So when the astronomer Galileo began to spread the idea of the earth and everything else revolving around a stationary sun, he attracted the ire of the Roman Catholic Church. Galileo provided a solid scientific basis for his ideas, and tried to show that his theories did not contradict Scripture at all. Nevertheless, Galileo was branded a heretic, forced to recant, and obliged to live the rest of his life as a prisoner in his own home. Today we know that the Roman Catholic Church was wrong, and Galileo was correct.

In a similar way, the Christian Religion has, for over 1700 years, successfully convinced millions of people to adopt a Church-Centered Faith. Scriptures are used to justify a view of the spiritual universe that is erroneous. It is a line of thinking in which everyone and everything connected with God is supposed to revolve around the Church: build it, support it, attend it, and invite people to join it. Christ, mistakenly credited with having founded this Church, is in their eyes obliged to protect, defend, love, honor, cherish, bless, and provide for it. Those who challenge this view are likewise seen as rebellious heretics.

The truth is that God never called us to a Church-Centered Faith. From the beginning, God has called followers of Jesus to a Christ-Centered Faith: a way of living that revolves around Christ having the central, preeminent, and most important place in a person’s heart. The Assembly of Called-Out Persons (the Ekklesia) was to be both a spiritual and a practical community of Christ-followers who had entered into a new covenant with God and with one another: to value, believe, teach, practice, and experience a Christ-Centered Faith.

That is simply another way of saying that the belief and practice of the New Testament was based upon, and centered around, a relationship with a Person. The focus was not on the systematic theology of a new religious group, nor was it the particular nuance of doctrine from a breakaway splinter group within Judaism. New Testament belief and practice was unique in that it was centered upon a Man Who lived, died, came back to life again, and would now rule in the hearts of men and women until He returned. You could say that in the New Testament universe, God clearly established that everything was to revolve around the SON.

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? I believe the answer, as it pertains to the Ekklesia, is to go back to the One Foundation that cannot be destroyed: Christ Jesus the Lord. “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11). This Foundation is strong and secure.

We must tear down the flimsy structures we have built and rebuild upon the firm foundation of Christ. I offer the following Four Pillars as a basis upon which the Ekklesia can re-establish itself in the current age and ensure the continuity of an authentic, Biblical, Christ-Centered Faith for this generation and for however many will follow.

1. The Testimony of Jesus. The preeminence of Christ must be the cornerstone of all our belief and practice. Remember, this Testimony declares that “all are saved in Him, none are saved apart from Him.” This Testimony inspires all prophetic utterance. This Testimony is our lamp, and if the lamp is extinguished, the Ekklesia ceases to exist (Rev. 2:5). We cannot dilute, distort, or disfigure this Testimony for any reason. If we fail to discern and declare the truth concerning Jesus to the world around us, then we have utterly failed.
2. Scriptural Integrity. Before we seek new, exciting revelation we must master what has already been revealed. The Scriptures are necessary for the spiritual growth and spiritual discernment of the Ekklesia. The Written Word reveals the Living Word, and the Living Word reveals the Written Word: “Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Lk. 24:27, NLT). Since Jesus thought Scriptural teaching was important for His disciples, we cannot afford to lightly dismiss it. We must know the Scriptures, obey them, and teach them to others.
3. Intentional Fellowship. The post-church landscape is a lot like the Dark Ages after the Roman Empire collapsed; with no institution to keep them in check, people ran wild. In the absence of the Institutional Church, the Ekklesia must provide safe places where people can learn about Jesus in a non-religious, non-traditional setting. Intentional Fellowship means that we gather together for a purpose: to reach up to God, to reach in to one another, and to reach out to the world around us. We must transcend the “meeting” mentality we inherited from the Institutional Church and begin to think in terms of an extended Family that nurtures long-term relationships and meets both spiritual and practical needs.
4. Passing the Torch. To successfully hand down a Christ-Centered Faith to the next generation, three things are needed. First, we must master the core teachings that constitute basic discipleship; those essential elements of the Faith that need to be passed down. Next, we must find and equip faithful people who know these essentials and will teach them to others. Finally, we must create opportunities for real discipleship to take place within the faith community of the Ekklesia – a nurturing, safe place to be born-again, to be healed, to learn, to grow, and to go forth; a place where spiritual wisdom can be imparted.

You have been set free to serve: liberated from Churchianity, free to follow Jesus, free to love God and to love your neighbor, without being bound by the Spirit of Religion.

Or so it would appear…

Because just as the newly liberated Hebrews wandered the desert for forty years without entering the Promised Land, it is possible for newly liberated Christians to wander in the wilderness for years and never discover the purpose to which they are called.

Or like the Galatians, you can easily find yourself being set free in Christ, only to become entangled again by the yoke of bondage to Churchianity.

My heart’s desire is to help you STAND FAST in the liberty wherein Christ has made you free.

To do that, I have identified Five Critical Needs for those who have escaped Churchianity and endeavor to follow Jesus “outside the camp.”

These Five Critical Needs are the conclusions we have come to after traveling thousands of miles, communicating with thousands of Christians, and observing first hand nearly every variety of church, denomination, home group, and even a few cults over nearly 30 years of ministry to people, both inside and outside of Churchianity – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Let’s talk about the most obvious one first…

1. FELLOWSHIP

It is the #1 reason why people say they attend church.

It is the #1 reason given for why people who don’t attend church should attend.

And it is the #1 reason why some people who say God called them out of church will later change their minds and go right back into the very thing they said God set them free from.

It’s a powerful force!

What is it?

Fellowship!

The need to interact with others and walk together with them is deeply rooted in every person.

Here’s the problem…

We have a “fellowship fantasy” playing around in our head about how life will be wonderful once we find fellowship.

In real life, there is no perfect fellowship, and even if we find it, it’s not as wonderful as we thought (it’s actually rather messy).

Really, fellowship is EASY.

You can get fellowship at the local bar (or pub).

You can get fellowship at the country club or the football stadium.

Fellowship occurs when people are united together by a common interest.

Fellowship among Christians isn’t really the difficulty; the challenge is agreeing on what the common interest is going to be.

You may have discovered that not all Christians are united together by a common interest; therefore, it is not possible to have fellowship with all Christians.

“But brother, JESUS is what unites all Christians!”

Theoretically, yes, that is what SHOULD unite all Christians.

But practically, you know as well as I do that Christians are motivated by many different things – and some of them have nothing to do with Jesus.

So whatever fellowship is, fellowship has to be more than starting a group or having some meetings.

In my experience, that kind of fellowship is fleeting and rather flimsy.

Same thing with “like-mindedness.” What are the odds of finding perfect agreement on everything?

Even so, we still need fellowship with others.

But it has to be the RIGHT KIND of fellowship.

For Christians called to follow God outside the camp, going back to church will not yield the fellowship you seek – or the fellowship you need – to take your faith-walk with God to the next level.

What does the RIGHT KIND of fellowship with out-of-church Christians provide?

Help.

Understanding.

Advice.

Feedback.

Support.

Encouragement.

Tough Love.

But even these things won’t be enough.

That’s because you also need…

2. HEALING

Being crucified by Christians hurts!

Well, it’s supposed to hurt.

Pain gets our attention and motivates us to make difficult but necessary decisions – decisions like: leaving church, saying “no more” to spiritual abuse, letting go of old “friends” who are convinced of your backslidden, rebellious condition.

Yes, we understand pain.

In our travels and in our interactions with people, we see a lot of Wounded. We have also been through our share of hurts.

I have seen a lot of the Wounded gathered together into home groups, re-living their past experiences, comparing battle scars the way the fishermen compared shark bite scars in the movie Jaws…

(Rolls up his pants leg…) “See that? Got that one from the pastor. Vineyard Fellowship, 1979.”

“Oh yeah?” (Pulls up his shirt…) “Got this one in the First Baptist Church, 1962. Deacon Board. Ain’t it a beaut?”

So they sit in a circle, picking apart their wounds, infecting one another with the deadly bacteria of bitterness.

Yes, pain is a natural, unavoidable consequence of life.

So is healing.

As sure as sunrise follows after darkness, as sure as Life comes out of Death, so Healing comes out of Hurt.

How could it be otherwise?

As the Scriptures say, there is a time, a purpose, and a season for everything.

There is a time to be wounded and hurt…

Followed by a time to be healed and to get on with your life: to get busy living, loving, learning.

God seeks a company of “Wounded Healers” who can truly minister to those who have been hurt by Churchianity.

Once you have begun the process of Healing, you have simultaneously begun the process of…

3. GROWTH

A middle-aged man came up to me during the lunch break at one of our day-long workshops.

His eyes were moist and he grasped one of my hands between his two hands.

“Brother,” he said, “I just want you to know that I learned more from you this morning than I learned going to church for twenty years.”

There was a mixture of emotions in the man: joy, for having discovered so many new treasures to be explored; sadness, for all the years wasted warming a pew, making no progress.

That incident has repeated itself over many years and many workshops with many different people who each expressed the same thing.

Is it because I’m such a wonderful teacher?

Not at all.

It’s due to the fact that Churchianity is content with the status quo.

I will never, ever, ever be content with the status quo.

I know the status quo all too well: don’t ruffle feathers, don’t go too far, just give people a nice, warm, fuzzy, positive, encouraging devotional talk and be sure to get them out the door by noon.

Spiritual growth and maturity is NOT the goal of Churchianity.

Churchianity has made Christianity into a passive spectator sport for the spiritually obese.

In the meantime, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6).

I believe God calls all of us to grow, to mature, to make progress, to advance.

Living things GROW.

If you aren’t growing then you’re dying.

When God sets you free from Churchianity, you have two choices: get busy living, or get busy dying.

I want you to grow, to live, and to prosper in every spiritual blessing.

Do not set your sights on merely “surviving” when you can be “thriving.”

Your spiritual growth towards Christ-centered maturity allows you to discard the unnecessary things you accumulated in the church system, which means you are finally moving towards…

4. RELEVANCE

“Brother Chip, I’ve searched all over your website for thoughts on [insert theological controversy here], but I can’t find it. Why don’t you talk about it? How could you not address this most important issue of all time?”

Probably because theological controversies and deep doctrinal debates aren’t relevant to anyone but theologians.

I’m not a theologian, and I’m not trying to reach theologians.

The Faith doesn’t so much need to be defended, or explained, as much as it needs to be practiced.

Churchianity has long divided the world with its petty disputes and religious wrangling over issues that have no relevance to a dying world or to most Christians.

We have gotten off-track and off-message from the original mission Jesus gave us.

If you have been set free from Churchianity then you have an opportunity to finally become relevant – to be real, to be honest, to live, to love, to learn, and to be accessible to people who couldn’t even find you before.

You know…

The people dressed in blue jeans who used to watch you from a distance as you dined with your church buddies, dressed in your Sunday best.

I know you’ve done it, because I’ve done it.

“I thank you, God, that I am not as other men are… or even as those people over there who obviously didn’t go to church today…”

When you are set free from Religion, you can start talking with people about Relationship.

You can start loving and reaching people that Churchianity tends to forget about.

You can finally fulfill the original mandate to “Go into all the world” and stop trying to get the world to come to you.

When people object that “the church is full of hypocrites” you don’t have to defend your church anymore, you can just smile and agree – and then point them to Jesus.

As Churchianity collapses, small groups of out-of-church followers of Jesus will carry out the unrealized goal of bringing the simplicity of Christ to the world.

You have an important part to play in that.

And once you become relevant to the world around you, you can begin to clearly see your…

5. PURPOSE

For the church-addicted, church defines your purpose: who you are, your reason for living, your reason for being.

And when church isn’t there anymore, it leaves a great big hole where your purpose used to be.

Some will wander away from one church and find another church to fill the void.

Some will wander from group to group, movement to movement, house church to house church, trying to fill the void within the context of their fellowship fantasy.

Some will wander away from God and look for carnal, worldly, fleshly pursuits to fill the void.

Others will come out of Churchianity and discover a whole new reason for living: a new identity, a new calling, a new mission, a new way of seeing the world and one another.

You have been taught that the only place God can use a person is within the narrow confines of the local church establishment.

But you will discover a new identity that is based on Christ.

And you will learn how to find and fulfill God’s Purpose for your life.

A Purpose that transcends who you meet with, where you meet, or what you do when you meet.

A Purpose that transforms you from Passive Spectator into Active Participant in the great Plan of God.

A Purpose that makes sense of all the pain you have suffered, and for which you are willing to suffer all over again, if necessary.

A “Joseph” moment, when you realize that God permitted the pain of rejection in order to prepare you for saving the lives of the very ones who rejected you.

A “David” moment, when you realize that God blessed you to be a blessing, and made you a king, not so you could be served, but so you could serve.

An “Esther” moment, when you realize that you were brought into the kingdom “for such a time as this.”

A “Paul” moment, when your personal religious pursuits are interrupted by the Living Lord, and you cry, “Lord, what would YOU have me to do?”

In those moments you will find a Purpose that is bigger than you, bigger than the meeting of your own needs.

A Purpose that makes following Jesus “outside the camp” all worthwhile.

When God begins to bring you out of church and into a deeper relationship with Himself, there is a lot of unlearning that has to take place – particularly in the area of fellowship.

It has been said that every lost person has a Christ-shaped void in their heart that only Christ can fill.  A similar thing can be said of believers who come out of the religious system.  When God calls us to be with Him “outside the camp,” there is a church-shaped void in our heart where church used to be.  This void makes us feel restless and insecure and empty.  We remember the fellowship we used to enjoy, and we begin to long for it.  Pretty soon, we begin to look for things to fill the church-shaped void in our heart.

This explains the seemingly endless pursuit of fellowship.  Some look for it in the house church movement.  Some look for it in a small-group setting, or in a living room, or at a coffee shop.  People typically gravitate towards the opposite extreme of what they were hurt or disillusioned by. Problem with the pastor?  We will look for (or create) a group without any spiritual leadership.  Problem with doctrine?  We will look for (or create) a group that agrees with us in belief, doctrine, or teaching.

Often it is nothing more complicated than trying to take all the “good stuff” we remember from our church days and attempting to re-create it outside of church – without all the “bad stuff” that made us leave in the first place.  We will simply look for (or create) an environment that delivers the best of both worlds: all the things we love about church, without all the things we hate.

Once I was in a home meeting and someone was sharing a deep hurt.  I sensed the spirit of God was about to minister a word of wisdom and comfort to this person.  Suddenly, a brother who had been flipping through an old hymn book, oblivious to the surroundings, announced, “Let’s all sing Number 423!”  Besides being rude to the other person and insensitive to how the Spirit of God was moving, what was the brother’s problem?  He was trying to recreate a certain “atmosphere” that he once enjoyed in church.  In his quest to make things happen on his terms, he completely misread the situation.  It was left up to me to tell him to hush, and why singing a hymn wasn’t appropriate at this exact moment.  He (predictably) was offended, accusing me of being “anti-worship” 🙂 . But his behavior illustrates a longing to go back and enjoy something he used to enjoy in church, without actually going back to church.

Here’s a radical thought: what if the church-shaped void in our heart isn’t meant to be filled with anything?  What if God intends for us to get rid of that church-shaped void and stop trying to fill it?  Isn’t the church-shaped void in our heart really just an idol?  And that idol not only hinders our spiritual growth and maturity in a Christ-centered faith, it also hinders our relationships with one another and prevents us from entering into real Spirit-and-Truth fellowship with one another.

5 Reasons Why Fellowship Eludes Us

Why is fellowship so elusive to us?  Everyone says they seek it, yet everyone says it is difficult to find.  Those who find it cannot maintain it for long.  Those that do manage to maintain it often end up looking more like an institutional church than a real Body of Christ.

I submit the following five reasons…

1. Indulging in “Fellowship Fantasies.”  We often create unrealistic, unbiblical expectations of what fellowship is, and then we try to fulfill those “fellowship fantasies” in the real world.  We imagine what the perfect meeting or group looks like, sounds like, and acts like – we may even experience a temporary rush at finding what we describe as the “perfect” church, house church, or group to fellowship with – but then we are surprised and disappointed to find that no one can live up to our idealistic notions.  Some will end up going back to church, and others will just go from one group to the next in the endless pursuit of “like-mindedness.”

To overcome this, get real clear on one thing: there are no perfect churches, perfect groups, or perfect meetings.  Get over your fellowship fantasy so you can interact with imperfect, immature people in the real world.

