If we believe the Bible is not authoritative, we are a ship in a stormy sea without a rudder
Lloyd Gardner
June 16, 2017
It is popular nowadays to view the Bible as a mere human document full of errors and cultural confusion. The slow invasion of “the church” by the apologists of the world system, some in the “evangelical” camp, has gradually brought us to the point where many people are allowing the world’s values to undermine the values expressed in scripture.
Same-sex marriage. Creation. Belief in heaven and hell. Salvation by faith. Belief in miracles. The authority of scripture. Abortion. These, and other issues, have caused many Christians to compromise what they believe. The world says one thing but the Bible says another.
It amazes me that people will disregard the Bible because they believe it was written by imperfect men and then turn around and believe what contemporary imperfect men say in opposition to the Bible. Is the Bible as it was delivered to us a reliable source of truth or is it a mere collection of men’s ideas that are subject to private interpretation?
Jesus put it this way:
But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. (Matt. 7:26, 27; NKJV).
So, Jesus is warning us to build our lives on the things He said and continues to say or we will be in jeopardy of building on faulty ground that will crumble when the storm comes. The words of Jesus were written down by eyewitness who heard Him speak and saw the wonders He performed.
This is Matthew recording this event. Matthew was one of those eyewitnesses of Jesus who heard Him say these words. Following the principles of evidence, we know these words are the words of Jesus. Still there are people who are able to pick and choose the parts of His words they want to believe or include in their belief system.
Here’s what Jesus said about hell, for example:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell Matt (10:28).
Of course, He says much more than this but this will give you a clue about how Jesus felt about the eternal punishment of hell. Actually, Jesus says more about the subject than any other person in the New Testament (Matt. 8:12; 13:41-50; 22:13; 25:46; Mark 9:43-49; Luke 16:23; 12:5). When Jesus says something, the issue is settled and we need to stop trying to second guess the Creator of all things.
So, if we don’t believe in a literal hell we find ourselves disagreeing on the subject with the true Author of the entire Bible whose words are verified by four reliable witnesses. The same goes for gay marriage, divine creation, miracles, and other issues challenged by imperfect men in an imperfect world. Jesus has something to say about these issues. If you have chosen to compromise your faith because of a popular rendition of truth on these issues you have allowed your view of Christ to be formed by the imperfect men you disparage. You reject the words of Christ for the sake of temporary ideas of the present worldly culture.
Yet, people do it anyway. Somehow, we have come to believe that there is more knowledge in the six inches of brain matter between our ears than there is in the infinite mind of the eternal God. Paul was impressed by this same truth:
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?”[j]For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen (Rom. 11:33-36).
His ways are unsearchable and His judgments beyond our comprehension. Before we even begin a search for truth we must understand that revelation is necessary before we can know fully. But we must believe that He is before this makes any sense: “…for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6). So I assume that those reading these words believe that He is.
Paul prayed for the Ephesians: “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph. 1:17). Revelation comes to your spirit, not to your limited mind. I am not saying that our thinking process is not important but that it is subject to the revelation that only God provides.
Yet, I know that Jehovah’s Witnesses, emergent church teachers, and other cult groups deny the existence of hell, the inerrancy of scripture and anything miraculous. I also know that many Evangelical Christians are being influenced by these arguments in this age of hyper-reasoning in which we think we know more than God.
Most people are not aware of the proficiency with which God has inspired the scriptures. Many reason that it is merely a hodgepodge of religious writings compiled over a period of thousands of years. To them it is merely human writings subject to all the errors and limitations of humanity. It is full of allegory, metaphors and descriptive poetry that give us a general guide for living but it is not the record kept by faithful men inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Few people are aware that the book of Genesis indicates that a record was kept throughout the beginning of earth’s history and was passed on down through the generations. Someone was in charge of keeping the record of what happened and recording the generations that came and went. It starts with the record of creation in 2:4. The next record is the record of the generations of Adam in 5:1. From there on we see the record from Noah to his sons to Shem, to Terah, the father of Abraham and so on. Check out these verses for more on this: 6:9, 10:1, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, 36:9, and 37:2.
Through the various prophets, the judges, the kings and onward the record was kept. Over 400 times from Exodus 4:22 to Malachi 1:4 the words “thus says the Lord” indicate the Lord’s involvement in the recording of scripture. He spoke through the prophets and His words are being proven valid every day.
When we come to Matthew’s Gospel we see that he writes of the record kept from Abraham to Jesus (1:1-17). Luke, being a non-Jew, traces the record from Jesus back to Adam (3:23-38). The New Testament writers lived shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus and almost all of them were eyewitnesses of His ministry (see 1 John 1:1). Jesus, Himself, had said, “…when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). Notice the promise that the Holy Spirit would guide them into ALL truth. He said this in the presence of eleven trustworthy witnesses who proved their faithfulness with their lives.
It is not a strange thing to declare that the God inspired a written record that was kept by faithful men. My point is that those who reject the validity of scripture reject Christ because His words and life are verified and He verified the Old Testament through much of what He said. To reject scripture as inspired by God and accurate for truth is to reject Christ.
When Paul wrote “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…” (2 Tim. 3:16) he was aware that all Jews of his day knew exactly what was meant by “scripture.” It was the record I refer to handed down by faithful men. It was the word that was inspired by the Holy Spirit “…who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets” (Heb. 1:1).
The prophets were chosen by God to receive and deliver the message of God to their generation and to all who came later. Abraham heard from God. Moses heard from God. All through the Old Testament we see the record of prophets speaking forth what God implanted in their hearts. Jeremiah said many times, “Now the word of the Lord came to me” (1:4). Read all of the prophets and you will find that the Lord spoke to them and they delivered His word to the people.
The New Testament writers knew that their words were inspired. Paul wrote, “… these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:10). The prophetic voice of the Old Testament continued in Spirit filled men who wrote down what God revealed to them.
So, what does all of this mean for us? It means that Christians need to once again begin to affirm the authority of the written word of God and it means that those who doubt need to reassess the reasons for their unbelief. Those who do otherwise are like a ship setting sail into a stormy sea without a rudder. Your great ideas and reasoning are not stable enough to guide you through the storm that is coming. You need the divine rudder of God’s word which has been proven faithful.
God has made Himself very clear. He is as real today as always and stands ready to prove Himself to all who approach Him. Fix the rudder of your ship and sail with God.
Lloyd Gardner
June 16, 2017
It is popular nowadays to view the Bible as a mere human document full of errors and cultural confusion. The slow invasion of “the church” by the apologists of the world system, some in the “evangelical” camp, has gradually brought us to the point where many people are allowing the world’s values to undermine the values expressed in scripture.
Same-sex marriage. Creation. Belief in heaven and hell. Salvation by faith. Belief in miracles. The authority of scripture. Abortion. These, and other issues, have caused many Christians to compromise what they believe. The world says one thing but the Bible says another.
It amazes me that people will disregard the Bible because they believe it was written by imperfect men and then turn around and believe what contemporary imperfect men say in opposition to the Bible. Is the Bible as it was delivered to us a reliable source of truth or is it a mere collection of men’s ideas that are subject to private interpretation?
Jesus put it this way:
But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. (Matt. 7:26, 27; NKJV).
So, Jesus is warning us to build our lives on the things He said and continues to say or we will be in jeopardy of building on faulty ground that will crumble when the storm comes. The words of Jesus were written down by eyewitness who heard Him speak and saw the wonders He performed.
This is Matthew recording this event. Matthew was one of those eyewitnesses of Jesus who heard Him say these words. Following the principles of evidence, we know these words are the words of Jesus. Still there are people who are able to pick and choose the parts of His words they want to believe or include in their belief system.
Here’s what Jesus said about hell, for example:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell Matt (10:28).
Of course, He says much more than this but this will give you a clue about how Jesus felt about the eternal punishment of hell. Actually, Jesus says more about the subject than any other person in the New Testament (Matt. 8:12; 13:41-50; 22:13; 25:46; Mark 9:43-49; Luke 16:23; 12:5). When Jesus says something, the issue is settled and we need to stop trying to second guess the Creator of all things.
So, if we don’t believe in a literal hell we find ourselves disagreeing on the subject with the true Author of the entire Bible whose words are verified by four reliable witnesses. The same goes for gay marriage, divine creation, miracles, and other issues challenged by imperfect men in an imperfect world. Jesus has something to say about these issues. If you have chosen to compromise your faith because of a popular rendition of truth on these issues you have allowed your view of Christ to be formed by the imperfect men you disparage. You reject the words of Christ for the sake of temporary ideas of the present worldly culture.
Yet, people do it anyway. Somehow, we have come to believe that there is more knowledge in the six inches of brain matter between our ears than there is in the infinite mind of the eternal God. Paul was impressed by this same truth:
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?”[j]For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen (Rom. 11:33-36).
His ways are unsearchable and His judgments beyond our comprehension. Before we even begin a search for truth we must understand that revelation is necessary before we can know fully. But we must believe that He is before this makes any sense: “…for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6). So I assume that those reading these words believe that He is.
Paul prayed for the Ephesians: “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph. 1:17). Revelation comes to your spirit, not to your limited mind. I am not saying that our thinking process is not important but that it is subject to the revelation that only God provides.
Yet, I know that Jehovah’s Witnesses, emergent church teachers, and other cult groups deny the existence of hell, the inerrancy of scripture and anything miraculous. I also know that many Evangelical Christians are being influenced by these arguments in this age of hyper-reasoning in which we think we know more than God.
Most people are not aware of the proficiency with which God has inspired the scriptures. Many reason that it is merely a hodgepodge of religious writings compiled over a period of thousands of years. To them it is merely human writings subject to all the errors and limitations of humanity. It is full of allegory, metaphors and descriptive poetry that give us a general guide for living but it is not the record kept by faithful men inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Few people are aware that the book of Genesis indicates that a record was kept throughout the beginning of earth’s history and was passed on down through the generations. Someone was in charge of keeping the record of what happened and recording the generations that came and went. It starts with the record of creation in 2:4. The next record is the record of the generations of Adam in 5:1. From there on we see the record from Noah to his sons to Shem, to Terah, the father of Abraham and so on. Check out these verses for more on this: 6:9, 10:1, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, 36:9, and 37:2.
Through the various prophets, the judges, the kings and onward the record was kept. Over 400 times from Exodus 4:22 to Malachi 1:4 the words “thus says the Lord” indicate the Lord’s involvement in the recording of scripture. He spoke through the prophets and His words are being proven valid every day.
When we come to Matthew’s Gospel we see that he writes of the record kept from Abraham to Jesus (1:1-17). Luke, being a non-Jew, traces the record from Jesus back to Adam (3:23-38). The New Testament writers lived shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus and almost all of them were eyewitnesses of His ministry (see 1 John 1:1). Jesus, Himself, had said, “…when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). Notice the promise that the Holy Spirit would guide them into ALL truth. He said this in the presence of eleven trustworthy witnesses who proved their faithfulness with their lives.
It is not a strange thing to declare that the God inspired a written record that was kept by faithful men. My point is that those who reject the validity of scripture reject Christ because His words and life are verified and He verified the Old Testament through much of what He said. To reject scripture as inspired by God and accurate for truth is to reject Christ.
When Paul wrote “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…” (2 Tim. 3:16) he was aware that all Jews of his day knew exactly what was meant by “scripture.” It was the record I refer to handed down by faithful men. It was the word that was inspired by the Holy Spirit “…who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets” (Heb. 1:1).
The prophets were chosen by God to receive and deliver the message of God to their generation and to all who came later. Abraham heard from God. Moses heard from God. All through the Old Testament we see the record of prophets speaking forth what God implanted in their hearts. Jeremiah said many times, “Now the word of the Lord came to me” (1:4). Read all of the prophets and you will find that the Lord spoke to them and they delivered His word to the people.
The New Testament writers knew that their words were inspired. Paul wrote, “… these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:10). The prophetic voice of the Old Testament continued in Spirit filled men who wrote down what God revealed to them.
So, what does all of this mean for us? It means that Christians need to once again begin to affirm the authority of the written word of God and it means that those who doubt need to reassess the reasons for their unbelief. Those who do otherwise are like a ship setting sail into a stormy sea without a rudder. Your great ideas and reasoning are not stable enough to guide you through the storm that is coming. You need the divine rudder of God’s word which has been proven faithful.
God has made Himself very clear. He is as real today as always and stands ready to prove Himself to all who approach Him. Fix the rudder of your ship and sail with God.
True fellowship distributes the life of Christ throughout the body of Christ
Lloyd Gardner
Mary 25, 2017
A while back I had cancer. Thankfully, God healed me and used the time of sickness to speak clearly to me. During that time, I lost virtually all the strength in my body. I was not able to walk twenty feet before having to sit down and rest. The red blood cells that pick up oxygen in my lungs and take it to the rest of my body were dying off. This left a shortage of red blood cells to do the work of spreading the life-giving oxygen to my body via the small capillaries that take blood to the body tissues. So, I became overly fatigued to the point my body could not function properly.
The human body needs the proper flowing of healthy blood to its various parts. So it is with the body of Christ, the church. Fellowship, or koinonia in the Greek, means sharing of something in common.[i] It could be described as a flow of life between the parts of a body in much the same way that blood flow takes life-giving nutrients to the many parts of the human body. Through the circulatory system every part of the body shares something in common with every other part. This fellowship unites the whole body by distributing the life of Christ throughout.
So, Paul could say “…we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Rom. 12: 5). The only way we can be members of one another is by sharing the same life. True fellowship makes this possible. Without it we are divided from one another and “members of one another” in doctrine but not in practical experience.
In fellowship, there is a substance or experience being shared and then openness on the parts of the body to share. The substance to be shared is the life of Christ and we are the members that do the sharing. In this way, there is a common flow of life that binds us together spiritually and makes us one in Christ.
John introduced his first letter saying, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us – that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). John, with the disciples, had heard, seen, observed, and touched “the word of life” and was through his writings sharing it with others so that they could have fellowship together in Christ.
I see a problem in much of Christianity today. There is a noticeable lack of this true fellowship. For fellowship to be present, there must be a back and forth sharing of life. It is a flow of life, not a one-way sharing. The Sunday morning sermon in most churches, for example, is not koinonia because it is a one-way flow. That is why we see virtually no sermons from preachers in the activity of the church of the Bible. The early believers inherently knew that Christ must flow in common between believers before unity could be realized. Preaching sermons was left to evangelistic or apostolic messages (Acts 20:9; 2:14f; 3:12f).
That may shock some of us because we are so accustomed to a certain form of church gathering. In the word, there are many evangelistic messages spoken to the unbelieving public but no regular sermons in the gatherings of the church. Luke tells us that the church in Jerusalem “…devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). Teaching, fellowship, eating together and prayer. No doubt the teaching was distributed to the body through fellowship or sharing among the saints. They shared what the apostles were teaching in their gatherings and let the life of those teachings flow into their lives.
In today’s American church we are “going to church” rather than being the church. Being the church requires sharing with one another so that each of us is spiritually built up and readied for our sojourn into our worldly occupations. The shared life of Christ contained in His word strengthens each of us spiritually and empowers us to live victoriously as followers of Christ in a world that opposes us.
This is the reason we see open sharing in all the passages dealing with the meetings of the church of the Bible. Check out these passages:
…be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ (Eph. 5:19-21).
When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up (1 Cor. 14:26).
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Col. 3:16, 17).
And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe[d] came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people (Acts 2:42-47).
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil (1 Thess. 5:19-22).
But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you (1 Cor. 14:24, 25).
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed (James 5:13-16).
This is how the early church of the Bible functioned. They had koinonia together. Sharing was commonplace. There was openness to pray for and minister to one another. They met informally, without fanfare, organized liturgy, manmade order or prepared sermons. Someone would have a brief lesson from the word while someone else would have a song to share. Another person might have a revelation or a thanksgiving or praise. All of this was done with the knowledge that words shared would be tested and judged based on the word (1 Thess. 5:21; 1Cor. 14:29; 1 John 4:1).
Now some might say that I am against sermons but the truth is the word is against sermons when they allow one person to dominate the gathering with “lofty speech or wisdom” as Paul put it (1 Cor. 2:1). If sermons were effective the church in America would have been in constant revival for the last one hundred years. Instead we have fallen into a pattern of developing “itching ears” that cause us to accumulate teachers who say what we want them to say (2 Tim. 4:3, 4).
When there is preaching it needs to be “…in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men[c] but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:4, 5). We’ve spread enough doctrinal information around to last a lifetime. It’s time to allow the teachings of Christ to reach our hearts and spread throughout the body of Christ through fellowship. God grant us the wisdom and strength to do so.
[i] See Thayer’s Greek English Lexicon, p. 352, 2842 in Strongs Concordance.
God’s eternal purpose is the summing up of all things in Christ
Lloyd Gardner
Mary 16, 2017
No doubt we’ve all heard the story of Martha and Mary when Jesus came to visit one day. Martha was busy running around trying to get things ready for the meal when she noticed that Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to Him. Finally, Martha came over to Jesus and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me” (Luke 10:40). You might expect Jesus to turn to Mary and say, “Now Mary you really should be helping Martha a bit.”
But of course, that’s not how it happened. Jesus said to Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41, 42). “So many things” vs. “only one thing.” That is the choice that is before us in today’s upside-down world. “The good part” will never be taken away from us because the Father’s purpose is that we will be with Jesus always. Jesus comforted the disciples with the promise saying, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). This is God’s eternal purpose – to unite His Son with His bride for eternity.
One thing is necessary. Only one thing. That simplifies things greatly. Martha was concerned about a meal and housework but Mary gave her attention to “the one thing.” This illustrates that God has one serious thing on His mind. This one thing should serve as our guide in living as followers of Christ. When I have spoken this way I have heard Christians respond saying, “How can I be with Jesus all day, I have a job with so many things I have to do?
We fail to understand this because we really fail to understand how much the Lord wants to fellowship with us. We have fallen for the Hollywood/religious establishment rendition of Jesus instead of realizing that He is a real person who is able to be with us through the Holy Spirit. Many of us are troubled by this because we think we are to act a certain “religious – spiritual” way when we converse with Christ. When on the job what is to keep us from saying to Jesus, who is with us always, “What do you think I should do about this person on the job?” or “Lord, I need wisdom for this project they assigned to me” or “Jesus, look at those beautiful clouds! You have certainly provided a wonderful day!”
Then, listen in your spirit for a reply from Him. He wants to speak to us and hear from us but often we do not have ears to hear Him (Rev. 2:7 et al.). In other words, we don’t recognize His voice when He is speaking. He speaks softly and gently as He walks along with us. He taps us on the shoulder, so to speak, when He wants our attention. We need to be able to recognize when He is desiring to enter the conversation of our life.
We don’t have to get all religious about this, but it is important to find normal, real ways to be with Jesus. At times, we will need to come to His feet in serious prayer and at other times we can just be walking along with Him in the cool of the day.
In Ephesians 1:10 Paul says, “He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth” (Eph. 1:9, 10). The Father wants to sum up all things in Christ. That is His eternal purpose.
The word used here literally means to sum up or bring everything under one head. We think the sum of a list of numbers must be at the bottom of the column but God’s way of math is putting the sum at the top and all things under that head – Christ. The mystery Paul speaks about is the coming together of all people, Jews and Gentiles, into Christ as His body (Eph. 3:1-9). Sin has divided humanity and even heaven but in Christ everything will be brought back under Him.
It’s important to realize that our lives will be enhanced immensely by beginning that process even now through coming under the headship of our Master. That doesn’t mean crawling around acting like a lowly slave. No, it means to understand the grandeur of our redemption in Christ and the freedom we possess having “…access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2). It means to “…with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). His throne is our heart. He dwells within us and is as close as our next breath.
The Father accepts only that which comes out of Christ. Everything else is the “strange fire” spoken of when the rebellious sons of Aaron offered up sacrifices prohibited by God (Lev. 10:1). This strange fire is anything that is not of Christ. When we offer to God our cleverness, natural talents, and fleshly gifts we are offering something that is not Christ. Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Flesh is man’s fallen nature. Spirit is the new life of Christ in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Even Paul rejected his fleshly reputation: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Phil 3:7, 8, 9).
Paul simply wanted to be found in Christ because He knew the Father’s desire to sum up all things in His Son. We must be willing to lose all things and count them as rubbish so that we may gain Christ and be found in Him. When all is said and done, the last Man standing will be Christ, the Son of Man, and “in Him” is the best place to be.
This truth will affect everything we discuss in this book. All the truths of the word lead to this great spiritual mystery revealed to us through Christ. Are we distracted by the busy things of this world or are we experiencing the presence of Jesus? Anything we do or say that does not lead to His presence will be off the mark.
We Christians must always have this promise before our eyes knowing that this is the eternal purpose of God. He will sum up all things in heaven and earth in His Son, the Christ. The most blessed thing in the universe is being in Christ and knowing it. It’s about one thing – Christ.
Lloyd Gardner
Mary 16, 2017
No doubt we’ve all heard the story of Martha and Mary when Jesus came to visit one day. Martha was busy running around trying to get things ready for the meal when she noticed that Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to Him. Finally, Martha came over to Jesus and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me” (Luke 10:40). You might expect Jesus to turn to Mary and say, “Now Mary you really should be helping Martha a bit.”
But of course, that’s not how it happened. Jesus said to Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41, 42). “So many things” vs. “only one thing.” That is the choice that is before us in today’s upside-down world. “The good part” will never be taken away from us because the Father’s purpose is that we will be with Jesus always. Jesus comforted the disciples with the promise saying, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). This is God’s eternal purpose – to unite His Son with His bride for eternity.
One thing is necessary. Only one thing. That simplifies things greatly. Martha was concerned about a meal and housework but Mary gave her attention to “the one thing.” This illustrates that God has one serious thing on His mind. This one thing should serve as our guide in living as followers of Christ. When I have spoken this way I have heard Christians respond saying, “How can I be with Jesus all day, I have a job with so many things I have to do?
We fail to understand this because we really fail to understand how much the Lord wants to fellowship with us. We have fallen for the Hollywood/religious establishment rendition of Jesus instead of realizing that He is a real person who is able to be with us through the Holy Spirit. Many of us are troubled by this because we think we are to act a certain “religious – spiritual” way when we converse with Christ. When on the job what is to keep us from saying to Jesus, who is with us always, “What do you think I should do about this person on the job?” or “Lord, I need wisdom for this project they assigned to me” or “Jesus, look at those beautiful clouds! You have certainly provided a wonderful day!”
Then, listen in your spirit for a reply from Him. He wants to speak to us and hear from us but often we do not have ears to hear Him (Rev. 2:7 et al.). In other words, we don’t recognize His voice when He is speaking. He speaks softly and gently as He walks along with us. He taps us on the shoulder, so to speak, when He wants our attention. We need to be able to recognize when He is desiring to enter the conversation of our life.
We don’t have to get all religious about this, but it is important to find normal, real ways to be with Jesus. At times, we will need to come to His feet in serious prayer and at other times we can just be walking along with Him in the cool of the day.
In Ephesians 1:10 Paul says, “He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth” (Eph. 1:9, 10). The Father wants to sum up all things in Christ. That is His eternal purpose.
The word used here literally means to sum up or bring everything under one head. We think the sum of a list of numbers must be at the bottom of the column but God’s way of math is putting the sum at the top and all things under that head – Christ. The mystery Paul speaks about is the coming together of all people, Jews and Gentiles, into Christ as His body (Eph. 3:1-9). Sin has divided humanity and even heaven but in Christ everything will be brought back under Him.
It’s important to realize that our lives will be enhanced immensely by beginning that process even now through coming under the headship of our Master. That doesn’t mean crawling around acting like a lowly slave. No, it means to understand the grandeur of our redemption in Christ and the freedom we possess having “…access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2). It means to “…with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). His throne is our heart. He dwells within us and is as close as our next breath.
The Father accepts only that which comes out of Christ. Everything else is the “strange fire” spoken of when the rebellious sons of Aaron offered up sacrifices prohibited by God (Lev. 10:1). This strange fire is anything that is not of Christ. When we offer to God our cleverness, natural talents, and fleshly gifts we are offering something that is not Christ. Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Flesh is man’s fallen nature. Spirit is the new life of Christ in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Even Paul rejected his fleshly reputation: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Phil 3:7, 8, 9).
Paul simply wanted to be found in Christ because He knew the Father’s desire to sum up all things in His Son. We must be willing to lose all things and count them as rubbish so that we may gain Christ and be found in Him. When all is said and done, the last Man standing will be Christ, the Son of Man, and “in Him” is the best place to be.
This truth will affect everything we discuss in this book. All the truths of the word lead to this great spiritual mystery revealed to us through Christ. Are we distracted by the busy things of this world or are we experiencing the presence of Jesus? Anything we do or say that does not lead to His presence will be off the mark.
We Christians must always have this promise before our eyes knowing that this is the eternal purpose of God. He will sum up all things in heaven and earth in His Son, the Christ. The most blessed thing in the universe is being in Christ and knowing it. It’s about one thing – Christ.
Truth is Received by Revelation
Lloyd Gardner
May 10, 2017
Truth is easy to define if we assume the existence of God. Obviously, if there is an omnipotent, all-knowing Creator of the universe, truth is the revelation of what He wants us to see. In our increasingly secular culture God has been taken out of the picture and so truth has become relative. This way of thinking says that truth is what each person makes of it. It reminds us of the last verse in the Book of Judges: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25). We live in an age of hyper-diversity where everything is defined based on individual preference.
I’m sorry to say that many Christians have fallen prey to this way of thinking because many have stopped believing in the God of revelation and have created an American god of cerebral platitudes whose desire is that we have all his doctrines figured out. An entire official segment of Evangelical Christianity believes that all things miraculous have been rescinded and we are left with nothing but doctrines to study and understand. Many have even fallen for the false notion that all we need to do is have a mental understanding of a doctrine and truth will result. My point here is that we only have truth when it is revealed to our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Truth is not merely information passed along by intellectual exercise. Jesus had to explain to His disciples before they could understand. He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). All truth springs from the Person Jesus for He is Truth. Jesus and knowledge about Him and His ways comes only through revelation from God to our spirit.
Much of modern American Christianity rejects this principle. Almost all church services in America are judged by the sermon that is spoken by the pastor or some other leading person. What could be deemed truth is delivered in a doctrine-centered, cerebral discourse that is generally received and accepted without judgment as truth by those in attendance. This can result in a very shallow understanding that keeps “truth” at the intellectual level where it does not produce life.
The church described in the Bible is not like this. The gatherings of the church of the Bible were all exercises in sharing, receiving and discerning revelation from God. Revelation can be defined as truth that is imparted by the Holy Spirit into our spirit for building up the body of Christ. Prophecy is the sharing of that revelation. One example is Paul’s advice to the church in Corinth: “If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged” (1 Cor. 14:30, 31). Every believer is capable of prophecy because everyone can receive revelation to their spirit.
In such a gathering of the believers everyone can share. If one person is sharing and someone else has a revelation they should take turns participating. Notice that it is a revelation that is shared and that anyone can prophesy as the Spirit directs. Prophecy is the sharing of a revelation – a truth that is imparted from God to our spirit. Paul says prophecy results in “…upbuilding and encouragement and consolation” in the body of Christ (1 Cor. 14:3).
Clearly, Paul never describes a meeting where everyone sits passively and listens to one person share. He also makes it clear that the believers are not only sharing their intellectual thoughts only but are encouraged to share what the Spirit has put in their hearts.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians saying that we can “…know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (3:19). Outside of revelation from God we cannot know something that surpasses knowledge. Our brain cannot know God because knowing Him is a function of our spirit. That is revelation – truth directly imparted to the seeking heart. Revelation is not mere knowledge but knowledge imparted from the Holy Spirit to our human spirit. This is what Jesus meant when He told Nicodemus, “…unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Seeing the kingdom, experiencing the kingdom is not a matter of human knowledge but the result of a supernatural new birth from heaven.
The totality of the genuine Christian experience is through revelation. Paul revealed this when he prayed for the Ephesian church “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened” (Eph. 1:16, 17). Wisdom from God and revelation of Him comes to our spirit. Knowing God is a spiritual experience not a cerebral one that begins and ends in our intellect. Truth comes by revelation from the One who is truth. The eyes of our heart need to see through being enlightened.
If we think we can arrive at truth from God without God revealing His truth to us, we are seriously mistaken. We must pray as Paul did for the Ephesians that we would have “…a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph. 1:16). Only as we open our hearts to ask God to reveal truth to our spirit will we really have truth. Everything else is simply doctrine and information. Doctrine is very important but if it remains at the intellectual level it is of no use to us in our search for truth and our desire to follow Jesus. Doctrine must issue from revelation or be revealed to us through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
He told the church in Corinth, “So also no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the [Holy] Spirit who is from God, so that we may know and understand the [wonderful] things freely given to us by God” (1 Cor. 2:11, 12; AMP). We have received the Holy Spirit to help us know and understand the truths God reveals to us. Jesus had promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would “…guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). The Holy Spirit has been given to us in our spirit so that we can know His truth.
Is this what the Proverb means when it declares, “Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained” (Prov. 29:18; AMP)? This necessary vision is spiritual revelation from God not mere academic concepts. If God does not speak to our hearts we have heard nothing. Jesus repeated seven times, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7 et al.). Of course, He was referring to the ears of our spirit that can perceive revelation from God.
John Huss was burned at the stake and his ashes thrown into the Rhine River because certain religious leaders thought they knew the will of God. They were functioning from empty doctrine and dead tradition which was devoid of life but they thought they were right. They were very wrong and John Huss died because religious men refused to receive truth from God. All human religion functions this way to one extent or another. God help us to move from religion to a genuine relationship with God whereby we know Him and receive His truth.
Lloyd Gardner
May 10, 2017
Truth is easy to define if we assume the existence of God. Obviously, if there is an omnipotent, all-knowing Creator of the universe, truth is the revelation of what He wants us to see. In our increasingly secular culture God has been taken out of the picture and so truth has become relative. This way of thinking says that truth is what each person makes of it. It reminds us of the last verse in the Book of Judges: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25). We live in an age of hyper-diversity where everything is defined based on individual preference.
I’m sorry to say that many Christians have fallen prey to this way of thinking because many have stopped believing in the God of revelation and have created an American god of cerebral platitudes whose desire is that we have all his doctrines figured out. An entire official segment of Evangelical Christianity believes that all things miraculous have been rescinded and we are left with nothing but doctrines to study and understand. Many have even fallen for the false notion that all we need to do is have a mental understanding of a doctrine and truth will result. My point here is that we only have truth when it is revealed to our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Truth is not merely information passed along by intellectual exercise. Jesus had to explain to His disciples before they could understand. He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). All truth springs from the Person Jesus for He is Truth. Jesus and knowledge about Him and His ways comes only through revelation from God to our spirit.
Much of modern American Christianity rejects this principle. Almost all church services in America are judged by the sermon that is spoken by the pastor or some other leading person. What could be deemed truth is delivered in a doctrine-centered, cerebral discourse that is generally received and accepted without judgment as truth by those in attendance. This can result in a very shallow understanding that keeps “truth” at the intellectual level where it does not produce life.
The church described in the Bible is not like this. The gatherings of the church of the Bible were all exercises in sharing, receiving and discerning revelation from God. Revelation can be defined as truth that is imparted by the Holy Spirit into our spirit for building up the body of Christ. Prophecy is the sharing of that revelation. One example is Paul’s advice to the church in Corinth: “If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged” (1 Cor. 14:30, 31). Every believer is capable of prophecy because everyone can receive revelation to their spirit.
In such a gathering of the believers everyone can share. If one person is sharing and someone else has a revelation they should take turns participating. Notice that it is a revelation that is shared and that anyone can prophesy as the Spirit directs. Prophecy is the sharing of a revelation – a truth that is imparted from God to our spirit. Paul says prophecy results in “…upbuilding and encouragement and consolation” in the body of Christ (1 Cor. 14:3).
Clearly, Paul never describes a meeting where everyone sits passively and listens to one person share. He also makes it clear that the believers are not only sharing their intellectual thoughts only but are encouraged to share what the Spirit has put in their hearts.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians saying that we can “…know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (3:19). Outside of revelation from God we cannot know something that surpasses knowledge. Our brain cannot know God because knowing Him is a function of our spirit. That is revelation – truth directly imparted to the seeking heart. Revelation is not mere knowledge but knowledge imparted from the Holy Spirit to our human spirit. This is what Jesus meant when He told Nicodemus, “…unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Seeing the kingdom, experiencing the kingdom is not a matter of human knowledge but the result of a supernatural new birth from heaven.
The totality of the genuine Christian experience is through revelation. Paul revealed this when he prayed for the Ephesian church “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened” (Eph. 1:16, 17). Wisdom from God and revelation of Him comes to our spirit. Knowing God is a spiritual experience not a cerebral one that begins and ends in our intellect. Truth comes by revelation from the One who is truth. The eyes of our heart need to see through being enlightened.
If we think we can arrive at truth from God without God revealing His truth to us, we are seriously mistaken. We must pray as Paul did for the Ephesians that we would have “…a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph. 1:16). Only as we open our hearts to ask God to reveal truth to our spirit will we really have truth. Everything else is simply doctrine and information. Doctrine is very important but if it remains at the intellectual level it is of no use to us in our search for truth and our desire to follow Jesus. Doctrine must issue from revelation or be revealed to us through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
He told the church in Corinth, “So also no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the [Holy] Spirit who is from God, so that we may know and understand the [wonderful] things freely given to us by God” (1 Cor. 2:11, 12; AMP). We have received the Holy Spirit to help us know and understand the truths God reveals to us. Jesus had promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would “…guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). The Holy Spirit has been given to us in our spirit so that we can know His truth.
Is this what the Proverb means when it declares, “Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained” (Prov. 29:18; AMP)? This necessary vision is spiritual revelation from God not mere academic concepts. If God does not speak to our hearts we have heard nothing. Jesus repeated seven times, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7 et al.). Of course, He was referring to the ears of our spirit that can perceive revelation from God.
John Huss was burned at the stake and his ashes thrown into the Rhine River because certain religious leaders thought they knew the will of God. They were functioning from empty doctrine and dead tradition which was devoid of life but they thought they were right. They were very wrong and John Huss died because religious men refused to receive truth from God. All human religion functions this way to one extent or another. God help us to move from religion to a genuine relationship with God whereby we know Him and receive His truth.
Truth is discerned by the church in fellowship guided by the Holy Spirit.
Lloyd Gardner
April 24, 2017
“What is truth?” Pilate spat out as He stood before Jesus. Jesus had just said He had come to bear witness to the truth. Like so many people today Pilate saw truth as an elusive, unknowable attribute that no one could ever know for certain.
Earlier Jesus had said the opposite: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). So, truth is connected to a person – Jesus. It cannot be known apart from relationship with Him. Truth is knowable if we listen to what He says in His written word and what He says through the Spirit. That truth sets us free from the bondage of spiritual ignorance.
So, if we are going to seek to discover truth, we need to talk about how we go about doing that. I propose these ways that people go about deciding what is truth.
First, people tend to define truth by their own opinion. You will hear someone say, “The way I see that is…” or “My take is…” Clearly, we tend to filter everything through our own personal sieve that screens out anything that is not in agreement with our way of thinking. If there are a hundred people in a room it is conceivable that you will get one hundred opinions on a given subject.
This method of seeking truth clearly rejects the principle that human beings are flawed and in need of redemption. Left to our own answers, each of us would choose the one that agrees with our personal desires that are easily distorted by the ravages of sin. Clearly this is a recipe for disaster. Yes, we who are followers of Christ have God’s anointing which helps us discern truth but the anointing is for individuals in accountable fellowship with others.
Secondly, people defer to an expert. In the secular world, we defer to the intellectual people with the degrees after their name. If they are noted for their intellect we submit to them for our understanding of truth. The immanent scientist holds sway on subjects having to do with science. The historian becomes the expert in all questions having to do with history. In the spiritual realm, we look to the men with the theological training thinking that surely, they have the answers we seek. This leads us to develop churches around those who have this intellectual expertise as we mistakenly assume that truth is something that can be learned in a school.
In today’s Christian climate this error is magnified by denominations who claim to have a monopoly on truth. This truth is decided by the experts on high and they hand it down to the “lay people” who need someone else to decide truth for them. We see this clearly demonstrated by the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ day. They had it all figured out and expected the people to submit to their expertise. The problem was they had all the doctrines organized but lacked the inner truth that comes from knowing the God the doctrines spoke about.
Paul warned us: “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided?” (1 Cor. 1:11-13). The church is the fullness of Christ (Eph. 1:23). Paul had the right to ask if Christ is being divided when he saw the church separating into factions centering around a perceived expert. When we choose to gather around a man who is a recognized expert we fail to gather around The Man, our Lord, Christ Jesus. He is the truth and we would do well to gather around Him and let Him lead us into His truth.
A Third way of approaching our search for truth is to see it as a corporate endeavor. We each seek truth individually but test it in the context of fellowship with others. Since each of us is the victim of fallen humanity, we must realize that one person cannot be trusted with the ultimate answers to truth. We must help each other and be submitted to one another in our search for truth. I submit that truth is discerned in fellowship with other sincere seekers of truth in submission to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is one reason Jesus says seven times in the Book of Revelation “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”(Rev. 2:7f.) The Spirit is speaking “to the churches” where truth is discerned.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church, “Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:19-21). Paul was telling them that when they gather not to despise prophetic utterances. Be open to what others say in the gatherings. But, he adds, “examine everything carefully.” It is the joint responsibility of all present to test what is spoken. If only one person does this examining the results will reflect the flaws of that person who is not held accountable.
The apostle says much the same thing to the Corinthian church: “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment” (1 Cor. 14:29). Again, they are to be open to what others say but be ready to pass judgement. Of course, Paul knew what John knew when he wrote, “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie” (1 John 2:29). Every believer with the Holy Spirit can discern truth especially in corrective fellowship with other believers.
He knew that Jesus promised His disciples that “…when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). They would be guided by the Holy Spirit into “all the truth.” Together, with the anointing of the Spirit within us we are promised that the Spirit will guide us to the truth. The church is a body and truth was never meant to be discerned only individually. No person is an island unto himself. We are a kingdom of believers, all having a part in kingdom truth.
A good example of this would be the conference in Acts chapter 15 when the apostles and elders met with the church in Jerusalem to discuss what to do about the Gentiles who were being saved. Luke tells us that “When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them” (v. 4). The decision-making body was the church with the apostles, and elders. They all heard the discussion and the arguments presented and later we are told that the decision seemed good to “…the apostles and the elders, with the whole church” (v.22). Truth was arrived at as the church, with its leaders, met in fellowship under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Sometime later the church developed a problem that needed to be addressed. Luke tells us that “the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples” to discuss the issue (Acts 6:2). They saw the problem as a group issue that needed to be handled as a body not as a top-down issue that was to be handled by some administrative body. They made the decision in fellowship with the whole congregation. They did not go to “the pastor” because there was no such lone leader of the church but went to the church itself.
That same church years earlier “…continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). They were together in fellowship devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching. Fellowship means “sharing” what they had in common. They helped each other see and understand what Christ is saying to His church. We get sidetracked when we try to go it on our own or when we try to be the expert who knows it all. We need one another. We are a spiritual body in Christ and He reveals truth to His church.
As I said earlier, seven times in Revelation Jesus repeats, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (2:11f). He was concerned with individuals but also makes it clear that He is speaking “to the churches.” The churches are the context to which He reveals Himself and His truth. Again, we see that individual believers discover truth in fellowship with the body of Christ as led by the Spirit.
Paul, in speaking of the immensity of God’s love, prayed for the Ephesians that they “…may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (3:18, 19). Notice that the comprehension is “with all the saints.” We receive truth from God when in fellowship “with all the saints.” Notice also Paul prays that they know the love of Christ “which surpasses knowledge.” How can you know something that surpasses knowledge? Only by revelation from God. More on that later.
We need to find a way to come into fellowship with other believers in our common search for truth. We must find expressions of church life that allow for open sharing among the believers. Somehow, we must get past our traditions defining how church is to work and find ways to do it the way revealed in scripture. After all, God is the Author of His book. Maybe it’s time to start listening to “the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2).
Lloyd Gardner
April 24, 2017
“What is truth?” Pilate spat out as He stood before Jesus. Jesus had just said He had come to bear witness to the truth. Like so many people today Pilate saw truth as an elusive, unknowable attribute that no one could ever know for certain.
Earlier Jesus had said the opposite: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). So, truth is connected to a person – Jesus. It cannot be known apart from relationship with Him. Truth is knowable if we listen to what He says in His written word and what He says through the Spirit. That truth sets us free from the bondage of spiritual ignorance.
So, if we are going to seek to discover truth, we need to talk about how we go about doing that. I propose these ways that people go about deciding what is truth.
First, people tend to define truth by their own opinion. You will hear someone say, “The way I see that is…” or “My take is…” Clearly, we tend to filter everything through our own personal sieve that screens out anything that is not in agreement with our way of thinking. If there are a hundred people in a room it is conceivable that you will get one hundred opinions on a given subject.
This method of seeking truth clearly rejects the principle that human beings are flawed and in need of redemption. Left to our own answers, each of us would choose the one that agrees with our personal desires that are easily distorted by the ravages of sin. Clearly this is a recipe for disaster. Yes, we who are followers of Christ have God’s anointing which helps us discern truth but the anointing is for individuals in accountable fellowship with others.
Secondly, people defer to an expert. In the secular world, we defer to the intellectual people with the degrees after their name. If they are noted for their intellect we submit to them for our understanding of truth. The immanent scientist holds sway on subjects having to do with science. The historian becomes the expert in all questions having to do with history. In the spiritual realm, we look to the men with the theological training thinking that surely, they have the answers we seek. This leads us to develop churches around those who have this intellectual expertise as we mistakenly assume that truth is something that can be learned in a school.
In today’s Christian climate this error is magnified by denominations who claim to have a monopoly on truth. This truth is decided by the experts on high and they hand it down to the “lay people” who need someone else to decide truth for them. We see this clearly demonstrated by the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ day. They had it all figured out and expected the people to submit to their expertise. The problem was they had all the doctrines organized but lacked the inner truth that comes from knowing the God the doctrines spoke about.
Paul warned us: “For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided?” (1 Cor. 1:11-13). The church is the fullness of Christ (Eph. 1:23). Paul had the right to ask if Christ is being divided when he saw the church separating into factions centering around a perceived expert. When we choose to gather around a man who is a recognized expert we fail to gather around The Man, our Lord, Christ Jesus. He is the truth and we would do well to gather around Him and let Him lead us into His truth.
A Third way of approaching our search for truth is to see it as a corporate endeavor. We each seek truth individually but test it in the context of fellowship with others. Since each of us is the victim of fallen humanity, we must realize that one person cannot be trusted with the ultimate answers to truth. We must help each other and be submitted to one another in our search for truth. I submit that truth is discerned in fellowship with other sincere seekers of truth in submission to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is one reason Jesus says seven times in the Book of Revelation “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”(Rev. 2:7f.) The Spirit is speaking “to the churches” where truth is discerned.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church, “Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:19-21). Paul was telling them that when they gather not to despise prophetic utterances. Be open to what others say in the gatherings. But, he adds, “examine everything carefully.” It is the joint responsibility of all present to test what is spoken. If only one person does this examining the results will reflect the flaws of that person who is not held accountable.
The apostle says much the same thing to the Corinthian church: “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment” (1 Cor. 14:29). Again, they are to be open to what others say but be ready to pass judgement. Of course, Paul knew what John knew when he wrote, “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie” (1 John 2:29). Every believer with the Holy Spirit can discern truth especially in corrective fellowship with other believers.
He knew that Jesus promised His disciples that “…when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). They would be guided by the Holy Spirit into “all the truth.” Together, with the anointing of the Spirit within us we are promised that the Spirit will guide us to the truth. The church is a body and truth was never meant to be discerned only individually. No person is an island unto himself. We are a kingdom of believers, all having a part in kingdom truth.
A good example of this would be the conference in Acts chapter 15 when the apostles and elders met with the church in Jerusalem to discuss what to do about the Gentiles who were being saved. Luke tells us that “When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them” (v. 4). The decision-making body was the church with the apostles, and elders. They all heard the discussion and the arguments presented and later we are told that the decision seemed good to “…the apostles and the elders, with the whole church” (v.22). Truth was arrived at as the church, with its leaders, met in fellowship under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Sometime later the church developed a problem that needed to be addressed. Luke tells us that “the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples” to discuss the issue (Acts 6:2). They saw the problem as a group issue that needed to be handled as a body not as a top-down issue that was to be handled by some administrative body. They made the decision in fellowship with the whole congregation. They did not go to “the pastor” because there was no such lone leader of the church but went to the church itself.
That same church years earlier “…continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). They were together in fellowship devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching. Fellowship means “sharing” what they had in common. They helped each other see and understand what Christ is saying to His church. We get sidetracked when we try to go it on our own or when we try to be the expert who knows it all. We need one another. We are a spiritual body in Christ and He reveals truth to His church.
As I said earlier, seven times in Revelation Jesus repeats, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (2:11f). He was concerned with individuals but also makes it clear that He is speaking “to the churches.” The churches are the context to which He reveals Himself and His truth. Again, we see that individual believers discover truth in fellowship with the body of Christ as led by the Spirit.
Paul, in speaking of the immensity of God’s love, prayed for the Ephesians that they “…may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (3:18, 19). Notice that the comprehension is “with all the saints.” We receive truth from God when in fellowship “with all the saints.” Notice also Paul prays that they know the love of Christ “which surpasses knowledge.” How can you know something that surpasses knowledge? Only by revelation from God. More on that later.
We need to find a way to come into fellowship with other believers in our common search for truth. We must find expressions of church life that allow for open sharing among the believers. Somehow, we must get past our traditions defining how church is to work and find ways to do it the way revealed in scripture. After all, God is the Author of His book. Maybe it’s time to start listening to “the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2).
True Godly love is the answer to every issue of man.
Lloyd Gardner
April 19, 2017
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it was possible to boil down every issue we could ever face to one simple solution? God has done that for us. The problem is we reject His solution out of our misdirected religious attempts to please Him.
A religious authority asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” Mark 12:28-31; ESV).
We are to love God with our all our heart, soul, mind and strength. I have often pondered how it is that we can love God with all our strength. Unfortunately, I have sometimes interpreted this to mean trying harder in my natural ability. Pray more. Attend a Bible study. Get involved in missions. Go to church more regularly. Read the Bible more. We think more religious activity means more love when, in fact, these things have little to do with love. Are we to love God with all our fallen, sinful, weak flesh or is there another strength we are to lean on?
Jesus’ answer began with “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.” The heart in this passage is your spirit. True love does not originate in our mind, emotions or will or in our natural ability. Paul told us that “God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:5). It takes the strength of God in our spirit or heart to love because love is a sacrificial act in which we are laying down our lives for the sake of others. Husbands, for example, are commanded to love their wives “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” Eph. 5:25). That is a tall order possible only in the strength of the Holy Spirit emanating from our spirit where He dwells. Most people are failing at it because they misunderstand love.
Peter thought he loved the Lord on the Mount of Olives when he declared, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away” (Matt. 26:33). Well, we know how that ended up. All of Peter’s natural ability and commitment were not enough to give Him the strength to confess the Lord when the pressure was on. Later the resurrected Jesus asked Peter three times, “Peter do you love Me?” He asked once for each time Peter had denied Him. Later, empowered by the Holy Spirit and led by the resurrected Christ, Peter could love the Lord from His spirit, eventually giving his life for Him. Love is supernatural and flows from God through our spirit eventually enabling our soul to love Him fully with actions rather than feelings.
I know we’ve all heard this passage before but isn’t it interesting that the religious authority asked Jesus for one law and Jesus gave him two – you shall love God and you shall love your neighbor. He said the second one was like the first. Jesus knew that one was impossible without the other. You cannot love God and fail to love your neighbor and this genuine love of your neighbor must come from loving God. The two go together. God’s love growing in us will reach out to others.
There you have it – the answer to every issue of man – the supernatural love of God flowing in our lives. But we are not talking about love as it is presented in the entertainment industry or any element of modern culture. Love is not an emotional, mushy feeling that we get when we really like someone. Love finds its way from our heart to our mind to our hands and feet as we lay down our lives in humble service to others.
We might understand better if we see love as a verb rather than a noun. It is not a thing but is an action and that action is God-inspired. Love is something we do. It is the acting out of God’s nature in real life situations.
Let me explain by taking us to the love chapter of the Bible:
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor. 13:4-7).
There you have a clear description of love. If you husbands want to know the quality of your love for your wife don’t go by the emotion in your heart or the physical attraction in your body. Go by this standard God has given us. Love is patient and kind and doesn’t become jealous of others. It isn’t boastful or arrogant. It doesn’t always say, “What’s in it for me?” It doesn’t take vengeance on people who wrong us and doesn’t celebrate the faults of others. It thrives on truth and can put up with just about anything. This applies to all believers as well as husbands.
All of this is possible because love is not simply an emotion but the very essence of God working out in our lives as we are led and inspired by Him. It is laying down our lives for others and putting ourselves at the end of the line of importance. It is humility magnified and personified.
Can you imagine any issue that cannot be solved if real love is present? Would we be drifting away from our spouses if we truly loved them with our actions and not just words? Would divorce even be a possibility in an environment of love? Would we ignore our children and fail to build them up spiritually and emotionally if we truly loved them? Would our churches be a divided, program-obsessed human organizations if we loved one another with this divine love? Would the world be so skeptical of our faith if it was openly demonstrated in genuine love for all to see?
All the issues are solved with love. Drug abuse, alcoholism, street gangs, fatherless children, church divisions, child abuse, homelessness, spiritual deadness and much more all fade away in the healing power of genuine love. It is no wonder, then, that God commands us to love one another? (John 13:34, 35; 15:17; Rom. 12:10; 13:8; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 4:2, etc.). The world looks on and wonders why the thing we call “church” does not exhibit the love of the Christ it claims to serve. Love convinces even the most confirmed unbeliever that there is a divine source of that love.
Is it time to scrap our market system approach to church and simply love one another with the supernatural love that God has poured into our hearts? Do you want revival? Learn to love one another. Do you want to see your neighborhood won for Christ? Love one another. Do you want to see your own life transformed and empowered by God? Let love grow in your life. Do you want a marriage that is more fulfilling every day? Love one another.
When I write such things, I am often accused of being hopelessly idealistic because many people feel that such love is not possible in today’s spiritual climate. Constantly we are tempted cast aside the clear promises of God’s word and adopt the faithless pronouncements of those who doubt what God says.
Perhaps the biggest reason we reject this message is that we inherently know that it must begin in our own hearts and our hearts have been shot through with the arrows of the enemy. We are wounded where love grows and come to believe that the heart wounds cannot be healed. We cannot find an environment where healing of the heart is commonplace. We go to church but our churches avoid the issue because they have other agendas. The songs must be sung. The plate must be passed. The sermon must be preached. All the while our hearts are crying out for the fulfillment that only love can bring.
It seems that most of my messages lead to the need for healthy life in the body of Christ. Love must flow and it demands the give and take of genuine fellowship. Our church services touch our minds with doctrine but seldom touch our hearts with healing. Paul bemoans the tendency to be tossed around by doctrines of men and then he provides the healing alternative:
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love (Eph. 4:15, 16).
Love must be nourished and God has provided wholesome body life as the context in which that nourishment can flourish. The body “builds itself up in love.” But the body has parts and the parts must be allowed to function in the atmosphere where we are “speaking the truth in love.” The environment where love flourishes is where truth is honored – where we do not hide our hurts but submit them to the body for healing. Love can grow when truth prevails in genuine fellowship.
This series of messages is an examination of our personal faith. Are we people of love or are we just spinning our religious wheels in the hope that something will happen? For restoration to come we must let everything take second place to God’s love, the most powerful force in the universe. That’s God’s answer if we will receive it.
Lloyd Gardner
April 19, 2017
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it was possible to boil down every issue we could ever face to one simple solution? God has done that for us. The problem is we reject His solution out of our misdirected religious attempts to please Him.
A religious authority asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” Mark 12:28-31; ESV).
We are to love God with our all our heart, soul, mind and strength. I have often pondered how it is that we can love God with all our strength. Unfortunately, I have sometimes interpreted this to mean trying harder in my natural ability. Pray more. Attend a Bible study. Get involved in missions. Go to church more regularly. Read the Bible more. We think more religious activity means more love when, in fact, these things have little to do with love. Are we to love God with all our fallen, sinful, weak flesh or is there another strength we are to lean on?
Jesus’ answer began with “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.” The heart in this passage is your spirit. True love does not originate in our mind, emotions or will or in our natural ability. Paul told us that “God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:5). It takes the strength of God in our spirit or heart to love because love is a sacrificial act in which we are laying down our lives for the sake of others. Husbands, for example, are commanded to love their wives “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” Eph. 5:25). That is a tall order possible only in the strength of the Holy Spirit emanating from our spirit where He dwells. Most people are failing at it because they misunderstand love.
Peter thought he loved the Lord on the Mount of Olives when he declared, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away” (Matt. 26:33). Well, we know how that ended up. All of Peter’s natural ability and commitment were not enough to give Him the strength to confess the Lord when the pressure was on. Later the resurrected Jesus asked Peter three times, “Peter do you love Me?” He asked once for each time Peter had denied Him. Later, empowered by the Holy Spirit and led by the resurrected Christ, Peter could love the Lord from His spirit, eventually giving his life for Him. Love is supernatural and flows from God through our spirit eventually enabling our soul to love Him fully with actions rather than feelings.
I know we’ve all heard this passage before but isn’t it interesting that the religious authority asked Jesus for one law and Jesus gave him two – you shall love God and you shall love your neighbor. He said the second one was like the first. Jesus knew that one was impossible without the other. You cannot love God and fail to love your neighbor and this genuine love of your neighbor must come from loving God. The two go together. God’s love growing in us will reach out to others.
There you have it – the answer to every issue of man – the supernatural love of God flowing in our lives. But we are not talking about love as it is presented in the entertainment industry or any element of modern culture. Love is not an emotional, mushy feeling that we get when we really like someone. Love finds its way from our heart to our mind to our hands and feet as we lay down our lives in humble service to others.
We might understand better if we see love as a verb rather than a noun. It is not a thing but is an action and that action is God-inspired. Love is something we do. It is the acting out of God’s nature in real life situations.
Let me explain by taking us to the love chapter of the Bible:
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor. 13:4-7).
There you have a clear description of love. If you husbands want to know the quality of your love for your wife don’t go by the emotion in your heart or the physical attraction in your body. Go by this standard God has given us. Love is patient and kind and doesn’t become jealous of others. It isn’t boastful or arrogant. It doesn’t always say, “What’s in it for me?” It doesn’t take vengeance on people who wrong us and doesn’t celebrate the faults of others. It thrives on truth and can put up with just about anything. This applies to all believers as well as husbands.
All of this is possible because love is not simply an emotion but the very essence of God working out in our lives as we are led and inspired by Him. It is laying down our lives for others and putting ourselves at the end of the line of importance. It is humility magnified and personified.
Can you imagine any issue that cannot be solved if real love is present? Would we be drifting away from our spouses if we truly loved them with our actions and not just words? Would divorce even be a possibility in an environment of love? Would we ignore our children and fail to build them up spiritually and emotionally if we truly loved them? Would our churches be a divided, program-obsessed human organizations if we loved one another with this divine love? Would the world be so skeptical of our faith if it was openly demonstrated in genuine love for all to see?
All the issues are solved with love. Drug abuse, alcoholism, street gangs, fatherless children, church divisions, child abuse, homelessness, spiritual deadness and much more all fade away in the healing power of genuine love. It is no wonder, then, that God commands us to love one another? (John 13:34, 35; 15:17; Rom. 12:10; 13:8; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 4:2, etc.). The world looks on and wonders why the thing we call “church” does not exhibit the love of the Christ it claims to serve. Love convinces even the most confirmed unbeliever that there is a divine source of that love.
Is it time to scrap our market system approach to church and simply love one another with the supernatural love that God has poured into our hearts? Do you want revival? Learn to love one another. Do you want to see your neighborhood won for Christ? Love one another. Do you want to see your own life transformed and empowered by God? Let love grow in your life. Do you want a marriage that is more fulfilling every day? Love one another.
When I write such things, I am often accused of being hopelessly idealistic because many people feel that such love is not possible in today’s spiritual climate. Constantly we are tempted cast aside the clear promises of God’s word and adopt the faithless pronouncements of those who doubt what God says.
Perhaps the biggest reason we reject this message is that we inherently know that it must begin in our own hearts and our hearts have been shot through with the arrows of the enemy. We are wounded where love grows and come to believe that the heart wounds cannot be healed. We cannot find an environment where healing of the heart is commonplace. We go to church but our churches avoid the issue because they have other agendas. The songs must be sung. The plate must be passed. The sermon must be preached. All the while our hearts are crying out for the fulfillment that only love can bring.
It seems that most of my messages lead to the need for healthy life in the body of Christ. Love must flow and it demands the give and take of genuine fellowship. Our church services touch our minds with doctrine but seldom touch our hearts with healing. Paul bemoans the tendency to be tossed around by doctrines of men and then he provides the healing alternative:
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love (Eph. 4:15, 16).
Love must be nourished and God has provided wholesome body life as the context in which that nourishment can flourish. The body “builds itself up in love.” But the body has parts and the parts must be allowed to function in the atmosphere where we are “speaking the truth in love.” The environment where love flourishes is where truth is honored – where we do not hide our hurts but submit them to the body for healing. Love can grow when truth prevails in genuine fellowship.
This series of messages is an examination of our personal faith. Are we people of love or are we just spinning our religious wheels in the hope that something will happen? For restoration to come we must let everything take second place to God’s love, the most powerful force in the universe. That’s God’s answer if we will receive it.
Examining our Fatih: There has always been a faithful remnant that sought to return to and remain faithful to the foundation presented in scripture.
Lloyd Gardner
April 6, 2017
Throughout history there has always been a faithful remnant that did not compromise their faith even when the recognized church was in apostasy. They had a standard and it was the Bible, not human tradition or ingenuity. Edmund Broadbent in his excellent book The Pilgrim Church traces the expression of this faithful remnant throughout history. Broadbent died in 1945 so we will have to do our own research to recognize this remnant in recent years.
Broadbent makes the case that the church of the first century was a simple, authentic, family-oriented expression of people who found Christ and sought to grow in their relationship with Him and fellow believers. The was the extent of the church in the first century. It had no rituals, planned liturgy, clergy class, hierarchy system, church buildings, activity programs, fund raising, denominations or any of the many other accessories we think of as comprising the church.
Church was the people of God -- those who fell in love with the resurrected, living Jesus and desired to love and follow Him and fellowship with His people. They received their truth from scripture as led by the Holy Spirit and jointly discerned the validity of teachings as guided by the Holy Spirit. They spent time learning God’s word, fellowshipping, breaking bread together and praying. They were a joyful people who loved one another and spent much time together in one another’s homes and in praising God and mingling with the townspeople (Acts 2:42-47).
But after the first century a slow but real departure from this simplicity began to occur. It had even begun in the first century as evidenced by the rebukes of Jesus toward the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 2 and 3. The many elements of an established church began to invade Christian life. Leaders became more controlling and took advantage of the sheep of God for personal gain (3 John 9-11; Acts 20:28-30). Eventually the church as the people of God was replaced with a human institution that became recognized as the “church.” Now when we hear the word “church” we think of a pastor and his program centered in a “church” building or some monolithic human organization with a headquarters far away.
But there was always a faithful remnant. Unfortunately, those sincere followers of Christ in their desire to return to the scriptures and a simple life in Christ were usually declared heretics by the recognized “church” and given derogatory names that they never applied to themselves. Sometimes they were imprisoned or murdered. They were labeled Waldensians, Lollards, Stundists, Huguenots, Anabaptists and many other names. They never adopted these names for themselves but were labeled by the established church which sought to ostracize them. They wanted to simply be Christians, followers of Christ, and brethren.
That division has remained throughout history and continues to this day. Many of the descendants of those groups have long since hardened into denominations or official programmed churches but there are still those who seek the simplicity of the life in Christ presented in scripture apart from the traditions that have accumulated over the years. Many of those traditions are accepted as truth because the recognized church will not allow them to be tested in the light of scripture with the Holy Spirit guiding.
This book addresses those traditions and much more that we call truth today. Are we really living the Christian life and expressing church life the way scripture teaches, or have we developed our own ways that conform to our comfort levels and personal wishes?
Let’s find the answers to these questions.
Lloyd Gardner
April 6, 2017
Throughout history there has always been a faithful remnant that did not compromise their faith even when the recognized church was in apostasy. They had a standard and it was the Bible, not human tradition or ingenuity. Edmund Broadbent in his excellent book The Pilgrim Church traces the expression of this faithful remnant throughout history. Broadbent died in 1945 so we will have to do our own research to recognize this remnant in recent years.
Broadbent makes the case that the church of the first century was a simple, authentic, family-oriented expression of people who found Christ and sought to grow in their relationship with Him and fellow believers. The was the extent of the church in the first century. It had no rituals, planned liturgy, clergy class, hierarchy system, church buildings, activity programs, fund raising, denominations or any of the many other accessories we think of as comprising the church.
Church was the people of God -- those who fell in love with the resurrected, living Jesus and desired to love and follow Him and fellowship with His people. They received their truth from scripture as led by the Holy Spirit and jointly discerned the validity of teachings as guided by the Holy Spirit. They spent time learning God’s word, fellowshipping, breaking bread together and praying. They were a joyful people who loved one another and spent much time together in one another’s homes and in praising God and mingling with the townspeople (Acts 2:42-47).
But after the first century a slow but real departure from this simplicity began to occur. It had even begun in the first century as evidenced by the rebukes of Jesus toward the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 2 and 3. The many elements of an established church began to invade Christian life. Leaders became more controlling and took advantage of the sheep of God for personal gain (3 John 9-11; Acts 20:28-30). Eventually the church as the people of God was replaced with a human institution that became recognized as the “church.” Now when we hear the word “church” we think of a pastor and his program centered in a “church” building or some monolithic human organization with a headquarters far away.
But there was always a faithful remnant. Unfortunately, those sincere followers of Christ in their desire to return to the scriptures and a simple life in Christ were usually declared heretics by the recognized “church” and given derogatory names that they never applied to themselves. Sometimes they were imprisoned or murdered. They were labeled Waldensians, Lollards, Stundists, Huguenots, Anabaptists and many other names. They never adopted these names for themselves but were labeled by the established church which sought to ostracize them. They wanted to simply be Christians, followers of Christ, and brethren.
That division has remained throughout history and continues to this day. Many of the descendants of those groups have long since hardened into denominations or official programmed churches but there are still those who seek the simplicity of the life in Christ presented in scripture apart from the traditions that have accumulated over the years. Many of those traditions are accepted as truth because the recognized church will not allow them to be tested in the light of scripture with the Holy Spirit guiding.
This book addresses those traditions and much more that we call truth today. Are we really living the Christian life and expressing church life the way scripture teaches, or have we developed our own ways that conform to our comfort levels and personal wishes?
Let’s find the answers to these questions.
The growing spiritual sickness in the church is the result of forsaking our foundation
Lloyd Gardner
March 30, 2017
In the days of John Huss in the 15th century, the scriptures had been set aside. In fact, it was against the will of the established church for untrained people to even read the Bible. John Wycliffe had been posthumously excommunicated and branded a heretic because he had the gall to translate the Bible into the language of the regular folks so they would be able to read it.
The Catholic Church insisted that the Bible must only be read and interpreted by officially recognized clergymen. Truth was determined by the pope, bishops and priests who downplayed the role of scripture in favor of the official church dogma. But let’s not blame only the Catholic Church. Most established churches over the years began to emphasize a clergy class, unknown to scripture, that was to interpret scripture while regular Christians were encouraged to submit to them for truth. This concept is foreign to the Bible. Yes, the Holy Spirit has provided teachers to help us along the way but every believer has the Holy Spirit, the anointing of God, and is able to personally know and understand truth (1 John 2:27).
A little over one hundred years after the martyr of Huss, on October 31 in 1517 the swan that he had prophesied from his flames took flight. On that fateful day, Martin Luther walked up to the door of All Saint’s Church in Wittenberg, Germany and posted his Ninety-Five Theses to the front door where messages and notices were often posted. The Ninety-Five Theses were debate propositions being made to a university community. He was challenging the religious powers of the time to consider his propositions for open debate. It took immense courage for Luther to take a public stand against an established church that was known for burning dissidents at the stake.
Since those days thousands of denominational renditions of the church have developed as men leaned on their ingenuity to build the church. Christians separated into a myriad of doctrinal factions based on opinion, tradition, ritual and superstition, all fueled by human inadequacy. These tendencies swept the church away from its scriptural mores and cast it to the winds of human religion. They took the church out of the hands of God and put it into the hands of men.
This book is meant to be a modern Ninety-Five Theses. Luther fell far short of returning Christianity to its simple foundation but he set a tone of debate sparked an attitude of reformation. Like the church of Luther’s time today’s established church is in similar disarray because of its slow drift away from the simplicity of scriptural truth concerning the Christian life and the life of the church. There are many wonderful followers of Christ in the established church but, in many cases, they are floundering in meaningless institutional activities. There is a serious need of a deeper reformation that leads us back to God’s word about how we follow Christ and how the church is to function in the will of God.
Like those times of spiritual decay, the church today functions according to many traditions that have no basis in the scriptures that grew out of the foundational period of the church. It is like the church in Laodicea described in Jesus’ seventh letter to the churches (Rev. 3:14-22). We are spiritually lukewarm, materially rich and extremely complacent about the will of God. We are forging ahead in human strength while not allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our steps.
A gradual drift away from the simplicity of the foundational church has resulted in a “church” that does not resemble the original rendition. Most Christians are unaware that what they know as “church” does not resemble what scripture describes.
Much of today’s established church has drifted from the foundational truths concerning the Christian life and the life of the church. We have reached a point where God is not consulted in matters pertaining to the structure and functioning of the church. Church leaders ignore the simple guidance of scripture while, like the established church of the Middle Ages, building luxurious, colossal buildings and conceiving clever programs that attract the people and bring in the money. We often rely on the cleverness of men rather than the wisdom, guidance and empowering of the Holy Spirit. Ignoring Paul’s warning not to be conformed to the world, we purposely conform ourselves to the world’s ways because they are convenient and work to provide the material success we seek.
Dissent of any kind is often condemned and church leaders, whose feet are encased in the cement of tradition, refuse to consult the simple truths in God’s word about how to live in Christ and how to express His church, the fullness of him who fills all in all (Eph. 1:23). Often, any kind of criticism of the established church is considered divisive and even sincere believers are ostracized for genuine, constructive, scripture-based concerns. They no longer burn people at the stake but simply brand them as divisive nonconformists who should be shunned. A true prophet is not be welcome in this environment.
Putting it bluntly, the established church needs a wakeup call like Martin Luther brought to the Catholic Church in 1517. Ironically, we are in 2017, approaching 500 years from Luther’s courageous posting at the Wittenberg Door. He wanted to start debate on crucial issues he saw as hindrances to the will of God. He wanted his propositions to be applied to Paul’s directive to “examine everything carefully.”
That Reformation fell far short of returning to the Bible as the final authority. Perhaps it is time to continue that journey to its ultimate completion.
The foundation of our faith is God’s word as inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Lloyd Gardner
March 18, 2017
This presentation of propositions will use a hermeneutic (method of interpreting scripture) that appeals to the Bible for determining truth. It will not lean heavily on reasoning that is not founded in scripture. Scriptural references will be given at any time I am making a point that is Bible-based. If I express my opinion I will let you know. The New Testament is the record of what the Holy Spirit revealed to His faithful servants. So, I will refer to the Bible as the foundational document and the period of the New Testament church as the foundational period. That foundation can be seen in the words and actions of the first followers of Christ.
By that I mean the foundation was laid in that first century concerning our personal Christian walk as well as the structure and practice of the corporate church. Paul, in referring to the building up of the church, said “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11). The foundation was laid during the foundational period and this foundation determines truth and practice for the church age. We should be able to examine what the early foundational church believed and how they practiced the personal Christian life and the corporate life of the church.
Many will disagree with the latter assertion. Many leaders in the established church are fine with using the Bible as a guide to the personal Christian life but balk at the notion that the New Testament tells us how the corporate church should be expressed. This conveniently allows church leaders to insist that the structure and function of the church can be left solely to human choice and man’s ingenuity. With this approach, they are free to organize the church as they please without reference to scripture and without consulting God. They simply ignore the foundational truth about church life by saying that God has left that up to men. This attitude has resulted in a myriad of divisions based on many human opinions.
I once heard a pastor sharing publicly concerning a building project they were praying about. He said he consulted with a mentor who told him, “Brother, you don’t need to pray about that. If God’s people need a house then build them a house.” The church went on to take that advice. This man obviously operated from the perception that we don’t have to consult God about things pertaining to corporate church life. He merely assumed that God would agree with this project because it fit his understanding of church life. If it benefits that understanding of the church – do it. Many leaders of the established church see things from this same perspective. They simply do what fits their agenda.
This book will show that this notion is a serious error that has led to many unscriptural expressions of the church. One of the assertions I will discuss more later is that truth was meant to be judged by the church in fellowship. Many passages make it clear that all believers can discern truth (see Eph. 4:15, 16; 1 Thess. 5:19-22; 1Cor.14:29: 1 John 2:26, 27). History proves that when the discernment of truth is left to a select few who are recognized as God’s appointed purveyors of truth, error always results. The context for discerning truth is the church, the people of God, in fellowship with one another and led by the Holy Spirit.
I invite you into this adventure away from the religious establishment with all its manipulation and into the excitement of discovering truth God’s way—through a sincere search of scripture with the Holy Spirit as our Guide. Welcome to the adventure.
Lloyd Gardner
March 18, 2017
This presentation of propositions will use a hermeneutic (method of interpreting scripture) that appeals to the Bible for determining truth. It will not lean heavily on reasoning that is not founded in scripture. Scriptural references will be given at any time I am making a point that is Bible-based. If I express my opinion I will let you know. The New Testament is the record of what the Holy Spirit revealed to His faithful servants. So, I will refer to the Bible as the foundational document and the period of the New Testament church as the foundational period. That foundation can be seen in the words and actions of the first followers of Christ.
By that I mean the foundation was laid in that first century concerning our personal Christian walk as well as the structure and practice of the corporate church. Paul, in referring to the building up of the church, said “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11). The foundation was laid during the foundational period and this foundation determines truth and practice for the church age. We should be able to examine what the early foundational church believed and how they practiced the personal Christian life and the corporate life of the church.
Many will disagree with the latter assertion. Many leaders in the established church are fine with using the Bible as a guide to the personal Christian life but balk at the notion that the New Testament tells us how the corporate church should be expressed. This conveniently allows church leaders to insist that the structure and function of the church can be left solely to human choice and man’s ingenuity. With this approach, they are free to organize the church as they please without reference to scripture and without consulting God. They simply ignore the foundational truth about church life by saying that God has left that up to men. This attitude has resulted in a myriad of divisions based on many human opinions.
I once heard a pastor sharing publicly concerning a building project they were praying about. He said he consulted with a mentor who told him, “Brother, you don’t need to pray about that. If God’s people need a house then build them a house.” The church went on to take that advice. This man obviously operated from the perception that we don’t have to consult God about things pertaining to corporate church life. He merely assumed that God would agree with this project because it fit his understanding of church life. If it benefits that understanding of the church – do it. Many leaders of the established church see things from this same perspective. They simply do what fits their agenda.
This book will show that this notion is a serious error that has led to many unscriptural expressions of the church. One of the assertions I will discuss more later is that truth was meant to be judged by the church in fellowship. Many passages make it clear that all believers can discern truth (see Eph. 4:15, 16; 1 Thess. 5:19-22; 1Cor.14:29: 1 John 2:26, 27). History proves that when the discernment of truth is left to a select few who are recognized as God’s appointed purveyors of truth, error always results. The context for discerning truth is the church, the people of God, in fellowship with one another and led by the Holy Spirit.
I invite you into this adventure away from the religious establishment with all its manipulation and into the excitement of discovering truth God’s way—through a sincere search of scripture with the Holy Spirit as our Guide. Welcome to the adventure.
Examining our faith: Introduction
Lloyd Gardner
March 13, 2017
Imagine you are living in the city of Constance, Germany in June of the year 1415. You hear of the recent arrest of John Huss, the well-known and respected priest and master of philosophy from the University in Prague. Huss had earned the wrath of the Roman Catholic pope because he had been teaching the doctrines of John Wycliffe, who has been declared a heretic by the church in Rome. He arrived at those teachings through a personal study of scripture in his search for truth.
For teaching doctrines contrary to Catholic orthodoxy Huss has been condemned to be burned alive. You are in the streets of Constance to witness Huss being led to his place of execution. A drunken crowd of celebrants is burning his books and eerily staring as he is led through the streets toward the woodpile where he would be set ablaze. He is singing hymns as he passes by and approaches the stake where the diabolical deed will take place. They tear his clothes from his body and clothe him with a shirt drenched with foul-smelling pitch. Before they light the fire, you hear him cry out, “Today you will roast a lean goose but a hundred years from now you will hear a swan sing, whom you will leave unroasted and no trap or net will catch him for you.”
The observers knew that his name, Huss, meant “goose,” so the strange utterance by Huss on the very brink of burning to death seemed strangely out of place. But it was remembered, nevertheless, and one hundred years later it would hit its mark.
They tie his feet, hands and neck with ropes with his back to the stake. Someone approaches with a torch to ignite the wood. As the fire slowly grows in intensity Huss cries out three times in his agony “Jesus Christ, thou Son of the living God, have mercy upon me!” With his third cry his head drooped and his chin fell to his chest. His body became still and you watch in terror as the fire does what fires do.
As the fire slowly burns itself out and the crowd disperses, you stay to watch workers shovel up the remaining ashes and place them in a bag. They carry the ashes down to the Rhine River and cast them in to be swept away apparently to wash away the memory of “the heretic.”
The brutal religious murder of John Huss highlights the purpose of this book. In the year 1415 a powerful, monolithic, religious organization had the power to burn people at the stake who disagreed with their extra-biblical, superstitious beliefs. The established church had long since ceased receiving its truth directly from scripture. Truth was determined by the dictates of the Church of Rome with the pope as its infallible leader. Anyone who disagreed with the teachings of the “church” were in jeopardy of being declared heretics.
Throughout the history of the established church two threads have been apparent. First, there has always been a remnant band of faithful followers of Christ who simply wanted to live in the simplicity of what the scriptures reveal about the Christian life and the corporate life of the church. Secondly, an established, traditional rendition of the church has almost always opposed this simple approach to truth and leaned instead on extra-biblical beliefs, ritual and accepted tradition.
The Christian life and the simple, authentic expression of the church are not complicated truths that must be explained by professional clergymen. Life in Christ is simply family life together with others born of Christ and growing in Him. Unfortunately, there are always those who want to take control of it and make it something official so that controlling people can organize it and use it to their advantage. They rob it of its authentic simplicity by merging it with the world and using the world’s methods to organize something that originates in human ingenuity and then they call it church.
This book presents a picture of what the church would look like if it simply returned to the straightforward presentation of the Bible. It assumes that God never intended for His word to be so complicated and mysterious that elite, religious experts are needed to help us interpret and understand it. Instead, the Holy Spirit inspired it in such a way that anyone with a sincere, seeking heart could open the Bible with His help and begin to understand it.
In the pages of this book are (# to be set later) propositions that are easily tested using God’s word, an honest heart and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is a challenge to anyone who senses that the church is in disarray today and desperately in need of restoration. It will probably frustrate you if you are driven by traditions that are not founded in scripture.
On the other hand, it can help sincere seekers of truth to see the importance of returning to God’s clear word about how we can anchor ourselves in these days of spiritual drifting. These propositions, properly studied, will bring you to a crossroads -- either you will reject them wholesale for the sake of your cherished traditions or you will begin making the adjustments necessary to align with the will of God. At the very least this will provide an opportunity for sincere believers in Christ to consider the condition of the established church and how to hear from the Holy Spirit concerning how to respond. Then we will see what God will do.
And He can do "...far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us" (Eph. 3:20).
Lloyd Gardner
March 13, 2017
Imagine you are living in the city of Constance, Germany in June of the year 1415. You hear of the recent arrest of John Huss, the well-known and respected priest and master of philosophy from the University in Prague. Huss had earned the wrath of the Roman Catholic pope because he had been teaching the doctrines of John Wycliffe, who has been declared a heretic by the church in Rome. He arrived at those teachings through a personal study of scripture in his search for truth.
For teaching doctrines contrary to Catholic orthodoxy Huss has been condemned to be burned alive. You are in the streets of Constance to witness Huss being led to his place of execution. A drunken crowd of celebrants is burning his books and eerily staring as he is led through the streets toward the woodpile where he would be set ablaze. He is singing hymns as he passes by and approaches the stake where the diabolical deed will take place. They tear his clothes from his body and clothe him with a shirt drenched with foul-smelling pitch. Before they light the fire, you hear him cry out, “Today you will roast a lean goose but a hundred years from now you will hear a swan sing, whom you will leave unroasted and no trap or net will catch him for you.”
The observers knew that his name, Huss, meant “goose,” so the strange utterance by Huss on the very brink of burning to death seemed strangely out of place. But it was remembered, nevertheless, and one hundred years later it would hit its mark.
They tie his feet, hands and neck with ropes with his back to the stake. Someone approaches with a torch to ignite the wood. As the fire slowly grows in intensity Huss cries out three times in his agony “Jesus Christ, thou Son of the living God, have mercy upon me!” With his third cry his head drooped and his chin fell to his chest. His body became still and you watch in terror as the fire does what fires do.
As the fire slowly burns itself out and the crowd disperses, you stay to watch workers shovel up the remaining ashes and place them in a bag. They carry the ashes down to the Rhine River and cast them in to be swept away apparently to wash away the memory of “the heretic.”
The brutal religious murder of John Huss highlights the purpose of this book. In the year 1415 a powerful, monolithic, religious organization had the power to burn people at the stake who disagreed with their extra-biblical, superstitious beliefs. The established church had long since ceased receiving its truth directly from scripture. Truth was determined by the dictates of the Church of Rome with the pope as its infallible leader. Anyone who disagreed with the teachings of the “church” were in jeopardy of being declared heretics.
Throughout the history of the established church two threads have been apparent. First, there has always been a remnant band of faithful followers of Christ who simply wanted to live in the simplicity of what the scriptures reveal about the Christian life and the corporate life of the church. Secondly, an established, traditional rendition of the church has almost always opposed this simple approach to truth and leaned instead on extra-biblical beliefs, ritual and accepted tradition.
The Christian life and the simple, authentic expression of the church are not complicated truths that must be explained by professional clergymen. Life in Christ is simply family life together with others born of Christ and growing in Him. Unfortunately, there are always those who want to take control of it and make it something official so that controlling people can organize it and use it to their advantage. They rob it of its authentic simplicity by merging it with the world and using the world’s methods to organize something that originates in human ingenuity and then they call it church.
This book presents a picture of what the church would look like if it simply returned to the straightforward presentation of the Bible. It assumes that God never intended for His word to be so complicated and mysterious that elite, religious experts are needed to help us interpret and understand it. Instead, the Holy Spirit inspired it in such a way that anyone with a sincere, seeking heart could open the Bible with His help and begin to understand it.
In the pages of this book are (# to be set later) propositions that are easily tested using God’s word, an honest heart and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is a challenge to anyone who senses that the church is in disarray today and desperately in need of restoration. It will probably frustrate you if you are driven by traditions that are not founded in scripture.
On the other hand, it can help sincere seekers of truth to see the importance of returning to God’s clear word about how we can anchor ourselves in these days of spiritual drifting. These propositions, properly studied, will bring you to a crossroads -- either you will reject them wholesale for the sake of your cherished traditions or you will begin making the adjustments necessary to align with the will of God. At the very least this will provide an opportunity for sincere believers in Christ to consider the condition of the established church and how to hear from the Holy Spirit concerning how to respond. Then we will see what God will do.
And He can do "...far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us" (Eph. 3:20).
Satan’s Strategy: A New World Order
Lloyd Gardner
February 11, 2017
When one uses the term “one-world order” people cry “conspiracy, conspiracy!” My answer to that is clear: yes there is a massive world-wide conspiracy by the one who is called the god of this world. Many sophisticated Christians have stopped believing in God and Satan because it is politically incorrect in today’s deluded culture. Those who cry “conspiracy” often do so to cover up a real conspiratorial agenda. Satan bombards society with this “conspiracy” phobia so that when people hear about his plan they will dismiss it outright.
Satan’s conspiracy is spelled out in the Bible for every seeking eye to see. Just as God has an eternal purpose with a plan, Satan has a purpose and a plan and he is working it feverishly. His plan is to establish an end time world government aimed at thwarting God’s purpose for His church and the end time conclusion of this age. The book of Revelation clearly shows that this government will include a world government that will institute his plan in the form of a false Christ who will present himself in the last days (see Rev. 12-18). It is described in the book of Daniel as the fourth beast that is dreadful, terrible, amazingly strong that destroys everything in the last days plunder of planet earth (7:7, 8).
So how is his plan being implemented in current real world events? It is becoming clear that the election of Donald Trump and the ascendance of conservative policies has stirred up the demonic hornet's nest. His election has exposed the once hidden agenda of leftist groups collaborating to bring about a one-world government. The world is obviously choosing sides and the choices are God’s plan versus the plan of the enemy. God’s plan is a victorious prepared spiritual bride (Eph. 1-4; 5:25-27; John 17:22, 23; Rev. 12:11; 19:7-20) while Satan’s plan is world dominance through the release of his evil into society.
We see demon-like opposition toward everything President Trump says or does. Much of the opposition is couched in the accusation of racism. This allows the progressive left to use immigration as a false battering ram against Trump’s policies. Satan’s strategy is to flood western civilization with his hateful, destructive Islamist religion to force a one-world, open borders invasion of western nations. This seems to be the root of the bitter battle against Trump’s temporary travel ban from seven violent countries while the country improves its vetting system so that the flood of immigrants is not successful.
The world-wide open-borders movement funded by George Soros and Germany, under Angela Merkel, has created turmoil over the flood of immigrants into the country. In 2015 Germany admitted 890,000 migrants and is now fighting hard to control its borders. Much of the rest of Europe is reacting to the massive invasion from Muslim countries. Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is speeding up his open borders, welcome-to- immigrants policy and appears to be very supportive of Muslims.
Soros funds Marxist, anarchist radical groups that create havoc such as we saw recently in the U.C. Berkeley riot over a conservative speaker. Research in one article uncovered 187 organizations funded by Soros that are opposing Trump often using violence. Violence and lawlessness are clear biblical signs of the end time strategy of the enemy. In fact his antichrist will be called the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:1-7). Lawlessness provides an environment for the propagation of his ideas and programs for one world control. Donald Trump’s call for “law and order” runs completely counter to Satan’s plan.
Islam, in its fundamental form, is a one-world-government religion recommending Muslim control of all governments by force (see Sura 3 verse 28; Sura 2, verse 191; and Sura 48, verse 13 as examples). It is a handy tool of the coming antichrist. Recent terrorist attacks make their mission clear. Islam has developed an “emigrate and propagate” policy whereby they migrate into a country and have as many children as possible to spread Islam. This is happening in a drastic way in Europe. As one example, the New York hotel Marmara Manhattan offers an “exclusive package for new mothers who would like to give birth in the US.” Of course this takes advantage of the Fourteenth Amendment which many feel grants citizenship to all children born on American soil.
Anything having to do with population control is being supported by the growing progressive movement as expressed in the United Nations. Abortion on demand for any purpose at any time is being supported by International Planned Parenthood and various organizations supporting extreme birth control. The Center for Biological Diversity connects environmental concerns with the need to control the population through contraception and abortion. Satan has been using abortion and population control to destroy millions of innocent people and babies.
One of the heroes of the militant women’s rights movement is Margaret Sanders, who was a birth control, population control eugenics activist. In her book Women and the New Race she said that birth control “is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives.” Her philosophy fits into the concept of a new world order where only the fit are allowed to live.
Of course the U.N. sponsored campaign concerning climate control also emphasizes depopulating the planet to protect the environment. This movement also blames free market capitalism for destroying the environment. The one-world government movement opposes capitalism in all its forms and pushes socialism with its top-down government control of the economy. A one-world government cannot develop if countries are allowed to control their own economies through free market policies.
The LGBT movement and the radical feminist movement are working with support of the United Nations and everywhere to impose sexual views that de-emphasize traditional marriage and the healthy families that issue from it. The U.N. expert on sexual orientation Vitit Muntarbhorn, when asked about religious freedom when it clashed with LGBT “rights” said, “There are some absolute rights, but there are some that are not absolute.” He continued to say that “freedom of expression and expression of religion are not absolute rights and that they could be curtailed if necessary.” The U.S. Constitution sees religious rights, and freedom of speech as guaranteed, absolute rights but the United Nations has a one-world view that tends to restrict individual expression.
We know that Satan hates godly marriage and godly family life because it fosters lives that honor God and resist the evils of the age. Satan wants his world system to prevail so he blinds the minds of those who don’t believe (2 Cor. 4:4). In their spiritual darkness they are unable to see truth and the One who is truth. Family and marriage must be destroyed for Satan’s one world government to succeed.
Almost everyone I know is aware that the media in our country and the West has tilted very sharply in a progressive direction. I am aware of the conspiracy theories surrounding this but the evidence I have is what I see happening every day in the news. There is no doubt that the major news outlets are primarily liberal in their approach and seriously opposed to Donald Trump and his policies. He stands for everything the left opposes. Fake news and biased news is the norm because emotion has won out over thoughtful debate and the media is much to blame. If people are more moved by emotion than by facts, the media will be happy to satisfy them. This sets the stage for successful propaganda that eliminates a genuine search for truth. That falls right into the agenda of the king of liars, Satan himself.
So much more can be said on this subject. I have not mentioned the progressive takeover of our public schools and universities. Our young people have been being indoctrinated for over fifty years in the socialist mind set. This was proven by the surprising support for Bernie Sanders in the presidential election. Leftist teacher’s unions have taken over much of the public school system and the universities have become indoctrination centers for the propagation of the ideas presented above that are leading toward a one world order. Our schools have fostered the emotion-based thinking that deemphasizes thoughtful, fact-based debate. Many man-in-the-street interviews have revealed that many of our young people have never been taught to analyze through research but simple believe what appeals to their emotions. They have become targets for effective propaganda.
The concept of patriotic American exceptionalism has given way to America bashing and a new-world view. The stage is being set for the greatest nation in the world to be relegated to the back burners of history. Barring intervention from God, which may have begun in this last election, the country is sliding toward cultural devastation.
Even the Catholic Church has contributed to his paradigm shift. The pope has made climate change, abortion, same sex marriage and anti-capitalism ideas part of his agenda. It is well-known that Soros backed the selection of the current pope and has considerable influence over him.
Much more could be said but I think I have made it clear that Satan has been very busy and has succeeded in setting the stage for his one-world plan. Now that we know that Satan is a master planner and that he has a final goal for world victory, how should we conduct ourselves as followers of Christ? After years of seeking God’s perfect will I have come to the following conclusions:
The battle is on and increasing in intensity. We must run to the battle not away from it. If you are a member of the church Jesus is building, you are also an army of victorious soldiers who know the battle is won because Jesus has already overcome the enemy (John 16:33). This will require the love, unity and power of God to accomplish. Religion is not the answer. A renewed, revitalized, Spirit led body of Christ, under His command, will provide the answer. “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” (Eph. 6:10).
Lloyd Gardner
February 11, 2017
When one uses the term “one-world order” people cry “conspiracy, conspiracy!” My answer to that is clear: yes there is a massive world-wide conspiracy by the one who is called the god of this world. Many sophisticated Christians have stopped believing in God and Satan because it is politically incorrect in today’s deluded culture. Those who cry “conspiracy” often do so to cover up a real conspiratorial agenda. Satan bombards society with this “conspiracy” phobia so that when people hear about his plan they will dismiss it outright.
Satan’s conspiracy is spelled out in the Bible for every seeking eye to see. Just as God has an eternal purpose with a plan, Satan has a purpose and a plan and he is working it feverishly. His plan is to establish an end time world government aimed at thwarting God’s purpose for His church and the end time conclusion of this age. The book of Revelation clearly shows that this government will include a world government that will institute his plan in the form of a false Christ who will present himself in the last days (see Rev. 12-18). It is described in the book of Daniel as the fourth beast that is dreadful, terrible, amazingly strong that destroys everything in the last days plunder of planet earth (7:7, 8).
So how is his plan being implemented in current real world events? It is becoming clear that the election of Donald Trump and the ascendance of conservative policies has stirred up the demonic hornet's nest. His election has exposed the once hidden agenda of leftist groups collaborating to bring about a one-world government. The world is obviously choosing sides and the choices are God’s plan versus the plan of the enemy. God’s plan is a victorious prepared spiritual bride (Eph. 1-4; 5:25-27; John 17:22, 23; Rev. 12:11; 19:7-20) while Satan’s plan is world dominance through the release of his evil into society.
We see demon-like opposition toward everything President Trump says or does. Much of the opposition is couched in the accusation of racism. This allows the progressive left to use immigration as a false battering ram against Trump’s policies. Satan’s strategy is to flood western civilization with his hateful, destructive Islamist religion to force a one-world, open borders invasion of western nations. This seems to be the root of the bitter battle against Trump’s temporary travel ban from seven violent countries while the country improves its vetting system so that the flood of immigrants is not successful.
The world-wide open-borders movement funded by George Soros and Germany, under Angela Merkel, has created turmoil over the flood of immigrants into the country. In 2015 Germany admitted 890,000 migrants and is now fighting hard to control its borders. Much of the rest of Europe is reacting to the massive invasion from Muslim countries. Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is speeding up his open borders, welcome-to- immigrants policy and appears to be very supportive of Muslims.
Soros funds Marxist, anarchist radical groups that create havoc such as we saw recently in the U.C. Berkeley riot over a conservative speaker. Research in one article uncovered 187 organizations funded by Soros that are opposing Trump often using violence. Violence and lawlessness are clear biblical signs of the end time strategy of the enemy. In fact his antichrist will be called the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:1-7). Lawlessness provides an environment for the propagation of his ideas and programs for one world control. Donald Trump’s call for “law and order” runs completely counter to Satan’s plan.
Islam, in its fundamental form, is a one-world-government religion recommending Muslim control of all governments by force (see Sura 3 verse 28; Sura 2, verse 191; and Sura 48, verse 13 as examples). It is a handy tool of the coming antichrist. Recent terrorist attacks make their mission clear. Islam has developed an “emigrate and propagate” policy whereby they migrate into a country and have as many children as possible to spread Islam. This is happening in a drastic way in Europe. As one example, the New York hotel Marmara Manhattan offers an “exclusive package for new mothers who would like to give birth in the US.” Of course this takes advantage of the Fourteenth Amendment which many feel grants citizenship to all children born on American soil.
Anything having to do with population control is being supported by the growing progressive movement as expressed in the United Nations. Abortion on demand for any purpose at any time is being supported by International Planned Parenthood and various organizations supporting extreme birth control. The Center for Biological Diversity connects environmental concerns with the need to control the population through contraception and abortion. Satan has been using abortion and population control to destroy millions of innocent people and babies.
One of the heroes of the militant women’s rights movement is Margaret Sanders, who was a birth control, population control eugenics activist. In her book Women and the New Race she said that birth control “is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives.” Her philosophy fits into the concept of a new world order where only the fit are allowed to live.
Of course the U.N. sponsored campaign concerning climate control also emphasizes depopulating the planet to protect the environment. This movement also blames free market capitalism for destroying the environment. The one-world government movement opposes capitalism in all its forms and pushes socialism with its top-down government control of the economy. A one-world government cannot develop if countries are allowed to control their own economies through free market policies.
The LGBT movement and the radical feminist movement are working with support of the United Nations and everywhere to impose sexual views that de-emphasize traditional marriage and the healthy families that issue from it. The U.N. expert on sexual orientation Vitit Muntarbhorn, when asked about religious freedom when it clashed with LGBT “rights” said, “There are some absolute rights, but there are some that are not absolute.” He continued to say that “freedom of expression and expression of religion are not absolute rights and that they could be curtailed if necessary.” The U.S. Constitution sees religious rights, and freedom of speech as guaranteed, absolute rights but the United Nations has a one-world view that tends to restrict individual expression.
We know that Satan hates godly marriage and godly family life because it fosters lives that honor God and resist the evils of the age. Satan wants his world system to prevail so he blinds the minds of those who don’t believe (2 Cor. 4:4). In their spiritual darkness they are unable to see truth and the One who is truth. Family and marriage must be destroyed for Satan’s one world government to succeed.
Almost everyone I know is aware that the media in our country and the West has tilted very sharply in a progressive direction. I am aware of the conspiracy theories surrounding this but the evidence I have is what I see happening every day in the news. There is no doubt that the major news outlets are primarily liberal in their approach and seriously opposed to Donald Trump and his policies. He stands for everything the left opposes. Fake news and biased news is the norm because emotion has won out over thoughtful debate and the media is much to blame. If people are more moved by emotion than by facts, the media will be happy to satisfy them. This sets the stage for successful propaganda that eliminates a genuine search for truth. That falls right into the agenda of the king of liars, Satan himself.
So much more can be said on this subject. I have not mentioned the progressive takeover of our public schools and universities. Our young people have been being indoctrinated for over fifty years in the socialist mind set. This was proven by the surprising support for Bernie Sanders in the presidential election. Leftist teacher’s unions have taken over much of the public school system and the universities have become indoctrination centers for the propagation of the ideas presented above that are leading toward a one world order. Our schools have fostered the emotion-based thinking that deemphasizes thoughtful, fact-based debate. Many man-in-the-street interviews have revealed that many of our young people have never been taught to analyze through research but simple believe what appeals to their emotions. They have become targets for effective propaganda.
The concept of patriotic American exceptionalism has given way to America bashing and a new-world view. The stage is being set for the greatest nation in the world to be relegated to the back burners of history. Barring intervention from God, which may have begun in this last election, the country is sliding toward cultural devastation.
Even the Catholic Church has contributed to his paradigm shift. The pope has made climate change, abortion, same sex marriage and anti-capitalism ideas part of his agenda. It is well-known that Soros backed the selection of the current pope and has considerable influence over him.
Much more could be said but I think I have made it clear that Satan has been very busy and has succeeded in setting the stage for his one-world plan. Now that we know that Satan is a master planner and that he has a final goal for world victory, how should we conduct ourselves as followers of Christ? After years of seeking God’s perfect will I have come to the following conclusions:
- It’s time to stop going to church and start being the church. Only as we conduct ourselves as the corporate body of Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit will we be able to withstand the world plan of the enemy. It is not isolated Christians who win the victory over Satan but the united, functioning body of Christ (Matt. 16:18, 19; Eph. 1:22, 23; 3:16-19; 4:16; Rom. 16:20; Rev. 12:11; 19:11-19). Being the church means loving one another, committing to one another, sharing truth, praying with and for one another and functioning in gifts of the Spirit to build one another up spiritually. Satan can defeat isolated, independent believers but the corporate, loving, unified body of Christ defeats him.
- We must understand our authority in Christ over Satan and his demonic forces. If we don’t understand and walk in our spiritual authority we are sitting ducks for the enemy (Matt. 16:18, 19; 1 John 4:4).
- It is important to know that Satan has an ultimate plan and be alert with other believers to the signs of its development. We can’t allow ourselves to be slowly sucked into his world system but must seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit about how to conduct ourselves in this world. We are admonished that we should “not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). That settles it! If we are in love with this world then God’s love is not in us. This world lies in the power of the evil one (1John 5:19).
- “Guard your heart diligently for from it flow the springs of life” (Pro. 4:23; TLV). The plan Satan has devised is aimed at capturing your heart and the hearts of all people. Guard your heart. Watch over it like a sentry. Do not let anything enter that Satan can use to corrupt your life. Satan is bombarding us with his nature through television, the internet, commerce, and much more. We must be on the guard and seek wisdom from God. The “springs of life” flow from our hearts so we must be sure that they are protected. I believe the time is coming when Christians will have to make some serious decisions about what they see, hear and read because of the devious nature of Satan’s strategies.
- Pray as the Spirit leads. We tend to cower at the cultural avalanche perpetrated by Satan thinking that our prayers are not effective. We must never forget that God has partnered with His church for His will and purpose. We are called to join Him in declaring His name, His kingdom and His will to dying society (Matt. 6:9, 10). We forget that we have been given authority over the enemy and his plans (Matt. 16:18, 19). Prayer is essential to the exercise of that authority. Pray against Satan’s plans and in cooperation with the will of God.
The battle is on and increasing in intensity. We must run to the battle not away from it. If you are a member of the church Jesus is building, you are also an army of victorious soldiers who know the battle is won because Jesus has already overcome the enemy (John 16:33). This will require the love, unity and power of God to accomplish. Religion is not the answer. A renewed, revitalized, Spirit led body of Christ, under His command, will provide the answer. “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” (Eph. 6:10).
He is a murderer
Lloyd Gardner
February 3, 2017
Jesus said this about Satan: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies “ (John 8: 44).
In John’s Gospel He said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Describing Satan as the thief who breaks into the sheepfold, he says his only purposes are to steal, kill and destroy. This clearly defines Satan as a thief, murderer and destroyer.
It is clear from this statement that Satan hates humanity and will do everything in his power to kill as many people as he can. The word used for “murderer” by Jesus means literally “mankiller.” He wants to kill humans because he knows that God created humanity as the means of attaining His eternal purpose and through that purpose to defeat Satan.
I am not saying that Satan has ultimate authority over humanity. The book of Job makes it clear that he can only do what God permits him to do or what ill-informed unbelievers allow of him (Job 1:6; 2:2-6). Since his victory in the Garden of Eden he has gained limited authority over unbelievers or even believers who enter unbelief. Through the cross and resurrection Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him” (Col. 2:15).
The only way Satan has any authority over us is if we hand it to him in the same way that Adam and Eve handed him their lives through disobedience. Just before His arrest He said to the disciples, “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30). Satan had nothing in Christ because Christ, as a man, had not given Satan any openings in His life. Satan could not touch Him until He voluntarily laid down His life for us.
So he uses what we give him to kill and destroy. What have we as a nation given him? We have given him our inner cities by allowing them to be run by the very ideology that uses them instead of seeking solutions to their rescue them from the death and destruction. We have allowed them to suffer in frustration as gangs rise up in their midst and kill and destroy out of hate and selfishness. The result: mankilling, or murder at the hand of the enemy. The 2016 death toll in Chicago alone was 746 people. That is multiplied across the country in our inner cities. The enemy’s plan is to destroy the family, take the fathers out of the lives of the children, creating a backlash of bitterness resulting in death and destruction.
Moved by the author of death, we have allowed abortion as a nation to take the lives of millions of unborn children. The result: almost 52 million abortions of the unborn since 1970. One half of all pregnancies in America are unintended. 40 percent of those babies are aborted. Most of this is happening in the inner cities mentioned above. The demise of family values has resulted in millions of unintended pregnancies and Roe vs. Wade has legally given women permission to kill these unwanted babies. This is the work of Satan who hates humanity and rejoices at the death of the unborn. He is a murderer and death is his aim.
Tragically, we have come to see much of this destruction through the limited prism of politics. Politics is merely man’s feeble attempt to explain the spiritual phenomena behind what we see in the physical realm. It is important but it is not the final answer. The final answer is found in Christ and His word and in the courage of Christians willing to step into the spiritual arena and be counted as warriors in this spiritual war. There will be many battles in the coming months and years and it may appear that some have a political solution but be assured that the real victory is found in the hearts and prayers of faithful believers.
President Donald Trump is merely a man but he may well be a man in God’s hands. That would appear to be the case as we see the demonic hatred and loathing revulsion of him from the left end of the political spectrum. At the women’s march in D.C. on January 23 there were vicious calls of death and destruction coming from some of the leaders. I will not repeat much of their vitriol but it is recorded for all to see. This is not the behavior of sincere believers in a particular political position but the demonically stirred-up chaos of the enemy. We are irresponsible if we do not see this.
It should not surprise us that Trump’s promises in regard to the inner city and the abortion industry would stir up this vitriol against him. His critics use other issues to try to deflect from the fact that their criticism is founded in spiritual phenomena that the secularists do not recognize. Denial of Satan does not make him go away but simply enables him to do his dirty work without being blamed. He is the fountainhead of all evil and death is his ultimate goal.
How shall we then live? We who follow Christ must be aware that One who is greater than Satan dwells within us and He has secured the victory over him (1 John 4:4; 1 Cor. 15:54). We must know that we are partnered with God for His purpose and that He calls us into fellowship with Him to pray for and seek His will in all things. Amazingly, He has chosen to use our prayers and testimony to further His will. That should humble us and stir us up to rise to our places as instruments of God’s righteousness (2 Cor. 5:19, 20).
If you are a true follower of Christ you are the devil’s worst enemy. He hates you but in Christ he has no authority over you. You have authority over him through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Know who you are in Christ. Know Him in all your ways. Let Him lead you into the fullness of His will and purpose in these exciting days.
Lloyd Gardner
February 3, 2017
Jesus said this about Satan: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies “ (John 8: 44).
In John’s Gospel He said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Describing Satan as the thief who breaks into the sheepfold, he says his only purposes are to steal, kill and destroy. This clearly defines Satan as a thief, murderer and destroyer.
It is clear from this statement that Satan hates humanity and will do everything in his power to kill as many people as he can. The word used for “murderer” by Jesus means literally “mankiller.” He wants to kill humans because he knows that God created humanity as the means of attaining His eternal purpose and through that purpose to defeat Satan.
I am not saying that Satan has ultimate authority over humanity. The book of Job makes it clear that he can only do what God permits him to do or what ill-informed unbelievers allow of him (Job 1:6; 2:2-6). Since his victory in the Garden of Eden he has gained limited authority over unbelievers or even believers who enter unbelief. Through the cross and resurrection Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him” (Col. 2:15).
The only way Satan has any authority over us is if we hand it to him in the same way that Adam and Eve handed him their lives through disobedience. Just before His arrest He said to the disciples, “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30). Satan had nothing in Christ because Christ, as a man, had not given Satan any openings in His life. Satan could not touch Him until He voluntarily laid down His life for us.
So he uses what we give him to kill and destroy. What have we as a nation given him? We have given him our inner cities by allowing them to be run by the very ideology that uses them instead of seeking solutions to their rescue them from the death and destruction. We have allowed them to suffer in frustration as gangs rise up in their midst and kill and destroy out of hate and selfishness. The result: mankilling, or murder at the hand of the enemy. The 2016 death toll in Chicago alone was 746 people. That is multiplied across the country in our inner cities. The enemy’s plan is to destroy the family, take the fathers out of the lives of the children, creating a backlash of bitterness resulting in death and destruction.
Moved by the author of death, we have allowed abortion as a nation to take the lives of millions of unborn children. The result: almost 52 million abortions of the unborn since 1970. One half of all pregnancies in America are unintended. 40 percent of those babies are aborted. Most of this is happening in the inner cities mentioned above. The demise of family values has resulted in millions of unintended pregnancies and Roe vs. Wade has legally given women permission to kill these unwanted babies. This is the work of Satan who hates humanity and rejoices at the death of the unborn. He is a murderer and death is his aim.
Tragically, we have come to see much of this destruction through the limited prism of politics. Politics is merely man’s feeble attempt to explain the spiritual phenomena behind what we see in the physical realm. It is important but it is not the final answer. The final answer is found in Christ and His word and in the courage of Christians willing to step into the spiritual arena and be counted as warriors in this spiritual war. There will be many battles in the coming months and years and it may appear that some have a political solution but be assured that the real victory is found in the hearts and prayers of faithful believers.
President Donald Trump is merely a man but he may well be a man in God’s hands. That would appear to be the case as we see the demonic hatred and loathing revulsion of him from the left end of the political spectrum. At the women’s march in D.C. on January 23 there were vicious calls of death and destruction coming from some of the leaders. I will not repeat much of their vitriol but it is recorded for all to see. This is not the behavior of sincere believers in a particular political position but the demonically stirred-up chaos of the enemy. We are irresponsible if we do not see this.
It should not surprise us that Trump’s promises in regard to the inner city and the abortion industry would stir up this vitriol against him. His critics use other issues to try to deflect from the fact that their criticism is founded in spiritual phenomena that the secularists do not recognize. Denial of Satan does not make him go away but simply enables him to do his dirty work without being blamed. He is the fountainhead of all evil and death is his ultimate goal.
How shall we then live? We who follow Christ must be aware that One who is greater than Satan dwells within us and He has secured the victory over him (1 John 4:4; 1 Cor. 15:54). We must know that we are partnered with God for His purpose and that He calls us into fellowship with Him to pray for and seek His will in all things. Amazingly, He has chosen to use our prayers and testimony to further His will. That should humble us and stir us up to rise to our places as instruments of God’s righteousness (2 Cor. 5:19, 20).
If you are a true follower of Christ you are the devil’s worst enemy. He hates you but in Christ he has no authority over you. You have authority over him through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Know who you are in Christ. Know Him in all your ways. Let Him lead you into the fullness of His will and purpose in these exciting days.
Strategies of the Enemy: He is a Master Organizer
Lloyd Gardner
January 17, 2017
Some people mistakenly think of Satan as a purposeless, bumbling idiot who just wanders around making trouble for people. The truth is he is a master organizer who knows exactly what he is doing and he does it with accurate precision. He has an army of spiritual forces to put his plans into practice. Paul tells us:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:10-12).
The word for “schemes” in this passage is the word from which we get the word “method.” It means “methods of operation based on a settled plan” (Thayer p. 395). The word implies that a settled, well-thought-out plan is the basis of the methods used. In other words it is an organized plan with specific strategies that lead to certain methods. Satan is extremely intelligent and we should always keep this in mind as we follow Paul’s admonition in this passage to put on the full armor of God in our efforts to “stand firm” against his plans. Satan enlists the help of people who come under the manipulation of his army of demonic forces. Often they think they are doing good things but in the end they are serving the king of darkness.
It does not take a great theologian or prophetic expert to see that there is a growing war between the forces of God and the forces of the enemy. Imagine Satan with his demonic generals strategizing around a table in a war room at Satan’s headquarters. It is just this kind of war. He means business because his very life depends on being victorious in the battles of this spiritual war.
In case you are one of the doubters, look at the scene unfolding in America in the last few decades. The enemy’s strategy involves gaining control of the schools and universities and in turn the minds of our young people. He targeted the courts of our land and began to distort the laws based on constitutional standards. He set out to gain the minds of many in leadership who would do his bidding whether they were in the Whitehouse or the Capitol, the Supreme Court of the land or other positions of leadership.
It has been a slow but very real transformation that started slowly but accelerated in recent years to the point that most of us were astonished at his brashness. It became a clear battle between secular forces and the forces of righteousness. Secular ideas about creation, the origin of humanity, marriage, homosexuality, the existence of God, and the Bible, were winning out everywhere.
Many deny this simple truth but it is unmistakable. Many of the positions taken by the liberal-secular left make no sense outside of the notion that there is a spiritual war being waged. Why would an entire political establishment be so adamantly for the killing of unborn children? Why is there such a propagandizing of the origin of man through the process of evolution? Why such a ridiculous, unscientific stand against the common sense, natural understanding of sexual-orientation and marriage? These and many other issues prove that this is a spiritual battle for the hearts of humanity not just political disagreement.
People bemoan the fact that our leaders are so polarized but they are polarized because there are two forces at work that tend to pull us in opposite directions -- the force of righteousness and the force of unrighteousness -- the force of evil versus Godliness -- Satan and his demons against God and His people. One extreme gets its truth from an atheistic mindset and the other is founded in the long-standing principles of the Bible which was the inspiration behind the Constitution and its basic principles. No wonder the left tries to stretch and destroy the clear words of the Constitution as well as the words of the Bible.
“Brother, you’re getting into politics,” some will object. If you think that the master of organization is not involved in politics you are tragically mistaken. This is one of his favorite venues. He has been involved since he inspired the building of the Tower of Babel under Nimrod, the master politician. He gets into the minds and hearts of those whom he inspires to do his bidding. His final push against God will be the formation of a political organization headed by a powerful person inspired by him (Rev. 13-17). Oh yes, he is involved in politics!
We see this battle in the vitriolic reaction to the election of Donald Trump. Some of it can only be explained from a spiritual perspective. Never in history has the opposition reacted so irrationally to an election. As Donald Trump prepares for his inauguration these forces of evil are being organized to violently protest the inauguration of the new president. A group called DisruptJ20 vows to “shut down the Inauguration ceremonies and any related celebrations and to delegitimize his presidency.” College students are planning campus walkouts. A women’s march is planned. Al Sharpton is organizing his “we shall not be moved” march. Michael Moore plans “100 days of protest against the Trump administration.” Celebrities are boycotting.
Project Veritas has covertly filmed plans by a DC anti-fascist group planning massive disruptions using gas released into the duct systems of buildings being used in the inauguration celebrations. On and on the story explodes into what can only be described as a demonic plot. It certainly is not taking the shape of protesters planning to use the First Amendment right of peaceful assembly and protest. It has the makings of the one who comes to “steal, destroy and kill” and he is very good at what he does.
So what does this mean for us? Paul makes it clear:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God… And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view,be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints (Eph. 6:12, 13, 17, 18).
It is a spiritual battle won or lost on the spiritual plane through prayer. Some Christians may be called to do other things but above all we are to pray because in prayer we wield the sword of the Spirit. The verse above could be translated, “take the sword of the Spirit praying…” In other words prayer is the means that we take up the spiritual sword of God’s word.
So, pray brothers and sisters. Don’t be passive during these crucial days. Ask God what you are to do and then do as he says. What’s happening on earth is a result of God’s people praying. Remember Jesus’ admonition to pray “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). Our prayers set heaven into motion. Our prayers move the hand of God.
Lloyd Gardner
January 17, 2017
Some people mistakenly think of Satan as a purposeless, bumbling idiot who just wanders around making trouble for people. The truth is he is a master organizer who knows exactly what he is doing and he does it with accurate precision. He has an army of spiritual forces to put his plans into practice. Paul tells us:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:10-12).
The word for “schemes” in this passage is the word from which we get the word “method.” It means “methods of operation based on a settled plan” (Thayer p. 395). The word implies that a settled, well-thought-out plan is the basis of the methods used. In other words it is an organized plan with specific strategies that lead to certain methods. Satan is extremely intelligent and we should always keep this in mind as we follow Paul’s admonition in this passage to put on the full armor of God in our efforts to “stand firm” against his plans. Satan enlists the help of people who come under the manipulation of his army of demonic forces. Often they think they are doing good things but in the end they are serving the king of darkness.
It does not take a great theologian or prophetic expert to see that there is a growing war between the forces of God and the forces of the enemy. Imagine Satan with his demonic generals strategizing around a table in a war room at Satan’s headquarters. It is just this kind of war. He means business because his very life depends on being victorious in the battles of this spiritual war.
In case you are one of the doubters, look at the scene unfolding in America in the last few decades. The enemy’s strategy involves gaining control of the schools and universities and in turn the minds of our young people. He targeted the courts of our land and began to distort the laws based on constitutional standards. He set out to gain the minds of many in leadership who would do his bidding whether they were in the Whitehouse or the Capitol, the Supreme Court of the land or other positions of leadership.
It has been a slow but very real transformation that started slowly but accelerated in recent years to the point that most of us were astonished at his brashness. It became a clear battle between secular forces and the forces of righteousness. Secular ideas about creation, the origin of humanity, marriage, homosexuality, the existence of God, and the Bible, were winning out everywhere.
Many deny this simple truth but it is unmistakable. Many of the positions taken by the liberal-secular left make no sense outside of the notion that there is a spiritual war being waged. Why would an entire political establishment be so adamantly for the killing of unborn children? Why is there such a propagandizing of the origin of man through the process of evolution? Why such a ridiculous, unscientific stand against the common sense, natural understanding of sexual-orientation and marriage? These and many other issues prove that this is a spiritual battle for the hearts of humanity not just political disagreement.
People bemoan the fact that our leaders are so polarized but they are polarized because there are two forces at work that tend to pull us in opposite directions -- the force of righteousness and the force of unrighteousness -- the force of evil versus Godliness -- Satan and his demons against God and His people. One extreme gets its truth from an atheistic mindset and the other is founded in the long-standing principles of the Bible which was the inspiration behind the Constitution and its basic principles. No wonder the left tries to stretch and destroy the clear words of the Constitution as well as the words of the Bible.
“Brother, you’re getting into politics,” some will object. If you think that the master of organization is not involved in politics you are tragically mistaken. This is one of his favorite venues. He has been involved since he inspired the building of the Tower of Babel under Nimrod, the master politician. He gets into the minds and hearts of those whom he inspires to do his bidding. His final push against God will be the formation of a political organization headed by a powerful person inspired by him (Rev. 13-17). Oh yes, he is involved in politics!
We see this battle in the vitriolic reaction to the election of Donald Trump. Some of it can only be explained from a spiritual perspective. Never in history has the opposition reacted so irrationally to an election. As Donald Trump prepares for his inauguration these forces of evil are being organized to violently protest the inauguration of the new president. A group called DisruptJ20 vows to “shut down the Inauguration ceremonies and any related celebrations and to delegitimize his presidency.” College students are planning campus walkouts. A women’s march is planned. Al Sharpton is organizing his “we shall not be moved” march. Michael Moore plans “100 days of protest against the Trump administration.” Celebrities are boycotting.
Project Veritas has covertly filmed plans by a DC anti-fascist group planning massive disruptions using gas released into the duct systems of buildings being used in the inauguration celebrations. On and on the story explodes into what can only be described as a demonic plot. It certainly is not taking the shape of protesters planning to use the First Amendment right of peaceful assembly and protest. It has the makings of the one who comes to “steal, destroy and kill” and he is very good at what he does.
So what does this mean for us? Paul makes it clear:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God… And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view,be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints (Eph. 6:12, 13, 17, 18).
It is a spiritual battle won or lost on the spiritual plane through prayer. Some Christians may be called to do other things but above all we are to pray because in prayer we wield the sword of the Spirit. The verse above could be translated, “take the sword of the Spirit praying…” In other words prayer is the means that we take up the spiritual sword of God’s word.
So, pray brothers and sisters. Don’t be passive during these crucial days. Ask God what you are to do and then do as he says. What’s happening on earth is a result of God’s people praying. Remember Jesus’ admonition to pray “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). Our prayers set heaven into motion. Our prayers move the hand of God.
Strategies of the Enemy: He Bombards us with Worldly Stuff
Lloyd Gardner
December 16, 2016
Satan is called “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4). The word used here for “world” is the word from which we get “eon.” It should be translated “age” or “era.” Satan devises his strategies to fit each age that comes along. He knows how to read the weaknesses of the people of an age as he develops his tactics of deception and destruction.
He has undoubtedly determined that people in America have drifted toward a hyper-materialism in this age of explosive innovation fueled by desire for comfort and convenience. He uses the hearts of men to propagate his ideas in society in his relentless effort to move us away from Christ and His purpose.
He bombards us with “stuff” to keep our minds and hands busy and to guide us in the direction of mindless passivity and complacency or endless busyness that keeps us from matters of the heart. In this time prior to Christmas he has succeeded in replacing the growing sense of celebration of the birth of Christ with a growing desire to get more material things. From Christmas decorations to toys for the children to electronic gadgets for the teenagers to a long list of goodies for the adults, the beat of materialism fills television, the internet, our phones and alluring signs at the mall. We are bombarded with a never-ending barrage of ads to buy this, that or the other thing to meet our Christmas needs.
The enemy certainly does not want people to use these last days of the year to meditate on the meaning of the incarnation of Christ. He wants us thinking about the Xbox One S, a virtual reality system, new updated Iphone, a new car, clothes, shoes, toys, and much more, all the while convincing us that this is all normal human behavior.
But it’s not normal. The word of God reveals what is normal. Consider the following passages:
But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (1 Tim. 6:6-10).
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? (Matt. 6:25).
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money... As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. (Eccl. 5:10, 15).
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; or where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matt. 6:19-21).
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you (Heb. 13:5).
Many other passages on this subject could be included but I think you get the point. The point is that the “stuff” Satan bombards us with through his world system is a monumental distraction to those who desire to follow Christ. Several passages make it clear that we brought nothing into this world and we will take nothing with us. Jesus admonishes us not to store up earthly treasures but to store up treasures in heaven because our heart will be committed to our treasure (Matt. 6).
Now think about that for a minute. All of the people around us who are considered wealthy or prosperous physically will come to their deathbed incapable of taking any of their riches with them. We will all end up physically destitute in terms of earth value. The only value we will carry on into the next realm is spiritual or heavenly treasure. All of the great and rich people left this life with nothing unless they were able to store up eternal wealth. That’s a supernatural portfolio that will last you into the ages to come.
Paul tells us, for example, that “love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8). The word for
“fails” in the Greek means to fall down or descend. Love is a spiritual treasure. It never falls from its perfect state of completion. Someone who has love in his heart possesses an eternal treasure that will never fade. This probably what Jesus meant when he described heavenly treasures saying, “where neither moth nor rust destroys.” Heavenly treasures are not affected by the physical processes of decay and destruction. They never descend or break down from their perfect state. They are forever.
One of my granddaughters was concerned when we moved from our mountain home. She was sad to not be able to come back to the swing in the oak tree and the many other memories of the property. I encouraged her by reminding her that the love she has in her heart for us and the family members was forever. She could take that love with her into heaven. It is a treasure to hold in her heart for eternity. Heavenly treasures are composed of God’s nature. The fruit of the Spirit mentioned in the 5th chapter of Galatians refers to these spiritual treasures: love, joy peace, patience kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self control. These are expressions of the nature of God imparted to us and they will never fail. These fruits come from the Spirit and they will never leave us. They are the treasures we should seek.
We need to ask ourselves what is important in view of eternity instead of what is important to me for my short life on earth. On the other hand I wonder sometimes how many of us really believe that there is a life beyond this one. If we fail to believe that we are spiritual beings who will live forever of course we will put all of our effort into gaining as much “stuff” as we can during our short term in the temporal realm. Even many Christians live as if there is no life after this one. The word of God and the Holy Spirit speaking to our spirit are profound evidence that a living eternity awaits us. So it’s time to start living accordingly.
Paul says it this way: “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:1, 2). This life on earth lasts only a few short decades at most. We have been raised up with Christ and should seek the things that are above, the things that will be with us forever. The things on earth will wear out and cease to exist. God’s gifts to us are eternal and they can be unwrapped, opened and enjoyed even in this age.
