As I continue to immerse myself in God’s word, I often find myself comparing the church of today with the beginning church founded by Jesus’ disciples. As I begin to compare the two my heart becomes heavy and grieved, because even though we are still preaching God’s word and souls are trickling in; sadly that’s all that is happening, for the most part.
We’ve gotten so caught up with the cares of this world that we have made church a tradition. Church is NOT a tradition. Church was designed to be the educational institution of God. There is supposed to be power and authority in the church.
In the book of Acts, it talks about and describes how the church operated. If you ever read this book you will feel the heart of God’s people that were given the assignment to spread His word. They didn’t care about anything else besides pleasing God and helping others. Even when they were persecuted, that didn’t even deter them. Their love for God radiates off of those pages. This church was the beginning church and they preached the beginning message, the message of salvation and baptism in the Holy Spirit. Yet, they still operated in power and authority that is greater than what we are operating in today.
The church in Acts performed signs, wonders, and miracles constantly (Acts 3:6, Acts 5:12, Acts 9:40, Acts 14:10, Acts 16:18); people were coming to the Lord by the thousands at one time (Acts 2:41, Acts 4:4). In today’s church most don’t even believe in supernatural healing powers. Just imagine if the church would have stayed the course that it had set out on when the disciples first began, we would be at a much higher level than we are at today.
It makes you think, are we even considered a church in God’s eyes? We’ve let division come into the church by the way of different religions. Let me ask you a question, what religion is God? Is He Catholic, Baptist, C.O.G.I.C., Protestant, Methodist, etc…?
And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: Matthew 12:25
We are at a point where there needs to be a union of God’s true believers as one body. We need to start maturing and growing the way God intended, and move pass the beginning message of salvation; I think we got that message down pact. Just because you’re saved, doesn’t mean you are doing God’s work. Many people give their lives to Christ and that’s it, they live their existence bogged down with the issues of life and they die and go to heaven. No, not me, I’m saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and as long as I’m living I’m going to make sure that I carry out my God given assignment and live like a king here on earth.
All I’m saying is that it is time for growth and maturity in the church, if I offended you with this writing than good; that means I struck a nerve that needed to be struck.
I pray this has been a blessing on your life.
Daryle Houston II
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
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