The sword

Be zealous and repent. [Revelation 3:19]

I left the church some time ago. I cannot seem to find my way back.

I do not speak as a seer or a prophet or any such person, only as an avid student of the Scriptures.

There’s coming a sword, sharper than any two edged sword. It will split the church into two. Much like Solomon determined to slay that baby in half, so the Lord will sharply divide His church. There will be bloodshed. When the Lord begins to test the hearts of all, it will be but impossible to keep up a facade of loving Him or feigning interest in Him any longer. Many will fall away.

With this separation a stark difference will be drawn. True sheep will be proven, just as Solomon proved who the real mother was. The fallen away will finally have their fates sealed being grouped among those who will face judgement. The clean and unclean will no longer mix. The purging will be complete.

The first message I ever published was on the compromising lifestyles of many ‘Christians’ and the colossal presence of permissive Churches in our generation.

The church of Jesus Christ is fallen. We are a disappointment to Him. Much like ancient Israelites denied their calling to be set-apart, to lead sanctified lives, to offer their lives to God as a living sacrifice, so have many so-called Christians lusted after the ways of the world. They congregate out of obligation or habit or both. They desire Christian-versions of worldly things—Christian clubs, Christian secular-sounding music; what next, Christian-sinful lifestyles? They do not understand that a blend is altogether filthy before God.

The shepherds are, at best, lackadaisical and struggling with their faith. At worst, sleeping with teenage girls in their congregations (sleeping with minors is rape) adulterous, having affairs with members of the choir team. They are making covenants with fallen spirits to receive counterfeit anointing, defiling all who sit under them in the assembly. They are business men. They are robbing the poor, the widows, the orphans in the name of tithes, offerings, ‘planting seeds’, holy water, holy oil, holy this and that.

We have altogether painted our God as a joke to the unbelieving.

No wonder it is written: “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles (those who do not know God) because of you.” How can He not be ashamed to be called our God?

This is why there is no power in the Church, or very little of it. The Church has little influence. The church is itself influenced by the world. The glory of the Lord was lifted long ago. He is no longer in much of the Church but the people are too blinded to perceive it. Too proud to even admit this.

I would like to speak like many and say there is a coming revival. That the Holy Ghost will mightily awaken the people from their deep slumber and bring them to repentance, cause them to return to Yah and our country shall become a bastion of hope among the nations, raising up a standard for Christ in all the known world. But the Scriptures teach me otherwise.

When a people are engulfed in deep immoral morass, and when they rejoice in their transgressions feeling no remorse for their blatant display of sin against God; when they become apostate, abandoning all the precepts of God taught to them to go after whatever their hearts desire, when they rush after false prophets for ‘miracles’ instead of looking up to their God and waiting for His salvation in quiet trust, I promise the Lord will not bring a revival but a purging. A judgement. A chastisement.

Before any revival there must be a purification. A cleansing. Before new beginnings, old ways must first be put to death.

The Lord will exalt Himself to execute judgement. To set matters right. Judgement begins at the House of God. With a whip of cords He will cleanse the temple once more, scourging the thieves, driving them from before His sight.

This sword, it will cut away the rotten and diseased parts of the body of Christ. It will hack off the branches not bearing any fruit.

He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. John 15:2 NLT

Who are the rotten, the diseased, the branches not bearing fruit? The lukewarm—the cold brooding under the hot making the entire body tepid, dull and otherwise powerless. The lukewarm—like an infection that won’t cease from spreading, creating deep sores and open wounds. The lukewarm—they expose the whole body of Christ to suffer harm, even death.

Their lips speak the name of the Lord, but their hearts are far from Him. They are bent toward backsliding, under the right set of circumstances and opportunity they will turn from Yah to fulfill all their fleshly desires.

And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to The Most High, (that is, the prophets) none at all would exalt Him. Hosea 11:7 KJV

The Lamb of God will now move as the Lion of Judah.

You have abandoned me
    and turned your back on me,”
    says the Lord.
“Therefore, I will raise my fist to destroy you.
    I am tired of always giving you another chance.

You who have forsaken Me,” declares the Lord,
“You keep going backward.
So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
I am tired of relenting!

Jeremiah 15:6 NLT; NASB