Children Run Amuck
Without question I have been in anguish over the state of affairs around me and desiring the Body of Christ be healthy and submitted to the headship of Christ. While I have had discernment over many things I have not felt a green light to say or do anything about such things. I may at least say what I might for now.
It is imperative that the truth be told concerning right order in the Body of Christ. The time for allowing or enabling others to continue in their unfruitful behavior or, in many cases, destructive behavior has come to an end.
The place I seek to hold in the Body of Christ is for edification and the building up of the Body. This is true of all. I have in my view the health of the Body in mind. The Body is worldwide and takes in the entirety of all believers. I must look at that Body and the health of it to determine what is good and what is not good. To look at only a few in a single congregation and assume THAT is the Body of Christ gives rise to unhealthy approaches to dealing with its members. Things that may have been allowed in the local body because everyone was use to it having been some tradition or some behavior pattern that many were raised under are NOT healthy in the larger picture. Each local church or body has elements that have become acceptable within their own confines, but as the church becomes conscious and interconnected on the worldwide scale and the taking down of the denominational walls then it is more imperative that such things be removed and done away with. Such things are a liability to the Body of Christ and a liability to the effective reaping of the Harvest that is now coming before us. The word has gone out for some time that the Lord desires to put His house in order and that the apostolic and prophets would bring in that wisdom and structure to set things right. I have questioned in my heart how very willing many people really will be as we enter this time. I know that there has been a multitude of "Hallelujahs!" when this word was proclaimed; however I also know in my heart that as those many manifestations of the flesh are brought to light, there are still far too many who are going to be offended at the idea that it is time to change their behavior, throw out all that is flesh, and grow up to the real things of God. It is time to lay aside the unfruitful junk that has no real place in God or in His purposes at hand.
The application of flesh and carnal approaches to getting God's attention must come to a close if the Body expects to come into those greater things of God. One can hold on to the old things and miss out or proceed in a new way and start reaping the blessing of all that will bring into their personal life and into the corporate Body. This will also increasingly make one more effective as a workman "worthy of his hire". We should not think that if we are engaged in carnal and rampant behavior which is not in line or in tune with the purposes of God that we are in some way "worthy of hire." We are not! That person who is so bent on being a spectacle in the congregation week after week, not caring that the behavior would scare away those who may be seeking salvation, is NOT WORTHY OF HIRE - plain and simple! When there is a sincere heart and dedication towards orderliness and God's Holy structure - then we shall see the fruits from the fields coming in. Throwing out prophecies left and right that originate from the imagination or the soulish realm must cease. Those who have engaged in slapping an immediate interpretation to a vision or prophecy - when they have NOT got that interpretation from God - needs to also remain quiet. ALL forms of our fleshly and carnal behavior needs to quit while we seek to find and enter into that form of maturity God wants us to walk in. A misbehaving child I do not take to a formal event - let alone put him in charge of it - that is foolishness and God is NO fool. If one's comfort zone is to continue to act like a child than simply he has no place in the Harvest. This is NOT a word from the Lord that He will bring order to His Church - this is a call going out to GET IN ORDER. Only those with discernment in the Spirit have a handle on how this will be accomplished. Hopefully each body will have its own apostolic/prophet type that can introduce the elements needed to bring healing in the Body. The church (Body of Christ) must stop relying on those who have ran the show for so long, yet who are deficient in discernment. Just because someone has been a pastor for umpteen years does not mean they have run things well or that they even have a clue as to how things need to be changed now. Many people that already have in place God given discernment remain silent thinking they are out of order, because their behaviors differ from the rest of the antics they see going on around them in their local church-(es). Those who have continued or insisted on retaining these behaviors appear not to be willing to give them up easily. I pray that they come to the understanding from God that it is imperative that they do so and grow up. The charge we have been given is to grow up, be a witness to the world and to save the lost - we were never given the right to use the Body of Christ or church as our own personal platform for behavior in a multitude of bizarre ways.
