Revival In the Church
In the early church unbelievers ‘crept in unawares’ into the assembly of the righteous. In today’s church, unbelievers are invited to ‘church’ in the hope that they would be saved. It should not be so.
Christian believers’ fellowship is not a forum for soul-winning. The instruction from the Master is “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”
Only those who believe and are baptized should be invited to join the local assembly. “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them (Acts 2:41).
That is the Lord’s way of building the church. You don’t grow a church with a mixed multitude. This is the root of all the terrible things that are happening in the church today. Some unbelievers have progressed to holding church posts; some are ordained into the five-fold ministry.
The problem of the church started when unbelievers began to mingle with believers short-circuiting the prescribed method for making disciples of all nations.
Genuine ministers of the gospel are hard put to it to meet the needs of the two groups of people in the assembly. In consequence, most of the time, they render ‘mixed’ messages to the attendees. This can effectively keep the Holy Spirit out of such gatherings.
Unbelievers need the preaching of the gospel of grace of God where they are. “And they (the Disciples of Christ) went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” (Mark 16:20).
They preached what Apostle Paul and the rest of the Apostles and those who followed them preached: “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Cor 15:3-4)
Believers need teachings on the doctrines of Christ and the Apostles in an atmosphere of Holy Spirit-inspired fellowship.
Those who were saved baptized and added to the church “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).
The Apostles’ fellowship gave every believer the opportunity to demonstrate and actualize his or her spiritual gift. The power of the Lord was always present at such meetings.
“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Mt 18:19-20).
A mixed multitude cannot have a unified purpose. A mixed multitude is not a gathering unto the Lord.
The first step in birthing end time revival is to ‘unmix’ the church.
Come Lord Jesus.
~Collins #www.evangelicalfellowshipinstitute.org