I know this all sounds so super spiritual to most Christians. We have somehow gotten away from the supernatural nature of this life we live. Satan’s strategy is to keep us earthbound and subject to earth’s rules and religious compromise. God’s desire is to lift us up into the heavenlies and give us the foretaste of His glorious inheritance that awaits us (Eph. 1:11-14).
We need the enlightenment that comes from the Holy Spirit to see what we possess in Christ. Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers “...that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18). Many of us are so weighed down and stressed out by the pursuit of the “stuff” of this age that we have lost track of what we possess as our inheritance with Christ. I inherited almost no riches in this life from my parents but I look forward to “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
And all of that inheritance is made available to us through the redemptive work of the One we celebrate on Christmas day. Perhaps it’s time to start making that day about Him rather than the “stuff.” Paul reached the point in his life when he was content with what he possessed. He wrote, “...for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need (Phil. 4:11, 12). I want to arrive at this same place that Paul reached. I want to be content.
Jesus was aware of the challenge we face in Satan’s world of “stuff.” He says to us today, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Matt. 6:25; ESV). The Greek word translated “anxious” here means to be pulled in different directions. To be anxious is to to be pulled by the enemy in many directions creating stress and worry and distracting us from following Christ. We need to learn from Jesus by turning things over to Him that pull us in many directions. This can only happen as we recognize the strategy of the enemy and see Jesus as the One who can bring rest and peace.
Jesus was born in a stable, laid in a manger, raised in a humble home in Nazareth and His life mission led to His death. We should never allow ourselves to selfishly celebrate His birth, life or death. Mary and I are learning to be content with what we possess while we tell the story of His glorious riches. You have one life to live and one day you will die. How are you investing the riches He has provided? Ponder that question and may God give you grace to find the answer.
From Mary:
Lloyd asked me to read this message and see if God wanted me to share anything.
These are my thoughts and my heart: Thinking about Christmas always takes me many places especially to a place at His feet. I find myself getting so distracted by plans, gifts, food, traditions of our family, etc. Not that we are not to do them, but it is too easy for things to get in the way of Him--the reason we are celebrating. My eyes and my time are too quickly given to other things. This year in particular, the Holy Spirit has been tapping me on the shoulder more than ever when I am being moved by the other things that take my time and attention.
I desire more of Him than ever before. I see my humanity more than ever as well and am sad to see I still get distracted so easily. Father, please remind me through Your Holy Spirit to be alert to Your word and quick be obedient to Your voice. Here is my heart Lord; that is my gift to you in this Christmas season and always. May I bow my heart and life to You and keep my spiritual eyes looking at eternity.
This song is my prayer for all of us. Sing it with me…
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace!
May His glory and grace brighten your way in the coming days.
Merry Christmas,
Mary
Lloyd Gardner
December 16, 2016
Satan is called “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4). The word used here for “world” is the word from which we get “eon.” It should be translated “age” or “era.” Satan devises his strategies to fit each age that comes along. He knows how to read the weaknesses of the people of an age as he develops his tactics of deception and destruction.
He has undoubtedly determined that people in America have drifted toward a hyper-materialism in this age of explosive innovation fueled by desire for comfort and convenience. He uses the hearts of men to propagate his ideas in society in his relentless effort to move us away from Christ and His purpose.
He bombards us with “stuff” to keep our minds and hands busy and to guide us in the direction of mindless passivity and complacency or endless busyness that keeps us from matters of the heart. In this time prior to Christmas he has succeeded in replacing the growing sense of celebration of the birth of Christ with a growing desire to get more material things. From Christmas decorations to toys for the children to electronic gadgets for the teenagers to a long list of goodies for the adults, the beat of materialism fills television, the internet, our phones and alluring signs at the mall. We are bombarded with a never-ending barrage of ads to buy this, that or the other thing to meet our Christmas needs.
The enemy certainly does not want people to use these last days of the year to meditate on the meaning of the incarnation of Christ. He wants us thinking about the Xbox One S, a virtual reality system, new updated Iphone, a new car, clothes, shoes, toys, and much more, all the while convincing us that this is all normal human behavior.
But it’s not normal. The word of God reveals what is normal. Consider the following passages:
But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (1 Tim. 6:6-10).
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? (Matt. 6:25).
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money... As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. (Eccl. 5:10, 15).
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; or where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matt. 6:19-21).
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you (Heb. 13:5).
Many other passages on this subject could be included but I think you get the point. The point is that the “stuff” Satan bombards us with through his world system is a monumental distraction to those who desire to follow Christ. Several passages make it clear that we brought nothing into this world and we will take nothing with us. Jesus admonishes us not to store up earthly treasures but to store up treasures in heaven because our heart will be committed to our treasure (Matt. 6).
Now think about that for a minute. All of the people around us who are considered wealthy or prosperous physically will come to their deathbed incapable of taking any of their riches with them. We will all end up physically destitute in terms of earth value. The only value we will carry on into the next realm is spiritual or heavenly treasure. All of the great and rich people left this life with nothing unless they were able to store up eternal wealth. That’s a supernatural portfolio that will last you into the ages to come.
Paul tells us, for example, that “love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8). The word for
“fails” in the Greek means to fall down or descend. Love is a spiritual treasure. It never falls from its perfect state of completion. Someone who has love in his heart possesses an eternal treasure that will never fade. This probably what Jesus meant when he described heavenly treasures saying, “where neither moth nor rust destroys.” Heavenly treasures are not affected by the physical processes of decay and destruction. They never descend or break down from their perfect state. They are forever.
One of my granddaughters was concerned when we moved from our mountain home. She was sad to not be able to come back to the swing in the oak tree and the many other memories of the property. I encouraged her by reminding her that the love she has in her heart for us and the family members was forever. She could take that love with her into heaven. It is a treasure to hold in her heart for eternity. Heavenly treasures are composed of God’s nature. The fruit of the Spirit mentioned in the 5th chapter of Galatians refers to these spiritual treasures: love, joy peace, patience kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self control. These are expressions of the nature of God imparted to us and they will never fail. These fruits come from the Spirit and they will never leave us. They are the treasures we should seek.
We need to ask ourselves what is important in view of eternity instead of what is important to me for my short life on earth. On the other hand I wonder sometimes how many of us really believe that there is a life beyond this one. If we fail to believe that we are spiritual beings who will live forever of course we will put all of our effort into gaining as much “stuff” as we can during our short term in the temporal realm. Even many Christians live as if there is no life after this one. The word of God and the Holy Spirit speaking to our spirit are profound evidence that a living eternity awaits us. So it’s time to start living accordingly.
Paul says it this way: “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:1, 2). This life on earth lasts only a few short decades at most. We have been raised up with Christ and should seek the things that are above, the things that will be with us forever. The things on earth will wear out and cease to exist. God’s gifts to us are eternal and they can be unwrapped, opened and enjoyed even in this age.
I know this all sounds so super spiritual to most Christians. We have somehow gotten away from the supernatural nature of this life we live. Satan’s strategy is to keep us earthbound and subject to earth’s rules and religious compromise. God’s desire is to lift us up into the heavenlies and give us the foretaste of His glorious inheritance that awaits us (Eph. 1:11-14).
We need the enlightenment that comes from the Holy Spirit to see what we possess in Christ. Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers “...that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18). Many of us are so weighed down and stressed out by the pursuit of the “stuff” of this age that we have lost track of what we possess as our inheritance with Christ. I inherited almost no riches in this life from my parents but I look forward to “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
And all of that inheritance is made available to us through the redemptive work of the One we celebrate on Christmas day. Perhaps it’s time to start making that day about Him rather than the “stuff.” Paul reached the point in his life when he was content with what he possessed. He wrote, “...for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need (Phil. 4:11, 12). I want to arrive at this same place that Paul reached. I want to be content.
Jesus was aware of the challenge we face in Satan’s world of “stuff.” He says to us today, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Matt. 6:25; ESV). The Greek word translated “anxious” here means to be pulled in different directions. To be anxious is to to be pulled by the enemy in many directions creating stress and worry and distracting us from following Christ. We need to learn from Jesus by turning things over to Him that pull us in many directions. This can only happen as we recognize the strategy of the enemy and see Jesus as the One who can bring rest and peace.
Jesus was born in a stable, laid in a manger, raised in a humble home in Nazareth and His life mission led to His death. We should never allow ourselves to selfishly celebrate His birth, life or death. Mary and I are learning to be content with what we possess while we tell the story of His glorious riches. You have one life to live and one day you will die. How are you investing the riches He has provided? Ponder that question and may God give you grace to find the answer.
From Mary:
Lloyd asked me to read this message and see if God wanted me to share anything.
These are my thoughts and my heart: Thinking about Christmas always takes me many places especially to a place at His feet. I find myself getting so distracted by plans, gifts, food, traditions of our family, etc. Not that we are not to do them, but it is too easy for things to get in the way of Him--the reason we are celebrating. My eyes and my time are too quickly given to other things. This year in particular, the Holy Spirit has been tapping me on the shoulder more than ever when I am being moved by the other things that take my time and attention.
I desire more of Him than ever before. I see my humanity more than ever as well and am sad to see I still get distracted so easily. Father, please remind me through Your Holy Spirit to be alert to Your word and quick be obedient to Your voice. Here is my heart Lord; that is my gift to you in this Christmas season and always. May I bow my heart and life to You and keep my spiritual eyes looking at eternity.
This song is my prayer for all of us. Sing it with me…
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace!
May His glory and grace brighten your way in the coming days.
Merry Christmas,
Mary
He Accuses and then Condemns
Lloyd Gardner
December 5, 2016
Satan is called the accuser of the brethren and it is said that he “accuses them day and night before our God” (Rev. 12:10). As in the case of Job he has authority because of man’s sin to accuse us before God. His strategy is to accuse believers so they will not see their exalted position at the right hand of God (Eph. 2:6). He knows the Redeemer has paid the price for our sins but he doesn’t want us to know and live in the wonder of our redemption. And of course, he doesn’t want unbelievers to know anything about the need of redemption. His accusing strategy is meant to push us down and keep us under his power.
Then when he has fully accused us he begins to condemn us in an attempt to nullify our power. He knows the ultimate power that believers possess in Christ so he must accuse and condemn us so that we don’t exercise our authority over him.
The saddest part of this is that he uses fellow believers as his agents of condemnation. Christians who have not learned to walk in freedom and forgiveness tend to do the dirty work of the enemy by accusing other brothers and sisters of things that are covered by the blood of Christ.
Jesus gave us a very simple way to deal with supposed sin that we think we see in a fellow believer:
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church (Matt. 18:15-17).
If you think about it, this is just pure common sense from the Lord. If you have a concern about a brother you should simply go to him one on one and talk to him about it. If he receives you and admits his error the issue is solved. Or perhaps you will find that you are in the wrong. If he refuses to listen, then and only then, do you bring one or two others into the situation so the situation can be judged by others as well. If all of those witnesses agree that the brother has indeed committed a sin and will not confess it so that forgiveness can be given and received, the problem is to be taken to the whole church. The church will then hear the facts and make a determination. A person who will not repent but insists on staying in sin must be cut off from fellowship.
The problem with many Christians is that we simply skip over step one. If we have an issue with someone we go to a third party and shoot off our mouth about the person. This keeps that person from being able to face up to his sin and resolve it privately through confession and forgiveness. People who do this are doing the bidding of Satan. They are accusing someone and spreading the accusation to others without really wanting to solve the problem. Often the real sin is on the part of the one making the accusation because they have allowed their flesh rather than the Spirit to determine things.
Have you ever wondered why the Bible makes such a serious issue about gossip? Gossip is listed in several passages along with other vile sins like murder, deceit, malice and hostility (2Cor. 12:20; 1 Tim. 5:13; Rom. 1:29). The Greek word translated “gossip” means to whisper secretly into someone’s ear. In other words it is secretly using malicious words to try to hurt someone instead of seeking to help them. This is what Satan does. He whispers accusations into the ears of others who will be prone to condemn the person on the wrong end of the accusation. God sees this kind of behavior as taking the side of the enemy in an attempt to condemn and destroy a fellow human being.
Jesus was demonstrating prayer for His disciples and in the prayer he prayed “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” When He finished praying He turned to the disciples and alarmingly said, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:12-15).
Wow! That should send chills down the spine of anyone who takes forgiveness lightly. Our Lord is telling us here that the Father forgives us on the basis of how we have forgiven others. That is a serious statement and you will have to finalize for yourself how serious it is but I assure you that not forgiving people who have offended us completely stifles any relationship we can have with the Father. If you seek to be a true follower of Christ you must begin by forgiving those you are holding in judgment. Do not be an accuser of the brethren. Forgive.
The Lord can never build His church if we harbor unforgiveness in our hearts toward fellow believers. How can love and unity prosper in a context of condemnation and judgment? Paul makes this very clear: “...if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Col. 3:13). So forgiveness is essential to the unity of the body. Lack of forgiveness simply aids the work of the enemy.
So how can we apply this truth to glorify the Lord and keep the enemy from gaining ground in us? First, we must forgive ourselves. The Lord has made it clear to me that if we do not forgive ourselves we make a mockery of the cross. In other words, we are saying that even though Christ died for all our sins, we reject His redemptive sacrifice because we feel our sins are too big. That is a great lie from the Accuser of the brethren.
John reminded us of this truth: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). That settles the issue. If we confess any sins that we know exist in our lives, we simply agree with God concerning them and He forgives the sins and cleanses us of any of the residual effects of the sin. Confession is not groveling. It is simply agreeing with God when the Holy Spirit shines the light on something that needs to be dealt with.
Agree with God that you have sinned and get on with your life in His forgiveness. Don’t let the Accuser continue to dig up covered sin and try to condemn you with it. Remember, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). If you are in Christ there is no condemnation that is valid because Christ has paid the price for it. Any condemnation you are experiencing is coming from another source. You are free in Christ who does not condemn you.
Secondly, commit yourself to treat others the same way. Our standing in redemption is because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It was not our doing. We can take no credit. This means that we cannot allow ourselves to be used by the enemy to accuse others whose sins are also covered by the blood of Jesus. We must walk in forgiveness toward others.
Some make the mistake of thinking that this means we simply overlook sin. No! We recognize sin as it is defined by God but we see this as an opportunity to minister redemption to others rather than as a reason to accuse. If someone has been divorced, for example, we do not compromise on the matter of divorce but minister forgiveness and healing to that person. If someone is a homosexual we do not condemn them while at the same time we hold to the Bible’s clear position that it is a sin. If a young lady becomes pregnant we do not compromise on the matter of having sex outside of marriage but neither do we accuse and condemn her for her sin. We minister reconciliation and forgiveness.
Regardless of the sin, the redemption of Christ is available to all who repent and seek His forgiveness. Many today are making the mistake of trying to render mercy to someone by overlooking the sin and compromising on what the word says about it. People who are involved in sin and will not accept ministry or fellowship are in the Lord’s hands but we do not condemn them. We forgive while continuing to agree with what God says about the sin.
Jesus treated people with forgiveness while not condoning their sin. He said to the women caught in adultery, “Then neither do I condemn you...Go now and leave your life of sin (John 8:11). When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman, at a certain point He said to her “You have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” The woman was set free but she was not liberated with condemnation from Jesus. She was set free by encountering someone who knew her sin and yet did not condemn her but offered her living water and a new life.
Jesus told us that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). Jesus came to save the world from condemnation by showing how to love and by dying for our sins. This is the greatest act of forgiveness the world will ever know and it is Satan’s demise because it removed his weapons of accusation and condemnation.
We are His ambassadors and we have the same mission -- to minister salvation to those who are dying in their sin. We offer hope and freedom to those in chains. Freedom in Christ will bring an answer to their sin. Our job is to deliver them from the accuser and bring them to the One who sets the captives free.
Lloyd Gardner
December 5, 2016
Satan is called the accuser of the brethren and it is said that he “accuses them day and night before our God” (Rev. 12:10). As in the case of Job he has authority because of man’s sin to accuse us before God. His strategy is to accuse believers so they will not see their exalted position at the right hand of God (Eph. 2:6). He knows the Redeemer has paid the price for our sins but he doesn’t want us to know and live in the wonder of our redemption. And of course, he doesn’t want unbelievers to know anything about the need of redemption. His accusing strategy is meant to push us down and keep us under his power.
Then when he has fully accused us he begins to condemn us in an attempt to nullify our power. He knows the ultimate power that believers possess in Christ so he must accuse and condemn us so that we don’t exercise our authority over him.
The saddest part of this is that he uses fellow believers as his agents of condemnation. Christians who have not learned to walk in freedom and forgiveness tend to do the dirty work of the enemy by accusing other brothers and sisters of things that are covered by the blood of Christ.
Jesus gave us a very simple way to deal with supposed sin that we think we see in a fellow believer:
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church (Matt. 18:15-17).
If you think about it, this is just pure common sense from the Lord. If you have a concern about a brother you should simply go to him one on one and talk to him about it. If he receives you and admits his error the issue is solved. Or perhaps you will find that you are in the wrong. If he refuses to listen, then and only then, do you bring one or two others into the situation so the situation can be judged by others as well. If all of those witnesses agree that the brother has indeed committed a sin and will not confess it so that forgiveness can be given and received, the problem is to be taken to the whole church. The church will then hear the facts and make a determination. A person who will not repent but insists on staying in sin must be cut off from fellowship.
The problem with many Christians is that we simply skip over step one. If we have an issue with someone we go to a third party and shoot off our mouth about the person. This keeps that person from being able to face up to his sin and resolve it privately through confession and forgiveness. People who do this are doing the bidding of Satan. They are accusing someone and spreading the accusation to others without really wanting to solve the problem. Often the real sin is on the part of the one making the accusation because they have allowed their flesh rather than the Spirit to determine things.
Have you ever wondered why the Bible makes such a serious issue about gossip? Gossip is listed in several passages along with other vile sins like murder, deceit, malice and hostility (2Cor. 12:20; 1 Tim. 5:13; Rom. 1:29). The Greek word translated “gossip” means to whisper secretly into someone’s ear. In other words it is secretly using malicious words to try to hurt someone instead of seeking to help them. This is what Satan does. He whispers accusations into the ears of others who will be prone to condemn the person on the wrong end of the accusation. God sees this kind of behavior as taking the side of the enemy in an attempt to condemn and destroy a fellow human being.
Jesus was demonstrating prayer for His disciples and in the prayer he prayed “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” When He finished praying He turned to the disciples and alarmingly said, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:12-15).
Wow! That should send chills down the spine of anyone who takes forgiveness lightly. Our Lord is telling us here that the Father forgives us on the basis of how we have forgiven others. That is a serious statement and you will have to finalize for yourself how serious it is but I assure you that not forgiving people who have offended us completely stifles any relationship we can have with the Father. If you seek to be a true follower of Christ you must begin by forgiving those you are holding in judgment. Do not be an accuser of the brethren. Forgive.
The Lord can never build His church if we harbor unforgiveness in our hearts toward fellow believers. How can love and unity prosper in a context of condemnation and judgment? Paul makes this very clear: “...if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Col. 3:13). So forgiveness is essential to the unity of the body. Lack of forgiveness simply aids the work of the enemy.
So how can we apply this truth to glorify the Lord and keep the enemy from gaining ground in us? First, we must forgive ourselves. The Lord has made it clear to me that if we do not forgive ourselves we make a mockery of the cross. In other words, we are saying that even though Christ died for all our sins, we reject His redemptive sacrifice because we feel our sins are too big. That is a great lie from the Accuser of the brethren.
John reminded us of this truth: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). That settles the issue. If we confess any sins that we know exist in our lives, we simply agree with God concerning them and He forgives the sins and cleanses us of any of the residual effects of the sin. Confession is not groveling. It is simply agreeing with God when the Holy Spirit shines the light on something that needs to be dealt with.
Agree with God that you have sinned and get on with your life in His forgiveness. Don’t let the Accuser continue to dig up covered sin and try to condemn you with it. Remember, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). If you are in Christ there is no condemnation that is valid because Christ has paid the price for it. Any condemnation you are experiencing is coming from another source. You are free in Christ who does not condemn you.
Secondly, commit yourself to treat others the same way. Our standing in redemption is because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It was not our doing. We can take no credit. This means that we cannot allow ourselves to be used by the enemy to accuse others whose sins are also covered by the blood of Jesus. We must walk in forgiveness toward others.
Some make the mistake of thinking that this means we simply overlook sin. No! We recognize sin as it is defined by God but we see this as an opportunity to minister redemption to others rather than as a reason to accuse. If someone has been divorced, for example, we do not compromise on the matter of divorce but minister forgiveness and healing to that person. If someone is a homosexual we do not condemn them while at the same time we hold to the Bible’s clear position that it is a sin. If a young lady becomes pregnant we do not compromise on the matter of having sex outside of marriage but neither do we accuse and condemn her for her sin. We minister reconciliation and forgiveness.
Regardless of the sin, the redemption of Christ is available to all who repent and seek His forgiveness. Many today are making the mistake of trying to render mercy to someone by overlooking the sin and compromising on what the word says about it. People who are involved in sin and will not accept ministry or fellowship are in the Lord’s hands but we do not condemn them. We forgive while continuing to agree with what God says about the sin.
Jesus treated people with forgiveness while not condoning their sin. He said to the women caught in adultery, “Then neither do I condemn you...Go now and leave your life of sin (John 8:11). When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman, at a certain point He said to her “You have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” The woman was set free but she was not liberated with condemnation from Jesus. She was set free by encountering someone who knew her sin and yet did not condemn her but offered her living water and a new life.
Jesus told us that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). Jesus came to save the world from condemnation by showing how to love and by dying for our sins. This is the greatest act of forgiveness the world will ever know and it is Satan’s demise because it removed his weapons of accusation and condemnation.
We are His ambassadors and we have the same mission -- to minister salvation to those who are dying in their sin. We offer hope and freedom to those in chains. Freedom in Christ will bring an answer to their sin. Our job is to deliver them from the accuser and bring them to the One who sets the captives free.
Satan’s Strategies: Fear is His Biggest Weapon
Lloyd Gardner
November 30, 2016
Satan is an expert on fear tactics, a master of terrorism. The terrorism we see today through ISIS, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is merely the physical manifestation of his hidden spiritual operation of fear. The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize--to put fear into the hearts of all people connected with the site of its attack. Terrorism relishes the terror experienced at the point of attack but it continues to bask in the collateral fear that is created. The terrorist is like an animal that feeds on fear. It creates its food by stealing, destroying and killing. Satan is the king of fear and anything that creates fear which moves people in the opposite direction of faith.
Take a close look at the society around us. It is increasingly characterized by elements of fear. An evening watching television is an incredible experience in the use of the fear tactic to motivate people to buy certain drugs. You could get cancer, mesothelioma, diabetes, have a stroke, heartburn, aches and pains, nerve pain, or any number of other illnesses and infirmities aimed at scaring you into buying a product. Television is bombarded with regular doses of fear-inducing ads and programs.
The zombies are coming to get you. The vampires are just around the corner. Look out for the chemicals in your food or the impurities in your water. Buy this security device to protect yourself from intruders. Don’t go out at night. Protect your children from abduction and molestation. War in the Middle East and everywhere. On and on it goes as the enemy of the God of peace brings turmoil into the lives of unsuspecting people who are unaware that they are being set up to fear their own shadow and reject the God of power, love and a sound mind.
The bottom line on this subject is the words of John: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:18). This is a sobering statement for those who are often dominated and controlled by fear. John is telling us that the presence of fear proves that love have not been perfected in us because perfected love casts out all fear.
The word translated “perfect” here carries the meaning of complete. It does not mean perfect in the sense of sinless perfection. Love can reach a place of complete development in our lives so that fear is completely destroyed. In verse twelve of the same passage John says “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” So, when this love is completely matured in us, fear will be defeated. Until that time, Satan can use fear to control us and keep us from walking in faith.
Fear is actually believing the enemy. It is allowing what Satan is doing or saying to affect how we live our lives. The opposite of fear is faith. Faith is believing God. It is the outgrowth of hearing what God says and taking Him at His word. But keep in mind that faith works through love (Gal. 5:6). Love is the breeding ground of faith. As we love God and one another love is perfected in us and faith grows from that. As we love we are able to hear God fully and faith flourishes in that environment.
I am a two time cancer survivor. I know what it feels like to be confronted with overwhelming fear. But I also know the peace that comes from finally hearing from God and experiencing the faith that overcomes. I only speak of this in the context of how God showed up so miraculously in my life and spoke to me His loving words of victory. I know that fear dissipates in the atmosphere of faith working through love.
Perhaps Satan’s favorite strategy is to get people into fear. This way he is able to crush their faith and diminish their love. Fear is his invention. He uses it to influence people to believe in him and his destructive ways. To overcome fear we must immerse ourselves in a loving community of believers who are growing in their love and their faith. This is not a battle to be fought in isolation. The apostle John wrote about perfect love overcoming fear because he knew that loving God and loving His people take place in close fellowship with others.
Our “one fits all” megachurch methods do not address this issue. Sermonizing with hundreds and thousands of people listening to one man will not defeat fear. At best it will give you the doctrinal tools for your individual stand. Defeating fear requires the presence of love which is communal in nature. Fellowship is the context in which love can grow and become complete. That complete or perfect love will cast out fear. A doctrine will not accomplish that. The doctrine must become actual fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives by the power of the God of love. Rubbing shoulders with other believers while we face issues, problems and challenges together and defeat them with love, will put fear to flight.
The bottom line is that every strategy of Satan is defeated through genuine fellowship. The armor of God spoken of in the sixth chapter of Ephesians is corporate in nature. It has an individual application but cannot be brought into our lives without the body of Christ. Paul ends the armor of God passage with the words “making supplication for all the saints” (verse 18). Our wielding of the sword of the Spirit in prayer and otherwise is in coordination with “all the saints.” Until we understand we are part of a spiritual army with powerful spiritual tools, we will be fighting like lone Christian soldiers hiding in a bunker. It is time to come out of our bunkers and join the other warriors in defeating this enemy.
As the new year approaches the enemy will upgrade his strategies thinking that we will be distracted. Don’t be distracted. Concentrate on walking in love and faith as you rise up to your place of victory in Christ and His body, “the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Lloyd Gardner
November 30, 2016
Satan is an expert on fear tactics, a master of terrorism. The terrorism we see today through ISIS, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is merely the physical manifestation of his hidden spiritual operation of fear. The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize--to put fear into the hearts of all people connected with the site of its attack. Terrorism relishes the terror experienced at the point of attack but it continues to bask in the collateral fear that is created. The terrorist is like an animal that feeds on fear. It creates its food by stealing, destroying and killing. Satan is the king of fear and anything that creates fear which moves people in the opposite direction of faith.
Take a close look at the society around us. It is increasingly characterized by elements of fear. An evening watching television is an incredible experience in the use of the fear tactic to motivate people to buy certain drugs. You could get cancer, mesothelioma, diabetes, have a stroke, heartburn, aches and pains, nerve pain, or any number of other illnesses and infirmities aimed at scaring you into buying a product. Television is bombarded with regular doses of fear-inducing ads and programs.
The zombies are coming to get you. The vampires are just around the corner. Look out for the chemicals in your food or the impurities in your water. Buy this security device to protect yourself from intruders. Don’t go out at night. Protect your children from abduction and molestation. War in the Middle East and everywhere. On and on it goes as the enemy of the God of peace brings turmoil into the lives of unsuspecting people who are unaware that they are being set up to fear their own shadow and reject the God of power, love and a sound mind.
The bottom line on this subject is the words of John: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:18). This is a sobering statement for those who are often dominated and controlled by fear. John is telling us that the presence of fear proves that love have not been perfected in us because perfected love casts out all fear.
The word translated “perfect” here carries the meaning of complete. It does not mean perfect in the sense of sinless perfection. Love can reach a place of complete development in our lives so that fear is completely destroyed. In verse twelve of the same passage John says “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” So, when this love is completely matured in us, fear will be defeated. Until that time, Satan can use fear to control us and keep us from walking in faith.
Fear is actually believing the enemy. It is allowing what Satan is doing or saying to affect how we live our lives. The opposite of fear is faith. Faith is believing God. It is the outgrowth of hearing what God says and taking Him at His word. But keep in mind that faith works through love (Gal. 5:6). Love is the breeding ground of faith. As we love God and one another love is perfected in us and faith grows from that. As we love we are able to hear God fully and faith flourishes in that environment.
I am a two time cancer survivor. I know what it feels like to be confronted with overwhelming fear. But I also know the peace that comes from finally hearing from God and experiencing the faith that overcomes. I only speak of this in the context of how God showed up so miraculously in my life and spoke to me His loving words of victory. I know that fear dissipates in the atmosphere of faith working through love.
Perhaps Satan’s favorite strategy is to get people into fear. This way he is able to crush their faith and diminish their love. Fear is his invention. He uses it to influence people to believe in him and his destructive ways. To overcome fear we must immerse ourselves in a loving community of believers who are growing in their love and their faith. This is not a battle to be fought in isolation. The apostle John wrote about perfect love overcoming fear because he knew that loving God and loving His people take place in close fellowship with others.
Our “one fits all” megachurch methods do not address this issue. Sermonizing with hundreds and thousands of people listening to one man will not defeat fear. At best it will give you the doctrinal tools for your individual stand. Defeating fear requires the presence of love which is communal in nature. Fellowship is the context in which love can grow and become complete. That complete or perfect love will cast out fear. A doctrine will not accomplish that. The doctrine must become actual fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives by the power of the God of love. Rubbing shoulders with other believers while we face issues, problems and challenges together and defeat them with love, will put fear to flight.
The bottom line is that every strategy of Satan is defeated through genuine fellowship. The armor of God spoken of in the sixth chapter of Ephesians is corporate in nature. It has an individual application but cannot be brought into our lives without the body of Christ. Paul ends the armor of God passage with the words “making supplication for all the saints” (verse 18). Our wielding of the sword of the Spirit in prayer and otherwise is in coordination with “all the saints.” Until we understand we are part of a spiritual army with powerful spiritual tools, we will be fighting like lone Christian soldiers hiding in a bunker. It is time to come out of our bunkers and join the other warriors in defeating this enemy.
As the new year approaches the enemy will upgrade his strategies thinking that we will be distracted. Don’t be distracted. Concentrate on walking in love and faith as you rise up to your place of victory in Christ and His body, “the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Strategies of Satan: He Builds Strongholds Against the Forces of Righteousness
Lloyd Gardner
November 15, 2016
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Cor. 10:3-5).
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matt. 16:18, 19).
In ancient times a stronghold was the fortification of a city. These fortifications were built by enemies of attacking armies to keep them from penetrating the city. In the days before air travel and powerful explosive weapons, strongholds protected a city from invasion from a marching enemy. Walls were built and fortified and watchtowers were erected to provide a place for sentries and to protect crucial parts of the wall.
The tactic of invading armies was to first tear down the strongholds so that they could gain access to the city. They were in danger from attack from people on the walls while they worked to bring down the stronghold but once it was destroyed the city was entered and defeated.
In the above passage from 2 Corinthians Paul is saying that believers in Christ possess spiritual weapons with divine power able to destroy strongholds built by the enemy. Satan is not much of an offensive warrior. His tactic is to introduce his destructive spiritual viruses and then fortify the destruction so that those within cannot be set free.
When Jesus speaks of the gates of hell not prevailing against the church, it is obvious that the church is to be on the offensive and hell will be trying to withstand its attack. The gates of hell cannot withstand the assault of the army of God that possesses His power and His spiritual weapons. Jesus goes on to say that the church has the keys to bind or loose in the realm of the spirit. Any stronghold Satan can construct can be destroyed by the keys of the kingdom. Any heavenly blessing can be loosed into the lives of people by turning the keys of the kingdom. Satan can’t lock us out because we possess the keys of heaven--spiritual keys that bring down the spiritual strongholds of the enemy and release the reality of heaven on earth.
This is not to say that Satan does not put up a fight. He will protect the strongholds he has built because they protect the ground he has gained. When one is brought down he comes back later to try to rebuild it. He is a persistent enemy. Sometimes the battle is long and painful but he eventually loses because the King has granted us the keys that bind hell and loose heaven into people's’ lives. His attempt to build a stronghold against us is like trying to keep someone out of a house when they have the key to the front door.
The church must know its authority and power in God. The church is not a building on a corner with a pastor and programs. It is the place of unity, love and power among followers of the King where heaven touches earth and strongholds are destroyed. This is true of the church gathered and the church scattered throughout its neighborhood. Where the church gathered is present or the individual believers are present heaven contacts earth.
I know this sounds a little mystical to some people but keep in mind that Satan is not afraid of you but He is terrified of One who defeated Him at Calvary. He is also afraid of the built-together, unified body of Christ that realizes its authority. As the King is revealed in our lives heaven is released and Satan’s strongholds are destroyed.
Consider this passage:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,according to the power at work within us (Eph. 3:14-20).
Notice the sequence in this passage. First He possesses riches of His glory. Then He grants us these riches and the potential of being strengthened with the power of His Spirit in our spirit. This enables Christ to fully dwell in our hearts and eventually be filled with “all the fullness of God.” Then we can proclaim that He is able to do amazing things in us “according to the power at work within us.”
God moves on this earth according to His power working within His body, the church, which Paul calls “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). Often we are asked why God doesn’t just solve all problems and dispel all evils overnight. The answer is that He is committed to doing those things through the power He has put within us. We are the ones who hold the keys. We are the ones who possess the power enabling Him to “do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think.” Somehow the sovereignty of God works in cooperation with us. Ponder that truth for a minute and see if it doesn’t turn you inside out.
Yes, Satan is building strongholds and they are very real but we possess the weapons and heavenly power to destroy those evil fortifications. The strongholds come in many forms. Fear. Legalism. Love of money. Complacency. A harmful habit. Sexual sin. Religious tradition. False doctrines and ideas. Sickness or bodily infirmity. These and many other strongholds of the enemy can be destroyed if we will simply begin to see truth and believe the authority and power we possess in Christ.
So what do we do with this knowledge of the enemy’s strategy? We recognize that we fight a spiritual enemy and our weapons must also be spiritual. We recognize we are part of a spiritual army, not a lone soldier fighting a lone battle. The church must involve itself in bringing down strongholds that affect both individual believers and the body of Christ. We must shed our passive posture and become active participants in this spiritual war. We must cease our sermonizing and celebrating and begin to prepare for war. At the point of our victories we can preach victory messages and sing songs of celebration. In the meantime let’s get to work preparing ourselves for battle.
Prayer must once again become a crucial part of our lives and the life of the church. Our prayer gatherings must be real prayer sessions rather than musical celebrations. Paul’s admonition concerning spiritual warfare in the sixth chapter of Ephesians ends with this statement: “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (v. 18). We wield the sword of the Spirit and the spiritual armor through praying. Without prayer we are weaponless and unprotected.
I believe the biggest lesson we Christians learned through this last election is the value of prayer. We must never forget how important it is. A stronghold can only be brought down by force using extraordinary divine power. Pray unleashes the heavenly power that destroys strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4). It is tapping into the spiritual explosives that tear down what the enemy builds up. What Satan builds we tear down in Jesus’s name. Let’s get to it.
Lloyd Gardner
November 15, 2016
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Cor. 10:3-5).
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matt. 16:18, 19).
In ancient times a stronghold was the fortification of a city. These fortifications were built by enemies of attacking armies to keep them from penetrating the city. In the days before air travel and powerful explosive weapons, strongholds protected a city from invasion from a marching enemy. Walls were built and fortified and watchtowers were erected to provide a place for sentries and to protect crucial parts of the wall.
The tactic of invading armies was to first tear down the strongholds so that they could gain access to the city. They were in danger from attack from people on the walls while they worked to bring down the stronghold but once it was destroyed the city was entered and defeated.
In the above passage from 2 Corinthians Paul is saying that believers in Christ possess spiritual weapons with divine power able to destroy strongholds built by the enemy. Satan is not much of an offensive warrior. His tactic is to introduce his destructive spiritual viruses and then fortify the destruction so that those within cannot be set free.
When Jesus speaks of the gates of hell not prevailing against the church, it is obvious that the church is to be on the offensive and hell will be trying to withstand its attack. The gates of hell cannot withstand the assault of the army of God that possesses His power and His spiritual weapons. Jesus goes on to say that the church has the keys to bind or loose in the realm of the spirit. Any stronghold Satan can construct can be destroyed by the keys of the kingdom. Any heavenly blessing can be loosed into the lives of people by turning the keys of the kingdom. Satan can’t lock us out because we possess the keys of heaven--spiritual keys that bring down the spiritual strongholds of the enemy and release the reality of heaven on earth.
This is not to say that Satan does not put up a fight. He will protect the strongholds he has built because they protect the ground he has gained. When one is brought down he comes back later to try to rebuild it. He is a persistent enemy. Sometimes the battle is long and painful but he eventually loses because the King has granted us the keys that bind hell and loose heaven into people's’ lives. His attempt to build a stronghold against us is like trying to keep someone out of a house when they have the key to the front door.
The church must know its authority and power in God. The church is not a building on a corner with a pastor and programs. It is the place of unity, love and power among followers of the King where heaven touches earth and strongholds are destroyed. This is true of the church gathered and the church scattered throughout its neighborhood. Where the church gathered is present or the individual believers are present heaven contacts earth.
I know this sounds a little mystical to some people but keep in mind that Satan is not afraid of you but He is terrified of One who defeated Him at Calvary. He is also afraid of the built-together, unified body of Christ that realizes its authority. As the King is revealed in our lives heaven is released and Satan’s strongholds are destroyed.
Consider this passage:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,according to the power at work within us (Eph. 3:14-20).
Notice the sequence in this passage. First He possesses riches of His glory. Then He grants us these riches and the potential of being strengthened with the power of His Spirit in our spirit. This enables Christ to fully dwell in our hearts and eventually be filled with “all the fullness of God.” Then we can proclaim that He is able to do amazing things in us “according to the power at work within us.”
God moves on this earth according to His power working within His body, the church, which Paul calls “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). Often we are asked why God doesn’t just solve all problems and dispel all evils overnight. The answer is that He is committed to doing those things through the power He has put within us. We are the ones who hold the keys. We are the ones who possess the power enabling Him to “do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think.” Somehow the sovereignty of God works in cooperation with us. Ponder that truth for a minute and see if it doesn’t turn you inside out.
Yes, Satan is building strongholds and they are very real but we possess the weapons and heavenly power to destroy those evil fortifications. The strongholds come in many forms. Fear. Legalism. Love of money. Complacency. A harmful habit. Sexual sin. Religious tradition. False doctrines and ideas. Sickness or bodily infirmity. These and many other strongholds of the enemy can be destroyed if we will simply begin to see truth and believe the authority and power we possess in Christ.
So what do we do with this knowledge of the enemy’s strategy? We recognize that we fight a spiritual enemy and our weapons must also be spiritual. We recognize we are part of a spiritual army, not a lone soldier fighting a lone battle. The church must involve itself in bringing down strongholds that affect both individual believers and the body of Christ. We must shed our passive posture and become active participants in this spiritual war. We must cease our sermonizing and celebrating and begin to prepare for war. At the point of our victories we can preach victory messages and sing songs of celebration. In the meantime let’s get to work preparing ourselves for battle.
Prayer must once again become a crucial part of our lives and the life of the church. Our prayer gatherings must be real prayer sessions rather than musical celebrations. Paul’s admonition concerning spiritual warfare in the sixth chapter of Ephesians ends with this statement: “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (v. 18). We wield the sword of the Spirit and the spiritual armor through praying. Without prayer we are weaponless and unprotected.
I believe the biggest lesson we Christians learned through this last election is the value of prayer. We must never forget how important it is. A stronghold can only be brought down by force using extraordinary divine power. Pray unleashes the heavenly power that destroys strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4). It is tapping into the spiritual explosives that tear down what the enemy builds up. What Satan builds we tear down in Jesus’s name. Let’s get to it.
Strategies of the Enemy: He is a political expert
Lloyd Gardner
November 2, 2016
This is a call to prayer with some wisdom about how to pray for the coming election. Many Christians are baffled by the choices they have in the election and are stymied about how to pray. Some are recommending that we simply pray for God’s will but that causes us to shift into a very passive position and causes us to forget that Christ has given us the keys of the kingdom that must be used to open and close doors (Matt. 16:19).
To help us focus our prayers we must remember that our real enemy is not “flesh and blood” or even things in the natural realm such as politics and people. Our real enemy, according to Paul, is “...the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). These are levels of demonic forces of evil from the spiritual realm assigned to areas of the world creating spiritual darkness wherever they operate.
Our job is to stop them. Paul uses the word in Ephesians 6:12 that refers to a wrestling match in which one combatant takes down another and renders him bound. It is not just a wrestling game but a fight to utterly defeat the opponent by pinning him to the mat. We are called to battle with the forces of evil and render them helpless.
Somehow we have come to think that there are areas of earthly affairs where Satan is uninvolved. We often place politics in that category. How foolish we are to think that Satan is not involved in the American election process when politics can so effectively serve his purpose of introducing his “steal, destroy and kill” philosophy. Through politics in this country the enemy has effectively transformed the culture toward his way of thinking. He is a political expert who knows how to influence policy and propaganda in his favor. He has a horde of demon underlings who work the process in his favor.
He successfully masterminded the Johnson Amendment, a change in the U.S. tax code in 1954 that prohibited organizations from endorsing opposing political candidates. The amendment was a trap offering tax exempt status and donors could take a tax deduction for their for their contributions to the organization. The government gained the right to control the free speech of pastors and churches through this change.
He masterminded Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that allowed abortion on demand across the country. As of this moment the decision has cost the lives of 59,499,710 unborn children. His assignment to “steal, and destroy and kill,” (John 10:10). were very much aided by that decision.
He do doubt has been behind the appointment of Supreme Court judges who would set aside the clear reading of the Constitution for the sake of a liberal political agenda. The Warren Court of the 60’s for example essentially removed the influence of prayer and the Bible from the nation’s schools. The moral decay that began in the nation at that time is measurable by several standards. Satan was able to use the same corrupt judicial system to make abortion legal throughout the country.
Obergefell v. Hodges, the decision that changed the definition of marriage to include same-sex partners, was likewise the work of the enemy. He has hated true marriage since the first marriage in the Garden of Eden. He has worked tirelessly for decades trying to undermine godly marriage. His coup-d'etat was the recent Supreme Court debacle that was like spitting in the face of God.
So, yes, Satan involves himself in the politics of our nation. It is his favorite way of fundamentally changing the country and shaping it in his image. He has successfully gained control of the most powerful media outlets in the country. Most historians agree that the original purpose of the First Amendment guarantees of speech and press were to keep the government out of the media control business and provide a means of dissent and accountability. Clearly, the present election proves that the media outlets have simply become a tool in the hands of the great Deceiver himself.
This is why God has appointed His people to be the real warriors against the enemy. He knows that through propaganda Satan will gain control of the politicians, the judges, the media and eventually the people if the church fails to hold the line through prayer. It is up to God’s genuine people, not to “flesh and blood” expressions to defeat the enemy.
God warned the Serpent from the beginning: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” The “offspring” is of course Christ but it also includes all others born of God through the Spirit.
This is why Paul could say to the Roman church, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:20). This is why he also wrote to the Ephesians the verses quoted earlier: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (6:12). We are the ones called to wrestle down the enemy and subdue him in the name of Jesus.
Jesus promised us, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:18, 19). The gates of hell will not prevail because He will build His church and we who believe are that church and He has given us the keys of the kingdom empowering us to bind and loose in His name.
So, that is how we should pray for this election. Many of you no doubt have already been praying this way. We do not have to choose sides in this election but we do need to come to the side of the Most High God and pray against the conniving, evil work of the enemy. There is no doubt that his fingerprints are all over this election. He has manipulated it all along the way because he wants to fundamentally change this country and shape it according to his will.
Listen to God through the Spirit and pray as He leads. Pray against the interference of His enemy and pray that His name will be made holy, His kingdom will come, and His will will be accomplished in this election, in this country. About such things, Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” (Mark 12:17). We need to render to God what belongs to him and to Caesar (our nation) what belongs to him. In so doing, we will render to Satan His due and that is defeat.
Let me give one final warning. Through the events of the next few days, America and the church in America will make a gigantic turn one way or the other. We will either have awakened as a church and rediscovered our place in God, or we will realize our failure and the cost of that failure for our lives and the lives of many Americans. We will either begin a return back to our God or we will experience the devastating disaster of our failure. The choice is ours. Only the church, the true followers of Christ, are destined to defeat the enemy. No earthly force has been granted the power of the Lord for the defeat of His enemy except the church.
Rise up church of the Lord. Get out of your beds of complacency and join with His people to win this battle. Eventually we will win the war--but that is another story.
Lloyd Gardner
November 2, 2016
This is a call to prayer with some wisdom about how to pray for the coming election. Many Christians are baffled by the choices they have in the election and are stymied about how to pray. Some are recommending that we simply pray for God’s will but that causes us to shift into a very passive position and causes us to forget that Christ has given us the keys of the kingdom that must be used to open and close doors (Matt. 16:19).
To help us focus our prayers we must remember that our real enemy is not “flesh and blood” or even things in the natural realm such as politics and people. Our real enemy, according to Paul, is “...the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). These are levels of demonic forces of evil from the spiritual realm assigned to areas of the world creating spiritual darkness wherever they operate.
Our job is to stop them. Paul uses the word in Ephesians 6:12 that refers to a wrestling match in which one combatant takes down another and renders him bound. It is not just a wrestling game but a fight to utterly defeat the opponent by pinning him to the mat. We are called to battle with the forces of evil and render them helpless.
Somehow we have come to think that there are areas of earthly affairs where Satan is uninvolved. We often place politics in that category. How foolish we are to think that Satan is not involved in the American election process when politics can so effectively serve his purpose of introducing his “steal, destroy and kill” philosophy. Through politics in this country the enemy has effectively transformed the culture toward his way of thinking. He is a political expert who knows how to influence policy and propaganda in his favor. He has a horde of demon underlings who work the process in his favor.
He successfully masterminded the Johnson Amendment, a change in the U.S. tax code in 1954 that prohibited organizations from endorsing opposing political candidates. The amendment was a trap offering tax exempt status and donors could take a tax deduction for their for their contributions to the organization. The government gained the right to control the free speech of pastors and churches through this change.
He masterminded Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that allowed abortion on demand across the country. As of this moment the decision has cost the lives of 59,499,710 unborn children. His assignment to “steal, and destroy and kill,” (John 10:10). were very much aided by that decision.
He do doubt has been behind the appointment of Supreme Court judges who would set aside the clear reading of the Constitution for the sake of a liberal political agenda. The Warren Court of the 60’s for example essentially removed the influence of prayer and the Bible from the nation’s schools. The moral decay that began in the nation at that time is measurable by several standards. Satan was able to use the same corrupt judicial system to make abortion legal throughout the country.
Obergefell v. Hodges, the decision that changed the definition of marriage to include same-sex partners, was likewise the work of the enemy. He has hated true marriage since the first marriage in the Garden of Eden. He has worked tirelessly for decades trying to undermine godly marriage. His coup-d'etat was the recent Supreme Court debacle that was like spitting in the face of God.
So, yes, Satan involves himself in the politics of our nation. It is his favorite way of fundamentally changing the country and shaping it in his image. He has successfully gained control of the most powerful media outlets in the country. Most historians agree that the original purpose of the First Amendment guarantees of speech and press were to keep the government out of the media control business and provide a means of dissent and accountability. Clearly, the present election proves that the media outlets have simply become a tool in the hands of the great Deceiver himself.
This is why God has appointed His people to be the real warriors against the enemy. He knows that through propaganda Satan will gain control of the politicians, the judges, the media and eventually the people if the church fails to hold the line through prayer. It is up to God’s genuine people, not to “flesh and blood” expressions to defeat the enemy.
God warned the Serpent from the beginning: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” The “offspring” is of course Christ but it also includes all others born of God through the Spirit.
This is why Paul could say to the Roman church, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:20). This is why he also wrote to the Ephesians the verses quoted earlier: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (6:12). We are the ones called to wrestle down the enemy and subdue him in the name of Jesus.
Jesus promised us, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:18, 19). The gates of hell will not prevail because He will build His church and we who believe are that church and He has given us the keys of the kingdom empowering us to bind and loose in His name.
So, that is how we should pray for this election. Many of you no doubt have already been praying this way. We do not have to choose sides in this election but we do need to come to the side of the Most High God and pray against the conniving, evil work of the enemy. There is no doubt that his fingerprints are all over this election. He has manipulated it all along the way because he wants to fundamentally change this country and shape it according to his will.
Listen to God through the Spirit and pray as He leads. Pray against the interference of His enemy and pray that His name will be made holy, His kingdom will come, and His will will be accomplished in this election, in this country. About such things, Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” (Mark 12:17). We need to render to God what belongs to him and to Caesar (our nation) what belongs to him. In so doing, we will render to Satan His due and that is defeat.
Let me give one final warning. Through the events of the next few days, America and the church in America will make a gigantic turn one way or the other. We will either have awakened as a church and rediscovered our place in God, or we will realize our failure and the cost of that failure for our lives and the lives of many Americans. We will either begin a return back to our God or we will experience the devastating disaster of our failure. The choice is ours. Only the church, the true followers of Christ, are destined to defeat the enemy. No earthly force has been granted the power of the Lord for the defeat of His enemy except the church.
Rise up church of the Lord. Get out of your beds of complacency and join with His people to win this battle. Eventually we will win the war--but that is another story.
Satan’s Strategies: Erring Methods
Lloyd Gardner
October 11, 2016
One of Satan’s most successful strategies has been convincing Christians that the church and other activities of God’s people must be accomplished through human programs using clever, practical methods. By “program” I mean a planned, organized, human-controlled method of accomplishing God’s purpose usually initiated without God’s direction and not founded in God’s word. It is using the world’s mode of operation and claiming that it is God’s way.
Anything that originates in man’s ingenuity and not the leading of the Holy Spirit will elevate people and only indirectly accomplish God’s purpose while allowing Satan to have a foothold in it. God has provided a simple, manipulation-free, way of accomplishing His will through the church, His people, as led by the Holy Spirit. God spoke to Zerubbabel about how the temple would be rebuilt saying, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). It is also by His Spirit, not by human power or might, that the Lord will build His church.
Before I get into this let me answer the question “Who are you to be telling us about how the church should function?” I believe I have some authority to share on this subject because as a former traditional pastor I made all of the mistakes I refer to and I am learning from them. I have been seeking God’s will for His church for 53 years. That seeking brought me to a point where I realized that selfish motives were governing my ministry. God had to deal with me about those motives that caused me to make ministry about me instead of about Him and His will.
So, I speak out of brokenness coming from traveling the road I now expose. I do not reject all traditions outright but simply do not let traditions trump the clear revelation of God’s word (Matt. 15:3, Jesus). The Bible calls our faith “the way” and we need to find out what that way is (Acts 9:2; 19:9).
With that in mind, let me list some methods that are considered spiritual and biblical by most modern Christians but are foreign to the Bible.
1. A professional ministry -- Almost all Christians assume that there are specially gifted people who do the work of the ministry and should be paid to do so. You will not find this concept in scripture. All of the saints are called to do the work of the ministry. Ministry is not a profession but the calling of all believers (Eph. 4:12, 16). Yes, there are specially gifted people who equip us for ministry but they do not do so for profit (Acts 20:33, 34).
2. One person usually referred to as the pastor who leads the professional ministry -- The concept of one person being the primary leader of a church is foreign to the Bible (Acts 20:17, 28; 3 John 9, 10).
3. A “church building” where this “ministry” takes place -- The church described in the Bible did not have special buildings called churches or sanctuaries but met in informal places such as private houses (Acts 5:42; Rom. 16:5; Col. 4:15; Phil. 4:22; Philemon 1:2; 1 Cor. 16:15).
4. Organized services -- Today most church “services” are organized from start to finish but the early church met in a spontaneous atmosphere where all could contribute to the gathering and no one person dominated the fellowship. There was occasional teaching and preaching by the apostles but the gatherings were usually sharing times for all participants. This included singing, sharing, testimonies, lessons, spiritual gifts and much more (1 Cor. 14:26-33; Eph. 5:19-21; Eph. 4:16; 1 Cor. 12:4-7).
5. Church growth methods, fundraisers and other methods used to pay for the mandated programs -- Giving in the New Testament was for the needy and there was provision for occasional gifts to those who labor in the word. The New Testament shows that tithing was not a practice of the early church because it had no need of it. Giving was from the heart (1 Tim. 5:17; 2 Cor. 9:1-5).
6. Divisive tactics not founded in God’s word such as the “shepherding” movement of the 70s, the prosperity imbalance, or the hyper-grace movement of recent years.
The church is very simple. It is people coming together under the Lordship of Christ to be led by the Holy Spirit toward God’s eternal purpose. The church is spiritual and supernatural, not manmade and natural. Only Christ can establish and build the church because He is the One who paid the price for her freedom and lives to bring her to her full destiny in His Father.
Some of us mistakenly define the church as a recognized institution with the proper status in the eyes of the establishment. You will hear someone ask, “Who is your covering?” and to them that covering must be an established organization. That concept goes counter to everything I see in God’s word about the church. The church is simply the people of God coming together under His covering for His purpose and led by His Spirit.
We have complicated the matter by making the church something it was never meant to be. Most people think of a church as a building in town that is the center of many activities and programs under the direction of a pastor and his staff. Because it is called a church, has tax-exempt status and is recognized by the state it has validity in people's’ eyes. The Bible knows nothing of this building-centered, government-approved approach to church. The concept of partnering with the government would have been anathema to the early believers.
Neither is there ever a mention of a pastor leading a church or having a staff. The church is always led by a plurality of older men who lead by example not preaching (1 Peter 5:1-3; Acts 20:17, 28; 11:30; 14:23; 15:4, 22; Titus 1:5, 7; 1 Tim. 3:1; 4:14; Eph. 4:11; James 5:14, etc.). The church is a family with the older ones leading by example and all seeking to follow Christ.
Let me take you to a passage from Ephesians 4:14:
“...so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
A literal translation of this verse reads like this:
“So that we may no longer be children, tossed here and there by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human gamesmanship, and crafty use of erring methods.” (my emphasis, my translation)
God’s people often remain children far too long because they are tossed around by the winds of doctrine as leaders use their natural human craftiness resulting in the use of erring methods. The methods being used are often designed to build up a human program and the people or person behind it. The error is in the motivation behind the method. Does it glorify the Lord and build up His children, or does it glorify an influential leader and the programs surrounding his ministry? God’s ways are designed to glorify Him by helping His children grow up “into Him who is the Head, into Christ” (Eph. 4:15).
This verse is not merely referring to deceitful men leading us astray. It may well refer to well-meaning teachers who, because of misunderstanding, use erring methods that are not the ways of God but centered in the ability of men. When we forsake the leading of the Holy Spirit we fall into “erring methods” because anything that is not initiated by the Spirit will result in error. Alexander Pope was right when he said, “To err is human.” When we fall to the level of fallen humanity we will begin to err and the results are not divine and they do not produce the will of God but the fallen inclination of human nature.
In the Garden of Eden Satan used this attack on the first woman. He somehow convinced her that her judgment was better than the clearly stated judgment of God. She fell for it and humanity has been falling for it ever since. Leaders who say they are doing the will of God while initiating everything from their own strength, ability and cleverness are falling for the same temptation of the enemy. They think they know better than God and they should know better.
So, what is the clear position in the Bible concerning how the church is to form and function? Jesus promised that He would send the Holy Spirit to lead and guide His disciples, then and now, into the truth. He promised that “he will teach you all things” (John 14:26). He went on to say, “...he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak…” (John 16:13).
Then He gave a clear warning in the form of a commandment: “And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:4, 5). They were promised the Holy Spirit and then ordered or commanded not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the Holy Spirit to come.
The significance of this is that Jesus knew that their natural abilities were not enough to do what He was calling them to do. They needed the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit to tackle this supernatural assignment to begin and complete the work of founding and serving the church. Jesus made it very clear that the work they were about to embark on could not be accomplished by human ability but would have to be accomplished in the power of the Holy Spirit. Many of today’s preachers act like what we would expect if the disciples had ignored Jesus’s command to wait for the Holy Spirit and simply went out on their own to attempt to build the church using their own ingenuity. They are doing it in their own power and often the results prove it.
The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost and filled the disciples with the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Peter preached one sermon in His power and three thousand people responded in faith and the church began. It continued to build the same way. Paul did not build the church or churches. He preached the Gospel, people were saved by the Spirit’s power and churches were created. Paul never appointed a lone pastor, nor did he oversee any building programs. He always allowed the Holy Spirit to guide what was happening.
It is still true today that the church is the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). Through the Spirit He continues that work of building His church. Nowhere in scripture do we see any one person building the church. The church is God’s holy, precious thing and touching it with human hands is a grave sin. Paul warns of this error in 1 Cor. 3:10-15. He emphasizes that each believer should “take care how he builds upon it” (v. 10). We are not allowed to use the wood, hay and stubble of human effort but are encouraged to build with the gold silver and stones of God’s nature. In other words, it is His church and we need to touch it with care.
The churches that started under Paul’s ministry were started and guided by the Holy Spirit. Notice that Paul’s ministry began when the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2). The brothers then laid hands on them and sent them forth. Later we read statements like these: “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia” and “And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (Acts 16:6, 7; my emphasis).
The Holy Spirit was in charge of directing the development of the church. This work was not accomplished by a board of trustees or a committee using man’s organizational skills. Jesus will build His church if people will simply step out of His way.
Satan’s strategy is to move us to build something that deflects the glory away from Christ. He wants all the glory and he encourages us to use his methods to attempt to build Christ’s church. That in itself should alert us to the serious problems we cause when we ignore what the Spirit is saying to us.
These methods are so ingrained into the understanding of the traditional church that it will take a major paradigm shift for modern Christians to see the importance of returning to the simplicity that is in Christ. It may take devastation to wake us up. I hope not. What I do know is that Christ will not abandon His will for His church. He will continue to insist that we abandon our erring methods and allow Him to build His church His way.
Jesus told His disciples that “...when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). His directions were quite clear and yet several years later we see them staying in Jerusalem. Then in Acts 8 we read: “And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles” (Acts 8:1). It would appear that God allowed persecution to scatter the believers in Jerusalem so that they would go into Judea, Samaria and to the rest of the world.
We find that the Gentile church in Antioch was founded by people who scattered because of that persecution (Acts 11:19, 20). Will it take such persecution to bring the church to a place that they will be led by the Spirit in building His church? Will it take devastation to awaken the organized church to the need of the organic church that is led and empowered by the Holy Spirit?
As we observe the political developments in our country it is not an exaggeration to say that it may well be that we see the beginning of conditions in America that will bring us to our knees. We need to fall on our knees before our King and let Him take the reins of His church once again. I hope it doesn’t take persecution but the Lord loves us and He disciplines those whom He loves (Heb. 12:11).
We have not known such persecution in America but we may have to face it unless we repent and abandon ourselves to the Lord of the church. I encourage you to open your spiritual eyes and see the true condition of programmed Christianity and begin to let the Holy Spirit return us to simple, living, Spirit-empowered life in Him.
Satan’s Strategies: Taking over the Educational System
Lloyd Gardner
September 20, 2016
Government control always comes with a hook that snags its recipients allowing the government to take over a portion of their lives. Satan loves big government because it allows him a means to penetrate our society with his philosophy. Many Christians avoid politics because they misunderstand that Satan not only doesn’t avoid it but uses it to spread his hate-filled control.
Education is the best example of this strategy. America has undergone a drastic shift in its educational system in the last sixty years. It has shifted away from a locally controlled, family-friendly environment fostering family ideals to a top-down system controlled by the federal government which has abandoned any vestige of family orientation.
Satan hates marriage because it reminds him of God’s eternal purpose to have a prepared spiritual bride. He hates family because it is the culmination of healthy marriage and promotes love and sharing. He despises healthy sexual relationships because they foster honesty, integrity and moral behavior. He loathes the concept of ultimate morality because it points to an ultimate Creator, the greatest recipient of his hatred. So, Satan has used the educational system to take children under his wing while he slowly transforms it into a major cog in his propaganda machine. He has replaced parents and family for at least six hours of the day so he can fill their minds with his spiritual poison.
Some of you may be thinking that I am being a bit too critical at this point. Keep in mind that I a veteran of over 35 years in our school system. I have watched the changes that have overtaken America’s schools. Most of the changes have been fueled by our Supreme Court’s faulty interpretation of the First Amendment’s stipulations about religion. The Amendment simply requires the federal government to to stay out of establishing or restricting religion. Since Supreme Court decisions in the late fifties and sixties by liberal courts, our judicial system has embraced the goal of keeping religion out of the public arena and this includes schools since they are seen as an extension of the government.
The liberal judges have rejected the notion of applying the Constitution based on the original intent of its words and interpreting it based on the politically correct notions of the times. This has allowed our courts to interpret the wording any way that fits their political beliefs. Many Christians and Christian organizations have done the same thing with the Bible. Never mind what the original writers meant--it is important, so they teach, to interpret the Bible based upon modern conditions rather than the beliefs of ancient writers. In both cases we have abandoned the principles upon which the documents were founded. That is a tactic of the enemy. He hates truth and he especially hates the notion of ultimate truth because it implies an ultimate source of truth -- God.
This conniving strategy of the enemy has allowed him to take over the schools of the country and introduce his favorite ideas. He has essentially taken prayer and the Bible as spiritual guides out of the schools. He has introduced forms of discipline that abandon basic principles of morality resulting in permissive behavioral chaos. He has recently been bold enough through his appointed leaders and judges to introduce the absurd notion that restrooms and shower facilities should be available to both sexes. He introduced an approach to sex education that abandoned morality and encouraged sexual experimentation. He has taken over the curriculum of much of the country and has been able to revise our country’s history to leave out its spiritual roots and emphasize issues such as gay rights and a skewed view of our civil rights struggles. Science books fully embrace the unproven evolutionary worldview. In essence our educational system is one that promotes his causes and rejects the causes of God.
Those who doubt this should read some of the ideas of John Dewey, considered by many the father of American education and author of the Humanist Manifesto, a socialist, a founding member of the ACLU, and an architect of the former Soviet Union’s educational system. Dewey wrote,
There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, then immutable truth is dead and buried. There is no room for ƒixed, natural law or moral absolutes.
In other words Dewey would have rejected Thomas Jefferson when he wrote “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights” in the Declaration of Independence. He rejected the notion of inalienable rights granted by God and helped to introduce that idea into the educational system he helped to transform. He rejects “immutable truth” and inserts the truth he has conceived.
One of Dewey’s disciples John Dunphy, in The Humanist in 1983, wrote,
I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith.
This new faith he spoke of was humanism with its rejection of Christianity and absolute morality. He speaks in caustic style of the “rotting corpse of Christianity” and arrogantly professes that humanism will win out over Christianity. Dunphy was very instrumental in influencing education in America. His “religion” humanism is the belief that humans have no need of a God but have the ability to progress in their own initiative and power. That sounds quite familiar to the doctrine espoused by the serpent in the Garden of Eden and throughout history. Of course the doctrine has always failed and will fail ultimately.
I wrote about much of this in detail in my book Education Revolution if you are interested in pursuing the details. It was written in 2008 from a Christian perspective and is roundly panned by the secular reviewers but you may find it helpful.
Many Christians and almost all Americans reject the idea that Satan is actually involved in the affairs of humanity. His handiwork is very recognizable in the “progressive” direction our schools have taken in recent decades. Like the frog in the slowly heating pot of water, we do not notice that things are getting extremely hot. We are being spiritually boiled alive in slow increments. Our society is moving in the direction Dewey and Dunphy predicted. We are moving toward failed socialism and a godless society ruled by humanists who worship man’s ability. It’s time to wake up and jump from the pot before it is too late.
In my book mentioned earlier I have a chapter on solutions that will affect change. I speak of home schooling, private schools, charter schools and the overall need for parental choice. Think about why Satan and his socialist helpers do not want children under the care of their parents. Consider why the government continues to want your children for increasingly more hours with the introduction of longer school days, Headstart, required preschool, and afterschool programs.
Satan’s strategy is obvious. He wants your children under his Dewey-inspired subordinates who see teachers as “the proselytizers of a new faith.” That new faith is not faith in Jesus Christ but the Babel-like faith in the ability of fallen humanity. Once you truly see this, are you still willing to let him train your children in the school system he has hijacked? You have been duly warned. The choice is yours.
Lloyd Gardner
September 20, 2016
Government control always comes with a hook that snags its recipients allowing the government to take over a portion of their lives. Satan loves big government because it allows him a means to penetrate our society with his philosophy. Many Christians avoid politics because they misunderstand that Satan not only doesn’t avoid it but uses it to spread his hate-filled control.
Education is the best example of this strategy. America has undergone a drastic shift in its educational system in the last sixty years. It has shifted away from a locally controlled, family-friendly environment fostering family ideals to a top-down system controlled by the federal government which has abandoned any vestige of family orientation.
Satan hates marriage because it reminds him of God’s eternal purpose to have a prepared spiritual bride. He hates family because it is the culmination of healthy marriage and promotes love and sharing. He despises healthy sexual relationships because they foster honesty, integrity and moral behavior. He loathes the concept of ultimate morality because it points to an ultimate Creator, the greatest recipient of his hatred. So, Satan has used the educational system to take children under his wing while he slowly transforms it into a major cog in his propaganda machine. He has replaced parents and family for at least six hours of the day so he can fill their minds with his spiritual poison.
Some of you may be thinking that I am being a bit too critical at this point. Keep in mind that I a veteran of over 35 years in our school system. I have watched the changes that have overtaken America’s schools. Most of the changes have been fueled by our Supreme Court’s faulty interpretation of the First Amendment’s stipulations about religion. The Amendment simply requires the federal government to to stay out of establishing or restricting religion. Since Supreme Court decisions in the late fifties and sixties by liberal courts, our judicial system has embraced the goal of keeping religion out of the public arena and this includes schools since they are seen as an extension of the government.
The liberal judges have rejected the notion of applying the Constitution based on the original intent of its words and interpreting it based on the politically correct notions of the times. This has allowed our courts to interpret the wording any way that fits their political beliefs. Many Christians and Christian organizations have done the same thing with the Bible. Never mind what the original writers meant--it is important, so they teach, to interpret the Bible based upon modern conditions rather than the beliefs of ancient writers. In both cases we have abandoned the principles upon which the documents were founded. That is a tactic of the enemy. He hates truth and he especially hates the notion of ultimate truth because it implies an ultimate source of truth -- God.
This conniving strategy of the enemy has allowed him to take over the schools of the country and introduce his favorite ideas. He has essentially taken prayer and the Bible as spiritual guides out of the schools. He has introduced forms of discipline that abandon basic principles of morality resulting in permissive behavioral chaos. He has recently been bold enough through his appointed leaders and judges to introduce the absurd notion that restrooms and shower facilities should be available to both sexes. He introduced an approach to sex education that abandoned morality and encouraged sexual experimentation. He has taken over the curriculum of much of the country and has been able to revise our country’s history to leave out its spiritual roots and emphasize issues such as gay rights and a skewed view of our civil rights struggles. Science books fully embrace the unproven evolutionary worldview. In essence our educational system is one that promotes his causes and rejects the causes of God.
Those who doubt this should read some of the ideas of John Dewey, considered by many the father of American education and author of the Humanist Manifesto, a socialist, a founding member of the ACLU, and an architect of the former Soviet Union’s educational system. Dewey wrote,
There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, then immutable truth is dead and buried. There is no room for ƒixed, natural law or moral absolutes.
In other words Dewey would have rejected Thomas Jefferson when he wrote “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights” in the Declaration of Independence. He rejected the notion of inalienable rights granted by God and helped to introduce that idea into the educational system he helped to transform. He rejects “immutable truth” and inserts the truth he has conceived.
One of Dewey’s disciples John Dunphy, in The Humanist in 1983, wrote,
I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith.
This new faith he spoke of was humanism with its rejection of Christianity and absolute morality. He speaks in caustic style of the “rotting corpse of Christianity” and arrogantly professes that humanism will win out over Christianity. Dunphy was very instrumental in influencing education in America. His “religion” humanism is the belief that humans have no need of a God but have the ability to progress in their own initiative and power. That sounds quite familiar to the doctrine espoused by the serpent in the Garden of Eden and throughout history. Of course the doctrine has always failed and will fail ultimately.
I wrote about much of this in detail in my book Education Revolution if you are interested in pursuing the details. It was written in 2008 from a Christian perspective and is roundly panned by the secular reviewers but you may find it helpful.
Many Christians and almost all Americans reject the idea that Satan is actually involved in the affairs of humanity. His handiwork is very recognizable in the “progressive” direction our schools have taken in recent decades. Like the frog in the slowly heating pot of water, we do not notice that things are getting extremely hot. We are being spiritually boiled alive in slow increments. Our society is moving in the direction Dewey and Dunphy predicted. We are moving toward failed socialism and a godless society ruled by humanists who worship man’s ability. It’s time to wake up and jump from the pot before it is too late.
In my book mentioned earlier I have a chapter on solutions that will affect change. I speak of home schooling, private schools, charter schools and the overall need for parental choice. Think about why Satan and his socialist helpers do not want children under the care of their parents. Consider why the government continues to want your children for increasingly more hours with the introduction of longer school days, Headstart, required preschool, and afterschool programs.
Satan’s strategy is obvious. He wants your children under his Dewey-inspired subordinates who see teachers as “the proselytizers of a new faith.” That new faith is not faith in Jesus Christ but the Babel-like faith in the ability of fallen humanity. Once you truly see this, are you still willing to let him train your children in the school system he has hijacked? You have been duly warned. The choice is yours.
Strategies of Satan: Complacency
Lloyd Gardner
September 14, 2016
that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly (2 Peter 3:3-7).
Satan is a master at complacency and compromise. He inherently knows that a ship that is sitting in the harbor cannot be steered anywhere. He wants us sitting on the sidelines watching the action as the holy war for the soul of humanity is being fought. He wants us inactive because he knows that we followers of Christ possess the greatest spiritual power in the universe--the power that raised Jesus from the grave (See Eph. 1:19 if you doubt this.). That power will eventually defeat Satan and he knows it. He has recently put immense pressure on Christians to keep their mouths shut and let his evil plan unfold.
The world has long since taken the attitude described in the passage from 2 Peter quoted above. They have surrendered to the world view of the secular-liberal establishment that has adopted evolution and a God-less society as its focus. We expect this attitude of the world but the tragedy is that many Christians are giving in to the pressure and abandoning the clear evidence that we live in a continuum in which God has created the world, judged it by a devastating flood that changed the surface of the earth and that He is getting ready to deal His final blow of judgment. This time the judgment will be final. The world, in its foolishness, accepts the world’s nonsense but genuine followers of Christ should know better.
In just a short period of time we have undergone a devastating cultural shift while many twiddled their thumbs in apathy. Our society has changed the meaning of marriage, welcomed the notion that people can change their sex, and promoted the bizarre idea that grown men are welcome in bathrooms for women and young ladies. Who knows what other evils might be released from this Pandora’s box of wickedness? Meanwhile in some cases Christians are treated like second class citizens in the name of sexual intolerance. Pastors are bridled with tax exempt status threats and many remain silent for fear of losing their steady income with all its benefits.
Entire church denominations and many church leaders are abandoning belief in the inerrancy of scripture because many of society’s “progressive” ideas do not match up with the declarations of God in His word. They want to be popular with the friends of Satan’s darkness instead of becoming ambassadors for the kingdom of light. Instead of being the “salt of the earth” we have acquired the tastes of the world. Instead of being “the light of world” we are compromising with the darkness.
The once covert attack of the enemy behind the scenes has become an all-out frontal attack without any reservations. The enemy of God has been emboldened by our passive attitude in the midst of this holy war. Just as fanatical Islamic terrorists have been heartened by America’s passive attitude toward the war, Satan and his minions are gaining strength from our complacent attitude. Those of us who wield the sword of the Spirit in the power of the Almighty have sheathed our swords and are enjoying the wealth and comfort of a materialistic society created by our spiritual enemy.
I am not referring only to the public things we say such as what I am saying in this message. Rather, I am referring to the way we conduct ourselves on our jobs, in our conversations with people in the marketplace, with our neighbors and wherever we are as ambassadors of Christ. It is one thing to be bold in church when we are surrounded by people who believe what we believe and pose no threat. It is another thing to take a bold stand for Christ in the checkout line at Walmart, at the school board meeting for our children, or in a conversation with a coworker. It is there in the real places of the real world that we make a real difference.
Salt, in order to do its work of savoring, must be spread throughout the food. You would not spoon a large portion of the salt into one place but would sprinkle it throughout the food. In this way we are the salt of the earth as promised by Jesus (Matt. 5:13). When the Holy Spirit was poured out into the believers at the first Pentecost, the many who came to Christ were spread throughout the city sprinkling the taste of Christ everywhere. Often we are bowing to the will of Satan by complacently letting his tasteless message take precedent over our lives because we keep our mouths shut out of fear or intimidation.
Don’t fall for this tactic of the enemy. A verse from Daniel alerts us to the end-time strategy of the enemy: “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High,and shall think to change the times and the law” (Daniel 7:25). The enemy and his coworkers are trying to wear us down until we give in and surrender. If we are passive we become specific targets for his attack.
To be complacent is to be self-satisfied to the point where we are not alert to the dangers we face. This is a dangerous place for followers of Christ and it does not serve the eternal purpose of our God.
Peter warned us “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). The devil is real despite what secularist tell you. He still exists and he is still prowling around like a roaring lion making lots of noise as he attempts to scare us away from the protection of our God. Don’t fall for it. Wake up Christian. Stay alert.
Lloyd Gardner
September 14, 2016
that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly (2 Peter 3:3-7).
Satan is a master at complacency and compromise. He inherently knows that a ship that is sitting in the harbor cannot be steered anywhere. He wants us sitting on the sidelines watching the action as the holy war for the soul of humanity is being fought. He wants us inactive because he knows that we followers of Christ possess the greatest spiritual power in the universe--the power that raised Jesus from the grave (See Eph. 1:19 if you doubt this.). That power will eventually defeat Satan and he knows it. He has recently put immense pressure on Christians to keep their mouths shut and let his evil plan unfold.
The world has long since taken the attitude described in the passage from 2 Peter quoted above. They have surrendered to the world view of the secular-liberal establishment that has adopted evolution and a God-less society as its focus. We expect this attitude of the world but the tragedy is that many Christians are giving in to the pressure and abandoning the clear evidence that we live in a continuum in which God has created the world, judged it by a devastating flood that changed the surface of the earth and that He is getting ready to deal His final blow of judgment. This time the judgment will be final. The world, in its foolishness, accepts the world’s nonsense but genuine followers of Christ should know better.
In just a short period of time we have undergone a devastating cultural shift while many twiddled their thumbs in apathy. Our society has changed the meaning of marriage, welcomed the notion that people can change their sex, and promoted the bizarre idea that grown men are welcome in bathrooms for women and young ladies. Who knows what other evils might be released from this Pandora’s box of wickedness? Meanwhile in some cases Christians are treated like second class citizens in the name of sexual intolerance. Pastors are bridled with tax exempt status threats and many remain silent for fear of losing their steady income with all its benefits.
Entire church denominations and many church leaders are abandoning belief in the inerrancy of scripture because many of society’s “progressive” ideas do not match up with the declarations of God in His word. They want to be popular with the friends of Satan’s darkness instead of becoming ambassadors for the kingdom of light. Instead of being the “salt of the earth” we have acquired the tastes of the world. Instead of being “the light of world” we are compromising with the darkness.
The once covert attack of the enemy behind the scenes has become an all-out frontal attack without any reservations. The enemy of God has been emboldened by our passive attitude in the midst of this holy war. Just as fanatical Islamic terrorists have been heartened by America’s passive attitude toward the war, Satan and his minions are gaining strength from our complacent attitude. Those of us who wield the sword of the Spirit in the power of the Almighty have sheathed our swords and are enjoying the wealth and comfort of a materialistic society created by our spiritual enemy.
I am not referring only to the public things we say such as what I am saying in this message. Rather, I am referring to the way we conduct ourselves on our jobs, in our conversations with people in the marketplace, with our neighbors and wherever we are as ambassadors of Christ. It is one thing to be bold in church when we are surrounded by people who believe what we believe and pose no threat. It is another thing to take a bold stand for Christ in the checkout line at Walmart, at the school board meeting for our children, or in a conversation with a coworker. It is there in the real places of the real world that we make a real difference.
Salt, in order to do its work of savoring, must be spread throughout the food. You would not spoon a large portion of the salt into one place but would sprinkle it throughout the food. In this way we are the salt of the earth as promised by Jesus (Matt. 5:13). When the Holy Spirit was poured out into the believers at the first Pentecost, the many who came to Christ were spread throughout the city sprinkling the taste of Christ everywhere. Often we are bowing to the will of Satan by complacently letting his tasteless message take precedent over our lives because we keep our mouths shut out of fear or intimidation.
Don’t fall for this tactic of the enemy. A verse from Daniel alerts us to the end-time strategy of the enemy: “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High,and shall think to change the times and the law” (Daniel 7:25). The enemy and his coworkers are trying to wear us down until we give in and surrender. If we are passive we become specific targets for his attack.
To be complacent is to be self-satisfied to the point where we are not alert to the dangers we face. This is a dangerous place for followers of Christ and it does not serve the eternal purpose of our God.
Peter warned us “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). The devil is real despite what secularist tell you. He still exists and he is still prowling around like a roaring lion making lots of noise as he attempts to scare us away from the protection of our God. Don’t fall for it. Wake up Christian. Stay alert.
Satan's Strategies: Substituting Doctrine for Life
Lloyd Gardner
September 3, 2016
American Christians are the most cerebral Christians in the world. In some ways, many of us worship our doctrines. Many of us have fallen so far from a life with Christ and His love that we equate our knowledge of doctrines with spiritual life. This is a strategy of the enemy. Only the deceiver could come up with such a devastating error of judgment.
I know of a vibrant fellowship of Christ followers that was disbanded because a small faction insisted on doing everything according to the “Reformed” system of interpreting the scriptures. These people may have cared more for John Calvin’s theology than they did for loving their brothers and sisters. We elevate doctrine so highly that we are separated from one another based on such doctrines as the rapture, the sovereignty of God, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, divine healing, and much more. We elevate doctrines while at the same time we do not allow much discerning and judging of truth to take place in our gatherings. Rather, we have become audiences for professional doctrinal experts who promote their rendition of truth on a weekly basis.
Since the Garden of Eden Satan has promoted this imbalance. There were two trees in the Garden—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. One tree leads us to life in Christ through His Spirit and the other leads to the death that proceeds from our selfish desire to be the one with all the knowledge. The genuine knowledge of good and evil comes from life in the Holy Spirit who leads us into truth (John 16:13). Without the life of God the knowledge we possess puffs up our head and deflates our spirit.
Jesus has given us one commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). He added a second commandment because He knew that loving God would result in loving His children: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 38). He then said that all of the law and the prophets depend upon these two commandments which really are one commandment (v. 40).
Love, which is God’s nature manifest in our hearts and lives, is God’s desire for our lives moving us to put others first. He knows that if we love we will be moved by His life to live according to His will. On the other hand, if we know all of the Christian doctrines and practices but don’t have love in our lives we really are missing everything God wants for us. God’s purpose for His people, His body the church, can never know His fullness until we truly love Him and one another.
Jesus reprimanded the religious leaders of His day saying, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39, 40). Because of that He went on to say to them, “I know that you do not have the love of God within you” (v. 42). They knew the scriptures well. They could explain the doctrines of their faith but they refused to come to Him for His life. This is the tragic mistake being made by many Christians. It robs us of the abundant life He promised and keeps His body from being one in His life.
The problem is that we equate our doctrines with His life. In other words we place our doctrines or a particular doctrinal system on a par with God. That is idolatry and it keeps us from His perfect will. We are able to sound very spiritual with our words but our hearts are often far from the One who is the source of those words.
Now I know what some readers are thinking. You are thinking that I am saying that doctrines are not important—that we should just set aside our doctrines for the sake of love. I am not saying that and do not mean that here. I am saying that doctrines flow out of true spiritual life and do not necessarily produce that life. I am also saying that it is possible to have the doctrines without having the life of God. Like the Pharisees of old, we can know the scriptures well and expound on them fluently and still avoid coming to Him, the source of all truth and life. In the meantime we miss the life of Christ in our lives and the joy of oneness and love in His body, the church.
We are often like the Christians portrayed by Paul when he described a state where Christians are “…children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (1 Cor. 4:14). Doctrines can become like toys for Christians to play with in their childlike state. When we make doctrine the center of our experience we become susceptible to the scheming, crafty purveyors of popular doctrines like winds that blow us off course and carry us away from Christ. Many believers think that Paul is talking about false doctrine in this passage when he refers to the “wind of doctrine.” Actually he was referring to all doctrines or teachings of any kind that cause us to substitute fellowship with Christ with doctrinal mind games. Satan loves this because it keeps us going around in circles on doctrinal issues while avoiding our relationship with Christ.
Paul contrasts this doctrinal emphasis with how we are to conduct ourselves as the body of Christ:
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4: 15, 16).
Our doctrinal culture causes us to think of “speaking the truth” in this passage to be referring to doctrinal discussions among believers. In other words we see this expression “speaking the truth in love” to mean being loving in our doctrinal debates about what truth is. That could not be further from what Paul meant by this expression.
In the original Greek these three words “speaking the truth” are really one word, a verb form of the word truth. It’s hard to translate the English words true or truth into a verb so we translate it “speaking the truth.” Literally it could be translated “truthing” or “ trueing.” Being truthful, or living in truth or as one translation has it, holding to the truth, might be good translations of the word. Paul is telling us to live in a state of truth and love with one another. We are to be true to God, to one another and to ourselves. We, the church, are to be genuine seekers of truth revealed in the One who is truth, Christ. In this environment of truth and love we will be able to grow up into Christ in the context of His body. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life” so it is clear that truth can only be experienced in Him and with Him (John 14:6). Truth is a person and His name is Jesus.
The end result of this process is that the body “builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:16) rather than in doctrine. Paul wrote that “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1Cor. 8:1; LITV). Knowledge fills your head with doctrinal air so that you look big but love builds you up in spirit where true spiritual growth takes place. Knowledge allows us to appear spiritual but love will cause us to be spiritual because our life is filled with Christ, who is Love. Paul measured true spiritual growth with the words “Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). Only as we grow into the likeness of Christ are we truly growing.
The teachings of scripture are extremely important but they must always lead us to Christ. Paul told Timothy “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). The proper use of doctrine can have any one of these benefits for us. But the apostle reminded Timothy that the end result must be “…that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (3:17). All doctrine and teaching must be leading us toward reaching our place of completion in Christ accompanied by good works that glorify the Lord. If the doctrines are not leading us to Christ and teaching us to live an obedient life, they are simply winds blowing us from place to place while we remain spiritual babies.
So, how do we avoid this strategy of the enemy? The answer lies in what we are seeking. Jesus promised us that if we seek we will find (Matt. 7:7). The problem we face today is that many Christians see doctrine as the goal of their seeking. Christ Himself must be the goal we seek. We must begin our journey by receiving Him as Lord and then continue on our spiritual journey seeking His fullness in our lives. Paul declared, “For me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). We must find a way to grasp the truth that Christ is the beginning, the middle and the end of our journey in this life. The eternal purpose of the Father is to sum up all things in His Son (Eph. 1:10). He wants to do that in our lives. Out of a genuine relationship with Him in fellowship with others, the doctrines will all fall in place and His church will grow and prosper.
Lloyd Gardner
September 3, 2016
American Christians are the most cerebral Christians in the world. In some ways, many of us worship our doctrines. Many of us have fallen so far from a life with Christ and His love that we equate our knowledge of doctrines with spiritual life. This is a strategy of the enemy. Only the deceiver could come up with such a devastating error of judgment.
I know of a vibrant fellowship of Christ followers that was disbanded because a small faction insisted on doing everything according to the “Reformed” system of interpreting the scriptures. These people may have cared more for John Calvin’s theology than they did for loving their brothers and sisters. We elevate doctrine so highly that we are separated from one another based on such doctrines as the rapture, the sovereignty of God, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, divine healing, and much more. We elevate doctrines while at the same time we do not allow much discerning and judging of truth to take place in our gatherings. Rather, we have become audiences for professional doctrinal experts who promote their rendition of truth on a weekly basis.
Since the Garden of Eden Satan has promoted this imbalance. There were two trees in the Garden—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. One tree leads us to life in Christ through His Spirit and the other leads to the death that proceeds from our selfish desire to be the one with all the knowledge. The genuine knowledge of good and evil comes from life in the Holy Spirit who leads us into truth (John 16:13). Without the life of God the knowledge we possess puffs up our head and deflates our spirit.
Jesus has given us one commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). He added a second commandment because He knew that loving God would result in loving His children: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 38). He then said that all of the law and the prophets depend upon these two commandments which really are one commandment (v. 40).
Love, which is God’s nature manifest in our hearts and lives, is God’s desire for our lives moving us to put others first. He knows that if we love we will be moved by His life to live according to His will. On the other hand, if we know all of the Christian doctrines and practices but don’t have love in our lives we really are missing everything God wants for us. God’s purpose for His people, His body the church, can never know His fullness until we truly love Him and one another.
Jesus reprimanded the religious leaders of His day saying, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39, 40). Because of that He went on to say to them, “I know that you do not have the love of God within you” (v. 42). They knew the scriptures well. They could explain the doctrines of their faith but they refused to come to Him for His life. This is the tragic mistake being made by many Christians. It robs us of the abundant life He promised and keeps His body from being one in His life.
The problem is that we equate our doctrines with His life. In other words we place our doctrines or a particular doctrinal system on a par with God. That is idolatry and it keeps us from His perfect will. We are able to sound very spiritual with our words but our hearts are often far from the One who is the source of those words.
Now I know what some readers are thinking. You are thinking that I am saying that doctrines are not important—that we should just set aside our doctrines for the sake of love. I am not saying that and do not mean that here. I am saying that doctrines flow out of true spiritual life and do not necessarily produce that life. I am also saying that it is possible to have the doctrines without having the life of God. Like the Pharisees of old, we can know the scriptures well and expound on them fluently and still avoid coming to Him, the source of all truth and life. In the meantime we miss the life of Christ in our lives and the joy of oneness and love in His body, the church.
We are often like the Christians portrayed by Paul when he described a state where Christians are “…children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (1 Cor. 4:14). Doctrines can become like toys for Christians to play with in their childlike state. When we make doctrine the center of our experience we become susceptible to the scheming, crafty purveyors of popular doctrines like winds that blow us off course and carry us away from Christ. Many believers think that Paul is talking about false doctrine in this passage when he refers to the “wind of doctrine.” Actually he was referring to all doctrines or teachings of any kind that cause us to substitute fellowship with Christ with doctrinal mind games. Satan loves this because it keeps us going around in circles on doctrinal issues while avoiding our relationship with Christ.
Paul contrasts this doctrinal emphasis with how we are to conduct ourselves as the body of Christ:
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4: 15, 16).
Our doctrinal culture causes us to think of “speaking the truth” in this passage to be referring to doctrinal discussions among believers. In other words we see this expression “speaking the truth in love” to mean being loving in our doctrinal debates about what truth is. That could not be further from what Paul meant by this expression.
In the original Greek these three words “speaking the truth” are really one word, a verb form of the word truth. It’s hard to translate the English words true or truth into a verb so we translate it “speaking the truth.” Literally it could be translated “truthing” or “ trueing.” Being truthful, or living in truth or as one translation has it, holding to the truth, might be good translations of the word. Paul is telling us to live in a state of truth and love with one another. We are to be true to God, to one another and to ourselves. We, the church, are to be genuine seekers of truth revealed in the One who is truth, Christ. In this environment of truth and love we will be able to grow up into Christ in the context of His body. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life” so it is clear that truth can only be experienced in Him and with Him (John 14:6). Truth is a person and His name is Jesus.
The end result of this process is that the body “builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:16) rather than in doctrine. Paul wrote that “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1Cor. 8:1; LITV). Knowledge fills your head with doctrinal air so that you look big but love builds you up in spirit where true spiritual growth takes place. Knowledge allows us to appear spiritual but love will cause us to be spiritual because our life is filled with Christ, who is Love. Paul measured true spiritual growth with the words “Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). Only as we grow into the likeness of Christ are we truly growing.
The teachings of scripture are extremely important but they must always lead us to Christ. Paul told Timothy “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). The proper use of doctrine can have any one of these benefits for us. But the apostle reminded Timothy that the end result must be “…that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (3:17). All doctrine and teaching must be leading us toward reaching our place of completion in Christ accompanied by good works that glorify the Lord. If the doctrines are not leading us to Christ and teaching us to live an obedient life, they are simply winds blowing us from place to place while we remain spiritual babies.
So, how do we avoid this strategy of the enemy? The answer lies in what we are seeking. Jesus promised us that if we seek we will find (Matt. 7:7). The problem we face today is that many Christians see doctrine as the goal of their seeking. Christ Himself must be the goal we seek. We must begin our journey by receiving Him as Lord and then continue on our spiritual journey seeking His fullness in our lives. Paul declared, “For me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). We must find a way to grasp the truth that Christ is the beginning, the middle and the end of our journey in this life. The eternal purpose of the Father is to sum up all things in His Son (Eph. 1:10). He wants to do that in our lives. Out of a genuine relationship with Him in fellowship with others, the doctrines will all fall in place and His church will grow and prosper.
Satan’s Strategies: Plugging our Spiritual Ears
Lloyd Gardner
August 15, 2016
Jesus repeats seven times in the book of Revelation, “He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7ff). Perhaps He repeated it seven times because we are hard of hearing. Having an ear and hearing what Christ is saying are extremely important. Satan knows this and works overtime to stifle the hearing of followers of Christ. He creates a clamor of worldly noise that often drowns out the voice of God so that our spiritual ears are in need of healing. Often we are able to hear with our biological ears but our inner ear is deaf.
Over the years I have discovered, to my dismay, that there are people who cannot or will not hear what Christ is saying. The confirmed atheist has completely shut out any conversations of a spiritual nature. He will not hear it. How frustrating it has been for me when sharing with my friends who don’t know Christ only to see that they don’t have the ability to hear what I’m saying. No amount of verbal sparring or debate eloquence makes a difference. They do not have a spiritual ear to hear what Christ says. That doesn’t mean we stop trying to penetrate their deafness but it is a reality nonetheless.
I am even more concerned when I encounter people who are avowed followers of Christ who cannot hear spiritual things. I am often met with incredulous stares when I share spiritual truth about the eternal purpose of God and the mystery of His kingdom. Though these people are believers, they do not have an ear at that time to hear what Christ says. Some are even taught that God no longer speaks directly to His people. I believe this is the work of Satan operating in cooperation with disobedient hearts.
I myself have been on the wrong end of this scenario. In earlier stages of my life I was unable to hear what the Lord was saying to me. My ears were dull of hearing and I missed what He was trying to get through to me. As an institutional church pastor my spiritual deafness allowed a selfish motive for ministry to dominate my Christian walk. The Lord rescued me from that disobedient place and began to teach me to hear His voice and obey it. Of course the learning continues. Hearing is crucial to our walk with Christ but Satan opposes it with all his fury.
We are taught this lesson in the account of Elijah’s flight from his prophetic assignment out of fear of the ruthless Jezebel and Ahab the rebellious king over Israel. Elijah had just experienced the victory of God over the 450 prophets of Baal who were slaughtered for their disobedience. God had shown himself stronger than all the false prophets and opponents of Israel.
When the demonically inspired Jezebel threatened his life, forgetting the victory of God over Baal, he ran like a scared rabbit into the wilderness and ended up in a faraway cave. That’s what Satan does. He attacks with vengeful threats when we experience victory from God. At his threats we stop listening but revert back to leaning on our own strength and ability. Our natural ability always fails and when it does we stop listening to the voice of our God.
Surely in his cowardly flight, like so many of us, he was not hearing from God. Sometimes the fear or stress of the moment causes us to close off our ears to God and stop even trying to hear what He is saying. We trust in our own strength and that always ends up in failure because our strength is not enough to do the work of the Most High. Elijah ended up in a cave in the wilderness cowering from the ominous threats of Satan’s prophetess.
There at the cave the Lord God commanded him to stand and observe. A wind came so strong that it broke up the rocks and the mountains, but God was not in the wind. An earthquake came but God was not in the earthquake. Then there was a great fire but God was not in the fire. After the fire there was a great silence. In the quiet came a voice: “What are you doing here Elijah?” Most of us probably know how this resulted in the prophet realizing his error and returning to his prophetic assignment in Israel (1 Kings 19).
All of this disobedience came from an attack of the enemy through Jezebel’s threat resulting in the great prophet becoming a spiritual deaf mute oblivious to the voice of his God. Satan’s threat shut the ears and the mouth of the prophet. He uses the same tactic with us. He wants us to stop hearing God because when we hear we respond and that releases the power of our God and the resulting defeat of Satan. When we experience a victory over the Baals of our day, he waits for the right moment to attack us with threats to get us to back off of God’s will. Often we stop listening to God and start hearing the negative condemning words of the adversary.
So, let us be clear that Satan’s primary attack on us through our circumstances often follows a wonderful victory from God. The enemy will not have us living in victory but opposes us by scaring us into shutting God out of our lives. He began this process in the Garden of Eden with Eve and continues to use it today. He wants us to forget what God is saying and do our own thing.
The mighty wind, earthquake, and fire seen by Elijah might well represent our own natural strength. God demonstrated these mighty sources of energy only to show that He is not in our natural strength and He will not be able to communicate with us when we are running scared and unaware of His voice. He shows up in the quiet hush and speaks to us when we are calmed down and listening for His voice.
Now I know that there are Christians and teachers who de-emphasize the hearing of God’s voice. To many it is a radical thing to actually hear from God. Many teach that the only way we can hear is through the Bible, the word of God. According to this teaching there is no longer any direct communication with God and anyone who thinks he directly hears from God is being deceived. These teachers have concluded that since the canon of scripture was concluded that God no longer speaks directly to people through the Spirit.
This teaching is not only wrong but it is heretical because it calls Jesus a deceiver when He says, “He that has an ear led him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7ff). He was speaking to the churches (God’s people) and he is speaking to the churches today. Jesus promised this of the Holy Spirit:
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come (John 16:13).
This passage shows that the Spirit speaks and He declares things to His people. He did not suspend His ministry of communication when the Bible was completed. That is a false notion stemming from fear. People are afraid of anything supernatural so they develop a doctrine of cessation that suspends the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of many.
Of course there are many abuses of this as there are abuses of every gift provided by God. The gift of pastor is perhaps the most abused gift given by God and yet we do not throw it out because deceived people abuse the gift. If we are fellowshipping in a healthy church body where people are held accountable for what they say and statements are judged by the Spirit and by the written word, this kind of notion is unthinkable. Participatory fellowship allows the Holy Spirit to speak to the church and also provides a safety net of accountability where statements are tested and judged accordingly (see 1 Thess. 5:21; 1 Cor. 14:29; 1 John 2:27). In most churches today the pastor’s word is sacred and he is seldom held accountable because there is no testing process in place. That’s an issue that needs to be addressed.
This teaching is a tactic of the enemy. He wants to cut off our spiritual communication system so we are left floundering in the darkness for direction. He doesn’t want us hearing from the Holy Spirit because God is always leading us on into the next wonderful work of the Lord. Satan wants us to stay put and live by the old, stale truth of the past. God wants us to be like the Israelites in the wilderness who were commanded to gather manna daily and not to store it up. We want to store up our doctrines and programs rather than be a people who are led daily by the Spirit of God.
Knowing this, how shall we then live? We must be a people who hear from God. We must devour His written word while listening to the Holy Spirit for help in understanding. Also, we must expect the Spirit to guide us during the day in our moment by moment living. He wants us to hear His voice when He encourages us to talk to a person or reach out in some way. He wants us to hear Him in regard to conducting our lives according to His leading. God does speak directly to us in His “still small voice” just as He did with Elijah. We are in the same need of a word from God. Let us not abuse this truth but walk in it sincerely always staying open to correction and guidance through our brothers and sisters.
The enemy wants to plug up our spiritual hearing system. God wants to open up a free channel of communication with His people. We defeat Satan by hearing what the Spirit is saying and living accordingly.
Lloyd Gardner
August 15, 2016
Jesus repeats seven times in the book of Revelation, “He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7ff). Perhaps He repeated it seven times because we are hard of hearing. Having an ear and hearing what Christ is saying are extremely important. Satan knows this and works overtime to stifle the hearing of followers of Christ. He creates a clamor of worldly noise that often drowns out the voice of God so that our spiritual ears are in need of healing. Often we are able to hear with our biological ears but our inner ear is deaf.
Over the years I have discovered, to my dismay, that there are people who cannot or will not hear what Christ is saying. The confirmed atheist has completely shut out any conversations of a spiritual nature. He will not hear it. How frustrating it has been for me when sharing with my friends who don’t know Christ only to see that they don’t have the ability to hear what I’m saying. No amount of verbal sparring or debate eloquence makes a difference. They do not have a spiritual ear to hear what Christ says. That doesn’t mean we stop trying to penetrate their deafness but it is a reality nonetheless.
I am even more concerned when I encounter people who are avowed followers of Christ who cannot hear spiritual things. I am often met with incredulous stares when I share spiritual truth about the eternal purpose of God and the mystery of His kingdom. Though these people are believers, they do not have an ear at that time to hear what Christ says. Some are even taught that God no longer speaks directly to His people. I believe this is the work of Satan operating in cooperation with disobedient hearts.
I myself have been on the wrong end of this scenario. In earlier stages of my life I was unable to hear what the Lord was saying to me. My ears were dull of hearing and I missed what He was trying to get through to me. As an institutional church pastor my spiritual deafness allowed a selfish motive for ministry to dominate my Christian walk. The Lord rescued me from that disobedient place and began to teach me to hear His voice and obey it. Of course the learning continues. Hearing is crucial to our walk with Christ but Satan opposes it with all his fury.
We are taught this lesson in the account of Elijah’s flight from his prophetic assignment out of fear of the ruthless Jezebel and Ahab the rebellious king over Israel. Elijah had just experienced the victory of God over the 450 prophets of Baal who were slaughtered for their disobedience. God had shown himself stronger than all the false prophets and opponents of Israel.
When the demonically inspired Jezebel threatened his life, forgetting the victory of God over Baal, he ran like a scared rabbit into the wilderness and ended up in a faraway cave. That’s what Satan does. He attacks with vengeful threats when we experience victory from God. At his threats we stop listening but revert back to leaning on our own strength and ability. Our natural ability always fails and when it does we stop listening to the voice of our God.
Surely in his cowardly flight, like so many of us, he was not hearing from God. Sometimes the fear or stress of the moment causes us to close off our ears to God and stop even trying to hear what He is saying. We trust in our own strength and that always ends up in failure because our strength is not enough to do the work of the Most High. Elijah ended up in a cave in the wilderness cowering from the ominous threats of Satan’s prophetess.
There at the cave the Lord God commanded him to stand and observe. A wind came so strong that it broke up the rocks and the mountains, but God was not in the wind. An earthquake came but God was not in the earthquake. Then there was a great fire but God was not in the fire. After the fire there was a great silence. In the quiet came a voice: “What are you doing here Elijah?” Most of us probably know how this resulted in the prophet realizing his error and returning to his prophetic assignment in Israel (1 Kings 19).
All of this disobedience came from an attack of the enemy through Jezebel’s threat resulting in the great prophet becoming a spiritual deaf mute oblivious to the voice of his God. Satan’s threat shut the ears and the mouth of the prophet. He uses the same tactic with us. He wants us to stop hearing God because when we hear we respond and that releases the power of our God and the resulting defeat of Satan. When we experience a victory over the Baals of our day, he waits for the right moment to attack us with threats to get us to back off of God’s will. Often we stop listening to God and start hearing the negative condemning words of the adversary.
So, let us be clear that Satan’s primary attack on us through our circumstances often follows a wonderful victory from God. The enemy will not have us living in victory but opposes us by scaring us into shutting God out of our lives. He began this process in the Garden of Eden with Eve and continues to use it today. He wants us to forget what God is saying and do our own thing.
The mighty wind, earthquake, and fire seen by Elijah might well represent our own natural strength. God demonstrated these mighty sources of energy only to show that He is not in our natural strength and He will not be able to communicate with us when we are running scared and unaware of His voice. He shows up in the quiet hush and speaks to us when we are calmed down and listening for His voice.
Now I know that there are Christians and teachers who de-emphasize the hearing of God’s voice. To many it is a radical thing to actually hear from God. Many teach that the only way we can hear is through the Bible, the word of God. According to this teaching there is no longer any direct communication with God and anyone who thinks he directly hears from God is being deceived. These teachers have concluded that since the canon of scripture was concluded that God no longer speaks directly to people through the Spirit.
This teaching is not only wrong but it is heretical because it calls Jesus a deceiver when He says, “He that has an ear led him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7ff). He was speaking to the churches (God’s people) and he is speaking to the churches today. Jesus promised this of the Holy Spirit:
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come (John 16:13).
This passage shows that the Spirit speaks and He declares things to His people. He did not suspend His ministry of communication when the Bible was completed. That is a false notion stemming from fear. People are afraid of anything supernatural so they develop a doctrine of cessation that suspends the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of many.
Of course there are many abuses of this as there are abuses of every gift provided by God. The gift of pastor is perhaps the most abused gift given by God and yet we do not throw it out because deceived people abuse the gift. If we are fellowshipping in a healthy church body where people are held accountable for what they say and statements are judged by the Spirit and by the written word, this kind of notion is unthinkable. Participatory fellowship allows the Holy Spirit to speak to the church and also provides a safety net of accountability where statements are tested and judged accordingly (see 1 Thess. 5:21; 1 Cor. 14:29; 1 John 2:27). In most churches today the pastor’s word is sacred and he is seldom held accountable because there is no testing process in place. That’s an issue that needs to be addressed.
This teaching is a tactic of the enemy. He wants to cut off our spiritual communication system so we are left floundering in the darkness for direction. He doesn’t want us hearing from the Holy Spirit because God is always leading us on into the next wonderful work of the Lord. Satan wants us to stay put and live by the old, stale truth of the past. God wants us to be like the Israelites in the wilderness who were commanded to gather manna daily and not to store it up. We want to store up our doctrines and programs rather than be a people who are led daily by the Spirit of God.
Knowing this, how shall we then live? We must be a people who hear from God. We must devour His written word while listening to the Holy Spirit for help in understanding. Also, we must expect the Spirit to guide us during the day in our moment by moment living. He wants us to hear His voice when He encourages us to talk to a person or reach out in some way. He wants us to hear Him in regard to conducting our lives according to His leading. God does speak directly to us in His “still small voice” just as He did with Elijah. We are in the same need of a word from God. Let us not abuse this truth but walk in it sincerely always staying open to correction and guidance through our brothers and sisters.
The enemy wants to plug up our spiritual hearing system. God wants to open up a free channel of communication with His people. We defeat Satan by hearing what the Spirit is saying and living accordingly.
Satan's Strategies: Promoting His World View with the Help of His Propaganda Machine
Lloyd Gardner
August 9, 2016
Does it surprise anyone that Satan has a propaganda machine? Adolf Hitler had Joseph Goebbels and his propaganda ministry, which I believe was an earthly expression of how Satan uses propaganda to influence our thinking. Satan began the destruction of humanity by using his verbal trickery in the Garden of Eden and he continues to use the same tactics every day. We would do well to know how he operates and respond accordingly. Of course if you are one of those people who do not believe Satan exists then you have already surrendered to his propaganda.
Goebbels was given authority by Hitler to gradually take control of the culture and intellectual life of Germany as he introduced a completely different political view. Satan also is taking control of our culture and intellectual life by controlling our educational system. Goebbels used films, radio, art, and news media to affect the thinking of German culture. He barred churches from participating in politics because they had a great deal of influence. He barred denominational schools and started youth groups in which young people were taught his worldview. He even used the 1936 Olympic games in an effort to broaden the influence of his ideas. It worked for a while until the world began to see the danger of his strategy.
These were not new ideas. Satan invented the whole process and has been using it since the first days of human existence. He despises the idea of a marketplace of ideas because he doesn’t want people thinking for themselves. He is selling his worldview and will not accept anything else. That’s why freedom of speech and expression is suppressed by those under his control.
We see this unfolding in America and worldwide today. Our school systems from Kindergarten through university are mostly dominated by the secular worldview, which espouses atheistic evolution and uses every means to shut down the marketplace of ideas. They are not interested in merely presenting their case but want to nullify any arguments in opposition. That kind of approach is satanic and results in demonic spin toward untruth not in genuine discovery of truth.
Our children are being propagandized in the much the same way that Hitler slowly brainwashed the children of Germany in the Jew-hating, fuhrer-worshipping, white supremacist way of thinking. As one example, our children are being taught the agenda of the LGBT community and gradually parents will have less and less to say about it. California’s state framework now requires LGBT history and culture to be taught in all state schools. The teacher’s unions back liberal policies and politicians like Hilary Clinton setting the tone for how teachers will act in the classrooms across the nation.
Atheists might find it interesting that the idea of testing things for validity comes from the Bible. Christians are exhorted in the Bible to “test everything; hold fast what is good” and to judge things that are spoken in the gathered church (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 Cor. 14:29). Jesus emphasized a search for truth and said that true seekers would find what they are searching for (Matt. 7:7; John 4:23). It is the secular world that devises its concepts and outlaws intellectual debate.
The “inalienable rights” spoken of in the Declaration of Independence refer to the rights we have from God. The “liberty” in those rights is a biblical concept not seen in other cultures. Secular atheism is the “religion” of communism that is responsible for over 94 million deaths in the 20th century. Liberty is foreign to atheist dogma. When Satan inspires a political viewpoint he makes sure that it is devoid of principles of individual liberty and freedom of expression.
Those principles flow from a God of love who grants freedom and a truth mindset to his people. As Satan has gained control of our court system in America he began a dismantling of its Christian foundation and has been able to suppress freedom, legitimize the removal of spiritual ideas from the public arena, legitimize the infanticide of abortion, secularize our schools and change the godly definition of marriage. He is good at what he does and much of his success is aided by our ignorance of his methods and our resulting spiritual passivity.
The secular world under Satan’s control also spread the idea that Christians have been anti-science when, in fact, it was the influence of Christianity that opened the way for science. James Hannam in his book The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution makes the case that the science revolution started as a result of Christianity. Indeed, without the market place of free thought encouraged by the Bible, the scientific revolution may never have been launched. Today, secular scientists want us to believe that Christians are anti-science while they shut down debate on their university campuses and elsewhere. They are the ones afraid of the market place of ideas. That fear is generated by Satan and his fear of God and truth.
Satan has convinced American culture that you are ignorant if you believe that God created the universe. A Gallup poll taken yearly since 1982 shows that Americans have consistently supported creation by God over evolution by 42 to 19 percent. Satan has done everything he can to change this but people who look up at the universe at night find it hard to believe that it created itself. But, to hear the spin of the enemy, everyone with any intelligence believes that man came from nothing. Satan’s spin does not have to make sense—it merely needs to work and it is working to a large extent because many people cannot see through the demonic scam. If only 19 percent of Americans believe in the evolution worldview why are we told that our viewpoint is in the minority?
Jesus called Satan “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Not only is he a liar but the one responsible for all lies. Joseph Goebbels was his protégé as well as Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man. Today he has other victims of his spin master skills such as any of the judges of our nations. His goal is to gain control of all venues responsible for disseminating information. He is doing a good job.
It should come as no surprise that almost all of the remaining newspapers in the country have a liberal bent in their opinion sections. Television is saturated with entertainment programs, news channels and much more that directly or indirectly further the secular worldview. The internet is inundated with a secular mind set and a general disregard for the notion of truth. Throughout our society the propaganda machine of the evil one is fully operational.
Even our churches have become channels for this propaganda machine. Many churches and denominations under the pressure of tax-exempt status are giving in to this satanic plot. Churches are avoiding conflict by “affirming” the LGBT community. Many churches reject the creation account in the book of Genesis. Even Pope Francis recently rejected the creation account in the Bible.
Of course this makes Jesus and the Bible to be false while Satan’s lie is accepted as truth. Jesus clearly explained how he felt about adultery of any kind, much less homosexuality (Matt. 5:28-32). Paul’s writings on the subject are clear unless you spin the Bible’s words to say what they do not say (Rom. 1:21-32). When society affirms homosexuality but rejects the Bible, it is clear who is in control of the propaganda. His name is Satan.
So how do we conduct ourselves in the wake of this tidal wave of propaganda? First of all we must be aware of the battle. Many Christians do not even believe in the existence of Satan or a spiritual enemy. That makes our spiritual warfare described by Paul a total failure (Eph. 6:12). We must know that a spiritual battle is underway and we are called to it. Secondly, we must realize that we are not helpless but have the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit so we have nothing to fear (1 John 2:27; Phil. 4:13; 1 Cor. 2:4, 5). Thirdly, we must join forces with the army of God, the church, because this is not a war to be won in isolation. One can put a thousand to flight and two ten thousand (Deut. 32:30). Imagine what a unified army can do. Lastly, we must be a people of prayer who understand that God is partnering with us for His purpose. As we pray His hand is moved.
History is about ready to experience a paradigm shift. In fact the shift has already begun. Perhaps it is the shift that will begin to set up the world stage for the end times or maybe it is a demonic dry run for the eventual battle of the ages. The election in America and the increasing turbulence in the world will all be used by Satan to move key people and countries into place. Our part is to listen carefully for the voice of the Lord and have the courage to respond with action in our lives. Be alert. Be praying. Be connected to others in Christ. God bless your obedience.
Lloyd Gardner
August 9, 2016
Does it surprise anyone that Satan has a propaganda machine? Adolf Hitler had Joseph Goebbels and his propaganda ministry, which I believe was an earthly expression of how Satan uses propaganda to influence our thinking. Satan began the destruction of humanity by using his verbal trickery in the Garden of Eden and he continues to use the same tactics every day. We would do well to know how he operates and respond accordingly. Of course if you are one of those people who do not believe Satan exists then you have already surrendered to his propaganda.
Goebbels was given authority by Hitler to gradually take control of the culture and intellectual life of Germany as he introduced a completely different political view. Satan also is taking control of our culture and intellectual life by controlling our educational system. Goebbels used films, radio, art, and news media to affect the thinking of German culture. He barred churches from participating in politics because they had a great deal of influence. He barred denominational schools and started youth groups in which young people were taught his worldview. He even used the 1936 Olympic games in an effort to broaden the influence of his ideas. It worked for a while until the world began to see the danger of his strategy.
These were not new ideas. Satan invented the whole process and has been using it since the first days of human existence. He despises the idea of a marketplace of ideas because he doesn’t want people thinking for themselves. He is selling his worldview and will not accept anything else. That’s why freedom of speech and expression is suppressed by those under his control.
We see this unfolding in America and worldwide today. Our school systems from Kindergarten through university are mostly dominated by the secular worldview, which espouses atheistic evolution and uses every means to shut down the marketplace of ideas. They are not interested in merely presenting their case but want to nullify any arguments in opposition. That kind of approach is satanic and results in demonic spin toward untruth not in genuine discovery of truth.
Our children are being propagandized in the much the same way that Hitler slowly brainwashed the children of Germany in the Jew-hating, fuhrer-worshipping, white supremacist way of thinking. As one example, our children are being taught the agenda of the LGBT community and gradually parents will have less and less to say about it. California’s state framework now requires LGBT history and culture to be taught in all state schools. The teacher’s unions back liberal policies and politicians like Hilary Clinton setting the tone for how teachers will act in the classrooms across the nation.
Atheists might find it interesting that the idea of testing things for validity comes from the Bible. Christians are exhorted in the Bible to “test everything; hold fast what is good” and to judge things that are spoken in the gathered church (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 Cor. 14:29). Jesus emphasized a search for truth and said that true seekers would find what they are searching for (Matt. 7:7; John 4:23). It is the secular world that devises its concepts and outlaws intellectual debate.
The “inalienable rights” spoken of in the Declaration of Independence refer to the rights we have from God. The “liberty” in those rights is a biblical concept not seen in other cultures. Secular atheism is the “religion” of communism that is responsible for over 94 million deaths in the 20th century. Liberty is foreign to atheist dogma. When Satan inspires a political viewpoint he makes sure that it is devoid of principles of individual liberty and freedom of expression.
Those principles flow from a God of love who grants freedom and a truth mindset to his people. As Satan has gained control of our court system in America he began a dismantling of its Christian foundation and has been able to suppress freedom, legitimize the removal of spiritual ideas from the public arena, legitimize the infanticide of abortion, secularize our schools and change the godly definition of marriage. He is good at what he does and much of his success is aided by our ignorance of his methods and our resulting spiritual passivity.
The secular world under Satan’s control also spread the idea that Christians have been anti-science when, in fact, it was the influence of Christianity that opened the way for science. James Hannam in his book The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution makes the case that the science revolution started as a result of Christianity. Indeed, without the market place of free thought encouraged by the Bible, the scientific revolution may never have been launched. Today, secular scientists want us to believe that Christians are anti-science while they shut down debate on their university campuses and elsewhere. They are the ones afraid of the market place of ideas. That fear is generated by Satan and his fear of God and truth.
Satan has convinced American culture that you are ignorant if you believe that God created the universe. A Gallup poll taken yearly since 1982 shows that Americans have consistently supported creation by God over evolution by 42 to 19 percent. Satan has done everything he can to change this but people who look up at the universe at night find it hard to believe that it created itself. But, to hear the spin of the enemy, everyone with any intelligence believes that man came from nothing. Satan’s spin does not have to make sense—it merely needs to work and it is working to a large extent because many people cannot see through the demonic scam. If only 19 percent of Americans believe in the evolution worldview why are we told that our viewpoint is in the minority?
Jesus called Satan “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Not only is he a liar but the one responsible for all lies. Joseph Goebbels was his protégé as well as Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man. Today he has other victims of his spin master skills such as any of the judges of our nations. His goal is to gain control of all venues responsible for disseminating information. He is doing a good job.
It should come as no surprise that almost all of the remaining newspapers in the country have a liberal bent in their opinion sections. Television is saturated with entertainment programs, news channels and much more that directly or indirectly further the secular worldview. The internet is inundated with a secular mind set and a general disregard for the notion of truth. Throughout our society the propaganda machine of the evil one is fully operational.
Even our churches have become channels for this propaganda machine. Many churches and denominations under the pressure of tax-exempt status are giving in to this satanic plot. Churches are avoiding conflict by “affirming” the LGBT community. Many churches reject the creation account in the book of Genesis. Even Pope Francis recently rejected the creation account in the Bible.
Of course this makes Jesus and the Bible to be false while Satan’s lie is accepted as truth. Jesus clearly explained how he felt about adultery of any kind, much less homosexuality (Matt. 5:28-32). Paul’s writings on the subject are clear unless you spin the Bible’s words to say what they do not say (Rom. 1:21-32). When society affirms homosexuality but rejects the Bible, it is clear who is in control of the propaganda. His name is Satan.
So how do we conduct ourselves in the wake of this tidal wave of propaganda? First of all we must be aware of the battle. Many Christians do not even believe in the existence of Satan or a spiritual enemy. That makes our spiritual warfare described by Paul a total failure (Eph. 6:12). We must know that a spiritual battle is underway and we are called to it. Secondly, we must realize that we are not helpless but have the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit so we have nothing to fear (1 John 2:27; Phil. 4:13; 1 Cor. 2:4, 5). Thirdly, we must join forces with the army of God, the church, because this is not a war to be won in isolation. One can put a thousand to flight and two ten thousand (Deut. 32:30). Imagine what a unified army can do. Lastly, we must be a people of prayer who understand that God is partnering with us for His purpose. As we pray His hand is moved.
History is about ready to experience a paradigm shift. In fact the shift has already begun. Perhaps it is the shift that will begin to set up the world stage for the end times or maybe it is a demonic dry run for the eventual battle of the ages. The election in America and the increasing turbulence in the world will all be used by Satan to move key people and countries into place. Our part is to listen carefully for the voice of the Lord and have the courage to respond with action in our lives. Be alert. Be praying. Be connected to others in Christ. God bless your obedience.
Satan's Strategies for the Last Days: Form without Substance
Lloyd Gardner
August 4, 2016
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be… Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:1-2; KJV).
“Form of godliness,” Paul says. The word for “form” here is the Greek word morphosis from which we get the word morph, which means to change or transform into something. Paul is saying that many in the last days will have a morphed form of godliness. This is religion in its most devious form. It looks like godliness but it is a sham—a false representation of the real thing.
Paul’s statement also implies that the people having this morphed godliness will not be aware of it. The fact that it is a “form” has fooled them. They have something that looks like godliness but there is no power in it. In other words it is a human form of religion because those possessing it have denied the spiritual power necessary for real godliness. It serves the purpose of giving them comfort and a semblance of satisfaction but there is no divine power in it.
The Christian life begins with the revelation that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). You cannot begin a life with Christ without realizing that you are completely incapable of a form of godliness of your own. You know inherently that you are a sinner, fall short of God’s glory and are in need of redemption. Everyone knows this except those who think they are God but they have a more serious problem. True godliness begins with the power of God and it is the power of God that sustains it in our lives. So, people who have a mere form of godliness are simply putting on a show for selfish reasons. True godliness comes directly from God not from human modification.
The word “godliness” in the New Testament literally means “good adoration.” There are many things that can be adored or revered but godliness is adoring those things that are good in God’s eyes. It is living a life that lines up with what God appreciates and adores instead of those things that line up with our fallen human nature. It is not a list of do’s and don’ts but a heavenly perspective implanted in a person’s heart resulting in a changed life.
In a sense godliness is taking on the lifestyle of heaven, the future destination of followers of Christ. Paul makes this case in writing to Timothy when he said, “godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). I hope you caught Paul’s valuation of godliness. He is saying that true godliness is a value that will transcend this life. It holds promise for the life to come and will continue. It is something of God imparted to us that lasts forever.
That’s why Paul says that godliness comes through the power of God. This power of godliness comes only from the presence of God. Where God is allowed to be present true godliness is realized. When God is not welcome there is no godliness. Satan has tried to deceive us into thinking that we can create our own form of godliness and redefine what is holy without the presence of God. Godliness requires the power of God flowing from His presence.
Peter says it this way: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). It is only through His divine power that we can attain life and godliness. Notice also that this divine power that produces life and godliness comes “through the knowledge of Him.” This is not knowledge about God but actually knowing God personally—having a knowing relationship with Him. Knowing Him is the key to everything connected to eternal life (John 17:3). To know Him is to possess true godliness.
