Is Satan the devil really as powerful as to cause the kinds of division seen among true Christians today?
Before answering the above question, I guess it is important for us as Christians to remind ourselves of the obvious—that is, we are Christians only because we have Christ in us. Therefore, we all belong to Him.
Doubtless, the devil and his cohorts are powerful but not most powerful! Certainly not powerful enough to take on Christ Jesus the Creator of all things Colossians 1:16.
While the bible described Satan as the strong man, Christ is declared as the stronger man Luke 11:22.
So why has the devil succeeded and is still succeeding in inciting division among believers against the desire of Christ for His Church to live and enjoy unity and peace?
It seems the problem lies with something we Christians have not understood and as such are not obeying. But, what could it be? Don’t be partisan—don’t build camps.
Paul and Barnabas understood this truth. In-spite of their disagreement, they kept on with the gospel without nicknaming it their brand. Because there was absence of this branding of the gospel, when Paul requested for John Mark’s assistance in the gospel, Barnabas did not think Paul was trying to get Mark to switch movement, denomination or camp.
The apostles had a firm grasp of the path Jesus laid for the Church’s unity and peace. Hence, it helped them not to build little or huge camps for themselves.
Though we read of the disagreements in the early church, we see no example of the sort of camps, denominations and movements we have today. Given the grace Paul had for deep and difficult revelations into the Person of Christ as testified by Peter, he could have easily created his own camp, denomination or movement and nicknamed it “Paulinism”. But rather, he exhorted and admonished thus; 1 Corinthians 1:12, 3:4-6, 22, 4:6.
Even where some Christians derailed into dangerous doctrines, the apostle’s approach to correcting them was not to nickname their own gospel. Rather, they confronted the false doctrines headlong—by showing the church via the scriptures and their Christlike lifestyle how the doctrines were wrong. Presently, the church is so deviated from this pattern one would wonder if ever it can be remedied. Here is where faith comes in! All things are possible if we are willing to believe, trust and obey the Omnipotent God.
Well, the bible speaks of the wiles of the devil and states that we’re not ignorant of it. Could it be that we have actually made ourselves ignorant of it?
Let us look at one of his wiles which I strongly believe the church has been for a long time ignorant of and therefore has not attacked it with our Christ given weapons of prayer, wisdom, love and obedience.
The wile I am referring to is the camps we have unwisely built for ourselves, though we have not done this intentionally in all cases. Nevertheless, its effect has achieved the devil’s wishes for us to be divided contrary to our Saviour’s desire for His church to live in unity.
Over the centuries, the Holy Spirit has been revealing clearly that this tragedy of camp building and its divisive effect has to be addressed. But the costs to those who have laboured and invested not just money but their lives to building these camps is enormous. As a result, it’s overwhelming to think about redressing the issue. But, I am persuaded that most of the faithful servants of God who have long joined the Lord will undo the things they did to contribute to the camps we have today if they are given a chance. Pardon my presumption.
So, what will it be for us who remain today, are we going to agree with the Spirit of God and break down these camps or what?
God never builds upon wrong foundation. He always first clears the refuse of lies. His ancient pattern is always to breakdown and build up afresh and anew. Strategic restructuring is never His pattern.
Am I saying we don’t need these nicknames: Multicultural, End time, Reform, Emergent, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Evangelical, Calvinist, Armenian, House church, Baptist, and Methodist etc.? My apologies if I missed out your camp.
It is God’s mind that we should breakdown these camps if we truly want to experience the Lord Jesus’ desire for us to enjoy unity and peace amongst us (the church). For clarity, I am not addressing “unity within our camps and its babies”. It is amply clear that the tactics employed to achieve our tactical “unity” has not and cannot workout unity for His body. Neither can ecumenism.
What I am addressing is the unity of the spirit and peace in the one church that has expression across the different locale.