2. Chronic “Meetingitus.”  This condition is contracted through years of attending church.  Those who suffer from Chronic Meetingitus can only fathom fellowship in the context of a meeting – because that is the only context in which they have ever experienced it.

I first diagnosed this in a brother who met me for lunch many years ago.  I thought we were having good fellowship, but soon he turned the conversation around to his real purpose: where do I meet, and who do I meet with?  When I answered that I didn’t meet with anyone at the moment, his face literally fell and with a sad, whiney voice he said, “Oh, I was SO hoping to find some fellowship around here!”  And he began to regale me with all the other meetings he had attended elsewhere.  It occurred to me that if the brother really wanted fellowship, he could have had it right then and there with me sitting at the table; instead, what he really wanted was a “Meeting.”  He couldn’t conceive of any important spiritual interaction taking place outside of an official meeting or gathering.

If you are afflicted with this condition, you are severely limiting your opportunities for fellowship.   Expand your thinking to include any kind of interaction with other brothers and sisters as an opportunity for “fellowship.”  Stop trying to capture “fellowship” and stuff it into a certain time and place.  Eliminate the need for regularly scheduled meetings and open your eyes to the opportunities right in front of you.

3. The “Done For Me” Fellowship Model.  This is a variant of the typical Fellowship Fantasy but sounds more spiritual.  It’s an idealistic notion of how things “should be.”  Scriptures are produced to support an idea of how meetings and fellowship should be conducted, and this (along with a little help from our favorite house church leaders) is used as a template to critique  whatever group we’re attending.  Invariably, the group falls short of the “New Testament model” and disappointment ensues.  “You’re doing it all wrong!” the critic cries, and either causes a commotion or leaves in consternation.

But what is the underlying expectation?  We want to walk into a “done for me” fellowship that requires nothing from us.  We want all the people to be fully grown with a mature model of church government in place and everything running smoothly according to the “New Testament pattern” we envision – but we aren’t willing to invest ourselves into making it happen.  We want a ready-made fellowship that we can just show up and benefit from without having to do any of the hard work of making it work.  I doubt any such fellowship exists, or would survive for very long.

4.  Self-Destructive Self-Centeredness.   Fellowship is based on relationship.  Relationship is based on loving God and loving others.  Since love is based on putting others first, Self-Centeredness is not compatible with fellowship.  This, in a nutshell, gets to the heart of the matter.  We spent years going to church to get our needs met – the service was for us, the sermon was for us, the music was for us, the pastor was for us, the fellowship was for us.  Now we are looking for fellowship, and the motivation still revolves around getting our needs met.  We “need” fellowship, we “need” social interaction, we “need” other people, we “need” encouragement from like-minded believers.  And so, we really haven’t changed at all.  We’re still consumed, absorbed, obsessed, and infatuated with what we need and frustrated by what we don’t have.

So it’s no wonder that fellowship eludes the Self-Centered.  In the world of banking, if everyone shows up to make a withdrawal, and no one makes a deposit, the whole system goes bankrupt.  Many fellowships and groups are spiritually bankrupt for the very same reason – everyone is taking but no one is giving.  They suck each other dry with their problems, their needs, their issues.  Many would argue that the gathering of Believers is the place where people SHOULD come to get their problems solved, their needs met, and their issues resolved.  I would suggest, however, that the gathering of Believers is the place where people should come to be problem solvers, to meet the needs of others, and to help others work through their issues.  It sounds similar, but the difference is like night and day. The end result will be that everyone’s needs are met because everyone is giving without expecting to receive – and in the giving and helping and ministering to one another, our personal needs are met.  Ironically, if we focus on “getting” instead of “giving” we end up bankrupting ourselves and everyone else.  This is the death sentence for many groups that drags you down instead of building you up.

5. Dysfunctional Relationships.  The biggest reason why fellowship eludes us has to do with our own inability to understand what healthy relationships look like.  As I watch these Christian dating commercials I see women who are head over heels “in love” with the man of their dreams, gushing about what he does for them, and how he makes them feel.  I’m a little bit concerned about the future of any relationship that is based on how the other person makes them “feel.” Why? Because there is a misconception that love is based on what the other person does for me, and how they make me feel.  This is not true love at all; it is too Self-Centered to be genuine love.

A relationship is not about what I can take from the relationship, but what I can give to the relationship.  A dysfunctional relationship is based on what I’m getting out of it.  If I’m getting what I want, I’m happy and I feel loved and satisfied; if not, I am unhappy and I feel unloved, and I start wondering about the relationship.  This is 100% backwards!

But when this attitude creeps into all our relationships, the result is disaster.  When that happens, my relationship with God hinges on what God does for me – I am happy and feel loved as long as I am healthy, wealthy, blessed, and feeling good.  But if God lets me down too many times, I start to question the relationship, and I feel unhappy.  Well, that’s not love, that’s a dysfunctional relationship you have with God.

What does this have to do with fellowship?  Everything.  Because fellowship is based on relationships with others.  And if your idea of a relationship is “what can I get out of it” instead of “what can I put into it” then the relationship will fail.   It doesn’t matter if the relationship is a marriage, a friendship, a business partnership, an employer-employee relationship, or the fellowship that exists between brothers and sisters.  To make relationships work, we have to give more than we get.  A dysfunctional, one-sided relationship ruins the whole thing, and that makes fellowship impossible.

Why God Doesn’t Allow Fellowship

Here’s a strange concept: God may be closing doors in your life when it comes to fellowship with others.  We seek it, we pray for it, we complain about it, yet God does not give us what we ask for.  Why not?

1. To break religious addiction.  Often when a person gives up one addiction (like smoking) they end up taking on a new addiction (like overeating).  It is difficult to recognize an addiction and overcome it without finding something else to replace it.  In the case of religious addiction, some leave the church and immediately go out in search of another addiction to replace it.  “Fellowship” becomes the new drug of choice – it sounds so spiritual! – and people tend to wander around in search of their next fellowship “fix.”  It is a very real psychological and spiritual condition.

God will not reinforce or encourage your religious addiction by giving you more fellowship.  In my experience, He longs to have you all to Himself for a little while.  He seeks intimacy with you that you have probably never experienced before (and will probably never experience) until He can get you alone and apart with Him for a season.  The stronger the addiction, the more difficult it is to accept these seasons of being alone with God – and the more difficult it is to accept, the more necessary it is for you to learn to be totally and completely satisfied in God; so satisfied that people can take nothing away from it, and people can add nothing to it.  This is critically important to recognizing true fellowship when God allows it.  He only allows it when He can trust you with it, and knows it will not just be another religious addiction for you to become enslaved to.

2. To reduce us to Christ.  The question always needs to be asked: “Is Jesus enough for you?”  For many, the honest answer is no.  They feel they “must” have fellowship, social interaction, and the smiling faces of brothers and sisters constantly encouraging them on.  Without this support, they are moody, irritable, lonely, and dissatisfied.  Jesus is not enough for them.

For that very reason, God must deny us the fellowship we so desperately seek from others and reduce us to Christ – to bring us to the place where Jesus is all you want, and Jesus is all you need.  People can only take us so far.  If our spiritual life depends on being in constant contact with people then what happens when people are not around?  Exactly what people searching for fellowship complain of: loneliness and emptiness.

How is such loneliness and emptiness  possible?  Simply because we have more faith and assurance in the people we see around us than in the invisible, indwelling Christ Who lives within us.  People will disappear and disappoint; on the other hand, Jesus has never left us, and will never forsake us!  The solution is more of Jesus and less of everything else – and for most people, “fellowship” is part of the “everything else” that has to be sacrificed for a time, until Christ has preeminence in them.

3. To teach us the true meaning of love.  We have looked at the reasons why fellowship eludes us.  They all relate to a Self-Centered existence that is not compatible with the Christ-Centered Life, which means it is not compatible with Love.  When people get together in this state it creates more problems than it solves and does tremendous damage.  This is why many have come out of the religious system; yet, if we do not unlearn what we learned to do in church, we’ll create the same problems and do even more damage when we meet outside of the church.

God needs to do some work in us before we are fit to fellowship with others.  We have to learn what a real love relationship looks like.  Where do we learn it?  As we enter into a new season of being alone and apart with God, we begin to understand what true love is. And when those lessons of love are learned in our personal relationship with God, He shows us how to apply those same lessons of love in all our other relationships.  We benefit from a better marriage, better working relationships, and deeper, richer fellowship with others – all in due season.  Our personal relationship with God is the foundation upon which all other healthy relationships can grow and thrive.  This is why we emphasize this One Relationship above all others: it is the most important, yet often, it is the most neglected.

4. To prepare us for tribulation.  Regardless of what you believe about the Rapture and the Tribulation, Jesus says that we will experience tribulation in this world.  Many Christians around the world currently suffer persecution without the comfort of other people to support them or encourage them.  Yet, these same Christians have shown us time and again that they have a strong spiritual life, and they continue to produce spiritual fruit (including joy!) in spite of deep affliction.

If your spiritual life is based on church, or meetings, or regular face-to-face fellowship with others, what happens when those things are taken away, or denied, or not available, because of persecution or tribulation?  It has happened before, and it could happen again; and if it does, many will stumble and fall because they have not learned how to live in Christ, and find their joy in Him, without fellowshipping with others.  It is only by the grace of God that they can maintain their testimony, and they will be the first to fall when persecution arises.

And so, God often denies us the very thing we seek (fellowship) until a particular time and season that comes only after a period of seeming isolation; and even then, the fellowship we enjoy is precious because it is so fleeting.  It seems to come and go.  Our spiritual life is constantly tested by these ebbs and flows of fellowship.

But here is an interesting reality: we can only experience true fellowship when we know we can live without it.  The more we cling to fellowship, the more elusive fellowship becomes.  If we can let go of our need for other people, and find our support in Christ alone, it actually prepares us for deeper, more satisfying fellowship and relationship with others.  Getting everything we need from the Lord actually means when we do interact with others, we can support, help, encourage, and give ourselves away to them without expecting or needing anything in return.  Having God as our Source strengthens our relationships with others and puts them (and us) in a much better position: one where we can truly get out of our own world, focus on others, and make better use of the opportunities all around us for really building each other up.

This happened twice in the history of Israel, and it has happened twice in the history of Christianity. By looking back on how God has called His people out in times past, we can better see and appreciate the significance of the final exodus that is taking place at this time.

Israel’s First Exodus: God Called the Hebrews Out of Egypt

We have already seen that Moses established a “church in the wilderness” by leading the Hebrews out of Egypt and into the Promised Land by way of the desert of Sinai. This exodus is recorded in our Bibles, not just for its historical significance, but for us to learn by: “With most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us…” (1 Cor. 10:5,6). We see how they were tested in the wilderness, and how they failed many of the tests, and failed to enter into the Promised Land because of doubt and fear. We also see how many of them were tempted to go back to Egypt.

All these things are recorded so that we will recognize this tendency in ourselves today and not make the same mistakes they made. So this first exodus establishes the spiritual principle of God calling His people out and is the key that unlocks our understanding of how God goes about the difficult work of calling and setting apart a chosen people for Himself.

Israel’s Second Exodus: God Called the Jews Out of Babylon

Once the nation of Israel was established in the Promised Land, they began a slow and steady moral and spiritual decline, occasionally punctuated with godly kings and periods of repentance and revival. But eventually the wickedness of the nation called for judgment, and this judgment came in the form of Nebuchadnezzar, who conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, killed most of the people, and took the remainder as captives with him to Babylon, where they lived in exile for 70 years.

After that, the Lord once again called them to come out – to leave Babylon, journey back through the wilderness to Jerusalem, and rebuild their Temple and their city. The significant thing about this is that most of the Jews stayed in Babylon. Out of an estimated Jewish population of greater than one million people living in exile, only 42,000 returned. The vast majority preferred the comfortable bondage of Babylon to the uncomfortable, uncertain future of rebuilding their nation. The significance of this is extraordinary. Just as the young nation wanted to return to Egypt, the nation in exile wanted to remain in Babylon.

So we have two exoduses in the history of Israel that provide us with spiritual discernment into what follows after.  Let us now turn to the two exoduses in the history of the Ekklesia.

Our First Exodus: God Called the Christians Out of Judaism

A remnant of Jews did return from Babylon. They rebuilt the Temple and inhabited Jerusalem once again. Having paid the terrible price of their idolatry, they resolved to never disobey God again. But in their zeal they went to the opposite extreme of fanaticism. What eventually developed was a religious system and a hypocritical priesthood obsessed with outward appearances and obedience to the letter of the Law while overlooking mercy, grace, righteousness, faith, and love.

Into this atmosphere our Savior was sent, just as Moses was sent to Pharaoh with a mandate to bring God’s people out of bondage and into the Promised Land. And, just as Pharaoh resisted Moses, so the religious leaders resisted Jesus. Undaunted, Jesus promised another “church in the wilderness” that would stand forever, and charged His disciples to take this message to “all nations” and “to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Even with this clear direction, it would take many years for the truth to sink in: faith in Christ was not compatible with Judaism. Peter struggled with preaching Christ to the Gentiles and was rebuked publicly by Paul. James, based in Jerusalem, tried in vain to make Christianity fit in better with Jewish ideology. But once the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles, it marked the beginning of something new. The Way, as it was then called, was no longer a mere sect within Judaism. The Gentiles heard the message, and thanks to Paul, understood that faith in Christ has nothing to do with obeying the Law of Moses.

Now followers of Jesus were forced to make a decision. Were they going to “come out of Judaism” and be “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a set-apart people” distinct from Judaism, or, would they cling to their Jewish traditions and the teachings of their elders, all of whom rejected Jesus as the Messiah?

The letter to the Hebrews was written to Jews struggling with that very dilemma. After demonstrating conclusively that you cannot enjoy the benefits of the New Covenant while clinging to elements of the Old Covenant, the author concludes:

“We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin, are burned outside the camp. 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” (Heb. 13:10-13).

Once again, when offered a choice between comfortable bondage and uncomfortable freedom, we find many chose to stay “within the camp.” They were known as the Ebionites – Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah but insisted on obedience to the Jewish laws and customs in order to be saved. Of course, they also rejected Paul as a genuine apostle. This group flourished within Jerusalem until it was destroyed by Titus in A.D. 70., after which they established themselves in Pella. They persisted for some time, but by the fourth or fifth century they were no longer in existence.

Our Second Exodus: God Calls the Remnant Out of “Churchianity”

By that time, the followers of Jesus were recognized as something springing out of, but totally different from, Judaism. For about 300 years the followers of Jesus practiced their faith in simplicity and in obedience to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, even when enduring fierce persecution from the Romans and the Jews. Eventually, Rome accepted Christianity and made it their state religion. Masses of “converts” poured in. Pagan temples were converted into “Christian” churches, and more church buildings were constructed. An elaborate hierarchy of bishops was established and a religious system was organized that soon exceeded the Jewish religion, both in numbers of adherents and in material wealth. Christianity became institutionalized into three main sects: Catholicism, Orthodox, and Protestantism. Out of Protestantism, Christianity was further splintered into thousands of denominations.

So we see that Israel’s history has repeated itself in the history of Christianity. Just as God called the Hebrews out of Egypt to form a new nation, so God called the early Christians out of Judaism to form a “new nation” of kings and priests. When Israel rebelled against God and committed idolatry, they were led away to Babylon for judgment. In like manner, when Christendom rebelled against God and created an idolatrous system of worship “in Jesus’ name,” they were also brought to judgment; the chief difference being that God did not send them away – He simply gave them over to their own devices, and they were quite content to proceed under the assumption that God was endorsing and blessing the works of their hands.

This brings us to the present time. Just as God called out a remnant of Jews to leave Babylon and journey to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, God has in these last days called out a remnant of Christians to leave “Churchianity” and take a journey through the wilderness. What is He bringing them to? Not to a temple made with hands, but to a house of living stones. Not to the Jerusalem that is below, but to the Jerusalem that is above: the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly City, whose builder and maker is God. It is a “Church in the Wilderness” – not a building, but a body of people in transition between the religious system and the spiritual fulfillment of God’s original intention for the Ekklesia.

Many of us have traveled “outside the camp” in search of something more in tune with God’s own heart. I believe the most important calling we have is to prepare a place for the Lord Jesus, to give Him somewhere to lay His head. We will find that the purest, simplest expression of the Church is that which satisfies the Lord’s heart and gives Him a place.

