Hi Heartsong. The title of your poem intrigued me, as the "winds of change" has been a phrase that God has been using to speak to my heart for about 5 years. I posted on a thread started by Joshua99 on June 5th, 2005, entitled [u]The Church Needs To Wake Up And Stand For Jesus.[/u] The thread was later locked due to controversy over "prophecy". Here is the post again, to go along with your poem:
The saddest reality is the Church is in a Spiritual slumber, not at all in the condition the Lord wants us.
Hi Joshua. I was going to begin a new thread this morning because I've been thinking of doing it for about a week, but this is a good place to say what's on my mind.
About 3 years ago, God began to speak to me about revival. At that time, I read the book by Leonard Ravenhill, "Why Revival Tarries". That book initiated repentance in me. I've been repenting for about 3 years now. As I was searching the internet for more Leonard Ravenhill, I discovered this website and joined in August, 2004. I began to listen to the available sermons. This rocked my theology even more. God has undone me over the last year. In fact, I've been so undone, I've been really scared. My whole life has changed. I'm not who I used to be. I thought I was born again when I was 10 years old. I've been in church my whole life (now 47). I tell you, I can't even sleep anymore. There is such an urgency in my heart to know God and to proclaim him to a dying world.
I have realized that I did not know God "as he, in fact, is" -Art Katz. I am coming to know the True and Living God and it has left me as Job, "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." Job 42:5.
Here is what I have to share. God has spoken these things to my heart over the last 3 years:
God has shown me that the Church in America has been under the dominion of a demonic spirit of religion for about 400 years. When I first realized this, I began to command it to release the church. Then, through a series of things, I realized it had permission from God to be in power, and that I, nor anyone else, could force it to release us. This was a shock to me.
I then turned my attention to God in prayer. God showed me that this religious spirit is the spirit of pride which Satan was kicked out of heaven for. It is the spirit of the anti-christ. It was brought to this country by the original settlers. The first settlers came to America searching for religious freedom. They were fleeing persecution in Europe. In Europe, Catholocism had been legislated and was oppressing the "reformed church". The only problem was, they committed the same sins which were perpetrated against them in Europe. Native American Indians were forced to convert to Christianity. Some were even killed because they wouldn't convert. They said they wanted religious freedom, but because of the sin in their hearts, God gave them what they deserved, dead religion.
When I first started getting all this, I freaked out. I tried to find out if there were others who knew this. That's when I began to just talk to God about it. I realized that what I must do was to intercede, to stand in the gap and to repent on behalf of the Church. The Church had come under a judgement from God because of it's sin. The only way that judgement could be removed is through repentance. God himself would have to deliver the people, just as he had done for the children of Israel out of Egypt. God would have to issue the decree to the religious pharoah to "let my people go".
As I prayed concerning all these things, God spoke to my heart again. He told me, "I've already issued the orders--the reign of the spirit of religion over my Church in America has come to an end." The decree has gone forth to let God's people go that they may worship and serve him. In fact, I had a dream at that time. In the dream, I had just finished a meal in a nice restauant. I was walking out the front door of the restaurant when a waiter carrying a boom box stopped me. He said, "Maam, wait just a minute. I want you to listen to this song and see if you can tell me the title of it." He pushed the button on the boom box and the song began to play. I immediately screamed, "Winds of Change, it's Winds of Change!" It was an old rock and roll song I recognized by Jefferson Starship. The waiter said, "That's it! You're the winner!" and he proceeded to count out 135 dollars into my hand. When I awoke, I found the words to that song on the computer. It talks about the wind is starting to howl, the "beast" is on the prowl. God told me that the wind of his spirit was already beginning to blow to bring the "change", the deliverance. I posted a word which God gave me for the church somewhere on this website ( I can't find it right now cause that was some quite a while back). The word said that the wind was going to do 3 things, 1st- it was going to divide the true church from the false, 2nd- it was going to force the lukewarm to make a choice, and 3rd- it was going to ignite the true church into the Last Days revival.
Since that time, God has show me that the True Church, as she arises, will be severely persucuted by the false church. Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." I've been seeing since all this has opened up to me how, church as we know it today, is a psuedo-church. We can say all the right things, we can even look correct, we smile, we hug, shake hands, occasionally eat together, but there isn't many real, true relationship happening. There's still these walls of protection that most of us keep up and so we don't really know one another. There isn't true community taking place among us. In our hearts, we are still judging and protecting our own self-interests, so we set up these invisible boundaries with invisible signs that say, "You can come this far, but no further." We say, "I love you", but in our hearts we aren't really willing to let people in. That's not love.
I left a church which I had attended for five years about 3 years ago because I was lonely for real communion with people, but since leaving that one, I haven't found one where there isn't the invisible sign, "this far, but no further".
The true Christian life is the Cross. Jesus said in Mark 8:34 & 35: "...If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your own pleasures and shoulder your cross, and follow me closely. If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel will ever know what it means to really live." To me, the key verse is, "if you insist on saving your life". I find that, thoughout the course of everyday, I am faced with the decision many times to save my life or lose it. It most often occurs in my relationships with other people. Will I hold back and defend my ground, or will I let go and give myself to this person for the sake of Jesus Christ? This is how we know God. Abandonment of our own self-interest. Jesus said the world will know the Last Days Church by our love for one another. This is love. Religion kills love and then goes forward with something fake. This is the anti-christ.
Here's a quote by Art Katz--"The Spirit of God is brooding and wanting to abide with us, even The Spirit of Truth, which the world cannot receivce. And that same Spirit is also the Spirit of Power." The Spirit of Truth is what we must be careful to protect and not to compromise. There must be maintained a razor-edged obedience and awareness to the Spirit of Truth in the Church. If we do not take care, if we do not guard it with our lives, we immediately lose it and our lives become a lie. This is dead religion. This Spirit of Truth is the standard which God seeks to restore to the true Church.
We cannot harbor sin in our hearts and remain in the truth. We cannot skirt the cemetary. When we do, we become separated from the Spirit of Truth. "God is looking for a people who will be true in their speaking, true in their faces, true in their voices, true in their gestures, free from all manipulative practices, whose motives are in keeping with his ends, that the Holy Spirit, even the Spirit of Truth might abide with us, that multitudes, both of men and women, might believe."--Art Katz
We must repent of our game playing, our manipulation, of holding onto our lives. We must plead with God for the grace to lay our lives down. He is the one who will raise these dead bones. Let's repent of desiring religion for our own ends and turn to God. The gates of hell will not prevail against the True Church. Respectfully submitted. Dian.
