Basically, nothing has changed. Somehow, it looks like you simply fail to see the inherent evil in the institutional church system which today we call the “church.” Like it or not, this antichrist system of today is an illegitimate, paganized, Romanized, pope-modeled, traditional, man-made system that has violated the very will and purpose of God for His ekklesia. As such, it has no place in God’s economy other than as a spiritual Babylon from which the overcoming remnant bride of Jesus Christ will exit as they realize the truth of God’s eternal purpose.
Why, why, why do those who claim they truly love God continue to think with the institutional church mindset? Why, why, why does anybody think that they can accomplish God’s will and purpose while still involved in this system?
Because of all the aberrant and perverted man-made philosophical ideas, mistakenly called “doctrine” flourishing in the institutional church system of today each and every person who names the name of Christ is given guidelines for crafting their subjective imagery into a personalized, tailor made icon, i.e., image, figure, likeness, representation of who and what they consider Jesus Christ to be. Are they any different that JW’s or Mormons or any other cult who claims to be “Christian?” Would you call such your “brother” or “sister” in Christ? I talk about this in my article “Scriptural Guidelines For Today’s Apostasy.”
I also mentioned in the article “God by the Spirit of Jesus Christ will build an assembly” that truth is God’s word to us, as recorded in His written word and as demonstrated by the life of the Living Word, Jesus Christ. The Godhead is in unity based upon the truth of Who they are. God’s truth must be the foundation upon which the saints of God polarize as individual members of a corporate body. It’s only from this Godly truth and polarization in unity around this truth that there can be true Godly love as experienced and demonstrated in the Godhead. This is a Godly love that reproduces in it’s own image and likeness, i.e., the image and likeness of Jesus Christ Himself.
This sloppy philosophical attitude that says we must “love” anybody who names the name of Christ is totally unbiblical. Ditto for “unity” at any cost. This is all putting the horse before the cart.
First and foundational is the truth of God’s written and Living Word. Then polarization around that truth in Godly unity. This will bring about the Godly love that binds us together, a love that reproduces in its own image and likeness, i.e., Jesus Christ. From this comes true biblical fellowship, which encompasses real time sharing, socializing and supporting of those in need. At best, the body of Christ practices only selective socializing.
As long as those who name the name of Christ attempt to funnel the things of God through the institutional church system and its mindset they will continue to be powerless in the things of God. The “church” has no authority because it has failed to exercise its responsibility. The two are opposite sides of the same coin. You can’t have one without the other. We have a responsibility to God. A responsibility to “be” like His Son, and to display the manifold wisdom of God through our corporateness to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies. Why? To attain to God’s eternal purpose of bringing all things together in one, in Christ. Take a good look at what us humans have accomplished in the past 2,000 years. One definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results each time. When will we learn that God has a plan and a purpose and it’s perfect? And so the institutional church system has failed to exercise responsibility to God and is lacking in authority and power.
House churches may or may not be the solution. When the saints attempt to bring the institutional church system into their living rooms they are simply perpetuating the system. Do you invite your family over and then arrange chairs all lined up to face a podium so someone can lecture them for an hour or two? And not permit honest, open dialog about the issues of life? Much less, of spiritual truths and practices? Of course not! (If you do, you got a real problem!) And then give them a thimble full of grape juice and a stale cracker and tell them that’s dinner? Get real, please! Is that how families gather together and fellowship and love each other? And then collect a pseudo-tithe to pay their rent and utilities and to provide the hosts with an income? While the fatherless, widows, strangers in the land and those who are truly, truly, truly childlike servants go begging for the basic necessities of life?
There is much talk of dysfunctional families. The best contemporary example, however, is the group of people who call themselves “the body of Christ.”
