We are now entering one of the greatest watershed periods in human history. Creation itself is charged with the electricity of these times and is beginning to groan and travail for what is about to come. Never has there been a more exciting time to be alive. The kingdom of God is coming.
In preparation for this greatest of events, the church is about to go through a metamorphosis. She is going to change from a worm into a butterfly. A caterpillar is confined to the earth, and its path must conform to the contour of the earth. Likewise, for nearly two thousand years the church has often conformed more to the ways of the world than to the ways of the Spirit. Soon the church will go through a change so dramatic that she will seem to emerge as an entirely different creature. It will be like another birth. This time we will have wings to soar high above the ways of the world.
It is also noteworthy that possibly the greatest struggle that a butterfly will ever experience is freeing itself from the cocoon where the great transformation has taken place. However, if it were not for the strengthening of the butterfly that takes place during this struggle, it would never be able to flap its great wings and fly. Not only does the church have a transformation to undergo, but she must then prevail through the struggle of freeing herself from the place of transformation.
The church has been bound by forces that have greatly inhibited her from becoming all she was created to be. Religious spirits that try to be a substitute for the Holy Spirit, control spirits that dominate and crush creativity, and political spirits that have caused the church to cower under the fear of man, have so tightly bound the church that both the devil and the world are convinced that she will never be anything but a worm. However, even under this extreme pressure a transformation is taking place on the inside of this worm. Even though she is still imprisoned, wings are growing! There is about to be a jailbreak!
The church is about to burst out of the prison in which the world and the devil have tried to keep her. The church is about to come forth both beautiful and strong, and she will be able to fly! The sky will be her home, and the wind of the Spirit will be her guide.
You Are Here
You have probably seen those maps fixed at roadsides that have a bold mark on them stating "You are here." Without that mark, you would probably have a hard time distinguishing where anything else was on the map. In a way, biblical prophecies are like that. They are intended to show us where we are in relation to God's purposes and the unfolding events of our time.
In the text from II Peter 3 we are given an important insight into this map of God's unfolding plan: "Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (verse 8). If we compute the time that man has been on the earth by using the
genealogies in Scripture, it is about six thousand years. I say "about" because there is an ambiguous period of about 100 years during the time of the Judges. Even so, by almost any computation, we are already into the seventh one thousand year period of man's history, or the seventh prophetic day. The seventh day is the Sabbath day. We know that the Lord Jesus is going to return to rule for a thousand years. As we read in Matthew 12:8,"For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." This speaks of the one thousand year day that He will reign physically over the earth.
Rest In the King
We are approaching the period of time that will mark the end of this age, and the beginning of the one in which Jesus reigns. It is also true that if we are going to survive the events that mark the end of this age, we must understand the rest of the Lord, and we must enter into that Sabbath rest now. This rest is not a cessation of labor, but rather means being yoked with the Lord in His labors, as we see in Matthew 11:28-30:
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.
The yoke speaks of work, but when we are yoked to the Lord it will be His strength that accomplishes our task, not our own. When we are yoked with Him we can just enjoy the ride and actually find rest in the midst of the labor. "Toil" was a part of the curse that came upon man after the fall. Labor was not a curse because man labored in the Garden by cultivating it before the fall. Toil is a curse because it is defined as "accomplishing with great or painful effort." It is striving. We are not called to toil for the Lord, but rather to labor with Him in such a way that we actually find rest and refreshment in our labors.
In Psalm 46:10 the Lord says, "Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Striving is the profound sin that is rooted in our own works, in thinking that we need to accomplish the purposes of God in our own strength. When we really believe that He is God, we can rest. When we perceive Who He is, we can be sure that His works will be accomplished. It is a prideful and foolish delusion for us to think that we can add to it or take away from it. He will call us and use us for His work, but it is never because He needs us. It is an unfathomable privilege. As we behold Him as God, we also know that only by His strength can we accomplish anything of significance. The true rest of God in which we are to abide is the result of truly seeing Him.
This rest that we are about to enter will result in one of the greatest and quickest changes in the church that has come since the first century. One of the reasons for the Laodicean lukewarmness that has come upon much of the church in our times is because she is simply worn out from all of the projects, hype and works which had
their origin more in man than God. In Jeremiah 50:6 this is explained:
My people have become lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray. They have made them turn aside on the mountains; they have gone along from mountain to hill and have forgotten their resting place.
