money involved make it immediately highly
dangerous. In addition, because government leadership can
change quickly, the line between Truth and Lie is fluid and can flex
up and down, taking you from a point of safety into a danger zone
very quickly.
Again, if any
government or movement believes that they can create a Utopia on
Earth if they'll just invent the correct structure, process, program,
education, or worse, have the right single person in charge - they
are GROSSLY misunderstanding the nature of Man and the lessons of
history and are therefore highly dangerous.
If you give a
government like that absolute authority and access to loads of cash,
it will nearly immediately turn into a giant killing machine and
eradicate any resistance to it's plan for "Peace".
The religious systems (not Jesus) of this world have killed millions,
but atheistic, Communist governments have killed FAR more.
Because this kind of government has removed restraints on behavior
since it believes Man to be inherently good - or even to have God
within himself - whoever has the most power or charisma will call the
shots and create whatever they want for themselves and crush any opposition.
Conversely, if a
government is founded from the very beginning on the idea that they
are going to have to plan ahead to create complex ways to keep some
powerful sinful Man (or Men) from exerting his will and taking over
the whole government, it's possible that they could create a system
that would hold off disaster for awhile.
Please don't take
this to mean that this is what God wants! Far from it, these
are all Man-made constructs that are inherently dangerous and
innately un-Holy. Even the Judeo-Christian Democracy (Representative
Republic) has proven to work only by degrees and with lots of peaks
and valleys along the way. It's nowhere near as linear as the
over-simplified graph might suggest. It advocated slavery,
welfare, racism, imperialism, manifest destiny and many others.
(Many believe that American government has, for some time now,
accumulated too much money and caused more harm than good. But that's
not really our fight here.)
Again, the burden
of proof should be squarely on Government to prove that it is still
consistent with "We The People" and a concern for the
rights of the citizenry. But, then, it's a flawed Man-made
system and shouldn't be trusted anyway.
Conclusions
Between these
Axioms, I believe that you can chart the rise and fall of every
government, every ministry, every man of God that fell, every future
danger predicted in the Biblical prophecies. If an organization
can identify that line before it gets to it, or feel it at the very
early stages and act on it, there's a chance it can keep it's
identity by addressing the issues quickly enough. Once an
organization passes up and over that line, it will most likely result
in painful division and much suffering. Or a long nasty
lingering as it turns into something completely dangerous.
Here we see a
church cross the threshold and it responds to the dissonance by
splitting. Note that not all members are recovered. Some
disappear, never to be seen again until the Day of Judgement, when
we'll have to stand before God and accept responsibility for the kind
of role models we were and take our punishment for the sheep that
were lost while in our care. Both bodies from this split are
now in even greater danger as they have begun a habit of dissension
and division that will likely stunt the growth of their current
efforts. Satan chuckles smugly.
One possible
solution is the independent Self-Replicating House Church.
These work because they simulate poverty. Or rather, they could
be seen as the beginning stages of the Mega Church, but by their
constant multiplication rather than consolidation, were never allowed
to progress near the danger zone. Sort of like filling an ice
cube tray where as each pocket fills it overflows and fills
another. Bite-sized ice chunks with their own compact lives and
purpose - rather than one giant glacier with massive inertia.
These are the model of the Chinese House Church movement. One
other advantage is that they are very difficult to stomp out if
persecution should begin. They can meet anywhere, be formed and
reformed on demand and don't need formal leadership because many have
been trained and can assume leadership. (This is also a model
used effectively throughout history by many groups - with a wide
varieties of motives, including terrorism. And has proven to be by
far the most difficult to eliminate.)
One spin-off, that
looks similar but isn't, is the Centrally Controlled Cell
Church. And example of this would be Paul Yonghi Cho's church
where it looks like lots of independent cells, but they are really
offshoots of a massive central church and are all VERY efficiently
and tightly controlled and taxed. This is a difficult one
because it's a great temptation for a big church to start cell groups
as a way to multiply its reach without adding expensive
infrastructure. This should be seen as dangerous because they
are not truly independent - not separate ice cubes capable of a life
of their own. They are splinters off of the glacier and still
owe their allegiance to it. They are tightly controlled
specifically so that they WILL NOT spin off and become
independent. That would diminish the power, money, and
influence of the central control structure.
Are you getting
it? This isn't necessarily about just the macro view. It
applies down to families, teams, classrooms.
You see, big
populations aren't required, the Axiom works even with the
individual. Say a person writes a best selling book, wins the
lottery, inherits big money, finds a copy of the Declaration of
Independence in their attic, records a hit song, whatever.