All of this institutional church system crap is dung. Until the members of the body of Christ learn how to relate to each other as a family and observe the principles so clearly stated in the New Testament, they will continue to be followers and practitioners and perpetuators of the Old Testament types and shadows, which has been replaced by a better covenant which they fail to recognize. And that covenant has been sealed by the blood of Him Who fulfilled all of the types and shadows. There is no more “temple” or “sanctuary” of man-made materials. It’s us! There is no such thing as a “worship service” in the New Testament. Run a check on the word “worship” in the New Testament and see how many times it involves simply one individual and Jesus Christ in private moments. You want to call the front of the building an “altar?” Why? There is no more priest-laity system practiced by installing some human being in some alleged “office” and establishing an authoritarian hierarchical structure. Check out all those “confirming” verses so often quoted and see what they really say in the original language.
Well, enough said. Until the saints get the institutional church system out of them, by getting out of the institutional church system, and spending time with God alone in “cave/desert/exile/wilderness” time for however long it takes, and being taught by God and God alone, they are simply playing a man made game called “churchianity.”
The true ekklesia of God is a family, a family within a community, a community which is a subset of a society, and acts like a family towards other members of the family. The elders/shepherds/pastors/bishops (they are all one and the same) are simply older members of the spiritual family whose track record indicates that they are trustworthy and usually, but not always, give good solid practical and spiritual advice to the younger members, especially those younger deacons [read: “workers,” i.e., those who have youth on their side for the energy to do the things needed to maintain a family] in order to help guide their lives on the right spiritual track. That’s why there is always a plurality of elders—there is safety in a number of counsellors.
It’s that simple. Each saint of God is gifted in one way or another and those gifts from God are for the benefit of the other members of the family. They will operate only when each and every family member is so full of the word of God and Jesus Christ that they can’t be contained. They don’t need to be announced as if they were a title of that person. Which it’s not. The gifts are gifts of service, individual performance of servanthood. They are not institutional positions of sovereignty. Rather they will be observed by others as a function that God has gifted that particular individual with.
I could make millions of dollars if I took the time to invent a game like Monopoly that is played by a group. The game would be called “Let’s Play Church!” and would incorporate all the stupid and ridiculous and nonbiblical stuff that goes on in the name of Christ.
If the saints of God would take the time to attempt to understand what the social, political, economic and religious circumstances were in the first century and look at it from that point of view, then perhaps they could be the true ekklesia of God. Instead they go back only as far as the 4th century and want to emulate all the mistakes and foolishness of those so-called “church fathers” who are guilty of having started all of this ego stuff which was made official by Constantine. Then they skip over the New Testament era and jump back to the Old Testament. Wisdom is justified by her children!
The greatest among the ekklesia of God are like little children, not slick, smooth, sophisticated personalities who market themselves as such. I read this stuff and also read between the lines of the other stuff and see “strong delusion” all over the place.
Can you understand why I have stopped worrying about my web page? I am letting it “float” devoid of me except, of course, for what I’ve written and the other articles I’ve linked to. God will send those who need to read and understand what is there.
So I sit here in Homestead, Florida, fat, dumb and happy to just be a disciple of Jesus. And to have God as my spiritual father. In so doing, I have true Godly love, true abundant life in Jesus Christ, and true liberty in the Holy Spirit. I am freed from the hatred, death and bondage of the institutional church system. Free from the doubts, divisions and disturbances which come from the utilization of the devil’s tactics. Free from the manipulation and intimidation devices designed to control the sheep. Free from the climate of fear falsely generated by false apostles, prophets, teachers and those Pharisees and Saducees and Herodians and Jezebel spirits who continue to attempt to jockey for a higher position on some arbitrary humanly devised ecclesiastical authority scale.
