Repentance, Restoration, Maturity and Unity of Faith

(Updated 8/28/09)This message was originally posted a year ago (5/16/08). It is still relevant and needed today.

The Need for Understanding
To fully understand this message, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit and be enlightened by Him. In all things of God we must learn to go by the Spirit and not lean to our own human reasoning and/or sympathetic emotions. Ask Him to give you wisdom, revelation and understanding. It will also be a necessity to look beyond your immediate spiritual group and by the Spirit see the entire body of Christ on earth. Ask God to give you His heart for His Church.

The Need for Restoration
The overall body of Christ needs restoration which means that the Church needs to fully return to Jesus and His biblical pattern for doing all things. Restoration will only begin with disciples who have seen the need. Therefore we need true and mature prophets who will cy out and awaken Christians who have ears to hear to the need for restoration.

The first thing attentive Christians will want to do is repent. Their hearts will be broken because their spiritual eyes have been opened to how far they and the Church have strayed from Jesus and His Word. Receiving the Lord's heart for His Church will cause them to fall on their faces in intercession concerning the state of the overall Church. They will desire to see the Church repent and be restored and will give God no rest until there is a faithful remnant throughout the earth.

Recognizing True Prophets
Once some Christians can get past the unfortunate misconception that there are no longer prophets in the Church, and once other Christians quit following carnal, immature and false prophets we will see the Church make great progress spiritually. One thing to look for in a true prophet is that they are calling the Church to repentance and restoration. God has burned in their hearts the need for restoration of the Church and they know that repentance must take place before true restoration is a reality. They will also be strongly emphasizing maturity and true unity of faith. I write true unity because false prophets are calling for carnal and/or pseudo unity. Become very discerning! It will sound good to the ears of those who have not had their senses trained to discern both good and evil. True spiritual maturity is vital concerning true unity of faith!

True prophets emphasize what God is emphasizing. They do not add or take away from the Word; that is left to the carnal and false prophets. We need true and mature prophets who are emphasizing what God is emphasizing. God wants His body to return to Jesus and His Word rightly divided and to go on to maturity and the unity of faith. To accomplish God's will and purposes require that all of the ministry gifts found in Ephesians 4:11 work together to equip the Church. Each of the ministry gifts will honor God by being what God has called them to be, but also by working together. For example the other true gifts will listen to the true prophets and also call the Church to repentance, to restoration, to maturity and to unity of faith.

Ministry Gifts Will Unite in Faith
True and mature ministry gifts will unite in faith to accomplish God’s will for His Church. They will demonstrate unity of faith to the Church. The sectarianism warned about in 1 Corinthians 3 will be defeated. Division will be replaced by humble ministers living and demonstrating the unity of faith. They will equip a Church on this earth that fulfills the Holy Spirit inspired pattern found in Ephesians 4:11-16. They will believe that it is possible and will submit to the Spirit of God to make it a reality. Will you believe or will you be one of little faith?

United in faith these restored and mature ministers who will preach Christ and Him crucified and the word of the kingdom of God. They will make disciples who will 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. They 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; Ephesians 5:26) and united in faith (Ephesians 4:13). They will bring forth a mature and glorious Church (Ephesians 5:27). The harvest fields will be filled with laborers working together bringing in the harvest (John 4:35; Matthew 9:38). All to the glory of God!

Faulty Versus Proper Training
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. 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.

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 Timothy, there needs to be 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.

One of the main reasons that many cannot properly judge and discern what goes on outside their local church is because of wrong, incomplete or inadequate equipping in their local church. 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 manmade precedent rather than the Constitution. The body of Christ goes by the Bible rightly divided. The Church goes by the Word of truth and not what some group or false prophet came up with, and started what is now a Church or 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. The body of Christ rightly uses the Day of Pentecost and does not make it become something to fit what they want to justify and approve now.

The spirit of Antichrist is at work in the Church. The devil has infiltrated the Church with his ministers disguised as ministers of righteousness. Devil worship and the occult should not deceive professing Christians, but those ministers of the devil, who use the Bible, talk about Jesus and even move in power will deceive many. 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.

Conclusion
True repentance and 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?