The Refiners fire is coming.

"Speaking at the Chinese Missions Convention in Ontario, Canada, on Wednesday, Chan lamented the fact that churches do not understand the power that God has given each believer, and instead keep them in "cages" where the only way they can survive is if someone feeds them.These cages include the children's ministry cage, youth ministry cage, singles cage, and married couples cage, he noted. "Let's just put everyone in their cages and let's just feed them every week and our whole job is to just keep feeding you, feeding you, and feeding you when the reality is you were made for something more," Chan emphasized."

Francis Chan has identified the very essence and elemental weakness of what we call our church system. Perhaps it is why he felt the need to leave his own well established church that had thousands in the pews every week and was successful in every measurable way, at least by the way our system of church is measured. Yet surely he was dying spiritually while most pastors are striving for what he had and what he has now given up? It is like the illusion of wealth and the American dream. No matter how many voices speak out about the fact that money does not bring you happiness and contentment, still the vast majority seek it out. Suicides, for the most part, are undertaken by the wealthy not the poor. The poor has the illusion to work towards yet the rich man now knows how empty his life was and still is, for no amount of money can fill a whole in your spirit. And so pastors all over the world strive to have what Chan had, not understanding the fundamental truth of their calling. Their calling is not to contain the Body of Christ in cages as alluded to by Chan, but their calling is to enable them and to empower them and edify them so as they may operate to the fullness in their own gifting.

Now how can we open those cages and let the Christian loose? We have to allow the gifts of the Spirit to operate in our midst just as they did in 1st Cor 14. Read that chapter and ask yourself why your church does not operate in such a way? What has changed? Does not the Word of God remain unchanged in an ever-changing world? Will not all the world pass away and the heavens above but still the Word of God shall remain. Did not Jesus Himself say that the Word is never broken? If it is never broken then why do we not worship as they did in 1 Cor 14? Why is there not two or three tongues? Why is there not two or three songs and spiritual songs? Why no interpretation of those tongues? Why is there not two or three prophecies or words of exhortation? You see saints, this is the cage that we have put most of the Royal priests in. You can clean the toilets and volunteer to look after the children but God forbid that He should speak through you from the front or, horror of horrors, from the platform.

Will God be contained? Will He continue forever to allow His Word to be chained and caged by the power structures of men? The power structures of men take solace in the fact that their system has been in place for centuries. We Protestants scoff at Catholic tradition and say how dare they put as much emphasis on tradition as they do on Scripture? They cry "Sola Scriptura," while all the while worshiping their own traditions as much as any Catholic ever did. How do we remove the chains from a people who cannot see their chains? How can we speak of true freedom while most of our brothers and sisters are caged and fed and have grown to like it that way? How can we restore the preeminence of Jesus in our gatherings?

Jesus wept over Jerusalem because He could see that in just a few short decades everything they knew, all of their traditions and means of worship would be torn down, stone by stone and nothing would be left. Nothing but Jesus. We will never know how much Jesus means to us until Jesus is all that we have, then we will know. The times are at hand brothers and sisters when God will allow every stone to be torn down of the structures we call the Church. The Church will remain for not even the gates of Hell can destroy us, but our system of worship shall be swept away by the storms of persecution. A tsunami of enormous proportions is headed towards us. When the waters begin to recede, know that destruction is at the door. This persecution will not destroy us, it shall refine us. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness (Mal 3:3)

YouTube message below where brother Francis Chan speaks of his experiences with the persecuted Church. Very challenging message. Our persecuted brethren have a different paradigm then we as believers in America do.

https://youtu.be/BI494qbQJpM

Bro Blaine

Not sure if you are talking about the piece that I wrote or the youtube that Blaine put up Todd, but in my piece I present the details of how a cageless church functions, its called Scripture, everything we need to know is right there. Traditions are all well and good, but when the bars of the cage are constructed by traditions then the traditions have to go............bro Frank

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I am not saying Chan is doing this, but you can’t just tell American Christians their method of church stinks without demonstrating a compelling alternative.
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A good alternative would be the persecuted church itself. I believe that it functions quite nicely without cages. But them for that matter it would have to function without cages as they have a radical dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

Simply my thoughts.