A Lonely Jesus Withdraws

“News about Jesus spread fast, and crowds of people were coming to hear Him teach and to be healed of their sicknesses: but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:15,16).”

Many of us share a remarkable testimony. I have spoken with several who can confirm my own experience. It is this: while sitting or standing within the church service many of us have had the sense that Jesus is quite lonely, in spite of all the praise, worship, and things which are done in His Name. I recently found a book published nearly twenty years ago in which the author claims to have experienced the same feeling. It is as if Jesus is on the outside looking in. After much prayer we have come to understand that most of what is done in the name of “church” is not for the Lord at all, but it is for us.

Perhaps this explains why Jesus often withdrew Himself to a lonely place, and why perhaps He is withdrawing Himself from much of what is being done “in His Name”. If someone asks why we do not participate more often in meetings or in gatherings, all we can say is that, most of the time, the Lord’s Need is not being met in those places.

Jesus often withdrew to a lonely place. More and more, we are finding Christians in these “lonely places” who are praying, waiting, and wondering. I believe this is the first step towards finding a place for the Lord – sensing the Lord’s Need for such a place.

“The time is coming – in fact, the time is now – when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. They are the kind of worshippers the Father is looking for (John 4:23).”

If there are true worshippers, then there are false worshippers. If there is spirit and truth worship, then there is a kind of worship which is unspiritual and false.

We will not dwell on what is false, for we are already too familiar with it.

The question before us is: how may we prepare a place for the Lord Jesus? What is He searching for? Here we have some insight into what the Father is looking for, and since the Son is the express image of the Father, we know they are both looking for the same thing. Are we that kind of place? Is the Lord at home with us? Has the Lord found what He is looking for in us?

(Not in a legal sense because we are His children and He loves us no matter what we do, but in a relational sense, in a fellowship and communion sense.)

These questions are irrelevant to those who are only concerned with their own needs. Church, God, the Universe, everything revolves around them and their needs. All decisions are made respective to their own needs, wants, desires (real or imagined). No thought is ever made to meeting the Lord’s Need, seeing that His desire is met, making sure He has found spirit-and-truth satisfaction in us. That is why I say most meetings and gatherings do not meet the Lord’s Need. How can they? They are seeking to meet man’s need.

The object of this message is to provoke and challenge us towards a higher end, that the Lord may find a Place in us where His Need is met, and our needs are forgotten.

In Search Of A Place To Rest

“He was in the world, but even though He made the world, the world did not know Him. He came to His own people, and they would not receive Him. But the ones who did receive Him also received the power to become sons of God, yes, everyone who believed on His Name (John 1:10-12).”

The world did not know Him, and His own people would not receive Him. This, in spite of that fact that He is the Heir of All Things, and apart from Him no one and no thing was made. We see it in the synagogue, when one moment they are wondering at the gracious things that He said and marveling at His teaching – but by the end of the message they are trying to throw Him over a cliff. There are many such examples.

It is important for us to understand that, for the most part, the Lord Jesus is shut out and rejected from His own creation (in many ways, He is shut out from His own Church). It is not an issue of Lordship or Deity, for He remains King of Kings. The issue is always fellowship and communion. For the most part, according to the Scriptures, Jesus Christ lacks the intimate relationship He desires with His people.

Yet, there is a remnant of people who DID receive Him, and they received power! What about them? This is what we want to know: how may we prepare a place for the Lord, where He finds satisfaction and heart-rest, in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, in the middle of so much darkness?

In Search of Spirit And Truth

The Lord is seeking spirit-and-truth-worshippers to commune with. In your group, in your meeting, in your heart of hearts – has He found what He seeks?

“Look! I am standing at the door, knocking! If anyone can hear Me, open the door! I will come in to you, and we will have fellowship with one another (Revelation 3:20).”

We have often quoted this verse in the context of salvation, but it should be noted that Jesus spoke these words, not to lost sinners, but to the Church of Laodicea. Even with His own people He does not force the door open, but He patiently knocks, and waits.

Before we can prepare a place for the Lord as a Body of believers, He must have ready and frequent access to us as individual disciples. In Laodicea the situation is so bad that the Lord makes His appeal to the individual heart to take Him in. We are in much the same condition today. The issue is not salvation, but fellowship and communion.

Indeed, the corporate Life of God’s people will only rise as high as the individuals represented. That is to say, if there is no spirit-and-truth worship in our prayer closet at home, we cannot expect spirit-and-truth worship when we gather together. So often we come to a gathering expecting to “enter in” to a place in God. Instead, the gathering of believers should be the celebration and continuation of Who we have already entered into.

The worship, the adoration, the laying down of self, the ministry to the Lord, must be on the basis of the individual “Marys” who sit at His feet every day to hear Him, and the individual “Annas” who never leave the Temple, but minister to the Lord with fasting and prayers day and night. As we continue to ponder these things, may the Lord find an open door to our hearts.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you. How often I have longed to gather your children together under my wing, as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not allow it. Now your house will be empty. You will not see Me again until you say, “Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord (Matthew 23:37-39).”

Some ask how the Lord Jesus can feel any sense of loneliness or loss when He has so many children already. The answer is quite apparent. If you have three, or five, or even ten children, would you not grieve over the loss of one? How much more does the Heavenly Father long for all of His children! The Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine in search of the one. Such is the heart of Christ.

Now Jerusalem represents that which initially gave the Lord satisfaction, but no longer. It continues in the tradition and ceremony, in the outward things, yet it does not recognize Who the Lord Jesus is. The place of His rest used to be the Temple, but even it has become a “den of thieves”.

He longs to have them, to gather them under the shadow of His wing: but they would not allow it.

There is a place where the Lord is received: but it is outside of Jerusalem, away from the religious establishment, away from the scribes and teachers of Law, away from the Pharisees, Sadducees, theologians, Bible scholars and hypocrites, even away from the Temple in all its splendor.

Just east of Jerusalem, in a little village, in a single house, He finally finds what He has longed for.

Bethany Typical of a Place For the Lord

“Jesus and His disciples entered into a village, and a woman named Martha opened her home to Him (Luke 10:38).”

We know from the context of other Scriptures that this village is Bethany, which means “House of Figs”. Bethany is the place where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus reside.

You’ll remember that Jesus visited the Temple in Jerusalem, drove out the money-changers, and spent the night in Bethany. At some point He became hungry, and went to a fig tree expecting to find figs, but found nothing but leaves. So He cursed the fig tree, and it withered.

The fig tree represents “Jerusalem”. Again, the Lord’s Need is not satisfied, and this situation with the fig tree is meant to convey a spiritual truth. The Lord is “hungry” if you will, searching for something that resembles fruit, something pertaining to Life, but finding nothing but leaves – an outward show of greenery, but nothing of any substance or sustenance. But in Bethany, the House of Figs, He will find fruit.

In discussing how we may prepare a place for the Lord, we will take Bethany to be symbolic of that which satisfies the Lord’s heart and meets His Need. We are not making a case for “house churches” or making a case against “institutional churches”. We are hoping to impress upon you that what satisfies the Lord and meets His Need has very little to do with the outward appearance or geographical location. What makes a “Bethany” is not how they “do” church or how they meet (leaves) but Life (fruit).

There are seven characteristics of “Bethany”, and we will look at each of them accordingly.

1 – The Lord is welcomed and received.

“Jesus and His disciples entered into a village, and a woman named Martha opened her home to Him (Luke 10:38).”

The Scriptures mention or indirectly reference Bethany seven times. We are still in Luke 10:38 because everything we have discussed so far leads us to the first characteristic of a “Bethany”, a fruitful house, a place for the Lord. First and foremost, Bethany is the place where the Lord is received.

We have seen how the Lord is largely shut out and rejected by most of the world, even standing at the door and knocking to gain entrance into the Laodicean church. Not so with Bethany. Here the Lord gains the entrance that He has been long searching for. As such, He gains a Testimony in the earth, a golden lampstand from which His Light may permeate darkness. That is why the Churches of Revelation are typified as lampstands.

I believe this “receiving the Lord” is a definite thing, an intentional thing (and I’m not talking about “receiving the Lord as your personal Savior”). We have heard people say they hope the Lord “shows up” at their meeting or service. What kind of an invitation is that? “Lord Jesus, we welcome You, we receive You: not as a spectator, but as the honored Guest.” Now that is an invitation to fellowship. Where two or three are gathered together in His Name, He is there. It is not so much trying to get Him to “show up” as it is acknowledging, welcoming, and receiving Him as in the midst already. But He must be recognized, and our “home” must be opened to receive Him. Is there not some preparation involved?

Some who seek “the Presence of God” often covet some feeling in their emotion. We are not after “the Presence” or some powerful encounter: we are after HIM, and if we are used to seeking some kind of feeling or experience then we must make the distinction between Christ and our feeling. That is not to say we should never feel anything; but whether we are emotionally or physically affected is beside the point. The true worship is spirit and truth, not flesh and blood. Hence, Bethany receives the Lord as His, for Who He is, to minister to Him and to meet His Need.

2 – The Lord’s Word is heard while we sit at His feet.

“Martha had a sister named Mary, who sat at His feet and kept on listening to His Word (Luke 10:39).”

As we consider what it means to prepare a place for the Lord, a “Bethany”, we come to the second characteristic of this place – it is where the Lord is able to speak, where hearts are open to hear and to perceive what He is saying and doing.

There are two elements here: she sat at His feet, and she heard His Word. We must sit at His feet and hear for ourselves. We can hear His Word through other vessels – the pastor, the teacher, the prophet, a devotional, a television program, a book. In spite of an abundance of vessels we are very dull in our hearing. We are well-versed in “the things of the Lord”; nevertheless we are quite shallow. Why? We have missed the Lord for ourselves. We have not sat down at His feet personally, we are consulting and conferring with flesh and blood, receiving second, third, or fourth-generational teaching. If this is our situation then we have no root in ourselves and we are apt to wither during the heat of the day.

You must sit at His feet and hear Him for yourself. Entering into the Lord’s thought, becoming acquainted with His Ways as well as His Word, takes the sort of love-devotion Mary demonstrates. The Greek here is continuous action: she “kept on listening”. Martha listened too, but when she arose to prepare dinner, Mary remained. As we progress we will see that Mary has discovered spirit and truth, and from henceforth she is always at the feet of the Lord in one way or the other.

That is where it begins: the disciple sitting at the feet of the Teacher, lingering there well beyond what is usual and customary, hanging on His every word. So Bethany satisfies the Lord because that is where He is able to directly deposit Himself into listening hearts.

3 – Christ has the preeminence as the One Thing among many things.

“Martha, Martha. You are worried and troubled over many things: but only one thing is needed. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:41,42).”

Now we come to the third characteristic of Bethany. The place we are preparing for the Lord’s satisfaction will be a place where He has the preeminence, where everything else takes its place beneath Him. So Bethany stands for Christ having the preeminence.

We have written elsewhere concerning the One Thing which is needed. We will not repeat ourselves again, except to say that this One Thing relates to Christ filling all things as the Preeminent One. If we see that God is working all things together according to this Purpose of summing up everything into Christ, towards the One Thing, then we will naturally seek those things which are conducive to this, and we will naturally shun those things which are not.

Later we see Martha continues serving, but everything is all right – there is no complaining about Mary, and everything seems to go on as it should. It is not that service, fellowship, or preparing meals is a bad thing: it simply has to be in the right order. It is not that we cannot perform many good works and spiritual duties: but the work of the Lord must never have preeminence over the Lord of the work. In our experience, most strife and discord between Christians is the result of becoming embroiled in the “many things” and forgetting that “only one thing is needed.”

The solution? Paul said, “This one thing I do.” We must be single-minded. As we seek first the Kingdom of God then all the other things will find their proper place beneath Him. Bethany continually speaks of the One Thing, and in the midst of much distraction and turmoil, it reminds us to take our place at the Lord’s feet and keep first things first.

4 – The exceeding preciousness and worth of the Lord Jesus is recognized.

“As Jesus was reclining at the table, a woman came to Him with a jar of expensive perfume and poured it on His head (Matthew 26:7).”

We come to the fourth characteristic of Bethany, that is, the place where the Lord’s Need is met, where His heart-satisfaction lies. Now we see that Bethany represents the recognition of the preciousness and the worth of the Lord Jesus.

This sounds like a very simple thing, but it gets right to the heart of the matter. The complaint from the disciples was that this perfume, worth more than a year’s wages, could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Those who witnessed this event and protested were in essence saying, “He’s not worth it.” They viewed such pouring out as a waste.

“Unto you who believe He is precious (I Peter 2:7).” To those who appreciate the exceeding preciousness of the Lord nothing is too much for Him. Nothing poured out upon Him is a waste. Whether He is anointed with tears, or with perfume – He is worthy of all. Now when Christ is revealed to us and we begin to grow up into Him, our hearts are illuminated and we begin to grasp something of the preciousness of the Lord. The natural response is spirit-and-truth worship. This cannot be achieved with better music or dynamic worship leaders. Apart from revelation, apart from seeing, we cannot value Him in any deep sense. Worship is our response to revelation.

We want to appear to be busy doing for God, busy at our “ministry”. But there is a place where we simply “waste” ourselves on Him, and outwardly we appear to be doing nothing. Would that more believers would “waste” themselves more often, ministering to the Lord, sitting at His feet, hearing His word, ministering to Him in secret prayer and fasting! Then when they do rise up to work, how much more fruitful they will b!

5 – Resurrection Life is manifest as we are decreased and He is increased.

The fifth characteristic of Bethany is its manifestation of Resurrection Life. Most Christians want the Life of the Lord in abundance like Lazarus, but they are not willing to lie dead in the grave until they stink. In other words, they are not willing to accept the death of self that they may have the Lord’s Life. They do not mind if the Lord is increased, but they themselves do not want to be decreased. Notwithstanding, Resurrection Life is not the avoidance of death, it is passing through death in order to overcome it. The one who loses his life will find his True Life, and the one who grasps his life will lose it. Lazarus cannot experience resurrection until he experiences death.

When the Lord finds a place for Himself, a “Bethany” of believers gathered together, His own Life will be there as well. Just as we cannot have the Life without having the Law of that Life, so we cannot have the Lord without having the Life of the Lord. And, just as surely as we experience His Life working in us through the Spirit, we will experience His Death working in us through the Cross.

It is not too difficult to find a meeting or a service in which you get a sense of death, not of Life. The music, preaching, and fellowship may be well and good: but you come away hungry and deflated because the Lord’s Need is not met. The measure of the presence of the Lord or the blessing of the Lord upon a meeting, a work, or a people is always the Life. Let us not judge by outward appearances. Remember that it is not the leaves of the fig tree, but the figs, which contain the Life. The fruit of the Spirit is the outward manifestation of the inward Life.

Resurrection Life is that which has died, but now lives. It has the mark of the Cross upon it. It has passed through death once, and death can no more touch it. If we have not already passed through death then we are constantly fearful of dying, but the one who has already died and lives again has nothing more to fear from death. As we are decreased through the daily carrying of our cross, Christ in us is increased, and the strength of His Life is matured through our weakness. Bethany comprises all these things.

6 – The Lord Himself is celebrated as we “waste” ourselves upon Him.

“A dinner was given in Bethany to honor Jesus (John 12:2a).”

In John chapter 12 all the people we have discussed thus far come together into one setting. Martha is still serving, but there is no friction as before, and we surmise that she has found the proper balance between being and doing. Lazarus reclines at the table with Jesus, and this speaks of the fellowship of resurrection. His very presence at the table with Jesus is a testimony of overcoming, is it not? And of course, Mary worships at the feet of the Lord.

The dinner is given to honor the Lord, to fellowship with Him, to meet His Need, to give Him the glory due His Name. It is a celebration of HIM. So the sixth characteristic of Bethany is it celebrates the Lord Himself. Whereas praise celebrates what the Lord has done, worship celebrates Who He is. Praise can sometimes become “me” and “I” oriented (the Lord saved ME, healed ME, set ME free, gave ME power, etc.) but worship can never be centered on anything but the Lord.

Keep in mind, of course, that in the midst of this outpouring of affection upon the Lord Jesus, satan is right there to cause a distraction. Whenever someone decides to prepare a place for the Lord then you can be sure that it will not be an easy piece of ground to maintain. The flesh will try to intrude. Those who do not know any better will present a problem. They will enter the assembly of saints with their own expectation of how things ought to be, and will endeavor to make their opinion known. They have not seen the Lord, they have yet to appreciate the worth of the Lord Jesus, and will view such pouring out of ourselves as “waste”.