Now, I am not saying the camps are the cause of disagreements but that they are catalysts for division—actually, the camp is the division. In part 1 of Unity and peace, I did state clearly that disagreement is not division and should not lead to it. However, it is unthinkable to have camps without division.
Love—foundation of the faith, with unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, will carry His church through disagreements. These disagreements arise mainly because we all do not get the true understanding of the person of Christ at the same time. We grow in our knowledge, in our walk in and with Christ at varying paces and God is satisfied with that. If a Christian within a gathering or the whole gathering locale is sinning or in error doctrinally, it should be addressed as such and not from the standpoint of gospel brand.
So, why the bitter divisions? The answer is crystal clear—the camps!
The problem is this; if we must grow our camps then unavoidably we will be partisan, crafty, callous, and egocentric instead Christocentric. But, if we choose Christo-centricity, then, painfully but rewardingly, the camps must need be done away with.
As the body of Christ, here are three vital things to consider deeply if we are honestly desiring our unity and peace.
Firstly, is God actually wanting us to breakdown these ungodly walls (camps, denominations, movements) that have been built knowingly or unknowingly over the centuries?
Secondly, are we prepared to repent and pay the painful price of breaking down the camps our past beloved brothers and sisters and even us now have painstakingly built and relied on for our identity for so long?
And lastly, are we ready to start afresh, learn the things we hopped and skipped over and follow Christ’s pattern relying only on Him, the captain of our salvation, the centre of our unity and the prince of our peace?
What’s your response? It will be helpful to the church.
This rich meditation for the Church is taken from “Feed My Sheep” by George H Warnock
What then did He do about it? Did He start acting upon the Scriptures that related to His Messiah-ship, and seek to fulfill what He had read and studied? His pathway is clearly set forth in the Word.
He simplified His life by walking in union with the Heavenly Father… and as a result ALL SCRIPTURE WAS FULFILLED THAT GOD INTENDED TO BE FULFILLED in the short ministry that He had in the earth… and what remained unfulfilled He was prepared to commit into the hands of the Father who sent Him. Doing the will of God was MORE IMPORTANT to Jesus than seeking to fulfill His Messianic office. With what result?
His ministry was cut short, for He was “cut off out of the land of the living…” But He did exactly what God intended Him to do… and the Scriptures which He did not fulfill while here on earth will yet be fulfilled in His Body, as He sits enthroned at God’s right hand in the heavenlies.
This may not seem important to some… but it is vitally important. For if we understand this WAY, then we can spare ourselves all the frustrations and needless anxieties that a minister of God has to endure when He sets his course to fulfill a New Testament ministry, or to bring into being a New Testament Church.
Let us not read the Scriptures with the thought in mind that it is up to you and I to strive to fulfill all that we read. Rather let us read the Word for our daily bread, that we might have the strength and the wisdom to do just what God wants us to do TODAY, and rejoice in the hope of the promise that seems as yet unattainable. And let us be assured that every glorious promise of the Word that God has given us… high and unattainable as it may seem to be, is nevertheless yours and mine to embrace as God quickens the Truth of it to our hearts. And as we faithfully walk in obedience in the realm that God has enabled us to walk in TODAY, the time will surely come when we shall also walk in obedience in a realm which is at present beyond our grasp.
I am not being “scriptural” when I try to fulfill Scripture; I am only being scriptural when I walk in fellowship with the Spirit, and in union with the Son… and in so doing I make way for the Word to take hold of my spirit and to nourish and renew the inner man.
“Dear Lord, as I meditate upon your Word, help me to know that I hold in my hands the plan and the blueprint of the greatest and most wonderful masterpiece of your creative power that you have ever undertaken to bring forth. For when you formed the heavens and the earth… the heavens and their wonderful galaxies and universes, and the earth adorned with beauty and majesty… you simply spoke a Word, and it came into being.