Satan is not opposed to religion. In fact religion is one of his greatest tools. He can fool us into thinking we are godly when in fact we have merely adopted an outward form of behavior that can be accomplished without God. That is the enemy’s goal—to influence us to live outside of God’s life, outside of His presence. This was the temptation in the Garden of Eden and the serpent keeps fooling people by offering them a substitute for God. What a shame that so many Christians fall for his tactic.
The real tragedy is that many of our churches promote a mere form of godliness that denies God’s power. We are like the church in Laodicea in Revelation that thought it was spiritually rich, prosperous and lacking nothing when in fact they were lukewarm pretenders who left Jesus at the door trying to gain entrance (Rev. 3:17-20).
That’s the key to everything—the presence of Christ. His presence changes things. Paul thought he was so godly and gifted until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. He boasted of his personal religious training and carnal qualifications until he met the One who is the source of all true godliness (Phil. 3:4-8). When He met the Lord he was willing to give it all up for “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). Knowing Christ changes everything.
I recently watched the movie Risen about a Roman tribune who was charged with finding evidence that Christ had not truly been resurrected. At a certain point in his house searches he entered the home where Jesus was meeting with His disciples. He was stunned by the presence of Christ in His resurrection body. The same man he had seen dead on the cross was now alive. His life was never the same because he had seen Christ. We may not be able to have his exact experience but we too can see Christ and our lives will also be changed by His presence.
Many of us have form but little substance. The substance is the presence of Christ. The church is called by the Paul “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” ((Eph. 1:23). He is the substance, the content, the fullness of God expressed in His church. The answer is not some new form of religion. It is not some new way of explaining things or a new movement. The answer is Christ our Lord up close and personal. It’s a simple lesson but many of us have yet to learn it fully.
Lloyd Gardner
August 4, 2016
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be… Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:1-2; KJV).
“Form of godliness,” Paul says. The word for “form” here is the Greek word morphosis from which we get the word morph, which means to change or transform into something. Paul is saying that many in the last days will have a morphed form of godliness. This is religion in its most devious form. It looks like godliness but it is a sham—a false representation of the real thing.
Paul’s statement also implies that the people having this morphed godliness will not be aware of it. The fact that it is a “form” has fooled them. They have something that looks like godliness but there is no power in it. In other words it is a human form of religion because those possessing it have denied the spiritual power necessary for real godliness. It serves the purpose of giving them comfort and a semblance of satisfaction but there is no divine power in it.
The Christian life begins with the revelation that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). You cannot begin a life with Christ without realizing that you are completely incapable of a form of godliness of your own. You know inherently that you are a sinner, fall short of God’s glory and are in need of redemption. Everyone knows this except those who think they are God but they have a more serious problem. True godliness begins with the power of God and it is the power of God that sustains it in our lives. So, people who have a mere form of godliness are simply putting on a show for selfish reasons. True godliness comes directly from God not from human modification.
The word “godliness” in the New Testament literally means “good adoration.” There are many things that can be adored or revered but godliness is adoring those things that are good in God’s eyes. It is living a life that lines up with what God appreciates and adores instead of those things that line up with our fallen human nature. It is not a list of do’s and don’ts but a heavenly perspective implanted in a person’s heart resulting in a changed life.
In a sense godliness is taking on the lifestyle of heaven, the future destination of followers of Christ. Paul makes this case in writing to Timothy when he said, “godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). I hope you caught Paul’s valuation of godliness. He is saying that true godliness is a value that will transcend this life. It holds promise for the life to come and will continue. It is something of God imparted to us that lasts forever.
That’s why Paul says that godliness comes through the power of God. This power of godliness comes only from the presence of God. Where God is allowed to be present true godliness is realized. When God is not welcome there is no godliness. Satan has tried to deceive us into thinking that we can create our own form of godliness and redefine what is holy without the presence of God. Godliness requires the power of God flowing from His presence.
Peter says it this way: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). It is only through His divine power that we can attain life and godliness. Notice also that this divine power that produces life and godliness comes “through the knowledge of Him.” This is not knowledge about God but actually knowing God personally—having a knowing relationship with Him. Knowing Him is the key to everything connected to eternal life (John 17:3). To know Him is to possess true godliness.
Satan is not opposed to religion. In fact religion is one of his greatest tools. He can fool us into thinking we are godly when in fact we have merely adopted an outward form of behavior that can be accomplished without God. That is the enemy’s goal—to influence us to live outside of God’s life, outside of His presence. This was the temptation in the Garden of Eden and the serpent keeps fooling people by offering them a substitute for God. What a shame that so many Christians fall for his tactic.
The real tragedy is that many of our churches promote a mere form of godliness that denies God’s power. We are like the church in Laodicea in Revelation that thought it was spiritually rich, prosperous and lacking nothing when in fact they were lukewarm pretenders who left Jesus at the door trying to gain entrance (Rev. 3:17-20).
That’s the key to everything—the presence of Christ. His presence changes things. Paul thought he was so godly and gifted until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. He boasted of his personal religious training and carnal qualifications until he met the One who is the source of all true godliness (Phil. 3:4-8). When He met the Lord he was willing to give it all up for “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). Knowing Christ changes everything.
I recently watched the movie Risen about a Roman tribune who was charged with finding evidence that Christ had not truly been resurrected. At a certain point in his house searches he entered the home where Jesus was meeting with His disciples. He was stunned by the presence of Christ in His resurrection body. The same man he had seen dead on the cross was now alive. His life was never the same because he had seen Christ. We may not be able to have his exact experience but we too can see Christ and our lives will also be changed by His presence.
Many of us have form but little substance. The substance is the presence of Christ. The church is called by the Paul “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” ((Eph. 1:23). He is the substance, the content, the fullness of God expressed in His church. The answer is not some new form of religion. It is not some new way of explaining things or a new movement. The answer is Christ our Lord up close and personal. It’s a simple lesson but many of us have yet to learn it fully.
Satan's Strategies for the Last Days: Division among God's People
Lloyd Gardner
July 22, 2016
The recent violence that has taken place in our country in police shootings and the shootings of police officers underscores the tremendous racial and cultural division in our country. Political and cultural divisiveness are becoming the norm. Satan’s favorite strategy may be to divide and conquer humanity. History proves that he has been very successful.
The church, on the other hand, is to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth because the glorious One dwells within us and guides our steps (Matt. 5:14). A case can be made that the division in our ranks as followers of Christ is manifesting in our communities because the church is failing to walk in love and unity. When the church is walking in love and unity, a shockwave of spiritual life permeates the community.
Paul said that there are no racial or cultural distinctions in the church and that we are all one in Christ (Gal. 3:28). In other words the church that Jesus is building is to be a showcase of cultural and racial unity that reaches beyond natural characteristics into supernatural, spiritual expressions of love. It is to be a refuge of love and oneness that the world cannot manufacture without God. When the church fails in its calling, society has a diluted expression of God’s love and unity and ends up floundering in the chaos of human weakness.
Satan cannot stand it when God’s people are in unity. He knows that the oneness of the church spells defeat for him. He knows that unity unleashes the life and power of the church on earth and totally dismantles his divisive tactics against humanity. He will do everything he can to divide and conquer the church of Jesus Christ. Individually, Christians are simply a nuisance but as a corporate body they are the spiritual army that lays waist to his demonic kingdom of darkness. Don’t think Satan is unaware of this prophetic reality.
Jesus prayed a prayer just before He went out to Gethsemane to be arrested and eventually crucified. He identified the targets of His prayer when He said, “"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (John 17:20). So, Jesus was interceding in this prayer for the disciples who were with Him in the upper room but He was also praying for those who would believe through their word. In other words Jesus was praying for the entire church age and all the believers in it. He was praying for us.
He prays very pointedly for several key things but one thing that stands out is in the following verses:
…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:21-23).
Jesus described this unity precisely saying “you Father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us.” Obviously this is a supernatural unity. It is the same unity that exists between the Father and the Son. The Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father and the church is in the Father and the Son. There is no doubt what kind of unity Jesus was praying for. It was the unity expressed in the triune Godhead and shared with the church. Jesus prayed for this unity so we know it is destined to come to pass. The church is simply the triune Godhead expressed through people. It is “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23).
Some may respond that the prayer of Jesus is merely expressing an unseen heavenly unity that exists in the spiritual realm only. Jesus dispels this concept by saying that this unity will have an earthly effect: “…that the world may believe that you have sent me.” His prayer was not mere wishful thinking on His part. Jesus was also praying for the earthly outcome of unity in His people. The outcome would be an astounded world that looked on at the supernatural unity expressed on earth knowing that such a phenomenon is an unquestionable evidence of the heavenly mission of the Christ. Unity is not something natural to humanity. When people see genuine unity expressed in love they know inherently that God is involved. That is the role that the church of Jesus is to fulfill. It is to be Christ expressed corporately through our lives.
I am not referring to human unity produced by programs and intellectual coercion but to supernatural unity that comes from the unity of the Father, Son and Spirit. I am not referring to ecumenical unity where we all hold hands over the religious fences we refuse to tear down. Satan can manufacture a kind of unity that may even be impressive but he cannot produce supernatural unity of the spirit that comes from knowing God and destroys the fences that men construct. This unity will astound the world and attract seekers of truth because it reveals Christ in our lives.
When Satan witnessed the astounding unity of the early church he began immediately to devise strategies to create divisiveness in the church. He could easily handle many isolated Christians but a unified body was anathema to him.
Throughout the Christian world division has become the norm. Many wonderful believers who do amazing things in the name of Jesus are involved in these many divisions. We have become adept at holding hands over the fences we build. But all of this does not nullify what the word says about God’s desire for genuine godly unity among His children. Without spiritual oneness the enemy has a legitimate accusation to throw at the church. Division proves that Christ is not present whereas true oneness demonstrates His presence.
True godly oneness will only come as we submit to the will of God. Unity will not come through doctrines, programs or other human effort. It will flow forth from embracing His will and participating through the Holy Spirit in what He desires to do in our lives and in His body. These carnal things have contributed to the division that exists. We have put more emphasis on knowing about Christ than knowing Christ and His will.
We have become a people who work for Christ instead of working with Him and in Him. We do many things that He has not commissioned because we are often motivated by wanting to do something that draws attention to ourselves. We were created to draw attention to Christ and His will—to glorify and lift Him up not just with worship music but also with lives abandoned to Him.
James warns us about doing things outside of the will of God:
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. (James 4:13-16).
This passage warns us that it is boastful presumption to just go about our lives without submitting to the will of God. What He wants to do is much more important than anything we want to do. Just because we call something “church” does not mean He is behind it. We are to submit to the divine purpose of the universe and planet earth before we can know pure unity. We must acknowledge Him in all our ways if we expect Him to direct our steps (Prov. 3:6).
Unity comes from being in Christ and being in Christ means being in His will. Being in His will demands that we lay down our own will to submit to His. Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst” (Matt. 18:20). When just a few people are together in His name or in His will He blesses us with His corporate presence. That establishes a context in which we have the unity of the spirit. Paul tells us to work hard to maintain or keep that unity of the spirit (Eph. 4:3). If we keep that unity the Holy Spirit has an environment in which He can begin to move us toward what Paul calls ten verses later “the unity of the faith” (Eph. 4:13).
If we fail to reach that point of unity it is because we won’t take the first step of gathering in His name, in His will, and so we miss His presence. We want to hold on to our ideas, programs, special doctrines and activities. We love our stuff more than we want His presence. He says to lay it all down, die to self so He can live to us.
This may be the most crucial tactic of the enemy. He knows the power that would be unleashed in the body of Christ in unity with Him. Paul calls the body “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). He is fully expressed on the earth when God’s children are one in Him—when we have laid down our petty things and embrace Him together. It is Christ we must embrace, not doctrines or programs or some special way of gathering. If Christ is there everything else will be wonderful.
All of this begins with our relationship with Christ. Do we know Him in such a way that we submit to His will and His word, or do we only know Him as He fits into our limited plans? Do we know Him as the Lord of the universe who desires to be our Lord or do we simply see Him as our ticket to heaven? We must know Him and in knowing Him we must come to know His will and embrace it for our lives. When we do that we will find ourselves becoming one with others who do the same. That will lead to blessings beyond our imagination.
But the enemy of God is opposed to this so he attacks us daily to keep us apart. He attacks us with doctrinal chaos. He attacks us with offense and unforgiveness, with doctrinal disagreement and rabbit trails leading away from Christ. He will do anything to keep us from standing firmly on the Rock of Jesus and His word.
Why has the enemy succeeded in his tactics? Because we are unaware of his tactics and we care more for our religious stuff than we desire the presence of Christ among us. Repentance is in order. A change of direction is necessary. May God give us grace to want Him more than the comfort within the dividing walls we have built.
Lloyd Gardner
July 22, 2016
The recent violence that has taken place in our country in police shootings and the shootings of police officers underscores the tremendous racial and cultural division in our country. Political and cultural divisiveness are becoming the norm. Satan’s favorite strategy may be to divide and conquer humanity. History proves that he has been very successful.
The church, on the other hand, is to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth because the glorious One dwells within us and guides our steps (Matt. 5:14). A case can be made that the division in our ranks as followers of Christ is manifesting in our communities because the church is failing to walk in love and unity. When the church is walking in love and unity, a shockwave of spiritual life permeates the community.
Paul said that there are no racial or cultural distinctions in the church and that we are all one in Christ (Gal. 3:28). In other words the church that Jesus is building is to be a showcase of cultural and racial unity that reaches beyond natural characteristics into supernatural, spiritual expressions of love. It is to be a refuge of love and oneness that the world cannot manufacture without God. When the church fails in its calling, society has a diluted expression of God’s love and unity and ends up floundering in the chaos of human weakness.
Satan cannot stand it when God’s people are in unity. He knows that the oneness of the church spells defeat for him. He knows that unity unleashes the life and power of the church on earth and totally dismantles his divisive tactics against humanity. He will do everything he can to divide and conquer the church of Jesus Christ. Individually, Christians are simply a nuisance but as a corporate body they are the spiritual army that lays waist to his demonic kingdom of darkness. Don’t think Satan is unaware of this prophetic reality.
Jesus prayed a prayer just before He went out to Gethsemane to be arrested and eventually crucified. He identified the targets of His prayer when He said, “"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (John 17:20). So, Jesus was interceding in this prayer for the disciples who were with Him in the upper room but He was also praying for those who would believe through their word. In other words Jesus was praying for the entire church age and all the believers in it. He was praying for us.
He prays very pointedly for several key things but one thing that stands out is in the following verses:
…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:21-23).
Jesus described this unity precisely saying “you Father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us.” Obviously this is a supernatural unity. It is the same unity that exists between the Father and the Son. The Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father and the church is in the Father and the Son. There is no doubt what kind of unity Jesus was praying for. It was the unity expressed in the triune Godhead and shared with the church. Jesus prayed for this unity so we know it is destined to come to pass. The church is simply the triune Godhead expressed through people. It is “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23).
Some may respond that the prayer of Jesus is merely expressing an unseen heavenly unity that exists in the spiritual realm only. Jesus dispels this concept by saying that this unity will have an earthly effect: “…that the world may believe that you have sent me.” His prayer was not mere wishful thinking on His part. Jesus was also praying for the earthly outcome of unity in His people. The outcome would be an astounded world that looked on at the supernatural unity expressed on earth knowing that such a phenomenon is an unquestionable evidence of the heavenly mission of the Christ. Unity is not something natural to humanity. When people see genuine unity expressed in love they know inherently that God is involved. That is the role that the church of Jesus is to fulfill. It is to be Christ expressed corporately through our lives.
I am not referring to human unity produced by programs and intellectual coercion but to supernatural unity that comes from the unity of the Father, Son and Spirit. I am not referring to ecumenical unity where we all hold hands over the religious fences we refuse to tear down. Satan can manufacture a kind of unity that may even be impressive but he cannot produce supernatural unity of the spirit that comes from knowing God and destroys the fences that men construct. This unity will astound the world and attract seekers of truth because it reveals Christ in our lives.
When Satan witnessed the astounding unity of the early church he began immediately to devise strategies to create divisiveness in the church. He could easily handle many isolated Christians but a unified body was anathema to him.
Throughout the Christian world division has become the norm. Many wonderful believers who do amazing things in the name of Jesus are involved in these many divisions. We have become adept at holding hands over the fences we build. But all of this does not nullify what the word says about God’s desire for genuine godly unity among His children. Without spiritual oneness the enemy has a legitimate accusation to throw at the church. Division proves that Christ is not present whereas true oneness demonstrates His presence.
True godly oneness will only come as we submit to the will of God. Unity will not come through doctrines, programs or other human effort. It will flow forth from embracing His will and participating through the Holy Spirit in what He desires to do in our lives and in His body. These carnal things have contributed to the division that exists. We have put more emphasis on knowing about Christ than knowing Christ and His will.
We have become a people who work for Christ instead of working with Him and in Him. We do many things that He has not commissioned because we are often motivated by wanting to do something that draws attention to ourselves. We were created to draw attention to Christ and His will—to glorify and lift Him up not just with worship music but also with lives abandoned to Him.
James warns us about doing things outside of the will of God:
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. (James 4:13-16).
This passage warns us that it is boastful presumption to just go about our lives without submitting to the will of God. What He wants to do is much more important than anything we want to do. Just because we call something “church” does not mean He is behind it. We are to submit to the divine purpose of the universe and planet earth before we can know pure unity. We must acknowledge Him in all our ways if we expect Him to direct our steps (Prov. 3:6).
Unity comes from being in Christ and being in Christ means being in His will. Being in His will demands that we lay down our own will to submit to His. Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst” (Matt. 18:20). When just a few people are together in His name or in His will He blesses us with His corporate presence. That establishes a context in which we have the unity of the spirit. Paul tells us to work hard to maintain or keep that unity of the spirit (Eph. 4:3). If we keep that unity the Holy Spirit has an environment in which He can begin to move us toward what Paul calls ten verses later “the unity of the faith” (Eph. 4:13).
If we fail to reach that point of unity it is because we won’t take the first step of gathering in His name, in His will, and so we miss His presence. We want to hold on to our ideas, programs, special doctrines and activities. We love our stuff more than we want His presence. He says to lay it all down, die to self so He can live to us.
This may be the most crucial tactic of the enemy. He knows the power that would be unleashed in the body of Christ in unity with Him. Paul calls the body “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). He is fully expressed on the earth when God’s children are one in Him—when we have laid down our petty things and embrace Him together. It is Christ we must embrace, not doctrines or programs or some special way of gathering. If Christ is there everything else will be wonderful.
All of this begins with our relationship with Christ. Do we know Him in such a way that we submit to His will and His word, or do we only know Him as He fits into our limited plans? Do we know Him as the Lord of the universe who desires to be our Lord or do we simply see Him as our ticket to heaven? We must know Him and in knowing Him we must come to know His will and embrace it for our lives. When we do that we will find ourselves becoming one with others who do the same. That will lead to blessings beyond our imagination.
But the enemy of God is opposed to this so he attacks us daily to keep us apart. He attacks us with doctrinal chaos. He attacks us with offense and unforgiveness, with doctrinal disagreement and rabbit trails leading away from Christ. He will do anything to keep us from standing firmly on the Rock of Jesus and His word.
Why has the enemy succeeded in his tactics? Because we are unaware of his tactics and we care more for our religious stuff than we desire the presence of Christ among us. Repentance is in order. A change of direction is necessary. May God give us grace to want Him more than the comfort within the dividing walls we have built.
Satan's Strategies for the Last Days: He has Disarmed us
Lloyd Gardner
July 11, 2016
One of the most powerful passages in scripture tells us about the victory of Christ over Satan and his minions:
"He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him" (Col. 2:15).
Clearly the Lord is telling us here that Christ, in dying on the cross, bursting from the grave, ascending to His Father and pouring out the Holy Spirit upon His church has utterly disarmed the enemy, defeated Him and exposed him to open shame in the spiritual realm. Satan is truly defeated and has no weapons of sin and condemnation that he can use against us. Isaiah prophesied the result of this defeat: “no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD” (Isa. 54:17).
Paul describes the power that believers possess even when they have no revelation to confirm it:
“…having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know … what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:18-20).
Here God’s word makes it clear that we possess the same power within us that raised Christ from the dead. It is the power of God deposited in humans for the purpose of demonstrating His power on earth. Either that or Paul was a great exaggerator. Satan is defeated and God’s people have resurrection power. We are a people who do not know the power we possess because we reject it in favor of warmed-over religion.
The problem, however, is that this same defeated enemy is also an extraordinary propagandist who makes Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels look like amateurs. He is able to fool a great many people with his disinformation campaigns that present him as a powerful demonic being who rules the world with fear and intimidation.
This same defeated king of demons has convinced many in the church that they are the ones who have been disarmed and have no weapons that can cut him down. Many Christian preachers, under his scheming influence, tell us that many of the weapons of our warfare have been taken from our arsenal and we are no longer a people in whom the power of God is resident.
Let me explain. It is a common belief among many Christian teachers that the supernatural gifts and manifestations of God’s power have been rescinded. They are actually teaching that any of the gifts that have a miraculous effect were given merely to confirm the validity of the revelation given in the first century church. The Bible is now complete, so they say, and the foundation of the church is laid so there is no longer any need for miracles and the demonstration of God’s power. This is not the place for a refutation of this heresy but you will find an excellent scripture-based examination of the issue here.
This notion is often accompanied by the dispensational fatalistic belief that since the great apostasy will come at the end of the age the church will basically be a non-factor in the last days. This belief emphasizes a pre-tribulation rapture that will rescue a devastated church and then God’s judgment will be poured out on earth. This attitude de-emphasizes the power of God in His people because of the belief that the church will be in apostasy in the end times. Satan will gradually gain more and more influence over the world until his antichrist rises up and is defeated. Any expressions of God’s miraculous power are usually denied by this view or are labeled demonic. This obviously puts a religious damper over any expressions of the power of God such as the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, healing and other miracles. All of this is abomination and rejects much of the word of God.
On the other hand, most of us in America have fallen for the influence of the god of science that dictates that miracles are impossible, man is simply a higher form of animal life that evolved through a mechanism no one can discover, and the universe as we know it created itself. Science has formulated a worldview that eliminates miracles, the authenticity of scripture and anything else in the realm of the supernatural. This is a materialistic view that recognizes no reality except what science can verify with its limited tools.
Satan’s lie is working well among most American Christians who may not have heard that much of the world continues to experience miracles and the power of God. I would include a summary of many of these accounts of miracles but feel strongly that anyone who is genuinely seeking God can find the evidence for himself. A serious Google search will uncover miraculous verifiable moves of God throughout the world. God’s power is being witnessed in many parts of the world that have not been infected with the sophistication of modern science and its rejection of all things spiritual. I personally have witnessed verifiable miracles of healing in my own ministry as a believer.
This unbelieving environment has produced an impotent church in America that for the most part is satisfied with the substitution of entertainment, appealing programs and sophisticated technology for the power of God. It has also given rise to a church that is purely natural and manmade instead of spiritually and supernaturally moved.
Which would you rather see—a new video about a mission program or someone healed of an incurable disease? What would shake up your faith more fully—an eloquent sermon or a verifiable visit by the Holy Spirit? Would you rather see the rows in the church straightened or the withered leg of a lame person straightened by the power of God? Which would excite you more, a long drawn-out debate on the scriptural position on homosexuality or a gay person supernaturally set free in the name of Jesus? If you want to be excited about Christ and His church you need to open up to His miraculous power that is still with us if we would only believe.
I know that miracles do not by themselves convince people but they draw attention to the presence of God. They remind us that the Christian faith is a supernatural walk that begins with a miracle of new birth and continues with the miracle of spiritual transformation by the Holy Spirit. The Christian faith is miraculous through and through and we need to open up to the possibility that we have been duped by the enemy who says that miracles have ceased or that man is a mere animal destined to become compost. He is a sly deceiver and his deceptions have worked against a clueless church in America.
The gifts of the Spirit possessed by believers are part of our arsenal against Satan. The gift of discerning of spirits enables us to recognize and identify demonic forces at work in our midst. It is like the communication system of an army identifying the enemy and his location. Gifts of healings enable us to set people free from the devastation of the enemy and God gets the glory. They are comparable to the medics who heal and get soldiers back on the battlefield. Each of the gifts has a particular effect on the enemy resulting in the Lord being glorified in our midst.
Paul says in reference to prophecy “But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you” (1 Cor. 14:24, 25). This verse shows that prophecy, speaking God’s word from your spirit, alerts people that Christ is in the room and it usually results in people worshipping God because they realize His presence. It is Christ speaking through the mouth of obedient believers. We are not to despise prophecy while we have an attitude of testing all things (1 Thess. 5:20, 21).
The power of God is real and all true believers have access to it. Unfortunately the world’s skepticism coupled with the unbelief of many in the church including popular teachers, has created an atmosphere of ambiguity in America that stifles faith and causes people to fear the power of God. This is obviously the work of Satan as he intensifies his efforts to keep his foot on the throat of an unbelieving church, many of whom are afraid of their own shadow.
Many of our friends confirm that ministry in foreign countries is accompanied by miracles. It is taken for granted that the message of the Gospel will be accompanied by signs that follow (Mark 16:17). It is only in America and western civilization that we have watered the message of Christ down to an escape hatch to heaven. Oh yes, we will escape but in the meantime we are commanded to demonstrate the victory of Christ and His kingdom over the enemy.
Now, I am not recommending that people go off in search of more power. I am strongly encouraging us to seek the face of the One who will work His mighty will in our lives. But we must ask for victory over our unbelief in a culture of skepticism fueled by the world’s rejection of God and growing infidelity in His church. Genuine power flows from a healthy spiritual life and a healthy expression of the body of Christ where boldness is accompanied by accountability.
Paul reminds us of the power we possess in Christ in Ephesians 1:19 but he precedes that with an admonition to receive “…a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, the eyes of your mind having been enlightened, for you to know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us, the ones believing according to the working of His mighty strength" (1:17-19; LITV).
We do not receive the power of Christ by seeking power but by seeking Him. Paul tells us to seek “a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.” As our inner knowledge of Christ grows are understanding of the power we possess in Him will grow as well. Where He is lifted up the enemy is defeated.
The enemy is a lying scoundrel but our Lord stands ready to unveil His presence and His power into our lives. The gifts of the Spirit have not been rescinded, despite what skeptical preachers say, despite what secular scientists proclaim. Let us seek after Him knowing that all He has died to grant us is ours if we only believe what He says.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3:20, 21).
Lloyd Gardner
July 11, 2016
One of the most powerful passages in scripture tells us about the victory of Christ over Satan and his minions:
"He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him" (Col. 2:15).
Clearly the Lord is telling us here that Christ, in dying on the cross, bursting from the grave, ascending to His Father and pouring out the Holy Spirit upon His church has utterly disarmed the enemy, defeated Him and exposed him to open shame in the spiritual realm. Satan is truly defeated and has no weapons of sin and condemnation that he can use against us. Isaiah prophesied the result of this defeat: “no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD” (Isa. 54:17).
Paul describes the power that believers possess even when they have no revelation to confirm it:
“…having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know … what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:18-20).
Here God’s word makes it clear that we possess the same power within us that raised Christ from the dead. It is the power of God deposited in humans for the purpose of demonstrating His power on earth. Either that or Paul was a great exaggerator. Satan is defeated and God’s people have resurrection power. We are a people who do not know the power we possess because we reject it in favor of warmed-over religion.
The problem, however, is that this same defeated enemy is also an extraordinary propagandist who makes Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels look like amateurs. He is able to fool a great many people with his disinformation campaigns that present him as a powerful demonic being who rules the world with fear and intimidation.
This same defeated king of demons has convinced many in the church that they are the ones who have been disarmed and have no weapons that can cut him down. Many Christian preachers, under his scheming influence, tell us that many of the weapons of our warfare have been taken from our arsenal and we are no longer a people in whom the power of God is resident.
Let me explain. It is a common belief among many Christian teachers that the supernatural gifts and manifestations of God’s power have been rescinded. They are actually teaching that any of the gifts that have a miraculous effect were given merely to confirm the validity of the revelation given in the first century church. The Bible is now complete, so they say, and the foundation of the church is laid so there is no longer any need for miracles and the demonstration of God’s power. This is not the place for a refutation of this heresy but you will find an excellent scripture-based examination of the issue here.
This notion is often accompanied by the dispensational fatalistic belief that since the great apostasy will come at the end of the age the church will basically be a non-factor in the last days. This belief emphasizes a pre-tribulation rapture that will rescue a devastated church and then God’s judgment will be poured out on earth. This attitude de-emphasizes the power of God in His people because of the belief that the church will be in apostasy in the end times. Satan will gradually gain more and more influence over the world until his antichrist rises up and is defeated. Any expressions of God’s miraculous power are usually denied by this view or are labeled demonic. This obviously puts a religious damper over any expressions of the power of God such as the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, healing and other miracles. All of this is abomination and rejects much of the word of God.
On the other hand, most of us in America have fallen for the influence of the god of science that dictates that miracles are impossible, man is simply a higher form of animal life that evolved through a mechanism no one can discover, and the universe as we know it created itself. Science has formulated a worldview that eliminates miracles, the authenticity of scripture and anything else in the realm of the supernatural. This is a materialistic view that recognizes no reality except what science can verify with its limited tools.
Satan’s lie is working well among most American Christians who may not have heard that much of the world continues to experience miracles and the power of God. I would include a summary of many of these accounts of miracles but feel strongly that anyone who is genuinely seeking God can find the evidence for himself. A serious Google search will uncover miraculous verifiable moves of God throughout the world. God’s power is being witnessed in many parts of the world that have not been infected with the sophistication of modern science and its rejection of all things spiritual. I personally have witnessed verifiable miracles of healing in my own ministry as a believer.
This unbelieving environment has produced an impotent church in America that for the most part is satisfied with the substitution of entertainment, appealing programs and sophisticated technology for the power of God. It has also given rise to a church that is purely natural and manmade instead of spiritually and supernaturally moved.
Which would you rather see—a new video about a mission program or someone healed of an incurable disease? What would shake up your faith more fully—an eloquent sermon or a verifiable visit by the Holy Spirit? Would you rather see the rows in the church straightened or the withered leg of a lame person straightened by the power of God? Which would excite you more, a long drawn-out debate on the scriptural position on homosexuality or a gay person supernaturally set free in the name of Jesus? If you want to be excited about Christ and His church you need to open up to His miraculous power that is still with us if we would only believe.
I know that miracles do not by themselves convince people but they draw attention to the presence of God. They remind us that the Christian faith is a supernatural walk that begins with a miracle of new birth and continues with the miracle of spiritual transformation by the Holy Spirit. The Christian faith is miraculous through and through and we need to open up to the possibility that we have been duped by the enemy who says that miracles have ceased or that man is a mere animal destined to become compost. He is a sly deceiver and his deceptions have worked against a clueless church in America.
The gifts of the Spirit possessed by believers are part of our arsenal against Satan. The gift of discerning of spirits enables us to recognize and identify demonic forces at work in our midst. It is like the communication system of an army identifying the enemy and his location. Gifts of healings enable us to set people free from the devastation of the enemy and God gets the glory. They are comparable to the medics who heal and get soldiers back on the battlefield. Each of the gifts has a particular effect on the enemy resulting in the Lord being glorified in our midst.
Paul says in reference to prophecy “But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you” (1 Cor. 14:24, 25). This verse shows that prophecy, speaking God’s word from your spirit, alerts people that Christ is in the room and it usually results in people worshipping God because they realize His presence. It is Christ speaking through the mouth of obedient believers. We are not to despise prophecy while we have an attitude of testing all things (1 Thess. 5:20, 21).
The power of God is real and all true believers have access to it. Unfortunately the world’s skepticism coupled with the unbelief of many in the church including popular teachers, has created an atmosphere of ambiguity in America that stifles faith and causes people to fear the power of God. This is obviously the work of Satan as he intensifies his efforts to keep his foot on the throat of an unbelieving church, many of whom are afraid of their own shadow.
Many of our friends confirm that ministry in foreign countries is accompanied by miracles. It is taken for granted that the message of the Gospel will be accompanied by signs that follow (Mark 16:17). It is only in America and western civilization that we have watered the message of Christ down to an escape hatch to heaven. Oh yes, we will escape but in the meantime we are commanded to demonstrate the victory of Christ and His kingdom over the enemy.
Now, I am not recommending that people go off in search of more power. I am strongly encouraging us to seek the face of the One who will work His mighty will in our lives. But we must ask for victory over our unbelief in a culture of skepticism fueled by the world’s rejection of God and growing infidelity in His church. Genuine power flows from a healthy spiritual life and a healthy expression of the body of Christ where boldness is accompanied by accountability.
Paul reminds us of the power we possess in Christ in Ephesians 1:19 but he precedes that with an admonition to receive “…a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, the eyes of your mind having been enlightened, for you to know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us, the ones believing according to the working of His mighty strength" (1:17-19; LITV).
We do not receive the power of Christ by seeking power but by seeking Him. Paul tells us to seek “a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.” As our inner knowledge of Christ grows are understanding of the power we possess in Him will grow as well. Where He is lifted up the enemy is defeated.
The enemy is a lying scoundrel but our Lord stands ready to unveil His presence and His power into our lives. The gifts of the Spirit have not been rescinded, despite what skeptical preachers say, despite what secular scientists proclaim. Let us seek after Him knowing that all He has died to grant us is ours if we only believe what He says.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3:20, 21).
Satan's Strategies for the Last Days: Institutionalizing of the Church
Lloyd Gardner
July 4, 2016
The subject of this message is controversial because it presents the case that one of Satan’s strategies has been to institutionalize the church. The problem is that most modern Christians know of no other form of the church other than the one that sprang from this process of institutionalization. Many Christians may be tempted to see my criticism of the organized version of the church as a condemnation of everything they hold dear. This message is aimed not at faithful individual followers of Christ but at the hardened system that keeps them from the fullness of their destiny.
What if Satan has successfully diluted the power of the church by causing it to adopt the use of man’s ingenuity and fleshly abilities instead of the power and insight of the Holy Spirit? What if he realized from the beginning that the true expression of the church was destined to crush his head and so he set out to weaken its effect by mingling it with human tradition and religious methodology? The early church had him on the run and he realized quickly that He could not defeat this motley band of Christ followers who were filled with the Holy Spirit and relying totally on Him rather than human cleverness. Instead of trying to defeat something that was stronger than him he set out to weaken it with the enticement of depraved human effort.
That is exactly the case I am presenting in this message and I ask all who read to test what I write with the word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Please do not make the mistake of judging what I say by simply holding it up next to our modern church status quo and calling it erroneous. Let the word be your guide and let the Holy Spirit confirm it in your heart.
The church Jesus inspired from the beginning was simply seeking people who received Him and let His Holy Spirit fill them, lead them and work through them. The church was the coming together of the people of God who had been spiritually born into His kingdom and filled with the Spirit to live lives of love, unity and power. This human vessel filled with the very presence of God changed the world because it was real people filled with the fullness of God, heaven moving on earth, God walking in human feet, a living temple in which God was made visible to a dying world (Eph. 3:14-21).
The only structure was provided by the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised us that when He went away that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit and He would lead them into all truth (Acts 1:8; John 16:13). They had no idea what shape the church would take but simply trusted the Spirit to lead them and give them wisdom about how to move forward. They set aside their human cleverness and were led by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14). For all of the time period covered by the New Testament the church was a simple spiritual organism led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Most Christians assume that this guidance of the Holy Spirit continued and produced the church expression we see today, but historical evidence tells another story. After the first century the enemy of God began his pressure on believers to use human ability instead of the leading of the Holy Spirit. He was no match for the Holy Spirit moving in God’s people but he knew he could easily defeat anything built with human ability. Christians can do all things through Christ who gives them strength but when they rely on their own strength they become normal humans devoid of power against spiritual forces (1 Cor. 2:4; 3:3; Phil. 4:13).
There were no clergymen with special titles and clerical garb so the evil one began to move people to seek positions of authority, place titles before their names, and dress up in religious clothing. There were no official church services so he moved these power seekers to begin replacing participatory fellowship with clergy-dominated meetings and sermons. There were no church buildings so he moved the power brokers like Emperor Constantine to build church structures or hand over the pagan temples to the Christians. There was nothing to pay for except helping the poor, the orphans and the widows, so he began a campaign to provide goodies that would have to be paid for by tithes from the people. It was a simple life so he complicated it with religious clutter.
In the beginning the Lord had given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry so that the church would be spiritually built up and grow in love, unity and power. It would become an expression of the fullness of Christ on earth and its growth and vitality would be continued by the church leaning solely on Christ “…from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:11-16). That’s the church—Christ working through people who realized they need Him and the others He touches with His grace.
But Satan would have none of it. He knew he would have to derail this mighty juggernaut of power and he did so by gradually replacing the presence of Christ with confidence in human cleverness. He replaced a living spiritual organism with a dead or dying natural organization. He institutionalized the church.
The church became hardened in religious concrete and began to lose its spiritual vitality and strength. Human ability replaced the power and leading of the Holy Spirit. Church buildings and programs replaced the simple home gatherings of seeking believers. Organized liturgy-dominated, services replaced the simple sharing of the saints as they fellowshipped and exercised the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Clergymen replaced anointed mature leaders. Sermons replaced Christ-centered sharing. Dead ritual replaced the miraculous power of the Spirit manifest through the faithful. Entertaining choirs and bands replaced “…psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Eph. 5:19).
The church became a hardened shell of its previous glory virtually fulfilling the warning of Paul when he wrote, “…so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph. 4:14). A very literal translation of the last words of this verse could be rendered “in human cunning by craftiness in the use of erring methods.” When the church is not being led by the Spirit it falls back to human ability which makes use of erring methods. The methods are in error because they are not inspired by the Holy Spirit but rather emanate from the fallen ability of men.
Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:19). Men do not get to build the church their way. He is the Lord and Master and the master builder who determines what materials are used and how it is constructed. When men try to build it they make a mess of things. When the tabernacle was built in the wilderness God commanded them to build it “Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it” (Ex. 25:9). Each Israelite was told to bring a contribution to the tabernacle but this contribution had to be according to God’s direction. They didn’t get to put into it anything they wanted (Ex. 25:2). It was God’s house and he would build it His way.
Paul said much the same thing about the church, the temple of God in the church age. He said “Let each one take care how he builds upon it” (1 Cor. 3:10). They were warned to submit to God what they put into the temple and would be judged accordingly (3:14). He concludes saying “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” (3:16). In other words, the church, is the temple of God and His Spirit dwells in us. The church is the work of God in the Holy Spirit and we do not get to build it as we please. To do so is the height of presumption.
People speak of starting and building churches as though they were starting up companies and using marketing methods to build. This is why the established church is struggling today. In many cases it is an empty shell without relevance to hungry people who need spiritual food, thirsty people who need spiritual water. Young people are leaving our churches in droves because they do not see the love, unity and power of God. They do not witness the presence of Jesus in His temple. This is because we have allowed Satan to build a counterfeit that resembles the church but was built by men rather then the Holy Spirit.
At this point many people accuse me of recommending a particular form of church that is more effective. I make no such claim. My only recommendation is that we return to Jesus and His word and allow His Holy Spirit to lead us as we continue to be His church. There is much room for repentance in the lives of those who have been so presumptuous as to build the church without consulting Him. I was one who had to repent when I realized that I was building my own kingdom rather than His. I have made all of the mistakes I share about in this message. I speak out of my own failure and out of the revelation of His eternal purpose into my heart.
The church is not a natural institution that men can build any way they want. That is a lie from Satan. The church Christ is building is supernatural. It is a spiritual organism whose life is the Holy Spirit of God within each member and flowing between them. It is described by Paul as “…his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). An organism cannot be built from the outside in but must grow from the inside out as the presence of Christ in our spirit transforms us individually and brings us together in one living expression of the Life within.
This is where some of you are probably offended. You think I am criticizing your church or your denomination or whatever. My assignment in Christ is not to tell you what to do but to declare what His word says He is doing and will do when we allow Him full access to His church. He has given us “access by faith into this grace in which we stand (Rom. 5:2) so we must give Him access to the church He died to liberate. Let us allow Him to come freely into the midst of His people and reveal Himself as He is, not as we have imagined Him.
When we are doing that we will not be offended by what He is saying to the churches today. What He is saying is that we have allowed His enemy to sell many of us a false rendition of His church and He offers Himself, His word and the Holy Spirit as the answers to that dilemma. May He bless you in your continuing journey in Him.
Lloyd Gardner
July 4, 2016
The subject of this message is controversial because it presents the case that one of Satan’s strategies has been to institutionalize the church. The problem is that most modern Christians know of no other form of the church other than the one that sprang from this process of institutionalization. Many Christians may be tempted to see my criticism of the organized version of the church as a condemnation of everything they hold dear. This message is aimed not at faithful individual followers of Christ but at the hardened system that keeps them from the fullness of their destiny.
What if Satan has successfully diluted the power of the church by causing it to adopt the use of man’s ingenuity and fleshly abilities instead of the power and insight of the Holy Spirit? What if he realized from the beginning that the true expression of the church was destined to crush his head and so he set out to weaken its effect by mingling it with human tradition and religious methodology? The early church had him on the run and he realized quickly that He could not defeat this motley band of Christ followers who were filled with the Holy Spirit and relying totally on Him rather than human cleverness. Instead of trying to defeat something that was stronger than him he set out to weaken it with the enticement of depraved human effort.
That is exactly the case I am presenting in this message and I ask all who read to test what I write with the word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Please do not make the mistake of judging what I say by simply holding it up next to our modern church status quo and calling it erroneous. Let the word be your guide and let the Holy Spirit confirm it in your heart.
The church Jesus inspired from the beginning was simply seeking people who received Him and let His Holy Spirit fill them, lead them and work through them. The church was the coming together of the people of God who had been spiritually born into His kingdom and filled with the Spirit to live lives of love, unity and power. This human vessel filled with the very presence of God changed the world because it was real people filled with the fullness of God, heaven moving on earth, God walking in human feet, a living temple in which God was made visible to a dying world (Eph. 3:14-21).
The only structure was provided by the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised us that when He went away that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit and He would lead them into all truth (Acts 1:8; John 16:13). They had no idea what shape the church would take but simply trusted the Spirit to lead them and give them wisdom about how to move forward. They set aside their human cleverness and were led by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14). For all of the time period covered by the New Testament the church was a simple spiritual organism led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Most Christians assume that this guidance of the Holy Spirit continued and produced the church expression we see today, but historical evidence tells another story. After the first century the enemy of God began his pressure on believers to use human ability instead of the leading of the Holy Spirit. He was no match for the Holy Spirit moving in God’s people but he knew he could easily defeat anything built with human ability. Christians can do all things through Christ who gives them strength but when they rely on their own strength they become normal humans devoid of power against spiritual forces (1 Cor. 2:4; 3:3; Phil. 4:13).
There were no clergymen with special titles and clerical garb so the evil one began to move people to seek positions of authority, place titles before their names, and dress up in religious clothing. There were no official church services so he moved these power seekers to begin replacing participatory fellowship with clergy-dominated meetings and sermons. There were no church buildings so he moved the power brokers like Emperor Constantine to build church structures or hand over the pagan temples to the Christians. There was nothing to pay for except helping the poor, the orphans and the widows, so he began a campaign to provide goodies that would have to be paid for by tithes from the people. It was a simple life so he complicated it with religious clutter.
In the beginning the Lord had given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry so that the church would be spiritually built up and grow in love, unity and power. It would become an expression of the fullness of Christ on earth and its growth and vitality would be continued by the church leaning solely on Christ “…from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:11-16). That’s the church—Christ working through people who realized they need Him and the others He touches with His grace.
But Satan would have none of it. He knew he would have to derail this mighty juggernaut of power and he did so by gradually replacing the presence of Christ with confidence in human cleverness. He replaced a living spiritual organism with a dead or dying natural organization. He institutionalized the church.
The church became hardened in religious concrete and began to lose its spiritual vitality and strength. Human ability replaced the power and leading of the Holy Spirit. Church buildings and programs replaced the simple home gatherings of seeking believers. Organized liturgy-dominated, services replaced the simple sharing of the saints as they fellowshipped and exercised the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Clergymen replaced anointed mature leaders. Sermons replaced Christ-centered sharing. Dead ritual replaced the miraculous power of the Spirit manifest through the faithful. Entertaining choirs and bands replaced “…psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Eph. 5:19).
The church became a hardened shell of its previous glory virtually fulfilling the warning of Paul when he wrote, “…so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph. 4:14). A very literal translation of the last words of this verse could be rendered “in human cunning by craftiness in the use of erring methods.” When the church is not being led by the Spirit it falls back to human ability which makes use of erring methods. The methods are in error because they are not inspired by the Holy Spirit but rather emanate from the fallen ability of men.
Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:19). Men do not get to build the church their way. He is the Lord and Master and the master builder who determines what materials are used and how it is constructed. When men try to build it they make a mess of things. When the tabernacle was built in the wilderness God commanded them to build it “Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it” (Ex. 25:9). Each Israelite was told to bring a contribution to the tabernacle but this contribution had to be according to God’s direction. They didn’t get to put into it anything they wanted (Ex. 25:2). It was God’s house and he would build it His way.
Paul said much the same thing about the church, the temple of God in the church age. He said “Let each one take care how he builds upon it” (1 Cor. 3:10). They were warned to submit to God what they put into the temple and would be judged accordingly (3:14). He concludes saying “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” (3:16). In other words, the church, is the temple of God and His Spirit dwells in us. The church is the work of God in the Holy Spirit and we do not get to build it as we please. To do so is the height of presumption.
People speak of starting and building churches as though they were starting up companies and using marketing methods to build. This is why the established church is struggling today. In many cases it is an empty shell without relevance to hungry people who need spiritual food, thirsty people who need spiritual water. Young people are leaving our churches in droves because they do not see the love, unity and power of God. They do not witness the presence of Jesus in His temple. This is because we have allowed Satan to build a counterfeit that resembles the church but was built by men rather then the Holy Spirit.
At this point many people accuse me of recommending a particular form of church that is more effective. I make no such claim. My only recommendation is that we return to Jesus and His word and allow His Holy Spirit to lead us as we continue to be His church. There is much room for repentance in the lives of those who have been so presumptuous as to build the church without consulting Him. I was one who had to repent when I realized that I was building my own kingdom rather than His. I have made all of the mistakes I share about in this message. I speak out of my own failure and out of the revelation of His eternal purpose into my heart.
The church is not a natural institution that men can build any way they want. That is a lie from Satan. The church Christ is building is supernatural. It is a spiritual organism whose life is the Holy Spirit of God within each member and flowing between them. It is described by Paul as “…his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). An organism cannot be built from the outside in but must grow from the inside out as the presence of Christ in our spirit transforms us individually and brings us together in one living expression of the Life within.
This is where some of you are probably offended. You think I am criticizing your church or your denomination or whatever. My assignment in Christ is not to tell you what to do but to declare what His word says He is doing and will do when we allow Him full access to His church. He has given us “access by faith into this grace in which we stand (Rom. 5:2) so we must give Him access to the church He died to liberate. Let us allow Him to come freely into the midst of His people and reveal Himself as He is, not as we have imagined Him.
When we are doing that we will not be offended by what He is saying to the churches today. What He is saying is that we have allowed His enemy to sell many of us a false rendition of His church and He offers Himself, His word and the Holy Spirit as the answers to that dilemma. May He bless you in your continuing journey in Him.
Satan's Strategy for the Last Days: Conformed to the World
Lloyd Gardner
June 27, 2016
Satan is the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). “World” in his verse is a translation of the Greek word “eon” which refers to a period of time or an age. Satan takes charge of an age with specialized strategies that work on the people and cultures of that time period. His world system with its focused tactics is designed to infiltrate the church, influence it toward conforming to the world and weaken its resolve to follow Christ.
His enemy is Christ and His followers. In America, with its capitalist, market system form of economy, his strategy has worked quite well because he has been able to entice us with many materialistic goodies that pull us away from Christ. He has invaded the lives of individual Christians as well as the established church with his strategy to weaken us with compromise and passivity. The church was warned from the beginning not to be conformed to the world but to be supernaturally transformed by the presence of Christ (Rom. 12:2).
What are some of the characteristics of the age in this country? The list is endless: sexual gratification, technology gadgets, distracting entertainment venues, political turmoil, religious compromise, spiritual and moral stagnation and a corrupt educational system. Of course there is much more that could be included but you get the idea.
Satan floods his world system with these distractions aimed at capturing people to his way of thinking and acting hoping we will abandon a holy walk with Christ. The apostle John addresses this problem saying “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that which is in the world: the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15, 16). The world and God’s way are two separate places. You cannot love the Father and the world at the same time. They are polar opposites in effect.
Wherever you go in this world in the present age you will be inundated with things that stir up the unwholesome lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and things that push us to take pride in our accomplishments apart from Christ. A walk through any mall in America will prove my point. The poster ads of scantily clad young ladies or muscular, handsome young men are everywhere. One would have to wear blinders to avoid seeing such enticing pictures. The lusts of the flesh that include hunger, thirst, sex, ego, comfort etc. are constantly stirred up by market-driven ads selling their products. Satan, the master salesman, knows exactly how to present his ad campaign and no doubt is an unseen advisor to many advertising experts.
Television is inundated with all of the above and much more. The flesh is continually presented with ads for every imaginable appetizing food, alcoholic beverage, technology gadget, or sexual performance aid or pharmaceutical solution. The internet is likewise inundated and may be worse since pornography is less regulated in that venue. One can be innocently searching the net and run across ads for the ten most this or that with pictures that lure one into the trap.
I could go on and on with this description but I have made my point—we are surrounded with the lifestyle of Satan and his minions and most of us aren’t even aware of it. We are like the frog in the gradually heating water that is about to boil us alive and we do not realize it.
On the other hand, we must realize that we cannot fight this problem by cursing the darkness but must learn how to be light in the midst of the dark realm of the enemy. Cursing the darkness merely intensifies it and diminishes our mandate to be light.
Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house” (Matt. 5:14, 15). Why are we light to the world? Because the Light dwells within us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said that if we believe in the Light we would be sons of light (John 12:36). Paul warns us that light cannot have fellowship with darkness (2 Cor. 6:14). There is a reason that the seven churches in Revelation are identified as “lampstands.” The churches, the people of God, are the containers of the light of Christ to the world.
The answer to the world’s influence isn’t to get angry and shout and scream at the way things are developing but to realize that we possess the light of God that can enlighten people in the midst of the darkness. We do not do this with doctrinal debate and political diatribes but with lives lived in contrast to the darkness. This demands a living, continuous, daily relationship with the One who is Light—Jesus. Before He left them the Lord said to His disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). We should not be worried about the world and its power if we have the One who overcame the world living in us.
Paul said it this way: “…at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true)” (Eph. 5:8, 9). There you have it. If Christ, the Light dwells in us we are not darkness but children of light. Light shines in our lives through actions that are good and right and true in God. If we live in the light and do not hide our light we will shine to all who are around us. We are a beacon in the midst of a dark realm that others are attracted to.
The world is Satan’s dark realm. When Christ came the first time He did not advise political action and angry outbursts that curse the darkness. He taught His followers to be light by allowing Him to shine brightly within their lives. They laid down their lives to carry His light to a dying culture and the light dispelled the darkness wherever He went and brought life to many. The world will always be the world and we cannot change it with human effort. Only by expressing the One who is the Light can we overcome it in our lives and in His church.
Much of established Christianity has mingled with the world. Most organized churches in America have allowed themselves to partner with the government by compromising their authority in Christ. In California we face a serious challenge. SB 1146 is a proposed bill that includes colleges and universities receiving state financial aid under the Equity in Higher Education Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex. Christian colleges and churches are crying foul realizing that such a law would seriously restrict their ability to maintain their own spiritual standards on campus.
This kind of unholy union allows the state, if it chooses to do so, to have control over churches and the their ministries. The real problem, as I see it, is the fact that we have in any way partnered with the world by accepting gifts from the government for certain concessions. In so doing we step into the realm of Satan and allow him the ability to suppress us and cause us to conform to his way. We are in the world but should refrain from being part of it. Satan is good at luring people into a trap and then slamming the trap door.
Churches that have applied for a 501c3 status have fallen for the same trap. Despite the fact that they are not constitutionally required to do so, churches have fallen for the tactic of registering with the IRS for tax-exempt status and coming under the control of the world’s government. I have taken this stand for many years and have been severely criticized for it because established churches have become spoiled by their tax-exempt status that increases their profits and brings them financial success. The original church of the first century had no such connection to the world.
Through Paul, God commanded us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). This is not a mere negotiable religious notion but an imperative command from God through Paul. It is a serious matter to be conformed to the world either as individuals or as churches because this clouds our discernment concerning His will and sets us up for deception and compromise. We simply cannot be what God calls us to be if we allow Satan’s world to change us into his image.
A study of early history will show that the church gradually began to do just that. We see them taking on the practices of Rome with its pagan rites and ceremonial liturgy. Church leaders adopted the world’s ways concerning clergy and laity, clergy attire, holy days, religious rites, worship buildings, worship of ancestors, sacred relics and much more coming from the Roman empire. It only took a couple of centuries to change the church from a simple, spiritual, organic family into a human controlled organization that did not resemble the simple spiritual family of the first century.
We must be aware that this is Satan’s strategy, not the normal outgrowth of the church over the centuries. We resemble the world because we have conformed to its image and that image is the face of its god—Satan. What does this mean for the future of the church Jesus is building? It means that we must return to a real, living, personal relationship with Him that is not governed by any vestiges of the world system that squeezes us into a its mold and pulls us away from Jesus.
Most people who are deeply committed to some expression of the world’s rendition of the church will not be convinced without a deep move of the Holy Spirit perhaps sparked by devastation that drives us back to the simplicity that is in Christ and His word. But many of you are hungering for the real thing. That real thing is found in the real Christ who is eager to lead us into the fullness of His will.
The enemy’s strategies have worked too well for too long. It’s time for the plan of God in Christ to be fully embraced and experienced in power. The one thing that will hasten that is our return to Him.
“Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in” (Ps. 24:7)
Lloyd Gardner
June 27, 2016
Satan is the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). “World” in his verse is a translation of the Greek word “eon” which refers to a period of time or an age. Satan takes charge of an age with specialized strategies that work on the people and cultures of that time period. His world system with its focused tactics is designed to infiltrate the church, influence it toward conforming to the world and weaken its resolve to follow Christ.
His enemy is Christ and His followers. In America, with its capitalist, market system form of economy, his strategy has worked quite well because he has been able to entice us with many materialistic goodies that pull us away from Christ. He has invaded the lives of individual Christians as well as the established church with his strategy to weaken us with compromise and passivity. The church was warned from the beginning not to be conformed to the world but to be supernaturally transformed by the presence of Christ (Rom. 12:2).
What are some of the characteristics of the age in this country? The list is endless: sexual gratification, technology gadgets, distracting entertainment venues, political turmoil, religious compromise, spiritual and moral stagnation and a corrupt educational system. Of course there is much more that could be included but you get the idea.
Satan floods his world system with these distractions aimed at capturing people to his way of thinking and acting hoping we will abandon a holy walk with Christ. The apostle John addresses this problem saying “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that which is in the world: the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15, 16). The world and God’s way are two separate places. You cannot love the Father and the world at the same time. They are polar opposites in effect.
Wherever you go in this world in the present age you will be inundated with things that stir up the unwholesome lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and things that push us to take pride in our accomplishments apart from Christ. A walk through any mall in America will prove my point. The poster ads of scantily clad young ladies or muscular, handsome young men are everywhere. One would have to wear blinders to avoid seeing such enticing pictures. The lusts of the flesh that include hunger, thirst, sex, ego, comfort etc. are constantly stirred up by market-driven ads selling their products. Satan, the master salesman, knows exactly how to present his ad campaign and no doubt is an unseen advisor to many advertising experts.
Television is inundated with all of the above and much more. The flesh is continually presented with ads for every imaginable appetizing food, alcoholic beverage, technology gadget, or sexual performance aid or pharmaceutical solution. The internet is likewise inundated and may be worse since pornography is less regulated in that venue. One can be innocently searching the net and run across ads for the ten most this or that with pictures that lure one into the trap.
I could go on and on with this description but I have made my point—we are surrounded with the lifestyle of Satan and his minions and most of us aren’t even aware of it. We are like the frog in the gradually heating water that is about to boil us alive and we do not realize it.
On the other hand, we must realize that we cannot fight this problem by cursing the darkness but must learn how to be light in the midst of the dark realm of the enemy. Cursing the darkness merely intensifies it and diminishes our mandate to be light.
Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house” (Matt. 5:14, 15). Why are we light to the world? Because the Light dwells within us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said that if we believe in the Light we would be sons of light (John 12:36). Paul warns us that light cannot have fellowship with darkness (2 Cor. 6:14). There is a reason that the seven churches in Revelation are identified as “lampstands.” The churches, the people of God, are the containers of the light of Christ to the world.
The answer to the world’s influence isn’t to get angry and shout and scream at the way things are developing but to realize that we possess the light of God that can enlighten people in the midst of the darkness. We do not do this with doctrinal debate and political diatribes but with lives lived in contrast to the darkness. This demands a living, continuous, daily relationship with the One who is Light—Jesus. Before He left them the Lord said to His disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). We should not be worried about the world and its power if we have the One who overcame the world living in us.
Paul said it this way: “…at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true)” (Eph. 5:8, 9). There you have it. If Christ, the Light dwells in us we are not darkness but children of light. Light shines in our lives through actions that are good and right and true in God. If we live in the light and do not hide our light we will shine to all who are around us. We are a beacon in the midst of a dark realm that others are attracted to.
The world is Satan’s dark realm. When Christ came the first time He did not advise political action and angry outbursts that curse the darkness. He taught His followers to be light by allowing Him to shine brightly within their lives. They laid down their lives to carry His light to a dying culture and the light dispelled the darkness wherever He went and brought life to many. The world will always be the world and we cannot change it with human effort. Only by expressing the One who is the Light can we overcome it in our lives and in His church.
Much of established Christianity has mingled with the world. Most organized churches in America have allowed themselves to partner with the government by compromising their authority in Christ. In California we face a serious challenge. SB 1146 is a proposed bill that includes colleges and universities receiving state financial aid under the Equity in Higher Education Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex. Christian colleges and churches are crying foul realizing that such a law would seriously restrict their ability to maintain their own spiritual standards on campus.
This kind of unholy union allows the state, if it chooses to do so, to have control over churches and the their ministries. The real problem, as I see it, is the fact that we have in any way partnered with the world by accepting gifts from the government for certain concessions. In so doing we step into the realm of Satan and allow him the ability to suppress us and cause us to conform to his way. We are in the world but should refrain from being part of it. Satan is good at luring people into a trap and then slamming the trap door.
Churches that have applied for a 501c3 status have fallen for the same trap. Despite the fact that they are not constitutionally required to do so, churches have fallen for the tactic of registering with the IRS for tax-exempt status and coming under the control of the world’s government. I have taken this stand for many years and have been severely criticized for it because established churches have become spoiled by their tax-exempt status that increases their profits and brings them financial success. The original church of the first century had no such connection to the world.
Through Paul, God commanded us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). This is not a mere negotiable religious notion but an imperative command from God through Paul. It is a serious matter to be conformed to the world either as individuals or as churches because this clouds our discernment concerning His will and sets us up for deception and compromise. We simply cannot be what God calls us to be if we allow Satan’s world to change us into his image.
A study of early history will show that the church gradually began to do just that. We see them taking on the practices of Rome with its pagan rites and ceremonial liturgy. Church leaders adopted the world’s ways concerning clergy and laity, clergy attire, holy days, religious rites, worship buildings, worship of ancestors, sacred relics and much more coming from the Roman empire. It only took a couple of centuries to change the church from a simple, spiritual, organic family into a human controlled organization that did not resemble the simple spiritual family of the first century.
We must be aware that this is Satan’s strategy, not the normal outgrowth of the church over the centuries. We resemble the world because we have conformed to its image and that image is the face of its god—Satan. What does this mean for the future of the church Jesus is building? It means that we must return to a real, living, personal relationship with Him that is not governed by any vestiges of the world system that squeezes us into a its mold and pulls us away from Jesus.
Most people who are deeply committed to some expression of the world’s rendition of the church will not be convinced without a deep move of the Holy Spirit perhaps sparked by devastation that drives us back to the simplicity that is in Christ and His word. But many of you are hungering for the real thing. That real thing is found in the real Christ who is eager to lead us into the fullness of His will.
The enemy’s strategies have worked too well for too long. It’s time for the plan of God in Christ to be fully embraced and experienced in power. The one thing that will hasten that is our return to Him.
“Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in” (Ps. 24:7)
Satan's Plan for the Last Days: Counterfeit salvation
Lloyd Gardner
June 19, 2016
We’ve been examining the devious tactics of Satan, the enemy of God. We are admonished by Paul to “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). Schemes are devious methods or tactics. The adversary is not just some loose canon demon who doesn’t know what he is doing. He has been at this for thousands of years and he knows how to devise methods that are successful at deceiving us and leading us away for God. We need to know his methods and proceed accordingly.
When Paul called him “the god of this world,” the word for “world” means “age” or “cultural era.” He changes his tactics with the age or era. He adjusts his devious strategies to be effective in each age. He is not necessarily doing things today the way he did them in past ages but his goals are the same and he remains a liar and a murderer whose aim is to destroy those who seek to follow Christ.
We need the help of the Holy Spirit to identify him and the strategies he is using. One of the gifts of the Spirit is “discerning of spirits,” the supernatural ability to recognize and distinguish the demonic and angelic forces and discern their presence and their strategies (1 Cor. 12:10). God has not left us without the means to know Satan’s ways. The enemy cannot hide from believers who are Spirit-filled and spiritually discerning.
Satan has produced a counterfeit salvation by which many people believe they are in right standing with God when, in fact, they may not be. Satan has watered down the grace of God in the thinking of many to the point where the salvation we claim does not line up with the word of God.
Over the past few decades people have come to believe that salvation in Christ is simply about going to heaven. For sure, when we receive Christ we will go to heaven to be with Him forever. But salvation is not simply about what we get out of it. It is about giving our lives to Christ for His glory and to participate in His eternal purpose. He has something He died to accomplish and He invites us to participate in it.
Salvation has two aspects to it. First, we are justified when we receive Christ. Paul wrote “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:23, 24). To be justified is to be declared by God to be just or righteous according to His judgment. He provides this justification by giving us the free gift of His grace through the redemption provided by the death and resurrection of Christ. God does not charge anything for this justification because Christ, the Redeemer, has paid the full price. In other words, He died for us so we could be set free from the penalty for sin—death.
Tragically, this is where so many people stop. They consider themselves Christians and bound for heaven and so they simply go about their lives without expecting much change to take place in their lives. They have never learned that our salvation is for Christ not just about what we can get out of it. Justification frees us from the power of sin and positions us to fellowship openly with Christ and be changed by His transforming presence.
Paul put it this way: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1, 2). Justification not only provides us with peace through our salvation but it gives us access into the fullness of the grace that saves us. In other words justification is merely the beginning of a glorious journey into the fullness of His grace and all that it provides. This is reason to rejoice in the hope we have in experiencing the glory of God in our lives going forward.
The second aspect of salvation is the transformation that takes place in our lives when we give ourselves fully to Christ. Salvation begins with our justification and continues as Christ lavishes His grace on us and causes our lives to gradually take on more and more of His likeness. Salvation is the process of gradually becoming more like Christ.
In the beginning of chapter 12 of Romans Paul begs us to present our bodies to Christ, which is why He called us. Our justification wasn’t just about receiving from something from God but about becoming part of what He wants to do. Then Paul warns us “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” He knew that there are only two ways that we can go. Either we will be conformed to the world with all of its enticements or we will experience supernatural transformation through the renewal of our minds to the point where we discern and know His will.
This transformation is the process of becoming more like Christ. Paul told the Galatians that he labored in childbirth-like anguish over them “until Christ is formed in you” (4:19). Salvation is about Christ being formed in us—about us becoming more like Him. He told the Ephesians that our measure of maturity is based on “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (4:13). We are destined to be like Christ and the transformation process reaches its maturity according to how we measure up to the stature of the fullness of Christ. The apostle says that our destiny is to “be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). We are not to be changed by the world but changed into the image of Christ.
The apostle speaks of these two aspects of salvation when he wrote, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10). The death of Christ reconciles us to God but His present life in us works His full salvation in us through His transforming presence. Let me repeat that our access to heaven and eternal life are not in question here. Paul is speaking about our life now on earth as we give ourselves to follow Christ and experience the fullness of His purpose for calling us. We know we will spend eternity with Him and that frees us to live for Him now.
Paul says this here in another way: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). As we behold Christ we are being transformed from our glory to His glory into His image. If we are experiencing real salvation we are becoming more like Him as we spend time in His presence.
This salvation has a corporate effect. It is not just about our individual lives but also about the church, the body of Christ. That body is called by Paul “the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). We are growing as an organic body together in Christ if we are walking together in fellowship with Him. The church, His body, expresses His fullness according to our state of spiritual growth. The eventual place of completion is described by Paul as “mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Christ is being formed in us as individuals and He is being formed in the church through the flow of the Spirit between us in our fellowship.
Most Christians give away their belief about salvation when they say, “I received Christ as my Savior.” Nowhere in scripture are we admonished to receive Christ as Savior. We are urged to confess Him as Lord. The title “Lord” means Master or One who is the supreme authority. We receive and confess Christ as Lord because our journey begins in submission to His will. To receive Him as Savior places the emphasis on what we are receiving from Him instead of the commitment we are making to Him as Lord. Yes, Christ is our Savior but our journey with Him begins as we confess Him as Lord and commit to follow Him and submit to His will.
When this age is culminated every knee will bow and “every tongue confess the Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:11). Jesus is our Savior and we will know it but our confession will be that He is our Lord. Our salvation will be something we relish as a wonderful outcome of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Jesus told His disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). Our first step in following Christ begins with the denial of self and taking up the cross, which speaks of the death of our self. Then we follow Christ. Yes, He is our Savior but only as we let Him be our Lord.
This is why Paul told the Corinthians “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). We do not belong to ourselves because someone paid the price for us. We are bondservants of the Lord who paid for us with His own life on the cross. This is a hard message because it goes against the grain of much of American Christianity. We have developed a brand of Christianity that allows us to have our salvation without having to pay the price of commitment to our Lord. That is not the salvation taught in scripture.
Paul admonishes us all to “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Cor. 13:5). This passage, of course, is written to a church composed of supposed Christians. Paul is telling us not to take for granted that we are indeed children of God but to test ourselves. If Christ is in us it will make a big difference in our lives. We cannot be in Christ and just go on living the way we want. If He is our Lord, we will be learning to submit to His life and authority and let Him reign in our lives.
Of course, Satan does not want us to experience real salvation. He wants to sell a counterfeit salvation whereby we adopt a comfortable Christianity that allows us to live as we please. That is not the salvation of God’s word and we need to examine ourselves regularly to see where we stand with Christ. Do we settle for the bogus salvation concocted by Satan or do we seek to walk in the fullness of God’s redemptive provision? The choice is yours but be sure the great deceiver does not convert you to his way of thinking.
Lloyd Gardner
June 19, 2016
We’ve been examining the devious tactics of Satan, the enemy of God. We are admonished by Paul to “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). Schemes are devious methods or tactics. The adversary is not just some loose canon demon who doesn’t know what he is doing. He has been at this for thousands of years and he knows how to devise methods that are successful at deceiving us and leading us away for God. We need to know his methods and proceed accordingly.
When Paul called him “the god of this world,” the word for “world” means “age” or “cultural era.” He changes his tactics with the age or era. He adjusts his devious strategies to be effective in each age. He is not necessarily doing things today the way he did them in past ages but his goals are the same and he remains a liar and a murderer whose aim is to destroy those who seek to follow Christ.
We need the help of the Holy Spirit to identify him and the strategies he is using. One of the gifts of the Spirit is “discerning of spirits,” the supernatural ability to recognize and distinguish the demonic and angelic forces and discern their presence and their strategies (1 Cor. 12:10). God has not left us without the means to know Satan’s ways. The enemy cannot hide from believers who are Spirit-filled and spiritually discerning.
Satan has produced a counterfeit salvation by which many people believe they are in right standing with God when, in fact, they may not be. Satan has watered down the grace of God in the thinking of many to the point where the salvation we claim does not line up with the word of God.
Over the past few decades people have come to believe that salvation in Christ is simply about going to heaven. For sure, when we receive Christ we will go to heaven to be with Him forever. But salvation is not simply about what we get out of it. It is about giving our lives to Christ for His glory and to participate in His eternal purpose. He has something He died to accomplish and He invites us to participate in it.
Salvation has two aspects to it. First, we are justified when we receive Christ. Paul wrote “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:23, 24). To be justified is to be declared by God to be just or righteous according to His judgment. He provides this justification by giving us the free gift of His grace through the redemption provided by the death and resurrection of Christ. God does not charge anything for this justification because Christ, the Redeemer, has paid the full price. In other words, He died for us so we could be set free from the penalty for sin—death.
Tragically, this is where so many people stop. They consider themselves Christians and bound for heaven and so they simply go about their lives without expecting much change to take place in their lives. They have never learned that our salvation is for Christ not just about what we can get out of it. Justification frees us from the power of sin and positions us to fellowship openly with Christ and be changed by His transforming presence.
Paul put it this way: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1, 2). Justification not only provides us with peace through our salvation but it gives us access into the fullness of the grace that saves us. In other words justification is merely the beginning of a glorious journey into the fullness of His grace and all that it provides. This is reason to rejoice in the hope we have in experiencing the glory of God in our lives going forward.
The second aspect of salvation is the transformation that takes place in our lives when we give ourselves fully to Christ. Salvation begins with our justification and continues as Christ lavishes His grace on us and causes our lives to gradually take on more and more of His likeness. Salvation is the process of gradually becoming more like Christ.
In the beginning of chapter 12 of Romans Paul begs us to present our bodies to Christ, which is why He called us. Our justification wasn’t just about receiving from something from God but about becoming part of what He wants to do. Then Paul warns us “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” He knew that there are only two ways that we can go. Either we will be conformed to the world with all of its enticements or we will experience supernatural transformation through the renewal of our minds to the point where we discern and know His will.
This transformation is the process of becoming more like Christ. Paul told the Galatians that he labored in childbirth-like anguish over them “until Christ is formed in you” (4:19). Salvation is about Christ being formed in us—about us becoming more like Him. He told the Ephesians that our measure of maturity is based on “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (4:13). We are destined to be like Christ and the transformation process reaches its maturity according to how we measure up to the stature of the fullness of Christ. The apostle says that our destiny is to “be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). We are not to be changed by the world but changed into the image of Christ.
The apostle speaks of these two aspects of salvation when he wrote, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10). The death of Christ reconciles us to God but His present life in us works His full salvation in us through His transforming presence. Let me repeat that our access to heaven and eternal life are not in question here. Paul is speaking about our life now on earth as we give ourselves to follow Christ and experience the fullness of His purpose for calling us. We know we will spend eternity with Him and that frees us to live for Him now.
Paul says this here in another way: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). As we behold Christ we are being transformed from our glory to His glory into His image. If we are experiencing real salvation we are becoming more like Him as we spend time in His presence.
This salvation has a corporate effect. It is not just about our individual lives but also about the church, the body of Christ. That body is called by Paul “the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). We are growing as an organic body together in Christ if we are walking together in fellowship with Him. The church, His body, expresses His fullness according to our state of spiritual growth. The eventual place of completion is described by Paul as “mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Christ is being formed in us as individuals and He is being formed in the church through the flow of the Spirit between us in our fellowship.
Most Christians give away their belief about salvation when they say, “I received Christ as my Savior.” Nowhere in scripture are we admonished to receive Christ as Savior. We are urged to confess Him as Lord. The title “Lord” means Master or One who is the supreme authority. We receive and confess Christ as Lord because our journey begins in submission to His will. To receive Him as Savior places the emphasis on what we are receiving from Him instead of the commitment we are making to Him as Lord. Yes, Christ is our Savior but our journey with Him begins as we confess Him as Lord and commit to follow Him and submit to His will.
When this age is culminated every knee will bow and “every tongue confess the Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:11). Jesus is our Savior and we will know it but our confession will be that He is our Lord. Our salvation will be something we relish as a wonderful outcome of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Jesus told His disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). Our first step in following Christ begins with the denial of self and taking up the cross, which speaks of the death of our self. Then we follow Christ. Yes, He is our Savior but only as we let Him be our Lord.
This is why Paul told the Corinthians “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). We do not belong to ourselves because someone paid the price for us. We are bondservants of the Lord who paid for us with His own life on the cross. This is a hard message because it goes against the grain of much of American Christianity. We have developed a brand of Christianity that allows us to have our salvation without having to pay the price of commitment to our Lord. That is not the salvation taught in scripture.
Paul admonishes us all to “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Cor. 13:5). This passage, of course, is written to a church composed of supposed Christians. Paul is telling us not to take for granted that we are indeed children of God but to test ourselves. If Christ is in us it will make a big difference in our lives. We cannot be in Christ and just go on living the way we want. If He is our Lord, we will be learning to submit to His life and authority and let Him reign in our lives.
Of course, Satan does not want us to experience real salvation. He wants to sell a counterfeit salvation whereby we adopt a comfortable Christianity that allows us to live as we please. That is not the salvation of God’s word and we need to examine ourselves regularly to see where we stand with Christ. Do we settle for the bogus salvation concocted by Satan or do we seek to walk in the fullness of God’s redemptive provision? The choice is yours but be sure the great deceiver does not convert you to his way of thinking.
Satan's Plan for the Last Days: Family Destruction
Lloyd Gardner
June 9, 2016
God’s first action after He created the universe and earth for man’s pleasure was to create the beginnings of a family. Jesus said of this act of God, “But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female’” (Mark 10:6). Jesus was quoting from Genesis 1:27 as He spoke these words to the Pharisees about marriage. In the next verse God had declared, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (1:28).
Clearly, God predicted here that His plan for earth was to fill the earth with His children by multiplication through reproduction so that humans would subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Satan had already rebelled against God and from that moment forward set out to destroy the human race by destroying marriage by which it multiplies.
There is a promise in Genesis 3:15 that the offspring of the woman in this first marriage would be the means by which Satan would be defeated in the end. This did not escape the ears of Satan who then established his earthly purpose to destroy the human race through destruction of marriages and family.
Satan hates family. Satan hates marriage because it produces family. These institutions of God are anathema to Him. They spell his defeat. They are the means by which God reproduces His grace, forgiveness and transformative power among people. They predict his ultimate fate as the eventual conquered enemy of God. He will ultimately be defeated through the offspring of the first humans by means of the promise of Christ, the Redeemer through whom a conquering offspring will spring forth.
So, it should not surprise Christians that the evil one works overtime trying to destroy family as the setting in which these conquering ones are to come forth. Individual families are to be pockets of righteousness in which God’s will is known and respected (Eph. 5:25-33). Then there is the spiritual family, the church, chosen to be an incubation environment for the conception and development of God’s redeeming life (1 Tim. 3:15). God’s eternal purpose requires the conditions that family life provides and fosters. If Satan can destroy family life He can thwart the purpose of God.
Knowing this, we can see how Satan has worked in America to slowly but surely dismantle marriage and family in our culture. He has used the secular legal system of our nation to pass judgments that undermine family. In 1970 California instituted the first no-fault divorce law which said that divorce could take place between married partners without any fault. This was the first step toward demeaning marriage by declaring it not important enough to be worthy of a real commitment. No fault divorce swept the nation in the ensuing years and divorce became rampant in the country as many people entered into marriage arbitrarily and divorced one another on a whim.
I cannot look behind the scenes of the spiritual realm but it is easy to see that this was a ploy of the enemy. He killed two birds with one demonic stone. He was able to begin the destruction of marriage while leaving children without the nurturing environment needed for healthy development. The result has been the release of a spiritual firestorm of disintegration in family life. God designed the family to be a nurturing environment to provide for the spiritual and psychological development of children.
Without both parents involved in the family, children are left to develop according to the world’s system. And who is the god of this world system? You guessed it—Satan himself (2 Cor. 4:4). Now, the world shapes our children instead of the family. Is it any wonder that generations of children have been lost to lies of the evil one?
When I was a young boy I did not know what divorce was. It was something I could not conceive of as a son of two loving parents. Now, most children are the victims of split marriages and face life without the nurture that parents provide. This is rampant in our big cities where liberal social policies prevail. The number of children living in homes with one parent has nearly doubled since 1960 according to the 2010 Census. I’m sure it’s worse now. The Washington times, analyzing census data, showed that the number of two-parent families has dropped significantly over the past decade in all 50 states. One-third of America’s children are being raised without a father and another five million without their mother.
In recent months the enemy of the family has convinced the judges of our land and a majority of Americans that marriage can consist of two people of the same gender. “Male and female He created them,” Jesus said (Mark 10:6). Satan has struck a blow to the very heart of God’s plan for the family and much of America has accepted it. Even much of what is called the church has accepted this diversion of the enemy.
What has family disintegration produced? Inner city decay, unemployment, meaninglessness, juvenile delinquency, poverty, growth in welfare expenditures, school failures, school violence, gangs and much, much more. The family is the basic living cell of human society. Without it the body of society begins to die. Society is dying all around us in direct proportion to the death of family life.
Paul warns us not to be ignorant of the tactics of the enemy (2 Cor. 2:11) and to “stand against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). We are in a spiritual war and the battles will be many and we had better be aware of how Satan and his forces work so that we can act accordingly. We also must be aware that the church is the salt of the earth and the reflected light of Jesus to the world. As the church goes, so goes society.
The politicians have no answer. The religious leaders have no answer. The psychologists have no answer. Community activists have no answer. Man, with all his knowledge, has no answer and fails at every turn but God provides the answer in His word if we are a people who are still committed to His word and willing to being changed by it.
Has it occurred to you that the world system wants to have your children for longer lengths of time? Over the years the school day has increased dramatically. In California the year has gotten longer and the time in school has increased. The length of the day for Kindergarten has increased and now the state is pressing to have your preschool children for three hours each day. Many districts offer breakfast in the morning and after school programs. All of this is done in the name of educational goals but school performance is declining rather than improving. Our children are being raised by the government away from the nurturing environment of family.
The elementary schools and high schools have your children for most of the day and then the universities are rapidly becoming liberal indoctrination centers. Meanwhile, being a mother who nurtures children is seen as a worthless endeavor. Women are encouraged to seek their own fulfillment while the fulfillment of their families is set aside. The family is slowly, but in a very real way, being replaced by secular government programs. This is not just normal societal development but the work of the hater of families.
Add to that the failure of our churches to provide a nurturing environment and you have a formula for complete annihilation of the family. And it is working quite well from the perspective of the government and god of this world system.
The great conspiracy is working its course. I am aware that it is politically incorrect to speak of conspiracies nowadays. Could it be that the originator of the conspiracy of the ages has caused true conspiracies to be ignored. An enemy is conspiring against God’s people and by human measurement he is winning the battle. But his ultimate destiny is defeat at the hands of the matured, completed, prepared bride of Christ. We look to the word for his true destiny:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (Gen. 3:15).
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18).
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet (Rom. 16:20)
. . . until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).
Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:25-27).
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Rev. 12:11)
These passages, and many others, tell us that a remnant of the people of God will indeed defeat the enemy. They will defeat him through the word of God by hearing and acting on what He is saying to His churches in the midst of this spiritual war. This is not a make-believe victory but the victory of real people living out real lives on earth by the power of the Holy Spirit.
There comes a time in the last days prophetic statements of God in the Book of Revelation where He says, "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues” (Rev. 18:4). Even now God’s people are now being called out of the world system. Despite Paul’s warning, we have allowed ourselves to be conformed to the world (Rom. 12:2). In many cases we look like and act like the world because we are allowing it to change us. Even our churches are taking on the likeness of the world. Most of what we call church is simply religion-oriented business that is failing in its mission to impact society with the message of Christ and His redemption.
This is difficult for most of us because we have been spoiled by the world with all of its goodies. We love our sports, entertainment, food, conveniences, technology, and much more and sacrifice family life in order to have these things when we want them and how we want them. The world has captured us and controls our time and activities and family suffers.
Most of us will not admit this but we know it is true. We know the world determines when and how we do things and our families are taking a back seat. Our churches are manipulated by the world standards and our children have been placed on the back burner and ignored. They are being nurtured by the school system, the invasion of technology, and the incessant pressures to conform to a demon-inspired culture.
So, what in the name of heaven are we to do? I believe that the Bible shows clearly that we will either fall on the rock of repentance or the rock will fall on us. Either we will be moved by the Spirit to obey His word or the Lord will discipline us as His children to bring us to where He wants us to be (Heb. 12:7). His discipline may be difficult but it will produce endurance and the desire and strength to be obedient.
Jeremiah lived in a time of similar disobedience. He spoke God’s word against those who would not tell the people the truth about their condition: “They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, 'It shall be well with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you’”(Jer. 23:17). Today’s prognosticators of doctrine speak peace and safety and “all is well” messages while the church is slowly being sucked into the world system and stifled.
Jeremiah warned the prophets of his day, “Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another” (Jer. 23:30). Direct words from God’s heart to the people are becoming more rare and preachers merely pass around the doctrines they learn from others. We must hear from God about our condition and be brave enough to speak it to a rebellious generation. We need prophets and teachers who know God and are courageous enough to take a stand for His purpose.
Repentance or discipline are our choices. We must repent of our slow conforming to the world and our forsaking of God’s word or face the discipline of the Lord who uses the world system as His corrective rod. I believe we may already be in that process whereby the Lord is taking us out behind the barn for a good thrashing that hopefully will wake us up.
We are not offering our children to Moloch in the fires of sacrifice but he has changed tactics for these days. Through abortion he continues to take our children and through the world system he is claiming our little ones for his evil kingdom. It’s time to wake up and turn back to our God for the sake of our families.
It’s time to reconnect with Him in fellowship and allow His presence to transform how we live out church life. Church must return to its nurturing, mending and equipping responsibilities so that families will be restored and the glory of God allowed back into our midst. There in the context of the spiritual family strengthened by individual families, people will be healed of the wounds inflicted by the world.
The young girl pregnant out of wedlock will be restored through love and forgiveness. The brokenhearted will be healed from the inside out by the inner working of the Holy Spirit. The homosexual will experience supernatural deliverance in an atmosphere of faith’s power. Broken families will be healed. Fathers will return to their children. The prodigal sons will come home to their fathers. On and on the glory will spread as God’s people love and obey God.
Many of you are balking at this assessment. You have fallen for the lie that we are too far-gone to be restored. You have listened to the world and believe it but you won’t listen to God and believe Him. The power of God is not enough to bring such restoration, you think. On the contrary, nothing is impossible for God in the lives of people who believe Him and invite Him into His church. We can do all things through His power and we can do nothing without Him.
God promises us that “. . . if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14). God stands ready to move but we must do our part. Our part is to repent and turn from our worldly ways so that He can hear our prayers, forgive us and heal our land. The land is the family. The land is the church as He purposed it. He will heal and restore if we will hear Him, believe Him, repent and let Him do the rest.
Lloyd Gardner
June 9, 2016
God’s first action after He created the universe and earth for man’s pleasure was to create the beginnings of a family. Jesus said of this act of God, “But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female’” (Mark 10:6). Jesus was quoting from Genesis 1:27 as He spoke these words to the Pharisees about marriage. In the next verse God had declared, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (1:28).
Clearly, God predicted here that His plan for earth was to fill the earth with His children by multiplication through reproduction so that humans would subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Satan had already rebelled against God and from that moment forward set out to destroy the human race by destroying marriage by which it multiplies.
There is a promise in Genesis 3:15 that the offspring of the woman in this first marriage would be the means by which Satan would be defeated in the end. This did not escape the ears of Satan who then established his earthly purpose to destroy the human race through destruction of marriages and family.
Satan hates family. Satan hates marriage because it produces family. These institutions of God are anathema to Him. They spell his defeat. They are the means by which God reproduces His grace, forgiveness and transformative power among people. They predict his ultimate fate as the eventual conquered enemy of God. He will ultimately be defeated through the offspring of the first humans by means of the promise of Christ, the Redeemer through whom a conquering offspring will spring forth.
So, it should not surprise Christians that the evil one works overtime trying to destroy family as the setting in which these conquering ones are to come forth. Individual families are to be pockets of righteousness in which God’s will is known and respected (Eph. 5:25-33). Then there is the spiritual family, the church, chosen to be an incubation environment for the conception and development of God’s redeeming life (1 Tim. 3:15). God’s eternal purpose requires the conditions that family life provides and fosters. If Satan can destroy family life He can thwart the purpose of God.
Knowing this, we can see how Satan has worked in America to slowly but surely dismantle marriage and family in our culture. He has used the secular legal system of our nation to pass judgments that undermine family. In 1970 California instituted the first no-fault divorce law which said that divorce could take place between married partners without any fault. This was the first step toward demeaning marriage by declaring it not important enough to be worthy of a real commitment. No fault divorce swept the nation in the ensuing years and divorce became rampant in the country as many people entered into marriage arbitrarily and divorced one another on a whim.
I cannot look behind the scenes of the spiritual realm but it is easy to see that this was a ploy of the enemy. He killed two birds with one demonic stone. He was able to begin the destruction of marriage while leaving children without the nurturing environment needed for healthy development. The result has been the release of a spiritual firestorm of disintegration in family life. God designed the family to be a nurturing environment to provide for the spiritual and psychological development of children.
Without both parents involved in the family, children are left to develop according to the world’s system. And who is the god of this world system? You guessed it—Satan himself (2 Cor. 4:4). Now, the world shapes our children instead of the family. Is it any wonder that generations of children have been lost to lies of the evil one?
When I was a young boy I did not know what divorce was. It was something I could not conceive of as a son of two loving parents. Now, most children are the victims of split marriages and face life without the nurture that parents provide. This is rampant in our big cities where liberal social policies prevail. The number of children living in homes with one parent has nearly doubled since 1960 according to the 2010 Census. I’m sure it’s worse now. The Washington times, analyzing census data, showed that the number of two-parent families has dropped significantly over the past decade in all 50 states. One-third of America’s children are being raised without a father and another five million without their mother.
In recent months the enemy of the family has convinced the judges of our land and a majority of Americans that marriage can consist of two people of the same gender. “Male and female He created them,” Jesus said (Mark 10:6). Satan has struck a blow to the very heart of God’s plan for the family and much of America has accepted it. Even much of what is called the church has accepted this diversion of the enemy.
What has family disintegration produced? Inner city decay, unemployment, meaninglessness, juvenile delinquency, poverty, growth in welfare expenditures, school failures, school violence, gangs and much, much more. The family is the basic living cell of human society. Without it the body of society begins to die. Society is dying all around us in direct proportion to the death of family life.
Paul warns us not to be ignorant of the tactics of the enemy (2 Cor. 2:11) and to “stand against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). We are in a spiritual war and the battles will be many and we had better be aware of how Satan and his forces work so that we can act accordingly. We also must be aware that the church is the salt of the earth and the reflected light of Jesus to the world. As the church goes, so goes society.
The politicians have no answer. The religious leaders have no answer. The psychologists have no answer. Community activists have no answer. Man, with all his knowledge, has no answer and fails at every turn but God provides the answer in His word if we are a people who are still committed to His word and willing to being changed by it.
Has it occurred to you that the world system wants to have your children for longer lengths of time? Over the years the school day has increased dramatically. In California the year has gotten longer and the time in school has increased. The length of the day for Kindergarten has increased and now the state is pressing to have your preschool children for three hours each day. Many districts offer breakfast in the morning and after school programs. All of this is done in the name of educational goals but school performance is declining rather than improving. Our children are being raised by the government away from the nurturing environment of family.
The elementary schools and high schools have your children for most of the day and then the universities are rapidly becoming liberal indoctrination centers. Meanwhile, being a mother who nurtures children is seen as a worthless endeavor. Women are encouraged to seek their own fulfillment while the fulfillment of their families is set aside. The family is slowly, but in a very real way, being replaced by secular government programs. This is not just normal societal development but the work of the hater of families.
Add to that the failure of our churches to provide a nurturing environment and you have a formula for complete annihilation of the family. And it is working quite well from the perspective of the government and god of this world system.
The great conspiracy is working its course. I am aware that it is politically incorrect to speak of conspiracies nowadays. Could it be that the originator of the conspiracy of the ages has caused true conspiracies to be ignored. An enemy is conspiring against God’s people and by human measurement he is winning the battle. But his ultimate destiny is defeat at the hands of the matured, completed, prepared bride of Christ. We look to the word for his true destiny:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (Gen. 3:15).
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18).
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet (Rom. 16:20)
. . . until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).
Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:25-27).
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Rev. 12:11)
These passages, and many others, tell us that a remnant of the people of God will indeed defeat the enemy. They will defeat him through the word of God by hearing and acting on what He is saying to His churches in the midst of this spiritual war. This is not a make-believe victory but the victory of real people living out real lives on earth by the power of the Holy Spirit.
There comes a time in the last days prophetic statements of God in the Book of Revelation where He says, "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues” (Rev. 18:4). Even now God’s people are now being called out of the world system. Despite Paul’s warning, we have allowed ourselves to be conformed to the world (Rom. 12:2). In many cases we look like and act like the world because we are allowing it to change us. Even our churches are taking on the likeness of the world. Most of what we call church is simply religion-oriented business that is failing in its mission to impact society with the message of Christ and His redemption.
This is difficult for most of us because we have been spoiled by the world with all of its goodies. We love our sports, entertainment, food, conveniences, technology, and much more and sacrifice family life in order to have these things when we want them and how we want them. The world has captured us and controls our time and activities and family suffers.
Most of us will not admit this but we know it is true. We know the world determines when and how we do things and our families are taking a back seat. Our churches are manipulated by the world standards and our children have been placed on the back burner and ignored. They are being nurtured by the school system, the invasion of technology, and the incessant pressures to conform to a demon-inspired culture.
So, what in the name of heaven are we to do? I believe that the Bible shows clearly that we will either fall on the rock of repentance or the rock will fall on us. Either we will be moved by the Spirit to obey His word or the Lord will discipline us as His children to bring us to where He wants us to be (Heb. 12:7). His discipline may be difficult but it will produce endurance and the desire and strength to be obedient.
Jeremiah lived in a time of similar disobedience. He spoke God’s word against those who would not tell the people the truth about their condition: “They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, 'It shall be well with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you’”(Jer. 23:17). Today’s prognosticators of doctrine speak peace and safety and “all is well” messages while the church is slowly being sucked into the world system and stifled.
Jeremiah warned the prophets of his day, “Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another” (Jer. 23:30). Direct words from God’s heart to the people are becoming more rare and preachers merely pass around the doctrines they learn from others. We must hear from God about our condition and be brave enough to speak it to a rebellious generation. We need prophets and teachers who know God and are courageous enough to take a stand for His purpose.
Repentance or discipline are our choices. We must repent of our slow conforming to the world and our forsaking of God’s word or face the discipline of the Lord who uses the world system as His corrective rod. I believe we may already be in that process whereby the Lord is taking us out behind the barn for a good thrashing that hopefully will wake us up.
We are not offering our children to Moloch in the fires of sacrifice but he has changed tactics for these days. Through abortion he continues to take our children and through the world system he is claiming our little ones for his evil kingdom. It’s time to wake up and turn back to our God for the sake of our families.
It’s time to reconnect with Him in fellowship and allow His presence to transform how we live out church life. Church must return to its nurturing, mending and equipping responsibilities so that families will be restored and the glory of God allowed back into our midst. There in the context of the spiritual family strengthened by individual families, people will be healed of the wounds inflicted by the world.
The young girl pregnant out of wedlock will be restored through love and forgiveness. The brokenhearted will be healed from the inside out by the inner working of the Holy Spirit. The homosexual will experience supernatural deliverance in an atmosphere of faith’s power. Broken families will be healed. Fathers will return to their children. The prodigal sons will come home to their fathers. On and on the glory will spread as God’s people love and obey God.
Many of you are balking at this assessment. You have fallen for the lie that we are too far-gone to be restored. You have listened to the world and believe it but you won’t listen to God and believe Him. The power of God is not enough to bring such restoration, you think. On the contrary, nothing is impossible for God in the lives of people who believe Him and invite Him into His church. We can do all things through His power and we can do nothing without Him.
God promises us that “. . . if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14). God stands ready to move but we must do our part. Our part is to repent and turn from our worldly ways so that He can hear our prayers, forgive us and heal our land. The land is the family. The land is the church as He purposed it. He will heal and restore if we will hear Him, believe Him, repent and let Him do the rest.
Satan’s Strategies for the Last Days: Nullifying God’s Word
Lloyd Gardner
May 30, 2016
The last days may be upon us and many people are living out the fulfillment of Peter’s warning in his second letter:
"…knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:3, 4).
Throughout the world, and especially in the United States, the scoffers are coming out in droves to follow their own “sinful desires” advocating the evolutionary worldview that everything is the result of materialist causes and there is no Creator with a purpose and moral standards for our lives. Everything has continued just as we see it, they proclaim. This has led to a relativist approach to morality which says that there are no absolute morals and we can live the way we want regardless of how it affects others.
In many places the Bible warns that the last days would be perilous. Paul gave Timothy this warning:
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:1-5).
In the prophetic eyes of Paul, this is the ominous condition of the world in the last days. Every word sounds like my morning newspaper. Later in this letter he says further, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3, 4). This sounds like many evangelical churches and most Christian television programs. People are reaching the point where they are not seeking truth but follow teachers who will tell them what they want to hear, allowing them to do as they please. Out of their selfish motives, they will “wander into myths” which are simply fictional accounts instead of truth.
In his first letter to Timothy Paul wrote, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared" (1 Tim 4:1, 2). The warning here is that people claiming to be followers of Christ will be influenced by demonic forces that introduce and encourage Satan’s way of thinking. This will be generated by liars whose “consciences are seared.” The lack of a moral standard I referred to earlier will result in searing of the consciences of many and their receptiveness to the teachings of demons. God gave us a conscience to alert us inwardly concerning truth and right and wrong in God’s eyes. These demons propagandize the world in favor of the ideas of their master, Satan, “the god of this world who blinds the minds of unbelievers” (2 Cor. 4:4).
Satan is the master propaganda expert. Adolf Hitler patterned his strategies after Satan and was not doubt influenced by the demonic master of misinformation. Hitler had Joseph Goebbels, his antisemitic, warmongering minister of war whose propaganda sold the German people on Hitler’s party and program. The end times will produce Satan’s Hitler and his minister of propaganda (Rev. 13:4-17). We’ve seen this all before and we are beginning to see it developing before our eyes.
Despite this downward trend of the world toward final destruction, I am one who believes that the Bible is clear that a remnant of Christ followers will be the decisive means that God uses to defeat Satan and his plan (John 17:20, 21; Eph. 4:13-16; Rev. 12:11, et. al). For this reason we who call ourselves followers of Christ must be aware of the tactics of Satan and know how to counter them through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The first strategy of Satan was to diminish the effect of God’s word. He began a propaganda strategy centuries ago aimed at destroying God’s word in the eyes of religious leaders with selfish motives. The process was very gradual but Satan never gave up in his efforts to influence people to believe that the Bible is not the inerrant word of God delivered for the purpose of spreading His truth.
Liberal theologians and even some who call themselves evangelicals have been the “useful idiots” that Satan used for his plan. I remember in my years at seminary studying the concepts of German philosophers and theologians who were beginning to influence the attitude of people about the Bible. Rudolf Bultman, for example, denied the historical nature of the Bible and relegated it to a mere general guide to life rather than a message of redemption in Jesus Christ. The Jesus Seminar was a well-developed attempt by 150 theologians critical of the historical truth about Jesus in the 1980s and 90s. There ideas were easily debunked but many people were influenced by them because they made man the center of everything and God a remote, powerless, being who may not even exist.
That kind of thinking spread to most of the mainline Protestant denominations and led to a general trend toward de-emphasizing the credibility of the Bible as an inerrant source of truth. This basic view was expressed by Bill O’Reilly on Fox News when he said, “If you want to believe that Jonah was swallowed by the whale, fine, but don’t demand that I believe it too.” He then went on to say that saying Jesus taught Adam and Eve, and Jonah and the whale as literal history is “entirely false, that is wrong, that never happened.” He believes and insists, as do most liberal theologians and Bible trash-talkers, that the Bible is merely a general guide to living and should not be taken seriously.
Does it matter that Jesus said, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40)? So O’Reilly and others, influenced by liberal theology, have come to believe that Jesus was either a liar or sadly mistaken about the historical account of Jonah. The real irony is that this undermines the status of Jesus being three days in the grave. With one liberal swoop O’Reilly joined the liberal theologians who say the Bible is not historical but full of analogies and made up stories. Jesus and His death and resurrection are set aside by one man influenced by those who see the Bible as a mere book of human-inspired stories.
The Bible summons readers to heed God while the theologians believe it is merely full of theological ideas drawn from sources outside the Bible. In their minds, it was not inspired by God but is the compilation of men through the ages as they did the best they could to explain philosophical ideas.
Paul said exactly the opposite when writing the Thessalonians: “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thess. 2:13). Either it is God’s word and not the word of men or Paul also is a liar and a fraud.
It was this same Paul who prophesied of a time when the church would be “…tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph. 4:14). Christians today, due to this human cunning and crafty scheming, are being tossed around like a feather in the wind by doctrines instead of being made firm and unmoving by the rock of God’s word.
This was Satan’s plan—to obliterate the life saving, empowering, redeeming effect of the word of God. Liberal denominations and churches, liberal universities and many evangelical churches and confused Christians have succumbed to the tragic effect of calling God a liar or demoting Him to a mere wise storyteller in the sky. We are seeing it’s power played out in the politics of our country, in our court judgments, in the weakness and ignorance of our churches and in the selfish, unaccountable attitude of the citizenry.
Satan used the political climate in the country and the lack of righteous judgment on the part of our judges to begin the removal of God’s word from the public arena. In 1963 the Bible was essentially removed from our schools through an erroneous interpretation of the First Amendment. In June of the previous year, prayer was taken out of the schools. This was not merely a political, social, judicial event but a planned demonic attack on God’s word using liberal-minded, secular judges. For 276 years the First Amendment was interpreted to bar government from getting involved in religion. On that notorious day it was interpreted to keep the Bible and religion out of the public sector. Now government, through its Godless court system, has been given permission to regulate and bar religion by excluding the Bible from our schools and other public arenas.
If the Bible is a mere book of man-made ideas then it follows that man can interpret it any way he wants. Peter put it this way: “… knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20, 21). The words of scripture are the words of God and they are not a matter of any private interpretation. They were written by men under inspiration of the Holy Spirit and they can only be understood by the same inspiration.
This trashing of the Bible as our source of truth has resulted in rampant divorce, same-sex marriage, evolution accepted as the world view over creationism, downplaying the miraculous power of God and much more. The result is two generations of Americans being raised under the influence of elementary, high school and university propaganda instruction. Since Christians have ignored, for the most part, Paul’s admonition not to be "conformed to the world" (Rom. 12:2), we have just gone along with the propaganda program of the enemy allowing our schools to deceive our children. The result is our young people are leaving our churches in droves as the church continues its ineffective approach to corporate life in Christ that leaves the word of God on the shelf.
Our churches have taken on a market system agenda instead of the agenda of the kingdom and have allowed themselves to be shaped by the world. We are emphasizing nickels and noses (money and numbers) while we need to emphasize God’s word and its redemptive, healing, restoring power. We are trying to win our young people with fun and games and our adults with concerts and eloquent sermons. The power of God is rare because the power of God is released through His word, which we have watered down to weak pabulum.
The answer is a return to Jesus and His word. I am not talking about Jesus and His doctrines—but a return to a relationship with the Lord Himself and a deep, abiding respect for what He has said and is saying to us through His Spirit. I'm talking about allowing the King of glory to come into our churches again in power and authority as we throw out our weak, ineffective market-driven methods. This will require our full attention to what He says in His word and through His Spirit, not to what theologians say about His word. Many of them have sold us out to the enemy but He will give us victory through the power of His word.
What will that take? It will take you. You must abandon the obvious failure of Christianity according to men and seek out and find Christianity where Jesus is at the center of everything, unleashing the power and rule of His kingdom. Wake up fellow Christians! Don’t fall for the lies of the propaganda king but open up to the truth revealed through our Redeemer, the King of the universe.
Lloyd Gardner
May 30, 2016
The last days may be upon us and many people are living out the fulfillment of Peter’s warning in his second letter:
"…knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:3, 4).
Throughout the world, and especially in the United States, the scoffers are coming out in droves to follow their own “sinful desires” advocating the evolutionary worldview that everything is the result of materialist causes and there is no Creator with a purpose and moral standards for our lives. Everything has continued just as we see it, they proclaim. This has led to a relativist approach to morality which says that there are no absolute morals and we can live the way we want regardless of how it affects others.
In many places the Bible warns that the last days would be perilous. Paul gave Timothy this warning:
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:1-5).
In the prophetic eyes of Paul, this is the ominous condition of the world in the last days. Every word sounds like my morning newspaper. Later in this letter he says further, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3, 4). This sounds like many evangelical churches and most Christian television programs. People are reaching the point where they are not seeking truth but follow teachers who will tell them what they want to hear, allowing them to do as they please. Out of their selfish motives, they will “wander into myths” which are simply fictional accounts instead of truth.
In his first letter to Timothy Paul wrote, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared" (1 Tim 4:1, 2). The warning here is that people claiming to be followers of Christ will be influenced by demonic forces that introduce and encourage Satan’s way of thinking. This will be generated by liars whose “consciences are seared.” The lack of a moral standard I referred to earlier will result in searing of the consciences of many and their receptiveness to the teachings of demons. God gave us a conscience to alert us inwardly concerning truth and right and wrong in God’s eyes. These demons propagandize the world in favor of the ideas of their master, Satan, “the god of this world who blinds the minds of unbelievers” (2 Cor. 4:4).
Satan is the master propaganda expert. Adolf Hitler patterned his strategies after Satan and was not doubt influenced by the demonic master of misinformation. Hitler had Joseph Goebbels, his antisemitic, warmongering minister of war whose propaganda sold the German people on Hitler’s party and program. The end times will produce Satan’s Hitler and his minister of propaganda (Rev. 13:4-17). We’ve seen this all before and we are beginning to see it developing before our eyes.
Despite this downward trend of the world toward final destruction, I am one who believes that the Bible is clear that a remnant of Christ followers will be the decisive means that God uses to defeat Satan and his plan (John 17:20, 21; Eph. 4:13-16; Rev. 12:11, et. al). For this reason we who call ourselves followers of Christ must be aware of the tactics of Satan and know how to counter them through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The first strategy of Satan was to diminish the effect of God’s word. He began a propaganda strategy centuries ago aimed at destroying God’s word in the eyes of religious leaders with selfish motives. The process was very gradual but Satan never gave up in his efforts to influence people to believe that the Bible is not the inerrant word of God delivered for the purpose of spreading His truth.
Liberal theologians and even some who call themselves evangelicals have been the “useful idiots” that Satan used for his plan. I remember in my years at seminary studying the concepts of German philosophers and theologians who were beginning to influence the attitude of people about the Bible. Rudolf Bultman, for example, denied the historical nature of the Bible and relegated it to a mere general guide to life rather than a message of redemption in Jesus Christ. The Jesus Seminar was a well-developed attempt by 150 theologians critical of the historical truth about Jesus in the 1980s and 90s. There ideas were easily debunked but many people were influenced by them because they made man the center of everything and God a remote, powerless, being who may not even exist.
That kind of thinking spread to most of the mainline Protestant denominations and led to a general trend toward de-emphasizing the credibility of the Bible as an inerrant source of truth. This basic view was expressed by Bill O’Reilly on Fox News when he said, “If you want to believe that Jonah was swallowed by the whale, fine, but don’t demand that I believe it too.” He then went on to say that saying Jesus taught Adam and Eve, and Jonah and the whale as literal history is “entirely false, that is wrong, that never happened.” He believes and insists, as do most liberal theologians and Bible trash-talkers, that the Bible is merely a general guide to living and should not be taken seriously.
Does it matter that Jesus said, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40)? So O’Reilly and others, influenced by liberal theology, have come to believe that Jesus was either a liar or sadly mistaken about the historical account of Jonah. The real irony is that this undermines the status of Jesus being three days in the grave. With one liberal swoop O’Reilly joined the liberal theologians who say the Bible is not historical but full of analogies and made up stories. Jesus and His death and resurrection are set aside by one man influenced by those who see the Bible as a mere book of human-inspired stories.
The Bible summons readers to heed God while the theologians believe it is merely full of theological ideas drawn from sources outside the Bible. In their minds, it was not inspired by God but is the compilation of men through the ages as they did the best they could to explain philosophical ideas.
Paul said exactly the opposite when writing the Thessalonians: “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thess. 2:13). Either it is God’s word and not the word of men or Paul also is a liar and a fraud.
It was this same Paul who prophesied of a time when the church would be “…tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph. 4:14). Christians today, due to this human cunning and crafty scheming, are being tossed around like a feather in the wind by doctrines instead of being made firm and unmoving by the rock of God’s word.
This was Satan’s plan—to obliterate the life saving, empowering, redeeming effect of the word of God. Liberal denominations and churches, liberal universities and many evangelical churches and confused Christians have succumbed to the tragic effect of calling God a liar or demoting Him to a mere wise storyteller in the sky. We are seeing it’s power played out in the politics of our country, in our court judgments, in the weakness and ignorance of our churches and in the selfish, unaccountable attitude of the citizenry.
Satan used the political climate in the country and the lack of righteous judgment on the part of our judges to begin the removal of God’s word from the public arena. In 1963 the Bible was essentially removed from our schools through an erroneous interpretation of the First Amendment. In June of the previous year, prayer was taken out of the schools. This was not merely a political, social, judicial event but a planned demonic attack on God’s word using liberal-minded, secular judges. For 276 years the First Amendment was interpreted to bar government from getting involved in religion. On that notorious day it was interpreted to keep the Bible and religion out of the public sector. Now government, through its Godless court system, has been given permission to regulate and bar religion by excluding the Bible from our schools and other public arenas.
If the Bible is a mere book of man-made ideas then it follows that man can interpret it any way he wants. Peter put it this way: “… knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20, 21). The words of scripture are the words of God and they are not a matter of any private interpretation. They were written by men under inspiration of the Holy Spirit and they can only be understood by the same inspiration.
This trashing of the Bible as our source of truth has resulted in rampant divorce, same-sex marriage, evolution accepted as the world view over creationism, downplaying the miraculous power of God and much more. The result is two generations of Americans being raised under the influence of elementary, high school and university propaganda instruction. Since Christians have ignored, for the most part, Paul’s admonition not to be "conformed to the world" (Rom. 12:2), we have just gone along with the propaganda program of the enemy allowing our schools to deceive our children. The result is our young people are leaving our churches in droves as the church continues its ineffective approach to corporate life in Christ that leaves the word of God on the shelf.
Our churches have taken on a market system agenda instead of the agenda of the kingdom and have allowed themselves to be shaped by the world. We are emphasizing nickels and noses (money and numbers) while we need to emphasize God’s word and its redemptive, healing, restoring power. We are trying to win our young people with fun and games and our adults with concerts and eloquent sermons. The power of God is rare because the power of God is released through His word, which we have watered down to weak pabulum.
The answer is a return to Jesus and His word. I am not talking about Jesus and His doctrines—but a return to a relationship with the Lord Himself and a deep, abiding respect for what He has said and is saying to us through His Spirit. I'm talking about allowing the King of glory to come into our churches again in power and authority as we throw out our weak, ineffective market-driven methods. This will require our full attention to what He says in His word and through His Spirit, not to what theologians say about His word. Many of them have sold us out to the enemy but He will give us victory through the power of His word.
What will that take? It will take you. You must abandon the obvious failure of Christianity according to men and seek out and find Christianity where Jesus is at the center of everything, unleashing the power and rule of His kingdom. Wake up fellow Christians! Don’t fall for the lies of the propaganda king but open up to the truth revealed through our Redeemer, the King of the universe.
Give Yourself to God
Lloyd Gardner
April 27, 2016
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned (Rom. 12:1-3).
I’m sorry to say it but I believe our tendency to be shaped by the world has allowed capitalism to turn churches into religious businesses with commodities for sale. Churches promote themselves in the same way businesses promote themselves. We emphasize what we have to offer—a popular pastor, a user friendly service, coffee in the foyer, child care for all ages, multi-media presentations, comfortable theater seating, etc. In other words, we are trying to attract people to our church programs by emphasizing what they can get out of it.
This is opposite from the way church is presented in the Bible. The word makes it clear that life in Christ begins with what we give, not with what we want to get. A relationship with Christ begins with our presentation of our bodies to Christ so that He can transform us into His image and bring us into the fullness of his will and purpose. When Jesus was telling his disciples what it takes to be His followers, He said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24). Step one is to deny self and begin our journey to the death of self—then we follow Him.
Most Christians balk at such words of commitment because they don’t understand that the rewards of following Christ come after we follow Him, not as lures to entice us. Jesus’ next words in this passage were “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 16:25). The blessing of losing our soul-lives to follow Christ is that He fills us with a heavenly life worth having. He offered Himself and His life to us, not promises of fleshly reward. The result of this is the fulfillment of Jesus’s words in this passage: “on this rock I will build my church” (16:18).
This is what Romans chapter 12 is telling us. Paul exhorts us based on the mercies of God. He is referring back to the mercies of God mentioned in chapter 11 (vv. 30-32). The passage refers to the mercy of God on Israel and the mercy of God on all other races (Gentiles). His mercies have made it possible for the one new man expressed in the church to be produced (Eph. 2:15). This truth forms the background of chapter 12.
Paul exhorts us with the words “present your bodies as a living sacrifice.” In this phrase is a key to understanding the chapter. Notice that the word “bodies” is plural and the “living sacrifice” is singular. He is encouraging us to present our individual bodies to a corporate sacrifice. It is not “Present your bodies as many individual sacrifices before God.” The sacrifice of our body has a personal significance, to be sure, but the resulting corporate sacrifice is to be the end result of our presentation of our lives to God. Any spiritual commitment of our lives that avoids the reality of the corporate result of the built up church, falls very short of God’s will.
Most Christians and Christian teachers miss this point. They see the Christian walk as an individual walk in which we present our lives to God as sacrifices to Him. This is a true experience but it is not the full teaching of this passage. This offering of our bodies to God’s one, unified, sacrifice is what Paul says is “holy and acceptable to God” and is our “spiritual worship.”
Our failure to see this corporate expression of God’s will causes us to see Christianity as simply an individual walk in which we give ourselves fully to God while ignoring that He has a purpose—a divine will. Only His will is “holy and acceptable.” Many Christians commit to activities that are a sacrifice of their lives but do not have as a goal to produce the living sacrifice of His will—His body, His church, “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). Such individual sacrifices divide the body of Christ by dispersing it in many different directions instead of toward the expression of the love, unity and power of His built up church.
It is perhaps a prophetic warning from Paul when he next says, “Do not be conformed to this world.” The apostle knew that verse one cannot be fulfilled by conforming ourselves to the world’s way of doing God’s will. “Conforming” is just changing our exterior actions to adjust to how the world wants the church to be. Anything that does not begin with the presentation of ourselves to God will end with doing what produces what we want instead of God’s heart desire. In America we have a “conformed” church. It is adopting the ways of the free market system of capitalism instead of finding out what God wants and giving ourselves to it.
God’s way of change is contained in the next statement: “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Conforming is an external change that leaves our hearts unchanged. Transformation is the spiritual metamorphosis process whereby we are changed from the inside out by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are changed on the inside and our outer actions will follow the inward change.
The end result of this transforming process, according to Paul, is that “you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” As I related earlier, God’s will is spelled out in scripture as the building up of His corporate body, the church. This begins with the presentation of our bodies to the Lord and results in the building up of His church (Eph. 1:5, 9-12; 3:11-21; 5:17-33).
We often mistake God’s overall will with His specific will for individual situations. God has a purpose that He is unfolding through His Son in the power of the Holy Spirit as expressed in a victorious church. This passage is telling us that we can come to know “the good, acceptable and perfect will of God” when we are experiencing His transforming power. That transformation opens our eyes to His mystery the revelation of His church according to His eternal purpose in Christ (Eph. 3:9-11). God has a purpose, a will and it begins with a presentation of our lives to Him.
Most of us who read God’s word know that the rest of Romans 12 is about the practicalities of living together as the body of Christ, the church. Notice in verse 3 the connecting word “for.” This word connects this passage on presenting our bodies to His corporate sacrifice with living together in unity and love with other members of Christ’s body.
The rest of the chapter is about realizing that we are members of a body, functioning in the gifts He has provided, expressing genuine love, showing honor, being fervent in spirit, rejoicing, being patient, praying, living in harmony with one another and much more about life in the corporate body of Christ, the living sacrifice that expresses His eternal purpose. This is the “living sacrifice” because in Spirit-led fellowship with one another we sacrifice our lives to Christ and to one another for the sake of His purpose. It’s not just about us and what we can get from God. It becomes what we present to Him of our lives so that He can take what we give and transform it with His life-giving presence.
I fully understand Paul’s heart at the beginning of this passage where he says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God.” In the original Greek he is using a form of the same word, paraklatos Jesus used of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, Exhorter or Encourager whom He would send to us. Paul is beseeching, exhorting, even begging us by the mercies of God to see the importance of the presentation of our bodies to Christ. It all begins there. Without this presentation we have not yet begun the Christian experience.
I also have been beseeching the body of Christ to see this wonderful truth. It will set us free from religion and bring us into the glorious reality of genuine life in Christ. It will open up to us the real meaning of church and unveil to our hearts the wonder of God’s eternal purpose. Not only will we understand His purpose but we will begin to experience it fully in our lives and in fellowship with others. Church will cease being a market-driven organization and will become a Spirit-driven organism infused with and empowered by our God.
In summary, let me put it this way. Life in Christ begins when we present our bodies fully to Him. When believers give themselves fully to Christ, a living sacrifice begins to form. That living expression is the church of the living God, the living organism, the body of Christ, the earthly expression of God’s eternal purpose. This is not something man can do by clever programming and organizational skills. It is a miracle performed by the Holy Spirit when we give ourselves to God for His purpose.
PS: I have written about this extensively in my book God’s Eternal Purpose. If you would like one and are short of funds we will send you one free of charge or it is available at Amazon or at our online book site.
Lloyd Gardner
April 27, 2016
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned (Rom. 12:1-3).
I’m sorry to say it but I believe our tendency to be shaped by the world has allowed capitalism to turn churches into religious businesses with commodities for sale. Churches promote themselves in the same way businesses promote themselves. We emphasize what we have to offer—a popular pastor, a user friendly service, coffee in the foyer, child care for all ages, multi-media presentations, comfortable theater seating, etc. In other words, we are trying to attract people to our church programs by emphasizing what they can get out of it.
This is opposite from the way church is presented in the Bible. The word makes it clear that life in Christ begins with what we give, not with what we want to get. A relationship with Christ begins with our presentation of our bodies to Christ so that He can transform us into His image and bring us into the fullness of his will and purpose. When Jesus was telling his disciples what it takes to be His followers, He said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24). Step one is to deny self and begin our journey to the death of self—then we follow Him.
Most Christians balk at such words of commitment because they don’t understand that the rewards of following Christ come after we follow Him, not as lures to entice us. Jesus’ next words in this passage were “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 16:25). The blessing of losing our soul-lives to follow Christ is that He fills us with a heavenly life worth having. He offered Himself and His life to us, not promises of fleshly reward. The result of this is the fulfillment of Jesus’s words in this passage: “on this rock I will build my church” (16:18).
This is what Romans chapter 12 is telling us. Paul exhorts us based on the mercies of God. He is referring back to the mercies of God mentioned in chapter 11 (vv. 30-32). The passage refers to the mercy of God on Israel and the mercy of God on all other races (Gentiles). His mercies have made it possible for the one new man expressed in the church to be produced (Eph. 2:15). This truth forms the background of chapter 12.
Paul exhorts us with the words “present your bodies as a living sacrifice.” In this phrase is a key to understanding the chapter. Notice that the word “bodies” is plural and the “living sacrifice” is singular. He is encouraging us to present our individual bodies to a corporate sacrifice. It is not “Present your bodies as many individual sacrifices before God.” The sacrifice of our body has a personal significance, to be sure, but the resulting corporate sacrifice is to be the end result of our presentation of our lives to God. Any spiritual commitment of our lives that avoids the reality of the corporate result of the built up church, falls very short of God’s will.
Most Christians and Christian teachers miss this point. They see the Christian walk as an individual walk in which we present our lives to God as sacrifices to Him. This is a true experience but it is not the full teaching of this passage. This offering of our bodies to God’s one, unified, sacrifice is what Paul says is “holy and acceptable to God” and is our “spiritual worship.”
Our failure to see this corporate expression of God’s will causes us to see Christianity as simply an individual walk in which we give ourselves fully to God while ignoring that He has a purpose—a divine will. Only His will is “holy and acceptable.” Many Christians commit to activities that are a sacrifice of their lives but do not have as a goal to produce the living sacrifice of His will—His body, His church, “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). Such individual sacrifices divide the body of Christ by dispersing it in many different directions instead of toward the expression of the love, unity and power of His built up church.
It is perhaps a prophetic warning from Paul when he next says, “Do not be conformed to this world.” The apostle knew that verse one cannot be fulfilled by conforming ourselves to the world’s way of doing God’s will. “Conforming” is just changing our exterior actions to adjust to how the world wants the church to be. Anything that does not begin with the presentation of ourselves to God will end with doing what produces what we want instead of God’s heart desire. In America we have a “conformed” church. It is adopting the ways of the free market system of capitalism instead of finding out what God wants and giving ourselves to it.
God’s way of change is contained in the next statement: “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Conforming is an external change that leaves our hearts unchanged. Transformation is the spiritual metamorphosis process whereby we are changed from the inside out by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are changed on the inside and our outer actions will follow the inward change.
The end result of this transforming process, according to Paul, is that “you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” As I related earlier, God’s will is spelled out in scripture as the building up of His corporate body, the church. This begins with the presentation of our bodies to the Lord and results in the building up of His church (Eph. 1:5, 9-12; 3:11-21; 5:17-33).
We often mistake God’s overall will with His specific will for individual situations. God has a purpose that He is unfolding through His Son in the power of the Holy Spirit as expressed in a victorious church. This passage is telling us that we can come to know “the good, acceptable and perfect will of God” when we are experiencing His transforming power. That transformation opens our eyes to His mystery the revelation of His church according to His eternal purpose in Christ (Eph. 3:9-11). God has a purpose, a will and it begins with a presentation of our lives to Him.
