Reorganising The Church: 1

God spoke to an apostle recently and told him: "I'm preparing you for the Tribulation that is soon coming."

Not every time God speaks are His words welcome! You might think that an apostle would be very receptive to what God has to say. But apostles are human, too. Remember Peter? He didn't like it when Jesus said He was going to die rather than establish the Kingdom of God on earth at that time. That wasn't what Peter wanted to hear.

Nor was it any different when God spoke these words above. But they are for all who will accept them, and they are meant as a loving but dire warning to prepare the Church for what is to come.

I mentioned in Newsletter 22 that we are very close to the beginning of this catastrophic time -- the most terrible in all of human history! It may be only little more than a mere couple of years away.

Most people are simply unaware that this world is about to fall apart at the seams, that our society is near to suffering a total economic collapse! Law and order will break down and anarchy will reign in many quarters. The Church needs to be prepared -- not merely physically, but more importantly spiritually -- so that she can go through this time of intense trouble without failing.

We are already seeing an escalation in troubles. The weather is only one aspect. Look at Europe now (written in August 2003). Forest fires are out of control in many countries, burning thousands of acres of woodland after an unprecedented long hot dry spell. God gave an indication of this in a dream I received on 18th October 2002 (Newsletter 19, p 31). He conveyed that the weather would be unseasonably warm before it suddenly changes and turns cold.

Another dream received on 18th February 2003, foretold of a man's funeral (Newsletter 21, Dream Diary Supplement, p 6). God was, in that, predicting the 'death' of Church leadership.

Church leadership is an institution that must die if the Church is to survive as it should!

That might sound outrageous. Well, I make no apologies. God gave me the dream. I didn't contrive it. Jesus also spoke to me when I was writing to a very prominent Christian ministry, run by a very respectable and honoured man (whom I highly respected and honoured, I might add) and said "I am not found in the institutions of men."

That evangelist has done much for the Church universal. He has preached and taught on radio for decades, spreading the Gospel far and wide into many countries in numerous languages.

But the problem with all he has done is that he has become elevated. He is an idol to his followers. His ministry has become an institution. Whenever that happens, Jesus is pushed outside, surreptitiously replaced by the man whom Jesus called to represent Him. It's a blasphemy that goes unnoticed by most Christians and which, if you point it out to them, they don't even care about.

It's the same blasphemy that the Church of Rome began in Christendom as it perpetuated the customs of the Babylonian Mystery Religions. That's one reason why Jesus commands you, as a believer and follower of Him, to:

Come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues (Rev 18:4).

You, if you are to fully follow Jesus, are to come out of human allegiance to any man. This is a subtle psychological loyalty, where you place the person on a par with Jesus, or even above Him.

You might not even perceive it. Many don't. They go to church each week and worship; they sit and listen to a man who is elevated before them, and without realising it, they have given him the honour that should have gone to Jesus.

How has this come about? Very subtly, very insidiously, when churches began to adopt a hierarchic mode of operation -- where ministers became hierarchic overlords, instead of shepherds or overseers.

When you read the New Testament carefully you see that a 'bishop' or 'elder' was an overseer not an overlord. He had a responsibility and duty to spiritually care for the flock, but not to rule it.

However, when the Church became corrupted by human institutionalisation, especially from the time of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century AD, a bishop was conferred with human authority to rule over those in his 'bishopric' or diocese.

The Image of the Beast Emerges

Historian James Breasted explained:

"...as the Christian churches steadily increased in numbers and their influence grew, they more and more needed the guidance of able men. The management of the great Christian communities and their churches called for increasing ability and experience. Public discussion and disputes in the church assemblies enabled gifted men to stand forth, and their ability brought them position and influence. The Christian church thus became a new arena for development of statesmanship, and church statesmen were soon to be the most influential men of the age...

