The Perishing of People

“Where there is no vision, the people perish…” –Proverbs 29:18
I have found myself often appalled at the astounding lack of understanding and overwhelming ignorance surrounding the many that linger around the ranks of the Church of God. There is little knowledge of church history, prophecy, doctrinal standards, scripture, and the spiritual time in which we are living. However, many are found present at social functions expounding their knowledge concerning the latest athlete or sports team, the last restaurant they visited, their business endeavors, or other such worldly engagements. The loudest voices heard when discussing the matters of the temporal become suspiciously silent when the conversation steers to the matters of the eternal. It seems the eyes of many around our land today are closing their eyes in slumber for the last time. Some will not awake until they are standing face to face before God when all will have clarity of vision, but only then it is too late.
It is of little doubt to myself that we are living in a time of great shaking. All that are not genuinely of God and fully consecrated to His work are being shaken off. There has been an abundance of dead weight lingering around the Kingdom and hindering the spreading of the gospel message around the world. This lukewarm age has caused people to sit in Church of God institutions and feel comfortable in their lifestyles, which have led to gross neglect of the affairs of the church. Real genuine sacrifice is a rarity anymore. As Haggai the prophet cried out when Israel fled from Babylon to rebuild the temple, “Consider your ways!” The children of Israel left Babylon and began the work of building the temple. However, after the laying of the foundation the work ceased. Haggai rallied the people by preaching a message of consecration. He inquired of the people, “ Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie in waste?” He continues, “Ye have sown much, and bring in little, ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.” Essentially, he is asking Judah, “What are you doing?” Your fleshly involvements have caused you to neglect the most important work of all, the work of the Lord.
Indubitably the people of Israel were overjoyed to be out of Babylon and back in their own land. When they first came back home, they were eager to begin building the temple and quickly laid the foundation. Yet after the laying of the foundation the work begins to cease. The people became more interested in their worldly affairs and less interested in the affairs of the temple, and as a result hindered the work of God. They had lost their vision.
When the sixth seal took their stand for the one church the people of God were overjoyed to be free from the bondage of sectarianism and to be back as one with the people of God. They were eager to spread this message across the globe and call people back to the apostolic standard, yet after a span of time hindered the work. Laodicea has taken its toll. People today warm the pews of Church of God congregations without a genuine burden for the work of God. They occupy their time with worldly involvements. They have devoted their lives to careers, educations, relationships, money, and essentially the flesh. Their fast life is non-existent; their prayer life is inconsistent. Instead of salvation being what defines their whole life, salvation has become a mere part of life. Christianity is formal, routine, and dry. There is no power, no joy, and no vision.
Sadly, there are many who cannot perceive the Church of God in her fullness. There are countless souls who are perishing in fellowship meetings, revivals, weekly services, and so on. They are perishing because there is not a vision of the church. They are perishing because they do not hear a message that will awaken them to their needs. They are perishing because they are not receiving the whole counsel of God.  There are many congregations and hearts where the Spirit of God vacated the premises many years ago because they did not hold to the vision God had once given. Adam Clarke states, “Where Divine revelation, and the faithful preaching of the sacred testimonies, are neither reverenced nor attended, the ruin of that land is at no great distance.”
O how sad to see the condition of our spiritual landscape today! Locations where righteousness and judgment used to lodge are replaced with murderers. Hearts who used to have a clear vision of the church and the message have now fallen prey to a deception. Those who once shouted when the ministry preached the full gospel and declared the standards of God will now trample them under foot and make a mockery of this truth. When people lose their vision they soon shall perish. Oh, they may still shout and say many things in the name of religion, but they are nothing more than “whited sepulchres… full of dead men’s bones…”
There is only one true way, and it is the straight and narrow way. When we make allowances for the flesh, we are fooling with our vision. We are forever obligated to walk in all the light God has given us, lest we should fall prey to deception. We cannot tamper with our convictions, our consecration, or our vision. We must consume our whole lives with the gospel. In order for the Church of God to be a force in the world again, she must reach a place of total abandonment from sin, the world, and self. This verbiage is similar to a song we sing that says,
“ Lord, I would be wholly Thine,
I would do Thy will divine,
From the world and sin and self I would be free;
On the altar now I lie,
And with all my heart I cry,
Let the holy fire from heaven fall on me.”
The message of this seventh seal time is total abandonment. In order to totally abandon the flesh, you must have a vision of the Church of God. You must have a vision of what God desires to do as he ushers in the end of time. If you are looking at the conditions, your surroundings, and putting confidence in people you will likely be shaken off. On the other hand, if you can see that God is shaking heaven and earth, that he is bringing the third part through the fire, that he wants the bride of Christ to be spotless and pure, then you should fall to your knees as never before, you should be earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints, you should be totally abandoning this world, and serving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Dear soul, can you sense that time is indeed expiring? Soon the day of opportunity will be forever past. There will be no more meetings, services, or altar calls, because there will be no more time. This is not the time to get deceived or to play with your never dying soul. Saints and sinners, we soon will all be at the judgment, and all the decisions made in this life will render eternal consequences. May God help us to examine ourselves under the light of the Word and the Spirit of God.

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