If God were robed in a flesh-and-blood frame today and He walked into your church, how would He be greeted? Would you be embarrassed to be part of the theatrical mess that most churches have become? Would He welcome the cameras or refuse them? Would He give the look to the false teachers that makes them know that their days are numbered? Would He perform miraculous signs or leave you in your unbelief?
Just because you can’t see God with your physical eyes, does not mean that God is unable to see everything that’s going on in your church. He’s allowed to be disappointed with what the church has become. He’s allowed to have an opinion about everything, even the things that you personally hold dear.
Why doesn’t the church seek God? Listen, I’ve visited nearly every church in this town. There isn’t one that God is wholeheartedly pleased with. He points out the pastors who have a heart for Him, but He also points out the areas that they are failing in. Why have they wandered away from God’s heart? Why have they resorted to smoke and mirrors rather than sincerely inviting God in to inspect their doctrines and correct them? Is it because the church is largely a business more than it is a house of God?
The pastors can’t be expected to tell on themselves when they realize that they have been or are teaching incorrectly because they would lose their denominational pulpit. For example, Steve Yuke stood in the pulpit at Park Avenue Baptist Church nearly every week for years knowing in his heart that the doctrine about women in leadership was false. He even went as far as saying that he was not a Baptist because of that false doctrine. Let me say, that takes courage to do. I’m surprised that he got away with it for so long. But, did he have the power to change the false doctrine? If so, God expected him to do it … more than he did.
Some reasons that there is not a move of the Spirit of God in the churches today are:
1) God will not put His signature of authority on churches where there is false teaching. The book of Revelation records that God will remove the lampstand from the churches who don’t wholeheartedly want His will.
“Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Revelation 2:5 NIV)
2) Why would God want to compete with all the theatrics? He sees every motive? He sees the fundraising techniques employed while very little is being done to accurately teach truth. For some churches there is more emphasis on honoring law enforcement, harvest festivals, community marketplace, exercise classes, car shows and car-care ministries, etc. than is put on actual teaching of the Bible. It’s funny, too, that for all those other things the congregants are expected to make the effort to show up rather than having it livestreamed into their living room. For some reason, they can show up for the festivals but not for the teaching. Why do you think that is? Maybe it’s because they don’t have to. And guess what? God doesn’t have to either.
3) Another reason that God doesn’t move more visibly in the church today is that every move of God is suspect. You might ask, what do you mean by that? At some churches, the miraculous gifts of the Spirit are not welcome. Their “what we believe” statements deny that God is allowed to work supernaturally any more. What bogus crap is that? Just because they haven’t been entrusted with anointing from God doesn’t mean that God is powerless to anoint. God refuses to anoint those who are not in unbroken covenant with Him or are not spiritually mature enough to handle the gifts. I can say with all certainty that every one of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit are real today and entrusted to God’s anointed messengers. But for those who have never experienced the gift of speaking in tongues, they don’t believe it’s real. For those who have never laid hands on someone and delivered God’s healing touch, they will deny it. For those who have never brought a word of prophecy from God, they will persecute the messenger every time rather than receive it.
I’m just saying that God is not impressed with the smoke and mirrors. If there is a sincere, honest pastor who wants to reform the church to what God intends then open yourself up for inspection and let God make the changes that He desires. You will have to take risks if you have a denominational benefactor who is lobbying for other than God’s choices. But if you truly want a move of God in the church today, then you are going to need to do things His way.