What if Joshua had done a survey of the people to try to decide how to take down the walls of Jericho? What if Moses had taken a poll to see who wanted to go to the promised land, and who wanted to return to the land of Egypt? What if Elijah had decided that since the government and most of the people were serving BAAL instead of God, why not adapt his view points so as to not be 'offensive' to them? Yet we are living in a time when many in the church no longer listens to God, but to the dictates of man's desire.
Some of the things we are doing and suggesting in this nation are just out right ignorant when you realize the faith of the three Hebrew children. These three men, by faith, defied the orders of the KING, and while the rest of the entire NATION bowed down to the idol that the KING had made, these three stood and would not bow to anyone but GOD! And what was at risk for these men? The punishment for being politically incorrect was being thrown into a fiery furnace, and yet they would not bow! We are trying to be so non offensive to our sinful culture that is around us that we have forgotten the God that brought us to the place we are today!
Today we are seeing culture driven churches that have taken their congregations to new levels of shame trying to be relevant to their communities. Their philosophy sounds so wise, change to meet the needs of the culture in which you live, in order the reach that culture. Many of these churches claim to be 'spirit filled' yet everything they do is catering to the needs of people, while ignoring the faith that God has called us to. They allow anything and everything to take place in their services except for the power of God. They remove the Spiritual things. And if they allow the gifts of the Spirit at all, they shove that to an off night, when the crowd is low, or in a back room, where only a few will attend. Could you imagine the Apostle Paul operating in this fashion? He spoke of them by saying, "They have a form of Godliness, by deny the power of God." We have a generation that no longer believes in the power of God and a generation where many claiming to be 'uncertain' that God is real do not need a culture driven church. It will take the power of preaching the truth untainted with signs and wonders confirming the Word to reach this corrupt and perverse generation.
We understand that if Joshua had taken a survey to determine his steps at Jericho that this would not have worked, it would have been a work of man and not the hand of God at work. We understand that if Moses had taken a vote to see what popular demand was that they would have likely returned to their slavery in bondage, and God's will would have been denied. We also understand that if Elijah had tried to blend in with the current culture there would have never been any opportunity for God to move through his life to later challenge the wicked Queen Jezebel and the prophets of BAAL.
So many people complain that God is not moving for them. So many people say that God does not do today the mighty works that he did in the day that the Bible was written. The reason we do not see the mighty hand of God move is that we do not often give him a chance to move. Instead of living by conviction, and faith, and obedience to the Word of God, we live the way that people of our culture say that we should live. We blend in with the people of our surroundings instead of standing up for God's Ways and being different like David, Abraham, Daniel and many others. Are you in a culture driven church? God's power is still working signs, wonders and miracles today, when our churches go back to the rock from which they were hewn, they will see the glory of God revealed.
God's people have NEVER blended in with their culture no matter what generation they were living in. Why do we deceive ourselves into thinking that we can just blend in with our culture and accomplish the will of God. It's time to stand up and be the people of faith and conviction that God has asked us to be. If our culture is OK with that, than good, but if it offends our culture, we must be like the three Hebrew Children and refuse to bow to the pressure of our culture around us.
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