We note that Jesus always defended His worshippers, they never had to defend themselves. But if we must suffer for something, I can think of few things better than being accused of “wasting” ourselves on the Lord. Bethany is hallowed ground because it represents one of the last places of real estate on the earth where all activity centers around Christ as All in All. This alone makes Bethany priceless.

7 – An ascendant spirit and a heavenly testimony is evident.

“Jesus led them out towards Bethany, lifted up His hands, and blessed them as He ascended up into heaven. The disciples worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem full of joy (Luke 24:50-52).”

The seventh and final characteristic we note from the Scriptures concerning Bethany is that it represents an ascendancy between earth and heaven, between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God. Bethany is where “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” is fulfilled as a precursor to its ultimate fulfillment in all the earth.

The Church is primarily heavenly. “He has raised us up together and made us sit together with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6).” We are not suggesting that the Church does not exist at all on the earth; but we maintain that the Church is heavenly, not earthly. Though it is on the earth, it is not of the earth. Though it is in the world, it is not of the world. Much is made of us going to heaven when we die, but the goal is not so much to get the earthly into the heavenly as it is to get the heavenly into the earthly, and by extension, to maintain the Testimony of Jesus as something over and against this present darkness. Bethany provides the ground upon which the heavenly is made to bear upon the earthly.

Bethany has a heavenly savor. There is an ascendant spirit there which lifts us up to the heavenlies. If there is a failure in the Church today it is this: we live as natural, earth-bound, flesh-and-blood people who speak great things but do not live what we speak. There is no heavenly distinctiveness about us, little reality about us which suggests this other-worldliness of which we claim. We live as “mere men”, religious men, even spiritual men, but not as citizens of heaven.

Nevertheless, I believe that as we prepare a place for the Lord this ascendant spirit will break forth upon us spontaneously. It is one thing for us to try to act heavenly, and it is quite another thing for us to enter into such communion and fellowship with the Heavenly Man that we simply begin to exude His heavenliness, as the priest in the Holy Place exuded the fragrance of the sweet incense. The Kingdom of Heaven is where Christ has the preeminence and fills all things: and if this is the case with us individually, or corporately, then it can be said of us that the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived.

Prepare a Place For the Lord

“Wherever two or three are gathered together in My Name, there I am in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).”

When we take everything the Scriptures say relating to Bethany we have an idea of what it means to prepare a place for the Lord. To summarize, Bethany is the place where:

– The Lord is welcomed and received;

– The Word of the Lord is heard while we sit at His feet;

– Christ has the preeminence as the One Thing among many things;

– The exceeding preciousness and worth of the Lord Jesus is recognized;

– Resurrection Life is manifest as we are decreased and He is increased;

– The Lord Himself is celebrated as we “waste” ourselves upon Him;

– An ascendant spirit and a heavenly testimony is evident.

Perhaps you are saying, “Oh, that I could find a place where believers gather together towards this end! How I wish I could find such fellowship! I am out here in the desert with no place to go.” Brother or sister, my challenge to you is this: stop looking for such a place, and be such a place.

Perhaps you are in a lonely place because the Lord desires to use you to establish a place in the wilderness for Him. If the Lord has impressed His Need for such a place on your heart, then declare your heart a “Bethany” place and take this up between yourself and the Lord. Give the Lord some ground to build upon. Give Him His place. Do not look for multitudes of people. It is better to have one, two, or three gathered together as the Lord’s Bethany than to have hundreds or thousands of people gathered together as something other than Bethany.

Is there anyone in all the world who can truly meet for the purpose of ministering to the Lord and “waste” themselves in worship, giving no thought to their own need, but laying down their lives wholly for the Lord’s satisfaction? I pray something is stirring within someone to seriously consider this before the Lord. Many are called, but few are chosen. May He quicken this word to our hearts, and whosoever will, let them hear.

You had a fantasy about something, a false impression, and now that false impression has been exposed. You have seen the truth, and you have been dis-illusioned.

When people come to me and say they have been disillusioned with the church, I say praise the Lord – now you can make some progress! And when they come to me and say, “I’m so disappointed with God, I can’t make sense out of my Christian walk. I’m so disillusioned,” I say that is wonderful – now you’re really beginning to grow up spiritually. You cannot see the truth about God, or about the church, or about yourself, until you stop living in the world of illusions. The opposite of illusion is reality and truth. Authenticity is the opposite of hypocrisy. We have already mentioned how much Jesus dislikes hypocrisy. Jesus is the one who disillusions people so that they can see the truth behind the illusion.

But some people are so in love with their illusions that they can no longer recognize the truth when they hear it. I was teaching in a home group one time and talked for forty-five minutes about the difference between Organized Religion and the Church that Jesus is building. There was a long silence at the end of what I had shared, and an older woman to my right said, “Well, you better not speak against the Church, because it is the house of God.” I thought I must be a terrible teacher to speak for forty-five minutes and still not be able to show people the difference between the church building and the house of living stones. Then I realized the problem was not with my mouth but with her ears. Jesus said he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Anything that does not give Christ the preeminence, or gets in the way of that preeminence, or distracts people from that preeminence, is under judgment. First Peter 4:17 says, “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?” Does anyone take the Bible seriously? Peter said judgment begins with the household of God. That’s because God cannot, and will not, judge the world, or the people who do not know Him, until He has judged the people who claim to know Him.

When God judges His own household, and purges and refines His own people, the world will finally see that God means business, and He is righteous, holy, just, good, fair, and impartial. And when His Household is judged, the world will see it and be saved. God will accomplish more in two seconds than we have been able to accomplish in two millennia. Now, if you have trouble with that, if that’s a little more than you can handle right now, then please pray about it and ponder it in your heart like Mary. Search the Scriptures and just keep it before God for now.

The substance of my message to you is this: that whatever good you may find in Organized Religion does not change the fact the Jesus continues to express His dissatisfaction with the things that He is not pleased with. He will have it all according to His terms or He will have not have any of it. It is called unconditional surrender; there will be no negotiation, there will be no terms. He will not allow you to keep something of the flesh, something of tradition, a little bit of legalism. Not one bit of it. Judgment begins with the household of God. You have been warned.

Jesus says “I rebuke the ones I love when I see them going astray” (Rev. 3:19). So He says to repent. And I say to you, repent. Change your hearts. Change your minds. Change your attitudes and perceptions of things. That’s what you need to be concerned with; not changing the way you “do ministry,” but changing the way you see God, and see the church, and see yourself.

I don’t care if you are in church or out of church. That really doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is that wherever you are, you will remember that God’s Ultimate Purpose and Intention is for Christ to have the preeminence in all things. And the reason why I must speak out and give this hard word about what’s wrong with the church is because Christ does not have the preeminence in Organized Religion. At best it is a distraction from Christ, at worst it is a substitute for Christ. That is the bottom line. Put Him first and see what He says. Test this word. Ask God to show you the truth. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to you.

If something has been said to encourage you, then praise God. If something has been said to upset you, then ask yourself why you are so upset. This message may very well be a tool that God wants to use to bring some much needed disillusionment. Be willing to be adjusted to Him. Don’t resist the Holy Spirit. Don’t harden your heart. Don’t think it is just Chip Brogden having issues with the church. Lay aside your opinions, open your heart to God, search the Scriptures, and let Him show you the truth Himself.

If we aim for nothing we will reach nothing. Some Christian workers speak of a goal, some of a vision, some of a calling, some of a burden. Whatever phraseology you wish to use, you need to know God’s purpose for your life. I can be very bold and tell you that I already know what your purpose in life is. How can I do this, when I have never met you? I can boldly say I know what God’s purpose is for you because His purpose for me is the same, and His purpose for all the saints is the same. It is the ultimate aim of God, and what He hopes to accomplish through you. We are THE CALLED according to His purpose, to be THE CONFORMED to the image of His Dear Son. What a high, noble calling this is!

I am amazed and saddened at the number of Christians who have no goal, no purpose, no vision which consumes them, no motivation other than to just make it to the next church service. We ought to grieve and weep over this. Sometimes I would like to just go to these precious believers, take them by the shoulders, and give them a good shaking! Wake up, you sleeping ones, and Christ will give you light! Rise up and fulfill your destiny! There is a goal, and Paul called it “the prize of the high calling of God in Christ.” Christian brother and sister, you are meant for more than mere survival.

Spirit-Led Ministry

What is ministry? It is that service which we perform first to the Lord and then to others. David ministered first to the Lord on the harp, and later he ministered to Saul on the harp. The believers in Antioch ministered to the Lord in prayer and fasting, and afterwards they ministered to one another. Let us recognize that our first ministry is to the Lord, not to people. Perhaps you have been in a situation where the people came first, and the work became so huge and the needs so great that you neglected to minister to the Lord. Before long you felt deflated and empty inside. This happens when we are reaching out, but not reaching up.

I like the way Jesus selected His disciples, and the explanation as to why they were selected: “that they should be with Him, and that they might go forth and preach.” Their being sent forth was contingent upon their having been with the Lord. Preaching was only optional, but being with Him was the primary objective. If they will only be with the Lord then they will have something to say when they do go forth.

Of course we remember how Jesus would leave the crowds and depart for some lonely place where He could commune with the Father. It goes without saying that if Jesus found it necessary to be with the Father, how much more necessary is it for us, weak creatures as we are?

If our ministry is led of the Spirit it will bring forth the Life. “My Words are Spirit, and they are Life.” How can we tell if we are being led of the Spirit? We need only observe if Life is coming forth, for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The Life flows out from our innermost being.

Bring People to Christ

So we have talked about what Spirit-led ministry is, and we have mentioned a goal. What is the goal? The goal is to bring people to Christ.

Now let’s examine this closely. When we hear the phrase, “bring people to Christ” we are apt to think in terms of tent revivals, evangelistic meetings, and missionary campaigns. I’d like to expand your horizons a bit and get you to see that the whole aim and purpose of God is to bring us to Christ – not once, but continually, daily, hour by hour, minute by minute. Just as a wildly spinning compass eventually points to true north, so the Holy Spirit is arranging our lives and ordering our steps so that we are constantly being brought back to our “true north”, centered and focused on and into CHRIST, forever being made to see our sufficiency is of Him, that He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith, that we are complete in Him, and seated with Him in the heavenly places. As believers, we ought always to encourage and exhort one another, bringing the saint and the sinner alike BACK TO CHRIST (either for the first time or for the one thousandth time), back to their Source, back to their Life.

May I repeat my opening statement? The goal of all Spirit-led ministry is to bring people TO CHRIST, tenaciously, even relentlessly, making the most of every opportunity to give them the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Paul said we preach not ourselves, but Christ. All attempts to gain a following unto ourselves must be ruthlessly stopped. There can be no place for glorying in our selves, or in the works of our hands. If our ministry, work, or service does not continually give Christ the preeminence, if it does not constantly point away from us and unto Him, then we cannot call what we are doing the Lord’s work. There is but one work, and that work is to bring people to Christ – from the most wicked pagan to the most holy saint – and away from man.

A Word to Ministers

When Paul and Barnabas preached the Gospel in Lystra, God confirmed their message by healing a lame man. The people saw this and made preparations to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas as an act of worship to them. How did the apostles respond? The Scripture says they ripped their clothing in despair and sought to direct the worship away from them and onto the Lord. They restrained the people from making sacrifices in their honor. How glorious! How awesome! What a precious, godly example we have in these two brothers. Let us steadfastly resist any effort of man to lift us up or deify us.

Permit me to say something to you pastors, teachers, and ministers who are in the public eye, whether you are well-known or little known, international or local. If you are a true man or woman of God you will lead people away from you and bring them to Christ. Some of you don’t actually expect people to glorify you, but you don’t go out of your way to prevent them from glorifying you either. Your passive acceptance of the adoring crowds is taking the preeminence away from Christ. If you continue in this course you will lose whatever spiritual ground you may have gained in your ministry. I counsel you to repent, rip your clothing, and exhort your followers to get their eyes off you and onto Christ. You are nothing. If you had faithfully lifted Him up to begin with you wouldn’t be in the precarious place you find yourself in now. Repent, and resolve to give Him the preeminence from henceforth, even if it means losing your ministry.

We cannot help it when people offer up sacrifices to us in the heat of the moment, but we don’t have to stand there and let them do it either. Paul and Barnabas demonstrated with word and with deed that they were only servants of the Most High. Later on, when the Corinthians were claiming to be followers of Paul, of Peter, or of Apollos, Paul was faithful to call them away from themselves. “Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Who is Peter? Were we crucified for you? Were you baptized into our name?” Paul never failed to give Christ the preeminence in all things. That’s why his ministry is still bearing fruit today. A ministry built around some man or some woman will only last a few years beyond their death.

Of course, Paul did say, “Follow me, as I follow Christ.” But note how he qualified his words. It is very clear. He says follow me AS I follow Christ. Not “follow me because I am the Apostle Paul”. At any moment a young Christian could look at Paul and see if Paul was following Christ. If Paul was following Christ, then he knew it was safe to follow Paul. If Paul was not following Christ, then they were under no obligation to follow Paul anymore. Paul says in effect that the moment Christ is no longer preeminent in my life, stop following me. How glorious this is! In another place he says, “Those things which you have learned, received, heard and seen in me, do, and the God of peace will be with you.” And what did Paul do? “This ONE THING I do: forgetting the past and reaching forward, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. I rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in myself. I am a dead man walking, and my real life is in Christ. I boast about my weaknesses.”

Let me say something about this man Paul. He was consumed by Christ, and only a man so consumed is fit to be an example worth following. His happiest letter, Philippians, was written from jail. His body bore no less than 195 angry red scars received from being scourged five separate times with thirty-nine lashes each, not to mention the contusions, lacerations, and broken bones he received from being stoned and left for dead, beaten with rods, and nearly torn limb from limb by angry mobs. It is safe to follow a man who bears in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. His wounds are his credentials.

This man has seen Someone. I want to know what drives a man to die daily for what he believes. This is something supernatural. This goes beyond a little goosebump on Sunday morning, or a little tingle or jingle we feel from time to time when the music gets real good. Paul had a goal and a purpose, something worth living for, something worth dying for; and that was to be into Christ, and bring people to Christ. He said “follow me as I follow Christ,” but he never looked backwards to count how many were behind him. He knows where he is going, and if you want to get there, you’ll follow or be left behind. He is single-minded in his passion for Christ.

The Gift of Ministry

I would like us for a moment to not think about ministry gifts and think instead of the gift of ministry. Your God-given ability to serve is in and of itself a gift, since most people want to BE served. There is much talk about the five (or four) -fold ministry gifts. People want to know what their gift is so they will have something to put on their business card. They want something printed in gold on the front of their Bible. I saw a Bible like that once and the gold title and name was so long it barely fit on the cover.

I have never been able to figure out what my ministry gift is. It used to be a source of frustration to me. One minute I think I’m a teacher, then someone says I have a pastor’s heart, someone else says I have an evangelist’s mouth, another says I have a prophet’s scowl, and another says I have an apostle’s revelation. I’m not sure what should go on my business card.

I finally realized it didn’t matter! I started becoming preoccupied with the Gift instead of the gifts! My Gift is Christ: possessing Him, I have all (yet not I, but Christ in me). So whatever else I may be is up to the Lord, and He will work it out as He sees fit. Having never met you, I can tell you right away that your Gift is Christ. Of course, how that Gift expresses Himself through you will be something for you to discover. I only encourage you not to put Him into a ministerial box, saying, “I am thus and so, and so I can never be this or that.” Friend, you are nothing, and He is all, and one never knows how He will use a yielded vessel.

But for the purpose of our discussion, let’s take what we have learned so far, look at it in the context of the five-fold/four-fold services and see what we should be looking for in someone who claims to be a teacher, pastor, evangelist, prophet, or apostle. Remember, the goal of every Spirit-led ministry is to bring people to Christ: continually pointing away from itself, diverting and directing all attention onto Him. Concerning the so-called ministry gifts, the Scriptures tell us that they are given “for the edification (the building up into Christ) of the saints.” So let’s take a closer look at them.

