14 November 2021
Sometimes you have no choice but to find a path of limited accommodation.
Don't assume the boundaries of your faith are universal. Faith itself is universal, but where it takes you in this world is not. The Kingdom of Heaven is one of hearts, not anything humans recognize by their own capabilities. Training your mind to accept the leadership of the Spirit means not taking yourself too seriously.
As America slides deeper into tribulation, our only real concern is the gospel of the Covenant. Our lives are expendable for His glory. For some of us, that means standing adamant for the message and offering no compromise. It means being a source of Covenant truth at any cost. It means alienating yourself from folks who cannot stand where you stand.
But most of you aren't called to that. You do your best to study and live the message, but you may not have a preacher/teacher bug in your soul. And even if you do, your audience may be limited in some ways to a specific context. At some point, you need to discern whether the broader long term mission is to simply get past a very rough patch of human existence by showing faith more than talking about it. Even a shepherd has to be ready to deal with sheep who keep wandering off. They are still valuable sheep.
It's no shame and it's certainly no sin to find fellowship and community support wherever it exists in your area. It's a matter of your convictions and your mission. Some of you will simply have to hang out with church folks who don't share the full Covenant commitment. The only question is finding a bunch that will tolerate you and the obvious differences.
Does the Lord require you to stand on your own? Do that. If not, then seek to build a community of whatever shape of humanity you find available. Measure in your own soul who is family, who are allies, and who are threats. Across a period of time, some folks will shift themselves among those groups. It's not a question of what they are or even what they do, but the role they play at any given time in your mission. It's all about your mission calling and the feudal domain God has granted you.
There is no divine principle that should decide for you whether you cooperate with a church or not. It's a given that the religious establishment will not be true to the full Covenant. That's the way it is in America. The Covenant is simply too alien for most Americans, so they pick and choose what makes sense to them and build a mythology for the rest. You aren't going to find too many folks who will receive the Covenant message until the Lord takes away the sand on which they have built their religion.
This is something that requires a prophetic sense. A critical element in what is happening is that God is pouring out His wrath on America for a great many sins. As previously noted on this blog, America was built on sin, and the American identity is a very long way from the Covenant of Christ. The people are hardened in their sins by a mythology that calls evil "good". They aren't going to understand what His wrath is all about; they'll insist that the proper response is simply some earlier situation along the false path. They define as "holy" something that was wrong from the start. God's wrath will either drive them from their false doctrine, or it will destroy everything they think they have.
My convictions tell me to expect very few Americans to be shaken loose from their false doctrines. In other words, I expect a very poor spiritual harvest from this chance He is offering. I'm convinced God Himself is pessimistic, as it were. Nonetheless, there will be some who get a clue, and these are the folks we seek to rescue by having prepared a body of teaching and an approach to religion that is based on faith, not culture. It's more the outlook than the specific doctrines, but it is certainly a more Hebraic doctrine that gets us to that outlook. The biblical Hebraic doctrine is radically different from the American approach to things.
And I've seen already some few here and there on the Net trying to obey that calling to leave the American mythology. I'm not arrogant enough to think my own position is somehow the only right one. My teaching is mine; it comes from my convictions. I share it so you can be moved to seek your own convictions. Whether or not that permits us to work closely together is another question, but I'm not proposing to judge others as if they aren't following their own convictions. I'm simply discerning with whom I can cooperate and why -- or why not.
That's the same basis on which you may or may not want to cooperate with a local church. If the Lord opens the door for you, step inside. Cooperate to the degree it's possible. Listen to the convictions in your heart at every turn; don't commit to the institution, but to the people. You aren't surrendering to the policies and doctrines. If they demand that too strenuously, it's time to find another church. Be prepared to state your intentions in those terms.
Your servant and host on this blog cannot bear the false preaching for the sake of fellowship. For me, it's no different from simply building a fellowship with the random folks living near my residence. It's quite likely I will get more cooperation and support from the latter. I'm not hostile to the churches near me, but they can't tolerate very well what makes me different from them. I've tried it already. For me to walk in Covenant obedience makes me too alien for their tastes. I'd rather not upset things; God has forbidden me "taking over" a church. Believe me, I know how to do that. You can ask me anything about the less than obvious truth of how institutions and organizations work. But it's not my calling to use that experience that way. At least, not now.
That gift has a different purpose in my life. And you need to know what your gifts and calling are. It's not that I would hope to raise up a new religion. I'm hoping to see genuine faith and conviction restored, regardless where that takes people of faith. It's not about the destination, nor really about the path, but the inner process of truly uniting with the Holy Spirit and choosing a path. If I can persuade just a few more folks to turn inside their hearts and read their convictions, and stop trusting their intellect and sentiments, then I will know I've obeyed my divine calling.
All I ask is that you obey your own.
Side note: More about my prophetic expectations in the next post.
This document is public domain; spread the message.