If they don't
accurately assess the dangers of their own nature, put systems in
place to constrain and restrain the temptations and channel the
blessing to do God's work, the dangers to themselves and others from
having a massive windfall are enormous. The lie begins with,
"I've waited a long time for this. Spending it on me won't hurt
anybody. I earned it by picking the right Lotto numbers." And as
groupies and salesmen start to accumulate, it quickly becomes,
"They love me! I must be a great guy! I deserve this! God must
want me to have that new Ferrari." Before you know it,
it's "I'm indestructible! I'm practically a
god." Then, late one night at a strip bar it becomes,
"I AM God! I can do anything!" Then they die
tragically when their Ferrari crashes when they took their eyes off
the road looking at the mirror into which they were lovingly staring
at themselves.
Of course, it
doesn't always happen like that. Sometimes they live long happy
lives full of reward and enjoyment, completely full and content in
themselves, wanting for nothing. God says to enjoy it now
because that's all the reward there is for you. Then they die
and get to report to Jesus what they did with all the blessings they
were given.
Either way, you
can see why Jesus suggested that it was EXTREMELY difficult for the
rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. There is a massive amount
of inertia and temptation to overcome when big piles of cash are
laying around.
Think you can deny
the undeniable? Let's hear it.
I wrote this in
2004 and NOBODY has even TRIED to show me where it's wrong.
Fotm@FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com
"Axiom"
:
1 : a maxim widely
accepted on its intrinsic merit
2 : a statement
accepted as true as the basis for argument or inference
3 : an established
rule or principle or a self-evident truth
(Websters New
World Dictionary)
"Undeniable
Axioms" References:
|
1. 2
Thessalonians 2:3
2. Matthew 24:24
3. 1 Samuel 9:20
4.
Revelation 20:1-6
5.
Revelation 20:4,6
6. Hebrews 13:17
7. Matthew 23:9
8. Psalm 119:160
9. Romans 3:23 |
10. Romans 8:3
11. Romans 7:13
12. Matthew
5:13, Isaiah 58
13. Romans 8:12-14
14.
Galatians 1:10-12
15. Romans 7:8-11
16. Isaiah 50:6
17. John 17:17
18. 1
Timothy 6:10 |
19.
Colossians 3:1-2
20. Matthew 26:14-16
21. Acts 5:1-11
22.
Revelation 3:17-18
23. Isaiah 50:6
24.
Revelation 1325. Isaiah 50:6
26.
Revelation 13:16-17; 17:1-6
27. Matthew 24:16
28. Matthew 19:24 |
___________________________________________________________________________
The Tripartite Axioms
(excerpted from
“Rain Down NOW, Lord!”)
Tripartite simply
means “three part” and an axiom is just a logic progression
to prove a point. I could write a whole 200 page paperback about this
by telling lots of stories and fluffing it up, but there's a war
between good and evil and we're kind of losing, so it's probably
better if we just cut out all the fluff and get right to the point.
God is tripartite
– Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
IF we were made in
God's image,
THEN we are
tripartite – Soul, Body and Spirit.
When God heals us,
it affects all three.
When God asks for
obedience, it means from all three.
When God asks for
worship, it means from all three.
When we sin, it
affects all three – Soul, Body and Spirit.
When we disobey,
it affects all three – Soul, Body and Spirit.
When we set
ourselves above God, it affects all three – Soul, Body and Spirit.
When we are
commanded to bear each other's burdens, it means all three.
When we are
commanded to lift the yokes of oppression, it means all three.
When we are
commanded to feed the hungry, it means all three.
When we give food
to the hungry we are feeding their Body.
When we give Godly
instruction to the hungry we are feeding their mind and Soul.
When we give
blessings and prayers to the hungry we are feeding their Spirit.
When we give drink
to the thirsty we are satiating their Body.
When we give pure
truth to the thirsty, we are feeding their mind and Soul.
When we pour out
on them the Living Water in us, we are feeding their Spirit.
We are vessels of
honor, committed to the service of God.
We contain all
kinds of things that can be used for His purposes.
We hold strength,
money, time, knowledge, experience, wisdom, faith, love, joy, peace, patience.
Some are physical,
some are mental, some are spiritual. All are to be shared.
The easiest to
understand and do is the Body.
Even the world is
good at disaster relief and feeding the hungry.
Even the wicked
love their children and feed them good things.
The sneaky one is
the Soul and the Mind.
Satan always wants
us to spend all our energies on that one.
Teach them, train
them, argue about philosophies, speculate about hypotheticals.
That is the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The world is
really good at writing books and speaking many words. Of that there
is no end.
The rarest one,
the realest one, the most impactful one is the Spirit.
