Crackling Croons
The horrendous case of a tiny 3-year-old raped, murdered and beheaded flashing on our news today shocks us to the core. But somehow, we never connect these evil events to a nation that is dry in prayer and far from God, the Creator of us all. While systems have to change, and governments have to implement these systems, we are called to pray not only for governments but our nations. In the field of spiritual warfare, territory plays a big role. If we don’t understand that, our prayers will be weak and feeble. Territorial spirits rule areas and those areas are infested with spirits that rule Godless people to rape, murder, in larger degrees. Those people let in those spirits into their lives through acts of demonic contracts etc. so these spirits have greater access to working through them and stalking down others who may not have enough prayer covering. God releases angels to our prayers in such areas to bring down those demons and their strongholds, but how many of us are praying this way? The truth is, we don’t think it concerns us. In the law of equations, all this counts for eternity. Everything matters and connects towards the Bigger Plan of God.
Instead of seeking and securing a spiritual revival, we are instead trying to secure our earthly survival. So our problems increase and self life lives on and the church has lost its purpose wandering in a wilderness of barrenness of programs and lists. Our churches are lost in seas of programs, conferences. I remember one year in Bangalore, we had sold scented candles through a Christian bookshop, but when the time came to pay us, they delayed for months. At the end of one particular month, we really needed the money. Joshua was ill and we could not even take him to a doctor, and I kept calling the bookshop. They were indifferent and they kept saying their boss was in a conference. Over the next couple of years that we interacted with them, they were consistently in conference mode and delayed all our payments. They were dulled to our pain and difficulties.
The church is meant to be powerful and victorious carrying on her wings the winds of powerful spiritual change and revolutions, which touch the spiritual realm and change the very dimensions of the earthly sphere, simply because the Church knows and abides in Christ, listening and obeying.
Cackling croons is the material minded, earth-bound and earth-wound church destroying itself in the gallows of gossiping, position, gain and fame. These are churches of flesh submerged in human self-effort, dozing comfortably like hens warming their little brood, and cackling conversations of worldly content of gossip, bickering and separation. Many church leaders have a shift in priorities, searching for material gain and fame, cool and compromise. They enjoy their positions, offices and “respect.” They are not aware of the catastrophic missile-hit limping broken, depressed and defeated church with powerlessness, brazenness of sin and cacophony of senseless noise or they conveniently choose to pretend it is not there.
I was recently stunned to find a blogger have a section category in her writings labeled New Age Christianity… There is no such thing as New Age Christianity, will write more about that in another post. The New Age emerged from occultism.
There was a place in time when the word “church” was uttered, pictures of love, fellowship, spiritual growth and even a mighty spiritual fortress flashed through the mind. The original plan: The church was meant to be the Bride of Christ, powerful and protected by the Christ that even Satan would shiver to tamper and dabble with it, where the gates of hell could never prevail against this powerful Church. This Bride of Christ cum Fortress hides us from an evil world of spiritual arrows that aim to pierce and debilitate our walk with God wanting us to walk crippled and rippled by defeat.
The original mighty fortress has true worshipers of God who live in harmony with one another. Today, many of us sigh sadly and weakly state “No church is perfect” and we all heartily agree with one another relieved to find another fellow believer who thinks the same way. But we never go beyond that statement. Everything lies and falls in the finality of the truth of that statement. The option of church hopping is lost, because as time goes on, we find out that each church has its own paraphernalia of problems.
Due to internal problems, the walls of some churches are becoming weaker and as delicate as eggs shells, “Step on me and I will crack!” is the cry of the church walls. The walls, like eggshells can be smashed by the fiery darts of the evil one in their fragility. The watchmen are asleep. They do not have the ammunition to fight back because intercessory prayers was lost long ago in the backwoods as present church-going people feel God is already on their side. They did not feel the need to get down to long-winded prayers and bore everyone.
So, well, the walls of the church are not fortress walls, but eggshell walls so any tiny trickle of attack can crack up the walls and bring calamity into the church. This is why we see church splits, families falling apart, children attacked, and disunity and discord among Christians. They are easily attacked and they fall down like ninepins without much fight back when a battle rages.
The greatest danger today is a prayerless church is letting in more darkness in the world. We say as the end days come, the evil will increase, yes, it is true, but the church is also called to pray, when we pray, it creates a pathway for more light to enter the world and more will turn to the Light.
Self Life
We were meant to be living stones of the church, but cold hard separatist walls of concrete now replace the living stones. Within the concrete wall, church meetings draw out their own manifestos, long-drawn out plans and programs with extended board meetings and discussion. There are many organizers in the church but no agonizing intercessors.
People are not perfect. They come to church with a self-life buried deep within them with wounds in their soul, unresolved conflicts, and just plain cold hardness and indifference to others, as well as some are really sick in their souls. It is alright because Jesus said He came for such as these when He said “I came for the sick, the sick need a doctor”. This happens because the sick are not communing with God and abiding in Christ and because of this, their self life cannot be crucified on the Cross.