Going from "mountain to hill" speaks of going from one high place to the next, from project to project, but never leading the people to their true resting place, which is a relationship with "the Lord of the Sabbath." This is a form of ministry that has dominated the body of Christ for centuries, but its time is now up. The Lord is about to fulfill the promise that He gave in Jeremiah 3:15: "Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding."
This is not to imply that there are not many wonderful pastors in the church today who are seeking to have the Lord's heart, but the very system and model of pastoral ministry that most are now laboring under stifles the true and rewards the false. It has taken many with true callings and made them into hirelings. In general, it has been built more on human efforts and striving than the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Some great souls have been able to rise above the straight-jacket that has been placed upon the present ministry of the church, but not many. However, the whole church is about to burst out of this cocoon.
The Reformation of Reformations
We have come to the time when the greatest reformation of the church in all of history will unfold. This will, in many ways, exceed even the changes that took place during the Reformation to such a degree that the very word "reformation" will not be considered adequate to describe it. Even so, this reform is coming to set us free from the constraints of the ways of the world so that we can begin to soar above them. Like the butterfly, the church was not intended to crawl on the earth, but to soar above it.
"Reform" means to change the form, and this is about to happen. The very form in which the church is expressed will soon be changed profoundly. However, this will be but a reflection of an even more profound change that will go on in the hearts of Christians. A burning fire of passion for God is about to sweep the church throughout the world. Religion, and forms of religion, will no longer appease nor satisfy anyone who calls on the name of the Lord. Christians around the world are about to return to their First Love, and they will settle for nothing less than a personal relationship with God. Any substitute for the Lord Himself will be quickly swept away. Those who offer substitutes will soon be easily discerned.
Discerning the Anti-Christ
Much is written in the New Testament about the one called the "anti-Christ." These prophecies reveal that this is not just someone who opposes Christ, but one who becomes a substitute for Christ. He actually opposes every god, and uses this to take his seat in the "temple of God, displaying himself as being God" (II Thessalonians 2:3-4). The temple of God is no longer a building made with hands,
but is the church. From the time of the early church fathers, it was understood that the primary objective of this anti-Christ was to gain dominance in the church. Because Christ also means "the anointed," it was also understood that the spirit of anti-Christ would always oppose, or seek to supplant, the anointing.
As it is written, there are many antichrists in the world. This is not to imply that there will not be a single great deceiver before the end, but many are doing considerable damage to the church right now and are helping to set the stage for the great deception. There are many who oppose everything that the Holy Spirit does in the church. You could easily say that they are against the anointing. They are constantly trying to displace the Holy Spirit as the primary influence in the church. They would never say this, and probably would never even think it, but would rather claim to be doing what they do by the leading of the Spirit. However, their fruit is obvious.
There is likewise an anti-Christ system of ministry in the church that by its very nature resists the anointing. It is rigid and inflexible, like an old wineskin that cannot hold new wine. It is the reason for much of the lukewarmness that prevails in the church because it has supplanted the anointing with human efforts. This is part of the enemy's strategy to "wear out the saints." As Paul wrote concerning even his own day, "For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way" (II Thessalonians 2:7). This is nothing new, but it is also clearly our duty to restrain and resist this anti-Christ spirit for as long as we remain on the earth.
As the Lord warned the church of Laodicea, lukewarmness is the worst condition in which a Christian can find himself. The tragedies caused by lukewarmness have been devastating to the life and witness of the church. Just as the call to repentance for the Laodicean church was to "be zealous therefore and repent" (Revelation 3:19), a great repentance for lukewarmness is coming, and that repentance will be demonstrated by a true and pure zeal for the Lord. Christians everywhere are about to be ignited with a passion for God, and He will make His messengers "flames of fire" (Psalm 104:4). This fire is going to burn up the wood, hay and stubble on which a great part of modern church life has been built.
New wine is coming that the old wineskins simply will not be able to hold. They will break. There must be new wineskins for what the Lord is about to do. We can no longer afford to take the time and effort to try to adapt the old forms of church life for what is coming. All true believers are soon going to be tested as to whether their true allegiance is to a form of godliness or to God. This test will almost always come in the form of forcing us to choose between the new and the old. We must embrace the new.
