We have a problem in the body of Christ today that the Lord is dealing with even right now. The problem is in the church world. It’s not just one church, but the body of Christ as a whole. That doesn’t mean that everybody in the body of Christ is wrong or making a mistake. There’s a lot of wonderful people, just like you, that are following God and obeying His will.
The reason we have the problems in the nation that we do is because of the problem in the church. That’s the reason we have the economic problems, the social problems, the riots, tumults and disturbances in our society. The reason our nation, as a whole, has lost its status on the world scene is because the church has lost its status and fallen way below the pristine glory that God has called it to walk in. As goes the church in the nation, so goes the nation. The church is directly responsible for the problems the nation has. We have spiritual authority, but if we don’t take it, the devil will dominate our nation and the church. If we have the ability to take this nation for God through prayer, but don’t pray – then it’s our fault. But we’re going to arise in this day.
I know you’re wanting to know, “What is the problem in the church?”
One of the biggest problems we have in the Christian world today in the U.S.A., as a whole, is Christians following after another Jesus.
“For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached… (2 Corinthians 11:4)”
It’s possible, because you don’t like the first Jesus (the real Jesus), to come up with your own Jesus. It is not only possible to do that, people are doing it today. It’s nothing new. The Apostle Paul was dealing with that problem in his day, and we’re still dealing with the same issue today.
It’s the same devil and the same evil spirits. And, by the way, there’s not another Jesus. There’s only one Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. The Apostle Paul was saying that it was possible to come up with a counterfeit Jesus that the Bible does not identify. The world and society have come up with a counterfeit Jesus.
This happened in the days of Paul, “or if you receive another spirit,” as 2 Corinthians 11:4 continues to say. If you come up with another Jesus, that means you’ve got the wrong spirit. There’s an evil spirit, a seducing spirit, a doctrine of devils that’s behind that. That’s why he identifies another spirit, “which you have not received,” speaking about the gospel he preached. Notice this, it is “another gospel.”
So, he talks about another Jesus, another spirit, or another gospel. It’s possible to have the wrong Jesus. It’s possible to have the wrong spirit and be yielding to the wrong spirit. It’s possible to be listening to the wrong gospel.
Paul said, “which you have not accepted, you might well bear with me.” So here we see that people can preach another Jesus, be inspired by the wrong spirit, preach another gospel.
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel…(Galatians 1:6)”
Paul said in his day people were being duped, deceived, and seduced to believe another gospel. Not the real gospel. Not the true gospel.
In verse 7 he goes on to say, “Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”
There’s only one gospel, the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that is backed up by the written Word of God that cannot be changed. Do you see what verse 7 says – that they pervert the gospel of Christ. That word pervert means to corrupt, to turn around or change. In Paul’s day, there were people that wanted to corrupt, pervert, turn around, change the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You can see we’ve had that problem since the beginning. We’ve seen it in Corinthians and Galatians, so it’s not just one isolated scripture or event.
People today, in the world and the church, want another Jesus because the real Jesus brings change in people’s lives, and people don’t want to change. They want to stay in their sin because they are deceived. No one in their right mind would stay in something that leads to death and eternal damnation.
This other gospel, other spirit, other Jesus is of the devil. Today there is another Jesus and another gospel being preached and embraced by many in the Christian world. It is a perverted gospel that has been turned around or changed to fit the ideas of men, popular culture, and society. It does not agree fully with the New Testament and is doctrinal error and deception. Notice I said, ‘does not agree fully.’ There’s an element of truth in it because if there wasn’t, people wouldn’t embrace it. The devil always puts enough truth in it to get you sucked in.
They say that 99.9% of rat poison won’t hurt you, but that small smidgen of a percentile will kill you. They don’t give the rat full poison because he wouldn’t eat it. They give him what he likes and, if he eats enough of it, they’ve got just a smidgen in there that will kill that rat dead. That rat ate what he thought was food and it turned out to be poison. That’s the same thing in the church world today. There’s enough truth in the poison to make you think it’s good, but if you eat enough of it, it will kill you. It will cause you to fall away from Christ. It will get you in a situation where you don’t want to be. It will give the devil dominion over you, the church world and cause the downfall of our society, economy, and our nation. That’s what the devil is working on today, but thank God, the Lord is turning it around.
So what has happened today? You have a large amount of the body of Christ following after another Jesus, another gospel, another spirit. You have them believing that they don’t have to ask for forgiveness of their sins because they’re already forgiven. They’re bringing every tip and trick from the world and putting it into the church. Instead of following after the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, they’re following after seducing spirits and plans of man. They’re saying things that the Bible says are an abomination are perfectly acceptable to God. The church has lost its identity of who they are in Christ and what it means to be a Christian. That same identity crisis has moved into the world.
Until the problems in the church are corrected, the problems in the world can’t be corrected. That’s not to say that the whole world is going to be saved. We know by scripture that isn’t going to happen. The things that are going on in the world are the result of the forces of darkness, satan and his cohorts having their way. When the church of the Lord Jesus Christ realizes who they are and stands up in their authority over the devil, then the devil isn’t going to be able to do what he is doing in the world. We have authority over him in the name of Jesus.
You aren’t going to have that authority if you’re following after another Jesus, another gospel, or another spirit because the authority isn’t found there. It’s found in Christ, which is the written Word of God, not plans of men, not seducing spirits. It’s found in a strict adherence to the Word of God. It’s found following after the Holy Ghost.
Pray for the church today. Bind the seducing spirits and doctrines of devils that have infiltrated the church world. Stand up and use your authority in Christ, led by the Holy Ghost. God is with us.