But when you saw fit to bring forth your Masterpiece, even the Church of the Living God, composed of redeemed sons of Adam’s fallen race. you must needs descend to the lowest depths with them in the Person of your Son, that in His death, resurrection, and exaltation to highest heaven we also might be lifted from depths unreachable to heights unattainable, in virtue of your own grace and wisdom and power.
And now in this Book that you have given us to read you have set forth in minute and intricate detail your plan and purpose concerning your people. Who am I that I could begin to formulate and arrange my life and calling, or the lives of your people, according to your Divine blueprint? I have it in my hands… I read it… I memorize it… I meditate upon it… But Lord! There is nothing that you say that is within my desire to perform or within my power to accomplish except as your indwelling Spirit breathes afresh upon the Word that you have spoken, and causes it to become Life within me.
Let me therefore read your Word with the consciousness that you are causing the very dew of Heaven to fall upon it, that it may quicken thy servant, and take on form and reality in my life as I receive it. Give me only that which I need for today, for thus you taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” May we not be greedy for wisdom and knowledge, while as yet we are not able to digest it. For again you have said, “Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it” (Proverbs 25:16).
Let us be happy as we walk one step at a time, as long as there is union with Thee, with a Word here and a Word there that we can lay hold upon. But let us not grasp hold of Scriptures, as an undisciplined and inefficient workman would grasp his tools… to erect the pillars and walls, and install the furnishings… when as yet the foundation has scarcely been laid. For so you have declared Thy Word would be fulfilled to a people who would enter in to your rest”:
“For precept must be upon precept,
Precept upon precept;
Line upon line, line upon line;
Here a little, there a little:
For with stammering lips, and another tongue
Will he speak to this people. To whom he said,
This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest;
And this is the refreshing:
Yet they would not hear”
(Isaiah 28:10-12).
And because Israel would not hear, God’s Word that was intended to bring them into rest, caused them “to go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken” (verse 13). “For if the light that is in you become darkness,” Jesus said, “How great is that darkness!”
Jesus, then, did not formulate any plan for the fulfilling of the Scriptures, nor for His own ministry… nor should we. He simply walked with the Father in perfect harmony and as He did everything came to pass as God intended, and the Scripture was fulfilled. How often we read the phrase, “That it might be fulfilled, according as it is written…”
This is how He began His ministry; for as He entered into the synagogue of Nazareth after His anointing and baptism, and stood up to read, He opened the scroll to the place where it was written concerning His great Messianic ministry. Then having read the portion that pertained to Him FOR THAT HOUR He closed the book, and handed it back to the minister of the synagogue, saying, “THIS DAY is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears…” (Luke 4:21).
There would be other days, when other Scriptures would be fulfilled, But for this day this was sufficient, and this was relevant, and God was truly glorified. God’s ministers often feel free to boast: “This is Bible, and I’m going to preach it…” But Jesus was confined to that portion of the Word that God was speaking TODAY.
Rich Exhortation and Admonition from George H. Warnock
It certainly appears to me that we are close to the Day of the Lord. – A ‘Day’ that is described in scripture as a time of gross darkness in the world about us…yet holds forth the promise of a glorious Light that will shine upon His people.The prophets spoke much of this “Great” yet “Terrible” Day – when great darkness shall engulf the earth, while His people walk in the Light of the Lord Jesus. God wants us to “walk in the Light” now lest we presumptuously think all is well because we have good doctrine, and attend a good church.
We must have true faith, lest in our presumption we find that Day to be one of darkness… and we “stumble on the dark mountains”, and look for the light that is not there. No matter how dark the night may be surrounding us, “the children of the Light” will walk in the Light of God. When gross darkness covered the whole land of Egypt…there was “Light” in the homes of the people of God.
As God’s wrath is poured out on a world of iniquity, God has made every provision for the children of Light – and that provision is nothing less than the “whole Armor of God”. (Eph. 6), described in Romans as “the Armor of Light” (Rom.13:12).