Renewal
Many of the recent moves of the Holy Spirit have rightly been called renewal rather than revival. We have come to the time when the new is about to be made manifest. We should be anticipating it, and be ready to move into it when it comes, but we must not leave the old until the new is provided. Some of the new wineskins will, in fact, be "renewed" wineskins. Just as there was a process in biblical times for renewing an old, brittle wineskin by soaking it in hot water and then in oil, there are some old forms within churches that will embrace the "hot" word of the Lord and the
anointing, and they will be made new, flexible wineskins again.
Just as the Lord waited about seven years from the Day of Pentecost until He sent Peter to the house of Cornelius, giving Israel every chance to repent, change and become a part of the New Covenant, the Lord will always give this invitation to the old before abandoning it. However, the time is almost up for the old form churches. Those that simply will not be renewed will be left, and many will become the greatest enemies of the new, just as Israel became the enemy of the gospel until Israel as a nation was destroyed.
The church is about to go through a sweeping transformation. The new and old wineskins will be in conflict for a time. Those who are a part of the new must remember the lessons of David and Jonathan. David refused to lift his hand against the old (King Saul), even though it had been prophesied that he would be the king. He waited patiently for the Lord to establish him. We must also learn from Jonathan, who even though he knew and loved the new king and was called to be a part of the new, needlessly died fighting for the old. Loyalty is a good quality, but we must be more loyal to the Holy Spirit than to old church forms.
Some Characteristics of the New
As I try to repeatedly remind our readers, we all "prophesy in part" (I Corinthians 13:9). This means that even those who may be foreseeing with the greatest clarity are still only seeing part of the picture. We must therefore put the parts together if we are to have a complete picture of what God is doing. What I am about to share I know is only a small part of all that God is about to do.
When the Lord addressed the seven churches in the Book of Revelation, He gave each one of them a different message. Even though they all existed at the same time and in the same general region, they were different, and each one needed a different word from Him. The same is true of the church today. Every church is supposed to be unique. It is right that we have different visions and different procedures for our meetings, and there is liberty for diversity in our forms of church government. A great change already in progress is that we are proceeding from the place where we see these differences as points of conflict to seeing them as opportunities for us to compliment one another and begin to fit together in the great, overall purpose of God.
As I was told many years ago, we have not been building churches, but franchises. They all serve the same burgers, cokes and fries. Most spiritual movements have done the same. However, what is coming will be known by a great diversity, which will be the result of men and women following the Holy Spirit instead of just trying to impose a new form on the church. The new is coming because of the forming of Christ in His people. It is not coming to just give them a new form for meetings.
A truth that the Lord is about to brand upon our hearts is the fact that He is the Blessed Creator. His nature is creativity. The One who made every snowflake different loves diversity. The new creation is supposed to be the greatest demonstration of His nature, yet, how is it that the church has succumbed like she has to the pressure of conformity? Why is it that the church has tended to be so
boringly uniform? Even the denominations that emphasize different truths tend to be uniform in their structure.
We must now confront this tragic deformity in our nature if we are going to accomplish our mandate of representing the Lord rightly to this world so trapped in oppression. A courageous new breed of leadership is arising that will take these bold new steps. However, the "new" that is coming is not really new, but an embracing of radical, biblical Christianity.
In Isaiah 25, we see that at the great feast the Lord is preparing for us, He will serve "refined, aged wine" (Isaiah 25:6). This is the paradox that we must understand and embrace. As the Lord stated, "a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasures things new and old" (Matthew 13:52). We must have a taste for both if we are going to be the church we are called to be in our times. There will be a movement at the end that will not stop moving, and will not calcify into just another denomination. However, it will be its nature to have the humility to embrace the new, while maintaining a taste for the old.
The New Is Coming
Just as a congregation is invigorated by the influx of new believers, cities are invigorated by new churches. Likewise, the whole body of Christ continually needs new movements to stay fresh. We do need to have a taste for the Lord's new wine through whomever He chooses to serve it. However, we must also have a taste for the aged refined wine of the established doctrines of the faith, provided by those who have spent time sinking their roots deep into the Word of God. If the new churches and movements are not strongly moored to the roots of our faith, they will fall into error, regardless of their great fervor for the Lord. If the more established churches and movements are not open to renewal and the new wine which the Lord is serving, they will fall into the deadly trap that awaits all who substitute religious performance for the true life of the Spirit.