Teacher

How does the teacher approach ministry? The teachers will realize that they have nothing to teach except what the Spirit is teaching, for He is the Teacher, and He is Truth. They will not come to the Body and give out a plethora of messages, thoughts, opinions, and think so’s. If they look to the Spirit for words, and the Spirit is going to always testify of Christ, what do you expect the teaching will do? It will bring people into a deeper knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

One should not presume to teach the Body as one would teach a high school or college class. We do not teach in order to impress others with a fleshly display of knowledge. The teacher is not merely performing an academic exercise with the students, but is bringing people further into Christ through the teaching of the Scripture, speaking Spirit and Truth Word which will impart Life to the listeners. When we speak we must decided whether we will talk out of our head or out of our spirit. The former is concerned with imparting head knowledge, while the latter is concerned with revelation. The first is a dead thing while the second is Life for the Body.

At some point we have to stop dissecting the nutritional value of the food before us, analyzing the menu, studying it under a microscope, and exchanging recipes. The Body needs tangible meat, bread, water, milk and honey. Strive towards actually feeding people instead of just talking about the food and drink. People are starving. GIVE them the Life first, then analyze it all you wish.

I used to murmur and complain that “no one” wanted to hear my message. That may be true if we are bringing a message other than Christ. But if we speak Christ then everyone wants to hear it, whether they realize it or not. People are dying for the Word of Life which you carry. It is true that everyone will not listen, but anyone might, and somebody will.

You may not be able to describe the difference in words, but just listen to a few people teach and you will quickly know who has the revelation of Christ and who does not. Either there is Life or there is no Life. You either leave feeling as though you have eaten a full meal, or you leave feeling as though you are still hungry. May God show us the difference.

Pastor

How does the pastor approach ministry? He (or she) will realize that the Lord is the Pastor / Shepherd, and they are undershepherds, little more than an elder sheep themselves. Of course, someone with a pastor’s heart (whether they are recognized as a pastor or not) will watch over the sheep, love, protect, and encourage them at every opportunity.

Oh, there have been so many abuses of the flock among so-called shepherds. Some wolves have snuck in unawares and devoured part of the flock. How can we discern a real pastor? By realizing there is more to pastoring than watching over the sheep. A real pastor will direct the sheep to the Good Shepherd, bringing them to Christ, leading them along the narrow path and into the fold so there will be One Flock under One Shepherd. Please read John 10 and pay particular attention to the phrase “one flock and one shepherd” in verse 16.

As you can see, being a pastor is more than having my own little flock with myself as their own little shepherd. Once we see there is truly only One Flock and One Shepherd it will instantly clear up issues concerning who, where, or how we should meet. How simple this is. It eliminates all denominational and doctrinal prejudices. It does away with the competitive spirit and enlarges our hearts towards the saints wherever they may be found, both within and without the camp. We will receive all whom the Lord receives instead of filtering people through theological and doctrinal tests before we will fellowship with them. Let us not call “unclean” what God has called “clean”. I pray the Lord will open our eyes to see before God we are but One Flock under One Shepherd.

A shepherd is a sheep-herder, and he herds sheep. Where does he herd them to? Into the One Flock under the One Shepherd, for the sheep are scattered all over the face of the earth and divided into their own sects and peculiarities. The One Flock is the Ecclesia, the called-out assembly of those who have the revelation of Christ, and the One Shepherd is Christ Himself. There is no other. Meditate on that and broaden your vision to encompass more than your little four walls.

We are One Flock in Christ, and all the sheep belong to the Good Shepherd. Nothing belongs to us. If you think you own even one little ewe lamb you are laboring under delusions of grandeur. How ridiculous to talk about one pastor stealing another pastor’s sheep, as if they belonged to one or the other to begin with!

The Lord Jesus did not tell Peter to go out and gather together some sheep who would elect Peter their shepherd. Three times the Lord said, “Feed My lambs!” Whose lambs? “MY LAMBS!” says the Good Shepherd. The sheep belong to Him, so be careful how you treat them, or you will discover that the Lord has more than one use for His rod and His staff.

Again, the object is to bring people to Christ, not to gather them together into tiny little folds in your own name and for your personal benefit. Alas, some will not embrace the vision of One Flock and One Shepherd because to embrace such a vision means their selfish ambition will have to die. They will view this as a great personal loss. But the ones who know God realize that it is a tremendous gain, for in giving up their own little flock they gain the whole Kingdom.

Evangelist

How does the evangelist approach ministry? Well, if the whole object is only to have some meetings, preach some messages, have some altar calls, and record some decisions, then it falls short of bringing people to Christ. Why? Because anyone can go forward when their emotions are aroused and make a profession of faith. Many will say, “Lord, Lord” and have the Lord reply, “Who are you? I do not know you.”

An evangelist brings the Good News. What is the Good News? The Good News is it is complete, it is finished, it is accomplished, it is summed up in Christ. If our Good News is that you can miss hell and go to heaven, it is not much different than any other religion on the face of the earth. No, our Good News revolves entirely around a God-Man. No one else can make this claim. The Testimony of Jesus is the exclusive inheritance of the Ecclesia.

Remember the case of Phillip the evangelist and the Ethiopian prince? The Spirit of the Lord led Phillip to a certain place where he fell into step with the prince’s caravan. There he heard the prince reading aloud from the chapter 53 of the prophet Isaiah. Phillip, seizing the opportunity, asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The prince invited him to take a place beside him. What did Phillip do then? Starting with that passage he went through the entire Old Testament and brought him to Christ. And I don’t mean he got him to pray the sinner’s prayer. He literally brought the man to Christ. Thank God he didn’t talk about joining the church in Jerusalem, or planting a “seed-faith gift” into his own ministry, or walking the aisle, or signing a decision card. He preached Christ. The result being that the prince came to the Lord of his own free will, was baptized, and went away rejoicing.

Jesus, speaking to the woman at the well, said, “If you knew the Gift of God, and Who it is that is speaking to you, you would have asked, and He would have given you Living Water.” If you only knew! This is what evangelism seeks to do. The evangelist has a knack for bringing people to Christ (saved or not) by making the most of every opportunity. Christ indeed was the Master Evangelist. He talked about water, seed, vines, wind, rain, birds, flowers, rocks, fish, bread, whatever He could use from the raw elements of the environment He found Himself in. He spoke to the crowds in the Temple, from a boat, inside a house, on a hillside, on a mountain, by the lake, by the river. He was everywhere, proclaiming the Good News about Himself.

“The Kingdom of God is like a man on a journey… a farmer sowing seed… a fisherman casting his net… a woman baking bread…” The Lord seems to have an endless supply of illustrations and parables. In my heart I believe this is the genuine gift of evangelism, the aliveness to every opportunity and every means available for bringing people to Christ through the Good News, whetting their appetite for the things of God, fishing for the souls of men and women. If you absolutely must have a stage, bright lights, and organ music to accomplish this then I don’t think you have the gift.

Prophet

How does the prophet approach ministry? He (or she) realizes that the Testimony of Jesus is the inspiration of all prophetic utterance. So the prophet will be someone who knows the Lord through many seasons of breaking down and building up, that the Testimony of Jesus will not only be in their mouth but in their PERSON. The prophet does not just bring a message, he or she IS the message. And the message is Christocentric.

John the Baptist was a prophet of God, but not because he could deliver a thunderous word from the Lord. I don’t recall that he ever made a single prediction apart from the revelation of Christ. Everything about John the Baptist was a message. His clothing was a message from God; he didn’t just decide one day to start dressing a certain way. His diet of locusts and wild honey was a message from God, not his natural preference. His method of baptism was a message, not just a new method to get attention. His location by the Jordan was a message of great significance. His demeanor was a message. Here is a man who has been thoroughly dealt with by the Lord. It was not enough to hear what he had to say, you had to experience the man himself. This is where “Internet Prophets” are going to have a hard time. It is not your words, but your spirit, which really matters.

Now what was John’s message? He only had one thing to say: repent, and get ready for the coming of One who is mightier than I. He is proclaiming Christ Jesus, not himself. He is bringing us the revelation of Christ. Now what is his philosophy of ministry? “I must decrease, and He must increase.” This nicely sums up what we are endeavoring to tell you in so many words. Please note again that the actual minister fades into the background as the preeminence is given to Christ. The vessel is overshadowed and lost altogether in the bright light of His Son. Oh, for a clear prophetic word from a man or a woman who is not trying to have the preeminence!

Apostle

How does the apostle approach ministry? Again, we return to Paul as an example of what an apostle is. What was his commission? What did God command him to do? “I have revealed Myself to you for this purpose: to make a you a minister and a witness of the things which you have seen of Me and the things which I will reveal to you (cf. Acts 26:16).”

The Greek word “apostolos” means “sent one”. The apostle is sent as a witness to the revelation of Christ. What is a witness? A witness is someone who has seen something firsthand. To repeat something in court that you have not observed yourself is known as hearsay. It is inadmissible. But a witness testifies as to what he has seen and heard.

By their own laws, the Jews were commanded to accept the testimony of two or three witnesses as truth. Peter and John gave expert testimony that Jesus is the Christ. But the Jews would not listen. Instead, they commanded Peter and John to stop preaching and teaching in the Name of Jesus. Observe their response to this edict: “We cannot help but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” Again, the revelation of Jesus is a matter of seeing.

We may also see that the apostle is something like a teacher, pastor, evangelist, and prophet all rolled into one. This does not make them into great ones, it simply means they have been brought down to such a low place of obscurity that they are hardly recognizable anymore. They are led by the Spirit to plunge headlong into whatever task the Church needs them for. Apostles do more than build churches, they build up the Church. Please be careful to see the distinction. Their work is directed towards the entire Body of Christ, which is why they cannot settle down into one location for very long. Apostles are sent forth with a revelation that is larger than themselves. You can no more contain THEM than they can contain IT.

Persecute apostles in one city and they just go on to the next. Send them into exile and they receive more revelation. Put them in jail and they will commence to writing Scripture. Put them on trial and it becomes a pulpit. Send them to their death and they will convert the executioners. True apostles cannot be silenced. Do you think Nero silenced Paul just by chopping off his head? By no means. Paul is still speaking and bearing witness for Christ through his writings. Being dead he yet speaks. Hallelujah!

Brothers and sisters, let us be faithful to the Lord and to His Body. Whatever He has given you to do, do it with all of your might, working not from your own limited strength, but working according to His Power which works in you mightily! Be released man of God! Be released, woman of God! Take heed to the ministry which He has called you to, that you fulfill it, and fulfill it to the fullest measure. Bring people to Christ, and enter the depths with them. Forget the past, and press forever onward and upward towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. Faithful is He Who calls you, and He will do it. Amen.

Please understand that we do not question the right of any religious group to peaceably assemble together, elect their leaders, receive monies, have membership requirements, and govern themselves in the manner they see fit – as long as we realize that such a right is a civil right and is neither inalienable, Scriptural, or mandated by God Himself. That doesn’t make it wrong, but neither does it make it spiritual. The Ekklesia is not an organization or invention of man, but an organism filled with the Life, and whether we worship “in Jerusalem or in this mountain” is not as important to God as whether or not we worship Him “in Spirit and in Truth.”

So where is the distinction? What makes it an issue? It becomes an issue when spiritual or Scriptural significance is erroneously attached to a mere social contrivance, cultural norm, religious tradition, organizational structure, or place of meeting. When the waters are muddied and the lines are blurred between the social expectation, tradition, or custom of the religious organization and the true spiritual life and essence of the Ecclesia or the individual believer then such a system has the potential to evolve into a dangerous form of spiritual abuse or religious elitism.

What is Babylon? It is the marriage of church and state, religion and government; or to be more direct, it is allowing the leaven of the world to spread via Organized Religion and Institutional Christianity. As an example, consider how pastoring a church has become more of a profession than a calling, and how church government has digressed from a theocratic, Spirit-led consensus to a “Spirit-led” democracy, or worse, a “Spirit-led” benevolent dictatorship of a single pastor or a church board. This is the result of the spirit of Babylon. Whereas the True Church is to be “in the world, but not of the world”, Babylon is that which is both in the world and of the world – it is by, for, and of the worldly system, yet it retains the outward appearances of godliness and spirituality. It is a synthesis of God and man, taking the best that each has to offer and fashioning a golden calf with it.

Babylon is always antithetical to Christ. It is anti-Christ. Babylon is represented as a religious whore riding on top of a beast which kills the prophets and saints of God. Perhaps we have missed the point by personifying the Antichrist as a Hitler-type world leader bent on global domination. Antichrist is the religious antithesis of Jesus Christ which flows from Babylon AS Jesus Christ. It is not coming, it is already here, and has been here from the beginning. Perhaps denominationalism is the real mark of the beast. If so, it is no wonder that so many are willing to accept it.

The True Cost of Church Membership

Usually when you join an organization it’s because the price you pay for membership is justified by the benefits of belonging. For example, it costs a great deal of money to join a country club. The benefits are prestige, use of the facilities, social interaction, and networking with successful people. Or, in the case of a professional association, your membership gives you name recognition, credibility, current information affecting your field of expertise, social interaction, and networking with your peers.

How does the organization benefit? They get to charge and collect dues from their membership in order to pay for staff, executive officers, facilities, marketing, expanding their membership base, and other projects. So their motivation is primarily financial.

Now let’s look at Organized Religion. How does the church gain from your membership? They stand to benefit in at lease five major ways. What are they after? Mostly financial support, followed by leadership support, doctrinal support, attendance support, and volunteer support. Let’s look at these individually:

• Financial support means they have the right to expect their members to make donations in the form of tithes, offerings, love gifts, fundraisers, pledges, building funds, and the like.- Leadership support means they have the right to expect their members to agree with the stated mission of the church and the pastor.
• Doctrinal support means they have the right to expect their members to adhere to the stated spiritual philosophy and teachings of the church and/or denomination.
• Attendance support means they have a right to expect their members to be present at a majority of services and functions (perhaps you’ve heard the expression, “Visitors welcome, members expected”).
• Volunteer support means they have a right to expect their members to donate their time and volunteer as nursery workers, Sunday school teachers, bus drivers, or whatever is needed.

In addition, the church enjoys a greater control over its membership by meting out discipline when someone goes astray in one or more of the above areas. This typically plays out in sanctions against the offending member resulting in the loss of a leadership position or voting rights.

Whether or not these expectations are realistic, fair, or Scripturally justified is beside the point. The point is, THIS is what you are buying into when you decide to join a church. These are the standard expectations and conditions of membership in a typical church. They are not necessarily unreasonable when considered from a business perspective – if you don’t pay your dues to the country club you don’t get to use the golf course.

But to determine if church membership is for you, you have to do the other side of the cost-to-benefit analysis. The benefits to the church are many, but what’s in it for the member? Basically, the church member gets a vote in major decisions like picking a pastor, a say-so in some financial matters, and the privilege of being in leadership (Sunday school teacher, worship leader, etc.) if you have a penchant for such a thing.

Remember at the beginning of this article I wrote that you join an organization because the price you pay for membership is justified by the benefits of belonging. Take into account the amount of time, money, and cooperation expected from church members, and the tremendous amount of individual control that is relinquished to church leadership. Then consider what you get in exchange – a small part in the political process of church government. Is it really worth the investment?

The Gospel According to Organized Religion

Those who ballyhoo the spiritual benefits of joining a church should be reminded that we are already joined to the Body of Christ, the Ekklesia, and are already realizing every spiritual benefit of membership in HIS Church. The only qualification for such membership is a New Birth. There is no responsibility but to abide in Him, and every action springs forth from that abiding. Joining a church may be good, proper, beneficial, and moral – but it is not a condition of salvation, thus it is not a condition for being a Christian.

Many Christians believe that we are saved by grace because we are unable to achieve salvation through good works (unfortunately there remain many more who believe they can work their way to heaven apart from Christ). But what happens once they acknowledge this truth and trust in the Lord to save them by grace? Immediately, Organized Religion comes along and convinces them that they now have to work to keep that which is freely theirs in Christ. What do we mean? They are instructed to pray, read the Bible, join a church, give to the work of the Lord, witness to everyone they meet, stop doing so and so, start doing this and that.

We are not arguing that these things are wrong. We are pointing out an inconsistency in the Gospel according to Organized Religion. What is the message here? That good Christians do “X”, and don’t do “Y”. What is the end result? We are trying to please God. We could not please God as sinnners, but now that we are Christians it is our duty to please Him. So we set out to do so, and unwittingly fall into a works-oriented faith.

What Organized Religion fails to convey is that you can no more please God as a Christian than you can as a sinner. Any attempt to please God with your charitable deeds, church service, or spiritual activity will be met with frustration and failure. We are not interested in how good, holy, just, proper, or moral your deeds are; we are only interested in your motivation for doing them. Many are laboring and sweating at trying to live Organized Religion’s idea of a good Christian life. They have fallen from grace, and are consumed with works.