I have written more than several articles over the years, pouring my guts out to those in the body of Christ who will hear and see. I am free and am healing, and I love my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and my neighbor as myself. I desire others to be free and healed and able to love God and neighbor. When my desert time is ended, and it’s time for me to once again return to society, to a community of true believers, as a member in a true family of God, then I will go. But I will not again enter into Babylon. If I do, I will become just like them all over again. I will want the approval, appreciation, acceptance and recognition of that peer group of people. I don’t want that. I want to be in a fully functional family of God, a family that understands that there is only one Shepherd, Jesus, and that although some of the elders may be shepherds/pastors/bishops they are only under-shepherds to the true Shepherd. A family of God based upon the truth of the word of God, a family of God that is polarized in unity around that truth, and which is bound together in a Godly love that reproduces in the image and likeness of Jesus, and who fellowship in the true sense of the Greek meaning of the word, sharing, socializing and supporting those fatherless, widows, strangers in the land and truly called spiritual leaders who are in need. A family of God that will grow and by just “being” a real family of God, will have an impact upon the surrounding community. An impact that will cause others to recognize the difference between a Christian and a churchian. And they will come, and they will also become part of a real family of God. And the family will grow, from one home to another home. And another and another and another. Until the Godly family has become a Godly community. And the Godly community will grow ... That is evangelism in a nutshell. That Godly community will grow and grow and continue into all the earth. All because a family of God begin to “be” instead of continuing to attempt to “do.”
I knew God had called me to be a seer, prophet and teacher through a subjective experience that I cannot validate because, obviously, there can be no witnesses to such a thing. So God showed me supernatural things to see in the natural, He gave me supernatural things of His mind and counsel to prophesy in the natural, and He gave me supernatural understanding of things to teach in the natural.
So I went to churches and to other meetings and prophesied to people. Sometimes by myself, sometimes as a member of a prophetic team. I also posted a lot of prophecies for the ekklesia of God on my web site. I did that because at that time I thought that’s where prophets went and what prophets did and because that’s what I learned from the institutional church system. But the more I studied the Bible the more I came to understand that was not a scriptural pattern. I came to realize that the ministry of Jesus was the Father and that Jesus did nothing except what the Father told Him to do and said only what the Father told Him to say and went only where the Father told Him to go. That makes it real easy for us, doesn’t it?
Now, I simply see things in the natural with a supernatural understanding, I speak things in the natural with a supernatural understanding, and I teach things in the natural with a supernatural understanding. All the gifting God has given me has become an integral part of me and I can no longer say I’m “called” to be a seer, prophet and teacher. It’s part of my lifestyle now so I don’t have to attempt to “formalize” the manifestation of any of it. It’s just me. So it’s not up to me to attempt to “do” things according to how I feel God has gifted me. It’s not up to me to attempt to convince someone else of who and what I am in Christ. I just do what the Father says to do and say what the Father says to say and go where the Father says to go. Simple, simple, simple!
But today the radicals within the IC system claim their personal, subjective prophetic “revelations/dreams/visions” have more authority than the written word of God! And so the apostasy is nourished and grows as the innocent sheep imitate their false and unbiblical shepherds. And the biblically illiterate and those who don’t have a love for the truth believe that the strong delusion they have received from God Himself is scriptural truth!
I try hard not to deal with the truth of God’s word in a controversial or confrontational way. I simply state what I have to say and it will stand or fall according to how it is referenced in God’s word to us human beings. Inappropriate responses usually include a personal attack upon me, the messenger, instead of the message I brought. Another popular ploy is to say that “God told/showed me.” I was talking with an alleged woman “prophet” one night in a public setting and I mentioned something about an injury to her right hand and how the devil was attempting to destroy and prevent the power of God from operating in her life. I made a reference to the “right hand of power.” Her response to me, totally inappropriate, was to tell me that “God told her” that the “anointing” was in the left hand! I didn’t argue, I just left.
I have a real problem in dealing with terminal stupidity. Does that come from God as a strong delusion? Well, it may be a part of it. I just have to get away from it when I encounter it.
It is, however, an integral part of the IC system, which is basically self-centered instead of Christ-centered. Until the saints get out of the IC system, and then take some “desert” time to allow God to help them get the IC system out of them, it will always be so. But praise God for the overcoming remnant bride of Christ!
My web pages are read, but having ears they don’t hear, having eyes they don’t see. It’s a universal problem for those with the institutional church system mindset.
