This is the closing period of the end-time. The worldwide Church needs revival to fulfil the expectations of heaven. Jesus is coming back soon but only for a ready Church. One of the ingredients of readiness is holiness.
For the Church to pass the test of no spot, wrinkle or blemish required before evacuation to heaven there must be a massive worldwide revival in this end-time period. A polluted Church operating under a divine curse cannot generate that kind of revival. If the Church continues to sleep God has no choice but to bring painful but avoidable birthpangs. It has started happening already with severe persecutions accompanied with backsliding, massive burning of church buildings and the sacrifice of Christians at satanic altars. The enemy is steadily displacing Christians from strategic positions and lands. One of the remote causes of this ecclesiastical lethargy is failure to differentiate between Law and Grace.
The Body of Christ has been corrupted by mammon, pursuit of pleasure and inordinate ambition for power. Both orthodox and main stream faith-based churches appear to be operating strange doctrines that have no foundation in the Scriptures especially in the areas of raising funds and marital relationships.
Levitical tithing for instance is one of the areas the church has gone astray by mixing Law with Grace. Giving is a privilege to the New Testament believer. It is the assured way of storing treasures in heaven. However, whenever church funding is done to fulfill part of the Law of Moses such as Malachi 3:10 that says: “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it,” it brings a snare which in turn activates the curse pronounced in Galatians 3:10: “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
Levitical tithing, the payment of ten per cent of one’s income or increase as a compulsory religious obligation is an attempt to fulfill the Law that Jesus fulfilled on the Cross of Calvary. There are 613 clauses in the Law of Moses and what adherents of Levitical tithing are saying is that Jesus fulfilled some but not all the provisions of the Law. The clear provision of the Scriptures is that those who want to live by the Law will be judged by the Law. Since anything that is not of faith is sin, as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.
Through Levitical tithe demand, collection and utilization, mammon spirit has been entrenched in the church. Consequently, it has become difficult for the church to generate the expected end-time pre-rapture revival. It is impossible to obey the Law on tithing under the New Covenant that has one law: love. Is there any church anywhere in the world that strictly obeys the Law of Moses as pertaining to tithing, firstfruits and other offerings? It is clear from Scriptures that only FREEWILL giving (regardless of the name it is called) can register in heaven as treasure.
Why There Is No Revival In This End-Time Church
1. Neglect of the mandate of Jesus. Put briefly, the mandate is to rebuild the tabernacle of David (currently in disrepair) AFTER taking out a people for His name from Jews and Gentiles. Taking out a people for His name involves evangelism and growth in grace.
2. Following the world rather than Jesus and the early Apostles. In John 21:19 Jesus told His disciples to “Follow Me.”
3. Competing with the world rather than being the light and salt of the world. The church must be separated from the world system of greed and avarice.
4. With what is happening to the Body of Christ worldwide, it would appear as if the Church is operating under a divine curse. Whenever traditions of the elders and the Law of Moses override parts of the doctrines of Christ and of the Apostles, lukewamness sets in. Therefore, Church leaders should take the responsibility of ensuring that satanic agents are stopped from bringing cursed blood money into the church as donations, tithes and offerings in order to stop weakening the prayer-life of local assemblies.
5. The militant Church as a whole is not expecting the return of Jesus as an imminent event resulting in loss of pilgrim character and status. Something must be done to make the Church look forward to, and hasten the return of Jesus Christ.
The mandate of Jesus demands that the Church be revived as a prelude to the rapture. But the Church worldwide currently under a divine curse cannot generate the required end-time revival. Jesus warned about pre-rapture birthpangs. However, current rapture contractions are becoming more devastating than they ought to be. Worldwide persecution of Christians, burning of church buildings and the offering of Christian men, women and children in sacrifice to the god of this age is a clear evidence of painful birthpangs. And it will continue and get worse unless the church understands the nature of the battle that is raging now and rise to the occasion.
Since the Church has been weakened through mammon pollution, there is need to apply revival strategies without delay. Before any genuine and meaningful revival can take place the Church must as a matter of utmost urgency follow the formula in 2 Chronicles 7:14 to bring the backslidden church back to God by provoking individual and corporate REPENTANCE for keeping Jesus out of His Church for so long and following wrong doctrines instead of following the Lord.
Elijah repaired the broken altar on Mt Carmel before the fire of God fell on his sacrifice. “if My people who are called by My name willhumblethemselves, andprayandseek My face, andturn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14). To have revival repentance is inevitable but the people must know what they are repenting of to avoid reversion as happened to the people of Israel of old. On Mt Carmel Elijah “repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.” Why did Elijah repair the altar first before offering a sacrifice (prayer)? It was because “… the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword.” The way things are going now, it has become imperative to apply the formula prescribed in 2 Chron 7:14 throughout Christendom.