Christians, who have the Spirit of the blessed Creator, should be the most creative people on the face of the earth. Our vision should be fresh every day. Renewal and reconciliation to God should flow through us continually. We have a well of living water in us that can never be exhausted. However, it is a river, not a lake. A river is always flowing, going somewhere. True Christianity is the most exciting, invigorating life that can be experienced.
We see in the Book of Acts that the first Christians were continually in awe at the great things that God did among them. This is the nature of true church life. There is nothing on this earth more interesting, fulfilling and exciting than God! The next move of God is not going to just be built around another doctrine. The next great move of God is simply going to be God moving. The Lord is going to suddenly come into His temple, and the whole world will know it. When His glory fills His temple (the church), no flesh will be able to minister there, but will flee from His presence.
However, with all of our excitement about the new, we must fulfill the commandment to honor our fathers and mothers, in the spiritual as well as the natural. We must also esteem the aged, refined wine that they can serve us. We are only able to go
another step because of how well the ones who went before us prepared the way. They, too, will partake of the fruit. They have earned the right to be a part of the great company of witnesses with whom God the Father will sit to behold the dawning of the day of Jesus Christ. Our Lord has conquered. He is about to take His rightful place as the King who rules over all nations.
First, however, He is going to be the King who rules over His own household, the church. Revelation 3:20 contains a crucial message for our time: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me." This describes how He is on the outside knocking, seeking to enter His own church. In this scripture we see both the unfathomable patience and mercy of our God, and the unfathomable tragedy of the church which is not even aware that the Lord is not with her.
Will You Open to Him?
As Revelation 3:20 states, it is not those who hear His knock who open the door to Him, but those who hear His voice. One of the key issues of our time will be whether or not we know the voice of the Lord. Because of this, there will continue to be an increasing crescendo of attacks by the enemy to try to turn people away from seeking to know the voice of the Lord.
In Acts 2:17-18 the Lord says, "And it shall be in the last days, God says, That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; Even upon My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy." It is clear that one of the primary signs of the last days is that the Lord pours out His Spirit and that dreams, visions, and prophecy come upon the old and young, men and women, which obviously includes everyone. If you are going to receive His Holy Spirit at the end, dreams, visions and prophecy are obviously coming with Him. These are ways in which the Lord has spoken to His people from the beginning, and we are assured that it will also be so in the last days. If we are to understand what He is doing at the end, it is obvious that we will need to understand dreams, visions and prophecy.
It is no accident that the prophetic ministry has been under almost a continuous assault for the last ten years. Some of the most vicious attacks have come from those who claim to be friends of the prophetic. However, we should not think that this is strange. John Wesley was condemned by many church leaders of his own time for the "unspeakable presumption" of referring to himself as an evangelist. The restoration of every ministry to the church has come with a greater opposition from the church than it did from the world. Some will reject it out of jealousy, some out of fear, and most will try to find anything wrong with it they can in order to justify their rejection of it, but it is still coming.
The prophetic ministry is being restored to the church at this time, and it is coming with increasing power and credibility. The hand may continue to say that it has no need of the eyes, but it is clear from Scripture that we cannot accomplish our last day mandate without the prophetic. The prophetic gifts will be poured out on everyone who walks in the Holy Spirit. Don't let the attacks discourage you, but
determine to sink your roots even deeper into sound biblical truth, and determine that you are going to know the voice of the Lord even better.
As the Lord Himself stated in John 10:4 when He referred to Himself as the Good Shepherd, "When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice." The sheep "follow Him because they know His voice." We will only be able to follow Him to the degree that we know His voice. We must never compromise this devotion to know His voice, regardless of how friends or foes seek to deter us. The call that the Lord made to every one of the churches in Revelation was to those who overcome. We must let every attack only increase our resolve.
The Lord allows such attacks to separate those with true faith from the pretenders. Every test is for the purpose of promotion. As Francis Frangipane likes to say, "We never fail one of God's tests. We just keep taking them until we pass." We also seldom pass with a perfect score. However, every one which we pass enables Him to release a greater anointing and authority to us. Likewise, the prophetic ministry is growing dramatically in both anointing and authority on a worldwide basis. More than anything right now we need the humility that will keep us in the grace of God. We must never close ourselves to correction from legitimate sources, but accept the accusations and slander as opportunities to die a little more to the pride that can be the most dangerous stumbling block of all.