"These officers of the church gradually devoted themselves more and more to church duties until they had no time for anything else. Thus they came to be distinguished from the other members and were called clergy, while the people who made up the membership were called the laymen or the laity. The old men who cared for the smaller country congregations were finally called merely presbyters, a Greek word meaning 'old men'; our word 'priest' is derived from this Greek term. Over the group of churches in each city a leading priest gained authority as a bishop. In the larger cities these bishops had such influence that they became archbishops, or head bishops, having authority over the bishops in the surrounding cities of the province. These church arrangements were modelled to a large extent on those of the Roman government, from which such terms as 'diocese' were borrowed. Thus, Christianity, once the faith of the weak and the despised, became a powerful organization, strong enough to cope with the government" (J. H. Breasted, Ancient Times, A History of the Early World, pp 762,763, emphasis mine).

This system of hierarchic government in the 'Christian' Church is not biblical. It was adopted from the Roman model. It is an image of that system of human domination. Church 'officers' were not meant to lord it over their compatriots (1 Pet 5:3; Matt 20:25,26), but to spiritually feed them.

"Thus the church was changing its nature, making itself over into the image of the Roman Empire" (H. H. Halley, Bible Handbook, p 770).

This was the prophesied image of the Beast alluded to in Revelation 13:14.

Trapped by Wrong Church Structure

"But I don't worship an image of the Beast when I go to church!"

You may not do so knowingly, but ignorance does not change facts. Most Christians don't see that they are giving their loyalties to 'their' church, and 'their' minister or church leadership, instead of to Christ. But if the men who lead your church are in a hierarchic position over you, you do just that!

Where a 'bishop' or church leader has an elevated position, such that his congregation feels it must obey him, the blasphemy has occurred.

The apostle, earlier, to whom Jesus spoke saying: "I am preparing you for the Tribulation" has just such an elevated position. That's why, although Jesus' words were welcome, their inference was not. He dismissed the inference.

It's one thing to receive a prophetic word; it's often entirely another to perceive its interpretation or inference, and then apply it. Doing what Jesus wants is much more difficult than hearing what He has to say. But it's not the hearers who are justified before God. It's the doers.

James pointed out that it's easy to be deceived just because we have heard (Jas 2:22). Whatever God says to us must evoke action or the devil wins that round of the battle.

For the 'average' Christian to prepare for the Tribulation ahead, he or she must relinquish reliance upon church leadership.

You must no longer regard them as if they have divine rights or elevation or position over you. They are not on a higher level than you, spiritually speaking. Authority in a hierarchic structure is only human, not divine.

Only if and when they receive divine input in prophetic words, dreams or visions (which must all be tested for divine authenticity -- 1 Jn 4:1) do they convey divine authority. And such prophetic input must never be used as a means of spiritual control to manipulate you into submission to them.

ANYONE in the fellowship has equal spiritual privileges! So, ANYONE can prophesy (as God gives them opportunity) where truly converted people meet together for worship. Where the Spirit of God is allowed to properly lead, there is no hierarchic 'pecking order' where a 'minister' or church leader is considered to hold pre-eminence.

The pre-eminence should be given to the Spirit of Christ, not to any man or woman.

The Church has got away from this, and it desperately needs reorganising!

Men who hold control need to step down and allow all (who are able) to take part in fellowship meetings instead of them dominating proceedings.

All brethren need to be taught to be able to listen to the Spirit, and to accept spiritual gifts so that they can move in the power of the Spirit. When they can hear from God directly, then they will be better prepared to weather the violent storms that are ahead for true believers.

Further Reading:
(Suggested donation in brackets.)
God's Church -- Whose Authority? (£3.00)
Apostasy In God’s Church! (£2.00)
The Missing Dimension in Christian Living (£2.00)
Understanding the Book of Revelation (£7.00)
Holy Fire! (£2.00)
Listening To God (£2.00)
Witnessing For Christ (£2.00)
The Faith Once Delivered To The Saints (£1.00)

Reorganising The Church: 2

By contrast, go into the New Testament and other early writings of Church history and read about the early Church, which (after hostility from non-believers in the Temple or synagogues and other public places) met in homes, where all could prophesy when prompted by the Spirit (1 Cor 14:31) and where 'laity' had an equal and active say in the commissioning of the 'ministry' and their activities (Acts 15:22).

There a vast difference between what we see in the institutionalised church of today and the true Church of Jesus in the New Testament!

