Over the last several years, there have been a small handful of us in our sphere of influence who have realized how good the Gospel really is.  We have realized how absolutely wonderful our Father is to send His Son to bear the sin of the whole world in His own Body that we might live as the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

It has not been without its frustrations, that is for sure.

We have run the proverbial gamut of popular Christianity — from the Assemblies of God, to some evangelical church settings, to seminaries, to houses of prayer, to a very popular charismatic church in California, to ‘organic church’, and now we have found ourselves on what seems to be the front lines of…well, I’m not quite so sure exactly what to call it.

I won’t call it a “move of God”, because I don’t believe God is necessarily  ’moving’ or needs to ‘move’, as He is not stuck.

He is seated (Luke 22:69, Heb. 10:12-14) and I am one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).

I suppose one could call it a “revival” of sorts, seeing as people are coming to life with the revelation of Jesus Christ and the fact that the mystery of the Gospel IS Christ-in-us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

I guess in the same vein one could call what is happening worldwide a “great awakening”, because the Church of Jesus Christ is opening their slumbering eyes to the reality of the grace, love, and power of God that is freely given through Christ and that they are already complete in Him (Col. 2:8-10).

The intensity of the aggression that has come our way because of how loudly and blatantly we have challenged the status quo of Christianity has been unlike anything I ever learned about in ‘church’.  It certainly was not anything I was taught growing up in ‘church’.

I have had people that I looked up to and respected very highly look down on me and condemn and criticize me as ‘rebellious’, ‘divisive’, ‘dishonoring’, and told from some very high-profile leaders in the church that we should “tread lightly and with fear” regarding the things that we are challenging, as well as told that we “don’t have a biblical leg to stand on”.

This is all utterly strange seeing as there aren’t many statements about the Christian life or who we are in Christ or what Christ accomplished that we don’t back up Biblically.

Although I suppose Jesus said that these types of things would happen:

“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!” – Matthew 10:24-25

The depth of ‘reaching out’ that we have done to try and connect with some of the leaders in the ‘movements’ that have perpetuated the mindsets that we have so directly challenged is something that very, very few people are actually aware of.  I am publicly letting the planet know that we have extensively reached out to many different leaders of many of these ‘movements’, and continue to do so, and unfortunately the response from their end has been less than favorable and in many cases, quite hostile.

I fully admit that the methods in which I have at times gone about preaching and delivering the message of the Gospel have made me come across as angry, bitter, frustrated, and annoyed.  I also fully admit that I have felt a whole lot of those things simply due to the ridiculous amount of heat we have taken for the things we have been spreading, preaching, and demonstrating.  It certainly has not been easy and I have done everything I know to do to repair bridges that I have burned in my lack of wisdom and frustration in dealing with people who have disagreed with me.

There have been very, very, very few people/leaders who have been willing to actually sit down and dialogue with us about the glaringly unbiblical issues that we have found to be taking place in a lot of the popular church practices/movements/ministries that have gained so much popularity the world-over…and there have not been hardly any leaders (save a small handful here and there, you know who you are, thank you..) who have been willing to act as leadership voices in our lives — we have had to rely very heavily on looking to the Scriptures and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit within us who guides us into all Truth (John 16:13).

As the persecution has increased, so has our resolve to search the Scriptures, study the life and ministry of Jesus and the apostles, and make sure that the things that we have been sharing are true, because we place a high value on things like integrity and character (Acts 17:11).

While there have indeed been things that we have changed in terms of the delivery of the Gospel, for the most part, we have only found that the grace of God as revealed through Christ on the cross really is almost-too-good-to-be-true-news, and as such, it has only deepened our love for God, for each other, for His church, and for the world.

We have also continued to find, unfortunately for some, that the vast overwhelming majority of what is taught in most churches the world-over is not only not the Gospel, but is actually an extremely perverse mixture of law and grace that undermines the work of the cross and the forgiveness that God has extended to mankind.

I unapologetically, unashamedly, and unabashedly have stood by the stance that we have taken on what many have called “praying for/crying out for revival”.

I have challenged this mindset consistently, time and time and time again — and in many ways, I learned how much unbelief is involved in engaging in that type of ‘prayer’ from several leaders in the church today who seemed to have wavered on their previous position on this issue.  They will remain nameless here for the sake of “honor” — but they know who they are.  I do not apologize for calling out this kind of blatant and cowardly hypocrisy.

Far too many have compromised what they know to be true for the sake of pleasing people, maintaining ‘ministry relationships’, and money. It all boils down to fear.

I have seen many close to us waver and shrink back for the same reasons.  It has been quite tempting at time to do so ourselves simply because of the incredible amount of pressure, intimidation and witchcraft that so many who profess the name of Christ operate in and under.

If the things that we have spoken about the error of ‘crying out for revival’ and for God to forgive all the terrible sins in our nation are indeed true (and they are), then yes, that does mean that there are millions the world over who have been sold a bunch of lies…and yes, there are a whole lot of leaders who would have to humble themselves and admit their error for there to be true “repentance” (a change of mind that leads to a change of lifestyle) in the church today.

Do I understand and acknowledge that there were indeed many “revivals” that began with a bunch of people fasting and praying and “crying out to God”? Sure.

