An Urgent Message to God's Elect-Pastor Clendennen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOBbU1KeIHY

This has just been posted today..

Hi DeepThinker...

What was the Urgent message? It's the same message that everyone who is crying for revival is preaching. What is so different about this one?

That is what is [i]different[/i].

:-)

I understand your logic but it doesn't apply to Pastor Clendennen. He has let God deal with him on everything from which vitamins to take, what to eat and what not to eat. He could not harbor sin like you mentioned at all-I can say this truthfully because if he regarded any iniquity in his heart God would not hear him and most certainly would not anoint his preaching as He clearly does. I cannot listen to Pastor Clendennen preach, without being challenged, convicted, and provoked to hunger for more of Christ, and less of me. The Holy Spirit will not bear such strong witness of truth if it is coming forth through an unclean vessel. If that is the case, what comes out is just a dead letter that helps no one, even though it may be truth.

DeepThinker,

I beg to differ, and I differ greatly with your analysis, not just in the case of this man but of any man. We do not have the ability or the right to judge why cancer or any other life threatening disease comes upon anyone. Do you not remember the words of the Lord when he said what He did in Luke 13? And have you not read that same precise "logic" of what "caused an illness" in the long winded rebukes of Job by his "comforters", for example in chapter 5, 8, and so forth?

Deuteronomy 32:39 (NKJV)
39 'Now see that I, even I, am He, And there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.

1 Samuel 2:6 (NKJV)
6 "The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up.

I thank you Kathleen for posting this urgent message. It certainly touched my heart and is especially needed in the Pentecostal circles to which he most certainly addressed most of his remarks...
(edited to add) May God help me to take this message to heart, and I pray that God heals him if it is his will, and if not that all these years of prayer and holy living and straight preaching will continue to produce fruit for the glory of God.

Clint

Prayer should go as follows...

Father, if you will get more glory out of healing this man than dying, then heal him for your own name.

But if you will get more glory out of him dying, than healing him, you are God, and who are we to question your sovereignty?

Please be glorified in all things for your own kingdom, and for your own great name.

Hi DeepThinker...

There are hindrances to faith and there is a reason why that cancer is there. What have we done to allow that to come into our life? I have always contended that cancer is in a person because of some wrong that has been committed. The wrong could be eating junk food all our lives. Another wrong is holding an old grudge towards someone. Of all the people that I knew that had Alzheimer and died they all had a bitter spirit towards someone, and they were actual Christians in the true sense of the word. A friend of mine who had lung cancer believed that God would raise him up and heal him, he's dead. Something is deeply wrong.

We can, of course, link certain types of diseases to certain types of lifestyles. Lung cancer is often directly linked to smoking (or, things within the immediate environment surrounding a person...such as secondhand smoke, asbestos particles, and even certain types of faulty drywall). AIDS and HIV can often be directly attributed to the sexual behavior of a person (or an unborn child's parents) or even a blood transfusion. Yet even with these direct (or indirect) connections, is this always the case?

There are children who are born with certain diseases. Certain cancers, like acute lymphoblastic leukemia, are much more common in children than adults. There are plenty of other illnesses that target children exclusively. I have visited plenty of hospitals where children under the age of one are afflicted with cancer in families where cancer did not "run in the family." Are we to assume that this is due to some "wrong" that these children have committed?

There was a book written a few years ago entitled A MORE EXCELLENT WAY. The author, Henry Wright, does NOT have a background in biology, medicine, or any other science. He is merely a minister. He attempts to attribute pretty much every single illness as the result of some sort of sin. He also makes some very peculiar diagnoses regarding certain diseases that are both incorrect in terms of medical physiology and quite extra-Biblical. To his credit, Wright attempts to use plenty of Scripture passages to validate his claims. However, the use of Scripture doesn’t automatically corroborate his claims. I believe that this man misuses and misapplies passages in order to diagnose illness. In fact, one wonders if Henry Wright should be doing this to begin with. Should a pastor be making very detailed and specific claims about astrophysics based upon an extremely limited understanding of astrophysics? This man is no more qualified to make such specific diagnostic claims as anyone else who is not a physician.

I have heard these sorts of “connections” between sin and sickness are many times. Yet, how would they explain the events in Job’s life? The Lord described Job as a “perfect” or “blameless man” (Job 1:8; Job 2:3) – yet he was struck by illness. Similarly, Paul described a “thorn” in his flesh (II Corinthians 12:7) that might have been a physical ailment. I have known plenty of pastors and even young children who needed to wear glasses due to defective eyesight (including, ironically, the aforementioned Pastor Henry Wright). Some people are simply born with defects. Yes, sickness may be part of the curse, but so is the requirement for men to work and for women to experience increased pain in childbirth. The last I checked, men are still required to take care of the needs of their families and women still experience labor pains.

