And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Rev. 3:13-22)
Yes, your loving Jesus Christ said this to you. He said you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. I know those pretty self serving sermons you hear won’t point this out to you. I will because it is my prophetic calling. Jesus implied that your words, thoughts and actions – that don’t agree with His Word and His Spirit – make Him puke! He said He would vomit you out of His mouth! You rotten, no good excuse for a Christian! Yes! Jesus said that to you entertainment Christians.
The Original Pattern For The Church
When the church was founded, it was simple. You went to church to welcome the Holy Ghost, worship, learn His Word and edify one another. Today, you go to church for all kinds of other natural, soulical reasons also. I am not saying those things are sin, but they have a tendency to lead people away from spiritual things.
Dad Hagin used to say, “If you have to have an alarm clock to awake you in the morning it will hinder you spiritually.” The meaning is, if you have to depend on any natural thing, it will hinder you spiritually. In other words, you can know the Holy Ghost so well that He will awake you at whatever time you ask Him to. The more natural things you depend on in the church to influence people, the further away from the Spirit of God they get.
Of course, we live in the natural and natural things have their place. The Bible pattern for the church is to teach people to live by His Word and Spirit. The closer we adhere to the Word of God, the greater the manifestation of the Spirit of God and His gifts we will have.
The church seems to have become a discount warehouse with a plethora of items to choose from. In other words, you can get a lot of things there and one of them may be Jesus. Have we lost the original pattern, intent and purpose of the church? It seems we almost have.
What Is An Entertainment Christian?
You and I both know that there is a division in the church world between what the Lord called Informational and Revelational Churches. You may say it a different way, but there is a division. On one side of this division is are those churches that follow the Holy Ghost, the uncompromising Word of God and do His will. On the other side is the carnal churches that demand their ways, their opinions, and throw out anything that doesn’t agree with them – including the Word of God and the Holy Ghost.
Pastors and ministers in the Informational Church are pressured to go along with the new entertainment strategies today. If they don’t, they are mocked and ridiculed as old heads that are unwilling to change. I have personally been ridiculed by very prominent leaders in the church world. The truth is, they wouldn’t know the Holy Ghost if He came walking down the aisle with a red hat on, wearing a purple cape. (I borrowed that expression from Dad Hagin.) Yes, I said it. If you follow them, you will lose site of the Holy Ghost too.
This ‘psychological, entertainment, tickle me and tell me I am great’ message stinks in the nostrils of God. This ‘me centered, all about me, lazy, can’t be depended upon’ generation is being allowed to take over the church by elders who know better.
Their motto is, “we will lose this generation if we don’t reach them.” If they don’t agree with the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost and will not reverence and respect God, it does no good to reach them. They will go to Hell anyway, the Bible says. They will not force me to adapt to their ungodly ways and methods. I will preach the gospel to them and tell them what Jesus said, but if they reject, it I will not change for them.
This new generation demanded that lifestyles be accepted into the church whether they agreed with the Bible or not. This inflow of non-Christian lifestyles into the church gained momentum against Bible obeying Christians. It was insisted that the church become tolerant of unbiblical methods. It was forced to reform and accept the socialism Jesus and psychology Jesus as the new direction of the church. This required changing the entire pattern/model of the church.
Man Is Reigning In The Church
We have been in a cycle of the reign of man in the church. The church, as a whole, has put on display every flesh-pleasing demonstration it can come up with. Everything from pastors and ministers dressing and acting like Hollywood actors to sensational rock stars have become the norm. Also, sugar-coated messages that tell the people they are wonderful when they stink to God. They also teach people they don’t have to reverence and respect God because that is old school and outdated. They have also lost the definition of Christianity, so any lifestyle is accepted, whether Biblical or not, into the church. This ungodly, world pattern stinks in the nostrils of God.
There is a remnant though, that has protected the Biblical doctrines of the church, through this crisis, and it is arising to be a witness to this generation and be filled with His Glory. Joshua and Caleb had to wait forty years to enter the Promised Land because of the doubt and disobedience of those around them. Our Heavenly Father kept His Word to Joshua and Caleb and He will keep His Word for those who have stayed true to Him today. If you are on the wrong path, repent and move on with the Word and Spirit.
Follow The Heavenly Pattern
To follow God’s pattern, there are actions that you must take to do so. Jesus is not going to do it for you – you have to do it. Ministers must start your day seeking God in prayer for direction. It will probably take two to three hours, maybe more. Before you protest, that is your job preacher. First and foremost, your job is to know the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.
I know you think it is running the church or your ministry, but it is not. If you don’t know the Holy Ghost, you are a failure. I don’t care how many people you have. Quit following all the church growth gurus and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows so much more than they do, and He will teach you true church growth.
Next, all of your messages need to be born in prayer, not in your head. Messages born in prayer change people’s lives in their spirit. Messages that come from your head go to the people’s heads and are ineffective and impart carnality to the people.
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. (2 Cor. 3:6)
Quit following those who tell you that reverence and respect for God is old-fashioned and unnecessary. They are wrong and don’t know the Holy Ghost.
Finally, do what Jesus said to Dad Hagin in 1988. What Jesus emphasized the most during His three hour visitation with him was “Be filled with the Spirit.” Pray in the Holy Ghost until you become filled with His Spirit. Speak in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Live your life from that position and His Glory is yours!
Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. (Hebrews 8:5)
Moses was admonished by God Himself to make the tabernacle according to the pattern He had shown him on Mount Sinai. If Moses had built the tabernacle with his own plan, God would not have approved. The presence and glory of God would not have been in the tabernacle. Pattern here means: “the pattern in conformity to which a thing must be made.”
Is it possible that we don’t have the greater glory in the church because we haven’t built the church according to the heavenly pattern? I believe it is. It seems that most of the church world has come up with their own pattern about approaching God. This grieves the Spirit of God. Follow the pattern and principles that please God and you’re going to see great success and the Glory of God poured out.