The climatic battle of the ages is closing in upon us, and God will have a Gideon army whose only weapons were – a trumpet and a pitcher…with a lamp inside the pitcher. Right now they seem to be doing nothing for God–as they sit in the darkness on the hillside. But in that Day they will break their pitchers and hold their lamps high; and with trumpet blast (a sure, clear voice from God) they will declare their victory- with no other weapons than the Armor of God.
Gideon’s army shouted aloud, “The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon…!” — and panic and fear griped the hearts of the enemy until they fled in terror. There were many volunteers in Gideon’s army at first…32,000 of them… But God sent most of them home, choosing to use only 300, whom He knew would give Him all the glory.
I emphasize these things because it seems to me that God’s people for the most part do not care to become involved with God’s battle plan…but choosing to be mobilized by some outstanding church leader rather than knowing the voice of the Lord God for themselves. Some do not even want to be around on the Day of the Lord…because they read of the terror of that Day…and fail to see the Light that will engulf the darkness.
They talk about God ‘sparing’ them from His wrath – yet fail to understand that God “spares” His people, by clothing them with “the whole Armor of God”.
We have ample teaching from the Lord Jesus and His apostles, admonishing us concerning that Day. Be alert! Be awake! “Let us not sleep”…said the apostle, but “Let us watch and be sober”… Put on the whole Armor! This is God’s provision for us in that Day: “The breastplate of faith and love.” …”and for an helmet the hope of salvation, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (See 1 Thessalonians 5:1-8)
Many just brush aside this teaching of the Day of the Lord, or view it as something too controversial to meddle with. Then there are many who remember the stories they heard from their parents or grandparents of how they anticipated the ‘end-times’…60 -70 or 80 years ago. “But we’re still here!” they say. True enough, but we are 60 – 70 – 80 years closer to it now that we were then.
Let’s consider a possible scenario in the days of Noah. Here’s a group of people taunting Noah for his folly. “Noah, you have been talking about God’s judgments for 119 years. When are you going to forget that wild dream you had?” But the next year it happened!
We are farther along in God’s program that we were 80 years ago… and as Jesus predicted because of this lapse of time, there is now a generation in the “church” …that has become careless, indifferent, insensitive to the times…and are saying (not verbally but with their actions), “My Lord delayed His coming”.
The apostle Peter said ‘scoffers’ would arise in the last days, saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since our fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Pet. 3:4) Some of us recall that kind of scoffing, many decades ago. But we are farther along now than the time Peter spoke about.
I recall an engineer who worked in a place where I once worked, who would use the expression, “He’s slower than the second coming!” (referring to a slothful man on the job). We know all about the scoffers! Yet none of them are saying, “All things continue as they were…” We have moved beyond the point Peter referred to — in just the last two or three decades.
Nobody is saying it now! Scientists are not saying it. Environmentalists are not saying it. Educators are not saying it. Politicians are not saying it. The “Press” is not saying it. Even ordinary scoffers are not saying it! There are frequent references in the news about “Armageddon” …as one catastrophe follows another. Planet earth has become a worrisome topic by men in high places.
A year ago I heard a panel of eminent scientists declare that the ocean would be ‘fished out’ within 10 years if the nations don’t get together and make enforceable conservation laws to save our fish…endangered as they are by pollution, as well as by high tech ocean farming.
Our beautiful pine forest in British Columbia could be wiped out, if we cannot control the beetle! Men of science and knowledge fear that Planet Earth’s oxygen supply is in serious danger of being depleted. Peter spoke about end time scoffers who say, “All things continue as they were since the beginning.” We are far beyond that time now.
Still many of God’s people, who have lost the vision of His Appearing continue to think like the crazy world in which we live – “There’s nothing we can do about it; so let’s live it up!”
I say it’s time we think about God’s holy Armor!…time to polish it up and put it on!
This holy Armor of Light will be our victory in this awesome Night that is closing in upon us. Can we not hear Him knocking at the door? “Please let Me in…Please open the door and invite Me to come in. I want to sit at your table and eat with you, and you with Me.”
