"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. . . . 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 . . . and form a new ark to ride out the storm" (A.W. Tozer, d.1963)
In his own time, a number of A.W. Tozer's contemporaries--themselves well-known and widely respected Christian leaders, esteemed Tozer as being a true prophet of God. The above quotation, even today--now at least 60 years since Tozer first uttered those words, appears extreme; some would say radical. But when has it ever been the case that the words and visions of true prophets have not appeared unreasonable, to natural minds?
Whereas I try always to write in such a way that can be understood by most; yet, I intend in this essay to address those whose calling it may be, through God, to "form" that "new ark," as Tozer alluded to. Such persons (as Tozer himself intimated in the above quote,) are of a special kind: that is to say, they are "[persons] whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit . . .", true Christians, "holy, separated, and spiritually enlightened".
In truth, there is no other kind of "Christian".
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John Lake--who ministered for several years to those, natives, then living (circa 1908-1913) in the African bush-country, once said (I paraphrase):
'God, if you will give me a congregation of people who can understand my speech, I will not withhold from preaching the very highest, holiest things you will show me by your Spirit'.
'Whether or not they may comprehend what I am saying,' Lake said, 'nevertheless, I will reveal to them whatsoever you reveal to me'. Likewise, so do I.
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There is coming a Revival unlike anything that has ever gone before. For, thus hath God said unto me: "I am not going to do an old thing, again; but, I am going to do a new thing, for the very first time".
The Revival which is very soon coming (in the midst of -- but NOT to -- America), shall be full of rebuke to the professing, albeit hypocritical, Church.
Among other things, I believe God is going to anoint and empower CHILDREN and young persons, in such a way as has never been witnessed before. I have seen, in my spirit, as it were, large numbers of children who, upon their entering the sanctuary in some large, mainstream denominational church, those children were completely overcome by the power of the Holy Ghost falling upon them en masse; moreover, those children were exalted into such a divine realm of God's glory and power, that their praises and their prophesyings were as flames of fire to the hearts and minds of the hundreds of adults gathered there--nearly all of which, adults, were themselves utterly incapable then of 'entering into' the glory of God's manifest Presence.
The Word of God sternly warns us of the possibility of our being left out of what God is doing, in the event that we will not take God seriously and seek Him wholeheartedly. When, for example, Jesus entered Jerusalem, riding on "a colt the foal of an ass" [a young donkey], in fulfillment of prophecy (Matthew 21:5); and, the people were celebrating him, by casting their garments and tree branches in his path, and with shouts of "Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord": some of the religious leaders then present objected to Jesus: "Master, rebuke thy disciples." But Jesus answered them and said, "I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:39-40).
In the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25), the most important idea conveyed in that parable involves the warning that they shall not be able to enter in, who will not take seriously Christ's oft-repeated command: "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:36).
The plain message conveyed in both of the above scenarios, is this: Those who will not take God seriously and seek Him wholeheartedly, will be left out.
But do not think that it is Heaven, only, which one may miss out on, because of his or her lukewarm attitude toward Christ. When the Rapture shall soon occur, myriads of professing but lukewarm "Christians" shall then be left behind to suffer the horrors of the Tribulation. Why should anyone then suppose that God may not, in fact, pass over multitudes of mainstream (apathetic) "Christians", in the coming Revival?
When Jesus Christ was presented to Israel, he was soon rejected by the religious leaders of that nation; whereupon, the institutionalized Jewish religion, as such, was then rejected by Christ: "Behold, your house [the Temple in Jerusalem] is left unto you desolate" (Luke 13:35), Jesus said, to those Pharisees who warned him to get out of Jerusalem.
Likewise, by far the majority of evangelical (mainstream, Protestant) churches, today, are "desolate" (as Tozer prophesied); the glory of God having long ago departed from their midst. I will furthermore say, regrettably, that number includes most Pentecostal and charismatic churches as well.
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Notwithstanding so much entreaty and warning as I have reiterated herein: I do not mean to "curse the darkness," as it were; but, I want to shed some light on the dire situation we, the Body of Christ, are now in; as God may allow. Tozer boldly said he would have liked 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 . . . and form a new ark to ride out the storm".
Recall, if you will, that Tozer spoke those words more than half a century ago! In his day, that idea of his was admittedly visionary: "I see the time coming," said Tozer. Well, dear Brother, dear Sister, that time is now here! And what are we going to do about it? I, for one, am a living fulfillment of Tozer's prophecy (although, I do not boast about the fact, that I believe it is now necessary to abandon the mainstream, 'institutional' churches).
It shall not be the first time that sincere followers of Jesus Christ have had to turn their backs on the existing institution called the "Church" (let the reader understand that I am speaking of "organized religion," and not of the spiritual Body of Christ). Jesus himself led just such a revolution. Importantly, I call it a "revolution," instead of a "reformation," because: 1) Jesus did not come to "reform" Judaism, but Christ came to reveal a "new and living way," that is, "Christ in [us]"; and, 2) I look at where stand, today--that is to say, at the consummation of the Church Age, in a very similar way as where those, believers, stood, at the time of Christ's first appearing. We are standing at the threshold, literally, of a new and exceedingly different Epoch, in the still-unfolding revelation of God's eternal Kingdom.