Anyway, I do understand how we might attempt to connect dots between sin and sickness. I do believe that the Lord allows us to endure through things – including the “valley of the shadow of death” – in order to remind us that His “grace is sufficient for us, for His strength is made perfect in weakness” (II Corinthians 12:9). Ultimately, however, I think that there just isn’t any Scriptural validity to such claims. We should consider the words of Jesus when He was approached by His disciples in the Gospel of John:

[b] John 9:1-3[/b]
[b]1[/b] And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
[b] 2[/b] And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
[b]3[/b] Jesus answered, [b][color=660000]Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him[/color][/b].

There was a book written a few years ago entitled A MORE EXCELLENT WAY. The author, Henry Wright, does NOT have a background in biology, medicine, or any other science. He is merely a minister. He attempts to attribute pretty much every single illness as the result of some sort of sin. He also makes some very peculiar diagnoses regarding certain diseases that are both incorrect in terms of medical physiology and quite extra-Biblical.

Pastor Henry was in medical school and does understand biology, medicine and science, God gave him other plans for his life than being a doctor.

Job also had fear that his children would die and it came upon his children because of his FEAR.

I don't have time to elaborate on this, but don't say what you don't know what is true about Pastor Henry like this on a public form before you know the truth about his life. He also says over and over to test what he says with the Bible. He is a humble and correctable man of God.

It is sad to see what turn this thread took. This is not the struggle of a man seeking just to prolong his life. A dying man summoning up his remaining strength passing on an urgent message from God for a generation to take on. I was deeply convicted and challenged. Those who have ears to hear, hear him, may the rest debate what they want.

edit - deleted duplicate post

Brother Clendennen is a true man of God.
He loves God's people, and longs for them to be one with Christ.
It has to be the Love of God that he is still concerned about God's people, in the midst of his sickness.
It is my Prayer that God will heal him.
Nellie

Forgive me for my irritation here. I am pretty disgusted with how this thread has degenerated. I, too, was greatly convicted by this message from Pastor Clendennen. This is a dying man. Without a miracle, he will not be with us much longer. Yet what is the cry of his heart? It's not Hezekiah's cry for more years, no. It's the Lord Jesus Christ on display in this beloved saint of God. At the hour of Christ's death on the cross His cry was Father, forgive them they don't know what they're doing. So what is Pastor Clendennen's cry? Father, forgive your church, help them see what they are doing so they can repent and confess their sin so You can send revival and show Your power to this desperately needy generation.
I typed up what he said in this short message. I pray you will get your eyes off the man speaking, and hear the God behind the man warning His people.
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jn 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Quoting directly from the message by Pastor Clendennen:
Most of you in this vast audience around the world know I personally am passing through one of the most difficult times of my life at this very moment. But I'm sure there is a purpose in the whole. For some time I have begged God to not let me die until we've shown this generation His power, this poor, deceived generation His power. Somehow I feel this all is connected. The reason I feel so strongly about this is because the attack on me has produced a worldwide prayer meeting and calls are coming from around this world, from churches, individuals, letting me know they are fasting and believing God for total absolute victory. I sincerely believe that this prayer meeting could produce the final move of God that you and I have been praying for. Now, understanding that in my present physical condition if God does not give me a miracle, which through your prayer, I believe will happen, but if not, this could very well be my last communication with you. Therefore, you can be sure I weigh every single word that I speak. First of all, the Spirit of God has dealt with me very strongly for that revival to come, there must be deep confession and repentance on the part of you and I, the elect of God. The river of the Holy Ghost must be able to flow through us. Therefore, there must be nothing in us that would prevent the flow of this river of life. We must humbly come before our heavenly Father and ask His forgiveness, hear me ladies and gentlemen and earnestly seek His direction and guidance. We know His Word said 'Woe unto them that call evil good' but that's exactly what we have done by allowing the flesh a place in our worship. We confess before God that we've lost our spiritual, we must confess before God that we've lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that we've questioned the absolute truth of the Word of God by preaching so many other things. We've professed a love for the Word, but have ignored it. We have arrogantly given ourselves a title of Pentecostal, professing more power than all others, yet lack the power to witness to the lost, let alone live holy lives. We have worshiped other gods and called it prosperity, we've learned more from religious TV stars than the bright and Morning Star. We've ranted against perversion in our streets, but refused to confess that it was the compromising of the Word of God in the church which produced such perversion in the first place. Rom 1:25-26. By remaining silent, we've empowered the purveyors of perversion in the pulpit, in the voting booth, yet dare call ourselves holiness. We've murdered the unborn with our silence in the pulpit. We've prostituted our values because of our loyalty to our union, our party, our ancestors, our prejudices. We've committed the sin of racism by condoning the wrongs of the past and the present. Others have committed the sin of racism by their unforgiveness and search of revenge. We've neglected the poor in lieu of the appearance of more spiritual goals. We've lazily prepared to preach, satisfied with replacing anointing with noise. We've rejected to train up our children in the way that's right, then blamed the devil. We've complained because prayer is not allowed in the schools, yet a vast majority of church members have no altar in their homes. We've abused power and called it apostleship. We revere the high and mighty among men, and disdain little men who are much more holy. We've closed our lips to the concept of holiness to be more sensitive to the appeal of the lost. Not since the Pharisees accused Jesus of being Beelzebub has Christ been more dishonored than with this user friendly gospel. We've become user friendly without confessing it. We've shunned the past as arcane. Having accepted the trends of the modern church, our worship is guided by the top 40 gospels instead of truths embedded with the Gospel. Our arrogance drives us through the night oblivious to our ineffectiveness and our distaste for learning. Others trust in their learning and forget their living. We hastily judge other groups, presuming our perfection, preferring our new traditions, over a unique relationship. We've lost the vision of God. As a result, for the most part, we're unconscious of the destructive process going on. We don't know the way back to reality because we've the vision, my God, of where we've fallen from. We've confused noise with power, flamboyancy with anointing, charisma with calling. We've replaced conviction with counseling. Sin with tolerance. We've erased the reality of hell from the Bible to be loved by those who hate our God. We've ascribed on paper to the 2nd coming but it's rarely preached, taught or expected. We go on our merry way, driving past the lost, preaching to those who've already heard. We've created a climate where we're more interested about our own needs being met, than the needs of the community. We're pastors with a maintenance mind, desiring to make everybody happy. Their commitment is not to the great commission, it's to clean restrooms, neat bulletins, deluxe, pot luck suppers. We have young pastors who are more discontented with what others have done, but have no problem with what they have NOT done. We have pastors content with no progress, using the excuse of doing everything they know, but unwilling to learn. We have too many people who grovel over TV religious stars, who squander your money on limousines, mansions, airplanes and evangelism goes undone. We have more people vying for positions than we have sighing for souls. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance, we drift toward disobedience, call it freedom, we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of the lost self control and call it relaxation. We make light of prayerlessness, and delude ourselves into thinking we've escaped legalism. We slide toward Godlessness and convince ourselves we've been liberated. Due to discontent, we've replaced the presence of wisdom with carelessness, thinking all risk is better than none. God help us to turn to God. Listen, if we're going to see revival, there's going to have to come repentance and confession on the part of the church of God. If we'll separate the vile, that is the flesh, from the spirit, God said we can be His mouth and that's all that is necessary. I beg you today, church, hear me. I'm talking to a people. It may be my last message to you, but there must be an individually and collectively, a repentance on the part of the elect of God. Hear me today. God purify our hearts, turn us back to the truth and reality of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh God let it be so today.