Most of us who read God’s word know that the rest of Romans 12 is about the practicalities of living together as the body of Christ, the church. Notice in verse 3 the connecting word “for.” This word connects this passage on presenting our bodies to His corporate sacrifice with living together in unity and love with other members of Christ’s body.
The rest of the chapter is about realizing that we are members of a body, functioning in the gifts He has provided, expressing genuine love, showing honor, being fervent in spirit, rejoicing, being patient, praying, living in harmony with one another and much more about life in the corporate body of Christ, the living sacrifice that expresses His eternal purpose. This is the “living sacrifice” because in Spirit-led fellowship with one another we sacrifice our lives to Christ and to one another for the sake of His purpose. It’s not just about us and what we can get from God. It becomes what we present to Him of our lives so that He can take what we give and transform it with His life-giving presence.
I fully understand Paul’s heart at the beginning of this passage where he says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God.” In the original Greek he is using a form of the same word, paraklatos Jesus used of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, Exhorter or Encourager whom He would send to us. Paul is beseeching, exhorting, even begging us by the mercies of God to see the importance of the presentation of our bodies to Christ. It all begins there. Without this presentation we have not yet begun the Christian experience.
I also have been beseeching the body of Christ to see this wonderful truth. It will set us free from religion and bring us into the glorious reality of genuine life in Christ. It will open up to us the real meaning of church and unveil to our hearts the wonder of God’s eternal purpose. Not only will we understand His purpose but we will begin to experience it fully in our lives and in fellowship with others. Church will cease being a market-driven organization and will become a Spirit-driven organism infused with and empowered by our God.
In summary, let me put it this way. Life in Christ begins when we present our bodies fully to Him. When believers give themselves fully to Christ, a living sacrifice begins to form. That living expression is the church of the living God, the living organism, the body of Christ, the earthly expression of God’s eternal purpose. This is not something man can do by clever programming and organizational skills. It is a miracle performed by the Holy Spirit when we give ourselves to God for His purpose.
PS: I have written about this extensively in my book God’s Eternal Purpose. If you would like one and are short of funds we will send you one free of charge or it is available at Amazon or at our online book site.
We Need Endurance
Lloyd Gardner
April 13, 2016
I’ve been struggling with this message for some time. It’s a tough one that will not be popular and I couldn’t seem to find the words from the Lord. Finally, the Lord just told me to tell my readers straight out. The message is simple: American Christians are spoiled. There, I’ve said it and now let’s see what it means.
We are spoiled like the child raised in an affluent environment with permissive parents. We have grown to think that we deserve certain things from God and that he should provide what we need and keep away things that are not good for us. Of course, we get to define what is good and the definition comes from our spoiled life. The result of this is that we lack endurance in our lives. We tend to want what we want when we want it and in the way we want it. The concept of waiting on the Lord is not common for many of us.
My main text is from James 1:2-4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you are involved in various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But you must let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing” (ISV). In our spoiled American churches we have come to think of trials as rare occurrences that God occasionally uses to deepen our faith. We fail to realize the impact of this passage and others—that testing is an integral part of God’s plan for our lives. Without it we never become “mature and complete, lacking nothing.
This passage is telling us that the testing of our faith should be received with joy because we realize the effect the testing has on our spiritual transformation. The testing produces endurance. When endurance is developed it will make way for the maturing process whereby we become mature and complete as followers of Christ. Of course, this goes against everything worldly common sense tells us. This endurance will deepen our faith because the staying power of our faith is strengthened by having to trust God in the midst of testing.
Paul says it this way: “. . . we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Rom. 5:2-5). There you have it again. We are to rejoice in our sufferings knowing what is produced through them in our lives. The suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and so on. We do not end up being disappointed because of what it produces in our lives.
Peter says it too: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6, 7). Peter shares the same message that James and Paul wrote about. We rejoice in our trials knowing that through them our faith is tested for genuineness and the testing produces the gold of God’s presence in us that is pure because it was “tested by fire.” The testing produces the pure, refined gold.
These three apostles are clearly telling us that testing, trials, or tribulation are used by God to produce His character in us. The troubles, if we endure through them, instead of grumbling at God and bailing on Him, produce spiritual strength that enables us to grow toward maturity in Him.
I am not talking about the temptation of the enemy meant to pull us over into his way of acting. Later in the chapter James addresses this saying, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). God does not tempt us to sin. We are talking about trials, troubles, and persecution aimed at pulling us away from God. Those trials should be accepted with joy because we know what they produce in us. They create endurance in our soul, enabling us to stand firm through hard times. Standing firm enables God’s nature to be formed in us.
Later in his first letter, Peter takes this a step further saying something quite profound: “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1, 2). Jesus “suffered in the flesh” as we all know. Amazingly, the apostle is telling us to arm ourselves, to take up a weapon. That weapon is to have the same thinking as Jesus had in regard to suffering. Then he tells us that through this suffering we will be able to cease from sin and live by the will of God.
This concept, when we realize its impact, hits most of us like a bombshell. Peter is telling us that suffering is a part of God’s way of bringing us into conformity with His will. It is part of God’s plan for the defeat of our flesh and the victory of our spirit. Peter says to “arm yourselves with this way of thinking.” To “arm yourselves” is to take aggressive, purposeful action in regard to our struggle in this world. Our weapon is a way of thinking that understands that suffering and trials are part of what God is doing. We cease from sin and live for the will of God as a result of suffering.
It has always been this way since the fall of man. After they had sinned the Lord said to the woman, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen. 3:16).
To the man He said “. . . in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:17-19).
Humans would be subject to the earthly flaws created by their sin but God would use this weakness to discipline and train his people in His will. Paul wrote, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). God cannot just eradicate the devastating results of sin outside of His redemptive plan, but He can use “all things” to work out His will in the lives of His called ones. He cannot simply save us from every evil result of the fall but He can cause everything to work together for the eventual good of His children.
The result of this is that suffering is part of God’s plan. This fleshly body will suffer because it is subject to the flaws of fallen humanity but God will use the suffering to produce endurance in our lives so that we will stay the course of progress toward maturity and wholeness. So, we are able to consider it joy when we fall into trials because we know it is part of God way of producing endurance in our lives so that we can stay the course toward completion in Him.
I know this is a hard message. It isn’t what we want to hear. We want to hear that after we commit to follow Christ all goes well and we are blessed every day from that day forward. When we begin thinking that way we need to read Paul’s account of how he was treated:
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (1 Cor. 2:24-28).
I don’t know about you but this does not describe the Christian life that most of us in America are accustomed to. I’ve never been beaten or stoned, or shipwrecked, or treated like this. I’ve suffered a little criticism for my stand as a believer but no one has come to take me away. We need to stop thinking in terms of the ideal life free of troubles, sickness, persecution and stress and realize that God has chosen to use these things to prepare us. Endurance is not learned in leisure and contentment. It is learned in the training room where blood, sweat and tears are common.
Dear brethren, things are going to get worse before they get better. We are in for hard times. It is time to understand that this is God’s way. He will have His glorious bride and it will not happen as we sway back and forth listening to worship music and dance and shout when repentance is called for. We are spoiled. Let’s face it. It’s time to listen to God who says, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” (Heb. 12:7). If you were an illegitimate child God would let you go your way, but you are His sons and daughters whom He will discipline so that you will learn endurance. From that endurance comes the heart of the warrior of God, the overcoming remnant, the victorious church of the last days.
The passage from James alerts us that we will be involved in “various trials.” The Greek says we will “fall into various trials.” Things happen when we least expect them and we find ourselves surrounded by trials. They are “various” implying that there are many different issues that can test us. That testing of our faith produces endurance.
Faith must be present before it can be tested. This is not the testing of our human strength and resolve. It is the testing of our faith—our belief and trust in God that issues from His word. Our human resolve or strength will either collapse under the testing or cause us to simply abandon God to avoid the test. Many are taking the road of cowardice and unbelief in these days of attack by the world and its god.
This is where the joy comes in. The word “consider” or “count” can be translated “command.” We can actually “command” God’s joy into our lives when we fall into these various trials. This joy is not susceptible to the whims of coincidence but is a fruit of the Spirit that is available to us when we need it (Gal. 5:22). Surely this is what the word means by “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). Joy is the strength of God that carries us through hard times. We need to expect that trials will come and understand that at their inception we have the upper hand of supernatural joy that comes from our God to sustain us through the testing.
I do not get to choose what I write. If it was my choice I would choose something more exciting and popular—something that would draw attention to me and my ministry. I only get to write what He gives me and this is it—we are spoiled and it is time to repent and seek to be restored before it’s too late.
Lloyd Gardner
April 13, 2016
I’ve been struggling with this message for some time. It’s a tough one that will not be popular and I couldn’t seem to find the words from the Lord. Finally, the Lord just told me to tell my readers straight out. The message is simple: American Christians are spoiled. There, I’ve said it and now let’s see what it means.
We are spoiled like the child raised in an affluent environment with permissive parents. We have grown to think that we deserve certain things from God and that he should provide what we need and keep away things that are not good for us. Of course, we get to define what is good and the definition comes from our spoiled life. The result of this is that we lack endurance in our lives. We tend to want what we want when we want it and in the way we want it. The concept of waiting on the Lord is not common for many of us.
My main text is from James 1:2-4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you are involved in various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But you must let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing” (ISV). In our spoiled American churches we have come to think of trials as rare occurrences that God occasionally uses to deepen our faith. We fail to realize the impact of this passage and others—that testing is an integral part of God’s plan for our lives. Without it we never become “mature and complete, lacking nothing.
This passage is telling us that the testing of our faith should be received with joy because we realize the effect the testing has on our spiritual transformation. The testing produces endurance. When endurance is developed it will make way for the maturing process whereby we become mature and complete as followers of Christ. Of course, this goes against everything worldly common sense tells us. This endurance will deepen our faith because the staying power of our faith is strengthened by having to trust God in the midst of testing.
Paul says it this way: “. . . we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Rom. 5:2-5). There you have it again. We are to rejoice in our sufferings knowing what is produced through them in our lives. The suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and so on. We do not end up being disappointed because of what it produces in our lives.
Peter says it too: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6, 7). Peter shares the same message that James and Paul wrote about. We rejoice in our trials knowing that through them our faith is tested for genuineness and the testing produces the gold of God’s presence in us that is pure because it was “tested by fire.” The testing produces the pure, refined gold.
These three apostles are clearly telling us that testing, trials, or tribulation are used by God to produce His character in us. The troubles, if we endure through them, instead of grumbling at God and bailing on Him, produce spiritual strength that enables us to grow toward maturity in Him.
I am not talking about the temptation of the enemy meant to pull us over into his way of acting. Later in the chapter James addresses this saying, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). God does not tempt us to sin. We are talking about trials, troubles, and persecution aimed at pulling us away from God. Those trials should be accepted with joy because we know what they produce in us. They create endurance in our soul, enabling us to stand firm through hard times. Standing firm enables God’s nature to be formed in us.
Later in his first letter, Peter takes this a step further saying something quite profound: “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1, 2). Jesus “suffered in the flesh” as we all know. Amazingly, the apostle is telling us to arm ourselves, to take up a weapon. That weapon is to have the same thinking as Jesus had in regard to suffering. Then he tells us that through this suffering we will be able to cease from sin and live by the will of God.
This concept, when we realize its impact, hits most of us like a bombshell. Peter is telling us that suffering is a part of God’s way of bringing us into conformity with His will. It is part of God’s plan for the defeat of our flesh and the victory of our spirit. Peter says to “arm yourselves with this way of thinking.” To “arm yourselves” is to take aggressive, purposeful action in regard to our struggle in this world. Our weapon is a way of thinking that understands that suffering and trials are part of what God is doing. We cease from sin and live for the will of God as a result of suffering.
It has always been this way since the fall of man. After they had sinned the Lord said to the woman, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen. 3:16).
To the man He said “. . . in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:17-19).
Humans would be subject to the earthly flaws created by their sin but God would use this weakness to discipline and train his people in His will. Paul wrote, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). God cannot just eradicate the devastating results of sin outside of His redemptive plan, but He can use “all things” to work out His will in the lives of His called ones. He cannot simply save us from every evil result of the fall but He can cause everything to work together for the eventual good of His children.
The result of this is that suffering is part of God’s plan. This fleshly body will suffer because it is subject to the flaws of fallen humanity but God will use the suffering to produce endurance in our lives so that we will stay the course of progress toward maturity and wholeness. So, we are able to consider it joy when we fall into trials because we know it is part of God way of producing endurance in our lives so that we can stay the course toward completion in Him.
I know this is a hard message. It isn’t what we want to hear. We want to hear that after we commit to follow Christ all goes well and we are blessed every day from that day forward. When we begin thinking that way we need to read Paul’s account of how he was treated:
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (1 Cor. 2:24-28).
I don’t know about you but this does not describe the Christian life that most of us in America are accustomed to. I’ve never been beaten or stoned, or shipwrecked, or treated like this. I’ve suffered a little criticism for my stand as a believer but no one has come to take me away. We need to stop thinking in terms of the ideal life free of troubles, sickness, persecution and stress and realize that God has chosen to use these things to prepare us. Endurance is not learned in leisure and contentment. It is learned in the training room where blood, sweat and tears are common.
Dear brethren, things are going to get worse before they get better. We are in for hard times. It is time to understand that this is God’s way. He will have His glorious bride and it will not happen as we sway back and forth listening to worship music and dance and shout when repentance is called for. We are spoiled. Let’s face it. It’s time to listen to God who says, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” (Heb. 12:7). If you were an illegitimate child God would let you go your way, but you are His sons and daughters whom He will discipline so that you will learn endurance. From that endurance comes the heart of the warrior of God, the overcoming remnant, the victorious church of the last days.
The passage from James alerts us that we will be involved in “various trials.” The Greek says we will “fall into various trials.” Things happen when we least expect them and we find ourselves surrounded by trials. They are “various” implying that there are many different issues that can test us. That testing of our faith produces endurance.
Faith must be present before it can be tested. This is not the testing of our human strength and resolve. It is the testing of our faith—our belief and trust in God that issues from His word. Our human resolve or strength will either collapse under the testing or cause us to simply abandon God to avoid the test. Many are taking the road of cowardice and unbelief in these days of attack by the world and its god.
This is where the joy comes in. The word “consider” or “count” can be translated “command.” We can actually “command” God’s joy into our lives when we fall into these various trials. This joy is not susceptible to the whims of coincidence but is a fruit of the Spirit that is available to us when we need it (Gal. 5:22). Surely this is what the word means by “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). Joy is the strength of God that carries us through hard times. We need to expect that trials will come and understand that at their inception we have the upper hand of supernatural joy that comes from our God to sustain us through the testing.
I do not get to choose what I write. If it was my choice I would choose something more exciting and popular—something that would draw attention to me and my ministry. I only get to write what He gives me and this is it—we are spoiled and it is time to repent and seek to be restored before it’s too late.
Supernatural Fellowship
Lloyd Gardner
March 15, 2015
One of the most frequent criticisms I receive is the complaint that I am too critical of the traditional church and need to tone it down. I try to help people realize that it is my deeply held belief coming from revelation that the traditional church is simply the present expression of the church that is the result of centuries of drifting from the simple purity of God’s word and will. There is a need to hold fast to that simplicity rather than being governed by tradition. My assignment from Him is to draw peoples’ attention to that simplicity expressed in His word.
I say all that to begin a discussion of the wonder of true fellowship in Christ. The word “fellowship” carries with it traditional meaning that is not part of its original sense. We do that with many things because we have allowed tradition to be our truth rather than the original understanding revealed in the word of God. The word ekklesia, for example, which we translate as “church,” has completely lost its original sense to the point where “church” is almost a useless word. We use the word of a building, or a program, or a meeting but it originally meant simply the people of God.
We probably all know that the original word for fellowship is “koinonia” which carries the idea of sharing something in common with others. The word can be used of anything we share in common including physical and spiritual things. The believer’s fellowship begins with an inner fellowship with Christ in the Spirit. John shares this truth in this passage:
…that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ…. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:3, 7).
John is writing about having fellowship with his readers and throws in this requirement: “and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” The beginning of this wonder of fellowship is a supernatural, spiritual, divine sharing connection with the Father and the Son. From the way Paul ends his second letter to the Corinthians we know that this fellowship is also “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (13:14).
There is a mystical, wondrous fellowship that exists between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and they have made this fellowship available to us in Christ. Through this koinonia we share God in common with one another. It is the spiritual oneness of the Godhead poured into our spirits at our new birth in Christ. If we walk by the Spirit instead of our natural flesh, we will experience this world-shaking spiritual communion between God and His children. It brings us into a supernatural relationship with others in Christ.
So, what does this mean for the traditional church? Simply put, it means that the division and fleshly competition we see between so-called churches today is not of the Spirit and it is not fellowship. True fellowship is not an experience that begins on the outside by means of a program or human activity. It begins in our relationship with the living God in the Spirit and then is expressed in our life together with others having the same living relationship.
The traditional church has its fellowship halls, fellowship groups, fellowship potluck and much more but this is not fellowship. These externals cannot foster fellowship because true koinonia comes only from our common inner experience of God. John put it this way: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7). Experiencing God causes us to fellowship with others in Him. It is not something we can plan or manipulate. It is a spiritually organic experience that naturally happens when we are in koinonia with God. That is if we don’t ignore it or try to program it with our fleshly cleverness.
In his intercessory prayer for His church in this age, Jesus prayed, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). Do you see the process in this verse? There is a supernatural, spiritual oneness that exists between the Father and the Son. He says, “Just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.” He prayed that the oneness they experience would be the same oneness as the divine unity that exists within the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are in one another and according to Paul we are in one another (Rom 12:5; Eph. 4:25). That is true fellowship and it is divine and cannot be manufactured by men.
Jesus did not say that the supernatural oneness He possessed with the Father was an impossibility for us but plainly says, “that they also may be in us.” Without any doubt, Jesus prayed that we would fellowship with one another just as He and the Father fellowship with one another. The Father is in His Son who is likewise in Him. That is fellowship—sharing life in common. Jesus said, “they also may be in us.” We have fellowship with them just as they have fellowship with one another. That should simply astound us.
This verse ends with the culminating purpose of Jesus’ prayer for this spiritual unity to exist in His people. He says it this way: “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” The supernaturally united church is meant to be the living, visible proof to the world that Jesus was truly sent by the Father. The world is to be so astounded by this miraculous unity that in their hearts they could not deny the reality of the coming of the Christ. Some will reject it but they will see it in the church. This miracle cannot come to pass by a manufactured unity of programs. It is miraculous and can only come to pass by the inner work of the Spirit that draws people together in Christ.
After the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church, (Acts 2:42, 43). There you have a foretaste of the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus. They devoted themselves to, among other things, fellowship. This means they had such a real inner experience of Christ through the Spirit that it was expressed in a supernatural oneness with one another. The unity shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit began to be expressed in their lives in the streets of Jerusalem. Notice that signs and wonders followed that expression of spiritual fellowship.
In the rest of Acts chapter 2 we see the believers sharing everything they had with one another. They were selling possessions and giving to those who had need. They met in the temple and in homes throughout the city, eating together and just having a wonderful time “with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people” (2:46, 47). Notice that the people were being attracted to this wonderful expression of love and unity expressed in joy and gladness. The world knew at that point that Jesus was for real. That’s why “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (v. 47).
In the next chapter thousands came to Christ. In chapter 4 another five thousand counting just the men were saved. An explosion of life took place in fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus. But it wasn’t supposed to stop there. The enemy could not stop this life even through persecution and death so he developed the plan to move God’s people away from the supernatural expression of fellowship to man-controlled religion with all its traditions.
And that brings me back to how I started. We have in most cases replaced this spiritual phenomenon of fellowship with traditions and clever programs. These manmade things do not impress the world. Any service club can do what many churches do. They have good motives and devoted people who commit to work hard for a common goal. That is well and good but is not the miracle Jesus prayed for. Any astute person can start a traditional church and use church growth principles to cause it to grow and look prosperous.
The world is not impressed with this because anyone can do it and they know it. But when they witness the oneness that comes from the heavenly Godhead flowing through real people in their city they will be astounded. Many will come to the Lord, but all will know that Jesus has come to town. When something of heaven invades their cozy worldly comfort they will be amazed.
We live in such a time of divisive behavior. There is class and racial warfare taking place in our streets. One of the most polarizing figures in our history is leading the race for the presidency and many in the church have joined the bandwagon of acrimony. People are desperate for some semblance of hope for American. Imagine the impact a repentant, restored church would have on society.
I believe the world is being set up for just such a manifestation of this miraculous fellowship that will astound the world. Much of institutional church rejects the notion of an end time restoration of the church even though it is promised in God’s word and Jesus prayed for it. Many have bought into the false notion that the church will simply be a non-factor in the last days and will simply limp along until the secret rapture rescue. That is not the victorious church promised in God’s word.
God always gets the last laugh. He will have a remnant of faithful followers who stop making excuses for the failure of the traditional church and open up to the present leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit. We are not calling for or expecting a massive, total restoration of everything we call church but the rising up of an end time remnant of faithful who begin to believe what God promises in His word. They will have such supernatural koinonia producing love, unity and power expressed in church life rooted in God’s word and will rather than the traditions of manmade religion.
All through scripture we see foreshadows of this remnant. One good example is the remnant of Gideon. He was preparing to go into battle against the Midianites with his 32,000 soldiers. The Lord said, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me'” (Judges 7:2). We all know the story of how God whittled Gideon’s army down to 300 because He wanted everyone to know that it was not by their own hand that they were delivered but by the hand of the Lord. The Lord uses a remnant so He can show forth His power and glory in His people.
All through scripture God has used a remnant and I believe he will do it again in the last days and wants to do it now. The remnant, as with Gideon’s army, was made up of those of the 32,000 who were not fearful and who were alert warriors of battle. God seeks the same kind of warrior today—those who will not be afraid because they have heard His word and have prepared themselves as spiritual warriors for the last days.
My message is aimed at awakening the remnant of faithful in these days. All I can do is speak and write what is in my heart from a close walk with the Lord and a commitment to His word. I also open up to the accountability of all who hear my message for today. All I ask is that any criticisms be founded in God’s word not in human reasoning based on the religious status quo of tradition. Let’s awaken to real fellowship that allows the Lord a way to flow between His people bringing His life to a dying generation.
Lloyd Gardner
March 15, 2015
One of the most frequent criticisms I receive is the complaint that I am too critical of the traditional church and need to tone it down. I try to help people realize that it is my deeply held belief coming from revelation that the traditional church is simply the present expression of the church that is the result of centuries of drifting from the simple purity of God’s word and will. There is a need to hold fast to that simplicity rather than being governed by tradition. My assignment from Him is to draw peoples’ attention to that simplicity expressed in His word.
I say all that to begin a discussion of the wonder of true fellowship in Christ. The word “fellowship” carries with it traditional meaning that is not part of its original sense. We do that with many things because we have allowed tradition to be our truth rather than the original understanding revealed in the word of God. The word ekklesia, for example, which we translate as “church,” has completely lost its original sense to the point where “church” is almost a useless word. We use the word of a building, or a program, or a meeting but it originally meant simply the people of God.
We probably all know that the original word for fellowship is “koinonia” which carries the idea of sharing something in common with others. The word can be used of anything we share in common including physical and spiritual things. The believer’s fellowship begins with an inner fellowship with Christ in the Spirit. John shares this truth in this passage:
…that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ…. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:3, 7).
John is writing about having fellowship with his readers and throws in this requirement: “and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” The beginning of this wonder of fellowship is a supernatural, spiritual, divine sharing connection with the Father and the Son. From the way Paul ends his second letter to the Corinthians we know that this fellowship is also “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (13:14).
There is a mystical, wondrous fellowship that exists between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and they have made this fellowship available to us in Christ. Through this koinonia we share God in common with one another. It is the spiritual oneness of the Godhead poured into our spirits at our new birth in Christ. If we walk by the Spirit instead of our natural flesh, we will experience this world-shaking spiritual communion between God and His children. It brings us into a supernatural relationship with others in Christ.
So, what does this mean for the traditional church? Simply put, it means that the division and fleshly competition we see between so-called churches today is not of the Spirit and it is not fellowship. True fellowship is not an experience that begins on the outside by means of a program or human activity. It begins in our relationship with the living God in the Spirit and then is expressed in our life together with others having the same living relationship.
The traditional church has its fellowship halls, fellowship groups, fellowship potluck and much more but this is not fellowship. These externals cannot foster fellowship because true koinonia comes only from our common inner experience of God. John put it this way: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7). Experiencing God causes us to fellowship with others in Him. It is not something we can plan or manipulate. It is a spiritually organic experience that naturally happens when we are in koinonia with God. That is if we don’t ignore it or try to program it with our fleshly cleverness.
In his intercessory prayer for His church in this age, Jesus prayed, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). Do you see the process in this verse? There is a supernatural, spiritual oneness that exists between the Father and the Son. He says, “Just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.” He prayed that the oneness they experience would be the same oneness as the divine unity that exists within the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are in one another and according to Paul we are in one another (Rom 12:5; Eph. 4:25). That is true fellowship and it is divine and cannot be manufactured by men.
Jesus did not say that the supernatural oneness He possessed with the Father was an impossibility for us but plainly says, “that they also may be in us.” Without any doubt, Jesus prayed that we would fellowship with one another just as He and the Father fellowship with one another. The Father is in His Son who is likewise in Him. That is fellowship—sharing life in common. Jesus said, “they also may be in us.” We have fellowship with them just as they have fellowship with one another. That should simply astound us.
This verse ends with the culminating purpose of Jesus’ prayer for this spiritual unity to exist in His people. He says it this way: “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” The supernaturally united church is meant to be the living, visible proof to the world that Jesus was truly sent by the Father. The world is to be so astounded by this miraculous unity that in their hearts they could not deny the reality of the coming of the Christ. Some will reject it but they will see it in the church. This miracle cannot come to pass by a manufactured unity of programs. It is miraculous and can only come to pass by the inner work of the Spirit that draws people together in Christ.
After the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church, (Acts 2:42, 43). There you have a foretaste of the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus. They devoted themselves to, among other things, fellowship. This means they had such a real inner experience of Christ through the Spirit that it was expressed in a supernatural oneness with one another. The unity shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit began to be expressed in their lives in the streets of Jerusalem. Notice that signs and wonders followed that expression of spiritual fellowship.
In the rest of Acts chapter 2 we see the believers sharing everything they had with one another. They were selling possessions and giving to those who had need. They met in the temple and in homes throughout the city, eating together and just having a wonderful time “with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people” (2:46, 47). Notice that the people were being attracted to this wonderful expression of love and unity expressed in joy and gladness. The world knew at that point that Jesus was for real. That’s why “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (v. 47).
In the next chapter thousands came to Christ. In chapter 4 another five thousand counting just the men were saved. An explosion of life took place in fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus. But it wasn’t supposed to stop there. The enemy could not stop this life even through persecution and death so he developed the plan to move God’s people away from the supernatural expression of fellowship to man-controlled religion with all its traditions.
And that brings me back to how I started. We have in most cases replaced this spiritual phenomenon of fellowship with traditions and clever programs. These manmade things do not impress the world. Any service club can do what many churches do. They have good motives and devoted people who commit to work hard for a common goal. That is well and good but is not the miracle Jesus prayed for. Any astute person can start a traditional church and use church growth principles to cause it to grow and look prosperous.
The world is not impressed with this because anyone can do it and they know it. But when they witness the oneness that comes from the heavenly Godhead flowing through real people in their city they will be astounded. Many will come to the Lord, but all will know that Jesus has come to town. When something of heaven invades their cozy worldly comfort they will be amazed.
We live in such a time of divisive behavior. There is class and racial warfare taking place in our streets. One of the most polarizing figures in our history is leading the race for the presidency and many in the church have joined the bandwagon of acrimony. People are desperate for some semblance of hope for American. Imagine the impact a repentant, restored church would have on society.
I believe the world is being set up for just such a manifestation of this miraculous fellowship that will astound the world. Much of institutional church rejects the notion of an end time restoration of the church even though it is promised in God’s word and Jesus prayed for it. Many have bought into the false notion that the church will simply be a non-factor in the last days and will simply limp along until the secret rapture rescue. That is not the victorious church promised in God’s word.
God always gets the last laugh. He will have a remnant of faithful followers who stop making excuses for the failure of the traditional church and open up to the present leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit. We are not calling for or expecting a massive, total restoration of everything we call church but the rising up of an end time remnant of faithful who begin to believe what God promises in His word. They will have such supernatural koinonia producing love, unity and power expressed in church life rooted in God’s word and will rather than the traditions of manmade religion.
All through scripture we see foreshadows of this remnant. One good example is the remnant of Gideon. He was preparing to go into battle against the Midianites with his 32,000 soldiers. The Lord said, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me'” (Judges 7:2). We all know the story of how God whittled Gideon’s army down to 300 because He wanted everyone to know that it was not by their own hand that they were delivered but by the hand of the Lord. The Lord uses a remnant so He can show forth His power and glory in His people.
All through scripture God has used a remnant and I believe he will do it again in the last days and wants to do it now. The remnant, as with Gideon’s army, was made up of those of the 32,000 who were not fearful and who were alert warriors of battle. God seeks the same kind of warrior today—those who will not be afraid because they have heard His word and have prepared themselves as spiritual warriors for the last days.
My message is aimed at awakening the remnant of faithful in these days. All I can do is speak and write what is in my heart from a close walk with the Lord and a commitment to His word. I also open up to the accountability of all who hear my message for today. All I ask is that any criticisms be founded in God’s word not in human reasoning based on the religious status quo of tradition. Let’s awaken to real fellowship that allows the Lord a way to flow between His people bringing His life to a dying generation.
Overcoming Fear
Lloyd Gardner
March 6, 2016
Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began (2 Tim. 1:6-9).
In the middle of this passage is the familiar statement: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” We may be able to quote that promise but do we really know what it means? Are we prepared to accept the responsibility that comes with this promise to all believers?
Looking at the context of the verse helps us to understand what it is telling us. Paul is admonishing Timothy to stir up the gift of God that was in him. Perhaps Timothy had begun to neglect that gift out of fear and let it become dormant. After the statement he tells his younger brother not to “be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.” Was something happening in Timothy’s life that would cause him to back off of his testimony as a follower of Christ?
At the time of this letter the brutal persecution of Emperor Nero was well underway. Paul says that during this time “all those in Asia have turned away from me” (2 Tim. 1:15). He was being abandoned by many because of the persecution (4:10, 11). It is very possible that even Timothy was being tempted to water down his testimony and hide away from the persecution that was sweeping the Roman Empire. This could very well be the historical context of Paul’s admonition to Timothy.
We are not sure, but Paul goes on to tell Timothy to share with him “in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.” Was this the threat to Timothy that was causing him to back off of his gift and his testimony as a believer? Was there persecution that was aimed at squelching the gifts in God’s people and silencing their testimony?
Then Paul reminded Timothy and us as well, that it is all about a “holy calling” that has nothing to do with our religious works but everything to do with the fact that we are commissioned by God “according to His own purpose and grace.” It’s all about what God is trying to accomplish in connection with the eternal purpose “given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”
In America we are being inundated with issues that are designed to produce fear in God’s people. If you watch TV for a few minutes you will be bombarded with pharmaceutical ads about certain diseases, sicknesses or physical infirmity. Cancer, diabetes, mesothelioma, high blood pressure, and cholesterol concerns etc. etc. The programs are fear-oriented with violence and evil. Fear is present in most of the program ads. Even the news programs are loaded with fear about crime, terrorism, racial tension, political chaos, violence, and much more. Fear is the purpose of it all.
You are admonished to be very afraid of the foods you eat. Are there carcinogens? Have the vegetables been sprayed? Is it organic? Is it genetically modified? Is the juice from outside the states? Is it too fatty, filled with carbohydrates, fructose, sugar, trans fats, salt, gluten? Watch what you eat! Don’t eat this or that or too much or too little! And the drumbeat of fear beats away magnified by television and the invasion of the internet. Be afraid! Don’t trust in God! Trust in medicine, doctors and the right diet! Fear, fear, fear!
We are experiencing an election in which one of the major candidates is harnessing fear to his advantage. Despite his dubious character and questionable policies, Donald Trump is winning even the votes of most evangelicals. It is a campaign that sniffed fear in the air and set out to take advantage of it. Most of his statements are geared to appeal to fear or the anger that has intensified in recent years. He doesn’t have to be specific about policies because his appeal is that of a strong man who can sweep in and solve the problems stoking the fires of fear and anger.
Immigration fears, terrorism fears, economic paranoia and much more are the subjects of his policy-weak rantings. The media, which feeds on fear, uses his tirades to attract viewers. Fear is a big seller. This is not a political recommendation but simply a reference to show that fear is in the air. I’m not telling you how to vote but how to recognize the presence of fear and rise above it.
The end times will shape up in the same way. The world will be falling apart at the seams economically, socially and politically. A strong man will present himself with the answers and will be able to back it up with ability and power (Rev. 13; Dan. 11: 32-45). This man will be empowered by demonic forces as the enemy of God formulates his strategy for his last effort to destroy God’s plan. Just as we see with Trump, there will be an unseen force that seems to protect him from media criticism and accountability. He will give many clues to his nature but they will be ignored because of a veil that will fall over the minds of the people.
Fear is the tool of the enemy. He uses it to accomplish his will. He uses sickness, disease, economic stress, political treachery, personal issues, looming death, and anything else he can get his hands on to incite fear in peoples’ lives. He and his demons feed on it and use it to their advantage in conquering humanity. Fear is the opposite of faith. Faith moves us to believe God and His word but fear causes us to doubt God and believe what his enemy says.
Yet, I see Christians being moved by fear at a time when we need to stand firm. Christians are joining political bandwagons and being distracted from kingdom business by the false fear-provoking emergencies created by the evil one. Our verse tells us that we have not been given a spirit of fear. Our spirit, where the Holy Spirit dwells, is not characterized by fear. Fear cannot enter where the Holy One dwells. If we are fearful, we are not being moved by the Holy Spirit through our spirit. Rather we are being moved by our fallen human emotions that respond in fear to worldly circumstances under the control of the enemy.
God has given us a “spirit of power, love and a sound mind.” If we are being led by the Spirit we will not fear but will stand firm in the power of God expressed in love with a mind that is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, renewed and receiving from God (Rom. 12:1, 2; Eph. 1:18; 4:23). A flawed mind is susceptible to fear. The unrenewed mind is a fear magnet in the battleground against evil but a renewed, Christ-filled mind dispels fear and its friends (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23).
So, what shall we do with this culture of fear creeping in around us trying to distract us from turning the keys of the kingdom? First of all, protect your mind. Don’t let it be bombarded with fear. Mute the TV or turn it off. Avoid the internet web of deceit. Lock spiritual arms with other believers who know how to pray effective prayers, knowing that Satan is like a prowling lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Watch out for one another and hold each other accountable as ambassadors of Christ.
Surround yourself with genuine followers of Christ who know their authority over Satan and his tactics. When you gather with them, strengthen one another and remind one another of your common authority in Christ. The church is a spiritual army that is to regularly storm the gates of hell as we push forward the kingdom of God (Matt. 16:18; 1 John 4:4).
A Barna survey indicated that up to 67 percent of Christians do not agree with the Bible’s description of Satan as a real spiritual being. That indicates a real problem and it is probably true that even those who believe in a real devil are not aware of our authority in Christ over him. That’s like being in a military campaign without believing that the enemy exists and having no rifle. That’s a recipe for disaster and total defeat. Know your God and who your enemy is and as much about his schemes as possible (2 Cor. 2:11). Don’t look for him under every rock but when he is identified, clear the air in the name of Jesus and proceed in His authority and power. Minister to those who are beaten down by fear. Build them up in faith by knowing, reading and speaking God’s word and living by it in your lives.
Make a commitment in your heart to renounce fear and live by faith. Everyone experiences some level of fear from time to time but fear must not be allowed to master us. The Greater One dwells within us and He is already victorious over this world system created by His adversary to bring us down (1 John 4:4; John 16:33).
All of the above encouragements against fear demand life in God’s body, the church. We are troubled on every side and growing in fear because we are not dwelling in the safe place of God’s protection—His church. Psalm 91 speaks of that place –that shelter of the Most High in the shadow of the Almighty. Today that place is His temple, the church, His body, “the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23; 2:19-22).
I remember memorizing that Psalm when I was stretched out on a radiation table getting treatments every day for 40 days. I decided to use the time on the table each day to commit to memory these words that lifted me out of my fear. I decided to declare, “I will not fear what the enemy tries to do to me for I am a child of the Most High and I serve the One who is ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust’” (91:2).
There is a “holy calling” that we are called to “according to His own purpose and grace.” Because he has an eternal purpose, He has called us and commissioned us. Hell will come against us with its fear and intimidation but we stand under the shelter of the Most High in the shadow of the Almighty. Not only will we not be intimidated but we will storm the gates of hell with the message of freedom in Christ. That’s where we will stand. Let’s stand together.
Lloyd Gardner
March 6, 2016
Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began (2 Tim. 1:6-9).
In the middle of this passage is the familiar statement: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” We may be able to quote that promise but do we really know what it means? Are we prepared to accept the responsibility that comes with this promise to all believers?
Looking at the context of the verse helps us to understand what it is telling us. Paul is admonishing Timothy to stir up the gift of God that was in him. Perhaps Timothy had begun to neglect that gift out of fear and let it become dormant. After the statement he tells his younger brother not to “be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.” Was something happening in Timothy’s life that would cause him to back off of his testimony as a follower of Christ?
At the time of this letter the brutal persecution of Emperor Nero was well underway. Paul says that during this time “all those in Asia have turned away from me” (2 Tim. 1:15). He was being abandoned by many because of the persecution (4:10, 11). It is very possible that even Timothy was being tempted to water down his testimony and hide away from the persecution that was sweeping the Roman Empire. This could very well be the historical context of Paul’s admonition to Timothy.
We are not sure, but Paul goes on to tell Timothy to share with him “in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.” Was this the threat to Timothy that was causing him to back off of his gift and his testimony as a believer? Was there persecution that was aimed at squelching the gifts in God’s people and silencing their testimony?
Then Paul reminded Timothy and us as well, that it is all about a “holy calling” that has nothing to do with our religious works but everything to do with the fact that we are commissioned by God “according to His own purpose and grace.” It’s all about what God is trying to accomplish in connection with the eternal purpose “given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”
In America we are being inundated with issues that are designed to produce fear in God’s people. If you watch TV for a few minutes you will be bombarded with pharmaceutical ads about certain diseases, sicknesses or physical infirmity. Cancer, diabetes, mesothelioma, high blood pressure, and cholesterol concerns etc. etc. The programs are fear-oriented with violence and evil. Fear is present in most of the program ads. Even the news programs are loaded with fear about crime, terrorism, racial tension, political chaos, violence, and much more. Fear is the purpose of it all.
You are admonished to be very afraid of the foods you eat. Are there carcinogens? Have the vegetables been sprayed? Is it organic? Is it genetically modified? Is the juice from outside the states? Is it too fatty, filled with carbohydrates, fructose, sugar, trans fats, salt, gluten? Watch what you eat! Don’t eat this or that or too much or too little! And the drumbeat of fear beats away magnified by television and the invasion of the internet. Be afraid! Don’t trust in God! Trust in medicine, doctors and the right diet! Fear, fear, fear!
We are experiencing an election in which one of the major candidates is harnessing fear to his advantage. Despite his dubious character and questionable policies, Donald Trump is winning even the votes of most evangelicals. It is a campaign that sniffed fear in the air and set out to take advantage of it. Most of his statements are geared to appeal to fear or the anger that has intensified in recent years. He doesn’t have to be specific about policies because his appeal is that of a strong man who can sweep in and solve the problems stoking the fires of fear and anger.
Immigration fears, terrorism fears, economic paranoia and much more are the subjects of his policy-weak rantings. The media, which feeds on fear, uses his tirades to attract viewers. Fear is a big seller. This is not a political recommendation but simply a reference to show that fear is in the air. I’m not telling you how to vote but how to recognize the presence of fear and rise above it.
The end times will shape up in the same way. The world will be falling apart at the seams economically, socially and politically. A strong man will present himself with the answers and will be able to back it up with ability and power (Rev. 13; Dan. 11: 32-45). This man will be empowered by demonic forces as the enemy of God formulates his strategy for his last effort to destroy God’s plan. Just as we see with Trump, there will be an unseen force that seems to protect him from media criticism and accountability. He will give many clues to his nature but they will be ignored because of a veil that will fall over the minds of the people.
Fear is the tool of the enemy. He uses it to accomplish his will. He uses sickness, disease, economic stress, political treachery, personal issues, looming death, and anything else he can get his hands on to incite fear in peoples’ lives. He and his demons feed on it and use it to their advantage in conquering humanity. Fear is the opposite of faith. Faith moves us to believe God and His word but fear causes us to doubt God and believe what his enemy says.
Yet, I see Christians being moved by fear at a time when we need to stand firm. Christians are joining political bandwagons and being distracted from kingdom business by the false fear-provoking emergencies created by the evil one. Our verse tells us that we have not been given a spirit of fear. Our spirit, where the Holy Spirit dwells, is not characterized by fear. Fear cannot enter where the Holy One dwells. If we are fearful, we are not being moved by the Holy Spirit through our spirit. Rather we are being moved by our fallen human emotions that respond in fear to worldly circumstances under the control of the enemy.
God has given us a “spirit of power, love and a sound mind.” If we are being led by the Spirit we will not fear but will stand firm in the power of God expressed in love with a mind that is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, renewed and receiving from God (Rom. 12:1, 2; Eph. 1:18; 4:23). A flawed mind is susceptible to fear. The unrenewed mind is a fear magnet in the battleground against evil but a renewed, Christ-filled mind dispels fear and its friends (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23).
So, what shall we do with this culture of fear creeping in around us trying to distract us from turning the keys of the kingdom? First of all, protect your mind. Don’t let it be bombarded with fear. Mute the TV or turn it off. Avoid the internet web of deceit. Lock spiritual arms with other believers who know how to pray effective prayers, knowing that Satan is like a prowling lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Watch out for one another and hold each other accountable as ambassadors of Christ.
Surround yourself with genuine followers of Christ who know their authority over Satan and his tactics. When you gather with them, strengthen one another and remind one another of your common authority in Christ. The church is a spiritual army that is to regularly storm the gates of hell as we push forward the kingdom of God (Matt. 16:18; 1 John 4:4).
A Barna survey indicated that up to 67 percent of Christians do not agree with the Bible’s description of Satan as a real spiritual being. That indicates a real problem and it is probably true that even those who believe in a real devil are not aware of our authority in Christ over him. That’s like being in a military campaign without believing that the enemy exists and having no rifle. That’s a recipe for disaster and total defeat. Know your God and who your enemy is and as much about his schemes as possible (2 Cor. 2:11). Don’t look for him under every rock but when he is identified, clear the air in the name of Jesus and proceed in His authority and power. Minister to those who are beaten down by fear. Build them up in faith by knowing, reading and speaking God’s word and living by it in your lives.
Make a commitment in your heart to renounce fear and live by faith. Everyone experiences some level of fear from time to time but fear must not be allowed to master us. The Greater One dwells within us and He is already victorious over this world system created by His adversary to bring us down (1 John 4:4; John 16:33).
All of the above encouragements against fear demand life in God’s body, the church. We are troubled on every side and growing in fear because we are not dwelling in the safe place of God’s protection—His church. Psalm 91 speaks of that place –that shelter of the Most High in the shadow of the Almighty. Today that place is His temple, the church, His body, “the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23; 2:19-22).
I remember memorizing that Psalm when I was stretched out on a radiation table getting treatments every day for 40 days. I decided to use the time on the table each day to commit to memory these words that lifted me out of my fear. I decided to declare, “I will not fear what the enemy tries to do to me for I am a child of the Most High and I serve the One who is ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust’” (91:2).
There is a “holy calling” that we are called to “according to His own purpose and grace.” Because he has an eternal purpose, He has called us and commissioned us. Hell will come against us with its fear and intimidation but we stand under the shelter of the Most High in the shadow of the Almighty. Not only will we not be intimidated but we will storm the gates of hell with the message of freedom in Christ. That’s where we will stand. Let’s stand together.
I will….Heal their Land
Lloyd Gardner
February 24, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
The land is sick. The land to the Old Testament people was everything to them. It was their lodging, shelter, food, water, clothing and enjoyment. It was their grocery store and their shopping mall and everything in between. Without a healthy land where crops were grown, animals were raised for food, wells were dug and shelter was built, their lives were devastated.
The word makes it clear that their behavior would affect the condition of the land. Hosea prophesied the word of the Lord:
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away (Hosea 4:1-3).
Clearly when the Hebrew people began to drift away from God’s will into the ways of the world around them with its rejection of God, swearing, lying, adultery ect.. the land began to mourn and all living things were affected. To them, the wells went dry, the grocery store shelves went empty, the malls shut down and their shelters wore out and became subject to the weather. In other words, the land was sick because they were spiritually sick.
God created the human species to have dominion on planet earth (Gen. 1:28; 3:15). The condition of the people of God affects the condition of the earth, the land. Paul makes that clear with these well-known words:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:19-21).
The creation, all of earth, waits for that time when the “sons of God” will get their act together. When the people of God are placed in a land they bring blessing or a curse by their behavior. To this point America has reaped great blessing because it maintained the principles of godliness revealed by God. Now the land is beginning to get sick. It is beginning to reflect the spiritual disease of the people of God. The verse in Hosea begins with “There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land” (4:1). We Christians try to defend our lives and our churches but at some point we must simply realize that there is no faithfulness or steadfast love being exhibited so that the world can see and be pointed to God. There is much doctrinal knowledge but precious little “knowledge of God in the land.”
Jesus prayed in the upper room for a love and unity to exist among His followers so “that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). The world is affected by the presence of the “sons of God” the followers of the King. They are to look at our lives and see God and His ways. They are to see His love manifested in unity in His people.
I am not talking about unity that comes from human programs that attempt to unite the factions of worldly Christianity! I speak of the unity of Psalm 133 where the oil of God’s Spirit pours down from Christ the Head to the body bringing the very nature of God to His church. The Psalm ends with “for there the Lord has commanded the blessing” (v. 3). True spiritual unity is the work of the Holy Spirit, not the work of clever men who try to bring Christian groups together to hold hands over their manmade fences in a false portrayal of unity.
Jesus prayed “…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you” (John 17:21). The unity of the Father and the Son that is given to His children is not the unity of human systems. It is the supernatural unity of the Godhead being expressed in people who give themselves to Him.
The religious system will probably be the force behind the uniting of “all sorts of streams and traditions throughout Christianity,” as one preacher put it. Christianity as a religion has grown so powerful in its natural strength and ability that it will think it can accomplish anything. That may result in a great apostasy and a move to aid Satan in his end time plan. God’s way is to unify His people by His Spirit in His supernatural love that cannot be emulated.
We must respond to the conditions of this verse: “…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways…” before we can expect Him to move in power. If we seek doctrines instead of prayer; if we seek entertainment instead of His face; if we seek approval to live as we please instead of turning from our wicked, independent, selfish ways, then there will be no move from heaven that forgives our sins and heals our land.
God may never heal America. She may be too far gone. God may never bring healing to all of the church. He will, however, bring healing to your land if you will return to Him. Your land is the place where he puts you to proclaim His message of liberty. There in your land you can become an ambassador for Him to rest of the land.
If we claim to be followers of Christ, we must find a way to rise above the clutter of the age and rediscover the simplicity of following Christ apart from religious compulsion and human cleverness. I can’t tell you how to find that simplicity but I can tell you it is found in the face of Jesus when we truly return to Him from our shallow religion. He is a person and He moves through personal relationship. He wants you to know Him and let Him reveal Himself fully. Nothing will change your life more than meeting Him face to face. There before Him the healing of our land will come.
Lloyd Gardner
February 24, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
The land is sick. The land to the Old Testament people was everything to them. It was their lodging, shelter, food, water, clothing and enjoyment. It was their grocery store and their shopping mall and everything in between. Without a healthy land where crops were grown, animals were raised for food, wells were dug and shelter was built, their lives were devastated.
The word makes it clear that their behavior would affect the condition of the land. Hosea prophesied the word of the Lord:
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away (Hosea 4:1-3).
Clearly when the Hebrew people began to drift away from God’s will into the ways of the world around them with its rejection of God, swearing, lying, adultery ect.. the land began to mourn and all living things were affected. To them, the wells went dry, the grocery store shelves went empty, the malls shut down and their shelters wore out and became subject to the weather. In other words, the land was sick because they were spiritually sick.
God created the human species to have dominion on planet earth (Gen. 1:28; 3:15). The condition of the people of God affects the condition of the earth, the land. Paul makes that clear with these well-known words:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:19-21).
The creation, all of earth, waits for that time when the “sons of God” will get their act together. When the people of God are placed in a land they bring blessing or a curse by their behavior. To this point America has reaped great blessing because it maintained the principles of godliness revealed by God. Now the land is beginning to get sick. It is beginning to reflect the spiritual disease of the people of God. The verse in Hosea begins with “There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land” (4:1). We Christians try to defend our lives and our churches but at some point we must simply realize that there is no faithfulness or steadfast love being exhibited so that the world can see and be pointed to God. There is much doctrinal knowledge but precious little “knowledge of God in the land.”
Jesus prayed in the upper room for a love and unity to exist among His followers so “that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). The world is affected by the presence of the “sons of God” the followers of the King. They are to look at our lives and see God and His ways. They are to see His love manifested in unity in His people.
I am not talking about unity that comes from human programs that attempt to unite the factions of worldly Christianity! I speak of the unity of Psalm 133 where the oil of God’s Spirit pours down from Christ the Head to the body bringing the very nature of God to His church. The Psalm ends with “for there the Lord has commanded the blessing” (v. 3). True spiritual unity is the work of the Holy Spirit, not the work of clever men who try to bring Christian groups together to hold hands over their manmade fences in a false portrayal of unity.
Jesus prayed “…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you” (John 17:21). The unity of the Father and the Son that is given to His children is not the unity of human systems. It is the supernatural unity of the Godhead being expressed in people who give themselves to Him.
The religious system will probably be the force behind the uniting of “all sorts of streams and traditions throughout Christianity,” as one preacher put it. Christianity as a religion has grown so powerful in its natural strength and ability that it will think it can accomplish anything. That may result in a great apostasy and a move to aid Satan in his end time plan. God’s way is to unify His people by His Spirit in His supernatural love that cannot be emulated.
We must respond to the conditions of this verse: “…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways…” before we can expect Him to move in power. If we seek doctrines instead of prayer; if we seek entertainment instead of His face; if we seek approval to live as we please instead of turning from our wicked, independent, selfish ways, then there will be no move from heaven that forgives our sins and heals our land.
God may never heal America. She may be too far gone. God may never bring healing to all of the church. He will, however, bring healing to your land if you will return to Him. Your land is the place where he puts you to proclaim His message of liberty. There in your land you can become an ambassador for Him to rest of the land.
If we claim to be followers of Christ, we must find a way to rise above the clutter of the age and rediscover the simplicity of following Christ apart from religious compulsion and human cleverness. I can’t tell you how to find that simplicity but I can tell you it is found in the face of Jesus when we truly return to Him from our shallow religion. He is a person and He moves through personal relationship. He wants you to know Him and let Him reveal Himself fully. Nothing will change your life more than meeting Him face to face. There before Him the healing of our land will come.
I will Forgive their Sin
Lloyd Gardner
February 17, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2Ch 7:14).
If we do our part God promises to hear us, forgive us our sin and heal our land. In this message I will emphasize that God promises to forgive our sin. But He forgives our sin when we humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways. “Then,” God says, “I will forgive their sin.” Unfortunately, we have reached a point where we do not recognize our sin and even when we do we simply ignore it because we know we are under the grace of God.
I’m sorry to say that much of the church in America has been successfully propagandized by the enemy into thinking that sin is not a serious issue. He knows that sin destroys and so he has set out to spread the concept among Christians that since they are justified in Christ they need not be concerned about sin. This is a devastating error that is deceiving many and causing much of the church to be impotent and lifeless and looking very much like the world.
When Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray He concluded saying “…if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:15). It is clear that even for those who claim to be followers of Christ there are conditions in which God will not forgive our sin. If we are not being forgiven by God, we are living in a continuing state of religious presumption devoid of His life and abiding presence. We are to be continually living in the forgiving freedom of God as we continually confess our sins so that He can be faithful to “forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Yes, we are justified if we have received Christ, but now we are expected to walk in righteousness.
We have also made the mistake of categorizing our sins so that some can be put into a “not so important” box and filed away. Sin is acting outside of God’s will. Trying to understand sin apart from a living relationship with God is like trying to understand marriage without a relationship with your spouse. Sin is acting independently from God. It can be failing to do something that He desires of us as well as doing something that displeases Him.
Think about the first sin. Today, in retrospect, we can look back and wonder what was so awful about eating some fruit. We do it all the time and give it no thought. The sin was not in the fruit but in the action that took Eve and Adam away from God’s will. If God had said, “Don’t sit on that rock in the midst of the garden,” it would have been a sin to sit on the rock. It is what God desires that makes all the difference. We discover what He wants by walking in fellowship with Him and knowing Him in all our ways.
Is it a sin to have a glass of wine? Is it a sin to work on the Lord ’s Day? Is it a sin to have tattoos or body piercing or have long hair, no hair, to eat pork, to . . . . On and on our list goes and we usually apply it to others more than ourselves. God is concerned about you and your fellowship with Him not a long list of do’s and don’ts. The greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Matt. 22:37). Love is more than a "mushy" feeling. Loving Him means giving Him our full attention and being with Him, listening to Him and seeking to please Him. Sin is doing our own thing without regard for Him or what He desires of us. It is having our body tattooed when He wants to seal us with the mark of His bondservant. It is piercing our bodies when He wants to pierce us with His Holy Spirit and set us free. We make it about ourselves, and that is sin.
I say all this to help us understand what God means when He says, “I will forgive your sin” in this passage. The root meaning of the Hebrew word for sin here is “to miss.” When we miss God or what He wants for us we are sinning. He has made some actions very clear in the Ten Commandment, but we can be like the rich young ruler who, because he had categorized sins, felt that he was innocent (Mark 10:20). But something was keeping the man from following Jesus. The Lord said to him, “Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (v. 21). His possessions were keeping Him from truly being able to follow Jesus. What keeps us from truly following the Lord? Whatever it is—that is sin.
When I was a young pastor, something was keeping me from fully following the Lord. God began this process in earnest with me. There was a growing sense with many in the church that something was not right even though everything looked fine on the outside. Finally, after much prayer, He gave me a picture of a beautiful dining table set for an elaborate meal. Imagine a most magnificent table set with wonderful food and decorative serving dishes and utensils. Then I saw a big forearm come through and wipe the table clean and food and beautiful dishes crashed against the wall and fell to the floor. It was quiet in my spirit for a moment. Then He spoke. “Now we’re going to start all over.” He started over by beginning with my heart to fully capture it for Himself.
For me, it had mostly to do with selfish motives. He began to show those areas of my life where I had stolen his glory for the sake of building a ministry. I had slowly allowed the church programs and activities to replace my relationship with Him. I allowed myself to become the center of attraction and He became only a name we used to validate what we were doing. I made it about people in the pews and dollars in the collection plate.
Repentance came through much soul searching and Holy Spirit guidance. He came in fullness to forgive and cleanse and the process continues. Since that time He has sent me back among God’s people in hope of awakening many to the clear truth that He is God and we are not. It began to become crystal clear to me that traditional Christianity had gradually conformed itself to the world around it and had abandoned the simplicity of life in Christ. This process had been so gradual that most Christians had not even noticed. They were going about their business as if all was well and the Lord was happy with the church in America.
All of that started happening in our lives in the mid-1980s. I believe that many professional ministers were no doubt getting the same word from the Spirit but rejected it or set it aside. It was a time when several high profile preachers experienced moral failure. God was moving then and continues to move among His people to bring them to a point of repentance. For over twenty-five years He has been calling the church in America to her knees and a small but growing remnant is slowly beginning to respond.
God always gives His people a time to repent before He allows judgment. Judgment is not a popular concept in much of American Christianity but it is common in the Bible and the word says that judgment begins with the household of God (1 Peter 4:17). To the church in Ephesus He said, “I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Rev. 2:5). If we have lost our first love and fail to repent, the lampstand, God’s presence will be removed. Is Christ in your church? Do you receive directions from Him or do you proceed by cleverly devised programs that bring in the people and a good offering?
I believe that our disobedience is bringing judgment. God often used the nations to judge Israel. It is quite probable that He is using this nation with its growing secularism and apostate leaders to allow judgment upon the household of God. Throughout the nation Christians are under attack. Judgment is growing and will continue to grow as God’s means of disciplining His wayward church.
The election that is underway may well be a symptom of our disobedience. Men of principle, faith and experience are being overwhelmed by demonic vitriol and selfish tantrums. Christians no longer know how to stand firmly on the Rock of God’s word and are being blown to and fro by dangerous winds of destruction. God is allowing us to sleep in the bed we have made—to live by the unprincipled behavior our disobedience has created. We are back in the Book of Judges where “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jud. 21:25). We are not hearing from the Spirit so we are trusting our resentment and outright anger. It doesn’t look good.
But the forgiveness that comes from repentance is available to all who hear what the Spirit says to the churches. We must repent of our complacency, our arrogance, prayerlessness, denial of the power of God, disunity, factionalism caused by denominations, rejection and/or abuse of the gifts of the Spirit, lack of spiritual brokenness, Mammon-like abuse of finances, marriage infidelity, abuse and neglect of children, false doctrines and much more. I could go on but you get the picture. If not, there’s not much more I can say.
It is not my job to point out your individual sins. The Holy Spirit has been sent for that purpose. Jesus promised that He “will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). If we allow Him to do so, the Word of God, Christ Himself, will penetrate our lives and separate out what is sin and what is not (Heb. 4:12). He is the one who judges “the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:12, 13). Since we can’t hide from Him, it is important that we open up and let Him show us our areas of rebellion. Usually, we cannot see our own sin unless He shines His light upon it. Then we see it plainly. When we see it we must repent and come back into His presence.
The culminating promise of God that follows our obedience is “I will heal their land.” If the Lord leads we will speak to that next time but imagine what that would mean for our lives and our communities and our livelihood as sojourners on planet earth. Whatever it means, I guarantee that it is much more than any of us can imagine. To get there we must get to the place of repentance so that He can forgive our sins in preparation for something wonderful.
Lloyd Gardner
February 17, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2Ch 7:14).
If we do our part God promises to hear us, forgive us our sin and heal our land. In this message I will emphasize that God promises to forgive our sin. But He forgives our sin when we humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways. “Then,” God says, “I will forgive their sin.” Unfortunately, we have reached a point where we do not recognize our sin and even when we do we simply ignore it because we know we are under the grace of God.
I’m sorry to say that much of the church in America has been successfully propagandized by the enemy into thinking that sin is not a serious issue. He knows that sin destroys and so he has set out to spread the concept among Christians that since they are justified in Christ they need not be concerned about sin. This is a devastating error that is deceiving many and causing much of the church to be impotent and lifeless and looking very much like the world.
When Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray He concluded saying “…if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:15). It is clear that even for those who claim to be followers of Christ there are conditions in which God will not forgive our sin. If we are not being forgiven by God, we are living in a continuing state of religious presumption devoid of His life and abiding presence. We are to be continually living in the forgiving freedom of God as we continually confess our sins so that He can be faithful to “forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Yes, we are justified if we have received Christ, but now we are expected to walk in righteousness.
We have also made the mistake of categorizing our sins so that some can be put into a “not so important” box and filed away. Sin is acting outside of God’s will. Trying to understand sin apart from a living relationship with God is like trying to understand marriage without a relationship with your spouse. Sin is acting independently from God. It can be failing to do something that He desires of us as well as doing something that displeases Him.
Think about the first sin. Today, in retrospect, we can look back and wonder what was so awful about eating some fruit. We do it all the time and give it no thought. The sin was not in the fruit but in the action that took Eve and Adam away from God’s will. If God had said, “Don’t sit on that rock in the midst of the garden,” it would have been a sin to sit on the rock. It is what God desires that makes all the difference. We discover what He wants by walking in fellowship with Him and knowing Him in all our ways.
Is it a sin to have a glass of wine? Is it a sin to work on the Lord ’s Day? Is it a sin to have tattoos or body piercing or have long hair, no hair, to eat pork, to . . . . On and on our list goes and we usually apply it to others more than ourselves. God is concerned about you and your fellowship with Him not a long list of do’s and don’ts. The greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Matt. 22:37). Love is more than a "mushy" feeling. Loving Him means giving Him our full attention and being with Him, listening to Him and seeking to please Him. Sin is doing our own thing without regard for Him or what He desires of us. It is having our body tattooed when He wants to seal us with the mark of His bondservant. It is piercing our bodies when He wants to pierce us with His Holy Spirit and set us free. We make it about ourselves, and that is sin.
I say all this to help us understand what God means when He says, “I will forgive your sin” in this passage. The root meaning of the Hebrew word for sin here is “to miss.” When we miss God or what He wants for us we are sinning. He has made some actions very clear in the Ten Commandment, but we can be like the rich young ruler who, because he had categorized sins, felt that he was innocent (Mark 10:20). But something was keeping the man from following Jesus. The Lord said to him, “Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (v. 21). His possessions were keeping Him from truly being able to follow Jesus. What keeps us from truly following the Lord? Whatever it is—that is sin.
When I was a young pastor, something was keeping me from fully following the Lord. God began this process in earnest with me. There was a growing sense with many in the church that something was not right even though everything looked fine on the outside. Finally, after much prayer, He gave me a picture of a beautiful dining table set for an elaborate meal. Imagine a most magnificent table set with wonderful food and decorative serving dishes and utensils. Then I saw a big forearm come through and wipe the table clean and food and beautiful dishes crashed against the wall and fell to the floor. It was quiet in my spirit for a moment. Then He spoke. “Now we’re going to start all over.” He started over by beginning with my heart to fully capture it for Himself.
For me, it had mostly to do with selfish motives. He began to show those areas of my life where I had stolen his glory for the sake of building a ministry. I had slowly allowed the church programs and activities to replace my relationship with Him. I allowed myself to become the center of attraction and He became only a name we used to validate what we were doing. I made it about people in the pews and dollars in the collection plate.
Repentance came through much soul searching and Holy Spirit guidance. He came in fullness to forgive and cleanse and the process continues. Since that time He has sent me back among God’s people in hope of awakening many to the clear truth that He is God and we are not. It began to become crystal clear to me that traditional Christianity had gradually conformed itself to the world around it and had abandoned the simplicity of life in Christ. This process had been so gradual that most Christians had not even noticed. They were going about their business as if all was well and the Lord was happy with the church in America.
All of that started happening in our lives in the mid-1980s. I believe that many professional ministers were no doubt getting the same word from the Spirit but rejected it or set it aside. It was a time when several high profile preachers experienced moral failure. God was moving then and continues to move among His people to bring them to a point of repentance. For over twenty-five years He has been calling the church in America to her knees and a small but growing remnant is slowly beginning to respond.
God always gives His people a time to repent before He allows judgment. Judgment is not a popular concept in much of American Christianity but it is common in the Bible and the word says that judgment begins with the household of God (1 Peter 4:17). To the church in Ephesus He said, “I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Rev. 2:5). If we have lost our first love and fail to repent, the lampstand, God’s presence will be removed. Is Christ in your church? Do you receive directions from Him or do you proceed by cleverly devised programs that bring in the people and a good offering?
I believe that our disobedience is bringing judgment. God often used the nations to judge Israel. It is quite probable that He is using this nation with its growing secularism and apostate leaders to allow judgment upon the household of God. Throughout the nation Christians are under attack. Judgment is growing and will continue to grow as God’s means of disciplining His wayward church.
The election that is underway may well be a symptom of our disobedience. Men of principle, faith and experience are being overwhelmed by demonic vitriol and selfish tantrums. Christians no longer know how to stand firmly on the Rock of God’s word and are being blown to and fro by dangerous winds of destruction. God is allowing us to sleep in the bed we have made—to live by the unprincipled behavior our disobedience has created. We are back in the Book of Judges where “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jud. 21:25). We are not hearing from the Spirit so we are trusting our resentment and outright anger. It doesn’t look good.
But the forgiveness that comes from repentance is available to all who hear what the Spirit says to the churches. We must repent of our complacency, our arrogance, prayerlessness, denial of the power of God, disunity, factionalism caused by denominations, rejection and/or abuse of the gifts of the Spirit, lack of spiritual brokenness, Mammon-like abuse of finances, marriage infidelity, abuse and neglect of children, false doctrines and much more. I could go on but you get the picture. If not, there’s not much more I can say.
It is not my job to point out your individual sins. The Holy Spirit has been sent for that purpose. Jesus promised that He “will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). If we allow Him to do so, the Word of God, Christ Himself, will penetrate our lives and separate out what is sin and what is not (Heb. 4:12). He is the one who judges “the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:12, 13). Since we can’t hide from Him, it is important that we open up and let Him show us our areas of rebellion. Usually, we cannot see our own sin unless He shines His light upon it. Then we see it plainly. When we see it we must repent and come back into His presence.
The culminating promise of God that follows our obedience is “I will heal their land.” If the Lord leads we will speak to that next time but imagine what that would mean for our lives and our communities and our livelihood as sojourners on planet earth. Whatever it means, I guarantee that it is much more than any of us can imagine. To get there we must get to the place of repentance so that He can forgive our sins in preparation for something wonderful.
I will Hear from Heaven
Lloyd Gardner
February 10, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
The first part of this verse is our responsibility and the second part is God’s promise of a response from Him. Regardless of how we believe about the sovereignty of God, He requires some actions on our part before He will act. That’s what faith is all about. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (NKJV). Heaven and the will of God become accessible to us when we have faith. The hoped for thing becomes substance. The invisible reality of heaven becomes real and visible to our spiritual eyes. Faith is taking God at His word so He can do His part. Without our faith, His hands cannot move in our lives.
That’s why there’s a “then” in this verse. When we fulfill our part “then” God moves on our behalf. This is not the same as “God helps those who help themselves.” God purposed from the beginning of creation that He would have children who agree with Him concerning His will so that He can move in power. This is why He tells us, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 16:19) and “if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (18:19). God seeks and welcomes our cooperation with Him so that He can release the power of heaven into our lives.
In American Christianity we have developed a “what will be, will be” attitude. We have come to believe that if we are church-goers and doing good deeds that God is with us despite what we believe and do. This is a lie. God’s purpose is to come to pass in cooperation with His saints. When we make way for His will and step aside, He moves in power. He does not move in religious circles of ritual and tradition, but in the hearts of seeking, believing people who hear what He says and commit to cooperate with Him.
Unlike the false notion of many Christians in America, God does not honor our churchianity and our traditions that ignore His presence and His hand of guidance. He is the Good Shepherd who leads us but we must follow. He is waiting for us to enter into His will and leave ours in the dust. If our lives are not in fellowship with Him, He calls us back into His presence. Then He fulfills His part.
And what is His part? The first part of His promise is “I will hear from heaven.” It may surprise many Christians in America to realize that God is not automatically hearing us. John tells us “…if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14, 15). Notice that there is a condition to God hearing us. It is “if we ask anything according to His will.” God is asking that we cooperate with Him and His will. He does not move according to our will. We can have some really good ideas that work well according to human judgment but if they are not in His will He does not hear.
I’m sorry to say that we have invented a god who is like Santa Claus, a jolly old guy who exists to make us happy by giving us what we want. To the contrary, our Father is the Almighty Creator God of the universe! He does not bow to the whims of fallen humanity. He moves to perform His will. He does not hear our selfish requests and human ideas that come from tradition and religious protocol.
To a large extent, God is not hearing us in our comfortable churches because we are doing our own thing while ignoring the fact that there is a divine purpose behind all that God does. We meander along thinking that if we call ourselves Christian or designate what we’re doing as “church,” that He will be compelled to do what we want.
This verse includes the Hebrew word shoob, which means to turn around and go back to where you began. That is the only real hope for American Christianity. We must recognize that we are far off of the pathway God wants to travel. We see it in the slow but real exodus of people from our traditional churches. We see it in the rejection of Churchianity by the young millennials seeking something real. We see it in our powerless, lifeless attempts to be His victorious church. We see it in the mirror every morning when we look into the face of someone who knows there is something more.
Most people will not even read this message. Of those who do, most will simply set it aside as the ramblings of a naïve Christian radical. But there is a remnant of God’s people who know for sure that these words are true, that God has something far better than what we see. He is calling us back to the beginning—back where He first filled our earthly temple with His glory and set us free. We all need to return to that place, where we heard from God and He heard from us. When He hears our cries from repentant hearts He will open heaven to meet us and together we will do His will.
Somehow we have fallen for the lie that this is all there is—go to church, hear the sermon, come home, go to work and go about our business. The first disciples dropped everything to follow Jesus. Matthew was probably a rich tax collector with much to lose, but he left it on the table to follow this man from Nazareth. Peter and his brother Andrew left a lucrative fishing business to follow Jesus. They knew that somehow this man was worth it. They found out later that He was more than worth it.
We will make the same discovery if we will commit to follow Him. They discovered the love, unity and power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus. Later they discovered that this love, unity and power were possible for His church if they would follow Him instead of men and their programs. I cannot tell you specifically what it will be like to fully follow Jesus. On the other hand, I can say for sure that He has shown me enough that I know it is worth it.
Until I breathe my last breath, that’s where I’m going. My assignment is to invite many others to go as well. In the closing verses of the Bible “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Rev. 22:17). I’m thirsty. This water is free. That’s where you’ll find me.
Lloyd Gardner
February 10, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
The first part of this verse is our responsibility and the second part is God’s promise of a response from Him. Regardless of how we believe about the sovereignty of God, He requires some actions on our part before He will act. That’s what faith is all about. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (NKJV). Heaven and the will of God become accessible to us when we have faith. The hoped for thing becomes substance. The invisible reality of heaven becomes real and visible to our spiritual eyes. Faith is taking God at His word so He can do His part. Without our faith, His hands cannot move in our lives.
That’s why there’s a “then” in this verse. When we fulfill our part “then” God moves on our behalf. This is not the same as “God helps those who help themselves.” God purposed from the beginning of creation that He would have children who agree with Him concerning His will so that He can move in power. This is why He tells us, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 16:19) and “if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (18:19). God seeks and welcomes our cooperation with Him so that He can release the power of heaven into our lives.
In American Christianity we have developed a “what will be, will be” attitude. We have come to believe that if we are church-goers and doing good deeds that God is with us despite what we believe and do. This is a lie. God’s purpose is to come to pass in cooperation with His saints. When we make way for His will and step aside, He moves in power. He does not move in religious circles of ritual and tradition, but in the hearts of seeking, believing people who hear what He says and commit to cooperate with Him.
Unlike the false notion of many Christians in America, God does not honor our churchianity and our traditions that ignore His presence and His hand of guidance. He is the Good Shepherd who leads us but we must follow. He is waiting for us to enter into His will and leave ours in the dust. If our lives are not in fellowship with Him, He calls us back into His presence. Then He fulfills His part.
And what is His part? The first part of His promise is “I will hear from heaven.” It may surprise many Christians in America to realize that God is not automatically hearing us. John tells us “…if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14, 15). Notice that there is a condition to God hearing us. It is “if we ask anything according to His will.” God is asking that we cooperate with Him and His will. He does not move according to our will. We can have some really good ideas that work well according to human judgment but if they are not in His will He does not hear.
I’m sorry to say that we have invented a god who is like Santa Claus, a jolly old guy who exists to make us happy by giving us what we want. To the contrary, our Father is the Almighty Creator God of the universe! He does not bow to the whims of fallen humanity. He moves to perform His will. He does not hear our selfish requests and human ideas that come from tradition and religious protocol.
To a large extent, God is not hearing us in our comfortable churches because we are doing our own thing while ignoring the fact that there is a divine purpose behind all that God does. We meander along thinking that if we call ourselves Christian or designate what we’re doing as “church,” that He will be compelled to do what we want.
This verse includes the Hebrew word shoob, which means to turn around and go back to where you began. That is the only real hope for American Christianity. We must recognize that we are far off of the pathway God wants to travel. We see it in the slow but real exodus of people from our traditional churches. We see it in the rejection of Churchianity by the young millennials seeking something real. We see it in our powerless, lifeless attempts to be His victorious church. We see it in the mirror every morning when we look into the face of someone who knows there is something more.
Most people will not even read this message. Of those who do, most will simply set it aside as the ramblings of a naïve Christian radical. But there is a remnant of God’s people who know for sure that these words are true, that God has something far better than what we see. He is calling us back to the beginning—back where He first filled our earthly temple with His glory and set us free. We all need to return to that place, where we heard from God and He heard from us. When He hears our cries from repentant hearts He will open heaven to meet us and together we will do His will.
Somehow we have fallen for the lie that this is all there is—go to church, hear the sermon, come home, go to work and go about our business. The first disciples dropped everything to follow Jesus. Matthew was probably a rich tax collector with much to lose, but he left it on the table to follow this man from Nazareth. Peter and his brother Andrew left a lucrative fishing business to follow Jesus. They knew that somehow this man was worth it. They found out later that He was more than worth it.
We will make the same discovery if we will commit to follow Him. They discovered the love, unity and power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus. Later they discovered that this love, unity and power were possible for His church if they would follow Him instead of men and their programs. I cannot tell you specifically what it will be like to fully follow Jesus. On the other hand, I can say for sure that He has shown me enough that I know it is worth it.
Until I breathe my last breath, that’s where I’m going. My assignment is to invite many others to go as well. In the closing verses of the Bible “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Rev. 22:17). I’m thirsty. This water is free. That’s where you’ll find me.
If My People….Turn from their Wicked Ways
Lloyd Gardner
January 29, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
This passage that we have been considering in recent weeks seems to present a progression. The progression goes like this: humble oneself, pray, seek the face of God, and turn from wicked ways. Wickedness, sin, and evil are unpopular words in modern America. We now live in an “anything goes” society that does not believe in right and wrong, sin and righteousness. So, people who have rejected the truth that they may have “wicked ways” will not appreciate this message.
Modern America has invented a god in its own image—a god who really has no conditions and simply lets us live according to our own standard. Whatever we think is right is what is right and if we do our best this god is OK with it.
That is not the God of the Bible and it is not the God I know. The next phrase in this progression we are looking at is “turn from their wicked ways.” Rest assured that this God believes in wickedness and will not bless us if we invent our own standard and ignore His. He is the Master of the universe and has the last word on what is wicked or not. We need to find His mind on the matter and turn from wickedness if we expect Him to do His part.
The Book of Judges ends with the words, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Regretfully, that phrase describes modern America and much of modern Christianity. Secular America has conceived this new permissive god but Christians should not have bought into their concoction.
I am going to make it simple and define wickedness the way Almighty God defines it. Wickedness is sin at work. Sin is acting outside of the will of God. Later in our verse God says He “will forgive their sins.” Sin is our nature. Wickedness is what we do because of that nature. The Hebrew word for “wicked” simply means to deviate from God’s way. That’s why God says “wicked ways.” When we are wicked we are simply traveling our own way instead of His way. James tells us that it is evil to make plans without considering the will of God. (James 4:13-16).
Sin or wickedness is not simply a long list of rules for godly behavior. We include the Ten Commandments and a few other dos and don’ts that fit our lifestyle. Then we go about our business without giving it much thought. The problem with this approach is it does not require a living relationship with our Lord. Like Buddhism or many other religions we merely have an eight-fold path or list of precepts or rules that guide us. God is not even in the picture.
God’s way is the way of fellowship with Him. It is a living relationship where we walk along together through the Holy Spirit and live in communion with Him. So, sin is simply acting out of relationship or fellowship with Him. When we go in it on our own we are rejecting Him and simply experiencing religion.
God told Solomon, “If my people…. turn from their wicked ways.” The Hebrew word translated “turn” means to turn around and go back to your beginning place. “If you get off the path someday,” God was saying, “it is possible to come back to this place of beginning in relationship with Me in submission to My will.” God is giving the same promise to the Christians of America who have left the fellowship they had in the beginning. Like the church in Ephesus we have left our first love and have gotten way off track (Rev. 2:4).
This demands an about face not just for individual Christians but for churches. How many of us have simply drifted along without consulting the Lord about where we were going or what we were doing? How many of our churches have simply adopted a system that works and just become comfortable in the system without any need of God? Some have even knowingly disobeyed God because obedience to His will might affect their attendance numbers or the bottom line on their income.
One pastor told a friend of mine that it is simply a matter of “nickels and noses.” In other words, the driving forces behind all the decisions being made were how much money is coming in and how many people are coming through the door. This does not even require the presence of God. It is the church in Laodicea which left Christ at the door trying to gain entrance. It is a Christianized service club because Christ is not in it. It may be doing many good things in the judgment of people but it is not the church Christ is building.
Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). Could it be that the reason hell is having its way with what we call church is because we are building something instead of letting Christ build the church He died to establish. The apostles and prophets laid the foundation and we are to build as directed by the Lord of the church.
That means stopping, turning around and coming back to the beginning—to God’s word to reevaluate what we are doing and why we are doing it. Are we doing these things for our own glory or are we doing something that will bring glory and honor to our Master?
God’s promise to Solomon and to us ends with “then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Is God hearing us when we are ignoring Him? Is God forgiving us when we will not even admit our sin? No! If we will be obedient to make this return to His will, He will do His part and the end result is the healing of our land. Today our “land” is all that pertains to our lives—our marriages, our families, jobs, possessions, health, and well-being. The “land” to the Hebrews was their grocery story, clothing store, transportation, housing, and anything else they needed for life. If the land was sick their entire lives were disturbed.
We are a mess today because we fail to realize that we are on a road God is not blessing. We are on a pathway the Lord is not traveling. It is time to return. Many Christians, no doubt, will ignore this message and continue in their Laodicean, lukewarm, comfortable religious mode that allows them to do as they please. But the Spirit is calling out a remnant to follow Him. Mary and I desire to respond to His call. We hope many will join us.
Lloyd Gardner
January 29, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
This passage that we have been considering in recent weeks seems to present a progression. The progression goes like this: humble oneself, pray, seek the face of God, and turn from wicked ways. Wickedness, sin, and evil are unpopular words in modern America. We now live in an “anything goes” society that does not believe in right and wrong, sin and righteousness. So, people who have rejected the truth that they may have “wicked ways” will not appreciate this message.
Modern America has invented a god in its own image—a god who really has no conditions and simply lets us live according to our own standard. Whatever we think is right is what is right and if we do our best this god is OK with it.
That is not the God of the Bible and it is not the God I know. The next phrase in this progression we are looking at is “turn from their wicked ways.” Rest assured that this God believes in wickedness and will not bless us if we invent our own standard and ignore His. He is the Master of the universe and has the last word on what is wicked or not. We need to find His mind on the matter and turn from wickedness if we expect Him to do His part.
The Book of Judges ends with the words, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Regretfully, that phrase describes modern America and much of modern Christianity. Secular America has conceived this new permissive god but Christians should not have bought into their concoction.
I am going to make it simple and define wickedness the way Almighty God defines it. Wickedness is sin at work. Sin is acting outside of the will of God. Later in our verse God says He “will forgive their sins.” Sin is our nature. Wickedness is what we do because of that nature. The Hebrew word for “wicked” simply means to deviate from God’s way. That’s why God says “wicked ways.” When we are wicked we are simply traveling our own way instead of His way. James tells us that it is evil to make plans without considering the will of God. (James 4:13-16).
Sin or wickedness is not simply a long list of rules for godly behavior. We include the Ten Commandments and a few other dos and don’ts that fit our lifestyle. Then we go about our business without giving it much thought. The problem with this approach is it does not require a living relationship with our Lord. Like Buddhism or many other religions we merely have an eight-fold path or list of precepts or rules that guide us. God is not even in the picture.
God’s way is the way of fellowship with Him. It is a living relationship where we walk along together through the Holy Spirit and live in communion with Him. So, sin is simply acting out of relationship or fellowship with Him. When we go in it on our own we are rejecting Him and simply experiencing religion.
God told Solomon, “If my people…. turn from their wicked ways.” The Hebrew word translated “turn” means to turn around and go back to your beginning place. “If you get off the path someday,” God was saying, “it is possible to come back to this place of beginning in relationship with Me in submission to My will.” God is giving the same promise to the Christians of America who have left the fellowship they had in the beginning. Like the church in Ephesus we have left our first love and have gotten way off track (Rev. 2:4).
This demands an about face not just for individual Christians but for churches. How many of us have simply drifted along without consulting the Lord about where we were going or what we were doing? How many of our churches have simply adopted a system that works and just become comfortable in the system without any need of God? Some have even knowingly disobeyed God because obedience to His will might affect their attendance numbers or the bottom line on their income.
One pastor told a friend of mine that it is simply a matter of “nickels and noses.” In other words, the driving forces behind all the decisions being made were how much money is coming in and how many people are coming through the door. This does not even require the presence of God. It is the church in Laodicea which left Christ at the door trying to gain entrance. It is a Christianized service club because Christ is not in it. It may be doing many good things in the judgment of people but it is not the church Christ is building.
Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). Could it be that the reason hell is having its way with what we call church is because we are building something instead of letting Christ build the church He died to establish. The apostles and prophets laid the foundation and we are to build as directed by the Lord of the church.
That means stopping, turning around and coming back to the beginning—to God’s word to reevaluate what we are doing and why we are doing it. Are we doing these things for our own glory or are we doing something that will bring glory and honor to our Master?
God’s promise to Solomon and to us ends with “then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Is God hearing us when we are ignoring Him? Is God forgiving us when we will not even admit our sin? No! If we will be obedient to make this return to His will, He will do His part and the end result is the healing of our land. Today our “land” is all that pertains to our lives—our marriages, our families, jobs, possessions, health, and well-being. The “land” to the Hebrews was their grocery story, clothing store, transportation, housing, and anything else they needed for life. If the land was sick their entire lives were disturbed.
We are a mess today because we fail to realize that we are on a road God is not blessing. We are on a pathway the Lord is not traveling. It is time to return. Many Christians, no doubt, will ignore this message and continue in their Laodicean, lukewarm, comfortable religious mode that allows them to do as they please. But the Spirit is calling out a remnant to follow Him. Mary and I desire to respond to His call. We hope many will join us.
If My People…Seek My Face
Lloyd Gardner
January 18, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chron. 7:14).
Last time we saw that prayer is seeking to find and express God’s will in specific situations. We saw also that this kind of prayer can only happen if we have first humbled ourselves. We must set ourselves aside and fall before the Lord praying for His will in whatever we are facing. Christians in America avoid the clear scriptural teaching that we must humble ourselves before God by allowing Him to cleanse and purge us in preparation for serving Him in prayer. James called this kind of prayer is called “effective prayer” (James 5:16). It is effective because it avoids the purposeless, scatter gun approach and aims at and hits the mark of God’s purpose.
God’s next word to Solomon is for the people to “seek my face.” We must become followers of Christ whose reason for existence is to seek and find the face of God in all that we do and say. But what does it mean to seek the face of God? Did not God tell Moses “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Ex. 33:20). Yet there are other times when it appeared that people were able to indirectly see God (Gen. 32:30; Isa. 6:5).
Obviously, God is speaking of seeking God’s face spiritually. We have a spirit and it has spiritual senses able to discern things in the spiritual realm. We are to seek to see God in our spirit where sin is not present. Our sinful, fallen flesh cannot see God and live. When Moses asked to see His glory, God said, “While my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen” (Ex. 33:22, 23). In the flesh we are able to see the reflected glory of God but dare not see His face.
We are to seek the face of God in spirit. We are allowed to see and experience the fullness of the glory of God in our spirit. Paul wrote, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). Paul spoke of the eyes of our hearts being enlightened (Eph. 1:18). This word was spoken to Christians. The apostle is saying that all Christians need to have their spiritual eyes enlightened so they can see in spirit.
Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing” (John 5:19). Jesus did not say He only did what He heard the Father saying. He said He only did “what he sees the Father doing.” In the Spirit, Jesus actually had eye contact with His Father at all times. What the Father did, He did likewise. His every move was a reaction to His Father. He did not act independently but was always in submission to the Father.
When the friends of Lazarus came to Him with the news of Lazarus’ sickness He was not moved with emotion but simply looked over to see what the Father was doing. He did not make the trip back to Bethany until the Father began to move days later. Talking to the Samaritan woman at the well was not culturally correct but Jesus, no doubt, spoke to her because He saw the Father doing so.
On the cross Jesus, for the only time in His earthly life, lost contact with His Father’s eyes because the Father turned away from the sin He was bearing in Himself for us. Jesus sensed the absence of His Father and cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me” Matt. 27:46). Oh that we would be so quick to cry out when we lose contact with the Father!
The writer of Hebrews explains that believers can reach a point of maturity where the senses of their spirit are trained and able to discern: “But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14; NKJV). Your spiritual sense of sight can be trained by practice so that its ability to discern is stronger. Through the process of spiritual growth whereby we are learning to humble ourselves and pray, we begin to be able, like Jesus, to sense what the Father is doing and saying so we can follow Him in all things. This sense cannot be perfect in this life for “we see through a glass darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12) but we can see clearly enough to follow Him.
This is what the Proverb means when it says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (Prov. 3:6). The word translated “acknowledge” here means to know or to ascertain something by seeing. Again, it is a matter of having direct contact with God with our spiritual sense of sight. If we are able to do that, God is able to direct our paths, to straighten our journey because we are following the One who knows all things. Like Jesus, we are to see the Father so we can know what He is doing and where He is going so we can be with Him.
This is what it means to seek the face of God. It means to seek a walk in which we live our lives in His presence and allow His presence to guide us. No longer will we be moved by religious ideas or human perception but by the very presence of God which we are experiencing as we are seeking His face. We are seeking to walk with Him every day, every hour, every moment so that we can be in the center of His will, doing what He is doing instead of directing our own journey by our fallen, imperfect understanding. He uses the word “seek” because God is eternal and we never fully see His face in this life but continue to pursue Him.
Now I suppose that some of you, if you have been faithful to read this far, are saying that I am an idealistic dreamer. Many Christians see this truth as a strange notion because they have accepted an American form of Christianity that is very much unlike the one presented in scripture. In the word we see a supernatural life, led by the Holy Spirit, whereby we are able to literally see God in our spirit, sense His presence and be directed by Him. We can really be sheep following the Great Shepherd because we know His voice, we discern His presence.
Much of what is called church in America is nothing more than a well-oiled religious business with nice programs and clever people. The church is called to be a people who walk and live in the presence of Christ and allow Him to lead us into His perfect will in all things. Humbling ourselves before God so that we can pray His will leads us to the place where we are always seeking to catch His eye so we know what He is doing.
We need to be like the young son our daughter trying to learn a new skill from their father by constantly catching his eye to see if they are doing it right. Father always knows best. Seeking His face is perhaps the most exciting thing we can experience in this life.
We do not walk in this blessing because we do not know that we possess it or we simply ignore the Father when He is moving. When you are in a group and you sense the Lord going over to speak to someone, that is the Father. When you are in a gathering of God’s people and you sense the Lord speaking out a message of encouragement, it is the Father leading. When you see the Father leading you to someone to ask for forgiveness, there He is again. When you sense that deep-down sense to share Christ with someone, that is the Father.
He is always leading us and trying to catch our eye, but we simply have not learned to discern it. We need practice. That practice will sharpen and focus our spiritual sight. That’s what church life and fellowship are all about. As Paul wrote, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thess. 5:11). We are a spiritual body and we can grow together in seeking the face of God so that we are spiritually built up in Him.
John said that one day “when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). That will be a wonderful day when we see Him as He is, but the seeking can begin now. We can see Him today if we seek Him. We can be led by His Spirit. If we desire to see our lives and churches revived and restored and our land healed, we must seek His face.
Lloyd Gardner
January 18, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chron. 7:14).
Last time we saw that prayer is seeking to find and express God’s will in specific situations. We saw also that this kind of prayer can only happen if we have first humbled ourselves. We must set ourselves aside and fall before the Lord praying for His will in whatever we are facing. Christians in America avoid the clear scriptural teaching that we must humble ourselves before God by allowing Him to cleanse and purge us in preparation for serving Him in prayer. James called this kind of prayer is called “effective prayer” (James 5:16). It is effective because it avoids the purposeless, scatter gun approach and aims at and hits the mark of God’s purpose.
God’s next word to Solomon is for the people to “seek my face.” We must become followers of Christ whose reason for existence is to seek and find the face of God in all that we do and say. But what does it mean to seek the face of God? Did not God tell Moses “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Ex. 33:20). Yet there are other times when it appeared that people were able to indirectly see God (Gen. 32:30; Isa. 6:5).
Obviously, God is speaking of seeking God’s face spiritually. We have a spirit and it has spiritual senses able to discern things in the spiritual realm. We are to seek to see God in our spirit where sin is not present. Our sinful, fallen flesh cannot see God and live. When Moses asked to see His glory, God said, “While my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen” (Ex. 33:22, 23). In the flesh we are able to see the reflected glory of God but dare not see His face.
We are to seek the face of God in spirit. We are allowed to see and experience the fullness of the glory of God in our spirit. Paul wrote, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). Paul spoke of the eyes of our hearts being enlightened (Eph. 1:18). This word was spoken to Christians. The apostle is saying that all Christians need to have their spiritual eyes enlightened so they can see in spirit.
Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing” (John 5:19). Jesus did not say He only did what He heard the Father saying. He said He only did “what he sees the Father doing.” In the Spirit, Jesus actually had eye contact with His Father at all times. What the Father did, He did likewise. His every move was a reaction to His Father. He did not act independently but was always in submission to the Father.
When the friends of Lazarus came to Him with the news of Lazarus’ sickness He was not moved with emotion but simply looked over to see what the Father was doing. He did not make the trip back to Bethany until the Father began to move days later. Talking to the Samaritan woman at the well was not culturally correct but Jesus, no doubt, spoke to her because He saw the Father doing so.
On the cross Jesus, for the only time in His earthly life, lost contact with His Father’s eyes because the Father turned away from the sin He was bearing in Himself for us. Jesus sensed the absence of His Father and cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me” Matt. 27:46). Oh that we would be so quick to cry out when we lose contact with the Father!
The writer of Hebrews explains that believers can reach a point of maturity where the senses of their spirit are trained and able to discern: “But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14; NKJV). Your spiritual sense of sight can be trained by practice so that its ability to discern is stronger. Through the process of spiritual growth whereby we are learning to humble ourselves and pray, we begin to be able, like Jesus, to sense what the Father is doing and saying so we can follow Him in all things. This sense cannot be perfect in this life for “we see through a glass darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12) but we can see clearly enough to follow Him.
This is what the Proverb means when it says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (Prov. 3:6). The word translated “acknowledge” here means to know or to ascertain something by seeing. Again, it is a matter of having direct contact with God with our spiritual sense of sight. If we are able to do that, God is able to direct our paths, to straighten our journey because we are following the One who knows all things. Like Jesus, we are to see the Father so we can know what He is doing and where He is going so we can be with Him.
This is what it means to seek the face of God. It means to seek a walk in which we live our lives in His presence and allow His presence to guide us. No longer will we be moved by religious ideas or human perception but by the very presence of God which we are experiencing as we are seeking His face. We are seeking to walk with Him every day, every hour, every moment so that we can be in the center of His will, doing what He is doing instead of directing our own journey by our fallen, imperfect understanding. He uses the word “seek” because God is eternal and we never fully see His face in this life but continue to pursue Him.
Now I suppose that some of you, if you have been faithful to read this far, are saying that I am an idealistic dreamer. Many Christians see this truth as a strange notion because they have accepted an American form of Christianity that is very much unlike the one presented in scripture. In the word we see a supernatural life, led by the Holy Spirit, whereby we are able to literally see God in our spirit, sense His presence and be directed by Him. We can really be sheep following the Great Shepherd because we know His voice, we discern His presence.
Much of what is called church in America is nothing more than a well-oiled religious business with nice programs and clever people. The church is called to be a people who walk and live in the presence of Christ and allow Him to lead us into His perfect will in all things. Humbling ourselves before God so that we can pray His will leads us to the place where we are always seeking to catch His eye so we know what He is doing.
We need to be like the young son our daughter trying to learn a new skill from their father by constantly catching his eye to see if they are doing it right. Father always knows best. Seeking His face is perhaps the most exciting thing we can experience in this life.
We do not walk in this blessing because we do not know that we possess it or we simply ignore the Father when He is moving. When you are in a group and you sense the Lord going over to speak to someone, that is the Father. When you are in a gathering of God’s people and you sense the Lord speaking out a message of encouragement, it is the Father leading. When you see the Father leading you to someone to ask for forgiveness, there He is again. When you sense that deep-down sense to share Christ with someone, that is the Father.
He is always leading us and trying to catch our eye, but we simply have not learned to discern it. We need practice. That practice will sharpen and focus our spiritual sight. That’s what church life and fellowship are all about. As Paul wrote, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thess. 5:11). We are a spiritual body and we can grow together in seeking the face of God so that we are spiritually built up in Him.
John said that one day “when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). That will be a wonderful day when we see Him as He is, but the seeking can begin now. We can see Him today if we seek Him. We can be led by His Spirit. If we desire to see our lives and churches revived and restored and our land healed, we must seek His face.
If My People...Pray
Lloyd Gardner
January 11, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chron. 7:14).
Last time we looked at the first part of this passage dealing with humbling ourselves. We saw that when we find ourselves out of step with God that we must first come to Him with a humbled heart. We cannot approach God expecting restoration or revival if we have not laid aside our self with all of its demands on Him. We must bow before God putting our selfish will aside and come seeking His will for our lives. This humbling is not an instantaneous event but may take a period of purging in which the Lord cleanses our lives of selfish baggage and helps us to focus on Him and His purpose. The humbling is a “season” and it ends when the Lord lifts His hand (1 Peter 5:6).
After the humbling, the next directive from God to Solomon in this passage is to pray. After we have humbled ourselves and opened up fully to God’s will, we are ready to pray. Before that our prayers would have been egotistical proclamations to God from our fallen, selfish minds, without recognition of our sin and selfish motives. Having humbled ourselves, because we saw the need of God, we are ready to open our mouths and hearts in prayer seeking His will.
That is exactly the meaning of the word for prayer. The word means more than mere communication with God. It is communication with God that seeks to find and express His will for a specific situation. In prayer we are speaking forth our agreement with Him concerning His will in the situation we face. It is not merely telling Him things as if He doesn’t know all things.
Jesus told His disciples “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:7, 8). The Father does not need to be informed by us but He desires to partner with us in implementing His will on earth through our praying. The Pharisees, and often Christians today, thought that it was the amount of time they spent in prayer and the amount of words they spoke that made prayer effective. Prayer is only effective when it is a partnership with God to accomplish His will.
So later Jesus taught them to pray saying “Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:9-12). Jesus’ prayer is all about partnering with the Father about His will. It emphasizes His name, His, kingdom, His will on earth. Jesus was teaching us that prayer is about implementing God’s will and purpose.
Even praying for our daily bread and for forgiveness is entering into agreement with the Father concerning our daily needs. Jesus was very matter of fact in simply saying “Give us this day our daily bread” because He knew it was His Father’s will to meet our needs. Later in the next chapter He speaks of the Father’s desire to meet our needs. He says, “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” We do not have to beg God for our daily provisions but simply enter into agreement with Him for His will to meet our needs. That’s prayer.
The same is true of forgiveness. Jesus prayed “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” because He knew that it was the Father’s will to forgive us as we live a life of forgiveness with others. He did not pray that we should be forgiven apart from our own forgiveness of others because He knew the Father’s will about sin. Remember the story He told about the servant who received forgiveness of debt from his master only to refuse to forgive someone who owed Him? (Matt. 18:22-34). It did not end well for that unforgiving servant. We do not need to constantly ask God to forgive us because He is forgiving us according to how we forgive others who sin against us. Prayer acknowledges that truth.
So, the promise God gave to Solomon was not saying that we should simply pray a lot or go through certain religious motions, but that we can humbly approach God in faith knowing and submitting to His will and begin to speak forth in union with Him in implementing His will in all things. This means it is essential to know what the will of God is for the things we pray for. Effective prayer is prayer that pinpoints His will and releases it into a situation on earth. This could be a prayer for healing, family restoration, protection for a trip, discernment about a job situation, or anything in our lives. We simply need to ascertain the will of God from His word and by the Spirit and enter into union with God on the matter.
In Matthew 16:19 Jesus says, “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The tense of the verb used here for “bound” and “loose” is perfect passive, carrying the idea of something that has happened already in the past and continues to happen in the present and future. So the word could be awkwardly translated “shall have been being bound in heaven.” This means that our binding prayers tap into the will of God in such a way that they release the eternal action of God in anticipation of our prayer.
I know that all sounds quite technical but the upshot of it is that we enter into agreement with what God has already determined to do when we pray for it. As we pray we release the will of God already accomplished in heaven. Wow! That’s a mouthful and a wonderful mystery but it is how genuine prayer works.
Another good example is the passage in Revelation 8:1-5 that shows the connection of our prayer and the will of God. There we see seven mighty angels standing ready to blow their trumpets announcing and unleashing the judgment of God on earth. Another angel came and stood before the heavenly altar with a golden censer in his hands. The hand of God mingled the fire of His will with the prayers of the saints of God on the golden altar before His throne. As the smoke rose from the burning incense and passed before the Almighty One on the throne the angel took red-hot coals from the altar and mingled them with the prayer-filled incense and cast it toward earth. Lightening and mighty peals of thunder rolled through earth’s atmosphere. A devastating earthquake shook the planet to its core. The trumpets of God’s judgment begin sounding unleashing the judgment of the last days (Rev. 8:1-5).
It may amaze you to realize that the prayers of the saints are the initiating action that releases the coming judgment on earth. God cooperates with His church in releasing judgment. Remember that His church will coordinate with God in even judging the angels (1 Cor. 6:3). The angel takes the red hot coals of God’s fiery presence and mingles them with our prayer and casts it toward earth. God’s perfect, determined, eternal will is mingled with the prayers of the saints and cast from heaven to begin the judgment of earth.
That is prayer. God’s people releasing the established will of God into a situation. Whether it be praying for someone to be healed , for demonic forces to be bound, the salvation of our children, the settling of a personal issue, to have food to eat, forgiveness, or whatever, God’s will mingled with our prayer will change things on earth so they line up with God.
God was saying to Solomon and all of Israel that if they fall away from Him, the way back is through humbling and prayer. They would need to come to a place of realizing the truth about their condition in the light of God’s will so that He could begin the healing process. As long as we ignore His will nothing happens because prayer can only work when it is aimed at agreeing with and implementing the will of God. That’s why humbling ourselves is a prerequisite to effective prayer.
So what about us? What about the sleeping, complacent, rebellious church in America? How shall we conduct ourselves? Should we just make excuses for our lack of love, unity and power and devise new doctrines to explain away our lack, or should we humble ourselves and seek His will about our situation?
Prayer is not a priority if we believe we’re doing just fine and the church is what God wants it to be or if we believe the false doctrine that the church will continue to degrade until Christ rescues us. On the other hand, if we know in our hearts that we have left our first love, we have stepped aside from fully following the Lord, we must humble ourselves and pray. Our prayers must express our desire to know and live in His perfect will. We must pray for His will to be done and when we pray for ourselves we must learn to enter into agreement with the Father in all things.
When the church begins to pray we will once again tap into the most powerful force in the universe—God working in the hearts of His people. When we pray we will see our sins vanish and our land begin to heal. That’s what real prayer is all about.
Lloyd Gardner
January 11, 2016
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chron. 7:14).
Last time we looked at the first part of this passage dealing with humbling ourselves. We saw that when we find ourselves out of step with God that we must first come to Him with a humbled heart. We cannot approach God expecting restoration or revival if we have not laid aside our self with all of its demands on Him. We must bow before God putting our selfish will aside and come seeking His will for our lives. This humbling is not an instantaneous event but may take a period of purging in which the Lord cleanses our lives of selfish baggage and helps us to focus on Him and His purpose. The humbling is a “season” and it ends when the Lord lifts His hand (1 Peter 5:6).
After the humbling, the next directive from God to Solomon in this passage is to pray. After we have humbled ourselves and opened up fully to God’s will, we are ready to pray. Before that our prayers would have been egotistical proclamations to God from our fallen, selfish minds, without recognition of our sin and selfish motives. Having humbled ourselves, because we saw the need of God, we are ready to open our mouths and hearts in prayer seeking His will.
That is exactly the meaning of the word for prayer. The word means more than mere communication with God. It is communication with God that seeks to find and express His will for a specific situation. In prayer we are speaking forth our agreement with Him concerning His will in the situation we face. It is not merely telling Him things as if He doesn’t know all things.
Jesus told His disciples “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:7, 8). The Father does not need to be informed by us but He desires to partner with us in implementing His will on earth through our praying. The Pharisees, and often Christians today, thought that it was the amount of time they spent in prayer and the amount of words they spoke that made prayer effective. Prayer is only effective when it is a partnership with God to accomplish His will.
So later Jesus taught them to pray saying “Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:9-12). Jesus’ prayer is all about partnering with the Father about His will. It emphasizes His name, His, kingdom, His will on earth. Jesus was teaching us that prayer is about implementing God’s will and purpose.
Even praying for our daily bread and for forgiveness is entering into agreement with the Father concerning our daily needs. Jesus was very matter of fact in simply saying “Give us this day our daily bread” because He knew it was His Father’s will to meet our needs. Later in the next chapter He speaks of the Father’s desire to meet our needs. He says, “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” We do not have to beg God for our daily provisions but simply enter into agreement with Him for His will to meet our needs. That’s prayer.
The same is true of forgiveness. Jesus prayed “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” because He knew that it was the Father’s will to forgive us as we live a life of forgiveness with others. He did not pray that we should be forgiven apart from our own forgiveness of others because He knew the Father’s will about sin. Remember the story He told about the servant who received forgiveness of debt from his master only to refuse to forgive someone who owed Him? (Matt. 18:22-34). It did not end well for that unforgiving servant. We do not need to constantly ask God to forgive us because He is forgiving us according to how we forgive others who sin against us. Prayer acknowledges that truth.
So, the promise God gave to Solomon was not saying that we should simply pray a lot or go through certain religious motions, but that we can humbly approach God in faith knowing and submitting to His will and begin to speak forth in union with Him in implementing His will in all things. This means it is essential to know what the will of God is for the things we pray for. Effective prayer is prayer that pinpoints His will and releases it into a situation on earth. This could be a prayer for healing, family restoration, protection for a trip, discernment about a job situation, or anything in our lives. We simply need to ascertain the will of God from His word and by the Spirit and enter into union with God on the matter.
In Matthew 16:19 Jesus says, “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The tense of the verb used here for “bound” and “loose” is perfect passive, carrying the idea of something that has happened already in the past and continues to happen in the present and future. So the word could be awkwardly translated “shall have been being bound in heaven.” This means that our binding prayers tap into the will of God in such a way that they release the eternal action of God in anticipation of our prayer.
I know that all sounds quite technical but the upshot of it is that we enter into agreement with what God has already determined to do when we pray for it. As we pray we release the will of God already accomplished in heaven. Wow! That’s a mouthful and a wonderful mystery but it is how genuine prayer works.
Another good example is the passage in Revelation 8:1-5 that shows the connection of our prayer and the will of God. There we see seven mighty angels standing ready to blow their trumpets announcing and unleashing the judgment of God on earth. Another angel came and stood before the heavenly altar with a golden censer in his hands. The hand of God mingled the fire of His will with the prayers of the saints of God on the golden altar before His throne. As the smoke rose from the burning incense and passed before the Almighty One on the throne the angel took red-hot coals from the altar and mingled them with the prayer-filled incense and cast it toward earth. Lightening and mighty peals of thunder rolled through earth’s atmosphere. A devastating earthquake shook the planet to its core. The trumpets of God’s judgment begin sounding unleashing the judgment of the last days (Rev. 8:1-5).
It may amaze you to realize that the prayers of the saints are the initiating action that releases the coming judgment on earth. God cooperates with His church in releasing judgment. Remember that His church will coordinate with God in even judging the angels (1 Cor. 6:3). The angel takes the red hot coals of God’s fiery presence and mingles them with our prayer and casts it toward earth. God’s perfect, determined, eternal will is mingled with the prayers of the saints and cast from heaven to begin the judgment of earth.
That is prayer. God’s people releasing the established will of God into a situation. Whether it be praying for someone to be healed , for demonic forces to be bound, the salvation of our children, the settling of a personal issue, to have food to eat, forgiveness, or whatever, God’s will mingled with our prayer will change things on earth so they line up with God.
God was saying to Solomon and all of Israel that if they fall away from Him, the way back is through humbling and prayer. They would need to come to a place of realizing the truth about their condition in the light of God’s will so that He could begin the healing process. As long as we ignore His will nothing happens because prayer can only work when it is aimed at agreeing with and implementing the will of God. That’s why humbling ourselves is a prerequisite to effective prayer.
So what about us? What about the sleeping, complacent, rebellious church in America? How shall we conduct ourselves? Should we just make excuses for our lack of love, unity and power and devise new doctrines to explain away our lack, or should we humble ourselves and seek His will about our situation?
Prayer is not a priority if we believe we’re doing just fine and the church is what God wants it to be or if we believe the false doctrine that the church will continue to degrade until Christ rescues us. On the other hand, if we know in our hearts that we have left our first love, we have stepped aside from fully following the Lord, we must humble ourselves and pray. Our prayers must express our desire to know and live in His perfect will. We must pray for His will to be done and when we pray for ourselves we must learn to enter into agreement with the Father in all things.
When the church begins to pray we will once again tap into the most powerful force in the universe—God working in the hearts of His people. When we pray we will see our sins vanish and our land begin to heal. That’s what real prayer is all about.
2016: Humble Yourselves
Lloyd Gardner
Dec. 3, 2016
Mary and I were fellowshipping with some dear believers on New Year’s Day and the subject turned to 2 Chronicles 7:14: “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” It occurred to us in our fellowship that this is a key passage for all of us to consider for the new year we are facing.
The temple had just been completed and King Solomon had led the people of Israel in prayer. He was concerned with what would happen if the people became disobedient in the future and brought judgment from God. When he finished praying, God answered as “fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple” (7:1). God then answered Solomon’s prayer with the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 quoted above.
The passage reveals how a person or a people can return to God after a period of disobedience. The wonderful implication of this is that there is always a way to return to God and be forgiven and healed if we so choose. We believe this year is a year in which God’s people will be brought to a point of choosing between Him and the world. We Christians have compromised our faith and allowed the droning deadness of religion to become the norm in our lives. Most of us have not denied God but we have walked away from a close, intimate walk of obedience to Him. We have replaced that walk with empty religious works that sound good but produce no unity or power in our lives.
Some of us have denied Him, giving in to the world’s enticements and pressures and walked away. A recent Pew Research poll indicates that the number of those call themselves Christians has dropped about 8 percent since 2007. Most of these are the 20 to 30 something young people who see no life or power in the church and so have given in to the alternative—the world’s materialism and social culture.
We do not foresee a massive revival of Christianity that sweeps the nation back to God, but we do see and expect a remnant of God’s people to respond to His present-day call for repentance. There is a call coming out from God Himself that is similar to the promise given to Solomon when the temple was completed. That call from God is sent out to His remnant of faithful who will hear His voice and respond.
That promise that ends with the healing of the land begins with our responsibility to humble ourselves. Keep in mind, however, that the words are addressed to those “who are called by my name.” We cannot even begin this process of returning to God if we are called by some other name. Our identity must be in Him and Him alone—not in a religious denomination, movement or program. We must come out of the divisive, fruitless, lifeless, powerless structures that have divided the body of Christ. If we are not willing to do that, then this promise is not for us. You cannot even begin to humble yourself until you abandon the connections you have with religiously worldly walls that fence in and divide the people of God.
How can we truly humble ourselves unless we admit that the place we are in has not produced the results He desires in our lives? We cannot begin this journey if we are not able to see that our present condition does not line up with what we see in God’s word. We must see our condition as a people called by some other name before we can then begin to fall before Him in humility and receive again our identity as “my people who are called by my name.”
It is not enough to simply have the right doctrines and take the right political positions. We must reach the point where we are willing to accept a disruption of our status quo for the sake of our Lord. The church belongs to Him. He died to pay the price for it. We need to stop clinging to church structures that have not welcomed the One who was crucified to set it free. You will have to be before the Lord about this. It is not my call but His. We simply need to hear what He is saying to His churches today (Rev. 2:7ff).
Then and only then can the humbling begin. To humble ourselves is to put all that is of our self aside and place ourselves under His divine will. We must step down from our throne and let Him be God once again. If He is our God, our Lord, our Master and King, then we must let Him sit in His throne and rule in our lives. We must be the sheep of His pasture and let Him be the Shepherd who leads, feeds and refreshes. But that means coming out of any other pasture we have chosen to dwell in and come to His fold and let Him be the Great Shepherd.
Jesus is our example. Paul says He “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). We are told here to “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (vv. 5-7). Here we are encouraged to have the same mind that Christ had when he emptied Himself of His own desires and will and submitted to the Father in all things.
Yes, we are to be like Christ in humbling ourselves. The appeal to “Have this mind in yourselves” is Paul’s way of saying that we are called to be like Jesus in our humility—in humbling ourselves and becoming obedient to God. He did the same thing in regard to His Father. He said, “The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19). He submitted to His Father in all things and never acted on His own but did what he saw the Father doing.
That may sound like something so divine that it is impossible for us, but it is where the Lord is calling us in 2016 and it is the clear message of Christ to His people. This is what was on Paul’s mind when he expressed his concern to the Galatian churches that he desired that “Christ is formed in you!” He said of himself in the same epistle, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). He lived a life of submission to Christ. He had humbled himself so that Christ could fully live in him and express His life through him. Christ must be formed in us as we allow our self to be crucified and replaced by Him.
With powerless Christianity as our norm, this all sounds like naïve, impossible wishful thinking. That’s because we have become accustomed to doing our own thing, in our own time and in our own way. The results have been a disaster but we don’t see the defeat because we are not submitted to the One who inspired these words.
This is a new year, a new day and it will bring new challenges. I predict that God’s people will experience challenges never before faced by the church. Those challenges will either make us bitter or turn us back to Him. If our faith in Him is real we will turn to Him not away from Him and that will be the beginning of revival in our lives and in the remnant of faithful who join us. 2016 will be a year of separation in which sheep will be separated from goats, true followers will be distinguished by turning to God when the going gets hard. The pretenders will blame God and move on with their secular lives. Churches in it for the money and esteem will collapse or compromise. Churches that love the Lord will turn to Him for help, life and power to stand firmly for His will.
The political, social and cultural turmoil that is on the horizon is enough to distract even the called faithful of God, but His mercy will strengthen us to continue the journey. It will turn us back to the One who is our refuge and fortress and to the others who follow Him. It will cause us to leave our manmade structures and come to Him in humility. Love and unity will grow in our midst as we submit to Him and allow His life to prosper in us.
That coming together of the church in love and unity will result in a release of power into our lives. Do not seek the power apart from the humbling. Peter reminded us that only when we humble ourselves “under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:6). He exalts us to a place of power and authority when we are committed to Him fully. This exaltation is where we are supposed to be as possessors of the keys of the kingdom. We were never meant to be pawns in the game of life but kings and priests of the Most High God. As we take our places, the wonderful feats of the early church will be surpassed in power as we go forth with the message of hope and redemption in Christ to a world devastated by sin and rebellion.
Jesus promised, “"Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:19, 20; NKJV). The words “it will be done for them by my Father” are conditioned on “if two of you agree.” The Father does not pour out His power indiscriminately, but gives it to those who can come into agreement with Him and His purpose. That requires humility on our part in setting aside our will so that we can embrace His will. That requires churches gathering in His name, putting aside their agendas and living in humbled submission to the King.
Notice also, He is in the midst of those who are “gathered in my name.” There is that admonition that God gave to Solomon when He addressed “My people who are called by My name.” Our identity must be in Him alone. When we are gathered in His name he is there in our midst. That is why the Lord is not in the midst of much of His church today. He is with us individually because He loves us and gives us His redemption, but He wants to dwell in our midst. He wants to have a corporate body in which He can be the Guest of honor and lead us into His perfect will. He wants not only to be in us individually but among us as a living expression of His life on earth. That requires love and unity as the body comes together in His name.
So 2016 will be a hard year for many. It may be the hardest year any of us has ever experienced in the flesh. But the tribulation of the times will drive the remnant of true followers out their places of hiding into His divine presence. When that begins to happen all of heaven will be unleashed in our lives and we will see this as the finest hour of the church.
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves,
and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chron. 7:14
Lloyd Gardner
Dec. 3, 2016
Mary and I were fellowshipping with some dear believers on New Year’s Day and the subject turned to 2 Chronicles 7:14: “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” It occurred to us in our fellowship that this is a key passage for all of us to consider for the new year we are facing.
The temple had just been completed and King Solomon had led the people of Israel in prayer. He was concerned with what would happen if the people became disobedient in the future and brought judgment from God. When he finished praying, God answered as “fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple” (7:1). God then answered Solomon’s prayer with the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 quoted above.
The passage reveals how a person or a people can return to God after a period of disobedience. The wonderful implication of this is that there is always a way to return to God and be forgiven and healed if we so choose. We believe this year is a year in which God’s people will be brought to a point of choosing between Him and the world. We Christians have compromised our faith and allowed the droning deadness of religion to become the norm in our lives. Most of us have not denied God but we have walked away from a close, intimate walk of obedience to Him. We have replaced that walk with empty religious works that sound good but produce no unity or power in our lives.
Some of us have denied Him, giving in to the world’s enticements and pressures and walked away. A recent Pew Research poll indicates that the number of those call themselves Christians has dropped about 8 percent since 2007. Most of these are the 20 to 30 something young people who see no life or power in the church and so have given in to the alternative—the world’s materialism and social culture.
We do not foresee a massive revival of Christianity that sweeps the nation back to God, but we do see and expect a remnant of God’s people to respond to His present-day call for repentance. There is a call coming out from God Himself that is similar to the promise given to Solomon when the temple was completed. That call from God is sent out to His remnant of faithful who will hear His voice and respond.
That promise that ends with the healing of the land begins with our responsibility to humble ourselves. Keep in mind, however, that the words are addressed to those “who are called by my name.” We cannot even begin this process of returning to God if we are called by some other name. Our identity must be in Him and Him alone—not in a religious denomination, movement or program. We must come out of the divisive, fruitless, lifeless, powerless structures that have divided the body of Christ. If we are not willing to do that, then this promise is not for us. You cannot even begin to humble yourself until you abandon the connections you have with religiously worldly walls that fence in and divide the people of God.
How can we truly humble ourselves unless we admit that the place we are in has not produced the results He desires in our lives? We cannot begin this journey if we are not able to see that our present condition does not line up with what we see in God’s word. We must see our condition as a people called by some other name before we can then begin to fall before Him in humility and receive again our identity as “my people who are called by my name.”
It is not enough to simply have the right doctrines and take the right political positions. We must reach the point where we are willing to accept a disruption of our status quo for the sake of our Lord. The church belongs to Him. He died to pay the price for it. We need to stop clinging to church structures that have not welcomed the One who was crucified to set it free. You will have to be before the Lord about this. It is not my call but His. We simply need to hear what He is saying to His churches today (Rev. 2:7ff).
Then and only then can the humbling begin. To humble ourselves is to put all that is of our self aside and place ourselves under His divine will. We must step down from our throne and let Him be God once again. If He is our God, our Lord, our Master and King, then we must let Him sit in His throne and rule in our lives. We must be the sheep of His pasture and let Him be the Shepherd who leads, feeds and refreshes. But that means coming out of any other pasture we have chosen to dwell in and come to His fold and let Him be the Great Shepherd.
Jesus is our example. Paul says He “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). We are told here to “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (vv. 5-7). Here we are encouraged to have the same mind that Christ had when he emptied Himself of His own desires and will and submitted to the Father in all things.
Yes, we are to be like Christ in humbling ourselves. The appeal to “Have this mind in yourselves” is Paul’s way of saying that we are called to be like Jesus in our humility—in humbling ourselves and becoming obedient to God. He did the same thing in regard to His Father. He said, “The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19). He submitted to His Father in all things and never acted on His own but did what he saw the Father doing.
That may sound like something so divine that it is impossible for us, but it is where the Lord is calling us in 2016 and it is the clear message of Christ to His people. This is what was on Paul’s mind when he expressed his concern to the Galatian churches that he desired that “Christ is formed in you!” He said of himself in the same epistle, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). He lived a life of submission to Christ. He had humbled himself so that Christ could fully live in him and express His life through him. Christ must be formed in us as we allow our self to be crucified and replaced by Him.
With powerless Christianity as our norm, this all sounds like naïve, impossible wishful thinking. That’s because we have become accustomed to doing our own thing, in our own time and in our own way. The results have been a disaster but we don’t see the defeat because we are not submitted to the One who inspired these words.
This is a new year, a new day and it will bring new challenges. I predict that God’s people will experience challenges never before faced by the church. Those challenges will either make us bitter or turn us back to Him. If our faith in Him is real we will turn to Him not away from Him and that will be the beginning of revival in our lives and in the remnant of faithful who join us. 2016 will be a year of separation in which sheep will be separated from goats, true followers will be distinguished by turning to God when the going gets hard. The pretenders will blame God and move on with their secular lives. Churches in it for the money and esteem will collapse or compromise. Churches that love the Lord will turn to Him for help, life and power to stand firmly for His will.
The political, social and cultural turmoil that is on the horizon is enough to distract even the called faithful of God, but His mercy will strengthen us to continue the journey. It will turn us back to the One who is our refuge and fortress and to the others who follow Him. It will cause us to leave our manmade structures and come to Him in humility. Love and unity will grow in our midst as we submit to Him and allow His life to prosper in us.
That coming together of the church in love and unity will result in a release of power into our lives. Do not seek the power apart from the humbling. Peter reminded us that only when we humble ourselves “under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:6). He exalts us to a place of power and authority when we are committed to Him fully. This exaltation is where we are supposed to be as possessors of the keys of the kingdom. We were never meant to be pawns in the game of life but kings and priests of the Most High God. As we take our places, the wonderful feats of the early church will be surpassed in power as we go forth with the message of hope and redemption in Christ to a world devastated by sin and rebellion.
Jesus promised, “"Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:19, 20; NKJV). The words “it will be done for them by my Father” are conditioned on “if two of you agree.” The Father does not pour out His power indiscriminately, but gives it to those who can come into agreement with Him and His purpose. That requires humility on our part in setting aside our will so that we can embrace His will. That requires churches gathering in His name, putting aside their agendas and living in humbled submission to the King.