The most righteous man or woman on earth cannot please God by their righteousness. Take all the righteous men and women on earth and put them together and they still will not measure up. But go further than that, and store up all the righteous deeds of every righteous man and woman who has ever lived on the earth and pile them up together and the wide gulf between God and us will still be as large as it was before. Our very best effort amounts to nothing. Nothing! We cannot please God in and of ourselves.

What then? There is One Man who is pleasing God, and that is His Son, Jesus Christ. “This is my Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” Ah, the crux of the matter is Jesus Christ, not me. We live the Christian life the same way we enter the Christian life, that is, by trusting Jesus Christ to do something in and through me that I know I cannot do myself. It is not as I am, but as He is, that makes the difference.

“Come unto Me, all that are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Rest from what? The excruciating burden of work, toil, and labor under the cruel hand of Organized Religion.

Fellowship Apart from Organized Religion

If we are one with the Head, we are one with the Body, even if we are not gathered together. But, if we are not one with the Head, we are not one with the Body, even if we are gathered together.

If we are walking in the Light as He is in the Light then WE HAVE fellowship with one another whether we are attending a church building or not. Joining a church is not a condition of fellowship. Some join a church for the social benefits – meeting other believers, making friends, etc. Perhaps they don’t realize that they can still fellowship, meet other believers, and even make friends without actually joining a church. In fact, you’ll attract far more attention as a mere attendee (if attention is what you seek, and that’s another cause for concern). As a potential but as-of-yet-not-signed-up visitor, there are virtually no expectations placed upon you. When you give money it is appreciated all the more because they know you aren’t obligated to do so. When you donate your time and talent as a non-member it is all the more impressive because no one is expecting anything from you. And when you show up for a service or function it isn’t taken for granted.

The faithful members and their leaders often label those who regularly attend different churches but do not join any of them as “Churchhoppers”. These creatures flit about from group to group, “Churchsurfing”, hoping to find the perfect pastor, music program, youth group, etc. Churchhoppers are criticized for their unrealistic expectations and lack of commitment. To be sure many of those participating in the “Church Shopping Network” are so infatuated with their needs and wants that they will never be satisfied and will forever remain uncommitted. But before we write off this group of people we would do well to enquire into their personal history with churches, what they are seeking, and why they are unwilling or unable to commit to church membership. We may discover a history of hurt or a pattern of spiritual and emotional abuse that has left them wary of churches in general. We may find the churches they visit to be cold, aloof, or cliquish. That they even make an attempt to attend somewhere is a positive sign, but the phenomenon only underscores one of the troubles with Churchianity today. Many more have left, never to return again, and we can only speculate as to their real spiritual condition before the Lord.

Among aggressive, growth-oriented churches the goal is to persuade you to join the church (actually discussed among pastors privately as “getting you plugged in” or “getting fresh blood”). This is presented as the next logical step of your attendance. Once you do decide to join, however, the tide changes, the wind shifts, and the honeymoon is over. The list of expectations, rules, regulations, and by-laws make their appearance. You are educated in what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Suddenly your performance is being measured in terms of dollars contributed, services attended, and hours donated. All too often, consciously or unconsciously, your worth as a member is determined by your overall “support” factor.

Of course we do not mean to suggest that every single church is engaged in a conspiracy to use their members as unwitting pawns to achieve some wicked end, or that the pastor and deacons conduct covert meetings in cigar smoke-filled underground cellars thinking up strategies to trap unassuming visitors into a black-hole of church membership. We’re only pointing out how easy it is for the generally accepted attitudes, traditions, rituals and practices of Organized Religion to quickly deteriorate into something wholly other than what the Lord has in mind for a community of Believers. Our contention is that the way we go about “doing” church is far removed from what “being” the Church is all about. Church as most know it has become a business, social, or legal arrangement, not a community or family. As such, our assertion is that Organized Religion seeks, retains, and manages its members in much the same way as a country club – but without the golf course. It provides a mostly intangible, invisible (and therefore highly subjective and difficult-to-quantify) service while expecting tangible, material things in return: your cash, your time, and your allegiance.

We are not necessarily advocating a boycott of church services, but we do wish to demonstrate the difference between joining a church and attending a church. In the case of membership, support is expected and enforced. Non-conformers are removed from membership, and although the instances of actually refusing to allow someone to attend services are rare, the amount of psychological pressure brought to bear upon the offending member is usually enough for them to leave on their on accord.

The Issue of Financial Support

The motivation for all financial support should be “as the Spirit leads”, not as the rules of membership dictate. For example, a Christian should give not under compulsion, but liberally, from the heart, as led by the Spirit. That sort of giving cannot be legislated, no matter how hard you try, through spurious teachings on the ten percent tithe, “sowing and reaping”, “love” offerings, “faith promises”, etc. – yet that is precisely what Organized Religion attempts to do.

Notwithstanding, anyone deriving a benefit from an organization should support it. If you attend a church at all, member or not, you should modestly compensate them for the trouble of providing you with climate-controlled facilities, nursery care for your kids, and refreshments during Sunday school. That’s just good manners. If you eat the food you should offer to wash the dishes. Beyond that, you should wholeheartedly and unreservedly give as the Lord directs you to give. That could mean an offering in the collection plate, the donation of clothes or food, anonymous gifts to individuals in need, and the like. Ours should not be an “I don’t owe you anything” attitude. We should always give more than we take. But once our freewill support is legislated and expected as a condition of membership in a religious institution, it ceases to be spiritual and philanthropic. We are no longer giving with no expectation of receiving. Instead, we are giving in order to receive or maintain the privilege of membership. Therefore, we have our reward here on earth, and not in heaven.

Christians should be encouraged to give anonymously in order to ensure no reciprocal benefit. Jesus says when you give a gift don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Yet Organized Religion has to have some means of enforcing the Financial Support clause of the membership contract. How? With those little offering envelopes and a place to write your name. Remember that for every benefit there is a loss of freedom. It’s certainly your right to claim the tax deduction if you wish, but in exchange for that benefit you lose anonymity. Now the church has a way to track your giving (or lack thereof), and if you don’t think they will use that to their advantage if necessary, you better read your membership contract again. Even so, a few pastors have resolved to take no knowledge of the personal giving records of their members. Though an admirable first step, you can still rest assured that someone in authority at the church has access to the information and it can and will be used against you if necessary. For instance, when you’re being considered for a leadership position, or when the church board wants to determine the active voting membership. Of course, if you aren’t a member, none of that will matter to you anyway. But it again demonstrates that your value as a church member is being measured in dollars and cents.

Jesus did not advocate anonymous charity in order to make us paranoid or fearful of being caught doing a good deed. He did it to liberate us, to enlarge us, to help us experience the pure joy of a no-strings-attached gift, to ensure we would not become proud, and very importantly, to prevent others from rewarding, manipulating, regulating, or expecting us to give to them on a continual basis apart from His direction. He understood how easily people, even with the best of intentions, make value judgments of others based on material possessions (see James). He obviously didn’t want that to be the case among His people. Unfortunately, acquiring, building, and catering to people of affluence has been the modus operandi of Organized Religion since its inception, and continues to run rampant in Churchianity today. Yet for all its money and temporal possessions, Organized Religion has always been in a state of spiritual impoverishment.

The Issue of Leadership Support

Support of the pastor and his vision cannot be mandated; either the Spirit bears witness with what is happening or He doesn’t. Titular authority is based on perceived rank, status, charisma, spiritual gift or popular appeal: it’s a fantasy, a piece of dirt painted gold.

The philosophy of Organized Religion is to maintain the distinction between clergy and laity. To reinforce this philosophy most churches consider the pastor (or priest) to be the spiritual head of the church. Most pastors see the local church as an extension of their own personal ministry and calling, thus the congregation is made in the image of the pastor. It is important that we note this carefully, for we maintain that God’s people do not belong to anyone but Christ, and the Church is His Church, and not ours. All authority is given to Him, and whatever weight or influence we as individials have over one another is ours by reason of our depth of knowing Christ and our willingness to love and serve one another. The “elders” are just that – those who are older and more experienced in the things of the Lord, the implication being that they are more conformed to His image and are thus gentle, loving, kind, and able to instruct and encourage the younger.

But who are the leaders of Organized Religion? Those who have been elected to fill leadership positions. Democracy is a fine system of government, but we note that the Kingdom of God is not and never will be a democracy. The political process of church government is as corrupt as the political process of secular government. What makes it worse is most people know how corrupt secular government is, yet they seem either unable or unwilling to believe the same corruption exists in their own church. If you’ve ever been involved in a church split you’ll understand when I say the political intrigue and behind-the-scenes treachery rival a Tom Clancy spy novel.

Again, we are speaking in generalities. But a thinking person must admit that something is wrong with a process in which a pastor can be voted into and out of the position of spiritual leader by a certain majority of the congregation. If this were God’s way then Moses would have been voted out, Israel would have returned to Egypt, and they would probably still be there making bricks today. Spiritual processes and God’s holy call and selection cannot be reduced to search committees and paper ballots. Once the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they stopped drawing straws and started praying towards a consensus. The Spirit made it evident who He wanted. A distinction needs to be made between what the majority wants and what the Lord wants, as typically there is a difference between the two.

The process and method of selecting deacons and board members is even further removed from the Biblical idea of the diakonite. Invariably we find those who rise to some level of church leadership are big financial supporters or have some family connection to the establishment of the church.

In most cases, there is no mutual submission, as the Bible commands. Instead, submission is a one-way street from bottom to top. Those who know God understand that calling attention to one’s supposed “authority” is a sure sign that there is no authority to be found there. Real authority doesn’t have to vaunt itself and demand others be subject to it. I received a letter once from a human religious authority I was involved with that took me to task for “attitudes and opinions which imply a compromised loyalty to the church and the pastoral leadership.” Human authority is threatened at the mere suspician of independent thought, whereas God’s authority never defends its rights or demands capitulation. Since it sees God as the only Head of the Church it is not possessive over God’s people and is neither compelled to defend itself nor insistent that everyone do things its own way. It sees itself as a steward, not and owner, of what God has given.

The Issue of Doctrinal Support

At first glance doctrinal support of the church you aspire to join seems self-evident. Yet denominations have an incredible knack for making doctrinal mountains out of molehills. We agree everyone who names the Name of the Lord should be in one accord on major tenets of faith, such as the fall of man, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the diety of the Lord Jesus, His resurrection from the dead, etc. Yet if we trace the histories of the thousands of denominations which have sprung up in the last few centuries we will find most began by laying particular emphasis on one doctrine or method or means of grace to the exclusion of all others.

For example, nearly every charismatic denomination stress the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues as their doctrinal distinctives. We certainly find no fault with being filled with the Spirit or excercising spiritual gifts as the Spirit leads. But again, the way in which we live out our beliefs in these areas cannot be legislated by some governing body. It is a spiritual thing bound up within the faith of the individual who endeavors to follow the Spirit. It is most improper to make one particular expression of faith as the sine qua non of Christianity and make it a condition for salvation or a prerequisite for fellowship with a particular religious group. To do so is to promote sectarianism, a thing which God has expressed not just a relative dislike for, but a passionate hatred of.

A good example is the belief among certain religious groups that anyone not joined to their particular fellowship or adopting their particular nuance of Biblical interpretation is on the way to hell. A far more common and just as damaging belief among more mainstream churchgoers is that anyone claiming to be a Christian who does not attend church services regularly is either not truly saved, or is backslidden. Thus, a socially accepted practice of going to church has become the de facto standard by which the spiritual lives of millions are judged. Or the reverse, deeming someone as a good Christian based solely upon their faithfulness in some institutional church capacity. This is nothing more than salvation by works, a concept most Christians say they don’t adhere to yet frequently practice and impose on others.

Another example is esteeming views independently of what the pastor says to be the result of a rebellious spirit that should be bound or cast out. Or, assuming that a failure to conform to the particular style of congregational worship is indicative of some hidden, unconfessed sin holding the individual back. Or, that a failure to respond to the altar call is a sure sign that you “don’t mean business with God.” We might add, the expectation that everyone who is on the cutting edge of what God is doing is going to come on board with the latest revival, movement, or spiritual teaching. All the instances cited above are attempts to add spiritual weight or credibility to the decision of a group or individual leader when there is no Scriptural mandate or justification for doing so.

This is the sort of peer pressure and “Groupthink” presented under a veneer of spirituality that is devastating to all who fail to measure up in the eyes of their fellow parishioners, in spite of the fact that God neither desires nor commands that we all worship, pray, sing, or serve in the same capacity. Threatening some spiritual result or consequence for failing to live up to the expectations of the group or the leadership, when in fact no such spiritual consequence exists, is a blatant abuse of religious authority. Examples are numerous, but they commonly involve money. “If you don’t pay your tithes (e.g., go on the record with a systematic and verifiable contribution to this particular church) then God will not bless your finances.” There is no Scriptural support for such a caveat. A more legitimate warning would be, “If you don’t pay your tithes, you’ll lose your active member status at First Church and your voting privileges will be suspended.” That is a natural consequence of a natural action. It is a statement of fact, no matter how much you disagree with the politics of it; if you bought into church membership you accepted that as part of the deal. The line is crossed by the leadership when spiritual punishments are meted out in addition to the natural consequences of one’s actions.

The Renunciation of Denominationalism

It is our position, then, that a believer who is standing on the ground of Christ and has seen the Body cannot but renounce once and for all the scourge of denominationalism. The reason is simple. We must receive all whom God receives. If the Life of God is found in them, we will receive them as brothers and sisters and not make periphreal issues the basis of our joining or not joining with them.

Let us be clear: while we cannot render support to a church or group which meets on sectarian ground, we can and will receive the individual members who desire our fellowship on the basis of Christ.

We should also investigate thoroughly any group or church that claims to be “independent”. We often find these independent or non-denominational groups to have an even more narrow and sometimes bigoted focus on issues of secondary importance to the basic elements of faith. All too often the group is built upon the charisma and influence of one man, and since he doesn’t answer to a denominational board, there is a greater than normal risk of spiritual abuse or excess.

Jesus is building His Church upon the foundation of Himself. This is the only safe ground to build or stand upon.

Institutional House Churches

The clarion call of recent years has been the Scriptural injunction to “come out of Babylon”, and when applied to the Institutional Church, it is interpreted to mean have nothing at all to do with the present religious system as represented by the clergy / laity distinction, the hierarchy of leadership with the pastor at the head, and the platform-based, event-oriented programs and church building projects. Invariably the trend has been towards informal small groups and home churches. We believe this to be a partial but incomplete solution. We see Babylon not as a political or institutional state, but a spiritual state. To truly come out of Babylon requires something more than deciding to meet in homes or resolving to do away with the external trappings of Churchianity. Many claim to have come out of Babylon because they no longer attend church services, but Babylon has not come out of them. They have only exchanged one sophisticated form of religious bondage for a less sophisticated one, perhaps creating an Institutional House Church in the process.

More than changing a few external rituals and adopting a so-called New Testament pattern to the exclusion of all others, coming out of Babylon requires an attitudinal adjustment on the part of the believer, a genuine paradigm shift and seeing the Lord and the Lord’s Church; it cannot merely be a reacting to the obvious wrongs perpetuated in the name of God by Organized Religion. It is quite possible to be out of the system but still be bound to Babylon, still chained by bitterness and fixated with all that is wrong with the Body.

It is just as possible to be somewhat within the trappings of Organized Religion outwardly speaking, but have an ascendant spirit that overcomes within the midst of Babylon. Our whole goal should be to look beyond the external characteristics of how and where people worship. The only way to do this is to have an all-consuming revelation of Christ and the Ecclesia, the Body, His Church. Once we see that, we will understand that the external accessories of Organized Religion can neither help nor truly hurt the True Church, since Christ is bringing all things into subjection to Himself through the Church. This includes Organized Religion, Babylon, systems of false worship, denominationalism, wheat and tares, sheep and goats. The one that abides in Christ is joined to the Ecclesia and thus transcends all that is contrary. This contagious, unbridled liberty in Him cannot be bound or brought again under subjection to, or depenedence upon, earthly religious institutions. Its identity is found in Christ, therefore it requires no external support systems or crutches. It accepts no substitutes, and immediately and effortlessly resists all attempts to rein it in.