Our battle is NOT
against flesh and blood – or the mind – it's against
spiritual rulers.
Spiritual rulers
that try to steal, kill and destroy.
You can starve the
Spirit by overfeeding the Body and Soul.
All you have to do
is take all the emphasis away from the Spirit and put it on the Mind.
God instituted the
five-fold Ministry (or four, whatever) for a reason. Each has their
unique role.
Pastors are for
feeding the Body. Caring for widows and orphans.
Teachers are for
feeding the Mind. Train them up in the way they should go.
Evangelists are
for igniting the Spirit in man and turning it over to God.
Prophets identify
the failings in the process individually or corporately and point
them out loudly.
Apostles train
them all up and set them into place and send them out - and are
themselves sent out.
All should be
fully pouring themselves out on behalf of those in need – Body,
Soul and Spirit.
Do we know how to
pour out the Spirit on someone in need?
Do we know how to
make sure our own cup is full? Is anybody teaching that anymore?
Isn't it obvious
that the Church in America's Body is well fed?
How many thousands
of tons of potato salad do we serve at fellowship suppers every year?
How much do we
weigh per capita? We have plenty of food. Who could argue?
In fact, too much
in some places and not enough in others, but that's just a
distribution problem.
Isn't it obvious
that the Church in America's Mind is well fed?
Could we have any
more books and tapes and conferences and satellite training
meetings?Could our soulish nature be any more gratified? Do we not
have enough input?
We are more obese
and overfed in the Mind than we are in the Body.
“Repent of
your sins, accept Jesus into your heart.
There now. We're
done with your Spirit.
We'll focus on
your Body and your Mind from now on.”
Is that really working?
Isn't it obvious
that the Church in America is poor in Spirit and starving to death?We
don't look like Jesus, because we don't have nearly enough of Him
living in us.
Our spiritual cups
are too small.We don't love like Jesus, because we don't know how to
share what we do have.
Our spiritual cups
are stagnant and lukewarm.
We don't act like
Jesus, because we're leaving out the most important part of the battle.
We're fighting on
the wrong fronts.
We are raising up
very large people with very large brains.
We are not raising
up people with faith like a child that will stride out with five
stones against Goliath.
We are not raising
up people that know how to walk in the Spirit and in the Power of God.
We are not
fulfilling the Great Commission holistically – Body, Soul and Spirit.
We are not
fulfilling Isaiah 58 holistically – Body, Soul and Spirit.
We don't know how
to fight in the spirit.
We don't know how
to pray anymore.
Not really. Not
all night with travailing and crying out for God. Not pulling down
strongholds and lifting yokes of oppression over our town, our church
or our sheep.
We are spiritual
warfare pygmies.
Whose idea could
that have been?
Who is glorified
most by overweight, brainy, spiritually week Christians?
When are we going
to start feeding their spirits?
When are we going
to start pouring ourselves out?
When is the rain
going to start falling on the Church?
When is God going
to pour out His Spirit on all flesh?
I think He's
waiting on US.
_______________________________________________________________________
If I'm right, then
these Axioms are a devastating indictment of the state of
things. I have no idea how to turn this whole ride around.
There is only one Biblical prescription – Repent. When the
locusts have come and devoured everything, the first thing is to
realize that they came because you were not obeying God like you
should have. The locusts never come – drought, enemy armies,
whatever – never come against the children of God unless they
are outside of His will. He promises to lift you up above all
nations and make you the head and not the tail and prosper you if you
will carefully obey (Deut. 28). If the opposite is happening,
then it's because you have NOT carefully obeyed God. And He is
perfectly willing to crush you to teach you to knock it off. He
is a jealous God and He chastens those He loves. If you're not being
chastened, then you may be an illegitimate child and not actually a son.
When the locusts
come and there is no green grass left and the sheep and cattle mill
around looking for something to eat and can't find anything (as good
a picture of the church in America as I can find), what do you
do? Declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly and repent and
weep and mourn before the altar. And maybe He will turn. Maybe.
Father God,
please show us how far off track we really are. Please build
containment systems that will keep our nature in check. Please write
Your law on our hearts. Please help us not to be fat, brainy,
spiritually weak Christians. Make us tougher and faster and more
obedient and more loving and more like Jesus. Even if it hurts.
Please forgive us for this mess and thinking that our little ideas
where helping You out and improving on Your design for things. We are
flawed at the core. Please redeem us and find a way to make us useful
for Your kingdom. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Please, Lord, please just fix it. We're sorry we broke it. In the
Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
See also: John
15 Axioms, Deuteronomy 28 Axioms, Isaiah
58 Axioms
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