Notice also, He is in the midst of those who are “gathered in my name.” There is that admonition that God gave to Solomon when He addressed “My people who are called by My name.” Our identity must be in Him alone. When we are gathered in His name he is there in our midst. That is why the Lord is not in the midst of much of His church today. He is with us individually because He loves us and gives us His redemption, but He wants to dwell in our midst. He wants to have a corporate body in which He can be the Guest of honor and lead us into His perfect will. He wants not only to be in us individually but among us as a living expression of His life on earth. That requires love and unity as the body comes together in His name.
So 2016 will be a hard year for many. It may be the hardest year any of us has ever experienced in the flesh. But the tribulation of the times will drive the remnant of true followers out their places of hiding into His divine presence. When that begins to happen all of heaven will be unleashed in our lives and we will see this as the finest hour of the church.
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves,
and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chron. 7:14
Happy New Year 2016
Lloyd and Mary
December 31, 2015
As we approach the end of a year and the beginning of another. Mary and I wanted to pass on some things on our hearts in anticipation of the coming year. The question I (Lloyd) am asking myself is simply this: What distinguishes my life? I have some degrees and played a good game of basketball. I have pastored churches and written books and sent out this newsletter for over twenty years. I have a wonderful wife and family and have done many exciting things. But still the question lingers—what distinguishes my life?
As I have pondered the question it has dawned on me that I know of only one thing that I want to be the distinguishing mark of my years on earth. I doubt very seriously that my college degrees or basketball prowess will amount to anything in the eternal long run. I doubt if the Lord will be impressed with the books I’ve written or the places I’ve been. Some people may be impressed with those things but I believe that most people are looking for something that distinguishes our lives for eternity. No doubt, this is what Jesus meant when He spoke of laying up treasures in heaven. When a million years have passed what will truly mean something in this life the Lord has given me? What will I treasure?
The answer is simple. Paul said it this way: “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Christ in me is all that matters. Letting Christ live in me and express His glorious life in me is eternity’s calling on my life. If I am not living in such a way that Christ can be seen in me then I have failed. If people are impressed with something of my carnal existence but cannot see through the charade to the “hope of glory” within me, than I have truly wasted much valuable time.
Paul describes the eternal purpose of God as “to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph. 1:10). When God finishes what He set out to do it will be clear that He wanted all things, including us, to be united in Christ. There will be nothing left but Christ and those who are in Christ. All else will be as nothing.
The church is called by Paul “the fulness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). Through His church God is attempting to fill all things even now in this age. We are destined to be the manifestation of Christ on the earth. This was God’s purpose from the beginning.
But many of us take this truth and filter it through our religious understanding. We think of a pastor, a church building, its programs, and the ritual that surrounds it all. That is not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about reading the red-letter edition of the New Testament and seeing the life of Christ there and realizing that He was revealing also the life that I am to be living two thousand years later. He still lives in me, in you and in all others who possess Him.
And so I commit my year to Him. I know that He will continually remind me as He did the apostles, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34, 35). Love is the only thing that lasts into eternity because it is Christ manifest in our lives. That’s the legacy I want to have. I want to be known as one who loved the people in my life and around me. By this only will people see my life and be impressed. Christ is impressive, to say the least, and when He is seen in our lives it gives our lives a special distinction—Christ in us the hope of glory.
Happy new year to you all, and let us remember that true happiness flows from His presence in our lives. We rejoice with you all that we have been delivered from darkness into His precious light. Whatever the new year brings, it is only the next step in eternity. God’s best to you all.
From Mary:
I am in full agreement with Lloyd’s words and declarations. I only want to add a short word. Psalm 23 says “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” These words are taking on a deeper, more meaningful place in my heart and mind. I pray for all of us that we will allow Him to truly be our Shepherd in every area of our lives. The sheep hear His voice and follow! I want to be a “follower” of The Shepherd. That is my heart for all of us for the New Year.
We love all of you so much and wish for you a special New Year filled with His glorious presence walking in His green pastures.
Lloyd and Mary
December 31, 2015
As we approach the end of a year and the beginning of another. Mary and I wanted to pass on some things on our hearts in anticipation of the coming year. The question I (Lloyd) am asking myself is simply this: What distinguishes my life? I have some degrees and played a good game of basketball. I have pastored churches and written books and sent out this newsletter for over twenty years. I have a wonderful wife and family and have done many exciting things. But still the question lingers—what distinguishes my life?
As I have pondered the question it has dawned on me that I know of only one thing that I want to be the distinguishing mark of my years on earth. I doubt very seriously that my college degrees or basketball prowess will amount to anything in the eternal long run. I doubt if the Lord will be impressed with the books I’ve written or the places I’ve been. Some people may be impressed with those things but I believe that most people are looking for something that distinguishes our lives for eternity. No doubt, this is what Jesus meant when He spoke of laying up treasures in heaven. When a million years have passed what will truly mean something in this life the Lord has given me? What will I treasure?
The answer is simple. Paul said it this way: “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Christ in me is all that matters. Letting Christ live in me and express His glorious life in me is eternity’s calling on my life. If I am not living in such a way that Christ can be seen in me then I have failed. If people are impressed with something of my carnal existence but cannot see through the charade to the “hope of glory” within me, than I have truly wasted much valuable time.
Paul describes the eternal purpose of God as “to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph. 1:10). When God finishes what He set out to do it will be clear that He wanted all things, including us, to be united in Christ. There will be nothing left but Christ and those who are in Christ. All else will be as nothing.
The church is called by Paul “the fulness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). Through His church God is attempting to fill all things even now in this age. We are destined to be the manifestation of Christ on the earth. This was God’s purpose from the beginning.
But many of us take this truth and filter it through our religious understanding. We think of a pastor, a church building, its programs, and the ritual that surrounds it all. That is not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about reading the red-letter edition of the New Testament and seeing the life of Christ there and realizing that He was revealing also the life that I am to be living two thousand years later. He still lives in me, in you and in all others who possess Him.
And so I commit my year to Him. I know that He will continually remind me as He did the apostles, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34, 35). Love is the only thing that lasts into eternity because it is Christ manifest in our lives. That’s the legacy I want to have. I want to be known as one who loved the people in my life and around me. By this only will people see my life and be impressed. Christ is impressive, to say the least, and when He is seen in our lives it gives our lives a special distinction—Christ in us the hope of glory.
Happy new year to you all, and let us remember that true happiness flows from His presence in our lives. We rejoice with you all that we have been delivered from darkness into His precious light. Whatever the new year brings, it is only the next step in eternity. God’s best to you all.
From Mary:
I am in full agreement with Lloyd’s words and declarations. I only want to add a short word. Psalm 23 says “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” These words are taking on a deeper, more meaningful place in my heart and mind. I pray for all of us that we will allow Him to truly be our Shepherd in every area of our lives. The sheep hear His voice and follow! I want to be a “follower” of The Shepherd. That is my heart for all of us for the New Year.
We love all of you so much and wish for you a special New Year filled with His glorious presence walking in His green pastures.
The Church, America and the Will of God
Lloyd Gardner
Dec. 21, 2015
The Lord has been leading me in recent days to help believers understand the connection they have with our country. Some Christians think there is no connection but I hope to show in this message that there is a very direct connection between the church (God’s people) and the political, social, religious culture in which they live. Hopefully, this will help you understand more clearly the times we are living in and how to live accordingly as followers of Christ.
Jesus told his disciples, "You are the salt of the earth” and "You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13, 14). You should include yourself in the “you” of this passage because Jesus was speaking not only to His disciples then but to all “those who will believe in me through their word” (John 17:20).
The church is to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. You are called by Jesus to be light and salt to a dark and decomposing world. The light is for the world to enable it to see clearly the glory of God. The salt is the preserving nature of God keeping the decay of sin from prevailing. If you are a follower of Christ you were placed in society to carry God’s light and be a preserving influence in society. Paul told us that “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). The word “corruption” is decay or decomposition. All of creation and the world connected to it are decaying or decomposing and its freedom is connected to the children of God. Even today we are the salt that preserves creation, keeping it from decay.
Just as light penetrates and dispels darkness you are here to dispel darkness around you through the life Christ lives in you. Just as salt is scattered throughout food to preserve and give taste, we are scattered and placed by the Lord to be a preserving presence in the world. Yes, the world is going to hell in a hand basket, so to speak, but while we are here it is kept from total darkness and total cultural decomposition.
Europe was the site of the Renaissance, the rebirth of human society, and the Reformation, the beginning of the rebirth of genuine Christianity. Through these two great movements, the foundational ideas came forth that set the stage for the birth of a nation founded on the godly principles of Christ and His word. A nation was founded on the Bible and the divine ideas that are light and salt to the world.
I have covered this at length in a previous book Education Revolution, which clearly make the case that our founders knew that they were founding a nation on divine principles. Thomas Jefferson expressed this fact in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This idea that God provides us with our rights was completely embedded into the Constitution and the first actions of our nation.
One of the signers of the Constitution, Benjamin Rush, agreed when defining religion as they saw it in those days: “But the religion I mean to recommend in this place is the that of the New Testament…All its doctrines and precepts are calculated to promote the happiness of society and the safety and well-being of civil government.”
Thomas Jefferson, the man many accuse of being a deist, declared, “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were . . . . the general principles of Christianity . . . . Now I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
I could go on and on for pages citing founders of this nation who agreed with Jefferson’s statement. You will have to do the research for yourself, and if you do you will find that the early framers of our Constitution believed that the United States was a Christian nation in the sense that it was founded on the principles of the Bible and its truths. Secularists have cherry picked a few verses out of context to try to make their case that the founders had no Christian aspirations but the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming.
The foundation of our faith is God’s word as expressed in the Bible. In other words the church has a constitution and it is the Bible. Our faith is founded on God’s word. Jesus told us that His word, properly obeyed, is the foundation upon which our lives are to be built (Matt. 7:25-27). He told the disciples, speaking of revelation from the Father: “on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). In other words, what God says, His word, is the rock upon which Christ builds His church, which is God’s people in fellowship with Him.
The founders of the country believed they were founding the country and framing the Constitution on the basis of divine principles revealed in the Christian Bible. The great document reflects that through and through. I recommend the book Original Intent by David Barton, which proves this so thoroughly that no honest person can question it.
As long as Christians stood on God’s word and lived accordingly, their lives would be blessed. As long as the nation lived by its founding document the nation would be blessed. We are the salt of this earth, the light of the world. To the extent that Christians maintained their stance on God’s word, we as a nation reaped its blessings.
On the other hand, when the church began to waver in its stance concerning the Bible, the nation began to weaken and crack and begin to crumble. As we hedged on our founding document the nation began to hedge on theirs and the results are the same—gradual decline in spiritual life and power. Because the church failed to hold fast to its foundation, a nation did the same and began to crumble.
Modern liberals have changed the way the Constitution is interpreted. Since secularists began to take over our courts they began to accept the concept of relativism. Relativism is expressed by John Dewey, the supposed father of modern education: “The belief in political fixity, of the sanctity of some form of state consecrated by the efforts of our fathers and hallowed by tradition, is one of the stumbling blocks in the way of orderly and directed change.” Dewey, an atheist, believed that our Constitution should be interpreted according to modern understandings rather than on its original meaning and intent. The “directed change” he spoke of is change controlled by modern ideas not in line with the original intent of the founders who were virtually all followers of Christ.
So, the courts began to direct change. Many secular judges contributed to this change but Earl Warren, the chief justice of the court during the formative 50’s and 60’s expressed his opinion on this “directed change.” Speaking of the First Amendment, he wrote, “The Amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” In other words, decisions were to be made not by consulting the Constitution to see what it said in the light of its original intent, but on the currently held standards of decency.
During his tenure as Chief Justice prayer in schools became unconstitutional (1963), Bible reading in schools became unconstitutional (1963), religious speech by students and teachers became unconstitutional (1965), students could not pray out loud (1965), the theory of evolution became the accepted world view (1968), a school board could no longer refer to God in its official writings (1976), and much more. The principle of interpretation moved from what the Constitution says to the “evolving standards of decency.” In other words, whatever was considered decent or not decent by society at the time determined how the courts would rule.
This is how abortion on demand became legal throughout the land. This is how one man in black in a 5-4 vote could rule that marriage can be between two people of the same sex or the president could force a health care system on all the states. This is how Dewey’s “directed change” materialized across the country. This is how Obama has been able to “fundamentally change America.”
But we Christians have no one to blame but ourselves. Many approach the Bible the way the secular judges approach the Constitution. We have stretched its words to mean what we want them to mean. Instead of appealing to the original intent of the Bible we have interpreted it according to the current evolving social standards. So, we are getting what we asked for—a life of compromise devoid of miracles and the power of God.
We interpret it the Old Testament miracles to be simple analogies and metaphors but not literal historical events. We accept from the New Testament what is convenient for our lives and reject anything that really challenges our lives or calls us to a higher life in Christ. We stopped believing in miracles because our scientists say they can’t happen. We’ve accepted an Americanized form of Christianity devoid of the supernatural life and power of God. As a result, the church is a mere religious business and Christ is on the outside looking in.
We lack spiritual vision and so we are like scattered sheep wandering aimlessly and feeding on old trampled down grass and drinking stale, putrid water. The Proverb says, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law” (29:18). Where people lack vision they have no guidance and are lost, scattered and without direction and purpose. That’s the condition of the church in America. It does not see God’s eternal purpose which is received by spiritual revelation.
We don’t see it because we don’t seek it. Without God’s direction we are doing things in the flesh according to human ingenuity and ability. The result is something man has built, not what God wants to build. He wants to build His church, His bride, the body of Christ. It is a spiritual organism not an organization man can construct. We need to take our hands off of it, open to Him, and let Him lead us into His perfect will.
We stopped being salt and light and started being a big religious program. Instead of living holy lives in consecration to God and in fellowship with one another, we have lived empty lives of rules, ritual, tradition and religion. Instead of shepherds leading the flock, CEO’s took over the business of religion. We built our little kingdoms while neglecting the kingdom of God. We went to church instead of being the church, the spiritual salt and light to the world. We were given the keys of the kingdom but we traded them in for the keys to human success and prosperity. The result is a compromised, lifeless replica of the church that looks and sounds like the real thing but lacks the love, unity and power of the church Christ is building.
I know that there are many faithful who are reading this message. You have sought Him with all your heart. But, you are dissatisfied. Something is missing and you know it. This is God’s seal of approval on what you are doing. God will accomplish this through a remnant of faithful who grow tired of man’s way and choose to repent and turn back to God. Then, we will begin to see wonderful results as the Holy Spirit leads and empowers us in the midst of a world sliding down the slippery slope of rebellion.
Let me close with this word from God: “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14).
We may be way past the time when our land can be totally healed, but healing can come to a remnant of faithful if we return to God. God tells us here in these words to King Solomon that we must humble ourselves before Him. To humble ourselves means to repent from our rejection of His will. Once we have humbled ourselves we are qualified to pray effective prayer. Before we humble ourselves, our prayer is selfish and disconnected from God’s will. In humility we put aside our will and come to Him to see what He desires. Once we pray in His will, we are free to seek His face, His presence. His presence makes all the difference. If He is not in it, we are wasting our time.
When we truly begin to see His face, to truly dwell in His presence, we will repent and turn from our wicked ways. Our ways are wicked when they do not line up with His will. All that flows from our carnal, fallen hearts is wicked, and our actions are “wicked ways.” If we are able to repent in this way and return to God, He will hear our prayers and begin the forgiving, healing process for our lives and our land.
I do not believe that the whole church will do this. It will be a faithful remnant of overcomers who sincerely seek God and His eternal purpose. I want to be part of that remnant and encourage others as well. Let the process begin. May God bless your journey into the fulness of His will.
Lloyd Gardner
Dec. 21, 2015
The Lord has been leading me in recent days to help believers understand the connection they have with our country. Some Christians think there is no connection but I hope to show in this message that there is a very direct connection between the church (God’s people) and the political, social, religious culture in which they live. Hopefully, this will help you understand more clearly the times we are living in and how to live accordingly as followers of Christ.
Jesus told his disciples, "You are the salt of the earth” and "You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13, 14). You should include yourself in the “you” of this passage because Jesus was speaking not only to His disciples then but to all “those who will believe in me through their word” (John 17:20).
The church is to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. You are called by Jesus to be light and salt to a dark and decomposing world. The light is for the world to enable it to see clearly the glory of God. The salt is the preserving nature of God keeping the decay of sin from prevailing. If you are a follower of Christ you were placed in society to carry God’s light and be a preserving influence in society. Paul told us that “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). The word “corruption” is decay or decomposition. All of creation and the world connected to it are decaying or decomposing and its freedom is connected to the children of God. Even today we are the salt that preserves creation, keeping it from decay.
Just as light penetrates and dispels darkness you are here to dispel darkness around you through the life Christ lives in you. Just as salt is scattered throughout food to preserve and give taste, we are scattered and placed by the Lord to be a preserving presence in the world. Yes, the world is going to hell in a hand basket, so to speak, but while we are here it is kept from total darkness and total cultural decomposition.
Europe was the site of the Renaissance, the rebirth of human society, and the Reformation, the beginning of the rebirth of genuine Christianity. Through these two great movements, the foundational ideas came forth that set the stage for the birth of a nation founded on the godly principles of Christ and His word. A nation was founded on the Bible and the divine ideas that are light and salt to the world.
I have covered this at length in a previous book Education Revolution, which clearly make the case that our founders knew that they were founding a nation on divine principles. Thomas Jefferson expressed this fact in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This idea that God provides us with our rights was completely embedded into the Constitution and the first actions of our nation.
One of the signers of the Constitution, Benjamin Rush, agreed when defining religion as they saw it in those days: “But the religion I mean to recommend in this place is the that of the New Testament…All its doctrines and precepts are calculated to promote the happiness of society and the safety and well-being of civil government.”
Thomas Jefferson, the man many accuse of being a deist, declared, “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were . . . . the general principles of Christianity . . . . Now I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
I could go on and on for pages citing founders of this nation who agreed with Jefferson’s statement. You will have to do the research for yourself, and if you do you will find that the early framers of our Constitution believed that the United States was a Christian nation in the sense that it was founded on the principles of the Bible and its truths. Secularists have cherry picked a few verses out of context to try to make their case that the founders had no Christian aspirations but the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming.
The foundation of our faith is God’s word as expressed in the Bible. In other words the church has a constitution and it is the Bible. Our faith is founded on God’s word. Jesus told us that His word, properly obeyed, is the foundation upon which our lives are to be built (Matt. 7:25-27). He told the disciples, speaking of revelation from the Father: “on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). In other words, what God says, His word, is the rock upon which Christ builds His church, which is God’s people in fellowship with Him.
The founders of the country believed they were founding the country and framing the Constitution on the basis of divine principles revealed in the Christian Bible. The great document reflects that through and through. I recommend the book Original Intent by David Barton, which proves this so thoroughly that no honest person can question it.
As long as Christians stood on God’s word and lived accordingly, their lives would be blessed. As long as the nation lived by its founding document the nation would be blessed. We are the salt of this earth, the light of the world. To the extent that Christians maintained their stance on God’s word, we as a nation reaped its blessings.
On the other hand, when the church began to waver in its stance concerning the Bible, the nation began to weaken and crack and begin to crumble. As we hedged on our founding document the nation began to hedge on theirs and the results are the same—gradual decline in spiritual life and power. Because the church failed to hold fast to its foundation, a nation did the same and began to crumble.
Modern liberals have changed the way the Constitution is interpreted. Since secularists began to take over our courts they began to accept the concept of relativism. Relativism is expressed by John Dewey, the supposed father of modern education: “The belief in political fixity, of the sanctity of some form of state consecrated by the efforts of our fathers and hallowed by tradition, is one of the stumbling blocks in the way of orderly and directed change.” Dewey, an atheist, believed that our Constitution should be interpreted according to modern understandings rather than on its original meaning and intent. The “directed change” he spoke of is change controlled by modern ideas not in line with the original intent of the founders who were virtually all followers of Christ.
So, the courts began to direct change. Many secular judges contributed to this change but Earl Warren, the chief justice of the court during the formative 50’s and 60’s expressed his opinion on this “directed change.” Speaking of the First Amendment, he wrote, “The Amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” In other words, decisions were to be made not by consulting the Constitution to see what it said in the light of its original intent, but on the currently held standards of decency.
During his tenure as Chief Justice prayer in schools became unconstitutional (1963), Bible reading in schools became unconstitutional (1963), religious speech by students and teachers became unconstitutional (1965), students could not pray out loud (1965), the theory of evolution became the accepted world view (1968), a school board could no longer refer to God in its official writings (1976), and much more. The principle of interpretation moved from what the Constitution says to the “evolving standards of decency.” In other words, whatever was considered decent or not decent by society at the time determined how the courts would rule.
This is how abortion on demand became legal throughout the land. This is how one man in black in a 5-4 vote could rule that marriage can be between two people of the same sex or the president could force a health care system on all the states. This is how Dewey’s “directed change” materialized across the country. This is how Obama has been able to “fundamentally change America.”
But we Christians have no one to blame but ourselves. Many approach the Bible the way the secular judges approach the Constitution. We have stretched its words to mean what we want them to mean. Instead of appealing to the original intent of the Bible we have interpreted it according to the current evolving social standards. So, we are getting what we asked for—a life of compromise devoid of miracles and the power of God.
We interpret it the Old Testament miracles to be simple analogies and metaphors but not literal historical events. We accept from the New Testament what is convenient for our lives and reject anything that really challenges our lives or calls us to a higher life in Christ. We stopped believing in miracles because our scientists say they can’t happen. We’ve accepted an Americanized form of Christianity devoid of the supernatural life and power of God. As a result, the church is a mere religious business and Christ is on the outside looking in.
We lack spiritual vision and so we are like scattered sheep wandering aimlessly and feeding on old trampled down grass and drinking stale, putrid water. The Proverb says, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law” (29:18). Where people lack vision they have no guidance and are lost, scattered and without direction and purpose. That’s the condition of the church in America. It does not see God’s eternal purpose which is received by spiritual revelation.
We don’t see it because we don’t seek it. Without God’s direction we are doing things in the flesh according to human ingenuity and ability. The result is something man has built, not what God wants to build. He wants to build His church, His bride, the body of Christ. It is a spiritual organism not an organization man can construct. We need to take our hands off of it, open to Him, and let Him lead us into His perfect will.
We stopped being salt and light and started being a big religious program. Instead of living holy lives in consecration to God and in fellowship with one another, we have lived empty lives of rules, ritual, tradition and religion. Instead of shepherds leading the flock, CEO’s took over the business of religion. We built our little kingdoms while neglecting the kingdom of God. We went to church instead of being the church, the spiritual salt and light to the world. We were given the keys of the kingdom but we traded them in for the keys to human success and prosperity. The result is a compromised, lifeless replica of the church that looks and sounds like the real thing but lacks the love, unity and power of the church Christ is building.
I know that there are many faithful who are reading this message. You have sought Him with all your heart. But, you are dissatisfied. Something is missing and you know it. This is God’s seal of approval on what you are doing. God will accomplish this through a remnant of faithful who grow tired of man’s way and choose to repent and turn back to God. Then, we will begin to see wonderful results as the Holy Spirit leads and empowers us in the midst of a world sliding down the slippery slope of rebellion.
Let me close with this word from God: “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14).
We may be way past the time when our land can be totally healed, but healing can come to a remnant of faithful if we return to God. God tells us here in these words to King Solomon that we must humble ourselves before Him. To humble ourselves means to repent from our rejection of His will. Once we have humbled ourselves we are qualified to pray effective prayer. Before we humble ourselves, our prayer is selfish and disconnected from God’s will. In humility we put aside our will and come to Him to see what He desires. Once we pray in His will, we are free to seek His face, His presence. His presence makes all the difference. If He is not in it, we are wasting our time.
When we truly begin to see His face, to truly dwell in His presence, we will repent and turn from our wicked ways. Our ways are wicked when they do not line up with His will. All that flows from our carnal, fallen hearts is wicked, and our actions are “wicked ways.” If we are able to repent in this way and return to God, He will hear our prayers and begin the forgiving, healing process for our lives and our land.
I do not believe that the whole church will do this. It will be a faithful remnant of overcomers who sincerely seek God and His eternal purpose. I want to be part of that remnant and encourage others as well. Let the process begin. May God bless your journey into the fulness of His will.
Thanksgiving and the Peace of God
Lloyd and Mary
November 25, 2015
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6, 7).
Dear brothers and sisters these are trying times to be alive. There is every opportunity to be afraid and take on the anxiety of the world. It is very easy in these troublesome days to get wrapped up in the negative things that are taking place in the world and become weighed down with cares to the point of collapse. But God has provided us with a better way to proceed even in troubled times. In fact, I believe I can say that God uses the fear-mongering of the age to teach us His way of peace that comes from thanksgiving.
If you haven’t already done so, go back and read the scripture passage above. Read it slowly and deliberately as if God Himself were speaking the words to you. Let the words inspired by the Holy Spirit wash over your soul and release the peace that flows from your spirit.
Paul, as moved by the Holy Spirit, tells us not to be anxious about anything. I would draw your attention to the word “anything.” That word covers any issue in your life that may be producing anxiety or fear. Arthritis in your hands. Gaining too much weight. Turmoil in your family. Your child comes home with bad grades. ISIS just murdered more people in the Middle East. A presidential candidate says something you disagree with. You found out you have cancer. A friend or loved one passed away. You had an argument with your spouse.
Need I go on? I think you get the point. “Anything” is big and it includes all of the above and much more. We are called as genuine followers of Christ to come to a place where we have no anxiety about ANYTHING. Impossible!! You say. Tell that to Jesus who said, “I tell you, do not be anxious about your life” (Matt. 6:25). He calls us to a life that is impossible. A life that can only be lived in His power and by His presence—a life that can only be lived by Him as He lives in us.
Then, brother Paul tells us in the passage, “… in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Now he turns it all toward the positive. In “everything” we are to pray and be thankful as we simply give it all to God. Just as anxious “anything” is big the giving over of EVERYTHING to God in prayer and thanksgiving is huge as well.
All of this is “by prayer, supplication with thanksgiving.” The word “by” means that the means of coming to a place where anxiety has no place in our lives is by prayer, supplication with thanksgiving. With that attitude we make our requests to God.
Don’t miss that last part. We are not called to just ignore the troubles and pretend they don’t exist. We are to “let your requests be made known to God.” Let Him know how you feel. Give it over to His wide shoulders and let Him carry it. Or as Peter says “…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Or as Jesus put it, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:29).
“Rest for your souls.” That’s what we all want, whether we are followers of Christ or the most rebellious of sinners. We want rest for our souls. Peter tells us in our passage that the end result of all we have shared about anxiety and prayer and thanksgiving, and making our requests to God is followed by, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” When you give it to Him, peace comes.
Are you anxious about ISIS or our fellow believers in the Middle East? Are you anxious about this crazy election we are all witnessing? Apply all of this truth to these things or any challenge you face and watch God move in your life. Watch God bring in His peace that understanding cannot fathom—a peace much bigger and more powerful than all the evil Satan can bring forth out of the pit of hell.
This peace that He brings will “guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” We need a guard over our hearts and minds in these anxiety-prone days. The guard is the peace of God flowing from His throne to our hearts by the Spirit who dwells inside our hearts. He has provided hope and help and we need to begin to become genuine followers of Christ by availing ourselves of His provision.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and may the peace of God guard your hearts from all the turmoil of this world and its god. May every day be a day of thanksgiving for you and yours as we pursue the God of peace and live in His presence.
From Mary
This is Mary with just a few words to share. This last year was a very intense, stressful year for me. I lost my brother and sister-in-law, fractured my pelvis and moved away from my home. I didn’t know I was taking all this inside, but I was. Everything happened so quickly and almost at the same time I just felt like I couldn’t breathe. When I did, I was so overwhelmed I felt like I was drowning and could not come up for air. All this stress affected my body, my thoughts, and my health.
I am sharing this with you to tell you that God wants all your worries, anxieties, your concerns because He has a plan for you and He will be the Faithful One to carry them out. You do not have to be afraid or worry because if you will “cast your cares on Him” He will sustain you. I learned that much later this year and will say it is a process but He wants us to be free of worry. Remember He sees a sparrow fall and knows about it. The wonderful song says “I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free; for His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.” Take heart, brothers and sisters, He knows. He is calling you to keep your eyes on Him and remember the promises of His Word. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I SHALL NOT WANT, He makes me lie down in green pastures (rest-trust) He leads me beside still (quiet) waters; He restores my soul, He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me; Your rod and staff they comfort me. …” (Ps.23:1-4)
Have a blessed Thanksgiving. Praise Him from whom all blessings flow! Have a blessed time with your family giving gratitude to the One Who is and Who is to come!
Lloyd and Mary
November 25, 2015
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6, 7).
Dear brothers and sisters these are trying times to be alive. There is every opportunity to be afraid and take on the anxiety of the world. It is very easy in these troublesome days to get wrapped up in the negative things that are taking place in the world and become weighed down with cares to the point of collapse. But God has provided us with a better way to proceed even in troubled times. In fact, I believe I can say that God uses the fear-mongering of the age to teach us His way of peace that comes from thanksgiving.
If you haven’t already done so, go back and read the scripture passage above. Read it slowly and deliberately as if God Himself were speaking the words to you. Let the words inspired by the Holy Spirit wash over your soul and release the peace that flows from your spirit.
Paul, as moved by the Holy Spirit, tells us not to be anxious about anything. I would draw your attention to the word “anything.” That word covers any issue in your life that may be producing anxiety or fear. Arthritis in your hands. Gaining too much weight. Turmoil in your family. Your child comes home with bad grades. ISIS just murdered more people in the Middle East. A presidential candidate says something you disagree with. You found out you have cancer. A friend or loved one passed away. You had an argument with your spouse.
Need I go on? I think you get the point. “Anything” is big and it includes all of the above and much more. We are called as genuine followers of Christ to come to a place where we have no anxiety about ANYTHING. Impossible!! You say. Tell that to Jesus who said, “I tell you, do not be anxious about your life” (Matt. 6:25). He calls us to a life that is impossible. A life that can only be lived in His power and by His presence—a life that can only be lived by Him as He lives in us.
Then, brother Paul tells us in the passage, “… in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Now he turns it all toward the positive. In “everything” we are to pray and be thankful as we simply give it all to God. Just as anxious “anything” is big the giving over of EVERYTHING to God in prayer and thanksgiving is huge as well.
All of this is “by prayer, supplication with thanksgiving.” The word “by” means that the means of coming to a place where anxiety has no place in our lives is by prayer, supplication with thanksgiving. With that attitude we make our requests to God.
Don’t miss that last part. We are not called to just ignore the troubles and pretend they don’t exist. We are to “let your requests be made known to God.” Let Him know how you feel. Give it over to His wide shoulders and let Him carry it. Or as Peter says “…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Or as Jesus put it, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:29).
“Rest for your souls.” That’s what we all want, whether we are followers of Christ or the most rebellious of sinners. We want rest for our souls. Peter tells us in our passage that the end result of all we have shared about anxiety and prayer and thanksgiving, and making our requests to God is followed by, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” When you give it to Him, peace comes.
Are you anxious about ISIS or our fellow believers in the Middle East? Are you anxious about this crazy election we are all witnessing? Apply all of this truth to these things or any challenge you face and watch God move in your life. Watch God bring in His peace that understanding cannot fathom—a peace much bigger and more powerful than all the evil Satan can bring forth out of the pit of hell.
This peace that He brings will “guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” We need a guard over our hearts and minds in these anxiety-prone days. The guard is the peace of God flowing from His throne to our hearts by the Spirit who dwells inside our hearts. He has provided hope and help and we need to begin to become genuine followers of Christ by availing ourselves of His provision.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and may the peace of God guard your hearts from all the turmoil of this world and its god. May every day be a day of thanksgiving for you and yours as we pursue the God of peace and live in His presence.
From Mary
This is Mary with just a few words to share. This last year was a very intense, stressful year for me. I lost my brother and sister-in-law, fractured my pelvis and moved away from my home. I didn’t know I was taking all this inside, but I was. Everything happened so quickly and almost at the same time I just felt like I couldn’t breathe. When I did, I was so overwhelmed I felt like I was drowning and could not come up for air. All this stress affected my body, my thoughts, and my health.
I am sharing this with you to tell you that God wants all your worries, anxieties, your concerns because He has a plan for you and He will be the Faithful One to carry them out. You do not have to be afraid or worry because if you will “cast your cares on Him” He will sustain you. I learned that much later this year and will say it is a process but He wants us to be free of worry. Remember He sees a sparrow fall and knows about it. The wonderful song says “I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free; for His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.” Take heart, brothers and sisters, He knows. He is calling you to keep your eyes on Him and remember the promises of His Word. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I SHALL NOT WANT, He makes me lie down in green pastures (rest-trust) He leads me beside still (quiet) waters; He restores my soul, He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me; Your rod and staff they comfort me. …” (Ps.23:1-4)
Have a blessed Thanksgiving. Praise Him from whom all blessings flow! Have a blessed time with your family giving gratitude to the One Who is and Who is to come!
The Rock and Roll Age and the Loss of Innocence
Lloyd Gardner
November 16, 2015
There is a swinging social pendulum that sweeps through our society every few years or so. It brings with it changes that effect society and alter the course of our nation. Education has been swept up into this pendulum pandemonium as a nation strives to meet the many challenges of a drastically changing society. The secular-liberal agenda has instigated many of these changes that have spoiled the innocence of a nation’s children.
The fifties were a time of romanticism. For those of us who were teenagers during those years, World War II was a fading memory and it was smooth sailing for the American dream. The lyrics of rock and roll songs of the era said it all. “Tuti Fruiti. Lolly pop, lolly pop, Oh lolly, lolly, lolly, lolly pop.” And then there was the ever-popular “sh-boom, sh-boom, yakety yak” and “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog.” Mindless lyrics for a romantic era unfettered by real challenges. We were captives of a idealistic age of unrealistic mush that sounded great but was devoid of the practical realities of an imperfect humanity.
These were the years before the secular-liberal invasion of our schools. This was before the immigration explosion, before the union stranglehold, the erosion of the family, gangs, drug and alcohol abuse, racial and cultural challenges, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, teen pregnancy and teen motherhood, flag and draft card burning, Viet Nam, Watergate, hippies, protest music, body piercing, baggy pants worn low, hats worn sideways, rap music, filthy language, runaway divorce, militant homosexuals, child abuse, campus massacres, drive-by shootings, backpacks, cell phones, CD players and assassinations.
This was the time when prayer was still permitted at school, the Bible was holy, the flag was still saluted with respect, the national anthem was sung with honor, students respected their teachers or faced discipline at home, a parent was home to greet the children when they came home from school, local school boards and parents had authority over their schools, parents were the shapers of moral values, school was a place of order and control, and the word gay meant happy. The educational system in the United States was the envy of the world and California had the number one educational system in the most educated country on earth.
These days saw the likes of Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, classic rock and roll, one brand of Levis jeans, a white T-shirt, and Wellington boots. With a fifty-five Chevy, a radio, a pretty lady and a dollar in our pockets, we were the kings of the world. We could drag Main Street with nobody shooting at us and the drive-in bellhops would bring a hamburger, cherry coke, and fries right to the window of our car. The American dream was unfolding before our eyes.
High school graduation came for me in June of 1962 and the world was waiting for the rock and roll generation. We were babies or still in the womb when World War II ended seventeen years earlier. We had known only a world of peace and safety and the happy sound of romantic rock and roll. The great crimes of high school were chewing gum or running in the hallway. The biggest worry we had was what to do about zits. There were no tall fences to keep students in and criminals out, and no security guards, or probation officers on campus. Marijuana was a hideous drug experienced only by the low-life losers in dark alleys of faraway cities. There was no talk of sexually transmitted diseases, or date rape and verbal abuse. It was just “sha-boom, sha-boom” and a sock hop on Saturday night.
In those days, education was a simple matter. Teachers taught, students learned, and parents gave their full support. One didn’t get in trouble at school because if you did bigger trouble was always waiting at home, and someone was there to give it to you. If a teacher called home for our misbehavior, it was the end of the world as we knew it because the teacher was like a god and his/her word was final. There were two parents in every family and one car in the driveway because momma stayed home to take care of the children.
Oh, I know it wasn’t a perfect world but it was a simple one. One didn’t have to be concerned with which telephone company to have because there was only one company and it was called The Telephone Company. It was easy to buy basketball shoes because the only athletic shoe company was Converse, unless you wanted to wear Keds, which we believed were worn only by ice cream parlor workers and cheerleaders. As I said earlier, there was only one style of Levis. They were blue and you didn’t let them fade but wore them over and over until they would stand up by themselves in the corner. They were best accompanied by a white T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up and Wellington boots sporting a spit shine.
Gasoline was thirty-four cents a gallon and a pack of cigarettes was about the same. Yes, smoking was all the rage because we had not yet invented lung cancer and besides some people thought it was cool. I never smoked because I was sure I was cool already and besides I didn’t like to breathe smoke. It just didn’t seem natural.
In those days you could take a young lady on a great date for a couple of dollars. With some homemade popcorn, brownies, and soda pop, we headed for the local drive-in movie theater for the latest flick. With a dab of Brylcream for our hair and a splash of Old Spice for our faces we were ready to take on the world. It was a simple world with few worries and less complications.
Innocence is not easily spoiled. It is the natural condition of well-adjusted children raised by caring parents. Many movies and books make fun of that era of innocence as if it was backward and uncool. Cool is highly overrated. It causes people and nations to do stupid things.
The age of innocence, the 50’s, was spoiled by an onslaught of social experiments foisted upon an unsuspecting public. It was no accident that the Supreme Court of those days was a liberal majority of men in black with an agenda. It was not accidental that they would take prayer out of our schools and bar the moral code upon which the country had been founded.
They would twist the Constitution to make it say what it had not said for 176 years. We cannot return to the 50’s but it is not too late to return to the principles that made those years innocent. May God grant us the courage and fortitude to do so.
In the movie October Sky Homer Hickam stood out in the night sky with friends looking to the sky hoping to spot Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth. Historians have painted the event as a signal that the United States was falling behind in the race to space. It became an excuse to change what we had been doing in our classrooms.
Sputnk marked the end of the age of innocence and beginning of the “decade from hell”. Three years later President Kennedy would promise us in his inaugural address that we would be on the moon by the end of the decade. We landed on the moon in 1969 but the country had changed for the worst and more change was on the horizon.
Some have called the sixties the “decade from hell” because of its moral and political chaos. It was the decade that saw prayer taken out of school in the Engle v. Vitale decision, Bible reading taken out of schools by Abington School District v. Schempp, religious speech prohibited in school by Stein v. Ohinsky, and the court endorsement of the theory of evolution in Epperson v. Arkansas. Not only was it the decade from hell but in some ways it unleashed hell into our schools as the next four decades clearly testify.
Regardless of how you view the significance and effects of those decisions, you must admit that they marked the end of the age of innocence. Secular-liberals say “good riddance” while the rest of us look back with sadness at the loss of simplicity in our society and our school system.
I am not advocating a return to the fifties as much as I am campaigning for a return to the ideas, and principles we allowed to fade. Social structure can be destroyed but ideas, principles and morals are forever. We must find a way to restore them into our lives, families, churches and into our schools for the sake of our children and the future of this great nation.
Christians need to be reminded that Jesus called us “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13, 14). How we behave lights up a world around us with the Light of Christ within us. How we behave adds a preserving affect to the societies in which we live. Christ dwells within us and we need to begin to act like it. We can return to those ideas and principles that preserved innocence in society. We can do so in our own lives and in the lives of those with whom we fellowship. A remnant of faithful can change the world.
Lloyd Gardner
November 16, 2015
There is a swinging social pendulum that sweeps through our society every few years or so. It brings with it changes that effect society and alter the course of our nation. Education has been swept up into this pendulum pandemonium as a nation strives to meet the many challenges of a drastically changing society. The secular-liberal agenda has instigated many of these changes that have spoiled the innocence of a nation’s children.
The fifties were a time of romanticism. For those of us who were teenagers during those years, World War II was a fading memory and it was smooth sailing for the American dream. The lyrics of rock and roll songs of the era said it all. “Tuti Fruiti. Lolly pop, lolly pop, Oh lolly, lolly, lolly, lolly pop.” And then there was the ever-popular “sh-boom, sh-boom, yakety yak” and “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog.” Mindless lyrics for a romantic era unfettered by real challenges. We were captives of a idealistic age of unrealistic mush that sounded great but was devoid of the practical realities of an imperfect humanity.
These were the years before the secular-liberal invasion of our schools. This was before the immigration explosion, before the union stranglehold, the erosion of the family, gangs, drug and alcohol abuse, racial and cultural challenges, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, teen pregnancy and teen motherhood, flag and draft card burning, Viet Nam, Watergate, hippies, protest music, body piercing, baggy pants worn low, hats worn sideways, rap music, filthy language, runaway divorce, militant homosexuals, child abuse, campus massacres, drive-by shootings, backpacks, cell phones, CD players and assassinations.
This was the time when prayer was still permitted at school, the Bible was holy, the flag was still saluted with respect, the national anthem was sung with honor, students respected their teachers or faced discipline at home, a parent was home to greet the children when they came home from school, local school boards and parents had authority over their schools, parents were the shapers of moral values, school was a place of order and control, and the word gay meant happy. The educational system in the United States was the envy of the world and California had the number one educational system in the most educated country on earth.
These days saw the likes of Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, classic rock and roll, one brand of Levis jeans, a white T-shirt, and Wellington boots. With a fifty-five Chevy, a radio, a pretty lady and a dollar in our pockets, we were the kings of the world. We could drag Main Street with nobody shooting at us and the drive-in bellhops would bring a hamburger, cherry coke, and fries right to the window of our car. The American dream was unfolding before our eyes.
High school graduation came for me in June of 1962 and the world was waiting for the rock and roll generation. We were babies or still in the womb when World War II ended seventeen years earlier. We had known only a world of peace and safety and the happy sound of romantic rock and roll. The great crimes of high school were chewing gum or running in the hallway. The biggest worry we had was what to do about zits. There were no tall fences to keep students in and criminals out, and no security guards, or probation officers on campus. Marijuana was a hideous drug experienced only by the low-life losers in dark alleys of faraway cities. There was no talk of sexually transmitted diseases, or date rape and verbal abuse. It was just “sha-boom, sha-boom” and a sock hop on Saturday night.
In those days, education was a simple matter. Teachers taught, students learned, and parents gave their full support. One didn’t get in trouble at school because if you did bigger trouble was always waiting at home, and someone was there to give it to you. If a teacher called home for our misbehavior, it was the end of the world as we knew it because the teacher was like a god and his/her word was final. There were two parents in every family and one car in the driveway because momma stayed home to take care of the children.
Oh, I know it wasn’t a perfect world but it was a simple one. One didn’t have to be concerned with which telephone company to have because there was only one company and it was called The Telephone Company. It was easy to buy basketball shoes because the only athletic shoe company was Converse, unless you wanted to wear Keds, which we believed were worn only by ice cream parlor workers and cheerleaders. As I said earlier, there was only one style of Levis. They were blue and you didn’t let them fade but wore them over and over until they would stand up by themselves in the corner. They were best accompanied by a white T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up and Wellington boots sporting a spit shine.
Gasoline was thirty-four cents a gallon and a pack of cigarettes was about the same. Yes, smoking was all the rage because we had not yet invented lung cancer and besides some people thought it was cool. I never smoked because I was sure I was cool already and besides I didn’t like to breathe smoke. It just didn’t seem natural.
In those days you could take a young lady on a great date for a couple of dollars. With some homemade popcorn, brownies, and soda pop, we headed for the local drive-in movie theater for the latest flick. With a dab of Brylcream for our hair and a splash of Old Spice for our faces we were ready to take on the world. It was a simple world with few worries and less complications.
Innocence is not easily spoiled. It is the natural condition of well-adjusted children raised by caring parents. Many movies and books make fun of that era of innocence as if it was backward and uncool. Cool is highly overrated. It causes people and nations to do stupid things.
The age of innocence, the 50’s, was spoiled by an onslaught of social experiments foisted upon an unsuspecting public. It was no accident that the Supreme Court of those days was a liberal majority of men in black with an agenda. It was not accidental that they would take prayer out of our schools and bar the moral code upon which the country had been founded.
They would twist the Constitution to make it say what it had not said for 176 years. We cannot return to the 50’s but it is not too late to return to the principles that made those years innocent. May God grant us the courage and fortitude to do so.
In the movie October Sky Homer Hickam stood out in the night sky with friends looking to the sky hoping to spot Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth. Historians have painted the event as a signal that the United States was falling behind in the race to space. It became an excuse to change what we had been doing in our classrooms.
Sputnk marked the end of the age of innocence and beginning of the “decade from hell”. Three years later President Kennedy would promise us in his inaugural address that we would be on the moon by the end of the decade. We landed on the moon in 1969 but the country had changed for the worst and more change was on the horizon.
Some have called the sixties the “decade from hell” because of its moral and political chaos. It was the decade that saw prayer taken out of school in the Engle v. Vitale decision, Bible reading taken out of schools by Abington School District v. Schempp, religious speech prohibited in school by Stein v. Ohinsky, and the court endorsement of the theory of evolution in Epperson v. Arkansas. Not only was it the decade from hell but in some ways it unleashed hell into our schools as the next four decades clearly testify.
Regardless of how you view the significance and effects of those decisions, you must admit that they marked the end of the age of innocence. Secular-liberals say “good riddance” while the rest of us look back with sadness at the loss of simplicity in our society and our school system.
I am not advocating a return to the fifties as much as I am campaigning for a return to the ideas, and principles we allowed to fade. Social structure can be destroyed but ideas, principles and morals are forever. We must find a way to restore them into our lives, families, churches and into our schools for the sake of our children and the future of this great nation.
Christians need to be reminded that Jesus called us “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13, 14). How we behave lights up a world around us with the Light of Christ within us. How we behave adds a preserving affect to the societies in which we live. Christ dwells within us and we need to begin to act like it. We can return to those ideas and principles that preserved innocence in society. We can do so in our own lives and in the lives of those with whom we fellowship. A remnant of faithful can change the world.
Our Judeo-Christian Heritage
Lloyd Gardner
November 4, 2015
During my teaching career, I was privileged to take several classes back to Washington D.C. on field trips. What a special blessing it was for this history teacher to be able to visit the many monuments of our capital city with my students! The history in that city is enough to make an old history teacher cry.
On my trips I began to notice something quite extraordinary about the various monuments we visited. There was an incredibly consistent message running through all of them—we are a country under God. Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House, has brilliantly captured this message in his, Rediscovering God in America. It is a superb book and develops in specific detail what my visits to our capital city revealed to me.
I was always filled with awe when I entered The National Archives where original copies of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are displayed. As you walk into the building you see a bronze engraving of the Ten Commandments on the floor. It is clear that our country recognizes that our legal system has its origin in the Judeo-Christian beliefs expressed in these ten laws. Secular liberals protest in favor of a wall of separation between church and state but even they must stand on the Ten Commandments if they desire to view our founding documents.
There, enshrined for all to see, are those incredible words by Thomas Jefferson, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” As we declared our separation from Britain, we the people, were inspired to establish a country founded on self-evident truths: equality of all people, and the endowment by God of certain rights that cannot be taken away. This statement is clear evidence that the framers of our country believed that our rights come to us from God and not from the government. Only as a government remains submitted to the will of the people and to the recognition of God, are those rights assured. If the day comes when we universally believe that government grants us our rights and equality, we will soon see those rights taken away by the same government. What God grants is forever. What government grants, is only as good as those who are governing.
Secular-liberals often argue that the Constitution is our only founding document and that The Declaration of Independence has no binding status. History shouts to the contrary. In Article VII, the Framers, in signing off on the Constitution, connected it to the Declaration. In addition, the Founders dated their government acts from the year of the Declaration rather than the Constitution.[1] Also, when territories were admitted as states they were often asked to give assurance that the state’s constitution would neither violate the Constitution or the principles of the Declaration.[2]
John Quincy Adams made this very clear in a speech he gave about the Constitution in which he repeated several times that the Constitution was an expression of “principles proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence.”[3] The Supreme Court clearly acknowledged this interdependent relationship between the two founding documents in 1897:
The latter is but the body and the letter of which the former is the thought and the spirit, and it is always safe to read the letter of the Constitution in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.[4]
These words are a mere scratching on the surface of the evidence for a connection between the two documents. Those who try to separate them have an agenda. They disagree with the statement, “…endowed by our Creator.” Sorry they disagree but they can’t change history (though they try all the time).
The Declaration of Independence contains the principles upon which our country was founded and the Constitution is the document that carries out those principles through specific legal provisions. We are indeed, “One nation under God,” and we must conduct ourselves as a nation that knows that we are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.” To do otherwise is to separate ourselves from the intent of our founding documents. Those who do not like the wording are free to change the legal document through amendments, but the principles, as stated in the Declaration, must never be forsaken.
As I stated in my introduction to this book, this is not to say that we are a Christian nation in the sense of Christian republic directly ruled by precepts in the Bible. No one I know is making that claim. We are claiming, however, that we are a nation founded on principles unique to the Christian religion. Those principles are expressed in the Ten Commandments. They include recognition of God, honoring parents, speaking the truth, being faithful to one’s spouse, not being materialistic, and respecting life. These basic human principles of conduct flow from the Judeo-Christian worldview. Secular-liberals reject many of them and constantly attempt to influence this nation away from them. It is, therefore, no wonder that dishonor of God, dishonor of parents, disrespect for life, disdain for truth, lack of faithfulness and other misfortunes now characterize our society.
The Washington Monument has always been one of my favorites. Throughout the monument, there are tributes referring to the Bible, God, the holiness of the Lord, trusting God and training up a child in the ways of God. It is a 555 feet tall endorsement of the notions that our country is founded on spiritual principles and its first president was a deeply devout man of God.
Secular-liberals have been trying to rewrite history as I related in an earlier chapter but the facts of Washington’s life speak for themselves. When he took office he asked that the Bible be opened to Deuteronomy 28. Following the oath he added, “So help me God” and then leaned down to kiss the Bible. Then he delivered his inaugural, which refers to the “providential agency” that had blessed this great nation.[5]
There are many other references to our Judeo-Christian heritage in the city. Three panels inside the Jefferson Memorial have references to God. The Gettysburg Address at the Lincoln Memorial includes those special words that some object to today, “this nation under God.” The capitol rotunda is filled with religious imagery from the country’s history. Nothing speaks of our Judeo-Christian heritage more than the renditions of Moses with the Ten Commandments in the Supreme Court, especially the engraving over the chair of the Chief Justice and on the doors of the Court itself. Considering some recent rulings of this esteemed court those engravings are a great irony.
Imagine how you would feel if you attended a family reunion only to discover that some misguided historian with an agenda had rewritten your family history leaving out the influence of God on your family. You would, of course, be furious and would have a right to question the ethics of someone who would do such a vile thing.
One’s heritage cannot simply be set aside and replaced with another one. Our heritage consists of the cultural riches that have been passed down to us from people in our past possessing something worth passing on. It is written in the documents, books, letters, speeches, monuments, pamphlets, newspapers, records and wills written by people desiring to pass on to their posterity what they deemed important. Our country was founded upon the Biblical principles and biblically inspired ideas coming out of the Enlightenment. Those ideas, properly enshrined in our historical documents, are our heritage as a nation.
There are some who want to replace that heritage with today’s secular-liberal slant on life. They have no right to do so and their efforts must be met with opposition from the present citizens of our country who embrace the real heritage of the greatest country on earth. Our greatness is a product of our heritage. The principles expressed in the Hebrew scriptures and the Christian New Testament are the reason for our present greatness. It follows as well that any descent from this greatness will result from our rejection of those principles.
The most tragic part of this story is that those who wish to replace our heritage are attempting to use the educational system to do so. By gaining control of the schools and using them as indoctrination centers, they can rewrite our heritage in their own image. They believe that the principles of the Judeo-Christian heritage are not politically correct. In other words, they are not cool. Like misguided teenagers, they want us to be cool by embracing a new heritage. This new heritage would, of course, reflect the secular-liberal worldview and would institutionalize the immoral transgressions of the past half-century.
Imagine if you can a scenario in which the secular-liberal philosophy and its corresponding rejection of Biblical Christianity was the prevailing worldview of the colonists. Imagine a historical setting in which the Ten Commandments were not the foundational principles that formed the ideas of the founding fathers. A New Age philosophy in which morals are relative would have been the norm. What kind of constitution would have been formed without the impetus of Judeo-Christian ideas? There would have been no emphasis on unalienable rights endowed by our Creator, no enunciation of individual rights like religion, speech, press, and assembly, and no understanding that God oversees our actions. No free country would have been formed in the midst of this relativistic gibberish and no country can long exist which abandons a moral foundation.
Thank God, secular-liberals did not found this country. But they want to reverse the course of history by indoctrinating us in this failed philosophy. They are trying to do this even as I write these words and in many cases are succeeding. But they are in for a fight from those who have the courage to take a stand for what they know to be true. Are you willing to take a stand and fight for what you know is right? We are in need of soldiers for this revolution. If you are brave, come join the many others who are taking a stand for the endangered heritage of the greatest country on earth.
[1]David Barton, Original Intent (Aledo, TX: Wallbuilder Press, 2000), pp. 248, 249.
[2] Ibid. p. 249.
[3] John Quincy Adams, The Jubilee of the Constitution (New York: Samuel Colman, 1839), p. 54.
[4] Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company v. Ellis, 165 U.S. 150, 160 (1897).
[5] Newt Gingrich, Rediscovering God in America (Nashville: Integrity House, 2006), p. 35.
Lloyd Gardner
November 4, 2015
During my teaching career, I was privileged to take several classes back to Washington D.C. on field trips. What a special blessing it was for this history teacher to be able to visit the many monuments of our capital city with my students! The history in that city is enough to make an old history teacher cry.
On my trips I began to notice something quite extraordinary about the various monuments we visited. There was an incredibly consistent message running through all of them—we are a country under God. Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House, has brilliantly captured this message in his, Rediscovering God in America. It is a superb book and develops in specific detail what my visits to our capital city revealed to me.
I was always filled with awe when I entered The National Archives where original copies of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are displayed. As you walk into the building you see a bronze engraving of the Ten Commandments on the floor. It is clear that our country recognizes that our legal system has its origin in the Judeo-Christian beliefs expressed in these ten laws. Secular liberals protest in favor of a wall of separation between church and state but even they must stand on the Ten Commandments if they desire to view our founding documents.
There, enshrined for all to see, are those incredible words by Thomas Jefferson, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” As we declared our separation from Britain, we the people, were inspired to establish a country founded on self-evident truths: equality of all people, and the endowment by God of certain rights that cannot be taken away. This statement is clear evidence that the framers of our country believed that our rights come to us from God and not from the government. Only as a government remains submitted to the will of the people and to the recognition of God, are those rights assured. If the day comes when we universally believe that government grants us our rights and equality, we will soon see those rights taken away by the same government. What God grants is forever. What government grants, is only as good as those who are governing.
Secular-liberals often argue that the Constitution is our only founding document and that The Declaration of Independence has no binding status. History shouts to the contrary. In Article VII, the Framers, in signing off on the Constitution, connected it to the Declaration. In addition, the Founders dated their government acts from the year of the Declaration rather than the Constitution.[1] Also, when territories were admitted as states they were often asked to give assurance that the state’s constitution would neither violate the Constitution or the principles of the Declaration.[2]
John Quincy Adams made this very clear in a speech he gave about the Constitution in which he repeated several times that the Constitution was an expression of “principles proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence.”[3] The Supreme Court clearly acknowledged this interdependent relationship between the two founding documents in 1897:
The latter is but the body and the letter of which the former is the thought and the spirit, and it is always safe to read the letter of the Constitution in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.[4]
These words are a mere scratching on the surface of the evidence for a connection between the two documents. Those who try to separate them have an agenda. They disagree with the statement, “…endowed by our Creator.” Sorry they disagree but they can’t change history (though they try all the time).
The Declaration of Independence contains the principles upon which our country was founded and the Constitution is the document that carries out those principles through specific legal provisions. We are indeed, “One nation under God,” and we must conduct ourselves as a nation that knows that we are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.” To do otherwise is to separate ourselves from the intent of our founding documents. Those who do not like the wording are free to change the legal document through amendments, but the principles, as stated in the Declaration, must never be forsaken.
As I stated in my introduction to this book, this is not to say that we are a Christian nation in the sense of Christian republic directly ruled by precepts in the Bible. No one I know is making that claim. We are claiming, however, that we are a nation founded on principles unique to the Christian religion. Those principles are expressed in the Ten Commandments. They include recognition of God, honoring parents, speaking the truth, being faithful to one’s spouse, not being materialistic, and respecting life. These basic human principles of conduct flow from the Judeo-Christian worldview. Secular-liberals reject many of them and constantly attempt to influence this nation away from them. It is, therefore, no wonder that dishonor of God, dishonor of parents, disrespect for life, disdain for truth, lack of faithfulness and other misfortunes now characterize our society.
The Washington Monument has always been one of my favorites. Throughout the monument, there are tributes referring to the Bible, God, the holiness of the Lord, trusting God and training up a child in the ways of God. It is a 555 feet tall endorsement of the notions that our country is founded on spiritual principles and its first president was a deeply devout man of God.
Secular-liberals have been trying to rewrite history as I related in an earlier chapter but the facts of Washington’s life speak for themselves. When he took office he asked that the Bible be opened to Deuteronomy 28. Following the oath he added, “So help me God” and then leaned down to kiss the Bible. Then he delivered his inaugural, which refers to the “providential agency” that had blessed this great nation.[5]
There are many other references to our Judeo-Christian heritage in the city. Three panels inside the Jefferson Memorial have references to God. The Gettysburg Address at the Lincoln Memorial includes those special words that some object to today, “this nation under God.” The capitol rotunda is filled with religious imagery from the country’s history. Nothing speaks of our Judeo-Christian heritage more than the renditions of Moses with the Ten Commandments in the Supreme Court, especially the engraving over the chair of the Chief Justice and on the doors of the Court itself. Considering some recent rulings of this esteemed court those engravings are a great irony.
Imagine how you would feel if you attended a family reunion only to discover that some misguided historian with an agenda had rewritten your family history leaving out the influence of God on your family. You would, of course, be furious and would have a right to question the ethics of someone who would do such a vile thing.
One’s heritage cannot simply be set aside and replaced with another one. Our heritage consists of the cultural riches that have been passed down to us from people in our past possessing something worth passing on. It is written in the documents, books, letters, speeches, monuments, pamphlets, newspapers, records and wills written by people desiring to pass on to their posterity what they deemed important. Our country was founded upon the Biblical principles and biblically inspired ideas coming out of the Enlightenment. Those ideas, properly enshrined in our historical documents, are our heritage as a nation.
There are some who want to replace that heritage with today’s secular-liberal slant on life. They have no right to do so and their efforts must be met with opposition from the present citizens of our country who embrace the real heritage of the greatest country on earth. Our greatness is a product of our heritage. The principles expressed in the Hebrew scriptures and the Christian New Testament are the reason for our present greatness. It follows as well that any descent from this greatness will result from our rejection of those principles.
The most tragic part of this story is that those who wish to replace our heritage are attempting to use the educational system to do so. By gaining control of the schools and using them as indoctrination centers, they can rewrite our heritage in their own image. They believe that the principles of the Judeo-Christian heritage are not politically correct. In other words, they are not cool. Like misguided teenagers, they want us to be cool by embracing a new heritage. This new heritage would, of course, reflect the secular-liberal worldview and would institutionalize the immoral transgressions of the past half-century.
Imagine if you can a scenario in which the secular-liberal philosophy and its corresponding rejection of Biblical Christianity was the prevailing worldview of the colonists. Imagine a historical setting in which the Ten Commandments were not the foundational principles that formed the ideas of the founding fathers. A New Age philosophy in which morals are relative would have been the norm. What kind of constitution would have been formed without the impetus of Judeo-Christian ideas? There would have been no emphasis on unalienable rights endowed by our Creator, no enunciation of individual rights like religion, speech, press, and assembly, and no understanding that God oversees our actions. No free country would have been formed in the midst of this relativistic gibberish and no country can long exist which abandons a moral foundation.
Thank God, secular-liberals did not found this country. But they want to reverse the course of history by indoctrinating us in this failed philosophy. They are trying to do this even as I write these words and in many cases are succeeding. But they are in for a fight from those who have the courage to take a stand for what they know to be true. Are you willing to take a stand and fight for what you know is right? We are in need of soldiers for this revolution. If you are brave, come join the many others who are taking a stand for the endangered heritage of the greatest country on earth.
[1]David Barton, Original Intent (Aledo, TX: Wallbuilder Press, 2000), pp. 248, 249.
[2] Ibid. p. 249.
[3] John Quincy Adams, The Jubilee of the Constitution (New York: Samuel Colman, 1839), p. 54.
[4] Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company v. Ellis, 165 U.S. 150, 160 (1897).
[5] Newt Gingrich, Rediscovering God in America (Nashville: Integrity House, 2006), p. 35.
The Great Cultural Chasm
Lloyd Gardner
October 1, 2015
This is no doubt the hardest message I have written or spoken in all of my years of ministry as a follower of Christ. The message has been imprinted on my heart and I cannot set it aside. Like Jeremiah said, “…there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (Jer. 20:9). I encourage all truth-seekers to take a hard look at this message in the light of changes that are progressively changing our nation.
Clearly there is a great chasm that is growing in this country between those who believe in the one true God and those who do not. The gulf has always been there and has always been gradually growing but in recent years it has increased to an extent that none of us expected. It is becoming like the Grand Canyon and is widening as I write. Lines are being drawn in the sands of time and sides are being chosen for the great war that may bring to an end the story of God’s attempts to redeem humanity. I cannot predict the timing of this but can only warn that the signs are obvious that humanity is on the slippery slope of the end days. How long the slope is I cannot say but I can predict that the incline will get slipperier every day.
Many of us have lamented the widening gulf in Congress between the parties. Of course we have blamed our representatives for their inability to get along and make good decisions. The truth is we, the people of America, have elected these representatives so it follows that they are a reflection of the great divide forming in the country. The battle lines are drawn and people are shifting one way or the other based on how they feel about the one true God who has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ. It is a spiritual battle and we must choose the side we are on.
Let me prove my point. With Congress we see the great rift expressed in regard to virtually every issue. Recently, for example, the House voted down a bill to ban late term abortions (after 20 weeks). All Democrats but three voted to kill the bill while two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Mark Kirk of Illinois, voted in favor of allowing the unborn to be murdered any time even after 20 weeks. President Obama, threatened to veto the bill saying it was “…an assault on a woman's right to choose.” Never mind the assault on the 18,000 more unborn babies per year that the bill would have prevented. What kind of people would allow themselves to be responsible for allowing and even championing the brutal deaths of so many innocent children on top of the ongoing genocide of our children? What kind of president would make such a decision for political expediency?
Here is the heartbreaking point I am making. No person who is a genuine follower of Christ and who believes in the one true God could possibly vote for the killing of 18,000 unborn babies every year. And no right-thinking citizen could vote for any representative who makes such a destructive decision. Even the evil demonic god Moloch of the Old Testament did not oversee the killing of this many innocent children (2 Kings 23:10). This is a national disgrace and a sin beyond description. And yet we continue to vote in these pro-murder representatives in the name of some strange notion of women’s rights.
This violates the conscience of humanity, the Bible and the Constitution of our country. Despite what Roe v. Wade decided, the Constitution forbids the killing of the unborn. The Preamble says in part that this union was formed to “...secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” Our posterity is composed of our children and their children and beyond. The great document was written not just for the living but for those to whom we would give life.
The Fourteenth Amendment, used to support abortion by the Supreme Court says, “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” No person shall be deprived of life without the due process of law. You tell me what due process the unborn innocent children have when the doctor is allowed to kill him/her inside its mother’s womb and suck out its dead, mangled body. Of course, the Supreme Court of 1973 ruled that babies are not persons. That is evil based on the incredible nonexistence of basic human common sense. Only with some kind of distorted, evil agenda could any human being rule that babies that carry the DNA of their parents are not persons. Every sincere scientist knows how ridiculous this argument is.
Another founding document, the Declaration of Independence tells us the purpose of government: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Secular-liberals hate this passage because it mentions the Creator and the fact that our unalienable rights come from Him. The first of those unalienable rights is “life.” Jefferson wrote that these truths are “self-evident.” In other words, they are so obvious to any sincere person that they cannot be denied. It is self-evident that all people, including the innocent unborn, are endowed by God with the right to life. To argue otherwise is to reject this God and all He stands for. To reject this is to adopt a culture of death that opposes life.
You tell me how to justify that this unborn baby is not a “person” as mentioned in the Fourteenth Amendment when it has fully formed body parts, a beating heart, and its parents’ DNA in every cell of its body. Every person is guaranteed the right to life by this amendment properly read. What form of despicable immorality would even consider something otherwise?
So, the abortion debate is not about women’s rights or equality of opportunity—it’s about whether we believe in an eternal God or allow self to become god. People who put their personal selfish desires over the life of their child have committed an abomination beyond imagination. Any person who can support abortion on demand knowing what it entails cannot be a genuine believer in Christ unless some sort of malicious deception has invaded their life. Those who believe in life are moving to one side of the red line and those who can mercilessly kill their own unborn child, or recommend such behavior to others, have stepped to the other. The chasm is growing.
Same-sex marriage is a misnomer. Biologically, logically, spiritually, biblically or any other way you look at it, marriage cannot exist between two people of the same sex. Despite what five liberal members of the Supreme Court have decided, marriage is a heavenly institution meant to show earth-dwellers God’s love for humanity. The Supreme Court has turned it into a devilish institution meant to show God who really rules this world system. Through their agenda-driven ignorance, they have adopted a satanic version of sexual behavior and marriage. My bold pronouncement on this issue makes my point. As soon as you read it you found yourself totally agreeing or totally disagreeing. You stepped to one side of the red line in the sand. God has drawn the red line with His own finger and some are bold enough to step over it and then thumb their nose at Him.
I forgot. Such people do not believe in the God who revealed Himself through Jesus Christ. That’s really where the line is drawn. No right thinking true follower of Christ would tell Him that He was a liar when He said in response to the Pharisees’ question about divorce, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?” (Matt. 19: 4, 5).
We see three things from Jesus’s words here. First, He affirms that there was a creation in the beginning at the hand of God. Secondly, He created them male and female. Thirdly, God instituted marriage between a man and a woman. It’s clear unless you have an agenda. It’s clear unless you don’t believe in Jesus. It’s clear unless you have come to believe that the Bible is just man-made myths with no connection to ultimate truth. That leaves you believing that there is no ultimate truth so you can believe whatever you want about anything and there are no consequences. You can even believe that people of the same sex can be married.
So the great rift continues to grow. Those who say that Jesus is just a made-up story character are moving to one side and those who declare Him as the Son of God, the Savior and King of the universe are stepping the other way. This division affects all of American society. When people stopped believing in the living God they stopped believing in His word and His actions. When people stopped believing that God seeks a bride for His Son, they stopped believing in marriage as He designed it.
Of course there are those who ride the fence. Like the dwarves in the Last Battle, the seventh book in the Chronicles of Narnia, these people sit on the wall and shoot at anyone who begins to win. Such people are worse off than those who have chosen a side because they are hesitating between two extremes, one of which must be the truth. These are those who compromise, those who say they believe in Christ and His word, while rejecting what He says. Such compromise is hard to understand. I would say to such people, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Choose and live with your choice but don’t sit on the wall and shoot those who courageously take a stand.
The same-sex debacle is not about equal rights. It’s not even about marriage. It is a devilish tactic to strike what is believed to be a fatal blow upon those who believe in God. It is an attempt to win this cultural war in one mighty blow through a cultural domino effect. The dominos will fall one by one until Christians are called bigots for siding with God. All of this and much more will widen the gap between those who believe in God and His institution of marriage and those who reject Him and invent their own failing concept of marriage. The great cultural chasm continues to grow. More and more people are taking a stand on one side or the other.
This growing chasm has created a moral war in our nation. It is a war fueled by family disintegration, rampant divorce, inner city violence, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual corruption, educational failure, child pornography, race-baiting, and much more. We are like the frog in the water approaching boiling temperature. The water is getting hotter and hotter but we are not alarmed because the increase is so slow. Meanwhile we are dying as a culture but don’t even realize it.
The war is between real forces of evil vs. the forces of righteousness. It is God and His followers vs. the followers of a god of death and destruction. It is people of faith vs. people who hold to no ultimate standards. It is morality vs. anything goes. Right and wrong are muddled because we have forsaken the God of truth from whom all standards flow.
So what does all this mean? Are we to just accept the downfall of our society because we know that the end time does not end well? No! It’s a war, and we are engaged in the war as soldiers with a cause bigger than any earthly cause. We fight for the cause of righteousness revealed by a righteous God. Everyone knows this is true. Those who support evil know that they have the upper hand politically at the moment and will begin to tighten the screws while they hold the winning cards.
They do not know that righteousness always wins, that God has already written the final chapter and He is the Victor along with all who serve Him. The faithful will not go down without a fight. In the end they will overcome the enemy. It’s a done deal and the victory is written in the Book (Rev. 12:11). This growing chasm may be a disguised blessing. It will cause many people on the fence of compromise to come down and join the battle. This will cause a strong and viable church to come out of the shadows and into the light. The best soldiers are proven on the battlefield of war. The growing chasm is the expected outgrowth of a world moving in opposition to God.
You will have some choices to make in the coming days. As you see this great gulf forming and realize that compromise is not an option, you must choose whom you will serve. Choose wisely because it is a matter of life or death.
Lloyd Gardner
October 1, 2015
This is no doubt the hardest message I have written or spoken in all of my years of ministry as a follower of Christ. The message has been imprinted on my heart and I cannot set it aside. Like Jeremiah said, “…there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (Jer. 20:9). I encourage all truth-seekers to take a hard look at this message in the light of changes that are progressively changing our nation.
Clearly there is a great chasm that is growing in this country between those who believe in the one true God and those who do not. The gulf has always been there and has always been gradually growing but in recent years it has increased to an extent that none of us expected. It is becoming like the Grand Canyon and is widening as I write. Lines are being drawn in the sands of time and sides are being chosen for the great war that may bring to an end the story of God’s attempts to redeem humanity. I cannot predict the timing of this but can only warn that the signs are obvious that humanity is on the slippery slope of the end days. How long the slope is I cannot say but I can predict that the incline will get slipperier every day.
Many of us have lamented the widening gulf in Congress between the parties. Of course we have blamed our representatives for their inability to get along and make good decisions. The truth is we, the people of America, have elected these representatives so it follows that they are a reflection of the great divide forming in the country. The battle lines are drawn and people are shifting one way or the other based on how they feel about the one true God who has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ. It is a spiritual battle and we must choose the side we are on.
Let me prove my point. With Congress we see the great rift expressed in regard to virtually every issue. Recently, for example, the House voted down a bill to ban late term abortions (after 20 weeks). All Democrats but three voted to kill the bill while two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Mark Kirk of Illinois, voted in favor of allowing the unborn to be murdered any time even after 20 weeks. President Obama, threatened to veto the bill saying it was “…an assault on a woman's right to choose.” Never mind the assault on the 18,000 more unborn babies per year that the bill would have prevented. What kind of people would allow themselves to be responsible for allowing and even championing the brutal deaths of so many innocent children on top of the ongoing genocide of our children? What kind of president would make such a decision for political expediency?
Here is the heartbreaking point I am making. No person who is a genuine follower of Christ and who believes in the one true God could possibly vote for the killing of 18,000 unborn babies every year. And no right-thinking citizen could vote for any representative who makes such a destructive decision. Even the evil demonic god Moloch of the Old Testament did not oversee the killing of this many innocent children (2 Kings 23:10). This is a national disgrace and a sin beyond description. And yet we continue to vote in these pro-murder representatives in the name of some strange notion of women’s rights.
This violates the conscience of humanity, the Bible and the Constitution of our country. Despite what Roe v. Wade decided, the Constitution forbids the killing of the unborn. The Preamble says in part that this union was formed to “...secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” Our posterity is composed of our children and their children and beyond. The great document was written not just for the living but for those to whom we would give life.
The Fourteenth Amendment, used to support abortion by the Supreme Court says, “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” No person shall be deprived of life without the due process of law. You tell me what due process the unborn innocent children have when the doctor is allowed to kill him/her inside its mother’s womb and suck out its dead, mangled body. Of course, the Supreme Court of 1973 ruled that babies are not persons. That is evil based on the incredible nonexistence of basic human common sense. Only with some kind of distorted, evil agenda could any human being rule that babies that carry the DNA of their parents are not persons. Every sincere scientist knows how ridiculous this argument is.
Another founding document, the Declaration of Independence tells us the purpose of government: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Secular-liberals hate this passage because it mentions the Creator and the fact that our unalienable rights come from Him. The first of those unalienable rights is “life.” Jefferson wrote that these truths are “self-evident.” In other words, they are so obvious to any sincere person that they cannot be denied. It is self-evident that all people, including the innocent unborn, are endowed by God with the right to life. To argue otherwise is to reject this God and all He stands for. To reject this is to adopt a culture of death that opposes life.
You tell me how to justify that this unborn baby is not a “person” as mentioned in the Fourteenth Amendment when it has fully formed body parts, a beating heart, and its parents’ DNA in every cell of its body. Every person is guaranteed the right to life by this amendment properly read. What form of despicable immorality would even consider something otherwise?
So, the abortion debate is not about women’s rights or equality of opportunity—it’s about whether we believe in an eternal God or allow self to become god. People who put their personal selfish desires over the life of their child have committed an abomination beyond imagination. Any person who can support abortion on demand knowing what it entails cannot be a genuine believer in Christ unless some sort of malicious deception has invaded their life. Those who believe in life are moving to one side of the red line and those who can mercilessly kill their own unborn child, or recommend such behavior to others, have stepped to the other. The chasm is growing.
Same-sex marriage is a misnomer. Biologically, logically, spiritually, biblically or any other way you look at it, marriage cannot exist between two people of the same sex. Despite what five liberal members of the Supreme Court have decided, marriage is a heavenly institution meant to show earth-dwellers God’s love for humanity. The Supreme Court has turned it into a devilish institution meant to show God who really rules this world system. Through their agenda-driven ignorance, they have adopted a satanic version of sexual behavior and marriage. My bold pronouncement on this issue makes my point. As soon as you read it you found yourself totally agreeing or totally disagreeing. You stepped to one side of the red line in the sand. God has drawn the red line with His own finger and some are bold enough to step over it and then thumb their nose at Him.
I forgot. Such people do not believe in the God who revealed Himself through Jesus Christ. That’s really where the line is drawn. No right thinking true follower of Christ would tell Him that He was a liar when He said in response to the Pharisees’ question about divorce, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?” (Matt. 19: 4, 5).
We see three things from Jesus’s words here. First, He affirms that there was a creation in the beginning at the hand of God. Secondly, He created them male and female. Thirdly, God instituted marriage between a man and a woman. It’s clear unless you have an agenda. It’s clear unless you don’t believe in Jesus. It’s clear unless you have come to believe that the Bible is just man-made myths with no connection to ultimate truth. That leaves you believing that there is no ultimate truth so you can believe whatever you want about anything and there are no consequences. You can even believe that people of the same sex can be married.
So the great rift continues to grow. Those who say that Jesus is just a made-up story character are moving to one side and those who declare Him as the Son of God, the Savior and King of the universe are stepping the other way. This division affects all of American society. When people stopped believing in the living God they stopped believing in His word and His actions. When people stopped believing that God seeks a bride for His Son, they stopped believing in marriage as He designed it.
Of course there are those who ride the fence. Like the dwarves in the Last Battle, the seventh book in the Chronicles of Narnia, these people sit on the wall and shoot at anyone who begins to win. Such people are worse off than those who have chosen a side because they are hesitating between two extremes, one of which must be the truth. These are those who compromise, those who say they believe in Christ and His word, while rejecting what He says. Such compromise is hard to understand. I would say to such people, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Choose and live with your choice but don’t sit on the wall and shoot those who courageously take a stand.
The same-sex debacle is not about equal rights. It’s not even about marriage. It is a devilish tactic to strike what is believed to be a fatal blow upon those who believe in God. It is an attempt to win this cultural war in one mighty blow through a cultural domino effect. The dominos will fall one by one until Christians are called bigots for siding with God. All of this and much more will widen the gap between those who believe in God and His institution of marriage and those who reject Him and invent their own failing concept of marriage. The great cultural chasm continues to grow. More and more people are taking a stand on one side or the other.
This growing chasm has created a moral war in our nation. It is a war fueled by family disintegration, rampant divorce, inner city violence, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual corruption, educational failure, child pornography, race-baiting, and much more. We are like the frog in the water approaching boiling temperature. The water is getting hotter and hotter but we are not alarmed because the increase is so slow. Meanwhile we are dying as a culture but don’t even realize it.
The war is between real forces of evil vs. the forces of righteousness. It is God and His followers vs. the followers of a god of death and destruction. It is people of faith vs. people who hold to no ultimate standards. It is morality vs. anything goes. Right and wrong are muddled because we have forsaken the God of truth from whom all standards flow.
So what does all this mean? Are we to just accept the downfall of our society because we know that the end time does not end well? No! It’s a war, and we are engaged in the war as soldiers with a cause bigger than any earthly cause. We fight for the cause of righteousness revealed by a righteous God. Everyone knows this is true. Those who support evil know that they have the upper hand politically at the moment and will begin to tighten the screws while they hold the winning cards.
They do not know that righteousness always wins, that God has already written the final chapter and He is the Victor along with all who serve Him. The faithful will not go down without a fight. In the end they will overcome the enemy. It’s a done deal and the victory is written in the Book (Rev. 12:11). This growing chasm may be a disguised blessing. It will cause many people on the fence of compromise to come down and join the battle. This will cause a strong and viable church to come out of the shadows and into the light. The best soldiers are proven on the battlefield of war. The growing chasm is the expected outgrowth of a world moving in opposition to God.
You will have some choices to make in the coming days. As you see this great gulf forming and realize that compromise is not an option, you must choose whom you will serve. Choose wisely because it is a matter of life or death.
True Christians Know how to Endure
Lloyd Gardner
September 20, 2015
Christianity was never intended to be a comfortable joy ride where everything always works out and we are exempt from the normal trials of life. Rather, Christians are like warriors covertly placed into an enemy nation with the express purpose of penetrating the darkness of that kingdom with the light of Jesus Christ. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven and the forces of that enemy nation will oppose us with everything its leadership can devise. In other words, we will experience direct attacks, propaganda against our cause and the direct opposition of the members of that kingdom.
It follows that genuine Christians must learn to endure the constant barrage from the enemy’s arsenal. The spiritual soldier, who does not learn to endure and remain steadfast as a member of the heavenly kingdom, will become confused, beaten down and eventually defeated. The true believer will develop endurance and learn what it means to suffer for the cause of Christ.
Consider these passages from scripture:
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus…. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory…. if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us (2 Tim. 2: 3, 10, 12).
As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Tim. 4:5).
Behold, we call them blessed who have endured. Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful (James 5:12; Darby Trans.)
Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope (Heb. 3:6).
But the one who endures to the end will be saved (Matt. 24:13).
I could go on and on because the Bible is full of admonition to endure because the people of the Bible were not foolish enough to think that everything will be comfortable and everyone will be happy and contented without any challenge from the forces of evil. These passages exhort us to endure, to stand fast in what we believe, and to have the boldness of God as we tell the dying world around us why it is dying and how it can have life.
I am not saying that there is no victory and joy in the Holy Spirit. Paul prayed for the Roman believers that “…the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Rom. 15:13). There is a “joy unspeakable” that God provides to his saints in the power of His Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:8). In fact this joy is our strength (Neh. 8:10).
This joy, however, is not obtained through the worldly provision of fleshly possessions and earthly prosperity. It comes supernaturally through the Holy Spirit. You will also notice in many passages that this joy comes to those who believe. It is through faith that the fullness of God is experienced and enjoyed. Those who do not believe, whether they call themselves Christians or not, will see things through the prism of Satan’s earthly propaganda.
Notice that Paul told Timothy that we would reign with Christ “if we endure.” That’s a big if—a big condition to reigning with Christ. We do not automatically reign with Christ merely because we have been born again. Speaking of the last days Jesus said, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Enduring to the end is extremely important not just for the end times but for our life in Christ now as we sustain the attack of the enemy daily.
Paul’s words to his young disciple make this truth clear: “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Tim. 4:5). We are all admonished to fulfill our ministry, whatever that ministry or calling may be. For Timothy it was to do the work of an evangelist. That was his job assignment in the life given to him by God. You also have such a job assignment and if you do it effectively you will need to “endure suffering” because the god of this world opposes your assignment.
Brothers and sisters we are facing a great propaganda machine declaring the message of Satan to our society. Some of us have been ignorant to the plain notion that the world system is the creation of the enemy and his purpose is to overcome and defeat the message of God. As a result, our nation has probably passed the tipping point, the point of no return, where repentance is possible to turn things around. Every despicable doctrine and practice of Satan is being adopted by our culture because it has stopped believing in God and has turned its ear to the one who is called “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
It follows that this liar and murderer will do what he can to silence those of us with the message of God. That is why Paul told Timothy to do the work of the ministry and that in doing so he would “endure suffering” (2 Tim. 4:5). That is why Paul promises us that “…all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). Living a godly life is not just going to church and going through the motions of religion. A godly life is one filled with God and the desire to honor Him with our lives through obedience to Him. The enemy and his world system could care less about our church-going and our religious programs, but he is frightened greatly by the person who is living in tune with the living God and administering His will to a doomed world.
An exciting passage of scripture is found in Hebrews 3:6: “Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” The writer of Hebrews is giving us a condition for being in God’s house. He says we are God’s house if we hold fast. The condition is holding on to what He has given us and not letting it go. His house is not made up of those who quit when the going gets tough.
What do we hold fast to? Two things: our “confidence and our boasting in our hope.” The word confidence is “boldness.” It is made up of two words meaning all and speak. We are to speak it all and not hold back. We are to be those who do not close our mouths when they tell us to shut up. That is boldness and it comes from knowing the bold God of the universe. From that comes our “boasting.” When they tell us to shut up we get louder and even boast boldly of the hope we have in Christ.
Christ is faithful over His house and His house is made up of those who live in this boldness fully declaring His message of hope. Imagine soldiers in the battlefield when the attack begins to come. Are we those who hunker down in our foxholes and hide from the attack, or do we rise to the occasion and strike back with courage and confidence? If you are hiding away from the battle because you are afraid or don’t want to offend, you are playing into the hands of the enemy. When we back off he simply increases the attack and runs us over. In some cases we become casualties because we do not know who we were are or whom we serve.
These are perilous times, perhaps even the perilous times of the last days Paul warned us about in 2 Timothy 3:1. We must learn endurance. I learned long ago through various athletic endeavors that a team or individual athlete cannot win without learning endurance. He/she must work hard at the skills of the sport but even work harder at the conditioning that produces endurance. You can have all the fundamentals down pat but if you don’t have the stamina you will fade when the going gets tough.
What shall we do then, to gain this endurance? God has provided His Holy Spirit as our Guide and the church as our training ground. You all know by now that by church I mean the people of God who are committed to following Christ. If you are not being trained in the church you are part of, you must seek God’s wisdom because these are not times to be experimenting.
Find a gathering of people who will seek to help one another learn discipline and endurance for the challenges that lie ahead. It’s time to stop playing games and begin preparing for war because war is on the horizon and only those who have spiritual endurance will survive to help others.
Lloyd Gardner
September 20, 2015
Christianity was never intended to be a comfortable joy ride where everything always works out and we are exempt from the normal trials of life. Rather, Christians are like warriors covertly placed into an enemy nation with the express purpose of penetrating the darkness of that kingdom with the light of Jesus Christ. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven and the forces of that enemy nation will oppose us with everything its leadership can devise. In other words, we will experience direct attacks, propaganda against our cause and the direct opposition of the members of that kingdom.
It follows that genuine Christians must learn to endure the constant barrage from the enemy’s arsenal. The spiritual soldier, who does not learn to endure and remain steadfast as a member of the heavenly kingdom, will become confused, beaten down and eventually defeated. The true believer will develop endurance and learn what it means to suffer for the cause of Christ.
Consider these passages from scripture:
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus…. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory…. if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us (2 Tim. 2: 3, 10, 12).
As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Tim. 4:5).
Behold, we call them blessed who have endured. Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful (James 5:12; Darby Trans.)
Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope (Heb. 3:6).
But the one who endures to the end will be saved (Matt. 24:13).
I could go on and on because the Bible is full of admonition to endure because the people of the Bible were not foolish enough to think that everything will be comfortable and everyone will be happy and contented without any challenge from the forces of evil. These passages exhort us to endure, to stand fast in what we believe, and to have the boldness of God as we tell the dying world around us why it is dying and how it can have life.
I am not saying that there is no victory and joy in the Holy Spirit. Paul prayed for the Roman believers that “…the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Rom. 15:13). There is a “joy unspeakable” that God provides to his saints in the power of His Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:8). In fact this joy is our strength (Neh. 8:10).
This joy, however, is not obtained through the worldly provision of fleshly possessions and earthly prosperity. It comes supernaturally through the Holy Spirit. You will also notice in many passages that this joy comes to those who believe. It is through faith that the fullness of God is experienced and enjoyed. Those who do not believe, whether they call themselves Christians or not, will see things through the prism of Satan’s earthly propaganda.
Notice that Paul told Timothy that we would reign with Christ “if we endure.” That’s a big if—a big condition to reigning with Christ. We do not automatically reign with Christ merely because we have been born again. Speaking of the last days Jesus said, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Enduring to the end is extremely important not just for the end times but for our life in Christ now as we sustain the attack of the enemy daily.
Paul’s words to his young disciple make this truth clear: “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Tim. 4:5). We are all admonished to fulfill our ministry, whatever that ministry or calling may be. For Timothy it was to do the work of an evangelist. That was his job assignment in the life given to him by God. You also have such a job assignment and if you do it effectively you will need to “endure suffering” because the god of this world opposes your assignment.
Brothers and sisters we are facing a great propaganda machine declaring the message of Satan to our society. Some of us have been ignorant to the plain notion that the world system is the creation of the enemy and his purpose is to overcome and defeat the message of God. As a result, our nation has probably passed the tipping point, the point of no return, where repentance is possible to turn things around. Every despicable doctrine and practice of Satan is being adopted by our culture because it has stopped believing in God and has turned its ear to the one who is called “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
It follows that this liar and murderer will do what he can to silence those of us with the message of God. That is why Paul told Timothy to do the work of the ministry and that in doing so he would “endure suffering” (2 Tim. 4:5). That is why Paul promises us that “…all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). Living a godly life is not just going to church and going through the motions of religion. A godly life is one filled with God and the desire to honor Him with our lives through obedience to Him. The enemy and his world system could care less about our church-going and our religious programs, but he is frightened greatly by the person who is living in tune with the living God and administering His will to a doomed world.
An exciting passage of scripture is found in Hebrews 3:6: “Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” The writer of Hebrews is giving us a condition for being in God’s house. He says we are God’s house if we hold fast. The condition is holding on to what He has given us and not letting it go. His house is not made up of those who quit when the going gets tough.
What do we hold fast to? Two things: our “confidence and our boasting in our hope.” The word confidence is “boldness.” It is made up of two words meaning all and speak. We are to speak it all and not hold back. We are to be those who do not close our mouths when they tell us to shut up. That is boldness and it comes from knowing the bold God of the universe. From that comes our “boasting.” When they tell us to shut up we get louder and even boast boldly of the hope we have in Christ.
Christ is faithful over His house and His house is made up of those who live in this boldness fully declaring His message of hope. Imagine soldiers in the battlefield when the attack begins to come. Are we those who hunker down in our foxholes and hide from the attack, or do we rise to the occasion and strike back with courage and confidence? If you are hiding away from the battle because you are afraid or don’t want to offend, you are playing into the hands of the enemy. When we back off he simply increases the attack and runs us over. In some cases we become casualties because we do not know who we were are or whom we serve.
These are perilous times, perhaps even the perilous times of the last days Paul warned us about in 2 Timothy 3:1. We must learn endurance. I learned long ago through various athletic endeavors that a team or individual athlete cannot win without learning endurance. He/she must work hard at the skills of the sport but even work harder at the conditioning that produces endurance. You can have all the fundamentals down pat but if you don’t have the stamina you will fade when the going gets tough.
What shall we do then, to gain this endurance? God has provided His Holy Spirit as our Guide and the church as our training ground. You all know by now that by church I mean the people of God who are committed to following Christ. If you are not being trained in the church you are part of, you must seek God’s wisdom because these are not times to be experimenting.
Find a gathering of people who will seek to help one another learn discipline and endurance for the challenges that lie ahead. It’s time to stop playing games and begin preparing for war because war is on the horizon and only those who have spiritual endurance will survive to help others.
A Journey to Completeness
Lloyd Gardner
August 31, 2015
Every living thing has a built-in genetic point of completeness. The fruit tree is complete, mature, or full grown when it reaches its full height and begins to bear fruit to reproduce itself. The Labrador retriever is complete when it reaches its full size and produces little Lab puppies. A young boy has an inbuilt destiny concerning how tall he will get, based on his genetic makeup. Every living thing has this destiny built into its DNA so that it has a prearranged completion point.
Spiritual life works the same way. Physical DNA is merely the earthly representation of spiritual, heavenly reality. Peter said it this way: “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:22, 23). Peter speaks of the imperishable seed that bears the DNA of God by which we are born again. It is imperishable because it is spiritual and supernatural. It is seed sown by the Holy Spirit into our spirits. This new supernatural birth, as we see in this passage, makes possible the gradual purification of our souls and the ability to love one another with a pure heart.
As we have said many times, Christianity is not a religion with rules and regulations and a prescribed ritual performed by trained clergymen. Instead, it is a life whereby the God of the universe has implanted Himself within our hearts and grows to produce His life and nature in us. This is why Paul said such things as “I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (Gal. 4:19). The word he uses for “formed” here is the word morphe from which we get words like morph and metamorphosis. It is speaking of an inward, dynamic, organic change based on spiritual DNA planted within whereby the life of Christ is formed in our spirit. We are becoming more and more like Christ over time.
Keeping this profound truth in mind we can see that the new birth that Jesus told Nicodemus about (John 3:3) is merely the beginning of a glorious journey to a destined place of completeness in Him. Paul speaks of this many times in his letters. He uses the Greek word teleos, which means complete, full-grown, or mature. The word is often translated in the KJV as perfect.
Here are a few examples of Paul’s usage of the word:
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away (1Co 2:6).
Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you (2Cor. 13:11; NKJV).
...until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus… Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you (Phil. 3:12, 15).
Each of these passages refers to a point at which the believer is complete, mature, or perfect. There are many other passages that use this special word teleos. In Ephesians 4:13 Paul is saying that a believer can arrive at a place of maturity or completeness measured by “the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Is it possible we can reach a place of completeness where we are able to attain to “the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God”? In the verse quoted from 2 Corinthians 13:11 Paul is implying that when we reach the place of completeness that we can “be of one mind” and “live in peace.”
Is it possible that we are not of one mind with one another or living in peace with other believers because we are falling well short of this place he calls complete, or mature?” Paul wrote the following words to the immature, very incomplete and fleshly Corinthian church:
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human? (1 Cor. 3:1-4).
What is Paul telling the Corinthians? Is he not pointing out that there is division in their ranks because they were still spiritual babies? There was jealousy and strife among them and they were following famous preachers instead of becoming one in Christ. They were not growing toward their God-ordained place of completeness. Then he says something remarkable. He tells them that they were “behaving only in a human way.” In the Greek it is saying “you are walking like men.” In other words Paul is saying that by now they should be walking as Christ in their lives instead of behaving like normal human beings without the living Christ dwelling within them.
This is my thought in this message. A true believer is born again by the penetration of the supernatural seed of God into his life. We are Christians not because of our doctrines or religious practices but because Christ is living in us and transforming us day by day. We are growing toward a destiny that we possess because we possess Christ Himself.
Paul calls this growth process “transformation” because it involves dynamic growth and change over time that results in a finished product. In Romans 12:2 he wrote, “…be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The word used here by Paul is the Greek word that can be translated “metamorphosis” which speaks of the inward change whereby the larva enters a cocoon and is inwardly transformed into a butterfly. This is an inward, dynamic change resulting from the DNA of the organism.
It brings the believer to a point of maturity whereby they can “discern what is the will of God.” This is true because the more we grow in Christ the more we are being conformed to His will so that His will and purpose become a part of our lives. Growth produces discernment because it involves the “renewal of the mind” and an increasing ability to discern God’s truth. This is what the writer of Hebrews means when he says, “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb. 5:14). The word translated “mature” here is the word teleos we have been referring to. Maturity or completeness means that the believer’s spiritual senses are trained and able to discern.
The transformation from spiritual death to being alive in Christ to growing by the Holy Spirit to a place of maturity and completeness is the journey of the genuine Christian. Those who are not experiencing this growth process should take a serious look at the genuineness of their new birth experience or at the quality of the life they are living.
A genuine Christian has a new life within that will by its nature produce transformation. If that transformation is not happening either the spiritual birth is not real or the circumstances for growth are not present. Life in Christ is a real spiritual journey of transformation. Those who are not on the journey should seriously reexamine their lives. John said bluntly, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). Life will bring change that leads to a journey toward completion and maturity. Are you on that journey?
Lloyd Gardner
August 31, 2015
Every living thing has a built-in genetic point of completeness. The fruit tree is complete, mature, or full grown when it reaches its full height and begins to bear fruit to reproduce itself. The Labrador retriever is complete when it reaches its full size and produces little Lab puppies. A young boy has an inbuilt destiny concerning how tall he will get, based on his genetic makeup. Every living thing has this destiny built into its DNA so that it has a prearranged completion point.
Spiritual life works the same way. Physical DNA is merely the earthly representation of spiritual, heavenly reality. Peter said it this way: “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:22, 23). Peter speaks of the imperishable seed that bears the DNA of God by which we are born again. It is imperishable because it is spiritual and supernatural. It is seed sown by the Holy Spirit into our spirits. This new supernatural birth, as we see in this passage, makes possible the gradual purification of our souls and the ability to love one another with a pure heart.
As we have said many times, Christianity is not a religion with rules and regulations and a prescribed ritual performed by trained clergymen. Instead, it is a life whereby the God of the universe has implanted Himself within our hearts and grows to produce His life and nature in us. This is why Paul said such things as “I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (Gal. 4:19). The word he uses for “formed” here is the word morphe from which we get words like morph and metamorphosis. It is speaking of an inward, dynamic, organic change based on spiritual DNA planted within whereby the life of Christ is formed in our spirit. We are becoming more and more like Christ over time.
Keeping this profound truth in mind we can see that the new birth that Jesus told Nicodemus about (John 3:3) is merely the beginning of a glorious journey to a destined place of completeness in Him. Paul speaks of this many times in his letters. He uses the Greek word teleos, which means complete, full-grown, or mature. The word is often translated in the KJV as perfect.
Here are a few examples of Paul’s usage of the word:
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away (1Co 2:6).
Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you (2Cor. 13:11; NKJV).
...until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus… Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you (Phil. 3:12, 15).
Each of these passages refers to a point at which the believer is complete, mature, or perfect. There are many other passages that use this special word teleos. In Ephesians 4:13 Paul is saying that a believer can arrive at a place of maturity or completeness measured by “the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Is it possible we can reach a place of completeness where we are able to attain to “the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God”? In the verse quoted from 2 Corinthians 13:11 Paul is implying that when we reach the place of completeness that we can “be of one mind” and “live in peace.”
Is it possible that we are not of one mind with one another or living in peace with other believers because we are falling well short of this place he calls complete, or mature?” Paul wrote the following words to the immature, very incomplete and fleshly Corinthian church:
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human? (1 Cor. 3:1-4).
What is Paul telling the Corinthians? Is he not pointing out that there is division in their ranks because they were still spiritual babies? There was jealousy and strife among them and they were following famous preachers instead of becoming one in Christ. They were not growing toward their God-ordained place of completeness. Then he says something remarkable. He tells them that they were “behaving only in a human way.” In the Greek it is saying “you are walking like men.” In other words Paul is saying that by now they should be walking as Christ in their lives instead of behaving like normal human beings without the living Christ dwelling within them.
This is my thought in this message. A true believer is born again by the penetration of the supernatural seed of God into his life. We are Christians not because of our doctrines or religious practices but because Christ is living in us and transforming us day by day. We are growing toward a destiny that we possess because we possess Christ Himself.
Paul calls this growth process “transformation” because it involves dynamic growth and change over time that results in a finished product. In Romans 12:2 he wrote, “…be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The word used here by Paul is the Greek word that can be translated “metamorphosis” which speaks of the inward change whereby the larva enters a cocoon and is inwardly transformed into a butterfly. This is an inward, dynamic change resulting from the DNA of the organism.
It brings the believer to a point of maturity whereby they can “discern what is the will of God.” This is true because the more we grow in Christ the more we are being conformed to His will so that His will and purpose become a part of our lives. Growth produces discernment because it involves the “renewal of the mind” and an increasing ability to discern God’s truth. This is what the writer of Hebrews means when he says, “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb. 5:14). The word translated “mature” here is the word teleos we have been referring to. Maturity or completeness means that the believer’s spiritual senses are trained and able to discern.
The transformation from spiritual death to being alive in Christ to growing by the Holy Spirit to a place of maturity and completeness is the journey of the genuine Christian. Those who are not experiencing this growth process should take a serious look at the genuineness of their new birth experience or at the quality of the life they are living.
A genuine Christian has a new life within that will by its nature produce transformation. If that transformation is not happening either the spiritual birth is not real or the circumstances for growth are not present. Life in Christ is a real spiritual journey of transformation. Those who are not on the journey should seriously reexamine their lives. John said bluntly, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). Life will bring change that leads to a journey toward completion and maturity. Are you on that journey?
Where the Power of God is Normal
Lloyd Gardner
August 25, 2015
When Jesus is allowed to be Lord, the manifestation of His power is a normal thing. In America we have adopted a brand of Christianity that is mostly words and little power. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church these thought-provoking words: “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Cor. 2:4, 5; NKJV). Paul did not try to impress with persuasive oratory but simple came with the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”
Greece, where Corinth was located, was the source of what we call Greek oratory. One of the heroes of the Greeks was Demosthenes, an Athenian statesman and orator that prominent Greeks sought to imitate. His polished style of speaking made use of rhetoric and reasoning in such a way that Greece became known as the center of the oratorical art. Despite this, when Paul came to them he did not present himself as a polished preacher with the Grecian ability to persuade. He came in demonstration of the Holy Spirit and the power of God. He said that his motive for his approach was “that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” True Christianity is not founded in human wisdom or speaking ability but on the power of God expressed through the Holy Spirit.
I’m sorry to say that much of American Christianity is based on the persuasive words of wisdom referred to here by Paul. When the power of the Spirit begins to wane we are left with nothing but words and empty ritual. When we place our personal religious and profit-making goals over the will of God we will find ourselves drifting away from the power of God to the point where our churches are nothing more than empty shells devoid of the power and presence of God. Sadly, our faith now rests in the wisdom of men because the power of God is shunned.
The apostle said the same thing to the Thessalonian church: “our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake” (1 Thess. 1:5). Paul was among the believers in Thessalonica with the recognizable presence of the power of the Holy Spirit.
That power brought “full conviction” to the people who witnessed God’s power. This “conviction” is lacking in much of today’s American Christianity. What we lack is the unveiling of the unmistakable evidence of Christ’s presence in our ministries. We are words, words and more words and people have become tired and unimpressed with our words because they don’t see the power of God that brings them to the conviction and assurance that Christ is for real. True Christianity does not abandon the power of God but realizes that where Christ is King God’s power is a normal thing.
This is why Jesus said such amazing things as this: “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matt. 18:19, 20). When we are gathered in His name in agreement with His will, He will unleash His power by providing what we ask for. The problem with much of the church in America is we are so busy building our religious empires we don’t have the time or energy to do what He says to bring us into unity concerning His will. The Father moves on our behalf when we are in agreement and that agreement is dependent on our submission to His will.
In America, instead of submitting to the Father, we have the gall to build what we want and then insist that He join us. Then we wonder why no one is impressed with what we have to offer. The beginning place of receiving the power of God is total submission to His will. When we are submitted to Him He knows He can trust us with His power. He will move in our midst and we will give Him the glory.
Let’s take a look at the ministry of Jesus. Remember that He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19). Jesus was submitted to His Father in all things. He ministered to the needs of people as He was directed by the Father.
Keeping that in mind, consider the times when Jesus performed a miracle and then told the people “not to make him known” (Matt. 12:17). Preachers have tried to understand this strange tactic of Christ, but could it simply be that He didn’t want to be given honor for something the Father was doing through Him? Could it be that He was simply showing us how to be humble at the manifestation of God’s power?
In this passage Matthew quoted from the prophecy in Isaiah where it is said of the coming Messiah, “He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street” (Isa. 42:2). Jesus came not to arrogantly make a name for Himself but to quietly go about the Father’s business. The Father released His power to His humble servant.
Remember when He turned the water into wine? It has always amazed me that when the servants took the miraculously created wine into the wedding, Jesus let the bridegroom take the credit for the excellent wine (John 2:10). Jesus never said a word because He was making it about the Father and the needs of others and not about Him. We need to learn from His humility.
Jesus healed the lame man at the pool of Bethesda and when the people turned to find Him our Lord had disappeared into the crowd receiving no credit at all (John 5:13). Jesus, out of concern for the man, came to him privately later in the temple where He could speak to the man without fanfare (v. 14).
It is time for us to let this humble Jesus of power be the Guest of honor in our lives, families and churches. It’s time to stop building human kingdoms and let Him build His kingdom in our hearts and lives through His church. We need to reject ministries that use the power of God to make a name or as a platform for performance in order to build a ministry. At the same time we need to embrace the biblical truth that the manifestation of His power is normal where believers are allowing Him to be Lord.
So that brings us to the question I keep asking, “How then shall we live?” If you are satisfied with the many words from the sermons you ingest week after week then go ahead and stay where you are. If, on the other hand, you realize that we have abandoned the power that is supposed to accompany the presence of Christ, you may be ready to abandon religion and embrace the Christ of power who indwells each of us. Paul prayed for the Ephesians and for us as well that our hearts would be enlightened so that we can see “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might” (Eph. 1:19). I pray this prayer for you and for myself as well that the darkness of this age will be dispelled so that we can see what we possess in Christ and act accordingly.
But there are many questions that arise when we talk about the power of God. Let me address some of those questions from God’s word.
1. Doesn’t Jesus warn us that in the last days many will perform lying signs and wonders and lead many astray?
Yes, Jesus warns of the possibility of fabrications of the enemy. He did so because He knows that Satan counterfeits everything that God does. Satan cannot create anything by himself so he simply copies everything that God does and tries to lure people into his traps with false wonders. But are we to throw out things because Satan counterfeits them? Do we stop having meetings because the Satanists gather? Do we abandon our pastors because Satan possesses preachers and spreads his lies? Do we abandon prophecy because there are false prophets? Do we stop healing the sick because Satan performs fake healings? Do we abandon the gifts of the Spirit because some of them are fabricated?
The obvious answer to all of these questions is a resounding, No! Instead of abandoning the power of God we are to embrace discernment and the ability to judge by means of God’s word as the Spirit leads (1 Cor. 14:29; 1 Thess. 5:20, 21; 1 Cor. 12:10). God will give us His discernment and wisdom and provide His Spirit for guidance. The Holy Spirit was promised with these words: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). This Spirit of power will lead us into truth not into lying signs and wonders (John 16:13). We need to stop being afraid of the Bogy Man and start believing in the power of God.
2. My pastor says that the miraculous manifestations like the gifts of the Spirit and miracles ceased when the canon of scripture was completed.
Next time someone makes that claim in your presence ask them to show you one passage from scripture that directly supports the concept that miracles will cease. Some will appeal to the fact that the church was built on the foundation of apostles and prophets and so when the foundation was laid there was no longer a need for the apostles, prophets and their miraculous ministry (Eph. 2:20). Others will mention how the “Lord bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit” (Heb. 2:3, 4) as if there is no longer any need for God to bear witness to His word. All of this is birthed in an incredible lack of belief in the power of God or understanding of the purpose of the church age.
The problem with this juggling game that people go through to try to prove that miracles have ceased is that throughout the world miracles are increasing with astounding frequency. The blind are given sight. The deaf hear. The dead are raised. Diseases are cured. The word is preached in power. People are coming to Christ in large numbers. Jesus is showing up in the dreams and visions of Muslims in the Muslim world. The secret meetings of saints in China and other places regularly experience miracles. Only in America do we doubt God so stubbornly.
Jesus was here in person and performed miracles openly and yet many who lived then did not believe Him. Today, many Christians listen to the unbelief that prevails in America and are convinced that miracles have ceased even though the Lord of miracles still lives and He has not changed.
You will have to do your own research to discover the truth. Are their charlatans abusing God’s power? Yes indeed. Are their false miracles from Satan? Yes! Satan does these things to draw attention away from Christ and many are falling for it. Read the word. Listen to the Spirit who is speaking to all the churches (Acts 2:7f). Find a church where there is genuine discernment without abuse of the gifts of the Spirit; where unbelief is discouraged. Find and follow the Jesus who wants to move in your life in power.
3. Isn’t the Gospel the power of God unto salvation?
Yes, that is a wonderful passage from Romans 1:16. The Gospel, the message of salvation in the cross of Jesus, is the center of God’s power. Everything He does is aimed at delivering the good news that the Lamb of God, His Son, died to set us free from the power of sin and to bring us to full salvation.
But I think sometimes people are quoting this verse with a limited understanding of the fullness of the Gospel, the good news that comes through Christ and the cross. I think this is shown by something else that Paul wrote to the Romans later in speaking of his ministry of the Gospel: “by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ” (Rom. 15:19). It is clear that Paul saw his ministry of the Gospel as accompanied by manifestations of signs and wonders by the power of God.
Isaiah 61:1 contains the mission of the Messiah: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” Jesus fulfilled this mission by granting forgiveness of sin leading to salvation, by healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead and helping the forsaken and needy. His view of His message was more than getting people into heaven. He came to present a complete message of salvation of spirit, soul and body and then He commissioned us to do the same. The power of God is released in the fulfillment of the full message of Christ.
4. It seems that the ministries that emphasize the power of God are drawing attention to themselves instead of glorifying God.
I certainly agree with that concern. Remember what we showed about how Jesus humbly ministered in the Father’s power without trying to draw attention to Himself. The power of God is meant for the normal lives of normal believers seeking to be His church. God’s release of power in our lives should be a normal experience as we continually step out to be His ambassadors in a dying world.
As we represent Christ at our jobs, schools, in the marketplace or gathered with the saints, we have something of God’s power to offer. We can pray for someone with illness. We can speak transformational words of life over someone struggling. We are sent forth by the Lord and He will provide what we need for ministry and we should do so to His glory rather than use it to glorify ourselves.
Many so called preachers have seen godliness as a means of gain (1 Tim. 6:5). Like Simon the sorcerer in the Book of Acts they use the Gospel as a means to enrich themselves with the power of God (Acts 8:18, 19). They will have to answer to God but their greedy disobedience does not negate the fact that God wants to reveal Himself in power to those who seek Him in righteousness.
Lloyd Gardner
August 25, 2015
When Jesus is allowed to be Lord, the manifestation of His power is a normal thing. In America we have adopted a brand of Christianity that is mostly words and little power. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church these thought-provoking words: “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Cor. 2:4, 5; NKJV). Paul did not try to impress with persuasive oratory but simple came with the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”
Greece, where Corinth was located, was the source of what we call Greek oratory. One of the heroes of the Greeks was Demosthenes, an Athenian statesman and orator that prominent Greeks sought to imitate. His polished style of speaking made use of rhetoric and reasoning in such a way that Greece became known as the center of the oratorical art. Despite this, when Paul came to them he did not present himself as a polished preacher with the Grecian ability to persuade. He came in demonstration of the Holy Spirit and the power of God. He said that his motive for his approach was “that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” True Christianity is not founded in human wisdom or speaking ability but on the power of God expressed through the Holy Spirit.
I’m sorry to say that much of American Christianity is based on the persuasive words of wisdom referred to here by Paul. When the power of the Spirit begins to wane we are left with nothing but words and empty ritual. When we place our personal religious and profit-making goals over the will of God we will find ourselves drifting away from the power of God to the point where our churches are nothing more than empty shells devoid of the power and presence of God. Sadly, our faith now rests in the wisdom of men because the power of God is shunned.
The apostle said the same thing to the Thessalonian church: “our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake” (1 Thess. 1:5). Paul was among the believers in Thessalonica with the recognizable presence of the power of the Holy Spirit.
That power brought “full conviction” to the people who witnessed God’s power. This “conviction” is lacking in much of today’s American Christianity. What we lack is the unveiling of the unmistakable evidence of Christ’s presence in our ministries. We are words, words and more words and people have become tired and unimpressed with our words because they don’t see the power of God that brings them to the conviction and assurance that Christ is for real. True Christianity does not abandon the power of God but realizes that where Christ is King God’s power is a normal thing.
This is why Jesus said such amazing things as this: “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matt. 18:19, 20). When we are gathered in His name in agreement with His will, He will unleash His power by providing what we ask for. The problem with much of the church in America is we are so busy building our religious empires we don’t have the time or energy to do what He says to bring us into unity concerning His will. The Father moves on our behalf when we are in agreement and that agreement is dependent on our submission to His will.
In America, instead of submitting to the Father, we have the gall to build what we want and then insist that He join us. Then we wonder why no one is impressed with what we have to offer. The beginning place of receiving the power of God is total submission to His will. When we are submitted to Him He knows He can trust us with His power. He will move in our midst and we will give Him the glory.
Let’s take a look at the ministry of Jesus. Remember that He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19). Jesus was submitted to His Father in all things. He ministered to the needs of people as He was directed by the Father.
Keeping that in mind, consider the times when Jesus performed a miracle and then told the people “not to make him known” (Matt. 12:17). Preachers have tried to understand this strange tactic of Christ, but could it simply be that He didn’t want to be given honor for something the Father was doing through Him? Could it be that He was simply showing us how to be humble at the manifestation of God’s power?
In this passage Matthew quoted from the prophecy in Isaiah where it is said of the coming Messiah, “He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street” (Isa. 42:2). Jesus came not to arrogantly make a name for Himself but to quietly go about the Father’s business. The Father released His power to His humble servant.
Remember when He turned the water into wine? It has always amazed me that when the servants took the miraculously created wine into the wedding, Jesus let the bridegroom take the credit for the excellent wine (John 2:10). Jesus never said a word because He was making it about the Father and the needs of others and not about Him. We need to learn from His humility.
Jesus healed the lame man at the pool of Bethesda and when the people turned to find Him our Lord had disappeared into the crowd receiving no credit at all (John 5:13). Jesus, out of concern for the man, came to him privately later in the temple where He could speak to the man without fanfare (v. 14).
It is time for us to let this humble Jesus of power be the Guest of honor in our lives, families and churches. It’s time to stop building human kingdoms and let Him build His kingdom in our hearts and lives through His church. We need to reject ministries that use the power of God to make a name or as a platform for performance in order to build a ministry. At the same time we need to embrace the biblical truth that the manifestation of His power is normal where believers are allowing Him to be Lord.
So that brings us to the question I keep asking, “How then shall we live?” If you are satisfied with the many words from the sermons you ingest week after week then go ahead and stay where you are. If, on the other hand, you realize that we have abandoned the power that is supposed to accompany the presence of Christ, you may be ready to abandon religion and embrace the Christ of power who indwells each of us. Paul prayed for the Ephesians and for us as well that our hearts would be enlightened so that we can see “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might” (Eph. 1:19). I pray this prayer for you and for myself as well that the darkness of this age will be dispelled so that we can see what we possess in Christ and act accordingly.
But there are many questions that arise when we talk about the power of God. Let me address some of those questions from God’s word.
1. Doesn’t Jesus warn us that in the last days many will perform lying signs and wonders and lead many astray?
Yes, Jesus warns of the possibility of fabrications of the enemy. He did so because He knows that Satan counterfeits everything that God does. Satan cannot create anything by himself so he simply copies everything that God does and tries to lure people into his traps with false wonders. But are we to throw out things because Satan counterfeits them? Do we stop having meetings because the Satanists gather? Do we abandon our pastors because Satan possesses preachers and spreads his lies? Do we abandon prophecy because there are false prophets? Do we stop healing the sick because Satan performs fake healings? Do we abandon the gifts of the Spirit because some of them are fabricated?
The obvious answer to all of these questions is a resounding, No! Instead of abandoning the power of God we are to embrace discernment and the ability to judge by means of God’s word as the Spirit leads (1 Cor. 14:29; 1 Thess. 5:20, 21; 1 Cor. 12:10). God will give us His discernment and wisdom and provide His Spirit for guidance. The Holy Spirit was promised with these words: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). This Spirit of power will lead us into truth not into lying signs and wonders (John 16:13). We need to stop being afraid of the Bogy Man and start believing in the power of God.
2. My pastor says that the miraculous manifestations like the gifts of the Spirit and miracles ceased when the canon of scripture was completed.
Next time someone makes that claim in your presence ask them to show you one passage from scripture that directly supports the concept that miracles will cease. Some will appeal to the fact that the church was built on the foundation of apostles and prophets and so when the foundation was laid there was no longer a need for the apostles, prophets and their miraculous ministry (Eph. 2:20). Others will mention how the “Lord bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit” (Heb. 2:3, 4) as if there is no longer any need for God to bear witness to His word. All of this is birthed in an incredible lack of belief in the power of God or understanding of the purpose of the church age.
The problem with this juggling game that people go through to try to prove that miracles have ceased is that throughout the world miracles are increasing with astounding frequency. The blind are given sight. The deaf hear. The dead are raised. Diseases are cured. The word is preached in power. People are coming to Christ in large numbers. Jesus is showing up in the dreams and visions of Muslims in the Muslim world. The secret meetings of saints in China and other places regularly experience miracles. Only in America do we doubt God so stubbornly.
Jesus was here in person and performed miracles openly and yet many who lived then did not believe Him. Today, many Christians listen to the unbelief that prevails in America and are convinced that miracles have ceased even though the Lord of miracles still lives and He has not changed.
You will have to do your own research to discover the truth. Are their charlatans abusing God’s power? Yes indeed. Are their false miracles from Satan? Yes! Satan does these things to draw attention away from Christ and many are falling for it. Read the word. Listen to the Spirit who is speaking to all the churches (Acts 2:7f). Find a church where there is genuine discernment without abuse of the gifts of the Spirit; where unbelief is discouraged. Find and follow the Jesus who wants to move in your life in power.
3. Isn’t the Gospel the power of God unto salvation?
Yes, that is a wonderful passage from Romans 1:16. The Gospel, the message of salvation in the cross of Jesus, is the center of God’s power. Everything He does is aimed at delivering the good news that the Lamb of God, His Son, died to set us free from the power of sin and to bring us to full salvation.
But I think sometimes people are quoting this verse with a limited understanding of the fullness of the Gospel, the good news that comes through Christ and the cross. I think this is shown by something else that Paul wrote to the Romans later in speaking of his ministry of the Gospel: “by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ” (Rom. 15:19). It is clear that Paul saw his ministry of the Gospel as accompanied by manifestations of signs and wonders by the power of God.
Isaiah 61:1 contains the mission of the Messiah: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” Jesus fulfilled this mission by granting forgiveness of sin leading to salvation, by healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead and helping the forsaken and needy. His view of His message was more than getting people into heaven. He came to present a complete message of salvation of spirit, soul and body and then He commissioned us to do the same. The power of God is released in the fulfillment of the full message of Christ.
4. It seems that the ministries that emphasize the power of God are drawing attention to themselves instead of glorifying God.
I certainly agree with that concern. Remember what we showed about how Jesus humbly ministered in the Father’s power without trying to draw attention to Himself. The power of God is meant for the normal lives of normal believers seeking to be His church. God’s release of power in our lives should be a normal experience as we continually step out to be His ambassadors in a dying world.
As we represent Christ at our jobs, schools, in the marketplace or gathered with the saints, we have something of God’s power to offer. We can pray for someone with illness. We can speak transformational words of life over someone struggling. We are sent forth by the Lord and He will provide what we need for ministry and we should do so to His glory rather than use it to glorify ourselves.
Many so called preachers have seen godliness as a means of gain (1 Tim. 6:5). Like Simon the sorcerer in the Book of Acts they use the Gospel as a means to enrich themselves with the power of God (Acts 8:18, 19). They will have to answer to God but their greedy disobedience does not negate the fact that God wants to reveal Himself in power to those who seek Him in righteousness.
A People of Vision
Lloyd Gardner
August 16, 2015
Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law (Prov. 29:18).
In the days before GPS we had to depend on maps to get around. I remember so many times pulling over to the side of the road and unfolding a gigantic map with words so small I needed a magnifying glass to read. My wife, Mary, was not known for her sense of direction so I had to try to read the map. Many times we found ourselves lost in a city without any concept of where we were or how to get to where we were going. Of course my wife would suggest we pull over and ask someone and after much frustration I would relent and pull over to ask someone for directions. And of course Mary was usually right and asking someone generally resulted in us finding our way to our destination. I’m sure you older pre-GPS people can relate.
I’m sorry to say that much of Christianity is like this today. We find ourselves lost in a strange city without a map or even a local person to ask. We are wandering around making meaningless turns that do not get us going in the right direction. Even worse, in some situations, we do not even know what our final destination looks like. We are just driving along streets, looking for familiar thing and making turns in hope of eventually getting to some unknown destination. We lack God’s vision for what He wants to accomplish because we are too busy driving around doing our own thing.
King Solomon had learned an important lesson in life. He said, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law” (Prov. 29:18). The word translated “prophetic vision” here is used many times of the perception or insight that came from the clear speaking of the prophets who heard from God and spoke His word to the people who would then be able to respond to God (Isa. 1:1; Nahum 1:1). This vision is the ability to see what God sees and reveals to His people. There were periods of time in the Old Testament when there was spiritual darkness because there was no spiritual vision that enabled people to perceive correctly. Today we are in such a period of time.
The word Solomon used for “cast off restraint” refers to that meaningless wandering I spoke of when lost in a strange city with nothing but a map with microscopic words. When there is no vision there is meaningless wandering. Without spiritual vision from God we are like sheep that have no shepherd.
