out on a limb

Bless my soul!  Here I was thinking that I was pretty far out on a limb with some of the things I have been writing and speaking, concerning the apostate condition of the churches in America, and how that real Bible-believing Christians need to come out of that mess and team up with other genuine Christians, and how that we urgently need to start getting together on a regular basis and praying and seeking God, together, for a fire-baptized Holy Ghost Revival, and....lots, lots more.  But, come to find out--and to my great amazement and joy, I am not yet as far out on that limb as I ought to be!

You know, when you hear yourself saying things that almost no one else is saying, there is a great temptation to pull in your horns a bit, until you can test the waters to see just how warm a reception your ideas may--or may not--be getting among fellow Christians.  I said, there is a great temptation to do that.  To be sure, there have been times when I was so excited to share some new revelation with others whom I supposed would be just excited about it as I was, only to discover (the hard way) that they were not yet 'able' to hear it.  And I'm learning to better discern when that may be the case.  But I'm also learning to trust the leading of the Holy Ghost, and to test everything by the Word of God, and not pay too much attention to anyone else's opinion.

So, that's the way I've been walking with God, for some time now.  It has meant, seemingly, leaving a great-big crowd of professing believers behind, and moving forward; and that has not been easy.  Don't get me wrong; I don't mean that I have become indifferent to everyone else's condition.  On the contrary!  The more willing I am to allow God to take me further beyond the scope of 'conventional' knowledge and experience (which has long been the prayer of my heart), I find that I am actually much more concerned for the true condition of souls around me.  More important, I find that I am increasingly concerned for the glory of God.  But enough of self-disclosure: I only mean to encourage others by my experience, to dare to seek the deep things of God for themselves.  He will not disappoint.

Back to the limb.  I like the picture, above, of the billygoat feeling his way along that skinny branch.  It reminds me of the Scripture, in Habakkuk 3:19:

The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. 

I used to think that "high places" meant on the top of a mountain, spiritually speaking; and I still like to think of it that way.  But now I see that it also means God will give me very sensitive and skillful feet, and fine-tuned spiritual balance, (not to mention an attitude of fearlessness,) so that I can walk upon "mine high places"---way out on a limb high up in a tree called revelation!  Hey, with God all things are possible. 

Anyways, I'm not really talking about trees and goats, nor even so much about my own experience.  But I have some very serious things to share with you.  Yet, they are things--as I have discovered by long trial, which, though they are immensely important to the life of the Church and of the world, yet, somehow, they seem to be largely unnoticed or quite overlooked by the vast majority of professing Christians.  I have boldly stated that every major Protestant denomination, today, is apostate.  I thought that was a fairly radical thing to believe (and I do believe it), much less to openly state.  Until I heard the following:

In a marvelous video titled "The Coming Revival" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-zm_14NjOs&feature=youtu.be), the late (d. 1994) Leonard Ravenhill, a true man of God who lived and ministered around the world--a true prophet who carried a great burden for genuine Revival, made the following statement, at least 20 years or more ago:

"God's going to bypass organized religion and systems before very long....I believe that many denominations are breathing their last right now" (@ 12:50 time mark)

In that same video, (at about the 14:20 time mark,) there is a quote from another great evangelist and prophet, named A.W. Tozer (d. 1963), who said, more than 50 years ago:

"Let me go out on a limb a little bit and prophesy.  I see the time coming when all the holy men whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit will desert worldly Evangelicalism, one by one.  The house [worldly churches] will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God, a man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, left among them.... As the church now stands, the man who sees this condition of worldly evangelicalism is written off as somewhat fanatical.  But the day is coming when the house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God among them.  I would like to live long enough to watch this develop and see how things turn out.  I would like to live to see the time when the men and women of God--holy, separated and spiritually enlightened--walk out of the evangelical church and form a group of their own; when they get off the sinking ship and let her go down in the brackish [sic] and worldliness and form a new ark to ride out the storm" (AW Tozer)

Oh! how my heart did sing when I read those words!!  But when I considered that those words were spoken--by a true man of God--more than a half-century ago, I realized (like I said before) that I am not nearly as far out on a limb as I ought to be!

No more will I withhold from sounding my trumpet at the top of my voice, to declare those things which the Holy Ghost is teaching me and showing me.  If you think I am too far out for your notion of respectable Christianity, then you probably won't want to hear what is yet to come.

I'm not standing still; I have a destination, and it's not 'backwards'.  Brother, if you're going with me, you must decide (oh, how real that is to me!).  Sister, it will all still be here when we're long gone; leave it, and come with me.  Son, Daughter, your Daddy can't go for you.  Are you coming?  Don't be as Lot's children--who perished with the wicked in the black inferno, because they thought their own father was a religious fanatic.

When that Great Trumpet sounds, shall we then have time to wait for anyone? for anything?  The time to decide whether to give yourself wholly to God, and devote yourself to labor, urgently, in the Lord's vineyard, is RIGHT NOW.  RIGHT.  NOW.

Come out of Babylon!!   Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues!!  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities!!  Come out of the apostate churches, where the Holy Ghost is not reverenced and obeyed and honored!!  Where God is not feared, and Christ is not Lord in truth.  Come out of those synagogues of Satan, where abominable carnality and self-love (idolatry!) masquerades as socially polite Christianity!!

The Spirit of God did plead with her to repent of her fornication.  Time and again, God spoke to her.  But she refused.  She turned her face, instead, to seek unto worldly lovers who promised her riches and glory and fame: ministers of Satan, whom the whore of Babylon took to be her own ministers.  She traded her beautiful garments for an 'experience', an 'encounter', an 'atmosphere' wherein she could 'worship' her god--her own corrupt image!

God is preparing, even now, to do a new thing in the earth.  It is going to be unlike anything anyone has ever seen before.  The churches, with very few exceptions, will not recognize the working of God's Spirit; for, they know not God.  Yet, they will envy (and, so, despise) the power and the anointing of God's chosen vessels--those who have yielded themselves to be prepared by God for such a time as this.  With great power the true Body of Christ is going to be raised up in demonstration of the reality of God and of his Christ.  God will not leave this generation without a true witness--and a true opportunity.

The Holy Ghost is calling for Christ's true disciples: to be discerning one of another; to be discriminating in our associations (with other persons and activities); to be determined to separate ourselves from worldly entanglements; and, to be disciplined in seeking God.

It is not only possible to be a faithful Christian in these days of great apostasy.  It is furthermore possible to receive from God special grace and anointing for these end-times,  to enable and empower us to be "more than conquerors through him that loved us...and washed us from our sins in his own blood".  

AW Tozer said that he wished he could have lived...

"long enough to watch this develop and see how things turn out.  I would like to live to see the time when the men and women of God--holy, separated and spiritually enlightened--walk out of the evangelical church and form a group of their own; when they get off the sinking ship and let her go down in the brackish [sic] and worldliness and form a new ark to ride out the storm."

But God has seen fit, in his infinite wisdom, that you and I should actually be the ones whom AW Tozer hoped he could watch us "get off the sinking ship"..."and form a new ark to ride out the storm".

There was a popular song quite a few years ago, which said: "If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening, all over this world".  Building something.

Well, I do have a hammer: it's called the Word of God.  And I'm laboring with all my might--to build that new ark....to the saving of mine own house, and to all those who will hear.