I really like the quotation in the caption of the image at the top of this post:
"It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark".It's much too late for us to make such a claim, with respect to our efforts, henceforth, to build anything like a "new ark," which A.W. Tozer spoke of. I don't mean it's too late to build such an "ark". But I mean it's far too late--even if we were to begin "building" that ark today, in order one day to say, "It wasn't raining, yet, when we began to build". In fact, that allegorical "rain" is already coming down in bucketfuls; and it shall very, very soon become a torrent. So--now that we're already drenched with false doctrine, and with a pelting downpour of decadence, when are we going to come together, according to the will of God, and build a "new ark", for Jesus Christ's sake?
We, Christians, seem to have time for everything else in the world . . . except, for prayer, or to gather ourselves together: and not merely for a "church service," with all the presuppositions that entails. When have you EVER been asked, by anyone, to come to a meeting of Christian persons, who are determined to gather for the purpose to seek God for answers to the present, GREAT NEED? Meanwhile--almost without exception, it's business-as-usual in the churches. How else, do you suppose, has the culture so degenerated to its current state? That has only been possible, because the churches, broadly (but not specifically) speaking, have not been "valiant for the truth," but they have instead embraced the Apostasy.
If you will say that the "answer" we ought to be seeking, is, the Rapture; then, I say, you need to get back to an old-fashioned altar and ask God to save your own soul, or, at least, to restore you to your first love in Christ. How can any true Christian be content to fly out of this world--evil though it is! -- without actually taking part in a great End-time harvest of souls for Jesus Christ's sake? Our suffering is real, indeed; even though we in America have not yet had to face life-threatening persecution. Still, there is another kind of suffering, related to the CERTAINTY of the knowledge--which we bear daily: which is, that, apart from genuine Revival, there were then NO HOPE whatsoever, for America.
For that reason, then, and for that Cause, I am willing to risk being thought an heretic, for advocating--not the overthrow of nominal ("in name only") churches (Jesus said to "leave them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind"). But I am willing to be ostracized from such groups and by such persons, for my urging sincere Christians to: a) stop wasting their time and resources trying to "reform" dead churches; and, b) to come out and be separate from the same, dead churches; and, most important of all, c) to earnestly seek out other, godly persons, with whom the sincere Christian can--and must--bind himself or herself together, in Covenant relationship with God and each other; with the understanding that God wants to reveal His will to--and through--the true Body of Christ, for the glory of God.
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Not one person outside of Noah's own family got on the Ark. That tells me that, when Noah first perceived that God wanted him to build an Ark, God had already "washed his hands," so to speak, of the world that then was. In other words, God had already purposed to destroy the world, when He told Noah to build the Ark. And, yet, God waited for another 100 years, before He sent the Flood. What was God waiting for? Perhaps, God was waiting, mercifully, for someone--anyone--to believe and, so, to act upon Noah's preaching. But none did. Still, God waited. God waited for Noah to finish the task he had been given--to the saving of his own house; which, not incidentally, was also necessary to the saving of the world that was, then, yet to come.
I believe God is also waiting at this present time, for a faithful and believing remnant of Christ's true disciples to arise and build--or, as Tozer put it--to "form [as in "formulate"] a new ark to ride out the storm". (I have some ideas about what that may mean and entail.)
The Holy Ghost has been striving mightily with us, to come with our whole heart to seek God for Revival. Now, that train, as it were, is just about ready to leave the station. I can almost feel the 'engine' building up steam; the brakes hissing and groaning to hold back the mighty power of that locomotive; and, the whistle blowing its last call, as if to say: "All aboard!"
Who wants to get on that last, great Revival "train" with me? Believe me when I say, that where that train is going, it will be worth your leaving everything else of this world, behind.
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I want to conclude (not at all!, but for now) by sharing something very relevant, which I discovered on a "secular" news outlet. In an article written by Mark Tapson and published by FrontPageMag.com, titled, "The Devil's Pleasure Palace," Tapson wrote:
"For years now, many conservative writers, myself included, have increasingly urged engagement in the culture war against the radical left. The truth is that we have already lost that war. Having decisively lost the major ministries of culture – the media, academia, and the entertainment world – the right is now in a position of having to regroup, restrategize, and wage guerrilla warfare in order to dismantle the left’s hegemony and retake the culture."Tapson then asks the question: "How did we get here?"
I can answer that question, thus: The Church (in erstwhile 'Western' societies), throughout the course of the last generation or two, at least, has steadily apostatized.
Tapson (quoting Michael Walsh, author of the book, "The Devil's Pleasure Palace"), toward the close of his article, made this important observation:
The good news is that “the only weapon they have is our own weakness...."By "they," author Michael Walsh means 'the cultural Left', or 'liberals,' so-called. But I would like to say--in view of the statement I just made concerning the recent and ongoing Apostasy of the Church, that in the above quotation, the phrase, "our own weakness," properly pertains, not to the so-called "conservative Right," but to the professing Church. It is the weakness of the Church, which accounts for the fact that 'we' have "decisively lost the major ministries of culture"--including (but which neither Walsh nor Tapson included) the Christian churches.
I do not believe it is prudent -- even if it may theoretically possible -- to attempt to reform or to rebuild the existing, institutional churches. They are lost.
Yet, the Body of Christ is still in the earth; a remnant of which is still in America.
And our work is not yet done. God is not going to do an old thing, again; but He's going to do a new thing, for the very first time.
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