Jesus saw the same thing when He visited earth the first time: “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). The supposed shepherds of the day were doing their own thing and ignoring the needs of the sheep that were left to wander in frustration. The word “fainted” here actually means the people were troubled or distressed because of their shepherdless wandering, much like the frustration I experienced when lost in a strange city. I can relate to that spiritually as well.
Paul spoke of this need when he prayed for the church in Ephesus: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,” (Eph. 1:17, 18). He was praying for Christians and asking that they would have a “spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.” This is the same prophetic, spiritual vision spoken of by Solomon. It opens a person’s spiritual eyes and enables them to see what God wants them to see: the hope He has provided and the riches we possess as His sons and daughters. We don’t know who we are or what we possess because we lack this spiritual vision.
America has been bombarded with secular-liberal-atheistic darkness and many of us, even church leaders and churches, have been spiritually blinded so we cannot see what God has clearly revealed. We depend on the wisdom of the age to guide us and that is leading us away from the clarity we have in Christ (1 Cor. 1:20). On issues like same-sex marriage and abortion we cannot perceive as God perceives because the wisdom of the world has darkened our spiritual vision.
Many teachers like John MacArthur, for example, are teaching that the Bible is a closed system and there is no longer direct revelation from God. Once the canon of scripture was complete, so this concept goes, God was no longer speaking directly to His people through revelation. There are some who teach the error that revelation is progressive in that God is continuing to give new revelation. I do not believe this but I do believe that God’s people can and should receive spiritual revelation from God that can be verified in the Bible. Without this spiritual revelation we will become mere “cerebral” Christians with a lot of doctrine in our heads and little life and power flowing from our hearts. Much of Christianity lives in this place so it is no wonder that we are in a continuous doctrinal shootout with one another.
Why else would Paul tell the Thessalonians “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:20, 21). I suppose MacArthur and others would say that this was only true in the first century before the scriptural canon was complete. The problem with that is that even the word of God gives no hint of that. This view holds that spiritual gifts are obsolete and our need of testing is likewise not necessary. Paul applied the statement to our need to test statements of prophetic revelation made in the context of fellowship.
Sometimes MacArthur says it right. In one commentary he says, “The Holy Spirit in us is our teacher. Through His presence in us and through His inspired Word, the things of God are revealed to us.” In a general sense he knows that the Holy Spirit is our teacher because so many passages teach that truth. But when it comes to having the vision or prophetic revelation of God in our spirit he seems to go wobbly. I pray that God will bless him with clarity and if I have misunderstood he will give me clarity.
John tells his readers “…the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him” (1 John 2:27). The anointing is the presence of the Holy Spirit and John’s readers had that anointed as do we all. He told them that this anointing teaches them everything. This anointing did not cease when the Bible was completed. To believe that is simple unbelief. Is it no wonder we Christians in America are divided up into a myriad of factions based on doctrinal understanding. Too many are trying to arrive at truth without the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Paul told the Ephesians that we are “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13, 14). We have the Holy Spirit until the age of the church is completed all the way up to the twenty-first century and beyond. Jesus promised that this Holy Spirit by whom you are sealed will “teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). Bible study and sermons do not accomplish this by themselves. We need the Holy Spirit to teach us by bringing to remembrance what Jesus said. Yes, His words are recorded in the Bible but we need the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us so we can understand.
Paul told the Corinthians “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said” (1 Cor. 14:29). Prophets among us will be allowed to speak but the rest of us who possess the anointing of the Holy Spirit will weigh what is said, or as with the Thessalonians “test everything” (1 Thess. 5:20, 21). We weigh with the word of God, the Bible and we test with the word of God, the Bible. But remember that the Bible is only received through revelation to our spirit. It is God-breathed and so His breath is needed for us to receive it (2 Tim. 3:16). Otherwise it is mere doctrinal knowledge that puffs up our head but does not change our lives (1 Cor. 8:1).
We are not merely body and mind beings but spirit, soul and body beings (1 Thess. 5:23). Our spirit is the lamp of the Lord (Prov. 20:27). God puts His light within our spirit and lights the fire of His presence within us so that He can speak to us, guide us, inspire us and lead us into His truth. God reveals Himself in our spirit and through His presence brings regeneration, renewal, and understanding (Rom. 12:2; John 3:3; Eph. 1:17).
Jesus repeated seven times, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7f.). The Spirit is speaking to the churches but if we do not believe that we can hear from God through revelation we will miss what He says. Is it no wonder we are missing so much in America and living a form of Christianity so desperately short of what God has provided?
I believe that many preachers today want their parishioners not to be hearing from God because they enjoy their own position as the great revealers of truth. This is not the way God intended it. He warned us through John, “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you” (1 John 2:27).
The only time we would need the hired professional teachers would be if we did not have God’s anointing to teach us. Do you see how convenient it is for today’s cessationist teachers to proclaim that because the Bible is complete we don’t need revelation from God? That leaves them as the sole distributors of truth and that is not what God intended. God has never intended that we have an elite clergy class that spoon feeds us His word. He has given us the Holy Spirit for that purpose. The Bible can only be understood through the Holy Spirit and His revelation to our spirit. Our teachers are important and we must respect them and learn from them but we have God’s anointing and do not have to go to them for all our truth.
Genuine Christianity does not abandon the need for revelation to our spirit. Some, like MacArthur think we are saying that we can receive revelation from God that goes beyond the Bible. I suppose such people are out there but I don’t know anyone who believes that. What we do believe is that God’s people without the prophetic, spiritual, revelation of the Holy Spirit would be nothing more than a glorified human religion with Christ as its subject matter.
Without the inner revelation of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of God, we are just a religious school for the dissemination of Christian doctrines. Go to almost any church in America on a Sunday morning and you will invariably see one man standing before the others teaching doctrines. That is not what Christ died for. As important as doctrines are, genuine Christianity is not about having a head full of doctrinal knowledge. It is about knowing Christ and allowing our living relationship with Him to help us live godly, righteous lives.
Revelation is the process by which God penetrates our spirit on a continuing basis bringing the evidence of His presence at all times. He speaks to us. We listen. We grow. That is genuine Christianity.
Lloyd Gardner
August 16, 2015
Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law (Prov. 29:18).
In the days before GPS we had to depend on maps to get around. I remember so many times pulling over to the side of the road and unfolding a gigantic map with words so small I needed a magnifying glass to read. My wife, Mary, was not known for her sense of direction so I had to try to read the map. Many times we found ourselves lost in a city without any concept of where we were or how to get to where we were going. Of course my wife would suggest we pull over and ask someone and after much frustration I would relent and pull over to ask someone for directions. And of course Mary was usually right and asking someone generally resulted in us finding our way to our destination. I’m sure you older pre-GPS people can relate.
I’m sorry to say that much of Christianity is like this today. We find ourselves lost in a strange city without a map or even a local person to ask. We are wandering around making meaningless turns that do not get us going in the right direction. Even worse, in some situations, we do not even know what our final destination looks like. We are just driving along streets, looking for familiar thing and making turns in hope of eventually getting to some unknown destination. We lack God’s vision for what He wants to accomplish because we are too busy driving around doing our own thing.
King Solomon had learned an important lesson in life. He said, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law” (Prov. 29:18). The word translated “prophetic vision” here is used many times of the perception or insight that came from the clear speaking of the prophets who heard from God and spoke His word to the people who would then be able to respond to God (Isa. 1:1; Nahum 1:1). This vision is the ability to see what God sees and reveals to His people. There were periods of time in the Old Testament when there was spiritual darkness because there was no spiritual vision that enabled people to perceive correctly. Today we are in such a period of time.
The word Solomon used for “cast off restraint” refers to that meaningless wandering I spoke of when lost in a strange city with nothing but a map with microscopic words. When there is no vision there is meaningless wandering. Without spiritual vision from God we are like sheep that have no shepherd.
Jesus saw the same thing when He visited earth the first time: “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). The supposed shepherds of the day were doing their own thing and ignoring the needs of the sheep that were left to wander in frustration. The word “fainted” here actually means the people were troubled or distressed because of their shepherdless wandering, much like the frustration I experienced when lost in a strange city. I can relate to that spiritually as well.
Paul spoke of this need when he prayed for the church in Ephesus: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,” (Eph. 1:17, 18). He was praying for Christians and asking that they would have a “spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.” This is the same prophetic, spiritual vision spoken of by Solomon. It opens a person’s spiritual eyes and enables them to see what God wants them to see: the hope He has provided and the riches we possess as His sons and daughters. We don’t know who we are or what we possess because we lack this spiritual vision.
America has been bombarded with secular-liberal-atheistic darkness and many of us, even church leaders and churches, have been spiritually blinded so we cannot see what God has clearly revealed. We depend on the wisdom of the age to guide us and that is leading us away from the clarity we have in Christ (1 Cor. 1:20). On issues like same-sex marriage and abortion we cannot perceive as God perceives because the wisdom of the world has darkened our spiritual vision.
Many teachers like John MacArthur, for example, are teaching that the Bible is a closed system and there is no longer direct revelation from God. Once the canon of scripture was complete, so this concept goes, God was no longer speaking directly to His people through revelation. There are some who teach the error that revelation is progressive in that God is continuing to give new revelation. I do not believe this but I do believe that God’s people can and should receive spiritual revelation from God that can be verified in the Bible. Without this spiritual revelation we will become mere “cerebral” Christians with a lot of doctrine in our heads and little life and power flowing from our hearts. Much of Christianity lives in this place so it is no wonder that we are in a continuous doctrinal shootout with one another.
Why else would Paul tell the Thessalonians “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:20, 21). I suppose MacArthur and others would say that this was only true in the first century before the scriptural canon was complete. The problem with that is that even the word of God gives no hint of that. This view holds that spiritual gifts are obsolete and our need of testing is likewise not necessary. Paul applied the statement to our need to test statements of prophetic revelation made in the context of fellowship.
Sometimes MacArthur says it right. In one commentary he says, “The Holy Spirit in us is our teacher. Through His presence in us and through His inspired Word, the things of God are revealed to us.” In a general sense he knows that the Holy Spirit is our teacher because so many passages teach that truth. But when it comes to having the vision or prophetic revelation of God in our spirit he seems to go wobbly. I pray that God will bless him with clarity and if I have misunderstood he will give me clarity.
John tells his readers “…the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him” (1 John 2:27). The anointing is the presence of the Holy Spirit and John’s readers had that anointed as do we all. He told them that this anointing teaches them everything. This anointing did not cease when the Bible was completed. To believe that is simple unbelief. Is it no wonder we Christians in America are divided up into a myriad of factions based on doctrinal understanding. Too many are trying to arrive at truth without the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Paul told the Ephesians that we are “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13, 14). We have the Holy Spirit until the age of the church is completed all the way up to the twenty-first century and beyond. Jesus promised that this Holy Spirit by whom you are sealed will “teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). Bible study and sermons do not accomplish this by themselves. We need the Holy Spirit to teach us by bringing to remembrance what Jesus said. Yes, His words are recorded in the Bible but we need the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us so we can understand.
Paul told the Corinthians “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said” (1 Cor. 14:29). Prophets among us will be allowed to speak but the rest of us who possess the anointing of the Holy Spirit will weigh what is said, or as with the Thessalonians “test everything” (1 Thess. 5:20, 21). We weigh with the word of God, the Bible and we test with the word of God, the Bible. But remember that the Bible is only received through revelation to our spirit. It is God-breathed and so His breath is needed for us to receive it (2 Tim. 3:16). Otherwise it is mere doctrinal knowledge that puffs up our head but does not change our lives (1 Cor. 8:1).
We are not merely body and mind beings but spirit, soul and body beings (1 Thess. 5:23). Our spirit is the lamp of the Lord (Prov. 20:27). God puts His light within our spirit and lights the fire of His presence within us so that He can speak to us, guide us, inspire us and lead us into His truth. God reveals Himself in our spirit and through His presence brings regeneration, renewal, and understanding (Rom. 12:2; John 3:3; Eph. 1:17).
Jesus repeated seven times, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7f.). The Spirit is speaking to the churches but if we do not believe that we can hear from God through revelation we will miss what He says. Is it no wonder we are missing so much in America and living a form of Christianity so desperately short of what God has provided?
I believe that many preachers today want their parishioners not to be hearing from God because they enjoy their own position as the great revealers of truth. This is not the way God intended it. He warned us through John, “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you” (1 John 2:27).
The only time we would need the hired professional teachers would be if we did not have God’s anointing to teach us. Do you see how convenient it is for today’s cessationist teachers to proclaim that because the Bible is complete we don’t need revelation from God? That leaves them as the sole distributors of truth and that is not what God intended. God has never intended that we have an elite clergy class that spoon feeds us His word. He has given us the Holy Spirit for that purpose. The Bible can only be understood through the Holy Spirit and His revelation to our spirit. Our teachers are important and we must respect them and learn from them but we have God’s anointing and do not have to go to them for all our truth.
Genuine Christianity does not abandon the need for revelation to our spirit. Some, like MacArthur think we are saying that we can receive revelation from God that goes beyond the Bible. I suppose such people are out there but I don’t know anyone who believes that. What we do believe is that God’s people without the prophetic, spiritual, revelation of the Holy Spirit would be nothing more than a glorified human religion with Christ as its subject matter.
Without the inner revelation of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of God, we are just a religious school for the dissemination of Christian doctrines. Go to almost any church in America on a Sunday morning and you will invariably see one man standing before the others teaching doctrines. That is not what Christ died for. As important as doctrines are, genuine Christianity is not about having a head full of doctrinal knowledge. It is about knowing Christ and allowing our living relationship with Him to help us live godly, righteous lives.
Revelation is the process by which God penetrates our spirit on a continuing basis bringing the evidence of His presence at all times. He speaks to us. We listen. We grow. That is genuine Christianity.
A Journey to Death
Lloyd Gardner
August 11, 2015
Would you follow a man who said in essence “Following Me is a journey to your death?” One does not hear that theme being preached by the television evangelists or from the pulpits of our institutional churches. In a market economy you don’t try to sell your product by scaring your customers at your first meeting. Yet, take a look at some of the teachings of Jesus and His disciples about what it means to follow Him:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? (Luke 9:23-25).
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27).
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come (Heb. 13:12-14).
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (Col. 3:5).
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).
Death is not a popular subject and yet it is very much a part of the Gospel message. Jesus set a very high standard that is impossible through religion. All the do’s and don’ts in the world cannot curb the appetites of the fallen nature of humanity. Jesus knew this and so He spoke a message of death to our broken and unfixable soul-life.
Jesus said this to his disciples and to all Jesus followers: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). The word Jesus used for “deny” here is a very strong word meaning to “utterly reject” something once and for all. He used a word that left no doubt about the meaning. If we want to follow Christ we must immediately and for all time deny ourselves because our self is opposed to God and is under the control of sin and Satan. If we want to keep our selfish, fallen humanity then we cannot follow Christ.
Jesus goes even further in saying the person who wants to follow Him must “take up his cross daily.” The self-denial is a once and for all event that is triggered when we take our first step to follow Christ. It comes out of the realization that to follow Christ is an “either-or” situation. We either are willing to deny our self to follow Him or we are not.
The expression “take up his cross,” as Luke points out, is a daily action. If we have denied our self, every day we wake up with the knowledge that on this day we are taking up a cross to follow Jesus. To take up a cross is to take up the instrument of our death. It is an acknowledgement that each day is a portion of the journey to the death of our fallen nature.
The people living in the first century were quite familiar with crucifixion. They saw the scourgings that preceded the journey of the cross. Then they saw the accused carrying their crosses through the streets to the place of execution. They saw the crucified bodies along the Roman roads leading from the cities. It was the favored form of capital punishment for Rome’s enemies and convicted criminals. Everyone living in the area controlled by Rome was familiar with the cross and crucifixion. When Jesus said “take up his cross” they knew what He was talking about. To take up one’s cross was to begin the journey to the place of execution and death.
When a rich young ruler came to Jesus asking what He must do to have eternal life, Jesus told him, “go sell everything you own! Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and be my follower." Instead of telling the man that he must deny himself, Jesus asked him to do the one thing that would reveal whether or not he would be willing to deny himself in order to follow Jesus. The man was very rich and was unwilling to give up the riches he piled up in his young life. Matthew tells us “…he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Matt. 19:22). The man’s heart was connected to his riches so he was unwilling to give Jesus his heart—his corrupt soul. He seemed to want to follow Jesus but he was not willing to deny himself because he possessed so much.
Jesus was not trying to get the crowds to follow Him. He was attempting to find true followers, people willing to leave all to follow Him. On the other hand, most people reject Christ’s offer because they do not fully understand it. Jesus went on to say in the Luke passage, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it (Luke 19:24). The word used for life here is the word usually translated “soul.” So we are talking about one’s natural soul life, the fallen nature of man. If one tries to save it by keeping it and trying to improve it or simply wanting to keep the natural self the way it is, the end result is loss and failure. This destroyed, fallen soul cannot be saved through human endeavor. It must be crucified, put to death, denied.
But Jesus’ statement promises a wonderful outcome for those who lose their soul-life so that He can save it. When one decides to follow the One who is life and is willing to deny his self, Jesus is able to transform the soul by the inner working of the Holy Spirit. It can be totally resurrected and remade in the likeness of Christ once it is put to death.
Jesus is not merely talking about going to heaven in this passage. He is talking about what it takes to be His follower now, in this life—to be one who follows Him wherever He leads. Paul said it this way: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). When a person makes the decision to deny self and take up his cross, Jesus fulfills His promise to provide a life of wonderful spiritual fulfillment through the abiding power of the Holy Spirit. To be a follower of Christ is to be one who is yoked with the King of heaven; One who brings all that He is and all that He offers into the relationship. When we die to our self we are united with Christ and become the beneficiaries of all the splendor of His kingdom. And that splendor is “Christ in us the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).
Baptism symbolizes our death and resurrection in Christ. The sixth chapter of Romans depicts it as a burial in which we die in Christ and are united with Him in resurrection life. Paul encourages us to consider ourselves “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11). First we must die and then we can live.
In spoiled Christian America we cannot fathom this truth. We think of Christianity as a massive program taking place in a big building with all the comforts of home and titillating programs to satisfy every fleshly need. The message of death to self is not preached because it is not popular and does not attract the crowds and the funds to continue the programs. A pastor would soon be out of a job if he had the courage to share this truth from the pulpit.
That’s why Jesus spoke this truth only to the inner circle of those who were truly His followers. He did not entrust Himself to the multitudes because, as John wrote, “he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25). He knew the fallen sinful nature of the hearts of men and He would not commit to that. Rather, He entrusted Himself to an inner circle of followers who would change the world because they would allow Him to lead them into the power of death and resurrection. Today, I’m sorry to say, many of our churches build their programs around attracting the multitudes. The real tragedy is that the people are never truly taught the way of the cross because it is not good for the bottom line—the numbers.
Genuine Christianity does not avoid this message because it is the foundational truth behind all that Jesus taught. Jesus died and rose again and He invites us to die with Him to this old fallen nature and be raised to a new, vibrant, exhilarating life in fellowship with the Master of the Universe. Christ is moving among us even now and He is calling to us with simple words: “Follow Me.” The first step is a costly one but the rewards of walking with the King are too wonderful to ignore.
I want to say with Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
Lloyd Gardner
August 11, 2015
Would you follow a man who said in essence “Following Me is a journey to your death?” One does not hear that theme being preached by the television evangelists or from the pulpits of our institutional churches. In a market economy you don’t try to sell your product by scaring your customers at your first meeting. Yet, take a look at some of the teachings of Jesus and His disciples about what it means to follow Him:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? (Luke 9:23-25).
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27).
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come (Heb. 13:12-14).
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (Col. 3:5).
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).
Death is not a popular subject and yet it is very much a part of the Gospel message. Jesus set a very high standard that is impossible through religion. All the do’s and don’ts in the world cannot curb the appetites of the fallen nature of humanity. Jesus knew this and so He spoke a message of death to our broken and unfixable soul-life.
Jesus said this to his disciples and to all Jesus followers: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). The word Jesus used for “deny” here is a very strong word meaning to “utterly reject” something once and for all. He used a word that left no doubt about the meaning. If we want to follow Christ we must immediately and for all time deny ourselves because our self is opposed to God and is under the control of sin and Satan. If we want to keep our selfish, fallen humanity then we cannot follow Christ.
Jesus goes even further in saying the person who wants to follow Him must “take up his cross daily.” The self-denial is a once and for all event that is triggered when we take our first step to follow Christ. It comes out of the realization that to follow Christ is an “either-or” situation. We either are willing to deny our self to follow Him or we are not.
The expression “take up his cross,” as Luke points out, is a daily action. If we have denied our self, every day we wake up with the knowledge that on this day we are taking up a cross to follow Jesus. To take up a cross is to take up the instrument of our death. It is an acknowledgement that each day is a portion of the journey to the death of our fallen nature.
The people living in the first century were quite familiar with crucifixion. They saw the scourgings that preceded the journey of the cross. Then they saw the accused carrying their crosses through the streets to the place of execution. They saw the crucified bodies along the Roman roads leading from the cities. It was the favored form of capital punishment for Rome’s enemies and convicted criminals. Everyone living in the area controlled by Rome was familiar with the cross and crucifixion. When Jesus said “take up his cross” they knew what He was talking about. To take up one’s cross was to begin the journey to the place of execution and death.
When a rich young ruler came to Jesus asking what He must do to have eternal life, Jesus told him, “go sell everything you own! Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and be my follower." Instead of telling the man that he must deny himself, Jesus asked him to do the one thing that would reveal whether or not he would be willing to deny himself in order to follow Jesus. The man was very rich and was unwilling to give up the riches he piled up in his young life. Matthew tells us “…he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Matt. 19:22). The man’s heart was connected to his riches so he was unwilling to give Jesus his heart—his corrupt soul. He seemed to want to follow Jesus but he was not willing to deny himself because he possessed so much.
Jesus was not trying to get the crowds to follow Him. He was attempting to find true followers, people willing to leave all to follow Him. On the other hand, most people reject Christ’s offer because they do not fully understand it. Jesus went on to say in the Luke passage, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it (Luke 19:24). The word used for life here is the word usually translated “soul.” So we are talking about one’s natural soul life, the fallen nature of man. If one tries to save it by keeping it and trying to improve it or simply wanting to keep the natural self the way it is, the end result is loss and failure. This destroyed, fallen soul cannot be saved through human endeavor. It must be crucified, put to death, denied.
But Jesus’ statement promises a wonderful outcome for those who lose their soul-life so that He can save it. When one decides to follow the One who is life and is willing to deny his self, Jesus is able to transform the soul by the inner working of the Holy Spirit. It can be totally resurrected and remade in the likeness of Christ once it is put to death.
Jesus is not merely talking about going to heaven in this passage. He is talking about what it takes to be His follower now, in this life—to be one who follows Him wherever He leads. Paul said it this way: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). When a person makes the decision to deny self and take up his cross, Jesus fulfills His promise to provide a life of wonderful spiritual fulfillment through the abiding power of the Holy Spirit. To be a follower of Christ is to be one who is yoked with the King of heaven; One who brings all that He is and all that He offers into the relationship. When we die to our self we are united with Christ and become the beneficiaries of all the splendor of His kingdom. And that splendor is “Christ in us the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).
Baptism symbolizes our death and resurrection in Christ. The sixth chapter of Romans depicts it as a burial in which we die in Christ and are united with Him in resurrection life. Paul encourages us to consider ourselves “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11). First we must die and then we can live.
In spoiled Christian America we cannot fathom this truth. We think of Christianity as a massive program taking place in a big building with all the comforts of home and titillating programs to satisfy every fleshly need. The message of death to self is not preached because it is not popular and does not attract the crowds and the funds to continue the programs. A pastor would soon be out of a job if he had the courage to share this truth from the pulpit.
That’s why Jesus spoke this truth only to the inner circle of those who were truly His followers. He did not entrust Himself to the multitudes because, as John wrote, “he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25). He knew the fallen sinful nature of the hearts of men and He would not commit to that. Rather, He entrusted Himself to an inner circle of followers who would change the world because they would allow Him to lead them into the power of death and resurrection. Today, I’m sorry to say, many of our churches build their programs around attracting the multitudes. The real tragedy is that the people are never truly taught the way of the cross because it is not good for the bottom line—the numbers.
Genuine Christianity does not avoid this message because it is the foundational truth behind all that Jesus taught. Jesus died and rose again and He invites us to die with Him to this old fallen nature and be raised to a new, vibrant, exhilarating life in fellowship with the Master of the Universe. Christ is moving among us even now and He is calling to us with simple words: “Follow Me.” The first step is a costly one but the rewards of walking with the King are too wonderful to ignore.
I want to say with Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
They Tremble at God’s Word
Lloyd Gardner
July 30, 2015
Jesus had just healed a paralyzed man and was making His way through the market place when He saw Matthew, the tax collector, at his tax station. He spoke only two words: “Follow me” (Luke 5:27). Luke tells us that Matthew simply stood up, left everything and followed Jesus. We now know that the “everything” in Luke’s account was Matthew’s livelihood, and everything about his earthly life that mattered. We are not told that Matthew had ever seen Jesus before or that he was in any way familiar with Him. And yet he left everything he owned and knew and followed someone who spoke only two words, “Follow me.”
I used to think that surely Matthew had seen the miracle of the healing of the paralyzed man or had heard from others about Jesus. But now I am convinced that Mathew followed Jesus because, when the Lord spoke, no matter how simple, the words had life-changing, transforming power in the ears of this seeker of God. Matthew was seeking God and so when the two words from the Son of God reached his ears he was immediately touched by the presence of God released in the words.
It is still that way today. His words change lives. Tom Doyle, in his book Dreams and Visions, relates many accounts of people in the Middle East hearing the words of Jesus in dreams at night or visions. One of those men, Amir, heard a voice while in his bed at night: “Follow Me, Amir.” Amir had rejected the Christianity of his youth because, as he put it, formal Christianity had erased all of the affection he once had for Christ. Now the three words in the night brought back that affection. He fell to his knees, repented and accepted Jesus as Lord.
Then there was Habib, a Palestinian who was in the hospital from a gunshot wound. Jesus appeared to him in a dream and spoke four words: “I love you, Habib.” Habib’s life was changed forever because the words came from the One the Bible calls “the Word” (John 1:1; Rev. 19:13). When Jesus speaks hearts are captured for Him.
The word of God truly is a spiritual sword able to penetrate a man’s heart bringing the reality of Christ (Heb. 4:12). It is the sword of the Spirit that we wield in spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:17). The book of Revelation introduces Jesus as the One out of whose mouth “came a sharp two-edged sword” (Rev. 1:16). The word of God is a transformative source of spiritual power. This is why Jesus warns us seven times, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7 etc.). To truly hear what God is saying is to be changed forever.
The writer of Hebrews says of Christ, “…who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3). God upholds all things in the universe by the “word of His power.” It’s interesting that the author did not use the words “power of His word.” He purposely emphasized the word of God as the means by which the power of the Son of God is manifest.
The word of God is the means by which God releases His power into the universe and then holds it together. In the Genesis account of creation we are told “And God said” followed by the various stages of God’s creative work. In Hebrews we are told that this creation was the work of the Son: “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands” (Heb. 1:10). The work of the hands of the Son was accomplished through the pronouncements from the mouth of God. The Gospel is called “…the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). The word spoken concerning the good news of salvation in Christ is the power of God. Those words set the captives free and heal the broken hearted.
“And God said.” When God speaks change happens. Stars are created. The earth and its inhabitants are created. Diseases are cured. Demons are defeated. People are raised from the dead. Multitudes are fed. The Son of God walks on water. On and on we see the profound results of God’s word spoken into the natural realm. His word brings His will and His will defeats all other wills and purposes.
We hear from the book of Isaiah that we should tremble at the word of God:
Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isa. 66:1, 2).
We should tremble knowing that His word is the most powerful force in the universe and it is rejected at tremendous cost. When God speaks all of heaven’s will is capsulized and sent forth in power.
God has made the universe by His creative power, His word. His word is powerful because what He says is truth personified and materialized. What God says will always perform its purpose and never returns to Him empty: “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:11). God never speaks empty words and every word He speaks accomplishes the purpose for which He spoke it.
The Bible is God’s word in written form. Paul told us that “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). It is breathed out of His mouth and is the life-changing, world-creating power that fashioned and maintains the universe. When we read the Bible we are reading the very thoughts of the Most High God. He has revealed Himself through His words. Christ is called “the Word” because He was and is the very earthly expression of the will of God. When we have seen the Son we have seen the Father God (John 1:12).
God began inspiring the recording of scripture through the hand of Moses and passed down the keeping of the record through the generations (Gen. 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12; 25:19; 36:1, 9; 37:2, etc.). The New Testament continues that record as Christ penetrated earth’s history and men were moved to record the events of His coming and the church that exploded from the life He released. These are not allegorical stories as many secularists suppose but the actual recordings of real people and real historical events. The Bible, contrary to what secularists believe, is the historical record of the history of God’s dealings with man. It is God’s developing message to humanity. To reject it is to reject God.
So, the enemy of God, Satan (Yes, he is real!) began an organized attempt to discredit the Bible and all that it says. He convinced the elite theologians that it was all just allegory and that the events recorded did not actually happen. The creation story is just man’s way of explaining the process of evolution in creating everything. The story of Noah and the flood are allegories with some spiritual theme. All of the miracles of the Bible are invented by men to emphasize some spiritual concept. The virgin birth did not really occur—that would take a miracle. The miracles of Jesus are mere stories made up by His followers. He did not really rise from the grave but His disciples made up the story to start a new religion. It’s all just made up to emphasize remote spiritual concepts couched in unbelief. To this way of thinking God is merely some kind of active force in the universe, not a living person.
Strangely enough, the enemy of God has succeeded in convincing people that the Bible, the record of God’s dealings with man, is simply a book of allegorical fables. Jesus was a real person in history but the facts about Him have been distorted to make a religious case. At this point only 28% of Americans believe that the Bible is literally true. That’s not enough to win an election much less effect the destiny of America.
But genuine Christianity is founded on God’s ability to inspire the writing of a true history of His attempts to communicate with humanity. All of the miraculous events can be easily explained to the genuine seeker of truth. The creation story. Noah, the flood and the ark. Abraham’s fellowship with God. Moses and the exodus of Israel. The history of Israel. The coming of Christ and His ministry, crucifixion, resurrection and glorification. The explosion of faith in the first century and the spread of Christianity and the church. It’s all there for anyone to read who seeks truth.
But many people have listened to the fallible scientists and confused theologians in their search for truth. They insist that, like the Koran or Hindu writings, the Bible is a mere collection of myths recording through history. Rather than tremble at the word of God they ridicule it and hold it up to the scorn of unbelievers. They fail to put it to the test of logic and truth while accepting the dictates of illogical and unproven science and theology.
I say to them, look again! The Bible rings with truth because it is historical and real. It is real people telling real stories of their encounters with God as He sought to penetrate the darkness and deadness created by His enemy.
And still many believe His enemy and the mindless ramblings of his followers who cannot recognize a miracle when it is sitting on their nose. The doubters and skeptics have won the day temporarily but God will get the last laugh. He has revealed Himself fully for all to see. He sent His Son to live as a man in human form and share Himself with us. He inspired the writing of a book and sent it to us. That book has never been disproven though many have tried. He has done all He can do to communicate His will to us. A day is coming when He will hold all of humanity accountable for how they have responded to what He has spoken.
We need to tremble at the word of God. We need to shake in our boots when God speaks because what He says is ultimate truth and much of what He says involves our eternal destiny. Men share their limited outlook on truth but God has openly revealed Himself clearly and spoken loudly for all to hear. Genuine Christianity is based on this certainty. Those who call themselves Christian but twist and mangle His word to suit their limited understanding will have to account for their actions.
This is why Satan works so hard to get us to shut our mouths. He knows that God’s power is released in His word, so he intimidates us into silence. So we sit on our blessed assurance and let the enemy speak and write his word through our leaders, schools, and media and gradually transform it into his image. Christians are called to be people of the word, people who are not ashamed to speak forth what they know to be true.
The onslaught of the enemy in recent weeks has become obvious. Now it is time for those who are followers of Christ to open their mouths and let the sword of the Spirit come forth. The enemy will always be yelling and screaming in this world he has created but we have the privilege of speaking words of light into the darkness. This is real Christianity.
Lloyd Gardner
July 30, 2015
Jesus had just healed a paralyzed man and was making His way through the market place when He saw Matthew, the tax collector, at his tax station. He spoke only two words: “Follow me” (Luke 5:27). Luke tells us that Matthew simply stood up, left everything and followed Jesus. We now know that the “everything” in Luke’s account was Matthew’s livelihood, and everything about his earthly life that mattered. We are not told that Matthew had ever seen Jesus before or that he was in any way familiar with Him. And yet he left everything he owned and knew and followed someone who spoke only two words, “Follow me.”
I used to think that surely Matthew had seen the miracle of the healing of the paralyzed man or had heard from others about Jesus. But now I am convinced that Mathew followed Jesus because, when the Lord spoke, no matter how simple, the words had life-changing, transforming power in the ears of this seeker of God. Matthew was seeking God and so when the two words from the Son of God reached his ears he was immediately touched by the presence of God released in the words.
It is still that way today. His words change lives. Tom Doyle, in his book Dreams and Visions, relates many accounts of people in the Middle East hearing the words of Jesus in dreams at night or visions. One of those men, Amir, heard a voice while in his bed at night: “Follow Me, Amir.” Amir had rejected the Christianity of his youth because, as he put it, formal Christianity had erased all of the affection he once had for Christ. Now the three words in the night brought back that affection. He fell to his knees, repented and accepted Jesus as Lord.
Then there was Habib, a Palestinian who was in the hospital from a gunshot wound. Jesus appeared to him in a dream and spoke four words: “I love you, Habib.” Habib’s life was changed forever because the words came from the One the Bible calls “the Word” (John 1:1; Rev. 19:13). When Jesus speaks hearts are captured for Him.
The word of God truly is a spiritual sword able to penetrate a man’s heart bringing the reality of Christ (Heb. 4:12). It is the sword of the Spirit that we wield in spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:17). The book of Revelation introduces Jesus as the One out of whose mouth “came a sharp two-edged sword” (Rev. 1:16). The word of God is a transformative source of spiritual power. This is why Jesus warns us seven times, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7 etc.). To truly hear what God is saying is to be changed forever.
The writer of Hebrews says of Christ, “…who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3). God upholds all things in the universe by the “word of His power.” It’s interesting that the author did not use the words “power of His word.” He purposely emphasized the word of God as the means by which the power of the Son of God is manifest.
The word of God is the means by which God releases His power into the universe and then holds it together. In the Genesis account of creation we are told “And God said” followed by the various stages of God’s creative work. In Hebrews we are told that this creation was the work of the Son: “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands” (Heb. 1:10). The work of the hands of the Son was accomplished through the pronouncements from the mouth of God. The Gospel is called “…the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). The word spoken concerning the good news of salvation in Christ is the power of God. Those words set the captives free and heal the broken hearted.
“And God said.” When God speaks change happens. Stars are created. The earth and its inhabitants are created. Diseases are cured. Demons are defeated. People are raised from the dead. Multitudes are fed. The Son of God walks on water. On and on we see the profound results of God’s word spoken into the natural realm. His word brings His will and His will defeats all other wills and purposes.
We hear from the book of Isaiah that we should tremble at the word of God:
Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isa. 66:1, 2).
We should tremble knowing that His word is the most powerful force in the universe and it is rejected at tremendous cost. When God speaks all of heaven’s will is capsulized and sent forth in power.
God has made the universe by His creative power, His word. His word is powerful because what He says is truth personified and materialized. What God says will always perform its purpose and never returns to Him empty: “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:11). God never speaks empty words and every word He speaks accomplishes the purpose for which He spoke it.
The Bible is God’s word in written form. Paul told us that “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). It is breathed out of His mouth and is the life-changing, world-creating power that fashioned and maintains the universe. When we read the Bible we are reading the very thoughts of the Most High God. He has revealed Himself through His words. Christ is called “the Word” because He was and is the very earthly expression of the will of God. When we have seen the Son we have seen the Father God (John 1:12).
God began inspiring the recording of scripture through the hand of Moses and passed down the keeping of the record through the generations (Gen. 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12; 25:19; 36:1, 9; 37:2, etc.). The New Testament continues that record as Christ penetrated earth’s history and men were moved to record the events of His coming and the church that exploded from the life He released. These are not allegorical stories as many secularists suppose but the actual recordings of real people and real historical events. The Bible, contrary to what secularists believe, is the historical record of the history of God’s dealings with man. It is God’s developing message to humanity. To reject it is to reject God.
So, the enemy of God, Satan (Yes, he is real!) began an organized attempt to discredit the Bible and all that it says. He convinced the elite theologians that it was all just allegory and that the events recorded did not actually happen. The creation story is just man’s way of explaining the process of evolution in creating everything. The story of Noah and the flood are allegories with some spiritual theme. All of the miracles of the Bible are invented by men to emphasize some spiritual concept. The virgin birth did not really occur—that would take a miracle. The miracles of Jesus are mere stories made up by His followers. He did not really rise from the grave but His disciples made up the story to start a new religion. It’s all just made up to emphasize remote spiritual concepts couched in unbelief. To this way of thinking God is merely some kind of active force in the universe, not a living person.
Strangely enough, the enemy of God has succeeded in convincing people that the Bible, the record of God’s dealings with man, is simply a book of allegorical fables. Jesus was a real person in history but the facts about Him have been distorted to make a religious case. At this point only 28% of Americans believe that the Bible is literally true. That’s not enough to win an election much less effect the destiny of America.
But genuine Christianity is founded on God’s ability to inspire the writing of a true history of His attempts to communicate with humanity. All of the miraculous events can be easily explained to the genuine seeker of truth. The creation story. Noah, the flood and the ark. Abraham’s fellowship with God. Moses and the exodus of Israel. The history of Israel. The coming of Christ and His ministry, crucifixion, resurrection and glorification. The explosion of faith in the first century and the spread of Christianity and the church. It’s all there for anyone to read who seeks truth.
But many people have listened to the fallible scientists and confused theologians in their search for truth. They insist that, like the Koran or Hindu writings, the Bible is a mere collection of myths recording through history. Rather than tremble at the word of God they ridicule it and hold it up to the scorn of unbelievers. They fail to put it to the test of logic and truth while accepting the dictates of illogical and unproven science and theology.
I say to them, look again! The Bible rings with truth because it is historical and real. It is real people telling real stories of their encounters with God as He sought to penetrate the darkness and deadness created by His enemy.
And still many believe His enemy and the mindless ramblings of his followers who cannot recognize a miracle when it is sitting on their nose. The doubters and skeptics have won the day temporarily but God will get the last laugh. He has revealed Himself fully for all to see. He sent His Son to live as a man in human form and share Himself with us. He inspired the writing of a book and sent it to us. That book has never been disproven though many have tried. He has done all He can do to communicate His will to us. A day is coming when He will hold all of humanity accountable for how they have responded to what He has spoken.
We need to tremble at the word of God. We need to shake in our boots when God speaks because what He says is ultimate truth and much of what He says involves our eternal destiny. Men share their limited outlook on truth but God has openly revealed Himself clearly and spoken loudly for all to hear. Genuine Christianity is based on this certainty. Those who call themselves Christian but twist and mangle His word to suit their limited understanding will have to account for their actions.
This is why Satan works so hard to get us to shut our mouths. He knows that God’s power is released in His word, so he intimidates us into silence. So we sit on our blessed assurance and let the enemy speak and write his word through our leaders, schools, and media and gradually transform it into his image. Christians are called to be people of the word, people who are not ashamed to speak forth what they know to be true.
The onslaught of the enemy in recent weeks has become obvious. Now it is time for those who are followers of Christ to open their mouths and let the sword of the Spirit come forth. The enemy will always be yelling and screaming in this world he has created but we have the privilege of speaking words of light into the darkness. This is real Christianity.
Christians Know they are Called to Spiritual Warfare
Lloyd Gardner
July 23, 2015
As I write this evening another theater shooting has taken place, this time at the Grand Theater in the city of Lafayette, Louisiana. At this time at least two people are reported dead and several injured. This most recent shooting follows by only days the final guilty verdict of James Holmes in the Aurora Theater shooting in Colorado.
The devil is alive and well and continuing to work his havoc on humanity. The problem is that fewer and fewer people believe that the devil is an actual personal spiritual being. Many who say they believe in the devil think of him as a non-personal force of evil in the world. To them Satan merely represents this evil force that exists. Polls are showing that even many Christians no longer believe the devil is an actual being.
Genuine Christianity on the other hand embraces the fact that Satan is a real being who rebelled against God and is the author of all evil. Some may protest this statement in their pursuit of Christian diversity but the fact that God will use genuine followers of Christ to defeat Satan shows that he is real (Rev. 12:11). The defeat of Satan will come through the victorious remnant of the end times. He is defeated daily in the lives of those who know who he is and who they are in Christ.
Satan is called many things: the accuser of the brethren, liar, deceiver, adversary, murderer, tempter, and god of this world. Jesus referred to him as “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). I would like to wrap those names up into one bundle by saying that Satan is the propaganda minister of evil. His primary strategy is deception that leads to what he wants. He uses propaganda which works well especially toward people who are not familiar with God’s word because they have become passive and complacent. Much of society today is susceptible to his propaganda filled with his lies because they have stopped believing that he exists. Ironically, they believe he is nonexistent because his propaganda has been so effective.
We first see Satan at work in the Garden of Eden where he applied his techniques against an unsuspecting Eve (Gen. 3:1-6). He begins by questioning God’s word (3:1). Then after Eve responds he tells an out and out lie saying “You will not surely die” (3:4).
But then he does what he is so good at. He takes God’s word and twists it to conform to his way of thinking: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (3:5). In other words he redefined death. God had said, “…in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (2:17) but Satan explains to Eve that this death God spoke of means that they would become like God and would know good and evil.
Satan likes to redefine things. His redefinition will always have an element of truth in it that he can twist to his liking. He has used this tactic with marriage. Recently he has redefined marriage in his own image. He works in the hearts of fallen humanity until he gets his way.
Christians who wish to be involved in intercessory prayer that defeats Satan’s plans must become aware of his tactics (Eph. 6:11). We must realize that his spiritual forces are behind much of the chaos we see in society. We must learn to stop focusing on the chaos and zero in on the demonic powers behind it. Paul put it this way: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). The flesh and blood chaos is disturbing but behind it is a demonic hierarchy working to produce the will of Satan. If we don’t realize this we will fail at spiritual warfare through prayer. As Mary and I prayed tonight upon hearing of the shooting we were led to pray against the spiritual forces behind it as well as for the families involved.
When Peter resisted the pathway of redemption that Christ had shared with the disciples, Jesus recognized what was behind his resistance. “Get behind me Satan,” he declared to Peter (Matt. 16:23). Then He clarified saying “You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Peter’s resistance was the problem but Jesus knew the real instigator behind the scenes. We surmise that He was speaking to Peter only but He was speaking to Satan who had overstepped his bounds. To be effective warriors of prayer we must have the same discernment and react accordingly.
Often people, like Peter, are setting their minds of the things of man while God’s plan is ignored. Our prayers can change this. First, we must know and understand God’s purpose and then we can recognize when it is being preempted and pray effectively.
Revelation 8:1-6 takes us behind the spiritual curtain so we can see the effect of our prayers. In the moments before the wrath begins to be poured out on planet earth an angel takes incense and mixes it with the prayers of the saints in his censor. Then he takes fire from the altar and casts it to the earth. This combination of the incense, what God provides, and the prayers of the saints, which we provide, results in the final judgment on planet earth and its disobedient inhabitants.
God is moving in concert with our prayers. What we pray in His will explodes with the fire of the altar of heaven and releases the will of God into the earthly realm. This is what Jesus meant when He taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9, 10). Our commission is to determine the will of God and pray it forth. We are to pray for the kingdom of God to be established and function. We are to know the will of heaven so we can pray it into existence on earth. And let us remember that establishing God’s kingdom means defeating the king of the kingdom of darkness.
This is what Jesus meant when He said,
Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them (Matt. 18:18- 20).
Just as the angel cast the fiery coals with the incense to the earth, God commits His will into the earth when we pray. In His will we can bind and loose the things of the kingdom and in our agreement release the will of the Father. He joins with us to accomplish this.
This is why Satan is defeated behind the scenes when we pray the will of God. Where the kingdom of God is established the kingdom of darkness is overcome. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the power of God unleashed in praying saints. Often we see a problem and we cry out, “Oh no, this is terrible!” We need to see a problem and then ask God for the discernment to see the spiritual source behind it. Whether it be a tragic shooting, a Supreme Court decision on marriage, a family problem, a personal challenge, a political decision in our city, or anything else, instead of bemoaning the situation we need to learn to pray against the power behind it.
True followers of Christ will eventually learn that they are part of the seed promised by God in Genesis 3 that will bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). Christ, the Seed of the woman and all others who learn what it means to overcome the enemy, will be the means by which the serpent is defeated. We see that defeat in Revelation 12 when the dragon is cast out of heaven by Michael the archangel and his angel warriors. Then it is declared “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Rev. 12:11). Satan will indeed be defeated by Christ the Seed working in concert with the others who are the seed of the woman—the reborn sons of the living God. Genuine Christianity, the church, the bride of Christ, His faithful remnant will defeat Satan through the power released in the redemption of Christ.
The training for that battle is in session as we speak. God is calling all who desire to be in that army of spiritual warriors to understand their calling and step forward. The war will be difficult and at times discouraging but we will win the battles along the way and eventually the accuser of the brethren will be cast down.
Many Christians are foolish enough to believe that Satan is not real. Others are teaching that many of the weapons of our warfare have been rescinded. We have stopped believing in miracles and the spiritual realm and somehow believe that all problems have an earthly cause and an earthly solution. This is a devastating mistake. The enemy is alive and well but his fate is sealed. Genuine Christians are called to participate in fulfilling that fate.
Lloyd Gardner
July 23, 2015
As I write this evening another theater shooting has taken place, this time at the Grand Theater in the city of Lafayette, Louisiana. At this time at least two people are reported dead and several injured. This most recent shooting follows by only days the final guilty verdict of James Holmes in the Aurora Theater shooting in Colorado.
The devil is alive and well and continuing to work his havoc on humanity. The problem is that fewer and fewer people believe that the devil is an actual personal spiritual being. Many who say they believe in the devil think of him as a non-personal force of evil in the world. To them Satan merely represents this evil force that exists. Polls are showing that even many Christians no longer believe the devil is an actual being.
Genuine Christianity on the other hand embraces the fact that Satan is a real being who rebelled against God and is the author of all evil. Some may protest this statement in their pursuit of Christian diversity but the fact that God will use genuine followers of Christ to defeat Satan shows that he is real (Rev. 12:11). The defeat of Satan will come through the victorious remnant of the end times. He is defeated daily in the lives of those who know who he is and who they are in Christ.
Satan is called many things: the accuser of the brethren, liar, deceiver, adversary, murderer, tempter, and god of this world. Jesus referred to him as “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). I would like to wrap those names up into one bundle by saying that Satan is the propaganda minister of evil. His primary strategy is deception that leads to what he wants. He uses propaganda which works well especially toward people who are not familiar with God’s word because they have become passive and complacent. Much of society today is susceptible to his propaganda filled with his lies because they have stopped believing that he exists. Ironically, they believe he is nonexistent because his propaganda has been so effective.
We first see Satan at work in the Garden of Eden where he applied his techniques against an unsuspecting Eve (Gen. 3:1-6). He begins by questioning God’s word (3:1). Then after Eve responds he tells an out and out lie saying “You will not surely die” (3:4).
But then he does what he is so good at. He takes God’s word and twists it to conform to his way of thinking: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (3:5). In other words he redefined death. God had said, “…in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (2:17) but Satan explains to Eve that this death God spoke of means that they would become like God and would know good and evil.
Satan likes to redefine things. His redefinition will always have an element of truth in it that he can twist to his liking. He has used this tactic with marriage. Recently he has redefined marriage in his own image. He works in the hearts of fallen humanity until he gets his way.
Christians who wish to be involved in intercessory prayer that defeats Satan’s plans must become aware of his tactics (Eph. 6:11). We must realize that his spiritual forces are behind much of the chaos we see in society. We must learn to stop focusing on the chaos and zero in on the demonic powers behind it. Paul put it this way: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). The flesh and blood chaos is disturbing but behind it is a demonic hierarchy working to produce the will of Satan. If we don’t realize this we will fail at spiritual warfare through prayer. As Mary and I prayed tonight upon hearing of the shooting we were led to pray against the spiritual forces behind it as well as for the families involved.
When Peter resisted the pathway of redemption that Christ had shared with the disciples, Jesus recognized what was behind his resistance. “Get behind me Satan,” he declared to Peter (Matt. 16:23). Then He clarified saying “You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Peter’s resistance was the problem but Jesus knew the real instigator behind the scenes. We surmise that He was speaking to Peter only but He was speaking to Satan who had overstepped his bounds. To be effective warriors of prayer we must have the same discernment and react accordingly.
Often people, like Peter, are setting their minds of the things of man while God’s plan is ignored. Our prayers can change this. First, we must know and understand God’s purpose and then we can recognize when it is being preempted and pray effectively.
Revelation 8:1-6 takes us behind the spiritual curtain so we can see the effect of our prayers. In the moments before the wrath begins to be poured out on planet earth an angel takes incense and mixes it with the prayers of the saints in his censor. Then he takes fire from the altar and casts it to the earth. This combination of the incense, what God provides, and the prayers of the saints, which we provide, results in the final judgment on planet earth and its disobedient inhabitants.
God is moving in concert with our prayers. What we pray in His will explodes with the fire of the altar of heaven and releases the will of God into the earthly realm. This is what Jesus meant when He taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9, 10). Our commission is to determine the will of God and pray it forth. We are to pray for the kingdom of God to be established and function. We are to know the will of heaven so we can pray it into existence on earth. And let us remember that establishing God’s kingdom means defeating the king of the kingdom of darkness.
This is what Jesus meant when He said,
Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them (Matt. 18:18- 20).
Just as the angel cast the fiery coals with the incense to the earth, God commits His will into the earth when we pray. In His will we can bind and loose the things of the kingdom and in our agreement release the will of the Father. He joins with us to accomplish this.
This is why Satan is defeated behind the scenes when we pray the will of God. Where the kingdom of God is established the kingdom of darkness is overcome. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the power of God unleashed in praying saints. Often we see a problem and we cry out, “Oh no, this is terrible!” We need to see a problem and then ask God for the discernment to see the spiritual source behind it. Whether it be a tragic shooting, a Supreme Court decision on marriage, a family problem, a personal challenge, a political decision in our city, or anything else, instead of bemoaning the situation we need to learn to pray against the power behind it.
True followers of Christ will eventually learn that they are part of the seed promised by God in Genesis 3 that will bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). Christ, the Seed of the woman and all others who learn what it means to overcome the enemy, will be the means by which the serpent is defeated. We see that defeat in Revelation 12 when the dragon is cast out of heaven by Michael the archangel and his angel warriors. Then it is declared “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Rev. 12:11). Satan will indeed be defeated by Christ the Seed working in concert with the others who are the seed of the woman—the reborn sons of the living God. Genuine Christianity, the church, the bride of Christ, His faithful remnant will defeat Satan through the power released in the redemption of Christ.
The training for that battle is in session as we speak. God is calling all who desire to be in that army of spiritual warriors to understand their calling and step forward. The war will be difficult and at times discouraging but we will win the battles along the way and eventually the accuser of the brethren will be cast down.
Many Christians are foolish enough to believe that Satan is not real. Others are teaching that many of the weapons of our warfare have been rescinded. We have stopped believing in miracles and the spiritual realm and somehow believe that all problems have an earthly cause and an earthly solution. This is a devastating mistake. The enemy is alive and well but his fate is sealed. Genuine Christians are called to participate in fulfilling that fate.
It lives in Oneness with other Believers
Lloyd Gardner
July 16, 2015
The biggest testimony against Christianity in America is our lack of oneness. Disunity is the outward evidence that we do not love one another. That sends a message to the world that Christianity does not work. It shows that we are immature and incomplete in Christ.
Paul describes immature, carnal Christianity in his letter to the Ephesians: “…so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph. 4:14). Imagine a ship without a rudder caught in a violent storm at sea tossed one way and the other by the wind-driven waves. This is how Paul saw immature Christianity—a ship without a rudder blown in different directions by winds of doctrine that distract us from our true objective which is to love Christ and our brothers.
In America we have replaced our devotion to Christ with a devotion to knowledge about doctrines and ideas. We have largely abandoned our devotion to a living relationship with our Lord and have developed a relationship with famous preachers, their clever ideas and the exhilaration of cerebral gymnastics. Our estimation of the health of a church depends on the eloquence of the pastor, the cleverness of his programs or the sophistication of the “worship band” and its leader. We judge success by numbers and the size of the offering or as one pastor put it by the “nickels and noses.” Like the church in Ephesus we have left our first love and have fallen in love with religion (Rev. 2:4).
For the most part we have abandoned any hope of any far-reaching oneness between the followers of Christ. We are satisfied to be one with our little band of believers who gather around a good preacher and the programs he administers. We have given up on the concept of oneness between Christians becoming a living testimony to the reality of God in our midst. We know such oneness would take a miracle and since we have given up on miracles we have given up on miraculous oneness among God’s people. Many teachers proclaim that the church will be a non-factor in the end times anyway, so why should we bother with trying to be one with other believers.
So we have given up on the prayer of Jesus in the upper room prior to His arrest: "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20, 21). Those are the words of Jesus pouring out His heart for those who were to “believe in me through their word” (That would be us.) as He cried out to the Father for oneness so real that the world would believe.
I suppose if one tries hard enough he can come up with some rationalization for why this prayer will not be fulfilled. My question for everyone is why are we trying to find a way around it? Why don’t we simply seek His help to live out His prayer for oneness in our lives? It amazes me how quickly Christians can set aside the clear thrust of scripture for the sake of expediency! It also amazes me how we can set aside those things that require miracles because we have stopped believing in the miraculous.
Real Christianity does not put aside the prayer of Jesus but seeks to fulfill it. The early church was such a force of unity that it changed the world from that day forward. Their oneness and devotion to Christ were so astounding that people came to Christ by the thousands. These early converts were not impressed with their preachers or worship bands or fancy programs. They were captivated by the genuine love and unity they witnessed in the followers of Christ.
Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). That’s clear enough. Love will be the evidence that we are followers of Christ. The Lord was not saying that everyone who sees our love will become His followers. He was saying that our love will be a living testimony of who we are following.
In His prayer in John 17 He was not saying that our oneness would cause the world to come to Christ. He was saying that we should have oneness in Him “…so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” They will know that there is a Christ and that He is worth following because they see the love expressed in the unity of His followers. How they respond is up to them but our unity will send a powerful message concerning Christ.
To the extent that we are experiencing this in our lives we are proving to be followers of Christ. If it is lacking in our lives we are experiencing something other than genuine Christianity. It seems to me that true Christianity can be found in the fulfillment of this prayer of Jesus. If we have no concern for this last prayer of His for the entire church age, how can we claim to be His followers?
I can almost hear someone reading this saying, “That’s impossible! How can thousands of Christians from every imaginable background become one with one another? How can we overcome the myriad of doctrinal, cultural and social issues that fuel our animosity and divide us?” Many have come to accept that this is as naïve, idealistic thinking that can never be realized.
I understand these concerns. There have been times when I too have doubted whether the promises of God’s word can be fulfilled. Look at the following passages from God’s word and then I will share how Jesus instilled oneness in His first disciples and how following His simple steps can produce the same miracle today.
Here’s what God has to say on the subject:
* Here Paul is appealing to in the name of Jesus to be in agreement in Christ:
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment (1 Cor. 1:10).
* In this next passage he describes the ultimate goal we are to reach that will be the determining factor concerning our maturity as individuals and as a church:
…until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).
* Here Paul defines the source of our unity in God and how we are to conduct ourselves in order to maintain it:
…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:2-6).
* This is the prayer of Jesus I referred to earlier. It is the last prayer of Jesus for His church before He went to the cross. It is important that we understand its significance for our lives:
that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17:21-23).
* This is my favorite Psalm. It describes the glorious appeal of unity to the human heart. I believe it is a prophetic picture of the unity of the body of Christ:
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore (Ps. 133).
Of course there is much more about oneness in God’s word but I think you get the idea. It is clear that it is the will of God that His people dwell in unity and that this is an obvious sign to the world that He and His word are for real. So how are we to conduct ourselves to foster unity in our experience with other followers of Christ?
Start Small
Jesus purposely did not commit Himself to the large multitudes. The word says He knew their hearts and knew that unity cannot begin in a large group but must begin in close encounters with a few people (John 2:24). So Jesus began with one or two at a time until a small group of men and women followed Him closely and learned from His words and His actions. He knew that people are spiritually knit together with individuals in small group settings.
Oneness can never come to large gatherings on Sunday morning because we do not spend quality time with one another. Oneness develops between people who spend time together sharing and being together. It begins one-on-one and grows to two-on-two and so on until a small group shares the common experience of Christ in their lives. Only Christ can bring oneness. It does not come from ideas or methods but by getting to know Him in concert with others.
Jesus understood this and fellowshipped with a small group of followers until He had instilled in them His vision for His purpose. After all of His three and a half years of ministry only one hundred and twenty were in the upper room waiting for the Holy Spirit. But that small group was united in spirit with Christ and totally committed to His will. They understood what Christ meant when He said, “…if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matt. 18:19, 20). He mentioned these small numbers because He understood that it was essential to begin small so that true agreement can be developed.
Like a marriage, our relationship grows as we commit to one or two people in Christ. Once we are standing in agreement with Christ together, He is truly among us and we can begin to ask things in His name and the Father will do it (Matt. 18:19).
Stay Small
Some large churches use small groups as a tool because they see the value in smaller fellowships. We must stop making this mistake. Smallness is not a tool enabling us to eventually have our large crowds. Smallness is the way fellowship begins and continues and oneness develops, grows and prospers.
The church in Jerusalem grew to many thousands of people but it never set aside the smallness of its gatherings. They met in small numbers in homes and other private places where genuine fellowship could take place (Acts 2:42-46; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phm. 1:2). Many thousands were in the church in Jerusalem and yet they continued to gather in small intimate groups. In this context oneness grew and love prospered. They were like families spending time together around the table learning to encourage one another and build one another up in Christ. They had no intention of growing out of their smallness into big buildings and programs. When a group got too big they simply divided up and met in more houses maintaining their intimacy. Yes, occasionally they met altogether in Solomon’s Portico to celebrate but the real source of their spiritual vitality was in the smallness of the home (Acts 2:46; 5:12).
Fellowship not Sermons
Sermons talk about unity but fellowship builds unity. Fellowship is sharing between Christians. It is the flow of Christ between us. It is the primary way we serve one another and build one another up on Christ. It is the main way the word of God is shared between us and keeps us standing on the solid foundation Christ provides (Acts 2:42; Eph. 4:12-16).
Sermons are a top-down, one-way experience that touch us primarily at the intellectual level and allow us to be passive spectators. Fellowship involves a common sharing between believers with Christ as the Guest of honor. We often forget that He promised “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20). If He is with us then He can still fellowship with us as we share His life together. Real spiritual fellowship is the sharing of Christ between believers resulting in genuine unity.
Commitment to People not Programs
Unity is like placing bricks next to one another as a building is constructed. The bricks are bound together by mortar. One person must fit next to another and so on until the building is full constructed. Modern Christianity tries to take all of the bricks and pile them in a pile in the yard in hope that they will somehow align with one another in unity. It doesn’t happen this way.
One brick must be placed next to the other and properly aligned with the ones next to it so that a building can result. This is unity. Today’s Christianity operates on the assumption that if we can get many bricks into the same place we can cause them to fall together and become a building. This process has failed over and over again. The church is not a pile of bricks but is a construction whereby the bricks are placed where they belong. Unity comes when we allow the Master builder to place the bricks in their proper places next to one another.
Paul speaks of the “unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). There cannot be unity until there is a “bond” that binds the bricks together. The bond is the mortar that holds the bricks in place. That bond is the peace or harmony that comes from knowing the Prince of Peace and conducting ourselves in humility, love and harmony with others who know Christ. That peace whereby we put aside our doctrinal six-shooters and embrace our brothers will enable us to maintain the unity we possess as members of one another in His body.
Our unity is with the people next to us not with a big group that agrees with a larger program. We think we can be one if we have a leader who can develop a program about which we can all agree. That experiment is a devastating failure. Unity must be developed one person at a time as we commit ourselves to people one on one.
Unity in Christ not Ideas
I once witnessed the breakup of a fellowship because a faction in the church was committed to “reformed theology.” This approach to doctrines was the basis of their unity and it resulted in a devastating split. Men like Luther, Calvin, Menno Simons and others developed a unique approach to theology but we are not united in Luther, Calvin or any other human being or their theology. They are dead and gone. Jesus lives in us. Jesus is the Guest of honor in our midst and He, by the Spirit will lead us into all truth (John 16:13). No man has all the answers. We must gather around Christ who is the answer. Sometimes I wonder if we truly believe He walks among us.
“Knowledge puffs up but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). Put another way, doctrines give us a big head but love makes us big together in Christ. Doctrines are important but they are merely the leaves on the tree of life. The leaves are produced by the life within. Let us seek to promote that life within that comes by knowing Christ and living with Him daily.
To sum it all up let me say that this is genuine Christianity—living in unity with other believers based on our common possession of Christ and trusting the life of Christ within to straighten out the external issues of doctrine and practice. Jesus is our Lord. Let us submit to Him in submission to one another. Out of that will come unity that will astound the world.
Lloyd Gardner
July 16, 2015
The biggest testimony against Christianity in America is our lack of oneness. Disunity is the outward evidence that we do not love one another. That sends a message to the world that Christianity does not work. It shows that we are immature and incomplete in Christ.
Paul describes immature, carnal Christianity in his letter to the Ephesians: “…so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph. 4:14). Imagine a ship without a rudder caught in a violent storm at sea tossed one way and the other by the wind-driven waves. This is how Paul saw immature Christianity—a ship without a rudder blown in different directions by winds of doctrine that distract us from our true objective which is to love Christ and our brothers.
In America we have replaced our devotion to Christ with a devotion to knowledge about doctrines and ideas. We have largely abandoned our devotion to a living relationship with our Lord and have developed a relationship with famous preachers, their clever ideas and the exhilaration of cerebral gymnastics. Our estimation of the health of a church depends on the eloquence of the pastor, the cleverness of his programs or the sophistication of the “worship band” and its leader. We judge success by numbers and the size of the offering or as one pastor put it by the “nickels and noses.” Like the church in Ephesus we have left our first love and have fallen in love with religion (Rev. 2:4).
For the most part we have abandoned any hope of any far-reaching oneness between the followers of Christ. We are satisfied to be one with our little band of believers who gather around a good preacher and the programs he administers. We have given up on the concept of oneness between Christians becoming a living testimony to the reality of God in our midst. We know such oneness would take a miracle and since we have given up on miracles we have given up on miraculous oneness among God’s people. Many teachers proclaim that the church will be a non-factor in the end times anyway, so why should we bother with trying to be one with other believers.
So we have given up on the prayer of Jesus in the upper room prior to His arrest: "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20, 21). Those are the words of Jesus pouring out His heart for those who were to “believe in me through their word” (That would be us.) as He cried out to the Father for oneness so real that the world would believe.
I suppose if one tries hard enough he can come up with some rationalization for why this prayer will not be fulfilled. My question for everyone is why are we trying to find a way around it? Why don’t we simply seek His help to live out His prayer for oneness in our lives? It amazes me how quickly Christians can set aside the clear thrust of scripture for the sake of expediency! It also amazes me how we can set aside those things that require miracles because we have stopped believing in the miraculous.
Real Christianity does not put aside the prayer of Jesus but seeks to fulfill it. The early church was such a force of unity that it changed the world from that day forward. Their oneness and devotion to Christ were so astounding that people came to Christ by the thousands. These early converts were not impressed with their preachers or worship bands or fancy programs. They were captivated by the genuine love and unity they witnessed in the followers of Christ.
Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). That’s clear enough. Love will be the evidence that we are followers of Christ. The Lord was not saying that everyone who sees our love will become His followers. He was saying that our love will be a living testimony of who we are following.
In His prayer in John 17 He was not saying that our oneness would cause the world to come to Christ. He was saying that we should have oneness in Him “…so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” They will know that there is a Christ and that He is worth following because they see the love expressed in the unity of His followers. How they respond is up to them but our unity will send a powerful message concerning Christ.
To the extent that we are experiencing this in our lives we are proving to be followers of Christ. If it is lacking in our lives we are experiencing something other than genuine Christianity. It seems to me that true Christianity can be found in the fulfillment of this prayer of Jesus. If we have no concern for this last prayer of His for the entire church age, how can we claim to be His followers?
I can almost hear someone reading this saying, “That’s impossible! How can thousands of Christians from every imaginable background become one with one another? How can we overcome the myriad of doctrinal, cultural and social issues that fuel our animosity and divide us?” Many have come to accept that this is as naïve, idealistic thinking that can never be realized.
I understand these concerns. There have been times when I too have doubted whether the promises of God’s word can be fulfilled. Look at the following passages from God’s word and then I will share how Jesus instilled oneness in His first disciples and how following His simple steps can produce the same miracle today.
Here’s what God has to say on the subject:
* Here Paul is appealing to in the name of Jesus to be in agreement in Christ:
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment (1 Cor. 1:10).
* In this next passage he describes the ultimate goal we are to reach that will be the determining factor concerning our maturity as individuals and as a church:
…until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).
* Here Paul defines the source of our unity in God and how we are to conduct ourselves in order to maintain it:
…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:2-6).
* This is the prayer of Jesus I referred to earlier. It is the last prayer of Jesus for His church before He went to the cross. It is important that we understand its significance for our lives:
that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17:21-23).
* This is my favorite Psalm. It describes the glorious appeal of unity to the human heart. I believe it is a prophetic picture of the unity of the body of Christ:
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore (Ps. 133).
Of course there is much more about oneness in God’s word but I think you get the idea. It is clear that it is the will of God that His people dwell in unity and that this is an obvious sign to the world that He and His word are for real. So how are we to conduct ourselves to foster unity in our experience with other followers of Christ?
Start Small
Jesus purposely did not commit Himself to the large multitudes. The word says He knew their hearts and knew that unity cannot begin in a large group but must begin in close encounters with a few people (John 2:24). So Jesus began with one or two at a time until a small group of men and women followed Him closely and learned from His words and His actions. He knew that people are spiritually knit together with individuals in small group settings.
Oneness can never come to large gatherings on Sunday morning because we do not spend quality time with one another. Oneness develops between people who spend time together sharing and being together. It begins one-on-one and grows to two-on-two and so on until a small group shares the common experience of Christ in their lives. Only Christ can bring oneness. It does not come from ideas or methods but by getting to know Him in concert with others.
Jesus understood this and fellowshipped with a small group of followers until He had instilled in them His vision for His purpose. After all of His three and a half years of ministry only one hundred and twenty were in the upper room waiting for the Holy Spirit. But that small group was united in spirit with Christ and totally committed to His will. They understood what Christ meant when He said, “…if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matt. 18:19, 20). He mentioned these small numbers because He understood that it was essential to begin small so that true agreement can be developed.
Like a marriage, our relationship grows as we commit to one or two people in Christ. Once we are standing in agreement with Christ together, He is truly among us and we can begin to ask things in His name and the Father will do it (Matt. 18:19).
Stay Small
Some large churches use small groups as a tool because they see the value in smaller fellowships. We must stop making this mistake. Smallness is not a tool enabling us to eventually have our large crowds. Smallness is the way fellowship begins and continues and oneness develops, grows and prospers.
The church in Jerusalem grew to many thousands of people but it never set aside the smallness of its gatherings. They met in small numbers in homes and other private places where genuine fellowship could take place (Acts 2:42-46; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phm. 1:2). Many thousands were in the church in Jerusalem and yet they continued to gather in small intimate groups. In this context oneness grew and love prospered. They were like families spending time together around the table learning to encourage one another and build one another up in Christ. They had no intention of growing out of their smallness into big buildings and programs. When a group got too big they simply divided up and met in more houses maintaining their intimacy. Yes, occasionally they met altogether in Solomon’s Portico to celebrate but the real source of their spiritual vitality was in the smallness of the home (Acts 2:46; 5:12).
Fellowship not Sermons
Sermons talk about unity but fellowship builds unity. Fellowship is sharing between Christians. It is the flow of Christ between us. It is the primary way we serve one another and build one another up on Christ. It is the main way the word of God is shared between us and keeps us standing on the solid foundation Christ provides (Acts 2:42; Eph. 4:12-16).
Sermons are a top-down, one-way experience that touch us primarily at the intellectual level and allow us to be passive spectators. Fellowship involves a common sharing between believers with Christ as the Guest of honor. We often forget that He promised “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20). If He is with us then He can still fellowship with us as we share His life together. Real spiritual fellowship is the sharing of Christ between believers resulting in genuine unity.
Commitment to People not Programs
Unity is like placing bricks next to one another as a building is constructed. The bricks are bound together by mortar. One person must fit next to another and so on until the building is full constructed. Modern Christianity tries to take all of the bricks and pile them in a pile in the yard in hope that they will somehow align with one another in unity. It doesn’t happen this way.
One brick must be placed next to the other and properly aligned with the ones next to it so that a building can result. This is unity. Today’s Christianity operates on the assumption that if we can get many bricks into the same place we can cause them to fall together and become a building. This process has failed over and over again. The church is not a pile of bricks but is a construction whereby the bricks are placed where they belong. Unity comes when we allow the Master builder to place the bricks in their proper places next to one another.
Paul speaks of the “unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). There cannot be unity until there is a “bond” that binds the bricks together. The bond is the mortar that holds the bricks in place. That bond is the peace or harmony that comes from knowing the Prince of Peace and conducting ourselves in humility, love and harmony with others who know Christ. That peace whereby we put aside our doctrinal six-shooters and embrace our brothers will enable us to maintain the unity we possess as members of one another in His body.
Our unity is with the people next to us not with a big group that agrees with a larger program. We think we can be one if we have a leader who can develop a program about which we can all agree. That experiment is a devastating failure. Unity must be developed one person at a time as we commit ourselves to people one on one.
Unity in Christ not Ideas
I once witnessed the breakup of a fellowship because a faction in the church was committed to “reformed theology.” This approach to doctrines was the basis of their unity and it resulted in a devastating split. Men like Luther, Calvin, Menno Simons and others developed a unique approach to theology but we are not united in Luther, Calvin or any other human being or their theology. They are dead and gone. Jesus lives in us. Jesus is the Guest of honor in our midst and He, by the Spirit will lead us into all truth (John 16:13). No man has all the answers. We must gather around Christ who is the answer. Sometimes I wonder if we truly believe He walks among us.
“Knowledge puffs up but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). Put another way, doctrines give us a big head but love makes us big together in Christ. Doctrines are important but they are merely the leaves on the tree of life. The leaves are produced by the life within. Let us seek to promote that life within that comes by knowing Christ and living with Him daily.
To sum it all up let me say that this is genuine Christianity—living in unity with other believers based on our common possession of Christ and trusting the life of Christ within to straighten out the external issues of doctrine and practice. Jesus is our Lord. Let us submit to Him in submission to one another. Out of that will come unity that will astound the world.
Prospering in the Midst of Persecution
Lloyd Gardner
July 9, 2015
True Christianity does not cave in under persecution but is strengthened by it. In my book Face to Face published in 2009, I wrote that the Lord had shared with me that a collapse is coming to America. The collapse was to begin with political, social, moral and spiritual decay resulting in a breakdown of the foundational mores of our country. The end result will be economic collapse in which the fabric of our society will unravel. The collapse is beginning to happen even as I write these words. The decay of our moral standards reflected in such developments as same-sex marriage, adultery, abortion, moral depravity expressed in our media, the breakdown of truth seeking in the news media and the thinking of people, political stagnation, and much more, are signs that the collapse is has begun and is growing in intensity.
The next thing the Lord shared with me is that this moral collapse will result in severe persecution of the followers of Christ. Across the land there will be growing efforts to ostracize Christians by branding them bigots for opposing ungodly marriage, the government educational system, killing of the unborn and unbridled sexual liberty. This persecution will increase rapidly and will shake American Christianity to its core. Brace yourself because it is coming faster and with more impact than anyone imagines.
But real Christianity prospers in the midst of persecution. Christianity was birthed in the midst of one of the fiercest times of persecution in human history. The Roman Empire crucified Christ, and ignited a firestorm of persecution toward Christians. Some scriptural accounts and traditional reports tell us of the martyrdom of these followers of Christ:
Matthew was killed with a sword in Ethiopia.
Mark died at Alexandria, after being brutally dragged through the streets of the city.
Luke was hanged from a tree in Greece.
John was put in a cauldron of boiling oil, but miraculously escaped death but was later banished to the island of Patmos.
Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward.
James, the brother of John was beheaded at Jerusalem.
James, son of Alphaeus was thrown from a pinnacle of the temple, and then beaten to death with a club.
Bartholomew was flayed alive.
Andrew was bound to a cross, from which he preached to his persecutors until death.
Thomas was run through the body with a spear in the East Indies.
Jude was shot to death with arrows.
Matthias was stoned and then beheaded.
Barnabas was stoned to death at Salonica.
Paul, after much torture and persecutions, was beheaded at Rome under the Emperor Nero.
Throughout history Christians have been the object of Satan’s hatred. The Book of Martyrs is filled with the stories of devastating persecution at the hands of governments and other faiths and even by those who call themselves Christians. Throughout the world persecution is growing. Open Doors ministries reports that 100 million people around the world are being persecuted in over 65 countries. The persecution in the Middle East is exploding as militant Islam takes control. Other countries like North Korea and China continue their opposition to freedom of worship.
Europe is experiencing the effects of creeping secularization and has preceded America in its criticism of the “intolerance” of Christians toward such accepted norms as same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia. Christians have been arrested for such things as wearing a cross, or opposing homosexual partnerships. There are very few evangelical Christians left in Europe and very few are able to speak out for fear of reprisal.
Today in America the groundswell of persecution is beginning to grow much more rapidly than any of us imagined. But if we are facing the closing down of the age it follows that Satan cannot have a nation that believes in Christ and allows freedom of religion. He will do all he can to destroy this freedom and continue the slow but real secular onslaught against Christ and His followers.
But Jesus would tell us to be fearful. He has already said,
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matt. 5:10:-12).
The Lord tells us that it is a blessed thing to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness. It is a blessing when people criticize you and speak evil of you and falsely accuse you. He says to “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”
The reward for being persecuted is great because those who are persecuted are those who are living righteously before God and will not compromise their faith in Christ. One of the characteristics of the overcomers is “they loved not their lives even unto death” (Rev. 12:11). The overcomer is one who has come to the place where he loves Christ more than he loves himself. Overcomers lay down their lives daily to follow Christ and would not hesitate to die for Him.
Perhaps this is why Paul says that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ including “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword” (Rom. 8:35). In fact he told Timothy that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). Notice the very direct words “all” and “will be.” Paul is not saying that we might be persecuted but that everyone who desires to live a godly life will be persecuted.
I don’t think most of us in America really know what that means. I certainly don’t. I have suffered my share of criticism mostly from other Christians but I have not really suffered much real persecution. I think Paul is speaking from his vantage point in first century Christianity where one could easily be arrested, beaten, imprisoned, stoned, etc. for their faith. In fact those and many others things happened to Paul on many occasions. I believe we in America are getting ready to find out what he meant. Some are experiencing loss of livelihood and much more for standing up for what they believe.
The real Christian will not back down when secular America challenges his faith with an “or else” connected to it. If our faith is real it will stand the test of Satan’s pressure and scare tactics. The most he can do is take our lives and if we are true overcomers we love the Lord more than our lives anyway.
But I’m sorry to say that many whose faith has been pretense or hypocritical will compromise their beliefs for the sake of their skin. Throughout the world Christians are dying at the hand of extremists because they will not recant their faith in Christ but here in American many are compromising for the sake of their popularity, economic livelihood or standing with their friends. Many of us have never grown to the point where Christ is so real to us that we would die before rejecting Him. Our faith has been based on the goodies we get from God and the comfortable pathway we have walked.
Genuine Christianity will not compromise but will prosper in the midst of persecution. Persecution is like gasoline thrown onto the fire of genuine faith. Real faith knows the true meaning of James’ words, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4). James knew from personal experience that testing does produce steadfastness and it will grow in us until we are truly complete in Christ. James suffered a martyr’s death some time before 70 AD.
This is a plea to all who read these words to examine yourselves in the light of God’s word and the leading of the Spirit. These are treacherous times and they will get even worse as the days pass. We must be sure of what we believe and in whom we believe. Our faith must not hinge on doctrines or church programs or other religious things. Our faith cannot be pretend but must be real. We must have a living, active faith in the living Christ who dwells inside of us and died to set us free.
Lloyd Gardner
July 9, 2015
True Christianity does not cave in under persecution but is strengthened by it. In my book Face to Face published in 2009, I wrote that the Lord had shared with me that a collapse is coming to America. The collapse was to begin with political, social, moral and spiritual decay resulting in a breakdown of the foundational mores of our country. The end result will be economic collapse in which the fabric of our society will unravel. The collapse is beginning to happen even as I write these words. The decay of our moral standards reflected in such developments as same-sex marriage, adultery, abortion, moral depravity expressed in our media, the breakdown of truth seeking in the news media and the thinking of people, political stagnation, and much more, are signs that the collapse is has begun and is growing in intensity.
The next thing the Lord shared with me is that this moral collapse will result in severe persecution of the followers of Christ. Across the land there will be growing efforts to ostracize Christians by branding them bigots for opposing ungodly marriage, the government educational system, killing of the unborn and unbridled sexual liberty. This persecution will increase rapidly and will shake American Christianity to its core. Brace yourself because it is coming faster and with more impact than anyone imagines.
But real Christianity prospers in the midst of persecution. Christianity was birthed in the midst of one of the fiercest times of persecution in human history. The Roman Empire crucified Christ, and ignited a firestorm of persecution toward Christians. Some scriptural accounts and traditional reports tell us of the martyrdom of these followers of Christ:
Matthew was killed with a sword in Ethiopia.
Mark died at Alexandria, after being brutally dragged through the streets of the city.
Luke was hanged from a tree in Greece.
John was put in a cauldron of boiling oil, but miraculously escaped death but was later banished to the island of Patmos.
Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward.
James, the brother of John was beheaded at Jerusalem.
James, son of Alphaeus was thrown from a pinnacle of the temple, and then beaten to death with a club.
Bartholomew was flayed alive.
Andrew was bound to a cross, from which he preached to his persecutors until death.
Thomas was run through the body with a spear in the East Indies.
Jude was shot to death with arrows.
Matthias was stoned and then beheaded.
Barnabas was stoned to death at Salonica.
Paul, after much torture and persecutions, was beheaded at Rome under the Emperor Nero.
Throughout history Christians have been the object of Satan’s hatred. The Book of Martyrs is filled with the stories of devastating persecution at the hands of governments and other faiths and even by those who call themselves Christians. Throughout the world persecution is growing. Open Doors ministries reports that 100 million people around the world are being persecuted in over 65 countries. The persecution in the Middle East is exploding as militant Islam takes control. Other countries like North Korea and China continue their opposition to freedom of worship.
Europe is experiencing the effects of creeping secularization and has preceded America in its criticism of the “intolerance” of Christians toward such accepted norms as same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia. Christians have been arrested for such things as wearing a cross, or opposing homosexual partnerships. There are very few evangelical Christians left in Europe and very few are able to speak out for fear of reprisal.
Today in America the groundswell of persecution is beginning to grow much more rapidly than any of us imagined. But if we are facing the closing down of the age it follows that Satan cannot have a nation that believes in Christ and allows freedom of religion. He will do all he can to destroy this freedom and continue the slow but real secular onslaught against Christ and His followers.
But Jesus would tell us to be fearful. He has already said,
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matt. 5:10:-12).
The Lord tells us that it is a blessed thing to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness. It is a blessing when people criticize you and speak evil of you and falsely accuse you. He says to “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”
The reward for being persecuted is great because those who are persecuted are those who are living righteously before God and will not compromise their faith in Christ. One of the characteristics of the overcomers is “they loved not their lives even unto death” (Rev. 12:11). The overcomer is one who has come to the place where he loves Christ more than he loves himself. Overcomers lay down their lives daily to follow Christ and would not hesitate to die for Him.
Perhaps this is why Paul says that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ including “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword” (Rom. 8:35). In fact he told Timothy that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). Notice the very direct words “all” and “will be.” Paul is not saying that we might be persecuted but that everyone who desires to live a godly life will be persecuted.
I don’t think most of us in America really know what that means. I certainly don’t. I have suffered my share of criticism mostly from other Christians but I have not really suffered much real persecution. I think Paul is speaking from his vantage point in first century Christianity where one could easily be arrested, beaten, imprisoned, stoned, etc. for their faith. In fact those and many others things happened to Paul on many occasions. I believe we in America are getting ready to find out what he meant. Some are experiencing loss of livelihood and much more for standing up for what they believe.
The real Christian will not back down when secular America challenges his faith with an “or else” connected to it. If our faith is real it will stand the test of Satan’s pressure and scare tactics. The most he can do is take our lives and if we are true overcomers we love the Lord more than our lives anyway.
But I’m sorry to say that many whose faith has been pretense or hypocritical will compromise their beliefs for the sake of their skin. Throughout the world Christians are dying at the hand of extremists because they will not recant their faith in Christ but here in American many are compromising for the sake of their popularity, economic livelihood or standing with their friends. Many of us have never grown to the point where Christ is so real to us that we would die before rejecting Him. Our faith has been based on the goodies we get from God and the comfortable pathway we have walked.
Genuine Christianity will not compromise but will prosper in the midst of persecution. Persecution is like gasoline thrown onto the fire of genuine faith. Real faith knows the true meaning of James’ words, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4). James knew from personal experience that testing does produce steadfastness and it will grow in us until we are truly complete in Christ. James suffered a martyr’s death some time before 70 AD.
This is a plea to all who read these words to examine yourselves in the light of God’s word and the leading of the Spirit. These are treacherous times and they will get even worse as the days pass. We must be sure of what we believe and in whom we believe. Our faith must not hinge on doctrines or church programs or other religious things. Our faith cannot be pretend but must be real. We must have a living, active faith in the living Christ who dwells inside of us and died to set us free.
A Priesthood of all the Believers
Lloyd Gardner
July 2, 2015
Genuine Christianity is a priesthood of all followers of Christ, not an audience for priests. It is a spiritual body with every part having a purpose. It is an army where every spiritual soldier has been given an assignment and armed with powerful spiritual weapons and the goal is victory. It is not a money source for elite preachers or a practice ground for the clever ideas of controlling men. This spiritual priesthood is called and empowered to minister the redemption provided by the Lamb of God and every believer has a viable part.
We have come to think of the Christian church as a pastor or priest and the programs he administers. Invariably when Christians are talking about church someone will ask, “Who’s your pastor?” The next thing that will enter the conversation is “What he is like?”
“Well he’s a real people person and preaches a wonderful, lively sermon,” someone responds. In other words, to many people, perhaps most, church is about a man and his plan. In some cases, like in the Catholic Church and other big denominational bodies, it is about an enormous organization with a massive hierarchy of elite priests who function in behalf of the people.
Genuine Christianity, as it is described in God’s word, knows nothing of this top-down, man-centered hierarchical system. True Christianity is about a High Priest who is assembling a priesthood of devoted followers who administer the benefits of His redemption to a dying world. He is both the High Priest and the Lamb of God for He made provision for us through His own sacrificed blood. It is not about a man and his plan so much as it is about the God of the universe and His eternal purpose.
It has been this way since the beginning of Christianity over two thousand years ago. From that beginning God showed us genuine Christianity and recorded its description in His written word. The first Christians were all Jews or Jewish converts who were quite familiar with the priestly system of the temple. This system had been part of their culture for hundreds of years. In its inception the priesthood was meant to be an earthly depiction of God’s desire for a future, permanent spiritual priesthood (Heb. 7:11f.). That future priesthood would have an eternal High Priest and a priesthood of anointed followers.
By the time of Christ the religious leaders saw the priest as a person standing between man and God, a mediator who approached God in behalf of the people. All of the priests in the time of Jesus considered themselves elite purveyors of God’s truth and redemption. They were so enthralled with their power over the people that they failed to understand that their earthly priesthood was merely the shadow of a permanent one with their Messiah as High Priest. But they kept themselves aloof from the people and fought to maintain their power over them.
The people became objects for them to manipulate for their own benefit. The people were merely an audience for the priests to speak to, a passive group who allowed them to do their thing. It was a clergy system with the common laity at the bottom and the priests at the top. This clergy-laity heresy was probably the teaching of the Nicolaitans referred to by Christ in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 2:6, 15). Jesus said He hated this teaching and exhorted the churches to repent of it (2:6, 16).
Unfortunately, much of today’s programmed Christianity is following in the same steps. When people consider starting or continuing a church they begin to look around for a lively, popular pastor to lead the way. They look for a priest, someone to stand between the people and God, to do the work of the ministry, who has the right degrees and knows Greek and Hebrew, someone to receive the word from God and deliver it to us so we can remain passive and uninvolved. We have allowed a false Christian priesthood to develop before our eyes even though God’s word makes it clear that every believer is a priest unto God.
The writer of Hebrews makes this priesthood abundantly clear:
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast
the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love
and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much
the more as you see the Day approaching (Heb. 10:10-25; NKJV).
Though I would love to do it, I don’t have space to dissect that passage. Let us just say at this point that every child of God can now enter into the holy place once reserved for only the priests. Not only can we enter but we can do so with boldness and confidence because Christ has become our High Priest by offering His own life for us and He has invited us to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” because of His own redemptive work. This invitation is to every follower of Christ, every person in whom Christ dwells.
Peter agreed with this as he declared us “a holy priesthood” and “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5, 9). John knew this and declared that Christ “has made us kings and priests to His God and Father” (Rev. 1:6). We, the people of God, are kings and priests to God and anointed with the Holy Spirit just as it was with the kings and priests of the Old Testament. The priesthood is no longer a special class of elite men but all of God’s anointed children.
John spoke of this anointing: “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you” (1 John 2:27). The early church, the one described in God’s word, is not a top down organization with clever men at the top controlling the rest. Genuine Christianity is a spiritual organism in which every believer has a crucial part and no one person is allowed to have the preeminent position except Christ (1 Cor. 12:12f.).
Consider this crucial point. There are no titles for men in the New Testament scriptures. No person is ever called Pastor Jones or Evangelist Smith or Prophet Johnson. These gifts are functions within the body of Christ, not titles that separate men out as elite and special. People are to be recognized as possessors of these gifts but never to be given a title (Acts 21:8, 10; 2 Tim. 4:5; 1 Cor. 14:29). Actually, the term pastor is only used one time, in Ephesians 4:11 and the verb form is used of the responsibility of the elders of the church since they were considered shepherds (pastors) (Acts 20:28). But never do we see the word used as a title of a person with the assumption that he has an elevated position in the body. The title “reverend” before a person’s name also designates him as someone higher than the other saints of God all of whom are considered reverend because they are holy in Him (Eph. 1:4; Col. 3:12).
The only person ever called the pastor (Shepherd) of the church is Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd (John 10:2). Toward the end of my official ministry in the organized church I cringed when someone called me the pastor of the church because Jesus had shown me clearly that He was the Shepherd. Yes, there are under shepherds in the body of Christ but these are merely functions, not titles, and always refer to the plural body of elders in the church (1 Peter 5:1-4; Acts 20:17, 28). Leadership is always plural in God’s word (1 Peter 5:1; 1 Titus 1:5) to keep one person from dominating and to encourage the corporate priesthood of all believers.
Jesus commanded His disciples, “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers” (Matt. 23:8). The title rabbi was applied to very revered teachers and literally means “my master.” It is very similar to the honored title “pastor” in today’s Christian world. Jesus reminded his disciples that they are all brothers and that no one should assume a higher position by being called rabbi.
The same applies today to the title pastor. A person may be known as a pastor, or one with a shepherding gift but he should never take the title of shepherd (pastor) and should always remember that his gift of being a pastor is a function in the body, not a titled office. Most importantly, he should never assume a position as the sole pastor or primary pastor of a local church because, in so doing, he disregards the priesthood of all Christ followers.
Some may protest that we refer to Paul as the apostle Paul, as if the word apostle is a title. The word of God, however, in all of its nineteen uses of the word apostle, uses the word as a function. Paul calls himself an apostle several times but never calls himself Apostle Paul nor does anyone else (1 Cor. 1:1). There are no titled people in Genuine Christianity other than Jesus, the Christ, the Apostle of our faith, the Good Shepherd, Alpha and Omega, the Almighty, the Lamb of God, King of kings and Lord of lords.
So, what’s the point I’m making. Genuine Christianity as we see it defined in the New Testament is a priesthood of all believers in which every person is to be a participant. There were no passive bystanders in churches dominated by controlling men. This is why Paul describes the meetings of the early Christians as participatory gatherings in which all are invited to participate. These gatherings were open to all the spiritual priests of God for teaching, singing, sharing a revelation, scripture reading, exercising a gift, prophesying, praying or any other Spirit-led contribution (1 Cor. 14:26; Col. 3:16, 17; Eph. 5:19, 20).
In keeping with this open attitude toward participation there was strong emphasis placed on discernment, accountability and righteous judgment. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to test everything spoken in the gathering (1 Thess. 5:21) and the Corinthians to judge what was spoken (1 Cor. 14:29). The early believers understood the need to meet in informal situations in smaller groups where every believer could function as a priest. They also saw the ekklesia, the gathered church, as the “pillar and foundation of truth” where truth was discerned and judged (1 Tim 3:15). This discernment was not left to clergymen, since none existed, but to the Spirit-anointed saints who realized that they belonged to the priesthood of God.
There was no regular, mandated sermon that dominated the gatherings. Yes, Paul did preach that one long sermon in Troas where the young man fell asleep and fell out of the window, and there were evangelistic messages, but this is the only sermon we see in the gatherings of the believers and it was an apostolic message (Acts 20:29). These gatherings were devoted to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, family meals and prayer in homes throughout the city (Acts 2:42; 46). The obligatory sermon only became common in later centuries when the church began to compromise with Greco-Roman oratorical philosophy.[i]
We welcome constructive criticism on this issue. We realize that we are touching one of the sacred cows of modern Christianity. We do not say these things lightly but have taken many years, even decades, testing what this message declares. It is completely founded on scripture and the original meaning of its words. As always many will appeal to common sense and practicality to defend the modern understanding of church life, but our appeal is to God’s word with the admonition that those who struggle with this message devour what He says on this subject. You will be amazed at what you find.
Remember how Jesus always appealed to the scriptures in His debates with the priests of His day (Jn. 7:38; Mk. 12:10, etc.). He pointed them back to what the word says because He knew it is so easy to justify our actions with tradition and established norms. The only real norm is the one revealed in God’s inspired word. I implore you to pursue that standard as you examine the words I have shared in this message. Rise up priests of God! Become defenders of God’s word and emissaries of His eternal purpose. Let us seek expressions of His church life that liberate the priests of God into their holy calling.
{i] Norington, David C. To Preach or not to Preach? The Church’s urgent Question, 22.
Lloyd Gardner
July 2, 2015
Genuine Christianity is a priesthood of all followers of Christ, not an audience for priests. It is a spiritual body with every part having a purpose. It is an army where every spiritual soldier has been given an assignment and armed with powerful spiritual weapons and the goal is victory. It is not a money source for elite preachers or a practice ground for the clever ideas of controlling men. This spiritual priesthood is called and empowered to minister the redemption provided by the Lamb of God and every believer has a viable part.
We have come to think of the Christian church as a pastor or priest and the programs he administers. Invariably when Christians are talking about church someone will ask, “Who’s your pastor?” The next thing that will enter the conversation is “What he is like?”
“Well he’s a real people person and preaches a wonderful, lively sermon,” someone responds. In other words, to many people, perhaps most, church is about a man and his plan. In some cases, like in the Catholic Church and other big denominational bodies, it is about an enormous organization with a massive hierarchy of elite priests who function in behalf of the people.
Genuine Christianity, as it is described in God’s word, knows nothing of this top-down, man-centered hierarchical system. True Christianity is about a High Priest who is assembling a priesthood of devoted followers who administer the benefits of His redemption to a dying world. He is both the High Priest and the Lamb of God for He made provision for us through His own sacrificed blood. It is not about a man and his plan so much as it is about the God of the universe and His eternal purpose.
It has been this way since the beginning of Christianity over two thousand years ago. From that beginning God showed us genuine Christianity and recorded its description in His written word. The first Christians were all Jews or Jewish converts who were quite familiar with the priestly system of the temple. This system had been part of their culture for hundreds of years. In its inception the priesthood was meant to be an earthly depiction of God’s desire for a future, permanent spiritual priesthood (Heb. 7:11f.). That future priesthood would have an eternal High Priest and a priesthood of anointed followers.
By the time of Christ the religious leaders saw the priest as a person standing between man and God, a mediator who approached God in behalf of the people. All of the priests in the time of Jesus considered themselves elite purveyors of God’s truth and redemption. They were so enthralled with their power over the people that they failed to understand that their earthly priesthood was merely the shadow of a permanent one with their Messiah as High Priest. But they kept themselves aloof from the people and fought to maintain their power over them.
The people became objects for them to manipulate for their own benefit. The people were merely an audience for the priests to speak to, a passive group who allowed them to do their thing. It was a clergy system with the common laity at the bottom and the priests at the top. This clergy-laity heresy was probably the teaching of the Nicolaitans referred to by Christ in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 2:6, 15). Jesus said He hated this teaching and exhorted the churches to repent of it (2:6, 16).
Unfortunately, much of today’s programmed Christianity is following in the same steps. When people consider starting or continuing a church they begin to look around for a lively, popular pastor to lead the way. They look for a priest, someone to stand between the people and God, to do the work of the ministry, who has the right degrees and knows Greek and Hebrew, someone to receive the word from God and deliver it to us so we can remain passive and uninvolved. We have allowed a false Christian priesthood to develop before our eyes even though God’s word makes it clear that every believer is a priest unto God.
The writer of Hebrews makes this priesthood abundantly clear:
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast
the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love
and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much
the more as you see the Day approaching (Heb. 10:10-25; NKJV).
Though I would love to do it, I don’t have space to dissect that passage. Let us just say at this point that every child of God can now enter into the holy place once reserved for only the priests. Not only can we enter but we can do so with boldness and confidence because Christ has become our High Priest by offering His own life for us and He has invited us to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” because of His own redemptive work. This invitation is to every follower of Christ, every person in whom Christ dwells.
Peter agreed with this as he declared us “a holy priesthood” and “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5, 9). John knew this and declared that Christ “has made us kings and priests to His God and Father” (Rev. 1:6). We, the people of God, are kings and priests to God and anointed with the Holy Spirit just as it was with the kings and priests of the Old Testament. The priesthood is no longer a special class of elite men but all of God’s anointed children.
John spoke of this anointing: “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you” (1 John 2:27). The early church, the one described in God’s word, is not a top down organization with clever men at the top controlling the rest. Genuine Christianity is a spiritual organism in which every believer has a crucial part and no one person is allowed to have the preeminent position except Christ (1 Cor. 12:12f.).
Consider this crucial point. There are no titles for men in the New Testament scriptures. No person is ever called Pastor Jones or Evangelist Smith or Prophet Johnson. These gifts are functions within the body of Christ, not titles that separate men out as elite and special. People are to be recognized as possessors of these gifts but never to be given a title (Acts 21:8, 10; 2 Tim. 4:5; 1 Cor. 14:29). Actually, the term pastor is only used one time, in Ephesians 4:11 and the verb form is used of the responsibility of the elders of the church since they were considered shepherds (pastors) (Acts 20:28). But never do we see the word used as a title of a person with the assumption that he has an elevated position in the body. The title “reverend” before a person’s name also designates him as someone higher than the other saints of God all of whom are considered reverend because they are holy in Him (Eph. 1:4; Col. 3:12).
The only person ever called the pastor (Shepherd) of the church is Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd (John 10:2). Toward the end of my official ministry in the organized church I cringed when someone called me the pastor of the church because Jesus had shown me clearly that He was the Shepherd. Yes, there are under shepherds in the body of Christ but these are merely functions, not titles, and always refer to the plural body of elders in the church (1 Peter 5:1-4; Acts 20:17, 28). Leadership is always plural in God’s word (1 Peter 5:1; 1 Titus 1:5) to keep one person from dominating and to encourage the corporate priesthood of all believers.
Jesus commanded His disciples, “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers” (Matt. 23:8). The title rabbi was applied to very revered teachers and literally means “my master.” It is very similar to the honored title “pastor” in today’s Christian world. Jesus reminded his disciples that they are all brothers and that no one should assume a higher position by being called rabbi.
The same applies today to the title pastor. A person may be known as a pastor, or one with a shepherding gift but he should never take the title of shepherd (pastor) and should always remember that his gift of being a pastor is a function in the body, not a titled office. Most importantly, he should never assume a position as the sole pastor or primary pastor of a local church because, in so doing, he disregards the priesthood of all Christ followers.
Some may protest that we refer to Paul as the apostle Paul, as if the word apostle is a title. The word of God, however, in all of its nineteen uses of the word apostle, uses the word as a function. Paul calls himself an apostle several times but never calls himself Apostle Paul nor does anyone else (1 Cor. 1:1). There are no titled people in Genuine Christianity other than Jesus, the Christ, the Apostle of our faith, the Good Shepherd, Alpha and Omega, the Almighty, the Lamb of God, King of kings and Lord of lords.
So, what’s the point I’m making. Genuine Christianity as we see it defined in the New Testament is a priesthood of all believers in which every person is to be a participant. There were no passive bystanders in churches dominated by controlling men. This is why Paul describes the meetings of the early Christians as participatory gatherings in which all are invited to participate. These gatherings were open to all the spiritual priests of God for teaching, singing, sharing a revelation, scripture reading, exercising a gift, prophesying, praying or any other Spirit-led contribution (1 Cor. 14:26; Col. 3:16, 17; Eph. 5:19, 20).
In keeping with this open attitude toward participation there was strong emphasis placed on discernment, accountability and righteous judgment. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to test everything spoken in the gathering (1 Thess. 5:21) and the Corinthians to judge what was spoken (1 Cor. 14:29). The early believers understood the need to meet in informal situations in smaller groups where every believer could function as a priest. They also saw the ekklesia, the gathered church, as the “pillar and foundation of truth” where truth was discerned and judged (1 Tim 3:15). This discernment was not left to clergymen, since none existed, but to the Spirit-anointed saints who realized that they belonged to the priesthood of God.
There was no regular, mandated sermon that dominated the gatherings. Yes, Paul did preach that one long sermon in Troas where the young man fell asleep and fell out of the window, and there were evangelistic messages, but this is the only sermon we see in the gatherings of the believers and it was an apostolic message (Acts 20:29). These gatherings were devoted to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, family meals and prayer in homes throughout the city (Acts 2:42; 46). The obligatory sermon only became common in later centuries when the church began to compromise with Greco-Roman oratorical philosophy.[i]
We welcome constructive criticism on this issue. We realize that we are touching one of the sacred cows of modern Christianity. We do not say these things lightly but have taken many years, even decades, testing what this message declares. It is completely founded on scripture and the original meaning of its words. As always many will appeal to common sense and practicality to defend the modern understanding of church life, but our appeal is to God’s word with the admonition that those who struggle with this message devour what He says on this subject. You will be amazed at what you find.
Remember how Jesus always appealed to the scriptures in His debates with the priests of His day (Jn. 7:38; Mk. 12:10, etc.). He pointed them back to what the word says because He knew it is so easy to justify our actions with tradition and established norms. The only real norm is the one revealed in God’s inspired word. I implore you to pursue that standard as you examine the words I have shared in this message. Rise up priests of God! Become defenders of God’s word and emissaries of His eternal purpose. Let us seek expressions of His church life that liberate the priests of God into their holy calling.
{i] Norington, David C. To Preach or not to Preach? The Church’s urgent Question, 22.
Where Judgment Begins
Lloyd Gardner
June 25, 2015
The brother looked at me with an astonishing stare. “How dare you judge me! Jesus said that we are not to judge one another.”
I had shared with the man concerning his tendency to be openly and destructively critical of others. Other believers were being hurt and discouraged by his outbursts of anger and bitterness. It was my responsibility to confront him according to the principles of Matthew 18:15-17 where Jesus said in part, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” My desire was that my brother would listen to me so I could gain him back as a brother. He would not listen and the final result was that I lost my brother.
Many Christians can quote the words of Jesus, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matt. 7:1), but their misunderstanding of the church’s responsibility to judge clouds the judgment they do have. Somehow, much of the church has taken the politically correct position that we are never to judge any person under any circumstance. To the contrary, genuine Christianity involves the righteous exercise of judgment and discernment. Without this biblical understanding of true judgment we can never fully be what God has called us to be. We will slowly conform ourselves to the world and become passive and complacent about sin and its devastation.
As the people of Israel prepared to enter the land of promise God said, "You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment” (Deut. 16:18). Righteous judgment throughout the land was a direct requirement of the Lord. The same righteous judgment is required of the church in this age of the Spirit.
Without such judgment a nation will begin to fail and eventually destroy itself from within. The United States is about to realize this truth the hard way. When a nation spurns righteous judgment it will be judged through discipline. Our nation has not used righteous judgment in regard to spending money. It has accumulated a debt that is impossible to ever pay. We have an economy propped up by credit spending and that always leads to failure. Our so-called judges have passed unrighteous judgments in regard to abortion, marriage, health care and much more. We are about to pay the consequences of our disobedience as a nation and a people. Let those who hear understand.
The church has not fared much better. Much of the church is compromising with the world on such subjects as creation vs. evolution, marriage, abortion and adultery. We are going along with the world because we are not going along with the Lord by insisting on judgment enlightened by the Lord and His word. Paul spoke of two kinds of change: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God” (Rom. 12:2). The words translated “by testing you may discern” carry the idea of judgment or discernment in order to determine what God’s will is. When we fall short on discernment we become unclear about God’s will. Either we will be transformed by the abiding presence of the Lord in our lives or we will passively conform ourselves to the world and its ways. Change is inevitable. The question is will we be transformed by Christ or experience the slow change of creeping worldliness? Without discerning judgment the latter will be our fate.
Peter knew this and warned us saying “…it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17). If we think we exist in a little protective bubble absolved of judgment we had better re-read the Bible and re-think our notions. Jesus said, “…the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matt. 3:10). He was referring to the axe of judgment at the root of the olive tree of Israel but the same principle applies today. The church will indeed be held accountable for its disobedience in these days of apostasy. Paul warns, “For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you” (Rom. 11:21). Judgment always begins with the household of God.
This is one serious reason why we must seek to be a people of righteous judgment. We are told that the church will judge the world and angels (1 Cor. 5:12; 6:2). If God is going to use us to administer His ultimate judgment it is high time we learned to be real churches, real ekklesias that administer the judgment of God. Judgment is based upon what God says, not on what our limited brains can produce. So on the issues of the day like same-sex marriage we had better consult the document that presents His judgment. Righteous judgment is judgment based on the verdict of the Righteous Judge of all.
But this does not mean that we develop a judgmental attitude toward those around us. When Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matt. 7:1) He was talking about judging from our unrighteous, arrogant hearts with the purpose of condemning someone. Righteous judgment is judgment aimed at helping people to get their hearts right with God and His people. The world does not respond to such judgment but it is necessary in the church.
The Corinthians had misunderstood what he said about judgment. They thought they had the mandate to go out into the world and set everyone straight about things by pronouncing judgment on them. Paul clarified saying, ‘For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge” (1 Cor. 5:12). Inside of the family of God we have the responsibility to make sound judgments toward one another helping one another to turn fully to Christ and act according to His will.
But we have no mandate to judge our coworkers and friends in the world about homosexuality, abortion or living with someone outside of marriage, or tattoos or anything else. God will give us wisdom to lovingly share with people His will but we are not to pass judgment. That is the domain of God.
Such statements are for our discipline within the church, the family of God. We American Christians have problems with verses like that because we have been taught a sloppy grace Christianity devoid of accountability and judgment. We dare not apply them to the world but must learn to speak grace, forgiveness and love. If they choose to follow Christ then He will be their Lord and they will have to answer to Him in the context of His ekklesia, the church.
We learn righteous judgment by practicing it with one another. In the gathering of the saints we are told to “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge” (1 Cor. 14:29; NKJV). The word used here for judgment is another form of the normal word for judgment. The emphasis is on discerning rightly in our dealings with one another. We are to …”test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). That happens in the context of the gatherings of the ekklesia, the church. There we learn to discern and have our “…senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). The sermon-a-week approach, where the believers sit passively, falls short of this. It fills our mind with facts but does little to exercise our spiritual senses. That happens in the ekklesia where the word, fellowship, communion and prayer is shared by all (Acts 2:42).
So where does that leave us? The American church is floundering because we have allowed ourselves to be a pinball bounced around by the world’s obstacles. We are affected by a system of which Christ says “…take courage--I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We are a pinball because we do not heed John when he wrote, “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). We will never have righteous judgment until the Greater One is allowed to live out His victory in us.
That will not happen by accident. It will happen when we realize we are a community of heavenly citizens exercising the judgment of heaven in a world designed by the enemy. Righteous judgment will not come from theory or politics or religious posturing or organizational expertise. It will come from genuine Christianity expressed in genuine church, the household of God. That’s where judgment begins.
Lloyd Gardner
June 25, 2015
The brother looked at me with an astonishing stare. “How dare you judge me! Jesus said that we are not to judge one another.”
I had shared with the man concerning his tendency to be openly and destructively critical of others. Other believers were being hurt and discouraged by his outbursts of anger and bitterness. It was my responsibility to confront him according to the principles of Matthew 18:15-17 where Jesus said in part, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” My desire was that my brother would listen to me so I could gain him back as a brother. He would not listen and the final result was that I lost my brother.
Many Christians can quote the words of Jesus, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matt. 7:1), but their misunderstanding of the church’s responsibility to judge clouds the judgment they do have. Somehow, much of the church has taken the politically correct position that we are never to judge any person under any circumstance. To the contrary, genuine Christianity involves the righteous exercise of judgment and discernment. Without this biblical understanding of true judgment we can never fully be what God has called us to be. We will slowly conform ourselves to the world and become passive and complacent about sin and its devastation.
As the people of Israel prepared to enter the land of promise God said, "You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment” (Deut. 16:18). Righteous judgment throughout the land was a direct requirement of the Lord. The same righteous judgment is required of the church in this age of the Spirit.
Without such judgment a nation will begin to fail and eventually destroy itself from within. The United States is about to realize this truth the hard way. When a nation spurns righteous judgment it will be judged through discipline. Our nation has not used righteous judgment in regard to spending money. It has accumulated a debt that is impossible to ever pay. We have an economy propped up by credit spending and that always leads to failure. Our so-called judges have passed unrighteous judgments in regard to abortion, marriage, health care and much more. We are about to pay the consequences of our disobedience as a nation and a people. Let those who hear understand.
The church has not fared much better. Much of the church is compromising with the world on such subjects as creation vs. evolution, marriage, abortion and adultery. We are going along with the world because we are not going along with the Lord by insisting on judgment enlightened by the Lord and His word. Paul spoke of two kinds of change: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God” (Rom. 12:2). The words translated “by testing you may discern” carry the idea of judgment or discernment in order to determine what God’s will is. When we fall short on discernment we become unclear about God’s will. Either we will be transformed by the abiding presence of the Lord in our lives or we will passively conform ourselves to the world and its ways. Change is inevitable. The question is will we be transformed by Christ or experience the slow change of creeping worldliness? Without discerning judgment the latter will be our fate.
Peter knew this and warned us saying “…it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17). If we think we exist in a little protective bubble absolved of judgment we had better re-read the Bible and re-think our notions. Jesus said, “…the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matt. 3:10). He was referring to the axe of judgment at the root of the olive tree of Israel but the same principle applies today. The church will indeed be held accountable for its disobedience in these days of apostasy. Paul warns, “For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you” (Rom. 11:21). Judgment always begins with the household of God.
This is one serious reason why we must seek to be a people of righteous judgment. We are told that the church will judge the world and angels (1 Cor. 5:12; 6:2). If God is going to use us to administer His ultimate judgment it is high time we learned to be real churches, real ekklesias that administer the judgment of God. Judgment is based upon what God says, not on what our limited brains can produce. So on the issues of the day like same-sex marriage we had better consult the document that presents His judgment. Righteous judgment is judgment based on the verdict of the Righteous Judge of all.
But this does not mean that we develop a judgmental attitude toward those around us. When Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matt. 7:1) He was talking about judging from our unrighteous, arrogant hearts with the purpose of condemning someone. Righteous judgment is judgment aimed at helping people to get their hearts right with God and His people. The world does not respond to such judgment but it is necessary in the church.
The Corinthians had misunderstood what he said about judgment. They thought they had the mandate to go out into the world and set everyone straight about things by pronouncing judgment on them. Paul clarified saying, ‘For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge” (1 Cor. 5:12). Inside of the family of God we have the responsibility to make sound judgments toward one another helping one another to turn fully to Christ and act according to His will.
But we have no mandate to judge our coworkers and friends in the world about homosexuality, abortion or living with someone outside of marriage, or tattoos or anything else. God will give us wisdom to lovingly share with people His will but we are not to pass judgment. That is the domain of God.
Such statements are for our discipline within the church, the family of God. We American Christians have problems with verses like that because we have been taught a sloppy grace Christianity devoid of accountability and judgment. We dare not apply them to the world but must learn to speak grace, forgiveness and love. If they choose to follow Christ then He will be their Lord and they will have to answer to Him in the context of His ekklesia, the church.
We learn righteous judgment by practicing it with one another. In the gathering of the saints we are told to “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge” (1 Cor. 14:29; NKJV). The word used here for judgment is another form of the normal word for judgment. The emphasis is on discerning rightly in our dealings with one another. We are to …”test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). That happens in the context of the gatherings of the ekklesia, the church. There we learn to discern and have our “…senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). The sermon-a-week approach, where the believers sit passively, falls short of this. It fills our mind with facts but does little to exercise our spiritual senses. That happens in the ekklesia where the word, fellowship, communion and prayer is shared by all (Acts 2:42).
So where does that leave us? The American church is floundering because we have allowed ourselves to be a pinball bounced around by the world’s obstacles. We are affected by a system of which Christ says “…take courage--I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We are a pinball because we do not heed John when he wrote, “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). We will never have righteous judgment until the Greater One is allowed to live out His victory in us.
That will not happen by accident. It will happen when we realize we are a community of heavenly citizens exercising the judgment of heaven in a world designed by the enemy. Righteous judgment will not come from theory or politics or religious posturing or organizational expertise. It will come from genuine Christianity expressed in genuine church, the household of God. That’s where judgment begins.
The Wisdom of the Old with the Passion of the Young
Lloyd Gardner
June 17, 2015
The title of this message is borrowed from a video entitled Fast Forward. I highly recommend it to all of you, especially if you are under forty years of age. I believe the words express the combination of human expressions that characterize genuine Christianity through the church age.
It is my sense that the revival to ring in the next great age of planet earth will involve the coming together of the passionate young people of the next generation and the brave, receptive, wise older people who will embrace what the Spirit is doing. The passion of the young will be combined with the wisdom of the old to produce a wineskin that will receive and contain the new wine of God’s great end time outpouring. Genuine Christianity is not segmented by fleshly traits such as age. It reaches past age to touch people at the level of their spirit rather than the fallen nature of their flesh.
People who have passed a certain age often become hardened in the religious form of a revival of the past. We find ourselves attached to what happened in the past instead of embracing what God is doing now. The young have not yet experienced what we saw years ago and are not impressed by our ancient revivals. They are living now and seeking present expressions of God that are real to them. They are passionate for God in their own unique and liberating way and seek present expressions of God that are meaningful to them.
History shows that Christians, who experience revival, eventually allow the life of that revival to harden into stale forms and programs devoid of the life that inspired them. Many allow these lifeless forms to produce sacred cows that are more important to them than the present expression of the Holy Spirit. Every Christian denomination possesses these sacred cows that hinder the older believers from embracing the present move of God.
There are no exceptions to this that I am aware of. Once revival has come and gone most Christians just cling to the empty shells left by the once powerful move of God. The young people growing up in the midst of these empty forms do not embrace them because they do not sense life in them. They see church buildings, programs and doctrines but God’s presence is often lacking. They reject the old way not because it is not rooted in a historical move of God but because God has long sense moved on to new expressions of His life. The older ones often equate spirituality with their accepted forms and reject anything new that does not agree with their experience.
The old must rekindle their passion for God
Now God is seeking older believers who will let the Holy Spirit move in their lives apart from the religious boundaries they have created. They have wisdom that comes from age but they may have allowed their passion for God and His life to wane. The older ones must not forsake the wisdom that God has produced in their lives but they must allow Him to rekindle their passion for His presence.
At the same time the Holy Spirit is seeking young people who are passionate for God and also able to receive the wisdom offered by their older brothers and sisters. God wants spiritual mothers and fathers to come along side of the young spiritual children of the next generation. Young people must respect those who have gone before them and open up to what they have to offer, and the older saints must respect and open to the spiritual passion of the young.
Scripture bears this out. God used the older saints to announce the coming of the Messiah. Simeon was there by the Spirit when the parents of Jesus brought Him to the temple. He announced that this baby was indeed the Christ (Luke 2:25f.). He was an old man declaring revelation from God to young people of the next generation. Likewise, Anna, an elderly woman, bore witness of the Christ (Luke 2:36f.). In essence, Simeon and Anna were passing on to the next generation the revelatory wisdom of the older generation.
It was difficult for people like Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews, to break free of his religious notions long enough to receive the newness of the Spirit as revealed by Jesus. The Lord responded to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” (John 3:10). The simple truths of the presence of God through the Spirit were difficult for this old man because he had allowed his religious programs to dull his passion for God’s presence. But we praise God that he was one of those who made the breakthrough, for later we see him helping with the burial of Jesus (John 19:39).
Dead Wisdom Rejects Christ
The old, established church of the day for the most part rejected Christ and His message. His message threatened the religious expressions of their great wisdom. And, make no mistake about, it the Pharisees and Jewish leaders of the day were very serious Jews who believed they were in the will of God. The only problem was they had not kept their passion for God alive but were trusting in their wisdom and knowledge. Without passion for God’s presence their wisdom was a useless relic of the past.
Paul may be the greatest example of this balance of wisdom and passion. He was older and wiser and very established as a leader of the Jews and yet one of his co-workers was the young Timothy. Paul admonished others not to despise him for his youth and that he should set an example “in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12).
I encourage that same kind of relationship among God’s people today. The older, more mature believers should speak forth the revelation of their hearts, like Paul, and the young people should honor those older ones and not be ashamed of the message and passion they possess.
The younger ones are often sent away
Unfortunately, in today’s programmed Churchianity we tend to divide the church by age. The younger ones are sent to their own place to worship in their unbridled passion and the older ones go off somewhere else to worship in their way. How much better it would be for the generations to mingle and share what they have and submit to one another.
Paul tells us to “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10). I don’t believe that Paul would have made a differentiation between the young and the old. Neither should we. Regardless of our age we should honorably prefer one another. The young and the old should both honor those of a different age.
Some church leaders disagree with this, believing that since the young people are the main thrust of the future church they should be favored in all aspects of activity and the older ones should submit all that they prefer to the younger ones. I have been in worship times where the music was set to the decibel level and style of the youth to the extent that older people were hiding behind the pews covering their ears.
Mothers were holding their hands over the ears of their babies and older people were leaving the meeting. I believe the Holy Spirit was grieved because a segment of the body was allowed to disregard the needs of many who were equally valuable in the eyes of God.
How tragic it is when a church ignores the needs of the young and functions completely according to the desires of the older believers. The opposite is also true. How discouraging to see churches ignore the needs of the older ones for the sake of the young. Every young person is destined to be older and every older person was once young. We need to be spiritual beings led by the Spirit rather than young or old led by our feelings (Rom. 8:5-14).
Paul admonished the churches when they are gathered to “Let all things be done for building up” (1 Cor. 14:26). In the gathering of the saints of all ages each person should be seeking to build up all of those who are there. “All things” in the gathering are to be for that purpose.
Only in this way can the old benefit from the passion of the young and the young benefit from the wisdom of the old. If we continue to divide up according to age and ignore one another we will hinder the move of the Holy Spirit. In so doing we cater to the world’s way of emphasizing the youth while disparaging the old.
Shame on us for conforming to the world!
Shame on us for conforming to the world in this manner! Many do this for the sake of the large crowds that can be attracted and the income that can be generated. Our goal must be to love the Lord and His people. If we say we love the Lord but despise a segment of His church for selfish motives, something is wrong. Our commission is to build up the body of Christ, not a segment of it.
Some will say that this is impossible in today’s American culture. We are youth oriented, they will say, and that’s just the way it is. The Lord would say to us,
My church is not to be fashioned according to the principles of the world. My holy bride is being shaped by My Holy Spirit, who has been sent forth to gather My people together under the banner of Love. Stop conforming yourselves to the way of America but be transformed by the power of My word, which cannot be compromised. Come together in Love and you will see fleshly distinctions dissipate and disappear. My kingdom is not of this world and those who would dwell in it must submit to its King and His ways. The god of this world has infused you with his divisive ways and you have bowed down to his disruptive tactics. It is time to come again to Me and submit to My ways.
I have spoken to several parents lately who came to a point of spiritual grief over the way they had to send their children off to the age group that suited them. They wanted their children to be with them during the time the church gathered. But no, they were instructed that their children were not allowed in the adult gathering. So they reluctantly sent one child this way and another that way while they made their way to the adult faction of the body of Christ.
Many of you who see this fragmenting as the norm may be offended by this but I believe that this grieves the Lord greatly. America has a government controlled school system that splits children up into age groups. We have done this in our churches because we do not see the spiritual nature of what is supposed to happen in our gatherings. We see our church gatherings as learning times only so we separate the people by their learning level.
The church is far more than a learning group. It is a context in which people of all ages, races, genders, and social status can come together in the Spirit with Christ as the Guest of honor. It is a spiritual organism growing by the Spirit of God not a fleshly body of believers who toss doctrines around.
We are to gather to build one another up in Christ and allow Christ to come among us as the honored guest. When we made the church into a school we began to organize it the way the world does. We even call a portion of it “Sunday school.”