Equality Substituted by Superiority

How was this NT spiritual equality lost and replaced with the perversion we see today masquerading in churches as if it were the scriptural norm? Here's how:

When Constantine founded the city of Constantinople (Istanbul today in Turkey), he planned a gigantic capital which he called New Rome... He built a new and uninhabited city from the ground up. In it he commissioned the building of pagan temples and something he designated as buildings for Christians to meet in.

A pagan temple of that time was a small, round building with stairs leading up to an altar in the middle.... Across the street from some of these pagan temples, Constantine commissioned Christian meeting places. These were not shaped like pagan temples, but like the government civic auditoriums. (Christians had met inside for three centuries. But it was inside homes.) Here, for the first time, stood officially designated places for Christians to meet. This was a wonder which no Christian had ever seen before. Put another way, it was in 323, almost three hundred years after the birth of the church, that Christians first met in something we now call a 'church building'. For all three hundred years before that, the church met in living rooms!

Constantine built these assembly buildings for Christians not only in Constantinople, but also in Rome, Jerusalem, and in many parts of Italy, all between 323 and 327! This then triggered a massive 'church building' fad in large cities all over the empire. Many thousands of pagans came into these buildings. One could wish they had all become saved and grown to maturity...

By now people were coming into the church en masse out of paganism, following the strong example of their emperor, Constantine. The church was changing to accommodate them, introducing structure and ritual into the meetings, with chanting and pageantry -- all things familiar to these ex-pagans. The clergy -- this very word had previously been used to designate a pagan priest -- began to wear strange clothing (costumes, if you please) to set themselves apart from the laity. Church buildings sprouted up everywhere on the crest of state tax money pouring into the church's coffers all over the Roman Empire. Soon the living room church meetings were but a memory, and even that memory seems to have been stamped out.

Until that time, any tax money that went to religion had been channelled exclusively to the pagan religions. By AD 400 it flowed exclusively to the church. Pagan priests were becoming 'Christians' to keep up with the whereabouts of their money. Government officials and politicians were becoming Christian priests in droves because it was lucrative to do so. (Gene Edwards, The Open Church, quoted by Timothy Sheaff in The Dollar and the Cross, pp 129-130.)

You don't have to venture into the huge contemporary organised churches to see the several blasphemies that have developed as a result of human interference with God's truth. It's evident in thousands of daughter churches and separate ministries, too.

Try telling any man who uses the blasphemy of 'Reverend' before his name, that he should desist, and you will soon see just how much these men of the cloth love the same elevation today that their Pharisaic counterparts loved back in Jesus' time (Matt 23:6,7). Jesus said:

But you, don't elevate yourselves at all. For One is your Teacher and you are all brethren (Matt 23:8 paraphrased).

The one who genuinely serves others without self-elevation is the greatest in God's estimation (Matt 23:11, paraphrased).

In contrast, we often see arrogant, pompous leaders standing like demi-gods before those whom they profess to be 'serving'. Instead of lifting up truth and righteousness, most seem glad that church ritual and tradition enhance their pomp and position. And in the most wealthy churches, the lavishness and opulence of such ecclesiastical embellishments are justified by the magisterial power such offices hold in their system.

It is corrupt! God despises it!

Tragically, the same corrupt spiritual system holds in its grip many who think they have already come out of Rome. In one way or another, they are also still trapped in its satanic grip. The traps can be very subtle! You don't have to wear long robes (which have their origins in the elevated priesthoods of pagan religions) to be part of this insuperable satanic corruption of the Church. By thinking you have superiority over those to whom you minister, you have become fair game for the lion.

Equality, not superiority, is the hallmark of God's system in the Church. It's not often seen!

The Money Factor

The motivation of money is a huge factor in the apostasy that has taken place.

Paul and all the other apostles, evangelists and pastors were not paid a salary 'by the Church'. It is clear from the NT, however, that the Church was expected to remunerate them. Considerable parts of Paul's letters to the Corinthians are taken up with this issue, and there are telling references elsewhere in the NT to the failure of the Church to properly consider the fiscal or material needs of those who laboured spiritually for the Church.

Ministers were not paid a fixed salary, and because they worked for God not man, they looked to Him to provide for the Work to which He had called them. (Explained in Witnessing For Christ.)

