No-One Listens!

John the Baptist lamented:

What He [Jesus] has seen and heard, that He testifies, and no one receives His testimony (John 3:32).

Those words of John were not just for the time when Jesus walked the earth. They were prophetic. The same is true today! The Church shuts Him outside their door, fulfilling Jesus’ words to John the apostle (Rev 3:20).

So there it is from two witnesses! This shameful charade, this pretence of piety – that Jesus is welcomed when He is not, really – is diabolical! It shows how much those who ought to be listening, just aren’t! They hear what they want to hear, but what they don’t want to hear, or don’t care about, they shut their ears to. And Jesus is pushed away!

We have seen it repeatedly in our work. We send Christians further truth, and they don’t reply. It is a rare person indeed who replies, and of those few who do, most of them are doing so merely for appearance’ sake, to look good, or to appease their conscience. 99% of them don’t move on with further truth. They stay put with what they’ve got.

The trouble is, that’s backsliding.

I remember Ray McCauley (a well-known and prominent charismatic evangelist and church leader in South Africa) once giving a sermon at one of Colin Urquhart’s Faith Camps in the nineties. I think it was about 1994. He made the inspired comment that when we walk with Jesus, we have to keep up with Him. If Jesus moves ahead a few steps and we slow down or just stand still, He is moving away from us.

You don’t have to walk backwards to step back. You just have to stand still or fail to keep up with Him to see Him moving away from you. The trouble is, you won’t see Him moving ahead and leaving you behind. You won’t even notice the rift that is developing. It all happens invisibly, imperceptibly.

And both Ray McCauley and Colin Urquhart did the very thing the Spirit was warning them about in that meeting! I wrote to Ray McCauley in South Africa about his need to accept further truth and he never even acknowledged my letter and enclosures. The same with Colin Urquhart. He answered one of my missives, but conveniently shelved others I sent.

Their response is a representative example of what it’s like across the board, throughout the Church. I have lost count of the number of ministries, church leaders or churches to which we have written. But I have not lost track of the percentage of response. It’s just as John said “No one receives His testimony.”

“But, hang on a minute,” you may object. “John was talking about unconverted folks back then; he wasn’t meaning the Church today.” Wasn’t he? If that were so, why then did Jesus make the points He made to Laodicea? Are you not aware that such comments were prophetic and meant to be illustrative of a prevalent weakness in believers throughout time?

And are you not aware that when Jesus gives revelation to a prophet or apostle today, if that input is rejected or carelessly neglected, you are not merely rejecting the human messenger, but the heavenly One also?!

He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects him who sent Me (Luke 10:16).

This is serious, deadly serious!

Slumbering!

Helena was recently given a dream portraying the Church’s slumber:

20th April 2007. H. Laid back!

I saw an older woman resting next to Malcolm on a bed. Comment: Today a local councillor called, canvassing for election support. He was a nice man, friendly, and admitted to having some MM literature in a drawer. This fulfilled the dream.

The woman resting, being lazy and spiritually inactive, portrays the state of the Church.

I gave him more literature to stir him into action and spiritual awareness, so he can be prepared to face the future and help others also to face the crisis ahead of us all.

But, did he read it? As God revealed – no! Otherwise we would have heard back from him. Even though he is a Christian (of sorts – who occasionally attends the Church of England) and meant to be in God’s family, he had a disinterest towards truth.

What’s his problem? Jesus’ words explain:

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him (Jn 1:11). Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen and you do not receive Our witness (Jn 3:11). This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather light, because their deeds were evil (Jn 3:19).

“But you said he was a nice man, so how can his deeds be evil?”

We don’t see evil like God does. What we consider acceptable, God does not. And paying too much attention to physical things, and too little attention to God’s things (His truth, His Word, His Spirit, His gifts, His prophets, His revelations, His love and forgiveness) is completely unacceptable to Him, and a gross insult! It is evil!

That’s why there is a condemnation against all such physically-minded people in Matthew 24:37-39. So, you are commanded:

Watch, therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming (Matt 24:42).

Jesus came to that man when Helena gave him some MM publications. But he shoved Jesus inside the drawer and left Him there. That’s what he thought of Him – not worth another look!

How do you think Jesus will respond to him when He comes in all His glory? The same way.

It’s sad. You want to wake people up, but you can’t. They just don’t care.

Prophesied

God foresees everything long before it occurs. He prophesied through Isaiah:

This is a people robbed and plundered; all of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses [churches]; they are for prey, and no one delivers; for plunder and no one says “Restore!” Who among you will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? (Is 42:22,23.)

Yes, who will listen?!!

Jesus has already given the answer. He said:

While the Bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept (Matt 25:5).

“All” is pretty extensive! It may be a generalisation, but the few who listen are pitifully few! So few that, for the description’s sake, they can be ignored.

For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus (Phil 2:21).

We have been calling “Restore!” for many years, offering people the restored truths of God that were stolen away over the early centuries of the Christian era, but no one wants them. People just aren’t bothered! It’s shameful.

They’d rather sit in their dingy prison houses, misnamed ‘churches’, and go along with the crowd, than come out (Rev 18:4) and rise up from their spiritual captivity as God commands them (Is 52).

Ye deaf, hear: and ye blind, look to see. Who is blind but My servant]; and deaf as My messenger I send? [ministers in churches are meant to be God’s servants, but they are blind and deaf]; Who is blind as he who is at peace [believers get what they want from God, and once they are content, that’s where they stay], yea, blind, as the servant of Jehovah? Seeing many things, and thou observest not, opening ears, and he heareth not (Is 42:18-20, Young’s Literal Translation.)

Then in the next verse, we read of how God takes great pleasure in His righteousness – when that is transmitted to His human creation. So, you can imagine how highly He prizes the Work of restoration which continues today. Jesus exalted the law and made it honourable (Is 42:21). And we continue His Work today.

But this is a people robbed and plundered... (Is 42:22).

The irony is that they CHOOSE to stay in that state. It doesn’t make sense from God’s perspective! It’s stupid! It’s rebellion. It’s wilful neglect. It’s pride. It’s stubbornness. It’s complacency. It’s all these things in people that prevent God’s Restoration fully restoring them. They only want half a job. They don’t want the whole thing.

But what’s the good of accepting part and rejecting the rest? He who dismisses one part of what is required is guilty of rejecting the whole. The principle is outlined in James (2:10).

Can God accept such a people? No. So they face the frightening prospect of being spat out of His mouth! (Rev 3:16.)

Tribulation

People wonder why would God allow the awful horrors of the Great Tribulation to engulf His Church? If that is you, you need wonder no longer.

If you reject a prophet who brings the truth, you reject the One who commissioned him. You forfeit the prophet’s reward, which is understanding and believing his message, after which you can receive more of God’s guidance, help and protection.

The Rapture is not coming like most believers stupidly assume. Jesus is not coming to steal away His Bride and ensconce her away to heaven, safe from all the troubles. Jesus is coming for a Bride who wants all of Him, all of His truth, all of His purity. But, because most of the Church does not want it all, He has to purify them of this double-mindedness, and sadly, the only way is through hardship, austerity and even death. That’s what it means to be spat out of His mouth (Rev 3:16).

No one is listening now. But, thankfully, many will be listening then! A great number will be harvested through that time (Rev 7:9-14).

Malcolm B Heap