But I also know that many of the people who began that way, in their later writings had spoken and said that if they had known at the beginning what they knew near the end of the ‘revival’ about the character and nature of God and the indwelling Christ, that they never would have wasted so much time sitting in a building praying for God to ‘show up’. I’m talking about people like John G. Lake and even those who were involved at Azusa Street.

I have read the original Azusa Street papers and if you do the same, and you will see consistently that the ‘revival’ spread because people left the building and simply did what Christ had told them to do 2,000 years earlier — not because of all their ‘crying out’.

You have the spirit of the resurrected Christ in you (Rom. 8:11, 1 Cor 6:19, Col. 1:27), how much more ‘revival’ can you get?

I have told many people and many leaders who have opposed (some quite vehemently and violently) this good-news-Gospel of the Kingdom of God within us (Luke 17:20-21) and the finished work of the cross (Heb. 10) — that we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.

The easy way would be for these who are teaching lies about my Father and the wonderful work of His wonderful Son on the cross to submit to true meekness and humility and actually engage the questions we have presented,  exercising their professed maturity by their willingness to dialogue over these issues rather than consistently trying to dust them under the carpet.

The easy way would be for the shepherds in the Body of Christ to admit that they don’t necessarily know everything or have all the answers and that maybe, just maybe, they have missed something by just “going with the flow” of all the popular doctrines they’ve been taught and been teaching for most of their lives.

The hard way would be for us to just continue doing things the way we have been doing — publishing materials, videos, writing articles, and spreading messages of freedom, deliverance, grace, and good news to the broken, the hurting, the exhausted, the hungry, and the lost.

Truth has a way of setting people free (John 8:32).  Once people realize how bound they have been — slaves to a mindless system of religion that demands their obedience or there is swift condemnation and punishment — the natural reaction is for them to rise up as deliverers themselves, as they are quite familiar with the workings of the system and the mindsets that had once held them captive.  They actually become quite adept warriors in the Kingdom of God!

So in all reality, the hard way really isn’t all that hard after awhile.  There’s an interesting multiplication effect that happens after a period of time, and interestingly enough, it only seems to be gaining speed and spreading everywhere.

Sure, there are angry e-mails, dirty looks, mean phone calls, slander, gossip, misunderstanding, baseless and bold accusations, and things that are flat-out fabrications from people who don’t have a clue what they are talking about.

But let’s be real here — it’s not nearly as bad as some who have gone before us have endured (2 Cor. 11:23-29).

I have learned the value of the tipping point.

We’ve been preaching this stuff for awhile now.  And it is indeed gaining influence the world over.

The world will know that Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient for all men for all time (Heb. 10, 1 John 2:2) and that it is as simple as receiving Christ’s atoning sacrifice for sin and believing on Him that will transform one’s life from the inside out (Acts 16:31, 2 Cor. 5:17-21).

They will know that God doesn’t demand some legalistic system of confess/renounce/repent, grovel/fast/pray over and over (again, Hebrews 10…), and that in fact as believers, we don’t even need to confess our sins to God after we get born again (for more on this, click here and here)! If you don’t think that’s good news, then you seriously should check your self-righteousness meter!

The world will know how Jesus perfectly met God’s standards — that He perfectly modeled the character and nature of God (Heb. 1:3, Col. 1:15), and how He took away the written code (the Mosaic Law) that was written against us!

And they will also know how the devil lost his power and authority over mankind at the cross of Calvary:

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,  having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” – Col. 2:13-15

I continue to be amazed at how vehemently people who profess to be Christians will defend their pet-doctrines that have little to no basis in Scripture…or in some cases, Scripture taken entirely out of it’s context or centered around a singular verse.

But I suppose that is indeed the nature of pride, yes?  Refusing to admit one’s error even when it is staring you straight in the face?

I don’t do what I do because I have a ‘need to be right’, or because I’m ‘rebellious’, or because I am ‘dishonoring’ or because I ‘pursue conflict’.

I do what I do because I know that Jesus Christ perfectly satisfied the wrath of God towards sin and that there is now no condemnation for those who come to Him, because I have been set free from the law of sin and death through Him (Rom. 8:1-2).

I do what I do because He has transformed my life from the inside out, and while I continue to grow every day, and never will act or speak as if I have ‘arrived’, there are certain things that I know for sure to be true. That is not called ‘arrogance’.

That is called ‘confidence’.

It is truly a shame that any time a person starts to get confident about what the Bible says about who they are in Christ in a ‘church’ setting, that there are so many who feel the need to pull them down and belittle them because of their own insecurities.

Faith will always look arrogant to those who are steeped in and surrounded by unbelief and fear.

There is a reformation at hand.  A returning to the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 11:3) and a rejecting of the condemnation and fear-based lies that have been preached from the pulpits of the world for far too long.

It cannot be stopped.

We will not be silent (Matthew 10:27).

Repent (change the way you think!) and believe the Gospel, friends!

It really is good news!

“Unless therefore I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture, or by the clearest reasoning, unless I am persuaded by means of the passages I have quoted, and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the Word of God, I cannot and will not retract, for it is unsafe for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other; may God help me! Amen!” – Martin Luther

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