Yet, we are saying by our nonchalant actions.. “O, He can come in if He wants to…Surely He knows we love Him, and we are working hard to see the promotion of His Gospel in the earth.”
I am not a pessimist by any means…except when it concerns the purposes of men. Was it pessimism when word got around on the Titanic, that this unsinkable vessel had struck an iceberg and was sinking? Some thought so, and carried on with their music, dancing and games.
They simply believed the engineers were right: they were on a boat that was unsinkable. The captain himself turned a deaf ear to the news that icebergs were near at hand. He must have this wonderful legacy of steering the most beautiful, unsinkable Queen of the Seas to America in record time, before he retired.
When reality struck home the optimism vanished, the wild and happy music and laughter subsided—and the orchestra began to play; “Nearer my God to Thee”.
When will God’s people learn that Titanic earth has struck a ‘berg’ and is sinking?
Were Jeremiah, Isaiah and Joel pessimists because they saw the people of God doing their own thing, with no fear of God in their hearts, heedless of the One who had separated them unto Himself to be a Holy Nation? I know God will continue to reach out to His people. But it seems there are very few in our land or in the U.S., who are earnestly calling upon God, confessing their sin and making Him Lord of their lives.
Instead they think their outreaches and works will be accounted unto them as righteousness. The music says it all, “We are a happy, jovial, people praising the Lord.” Away with solemn songs bidding the Lord of Glory to come to His holy Temple; to cleanse us, purge us, and make us to be totally separated unto Him.
For the most part we hear these words, spoken or implied, : “We are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.” How does the Lord of the Church respond to that? He looks upon us and says, “Thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked” …and we simply will not accept that verdict.
He offers to us the true riches; Gold, tried in the fire…Eyesalve to anoint our eyes that we might see…White raiment to clothe ourselves with His own garments of holiness, purity and grace. We just go our way, choosing to clothe ourselves with the filthy garments of our good works, works of our own choosing.
In the midst of the dearth, we know our God is preparing a “willing People” for the Day of His Power. He is preparing a Joseph in a prison-house for the Day of Famine; a Moses in the wilderness of Midian, who will go forth with no weapon but a stick in his hand to deliver a whole nation of slaves; an Elijah people who will “stand before God” and hear words from His mouth, and effectively call a people to repentance ; a John the Baptist arising in the midst of a stream-lined and proud religious order, calling men to repentance, be they religious or profane.
And in the outcome of it all, God will have a “glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing”….A HOLY Bride that will cry out, in union with the Spirit of God, to the poor, wretched and needy of the earth: “Come! Come!. Whosoever will, let him take of the Water of Life freely”.
May the Lord help us all in these awesome times, to draw closer and closer to our Lord Jesus. For only in union with Him will we have unfailing supply of “oil” to keep our lamps burning in the midnight hour that is closing upon us.
The Jews are a blessed and favored people by God, the Creator of the world, its peoples and everything in the world. It is not so wise an idea to begrudge God or the Jews for this divine orchestration. For as long as the earth remains, neither elemental spirits nor humans puffed-up in themselves can change this sovereign ordination of the Great I Am. The Jews are God’s deliberate natural sign on the earth just as the rainbow is!
However, this blessings and favor bestowed on the Jews is only global since it does not pass into eternal abundant life. Why so?
While the Bible supplies ample scriptures for it, Acts 4:11-12 sums it all up. As sovereignly ordained, eternal abundant life is an exclusive, blissful and God given right only for those who accept, receive and abide in the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, the Son of the Living God, the Eternal narrow Way, the First born Son of God from the dead—the awaited Great God and Savior, the Living Christ Jesus and mankind’s (men and women) only hope of glory Titus 2:13, Colossians 1:27, 17-18.
This is why the godly song written by Elisha Albright Hoffman is asking people of every race, tribe, language and nation?
