The Divine Institution

The church should be dead. Over the course of two thousand years it has endured hardship and trial. Persecution has been a normal part of life for some Christians somewhere since the establishment of God’s church. The resources of the world and all the power of hell have been focused on the elimination of this group of men and women who have been called out of the world. Governments have tried to silence these people of God and philosophers have tried to undermine their work. At every turn there has been opposition.


The church should be dead, but it’s not. It has been sustained through unimaginable tribulation by a power beyond that of any earthly organization. It has been governed by that which is beyond any human thought or idea. The church has been led by the Holy Spirit of God through every obstacle and victorious in every battle that she has ever faced.

The church has not survived because of the wisdom of man or the efficiency of his organizational skills. The church has survived because Jesus Christ established it, and His Spirit empowers it. It has thrived because of the faith of God’s people and has overcome because of the submission of these humble servants of the Most High King. When the church has been unstoppable has been when man realizes that God will not be organized or administrated. He will not be subject to our ideas or our biases. God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9).

Throughout all history, God has blessed those who humble themselves and put their faith in Him. Those who submit their will and their resources and all that they are to the one whose power is beyond our comprehension. God works through those who realize that Jesus Christ said, “On this rock I will build MY CHURCH…” It was established by Him, is ruled by Him, and is sustained by Him. The church becomes the church when its people realize that everything we do must glorify Jesus our King, and it is not our work, but His, that it to be carried out by His people.

The church lives today because of those whose focus has been on none but Jesus Christ. It survives because men and women have turned their attention from the world and all of its riches and wealth and sought nothing but the glory of God. They have preached and taught His Word, lived according to His statutes, and loved according to His love. It has not been man-rule that has been the lifeblood of the church, but the breath of God in His Holy Spirit.

As difficult as it may seem to simply submit to God and live by faith, this has been the call of God to His people for all of human history. We live in a day when the church seems to be on life support. We look all around us, and search the minds of men for ways to jumpstart the work of this divine establishment. It seems that the more control man takes, and the more ideas we try the worse the state of the church becomes. The church has been vital and filled with life before. Why not now?

God has a history of reviving His people and awakening the church when things seem desperate. It has happened before, and the price has not changed. “If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you (2 Chron. 15:2).” When we face difficult times and don’t know what to do we would be well served to remember that the church should be dead, but because of the power of God, and the life given by His Spirit and the sacrifice made by His Son it lives and breathes today. Not because of anything we have done, or any plan that we have made, or any organization we have put in place, but because of men and women who submit themselves to God, the church lives.

Holy Standard

Against what do we measure our spiritual lives? How do you know that your relationship with God is growing and maturing? I would contend that within holiness movements the standard against which we measure ourselves has become increasingly low. Rather than using the Word of God as our guide, we want to compare ourselves to the atheist who lives next door.

"I'm not perfect, but I'm not as bad as that guy," we tell ourselves. We are always on the lookout for those who are living far below the standard to which God has called us. They give us a great excuse to live beneath the holy standards of God's chosen people. I cannot even count the number of times that I've heard people excuse themselves with, "It's not like I've killed someone."

Here's a fact: If you are not living God's commands, and growing in a relationship with Him, it is like you've killed someone. It's exactly like that. Jesus died to SAVE US FROM our sin. I can't find anyplace in Scripture that would lead us to believe that He died to save us in our sin. Yet, we continue to live in sin. I read a blog by an emerging church leader just last week that claims that it's alright for homosexuals to serve in the church. He began his claim by asking readers to ignore the verses in the Bible that speak directly about homosexuality so that we can debate it from a philosophical perspective. Why can't we debate it from a biblical perspective? Homosexuality is not the only issue that some try to deal with in this way. We eliminate what the Bible says about divorce with regularity. We want to look at everything from our perspective and not from God's. If we eliminate His Word all that we're left with is our opinion.

Again I ask, against what do you measure your spiritual life? I would suggest that it should be God's Word.

Fellowship With God

God desires fellowship with you. The book of Genesis tells us that God walked in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day. He lived in harmony and fellowship with Adam and Eve, and all of His creation. God commanded Moses to build a tabernacle in the wilderness so that He could dwell in the midst of His people. A temple was erected in Jerusalem, again, so He could live with the people. Even in our day God desires this fellowship. He wants to live in the midst of His people. He wants a relationship with each and every one of us, but (this is the important part) He will not compromise His holiness in the name of fellowship.

We like to talk about our relationship with God, and our fellowship with Him, but so many times we act like He steps down into the gutters where we live to have that relationship. God does not take a step down to have fellowship with us. He restores us to the image in which man was created. "And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man (1 Cor. 15:49)."

We can indeed live in fellowship with God in this live, but we MUST REMEMBER that in order to do that we must grow and mature spiritually. We must allow God to make us something better than the fallen men that we once were. The Bible teaches that God draws men to Himself. Even when "He became flesh and dwelt among us" He was drawing us to Himself. It does not teach that He comes to us and changes His attitude toward our sin in the name of fellowship. He desires fellowship, but the change must occur within us. Why did God's fellowship with the Jews of the Old Testament cease at times? Not because He didn't want the relationship, but because THEY did not rise up to meet Him in holiness. They did not allow Him to make them something better than they were before.