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We Are Not Enough
May 18, 2006
Greetings in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ,

I have heard that certain guest speakers have been asked not to talk about the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues when they enter certain “prominent” Assembly of God churches. And is this because we are so finder friendly--we don’t want to offend anyone? So we keep the Holy Spirit under control? Perhaps we have no use for the word “Pentecostal” in the title of our national weekly magazine. Brother JR Flower’s original magazine, the “Christian Evangel” had its name changed to the “Pentecostal Evangel” to more accurately reflect our supernatural heritage with an all-powerful God. Have we now come full circle?

And why is the Cross, so prominently displayed in our Assemblies from their humble beginnings, now being taken down, removed from our pulpits and covered over with giant bed sheets? Are Christ and His Cross now a stumbling block and offense to the Assemblies of God (Romans 9:33 and Galatians 5:11)? [Is this the sign of a church driven by purpose instead of resting in tight relationship with the Great Shepherd in His green pastures and beside His still waters? Waiting on the Shepherd to say “It’s time to move!”? Reread Psalm 23 for an excellent model of the church, the peace that this model brings and the fruit that it bears].

And if these things are occurring, then shouldn’t we follow our own bylaws and the scriptural outlines for removing those assemblies from our fellowship? Perhaps we are not removing them from our fellowship because they enjoy great attendance and pad our national adherent numbers. Or perhaps it is because they give great gobs of money to our missions departments.

Do we not realize that our churches with 10,000 or 50,000 or even 300,000 members are pitiful in God’s sight? Numbers in a single church mean nothing to Him! In America alone, the number of A/G adherents is supposed to be around 2.7 million. This is less than one percent of our population! Not only have we had no noticeable impact on 99% of America, but moral decay advances at alarming rates: homosexuality, abortion, infidelity in marriage, pregnancy without marriage, fatherless families, disfiguring of our bodies with tattoos (the temple of the Lord marked with graffiti), addictions to pornography, drugs, alcohol, and entertainment, anti-Christian rulings by judges at every level, pro-Evolution school boards, increasingly vulgar television, radio and movies, school shootings, senseless killings by children and grandparents (the formerly innocent parts of our population), increasingly immoral behavior by women (the formerly genteel sex), lying by the media, popularization of witchcraft in books, TV and the theater (with Christians eagerly attending movies that portray a witch as the hero or heroine!). Has the Assemblies of God stopped all this? No! Should we place our hope in the Assemblies of God? A resounding “No!” There aren’t enough of us to go around this trouble-filled world! WE ARE NOT ENOUGH!

Our hope must be in the Lord and the Power of His Might. And this is where our fellowship is failing. We have proclaimed the decade of this and the transformation of that. God grows weary of our powerless proclamations. He misses hearing from us through fasting and prayer. He is saddened that we don’t care enough about our relationship with Him to beseech Him to visit us in power. This is the God who started the Latter Rain without any Assemblies of God even existing. This is the God who sent a missionary trip to a small town in the Czech Republic because two Czech women had prayed faithfully for seven years. There was no formal missions’ board to address the issue. No one except the two Czech ladies even knew about the problem! But, these ladies prayed! And God answered miraculously! This is the God who created America herself without consulting us. This is the God who poured out His Spirit on the peoples of Great Britain in a revival that spread so far it landed in Kansas and a little street in Los Angeles called Azusa. A revival that (Assemblies’ historians noted) begat evangelism and not the other way around! There was no Assemblies of God that started this revival. There was no missions’ board. God Himself started it without any help from us. But there were British people who prayed and prayed fervently. And God answered miraculously!

When are we going to learn the lesson that God does not need a great army to conquer but the willingness and obedience of a faithful few? Read the story of the fearful but obedient Gideon again. Let us remind ourselves how many disciples Jesus had that set the world on fire with Christianity. Twelve! And let us remember that the 3000 that were saved on the day of Pentecost is hardly a model for today’s mega churches that took years to grow. Instead, it is a story that gives the glory to God for what He can do when we obediently WAIT on Him to operate in power. 3000 were saved with One Pentecost-powered sermon!!! Peter didn’t plan that and he didn’t make it happen. God did! Our big churches, of which we so gladly boast (the scriptures about receiving our reward here on Earth and not in Heaven keep coming to mind), have not begun to solve the problem of making disciples as Jesus commanded us to do. Neither have the small ones for that matter. Rather, it is the pastor who is willing to fast and pray for hours a day, setting the appropriate example for his flock, large or small, who shows the way down the narrow path that leads to life everlasting (and few there be that find it). [Matthew 7:14] It is the pastor who prays for enough mature sheep to nurture (disciple) the baby sheep (new converts) into maturity so that they can bear more healthy sheep. If there aren’t enough rams and ewes, acquiring boat loads of baby sheep only means that many will soon die from starvation or thirst.

Oh shepherds, it is time to repent! Repent of coveting the larger flock and of our loyalty to a leadership who is after big numbers (and has lost them in the process—the American Assemblies of God has flat lined on growth for years and 10% of our pulpits are empty!). Instead, we need to implore God to forgive us for our spiritual laziness (a lack of fasting, praying and seeking Him to work in Power as only He can) and our human pride (that by our ingenious programs we can evangelize the world and solve its problems on our own strength). NOTE: even now there is a “global” movement afoot where pastors can pay money to another “man of god” to become part of his vision. I feel the Assemblies of God being folded in to the skirts of the Great Whore of the Revelation. If this does not break your heart, then you are on dangerous ground!

Your Humble Servant for the Gospel’s Sake,

Brother Mike

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