Repentance, Restoration, Maturity and Unity of Faith

Pray for Understanding
To understand what is inspired by the Holy Spirit one must receive illumination from the Holy Spirit. I encourage you to pray for the Spirit of God to reveal what He wants you to know and receive from this message. To fully understand this message, you must look outside your local setting and by the Spirit see the entire body of Christ on earth. Ask God to give you His heart for the Church. Always go by the Spirit and by the Word and never by human reasoning and sympathetic emotions. Human reasoning and sympathetic emotions work well with traditions and doctrines of man but are enemies of God's truth. Surrender your mind and emotions to the Spirit of God and open yourself to the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

The Need for Restoration and True Prophets
The overall body of Christ needs restoration! Restoration begins with true repentance. We need true and mature prophets who will call the Church to repentance that will lead to restoration. All true and mature prophets are calling the Church to repentance! We need true and mature prophets as well as the other gifts of Ephesians 4:11 to equip the Church. The other true gifts will listen to the true prophets and also call the Church to repentance. We need mature ministers who will preach Christ and Him crucified, and the word of the kingdom of God. We need mature ministers who will find and equip disciples to deny self and forsake all to follow Christ. They will then train them to be and do what Christ has always intended for the Church He is building. We need mature ministers who will tear down the walls of division in the Church and bring forth by the Spirit of God a Church that is sanctified by truth (John 17:17) and united in faith (Ephesians 4:13). They will bring forth a mature Church. We need mature ministers who will equip laborers to go into the harvest fields that have been white for harvest for thousands of years (John 4:35).

God has true and mature ministers, but the public eye of the overall Church has not usually looked for, recognized, or accepted them. Many of the leaders who have had the public eye of the Church over the last several decades have not been true and/or mature ministers. There may have been exceptions, but the exceptions were rare. (Remember that the end of a thing usually reveals what was there all along.) Even with the possible exceptions, the truth remains and must be recognized that the present day Church is in need of restoration. What has been taking place with all of the public eye ministers has not brought about the needed restoration. Public eye Church leaders must accept their responsibility for the overall state of the Church. Every professing Christian must also accept their responsibility. The Church must cry out for the real and the mature. There will be no true and/or lasting revival without true and mature ministers directed by the Holy Spirit. It may begin with an intercessor(s), but it will not go far without the gifts given by Jesus to equip His body (Ephesians 4:11).

We need true and mature leaders to lead the Church to repentance and restoration. We don't need any more false, carnal and immature leaders. We need disciples who know Jesus intimately and His Word thoroughly and will not be sidetracked by the false, carnal and immature. If there is a Timothy there needs to be a Paul training him on the right path. If we need Christian media and news reporters at all, we need those who have had their senses trained to discern good and evil. We do not need those who promote what is flashy, popular and economically profitable. We do not need those who call something a revival when it is an ungodly mess, even if many professing Christians and professing Christian leaders are involved. We need those who will quit promoting false, carnal and immature ministers and will go out to the back side of the desert if necessary to find the real.

Have Senses Trained to Discern
One of the main reasons that many Christians cannot properly judge and discern what goes on inside and outside their local church is because of wrong, incomplete or inadequate equipping in their local church. Most Christians have never been trained at all or have never been properly trained in the basics of Scripture found in Hebrews 6:1, 2.

The Bible rightly divided is our standard for all things. The body of Christ is not like a carnal judicial system that goes by some man-made precedent rather than the Constitution. The body of Christ goes by the Bible rightly divided. The Church is to go by the Word of truth and not what some group or false prophet came up with, and then started what is now a local church or even a denomination. The Church does not go by some revival in the twentieth century or the seventeenth century; the Church goes by the Bible rightly divided. For example, the body of Christ must rightly use Scripture concerning the Day of Pentecost and not make it become something to fit what they want to justify and approve.

The Spirit of Antichrist and False Ministers
The spirit of Antichrist is at work in the Church. The devil has infiltrated the Church not only with the spirit of Antichrist but also with his ministers disguised as ministers of righteousness. Most true Christians would recognize and oppose devil worship and the occult, but many are being deceived by ministers of the devil who use the Bible, talk about Jesus and even move in power.

How does one discern the difference? They must have their senses trained to discern both good and evil which involves knowing the milk and meat of the Word. Most professing Christians choke on the six basic teachings (milk) found in Hebrews 6:1,2. Much of the responsibility is because of a failure of being trained properly by the true and mature ministers of Ephesians 4:11, but every disciple also has a responsibility to study all of the Word until they can rightly divide it. Part of the Church denies some of the ministries and part of the Church receives the false, carnal and immature rather than the true and mature. A large part of the Church does not know Jesus intimately or His Word thoroughly.

True Repentance Will Bring Godly Change
True repentance leading to restoration will change all of this and much more too. True restoration will bring forth a mature Church united in faith that will bring revival and awakening that turns the world upside down. It will be revival and awakening that does not burn out, but builds in momentum until Jesus returns. Let's humble ourselves before God and cry out for true and real restoration, revival and awakening. Much depends on it. We will have true godly restoration, revival and awakening or unimaginable devilish storms. God help us and have mercy on us! Who has ears to hear?