Because people have unresolved conflicts in their soul and have a large amount of unmet needs, they start walking in unknown strange dark territory. Some people look very normal on the outside, but the secret soul is on a different trip within that only God can see.
When church leaders live in their own personal conventions, conferences, and personal seminars, regrouping and meeting up with each other all the time, their own churches become casualty wards where many need a lot of help, personal attention, love and deliverance. Yet, no one seems to hear them or understand how badly they need help.
Club Cultures
Here is one little incident that happened to Fiona, a newcomer, which keeps happening very often on a Sunday morning.
It was a cold morning as Fiona stepped out of her flat to church. Fiona lived far away from her home in Shillong, and she was in Mumbai working in a little company as a consultant for a publishing house. She had just recently started attending the *”Agape” church nearby. This morning, as she was entering the church, she nearly bumped into another lady who gave her a hasty smile and rushed off. The service began and everyone rose and sang gustily with all their hearts.
“Lift up your hand’s people” thundered the song leader, “Did you eat your breakfast this morning!” Why are some of you so grumpy, smile, laugh, and worship God.
Fiona felt a little guilty, she had not been lifting up her hands, but she had been sincerely worshiping and praising God. Fiona suffered from a frozen shoulder, which made it difficult to raise her hands fully. Later, as the pastor spoke, Fiona felt her cup running over with the heart-warming message of the pastor interspersed with God’s Word. He spoke about loving and caring for one another as the Body of Christ. After service, Fiona found scores of people rushing over to meet each other. Some people said “hello” to her hurriedly and rushed over to talk to their own friends. She stood alone in the corner watching everyone busily and happily meeting each other. No one seemed to notice Fiona and even if they did, they were just far too busy catching up with each other. Finally, Fiona went home silently, slightly depressed. She was just another figure that slipped into the shadows like many newcomers before her as they returned home from. Fiona decided not to return to that church because she did not feel she was spiritually getting stronger, which she personally wished for.
How many folks are like Fiona? They go to church and actually come out feeling an emotional low. Especially on a Sunday afternoon if they go back to an empty room or house. How could that happen? Several reasons are there, one is church club culture, carnal self-life, and lack of real intercessory prayer in the church.
The simple truth is some churches have become clubs where people who naturally in their flesh take a liking to some other people and seek them other out, ignoring the common congregation. The flesh is magnified and social exchanges grow stronger where cliques are formed and nurtured.
Clubbism is becoming more and more organized in contemporary churches. This obstructs the oneness and unity of the Body of Christ causing divisions as certain people gravitate more to each other in soulish relationships where they exclude the “commoners.” Cozy clubbism is becoming building stronger inroads in today’s church than ever before and sometimes even refer to itself as “the inner circle.”
Club culture should never happen in the church:
James 2:4 “Have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?
Romans 2:11 “For God shows no partiality”
Galatians 3:26-19: “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
If the Word sternly forbids favoritism and clubbism, why do we still continue with it?
It can be true one can meet new friends in the church and become closer to them, but if this is done at the expense of cold-shouldering others openly and having a very artificial hello and goodbye on a Sunday morning without real concern for other people, then something is really wrong.
The oneness of the body is very key for the growth and spiritual power of the church. “Divide and rule” is the old saying.
The Key: If church members are practicing love, caring, and avoiding the club culture, a lot will be overcome. and share fellowship with one another was the heart of the early church. Paul says in Galatians 2:10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.
Oneness was the pulse of the early church. The early church grew beyond proportions though they were not planning programs, counting numbers, statistics, chalking out targets or having large-scale campaigns nor did the early church have personalized leaders conferences of “How to be a Leader” and many Leadership Conferences, the trend of our times. Jesus taught us “How to be a Servant!” The early church walked together in oneness, praising God, worshiping Him, studying the Word together and great miracles started happening, souls were added all over, and in spread, finally all over the world in its continuing revival fires
Today, as the gospel reaches the furthest corners, touching unreached, credit is given to the pure-hearted missionaries who walk with God and talk with Him and grow in spiritual dimensions.
Impersonal Programmed Prayers versus Intercessory Prayer
The Key:
“Pray without ceasing”, which is to be in a constant state of uninterrupted connection with the Lord, this is a kind of art that can be mastered with the ever-present help of the Holy Spirit. and commune with God, the Holy Spirit who dwells within you, the more you commune, your spirit will become stronger and you will have the power to overcome sin and your weaknesses and can do great things.
When we are in constant touch with the Holy Spirit, He convicts us of sin very fast. If we are indifferent, hard, cold, mean, unloving, He shows us. The Holy Spirit transforms us. We need to connect with Him throughout the day.
It is through deep prayer and communion with God that churches will rise out of their delicate cracking eggshells and become living stones and strong walls and fortresses against the ammunition of the fiery darts of evil and rise up and shine in the land with power with the Love and Light of God.
By Rita
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