Today, a reversal has occurred. Men of the cloth look to others in their organisational structure to pay them, and eventually to the church membership or other human means (investments, etc). Thus, faith is often replaced by financial management. (That is not to say that financial management is unnecessary. However, it must not take precedence over faith.)

I knew a man who wanted to become a minister because of the cushy job and regular reliable salary. I know of others who found the appeal was one of power; or 'performers' who were unable to make a living from acting, but who could do something similar before a congregation and get paid for it.

None of those are genuine reasons for handling the Word of God. True ministers don't seek the position, humanly. They are called to it from Above. Some even run from it, but answer the call because it is overwhelming! A desire for truth and what is of God must take precedence.

For the false minister, "the profit motive and its drive have replaced the drive to become holy. Leaders have been more interested in profits than in prophets. And most churches justifiably can be described as non-prophet organisations" (The Dollar and the Cross, T Sheaff, p 58) while they are very organised around profits!

For that reason churches will often pander to preaching majority views and emphasise fiscal giving, with a strong accent on retaining and enlarging church membership. A solid foundation of members means a solid financial footing.

But the love of money is a root of many evils. Those who covet money are impostors.

Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1 Tim 6:9,10).

Once again, it was Constantine who humanly organised the Church with a salaried structure:

The church had always considered it heretical to pay salaries to overseers and elders. However, when Constantine offered salaries to the church leaders, the church reconsidered the matter and decided to accept them... The church began proclaiming that a new age had dawned for Christianity. The historian Eusebius wrote, 'It must seem to all who duly regard these facts, that a new and fresh era of existence had begun to appear, and a previously unknown light suddenly began to dawn from the midst of darkness on the human race. And all must confess that these things were entirely the work of God, who raised up this pious emperor to withstand the multitude of the ungodly.' [What deception!!] (Eusebius, Constantine, bk. 3, ch. 1, quoted by David Bercot in Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up? pp 134-5, quoted also by T Sheaff in The Dollar and The Cross, p 130.)

Constantine also instituted Sunday as an 'official' day of rest to substitute the Sabbath. Just as the profit motive swayed opinion back then, it enters the equation very strongly today. Theologians, deceived about their honesty and objectivity, justify perpetuating this human tradition on the same grounds, though few will admit to it!

Review Your View

The Church needs to get back to the faith once delivered. It also needs to review its view. Instead of looking to men, you should rely implicitly upon Christ. Both 'leadership' and 'membership' need to reform. 'Leaders' should look to Jesus for their supply instead of to their folds, and 'members' should look to Jesus for their lead not to ministers.

In both positions, it is a radical readjustment. But if anything stands between you and the One who has called you to be in His Bride, He adjures you to give it up.

To ministers: If He requires it of you, will you give up position and salary to follow Him fully?

To all: Will you give up cherished traditions and ways to obey all He lays down in His Word as a foundation for righteous conduct?

Or do you still want to be in charge?

Reorganising The Church: 3

It's such a hard task weaning people off reliance upon church leadership! I sometimes think it's easier walking to Timbuktu! Why is it? Because people prefer to remain spiritually immature.

In a dream given several years ago, God portrayed this immaturity and likened the immature to a slobbering baby. Here is that account:

On 24th April 1997, my wife, Helena, received a dream about a fat, ugly, spoiled baby. Instead of being capable of feeding on solids, this large baby was still on milk! It was sitting on the floor, waiting to be fed by mother. When feeding, it slobbered all over the place, and made a real mess!

This repulsive child was twice the size of a normal baby its own age, twice as fat, and incredibly indolent. It would not bother to go anywhere by itself. It expected mother to carry it.

God then proceeded to give the meaning of this dream. Before I relate that, may I say this? It’s certainly not something I like to do, to cast aspersions on anyone, but when God gives you a revelation that is meant to correct, the revelation is not meant to be hurtful in itself. It is intended to bring the recipient to repentance. That is the over-riding purpose of all prophetic utterance and revelation.