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing pow’r?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you walking daily by the Savior’s side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the Crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white!
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Will your soul be ready for His presence bright,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb;
There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean,
O be washed in the blood of the Lamb.
And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation Revelation 5:9.
To claim to be born again while one is not, is to put a burden on oneself that one will never be able to bear. To be lured into this mistake, is to be set up to join a special kind of sinners labeled hypocrites (religious bad men). As put by C.S. Lewis, “of all the bad men religious bad men are the worst”. To them are reserved the gloom of utter darkness 2 Pet 2:17, Jude 1:13NLT, 1-23.
Eph 2:8-9, tells a deep story in a simple way. The gift is not to be claimed, it is to be received! If a gift is being distributed and you have not received yours, go to the giver and ask to receive—but, if you shout out you have received when you have not, you’re setting up yourself to be by-passed.
Every gift has responsibility that goes with it. The responsibility is to love the giver and be prepared to be a giver too. Those that receive gifts are empowered to give. The gift of salvation requires the receiver to give his or herself soul to the giver (God). This is the burden of the Lord. No sinner can bear the burden of taking the yoke of the Lord Matt 11:29. Let’s understand this mystery. The Lord’s yoke is His desire for the soul of man. He gave us Christ because He wants our souls. Every spiritual matter that must be manifest on earth passes through the human soul Rom 12:1-2.
Born again—that is, regeneration of the human heart or spirit is a gift. A powerful gift! This gift is not an event—it is a Person, it is Christ making His own self present in the heart. It is Him making the heart godly. The human heart that is stony becomes fleshy Ezekiel 11:19. It is a miracle—an unequalled miracle into the redemption journey. A journeying into the full status of the image of the redeemer (Christ Jesus)!
This gift of redemption when accepted, places the arsenal of God at ones disposal whether the receiver recognizes it or not. It is given because the redemption journey is fraught with unimaginable battles—battles that mere men can’t bear nor win Rev 3:5, 12, Zech 4:6. Battles which even the most decorated army general that have ever lived or will ever live can’t stand.
The weapons needed for these battles can’t be made with human hands and is a daily battle Matt 6:34. The weapons that win this battles are those tried seven times in the furnace of fire (a kind unknown to man) Ps 12:6, Eph 6:11, 13. Good intentions are no weapons for this pilgrim journey. Peter’s good intention of not wanting to hear that Jesus will die Matt 16:21-23 and, cutting off a guard’s ears was declared a carnal weapon with no eternal benefit Matt 26:51-52. Over-comers are those who yield to the Spirit of Christ that works within them Col 1:29. It is the hope of glory!
The Canaan the redeemed are journeying to is not earthly but heavenly Heb 11:10. For the prize of this heavenly home, those called are empowered, given a single vision and a fountain full of Immanuel’s blood and angelic protection. If you’re born again, you’re given these privileges even if you’re not yet aware Matt 6:22.
The apostolic, prophetic and teaching dimensions of Christ are laid upon some parts of His body to expose these privileges to His Church (Those who have received the gift of salvation or redemption).
It is preposterous to claim you’re in the military while you’re not. The Cross that enrolls civilians (sinners) is standing in front of you right now where you are. Receive Him! Titus 2:11, John 3:16, Rom 10:10.
Dear friend, this is the love of God—that is, the gift of redemption (Christ Jesus). All who receive Him become soldiers—when they are not in battle front, they are in training not engaging in civilian affairs 2 Tim 2:4. When they are no more present on earth, they are on vacation that last for eternity. Indeed, RIP. They Rest In Peace—in the bosom of the Prince of Peace. Peace (God’s kind) which they had only a measure of while on earth 1 John 3:2, 1 Cor 13:12, 1 John 3:3.
May the Godof hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. May the Godofpeace be with you all. Amen. Rom 15:13, 33.
Jude 1:24-25, Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