The Coming Spiritual Mega-trend
One of the spiritual mega-trends that will quickly have a radical impact on the church is the rising devotion to seeing the mandate of Ephesians 4 accomplished. The entire book of Ephesians describes a church life that probably has not been fully experienced since the first century. However, it is a mandate that we know will be fulfilled before the end comes. For this alone to happen, the change will be even more radical than that which was called "The Reformation." Ephesians 4:13-14 describes the result of the church functioning as she was designed, which is our calling and which we must pursue:
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
Is there even one congregation on the earth that has come to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man that is "the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ"? Is there even a single congregation that still has life but is not constantly tossed about by every new wind of doctrine? I have not seen or heard of one. However, we cannot settle for less than this. How do we get there? The two verses previous to those just quoted tell us:
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as
evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ,
Here we see that the ministry of the church is not centered on just one person or ministry, but on a team. We also see that those who have these callings are not to just do the ministry, but are to equip the people to do it. Twentieth century Christianity has generally had a greater resemblance to a spectator sport than to what is described in the New Testament as church life. Twenty-first century Christianity will break free of the terrible shackles that have so limited the true life of the Spirit. Change is coming!
"Spectator sport" Christianity is another cause for much of the lukewarmness that now prevails in the church. It is also a primary reason for many of the problems that churches experience with people becoming disgruntled, or even worse, bored. Every Christian has been given a calling, a ministry. Each was known before the creation of the world and called with a purpose. The frustration of not being equipped or given the place to fulfill what we were created for is causing many of the church splits and other problems many experience today.
I have asked several audiences of thousands of Christians how many even knew their calling. With few exceptions, the answer has been consistently less than 5%. When I ask how many are actually functioning in their calling, it usually drops considerably more. How well could we live if only 5% of our physical body was functioning? Is this the way that the Lord designed His body? This has been one of the tragic failures that we must repent of if we are going to have true New Testament ministries in the church.
Freedom is coming. A new breed of leader is going to arise who will fulfill the mandate of true New Testament ministry to equip the people and allow them to do the ministry. This will probably come in many forms, but it will come. It must. True New Testament church leaders are only successful if they are raising up others who can do what they do. Is that not the model which the Lord gave us for leadership? Then we will also have true church growth, which is not just growing fat, but growing strong as well.
Future church life is not going to be built on meetings, but on the moving of the Holy Spirit through His people. "Church" will not even continue to be thought of as the meeting place, or the meetings. The Holy Spirit will be just as free to flow through His people on Monday morning as Sunday morning.
New Church Government
There is room in the New Testament for a diversity of church governments. However, a system of church government has evolved in many denominations and movements that perverts ministry. It is to the point where it is difficult for a true pastoral ministry to function in it, and nearly impossible for the others. Therefore the Holy Spirit has placed some of the most effective and anointed pastors in secular positions where they can actually do their job better. Many are school teachers,
business leaders and workers in almost every field. These people are truly shepherding their students, employees and coworkers. If you are one of these, the church may not now recognize your ministry, but God does. Be faithful to your calling because you are more in harmony with the future of the church than much of what is now thought to be the church. You are a part of the new breed of ministry that is coming forth.
Indeed, the Lord is standing on the outside of the door of His church, knocking to see if anyone will hear His voice and open to Him. Because the Lord has delegated authority to men that even He will not overrule, we can keep the Lord out of His own church. But this will not last for long. If we do not open to Him, He will go to the highways and by-ways and start over. That is why many of the most effective movements in church history began with outcasts from the mainstream churches of their time. The Lord prefers that the present church hear His voice and open to Him, but He will not wait much longer.
For those who have heard Him and opened to Him, He now wants out. Many have tried to imprison Him within the four walls of their buildings. Others are trying to use Him to build their own church, but He is going to raise up leaders whom He can use to build His dwelling place. The ultimate, most radical nature of the movement that is coming will come because it is led by those who are far more devoted to building that which the Lord wants rather than what people want. For a time these may offend more people than they attract, but in the end they will attract far more than they could ever dream. When the Lord comes into His temple, every true believer will come to that temple.