So, in writing what I must write here, please, I ask everyone who reads this to realise that it is not in my heart to want to criticise, ‘judge’ (in the sense of seek out faults for their own sake to put another down), or condemn. My desire is to live in harmony with everyone. But that harmony is only possible where the impenitent are brought to a state of repentance so that divisive rifts can be healed by the presence of the Spirit of God.

As long as people stubbornly refuse to accept correction when God gives it, harmony cannot prevail. Prophets are seldom received with open arms, because the message they bring from God is an uncompromising one.

The Meaning of the Dream

The dream depicts the Worldwide Church of God in its present state [and many other churches have the same problem]. Doctrinally, it slobbers everywhere. Furthermore, the WCG has not taught its members to be active disciples so that they can disciple others. It has not taught them to be independent. It makes them dependent on ‘mother’.

Members expect to be carried, rather than carry the gospel to the world themselves. In this highly immature state, the WCG is useless to God.

Reform in the WCG?

Doubtless, some will object to these words, saying the WCG is now teaching its members to disciple others. However, there are several drastic problems with this programme of ‘reform’ in the WCG. While the church certainly seems to be reaching out more than it did in the past, its approach is for what purpose? Is it:

1) to bring others into the same fold, i.e. the WCG?
2) sincere?
3) prepared to see ones it disciples go into other church organisations and fellowships?

The answer to the last question is "No!" It has amply demonstrated that by resisting those who have resigned amicably over the WCG's doctrinal changes, and who have gone to form other churches or to join other groups. The WCG hierarchy has resented their departure and resisted any co-operation with them.

It has even blackened the names of ministers who resigned from the WCG by disfellowshipping them after they handed in their resignations! Why do such a thing? Because it paints a dark picture in the minds of WCG members about those ministers. It polarises members’ minds against them. Thus, it lessens the chances of members opening up to objectively receiving any information from those ministers which could undermine the WCG hierarchy’s control.

Control is top of the agenda in the WCG. It is their first unwritten law. The hierarchy MUST maintain c

trol over members’ minds if they are to succeed in brainwashing them – sorry, conditioning them – to further changes.

Few members ever see through the very subtle psychological conditioning they are subjected to by WCG mentors [it occurs in many other churches, also]. They have grown accustomed to it. But control of this sort is spiritually perverse. It is actually a devious weapon of the deceiver.

Make no mistake. Spiritual control over the minds of others is satanic!

But the WCG has operated like this for decades. Many cults use similar techniques. They don’t even have to know what they are doing. Satan is the mastermind behind it all. He knows what he is doing, even if the human perpetrators of such indiscretions don’t. And the outcome is spiritual poverty. Babyhood. Tragic spiritual immaturity. A ‘spirituality’ repulsive to God.

That is what the dream conveyed in symbol. It’s time for members to grow up and leave ‘home’ to follow God, not men (Acts 5:29). (Dreams From God About The WCG, p 13.)

The foregoing account may shock some. It's meant to. That's why God gave it. He wants to wake up sleepy Christians to their spiritual state!

This spiritual attrition has occurred because ministers became lords over their congregations. The WCG had a very strong leadership structure where ministers were overlords -- to such an extent that any dissent against ministerial views was regarded as anathema!

Ministers had to be in charge! Members were expected to submit to them as if to God. If they didn't, they were excommunicated!

That hardline treatment was devoid of God's love, and little different from the way things work under a Communist regime or police state. The WCG later realised that such an approach did not win friends and influence people, but lost them, so it changed its tack and, out of self-interest, put on a different facade. (God revealed their hypocrisy in many dreams, recounted in the aforesaid book.)

To one degree or another, however, the same rigid and wrong system prevails in many other churches. The church needs reorganising!

Members need to be weaned off dependency on church leadership.

Evil Church Leadership Dominating

In a more recent dream, this time centred on a typical 'charismatic church', God depicted the subtle grip of evil leadership control like this:

20th January 2003 H. Women threatened.

There was a threat to women. They were gathered in a worship service, and men gathered around to protect the women from the threat by prayer in a tight group.

Meaning: The threat is God's judgement. The women are the churches and the men are the human leaders who are trying to protect the churches. Their prayers are ceremonial rituals which give them false security. Through this leadership domination Jesus is isolated and the Holy Spirit is diluted.