“By The Rivers of Babylon We Weep”

Perhaps the fear is that once we are escaped from Churchianity that we may be deceived again, but not so with the one who has finally seen the Body. It is not that we find it necessary to wax bold or stand guard continually and purposely resist all attempts to institutionalize us in the name of God. When we have seen Christ and His Church, anyone attempting to lord over, corral, enclose, intimidate, manipulate, unlawfully influence or exert his or her spiritual whims upon us is rebuffed with a calm, quiet spirit. It is like striking the air, or stopping the ocean. The spirit of Jezebel simply cannot stand before the Spirit of Christ. It’s so simple. We do not need to understand the spirit of Jezebel, we only need experiential knowledge of Christ within.

Again, we reiterate that it is not a question of learning or knowing, but of seeing. If we see Christ we will immediately react to all that is anti-Christ. Those who belong to Him will never accept the mark of the beast. All who know Truth can easily see through the false.

It is not uncommon for someone to sit within Babylon for years, know something is wrong, but be unable to express what it is. It is only after much soul-searching, prayer, counsel, sleepless nights and painful experiences that we are able to understand why the Spirit of Jesus is troubling us with regard to what is done in the name of Organized Religion. But we need not understand what troubles us in order to be troubled. To all who listen, to all who have ears to hear, He will voice His disapproval of all that is not sanctioned or condoned by Him. God is not so silent as many imagine, it is just our ears are dull. But when our hearing is sensitive, we will hear His protest when something is said or done in His Name that He does not endorse. If we are listening, we cannot but hear Him disavow the televangelist who begs for more money, or the pastor who treats the sheep with contempt, or the prophet who speaks out of his own imagination.

If we can sit within Organized Religion, day in and day out, and drink it all in without the slightest provocation, without even a hint of being troubled in our inner man, with no twinge in our gut or pain in our heart whatsoever, then we are far gone; our hearts are hardened and our ears are dull. We are blind Pharisees.

You who call yourselves Christians: are you troubled by all that is proclaimed, confessed, bought and sold, taught, prophesied, promoted, and prayed about these days in Jesus’ Name? Then rejoice, because you are still able to discern the Spirit of Jesus above the cacophony of religious voices spewing forth from Babylon. But if you are able to shrug it off or lightly dismiss it, blithely going your merry way, I would consider your Christianity to be nominal at best.

The Lord does not take it all in stride, or shrug it off. The responses of Jesus to the organized religionists of His day were many and varied. We find Him driving the merchants out of the Temple with a scourge of cords. We find Him engaging in public denunciations of the Pharisees, holding them up as shining examples of what NOT to do. At other times, He was silent, or simply hid Himself and departed. Which response strikes you as the most profound? In my opinion, it is a weighty matter to observe the Son of God simply walk away and ignore the religious leaders of His day. There is a time and season to speak, and a time to refrain, and we find the Lord knows how to do both. But I must confess that His silent rebuke, Him hiding His Face and turning away, strikes as much fear in my heart as His spoken Word and piercing gaze. What unbearable, deafening silence! What contempt He had for their hypocrisy! How His holy nature must have been repulsed! How can we not also be moved to indignation?

The Way Out of Babylon

There is only one right way to leave Babylon, and that is by way of Christ. To leave because of hurt, bitterness, dissatisfaction with the status quo, rebellion, or anything short of seeing Christ is to be in a precarious situation. Certainly hurt, bitterness, and the like are compelling reasons to leave, but only when they drive us to Christ do they help and not hinder. If our experiences drive us into a quagmire of depression and unforgiveness then all meaning and purpose for the experience is lost. On the other hand, if our disenchantment, disillusionment, and despair drive us deeper into Christ, we will find healing through Him and we will be enabled to extend grace to those who persecuted us. Then the experience is meaningful, the pain had purpose, and the lesson is learned.

This is why we do not command all Christians everywhere to stop attending church services. To leave, or to stay, apart from revelation, apart from seeing Christ and His Body, and based only upon the word of some man or group, no matter how true, is not sufficient to escape from Babylon. Others may bring us out of Babylon, but they cannot bring Babylon out of us. This is the Lord’s work. And this explains why we find some who have left Organized Religion but are not better off spiritually than they were before leaving. In fact, after several years they have become cold, aloof, distant, critical, and suspicious of others. Their world has become smaller, whereas the one who leaves Organized Religion because of revelation lives in a much larger world as entire new vistas of opportunity appear. With an awareness of the Body, fellowship is no longer restricted to time, place, church, or denomination, thus opportunities for fellowship abound. But with no consciousness of the Body, only an awareness of our personal pain and harsh treatment at the hands of a few, our defense mechanisms will prevent us from seeking out fellowship or risking further hurt by engaging other believers.

When we enter this Body consciousness we will not find it necessary to wax bold or stand guard continually and purposely resist all attempts to institutionalize us in the name of God. We do not have to fear what man may do to us. When we have seen Christ and His Church, anyone attempting to lord over, corral, enclose, intimidate, manipulate, unlawfully influence or exert his or her spiritual whims on us is rebuffed with a calm, quiet spirit. It is like striking the air, or stopping the ocean. The spirit of Jezebel simply cannot stand before the Spirit of Christ. It is so simple. It is only difficult because we make it difficult. We do not need to understand the spirit of Jezebel, we only need experiential knowledge of Christ within.

This experiential knowledge of Christ will also enable us to recognize Him in others, and call upon us to enter into fellowship with brothers and sisters of all backgrounds. We will not be overly critical or unnecessarily suspicious. The Anointing will teach us and lead us into proper relationships with others in the Body. No more will we judge others or restrict ourselves to our little home group, church, or denomination. Our basis for fellowship is Christ, and with Him as our common ground we will not be uncomfortable or threatened by people of different philosophical or doctrinal nuances. Either the Life is present, or it is not. If it is, we must not call Unclean whom God has called Clean.

We may be able to passionately and persuasively expound upon the evils of the religious institutionalism, be correct with our arguments, confirm the experience of others and sway the opinions of many; but perhaps the most compassionate thing we can do for those still bound by Organized Religion is to become secure enough in our walk with God and clear enough in our vision of Christ and His Body that we can be a living testimony of the freedom which belongs to all who are in Christ Jesus, in hope that they, too, can escape from Churchianity and experience the same liberty from the deadness of the Letter towards the freshness of the Spirit, far beyond the influence of Babylon.

“As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him… beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him…” (Colossians 2:6,8,9a)

A Christian is a branch that grows out of the Vine and continually produces abundant fruit for the Husbandman. The Church is the gathering together of all individual branches into one Vineyard (see John 15). In this metaphor we see that Christianity is supposed to be a living phenomenon, an observable reality, not a religious philosophy or set of teachings.

As we first received the Lord Jesus, so we continue to walk in the Lord Jesus. Receiving Christ is the Gate, but walking in Him as we have received Him is the Path. The Gate is an event, while the Path is a process. The Gate is for entering, while the Path is for walking.

Everything God has done, is doing, and will do is aimed at bringing us deeper into Christ, to finish what was begun in us when we first received Him. God is the One Who brings us through the Gate, and God is the One Who leads us along the Path. Everything God has done, is doing, and will do has the same purpose, and that purpose explains everything you have been through, everything you are going through, and everything you will go through.

Jesus is the Alpha from Whom all things in God are initiated, and Jesus is the Omega unto Whom all things of God find their purpose, their meaning, and their reason for being. Everything begins in Christ, and everything ends in Christ. He is the Beginning as well as the End.

Real spiritual growth occurs when we realize that God has only one goal for us, and that is, the full, mature, complete, and experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ. To the extent that we discard “things” and become focused wholly on Christ, to that extent we will make progress.

The Challenge of Remaining Christ-Centered

Christians should walk in the Lord Jesus as they received Him. We must not allow anything to keep us from growing up in to Him. Spiritual growth in the life of a Christian is determined by the measure of the increase of Christ and the decrease of Self: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). It is not a question of gifts, knowledge, years of experience, or power. If by the end of today there is less of me and more of Jesus then I am growing. Otherwise I am not. Jesus must become greater and greater in my life, and I must become lesser and lesser. This is the Path.

Along this Path towards apprehending Christ as all in all there are many pitfalls, snares, hindrances, and detours. Thus, Paul says we are to be on our guard and let no man spoil us. In this context, the word “spoil” means, “to destroy and strip of one’s possessions; to deprive of something valuable by force.” Every spiritual blessing heaven has to offer is found in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Each believer has an incredible fullness and completeness in the Person of Jesus Christ. Christ is THE Gift of God, the ultimate Gift, and this Gift is precious, valuable, and of great worth.

How then can we be spoiled? According to Paul we are spoiled “through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments (elements) of the world, and not after Christ.” It matters not if the philosophy is good, right, morally excellent, and praiseworthy. It matters not how well intentioned, meaningful, or helpful the tradition is. It matters not how necessary we think the worldly element to be, or how important it is to society in general. If none of these things are “after Christ”, that is, if they are not of Him, through Him, and unto Him, then they are worthless insofar as God’s Purpose is concerned and must be discarded.

This is what Paul alludes to in Philippians 3. Paul represents the very best that religion, philosophy, and tradition has to offer – education, gravity, intelligence, doctrine, zeal, community service, and so on. “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (v. 7,8). To be able to sweep aside all religious upbringing, moral philosophy, and tradition with one wave of the hand and consider it refuse is to know Jesus experientially as Enough. This is what it means to be decreased. God’s Purpose for all believers is to be reduced to Christ, and everything is working to bring us to this final conclusion: “not I, but Christ” (Galatians 2:20ff).

The apostolic letters that make up a significant portion of our New Testament, more than anything else, seek to redirect the saints back onto Christ and away from a myriad of things seeking to rob them of their time, energy, attention, focus, and spiritual devotion. Many things competed with Christ and tried to spoil these new believers. These distractions were abundant in the early Church. They became entangled in many things. The whole controversy of Jews and Gentiles; to be circumcised, or not to be circumcised; to marry, or to remain single; to keep the Sabbath, or not to keep the Sabbath; which foods to eat, and which foods not to eat; whether one should follow Peter, or Paul, or Apollos; to speak in tongues, or not to speak in tongues; how men should behave, and how women should behave; what about this, and what about that. On and on it went, and on and on it still goes today.

I have said many times that we do not need more of the Lord, since we are already complete in Christ – we just need less of everything else. There are many things that spoil, hinder, distract, and lead us away from the simplicity of an abiding relationship with Jesus. Many of them are spiritual and religious. The spirit of Antichrist is not necessarily seen in something that is obviously satanic or demonic. Instead, the spirit of Antichrist is revealed in anything that seeks to spoil us by taking our eyes off of Christ – it is anti-Christ, against Christ, antithetical to the great Purpose of God.

How easy it is for us to become distracted into something less than Christ! Are you centered on Christ? Is Jesus your obsession? Is He your focus? Or have you set your sights on something beneath Him? This speaks right to the heart of the crisis we find ourselves in today.

Christless Evangelism

The crisis of Christless Christianity begins with the way we go about reaching the Lost. Jesus said if He is lifted up then He will draw all men to Himself (John 12:32). Instead, we lift up religion and draw all men into an institution. Sinners today are presented with a Gospel that is decidedly in their favor. It is marketed and packaged the same way a salesman makes a sales pitch: it must answer the all important, universal question: “What’s in it for me?” And the answer is salvation, the assurance of a home in heaven, deliverance, solutions to problems, peace, blessings from God, and so forth.

The death of Christianity will not be the result of everyone rejecting the Gospel, but the result of everyone accepting a watered-down version of it.

All too often the object of salvation, its very purpose, is overlooked. Why should a sinner repent? Not for what he or she can get out of it, but for what the Lord Jesus gets out of it. Do we reach out to the world based on their own self-serving need, or based on the Lord’s Need? The harvest is for the Lord, not for the workers, and not for the ones who are harvested. The sheep are for the Shepherd.

A sinner ought to repent because the Kingdom of God is at hand. They should be shown that God is gathering together in one “all things in Christ” (Ephesians 1:10ff), that this is God’s Purpose for all men, and that yielding to Him now is the only reasonable, logical, and life-saving alternative they have. But an easy Gospel begets easy disciples. If our message is easy then many will respond under the impression that they are doing God a big favor by “getting saved”. Thus, God becomes their debtor, and they expect Him to repay them many times over, not merely with a future promise of life in heaven, but with good things for them in their present life on earth. Is it any wonder that the Church is spiritually weak and immature, with “disciples” such as this?

Christless evangelism does not give anyone salvation, it only gives them the false assurance of salvation. The Church is supposed to make disciples for Christ, not record decisions for Christ. A decision does not necessarily make a disciple. Christ must be the object and the focus of all outreach.

Christless Apostles and Prophets

What is “the ministry”? According to the Scriptures, there is but one ministry, and that is the ministry of directing everyone to Christ as all in all. Now how this ministry functions in each one of us is different according to how God has placed us. There are many operations and many functions, many gifts and many manifestations, but there is only one goal and that goal is Christ.

For example, the purpose of the apostolic ministry is not church planting, or setting churches in order, or taking missionary journeys. The purpose is Christ. Now, they may DO those things. We are not suggesting that Paul did not do all these things; we are simply saying that Paul’s purpose was Christ, and towards that end he labored accordingly. Without God’s End in clear view, all these things become mere activities, religious carryings-on, but there is nothing ultimate about it, nothing that ties it all together or justifies it in terms of furthering God’s Purpose. I have my little work, you have your little work, but there is no harmony, no communion, no relatedness between any of several million projects, ministries, and outreaches. Each one struggles to achieve their own ends, and there is little if any agreement on what exactly that “end” is supposed to be.

The apostle communicates the ultimate Purpose of God, lays the foundation, and then keeps the End before the builders at all times. But many of today’s apostles seem to be presenting themselves as church planting or church growth experts. Is this what the apostolic ministry is becoming? Church growth is not God’s goal. Church planting is not His purpose either. These are merely things: they are not Christ. You can plant churches and grow churches and completely miss Jesus in all of it.

What about the prophetic ministry? The purpose of all prophetic speaking is Christ. “It is the truth concerning JESUS that inspires all prophecy” (Revelation 19:10b, Knox). Those inspired to speak or proclaim something by the Holy Spirit should be helping to direct our attention onto Christ and away from everything that distracts us. The prophetic voice should rise up like a trumpet and bring clarity and direction out of confusion and misunderstanding. It is not just truth stated in an inspirational way, it is the truth concerning JESUS spoken by those who know Him and can lead others to Him. But of all things, the prophetic ministry today does more to distract us from Jesus than to tell us the truth concerning Jesus. In fact, it is difficult to find Jesus at all in most of what is touted today as “prophetic”.

The prophetic word is given to point us to Jesus. Everything the Holy Spirit would speak, reveal, teach, and show us is towards this same end, which is CHRIST. We do not need to mull over every dream, vision, word, or prophecy, trying to exegete its hidden meaning, struggling to extract some spiritual significance where none exists. If what we see and hear does not point us to Jesus then it is not prophetic and should be discarded. This simple test will keep us from distraction.

Apostles must point people to Christ. Prophets must point people to Christ. Evangelists must point people to Christ. Pastors and teachers must point people to Christ. Otherwise they are not fulfilling the purpose for which God placed them in the Church to begin with. Apostolic ministry is not an end unto itself, but is a means to an end. Prophetic ministry is not an end unto itself, but is a means to an end. Evangelistic ministry is not an end unto itself, but is a means to an end. Pastoral and teaching ministries are not ends unto themselves, but are a means to an end. What is the end? What is the purpose? What does it all lead to? It leads to “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13b). The fullness of Christ, the full-knowledge of Him – this is God’s Goal and His Ultimate Intention.

Christless Fellowship

We know by now that the actual church building has nothing to do with God’s Eternal Purpose. The church service is a thing created by us and for us – God’s Need is seldom, if ever, considered. If we recognize that the service, ministry, meeting, gathering, or building is not the end, but only a means to an End (which is Christ), then we do well. But when we attach spiritual, emotional, or even superstitious significance to a mere thing, or place, or day, or tradition, or way of doing things, then we will be spoiled through “traditions of men”, and will not walk after Christ Himself.

Even something as good as fellowship with other believers becomes such a distraction from Christ that He cannot trust us with relationships. We hunger and thirst for “like-minded believers”, which is sometimes a code word for “anyone who thinks and believes the same as I do and will always agree with me no matter what!” The end result is we seldom find what we are looking for in other people.