Humility: Acceptance that something has gone wrong. Elijah challenged the people of Israel on Mt Carmel to make up their minds who to follow. The Church must realise it is no longer following Christ or imitating the original Apostles of the Lord as commanded by the Scriptures.
Repentance: prayer
Depend wholly on God and His Word. One way of doing that is to put unbelieving and ‘convicted’ but unsaved people in the church in their proper place. Another thing that needs to be done is to kick out the god of riches from the church. Levitical tithing is the doorway for the god of riches to thrive in the militant church.
Restitution. Nehemiah removed filthy things from the physical house of God. Church leaders must take steps to remove filthy persons and things from the Church. In this end-time church those who want to wallow in filth should be allowed to do so; while those who want to be holy should be encouraged to abide in Christ to the end. Modern-day ‘money changers’ must be chased out of the church.
Church Revival
To the Church in Laodecia Jesus said …. “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ –and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—“ (Rev 3:15-17).This end-time Church has the characteristics of the first century church in Laodicea. Man cannot put aside or defer the agenda of God for planet earth. Since the Church is lukewarm, the Lord will intervene to compel those appointed to salvation to get ready for the rapture. Under God’s permissive will two forces have already begun to accentuate the travail of birthpangs on the Church. These two forces are the western-dominated one world order and Islamic insurgency. Both are engineered by the god of this age but operate from different perspectives with differing modus operandi but one objective: world dominance. These are the harbingers of pre-rapture birthpangs.
How To Bring Revival: Short And Long-Term Perspectives
1. Deal with mammon the god of riches in the church by replacing tax-based ten per cent tithing with covenant-based free-will giving. This will remove curse from the church as an organism and individuals Levitical tithing adherents. Members of the Body of Christ need transformation into Christlikeness through the five-fold ministry operating in the church. A backslidden church must be reformed before it can function as agent of transformation.
2. Use God’s money and materials for God’s work. Diverting church resources to secular pursuits is a disservice to the mandate of Jesus. It has the potential of causing delay thereby provoking God’s wrath.
3. Stop propagating the doctrine of material prosperity. We must imitate the early Apostles who followed Christ. They preached the gospel of grace of God to unbelievers and taught the principles of the doctrine of Christ to those who believe and not saturate the church with the doctrine of material prosperity and make the Church of Jesus Christ look like a huge worldwide commercial conglomerate.
4. Restore apostolic teaching and fellowship, including regular and preferably daily administration of Holy Communion.
5. Grow total Christians to become full gospel messengers by teaching believers how to key into the mandate of Jesus with particular reference to the second coming of Christ, the imminence of church rapture and need to be in a state of readiness and expectation of His coming. The church appears to be ignorant of end-time doctrine.
6. Emphasize need for spiritual growth, evidenced by endowment and use of spiritual gifts in curative and preventive deliverance. The church appears to know only curative deliverance.
7. Replace man-made and traditional practices in marriage-related matters with biblical prescriptions on marital relationships. This is an area replete with besetting and ensnaring sins with the potential of keeing believers out of heaven.
8. Cancel all grandiose building projects and programs by suspending all annual conferences and conventions until the Holy Spirit directs otherwise.
9. Empty Bank vaults of cash stashed there by church denominations for the ‘rainy day’ and use the cash IMMEDIATELY for the welfare of poor people in the church and persecuted Christians all over the world. The ‘rain’ has started falling already.
10. Encourage daily self-judgment by partaking in Holy Communion corporately and privately – with Spirit-led teaching to prevent some folks from becoming sick or falling asleep prematurely due to ignorance.
11. Initiate programs that will allow brotherly love to flow as no one can learn in heaven what he or she is not accustomed to doing hear on earth. As was the case in the early Church genuine believers should be assisted by the church to live the Christ-life in order not to miss the rapture of the church – through ignorance or avoidable hardship.
12. The involvement of worldly musicians and use of modern music as a mode of worship in churches and fellowships should be scrutinised closely to avoid infiltration by Satanists, which can lead to demonic pollution of the congregation.
When these are in place, I believe that our prayers will more easily flow into the vials in the hands of the twenty-four elders in heaven leading to unchallengeable OPEN HEAVENS over our land. No matter what course of action you take, please note that the next event in God’s Prophetic Calendar is the rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Church must be watchful, ready and fruitfully occupy in joyous expectation of the event.