A seperation of sheep from goats.

There is a separation coming I believe. I believe that the Lord will use hunger and thirst to separate His people. This is why I believe there is a famine going on, a drought across the land. What had been taken for granted years ago has been withdrawn. The void has been filled with soulish activity. The problem with soulish activity is that it can never satisfy, never sustain.

What will truly separate God’s people from this world? What will it take? I am not quite sure, but I know that God is coming down. There are five virgins and they have oil in their lamps. Why are the lamps not trimmed? Where is the light? For anyone who has experienced the presence of God, nothing else is acceptable. Its not good enough to stand outside the door, its not good enough to remain in the courtyard, one must enter in. And the only way to enter in is to pass the alter, the brazen alter. What will we bring as a sacrifice” How will we humble ourselves? What state are we in? Are we able to look at ourselves?

We expect to see the power of God without the sacrifice. We expect that God will come down and legitimize our ministries, He will not. God will come down for His glory and for the love of His people. He will hear their cries, He will see their afflictions, He will see a people ready to glorify Him for no other purpose than to glorify Him. He will not honor nor will he send fire to those who seek to honor themselves. Why do we see no miracles in the church? Why are there no signs and wonders that follow?

We make excuses here in the West that the people are too rational, they are not dependent upon God, their need is not great, they have doctors and so on. All of that may be true, yet God will not honor men’s ministries. He will honor the worship of His people. He is not conjured up by louder music or drum beat. No one stands in the presence of God, all are silent before His majesty, all are hushed and awe descends like a blanket upon the heads of His people and their heads are bowed and their hands raised up and trembling. Not because they were instructed to bow their heads, raise their hands ,sit , stand , jump . No, no, not in the presence of God. One assumes a position before the living and the mighty God just as a natural instinct. No instructions are required as one is prostrate in His holiness. Every part of who you are is penetrated by light. It is glorious and traumatic all at the same time.

And the oil that dwells within your chest is set aflame by this light, this fire from the throne itself. “Did not our hearts burn within us as we walked with Him?” Yet we are not walking now, we are in the throne room itself, God has come down. Our whole body burns with a beautiful warmth. All things are possible, eternity stretches out before us and we never want to leave this place, we never want to leave this place. The candlestick burns. God speaks, sin melts like wax, refining, yes refining. We offer ourselves and the dross that lies within and the Lord says “Come.”

So what will bring this presence down? An awareness of the times. Death to business as usual. Genuine desire. A return to the biblical example of church. What we have today bears no resemblance whatsoever to what God initiated. We have man centered church. Programs of men. Teachings of men. Musical programs. None are bad in and of themselves, they are just not God ordained. Religious social clubs. I believe that shortly , God’s people will come out of the social clubs...........Frank

appolus wrote:
Religious social clubs. I believe that shortly , God’s people will come out of the social clubs...........Frank

Many already have....

Old Joe

Amen brother

TracyInMD wrote:
...Paul Washer said in Atlanta, "The remnant IS the church." [b]Then what is the other?[/b]

I wrote this in another thread, but it makes some sense to post it again here.

"To give you a sense of the matter, the 'broad way' is not the entire world, but professing Christianity, the rest of the world hasn't even made an attempt to enter 'the way' yet. The 'narrow way' is genuine Christianity.

Not intending to be a perfect count, but for an idea of scope, simple math with Rev 5:11 teaches that 1 in 200 people ever to have existed will be saved. (Approximately 110,000,000 out of a total of approximately 22,000,000,000 born) Since we have come out of the Philadelphian period where the Lord had much good to say of the church and now live in that most terrible of church periods known as the Laodicean, we can expect that number to be 1 in 500 or so. If we use 20% of regular church attendance in North America, and assumed that all believers were in the church, that would mean that somewhere in the range of 1 in 100 of those in the church are truly blood-bought children of God."

Now today others are beginning to understand that all Christians are not in church, but most are having a tough time with this concept. The end-times apostasy has not only begun, it is nearly complete, having gotten under way 100 years ago.

Which is why this is such an important concept to understand right now.

[i]Christ alone can save you, but beware of church.[/i]

Then I posted this in the same thread.

"When the pulpit and the pew are overrun by heathen, the Christian will not be welcome in the visible church.

If one hasn't been asked to leave a church, forced out, marginalized, or some other such persecution by a church, their salvation should be questioned."

It may be considered extreme, but I don't really care what others consider it to be. I have learned from experience that when you take the visible church head on, you can expect the most terrible persecution from THEM.

Old Joe

HI Tracy.. you write......

