A disturbing thought came to me in the wee hours of the morning:
"The Great Falling Away" happens in the Church. It is not really about Church members leaving and falling away to the world but primarily falling away and remaining in the church. The scriptures don't actually call it "great" but many theologians do as it relates to and precedes the revealing of the anti-Christ and the coming "great tribulation" in prophecy. 2nd THESSALONIANS 2:3; "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition". In the book of Revelations chapters 2 & 3 Christ is addressing the Church, not the world. The final church known as Laodicea has fallen away but has not left their "system of organization". When the "organism" becomes an"organization" first it is no longer a living thing and is considered dead. We should be organized, but not become slaves to the system. When we worship our worship more than we worship the LORD then Yeshua isn't getting anything out of our services and we're not going for him but for ourselves. A dead church can have service every Sunday, the best musicians, the most dynamic worship team, a nice usher board, a beautiful edifice, the best preacher in town, and everyone walking in material prosperity and still be fallen away and spiritually dead. Are you fallen away? Do you really think because you go to a church every week it really means you are saved?
REVELATION 3:14-17; "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15) I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16) So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17) Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked".
If you leave after service and dismiss everything you heard, are still mean spirited, and living in sin then what is the point? You have made your church habit a routine with no meaning. I know folks will tell you to keep coming because one day it may click. I'm not going to tell you to stop going, but if everybody is like you what are the chances of it clicking? The clicker is broke. Dead churches produce "still born babes" and "zombies"; people that have no true life in God or no mind of their own. The scriptures refer to us as "lively stones" in 1st Peter 2:5, not "tombstones". The pastors are to be shepherds and caretakers, not gravediggers and undertakers. We have turned sanctuaries into cemeteries and don't even know it. God is sending forth his holy Word to revive a dead people in his Church that they may live unto Him. Our revival starts with repentance, and the leaders must be first in doing so and setting the example. To long the leaders have been first in taking the best and being served but the last to give to the people or repent before the Lord, or apologize and ask the forgiveness of those among our congregations that we have hurt. The LORD does not send revival; we have to pray for revival and do the things that will create the atmosphere for YAH to enter in and revive us.
JOEL 1:13-14; "Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. 14) Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord".
The LORD won't revive and restore anything or anyone until we cry out for it in spirit and in truth. The reason why revival doesn't happen is because we don't prepare ourselves for it. We fast for our conventions and conferences to be successful but not for our lives to be changed and spiritually successful in our regular services. We treat the Lord Yeshua like a "booty call" that we call up to temporarily satisfy ourselves with and then make the Lord leave once we've gotten off. As a result we have short meetings with popular speakers who raise offerings, push folks on the floor, and whip the crowds into a frenzy while making them believe in false miracles and healings with a mixture of phony prophecies, but people aren't impacted to change their lives in a permanent way to be holy and prepared for the coming of Christ. This is not revival; this is just more of the same old dead church we've been having. We invite the LORD to our meetings but only to hear us preach, listen to us sing, and watch what we call "having church" instead of "being the Church" and letting GOD truly have his way. If we want revival we need to repent and pray for it. If not, I guarantee we will not have revival. We will have weddings, funerals, anniversaries, and all kinds of occasions at church but never revival as the Church. Come, let us repent and return unto the Lord with all our hearts that he may revive us. ~ I.J. West
HOSEA 6:1-3; "Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 2) After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 3) Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth."
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