So much of what I see borders on absolute madness at worst and complete naïveté at best.  The mindlessness of so many blindly believing what everyone says simply because it is popular opinion and shared from an expensive pulpit or platform drives me to a place of frustration that I have struggled with in prayer for as long as I can remember.

I feel the pain of the Father as His children seek so aimlessly after the flash and glitz of the charismatic chaos that has so gripped the demonstration and proclamation of the Truth of the Kingdom.

I love and absolutely believe in the power of God. I love seeing people healed and set free of impossible circumstances simply because God loves them and has a passion for setting captives free.

What I do not love is that the things that Jesus made so simple have been made to be so complex by much of what is considered the ‘normal Christian life’ by televangelists and big name conference speakers.

My heart aches to see the perversion of Hollywood lifestyles that has so influenced the church of Jesus in the western world.  There are new Christian superstars born every minute and so many people are made to feel that they are inferior and lacking in what they carry in their own spirituality because the ‘anointed man or woman of God’ has not yet laid their hands on them.

And so people flock from conference to conference, seeking that brand new teaching or that ‘breaker anointing’ or that ‘healing mantle’ or that ‘impartation of glory’ or whatever it all is…when it is simply some new fad that is being broadcast through the airwaves of charismatic Christian superstardom in order to draw more people into an arena or a church building and hopefully out to the merchandise tables between teaching sessions.

I can’t do it anymore.  I won’t do it anymore.

I cannot put up with this façade of merchandising the Gospel and making people believe the lies that they do not have what they need to spread the message, the love, and the power of God everywhere they go—and all of this without all of the training, all of the teaching series, all the books, and all of the ‘anointings’ and ‘mantles’ that seem to be in such high demand these days.

It is all a bunch of super-spiritual garbage that purveys more than anything a message of lack—that we do not have all things in Christ as the Scriptures say (Eph. 1:3, 2 Peter 1:3, Col. 2:8-10, John 1:16, 1 Cor. 3:21-23).

The truth is this:
“As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you.  But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit–just as it has taught you, remain in Him.” – 1 John 2:27

So if this is true, why do we seek other anointings?

Why do we seek so hard after men to teach us things that only God can reveal?  I certainly understand the perspective of honor—and honoring spiritual leaders and teachers is absolutely vital and important.

What I do not understand is why so much of what occurs is based around a system that thrives only when consumers consume—when so much of the life of the western church as we know it can only survive if people are passed an offering plate or have to register for conference fees or buy overpriced books and CD series.

What ever happened to legitimately trusting God?  What happened to the love and power that so many throughout history walked in?

Have we been so steeped in compromise that the Spirit of our Holy God has been too grieved to consistently demonstrate His Presence and Power in our midst?  Surely, God is no respecter of persons and it has nothing to do with “God’s timing”…God is outside of time.

The deficiency is never on God’s end when things are not happening.  A prayer-less people is a powerless people.  Have we become so focused on ourselves and having a nice church service that we have neglected the importance of knowing God and fallen away from our first love (Rev. 2:4)?

Have we become so busy with maintaining the Christian status quo and keeping up with the new fads and anointings and impartations that we have neglected the simplicity of the words and commands of Christ?

His message was simple enough that children could understand Him.  He meant what He said, said what He meant, and He had no reason to exaggerate.

The only time Jesus acknowledged lack was when He said that the harvest was plentiful but the workers were few.

The fact remains that while so many are stuck like dogs chasing their own tails by going year after year to the newest prophetic conference or reading the latest prophetic word, spending thousands of dollars to go to conferences and meetings and buying books and “soaking” CDs, the rest of the world is perishing and most of it thinks that Christians are bizarre, fruitless, and ridiculous.

And in many senses, unfortunately I would have to agree with them.

I have a hard time believing Jesus was flaky or weird.  I have a very hard time believing that Jesus would tell people to “just go soak in My Presence and then you will be healed“.  I have an even more difficult time believing that multitudes of people would follow someone who wandered around looking like He was drunk or high all the time and unable to stop laughing long enough to speak life to someone or set somebody free.

He had thousands of people following Him.  Sinners liked being around Him because He was the absolute epitome of love in action…both in word and deed and also with the consistent and amazing demonstrations of power.

The last time I checked, most of us in the church of America don’t have multitudes of sinners beating down the doors of our churches wanting to hang out with us.

The hard fact is that there is something drastically wrong with the way we have been taught to do things—and I am certainly not saying that I have all of the answers for how to fix all of this.

Perhaps we should stop trying to save a system (temple worship) that Jesus came to kill.

Perhaps we should actually look at the life of Christ and look to Him as our example instead of Mr. Anointed Famous Preacher Man Who Makes Millions on Books, Conferences & CD Sales.

What I do know for sure is that many of the men and women of God who came before us and who demonstrated and walked in the kind of power that so many today are desperately ‘crying out’ for spent a whole lot more time in private (read: not in public 24/7 rooms) prayer and studying the life of Christ instead of eschatology.

What I do know for sure is that instead of telling people that they must ‘cry out’ and fast more so that God can answer their prayers, that teaching people about the New Creation (2 Cor. 5) and that they have all things in Christ is much more in line with what the apostles taught.

They never would have tried to crucify a Jesus that looked and acted like Mr. Rogers and Dr. Phil.

Did Jesus really die so you that could give a bunch of kids some gold star stickers in a Sunday School Meeting?

Or so you could lay on the floor laughing hysterically for hours while there are people around you who are dying?

Or so you could make a couple million dollars off of desperate people who are struggling to make ends meet, yet they are dropping hundreds on travel & conference fees and sermon series…hoping that you can point them in the right direction?

Woe to you who have falsely marketed, pre-packaged, and sold the Gospel of Jesus Christ and made a mockery of that which He died to give us.

Woe to you who have distorted and defamed the name of Christ by teaching His people that they need something from you and then charging them to get it.

Woe to you who have made His House of Prayer – His people, not a building – a den of thieves by twisting the Gospel to fit your agenda of “crying out” for what He already gave us.

Oh, to see the Body of the Resurrected Christ abandon and defy compromise and the merchandising of Truth!

To see with our own eyes the burning desire for God and God alone that so gripped so many throughout history!

God, help us all to embrace the simplicity, the fervency, the passion, the drive, the desire, the love, the power, and the life that You have called us all to in Your Son!

May the flippancy and frivolousness of our nice church services and programs be to us as detestable as the days when we did not know You!  Grip our souls with the fire to see souls saved, healed, and delivered no matter the cost to our own lives!

Help us to abandon complacency and chasing after the winds of super-spiritual and spooky ‘churchianity’ and embrace the strong-man’s Gospel of love and consistent demonstrations of the power of God that actually works outside of the four walls of a church building!

Lord of the Harvest, send workers into the harvest fields!  Bring to us those who are willing to lay down their lives and their comfort for the sake of the King and His Kingdom.

“Peace if possible.  Truth at all costs.” - Martin Luther

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