THE COMING REFORMATION AND THE NEW BREED
As we face yet another millennia and its epic challenges and climatic changes, the thought that our contemporary methods are sufficient to reach the world around us leaves you with an uneasy feeling of insufficiency. A vacuum has been created in the hearts of this generation by the failure of modern religious icons. The youth now turn to false facades created by computers and imagery that leave our ancient encryptions of God archaic. The church as they see it is no longer relevant. Anything that means something to them we call "unholy" thus widening the margin of misunderstanding.
Echoing Paul who became all things to all men we need to immerse ourselves
into their present culture and lifestyle, their music and movies, rhythm and
rhyme to discover the pulse and passion of their hearts. Modern theology
promotes a different message. Judging and condemning these expressions and
images which only prolongs their inherent destiny. Our socially and culturally
shaped religion leaves no room for diversity or creativity. We produce black and
white pictures of Jesus as the world promotes a panoramic picture of a new age.
Our religious adherence to tradition reinforces their view of our irrelevance.
Their modern prophets rap rather than preach. Sing rather than teach. They
graphically express their hearts and feelings while the church is shrouded
behind socially and religiously correct doctrine, afraid to come out and touch
the world around them. Christians have literally created a secret society of
t-shirts, slogans and bumper stickers. Our identity is wrapped up in current
Christian trends and books rather than God's awesome love for the people living
around us. We have created a fairy-tale landscape where the world is not
welcome.
Almost everything we do in church is geared and focused on the saved rather than
the lost or unsaved. We have reversed the cycle of reform created in the 1st
Century church that was "scattered abroad preaching the gospel" to an
introverted personality defined by a building or a denomination. We have built a
mansion rather than a manger. The world is still looking for Jesus in the
simplicity of everyday life as the shepherd's once did in Bethlehem. Today they
are confronted with an intricate structure based on bi-laws and statements of
faith rather than the power and glory of God. We are in a present state of "Ichabod"
in the American church and her Para-church ministries.
Under the surface though a reformation is brewing. The hearts of the masses
are not satisfied with the modern trends of tradition. They cannot conform to
the gauntlet of Sunday and Wednesday that produces a sophisticated softness
rather than His suffering. Prestige instead of power. Position over purpose. A
radical reformation is on the horizon of Christendom. The fires of revolution is
kindled in the bosom of millions. They will not settle for the mundane lazy
relaxed stance of modern leadership that are so afraid of change. That prefer
the predictable rather than the radical. Those days are coming to an end.
God is defined today by sharp dressed orators that have distanced themselves
from the world they were sent to liberate. Somehow they have evolved past the
simplicity presented by Christ in His mission to reach the world two thousand
years ago. The contradiction is dramatic as we glimpse in the gospel the
lifestyle of Jesus and His followers. At every turn they were reaching out and
touching the broken down vehicles of humanity around them. Forfeiting their own
needs to meet the masses hunger around them. Times have changed. A mountain of
self-help books tell us how we can improve. The gospel of Jesus is shockingly
different; He tells you to die. To deny yourself and take up your cross. A
lifestyle of self sacrifice rather than self improvement. I see a cloud of
reformation forming over the land. In the days to come religious peer pressure
will not be able to hold back the numbers that will go on up the mountain of the
Lord leaving behind the institutional relics of man made myth. My friend, this
revolution has begun.
Their faces are etched with the lines of destiny. Their hearts burn with an anxiousness to see His will truly accomplished in the world around them. They are fearless and relentless. They are not only history makers they are future- tellers and seers that peer past the torn veil of the temporal. They defy mind sets that conform to a previous experience of faith and they make a vow of sacrifice that will rival the martyrs of Hebrews 11. They set the trends that change the tide of a generation from the hypnotic sounds of satan to the prophetic shores of His love and power. They will part the red sea of modern intellectualism and allow a people to cross over to dry land. They will leap the wall of liberalism and conservatism and show the world the heart of God.
They are the new breed. They are the lover-warriors of Solomon that carry the couch of the King each expert in war. They are not afraid of spiritual intimacy neither are they afraid to engage the enemy. Their exploits will be greater than those of David's mighty men for they will be the ones that carry the Messiah into the nations. Unlike their predecessors they will have the blueprints for the tabernacle of David and will set their hands to its completion. All nations will flow into it. This new breed will know what it means to tabernacle. They will follow the pillar of fire by night and the cloud of smoke by day. They go on to know the Lord. They will upset the tables of preplanning and bring forth the spontaneity of revival. They will leap the barriers of conference registration tables and prepare the way of the Lord. Reformation is knocking at the Church door. (SOS 3:6-8).
Like Martin Luther in 15th Century Germany they will come with a thesis of revival in their DNA. Some will be labeled heretical and crazy. Others will be called the devil and Beelzebub, but like their Master Jesus they will “pass through them” to carry the love of the gospel to other cities. For this reason they were created. For this season were they made. A great wave of religious persecution is about to purge this new breed. Breaking away any pretense and self-will. Like the three boys in the fiery furnace they will come from the flames of envy and strife unscathed. They will emerge from the desert of exile with a word from the Lord. They will decree a new thing that has not been taught or heard before in the halls of modern methodology.
Open fields and marketplaces will be their proving ground. They will be forged by harvest and proved by revival. They will the flee the confinement of the upper room to manifest a resurrected Christ. They will refuse to eat the leaven of the Pharisee’s. They eat the bread of simplicity thus producing His authority. They are reformers and lovers. They will be the ink of history that carries His posterity. They will set a standard of love that is unavoidable and undeniable. The earth and the fullness thereof will flow into it. The walls of indifference and religion will fall flat as they circle the cities with His love and authority. Whole metropolitan Mecca’s will melt under the intense manifestation of liberty they bring. Entire cities will be saved. This is the future this is our hope. Let the revolution begin! Let this new breed take center stage.
Chad Taylor -
www.consumingfire.com
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