"Hope I represent myself well enough to get across what I want to say"

You represented yourself very well. And yes, there are many of us "out there," who would say amen to what you have written. I thought I may have caught some flak from people who would say that we are not supposed to try and seperate the wheat from the tares. I agree, "we," are not supposed to do that. I believe that the Lord is doing it. I recently left my church of almost nine years(met Jesus 18 years ago at the age of 26) because I just could not stomoch it any more. Its not that they were a bad church, they are not, not at all. Nice people, good works, missionary endeveours. Yet, the presence of God is not there and no one seems to notice. I am not talking about God meeting people individually and I know that where two are three are gathered that He is in the midst, that is not what I am talking about. That is why I feebly tried to describe the "presence, of God in the post. The worship music is "high quality," and on many occasions there is much rejoicing and jumping up and down. Yet, the presence I tried to describe is non-existent.

So, again, I totally believe that the time draws near. As many on this site know, I come from Scotland, a city boy. I now live in Kansas. Many farms in Kansas(although I live in a large city) I found out from a farmer that it is hard to tell the difference , in the beginning, from wheat and tares. It is only as the harvest approaches that it is more easliy identified. This is what I believe that we are seeing. God is drawing His people out. I am not sure how they will gather, but as the time approaches we will have a strong desire to gather, and all the more, with those of like mind. The virgins with the oil with the oil will assmeble themselves so to speak..............Frank

Hi Joe

I agree with your concept about the "broad path." I have believed that right from the beginning of my salvation. Not sure about numbers and formulas but I know that Ravenhill thought about 2% of Americans were actually saved. Even if it was five times that much, it would still be a very small number in relation to those who "confess the name." Jesus Himself talked about the seed and how much of it fell by the wayside and so on even although they all recieved it with gladness.

I think I disagree about being forced out of the church or thrown out. That may happen to individuals,to me it is more like that genuine Christians would simply be maragnailized. I believe that it is hunger and thirst that will draw them out, thirst for His presence, Hungry for more of Him. This concept would of course be foriegn to someone who has never experienced the presence of God, or who believes the presence of God is a feeling they get if the right music is played(which would be in the soulish realm, and there is various degrees of that).......Frank

Lowly writes....

"I was wondering if you think it is more of a matter of going up, instead of waiting for God to come down. Has He not now exhorted us to come up to that Holy mountain, are we not invited to enter in? Has a way been made before us to worship at His throne. How wonderful it is that the Spirit of the Lord now rests upon us."

Excellent question Lowly. I think that there are two different experiences(there is a buzz word:) I believe the throne room experience is the most intimate of experiences and happens to us individually. We see the prophet stand before God and he is "undone." The coming down is more akin to what happened at the Lewis revial, for instance, where the "awareness" of God was everywhere, a corporate experience. This can happen in churhes where God "falls," on the people. This particular experience is what is missing, I believe. This is where the drought is. And in its place people are being affected by music and believing that this is the "presence of God," when in actual fact it lies in the soulish realm. Here is the thing about God's presence, it always changes you. You are never the same, you are more Christ-like. Being affected by music is an emotional experience which will be nice, and enjoyable, but will change nothing. This is not to say that the presence of God is not an emotional experience, absolutly emotions are a part of that.........Frank

Hi Lowly. you write.......

"If I abide in His Presence, will that affect those around me?"

Most definately. I believe in one of two ways. People will be drawn to you(Christ in you) or people will avoid you like the plague. I think the two Biblical examples of this would be Peter and Stephen. Both full of the Holy Spirit, both sharing pretty much the same message, one sees 3000 added to the church and the other is stoned to death. This is because they are speaking with the power to "katanusso." It means "stabbed in the heart, to penetrate, to violently agitate.

This is rare today, almost non-existent. Most of the Pentecostal world is chasing after the power to perform miracles, they have put the cart before the horse. When one has spent time in the throneroom, death and disease has no sway over them, for they have dwelt in the eternals, even if just for a moment. They have tasted a very small portion of what is to come, what awaits them when they pass over. That is why Paul would have gladly left this earth and went to be with the Lord, for he had tasted of what was to come.

So, the Lord will come to those who seek Him just for the love of Him. No one dwells on the mountaintops and for those who have experienced His presence, they hunger and thirst to return. They keep their hearts right before God because they do not want any barriers between them and Him, they want no obstacles to returning before Him. It is the internal motivation to do what is right. The religious man tries to keep rules that come from the outside, the genuine Christian walks the narrow path because he loves his Lord and wants nothing between them and the lover of their soul........Frank

Lowly

I agree that walking closer with the Lord brings us closer to His people. It increases our love and we are not easily offended and we also reach out to the world more, our love for the world and people in general increases. Which is not surprising because "for God so loved the world......."

I believe that has been a cycle probably right from the beginning. If we could talk to first century Christians or from the dark ages or from whatever period, our experiences would probably not be that different. What I belive is different now, is the time frame. I do believe that the Lord is at the door, and that this separation is from "religious people." I am not calling for it, and would never presume to do so, but I believe the Lord will draw out His people as that day approaches. The religious people, and dont get me wrong, many of them, if not most of them are decent people, know the difference. There is wheat and there is tares, there are virgins with oil and virgins with no oil. And I believe that this seperation is a process rather than a one time event(I do not believe in a pre trib raprure)So we are in the process.............Frank