When people inquire about how we meet in homes with God’s people, the first question usually asked is, “What do you do with the children?” In America we “do something” with the children. What a shame! In the kingdom of God the children and young people are a viable part who cannot be denied. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them,” (Matt. 19:14). We’ve Americanized our church life and what we do with our children may well be an indicator of our concession to the way of the world.
I believe this is one of the great hindrances of true spiritual restoration in this country. We do everything by fleshly characteristics. People gather together in ethnic groups because they cannot submit their ethnicity to God and to His people. They gather in men’s and women’s fellowships because our genders have grown apart in gender-confused America. We gather with people of our social status because we claim we can better relate to those who are “like us.” The same goes for age groups.
The church is not a fleshly organization! It is a spiritual organism that is not governed by the rules of the flesh. When we try to let the church function by fleshly principles we make it into a man-made program instead of the body of Christ. No wonder we are failing to change the world but are being changed by the world. We have decided to operate by its rules instead of responding to the divine presence of our God.
I will tell you now from the Lord that the end time church will not be a human organization governed by men and their ideas. It will be a divine expression of Christ Himself upon the earth. It will function by the Spirit and will roll over the fleshly façade of the enemy like a steam roller over a wicker basket. To get us to that point may take some serious spiritual discipline at the hand of God who always disciplines those He loves (Heb. 12:6-11).
God will have His church and it will encompass young and old, male and female, rich and poor, and every race of man. He did not die so that we could go our way and do our thing. He died to purchase us with His own blood and possess us for His will. We are not our own. We belong to Him.
The wisdom of the old and the passion of the young—a wonderful recipe for divine success and power. When will we see it? When will we embrace it? When that day comes we will see a rising up of a church against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. Lord, hasten that day!
Lloyd Gardner
June 17, 2015
The title of this message is borrowed from a video entitled Fast Forward. I highly recommend it to all of you, especially if you are under forty years of age. I believe the words express the combination of human expressions that characterize genuine Christianity through the church age.
It is my sense that the revival to ring in the next great age of planet earth will involve the coming together of the passionate young people of the next generation and the brave, receptive, wise older people who will embrace what the Spirit is doing. The passion of the young will be combined with the wisdom of the old to produce a wineskin that will receive and contain the new wine of God’s great end time outpouring. Genuine Christianity is not segmented by fleshly traits such as age. It reaches past age to touch people at the level of their spirit rather than the fallen nature of their flesh.
People who have passed a certain age often become hardened in the religious form of a revival of the past. We find ourselves attached to what happened in the past instead of embracing what God is doing now. The young have not yet experienced what we saw years ago and are not impressed by our ancient revivals. They are living now and seeking present expressions of God that are real to them. They are passionate for God in their own unique and liberating way and seek present expressions of God that are meaningful to them.
History shows that Christians, who experience revival, eventually allow the life of that revival to harden into stale forms and programs devoid of the life that inspired them. Many allow these lifeless forms to produce sacred cows that are more important to them than the present expression of the Holy Spirit. Every Christian denomination possesses these sacred cows that hinder the older believers from embracing the present move of God.
There are no exceptions to this that I am aware of. Once revival has come and gone most Christians just cling to the empty shells left by the once powerful move of God. The young people growing up in the midst of these empty forms do not embrace them because they do not sense life in them. They see church buildings, programs and doctrines but God’s presence is often lacking. They reject the old way not because it is not rooted in a historical move of God but because God has long sense moved on to new expressions of His life. The older ones often equate spirituality with their accepted forms and reject anything new that does not agree with their experience.
The old must rekindle their passion for God
Now God is seeking older believers who will let the Holy Spirit move in their lives apart from the religious boundaries they have created. They have wisdom that comes from age but they may have allowed their passion for God and His life to wane. The older ones must not forsake the wisdom that God has produced in their lives but they must allow Him to rekindle their passion for His presence.
At the same time the Holy Spirit is seeking young people who are passionate for God and also able to receive the wisdom offered by their older brothers and sisters. God wants spiritual mothers and fathers to come along side of the young spiritual children of the next generation. Young people must respect those who have gone before them and open up to what they have to offer, and the older saints must respect and open to the spiritual passion of the young.
Scripture bears this out. God used the older saints to announce the coming of the Messiah. Simeon was there by the Spirit when the parents of Jesus brought Him to the temple. He announced that this baby was indeed the Christ (Luke 2:25f.). He was an old man declaring revelation from God to young people of the next generation. Likewise, Anna, an elderly woman, bore witness of the Christ (Luke 2:36f.). In essence, Simeon and Anna were passing on to the next generation the revelatory wisdom of the older generation.
It was difficult for people like Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews, to break free of his religious notions long enough to receive the newness of the Spirit as revealed by Jesus. The Lord responded to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” (John 3:10). The simple truths of the presence of God through the Spirit were difficult for this old man because he had allowed his religious programs to dull his passion for God’s presence. But we praise God that he was one of those who made the breakthrough, for later we see him helping with the burial of Jesus (John 19:39).
Dead Wisdom Rejects Christ
The old, established church of the day for the most part rejected Christ and His message. His message threatened the religious expressions of their great wisdom. And, make no mistake about, it the Pharisees and Jewish leaders of the day were very serious Jews who believed they were in the will of God. The only problem was they had not kept their passion for God alive but were trusting in their wisdom and knowledge. Without passion for God’s presence their wisdom was a useless relic of the past.
Paul may be the greatest example of this balance of wisdom and passion. He was older and wiser and very established as a leader of the Jews and yet one of his co-workers was the young Timothy. Paul admonished others not to despise him for his youth and that he should set an example “in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12).
I encourage that same kind of relationship among God’s people today. The older, more mature believers should speak forth the revelation of their hearts, like Paul, and the young people should honor those older ones and not be ashamed of the message and passion they possess.
The younger ones are often sent away
Unfortunately, in today’s programmed Churchianity we tend to divide the church by age. The younger ones are sent to their own place to worship in their unbridled passion and the older ones go off somewhere else to worship in their way. How much better it would be for the generations to mingle and share what they have and submit to one another.
Paul tells us to “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10). I don’t believe that Paul would have made a differentiation between the young and the old. Neither should we. Regardless of our age we should honorably prefer one another. The young and the old should both honor those of a different age.
Some church leaders disagree with this, believing that since the young people are the main thrust of the future church they should be favored in all aspects of activity and the older ones should submit all that they prefer to the younger ones. I have been in worship times where the music was set to the decibel level and style of the youth to the extent that older people were hiding behind the pews covering their ears.
Mothers were holding their hands over the ears of their babies and older people were leaving the meeting. I believe the Holy Spirit was grieved because a segment of the body was allowed to disregard the needs of many who were equally valuable in the eyes of God.
How tragic it is when a church ignores the needs of the young and functions completely according to the desires of the older believers. The opposite is also true. How discouraging to see churches ignore the needs of the older ones for the sake of the young. Every young person is destined to be older and every older person was once young. We need to be spiritual beings led by the Spirit rather than young or old led by our feelings (Rom. 8:5-14).
Paul admonished the churches when they are gathered to “Let all things be done for building up” (1 Cor. 14:26). In the gathering of the saints of all ages each person should be seeking to build up all of those who are there. “All things” in the gathering are to be for that purpose.
Only in this way can the old benefit from the passion of the young and the young benefit from the wisdom of the old. If we continue to divide up according to age and ignore one another we will hinder the move of the Holy Spirit. In so doing we cater to the world’s way of emphasizing the youth while disparaging the old.
Shame on us for conforming to the world!
Shame on us for conforming to the world in this manner! Many do this for the sake of the large crowds that can be attracted and the income that can be generated. Our goal must be to love the Lord and His people. If we say we love the Lord but despise a segment of His church for selfish motives, something is wrong. Our commission is to build up the body of Christ, not a segment of it.
Some will say that this is impossible in today’s American culture. We are youth oriented, they will say, and that’s just the way it is. The Lord would say to us,
My church is not to be fashioned according to the principles of the world. My holy bride is being shaped by My Holy Spirit, who has been sent forth to gather My people together under the banner of Love. Stop conforming yourselves to the way of America but be transformed by the power of My word, which cannot be compromised. Come together in Love and you will see fleshly distinctions dissipate and disappear. My kingdom is not of this world and those who would dwell in it must submit to its King and His ways. The god of this world has infused you with his divisive ways and you have bowed down to his disruptive tactics. It is time to come again to Me and submit to My ways.
I have spoken to several parents lately who came to a point of spiritual grief over the way they had to send their children off to the age group that suited them. They wanted their children to be with them during the time the church gathered. But no, they were instructed that their children were not allowed in the adult gathering. So they reluctantly sent one child this way and another that way while they made their way to the adult faction of the body of Christ.
Many of you who see this fragmenting as the norm may be offended by this but I believe that this grieves the Lord greatly. America has a government controlled school system that splits children up into age groups. We have done this in our churches because we do not see the spiritual nature of what is supposed to happen in our gatherings. We see our church gatherings as learning times only so we separate the people by their learning level.
The church is far more than a learning group. It is a context in which people of all ages, races, genders, and social status can come together in the Spirit with Christ as the Guest of honor. It is a spiritual organism growing by the Spirit of God not a fleshly body of believers who toss doctrines around.
We are to gather to build one another up in Christ and allow Christ to come among us as the honored guest. When we made the church into a school we began to organize it the way the world does. We even call a portion of it “Sunday school.”
When people inquire about how we meet in homes with God’s people, the first question usually asked is, “What do you do with the children?” In America we “do something” with the children. What a shame! In the kingdom of God the children and young people are a viable part who cannot be denied. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them,” (Matt. 19:14). We’ve Americanized our church life and what we do with our children may well be an indicator of our concession to the way of the world.
I believe this is one of the great hindrances of true spiritual restoration in this country. We do everything by fleshly characteristics. People gather together in ethnic groups because they cannot submit their ethnicity to God and to His people. They gather in men’s and women’s fellowships because our genders have grown apart in gender-confused America. We gather with people of our social status because we claim we can better relate to those who are “like us.” The same goes for age groups.
The church is not a fleshly organization! It is a spiritual organism that is not governed by the rules of the flesh. When we try to let the church function by fleshly principles we make it into a man-made program instead of the body of Christ. No wonder we are failing to change the world but are being changed by the world. We have decided to operate by its rules instead of responding to the divine presence of our God.
I will tell you now from the Lord that the end time church will not be a human organization governed by men and their ideas. It will be a divine expression of Christ Himself upon the earth. It will function by the Spirit and will roll over the fleshly façade of the enemy like a steam roller over a wicker basket. To get us to that point may take some serious spiritual discipline at the hand of God who always disciplines those He loves (Heb. 12:6-11).
God will have His church and it will encompass young and old, male and female, rich and poor, and every race of man. He did not die so that we could go our way and do our thing. He died to purchase us with His own blood and possess us for His will. We are not our own. We belong to Him.
The wisdom of the old and the passion of the young—a wonderful recipe for divine success and power. When will we see it? When will we embrace it? When that day comes we will see a rising up of a church against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. Lord, hasten that day!
Marriage (as He defines it) is Dear to the Heart of God
Lloyd Gardner
June 11, 2015
Apparently the Supreme Court of the United States is poised to issue this month a decision on the Constitutionality of same-sex marriage. When one reads the purposeless ramblings of the justices, it becomes increasingly clear that they will rule in favor of same-sex marriage. This is true because the country through secular-liberal leaders has moved away from recognition of God and toward humanism, the world view that sees man as the center of the universe. This is accompanied by the rejection of the Bible as a source of truth and the embracing of moral relativism. There is no longer an ultimate standard of right and wrong but morality is based upon we think is right in our own eyes.
Civilizations have made this mistake before and those civilizations no longer exist. The move away from traditional marriage is simply evidence that the United States and western societies have rejected God and all that He stands for. It does not take a prophet to declare that this decision is the straw that will break the back of the once greatest country in the history of the world. One can already smell the smoke of the demise of America.
But Genuine Christianity is the expression of a kingdom within a kingdom and, in this kingdom in which Christ is King, marriage reflects the nature of God. God instituted marriage from the beginning in the Garden of Eden. It reflects who He is and what He wants us to be. He brought Adam his wife and there performed the first wedding ceremony (Gen. 2:22-24). Of course secularized America refuses to accept the Bible any longer so this story has no meaning to them.
Jesus, on the other hand, endorsed the story. At one point He referred to this passage from Genesis saying, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?” (Matt. 19:4, 5). So, if we reject marriage as God designed it we must reject Jesus and the words He uttered on this subject. And, of course, if His words on marriage are not valid that means that He is not who He said He was. Therefore the Bible is nonsense and Christianity is a lie. That’s where this moral relativism is taking us unless there is an unexpected miracle.
To many people that may seem like an oversimplification, but to the people in the same-sex marriage camp it strikes a resounding cord because they recognized the domino effect of their agenda years ago. They knew that if they could break down the barriers about homosexuality, and gender identification they would then press for same-sex marriage based on a non-existent Constitutional right. Once that is granted they would be able to use the assumed Constitutional right to begin the dismantling of Christianity in America. Gay rights people will adamantly deny this but to those with a watchful eye it is not difficult to see where they are headed.
Satan is very crafty. He began an assault on marriage, children and families years ago and has successfully dismantled the family structure in much of America. From that dysfunction gender confusion has permeated society. He then used political correctness of the secular-liberal way of thinking to spread the unproven concept that this gender confusion is normal and even genetic. A person is born that way and so we are dealing with an immutable condition much the same as race. Of course this moved the argument into the civil rights arena where it is winning the day even though no biological evidence of a genetic connection has been found.
The mistake they make is their failure to realize that Christianity is not an organization of men that gets its power from its tax exempt status and the First Amendment. That is the organized, human-regulated form of Christianity. Genuine Christianity is a heavenly organism infused with the life of God. It is people who have given their lives to Christ and live by His life and power. You can frustrate organizations and the schemes of men but you cannot kill the life of God growing in real people. The truth is the First Amendment was inspired by Christianity, not the other way around. Tax exemption was merely the country’s way of honoring it. True Christianity is not a political or religious phenomenon but a spiritual phenomenon by which God has penetrated society with His redeeming life.
Just ask China about its seventy-five year attempt to eradicate Christianity from its society. Yes, they have eradicated the external evidence of much of it but genuine Christianity in China has grown from a very small number to over 163 million. China has more Christians than the United States and this number represents only 12% of the population of the country. When Mao Zedong took control of China in 1949 he began an organized effort to eradicate Christianity. True Christianity, as a spiritual organism infused with the life of God, simply went underground where a secret explosion of life took place.
Real Christianity was birthed in the midst of the brutal Roman Empire and incubated in its underground catacombs. The Empire of Rome in the time of Christ makes Isis look like a junior varsity team. But this great empire could not snuff out a motley crew of twelve men touched by God Himself. The twelve men grew into several thousand within a few days and exploded across the known world in just one generation. Why? Because it is the living expression of God in people changed by a new birth and living a new life in God. A mere religion would have been squashed like a bug in a few weeks. Without lifting a finger or wielding a sword Christianity eventually defeated the great Roman empire.
So, Christians should not be too dismayed at the direction the country is about to move. Yes, it will mean the eventual downfall of our great nation, but same-sex marriage may well be the issue that drives many nominal Christians back to God. It may be the wedge that the enemy uses in a misdirected country to try to divide and conquer the hated Christians who call them to God. They will use it to beat us down but their attempts will only fuel the revival of a sleeping giant of faithful followers of Christ.
Just as Christ is not negotiable, marriage is not a negotiable issue with followers of Christ. Nine men and women in black can cast their votes but it is the vote of God that makes the difference. The followers of Christ know that God chose a bride for His Son before the foundation of the world and that all of earth’s history has been to bring forth that bride. The Bible begins at a wedding, Jesus began His ministry at a wedding in Cana, and all of human history will be brought to a conclusion when Christ comes forth with His bride in the last days (John 2:1-11; Rev. 19:7-16). The honeymoon will last a thousand years. The last thing that the marriage despisers will see is heaven opened and Christ coming forth with His chosen bride. On that soon coming day His bride will be wearing combat boots as she comes forth as a warring remnant to defeat Satan and his followers (Rev. 19:17-21).
Marriage is the basic living cell of human society and of the church Christ is building. It is the means God uses to express the nature of His love. It is the means by which children are taught and trained in righteousness. It is through marriage that righteous morality is learned and passed on to the generations. Marriage stabilizes society by giving children stability that they pass on to their children in their marriage. Married couples and families form the nucleus of church life. The family is a mini-church where all of the principles of ekklesia are practiced and accomplished. When the family breaks up, churches begin to crumble because the building blocks are missing. Husbands and wives reflect the love of God on earth and pass it on to their children who pass it on to theirs. This love grows and produces an environment of forgiveness and healing. Marriage is God’s plan for humanity.
Same-sex marriage is none of this. It robs children of the soul development that comes from a father or a mother. God created them male and female and put within the genders what is morally needed in the next generation. Two men or two women can raise a child but they cannot give to it what the other gender can give. Same-sex proponents, of course, dispute this but eventually they will be proven wrong. When the effects of same-sex marriage begin to be recognized in the future this will become apparent. But then it will be too late because our society will have collapsed.
The strategy of the enemy has been aimed at marriage in general. He and his secular-liberal army have blasted away at marriage because they know how crucial it is to the plan of God. Satan feels that if he can destroy marriage he can destroy a generation of young people. With abortion he has literally and physically destroyed a couple of generations. With same-sex marriage He may destroy emotionally another generation or more if the end of days is delayed.
If you doubt this, look at what the lack of fathers has done to the children in the inner cities of our country. Our major cities are moral cesspools with growing violence, disrespect for authority, racial hostility, unwed and unloved mothers and much more because a generation has been raised without fathers. The secularists argued that a woman can raise a child by herself. Why does she need a husband, the father of her child? That experiment is being played out on the streets of every major city in America and it is not a pretty scene. Children need both mother and father to develop properly.
In some ways the organized church shares much of the blame. Roman Catholicism has become a haven for pedophilia. Well-known pastors have fallen into sexual sin. We are like the world in our divorce rate and growing disrespect for marriage and its value. The world looks on and scowls at our hypocrisy and uses it to avoid coming to Christ.
But genuine Christianity will not accept this nonsense. It is fueled by the revelation that a God of love has revealed Himself in marriage and will continue to bless marriage when it is honored. As with all civilizations of the past, despising the blessing of marriage will doom our culture to failure. Secularists will deny this until they see the sky split with the glory of Christ coming with His glorious bride. Until that day arrives let genuine Christians come quickly to their posts in preparation for the looming battle.
Lloyd Gardner
June 11, 2015
Apparently the Supreme Court of the United States is poised to issue this month a decision on the Constitutionality of same-sex marriage. When one reads the purposeless ramblings of the justices, it becomes increasingly clear that they will rule in favor of same-sex marriage. This is true because the country through secular-liberal leaders has moved away from recognition of God and toward humanism, the world view that sees man as the center of the universe. This is accompanied by the rejection of the Bible as a source of truth and the embracing of moral relativism. There is no longer an ultimate standard of right and wrong but morality is based upon we think is right in our own eyes.
Civilizations have made this mistake before and those civilizations no longer exist. The move away from traditional marriage is simply evidence that the United States and western societies have rejected God and all that He stands for. It does not take a prophet to declare that this decision is the straw that will break the back of the once greatest country in the history of the world. One can already smell the smoke of the demise of America.
But Genuine Christianity is the expression of a kingdom within a kingdom and, in this kingdom in which Christ is King, marriage reflects the nature of God. God instituted marriage from the beginning in the Garden of Eden. It reflects who He is and what He wants us to be. He brought Adam his wife and there performed the first wedding ceremony (Gen. 2:22-24). Of course secularized America refuses to accept the Bible any longer so this story has no meaning to them.
Jesus, on the other hand, endorsed the story. At one point He referred to this passage from Genesis saying, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?” (Matt. 19:4, 5). So, if we reject marriage as God designed it we must reject Jesus and the words He uttered on this subject. And, of course, if His words on marriage are not valid that means that He is not who He said He was. Therefore the Bible is nonsense and Christianity is a lie. That’s where this moral relativism is taking us unless there is an unexpected miracle.
To many people that may seem like an oversimplification, but to the people in the same-sex marriage camp it strikes a resounding cord because they recognized the domino effect of their agenda years ago. They knew that if they could break down the barriers about homosexuality, and gender identification they would then press for same-sex marriage based on a non-existent Constitutional right. Once that is granted they would be able to use the assumed Constitutional right to begin the dismantling of Christianity in America. Gay rights people will adamantly deny this but to those with a watchful eye it is not difficult to see where they are headed.
Satan is very crafty. He began an assault on marriage, children and families years ago and has successfully dismantled the family structure in much of America. From that dysfunction gender confusion has permeated society. He then used political correctness of the secular-liberal way of thinking to spread the unproven concept that this gender confusion is normal and even genetic. A person is born that way and so we are dealing with an immutable condition much the same as race. Of course this moved the argument into the civil rights arena where it is winning the day even though no biological evidence of a genetic connection has been found.
The mistake they make is their failure to realize that Christianity is not an organization of men that gets its power from its tax exempt status and the First Amendment. That is the organized, human-regulated form of Christianity. Genuine Christianity is a heavenly organism infused with the life of God. It is people who have given their lives to Christ and live by His life and power. You can frustrate organizations and the schemes of men but you cannot kill the life of God growing in real people. The truth is the First Amendment was inspired by Christianity, not the other way around. Tax exemption was merely the country’s way of honoring it. True Christianity is not a political or religious phenomenon but a spiritual phenomenon by which God has penetrated society with His redeeming life.
Just ask China about its seventy-five year attempt to eradicate Christianity from its society. Yes, they have eradicated the external evidence of much of it but genuine Christianity in China has grown from a very small number to over 163 million. China has more Christians than the United States and this number represents only 12% of the population of the country. When Mao Zedong took control of China in 1949 he began an organized effort to eradicate Christianity. True Christianity, as a spiritual organism infused with the life of God, simply went underground where a secret explosion of life took place.
Real Christianity was birthed in the midst of the brutal Roman Empire and incubated in its underground catacombs. The Empire of Rome in the time of Christ makes Isis look like a junior varsity team. But this great empire could not snuff out a motley crew of twelve men touched by God Himself. The twelve men grew into several thousand within a few days and exploded across the known world in just one generation. Why? Because it is the living expression of God in people changed by a new birth and living a new life in God. A mere religion would have been squashed like a bug in a few weeks. Without lifting a finger or wielding a sword Christianity eventually defeated the great Roman empire.
So, Christians should not be too dismayed at the direction the country is about to move. Yes, it will mean the eventual downfall of our great nation, but same-sex marriage may well be the issue that drives many nominal Christians back to God. It may be the wedge that the enemy uses in a misdirected country to try to divide and conquer the hated Christians who call them to God. They will use it to beat us down but their attempts will only fuel the revival of a sleeping giant of faithful followers of Christ.
Just as Christ is not negotiable, marriage is not a negotiable issue with followers of Christ. Nine men and women in black can cast their votes but it is the vote of God that makes the difference. The followers of Christ know that God chose a bride for His Son before the foundation of the world and that all of earth’s history has been to bring forth that bride. The Bible begins at a wedding, Jesus began His ministry at a wedding in Cana, and all of human history will be brought to a conclusion when Christ comes forth with His bride in the last days (John 2:1-11; Rev. 19:7-16). The honeymoon will last a thousand years. The last thing that the marriage despisers will see is heaven opened and Christ coming forth with His chosen bride. On that soon coming day His bride will be wearing combat boots as she comes forth as a warring remnant to defeat Satan and his followers (Rev. 19:17-21).
Marriage is the basic living cell of human society and of the church Christ is building. It is the means God uses to express the nature of His love. It is the means by which children are taught and trained in righteousness. It is through marriage that righteous morality is learned and passed on to the generations. Marriage stabilizes society by giving children stability that they pass on to their children in their marriage. Married couples and families form the nucleus of church life. The family is a mini-church where all of the principles of ekklesia are practiced and accomplished. When the family breaks up, churches begin to crumble because the building blocks are missing. Husbands and wives reflect the love of God on earth and pass it on to their children who pass it on to theirs. This love grows and produces an environment of forgiveness and healing. Marriage is God’s plan for humanity.
Same-sex marriage is none of this. It robs children of the soul development that comes from a father or a mother. God created them male and female and put within the genders what is morally needed in the next generation. Two men or two women can raise a child but they cannot give to it what the other gender can give. Same-sex proponents, of course, dispute this but eventually they will be proven wrong. When the effects of same-sex marriage begin to be recognized in the future this will become apparent. But then it will be too late because our society will have collapsed.
The strategy of the enemy has been aimed at marriage in general. He and his secular-liberal army have blasted away at marriage because they know how crucial it is to the plan of God. Satan feels that if he can destroy marriage he can destroy a generation of young people. With abortion he has literally and physically destroyed a couple of generations. With same-sex marriage He may destroy emotionally another generation or more if the end of days is delayed.
If you doubt this, look at what the lack of fathers has done to the children in the inner cities of our country. Our major cities are moral cesspools with growing violence, disrespect for authority, racial hostility, unwed and unloved mothers and much more because a generation has been raised without fathers. The secularists argued that a woman can raise a child by herself. Why does she need a husband, the father of her child? That experiment is being played out on the streets of every major city in America and it is not a pretty scene. Children need both mother and father to develop properly.
In some ways the organized church shares much of the blame. Roman Catholicism has become a haven for pedophilia. Well-known pastors have fallen into sexual sin. We are like the world in our divorce rate and growing disrespect for marriage and its value. The world looks on and scowls at our hypocrisy and uses it to avoid coming to Christ.
But genuine Christianity will not accept this nonsense. It is fueled by the revelation that a God of love has revealed Himself in marriage and will continue to bless marriage when it is honored. As with all civilizations of the past, despising the blessing of marriage will doom our culture to failure. Secularists will deny this until they see the sky split with the glory of Christ coming with His glorious bride. Until that day arrives let genuine Christians come quickly to their posts in preparation for the looming battle.
Nonaligned with the Government
Lloyd Gardner
June 5, 2015
I was sitting in my dorm room at college while the war in Viet Nam was raging. Several of us college students were discussing the war and whether or not we would go to war if drafted. One of my friends was a pacifist and he was trying to make the case for not being in the military or going to war. After much discussion I asked him a simple question: “If the government threatened to throw you into jail for refusing to go to war, what would you do?” His answer surprised me. He replied that he would have no choice but to go along with the government and do as they say.
I was stunned by his answer because I felt at the time that his faith in Christ and his belief in pacifism should trump anything the government did and that he should be willing to be jailed for his beliefs. Christians face this question all the time and I believe we will face it more directly and forcefully in the near future. At what point, if any, do we compromise our faith because of what the government tells us to do or not to do? What is our relationship with the government in the country in which we live?
The same sex marriage issue before the Supreme Court and due to be finalized the end of this month may well be the wedge issue the enemy and secular liberals will use to force this issue. Some experts are predicting that if the Court rules that Same Sex Marriage is the law of the land that organized churches and ministries will then face a growing tsunami of challenges based on a re-application of the First Amendment. If same sex marriage becomes a constitutional right then churches and ministries may lose their tax exempt status if they take a stand in specific situations like marriage, membership, statements of doctrine, ordination etc.
Genuine Christianity was birthed in the midst of perhaps the highest point in the development of the Roman Empire. The empire ruled with an iron fist and expected immediate submission from the people it conquered. The early church believed it belonged to a heavenly kingdom within an earthly kingdom. Christians did not openly oppose the government but also did not actively cooperate with it when its actions ran counter to their faith in Christ. At any point that Rome required them to do something that violated their faith they bluntly refused even if it meant persecution or death. I believe my friend in college did not have a very strong belief in Christ or his pacifism if he was not willing to suffer for it. Nothing should ever come between us and our Lord regardless of the consequences. Christians should remain neutral and unaligned in regard to the government.
Jesus had said, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” (Matt. 22:21; NKJV). The Pharisees presenting the coin at the time were trying to pick a fight with Jesus. Their question had been, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” Their motive was to get Jesus sucked into the political controversy over paying taxes to a corrupt government. Jesus’ answer shut them up and it should settle for us the question of our involvement with the government. We live in the midst of an earthly kingdom and have earthly responsibilities but we have a higher responsibility in a higher kingdom ruled by God. Whatever responsibilities we have toward the government, not hindering our walk with God, should be fulfilled.
Later Paul tells us to be subject to the governing authorities because they were ordained by God (Rom. 13:1, 2). Early Christians understood that governments and other human authorities existed by God’s design to protect us and keep us secure. But the first century Christian saw himself as unaligned with the world and its governments. We are to respect and honor authorities but not align ourselves with them because we are spiritually aligned with the kingdom of God. The believer is subject to God first and then to other authorities.
The church In America faces a special challenge in this area that the same-sex marriage issue may spotlight. I apologize in advance for the boring nature of the next paragraph but it must be included to make my point. This is the paragraph in section 501, subsection c, paragraph 3 of the Internal Revenue Code. It is commonly referred to as 501(c)3. The added emphasis in the last part is mine. Here it is:
(3)Corporations, and any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes, or to foster national or international amateur sports competition (but only if no part of its activities involve the provision of athletic facilities or equipment), or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, no substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation (except as otherwise provided in subsection (h)), and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.
This paragraph is the 3 in the 501c3 description in the IRS Code. It obviously shackles the churches with requirements contrary to the First Amendment and all previously recognized precedents concerning the freedom of religion. The tradeoff for agreeing to this “tax exempt” status is that a church may not “influence legislation” and cannot participate in any “political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.”
We have recently witnessed how far the government will go to silence the church and Christians. Any direct connection between the church and the government is a set up by the enemy. It is well known that Lois Lerner, an IRS official, purposely targeted conservative groups who are tax exempt organizations or groups applying for such status. Of course she applied the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying before Congress. Power corrupts and the power of the IRS is well-documented. Government will use its power to bypass the people and further its causes. Actions by the EPA and the Department of Education have also been used to further the agenda of secular-liberal causes at the expense of believers.
Today in America almost all churches and religious organizations have applied for and possess tax exempt status because they think that in doing so they qualify to receive tax free donations. For the first 178 years of this country the 501c3 exemption did not exist. It was considered unnecessary because churches were automatically exempted from paying taxes based on the First Amendment Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses.
Unfortunately in 1954, then Senator Lyndon Johnson, a staunch liberal Democrat pushed through the bill that requested churches and religious organizations to apply for tax exempt status. This was written into the Tax Code as 501c3. It was a trap and the churches fell for it. Johnson and many of his allies at the time did not appreciate the freedom churches had in regard to paying taxes. The bait that was used by them was the promise that if they would submit to incorporation they could not be sued. Only the state of Virginia has refused to accept this incorporation false premise.
Of course we know how that has worked out. Only nine years after this legislation the US Supreme Court began its assault on the churches in America by essentially banning official prayer and then Bible reading in our schools. These decisions didn’t directly ban prayer and Bible reading but this is the way they have been applied by secular-liberal leaders and judges. In the 1950s the strategy of the enemy was underway to begin a dismantling of the rights of Christians and churches in America. During the 70’s and ensuing decades the enemy has used the corrupt court system in America to tighten the screws around the hearts of those who follow Christ. Abortion on demand was legalized and now same-sex marriage is sweeping across the nation. Anti-discrimination laws are requiring Christian businesses to violate their beliefs. Our secular-liberal government is working overtime with the help of uninformed voters to further their agenda.
Churches fell for this trap but now that trap is primed to snap down on the neck of the organized church because it allowed itself to be aligned with the government. According to documents of the IRS itself, churches and related organizations are exempt automatically if they meet the requirements of 501c3 (Publication 557). All churches are automatically exempt [(508(c) (1) (A)]. According to Publication 526 churches automatically qualify to receive deductible contributions.
The organized church in America has voluntarily placed itself in a subservient place in respect to the government. The result of that since the 1950s has been devastating. The genuine church is simply the people who follow Christ and has no connection with the government. To the extent that we have placed ourselves in a subservient position to the government for monetary reasons we have abandoned the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
At some point in the near future the organized church will discover the hard way the mistake that it has made in aligning itself with the government. The basic mistake has been in our misunderstanding about the organic nature of the church. The church is the people of God submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and seeking to serve Him. In America the church, as most people understand it, is a business endeavor begun by applying for corporation status and the tax exemption allowing tax exempt contributions. This unholy alliance has resulted in the gradual degrading of the church since the 50s and the degradation continues.
Now, pastors are CEOs of big companies drawing big salaries from the organizations that enjoy the unholy union with government. We gradually began to see the church, which is the body of Christ, as a simple human organization, a business governed by business principles, rather than the indwelling presence of Christ. We have abandoned the simplicity of life in Christ as His church for the sophistication of the world’s definition of “church”.
It is way past time for Christians to abandon their alliance with what Revelation calls Babylon and break with it (Rev. 17:5). But I must say that I firmly believe that organized Christianity will not respond to this challenge until it is forced to do so through devastation issuing from its disobedience. Christ will have His church. He will have His bride but it may come through discipline aimed at producing repentance (Heb. 12:7-12).
I’m sorry to say it but I believe that many groups who call themselves churches will choose to compromise and adjust their beliefs on the same-sex marriage issue to satisfy the government. That way they will be able to maintain their tax exemption and tax free contribution status. Others will simply be shut down for failing to compromise their beliefs. Some will try to maintain their large programs, facilities and salaries on simple voluntary donations that are not tax exempt. We may find out soon the motive of much giving by Christians in this country.
So what should Christians do? Whether or not the Supreme Court moves in favor of same-sex marriage or not, it is time for believers in America to discover from God’s word and fellowship with Him exactly how He wants His church to behave. Does He want us in an unholy union with the government or free to follow Him without government intrusion? This will require organic churches made up of simple followers of Christ whose only program is coming together regularly to glorify the Lord and build one another up in Christ.
This will require a resetting of our priorities from costly programs, salaries and facilities to simple genuine fellowship together in Christ. We need to learn to come together with Christ as the Guest of honor as we share, sing songs, eat together, pray for one another and explore His word with open hearts and minds. When a member is in need we will gather around him and help. Money will be used to bless others not build programs or pay for salaries and facilities. We will share our homes our yards and mostly our hearts as we venture forth in Christ.
The coming attack on the church is a blessing in disguise. It will surely separate the sheep from the goats and slam the door in the face of the hirelings who are in it for money or fame. When the devastation comes it will pare us down to the real thing, help us to put aside worldly baggage and simply serve and glorify the Lord.
Lloyd Gardner
June 5, 2015
I was sitting in my dorm room at college while the war in Viet Nam was raging. Several of us college students were discussing the war and whether or not we would go to war if drafted. One of my friends was a pacifist and he was trying to make the case for not being in the military or going to war. After much discussion I asked him a simple question: “If the government threatened to throw you into jail for refusing to go to war, what would you do?” His answer surprised me. He replied that he would have no choice but to go along with the government and do as they say.
I was stunned by his answer because I felt at the time that his faith in Christ and his belief in pacifism should trump anything the government did and that he should be willing to be jailed for his beliefs. Christians face this question all the time and I believe we will face it more directly and forcefully in the near future. At what point, if any, do we compromise our faith because of what the government tells us to do or not to do? What is our relationship with the government in the country in which we live?
The same sex marriage issue before the Supreme Court and due to be finalized the end of this month may well be the wedge issue the enemy and secular liberals will use to force this issue. Some experts are predicting that if the Court rules that Same Sex Marriage is the law of the land that organized churches and ministries will then face a growing tsunami of challenges based on a re-application of the First Amendment. If same sex marriage becomes a constitutional right then churches and ministries may lose their tax exempt status if they take a stand in specific situations like marriage, membership, statements of doctrine, ordination etc.
Genuine Christianity was birthed in the midst of perhaps the highest point in the development of the Roman Empire. The empire ruled with an iron fist and expected immediate submission from the people it conquered. The early church believed it belonged to a heavenly kingdom within an earthly kingdom. Christians did not openly oppose the government but also did not actively cooperate with it when its actions ran counter to their faith in Christ. At any point that Rome required them to do something that violated their faith they bluntly refused even if it meant persecution or death. I believe my friend in college did not have a very strong belief in Christ or his pacifism if he was not willing to suffer for it. Nothing should ever come between us and our Lord regardless of the consequences. Christians should remain neutral and unaligned in regard to the government.
Jesus had said, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” (Matt. 22:21; NKJV). The Pharisees presenting the coin at the time were trying to pick a fight with Jesus. Their question had been, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” Their motive was to get Jesus sucked into the political controversy over paying taxes to a corrupt government. Jesus’ answer shut them up and it should settle for us the question of our involvement with the government. We live in the midst of an earthly kingdom and have earthly responsibilities but we have a higher responsibility in a higher kingdom ruled by God. Whatever responsibilities we have toward the government, not hindering our walk with God, should be fulfilled.
Later Paul tells us to be subject to the governing authorities because they were ordained by God (Rom. 13:1, 2). Early Christians understood that governments and other human authorities existed by God’s design to protect us and keep us secure. But the first century Christian saw himself as unaligned with the world and its governments. We are to respect and honor authorities but not align ourselves with them because we are spiritually aligned with the kingdom of God. The believer is subject to God first and then to other authorities.
The church In America faces a special challenge in this area that the same-sex marriage issue may spotlight. I apologize in advance for the boring nature of the next paragraph but it must be included to make my point. This is the paragraph in section 501, subsection c, paragraph 3 of the Internal Revenue Code. It is commonly referred to as 501(c)3. The added emphasis in the last part is mine. Here it is:
(3)Corporations, and any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes, or to foster national or international amateur sports competition (but only if no part of its activities involve the provision of athletic facilities or equipment), or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, no substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation (except as otherwise provided in subsection (h)), and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.
This paragraph is the 3 in the 501c3 description in the IRS Code. It obviously shackles the churches with requirements contrary to the First Amendment and all previously recognized precedents concerning the freedom of religion. The tradeoff for agreeing to this “tax exempt” status is that a church may not “influence legislation” and cannot participate in any “political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.”
We have recently witnessed how far the government will go to silence the church and Christians. Any direct connection between the church and the government is a set up by the enemy. It is well known that Lois Lerner, an IRS official, purposely targeted conservative groups who are tax exempt organizations or groups applying for such status. Of course she applied the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying before Congress. Power corrupts and the power of the IRS is well-documented. Government will use its power to bypass the people and further its causes. Actions by the EPA and the Department of Education have also been used to further the agenda of secular-liberal causes at the expense of believers.
Today in America almost all churches and religious organizations have applied for and possess tax exempt status because they think that in doing so they qualify to receive tax free donations. For the first 178 years of this country the 501c3 exemption did not exist. It was considered unnecessary because churches were automatically exempted from paying taxes based on the First Amendment Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses.
Unfortunately in 1954, then Senator Lyndon Johnson, a staunch liberal Democrat pushed through the bill that requested churches and religious organizations to apply for tax exempt status. This was written into the Tax Code as 501c3. It was a trap and the churches fell for it. Johnson and many of his allies at the time did not appreciate the freedom churches had in regard to paying taxes. The bait that was used by them was the promise that if they would submit to incorporation they could not be sued. Only the state of Virginia has refused to accept this incorporation false premise.
Of course we know how that has worked out. Only nine years after this legislation the US Supreme Court began its assault on the churches in America by essentially banning official prayer and then Bible reading in our schools. These decisions didn’t directly ban prayer and Bible reading but this is the way they have been applied by secular-liberal leaders and judges. In the 1950s the strategy of the enemy was underway to begin a dismantling of the rights of Christians and churches in America. During the 70’s and ensuing decades the enemy has used the corrupt court system in America to tighten the screws around the hearts of those who follow Christ. Abortion on demand was legalized and now same-sex marriage is sweeping across the nation. Anti-discrimination laws are requiring Christian businesses to violate their beliefs. Our secular-liberal government is working overtime with the help of uninformed voters to further their agenda.
Churches fell for this trap but now that trap is primed to snap down on the neck of the organized church because it allowed itself to be aligned with the government. According to documents of the IRS itself, churches and related organizations are exempt automatically if they meet the requirements of 501c3 (Publication 557). All churches are automatically exempt [(508(c) (1) (A)]. According to Publication 526 churches automatically qualify to receive deductible contributions.
The organized church in America has voluntarily placed itself in a subservient place in respect to the government. The result of that since the 1950s has been devastating. The genuine church is simply the people who follow Christ and has no connection with the government. To the extent that we have placed ourselves in a subservient position to the government for monetary reasons we have abandoned the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
At some point in the near future the organized church will discover the hard way the mistake that it has made in aligning itself with the government. The basic mistake has been in our misunderstanding about the organic nature of the church. The church is the people of God submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and seeking to serve Him. In America the church, as most people understand it, is a business endeavor begun by applying for corporation status and the tax exemption allowing tax exempt contributions. This unholy alliance has resulted in the gradual degrading of the church since the 50s and the degradation continues.
Now, pastors are CEOs of big companies drawing big salaries from the organizations that enjoy the unholy union with government. We gradually began to see the church, which is the body of Christ, as a simple human organization, a business governed by business principles, rather than the indwelling presence of Christ. We have abandoned the simplicity of life in Christ as His church for the sophistication of the world’s definition of “church”.
It is way past time for Christians to abandon their alliance with what Revelation calls Babylon and break with it (Rev. 17:5). But I must say that I firmly believe that organized Christianity will not respond to this challenge until it is forced to do so through devastation issuing from its disobedience. Christ will have His church. He will have His bride but it may come through discipline aimed at producing repentance (Heb. 12:7-12).
I’m sorry to say it but I believe that many groups who call themselves churches will choose to compromise and adjust their beliefs on the same-sex marriage issue to satisfy the government. That way they will be able to maintain their tax exemption and tax free contribution status. Others will simply be shut down for failing to compromise their beliefs. Some will try to maintain their large programs, facilities and salaries on simple voluntary donations that are not tax exempt. We may find out soon the motive of much giving by Christians in this country.
So what should Christians do? Whether or not the Supreme Court moves in favor of same-sex marriage or not, it is time for believers in America to discover from God’s word and fellowship with Him exactly how He wants His church to behave. Does He want us in an unholy union with the government or free to follow Him without government intrusion? This will require organic churches made up of simple followers of Christ whose only program is coming together regularly to glorify the Lord and build one another up in Christ.
This will require a resetting of our priorities from costly programs, salaries and facilities to simple genuine fellowship together in Christ. We need to learn to come together with Christ as the Guest of honor as we share, sing songs, eat together, pray for one another and explore His word with open hearts and minds. When a member is in need we will gather around him and help. Money will be used to bless others not build programs or pay for salaries and facilities. We will share our homes our yards and mostly our hearts as we venture forth in Christ.
The coming attack on the church is a blessing in disguise. It will surely separate the sheep from the goats and slam the door in the face of the hirelings who are in it for money or fame. When the devastation comes it will pare us down to the real thing, help us to put aside worldly baggage and simply serve and glorify the Lord.
A Non-institutional Spiritual Organism
May 28, 2015
Lloyd Gardner
Much is being written and said in today’s Christian settings about the form the church should take. Like the school classrooms of the 70s we are experimenting with structure and its effect on growth success. Educational leaders in those days were saying that we need to get away from the classroom with desks all facing the same way and the teacher always standing up front giving continuous lectures. They thought that a new external structure would make the educational system effective. The experiment hasn’t worked out well.
Now, church leaders are experimenting with how we practice church. Should we have small groups where participation is encouraged? Should we have a processing meeting during the week where the pastor’s sermon is analyzed? Should we make more effective use of technology in a technology-driven society? Should we… and the experimentation continues.
On and on the experiments go with the looming hope that the form of church will make church more effective. In essence we are like the gardener who says, “Surely this garden will work better if I paint these leaves green and tack them onto the stems of the plants.” We think we can make something better by changing its exterior, not realizing that a change from within is the answer. All the technology glitz, how many we gather with, or where we gather will not improve the church because the church was designed by God to be an organism not an organization of man or an institution of clever people.
The church or ekklesia of Christ is a spiritual organism infused with the life of God and growing only by the life within. Paul called it “the body of Christ” since he understood that the ekklesia is a living thing growing in Christ (1 Cor. 12:12, 27). A body does not prosper by changing the external appearance but by inward changes that take place through the principles of sustained life.
Now hear this! The moment man thinks he can help the organism along by changing its exterior he creates an institution. Fallen and frustrated humans want to control things. It all started when Eve, in delusion, thought she could control the things God had put into motion with her own ingenuity. Men have been trying to control God and other men since that day. We think we can ignore what God says and simply organize the church so that it meets our comfort standards and agrees with our level of doctrinal astuteness. That is precisely why organized church is a failure—because man is a failure without God. Trying to build the church without God is folly of the highest order.
I know I speak in generalities and that there are many faithful followers of Christ within the institutional church. God’s grace reaches far beyond my limited ability to see. But, in general, man’s hands on the church have the same spiritual effect as Uzzah’s hands on the ark of the covenant when king David brought it up (2 Sam. 6:6, 7). Even worse folly is seen in putting the ark of God’s presence on a manmade cart in the first place in order to transport it (6:3). Oh, it was a “new cart” for man always makes something new in his attempts to do things his way. Uzzah died because the ark was not carried by the priests as God had required (Num. 7:9). His attempt to steady the ark of God represents man’s foolish attempts to adjust his manipulation of God’s purpose. He did it in ignorance but died nevertheless. I wonder how many spiritual deaths are occurring today because we are consistently touching the ark of God by trying to redirect the purpose of God. We devise our “new carts” and move God as we please without consulting His will in the process. That was David’s error and continues to be the error of people who won’t consult God when doing His work.
The only way an organism can grow and prosper is for provision to be made concerning its life needs. Plants need certain amounts of light, water, nutrients, warmth, and soil conditions. Animals need food, water and certain environmental conditions. The human body must have water, food, nutrients, and air to survive and prosper. We can put our bodies on life support and manipulate conditions to keep them alive but in this condition they will not fulfill their purpose. They must live and be prosperous to fulfill their purpose.
Our problem is that we think that when Paul says the church is the body of Christ that he is saying, “The church is like the body of Christ.” In other words he was just giving us a metaphor that helps us understand but that we can go ahead and do as we please with the metaphor.
No, Paul was not just giving us a poetic symbol of the nature of the church. He was telling us straight out that the church is the body of Christ. We are the organic expression of Christ on earth. We live because His life is in us. The corporate expression of the church exists as a living, functioning representation of Christ. We are His hands, His feet, His heart, His mind, His very life and He is all of that to us for He is in us and we are in Him (Acts 4:30; Isa. 52:7; 1 Cor. 2:16; John 14:6).
Jesus said “I am the bread of life” so He is our nourishment. He said, “Come to me and drink,” so He is our water. He said “I am the light of the world,” so He is our light source. He said “I am the way the truth and the life,” so He is the very life flowing through us making us an organism that can be called “his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). Christ is all in all. That means any need we have can be met in Him. It means that we must stop doing things that do not nourish His life within us and His ekklesia. He must be at the center of all we do and say.
So what does that look like? With that question we run into trouble for the simple reason that the shape and order of an organism cannot be predicted. If Christ is truly living in us and is our life, we will simply grow as any living thing and the corporate form of the church will develop organically, not organizationally. One is the work of the Holy Spirit and the other is the failing work of man.
Genuine Christianity cannot be organized unless you want to kill it. We have killed it with our clever programs. Oh it looks good from the outside. The kids love the fun and games and glitzy activities until they realize that their lives have remained the same or gotten worse. The programs and fun did not meet their needs and they found themselves dying spiritually. Maybe that’s why young people are leaving the organized church in droves. They enjoyed the fun and games while fun and games met their social needs but when the wheels of real life began to turn they found themselves without a source of life. They were not fed or nourished, and choked for air. They had the fun and games but lacked life and when the going got tough they could not sustain a walk of victory. And so they walked away. And that is the tragedy we face.
So what is the answer? Before He ascended Jesus said, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). He offered Himself as the continuing, ongoing, ever-present answer. He did not leave us or forsake us. He is with us and available just as He was during His earthly walk. We must turn to Him and get to know Him and His ways. American business methods have failed. Church growth programs merely reproduce mediocrity and continue the downward slide. The music fest and once-a-week sermon approach has failed to nourish and strengthen us for life in a world designed to destroy us.
All the fun and games, sermonizing, music fests, and technology experimentation cannot compare with the excitement and joy of Christ walking among His people. This is the Christ who healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead and conveyed love, joy and peace. He is exciting and stimulating to say the least. He does not need man’s help to shake the world. We need Him and until we realize that He, and nothing or no one else, is the answer we will fail.
There is a way and the way is in Christ. He is the answer you seek. Finding Him and letting Him continue being the Good Shepherd who leads us onward is the greatest need of the church. This is genuine Christianity—a heavenly organism growing by His life.
May 28, 2015
Lloyd Gardner
Much is being written and said in today’s Christian settings about the form the church should take. Like the school classrooms of the 70s we are experimenting with structure and its effect on growth success. Educational leaders in those days were saying that we need to get away from the classroom with desks all facing the same way and the teacher always standing up front giving continuous lectures. They thought that a new external structure would make the educational system effective. The experiment hasn’t worked out well.
Now, church leaders are experimenting with how we practice church. Should we have small groups where participation is encouraged? Should we have a processing meeting during the week where the pastor’s sermon is analyzed? Should we make more effective use of technology in a technology-driven society? Should we… and the experimentation continues.
On and on the experiments go with the looming hope that the form of church will make church more effective. In essence we are like the gardener who says, “Surely this garden will work better if I paint these leaves green and tack them onto the stems of the plants.” We think we can make something better by changing its exterior, not realizing that a change from within is the answer. All the technology glitz, how many we gather with, or where we gather will not improve the church because the church was designed by God to be an organism not an organization of man or an institution of clever people.
The church or ekklesia of Christ is a spiritual organism infused with the life of God and growing only by the life within. Paul called it “the body of Christ” since he understood that the ekklesia is a living thing growing in Christ (1 Cor. 12:12, 27). A body does not prosper by changing the external appearance but by inward changes that take place through the principles of sustained life.
Now hear this! The moment man thinks he can help the organism along by changing its exterior he creates an institution. Fallen and frustrated humans want to control things. It all started when Eve, in delusion, thought she could control the things God had put into motion with her own ingenuity. Men have been trying to control God and other men since that day. We think we can ignore what God says and simply organize the church so that it meets our comfort standards and agrees with our level of doctrinal astuteness. That is precisely why organized church is a failure—because man is a failure without God. Trying to build the church without God is folly of the highest order.
I know I speak in generalities and that there are many faithful followers of Christ within the institutional church. God’s grace reaches far beyond my limited ability to see. But, in general, man’s hands on the church have the same spiritual effect as Uzzah’s hands on the ark of the covenant when king David brought it up (2 Sam. 6:6, 7). Even worse folly is seen in putting the ark of God’s presence on a manmade cart in the first place in order to transport it (6:3). Oh, it was a “new cart” for man always makes something new in his attempts to do things his way. Uzzah died because the ark was not carried by the priests as God had required (Num. 7:9). His attempt to steady the ark of God represents man’s foolish attempts to adjust his manipulation of God’s purpose. He did it in ignorance but died nevertheless. I wonder how many spiritual deaths are occurring today because we are consistently touching the ark of God by trying to redirect the purpose of God. We devise our “new carts” and move God as we please without consulting His will in the process. That was David’s error and continues to be the error of people who won’t consult God when doing His work.
The only way an organism can grow and prosper is for provision to be made concerning its life needs. Plants need certain amounts of light, water, nutrients, warmth, and soil conditions. Animals need food, water and certain environmental conditions. The human body must have water, food, nutrients, and air to survive and prosper. We can put our bodies on life support and manipulate conditions to keep them alive but in this condition they will not fulfill their purpose. They must live and be prosperous to fulfill their purpose.
Our problem is that we think that when Paul says the church is the body of Christ that he is saying, “The church is like the body of Christ.” In other words he was just giving us a metaphor that helps us understand but that we can go ahead and do as we please with the metaphor.
No, Paul was not just giving us a poetic symbol of the nature of the church. He was telling us straight out that the church is the body of Christ. We are the organic expression of Christ on earth. We live because His life is in us. The corporate expression of the church exists as a living, functioning representation of Christ. We are His hands, His feet, His heart, His mind, His very life and He is all of that to us for He is in us and we are in Him (Acts 4:30; Isa. 52:7; 1 Cor. 2:16; John 14:6).
Jesus said “I am the bread of life” so He is our nourishment. He said, “Come to me and drink,” so He is our water. He said “I am the light of the world,” so He is our light source. He said “I am the way the truth and the life,” so He is the very life flowing through us making us an organism that can be called “his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). Christ is all in all. That means any need we have can be met in Him. It means that we must stop doing things that do not nourish His life within us and His ekklesia. He must be at the center of all we do and say.
So what does that look like? With that question we run into trouble for the simple reason that the shape and order of an organism cannot be predicted. If Christ is truly living in us and is our life, we will simply grow as any living thing and the corporate form of the church will develop organically, not organizationally. One is the work of the Holy Spirit and the other is the failing work of man.
Genuine Christianity cannot be organized unless you want to kill it. We have killed it with our clever programs. Oh it looks good from the outside. The kids love the fun and games and glitzy activities until they realize that their lives have remained the same or gotten worse. The programs and fun did not meet their needs and they found themselves dying spiritually. Maybe that’s why young people are leaving the organized church in droves. They enjoyed the fun and games while fun and games met their social needs but when the wheels of real life began to turn they found themselves without a source of life. They were not fed or nourished, and choked for air. They had the fun and games but lacked life and when the going got tough they could not sustain a walk of victory. And so they walked away. And that is the tragedy we face.
So what is the answer? Before He ascended Jesus said, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). He offered Himself as the continuing, ongoing, ever-present answer. He did not leave us or forsake us. He is with us and available just as He was during His earthly walk. We must turn to Him and get to know Him and His ways. American business methods have failed. Church growth programs merely reproduce mediocrity and continue the downward slide. The music fest and once-a-week sermon approach has failed to nourish and strengthen us for life in a world designed to destroy us.
All the fun and games, sermonizing, music fests, and technology experimentation cannot compare with the excitement and joy of Christ walking among His people. This is the Christ who healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead and conveyed love, joy and peace. He is exciting and stimulating to say the least. He does not need man’s help to shake the world. We need Him and until we realize that He, and nothing or no one else, is the answer we will fail.
There is a way and the way is in Christ. He is the answer you seek. Finding Him and letting Him continue being the Good Shepherd who leads us onward is the greatest need of the church. This is genuine Christianity—a heavenly organism growing by His life.
A New Life from a New Birth
Lloyd Gardner
May 22, 2015
Paul encourages us with these words: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves” (2 Cor. 13:5). This solemn recommendation is especially needed in today’s spiritual climate in which many people are claiming to be Christians while showing little evidence of it. The apostle’s advice implies that it is possible to examine or test ourselves to see whether we are genuine Christians who are “in the faith.”
Being a Christian means we have experienced a spiritual rebirth that has produced in us a new life that continues to grow and produce the nature of God. To a surprised Nicodemus Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Later Jesus described this new birth as being “born of the Spirit” (v. 6). The new birth is a spiritual rebirthing into a new spiritual life. Jesus then told this leader of the Jews that “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (3:16). That eternal life is available now through a new birth.
No doubt Jesus was familiar with Proverbs 20:27 where Solomon said, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD.” Man’s spirit is a lamp that can be lit by the fire of God’s presence. God can enter into man bringing a new birth and a new impartation of divine life. This new life is not one that men can manipulate and organize. It is a life flowing from the free expression of the Holy Spirit.
Paul said it this way: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). The “creation” in this case is a brand new, previously nonexistent life created by God Himself and permeated with His divine life. All of the old life fades away in the brilliance and splendor of this new life from God. This new life is undeniable and unmistakable because it is from God and is permeated with His nature. Being a Christian is not living a new religion with a set of acceptable rules and rites but receiving and living a newly created life from God.
So that is why it is important, as Paul says, to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. Too many of us are claiming to be Christians because we raised our hand and said the sinner’s prayer at a church service years ago but our lives do not reflect the new creation Paul describes in this passage. Christianity is seen by many in America as a flu shot we get to immunize us against hell and then we go about our business. Christianity is not a one-time event that takes place through the recitation of some words. It is a supernatural life from a supernatural God who has penetrated the natural realm with His divine life. It is the Resurrected One giving His resurrection life to us so we can truly live a heavenly life.
In his first letter the apostle John summarizes some tests of our faith. He was concerned that some false teachers were proclaiming false concepts about being a follower of Christ. He does not mince words and probably would not be very popular in today’s complacent Christian climate. The apostle gives us some tests by which we can examine ourselves in terms of the faith. Let’s take a look at those tests.
We must admit our sin
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1:8). Here John is giving us the beginning point of our journey in Christ. We must reach the point of seeing that we are spiritually broken and in need of God’s forgiveness and cleansing. The Christian walk begins in humility as we recognize our brokenness and reach out to God who heals the broken hearted and sets the captives free. The next verse says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God asks that we be honest about our sin and open up to Him. We must admit from the beginning that sin is real and we are its victim but know that God will forgive and cleanse us if we face up to our need. Of those who will not do this, John says, “the truth is not in us.”
We must keep His commandments
“Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (2:4-6).
Some will counter that statement saying the commandments are no longer valid and that we are not required to keep them. The commandments have not been nullified but have been fulfilled in Christ. Jesus said He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). Jesus has fulfilled the law and genuine Christians have Him living within them. This means as John says, “…whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” This should send a shiver through each of us trying to walk the tightrope between Christ and the world. It cannot be done. Those who possess Christ will gradually become like Him because we are in Him and He is in us.
But be careful here. The commandments cannot be taken as a list of “don’ts” that we comply with through human effort. They are a description of the life we will spontaneously live when we are living this new supernatural life in Christ. It will be as Paul says,
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose ( Gal. 2:20, 21).
Genuine Christianity is Christ living in us by faith. We nullify the grace of God when we try to have righteousness by means of a set of laws. But the genuine believer with Christ within will find himself living a life of righteousness because Christ lives in him. We must then look at our lives and see if this is true.
We must love
“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness” (2:9-11).
That’s very clear! If we are haters we are in darkness. Those who are in Christ will spontaneously love others because the Lover of the universe dwells within. Those who hate are being deceived. Considering the divisive and often detestable nature of much of American Christianity this means that many who call themselves Christians need to hold their lives up to God’s standard revealed here in John’s epistle.
We must not love the world
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (2:15). Here John is warning us that the person who loves the world and all it has to offer is not a genuine believer. It is impossible to love the Father and the world at the same time. This world is the concoction of the enemy of God who is called “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4). Many have been enticed by the draw of the world created by Satan. He believes he can corrupt us by molding the world after himself and enticing us with its goodies. It is the reflection of his personality. If we fall in love with it we are giving ourselves to Satan and “the love of the Father” is not in us.
The world’s enticements are all around us—in our magazines, on the television, on the internet, on our smart phones and other devices, on the ads in the mall stores, in our schools, at our jobs and even in our churches. We must discover a life in Christ that provides us with the protection and power of the Spirit to turn away from the wooing allure of the world. Satan designed it to woo the bride of Christ away from her first love and she must find a way to live in His love. You must find a way in Christ.
Again let me add a caution. Do not put the cart before the horse. The horse (the power to live this life in love) is followed by the cart (the life of love). We are not being told to make a list of these distractions of the world and then go through life trying to see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. That is not the way of God and it will lead to frustration. The life within will produce a love of the Father and His children so powerful that we will spontaneously love what He loves and hate what He hates. Our need is to find a way to nurture this life within and allow it to be expressed in fullness.
We must purify ourselves from sin
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous (3:3-7).
Remember that John began his letter by reminding us that we are sinners and are in need of forgiveness and cleansing. Yet, in this passage he tells us that the genuine Christian does not continue in sin. He does not go on practicing sin. He says, “…in him there is no sin” so anyone who is in Christ will not make a practice of sinning. If we are abiding in Christ, allowing Him to be part of our lives continuously, we will not keep on sinning. Anyone who keeps on sinning has not seen Him or known Him. He promises to forgive and cleanse us from sin if we genuinely confess our sins to Him. If sin continues it means that we are deceived. These are sobering words for compromised Christians who think they can do as they please because they got their spiritual flu shot. The only guarantee of heaven is to be in Christ and being in Christ will produce a life of righteousness.
I know these are hard words but these are hard and desperate times when many are being sucked into the world system with all of its corruption. Much of this is so subtle that we are not aware that we are being affected. I believe that the tests John shares with us in this epistle should prove to many of us that we are not genuinely in the faith. We have been deceived.
It is time for a quality check but as we do so let us not use our own judgment as the standard. God’s word is the standard and it reveals what it means to truly be a follower of Christ. I pray that everyone who reads these words will apply the test. We pray that you will pass with flying colors. If not, we have a loving Father who is waiting for you to come to his loving arms.
Remember also that this new resurrection life given to us in Christ has a corporate expression. God’s eternal purpose is not merely to get a disconnected assortment of Christians into heaven. His purpose is to have a spiritual body composed of many who allow His love to bring them into unity in Christ. This means that everything we just saw about living a life of righteousness is impossible outside of this corporate body of Christ. Every believer must find an expression of this body life which provides an environment in which this new life in Christ is protected and nourished so that it grows and prospers in the Spirit.
Most American Christians have a very superficial church life characterized by a sermon a week and six days of bombardment by the world. This once a week sermon and a brief time of singing songs will not nourish this new creation into which we are born. One politician said, “It takes a village,” but God declares that it takes a church built upon Christ. It takes a commitment to other believers that extends into the week and provides a nurturing environment of love and unity.
All living things must be nurtured. I have been an organic gardener for many years and am familiar with what happens when my plants are not provided the nurture they need. My job as the gardener is to provide the environment in which the plants can prosper and produce. God has done the same for us. He has provided His body; a vineyard if you will. But we must give ourselves fully to being nurtured by the encouragement, teaching, fellowship, accountability and love that only a Christ-filled body can provide.
We wonder why we are not growing—why the world seems to be winning our hearts away from the One who called us. The answer is simple. He has not made us to be disconnected individuals but to be integrated into a body that is the expression of His fullness on earth (Eph. 1:23). Without that integration we are sitting ducks in a pond designed by the enemy. He will pick us off one at a time and we will suffer great loss.
But there is a place of refuge in Christ. It is a place of shelter in the shadow of the Almighty (Ps. 91:1). There, in the shadow of our God, we will grow and prosper and find the victory of this new life in Christ. May God bless your journey toward His perfect will.
Lloyd Gardner
May 22, 2015
Paul encourages us with these words: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves” (2 Cor. 13:5). This solemn recommendation is especially needed in today’s spiritual climate in which many people are claiming to be Christians while showing little evidence of it. The apostle’s advice implies that it is possible to examine or test ourselves to see whether we are genuine Christians who are “in the faith.”
Being a Christian means we have experienced a spiritual rebirth that has produced in us a new life that continues to grow and produce the nature of God. To a surprised Nicodemus Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Later Jesus described this new birth as being “born of the Spirit” (v. 6). The new birth is a spiritual rebirthing into a new spiritual life. Jesus then told this leader of the Jews that “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (3:16). That eternal life is available now through a new birth.
No doubt Jesus was familiar with Proverbs 20:27 where Solomon said, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD.” Man’s spirit is a lamp that can be lit by the fire of God’s presence. God can enter into man bringing a new birth and a new impartation of divine life. This new life is not one that men can manipulate and organize. It is a life flowing from the free expression of the Holy Spirit.
Paul said it this way: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). The “creation” in this case is a brand new, previously nonexistent life created by God Himself and permeated with His divine life. All of the old life fades away in the brilliance and splendor of this new life from God. This new life is undeniable and unmistakable because it is from God and is permeated with His nature. Being a Christian is not living a new religion with a set of acceptable rules and rites but receiving and living a newly created life from God.
So that is why it is important, as Paul says, to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. Too many of us are claiming to be Christians because we raised our hand and said the sinner’s prayer at a church service years ago but our lives do not reflect the new creation Paul describes in this passage. Christianity is seen by many in America as a flu shot we get to immunize us against hell and then we go about our business. Christianity is not a one-time event that takes place through the recitation of some words. It is a supernatural life from a supernatural God who has penetrated the natural realm with His divine life. It is the Resurrected One giving His resurrection life to us so we can truly live a heavenly life.
In his first letter the apostle John summarizes some tests of our faith. He was concerned that some false teachers were proclaiming false concepts about being a follower of Christ. He does not mince words and probably would not be very popular in today’s complacent Christian climate. The apostle gives us some tests by which we can examine ourselves in terms of the faith. Let’s take a look at those tests.
We must admit our sin
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1:8). Here John is giving us the beginning point of our journey in Christ. We must reach the point of seeing that we are spiritually broken and in need of God’s forgiveness and cleansing. The Christian walk begins in humility as we recognize our brokenness and reach out to God who heals the broken hearted and sets the captives free. The next verse says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God asks that we be honest about our sin and open up to Him. We must admit from the beginning that sin is real and we are its victim but know that God will forgive and cleanse us if we face up to our need. Of those who will not do this, John says, “the truth is not in us.”
We must keep His commandments
“Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (2:4-6).
Some will counter that statement saying the commandments are no longer valid and that we are not required to keep them. The commandments have not been nullified but have been fulfilled in Christ. Jesus said He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). Jesus has fulfilled the law and genuine Christians have Him living within them. This means as John says, “…whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” This should send a shiver through each of us trying to walk the tightrope between Christ and the world. It cannot be done. Those who possess Christ will gradually become like Him because we are in Him and He is in us.
But be careful here. The commandments cannot be taken as a list of “don’ts” that we comply with through human effort. They are a description of the life we will spontaneously live when we are living this new supernatural life in Christ. It will be as Paul says,
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose ( Gal. 2:20, 21).
Genuine Christianity is Christ living in us by faith. We nullify the grace of God when we try to have righteousness by means of a set of laws. But the genuine believer with Christ within will find himself living a life of righteousness because Christ lives in him. We must then look at our lives and see if this is true.
We must love
“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness” (2:9-11).
That’s very clear! If we are haters we are in darkness. Those who are in Christ will spontaneously love others because the Lover of the universe dwells within. Those who hate are being deceived. Considering the divisive and often detestable nature of much of American Christianity this means that many who call themselves Christians need to hold their lives up to God’s standard revealed here in John’s epistle.
We must not love the world
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (2:15). Here John is warning us that the person who loves the world and all it has to offer is not a genuine believer. It is impossible to love the Father and the world at the same time. This world is the concoction of the enemy of God who is called “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4). Many have been enticed by the draw of the world created by Satan. He believes he can corrupt us by molding the world after himself and enticing us with its goodies. It is the reflection of his personality. If we fall in love with it we are giving ourselves to Satan and “the love of the Father” is not in us.
The world’s enticements are all around us—in our magazines, on the television, on the internet, on our smart phones and other devices, on the ads in the mall stores, in our schools, at our jobs and even in our churches. We must discover a life in Christ that provides us with the protection and power of the Spirit to turn away from the wooing allure of the world. Satan designed it to woo the bride of Christ away from her first love and she must find a way to live in His love. You must find a way in Christ.
Again let me add a caution. Do not put the cart before the horse. The horse (the power to live this life in love) is followed by the cart (the life of love). We are not being told to make a list of these distractions of the world and then go through life trying to see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. That is not the way of God and it will lead to frustration. The life within will produce a love of the Father and His children so powerful that we will spontaneously love what He loves and hate what He hates. Our need is to find a way to nurture this life within and allow it to be expressed in fullness.
We must purify ourselves from sin
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous (3:3-7).
Remember that John began his letter by reminding us that we are sinners and are in need of forgiveness and cleansing. Yet, in this passage he tells us that the genuine Christian does not continue in sin. He does not go on practicing sin. He says, “…in him there is no sin” so anyone who is in Christ will not make a practice of sinning. If we are abiding in Christ, allowing Him to be part of our lives continuously, we will not keep on sinning. Anyone who keeps on sinning has not seen Him or known Him. He promises to forgive and cleanse us from sin if we genuinely confess our sins to Him. If sin continues it means that we are deceived. These are sobering words for compromised Christians who think they can do as they please because they got their spiritual flu shot. The only guarantee of heaven is to be in Christ and being in Christ will produce a life of righteousness.
I know these are hard words but these are hard and desperate times when many are being sucked into the world system with all of its corruption. Much of this is so subtle that we are not aware that we are being affected. I believe that the tests John shares with us in this epistle should prove to many of us that we are not genuinely in the faith. We have been deceived.
It is time for a quality check but as we do so let us not use our own judgment as the standard. God’s word is the standard and it reveals what it means to truly be a follower of Christ. I pray that everyone who reads these words will apply the test. We pray that you will pass with flying colors. If not, we have a loving Father who is waiting for you to come to his loving arms.
Remember also that this new resurrection life given to us in Christ has a corporate expression. God’s eternal purpose is not merely to get a disconnected assortment of Christians into heaven. His purpose is to have a spiritual body composed of many who allow His love to bring them into unity in Christ. This means that everything we just saw about living a life of righteousness is impossible outside of this corporate body of Christ. Every believer must find an expression of this body life which provides an environment in which this new life in Christ is protected and nourished so that it grows and prospers in the Spirit.
Most American Christians have a very superficial church life characterized by a sermon a week and six days of bombardment by the world. This once a week sermon and a brief time of singing songs will not nourish this new creation into which we are born. One politician said, “It takes a village,” but God declares that it takes a church built upon Christ. It takes a commitment to other believers that extends into the week and provides a nurturing environment of love and unity.
All living things must be nurtured. I have been an organic gardener for many years and am familiar with what happens when my plants are not provided the nurture they need. My job as the gardener is to provide the environment in which the plants can prosper and produce. God has done the same for us. He has provided His body; a vineyard if you will. But we must give ourselves fully to being nurtured by the encouragement, teaching, fellowship, accountability and love that only a Christ-filled body can provide.
We wonder why we are not growing—why the world seems to be winning our hearts away from the One who called us. The answer is simple. He has not made us to be disconnected individuals but to be integrated into a body that is the expression of His fullness on earth (Eph. 1:23). Without that integration we are sitting ducks in a pond designed by the enemy. He will pick us off one at a time and we will suffer great loss.
But there is a place of refuge in Christ. It is a place of shelter in the shadow of the Almighty (Ps. 91:1). There, in the shadow of our God, we will grow and prosper and find the victory of this new life in Christ. May God bless your journey toward His perfect will.
Genuine Christianity is the Worship of a Resurrected Lord
Lloyd Gardner
April 4, 2015
Religion is the feeble invention by man of a fabricated way of trying to please God. Christianity is not a religion. It is a life lived in fellowship with Someone who has come forth from death itself. Not only was He resurrected from the dead but Jesus continues to live through the Spirit in the lives of those He died for. He came to provide the redemption necessary so that we could have His abundant life (John 10:10).
This abundant eternal life does not come from doctrinal knowledge about Christ but is the result of knowing Him intimately and allowing His life to replace ours (John 17:3; Gal. 2:20). It is resurrection life because He rose from the dead and lives even now in His resurrected body and is at the same time a “life-giving Spirit” able to share His life with us (1 Cor. 15:45).
Genuine Christianity rests upon the truth of the empty tomb. The resurrection is the one event that makes Christianity more than a religion. When Christ came forth from the grave He made a way for every member of humanity to live in the power of His resurrection. Paul accurately said, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17). The apostle was facing up to the truth—not trying to build a religion on a false narrative, but establishing one on the true story of a resurrected Lord. Paul met the resurrected One on the road to Damascus and each of us can meet Him on our life’s road as well.
It was my original intention to share the various arguments against the resurrection of Christ and rebut them with the truth. But then I begin to realize that the unbelievers will not believe just because we offer good arguments. They will believe only when they witness the evidence of a risen Christ in the lives of those who claim to follow Him. The early disciples changed the world as Luke relates: “And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33). Not only were they witnesses of His resurrection and His resurrection appearances, but they had been filled with His Holy Spirit providing the power and grace of His presence in their lives.
John testified he and the others were eyewitnesses of this amazing truth:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1-3).
They saw the empty tomb, saw the risen Christ, and touched Him to make sure He was real and now they were bearing testimony to that astounding fact of history.
There is no doubt that the tomb in which they laid the body was empty on that first Resurrection Sunday. No reasonable person doubts that established historical fact. The security provided by the Roman soldiers, the rolled away stone, the grave clothes neatly in their place, and the eyewitnesses of a resurrected Lord are all sufficient evidence that Christ came out of that tomb.
And the most powerful evidence to be offered to that event is the amazingly changed lives of those who witnessed this greatest miracle. When the Holy Spirit was poured out and the church received power to carry forth His message, people became living proof that the tomb is empty. Even though Christ has been crucified He was now alive and continuing His ministry of redemption through hundreds and eventually thousands and millions of people filled with His life and power.
Paul met the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus to persecute the Christians there. He was knocked to the ground by the glory of the risen Christ, was blinded and turned into a helpless weakling by one glimpse of the glorious One. Paul gave up a life of fame and wealth to follow the One who had blinded Him on the road. He was beaten with lashes and the rod several times, stoned, shipwrecked, and was in constant danger as Satan and his hirelings sought to destroy him and his message. Eventually, they took his head on the Appian Way near Rome. They took his life but they could not destroy the word written in thirteen letters to many churches established by him.
Something changed this man’s life and it certainly was not a new religion or philosophy of men. And most assuredly it was not a lie that the disciples stole his body, or that He merely swooned and was still alive or that there was some sort of secret conspiracy by the followers of Christ. People do not die for a lie, or a conspiracy that they know about. They die for something they believe in, something that is part of their being, more real and precious than life itself.
And that brings me to us. Do we in passive, complacent America have this same passion caused by experiencing a risen Lord? Are our lives living proof of a living Christ full of grace and power? Are our churches dynamic centers of abundant life and irresistible grace? Or have we allowed our life in Christ to become a mere weak, worthless religion without the prevailing presence of a resurrected Lord?
Have we fallen for the lies of the atheists and agnostics that Christ died like any other man and that He remains dead to this day? Have we fallen for the greatest lie of the greatest liar that Christ is still dead and our experience as Christians is a tragic mistake? Are we acting like it is all just a myth created by deceived people?
If any of this is true we must ask ourselves the obvious question—why? I have never understood how many Christians can live a lukewarm life somewhere between yes and no. Christ either rose from the dead or He remains dead and is of no consequence to us. If He arose from the dead we are faced with the greatest event of human history and it should shake our lives to the core.
We must stop sitting on the fence of passivity and climb down to the ground of truth revealed by the eyewitnesses of this grand event. Listen to the voices of the one who saw and touched the resurrected Christ. Listen to the voice of the resurrected One Himself. Let His words take us beyond Easter bunnies and fancy hats to a life of love, unity and power that will change the world once again.
Lloyd Gardner
April 4, 2015
Religion is the feeble invention by man of a fabricated way of trying to please God. Christianity is not a religion. It is a life lived in fellowship with Someone who has come forth from death itself. Not only was He resurrected from the dead but Jesus continues to live through the Spirit in the lives of those He died for. He came to provide the redemption necessary so that we could have His abundant life (John 10:10).
This abundant eternal life does not come from doctrinal knowledge about Christ but is the result of knowing Him intimately and allowing His life to replace ours (John 17:3; Gal. 2:20). It is resurrection life because He rose from the dead and lives even now in His resurrected body and is at the same time a “life-giving Spirit” able to share His life with us (1 Cor. 15:45).
Genuine Christianity rests upon the truth of the empty tomb. The resurrection is the one event that makes Christianity more than a religion. When Christ came forth from the grave He made a way for every member of humanity to live in the power of His resurrection. Paul accurately said, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17). The apostle was facing up to the truth—not trying to build a religion on a false narrative, but establishing one on the true story of a resurrected Lord. Paul met the resurrected One on the road to Damascus and each of us can meet Him on our life’s road as well.
It was my original intention to share the various arguments against the resurrection of Christ and rebut them with the truth. But then I begin to realize that the unbelievers will not believe just because we offer good arguments. They will believe only when they witness the evidence of a risen Christ in the lives of those who claim to follow Him. The early disciples changed the world as Luke relates: “And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33). Not only were they witnesses of His resurrection and His resurrection appearances, but they had been filled with His Holy Spirit providing the power and grace of His presence in their lives.
John testified he and the others were eyewitnesses of this amazing truth:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1-3).
They saw the empty tomb, saw the risen Christ, and touched Him to make sure He was real and now they were bearing testimony to that astounding fact of history.
There is no doubt that the tomb in which they laid the body was empty on that first Resurrection Sunday. No reasonable person doubts that established historical fact. The security provided by the Roman soldiers, the rolled away stone, the grave clothes neatly in their place, and the eyewitnesses of a resurrected Lord are all sufficient evidence that Christ came out of that tomb.
And the most powerful evidence to be offered to that event is the amazingly changed lives of those who witnessed this greatest miracle. When the Holy Spirit was poured out and the church received power to carry forth His message, people became living proof that the tomb is empty. Even though Christ has been crucified He was now alive and continuing His ministry of redemption through hundreds and eventually thousands and millions of people filled with His life and power.
Paul met the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus to persecute the Christians there. He was knocked to the ground by the glory of the risen Christ, was blinded and turned into a helpless weakling by one glimpse of the glorious One. Paul gave up a life of fame and wealth to follow the One who had blinded Him on the road. He was beaten with lashes and the rod several times, stoned, shipwrecked, and was in constant danger as Satan and his hirelings sought to destroy him and his message. Eventually, they took his head on the Appian Way near Rome. They took his life but they could not destroy the word written in thirteen letters to many churches established by him.
Something changed this man’s life and it certainly was not a new religion or philosophy of men. And most assuredly it was not a lie that the disciples stole his body, or that He merely swooned and was still alive or that there was some sort of secret conspiracy by the followers of Christ. People do not die for a lie, or a conspiracy that they know about. They die for something they believe in, something that is part of their being, more real and precious than life itself.
And that brings me to us. Do we in passive, complacent America have this same passion caused by experiencing a risen Lord? Are our lives living proof of a living Christ full of grace and power? Are our churches dynamic centers of abundant life and irresistible grace? Or have we allowed our life in Christ to become a mere weak, worthless religion without the prevailing presence of a resurrected Lord?
Have we fallen for the lies of the atheists and agnostics that Christ died like any other man and that He remains dead to this day? Have we fallen for the greatest lie of the greatest liar that Christ is still dead and our experience as Christians is a tragic mistake? Are we acting like it is all just a myth created by deceived people?
If any of this is true we must ask ourselves the obvious question—why? I have never understood how many Christians can live a lukewarm life somewhere between yes and no. Christ either rose from the dead or He remains dead and is of no consequence to us. If He arose from the dead we are faced with the greatest event of human history and it should shake our lives to the core.
We must stop sitting on the fence of passivity and climb down to the ground of truth revealed by the eyewitnesses of this grand event. Listen to the voices of the one who saw and touched the resurrected Christ. Listen to the voice of the resurrected One Himself. Let His words take us beyond Easter bunnies and fancy hats to a life of love, unity and power that will change the world once again.
Heavenly Citizens in the Midst of the Kingdom of Darkness
Lloyd Gardner
March 31, 2015
Genuine Christianity is composed of earthlings who have been spiritually translated into God’s spiritual kingdom. God “…has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13, 14). The word used for “transferred” in this verse carries the idea of being carried away from one kingdom to another in much the same way that prisoners were carried from a defeated kingdom to another. The Israelites, for example, were carried away to Babylon. They were transferred from one kingdom to another.
Paul speaks of this transfer in the letter to the Ephesians: “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men” (Eph. 4:8). The victory of the ages was won in the spirit realm when Christ died, rose from the dead and ascended to heaven in victory. He plundered the kingdom of darkness and led many of its captives with Him. Then, as the victor of earth’s great war, He gave gifts of spoils to those who would continue their part in the war on earth. Those gifts are the equipping gifts described in Ephesians 4:11. These gifts equip the army of God for its battle as members of the body of Christ (4:12-16).
This is why Christ could declare “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The tense of the word “overcome” speaks of a completed action of the past that has a continuing effect. In other words through the cross this victory was accomplished and its effects continue.
Christ could speak of His defeat of the world as an accomplished fact because He possessed the reality of His redemption even before the cross. In the spirit this victory is complete and we are part of it if we live by faith. John wrote of this saying, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4). So, not only has Christ overcome the world, but we who are born of God overcome it in our lives as well. But if we do not live by faith we will not experience the spiritual victory that Christ has secured for us. The overcomers of the letters to the churches in Revelation are a remnant that lives by faith and walks in the reality of Christ’s victory over the world (Rev. 2:7, 17f.). The same word for overcoming is used in all of these passages. It means to conquer completely.
So what does this mean for our lives? It means that we are in the world but not of it. It means that we are the rightful inheritors of planet earth standing in the midst of a world created by the thief who stole earth from its first inhabitants. We have a right to be here but we cannot be part of this world system created and inspired by the enemy of God. He is the god of this world and he manipulates it in his attempts to destroy the people of God and the testimony they bear.
The very meaning of the word church (ekklesia in Greek) is a “called out” group of people. We are called out of the world to gather with others who follow Christ and desire to do His will. We are to be a divinely unique and separate people who are ambassadors of Christ in a foreign nation (2 Cor. 5:20). We represent the King who came into this world that did not recognize Him and rejected Him (John 1:10). He promises us that we will have tribulation in the world because we refuse to join something that He has overcome (John 16:33).
Genuine, pure Christianity does not compromise with the world but remains aloof from it spiritually while realizing that we are in the world as representatives of heaven. We are foreigners here because we are citizens of a spiritual kingdom with Christ as the King. To conform to the world is to abandon our post as ambassadors of Christ and accept the culture designed by His enemy.
Satan, the enemy of Christ, is not a mere storybook character. He is a real spiritual being with real ideas opposed to all that God stands for. He has a plan and He is constantly working in opposition to the eternal plan of God. He is the spirit of the world that Paul refers to and he is constantly adjusting his world system to frustrate and oppose God (1 Cor. 2:12). He is a schemer with great intelligence and ingenuity and the backing of a huge army of fallen angels (Eph. 6:11, 12). Each age of planet earth has experienced the adjustments he makes in his plan to reach each generation with his evil plot to destroy humanity and any expressions of the will of God.
Look at the tactics he is using today. First he has an active war front where he comes out in the open and attacks using his “steal, kill and destroy” strategy (John 10:10). We saw this manifested when Hitler moved across Europe destroying everything in his pathway with special emphasis on killing and destroying the people of God as he advanced. Millions of Jews and Christians died during his blitzkrieg along with anyone else who stood in his way. Today we see this open strategy expressed in the tactics of radical Islam in its various forms. It is simply the external expression of the evil character of the spirit of this age, the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4; 1 Cor. 2:12). He deludes the minds of people through religion and vain philosophy so that they are blinded to his open strategy (2 Cor. 4:4).
Behind it all the enemy formulates a sophisticated propaganda program. Hitler had this in Joseph Goebbels, his minister of propaganda. He used every form of the media to spread the evil doctrines of Hitler and the people mostly stood by passively and let it all happen. Satan had blinded the minds of the people and Goebbels was able to sell them Satan’s strategy and used it in an attempt to implement the evil one’s scorched-earth policy of destruction. Those doctrines included evolution leading to the concept of social Darwinism or eugenics which became the justification for killing off Jews and any other “undesirables.”
Consider the present manifestation of Satan’s strategy in America. His first plot is to discredit the record of God’s plan and his dealings with mankind. He works overtime to destroy the validity of God’s word in the minds of today’s earth dwellers. As is his custom he uses the religious authorities who operate with selfish motives to do his bidding. He uses the judges of the age who ae influenced by the spirit of the age instead of the Spirit of God and His will revealed in the Bible. It is a propaganda campaign by Satan’s “Joseph Goebbels,” one day to be revealed as the second beast that does the bidding of Antichrist (Rev. 13:11f.).
This propaganda campaign is aimed at convincing people that Satan’s way is truth and God’s way is rubbish. What God says about marriage is nonsense and Satan’s concept of same-sex marriage and adultery at will is the way it should be. The Bible is a nonsensical book of legends and myths according to Satan instead of the historical account of God’s dealing with the human race. The human species is merely the result of evolution and all things in nature are the unintentional formation of a mindless, purposeless process. Unborn children are mere masses of tissue and the rights of women trump the right to life of the innocent unborn. Sex outside of marriage is a normal human activity without moral significance.
The propaganda increases. Schools are used to reach the young minds of the children with the false message of the god of this world. Hot button issues such as the environment, marriage freedom, women’s rights, racial bigotry and welfare are used as wedge issues to divide the followers of the spirit of the age from the followers of Christ. Almost every channel of the media is taken over from the top down and is spreading the relativistic, Godless morality to a brainwashed public that is completely unaware that it is the object of a massive demonic untruth campaign.
Those who do not follow the leading of Christ will find themselves following the prevailing wisdom of the spirit of the age whether they realize it or not. A slow conforming change will gradually transform them into the way of the world (Rom. 12:2). It will not happen overnight but will happen like the frog placed in a slowly heating pot, not realizing it is being boiled until it is too late. Many will wake up one day believing the lies of the great deceiver because they slowly listened to the propaganda of someone far more dangerous and devious than Adolf Hitler.
Even so-called churches are adopting Satan’s brand of truth because they have succumbed to the desire to be popular by the masses. Paul prophesied this day when he told Timothy “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (2 Tim. 4:3). The people, with their itching ears, demand teaching that makes them comfortable and promotes the lifestyles they choose and the popularity-seeking preachers are giving them what they want. A segment of what is called “church” is caving in to the pressure and adopting the way of the world.
Genuine Christianity, on the other hand, is a journey in opposition to the world and all it has to offer. John was aware of this when he cautioned us “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). “The world or the things in the world” John wrote! Genuine Christianity does not love the world or the things it has to offer. We understand that we must live in the world, eat, sleep, have a job and earn a living but we do not fall in love with this system that was designed and implemented by the enemy to ensnare us and destroy us.
We cannot love the world and its goodies and love the Father at the same time. Satan’s world system is designed to discredit Him and lead people away from His love. To love Him is to turn our backs on Satan’s devious snares. To love Him is to spend time with Him and bask in the abundant life He offers instead of buying into the dead-end lies of the enemy. We remain citizens of heaven, aliens in a foreign land, serving a soon coming King.
It is becoming increasingly clear as the days go by that lines are being drawn in the sand by the enemy. He is revealing himself unabashedly and it is difficult to deny that he is preparing to come out into the open with an all-out attack against God and His people. We know that the last days will be characterized by an extreme attack on the saints of God. We also know that a remnant of God’s people will arise from the ashes of this war and stand with Christ. We cannot know when this will take place but it appears that the stage is being set for the great end time finale of the ages. Choose this day whom you will serve.
Lloyd Gardner
March 31, 2015
Genuine Christianity is composed of earthlings who have been spiritually translated into God’s spiritual kingdom. God “…has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13, 14). The word used for “transferred” in this verse carries the idea of being carried away from one kingdom to another in much the same way that prisoners were carried from a defeated kingdom to another. The Israelites, for example, were carried away to Babylon. They were transferred from one kingdom to another.
Paul speaks of this transfer in the letter to the Ephesians: “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men” (Eph. 4:8). The victory of the ages was won in the spirit realm when Christ died, rose from the dead and ascended to heaven in victory. He plundered the kingdom of darkness and led many of its captives with Him. Then, as the victor of earth’s great war, He gave gifts of spoils to those who would continue their part in the war on earth. Those gifts are the equipping gifts described in Ephesians 4:11. These gifts equip the army of God for its battle as members of the body of Christ (4:12-16).
This is why Christ could declare “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The tense of the word “overcome” speaks of a completed action of the past that has a continuing effect. In other words through the cross this victory was accomplished and its effects continue.
Christ could speak of His defeat of the world as an accomplished fact because He possessed the reality of His redemption even before the cross. In the spirit this victory is complete and we are part of it if we live by faith. John wrote of this saying, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4). So, not only has Christ overcome the world, but we who are born of God overcome it in our lives as well. But if we do not live by faith we will not experience the spiritual victory that Christ has secured for us. The overcomers of the letters to the churches in Revelation are a remnant that lives by faith and walks in the reality of Christ’s victory over the world (Rev. 2:7, 17f.). The same word for overcoming is used in all of these passages. It means to conquer completely.
So what does this mean for our lives? It means that we are in the world but not of it. It means that we are the rightful inheritors of planet earth standing in the midst of a world created by the thief who stole earth from its first inhabitants. We have a right to be here but we cannot be part of this world system created and inspired by the enemy of God. He is the god of this world and he manipulates it in his attempts to destroy the people of God and the testimony they bear.
The very meaning of the word church (ekklesia in Greek) is a “called out” group of people. We are called out of the world to gather with others who follow Christ and desire to do His will. We are to be a divinely unique and separate people who are ambassadors of Christ in a foreign nation (2 Cor. 5:20). We represent the King who came into this world that did not recognize Him and rejected Him (John 1:10). He promises us that we will have tribulation in the world because we refuse to join something that He has overcome (John 16:33).
Genuine, pure Christianity does not compromise with the world but remains aloof from it spiritually while realizing that we are in the world as representatives of heaven. We are foreigners here because we are citizens of a spiritual kingdom with Christ as the King. To conform to the world is to abandon our post as ambassadors of Christ and accept the culture designed by His enemy.
Satan, the enemy of Christ, is not a mere storybook character. He is a real spiritual being with real ideas opposed to all that God stands for. He has a plan and He is constantly working in opposition to the eternal plan of God. He is the spirit of the world that Paul refers to and he is constantly adjusting his world system to frustrate and oppose God (1 Cor. 2:12). He is a schemer with great intelligence and ingenuity and the backing of a huge army of fallen angels (Eph. 6:11, 12). Each age of planet earth has experienced the adjustments he makes in his plan to reach each generation with his evil plot to destroy humanity and any expressions of the will of God.
Look at the tactics he is using today. First he has an active war front where he comes out in the open and attacks using his “steal, kill and destroy” strategy (John 10:10). We saw this manifested when Hitler moved across Europe destroying everything in his pathway with special emphasis on killing and destroying the people of God as he advanced. Millions of Jews and Christians died during his blitzkrieg along with anyone else who stood in his way. Today we see this open strategy expressed in the tactics of radical Islam in its various forms. It is simply the external expression of the evil character of the spirit of this age, the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4; 1 Cor. 2:12). He deludes the minds of people through religion and vain philosophy so that they are blinded to his open strategy (2 Cor. 4:4).
Behind it all the enemy formulates a sophisticated propaganda program. Hitler had this in Joseph Goebbels, his minister of propaganda. He used every form of the media to spread the evil doctrines of Hitler and the people mostly stood by passively and let it all happen. Satan had blinded the minds of the people and Goebbels was able to sell them Satan’s strategy and used it in an attempt to implement the evil one’s scorched-earth policy of destruction. Those doctrines included evolution leading to the concept of social Darwinism or eugenics which became the justification for killing off Jews and any other “undesirables.”
Consider the present manifestation of Satan’s strategy in America. His first plot is to discredit the record of God’s plan and his dealings with mankind. He works overtime to destroy the validity of God’s word in the minds of today’s earth dwellers. As is his custom he uses the religious authorities who operate with selfish motives to do his bidding. He uses the judges of the age who ae influenced by the spirit of the age instead of the Spirit of God and His will revealed in the Bible. It is a propaganda campaign by Satan’s “Joseph Goebbels,” one day to be revealed as the second beast that does the bidding of Antichrist (Rev. 13:11f.).
This propaganda campaign is aimed at convincing people that Satan’s way is truth and God’s way is rubbish. What God says about marriage is nonsense and Satan’s concept of same-sex marriage and adultery at will is the way it should be. The Bible is a nonsensical book of legends and myths according to Satan instead of the historical account of God’s dealing with the human race. The human species is merely the result of evolution and all things in nature are the unintentional formation of a mindless, purposeless process. Unborn children are mere masses of tissue and the rights of women trump the right to life of the innocent unborn. Sex outside of marriage is a normal human activity without moral significance.
The propaganda increases. Schools are used to reach the young minds of the children with the false message of the god of this world. Hot button issues such as the environment, marriage freedom, women’s rights, racial bigotry and welfare are used as wedge issues to divide the followers of the spirit of the age from the followers of Christ. Almost every channel of the media is taken over from the top down and is spreading the relativistic, Godless morality to a brainwashed public that is completely unaware that it is the object of a massive demonic untruth campaign.
Those who do not follow the leading of Christ will find themselves following the prevailing wisdom of the spirit of the age whether they realize it or not. A slow conforming change will gradually transform them into the way of the world (Rom. 12:2). It will not happen overnight but will happen like the frog placed in a slowly heating pot, not realizing it is being boiled until it is too late. Many will wake up one day believing the lies of the great deceiver because they slowly listened to the propaganda of someone far more dangerous and devious than Adolf Hitler.
Even so-called churches are adopting Satan’s brand of truth because they have succumbed to the desire to be popular by the masses. Paul prophesied this day when he told Timothy “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (2 Tim. 4:3). The people, with their itching ears, demand teaching that makes them comfortable and promotes the lifestyles they choose and the popularity-seeking preachers are giving them what they want. A segment of what is called “church” is caving in to the pressure and adopting the way of the world.
Genuine Christianity, on the other hand, is a journey in opposition to the world and all it has to offer. John was aware of this when he cautioned us “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). “The world or the things in the world” John wrote! Genuine Christianity does not love the world or the things it has to offer. We understand that we must live in the world, eat, sleep, have a job and earn a living but we do not fall in love with this system that was designed and implemented by the enemy to ensnare us and destroy us.
We cannot love the world and its goodies and love the Father at the same time. Satan’s world system is designed to discredit Him and lead people away from His love. To love Him is to turn our backs on Satan’s devious snares. To love Him is to spend time with Him and bask in the abundant life He offers instead of buying into the dead-end lies of the enemy. We remain citizens of heaven, aliens in a foreign land, serving a soon coming King.
It is becoming increasingly clear as the days go by that lines are being drawn in the sand by the enemy. He is revealing himself unabashedly and it is difficult to deny that he is preparing to come out into the open with an all-out attack against God and His people. We know that the last days will be characterized by an extreme attack on the saints of God. We also know that a remnant of God’s people will arise from the ashes of this war and stand with Christ. We cannot know when this will take place but it appears that the stage is being set for the great end time finale of the ages. Choose this day whom you will serve.
A Supernatural Encounter Resulting in a Supernatural Relationship
Lloyd Gardner
March 2015
Genuine Christianity is a supernatural encounter with the living God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a new spiritual rebirth whereby the recipient receives Christ into His spirit and he/she becomes a new spiritual being ready for the transforming work of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 3:17; Col. 1:27). It is not another human religion based on superficial religious works aimed at satisfying God. Every honest person knows that there is some inherent condition that keeps them from being what they want to be. The Bible calls this inherent tendency by its unpopular name—sin. Different religious systems have tried to address this obvious sin question. Hinduism insists that people go through stages of reincarnation until they reach a state of sinlessness called nirvana. Buddhism believes much the same except that they have developed an eightfold path toward that end. They believe that if you can control your emotions, speech, actions and so on you will finally be able to live up to some imaginary ideal. Jehovah’s witnesses believe that God requires certain works that will please Him. Every religion has its own personal answer to the sin dilemma.
The only problem is none of the religious answers work. No matter how hard people try to please God, the sin remains and the dissatisfaction continues. The only answer is a total spiritual overhaul whereby God’s life replaces our own. Christ, as He proved in His earthly life, is the only One capable of living a perfect life. His life must somehow become our life.
That is exactly what being a genuine Christian involves. Christ has made a way through His death, resurrection, glorification and return in the person of the Holy Spirit, for us to have His life within us. In dying He paid the penalty for our sin. Through His resurrection and coming in the Holy Spirit, He brings this sinless, powerful life to dwell within us.
Paul declared, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Thankfully in another place he says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). On the one hand our sin causes us to fall short of God’s glory and on the other Christ living in us brings us the hope of God’s glory. A replacement is necessary. Christ must bring His new life into our spirits so that our lives are replaced with His life.
This is what Paul meant when He said, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). A new life in the spirit is given to replace the old sinful life of the flesh. God through the supernatural awesomeness of His eternal nature, place us in His Son. In Christ we have died to the sinful nature we inherited in the flesh. In Christ we are raised in resurrection to sit with Him in His place of glory. In Christ sin is forgiven, we are justified and share His righteousness. In Christ we become part of God’s eternal purpose to “…unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Rom. 5:1, 2; Eph. 1:10; 2:6, 7).
All of this is not a matter of some religious effort on our part. Paul sets us straight on this saying, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8, 9). Through faith we open the door to our heart and the grace of God penetrates, bringing His eternal salvation into our lives. It is not a matter of religious works or effort but a simple matter of receiving a free gift from God (Rom. 6:23). We can take no credit for this miracle. The just penalty for sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life as we receive it and are united with His Son. Genuine Christianity is the result of this supernatural encounter with the living God.
When Peter preached his first sermon on the Day of Pentecost the people were “pierced in their heart” (Acts 2:37). The word of God cut all the way to their spirits because they were receptive and received the word. This caused them to reach out in faith. Peter told them to repent and be baptized and they did and they were and that was the beginning of the story of the church. People must be seeking in order to be pierced. When people are seeking truth, the word can pierce their hearts and bring the desire to receive the gift of God. In repenting they acknowledged that they were sinners and needed Christ who was poured out in the Holy Spirit. Peter promised that they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).
This is the wondrous supernatural part of our encounter with God. Paul tells us that the “The first man Adam was a living soul. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45; BBE). In His resurrection life, Christ is a life-giving Spirit and He comes to dwell in our spirits to give us life. Jesus promised His disciples with these words about the Holy Spirit: “You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). At the time of His promise the Holy Spirit was with them but when He was poured out at Pentecost He was in them. Imagine that! God is dwelling within us in the Holy Spirit. By any definition that is a supernatural work of God.
This is the new birth that Jesus told Nicodemus about: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). The words “born again” can be translated “born from above.” This new birth is a supernatural birth from heaven whereby the seed of God’s word produces life within our spirit. King Solomon said, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD” (Prov. 20:27). Our spirit is a lamp waiting for the fire of God’s holy presence to ignite it and keep it burning.
Paul drives this point home saying, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). The God who created light, and is Himself light, shines into our hearts to enlighten us with His glory in Christ. The new birth is not a religious commitment to a certain behavior but a supernatural igniting of our spirit with the fire of God—a supernatural conception whereby our spirits receive the implanting of the seed of God’s life. Mary, the mother of Jesus, received into her physical body the implanting of Christ by the Holy Spirit. In the same way we receive the implanting of the Holy Spirit into our spirit resulting in a new spiritual creation.
Paul’s words add life to this truth: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). This is a new creation at the hand of God; a brand new, previously unknown life emanating from God entering into man in Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not a religion. It is not a list of rules and regulations. It is not an eightfold path or a stairway heaven. It is a supernatural organism created by the penetration of God’s life into receptive human beings.
Sadly, much of manmade Christianity today is slipping away from this truth. Many of the questions people are asking have their answer in this new creation. Having Christ in us to live through us is only possible by faith. Faith is opening the door to the life-changing grace that begins the process and continues the transformation in our lives. It is not of works or religion. It is the work of grace in us resulting in a new supernatural life (Eph. 2:8-10).
But let me add a warning to all who call themselves Christians. Since this is a supernatural experience with supernatural results, we need to be aware that this relationship with Christ will change our lives. If our lives remain the same and are not being drastically transformed, we need to ask ourselves if our hearts have truly been pierced by the life-changing word of God. I fear that many have accepted the lie that one can know Christ and not be changed as a result. The fruit of the Spirit grows where the Spirit is present. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the expressions of a supernatural God through our lives (Gal. 5:22, 23). These are not natural human qualities but the growth of divine life in the lives of true followers of Christ.
The debate over eternal security is not a subject of conversation in the lives of those who have been touched and changed by the living God. Christ dwelling in us is not a mere doctrine but a life-changing experience that cannot be denied. Many of my Christian friends are drifting from the simple message we have received from the Lord. We are being conformed by a world that is devoid of the presence of God. The god of this world is causing us to avoid the true God. Many of our churches are compromising the basics of the faith and abandoning the clearly revealed truths of God’s word.
Do not make this mistake. It involves the difference between life and death, heaven or hell, religion or relationship. If you cannot say that heaven has invaded your life and that you are no longer a mere citizen of earth, it is time to re-examine where you stand with God. God help is all to make the right decision.
Lloyd Gardner
March 2015
Genuine Christianity is a supernatural encounter with the living God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a new spiritual rebirth whereby the recipient receives Christ into His spirit and he/she becomes a new spiritual being ready for the transforming work of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 3:17; Col. 1:27). It is not another human religion based on superficial religious works aimed at satisfying God. Every honest person knows that there is some inherent condition that keeps them from being what they want to be. The Bible calls this inherent tendency by its unpopular name—sin. Different religious systems have tried to address this obvious sin question. Hinduism insists that people go through stages of reincarnation until they reach a state of sinlessness called nirvana. Buddhism believes much the same except that they have developed an eightfold path toward that end. They believe that if you can control your emotions, speech, actions and so on you will finally be able to live up to some imaginary ideal. Jehovah’s witnesses believe that God requires certain works that will please Him. Every religion has its own personal answer to the sin dilemma.
The only problem is none of the religious answers work. No matter how hard people try to please God, the sin remains and the dissatisfaction continues. The only answer is a total spiritual overhaul whereby God’s life replaces our own. Christ, as He proved in His earthly life, is the only One capable of living a perfect life. His life must somehow become our life.
That is exactly what being a genuine Christian involves. Christ has made a way through His death, resurrection, glorification and return in the person of the Holy Spirit, for us to have His life within us. In dying He paid the penalty for our sin. Through His resurrection and coming in the Holy Spirit, He brings this sinless, powerful life to dwell within us.
Paul declared, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Thankfully in another place he says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). On the one hand our sin causes us to fall short of God’s glory and on the other Christ living in us brings us the hope of God’s glory. A replacement is necessary. Christ must bring His new life into our spirits so that our lives are replaced with His life.
This is what Paul meant when He said, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). A new life in the spirit is given to replace the old sinful life of the flesh. God through the supernatural awesomeness of His eternal nature, place us in His Son. In Christ we have died to the sinful nature we inherited in the flesh. In Christ we are raised in resurrection to sit with Him in His place of glory. In Christ sin is forgiven, we are justified and share His righteousness. In Christ we become part of God’s eternal purpose to “…unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Rom. 5:1, 2; Eph. 1:10; 2:6, 7).
All of this is not a matter of some religious effort on our part. Paul sets us straight on this saying, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8, 9). Through faith we open the door to our heart and the grace of God penetrates, bringing His eternal salvation into our lives. It is not a matter of religious works or effort but a simple matter of receiving a free gift from God (Rom. 6:23). We can take no credit for this miracle. The just penalty for sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life as we receive it and are united with His Son. Genuine Christianity is the result of this supernatural encounter with the living God.
When Peter preached his first sermon on the Day of Pentecost the people were “pierced in their heart” (Acts 2:37). The word of God cut all the way to their spirits because they were receptive and received the word. This caused them to reach out in faith. Peter told them to repent and be baptized and they did and they were and that was the beginning of the story of the church. People must be seeking in order to be pierced. When people are seeking truth, the word can pierce their hearts and bring the desire to receive the gift of God. In repenting they acknowledged that they were sinners and needed Christ who was poured out in the Holy Spirit. Peter promised that they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).
This is the wondrous supernatural part of our encounter with God. Paul tells us that the “The first man Adam was a living soul. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45; BBE). In His resurrection life, Christ is a life-giving Spirit and He comes to dwell in our spirits to give us life. Jesus promised His disciples with these words about the Holy Spirit: “You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). At the time of His promise the Holy Spirit was with them but when He was poured out at Pentecost He was in them. Imagine that! God is dwelling within us in the Holy Spirit. By any definition that is a supernatural work of God.
This is the new birth that Jesus told Nicodemus about: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). The words “born again” can be translated “born from above.” This new birth is a supernatural birth from heaven whereby the seed of God’s word produces life within our spirit. King Solomon said, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD” (Prov. 20:27). Our spirit is a lamp waiting for the fire of God’s holy presence to ignite it and keep it burning.
Paul drives this point home saying, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). The God who created light, and is Himself light, shines into our hearts to enlighten us with His glory in Christ. The new birth is not a religious commitment to a certain behavior but a supernatural igniting of our spirit with the fire of God—a supernatural conception whereby our spirits receive the implanting of the seed of God’s life. Mary, the mother of Jesus, received into her physical body the implanting of Christ by the Holy Spirit. In the same way we receive the implanting of the Holy Spirit into our spirit resulting in a new spiritual creation.
Paul’s words add life to this truth: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). This is a new creation at the hand of God; a brand new, previously unknown life emanating from God entering into man in Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not a religion. It is not a list of rules and regulations. It is not an eightfold path or a stairway heaven. It is a supernatural organism created by the penetration of God’s life into receptive human beings.
Sadly, much of manmade Christianity today is slipping away from this truth. Many of the questions people are asking have their answer in this new creation. Having Christ in us to live through us is only possible by faith. Faith is opening the door to the life-changing grace that begins the process and continues the transformation in our lives. It is not of works or religion. It is the work of grace in us resulting in a new supernatural life (Eph. 2:8-10).
But let me add a warning to all who call themselves Christians. Since this is a supernatural experience with supernatural results, we need to be aware that this relationship with Christ will change our lives. If our lives remain the same and are not being drastically transformed, we need to ask ourselves if our hearts have truly been pierced by the life-changing word of God. I fear that many have accepted the lie that one can know Christ and not be changed as a result. The fruit of the Spirit grows where the Spirit is present. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the expressions of a supernatural God through our lives (Gal. 5:22, 23). These are not natural human qualities but the growth of divine life in the lives of true followers of Christ.
The debate over eternal security is not a subject of conversation in the lives of those who have been touched and changed by the living God. Christ dwelling in us is not a mere doctrine but a life-changing experience that cannot be denied. Many of my Christian friends are drifting from the simple message we have received from the Lord. We are being conformed by a world that is devoid of the presence of God. The god of this world is causing us to avoid the true God. Many of our churches are compromising the basics of the faith and abandoning the clearly revealed truths of God’s word.
Do not make this mistake. It involves the difference between life and death, heaven or hell, religion or relationship. If you cannot say that heaven has invaded your life and that you are no longer a mere citizen of earth, it is time to re-examine where you stand with God. God help is all to make the right decision.
It’s a Healing Community
Lloyd Gardner
February 26, 2015
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound (Isa. 61:1).
Jesus read the passage above from Isaiah in His hometown synagogue. Then He closed the scroll and every eye in the place turned to look at Him. "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” He said to the astonishment of all who were there. His remark was astonishing because He was saying essentially that this messianic passage in Isaiah was referring to Him. He was indirectly saying, “I am the Messiah.”
But Jesus was doing something else. He was revealing His mission as Messiah. He was revealing that He was anointed of God to do four things:
People will say to me, “Lloyd we talk about Jesus all the time in our church. He is the subject of the songs and sermons and everything else we do.” My response has been that I’m concerned that we spend considerable time talking about Him and His teachings but our organized form of fellowship does not allow us to spend time with Him and one another. Genuine Christianity is not about getting all the doctrines right so much as it is about letting Christ move freely in our lives and in our midst. Would you not want the author of the words of Isaiah 61:1 to not only visit but become the permanent Guest of honor?
Genuine Christianity is a context where we can be healed spirit, soul and body because the Healer is in our midst. Satan, the adversary of Christ and His church, is the thief who comes to steal, destroy and kill (John 10:10). His goal is to destroy us spirit, soul and body. Jesus came to give us abundant life, set us free, heal us, and equip us as His ambassadors to a dying world.
Ephesians chapter four is the ultimate passage on the practical expression of the church and how it is the arm of Christ to fulfill His mission in Isaiah 61:1. The Anointed One of that passage still walks among us and still seeks to bring His good news, bind up the brokenhearted, and open the prison doors of Satan’s captives. He does this through commissioning His church to be a healing center where He continues to walk among His people as the Anointed One.
Ephesians chapter four explains how that works. First Christ ascended and descended as He prepared the way of redemption (4:8-10). Then He gave special emissaries to continue the process of equipping His people: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (v. 11). These emissaries have one purpose—to equip the saints (v. 12).
The Greek word for equipping in verse 12 is katartidso. The word means literally to mend or repair something or someone. It is used of the mending of fishing nets, for example (Matt. 4:21). Every person is born into this life broken and in need of repair. Our spirits are broken and disconnected from their life source, God. Our souls are broken from the attacks of Satan and his world system on our hearts. Our hearts are broken. They cannot function as they were designed to function because they are in desperate need of repair. Our bodies are broken with sickness and disease. Christ provided the five equipping ministries to the church for this repairing, mending, and equipping process.
Our spirits are healed completely the moment we are born again by receiving Christ and His life. As we receive Him our spirits are renewed and regenerated with His life and we become new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). Through the new birth Christ comes to inhabit our lives and make possible the healing of our souls as well. This is the transformation process spoken of by Paul (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). This is the process by which Christ comes to dwell in our hearts by faith (Eph. 3:16, 17). He lives in our spirits but through the healing of our souls He comes to dwell in our hearts. He makes His home in every area of our lives bringing His healing touch to our entire being.
Christ binds up the broken hearted through the mending process that takes place in His church when it is functioning properly. The equipping ministries equip or mend the saints and they in turn do the work of serving one another. The real work of ministry or service takes place in the day to day experiences of believers helping one another through prayer, encouragement, acts of love and applying Christ’s life through the gifts of the Spirit.
We have ceased being a center of healing, for one reason, because many believers and churches have stopped believing in the equipping ministries given by Christ. A large segment of Christianity believes that these gifts are no longer available to the church. This is a ploy of the enemy to convince us that we no longer have available to us the gifts freely given by Christ for the church age. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers all working together to mend the saints so they are better equipped to serve one another.
I am not saying that we have apostles and prophets like we had in the New Testament era that established truth and wrote the scriptures that became the Bible cannon. The foundational period of the church is over but after Christ was resurrected there were apostles beyond the original ones who continued the work of equipping the saints (1 Cor. 1:1; 4:9; Phil. 2:25; Rom. 1:1; Acts 4:36; 15:21; Rom. 16:7; Gal. 1:19; Col. 1:1, etc.). The equipping apostles are still with us today even though we hesitate to call them such. Because many believe that these gifts have ceased, most churches merely have a pastor and his main function is preaching sermons and administering the programs of the church. This may help some but it does not adequately mend the saints for their work of serving others.
Genuine Christianity does not set aside the provisions made by Christ for the church age. Those provisions did not cease functioning when the Bible canon was completed. Until the church reaches its state of completion described in Ephesians 4:13-16 those gifts are desperately needed. Paul says “He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Eph. 4:10). And how does He fill all things? Paul continues, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (4:11, 12).
Surprise, surprise! It is through the church that Christ fills all things! Earlier in this letter he declared that God exalted Him “…far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all?” (Eph. 1:21-23). Christ was exalted above all things and then given to the church through the Spirit. And He gave gifts to men for the building up of His church, His body, His fulness on the earth.
It is so very clear and yet we miss it. Much of modern Christianity rejects the notion that these five mending ministries are still available to the body of Christ. Even many who believe these gifts are still available do not allow them to function. According to this divisive notion these gifts given to the body of Christ to mend, equip, repair, and heal the saints for the work of serving one another have ceased. What a devastating error of unbelief and presumption!
Christ provided these ministries to the church (Eph. 4:8-11). This provision is clearly for the entire church age (4:13). The gifts of the spirit are also provided to the body of Christ for every believer to use in their service to one another. Paul makes it perfectly clear:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (1 Cor. 12:4-7).
There you have it—varieties of gifts, service, and activities all provided by God who “empowers them all in everyone.” Everyone! That should excite us to know that no believer is left out. We all are given provisions from the spirit for participation in His body. Paul summarizes the purpose of these gifts as “for the common good.”
So here’s the process. Christ accomplished His redemptive work on the cross providing everything necessary for Isaiah 61:1 to be unleashed on earth. Then He gave gifts to the church for the healing of spirit, soul and body mentioned in the prophecy of Isaiah. These mending ministries equip the saints for their work of serving the body. The saints serve the body through the provisions of the Spirit we call gifts of the Spirit. These gifts are given to every believer for the common good, the building up of the church (1 Cor. 12:7; Eph. 4:12).
Now look at those gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. These are not natural gifts but spiritual, supernatural abilities provided to the members of Christ’s body for building up the church.
Each of these gifts has something to do with the healing of spirit, soul and body. Words of wisdom and knowledge enable us to know and speak God’s will over a situation. Faith enables us to accept and apply God’s word to every situation. Miracles enable us to receive supernatural provisions from a supernatural God through the Spirit. Gifts of healings provide healing opportunities throughout the body of Christ. Discernment of spirits enables us to see the demonic, spiritual sources of much of the destruction of the enemy. Speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues allow us to pray in the spirit when we don’t know how to pray and receive clarity from God in our spirits.
In short, these gifts are all to fulfill the promise of Christ in Isaiah 61:1. Jesus is still alive and is still doing the work of setting the captives free from the enemy’s bondage. He does these wonders through His followers in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I am quite aware that many in the body of Christ have abused these gifts by using them outside of the context of genuine church life. This abuse has caused the gifts to be scorned by many. It is time to stop seeing these gifts as mystical practices of fringe believers and understand that they are real provisions for real believers involved in genuine Christianity. They are provided by the Master Builder to the workers of the kingdom who are involved in building the temple of God, His church, on the earth. They are essential to what God desires to do in all of us.
The most serious problem we have today is our acceptance of a mode of gathering that makes these supernatural provisions obsolete. If our concept of church involves gathering in large buildings in large numbers to sing songs and hear a lengthy sermon, the gifts of the Spirit and the ministry of the saints to one another may seem like impractical undertakings.
But what if we gathered in more informal, practical ways where everyone had an opportunity to share and there was plenty of time for personal ministry to one another? What if the normal gatherings of Christians took place in homes in informal settings where there was sharing, prayer, Bible dialog, eating together and getting to truly know one another? What if our first priority was to invite Christ into our gatherings as the real Guest of honor instead of the mere subject of our conversations?
In short, what if we realized that genuine Christianity is a community of healing where we minister to one another so that each of us is truly healed from our brokenness and equipped to be what Christ has called us to? We are all broken when we enter this life. Christ came to bring good news, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and to smash down the prison doors for those who are in bondage to the enemy. The brokenness can be healed. The mending process can begin if we will cease doing things our way and let our Guest of honor have His way. He is the Anointed One, the Christ through whom Isaiah 61:1 can continue to be fulfilled in our midst.
Lloyd Gardner
February 26, 2015
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound (Isa. 61:1).
Jesus read the passage above from Isaiah in His hometown synagogue. Then He closed the scroll and every eye in the place turned to look at Him. "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” He said to the astonishment of all who were there. His remark was astonishing because He was saying essentially that this messianic passage in Isaiah was referring to Him. He was indirectly saying, “I am the Messiah.”
But Jesus was doing something else. He was revealing His mission as Messiah. He was revealing that He was anointed of God to do four things:
- “To bring good news to the poor.” He
came to offer the Gospel, the good news of salvation and redemption through
Him.
- “To bind up the brokenhearted.” He
had come to heal inner brokenness that all of us experience. He would reach
beyond the outward man into the inner broken souls of men and restore them.
- “To proclaim liberty to the
captives.” He came to set people free from Satan’s bondage.
- “The opening of the prison to those
who are bound.” Every human being is born into bondage. Sin has us bound. Jesus
came to crash down the prison doors and set us free.
People will say to me, “Lloyd we talk about Jesus all the time in our church. He is the subject of the songs and sermons and everything else we do.” My response has been that I’m concerned that we spend considerable time talking about Him and His teachings but our organized form of fellowship does not allow us to spend time with Him and one another. Genuine Christianity is not about getting all the doctrines right so much as it is about letting Christ move freely in our lives and in our midst. Would you not want the author of the words of Isaiah 61:1 to not only visit but become the permanent Guest of honor?
Genuine Christianity is a context where we can be healed spirit, soul and body because the Healer is in our midst. Satan, the adversary of Christ and His church, is the thief who comes to steal, destroy and kill (John 10:10). His goal is to destroy us spirit, soul and body. Jesus came to give us abundant life, set us free, heal us, and equip us as His ambassadors to a dying world.
Ephesians chapter four is the ultimate passage on the practical expression of the church and how it is the arm of Christ to fulfill His mission in Isaiah 61:1. The Anointed One of that passage still walks among us and still seeks to bring His good news, bind up the brokenhearted, and open the prison doors of Satan’s captives. He does this through commissioning His church to be a healing center where He continues to walk among His people as the Anointed One.
Ephesians chapter four explains how that works. First Christ ascended and descended as He prepared the way of redemption (4:8-10). Then He gave special emissaries to continue the process of equipping His people: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (v. 11). These emissaries have one purpose—to equip the saints (v. 12).
The Greek word for equipping in verse 12 is katartidso. The word means literally to mend or repair something or someone. It is used of the mending of fishing nets, for example (Matt. 4:21). Every person is born into this life broken and in need of repair. Our spirits are broken and disconnected from their life source, God. Our souls are broken from the attacks of Satan and his world system on our hearts. Our hearts are broken. They cannot function as they were designed to function because they are in desperate need of repair. Our bodies are broken with sickness and disease. Christ provided the five equipping ministries to the church for this repairing, mending, and equipping process.
Our spirits are healed completely the moment we are born again by receiving Christ and His life. As we receive Him our spirits are renewed and regenerated with His life and we become new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). Through the new birth Christ comes to inhabit our lives and make possible the healing of our souls as well. This is the transformation process spoken of by Paul (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). This is the process by which Christ comes to dwell in our hearts by faith (Eph. 3:16, 17). He lives in our spirits but through the healing of our souls He comes to dwell in our hearts. He makes His home in every area of our lives bringing His healing touch to our entire being.
Christ binds up the broken hearted through the mending process that takes place in His church when it is functioning properly. The equipping ministries equip or mend the saints and they in turn do the work of serving one another. The real work of ministry or service takes place in the day to day experiences of believers helping one another through prayer, encouragement, acts of love and applying Christ’s life through the gifts of the Spirit.
We have ceased being a center of healing, for one reason, because many believers and churches have stopped believing in the equipping ministries given by Christ. A large segment of Christianity believes that these gifts are no longer available to the church. This is a ploy of the enemy to convince us that we no longer have available to us the gifts freely given by Christ for the church age. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers all working together to mend the saints so they are better equipped to serve one another.