Christians go here and there looking for “fellowship”. They participate in meetings, conferences, seminars, groups, and online discussion lists and email exchanges. To be sure these can be useful tools for bringing Christians together – but not if they are looking for fellowship as a “thing”, instead of the fruit of a Christ-centered life.

If fellowship with others is my focus then I am bypassing the Head and trying to have fellowship on some ground other than Christ. The Bible clearly teaches that “what we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ…if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another…” (I John 1:3,7a).

Fellowship is ordained by God as a means through which the Life of Jesus may be shared: “From Whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, making increase of the body towards the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16). In other words, we are joined together to experience the Life of the Lord together. This is what makes us of one mind and one accord. Like-mindedness only occurs when we agree to “let this mind be in [us] that was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Life is not in a meeting, or in a gathering, or in a way of doing things – Life is Christ, and Christ is Life. He is the Purpose.

So true fellowship is grounded in Jesus first of all. Fellowship with others on THAT basis is neither forced, nor orchestrated; it is effortless, spontaneous, and full of life. Fellowship naturally occurs because we have all seen and heard the same thing from the Lord – we are walking in the same Path towards Christ as all in all. We are in one accord not because we all look, think, and act just the same, but because we all, in spite of our differences, have God’s End in mind.

If we look to one another for fellowship apart from what we have seen and heard of the Lord then we are limiting ourselves to relationships with people with whom we naturally get along with. If we see fellowship as the reason for our existence as Christians then, ironically, we will never be satisfied. We cannot know one another according to the flesh and find contentment. We cannot properly discern the Body until we establish communion with its Head. Life is given and received as we stand with one another in relationship to Christ.

Christless Spirituality

What is the “deeper Christian life”? It is nothing more and nothing less than Christ Himself. To be deep is to be simple, focused, and devoted to the One Thing that is needed (see Luke 10:41,42). But even here, some believers seek the deeper Christian life as a thing, a teaching, a certain way of acting spiritual. The “deeper life” becomes the goal instead of Christ as Life. They become profoundly mystical and spiritual, but it is death because they do not touch Christ, they touch spirituality. There is no life in spirituality, or mysticism, or religiosity; there is only Life in Christ. Anything less becomes a distraction.

I came to the Lord in the midst of the Charismatic movement. The emphasis was on Spirit-filled living, restoring spiritual gifts, the power of God, and so forth. We find no fault with walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. But what is the purpose of all this fullness? Why tongues, and prophetic words, and other spiritual gifts? Why the manifest power of God? All of these things are given us by the Lord to draw us deeper into Himself; to repeat, they are means to an End, but they are not the end, for the End, the Purpose, and the Reason for all things is Christ.

“When He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all Truth [Christ]: for He shall not speak of Himself… He will glorify Me, for He will receive from Me, and will reveal it to you” (John 16:13,14ff). All the gifts, all the power, all the counsel, everything pertaining to the Holy Spirit has the goal of bringing us into a more complete knowing of Jesus Christ. Everything must be in harmony with this.

But just see how the experience of being “filled” or “baptized” or “anointed” or “slain in the Spirit” has replaced Christ! What is the result? Excess, error, and a falling away into the flesh. Today we see only a shadow of what we once saw. How many “Full-Gospel” believers are still living off of the glory that they saw twenty-five years ago! They are still looking for an experience, but if God gives it to them, it is a step backwards. They have not grown one bit; they are simply coasting on the energy of what God was doing twenty or thirty years ago.

It is time for us to leave elementary school and go on to maturity. “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man I put away childish things” (I Corinthians 13:11). The Lord has a high calling for us, and we are called to “go on to maturity” (Hebrews 6:1ff). The spiritual life begins in Christ, is sustained by Christ, and leads us to Christ. We may begin by having some profound spiritual experiences, but maturity is certainly not achieved through them.

Christless Warfare

Out of the Charismatic movement came an intense interest in spiritual warfare. Here is yet another potential distraction from Christ. What is spiritual warfare? It should be the process of demonstrating the preeminence of Christ over all things. It should be bringing all things into conformity to God’s Ultimate Intention and showing that Christ is the Head of all principality and power. It should be learning how to defeat the dragon by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and the denial of Self (cf. Revelation 12:11).

Instead, spiritual warfare has become a weird end unto itself, and Jesus is scarcely seen. The revelation of Christ is seldom found; instead, we are often told to seek the revelation of satan and all his workings. Saints are kept occupied day and night fighting the devil (sometimes only in their imagination), or traveling all over the world to “confront” territorial spirits (which only proves they are warring after the flesh, for there is no distance in the spirit realm), intruding into things they have no business getting into. The backlash is swift and the damage is severe. Why? They have grasped spiritual warfare as a “thing” apart from Christ.

True, we cannot afford to be ignorant of satan’s devices (II Corinthians 2:11b), but neither can we afford to make darkness the focus of our lives. Our focus is not the devil, what the devil is doing, or what the devil is planning to do. Our focus is Christ, and to the extent that we walk in the Light, to that extent the Darkness will be exposed by the Light and will flee.

Victory is not the result of everything we know about spiritual warfare: Victory is a Man. All the formulas, methods, teachings, manuals, and books in the world will not sufficiently prepare us for demonstrating the preeminence of Christ over all things if we do not, in fact, have an abiding relationship with the One Whom we are proclaiming.

What is the focus? Spiritual warfare, or Christ Himself? The first is a thing, the second is a Person. Spiritual warfare, properly carried out, is harmonious with God’s Purpose because it exalts Christ (not the devil) and demonstrates that all things are submitted to Him. But without this foundation we are inviting disaster.

Restoring Christ to Christianity

We are trying to get to the heart of things, down to the very root of these matters. The bottom line is there are many things that are ABOUT Jesus, but are NOT Jesus. Then there is Jesus Himself. When the things about Christ become more important than Christ Himself then we need to revisit who we are and what we are doing.

We live in the Laodicean age that is characterized by insipid lukewarmness and blindness to the truth of our own spiritual condition (cf. Revelation 3:1-19). The picture presented to us is one of Christ standing on the outside of things, knocking at the door, and waiting for someone to open the door to Him (cf. Revelation 3:20). Since this is written to the saints it cannot be construed as an invitation to sinners to “invite Jesus into their heart”; instead, it is the Lord calling upon the church to make Him the center again. The issue was, and still is fellowship, communion, and abiding – maintaining its relationship to the Head.

God’s solution for a lukewarm, tasteless, colorless, odorless church is a fresh revelation of Jesus Christ. He will bring us back to our foundation. He will align us with His Purpose. He will adjust us back to Himself. God will purge, refine, chasten, and conform us to the image of His Son. But we must respond to His invitation and open the door.

O Christian, come back to Christ! Simplify your life, eliminate the “many things”, count them as dung, and cling to the One Thing! Be reduced to Christ!

The Lord says, “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne” (Revelation 3:21).

There is a prophetic application to our current situation. These things are written as an example to us, so let us look at this defining moment in Israel’s history and see what lessons can be learned.

It is never wise to force any interpretation beyond a few main points, because the Kingdom of Judah was not much better than the Kingdom of Israel. But by way of a general application, we will simply note that Judah contained Jerusalem; and however much it failed to measure up to God’s full thought, Jerusalem was intended as the center of worship and the place where the Lord said He would make His presence to dwell.

We know that Jerusalem contained the Temple and the Levitical priesthood. After the death of Solomon, the kingdom was divided between two men: Rehoboam, the son of Solomon; and Jeroboam, the servant of Solomon. Rehoboam became the king of Judah, and had Jerusalem as his capital. Jeroboam became the king of Israel, and his territory was all the land to the north.

And so we have a kingdom divided against itself; essentially, two nations existing side-by-side. This sets us up for controversy and competition. Judah is centered in Jerusalem, worships God in the Temple, and is led in that worship by the Levitical priesthood. It is not too difficult to see that Judah represents a remnant within Israel.

Judah is one tribe, while Israel is ten tribes. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. All who belong to Christ are spiritually counted in this tribe of Judah. Our Jerusalem is from above, we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and we are all kings and priests in this holy nation of peculiar (set apart, special) people. I trust you are familiar enough with your New Testament to recognize these truths without me having to provide chapter and verse.

Well, Israel came to represent something quite different from Judah. Although Judah came out of Israel, it definitely stood apart from Israel. So what do we see in the divided kingdom? We see the Church that Jesus is building as something over and above the “Church” that man is building. Whether you call it the Institutional Church or Organized Religion or the Harlot Church, it is an alternative religious system that exists right alongside the true expression of Spirit and Truth in New Jerusalem. As we will discover, Organized Religion is, for all intents and purposes, a Convenient Cult.

A Cult of Self-Preservation

“And Jeroboam said in his heart, ‘Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: if these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah'” (I Kings 12:26,27).

So here is Jeroboam, the rebel king of Israel. He has control of ten tribes. He has more land and more people than Judah. Even so, he is troubled. What troubles him? There is the issue of people being commanded by God to go up to Jerusalem to worship. Jeroboam correctly surmised that once the people went up to Jerusalem to worship they would be more inclined to live there, and his kingdom would be diminished.

I would suggest that today God is calling on us to come up to Jerusalem and worship – that is, to worship Him in Spirit and Truth (cf. John 4). The Father seeks those true worshippers who do not think of geographical places of worship, but a Spirit-and-Truth place of worship: a spiritual place, a place of the heart. That is what it means for us to “go up to Jerusalem”. This Jerusalem is from above, it is from the heavens; we have to “go up” to it because it exists on a higher level, a greater dimension. It is a spiritual place. We read about it in the Book of Revelation, coming down from heaven, filled with the glory of God and the presence of the Lamb.

Many are responding to this call to go “up to Jerusalem” and out of Babylon, out of Churchianity, out of Organized Religion. As a result, all the Jeroboams of this world are in a state of consternation! How can we prevent this mass exodus of people from leaving our churches? Jeroboam’s concern is not for the people. His concern is not for the Lord, or for what the Lord requires. Jeroboam’s concern is only for self-preservation: the safeguarding of his leadership, the continuance of his kingdom, the prolongation of his own life.

The solution he came up with was quite resourceful. He created what I am calling “A CONVENIENT CULT.” This convenient cult has three characteristics: 1) a convenient place; 2) a convenient priesthood; and 3) a convenient feast to bind the worshippers together. Let us look at each one particularly, and see if we can find a prophetic application to the time and season that we are a part of.

A Convenient Place

“Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.” (I Kings 12:28-30).

Jeroboam was smart enough to appeal to that part of human nature that is attracted to convenience. Convenience! “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.” In other words, it’s too inconvenient to worship God in the way that God requires. The cost is too great.

If you consult a Bible map you will find that Jeroboam strategically located his golden calves in the extreme northern and southern reaches of his kingdom. You could simply attend the golden calf that was closer to you. This is a clever bit of marketing that good restaurants use when selling desserts. They do not ask if you want dessert; they ask if you prefer chocolate cake or banana cream pie for dessert! Of course, you could refuse both, but when the question is put to people in this way, statistics show that most of them will select one of the options presented, and they end up buying a dessert.

So Jeroboam did not ask anyone to decide between a golden calf and Jerusalem; he simply offered them a choice of “desserts” – which alternative do you prefer: Bethel, or Dan? He reduced it all down to a matter of convenience. “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.” Too much!

Today we have a myriad of worship choices, a multitude of golden calves located on every street, some sitting right next to each other, each one competing for people. What is the basis of their marketing message? Convenience! A choice of service times so you can choose the one that is convenient for you. A choice of worship and preaching styles so you can choose the one you are most comfortable with. So many choices, so many options.

If we stop and think about it we may realize that God is not asking us to choose which golden calf out of thousands we want to worship at. He is asking us to choose between that whole “golden calf system” and a Spirit-and-Truth life in New Jerusalem! God is calling us to leave that false system behind and do something that is totally inconvenient – to “go up to Jerusalem”, join the Church that Jesus is building, and learn how to be a nation of kings and priests.

It should be noted that when Israel did the convenient thing, the most expedient thing, the most practical thing, it became a sin to them. It led them far away from God and brought them under judgment. The convenient path is a wide path, and it leads to destruction. Worshipping God in Spirit-and-Truth and leaving behind the familiar ways and the popular paths is inconvenient and costly, but that is precisely why Jesus said to count the cost before you become His disciple.

A Convenient Priesthood

“[Jeroboam] made shrines on the high places, and made priests from the lowest of people, who were not of the sons of Levi” (I Kings 12:31).

A convenient cult needs a convenient priesthood to manage, maintain, superintend, and lead it. According to God’s thought, only the Levites were called to serve Him as priests. Since all the Levites were in Jerusalem serving in the Temple, Jeroboam has to find another priesthood to support his false system.

Jeroboam’s solution was to make it easy – convenient! – for anyone to become a priest. Never mind the calling of God. Anyone who took it upon themselves to be a priest would be ordained by Jeroboam and could achieve instant leadership status. And so the lowest of the people could now seize the opportunity to become lifted up above the people.

What does it take to be an apostle? What does it take to be a prophet? These days, apparently little. Simply calling yourself something, or allowing other people to call you something, is enough to make you somebody special. How very convenient! We are inundated with people who take upon themselves the title of apostle, bishop, prophet, prophetess, pastor and “first lady” (perhaps the most carnal title of all).

The point is that when “everyone” is a priest then it is very difficult to tell the difference between the priests of the Lord and the priests of the golden calf. When “everyone” is a prophet, how do you discern between a true word and a false word? Most people cannot, and so the deception is perpetuated by way of convenience.

The reality is that there is a tremendous cost associated with answering the call of God on your life, and if you really live the Christian life the way it is intended to be lived – “not I, but Christ” – it will (at times) be inconvenient, awkward, untimely, and problematic. And when God places you in a position of responsibility for others then the difficulties will increase a thousand fold. It will not be “easy”, but for those who value the truth above convenience, this way of life in Christ is its own reward.

A Convenient Feast

“Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense” (I Kings 12:32,33).

A convenient cult needs some kind of convenient celebration, or feast to bring its worshippers together on a regular basis. Jeroboam decided to hold a festival “like the feast that was in Judah.” Of course, it was NOT the same feast, it was only a counterfeit of the feast of tabernacles. The real feast was in Jerusalem. Jeroboam’s feast was something devised, invented, and designed by Jeroboam.

Was this a gathering to honor the Lord? Was it an assembly to worship God? By no means. It was a distraction from spiritual worship, a convenient alternative to making a trip up to Jerusalem to worship in the Temple. Of course it was religious in nature – it was not a wild party, but a religious feast “like the feast that was in Judah.”

A convenient place, a convenient priesthood, and a convenient feast makes the convenient cult complete. The end result is an alternative system of religious activity that claims to worship God, and has an appearance of piety, but is far more convenient and appealing to the flesh.

Judgment On the Cult of Convenience

“And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said…” (I Kings 13:1,2a)

God used a prophet from Judah to challenge the false system of religious worship that Jeroboam had installed, and prophesied its destruction. It was not a “convenient” word to deliver. After pronouncing destruction upon Jeroboam, the prophet himself was disobedient and destroyed by a lion. If you would not listen to the prophet’s word, maybe you would learn from the prophet’s example! Jeroboam, though momentarily shaken, simply continued in his disobedience, and was judged accordingly. But the damage was done and Israel was doomed.

It isn’t difficult to see how history has repeated itself in the last two thousand years. Like Israel of old, we live in a “divided kingdom” where the Religious Majority perpetuate a cult of convenience, and the Remnant Minority seek the Lord’s full thought, mind, heart, and will for the Church that Jesus is building, a spiritual house of living stones, a “New Jerusalem” of kings and priests. Both are considered “Israel”, but only one is the true Church, while the other is a convenient distraction.

Eventually, even Judah fell to idolatry and came under judgment. The Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem was burned. God had to work with a Remnant within the Remnant, and He continued His Kingdom along spiritual lines.

The Lord continues to work with a Remnant today, calling them to “go up to Jerusalem” and set their affection on things above. Because God is working along spiritual lines to accomplish a spiritual purpose, the boundary between backsliding Israel and spiritual Judah, between golden calf worship and Spirit-and-Truth worship, is a lot more subtle. But once you have seen the Church that Jesus is building it is much easier to reject the golden calves. Jeroboam knows this, and will make his alternative very attractive – and very convenient.

May the Lord quicken this word to our hearts. Amen.