BY: GENERAL JAMES GREEN
THERE ARE far too many professed Christians who sleep through life though their eyes remain wide open. Still there are others who drowse along until some voice stirs them into wakefulness. Few in this generation possess acumen enough to know what is really happening around them.
The “thing” called “the Church” in this hour passes through life asleep or half awake at best, trudging along at the same old pace and over the same old road of apathy. The “Church” goes where everyone goes, measuring its steps by the most dull and average gait of men.
The sons of men are rebelling against God’s way to embrace man’s way, all the way! Disrespect for the Lord’s authority is one of the “AMBITIONS” of our time. Where the Lord was once respected, He is now rejected, and many souls are satanically drawn to follow the way of disrespect. What we need, my dear Christians, is an unyielding revolutionary faith that will overturn this madness.
Of course, revolting against God’s Word and Person is not new. No! It goes back to the beginning. Each new generation must either embrace or refrain from the same. Rebellion in itself has a rightful place, but it must be aimed against the right foe.. Rebel against evil!
How much better to WAKE UP, SOBER UP, shake the sleep from your eyes, and take note that the usual pace is too slow, too irregular; and the common road (the broad way) is well-worn with travel. Do you see that a new revolution, a counter-revolution is needed, and that you must be an army scout to set the pace and blaze the way for others to follow?
Proverbs 8:20-21 says, “I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.” The treasures are not the kind that men greedily work for and steal, but they are the eternal blessings that come when a soul fulfills the will of the Father just as Jesus did.
You see, for men and women to count the cost of a revolutionary faith, they must first come to know the price paid by our great Savior. The price He paid was ABSOLUTE obedience, total sacrifice, and separation from the kingdom of this world.
As the “Church Universal” goes more worldly, the revolutionary-faith message continues. It has two parts. First, it reveals how rebellion against God angers Him. Second, it holds out the hope that all will not succumb to the Devil’s power,
Isaiah describes the leaders, shepherds, and watchmen of his day. He calls them BLIND, IGNORANT, DUMB DOGS. GREEDY DOGS, SHEPHERDS THAT CANNOT UNDERSTAND, GREEDY FÖR GAIN, DRUNKARDS (56:10-12).
No wonder God’s wrath was ablaze against those leaders!!
Blessed is the church where watchmen are awake and can “bark.” Blessed will you be if sometime an awakening voice calls to your drowsy spirit and summons you forth into ACTIVE service-the service of the new day, the new revolution.
There is a stirring today among God’s so-called people. Some are awakening slowly, reluctant to break the sleepy spell of death; but at last some have jumped up and have marched to boot camp to be soldiers in God’s Royal Regiment. Others have already gone to the forward edge of the battlefront.
But, wait, this is just the beginning. This revolutionary army has aroused the opposition of tyrannical governments: both natural and spiritual. Still the truth marches on. According to reports that have been sent to Headquarters, Christians around the world are realizing it is no longer necessary to live in the misery and coldness of religion. Many are simply no longer willing to suffer at the hands of greedy dogs called shepherds, pastors, and priests. They are no longer willing to be deprived of God’s spiritual treasures. The people are sick of the leaders’ cruel exploitations of their own countrymen (those of their own denomination) and of foreigners (those of other denominations). The people feel they have suffered long enough. We say, “Praise the Lord!” God’s Noble Army will be both disciplined and efficient.
We must be compelled by the love of Jesus to free all who want freedom. Churchgoers are, as it were, roped together and confined like galley slaves or convicts within all these religious institutions ruled over by religious hypocrites. People send us letters and beg us to help free them from the “Babylonian” religious systems. “Free us! Free us!” they scream. Thank God, souls are awakening and hungering for a new and fresh relationship with Jesus, their first love.
Pastors of 20-25 years are seeing the difference between righteousness and religiosity. They are awakening to new ACTUALITIES and POSSIBILITIES in Christ Jesus our Lord. God’s spiritual revolution cannot and will not be stopped. It will continue until crooked paths are made straight and high places are brought low.
The cry of REVOLT is sounding louder everywhere. Even the poor, miserable, godless pagans are screaming out for CHANGE. God’s revolution cannot and will not be stopped because it takes place within us; it is ever increasing. This movement, this gust of wind, will eventually rage into a thundering storm of righteousness.
What must we do? What are the conditions of the times? The present conditions are such that we must all run. Walking is not enough. Running must be that of Spiritpower, not manpower, for it is manpower we are running away from. We must be running in spirit by the Spirit into spiritual revolution.
