And this is not a mere reaction to being hurt, or rejected, or just being rebellious. It is actually the fulfillment of a prophetic sequence of events that has already been established in the Scriptures and in the history of the nation of Israel. It is the final calling out of a remnant of Overcomers who will bear the Testimony of Jesus and stand for the preeminence of Christ in all things as we prepare for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ and for the inevitable judgment upon those who claim to represent Him, but do not.
These Overcomers have been called by God to forsake “Churchianity” – not to forsake the joining and assembling of the members of Christ’s Body, but to forsake the hypocrisy of the religious spirits that masquerade as the Holy Spirit. They are not forsaking the people of God, they are forsaking the counterfeit, hypocritical worship of God that Jesus Himself condemned as “vain worship” – it does not meet the Lord’s Need or satisfy God’s heart. They have rejected a religious system that is led by blind leaders of the blind. They are simply following the command of Jesus to “leave them alone” (Mt. 15:14).
Other men and women of God have seen these things in the past, but many would not speak of them openly and freely. They would only go so far and in many cases they were still very much a part of the religious system, still trying to reform it or calling it to repent. Someone like A. W. Tozer, who was a prophetic voice to his generation, yet still operated as a pastor within the religious system. That may have been acceptable in that generation, and in that season.
But we are in a different season now. The spirit of Religion is worse, darker, and more deceptive than ever. The days when you could be a part of that system and try to speak against it are over. Many men and women of God saw the truth about Churchianity but still tried to maintain fellowship, ties, or rapport with it in hopes of changing it. Often they preached the preeminence of Christ, but they did not make it clear what that leads to: a repudiation of everything that does not give Christ the preeminence, and in particular, those things that are said and done in the Name of Jesus but have nothing to do with Jesus. Perhaps that was acceptable in their generation, and maybe it was permissible to let people fill in the blanks and come to their own conclusions.
But this generation is different. What could be left unsaid in times past now needs to be made crystal clear. If you follow this revelation of Christ to its ultimate conclusion, and if you truly desire to give Him preeminence in all things, then you will eventually find that you have nothing in common with the religious system that man has created in His Name.
The Cloud has moved on, and if we want to live, we had better follow the Cloud. You cannot have one foot in and one foot out. You cannot go back to Egypt or get comfortable in Babylon. You cannot stop and camp out with the latest truth, when God has called you to live outside the camp. He is always leading us on.
Thank God for the men and women of times gone by who were obedient to the truth and spoke as much or as little as God would have them say. But we are now witnessing something that we have not witnessed in previous generations. What is the Holy Spirit speaking to us today? How is God leading us now? What is the present truth for our generation? And are we willing to follow the truth all the way to its unavoidable conclusion, no matter what it costs us in terms of reputation, comfort, acceptance, position, or fellowship with Churchianity?