I have been patient concerning these matters; not desiring to hurt any with any harsh words and there are no harsh words in me for those who have done these things because of the fact that a good deal of it can be explained as just the "culture" and traditions of each church. I now am motivated by a much greater urgency; the harvest at hand. And it is imperative that we remember the importance of reaping the fields without trampling down the wheat. There are those who are so wound up in themselves who do not work in the fields, but prefer to trample through the fields crushing down everything before them and not gathering anything. Already I hear the excuses in my ears of those who will resist growing up. Many who have enjoyed making a spectacle of themselves week after week before the congregation will say I want to "take away their freedom in Christ". Let me remind, or say to any of this persuasion, that - THE LORD JESUS CHRIST GAVE US NO FREEDOM IN HIM WHEREBY WE ARE ALLOWED TO BEHAVE AS WE WISH AT THE EXPENSE OF SCARING PEOPLE AWAY FROM HEARING THE GOSPEL. And I challenge any on that point. God, as I have said many times, when He does things in our presence such as a healing, it may invoke strong emotions in us and there can be a large variety of emotions expressed as God moves, but - the continual expression of obnoxious behavior as though it were God present - or more to the point - as though those emotions were bringing God forth is absurd. God in His patience has allowed this for a very long time, but it has also been as a Father allowing small children to go about their ways as children. But there has been ample time for many of them to have grown up by now and to have put aside childish things. However - for many being childish has become a lifelong pursuit. These have no place in The Harvest and no call to work in it. Let me say this - ANY child may be allowed to work in the harvest even the very smallest - I grew up on a farm and I know this. Even the smallest child is sent into the harvest if ONE = they know NOT to hurt the fruits and TWO = they are not so distracted by their own play so as to become of NO use. My words may seem harsh, but I submit that my words would only seem harsh to one that has not grown up, because a child is offended by words of correction. The one who has grown to maturity receives such words and correction with a desire to change and with dignity. It is also not our right or privilege to protect what we perceive is our rights of behavior. Jesus did not die for us to give us the right to behave as we wish - and I am not talking about sins. I am talking about what I have come to term "flesh-festing." It is not behavior from God, it is engaging in consistent behavior which gives a person a kind of "fix" as would a drug. If we desire to see a worldwide harvest then we need to carry ourselves in a mature manner that is indicative of that goal. Many churches will choose not to change to align themselves with this goal - seeking to retain the ways of the past. These will simply continue in their former ways insisting on the right to continue their behavior as they have always had and what they will reap will only be those one or two souls in the surrounding few blocks of their church who have enough intestinal fortitude to bear the antics of the old ways. Do you want to see a harvest come in or are you so selfish of soul that you simply want to continue to be a spectacle in the church? This has been permissive behavior in God's eyes as children before Him, but - as I said - as we move into the Harvest and into those greater concerns these issues carry more importance and those things that were permissible before will be of great embarrassment in the near future. As a small child wets himself the parent takes care of it and cleans him up. This is mostly done at home. When a child does this in public everyone understands it is a small child and cleaning him up is part of it. As the child grows and matures the parents expect this to stop. But now we see we are being called before the world to represent Christ in mature form and if we send into the fields those who are still wetting themselves as ambassadors of Christ we have made an extreme error in judgment. Plus - I will add, I have already seen some pastors -supposedly mature and grown up - stand up in public as though to say something from God and done no more than wet themselves in the site of those who were looking on. My concern for a long time has been in trying to convey these words to the Body without anyone getting their feelings hurt, but now my concerns have switched more toward my responsibility before the Lord and the fact that He has set me in a place where I am to take responsibility to say these things and to insist on maturity in the Body. The point cannot be emphasized enough that The Body of Christ is HIS - it is NOT a group of people in some local church that the present pastor or "shepherd" may come to think of as his personal possessions. Shepherds do well to protect their sheep from ravaging wolves and other dangerous things, but currently much more damage is being inflicted by the immaturity itself that remains in the Body. The apostolic and prophets bring correction in Love and not to hurt or wound. Their heart is for the sheep and not to even upset them, but we have reached the stage of events here where it is a matter of rebellion to continue in immature things - the time to have walked more up right in manner is well past! Tongues are a gift from God. It is NO longer acceptable that that gift, if used in ways that become a spectacle in the Body or, as I see a lot of, in a downright obnoxious and disruptive manner. Teaching is a gift. It is no longer acceptable for teachers to teach anything that can be imagined or dreamed up - teaching shall be in line with God's nature or it is unacceptable. Being a pastor is a gift and office from God - to care and feed HIS sheep - it is NOT a vehicle whereby one may continue to build a kingdom for himself and to possess and control the sheep as though they were his to do so. False apostles will be removed whose hearts and desire remain to be recognized as an apostle. Their concern has not been the health of the Body. The apostolic will tell the truth at all costs, even to his own hurt. Those who have sought to be prophets - but not called by God - need come to a place of holy respect. When a King comes near or passes by, it is not for revelry or acting up! In that circumstance all things are brought to a hush and a state of respect before the presence of the King. So it is as we come close to the presence of God coming to His Body - coming to His Temple. Shepherds need to start implementing those things that are healthy and to stop enabling or making excuses for the misbehavior of immature Christians who should have matured by now. How many of us have seen the child in the super market who was totally out of control and the parent standing by doing nothing as the child gave everyone else a headache!
