One of our mentors used to say that that "the greatest miracle God will do is to purify and unify His Church before Jesus returns".
At the time, I didn't know what to think about his assertion.
I realize now that our mentor wasn't simply using hyperbole to make a teaching point. He was speaking the truth about such a thing being "the greatest miracle"! Of course, Christians will debate IF this is something Jesus will actually do before He Returns. Some Christians ONLY except such a miracle to take place after His Second Coming.
Again, it takes very little faith to believe Jesus will return for a "beat up girlfriend" whereas it does require faith to believe He will return for a "beautiful Bride"! And don't get me started regarding those who reduce all talk of Christ's work of sanctification as merely "positional" and not "actual"!
Returning to the discussion of the "state" of the Body of Christ today, at no time in history is the church more divided than it is today. Beyond the historical divisions, which includes 50,000+ Protestant denominations in the past 500 years, subdivisions have only multiplied in recent decades with modern technological advances in media. Modern false teachers and false prophets hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and/or YouTube. I believe that 50,000 number above could today be literally hundreds of thousands.
What about the purity of Christ's Church today? Never has the church been more defiled than it is today. The statistics about the regular use of pornography INSIDE the church amongst BOTH men AND WOMEN are hard to believe. Technology again, and the smartphone* arguably most of all, has enabled this explosion in defilement to happen.
Maybe the Amish, who reject most modern technology, have been right all along!!??
Biblical standards, agreed upon by all of Christendom, for example with regards to divorce and remarriage and homosexuality have been "reinterpreted" and/or simply disobeyed. I am thinking of a well known modern Christian leader who went through an UNBIBLICAL divorce in recent years and married his much younger secretary and he remains in platformed, public ministry. No questions asked. It is as if Jesus never said, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery." (Luke 16:18)
How is THIS Church today every going to become what Jesus prays for in John 17:20-26?
What about Paul's vision of the church and his description in Ephesians?
Many Christians interpret this to ONLY be what the Church will look like AFTER Christ returns? (or as I've mentioned above, interpret it to be a "positional" concept instead of an actual description). Again, an idea that requires very little faith to believe!
Ephesians 5:25-27 - 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that He [Christ] might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
ADJUSTING EXPECTATIONS
Why did I even begin THIS blog post? Because, while I believe God will do a miraculous work to unify and purify His Bride before the Return of Christ, I also believe there is a current work of purification going on at this time.
Many ministries and/or Christian leaders are being exposed in our time for moral failure/sexual abuse, hypocrisy, pride/elitism, spiritual abuse, "fake" prophecy (as opposed to genuine prophetic ministry which I believe in), false teachings/practices and fraud/financial mismanagement. I am sure we could add to this list.
Additionally, I believe God is identifying a 'remnant' through this process who are faithful and who while not perfect, are NOT characterized by the things coming to like in this exposure.
Our Christian lives have been radically transformed in recent years in light of these the falls of so many leaders/ministries. Ministries that had impacted us deeply became defiled. Leaders we respected were exposed as frauds/hypocrites. Churches we used to partner with we can no longer endorse.
A lot of realignment took place. We made new friends and alliances. We found new ministries/movements/leaders we began to learn from who we felt were a part of this new 'remnant' of faithful Christians who had not compromised.
And herein lies my current dilemma - What happens when these new 'remnant' ministries/leaders are somehow partnering with those who have been exposed as false/compromised?
For example, one fearless remnant voice recently did an interview with the leadership of a compromised church's leadership who are promoting the very "cover-up culture" that enables unrepentant and compromised ministries/leaders to carry on. It was so disturbing for me. How could they not see? How did he not know his interviewers were "Babylonian captives"?
Another leader I respect is about to share a platform with one of the leaders who failed to call out and expose one of the most well-known prophetic "fakers" (one who got his 'prophetic information' through 'data mining' social media) even though this was one of his 'spiritual fathers'!
I just met another leader who I have come to respect in recent years who recently platformed one of compromised shepherds whose financial mismanagement/fraud and spiritual abuse being exposed currently (with more forthcoming).
I realize sometimes people don't know about things. For months after Mike Bickle's exposure for being an unrepentant sexual predator, some leaders dismissed the reports as 'a spirit of false accusation'. Those leaders today all realize they were wrong and have entirely condemned Bickle's lifestyle and failure to ever repent.
I also know that not everyone has the same "list" of people who are defiled/compromised. I consider Dr. Michael Brown to be disqualified from public ministry, while others believe whatever he did (which is debated), he has repented from and endorse his ministry today. I am sure there are leaders I would endorse that others would consider defiled/disqualified.
How to we proceed? What am I to do? I had a growing sense of frustration with regards to this problem and then I felt like the Lord highlighted a passage that would help me.
That passage was the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13.
I was thinking that this season of exposure was akin the tares being exposed and removed, but the parable doesn't indicate that this will be accomplished, at least not fully, until a time that is yet future!
In explaining the parable, Jesus says:
Matthew 13:39b-43 - 39 - The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they [the angels] will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Jesus reveals the timing (v. 39) - the END OF THE AGE!
He also reveals the agents of separation (v. 39) - the ANGELS!
And finally, He specifies what will be removed (v. 41) - ALL CAUSES OF SIN AND ALL LAW-BREAKERS!
In the meantime, I will pray that those who need to repent will repent. That those who are compromising will stop. That those who are disqualified from public ministry will step aside (and YES, even when people have fully repented they may still be permanently disqualified from leadership and public ministry in the Body of Christ)
And I will be adjusting my expectations accordingly.
I believe this will help my heart in this hour. This will aid me in not allowing the sin in others to become sin in me (the main sin the Lord was convicting me of was 'unrighteous anger' - or as the Bible describes it, the "anger of man" (James 1:20). Another thing has been a growing desire to see vengeance, when God says "vengeance is MINE" (Rom. 12:19) - in other words it belongs to HIM and HIM ALONE! For the rest of us, to carry it will defile us.
And once again, the Holy Spirit's conviction comes back to myself - challenging me once again to "fix my eyes upon Jesus" (Heb. 12:2) rather than on the so many others (other leaders, other ministries, other churches) who so easily become get me into the very sins I've just described I am finding myself struggle with!
Even God as you are purifying your Church in this hour, purify me and my house!
*Smartphones being the most widespread of all devices, but this would of course include computers and tablets that also access the internet.
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