Friday, October 31, 2008

In Spite of You, Not Because of You

One of the rudest shocks is going to come to many people who call themselves christians today. This is the bunch I call so called christianity. The point I have to make today brings me no joy, its pretty sobering and a little scary. This is where the fear of the Lord once again comes into play.

I have said before that the Lord is continually building his kingdom, all the time, everywhere. Jesus said that HE will build his church, right? The Lord is the ultimate chess player, who can outsmart him, who can outstrategize him? Nobody can. Even Satan is being played. Whether he likes it or not, hes playing a part in the end game to build our Fathers kingdom. Here's something to remember: all things serve him....whether they want to or not.

With that said, I can get to the point. There are people who call themselves christians, who think that because the Lord is working around them, even in their midst, that they must be doing something right, they must be right with God. Unfortunately for them, thats a false sense of security. Think about what this really means:

Matt 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Think about that, there are christians running around casting out devils today who must think to themselves "wow, if I can cast out devils in Jesus name, I MUST be something special in the kingdom of God." Jesus will tell many of them, depart from me ye that work iniquity. Same thing for those prophesying in his name and doing many other wonderful works. I know that the Lord is still working within churchianity to build his kingdom...ONE SOUL AT A TIME. Those who belong to churchianity are lulled into the false sense that everything must be ok since they see the Lords hand at work. They do not understand that the Lord is at work IN SPITE OF THEM, NOT BECAUSE OF THEM.

I was brought through the system of churchianity, and the Lord was working on me the entire time, IN SPITE OF CHURCHIANITY I grew in the Lord, not because of it. The Lord is working within the apostate church just like he's working throughout the entire world in every nation, tribe and tongue. One of the apostate church's biggest mistakes is to conclude that the Lords hand at work among them is evidence that they are doing what pleases him.

prophesying in his name is good
casting out devils in Jesus name is good
doing many wonderful works is good

All those things are good, but they are not enough. There's a good reason Paul said:

2 Corinthians 13 :5 Your own selves try ye, if ye are in the faith; your own selves prove ye; do ye not know your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, if ye be not in some respect disapproved of?

If you have been waiting for someone else to examine you, you better wake up. There's a rapper from the 90's called "Ice Cube" and he is definitely not your christian role model, but he had a song you can learn something from, its called "CHECK YO SELF" The only part of the song you need to know is CHECK YO SELF BEFORE YOU WRECK YO SELF. Truer words have never been spoken. Yea, thats a bit of levity in a VERY serious warning to you....YOU NEED TO WAKE UP. YOU need to check yourself, YOU need to examine yourself. In the end, the Lord won't be asking anyone else to answer for you, he will require YOU to answer for yourself.

In the end, when time has run out, you need to be found IN CHRIST, thats the bottom line.

Performing miracles, prophesying, casting out demons, and doing many wonderful works are PROOF OF NOTHING when it comes to being found "in Christ." Don't get me wrong here, true believers will be doing those things, but so will those who will not be found "in Christ" in the end. Your faith, your belief, your standing with Christ Jesus must go beyond those things. Do you really know him? Love perfected drives out fear-look it up. Theres no way to fake intimacy, its either there or its not. Whats the real relationship between the bride (YOU) and the bridegroom (Jesus). It better be real. You can fake your way through life but you WILL NOT fake your way into heaven, thats a guarantee. You better check yourself.

This "check yourself" applies to ALL OF US. In Christ, or not in Christ, we all need to know FOR SURE where we stand today. Do NOT listen to some hired hand to tell you where you stand. The bible NEVER told you to listen to those men. I just showed you FROM THE BOOK who is supposed to check you...and its YOU.

We live in a world full of "outsourcing." Everything is being outsourced these days, and nowhere is it more obvious than so called christianity. People, especially in the United States, have OUTSOURCED their walk with Jesus. They PAY a hired hand pastor to do it for them. Anything of any spiritual significance they figure their hired hand will tell them about it, so they dont have to figure it out for themself. How sickening. You can't pay your way into relationship with the Son of God, sorry to be the one to tell you.

I can just hear the masses of churchianity on judgement day. I suspect a very common phrase heard in heaven that day will be 'BUT MY PASTOR SAID blah blah blah.' Another common phrase I suspect will be "Yea, you knew your pastor well, but YOU DID'NT KNOW ME"

Remember I told you one question could change your world? WHY will so few be saved (Matt 7:14)? I just explained another reason to you.

grace and peace