Did you know that just because you’re going forward, that you have forward motion and forward momentum, that doesn’t mean that God is anywhere in the picture. Just because you’re doing something for God, that does not mean that God is in it.
One time I built my own pontoon boat. I bought some of the supplies and the materials from an older gentleman that once upon a time had a desire to build his own pontoon boat. Well he got up in age and just didn’t get around to it. While over there, I saw that he had an old motor too. So I bought the supplies to build this pontoon boat and this motor and I went to building this boat.
I started building this thing and people started laughing at me because this thing was ugly. It was as old as could be and was just ugly. But I just kept on building and putting this thing together. And after a while people stopped laughing. People came up to me and said, “You’re building a boat.” I know I was building a boat. They just didn’t know.
But I got this thing built and we went out on our maiden voyage with my wife and her folks. And we were riding along on the river and everything was going fine. One day we were going up the river and suddenly this guy I knew came flying by us and doing circles around us.
He pulled around next to us and yelled, “Can you swim?”
Well of course I could. I told him so. And he yelled back, “Can your daddy-in-law swim? Can he swim far? What about your mother-in-law?”
I just yelled back, “Why are you asking all of this?”
He replied, “Cause you sinking son.”
You see, we had forward motion, everything looked real good, but the pontoons were leaking. They were old. There were these small holes and water would get in and it would take a while to do it, but we had been in the water long enough that we were starting to sink. We were paying so much attention to what was in front of us that we forgot to look at what was going on around us.
We have the same problem today in the church. Everyone is looking at the future and saying things are bright, but they don’t know a lot of things are sinking. Just because you have forward motion and forward momentum doesn’t mean that you have success; you may be sinking.
There are things going on in the church today that boggles the human mind. Churches are growing beyond imagination. Churches are founded, and within 6 to 8 months they are running in the thousands. That’s unheard of years ago. And I’m not against large numbers. I’m for it. But once you get in it, and you look at what’s going on in those churches, there’s no substance there. There’s no Holy Ghost there. There is no life change of people there. Although they have all the Christian code names, and all the Christian clichés, and they know all the right words to say, they’re not serving the same Lord as the God of the Bible.
What are they serving? Instead of Jesus Christ, they are serving human secularism. They have started catering to the human psyche, the soul and not the spirit of man. They’ve done research and figure out what people like and they cater to that. They’ve set their services up where it will please people’s flesh and will not help their spirit. People have been going for that. And they are never challenged, and they are never changed.
So just because you had forward momentum and forward motion does not mean that God is in it. Just because you have large numbers does not mean that the Holy Ghost is there. You can have success without God being in it. You don’t believe that, just go look at the film industry and night clubs. The same thing happens in churches that could care less about the Holy Ghost and the written Word of God. So you can have forward motion and still not have success in God.
These type of churches and plans that are not built on the Holy Ghost may seem to have forward motion, but trust me – they are sinking. They may seem to have success now, but there’s coming a day that they will be tested in the fire and found to be lacking. And when that happens, all that success will mean nothing because it will all fall apart. It will all sink.
I encourage you, make sure that what you are doing is anointed of God. Make sure God is in it, God is directing it and you will have success. You will have forward motion. You will have forward momentum. You will have success. And God will bless you for it because He is in it.