"Stumbling Blocks to Revival"
Contributed by Evan Schaible
Friday, 16 December 2005
“Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people. For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” -Isaiah 57:14,15 In the same way John the Baptist was a voice crying in the wilderness preparing the way of the blessed lord Jesus, the body of Christians that inhabit the earth at this very moment have the lofty privilege of preparing the second coming of the lord Jesus. Sadly many shun the office and would rather sit back in the seat of complacency and watch the lost world around us perish and be lost forever in the ceaseless flames of eternal hell. I think now is the time to remove the wicked and ever present stumbling blocks that hinder the coming of a earth shaking, status quo shattering revival. I heard it once said that revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that he shows himself. Today, God is misrepresented more often than not. In fact, the most popular Christian teaching today is so liberal that it is damning to the lost that come to the altar. We offer them heaven and an eternity of peace with no repentance! I have been reproached and reviled and cast out of many ministries for the simple and essential message of repent. To use a word from brother Ravenhill, if you are going to preach repentance, you better dedicate your head to heaven. I would like to add your ministry as well. Because in the poor misbegotten church today, your ministry will not stand within a church building if you so much as mention repentance. Is this not a stumbling block? Is this not to be removed?! In the gospel according to Luke it says that repentance was to be preached in Jesus name. Today the message is not repent and trust Jesus Christ for your only means of being saved, it is be baptized and give us money, but trust whoever, whatever whenever you want to, we don’t care. Where there is no vision the people perish, and sadly there is no vision of a place of eternal fire where the lost as well as Satan go on the day of judgement. There is no vision of an eternally holy and perfect God. There is no vision of the judgement that will fall upon this country and the world if we don’t in some way remove the stumbling blocks from among the people. There is no vision of holiness in the church because holiness to the church is like repentance to the world. When repentance is removed from the eternal and only gospel, once preached unto us by the apostles and Jesus, then the gospel loses its power. “Let all who name the name of Christ depart from iniquity”, this is the best summary of the gospel I can find. “Men and brethren what shall we do?, repent…” These are timely words for us today, repent. God is merciful to his people. Our holy righteous God is so merciful he led his chosen people into captivity under pharaoh for hundreds of years. Our God is so merciful he left the entire earth darkened for four hundred years with no ray of light to shine through. He left the earth silent for four hundred years with no prophetic voice. Then John the Baptist arrived and the first word he uttered to that ritualistic, tradition trodden, downgraded, hypocritical religious generation was REPENT. Today the word still stands firm. Take up the stumbling block, remove it, break down the satanic stronghold that has corrupted the church to the point of stagnation and repent. I think that it is time to break up our fallow ground, seek the lord and sow to ourselves in RIGHTEOUSNESS. Perish the thought of that man centered happiness teaching that corrupts us all weekly. The gospel is our only means of righteousness and as the times are unfolding makes us all the more unhappy. Righteousness is the pursuit throughout the entire bible. Often times the prophets, who walked closer to God than any of us will, were very unhappy even to the point of crying out to God in despair, “they have broken your law” In the pseudo church of today, they would be cast out and labeled fanatical and heretics. To use another definition of Brother Ravenhill, “The tide has to go out the farthest before it can return.” The church, The nation, the world, has to realize that as we stand at this very moment we are totally barren. The church has never had so little power. The nation has never been so corrupt and full of falsehood and heresy and immorality. The world has never had so many lost people as it does at this moment in time. When we can finally realize the fact that we are so totally barren and lost in falsehood before the eyes of our holy and perfect God, then and only then will we see revival. The answer, I'm convinced, is holiness. We are so proud of our achievements that we fail to see that those same achievements can only be ascribed to the hand of God. We take the credit that rightly belongs to God, and revival tarries. God rejects the proud and gives grace (shows mercy) to the humble, and revival is a supreme act of mercy in the sovereignty of God. With a humbling comes contrition, and God almighty can do the most with a contrite heart. “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” There will come a day, if we seek the lord that he will suddenly fill his temple. “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,” (Mal. 3:1) So what are we to do? What is the divine answer? Listen to what almighty God says to us! “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” (Hos. 10:12) Amen.
Taken from Fire On The Altar -- Open Source Writing
