By: General James Green
MY DEAR FELLOW CHRISTIAN. It is the time for Restoration Revolution! I think we can all agree that the whole Church must be refocused from what each denomination and sect calls the “truth” to WHO IS THE TRUTH! Jesus declared in John 14:6, “I AM the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE…” Jesus also declared in John 4:22 that “the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in TRUTH…”
The phrase “in spirit” points to the level at which TRUE worship occurs. One must come to the Father in complete sincerity and with a spirit that is genuinely directed by the life and activity of the Holy Spirit., This is why we MUST be filled or baptized with/in the Holy Ghost. The Church does not need another “quick fix revival”, dear readers, but a Holy Ghost REVOLUTION–the overthrowing of the current Church system and all its greedy leaders, false doctrines, world focus, idolatry and adultery, and on and on. Do you hear me? TRUTH (GK. aletheia; see Jn. 4:23) is “characteristic of God (Psa. 31:5; Rom. 1:25; 3:7; 15:8), incarnate in Christ (Jn. 14:6; II Cor. 11:10; Eph. 4:21), intrinsic to the Holy Ghost (Jn. 14:17; 15:26; 16:13) and at the heart or core of the Gospel itself (Jn. 8:32; Gal. 2:5; Eph. 1:13)”. Therefore, TRUE worship must be REVOLUTIONARY—worship that is according to the truth of the Holy Father that is revealed in the Holy Son and received thru the Holy Spirit.
Those of us who are classified within the Charismatic/ Pentecostal camp ought to see that worldliness and insincerity have slipped in and taken up residence everywhere. It is no secret that the “Spirit-filled” camp has grown man-centered and things-centered and not Spirit- and Truth-centered. All this “praise and worship” the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches are so proud of, is mostly FAKE today. Sure, there is beautiful music and singing, but very little HEART repentance and HEART service.
Let’s face it, most of the Church today is BACKSLID as HELL!! Those who advocate a form of worship or service that sets aside Bible TRUTH and doctrines, have, in reality, set aside the core or heart of real Christendom.
The whole Church has become PROUD, despising God’s humility, His standards of conduct and warnings against worldliness. On one hand, the Church is very immature in spiritual matters; on the other hand, it has fallen into extremism in its “deep” understanding of truth. Poor theology is the root source of this deformity.
Why has material prosperity become soooo exaggerated? Jesus never taught “prosperity” as doctrine nor practiced it. Neither did His followers. Now just about the whole Body of Christ chases material luxury, forgetting the TRUE riches of Heaven.
Avoiding ALL suffering and persecution in this life has gone hand-in-hand with the “Prosperity Message”. Friends, this prosperity stuff is not only bad theology, but ANTI-Biblical theology. It’s proponents claim that “the exercising of one’s faith can, like magic, make all suffering and persecution go away”. Adversity has to take flight, they say. “It is not God’s will that His children suffer,” so many tell us.
This is a “new gospel”, not part of the Gospel that Jesus and His disciples taught. Some say it is an “improvement”. No, we cannot “improve” the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot exchange the old rugged cross for an illuminated plastic cross that makes us feel good.
To hear these false teachers and preachers tell it today, the Gospel is crossless, costless, and effortless…and we can sure see the Church’s weakness, can’t we? NO GUTS, NO GRIT, NO GLORY! This turning away from Biblical truth has caused disdain for God’s humility and His way of developing strong Christian soldiers. Amen.
One Christian author wrote this concerning the “Prosperity Gospel”: “It in effect rewrites large passages of the New Testament, such as Luke 9:23, to read, ‘And He said to them all: if any man will come after me, let him ask: Cadillacs, diamonds and furs, and according to his faith, so be it unto him.’
I know one popular televangelist that says no one can be a real Christian unless they are wealthy and healthy! This is called “faith theology” in EXTREME. Today’s prosperity perverts have wrongly radicalized the true meaning of faith, for Jesus taught us that if we’re to be His true disciples, we must FORSAKE ALL and FOLLOW HIM.
I believe that much confusion in the realm of faith today lies in the lack of understanding in the difference between the “logos” (written Word) and “rhema” (spoken Word) promises in Scripture. We cannot, as one Bible teacher said, personalize every promise in Scripture. Jesus does not tell all His disciples to walk on water.
Having been born-again, Spirit-baptized and water-baptized during the early Charismatic movement, I have seen this movement abused, misused, and shift from Christ-centered to man-centered. We need a REVOLUTIONARY movement that puts faith back on God and away from Charismatic personalities. Do you believe this? If most of these current Pentecostal/Charismatic preachers and teachers do not reconsider their self-promoting position, God will REMOVE THEM. So much of their teachings are from an idealist perspective, not Bible truth.