I read what you sent me and see that if my web pages have been read, that there has been no understanding. If what I have presented there had been truly seen, heard and spiritually received I would not be writing this. It’s just another reminder of how ineffective I am in attempting to convey what I feel to be biblical truth. But ... it’s not my problem. It’s there for those who will read and understand it. For those who receive what I have to say “with all readiness of mind,” and search “the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
If they understand when I tell them what I see, they may call me a seer. If they understand what I say, they may call me a prophet. If they understand what I teach, they may call me a teacher. But if they don’t understand what I tell them, or what I say, or what I teach, then I am nothing to them. Nothing at all. But above and beyond all of this, I am always a disciple of Jesus Christ, a learner, a supporter and follower and imitator of the Son of God. If I am not recognized as such by those with whom I have to do, then I am, of all people, the biggest failure God ever put on this earth. My greatest desire is to be truly childlike in the eyes of God and nothing, a nobody, in the eyes of men. I must decrease to zero, Jesus must increase to fill all of me.
If I can attain to even some small degree of Christ-likeness in this life before I die, then my life will not have been spent in vain pursuit of lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and the pride of life in attempting to scratch my itching ears. Instead of continuing to attempt to “do” I want to “be” what God has called us all to be: a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Scripture records what you and I and all who name the name of Christ must do to do the works of God:
John 6:28-29:
28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
If we will but believe on Him, Jesus Christ, Who the Father sent, then we will obey Jesus:
Matthew 28:18-20:
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
How simple! Teaching to observe all things that Jesus commanded! If we did that we would eliminate about 98% of all the other junk the institutional church system teaches today! And we would be doing the works of God!
If we will but stick with what the Bible says and do our very best to research the original languages to see what has been put in there by opinionated translators throughout the years, then we will be well guided by the Holy Spirit in our endeavors to be good Bereans and disciples of Christ.
I had a blurb on my web page for awhile in which I stated that I was currently in a watchman phase of the prophet/watchman/worshipper/intercessor continuum. It’s sorta like I’ve done what I was supposed to do and now God has shifted me into another phase of the prophetic calling. So I do a lot of prophetic writing. Again, if it’s recognized as prophetic writing by those who read it, that’s fine. If it’s not, then that’s fine too. Ultimately, it’s really not my responsibility to convince anybody of anything I say. On that day when we all stand before Jesus, then it will come to light whether or not some particular person(s) should have heeded what I wrote.
I feel that I’ve been in a cave/desert/wilderness/exile experience for several years and that there will come a time when God will call me out, back into the body of Christ. For His purposes, not mine. I have no idea how that will play out. So I’m quite content with simply waiting on God.
It’s very interesting—there will just come a knowing within me that I’m supposed to, let’s say, write something, or maybe add or change something that I’ve already written. So I think about it and figure out what to do to make the necessary adjustment and then I do it. Then I feel that I’ve done what God wants me to have done. And I feel relieved of any further ideas on that particular subject. Until the next one comes along.
And there are still times while out in public when He directs me to say something to particular individuals. Mostly a word of encouragement relative to some situation in that persons life. So I just have to go over to them and deliver the message. Then it’s a done deal.
Have I said something that has enraged you, made you furious and spurs you on to run to the Bible to look up references to refute the things I have said? To really search the scriptures to see if such things are so?
I hope so! I hope you’re madder than a wet hen! I pray that you will become so disturbed and infuriated so as to seek out the true mind and counsel of God, as recorded in His written word to us!
Because when you do God will break you. He will break your heart. He will teach you. He will take that written word and His Holy Spirit will lead, guide and instruct you in the ways of God that will strip you of every man-made doctrine and teaching and practice that you ever knew about. He will drive you into the desert and He will teach you until you are ready to get back into a subset of society of man, in a true Godly community, as a member of the true family of God who seeks only the Great Shepherd, the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ!
The bottom line: Each and every person who names the name of Christ must make a decision—now. A decision that will affect their eternal destiny. Will they continue to “Play Church” according to man’s rules, or will they stop that and begin to “Be Church” according to God’s rules?
Love in Christ,
Steve