The purest form of church life that we have in Scripture is found in the gospels. When Jesus walked the earth, He showed us the way that He wants us to live. He did go to the temple to teach occasionally, but mostly He ministered where the people were to be found in their daily lives. He seemed much more at home sitting by a seashore or in someone's house than He did in the temple. Our greatest times of fellowship with the Lord, and with each other, will usually come in such natural settings.
Official church meetings are important, as they are times for teaching and special ministry which is much more effective in such designated settings. Evenso, as the church in the Book of Acts met in the temple and from house to house, we must recognized that the "house to house" meetings are just as much church as those that take place in our buildings. Just as Jesus met and called most of His followers from the midst of their everyday activities, He has not changed and still is far more prone to meet with people where they live and not in some artificial pseudo-spiritual setting.
If the church is to be relevant to our times, we must break out of the prison of the four walls of our designated church buildings. If we can only move in the Holy Spirit in our designated buildings, we should question the authenticity of what we are doing. Just as Jesus did the bulk of His ministry in the settings of everyday life, He will still do His greatest works in the midst of everyday life, in everyday settings.
When the Lord is portrayed knocking to get inside of His own church, this is not just
about the church buildings, but His people. His church is no longer one made with hands. He does not dwell in buildings any longer, but in us. He is knocking, trying to get into our everyday lives. Church is not just when we meet in a building, but true church is twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The Lord wants to come into our jobs, our families, our recreation. He wants into our lives! If we will let Him into our lives, He will move among us as He did when He walked the earth in the flesh. If we are not as close to Him while on our job Monday morning as we are when sitting in a meeting Sunday morning, we need to question the reality of our faith. He is not God for just a few hours a week. If He is our Lord, He is our Lord all of the time.
Can the Lord Get Sick?
Modern, institutional Christianity is foreign to true, biblical Christianity. It promotes the lukewarmness that Revelation 3:16 says makes the Lord sick, and it makes the world sick, too. The church is called to be the light of the world. If the darkness is increasing, as it is, then we need to understand that this is happening on our watch! The world is getting sicker fast, but it is doing so because the church is so sick that her light is getting dimmer, and her salt is losing its savor.
If we are called to be the light of the world then we must take it personally when the darkness increases. This is why Peter said that "judgment begins with the household of God" (I Peter 4:17). We can go on pointing our fingers at the world, but the Holy Spirit is pointing His finger at us. There are great things happening, and great churches are arising, but overall the church, and the vast majority of those who call themselves Christians, would be described far more accurately as lukewarm than anything else. If we are not on fire for God, we are in a most dangerous condition. The Lord Himself said that it would be better for us to be cold than to be lukewarm.
The Lord Jesus warned us in Matthew 24:12-13, "And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved." This is now! Many Christians are growing cold. Studies show that there is very little difference between the morality of those who claim to be born again Christians and unbelievers. The Scripture exhorts us in II Corinthians 13:5, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?" If there is no difference between the way that we live and the way that others live who do not know the Lord, then we have failed the test!
If we are lukewarm in our faith, it is time to get in or get out. We are better off departing from the church than staying in it if we are not on fire for God. If we are not on fire for God, we are hurting ourselves by becoming hypocrites, and we are hurting the church with our presence. True church life is not an appendage that we add onto our lives for a few hours a week so that we can feel better about ourselves. If we have not given our lives to the Lord rather than just a few hours a week, then we are the ones to whom this applies. If this is true of us, and if we do not remove ourselves, then the Lord will soon spit us out of His mouth as we are told in Revelation 3:16.
However, there is another option. Get hot! He is the Lord of all, He gave His own life
to purchase ours, and He is deserving of all of our devotion, day and night. How many of us would have married our spouses if on our wedding day they had said to us, "Darling, I love you so much that I am going to be faithful to you 364 days a year. I will only be unfaithful to you one day a year." Is the Lord worthy of a bride wherein the reverse is actually more true and she is faithful for only a few days a year?
Change is coming. Before the end the Lord will have a bride who is so passionately in love with Him that she will make herself ready. Like the bride who so loves her bridegroom that she is determined for her dress be without a single spot or wrinkle, the bride of Christ is about to return to her First Love. She will be known by her love, first for the Lord, and then for others. That will be a radical change. That is the nature of radical Christianity.