I was recently chastised for my own enabling of these things that go on. One who knows more what my call is was asking me if I had intervened concerning some things that were out of control in a certain body. I said I was trying to get more credibility built up before saying anything along the lines of correction. My friend said that God commissioned me to set things straight in the Body and that as long as I was waiting for the approval of men or for authority to come from them I was already violating the authority God had given me and also by not saying anything I was becoming an enabler as much as the others. The truth to the church I say here is - grow up. Stop the antics and in some cases - sober up from having gotten drunk on so much flesh.
The Spirit and nature of God is not as obnoxious as the world has come to believe, because of what they have seen portrayed. Shepherds, get used to the idea that you shouldn't keep the sheep from growing up. Stop being an over protective father or mother; guarding the children from the corrective hand of the Father. You may not like to see the children squirm knowing they must receive correction, but the alternative is to see them destroyed as a result of having never grown up. Does any child make it, even in the world, who has been allowed to remain immature? Can any of us really believe that those immature in the spirit are going to discover the deeper things of the Spirit? We teach our children to grow up so that they will succeed and be happy and not fail. We have raised however, in the spirit, a great many who are in need of growing up now or they will fail to succeed in those things of the Spirit that are coming forth. I know I am really belaboring the point again which is one of my serious faults. I have nothing to gain by being any one's friend who wishes to remain immature or who wishes to engage in letting those around him continue their immaturity. The children have become very out of hand and those who were given charge over them have not sought to resolve many things as God desired they would. They should have trusted workers God sent them to help with the children, but many would not let others get involved with the children either, fearing they may say something that might upset them… now we have a multitude of churches full of Christians with arrested developments. And my approach here is not to come off as through I would beat the children or whip them… A good child is one who listens closely to the correction of the Father and who is sensitive and submitted to growth. That child as he may hear the words I have said here is submitted with a gentle heart to change and correction. Perhaps others will be stirred at these words and begin to desire to grow up. Unfortunately, some will be stirred with resentment by these words due to their own immaturity - and thereby prove my whole point in the matter.
Pastors / Shepherds - stop protecting the children from maturity for fear it is going to make them uncomfortable. Stop getting in the way of maturity, because it makes you uncomfortable! Evaluate those who hold church offices and do not hesitate to stop those who are engaged in various forms of the flesh, not having a clear sense of the nature of Christ. Don’t surround yourselves with those who will go with your agenda, but by those who have the maturity of Christ within them and will tell the truth and not shrink from the purposes of God in this hour. STOP PATTING PEOPLE ON THE BACK AND GIVING THEM COMFORT SO THEY WILL FOLLOW YOU AND NOT FEEL THREATENED AND START TELLING THEM THE TRUTH SO THEY WILL INSTEAD FOLLOW GOD. Your agenda is not as important as maturity in Christ to reach out to a lost world of souls.
Seek and rely on those with discernment who are aware of the changes that are needed in this time and stop trying to recapture or maintain the elements of the past. Shall the Lord come back for a Bride prepared or shall He come and find only children run amuck and those who were set in charge over them making excuses about it all?