The Word of the Lord
“And the Word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.” I Samuel 3:1
I have no doubt that we are once again in the times above. The one is completely tied to the other: No Word of the Lord, thus no Revelation. We are aimless and we create programs rather than seek what God wants to do.
What is the Word of the Lord? I will tell you my friends, it is more than the small proof text that is used to build an hour's message of motivational, feel-good material that passes for a sermon in most churches. It is more than three scriptures on tithing meant to turn around a financially failing church. It is SO much more.
I believe the Word of the Lord is the Scripture of God plus the anointing of God spoken with the Authority of God in the Power of God.
I believe 100% in teaching the Word of God. I believe in comforting and encouraging and exhorting with our messages. We have all of that. Or we should. What we are lacking is a fiery Word. A Word that is clear, deliberate and pointed. A Word that is not so pretty.
Pretty messages have the effect of a sedative or an antipsychotic. They make you feel warm and fuzzy, like a pink cloud dream. Soon we feel….allright. Really nice. It's NICE to be a Christian. It feels WONDERFUL!
Years ago I took a nasty 20 foot fall on a ladder, smack onto cement. Once I realized angels weren't there to usher me into heaven, I assessed the damage, and it was not good. Lip bleeding, knee bleeding, stomach pain and my arm grotesquely twisted. It was nearly eighteen hours before I had surgery, and pain doesn't even begin to describe what I felt. Finally a half an hour before surgery, they gave me Demerol, and let me tell you, within thirty seconds, I didn't care if they cut my arm off. Because I didn't feel anything. Just a nice pink cloud of numbness. It felt great! It was so NICE to be in the hospital!
But if they hadn't operated, I would have died. That's a fact. And all the Demerol in the world would not have saved me. It would have only let me die numb. And unaware.
I don't think we realize how far away we are from “The Word of the Lord.” It's all about making our life better, our job better, our family better. But God did not intend us to be a self-improvement clinic or a “God-improved” person. He intended nothing less than SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION. And you DON'T get that from warm, fuzzy messages.
I am very concerned about the new trend, “Seeker Friendly” churches. The basic concept, as I understand it, is that we don't want to scare away or offend unbelievers. So we need to provide a nice, comfortable and contemporary atmosphere. We need to tone down or eliminate altogether the Hellfire stuff. (After all, someone once said, you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar - which caused me to ask why we wanted a church full of flies anyway.) We'll have motivational, practical sermons filled with fun anecdotes, inspirational internet stories and maybe some nice video clips from a secular movie everyone's seen, and then a scripture to make it all work. You know, make the scriptures relevant to our REAL lives. And we won't call Jesus Lord - we'll call Him “leader”.
Okay, let's pause here and think really hard.
This Message of Jesus is the message Jesus was crucified for. This is the message that eleven apostles were martyred for. This is the message so powerful that it caused men to cry out, “What must we do to be saved?” This is the message that, in the last century, has caused more slaughter and martyrdom of believers than in the previous 1900 years! And we don't want to OFFEND people? Must we be reminded that the cross is an OFFENSE? My friend, a Gospel that does not WOUND to salvation is not the Gospel at all. It's just….a nice inspirational message. That's ALL.
One of the things that tells me that much of our present day gospel is not the Gospel is the absence of weeping in the church. That's right. Good old-fashioned tears. Where are the tears for, at the first, our own desperate need for God? Then, our tears for the hurting? The lost? The unsaved? Our churches are DRY. We do not hurt, we do not ache and we do not cry. When was the last time you heard “The Word of the Lord” preached and it brought you to broken tears? A very long time, I'll wager.
And why? Because we are not only “seeker friendly”, we are “believer friendly.” People work hard all week, they don't want to come to church to feel BAD and CRY, do they? So we just make them feel BETTER.
Whose priority are we following?
Many churches are experiencing huge membership growth because people like to feel good when they go to church, and we are accommodating them. Church has become a religious sitcom - a few laughs, some good drama and a nice conclusion.
I venture to say, if we cried out as pastors and people for the Word of the Lord and let it be preached, our churches would empty by half or more.
We desperately need a visitation from God. We do not know it because we have been lulled into complacent pink cloud sleep with spiritual painkillers.
When I read or listen to many contemporary messages, I cannot help but remember a modern day event. Most of you won't remember Andrae Crouch, but he was a powerful black Gospel singer in the 1970's. Andrae was raised in a church in L.A. One night, in the midst of a powerful outpouring of God, the fire department showed up to meet the crisis. What crisis? All the neighbors called to report fire POURING OUT of the church building! That's what I'M talking about!
After Jesus rose, He sent the disciples to Jerusalem to wait for the power of the Spirit to fall. They did not hold a planning meeting. They did not hold a committee meeting on church growth or study the local demographics. They waited and prayed - until the Spirit was poured out in power. And when He did, they disciples went out and turned the world upside down.
Their message was not “Ten steps to a more fulfilled life” or any such worldly tripe. It was, “Repent. Turn to the Living God. Serve Jesus. Receive the Spirit. Christ is coming back.”
As I look through the entire Word of God, I do not ever see God's people changed by hearing nice words, or planning something fun, or studying population statistics. It was only when they were confronted with their desperate need for healing, for hope and for God, for truth and for holiness.
Josiah was a young king who knew little about the God of his fathers. But they found “The Book” buried in the vast halls of the Temple. He had it read to him, and he wept, tore his clothes, and swept through Israel like a holy hurricane tearing down demon altars and killing its messengers.
The Book was read to the returning exiles from Babylon, and they wept sore. But rejoice, he told them - you've come home.
But we have it reversed. We rejoice but we have not wept. We party for Jesus but we have never mourned. If God is near to the broken hearted, where does that put us? “Joy comes in the morning” - after a night of weeping!
I long for the Word of the Lord that is so rare today.
I must speak a little of one of my two remaining spiritual fathers. (The first, David Malkin, gave me the straight-up Gospel - the kind that made me weep and brought me to the cross - thank you David,) The other is Rick Howard. I had met him through my girlfriend in 1977. I spoke at his church. But the first time I sat under his message, I was riveted. Every word cut me to the quick. It was NOT pretty. It gave me no warm fuzzies. It challenged me for more of Jesus in every area of my heart and life. It showed me my lack, and His supply. God, I prayed, make my word like THAT word. And so it has been. As far as I know, I have never preached a “pink cloud” message, and by His grace, I never will.
The spiritual nature of God's people is that we tend toward spiritual deterioration. You know that about yourself. Don't you? You know we have to fight to stay fit, to stay strong, to grow, That is why “nice” messages are so dangerous - like junk food - all sugar, quick high, no nutrition. We need to be forever challenged toward MORE. My yearly fear is that on January 1st of next year, I will be exactly the same as January 1st of this year.
We need to pray for the church, and for our pastors, for a fiery visitation of the Spirit of God that produces a fiery Word - that will bring fiery revelation. A revelation of such overwhelming power that we will be transformed into flames of fire that will once more turn the world upside down.
Gregory Reid
“The Bible was written in tears and to tears it will yield its best treasures. God has nothing to say to the frivolous man. The whole Christian family stands in need of a restoration of penitence, humility and tears. May God send them soon.”
AW Tozer-