Churches which rely upon human leadership will face the tribulation like the rest of the world.

Why do leaders dominate like this? Control. Self-interest. To keep you where they want you. To maintain their control over you. It retains their pre-eminence (remember Diotrephes in 3 Jn 9?). It is a human (satanic!) way of securing stability and financial security for them and their churches.

They will appear good and well-meaning, as the dream showed. But God sees the heart.

Doctrines will also reflect equal deception and subtlety.

Most charismatic or Pentecostal churches promote a pre-Tribulation rapture -- that you don't need to be concerned much about the Tribulation because the church will be raptured away before then, to be protected somewhere (usually considered to be in Heaven), so only the wicked will remain.

Well, it's not quite as cut-and-dried as that. Furthermore, the Bible shows many believers going through the troubles and being purified by them. (Explained in the booklet The Rapture Theory.)

Leadership domination is evil but it has many unseen tentacles. Their vice-like grip on minds is held tight by pride and various fears. Fear to offend your friends; fear to be different; fear to speak out against heresy or error; fear to be considered a 'rebel'; fear to counter leaders who seem godly; fear to 'transgress' unspoken laws of conduct in your church set-up. Leaders promote a false unity based on submission to man. It can be very subtle!

Some years back I had dealings with a top evangelist who has probably reached more millions in the world than any other. His ministry is highly successful in human terms. And he has done much for God, too. I don't want to minimise that.

I contacted him and presented him with all the truths which God had revealed to us, but of which he was ignorant. Most of these are laid out in the booklet The Faith Once Delivered To The Saints.

Guess what he did? No prizes for answering correctly! He dismissed the lot! He even considered my coming to him an intrusion. It's a pity he doesn't understand how God works through prophets. If he did, and if he had more doctrinal courage, he could set many more people free! (Jn 8:32.)

God gave me this dream about that incident, revealing what occurred (written 29th April 2000):

29th April 2000. M. Dream of Xxxxxxxx and Our Van.

Yesterday, 28th April, I was moved by the Spirit to send God’s Church – Whose Authority? to a prominent evangelist. Then, God gave me a dream to indicate the response, and the immediate future of our ministry.

In this dream, Xxxxxxxx was temporarily occupying a Council house. It was a very ordinary place. Our ministry was represented as a small white van which was parked in the front garden. It was squarish, small, and white, but nothing much to look at. It was not an impressive vehicle.

There were meetings being held in Xxxxxxxx’s Council house. They were very ordinary, and the material was so familiar to us that they held little interest. I wasn’t sure whether to stay or leave, but I showed respect by sitting down and staying. I sat at the back. The meeting was soon over.

I got up and, on leaving, I passed Xxxxxxxx, who was sitting in an empty room with only his chair and a telephone. He was making a call to book his airline flight. I wanted to stop and talk with him but he was busy, so I just walked by him and left. Even if I had used sign language to him to acknowledge him and smile, that would have distracted him from his call, because he didn’t know me, so I said and did nothing as I went out.

I got in my small white van and drove off. Before doing so, there was a pile of paving slabs outside which I moved (supernaturally) from the place where they had been left to the middle of the lawn in front of Xxxxxxxx’s Council house. They must have weighed a ton or two, but they had been moved (not by human might, but by God’s). Yet, they complained that I shouldn’t leave them there, the grass would die underneath. I said “that’s not my problem; it’s yours”, and walked off.

I drove off in my van. Not long down the road, I noticed that I had a flat tyre. I wasn’t sure whether to go back and change it or what. While I was stationary, considering what to do, I noticed that there was a fork in the road. The road to the right went past a nice new home some guy was building opposite a large mountain. He had chosen this idyllic spot because he liked the view. The mountain opposite his house was about 5,000 feet tall, yet it was in the Chilterns! (Just a low range of hills in southern England.)

The other road was the road to the left. That was the route I chose, but it was unclear what lay down that road ahead. The dream ended there.

Interpretation:

Xxxxxxxx’s Council house, and the meetings: The more permanent physical nature or structure of his ministry compared with ours, and the very ordinary teaching in his ministry.

