In denominations all over the world, believers are perishing and being destroyed in their futile attempts to find their God-given call and destiny. In their experience, believers have a hard time identifying themselves to Christ in the power of His resurrection. Our identity is in His resurrection.

According to 1 John 4: 17 Herein is our love made perfect, *(mature) that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as He is, so are we in the world.  *emphasis mine

We are not seeing the manifestations of God’s glory to the measure He has purposed. As far as God is concerned, all of His fullness has been placed within us. He has not held back one atom of Himself from those who are the called according to His purposes. Have you ever heard the saying, “your altitude is measured by your attitude”? In order to soar and mount up with wings as eagles, we must begin to become intimately acquainted with the truth concerning the love and attitude of God as our Abba, so that 1^st John 4:17 becomes alive in us.

The truth about who He is and what He desires for us has been filtered and preached through a marred denominational mindset. Without the welcome of discourse and reasoning together in the church that questions the intent of God’s Word, not just the letter on the page, our spiritual growth becomes stunted and never becomes skillful in the Word of righteousness. We are always kept at arms length from Him; for fear we may offend Him and ask the wrong thing. Becoming intimate with Him doesn’t happen by remaining at arms length, hiding in a pew as we try to cope with our sense of shame and inadequacy.

Becoming intimate with Him doesn’t occur by listening passively to sermon after sermon, going from one church to the next in pursuit of the perfect one or by watching one Christian T.V. show after another. How do we get mature, so can we see and flow with the Kingdom of God outside the four walls of the church house, where those around us feed off God’s overflow in our lives, creating in them a jealousy for His presence in their lives? It begins with a reverential fear of the Lord, and a reckoning for ourselves that the things of God are pre-eminent in our lives as priority one, not some where down the list.

It begins by walking in the revelation of His righteousness and grace on a heart level. In our transparency with Him, we come to absolutely know the heart of God through a tenacious seeking and asking lifestyle. Consequently, when we hear and respond to His voice in the marketplace of life, we respond with overflowing confidence in His goodness, willingness and ability to accomplish all that He has purposed in our lives.

The anointing that we gather in our spiritual closet alone manifests openly in the marketplace of life as we trust Him, and listen for His leading.

It is not enough to intellectually know the Word of God. Memory isn’t the key. I’ve met plenty of people that can quote scripture like a machine gun. I’ve known men who have preached the Word of God for most of their lives, yet when it came right down to it, they only ministered the written page or dead letter, totally oblivious to the real heart of God that issues life to our being through a living and vibrant Word that remains unchangeable and incorruptible. They neither possessed the life of His Word themselves, nor were they able to pass it on to those who ignorantly and blindly followed them.

How can that be? What is written is important, but it only works by and through love, the connection of the heart, rooted and grounded in righteousness. Anything less can be nothing but dead letter. We need a revelation of the love of God. Out of His love flows the issuance of life, Zoë, God’s eternal life, (abundant in quantity and excellent in quality). He is the Living Word! The body of Christ is being destroyed and our inheritance perishes with us because the knowledge of the Holy One, which is comprehensive insight into His ways and purposes, has been misrepresented.

His love and faithfulness is misrepresented. Our relation to His ways and how we fit into His purposes is not being taught in truth and righteousness. Our lack of vision is related to the temporal vistas painted by denominational doctrines that bind, rather than the grace and righteousness of the Kingdom that liberates.

The culprit, is the satanic symphony of religion and shame being rehearsed in the church. Hearts of millions of believers are hearing and rehearsing this out of tune, un-inspired, un-liberating, funeral dirge and they believe God to be the conductor of it. We sing, shout and run around the building, binding the devil, but never really get hold of our righteousness in Christ. We think that if we act like the other people we know who seem spiritual, then we too will be spiritual. In reality, we do nothing more than what witch doctors do in the jungle.

We conjure the spirit through ritual. It’s nothing more than witch craft and divination. We become religious chameleons, changing our religious colors to blend in and go un-noticed, hoping we won’t be discovered as the hypocrites and frauds our consciences, (not God) accuse us of being. The evidence is in the lives leaving the church building unchanged and ill equipped to handle the Word of righteousness. It only seems right to us, but as far as God is concerned, we are walking in the path of our own shadows and drinking sand from our own hewn cisterns, unable to hold living waters for any length of time.

Consequently, we remain parched and unfulfilled, emotionally petted without any real spiritual intimacy exchanged.

I know I am going to offend some of you who read this. Its about time someone cared enough to offend your religious sensibilities and comfort zone. Our destinies are at stake! Many of you have become like chicks in a nest (chained to the pew), with mouths open to receive anything momma bird puts in it! You have stopped thinking and discerning for yourselves, afraid and ashamed before God and your spiritual lives are on cruise control or auto pilot. The devil or your denomination is at the controls and you either, can’t smell the smoke or are unwilling to acknowledge it.

Wake up church! God is passing by!

He wants to visit your passive life!

Make room for Him!

Continued in The Bruised Reed