Presently the Church is at the peak of apostasy and the period of falling away from faith as predicted by the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 18:8b”…But will the Son of Man find faith on earth when he comes?” and Paul the Apostle in 2Thess 2:3a “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there comes a falling away first…”. There are numerous additional things and anomalies in the Church, as mentioned earlier in the post on Antics of the Devil in the Church. The Church must purge itself of all added things and anomalies and take back its original Apostolic form that it had in the time of the Apostles, in preparation for the Lord’s return.

At the end of the age, Christ wants to present to Himself the Church in all its beauty – pure and faultless, without spot or wrinkle or any other imperfection – Eph 5:27. If the Church must take the glorious form that the Lord requires, then a series of collective efforts, and lots of painful sacrifices have to be carried out. This can only take place when we have all come to the knowledge of the truth and are repentant, i.e., we should be ready to drop what we are presently holding and take up the form prescribed by the Bible. If the Church should take back its original apostolic form that it had in the time of the Apostles, it must first purge itself of all added things and then consider these:

The Church cannot attain her glorious form unless she submits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, who is the head of the Church. A lot of Christians claim to have accepted Jesus as their LORD and SAVIOUR without acting it. It is only the submission of the heart that can impact the whole being and produce righteousness that is required of every Christian.

Jesus said in Matt 15:7-9: “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.’ But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men“. (KJV)

We must, in essence, allow the Holy Spirit to lead and direct the affairs of the Church instead of using human knowledge and wisdom to manipulate the Bible and the mind of the flock. Every prophecy must be weighed against the scripture before it is accepted if the Church is to move forward.

As individuals, if Jesus must be LORD of our lives, then we must allow Him to control all aspects of our lives including our properties, families, businesses, etc, leaving out nothing. It has to be total or else we forget about Him being the LORD. “Take my yoke and put it on you, learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.” Matt 11:29-30 (GNB)

This simply implies that anyone who will become a Christian must be a burden carrier. That is he is no longer free to exercise his own right, but rather his pursuit will be to do the will of God. A lot of us still believe that Jesus should have access to that part of our lives that complies with the scripture; that the other part, which is unscriptural, and we are not ready to relinquish, is for us and should be handled by us. This is a wrong notion. We must be ready to drop whatever we are holding and embrace what Christ has for us.

We must always realize that God created us for His own pleasure and glory (Rev 4:11) and not for our own pleasure and self-aggrandisement. And if we are created for God’s own pleasure, then He has every right to dictate to us how we live our lives. We must also know that He created all things, including the properties we own, because He gives wisdom for their invention and provides the materials for their manufacture from this earth. Therefore, we are only trustees of whatever we own and should be ready to part with them at His instruction.

Luke 6:46 says: “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and yet don’t do what I tell you to do?” We all need to give total obedience and acknowledgment to His LORDSHIP, knowing that He is the master of our lives and has the maximum authority over our lives. Therefore, our obedience to His commands marks the beginning of our true Christian journey. When we twist the scriptures to suit or justify our own intentions, it is not an act of submission to God’s authority. Instead, it is as though we are suggesting that God was unwise, and we are merely trying to correct what we perceive as His mistakes or inadequacies. To be continued in subsequent postings..

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