The plane booking: Symbolises the large finance Xxxxxxxx has compared with ours and what that makes possible in his ministry. He can go places fast, unlike us.

My small white van: Our ministry is nothing much to look at on the outside, but our teaching is practical. It is not a ministry backed by large resources, so it reflects the little backing we have, but it is going places by our efforts and with God’s guidance.

The flat tyre: The obstacles we have to contend with in doing this work. It makes it very difficult for us to operate efficiently.

The stack of paving slabs which I moved and left on their front lawn: Part of the work of ‘Elijah’ is restoring the way, showing the path to walk. But it is others’ responsibility to lay the pavers out and walk that route. We can’t do it for them. The symbolism shows the unwillingness of personnel at his ministry to incorporate the truth about Sabbaths and holy days into their Christian walk.

Their being supernaturally moved: What is to come in our ministry will make the truths about the Sabbaths so plain to him and his ministry that they then have the responsibility to lay those aspects of truth out, and put them into practice.

The nice house some guy was building: His preoccupation with the physical. (Xxxxxxx and others like him who pursue their own way, who go the way they want to.)

The left fork in the road: The way ahead which is unclear and unseen. This is the faith walk.

God moved us to get in touch with the above ministry, as He has done in many other instances, and in all cases the input God gave us for them was trashed or shelved! And people still think they are not affected by the Laodicean malaise of which Jesus' warns in Revelation 3!! Incredible!?

On another occasion I wrote to the office manager of such a large international ministry, notifying him of the upcoming resurrections. The guy was so spiritually blind that all he could do in response was say, "Malcolm, if you are going to make such predictions, you must first be sure that they are going to happen."

That's why I was telling him!! Clearly he lacked the faith! What did he take me for, an idiot?! Either that or an impostor! It was an insult!

His problem of spiritual blindness stemmed from his failure to listen to the Spirit and follow Jesus. (See the warning in Acts 20:30.)

He thought he was following Jesus. Many do. But he had only just begun the journey out of deception; he hadn't got far. He was still following the man who was the ministry leader. That idolatry blinded him to Jesus speaking elsewhere.

It's not much different anywhere else you go. Throughout virtually all of the body of Christ on earth, this somnolence exists. People are asleep spiritually. They don't perceive when God speaks to them through prophets. Prophets are rejected, except for the ones in their part of the body -- and it's generally the false prophets who have acclaim and acceptance, or those who should be learning from others. (God sends many prophets, but some turn false when they become lifted up in pride.)

Yep, the door is pretty firmly shut! And Jesus stands outside knocking.

You can't hear His Spirit when you are following a man.

That's why it is so essential that the Church be reorganised for Jesus to be given His central place and for prominent ministers to step down from the limelight.

Truth Must Be Restored

Jesus said that you will be set free when you know the truth and practice it (Jn 8:32). But in 99% of the Church, they don't know enough of the truth, so they are still not as free as they should be.

What is most shocking, however -- as the example above illustrates -- people just don't want truth! When I delivered a load of God's truth to one who is an A1 evangelist, he was not receptive.

He even argued previously about this matter of church government. He argued vehemently in favour of hierarchic rule in churches. I could hardly believe it!! Here was a man of God, a top flight general in God's spiritual army, abysmally ignorant of one of the most fundamental truths of God, and wilfully resisting the 'new' revelation from God!!

It's enough to make even Nicodemus turn in his grave!

God has given us so many dreams about the pitiful state of the Church as a whole, and of the spiritual impoverishment due to accepting false teachings. It is impossible to list them all here. But here is one:

2nd May 2003. H. Spiritual Porn.

Pornography and sexually explicit films are promoted by the media, where men and women prostitute themselves and promote immorality and vile sexual perversions. These undermine true happiness and family values. God showed me that, likewise, the Church is prostituting itself spiritually by worshipping idols and pagan gods through heresies. The Church plays the harlot and is not ready as Jesus’ Bride.

Most believers don't realise how much God wants us to accept the fulness of His truth. It hurts Him when some choose to reject certain aspects. You need to view things from His perspective, not your own, and learn to view new truth as desirable even though there is a cost to you in accepting it.

Malcolm B Heap, September 2003