THE CHURCH’S    STORM

My wife Barb purchased a NOAA weather radio for me on Father’s Day.  I have a real passion to follow certain weather patterns, especially storm formations. As a young boy I would climb on top of our two-bedroom frame house with my binoculars that were bought with five books of green stamps and watch the cloud formation as the thunderstorms approached and developed. I would stay as long as I could until my parents would force me to come down in fear I would be struck by lighting. Although I participated in the ball games, hide and go seek and other neighborhood events, they did not have as much appeal to me as being the neighborhood storm spotter. My other passion was having church service under our shade tree with me as the resident pastor. Even back then I was not walking in the mainstream of childhood paths.

Perhaps those early days of being an amateur storm spotter were preparing me for being a real storm spotter today. Although I still am enamored with storms, I have a much deeper drive and that is watching the storms in the spiritual realm, especially the storms that are unleashing their fury over the Church. Today I see myself symbolically on the housetop screaming out warning of the approaching storms and warning of the storms that are already here. I am simply one of many watchmen who God has called to do his part in sounding an alarm that the American Church is off course and unless there’s a major change in direction then further damage will occur.

There is an old adage of the sea that says: “Red skies in the morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.” Unfortunately this storm is currently in full steam and more storms are approaching unleashing every demon from hell possible and this is just the forefront. It’s a travesty that many are in the midst of the storm and think they are resting under sunny skies on a cool day. Many in the Church continue their histrionic thespian type role as they are being overcome by the tempest. Most are content with playing a part in looking like a member of their group instead of conforming to the image of Yeshua.   Much of the American Church has adopted an indolent type theology as far as renouncing sin but is quite vigorous when it comes to entertaining the congregation.

 America may very well be destroyed. There are just too many horrific variables for something not to happen that will make 9/11 look almost like a mundane day.  The only hope this country has for survival is for the true Church to be the vanguard, to be on the front lines, not only as a solid place of protection, but as a fighting machine destroying all of satan’s schemes. The Church must take its rightful place for getting the world to conform to its standards and not conform to the world’s standards.

Leonard Ravenhill said, I often am asked to pray for the healing of the nation, No! I am praying for the healing of the Church. Then the healing of America, Britain and other nations will follow. As the Church goes, so goes the world.

 

What the Church must do is to make certain that the standards she has are the standards Yeshua set forth in the New Testament. These standards are all throughout scripture, in the Torah and all throughout what we call the Old Testament.

However, the Church has sailed off course and has found herself in the midst of one of the largest tempests in   history.

A storm can have several methods of destruction. A storm, as in the case of a tornado can actually suck up large objects into itself.  Storms can hurl huge items of debris into its victims at accelerated speeds.

Living in Texas we are accustomed to hearing Tornado warnings and alerts.

Listen! You can hear it. It’s a great sucking sound. It’s a hellish tornado sucking something up.  The great sucking sound is true doctrine and Biblical preaching being sucked out of the Church. They are being sucked out and are being replaced by either false doctrine, or no doctrine at all.  Some of the replacements are entertainment, feel good, market driven, people pleasing, political correctness, all is well, hyper faith, live as you want, feeling a feeling, prosperity-type mentality. When we have the American Church being hit by an onslaught of the aforementioned, it’s no wonder that   much of the Church is in peril. I remember   sitting in a local church and hearing a preacher say that we don’t pay attention to doctrine - just Jesus. Sounds pretty spiritual but the question is: which Jesus are they paying attention to? It’s very likely they are paying attention to the wrong Jesus. They have a Jesus who talks all about love with no action.  They have a Jesus who talks about grace with no responsibility. They have a Jesus who talks about forgiveness without repentance. They have a Jesus who talks about the Christian walk without discipline. Perhaps this Jesus is the one they talk about, and perhaps this Jesus is the one they sing about, but the problem is, this Jesus is not the one found in the Bible. It’s a counterfeit Jesus to head up their counterfeit church.

Churches across America have boasted of revival for years.  Many of these claims were birthed in the early 1990’s and through today. There was a church in Denton that sent a delegation of people to travel to Toronto, Canada, and return with the methodology of how to receive the  “Toronto Blessing”. This congregation watched videos and was taught by the “experts” how to duplicate this so-called blessing.

The Brownsville “revival”

along with other bogus events has also made their way into many main line Churches. We love entertainment but shun truth. We in the American Church must learn fully what John meant when he said to test the spirits:

 

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1    NAS

 

One sure way to test if what one is professing is from God or not is to determine who is being exalted, self or God. Yeshua said die to self. That message is not very popular today.

The American Church, as the result of satan’s storm has had obedience sucked out. As a whole it’s void of any preaching on obedience. Whether you sit in a home group, which is the setting I prefer, or in a cathedral, unless obedience is taught and practiced you are in the wrong place.

 

Andrew Murray said in his book The Blessings Of Obedience: If we yield ourselves to the searching of God’s Spirit, we may find that we never gave obedience its proper proportion in our scheme of life and that this lack is the cause of all our failure in prayer and in work.  We may see that the deeper blessings of God’s grace, and the full enjoyment of God’s love and nearness, have been beyond our reach simply because we never made obedience what God meant it to be.  It is the starting point and the goal of our Christian life.

