Real Face Surfaces During Crisis

Picture by Finan Akbar, Unsplash.

It's like a disease. A lot of Christians are showing off their relief operations by displaying what they do on social media. And they sincerely believe it's God's will, utterly disregarding Jesus' words about not announcing our good deeds. Obviously, they don't believe that anymore.

Anyway, they look more like NGOs than Jesus and his apostles. In Acts, there was a time when the Roman world suffered famine and Jerusalem was heavily hit. The churches outside Jerusalem did a relief operation but the whole thing was confined to the church. It was not broadcasted in public or any social platform available at the time.

The Genuine Church is Different

Moreover, their relief operation was sparked by a supernatural word of prophecy that Agabus, the church prophet, declared. After they heard the prophecy, the church acted accordingly. It's clear that their action was inspired by the spoken Word of God, not just their good intentions or compassion. So it was clearly God led.

28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. [Acts 11]

The church today is led by social media. Anything it does is based on what they see in the world or what's trending or what seems effective or needful. It is led by the flesh, not the Spirit. They do not act as a result of God's revelation. They may say that we don't need supernatural revelation to understand national or global emergencies and how we should help the needy. You just need common sense. But not everything obvious is God's will. King Jehoshaphat learned that.

Not Everything Obvious is Obvious

It was obvious that the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel needed to unite. Moreover, Samaria needed help to recover Ramoth-gilead. So Jehoshaphat thought it was a good idea to join forces with Samaria and fight her battles. But Jehu the prophet rebuked him after the joint venture failed miserably.

Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the ungodly and love those who hate the Lord and in doing so bring wrath from the Lord on yourself? [2 Chronicles 19]

And look at Judas, He had "compassion" for the poor so that he protested against a prostitute wasting costly oil perfume on Jesus. That's what he displayed on public--compassion for the poor. But God's Word revealed him for what he really was--a thief. He may have looked good in public but Jesus knew better. He didn't support Judas' pretended compassion.

How about God's Word to Jeremiah, "not to pray for this people"? It's good to pray for everyone, right? We know it's God's will. But even in this truth we need to be sensitive to God's leading--because not everyone should be prayed for. In fact, John said in his letter that we should not pray for sins that lead to death.

There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. [1 John 5]

Going back to Jeremiah, God didn't want him to pray for HIS own people because of their shameless idolatry. When even his own people are doing things against his Word, God doesn't want any part of it. He shuns them. If Churches continue to trash his Word about the need for secrecy with their good deeds and instead blatantly defy his Word by justifying their hypocrisy, they will get the same treatment.

Do not pray for this people or offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress. [Jeremiah 11.14]

No wonder their Ashtoreth shrines (church buildings) have been closed in this Covid crisis.

The Nicolaitans and Balaam

The teachings of the Nicolaitans centered on dominating people. At least that's what the Greek meaning of the name suggests. Nikos means subduing and laos means people. Balaam, on the other hand, was a prophet who enticed the Jews to sexual immorality and idolatry. Put them together and we get a glimpse of why God hates their teachings--spiritual sexual immorality (or unfaithfulness) that leads to idolatry, plus mentally subduing people with wrong ideas derived from them.

Sexual immorality is having sexual relations with someone not your spouse. You pledge love to your spouse but actually cheat and do sex with someone else. Spiritually, it's professing a relationship with Jesus but not believing and doing his words. Instead, we believe and do someone else's words. Like how many "Christians" today believe in divorce, unnatural sexual relations, unbiblical gender identification, and proudly display their good deeds. They love to be seen in public saying prayers and brag about their worship.

They believe others' words (or their own words) rather than God's Word alone. In other words, they eat food offered to idols. They crave for other foods. We should eat only the Bread that comes down from heaven. We are restricted to that.

The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! [Numbers 11.4]

Okay, So Let's Say We Help

Now, granted that God wants us to help in this Covid crisis. How do we do it? Collect relief goods and distribute them? The NGOs, cause-oriented groups and government do that--and it's all good, praise God. But the church is expected to do something else, not just duplicate what men are already doing. There's no real glory for God in that. I mean, all the other religions can also do that and it does not make our God any different from their gods.

I can't imagine Jesus collecting relief goods and distributing them to people in a time like this. I can't imagine him doing that to feed the 5,000 and then the 4,000 men. I can't imagine him calling the doctors and nurses to heal the multitudes of sick people and then dole out free medicines. These are all good, but Jesus didn't lead a supernatural ministry so his church can be like NGOs.

Church should be doing what Jesus did to glorify God and show that what they're doing is not of man but of God. Church has been copying from the world for decades and even centuries, and these last days God will not allow it anymore. The Book of Revelation says the upcoming move of God will be supernatural. The ministries of Moses (uncommon Word insights) and Elijah (supernatural signs and wonders) will merge when the Two Witnesses are sent to the world to display God's awesome powers.

This is the hint to the church. We should be moving in this direction and forget about looking like ordinary NGOs. The Two Witnesses are really two powerful ministries of the Holy Spirit which will be given the remnant church as a powerful witness for God. They will not only preach but also use God's awesome powers that always accompanied evangelism in the Gospel and the Book of Acts.

So what should the church do now in this urgent crisis? We should seek God and seek his power and authority. We should spend time alone with God and worship Him like never before. We should deepen in the Word with the supernatural revelation of the Holy Spirit, not with man's theologies, philosophies, denominational doctrines and hermenuetics.

We should desperately seek to be imbued with God's power to speak like HIM and do his powerful signs and wonders.

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, [Ephesians 3.10]

In short, the church should repent and obey!