Bro Blaine

You will have to ask God about that Todd :) But thanks for the observation that so little will read the things I write :) ...............bro Frank

And so pastors all over the world strive to have what Chan had, not understanding the fundamental truth of their calling. Their calling is not to contain the Body of Christ in cages as alluded to by Chan, but their calling is to enable them and to empower them and edify them so as they may operate to the fullness in their own gifting.

I would think some pastors and biblical elders actually are doing what Ephesians 4:1-5 says to equip others for the work of ministry. It is easy to paint the picture of everything wrong but much harder to constructively start building the body of Christ in your own local area. This is where the actual rubber hits the road. Who have we led to the Lord this year, are we making disciples? Are we living a victorious Christian life? I put myself under this same examination and fail in many ways. I need reviving, it is not good enough to say the model is wrong, the model is not what our Lord is as interested in as surrendered vessels that He can have His way in.

It is God being present not 5 fold, 12 giftings, all speaking or one speaking. If the Lord is not present it is in vain.

Of course there are valid points to what Chan is sharing, there is a complacent system of putting people in cages (boxes) and making the work of God very tidy and all in place (controllable).

2 Timothy 2:2 speaks to our need to make spirit-filled disciples who also in turn make other disciples. This is as Watchman Nee calls the "Normal Christian Life".

Greg writes..........

"it is not good enough to say the model is wrong, the model is not what our Lord is as interested in as surrendered vessels that He can have His way in."

This statement displays a lack of discernment. Of course the Lord is deeply interested in how we gather. Why do you think there was correction for the Corinthians? There is a difference between our personal walk with the Lord and the corporate gathering. Of course the Lord wants surrendered vessels, that goes without saying. Of course the Lord wants us to be sharing our faith with others and seeing people saved through that. Caged people do not share their faith. According to Barna, over 90% of professing Christians have never saw anyone come to a saving knowledge of Jesus through their personal sharing.

Greg you and I have disagreed many times over the years about " the system." Your position has changed many times. Back and forward, back and forward, like a wave tossed by the wind. Perhaps you should settle on a position brother, settle it in your mind. ...............bro Frank

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It is God being present not 5 fold, 12 giftings, all speaking or one speaking. If the Lord is not present it is in vain.
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Greg on that I agree. Jesus says below,

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Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst...Mat.18:19-20
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Brother seems that what Jesus is saying that there must be agreement. And the agreement can be in as few as two or three people where Jesus is present in their midst.

That is why I believe the next revival will be grassroots and in small groups. It will not be owned by a large gathering or by well-known pastors. The next revival will simply be Jesus manifesting Himself in small anonymous groups of people and moving on behalf of their prayers. For this is what is happening in the persecuted church.

As ever brother these are simply my thoughts.

Blaine

Bro Travis writes........

" We have forgotten that our ultimate goal is to bring sons into maturity so that they can reproduce sons and bring them to maturity. Our job is not to help large groups of people survive until the next meeting. Our job is to raise them up and send them out and see them, hopefully, exceed us in every aspect of their spiritual lives. Thank you for this post."

Amen brother. This of course will bring us into conflict with the keepers of the status quo. It seems there is nothing new under the sun...............bro Frank

Great posts by Fletcher and Travis, I say amen to the points raised................bro Frank

Thank you sister, I appreciate that and know that many on SI consider you to be a most gracious and discerning sister in Christ. I totally agree with your comments. The brothers and sisters I am most close to are the ones with whom I have labored in prayer with over the years. You can really hear the heart of a saint when you hear them pray, not just once but many many times, you can really tell what lies at the center of their hearts and this is an intimate thing.

Tragically, for almost all churches, prayer meetings are a thing of the past, the most neglected of all the meetings because prayer meetings lift up Jesus and we labor together in prayer. This does not fit well at all with the structure of most churches where the central focus is the sermon on the Sunday morning. The central focus of every single meeting should be the presence of God and the preeminence of Jesus. Whatever flows from that, whether it be preaching or a word of knowledge or a tongue or a prophecy/exhortation or a spiritual song, this should be the focus of the saints, being led by the Holy Spirit in all things. Unfortunately I believe that this is simply a bridge too far for most. Only when everything is stripped away and all we are left with is Jesus, shall we finally understand that Jesus is all that we need.................bro Frank