 

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

John 14:15       KJV

 

 

 

I personally heard a preacher say that since Jesus addressed sin as the last thing in the Lord’s Prayer, we should address sin as the last thing in our lives. He went on to imply that we all sin so why worry about it. This particular Church struggles today as a result of sin; one being the sin of perversion (homosexuality) which was never addressed and which was being practiced by some of those who attended on a regular basis. This storm the Church finds herself in is because much of the American Church is off course. She has been led off course by lying prophets of Baal. There are wolves in the sheep pen. These false shepherds have had a stultifying effect on the sheep. Their false palaver may sound soothing but will   lead   to destruction.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Matt 7:15     KJV

 

 Just as there is a “dumbing down” agenda in public education, there’s also a “dumbing down” agenda by satan in the American Church.  The American Church is devoid of any discernment. It can’t discern a curse from a blessing, a truth from a lie, living water from poison, freedom from obedience, righteousness from   worldliness.  Satan’s storm is sucking out true doctrine in lieu of an up-beat sideshow. The American Church finds herself not only adrift but sinking.

 

There are so-called churches that are embracing “gay pride day”. By the way I have made a personal decision to never use the word “gay” in my vocabulary. I either use the word homosexual or the Biblical term, sodomite.  I will not use destructive words I have heard some short-wave preachers use; I will simply use the correct terms and not be persuaded to use the more politically-correct term “gay”. Let me give a solemn warning that this perversion will continue to make its way into more and more Churches. A brother pointed out to me that one liberal denomination had a spot on their website promoting “gay pride day”.  I was listening to the news early this morning and there was a story about “gay pride day”.  I believe it was out of California. It seems the lesbians were not getting equal billing as their male counterparts. The story went on to relay such details of depravity and lasciviousness that I will not even give space in this article to describe them.

I mentioned a Church that I was personally aware of where this sin of perversion was never addressed and those committing this sin sat with ease in their chairs on a ride to hell, while lifting their hands to a god of their own creation. We are sinking in the sea because of the weight of the cargo of sin.

 

It Ain’t Just Them Catholics

At last count there have been over 271 priests booted from the priesthood due to homosexual acts with young boys. Now most of you know I do not agree with Catholicism. They pervert the gospel by praying to dead saints, elevating Mary to deity, salvation by works, rote prayers, so on and so forth. My heart breaks because so many in Catholicism are simply deceived. There are many well-meaning Catholics with good intentions whom I love and pray for. However, as the adage goes: “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

The news headlines scream out of pedophile priests. This is out of hell itself.

However, it ain’t   just them Catholics. We who like to call ourselves evangelicals have our share of sexual scandals, sin and deception. The mainstream American Church is not only taciturn regarding this sin of perversion but in many cases will embrace it. The sin of homosexuality is flourishing in a large number of our Evangelical Churches. Some key evangelicals live a licentious lifestyle.

 

There’s currently a huge scandal involving a famous shortwave preacher that has devastated many. You must make sure if a leader falls that you do not fall with him. If you do fall with him, that will tell you that your faith is in a man and not in Yeshua.

I have two things to say on these matters. To those who commit such sin, or any sin as far as that goes, repentance is a must.

There is never, never, never room for compromise or rationalization. Just as important, if someone does repent, we as believers must forgive. We must forgive for we have no choice.

We who like to call ourselves evangelicals                        like to cast our spiritual eye of theological correctness toward the Catholics. However, we had better clean out the trash in our eyes so we can see the incorrectness of Catholicism. We ourselves must fall on our faces in true repentance and cry out for His mercy and forgiveness.

I wish to reiterate one thing. If this country is going to survive, the true Church must take its rightful place as a vanguard of this spiritual war of storms she is in.

The true Church is being hit by satan’s storm with full fury. However the true Church will prevail. The true Church of Yeshua will not sink in the sea. The true Church will look satan square in the face and send him and all his demons running.

True believers in Yeshua will definitely be tested, but they will proclaim with the apostle Paul;

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Romans 8:37 KJV

 

Though it may appear that they themselves are about to sink beneath the waves they can say;

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Phil 4:13-14   NAS

 

The false church will hold services in hell while the true Church will gather around the throne and say Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.

If you are of the true Church be encouraged - you will not sink beneath the waves.

I love the chorus of the song,  “The Anchor Holds” by Ray Boltz:

The anchor holds though the ship is battered, the anchor holds though the sails are torn.  I have fallen on my knees as I face the raging seas.  The anchor holds in spite of the storm.

If you’re in the false church be warned; Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Gal 6:7  KJV

 

I beckon you to come out of anything that is not of the Lord.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues

Rev 18:4  NAS

 

Come to the cross and be washed in His blood. Accept His gift of allowing you to repent and walk in obedience and serve Him and be part of His glorious Church.

Now may the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob bless you through His Son Yeshua.

 

In His Service

 

 

Jack Hunter

 

 

 

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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