Hi Doug,

I did not know that Henry Wright went to medical school. I based that comment upon several reviews of his book. Of course, I can't guess to know how far he actually advanced in medical school (such as whether or not he actually was in an accredited medical school following the successful completion of an accredited premed undergraduate degree). I apologize if it sounded like an attempt to scoff at whatever education he may or may not have. That wasn't my point. I was simply attempting to draw attention that he is NOT an expert of the human anatomy, diseases or even a medical expert. Yet, he makes specific medical claims about everything from the common cold to cancer based upon his own views of Scripture. As a person who currently works in medical research, I wholeheartedly believe that Wright's own personal theological views are insufficient to grant him any sort of medical or scientific credibility needed to authenticate most of his outrageous claims. Now, Pastor Wright might be very sincere. I am not questioning his sincerity or his love of God. However, I strongly believe that he is sincerely [u]wrong[/u] with his attempt to connect [u]ALL[/u] sickness and disease as a result of personal sin.

And this was the point of my original comment. Someone made a comment that linked sickness with sin. How does this explain the diseases in babies? How does this explain the sicknesses in infants? How does "sin" account for every single person who catches the "swine flu?" I feel that it is ridiculous to claim that osteoporosis is the result of "bitterness." Job was a "perfect" and "blameless" man BEFORE he was afflicted. His affliction was NOT the result of "fear," but of God allowing the devil to strike his body (Job 2:3-6). The Scriptures are also quite clear that "[i]many are the afflictions of the righteous[/i]" (Psalm 34:19). As pointed out before, Jesus already explained that the man born blind was [u]NOT[/u] afflicted due to any sort of sin (John 9:1-3).

I apologize if this thread lost focus due to any of my comments. I simply wanted to disagree with a previous written notion that this sincere pastor, B. H. Clendennen, may be going through this battle with cancer due to some sort of sin. I certainly don't think that this was the judgment of DeepThinker; however, I simply wanted to comment on his/her comments. There are plenty of possible causes of cancer, but few (if any) can be medically diagnosed as the result of "sin." "The rain," after all, "falls on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:45). My wife and I are praying for this man. I am largely unfamiliar with his life, but I have been blessed by the little that I have heard and read. I was very touched by his words in the video. Without an intervention by God, this man will almost certainly die. Yet his heart is still crying out for a move of God.

Thank you so much Kathleen for posting and typing this up for us. This is a sweet love offering.

I think we should post this one up with a link on the front page.