One elder in the Christian faith has referred to the “dead faith ministers” as “spiritual quacks” who place a plaster of dead faith over the wounds of sin. This plaster may coat a man on the outside, but he remains unhealed within, and the wounds will be revealed on Judgment Day. We need revolutionary leaders rather than “dead faith ministers.” We need revolutionary faith rather than a meaningless church membership.
The secret of God’s revolution is the torch laid upon our lives by our Lord. Heaven’s Fire will burn the HELL out of you.” Fire, fire? All in unison, “Give us FIRE!!”
Revolution basically means CHANGE. In times of change men may turn from the old and accept the new. However, we never will turn from God’s eternal ways. We must, though, remain open to new methods that He may want us to accept. His methods will never contradict His Person. His methods will never condone sin. But He does not always use the same methods to accomplish His purposes.
Let us say that the Lord’s Spirit will sufficiently convict men and women of their sins. Cheap little prayers cannot change the hard hearts of people in any generation. And forget “feelings”! Pray like this: “Whatever it takes, Lord. Whatever it takes.” We need an all-out attack against satan, sin, and the so-called Church! We need a spiritual revolution!
Many people in the West (the U.S.A.) claim that they oppose slavery. Yet the churches are, for the most part, impervious to the different kinds of slavery that prevail both in America and around the world. American “Christians” are slaves to materialism, fornication, entertainment, and all forms of worldliness … but the “Christian” leaders do nothing about it. People, it is time to overthrow the sick whore called Churchianity!
The State makes total claim upon its masses, but Christians must willingly and only submit as “love slaves” to the Lord Jesus. In becoming a slave (a servant) to Jesus, we become free from sin; but we must never use our liberty to rebel on our loving Master. Our freedom is freedom to serve Him.
Worldly political “freedom” through democratic elections is only the subtle prelude to political slavery. The United States’ future will depend upon the arising of visionary Christian men, and America’s future does not look promising. Nevertheless, we Christians will continue to work and war to free all sin-enslaved peoples. We will also remain aware of the danger that “politically- correct” nationalism leads to the worship of the secular State.
Freedom is only good if it is related to the God who gives freedom. We want freedom so that people may be free in Christ Jesus. It is the work of the Lord when men discover that God intended them to be free to serve Him; such a revelation neither comes from you nor I nor any forced attempts to push a certain idea. The truth comes by the power of God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ proclaims such TRUTH: Read it in the Holy Bible!
The WHOLE ministry of Jesus Christ was and is one of setting the captives free. “The people that walked in darkness have seen great light” (Isaiah 9:2). The New Testament affirms that Jesus is the light of the world. It is this “light”-Jesus Christ-that we of His Noble Army must carry to those in darkness. We, like Jesus, must champion the spiritually weak against oppressors, give the Gospel light to the spiritually blind, spiritual food to the hungry; we must release the captives of sin. If we preach the Christian doctrines, exercise in spiritual gifts, and let loose on the world an Army of “on fire” committed soldiers who practice what they preach and preach what they practice, REVOLUTION WILL BURST FORTH. Powers and thrones will fall at the name of Jesus.
Radical Christianity shines most brightly when the darkness is at its worst. It is pretty dark these days. Only the devotion of an aggressive faith can carry us through these darkened times. Americans forget that America’s greatness was the result of a revolutionary Christianity, and this present generation takes for granted the many godly reforms for which true Christians worked.
Aggressive Christianity not only turns things upside down but turns things right-side up. Change can come NOW! REVOLUTION can cause the dynamic thoroughgoing change from a selfish, addicted, materialistic, sex-crazed and mad world to a clean, holy world of men who love Jesus the King.
There is no doubt in my mind that Christians in this present age are simply powerless for the most part. They have failed by expressing a devotion to the world and by denying Christ’s irresistible love. So-called Christians in this hour do not abide in God’s love at all.
Before the advent of TV, the Church was more devoted to revolution. But the Church has allowed-welcomed with rejoicing!—the enemy to usurp God’s glory, time, and resources that are ordained to help win the lost. We must all agree that before this comfort-loving Churchianity came about, the Spirit-led Church had an urgent message:
TURN OR BURN … HEAVEN OR HELL!
As for me and my family, we know that the Christian faith has the essential WORD. The neglect of this WORD will cause the irresistible hungers of men to be expressed in ways that will disappoint both the Lord and men. True Christianity is the needed revolutionary movement at hand. By the power of Jesus name, unto the glory of the Living God, true Christians must now, more than ever, make to roar the mighty waves of change.