I am not saying that we have apostles and prophets like we had in the New Testament era that established truth and wrote the scriptures that became the Bible cannon. The foundational period of the church is over but after Christ was resurrected there were apostles beyond the original ones who continued the work of equipping the saints (1 Cor. 1:1; 4:9; Phil. 2:25; Rom. 1:1; Acts 4:36; 15:21; Rom. 16:7; Gal. 1:19; Col. 1:1, etc.). The equipping apostles are still with us today even though we hesitate to call them such. Because many believe that these gifts have ceased, most churches merely have a pastor and his main function is preaching sermons and administering the programs of the church. This may help some but it does not adequately mend the saints for their work of serving others.
Genuine Christianity does not set aside the provisions made by Christ for the church age. Those provisions did not cease functioning when the Bible canon was completed. Until the church reaches its state of completion described in Ephesians 4:13-16 those gifts are desperately needed. Paul says “He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Eph. 4:10). And how does He fill all things? Paul continues, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (4:11, 12).
Surprise, surprise! It is through the church that Christ fills all things! Earlier in this letter he declared that God exalted Him “…far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all?” (Eph. 1:21-23). Christ was exalted above all things and then given to the church through the Spirit. And He gave gifts to men for the building up of His church, His body, His fulness on the earth.
It is so very clear and yet we miss it. Much of modern Christianity rejects the notion that these five mending ministries are still available to the body of Christ. Even many who believe these gifts are still available do not allow them to function. According to this divisive notion these gifts given to the body of Christ to mend, equip, repair, and heal the saints for the work of serving one another have ceased. What a devastating error of unbelief and presumption!
Christ provided these ministries to the church (Eph. 4:8-11). This provision is clearly for the entire church age (4:13). The gifts of the spirit are also provided to the body of Christ for every believer to use in their service to one another. Paul makes it perfectly clear:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (1 Cor. 12:4-7).
There you have it—varieties of gifts, service, and activities all provided by God who “empowers them all in everyone.” Everyone! That should excite us to know that no believer is left out. We all are given provisions from the spirit for participation in His body. Paul summarizes the purpose of these gifts as “for the common good.”
So here’s the process. Christ accomplished His redemptive work on the cross providing everything necessary for Isaiah 61:1 to be unleashed on earth. Then He gave gifts to the church for the healing of spirit, soul and body mentioned in the prophecy of Isaiah. These mending ministries equip the saints for their work of serving the body. The saints serve the body through the provisions of the Spirit we call gifts of the Spirit. These gifts are given to every believer for the common good, the building up of the church (1 Cor. 12:7; Eph. 4:12).
Now look at those gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. These are not natural gifts but spiritual, supernatural abilities provided to the members of Christ’s body for building up the church.
Each of these gifts has something to do with the healing of spirit, soul and body. Words of wisdom and knowledge enable us to know and speak God’s will over a situation. Faith enables us to accept and apply God’s word to every situation. Miracles enable us to receive supernatural provisions from a supernatural God through the Spirit. Gifts of healings provide healing opportunities throughout the body of Christ. Discernment of spirits enables us to see the demonic, spiritual sources of much of the destruction of the enemy. Speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues allow us to pray in the spirit when we don’t know how to pray and receive clarity from God in our spirits.
In short, these gifts are all to fulfill the promise of Christ in Isaiah 61:1. Jesus is still alive and is still doing the work of setting the captives free from the enemy’s bondage. He does these wonders through His followers in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I am quite aware that many in the body of Christ have abused these gifts by using them outside of the context of genuine church life. This abuse has caused the gifts to be scorned by many. It is time to stop seeing these gifts as mystical practices of fringe believers and understand that they are real provisions for real believers involved in genuine Christianity. They are provided by the Master Builder to the workers of the kingdom who are involved in building the temple of God, His church, on the earth. They are essential to what God desires to do in all of us.
The most serious problem we have today is our acceptance of a mode of gathering that makes these supernatural provisions obsolete. If our concept of church involves gathering in large buildings in large numbers to sing songs and hear a lengthy sermon, the gifts of the Spirit and the ministry of the saints to one another may seem like impractical undertakings.
But what if we gathered in more informal, practical ways where everyone had an opportunity to share and there was plenty of time for personal ministry to one another? What if the normal gatherings of Christians took place in homes in informal settings where there was sharing, prayer, Bible dialog, eating together and getting to truly know one another? What if our first priority was to invite Christ into our gatherings as the real Guest of honor instead of the mere subject of our conversations?
In short, what if we realized that genuine Christianity is a community of healing where we minister to one another so that each of us is truly healed from our brokenness and equipped to be what Christ has called us to? We are all broken when we enter this life. Christ came to bring good news, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and to smash down the prison doors for those who are in bondage to the enemy. The brokenness can be healed. The mending process can begin if we will cease doing things our way and let our Guest of honor have His way. He is the Anointed One, the Christ through whom Isaiah 61:1 can continue to be fulfilled in our midst.
It’s a Community of Followers, Not People Pursuing Leadership
Lloyd Gardner
February 19, 1015
If you want to make it in today’s competitive society you must be aiming toward being a leader. Every employer is looking for that leadership quality in prospective employees. Leadership seminars are held throughout the country explaining the fine points of leadership and climbing to the top of the leadership board.
Certainly there are people gifted in leadership aptitude and that truth is mentioned in scripture (Rom. 12:8). But the thrust of Christ in building His church was and is to find people willing to become followers. Inevitably when Jesus encountered someone He said to them “Follow me” (Matt. 4:19; 8:22; 9:9; Mark 8:34, etc.). He presented Himself as the Good Shepherd saying, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:3). He “leads them out.” To be a sheep under the leading of Christ is to be one who hears His voice and lets Him lead them out of the old fold to where He will lead. Christ is seeking followers.
When Jesus was telling His disciples what it takes to be His disciple He said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). He is looking for people who want to come after Him, people who have counted the cost and still follow after Him.
The world is looking for leaders. We now know that this will be the final downfall of humanity because its insatiable desire to have a leader will one day set them up to be led by antichrist the man with ultimate earthly power. Many of the world’s problems in history were caused by the tendency to give way to powerful leaders. The infamous leaders of history like Napoleon and Adolph Hitler are tragic examples.
Though the world wants powerful leaders Jesus warned against this tendency: "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves” (Luke22:25). Our Lord tells us that the best leader is one who serves, one who knows how to be a follower. How can one truly lead others unless he has first learned to be a follower.
“Not so with you!” Those are fairly strong words from our Lord. It sounds to me like a mandate, not just a suggestion. His commanding words followed a dispute among His disciples as to who would be the greatest among them (Luke 22:24). I used to berate the disciples for this immature behavior until I saw the same tendency in myself. Then I saw it in most of Christianity. We jockey around for position like chess pieces being moved on the chess board. Who will be the top dog? Who will be leader of the men’s group, the women’s group, the missions ministry? Who will be associate pastor, head pastor? On and on it goes as our success as Christians revolves around who we are leading instead of who we are following.
We give little thought to the notion that we are all blessed to be followers of the Good Shepherd and that in following Him we will find our place among our fellow followers. Paul put it this way: “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Rom. 12:3). This sober judgment, according to the apostle, comes from knowing that our place in His kingdom comes from Him “according to the measure of faith that God assigned.”
When we thing too highly of ourselves we obviously are not thinking with sober judgment because we are basing those thoughts on our own accomplishments instead of the grace of God that has touched our lives and brought to us the faith that determines how we follow the Lord in the midst of His body. God thinks highly of us because He loves us and gave His Son for us to bring us into His glory, but our challenge is to see ourselves as God sees us not as we want to see ourselves or as others in the world see us.
Genuine Christianity depends on this follower attitude, not the leadership mode that dominates the world. True leaders flow from God’s grace and the faith it produces in them. When Paul and Barnabas had finished their first apostolic journey and were on the return trip Luke tells us that they “appointed elders for them in every church” (Acts 14:23). Why did Paul and Barnabas wait until their return trip? How did these churches exist without elders in the months after they were founded?
The answers lie in how they viewed leadership. They didn’t believe that God’s people need official leaders in order to survive. They are first of all followers of Christ. When we see Paul’s list of qualifications for elder or overseer we see a list that would not be seen on the resume of most people seeking employment today. Every qualification deals with the quality of their character (1 Tim. 3:1-7).
Then, when Paul speaks of how the elders will function in the church he uses the expression “care for God's church” (1 Tim. 3:5). Today our resumes would read “lead the church.” The true leaders of the church in those days were those who cared for the sheep of God like a shepherd cares for his sheep. They tended, cared for, watched over and fed the sheep of God. Paul uses this expression when addressing the elders in Ephesus: “shepherd the church of God” (Acts 20:28).
Before His ascension Jesus had a conversation with Peter, the man who had denied Him three times. “Do you love me?” Jesus asked Peter three times and three times Peter insisted that he loved the Lord, and three times Jesus said, “Care for My sheep.” Some translations read differently but the gist of Jesus’ message to Peter is this: “If you love me, take care of My sheep.” Not “lead them,” “show your authority over them,” “inspire them,” or “motivate them” but simply “care for My sheep.”
Later when Peter wrote his first letter he told the elders “ shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2, 3). That’s it! That’s leadership in the body of Christ—being examples of how to live. Having a follower attitude and humbly allowing the life of Christ to be reflected in our actions. We think of leading as telling others how to live. The Bible sees leadership as showing others how to live.
I’ve shared this notion with many people over the years. Often I get a response something like this, “Lloyd, things are different now. We need to lead the way people are used to being led in the world, on their jobs and so on. If you have that attitude people will walk all over you.”
My answer has always been,” Absolutely not! Our assignment is to respond to Jesus just the way Peter did—“Yes Lord you know I love you.” Then He will always say, “Care for My sheep.” And yes, sometimes people will walk all over you when you follow Jesus. They walked all over Him and eventually crucified Him. They walked all over Paul and eventually took his head. But Jesus changed the world with His example of how to live. Paul followed in His footsteps.
Traditional Christianity is inundated with leaders. The church Christ is building needs followers. The first disciples became good leaders because they had become good followers of Christ. When you know how to follow Christ you know how to be an example to the other sheep. Let the world and the programed church have its leadership seminars and ego-driven atmosphere. I want to follow the ultimate Leader, Jesus Christ the Lord, King of kings, Lord of lords, the Almighty Master of the universe, who humbled Himself and became a follower of His Father so He could lead many followers to victory.
Lloyd Gardner
February 19, 1015
If you want to make it in today’s competitive society you must be aiming toward being a leader. Every employer is looking for that leadership quality in prospective employees. Leadership seminars are held throughout the country explaining the fine points of leadership and climbing to the top of the leadership board.
Certainly there are people gifted in leadership aptitude and that truth is mentioned in scripture (Rom. 12:8). But the thrust of Christ in building His church was and is to find people willing to become followers. Inevitably when Jesus encountered someone He said to them “Follow me” (Matt. 4:19; 8:22; 9:9; Mark 8:34, etc.). He presented Himself as the Good Shepherd saying, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:3). He “leads them out.” To be a sheep under the leading of Christ is to be one who hears His voice and lets Him lead them out of the old fold to where He will lead. Christ is seeking followers.
When Jesus was telling His disciples what it takes to be His disciple He said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). He is looking for people who want to come after Him, people who have counted the cost and still follow after Him.
The world is looking for leaders. We now know that this will be the final downfall of humanity because its insatiable desire to have a leader will one day set them up to be led by antichrist the man with ultimate earthly power. Many of the world’s problems in history were caused by the tendency to give way to powerful leaders. The infamous leaders of history like Napoleon and Adolph Hitler are tragic examples.
Though the world wants powerful leaders Jesus warned against this tendency: "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves” (Luke22:25). Our Lord tells us that the best leader is one who serves, one who knows how to be a follower. How can one truly lead others unless he has first learned to be a follower.
“Not so with you!” Those are fairly strong words from our Lord. It sounds to me like a mandate, not just a suggestion. His commanding words followed a dispute among His disciples as to who would be the greatest among them (Luke 22:24). I used to berate the disciples for this immature behavior until I saw the same tendency in myself. Then I saw it in most of Christianity. We jockey around for position like chess pieces being moved on the chess board. Who will be the top dog? Who will be leader of the men’s group, the women’s group, the missions ministry? Who will be associate pastor, head pastor? On and on it goes as our success as Christians revolves around who we are leading instead of who we are following.
We give little thought to the notion that we are all blessed to be followers of the Good Shepherd and that in following Him we will find our place among our fellow followers. Paul put it this way: “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Rom. 12:3). This sober judgment, according to the apostle, comes from knowing that our place in His kingdom comes from Him “according to the measure of faith that God assigned.”
When we thing too highly of ourselves we obviously are not thinking with sober judgment because we are basing those thoughts on our own accomplishments instead of the grace of God that has touched our lives and brought to us the faith that determines how we follow the Lord in the midst of His body. God thinks highly of us because He loves us and gave His Son for us to bring us into His glory, but our challenge is to see ourselves as God sees us not as we want to see ourselves or as others in the world see us.
Genuine Christianity depends on this follower attitude, not the leadership mode that dominates the world. True leaders flow from God’s grace and the faith it produces in them. When Paul and Barnabas had finished their first apostolic journey and were on the return trip Luke tells us that they “appointed elders for them in every church” (Acts 14:23). Why did Paul and Barnabas wait until their return trip? How did these churches exist without elders in the months after they were founded?
The answers lie in how they viewed leadership. They didn’t believe that God’s people need official leaders in order to survive. They are first of all followers of Christ. When we see Paul’s list of qualifications for elder or overseer we see a list that would not be seen on the resume of most people seeking employment today. Every qualification deals with the quality of their character (1 Tim. 3:1-7).
Then, when Paul speaks of how the elders will function in the church he uses the expression “care for God's church” (1 Tim. 3:5). Today our resumes would read “lead the church.” The true leaders of the church in those days were those who cared for the sheep of God like a shepherd cares for his sheep. They tended, cared for, watched over and fed the sheep of God. Paul uses this expression when addressing the elders in Ephesus: “shepherd the church of God” (Acts 20:28).
Before His ascension Jesus had a conversation with Peter, the man who had denied Him three times. “Do you love me?” Jesus asked Peter three times and three times Peter insisted that he loved the Lord, and three times Jesus said, “Care for My sheep.” Some translations read differently but the gist of Jesus’ message to Peter is this: “If you love me, take care of My sheep.” Not “lead them,” “show your authority over them,” “inspire them,” or “motivate them” but simply “care for My sheep.”
Later when Peter wrote his first letter he told the elders “ shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2, 3). That’s it! That’s leadership in the body of Christ—being examples of how to live. Having a follower attitude and humbly allowing the life of Christ to be reflected in our actions. We think of leading as telling others how to live. The Bible sees leadership as showing others how to live.
I’ve shared this notion with many people over the years. Often I get a response something like this, “Lloyd, things are different now. We need to lead the way people are used to being led in the world, on their jobs and so on. If you have that attitude people will walk all over you.”
My answer has always been,” Absolutely not! Our assignment is to respond to Jesus just the way Peter did—“Yes Lord you know I love you.” Then He will always say, “Care for My sheep.” And yes, sometimes people will walk all over you when you follow Jesus. They walked all over Him and eventually crucified Him. They walked all over Paul and eventually took his head. But Jesus changed the world with His example of how to live. Paul followed in His footsteps.
Traditional Christianity is inundated with leaders. The church Christ is building needs followers. The first disciples became good leaders because they had become good followers of Christ. When you know how to follow Christ you know how to be an example to the other sheep. Let the world and the programed church have its leadership seminars and ego-driven atmosphere. I want to follow the ultimate Leader, Jesus Christ the Lord, King of kings, Lord of lords, the Almighty Master of the universe, who humbled Himself and became a follower of His Father so He could lead many followers to victory.
It’s a Continuing Quest for Truth
Lloyd Gardner
February 12, 2015
The Anvil of God’s Word
Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.
“How many anvils have you had,” said I
“To wear and batter all these hammers so?”
“Just one,” said he, and then with twinkling eye
“The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”
And so, I thought, the Anvil of God’s Word
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The Anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.
—Attributed to John Clifford
There is a movement often referred to as the emerging or emergent church. One of its basic concepts is that truth is not as clear as we often assume and is quite mysterious and certainly not absolute. The Bible, then, is not an inerrant record from God but a mere medley of man’s attempt to express God. I believe this movement has emerged from a culture that finds issue with the Bible’s stand on such issues as homosexuality, gender rights, hell, and the absoluteness of truth. These issues of the age have become so important to them that they have begun to think of the Bible as a mere document of men who expressed things from the viewpoint of antiquated cultures of the past.
In other words, to such people the Bible is merely an account of people experiencing God as best they could and expressing it from their limited perspective. Rob Bell, author of Velvet Elvis, wrote, “This is part of the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that ‘Scripture alone’ is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true” (Velvet Elvis, p. 67, 68). To Mr. Bell, scripture is just another means of seeking truth as long as we don’t take it too seriously. The subtitle to his latest book is “Repainting the Christian Faith” which tells you where he is coming from.
Further he says the Bible is the “…expression of the spiritual experience of God's people through the ages.... We have to embrace the Bible as the wild, uncensored, passionate account it is of people experiencing the living God. Doubting the one true God” (Velvet Elvis, p. 6). The Bible is merely a “passionate account” of people experiencing God. It is mysterious, not always comprehensible and certainly not without error.
Is this genuine Christianity? I think not. The Bible itself embraces the notion that a supernatural God took it upon Himself to inspire an accurate written account of His dealings with mankind. Throughout the book of Genesis we see the words, “these are the generations of” followed by the name of the record keeper (Gen. 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10 etc.). When we get to Matthew we see the record of the generations from Abraham to Christ (Ch. 1). Luke contains the record from Jesus back to Adam showing that someone had kept the record through the ages (Luke 3:23-32).
The Bible is a historical record of the dealings of God with man. Paul wrote to young Timothy that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). Scripture is inspired. God breathed it out through the instrument of faithful men showing people how to live in fellowship with God.
Bill O’Reilly, of Fox News expressed the false notion of many people today: “The Bible is not a historical book. It is a book of theology.” I would say to Mr. O’Reilly and to this generation of God seekers that the Bible is not a book of theology at all but an accurate, historical account of God’s dealings with mankind through the ages. O’Reilly and others have bought into the notion that many of the supposed historical events such as creation, the flood, the parting of the Red Sea, Jonah and the whale etc. are mere allegory or simply man’s feeble attempts to explain God.
When you begin to equivocate in this way about God’s written record you will find yourself drifting away from the truth revealed in it. For example O’Reilly, a Catholic, must explain how the Christ He apparently believes in expresses agreement with the story of Noah and the Flood, which he says is mere allegory, not historical (Matt. 24:38). Supposedly, Christ, who is God in the flesh, did not fully understand that the flood story was mere allegory. When we reject the historicity of the Bible eventually find ourselves rejecting its Author.
Genuine Christianity embraces the inspired nature of the written record of scripture. To do otherwise will result in creeping unbelief concerning the things of God until eventually God Himself is rejected. Real Christianity is supernatural in origin and has no problem embracing the supernatural workings of God through the ages in producing an inerrant record of His involvement in history.
Genuine Christianity, as expressed in real God-ordained church life, is the context in which truth is tested so it can be embraced. It is not a gathering of passive bystanders who swallow the doctrines of elite purveyors of doctrine, but an active assembly of truth seekers who listen to God’s word, and to His Spirit, and submit everything people say to the unmovable anvil of God’s word.
Nowhere does Paul tell believers to merely listen to and accept what they are told without discernment founded in God’s word. He assumes, as we all must, that truth is absolute and that it has been revealed to those who seek it. Jesus made it clear that He was truth and that to know Him was to be in the truth (John 14:6). The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth (John 15:16) and He comes to lead us all into truth, into the true expression of Christ in our lives. It is upon this revelatory foundation that Jesus said He would build His church (Matt. 16:17, 18). Genuine Christianity begins with genuine revelation of truth.
Jesus promised, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13). Truth is knowable and available and the Spirit will lead us into all of it. It is not mysterious or dependent on the culture of the age. The culture of the age bows to His truth, not the other way around. The Holy Spirit is available to us even today to help us know and embrace and live in truth.
Truth is like the anvil in the poem above that cannot be moved and destroys the hammers that beat upon it. It is not a pile of mud that takes shape according to the external conditions, or sand that shifts under our feet. It is a steadfast, unmovable anvil that men have beat upon over the years to no avail. It will not change to suit our clever, new ideas. It is the rock upon which Jesus tells us to build (Matt. 7:24). We can build with confidence knowing that God’s truth will not change according to the shifting concepts of fallen humanity.
One of the problems we face in modern Christianity is that we have become passive church-goers instead of active truth seekers. Many Christians have fallen prey to the tendency Paul spoke of: “…having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3, 4). This is an accurate description of American Christianity today. We accumulate teachers by the dozens who tell us what we want to hear and as a result we wander off into false ideas invented by men. As Paul put it, many of us are “…always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). We know the doctrines and concepts but have little relationship with the One who is Truth. We insist that God, the Creator of all things, bow to the knowledge we contain between the six inches of brain between our ears.
Even if these accumulated teachers are teaching correctly it is a dangerous thing for us to sit passively without sincere discernment. We are not like the followers of cults who accept without judgment the pronouncements of the elite teachers. We are those who know we have a God-given brain governed by a God-filled spirit enabling us to know and embrace truth. We can test all things so we can know what is good and hold fast to it (1 Thess. 5:21). We are like the Bereans who searched the scriptures to validate the words of the apostle (Acts 17:11). We do not swallow the pronouncements of the prophets without active discernment (1 Cor. 14:29). We respect our teachers but follow only what flows from faith, holding them accountable to God’s word (Heb. 13:7).
Genuine Christianity is composed of sincere believers who know that they are people like John describes who “…have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things” (1 John 2:20; NKJV). Because they avail themselves of this anointing they will know the truth revealed by the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:21).
But this anointing is not the exclusive possession of independent believers. It is the possession of the body of Christ and therefore must be relied upon in the context of fellowship (1 Cor. 12:12). Paul speaks of discernment as the responsibility of gathered believers (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 Cor. 14:29; Eph. 4:12-16). You are compelled by God’s word to seek truth in fellowship with other truth seekers committed to the word of God as His inspired revelation of the truth.
We were made to be part of the body of Christ. We are members of one another (Rom. 12:5). This relationship demands that we cooperate with one another in our search for truth. We are never to browbeat one another into believing what we believe but submit to one another in love as we all seek truth together (Rom. 12:16; Eph. 5:21).
Christianity as it is expressed in America today is factionalized and divided because we have forfeited our responsibility to seek truth and have abdicated that responsibility to professional theologians. Paul warned the Corinthians about the danger of gathering in click groups according to elite preachers like himself, Peter or Apollos. He appeals to them to be in agreement and have no divisions and then pinpoints the reason for their divisive behavior—their tendency to gather around famous teachers instead of taking responsibility as discerning, spiritual believers (1 Cor. 1:10-13; 2:12-16).
If I could give some serious advice to many of my Christian friends it would be this: stop chasing after popular teachers and new popular doctrinal ideas! Chase after God! Be one who follows Christ not one who follows the coolest preacher or trend of the day. Stop seeking ideas that make you comfortable and fit your limited perspective and open up to the vast truth of God revealed in His word and inspired by His Spirit. Let the Holy Spirit lead you into truth. Begin your search for truth and then find others who will search with you. Through that attitude you will find the makings of genuine Christianity.
Lloyd Gardner
February 12, 2015
The Anvil of God’s Word
Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.
“How many anvils have you had,” said I
“To wear and batter all these hammers so?”
“Just one,” said he, and then with twinkling eye
“The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”
And so, I thought, the Anvil of God’s Word
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The Anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.
—Attributed to John Clifford
There is a movement often referred to as the emerging or emergent church. One of its basic concepts is that truth is not as clear as we often assume and is quite mysterious and certainly not absolute. The Bible, then, is not an inerrant record from God but a mere medley of man’s attempt to express God. I believe this movement has emerged from a culture that finds issue with the Bible’s stand on such issues as homosexuality, gender rights, hell, and the absoluteness of truth. These issues of the age have become so important to them that they have begun to think of the Bible as a mere document of men who expressed things from the viewpoint of antiquated cultures of the past.
In other words, to such people the Bible is merely an account of people experiencing God as best they could and expressing it from their limited perspective. Rob Bell, author of Velvet Elvis, wrote, “This is part of the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that ‘Scripture alone’ is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true” (Velvet Elvis, p. 67, 68). To Mr. Bell, scripture is just another means of seeking truth as long as we don’t take it too seriously. The subtitle to his latest book is “Repainting the Christian Faith” which tells you where he is coming from.
Further he says the Bible is the “…expression of the spiritual experience of God's people through the ages.... We have to embrace the Bible as the wild, uncensored, passionate account it is of people experiencing the living God. Doubting the one true God” (Velvet Elvis, p. 6). The Bible is merely a “passionate account” of people experiencing God. It is mysterious, not always comprehensible and certainly not without error.
Is this genuine Christianity? I think not. The Bible itself embraces the notion that a supernatural God took it upon Himself to inspire an accurate written account of His dealings with mankind. Throughout the book of Genesis we see the words, “these are the generations of” followed by the name of the record keeper (Gen. 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10 etc.). When we get to Matthew we see the record of the generations from Abraham to Christ (Ch. 1). Luke contains the record from Jesus back to Adam showing that someone had kept the record through the ages (Luke 3:23-32).
The Bible is a historical record of the dealings of God with man. Paul wrote to young Timothy that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). Scripture is inspired. God breathed it out through the instrument of faithful men showing people how to live in fellowship with God.
Bill O’Reilly, of Fox News expressed the false notion of many people today: “The Bible is not a historical book. It is a book of theology.” I would say to Mr. O’Reilly and to this generation of God seekers that the Bible is not a book of theology at all but an accurate, historical account of God’s dealings with mankind through the ages. O’Reilly and others have bought into the notion that many of the supposed historical events such as creation, the flood, the parting of the Red Sea, Jonah and the whale etc. are mere allegory or simply man’s feeble attempts to explain God.
When you begin to equivocate in this way about God’s written record you will find yourself drifting away from the truth revealed in it. For example O’Reilly, a Catholic, must explain how the Christ He apparently believes in expresses agreement with the story of Noah and the Flood, which he says is mere allegory, not historical (Matt. 24:38). Supposedly, Christ, who is God in the flesh, did not fully understand that the flood story was mere allegory. When we reject the historicity of the Bible eventually find ourselves rejecting its Author.
Genuine Christianity embraces the inspired nature of the written record of scripture. To do otherwise will result in creeping unbelief concerning the things of God until eventually God Himself is rejected. Real Christianity is supernatural in origin and has no problem embracing the supernatural workings of God through the ages in producing an inerrant record of His involvement in history.
Genuine Christianity, as expressed in real God-ordained church life, is the context in which truth is tested so it can be embraced. It is not a gathering of passive bystanders who swallow the doctrines of elite purveyors of doctrine, but an active assembly of truth seekers who listen to God’s word, and to His Spirit, and submit everything people say to the unmovable anvil of God’s word.
Nowhere does Paul tell believers to merely listen to and accept what they are told without discernment founded in God’s word. He assumes, as we all must, that truth is absolute and that it has been revealed to those who seek it. Jesus made it clear that He was truth and that to know Him was to be in the truth (John 14:6). The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth (John 15:16) and He comes to lead us all into truth, into the true expression of Christ in our lives. It is upon this revelatory foundation that Jesus said He would build His church (Matt. 16:17, 18). Genuine Christianity begins with genuine revelation of truth.
Jesus promised, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13). Truth is knowable and available and the Spirit will lead us into all of it. It is not mysterious or dependent on the culture of the age. The culture of the age bows to His truth, not the other way around. The Holy Spirit is available to us even today to help us know and embrace and live in truth.
Truth is like the anvil in the poem above that cannot be moved and destroys the hammers that beat upon it. It is not a pile of mud that takes shape according to the external conditions, or sand that shifts under our feet. It is a steadfast, unmovable anvil that men have beat upon over the years to no avail. It will not change to suit our clever, new ideas. It is the rock upon which Jesus tells us to build (Matt. 7:24). We can build with confidence knowing that God’s truth will not change according to the shifting concepts of fallen humanity.
One of the problems we face in modern Christianity is that we have become passive church-goers instead of active truth seekers. Many Christians have fallen prey to the tendency Paul spoke of: “…having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3, 4). This is an accurate description of American Christianity today. We accumulate teachers by the dozens who tell us what we want to hear and as a result we wander off into false ideas invented by men. As Paul put it, many of us are “…always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). We know the doctrines and concepts but have little relationship with the One who is Truth. We insist that God, the Creator of all things, bow to the knowledge we contain between the six inches of brain between our ears.
Even if these accumulated teachers are teaching correctly it is a dangerous thing for us to sit passively without sincere discernment. We are not like the followers of cults who accept without judgment the pronouncements of the elite teachers. We are those who know we have a God-given brain governed by a God-filled spirit enabling us to know and embrace truth. We can test all things so we can know what is good and hold fast to it (1 Thess. 5:21). We are like the Bereans who searched the scriptures to validate the words of the apostle (Acts 17:11). We do not swallow the pronouncements of the prophets without active discernment (1 Cor. 14:29). We respect our teachers but follow only what flows from faith, holding them accountable to God’s word (Heb. 13:7).
Genuine Christianity is composed of sincere believers who know that they are people like John describes who “…have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things” (1 John 2:20; NKJV). Because they avail themselves of this anointing they will know the truth revealed by the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:21).
But this anointing is not the exclusive possession of independent believers. It is the possession of the body of Christ and therefore must be relied upon in the context of fellowship (1 Cor. 12:12). Paul speaks of discernment as the responsibility of gathered believers (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 Cor. 14:29; Eph. 4:12-16). You are compelled by God’s word to seek truth in fellowship with other truth seekers committed to the word of God as His inspired revelation of the truth.
We were made to be part of the body of Christ. We are members of one another (Rom. 12:5). This relationship demands that we cooperate with one another in our search for truth. We are never to browbeat one another into believing what we believe but submit to one another in love as we all seek truth together (Rom. 12:16; Eph. 5:21).
Christianity as it is expressed in America today is factionalized and divided because we have forfeited our responsibility to seek truth and have abdicated that responsibility to professional theologians. Paul warned the Corinthians about the danger of gathering in click groups according to elite preachers like himself, Peter or Apollos. He appeals to them to be in agreement and have no divisions and then pinpoints the reason for their divisive behavior—their tendency to gather around famous teachers instead of taking responsibility as discerning, spiritual believers (1 Cor. 1:10-13; 2:12-16).
If I could give some serious advice to many of my Christian friends it would be this: stop chasing after popular teachers and new popular doctrinal ideas! Chase after God! Be one who follows Christ not one who follows the coolest preacher or trend of the day. Stop seeking ideas that make you comfortable and fit your limited perspective and open up to the vast truth of God revealed in His word and inspired by His Spirit. Let the Holy Spirit lead you into truth. Begin your search for truth and then find others who will search with you. Through that attitude you will find the makings of genuine Christianity.
A Community of Servants
Lloyd Gardner
February 6, 2015
Servant. Let that word roll off of your lips and ponder its meaning in today’s “it’s all about me” cultural climate. Servant: one who places himself in a position of submission to someone else.
Servant. Not a popular notion in today’s self-exalted society. And yet genuine Christianity is depicted in scripture as a community of servants, a community of people placing themselves in submission to one another for the sake of God’s purpose.
Genuine Christianity expressed through genuine church life is and always has been the antithesis of the world. The world and true Christianity are headed in opposite directions. Observe which way the world is going and you will be able to see which way the Spirit is leading His authentic church. In today’s world, the community being built and inspired by Satan, self is god. Humility is a weakness, serving is the bottom of the barrel of vocations, leadership is touted over followership, and winning at all cost is the mantra of the day.
But the apostle Paul said of the One who started it all: He “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:7, 8). The One who had everything in the grandeur of heaven, was filled with all the majesty of God, set it all aside, became a servant, became a man and lived and died for us.
Then when He knew He was about to die in the Passover room with His disciples, He got up from supper, took off His outer garments, took the position of servant, and washed His disciples’ dirty feet. Having done so, He turned to them and declared, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13:13-15). His whole life and ministry had been a living example of servanthood but at this special moment Jesus demonstrated through His actions what kind of followers He was preparing—what kind of church He was building—a community of servants.
There are two words used in the New Testament for servant. One is the word diakonos, from which we get the word deacon. It refers to a family servant, often one who is paid for his service. The other is the word doulos which is often translated bond servant or slave. This is a person who is bound to a master because he has been bought with a price. In Hebrew law a bond servant was to be freed after the sixth year but could voluntarily choose to stay with his master. He would be marked on his ear as belonging to that master (Deut. 15:12-18).
Often our Bibles use the word “minister” to translate this word. In the 17th century the word minister meant servant. The problem is that the word “minister” today has taken on a different meaning. The word minister today means the one who is in charge, the leader of the church, the man at the top. So, the word expresses the opposite of its original meaning. We need to always translate the word as “service” in our thinking because that is the original meaning. There is no concept in the New Testament of a special elite group called “the ministry.” We are all called to serve one another as Christ demonstrated at the last Passover.
Peter wrote, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10). God has provided grace to each of us so we can serve it to others. Often we use our gifts to serve our own needs or build up our own “ministries.” We are called to use our gifts to serve our fellow believers. Paul told the Corinthians to use the gift of prophecy this way: “On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” (1 Cor. 14:3).
Paul mentions five gifts in Ephesians 4:11: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. Some people refer to these as “ministry gifts” as if these are the ones who do the work of ministry. On the contrary, the passage tells us plainly that the purpose of these gifts is to equip the saints (the other Christians) for the work of service (ministry) (v. 12). This service by all the believers, Paul says, is “for building up the body of Christ.” Genuine Christianity is a community of servants serving one another the grace of God so that the body of Christ is built up.
The body of Christ was designed by God to be built up through the service of the individual parts. Each member of the body contributes to the corporate spiritual building up of the church. Remember Peter said that we are to be “good stewards of God's varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10). The grace of God flows from God through the “varied” members of the body to all members. The King James Version uses the word “manifold” here for “varied.” Think of the manifold on a car engine which distributes the air coming into the engine. One pipe comes in and divides into many pipes distributing the air.
So it is for the body of Christ. The grace flows from God and is distributed through the individual believers to the body of Christ. It is this diverse, varied, manifold grace that results in the building up of the body. Knowledge and information do not build up unless they flow in grace. It is the touch of God’s grace that transforms us into His image. “Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift,” Paul tells us (Eph. 4:7). It is the “immeasurable riches of God’s grace” that Paul served and that we also are called to serve (Eph. 2:7).
Peter shares the way this grace is served: “whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (4:11). In other words, we share the grace of God through the things we say and the things we do toward one another. We speak the “oracles of God” and serve one another through the “strength that God supplies.” In other words, God is flowing through us to our brothers and sisters. As this happens He is glorified in His body.
Most of us will filter the meaning of this service through our present picture of church life. We think of this service as being a greeter at the church door, ushering, serving on the cleanup committee or other program-oriented activities. Of course, such things can minister God’s grace if done in Him. We have been the recipient of such gracious service on many occasions. When I was sick with cancer many people served me by bringing food, cleaning our house, stacking our wood and other act of kindness.
The service that builds up is our service of God’s grace through us to our brothers and sisters. This happens through the intimacy of true fellowship where we pray for one another, give to one another, share truth, or let the gifts God has given us touch the needs of one another. We are stewards of God’s grace and he calls us to serve this grace to others. In so doing we are sharing God with one another and God’s presence transforms each of us and He is glorified among us.
This serving attitude will always conflict with Satan’s world system. Jesus made this clear: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave” (Matt. 20:25-27). If we seek greatness in the world we must put ourselves first and promote self and fleshly abilities and gifts. We must push ahead in human strength to be noticed and honored. But in the kingdom greatness comes through serving and those who would be first must place themselves last by becoming a slave to others.
This concept is so strange to the thinking of most Americans that it has become strange even in what we call church. Those who want to have a position in our organized churches must promote themselves and push to be first. Genuine Christianity moves in the opposite direction. Jesus promotes those who put themselves last among the brethren and seek the welfare of others.
Paul, in sharing how we are to conduct ourselves in our gatherings, ended with the admonition to be “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:21). We submit to one another in all things because we are called to serve one another and because we realize that Christ is among us as the Guest of honor. He is reverenced when we wash one another’s feet by humbling ourselves to help clean the world’s filth from each other. This comes through grace expressed in loving acts of forgiveness and healing. We are saved and forgiven sinners who are to serve one another in humility.
This is difficult in our programmed-oriented churches because it requires the closeness and intimacy of smallness where we rub shoulders and embrace one another. It is difficult to wash one another’s feet from a distance. Anything that promotes nickels and noses (as one pastor put it) at the expense of fellowship and relationship will fail to build up the body of Christ. This attitude of promotion will produce only religious organizations with Jesus outside the door asking for entrance. It is time to let the King of Glory return to His church. He walks among the humble and serves those who submit to one another. He is building genuine Christianity—a community of servants.
Lloyd Gardner
February 6, 2015
Servant. Let that word roll off of your lips and ponder its meaning in today’s “it’s all about me” cultural climate. Servant: one who places himself in a position of submission to someone else.
Servant. Not a popular notion in today’s self-exalted society. And yet genuine Christianity is depicted in scripture as a community of servants, a community of people placing themselves in submission to one another for the sake of God’s purpose.
Genuine Christianity expressed through genuine church life is and always has been the antithesis of the world. The world and true Christianity are headed in opposite directions. Observe which way the world is going and you will be able to see which way the Spirit is leading His authentic church. In today’s world, the community being built and inspired by Satan, self is god. Humility is a weakness, serving is the bottom of the barrel of vocations, leadership is touted over followership, and winning at all cost is the mantra of the day.
But the apostle Paul said of the One who started it all: He “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:7, 8). The One who had everything in the grandeur of heaven, was filled with all the majesty of God, set it all aside, became a servant, became a man and lived and died for us.
Then when He knew He was about to die in the Passover room with His disciples, He got up from supper, took off His outer garments, took the position of servant, and washed His disciples’ dirty feet. Having done so, He turned to them and declared, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13:13-15). His whole life and ministry had been a living example of servanthood but at this special moment Jesus demonstrated through His actions what kind of followers He was preparing—what kind of church He was building—a community of servants.
There are two words used in the New Testament for servant. One is the word diakonos, from which we get the word deacon. It refers to a family servant, often one who is paid for his service. The other is the word doulos which is often translated bond servant or slave. This is a person who is bound to a master because he has been bought with a price. In Hebrew law a bond servant was to be freed after the sixth year but could voluntarily choose to stay with his master. He would be marked on his ear as belonging to that master (Deut. 15:12-18).
Often our Bibles use the word “minister” to translate this word. In the 17th century the word minister meant servant. The problem is that the word “minister” today has taken on a different meaning. The word minister today means the one who is in charge, the leader of the church, the man at the top. So, the word expresses the opposite of its original meaning. We need to always translate the word as “service” in our thinking because that is the original meaning. There is no concept in the New Testament of a special elite group called “the ministry.” We are all called to serve one another as Christ demonstrated at the last Passover.
Peter wrote, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10). God has provided grace to each of us so we can serve it to others. Often we use our gifts to serve our own needs or build up our own “ministries.” We are called to use our gifts to serve our fellow believers. Paul told the Corinthians to use the gift of prophecy this way: “On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” (1 Cor. 14:3).
Paul mentions five gifts in Ephesians 4:11: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. Some people refer to these as “ministry gifts” as if these are the ones who do the work of ministry. On the contrary, the passage tells us plainly that the purpose of these gifts is to equip the saints (the other Christians) for the work of service (ministry) (v. 12). This service by all the believers, Paul says, is “for building up the body of Christ.” Genuine Christianity is a community of servants serving one another the grace of God so that the body of Christ is built up.
The body of Christ was designed by God to be built up through the service of the individual parts. Each member of the body contributes to the corporate spiritual building up of the church. Remember Peter said that we are to be “good stewards of God's varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10). The grace of God flows from God through the “varied” members of the body to all members. The King James Version uses the word “manifold” here for “varied.” Think of the manifold on a car engine which distributes the air coming into the engine. One pipe comes in and divides into many pipes distributing the air.
So it is for the body of Christ. The grace flows from God and is distributed through the individual believers to the body of Christ. It is this diverse, varied, manifold grace that results in the building up of the body. Knowledge and information do not build up unless they flow in grace. It is the touch of God’s grace that transforms us into His image. “Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift,” Paul tells us (Eph. 4:7). It is the “immeasurable riches of God’s grace” that Paul served and that we also are called to serve (Eph. 2:7).
Peter shares the way this grace is served: “whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (4:11). In other words, we share the grace of God through the things we say and the things we do toward one another. We speak the “oracles of God” and serve one another through the “strength that God supplies.” In other words, God is flowing through us to our brothers and sisters. As this happens He is glorified in His body.
Most of us will filter the meaning of this service through our present picture of church life. We think of this service as being a greeter at the church door, ushering, serving on the cleanup committee or other program-oriented activities. Of course, such things can minister God’s grace if done in Him. We have been the recipient of such gracious service on many occasions. When I was sick with cancer many people served me by bringing food, cleaning our house, stacking our wood and other act of kindness.
The service that builds up is our service of God’s grace through us to our brothers and sisters. This happens through the intimacy of true fellowship where we pray for one another, give to one another, share truth, or let the gifts God has given us touch the needs of one another. We are stewards of God’s grace and he calls us to serve this grace to others. In so doing we are sharing God with one another and God’s presence transforms each of us and He is glorified among us.
This serving attitude will always conflict with Satan’s world system. Jesus made this clear: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave” (Matt. 20:25-27). If we seek greatness in the world we must put ourselves first and promote self and fleshly abilities and gifts. We must push ahead in human strength to be noticed and honored. But in the kingdom greatness comes through serving and those who would be first must place themselves last by becoming a slave to others.
This concept is so strange to the thinking of most Americans that it has become strange even in what we call church. Those who want to have a position in our organized churches must promote themselves and push to be first. Genuine Christianity moves in the opposite direction. Jesus promotes those who put themselves last among the brethren and seek the welfare of others.
Paul, in sharing how we are to conduct ourselves in our gatherings, ended with the admonition to be “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:21). We submit to one another in all things because we are called to serve one another and because we realize that Christ is among us as the Guest of honor. He is reverenced when we wash one another’s feet by humbling ourselves to help clean the world’s filth from each other. This comes through grace expressed in loving acts of forgiveness and healing. We are saved and forgiven sinners who are to serve one another in humility.
This is difficult in our programmed-oriented churches because it requires the closeness and intimacy of smallness where we rub shoulders and embrace one another. It is difficult to wash one another’s feet from a distance. Anything that promotes nickels and noses (as one pastor put it) at the expense of fellowship and relationship will fail to build up the body of Christ. This attitude of promotion will produce only religious organizations with Jesus outside the door asking for entrance. It is time to let the King of Glory return to His church. He walks among the humble and serves those who submit to one another. He is building genuine Christianity—a community of servants.
A Priesthood of all the Believers
Lloyd Gardner
January 24, 2015
Genuine Christianity is a priesthood of all followers of Christ, not an audience for priests. It is a spiritual body with every part having a purpose. It is an army where every spiritual soldier has been given an assignment and armed with powerful spiritual weapons and the goal is victory. It is not a money source for elite preachers or a practice ground for the clever ideas of controlling men. This spiritual priesthood is called and empowered to minister the redemption provided by the Lamb of God and every believer has a viable part.
We have come to think of the Christian church as a pastor and the programs he administers. Invariably when Christians are talking about church someone will ask, “Who’s your pastor?” The next thing that will enter the conversation is “What he is like?” “Well he’s a real people person and preaches a wonderful, lively sermon,” someone responds. In other words, to many people, perhaps most, church is about a man and his plan.
It was not this way in the beginning of Christianity over two thousand years ago. From that beginning God showed us genuine Christianity and recorded it’s description in His written word. The first Christians were all Jews or Jewish converts who were quite familiar with the priest system of the temple. This priestly system had been part of their culture for hundreds of years. In its inception the priesthood was meant to be an earthly depiction of God’s desire for a future, permanent spiritual priesthood (Heb. 7:11f.). That future priesthood would have an eternal High Priest and a priesthood of anointed followers.
By the time of Christ they saw the priest as a person standing between them and God, a mediator who approached God in behalf of the people. All of the priests in the time of Jesus considered themselves elite purveyors of God’s truth. They were so enthralled with their power over the people that they became the ones who failed to understand that their earthly priesthood was to lead to a permanent one with their Messiah as High Priest. But they kept themselves aloof from the people and fought to maintain their power over the people of God. The people became objects for them to manipulate for their own benefit. The people were merely an audience for the priests to speak to, a passive group who allowed them to do their thing. It was a clergy system with the common laity at the bottom and the priests at the top. This clergy-laity heresy was probably the teaching of the Nicolaitans referred to by Christ in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 2:6, 15). Jesus said He hated this teaching and exhorted the churches to repent of it (2:6, 16).
Unfortunately, much of today’s programmed Christianity is following in the same steps. When people consider starting or continuing a church they begin to look around for a lively, popular pastor to lead the way. We look for a priest, someone to stand between us and God, to do the work of the ministry, who has the right degrees and knows Greek and Hebrew, someone to receive the word from God and deliver it to us as we remain passive and uninvolved. We have allowed a false Christian priesthood to develop before our eyes even though God’s word makes it clear that every believer is a priest unto God.
The writer of Hebrews makes this priesthood abundantly clear:
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a
new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and
having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,
for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love
and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of
some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day
approaching (Heb. 10:10-25; NKJV).
Though I would love to do it, I don’t have space to dissect that passage. Let us just say at this point that every child of God can now enter into the holy place once reserved for only the priests. Not only can we enter but we can do so with boldness and confidence because Christ has become our High Priest by offering His own life for us and He has invited us to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” because of the redemptive work of Christ. This invitation is to every follower of Christ, every person in whom Christ dwells.
Peter agreed with this as he declared us “a holy priesthood” and “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5, 9). John knew this and declared that Christ “has made us kings and priests to His God and Father” (Rev. 1:6). We, the people of God, are kings and priests to God and anointed with the Holy Spirit just as it was with the kings and priests of the Old Testament. The priesthood is no longer a special class of elite men but all of God’s anointed children.
John spoke of this anointing: “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you” (1 John 2:27). The early church, the one described in God’s word, is not a top down organization with clever men at the top controlling the rest. Genuine Christianity is a spiritual organism in which every believer has a crucial part and no one person is allowed to have the preeminent position except Christ (1 Cor. 12:12f.).
Consider this crucial point. There are no titles for men in the New Testament scriptures. No person is ever called Pastor Jones or Evangelist Smith or Prophet Johnson. These gifts are functions within the body of Christ, not titles that separate men out as elite and special. People are to be recognized as possessors of these gifts but never to be given a title (Acts 21:8, 10; 2 Tim. 4:5; 1 Cor. 14:29). Actually, the term pastor is only used one time, in Ephesians 4:11 and the verb form is used of the responsibility of the elders of the church since they were considered shepherds (pastors) (Acts 20:28). But never do we see the word used as a title of a person with the assumption that he has an elevated position in the body. The title “reverend” before a person’s name also designates him as someone higher than the other saints of God all of whom are considered reverend because they are holy in Him (Eph. 1:4; Col. 3:12).
The only person ever called the pastor (Shepherd) of the church is Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd (John 10:2). Toward the end of my official ministry in the organized church I cringed when someone called me the pastor of the church because Jesus had shown me clearly that He was the Shepherd. Yes, there are under shepherds in the body of Christ but these are merely functions, not titles, and always refer to the plural body of elders in the church (1 Peter 5:1-4; Acts 20:17, 28). Leadership is always plural in God’s word (1 Peter 5:1; 1 Titus 1:5) to keep one person from dominating and to encourage the priesthood of all believers.
Jesus commanded His disciples, “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers” (Matt. 23:8). The title rabbi was applied to very revered teachers and literally means “my master.” It is very similar to the honored title “pastor” in today’s Christian world. Jesus reminded his disciples that they are all brothers and that no one should assume a higher position by being called rabbi.
The same applies today to the title pastor. A person may be known as a pastor, or one with a shepherding gift but he should never take the title of shepherd (pastor) and should always remember that his gift of being a pastor is a function in the body, not a titled office. Most importantly, he should never assume a position as the sole pastor or primary pastor of a local church because, in so doing, he disregards the priesthood of all Christ followers.
Some may protest that we refer to Paul as the apostle Paul, as if the word apostle is a title. The word of God, however, in all of its nineteen uses of the word apostle, uses the word as a function. Paul calls himself an apostle several times but never calls himself Apostle Paul nor does anyone else (1 Cor. 1:1). There are no titled people in Genuine Christianity other than Jesus, the Christ, the Apostle of our faith, the Good Shepherd, Alpha and Omega, the Almighty, the Lamb of God, King of kings and Lord of lords.
So, what’s the point I’m making. Genuine Christianity as we see it defined in the New Testament is a priesthood of all believers in which every person is to be a participant. There were no passive bystanders in churches dominated by controlling men. This is why Paul describes the meetings of the early Christians as participatory gatherings in which all are invited to participate. These gatherings were open to all the spiritual priests of God for teaching, singing, sharing a revelation, scripture reading, exercising a gift, prophesying, praying or any other Spirit-led contribution (1 Cor. 14:26; Col. 3:16, 17; Eph. 5:19, 20).
In keeping with this open attitude toward participation there was strong emphasis placed on discernment, accountability and righteous judgment. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to test everything spoken in the gathering (1 Thess. 5:21) and the Corinthians to judge what was spoken (1 Cor. 14:29). The early believers understood the need to meet in informal situations in smaller groups where every believer could function as a priest. They also saw the ekklesia, the gathered church, as the “pillar and foundation of truth” where truth was discerned and judged (1 Tim 3:15). This discernment was not left to clergymen, since none existed, but to the Spirit-anointed saints who realized that they belonged to the priesthood of God.
There was no regular, mandated sermon that dominated the gatherings. Yes, Paul did preach that one long sermon in Troas where the young man fell asleep and fell out of the window, and there were evangelistic messages, but this is the only sermon we see in the gatherings of the believers and it was an apostolic message (Acts 20:29). These gatherings were devoted to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, family meals and prayer in homes throughout the city (Acts 2:42; 46). The obligatory sermon only became common in later centuries when the church began to compromise with Greco-Roman oratorical philosophy.[1]
We welcome constructive criticism on this issue. We realize that we are touching one of the sacred cows of modern Christianity. We do not say these things lightly but have taken many years, even decades, testing what this message declares. It is completely founded on scripture and the original meaning of its words. As always many will appeal to common sense and practicality to defend the modern understanding of church life, but our appeal is to God’s word with the admonition that those who struggle with this message devour what He says on this subject. You will be amazed at what you find.
Remember how Jesus always appealed to the scriptures in His debates with the priests of His day (Jn. 7:38; Mk. 12:10, etc.). He pointed them back to what the word says because He knew it is so easy to justify our actions with tradition and established norms. The only real norm is the one revealed in God’s inspired word. I implore you to pursue that standard as you examine the words I have shared in this message. Rise up priests of God! Become defenders of God’s word and emissaries of His eternal purpose. Let us seek expressions of His church life that liberate the priests of God into their holy calling.
[1] Norington, David C. To Preach or not to Preach? The Church’s urgent Question, 22.
Lloyd Gardner
January 24, 2015
Genuine Christianity is a priesthood of all followers of Christ, not an audience for priests. It is a spiritual body with every part having a purpose. It is an army where every spiritual soldier has been given an assignment and armed with powerful spiritual weapons and the goal is victory. It is not a money source for elite preachers or a practice ground for the clever ideas of controlling men. This spiritual priesthood is called and empowered to minister the redemption provided by the Lamb of God and every believer has a viable part.
We have come to think of the Christian church as a pastor and the programs he administers. Invariably when Christians are talking about church someone will ask, “Who’s your pastor?” The next thing that will enter the conversation is “What he is like?” “Well he’s a real people person and preaches a wonderful, lively sermon,” someone responds. In other words, to many people, perhaps most, church is about a man and his plan.
It was not this way in the beginning of Christianity over two thousand years ago. From that beginning God showed us genuine Christianity and recorded it’s description in His written word. The first Christians were all Jews or Jewish converts who were quite familiar with the priest system of the temple. This priestly system had been part of their culture for hundreds of years. In its inception the priesthood was meant to be an earthly depiction of God’s desire for a future, permanent spiritual priesthood (Heb. 7:11f.). That future priesthood would have an eternal High Priest and a priesthood of anointed followers.
By the time of Christ they saw the priest as a person standing between them and God, a mediator who approached God in behalf of the people. All of the priests in the time of Jesus considered themselves elite purveyors of God’s truth. They were so enthralled with their power over the people that they became the ones who failed to understand that their earthly priesthood was to lead to a permanent one with their Messiah as High Priest. But they kept themselves aloof from the people and fought to maintain their power over the people of God. The people became objects for them to manipulate for their own benefit. The people were merely an audience for the priests to speak to, a passive group who allowed them to do their thing. It was a clergy system with the common laity at the bottom and the priests at the top. This clergy-laity heresy was probably the teaching of the Nicolaitans referred to by Christ in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 2:6, 15). Jesus said He hated this teaching and exhorted the churches to repent of it (2:6, 16).
Unfortunately, much of today’s programmed Christianity is following in the same steps. When people consider starting or continuing a church they begin to look around for a lively, popular pastor to lead the way. We look for a priest, someone to stand between us and God, to do the work of the ministry, who has the right degrees and knows Greek and Hebrew, someone to receive the word from God and deliver it to us as we remain passive and uninvolved. We have allowed a false Christian priesthood to develop before our eyes even though God’s word makes it clear that every believer is a priest unto God.
The writer of Hebrews makes this priesthood abundantly clear:
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a
new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and
having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,
for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love
and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of
some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day
approaching (Heb. 10:10-25; NKJV).
Though I would love to do it, I don’t have space to dissect that passage. Let us just say at this point that every child of God can now enter into the holy place once reserved for only the priests. Not only can we enter but we can do so with boldness and confidence because Christ has become our High Priest by offering His own life for us and He has invited us to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” because of the redemptive work of Christ. This invitation is to every follower of Christ, every person in whom Christ dwells.
Peter agreed with this as he declared us “a holy priesthood” and “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5, 9). John knew this and declared that Christ “has made us kings and priests to His God and Father” (Rev. 1:6). We, the people of God, are kings and priests to God and anointed with the Holy Spirit just as it was with the kings and priests of the Old Testament. The priesthood is no longer a special class of elite men but all of God’s anointed children.
John spoke of this anointing: “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you” (1 John 2:27). The early church, the one described in God’s word, is not a top down organization with clever men at the top controlling the rest. Genuine Christianity is a spiritual organism in which every believer has a crucial part and no one person is allowed to have the preeminent position except Christ (1 Cor. 12:12f.).
Consider this crucial point. There are no titles for men in the New Testament scriptures. No person is ever called Pastor Jones or Evangelist Smith or Prophet Johnson. These gifts are functions within the body of Christ, not titles that separate men out as elite and special. People are to be recognized as possessors of these gifts but never to be given a title (Acts 21:8, 10; 2 Tim. 4:5; 1 Cor. 14:29). Actually, the term pastor is only used one time, in Ephesians 4:11 and the verb form is used of the responsibility of the elders of the church since they were considered shepherds (pastors) (Acts 20:28). But never do we see the word used as a title of a person with the assumption that he has an elevated position in the body. The title “reverend” before a person’s name also designates him as someone higher than the other saints of God all of whom are considered reverend because they are holy in Him (Eph. 1:4; Col. 3:12).
The only person ever called the pastor (Shepherd) of the church is Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd (John 10:2). Toward the end of my official ministry in the organized church I cringed when someone called me the pastor of the church because Jesus had shown me clearly that He was the Shepherd. Yes, there are under shepherds in the body of Christ but these are merely functions, not titles, and always refer to the plural body of elders in the church (1 Peter 5:1-4; Acts 20:17, 28). Leadership is always plural in God’s word (1 Peter 5:1; 1 Titus 1:5) to keep one person from dominating and to encourage the priesthood of all believers.
Jesus commanded His disciples, “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers” (Matt. 23:8). The title rabbi was applied to very revered teachers and literally means “my master.” It is very similar to the honored title “pastor” in today’s Christian world. Jesus reminded his disciples that they are all brothers and that no one should assume a higher position by being called rabbi.
The same applies today to the title pastor. A person may be known as a pastor, or one with a shepherding gift but he should never take the title of shepherd (pastor) and should always remember that his gift of being a pastor is a function in the body, not a titled office. Most importantly, he should never assume a position as the sole pastor or primary pastor of a local church because, in so doing, he disregards the priesthood of all Christ followers.
Some may protest that we refer to Paul as the apostle Paul, as if the word apostle is a title. The word of God, however, in all of its nineteen uses of the word apostle, uses the word as a function. Paul calls himself an apostle several times but never calls himself Apostle Paul nor does anyone else (1 Cor. 1:1). There are no titled people in Genuine Christianity other than Jesus, the Christ, the Apostle of our faith, the Good Shepherd, Alpha and Omega, the Almighty, the Lamb of God, King of kings and Lord of lords.
So, what’s the point I’m making. Genuine Christianity as we see it defined in the New Testament is a priesthood of all believers in which every person is to be a participant. There were no passive bystanders in churches dominated by controlling men. This is why Paul describes the meetings of the early Christians as participatory gatherings in which all are invited to participate. These gatherings were open to all the spiritual priests of God for teaching, singing, sharing a revelation, scripture reading, exercising a gift, prophesying, praying or any other Spirit-led contribution (1 Cor. 14:26; Col. 3:16, 17; Eph. 5:19, 20).
In keeping with this open attitude toward participation there was strong emphasis placed on discernment, accountability and righteous judgment. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to test everything spoken in the gathering (1 Thess. 5:21) and the Corinthians to judge what was spoken (1 Cor. 14:29). The early believers understood the need to meet in informal situations in smaller groups where every believer could function as a priest. They also saw the ekklesia, the gathered church, as the “pillar and foundation of truth” where truth was discerned and judged (1 Tim 3:15). This discernment was not left to clergymen, since none existed, but to the Spirit-anointed saints who realized that they belonged to the priesthood of God.
There was no regular, mandated sermon that dominated the gatherings. Yes, Paul did preach that one long sermon in Troas where the young man fell asleep and fell out of the window, and there were evangelistic messages, but this is the only sermon we see in the gatherings of the believers and it was an apostolic message (Acts 20:29). These gatherings were devoted to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, family meals and prayer in homes throughout the city (Acts 2:42; 46). The obligatory sermon only became common in later centuries when the church began to compromise with Greco-Roman oratorical philosophy.[1]
We welcome constructive criticism on this issue. We realize that we are touching one of the sacred cows of modern Christianity. We do not say these things lightly but have taken many years, even decades, testing what this message declares. It is completely founded on scripture and the original meaning of its words. As always many will appeal to common sense and practicality to defend the modern understanding of church life, but our appeal is to God’s word with the admonition that those who struggle with this message devour what He says on this subject. You will be amazed at what you find.
Remember how Jesus always appealed to the scriptures in His debates with the priests of His day (Jn. 7:38; Mk. 12:10, etc.). He pointed them back to what the word says because He knew it is so easy to justify our actions with tradition and established norms. The only real norm is the one revealed in God’s inspired word. I implore you to pursue that standard as you examine the words I have shared in this message. Rise up priests of God! Become defenders of God’s word and emissaries of His eternal purpose. Let us seek expressions of His church life that liberate the priests of God into their holy calling.
[1] Norington, David C. To Preach or not to Preach? The Church’s urgent Question, 22.
Genuine Christianity: It’s a Family
Lloyd Gardner
January 17, 2015
One politician in the recent past made the statement, “It takes a village.” She was wrong of course because what it really takes is a family. The village will only be as healthy as the family. The family is the way to maintain the closeness, accountability and healthy communication necessary to maintain spiritual and psychological health. God has known this from the beginning and that’s why He began the history of humanity by creating a family. He knows we all need the intimacy and heart connection that can only be developed in the close-knit environment of family. He also knows that society will begin to break apart and disintegrate without the healing atmosphere of genuine family life.
God also purposed that His church would function as a family because He designed us to need close intimate relationship with others. The baby from its birth needs the touch and care of its loving parents. Little children need to be embraced and loved from an early age. People of all ages need others they can relate to in the context of open fellowship. We need one another because God created us that way.
That’s why genuine Christianity is really a family and fellowship is the practical way life is shared among the members. God, of course, is the Father in this family and He gives Himself fully to move among His children in the person of the Holy Spirit. This is fellowship—the common sharing of Christ between family members. Through His Son, the Christ, redemption is secured bringing forgiveness of sin and His love, unity and power to meet every need. To the extent that we stay close to one another by allowing Christ to freely mingle with us as individuals and as a cohesive family, we will experience continuing spiritual growth and encouragement as we meet the challenge of life in this fallen world.
God began the history of humanity with a family, and revealed Himself throughout the Old Testament to one family after another. Remember Adam and Eve, Noah and his family of eight, Abraham and His extended family, the families of Isaac, Jacob, and on and on throughout the Old Testament. Jesus conducted His ministry with a small family of followers who walked with Him and learned from Him through the normal activities of any family. They ate together, traveled together, went to weddings, went fishing, and walked through the countryside together as Jesus used the elements of nature as the subjects of His stories.
They were closely knit; sharing intimate knowledge of one another and living in a risk free zone where questions were asked freely and religious dogma was left to the theologians. They talked with Jesus about life, forgiveness, healing, the kingdom, and many normal subjects that families talk about around the dinner table. It was informal, but real and truth-filled. Pretense was discouraged and face to face honesty encouraged. Life flowed freely as the Facilitator of life walked among them. It was a normal life but, because Jesus was there, normal became miraculous as the sick were healed, the blind made to see, the dead raised to life, and wondrous miracles of God’s creativity caused the extraordinary to become ordinary. Jesus was teaching His followers to be the church, to be family, to love and be loved.
When Jesus poured out His Holy Spirit on His waiting followers, family life took on a different but strangely similar form. The disciples continued to meet with Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit and He continued to walk among them as the Father and honored Guest. They met in homes or wherever they could find as Jesus had done with them and continued their informal times of truth-filled fellowship where face to face encounters made life a wondrous spiritual adventure (Acts 2:46). They devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles, fellowship, having meals together and prayers (Acts 2:42). This home-centered fellowship would not change throughout the New Testament (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phil. 1:2) and on into the first centuries of the church’s growth.
They built no religious buildings, established no clergy, developed no programs, preached no mandated sermons, and collected no tithes because there was nothing to pay for. They were a family and when they met together it was family time with everyone invited to participate in the ongoing quest for truth and genuine Christianity.
At times they met in large groups in the city or in the temple at times of prayer, but mostly they met in small groups because smallness allowed for the intimacy they had known with Jesus during His earthly visit (Acts 2:46). Every teacher knows that effective teaching and learning declines in direct proportion to the rise in the size of the class. The smaller the group the better the sharing and the intimacy necessary for growing close and developing genuine relationship. Jesus knew this and His disciples witnessed this in their times of family fellowship with Him. His ministry was not primarily about reaching the masses so much as changing the lives of a small group of followers who through genuine family life would change the world.
A healthy family is intimate. Love grows strong in an atmosphere of sharing and closeness. Of course problems arise but they are easily dealt with when people are in close proximity. It is virtually impossible for people to experience this intimacy in large groups. It is especially impossible for a pastor to truly get to know his sheep when there are hundreds of them scattered everywhere. The life of the church is meant to mirror the intimacy between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the perfect love of the Godhead. Of course completeness in intimacy takes much time and that is why we are encouraged to journey toward completeness in Christ (James 1:4; Matt. 5:48; John 17:23).
Visit any healthy family and you will see active participation. There is open, friendly chatter around the dinner table as the day’s activities are shared. Problems come up and everyone lends a hand in solving them. Disagreements are dealt with and apologies and forgiveness are common. Mistakes are made and corrected in the healthy flow of love. The mothers and fathers and older ones set examples of respect and love. All ages, young and old, participate so sometimes it is a bit messy but it is always uplifting and heartwarming.
True family life is not top-down but inside-out and Jesus all around. By that I mean that no one person dominates but all learn that they have a viable part in the ongoing progress of the family. In the earthly family fathers are encourage by Paul not to provoke their children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). Yes the father is head of the family but like Christ, who is Head of His church, he leads with love and righteous discipline. Genuine Christianity has no titled clergy who control God’s sheep but only gentle shepherds who lead the way.
In this family the members are known as “brothers” and everyone is called to be a servant of the others, and no one was to be called teacher or rabbi (Matt. 23:8; John 13:14; Eph. 4:12-16). In the upper room, the Son of God, washed the feet of His followers and commanded them to do likewise to one another. Christ took the humble position of the bondservant and we are called to take the same position toward one another. No one is to seek the preeminent position as Diotrephes did in 3 John 1:9. There are no titles or positions of honor but only Christ the King walking as Guest of honor among His people. It is a family of brothers and sisters saved from the ravages of the world and joining together in the protective household of the living God.
Some will protest that this simple understanding of Christianity makes no place for modern expressions of the church. In guiding us back to the simplicity of God’s word I am not disparaging you or the fellowship you are part of. My mandate from the Lord is to help God’s people return to the simplicity from which we have drifted in recent decades. Constantly people are questioning the things I say by appealing to tradition, practicality, common sense and other sources of behavior.
My appeal is back to the simple expression of God’s word and the original intent of its Author when He inspired it. We can only know genuine Christianity as we listen to the One for whom it is named, the One who died to conceive it and lives to inspire and empower it. May His grace and peace lead you back to this simple family life as He readies us for the grand climax of the ages.
Lloyd Gardner
January 17, 2015
One politician in the recent past made the statement, “It takes a village.” She was wrong of course because what it really takes is a family. The village will only be as healthy as the family. The family is the way to maintain the closeness, accountability and healthy communication necessary to maintain spiritual and psychological health. God has known this from the beginning and that’s why He began the history of humanity by creating a family. He knows we all need the intimacy and heart connection that can only be developed in the close-knit environment of family. He also knows that society will begin to break apart and disintegrate without the healing atmosphere of genuine family life.
God also purposed that His church would function as a family because He designed us to need close intimate relationship with others. The baby from its birth needs the touch and care of its loving parents. Little children need to be embraced and loved from an early age. People of all ages need others they can relate to in the context of open fellowship. We need one another because God created us that way.
That’s why genuine Christianity is really a family and fellowship is the practical way life is shared among the members. God, of course, is the Father in this family and He gives Himself fully to move among His children in the person of the Holy Spirit. This is fellowship—the common sharing of Christ between family members. Through His Son, the Christ, redemption is secured bringing forgiveness of sin and His love, unity and power to meet every need. To the extent that we stay close to one another by allowing Christ to freely mingle with us as individuals and as a cohesive family, we will experience continuing spiritual growth and encouragement as we meet the challenge of life in this fallen world.
God began the history of humanity with a family, and revealed Himself throughout the Old Testament to one family after another. Remember Adam and Eve, Noah and his family of eight, Abraham and His extended family, the families of Isaac, Jacob, and on and on throughout the Old Testament. Jesus conducted His ministry with a small family of followers who walked with Him and learned from Him through the normal activities of any family. They ate together, traveled together, went to weddings, went fishing, and walked through the countryside together as Jesus used the elements of nature as the subjects of His stories.
They were closely knit; sharing intimate knowledge of one another and living in a risk free zone where questions were asked freely and religious dogma was left to the theologians. They talked with Jesus about life, forgiveness, healing, the kingdom, and many normal subjects that families talk about around the dinner table. It was informal, but real and truth-filled. Pretense was discouraged and face to face honesty encouraged. Life flowed freely as the Facilitator of life walked among them. It was a normal life but, because Jesus was there, normal became miraculous as the sick were healed, the blind made to see, the dead raised to life, and wondrous miracles of God’s creativity caused the extraordinary to become ordinary. Jesus was teaching His followers to be the church, to be family, to love and be loved.
When Jesus poured out His Holy Spirit on His waiting followers, family life took on a different but strangely similar form. The disciples continued to meet with Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit and He continued to walk among them as the Father and honored Guest. They met in homes or wherever they could find as Jesus had done with them and continued their informal times of truth-filled fellowship where face to face encounters made life a wondrous spiritual adventure (Acts 2:46). They devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles, fellowship, having meals together and prayers (Acts 2:42). This home-centered fellowship would not change throughout the New Testament (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phil. 1:2) and on into the first centuries of the church’s growth.
They built no religious buildings, established no clergy, developed no programs, preached no mandated sermons, and collected no tithes because there was nothing to pay for. They were a family and when they met together it was family time with everyone invited to participate in the ongoing quest for truth and genuine Christianity.
At times they met in large groups in the city or in the temple at times of prayer, but mostly they met in small groups because smallness allowed for the intimacy they had known with Jesus during His earthly visit (Acts 2:46). Every teacher knows that effective teaching and learning declines in direct proportion to the rise in the size of the class. The smaller the group the better the sharing and the intimacy necessary for growing close and developing genuine relationship. Jesus knew this and His disciples witnessed this in their times of family fellowship with Him. His ministry was not primarily about reaching the masses so much as changing the lives of a small group of followers who through genuine family life would change the world.
A healthy family is intimate. Love grows strong in an atmosphere of sharing and closeness. Of course problems arise but they are easily dealt with when people are in close proximity. It is virtually impossible for people to experience this intimacy in large groups. It is especially impossible for a pastor to truly get to know his sheep when there are hundreds of them scattered everywhere. The life of the church is meant to mirror the intimacy between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the perfect love of the Godhead. Of course completeness in intimacy takes much time and that is why we are encouraged to journey toward completeness in Christ (James 1:4; Matt. 5:48; John 17:23).
Visit any healthy family and you will see active participation. There is open, friendly chatter around the dinner table as the day’s activities are shared. Problems come up and everyone lends a hand in solving them. Disagreements are dealt with and apologies and forgiveness are common. Mistakes are made and corrected in the healthy flow of love. The mothers and fathers and older ones set examples of respect and love. All ages, young and old, participate so sometimes it is a bit messy but it is always uplifting and heartwarming.
True family life is not top-down but inside-out and Jesus all around. By that I mean that no one person dominates but all learn that they have a viable part in the ongoing progress of the family. In the earthly family fathers are encourage by Paul not to provoke their children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). Yes the father is head of the family but like Christ, who is Head of His church, he leads with love and righteous discipline. Genuine Christianity has no titled clergy who control God’s sheep but only gentle shepherds who lead the way.
In this family the members are known as “brothers” and everyone is called to be a servant of the others, and no one was to be called teacher or rabbi (Matt. 23:8; John 13:14; Eph. 4:12-16). In the upper room, the Son of God, washed the feet of His followers and commanded them to do likewise to one another. Christ took the humble position of the bondservant and we are called to take the same position toward one another. No one is to seek the preeminent position as Diotrephes did in 3 John 1:9. There are no titles or positions of honor but only Christ the King walking as Guest of honor among His people. It is a family of brothers and sisters saved from the ravages of the world and joining together in the protective household of the living God.
Some will protest that this simple understanding of Christianity makes no place for modern expressions of the church. In guiding us back to the simplicity of God’s word I am not disparaging you or the fellowship you are part of. My mandate from the Lord is to help God’s people return to the simplicity from which we have drifted in recent decades. Constantly people are questioning the things I say by appealing to tradition, practicality, common sense and other sources of behavior.
My appeal is back to the simple expression of God’s word and the original intent of its Author when He inspired it. We can only know genuine Christianity as we listen to the One for whom it is named, the One who died to conceive it and lives to inspire and empower it. May His grace and peace lead you back to this simple family life as He readies us for the grand climax of the ages.
It’s a Relationship, not Religion, Regulation, and Ritual
Lloyd Gardner
January 3, 2015
Genuine Christianity begins, and grows as a relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Authentic Christianity cannot begin or be sustained by religious regulation and ritual. It is lived not by possessing a pocket-full of principles but by connecting with and personally knowing God.
King Solomon, a very wise man, put it this way: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5, 6; NKJV). We all know this passage but I wonder if we really live it. Solomon encourages us not to trust our own understanding but trust Yahweh with all of our heart. Then, he tells us to acknowledge God in all our ways so that God can direct our paths.
The word translated “acknowledge” here is the Hebrew word yada which means to know God and have relationship with Him. The word is often used of the intimate relationship of husband and wife in sexual union (Gen. 4:1). It speaks of intimate knowledge of someone generated by close relationship. To know someone requires an ongoing relationship where you continually spend time connecting, walking, talking, and interacting with them. This is not a knowledge that comes from doctrinal understanding but one that flows from a living, active, moment by moment relationship with a person.
Solomon was saying that knowing God would mean that He was intimately involved in our journey and would make sure we stayed on His path. This implies a close relationship in which we know where the Lord is going, when He turns left or right, when He stops and when He moves forward. Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). He caught the eye of the Father and they moved along together. Jesus showed us genuine Christianity.
The highest expression of relationship is love. And the most significant expression of love is the romance between husband and wife. This is why the relationship between God and His people is pictured in the union of bride and groom. The church is the bride of Christ and Christ is the Bridegroom (Matt. 9:15; Rev. 19:7). Our relationship with Christ is not about rules, regulations, ritual and religion but about getting to know Him intimately. It’s about falling in love with Him and giving ourselves fully to our relationship with Him.
This love we have toward God cannot be expressed without a corresponding love for His children. When they asked Jesus to identify the first commandment He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40). The expression “with all your heart” implies that our love can be partial or full, shallow or deep, close or detached. We must give our whole heart, all that we are, to loving our God. Then we must realize that this love will be also expressed in our love for those around us. Our vertical love of God will be expressed in a horizontal love for others.
The love that God pours into our lives will be expressed toward all people but its greatest expression is in the church, the body of Christ, the community of those who love God and one another. Everything flows from this relationship. This must be what Jesus meant when He said, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Everything depends on our love of God and other people. If we say we keep the law and the prophets (or as we evangelicals would say, the Bible and its doctrines), but do not love one another, we are simply fooling ourselves. John said this plainly in 1 John 4:21: “…whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
This need for love is deeply imbedded in every human heart. We try to meet the need through religious busyness or shaky relationships with members of the opposite sex. Others seek involvement in service groups, prayer ministries or mission endeavors. We don’t realize that all that is worthwhile in God will flow from His love not the other way around. We cannot meet the need of love by doing religious things. Our church services and activities must flow from our love of God rather than serve as an attempt on our part to express His love. Love will grow where God is present and all that flows from that relationship will be of God.
So, genuine Christianity is not about religious activities or programs but about our living, loving relationship with God and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Everything in our lives and in the life of the church must flow from this relationship not the other way around. Many Christians are stunned by such a statement. Most evangelicals are part of a church which has many programs aimed at serving God in hope that they will lead to a relationship with God. Unfortunately, these programs often serve as a way to meet our religious obligations while failing to encourage relationship with the One it is supposed to be about.
Author of the book Radical, David Platt wrote, “One of the worst enemies of Christians can be good things in the church.”[i] He goes on later to say, “We must be willing to sacrifice good things in the church in order to experience the great things of God.”[ii] I cannot judge how that is going for Platt but he hits the nail on the head as far as my concerns about how our religious endeavors, the good things we are doing, can distract us from genuine fellowship with God.
The Pharisees, the supposed leaders of the Jews in the time of Christ, were doing all of the good religious things and yet they did not recognize Christ in their midst. They claimed God as their Father but Jesus said, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here” (John 8:42). If they loved the Father of course they would love His Son. But they did not recognize the Christ because they did not know God. They had no real relationship with Him but merely busied themselves with the “good things” of religion. God help us not to make that devastating mistake.
Nicodemus seemed puzzled by Jesus’ words, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). No doubt he felt he stood in the center of what God was doing but did not realize that each individual must personally have a relationship with God. “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” (John 3:10) Jesus responded. He was astonished that this Pharisee ruler of the people did not realize that religious activity was not the way to God. He did not realize that God simply wants us to be born into His family and have relationship with Him as Father.
Jesus drove this point home when He declared of the one who believes, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). Most people like Nicodemus are looking for some external thing, some religious activity, or some hero-driven program to change their lives. Jesus declares that the river of the Spirit will flow from the hearts of those who believe. To know God is an inward, individual matter not a provision of man’s religious ingenuity. Simply put—we must know God before anything else of importance can happen.
In His closing prayer for His disciples of the church age Jesus began, “…this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). The rest of His prayer would be meaningless if it had not begun with the importance of living in relationship with the Father. That’s what His redemptive death would restore—the spiritual relationship between the Father and His children. Genuine Christianity is the fellowship of those who know and love the Father and know and love His children in Christ.
Live in that truth. Let everything we do and say have its beginning in knowing God because we are in a genuine relationship with Him. Do not put the cart before the horse by thinking that your many religious “good things” will produce this relationship. Our relationship with God causes our spiritual roots to be planted in Him. Life will flow from Him up through the roots and produce His fruit in us and whatever practical actions will come from that fruit. Then He will be glorified and we will be truly blessed because we know Him and owe everything to Him.
A Follow-Up: Just Imagine
Just imagine a community of believers where the tie that binds is a common relationship with Jesus Christ rather than a set of doctrinal positions or a favored tradition of worship. Imagine a gathering where the basic tenants of the faith are a given because Christ is truly the Guest of honor—where the activities flow from relationship rather than from prescribed ritual. It was that way in the beginning and it will be that way again when we realize our first priority—God.
From Mary: May you sing the words of this song from your heart to His.
Jesus, I am thirsty
Won’t you come and fill me
Earthly things have left me dry
Only You can satisfy
All I want is more of You
All I want is more of You
All I want is more of You
Nothing I desire Lord
But more of You
All I want is more of You
All I want is more of You
Nothing I desire Lord
But more of You.
D.Harris, M. Nystrom
[i] Platt, David. Radical Together, p. 8.
[ii] Ibid. p. 9.
Lloyd Gardner
January 3, 2015
Genuine Christianity begins, and grows as a relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Authentic Christianity cannot begin or be sustained by religious regulation and ritual. It is lived not by possessing a pocket-full of principles but by connecting with and personally knowing God.
King Solomon, a very wise man, put it this way: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5, 6; NKJV). We all know this passage but I wonder if we really live it. Solomon encourages us not to trust our own understanding but trust Yahweh with all of our heart. Then, he tells us to acknowledge God in all our ways so that God can direct our paths.
The word translated “acknowledge” here is the Hebrew word yada which means to know God and have relationship with Him. The word is often used of the intimate relationship of husband and wife in sexual union (Gen. 4:1). It speaks of intimate knowledge of someone generated by close relationship. To know someone requires an ongoing relationship where you continually spend time connecting, walking, talking, and interacting with them. This is not a knowledge that comes from doctrinal understanding but one that flows from a living, active, moment by moment relationship with a person.
Solomon was saying that knowing God would mean that He was intimately involved in our journey and would make sure we stayed on His path. This implies a close relationship in which we know where the Lord is going, when He turns left or right, when He stops and when He moves forward. Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). He caught the eye of the Father and they moved along together. Jesus showed us genuine Christianity.
The highest expression of relationship is love. And the most significant expression of love is the romance between husband and wife. This is why the relationship between God and His people is pictured in the union of bride and groom. The church is the bride of Christ and Christ is the Bridegroom (Matt. 9:15; Rev. 19:7). Our relationship with Christ is not about rules, regulations, ritual and religion but about getting to know Him intimately. It’s about falling in love with Him and giving ourselves fully to our relationship with Him.
This love we have toward God cannot be expressed without a corresponding love for His children. When they asked Jesus to identify the first commandment He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40). The expression “with all your heart” implies that our love can be partial or full, shallow or deep, close or detached. We must give our whole heart, all that we are, to loving our God. Then we must realize that this love will be also expressed in our love for those around us. Our vertical love of God will be expressed in a horizontal love for others.
The love that God pours into our lives will be expressed toward all people but its greatest expression is in the church, the body of Christ, the community of those who love God and one another. Everything flows from this relationship. This must be what Jesus meant when He said, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Everything depends on our love of God and other people. If we say we keep the law and the prophets (or as we evangelicals would say, the Bible and its doctrines), but do not love one another, we are simply fooling ourselves. John said this plainly in 1 John 4:21: “…whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
This need for love is deeply imbedded in every human heart. We try to meet the need through religious busyness or shaky relationships with members of the opposite sex. Others seek involvement in service groups, prayer ministries or mission endeavors. We don’t realize that all that is worthwhile in God will flow from His love not the other way around. We cannot meet the need of love by doing religious things. Our church services and activities must flow from our love of God rather than serve as an attempt on our part to express His love. Love will grow where God is present and all that flows from that relationship will be of God.
So, genuine Christianity is not about religious activities or programs but about our living, loving relationship with God and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Everything in our lives and in the life of the church must flow from this relationship not the other way around. Many Christians are stunned by such a statement. Most evangelicals are part of a church which has many programs aimed at serving God in hope that they will lead to a relationship with God. Unfortunately, these programs often serve as a way to meet our religious obligations while failing to encourage relationship with the One it is supposed to be about.
Author of the book Radical, David Platt wrote, “One of the worst enemies of Christians can be good things in the church.”[i] He goes on later to say, “We must be willing to sacrifice good things in the church in order to experience the great things of God.”[ii] I cannot judge how that is going for Platt but he hits the nail on the head as far as my concerns about how our religious endeavors, the good things we are doing, can distract us from genuine fellowship with God.
The Pharisees, the supposed leaders of the Jews in the time of Christ, were doing all of the good religious things and yet they did not recognize Christ in their midst. They claimed God as their Father but Jesus said, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here” (John 8:42). If they loved the Father of course they would love His Son. But they did not recognize the Christ because they did not know God. They had no real relationship with Him but merely busied themselves with the “good things” of religion. God help us not to make that devastating mistake.
Nicodemus seemed puzzled by Jesus’ words, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). No doubt he felt he stood in the center of what God was doing but did not realize that each individual must personally have a relationship with God. “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” (John 3:10) Jesus responded. He was astonished that this Pharisee ruler of the people did not realize that religious activity was not the way to God. He did not realize that God simply wants us to be born into His family and have relationship with Him as Father.
Jesus drove this point home when He declared of the one who believes, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). Most people like Nicodemus are looking for some external thing, some religious activity, or some hero-driven program to change their lives. Jesus declares that the river of the Spirit will flow from the hearts of those who believe. To know God is an inward, individual matter not a provision of man’s religious ingenuity. Simply put—we must know God before anything else of importance can happen.
In His closing prayer for His disciples of the church age Jesus began, “…this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). The rest of His prayer would be meaningless if it had not begun with the importance of living in relationship with the Father. That’s what His redemptive death would restore—the spiritual relationship between the Father and His children. Genuine Christianity is the fellowship of those who know and love the Father and know and love His children in Christ.
Live in that truth. Let everything we do and say have its beginning in knowing God because we are in a genuine relationship with Him. Do not put the cart before the horse by thinking that your many religious “good things” will produce this relationship. Our relationship with God causes our spiritual roots to be planted in Him. Life will flow from Him up through the roots and produce His fruit in us and whatever practical actions will come from that fruit. Then He will be glorified and we will be truly blessed because we know Him and owe everything to Him.
A Follow-Up: Just Imagine
Just imagine a community of believers where the tie that binds is a common relationship with Jesus Christ rather than a set of doctrinal positions or a favored tradition of worship. Imagine a gathering where the basic tenants of the faith are a given because Christ is truly the Guest of honor—where the activities flow from relationship rather than from prescribed ritual. It was that way in the beginning and it will be that way again when we realize our first priority—God.
From Mary: May you sing the words of this song from your heart to His.
Jesus, I am thirsty
Won’t you come and fill me
Earthly things have left me dry
Only You can satisfy
All I want is more of You
All I want is more of You
All I want is more of You
Nothing I desire Lord
But more of You
All I want is more of You
All I want is more of You
Nothing I desire Lord
But more of You.
D.Harris, M. Nystrom
[i] Platt, David. Radical Together, p. 8.
[ii] Ibid. p. 9.
Genuine Christianity: The Environment in which Truth Prospers
Lloyd Gardner
January 2015
Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?"
Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, "I find no guilt in him.” (John 18:37, 38).
This conversation between Pilate and Jesus is very similar to many I have had with atheists or agnostics who all see truth as a nebulous, unattainable objective. According to Pilate and people like him truth is impossible to define, so its definition is conveniently left up to the individual. There is no such thing as ultimate truth in the thinking of people in Pilate’s camp of philosophy. What is truth? They ask. The question is asked but no answer is expected or desired.
This is the attitude of many who reject absolute truth but it is also the passive attitude of even many who claim that truth can be attained. Such people, even many who claim to be Christians, let truth be defined by circumstances or religious leaders, or they just ignore the ramifications of truth.
The evidence of ultimate truth is all around us. The fact of our existence cries out that such truth exists. There must be some ultimate answer to the realities we see all around us! Scientists know this and conduct their research with the hope of finding the ultimate truth behind the issues they study. They would be foolish to carry out research and study for years in hope of finding an answer if they did not believe that it was possible to discover truth. Truth can be known and truth demands a response from those who find it. That makes truth dangerous to those who ignore it and insist that it does not exist.
Jesus implies this in His reply to Pilate. When He says that He came to bear witness to the truth He is speaking of “the” truth not just a vague, anything goes kind of relative truth. He also said that there are those who are “of the truth” and these listen to His voice. On this occasion and in His entire ministry Jesus assumed and acted as though He came to speak the truth and that He indeed was truth personified (John 14:6).
Since Christ is our Guest of honor and dwells among us through the Spirit, genuine Christianity is the extension of the attitude of Jesus about truth. It is composed of those who are “of the truth,” those who out of sincere hearts seek truth and find it. It is not a mere human organization that hands down its humanly devised rendition of acceptable doctrine but rather a setting or environment in which truth continually grows, is sought, discerned and tested.
Paul called the church “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). He never uses the word “church” to mean a human organization, building or program but always uses the word to refer to genuine followers of Christ. To Paul the church was the people of God, those who are in Christ by faith. This church is declared in this verse to be the “pillar and ground of truth.” A pillar holds up a building. The ground is the foundation upon which a building stands and is stable. Genuine Christianity is the environment that sustains and propagates truth—the same truth Jesus spoke of.
When Peter received the revelatory truth of His identity as the Christ, Jesus said, “On this rock I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). The church is built on the truth revealed in the person of Christ Himself for His is the Truth (John 14:6). It is to this truth-stabilizing church that Jesus promised the keys of the kingdom with binding and loosing authority (16:19). The gates of hell cannot prevail against this church because it is founded and built on Christ, the Truth and is the very environment in which truth is realized and discerned.
Paul affirms this notion in Ephesians 4:15 where refers to the mature church as a context where those who are “speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.” The word translated “speaking the truth” is one Greek word in the original and it is a verb form of the word truth. The word “speaking” is not in the original but supplied by the translators. Surely what Paul is saying here is that an atmosphere of truth and love is the environment in which spiritual growth of the body of Christ takes place.
John Darby translates the expression, “holding the truth in love.” The Amplified Bible renders it “let our lives lovingly express truth.” Most people think of truth as something we say but Paul is saying that truth is something we live out continually. It is the environment we live in and walk in as followers of Christ. Genuine Christianity is not a human religion where controlling people hand down assumed truth to passive bystanders who accept it without discernment. Rather, genuine Christianity is made up of truth seekers who never abandon their search for truth and continually bask in the growth-enhancing benefits of it.
This is why Paul continually encouraged his readers to be discerners of the truth. To the Thessalonian believers he said, “Test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). He was writing here to the “church of the Thessalonians” not to theologians or Bible scholars (1 Thess. 1:1). To these normal, genuine Christians he says, “Test everything.” Why? Because genuine Christians have the spiritual ability through the Holy Spirit to discern and hold fast to truth.
This is why John encouraged his readers with these profound words: “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him” (1 John 2:27). The anointing is the presence of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised would be sent and would “teach you all things” (John 14:26). This Holy Spirit, this Anointing, is still with us and in us today, still guiding us into truth.
Paul encouraged the Corinthian believers to “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets” (1 Cor. 14:29-32). This was a typical meeting of believers in the first century. They met to turn the keys of the kingdom, to confer with one another concerning Christ and His liberating truth. Anyone was welcome to speak in turn and all had the responsibility to weigh what was spoken in the gathering. It was assumed that all believers had the God-ordained ability to know, share and discern truth.
At one point Peter came down to Antioch to visit Paul and the saints in the church. Paul noticed that Peter was receptive and open with the Gentiles until James, John and some of the other Jews came down from Jerusalem. Peter hypocritically began to withdraw from the Gentiles not wanting to offend the Jewish leaders (Gal. 2:11f). Paul wrote that he reprimanded Peter in the presence of all the others. In today’s top-down, passive climate concerning truth we would have ignored Peter’s hypocrisy but Paul, out of respect for truth, withstood him to his face concerning the matter. Today Paul would be reprimanded as a critical brother lacking in submission but in the first century church truth was more important than the reputation of even the apostle Peter.
We live in a leader-oriented, top-down society in which an elite, gifted few do the sharing. Our companies function this way. Our government functions this way. Our clubs and educational system function this way. This top-down way of functioning is foreign to the New Testament. It shares a body-oriented life where every member has a distinct function and is equipped by the Spirit to participate in the truth seeking, truth finding, and truth declaring process.
This is genuine Christianity and today’s followers of Christ must let the Holy Spirit show them how to return to this environment of truth. As a testimony to the world we must walk in truth. We must be true to God, to ourselves, to our spouses, to our brethren in Christ, and to our friends in the world. But this will not happen by human determination. It will happen as followers of Christ allow a corporate environment in which truth can be fostered and practiced.
Yes, truth must be practiced. If Christ is teaching us about not quenching the Spirit by opening our mouths to share, then we must open our mouths to share to practice what He is teaching. If we are learning about forgiveness we must step out in faith to practice by forgiving those we may have offended. If we are learning about divine healing we must step out in faith to pray for people who are sick or diseased. Genuine Christianity is active and real not passive and pretend. Just as a team learns its skills by putting them to practice on the court, we learn truth by practicing what we are hearing. In practice truth becomes real.
Finally let us understand that truth is not merely a list of concepts that we can put in a box and then set aside our search for truth. We will spend eternity learning the truth revealed in our eternal God so why do we think we can put it all in a box so we can draw from it as needed. Genuine Christianity puts aside the boxes in favor of a living relationship with the One who is Truth.
Also, scripture shows that our ability to receive and understand truth depends on the degree to which we have allowed our old selfish natures to be broken and transformed by the Spirit. Often we see in scripture that true understanding follows this brokenness. In Romans 12:1, 2 we see that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. To be sacrificed means to die to ourselves and allow Christ to live in us fully. The verse is followed by this statement: “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Brokenness allows transformation to come and transformation enables our renewed minds to prove and know the will of God—to know truth as He reveals it.
Genuine Christianity is the context in which this brokenness and transformation can prosper. The rest of Romans 12 is about the unfolding of practical truth in the church life of those who are submitted to God’s transforming work. Unfortunately many in today’s doctrinal climate settle for some explanation of truth by a preacher, denomination or other program and cut short the transformation process necessary for the full revelation of truth.
Some even teach that we no longer need this renewing process because we have the Bible canon from which to draw truth. In some ways we have become like the first century Pharisees who had the Old Testament and clear understanding of doctrines but missed the Messiah because their hearts had ceased seeking for truth. They had God in a religious box that allowed them to close their minds. Christ was living and real and He came to them as truth but they missed Him because their box was too small to contain Him. Have we missed Christ because we too have our truth boxes allowing us to set Him aside?
Jesus is the Truth and we can only know truth through Him. The turmoil of the times demands that we return to genuine Christianity, the environment in which Christ reveals Himself to seeking hearts. Our journey is ongoing and we must continue to remain open to the One who is continually renewing our minds and revealing His will.
A Follow-up: Just Imagine
Imagine a city where there is a home gathering of seeking Christians within walking distance of every person. On the day of meeting you would simply grab your Bible and walk down the street to the home where the gathering is taking place. There you are greeted by a couple dozen loving believers whose only common connection is Christ in their lives. There are people of all ages, men and women, and children, with varying lifestyles and professions.
After greetings you gather in a circle and a couple with guitars and perhaps a keyboard begin to guide the gathering in worship through singing. The songs are simple and easy to follow as you join in corporate worship. There is a sweet time of worship in song followed by a time of reflection and prayer. Then there is a time of sharing. Perhaps someone shares a concern and there is prayer. Someone else opens the word to share encouragement from a passage. Someone’s spouse is sick and so there is prayer for healing. It might be that someone gifted in teaching has a message to share from God’s word. He does so in dialogue style with everyone participating in the discussion. No one dominates the meeting but all are encouraged to participate. Questions are encouraged as people seek the truth of the passage. After time in the word there is prayer to apply the word and seek God’s understanding of it. Perhaps there is a simple meal afterwards preceded by the Lord’s Supper where emphasis is placed on the value and power in the redemptive death and life of Christ.
The meeting adjourns and there is continued informal fellowship but Christ is still at the center of it all. It might be that on the following Sunday or other day of the week that all of the home gatherings in the city gather in a rented hall for a time of worship and perhaps a teaching from someone gifted to teach. Again this is done in dialogue style with participation encouraged. A simple potluck meal follows with continuing informal fellowship. The city is saturated with living, active followers of Christ who share their faith eagerly. The church in the city is one but it gathers throughout the city. The church grows and prospers.
Just imagine! But it’s not too far-fetched. Just read the first few chapters of the Book of Acts. This is exactly what was happening in Jerusalem in the first days of the church (Acts 2:41f.) It can happen again if we will seek a corporate expression of Christ where He is the Guest of honor and we come to honor Him and learn from Him. We will all need to lay down our preconceived notions and selfish ambitions about ministry and allow the Spirit to have His way. Something along these lines is coming to a city near you. Are you ready for it?
Lloyd Gardner
January 2015
Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?"
Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, "I find no guilt in him.” (John 18:37, 38).
This conversation between Pilate and Jesus is very similar to many I have had with atheists or agnostics who all see truth as a nebulous, unattainable objective. According to Pilate and people like him truth is impossible to define, so its definition is conveniently left up to the individual. There is no such thing as ultimate truth in the thinking of people in Pilate’s camp of philosophy. What is truth? They ask. The question is asked but no answer is expected or desired.
This is the attitude of many who reject absolute truth but it is also the passive attitude of even many who claim that truth can be attained. Such people, even many who claim to be Christians, let truth be defined by circumstances or religious leaders, or they just ignore the ramifications of truth.
The evidence of ultimate truth is all around us. The fact of our existence cries out that such truth exists. There must be some ultimate answer to the realities we see all around us! Scientists know this and conduct their research with the hope of finding the ultimate truth behind the issues they study. They would be foolish to carry out research and study for years in hope of finding an answer if they did not believe that it was possible to discover truth. Truth can be known and truth demands a response from those who find it. That makes truth dangerous to those who ignore it and insist that it does not exist.
Jesus implies this in His reply to Pilate. When He says that He came to bear witness to the truth He is speaking of “the” truth not just a vague, anything goes kind of relative truth. He also said that there are those who are “of the truth” and these listen to His voice. On this occasion and in His entire ministry Jesus assumed and acted as though He came to speak the truth and that He indeed was truth personified (John 14:6).
Since Christ is our Guest of honor and dwells among us through the Spirit, genuine Christianity is the extension of the attitude of Jesus about truth. It is composed of those who are “of the truth,” those who out of sincere hearts seek truth and find it. It is not a mere human organization that hands down its humanly devised rendition of acceptable doctrine but rather a setting or environment in which truth continually grows, is sought, discerned and tested.
Paul called the church “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). He never uses the word “church” to mean a human organization, building or program but always uses the word to refer to genuine followers of Christ. To Paul the church was the people of God, those who are in Christ by faith. This church is declared in this verse to be the “pillar and ground of truth.” A pillar holds up a building. The ground is the foundation upon which a building stands and is stable. Genuine Christianity is the environment that sustains and propagates truth—the same truth Jesus spoke of.
When Peter received the revelatory truth of His identity as the Christ, Jesus said, “On this rock I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). The church is built on the truth revealed in the person of Christ Himself for His is the Truth (John 14:6). It is to this truth-stabilizing church that Jesus promised the keys of the kingdom with binding and loosing authority (16:19). The gates of hell cannot prevail against this church because it is founded and built on Christ, the Truth and is the very environment in which truth is realized and discerned.
Paul affirms this notion in Ephesians 4:15 where refers to the mature church as a context where those who are “speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.” The word translated “speaking the truth” is one Greek word in the original and it is a verb form of the word truth. The word “speaking” is not in the original but supplied by the translators. Surely what Paul is saying here is that an atmosphere of truth and love is the environment in which spiritual growth of the body of Christ takes place.
John Darby translates the expression, “holding the truth in love.” The Amplified Bible renders it “let our lives lovingly express truth.” Most people think of truth as something we say but Paul is saying that truth is something we live out continually. It is the environment we live in and walk in as followers of Christ. Genuine Christianity is not a human religion where controlling people hand down assumed truth to passive bystanders who accept it without discernment. Rather, genuine Christianity is made up of truth seekers who never abandon their search for truth and continually bask in the growth-enhancing benefits of it.
This is why Paul continually encouraged his readers to be discerners of the truth. To the Thessalonian believers he said, “Test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). He was writing here to the “church of the Thessalonians” not to theologians or Bible scholars (1 Thess. 1:1). To these normal, genuine Christians he says, “Test everything.” Why? Because genuine Christians have the spiritual ability through the Holy Spirit to discern and hold fast to truth.
This is why John encouraged his readers with these profound words: “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him” (1 John 2:27). The anointing is the presence of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised would be sent and would “teach you all things” (John 14:26). This Holy Spirit, this Anointing, is still with us and in us today, still guiding us into truth.
Paul encouraged the Corinthian believers to “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets” (1 Cor. 14:29-32). This was a typical meeting of believers in the first century. They met to turn the keys of the kingdom, to confer with one another concerning Christ and His liberating truth. Anyone was welcome to speak in turn and all had the responsibility to weigh what was spoken in the gathering. It was assumed that all believers had the God-ordained ability to know, share and discern truth.
At one point Peter came down to Antioch to visit Paul and the saints in the church. Paul noticed that Peter was receptive and open with the Gentiles until James, John and some of the other Jews came down from Jerusalem. Peter hypocritically began to withdraw from the Gentiles not wanting to offend the Jewish leaders (Gal. 2:11f). Paul wrote that he reprimanded Peter in the presence of all the others. In today’s top-down, passive climate concerning truth we would have ignored Peter’s hypocrisy but Paul, out of respect for truth, withstood him to his face concerning the matter. Today Paul would be reprimanded as a critical brother lacking in submission but in the first century church truth was more important than the reputation of even the apostle Peter.
We live in a leader-oriented, top-down society in which an elite, gifted few do the sharing. Our companies function this way. Our government functions this way. Our clubs and educational system function this way. This top-down way of functioning is foreign to the New Testament. It shares a body-oriented life where every member has a distinct function and is equipped by the Spirit to participate in the truth seeking, truth finding, and truth declaring process.
This is genuine Christianity and today’s followers of Christ must let the Holy Spirit show them how to return to this environment of truth. As a testimony to the world we must walk in truth. We must be true to God, to ourselves, to our spouses, to our brethren in Christ, and to our friends in the world. But this will not happen by human determination. It will happen as followers of Christ allow a corporate environment in which truth can be fostered and practiced.
Yes, truth must be practiced. If Christ is teaching us about not quenching the Spirit by opening our mouths to share, then we must open our mouths to share to practice what He is teaching. If we are learning about forgiveness we must step out in faith to practice by forgiving those we may have offended. If we are learning about divine healing we must step out in faith to pray for people who are sick or diseased. Genuine Christianity is active and real not passive and pretend. Just as a team learns its skills by putting them to practice on the court, we learn truth by practicing what we are hearing. In practice truth becomes real.
Finally let us understand that truth is not merely a list of concepts that we can put in a box and then set aside our search for truth. We will spend eternity learning the truth revealed in our eternal God so why do we think we can put it all in a box so we can draw from it as needed. Genuine Christianity puts aside the boxes in favor of a living relationship with the One who is Truth.
Also, scripture shows that our ability to receive and understand truth depends on the degree to which we have allowed our old selfish natures to be broken and transformed by the Spirit. Often we see in scripture that true understanding follows this brokenness. In Romans 12:1, 2 we see that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. To be sacrificed means to die to ourselves and allow Christ to live in us fully. The verse is followed by this statement: “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Brokenness allows transformation to come and transformation enables our renewed minds to prove and know the will of God—to know truth as He reveals it.
Genuine Christianity is the context in which this brokenness and transformation can prosper. The rest of Romans 12 is about the unfolding of practical truth in the church life of those who are submitted to God’s transforming work. Unfortunately many in today’s doctrinal climate settle for some explanation of truth by a preacher, denomination or other program and cut short the transformation process necessary for the full revelation of truth.
Some even teach that we no longer need this renewing process because we have the Bible canon from which to draw truth. In some ways we have become like the first century Pharisees who had the Old Testament and clear understanding of doctrines but missed the Messiah because their hearts had ceased seeking for truth. They had God in a religious box that allowed them to close their minds. Christ was living and real and He came to them as truth but they missed Him because their box was too small to contain Him. Have we missed Christ because we too have our truth boxes allowing us to set Him aside?
Jesus is the Truth and we can only know truth through Him. The turmoil of the times demands that we return to genuine Christianity, the environment in which Christ reveals Himself to seeking hearts. Our journey is ongoing and we must continue to remain open to the One who is continually renewing our minds and revealing His will.
A Follow-up: Just Imagine
Imagine a city where there is a home gathering of seeking Christians within walking distance of every person. On the day of meeting you would simply grab your Bible and walk down the street to the home where the gathering is taking place. There you are greeted by a couple dozen loving believers whose only common connection is Christ in their lives. There are people of all ages, men and women, and children, with varying lifestyles and professions.
After greetings you gather in a circle and a couple with guitars and perhaps a keyboard begin to guide the gathering in worship through singing. The songs are simple and easy to follow as you join in corporate worship. There is a sweet time of worship in song followed by a time of reflection and prayer. Then there is a time of sharing. Perhaps someone shares a concern and there is prayer. Someone else opens the word to share encouragement from a passage. Someone’s spouse is sick and so there is prayer for healing. It might be that someone gifted in teaching has a message to share from God’s word. He does so in dialogue style with everyone participating in the discussion. No one dominates the meeting but all are encouraged to participate. Questions are encouraged as people seek the truth of the passage. After time in the word there is prayer to apply the word and seek God’s understanding of it. Perhaps there is a simple meal afterwards preceded by the Lord’s Supper where emphasis is placed on the value and power in the redemptive death and life of Christ.
The meeting adjourns and there is continued informal fellowship but Christ is still at the center of it all. It might be that on the following Sunday or other day of the week that all of the home gatherings in the city gather in a rented hall for a time of worship and perhaps a teaching from someone gifted to teach. Again this is done in dialogue style with participation encouraged. A simple potluck meal follows with continuing informal fellowship. The city is saturated with living, active followers of Christ who share their faith eagerly. The church in the city is one but it gathers throughout the city. The church grows and prospers.
Just imagine! But it’s not too far-fetched. Just read the first few chapters of the Book of Acts. This is exactly what was happening in Jerusalem in the first days of the church (Acts 2:41f.) It can happen again if we will seek a corporate expression of Christ where He is the Guest of honor and we come to honor Him and learn from Him. We will all need to lay down our preconceived notions and selfish ambitions about ministry and allow the Spirit to have His way. Something along these lines is coming to a city near you. Are you ready for it?
The Nature of God Expressed on Earth
Lloyd Gardner
December 21, 2014
To know what genuine Christianity looks like we need look no further than to the nature of God. The Christian life, and the church, is the earthly expression of God’s nature. Paul calls the church the body of Christ which means that it is the physical expression of the nature of Christ in the lives of people. To see the nature of God as expressed in His word is to see what genuine Christianity should look like.
In the beginning we are told that God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). God intended for His children to be like Him in every respect. The word “image” means to look like Him and the word “likeness” means to be like Him as to His nature. We are destined by God to be like Him in every respect, to be chips off the old block, if you will. God intended that when people saw Adam they would see the representation of God’s image and likeness on the earth.
But Adam rebelled and unleashed sin into the human race. Genuine Christianity begins the process back to that reality of expressing the image and likeness of God. Once the sin question is answered through the redemption provided by the cross, God is able to begin to express His image once again in His people. Paul told the churches in Galatia that he was laboring over them “until Christ is formed in you!” (4:19). Genuine Christianity involves the process of transformation by which Christ is formed in the individual believers and in the church corporately until Christ is formed in them, until they look like Christ in terms of their attitude, character and spiritual nature.
When Paul speaks of the goal of ministry within the church He says that the process continues “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). This description “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” means that genuine Christianity expressed in church life will eventually produce a corporate expression that looks like Christ. How else can one interpret the words, “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” except to mean that the church is destined to express His image and likeness?
Paul chided the Corinthians for their carnal behavior by asking “are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?” (1 Cor. 3:3; NKJV). Apparently it was the expectation of Paul that Christians were not to act like “mere men” since they are being formed into the image of Christ. In Paul’s way of thinking, a genuine Christian did not simply act as a normal human but conducted himself as one bearing the likeness of God.
Paul told the Corinthian believers, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). There you have it again. As we unveil our spiritual faces and start coming directly to God without façade or pretense we begin to behold the glory of God. This glory transforms us “into the same image.” The word “transforms” means to undergo metamorphosis or change from the inside out by the indwelling life of Christ. The lowly caterpillar spins a cocoon and enters the place of metamorphosis. When that process is over a butterfly emerges in the place of the caterpillar. God wants to change us the same way.
I have come to believe that the place God has chosen for this metamorphosis is the healthy church which constantly beholds the glory of Christ when He is given the seat of honor among them. As Christ becomes the Guest of honor in His church the transformation will begin to take place and fully grown and beautiful spiritual butterflies will emerge. And best of all, they will look like Christ because they will bear His image and express His likeness.
I suppose that one could try to make the case that all of this completeness happens after we all are raptured to heaven, but then that makes the church on the earth look powerless to fulfill the purpose of Christ spelled out in His word. Paul says without equivocation, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 29). Did you get that? Those whom Christ called are destined “to be conformed to the image of His Son.” Christianity is composed of all of these predestined saints who will be changed by the power of God until they bear the image of Christ.
Don’t give me credit or blame for saying this. Paul says it here to the genuine Christian believers in Rome. When does the conforming begin? I submit that it begins the moment we are born again into this supernatural family of brothers of whom Christ is the firstborn. You are in this family the moment you are born into it and your desire should always be to be like your Big Brother. The transformation begins at the moment of birth and continues while we are here on earth and on into eternity as we continue to grow into the image of our God. Instead of striking out at those who carry this message we must take hold of it and begin to ask ourselves why we are falling so desperately short of this magnificent goal.
God is holy, so Christians are to be a holy people (1 Peter 1:15, 16). God is love so true Christianity expresses His love to an unloving world (1 John 4:8, 16). God is one so His children are called to oneness in Him (John 17:21-23). God is committed to His bride so Christians are to be committed to their brides and husbands (Eph. 5:25-33). God is expressed in glory so He calls us to be a people of glory (2Cor. 4:6; Ep. 5:27). Christ is truth embodied, so Christians are to be the environment where truth is realized and lived out (Eph. 4:15; 1 Tim. 3:15). On and on the picture is clearly presented in God’s word—His people are called to be like Him. Genuine Christianity is a life that expresses God on the earth in the lives of people given to Him. To make it anything less is a travesty of the highest level.
I can hear the hearts of many who read this message. “This is an impossible standard!” they are protesting. Yes, to try to live this kind of life in the context of modern, American Christianity and church life would be an impossible task. But it remains the measure by which our completeness is measured by the Lord. Genuine Christianity is a miracle of the first order. It is impossible apart from the hand of God. But, this is the clear presentation of God’s word and the leading of His Spirit to today’s compromised Christianity. Will we continue to live this lowered standard of Christianity made plausible by the watered-down normal of a faithless generation, or will we rise to the high standard set by God for the bride of His Son?
“Where is such an expression of Christianity?” others are crying out. It is there in the hearts of many disappointed believers and is waiting to be released by faith. It is rising up into the hearts of many who know that God does not lie and that His word does not return to Him empty. It is a river in you and a river in me and Christ has promised, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). He was speaking of the Holy Spirit who has been sent to lead us into the truth; to unveil God’s will for our lives.
Our task is simple. Just believe. Hear what the Spirit is saying to this generation and then believe what He says and act accordingly. Such attentive hearing will produce the faith needed for this outpouring of His purpose. That will unveil genuine Christianity for all to see and live. I say, let the rivers flow!
Our Source of Truth: Christ and His Word
Lloyd Gardner
December 9, 2014
We are beginning a series of messages exploring genuine Christianity. As society moves toward incredible social, religious and political transformation I find myself asking this crucial question, “What does genuine Christianity look like?” We are at the point that we cannot deny that much of the institution we call church has clearly conformed itself to the world and its ways. Seeing this clearly, sincere people are beginning to wonder what genuine life in Christ should look like in this age of spiritual confusion. But where do we look for the answer? For the answer to this question, let me share a brief modern parable. Bear with me as I make my point.
The parable of the drivers
The way we drive can be an indicator of the way we think. Many people I talk to take the laws of driving with a grain of salt. For many years I have taken the approach that I will drive as safely as I can, according to the driving laws of the land. As a result I have not had a traffic ticket in over forty years except for one that was dismissed. Others I talk to, however, think I am quite a prude about driving. Some of my friends have even laughed at me when I suggested that I actually try to drive the speed limit. They think actually stopping at a stop sign is for old nervous, paranoid grandpas.
Most people drive the speed they feel like driving and it is usually as fast as they can drive without going off the road. The result is they tend to be tailgaters because the normal driving people like me, who are driving the speed limit of all things, are way too slow for them. It is typical for someone to pull within a car length behind me as we speed along at 70 miles per hour down the freeway. If I were to sneeze or hiccup they would pile into my rear end or lose control because they are too close for human reaction.
Such people are in essence saying, “I have set my own standard for driving, despite what the law says, and I would appreciate it if you would either adjust with me or get out of my way so I can continue to do my own thing while I break the law.” I usually just quietly pull over and let them speed off into the night. Sometimes I see them later having a conversation with a highway patrolman or piled up in a collision on the side of the road. Some of my friends, who actually drive this way, have included driving citation costs in their yearly budget because they don’t intend to change their driving habits.
Now here’s my point. Christians today do the same thing with the higher law of God revealed in His word the Bible. They have decided to set their own standard for how to live and ignore the clear revelation from God as to how He wants us to live both as individual believers and as a church. Many times I have been sharing an issue about Christianity or the church and the person I’m sharing with will say, “Yes, but that’s not practical.” What they are really saying is, “It doesn’t matter what the word says, I intend to do and practice as I please.” I would say, they have chosen to live their lives by their personal understanding instead of the word of God. The law-breaking driver says it’s not practical to drive the speed limit in today’s driving disorder so he is going to dismiss the law. Many Christians say it’s not practical to truly live the Christian life revealed in God’s word. Thus, they are able to dismiss God’s word with a shrug of their shoulders.
In other words, like the drivers, they are ignoring the established and known higher law of behavior and live the way they want to live. If it doesn’t agree with the way they want to proceed they simply find a way to rationalize it. This kind of behavior is rebellion against God and must stop in the lives of those who desire to follow the Lord.
When writing to the church in Corinth Paul clearly showed the two ways people decide what truth is. He wrote,
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual (1 Cor. 2:12, 13).
So, there are two ways to proceed with any search for truth: human wisdom which has its origin in “the spirit of the world,” or truths “taught by the Spirit.” One way has its source in the world, the domain of Satan, and the other has its source in the Holy Spirit and the word of God.
To the Roman Christians Paul spoke of the same two choices: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). There you have it, two ways to live, but only one leads to discerning the will of God. We can allow ourselves to conform to the world’s way of thinking or we can allow the spiritual transformation of our minds by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Keep in mind that religion, including man-centered Christian religion, is part of the world’s thinking. Much of what we call Christianity results from our tendency to be conformed to the world rather than changed by the transforming power of the Spirit which comes from disciplining ourselves to hear from God. Human religion is one of Satan’s most effective weapons. Just because we call something Christian does not mean it originates in God.
So when I ask the question, “What does genuine Christianity look like? I am asking what does God tell us about how we are to live as followers of Christ in today’s world? In our search for the answer we will not be asking such questions as what is practical, what is the most popular, what will work the best or what do the popular preachers say? No. We will be simplifying our search to one question, “What does God’s word, the Bible, say about how to live as a genuine follower of Christ? In keeping with our parable we would simply ask, “What do the laws of driving tell us about how to drive?”
Keep in mind that Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63). We must not make the mistake of using the Bible without the aid of the Holy Spirit sent to lead us into truth. We must sense the leading of the Holy Spirit but keep in mind that the Spirit will never lead us in a way that contradicts the revelation in God’s word. We can only fully understand it as we are led by the Author of the Bible Himself. We can never make the claim that the Spirit is saying something that disagrees with the word and we cannot use the Bible as a theological proof text source without the inspiration of the Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).
There are many other sources of supposed truth that may attempt to invade our thinking. Tradition, for example, is living our lives by doctrines and practices that were accepted somewhere in the past and continue into the present. They usually have become above scrutiny because they are so firmly accepted by most people that questioning them is considered rebellion against the accepted status quo. Most expressions of religious Christianity are riddled with such traditions.
Lloyd Gardner
December 9, 2014
We are beginning a series of messages exploring genuine Christianity. As society moves toward incredible social, religious and political transformation I find myself asking this crucial question, “What does genuine Christianity look like?” We are at the point that we cannot deny that much of the institution we call church has clearly conformed itself to the world and its ways. Seeing this clearly, sincere people are beginning to wonder what genuine life in Christ should look like in this age of spiritual confusion. But where do we look for the answer? For the answer to this question, let me share a brief modern parable. Bear with me as I make my point.
The parable of the drivers
The way we drive can be an indicator of the way we think. Many people I talk to take the laws of driving with a grain of salt. For many years I have taken the approach that I will drive as safely as I can, according to the driving laws of the land. As a result I have not had a traffic ticket in over forty years except for one that was dismissed. Others I talk to, however, think I am quite a prude about driving. Some of my friends have even laughed at me when I suggested that I actually try to drive the speed limit. They think actually stopping at a stop sign is for old nervous, paranoid grandpas.
Most people drive the speed they feel like driving and it is usually as fast as they can drive without going off the road. The result is they tend to be tailgaters because the normal driving people like me, who are driving the speed limit of all things, are way too slow for them. It is typical for someone to pull within a car length behind me as we speed along at 70 miles per hour down the freeway. If I were to sneeze or hiccup they would pile into my rear end or lose control because they are too close for human reaction.
Such people are in essence saying, “I have set my own standard for driving, despite what the law says, and I would appreciate it if you would either adjust with me or get out of my way so I can continue to do my own thing while I break the law.” I usually just quietly pull over and let them speed off into the night. Sometimes I see them later having a conversation with a highway patrolman or piled up in a collision on the side of the road. Some of my friends, who actually drive this way, have included driving citation costs in their yearly budget because they don’t intend to change their driving habits.
Now here’s my point. Christians today do the same thing with the higher law of God revealed in His word the Bible. They have decided to set their own standard for how to live and ignore the clear revelation from God as to how He wants us to live both as individual believers and as a church. Many times I have been sharing an issue about Christianity or the church and the person I’m sharing with will say, “Yes, but that’s not practical.” What they are really saying is, “It doesn’t matter what the word says, I intend to do and practice as I please.” I would say, they have chosen to live their lives by their personal understanding instead of the word of God. The law-breaking driver says it’s not practical to drive the speed limit in today’s driving disorder so he is going to dismiss the law. Many Christians say it’s not practical to truly live the Christian life revealed in God’s word. Thus, they are able to dismiss God’s word with a shrug of their shoulders.
In other words, like the drivers, they are ignoring the established and known higher law of behavior and live the way they want to live. If it doesn’t agree with the way they want to proceed they simply find a way to rationalize it. This kind of behavior is rebellion against God and must stop in the lives of those who desire to follow the Lord.
When writing to the church in Corinth Paul clearly showed the two ways people decide what truth is. He wrote,
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual (1 Cor. 2:12, 13).
So, there are two ways to proceed with any search for truth: human wisdom which has its origin in “the spirit of the world,” or truths “taught by the Spirit.” One way has its source in the world, the domain of Satan, and the other has its source in the Holy Spirit and the word of God.
To the Roman Christians Paul spoke of the same two choices: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). There you have it, two ways to live, but only one leads to discerning the will of God. We can allow ourselves to conform to the world’s way of thinking or we can allow the spiritual transformation of our minds by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Keep in mind that religion, including man-centered Christian religion, is part of the world’s thinking. Much of what we call Christianity results from our tendency to be conformed to the world rather than changed by the transforming power of the Spirit which comes from disciplining ourselves to hear from God. Human religion is one of Satan’s most effective weapons. Just because we call something Christian does not mean it originates in God.
So when I ask the question, “What does genuine Christianity look like? I am asking what does God tell us about how we are to live as followers of Christ in today’s world? In our search for the answer we will not be asking such questions as what is practical, what is the most popular, what will work the best or what do the popular preachers say? No. We will be simplifying our search to one question, “What does God’s word, the Bible, say about how to live as a genuine follower of Christ? In keeping with our parable we would simply ask, “What do the laws of driving tell us about how to drive?”
Keep in mind that Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63). We must not make the mistake of using the Bible without the aid of the Holy Spirit sent to lead us into truth. We must sense the leading of the Holy Spirit but keep in mind that the Spirit will never lead us in a way that contradicts the revelation in God’s word. We can only fully understand it as we are led by the Author of the Bible Himself. We can never make the claim that the Spirit is saying something that disagrees with the word and we cannot use the Bible as a theological proof text source without the inspiration of the Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).
There are many other sources of supposed truth that may attempt to invade our thinking. Tradition, for example, is living our lives by doctrines and practices that were accepted somewhere in the past and continue into the present. They usually have become above scrutiny because they are so firmly accepted by most people that questioning them is considered rebellion against the accepted status quo. Most expressions of religious Christianity are riddled with such traditions.